by steelie -

New shoes…

I ordered some Parkour specific shoes from California a while ago and they finally came in. There theFreerunner model made by FiveTen. Here’s their description of the shoe:

Remember the opening scene of the movie, Casino Royale? When James Bond chases a bad guy through a construction site, with leaps and tumbles to rival Spiderman? Well, that’s Free-running. We’ve designed a shoe that will help with Wall Runs, Tic-Tacs and Precisions. The non-marking Stealth® Phantom soles and tri-density EVA cushioning helps Freerunners gain the confidence they need to push their limits.

I was talking to one of the guys in their shop who does Parkour — actually, the only guy in their shop who does Parkour — and he was telling me that got to help them design it. His big thing was that he wanted a shoe that someone could wear everyday and slip into Parkour-mode at the drop of a hat. I’m wearing them as I write this and they are more comfortable to wear as normal shoe than my running shoes. I like them. A lot!

 

Parkour Specific Shoes by FiveTen
Parkour Specific Shoes by FiveTen

 

—
steelie
by steelie -

In the last/next little while…

In the last little while I’ve been laying pretty low… been good but been tired.

—-
Little X was teething a couple of week ago… and as a result wasn’t feeling the greatest… and as a result wasn’t sleeping well… and as a result we weren’t sleeping well. He’s been sleeping in our room since he was born and we were planning to keep him in our room with us until he was 18 months — like we did with his older brother — unfortunately, his older brother was the only one sleeping well (fortunate for him, not so much for the rest of us).
And so, we opted to bump Little X’s moving date by a month with the hopes that him not seeing us when he wakes, thus expecting us to pick him up every time, will allow him to learn to fall back asleep on his own. It has been almost two weeks since he’s moved over and things have been much better. He still wakes up throughout the night but is able to soothe himself back to sleep half the time. :^D
—-
In other news, I ordered some Parkour specific shoes from California a while ago and they finally came in. There the Freerunner model made by FiveTen. Here’s their description of the shoe:

Remember the opening scene of the movie, Casino Royale? When James Bond chases a bad guy through a construction site, with leaps and tumbles to rival Spiderman? Well, that’s Free-running. We’ve designed a shoe that will help with Wall Runs, Tic-Tacs and Precisions. The non-marking Stealth® Phantom soles and tri-density EVA cushioning helps Freerunners gain the confidence they need to push their limits.


I was talking to one of the guys in their shop who does Parkour — actually, the only guy in their shop who does Parkour — and he was telling me that got to help them design it. His big thing was that he wanted a shoe that someone could wear everyday and slip into Parkour-mode at the drop of a hat. I’m wearing them as I write this and they are more comfortable to wear as normal shoe than my running shoes. I like them. A lot!

—-
Last weekend was my wife’s birthday. It was the first of her birthdays in a while that we actually had enough money, to buy gifts and go out for Birthday Breakfast at Cora’s — our favourite. I wanted this one to be special for her. Alas, she was hit with a bout of strept-throat which pretty much knocked her on her butt, which un/fortunately forced us to stay in all weekend. My wife had to sleep to get better but the time did all spend together was nice and relaxing.
I got her the Apple iPod Radio Remote which allows her to leave her iPod in her backpack and still have control over her play list. It also acts as an FM tuner and now she can listen to CBC radio on her iPod too. The boys each got her a Jean-Pierre Jeunet (director of Amelie) movie. She loved everything. We also bought my wife an ice-cream cake. She loves them but usually skips them because I’m lactose-intolerant. The added bonus to this cake was the extra soothing effects the ice cream had on her sore throat.
The City of Lost Children
The City of Lost Children

—-
Next week is my first soccer match in almost two years… I am excited and frightened. I am in the worst shape of my life and am carrying around an extra ten pounds I didn’t have last year. Ugh. Oh well, I have to  get back into shape somehow. Might as well be playing soccer.
—-
Until next time.
—
steelie

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

by steelie -

steelie twidbits…

Some twitter bits from yesterday…

  • 09:54 can’t wait to be able to use the washroom alone again… without children feeling like they need to hang out with you…
  • 10:32 discovered that just soaking sheets/shirts right away is enough to get rid blood stains… Ah, rugged little-boy play…
  • 15:31 wishing that both of his boys would nap… preferably at the same time… would take nything right about now…

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

by steelie -

Apple Releases Safari 3.1…

Picture 5
Picture 5

Apple released Safari 3.1 today. While it’s not completely VOX compatible, it appears to be 95% there. As far as I can tell, the only things that don’t seem to work are the “Decrease & Increase Text Size” buttons in the compose window. Otherwise, at first glance, it appears to be mightly VOX-o-riffic.

