Across the street from Waterford Lakes is a yogurt place called Simply Yogurt. It’s a cute little place with Ikeafurniture. They have a big screen tv that usually plays g rated files. I’ve seen Lemony Snicket, Bolt, The Shrek movies, Alice and several others. They are always child friendly,bso you never have to worry about what’s playing there.

Simply Yogurt is one of those places that allow you to make your own. There are several flavors of yogurt including cake batter, cheesecake, taro, and several others. If you dont know which flavor to get, don’t worry! They have small sampler cups you can use to decide which flavors you’d like to have, I usually get only one flavor, but you can get all the flavors if you want! They have both non-fat and non-dairy flavors. However, there is usually one flavor that is non-dairy and that’s the one that I get.

This flavor is called orange burst and I like to put mandarine orange slices and longans in it. They also have Jack fruit and lychee!

This one is the one Chris made. It’s cake batter and red velvet. He’s put peanut butter cups, butterfinger, poundcake, M&M’s and Ghirardelli caramel sauce.

It may look like we didn’t get very much in those cups, but those are big cups. We only got enough to eat and not to take home. You pay by the ounce and we usually get about $6 worth together.

They are a little pricier than Sweet by Miss Holly(by ten cents an ounce, but if you look carefully, that’s an intro offer. It may go up at some point), but we like Simply Yogurt better because the ingredients seem fresher. There are more fruit options at Simply Yogurt and the ingredients seem to be higher quality. Simply Yogurt has Ghirardelli chocolate yogurt as well as chocolate, caramel and something else I can’t remember. Sweet by Miss Holly has Hershey’s syrup that you buy at the grocery store. Plus, there is a place to eat. Sweet by Miss Holly removed half their seating when they installed the frozen yogurt machines. The other half of the seating is usually used up for storage. We took a friend there who usually goes to Sweet by Miss Holly and she too decided that Simply Yogurt is better. It’s totally worth the extra 10 cents an ounce!!

If you’re ever in the Waterford Lakes shopping area, take the time to go across the street to the other plaza were Staples and Sports Authority reside. Take a gander inside and try out some yogurt. You won’t regret it.

El Cerro is in it’s own little building that looks super small, but there’s enough space for several tables. When we went there, only one other table had anyone in it. That’s ok. Anmol had absolutely nobody in it when we visited that first time. Chris ordered tacos and I ordered carne asada.

Well, mine came overcooked and over spiced. Carne asada isn’t the best cut of meat, but I never had any problems chewing it. My jaw was tired by the third bite. Chris’s taco was blandtastic. It was cheap though, so I suppose that’s why all the college students like to go there. The beer is cheap too.

I don’t know if they get so drunk, they don’t know what’s good or maybe they’ve just never had good mexican food. Whatever the reason, they love this place. But I will never go back again. My jaw still hurts just thinking about it. So much chewing. I should have sent it back, but I think I was overly tired or starving, I ate it, but I didn’t enjoy it, if you want good Mexican food, don’t go there. You’re better off making tacos at home. They’ll taste better.

The thing I get is called the scoop froggy frog.

It’s mint chocolate chip, which is my favorite ice cream flavor. And I get it with vanilla soft serve. You can choose to get chocolate if you want. They have several flavors of ice as well. Some of them taste like jolly ranchers will others taste like ass. The great thing is that you can get a sample to figure out which one that you want. The flavors change from day to day, but they always have my flavor as well as chocolate,

The thing with Jeremiah’s though is that there is no indoor seating. You go up to a window to order and you eat outside. It’s fine during the evenings when it’s much cooler. Unfortunately, in Florida, it’s really hot some days and you have to eat your ice cream super quick or it will melt. What I’ve seen a lot of people do is go eat in their car with the a.c. running. I’m pretty good at eating ice cream, but even I sometimes get my hands sticky. The other day, I even spilled some on my shirt.

What I would suggest is to get the small unless you’re a glutton for punishment. The small looks like a large shot glass, but they fill it up above and beyond the rim. It’s enough to make my tummy feel totally full. And they’re only $2.50! I definitely recommend it!

tandoori chicken

I think I’m going to call this week food week. Today, we are going to talk about Anmol an Indian restaurant we found via urban spoon. The reviews said that it was good and 83% of the reviewers liked it. I think that’s a goodly amount of people.

So one evening we decided to head out there. The restaurant is in a plaza across the street from U.C.F. I call it the U.C.F. Food court because in the same plaza is a sushi place, Thai, Jamaican, pizza, a fancy sandwich shop,vietnamese, McDonald’s, and about half a dozen bars.

Anmol is a mom and pop shop which I totally like. Orlando is,unfortunately, full of franchises that are not very good. So it was good to see a place who’s recipe wasn’t developed in some kitchen and taste tested by people who’s idea of flavor is a fistful of salt. It’s not a fancy place. You won’t see waiters with tuxes and a pristine white towel delicately laid over his arm. What you will see is a hard working family. Usually, You’ll see Mom or Dad, sometimes the son and an uncle or two.

