Recycling Technology

Recently, my 2012-era ThinkPad X230 has been showing its age. Over the last 6 years, I've performed numerous performance upgrades and the laptop has been more than enough computer for daily tasks, retro games, multimedia editing, and programming, but for the last 6 months, I've noticed a large crack in the underside of the case that kept getting worse.

Las Vegas Snow 2018

It's been a long time since I remember seeing snow in the Las Vegas Valley. In fact, the last time I recall there being a snowstorm was December of 2006. I will never forget that storm, as I was taking the first significant vacation from my job at Nevada State College and traveling to San Diego to play tourist for a week.

The Life Changing Instant Pot

Awhile back, I started seeing friends on social media talking about the Instant Pot. I didn't really pay much attention because I didn't figure that it was really great.

Fast forward to now and the hype never seemed to die down. I started wondering if this appliance was really as fantastic as everyone makes it out to be. After doing a little research, I discovered that the Instant Pot is a multi-function, programmable pressure cooker. I had never used a pressure cooker, but had always heard that they can be very dangerous.

An Evening With Cake - 02-17-18

Last weekend, John and I were able to go to The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan to see his favorite band, Cake. We originally purchased tickets for his birthday and the show was scheduled for October. It was postponed after the 1 October shooting, so we were happy the day had finally come!

It was an interesting experience, to say the least...

Walmart Curbside Pick-Up

I hate to say it, but grocery shopping is the bane of my existence. It's a necessary evil, because obviously we need food in the house, but I absolutely hate having to go to the store.

I think part of my hate is due to how crowded the stores near us always seem to be. Initially, we were going to a nearby Smith's because they have a great deli and decent prices. However, our particular location seems small, the parking lot is a mess and it is always jam packed full of people, no matter what time we went. I would always try to avoid the shopping or put it off as long as possible because it annoyed me so much. 

Dragon Warrior

During my holiday vacation, there were many mornings where the baby had gone for a nap and Teri wasn't quite yet awake. I found myself revisiting memories from my childhood of playing the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) with my Mom. I loaded up the ROM for Dragon Warrior on my Recalbox and set off on a quest to save the princess and rid the land of a tyrant in all of its 8-bit glory.

Goodbye Moose

Today has been a very rough day at both the Williams and Nicpon households. This morning we had to make the very difficult decision to say goodbye to our beloved Moose. Although I am overcome with sadness, I know that this was the best thing for him. His health had started to decline over the last few months, and over the last 2 weeks had become worse.

Robot Life (Enhanced)

I've officially been on holiday time since December 15th @ 5:01pm. I ended my last day of work before vacation by taking my team from UNLV to Giordano's for deep dish pizzas and libations.

Aside from work and post-Thanksgiving holiday prep, I've been anxious for Christmas Day to roll around. Rosslyn and Teri have some great gifts and surprises in store for them!

Car Seat Safety

A couple of weeks ago, here in Las Vegas, a 9 year old was killed and their 6 year old sibling was seriously injured while riding in their minivan. All of the seats had been removed from the back - so not only were the kids not in child safety seats, they were not restrained AT ALL. I immediately felt sick to my stomach when I saw this on the news. This is a tragedy that was totally preventable.

Update - Hello Mint SIM!

True to my word, this is the follow-up article to my original Hello Mint SIM! post from September.

After a month of no major issues and even more drama with Teri's T-Mobile account, I switched Teri to Mint Sim in October. We've both been using Mint SIM without any major issues. Calls, Texts, Internet,  Android Auto, and Tethering all worked great with Mint SIM.

Groovebooks

Every once in awhile, someone shares something helpful or cool. Groovebook is one of those things. We take A LOT of pictures and were regularly spending $50 to print them at our local Sam's Club. Sam's has a great photo department (we created our birth announcements there and will be ordering our Christmas cards from there as well), but the spending was getting out of control. So, when I heard about Groovebook, I immediately checked it out and was really surprised.

Helpful Books For Dad

I wanted to share a couple of book titles that have been invaluable to me as a new father. Both are written by Armin A. Brott: The Expectant Father: The Ultimate Guide For Dads-To-Be and The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the First Year.