Where No One Knows Your Name
Posted on | February 25, 2009 at 10:27 pm | 3 Comments
So much going on… so little time to talk about it.
We’re in the middle of Denver Restaurant Week, something that the girlfriend and I take advantage of every year. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s a week (actually two weeks this year; it’s been extended) where hundreds of higher end restaurants in the Denver area offer dinner for two for the mile low price of $52.80. Most places offer a limited menu for DRW compared to their full menu, but it’s still usually a phenomenal deal. This year we wanted to try a steakhouse, so we choose the Cherry Creek Elway’s. I got a tasty beefy pepper-crusted melt-in-your-mouth sirloin and N had the salmon. The price also included soup or salad, a side, and two brownie and cheesecake “lollipops”. Even with the limited menu, it was almost too much food and N saved half of hers for later.
There were a lot of people in suits there tonight, and as always with DRW, we felt like we didn’t quite belong with the movers and shakers. But the wait staff was very nice and accommodating, and I’m sure they’re very used to it this time of year. We did see a number of people wearing jeans, and we were at least business casual. N is always more observant than I, so she naturally scoped out the place for local celebrities. Sure enough, as we were leaving she spotted former Broncos’ head coach Mike Shanahan at a table in the bar area, talking excitedly with wide expansive hand gestures to a big dude we didn’t recognize. So that was fun. No sign of the restaurant’s namesake though.
Next year: The Cherry Creek Arby’s.
Latre.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since Last Blog Update:
- “High Fidelity” (Bob Mould)
- “Leaving So Soon?” (Keane)
- “Choose Between Two Sons” (Game Theory)
- “Ride The Wild Wave” (The Oranges Band)
- “1,000,000″ (R.E.M.)
- “Looking Inwardly” (Chameleons UK)
- “Nobody’s Fault” (Phantom Planet)
- “Comedienne” (Cinerama)
- “Intermission” (Blur)
- “Bandages” (Hot Hot Heat)
- “I Feel Funny” (Soap Star Joe)
- “Thank You” (John Sharples)
- “Day Is Done” (Johan)
- “Ages of You” (R.E.M.)
Pet Peeve of the Day: Extreme fatigue brought on by attempts to diagnose extreme fatigue.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “society for creative anachronism nursing home”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
Mystery Gas
Posted on | February 18, 2009 at 8:12 pm | 4 Comments
Yeah, yeah, I’m still not blogging too regularly these days. Lots of other things to keep me busy. Major life and household changes are a-comin’, which I’m preparing for. New project at work has left me somewhat exhausted. Trying to fit time in at the gym. It’s tax season, and I have to do my Dad’s taxes as well as my own. I was working on that tonight. Plus, there’s this damn cut on my fingertip that makes it hard to type. It’s not that I don’t have things to talk about. I have enough mentally composed posts for a couple of weeks worth of daily entries. I’ve even got a bit of a story to tell about my major phobia. I just don’t have the time or energy to type anything up.
But one thing I wanted to mention today was that a new gas station mysteriously opened up in my neighborhood a week or two ago. It’s on a site that used to be a Conoco station, but now it’s a Gas Express. The bizarre thing about it is that ever since it opened, the price has stayed steady at $1.59/gallon for regular unleaded. That’s at least 20 cents a gallon cheaper than most of the stations in the area. It’s even cheaper than Safeway gas with the 10 cent discount. In fact, if you go to denvergasprices.com, there’s no station listed that has prices that low (the lowest there right now is $1.65). I guess this station is too new to be listed on the site. Not surprisingly, the place is always super crowded even though it’s not really on a main drag. How can they afford to do this? Is it some grand opening special? How long will it last? Is it special gas that is extracted from the bones of deceased people in an underhanded deal with the local funeral home? And if one station can afford to sell gas that cheap, why can’t they all? I want to know.
Latre.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since Last Bog Update:
- “Finding Solutions” (Heartless Bastards)
- “Everybody Needs Love” (Robyn Hitchcock)
- “Wasting Time” (Shake Some Action!)
