The breastfeeders are back

They're back. And this time they've set up shop for good. The library is the new home of the Breastfeeding Cafe. I didn't spend too much time looking in the "cafe" for obvious reasons, although I did notice there are a few Lay-Z-Boys in there.

I guess the idea behind the place is that those who want to breastfeed their kids can have a place to do so. Kind of like the Mother's Room in our church buildings.

Of course, the chairs in the Mother's Rooms aren't facing big glass doors which open to a public walkway.

I'm half tempted to walk in and innocently ask for an Italian soda and a croissant, but I don't know how well that would go over.

So you ladies out there... would you use a facility like the Breastfeeding Cafe? Let me know in the comments.

The hazards of golfing at high elevation

Proof that inflation is out of control, or I need to find a new job

The other day I'm driving home and there was a little girl on the side of the road standing behind a card table with a sign hanging off the front which read, "Lemonade Kool-Aid 25 cents." Smiling, I remembered back to summers when I was a kid and tried the same venture, so I pulled over, rolled down my window and said, "One cup please."

The cute little girl smiled at me showing off a full set of braces. As she poured my glass I fished around for a quarter. As I looked up, she was holding out what looked like an incredibly small cup. I was a bit taken aback. It was tiny. It was one of the little Dixie cups kids keep near the sink to use while brushing their teeth. It was this size (see below), but not this cool because it didn't even have a TIE fighter on it.

I handed her the quarter and thanked her. Then I looked in the cup. It was only half full. The little girl skipped happily back to her table waiting for her next customer/victim.

I took my 1/16 gulp of sugary water and pondered my transaction.

After doing a little research, I found that the cup size she used was 3 oz. Filling it only half full meant she sold me 1.5 oz of Kool-Aid for 25 cents. If I'm doing the math right, that means the retail/street value of a pitcher of Kool-Aid is a little over $11, or $5.50 per liter.

Since we Americans don't do the whole metric thing, let me put it in more general terms:

THIS LITTLE GIRL WAS SELLING KOOL-AID AT MORE THAN $20 PER GALLON.

Her overhead: nothing - she probably stole everything from her mom.

And she doesn't pay taxes.

I think I'm in the wrong business.




Stand image courtesy of here.
Cup image couresy of here.

Seriously, so blessed!

If you haven't seen it yet, Seriously, So Blessed! is a brilliant parody site, written by an unknown author, from the point of view of a young married woman living in Utah, Tiffany/Amber/Megan/Nicole (take your pick) who is married to JJWT (Jordan/Jason/Wes/Taylor) and life is, like, so good.

JJWT is going to law/dental/business/medical school and TAMN has her degree in hair dressing/teaching 2nd grade. The blog is about their perfect life being so busy doing all sorts of (self) righteous, Utah things.

Their marriage couldn't be happier. In fact, nothing goes wrong in her life. And if you want a perfect life, start with the perfect man. Here are her tips for you ladies out there who are looking to meet your own JJWT:

• Avoid wearing sweats, BUT, if you're gonna wear sweats, MAKE SURE there is something sassy written on your bottom. 

• TEXT IN CHURCH. This will make you look even cuter and way less boring...if you can do this with tonz of gum, EVEN CUTER!
  

• Do NOT get a short haircut and/or make your hair one color (BOAR-RING!). Long and multi-colored is your best bet (but, don't bet, it's practically porn).
• WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT GO TO MORE SCHOOL, unless you want people to start calling you Yawnette. Think about it! Serious! How often do guys whistle and yell "Nice degree!" or shake there heads and say "What adorable knowledge"? EXACTLY.

Some other choice quotes:

In reference to being grateful for the Pioneers on the 24th of July: "If it weren't for them, we wouldn't even HAVE a Gateway!"

And..."It’s so fun to just go up to my family’s cabin and look at the things that make up our beautiful world and feel so greatful. Love just looking at nature at night while I sit in the hot tub with a 44 ouncer of Diet Coke (bad I know, I’m off it now), and my cute pink ipod blaring, and just BEING with nature, soaking it up til I get pruney."

Brilliant. Anyway, great site. Check it out, and start from the beginning.

Do not disturb

On vacation (see above).

Image courtesy of here.

Apple on fire - literally

 Oh, snap! Apple's R&D department went up in flames late last night, triggering a three alarm fire. Heads are gonna roll. Rumor has it that Macworld, which is normally held in January, will be pushed off until July 2011. Also, reports are coming in that Steve Ballmer, or someone who greatly resembled him, was seen fleeing from the scene, laughing manically.

Either that, or Apple got a taste of its own medicine with regard to its laptops.

In other Google news...

I got this sign-in screen when I tried to login to my Google account. Unfortunately, after sign-in it was the same ol' iGoogle. I wonder if this has anything to do with the problems going on with Gmail right now.

