Stress Free Moving

This title is a little misleading, but adding the caveats to the title would make it the post.

Moving is NEVER stress free, but aspects of it can be. Such as the process of moving items from one location to another.

There are really two main trains of thought:

• All at once, one day, one truck and the Most RAD Tetris skillz evar
• A little everyday for a few weeks.

I have done both, and recommend both.

But wait, Jeremy, how could you recommend two contradicting strategies for moving.

Well, casual reader, its quite simple. They are both excellent ways of moving. If you are more stressed by a looming task ahead of you, move a little at a time, it goes really fast if you do 2-3 car loads a day, then on the last day use a $20/day Uhaul for the big stuff that is left. This is also an excellent option if you have animals (especially cats) that like stability. Sleeping at home and only moving a couple items at a time, lets them adjust to change.

Now if you have kids, animals, in-laws and lots of friends, do it fast. It sucks, it is hard work, you have to get a GIANT Uhaul/Penske/Generic Moving Truck, but there is nothing like getting to your new place in one trip and being done with it. Then all that is left is unloading the bathrooms first (just in case), then bedrooms (kids will want to sleep eventually), then the dining room for breakfast in the morning, the living room to rest and the kitchen very last (I like to do it as I need it – which requires forethought).

Poor Man’s iPhone Experiment – Day 8

Over a week has gone by since I ditched my phone for an iPod and my cellphone carrier for WiFi, and a lot has happened in that week.

My lovely significant other and I moved across town, bought some furniture and stole a neighbor’s WiFi. Each piece insignificant in and of itself, but when all combined it made for a tricky pickle of a time.

I still have not followed my own advice and bought the Mobile Hotspot. I had planned on it, but the Walmarts in the area are out of stock of the Internet-on-the-Go MiFi, so I have been mapping out places that offer WiFi. We now live walking distance to a large, 4 block long grouping of restaurants, and around half of them have WiFi; Our neighbor has WiFi for a few hours a day (it mysteriously disappears at odd hours of the night and day); and the cabana lounge house at our new complex has WiFi. All in all, until I get new internet service, I have places to make calls from. Oh yeah, and Work.

One thing that isn’t great though is the lack of a back facing camera. You don’t realize how often you use it until its gone. Every picture I take now uses the front facing camera, and I have to flip upside down to view the picture as I take it. A fix that works out well is using an Eye-Fi mobi card. It pairs with your phone and is just a standard SD card you plug into your camera. Each picture you take syncs to your phone and if I’m not mistaken, automatically delete off the camera. Down side, though, since, as my Amazing Partner would say, I’m a negative Nancy, you have another device you have to carry around to satisfy a feature built in to a normal phone. Upshot for me, and maybe you, my camera takes MUCH better pictures than an iPhone, and I usually have it at arms reach at home or in the car. I just need to get the Eye-Fi mobi now.

Other than these few little hitches, the first week was successful.

Poor Man’s iPhone Experiment – Day 2

As promised yesterday, I’m going to share some of the solutions for the times in life when you aren’t at Starbucks or McDonald’s. But first, let me talk about some nuances with using Line2 for your primary phone.

Poor Man’s iPhone Experiment – Day 1

My phone broke, and I didn’t really have the money to replace it with a decent phone, and I wasn’t going to spend $300 just to replace it again when I had $800 to spend on a better one. So I decided to find my own way.