Clear Blue Dei

We are in the middle of a 3 day road trip from Bangkok going to Chiang Mai (Chiang Rai, Ayutthaya, Sukothai, Lampang, Mae Hong Son, etc). We just have brief overnights and the rest of the days are traveling and touring so I’m gathering up the information to post and will do so as soon as we land long enough to write.

We’ve seen fun things like a monkey temple full of monkeys (the whole town was), ancient capitals of Thailand (Siam), beautiful scenery and more. Today I think we go up into the mountains!

Well, better go, my time is running out and I had to buy more just in order to be able to log off of everything.  Actually, I got an email from my host provider that our web site was hacked. Great! Not sure of the implications at this point but will worry about it when we either get home or get somewhere that I have time to look into it.

Mai pen Rai!

~Susan Mellott

We are still in Bangkok at the Century Park hotel and we had a thai massage last night in our room, 1 hour each for 1000 baht ($30) for both of us.  And that was more expensive than a lot of them but it was right in our hotel room so worth it. And really, $30 for 2 people, 1 hour each, right in the hotel room, wow!  Sean was none too sure about a massage, but decided he liked it just fine. It was actually a 1 person, 2 hour massage but I split it with him. He thought 2 hours would be no problem next time!

 Today we went to Siam Paragon Shopping Mall and shopped ’til we dropped (at least until I dropped). Didn’t actually buy anything but had fun looking.  I found some nice thai silk shirts but didn’t really need them so just looked. We also admired all the fancy televisions and gadgets. I took my netbook with me thinking I could find wireless there but no such luck. Not even a good internet cafe. We ate in the food court and I had “sati babi” (not sure what they are really called) and sticky rice and Sean had some sort of hot noodle soup which he calls his comfort food.

 The hotel provides free shuttle service there, but you have to find your own way back so we took the skytrain back to Victory monument and then walked back about 1/4 mile. The skytrain was really easy and cost 20 baht per person (about 75 cents). It’s like a metro but raised instead of underground. Found this internet cafe that I am writing from just outside the hotel. Also, there is a massage place next door that is 300 baht for a 1 hour massage. That is about $9. Come to think of it, the in room massage is not much more really. FYI, the in-room massage is not the one the hotel provides which is more expensive, it is through Wat Po (I think) the massage school and our guide arranged it for us (and several other people).

 My feet are killing me! We stopped by the ubiquitous 7-11 and got beer and iced coffee (for me) and are going to go swimming in the hotel pool as soon as we get back. I wonder if Nok can arrange another massage for us Or if my feet quit aching so much we can walk down and get a massage here at the place on the corner.  They also have a “fish foot” cleaning and massage. A whole bunch of little fish eat all the dead skin off your feet and then you get a foot massage. 300 baht or about $9. Still… ick!

I am not posting as well as I’d like and I’m not putting as much thought into it as I’d like, but am doing the best I can with the lack of internet access. I will post again as soon as I can!

 Sawadi Kah,

 ~Susan Mellott

We are having a great time! Nice hotel (Century Park)  and good breakfast and then sightseeing at some temples and then lunch. Then we went off on our own in tuk-tuk and went to khaosan road to look at the hippies  (travelers) Having a beer and internet. No internet in hotel so can’t really post or email but will write a post and post it later.  Oh, and bought a pair of flip-flops… need easy on and off for temples Nok, our guide is just great, we really like her. The air-con on bus broke and it is around 94 but a cool beer helps.

Life is good,

~Susan Mellott

We are currently on our way to Thailand. I am in the Fairfield Inn at JFK airport and we fly out on Korean air tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a post I’d written earlier and not published about my last Thailand trip.

I went to Thailand in June, 2001 for a month with Adventure Center travel. I went on a 14(15?) day Northern Thailand trip with them and then went directly on the 14 (15?) day Southern Thailand trip. Neither of these trips are the same as I took. The Active Northern Thailand is somewhat close. The Thailand Encompassed trip has some of the same things on the Southern (below Bangkok) part of it except that we went to the east coast, not the west coast. There is an Active Southern Thailand trip that might be similar, but it is not offered at the moment.

Adventure Center handles tours from several different tour companies so the company I went with is no longer with them. It might have been similar to Gecko adventure tours. I can’t seem to find anything like the tours I took. Here is a post from TripAdvisor Oct, 2009: Adventure Center has been around for many years, serving as a tour broker (selling other people’s tours). As you surmised they don’t run any of their trips. They were bought recently by TUI, a huge travel conglomerate, which also owns Exodus, Peregrine, TrekAmerica, etc. Their tour offerings now tend to feature operators owned by their parent company, rather than the very broad selection they had previously.

It was relatively cheap (I thought it was ridiculously cheap until I went on it and found out the actual prices for things).  I honestly cannot at all recommend the Adventure Travel tours (or any tours like them). As near as I can remember, it was around $700-800 for each 14/15 day leg. But this did not include airfare or any meals.  And the places we stayed in were essentially hovels. One of the nicer places in Koh Samui cost something like $5/night. Air conditioning was nonexistent, as was western toilets, hot showers, or even in many cases, electricity or showers at all (buckets and faucet).

It was billed as a small group that sees things not normally seen by tourists, is less isolated from the thai people (no western chain hotels, resorts, etc), leaves a small footstep, is green and are “travelers” (not tourists). That last statement should have told me everything I needed to know right there.

