2008 Presidential Election
Thursday 07 August 2008 at 10:23 pm
How are you showing your support? As the 2008 Presidential campaign picks up pace more t-shirts, bumper stickers and yard signs appear. However, supporting your candidate with a t-shirt, bumper sticker or yard sign just seems so status quo. Status quo just isn't going to cut it in 2008. Don't worry, we've got good news, there are alternatives. If used properly these items will set you apart from the everyday supporters and might just set you in to the super supporter or fanatic category. How cool would that be?
The BananaForce top 7 campaign merchandise items...
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recycling projects
Thursday 17 July 2008 at 07:36 am
Growing up we had the cool TV. A Zenith Space Command System 3 console TV with Space Phone. I have no idea how many times I pressed the channel changer on that remote. I watched a good many hours of Gilligan's Island and the Brady Bunch. This TV was very good to me.
One of the cool features of this TV was the Space Phone, a low-fi speaker phone that was built into the TV. While watching TV, the whole TV would ring and interrupt the audio of whatever you were watching. I'm pretty sure the speaker phone was single duplex, meaning only one end could be talking at a time; otherwise the other party would be cut off. When dialing the phone, the phone number would show up on the screen in a black box. All these features could be controlled by the "computer space command" remote. The microphone was on the TV, so you needed to make sure you talked loud. Friends were always impressed to sit around and talk to a TV, an experience that truly made you feel part of the future. (Note: if on the other end of the phone conversation your feelings were more of annoyance and frustration because the audio quality of the call was so poor.)
Well, this TV had a good run. It eventually ended up in my parent's basement in my Dad's exercise room, and after some time, the TV did go out. When this happened, my Dad impressed me and did a little console TV recycling.
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caching tips
Wednesday 16 July 2008 at 10:28 pm
Many folks think that you need a PDA, an iPod, a laptop, a blackberry, or some fancy new fangled GPSr like the Colorado to go paperless caching. Well, this just isn't true. In fact, for most GPS receivers it is possible to paperless geocache with only the GPSr.
While it is true that not all cache page info can be transfered to the GPSr, a good portion of the info can be stored in the comments. Enough info to find 90% of those urban traditionals.
Even if you are paperless caching with a PDA, iPod, laptop, blackberry, or even paper, we suggest using this method to load your GPSr with the maximum amount of info. At certain caches you will not need to dig out the other device if you have the basic info already stored into your GPSr.
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2008 Presidential Election
Thursday 10 July 2008 at 10:30 pm
There and many different polls out there that gauge how our presidential candidates are doing in this 2008 election. Sometimes they predict the correct outcome, and sometimes they are way off. So what if there was another way to gauge the current campaign climate.
Web Traffic Trends
As the vast population uses the Internet on a daily basis for an increased number of daily tasks the world wide web is becoming more ingrained into our way of life. So if we could measure the web traffic each candidate is getting at their web site, it should give us a good idea how the given candidates are doing in their campaigns.
So who do you think is getting more web traffic? Barack Obama or John McCain
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caching tips
Thursday 10 July 2008 at 12:05 am
I have been using my iPod Nano for paperless caching for almost two years now and have really been enjoying it. I used the method presented by Xangxa in the show notes for the Podcacher Show 82.1: PMM - GPS Pigeons. Xangxa put together a nice tutorial that basically showed how to populate the contact list in the iPod with the cache info. I found this method to work more straight forward and ran faster than loading the cache listings as notes which is the other common method of paperless caching with the iPod.
So when I got my iPod Touch I assumed that I could use the same method, but would have the advantage of a larger screen size. But I found it wasn't that easy. The iPhone and iPod Touch do not allow you to enable disk for the device, like you can with the other iPods. Enabling the disk allowed you to save files to the iPod, or for the purposes of contacts, allowed to update the contact files. So for awhile I was stuck. I know there are some apps that could be installed for geocaching for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but part of me wanted to figure out how to do it the old fashion way. Then it hit me. If I can sync with Yahoo! Address Book, maybe I could upload my caching listing there and then sync with my iPod Touch. And that is essentially what I did.
