Category: Reviews

Recently we picked up the pair of Show Me How books on a whim at Urban Outfitters. Both my daughters and I have been impressed with them. To be honest, a lot of how to books are pretty crappy. They either make the topics so complex that it’s becomes daunting to start, or the explanation is unclear and unhelpful. The Show Me How books get it just right.

The books are filled with graphically explanations of how to do various things in life. The books are organized into broad chapters with titles like style, love, nest, grow, thrive, grow, survive, wow, etc.

Some entries are practical, explaining how to do simple tasks and a straightforward and visual way. The graphic design is fantastic and appeals to both kids and adults.

Even more complicated topics are handled well. The range of topics covered is impressive and is a lot of fun to browse and consider the possibilities. The chapters on love and fun are great, with explanations of things like How to tend to a drunk wedding guest and How to shop for love at the market. The chapter on survival is helpful with How to free myself from an anaconda and How to eat a scorpion.

The books happily push into mischief with all kinds of ideas ranging from street art to mixing drinks to making edible undies. After looking at the one above, I’ve been thinking how I could build it to work without having to reach into the bag to spray…
You can visit the Show Me How site to see lots more examples of what the books are all about.
There are two books out now, Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Know… and More Show Me How: Everything We Couldn’t Fit in the First Book…

For years, I used a wallet made from baseball leather. I loved that wallet, but I was often accused of having a “Costanza wallet“. As I tried to reduce the amount of crap I carry, I decided to try a new wallet.
I discussed the idea of a slim, minimal wallet. Many had suggestions. I was a bit hesitant to try the rubber band and/or binder clip method. My co-worker Jason swore by using the Slim Clip. The Slim Clip is advertised on TV a bit, so you may have seen it. The Slim Clip website is here, but I warn you they have an auto-play video that starts up as the page loads and is loud.
I’ve been using the Slim Clip for about 6 months now and here’s my review.

The Slim Clip is stamped steel bent carefully into shape to hold bills on one side and cards on the other. The card holding works well. I haven’t ever had cards slip out unexpectedly or trouble getting cards out, unless I shove too many in.

The cash clip works OK, but it took me some time to get used to putting the dollar bills back in securely. I like to carry cash, so having this work well is important to me. I found the clip will easily hold 20 bills. After that, it starts to get too snug. I found that if I try to push the limit, the metal actually bends and doesn’t hold as tight. I’ve used needle nose pliers a few times to bend the clip back tighter.

The biggest challenge I ran into was simply choosing what to carry. In the past I used to keep pretty much everything that would fit. With the Slim Clip, I really had to reduce down. As you can see, it holds 6 cards, with just a little extra space. I carry a Starbucks Card (mainly to protect the other cards but also helpful with a Starbucks in our building), my Driver’s License, two debit cards from our different banks (you do have two banks right, just in case of identity theft, right?), my company credit card, my health insurance card, and the member cards to the gym and pool center.
At first, I thought I would never be able to get by with just 6 cards, but I haven’t had a problem. When on vacation or business trips, I replace the Starbucks card with the hotel card key.
Overall, I’m happy I made the switch to a small wallet. It’s not the ultimate minimalist, but it’s good for me. At under $10 for a Slim Clip, it’s cheap as well.
What do you use?

I’ve been reading a bit. Here are three recent books I’ve read. Two history books and a sci-fi novel. I’m such a geek.