We’ve been there several times and we have never been disappointed. (I’m sorry I keep forgetting to take pictures.) Our favorites are the tikka masala and vindaloo. I also like ordering a full chicken tandoori because I like leftovers. And their garlic naan is good for dipping in tai sauces.

One thing I would caution people about is that the spiciness changes from day to day. They use actual peppers and in nature those vary from plant to plant. Chris and I usually order everything medium spicy, but on certain days it is clearly hot spiciness. It will make your nose run.

Chris tells me that I should enjoy this as much as I can now. We discovered the restaurant during Summer vacation. Once school starts again, it may get too busy. We may not be able to find parking. I told him, I’d shank someone for a spot.

Way back in April, you remember April, back when the weather was still pleasant and you could go outside without fear of being burned alive. You know, April, like three months ago? Beginning of spring?

Well if you do remember April, you might remember that I was in Laguna Beach again for my work. Last year, we had a horrible experience with restaurants there. They were all horribly overpriced and totally snooty. This year’s experience was a little better, though some places were still hella snooty, but not all. There was a cute little coffee shop near the hotel that we went to with Jenn and Chris E. that was very friendly. Sadly, I didn’t get photos of that place. And totally don’t remember the name. But I’m getting sidetracked again.

We decided to go down a block and check out a place called Mozambique. The food was still a little bit pricey, but there was really nothing to be done about that. Our hotel was on the beach, so we were going to be gauged either way.

Surprisingly, the food was pretty decent. I had a curry dish and Chris had the burger. He said that the burger was too big. We ended up eating at the peri-peri bar, which was not a bar at all, but a hallway between the front door and the main dining area. The dining room had been rented out for the evening.

I know that sometimes I can be really critical of people who try too hard or are like a homogenous bunch. But this group of people wore the same clothes in different colors. The men all wore faded jeans, sandals, and a fancy button-down shirt. The women were all wearing strapless, tight mini-dresses. I think that had just one of them come in with any sort of individuality, I might not be so critical. This sort of different sameness makes me cringe. It makes me think of pod people and all those dystopic science fiction futures. I really can’t blame a restaurant for that. A restaurant for that.

peri-peri bar. It’s just the kitchen!

We went back for brunch a few days later. The prices were comparable to the Cheesecake Factory. I had their special, which came with too much food. This time we were seated up stairs in the covered patio section. I really enjoyed eating outdoors with the gentle ocean breezes caressing my skin.

I did not eat all this food.

All in all, I enjoyed Mozambique and would return again. Another restaurant l would suggest is La Ranchita. It’s a decently priced Mexican place. I have no photos, so I don’t remember what we had there. But I do remember that it was decently priced and the food was good.

They had maccaws outside and this one really liked Chris. It kept following him around.

But what I did find at the craft store was this copper wire in the jewelry section. They have several different kinds of wire so make sure to buy the copper one and not the aluminum one. You could totally buy the sterling silver wire if you wanted a very expensive ghetto stylus. The craft wire comes in varying colors and gauges. Get the thicker wire or it will be too flimsy. Also, buy the copper one. I don’t want you to go home with something that’s non-conductive.

Instead of conductive foam, l used a scotch Brite sponge.

You only need like a centimeter of the sponge. I tried a couple of different things because I tried to make the stylus look more like a pen and tried to hide the copper wire. It didn’t work out. The great thing about the sponge is that you can still use it to scrub stuff. You have plenty of stuff left.

For the pen body, I use an old Pilot Bp-s. I’m not going to rehash the instructions. This is my final result.

Don’t as me why it sticks out so far. I was trying to do something with the pen that didn’t work. I just kept the length. The one thing that I’m having issues with is keeping the craft wire in contact with the Sponge. It keeps wanting to come out the top. Taping it didn’t help much. I think it’s just part of having an open ended pen.

The great thing is that the sponge is not falling apart. I wrote this whole thing in writepad using the ghetto stylus. And even if the sponge did fall apart, I can just cut up more of the sponge.

Overall, I would choose this over my pogo.

Copper wire : $2.50
Sponge : $1
Pen body : $0 or if you don’t have an old pen lying around, the pilot pen is $2. But you’ve got to have an old pen lying around. Any old pen will do.

Total : $3:50-5

pogo stylus: $12 and already falling apart.

So I cut myself a hunk off the sponge and attached it to pogo.

It’s hella ugly. But you know what? It is totally way better than conductive foam. I don’t need to press hard at all. The thing is though, don’t wash it before you put it together. I mean, you could, but my sponge always gets hella hard when it dries. Noe if you know a way to wash it without getting hard and dense, let me know. Otherwise, don’t wash it first.

