Evil Dead: The Musical

Evil Dead: The Musical (Long Center for the Performing Arts, Austin, TX)

If you are an Evil Dead fan and have not gone to see Evil Dead: The Musical, you don't know what you are missing. I had the chance to see this last Saturday and was truly impressed and satisfied by the performance. It was worth the time and money to go check this out even being a 10 hour roundtrip drive to the theatre from where I live.  Everything was well organized, the music was great, actors were outstanding, and blood was splattered into the audience. The ultimate experience.

Google Voice integration with Google Hangouts app on iOS devices

**Update (9/22/2014)**
The best workaround I have found to initiate a SMS conversation is to start the conversation through gmail on your computer and it will automatically carry over to your iOS application. Not exactly handy when your on the go and need to send someone a message but you could always start conversations with your most popular contacts so that you will already have the conversation there.

Another issue I am seeing is you cannot add/edit someone as a contact. So, even if you have a friend in google hangouts with their phone number, the SMS messages still come in as the phone number and does not show the name of the contact nor recognize it as someone in your contacts and you cannot add/edit them into your contacts either. 

This all falls back to the issue with initiating an SMS. Hangouts only looks for people in your hangouts to launch a hangouts conversation but there is no option to specify SMS on the iOS platform as there is on android or gmail. 
** **


I just started playing with this so bear with me

Google has recently integrated Google Voice and Google hangouts so that you can send/receive SMS messages and send/receive phone calls for gmail and Android devices. Some instructions on enabling these new features can be found here:

https://support.google.com/voice/answer/6023920?hl=en


What google fails to mention is that this will also work with iOS devices. The only issue I have found so far is I cannot find a way to initiate an SMS/MMS conversation. Nope, someone else must first send me a message and then I can reply. Once the conversation is started you can always save it to your favorites so you wont lose it but this is just a workaround. If anyone knows how to send as SMS please comment below.

The advantage of using Google Hangouts, however, is having the ability to send pictures and other attachments and not just plain text. This was always my biggest complaint with the Google Voice app.

You can also use your google voice number with Hangouts to send/receive phone calls over data or Wifi. The call quality isn't always the best but it gets the job done.


So, if you want to try it out, all you need to do is follow the instructions for setting up Hangouts in Gmail and the settings will carry over to your Google Hangouts iOS app.

So this pretty much sums up how I have cut the cable from my TV network providers and gone completely Internet-based with all of my media content:

There is plenty of free and commercial software available to convert your DVDs into digital format. I ripped digital copies of all of my DVDs that I own. This enables you the ability to watch your digital library on your TV with a PS3, Apple TV, other device, or by directly connecting your PC/Mac.

Throw the DVDs in storage or garage sale. You wont really need them anymore after this. Use an external harddrive to back up your digital copies so you can restore them if the file ever does become corrupt. If you bought a movie from iTunes and it becomes corrupt you can re-download it free of charge through the iCloud services.

Amazon video is now available on PS3 - All of your digital copy movies purchased through Amazon.com are kept in a digital library and you can stream them at any time.

Getting bored of your Movie library? Subscribe to Netflix and/or Hulu+ for  $8-$16 a month. This gives you access to tons of movies and TV shows streaming directly to your TV. This also has plenty of shows that kids will love.


The NFL sunday ticket will be offered for this year for PS3 owners and does not require DirecTV service. This means you can watch almost all of the NFL games every Sunday live over the Internet. So far the pricing for this service sounds pretty high and so I am not sure if I will try it or not yet. If you are desperate to watch a sport then there are some websites that stream them for free. Try Google and you might find front row sports.

Unless you live on the edge of the earth where Internet Speeds are atrocious, lag should not be a problem. I live pretty close to the edge of the Earth and I rarely have a problem myself. If you experience lag, there may be other ISP providers in your area that can offer you a better deal with faster speeds. If you are going on a trip and you want to take a movie mobile, download the video to your phone or tablet so that you avoid streaming it from a slow wifi connection or mobile data connection.

It has been roughly 6 months since we have cut the cable which means we have saved nearly $600. I am very satisfied and have no regrets.

Air Filters turned into children's seat/stool

My stepfather got creative with some industrial size air filters and painted them pink. The kids love to sit on them, stack them, and flip them over and use them to hold their toys and other belongings.

A trip to the rattlesnake roundup

My wife and I took a trip Friday to Sweetwater, TX for the annual Rattlesnake Roundup. This was our first year to go and we had a blast. I didn't know what to expect because I have never been to something like that but I found out it was a lot more safe then it sounds.

We opted out of bringing our kids because we didn't know how safe it would be for a 4 and 7 year old. I had first imagined the event as somewhat dangerous for a child to go to because of how easy it easy for a child of that age to dart towards something before you have the chance to grab them or stop them. I was also imagining people getting in bathtubs full of snakes and things like that that you see on tv( they told us some roundups do that sort of thing but this one does not - They want to make this roundup the safest and most educational for people of all ages and for over the last 50 years that is exactly what they have done). Once we got there I already wished I could have brought the kids because it was very easy to tell how kid friendly the place was. My wife and I both agreed that next time we go we will be bringing our kids.