The world is coming to an end: Gmail is down - UPDATED x3

Heaven help us. Russia is bombing Georgia, the ice caps are melting, France is still a sovereign nation, and Gmail is down. It's not an isolated incident as people on Twitter are reporting the same problem:

Whatever could be the problem? I've never really had any issues with Gmail. Interestingly enough, I can use Gmail over IMAP on my iPhone. Weird.

One clue may be (yes, I'm really reaching here) is this new "Create an account" button I saw this morning:

Most of the time it's just a text link, although occasionally I've seen it as a blue Aqua-esque button. New UI?

What do you think? Is Google rolling out a new UI? Is it a technical glitch? Are they going to give us Push functionality? Has your account been affected? Let me know in the comments.

UPDATE: I saw a  Cult of Mac article in my feed reader saying MobileMe's mail is also down.

Oddly, when I clicked the link in my feed reader to go to the actual article, Cult of Mac gave me an error page. Hmmm...strange stuff is afoot. Perhaps my initial hunch that Apple just transitioned all their .Mac stuff to Google's services, masked in a pretty Apple design, is true. ;)

UPDATE 2: TechCrunch is reporting the same thing: Gmail is down systemwide. As a side note, I'd like to point out that I had the "story" up before Arrington did. ;)

UPDATE 3: As of about 4:35, my account is back. Same ol' look and at first glance no new features. Also, no word on the Official Gmail Blog about the outage.

Suck it, Frenchies

"'The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came here for.'" Yeah, that's what the French said with regard to the 400 meter relay. Why the hate, Frenchies? You seem very determined to hate us while we're trying as hard as we can to forget you exist.

As it turns out, Frenchies lost. Or surrendered. It's so hard to tell. Anyhoo, check out the dramatic comeback video by clicking here. Note that you'll need Silverlight installed on your browser (stupid Microsoft, right Paul?) but it's well worth the watch.

How does Steve Jobs get his strength?

A hilarious description, courtesy of Engadget.

"Steve Jobs, presumably speaking from a hyperbaric chamber where he's being nourished with an infusion of liquified developers-souls before his next public appearance, had a few interesting tidbits about the AppStore for the Wall Street Journal this morning."

I noticed something weird about iGoogle

Most of us recognize this screen. Notice the pre-selected widgets faded in the background: YouTube, weather, clock, etc. Why anyone would add a clock widget on their homepage is beyond me as most computers nowadays are able to tell time. But I digress.

When I launched my browser this morning, instead of the standard widgets you see above it was populated with what looked like popular, locally relevant widgets. There was a KSL widget, an LDS.org widget among others. I didn't think much of it, figuring they were going to suggest widgets based on popular sites in my area and logged in.

I should have learned by now that when there's some kind of anomoly with anything Google I should get a screen shot because it's not there anymore. If anyone else notices the same thing, please grab a screen shot and e-mail it to me: theotherdrummer at gmail *dot* com.

I hate this thing

 

I know I'm probably going to offend some people when I say this, so I half-heartedly apologize in advance.

I think this widget could be about the tackiest thing I've ever seen.

Honestly, what makes you think anyone wants to see a baby floating around in your virtual uterus, squiggly umbilical cord and all? I'm happy that you're having a kid. Really. Congratulations. That's wonderful news. I don't want a sneak peek. Thanks though.

So I decided to prove the ridiculousness of the widget by cramming 10 little fetuses in my virtual uterus (I never thought I would write those words) and watching them grow. Like sea monkeys. In a few months we'll see how my digital offspring fare in their crammed space.

Also, I hate blogs that play music automatically when the page loads.

New Google Reader feature: auto-add feeds from your Blogger blogroll - UPDATED x3

I just had this little notification pop up in my Google Reader. Apparently the web app has taken it upon itself to add feeds from the sites I have listed in my blogroll here at The Other Drummer.

It has the potential to be a nice touch, although so far I've noticed a few flaws:

• It's stuck at 49 unread articles when there is clearly only one unread post. Refreshing doesn't fix the problem.
  
• Fundamentally, doesn't it stand to reason that if I have a feed in my blogroll I've already added it to my RSS reader?
  
• That being said, the three blogs Reader added to my feeds are sites I've already subscribed to. They should compare the blogroll sites against my existing RSS feeds to prevent duplication.

Does anybody else have this feature? Is it working for you? What are your thoughts? Or did I get selected (again) by Google's divine providence?

UPDATE: Clicking the "Learn more" link in Reader took me to a Blogger Help page with an Internal Error/We Can't Find What You're Looking For message. The plot thickens.

UPDATE 2: I just logged in (it's now about 11:40 pm) and the feature is gone. I've checked out the forums over at the Google Reader Blog and three other people have reported the same thing. So far it doesn't look like it's being received well.

UPDATE 3: I just checked my site stats and have had five visitors today from Mountain View, California. Google...are you out there?