- “When the Generals Talk” (Midnight Oil)
- “Andy’s Babies” (Lloyd Cole)
- “Goodbye” (Brad Jones)
- “Judy” (Pernice Brothers)
- “Soma” (The Strokes)
- “Gold Into Straw” (Brendan Benson)
- “Eighth-Grade Summer Romance” (Action Action)
- “Candy Wrapper” (The Makes Nice)
- “Right Here” (The Go-Betweens)
- “Spinning Dizzy On The Dial” (Bill Nelson)
- “Mutiny, I Promise You” (The New Pornographers)
- “Circlin’” (The Connells)
- “Thank You Very Much” (Kaiser Chiefs)
- “Girl” (Beck)
- “Petulant” (Shriekback)
- “You Keep It All In” (The Beautiful South)
- “Public Service Announcement” (The Bravery)
- “The Night Chicago Died Again” (The Minus 5)
- “Them & Me” (Brendan Benson)
- “Read About It” (Midnight Oil)
- “Digital Noise” (Vinyl Devotion)
- “Soldier” (Classix Nouveaux)
- “Wake Up” (Velvet Crush)
- “Open Book” (Mates Of State)
- “The Girl Became the Stairs” (The Heart Throbs)
- “Let’s Make Some Plans” (Close Lobsters)
- “Out There on the Moon” (The Minus 5)
- “Suffer For Fashion” (Of Montreal)
- “The Mayor of Simpleton” (XTC)
- “Youth Worshipper” (The Church)
Pet Peeve of the Day: Across the board salary cuts.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “man in the moon phobias”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: I don’t think I’ve played any lately – no time.
Bye Bye Blackhawks
Posted on | February 12, 2009 at 7:53 pm | 5 Comments
Again, sorry about being lax with the blog updates, but I have a good excuse. I’ve been vacationing in Florida for two weeks. Okay, you caught me, that’s a lie. Well, it’s kind of the truth, since I live vicariously through others. I’ve also been fighting wildfires in Australia.
Some of you may have noticed that I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions this year. Isn’t joining a gym (as cliché as that is) enough? No, it’s not. The real reason is that I’m not done with last year’s resolutions. And everyone knows you can’t start new resolutions until you’ve finished off the old ones. So, let’s take a minute and check the status of those 2008 resolutions:
- Sell my comic book collection.
Miraculously, I finally did that this week. I did save a few rare ones to sell on eBay if times get rough, but I actually sold the bulk of the collection (nearly 20,000 comics in 60-some longboxes) to a local collector who found me through my Craigslist ad (which was posted for all of a day). I even got something close to my asking price (in cash), and got rid of the warehouse shelving unit they were stored on at the same time. I thought I would be sad, but it feels like a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Although my shoulders hurt from helping to load the comics into his SUV, which involved multiple loads. - Eat less and exercise more.
Didn’t do very good on that one, though I’m hoping the whole gym thing will help me with that this year. - Keep in better touch with friends.
Not sure. I don’t think I did very well, though probably better than 2007. What’s bad is that I didn’t take any trips to visit friends in other parts of the country, and I definitely want to do that this year. - House repairs and remodels, including replacing some appliances and finishing the basement.
Didn’t accomplish any of this, although now that the comics are out of the basement I can finally start on the basement finishing project. Well, after I get rid of a lot of other stuff down there. Oh, I did at least secure a Home Equity Line of Credit. - Rip all my CDs to the computer.
Ha! I barely kept up with ripping new ones, much less making any headway on the back catalog. - Read more books and play more video games.
I finished one book and got halfway through another, but that’s probably not better than the previous year. I did however play (and finish!) more video games. - Learn a new skill or technology at work.
I took some training classes but I’m not sure I really “learned” anything. Although I’m on a new project now that should give me a chance to learn some new stuff. - Take a trip to a beach with the gf.
Yep, we went to Cancún in April. - Avoid driving into things.
Yeah! No accidents in 2008! And so far in 2009…
Well, I mentioned in that post last year that I would be happy to accomplish any two of the resolutions, and it looks like I did even better than that. So I’m happy!
For 2009: More of the same. Plus I want to appear on Hell’s Kitchen. And see more movies. And listen to more music. And write more blog entries, or at least more than I’m writing now. And upgrade Wordpress again and change the theme.
