Marty Bird Blog

Square Card Reader for iPhone

After a few weeks of anticipation I received my Square card reader in the mail yesterday. For a gadget freak this makes for a great day. What is Square? It’s a company, an app, and a hardware device all in one that sheds the traditional expenses and complications of acquiring and using a credit card terminal for the ease and simplicity of downloading a free app and accepting credit card payments via your iPhone.

No, this is not for everyone although I see immediate benefits for those that have the opportunity to sell their products and services but not the means to take credit card payments. Have a booth at at art fair? Collecting money from parents for kid’s soccer, baseball or football uniforms? Collecting donations? This is a super easy way to do so. Enter the amount to collect, add a note, optionally take a photo of the item, swipe the card and send an email receipt to the customer. Your money is deposited into the account of your choice weekly.

You do have to watch the expenses though. First of all, consider you may not have made that sale in the first place if you did not have the ability to collect via credit card. Then, realize 2.75% + 15 cents per transaction will be removed by Square before deposits are made. (If you collect more than $1,000 other conditions apply.)

I’m open for business and now accepting credit card payments with my Square device – anybody care to make a donation? Check it out at https://squareup.com/

I haven’t taken the time to put together a decent blog post lately, so I’ll honor that trend with the following:

PowerBars: There are way too many flavors and varieties. I can’t remember which ones I like and my latest purchase resulted in a not so palatable choice. By the time I get through the double box from Sam’s Club and go shopping for more I won’t remember what flavor to avoid.

Tostito’s Baked Scoops: Yum. Totally worth it.

My car: The TT is getting an alignment this week after completing a clutch job that stretched out over the last month. I’ve promised I’ll drive it more this summer. First two events are scheduled – April 25 our local club has a southern Indiana fun run and the end of April sees a 4 day event near Gatlinburg, Tennessee called quattro de Mayo.

Kiva.org: A great place to lend and re-lend money to entrepreneurs looking to improve themselves and their community. Trouble is – Kiva is so popular there are times when there are too many lenders and not enough loans available to fund. “Look, I got money to spend in here.”

HDMI/HDCP: Apparently, my 4 year old DLP TV is outdated. I can’t get my components to display content via HDMI cable because of HDCP issues. It needs to establish a handshake, according to the knowledge base found via Google search. Time for a new TV – awww shucks.

Accomplishment: Screens scrubbed and windows washed on a recent spring-like day. I love clean windows. (Rather, I love the instant gratification that cleaning windows provides.) I also cleaned the glass doors on the fireplace with a nice result.

Letting go: It doesn’t hurt so bad to let some things go and learn how to give. It’s like ripping off a band-aid. After resisting because of an imaginary excrucitating pain, living without that protective cover can actually speed the healing and promise renewal. (OK, so that was a stretch to say the least!)

Honesty: I guess it still exists. Tried to purchase tires for Laura’s Saturn Vue at Tire Barn and the sales guy said I don’t need tires. Well – OK.

Work: I’m trying my best to avoid that point where too much work + putting out fires + contstant distractions = mistakes and decreased quality. When do I ask for help?

And – Did you know a wooden clothes pin can be used as a chip clip?

Haven’t blogged in a while so I thought I’d share the day’s activity. On late notice, a group of about 30 Audi and VW enthusiasts gathered this morning at epWerks, a local tuning shop owned by Ian Baas. Since the weather today was ghastly, we chose to stay inside and socialize, enjoying the goodies on display in the shop lobby and checking out what vehicles were in various states of undress on the shop floor.

The group then proceeded to a non-descript garage on the northwest side of Indianapolis containing a treasure trove of vehicles to drool over. I certaintly don’t know the makes / models / years of these cars, I only know they are enjoyable to look at and have many stories to tell if you could roll back the odometer like a time machine. I think I heard someone say “Is this heaven?” Yes, this place was pretty close. Great to see all the smiles and joy among those participating. All photos here.

As a follow up to my previous post regarding fixing my furnace, the draft inducer motor part arrived quickly, but I waited a few days since the weather was hovering around zero degrees Fahrenheit when it arrived. And, I didn’t want to risk a screw up and possibly living without heat for a night.

Since it was 55 degrees out on Saturday, I took care of the replacement. Pretty simple, the only scary part was the thought of losing one of the sheet metal screws into the depths of the furnace. Here’s a photo of the final result (note the new style cooling fan).

FYI see the update to this post here. The gas furnace in my house is only 7 years old. A couple weeks ago, it started singing to me. Normally a baritone, the furnace decided to expand into the tenor vocal range. Then a certain pain was evident in its song until I finally translated it as “help me . . . help me . . . help me.”

Sure, I could call the number on the side of the furnace and get charged for premium weekend service, but I decided to dive right in and see if I could fix this myself. After all, how hard could it be? I have the internet plus an awesome set of tools.

I started by simply removing the access panel and observing and listening. From there, I found several different manuals available for download via the web and pinned the noise down to the draft inducer motor. Apparently somewhat common, the sealed bearings were worn, causing the shaft to bind and cause the noisy squealing.