The Mother Tongue – Bill Bryson
I had read A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bryson previously and loved it. I saw this book on sale at the store and decided to give it a read. The tells the history of the English language from it’s origins to today. After a bit of reading, I was wondering why the book referred to so many events in the 80s. I checked the copyright and saw that the book was released in 1990. So I was reading a 20 year old book. In the lifespan of the English language, it’s really not so long. I found it mostly interesting with occasional dry stretches that only a true linguist could love. Pointing out methods of speech that are basically gone with only a handful of examples remaining was fascinating. Also the book points out the influence of other languages into English and where we have multiple words for the same thing exposing the adoption of terms into English.
I liked the book, but only speed reader with a penchant for history will be able to get through it.
The Jennifer Morgue – Charles Stross
I had read several of Stross’s science fiction novels and even his alt-history Merchant series, but had somehow missed The Laundry series. Jennifer Morgue is the first book in the series. The book mixes the Lovecraftian Cthulu mythos with the 007 world of spies and tradecraft. That’s all you really need to know, you shoudl be running to buy a copy with just that description.
The novel was good with the requisite amount of withholding of information that is obvious to the protagonist but unknown to the reader to keep pulling forward. Personally, I’d like a little more information on the world we’re dealing with, but the novel works regardless. I’m Stross is setting up for future novels where he can explore tings he only hints at in the first book. No reason to box himself in to early. I’m going to pick up the next novel once I clear my nightstand of the stack that remains awaiting my attention.
The Disappearing Spoon – Sam Kean
This book is described as a history of the periodic table, but it’s more a history of the discovery of elements. The two are tied together, but the writer assumes the reader already has a great familiarity with the periodic table already. The book would have done well to get about a third of the way through and then stop to more clearly explain how the periodic table works and why it’s so useful.
I like history books, and this one is no different. The stories behind the elements are fascinating and I breezed through the book. I think the book could have used a bunch more illustrations and photographs to go along to help keep the visual images going. Anyone that enjoyed science, physics and chemistry in school will enjoy this book. But remember, it’s written for a mass audience and much of the deeper science is left out.

Back in March, I used an Aircaddy to take my road bike with me to Austin for SxSW. I’ve been meaning to write it up for a while.
The Aircaddy is a reusable box for shipping bikes in, suitable for taking along on plane rides. When you order it, it comes all folded up and you need to put it together. It’s not hard, but it takes a little time to do everything. I didn’t get any pictures of me putting the box together, just of repacking it in my hotel room
I had no trouble checking it in at the airport with Southwest. Southwest charges $50 for the bike on each flight. Not too bad for moving such a big box. I ordered the optional wheels and it was of huge benefit. The wheels made it easy to carry both my luggage and the bike through the airport.

This is the box. A large triangular cardboard box. To prepare the bike, you remove the front wheel, the seat post/saddle, and loosen the handlebars.

On the bottom of the box, it the mounting plate for the front fork.

You need to be sure to mark your seat post and your handlebars. Not removing the handlebars or loosening the steerer tube makes this much better than other methods. You don’t even have to remove your pedals.

The front fork locks into the mount on the bottom of the box. This is the primary anchor for the bike. The design is good and it worked well.

Here you can see where the seat post is removed. There are two cardboard wedges that go on each side of the rear wheel. There are straps that tie the rear wheel and frame to the box to keep everything stable.

Here you can see the entire bike in the box. The road bike fits perfect. If I was using a mountain bike, I would have to have removed the handlebars, but for roadies, it’s simplicity.

There’s plenty of room for the front wheel and even bags of your cycling gear. I put a bunch of stuff in bags and hung them off the frame to lighten the rest of the load of my luggage.

Here’s a shot of the wheels. Again, I highly recommend them. They made moving the box in and out of the airport and hotel easy.
The only drawback is needing a hatchback or SUV to carry the Aircaddy in. It fit easily into my Prius and the rental RAV4 I used in Austin.
Needless to say, I had an overwhelmingly positive experience with Aircaddy. I recommend using one if you want to take your bike on a plane flight. The more traditional bike cases are smaller, but you still pay the same to fly with them and have to do a lot more assembly/disassembly. The Aircaddy is reusable and at under $200 for the box & wheelset, it a good deal compared to some of the hard bike cases out there.
The guys that run Aircaddy also run Lickbike.com and were super helpful on the order and making sure I knew what to do.

After the local forest fires here in Southern California, I decided to buy a Respro Cycling City Mask. Due to my cycling obsession, I wanted a way cycle but not breathe in the ash.
The mask made it’s way to me from the United Kingdom and I’ve taken in on several test rides.