Here there be dragons. And my rant on “travelers”

Here is what travelers “think” they are. Nice sentiments and well worth following (as I try to). But in reality, no one is more pretentious (and less interested in the culture of a country) than people who call themselves “travelers” (follow the link for a good explanation and see the bottom for traveler traits).  They refuse to be called tourists and denigrate all those people who in their minds, are. But basically they are a bunch of either rave kids who follow the parties or middle class kids who just don’t want to work or who want to feel “hip”, who travel around the circuit with each other and mooch off the indigenous population.  They stay in western run backpacker hostels with a bunch of other western kids and the only interaction they have with any local people is with whoever works there (whom they ignore, except to get something).  And lets not forget the total disregard for anyone and anything. It doesn’t even cross their mind to think about what they are doing to the people or property around them. It is the absolute opposite of leaving a small footprint where you travel.

And that is who I had to spend one month with.  I thought I would go mad. Totally vacuous, pretentious, obnoxious kids that travel in packs and have their own little cliques and are like high-school all over again. The people in our tour were traveler-wannabes and the places we stayed were populated by hard-core travelers.

End of Rant

So needless to say, I was not thrilled with my Adventure Center vacation.  And after getting there, I realized that it is very easy to travel on your own and if you really want to travel without a large tour and see out-of-the-way places, you can just go yourself and ask at any of the places you would stay and they can arrange any trip you would want, cheaply, no matter how remote it may be. The infrastructure is good, the trains are easy and go lots of places, there are small busses you can catch that are especially for traveling to see various places.  Heck, you could hire a guide, have them travel with you and pay for their travel, room/board and fee and it would not cost that much.

I did some interesting things, like staying in a floating (sinking) bamboo hut in the middle a a huge manmade lake, camping on a remote island in the Angthong marine reserve without fresh water (except for drinking) or food (except for what was brought or caught) or electricity for 3 days. We also took a boat from our camp to the one island they let daytrippers go to called Mother Island. A quote from wikia travel: Ko Mae Ko (Mother Island) is a must to visit. Here, an emerald seawater lake in the middle of the island is encircled on all sides by limestone cliffs, but linked by an underground tunnel connecting with the sea. Reaching the lake entails a strenuous climb of 40 minutes or so, but is rewarded with a spectacular view across the whole park. What they don’t mention is that the climb is actually a pretty difficult trek (see pictures at bottom of the site).  Then you have to climb down.  Also, the lake is pretty, but deadly. You can walk out over it on a rickety bamboo/plank dock but they warn you not to put any part of your body in the water. There were all sorts of pretty but dangerous sea life there.

There is also a lookout point on the island, but if you thought the trek to the inland lagoon was tough, it was nothing like this one. From the wikitravel site for the Ang Thong Marine Park: Probably one of the best hikes in Thailand. In the National Park headquarters there is a path leading up the side of the rocks. This will take maybe 25-30 minutes to walk up, and well worth it. But be warned, this is not a hike for the faint hearted. Make sure you have good footwear as there are sharp limestone crags which will be your foothold, especially towards the peak. With a breathtaking view of all the Ang Thong islands, the end result of the hike is well worth it. Beware though, the hike is very steep in some sections and offer questionable ropes to hang on to. But this hike will justify the trip to Ang Thong alone. And with limestone boulders to climb up and the last 100 yards or so is straight up in direct sun and you about die from the heat. NOTHING we did in Thailand was easy and they sure don’t go out of their way to make things accessible (for regular people, at least regular U.S. people). Still, this is the only way to get there and so it is worth it. Unlike the caving, where we hiked/climbed for 6 hours, a good share of it along a road.

We went hiking (climbing) 6 hours carrying 3 liters of water, lunch, a caving helmet and huge battery to power it, to go through 2 caves where you crawled on your belly in mud and then climbed up a side of a pit with a waterfall that you couldn’t see the bottom of (or hear when you dropped something) to get to more chambers.  Actually, the caving (and elephants) were my favorite parts. I love caving.  Line’ (my roomate) and I were the only ones who went on to the end of the cave, up the side of the waterfall pit. But I got such blisters and screwed up feet from the hike that I couldn’t go on the hill tribe trek the next 2 days. And worst of all, there was a road for a long distance that we hiked!  I don’t mind if the only way to see something is to suffer some, but I just don’t hold with wrecking myself for other things for no reason.

I got to the point where I wanted to say, I’ll just pay the extra $10.00 and get a private room with air-conditioning!  Which I actually could have done, except that I was so beat-down by the heat, people and exhaustion that I couldn’t make rational decisions so I just followed the path of least resistance.  I was also by myself and if it would have been Sean and I, it would have been a lot different.

I really need to sit down sometime and just write up my previous trip experiences. Actually, I have emails that I wrote home back them (few and far between, this was the dawn of the internet cafe era and the fact that I could find them in Thailand was amazing.) Thailand surprisingly had them even in smaller towns. I remember finding an internet cafe in Pai, when there was only 1 public telephone in town, in the Post Office on the other side of town. I walked there and stood in line (Thai people were in line for the phone too, maybe because it was an international phone?). Then I filled out a bunch of paperwork. Then I got to talk for about 4 minutes at some ridiculously expensive price. On the other hand, the internet cafes were like a baht a minute, with 40 baht to the dollar. If not for them, I could not have heard from home at all.

