Logitech Webcams

Logitech has been making webcams for a loooong time now. I think it was something like 1995 when I got my first one? Not exactly sure --- and it probably wasn't called a "web" cam then.

At this point they've become ubiquitous in our house. The #1 user is my son, who is always on talking to his grandparents, who finally got their own cams so they can wave back at him while he holds up the latest artwork or plays his guitar. I've actually used the camera for real on business trips a few times --- just like those sappy telecom company ads!

My advice is to just get a cheap $35 camera --- you don't need more at this point unless you're really going to spend a lot of time with it. USB connectivity has gotten amazing as well, so there's generally almost no setup hassle at all. Don't bother with whatever software comes in the package; popular IM apps like Yahoo Messenger support video natively now and that's all you need.

Racquetball

About a million years ago I was playing Racquetball in college and dislocated my shoulder. Following that incident I proceeded to have my shoulder come out on at least a weekly basis until 1996 when I finally found a great surgeon who realized that more physical therapy just wasn't going to cut it and sliced me open. After a few weeks recovery it's been perfect, but until this year I never went back to Racquetball.

My son and I took a "discovery" lesson together so that we both knew the rules and some basics about playing. It was fantastic. The pro at the club we're going to was great and gave us some super tips so that a nine year old and adult can play together competitively on a relatively even field --- he gets as many bounces as he wants, and if he doesn't return a serve it's a do-over. We're headed back tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it.

Perhaps Squash next? I'm Mr. Active all of a sudden, wonder what caused that to happen?

Real Vermont Maple Syrup

I grew up in the Northeast and the only syrup we ever had on the table was real maple syrup. Every spring when the trees would begin to run my family would take a ritual car trip up to one of the farms where we could see the syrup boiling in the big pans and get our annual supply.

One year in elementary school we tapped the big maples in front of the school. School was just a few blocks walk for me, so I had the job of checking the trees over the weekend. After very little action for a couple of weeks, the weather turned and I had to find every jug and bottle in the house and spent the whole weekend running back and forth replacing them. After all that I think we made a gallon of syrup at best, but boy did the classroom smell great for the week that we were boiling it down on a hotplate in the corner.

Anyways, it never occurred to me that people would actually eat that fake crap that you get at the supermarket. If that's what you use on your pancakes and waffles, please give the real stuff at try. It is pricier, but totally worth it unless you really are stuck.

We got a family gift of a homemade "brunch kit" over Christmas --- real syrup, pancake batter mix, and Canadian slab bacon (we had to supply the eggs). It was a great idea and a gift we really enjoyed. Yum!

Tealight Fountain

This was a Valentine's goodie --- a cordless, near-silent mini fountain with tealights and (ooh) decorative pebbles! It's quite cheap and as such I was worried that it would look cheesy, but it's really very, very nice.

The fountain takes about 24oz of water and is completely cordless, running on two AA batteries (unclear as yet just how long they'll last, but so far so good). It really is very quiet, enough so that the sound of the water in the fountain is all I really register when it's on. The pillars position the tealights nicely --- perfect for next to the bathtub. A great find!

Avaratec Tablet PC

My kids have had a couple of computers in their playroom for years --- one of the benefits of starting and shutting down a bunch of companies over the last decade is a bunch of old hardware! For school this year, though, it made sense to get her a laptop that she could take to school and use in her room, etc.

I ended up getting her an Avaratec Tablet PC, which is at the low end of the tablet market. At just about $1,200 when I got it, it was a great deal. The first one was DOA which was a pain, but Circuit City took it back without any problems and then second one has worked great. It's a convertible, which means it can work as a traditional laptop or a tablet.

Mostly she uses it as a laptop with the traditional keyboard. But for drawing the tablet is really nice, and it has proven useful in a number of other ways as well. I just finally got a tablet for work (the Toshiba Tecra M4) and have been suprised how much I use it as a tablet. Microsoft One Note is actually a really nice app for taking notes during meetings, and I find myself actually sketching out block and flow diagrams rather than using my old standby #2 pencil.

I presume that sometime soon tablets will be the standard for the laptop form factor. And from my experience, it's no longer too bleeding edge to give it a try. Go for it!

Rack-O Card Game

Good games are actually pretty rare. I just re-discovered Rack-O, which is a game I played with my Grandma as a kid. You basically have to arrange your cards on a rack from lowest-to-highest number, but you can't move them around. Instead you draw cards from the deck and swap them for ones on your rack. I remember liking it because it was easy to learn but interesting enough to play a bunch without getting bored.

