Last Saturday, while Cyndi went to London and had liquid nitrogen ice cream, I stayed home and watched the kids. One o the things we did was go for a walk. Here are some pictures I took:
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I think it is for…
… convenience over anything else. People don’t want to stop more than once and the stations at supermarkets let them do that. Some of them–Tesco and Sainsbury’s–even give rewards for purchasing fuel at their stations. I know that is why we do it (just to clarify, the convenience is what I’m referring to here. One stop is better than 2 or 3.)
I also think it is about regulation. In the states, there’s much more regulation now on gas stations than there used to be. That drove most of the mom and pop stores out of business.
How about you? Do you get your fuel/gas/petrol at WalMart (or the like)? If so why?
This is in response to this article about supermarkets having almost 1/2 of the filling stations in the UK.
Image from the real yomcat via flickr
Insane Rainstorm
This is insane….. Go to the 57 sec mark when they rotate…it’s like they fly into a huge rain band.
I’m glad…
…that I’ve always thought it was a waste of time. Once Cyndi and I started renting places that had dishwashers, I’ve never wasted my time rinsing dishes. I’m glad. See this article on the Consumerist and Consumer Reports. (If the dishes didn’t come clean, I’d just leave them in there for a second go).
Image from nj tech teacher via flickr
What do you call this movie/film?
Here, it is called The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists. But I just heard in the US it will be released with the title The Pirates: Band of Misfits. For more information, see this BBC article.
Image from Ben Sutherland via flickr
Dairy Free Chocolate
Lydia has a milk and egg allergy. We found this out when she was real young–she didn’t have teeth yet–and I gave her a bit of my McDonald’s Chocolate Milkshake. Long story short, she had a severe reaction. Because of that, she hasn’t had chocolate (real chocolate) until today.
At church, one of our friends brought us an everything free (dairy free, nut free, gluten free, and egg free) chocolate bar. Lydia really liked it! The bar is made by a company here in the UK called Kinnerton. Here’s a link to their page on the dairy free nut free gluten free egg free chocolate bar. The image to the left came from their website…I just reposted it on flickr so I could post it here without hot linking.
Android 4 (ICS), Battery Life, and VoIP
In this article, I mentioned one of the big issues I had once my Nexus S upgraded to ICS was poor battery life. I also said I had fixed that by doing a reset of the phone. Well, the other day, I was looking at settings and think I’ve figured out the real reason for the poor battery life: VoIP.
When we moved overseas, I bought a Nokia e65 because I could run an app called TruPhone on it (VoIP). Combined with Google Voice, it was really convenient. When we were traveling, I could hook the phone up to WiFI (I couldn’t get data service at that time) and we could call people in the states. When I got my Nexus S, I set it up as well. This time, VoIP would ONLY work over wifi–it just wouldn’t connect at any other time.
Last week, I reconfigured the SIP settings on my Nexus S. Wow! It connected straightaway and over 3g to boot. This is really good as I have unlimited data on my phone. I called my parents in the states. There was a delay, but it worked! I went on to game night; however, when I picked my phone up to take a picture, the battery was almost flat. INSANE!
I’ve since gone in and disabled then re-enabled the SIP receive calls setting and think that is the cause of the very poor battery life. When it is enabled, the phone just sucks the battery (but I can’t receive calls that come into my google voice number). When I disable it, batter life is actually better than it was under Android 2.3.2 (what came on it).
Image from deanj via flickr
Nokia, Chat, and Google Talk
Last year, I got Cyndi a Nokia e71. She needed a new phone but wanted one with a physical keyboard (as opposed to a touchscreen). We found a new one in a pawn shop here for not very much so I got it. I was able to get it set up with Google Maps, Google Voice, and Google Talk; however, a few weeks ago, Google Talk quit working (I’m actually not sure when it stopped working as she didn’t use it all the time).
I ended up and uninstalled it and redownloaded it. Now, the Nokia Ovi Chat application won’t let me (her really) sign in to Google Talk. It ONLY lets you sign in with a Nokia ovi.com account ARG.
I’d really like to get her an android phone (then this stuff will just work) but she doesn’t want a touchscreen. Does anyone
1) have ideas how to get Nokia Chat to work once again with Google Talk?
2) an android phone with a real keyboard?
Image from makarus via flickr
Marshmallow Fluff
Last year, I took some marshmallow fluff to the fcX group at church. They loved it. They still talk about it. The only rub? You could only buy it here in a specialist candy shop for about $12 (7 pounds or so). That is much more expensive than the $1 at WalMart. Well, tonight, I was at Sainsbury’s in Redhill when I saw it. Sure enough…marshmallow fluff. And only for 2 pounds! It looks legit:
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| From WalMart | From Sainsbury’s |
LOL Isaac!
Note the sticker on his left pocket flap.