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Alijah

Today, my son Alijah turns 5 years old, such an amazing milestone in life for any child. This is actually why I’m missing about 70% of , since the event pretty much always falls on his birthday. I wanted to be sure I was home for this one. It’s special in so many ways. First, this is the first birthday where he really “gets it” and has a high level of excitement. In fact, this morning when he woke up, he immediately came to tell me that it was his birthday, he is now five, and that he wants to eat at Red Robin. Can’t really argue with that logic. I know, right?

Alijah

Besides all that though, thinking back to Alijah’s birth, it’s such a reminder of the true miracle that he is here with us, and that he is okay. For those that don’t know, Alijah was born almost 3 months early, and spent 11 weeks in intensive care, the first 9 of which were spent on a respirator that did his breathing for him. He weighed in at less than 2 pounds when he was born, and the entire situation just looked dire. Like every parent out there, I remember that day as if it were yesterday. Monica was having painful cramps, so we went to the emergency room at what I think was around 3 AM. The pain was getting worse by the minute, and by the time I had parked (after dropping her off at the front door with a nurse) and got to the floor that she was on, I could hear her screaming from the hallway. Easy way to find her room, if nothing else.

Click to continue reading Alijah’s 5th birthday: Looking back


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A video that my friend Lee LeFever (and his wife Sachi) did, titled “Saving Money In Plain English” as part of their top-notch Common Craft Show. Give it a look if you’ve never seen their work, or if you want to go back to the basics of saving in this rocky economy. 😉

Read More | Saving Money in Plain English

We are snowed in, so Monica decided to make a snow angel (after some gentle prodding) - then Alijah decides to join her.

 


We are in the midst of a crazy snow storm, so we decided to take a walk outside once things started to calm down a bit.

 


HP Mini 1000

So, our HP Magic Giveaway winner was awesome enough to give back to the community, thus invoking a second giveaway. We’ve got an HP Mini 1000 here, along with a bunch of software as well. Specifically, here’s the prize package:

We’re going to use the same entrance criteria that we used last time, since that seemed to work so well. Here’s how to enter to win:

  1. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Gear Live account
  2. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Twitter account
  3. Add the Gear Live Twitter account to your follow list
  4. On Twitter, post a tweet about our contest and link to this page. In the tweet, include the phrase “#gearlive”.
  5. Once that is done, leave a comment here in this post with a direct link back to your Tweet. Be sure you are signed in to your Gear Live account before you leave the comment.

Here’s an example of an appropriate Twitter entry:
“Entering to win an HP Mini! http://059.qlnk.net/ #gearlive”

BONUS ENTRIES: Want more chances to win? Share the link to our contests on the following sites, and leave us a comment linking to those as well:

  • Facebook: Shared Link
  • Del.icio.us bookmark
  • FriendFeed: Use Post a Link
  • Your blog: Have a site? Link to our contest on it!

Remember: The bonus entries are just that - bonus. In order to be eligible to win, you must complete the core Twitter requirements.

Now, as to the actual contest dates. The contest starts today, December 5th. You have until 11:59 PM PST on December 11th to enter your comments here on this post. We will then announce our winner, chosen randomly out of all valid entrants and bonus points, on December 12th.

Aaaaaand - we’ve got our winner!


HP Magic

Our HP Magic Giveaway came to a conclusion last night, and, wow, we are calling this one a success, as we just got inundated with entries. We first need to thank everyone involved for entering and spreading the word on Twitter, Facebook, and the like. Of course, there can only be one - but if you feel a swerve coming, read on!

First, the winner was chosen randomly out of all valid entries. The person who came out on top of Ashe, with this comment. I’ve contacted him, he replied, and things are good.

Now, about that swerve. In the original contest, we mentioned that it would be awesome if the winner were to give some of those winnings away. After all, it’s the holiday season, and who really needs 3 notebooks, a desktop, and all that stuff? So, the cool thing here is that Ashe has decided to throw some items back into the pot, and he wants us to do a second giveaway! We will get it set up today, and will run it for another week. The winner will get the following:

That is not too shabby of a prize package right there. Wanna win it? Just head on over to our Gear Live Magic Giveaway page to enter.

Again, thanks to all entrants, and a big thank you to Ashe for giving back.

