Home Improvement Tool and Toy Reviews

 I was running through my stats and noticed that someone was search for “Round Rock Blog” and I was pretty far down on the search engine results when I think I should be higher. See I live in Round Rock Texas and have several posts about Round Rock that I have done over the last year since moving here.

Also there are a lot of people that are moving here from all over the country and especially from California where I am from. In fact I had gotten an email from someone in California asking about some resources about Round Rock and replied with a pretty lengthy email.

Here are a couple of resources that can give you a good idea of Round Rock:

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The weather has not been so good here is Texas the last week or so and so I have been jonesing for some flight time.

I started searching online for RC flight simulators online and had found one that had a trial so I download it to try it. It was OK but you had to use keyboard controls (in the trial) and I wanted something that I could get used to the feel of the controller. The full version included a controller but was about $200 which is more then I paid for my plane.

I did another quick search and came up with another sim by the name of RC Plane Master. The site for the sim made mention of different controllers and the full version was only $40 which includes a cable for you existing controller (it wouldn’t work with the Super Cub controller though).

Anyway, I had a game $10 game controller (pictured) that I got at Walmart a while back for my PC sitting in my closet and decided to try it. Sure enough the controller work after configuring it.

 I setup the configuration on my controller to be the same as the Super Cub controller with the right stick for rudder and elevator and the left for throttle. I have almost an hour playing with the demo and it is really giving me a good feel for how to control the plane and saw a difference in my flying this morning with my Super Cub.

I really suggest the sim especially if you are new to RC Airplanes like I am as it will save you a lot of frustration and heart ache when you crash. Right now I am working on my approaches for landings.

I plan to purchase to full version for when I what to go 4 channel.

Snow is a pretty rare thing around here in Round Rock so of course I grabbed the video camera to capture it.

Below is the video of out “snow storm” .

Technorati: Round Rock TX, Texas, Austin, Snow, Weather

As previously mentioned I have not been having very much luck with my Harbor Freight Yellow Bee. As of right now I have 2 Yellow Bees in pieces in my garage. The main reason for that is that it is really difficult to get the thing adjusted right so that it will fly. If you do not have it adjusted right it crashes and when it crashes it breaks .

So I had been pleading my case to my wife the whole time and told her about the Super Cub. I had told here how I had talked with several different people about it and also did a lot of research about it online. I also told her that the biggest thing that sold me on the Super Cub were all the videos that I saw on YouTube. A lot of the videos were done by people that had just gotten them and they were up and flying in now time.

After a day or so of thinking my wife was ok with my getting one when I got the extra money. I figured that I could come up with the $160 within a month or two. (more…)

This is not near us but man, people can be really stupid.

Here are some videos of them being stupid in the snow.

First video - snow pinball:

Second video - how NOT to pull a car out of the snow:

That’s right we are getting snow here in Round Rock. This is a once in 10-15 year occurrence. Everything is pretty much shut down right now and I am working from home for today and possibly tomorrow.

Here are some pictures.

  

 

Well after getting my free MP3 player and having the Napster 2 go service I have cancelled my account. Although I liked being able to listen to whatever album I wanted to without having to “pay for it” the fact that I needed to continue the monthly service just wasn’t worth it.

So instead of paying the monthly fee I have signed up with BMG music and have already gotten 6 CD’s for $20 (shipping fees). The funny thing is that the CD’s that I order are the ones that I had downloaded from Napster.

On, and the 512mb MP3 player - it was pretty weak. It only held about 5 albums and did not have any other functions like FM radio or voice record (my Sansa has that and more). I ended up selling it on Craig’s List for $40 list. Not bad since I technically paid $45 for it and got the Napster service along with it. (more…)

Quik Brite LED Lights - I just saw these cool little LED Lights on TV and thought that they were really cool.

See the thing is that I am really big on LED Lights. I have replaced the flashlights in my car with LED Lights. I have also replaced the night lights for my kids with LED Lights. I have seen that they have even come out with an LED light bulb. The reason that LED lights are so popular is that they are really bright and use just a little electricity.

That is what makes the Quick Brite LED Lights so cool.

See the Quick Bright LED Lights are little LED lights that run off of batteries. The Quick Bright LED Lights also have a little switch on them that you can setup to turn the light on when you open a drawer or a cabinet door. Since the bright little LED light doesn’t use that much electricity the lights last a long time.

Well I have done my research and have found the Quik Brite LED Lights (Sometime referred to as Quick Bright LED Lights) for a good price at Amazon.com. At Amazon you can get a set of 8 Quik Brite LED Lights with Bonus Swivel Spots for $14.99. Click here to buy them.

Technorati Tags: Quik Brite LED Lights, Quick Bright LED Lights, LED Lights, Drawer Lights

As cool as the yellow be is the wings just have a design flaw built into them. This flaw is the cutout for the motors at the back of the wings. This causes the wing to beak when crashing even if the wing itself does not hit the ground. I have tried taping and gluing the wings but they never hold up.

I had seen a post on a forum where another person used a wing from a different plane and it actually worked alright. I may try this in the future but I already have my eyes on a different plane - the HobbyZone Super Cub. I have read a lot of reviews on it, talked with the guys at 2 different hobby shops about it, and have seen a whole bunch of videos of it on YouTube.

Now if I could only talk the wife into it…