A to her new Star Wars Fin action figure “Fin I am going to play with you”
I Bought a Classic iBook G3 Clamshell Laptop
One of the guys at work has been talking about some of the old computers he’s been buying and reconfiguring or restoring to get working. It’s fascinating to talk to him about it partly because he’s very passionate around the topic. Also it’s something that I have thought about doing with one or two computers but never had the space or time to want to do it.
I’m finding it very funny that for some time now I have wanted a classic iBook G3 Clamshell laptop circa 1999. I never owned one however they always did look pretty cool. I personally did not get into Max until the G4 around 2002. I’ve also wanted a lampshade iMac. For some reason I keep thinking about the 15 inch version although the 17 inch is better and the same physical footprint. I owned a 20 inch version of that computer and loved it. I was reminded of my desire to want the iMac when I was at my sister-in-law’s I saw that she had one and she commented about oh that old thing or something like that. I told her I’m jealous since I actually want one.
The final straw for me was when my friend was talking about how he bought and restored and upgraded the G3 iBook. I started asking questions around how we found a good one and how much it costs. He gave me a bunch of pointers on what to look for on eBay and I started to search. The prices weren’t too bad however I was surprised that a 18-year-old computer was worth even that much. It goes to show you that this particular model was in demand. I found a blue G3 that had its internals upgraded to slightly better variant that did not come in blue. It also had an SSD instead of an IDE hard drive. Even had a new power brick.
I was ex cited get the laptop however when I got it I realized there was something wrong with it. The LCD backlight was out. The seller on eBay was extremely accommodating and I sent back the laptop. He fixed it and send it back to me. I had a choice of a full refund or options on a different model but after I got the laptop it was in perfect shape other than the backlight and one hairline crack in the case. The crack was visible in the auction pictures even though I didn’t see it myself the first time. The computer was still functionally fine with the crack and he barely noticed it so I was happy to keep this particular computer if he could get the LCD to work. Thankfully he was and shipped it back the same day he got it after fixing it.
The girls wanted to play with it. Originally that was my idea to get it working with some educational software for the girls to use. Now that I have it however not so sure I want them playing with a vintage laptop. Just because it’s so cool I don’t want them to break it. It’s very heavy I’m not sure other than the LCD if they could break it but I don’t want to chance it. I do have a few use cases in mind for it.
My friend needs to own up and take responsibility for all the money I spent since knowingly or not he gave me the idea to go out and buy this laptop. I was just following is very bad/very good footsteps regarding vintage computers.
Dual Monitors
Now that the girls are in school full time when the opportunity arises unable to work from home more often. Sometimes it’s a necessity because of the girls being in school and the need to drop off and pick them up in the same day if MC cannot for some reason. Other times it’s just general convenience. Being able to do that has posed new challenges for me. I used to have to hide in my bedroom with a laptop so no matter what I did I was not comfortable. Now I can go to my desk however I don’t like sitting in front of the laptop screen all day. It was a big production to reconfigure my monitor so I can plug my laptop into it to work. My solution was second 27″ monitor so I can have two computers running at the same time.
This configuration solves another challenge I had since I wanted to run a Linux desktop in tandem with my Mac mini. Or sometimes plug raspberry pi into monitoring my desk and work on. With my Apple Cinema Display I’m unable to do any of that since it has the thunderbolt display adapter that limits what computers I can use on it. Amazon had a good deal on a 27 inch Dell monitor. It’s basically the 27 inch variant of the 24 inch monitors I have at work. They’re pretty good so I was confident in buying a larger 27 inch.
Even I measured before I bought it that both 27 inch displays will fit I have very little room on my desk with both computers set up. Functionally speaking the set up does exactly what I wanted it to. I put my desktop and the cable run for the laptop to a shelf on my desk so I save surface area. When I’m not using my work laptop I can plug my MacBook or a Lenox computer into the second set up. I’m contemplating buying and building a Lenox desktop however I don’t have the time for that project just yet with a few other projects I have still going on at home.
The W Sisters and Stories About The Letters A & T
At the time of writing this post over the past few days I’ve gone to both T and A’s school orientations for the year. At both girls orientation their teachers talked about things they would be doing and learning. T’s teacher talked a bit about what she would need to be able to do at the end of the class A’s teacher talked about the alphabet and I thought of a few things from the past that the girls have learned that I thought were funny and wanted to write down.