Read More | Gear Live Magic Giveaway

HP Magic Giveaway

So, a few days ago we told you about our HP Magic Giveaway, and how we’d be giving away an absolutely ridiculous amount of prizes to the winner. Now, we are announcing the the contest has officially started, and we’ve got the details on how you can enter to win. First, though, a refresher on what we are giving away:

Yes, you do see four computers listed, as well as a Media Center Extender. No, you aren’t dreaming. Yes, we (and ) are awesome. You want the goods? Here’s how to enter to win - we are making this super-simple:

  1. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Gear Live account
  2. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Twitter account
  3. Add the Gear Live Twitter account to your follow list
  4. On Twitter, post a tweet about our contest and link to this page. In the tweet, include the phrase “#glmagic”.
  5. Once that is done, leave a comment here in this post with a direct link back to your Tweet. Be sure you are signed in to your Gear Live account before you leave the comment.

Here’s an example of an appropriate Twitter entry:
“Entering to win a ton of HP gear! http://jk9.qlnk.net/ #glmagic”

BONUS ENTRIES: Want more chances to win? Share the link to our contests on the following sites, and leave us a comment linking to those as well:

  • Facebook: Shared Link
  • Del.icio.us bookmark
  • FriendFeed: Use Post a Link
  • Your blog: Have a site? Link to our contest on it!

Remember: The bonus entries are just that - bonus. In order to be eligible to win, you must complete the core Twitter requirements.

Now, as to the actual contest dates. The contest starts today, November 28th. You have until 11:59 PM PST on December 4 to enter your comments here on this post. We will then announce our winner, chosen randomly out of all valid entrants and bonus points, on December 5th. We are also going to encourage (but not require) you to think about donating a portion of the prize package to someone else. It can be a charity, a relative, friend, a fellow contest entrant - anyone. We can even handle the shipping to that third party for you. It’s all in the spirit of giving, and we will let you play Secret Santa, if you so choose.

The contest is open to anyone in the world, which is a rarity. If you are in the US, you’ll even have your tax burden taken care of. What more could you ask for? Now, good luck to all - comments are open!

Update: We’ve announced a winner - and a new contest!


HP Magic GiveawayUPDATE: ENTER OUR HP MAGIC GIVEAWAY CONTEST!

Listen, it’s the holiday season, the economy is going to hell, prices are going up on everything but gas, and you know that no one is going to get you any super-fancy consumer electronics this year. Or, so you thought. You see, once again we are partnering with (along with 49 other sites) to bring you a mind-blowing prize package. That means that you get 50 chances to win the following:

  • HP TouchSmart IQ816
  • HP HDX18 Premium Notebook PC
  • HP Pavilion dv4 Entertainment Notebook PC
  • HP Mini 1000 (Windows XP)
  • HP MediaSmart Connect

Oh, what was that? That isn’t enough? Well, our bad, we though that five computers being given away would be enough. But hey, you pulled our arm, so I guess we’ll also throw in the following:

  • HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless All-in-One printer
  • HP 564 Photo Value Pack
  • Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 with 3 licenses
  • Microsoft WIndows Live
  • Corel VideoStudio X
  • Kung-Fu Panda on Blu-ray disc, and two DVDs

There, now are you happy? We figured as much. Go back and look over that list again - that’s a lot of stuff. In fact, the value of all that is over $6,000 USD. There’s enough there that you could win it all, and give away some of it as gifts to your family or friends - that what the holidays are all about, right? That whole better to give than to receive thing?

We’ll be announcing the contest rules soon, but in the meantime, check out the HP Magic Giveaway page for more information on the prizes, and other participating sites.

Oh, and let us know what you think of this contest in the comments!

Read More | HP Magic Giveaway

Just had to share this. Many think is a robotic overlord in a massive technology sub-culture. While that may be true, he is also part human apparently, and he shows it beautifully at this commencement address at Stanford in 2005, telling three stories from his life and the lessons he learned from them. Worth watching.


Peter Svensson over at the Associated Press did a story recently on people who physically moved their place of residence, solely for the purposes of faster or better broadband. He interviewed me for the piece as well, focusing on my move out of Seattle to just north of Seattle so that I could get Verizon . As I said in the article, I never looked back. I now rock out at 50/20 speeds, where before with I was stuck with 8/0.768. Comcast recently upped their speeds to 16/2 in our area, which still doesn’t even compare with the 50/20 I’m enjoying. Hit the link below for the full piece.

Read More | Newsvine

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