An Interesting New Project

This is not a Budget related post – it more of an ARG post.  Though – it’s not quite that either.

Some friends of mine are working on a new project, which has encouraged us to have an ’emergency budget meeting’ and back our first kickstarter project.

Ok – I guess it IS a budget related post. 🙂

Anyway, in the past I’ve blogged about friends who made a feature film (Between Notes). These same friends are launching another new project – and the Kickstarter runs for another 12 days.  If you like Stories, Technology, Creativity, Storytelling, Real-life interaction, and trying to push the boundaries on how we use media to tell narratives, I’d recommend you check it out.

It’s setting is London – on the closing day of the Opening Olympics. It’s told through an App & serialized content (first of which drops on Aug 12 – the literal last day of the Olympics).  It follows the life of 7 characters.  Title: Seven Poets and the Assassin’s Secret.

Find out more here.

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Angry Birds…

I probably should not admit this – but like millions of others, I LOVE angry birds.

This week, I finished off the original game, getting 3 stars on all levels.

I had some itunes money, so I just purchased Angry Birds Rio this week as well. It’s fun and I think the graphics are better.

Also, my take on Angry Birds Seasons — It’s so much harder! Than the original or Rio.  I’m a bit stuck on some Christmas levels.

losing “it”

and by “it” I mean my ipod touch.

Earlier today, I met up @WildHairMedia to talk about the possibility of working together on somethings.  It was a great conversation – and filled my mind with so much thought that I left my ipod touch on the chair at Starbucks.

Thankfully, I was only one street away before I discovered my mistake. Turned around as quick as I could and it was still sitting there. (shout out to random lady who didn’t see it & sat on it. Thanks for protecting it from potential thievery!)

Now I’m home. That was about 3 hours ago. I seem to have misplaced the ipod again.  Here’s the thing, It’s light. It’s thin. It’s black. AND it’s not an iphone, so I can’t have anyone call it to listen for its location.

At least I know it’s in the house. (or the car… or somewhere around the neighborhood… we did go for a walk).

The one week count down

One week from now, I will be on a British Airways Plane. (or at least sitting in the airport waiting to board one). I assume I have a lot to do before I get to that point, I just haven’t figured out yet what all needs to be done this week to be ready to go.

I have a blow-up travel pillow. Plenty of memory space for my digital camera. A new battery for my ipod. (although I probably need to get some type of adapter so I can recharge it for the trip home. Right? I need an adapter for over there? Not sure.) Head phones that work so I can listen to music on the plane and on the bus rides. A couple of books I would like to read in specific places. A note book to write in.

I have not yet decided one bag or two. I got a new luggage bag that is a little smaller than my huge one and it is much lighter. (the old one had a developed a big hole by one part of the zipper. Not reliable). I may take a small bag too so that If I buy a bunch of things, I have a way of getting them home…not sure yet what I will do. I am hoping to do laundry at least one time while over there so I dont have to actually pack for 17 days.

Any suggestions from all of you world travelers? What am I forgetting? Any travel tips that would be helpful to know? I have traveled a bit, but never overseas and never for a 17 day trip where we will not be staying in one place longer than 4 days. So anything that you would like to share, click on the “comment” link and post away!

ipod battery

I just finished installing a new battery for my ipod. It was super duper cheap to buy because I did the installation. My old battery was not working for more than an hour or so and that would just not do for my trip to the UK. Can you imagine a 15 hour flight (or so, not sure of the exact length) with only one hour of music???? or all the traveling within the countries…Me the person who loves music would have been extremely bummed.

Upon completing the installation of the battery, I exclaimed “Done! I am a Walker!” 🙂

Day 6, Goodbye Chicagoland

Our last day in Chicago was pretty uneventful. We got up around 10 am and packed. Off to our last breakfast at Starbucks. This would be the only time on the trip we repeated Starbucks locations. After getting back to the hotel, we just lounged around until 1 or so.

We checked out and then hung out in the lobby of the Hotel with our luggage, reading our books. Our ride to O’Hare was arraigned for 2:55, but it turned out that they came every 30 minutes, so we hopped on.

