Walmart.com - Shop online, pay with cash

I was looking through tech news the other day and I came across the headline... Online and Unbanked? Walmart.com Lets You Pay With Cash.

When I initially read it the first image that came into my mind was an older lady trying to stick a 20 dollar bill into her CD ROM (or maybe even her floppy drive). That is not how it works obviously, but it would be cool if it did.

Via the "Pay with Cash" program, launched last week, shoppers can visit Walmart.com place an order and, during the online checkout process, select the cash option and their shipping preference. The customer then has 48 hours to pay for the order at any Walmart store or at a Walmart Market, its small-format subsidiary.

The program gives the unbanked access to the hundreds of thousands of items Walmart.com offers that aren't always available in stores, among them baby products, health and beauty items, toys, home decor, electronics, home appliances and more, the company says."

It all seems a little pointless to me, but then again, I am not the target audience for this service. If I am going to buy something online I am going to continue to sit in that same chair until the dang thing shows up at my door requiring no effort whatsoever on my part. But I really don't like leaving the house anyway.

Why I Write

Things are extremely busy around here. Even so, I try to find time to write as often as possible. I write for myself in a journal, and I also try to keep up this this blog as well as my film blog. To some people it might not make sense why I would even bother. The stuff I write isn't even that good. What is the point? I honestly can't really explain it. I just feel the need. I write a ton of stuff on all sorts of topics that I intend to post on the blog, but I never do. I either don't like what I've written or I convince myself that nobody would ever want to read it. I'm spending time writing for nothing, but I don't even care.

While I am not totally sure why I feel like I have to write, I will try to describe one of the main reasons I do it. When my brain wasn't being actively stimulated I'd feel like I had a ton of thoughts and ideas banging around in my head. I'd constantly be thinking about random stuff. I'd try to go to bed at night but couldn't. My mind was always racing. When you leave your brain free to think about stuff, but don't hold it accountable you can start to trick yourself. That sentence might not have made much sense, so let me try to describe what I mean.

In my head right now I can envision a beautiful painting of a landscape. This is not a place I've ever seen before, or a place that even exists. It is totally a creation of my mind compiled from experiences I've had and places I have seen. It is a beautiful view. Breathtaking. However, if I take a paintbrush and a canvas there is no way I can recreate what my brain sees. That is heartbreaking. That thing only exists inside my head. When we sit down to a blank piece of paper we can envision what we want to draw, but when the lead hits the paper it doesn't look the same. Just because I can see a beautiful paining in my mind, it doesn't make me an artist.

When we think about something in our head we can believe we have a profound, deep understanding of the topic. However, it is just like the landscape. If you can't take those ideas and organize them, they are meaningless. They don't exist. Writing lets me get stuff out of my head. It allows my mind to relax. It helps me to move on. It is probably very similar to the feeling people get when they spill their guts to someone. I don't like talking. I can write things I would have a hard time saying. Writing is a way to keep me sane; a way to keep my mind clear.

When I was in art class in high school we used to find a picture in a magazine and try to draw that exact thing. Sometimes we would even put the paper up to the window so we could trace the size and proportions from the original image. We were new to drawing. It was a way to practice. Thinking about it... what we were doing might not have even been art. Presumably as an artist practices more and more he gets better. Likewise, as I write more and more I hope to get better at taking what is in my mind and putting it on the page. I still do not feel like I am very good, and that is why I keep on doing it.

Still, I post a very small percentage of the things I start writing. I need to suck it up and post everything. If I know somebody else might read it, I have a lot more incentive to do a decent job, and that is the only way I could ever get better. I want to post more stuff on this blog.

This is a little meta... but this very post is the exact example of what I was trying to illustrate. I had something in my head that seemed to make sense, but here I have done a horrible job putting it into words. Now I have to re-read this crap and try to convince myself to post it. I guess we will see what happens.

Good to be home

Over the past couple weeks the Bidwell family has been traveling all over the place. A couple weeks ago we all headed to the airport together. I was getting on a flight to Las Vegas and the girls were flying up to Indiana. I had a quick business trip then I was back home for a couple days. I re-packed and made the 12 hour drive to Indiana solo to be reunited with my family. I spent a few days back on the farm. We had a wedding on Saturday, then we were headed back south on Sunday.