I called my friend Steve, who dropped by and we pulled the motor and put a temporary fix in place. We unsealed the bearings, cleaned them, and re-packed them with lithium grease and reassembled. Lo and behold, no more noise! I found the part online for less than $100 and will replace it when it arrives.

I can imagine a service call would have resulted in one charge, then the part would have been ordered and the next service call to install the new motor likely would have totaled over $500.

The draft inducer motor is just behind the plastic cooling fan above.

The part that is to be replaced is the motor (the black part) Carrier part number 318984-753.
I found it online at Shortys HVAC Supplies.

What’s the name of that phenomena that happens after you get up in the morning, start to get ready for work, then look outside and realize there is almost 10 inches of snow on the ground? Why do you suddenly get a burst of energy nothing like what occurs on a regular work day? Even though I worked most of the day today from home, I had a sense of excitement and energy due to the snow canceling a day-long routine.

Another oddity. Once I realized I would not be leaving the house for a good 8 hours (once the neighborhood was cleared) I had all kinds of cravings and worries for things I might need and did not have in the house. Coffee. Did I have enough coffee?

Late in the afternoon I did venture out and to my surprise the roads that had been cleared were actually dry in some places (the sun started shining about noon, which helped). I took the opportunity to take some photos with my phone (pardon the low quality).

If your portfolio losses look like this, then check out the Comeback Calculator courtesy of the New York Times. It’s not as bleak as it may seem, and history is certainly on your side. Stay the course with your asset allocation based on your age, projected age of retirement and risk tolerance and continue to fund your IRA, 401K or other retirement portfolio and hold tight.

Oh, and please seek the advice of your investment counselor before making any sudden or substantial money moves.

A snowy Sunday afternoon in front of a blazing all natural gas fire included spending a couple hours with the Disney – Pixar movie Wall-E , delivered to my mailbox by via Netflix. Underlying themes include a love story between robots separated by 700 years plus a message of hope that humans, even though capable of trashing Earth, are a needed and vital part of its existence.

I prefer animated films that are light and fun, so Wall-E did not disappoint.  Excellent graphics and sound effects abound. Those sound effects have to carry the movie, since most of the “dialog” is robot beeps and squeaks among Wall-E and Eve. Other forms of communication include body language and facial expressions, which results in further engaging the audience.

Looking past the animated fun, some may see the film as a statement about the future of humans and the future of the earth. The earth is uninhabitable and humans have evolved into obese creatures fed a liquid diet, unable to walk on weakened bones caused by living in a near-gravity free environment.

I chose to put aside that part of the film and enjoy the more lighthearted aspects. I know the world has problems, I watch movies to get away from them for awhile! Wall-E is an excellent movie, just don’t think too hard about it.

This morning, bitter rivals met in a long-standing battle of will. Because of their proximity, these rivals know each other well and Showers, the perennial favorite, has done well at holding ground.

What makes Showers so indomitable? It’s the sheer drudgery, knowing that to take down this opponent requires rarely used resources. And, even though victory is so sweet, often results in utter exhaustion.

Based on past meetings, Showers was the heavy favorite, as they often force opponents to walk away in disgust. The mounting losses used to just roll off my back, but lately it’s really been scorching me. I have had enough, the daily taunting, the constant reminders – so I devised a plan of attack.

A new offensive weapon was brought in to the game and after applying constant pressure to the dirty, stained, hard- nosed defense, the force became too much to handle and finally dissolved the opponent. How did I do it? With a new, heavily recruited weapon often called “industrial strength, effective and even friendly to the environment.” The ability to tackle the tough jobs has become second nature and I couldn’t be happier. The name of this weapon? Simple Green. Some would say it comes with the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

As I bask in the glow of this win, I’m reminded that soon enough, Showers will be back at the old tricks, delivering those ugly reminders that I’ll have to endure again and again. For now, all I can do is ignore it and move on, knowing I have what it takes to clean up next time.

So I’m washing a few sweaters today in my clothes washer. It says on the tags to use cold water and the gentle cycle on the machine, which I am.

Just for giggles I thought I’d watch the action going on under the lid for awhile. I’m not real sure what is supposed to happen so I’m doing some research and found:

Agitation - the act of agitating something; causing it to move around (usually vigorously)

Agitated - troubled emotionally and usually deeply

Going by the first definition, I have to say that is not what is happening.

• There is some movement but it’s far from vigorous and since the washer is set to gentle I’m not exactly expecting anything too violent.
• The sweater on the top must be unable to swim since it’s determined not to be pulled under by the current.
• After a good 5 minutes, the sweater on top still is floating with parts of it remaining dry.

Maybe gentle is too gentle? Before the second definition sets in, I gave the regular agitation setting a try and that setting is working, vigorously churning the sweaters from top to bottom through the water. Alas, the tags indicate a gentle setting is recommended. Nowhere does it say what the consequences are if those instructions are ignored, so I may become quite agitated (deeply troubled) when the machine is finished.