The Savvy Life

Wait.  Is it Thursday already?  But I just wrote a Gadget Thursday post last week?  Time keeps on slipping, slipping into the future.  The Savvy Life is not meant to be just a gadget blog but I seem to forget to write about the other aspects of The Savvy Life.

Okay, enough with excuses let’s take a look at what I think are some of the better gadgets that came along in the last week.

Power is attractive.  Or so I am often led to believe by television and movies.  Maybe this is why I am enthralled with the 400-watt Power Dome EX.  For $159.99 The Power Dome EX is a portable generator.  The stats on this device are impressive.  2 AC outlets and 1 DC, 260 PSI air compressor, 600 amp jump starter for cars, and a high intensity LED light.  The Power Dome gets its power from a rechargeable high grade sealed lead acid battery.

While we are on the topic of power, when was the last update to the power outlets in our homes?  I suspect the bold move from two prong outlets to three prong outlets was the last innovation and seeing that a lot of apartments here in Chicago still have just two prong outlets, this necessary innovation still hasn’t reached everyone.  Due to this, the following technological miracle will probably take some time to become a common feature in homes across America.  Luckily we can buy it.  I’m talking about the 360 Electrical Outlet, of course.  As more of our plug in devices have power adapters that tend to be bulky, plugging them into the standard wall outlet usually means losing both receptacles.  The 360 Electrical Outlet rotates and locks into 18 different positions to allow the bulky item to be rotated away from the second receptacle.

I’ll wrap up this Gadget Thursday with what I consider to be one of the most clever devices to come along in awhile.  Okay, it isn’t a new idea, it is just a simplified idea.  The Simple 9-Volt Battery Flashlight is just a LED contraption that clips on the end of a 9-volt battery, turning it into a mini-flashlight.

I rarely need a full blown flashlight and would really hate to have to carry one in my bag of necessary items.  This sucker would fit right in with my tin of Altoids, cellphone, mp3 player, camera, pens, and notebooks.  Maybe I could even use it to light up the inside of my bag when I seem to be unable to find a single pen of the twelve I should have inside that abyss.  Sorry, that is just a personal problem.  This mini-light looks functional, convenient, and runs off those batteries you find in that round device in your home that beeps when you cook.

I almost forgot again. Is it self sabotage? Maybe. But here I am after enjoying a few drinks to celebrate “Talk Like a Pirate Day” sitting down and writing the Gadget Thursday entry.

No, I won’t pepper my writing with piratey talk… I think I got most of that out of my system today.

I want to start off with the Power-Failure Light from Hammacher Schlemmer. Not sexy, I know, but I love the ultra-practical aspect of this device that connects between the light socket and the bulb of any standard lamp. When the power fails, the six LEDs provide up to 8 hours of light. But wait… there’s more. If you are like me, you may have a few questions… does the lamp have to be turned on at the time of the power failure? Sadly, the description doesn’t make that clear. I am not sure how it knows the difference between a power-outage and just turning the light off. What is good is it is powered by built in rechargeable batteries that recharge when the lamp is turned on. Additionally, a photosensitive cell won’t light up the LEDs if there is enough light in the room. I do think this is a good idea, and the worst case scenario is when the power goes out, a person would have to fumble over to the lamp and turn on the backup light.

Going back to the Hammacher Schlemmer well, I found myself enthralled with the ultra modern Wall-Mounted Digital Scale and Clock. The scale transmits the weight to the display on the wall and when the cook is done with the scale, he can hang it over the top of the display and have a clock in the kitchen. I live in an apartment with a rather small kitchen. Counter space is a premium so this device gives me not only a wall clock, something every kitchen needs, but also a scale that doesn’t take up that precious counter space.

Okay, time to get away from Hammacher Schlemmer. I can’t say, despite the fact that I just fawned over two of their items that I am a huge fan of their overall collection of items. To cleanse the Hammacher Schlemmer taste from my mouth, I need to visit good ol’ reliable ThinkGeek and thank goodness I did or else I might have missed one of my favorite things… gadgets in a case.

