Latest Gear Live Videos
So if you have followed my blog for any amount of time, you will know that our son Alijah was born 3 months premature. Despite the expectation of numerous physical and mental problems, there is absolutely nothing wrong with him - a true miracle. Today, he decided it was time to crawl forward. We have been trying to get him to do it for quite some time, but backwards has seemed to be his preference. Today, with the help of the iPod and a Motorola V710, he crawled forward for the first time. Just like Daddy, Alijah has lots of gadget love. Check him out crawling here.
Advertisement
So, we are back home in Washington after our two trips in the past few weeks. First, we went down to E3 where I ended up totally exhausted by the end of the week. A week after returning from that trip, we went to New York City for my grandmothers 90th birthday. Of course, Murphy’s Law had to intervene and I ended up with strep throat and a bad sinus infection. This meant that I spent most of the trip either resting (which seemed like a real waste of time and money) or on the go when I should have been resting. Just so you know, if you have been contacting me by email, being out of town is the reason you haven’t heard back from me just yet. Optimum Online in NYC blocks port 25 and 587 - I couldn’t get any emails out. Frustrating as hell.
Nonetheless, now it’s back to the grind of doing what I love. Oh, and Mr. Pirillo, my schedule is open!
Don’t forget to check out Venturus.com to see the newest project I am involved with.
June 2 is here again, signifying another full year that I have been married to my bride. Marriage is a wonderful thing, and it has provided me with great happiness as well as the cutest little boy in the world(‘s history). We are in New York City for our anniversary, which is coincidentally where we were last year as well. A year ago I took Monica to see The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, which is something she has wanted to do for almost her whole life. This year I was thinking of seeing another play/musical - Blue Man Group, Avenue Q, or The Spelling Bee. Not sure if we will be able to make it to any of the above, but it would be cool.
The horrible thing about this trip is that I got sick the day after we arrived. Strep throat with a sinus infection and fever. Totally sucks. In fact, I haven’t even rested at all because I feel it would be a wasted trip if I flew out here from Seattle just to stay in bed to recuperate. Building upon the frustrations is the fact that Optimum Online, my parents ISP, blocks port 25 and 587 for outgoing email - so I cant even respond to the many (many, many) emails that I receive on a daily basis. Hopefully I can find a hotspot to connect to tomorrow.
I will be back in the Seattle area on Saturday evening, flying in at around midnight on JetBlue - excellent airline. I will post more about them after we get back.
Heading to New York City (or Why I Missed the Chris Pirillo Show)
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories:
Okay, so it is my grandmother’s 90th birthday this coming week, and as I type this I am sitting on a plane headed to New York City with Monica and Alijah to join the festivities. This will actually be the first time we have had so many family members together at once since Monica and I were married back in 2002. Looks like everyone will be there except for one of my younger brothers. Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it) I have a total of six brothers and sisters, so while one missing does suck, we will still have a lively bunch.
I got an email earlier today from Chris Pirillo that had no body. The subject read “What are you doing tonight 7-10pm? ?” As soon as I saw it, I knew he was either asking me out on a date or inviting me to be a part of his weekly podcast radio show. I listen to Chris regularly, and would have jumped at the chance – but alas, tonight is the night that we are leaving for New York. Our JetBlue flight didn’t depart until 11:59, so I was very tempted to try and make it to the show and then head to the airport. Monica advised against it. Here’s hoping that Chris has space for me somewhere in the next couple of weeks. Heck, I would just enjoy having the opportunity to be there while the show is being recorded, just to see how it all goes down. I will keep you updated. Either way, I will be seeing Chris – along with a bunch of other influential people – at GnomeDex in June. Can’t wait for that one.
So, running Gear Live is an absolute pleasure. So much so, that I started a site which is 100% devoted to video games – Playfeed. I recently hooked up with Alan Jeric to act as the Editor-in-Chief for his new business-related blog, Venturus. We recently launched the site and have started getting some content up. Basically, Venturus aims to serve business advice to those who own and operate businesses on the web. There is a lot of business information out there, but I find that good Internet business advice and general direction is hard to come by. In fact, more often than not if you do a search for Internet businesses you will get search results which will lead you down the wrong path. If you want to read about RSS, Google AdSense, eBay Stores, legal issues, and all sorts of other Internet business related material (Including gadgetry – gotta let the Gear Live influence shine through), give Venturus a look. We have a lot more coming in the next few weeks. Speaking of which, if you would like to write for Venturus on a paid basis, drop me a line at Andru [at] gearlive.com.
