Tag Archives: iPod

Photo-A-Day

MAC Girl

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MAC Girl
Photo-A-Day #1367

Eva is going to be a MAC girl, of this I am sure. Today she took my iTouch and brought it to her Laugh and Learn Musical Chair. She sat down and looked at it this way and that. She kept pressing the button on the front. Eventually she’s going to become pretty adapt at playing with that thing.

I took Eva with me to Stop & Shop today. I use the personal shopper scanner when I go. I really like it, it is very easy. We use the reusable bags when we go to the store too, it helps the environment and we get $0.05 off per bag so it helps a little. On the shopping cart there is a place to put your Dunkin Donuts coffee and a place to put the personal shopping scanner. Talk about cross marketing and synergy, supermarkets have that down to a science.

Did you know that you can get a more accurate account of the items in your shopping bag than your medications at a hospital. Hospitals are so slow to adapt to technology as simple as barcoding. It is happening but painfully slow. Barcoding has been in place at supermarkets for years that we take for granted the simplicity of it all. You can now go into a supermarket, scan all of your items yourself and check out in a flash, or you can go shop, get all your items and then run them through the self checkout, amazing when you think about it. But I digress.

The personal shopping scanner alerts the shopper to sales, it reminds you to put in your order at the deli and it also keeps a running total of the items in your cart. What would make this device better would be the ability to place your deli order from the device. Maybe you get the same thing every week you should be able to pick from previously ordered items, the scanner should know what you bought previously because it is linked to your shopping card. I keep going on tangents.

Well anyway, the device beeps when you scan it, it has a light up screen on it and often makes other alerts to the shopper. Eva kept leaning over to it and putting her ear up against it as if it was a telephone. A long way to go for the punchline, but I am easily distracted thinking of ways to improve the shopping experience.

Eva is a MAC girl, not only because she was playing with the iTouch but because she said “MAC” and pointed to the computer screen while I was looking at MAC mini and the Apple TV. I don’t know where she got the word either, we are PC people (except for the iPod stuff)

I’ve been contemplating using some MAC products like the Apple TV, Mac Mini, Airport Extreme and an Iomega product, the MiniMax external drive. I probably won’t get these items but I do like the idea of a small stack of devices that all work together in harmony and ones that look nice too. I’d probably end up stacking so many devices that it would negate the fact that they are supposed to be small. As with the above tangent my dreams for technology also go on tangents that my wallet cannot handle.

On the personal side we had friends over for breakfast this morning. They have a daughter around Eva’s age and a son who is three. It was wild seeing three children going nuts with toys and interacting. Eva hasn’t had much playtime with her toys and other children. She got a little frustrated but in the end started to roll with it pretty well.

Having friends over for breakfast was pretty cool too. Allison made sausage, french toast, eggs and hash browns. We were able to sit and chat and have a good time and when it was over we still had a whole day ahead of us. That is probably why I needed a nap after the supermarket.

I read Brisingr some more and when I felt that I could nap I laid the book on my chest, shut my eyes and took that nap. It was most likely 15 minutes but it was refreshing. I am so close to being finished with this book. I have really enjoyed it but wonder how it will end. Tomorrow Allison will pick up the book on CD from the library. I’ll burn it to iTunes so she can listen to it on her iPod. This is the way we listened to the first two books in this series, on CD not iTunes. I enjoyed actually reading the book but once it is done I no longer need the book so I will be giving it away or I’ll end up buying books 1 and 2 so we can save them for Eva to read. Who knows. Well, I have rambled way too much today. That is what happens when I post so early in the day.

Family

Help Stock Eva’s Farm

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Help Stock Eva's Farm

When my Dad was growing up he would raise cows, chickens and even a pig. He’s part of a large hardworking family and those animals helped the family out with milk, eggs and meat. A small family farm is not as common in America now. Many things are commercialized and there are huge farms. This is not so in the rest of the world. In the rest of the world, a cow, flock of chickens or even a goat could mean the difference between life or death for a family.

