Using the Bluey Wackadoo kid's watch
I was lent this to review.
What I was told is that kids are all about the Bluey show right now here in the US, and that I should put together a video tutorial on how to use the Bluey branded watch, so I did.
Before getting the VTech Bluey Wackadoo watch, I literally had no idea what Bluey was, so I looked it up. It's an Australian TV show on ABC Kids for preschoolers (which is Australian Broadcasting Corporation, not to be confused with American Broadcasting Company), and in the United States the show is on the Disney Junior network and internationally through Disney+.
I don't know anything about the show but do know this watch type, as it's very similar to the Blue's Clues Learning Watch.
What I find most interesting about watches like this are the challenges faced by those who design them.
You may think about the intended audience for this watch (very small children) and then have questions.
Why is this watch not waterproof?
Why only a monochrome LCD display?
How come it does not have a backlight?
Why is the audio speaker somewhat soft in volume?
Why is it not a smartwatch?
Why include any watch features at all?
I actually have answers for all these questions, because the way this thing is designed actually does make total sense.
The watch is not waterproof because there is literally no way to do this and have a speaker you can hear at the same time, given the price point. Sure, such a kid's watch could be designed to have a good speaker and be waterproof, but that would add so much cost that nobody would buy it.
The monochrome LCD display and the non-backlit display is for one reason. Better battery life.
I believe the reason the speaker isn't louder is for the parents and not the child who wears this. The audio volume of this watch is set to "tolerable". It's more than good enough for its intended purpose.
Kids smartwatches do exist, but this one is not. The main advantage of it being a plain watch is it never needs to be charged, it never needs a cable attached to it, and never needs to be connected/paired with anything.
The watch features aren't there for the preschooler. I'm positive of that. Those features are for the parents. If a parent needs something to quickly tell the time, set an alarm, use a stopwatch or a simple timer, all they have to do is take the watch and it's all there. In fact, the only "complicated" parts of the watch are specifically for those features. Everything else is simple. The super simple stuff (meaning the games) is for the child, the rest is for the adult if they choose to use it.
When you think of the watch features in that respect, then it starts to make sense. The designers were trying to make something both small children and adults could get use out of, and I think they succeeded.
Need help setting one of these up? For instructions on how to use the Bluey Wackadoo kid's watch, see my video How to set up Bluey Wackadoo kid's watch.
This is the guitar of the future
You don't have to wait for this because it's available now.
I'm talking about guitars with carbon fiber bodies. If you think it's ridiculously expensive, think again. There are plenty to go around including a few that have 100% carbon fiber bodies. Some even have a touchscreen built into them. Carbon fiber is here and absolutely not going away...
...which is why I call it the guitar of the future. It's only a matter of time before Fender releases a major model as a regular production run guitar made from this material. Yes, this means there will be "Fender Carbon Stratocaster" where the only actual wood on the guitar will be the neck and nowhere else. And it won't be a highfalutin custom shop model either.
Now to be clear, Fender technically has crafted a carbon fiber Strat... sort of. There was the "Stratocaster 1" from a few years back, but that was a collaboration between Fender and Saleen and totally a highfalutin custom shop thing.
I do wonder when Fender will make the leap, commit to the fiber and just go for it.
Am I saying they should go all-in with fiber and dump all the wood body guitars entirely? No, of course not.
What I am saying is that there are other guitar makers right now making carbon fiber guitars (some for years!) you can buy today... and Fender doesn't have one.
They should.
A darned good place to start would be the Acoustasonic model. If there's anything in the Fender lineup that would take well to carbon fiber, it's that one.
Fiesta Red is a weird guitar color
I have never owned a guitar in this color because I'm almost afraid to.
Yes, I'm talking about Fender and Squier guitar colors because some of them can really mess with your head. Gibson really doesn't have any regular production color options that cause confusion, but Fender absolutely does.
Some Fender (and by association, Squier) guitar colors are "safe".
For example, the Daphne Blue Jazzmaster I just acquired recently is, without question, a light blue. You totally know what you're getting with that color. If you didn't know the name of that color, you'd probably call it a sky blue, and everybody knows what that looks like.
Candy Apple Red is another where you know exactly what to expect. This is typically a darker red with metallic flake, hence "candy" since it has sparkle to it. This is one of the few colors where you could buy without seeing the guitar in person and still be pleased with what you receive.
