A few weeks ago I traded in my trusty old 2003 Toyota Highlander (174,000 miles) for a new 2013 SE model. In addition to all the automotive and mechanical advances in a 10-years’ newer SUV, I finally have built-in Bluetooth and iPod integration! (I know, welcome to 2008, right? 😉 ). Toyota’s Display Audio system has a …
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After the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan—and a 450-pound royal bengal tiger. We started “reading” the audiobook version of “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel back …
The GoalZero Rock Out portable rechargeable speaker, which I received as a recent birthday present, is the latest addition to my solar-chargeable gadget collection. The Rock Out unzips around its edges (like a suitcase) to reveal the on/off switch, mini-USB port for charging, audio input jack, and audio output cable. The other half contains a mesh pocket …
Driving home with my daughter the other day I was “forced” to listen to 101.5, her current favorite radio station. I really don’t listen to the radio anymore (not since getting my first MP3 player in 2002 and then switching to the iPod in 2006 and discovering podcasts) but she’s at that tweener stage where listening to …
This evening my wife and I went to the taping of NPR’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” radio show at the Straz Center in Tampa. The show is normally taped in Chicago, but it occasionally travels around the country. A few months ago when we heard it was coming to Tampa, we just had …
In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation …
The week before Easter we painted all of the central rooms in our house (kitchen, dining room, and family room) which had not been painted since we moved in about 8 years ago. In the family room, where the home theater setup is, we now have much lighter walls, so my old, blocky, and black …
Ex-confederate army captain John Carter finds himself unwittingly transported to Mars, while fleeing Apache Indians. This new world is populated by a race of monstrous Martians, whose culture is based on the ability to fight for their race. Fortunately for John, the gravitational difference between Mars and Earth has endowed him with the strength that …
For Father’s Day I received a pair of Sony’s 900Mhz wireless headphones (MDR-RF960RK), a perfect companion to my home theater system. Now I can watch TiVo, or a movie, at a comfortable volume (i.e., loud!) without disturbing the rest of the house late at night, or when other people are in the common area reading, …
Over the Millenium New Year’s weekend I was bitten by the home theater (or HT) bug. Since at the time I already had a DVD player in my laptop (using Margi’s DVD-to-Go, now discontinued) and a decent big screen TV, I opted for a receiver. I chose the Pioneer Elite VSX-24TX. It’s a Dolby Pro-Logic/Dolby …