The Empty Cabinets of my Mind

Clouds and Rain and Flowers

The strangest stuff ends up in my inbox from time to time and this morning there was a discussion on Cloud Computing.    Just this week I parted with a few bucks to buy services trend in that general direction.  I already use web-based databases and mail services and a blogging platform that supports mobile posting.

But now I have added the aforementioned GRD Agenda, more on which later, and finally,  Garmin.  I had been using Google Maps, which are great for some things, but I wanted to try the voice direction and presumably faster speed a fancy GPS has to offer.  When I put the trial version into bike mode and started riding around the neighborhood, said voice told me to pedal right through a gate that was secured with a big old padlock, but that sort of thing happens.  I should draw a cartoon of me getting ready to crash into that gate, only with a full-sized laptop resting on the handlbars and me with my head in the clouds.

My overzealous spam filter sure had its head in the clouds when it tossed my Google Wave invite in the trash!  Ah, but I was expecting it and went and pulled it out.  So I've been checking Wave out from the inside and did finally get a few extra  invites to share with my readers.    If you have a burning desire to check Wave out for yourself and want an invite leave me a comment and I see what I can do. 

By the way, it is time to start thinking about who you need to send flowers!

Playtime! Google has Waved Me In :-)

So here is my new avatar:

Yep, I have all these new toys and it isn't even Christmas.  Just installed Wave last night and haven't found all the buttons yet, but the first thing I went "Wow" over is you can get interactive with your fellow Wavies on a map. 

The first "Thud" was that so far I'm not getting it to format correctly in Firefox, or at all in IE.  Good thing for me, I already use Chrome.  Understandably, Wave and Chrome are best buds.

Well, back to WOIK!   Anybody wants to help me sort it  out over there my name is drann just like in the URL that landed you here.

Oh and get this.  When I tried to Google up my new self ("drann" + "wave" + "Google") here is the title that came up:  "Was ist dran an Google Wave?"   Less  one "n" my name is apparently a part of speech.   Babelfish informs me that in German it is the preposition "to."  I like that.  

This is a Paid Post

Not really!  I am just kidding.  But I am going to put my own referral link here for a service called GTD Agenda:

My Own GTD Referral Link

They have a free version of their service which is a great way to check it out, and then for expanded capabilities there are upgrades that cost what appears to me to be a reasonable monthly fee. 

I gave them a freebie mention in my last post and am leaving a reader's link in comments as well, but since they do have an affiliate program I might as well do a real ad of my own to accompany my review. 

Review coming...

Late at night on November 21, I am enthusiastic about learning how to use GTDagenda, clueless about what the acronym stands for, and NOT finding the process of getting set up very intuitive at all.  But I am highly motivated and determined to fool around with it enough to be able to decide about the upgrade before the night is over.  Ah, then I see that they have a 30-day money back guarantee, so I bite. 

Early in the morning on November 22, while still cozy in bed I grab my smart phone and start checking out GTDagenda.mobi which by the light of day suddenly starts making sense.  I send myself some reminders and will add the categories and contexts and everything later. 

Now I Know Why I Blog

Sometimes instead staying on track here telling my friends and readers about great products and services, I degenerate into random whining about things there ought to be.  See, I am a compulsive list-maker, goal setter, and planner.  You have heard of micro-managers?  Well, I am happy enough to delegate authority, but I confess to being a micro-planner. 

So I am always looking for new and better ways to integrate lists and facts and calendars.   How he ever managed to find my blog and why he put up with the whining, I'll never know, but a very nice reader clued me in about an online Agenda service with built-in goals and lists and, yes, even a calendar.  I have to wait until later to fully check it out, but on the surface it is looking fantastic, so I signed up here:

GTD Agenda

And no, this is not a paid link.

And yes, I'll do a review on it when I have educated myself sufficiently. 

And THANKS, Dan!

Saving on Electrical Products

I've fixed up a few fixer-uppers so I well remember running around from store to store trying to find electrical products and being ignored because I didn't look like a contractor. What I remember most though was how much some of that stuff cost! Sure, I saved a fortune by doing my own work, but it would have been SO nice if procuring the parts and equipment had not been so complicated and expensive.

electric generators

On thing I am actually looking for right now is a portable electrical generator because a couple of my properties have the power turned off and I would like to be able to pop in there impromptu and do a little work from time to time. I don't want to have to plan ahead and notify the power company X days in advance and pay for a reconnect and hope they actually do it. Of course, what they mean by portable and what I mean by portable might be two different things. Still the GP1800 looks like a good place to start looking. I have heard that that one is about the right size for camping, and basically when I go to work on my fixer-uppers that is what I will be doing--camping out.  I don't need whole house power--just enough to run a few electrical tools, and of course, heat up a little water for washing.

