My New Netbook!

The past few months we've really been working hard on "advertising" our family.  Between all of us we've got eight blogs, three websites, four Facebooks, one Twitter and numerous other projects we're working on all the time.  All this stuff is a great way to get our family and what we're doing out there, but we've had a problem.  All of us had to share one laptop. 

Mom told Hanna and I recently she thought we should really consider getting our own laptops so we won't keep her from working on her laptop.  I had enough money so I started looking into it.  I quickly realized how expensive laptops are.  The cheapest one I could find was about $330 but it didn't have a battery to power it once it was unplugged.  The average laptop I could find ran about $450.  Then I found something I'd never even heard of before, netbooks.  Netbooks are small, portable laptops that are designed for internet use.  They don't have disk drives, which is something I don't need.

I researched netbooks and found the Asus Eee line.  Asus has been a computer parts manufacturer for years, but recently they decided to combine all their great parts into computers of their own.  Asus is now known for their top-of-the-line computers and netbooks.  Asus actually came up with the idea of a netbook and was the first company to make one.


After looking up the specifications of all the different Eee netbooks and comparing prices, reliability, functionality, and performance I decided the Asus Eee PC 1005PEB looked like the best one for me.  It was $330 at Best Buy.  Wal-Mart had the same computer, but with the old Intel Atom N270 processor, for $280.  I then compared the N270 against the N450 processor in the the new one at Best Buy.

I finally decided to go with the one at Best Buy because of the N450 processor.  There were some complaints with the N270 being slow.  I also found I wanted 250 GB of hard drive instead of the 160 GB.  The 1005PEB at Best Buy had that, too

I was still open to a different computer, if there was a better one.  So we went to Best Buy and I messed around with a couple different ones and talked to a guy for a while about how the different netbooks would handle the things I wanted to do with them.

I left Best Buy last Friday with my new Asus Eee PC 1005PEB.  After letting it charge over night like recommended, I fired it up.  From the moment I turned it on I liked it! It is very similar to my Mom's larger Asus laptop so it was easy to learn how to use.

It has Windows 7 Starter which is just a simplified version of Windows 7.  Don't listen to some of the rumors I heard and read online about the Starter version not being able to "multi-task".  I personally have had email, and two blog managers open while doing Windows and Trend Micro downloads.  The computer works very fast while online or running a program.  It also has good graphics and a nice webcam.


Another great feature is the battery.  With the screen on full brightness and while working on it all day, with the engine on "super performance" mode (see below), the battery powered the computer for over seven hours!  I then tried it with the engine on "power save" mode, and the screen on low brightness, although while still working on it all day, and clocked the battery in at about 10 hours!  The engine that I mentioned above is technically called the Super Hybrid Engine.  It has three modes: power save, high performance, and super performance.  Power save mode makes the computer run as efficiantly as possible, high performance runs about average, and super performance makes it run as quickly as possible even though it uses a lot more power.  When I'm plugged in I always keep it on "super performance".

The computer also has three USB ports, an MMC-SD port, and a port so the computer can be plugged into a larger screen or a projector.

All in all, I would strongly recommend the Asus Eee PC 1005PEB to anyone who wants a small, affordable computer that will do just about anything you want it to.  I've really enjoyed this one so far and I know you will too.

The Amazon link on the left will take you to the exact computer I bought, red and all. 


 

Valley of Fires

Before we came into north/central New Mexico I'd never even thought about there being volcanos and lava rock.  I think different now. We stayed at the Valley of Fires Rec Area just north of Carrizozo, NM for about a week. It sits right in the middle of a 44 mile long lava bed. The lava came from two vents which covered that part of the valley up to 150 feet deep! The campground is on an island surrounded by the lava flow.


When we first picked out a camp site it was on such a hill that Mom said she didn't know if we could even leval the camper, I was doubtful too. We got it though! The front of the camper was almost touching the ground. :)  The sites are very nice.  Each one has it's own ramada and picnic table along with amazing views of the surrounding lava field, valley, and mountains.

