Trailing to Patagonia: About Us

Trailing to Patagonia: About Us: We are Ricardo and Jocelyn.  Here is our story: In 2002, Jocelyn, from Lititz, PA, traveled to Valparaiso, Chile to study Spanish.  Ri...

Techno Times

2012 is shaping up to be a landmark year for my technological progress. I've just received an invite to join Pinterest (thanks Ken!) after suffering the humiliation of having my requests ignored by Pinterest. Such is life! Today I'll be installing Apple TV and hoping my old cable box can at least work with the new flat screen TV (until Verizon can send a box for HD TV). I received the flat screen for free (nothing is free) with my new Prius. Since I drastically overpaid for the Prius, the TV was indeed not free. I let the TV sit in the box for several months, but now that I've decided to catch up on some TV, and get the Apple TV gizmo, I thought if worth installing. I also snapped up a Belkin USB expander for the iMac. I love my iMac and it is stylish and 'all that', but it only has 4 USB ports hidden in the back, and at this point I have data strewn across four external drives (I know...very disorganized) and now an ION slide scanner, an HP All-In-One  and a Logitech trackball. I wouldn't be using the trackball, but I found the iMac sometimes didn't correctly manage it's power, and found the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and tracker would keep losing their connection. It got so bad, I went and got a Microsoft keyboard that also wasted a USB slot. I'm back to using the Mac Bluetooth keyboard but am still using the trackball. Just thinking about all this stuff is making me sleepy. Might be time for a nap. Before I snooze, I also finally received the solar-powered iPad case to go in it's special bag, so theoretically I can go about 8 days with one charge on my iPad. That is awesome.

Starbucks

Starbucks Indivisible Blend is delicious!

Sent from Stacie's "super hot" new iPad
"Stay Positive and Love your Life!"-Nick Hexum

Father's Day

Today I give my Dad an iPad! I hope he actually uses it. I think it will keep his mind active and keep him more connected. He certainly can call me if he gets stuck, but he tends to give up easily. We'll see how it develops! I already set up all his email, Facebook, Skype and a few sports apps. The best part is the free maintenance (from me) and the fact that I will pay for all his downloads. He even has Downton Abbry Seasons 1 & 2.

Sent from my iPhone

Preakness

I have taken my Dad to the casino to watch the simulcast of the Preakness Stakes. Theoretically we could have swung up to Pimlico for the race, but I've never braved those crowds. I hear the infield is a big drunken party. My Dad is 90 years old, and not up for that kind of rowdiness. Laurel was an option, but that place is diggity-dank. Delaware Park at least has been upgraded to a slots/casino atmosphere, which is relatively more swanky. We've got a nice pair of marble cubicles with individual TV's and lots of big screens on the wall. Hopefully we can pick a few winners. I'm not much of a gambler, but I don't think my Dad would get to the track on his own at age 90. He sold his car (wisely) and pretty much relies on family to ferry him around when needed. He is pretty self-sufficient however, getting up at 7am every morning and doing 500 situps. In fact, he called me before 8am this morning and woke me from my slumbers. That is pretty bad when a 90 year old man has more energy than his daughter.

Sent from Stacie's "super hot" new iPad
"Stay Positive and Love your Life!"-Nick Hexum

Flickr Photostream

Can't figure out to fix the broken "gadget" which linked to my Flickr Photostream.

May update

This month I have to do some home renovations, but first I feel like organizing the mess that is my iTunes libraries (plural). While I am loading CD's I can start dealing with the mounds of paper surrounding the computer. Ahh, computers were supposed to eliminate the paper mess. I guess it reflects the cluttered brain in my skull. It seems almost superfluous to bother with the iTunes matching service since Spotify is so great at supplying music on demand. I guess I just want iTunes to organize what music I have so I can make better sense of it. One thing I like is creating a playlist in iTunes based on comments I have made, such as instrumentation or subgenres. These playlists are then exportable to a few third-party programs which do a pretty good job of making Spotify playlists. A bit easier than doing it all manually. Then you can scrobble it all to Last.fm. That is one way to share your music listening habits outside of Facebook, and discovering other people's habits, though you can see that within the Spotify app as well. More than one way to cook an egg, I guess.