Hawkins Electric Supply sells wholesale but they advertise that they can help with residential solutions as well as filling commercial and industrial needs.

A Freebie

TypePad, my beloved blogging platform, has gone free.  Well, there goes the neighborhood.

If you are interested in starting a new blog, though, this is an opportunity.   It is called TypePad Micro and it is seriously cool.  I pay for the three blogs TypePad hosts for me, but I have been wanting to do something on the side so I am grabbing one of the free ones for myself too.  If you want to see a really cool peel-back ad, check it out!

HINT:  When you get there, hover over the Red "Special Offer" Tag at the top right corner.

You Can't Go Back in Time

I was driving to an appointment somewhere in what I guess is known as the Greater Los Angeles Area.  Except for the smog and congested traffic I do think it is pretty great place to visit.  

The road took us past Knott's Berry Farm which I remember having visited 40 or 50 years ago.  It was then a picturesque place to stop for a cold Sarsparilla and a slice of warm blackberry pie.  Now it is blocks long on both sides of Beach and towering with water rides and monstrous-looking roller coasters.  Do people actually ride those things?

Late afternoon I headed back to the Palm Desert on highway 91 and due to several traffic accidents along the way, we moved start and stop about 5 miles per hour.  It was way past dark before I got off the freeway and I remember really identifying with that song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" along the rest of the way. 

That of course put me in the mood to bake some bread.  I had bought some 7-grain breakfast cereal flakes which although expensive tasted like cardboard, so I sent away for an oat groat roller/flaker, determined to make my own from now on. While waiting for its arrival I decided to use up the store-bought flakes by grinding them into flour to make whole-grain onion rolls and pizza crust. 

I seasoned the diced sweet onions with green curry paste and rosemary and cooked them while adding yeast and oat flour to the powdered 7-grain cereal flakes. 

 The only other thing I added besides warm water was a little honey to activate the yeast.   Here it is rising:

A little later the dough has doubled in size and formed a crack along the top:                                   

It is ready to shape and bake.

Mmmmm, starting to smell good, time to go check on the onion rolls I made from this dough.

    A nicely browned roll to the left and on this side I have cut it open to show the lovely texture.

These are SO good that I am really glad to have made extra dough and put some away in the freezer. 

Self-Confidence is Good

I actually am looking for a good property management service.  This one bills itself as "the best property management company," but their service area is Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio:

Real Property Management 

That is too bad, because the property I want managed is in Arizona.  I took a careful look anyway, because on the face of it they offer every service that interests me, with the unfortunate exception of location, which unfortunately is the most important thing to consider in real estate.

But if I did own property in Ohio, I am pretty sure I would use RPM to manage it.  I like their self-confidence. The first thing that struck me was how efficiently their web pages are arranged.  I could tell right away that they offer some of the key services I would expect:

--my tenants could pay online :-)

--if they did not pay, RPM would reluctantly (but efficiently) handle the eviction

--they do the screening and placement and accounting and maintenance

--they go out to visit the property periodically to check on it.

I looked at some of their listings and found several lovely two story homes for under $600/mo.  I don't think you can rent even a studio apartment for that around here.  But then, the deciding factor is location.   It does not snow here...and the sun shines 354 days out of the year.    

ToodleDo Tasks

ToodleDo as the name suggests is a web-based reminder service. If I am out and about and think of something that needs to be done next Wednesday for example I can e-mail ToodleDo and it puts it on my calendar, so to speak.

If I want, it can also send daily nagging reminders, or preferably I can e-mail it to send my smartphone a list of task that are due today or tomorrow or this week or whatever.

There is a learning curve and I have not tamed it yet, but I will.
Today it told me to learn how to use the smartphone to post photos to my blog so this is an unedited photo of the sun setting as I hurry off to Winco, more on which later...

Of course the photo is unedited.

Still it is good to know we can use a blog as temporary storage. I can always save the file this way on the fly and then delete it together with the post later. ..or edit the photo and put it back like this:

I'd like to be able to take pictures with my Canon Powershot and then just move its memory card into a slot on the phone to send, as the smartphone's 2 meg camera is kind of dumb.

Cyber Signature

I just had a pleasant experience with my insurance company.  Changes needed to be made to my policy that had to be in writing, with a signature, and my fax machine is in another state.  I did not want to run out to the store so I asked the agent (he was in another state, too) if I could e-mail him my signature.   He thought a moment, laughed, and said "Sure!"  That saved me time and money.  

The last time I sent a cyber signature my graphics pad was on the bum, so I signed on regular paper, took a photo of the signature using the macro feature on my Canon SD600 digital camera, moved the film card (it uses 1 GB MultiMediaCards) to the card reader built into my laptop, and then attached it to an e-mail.   Could have used the mouse I suppose, but that time it was for a financial institution and it had to look good.  Ever try to sign your name with a mouse?