Attention world: the touch screen isn't what makes the iPhone cool

LG Voyager, Samsung Glide, Samsung Instinct, LG Dare and all you other handsets and handset manufacturers out there trying to play catch-up to the iPhone, here's a tip for you:

Simply making a touch screen handset with movable icons isn't going to cut it. It makes you look like you're trying to rip-off the iPhone, which, let's be honest, you are. And at first glance that's an understandable thing to do: there's a radically different phone that is getting everyone excited so, naturally, you want to do the same thing.

By trying to mimick the iPhone, you aren't creating something different. You're creating something like the iPhone, which means you're always going to be in a second place, "me-too" position. Instead, focus on creating something innovative of your own.

You can react to trends or you can start them. The same thing goes for advertising and any number of other industries. So how do you start a trend?

"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse.'"- Henry Ford as quoted by Steve Jobs.

Know what people want before they do. Much easier said than done. However, with the resources of these huge, multi-billion dollar companies you'd think they'd step back and do something original and innovative. It worked wonderfully for Motorola with the RAZR (until they got lazy). So why don't more companies try to do it? Are they too focused on immediate, quarterly results to invest in something lasting? Or do they try and they just can't quite swing it? What are your thoughts?

Image courtesy of CrunchGear.

Moleskine mania

 

Oh, the drama. First, I freak out because I can't get the specific notebook I want. Then my friend/distant relative Erin brings one up from Provo for me. Then I get the one I ordered online (and was too impatient to wait for) so I have two. THEN the one Erin brought up began falling apart, the cover ever so sadly separating from the spine, so I wrote Moleskine and ask/beg for a new one.

Being in Italy (Milan, darling) our correspondence was a bit delayed and with the language barrier a little choppy. However, they very kindly said that, since they're handmade, sometimes these things happen and they'd be happy to send me a replacement if I'd provide my address, which I did.

Long story short, they ended up sending me two replacement notebooks, one with the cover written in Italian and one written in German, in addition to the original one I'd ordered online. While all this was happening, I found some good glue and was able to (mostly) reattach the cover of the original notebook which I'm still using.

I wrote Moleskine, told them they sent me an extra and offered to ship it back to them. They wrote back and told me not to worry about it. 

So now I have four total (three unused) softcover, ruled, pocket-sized Moleskine notebooks when just two months ago there was only one to be found in the entire state of Utah. Crazy how things turn out, huh?

Man babies

It's disturbing, yet I can't look away.

See more here.

New Yahoo interface? Quite Google-like, don't you think?

So yeah. A friend of mine came across this little gem last night and passed it along. Looks like Yahoo may be experimenting with a sleeker, more Google-like approach to search.

Thoughts?

Oh yeah, and speaking of homepages, if anyone can get me in on that new iGoogle action (short of saying I'm a developer) let me know.

An announcement and an apology

Yeah. Sorry. I'm alive. Just sorta been neglecting my digital duties of late. Despite the fact that my posts here have dwindled and I'm down to about one post per week on LivSimpl, for some inexplicable reason I've decided to launch a new project called Write In My Journal.

The idea of Write In My Journal is this: I approach people who look interesting - like they have a story to tell - and ask them if they, knowing they’ll most likely never see me again, will write in my journal.
They’re free to write whatever they want. I may give them a prompt to start but ultimately it’s up to them.

There are so many people out there with such diverse backgrounds and perspectives and it’s absolutely fascinating to me. Have you ever looked at a person and thought, “I wonder what their story is? How did they get to where they are? What are their dreams?” I do. All the time. (Is that weird?) This is my chance to get to know some of them, even if it’s just a glimpse, and share their stories that would otherwise go untold.

So I carry around my trusty Moleskine notebook (which is falling apart - more on that later) and ask people to write in it, right along side all my own scribbles, lists and thoughts.

Please take a moment to check it out, add it to your RSS feeds and leave a comment or two. Oh yeah, and please tell your friends.

McCain admits he doesn't know how to use a computer

When McCain was asked earlier in his campaign if he used a Mac or PC he responded that he's computer illiterate, an excellent quality for a potential leader of the free world.

He also seems completely unaware that Viva Zapata was made in 1952, not 2008. Or maybe he still thinks it's 1952 which would explain his inability to operate a computer.

 

While I'm confident Obama is much more tech-savvy (read: knows how to check his own e-mail) he did just flip-flop and vote to give the telcoms retroactive immunity for their illegal, Constitution-violating wiretaps. Not cool Obama.

Google non-news of the day: Gmail filter assistant

I don't remember seeing this little friend in my Gmail account before. The Filter Assistant option, at the moment, does... nothing. But my gut tells me this feature is going to assist you with your filters.

Also, it looks like the Gmail team has fixed the problem that displays your primary e-mail address when sending an e-mail from an additional, managed account. Boo-ya.

Rock-on Gmailers, rock on.