It was tough to enjoy my time in Vegas because I knew my daughter was spending quality time with Grandma and Grandpa, and I wasn't there with them. It was also tough when my wife called or texted that Amelia was saying daddy when she was trying to put her to sleep. It also didn't help that it was 40 degrees in Vegas and we were out playing golf. Overall it was a fun trip, but I was ready for it to be over so I could head up north.

This was the first time Amelia has been to Indiana since Christmas. She has grown a ton since then and is showing way more of her personality. I'm so glad my parents got to spend some time with her and see what a smart and fun kid she is. I think she had a great time seeing her cousins too.

On the trip back we decided to break up the drive over 2 days for the first time ever. We usually just knock the 12 hours out at once, but that isn't feasible with a 15 month-old. The break was nice. It worked well. Amelia fell asleep in the car a couple hours before we stopped at the hotel. She woke up when we went up to the room and she was wired. She was squealing and going crazy for a good hour before we could get her to calm down. The crib they gave us looked like a cage and she thought it was so funny to stand in there and shake the bars like a little monkey. She is insane. I hope there wasn't anybody in the room next door. After she settled down she did great for her first stay in a hotel.

Anytime we plan to travel with Amelia I always get worried. I think she is going to be uncomfortable, or she is going to get sick. I worry that she will get out of her routine and be grumpy the entire time. I worried that on the flight she would get scared, or throw a fit on the plane. I worried on the drive back that she would scream in her car seat the entire way. The truth is, we have an amazing little baby girl. She is so good. She did great in the planes, she slept great on the trip (it helped that my mom set her up with a super comfy Winnie The Pooh crib in her room). She was so good in the car on the way home. I need to learn I can stop worrying about her. She is amazing. She got carted around all over the place while we were in Indiana and Amelia just went with the flow and loved meeting and hanging out with everybody.

This week so far has been non-stop. I've been trying to play catch up at work so my days have been busy. Amanda is trying to catch up too, so she has been working in the evenings, which means I get to come home and play with baby. Amelia didn't feel good at all on Tuesday. I think she has allergies, and they hit her when we got back to Arkansas. She also is getting more teeth. She slept a ton and had a 101 degree fever most of the afternoon. She was as good as new the next day and we had fun playing outside. I'm ready for a relaxing weekend. I think we all are.

Vegas has jumped the shark

This past weekend I had the opportunity to be in Las Vegas for work. Most of my time was spent in meetings and playing golf, but I did get out on the strip a little bit. I haven't been to Vegas for several years. I guess I did go last year for work as well, but I was only there for a couple days and I don't think I left the hotel. I didn't actually get the full Vegas experience.

Parts of Las Vegas are cool. Even the miniature Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty have their place in the spectacle of it all. However, a lot of Vegas is lame. Just walk down the strip, you will see. There are parents wrangling kids whilst trying to drink an alcoholic beverage out of a 3 foot tall dog bone shaped cup. This time I saw three quarter sized plastic guitars with straws coming out the top, complete with guitar straps. Sugar and alcohol. It goes down like Kool-Aid. Just like every other vacation spot in the world, Vegas is an over-commercialized tourist trap. But we all still love it.

We stayed at Planet Hollywood. Like most casinos, they have girls up on tables dancing in the pits. Of course overweight drunk men are standing with smart phones recording the action. He probably goes home and saves the video on his computer and it shows up in iTunes right next to his daughters tap recital. Foreshadowing.

There was a slot machine in the casino called "Vampire's Embrace" with Twilight-esque artwork. Are they marketing slots to pre-teen girls now? The second night we were there I saw a dude sitting at the Vampire's Embrace machine and as I got closer I realized he was passed out up against it. I guess he took the "embrace" business literally.

In my short walk down the strip there was a family in front of us with a little boy of maybe 7 years old. As we walked (in the middle of the afternoon) there were dudes every 15 yards trying to hand out the escort cards to everybody. The little boy asked his mother what were on the pieces of paper. She told him they were "pictures of girls without daddies." I'm not sure if that is going to confuse him or not. He'll be back.

