Month: October 2008

Happy Halloween “Eve”!!!

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 30, 2008

Halloween isn’t until tomorrow, but I just had to stick some of these photos up tonight! We went to a little Halloween party at Bracken and Katie’s house (friends from the ward) and took some family photos beforehand. Generally I have been avoiding the camera because I am 32 weeks (8 months) pregnant now, and this is my filled-out face time– gotta love it. I just prefer to not be photographed and have that documented…

Nevertheless I picked up some "Halloween gear" at good ol’ Claire’s in the mall, Pace bought a new guille suit at the army surplus store, and the McGrandparents sent Chase an awesome Buzz Lightyear costume. I know that some families dress all in some sort of cute theme, but as for us, we were a very randomly-dressed Halloween family tonight.

I also made these funny little mummy hot dogs with crescent roll strips wrapped around them. They were fun to make but not too child-friendly (Chase always wants to help out in the kitchen, which doesn’t usually make for aesthetically pleasing results)!

Katie and Bracken were Tinkerbell and Peter Pan– nice tights, Bracken… We enjoyed the funny games they had planned, including throwing Cheetos at faces smeared with shaving cream. We were glad that Chase got to tag along with us, too!

Chase Adventures

Festivities at Cornbelly’s

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 30, 2008

Chase and I twisted Pace’s arm a little last Saturday, so we ended up going to Cornbelly’s at Thanksgiving Point! It was pretty fun, although Pace and I commented in the middle of the David Archuleta corn maze that it felt like there had already been a big party and we had missed it… Because the Cornbelly’s event has been going on for over a month, so it was kind of "well-used" I guess you could say.

But Chase especially enjoyed the afternoon! There were all sorts of things for kids to do; he particularly enjoyed the cow train, the big slides, and the giant jumpy "pillow." Pace mentioned that he wants to put one of those in our backyard now so he can hold wrestling matches on it :).

Tech

For the love of formats

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 30, 2008

Wow, watch out for this one! Were you thinking of investing in Bluray this holiday season? Might want to think again. Supposedly available Q1 2009 in some areas, DreamStream is releasing a 100GB disk that can hold up to 4 hours of 1920p HD content (yeah that’s more than 1080p) and will be as cheap as standard DVDs.

RDM has developed a high-definition system that exceeds the capabilities of Blu-ray. RDM’s technology offers storage capacity for up to 100 GB on a single disc. Blu-ray discs can only hold 50 GB of data. Due to RDM’s increase in storage capacity, their system is able to offer display qualities that greatly exceed conventional, 1080p, high-definition.

“RDM’s format will transform perceptions of high-definition,” said Diebel. “RDM’s system is able to display the next generation of high-definition: 1920p. With this advancement in technology, true digital cinema will soon be a widespread reality.”

For consumers, RDM’s increase in storage capacity allows for a single disc to hold approximately four hours of video content at 1920p resolution.

Because RDM’s system is based on inexpensive red laser technology, their players are expected to sell for much less than Sony’s, which routinely sell for hundreds of dollars. The high price of Blu-ray players has been credited for the technology’s slow public reception.

The retail prices for RDM’s players and discs are expected to “equal those of the traditional DVD format, greatly undercutting Blu-ray,” said Diebel.

So what do you think? Will you be investing in HD video anytime soon? Or are you waiting for the house sized resolution DVDs for $1 come out?

– press release

Tech

Gmail Widgets

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 29, 2008

I know a lot of you use Google’s Gmail, and for good reason, and if you’re not you really should (sign up now). So I thought I would report on this cool new feature that is tucked away in the labs tab in the settings.

Google this week unveiled gadgets created by its Google Labs project that allow Gmail users to look at Google Calendar and Google Docs data without having to open the hosted applications.

For example, Gmail users can use one of the gadgets to see their Calendar agenda and get alerted when a meeting is scheduled, Google said. Another gadget could show users a list of recently accessed Google Docs and let them search across all documents from within Gmail.

I just turned these on, and they are pretty cool. You can set a mini calendar to show above your upcoming events. To turn them on, click on settings in the upper right, then click on the labs link on the right, scroll to the bottom and enable the google cal gadget and/or google doc gadget. ENJOY!

