Archive for August, 2010

I purchased this watch and loved it. It lasted about a year. It stopped working for no reason. I sent it back along with the cradle. I had no idea which part was broken. They charged my credit card a nominal fee to replace the watch with a new or refurbished unit. They only sent back the watch. When I contacted them to ask for the cradle, they said:
**Do not ship anything but the base unit. Any accessories, cables or
other items you are not specifically instructed to send in will not be
replaced.**
So, they kept the cradle and wouldn’t send it back. I did not know that the cradle was an accessory. I did not want any item to be replaced that wasn’t broken, but I did expect to get my belongings back. In fact, it had been referred to as the base of the unit by the customer support person. It does not recharge without it. I was very disappointed in the customer service. I have purchased a new cradle. But, I am soured to the company. They essentially stole the item and I cannot figure out why they would bother.
Coiled USB Cable for

I’ve had 2 each of which developed faults in the battery connection, rendering them useless, after exactly 1 yr of use
18 Polar Bear Peek

A friend recommended this to me and I’m so glad. I tell everyone about it now. My dog is a german shepherd with a significant undercoat. This product gets all the undercoat and most of it in one swipe. It has dramatically cut down on shedding. I don’t have to do any extra cleaning to clean up dog hair now. It must feel good too, because my dog loves it. If you are using a “rake” brush, this is a thousand times better and you will be so glad you bought it.
Blanket Babies 11 Dog

The FURminator Small Blue deShedding Tool works well.
The only problem I see is that there is not an automatic release for the fur.
Royal Fortune Tax Money

I admit, it took me a little while to warm up to this series, but now I’m hooked! The audiobook is an incredible performance, as well. Eoin Colfer creates a fascinating new universe that is peopled with equally fascinating characters. It would be a great read for preteens, but as an adult, I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. I also love the physical book – the cover is much nicer than shown here, and it has uneven, old-fashioned looking rag paper pages. It’s much higher quality material than you usually find in a hardback.
Kroo Passion Fruit CANDY

The iPod has come a long way since its debut. This descendant of the original music player can play music and videos, go on the web, check your email, organize your schedule.

I love this little gadget and Amazon sells it for less than the Apple Store.

It comes with a pair of white earbuds with a little remote that controls volume on the side and a USB cable that charges it when you connect it to your computer, but no AC adapter. (Minor inconvenience, but one can be bought separately)

It syncs to iTunes on only one computer. If you switch to a new computer, you have to be careful not to erase everything on the iPod by clicking the wrong button on the pop-up window.

Battery life is so-so. There is a stand-by mode that doesn’t eat up the charge too quickly, but if you’re constantly playing games or using apps, it needs to be charged more than once a day.

All in all, I’m happy with the purchase.

Linux Games

Before I begin with my complaints, I would like to say that this is one of my favorite books of all time. However, I did have a hard time understanding the point behind it all. I mean one second it’s telling you to kill John Lennon, the next it’s telling you to kill Ronald Reagan in order to impress Jodie Foster. Well, which is it? I suppose it’s possible that the book wanted me to kill both of them but if that’s the case then why not simply state it outright, instead of leaving it up to interpretation like it did?
Furthermore, now that both the people that the book instructs on killing are dead, it seems a little dated. Sure, it can be read as a coming-of-age-tale, but to do that you must read between the lines. I tried calling Mr. Salinger to have him clear it all up, but he wouldn’t answer. It turns out that in an effort to become even more reclusive, he’s died.
My favorite quotation from the book: “Kill John Lennon. Go ahead, you know you want to. Just do it.” A real example of classic prose, a skill that unfortunately seems to have been lost by many modern writers.
Overall, I give it five dead celebrities out of five.
Calvin Klein Wheeled Garment

To those of you working your way through this series…. STOP… you will never get your time back and, if you’re like me, you will cry yourself to sleep every night for the torture you endured. If you’re a 14 year old girl, or if you simply choose to disregard this warning…May god have mercy on your soul you poor, poor S.O.B.!
The Love of My

I enjoyed this first book in a Harry Potter-sortof way. It’s good, fun escapism. What I like is how the tempo of the book changes from criminal drama to comedy to fantasy to spy novel, etc, etc… Initially, you aren’t really sure what is going on, but eventually the young anti-hero idea catches on and becomes a very entertaining narrative. Nathaniel Parker provides a fantastic narration, reminiscent of Jim Dale’s excellent characterization for the Potter audio books.
Having finished the first couple books, I’m led to think of the first two books almost as a continuous story, with many of the same characters recurring.
Worth checking out.
Linux Journal November 2008

I bought this book with high expectations after reading all the glowing review. I was disappointed as it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. Ms. Gruen is a talented writer, and the book starts off well, but then travels into sappy “chick lit” territory, especially the ending.

However, the one thing that ruined this book for me was the depiction of mental illness. The character August is described as a paranoid schizophrenic. I am not a psychiatrist but I am a mental health professional and his symptoms sound closer to bipolar disorder. Also, August is cruel and violent, to say the least, when acutally most paranoid schizophrenics are NOT VIOLENT. Yes, I know it’s fiction and the author is free to take artistic license, but misconceptions about mental illness are common and this book only furthers them.

Lastly, I understand that the book is being made into a movie with Reese Witherspoon. I like Reese and even though I wasn’t crazy about the book, was thinking of going to go see it until I learned that Robert what’s-his-fang from the horrible “Twilight” series is playing Jacob Jankowski. Noooooooooooooo!
Mary Meyer Christening Blanket