DC Rainmaker

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Good Afternoon!

The fog has lifted over here and full productivity is back up in the works. So lets get down to it!

What’s the biggest news happening over here in the Cave? Well, finally we have some exciting news to share about a new addition! That’s right, FINALLY, Ray got it together and found the right words to ask Shane Miller from GPLAMA to make it official. These two sports tech junkies have revived The Podcast. For the moment we are just going to refer to it as “The Podcast”, I’ll leave that up to those guys to decide how they want to call it. Maybe they will put it out there to you readers for something creative and original? I imagine these two are going to make this a pretty regular thing, and who knows who else they might rope in from time to time. Anyways, go see, errr hear, for yourself what it’s all about!

(They did want me to note that some of the feeds are still coming back online, inparticular iTunes. But Spotify is there now, as well as the native feed. They suspect everything should be finalized by the end of teh week feed-wise. Also - check back later tonight for another new episode!)

THEN! We have a much anticipated announcement/ award! Thanks to all of you Ray supporters out there, you helped by clicking that subscribe button on his YouTube page! Ray has received honors for surpassing 100,000 YouTube subscribers. In a massive level of Tom-Geekery, Ray went ahead and unboxed the award, weighed it, and compared it as per his usual antics. If you like that sort of thing, you’ll be sure to enjoy this video too! Thanks again for all of your endless support of Ray, the blog, the videos, and of course just the Maker Fam in general. You guys are the bestest sort of support team!

Next up, there was the Fitbit Versa Lite Hands-On. This post literally posted at the same time as the Newsletter last week. So I figured I should re-mention it. As well, it’s kind of interesting to read these articles one after the other. Ray also just posted the brand new Fitbit Inspire HR Activity Tracker In-Depth Review. Let us know what you think of the duo!

Then there was a quick round up in the world of what does Ray search for in the deep dark world of sports tech. For all those goods, check out the most recent Week in Review.

As well, for some insight of what a rainy Maker weekend looks like, you can see what we were all up to over the past weekend in Ray’s 5 Random Things. Since returning home from Africa, we have sadly spent a fraction of the time outside as we were used to last month. It’s not the cold that gets you, but the sideways, fountains of rain and wind. Meh, we all need to invest in some rain gear.

And finally, last but CERTAINLY not least is the Garmin MARQ Series Hands On post. This line up of watches has elicited a lot of conversation around our dinner table! Ray and I many times disagreed and then came to terms with different outlooks on what you can call watches, tech gear, and “time pieces”. Ultimately I think he got it right in saying that you have to look at these watches as not necessarily high end classical watches, but tech pieces that you can come to terms with phasing out in 3-4 years for the newer tech advances. No different than a phone, drone, or DSLR cam. If you have $1600-$2500+to drop on a new tech toy, then these are up your ally. For me, as most of you know, I don’t need that level of tech in my life. You might not know, I also grew up working in a high-end jewelry store, and collecting watches one of my favorite things. So, personally, I feel this MARQ line is setting up for one giant fail. While I will likely never own one, if I were to drop $2500+ on a wrist ornament, I’d prefer a Cartier, or Bretling rather than one of those fairly outdated looking Garmins (IMHO). AND, I can almost guarantee this will not go as planned by Garmin because I know the type of people working behind the counters of those high end watch display counters. There are so many nuisances to the tech and usage aspects of this new MARQ line, those staff members won’t make the sale. For these watches to be truly successful they need to be sold by the companies also selling the marine navigation equipment, aviation Equipment, outdoor adventurer type staff who are junkies for this new stuff. That’s where they will make their sales as add- ons to someone already ponying up for new equipment for their boating, flying, “expedition” seasons. Again, that’s my humble opinion, and I don’t think anyone from Garmin reads my newsletter, so. Who cares.  

Moving on. That’s that. Next up we have the fabulous world of audio-visual.

YouTube

Here’s the quick and dirty round up of all the videos posted last week:

·         Fitbit Versa Lite: Unboxing, Tech Specs, First Run, & Comparisons

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image Garmin MARQ Series Hands-On: Everything you ever wanted to know
image Fitbit Inspire HR Activity Tracker In-Depth Review
image 5 Random Things I Did This Weekend
image Week in Review: March 10th, 2019
image The Fitbit Versa Lite Hands-On: Everything you ever wanted to know

In-Depth Thoughts from The Girl

Hey, thanks for making your way down to the least tech focused part of your day.

So what’s all the news in the Maker house? Like, what’s ACTUALLY happening that isn’t so glamourous that it made it to the 5 Random Things.

Well there’s a lot on the go. See, we started the whole potty training thing a little before Christmas. And thankfully it went pretty smooth. Of course, accidents happened, but we didn’t have any of these traumatic anti-potty protests I had heard rumors of from other parents. In the end, The Peanut just got on with it and did her thang 99% of the time. Potty training was pretty quick and relatively painless.

So then, moving with the times, we came back from Africa and thought “okay it’s time to move her into a big girl bed”. That way she can start to get the feel of getting out of bed and hitting up the potty if needed in the night. And as a ripple effect, P2 would inherit the bigger baby crib.

What we didn’t anticipate, was just how much the eldest one loves/loved her little sister and her old crib.

You have to understand the P1 is incredibly intuitive of other people’s feelings. She will come pat your back if you’re coughing, she’ll hug you and cry if you’re crying, if P2 drops her toy or takes a tumble P1 is there to pick it all back up again… granted sometimes the help isn’t always appreciated by little sister. All she wants to do is “help”, no matter how misguided the effort is sometimes.

So, back to the big girl bed thing. Well, the second night of introducing the big girl bed, after both are tucked in, I look in at the baby monitor and we can’t see The Peanut in her bed or anywhere in the room. ANY. WHERE!?!?!? WTH???? So we rewind the video and see P2 had sat up in a coughing fit. No problem P1 to the rescue! she gets out of bed, drags over the foot stool, and climbs up and into the crib to be with coughing P2. Realizing there is no crib exit, she just settled herself into her old bed, borrowed one of her sister’s available stuffies, and tucked herself in under the blankets like normal.

While this was insanely adorable, the other child did not find it so entertaining. So off we went to separate the herd as to not let this turn into a fun nightly game of sleep overs. This being just one of a handful of highly entertaining (yet exhausting) shenanigans that ensued over the next few nights and mornings.

Have no fear, we have removed all stools, tea-party chairs, and other movable/climbable furniture from the room that could aid and abed sleepovers. And thus, we are now back to both kids sleeping like champions again, and for the most part, Ray and I have reclaimed our sleep sanity.

***Edit*** This post was ready to fly on Tuesday, but as I was loading the newsletter and photos the phone rang from the daycare “40.2* fever and climbing, come get your kid” on the other end of the phone. Ray and I have been taking turns on who is pinned below napping/crying/fevering child ever since… Tuesday and Wednesday productivity was low. And I retract my eariler statement regarding sleep sanity. ***

It was a hectic few days there. But would you expect any less from us? I hope you veteran parents out there got a good laugh from the story (either with or at us). And if there are any rookie parents out there contemplating a “move”, I hope this gave you courage… go forth and good luck!

As always, thanks for reading.

~The Girl

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