Cool Toys

Look, I'm middle aged. The last time I had any idea what cool was happened in the mid '80s. But I guess you probably don't think "Flock of Seagulls" hair is cool anymore. Neither do I.

I've gotten so bad that several times in recent years, I've had a recurring episode. I either meet or work with a pretty young lady. She'll say "you're so funny/cool. You remind me of my dad"

Ladies, the phrase "you remind me of my dad" will NOT ingratiate yourself with a middle aged man.

And thenakedempress laughs and laughs and laughs.

With that caveat, I want to tell you about some toys I've either purchased or played with that an old fart thinks are "cool".

As you know, I'm forced to pay attention to politics. I've been uncertain which Presidential candidate to support.

So far, none of the Democrats appeal at all. On the Republican side, there are several choices. I like Giuliani's leadership during 9/11 and that he was able to clean up New York. But his history on gun control and some others trouble me. McCain may be in favor of victory in Iraq, but he really pushed amnesty for illegals. Romney I don't know enough about, but like most Southerners, we're very leery of Boston yankees coming to "save" us. Been there, done that. I've read a bunch of Fred Thompson's writings and like them, but I'm not sure how serious he is. So far, he's my first choice.

The other day, I was reading Neal Boortz's site, and he had a curious link. It's a Candidate Calculator. You enter your views on various issues, and it tabulates the candidate whose views most closely matches your positions.

I was impressed. It told me that Romney matched me 90.91%, and he should be my choice. But curiously, it listed Fred Thompson as second even though he also matched 90.91%. Some bias in favor of Romney?

After this, I'll give Mitt Romney much more scrutiny. And thenakedempress was surprised that Giuliani should be her choice. Clinton was very low for both of us.

In June, I had a conference at Beau Rivage in Biloxi. (No link, they pissed me off). To check your e-mail, there's no wireless. They want you to buy an ethernet cord from their shop that's never in stock. No problem, we went to Wal Mart. After that, Beau Rivage wants $11.95 per day for internet access. Bag that. And they also left cookies on my machine that would only let you access the internet at the standard price from them AFTER YOU GET HOME!!

But occasionally you find a pearl. At Wal Mart in Biloxi, we found the most helpful person EVER at Wal Mart. He set us up with the little ethernet retractable cable on the far right below. Only $8, made by Phillips.



As I wrote yesterday, I've lost the USB cable for my camera. I went again to Wal Mart and found another Phillips product. It is the retractable USB cord second from the right and all four adapters on the bottom left. Only $16. The adapters fit just about any device from Ipod on up.

Now, instead of carrying a printer cable, a camera cable, an ethernet cable, etc. et al, I just have to carry these two retractable cords and four tiny adapters. The last item at the top left is a plug in modem that comes with the MacBookPro. Now I can connect to just about anything just about anywhere.



All these tiny items fit neatly into the carrying case that came with the adapters, and it fits nicely into the upper end pocket of my clinic bag along with specula for my otoscope.

Look, I know these aren't the coolest items ever made. But they are kinda cool and VERY functional. I now use them almost daily. Tiny, gadgety (Is this a word? It oughtta be.), and very functional. My kind of cool.

Until later,

The Naked Emperor

PS. I did find a picture that exemplifies "cool"