The details are vague over time. That’s why I want to start writing this stuff down sooner however while I still remember it at all here we go.
T when she started to learn her letters first would identify the letter T. It’s not really that surprising since whenever we would point out the T we would identify that it’s the first letter in her name, T. After a while she started to see it and then repeat T for me. To this day she still identify T in that way. Nowadays she’s able to identify all of her letters however I find it funny that that’s how she remembers.
With A I can’t remember if she first remembered the letter a or the letter T It’s no surprise that she was able to identify T almost as easily as she was able to identify a because of her big sister Even though I find it funny her that T would say “T for me” Amelio would identify “A is for A” With A she’s not quite there knowing all letters. One challenge I’ve noticed in identifying how much A knows is when you ask her question it’s almost like she’s deliberately not giving you the right answer. She does know several of her letters.
One of the things T needs to learn to do in pre-k is right her name. I know that our babysitter was spending time with her tracing letters of the alphabet. And then letting her free-form right letters of the alphabet. Hopefully that extra help will give her leg up. Of course like she really needs a leg up in pre-k.
While on stories about letters and numbers one thing I remember recently is that there is a book we read at bedtime about a boy named Oliver and his birthday party. It’s a counting book and each page has an kit coming and then going. At the bottom there is all the kids lined up and has you do a simple math problem when someone’s added or removed from the group. Most of the time when we read the book T insists on every page to count up all the kids to get to the right number. She still hasn’t figured out subtraction since when kids are leaving she counts out all the kids +1 since she does not realize that it’s subtraction instead of addition problem. I tried to explain it however I don’t think she understands the concept yet. On the other hand she does realize that there’s only one kid left at the end. Math was never my strong suit.
This amalgamation of stories isn’t as funny as some of the other ones I’ve written recently however it was topical in my mind and I wanted to write it down I have several other ideas I need to find time to sit and write about. At present I’m writing this article on 9 September and it is likely to be scheduled to post On 12 October so I have a little bit of time before need to write out a few more posts.
The W Sisters and The Story of Their Inheriting Fragments of My Remaining Childhood Toy Collection
I find it fascinating what stuff my parents decided to keep from my childhood. When I got too old to play with some toys I boxed them up in old VCR box or two and put them in a closet. It felt like ages later but in retrospect was less than 10 years before some of those toys made it out of their box when younger cousins would come over to play.
Not all of my childhood toys were created equal however. My remaining G.I. Joe’s and Star Wars action figures along with some miscellaneous other action figures and matchbox cars were what the family would get to play with when they would come and visit. Other stuff such as most of my transformers and I believe the Lego state safely tucked away. Of the toys is that made an appearance when the cousins came over only the matchbox cars survived. I don’t know where any of the Star Wars figures went. The G.I. Joe’s physically are still around however I believe I’ve written about in the past that the rubber band that held them together deteriorated on most of them so by the time I opened the box with them in it they were in pieces. I did have some other action figures that survived. Most notably my Ironman, Hannibal Smith’s and Murdoch from the A-Team.
It must have been well over a year ago when I asked my mom to bring the action figures over to my house if she still had them. I wanted to introduce the girls to some of the superheroes that I thought I had. What my mom brought wasn’t a whole lot since overtime things broke or got lost. I was still surprised how much stuff there was. The box that she brought over was mainly matchbox cars, G.I. Joe’s and a few of the other action figures I mentioned. There was one or two small transformers and a few transformer accessories. At the time I thought that was all that survived.
Of the toys that I got some of the matchbox cars I could not give to the girls because the wheels were very loose and I was concerned A might put them in her mouth after breaking them off. After I vetted what toys were safe for the girls I gave them some matchbox cars and action figures to play with. MC’s parents bought a few other new matchbox cars had to the limited collection I had released for use. Even to this day I get in all the install job when I see the girls playing with a matchbox car that I recognize and remember playing with when I was a kid.
