Reasons You Shouldn’t Steal

Do I really have to go on? Nobody should steal! It always sucks when someone steals from you. The worst is when it’s something irreplaceable. Family heirlooms, computers with personal photos/info, pets – all things that get stolen and make you wonder what kind of world we live in. Well that brings me to someone who sort of made lemons out of lemonade. At least they found humor in a grim situation. This person had their iPhone stolen. Yes, that sucks for everyone who has had this happen. Thank goodness for iCloud but still! Unfortunately, it happens a little too often. So the phone gets stolen but the clever little thief starts using the phone and doesn’t delete the Dropbox app. That means every photo and video he takes gets uploaded into Dropbox where the phone’s true owner can see. That brings me to the site “Life of a Stranger Who Stole My Phone”. It’s a blog with all the thief’s pics and a nice little narration of his life. Go here to see and read all about him. Good stuff!    ~Dutch

30-A Giveaway!

Scenic Highway 30-A area is a very popular place down here in Florida. Besides the beaches and art galleries, it’s home to the incredible restaurant Red Bar. I love the area, the shopping, and the food. So there’s no surprise that 30-A stickers are seen all over the country. I remember years and years ago living in Knoxville, Tennessee and seeing my mom’s boss with the Red Bar sticker on her Range Rover. And at the time I thought, “Who puts a BAR sticker on their car?” But Red Bar is amazing and the food there is to die for. Anyway, back to the stickers. I’ve seen them everywhere and stacks of free ones in many stores. I just saw on 30A.com that whoever picks up the 500,000^th sticker is going to be a very lucky person. Along with winning $500 to 30Agear.com, they also will get gift cards to Another Broken Egg and Shades restaurants here in town among quite a few more exciting prizes. More are to be announced too. So find that sticker!   ~Dutch

Thrift Store Shopping

A lot of us were thrift store shoppers before Macklemore started singing about it. Even though I have always loved finding great deals at local shops, now I’m even more obsessed because I like to resell stuff and collect vintage items for crafts. So I shop thrift stores A LOT. If you’re into it, check out Thethriftshopper.com. Now when you are out of town, you can enter the city or zip code and find out from this site where all the thrift stores are. Not only that, people rate them and add reviews too. If you’re super cheap, there are sometimes coupons too, but come on! Find out hours to the nearest store, donation center, or add stores you know of to the directory and keep this great idea going. ~Dutch

Where You Can Find Us

Cwall has talked about our love of the Emerald Coast before. Now that it has warmed up, our Fridays through Sundays will be spent at Pompano Joe’s in Destin, Florida. Cwall isn’t with us every weekend but he is down here pretty often. So much that I guess he deserved to be in their Travel Channel debut. Hanging out with my husband and other friends, they just happened to be down at the beach restaurant when the video was being filmed. We go to PJ’s for great drinks, delicious Caribbean food, volleyball, and sun. If you check it out when you are in town, try their Reggae Rolls and PJ’s Punch. And watch the Travel Channel video here! ~Dutch

Devin Super Tramp

Most of the interwebs are still currently filled with cats and babies. Thankfully, there are still a few people out there making awesome new stuff that has less animals. Enter Devin Super Tramp, one of my favorite short film makers and YouTube Channels. His videos, like the one below, are most likely to give you a bit of a chill or excitement. The behind the scenes of the video below includes a guy pushing his now ex-girlfriend off a cliff attached to the 400 foot rope swing. I am pretty sure if you click through some of the videos we’ve posted in the past you’ll find his name in the credits. I’m still waiting for someone to buy me a couple Go-Pros and all the other equipment so I can make my own video this Memorial Day on Crab Island. Can you say Hermit Crab races in high definition? ~cwall

Lost in Florida

Today while Dutch is working, myself and her better half got lost in the woods near highway 30-A in some off the map jeeping. The above photo is when we had to get the GPS out, throw it in four wheel drive and find our way out. I’ll see if I can post the video of some deep water that we made it through. Thankfully, we found a new trail leading us out to the highway. The best part was when the jeep popped out of the woods in an elderly gentleman’s backyard, much to his surprise. Did I mention his backyard was in a gated community? I’m guessing he made a call to his home owner’s association. Time to wash the sand off and get an adult beverage. ~cwall

