Let’s face it, most of us go to contemporary museums and don’t have the foggiest idea what we are looking at.
Personally, I love art that energizes me. I wanted to take an art appreciation course but who has time? Just when I thought this would never happen, I got an offer to take an online course from the Museum of Modern Art.
You can’t get that kind of authorization from anyone else. It’s just two hours a week. I can spare that. Join me. This could be a rather fun journey.
Museum of Modern Art,
Click here to learn more about this offer. It’s free.
There are days that I have Skype calls in the wee hours of the morning. I had one today. It was a new business call with a start-up in Estonia, called Soma Smart Home. They make a gadget that allows you to open and close your shades with a push of a button. No need to spend a lot of money for a major installation. Soma allows you to do it with an app.
Most of my Skype calls require looking at others face-to-face. That means I have to shower, get dressed, and apply make up, many hours before I am ready to start the day.
I certainly don’t want to do that. I decided that I needed to create an outfit much like TV personalities do when they sit behind a desk. I now dress from the waist up. Actually, I dress from the chest up. I keep on my night clothes, throw a scarf around my neck, put on lipstick and my shaded glasses.
It works. I find this all so amazing. I’m conducting business in my PJ’s. If the two guys I spoke to noticed, they certainly didn’t indicate it. They gave me a tour of their offices and showed me new products from their computer screen. We had a great hour-long meeting where we discussed challenges and solutions. Both sides have their marching orders.
It all worked out great. After the call, I hopped back into bed for a few extra zzzzz.
We live in amazing times, especially for those of us who want to work on our own terms.
I don’t know why I was so surprised to learn that there really is an app to find out more about a woman’s monthly flow. I heard a few young girls talking about it in my nail salon. I thought they were kidding me.
They all saw it on Kickstarter and plan to pre-order it. How sweet of them to ask if I was interested too. I told them that those days were long gone but thanks for the compliment.
I was very curious how this thing works. I don’t think in my day we wanted to monitor our period. We barely said the word.
The Looncup is a Bluetooth menstruation cup that gets inserted into a vagina during a woman’s period. The cup tracks details like fluid volume and color. It then compares the data on a monthly basis and sends the info to your smartphone.
The Looncup will also let women know when the cup is full and when it needs to be changed. I have written about menstrual cups before, but none of them were connected to an app.
Mashable, the tech site, said cups are more environmentally friendly than anything else. Reports say that women throw away between 250 and 300 pounds of pads, tampons and applicators in a lifetime.
Happy birthday Dad. You would have been 98 today. Miss you, love you…..
I feel like someone read my mind. I always wanted to organize all of my favorite things to do: read books, watch TV, go to the movies, restaurants, museums, hotels, etc. I like keeping lists. It makes me feel productive.
The trouble is that I keep my favorite “things to do list” with all the other things I need to do. Everything always gets mixed up and I never have the time to do the proper research on the items I’m interested in.
Then I heard about a new app in Tech Crunch that could be a great solution. Called “Soon,” the app organizes my bucket list into categories. But that’s not the bonus news. Soon actually posts additional information about each item. For example, if I list a book, the app might add the author’s biography, plot, and purchase information.
Soon also has a social feature. You can follow your friends to see what they have on their lists. I love comparing notes. And I also absolutely love that Soon has a “trending” section which lists the hottest items in each neighborhood or city. It takes all of the guesswork out of what to do at home or when traveling.
I just downloaded Soon. The following photos are the opening introductions. I will let you know if Soon fulfills my expectations. I certainly hope it does. If you try it, let me know your impressions.
In the last few months, I have been meeting up with a number of inventors involved in extreme water sports. They are all interested in developing new ways to thrill daredevils. While I’m keen to let the world know about some of these activities, I wonder how safe they really are.
One extreme water sport that seems to be gaining momentum in year-round warm weather climates (Miami) is the Flyboard. I never heard of this one before, even though it’s been around for a few years. It basically rockets you several stories high out of the water.
If you watch the two videos above, you’ll see the stunts that can be performed and how the Flyboard works. There is no question about it, this extreme water sports activity is not targeted to our age group. Hopefully, we have better sense then to try to be a rocket. I still wanted you to know what the young and strong are up to.
The Flyboard works on water pressure. The more water pressure that is applied, the higher the user gets. It also allows them to perform better tricks. Again, watch the first video for great demonstrations.