More recently I wrote about asking for Legos that I knew my mom had. After I began asking for that it opened the floodgates for my mom to want to purge what stuff she had left from my childhood out of her apartment. Having an apartment of my own with two kids made it high time I probably took this stuff anyway. I was surprised at how many transformers and additional matchbox cars I had in the second box I received in August. Several of the matchbox toys I can’t give to the girls because the paint is flaking off them. Most notably are two die cast metal space shuttles and one 747 where one of the space shuttles would sit on. That jet for some reason I painted completely white and the paint was flaking as well. I did find several transformers. I even had the cab to optimist prime. I don’t know where the semi part of him went however I was happy to have anything at all. I decided that there was no way I was giving the girls Transformers from the 80’s to play with. First of all they would break them in a minute. Second of all there’s too much nostalgia in it for me to chance them destroying them. Nancy found a shelf in our bookcase where I have them on display now. Jetfire still remain separate however that’s a different post in and of itself.
Next up for my mom to bring over is my baseball card collection. When she brought up that she was doing that I asked where my comics were. She insisted that I didn’t have any. After I insisted she look for them further she found my boxes and will bring them all over together. The baseball card collection is not that substantial. I had significantly more of them when I was much younger. I remember my mom would bring home tons of them were confiscated or found from her classes. That must’ve been late 70s and early 80s. What I do have are a few complete annual series from the late 80s. As for my comic books I will wait to go through them before writing more about them. I have an idea about some of what I have however I don’t recall how extensive the collection that I kept was. I think I kept everything that I don’t however I will need to confirm that once I get them.
It’s cool getting all these flashbacks from my childhood. As an adult I purged a lot of the things that I had taken with me when I moved out or previously gone from my parents. For example I remember getting rid of my relatively extensive collection of Dungeons & Dragons books in the mid to late 2000’s. I could’ve gone some money for them on eBay but the amount of effort to sell all of them would’ve been too much for me at the time. Each piece individually wasn’t worth that much however the entire collection might’ve been worth selling. I also have purged much of my book collection from my childhood. There are a few that I kept however not much. That reminds me I need to find where I put my Narnia Chronicles box set. I know I loaned them to my niece Morgan with the specific instructions that I would like them back when I have kids. My sister did give them back to me recently but I don’t remember what I did with them. T’s not quite ready for those stories however she might be pretty soon.
The W Sisters and The Story of The Last Day at The Beach for The Summer
The last day at the beach for the summer was a bit anticlimactic. We originally thought we would have Monday of Labor Day at the beach however due to the tropical storm the weather wasn’t looking good. Even on the Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend it was not looking like the greatest beach day however we wanted to get one last day in. I went with my mom and the girls to the beach since MC was not feeling well. In the morning it was pretty empty. By the afternoon some people it should however we didn’t use the key poles or go to the regular pool since it was too cold. I didn’t stop the girls from enjoying the sand and running around. I think they had a blast in the morning since the court was empty and they got to run all over without having to worry about getting in the way of anyone.
After lunch and A nap the girls discovered the world of the beach down the stairs at the end of the court. We normally don’t let them go down there however since it was pretty empty we were able to watch them from where we sat. The girls enjoyed running around near the volleyball court and looking at all the umbrellas and chairs stacked up since no one was really using them. The best thing for them however was the platform cart that the cabana boys use to move chairs and umbrellas out onto the beach. It had four big inflatable wheels and a large flat surface to stand on for someone that’s 2 1/2 or four years old. The girls quickly realized that if they stand on the cart and jump it bounced a lot. I had a blast just jumping up and down the cart. I personally as a parent wasn’t the happiest about them doing it however was relatively benign since it was on sand if they fell. It was better than T’s original idea of playing nearer climbing on the pile of chairs that I had to stop her from going to.
The girls kept moving out of view from my vantage point so I walked down the stairs and stood around where they were planning to keep an eye on them. At one point T went to the other side of the sand volleyball court where there was a plastic chair and look to be just goofing off with it. I was about to tell her get away from it when I had to step way back to the court for a minute. When I came back the chair T went to was now right by where I was standing in front of the sand cart. T then tells me “daddy sit down” as she motioned towards the chair. I was liking how good she was taking care of me and was glad that I didn’t say anything to her about going over to the chair in the first place.