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lullabies
Tuesday 08 July 2008 at 11:16 pm
My wife never checks CDs out at the library, but one day for some reason she checked out Flying Into Blue by Diane Jarvi and we gave it a listen. It didn't take us long to get hooked. We soon bought our own copy and now listen on a regular basis.
This album is much more than a kids lullaby album, in fact I'm not sure the last time the kids heard it. We listen to it more than they do. It is just beautiful. I don't even know how to explain it. The album has a wide range of numbers including tracks sung in Finnish, Karelian, Sami, Gaelic, Spanish and Yiddish. Not always sure what is being said, but still very relaxing.
lullabies
Tuesday 08 July 2008 at 11:07 pm
Dedicated to the One I Love by Linda Ronstadt is an odd little album that you can't help but like. How can you go wrong with an album with a cover like that? Linda Ronstadt takes rock classics like "Dedicated to The One I Love", "Be My Baby", and "In My Room" and creates unique light airy lullabies. Like any good lullaby album, the tracks remain soft and relaxing even when Linda Ronstadt cover's Queen's stadium crowd pleaser "We Will Rock You". Need we say any more.
lullabies
Tuesday 08 July 2008 at 10:55 pm
Being a big Monkee's fan, getting the album
Micky Dolenz Puts You to Sleep was a no brainer. How can you go wrong with Micky Dolenz helping you and your child relax. Well, you might actually say, "Wait a second! Can the guy that sang "I'm a Believer", "Randy Scross Grit" and "I'm not your steppin' stone" really sing relaxing lullabies?" The answer is yes. He does a fantastic job. Micky's covers of the Beatles "Blackbird", "Fool on the Hill", and "Good Night" are top notch. The gem of the album is Micky's cover of Paul Simon's "St. Judy's Comet". And for the Monkee's fan Micky includes "Pillow Time" and "The Porpoise Song". This is a must for The Monkees fans out there, but it is a great album regardless on your opinion of The Monkees.
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education
Tuesday 08 July 2008 at 08:12 am
Have you ever had a baby scream in your face, and you just couldn't figure out what they need/want? Well, you aren't alone, this is common with most parents. Many have thought that babies don't really know how to talk very well. Well, that really isn't 100% true. Turns out they can talk, just not with their mouths. Babies can learn Sign Language. And it ain't too hard.
When we attempted the whole teaching your baby sign language, we really didn't know where to start. We had intended to start sign earlier, but didn't go too gung ho. We knew a few signs - More, Milk, Eat. So we used them here and there, but wasn't sure if it was really sinking in. But then all of a sudden the little guy started using them at about 14 or 15 months. Whoa! So off to the book store to find a book on Baby Sign Language. My wife looked around, but guess who found the perfect kit on a kid reachable self. Mr. I'm only 15 months old himself. We found the SIGN with your BABY - Baby Sign Language (ASL) Kit: Includes Book, How-to DVD, Quick Reference Guide
by Joseph Garcia to be excellent. My wife read the book, we both watched the video and we were off to a great start. Since then, our little dude has been picking up signs faster and faster.
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Sewing
Tuesday 01 July 2008 at 10:41 pm
With the raised concern of plastic water bottles with bisphenol A (BPA) many folks these days are switching from the plastic bottle made popular by Nalgene to a non plastic alternative to avoid the potential effects of the BPA chemical. Not all plastic bottles contain the BPA chemical, but many folks, like ourselves are feeling more at ease avoiding the plastic bottles all together. Our family switched to the Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Water Bottles
and have really been enjoying the switch.
Since the stainless steel Klean Kanteen is a much better conductor than a plastic bottle, the temperature of your favorite beverage will be noticed much more on the outside of the stainless steel bottle. So if you were to fill the bottle with icey water, the bottle would feel much cooler than it would with the hard plastic style water bottle. The Klean Kanteen also has more potential to be dented when dropped than a durable hard plastic water bottle. Thus, the BananaForce family created water bottle holders for their new fleet of water bottles.
The instructions below can be used to create water bottle holders for the 12 oz, 18 oz and 27 oz Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Water Bottles.
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