Today I was watching TV with Allison, okay I was playing on the computer and half watching and half paying attention, but forget that, we were watching Good Morning America. There was a segment about WorldVision International. This is an organization that takes donations from people to buy goats, cows and livestock for people in poor nations to help them help themselves.

I went to the site and tried to give a donation, you are supposed to be able to buy a share of an animal so if say 12 people donate $12 they can buy a cow for a family so that family can have milk or eventually meat. I was unable to make a donation for a share. It was not very easy so I popped over to Heifer International. I later went back to World Vision International and saw my mistake, I wasn’t paying close enough attention to detail, it is actually easy to donate.

I first heard about Heifer International through Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.tv. Last year GeekBrief.tv made a podcast called iYule. It is a great podcast that gives you a fireplace on your iPod. It also has a wonderful soundtrack by Geoff Smith. There are a few different choices for this item.

* iYule Log for standard players
* iYule Log for widescreen players
* iYule Log music-free edition
* iYule Log, The Complete Album
* iYule Log for TV & computers
* iYule Log, The Complete Album for Windows

Full Disclosure – I get affiliate money from the sale of this podcast. By Buying iYule you also contribute to Heifer International because the sales of the podcast goes towards three great charities. I will give money from all of the sales to Heifer International in order to buy a Llama. I hope to be able to buy a whole llama which is $150.00 (We gave $20 ourselves this morning so we just need $130 to go)

Okay, so more about Heifer International. Heifer’s mission statement is

Heifer’s Mission to End Hunger

Heifer envisions…
A world of communities living together in peace and equitably sharing the resources of a healthy planet.

Heifer’s mission is…
To work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth.

Heifer’s strategy is…
To “pass on the gift.” As people share their animals’ offspring with others – along with their knowledge, resources, and skills – an expanding network of hope, dignity, and self-reliance is created that reaches around the globe.

Heifer’s History
This simple idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief caught on and has continued for over 60 years. Today, millions of families in 128 countries have been given the gifts of self-reliance and hope.

I believe in helping people to sustain their lives through work. I believe in programs like Habitat for Humanity because each person who is helped must help themselves by building their homes. That is why I am so proud of Ted Murphy for donating his $500 from Sears to Habitat for Humanity in the form of some much needed tools.

We decided up on donating towards a llama and a flock of chicks. A Llama from Heifer International is $150 and you can purchase on in shares of $20. I’m looking for people to help us purchase a whole llama. We bought one share and so need at least 5 more people to make purchases or many people to buy the iYule podcast to help in the purchase of the Llama.

Here is what a llama can do for a family.

Light Up a Life With a Llama

When resources are scarce, it’s important that livestock don’t use up land reserved for people. At home in rough, mountainous areas of Latin America, llamas are a blessing to families with limited pasture land because they can eat the scrub vegetation that other domesticated animals won’t eat. Llama droppings help fertilize topsoil — improving crops and reducing erosion.

Women weave their llamas’ fleece into warm clothing to wear or sell. They load them up with goods for market and trek with them across rugged slopes at high altitudes. As they travel, llamas’ padded feet don’t damage the fragile terrain and their selective browsing doesn’t destroy sparse vegetation.

Llamas and their kin, the alpaca, provide Heifer families with invaluable sources of transportation, income and wool, which is prized for making blankets, ponchos, carpet and rope.

Llamas are remarkably disease resistant and require little care; they can carry small loads for distances over rugged slopes at high altitudes.

The title of this post: Eva’s Farm

We’d like to ask bloggers to help to stock Eva’s Farm. Eva’s Farm is an idea I had to get people to donate to Heifer international either through sales of the iYule or direct donations to Heifer International or WorldVision International. You can donate as low as $10.00 I think. $10 is 1/6 of a trio of rabbits, 1/12 of a pig. The idea is that a little, when banded together can make a large impact. I would like to make a large impact as well. So if you are interested in helping to stock Eva’s Farm here is what you do. Go either to Heifer International or WorldVision International, make a donation, once you’ve made the donation you have the option to tell a friend. Send me an e-mail to benspark @ benspark dot com with your web address and I’ll compile a list of people who have made donations to help stock Eva’s Farm. I will then make a post about those who helped to stock the farm.