So I will have to go back and just paste my old emails into a post. Then you can hear about the dead dog outside my hut one day, etc.

At this point, I realize that I have all kinds of pictures from my trip that would be good for this post, but they were all taken pre-digital camera era and I only have prints. I really need to scan them into my flickr account, but that takes so long with a regular scanner.  I realize I really do need the Pandigital SCN02 PhotoLink One Touch Scanner w/Memory Card which was on my budget gadgets want list. I will have to buy one when we get back from Thailand.

Next time I post, I hope to be in Thailand!

~Susan Mellott

We are getting ready to go to Thailand for our 20th anniversary and I hope to put up blog posts while we are there to keep family, friends and interested parties, informed.  I will also write a little travelogue of our trip and include any tips, tricks and useful information we run across.  And I will give our opinions of tours, hotels, etc that we use while we are there.

So here are the basics of our trip.  We are traveling with Smartours, an inexpensive tour operator that consistently gets good reviews on TripAdvisor and other places.  Smartours has quite good prices (especially when they run specials – signup for their emails). Our Thailand trip with Smartours starts at $1199 for 14-days and includes:

• Round-trip airfare from Los Angeles via Korean Air
  (New York departure add $100)
• Airline fuel surcharge
• Intra-Thailand flight and ground transportation
• Accommodations at Superior First Class hotels
• Full buffet American breakfast daily (B)
• Welcome dinner in Bangkok (D)
• Sightseeing tours as per itinerary
  and all transfers
• Professional English speaking
  Tour Director throughout

We did not go during the cheapest priced times (April on) so our cost was $1299. The best time to go to Thailand is Nov-Feb (“cool” season). And we flew out of JFK (NY) instead of LA so that was an addl $100. And there were $84 ea. in government taxes and fees.  So our price was a total of $2966 for the two of us. Which I think is a great price. Airfare is at best, $900 or more per person. Hotels for 14 days is at least $720 ($60/night for 12/nights). That is $2520 at a minimum. And adding in the extra meals (breakfast would probably be included in hotel price), convenience, transportation to/from airport and between cities, along with a guide and some tours included, it is a very reasonable price and one that would competitive, even if you went on your own.

The only few negatives I have heard regarding this tour are: the Bangkok hotel is not in a very convenient location, there are some days with long bus rides interspersed with long shopping stops, you get somewhat nickeled and dimed and the groups are large and unwieldy and slow to accomplish anything.

I know my way around Bangkok so I’m not too concerned about the hotel location. It is a long way from the waterfront area (Wat Po, Grand Palace, Khao San street (backpacker’s paradise and fun place). But it is close to the Sky Train and I want to go the the Chatachuk Saturday Flea Market that is easy to get to by riding the Sky Train (and something I didn’t get to do last time). As far as the long bus rides, at least we aren’t driving and the guide usually points things out and it is nice to see the scenery and to get to go to a lot of different places. And I am sure the bus will have soft seats and be air-conditioned (unlike the pickup trucks with benches of my last trip) and that is a downright pleasant way to travel. The shopping stops (gems, pottery, local crafts, whatever they have arranged to get a commission on) are usually an issue with any group tour and Sean and I just go wandering around or talk to the bus driver during the stops and try to enjoy wherever we are. Also, anything you do that is organized will nickel and dime you. It is just part of the total cost. Cruises are probably the worst for that. Large groups are frustrating, but if you don’t dillydally when a group something (like hotel check-in) is occurring and get towards the front, it helps.  So does patience.

We are flying from Fort Wayne to JFK ($311 pp) on Feb 1 (a day early in case of bad weather) and staying overnight at the Fairfield Inn New York JFK Airport ($151 total). The Fairfield Inn has a complimentary shuttle, serves a decent breakfast buffet included and has good reviews on TripAdvisor. I always check TripAdvisor to find everything associated with travel (except airfare). We leave about 12:30pm on Korean Air and arrive at Bangkok 11:10pm the next day. There is a 3 hour stopover in Seoul. Returning, we leave Bangkok at about 1am and arrive JFK at 10:40am (same day) with about a 3 hr. stop in Seoul. We also purchased World Wide Trip Protector travel insurance from Travel Insured (an independent travel insurance company, not through the tour group or airlines). It was $224 for the 2 of us. This includes emergency medical and emergency evacuation. Bangkok has extraordinary hospitals (I know, I was there last trip at Bangkok Nursing Hospital – highly recommended), but it is good to be able to get back to the U.S. with all associated costs taken care of.  And with older parents and long travel overseas and traveling in the winter with weather delays, etc, I think trip insurance is well worth the cost and I just consider it part of the total cost of the trip. Again, Travel Insured is a good trip insurance company. I use Squaremouth travel insurance broker to find the best insurance for us. They have a good reputation and have been around for a long time and are recommended by many places. I may or may not book through them though. In this case I went straight to the Travel Insured site to buy the insurance.

So our trip so far is $3963 total, or $1981 per person for 14 days.

I will post as often as I can and let you know about our trip.

Until then, take care,

~Susan Mellott

In the process of getting and using my Creative Zen (see my post on my Creative Zen), I found that you can view online or download movies, TV shows, videos and more to your PC, as well as downloading to your Zen (portable audio/video device).

