Life
Mahalo Monday
On Twitter, each Friday you’re encouraged to nominate fellow Twitterers for others to follow. While I haven’t taken part in Follow Fridays, here’s me saying thanks on my own Mahalo Monday.
Mahalo to Doctor Flores at the Straub Medical Clinic at Windward Mall. A partial water outage forced the closure of sections of the Mall including the Straub Clinic. We didn’t get the phone message of the closure so we showed up with a sick kid for an early morning appointment. Instead of turning us away, Doc Flores who was already at work helped us and any others who happened to come to the Clinic. Thanks Doc Flores! By the way, I’m giving you the street name of “FloDoc.” No ka oi, Class of ’96!
Mahalo to the young Asian brother working in the pharmacy at the Kailua Longs Drugs. We had to get three medications and a nebulizer which supposedly was available at “any” pharmacy. Not so anymore. Nebulizers aren’t so easy to come by. Still, this dude took care of the prescriptions and called other nearby pharmacies to find us a nebulizer.
Mahalo to Windward Mall Sears appliance sales rep Craig. He provided great service and expertise in helping us find a new washing machine. So far so good with our LG washer.
Lastly, mahalo to the City and County crew helping Kaneohe go green with the delivery of the community’s green waste recycling bins. Not only were they working hard, but they gave us some spare parts to repair our trash bin.
And that’s all my mahalos on Mahalo Monday!
Defying Odds to Win a Fish
Defying all odds, we won a fish at the local elementary school fun fair. My daughter tossed a ping pong ball into a sea of cups, and it landed in the only cup that wins a fish (supposedly the best prize from this game).
So now we have Nemo (who doesn’t look too healthy to begin with).
Loving My Nike Structure Triax+ 12
My Nike Air Moto 6+ running shoes were already wearing down so I picked up the Nike Structure Triax+ 12 in silver and black.
So far, loving these shoes. Usually, I go for the cushioned ride provided by Air Max technology, but the Structure has responsive Nike Zoom instead. I think the Foot Bridge is giving the stability and comfort I need.
All this tech including the Nike+ iPod integration ain’t helping my runs but the runs ain’t hurting me either so it’s all good.
Shopping for a Washing Machine
Old Bessie, our longtime washing machine, finally gave out, losing a battle with a waterlogged comforter. So it was off to Sears to find Bessie’s heir. We checked Consumer Reports and went looking for the highest rated Kenmore washer in the reviews (Sears has a sale on appliances this weekend). Other features we want – a front loader that can handle bulky items like pillows and comforters. Sick kids who throw up a lot makes this a necessity!
Due to the bad economy the Sears appliance section is dead with pretty much no customers looking around. So when we showed up, there were quite a few sales people eager to help. Craig started helping us and after talking with him, he showed us washers made by LG. Never had an LG anything before, but he sold it.
Some of the benefits of the LG WM2487HWMA:
- Quiet operation and supposedly less maintenance due to its Direct Drive motor (no belts to misalign or mess with)
- Smaller size for a front loader. We need to fit the washer in the same space as Old Bessie. Most front loaders are very deep since their door design tends to be “bubble-like.”
- TrueSteam cleaning. The steam cleaning is supposed to help clean pillows and comforters without mangling them.
What else? Cost was okay though front loaders are also more expensive. Oddly enough, even though Sears has a sale on Kenmore stuff, this LG was discounted 22%. And the white color is cheaper. And there’s free delivery (coming tomorrow, yes Sunday). And HECO is giving out a $50 rebate since this is an energy efficient washer. And this model was rated #7 in the Consumer Reports guide. Â Â So in all, a pretty good deal.
How well does it work? We’ll see tomorrow.
Kaneohe Going Green
Kaneohe is the latest community to go green with Hawaii’s recycling program. Many residents got their green waste trash bins delivered today.
And thanks to the workers who spared an extra part or two to repair the broken hinge of our trash bin. These guys worked long hours in the hot sun getting all these recycling bins assembled and delivered. Mahalo!
Speeding on the H1 Freeway
With the rain coming down this morning, here I was “speeding” on the H,1 late to work.
From a maps point of view, I was here.
Wanted: Tweetie Groups
The new Mac desktop Twitter client, Tweetie for Mac, is great but has some missing features (it’s only v1.x you know). One feature that I would like to see is the inclusion of groups. As the number of Tweeters you follow grows so does your timeline, and keeping up with the various conversations gets harder and harder. That’s where groups come into the story.
With groups, you can assign users to defined groups to better segment and track conversations. Natively, Twitter doesn’t support groups so third party Twitter clients like TweetDeck have implemented their own groups solution (though Ginx.com has developed a groups solution within the confines of the Twitter API).
