Just a little type A

Schroeder Family Challenge Zamzee Giveaway

Don't hate us because we're competitive.  I bet you thought I'd say beautiful, like that Loreal commercial? I almost went there...

 If you read my post about Zamzee, now's your chance to get your very own Zamzee, enter a Rafflecopter giveaway.  

Here are the players:

The Big One: occassionally rides his bike to school, on the cross country running team and practices 5 days a week including cross country meets on Friday afternoons

The Little One: occassionally rides his bike to school, on the cross country running team and practices 4 days a week including cross country meets on Thursday afternoons; on a competitive soccer team and practices 3 days a week including two soccer games on the weekends

Jeff: rides his bike to work adding in 10 - 30 extra miles on the way; rides @ 200 miles a week (not counting his commute) for pleasure (yeah, I agree, weird); runs about 3 days a week

 

Deb: still recovering from a broken foot, pretty much sedentary, occassion walk with the dog and have  made it back to Zumba twice

If you feel like taking a guess as to which Schroeder racked up the most Zamzee points, leave a comment.  

We're giving away a total of 5 Zamzee meters (1 brand new Zamzee meters and 4 used Zamzee meters).  

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Zamzee

Photo Credit: Zamzee/HopeLab

One of the sponsors at BlogHer '12 was Zamzee.

I can hear you thinking, "Zamzee. What the heck is Zamzee?" and immediately doing a Google search.  So I'll save you a little time.

"Zamzee is a social enterprise on a mission to make it easier for tweens and families to be more physically active."  

Social enterprise on a mission? What? Are we talking Star Trek? What?  I'm confused...

In other words, Zamzee is a cleverly designed, fun way to get your couch potato preteen off the X-Box, PS3, Wii or Nintendo, and out the door doing something a little more physical than moving their thumbs.

Zamzee is a Fitbit for tweens, without all the fancy graphs, calorie count, etc. that a preteen could care less about.  Zamzee is what Fitbit used to be: simple to use, tracks physical activity, plain and simple, nothing fancy.  And unlike Fitbit, Zamzee is FREE to use, after you've purchased a meter for only $29.95. Or you can get one (or up to 5) for free by participating in our Zamzee Giveaway. 

Setting up Zamzee is easy. Plug it in to the USB port on your computer or laptop and while it's charging, you can customize your avatar.  

Can you guess who is who?

Then you pop that little puppy on your body, you can clip it to your waistband, your shirt pocket, or leave it in your pocket. Zamzee likes skin on skin action best and tracks better when it's clipped on your waist.  

You can download the information each night to track daily progress or just wait until the end of the week.  Nightly downloads give younger kids more immediate gratification.

Badges are earned for different levels: Newbie badge just for joining, 1st Timer Badge for uploading your first activity, and the list goes on.

Badges aren't the only things your kids can earn, they can earn Zamz (Zamzee currency) which can be used to buy tangible items like iPod Nanos, Wii and X-box games (yeah that cracked me up too - here we have a system designed to get kids to stop playing video games and one of the rewards is video games, but you've gotta give the kids what they want), and $25 gift cards.

A drop down prepopulated list of activites are available for your child to select what they were doing, where they were, and how they earned pointz (yes, that's a "z" on the end of points to correlate with the spelling on Zamzee), all designed to capture your child's imagination and get them to become an active participant.  

What they were doing choices (well over 50 possibilities) range from the realistic "kickball", the silly "blowing bubbles", to the outrageous "taming ogres". 

Where they were choices (again, tons to choose from) include "at Hogwarts", "in disguise", and "in zero gravity."

How choices include "and using the force", "like a Zombie", and "with my BFFs." 

Perfectly geared to tweens, Zamzee was easy to use and fun.  For adults, Zamzee is too simplistic, by golly we want to know how many calories we burned.  Not having an option to create a field for what you were doing was also an issue. 

But again, Zamzee was designed for tweens and not obsessive, type A adults.

Speaking of obessive, since we had four Zamzee meters, we opted to do a family challenge to see who could rack up the most activity pointz.  

The bad news: You'll have to stay tuned to find out the winner of the Schroeder Family Challenge.

The good news: You can win your own Zamzee.  

Read the Schroeder Family Challenge Zamzee Giveaway post to enter and win.  

Note: Other than receiving 4 Zamzees to review, I was not compensated in any way for this post.  All views are my own.  

 

 

iPad vs Laptop

Photo credit: Apple

 

Photo Credit: Apple

 I've been coveting an iPad for the last 2 years.  So lightweight, so versatile, I want.  But I've been good and have been holding off.  

Keeping those desires at bay, while thoughts of scoring an iPad run through my head. Like an addict, wanting a fix, knowing they shouldn't, yet the desire is still there.

But now the thoughts of want, want, want, have become a crescendo, threatening to drown out all logic and reason.  

I need an iPad.  Or rather, I need a laptop. But which one?  iPad vs Laptop?