Online: The network websites are slowly starting to stream their popular TV shows. It was a godsend for my sister when she was working as a traveling surgical tech because she could watch some of her favorite shows and soap operas without needed a TV or cable.  And that was before the digital conversion which makes it more difficult to just hook up a TV and watch network TV. And of course, she could watch at her convenience. A couple of shows that she watched online were Lost and 24.  ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox all have full episodes of some of their shows online. Even shows on cable stations like HGTV and MTV (which also has many music videos).

There are also websites that gather different TV shows and movies together in one place, making it easier to access them. If you are a Comcast customer with high-speed internet and Digital video with On Demand, you can go to a site called Fancast that, with a little setup, lets you view a huge amount of TV shows and movies from your cable selections.  We have HBO and I can watch movies from HBO as well. Without Comcast, you can still use Fancast, it is just more limited as to what you can access. It does still have quite a few movies and TV shows.

Hulu is probably the most well-known website for video content. It has a large amount of content to choose from. Hulu also has a desktop version that I originally thought would let you download and view later without the internet but after trying it and looking at it closer, it “Hulu Desktop runs directly on your computer and does not require a web browser. It provides an alternate way to browse and view content from the Hulu Library”. In other words, you don’t need your brower like firefox or IE open, but you do still need to be connected to the internet.

For more recent movies, Amazon Video on Demand lets you rent movies for about $2.00 to $4.00 each and watch them on your PC.

But all these sites require that you are online to view their content.  So what if you want to download movies to a device like a netbook or portable video device and watch them like you would a DVD?

Download: I actually have a hard time finding easy and safe legitimate copies of movies, whether free or purchased.  Many people recommend iTunes (according to their website, most are around $10). However, even if you buy a legit copy, in order to download it to your Zen (or any non-apple device) you have to convert it which breaks the iTunes copy protected format, which is illegal. I can say though, for informational purposes only, that if you are still interested in this, go over to epiZENter and check their forums and they can help you with the software you would need.

Another inexpensive, legit option may be Starz Play (formerly Vongo), especially (and actually, maybe only) if you are a Verizon user. From the Verizon website it says: Get unlimited movies and videos for just $5.99 per month. ($9.99 per month for customers who are not subscribers to verizon FiOS or Verizon High Speed Internet). This is the FAQ for Starz Play from the Verizon website. Once you have finished downloading a Starz Play movie, you do not need to be online to watch it. Which means that you might also be able to download it to a portable device, although it says Some titles are in the service for many months, and others last a few weeks or days. Once a title expires from the service it will automatically delete from your hard drive. So I am guessing you have to use their media player and that they use some sort of encryption.  They didn’t seem to have a huge collection of recent movies.

And I’ve just heard about Roxio CinemaNow.  They were offering a free download of Terminator: Salvation a few days ago and I followed the link but it was no longer valid (for the free download). But it appears that you can rent movies from like other places, but also you can buy movies and download them, even to portable devices.  The movies look like they cost approx. $15-$20 to buy and about $4 to rent.

bitTorrents: But really, I have not found a good, free/cheap, legitimate site to download movies or TV shows to my PC or Creative Zen.  I have, however, found some good, free sites from which you can download movies or TV shows.  These sites are search engines for searching BitTorrent files. The best-known of these sites are Pirate Bay and isoHunt. BTJunkie is also supposed to be good. Unfortunately, a lot of the bitTorrents they find are not legitimate so I cannot recommend them and I am providing this for informational purposes only.

These sites work by using bitTorrent protocol (peer to peer). Here are the wikipedia entries for BitTorrent Trackers and BitTorrent protocol. It is pretty interesting reading. I am going to give you the basic instructions for this. There are many different ways and software but this is easy and works.

How to Download bitTorrent files: Go to Isohunt to find the movies you want to watch (and get the isohunt toolbar if you want, to make it easier to find) Note: torrents from axxo and fxg are particularly well done.  If  you scroll down the home page, there is a list of top searches on the right side and you can see that axxo and fxg are top searches. When you find something you want to get (like if you do a  search for a title), you will get a list.  To the right of each one is a number and a star and another number.  The first number says how it was rated (can also have negative numbers for especially poor ones). The second number is the number of comments for that copy. When you find one that has a positive rating, click on it and read the comments to make sure it is a good (and real) copy. The “kingben” and “axxo” ones (if real, check comments) are usually good.  You should also check what files they download to make sure it is an .avi file.  some of them are zipped using .rar and you have to go find the software to unrar them.

If you want a rar, go to WinRar and you can download a trial copy to unrar it.

Then click on Download .Torrent and then Open. When the uTorrent popup pops up, just click OK and utorrent will start downloading it.  It will take a while to get it downloaded. It’s probably a good idea to start some uTorrent downloads before you go to bed.

How to Play on PC/netbook: Download the VLC media player to play the videos http://www.videolan.org/mirror-geo.php?file=vlc/0.9.2/win32/vlc-0.9.2-win32.exe The VLC media player has the best ability to play a wide variety of video formats and that is why I recommend VLC media player. Many times the downloads cannot be viewed correctly in the Windows media software and this is much easier. Then you can open the VLC media player, pick media/open file and open your movie and watch it. It has a fullscreen mode too.

