June 28, 2009 at 9:49 am
· Filed under Devices, Family
How many times can a person drop their cell phone onto a hard surface without killing it completely? You can break off the back battery cover, you can crack the display screen. What else?
My step son must be trying to find out the answer to this question. At first I thought he was deliberately trying to break it so that he would feel entitled to a new phone and upgrade his. But I’ve watched the clumsy fool and he just drops it a lot.
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May 27, 2008 at 7:58 pm
· Filed under Devices, Family, House and Home, Ideas, Shopping
Condo life sometimes means putting up with little nuisances that you might not have to deal with in a single family home with a yard and good distance between neighbors.
Even though this condo development is upscale and the construction is high end, there can still be nights where the noise from your neighbor’s TV or sound system creeps into your bedroom and makes sleep difficult. I don’t have a garage band next door, but for some reason the neighbors like to listen to rock and roll ALL night. Now, I like rock and roll, but not at 3:00 in the morning when I’m trying to sleep.
So we’ve come up with a solution other than calling the police and filing noise complaints against the neighbors. We bought a little machine called Sleep Mate, which makes a nice little sound during the night called white noise and you don’t have to listen to that rock and roll or even hubby’s snoring anymore. I’ve known about White Noise Machines for years, but it wasn’t until we moved here that I needed it.
And to take the chill off in the morning, I bought a pair of foot cozy heated slippers from Vat 19 – the same site that sells the Sleep Mate. A good night’s sleep is a whole lot easier now, and getting up in the morning is just a little nicer, too.
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May 19, 2008 at 8:14 pm
· Filed under Computers, Devices, Phones, Workplace
I talk to dozens of people every day, most of them are people responding to an ad for new employees. The ad lists my cell phone number so people only know my name and not the company they are calling – it’s a privacy thing.
But sometimes keeping up with all the numbers without names attached can be very challenging. I was happy to find a web site that lets me look up numbers, including cell phone numbers. It can be hard to find a good place for Reverse Cell Phone Lookup. And a cool part of this site is that if you don’t want your number to be given out, you can subscribe to a “No Call List” and they will remove your number from their database.

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May 18, 2008 at 7:39 pm
· Filed under Devices, Environment, House and Home, Ideas, Shopping
I don’t usually get excited about electronics gadgets, but I found something today that really rocks. This charger runs on solar power and will recharge all your portable electronics – everything from an iPod to a laptop to digital camera to MP3 players. This is so cool – you have to check it out. I found it on a website called EcoGeekLiving because I was looking for some ideas for greening up the house. I refuse to buy regular lightbulbs anymore and I know there are other great ways to save the environment by changing our habits at home.
Anyway, this awesome recharger is solar powered – as in free energy! -Â and is called a power monkey explorer. It comes with all the adapters you need to recharge all your electronics using the sun. A fantastic gift for any of the geeks in your life, too. Let me know if you get one – I can’t wait for mine to get here!

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April 26, 2008 at 3:18 pm
· Filed under Devices, House and Home, Security, Shopping
My neighborhood is usually quiet and uneventful. The neighbors have all lived here for 4 years or more, and although we aren’t great friends, we all do try to be good neighbors and look out for each other. It seems like once a year we have some kind of excitement with the police involved. Twice we have had a car run up into our yard as a result of a police chase from elsewhere. The perpetrator makes the mistake of turning into our street too fast and loses control of the car, jumping the curb and running into a tree or a fence and taking off on foot.
I guess this year’s excitement happened last night, as I discovered this morning when I went to get in the car to run a few errands. Sometime after midnight my cars were broken into. Everything that was in the glove compartment and the middle console was pulled out and dumped onto the seats and floorboards. But nothing seems to be missing. I don’t leave anything valuable in the cars anyway. But it is disconcerting to think that someone would violate my property like that.
My neighbor and I are considering putting a video surveillance system in place that would encompass her driveway and mine, and also the front and rear doors of the houses. We are both concerned that whoever broke into my cars might get a little bolder and try to get into our houses. She knows of a place online that sells audio video surveillance equipment and it’s not as expensive as I feared.
IT Planet has a good variety of cameras and systems that can meet just about any need, from worried homeowners like us to small business owners concerned about shoplifting and robberies. I like the way you can either order online from their site, send an email with questions or call them at 866-468-6044 and talk to one a customer sales representative.
We’re going to get together in a little while at her house and talk it over again.
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