Calm before the storm

A totally free afternoon. I'm not sure what that is anymore. It doesn't happen very often. I've got a couple hours to relax and get ready for the next few weeks of insanity. So what do you do when you don't have to do anything? Well, because it is storming out right now I will be watching golf instead of playing it. I mean, it is Masters weekend. I'm also going to knock out a few loads of laundry, clean up the house, write a bit, maybe read, or maybe even watch a movie. I surely won't get all those things in today, but I can try.

One of the biggest changes for me when we had our daughter was one that I wasn't really expecting. Saturday used to be my day to chill out and do pretty much anything I wanted. I could go for a long bike ride, go hit golf balls, or just sit on the couch and drink a ton of coffee. After we had Amelia and my wife went back to work on Saturdays it changed all of that. Now I don't have that "down time" every week that I was used to. I absolutely love Saturdays with my baby girl. It is different when it is just me and her and I really like it. She is so much fun. As she gets older we can start going out and doing more fun things together. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss those Saturdays where I got to sleep in and do whatever I wanted.

I wish it weren't raining today, but I can't complain too much. We had an absolute perfect day yesterday. I got to leave work a little early and I just came home and sat in a reclining chair in the back yard and had a beer. 99% of the time I hate just sitting in the sun. It is boring, hot, and pointless. I can't do it. However, the air felt so nice out yesterday I figured I would try it out. I sat out there for an hour until Amanda got home. I should have used the time to be productive; work on the yard or something. But, I just wanted to sit there and do nothing. Tomorrow is supposed to be equally nice and we are planning a trip to the park after church for a picnic and some Easter egg hunting.

I hope you all have a great Easter. I am going to get busy doing laundry, vacuuming, and dusting. I of course will have golf on in the background. Phil is making a run. Maybe this year will be green jacket number 4.

Happy Palm Sunday

Idon't have anything of extreme interest to write about today, but in the spirit of writing consistently I am going to force some mundanity upon you. It is hard to believe April is here already. March felt like it lasted about a week. We have a crazy April on deck and I am looking forward to it. Things are going to be busy and I'm going to blink and it is going to be May.

We had a good weekend at the Bidwell household. Amelia has been teething like a boss so far in the short but exciting teeth-growing segment of her life. She drools like a mad woman, but that is to be expected. Other than that she has been great. Right now she is getting 6 teeth in at once and it has started to get the best of her generally positive life view. She is moody. She can be perfectly happy one minute and then freaking out the next. She will get frustrated cause she wants something a certain way, then you do that thing that certain way that you think she wanted... then the loses it. There are lots of little fits and tantrums. I suppose we had been spoiled with such a perfect little angel baby up to this point. I wasn't prepared for this new little girl that decided to show up at our house several times a day this past week. Maybe I'm just getting a preview for the rest of my life having a daughter. This is surely a cakewalk compared to the teenage years, but I have 13 more years of having my will broken before I have to deal with that.

Friday night per usual I couldn't fall asleep. I finally got to sleep and an hour later the baby woke me up crying. I rushed in there to find her leg wedged in between her recently exposed crib slats. The bumpers went back up on Saturday. I was a little charged up so it took me a bit to get back to sleep. A couple hours later and one dog was jumping up against the bed wanting outside. Done. Back to sleep. Dog 2 growling at something... wanting outside. Done. Asleep. Couple hours pass. Baby is up for the day at 5:30. Now I just sound like I'm complaining.

Even though I didn't get much sleep we had a lot of fun on Saturday. Amelia and I took a long walk around the neighborhood. We played all sorts of dolls and blocks and ball. We sang and danced and all that fun stuff. By the time Amanda got off of work I was ready for bed. But alas, it was only 2pm and we had lot more stuff to do. We took Amelia to get Easter pictures done with real live bunnies! She is insane for animals right now. She loves everything with 4 legs and fur. We knew she would love getting to touch some bunnies. We were right. She did such a great job. I think there are going to be some awesome pictures.

We did more boring stuff the rest of the day and eventually went to sleep. Today was more of the same. It was an awesome time. Sadly I don't even have any good pictures to share. I'll be sure and post a bunny picture when we get them. For now I'll post a couple older pictures I had lying around.