Pearland Garage Sale April 4th 2009

April 4th 2009 8AM- This Saturday we're having a big garage sale at our home in Pearland - not just our stuff but merch from relatives, neighbors, and friends. The garage is stacked high....

For a complete list and directions, see our craigslist post or 1006sale.com

Drop by and you can tell your friends "Lee or Susan or someone they knew used to own this!"

The Route less travelled

I've had a heck of a time getting wireless internet coverage in our house, and I've tried just about everything - moving the router to the middle of the house, installing a signal repeater where the signal goes week, and lastly upgrading to a router with increased coverage distance. All have failed. Then, with the help of a post on Amazon I may have found the solution:

1) Router settings - dive into the router's settings by typing it's IP address into your web browser, and set the router to the following:

Broadcast Power - High
Channel - 11
Wireless protocol - set it to broadcast only the version you need (a,b,g, or N). I found that setting it to a mixed broadcast mode (g and N) was causing all sorts of drop issues.

If that doesn't do the trick, consider a router with external antennas, or with Wireless N (fastest, strongest protocol) as even your old Wireless G devices benefit from the advanced coverage Wireless N provides. These routers can be found for $20 (g) or $40 (n) from newegg.com.

Obama Bracket Doppelganger

March Madness is upon us, and I'm doing my part. I made my bracket, and since I know zero about college basketball, I put together my bracket based on Obama's picks - except, I picked the opposite. Every first round pick he chose, I chose the opposite team to win and then filled in the remaining rounds based on seed number. I'm calling it the "Rush Limbaugh" Bracket, or Rush Bracket for short. Will this be a referendum on the stimulus package? Will this be a harbinger of things to come? Stay tuned and find out.....

[Update] - Tuned back in? OK, my bracket failed miserably, we're talking last place. So, let's hope this means 2009 will be a great economic year....

The dollar is back!

Susan and I hit up the Sonic $1 menu last night...$3.40 later we were full. Meals start with a decent sized burger or chicken sanwich, taters, and a drink for $2.97....

iPhone 3.0

Besides the much awaited cut&paste feature, new iPhone 3.0 software has the promise of turnbyturn GPS (probably will be an app you can purchaes from TomTom, Garmin, or the like), and stereo Bluetooth which offers a couple cool scenarios:

1) Sit down in your car, iPhone pairs with your car's system, and not only can you take calls with your iPhone buried in your purse or pocket, but now your whole music library is also available via the stereo. No cords or cables...

2) Wireless headphones - Motorola, Jabra, and others make Bluetooth headphones for under $30, again no wires at the gym, on the plane, or anywhere you travel...

Other ground breaker app is now also available - Amazon offers the Kindle app for the iPhone, which syncs with your Kindle and let's you read your books on the go. For Amazon, it's not about selling Kindles, it's about selling books...

First Hand

Really interesting piece on the validity of eyewitness testimony - how during moments of intense stress the mind doesn't act like a video recorder, it behaves much differently and visual recognition of the criminal can be influenced quite dramatically by suggestion. This piece also doubles as an incredible story of mercy and grace, as a woman learns that the man she accused of rape was innocent (she fingered him based on flawed line-up techniques), DNA evidence clears him after 11 years in jail, and they meet together to reconcile. Chill factor = 10

Part 1: The Backstory, Grace and Mercy

Part 2: Flawed Eyewitness Techniques

Travel with Wii

If you've ever tried to pack up a game system (Xbox, Wii, PS3) and take it on the road, you know what a pain it is to unplug all the cables, especially with the Wii since you have six miles of dental-floss-thin wire connected to the sensor bar that sits glued to the top of your TV. Solution? Double up on the A/V cable, AC adapter, and sensor bar using a straight from China reseller for under $20. This way you just unplug the Wii and go, leaving your home setup intact.

Wii AC Adpater
Wii A/V Cable
WIRELESS Wii Sensor Bar

Cashback is back

Live.com cashback is backcash! Looks like 8% is the magic number now - still decent if you're shopping at ebay prices. Here's my old blog post on how to use it. It really works. Here's a screenshot of the $ I've saved since December - most of it on normal everyday purchases like baby supplies...

[update] Now up to 14%

Wii Roddick

I've been working my way up the Wii points scale in tennis, feeling a bit like a prodigy as I beat the likes of Marco, Claudia, and Ralf (all of whom have crossed the 500 points mark), until this past weekend. I lost to two 700+ players and it all fell apart. My backhand lost its flair, I got lazy on my serves, and my returns were overall below average. This led to a slide greater than that of the Dow Jones. After I lost to the 700+ players, I then lost to a pair of 600, 500, 300, and 200 players. All in a row. I could not return to my former greatness. I've lost my edge. I am the Andy Roddick of Wii tennis.

At least this didn't happen: