Usual disclaimer: I'm not paid to review these products, I just like to share my good finds with my pals.

I've referred to "my new toy that I've yet to blog about" many, many times so I thought I'd finally come clean about it today.

My new toy is an Asus R2H


This review gives all the details and lots and lots of pictures. If you're really interested in it, I'd suggest visiting that site to read more about it. I'm just going to tell you what I love about it.

You might recall that I used to have a Nokia N800, and I really did like it. But it was limited in features that I wanted. I'd say needed, but nobody really needs this stuff, right?

I wanted to find something that ran full Windows programs, but was portable. I did tons of research and came down to three products before I made my choice of the Asus.

The Asus hasn't replaced my laptop at home, but it could. I've purchased the keyboard and I have an external DVD-R so basically, my computing experience is unlimited if I'm willing to hook up a bunch of stuff.

I mainly use the Asus when I'm out and about. It fits in my purse (well, after I bought a bigger purse) and allows me to hook up to the Internet wherever I am thanks to the Sierra Aircard I've purchased. The Asus can hook up to Wifi or Ethernet, but when you're driving around in your car or sitting in the park- it's hard to find Wifi without being a pirate.

Since this is illegal and I'm in the line of business that frowns on that sort of thing, my hornswaggling days have come to an end. Arrh....

I have a fold-out USB keyboard that I use if I'm writing something more than a few sentences, but it's rarely needed. Since this is a tablet computer, you can 'write' on the screen. I'm really surprised at how good the handwriting recognition is. My handwriting stinks, but it recognizes it anyway. It also has a built in on-screen keyboard, but I find the handwriting recognition to be so good, that I rarely use it.

There are two slots for memory cards, as well as a generously sized hard drive. I think between the three, I have more storage capacity than I do on my laptop. After reading some of the reviews, I decided to upgrade the RAM to make the little guy run quicker. If you read the reviews, you'll find that the speed was a big complaint. It was only 100.00 for more memory and installing it is a snap. That was an easy upgrade for me to do and made a HUGE difference in speed. Well worth doing right away.

There is no end to the entertainment I have on this little machine. I have e-books, drawing programs (I love to doodle and this it's really fun on this machine), Internet no matter where I go (of course), games (full sized window's games), Skype (I've yet to use), built-in video camera (yet to use). Since it runs full windows programs, I have Office Professional running on it so I have my Outlook calendar, etc. always with me. BJ and I played Scrabble on the plane too and from NYC. I also have Monopoly, Boggle, Video Poker, and my own personal favorite- Mahjongg.

The Asus has a built-in GPS system and runs Microsoft Streets & Trips, ensuring that hopefully I'll never get lost again. I have GPS in my car, of course, but I've been in lots of situations where I wasn't in my car, and so I got lost.

I have all of my music stored on one of the memory cards, so with this, I can plug in my earphones and listen to whatever I want when I'm on the train and while at work. The sound (with headphones) is really great.

Now that lots of the networks are putting their episodes online, I can use this little guy to watch shows that I've missed. My MIL shared a new(?) service that Netflix is offering which allows you to watch unlimited streaming movies on your computer. I think I'll check that out because it would certainly make the time go faster on the train if I had movies to watch.

I do believe that I've found my ultimate 'toy'. It's not cheap... with all the gadgets and extra memory and stuff I spent about 1,000.00 on it. For me, it was worth every penny and I think will keep me entertained for at least a couple of years.

.................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Oh my gosh, I am so tired. I feel like a walking zombie. I was going to take the girls in my life (Angela, Heidi, Kathy, Jess and all of their friends) to see SATC this weekend, but I just can't do it. My body is SCREAMING at me to get some rest, already.

I pushed myself when I shouldn't have, even though I know better. I keep thinking I'm going to one day either:
1. Become magically healthy and able to do things most people can do
or
2. Learn my lesson, already and get over hoping for number 1.

When I go into the office, it's a 13 hour a day commitment. I get at the train station at 5:30 a.m. and arrive at 6:00 or 6:30 p.m., depending on which train I take. Granted, riding the train is not labor intensive, but....

Normally I only go in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but this week, I came in on T-W-Th, because I had work commitments. I treasure the fact that I can telecommute three days a week, but I treasure it even more when I realize what going in three days in a row does to me. That makes me feel like such a loser to even say that. Wahhh, poor me- go into the office three days in a row. Bleh- get a life, Lori.

So, this weekend I'm going to lay low and pray for rain. Why? Because if it's sunny outside I will feel guilty for not being in my garden taking care of stuff. Being gone for two weekends (and having the weekend before that being rainy) has caused havoc on my precious garden. My garden requires a commitment of at least one full day a week of gardening, otherwise it runs rampant.

Speaking of running rampant, my very special friend with the same middle name told me that her pastor rented goats to clean out his blackberry vines in his back yard. Isn't that a hoot? I mentioned it to BJ, because those blackberry vines in the back are the bane of my existence. He thinks it's a great idea and wants to look into doing that. If they like stinging nettle, we're definitely going to do it.

Goats... who knew?

