Tag Archives: Offbeat and Off Topic

World Tarot Week? World Tarot Day? What?!

Best I can tell, the people who use tarot cards are those who want to believe in the idea of pre-destiny, or that there is some mystical “if I do this, then that will occur” order to the universe — beyond simple cause and effect. It’s kind of sad, really, to imagine someone thinking that [...]

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Toddy Screensters Clean Your Screen with Character

Toddy Screensters

If you own any device with a touchscreen, then you know all too well how quickly and easily they get dirt and grease and all sorts of crud all over them. I tend to have a small microfiber wipe with me in my car and my laptop bag at all times, and a couple of [...]

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xkcd’s Interstellar Memes Graphic, or Stellar Distance Measured by Age of Pop Culture Phrases

I love xkcd.com. It’s a thought-provoking, often hilarious, sometimes sobering stick figure strip. The strip was conceived by Randall Monroe, who describes himself thusly: I’m just this guy, you know? I’m a CNU graduate with a degree in physics. Before starting xkcd, I worked on robots at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. As of [...]

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Lumi Wine Wall Looks to Upcycle Used Wine Casks with Kickstarter Campaign

I’ve got a fairly decent size wine collection, but I wouldn’t call what I do with my bottles “cellaring.” That implies that I’m intentionally saving it for a future date when the wine has matured or perhaps become more valuable. The hundred or so bottles of good juice that are in various racks and shelves [...]

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SensoGlove – Give Mom What She Wants for Mother’s Day, a Few Strokes off of Her Golf Score!

Not everybody’s mother is a golfer. I know mine never was because every year when I was gone away to college she would give away my clubs to Goodwill. “But you didn’t use them all winter!” Arrgh. But of course I still love her, and if she did like to knock around the little white [...]

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GE’s Incredibly Creepy Matrix-Themed TV Ad

Apparently GE’s ad people are living in the late 1990′s. I can’t judge them for this, since my musical tastes are clinging tenuously to the earlier part of the same decade. However, I do question what they were thinking with their latest ad touting their medical equipment business. And since GE apparently bought all the [...]

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The Gear Diary Guide to Infographics

Spend enough time on the Internet, and you’ll find an infographic. These are “educational” graphics that distill bits of information into pretty pictures and at-a-glance factoids. As a concept, they aren’t terrible, but only if they’re used as a summary for a full report. Unfortunately, lately they’ve become flashy vehicles for marketers with an agenda. [...]

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40 Years Ago We Emerged From the Desert of Disconnect

The Jewish festival of Passover ended earlier this week and with it members of the Jewish community returned to eating leavened products known as chametz in Hebrew. (Most people I know end the holiday with the Jewish delicacy known as pizza.) According to tradition the Exodus from Egypt introduced a 40 year period when the [...]

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Wacky Wine Bottle Wine Glass from Gadgets and Gear

Gadgets and Gear’s Wine Bottle Wine Glass in action If you are a sophisticated oenophile, or at least pretend you are, avert your eyes! If you don’t give a rat’s posterior about the niceties of wine drinking decorum and want a super-sized libation serving, have I got the glass for you. Gadgets and Gear now [...]

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Experience Rock and Roll Filtered Through Luna Lee’s Korean Sensibilities on Her Gayageum

I never really understood all the fuss over the Gangnam Style videos.  Seemed a bit too much like the Lambada craze of the late 90s for my taste, honestly.  I’m more of a rock kind of guy.  (We will diplomatically ignore my love of Tom Lehrer songs, show tunes, and classical and jazz piano music [...]

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Travaso Fine Wine Decanters Make Something Good Even Better

Let’s talk about decanting. I think that most people who enjoy wine are familiar with the process of decanting, introducing air to a liquid by pouring it from one container into another. This serves two major purposes. First, if you’ve stored your wine correctly with the neck slightly below parallel to keep the cork wet [...]

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Kutsko Cutting Boards Offer Novel Kitchen Solutions

Nate Kutsko is a born problem solver. His day gig is a partner with his father in a handyman service that has earned a reputation for coming into houses and being able to fix just about anything that needs repairing, from plumbing to electrical to woodworking. In his home workshop, Kutsko likes to tinker around [...]

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Sonic Wallets Scream When Opened – Save You from Theft?

When I was in middle school, a friend of mine showed me his wallet.  On both faces of it when closed, it was covered with a velour-like material that made it a little more difficult to pull out of his pocket.  ”No one can steal my wallet without me feeling it!” he said with a [...]

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USPS Saturday Service Cut: The Revolution Will Not Be Sitting in Your Saturday Mailbox

For as long as anyone alive can remember, the mail has come on Saturday. Since 1863 the mail service has offered delivery six days a week, through rain, snow, sleet or hail! Well, that last bit has softened, and we have already missed one day this winter since our local carrier couldn’t get into our [...]

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Bar Mitzvah VINvite – Technology Meets Tradition as Bar Mitzvah Invitations Get Streamed

Back in the fall of 2009, Judie wrote a post entitled Technology Meets Tradition: And a Kindle Shall Lead Them. It discussed my use of a Kindle DX on the bimah (pulpit) during the Jewish High Holy Days. Some thought my use of an eBook reader was a bit odd, but for me it was [...]

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Heavy Gear Assault Multiplayer Game Launches Kickstarter Campaign

Heavy Gear Assault

The Heavy Gear world dates back to the 90s as a tabletop boardgame and card combat game, and came to [...]

Combo Crew for iOS and Android Pulls No Punches!

Type of app: Action-Fighting Platform/where to buy: iOS or Android; available in the iTunes App Store or available in the [...]

Why I Don’t Run First Thing in the Morning

Yesterday afternoon we had a surprise softball game for Kev’s youngest at 5:30. We made it to dinner at 7, [...]

Microsoft and Zinio Offering Big Incentives to Buy a Nokia Lumia

One of the biggest trepidations I’ve had about my switch to Windows Phone is having to buy all new apps. [...]

World Tarot Week? World Tarot Day? What?!

Best I can tell, the people who use tarot cards are those who want to believe in the idea of [...]

Baofeng UV-5RA Review – Can a $50 Ham Radio Be Any Good?

I hope you have been enjoying my series on Amateur Radio.  It’s been one of my favorite hobbies for about [...]