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Awesomeness Reminders

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I am awesome. There can be no question. However, if you catch me at a low moment, I might forget for a second that I am awesome. In that case, I might need a little reminder of how awesome I am.

Enter Awesomeness Reminders.

For the low price of $10 a month, the service calls you every day to tell you that you’re awesome. You can even provide a custom message that you want the person to say. For an example of what the call sounds like, just scroll down to the “Can I hear a sample phone call?” section in the FAQ.

This is certainly a good idea in terms of starting a business. $10 a month isn’t so much to spend (the website points out that it is less than a movie ticket), and it’s probably not a lot of work for the guy to make the calls. And why not sign up? Anybody can use a reminder of how awesome they are.

Waupaca Camping Park

/ Shane / 2 Comments

I’m writing this is support of my candidate for “best campsite ever”, Waupaca Camping Park.

I have camped all over this great country of ours (well, mostly all over the Midwest) and I would be hard pressed to name a better campsite. There are undoubtedly reasons to camp at other places: some particular item of natural beauty, hiking trails, lake access, etc. But I don’t think you’ll ever find another campsite where the owners are so passionate about their property.

The idea of this post all started when we were camping somewhere else and Sara said, “You know, we were really spoiled by the bathrooms at Waupaca.” (Sara has, by the way, quite literally camped all over this great country of ours, so you’d do worse than to take her recommendation.) It got me thinking about how much better Waupaca is, overall, compared to other places we’ve been.

They clean their bathrooms often. I believe twice a day, but don’t quote me on that. Anyway, the bathrooms are always clean. This can not be overstated. Bad bathrooms / showers are one of the hazards of camping life. State park bathrooms seem to be particularly bad, due to low budget and high usage. Believe me, I would pay a premium for a good bathroom.

Waupaca Camping Park has all the amenities of a good campground: good camp store, swimming pool, playground, game room, laundry, etc. There are lots of trees so sites are obscured from each other. But none of that necessarily sets them above the rest, that just gets them in the conversation for best campground ever. (Actually though, the cleanness of their bathrooms puts them in the top 5% automatically)

There are a few things they do that really put them over the top. First off, there are solar panels on the roof that heat the pool, so the water is never cold (it’s usually around 86 or so). Second off, they have many different types of accommodations to choose from. They have big cabins and small cabins, tent sites and RV sites, permanent sites, sites with a view of the lake, and everything in between. They even have an air-conditioned yurt!

But third off, and most importantly, they just really care about their site. Every year there is new construction somewhere. Either they are installing air conditioners in all the cabins, or they are building a new roof over the bathroom area, creating new patios for the fire pits, etc. This year there was a brand new, enormous (wood! not plastic!) playground area. Every year there is something new. I see them going around to scoop out the fire pits. I see them cleaning the cabins. The owners send us a Christmas card! I’m not joking!

This probably doesn’t sound like much, but I’m telling you, this is the best campsite I have ever been to. If you are looking for a campsite in mid-Wisconsin (almost directly West of Green Bay), then this is the place for you.

If you recall, Evie said, “When I grow up, I’m gonna be a person in charge of Waupaca.” I don’t see how you could come by higher praise than that.

Who needs a gnome?

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Lloyd the gnome is currently guarding our garden, and doing a decent job at it. So far this year, no poachers. However, I think Lloyd is about to be superseded. Gnomes aren’t really that scary. But zombies are.

That’s right, a garden zombie from (who else?) ThinkGeek. It’s a little pricey at $90, but who hasn’t wanted to have their own garden zombie?

Yeesh, never mind, that thing’s too scary.

Light Scoop

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Recently, Sara and I upgraded to a Digital SLR camera. For those not in the know, this is a digital camera, but it works like an old school film camera. In other words, you can have one of those super-zoom lenses, you can change to different lenses, and you have full control over all those little camera words that don’t mean anything to me, like ISO, and F-stop.

I’ve never owned a nice camera, not even back in the stone age when we actually had them. Even if I did, I would still probably stick to the built-in modes. Sara used to have a nice camera and she is much more adventurous with adjusting the settings. So Sara is the master of the camera, but I’m learning a little bit from her, mostly about more basic stuff like composition.

Now if you have little kids, a Digital SLR is almost a must. All of our previous digital cameras were so slow that we would almost always miss whatever shot we were trying to get. After the camera clicked you’d have to wait 2-3 seconds for the camera to recover. In that time the kids would do all sorts of adorable things and I’d be muttering, “Come on, come on!” until the camera came back.

Of course, the downside of the awesomeness is the cost. The camera itself is pretty pricey, and then you have lenses and other things on top of that to turn out truly professional pictures. However, we recently purchased a piece of equipment for < $30 that made a big difference in the quality of our pictures: a Lightscoop.

Basically, the Lightscoop is a mirror that fits over your flash to bounce the light off the wall or ceiling, rather than going directly on your subject matter.

Why would you want to do such a thing? Well, I’m glad you asked.

For one thing, it gets rid of red eye, but the real advantage is that it provides a more natural, more flattering light than a regular flash. The human eye is not used to seeing things the way the flash works. Our normal light source is diffuse, not directed from one close point.

Here is a picture from their website of an example. Basically, if someone or something is close to the camera and the flash goes off, you can wash out that person with too much light, and everything else will be in shadow.

I have definitely taken a picture or two like that one on the left. You can see more examples here.

Of course the first thing we did was try some of our own before and after pictures, and this thing really makes a difference. It is certainly the cheapest piece of camera equipment you can buy to make this kind of significant difference!

Myq Kaplan on Last Comic Standing

/ Shane / Leave a comment

One of my favorite comedians Myq Kaplan is currently a finalist on Last Comic Standing.

If you’re a careful reader of the blog, you will remember him from my “Dr. Show Show” post about a month ago. However, you may not remember that I actually broke the Myq Kaplan story more than a year ago.

Anyway, he’s cracked the top 10 and now they’re into the part of the show where the audience can vote. So, if you’re into that kind of thing, I think you should go with Myq (despite that first name!) I don’t want him to get so depressed that I have to page Dr. Dontkillyourself.

Mondays @ 8 Central.