Latre.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since Last Bog Update:
- “I Have Faith” (The Dream Syndicate)
- “Poking Myself In The Eye To Spite My Finger” (Anton Barbeau)
- “The Day Of The Triffids” (The Celebrity Pilots)
- “A Different Man” (The Church)
- “The Return of the Beserker” (The Futureheads)
- “Head Full of Steam” (The Go-Betweens)
- “Hairdresser on Fire” (Morrissey)
- “Tall” (Poi Dog Pondering)
- “Detonator” (Ash)
- “Strong Enough” (Bill Nelson)
- “Dirty Mouth” (Hot Hot Heat)
- “Between the Worlds” (Be Bop Deluxe)
- “Parade of Punk Rock T-Shirts” (Maritime)
- “Driving to Damascus” (Big Country)
- “Pastimes & Lifestyles” (Dogs Die in Hot Cars)
- “Yolanda Hayes” (Fountains of Wayne)
- “The Day The Rain Came Down” (Felt)
- “The One You Never Had” (Lloyd Cole)
- “Quality” (Barenaked Ladies)
- “Love’s Great Adventure” (Ultravox)
- “Distance Makes” (Maxïmo Park)
- “Dream The Moon” (Pere Ubu)
- “Limboland” (Sun & the Moon)
- “Just Too Bloody Stupid” (Close Lobsters)
- “I Come from Another Planet, Baby” (Julian Cope)
- “Lucy” (54-40)
- “From Georgia to Osaka” (Gene)
- “Conjure Me” (Afghan Whigs)
- “A Certain Bridge” (Last Man In Europe)
- “Return of the Roughnecks” (Chameleons UK)
- “Road To Ruin” (The Libertines)
- “Easy Does” (Let’s Active)
Pet Peeve of the Day: I may be totally off-base here, but it seems like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have gotten shorter and Comedy Central is throwing more commercials in. Anyone have any statistics? Although I guess that’s not a bad thing, since it makes my morning routine go faster.
Ben Affleck’s Wife-Related Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “juno yuppie woman”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS). Still brutally hard!
The inPhonite Migration: Tracking the Lard
Posted on | February 5, 2009 at 9:11 pm | 6 Comments
Today’s installment of The inPhonite Migration should rightly be about list managers. However, I’m just going to focus on a subset of the lists that I’ve migrated from the Palm T|X PDA to the iPhone. One thing that you find with iPhone applications is that in addition to general list management, there are also specialized applications for listing any damn thing you want to list, from your pets to your menstrual cycles. This post is about one of them.
The main list manager I used on the Palm was ListPro, which doesn’t yet exist for the iPhone. More on that in a future entry. The three main things I listed in it were my CD collection, my DVD collection, and… my weight log. I’m not sure… it’s one of the obsessive compulsive things, I guess… but every day for nearly five years, I’ve been weighing myself and recording the result. Oh sure, I would miss a day here and there, especially if I was on vacation, but I’d say I’m hitting around 99% of the days. I started out writing the weight down on a piece of paper, and then when I filled up a page, I would transfer the numbers to an Excel spreadsheet. That became tedious, although it was “fun” to chart the data in Excel and see a graphical representation of my (lack of) progress. When I got the PDA and installed the handheld and desktop versions of ListPro, I imported my spreadsheet into it, and then switched to entering the daily weight directly on the computer. The only downfall of that is that I had to remember what the weight was between stepping on the scale and going to the computer.
(Digression: Those of you who obsessively weigh yourselves most likely have a weighing routine like I do. Those of you who don’t may or may not be surprised to learn there is so much to the routine. It has to be done around the same time every morning, and before some activities but after others. I will not bore you or freak you out with the details, but if I remember correctly, the book Thinner by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) has a wonderful description of just such a routine. So check that out. Oh, and btw, my digital scale says “Thinner” on it, which I find eerie, as it brings back memories of the book. Plus, it’s like a command. “Thinner!” the scale rails at me, “YOU MUST BECOME THINNER! Or I will electrocute your naked toes with my tiny watch battery.”)
So in order to track my daily weight, I decided to have a little fun with it and I bought a recommended iPhone app called Weightbot. Yes, bought. I paid $1.99 (it’s up to $2.99 now) for an application whose sole reason for existence is to record a number up to once a day. But it’s got a cute user interface, and it does have a couple of different graphs of the weight data it can display when you turn the iPhone sideways. Oh, and it estimates your Body Mass Index (BMI). That’s it. It sure don’t do much, but it’s kind of cute, like Kate Hudson. And I can have it with me the bathroom and enter the weight immediately, instead of having to remember it when I get to the computer. The iPhone does not care if you are naked.