And of course there is the safest electric guitar color of all, gloss black. What's interesting is what's around it that makes or breaks this color. Neck color is actually a big deal, especially if the fingerboard is maple. Some Strat players like a very light color neck with no tint for added contrast against the body color, while others prefer a deeper almost-orange tint for the maple neck color.
BUT THEN... there's Fiesta Red.
This is a dangerous color because hardly any two guitars in this color look the same, even if made by the same company.
Fiesta Red can look like - and I'm not kidding here - either red, pink, orange, brown, purple or even blue. Don't believe me? Go through a few pages of listings for guitars in this color and then you will.
And if you think that's weird, sometimes Fiesta Red looks clay-ish while other times it resembles a bubble gum color.
You may think, "Well, the color changes because different cameras and lighting were used depending on photo". You are WRONG. And you will understand why you're wrong once you see enough Fiesta Red guitars in person. No two look the same. This color will mess with your head to the point where you think you'll need your eyes checked...
...which you don't need to do. Your eyes are fine. It's the color.
And no, whether the guitar is finished in nitro or poly isn't the only factor to take into consideration.
Fiesta Red in new condition is supposed to be a bright, light red. And if you looked at it in a color swatch book, you'd say, "Yes, definitely red. No question."
Apply it to a guitar, and the color changes. Even if you meticulously applied the paint yourself to a guitar body so it matched the swatch precisely, somehow it doesn't look the same even after a full curing.
Like I said, Fiesta Red is a dangerous color. It's just plain weird...
...sort of like Fender Midnight Blue. Some see blue with that color. Others see purple. Others see an almost-black.
Midnight Blue doesn't shift in color as much as Fiesta Red does (probably because there was never a nitro version of it as far as I know), but it's another one that will mess with your head the longer you look at it.
Using bar soap instead of shaving cream for face shaving
It's time for another Middle Aged Man Thing.
I don't remember when I started shaving my face, but it was probably when I was 17 or 18 years old.
I've gone through the various shaving options available over the years. There was a time I was all about the electric shaver and my preference was the Norelco design because the circular blades they used worked better on my face. I did try a Remington foil style foil shaver for a short spell. Some guys really like that one but my face didn't like it.
Side note: It is interesting Remington offers a "Hertiage Series" shaver with a retro-ish design to it. It does look cool, gotta admit.
After that spell with the electric stuff, I went back to cartridge razors and shaving cream and have used it ever since. My current razor of choice is Gillette Sensor 5 or Gillette Fusion 5. Which I get depends on whatever is on sale when I need them.
What's changed recently is the shaving lubrication I use, and it's all because after decades of shaving a certain way, I switched to something different.
I'll get to the bar soap thing in a minute, but what I changed was how I shave with a razor.
Nobody ever taught me how to shave my face. I just figured it out by myself. Up until very recently, I always used medium to long strokes...
...which is wrong.
Somewhere on the internet I read a forum thread where somebody asked whether it's better to use long or short strokes. The overwhelming number of replies said short stroke always works better.
I said to myself okay, let's try this. I did so, and yes, that forum thread was correct. Short stroke does in fact work better. Way better. How short of a stroke do I use? About a half to three quarters of an inch. Somewhere around there. And oh yeah, it works.
This worked so well that it brought into question how much lubrication I need to apply to my face for shaving.
Medium to long stroke shaving requires a generous amount of shaving cream or gel. Short stroke shaving hardly requires any lubrication at all (assuming you're shaving with the grain and not against it).
I wanted to see how little lubrication was necessary to get a decent shave now that I was using short strokes with the razor. And that's when I broke out the bar soap and tried it out.
Bar soap doesn't lather up anywhere near as much as shaving cream/gel does, but that was the whole point. I wanted less lather to see how little I could get away with...
...and it actually worked. How well? Well enough to where I've not used shaving cream since.
However, I did have to make a change. If I soap up ear to ear, by the time I'm done shaving half my face, the other half has already started to dry. I get around this by wetting the face, soap up one half, shave, wet the face again, soap up the other half, shave that, done.
Yeah, I was shaving the wrong way ever since I started shaving
I'm actually shaving CORRECTLY now. Short stroke is the way to go if using a razor such as I do.
Why did I use long strokes to begin with for so long? Because that's what television commercials were showing.
I know exactly why they did this.
A "long smooth glide" simply looks better on camera compared to a short stroke.
Think about it.
If you saw a razor commercial of somebody shaving using short strokes, it doesn't sell the product very well because it makes the razor being promoted look inferior - even though short stroke shaving absolutely works better.
