All posts by NerdMom

Contesting Monday

Contesting Monday 11/21

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First off I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!!! Which means that by the end of the week the Christmas season will officially be upon us! So what is better thank a kick butt Black Friday sale? Winning it for free!!!

So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.

So now you need to add your giveaways and go enter some giveaways! Let them know that Contesting Monday sent you!

Geeky, Link Love

Geeky Links 11/19

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So Rocket Hub is a place to crowd source funding for science. I think that this is a great idea! Kickstarter has worked well for the arts! It has worked for our local music festival! What do you think? Is this a plausible method to get stuff done?

 

 Epicenter has a very interesting piece on farm droids. Could this help deal with our migrant farm issues?

 

GeekWire has an interesting piece Microsoft software would detect, score and report obnoxious workplace habits. I don’t even know what to think about that.

tech

Motorola Bionic #MotoCalyp

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 Recently I was cruising around Calyp (they had a 2 day free shipping deal on this) and saw the Motorola Bionic. Anyone who knows me knows that I love some cool tech and I have been hearing about the Bionic for a while. So I decided (and was motivated) to research it!

Being the huge research nerd that I am my first stop was the manufacturer page. There are great images of a super cool phone;)! And super cool accessories.

 

 

 But what is a cool phone without the service plan. So I popped over to Verizon to see what they said about the Motorola Bionic.


I loved all the detailed information that Verizon broke apart all the details. The specs really look great. I mean is has 1 GB of ram, the camera is significant having 8 mega pixels. I love the fact it has a video camera that a 1080p capture because I have been know to vlog on the fly and I would love not having to carry my Flip also. And the site says that it has 10.8 hours of talk time on its battery!

There were some stellar reviews over at Amazon and that is something I really consider. Over all I walked away thinking that the Motorola Bionic was pretty smooth.

Then I went to the store…. Now don’t get me wrong. I know that there are drawbacks to every phone but the salesman almost completely ruined the phone for me. To start with it was about 3 times more in the store than Amazon, but that is life. I went in making it clear that I was looking for a phone and specifically analyzing the Motorola Bionic. I ooh’ed and ah’ed over the clear picture while watching Youtube and said how it felt great in my hand. The salesman then went through and told me every way that it couldn’t compare to the Razor. Everything from battery life actually only being 2 hours of active use in his experience (versus twice that in a Razor) to the fact that I could get a stronger Gorilla glass display with the Razor. He pointed out that the Motorola Bionic only has a 720p display while the Razor has a 1080p display.

He was pushing the Razor that every step. So much so I had to analyze his counsel! I had read so many great reviews of the Motorola Bionic I just have to believe that he was getting an incentive for selling the Razor;).

My final conclusion of the Motorola Bionic is that it seems to be a solid phone for a decent price. Before I would buy this I would have to hear some personal testimonies from people I know (versus the faceless reviews) because my tech dollars are precious. But based on my research it really seems solid!

(This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. While they gave me the subject the opinions are all mine. I also documented my analysis process over on Google+! )

Food

Meal Plan Monday 11/14

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 This week is a super crazy week!!! My kids have a concert and we have something almost every night this week!!! So things are going to have to be super easy! With us going gluten free I only have a couple of great dishes….

Monday: Steaks, broccoli, mashed potatoes
Tuesday: Not Your Mama’s Spaghetti Squash
Wednesday: Salmon, roasted potatoes, broccoli
Thursday: Shrimp & spinach in rice noodles with butter and garlic
Friday: Dinner out with the family

Contesting Monday

Contesting Monday 11/14

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So here is the deal. If you are hosting a giveaway or have a post about someone’s giveaway just leave a link. Make sure this link is to the giveaway post itself and not just the blog or it will be deleted. If you listed it last week but your giveaway is still open, list it again! Also your link must be to something family friendly or it will be deleted.

So now you need to add your giveaways and go enter some giveaways! Let them know that Contesting Monday sent you!

Food

Food Links 11/12

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There are some interesting articles out there in the food work this week! Here are a few things that caught my eye!

The LA Times says that the price of Thanksgiving dinner has jumped 13% which is the highest jump in 2 decades! My costs don’t seem as hard hit as theirs but I am a sale shopper!

The Washington Post Lifestyle section has an article about the possibility of small farms making a substantial difference in the hunger problem. While I don’t want a tax credit for gardening, I do believe that small farms and community gardens could change the world in many ways!

Wired has a piece on the EU Parliament. They are banning most farm anitbiotic use. It is an interesting piece and I wonder what the effect will be in the US both in our farming methods and in trade.

Geeky, Link Love

Geeky Links 11/12

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This week’s Geeky Links are pretty light! I am sick and it has been a long week;).

 

Who doesn’t love a little AC/DC with their Star Wars?

Marvel and parent company Disney are doing a little cross promotion of the Prep and Landing Elves with the Marvel Superheroes! Very interesting. What do you think? Is it sacrilege?

Food

Seeding a Pomegranate

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As a child I was never allowed to eat pomegranates due to their staining. This is a super easy and effective way to seed a pomegranate. That means that you are left with beautiful arials that you can eat by the handful, juice, bake with or use in salads without any mess!

So how to you seed your pomegranates?

headlines, politics

Money Gap or Motivation Gap?

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This last week I heard about the Pew study that came out about Economic Well Being by age groups. Here is the very notable section:

Trends in household wealth reveal the pattern most vividly. In 2009, the median net worth (all assets minus all debts) of households headed by an adult ages 65 or older was 42% more than that of their same-aged counterparts in 1984. By contrast, the net worth of a typical household headed by an adult under the age of 35 in 2009 was 68% less than that of their same-aged counterparts in 1984.

I agree with a local radio personality here in Fresno, Inga Barks, who said that it is good that are seniors are more secure. And she pointed out that at 25 it is a lot easier to get a second job than at 65. And that is all true.
But through all the discussion I have heard there is some key facts that I haven’t heard taken into account. First off is the bounce back kid. Some of these college graduates are coming home to live off their parents until they are in their 30’s not because they can’t find any job but because they can’t find their ideal job. Also you have more and more college graduates who aren’t working their way through college but living on loans or mom and dad.

Could all this factor into the money gap? Is this really just a sign of how well our economy is doing because this young adults can afford to not work? What does this really mean?