live from sublurbia

Although, to be fair, Laser Beam is a head taller than me, so he’s actually rather big for a birdie. We’ve got family coming and it really needs doing.

[picture of paint cans]

It’s been a crazy crazy couple of weeks since the audition and I feel as if I’ve gotten nothing done. Some logo work, some paperwork, wear and tear tests. PHEW! I feel bad because I haven’t really emailed any of the cool inventors I met last month. I need to do that, soon.

And I’m still doing part time writing work, looking for full-time work, coordinating getting a new roof on, and getting ready for family visiting/staying/traveling from now through the end of August. Double PHEW!

Anyway, birdies. I’m on Twitter now, and you can follow me here. I’ve also put together a very basic official “me” page on Facebook here. I’m trying to link them together, or not. Trying to figure out what to do with it all, keep this a mom/idea blog but I guess it’s turning more into an invention blog, which is kind of the point I was going at with the [TOAST] (Think of a Something Thursday) posts.

More birdies – we are at the halfway mark of when the inventor show producers said they’d start talking to people about being on the show. Wooo! Continue Reading »

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I was going to talk about file sharing and information sharing on the net, but I’ve just heard that Vimeo is going to start deleting source content of “free” users August 1. Download it if you don’t have it, folks!

They state they won’t delete the files they convert to Vimeo content for free users, but they can’t hold the “big” original files any more. It makes sense, but … that’s really short notice.

So, download it to have it, choose to upgrade your account, or just panic. And stop counting on “free” services as your only back up, if you have. :-) Good luck!

[TL;DR version - big files go in, little files are made. Big files will start to go away - back them up now and/or upgrade your account.]

For more cheerful WFMW tips, go see the host at We are THAT family.

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Gosh, I’m not sure I even remember how to TOAST anymore, but here goes ….

I know I mentioned during one of my infrequent spring pop-ins that I joined the ranks of the unemployed earlier this year. Whee.

I have had some interviews, and some nibbles. Nothing I could take to the bank; mostly the jobs were far away but I’m so over that. I want to live in the city I sleep in. Consequently, the pickings have been slim, but I’ve managed to land a job that I can do from home a lot. Some travel, not the corporate salary I’d been spoiled by, but home-based writing, yay.

When it got really slow at the beginning of this month (no criticism of those who are employing me!) I signed up for school. I did it the wrong way, of course, jumping in randomly on the last day of registration and missing a few days (BAD IDEA in the summer). But I caught up and my grades are pretty good. I’m re-learning Microsoft Office (2007 version) and will probably get certified in it later this year.

But my book? I spent seventy bucks on that darn thing (if I’d registered earlier I could have bought it online for about $20). And I can’t sell it back. No one is buying it, anywhere.

Why? Continue Reading »

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So I’m enjoying playing with our Wii Fit (early morning run to a big box score netted us one on opening day). A few minutes here and there while dinner cooks or the kids dress themselves (though that slows them down as they watch me play).

One of the kid’s favorite games is a sliding game, involving catching fish. The youngest will insist on having a turn on the board (a few dummy ones we made up don’t thrill her at all) and that’s about the only game I’ve unlocked we can “play” together.

She’s not quite got the hang of the game, so I usually sit behind her and tap the board to score her enough points to “win” the game. She doesn’t always notice my help, but enjoys it either way. However, she wants to “help” me when it’s my turn, doing the same move of tapping the board to “help”.

Playing these games with her has helped me discover a way to really mess with your friends’ sense of balance (and scores, all in fun) in the game …. Continue Reading »

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_{The one problem with pre-blogging a few posts to go up while you’re busy with invading guests is that the posts run out before the guests do, sometimes … sorry for the quiet!}

So the hub sent me a link to information about the Roku player. Wonderful! Except … it’s 1.0. I’m already ready for something a little more advanced.

If I got one of these to augment our NetFlix subscription, I’d want more kid things available (this they can do without changing the hardware). I’d put it up next to the kid’s TV (that doesn’t get a lot of use) and give them a simple menu system they could navigate, like TIVO but with pictures. Additionally, I’d like parental tools to customize our own play list of kid’s stuff.

Speaking of TIVO, we need playlists for that, too. Unlocked for kid’s stuff, locked for higher-age stuff (separate from the V-Chip), and hidden for folks who want to pretend to their kids or guests that they aren’t a fan of horror movies (or Lifetime romance movies, YMMV). Additionally, they need show-chaining. What if you want to spin up a series of little 5 min shows to watch for the kids? Or you’re setting up your parents to babysit the kids and they want to watch a couple of shows or movies in a row? Or you want to queue up a party mix?

I’m glad to see these 1.0 devices on the market (I love everything about the iPhone except the phone and camera part …) but we also need to be able to design these for the way users want to use them.

What would you like to see in a player/device that’s not quite there yet?

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