The downloaded files can be transferred to a netbook along with the VLC media player and then played at your convenience, without needing internet access. The downloaded files can also be transferred to a portable media device, like my Creative Zen. But before they can be loaded to the Zen, they have to be run through video conversion to put them into a format that the Zen can read.

Convert file to Zen readable format: The easiest way to convert the files is by using the Badak file conversion program.  Badak is a simple video transcoder. It is free and although it is not the prettiest looking software, it really is the easiest and best that I have found so far to convert videos to a format a Zen can play. Just click on the “Open Preset” button at the bottom left of the window (next to the “Settings” button). Then click on the Creative Zen in the list of settings and it will be set for the proper settings for the Zen.

To convert a file, either click the “Add File” button at the top and add the file, or drag the file to the top and drop it in the window. You can change the Setting Destination to another folder if you want.  And unless you change it (in File Name Header), all files will start with [Z].

Now just click start and it will convert the file to Zen compatible format and put it in the setting destination. It takes a little less than an hour to convert a regular 2+ hour movie and about 15 minutes for an hour (42 min) TV show. It also cuts the size of the (typically .avi) file in half.

Then you can attach the Zen to the USB port, open it to show files and folders (or go to the drive it creates) and load the video to My Videos.

That is all you have to do! Now you can watch your movies or TV shows on your netbook or Zen or other portable media player.

~Susan Mellott

I have been meaning to post about my Creative Zen for a long time.  But I hadn’t used it for a while so I didn’t think of it again until just recently.  We are getting ready to go on our 20th anniversary trip to Thailand and the Zen is a great device to use on the exceeding long (24 hr+) plane ride. The battery can last 30 hours for audio or 5 hours for video. I have definitely watched at least 2 movies on it with 1 charge (I can’t remember exactly but it lasted for quite a while).  Both the audio and video quality is extremely good.

I have used it when taking road trips so I can watch videos or listen to music or audiobooks.  It keeps any photos and will display in slideshows of your choice so it is also works as a small digital picture frame. It plays FM radio stations and has a date/time. clock/alarm, and an organizer feature. It also has a microphone for recording notes and things.

This is my Zen. It came with the short mini USB to USB cable. I believe it also came with some earphones. I added a set of earphones that store very well without tangling (they pull out and lock and then zip back into the round case). I got them in a Brookstone store at the airport for about $25.  I highly recommend buying the Creative Hard Plastic Case for Zen, Zen MX (Clear) to protect your zen. I attached a lanyard to mine so I can hang it around my neck. It is about the size of a conference name tag.

I have the Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black). It is not the latest version of the Zen nor does it have the most storage, even for the regular Zen.  But it has everything I need or want.  The Creative Zen X-Fi 16 GB Video MP3 Player with Wireless LAN and Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver) has wireless access, built-in speakers and improved audio. The X-Fi stands for Xtreme Fidelity Audio technology. You have to get at least the 16 GB version to get the wireless lan capabilities. It is described: You can now stream music and photos wirelessly from your PC to your player within a home network. With the Zen X-Fi, experience the sound of perfection wherever you go. Stay connected with friends on Yahoo Messenger or Windows Live Messenger on the go (at region-specific public wireless LAN hotspots). This is interesting sounding but I think it is a very basic access and not that worth it to me. It is easy to transfer files with mine and the rest doesn’t cut it since we have a Droid that does much, much more than that.

I have the 4 GB version and I added a 2 GB SD card for extra storage.  This is plenty enough for me.  On the basic 4 GB drive I have 5 audiobooks, 9 full length movies and am loading a zencast video at the moment (to try it out).  On the memory card I have about 55 pictures, 4 audiobooks and 2 movies and have about 550 meg left. I just have no need for more than this. On the Creative website they have a comparison of the different Zen players to help you decide which is right for you.  Mine is not on there since it was the very first version. You can still buy them though.

This is a picture of my Zen on a piece of paper to get an idea of its size.  The bag is a bag I use to carry it and it’s bits in.  It is just a small makeup bag.

I like almost everything about my Zen. I think Creative is a good company that makes solid products. The one thing that is a little awkward with my original Zen is that the memory card is not integrated into the rest of the storage.  In order to load it, you have to put the Zen on Memory Card/Removable Disk and then it connects as a regular drive.  The regular drive on the Zen attaches to the PC with the different directories for videos, music (audiobooks), etc.  The memory card has all the different styles of content all mixed in together and is not as well organized.  In addition, I had a problem listening to my WMA (iPod compatible) audiobooks from it. It gave an error that it was copy protected.  The MP3 audiobooks worked fine from it and both kinds work fine from the regular storage. It is nice that it will play both since I can download both versions from our library and not all audiobooks come in both versions.

There is a lot more information on the Zen that you can view on the Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black) page. Just look through the customer supplied images. They show many different functions and have descriptions that describe the Zen thoroughly.

To get the media from the PC to the Zen, the easiest way is to attach the Zen and go to Explorer. The Zen shows up as My Zen. Go into Storage Media and the different folders relate to the different options on the Zen.  This is an example of my audiobooks that I had copied to my Zen. Click on the image to get a full size view.

Most people have downloaded audio files to an MP3 player, but it is a little different getting video content.  To see how to download content such as movies, etc. to your PC and then to your Zen, see my upcoming/next post.

