3rd time's a????

Charm? Curse? I guess we'll have to wait and see. Case you're wondering, I'm yapping about the bloody third browser I've tried in the last month. Yeah... I was on IE read about Firefox and really liked it... for several months, and then... Crash. Crash. Crash. Crash. Yeah, it was great. So, out of desperation I went back to IE, and was pleasantly surprised to see many of the features I liked with Firefox had been incorporated, BUT TONS of my images and features wouldn't load, including on my OWN blog, and it was slower than molasses in January... I had gotten a tip to try out Google Chrome, and, again out of desperation, hit download. So far so good! Fingers crossed! It downloaded and setup SUPER fast, doesn't have an arseload of crap crowding my window (NO, I do NOT need seventy bajillion useless buttons, thankyou) and has pretty skins. What are you guys using? Is there anything I should be worried about with Chrome? Oh, and yeah, I'm a sucker for pretty (in case you didn't already know) so when my browser looks like this, I'm pretty stoked (yup, that's a print screen, kids. Cute, right? Maybe a little too Avril, but who's gotta know? Well, I guess the intawebs do now, but meh.)

nerd alert

So, I'm a GIANT sucker when it comes to taking my kid to pretty much any movie she'd like to see (though I do have SOME boundaries; I fought with all my might against seeing the likes of "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" and "Hotel for Dogs") so when she announced that she wanted to see "Robot Boy" I figured, why not? Now, I'm the first to admit that, while I watched the show as a kid, I wasn't the biggest fan... So I was FAR from excited to go see it. But I gotta say, I was pretty happily surprised. It's just a really nice story line about family, belonging, being different, etc. The animation's pretty. And it's got a bunch of little design tidbits aimed directly at parents that kept me pretty entertained trying to find more (Lenin propoganda in the robot revolution secret hangout??? Yeah, pretty funny.) Honestly, if you haven't seen it yet, go. It's worth it. Image from here.

it's official: my nerd-dom knows no bounds

Guys! I actually started shaking with excitement reading about this!!! Now maybe I'm crazy behind, but NO I don't typically skulk amongst tech sites.... Usually the techies bug me. True story. I'm generally more an artsy kid who just USES tech... that's my story, anyway! But this, oh, this is good! One of my favorite discoveries, ever, tech was, was the graphics tablet, way back in the eleventh grad, a bajillion years ago. See, here's the thing: I'm shaky. No seriously. REALLY shaky. Like genetic condition that makes the idea of a full glass of milk scary. Never mind a full shot of tequila (though that might be scary for other reasons!). Because of this condition, I was never able to take art: period. After all, if you can't draw a straight line, most teachers don't see much of an art future for you. But with the tablet I WAS able to draw, and paint, and I had an UNDO button! YAY! So if my hand suddenly jerked, I could FIX IT. Trust me. This was a revolutionary idea at the time for me. I forsaw all sorts of opportunities for people like myself with limited functionality in their hands... Yeah, I know, I was kind of a dreamer. But still. Point being, I've got a soft spot for tablets, touch screen, etc. Anything that brings peeps, art, and tech together. Loves it.
So, when trolling the interwebz today I found actual, honest-to-jeebus info on a new tablet from Microsoft (I know, right? Not Apple???), well, I freaked out. Turns out it's more like a booklet than a tablet, per se, but it maintains all of the functionality of a tablet. You can flick, use a stylus, you name it. There are two separate screens which you can move items between (LOVE THAT.) and even "store" in the spine between the two. Yeah, that's dope. Basically, it's like the lovechild between a Palm and a laptop, but so so so much better! These guys describe it better than me, but trust me, this rules! Images from here.

knock on wood

Dude. This is sick. Solid wood cases for iPods and iPhones... best part? For every tree used, the company will plant 100 in its place through the Arbor Day Foundation. Awesome. Find 'em here.