ThinkGeek is offering a USB Podcast Studio in a box. This includes a 19mm internal shock mounted diaphragm with cardioid pick up pattern with a desktop mic stand and some software that I don’t know anything about. I’m an Audicity fan myself. Did I mention the case? It all comes in a case. Look at the picture? How can you not want to have something that comes in its own case? I know I can’t resist it!

The brisk fall-like weather we’ve been having here in Chicago has triggered a craving – a craving for hard cider. Now those who know me will wonder how this craving is different than my normal craving for hard cider that I have in the summer… spring… winter…. To these inquisitors, I have only one thing to say: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. There is not one tiny bit of difference, but I needed a lead in for this article and I chose to do the seasonal thing.

Writing article after article on the glory of hard cider won’t be too interesting but I just happened to hear a song this weekend that made me think of something. There is an old Irish drinking song called Johnny Jump Up.

I’ll tell you a story that happened to me
One day as I went down to Cork by the sea
The sun it was hot and the day it was warm,
Says I a quiet pint wouldn’t do me no harm

I went in and I called for a bottle of stout
Says the barman, I’m sorry, all the beer is sold out
Try whiskey or paddy, ten years in the wood
Says I, I’ll try cider, I’ve heard it was good.

Oh never, Oh never, Oh never again
If I live to be a hundred or a hundred and ten
I fell to the ground and I couldn’t get up
After drinking a quart of the Johnny Jump Up

After downing the third I went out to the yard
Where I bumped into Brody, the big civic guard
Come here to me boy, don’t you know I’m the law?
Well, I up with me fist and I shattered his jaw

He fell to the ground with his knees doubled up
But it wasn’t I hit him, ’twas Johnny Jump Up
The next thing I remember down in Cork by the sea
Was a cripple on crutches and says he to me

I’m afraid of me life I’ll be hit by a car
Won’t you help me across to the Celtic Knot Bar?
After downing a quart of that cider so sweet
He threw down his crutches and danced on his feet

I went up the lee road, a friend for to see
They call it the madhouse in Cork by the Sea
But when I got there, sure the truth I will tell,
They had this poor bugger locked up in a cell

Said the guard, testing him, say these words if you can,
“Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran”
Tell him I’m not crazy, tell him I’m not mad
It was only a sip of the bottle I had

Well, a man died in the mines by the name of McNabb
They washed him and laid him outside on the slab
And after the parlors measurements did take
His wife brought him home to a bloody fine wake

‘Twas about 12 o’clock and the beer was high
The corpse sits up and says with a sigh
I can’t get to heaven, they won’t let me up
’Til I bring them a quart of the Johnny Jump Up

So if ever you go down to Cork by the sea
Stay out of the ale house and take it from me
If you want to stay sane don’t you dare take a sup
Of that devil drink cider called Johnny Jump Up

See this all comes from a time in Ireland when there wasn’t enough wood to make casks for whisky and casks for cider. So they took the old whisky casks and used them for cider. When whisky ages in a barrel, a significant amount of whisky is absorbed by the wood. Some of the whisky that was absorbed by the cask was released into the cider, giving it quite a wallop to those who were accustomed to the more gentle regular hard cider.

While I could easily present a cocktail that adds a shot of Irish whisky to a pint of cider, I decided that since this is National Bourbon Month according to the U.S. Congress, I should Americanize this concept.

Since I don’t have a keg of cider to pour a proper draught, I grabbed a bottle of ever-present cider from my fridge. I like all types, but this time around I had Woodchuck Cider. Woodchuck Cider is, in my opinion, one of the best American ciders. At some other time I will write about the virtues of cider, but for know, any type of hard cider is acceptable for this cocktail. For the bourbon, I chose Knob Creek. Knob Creek has a complimentary flavor that enhances the cider tremendously. I kept the ratio very simple, one bottle of cider and one shot of Knob Creek.

This comic and the following information found its way into my inbox this morning thanks to TechRepublic. I wouldn’t expect TechRepublic to be a source of information regarding dating and relationships, but sometimes it is good to have our core expectations shaken once in awhile.

To intensify the geek aspect of the math behind this comic, they also linked to this graph, which I too am linking to because this morning, I am feeling a bit like a follower. Oh, and I have a theory that nobody reads the internet on Friday.

