One of Sookie’s habits (we finally decided on Sookie, being True Blood fans) that we are trying to break is her habit of biting. There’s a lot of leeway there, because most of it is puppy energy, combined with her teething stage, but as those ... [ more ]]]>

What the heck was that?

One of Sookie’s habits (we finally decided on Sookie, being True Blood fans) that we are trying to break is her habit of biting. There’s a lot of leeway there, because most of it is puppy energy, combined with her teething stage, but as those little teeth are coming in, sometimes it’s quite painful!

An online source said the habit can be curbed by emulating a puppy’s yelp, to indicate you are hurt, and to stop playing immediately and ignore it, similar to what would happen if the puppy was with her pack.

While I have a natural high pitched scream and thus had no trouble figuring out how to yelp like a hurt pup, Greg has a bit more trouble. He has been trying a variety of noises, most of which are terrifying and don’t sound anything like an animal or human. Sometimes, it sounds like an oddly-forced, large hiccup,  sometimes it sounds like a water buffalo being jumped on. Other times, it comes out too high-pitched and sounds like someone using a kitten as a blowhorn.

The first few times, I ran out to see what the noise was exactly, only to find a slightly confused Sookie, still sitting on Greg’s lap wagging her tail happily. Now, I only look up and try to figure out what noise Greg was trying to recreate that time, then shake my head and go back to whatever I was doing.

Selena is pregnant!

We could not be more excited. We’ve been calling him/her our little Tiger cub, because she’s due in ... [ more ]]]> We’re working on a re-branding campaign for this site and for our lives, because in six short months, there will be a new addition to the Robleto household. In other words…

Selena is pregnant!

We could not be more excited. We’ve been calling him/her our little Tiger cub, because she’s due in late April 2010 (the year of the Tiger by the Chinese Zodiac). Selena is just heading into the second trimester, which means the baby is about 13 weeks along.

Tiger currently looks like this:

The newest Robleto at 12 weeks.

The Motley Fool, where I work, is a publications company, providing financial and investing advice. I was given the opportunity to write an article for the Fool on a company of my choice. I chose ... [ more ]]]> Short form:

I wrote an article for The Motley Fool, please read:
Is Hasbro the Next Marvel?

Long form:

The Motley Fool, where I work, is a publications company, providing financial and investing advice. I was given the opportunity to write an article for the Fool on a company of my choice. I chose Hasbro, because with all the blockbuster movies in the works they reminded me of Marvel, which has been a great stock pick for anyone who got in early, like when the first few Spiderman movies came out.

Greg's article about Hasbro on The Motley Fool

I did my research: breaking down Hasbro’s business model, making a SWOT analysis for the company, and reading a lot of their Annual and Quarterly reports. Finally, I had enough to go on and I started writing and writing and writing.

I probably had a thousand words easily. The Motley Fool Take is only supposed to be 300-500, I cut it down to 585 words and sent it to the editorial team. A great Fool editor, Nate, cleaned it up and gave it a succinct title and here I am very proud to announce is, my first piece of published work. So, please click through and read:

Is Hasbro the Next Marvel?

Want to be the hit of your Halloween party? May I suggest making your costume your Facebook page? I tried this a couple years ago and won a costume competition and had so much fun. Here’s how I did it:

I started by taking a ... [ more ]]]>

Greg as his Facebook page

Want to be the hit of your Halloween party? May I suggest making your costume your Facebook page? I tried this a couple years ago and won a costume competition and had so much fun. Here’s how I did it:

I started by taking a screen capture of my Facebook page. The common mistake is to simply try to enlarge that image to a wearable size, but screen resolution is too low it won’t scale without becoming all pixilated and blurry.

Instead, what I did was use that screen capture as a guide. I took it into Adobe Photoshop and replaced every box and piece of text inside the program using the vector elements and vector text (which happens automatically for the text). Generally vector, means that instead of the image being made of pixels it is made by mathematical algorithms, and so it can scale to larger sizes without losing quality.

Once I had all the elements recreated as vector images, then I did scale my image to a size that is wearable, something like 8ft by 4ft. The vector boxes and text all scaled nicely, but the images, which I hadn’t replaced, got all blurry. I then went into my iPhoto library and found high-resolution photos of myself or my friends and replaced the blurry photos.

Now I had a full-size Facebook page ready for print. You can probably find a print shop that could print one large 8ft by 4ft sheet, but I was not willing to pay that cost, so I just did the printing at home on my little inkjet printer.