One of the first days we were there we went to Lincoln. Lincoln is where the famous "Lincoln War" took place. Billy the Kid and the Regulators fought their ruthless battle in and around town, ending in a daring jail break by Billy the Kid who dissapeared afterwards.  In the picture on the right I'm standing by the bullet hole in the courthouse wall made by Billy the Kid shooting his guard as he escaped.  After Billy the Kid got away, it is said he either was shot by the sheriff or escaped into Mexico where he lived the rest of his life. Lincoln is one of our favorite old west towns because it's secluded, rarely busy, and has such an interesting history. (Below is a picture of us sitting on the old hotel's front porch)

We also had fun hiking the Valley of Fires nature trail and exploring the lava. There's lots of little caves and "sinkholes" in the lava. The lava rock is razor sharp in some places, I had to watch my steps so I didn't fall.

The kids had fun at the Carrizozo city park (very top left). We went there a couple times. That park is whereTytus figured out how much fun a slide can be. :)

One day we decided to go for a drive up in the nearby mountains and have a picnic. We had a great time hiking around and having our picnic (picture on left) on top of a mountain. Then we went into Nogal Canyon to see what was up there. We found a great grassy spot alongside a pretty little stream (picture on right). I think we spent about three hours hiking around and playing in the little patch of snow that was still there. We had a long snowball fight which ended in Mom stuffing snow down the back of Hanna's shirt. :D It was a lot of fun. A few days later we went back and spent almost five hours at our little mountain paradise. The snow was gone but we found other things to do. Josephine was scared to walk down the steep bank to the stream so Hanna and I built her stairs. We dug into the bank and placed stones her step distance apart, and made a little landing at the bottom. To finish it off we used little rocks to write "Josie's Steps". :) The kids loved sending their little boats down stream. The boats included a gatorade can, a basketball, and a small jelly jar. One of us would wait down stream with a long wooden dowel to stop the boats from getting away. Dad and I also drove up the mountain a ways until we got to a place where the stream flowed across the road.  We could see Nogal Peak not too far above us. There must be a mountain lion up where we were, because first we found a cave with a turkey ripped apart inside, then some cat pee on a tree, then an elk leg, and then what looked like mountain lion tracks going up a hill. Dad kept his .45 close.

We also went to the almost ghost town of White Oaks. It's way off in a valley at the base of some mountains. We walked around the old two story school house and drove up to a large victorian looking house on a hill. There is also a big safe which was blown open by dynamite in the 1920's and robbed. I wouldn't have wanted to have my life savings in there. :)

One day we went down to Ruidoso and checked out the Hubbard Museum of the American West. We'd been to the museum about eight years ago and stayed in the condo right next to it with our grandmother. Quite a bit had changed. The virtual horse racing game was gone but in it's place they put a big kids area. Naomi, Gabriel, Josephine, and even Tytus loved the adobe house, chuck wagon, camp fire, life-size horse, and library. Naomi was in the adobe house (picture on left) almost the whole time pretending she was Josephina (an American Girl doll), Gabriel was on the horse almost the whole time roping the pretend steer, Josephine loved the campfire with it's pots and fake food to cook, Tytus crawled everywhere including around and under the wagons in the next door exhibit. :D  All the kids loved the old mechanical chuckwagon and bronco.  They sure aren't like the ones in Wal-Mart now.  These jerked back and forth so hard you'd think it would give a kid whiplash (picture above right)! We spent about five hours there looking around at the many different old-west exhibits and playing with the kids in between.

Valley of Fires Rec Area is definitly a cool place to stop if you're ever in the area. Carrizozo, the mountains, the lava field, the Hubbard museum and Lincoln are amazing places to go and the lava field is a good place to see it all from.

Check back in soon.  At the next place I'm going to be writing about (where we are now) Dad and I kayak across a very windy lake, I find a baby owl, and we get to see the bomb that ended WWII. :-)

Deming, Tombstone, Mexico, and the Tornado!

Once we left the Tucson area we went over to Quail Ridge RV Park north of Huachuca City, AZ.  It's a nice campground with big sites and pretty views.  Our main reason for going there was to be close to Tombstone.  If good pizza comes to mind before Wyatt Earp, then you've got problems. : )  We went there for almost a full day.  Gabriel locked Mom, Hanna, and Tytus in the Tombstone jail (pic on left).  It's a great place to go, but Tombstone has become a tourist trap.  They won't even let you see the OK Corral without paying an entrance fee.  We had a fun day, though.  One of the most interesting things there is the big courthouse museum.  We really enjoyed that.

