The Gadgets Page

My boy put Angry Bird stickers all over his computer when we first gave it to him. He is no longer obsessed with Angry Birds. Angry Birds are for little kids now, and he took off all the stickers. Even though we gave him some Goo Gone, there was still some horrible, sticky residue.

The residue stayed there and we pretty much resigned ourselves to a disgusting computer until my husband tried a Magic Eraser on it. The result was… magical, to say the least.

We couldn’t believe how well it worked to remove the dirt AND the sticky residue. If you are dealing with sticker goo on your electronics, try a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. It worked like magic for us!

This postcard from PostSecret made me laugh, because I feel the same way.

It reads:

Men who know their keyboard shortcuts turn me on.

I have to admit that I feel the same way. It’s like Napoleon Dynamite said,

Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.

It’s true, so if you’re thinking that all this time you spend learning how to code is wasted on us girls, it’s NOT. We notice when you use a quick keyboard shortcut instead of the menu. We notice when you can type 70 wpm. We notice and to be honest, it makes us feel a little flushed.

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

I adore this commercial.

All those people who say that technology is ruining our society are WRONG.

Via: Apple airs new holiday ad “Misunderstood” featuring iPhone 5s and more | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

The snow hit my town today and I immediately hated the path in my town. I looked for some new paths to replace them with, but I didn’t like any of them either, so I made my own.

First, I made this Gravel Path.

It was alright, but it looked a little like it was floating on top of things instead of an actual path.

This Earthy Paver is a little better.

It just didn’t work with my new Winter Wonderland, so I created this Snowy Paver and I like it MUCH better.

Now, I have new paths in my town and I can share them with the world so everyone can enjoy them.

If you would like to visit my town, my Dream Address is 4000-2185-7855.

There are some days when you can do everything right and still have bad luck. It’s true in Animal Crossing just as much as it is in real life, but in Animal Crossing, the fortune teller can actually warn you about your impending bad luck.

A visit to Katrina, will start out ominous, so you know right away that it’s a bad luck day.

The Lovely Phone, is more ambiguous, however. It may just say something vaguely unfavorable.

There is little you can do to turn your luck around. If you have the lucky item, you can make yourself about as lucky as a normal day.

If you have your lucky item AND can also wear your Tingle Hood, then you can have a lucky day despite the “misfortune that is attempting to come down on you.”

Arranging the furniture in your house helps, but it really can’t overcome a bad luck day. In Animal Crossing, as in real life, it might be best to just hide in bed on your bad luck days.

I don’t like the mini-game tours on the island. I ONLY do them to earn medals so I can buy the cool stuff from the island shop. The quickest way for me to earn medals is with the Elite Scavenger Tour.

In about two minutes, I can earn 16 medals EVERY time. Here’s how I do it. (Continue Reading…)

My lucky item for the day was the Mint Gingham Skirt and I didn’t have a good shirt to wear with it, so I revamped one of my sweaters to match it and added a sling bag. Here’s the QR Code:

I absolutely LOVE that I can just make a new outfit and share it with the world immediately. I hope you all like it.

If you would like to visit my town, my Dream Address is 4000-2185-7855.

This video is NOT SAFE FOR WORK and is laced with profanity, but it is SO true! Jenna Marbles talks about what video games taught her.

If you feel that video game designers don’t care about what they are teaching kids, you’re right. Granted, some of those games weren’t meant for kids, like Grand Theft Auto, but honestly, the last thirty years of video game design has been dedicated to the lowest common denominator, violence. I really loved what she said,

“Super Mario Bros. taught me that if you see something that you don’t know, that’s not you, you should… kill it. DIE! I don’t wanna befriend you. I don’t wanna get to know you. You’re gettin’ in my path… you’re dead. It’s basically more hardcore than Scarface.”

The lack of friendly fire in gameplay seems like a HUGE problem in games. I was watching Sean play Sklyanders and I was worried, “Watch out, you’re going to kill your other guy.” He just casually replied, “Oh, I can’t hurt him.” He didn’t even worry about hurting his co-player or the innocent wooden bystanders on that level.

What did video games teach me? Adventure taught me how to memorize mazes and directions without being able to see them. Even now, I can navigate the real world better because of it. Animal Crossing taught me how to be a pretty good friend by sending them nice letters and doing favors for them. In my forty years on this planet, no one ever told me that if I send a pleasant note, text or email to my friends every few days that it would make them like me. I also learned the names of several fish and insects because of that game. Tetris taught me how to pack a suitcase really well. Plants Vs. Zombies taught me to multi-task. Dungeon Raid taught me to run AWAY when I see a big bad guy. It’s really the ONLY video game I’ve played that has ever given me that option and taught me that lesson.

On the whole, the video games I’ve loved the most have taught me positive lessons, or perhaps I was willing to overlook the negative lessons and just focus on the positive.

I love to sell my fruit, gems and fossils on the Flea Market pallets at Retail, because I can sell them to the villagers for almost four times what Reese will pay me for them. Unfortunately, I ran into problems. It was hard to get the villagers to LEAVE once they bought something and getting them to come to Retail was just as hard.

With a ton of trial and error, however, I’ve found a pretty good way to efficiently sell all of my high ticket items at Retail for four times the usual price. Here’s how I do it…

Update 12-04-13: I added information about bad luck days. (Continue Reading…)

There is a simple denim jacket in the video game, but it is buttoned up to the throat and makes me feel like a nerd when I wear it.

So I made my own. A simple denim jacket with a white shirt underneath. (Continue Reading…)