We have a bunch of consultants on our floor at work that kind of swooped in on Tuesday. Nothing to be concerned about, but it's always interesting to see new personalities in your surroundings.

When I'm in the office, I sit in a cube that's along the main 'drag'. This is a disadvantage for a couple of reasons:
1. It's easy for people to stop by to chit-chat
2. I can't goof off because people will notice (OK, I wouldn't goof off anyway, but it's fun to say).

Anyhoo- on Tuesday I noticed this guy 'gliding' by. Seems that he's working on something with someone a few rows over, so he goes back and forth several times a day. Each time, it was a smooth glide.

I was trying to imagine how he accomplished this. Was he on rollerskates? A skateboard? Or maybe he was using one of those Segways? I'll have to admit that I was awfully curious, but not curious enough to stand up to take a look.

It wasn't until today that I actually found out what he was scooting around on. Apparently the guy has a broken foot or leg or something and has a little scooter thing he's kneeling on; while scooting around with his other foot.

Today it has acquired a bit of a squeek and I've noticed that he's added a basket to the front. The basket makes him look a little silly.

On the otherhand... if I was forced to scoot around on one of those things, I'd certainly pimp it out a little. I'd put some pirate flags on the handle bars and probably put a little horn to make sure people don't get in my way.

I might even put some spinners on the wheels. Yeah.... that sounds FAB-u-LOUS.

Of course, I probably shouldn't have this in writing- because y'all know how clumsy I am. I know you guys are mean enough that if I DID break my leg and had to use one of those scooter thingees, you'd track down this post and make me stick to these plans.

I'm about to get some WD40 for the guy. The squeak... squeak... squeak is driving me nuts.

Stolen from my good friend Annie of Blue Gables

I am a Sunflower

"When your friends think smile, they think of you. There is not a day that goes by that you can't find something good about the world and your fellow human."

What flower are you?

RisibleGirl was blabbing on about her adventures again on 05/26 at 03:22 PM

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Categories: Daily •

We'd scheduled a weekend at a beach house a couple of months ago, and even though I was still feeling pretty lousy, I thought to myself, "Self? You're going to feel lousy whether you're at home or whether you're relaxing with a view of the ocean."

'Self' thought that was a pretty good way of thinking about it, because after all we weren't out to do anything more strenuous than read books and watch movies.

We went with another couple that we hang out with a lot, but hanging with them is just like hanging with ourselves. If it were anyone else, I probably would have canceled, but they're very easy to be around. I was either laying or sitting 95% of the time.

We went out yesterday for about an hour, because their son (one of my FAVORITE kids) brought one of his friends with him and he wanted to buy a souvenir for his mom.

Sidenote- the poor kid didn't realize what the coffee mug REALLY meant that he bought for his mom. I just couldn't tell him because he was one of those really geeky kids that would have turned inside out with embarrassment. I'll let his mom explain it to him. The mug had a picture of a pirate who had a sword with a thong hanging on the end. The caption read, "Give up the booty".

Yeah.

This outing turned out to be a pip because it provided me with my favorite story of the weekend. I was accosted by a do-gooder while we were out.

I have a sweatshirt that reads:

Social Engineering Specialist
Because there's no patch for human stupidity


It's Information Security Geek humor. If you don't know what it is, here's a long explanation for you. If you don't want to look it up; in a nutshell- social engineering is tricking people into giving you information that you shouldn't have.

Anyhoo.....

I saw a woman who seemed in her 50's looking at me with disdain. I saw her point me out to her husband and then she marches (and I mean MARCHES) up to me and loudly says, "Would you like to explain to me what you mean by that shirt?" She was clearly out to expose me as a fraud to everyone on the store. I don't think she was more than three inches away from my face; pointing her finger at.me.with.every.syllable.

I was a little shocked by her tone and volume, but answered her question. I explained that I'm an information security manager and this is just good geeky humor. I started to explain what social engineering is (always the teacher, right?), and why the shirt was SATIRE but she stopped me and said that she knows what social engineering is because she's a trainer for a credit union. She then apologized for 'calling me out' in front of everyone in the store. I was my usual gracious self, but awfully sad that this wasn't caught on video because it was HILARIOUS.

I wanted to tell her that she's not nearly as clever as she thinks she is because A REAL social engineering 'specialist' would never advertise their career choice because it's kind of hard to trick people when you're telling them that you're a con artist.

We passed her again on our way back to the car and she held up her fist in solidarity and said, "sisters in security, right?"

Yeah, right.

As for me, I am feeling better. I'm not 100%, but the tart stuff doesn't send me over the edge in pain anymore. I tested it out on water with a lime squeezed in it last night. I can drool without pain- yay! I'm not going to tell my co-workers about the mumps because I was the butt of too many jokes when I had scarlett fever a few weeks ago. I also don't want people to freak out that I'm some sort of Typhoid Mary. I told my manager that I had 'intestinal distress'. You know--- what normal people get and something nobody wants to hear details about.

I hope y'all had a fab 3-day weekend. I'm planning to spend the rest of the day sitting on my couch, and visiting my friends. Can you believe I was not on the computer for 2 days in a row?

See ya in the 'hood.