Dennis Spielman

I brought myself a Pebble Smartwatch after Christmas last year and I think it’s time to write just how much I love it. The case I want to make for owning a smart watch is that I don’t feel like slave to my phone. If I get a message or notification, I can simply look at my wrist instead of having to dig my phone out. I can always feel the vibration of the watch while sometimes I won’t feel my phone or think it vibrates when it hasn’t. Overall, wearing a smartwatch makes owning a phone less of a distraction.

The Pebble is on the lower end of smart watches in that it cannot call or text people and the black and white e-paper display, but the trade offs are worth it. For starters, I only have to change the watch once maybe twice a week on average. Honestly, if I want to call or text to someone, I’ll just pull out my iPhone.

The watch is durable. I wear it to work, banging it on things all the time, and it only has a few scratches. I’m right handed, but I wear my watch on my right hand because it feels natural to me. Water doesn’t bother the Pebble either since it doesn’t have a microphone or camera.

My favorite feature: I love hooking my phone up to speakers and controlling the music with my watch. There are other remote apps available too, but I only use the music one. I can’t forget to mention all of the watch faces and being able to change the look of it. So cool.

The firmware updates that have been released over the past year have made the watch even better. One of the updates was low battery notification. For me, when it warns I’m at 20%, it’s a clear indication to change the watch at the end of the day. (The watch has always lasted the rest of the day, even if I get this warning first thing in the morning.) There was another update where pressing a button was able to clear the notification from my phone. Pretty much every software feature I wished the watch could do when I first bought it has come out.

The Pebble smartwatch is great buy with its remote capabilities, notifications, and days of battery life.

The Dinner Detective is a national interactive murder mystery dinner show and made it’s debut in Oklahoma City in early June. Each Dinner Detective show begins with a cocktail interrogation session. During this time, all of the guests are encouraged to speak to the other guests. Unbeknownst to them, the show has already started.

Last night, Leslie and I attended one of the special Halloween shows where people had the option of arriving in costume. I received complementary passes for running an article on them on Uncovering Oklahoma. I had been looking forward to going to the show as I’ve never been to one before, other than ones I’ve made myself with my Movie Murder Mystery Party book.

We had some hesitations about the show as the last few live shows we’ve seen fell flat. Those hesitations went away when Detectives Guns and Roses burst down an imaginary door because the Sheraton Hotel wouldn’t let them bust down the real doors. The actors were fantastic and energetic–and I’m not saying that because I knew most of them. It was a bit strange for me when I first saw someone I personally knew and I was given a look that told me, “I don’t know you.” When I saw more of my friends, who all turned out to be actors for the show, I had to play along that I didn’t know them. It’s kind of weird pretending not to know someone. After the show, I apologized to some of my friends for not being like friendly, but they knew I was playing along and were glad I didn’t blow their cover.

The show included a simple four course meal. Leslie and I had gotten the fish. Some of the other people at our table got the chicken. No one at our table had any complaints about the food other than that dinner could’ve be brought out a little sooner and maybe some more bread. The cash bar was standard, which a good selection of drinks.

As for whodunit, I’m not going to tell. I will tell you we didn’t guess the murderer correctly, despite the edge of knowing which some of the guests were actors. The person who I thought was the murderer, ended up getting killed in the show. I was told after the show, that several people guessed I was the killer. Perhaps it was because of the clue I found? Yeah, let’s go with that answer.

In summary, The Detective Detective was fun a evening. If you do go, plan some extra time for parking and bring some friends.