First of all, I look completely bad ass wearing it. Well, as bad ass as you can look in a spandex outfit.
Breathing: The mask does as it says and filters the air well. Often on my rides, I breathe in pollen, dust, and other grasses while riding. With my allergies, this can be a problem. When wearing the mask, this kind of stuff doesn’t make it past the filter at all. I can see things I shoudl smell, but don’t smell them.
Breathing itself is a bit more difficult. I am having to pull the air in more forcefully and at points when I’m straining on a climb I’m simply not getting as much air as I need. A few times I lifted the mask to get full lungfuls of air to catch my breath.
Moisture: The masks says it lets moisture out, but not really. After about a half hour the inside of the mask is full of water and sweat. Maybe the cold morning contributed, but after a while it was annoying and I stopped to shake it out.
Riding: I wore it with a buddy and I could talk, but it was hard for him to hear me speak, as you might expect. Another riding issue is that you can’t drink with the mask on. You have to lift the mask to drink which means you ain’t drinking much while wearing it. Not a big problem on a commute ride to work, but a significant issue on a workout ride when you need to stay hydrated.
Warmth: The mask is great for keeping your face warm. I have considered wearing it without the filter and just the neoprene to keep my face happy on my pre-dawn rides.
Overall the mask works and is good, but I would only recommend wearing it when you NEED to wear it. If there is real a dangerous amount of ash or dust in the air and you won’t be riding hard. It’s designed for that. I can’t imagine wearing this every time I ride. It’s drawbacks outweigh it’s benefits in normal riding conditions.

A few weeks ago, I saw a piece on TCHO Chocolate that the Boing Boing peeps did. I learned that TCHO chocolate is supposed to be next-gen chocolate. Obviously, I had to give it a try. I bought a sampler pack of ‘chocolatey’ and ‘fruity’. See I don’t do all my shopping at 7-Eleven.

The chocolate shipped overnight in a silvery thermal bag with cold packs inside to keep things cold.

Inside, the chocolate was in small paper satchels, each with 50g of chocolate inside. It’s the first candy I’ve eaten that came with instructions. The package design was neat looking with the strange motto ‘NO SLAVERY’ on the back.
The ingredients are cacao beans, cane sugar, cacao butter, soy lecithin, and vanilla beans. For those that don’t know, soy lecithin is what keeps the cacao butter from separating out from the chocolate.

The ‘chocolatey’ is Ghanaian chocolate. My father has traveled to Ghana several times and brings back the local chocolate. It’s great tasting stuff.

The ‘fruity’ is Peruvian chocolate. I can’t recall that I’ve specifically eaten chocolate from Peru before, but I was going to try it now.

I put the chocolate into bowls for sampling. TCHO recommends that you try the ‘chocolatey’ before the ‘fruity’.
Besides myself, also sampling were my wife, Michel, my daughters, Zoe & Mira, and their friend Teddy. I enjoy dark chocolate. Michele prefers milk chocolate. And the girls will eat anythign we tell them is candy.
First we tried the ‘chocolatey’. The chocolate immediately filled my mouth with flavor and richness with almost a bitter taste. It wasn’t sweet at all. Michele said “It tastes like dark chocolate.” The girls said “It’s supposed to be sweet!”
Next, we tried the ‘fruity’. The reactions here were even more varied. To me, this chocolate wasn’t as strong as the first. I could pick up something different, but I couldn’t place the flavor. Again, there is very little sweetness to the chocolate. Michele was more blunt. She thought it was “terrible” and “sour”. The girls didn’t like it either.
They walked away and left me with the chocolate. I wanted to reset my taste buds a bit, so I looked for somethign salty. I sucked on a few sunflower seeds and tried again.
After my taste of salt, I tried again. No huge change, but I did let the chocolate melt on my tongue and started to taste the subtlety, but it’s not anything obvious.
For my taste, I want a sweeter chocolate. I can see what people are saying about the richness of flavors, but without the sweetness, it’s just not chocolate to me, it’s like tasting a bit of cocoa powder. Obviously the girls want nothing to do with it.
The TCHO chocolate will likely be big success with chocolate connoisseurs, but I think the average person won’t like it too much.
My two suggestions for TCHO are:
1) Mark the chocolate bars so you can tell them apart. Once out the bag, they look exactly the same and it’s easy to get mixed up.
2) Make a version called the ‘sweet’ for us hoi polloi that aren’t enamored with the austere bitter/dark version

