The Flying Mantis

There are only a few actual blogs I read, and of those, only one I care to keep up with on a regular basis.  That would be a friend of mine, Richie.  She and her husband Tim have a “small” motor home they use to take weekend vacations and sometimes longer ones.  She has gotten to where she is blogging about all their trips and sharing photos along the way.  It is neat to read and see, since I don’t have the means at this time to do that much traveling.  I should start, though.  Recently, they added a dash-cam to the mix, recording the road as it passes underneath the motor home.  Think “Russian crash-cam.”

Now, without further interuption by my rambling, here is a link to their blog: The Flying Mantis

It’s Been A While

Yep, it has been a while.  More than 3 months, by the look of it.  That’s ok, not a huge amount of stuff to go through.  In fact, the largest was a trip to California (San Francisco, Napa and Sacramento).  It was awesome.  I went solo.  Walked all over SanFran for most of the week (48 miles, actually) and then took 2 days in Napa Valley.  The weather was perfect, in the 50’s and 60’s.  I had a convertible Mustang GT for the duration.  The latter part of the trip was in Sacramento to see my great uncle Floyd.

Other than that, not a lot happened the last couple months.  So, until next time.

Last Few Weeks

Well, it has been a busy last few weeks since the renfair has ended; 48 Hour Film Festival, GenCon, Dallas work trip.  Not to say this is a bad thing, being busy, but really haven’t had true down time.  I think I have only had a couple full weekends off since fair ended in July.  That makes me a tired person.  With ORF around the corner (literally days away) I have to think hard what I am going to do with this weekend – the last one off until late October.  But more on that in a few – I want to kinda run down what I have done this summer.

Movie-Mania

So, I just added another piece to my media gear.  Seagate Wireless Hard Drive, 1 TB.  Purpose?  Simple – carry my movies around so I can watch any of them at any time.  Makes my 32 GB iPad virtually limitless when it comes to storage.  Add the Zagg Spark 2 and the battery life for the hard drive approaches 24 hours.  Since I have the 32 GB iPad rather than the 64 GB version, I have had to be careful about how much I put on it.  Balance the movies with the games and whatnot.  Not anymore.  I can stream right off the HD and it takes no room on the iPad.  OR, I can copy a movie over once and watch it then delete it, saving up battery life on the drive.  Best of all, no need to sync with iTunes to cue up movies.

Busy Summer Again!

Yep, Summer is just around the corner.  There is a LOT going on again this summer and into the fall.  Leaving work out, I have 4 major events with a smattering of minor ones that will have me booked out until nearly November.  Now, I have to start getting them written into my Calendar so I can keep up with them.

Travel with iPad/iPhone only.

OK, since I have had my iPad and iPhone, I have not had the chance to do a complete cross-country vacation.  I have just gotten back from a trip to Sacramento and Napa California.  the travel to and from took about 7 hours (that I could use my devices legally.)  My test was twofold.  First, how long could I use my iPad on the plane to watch movies and second, how well would my tethering work between my phone and tablet.  Short answer to both – extremely well.

What’s in my Light Gadget Bag?

Thought I would do a quick post on what I carry in my light gadget bag.  This is the bag I take for longer trips and where I don’t need the full MacBook Pro, or where I just want to take the lighter stuff.  I will do the full list I would pack for a trip, as some pieces are optional and not often taken.  Everything fits well and travels lightly.  With the two extra batteries (Mophie and Opteka) I can go without plugging in for quite a while.  I have tested the time on the Mophie while at Gencon this past summer and it allowed me to go the full day with heavy use and still not touch the iPhone’s internal battery.  It had just about 50% power left when I set it down to charge at night.  I have not stress tested the Opteka yet, but that will happen.  with it being solar, it should keep itself charged up fairly good without a plug in.