Andrew Allgaier

Designer. Entrepreneur. Family Man.

built a new grind box with the kids over the weekend

Some people just need to have more cowbell. Not me. I needed to build a grind box. So, after a lot of searching I found the best free skate ramp plans online: www.diyskate.com. I wanted to make a few modifications to my grind box, so I did a quick sketch and headed off to Home Depot (and you better believe I had to get a new Ryobi drill!).

After some help from the little munchkins, we were done in no time. I added a couple things to make the box a little more fun:

- handrail (finally putting to good use the gift my brother, David, gave me for Christmas)
- custom paint job (wouldn't be complete unless the kids tagged it up)
- and I added truck/wheels on one end to make it a little easier to transport

I was too tuckered out after building it to be able to even skate it, so hopefully sometime this week I can pull it out and bust a few moves on it.

*A special thanks to my awesome wife for helping me win the war against growing up : )

                 

unplugging from work

I wish I was better at this. Seems like every time I go on vacation I'm either trying to get work done late at nights or stressing about it at the very least. This is a problem. Whenever I am able to unplug successfully, I feel refreshed when I return to work and am overall more productive.

I just emailed a client and got his auto-reply that said, "Woohoo! I am traveling for fun this week. If you need immediate assistance please email support@...."

This is way better than the typical "I'm out of the office but will be checking email periodically, blah blah blah". I have a new standard to aim for when I'm vacationing : )

sunset phases

Last night's sunset was incredible. It was continually changing. Here are a few shots capturing its phases.

     

What do I think about the iPhone 4 Bumper?

Glad you asked! Here's my report:

The Good
1. The quality is better than I thought. Still not $29 quality, but still better than I thought.

2. Buttons are awesome! I've had many thin cases and even the thin ones make it so the buttons are just too deep. The bumper has buttons that sit on top of the iPhone buttons, so there's no digging for buttons - they are super easy to push.

3. They were smart to make it sticky where it needs to be sticky and smooth where it needs to be smooth. 

The Bad
1. It does make it a little thicker, so it doesn't slide in/out of my pocket as well as I'd like. Although they did minimize how sticky the case is, which I appreciate.

The Ugly
Oh come on now... does Apple make anything ugly?!

Dear Apple, thanks for always...

making such awesome packaging for your super sexy products. Your packaging continues to get more and more minimalistic, and I like it. A lot.

Aside from that, I must say that you did a great job setting a very low expectation for when I would get my free bumper. Even though in realize this was intentional on your part, I think it was a great idea and it made me happy to get it weeks before I was expecting!

Dear Apple, I love your sexy products but...

Dear Apple,
 
I love your super sexy products. I always have. Frankly, I don't see a future with me not having your products. However, there are some things you do that I simply don't understand. Here are a few items I'd like to discuss:
 
1. Apple TV Remote.
Seriously... have you seen it? No, I mean have you seen it... I keep losing mine. Yes, I know I can buy that larger one that you offer, but don't you think it should just come with that one?
 
2. Movie Rentals.
Don't eeeeeven get me started! This one really frustrates me. Why on this green Earth do you put such a ridiculous expiration timer on the rentals - 24 hours?! I have 5 little kids, so it's rare that I can actually watch a full movie in one night if I want to get to bed at a decent hour. So why not give me 7 days? Side note: we're switching to netflix so we can watch movies at our own pace.
 
3. Full Bluetooth Keyboard.
The older model seemed to work great, but I like your new keyboards. In fact, I have two of them... a USB full keyboard and the bluetooth version (no 10 key). Is there a reason you can add those extra keys on the bluetooth version?
 
4. iPhone 4 Bumper.
There are margins, and there are MARGINS. This appears to be the latter. I can only imagine what you're cost is on these things and it's just too crazy. A good case is typically around $20. (looks like you're giving them away for free due to the reception issue, so I can't really complain about this one... I'm excited to get my bumper, but I'll be honest, I wasn't about to drop $29 on one).

5. Safari Can't Maximize.
Is there a good reason why hitting the "maximize" button in Safari won't make the window fill my screen? It seems inconsistent with your other applications (Mail, iCal, Address Book, etc.). Is there any way I can convince you to make this work like it should? I prefer Safari over all other browsers, but currently do not have it set as my default for this reason (I use different size displays, so it's annoying to do anything more than a click to perform this action). 
 
P.S. Ask anyone that knows me and they'll tell you I probably converted them to your products in some way. Let's work on these items above though, eh?

Awesome blanket cave

The boys were begging to have a cave in the basement yesterday, so Geralyn built this for them. Tunnels, couch, tv, etc. What more could you ask for in cave?! The boys are lucky to have such an awesome Mom.


     

had a surprise visit this morning...

Geralyn and the boys stopped by the office this morning with some donuts for me (and the Cambio team). I am a blessed man, and not just cuz I just threw down some chocolate donuts : )