Posts

Showing posts from January, 2020

Why Chromecast is better than Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire Stick, and Smart TVs

Image
Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll tell you why my family has switched over entirely to using Chromecast as our streaming technology after trying out almost all of the others. I'm definitely an early adopter for certain kinds of technology and apparently streaming tools are one of those.  We got an Apple TV back in 2007 when they released the first generation device and since then have tried Roku, Amazon Fire stick, Google Chromecast, and a bunch of different Smart TVs.  For a while, we were using Roku, but now we have entirely switched over to Chromecast and let me tell you why.  First of all it has a  Pros: Light interface - Chromecast works different than most other streaming devices.  Other streaming devices require you to fire up the interface on the TV, choose a channel like Netflix, log in with your credentials using their awful on-screen keyboard, laboriously type in a show name to search, choose

Why I Switched to Todoist from Toodledo

Image
Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll tell you why I switched my task/reminder app platfrom from Toodledo to Todoist. Of all of the apps and systems that I use to keep my life straight, I one I look at the most throughout the day is definitely my task/reminder system.   It serves as a checklist during the day to ensure that get things done and it helps me to remember things that I need to do in the future.  Up until recently, I had been using Toodledo for task management.  Toodledo was basically fine for my needs.  It is highly configurable and has great options for recurring tasks.  There were a couple of issues, however. First of all, it is pretty basic looking.  The interface looks like it got stuck in the early 90s.  It really doesn't try to hide the fact that it is really just a big spreadsheet. Second, the mobile app, while fine, is pretty clunky, not slick at all, and doesn't update quickly on it&#

My Takeaways from Dr. Gottman's Research on Marriage - Part 2 (7 Principles for Making Marriage Work)

Image
Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share some of my takeaways from another book by Dr. John M. Gottman, PhD. The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. I did a video recently on another one of Dr. Gottman's books, Why Marriages Succeed or Fail and How You Can Make Yours Last.  I feel like that one laid out some of his more foundational ideas about marriage including the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse (criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling) and 3 different kinds of stable couples.  If you haven't seen that video, it's probably worth watching first.  This current book is even more prescriptive, describing exactly how to implement 7 big principles that support a successful marriage.  These principles are born out of the extensive research that he has done on couples in his Love Lab in Seattle, Washington.  So, it's not just based on hunches, but on well researched data. In the last

My Takeaways from Dr. Gottman's Research on Marriage - Part 1 (Why Marriages Succeed or Fail)

Image
Hi, everyone.  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share some of my takeaways from reading several books by Dr. John Gottman, an expert on marriages.  This is the first of 2 videos on this topic.  Dr. John Gottman is my favorite researcher and writer on the topic of romantic relationships.  One of the main reasons I like his work is that it is based on the massive amount of data that he has collected at his "Love Lab" in Seattle, Washington.  He invites couples to his lab, watches them argue, and within 5 minutes, can predict with 91% accuracy whether they will be divorced in five years.  Crazy stuff, right?   Gottman has written a ton of books — all discussing the data that he’s unearthed in his research.  What I like about Gottman’s work is that it sometimes runs contrary to conventional wisdom. So, he may go into an experiment with a specific theory — like "the key to good relationships is never raising your v