The Flyboard was created by French water sports master, Frank Zapata. He explains that the Flyboard is comprised of a rider platform that’s connected to a long hose and a water jet. To many our age, the Flyboard resembles a flying snowboard. To those who are under 50, the Flyboard is a great way to show off.
Much to my surprise, the sales of print books are still showing signs of life. I thought Eliot, the collector, was the only one who still reads printed books. That’s why a recent story in Engadget caught my eye. I wanted to share it with you.
The Association of American Publishers claims that sales of e-book dropped 10 percent during the first five months of 2015. That’s good news for print. It seems that many folks like to mix it up. If they are home, they read print. If they are commuting, traveling, or even going out for the day, they opt for an e-reader.
Forrester Research revealed that 12 million reading devices were sold last year in 2014. That’s a sharp decline from 20 million in 2011.
Eliot loves to read mysteries in the printed version but has no trouble transferring to a Kindle when we travel. However, I don’t think he reads the same story both devices. If he starts a story in print, he stays loyal to that format. He can easily read a few different books at one time.
I prefer the digital format. I like to know that all of my favorite books are in one device. It makes me feel secure and productive. I also feel that way about newspapers and magazines. I read everything on a digital device.
The trend may swing once again now that Amazon is introducing very inexpensive reading tablets. I predict that some Amazon tablets will be less expensive than a hardcover book.
The jury is still out on what choice Americans will make in the future. I think it will always be a combination of the two.
Thank you Jason Henriques of HWH PR for figuring out why I couldn’t insert pictures on my DigiDame blog post. I ran out of photo memory space after four years of blogging. All I needed to do was spend $100 for additional storage space. The Wordpress people put me back into business. Money talks.
I wanted to describe my lifestyle with a Livescribe pen yesterday but then I got interrupted because of technology issues.
I talked about Livescribe three years ago when it was first introduced. Now, I have been using it, so I wanted to give you my first hand experience.
No one over 50 should be without a LiveScribe pen when you go to a doctor, your lawyer, your accountant, a lecture, or a personal/business meeting. You want a LiveScribe pen with you to understand or recall information.
I recently bought the Livescribe Echo smart pen because I am conducting a lot of interviews, and I have to be sure to get complete, accurate information. The pen allows me to takes notes while recording. The best part is that you don’t have to take detailed notes, just keywords. If you use the companion notebook, all you have to do is tap on a word and the recording plays that segment back to you. The notebook has starter dot paper that has heen programmed to be completely interactive.
The Livescribe website says:
1-Echo Desktop software allows you to save, organize and play back interactive notes from your Mac or Windows computer.
2-Share notes and pencasts as images.
3-Price: $119.95
The website constantly reminds everyone that we have to let people know that he or she is being recorded.
At first, the Livescribe pen seems overwhelming to use. After a while, all of the features became intuitive.
Give it some thought. Our age group has a lot to remember from the past, and hopefully a lot more coming up. Make your life a little easier. Learn how to use a Lifescribe Echo smart pen. You won’t miss a thing.
Everyone goes to Art Basel to see the art. I go to Art Basel to look at the people. There is a reason why Art Basel is in Miami. The people who live or visit Miami are very creative. It’s always a show.
I found this couple outside the tents of Art Miami and Red Dot. The two were total showstoppers.
The tents
I took Jerry Powers by surprise. He is the founder of Ocean Drive magazine.
There’s a new campaign on Indigogo, the Crowdfunding site, that I wanted to tell you about. You may want to fund it. Twenty thousand dollars has already been raised of the $37,274 needed to bring The Silent Beacon to market.There are 45 days left. So far 378 funders have donated.
The Silent Beacon is a Bluetooth wearable device that notifies loved ones and dear friends of your emergency situation. The messages are sent by alerts via text, email, and push notifications with your GPS location. The person who hits the alert can also speak to the people selected to receive the message.
There are other products like this one on the market. I urge you to compare. The reason why I picked this one for today is because The Silent Beacon has a sizable marketing campaign on Facebook. It caught my attention many times. I also liked the fact that the companion app is easy to use and let’s you update frequently. As we get older, services like this will allow us to extend our independence.
Click here to take a look at the Indiegogo fundraiser. The site will give you more details about the product, the competition, and how much it will cost you to own it and the monthly fee. There are different programs.
DigiDame 