Big vs. Small

While attending the University of Utah, I visited my grandparents one afternoon to use their computer. When I tired of homework, I’d retreat to the study to browse my grandpa’s stack of Consumer Reports magazines. I’d thumb through them for hours. Especially the Annual Auto Issue.

On this day, my grandfather asked me to look up ratings on refrigerators and tell him which he should purchase. I eventually gave him a list of the top 5 models. I figured he’d make a trip to Sears or other large appliance store in Salt Lake City to compare many of brands and models. image

But he wasn’t interested. He and my grandmother lived in a small city called Bountiful, located 20 minutes north of Salt Lake. He made one call to a local, family owned appliance shop just a few blocks away. The owner agreed with the ratings and quoted a price over the phone for the top rated model. No low balling tactics. No tricks. Just straight-forward, honest service.

I suggested he call around to the larger stores in Salt Lake looking for a lower price.

Again, he showed no interest. He said, “I could find it for less, but I’d rather support this local business. I trust the owner and he’s treated me well over the years”.

He purchased his cars the same way. He trusted a local mechanic who kept his eye out for specific models that would work well for my grandparents. The mechanic treated him well for many years and my grandpa trusted him. No need to look elsewhere. 

In today’s age of specialized search engines focused on sniffing out the best deals it’s hard to imagine intentionally paying extra to support local businesses. Now it’s as simple as typing a model number into Froogle to locate the lowest price. If that’s all your care about.

Does it matter if the local shops disappear and we’re left with Costco or Best Buy or whatever category killer moves into town? Will we replace trusted advice from the small business owner with online product reviews from people we don’t know?

When my grandfather wanted to purchase a book he did so at the family run bookstore. My generation made a trip to Barnes and Noble. Will my children assume they only place to purchase a book (or anything else) is Amazon?

Hold Them While I Can

Some nights I come to bed only to find one of our kids sprawled across my side. I blame Kim because she piles fancy pillows so high no kid can resist dozing off in a cloud of high thread count comfort.

When this happens it’s my duty to relocate the child back to his or her own bed. That’s what happened last night when I found Luca stretched across my side of the bed hogging every pillow she could get her little arms around.

I gently picked her up and rested her head on my shoulder. Her warm body flopped like a rag doll as I tried not to wake her. Her room is next door, but I wish it were a couple football fields away.

lucawake

It won’t be long before she’ll be too big to hold. The same goes for Lincoln and Anna Lynn. And the way Kai is growing who knows?

I think back to the time Kim and I made a list of “must have” items we needed to purchase before our first baby arrived. The number of products friends and family recommended was overwhelming. They included high chairs, play pens, strollers, bouncy seats, exersaucers, or jumping jacks. 

If could go back in time, I’d remove nearly all of them off the list and savor the few years I have to hold them next to me. Kai loves it when I hold him close to my face and smile while he tries to chew on my cheek, nose or chin. That’s hard to accomplish if he’s on the floor.

When I returned home late from work tonight I kicked back on the couch ready to watch the Olympics. Before I could push the Tivo button, Lincoln and Anna were snuggled up next to me.

I flipped the channel to Dragon Tails to entice them to stay longer.

The Olympics can wait.

Learning German

I came across a blog in German today that reminded me of an experience I had about a year into my LDS mission to Germany. It took a good six months before I felt comfortable discussing topics besides the missionary discussions I’d memorized in German. But at the one year mark I was feeling pretty good about my ability to to communicate. I think it had less to do with my study habits and more to do with the fact many Germans invited us into their homes to watch Dallas and Baywatch.

In hindsight, Baywatch isn’t the best conversion tool although it certainly helped me learn the language!

Missionaries spend a good portion of their day knocking on doors looking for anyone interested in hearing more about our beliefs. One afternoon my companion and I knocked on a door, and a woman in her mid 20’s answered. My companion was Austrian and spoke fluent German. It was my turn to give the pitch so I asked her if she was interested in hearing about our church.

I should have paid closer attention to the dark blue robe she was wearing. She was polite and said we could come back later when she was done moving. Trying to be helpful, I replied back, “Konnen wir helfen?” which means, “Can we help you?” As soon as the words left my mouth, the woman glared at me and slammed the door shut. I stood there on the doorstep in a state of confusion.

As we made our way to the next house my companion couldn’t control his laugher. When he finally gathered himself he said, “You asked her if you could help her get undressed”.

That day I learned I had a way to go before I’d perfected my German. I also learned the difference between umziehen (to relocate/move) and sich umziehen (to get undressed). Had this experience taken place during the first couple months of my mission, I doubt she would have been so upset given my shaky grasp of the language. My utter confidence in offering assistance is what likely resulted in her reaction. 

Another time we’d finished teaching a family, and they were asking what it’s like to serve a mission. This was about a year before the East German wall came down, and the father was curious to find out if we had missionaries serving across the border.

I jumped right in and told him that missionaries were not allowed to serve in East Germany because we were “restricted” from teaching there. This time, instead of getting the door slammed in my face, I was greeted with laughter. My companion gave me a strange look. I knew I’d used the wrong word (beschrankt) again.

I’d just told this family the reason missionaries couldn’t serve in East Germany was because we were “dim-witted imbeciles”.

