Gadget’s Airstream Chronicles

Little to really blog on today.  It happens sometimes.  A day of little chores, minor activity, and a whole lot of couch time.

This morning I got up not feeling my best.  Several days ago I went to refill my Protonix and found that I had refilled my last.  Whoops.  But I thought to myself, “Let’s see if you don’t need this any longer.”  It’s a medication that keeps a gut from being super nuclear & acidy.  Since I’ve felt better about my allergies I thought maybe my gut would be calmer.

Nope!

For the past few months I’ve been flying along with no insurance.  My job now provides it, but I had to wait until April for it to kick in.  By the seat of my pants! I was supposed to get Cobra information a few months ago, tried to track it down, but no luck.  So I decided just to deal in cash for prescriptions as I knew my new insurance would soon kick in.

Now I’m back in the ranks of the insured.  Good to be back here.  The next step is finding a local physician who is taking new patients.  Good luck!  I’ve been told that the doctors here are booked up, and through my initial salvo of calls I’ve found it’s true.  Tomorrow morning I’ll continue the calls.

Any local Prescott folks who know of a local physician that has openings…..leave a comment.  Thanks! 

So, my morning was spent hanging out in the trailer, washing windows, straightening up, and sorting through my photos.  More deletions, more ranking of favorite shots, etc.  I’m still not done with my full sorting.  I only covered the past few months, and I spent nearly two hours.  Sometimes I import, pick a few I like, and leave the big sorting until later.  This morning was “later.”

Terry and Gregg headed out this morning as well.  Sadira stopped over to say good bye to them as well.  She’s been under the weather all week, so visiting with our new friends was limited.  Sorry that was the case.  They seem pretty cool, and they enjoy Airstream travel and new spots as well.  I’m sure we’ll meet up again, and really get to visit longer.

After Terry and Greg headed out we returned to the Airstream and had a light lunch.  Sorry to say the food didn’t help with the tummy issues.  Ah well, worth a shot.  While I clenched my teeth, Sadira continued with coughing fits.  She’s really had a bad cold or sinus infection.  But she sounds a whole lot better than earlier in the week.

We enjoyed a quiet afternoon.  Sadira was kind enough to bring her Dyson vacuum over, and I went on a cleaning spree in the trailer.  I miss my Dyson, but I don’t know where I’d store it in the trailer.  Still, using hers today made me want mine shipped out here soon…..hmmm…..

You wouldn’t believe the amount of “dust” that it pulled out of the trailer.  Sure, it’s normally sealed up and has a HEPA running, but this is the high desert.  And currently we’re having the super strong winds to boot.  So, a lot of stuff gets in the air right now, and clearly into the trailer.  Ah well.

Little else to report on.

All of the photos posted today have been shot in the past few months.  You might have seen similar shots, but the 3 in today’s post haven’t been posted here until now.  I figured that I’d post a few I flagged today as I was sorting away.

Well, as you can see, I’m testing out a new layout of the web site. So, what do you think? Is this a keeper, or did you get used to the previous theme?  Feel free to vote below, and leave a comment too!

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For the evening I took a stroll out into the Dells once again. It’s nice to go out there.

The plan was pretty simple.  Head over to the cap rock I’d seen recently near the dam.  But I wasn’t sure if the light would be right by the time I got there.  Plus I was waiting on Sadira and her friend Rusty to come out.  Rusty had just gotten into town to visit, and wanted to take a walk in the rocks as well.

While I was waiting on Sadie I decided to take a few random photos.  I’m finding the stock photo sites like very generic shots.  I’m betting the one above will be accepted by them.  Don’t ask me why, but I’m willing to bet on it. 

My walk took me near Thor’s Wall, Perfect Dome, Emerald City, and finally Time Zone.  Covered almost all the major walls in the Dells.  Every spot was familiar, but I looked for new takes on the area for my photos.  Sadira and Rusty popped up near the Emerald City, and walked in with me to look over the lake.

Unfortunately the cap rock I was looking to shoot was already well into the shade.  Looks like it will have to be a morning photograph.

Update

The scam with Harvey Investment I’d written about yesterday continues today.  In total I’ve received four e-mails from them in 2 days.  And I’ve had countless visits to this website looking for information on the scam.

After posting yesterday I wrote to the real Harvey Investment Company, and then I called them as well.  The receptionist was aware of the issue, and their outsourced IT department is working on it.  I could not speak directly to the outsourced IT group, and I really wanted to.  I’m pretty sure they aren’t aware of the total scam, it’s relation to 2 other scams, or the need to really track these folks down and stop them.

The other day while checking out the Promised Lands I took one photo I forgot to post here. I posted one of the run down windmill photos, but forgot this one.

While parked near the windmill a hawk came along and perched right on top of the windmill.  Pretty cool.  I didn’t have the zoom handy, but took several more shots of the windmill.  During that time the hawk took off, and flew right behind the windmill.  You’ll see above and to the left of the Aeromotor logo the hawk launching off to do “hawk like” things. 

Other odd stuff - Wordpress Banned in Turkey

Several days ago I logged into my Wordpress.com site to check out my stats.  The main page of the Wordpress Dashboard also has news from Wordpress, and one item caught my attention.  It seems all of Wordpress.com has been blocked in the country of Turkey!

