More M&Ms News

M&M Thanks

My post on Hannah’s M&M Art now has a part 2.

As I said in my first post, Hannah was interviewed by Traci with CandyAddict.com because of the art she has created from using M&Ms. Well it turns out someone from My M&Ms had read the interview on Candy Addict and wanted to send Hannah some customized M&Ms as a thank you for her M&M enthusiasm.

My M&Ms boxAfter some hunting around by the reps at My M&Ms they contacted Hannah. They let her know they wanted to send her some M&Ms as a thank you. They also wanted to know if their was any particular colors she would like. Hannah said to them that she really could use some white ones. With that, She gave them our mailing address as was told they would ship some out right away.

My M&Ms Open BoxAlmost a week later we got a box in the mail that was clearly from the reps at My M&Ms. The first thing Hannah did when she got home from work at the medical clinic was open the box. Inside some pretty clever packaging she found four bags of purple and white M&Ms.

Hannah and a bag of M&MsAfter the excitement settled down we both took a second look at the bags of M&Ms and saw they had writing on them. The writing said, “You Make Fab Art” and “M&Ms Luv Hannah”. She and I just thought that was just the coolest thing.

The Story does not end there. The Next day Hannah got to work on a “Thank You” art piece for the people at My M&Ms. So once again our coffee table became the canvas she works on. By the end of the day she whipped out a thank you using only the purple and white M&Ms she was given.

M&M ThanksM&M ThanksM&M Thanks

You can see more of Hannah’s M&M art work by visiting our Flickr page.

Getting Up Early!

Keyboard and padI think the CNN Money news story I wrote about on Disney’s CEO (How Bob Iger Works) really impacted me. Ever since I read that story I have been getting up at 6AM. Now granted, it’s not 4AM like when Mr. Iger gets up, but it’s a big improvement from when I was getting up.

So, I will get up at 6AM. Address any important work issues that came up during the night. Then, (depending on the day) I will go to the GYM or just head strait to work.

Addressing the important work related issues that early in the morning has made a huge impact. For one, their is know one else around to distract me from my tasks at hand so I am getting a lot more done as a result. It also makes my day a lot less stressful when I get to the office.

Going to the GYM every other day has also been a positive change for me. I have been losing weight. That’s a given. But I also don’t stress as much about going to the gym anymore. Before I started getting up this early. If I had a long day at work it was a battle if I was going to go to the GYM at all that day. Now I do it in the morning and get it out of the way.

Time Machine

Mac OS Leopard cdWhen I upgraded my operating system to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, I did not think I would like the new backup software, “Time Machine” at all. Truth be told, I was expecting to hate it and continue using my trusty old Silver Keeper application to do my backups. But, like a true geek with new software I just had to test it out.

Let me start off by saying I can not express to you how important it is to back up your data. I myself learned this lesson the very hard way several years ago on my G3 Powerbook. Having the need to reinstall my operating system at the time I rushed and failed to do any backups at all. The end result was years of lost digital photos I can never get back. I might have cried a little bit after that incident (reports waver from person to person) but I learned from it. I went out the very next day and picked up an external hard drive that was bigger then the internal hard drive of my Powerbook and setup a nightly backup system.

Time MachineSo here I am, several years later trying out a new piece of backup software by Apple called “Time Machine”. Now before I can try and launch Time Machine I thought I should plug in my external hard drive that I want to backups to. Moments after I plugged in my External backup hard drive my computer prompted me with a message saying “Do you want it to be your backup drive?”. I said yes and to my amazement that was all I had to do.

timemachine_hdicon20071016.pngTime Machine proceeded to make a full back up of my computers hard drive to the external backup drive in the background. I could not help but think there had to me more to Time Machine that just this. Every piece of backup software I have never used always needed to be configured and setup. So I went searching through the system preferences for Time Machine settings. Upon viewing the Time Machine settings I found a very simple preferences window with a comically large On/Off Switch much like you would see on an iPhone. The only other options on the screen allow you change the backups destination (So if you go out and buy a bigger hard drive and you want your backups to use the newer hard drive you can.) and pick files or folders you don’t want to have backed up at all.

This was so brain dead simple I found myself wishing I had more options to choose from. But honestly, I have never needed more then this. I would Imagen for the majority of computer users out their this is all they really need.

After several hours my initial back up of my hard drive was completed. So what happens next? Well, Apple’s website states:

Every hour, every day, an incremental backup of your Mac is made automatically as long as your backup drive is attached to your Mac. Time Machine saves the hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for everything older than a month.

So what happens when you remove your external backup hard drive? To find out what happens I disconnected my laptop from my external backup hard drive and did some work. I worked on files for my website and I worked on some random Photoshop work I have laying around. After about two hours I plugged back in my External backup hard drive. Right away I can see that the external hard drive is being written to. I opened up the Time Machine preferences to see it was doing a backup. A few other tests confirm that as soon as you plug in your backup external hard drive to you computer the first thing that takes place in the background is a backup of any changes made since it was last plugged in. That is just awesome!

It also looks like restoring from a crash or a reformat is also easy.

To make setting up a new Mac even simpler, Time Machine shares its data with other Mac utilities. Use Migration Assistant to copy portions of any Time Machine backup to a new Mac, or select “Restore System from Time Machine” in the Leopard DVD Utilities menu. Choose any date recorded in Time Machine to set up your new Mac exactly as your previous Mac was on that date.

So their you have it. You should always back up your computer. Any backup system is better then none but in my opinion Time Machine is pretty damn good.

M&M’s Art

M&M’sRecently, my fiancée Hannah had her M&M art written about on CandyAddict.com.

Mendelsohn, a 21-year-old medical assistant, separates M&Ms by color and arranges them in intricate patterns on any flat surface she can find. The result is a surface completely covered with M&Ms, no space between them. Mendelsohn arranges the colors in bright geometric patterns. She said this hobby first took root when she developed a love for chocolate.

I think this is pretty exiting. I wanted to share the link with everyone. So Check out her art and the article written about her “Alaska coffee table serves as canvas for M&M art” over at Candy Addict.

Disney GTD: How Bob Iger Works

Bob IgerCNNMoney.com has a good news story on Disney’s CEO Bob Iger and how he works. This news story peeked my interest because it fits in the whole Getting Things Done methodology that I’m really into. A methodology that has made me very productive at work.

Among other things Bob Iger says:

I get up at 4:30 in the morning, seven days a week, no matter where I am in the world. It’s a time of day when I can be very productive without too much interruption. I ride a bike and use aerobic equipment twice a week, and work out with a trainer, lifting weights. It’s a good time to think. I believe that exercise relieves stress and contributes to an improvement in stamina, which in a job like this you absolutely need.

You can read the full post here.