Quick Review: Star Trek movie

I saw the Star Trek movie this morning and liked it. It was a good flick. I'll probably watch it again on DVD. (Disclaimer: I am a casual Star Trek fan.) Action packed, funny, and enjoyable. I think having familiarity with the series helps, but isn't necessary.




[potential spoilers]


favorite moments

• Wictor Wictor
• is the parking brake on?
• spock getting the girl (even if I had problems with it)
  

weirdest moments:

• giant ice squid
• Spock and Uhura
• how many precipices can Kirk be dangled off?
  

chili verde recipe

Here's the link to the chili verde I made, it is very good. (I didn't brown the tomatillos though)

make or take?

Here's an interesting article on Slate.com about whether it is cheaper to make or buy items like yogurt, bagels, jam, etc. It was interesting and inspired me to try and make yogurt. We'll see how that goes.

Great pork chop marinade

I tried out a new pork chop marinade recipe. I marinaded the chops for about 5 hours. Then my husband grilled them. These chops were juicy and flavorful, no need for bbq sauce. I will definitely make these again. It was a nice change from the teriyaki style marinades I usually make. I was a little afraid the oregano would be overpowering, but while I could smell it while grilling, I couldn't taste it. The only taste was hard to describe other than really good.

Review: Bosch dishwasher

Product: Bosch dishwasher (SHE4AM12UC - 01)
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5) (this rating may go up; I haven't had it long enough to judge it completely)
Summary: Using the electrosol dishwash tablets and jet dry that came with it, I have had great results.
Full Review:
My five year old Amana dishwasher finished dying last week. It had a broken handle, a broken piece on the top rack, I couldn't select any wash cycle but normal, it frequently threw stuff all over the clean dishes, and it started leaking. I'm hoping a Bosch will last longer and have better longevity.
Pros:

• Gets dishes clean ( only dirt I've seen is a tiny spec of cheese that was microwaved twice, so I don't hold that against it)
  
• Filter is removable (This means I can clean the filter myself if the washer starts putting junk on the dishes)
• Arms are removable (I have hardwater, so I should be able to take them off and rinse them off once build up occurs)
• Silverware basket had little holes in it so I can keep your silverware separate (no more nested spoons)
• Fairly certain plastic can go on the lower rack too since it doesn't have a heating element there
  

Cons:

• Fairly certain this holds fewer dishes than my old model
• No fold down racks on the bottom to put mixing bowls (my amana had a great layout)
• Sticking silverware in holes is annoying, I may remove the cover and just use it as a basket
• My nice silverware has large decorations at the end of the handle. It won't fit in most of the siverware holes. (The cheap stuff fits just fine).
  
• Bowls have to be placed every other slot (this is my own fault since I have multiple brands of bowls and they don't get along)
• Interior looks like stainless steel, but I think it's just shiny plastic (I don't care personally as long as it doesn't flake)
  

Review: Mr. Magorium's Magic Emporium

Movie title: Mr. Magorium's magic Emporium
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Review: I liked this movie. I found it sweet, funny, and gentle. It does deal with death though. There were so many funny touches, like a mobile made out of fish and a cheaper one made out of fish sticks. And the accountant they call the mutant. My kids (2, 4, 6) all sat through it, didn't complain of being bored (sometimes a problem with non animated films) and they didn't get scared either. The only thing that kept it from 5 stars is I'm not sure I'd want to own it, although I will probably rent it again. I can definitely recommend it as a completely clean, wonderful film.

arg, silly people

So Gmail has this problem, apparently it does not make it clear when people choose a username if that user name has already been taken.

This is the second time this has happened to me. The first time this happened, the guy happened to send a test email to the gmail and to his personal account, so I just emailed him and told him. It's happened again with someone else who also sent the address out to a bunch of people, so now I'm getting their emails (which I don't want to reply to in case they are spammers), and I get to deal with about 10 password reset requests a day for the past few days. Hopefully who ever thinks they have my email address figures out soon that they don't and leaves me alone.

Updated 3/10/09: hurray, whoever it is has stopped trying to change my password.

