[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! They emailed me to get new pictures (something happened to mine, just my luck!) so I was up wayyy too the other night and wayyyy too early the next morning to get and prepare food props for my own backyard photoshoot. Good thing I had a working camera and a bolt of black fleece around. And the morning sun cooperated nicely! I guess the nice thing about inventing is that I can do this in my PJs, but the payoff (seeing it on sale somewhere or in the wild, being used) is a loooooooooooong way off – if I ever get there.

But they took a lot of footage for a lot of people, maybe I’ll be filler. Lorena Bee, queen of the “B” roll or filler tape, whatever they call it these days. I’m going to have to get cable or satellite again so I can catch all the episodes and see who made it and how. Though while we were out of town this weekend, a family member suggested I try out for American Idol – but I think I’ve hit my limit on realty TV show tryouts for a while.

I do hope (and fear! TV! Eeeek!) I get somewhere with this – either on this show or just on my own; I mean, it makes sense to start small, maybe on Etsy because seriously, who has the price of a modest home to drop on getting 30,000 of something made up on spec?

But imagine volunteering at my local school in a few years in the lunch room and seeing the kids using my stuff!? Super wow. Or even just all my friends and family, not because I made it, but because it works and it’s cool. Wow.

Anyway, the inventor life isn’t all glamor. I need to go organize the playroom of my littlest birdies and maybe mask up that bathroom for painting, after all. What do we think of the color moss green?

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.

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? Because it’s one of those books publishers churn out updates for every year. Use it for one year, and it’s dead. It’s not like basic math that they can re-use every year. I have not investigated, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s part of the contract that the books are provided on the idea that they are only to be used for one year. Which isn’t illegal, I believe, but not as, well, mindful of resources as it could be.

BUT. That means that anyone with a little gumption could find out what schools are teaching these classes over the summer. Find out the book price, and the sell by price, and the last day of class. Put up a notice at the school – “Want to buy XYZ book for $15 — bookstore isn’t buying it back.” Then for the cost of a couple six packs of beer, you’ve got yourself a nice self-contained “How to do this stuff” book.

It’s an old idea, really, revived from my recent experience in college during this quiet summer. I used to dive into the remainders bin during high school and in my early college years, picking up cool books and learning something new. But retraining if you need a new job? Go scout around your local community college for the “Go! Microsoft” series. I find them decently written and very helpful if you need to pick up the skills. Oh, and if anyone has the non-introductory edition for Office 07 they can’t get rid of – let me know. I think it will be useful if I do go for my MOS certification.

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 ….

Change the weight during the games. It’s kind of tricky, and requires precise timing. The best way I can figure it out is to challenge them to the ski jump game. Contrive some way to get them out of the room, and immediately switch with their Mii to the penguin/fish game. (This may work with other game combos – I’ve not tried them all.)

When the game starts, put some weight (but not all) on the board. You’ll get a message that asks about the weight difference: play through, lightly tapping the board back and forth instead of playing it with your full weight. After the round ends, switch back to the ski jump.

When we did this, the Wii did not complain about the weight differential when we went back to the ski jump. It was nearly impossible to control our balance on the board. The slightest weight shift would jam the indicator in corners, and jumping or landing was near impossible. We were getting distances of 5 meters.

Once we figured out what was going on, we backed out to the main Fit screen. We selected the same Mii again, forcing the Fit board to re-calibrate, and everything worked fine after that. But it was a mess trying to figure out the sequence that caused it (though “shut up and reboot” worked fine to fix it). Mostly because I couldn’t understand how I was playing as if I were juggling kittens and the world was tilting like a light sailboat in rough seas while completely sober.

Anyone out there with a Fit? Anyone know what other game combos work to distort the tuning of the board?

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?