eric135

White Citrus Skin Care Products

An excellent gift I received this Christmas was a wide assortment of skin care products from Bath and Bodyworks. As I've gotten older, I guess my skin just isn't as good at taking care of itself anymore. I remember the good ol' days when all a guy needed was a bar of Irish Spring soap and a bottle of Prell shampoo. 

Now, not so much. My skin is much more dry than before, and my days of going to the beach for a week without sunblock are now behind me. 

The problem is, I hate most lotions. I hate the way most of them make me feel "sticky" and make my pants/scrubs stick to my legs. 

I love this stuff:

True Blue Spa Lotion w/ Parafin: I've been using this on a weird spot on my hand where I have skin that has peeled off over the years due to the fact that I keep pulling calluses off. It's a weird anxiety thing that I've had since college, and during times when my mind is idle (like watching TV or just sitting with nothing to do), I'll pick at my hand. The key to handling this is to keep my skin soft and pliable, where no hard leather-like calluses can form. I've never found a lotion as effective as this one. I've only been using it for a week and my hands look like I've been on vacation for a month.

   White Citrus Intense Moisture Body Butter. Intense moisturizing thick cream that absorbs very quickly. 

White Citrus Body Scrub and Body Wash: Much better for my skin than my usual, Irish Spring. Yes, I've had to pull out that not-so-manly puff ball, oh well. A little bit goes a long way, and it smells very nice (but not overpowering). 

White Citrus Lotion: Absorbs rapidly but moisturizes well. I like the fragrance, but it isn't overwhelming. The most important thing is that I use it regularly. With previous lotions, it made me feel so slick and greasy and made my clothes stick to my skin, which discouraged me from using them at all. 

Over the past week, my skin has felt and looked much better. The only downside is that it has added several minutes to my daily routine, but it's totally worth it. The fragrance isn't so strong that it violates our hospital's policy against strong perfumes. 

Plus, really, that weird OCD spot on my hand is almost totally healed. 

 

My review of the Kindle Fire...

Ah, yet another Christmas in the can for the year. It was, once again, a retail orgy opening presents on Christmas morning, but the gift-giving was definitely more reseved this year. Some of it was due to financial circumstances (I haven't worked very many extra shifts this year) but there are so many reasons to be thankful and grateful this year. The hospital where I work was doing well enough financially that they offered a last-minute Christmas bonus. We haven't had one in about 3-4 years, and the surprise was even more so because I personally thought the hospital system (two hospitals) was going under or would be bought out. So pleasant surprises all around.

I worked Christmas Eve as usual. It's one of the main drags of being a nurse in a hospital -- we never close, and someone has to be there. Thankfully, the night was a relatively quiet one, with fewer admissions than usual. We'll pay for that over the next few days. It just seems many folks are "just barely hanging on," trying to "make it through the holidays" putting off visits to their physicians. All of the food and drink won't help much. This week, we'll be seeing a lot of peripheral edema, blood pressure problems, aches and pains put off too long, and other sorts of human deferred maintenance come in through the ER. If I'm talkin' to you, consider lightening up on all the salt, drink, spicy food and oxycontin for the holidays :-)

My big gift this year was the Kindle Fire:

 I have the Kindle Keyboard (previously known as the Kindle3) and I'm very happy with it, but wanted something to more fully web surf with without having to crank up my netbook. My thoughts about the Kindle Fire:

• I personally like the form factor. I can hold it easily with one hand. I like the smaller 7" screen (as much as others apparently hate the smaller screen). 
• I also have no problems having the power button on the bottom of the unit. I don't even know why this is an issue because, if it were a problem, one could just turn the screen upside down and everything would work fine. 
• I don't mind not having external volume buttons. To change the volume, I just hit the Settings button. But some are saying it can be a problem if a program/app "takes over" the screen and doesn't give you access to the settings without exiting the program/app. I have not yet run into this situation.
• I don't mind the Carousel function. I had heard there were problems with "fat finger syndrome" having problems, but I guess I have greater than average manual dexterity. 
• So far, browsing has been a good experience. I personally can't distinguish any advantage or disadvantage to the Silk browswer, it seems to work fine either way. I personally have set the Fire to "Optimize each web site" for readibility. I like using the pinch-to-zoom and the smaller print, when viewing a full page on Desktop view, doesn't bother me.
• My Netflix experience isn't as good as I want it to be. There is a noticeable lag (maybe 1/2 - 1 second) in the audio of my Netflix shows/movies. I have read this is a widespread problem with Netflix, and everyone is waiting for an updated app. Watching video's on YouTube is very clear and sync'd, so I don't think it is a probem inherent in the Fire. I plan to try watching videos purchased from Amazon but, man, I really want the Netflix thing to get worked out.
• Listening to podcasts is, for the most part, a smooth experience. When on my computer, I listen to podcasts using Google Reader, but the Google Reader app for Kindle doesn't play any podcasts. So I am using Stitcher for most of my podcasts, and the few that aren't included in Stitcher's wide selection I use MyPod to download podcasts via their direct feed. MyPod isn't very user friendly and seemless as Stitcher, but between the two, I can listen to pretty much to anything I want. 
• The Kindle Fire speakers have been a hit and miss sort of thing. When playing Netflix shows, the sound is too faint without the use of earbuds, unless you hold the unit in your hands and thus the speakers are close to your head. Setting the Fire on the coffee table and having 2 or more people watch wouldn't be possible. However, my podcasts are very loud. When listening to my Magnatune podcasts, I can easily walk around the room and do other things without having to wear earbuds. I also notice YouTube video's are loud, so it might just be a Netflix thing.
• Reading books has been a good experience, which is good considering it is, in fact, a Kindle. I have been reading several books and find the Fire to be easy to navigate. However, after lengthy periods of time, my eyes do get fatigued looking into a back lit device. For hard core (multi-hour) reading sessions, I'd still use my Kindle Keyboard. I haven't had any probems with the brightness being too low. For indoor use with the usual levels of light through the window, I have to turn the brightness to the lowest level or eye strain is a definite problem. Books sync perfectly between all of my devices (the Kindle fire, Kindle Keyboard, iPhone 4S, netbook and laptop) which is nice.
• I've been able to do all of the activities I wanted to do on the Kindle Fire: read/write gmail, work outlook mail, Evernote, Facebook, podcasts, Twitter, etc. The only activity that my Kindle can't do is communicating, since it has neither camera nor microphone, but I have lots of other options for communicating. 

So, overall, after 24-hours of working with the Kindle Fire, I have been very pleased with it. 

A little bit of early Christmas... my new iPhone 4S...

We have always hated shopping on the weekend of Thanksgiving. Over the past few years we've heard of all the violence associated with Black Friday, and we don't think it's worth the risk. Every year there are a couple of horrific deaths, sometimes just a random person getting shot to death while being robbed of some item they've just purchased.  But we were out in it the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  One item that we purchased early was my new iPhone 4S.  I've been a Blackberry fan for the past couple of years but my last Blackberry (Bold 9000) was getting pretty beat up. The trackball wouldn't click, and I was tired of all the times I was having to pull the battery to force a restart after the phone froze up.  I was going to ask Santa for a new Blackberry Bold, but have decided to go with the latest version of the iPhone. There were several factors that influenced my decision:

• I don't use many phone minutes. 
• Instead of talking on the phone, I have become a heavy user of phone apps, such as Dropbox, Evernote, Twitter, Stocktwits, Google Reader, Epocrates and other applications. 
• While there are plenty of Blackberry apps, many are quirky and don't work well, or have limited functionality. 
• I really wanted more effective tools to work with the data I use, such as the ability to view videos (my blackberry couldn't play videos), pinch-to-zoom, etc.
• I don't know what the immediate future will be for Research In Motion, creators of the Blackberry devices. 

It's been a very positive experience switching to the iPhone. 

My roommate has been letting me try things out with his iPhone 3G prior to actually getting one. 

Purchasing the iPhone was quick and easy. Unlike past experience, it took only a few minutes and they were able to transfer some of my Contacts data. 

Viewing and using data on the iPhone is a much better experience. The pinch-to-zoom thing is totally cool.

Kindle syncs perfectly.

I can manage my blog much more easily with the iphone vs. the blackberry. Before, management consisted of emailing my blog entries, that's about it. The Blackberry browswer was at times cranky, and I could never zoom in enough to see what I was doing. Plus, when the trackball broke, I couldn't click into the spaces to log in as a user. Now I have a Typepad app which works ok, and I can use Safari to do everything on my phone that I can do on my laptop. 

I really love being able to watch Netflix whenever I want. We have Netflix on every TV and laptop, but sometimes I'll watch something while I'm eating dinner at work, or while on break. 

I've been using iCatcher! to listen to podcasts. My favorites are the ones from Magnatune.com, Leo Laporte's podcast This Week in Tech, and the Rachel Maddow Show. 

The iphone app for epocrates is much nicer than the one for Blackberry. The photographs of the pills are helpful for patients to remember what dose of a drug they are taking, and the pill identifyer has been helpful when the patient does remember to bring all of his/her meds, but they're in those daily pillboxes for a week at a time. 

The battery life has been good for me. I've heard a lot of complaints that the iphone doesn't even last for one day of use but I use mine without any real worries and I use mine heavily, including Netflix and gps (the usual battery-draining culprits). I still plan to ask Santa for a backup power cord to keep in my bag, and we keep a car converter in our car, but so far I haven't had any problems.