After touring the north side of the city on our way to the airport (we passed Moody Bible Institute and the infamous Caprini Greens – “Chicago’s Cabrini Green–with its 23 high rises and 7, 000 inhabitants–is one of the most notorious housing projects in the country. Gang warfare has made it an extremely dangerous place to live–one of the worst in the entire United States. In fact, the district surrounding Cabrini Green is said to have the highest concentration of police in the nation. “), we checked in our baggage and headed for security.

It took a bit of time to wait in the line, but eventually we got through and headed to find food. Our terminal was pretty boring, so we explored the other parts of the airport. After a snack of bagels, we headed back to where our plane would be bordered. One of my roommate’s co-workers/friends ended up being on our flight home. It turned out that our plane was pretty empty, so we worked it out to have an entire row to ourselves (all three of us sat together).

After a few rounds of an electronic 20 questions game (This little gadget asks 20 questions, then guesses what you were thinking. It is impressive how often it its right. Except for the time it guessed “bomb” when I was thinking of a “wardrobe”.)

After that, I cranked up the tunes in my ipod and stared out the window. The sky was dark by the time we took off, but I did have a great view of the Big dipper. It looked like it was eye level with me. And so ends the great Chicago adventure. Well, it does not really end here…to date, research has been done regarding working opportunities, housing arraignments, recruitment of additional friends to come along, and average weather.

Batteries Hate Me!!

Ok, this last week was the week of the bad batteries.

First on Thursday morning, I was awoken about 5 am or so by a beeping smoke detector. This was the second time that morning it started beeping. I guess I slept through the first time, but my roomie woke up and shook the battery. We knew it was beeping once a minute because the battery needed to be changed, but we did not own any 9 volts. She shook it the second time and it stopped for a half hour or so. But it beeped a third time. I got up (this time my roomie slept through the beeping).

I spent over 10 minutes trying to get it to stop with no success. I think there must be a way to stop it, but we were both worried that we would set off all of the ones in the building. I went back to bed and tried to ignore it for an hour or so. Leaving for work that morning was great just to get away from the beeping. We got new batteries & it solved the problem.

I think I might have an issue with my new ipod’s battery, I was under the impression from the apple store that once the battery is fully charged, it should last for about 10-15 hours. so far, I have not had such luck.

Finally, last night I was leaving to go play Bunko, and my car would not start!!! I figured it was the battery because it had started rough the last few days. I talked to some people at church this morning and someone from church was kind enough to come over this afternoon and jump the car. It started up, we ran it over to sears, and Yeah, bad battery. PRAISE the LORD that that was the only problem. The starter, alternator, and electrical system all checked out fine.

Well, that was two bad batteries and one potential bad battery in one week. Maybe it is me? Is it possible to have a unique electrical magnetic makeup and kill batteries? I tend to get “shocked” more often and harder than anyone I know too. (one time my pinkie was shocked so hard I felt it up my arm and even in my heart) Either way, I think I will stay indoors during thunder storms.

Frosty Cash is here to Stay!

I decided to name my new ipod “Frosty Cash” (my pirate name) Thought it was a good name as I purchased the ipod right in the same time period I celebrated my first Talk like a Pirate Day. I just hope it is not considered “egotistical” to name one’s ipod after one’s own pirate name.

I love it already!!!!!!

Currently I am listening to the “Stress Melter” playlist and the Benidictine monks are filling my ears with beautiful music. boy I really want to learn latin. I wonder if they teach that at Wheaton?

iPod or Not

I am seriously considering purchasing an iPod. I have started to become annoyed with caring around all my cds. It takes so much time to figure out what I want to play. Or to put cds in my car, I have to put them in the trunk. Then I can’t change them while I am driving. Plus I look at my cds and I have so many good ones that I have not listened to in a long time. I am all about putting in a mixture of cds or a certain genre that matches my current mood and selecting: shuffle all, repeat.

I am guessing a 20 GB one will be just fine for me. They seem to be much cheaper on e-bay. Is there any advantage to buying a new one? Any suggestions on what I should do?

It would definitely be an investment, but so many advantages, it easy to rationalize. I haven’t even owned a portable player or radio since the days of the cassette walkman.