Posts Tagged toys
So my dad’s birthday was 2 weeks ago and I couldn’t post anything on here (and then I got busy) until we gave him his presents in case he actually looks at this site. 
So first we had the “funny” present. This was a sushi pillow made by theoriginalsushipillow.com. I chose the salmon nigiri. I can’t even write about this without laughing. This is just funny. That said the workmanship and choice of fabric is fabulous. I have no idea where they ever found silk that looks so much like raw salmon.
The other present was a home soda maker from Soda-Club. This little gadget uses a bottle of CO2 to carbonate a liter of water at a time. You can then add flavor of your choice, via juice or various flavor concentrates from Soda-Club. One bottle can carbonate about a 110 liters of water. I would like to say that it is very easy to over-carbonate the water. Hence my coining of the name “burping juice” over the course of that weekend (March 31st). There was an actual purpose to this gift though (besides being able to burp on cue). Dad is drinking oodles of soda water these days and if we take this to Prudence, no one has to haul lots of heavy bottles of it down there. Clever, no?
GPS Update
Apr 5
So the new GPS is very cool. I’ve got the basics figured out. It’s such a great size. I think it will be no problem to have attached to whatever daypack I’m using or even around the neck on the included lanyard. It acquires a lock in a minute or 2 and so far has had no problem maintaining that lock in a car, even when it’s through lots of trees (although there are no leaves yet to interfere).
I found a few free maps for Massachusetts that I put on the Vista and that gave me roads for most of the state but I can’t get turn by turn directions from that. So I’ve bitten the bullet and ordered Garmin’s North America City Navigator map DVD. Not cheap (~$125) but it’s all the US and most of Canada. One can howver order it from REI in order to get the member dividend (or use a REI coupon for 20% off). Since the coupon made up for the 2 day shipping, it will be here on Monday. That should be enough time to work out how to get the maps I want for the upcoming trip to Utah and Nevadaon the 14th.
New toy :)
Mar 30
My new GPS unit just arrived this afternoon. It’s a Garmin Vista Cx. Even though I knew its dimensions, it’s a lot smaller than I though it would be. So far, all I’ve done is take it outside at break and get a satellite lock. I hope to manage to geotag my photos with this (and get lost less that I currently do). More on this as I figure out how to use it.
Kill-a-Watt Project
Jan 16
So I borrowed this spiffy little device called the Kill-a-Watt from a coworker. As they say:
Connect your appliances into the Kill A Wattâ„¢, and assess how efficient they are. A large LCD display counts consumption by the Kilowatt-hour just like utility companies. You can figure out your electrical expenses by the hour, day, week, month, even an entire year. Monitor the quality of your power by displaying Voltage, Line Frequency, and Power Factor.
In other words, be a geek and plug in all your electronics one at a time and see how much juice they use. Very interesting and has the side benefit of making you clean up all your power cords because you have unplug and rearrange everything anyways to fit the Kill-a-Watt in. The ongoing number collection can be found at here at Google Spreadsheets. FYI, you’ll need a Google account to view it. Sorry about that but the Docs & Spreadsheets are to useful to not use.