Review: Levana CT1000 Digital Wireless Child Tracker Wrist Watch and Kid Finder/Locator

Product: Levana CT1000 Digital Wireless Child Tracker Wrist Watch and Kid Finder/Locator

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Review:
I'll be up front, I did not have a good experience with this product. I think most of my problems came from what I thought it was versus what it actually was.

What I wanted: a product to put on my 22 month old daughter to let me know if she suddenly decides to take off while my back is turned at Wal-mart. I also wanted to put it on her at the park so that if I couldn't see her because she was behind a play structure, I would now she was still in range. I also wanted to keep it in my purse and be able to put it on her when we got somewhere.

What it is: a product for short range tracking of your child (up to ~100 feet). It also has a locate feature that is supposed to help you figure out which way your child went. The battery on the kids band is rechargeable.

Pros:

• rechargeable battery on child's band
• adjustable range (close, medium, and far)
• points which way your child went and whether you are far or close

Cons:

• there is no off switch on the child's band. This means from the second you take the wrist band off the charge, the child's band is on (unless you remove the battery). I could see this being good since there is no way for the child to turn it off, but mostly I find it annoying because I can't store this item in my purse, ready to be used if I need it.
  
• battery life - the charge on the child's band only lasts and hour or two.
• The band barely fits around my child's ankle. I know the band is supposed to go around her wrist, but I know that on her ankle, she won't notice it as much or have fun pushing the page button.
• The beeping on the parent unit is too quiet if you keep it in your pocket and are outside. There is no volume control. This means I had to be actively monitoring the monitor, especially since it ran out of battery part of the way through the outing.
• The child's monitor and adult monitor are rather bulky.
  

I guess my main complaint with it is that I was expecting a painless monitoring solution. Having to take out the battery on the child's unit and store the battery until I need to use it is not painless. The battery is a little smaller than a quarter, the perfect size to loose.

I think I could work around the problems it has, but I'm not sure I want to. I'm going to give it one more chance, then I'm returning it to Amazon.

Updated (3/9/09): I returned this to Amazon. The parent unit stopped communicating with the child unit. I think though that most of my complaints would stand even with a perfectly working unit.

Schrodinger's babies

I've come to the conclusion that babies and toddlers do not obey the laws of physics. How can a 20 month old that was right next to you two seconds ago suddenly be half way across wal-mart? The answer is not one parents want to hear. The answer is wave functions and quantum tunneling.

See, scientists will tell you that little things like electrons don't have a specific place where they are. They have a probability field. Once someone actually looks to see where an electron is, the probability field collapses, and it picks a spot. Electrons also have another weird quirk. They can be either a particle or a wave depending on what a scientist is looking for. Little things also have an ability to jump across a place where they are to somewhere else without going through the space in between.

I've decided that small children and babies are too young to collapse their own wave function. An adult observer is required. Thus, small children can disappear as soon as no one is watching and turn into a wave of pure energy. Once an adult starts looking, they pick a location and often end up an impossible distance away, like across a store or on top of a refrigerator.

Card ideas

While perusing the Stampin' Up catalog, I saw some great stamp sets. Here are some of the cards I plan to make after I have my party and get my sets. (This is mostly to help me decide which sets I actually want based on how many ideas I can come up with)

Just Buzzin' By

• Happy B day - with candles on top of the hive
• It's a shower for our babee - with the flower being used as a shower head over one of the bees
• a child's birthday card where the hive opens to the bees having a party
• probably the bees mixed in with my gardening set (whose name escapes me right now)
• a never ending card with the hive opening
• This set would go great with "Just B" set, but I probably won't buy that set since there's other stuff I want

Hoppy For You

• bathroom hanging for my basement bathroom that for some inexplicable reason is done in frogs

A Kind Word

• these little girls would be cute on any card, I love water coloring
  

Just switch already

Today I saw that the senate has voted to delay the switch to DTV for four months. President Obama has called for the same thing. I say, just switch already.