Scrabble is my favoriate all-time game, but it requires a whole lot of concentration and diligence to do well. Cribbage is a winner as well; my dad and I played all the time. And of course you can't beat Poker when you've got a few people around, but that doesn't happen much here in anti-social land (note to self: time to teach kids to play Poker).

Any great family-type games you'd like to share? Bring them on, please!

Home S'Mores Kit

We have not one but two of these S'Mores Kits. No smoky campfires for us --- we're all about the trendy yuppieware. Can you tell I was skeptical? The kit is basicaly a little holder for a can of Sterno, some skewers and a special plate that holds marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers.

Truth is, this is a nifty little gadget. Easy enough to set up after any weekday dinner, but lots of fun when we set them up alongside a chocolate fondue on New Year's. I had tried to roast a marshamallow on our natural gas burner once upon a time, but it ended up with a nasty taste to it. The Sterno works great and is easy to work with as well.

And here's the secret --- I've been on a diet and just hit my goal after losing thirty pounds (yay). Roasted marshmallows are a really satisfying, really low-cal item, something like 10-20 calories per piece. So you can have a pile of them and not kill your calorie count. Not bad! Of course, you have to skip the graham crackers and chocolate, but still.

Extension Ladders

Last weekend it actually stopped raining here in Seattle. Of course, it immediately got insanely cold so that the fruit growers are freaking out and I'm huddling in my winter coat and smartwool socks, but that's another story. The point here is that I actually had a chance to clean out most of our gutters. I always leave this job undone until I look out the windows and see the rain pouring down the side of the house.

So anyways, I got out my trusty extension ladder and started mucking them out. Making my way around the house, a few feet at a time, freezing to death and pulling the nastiest of nasty slimy muck from the gutters, I was feeling pretty Zen (or maybe just a bit woozy).

It occurred to me that a good, solid extension ladder is a really great thing to have around. I've used ours not only for the gutters, but to build a two-story treehouse, break into the house when I was locked out, install my satellite TV and all kinds of other junk. And never once did I wipe out and have to go to the hospital like my dad did (woah dad, is that you shinbone?).

Simple tools but essential tools. Very nice.

Family Guy

I came late to the Family Guy party and have been catching up thanks to my trusty Tivo. It is truly a boon for my pop-culture-saturated psyche. This evening I was particularly impressed by the totally random reference to "You can't do that on Television", a Canadian kids show that ran on Nickelodeon back in the early 80s. Sadly, my wife was deprived and missed all of these shows growing up on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania.

Watching Family Guy is a lot like playing poker with my friends from back in my first years at Microsoft --- basically an exhausting rapid-fire contest of who can make the most obscure references. Dave generally wins (hi Dave).

I think my favorite episode is when Brian (the family dog) goes to California to make it in the movies and ends up directing porn (and winning an award at AVN!). But jeez, it's so hard to pick just one.

(Oooh, looking through Amazon results for Nickelodeon, I just remembered another great afternoon-waster --- Clarissa Explains it All. Definitely give that one a peek too ... Melissa Joan Hart in her younger days!)

"e" by Matthew Beaumont

The wonderfully-titled e by Matthew Beaumont is a classic "gimmick" book that really works. It follows the story of the good folks at Miller-Shanks London, a hilariously dysfunctional advertising agency desperately trying to land a Coke account. The entire story is told as a collection of email messages between the various players over a two week period.

Beaumont just totally nails this --- the gaps left between emails are perfect and provide a really innovative additional hook to the story. I am particularly partial to Pertti, the head of Miller-Shanks Helsinki who for some reason is CC'ed on all mail from the London office and brings in Aqua to save the day.

You will not improve yourself by reading this book. But I guarantee you'll revisit again and again for bathtub reading. Really, really funny.

Disneyland

My family goes to Disneyland a lot. My wife grew up just a few minutes from Disney World, but barely ever went (unreal). I made her go with me quite a bit, but we didn't really go over the edge until we visited DisneyLAND in California when my son was not quite born and my daughter was almost three.

I will never forget holding my daughter in my arms telling her not to be scared of the characters as she struggled madly so she could get down and go hug Max around his leg --- and refuse to let go. So much for worrying about that.