Johnny McTighes – Neighborhood Pub

Based on how often Cwall and I are hanging out, one might forget we live in two different states. He has joined us in Destin for the weekend and since it is 45 degrees out right now, we won’t get to spend much time beaching it. One of our favorite places to hang out is a little dive called Johnny McTighes. Many have heard of Highway 30-A and you might drive right past our little hangout without ever noticing it. McTighes is a little Irish pub in a small shopping center right past Adagio condos (where Tyson from All American Rejects lives). They stay open late and you can have some awesome food and drinks while playing darts, air hockey, or ski ball. It’s no secret that my favorite thing to do is the claw machine. I’ll let you know the trick to the machine there: there is no trick. The nice people at McTighes actually have a claw that works and you win every time. Last night, our plan was to get every stuffed animal in there but stopped at 6 when we got all the cute ones. I’ve ordered a little of everything there from pizza to the roast beef po boy to their amazing turkey sandwich. The prices are great and your order comes with a pile of tater tots. They also have a full bar and large draft beer selection. It’s one of the very few places my husband orders a drink and actually says it’s too strong for him. So next time you’re vacationing in Destin, joy riding through Seaside, or dining at the famous Red Bar, stop by McTighes for a night cap. You’ll probably see us there.    ~Dutch

~ Snapseed ~

There are so many great photo editing sites it’s hard to pick favorites. But Snapseed was named 2012’s Mobile App of the Year so…I’m going to have to agree with that one. I haven’t used it on my desktop yet, just my phone, but here are some recent photos I edited using it. All three photos were taken here in beautiful Destin, Florida. What makes it better than other apps? Well, if you just want to choose a cool filter, you can always use Instagram. But with Snapseed, you have total control over each adjustment you make. You should probably take note of the tutorial when you first start, there’s a lot of swiping involved. On my photos I used the center focus, vintage, and drama effects. Start using Snapseed and you won’t need all the other photo apps!    ~Dutch

Working AFK

Quick shout out to Liz & Rio on winning Dutch’s bunny-selects-a-winner drawing! You owe me a coffee next time I’m wherever you are in cyberspace!

Back on track. I love to travel, but that can be difficult because it requires money, which in turn requires me to work. Thankfully, working in the tech industry I am able to work almost anywhere for a number of things I do on a daily basis. My biggest job being that of supporting clients’ systems from afar. I already do this in the office so getting it done out of the office is a matter of an internet connection. I only need to come in to the office to do physical work, which surprisingly there is a growing amount of. My biggest problem is keeping a schedule when I travel. I would rather work odd hours when I’m “Away From Keyboard” but this doesn’t always work for clients who keep 9 to 5 hours. For me, it’s all about balance and getting the job done. I found a great article today on being productive while traveling, check it out here. It has a bunch of great tips, some of which I already try to put into practice and others that I really need to work on, but I really hate networking with people on a plane, I’d rather put my earphones on and zone out.

I will say that recently I have been able to work on the beach, at the pool, in Disney World, my bed, the couch and while riding shotgun in a car. All made possible by having the right tools in place prior to travel. I use Google Drive to store customer files and have it sync across my office PC, laptop, iPad & iPhone. I use logmein.com to access my office desktop for several apps that I occasionally need access to, and I use a product called GoToAssist to help clients. GTA allows me either interact directly with a customer on a machine or install software for unattended remote support, say for server maintenance.

Additionally, I have a good VoIP phone system that follows me wherever I may be from one number and/or extension, that way customers and co-workers can find me easily. Not to mention it emails faxes and voicemails right to all my devices. Wireless Internet is everywhere today, get outside and take advantage of it! ~cwall

Arachnophobia

I used to be deathly afraid of spiders. Good news: I grew out of that. Bad news: I traded it in for about 10 other phobias. But while I am now ok with the 8 legged creatures, this YouTube video CREEPS ME OUT! A web designer in Brazil caught this eerie phenomenon on video which looks like spiders are just falling from the sky. Apparently, these “social spiders” are known for their sheet webs and massive colonies. The ones in the video made webs using the power lines so it looks like they are just floating in mid air. Remember when I said I wanted to go to Brazil? I change my mind.    ~Dutch