Apparently a blogger at Wordpress has several blogs regarding a religious figure in Turkey.  The figure was not happy with what was being blogged about him, so he found a lawyer.  The religious figure has a book out there going after Darwinism, he’s had some criminal issues in the past, etc.  Public figure, and somebody is saying something about him which he doesn’t like.

So, to deal with the blogger who is slandering or libeling him he does what any rational person would do.  He seeks a ban on an entire domain, in this instance, Wordpress.com.  And Turkey goes along with it!

Why go after the one person you have the issue with?  Instead why don’t you ban all Wordpress Blogs, and then send a request to Wordpress to stifle someone’s freedom of speech.  Sounds rational to me!

Fortunately Wordpress is hanging in there.  I bet this type of issue will pop up more often.

Well, there’s this morning’s notes. 

Here I sit, back at the Nissan Dealer again today. The oil change went fine yesterday, but they identified a warranty issue with a leaking valve that needed to be addressed.

As I’ve said before, every Nissan dealer I’ve hit in my travels has been fantastic. If there’s an issue, they let you know. Even warranty issues that cost me nothing. When I had the Dodge Ram, the dealer reaction was opposite of what I’ve found at Nissan! While in WV the Dodge dealer suggested I wait to do my repair work until I got home to NH. “Have your home dealership do this.”

Ah, wonderful to find such good customer service at Nissan!

Over the past year I’ve had many other RVers ask me, “You’re towing with that?” Yes I am. And it can handle up to 9500 lbs. The Titan is a great truck! Reliable too. And the dealerships all seem to be working under the same directive. Satisfy the customer. Thanks Nissan, and thanks Lamb Nissan!

On other notes…..

While sitting here waiting on the truck to be finished I’ve been cruising the web. Once again, Passive Aggressive Notes has given me a smile for the morning. Glad there’s not 10 people in my Airstream! Take a read, you’ll love the notes!

It’s been a quiet day here. Dropped off two more resumes this morning. One was a repeat, as a business had listed a new position on their website. Unfortunately, whoever runs the site updated it wrong, and it wasn’t real. Ah, fun way to spend your time filling out applications for jobs that no longer exist. Hope the web admin updates things soon there!

I’m aware there are a great many readers of this site. Thanks for traveling along. Many are currently off on vacations, so the numbers are down this month. Not surprising, same thing happened last summer.

Enjoy your trips.

Those of you who are still reading along, do me a favor. Head over to Technorati’s site and favorite the Chronicles. Technorati tracks all the blogs out there. And I sure would like to see the ranking increase. I know there’s a lot more readers than are represented, and favoriting this site is one way to help bring along new readers.

Thanks. Always looking for ways to increase readership here, and bring in new readers and contributors on the Digital RV’s forum site.

So many events, so little blog space……

Ah, that’s not true, I’ve got tons of server space!

First off, IT HAS ARRIVED!  The second edition of the Digital RV came via UPS today, and I’ve gotten a good look see at it.  My minor issues have been worked out, and I’m pretty much pleased with the final product.

While I’d written last week about the availability of the book, I hadn’t gone into detail on the changes.  It’s gone from 9 chapters to 13 chapters.  2 of the latest chapters detail my findings from being a Full Time Digital RVer over the past year.  What works, what doesn’t, and what I didn’t bother with.  For instance, TV just hasn’t been a big part of my life.  Sorry, there’s more to do than get hooked into every show out there gang!

Other findings like the lack of consistent WiFi, EVDO working better than I’d ever imagined, and Podcasting from the road have all been included.

If you’ve got a friend or relative who is nervous about technology, uncertain about what you can really do with it, this may be the book for them.  They don’t have to be an RVer for the information to be useful.  If you’re already highly technical, it might not be for you.  I wrote it to introduce folks like my dad to the latest digital concepts.  Plain English, not too many acronyms, and simple guidance. Once they’ve read the book they’ll feel a little more comfortable about exploring, and then they can pop by the Digital RV Forum to ask all the deeper technical questions!

Right now the book is selling on LuLu.com.  You’ll notice the price increase.  My apologies.  I signed up for resale through the “Big Box” outlets, Amazon & Barnes & Nobel for instance.  Well, these guys get 100% mark up.  And the deal with my publisher now is their price must match the big box price.  Had I known, I wouldn’t have signed up that way.   If you purchase through LuLu I make a little more.  :)  Hey, nothing like being straight up!

Also, other online resellers will be picking up the second edition.  Workamper.com has already put their order in for the second edition and I submitted it to the publisher moments ago.   Airstream Life has been carrying the first edition, and will carry the second too.  RVBookstore.com has also been a reseller, and should be continuing again with this edition.  Online resellers like these may have a more competitive price, so shop around (wow, he’s cutting his own margins….zowie).  Hey, I just want folks to read, enjoy, and learn from the book! 

So, shop around on the net, buy through this site (woo hoo), or encourage other resellers to carry The Digital RV, second edition!   If I sell enough maybe I could stay on the road, take a trip to Banff, and offer you more photos of neat places (hey, worth the pitch).  Clearly I’m in a wise mood today!