The downside is that there’s no way to export the weight data to the computer for manipulating and viewing there. Not to mention there’s no reliable backup (I don’t trust iTunes for backing up data). So… you guessed it… I still also enter the weight into the desktop version of ListPro every day. It’s so nice to have direction in life.
Note: I have not included any screen shots of the app itself, since I don’t want you guys knowing my current weight and comparing it to the weights I listed back in the daily posting days when I was constantly revealing it. That was dumb.
Latre.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since Last Bog Update:
- “Damage Done” (Veruca Salt)
- “Trip To Life” (Circus Guy)
- “I Don’t Agree” (Stranglers)
- “Just A Little” (Frank Black)
- “Length of Love” (Interpol)
- “Why Don’t The Buildings Cry?” (Youth Group)
- “The Cap’m” (They Might Be Giants)
- “Poison In The Wall” (The Go-Betweens)
- “Brainsaw” (Therapy?)
- “Farewell” (Trotsky Icepick)
- “Money On The Dresser” (Local H)
- “No Sympathy – No Violins” (Classix Nouveaux)
- “Comfortable Place on the Couch” (Midnight Oil)
- “Drug Free” (Anton Barbeau)
- “Barrier” (China Drum)
Yes, I went to the gym and worked out and ran on the treadmill yesterday even though my right foot still hurts. And I went to the doctor about it today. Remind me to tell you about that someday.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Damn 70 degree weather in February. What is this, frickin’ Florida?
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “apartment fire alarm constantly beeping cold”. That sounds bad.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: The old same Castlevania: Order of Eccelsia (DS). Hey, I think I’m going to end up actually finishing this one. And fairly soon, too. I’m deep into Dracula’s Castle.
Depth-Defying Dorkiness
Posted on | February 3, 2009 at 10:30 pm | 2 Comments
Pet Peeve of the Day: The Third Dimension.
Oh, it can be cool and everything, but will it ever really rise above “gimmick” status? James Cameron says (I think) that all his movies are going to be 3D from now on, which probably explains why it takes him ten years to make one. Yeah, I saw Beowulf in 3D IMAX, and that did draw me into the movie, but I never did see the non-3D version to compare.
Recently, there were a couple of SuperBowl ads in 3D, including a trailer for the upcoming animated movie Monsters Vs Aliens. Even though I knew about the gimmick beforehand, I didn’t go out and seek the 3D glasses. I wasn’t even quite sure how to do that, though I knew that it was a promotion through Sobe Life Water and I guess that glasses were available at store displays. Did you have to make a purchase? From the commercials, the glasses didn’t look like the old standard red/blue glasses, which I have plenty of from old 3D comics. Anyway, when I saw that 3D trailer without glasses, it of course looked fuzzy, like there was an aura around everything. That lessened my enjoyment of it and I was bummed.
I haven’t been watching the TV show Chuck this season, since I was pretty marginal about it the first season. But as part of this same promotion, last night’s episode was in 3D, which you needed the same glasses to view. It wasn’t enough of an enticement to get me to watch the show again, although perhaps I would’ve if I did have the glasses. My friend Pilto does still watch the show, and when he attempted to watch it (DVRed) without the glasses, he was too bothered by the fuzziness and couldn’t do it. Today he was searching out the glasses so he could watch it tonight, and I guess I’ll find out tomorrow if he was successful. He may end up just having to delete the episode unwatched, which says to me that this gimmick failed.
And even when 3D works, is it too distracting? Does it draw too much attention to itself and pull focus (ha ha) away from the story? I don’t believe that any kind of audiovisual enhancement technology where you have to wear something on your head is ever going to catch on in a big mainstream way. It’s just too uncomfortable and dorky. It’s bad enough I sometimes have to wear wireless headphones when watching noisy shows TV in order to not disturb the girlfriend. (Although I must say it does make understanding dialog easier for these aging ears.) Once they get 3D working without glasses, then perhaps it will become the entertainment norm. But since the world is a hologram anyway, will it really matter?
Latre.