I don't use the new Siri function yet. I don't know why but she never understands what I try to ask her. Amazingly, it can't help you find/use any data stored on the iphone other than phone contact info, it's strictly to pull info from an internet server based on it's best guess of what you want. 

I've used the Face-time feature once, to call my room mate. I don't think I will use it very much. I hardly talk on the phone, I do video calls even less.

 

 

 

MSi Notebook, Speedo Digital Watch, Shark Steam Cleaner, Star Trek...

It was another Orgy of Capitalism for Christmas this year. I feel very fortunate, considering how hard some folks have it this year.

 MSi L2100 Notebook A lot lighter than my 17" Dell Inspiron laptop. Light enough to actually carry around, with 5 hours of battery life (a lot better than my current 45 minutes).  

  Speedo Digital Watch My Timex Ironman broke a couple of years ago, and I just never got it replaced. Each patient room has a digital clock, and we have clocks all over the unit, so I've never been far from a clock, but it's nice being able to check the time without pulling out my cell phone.

 Shark Steam Cleaner  I can finally get the inside of my microwave cleaned :-)  And I was able to do it in just a few minutes, and that's after many months of buildup. I also have been able to get a bunch of weird sticky stains, especially where our oven and refrigerator meet the floor. 

   We also got the new Star Trek movie, and managed to get one of these metal figurines. 

More later...
 

Netflix

 We are in the midst of a two-week trial of Netflix. I was bored one night, and signed up for a trial period.

It's been very entertaining. Even though we get every channel on Cox Cable, and despite our huge DVD/Blu-Ray collection, I often find myself with nothing to watch. I have a weakness for "B" Sci-Fi movies, and Netflix has a bunch of them available for streaming.

The ability to watch movies and TV shows instantly makes the $8.99/mo rental fee a great deal for us. We get online, add a movie to our Instant Queue, and it's available on our Tivo to watch. I had assumed you could only have one movie/TV show on our list at a time, but right now we have at least a dozen items, and we can select which one we watch (we don't have to view them in order, unlike the "real" DVD queue). In the past 24 hours since we've signed up, I've watched 4-5 movies, several dcoumetaries, and we've started watching a TV series. Pretty slick, and for us, well worth the money.

The first disc in our DVD Queue arrived -- one day after we signed up. I'm watching the first season of Deep Space Nine - Disc One.
 

Lucky Earth Waterless Carwash

Lucky Earth Waterless Car Wash

I was up watching ShopNBC, and they were demonstrating this product. This bottle of waterless car wash usually sells for about $14, but I got this plus 8 "micro-fiber" towels for about $10 plus shipping.

The first time I used it, it took about 20 minutes to wipe over the whole car, but it did an excellent job removing a lot of dust and dirt, and it works great on windows, mirrors, and the inside dash surfaces. It didn't do much for the vinyl seats. I prefer this product to Armor All because the latter has such a strong smell, and when I use Armor All on the steering wheel, it makes it dangerously slick.

We had a couple of days of torrential thunderstorms a few days ago, which, with the car under a car port, tends to leave lots of muddy spots all over. I had thought it would take much more than the 20 minutes it took the first time to clean, but this time, it cleaned after just 10 minutes or so, and it seemed the mud and dirt just came off the car much easier than before. Also, this time around, it only required four of those micro-fiber towels, unlike the 10 required the first use.

I didn't purchase for the environmental impact, but the coconut-based surfactant does a fantastic job, and leaves a very nice shine and spotless windows.

This 32-oz bottle still has about 28 oz left.

 

Food Inc; Certified Humane Raised and Handled Food

We have been unusually sensitive about the humane treatment of animals, after the loss of two of our kitties (sadly, both passed within a month of each other). My room mate rented Food Inc. It was quite an eye opener, but we had always known that, as meat eaters, we would have to reluctantly turn a blind eye about where our meat comes from. The movie did mention that there are farmers out there who also believe in the humane treatment of food animals -- that they have space to engage in "normal behaviors," get nutritious food, aren't pumped full of steroids or antibiotics, and are slaughtered humanely. We just didn't know how to find any of these products.

So I did some work on Google and found the website of Humane Farm Animal Care, which puts a label on foods that have been humanely raised. Looks like we may be spending more of our meat dollars at Whole Foods and/or Wild Oats.

Humane Farm Animal Care from Nathan Friedkin on Vimeo.

A list of Arizona stores that carry humanely produced meats.

Cotman Watercolor Field Set Plus by Winsor & Newton; The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook; Winsor Newton Easel

 

Cotman Watercolor Field Set Plus by Winsor & Newton

 

The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook, by Gordon MacKenzie

  

This year has a bit of a watercolor theme going. The last thing I do before going to bed is to paint, which I believe has made it a lot easier for me to fall asleep now that I'm not thinking about all the things I could have done wrong at werk.

