I’m loving Eye-Fi
One of the neat gifts I received for Christmas was an Eye-Fi SD card for our digital camera from my brother-in-law. It is as easy and useful to use as advertised. My attention was then caught by the following article referring to the fact that the company plans to release a free iPhone app for it. I’m loving Eye-Fi!
Expo: Eye-Fi unveils iPhone app | iPhone Central | Macworld.
Now I know my ABCs
Click below to hear a recording of Brinley and Cohen singing their ABCs. Pretty funny!
Christmas photos
Below is a group of photos from Christmas Eve when we opened our presents.
Cohen plays one of Uncle Bryan's pinball machines
An iPhone, at last
I finally possess an iPhone. It took a while but I did it by selling my Blackberry Curve and my iPod Touch. No regrets at all. I feel good about doing this basically without any money out of pocket, and the monthly data charges are actually less than what I was paying for a Blackberry.
As Michele put it (somewhat sarcastically), there is finally some peace in our household 
I had a pretty difficult time getting the phone at Wal-Mart — long story — and I would never normally have bought one there but for some odd circumstances. Oh well. I am extremely pleased with the phone.
Losing librarianship?
Since my job change at the end of September, I’ve noticed that my professional interests and reading habits have shifted quite a bit. In particular I’ve noticed that most of the library blogs to which I’ve subscribed don’t seem as relevant any more. Consequently I’ve unsubscribed from most of them. I wonder, am I losing librarianship? I’m proud to be a librarian, don’t get me wrong. And I’m not exactly thrilled about all aspects of corporate life and the silly pap that I sometimes need to consume as part of that. But I do really like my new, expanded role focusing on search and taxonomy, with the opportunities for learning new things and expanding my horizons. As part of that I’m looking around for other sources of information in the blogosphere and elsewhere that will help me keep well informed and current, and I don’t have as much time for keeping up-to-date with purely library-related things.
It’s an underwear day!
This is a short video taken on my Blackberry of Brinley and Cohen with Michele in the background, singing “It’s an Underwear Day!
Some stylistic changes
I’ve been working a little bit on this blog, making some stylistic and functional changes here and there. One change I’m particularly pleased with is the changed header image. I was finally able to figure out how to change it. Currently the header image I’m using is a photo I took on our honeymoon of Waimea Canyon.
Another change I’ve made is to improve the positioning of photos on my photo page. It took more CSS tweaking than I’d like; I absolutely despise working with CSS. The new PicLens slideshow option for albums is also a welcome enhancement.
Finally, I activated the new option for the Disqus commenting system to enable site visitors who want to leave a comment to do so using their Facebook identity.
Ahhhh, vacation
Finally I am on vacation for the rest of the year. Just writing that makes me feel more relaxed 
I haven’t written much here for a long time because I haven’t felt like it. I go through phases. Right now I am sitting on my couch in my usual spot, sipping eggnogg-laced coffee (sounds gross but it really isn’t, actually), and looking out our living room window at the snow falling. I’m also watching a pesky black squirrel calmly raiding the bird feeders and thinking of ways in which I could put an electrical wire and a remote control together to give him a little shock that would help him avoid the feeders in future…
All of the little kids are already awake and terribly excited because tonight we will open Christmas presents. And I am already trying to be patient and easygoing, which is hard for me to do at times when they get so wired. Michele is at the kitchen table, putting names on stockings. Earlier this week she bought things to fill Christmas stockings for everyone but herself. She doesn’t yet realize that I bought things for her stocking on the sly. Because we traditionally open presents on Christmas Eve, some years when we can afford it, we make Christmas morning special by having the stockings available then.
I had thought about mailing Christmas letters this year but decided against it. We enjoy getting letters and cards from friends but have decided to forego the practice ourselves. Any of our friends and family who want to can follow news about us, photos, etc. on this blog year round. Michele and I are also both active on Facebook.
Now that I’ve mentioned Facebook, I must say that I’ve been really happy to reconnect with many former neighbors, classmates, and family of late through this site. It’s been a great medium for making acquaintances again, sometimes after twenty or more years without contact.
In my previous post I mentioned that I didn’t have a burning desire for any particular Christmas gift. I was wrong. I recently noticed that I can get a refurbished iPhone for $149 and so now I’m thinking about when I could possibly afford to buy one! Honestly, though, that’s not a big deal and certainly not something I really need.
To all readers, I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
All I want for Christmas
I remember when I was growing up, there was a song we used to listen to around Christmastime, called “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.” This year I have had a lot of difficulty, somehow, in figuring out exactly the thing or things I’d really like to have for Christmas. Sounds weird, I know. Usually I have a boatload of ideas for stuff I’d really like to have, but not this year. In our family we’ve used Amazon’s wish list functionality for years and that’s how we’ve communicated with each other about what we want for Christmas, birthdays, and other special occasions. This year I have heavily used a new feature that Amazon created, the Universal Wish List bookmarklet, which allows me to visit any site I want, from any company, and add something to my Amazon wish list from there. It’s pretty cool.
I’d be curious to know what YOU would really like for Christmas. Add a comment to this post and let me know.
Google Friend Connect
Recently I added a widget on the lower righthand side of FML for Google Friend Connect. Honestly I am not sure of how useful this feature will be but if you are interested please add yourself to my list of friends there.
