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Vacation means sleeping in

I went on Christmas vacation at 1pm this past Friday. Since it is my vacation, I’ve slept in each day until 6am!

Vacation accomplishments/activities? Shopping, programming, cleaning, some crafting, finally gained some competency on Sketchup, daughter (who just graduated from college) came home for the week, and had a chemical spill in the house (Mineral spirits).

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Happy Father’s Day!

I tried writing some sappy Father’s Day post and it sounded so forced and fake. I love my father! He’s my hero. As I’ve gained wisdom in life, I’ve both apologized to my father (for my shenanigans) and thanked him for allowing me to live (how he restrained from selling me to the gypsies is beyond me). Thank you Dad for everything!

So, in lieu of sappy, I give you video!

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Happy Mother’s Day!

In particular, I want to thank the love of my life, Cathy, for being such an awesome mother to our children! Additionally, I am so lucky to have been raised by a great, caring mother who made me a priority. I am fortunate to have a fantastic mother-in-law in our children lives. And I have a wonder grandmother who never misses a birthday. There have been so many other mother figures and mothers in my life and my children’s lives that I would have to type all day simply to recognize them all.

Happy Mother’s Day! This goes out to all. Mothers come in all forms, with or without child, regardless of gender, you are there for us!

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It’s the end of the vacation as we know it.

I’ve come to the end of a genuine two week vacation. I’m very relaxed (except a dog is whining at me trying to shake my calm). It would be easy to slip into a state of anxiety because the list of things I didn’t accomplish that I wanted to over the break is very large. Depressingly so. But the list of things that I did accomplish, including days committed to sleeping in and chillin’, is substantial. This break included the Christmas holiday of course so time was committed to preparing for the day including shopping, wrapping and cleaning. This break included playing games with the children (albeit not enough..2013 shall include more play time with the children) and visiting relatives. This break included an overnight camping trip that started at 32°F and dropped to 22°F then rose to 42°F. It was cold and a sore knee had me concerned that the hike out would be too difficult but the trip was probably the best thing for the knee (2013 shall include more exercise).

For my final Sunday of my vacation, I plan only one thing. Anything else is bonus. The one thing I will accomplish today is to plan a cub scout meeting.

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Why does Apple make this so confusing?

Goals

  • Get beyond setup so the children can play on their iPods.
  • Sync their iPods through a shared Macbook Air without compromising my wife’s iPhone and iPad settings.
  • Allow the children to Facetime and iMessage their friends without compromising my wife’s contacts and without using her account.

Situation

We have one Macbook Air in the house. My wife syncs her iPhone with iTunes on this Macbook Air. For Christmas, the 7 year old and 10 year old received iPods. Yes, I understand DRM. Rovio Entertainment would much prefer I buy Angry Birds 3 times instead of one. I have no problem with that although I do feel like the model for DRM for music fails when compared to the physical world of records and CDs.

Possible solutions

As best I can tell, there are four ways to manage multiple devices with iTunes.

  1. Individual User Accounts
  2. Multiple iTunes Libraries
  3. Management Screen
  4. Playlists

Each of these has their respective pros and cons.

Individual User Accounts

Since each user account is its own space, that means each user has their own iTunes library and sync settings for their iOS device. Easy to understand, (relatively) easy to set up, and easy to maintain–it’s a good approach!

[Source, About.com, 4 Ways to Use Multiple iPods on One Computer]

The problem with this approach is Apple doesn’t allow children under 13 to have an AppleID. So you are faced with lying and apparently Apple permanently associates the age first entered with the email address. Sharing of apps and music is difficult or impossible (DRM…and I’m okay with that).

Multiple iTunes Libraries

With this method, each person who uses the computer has their own iTunes library and sync settings. This way, you won’t get music, apps, or movies mixed across iTunes libraries (unless you want to) and won’t end up with someone else’s content on your iPod by mistake.

The downsides of this approach are that parental controls on content apply to all iTunes libraries (with user accounts, they’re different for each account) and that each user’s space is not as cleanly separate. Still, this is a good option that’s easy to set up.

[Source, About.com, 4 Ways to Use Multiple iPods on One Computer]

Although promising, this approach seems burdensome and ripe for making errors since iTunes launches the last used library by default.

Management Screen

With this approach, you choose what content from each of the tabs in the management screen you want on your device. Other people using the computer do the same thing.

The downsides of this technique include that it only allows one setting for parental control of content and it can be imprecise (for instance, you might only want some music from an artist, but if someone else adds more of that artist’s music, it could end up on your iPod).

