No joke. My Pepsi cap told me so.
The backstory: Me and @abaggy were discussing social media and being huge on Twitter then as a sign from the Powers that Be, I open a bottle of Pepsi with this Giants cap reiterating my social media stature. 😉
As a gift from New Mexico, we got birthday candles that burn different colors. Do they work? You decide.
And that other light is from a cake decoration illuminated by an LED light.
Just activated BackBlaze to perform off-site backup of my files. 450,000+ files and 260+ GB to go! Not sure how long that’ll take…
A short staycation at the Sheraton Waikiki hotel with its Helumoa Playground was simply not enough. I said we’d be coming back, and so there we were, playing in the kid friendly pools and reheating in the hot tubs and eating well. Check out some pictures.
Some of my favorites.
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| From Sheraton Waikiki Staycation #2 |
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| From Sheraton Waikiki Staycation #2 |
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| From Sheraton Waikiki Staycation #2 |
Are we going for Round 3 any time soon? You’ll have to wait and see!
Recently, I’ve been on a kick to increase productivity and find better ways of getting things done. Nothing too extreme, mainly streamlining, learning from others, and finding productivity aids. Here’s some software that I’ve looked into.
MenuCalendarClock. Okay, not a true productivity enhancer, but Apple’s own menu clock wasn’t the greatest, and I wanted a quick way to view a calendar without bringing up iCal or Entourage. Heck, I’ve been “testing” MenuCalendarClock for over 1500 days and finally paid my dues (and registration fee). Since MenuCalendarClock syncs with iCal (or Entourage), you also have a fast way of viewing what’s coming up on your schedule.
Evernote. To collect notes, images, and all kinds of other tidbits, I’ve been using Yojimbo, primarily for its syncing ability with .Mac/MobileMe. I can save something in Yojimbo, and it’ll show up on my sync-ed computers. But something happened that broke the synchronization and fixing it sounds hard. So this is an opportunity to reassess what’s out there, and that’s where I heard about Evernote. Evernote is impressive. At its core, it functions similarly to Yojimbo, but its ubiquity is way better. Evernote syncs to its own servers and has apps for mobile devices, a desktop app, a web interface, a mobile web interface, and ties to Twitter. You can tweet to Evernote, and it’ll save that tweet in your Evernote Notebook.  Yojimbo is limited to a desktop app only.
The main drawback with Evernote is the cost for the premium service. An annual cost is $45 but includes additional services and features, but over time, this price will definitely add up. For now, I’ll try the free service and also look at SpringPad.
Transmit. I haven’t made the switch to Panic’s Transmit FTP client. I’m still using Fetch, but I keep reading great reviews for Transmit. And my version of Fetch (v5.3) is not eligible for a free upgrade to the latest 5.6. What’s the big deal with an FTP client? I’m not really, really sure hence me staying with an out-of-date Fetch, but if productivity gains are there with FTP, I just might have to move to Transmit.
Backblaze. To backup all this productivity, I’ve been looking at Backblaze. Amazingly, this service backs up majority of your data to its online service so that you have an off-site backup. This save-your-butt solution goes for $50 a year without any data storage limitations. Backblaze will not backup single files bigger than 4 GB, but that’s okay with me. I’ve heard of Mozy, Jungle Disk, and Carbonite, but the “unlimited” data storage for Backblaze can’t be beat.
Alfred. Back in March, I asked about Mac app launchers. Marvo highly recommends LaunchBar, Foojish uses Butler, and Steve mentioned Google’s Quick Search Box. LaunchBar might be overkill for me and costs $35. Butler really wasn’t what I wanted, so I quickly gravitated to the free and usable Quick Search Box. While it worked, it was slow and would crash several times in a week. I recently moved to Alfred and am pleased. It’s fast, does what I need, looks modern, and is free! But it is in beta status.
And there you have it, my recent kick looking at productivity enhancing apps and services. What are yours?
Happened to catch the last television broadcast of KHON sportscaster, John Veneri.
After 16 years in front of the camera, John will be handling marketing and promotions for KHON.
It’s been close to 5 weeks since I last ran so who knew what this first run would be like. According to Nike+, I ran 2.28 miles in 22 minutes and 23 seconds (that’s 9’48” per mile) and used my Power Song on the home stretch. Felt pretty good though the legs are little wobbly now. I’m sure it’ll be worse tomorrow.
I don’t exactly know what a “re-grand opening” is, but Foodland just had one. It looked more like a small renovation with moderate changes in layout and look. There’s now an expanded organic food section and the deli/ready made food area features an olive bar and home made gelato. I think this Foodland location is gearing up to combat the coming of Whole Foods.
This year we tried the Mother’s Day brunch at Alan Wong’s Pineapple Room in Macy’s Ala Moana. Cost was $45 per adult (under 6 years old is free). Not bad at all. There were a variety of quality dishes instead of masses of “fillers.” The crowds were reasonable, and we weren’t packed into an overcrowded dining room
One small negative was the placement of the buffet food stations. Due to the small size of the restaurant, the food stations were spread out in the main dining area, the bar, the waiting area, and in the Macy’s special events room (where we were seated). So you have to walk around a bit to get your food. And you know going to buffets is all about being lazy! 😉
T
he desserts were fabulous and my favorite li hing tomatoes were on the menu. To top it off, Alan Wong himself visited each table, welcoming moms and their families and even taking countless group pictures. Here he is checking on some dishes.
Worth going back next year? You bet.