Call me gullible, but I thought these things were some sort of genetically mutated apple-grape hybrid. A couple of friends said they were really good, tasting like a mixture of a grape and an apple. Sounded interesting enough. At my local Safeway, these things come in a plastic package of four which costs $5.00. Five bucks for four apples?? Oh, wait…these were Grapples. They were special, and why not spend the $5 to give it a try? So I tried them. The result? They taste like apples. I tried my hardest to find a hint of grape - it just wasn’t there. I looked at the packaging, and that is where I found that Grapples were not a hybrid at all. Instead, they are basically Fuji apples soaked in grape flavoring! I then went to the website, and found this:
So simply put, how do Gr?pple™ brand apples get their flavor? Fuji apples are dipped into a combination of pure water and Concord grape flavoring for a short time. They are then moved into cold storage for few days while the flavor takes hold. After which they are packed and shipped out to grocery stores.
So I could have spent half the money, and made my own Grapples? Oh well. My opinion? Just buy apples and wash them down with grape juice.
One of the main things I wanted to do when I got into blogging was do more than just write. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy typing up interesting bits of information and formatting images to go with it. However, with all the tools available to us which allow us to do more, I wanted to take advantage of that. Today, I am glad to say that Gear Live has posted its first Podcast show. If you are into gaming, check it out. Oscar and Jesse, two Gear Live editors, join me on the show as we go over our thoughts about the rumors and facts surrounding Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s PlayStation 3, Nintendo’s Revolution, and much more. Check it out here, and let me know what you think. You can expect a new podcast to be posted weekly!
Gotta love the local news affiliate coverage. Turns out KOMO 4 here in Seattle needed a techie’s opinion on the whole OS X Tiger launch business that dominated the minds of PC enthusiasts everywhere yesterday. They called me up, asked if I was willing, and it was a go. I talked to the reporter about my feelings on the whole Tiger/Longhorn thing for about 5 minutes or so, with about 1 of those 5 making the air, along with a shot of the Gear Live website. Very cool.
I have been keeping an eye on Participatory Culture for a few weeks now, and I am excited about the June launch of their software package. If you haven’t heard of them, basically they aim to do for video what Podcasting has done for audio on the Internet. Using open source code, and open standards (BitTorrent, XML, HTTP, etc.), Participatory Culture aims to bring both a delivery and reception module to the table, allowing anyone who want to view and/or publish video to do so. They even claim that their video publishing software is even easier to use than most blogging packages out there. While that remains to be seen, it certainly does sound intriguing. I am pumped about all these new generation methods of handling video that are starting to come around.
Monica and I are going to be doing the March of Dimes WalkAmerica here in Washington on April 30. Most know that our son, Alijah, was born about three months early on January 9, 2004. At 1 lb 13 oz, he was a sight to behold - very frightening as a new parent. Through the help of the March of Dimes, we have facilities where babies that are born at this size/weight can survive. It is just amazing to me that we have a perfectly healthy 15 month old little guy, when even a few years ago his birth circumstances would have meant certain death.
If you would like to sponsor us on our walk to help give babies a fighting chance, you can visit our March of Dimes WalkAmerica site and pledge any amount you are willing to give to this cause. You can also read the story of Alijah’s birth and journey through everything that led up to where he is today at our sponsor site as well, written by my wife Monica. Here is an excerpt:
Our son was in the NICU for 8 weeks on the respirator, had abdominal surgery when he was just 2 weeks old, not even 2 lbs yet, that was the first time we were able to hold him, only for a moment, while he was being transferred to the incubator for surgery. He fought through many blood infections and transfusions, through the miracle of God he came through all of it with flying colors. It was a rollercoaster ride that no parent should have to go through, sitting by your childs bed feeling so helpless, while they fight for just a breath.
Advertisement
© Gear Live Media, LLC. 2007 – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.
{solspace:toolbar}