I thought that it needed to be wet because water is conductive, but no. My sponge is dry and it works. I wouldn’t try a wet one on here!!

I used craft wire to secure it. I had some from making jewelry.

Tomorrow, l will try Jerry rigging this to a real pen.

I saw something on the net that looks real easy to do. I just need to find me a drafting pencil.

I’m going to try to sleep now. Wish me luck!

I’ve decided to write about the pogo sketch stylus because I have strong feelings about this. How ipad and iphone touch screens work is by conductivity. It has to do with electrostatic fields. This is why any old stylus doesn’t work and neither does your perfectly manicured fingernails. You basically need something that conducts electricity.

This is where the pogo Stylus comes in. It’s a stylus that has a little foam piece at the end. It’s not pointy because these devices are made for fingers and our fingers aren’t pointy like a pencil. Unfortunately, this means that we will never have a stylus similar to the Wacom tablets.(but I can still hope.)

The foam piece at the end is a little piece of conductive foam. It’s the same stuff that’s used to keep your computer ram safe from static charge. Now if you have that lying around or can find it really cheap, you can DIY a stylus. They are all over the interwebs. All you need is an old pen and some copper wire or an old drafting pencil. I did not have foam nor copper wire. It was not cost prohibitive to go out and buy some just to try out my handwriting recognition app. So I just bought the stylus. Was cheaper in the short term.

Here is the thing about the foam. Like any soft materials that gets rubbed against a surface, even a very smooth surface, it will begin to wear down. I’ve only had this for a day and it’s already deforming horribly. If you plan on using the stylus for handwriting recognition software, you are better off using your finger. This thing won’t last a week. You have to press the stylus down a little bit hard for the pad to recognize your strokes.

You can see that it’s already deforming from writing this entry using WritePad (an app that I may or may not review later.)

Someone in their garage invention lab needs to create a substance that is capacitative, soft enough not to damage the screen, and yet durable enough to withstand constant use. Until then, we have to make due with squishy foam. (Or in the case of a different brand, a brush- like tip. I don’t find that a viable alternative for writing.)

It’s also too thin. Your hand may get cramped writing with it for any period of time. But since it was originally made for the iphone, portability was important. Portability isn’t such a big deal for me, so I want something that’s thick like a pen.

I think if they made replacement foam tips, I would be more inclined to recommend this stylus. But since there isn’t, I’d say skip this altogether. For as much as this costs, it should last more than a few days. As of right now, it’s a total waste of money. Wait for something better or just save your money altogether and use your finger.

The thing is that it doesn’t quite keep all the formatting. Here’s a document that I started in Docs2Go.

This is a document that I created in Docs2Go with the built in tabs.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t transfer over.

The alternative is just to do spaces instead of using the tab. The indent on google docs defaults to 4 spaces. So if you do four spaces in docs2go, it’ll transfer over. If you download it back into Word, the four spaces are still there. You can just write a macro to search and replace the four spaces and reformat the document so that the first line of each paragraph indents a certain amount. It’s a little bit of a pain and an extra step, but it’s the only solution that I’ve got.

The good thing about this combination is that docs2go allows you to work on the documents offline and then sync it afterwards.

I know that quick office also has the ability to could sync, but I haven’t used that one in a while, so I can’t talk about how well that works with google docs.

Though there are formatting issues between these two programs, it’s not enough for me to go out and look for another program. Let me know if you’ve used other programs that work better with google docs.

I didn’t notice a problem until I tried to download an rtf of a manuscript. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t download the file.

This is from the native ipad mail program. When you hold down the attachment icon, a popup comes on letting you choose between open in native reader or open it in documents to go.

Not so much with RTF.

Or txt.

If you read the documentation from dataviz, you’ll see that both txt and rtf are supported files. However, it just won’t let you download from the native email client.

You can transfer txt files using the Docs2Go desktop wireless sync, which bypasses the need to boot up itunes and hook up the ipad. But it doesn’t support syncing of rtf files. I don’t even know how else to sync it, but docs2go has been around for so long that they really should have that ability, but whatever. It all became pretty moot anyway.

I downloaded the rtf to my laptop thinking that I could convert it to doc, but word just decided that it wanted to capitalize various sections of the manuscript. I was just screwed either way.

Luckily, in this strange wacky world of ours, we have choices. And those choices won’t bankrupt us. I downloaded Goodreader, which allowed me to download the rtf attachment using its internal email and managed to open it up perfectly. No funky caps in random sections. It also allows you to open docs, pdfs, txts,etc. And it only cost me $.99.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend docs2go, but it’s what I got. When reading reviews about Pages and quickoffice, it seems that they have problems of their own. So the choice seems to be between 3 evils.

If all you need is the ability to read files, from my very limited experience with goodreader, I would suggest that instead. It’s the difference between a dollar and ten.