So yeah. TV showed bad shaving technique on purpose because it looked better on camera, I totally fell for it, and shaved that way for decades not knowing any better.
I know better now. And because of that, I can comfortably use bar soap for a lubricant instead of shaving cream/gel.
My weird offset guitar preferences
I can't do Jaguar, but can do Jazzmaster.
It is totally true that the offset guitar (i.e. offset waist style body shape where upper portion leans toward the neck and the lower leans away from the bridge) does make for a much more comfortable play in the seated position.
Of the offset guitars out there, one I've not tried a long while is a "full" Mustang (meaning Mustang with vibrato such as the Squier Classic Vibe '60s Mustang). That specific guitar is on my to-do list to try out again. The last time I played one was over 10 years ago and I think it was a Fender Japan MG73 Mustang.
As for the Jaguar, yes, I have owned one before...
...and quickly returned it because I felt discomfort on my picking hand palm.
There are a few things going on specific to the Jag that my picking hand really doesn't like.
First are the "shark teeth" on either side of the pickup. Depending on guitar, sometimes these stick up past the pickup cover, sometimes they don't. It's rare that I pick up a Jag where the shark teeth actually pose a discomfort problem however.
Second are the rounded ears of the Jag pickup covers that can stick up out of the pick guard. Jazzmaster pickup covers have 4 little ears but they're on the sides, whereas ears Jaguar pickup covers have two larger ears on the top and bottom.
Third are the pick guard screws. One screw in particular. The Jag has one placed just ahead of the bridge right where the palm can rub on it, whereas the Jazzmaster has the same screw further back that's placed almost directly above the bridge and out of the palm's way.
When you look at the Mustang with vibrato, yeah it has that same annoying pick guard screw just ahead of the bridge... maybe. I don't know at this point if that screw in the Mustang would annoy my picking hand or not since I've not played a "full" Mustang in over a decade. Maybe that screw is placed where it wouldn't bother me. I won't know until I try the guitar later.
Oddly enough, the Telecaster vintage style "ashtray" bridge doesn't bother me at all. That's not an offset guitar, but that bridge style is a good example of something that annoys a lot of players because it has prominent metal "flaps" that stick up. If for example you look at the Fender American Vintage II 1963 Telecaster, oh yeah, those period correct flaps are on the top and bottom of the bridge are there just like they're supposed to be. It doesn't bother me in the slightest to play one of those. But I know most players would prefer the totally flat Fender Player Telecaster bridge instead. The dirt cheap Squier Sonic Telecaster also has the flat Tele bridge.
Since I know some would ask, what was the point of those flaps on the Tele bridge? Answer: To place a bridge cover if you wanted to. That cover is where the "ashtray" nickname came from. Guys would take off the bridge cover and literally use it as an ashtray. The bridge itself was never the ashtray part.
And why did Fender even offer a bridge cover? Answer: It's most likely due to the fact that many steel guitars (an inspiration for the original Telecaster design) had a cover to hide where the strings were installed to add a little more class to the instrument.
Back to the Jag.
It's that one pick guard screw and pickup cover ears that make the Jag a no-go for me.
On different Jaguars, yes, I said the only thing holding me back from the Contemporary Jaguar HH ST was the scale length. But then I remembered, "Oh, right... forgot about that pick guard screw thing." It's really easy to forget little-but-important things like that when you've not played a certain style of guitar for a while. So while true the HH ST doesn't have the pickup ears, it still has that annoying - for me - screw.
There's really only one proper way to fix that pick guard screw problem. It's not taking the screw out (looks dumb), nor is it switching the screw to flat top instead of rounded top (also looks dumb). To get everything all symmetrical and looking nice, I'd have to custom order a new pick guard with every hole drilled except that one. Or just get a guard with the pickup holes but not screw holes and drill them myself. Either way, ridiculous. I'm not doing that.
Yes, there are Jags with no pick guard such as the Modern Player from 2012, but "Full Jag" requires all 3 plates of the pick guard to be there so both the rhythm and lead circuits can be housed correctly. If you go all-in with Jag, all of the pick guard stuff has to be there and that's just the way it is...
...hence why I'll be trying a Mustang next. The Jazzmaster I just bought is staying, to be sure. But I'd still like to try a different offset guitar just to see if there's something other than Jazzmaster that suits me. That might be a Mustang, or possibly something else entirely like a Guild Surfliner.