1. Part of the reason for the delay is so that people who were unable to get coupons for converter boxes will be able to get them. But the program is out of money, so unless that changes, delaying won't help. Even if they get the funding, will the program be able to get the coupons out before the four months are up?
   
2. I suspect that those who really rely on broadcast TV already have the boxes. It's kind of hard to miss all those commercials that have been running. I have a suspicion that a lot of people who are waiting are getting a box "just in case" or for a TV that isn't their main TV.
   
3. The switch already won't affect those with cable.
4. Delaying the switch costs the tv stations money because they have to broadcast in standard and hd for longer than expected.

This date has already been pushed back several times. Delaying it again will not help large numbers of people. Let's just get it over with.

Debi's pumpking cookies

This is a recipe I got from my mother-in-law, really great pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I've played with this recipe a lot and it always comes out well.

1/4 c shortening (or 3 T of butter)
3 c sugar
2 c pumpkin (15oz can)
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
4 1/2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp salt
1 c nuts (optional)
12 oz chocolate chips

preheat oven to 375 degrees. combine ingredients. bake at 375 degrees for 13 min on greased cookie sheet. makes 4 dozen cookies.

Review: Endless Ocean for wii

Let me just mention up front that I love Endless Ocean. My four-year-old son loves Endless Ocean. My husband and daughter think it is pointless. I am a very casual gamer, I rarely will play video games by myself. I am also not very competitive. So with that in mind, here's my review.

Game Summary:
Endless Ocean is a single player simulation game. You are a scuba diver and your job is... well, whatever you want it to be. The game suggest several things you can do, but you can do what ever you want. There is no real tension in this game other than a few spooky emails at one point when you find a certain artifact. One review I saw said it is impossible to die, and I'd believe it. Basically, I explore, pet fish, and make friends with dolphins.

Game Play:
I think the graphics are really cool. There are fun areas to explore like coral reefs, underwater caves, and ruins. I like swimming around and learning to identify fish. The tasks the game suggests (via "email") are guiding people on diving tours, photographing fish, and various scientific research dives (ex: mapping whale migration paths). There is also an aquarium that you can stock with fish you identify. (The aquarium is a great place for a younger child to practice controlling the diver.)

This game starts off really slow to get you familiar with the controls. There are a lot of things you can do, and new controls are added after you complete certain tasks. When you start, all you can do is swim and look at fish. Fairly quickly, you make friends with a dolphin (who you can dive with and train) and get permission to do night diving. The slowness of the start almost turned me off the game because swimming around this one particular coral reef and petting fish is only interesting for so long. However, I'm glad they did start slowly because I would have gotten frustrated by all the different keys (remember, I'm not a gamer at heart). The slowness of the start allowed me to learn all the keys gradually and now I know what button does what.

How I play:
Me and my son play together, or rather he watches and points out fish I might have missed seeing. He gets frustrated very easily and this game, since there isn't really a score or anything, allows him to play and not throw tantrums. We start up the game and usually train one of our dolphins. This consists of giving the dolphins commands, shaking the wiimote wildly to tell the dolphin "go", watching the tricks, then feeding the dolphin as a reward. Then we go diving. We pet fish if we don't know what they are. We sometimes go diving with a dolphin and they point out hidden fish, but the dolphin is hard to keep track of since it is much better at swimming than I am at guiding the diver. My son likes looking at the encyclopedia of fish. Once we find a new fish, it adds it to the encyclopdia and my son likes seeing our progress. If we pet a fish enough, it becomes our friend (for the dive) and follows us around. I get lost easily, so learning to read the map was important.

Finally
I like this game. I find it interesting and relaxing. I like seeing the new areas, searching for fish, and playing with dolphins. If you are looking for a laid back game, this is a good choice.

New Version of FoodThinger (food storage tracker) available

Version .91 of FoodThinger is now available for download at http://www.foodthinger.com .