I've made some experimental dabs with my new field set. It opens up to reveal lots of mixing trays, 12 tubs, a water bottle, two deep wash wells and a little brush. When I ever do go out to paint something en plein aire, all I'll need is this, a block of paper, and my No. 3 round brush and I'm all set.

The book is on every list of "required reading" for watercolor artists. I've read a few of the chapters and have already learned a few things.

The easel is really nice considering my previous setup (I was painting on a folding dinner tray table). I feel like I've gone from a piece of floating driftwood to the Queen Elizabeth II. The nice thing is that it can completely fold up (sort of like a camera tripod) and comes with a carrying case. I also like the fact that it will easily go from absolute vertical to absolute horizontal -- a must for watercolor.

I've been off my regular pattern for the Christmas holiday, but can hardly wait to get painting again with all of my new stuff!

iPod Classic

 

Apple iPod Classic 120GB

I wonder if I'll ever fill 120GB of space? I had been doing pretty well with my iPod Mini, but watching videos, TV shows and even movies on roomie's video iPod was totally sweet. Plus the battery life is a lot better. I also gave Genius a try (a program that somehow enables the iPod to pick songs "similar to" one of your selections). It was uncanny how similar the songs were, with no glaring mismatches. The quality of the sound playback is also excellent.

Last summer, I downloaded Star Trek: Insurrection from iTunes, but could only view it on my laptop. I watched it on my new iPod and it was great, with all of the special effects and the orchestral soundtrack.

Now if I can just get over my fear of dropping it...

Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS

 

Garmin Nuvi 350

I dread driving. Part of it is that I get lost very easily (I assume I get this from my father, but lately HE's been better with directions than I've been, and on my most recent trip home, I made a wrong turn back from the grocery store).

Thus the Garmin.

I've had it for only a couple of days and I'm already really happy with it.

• It is really small and portable, so I can carry it around. Not that I do much random walking, but I like the fact that I can play with it in the comfort of my home, unlike built in units that have to be played with in the car.
• It came with a USB cable for software updates and hard disk use (MP3's, pictures). The unit came with a free update but I hear later updates are expensive ($70?).
• Satellite pickup is excellent. The worst case was about 15 sec, but usually it acquires a signal in just 1-2 seconds.
• It has really good data input. I can usually get an address entered in less than a minute.
• There are lots of pre-loaded business names/addresses, and lots of local presets (hospitals, restaurants, parks/recreation, stores).
• The Nuvi does give verbal commands, but unlike everything I've read, mine does not speak the actual street names. However, the verbal prompts are excellent, and if I need to know the street name it is printed in large characters on the top of the screen. [Update: I had to set the text from the default female voice to "English - Jill TTS". Apparently only the voices marked "TTS" can speak the street name. English Jill doesn't speak as fluently and naturally as the default voice but getting the street names spoken aloud is a real plus. ]
• It has a mode where you can "virtually" drive to the destination. The bad part is that it only displays in real time, but you can hit the turn-by-turn button and work through all of the turns in the trip.
• The lower right corner gives you the number of miles/feet to the next turn. For whatever reason, knowing how far it is to the next turn is a big source of concern for me.
• As I come up to a turn, if I'm not sure of the verbal prompt, the visual display is clearly marked and color coded. But I'm getting better with more use. I now know that, when the unit says to "Turn Here", not to slam on the brakes to make the random driveway that happens to be there. I know to wait the 200 ft to the next real intersection.
• The voice prompts are easily audible even when the radio is on fairly loud.
• I like the windshield mount better than built in units (where you have to look down). I doubt I really need to watch the screen and could go totally with the prompts, but it's reassuring to just turn my eyes slightly and get the info without having to take my eyes off the road.
• Battery life is supposedly up to 8 hours, but it also came with a car cable. As I'm writing this, I'm "virtually" going to Flagstaff AZ, a 2.5 hour "drive", and hopefully the fully charged battery will get me there.
• I took it out on a test drive yesterday. The first location was about 7 miles away and I already knew where it was. It worked great but oddly put me in a strip mall across the street from my destination. So I passed it, and it then told me to do an immediate U-turn and then put me where I wanted to go, on the proper side of the street. Weird but at least it got me there. The next place I picked was somewhere I didn't already know, but knew it was near the historic area of Scottsdale, where the streets are really screwey. It got me there without any problems, and then got me back home in a faster route than I would have taken on my own.

So what do I need a GPS for, since I never leave home and always get my roomie to drive?

• I'm hoping it will free up my roomie from the whole "Driving Miss Daisy" lifestyle.
• I want to visit some local parks and do some painting en plein aire.

• I want to visit some of the local art museums. Some are downtown and I hate driving there because I get lost so easily.

• Who knows what the economic future is. I might have to eventually work Agency nursing and work at multiple hospitals.

And besides, I just love gadgets!