Ommm, baby,

~Susan Mellott

Ever since I found the “Bigfoot” (at best guess) version of my post How to Redirect your Blog to a different URL Part 2: Wordpress (titled “How to Airt your Blog to a different URL Portion 2: Wordpress.“)  I have been thinking of Bigfoot.  Here is a note from my original post that was translated on the “Bigfoot” page:

“NOTE: you will cognize if it is not putted upwards right because you ‘ll get an mistake when assay to add the domain name to your blog.”

Oddly enough, Bigfoot may be Scottish (or thereabouts) since he uses “airt” and “ain” which at least resembles that accent. But he uses it wrong, which is not surprising for Bigfoot, the fact that he speaks and writes at all is pretty amazing (although he does use Windows Live for his blog). Heck, the fact that he exists is pretty incredible, although some people dispute even this.

Bigfoot claims his name is “Dennis”, but then again, he claims to have written my post, too. As a matter of fact, he (or a relative) has a Vox blog called “Alabama Restaurants Info“. There is only 1 post written (copied) so far, but it is a good one and I look forward to more. The post is called “Has anyone ever interrupted into a Eatery to do their ain nutrient?” and here is a sample of the Bigfoot review of a mexican restaurant (near as I can tell):

“here was this Mexican eatery that we seed and we discovered that concern was not good. So we sayed a couple of dishes we believed we would wish. The nutrient was horrific!! The refried beans savour like they came out of a  can, the rice was mush and the carnitas savour like they were a hebdomad old. No Good!!!!”

Who knew that Bigfeet (foots?) not only eat mexican food, but critique it. And in the same post we get some of the Bigfoot wisdom:

“I well-nigh interrupted into McDonald ’s to do a late nighttime Collation Wrapper but i chickened out. Plus they were unfastened.

Nope, I havent have sex….does brand ya wonderthough..I wonderment which resteraunt would be the one that everyone would desire to interrupt into? peace

my friend once assay that. luckily he was simply bluffing about the gun so his sentence is very much lower than it should be.”

After pearls like that, who wouldn’t be interested to know more about Bigfoot? Well, Bigfoot has written several books. The first one I became familiar with is Bigfoot: I Not Dead with this review:

“In his eagerly anticipated follow-up to Me Write Book, Bigfoot returns from exile to share his inspiring, hilarious, and often deeply disturbing experiences as a misunderstood forest gentleman and tragic media darling. These entertaining and often grizzly stories stand not only as a testament to the greatness of the legendary man-beast, but also as a chilling cautionary tale of the downside of a life of celebrity, cannibalism, celebrity cannibalism, wanton violence, and lack of toilet training. As in Me Write Book, full-color glossy spreads depict every intimate, disgusting, and downright insane moment of Bigfoot’s life. Bigfoot: I Not Dead is an unforgettable memoir that will stay with readers long after his foul scent has dissipated.”

I read this out of order, Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir was his first book and he sounds like he was more naive and lovable back then. From Amazon:

“Like many reclusive celebrities, Big Foot is misunderstood. In his touching memoir Me Write Book he wants to set the record straight, proving that although he’s larger, hairier, and more foul-smelling than most of us, he’s really not so different underneath.

Only the most cold-hearted among us could look on without compassion as this hirsute Everyman struggles bravely with parental abandonement, Pringles potato crisps, embarrassing moments with peach schnapps, the desperate loneliness of personal ads, and ‘roid rage.

Readers will never forget the plaintive voice from the wilderness that howls from every page of this searing, intimate account of a man-beast in the promised land.”.

And he also wrote In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot.

Here is a Bigfoot Action Figure which may or may not be what Bigfoot really looks like but “Intricate articulation allows it to be posed just like frame 352 of the famous film footage.”

If you want to see if you can find the elusive Bigfoot, here’s the Bigfoot Observer’s Field Manual: A practical and easy-to-follow step-by-step guide to your very own face-to-face encounter with a legend. If he was a human celebrity, this would be stalking, but I guess all’s fair for a Bigfoot. And like any celebrity, it appears he has moved to California: The Hoopa Project: Bigfoot Encounters in California. I would suggest looking in L.A. first.

~Susan Mellott

This is my Tech Edition of gift ideas for the holidays.  These are all things that I really find neat and useful. And fun!

And let me say, if you haven’t realized it already, that I am very budget-conscious. I don’t recommend or want the highest end things, I recommend the things that are the best bang for a regular person on a budget.

UPDATE 12/10/2009: If you read this before, you didn’t see this item. But I had to go back and add it because it is just too good not to include and I had just forgotten to add it in the first place.  And what is that item?  It is the Gboard: a Keyboard just for Gmail.  You may be thinking that sounds like a gimmick, I thought so too.  But after reading Mashable’s review of the Gboard and given the super-reasonable price of $19.99, I think this is a great stocking stuffing and useful gadget for people who use gmail regularly. It does all the functions that can be done with keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, but doesn’t require you to memorize all the shortcuts and is easier to use. Mashable says: “Overall we’re impressed with the Gboard. It does what it says it will do, the keys are laid out in a way that makes sense, and, for heavy Gmail users, shortcuts can save a tremendous amount time throughout the day.” For $19.99, if I was a Gmail user or knew someone who was, I’d consider this as a gift.