Would you believe that I didn’t realize yesterday was Thursday?  So Gadget Thursday, my new effort to commit to a specific weekly written piece didn’t get assembled yesterday.  I’ll roll it up into next week’s Gadget Thursday.

This is more an apology to myself.

I never would have thought of this if I hadn’t read How to Be Boring over at I Will Change Your Life.  I spend a lot of my time trying not to be bored, but I never thought that maybe I am boring.  Now I won’t say there is anything wrong with being boring, but complaints of being bored while being boring are no longer valid.

Boring people are inactive people.  Peter’s post highlights this by telling us that if you want to be boring, be a fence sitter and be lazy.  Indecisiveness and inaction are boring, possibly because both maintain the status quo and the status quo, if held for too long, becomes boring.  Change is exciting.

We also need to pay attention to the fact that boring people aren’t fun to be around, thus when we find ourselves with nothing to do, we have to consider the possibility that we’ve become boring.

I’ve been debating how to cover technology in this blog. So many other blogs cover the release of every TV, cellphone, and automatic ear cleaners that no one needs yet another blog pointing to the same gadgets. Additionally, I don’t have the time or desire to watch for each and every gadget that is released. Yet, I do enjoy a good gadget and there are gadgets that fit into the core theme of this blog: luxury, pleasure, and efficiency.

Using that as a guideline and instead of writing about each gadget as I discover, I figured I’d sort through the weeks of gadget news and filter out only those gadgets that meet the criteria of luxury, pleasure, and efficiency while being unique.

To begin Gadget Thursday, let’s look at something that is most likely out of the price range of many of us, but will go on our wish lists for when we finally hit it big. The contemporary arcade table at Surface Tension is beautiful yet fun. The table runs Windows XP and has an arcade emulator. The surface is slightly opaque so the LCD screen can’t be seen unless it is turned on. From the table, you can surf the web, use iTunes, and play classic arcade games. Or you can fold it up and pretend you are a respectable member of society. This table is ideal for the closet geek.

For the coffee lover who is only brewing coffee for one, Tassimo has struck a deal with Starbucks to make available four blends of coffee for the popular single serving brewing appliance. I will accept the argument that not everyone loves Starbucks coffee so this deal doesn’t mean too much, but I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that if Starbucks begins to carry the Tassimo machines in their retail locations, the single serving coffee market is going to blossom. As it is, coffee comes to us only from cafes or our own coffeepots and when we make it ourselves, brewing a small amount seems like too much effort. Tassimo gives us just one cup with little effort.

For those who enjoy reading in bed or just having some extra light while in bed but maybe live in an apartment and can’t wire a light over the headboard, there is the wireless OverBed Dual LED Lamp. I’m personally rather excited by this because while I like my stylish Target bedside lamp, it really isn’t great for reading while in bed. The OverBed lamp offers two dimmable LED lamps on tracks for easy adjustment.

If you come across any handy gadgets that provide luxury, pleasure, or efficiency I’d love to hear about them

Aretha Franklin had it right, it seems, when she sang her hit song, It’s in His Kiss.

Does he love me?
I wanna know!
How can I tell if he loves me so?

(Is it in his eyes?)
Oh no! You need to see!
(Is it in his size?)
Oh no! You make believe!
If you wanna know
If he loves you so
Its in his kiss!
(That’s where it is!)

So it may not be about love, but it is about making or breaking of a relationship. And it isn’t about all the kisses, it is about the very important first kiss. A recent survey by George Gallup at the State University of New York revealed some predictable attitudes regarding kissing, such as women place a higher value on the act of kissing as a goal in and of itself and men see it as a step along the path towards sex.

More surprisingly, the results of the survey pointed to both sexes placing a lot of value on the first kiss. “59% of men and 66% of women reported on occasion finding themselves attracted to someone, only to lose interest after kissing them for the first time. ” The survey received a brief write up at New Scientist.

The lesson I walk away from this as a single man is not to fumble that first kiss. Make it intense and memorable if I really have an interest in developing the relationship.