After some more jumping on the cart the girl grew bored of that and proceeded to move there play over to a wooden ramp that went from another court entrance a little bit out into the beach. It was on an angle and both of the girls would take turns running down the walkway until they got into the sand. I don’t know what fascinated them about it but they did it for about 20 minutes. I didn’t move from where I was sitting since I was pretty comfortable in the chair taking got me. I would have to periodically yell for them not to go outside of my field of view. The walkway they would run up went into an enclosed area of the beach club and after they left the beach I couldn’t see them. I mentioned several times to both girls that they needed to stay where I could see them. After having a walk over there at one point to get A when she wasn’t listening T immediately said for me to move the chair. I asked her why and she said I should move it closer so I could see them better. I couldn’t help but laugh at that.
Soon after being asked to move the chair we had to go back to the cabana anyway since it was getting ready for me to pack up our stuff since the season was over and I need the girls to come be closer to me.
On an unrelated story that happened the same evening the girls wanted to play with ice. I’m not sure why. I think it was because I took ice out for a drink and they wanted to touch it. I decided to show them a little science lesson and had them feel the ice until it started to melt a little in their hands. I then tried to explain and probably didn’t do a great job of it how and why I ice melted. I then had them get their chairs and stand by the sink and show them how to melt it a lot faster with the hot water. That blurb isn’t as funny as beach antics however I thought it was cool to be able to show them something using science like that. I look forward to doing that more in the future.
The W Sisters and Stories From The Beach
I just finished writing another post about the last day at the beach this summer and I was looking over my notes about other stories from the summer. Two of them stand out in my mind. The first one concerns children safety and preparing the girls in the event to get lost.
When she can one day a week my mom would take one of the girls to the beach by herself. Sometimes she would take our babysitter and both girls however usually it was just one of them. This summer it was A since her camp schedule accommodated for it versus T’s that really didn’t. While together my mom tried to teach A her cabana number in the event she got lost and needed to tell someone where she could go. If our cabana was A40, A would always repeat back A28 when my mom asked her. What’s interesting is A always said A28. My mom and I for that matter are pretty convinced that A knows the correct cabana number but is just messing with my mom. Every time she would reply with the answer she would have a big smile on her face and giggle and tilt her head when she answered. The fact that she was consistently wrong helps that conclusion. There’s just enough doubt for us not to be 100% sure.
The other anecdote of note concerns both girls. I swore I wrote about this earlier in the summer however when I searched I couldn’t find any reference to it. If this is a repeat enjoy it one more time.
The beach club we goto is laid out where there are baby pools set up in the sand in the middle the court. That way little kids play in the water and in the sand while parents relax in the sun or in our case in the shade under an umbrella while watching the kids. When it gets really hot or we want to change of pace offer to the girls if they want to go to the Kiddie Pool that is next to the big pool where the adults can swim. After a few trips the girls caught on and began asking to go to the pool on their own. What was interesting was that they started asking to go to the Hello Kitty pool. For a few minutes we were a bit confused why they were asking to goto the Hello Ktty pool then it dawned on me that they thought we were saying Kitty pool so they assumed it was the hello Kitty pool. When I realize that I thought it was hysterical. I know they’re my kids however I thought I was pretty smart.
For the remainder of the summer whenever anyone talked about the pool it was the big pool or the hello Kitty pool.
The W Sisters and The Story of Assorted Stories From The Last Week In August
Now that I am trying to make a conscious effort to write some stories about the girls I’ve been trying to remember to take quick voice notes so I can remember details in order to jog my memory later. I’m not in a call that a success yet since I only did it two days this week. The result of that effort however is this post combining a few small events from Monday and Tuesday, August 29 and 30th.
Before I get into the kids antics at home I can’t help but throw in something from an email exchange with M’s sister-in-law from earlier this week. We spent the last weekend in August at M’s sister-in-law’s house in Pennsylvania. After we left she emailed asking if we had seen a magnet of hers that the girls were playing with. I haven’t but I really didn’t go through their luggage. I was gonna check with M however she hasn’t been feeling well. Before I was able to do that however I got another email from her saying never mind she found the magnet. It turns out the girls hid one magnet on top of another one. It looks like she was outwitted by one or both of the girls since tt took her a little while to figure that out.