The Droid by Motorola. I have a Verizon cell phone old-style that I got in 2004 and it has been just fine for me.  It does everything I want, takes decent pictures and videos, good signal for calling, good battery life, voice calling, etc (no bluetooth but that isn’t a big deal to me).  I have never had a desire to upgrade because I never saw a phone that I wanted or that seemed all that exciting.

The iPhone never did it for me at all. Too expensive, too proprietary and on AT&T so fugetaboutit. I never really got the iPhone buzz.  But then the Droid came out. I’d heard rumblings about the Android operating system that sounded intriguing, but didn’t see the definitive phone that ran it.  Until the Droid.

My husband just got one for work and he brought it home for me to check out. I haven’t even looked it over to speak of and I’m am starting to want it. I was looking at it and thinking, “OK, it’s nice. Keyboard is still too small for my fat fingers. Not seeing anything special”.  Then I stumbled on the Google voice command lookup. I said “papillon” and it brought back a search list. I said “getting wine stains out of carpet” and it brought back instructions. I said “directions to Newcastle Indiana” and it gave me map and step-by-step instructions using GPS.  That started getting my attention! I’m really starting to get the itch now. And I can get it for $99 with Verizon 2-year renewal. The only sticking point is that I am hesitant to pay more a month for web/data access. I don’t go out that often to where I would not have my computer or my netbook and paying a fair amt more for the web when I can usually get it for free is hard. And I have a GPS that is free access. I don’t really need it and I have most everything it offers, but I do kind of want one.

Next are a few tech tools for easily converting your old negatives, slides and photographs to digital pictures. I know everyone has a stack of photographs laying around that they have taken over the years and would like to scan them in digitally but using a regular scanner, it is quite time-consuming. I wanted something that I could just feed photos into while watching TV or the like. Something easy and not too labor intensive. I did some research and decided on the Pandigital SCN02 PhotoLink One Touch Scanner w/Memory Card for a quick, easy and reasonably priced photo copier. I love this and it is definitely on my wish list. It is $85.68 on Amazon.

And an item that I have recently purchased is the Innovative Technology 35mm Negative and Slide Converter to PC. I love it and recommend it for a reasonably priced negative and slide converter. I am not going to go into great detail here because I wrote a post on how to use it and showing the results. But I will say that I think it was a very worthwhile purchase and was only $49.99.

Another item that I found and want is a pocket projector. If you travel at all, for business or for pleasure, this is sure to please. You can connect the pocket projector to your laptop or netbook and watch TV shows and movies projected on your hotel wall with a picture up to 60″ that is both clear and vibrant. (a good place to watch online is hulu.com or any of the TV station websites). Or give a presentation or slideshow for business without having to lug a huge projector around. Or play your video games in big picture.  Or hook it up to your phone (can’t quite see why, but I’m sure there is a good reason). Or collaborate with someone and not have to crowd around the little computer screen. And with the cost of adding luggage to your airfare these days, the less you have to carry, the better.

The Optoma EP-PK-101 PICO Pocket Projector- 4 oz.. is somewhat expensive, at $219 but it’s just a clever little thing. It connects to a wide range of things.
Connects to:
a) iPod, iPhone, and iTouch with included bundled connection kit
b) Camcorders, DV-Cams, and Digital Cameras enabled with standard composite AV Out with included composite cable
c) DVD Players and other video players enable with standard composite AV Out with included composite cable
Note: This product does not connect to notebook computers, PCs, PDAs, cell phones, or other devices unless the device has composite output. Please make sure to consult your device’s owner manual.
and it only weighs 4 oz. It projects an image size up to 60 inches. You can recharge the battery via USB or included AC charger. It was listed in the Time’s best travel gadgets of 2009.

While that sounds decent, I personally would bite the bullet and spend $299 and get the Cinemin Swivel Multimedia Pico Projector which is another pocket projector that looks very good and has all the connectors and everything to connect to a wide variety of devices (without requiring a video composite connection). With this, a netbook and this pocket projector and you are good to go! And it is made by Wow Wee, who have been making the most incredible and innovative toys and gadgets for quite a while.

As a matter of fact, if you have a minute you might just pop over to their site and see if anything else catches your eye.  Their robotic toys (and all their toys) are really something. And not nearly as expensive as you’d think. Check out the Rovio, a mobile webcam robot that you can control from anywhere in the world. And you can hear what is going on whenever it is and also say things over it’s speaker. Can’t you see a little Rovio wheeling up and swiveling it’s head towards someone and saying something to them while you watch and talk and control it’s movement? Or that makes it’s security rounds that you have programmed it to do? If I didn’t have pets, I might be interested more but with pets, it would last about 2 seconds around here. But watch it in action: The WowWee Rovio Wi-Fi Enabled Robotic WebCam is available on Amazon for a budget-busting $209. Too much for essentially an adult toy, unless you have that kind of money and don’t know what to get the person who has everything.

