Tech savvy minions

Can you see the joy and excitement?

As you can see here, we have a new computer for the RV road school experiment. On my last trip to the local Wally-World with Dos, we looked at available and inexpensive options for buying a new laptop for Jen and the family to use along with the other 'tech' tools our children use for their education. I found a 'hodge-podge' selection of laptops that will fit our needs while not breaking the bank.

While not the Macbook air and the poor experience we received from Best Buy, this purchase was straight forward. No surprises waited for us. Jen actually picked out her new machine. While more expensive than I original was looking for, it was far cheaper than our previously mentioned first choice. I prefer Macs, won't stray from that idea, however this wasn't the computer I was going to be using on a day to day basis.

The computer booted up, I setup the user accounts and downloaded a few apps to help us get started. I spent the evening on my own setup with apps such as Evernote and Dropbox. Both accounts I use on a daily basis for storing notes, writing, and documents that I need to save. Evernote is my go to powerhouse. It is free and makes note taking and searching a breeze. I use it for day to day notes and messages to storing receipts that I scan in. There are a million ways to use the application. Some people have used it to write books to movie scripts. Others use it for grocery lists and daily task management. If you can think it, it is open and free enough to do it. Dropbox is an easy way to have documents readily available and shared at a whim. Need to send out a new resume to prospective consulting firms or clients, it is available to me via phone, Ipad, or computer. Evernote is much the same, synced via the 'cloud', I have access to all my notes, to-do's etc.

Other great ways of using these apps is for price shopping. Walking around and find something you want to buy but wonder if you are getting the best price? Take a snapshot on your phone via Evernote of the serial number, model, and price and then at your leisure, you can shop around. That is how we shopped for a new laptop. I took a snapshot of the different laptops we were interested in and shopped around. I found that the machine could be bought more cheaply online, but didn't want the hassle of shipping and the added costs. The two year protection was far cheaper than other options online, so our choice was pretty clear. That said, Jen did buy a different laptop than the one I was shopping for, but ultimately it was for her and she needed to be happy with her choice. Knowing that I wasn't going to pay a huge premium, and the alternatives were 'refurbished' models, my conscious was clear. 

Fun in the Sun, and not handling stress well

Another day in the Sun. The kids had an absolute blast yesterday when they visited Central Beach along the Lake Shore. Always careful as you can see, each of the minions wore a life jacket. It seems that the lake claims lives every year and that the under tow can pull people away. Of course this is the case whether you are in the Great Lakes, a river, or the ocean... there are always dangers.

Combine common sense, and a little extra precaution, you can have a fun day at the beach wherever you may end up. The only issue we had is that the kids came back a little sun burned. It could have been worse, all of our children take after me with fair complexion. We found earlier this year bathing suits that have UV protection and bought a swim suit for everyone in the family. That helps a lot. Me, I go from pasty white to the color a Lobster, back to pasty white.

The kids also were able to get five pounds of Michigan Blueberries from a local farmer's market. I would rather them eat healthy and delicious blueberries than snack away on unhealthy things like potato chips and other garbage easy to find at your local grocer. As you can see T-Rex in this photo, she is drinking one of the soda's made from our new SodaStream. Ok, we are not perfect! Sure, we could go the all natural way, however for our family, we live in a balance.

For me, I had a long frustrating day on the job. Coming home, I wanted to bless the wife by taking her out and buying her a new laptop since our old one crashed and the junker desktop we have been limping along at home didn't quite fit in our camper, we needed something very manageable that could server multiple purposes. 

We decided on a MacBook Air. I am a huge fan when it comes to Apple products. After supporting both Windows and Linux environments in my past, I decided several years back that I would buy a Mac and see what the hub-bub was all about. I was very surprised and happy. It combines the best in general security, had a great operating system based on Unix, that was mainstream enough to provide plenty of apps to meet my needs that worked well to integrate easily with Windows environments and networks. 

The main use of the new MacBook Air is for homeschooling. Providing kids with the tools they need to do their schoolwork, and matched with awesome and easy to use creative tools to make the whole process fun. My lovely bride would have all the tools she needed to prepare for teaching, with a small footprint to boot. And it fits really well with the RV life. It is ultra portable, lightweight, and rugged!