One Tuesday (30-Aug) night after I got home and we had some playtime before bed the girls were playing with their dock McStuffin’s doctor toys. T insisted on me putting the pager on her. I then tried to explain to her what a pager was and how people use them especially doctors before there were cell phones. I’m not rly sure if it was the fact that T’s four and a million is 2 1/2 or that not having a cell phone was foreign to them however I got blank stares when I was explaining how page works.
I find it funny that T almost always notices when I get a haircut. The night before I got a haircut and when I came home she immediately noticed that I got one. T likes to rub the back of my head since it’s been cleanly shaved and the hairs very short. The day I got my haircut T pretend wanted to cut my hair. I commented that I just had my hair cut and I questioned whether or not she thought Leon my hair cutter had done a good job I thought he did a great job.
The next night as we were playing with the Doc McStuffin’s medical set T insisted on cutting my hair again. This time she commented that “ the man did a bad job”. I’m going to have to remember to tell Leon he’s got a critic.
At the same time I was getting my hair cut A was cutting my nails. She likes to do that. That consists of taking the place that tweezers and snapping at my fingernails. As she is getting stronger it really does hurt sometimes when she does it but I find it so funny that she keeps trying to do it. After hurting my hands with her nail cutting I did get a checkup. I showed her where to use the stethoscope to listen to my heart.
Since I had bug bites from being out at M’s sister-in-law’s over the weekend I bought some aloe ointment to stop the itching. After my medical checkup by the girls two days in a row they got a cup and proceeded to put ointment on my skin to help my itching so I didn’t itch at bedtime.
After all this I am gaining confidence that I will be well taken care of when I get old. Fingers crossed!
The Story of Why I Make Short Blog Posts and Link Them to My Social Media Accounts
In the summer of 2013 I made the decision to delete my Facebook profile. I wrote about it at the time here: I wanted to delete a large amount of content I had created and there was no way to do it without individually deleting things. I did not want to take the time or effort to do that so the only alternative I had was the so-called nuclear option of completely deleting my account. At the time I even thought I might not come back. I still think about getting rid of my account again however it is a good place to share photos and what’s going on with friends and family I don’t get to normally see. Communicating in other ways might be problematic so for now I keep my Facebook account.
The reason I wanted to delete all the content from the account in the first place was because when I initially signed up for my account somewhere in 2007 or 2008 my expectations of privacy were vastly different than what you are today. There wasn’t anything incriminating, illegal, or anything like that posted however with Facebook continuing to inch people to share more I was uneasy with a large amount of information that I hadn’t vetted since I published it was solely in their system. I didn’t like that so I removed it all. In the fall of 2014 I did the same thing with Google.
Those actions do not mean that I don’t publish personal things on the Internet. On the contrary anything I post nowadays I do so knowing full well that is public on the Internet. The only exception would be photos on Facebook that I post however I do it in such a way that I delete them after three months.
Some people including my wife have pointed out in may have made fun of the fact that I link very short status posts from my blog to Facebook. I do that for a specific reason. Normally I do not make status posts at all however there are times when the situation warrants it. My opinion might not have any bearing on anything however I would rather have something posted on my blog and crossposted to Facebook and/or Twitter then have it exclusively within the control of Facebook and their systems.
Now that I’ve started blogging more I post my writings to twitter and Facebook because that’s where the people I know go to browse. By sending the link instead of writing directly within Facebook their system only has the URL and may be a snippet from my blog. They don’t have all of the content. Like I said I don’t know if doing this has any bearing on anything however it’s my little way of controlling information I generate. I can control who spiders my blog and I can get analytics on who’s going to my blog whereas I have no idea what Facebook is doing with my data. Worse yet I have a bad idea about what they’re doing with it and it doesn’t have my best interests at heart. They’re not evil however there trying to make money for my information or information about me. That compels me to limit what information I provide to them. If you’ve actually read this far into the post and you feel that I might be getting my tinfoil hat out again I recommend you watch the 2013 documentary terms and conditions may apply. If you do you understand how disturbing and prevalent mining data about you really is.
So there you have it. You might think it’s silly however I feel I have very good reasons why most comments, status, updates I make on Twitter and Facebook are generated from my blog no matter how short it may be.
Sorry Waze
Sorry Waze I promise not to cheat on you with Siri again. If you accept my apology please get us out of this standstill traffic