I have a great laptop that works. But...

• It's 8 years old
• It's very slow
• The hard drive is only 74 GB
• The battery can only hold a charge for 30 minutes so it has to be plugged in
• I can't work on any of my blogs (Traveling Well For Less, Fun San Diego, or even this one) since the platform is so old. And yes, I tried updating IE, even installed Firefox, but no go.

So it needs to be replaced.  But do I get an iPad or a laptop?  And do I go with a MacBook Air or an ultrabook?

I've spent the last 3 months trying to decide, reading everything and anything on exactly how much I can get done or not get done with an iPad.

What I need:

• lightweight (4 pounds max)
• long battery life
• ability to work on my blogs

But I'm cheap.  I want an iPad since it can do all those things.  Although, uploading photos is tricky and I would need several writing apps, so it's not an end all.  And for $829, I can almost get a MacBook Air or an ultrabook.

With a MBA or ultrabook I could also do my court reporting.  And that is the question. Since I'm still in school, do I hold off completely until I finish and then get a MBA or ultrabook?

Or do I get the iPad that will serve me now and cost a little less?

Or do spend a little more to get the MBA or ultrabook, but I can use it for more things?

I can't decide: everyday I change my mind; one day I'm getting the iPad, the next day a MBA, the next an ultrabook.   Aaargh...

What do you think?

 

BlogHer'12 Recap

 

Sparklecorn's lone unicorn

BlogHer'12 has come to an end and it's time for a BlogHer'12 recap.  

This is the first of twelve short posts about my BlogHer'12 experience.   

1. Hilton New York - The Mother Ship
2. Transportation - Cheap or convenient
3. BlogHer '12 - 5,000 Attendees (4,992 women and 8 guys)
4. Food - Options for all
5. Sessions - Don't bother taking notes
6. Geek Bar - Geeks rule
7. Parties - Sparklecorn, it's no joke
8. Sponsors - Only if you were one of the chosen
9. Swag - Vibrators Galore
10. Roommate - Sharing a room with a stranger
11. Bloggers - New friends and blogs to read

Although this post isn't on the list, it counts.  Check back or make it easy on yourself and subscribe via RSS feed.

 

SMASH

 

Smash, the upcoming show on NBC about a musical based on Marilyn Monroe, produced by Steven Spielberg debuts after the Superbowl, but passengers on American Airlines flights have been watching the first episode for the couple of weeks.

When I saw the advertised previews on television, before my twelve flight mileage run, I wasn't too impressed.  While I love musicals and the creative genius of Steven Spielberg, I'm not a big Marilyn Monroe fan.  So I hadn't planned on watching SMASH.

However, being a captive audience in an airplane for 9 hours changes one's opinion.  

The first few flights I caught bits and pieces without sound in between naps.  Since I couldn't figure out what was going on, about two weeks ago, I decided to watch the first episode in it's entirety.  And I was/am hooked.

While Marilyn Monroe features prominently, as the musical being developed is based on her life, Smash isn't about Marilyn, it's about the characters, their interactions, and the internal dramas of each.

We are quickly but without feeling rushed introduced the characters adn their struggles, starting with Karen Cartwright, played by Katharine McPhee.  Karen is a newcomer, trying to break into showbusiness, her parents disapprove, but she is supported both financially and emotionally by her boyfriend Dev Sundaram, played by Raza Jaffrey.  His love and support gives her the confidence to succeed.

Ivy Lynn, played by Megan Hilty,  has been relegated to being in the ensemble, yet to land the starring role. 

Ivy is the yin to Karen's yang.  Karen is the innocent, girl next door, Ivy is the bad girl, the hard knock kid, who has no one in her corner.  When she calls home to tell her mom she got a callback, she doesn't get the approval she craves and needs.  

Debra Messing plays Julia Houston, a songwriter who promised her husband, Frank, played by Brian d'Arcy James, she would take the year off so they focus on their adoption efforts.  Julia breaks her promise to her husband when the musical evolves from a casual suggestion by Julia's partner, Tom Levitt's assistant Ellis Tancharoen, played by Jaime Cepero.  It is because of Ellis, the musical takes off, in more ways than one.

Tom Levitt, played by Christian Borle, has his own demons. Tom is a gay man who can't remember the names of his partners and has a hate-hate relationship with the director, Derek Wills, played by Jack Davenport.  

Finally, we have producer Eileen Rand, played by Anjelica Houston, who is going through a vindictive divorce and may or may not have money to fund the production.

Smash is worth watching.

 

 

 

The Drowsy Chaperone

Spent a dreary rainy day at the Avo seeing the final performance of "The Drowsy Chaperone" as presented by Premier Productions. 

Billed as a "musical within a comedy", The Drowsy Chaperone is a fast moving, laugh out loud musical comedy whose main character, "man in chair", in an attempt to combat the blues plays his record of the play, "The Drowsy Chaperone".  