Chase

I Love These Guys!

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 28, 2008

Married Lessons

Experience Leslie’s Diner

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 27, 2008

[flashvideo filename=”../mcvideos/lesliedance.flv” link=”../mcvideos/lesliedance.flv” /]

Personal

Fun-ness!

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 26, 2008

Pace and I got to go on a HOT DATE on Friday night! We went out with our friends Jason and Whitney, and also my sis Rach and Pace’s old NC friend, Stephen. We went to Santaquin to visit the Red Barn and go on a hay ride, but alas, we were too late for the last hay ride. So we headed to Leslie’s Family Tree Restaurant, which ended up being more interesting than we ever could have imagined. We had to laugh as we entered the log cabin-style restaurant to see mostly elderly people eating there, a cowboy singing karaoke, and the walls plastered with funny old family photos, such as this one. I speculate that "Danny" was the rebel of the family, and Jesse was more of the momma’s boy. What do you think?

We all sat down, chuckling as we took in the amusing scenery… here are the cute couples who came with us:

Pace approached one of the tables of elderly folks to ask them what was tastiest there at the Family Tree. They exclaimed, "We eat here all the time; everything’s good!!!" My opinion was that it was a bit pricey for a down-home type restaurant. And when we got our food we just had to laugh because the "salad" consisted of iceberg lettuce with two olives and a cucumber slice on top, the "vegetables" were canned green beans plopped on the plate, and the potatoes were either flakes or pearls, I couldn’t tell… But we had a great time! Just look at Pace and Jason.

The cowboy karaoke singer was very pleased that we so enthusiastically applauded his performances. We even got up and did some dancing to his serenades. (Pace may put up a video or two in our McVideos.)

If anyone decides to go, please go on a Friday, because that’s when the cowboy is there singing the night away… It was definitely an experience to remember!

Tech

Future of Computing

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 24, 2008

Remember that scene in Ironman when Penny types translate and it starts playing the video in english for her. I thought yeah right, maybe in 75 years or something… well I must be in a time machine. Ubiquity coming from Mozilla Labs pretty much proves that firefox is the best browser ever. This deal will be able to give you access to all parts of the internet without leaving the screen your on. And embed/lookup/access multiple services at one time. Big deal you say, I can go to multiple sites at one time. Oh yeah I say back, go find the chinese government website, translate it, email me the copy, then send me a map to the nearest airport so I can get to China. Now do ti from your mobile phone. The future my friends. Time for the movies to become reality.

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Thanks Cotton

Tech

Ohh available NOW!

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 24, 2008

“When we spotted Electric Motorsport last year the company was pushing a high-ish performance electric motorcycle prototype, with a top speed of 100 MPH, 100 mile range, a $15,000 pricetag, and a whole bunch ugly battery strapped underneath. Lucky for us, they’ve taken a very mass-market approach to their next bike, the GPR-S. Boasting a 60-70 MPH top speed and 35-60 mile range, the sleek little bike just might be the perfect commuter ride, and the $8,000 pricetag is much more palatable. The bike can charge in about four hours, or 1.5 hours with an optional speed charger. Even better, the bike is modular in nature, which means you’ll be able to swap in a better power system once one comes along with a minimum of hassle. Electric Motorsport has sold 25 of these so far, but they’re up and running and ready for sales at volume — which is surprisingly still an incredibly rare feat in the electric transportation industry, even in 2008.”

Tech

Drop the price please

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 23, 2008

I am all over this bad boy if the price comes down a bit. I mean think of it, you normally pay what? 40 bucks a month for lawn care… 40 x 12 = 480 x 5 years = 2,400. Gimmie!

Husqvarna’s plain old battery-powered Automowers have been available in the US for some time now, but it looks like the company’s solar-powered hybrid model is now finally making the trip across the pond as well. From the looks of it, the model is the same one we caught sight of back in March, with the 22-pound mower promising to handle lawns up to half an acre in size and not emit a single emission whilst it does its business. As with the regular models, it’ll also return to its base to speed up the charging process when it gets low on juice.