There have been several changes :

• In line with new guidelines from the LDS church, you can now set the expiration date up to 30 years from the current date
• Bug fix: a spelling error has been fixed
• Bug fix: you can now save the price of the food you buy
• Bug fix: weight conversion is performed automatically (basically, if you had 32 ounces of wheat but your goal called for pounds, the wheat wouldn't be counted)

Christmas and stuff

Hmm... it's been a while since I've posted anything. My youngest daughter is talking more and has started deliberately taunting her older brother. Today we tried making window clings using a kit from Roseart. They came out OK (well, at least until my husband set something on top of them). The stuff came in little bottles that looked like glue. It also had an anoying smell, although it wasn't too strong. We'll see if the clings will cling to the window tomorrow.

We spent Christmas with my husband's family. It was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed being around their grandparents and aunts and uncles for several days. They had fun opening lots of gifts.

We had a very white Christmas with a bunch of snow. It mostly hit my in-law's area, when we got back home, there was barely anything on the ground.

Scripture / Book of Mormon annotation program?

Recently, I bought a new laptop. I'm on it a lot, and I thought, why not study my scriptures on it? I envisioned myself able to easily see cross references, highlight text, and make comments on verses. My problem: it's easy to read my scriptures on a computer, but not so easy to study. I just can't seem to find the software I want.

I had a PDA, but text entry on that was annoying, and it frequently lost my highlighting.

Features (in order of most to least importance):

1. Display the standard works (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price) on my computer (that is, I don't have to be online to read the information)
   
2. free
   
3. Highlighting verses
4. Annotating text- allow me to write comments about verses
5. let me see my annotations in a useful way/hide my annotations if I don't like them
   
6. exporting - let me get my annotations out of the program and into a text file. This way, if I decide to go back to regular paper scriptures, I don't loose all my insights, I can just print them out and put them in a binder.
   
7. book marks - let me mark where I am in reading
   
8. Allow highlighting in multiple colors
9. Hyperlinking - basically, if there is a footnote referencing a scripture, let me click on it and show me the scripture
10. tagging - allow me to tag things I've highlighted. I could see myself tagging scriptures with "faith", then later, pull up a list with those scriptures
11. fast verse look up (for use in a class, although really, I can't see myself taking my laptop to church)
    

Programs that sort of do this:

• scrapbook firefox plug-in - not sure about exporting (but this is the best I've seen so far)
  
• other plug-ins for the web (diigi et al)- seem to need to be online
  
• adobe reader - might have size issues with a large file
• microsoft word - might have size issues. also, I don't want to accidentally modify the text
  
• mobireader - costs money for the books I want
• scripture app - tags, saves annotations, but seems to be broken under firefox and ie. also, doesn't display highlights and the comments you make on scriptures are public. It's possible these problems are settings issues, but since it's broken under my browsers, I can't tell.
  

Issues:

• copyright on footnotes

I'll keep looking and see what I can find (or talk my sweet husband into coding).

Updated I'm current2/11/09: I'm currently using mobipocket. see here

Review: Asus eee 900 ha

With M$ 's live cashback at Ebay at 30% and my birthday coming up, I couldn't resist the lure of an Asus Eee Pc 900ha.

I currently have a Nokia n800, which is perfect for quick take along, but text entry on it is a beast and I couldn't watch netflix on it. I wanted a cute little laptop that I could use to type messages, check the internet, and watch online content. The Asus eee 900ha fit the bill, and with its $250 price tag (after rebate), it fit in my budget.


I opted for the hard drive model because of the extra space. With 160 gigs, I wouldn't have to play games like others do on the ssd models to get Windows to fit gracefully. Personally, I think the idea of SSD is more impressive, but the lure of no space worries (and my husband's recommendation) led me to settle on the hard drive. (My other concern with the harddrive was that if dropped it would be more likely to scatch and an ssd would be more likely to come out intact. But, my husband pointed out laptop hard drives were pretty sturdy.)

Specs

Size: 8.9" screen
Weight: 2.5 lbs
Processor: intel atom
Ram: 2 gigs
Harddrive: 160 gigs
Os: Windows XP
Other cool stuff: webcam, sd slots, usb slots, 802.11 (wifi)

Here's some pictures to show how small it is.
Look how huge a regular sized mouse looks next to it.

My Eee next to 2 paperback books. It's about the same size as the larger paper back book.


