Wednesday, October 31, 2007

A Bunny that doesn't chew, poop or bite!

From Yahoo Tech:

Nabaztag is a Wi-Fi enabled bunny that can gather information from around the Internet, and reads it for you. If you want to know what's happening on your favorite blogs, you simply go to Nabaztag.com, add your favorite RSS feeds to your Nabcasts feeds, and it'll read the latest headlines every 20 minutes (you can change the frequency). The latest version has a microphone on its navel so you can talk to your rabbit. Anytime you press a button between its ears, and give him a command such as "weather", it's quick to respond. You can send voice messages to other Nabaztag owners by speaking into its navel, as well.

Since the bunny has speakers, you can easily stream music or play podcasts you find on the Web for an unlimited time. It also has an audio output on his back so you can connect headphones or speakers, depending on your situation. If you're at work, you might want to keep him plugged to your headphones, but if you keep it at home, you can set it anywhere in the house so it can keep you updated on incoming email, weather, stocks, or news headlines.

I am so adding to my Christmas list.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Surrounded by Books

I am in NY for a work meeting, and the hotel closest to the office is... the Library Hotel. (That's right, everybody scream in excitement!) For those of you who are not in the library loop (and if you aren't, why the heck not?), the Library Hotel names and decorates its rooms after the Dewey Decimal System. I just spent a half hour running around all 12 floors of the hotel, looking for my favorites. (Yes, literature IS on the 8th floor. I had to check.) My room is Native American Religions, and the bookshelves are full of well-loved books on pretty much everything Native American. I appreciate that they stocked the shelves with books more likely seen in a yard sale box then those fakey "leather"-bound buy-it-off-the-shelf libraries.

*Sigh* A haven for bibliophiles in a very busy city. I'd get out to adventure more tonight, but it's rainy and cold. At least I have about 10,000 books at my disposal right here in the hotel.

'Night,
M.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Save the Planet and Buy a Sportscar

Hello friends - well, I should have put a comma in between in the title, since these two aren't exactly related. Unless you consider the gas mileage and emissions of a Humvee...

My girlfriend Lisa told me about these fab little Envirosax that you can take with you to the grocery store. These fab little reusable, and fashionable, bags are my new way of helping reduce our footprint (in this case, not carbon but trashy!) on the world. Lisa will call herself "granola" for using these, but in reality, it's smart. Just imagine, your pantry will be clean of all those annoying little plastic bags that seem to reproduce overnight....

On to the sportscar reference: J & I have spent much of the last two weekends hunting down a new car. Since it is our mission in life to drive the most impractical cars out there, we are continuing the tradition by looking at a Nissan 350 Z, Mini Cooper S, Infiniti G35, and an Audi TT. I am leaning more towards the Mini (since it is an adorable, and fast, little convertible) and Jason likes the Audi and the Infiniti. Weigh in and let us know your preference. We sure aren't moving too fast on making a decision, but that could be partly because of the sentimental attachment to the Toyota MR2 that we currently have.

Otherwise, I'll be traveling up a storm this next week. I'm heading to Chi-town to give a training to new hires (ah, so impressionable), New York again for a strategy meeting, and to Monterey, CA for the Internet Librarian conference. I am ecstatic about the IL conference, since I see it as a time of professional development/spiritual & God realignment/relaxation. It's impossible to go to Monterey and not feel some reawakening of the soul, it's so beautiful.

Enough ramblings for the night. Hope all is well with you and be sure to shoot us an email or phone call soon.

xoxoxo,
Michelle