So, even though it’s messy, this is a very easy way to manage multiple iPods.

[Source, About.com, 4 Ways to Use Multiple iPods on One Computer]

I believe this is how my wife has been managing multiple devices in the past. It does allow for sharing of certain apps and music but if a child starts syncing with a different iTunes library, your personal device will start prompting you for their password in addition to yours in certain circumstances. I am also not sure that this approach will allow the children to use Facetime, iCloud, and iMessage the way we want. Instead the 5GB of space on iCloud may end up being shared between all the devices while the iMessages intended only for my wife (nudge nudge) could inadvertently be seen by the children.

Playlists

Downsides of this approach include that everything each person adds to the iTunes library is mixed together, the same content restrictions for all users, and the possibility that your playlist could be accidentally deleted and you’d have to re-create it.

[Source, About.com, 4 Ways to Use Multiple iPods on One Computer]

I am afraid this will also have the problem noted above with Facetime, iCloud, and iMessage.

Conclusion

Apple has made this unnecessarily confusing. It’s as if Apple is adult techie centric and in no way thinking about the way a family might use their devices. For instance, the iPad does not support multiple logins or even a level of control that would allow your child to safely use the device. Cathy is constantly having to rename folders and put applications back in the correct spot because she cannot hand the iPod to the child in a locked down mode. A simple second password with attached restrictions such as "cannot view certain applications" or "cannot rename folders." With such an approach Apple could allow unlimited screen lock passwords that would allow settings for the adult, the teen, the child, or even the toddler (and yes, toddlers use iPads).

So, how do you manage multiple iDevices in your house? And with children under 13?

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Saturday night / Sunday morning

For Medical Malady Saturday, I tried slicing off the tip of my finger at William Sonoma (last night). Did not have a drop of alcohol, medication, pain pill, or other intoxicant. Woke up this morning feeling hung over.

As for William Sonoma, Cathy and I were looking for a shrimp fork and I stumbled onto their shaved ice machine. The store had fake ice in the bin. Someone had dropped a single plastic ice cube into the chute on the top where you would feed the ice. I thought I would fish the plastic ice cube out never thinking my fingers would make contact with the blade. I received a severe gash that took 20 minutes to stop the bleeding and seriously considered going to an after hours clinic to see a doctor.

The scary thing is that, unlike other machines I have seen which only activate when the lid is closed over the blades, this machine has a toggle on/off switch meaning I (or a child) could have stupidly reached the blades while the machine was in operation.

I bet the quality of shaved ice produced by this machine is excellent. Despite the plastic, it is a nice looking appliance.

So, the second I felt my finger contact the blade I yanked my hand out of the machine and shoved it into the palm of my other hand applying a lot of pressure. I knew it was bad. I told Cathy, "I did something stupid." She wanted to see but I was afraid I’d spray blood across the store so I walked to an employee and quietly and calmly said, "I cut myself on one of your appliances. I need to use your bathroom." She replied, "We cannot let you in our bathroom but there are bathrooms in the food court." I explained that I was bleeding badly and asked if she could kindly bring me a paper towel. She returned a moment later to invite me into their special kitchen in the employee only space (by the way, it’s like Santa’s workshop back there) but they would not allow my wife to come with me. I ran my hand under cold water. The staff were very kind and attentive yet seemed flustered. medical malady saturdayI suspect this store could use a little more emergency preparedness training. They couldn’t find paper towels. They brought a spray antiseptic asking if I wanted that. They didn’t seem to know where their first aid kit was. They offered a variety of "maybe" suggestions. Maybe this will help. Maybe that will help. I was calm and jovial the entire time. Several times I explained it was my own stupidity and "no big deal." Finally I said, "It’s okay. I’m trained in first aid." The person with me visibly breathed a sigh of relief. I asked for a dry paper towel noting a bandaid would not stick on a wet hand. We put the bandaid on tightly and added a second for good measure. They handed me a bandaid for the road. I filled out some paperwork. Thanked them. And promptly left the store. I’d taken the happiness out of our shopping for the evening.

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Why must they fight?

Nothing makes me feel like a failure of a father more than listening to my children fight. I could understand an occasional fight but my seven and ten year old seem to make a sport out of squabbling and it pushes me over the edge. After the 99th attempt at calmly trying to discuss their conflict with them, I lost it and with a voice that I’m sure Santa could hear at the North Pole, I threw the "I’m cancelling Christmas" card and stormed off to the kitchen where I both chastised myself and snickered at myself. Really? Canceling Christmas? Dad fail.