If you know anyone who does not own a pocket camcorder, they may be interested in one of the various ones on the market.  The main ones are the Pure Digital Flip Mino and Ultra, the Creative Labs Vado and the Kodak Zi6 or Zi8. Consumer Search has two full reviews of these: digital camcorders and HD camcorders and you can judge for yourself which one works best for you. You can also see their reviews of each specific one and they are very good. They also include some regular camcorders (not the Flip style) but I would not get one of them, I would go with the pocket camcorder unless there is a compelling reason not to. They are super-easy to use and they plug right into your USB port to upload. All the other camcorders I have owned were difficult to use and especially difficult to upload to your PC. And I was always hunting for the proper cables and it was too much work for me. The pocket camcorders have very limited features (they basically just record and play) and no editing capabilities but you can do all the editing, cropping, splicing, etc. that you would want when you get the video on the PC and it is really how you would want to do your editing anyway. The pocket camcorders are all very similar and in my opinion, just figure out which feature is most important to you (price, HD, etc) and pick the one that matches it best. I got the Kodak Zi6 because it was a good price and most importantly to me, the viewing screen is larger than the others.  I don’t see as well as I’d like (getting old, y’know) and that was the deciding factor for me.

If you or someone you are buying for already has a pocket camcorder, then they may like some of the accessories for them, like the waterproof case so you can use them underwater. Flip Video AWC2T Underwater Case for UltraHD and Ultra 2nd Generation camcorders (Clear), Flip Video Underwater Case for 1st Generation Flip Ultra Camcorders, Creative Labs VA0580 Vado and Vado HD Waterproof Pouch (Blue), Aquapac 404 Mini Underwater Camera Case, these are a few on Amazon. Another way to find them is to just do a google-type search on “underwater camcorder case Kodak Zi6” but replace the Kodak Zi6 with the specific camera case you are looking for.

Another thing that I already have, but could not live without, is a GPS with voice instructions. My whole family has them and swears by them. My sister moved temporarily to Orlando and it was a godsend.  I have an old Garmin C530 that is the pre-nuvi version (similar to the lowest end nuvi but smaller screen). It works just fine for me. The nuvi versions have a bigger screen, but with the voice instructions, you don’t really need to look at the screen. The most important part is that they have voice instructions and especially that they have text-to-speech.  That means they say things like “In 300 feet, turn left on Winchester Road”. They tell you the road name, not just to turn left in 300 feet (and you don’t know for sure which street).

An interesting question for some of these gadgets is: How long will it be before they are outmoded because the functionality is included in a all-in-one smart phone. The Droid and other new phones have built-in voice GPS and I believe they may be all you would need (I have to test on my husband’s Droid) and they can also take pictures and record like the pocket camcorders. The quality may not be quite as good, but if all you are doing is uploading them to the internet, which is what a lot of people do, you will barely notice the difference. Especially for the $100 – $300 you would save by not buy a dedicated camcorder. They have pretty much definitively replaced the Palm and other handheld devices.

If they had a more functional keyboard, they could replace all kinds of things. There is a rumor about a Tablet PC by Apple in 2010. If it is as expected, it will replace a number of gadgets (how many are unknown at this point). One thing it is supposed to be able to do is act as an e-book reader. If you know me, you will know that I am a very big reader. You might wonder why I didn’t have an e-book reader on my gadgets list. It is mainly because I don’t want to pay the prices they charge to download books and there are very few good free e-books out there and our library does not lend e-books yet. If the prices came down (significantly, or had a cheap subscription plan) or especially, if our library gets e-books, I will reevaluate my decision. At least the e-book readers like the Barnes and Noble Nook and the new Kindle 2 are non-proprietary. It appears they are settling on a standard and that is important. That is a huge downside of the Apple Tablet. Everything they do is extremely proprietary and they don’t open source. That is pretty much why I don’t have much to do with iPhones, etc.

One last tech-ish item is the Nintendo Wii. We do not own a Wii or for that matter, any of the latest game systems. We have a Playstation 2 and enjoy it when we have people over (infrequently). We have Dance, Dance, Revolution dance pads and Guitar Hero with guitars. We haven’t had any reason to upgrade though. But the Wii has a lot of things that I have not seen with the other game systems. The other game systems are pretty much limited to gamers and kids. The Wii has afficienados of all ages and interests. My uncle belongs to a Wii bowling league at his independent living apartment complex. A friend’s mom (and their whole family pretty much) use it to exercise. It looks like a lot of fun and very interactive. I like that kind of thing, but most all of the serious games for gaming systems are just too complicated and difficult for me. And now you can get one easily for $199 and with some looking, some places will throw in a $50 gift card.

And of course, if someone already has one, there is a plethora of accessories for the Wii. That is the drawback of a wii, the system is reasonable but the games and accoutrements easily cost the price of one apiece. Rather than list them all, wii and accessories will show you a list from amazon.

The Wii MotionPlus accessory for Nintendo Wii ($20, or $50 with a game, available at bestbuy.com and elsewhere) is an attachment for the original “Wiimote” controller. The MotionPlus makes the motion-sensing controls more sensitive and precise, so a flick of a wrist can turn your virtual tennis racket and spin your bowling ball. If your gift recipient doesn’t already own “Wii Sports Resort,” it’s worth throwing that in, too — it adds frisbee-throwing with a dog, water-scooter racing, sword fighting and other new games and comes with one MotionPlus attachment.  Here is a writeup that includes this and more tech gift ideas for $100 or less.

Anyone who has a wii would probably really appreciate a game or accessory for it since there are so many things it can do. And they come in all price ranges.

Well, that is it for my budget friendly tech toys and gadgets for 2009. I’m sure the people on your list would love at least one of these items and you probably may too.

Happy Holidays!

~Susan Mellott