We found a great deal on the MacBook at the local BestBuy. They had an open boxed version for $250 less than a brand new one. I bought an external super drive as well as an AppleTV to go along with the accessories. The drive allows us to run DVD's as well as other learning programs we use to help the kids in the learning. We had to purchase this because MacBook Airs do not have a DVD/CD drive. That is fine with me because most of the time, we don't use it. Most of the material is available online to download. The AppleTV is for us to be able to send video streaming to our large TV. Thus making the material much more easily watched instead of having kids cram around a small screen.

Bought and paid for, off to the camper...that is when the trouble started. I opened the MacBook Air and everything looked fine. As soon as I booted up, I expected the normal start up and walk through that you normally see on Mac's to help you set up the computer. To my surprise, they hadn't wiped the machine. Worse they had locked the login user out from basically EVERYTHING. This along with not even providing passwords for the accounts made things more difficult. I even tried removing the setup file using terminal so that when I rebooted, it would take me through the process again of setting up the machine and creating new Admin and user accounts.

None of that worked. Instead, I had to call Apple Support. We went and wiped out the old settings and to my dismay, they wiped out the entire OS. The good thing is that you can restore the entire machine by downloading a new OS through the restore process. Unfortunately, it wouldn't find my wireless connection in the camper. I tried everything. I even walked the campground in the dark in hopes to find a good signal. No Dice. Eventually, I just gave up, put the machine in the box and tried to calm down.

In the kids excitement, they all wanted to see and look at the new machine. I was already under a lot of stress trying to get it configured. I really didn't want to be bombarded with a thousand questions and have everyone clambering around me to get a look at the new machine. I lost my cool. I yelled at the kids. Father of the year award... lost. 

I am definitely not perfect. I have lots of opportunities to grow in this area. I wasn't angry at them, I was angered that this new purchase that was supposed to be a godsend to my wife and children was utterly falling flat on its face. Instead of closing the computer and giving up an hour and a half before I did, I took the frustrations out on my children. Some things are just not worth yelling about. A smart person would realize that we should have had it checked out before we took it home. You know what they say when you assume...

Needless to say, Jen and I got up in the morning and prayed. I asked for forgiveness for my crappy attitude, and we are taking the MacBook Air back. I left it up to Jen as to whether she would take a replacement, or have the GeekSquad (who we purchased a package from) would work on the machine. Either way, I am fine with the decision. God is in control, even when I think I should be. This is a great lesson to me about living on the road. Things don't go as planned. Sometimes it will be out of your control. The best way to respond when things get away from you is to give up, seek help from those who are well suited to do so, and move on. It is not worth all the fuss nor the damage to relationships it could cause!

I was skeptical, but I was desperate...

I was skeptical, but I was desperate as to whether or not I could ever get any satisfactory wireless internet at the RV. Often times in the evening, I am logging in to make sure there are not problems and to prepare for the next day. Having a decent wireless connection speed saves me tons of time. Instead of fighting to connect, hopefully not getting dropped or suspended for an indefinite time, I want to log on, do my stuff and log off so that I can do something more meaningful like playing with the kids, fishing, or just about anything else.


As for road schooling, we don't have the extra room to store books and lots of 'paper' materials. A lot of the work has to be done online or using products such as Google docs to get the work done. Each of our children have a Amazon Kindle Fire we bought when they were selling refurbished ones for $149. This allows us to use them in conjunction with one laptop computer instead of having a laptop for each child. As you can imagine, for road-schooling like we are, connectivity is a must. Nothing like having a toddler upset that she cannot watch her PBS kids on her Kindle Fire! With the Kindle Fire's loaded down with books, and materials for homeschooling, it is just a matter of having connectivity to the Internet to allow us to facilitate and guide them through the process.


Over the last couple of years, I have tried several products from wireless tethering on my phone to buying a separate service such as Clear.com (don't get me started on them), paying for a data plan on my iPad, and just being frustrated all the time.


However, from a good suggestion I found perusing forums to find a way to amplify or extend an existing wireless network that would work well in an RV setting, I came across the NETGEAR Universal Wi-Fi Range Extender. The price was $67 and available at the local Walmart.  I have spent far more to try and get connected only to feel like I have utterly wasted my time and money. Often times products are so hard or complicated to setup or worse, they just don't work as described.


However, I did try this product after some glowing reviews in the forums along with great reviews on Walmart's own website. I was surprised at how easy it was to setup. I don't own the wireless at the campground but I was easily able to connect to, extend, and fully use it with this extender. As you can see, it takes up very little room and makes a world of difference.