Reality Me

Category: Daily Life

Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.

  • Inhale

    You know what I shouldn’t have to remind myself to do? Breath! I shouldn’t have to remind myself to breath. I have awake apnea.

  • Deep Thoughts

    Children – Nature’s prophylactic

  • From the mouths of babes

    Cathy: "Normal people don’t name flies."

  • My war with Mother Nature – mosquitoes

    I really have noticed any mosquitoes in the yard yet but yesterday I fired up the mosquito magnet. 24 hours later, there are already 2 mosquitoes in the trap. Now, the Mosquito Magnet is not a bug zapper. It’s goal is to attract the mosquitoes away from the parts of the yard the humans like but in the process it occasionally sucks up a critter or two into the trap and over time reduces the overall breeding population.

  • My war with Mother Nature

    We are nearing the end of the weekend project (ie. Amy’s birthday present from June 10th of last year). As we put on the finishing touches, carpenter bees have moved in to try to dismantle the club house. I’ve skipped earth friendly methods and gone straight to chemicals. I shall be victorious!

  • This is Knoxville

     

  • Seeking Referral – Landscaper/Landscape Designer

    Has anyone worked with a decent landscaper or landscape designer in Knoxville? I’m not looking for someone to cut my grass but instead to help design the layout of the yard, help cultivate a thick lush grass in some parts and strategically use plants, ground covers, and shrubs in other parts of the yard. Any recommendations?

  • I love the smell of latex in the morning

  • Seeking Referral – Pest Control

    Hello Knoxville! I’m looking to establish a contract with a pest control company. I want regular inspections for termites. I’m looking for someone that can advise or treat for carpenter bees and carpenter ants. I’d like a company that can advise on environmentally friendly methods (grubs etc) versus chemicals. I may be seeking treatments for mosquitoes too.

    What companies in Knoxville should be considered? Which ones should be avoided?

  • Bathroom renovation needs a $6400 toilet

    We are nearing the end of our bathroom renovation. I think this would complete it:

  • Things that should go unsaid

    "Hey, the stairwell light is working today!"

  • Driving Knoxville’s First Racetrack

    Knoxville’s first racetrack, and location of the first airplane landing in Knoxville, was built by an ex-slave who made a fortune burying the Civil War dead. His racetrack still exist and in this video we drive it.

    Knoxville’s First Racetrack Still Exists

  • Nothing starts your day like…

    …painting trim on the clubhouse! A carpenter bee found one of our untreated boards but we caught it early so hopefully all will be well.

  • This weekend’s project – preparing to paint the bathroom

    Each weekend, we debate: bathroom or clubhouse. This weekend bathroom won with preparing the drywall for painting.

    Weekend Project - Bathroom

  • Best ev’r reminder service fails to its own success – RIP Jott.com

    I can’t remember…oh right, RIP Jott.

    "We founded Jott in April of 2006. … In 2006 Jott emerged as a leader in mobile voice-to-text applications… we will focus our voice-to-text service investments on carrier and enterprise distribution, and no longer on Jott.com." [Source, Jott blog]

    Of all the services I’ve played with and have seen go, this is the first that almost brought a tear to my eye. My first Jott was on September 5, 2007 at 9:54am. I spoke into my phone and the service translated my words to text. I would later learn that Jott used a combination of computer software and people at call centers. I imagine that if the software failed to understand a word, that segment of the message would be pushed to a queue and transcribed by person. Jott sat on my speed dial and I could verbally leave a message, send it to another service like Remember The Milk or another person via email/sms/etc, and even set a reminder which would send the transcribed message to me via SMS. I even had Jott installed as the default software for my Jawbone Icon. A while after using it, Jott turned to a paid subscriber model that left a small feature set to free users and shortly after that killed free accounts altogether so I quit using Jott. But I found myself lost without it and soon relented to paying $4.95 a month for the service. Money well spent! Jott became my capture tool of choice and kept me organized and eased my forgetfulness. Now it looks as though Jott is turning to corporate clients.

    How the hell am I going to remember anything?! (Springpad of course!)