Rocketbook Wave.

So Earl and I are avid viewers of “Shark Tank”. I’ve always been partial to episodes that include Barbara Corcoran as one of the sharks (I like the way she thinks, she’s way outside of the box and that’s awesome) and last night we caught up on the season finale off the DVR.

Some of the products pitched on the show get my attention and last night one of the pitches was for Rocketbook, specifically the Rocketbook Wave.


Photo from monstersandcritics.com

The Rocketbook Wave is a notebook designed to be reusable. Using a Pilot Flexion pen, you take notes like you would in any regular notebook. Using a free app on your iPhone, you can then instantly transfer those notes to the cloud service of your choice. It’s a “system” and it’s a well thought out system at that. When you’re done, you then microwave the notebook and all of the pages are erased. You can then use the notebook over again.

That’s pretty nifty.

Here’s a video explaining it.

I am always torn between writing my notes in a notebook, because writing things down by hand helps me remember things and keeping all of my notes digitally. I don’t like wasting paper and I don’t like having to refer back to notebooks. I’ve tried writing notes by hand on my iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil, but it doesn’t feel natural to me and this “artificial pen and paper” distracts from the task of writing something down to remember it. So naturally I went ahead and ordered a Rocketbook Wave directly from their website.

If you use this link to get to their website, you’ll get a special deal.

Rocketbook Referral Deal.

I’m looking forward to my Rocketbook Wave and pen set arriving in the next few days. I’ll be posting a follow-up blog entry to let you know how successful I am with this note taking system that is ecologically friendly.

Now, my only question is, where do I get Jake’s sunglasses? They are very Pretinama.

14 May 2017 by Geek 0

Architecture.

In 1957 or 58 my grandfather moved his family out of their farm house and into the first floor of one of the three barns on their property. The floor had been renovated so that it was a decent living space. He then ripped the old farm house down and built a new home. The new house was designed by a man that owed the family business money. The custom design, which underwent one revision when my grandmother provided input on the kitchen, came to fruition and I believe my grandparents moved the family out of the barn and into the new house in 1959. The house was decidedly what we call “Mid Century Modern” today, with pocket doors, a judicious use of slate and brick on the interior and a large basement that had its own fireplace and large windows. 

My fascination with Mid Century Modern began with this four bedroom, three and a half bath house that my grandparents called home for nearly 50 years. I struggle with seeing it in the somewhat run down state it’s in today; the guy that purchased the home from my grandfather’s estate using it as a camp of sorts.

I like to remember it in all its glory.

14 May 2017 by Fun and Games Dept 0

SnazzyLabs: macOS Tricks

As a Mac boy I’m always looking for exciting ways to trick out my macOS experience and be super geeky. Quinn Nelson @SnazzyQ (Twitter), who produces excellent, information tech videos, has some super cool tricks for macOS in his latest video.

Have fun!

12 May 2017 by Macboy 2

Purrfect.

This is Rexie. I’ve never met Rexie in person, but he seems like a good sort and he’s famous on the Internet. Looking at pictures of Rexie today kept me fairly grounded.

Tonight Earl and I also visited the local PetSmart store just to see the cats looking for a home. There were a few there and they seemed content. It was nap time for many.

My day was a whirlwind: the progress on the condo in Chicago came to a screeching halt due to some issues on the seller’s behalf and we were notified that there is going to be some budget belt-tightening at work. These two nuggets of news hit within a half hour of each other.

So I looked at a picture or two of Rexie and pictures of cats that have shared their lives with us over the years.

Purrfect.

10 May 2017 by Ponderings and Musings 1

Little Things.

Well this made my night.

Earl and I thoroughly enjoyed the latest episode of “Madam Secretary”, entitled “The Seventh Floor”. The tempo of this episode was different than previous episodes in that the focus was on Secretary McCord (Téa Leoni) and her staff. There was a great deal of character development of the staff and the entire episode had a “The West Wing” feel to it. The show has always done well with character development but the focus has been on the McCord family. Nothing wrong with that, but it was awesome to see the fleshing out of the supporting characters in Secretary McCord’s office.

This show is worth watching. It’s intelligent, it’s thoughtful and it “feels like real life”. If you haven’t seen “Madam Secretary” yet, please look it up on your favorite streaming service. It’s well worth it.

Oh, and I freely admit that I have a little straight crush on Téa Leoni.

9 May 2017 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Decaffeinated.

So on May 1 I began one of my 30 day challenges for self-improvement. This month I am going without caffeine.

The short version is, giving up caffeine is really hard.

I’m a week into this and I think I’m over the headaches. For the first couple of days last week I was going through some serious caffeine withdrawal headaches but by Wednesday night they subsided. I’m finding that I’m missing flavor more than anything; Earl has been kind enough to fill our fruit infuser water pitcher with limes or strawberries to keep the taste of water interesting for me. That is helping me from reaching for my old standby, unsweetened iced tea. When I flew on Delta this past weekend I opted to just have a beer, which is not a great answer to the no caffeine equation but it made the flight fly right by. I’ve already committed myself to not go down that path too often.

By the end of last week I found that I had a little more energy at work and my focus was better. Today was an unusually productive Monday for me, as I’m usually moving pretty slow on any given Monday. I like to think that by not kicking my body into overdrive artificially that I was able to perform as my body intended.

I’m still quite tired. We are at that time of year when Mother Nature is telling us that it’s one time but our clocks are telling us it’s another. The new blackout curtains we purchased for the bedroom are helping a little bit but my brain is still confused, even though we are two months into this special little hell others call “Daylight Saving Time”.

I think getting through the first week of being decaffeinated was the hardest part of this journey. I’m feeling like I can stick to it and I’m planning on doing just that well beyond this 30 day challenge I’ve given myself.

Hopefully when all is said and done I’ll find my natural Jolt.

8 May 2017 by Ponderings and Musings 0

DL 6009.


I’m onboard Delta flight 6009 from Raleigh-Durham to LaGuardia. Due to an aircraft swap, I was moved from seat 5A to 6A. I can’t complain about this as I’m in a row by myself and it is glorious. I was on the upgrade list for the premium cabin, but alas, I was number seven for six available seats. Honestly, I like my current seat better as there are three elementary school aged children in the premium cabin. They are being directed by a silver haired, clean shaven father with a sweater tied around his neck. I imagine he speaks with a clenched jaw.

The weekend in North Carolina has been most enjoyable. The weather was beautiful and the company was wonderful. It’s been raining non-stop in Upstate New York and the forecast looks like it’s going to continue this theme for the next several days. Looking at Chicago’s weather at the moment, it’s cool but it’s sunny.

Sun is the most important thing for me in a weather forecast. I can handle cold. I just want sunshine. Upstate New York has some of the cloudiest weather in the nation. This is not something to aspire to.

Since I have an empty seat next to me on this flight, I think I’ll take the opportunity to take a nap in peace.

Peace.

7 May 2017 by Ponderings and Musings 0

DSL.

Today I worked from our friends’ house. As a digital nomad I’ve come across slow Internet during my travels over the past couple of years, but I was confident that things would fly right along on their DSL connection. They have the fastest connection available to their home outside of Durham, N.C. 

After struggling with simple file uploads early in the day I ran a test using Speedtest.net. The fastest connection available here, outside of Durham N.C., tested at 5 Mbps down and .66 Mbps up. The sad thing is, the provider of this DSL is a former employer.

People, it’s the 21st century. We should be looking at 100 Mbps as a minimum. Other modern civilizations look at gigabit speeds and here we are crawling along at 5 Mbps down.

A first world problem, right? Probably. But, man, it’s the 21st century.

5 May 2017 by Geek 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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