To say the show was outstanding and amazing would not do the performance justice.  It was captivating, engaging, and the perfect way to spend the day.

Canon Canoscan 8800f review

So I got the Canon 8800f scanner for Christmas.  I wanted the Epson V700.  But as my frugal husband proclaimed, "It's several hundred more!" I wanted the Epson since I have a ton of family slides plus all our "old" film photos/negatives that I want to convert to digital.  And because I'm a "serious digital professional" rofl (see http://debbieschroeder.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/11/serious-digital.html) as Jeff likes to tease me, I want an excellent scanner.  I need an excellent scanner for uploading at Crop Addict and for scanning documents for pdf and emails for my clients of Days Off Travel.

All in all I'm pretty frugal - I haven't bought any new clothes for about 2 - 3 years, don't wear makeup so don't have that expense and don't really buy much except for scrapbook stuff. I spend a lot of time researching something and deciding if the cost is worth it before I make a purchase so when I do spend, it's well thought out.

So, long story shorter. I wanted the Epson V700. But since I was given the Canon I thought I'd try it. It's does give a nicer scan than my previous scanner (an HP) but that one was an inexpensive scanner that I had bought maybe 5 or so years ago just to scan things before I was uploading my layouts and such so and before I realized I could scan film and negatives.

What's nice about the Canon 8800f is it's ability to scan and directly convert a document into a pdf file. With my old scanner I would have to scan the document, then open the photo and convert to a pdf. So the Canon will save me several minutes - figuring how often I have to convert a document into a pdf means it's well worth the time savings.  I'm not sure if the Epson V700 does that - I need to actually go in and see one to see if they have the pdf button or whatnot. The Epson V500 does though.

However, the slide scan, that's another story.  First I  scanned a slight according to the quick start directions. This only gave me the option of scanning at 150 or 300 dpi. Not what I would call a quality scan - if you want print enlargements.  But it at least does give the option to remove scratches and dust. 

I then used the online manual and followed those directions - gives you several scanning dpi options up to 4800. But no removal or dush or scratches. Not good when you're scanning old slides that have been sitting around for years.

Finally I tried a combination of the two methods and switched the mode from simple to advanced. This allowed me to scan up to 9600 dpi and remove dust and scratches. 

In terms of the quality. I was not impressed.  The colors seemed a bit off but then my test scan was from 28 years ago and it was Jeff's slide not mine so I have not point of reference.  I'll go back and include photos (using my laptop now so I don't have them on my harddrive.) 

Additionally, the FARE (Canon's dust and scratch removal system as opposed to Epson's ICE), did a poor job.  While it was able to remove the large particles, quite a few still remained. On the landscapes you can't see the scratches too much but when you look at the slide with people, you can see where FARE did not fare well. 

(click on the photo for a larger image).  This is the result of the scan following the directions in the online manual - which does not give you the option to use FARE and remove dust and scratches.  As you can see there are a considerable amount of specks.  And the green of the trees seem a bit off.

(click on image for larger view) Same photo but this time, scanning by a combination of the two methods and switching  the mode from simple to advanced.  Dust and scratches virtually gone with the exception of a few on the right top by the tree.

Now, here's the trick. Landscape scans are one thing, here's the photo with people.

(click on image for a larger view) Without using any editing software the image initially appears to be ok - free from scratches or dust. However, when you zoom in you see all the little specks and gunk.

(click on image for larger view).  When you zoom in you can see all the specks all over both boys faces and bodies - not what you want in your photo. This is where I believe that FARE fails and ICE may be superior.

This is quite disappointing as I was just beginning to like the Canon 8800f.  I'm going to try to go into one of the electronic stores and see if they have an Epson V700 on the floor and see if they'll let me attempt a scan so I can compare both machines.  I know the 8800f can't really compare to the V700 so I'll look at the V500, since it's the same price class as the 8800f.

In terms of speed: the LED is definitely a plus as scanning was quick, even with multiple scans.  It took slightly over 1 minute to scan 1 slide at 4800 dpi.  The Canon 8800f, will only allow you to scan 4 slides at a time.  For 4 slides at 4800 dpi it took about 7 minutes. 

However, after you've scanned your 4 slides, the Canon 8800f will only allow you to save the first slide scanned. I attempted this twice and both times, the system defaulted to only saving the first slide. I'll have to play around with it and see if there's a way to tweak the system. Otherwise, there's no point in scanning 4 slides at a time if you can only save the first slide. 

Scanning large objects: after receiving the Canon 8800f I went online to read other reviews. Some listed similar findings as I've discovered, ie. color quality not the same as with Epson scanners.    One review mentioned that larger objects are unable to be scanned because the cover isn't able to close properly (the scanning buttons are on the lid). So I put a 500 page book on the scanner, opened to page 250, figured that was an easy 3 inches. Despite it's size it scanned, although a bit crooked but no problems in terms of the buttons not signaling or whatever.

I'm off to find an Epson V500 or V700 to test run and compare.  Until then...