Kurt's Thoughts

Not surprisingly, this table could also be attributed to most Internet comments.

“I love Apple.  I LOVE APPLE.”

– Senator Claire McCaskill (D) Missouri in a Congressional Hearing with Apple CEO Tim Cook on the $44B in taxes they avoided

You gotta kidding me.

Yup.  Congressional pandering to Apple has gotten so disgusting that now even Jon Stewart is calling them out.

Full article & video here:

• Tax Men – Apple
  Senators laud Apple CEO Tim Cook for his amazing products and outside-the-box interpretation of the American corporate tax code. 
  http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-may-22-2013/tax-men—apple

These stupid things make me cry every damned time. 

I suppose deep down it’d be really, really, really nice to have the balls to do something like this.  But I’ll see how Matt himself feels about his ‘line of work’ now that he’s got a little one.  Because the day I had my son, was the day everything changed – work, fun, energy, interests/hobbies, worries, focus…

Here’s the one from June of last year.  I only saw it 4 hours ago.  The fact that I missed it completely tells me maybe I need to expand my circle of interests or something.

I hope Matt Harding manages to continue doing what makes him happy.  With all the videos he took during this 5 min montage, the last clip is the simplest & one that opened up the waterworks for me.

Good job, Matt.

Someone named IamNorris posted a map comparison showing where “Whole Foods” are located versus “Walmarts”, with the implication of this being a determination as to “where the rich people live, versus where the poor people live”.

Something that dawned on me was, “Where’s the middle ground?  Where’s the middle class?”  And so I started thinking… where does our family shop?  I think I’ve got the solution:  “Trader Joes”

Locations of Whole Foods in Los Angeles:
Big surprise, they’re all located in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Westwood/Bel Air, Brentwood, Santa Monica, Culver City, Venice.

Locations of Walmarts in Los Angeles:
Again, not surprisingly you see them located in Norwalk, La Mirada, Hawaiian Gardens, Bell Gardens, Cerritos, & Paramount.

Location of Trader Joes in Los Angeles:
Again LOTS of Culver City Rancho Park, West Hollywood, Hollywood, North Hollywood, Silverlake, Mid-Wilshire, Manhattan Beach.

Have you ever had a piece of equipment that you bought “just in case” an discovered how incredibly useful it is after the fact?  It’s like a 6th man on the bench that suddenly steps up.  That’s what the Energizer All-in-One is like.  It’s the Jeremy Lin of home accessories. 

At its most basic, the Energizer All-in-One is a single body luggable battery with 3 uses.  It can:

• Jumpstart your car when the battery goes dead with its jumper cables
• Inflate tires & other items with its air compressor
• Provides 12V AC power for either a conventional US power socket or dual car accessories
• Provide directional light using a bendable LED white flashlight at its top

I bought this on a lark during a Black Friday thinking that it’d be convenient.  It’s usually $120 but it was going for 60% off so I said, what the heck.  Boy, am I glad I did.  This thing is so convenient it’s crazy.  Here’s why:

• I’ve left my lights on or drained my battery 5-6 times accidentally by having items plugged into the car adapter or leaving my lights on.  This has jumpstarted the car in under 5 minutes every time.
• I’ve had to inflate my tires or my son’s basketball/soccer ball numerous times and simply pulling this out was dirt simple.  No need to find a power source for the compressor:  The unit IS A POWER SOURCE.
• I’ve had to jump my car in the pitch black.  The arcable/bendable LED flashlight at the top is exactly what you need to illuminate the area around your car battery to hook the jumper cables to it late at night.
• The AC adapter port provides power to charge my laptop an addition 10hrs plus.  I have no idea how much juice is in this thing because it’s never run out of power on me.

There’s two catches:

1. The instructions say that you must recharge the unit after every use or you’ll diminish the life of the battery.  I bring my unit indoors and plug it into the wall immediately after using it.  I’ve read some negative reviews about the unit on Amazon – the primary complaints revolved around the unit not being able to retain a charge, and I highly suspect these folks used it, then left it for a while with a diminished charge & that goes against the instructions which clearly states that the unit needs to be fully recharged after every use.
2. To recharge the unit you need to plug it into a wall socket… and there’s no cable to do that.  ANY lightweight TWO-pronged AC extension power cable will work & I didn’t need heavy duty cabling.  I used a thin power extension cable I typically use for Christmas tree lighting.  It would be nice to be able to charge the unit via the car adapter while the car is running but I guess I understand that there may be safety hazards associated with that.

Ultimately, this has saved me a ton of money on AutoClub calls.  Maybe I’m absent-minded and a little abnormal but I used to have to call AAA to jumpstart my car at home all the time (6-7 times a year) because I’d drain the battery due to my forgetfulness around plugged in peripherals on the AC adapter or leaving my lights on or simply not using the car and letting the alarm system drain the car battery.

…but now I don’t need to.  The Energizer All-in-One has saved my bacon more times than I can imagine and did it QUICKLY if I was scrambling to work.  If I could write a Yelp review for this little unit I would.  But I can’t so this is my review.  Most useful piece of equipment I’ve owned in years.  5-stars!

• AMAZON: Energizer 84020 12V All-In-One Jump-Start System with Built-In Air Compressor and Power Inverter ($125)
  http://www.amazon.com/Energizer-84020-All-In-One-Jump-Start-Compressor/dp/B0030B2N10/
• AMAZON: C2G/Cables to Go 03115 18 AWG Outlet Saver Power Extension Cord (NEMA 5-15R to NEMA 5-15P), Black (6 feet/1.82 Meters) ($5)
  http://www.amazon.com/C2G-Cables-Outlet-Extension-Meters/dp/B0002J1KS0/

(Photos taken from M. Johnson/webrat55 on Amazon)

Every so often a product comes a long that makes my mouth hang open, thinking, “OMG – that’s EXACTLY what I need.”

AquaNotes was exactly that product.  It’s a waterproof notepad that allows you to jot down ideas or reminders you have while in the shower.

The notepad isn’t actually made of paper.  It’s a white rubber/plastic material that you’d swear has the exact consistency of paper.  It allows for writing on by pencil, pen, and basically any writing utensil.

The top of each sheet is perforated so that you can rip the note off of the pad to take with you to work or wherever you need to go.  It doesn’t get “moldy” or “retain water”.  It just hangs on the shower wall using two suction cups, along with a 3rd suction cup that holds a pencil.  (Both included)

And it’ costs $7.  $7 to never ever forget a thought you had in the shower.  I bought a stack of them & I bought one for everyone in my family as a stocking stuffer.

OMG, TAKE MY MONEY, AMAZON.

• Aqua Notes – Waterproof Notepad ($7, Amazon Prime)
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003W09LTQ/r

The 7th Annual Sake & Food Tasting Event is scheduled for Friday, July 26, 2013 Samuel Oschin Endeavour Pavilion at the California Science Center.  More details to follow. Stay tuned at LTSC.org