After leaving Huachuca City we finally left Arizona and got into Deming, NM.  We stayed at the Low-Hi RV Ranch south of town.  It's the headquarters for the LoW (Loners on Wheels) singles club, but they welcome anyone.  The "Ranch" is great, with a labyrinth (pic on right) , gameroom, library, and little "landmarks" such as the famous Log Henge.  The kids really liked running through the labyrinth (which is 1/3 mile long).

One day we went to Rock Hound State Park.  They actually allow you to take out up to 15 lbs of the many amazing rocks in the park.  Hanna and I went on the hiking trail and found some really cool chunks of Jasper.  We only took a pound or so.  We also went to the Luna Mimbres Museum in town.  The museum is amazing.  It doesn't look that big from the outside, but looks can be deceiving!  Inside is an Indian exhibit, rocks and geodes exhibit, ranching exhibit (pic on left), early 1900's walk-through "town", military exhibit, and a lot more!  We actually went there twice because the first time we got there right before they closed.

We also went to Columbus and the Pancho Villa/ Columbus Raid museums at the historic Camp Furlong (pic on right).  The two museums there are great and the people were real friendly.  The story is very interesting but with a lot of questions left unanswered.  This was one of the first places armored vehicles (pic below) and airplanes were used in battle.

While down there we went to the Mexico border (pic below).  We drove until we got the the sign that said "Last Turn Around Before Border Checkpoint", or something like that.  On our way back we stopped at a really nice playground a couple miles from the border.

While we were in Deming I also saw the most amazing "weather thing" I've ever seen, a real tornado.  It was a clear sunny day, but the wind was gusting up to 35 mph.  We were out by the labyrinth when suddenly Mom said "Is that a tornado?!?!?".  I looked up and sure enough, it was a real dust tornado.  Now I'm not talking about one of those little dust devils that can get up to 50 feet tall or so.  This thing was probably 400+ feet tall and even had a cloud of dust and garbage around the bottom of it like I've always seen on Twister or Storm Chasers.  It was headed our way, but before I got to see what it's like to be in a real dust tornado it broke apart (I've been in a small dust devil before, it's like being in a sand storm).  There was so much dust in that tornado that it took about five minutes for all of it to settle to the ground.  I'm still excited just writing about it!! It was cool. 

The Sonoran Desert Museum and Getting Cut in Half!

The past week has been a blast! We stayed at the Gilbert Ray County Campground which is only about a mile from the Sonoran Desert Museum. We went ahead and bought year passes because we went to it four times this week and will probably be able to use it next winter too. The museum is incredible! It's unlike any museum you've ever been to. There are dozens of animal exhibits, a walk-through aviary, numerous shows throughout the day and a huge manmade cave to explore! I really enjoyed the Raptor Free Flight show in which they let four Harris' hawks loose for about half an hour. We even got to see them catch a wild wood rat! The kids liked the Running Wild show where you get to see some native animals run in front of and even fly over you. What makes the animal exhibits so amazing is that instead of conforming the cage so people can see better, they conform the people to the animals! At the beaver and otter exhibits you actually go down a ramp "under water" and get to see their dens and them swimming right in front of you. At the Life on the Rocks exhibit, which features snakes and lizards, the kids got to climb through a passage that lets them see what it'd be like to be a "rock dweller". I could go on for hours. : ) Check out the link above and go!

The Gilbert Ray campground is great. It has amazing views, nice camp hosts, and great sites. Hanna and I took advantage of our big site and had a 30 minute sword fight. I'm not sure who won. If it had been real she would've lost her left leg, but I would've taken a sure fatal blow to the gut when I slipped! So that's what I get I guess. I teach Hanna everything I know about sword fighting and she cuts me in half! I've never been beat before. I guess it's a good thing though, she is on my side after all. I want someone at least as good as me to watch my back. : )