Thursday, July 31, 2008

to catch everyone up to speed

For those of you who haven't noticed the little box to the right of this entry, I've started to use twitter to post the little tidbits I see every day. I started using it because there was a way to post from an IM client. I'll be using it even more in the future (more on that later).

Its been so long since I've written anything here my firefox awesome-bar (new feature in firefox 3... if you don't have it you should) didn't even remember the url. So let me catch up a bit by posting not one, not two, but three whole things I learned today.

In no particular order:

My laptop is awesome : The moment I got home I poured myself a nice tall glass of iced tea and settled in to do some interneting. Or at least that was the intent... Instead I poured a nice tall glass of iced tea and then spent the next ten minutes trying to clean the tea off the floor and my laptop. The laptop was fine and the floor cleaned up nicely. Lets here it for ThinkPads... you can drop them, you can spill stuff on them, you can own them for years without an upgrade. (NOTE: dropping, spilling, and lack of upgrading not recommended

My car is awesome : For the last month or so my car has made the most hideous noise whenever I started it moving or went over a bump or roll in the road. I figured something in the suspension was messed up and took it in to get it checked out. One free inspection (For the record, CarX rules) later and my car was given a clean bill of health. Nothing seems wrong, there are no signs of damage, and everything else checks out. Shame the noise is still there.

Resistance is futile : This I almost hate to admit... I'm not an Apple fan. While I have nothing against their technological direction on a theoretical level, I've never been a fan of any of their products. It was sort of a, "wow thats kinda cool, but really not for me." The interface has always taken a back seat to the function and customization other technologies have presented.

That said... I've been looking for an all-in-one gadget to handle gps, social camera (you know... something point and shooty for taking snapshots of friends doing something stupid in a social setting), mp3s, and phone calls. Right now, the iphone is the best (or certainly the most popular) thing on the market. So in 10 to 21 days I'll be the some what hesitant owner of a brand new iPhone. I hope it lives up to the hype.

Thats all from here. I'll post a lessons learned once I start playing with the iphone.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

that rock concerts aren't about the music

Some friends went to a Puddle of Mud / Saving Abel / Rev Theory concert and I tagged along. I know none of these bands are really hardcore but they are a lot heavier than the music I normally listen to.

The venue was pretty small and we had general admission tickets. The first few bands were good. They were loud (as you might expect) but ear plugs kept it manageable. Stuff started to get crazy when the headliners came out.

I managed to work my way to the front group of people that were standing near the stage. The crowd seemed to ebb and flow sporadically, so I just got used to getting pushed and pushing back. After a couple of really strong pushes from behind I turned around and discovered that I was part of the wall of the mosh pit.

I started deflecting moshers away from the group of girls that were next to me. One of the girl's boyfriends and I managed to direct most of the stuff away from our area. Two guys came barreling into me and caught me off balance. I fell into someone who promptly launched all three of us back into the mosh pit.

I was still in the air when I hit the far wall of the pit. The wall, who was really just one guy wearing a backwards baseball cap and a polo, sent me back the way I came. At this point I figured I might as well just go with the flow. I pinballed a few times (thank you middle school bullies for the practice) before someone put a death grip on my leg and I had to stop moving to make sure I didn't fall over.

Ah... good times... good times...

The rest of the concert was spent watching people be people at a rock concert. Oh! and I caught a pick from the guitarist with my elbow. "If you can't be good, be lucky"

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

its funnier in japanese

I caught wipeout on ABC.com and had some high hopes for it. I'm a huge fan of Japanese game shows and was hoping for more of the same. I think it looses something when you can understand what they are actually saying.

Did the pushups quicker than I normally do 'cause my collar bone seemed to be popping when I did them slowly. Not really sure what to make of that. On the upside, the quicker pace meant I could hit a new max. Go me!

Today's score card : 16 - 13 - 11 - 11 - 25
Current Max : 25
Total to date : 429