If you plan on downloading it, the install will require a restart so, plan accordingly. ;^)
—
steelie

[UPDATE]
Well, in an older “Ask Team Vox” post, I was part of the ongoing threaded conversation trying to figure out some of Safari’s incompatibility issues and exploring alternatives.

An ongoing issue with VOX’s QotD formatting (that I wasn’t previously aware of… clearly I don’t use it enough) was brought up by Rube Burrow:

Still not able to answer the QotD in Safari – the text stays in the “quoted" style of the initial question. No idea why this is the case – even with Safari 3.1 on Mac or Windows. Any movement on this?


Now, see… I have this problem where I can’t help trying to trouble-shoot things that, more often than not, are way over my head. Luckily, every once in a while, things fall into place…

I figured out a little work-around for the QotD issue… on the Mac version of Safari at least anyway — unable to test it on a PC. Right after you click on the Qotd “Post your Answer” button, in the “Compose” window, give yourself a Return then click the “Begin Blockquote” button then the “End Blockquote” button. This will remove the “quoted” formatting and restore the indent to what it would have originally been before the “quoted style was added.

Additionally, as mentioned above, the other big (only?) shortfall I can find, so far, is in VOX’s “Compose” window where the “Decrease Text Size” and “Increase Text Size” buttons don’t work properly. My pseudo little work-around for this one is to select the text you wish to format and Control+Click (or Right-Click) to bring up the system’s Contextual Menu and select “Font > Show Fonts”. You can change the text’s size as well as most other formatting options.

Hope this helps.
—
steelie

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

by steelie -

Mac OS X + Twidget + Twitter + LoudTwitter/TwitterSync + Vox/Facebook = Ultra-Efficient/Lazy…

For those of you who are tired of seeing the daily Twitter-update posts from a number of your VOX friends and neighbours, I apologize in advance.


Why?

Because for all the VOX/Twitter/Facebook users out there who also happen to be Mac users, I have figured out the most efficient / laziest one-stop solution to bring all three together by updating your Twitter status using the Twidget Dashboard Widget.

Here is what you will need:

Okay, once you’ve run out and purchased your Mac and installed Twidget, and signed up for all the lovely little account listed above, you’ll need to do some configuring…


First, let’s set up VOX to be able to receive these posts from Loudtwitter. Make sure you’re logged into VOX, then click on  “Account” at the very top. On the “Account” page, click the “Mobile Settings” tab on the left. You can either use your main Mobile Posting address with LoudTwitter or you can create an “Additional Posting Email”. I would suggest the latter as you can custom tag it (twitter, loudtwitter…).

VOX set-up: done.

Next, copy the email that VOX generated for you, and hop on over and log-into to Loudtwitter. Your home page will have all your setting options right there. Click on “Email posting setup”, then enter the VOX-generated email address and click “OK”. Then be sure to change the “Change the twitter followed” setting to your twitter username. You can tweak the “Change post time, formatting, etc” settings to your liking once everything else is set up.

LoudTwitter set-up: done.

Next, let’s set up Facebook. Log into your account and do a search for TwitterSync. Add the application. Now, in the settings for TwitterSync, the only setting you really have to enter is the “Twitter Name” you want it to follow and the password for you account if your tweets are protected. Click “Save Changes”.

Facebook set-up: done.

Last but not least, let’s set up the Twidget Dashboard Widget. Enter your Twitter user name and password into the fields provided on Twidget and click “Done”.

Twidget set-up: done.

Now you should be able to just hit F12 no matter what you’re working on and instantly update your Twitter and Facebook status, simultaneously. At the end of the day (specific time can be updated in your LoudTwitter preferences) LoudTwitter will compile your tweets for the day and post an entry to VOX detailing your adventures from the previous day.

For PC users, I understand that there a number of Twitter plug-ins for Firefox that will essentially serve the same purpose as Twidget. All other steps in the set-up should be exactly the same.

I’m pretty sure that covers everything… if anyone has any problems setting this up, let me know and I’ll figure it out and update the instructions accordingly.
—
steelie

Read and post comments | Send to a friend