Arizona Wireless News

On other fronts where I’m not shamelessly self promoting…..

This morning I took the big ride into Phoenix once more to do an interview.  I budgeted plenty of extra time.  Just don’t know the traffic patterns there yet.  Needless to say, I arrived a little more than an hour early.  I actually beat the manager I was interviewing with in.  Ah well, that’s consistent for me.  Only one man ever arrived in the office before me, and he’s retired now. 

The interview went very well.  The chief concern I heard was the issue of me getting bored down the road.  I’ve had my hands in so many systems over the years, I’m extremely interested in learning every new system that comes across my path, and I like being a “jack of all trades” in technology.  So, the big concern was that I may become bored and look to change groups in time.

Can’t blame them for the concern.  Mult-tasking is something I do well, and enjoy trying new things.  But what they’re looking for would remain interesting for quite some time.  The group deals with many platforms from many vendors, and it would take time getting into all of them.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see.  But I think I’m clear on why I haven’t had many resume hits.  Recruiters have said to me often, “You’re overqualified for this role.  You’ll get  bored.”  My response…..”I’m bored right now gang, and really willing to dig in somewhere and give 100%.”

So, we’ll see.  Encouraging interview, nice folks, office easy to find.  It’s a shame it isn’t in Prescott……. hey, Prescott College still has time to get in touch! 

I just realized, this whole section was shameless self promotion too.  Guess I’m in an extra wise mood today!

Of course, the Airstream Chronicles needs to generate income to keep on going, right? Yes, we definitely need some revenues to keep bringing you travels, photos, and fun podcasts. So, what do we have to offer?

Well, if you look to the left on the sidebar you’ll see a link to our updated web store. Links to our network consulting services, T-Shirts, Digital RV Book are all contained on the new web store page. Additionally, I’ve now included a link to the first video tutorial on using Wordpress and Podpress.

If you’ve wanted to create your own podcasting site, and you’re looking to use the powerful tools included with Wordpress, this tutorial DVD is for you. You’ll be walked through installing Wordpress, dealing with database setup, initial layout of your Wordpress site, and finally, installing and using Podpress.

Yesterday was a pretty slow day. All is quiet here.

This morning I posted a new article on WiFi hotspots while on the road. Might be worth a read if you’re considering using WiFi as your primary mode of connecting to the internet while traveling. My take on relying 100% on WiFi hotspots? I’m glad I’ve got my Verizon service.

Additionally, I’d recently put up a “reader request” podcast at the Digital RV Podcast site regarding using your IPod as a backup hard drive.  Take a look if you haven’t already stopped by.

Not sure what’s on schedule today. Hoping Bob has a chance to show me another climbing area before he leaves for MN next week. I’ll surely miss my new friend. Guess I’ll need to start shopping the area for other climbing partners.

Sorry all, but I’m popping up a post that belongs at the Digital RV Blog (and it will land there too). Too excited to just have it on one site, so I’m cross posting on both sites.

After my doctor visit today (which went fine, and nobody pushed on my gut) I got back to the trailer. Being slightly bored, I trolled around the ITunes music store looking at their latest TV episodes. I’ve been checking out the show Eureka. If you like Sci-Fi, check it out. Definitely a fun show.

While trying to access the video area things looked wrong. I clicked on one item, and got a message window telling me that I needed to upgrade ITunes to look at the item. Hmmmm. Upgrade again?

I hit software update, and found several updates waiting for me, where yesterday there were none. Took a few moments to upgrade, and I took a look at my ITunes. It looked and felt different. Not in a bad way though.

Started working through the “newer” interface, and returned to the ITunes Music store. It got an overhaul too. On top of that, ITunes has now started offering movie downloads! About time guys! Oh, and good work too.

So far, the selection is super limited. Obviously they’ll be adding titles. And at $9.99 per movie, not a bad deal. Let’s see what they charge for new releases.

For a full-time RVer this is great news. Skip the DVD altogether and just download your movie. It’s pretty exciting to me!

Now on to the bad news on the movie downloads. I decided to purchase one (Toombstone). Got a nasty surprise though. The movie is 1.45 GB!!! My first reaction. Ewwww! My second reaction, too bad they didn’t use Handbrake to move the video, or better yet run it through ISquint afterward. Both programs can compress the video a ton more. This download should be closer to 400 - 600 MB, not 1.45 GB.

In total though I’m happy to see more online movie & tv availability. I like being able to pick programs.

On the ITunes side, the interface has been improved. Those of you who have been Tivo’ing, or recording shows with a PVR…well, now you can list them properly in ITunes with season and episode number. They’ll show up as TV shows now on your IPod, and if you have Front Row, they’ll show up there correct too. Before this upgrade you’d need to use a program like Lostify.

Bottom line, ITunes just got a ton of new features, the ITunes Music store is more like a media store, and more portable entertainment options just got a whole lot easier!

Anybody want a video podcast tutorial on all the new features of ITunes 7? Well, a new one was just posted to show you quickly through some of the latest features on ITunes 7:)