Tom Squared

I’ve been on a diet for the past few months where I can eat anything I want for 4 days of the week, but for three I have a very strict diet. In that lunch every day is tuna fish, with very little seasoning. It’s safe to say that over the past 4 months I’ve become somewhat of an aficionado of tuna fish, at least what I can get at the store. It was pretty funny actually, I recall clearly one Friday evening out with the family and in-laws, and saw a Gold Box deal (between November 1st and Christmas they have hourly deals of almost anything, but they only come up at certain times and sell out quickly for popular stuff) for, you guessed it, tuna fish. More specifically, 24 cans of Crown Prince Tuna . My wife thought I was crazy, but it was pretty good. Over the next three months I single handedly worked my way through the box, and decided to see what else was available, so I’ve gone through a few different store brands and commercial brands like Star Kist, Star Burst (okay, maybe tune f...

So, you decided to get a Windows 8 laptop with a touch screen. Or you upgraded your old compute to Windows 8. It’s worth noting your experience with just a mouse will be somewhat different from using a touch screen. I find the touch screen more intuitive overall, but the mouse does work. Getting Started While I rarely read the manual for things, I definitely recommend you first step be to read Microsoft’s Getting Started page. There are a lot of tips on how to use the windows, close programs, and how to use the mouse. The best option, if you have a Microsoft Store nearby, is t stop in and let a dales person help. All the people I talked to were excellent, and explained first thing some of the most useful things they have found. The most useful things I’ve found are: Search: On the tile screen, just start typing and your apps will search. You can also press Internet Explorer to search the Web. Switch to last program: Swipe from the left side of the screen. Select from al...

Assumptions Admittedly, this is as question asked all over the place, and the answer is always “it depends”. So, I’m going to make some assumptions: You’re a normal person, not a programmer like me. You understand what being online is, but you aren’t overly technical. You don’t want to spend a ton of money, but you want something that will last for the next 5 years if possible, 2 years at a minimum. You think Windows is confusing, and have heard the Mac is easy and more secure, but you could go either way, since cost is a factor. How much can I expect to pay? Tablets To be clear, it’s very possible you don’t need a laptop at all. A lot of people can get by with a tablet that has the a ability to offload pictures from your camera, copy music from your CDs or download music online, write Emails, surf the Web (and it is Web with a capital W, though more and more that is falling out of favor… dumb English as an evolving language), and play games, both online and on your compu...

About a year and a half ago I read an article about DC Comic’s New 52 , where DC would reset all of their comics, and restart at #1. I’d never bought comics before, and generally considered them to be for teenage boys, and not overly interesting. I mean, why look at a book with little text and lots of pictures, when you can read a novel with a deep story and visualize the story yourself? What I found surprised me, a lot. I’ve mainly been taken by the art, which is incredible. This is definitely not the comic book you saw in the 70’s – 90’s, with the very cartoony characters. I’m also finding I love the long stories where we get to meet and learn about characters and be a part of their lives. It feels a lot like watching a TV show, where you have some ongoing stories as well as short, quick stories to keep things interesting. So, if you are jut getting started with comics, there are things I wish I knew. But I’m last least glad the staff and owners of Laughing Ogre Comics , my loc...

Today is my birthday! Honestly, I’ve never been much into birthdays and parties. Even now, if you ask me how old I am, I have to do math… What year is it now? 2013… so… 2013 – 1975 = 38 Really I make it more difficult. I know the decade, I’m on my 30’s. So, then I take the year (13) – 5 (the year in the 70’s) and add that to 30. 30 + (13 – 5) = 38 I’m sure I could also use lunar cycles, or division. Let’s see: (the number of leap years between my 1975 and 2013) * 4 + (the number of years since the last leap year) = 38 (I hope) Every year since I was about 16 I get the song “ It’s my Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To ” by Leslie Gore in my head. No idea why, but it got me thinking about how we can best listen to music. But… it’s my birthday, and I’m keeping this short. Music Discovery (replacing the radio) Slacker to find music. I loved Pandora for a while, but Slacker, with humans making stations, and even DJs on some stations, along with the ability to skip songs and fa...

It’s been quite a while, and I must say that I’ve missed blogging. Really, more specifically, creating and building instead of consuming all of the time. Of course, I get to build and contribute a lot at work, and that has really become incredibly rewarding over the past year. I also stopped blogging because it felt like I really didn’t have anything more to say at the time. I was talking about my relationship with God, and how we can live our relationships with each-other. Incredibly important conversations, but nothing that other people aren’t already taking about. And it’s really just more useful to have those conversations in person whenever possible. Recently thought I’ve really felt God pushing me toward contributing again, but in a different way from what I had done before. I’m finding that a lot of things I assume others know from just listening to the news, or searching (I prefer Bing, so I won’t say “Googling” but I’ll NEVER say “Binging”), really no one knows. So, this...