Yes, I know I used the word “glasses” approx 200 times in this post. You try finding another word for it. I suppose I could’ve stuck in one or two uses of “spectacles”, but what’s the point?
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since Last Bog Update: None, since I haven’t exercised. No sooner did I get over my cold then my right foot started hurting when I walk. Good thing I’m getting a lot of use out of that new gym membership!
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “how to get rid of crabs for guys”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
The inPhonite Migration: eBooks
Posted on | January 31, 2009 at 5:18 pm | 5 Comments
Sorry, I’ve been under the weather lately with a cold ever since I got back from our Estes Park vacation. It’s not that bad, but I have very little energy. Haven’t even been to the gym. And I haven’t felt at all like blogging. Except about ash trays and urinals.
Longtime readers of this here blog know that I’m a big advocate of eBooks. I like being able to read books anywhere without having to lug a big wad of paper around. eReader on my Palm T|X PDA was very useful, especially while on vacation. There are also eBook readers for the iPhone – how do they measure up? On my vacation last weekend, I was able to give the iPhone a thorough testing in this department.
Even though I installed eReader on my iPhone a long time ago, I couldn’t really use it initially. In the beginning, there was no way of getting the DRM-protected eReader-format eBooks I bought for my Palm PDA from the Palm eBook website onto the iPhone and readable by the iPhone’s eReader. That recently changed. The eReader website now has a “Personal Content” area, where you can upload eBooks acquired from other vendors and then download them to the iPhone. You then unlock the content using the same unlock code needed to read them on the Palm. Very handy. I stored all my eBooks in the web library and then downloaded them to the eReader application in the iPhone with no problem.
Besides eReader, there’s another eBook reader for the iPhone called Stanza. Stanza lets you acquire eBooks from a number of different sources. The main one is the Fictionwise website, which also has a Personal Content area where you can upload your eBooks acquired from other vendors and download them back into the iPhone. So I did that again with my eReader-format books and downloaded them back to the iPhone where I could read them with Stanza. Yes, this means that I have multiple copies of the books in the phone, but they don’t take up much space.
So anyway, I took the time during the vacation to read some chapters from A Feast For Crows, which I’ve been working on since my Pennsylvania vacation last June. Both eReader and Stanza compare favorably to eReader on the Palm, but I’m giving the nod to Stanza. It has far more settings than eReader, including the ability to change the foreground and background colors (I prefer white text on a blue background to the default black on white) and a much greater variety of fonts and font sizes. It’s kind of strange that iPhone eReader doesn’t have those abilities, since the version on the Palm does. Stanza also seems to be faster with loading and reformatting the book.
The Palm T|X screen is about the same size as the iPhone screen, so at my preferred text-viewing size, I get about the same amount of words on a single screen for both. Which of course means a lot of page turning, especially if you’re a fast reader. On both eReader and Stanza, you can turn the page by either tapping or doing the “swipe” gesture, but only Stanza lets you do either one at the same time. This also means you have to learn the art of tapping “differently” when you want to get the settings menu on Stanza rather than wanting to turn the page. The iPhone screen is clear and bright enough to read in almost any light, from full to darkness, although I don’t think I tried actually reading outside in sunlight. As I’ve probably mentioned before, one place eBooks come in handy is when you want to read in bed while your significant other wants to sleep, especially if the SO is disturbed by any type of light including a book light. The iPhone emits so little light that that’s not a problem. Even the gentle tap or swipe of a page turn is less audible than the actual page turning of a paper book.
So, thumbs up on the iPhone eBook experience. Both eReader and Stanza work fine, but I go with Stanza because of its greater range of options and ability to read more eBook formats. Both are free in the App Store.
Of course, if you do have the paper version of the book handy and don’t have to read in the dark, then by all means read the paper one. I did take the actual Feast For Crows paperback with me to Estes Park and used that whenever I could. Yes, I must admit there’s nothing like the feel of a real book in your hands. But it’s good to know I have an alternative.
The funny thing is that there are so many other diversions on the iPhone that if I’m alone waiting some where, I end up not automatically defaulting to reading eBooks like I did with the Palm on hand. Oh the wonders of being infinitely tethered to the Internet.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: They can put a man on the moon, but they can’t cure the common cold.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “save me subtitles”.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: Lots of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
« newer entries — older entries »