Showing posts with label Tech Talk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tech Talk. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Inspiration

Inquiring minds want to know ... how did our six-year-old learn about Tesla coils?  It all began when his father showed him the following video:



Feeling inspired, our son created this scene with Lego. (Look familiar?)




I suppose I should be thankful our son's fascination with Tesla coils hasn't gone any further than Lego and bad puns.  Here's to hoping that's where it stays!

Monday, May 04, 2009



Geekiness Abounds

It's almost here.  Trekkies unite!  The newest Star Trek movie opens this Friday.  Rest assured, my beloved and I will be among the first in line on opening day.  Ben and I do enjoy a good Star Trek movie and the latest one looks pretty sweet.  

I wouldn't say Ben and I are voracious Star Trek fans.  We simply enjoy watching the shows and regularly crave a healthy dose of geekiness. Lately, we've been catching old Voyager episodes on YouTube.  Few things beat an evening snuggling on the couch, sharing a big bowl of popcorn, and devouring a couple episodes of Voyager.  

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A Celebration!

Bake some cheesecake and pull up a chair.  We're having a party! Today The Ink Spot has reached a significant milestone.  (Or perhaps it's a mille-stone?)

This is officially my blog's 1000th post.

Gosh, that's a little bit scary.  Who knew this blogging experiment would last so long?  Thanks so much for tagging along for the ride. You've graciously endured my random musings, mundane blather and an embarrassing load of navel gazing.

You deserve a medal.

(Or at least a slice of cheesecake.)  

Friday, February 13, 2009

Joke of the Day

Q:  What do you get when you cross medieval siege weaponry with fuzzy Star Trek aliens?

A:  A tribble-chet!

(Groan.  That one's courtesy of some geeky guy who shall remain nameless.)

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Make Saturday Morning

The flavour of our Saturday mornings has changed as of late.  Really, things simply haven't been the same since Bre Pettis stopped making weekend projects.  Bre's replacement was sadly uninspiring.

How glad were we when Make TV debuted on PBS this month? (It's also free online.) This show is fantastic!  Ben and the kids have been totally bitten by the maker bug.

They just have to, just have to make something.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Welcome to My Bookstore!

I've been having so much fun these past couple days.  Yesterday I created my very own bookstore on Amazon.ca!  What could be more fun than choosing all my favourite books to share in one place?

Please click on over and take a look.  You can also access the store by clicking the image in my blog's sidebar.  I have read (or am planning to read) nearly every book in the store and will continue to add selections. Enjoy browsing the shelves. :-)


Thursday, December 11, 2008

Thirsty?

My husband is a geek.  The guys who work for him?  Uber-geeks.  Ben's office is most certainly the epicenter of all geekiness.  The place reeks of it.  (Or maybe that's just the week-old pizza...)

Check out the office water cooler.  (Yes, those are hard drive magnets taped to the side of the bottle.)  Hey, times are tough after all.  Kudos to Adam for dreaming up a way to keep the company afloat.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Make Saturday Morning

Daddy decided today was a good day for his boys to practice soldering. You never know when you might need to repair a faulty circuit, after all. The boys used a cold heat soldering gun, so there was little chance of them burning themselves.

Rewiring (or unwiring) a floppy drive.


Soldering gun in one hand, blankie in the other. Every four-year-old should learn basic electronics.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Redecorating

How do you like the new look? (Thanks for the link, Wendy!) I am feeling very proud of my html prowess at the moment. I changed everything on my own, without a speck of help from my computer genius husband. (To be perfectly honest though, Blogger's new layouts page makes redecorating pretty easy.)

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Too Cool

My geeky husband totally rocks. He set the Wonder Pets theme song as the ring tone for my cell phone!


Tuesday, August 05, 2008

A Spotty Performance

Ben commented the other day that I haven't been posting as much to the blog. I used to spend most evenings with my computer on my lap, working on the blog or reading articles. Since our baby boy was born (was it already three months ago?) and we moved to our new house, my nightly routine has changed a great deal. I try to catch a minute or two on the computer whenever I can but the blog updates haven't been nearly as consistent. Sometimes all I can manage is a quick quote or anecdote from the day.

That said --- I am painting the kitchen this week. I figure I should give fair warning that my computer will be gathering dust. I love painting, so this is no hardship in my mind! I think blogging will become more routine again once school starts in September. In the meantime, I apologize for my inconsistent performance ;-).

Have a great week!

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Thought for the Day

"Preschoolers and Tesla coils are not compatible."

Friday, May 30, 2008

Pictures! Hooray!

My technically-savvy, impulsive, irresistible, self-sacrificing, geeky and debonair husband (he made me say that) added a nifty Flickr badge to my sidebar. Click on over and check it out!

Friday, May 16, 2008

Wired Again

After a long month unplugged, my trusty Apple Blossom is once again operational. My geeky and debonair husband (he made me say that) finally gave up on Apple Care and replaced the hard drive himself.

