Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Time Out for a Flashlight!

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Let there be light! ;)

I LOVE flashlights! I have purchased DOZENS of them and have quite an extensive collection at home. Shien told someone that I was a flashlight Connoisseur! ;)

We arrived in the Poconos on Friday evening. We soon learned that we arrived at the perfect time. If we had arrived sooner, we might have gone out in a boat and gotten stuck in a HUGE thunderstorm. If we had arrived later, it would have been MUCH later, because we would have been driving in the storm, and there were road closures and reports of tornadoes!

While we were eating dinner, the storm came down so hard, that the electricity went out, but luckily there was a generator in the house. That kept the electricity running on the first floor. After dinner, while doing the dishes, I noticed that the water pressure was getting lower and lower, and by the time I got to the last few dishes, there was a trickle, and then… NO WATER! Ai ya.
These are the things that this city boy has hardly ever had to dealt with, except for the big Blackout of 2003 in the Northeast, where we did lose all electricity and water for many hours.
I don’t travel often, but when we do, I seems to always pack a flashlight or two or three… ;) On a number of occasions, the flashlights came in handy, so that’s one of the first things I always pack. I might not have enough change of clothes or forget a toothbrush or toothpaste, but NEVER a flashlight! ;)
On this trip, the flashlights were great! Malachy got to see Dad use them in action and might have gotten the sense of why Daddy has SO many flashlights all over. There were candles and all, and I didn’t have to use my own flashlights, but it was definitely cool to have them around, with no electricity and running water. The generator was turned off and there was no electricity on the second floor, anyways, where we slept.
We went to bed with enough packed water to brush up and go to bed. Malachy was wondering about why he wasn’t getting a bath or shower, but he definitely didn’t mind… So, it was lights out really early for all of us! ;)

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Time Out for IM…

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

Malachy on AIM...

Malachy started Instant Messaging before he was 3, mostly with his uncle and grandparents. In a previous post, he actually assumed my identity! ;) His uncle thought he was chatting with me.
He always loved letters, so he naturally loved the keyboard and typing away. When he got older (can’t believe I just typed the word “older”), he learned that the Mac could use the Chinese Pin Yin system and type out Chinese characters. He LOVED that, too! He can now type on his own, and he will sometimes switch back between English and Chinese, just for fun. When it’s Chinese, he’ll just insert random characters. Sometime, he’ll ask me what he just typed in Chinese, and I’m like, “I don’t know. Go ask Mommy! ;) ”
Tonight, his uncle was feeling a bit down, so before bedtime, I suggested that he call his Uncle Chris. He tried calling twice, but it was so loud on the other end, and it hung up twice. So, first, he left his uncle a voice message telling him he shouldn’t be upset and that people are just talking, etc…
Then, while Malachy was on the computer, his uncled IM’d from his Blackberry, so I had Malachy take a break to IM him. I sat on the couch while he typed away. I gave him suggestions on what he could type, but he typed what he wanted. This is what he had to say… At first, he didn’t finish the word “UPSET,” so I told him he could retype it. Instead, he thought he should just add the letters on the next line. Later on, I showed Shien and she asked, “What’s GN?” I told her, “Good Night. Your son decided to just type GN on his own…” Ai ya! ;)

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