This event is HUGE, there are tons of vendors, games, food, and rides. I was mainly focused on the main attraction. I wanted to see the rattlesnakes. I have never liked rattlesnakes that much because I have had a few bad experiences with them growing up so I wanted to get a first-hand look and reeducate myself about them. I mean I am used to seeing some rattlesnakes every year where I live but they blend in so well with their natural habitat that I don't even like going on nature hikes around here because I don't want me or a family member to accidentally step on one and get bitten.

Rattlesnakes are cold-blooded and need the heat from the sun to keep their bodies warm. Therefore they first emerge in March when temperatures start to reach the 60's and when the summer months come they tend to look for shady areas because it gets too hot for them. When it comes to colder days they tend to stay in their dens to keep warm. We witnessed this in Sweetwater this weekend as the weather was in the 30's and 40's. The rattlesnakes were very docile this year due to the cold weather. If the handlers werent directly picking them up or moving them they mostly just lay motionless and coiled up to keep themselves warm.

Every part of a caught rattlesnake can be used. The venom is milked to make antivenom. The skin is used to make materials. The meat is cooked to eat and that was my next stop. I took the rattlesnake meal which was "2 pieces of rattlesnake, Fries, and a drink". It was deep fried pieces of rattlesnake and I actually ended up getting three pieces instead of two. I have always heard that it "tastes like chicken" and that is how I can honestly describe the tast. My only con to the rattlesnake is that it is very boney but other than that I enjoyed it.

We took a guided bus tour out to some land where a rattlesnake Den was. The handlers pulled a couple of snakes out of their den and showed us how well the rattlesnakes could blend in with their natural habitat. They told us that the western Diamond back is the most common in Texas  and they are not at all aggressive. The eastern diamond back, however, is another story. They also allowed us to get some pictures and touch the rattlesnakes (while they held the head).




All in all I had a great time and I am definitely planning on doing this again. Next time my kids will come and enjoy it with me.  I leave you with some videos we took while at the event! or Watch the Playlist on Youtube

Here is a link to their website with tons of information about the annual event

src: http://rattlesnakeroundup.net/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweetwater-Jaycees-Rattlesnake-Round-Up/253049219648

How To add Pinterest's "Pin It" button to your iPad or iPhone for Free

Dont waste your money on those apps in the app store. All they do is give you a line of text to copy and paste into your bookmarks menu. The following tutorial will show you how to do just that! You may want to open my instructions on a separate tab from your iPad/iPhone.


1. First you want to open Safari from your iPad and go to http://www.pinterest.com

2. Next you will want to add this webpage as a bookmark. Be careful to see that you are adding the bookmark into the root of the bookmarks folder and not nested into some folders or else it might be hard for you to find it.

3. Give the Bookmark a name and Save it. This is going to be our "Pinterest It" button so I gave when ahead and gave it the same name.  You can give it any name you prefer, it will still work the same.

4. Now tap your bookmarks and then tap the "Edit" button inside of the bookmarks menu and then top on the "Pinterest It" bookmark that we made in the previous step.

5. You will now be able to edit the Address field of the bookmark. Go ahead and delete the entire address. You are going to want to copy the following line of code and paste it in place of the Address

COPY:

javascript:void((function()%7Bvar%20e=document.createElement('script');e.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8');e.setAttribute('src','http://iostranslate.appspot.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)%7D)());

6. Tap your "Bookmarks" button to go back to the Bookmarks menu and then tap "Done".

 7. Try it out! Find a picture of something.

8. Tap your Bookmarks button and then tap the Pinterest It button that we created in the previous steps.

9. If you followed all of the steps correctly, you should then be given the choice of images you want to pin. Tap the image you wanted and then tap "Pin"

10. Now you can pin to Pinterest from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch just the same as from your Desktop/laptop.

I have tested this on my Android and it does not work for me. So far I haven't found a solution for this but please let me know if you've found something for Droid!

Sync iTunes music with google music

Ever since I have switched to droid I have had problems keeping my files synchronized between my Droid and Apple devices that I also own. I used to plug my iPhone into my iMac and all of the music I wanted would transfer and synchronize automatically. There are different 3rd party applications that can synchronize your droid with iTunes but the process of setting those up can and maintaining them can be cumbersome and tedious. The best and easiest solution I have found to keep my music synchronized between google and iTunes uses no 3rd party software. In fact everything I have used to set this up is entirely 1st party.  That's right, google provides everything we need to get this working! If you would like to set this up on your computer follow the steps. (I am assuming you already have an account with google)

1. Go to http://music.google.com and log in with your google account. 

2. On the top right side of the page you will see a link that says "UPLOAD MUSIC" click on that link and it will take you to the page where you can download google's Music Manager.

3. After you have downloaded the Music Manager you will have to go through the installation. Installation can vary depending on your OS but for the most part it is the typical installation you should already be familiar with.

4. After you have signed in you can select the location to upload your music and set up other various options.

5. Upload times will vary depending on your Internet speed and the size/amount of music files you have in your music library.

6. You will see more and more of your music uploaded to google music and you can start using it while it is still uploading.

7. From your Droid device, open up the Market application.

8. Do a search for google music. It should be the first result in APPS

9. Install the Google Music App and Open it. The app will take you through some basic set up instructions to connect to your google account.

10. Listen to your music

You're all set up.  Enjoy!