Technorati Tags: ,,

Syncing Sucks

The first device I recall trying to sync with my Windows PC was the Casio Cassiopeia, one of the first Windows CE devices to hit the market. Palm had already released the popular Pilot and Microsoft felt they had to get a piece of the action. I worked at Microsoft at the time and happened to be attending an event in New Orleans where the Cassiopeia was sold at a discounted price of $250. I couldn’t resist.  image

I spent hours attempting to get that bugger to sync with my PC. This was before USB was around so I was stuck with a serial port and it was a painful experience. Eventually I gave up and entered my contacts, tasks and appointments manually. So much for my handheld time saving device.

I eventually sold the the Cassiopeia on eBay and purchased my first MP3 Player; the Diamond Rio 300. It would be an understatement to say this is the worst couple hundred dollars I’ve ever spent. In theory, it held 8 to 10 songs. In reality it rejected everything I threw at at. The included software must have been written by an RIAA mole working at Diamond.

I’ve owned more than a dozen phones, mp3 players, Pocket PCs, Handsprings, Palm Pilots and all gave me problems connecting to my computer, syncing data or both. Although the iPod is known for it’s friendly design it’s not perfect and I want to toss it into the street at least once a week. Some days it won’t connect to iTunes until I reset it.

Why does syncing handheld electronic devices suck so imagemuch?

I currently have two phones with Windows Mobile which is the equivalent of asking a complete stranger to kick me in the head twice a day. Both phones are molasses slow and occasionally connect to Vista. Unless they decide not to which lately is quite often. My phone is setup to sync my email with Microsoft Exchange and it does work most of the time, but it doesn’t like to connect to my PC without a number reboots.

I’m tired of all this connecting, syncing, and partnering which leads to lots of rebooting, resetting, unplugging and swearing. It’s been over 10 years since I purchased my Cassiopeia, yet syncing problems persist. One would think that USB and Bluetooth would make connecting and syncing devices much easier, but many problem still persist.

The In-Between Times

We loaded the kids in the Odyssey yesterday afternoon and headed to lunch at a Mongolian Grill that’s one of their favorites. On the way home from lunch Kim wanted to stop at Trader Joe’s.

Too many things can go wrong when we take the kids into the store. One or two will get lost or some accidental shoplifting will occur so it’s best I stay back with the kids and send Kim into the store alone.

The minute mom is out of the car the kids yell, “MAKE UP A GAME, DAD!!” Yesterday we played a game called “Name the Grandpa or Grandma” where I give them a small detail and they tell me which of the grandparents it pertains to. Lots of the questions revolve around pets since my parents have a big dog and Kim’s parents have a tiny one. 

The kids smile and laugh and yell and don’t mind waiting for mom to return. These small slices of time with my kids are some of my favorite. It’s life unplanned. Impromptu games and laughs and joy fill the car. No radio or Nintendo required.

The kids love planned events. It gives them something to look forward to. But they love these in-between times as well. It’s ok to make faces, sing goofy songs and make fart sounds.

The party comes to a close when I sound the mom alert. The kids think it’s fun to settle down like nothing happened. But they can never keep from giggling while mom loads the groceries in the trunk.

I think mom might be on to us. But she probably likes her 15 kid-free minutes too much to say anything.

The $3 Nintendo Killer

We’re going old school today. I had no idea I’d hit the jackpot when I grabbed this three buck retro Slinky off the shelf at Target.

The kids went nuts. They put their Nintendo DS games down and all fought for the right to play with a today from the 1940’s. I showed them how to make it walk down the stairs. They thought that was cool even if it only descended three stairs.

I love the sound the Slinky makes and how it squirms back and forth in my hands. I showed the kids how to slowly move their hands up and down to make it flow just right. “Looks like a water bubble” chimed Luca so I used that description to help them move it from one hand to the other. 

Sorry Sonic. Sorry Mario. Sorry Zelda. At least for today, you’ve all been schooled by the Slinky.

slinkykid

Technorati Tags: ,

Mosby Brothers Farms

We’ve enjoyed buying fruit and vegetable from local stands and farms this summer. Kim took the kids to pick fresh blueberries yesterday and it was so popular that, when we returned this afternoon, they were all picked out. We’ll go back in a week when the next crop ripens. They are delicious and only $2/pound. Kim and kids filled a large box for twenty bucks. They make great snacks even when frozen.

When we moved to Auburn three years ago we didn’t realize how many local farms were in the area. We enjoy driving down the small scenic roads searching for new farms to visit. It’s always fresh and delicious and well worth the extra time and expense it requires.

mosby

We stopped Mosby Brothers Farms today and plan to go back tomorrow to purchase some peaches. I took a picture of their sign which lists the in season produce. I love the feel of these small town farms and the people who run them. Most are family run there’s a genuine pride in what they sell. They appear to love what they do.

I’ve noticed the local Albertsons has started hanging signs in their produce sections designating items that were grown locally. I hope all supermarkets do the same.

Where do you purchase your produce?

Quakk Twitter App for Windows Mobile

I never thought it would happen. I’ve downloaded a number of Twitter apps for WindowsScreenshot_2 Mobile and they were terrible. Most wouldn’t even launch without some error.

So imagine my surprise when I installed Quakk and it not only worked but is nice looking to boot! I run it on my Motorola Q9M and it works great. You need to have the .NET Compaq Framework installed before running it. You can download the framework and Quakk from this link. Finally a WM Twitter app that doesn’t stink up the joint.

I like how Quakk allows me to quickly see my follower timeline, replies and direct messages. I’m Akula on Twitter if you’re interested.

Technorati Tags: ,