The complete design ready for print

I saved my Photoshop file and opened Adobe InDesign, creating a 8ft by 4ft palette and importing my image. (I realized later I could have done all the vector replacements in InDesign instead, I hadn’t thought to do so at the time.)

Now that my image was displaying at the right size in InDesign, I could set it to print using the Tiling feature. This will divide up the large image into small tiles of the image that together form the whole, but can be printed as individual pieces that fit onto a regular 8.5×11 page. It took about 28 pieces of paper to print the full Facebook page.

I was now done on the computer and needed to find the scissors and glue. I cut off the bleed (the extraneous white margin) off on every 8.5×11 page, so that the Facebook printout was flush to the edges. Then I meticulously glued them all together onto an 8×4 ft piece of cardboard I had saved (it was previously the box for our TV).

Once all assembled, I had the full site on the board, now I just needed to make it wearable. I took the straps from an old backpack and duct-taped them to the back of the board, so I could put my arms through, I also made a waist strap from an old belt to keep it from fanning out towards the bottom. Finally, I cut out the profile image at the top leaving a window hole for my face, to see through the costume, and there you have it. I was now my Facebook page.

I hope this solution helps, please leave a comment if you give it a try.

For our book club, Selena and I are both reading World War Z – The Oral History of the Zombie War.  I am only half way through the book, but I have already mentally shredded my Zombie Contingency Plan. I realize now how naïve and foolish I ... [ more ]]]>

World War Z

For our book club, Selena and I are both reading World War Z – The Oral History of the Zombie War.  I am only half way through the book, but I have already mentally shredded my Zombie Contingency Plan. I realize now how naïve and foolish I was when I made that plan.

My whole plan involves hiding for a series of days. But if the zombies do rise, they will grow in number feasting on civilians far faster than our military will be able to build the force to eliminate them. It would likely be a lengthy battle of years, with our human side taking heavy initial casualties (that would then become essentially defectors).

So, now I need a new plan, something that involves running like hell or stockpiling some ammunitions I think. Perhaps I’ll finish the book and see how those humans won that war, and take some pointers from there.

Let me introduce you all to the newest member of the Robleto family, our lovely little (unnamed) shih tzu puppy.

Last Thursday and met this adorable 8 pound bundle of energy that the breeders called “the pick of the litter”. We played for a while, and I just ... [ more ]]]>

The new puppy

Let me introduce you all to the newest member of the Robleto family, our lovely little (unnamed) shih tzu puppy.

Last Thursday and met this adorable 8 pound bundle of energy that the breeders called “the pick of the litter”. We played for a while, and I just knew she was a good fit for our home: small, not much for barking, not a shedder, and she and I got along well, (dogs and I don’t always get along so great). I told the breeder I needed to consult my wife and really think on it, but not half way home I texted Selena “I think we are getting a dog.”

Selena didn’t actually get a chance to meet the pup, she put her trust in me that I found one that we both would love. On our road trip to Georgia over the weekend we worked out all the logistics and bought all the puppy supplies, and then Monday when we got home, I picked up little… she needs a name.

We have a couple that we’re testing out, but we’re open for submissions. Here are another few pictures of our new puppy.

The new puppy

What name clearly comes to mind for you? Please tell us in the comments below.

I think Greg doesn’t understand how to pranks work. Isn’t it usually someone else’s home, not your own?

Selena and I are both very guilty of impulse shopping. If we want it and can afford it, shouldn’t we buy it? The only real test I use for the “should we” question is whether there is room enough in our condo ... [ more ]]]>

Would you prefer this cash instead?

Selena and I are both very guilty of impulse shopping. If we want it and can afford it, shouldn’t we buy it? The only real test I use for the “should we” question is whether there is room enough in our condo for it. That’s never seemed quite sufficient.

So I really like the concept of the Stranger Test as explained by a reader at FiveCentNickel:

When considering a purchase, picture a stranger offering you [the cash value of the purchase] or the item in question. Which is of greater value you? Which would you choose?

Reflecting back on our purchases at the outlets recently, Selena gained confidence that had a stranger offered her $50 she would have said, “No, thanks I really want this pair of shoes.” However, we has buyer’s remorse when we realized that had the same stranger offered us $14, we’d have taken it instead of the double-decker cupcake carrier.

What example from your recent purchases would fail the Stranger Test?