Typically, groups in Twitter clients are handled with another column or window for each group. From an UI perspective, I wonder how Tweetie would address groups. The Tweetie interface is single column focused though you can open more windows with tear off searches. Right now, Tweetie color highlights conversations, and I wonder if this technique could apply to groups? Assign users to groups and assign a color to that group. Any conversation from grouped users would be highlighted in your normal timeline.
To augment this color coding, there should be a keyboard shortcut to toggle between only tweets from a group and all tweets in your timeline. Maybe there would be a tiny image graphic in user’s “speech bubble” when double clicked would show only tweets of that group.
Hmmm… what if users belonged to more than one group? Drats, back to the drawing board.
Nearing 3000 Posts!
Just saw some stats and if accurate, I’m coming up on 3000 pulpy blog posts! WordPress is saying I have 2978 published posts which should include all the imported posts from the original Blogger-powered Pulpconnection blog.
22 more to 3K!
My 15-Minute Review of Tweetie for the Mac
After using the just released Twitter desktop client, Tweetie for the Mac, for 15 minutes, here is my review.
Tweetie for the Mac has a default single column layout with different “tabs” that slide you to your Twitter Timeline, mentions, and DM messages much like Twhirl. It’s not a multicolumn beast like Tweetdeck though you can fill your screen with tear away search screens.
As a desktop app, Tweetie for the Mac feels fast. Faster than the Adobe AIR-based Twhirl or Tweetdeck, on par with Nambu, another desktop client.
Tweetie for the Mac supports multiple Twitter account (which Tweetdeck does not do) and again uses various sidebar “tabs” to switch between Twitter accounts. However, different accounts are distinguished primarily by their Twitter avatars. This more or less forces you to customize your avatar (which you’ve done already right?). Otherwise, you’ll only see the default o_O icon which won’t help you figure out which account you’re using. Although when you are composing a tweet, there is a drop down menu letting you pick by name and avatar which account you’re tweeting with.
Some of the additional services supported.
URL Shortening:
- bit.ly
- TinyURL
- is.gd
- tr.im
- Diggbar
Image Service:
- Twitpic
- yFrog
- Twitgoo
- Posterous
So far, a “hidden” feature I stumbled upon is the inclusion of Twitlonger. If your tweet is longer than the standard 140 characters, Tweetie for the Mac asks if you want to use Twitlonger for your longer tweet. Here’s an example of a Twitlonger tweet. That’s a nice addition.
I also like the behavior of new tweets. Instead of automatically pushing my Timeline location around, Tweetie for the Mac stays put. With Nambu, new tweets would push my Timeline down, making me lose track of where I was – confusing.
Some of the not so good? I can’t find a way of viewing only my tweets. I guess I can search for my own Twitter name, but it would seem easier if there were a “tab” for my tweets. Favorites too, I don’t see an intuitive way to see what tweets I’ve faved. [Update: Ryan Ozawa, aka @hawaii, points out that double clicking your avatar shows your tweets, mentions, faves, and info.]
One minor UI thing I don’t like is the colorless scroll bar. For whatever reason, I have a hard time seeing the handle to scroll up and down my Timeline. I don’t know if it’s the lack of contrast or what, but a few times already, I’ve kinda lost the scroll bar handle and had to look for it. It just didn’t pop out visually.
And oh yeah, I don’t care for the purplish hued icon for Tweetie for the Mac. It’s kinda blasé.
I’m sure there are all kinds of other things to explore and discover with Tweetie for the Mac, and like I said, I only played around with it for 15 minutes. But that’s what is appealing. This app seems simple since it masks the complexity and functionality that is actually there.
Cost is free for a version that includes advertisements. The ad-free version costs $19.95 with a special introductory price of $14.95 until May 4th.
LOST at Miki’s, Part 2
Did you catch this week’s episode of LOST, titled “Some Like It Hoth?” Remember the scene where Miles was abducted by a van full of strangers? Here’s a refresher.
That scene was filmed at Miki’s on Lehua Avenue in Pearl City. Even though less than a minute, the crew was there for some time, transforming Miki’s into La Vida Tacos.
Interesting to see how this…
transformed into this… (well except for the night time part)
If you need a recap of the episode, be sure to check out The Transmission and this week’s podcast.
Costco Muffin Changeup
Oh no, Costco has changed the packaging of their muffins. Instead of buying a pack of 12 muffins, usually in a three-way variety, Costco now offers up two 6-packs of muffins. And you need to buy two packs.
So instead of getting three types of muffins, you only can pick two types. I was hoping they’d sell a single 6-pack, but nope, Costco wants to keep you nice and plump.