A while ago, Michele brought home a can of Batter Blaster that one of her spinning buddies gave her.

Obviously, Michele wanted nothing to do with this, but I, obviously, was intrigued.

Not only is it pancake batter in a can, it’s organic. A strange overlap of the organic hippy mindset with the geek cool packing mindset. We aren’t organic fanatics, especially after reading the Omnivore’s Dilemma. But it was nice to find a product with no corn products at all in it.

I was able to talk Michele into helping me test out the Batter Blaster. Usually the girls help, but when we did this, they were in China with their Grandparents.

The nozzle tends to make a star pattern of the batter on the griddle. There is pretty good control on how much batter comes out. You could easily draw pictures or letters with the can and make special pancakes.
I made a short video of the cooking process.

I edited a bit because watching pancakes slowly cook is a bit dull.

We did find that this batter was a bit more heat sensitive than the usual powder mix. Maybe cooking on a skillet instead of a griddle across two burners would be better. I wasn’t going to question Michele’s cooking method. After 14 years of marriage, I know better.

The real question is how did they taste. Not bad, but not great. The flavor was good and and I ate them all up. The texture is the issue. Being in the can, I don’t think the batter can rise when being cooked enough. The pancakes were a bit rubbery. I like a light, fluffy pancake. If you like the fluffy style, the lack of rise will be an issue.
These pancakes would be perfect for pigs in the blanket. Mmm, sausages…
Overall, it’s not something we’ll be buying again. If you are a pancake fanatic, you need to try it. It’s neat the first time your try it, but I think powder mixes makes better pancakes and are worth the extra effort. I do think it’s perfect for camping though.

I recently read two books that have to do with poop. Strange as it may sound, I found them both informative and well written.
Brown Acres: An Intimate History of the Los Angeles Sewers – Anna Sklar
Brown Acres is a history of the sewer system in Los Angeles. That may not seem interesting at first glance, but following the story is much more adventurous than you might imagine. Nepotism, cronyism and just plain stinginess were responsible for a long series of bad decisions in Los Angeles leading to recurring problems of sewage flooding into the streets and backing up into toilets.
Ms. Sklar has done her research and goes into appropriate detail on the history. Understanding the technology used to move human waste around was enlightening. The idea that we used to dump raw sewage into the ocean is simply astounding. Also, I was surprised to see that voters of the past were as short sighted as today’s voters when it comes to investment in public health issues. Repeatedly, the public rejected spending money to solve the sewage problems. Not until the sewage literally flowed in the streets did the money get approved to put in better sewer systems.
Today, Los Angeles has a world class sanitation system in place, but I found the path to this point well worth the read.
My only criticism would be a request for more diagrams of the sewer system over time to help keep track of all the changes and sewer paths.
What’s Your Poo Telling You? – Anish Sheth and Josh Richman
I first heard about this book on an episode of Internet Superstar, where one of the authors spoke about it with Martin Sargent. It sounded interesting, but not interesting enough to search it out. Recently, I was out with my wife Michele for dinner when I saw the book.

It’s a small book, suitable for reading on the toliet, so I picked it up. Once I got home, I went to the obvious reading spot and began to read. Happily, it’s actually an informative book, explaining a lot about poo and why people encounter such a variety of poops. 95 small pages long, the book contains a ton of good, easily understandable info on poo.
After reading the book, I’m planning to make sure to eat a bit more fiber and drink a bit more water to be nice to my colon. If you see the book, pick it up, you won’t regret it.