Pros:

• small, it fits in my purse. I can stick it somewhere out of my kid's reach pretty easily. My husband can balance it on one leg and I don't fear for its safety.
  
• cute. It is so tiny.
  
• fairly quiet
• Windows XP (yes, I like linux, but to get certain websites to run, I need Internet Explorer and I didn't have a spare xp license laying around)
• Netflix playback is good
• Mythtv playback is good on non-hd channels (note: this problem is a limitation of the software and my wireless hub, not the eee itself)
  
• plenty of room on the harddrive
• screen is crisp and clear
• decent battery life. I seem to be getting about 3.5 - 4 hrs with wifi on and webcam off
  
• runs skype with video conferencing
• different power profiles
• comes with a pouch to put it in
  

Cons:

• touch pad is touchy. I keep hitting it accidentally while typing. I can't tell if the Eee is particularly bad or not, I've never gotten along well with touchpads.
  
• Keyboard layout takes getting used to. The up arrow is where my fingers think the left shift key should be. Page down requires the use of the function key. I accidentally hit capslock a lot. I'm getting better though, I just have to retrain my fingers.
  
• can get pretty toasty if running it on Super performance mode. I just put it on a book, then put that on my lap. (It's small enough I can do that :) )
• shiny exterior looks cool, but is a finger print magnet. It does come with a cloth for cleaning them off.
• If the screen is open too wide, the laptop will tip over backwards. This only happens on a soft / not flat surface like a bed or lap.
  

Other notes

• The Eee has no optical drive. This has occasionally been annoying. But most of my favorite dvds are ripped anyway or recorded from tv, so it isn't hard to get them on via the network or a thumbdrive.
  

Why pick the Eee 900ha (compared to other netbooks/Eee)

• lots of space on the harddrive
• 1 gig of memory - plenty to let multiple programs run smoothly
  
• higher resolution screen than earlier Eees
• the 2.5 lb weight is just right. Any heavier/larger and I wouldn't be able to take it with me easily.
  
• good battery life
• Intel's new power saving processor the Atom
  
• great price
• Windows XP license

Really handy uses

• Watching on-line content where ever I want
• Video conference with my husband while he was at PDC. Built in webcam came in handy.
• Entertaining children. The Eee worked great at the airport while I was waiting for my sister; my kids watched a Blues Clues movie on it instead of asking "how much longer?"

Conclusion
All in all, I'm happy with my purchase. It is very convenient and just what I wanted.

(updated: 12/08) So far I'm still loving my eee.
(updated: 1/10) Unfortunately my beloved eee has become almost unsuable. After being dropped 3 times and having a glass of water dumped on it by my toddler, about half the keyboard and the mouse buttons have stopped working. I expect with an external keyboard and mouse it would be just fine, but that defeats the purpose of small and portable :)

Pickle Sandwich

A poem my children and I made up:

I had a pickle sandwich.
It was white and green.
It had a dozen pickles
And some mustard in between.

I picked my sandwich up
And went to take a bite.
All the pickles screamed, "Aieee"
and ran away in fright.

I had a pickle sandwich
it was white and green.
But now I have a mustard sandwich,
with nothing in between.

I made a pickle sandwich,
This one on a bun.
This time I made sure,
the pickles wouldn't run.

I've never liked McCain better

Check out these youtube videos of a political roast with McCain and Obama. They're both pretty funny.
http://www.ericdsnider.com/blog/2008/10/17/mccain-and-obama-come-together-to-make-fun-of-mccain-and-obama/#more-1181

Alas, Chili's fajitas

Today my family and I went to Chili's to get a build-your-own fajitas. I love the one with steak, bacon, and the chimichuri sauce. But alas, they are no longer offering build your own fajitas. I was so disappointed. I don't usually like Chili's that much, this was the one thing I liked there.

We made do with the mushroom jack fajitas with steak substituted for chicken and chimichuri sauce. It wasn't quite the same though, the bacon was in little pieces instead of nice, thick strips. It was good, just not what I wanted. Oh well, won't be going back to Chilis for awhile.