My Ghettified Google Voice Phone Mic and Speaker

Last week I couldn't find my phone, and I was hoping it was at home. I tried to call Meg to see if it was there, but since I didn't have my phone, I tried using my Google Voice, but I didn't have a microphone, so I still couldn't. I then saw my fake antique phone on top of my classroom cabinets and thought "How cool would it be to have an old phone receiver as my Google Voice mic/speaker, all in one?"

If you don't know Google Voice, well, it's pretty awesome. You can make free calls and text messages from your computer, and even get an unique phone number for free. I set it up to get messages from my students. They will never know my number again. Last time I made that mistake I ended up having to call the cops.

First step: I went to eBay and found a little computer mic with a female plug at the end, where you can hook up headphones. That way, I could gut an old phone and put a mic at one end and the mic at the other.

Step two: Go to Savers and find a crappy old phone. Wash (very important after shopping at Savers) and empty it out and unscrew the lid thingies (the old phones with round lid thingies are easy to open. No idea about the newer phones with square ones).

Step three: Tape both headphones to the speaker side of the phone receiver. I used good mics to make sure I'll be able to hear! Screw back on.

Step four: Plug the headphone to the mic. Tape the mic to the inside edge of the other end of the receiver. I would have taped it to the lid, but the mic was too wide for that, and it wouldn't have closed.

Important! Stuff the inside of the phone receiver with cotton, or you will be speaking in your own ear, which is pretty annoying.

Screw lid thingy back, plug phone.

Cost:

Mic: $1.89 (including shipping)
Crappy old phone: $2.99

Total: $4.88 (not including headphones)

If you want good sound, you should get a nicer mic and maybe use a little speaker instead of headphones for the ear piece. My cheap receiver doesn't sound great, but it looks pretty cool.

The Boy's Walking

Books I Read...

I've been posting books there in the side of the page as a way to see how many books I read in a given year. I was surprised to see how many had accumulated at the end of the year, and that helped me get motivated to read even more. The reviews I write are not about the book (you can read that on Amazon, or barnesandnoble.com), but my reaction to it. A basic, couple of lines, response. It's extremely subjective (especially if you've read some of my politics books' reviews, you know what I mean), but oh well, it's my blog! And nobody reads it anyway, so what's the big deal, right? But I've decided that if it's not a 25 page book for first grade readers, I might include the reviews in the body of the blog, otherwise I'll update this once a year, and that's pretty pathetic.

So, here's my response to the last book I've read.




Kira Kira, by Cynthia Kadohata. YA (272 pp.).

A couple of years ago, a student kept telling me that we should read this book as a class. So I was glad to have found it at overdrive.com. It's a cute book, and the historic part of it doesn't seem forced, as in Esperanza Rising, but the sister part of the narrative, well, I saw that coming from the first chapter, so it felt that the author dragged it too much. The rest of the book is a built up to that, so it didn't work for me, but I see how it might have worked for a kid.