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Clocks have recently made me happy.
For Christmas I got a new travel clock from LL Bean. I have had the same travel alarm clock for about 20 years. My mother gave it to me. On the positive side, it is seemingly indestructible and very easy to use. On the bad side, it ticks loudly, keeps a 12 hour clock (5am and 5pm are the same thing to it, so it will go off every 12 hours if the alarm is left turned on), and if you try to reset the alarm to "on" even 30 minutes after it has gone off, it will start beeping again. T attempted to replace it with something that strongly resembles an original Star Trek communicator a few years ago. And, like a communicator, it had really mysterious controls. I think I managed to set the correct time once, with the directions in front of me. I've since left it at home in favor of the trusty ticking old one.
Until this Christmas. We were wandering the LL Bean website and I saw this thin travel alarm clock with a temperature gauge. That was the real selling point to me -- I'm constantly cold or hot while traveling, and would love a gauge. More specifically, my classroom in Ireland is notorious for going straight from ice cold to roaring hot with little warning. I've sworn for years that I would bring a temperature gauge to the class and measure it to try to understand the variation.
This new clock? Dead easy to understand. I read the directions when I put in the batteries, but I really didn't need to. It is digital (thus no ticking), has a 24-hour clock, constantly visible alarm setting, constantly visible temperature (yay!), easy-to-request sleepy-person night visibility without a massive glowing thing lighting up the room, and the digital clock numbers are really big (thus easy to read even without my glasses while I'm teaching). I LOVE it!
For Valentine's Day, I got a regular home alarm clock. I've had the same bedside alarm clock for even longer than my travel alarm clock. I'm sure I had it before I went off to college, thus making it more than 20 years old. It was digital with glowing red letters. I liked that the glowing letters did not light up the room quite like T's green letters. But these days it is difficult to change the alarm, so I decided it was time for a new one. Plus it always has gained time every time the power goes out.
We found an alarm clock with orange letters (the other options were ALL green!). It promised that it would always keep correct time, even changing with Daylight Savings! It has a longer-lasting backup batteries than the 9Volts, it will sound an alarm to wake us up even if the power is out, it has two alarms, and the alarms can be set to go off only on the weekends or weekdays. *blink* Clocks certainly increased in tech capability while I wasn't looking!
The only down side of this new bedside alarm clock is that it is speaking to someone else. It checks the time at intervals. And the act of checking interferes with my cell phone. You ever notice that the speakers on your computer start making funny noises if you put your cell phone right next to it? Well, my new alarm clock does that if it is in the same room with my turned-on cell phone. T suggested that I turn off my cell phone at night, which is not a bad idea on its own. I'm afraid I'll forget to turn it back on, though. I'm considering an app that will turn my cell phone on and off depending on the time of day, but if I'm international the last thing I need is my cell phone turning on without my direct permission. I'm still pondering my choices on this one.
For Christmas I got a new travel clock from LL Bean. I have had the same travel alarm clock for about 20 years. My mother gave it to me. On the positive side, it is seemingly indestructible and very easy to use. On the bad side, it ticks loudly, keeps a 12 hour clock (5am and 5pm are the same thing to it, so it will go off every 12 hours if the alarm is left turned on), and if you try to reset the alarm to "on" even 30 minutes after it has gone off, it will start beeping again. T attempted to replace it with something that strongly resembles an original Star Trek communicator a few years ago. And, like a communicator, it had really mysterious controls. I think I managed to set the correct time once, with the directions in front of me. I've since left it at home in favor of the trusty ticking old one.
Until this Christmas. We were wandering the LL Bean website and I saw this thin travel alarm clock with a temperature gauge. That was the real selling point to me -- I'm constantly cold or hot while traveling, and would love a gauge. More specifically, my classroom in Ireland is notorious for going straight from ice cold to roaring hot with little warning. I've sworn for years that I would bring a temperature gauge to the class and measure it to try to understand the variation.
This new clock? Dead easy to understand. I read the directions when I put in the batteries, but I really didn't need to. It is digital (thus no ticking), has a 24-hour clock, constantly visible alarm setting, constantly visible temperature (yay!), easy-to-request sleepy-person night visibility without a massive glowing thing lighting up the room, and the digital clock numbers are really big (thus easy to read even without my glasses while I'm teaching). I LOVE it!
For Valentine's Day, I got a regular home alarm clock. I've had the same bedside alarm clock for even longer than my travel alarm clock. I'm sure I had it before I went off to college, thus making it more than 20 years old. It was digital with glowing red letters. I liked that the glowing letters did not light up the room quite like T's green letters. But these days it is difficult to change the alarm, so I decided it was time for a new one. Plus it always has gained time every time the power goes out.
We found an alarm clock with orange letters (the other options were ALL green!). It promised that it would always keep correct time, even changing with Daylight Savings! It has a longer-lasting backup batteries than the 9Volts, it will sound an alarm to wake us up even if the power is out, it has two alarms, and the alarms can be set to go off only on the weekends or weekdays. *blink* Clocks certainly increased in tech capability while I wasn't looking!
The only down side of this new bedside alarm clock is that it is speaking to someone else. It checks the time at intervals. And the act of checking interferes with my cell phone. You ever notice that the speakers on your computer start making funny noises if you put your cell phone right next to it? Well, my new alarm clock does that if it is in the same room with my turned-on cell phone. T suggested that I turn off my cell phone at night, which is not a bad idea on its own. I'm afraid I'll forget to turn it back on, though. I'm considering an app that will turn my cell phone on and off depending on the time of day, but if I'm international the last thing I need is my cell phone turning on without my direct permission. I'm still pondering my choices on this one.
