Looking for a recommendation of a good diaper bag for daddy. I currently have a messenger bag style bag but it is a little too small and I really want a backpack. I am hoping to find something big enough to hold my macbook as well. I would appreciate any recommendations. Thanks!
Wordpress – Bloging app -Covered previously. Nice but still on the buggy side. At least for me, has limited use until Apple adds spell check. Would like to see an approve comments function in a future version.
NowLocal – News -Nice concept, gives local news based iPhone location data. I only used it a couple of times, but seems to work fairly well. It is a quick way to get some local news
Blip Solitaire – Game – Boring, reminds me of a bad old Atari game. You drag your finger along the screen, moving the paddle to bounce a little ball from side to side. Blahhh
Cube Runner – Game – You navigate a boomerang plane type thing though a series of cube type structures. The ship is controlled by turning the iPhone like a steering wheel activating the tilt sensors. Fun game but to easy to waste time on…
Shakespeare – E-book - Easy way to carry around the complete works of Shakespeare. Unfortunately, this is pretty barebones. I would love to see a notes function, or commentary, modern translations etc. But it is free.
eReader – E-book – nice to finally have an e-book reader for the iPhone, without having to jailbreak. You can buy books or at eReader.com or Fictionwise. Features are still pretty limited. Bookmarks work by remembering the last page you were on. Still pretty barebones, but no real complaints. I would be willing to pay for a decent reader that handled multiple formats, could reflow PDF text and had support for notes.
AOL Radio – Music – Stream AOL music channels, same ones available through AIM/AOL. Since I haven’t yet upgraded to a 3G phone, this is really only useful when wifi is available. Most stations won’t stream or won’t stream well over edge. Hopefully will run well over 3G. I will let you know next month!
AIM – IM – Not bad if you need to ping someone while out and about. Not sure if this is a function of being on a first Gen edge phone, but service disconnects if AIM is not open and active. I am rarely so engaged in an IM conversation that I would want to have it as the only app I am using. For me AIM is for quick responses and multitasking, without it working the background, I find it pretty useless.
Twitterific –IM/miniblog – There is a pay version of this program, but the free version is ad supported. I like this app a lot, might be the one I use most. You can update location (works better on 3g phone I am told), load twitterpics from library or direct from camera, and of course tweet to your hearts content. Biggest drawback is there isn’t a view reply button.
Google App – I tend to forget about this one. It basically consolidates all of the Google services built into other areas of the iPhone. I could see using it more if I didn’t have an year of iPhone information gathering habits already established.
Facebook-bloggish thing – Nice way to easily update status. You can snap pictures and upload to your status and mobile pictures. Access your facebook inbox, even chat with online friends. Fun little app, very useful to facebook addicts.
_____________
Update
Left off one of my favorites. NYTimes – great way to read the morning paper! Would love a Washington Post version.
Trying out the Wordpress App for the iPhone. It was easy to setup. Creating new post adding tags and catagories seems intutive. This is actually my second attempt at posting. The save button was missing first go round and I lost the post. It is a nice little app but given my challenges with spelling I doubt I will use it regularly. Apple, I need me some spell check!
Joss Whedon rocks. Neil Patrick Harris brilliant. Nathan Fillion hilarious. Felicia Day totally geeky hot.
Melissa and I, well mostly Melissa, had our sonogram last week. There was a beautiful heartbeat and everything appears to be on track for baby number two come February. I’m really glad we are settled into our new place. The desire for baby number two was one of our primary motivations for moving in the first place and we found such a wonderful neighborhood. I always wanted children, but the actual experience is so far above my expectations that I truly don’t have the words to describe. In some ways I think I am more excited this time around. Well that isn’t actually fair to say. It is a very different experience on multiple levels. Since we have been through this before, the fear factor is kept in check. I am doing a much better job of finding a work/life balance and I am really just more present on so many levels that I can’t get into without completely over sharing. Suffice it to say, I am in a much better place emotionally then I have been in sometime.
Ok going to work today smells, feel, practically tastes like the summer school*. I shouldn’t be inside. My day should start off with swim practice, followed by a tennis match. Head over to the driving range to smack the crap out of some gold balls. Play with my friends. Grab some lunch. Kick back with a book poolside. Dive practice. More play time with friends. Meet my parents for an early dinner at the mixed grill. Play with the neighborhood kids and chase fireflies. Book and/or TV. Sleep and repeat.
Don’t get me wrong, regardless of how pampered my childhood seems from this sketch of a better but not completely atypical summer day, I saw my share of dark and crappy things. We all have our scars.
*I was a semi regular summer school attendee. I went to a prep school pre ADA which couldn’t seem to grasp the fact that with even basic accommodations for my dyslexia I would have been a phenomenal student.
While I typically prefer fiction, I could not put this book down. Bryson takes us through his childhood growing up in the Midwest during the 50’s. He did an amazing job of channeling the child/boy he was. It was a more innocent time, shown through the eyes of a child. As the Memoir (yeah I know dirty word these days) progresses, Bryson is able to parallel his own loss of innocence with that of the times. While I was born in the East some 20 years later, the world he recreated reminded me very much of my own early childhood. In many ways the 70’s were the dying embers of the 50’s. I remember with vivid detail my first crush and my curiosity/obsession with the opposite sex. TV before cable with it’s morning/late night test patterns, constant stream of old re-runs, limited selection and far less sophisticated content - it was an all together different medium. Parents still thought it was safe for kids play outside. Globalization had yet to flatten the earth. Most nightmares were still on the news, not your backyard. Even DC was safe as long as you stayed out of South East. It was a wonderful reminder of my early childhood; I hope I can provide even a fraction of that for my own children.
Dreadful Skin is without a doubt my favorite novel so far this year. Cherie Priest is a fabulous storyteller with a gift for southern gothic. She paints a vivid picture of post Civil War west. Her characters are compelling. Most notably Eileen Callaghan, Irish nun turned Lycanthrope hunter truly came alive for me; she is witty, determine and surprisingly human throughout. Dreadful Skin manages to ask some big questions regarding good & evil, faith and free will, all the while telling a frightfully captivating story and never once tripping my fairly low gross-out threshold. I was fortunate enough to get the hardcover edition before it sold out. The paperback version is not out yet but it is available for pre-order from Amazon. I would have included the links, but Amazon seems to be functioning as well as twitter right now.
For those of you who have had or have been a child in the last 60 years, you may be familiar with Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. While on a hunt for our latest book club read we happened across Goodnight Bush: A Parody By Gan Golan (Author), Erich Origen (Author), an absolutely hilarious parody of Goodnight Moon framing the stupidity of the Bush Administration. Melissa vetoed the purchase, but I could not stop laughing so I will definitely be picking myself up a copy in the not to distant future.
Had a wonderful weekend. I didn’t do any writing, but you know what, that is OK. I don’t think I spent more then 15 minutes at my computer all weekend. Not to say I embraced a luddite way of life, I had my trusty iPhone, even made a couple Joshua related blog post straight from the Jesus phone. I did not think about work until I hit the gym this morning – work related reading material in hand. While the pregnant 4pm Friday before a holiday weekend phone call did indeed come, I had left at 2 and no one bothered my cell. What I did do this weekend was spent quality time with my wife and son. We read, gardened, shopped, hung photos on previously barren walls, played with Joshua, rode the CJ Park train and went for walks. Actually Melissa walked and pushed the jogging stroller and I strapped on the roller blades and entertained Joshua with my wheeling around. It was a wonderful weekend filled with family, love and joy. It was a beautiful reminder of why I get up every morning; battle the demons (traffic, work and personal) happily and without reservation.
|