Sadly, I lost every speck of data on the old hard disk. (What? Take a backup? Are you mad?) I did not lose anything critically important, but am nonetheless mourning the loss of my personal files. It was a hard lesson learned.

From now on I intend to update my blog on a more regular basis. Life has settled down in Inksterland for the time being. Babe is rapidly moving beyond the newborn stage, our house is comfortably sold, and I don't intend to start packing for another good month. It's all smooth sailing for now.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

We are Experiencing Technical Difficulties...

Life is a funny thing.  Wouldn't you know, the night I went into labour my laptop died.

It's dead Jim.  Dead.  Dead.  Dead.  The death rattle of an Apple is a fearsome thing.

Thankfully, my geeky husband has no shortage of computers at his disposal.  Apple Care should also provide a new laptop for me.  (When we find a moment to call them.)  In the meantime, I have decided to enjoy my "unplugged" season.

I believe it's no coincidence my laptop died within hours of our baby's birth.  Ben and I have entered an intense, but sweet, time in our lives.  We have a new baby and a new house all in the same week!  I feel God is giving me permission to focus on my family more fully, without the distraction of my computer.

Ben will let me borrow his laptop whenever I'd like, but I intend to limit my computer use for the time being.  I'll check in every few days :-).

And yes, I intend to post baby pictures very soon!  I promise!    

Monday, March 24, 2008

Where's the Baby in the Bubble?

I wish I knew!

My baby ticker widget has been broken for the past few days. Apparently, the site that serves it has gone down. I am sorely disappointed.

I will try to find a new baby ticker. In the mean time, my pregnancy is 35 weeks and 1 day along today. The baby's estimated due date is April 27th.

It's a date that's coming much too quickly...


Saturday, March 08, 2008

We Have a Solution!

Ben thinks we should exchange our paper shredder for a goat.

Hmmm ... might not be a bad idea.

Goats probably have a good page consumption rate. And no one is likely to reconstruct a document once it's been through a goat.

Do you think the condo board will approve?

We'll just stay away from fainting goats. (They're almost as flaky as mail munchers.)


We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties

So maybe my new mail muncher isn't so sweet after all. We are on our third machine this week.

And this one is not working.

I am not amused.

I was willing to give our flaky paper shredder one more chance this afternoon. Ben came home from Staples with an extra $25 in his pocket because the machine went on sale today. When he exchanged our (second) broken one, the store refunded the difference in price. I was happy with our unexpected windfall and was (almost) willing to to forgive our mail muncher for breaking down.

Almost.

That was until it completely stopped working again this evening.

I am willing to give the machine one more chance because I may have inadvertently tripped the overheat circuit. The manual says I should let the shredder cool down for half an hour. If the mail muncher isn't functioning normally by tomorrow morning ...

... it is going to that great big paper shredder dump in the sky.

And I am not bringing home another one.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

The Mail Muncher

I've been working my way through a stack of bookkeeping and paperwork in preparation for tax season. My goal was to have everything ready for our accountant by the end of February. (Unfortunately, that deadline has already flown past...) I'm nearly there, though. Just a couple more evenings to go.

Last week I spent a few evenings sorting and organizing our personal files. I purged. I colour-coded. I alphabetized and categorized. Our files are now a thing of beauty! Ben teased and accused me of "hardcore nesting". I reminded him that sorting through files was a far cry from "hardcore nesting" activities like renovating the house!

My purging and sorting resulted in a large box of unwanted papers. Sensitive papers. Papers I wouldn't feel comfortable simply tossing in the recycling bin. So this weekend I made a responsible technological purchase. I bought a paper shredder. A really cool paper shredder.

Our son has affectionately dubbed our new paper shredding wonder the Mail Muncher. He diligently helped me sort and shred hundreds of sheets this afternoon (under very close supervision). I think he especially enjoyed emptying the bin of shredded paper bits. Our son oohed and aahed every time coloured papers spiced up the mix.

Even with this afternoon's work, we still have most of the paper pile left to shred. I wouldn't want to burn out our handy new machine by shredding it all at once. We'll slowly work our way through the mountain, a bit each day.

I must say ... the Mail Muncher has earned a place among my favourite household machines. We'll put our new toy to good use in the coming days.


Friday, February 29, 2008

Welcome to (the) Amazon

Last week I officially became an Amazon Associate. What does that mean? If someone purchases a book (or other product) through one of the Amazon links on my site, I will receive a small commission on the sale.

Why have I chosen to become an Amazon Associate? I like to write book reviews and I love to read. I can easily include links to Amazon on my site. Though I don't expect to make much on commissions, I'm hoping to earn enough pocket change to satisfy my biblio-addiction now and then!

So if you feel like buying some books, simply link through the Amazon icon on my side blog. Alternately, you may click on any book image on my site. (I'm in the process of updating all the book reviews.)

Happy reading!