Over the years they've shown a few rough edges here and here, but with the 50th celebration they really brought things back full speed. The cast members are great, and we always leave with at least one memory that is truly, truly special. My son has had two birthdays there, the last just a couple of weeks ago. Woo hoo!

My best hint: score a seat on the bench on the porch that's about halfway up Main Street on the right about an hour before a parade starts. Send somebody across the street to get goodies to eat while you wait and watch the world go by. There is no better parade seat in all of the park.

For Fantasmic (not for really little kids IMNSHO), pony up for the "priority seating" that gets you drinks and desserts from an awesome view. We actually got tickets for the balcony above the Blue Bayou this last time we were there and it got rained out after about ten minutes of the show. The next night we sat in the priority seating down closer to the water and, to our surprise, it was actually much better than the balcony. Something about the angle they've designed the show to be seen from.

You want Disney tips? I've got Disney tips. Just ask and you'll never get me to shut up. Someday .... Club 33 for me!

Clinique Happy

Mmmm, love when my wife wears Clinique Happy. Just as nice as Jean Patou Joy with the extra bonus that I don't got bankrupt after she buys it.

The beauty market is weird. At drugstore.com we bought a company (beauty.com) to create a presence in the "high-end" (and high-margin) cosmetics business. But brand is king in beauty, and generally at that time the key brands weren't willing at that time to sell through internet channels they didn't control completely.

I was surprised to learn that, in department stores, the cosmetics counters aren't actually controlled by the department stores. The cosmetics companies almost always design, build and staff their own displays themselves --- all to keep control. And they wanted to duplicate this on the Internet, by actually injecting their web site into ours. A few companies went through all kinds of disastrous integration efforts to make them happy, but mostly they failed.

Instead people resell this stuff on the "grey market". They don't buy from the cosmetics companies directly, but rather grab up inventory from salons that are closing or other similar sources. That's why you'll see the selection of high-end brands on sites like Amazon and drugstore.com be so scattered --- they rarely have a consistent supply of the whole product line.

Anyways, I thought it was interesting.

K'Nex Roller Coaster

I grew up as a Lego kid --- everything from plain old blocks to Technics and Mindstorms. But I have to say that K'Nex really gives Lego a run for their money.

K'Nex are made up of rods and connectors that can go together in a bunch of different, three dimensional ways. They're easy for really young kids to create with, and as you grow they're very well suited to building moving models.

My son got the roller coaster kit for his birthday; we're still working on it together. Definitely get a "general purpose" set as well, though --- can't ever have enough parts for your own models.

The only problem with K'Nex is that they can be tough on small fingers. Snapping the rods into the connectors takes a bit of force. So help out the little ones --- bet you'll get sucked into building yourself!

American Girl Dolls

My daughter has been big on dolls and fairies her whole life --- her imagination and creativity is incredible. She still enjoys them at age 12, but as she got older most of the doll lines because too young for her. It also became less "cool" amongst her friends to play with dolls at a surprisingly young age, which I found very sad. Kids really do move too fast away from childhood (boy, how old does that sound?).

In any case, the American Girl company has really done a fantastic job of creating products (dolls, books and magazines) that appeal to a slightly older person and aren't ashamed to encourage imagination and story play. Each doll represents a girl from a particular era, and is accompanied by interesting books about her life --- real books, not crappy ones.

When she was nine, we went to Chicago with family friends to celebrate her birthday at "American Girl Place", an enormous store, restaurant and theatre all dedicated to the American Girls. It was really quite a neat experience.

In any case, I applaud any company that takes an positive approach to encouraging imaginative play at all ages. I'm the last one to ever criticize consumer culture, but the literal and passive nature of most kids entertainment is just a bummer.

Ukelele

A year or so ago my son decided he wanted to play the guitar. He currently plays a 3/4 size electric guitar and a baritone ukelele, taking lessons from two (very different) teachers.

Anyways, when we bought him his uke stuff I thought it would be fun to get one of the small, traditional soprano ukes. I don't play much or well, just a few chords here and there. But it sure is a lot of fun and was really easy to get started with.

I used to play the saxophone quite a bit in jazz bands --- I still have my Selmer Mark 6 downstairs in the closet. But today I just like to keep a few instruments around that I can noodle on while code compiles. My favorites are the uke, my penny whistle and my ocarina.

Sure is cute watching my kid jamming away to Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day. He's quite the rock and roll stud.