As part of my anniversary gift from Katie, I received this bad boy…

This was one of those moments where I wish I had cameras mounted to my car taking pictures in all directions at all times so I could've captured an image of this thing I saw the other day that was just too amazing for words and I had no time or ability to grab my phone and snap a shot myself.

Happy Friday the 13th, y’all! The holiday that can happen several times a year or… never! But it’s the inconsistency that I love.

As a LEGO fan for a veeeerrrrryyyy long time, I really look forward to new product announcements and discoveries. Not that I buy them all. Often, I don't buy any. But it's still fun to take a look. 

Okay, so I’m reusing a photo from Memorial Day. But it works very nicely to help commemorate the 245th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from those British bastards (I keed! I keed!).

It was about 11 years ago that I attended my one and only Brickworld LEGO convention in Chicago (actually I think it was in Rosemont).

The other day, I dug up part of an old toy. It was a bat’leth or Klingon battle club from an old Worf figure from Star Trek: The Next Generation from Playmate Toys in the mid-1990s.

Kim posted today about her unused sticker collection asking what others do with stickers they may have laying around. I responded in her comments, but also mentioned that I'd post photos of how I use them. So here goes...

Hey, I've got a couple questions for you all that I'm seeking insight on. While they are parenting related, it's kinda tangential and, honestly, they can be answered by anyone. So take a look and leave a reply in the comments.

Last night, I downloaded a 300-page book to my Fire tab. I also downloaded 3 150-page graphic novels and 15 issues of Black Panther comic books. 

Several of you wanted a post about my AirPods Pro that I got last Christmas. After playing with them for a month and a half, I feel like I can talk about them intelligently enough. Here goes!

Any of you who have been following me for a decade or more likely remembers my first foray into toy adventure photography... Stormin’ Norman, the LEGO Stormtrooper. 

This is just killing me. Since Katie and I got our Apple Watch and AirPods Pro, respectively, for Christmas, we've been talking about going back in and purchasing AppleCare+ for both items.

There’s been a lot of talk, with the release of the new iPhone 12 line, about how Apple has entrenched themselves more with USB-C as a charger but without providing the goods. 

While Katie and I cleared through our bedroom closet a couple weekends ago, I dug out this little gem of a LEGO set I created a long time ago. 

Katie and I bought our Christmas gifts for each other tonight. We were doing so good about not ruining the surprise for each other until a Black Friday ad dropped yesterday.

I’m not sure what to make of the iOS 14 update. I’m still trying to unpack it all. There’s some good and some bad in the little I’ve explored.

Katie gave me my anniversary gift today. It's an Amazon Fire HD 8+ (2020 model year) tablet. 

Yup. Another late night deployment. 

After far too many years languishing with a spotty internet connection as provided by AT&T Uverse, we finally made the jump yesterday to MetroNet.

This video was all Nathan’s idea. He wanted to do a full LEGO set build in time lapse. Of course it had to be the set I got for Father’s Day meaning that my set build got delayed to whenever was convenient for the video.

I’ve had a hit or miss relationship with home automation technology. I loved and then hated our WiFi outlets, I love our Nest camera/doorbell, I love our Nest thermostat, I worship our Roomba vacuum, I could care less about our Echo voice assistants.

First off, yes, I was able to successfully charge my iPod Shuffle. Based on the first 10 or so tracks, I was really digging on Beck when I last synced it up.

While digging around for a backup lightning charging cable to use in the kitchen, I found something unexpected. 

Apparently, on this day eight years ago, I was really into doing Halftone cartoons featuring a LEGO Gollum. Can’t imagine why. Especially since I’ve barely even looked at it since that time. Weird. 

For his birthday last year, a friend gave Nathan a toy rocket. It’s not like the old dry fuel rockets I played with as a kid. More like a rocket jet with a tail propeller attached to a USB-charged motor.

I’m not a car guy. I never have been. I don’t go ga-ga for most sports cars. I don’t drool when a car gets a redesign. I just want something reliable, comfortable, and inexpensive. 

I swear, once I dumped that nasty old video making goal I had the last two years, I actually started enjoyed making videos. This is the third video that I’ve edited and shared with y’all in a mere four months. 

A week or so ago, I saw some headline on the web touting how you can use old tech and gadgets to make for a better work-from-home experience. Despite suspecting it was clickbait, I clicked on it. I couldn’t help myself. 

The other day, I opened the mailbox to find a catalog from our local toy store, Learning Express Toys. I was pretty excited to see it as, if it's not a catalog in our mailbox, it's a bill, spam, or other junk. So, yeah, I was happy to have something fun like that. I also knew Nathan would be excited to see this catalog. 

Nathan brought this to me the other day. I had no idea he had it. He wanted me to have it back because he knew it was mine when I was a kid. 

Over Thanksgiving break, Katie and I bought a Chamberlain MyQ Garage hub kit. We would’ve gotten either a hub or an opener with one built in when we bought a new garage door opener a couple years back but it was still a little cost prohibitive at about $100.

One of my favorite things about my iPhone XR is wireless charging. Oh. My. God. I love it!

Back when I worked at Aurora University, my buddy Eric (the Pitchfork Music Festival-attending buddy) and I used to take this blue goo that I had for strengthening your hands and forearms and put it on top of toys and other random items and let it "melt" over them for a day or two and admire the results. I swore we used to take pictures of them, but I cannot find those photos anywhere and they pre-dated the iPhone so they're certainly not in the cloud anywhere. So I'm wondering if they actually happened or not.

A friend was tweaking settings on his home VPN when he noticed the permissions section and some new icons that were being used by the developer. They're, um, fun and unique to be sure. Check out this sampling...