Traveling Thoughts

Ok, so in Nov 2007 I participated in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) and the point was to blog every day of Novemeber. And when it came to the end of November, I was straggling along, tired and exhausted and just out of stuff to blog about, but I made it through…a few days ago, I get an email about Blog 365, which is basically NaBloPoMo times 12. I’m crazy, and I know I’m crazy, but I was looking through my archives and there are months that suffer severely when it comes to me posting, and the thing about it is, it’s during those months where I have a wealth of stuff to write about and I never take the time to do it.

There’s a couple of things that are usually off limits that I could write about and that would help me in reaching the Blog 365 goal. I usually almost never write about my relationship with God on my blog (or the lack there of). And actually, God is worth writing about. He’s a piece of me.

I also don’t usually ever blog about work, because it’s not always an appropriate topic to blog about, but since I work in a technological industry, there’s plenty that I’m learning that I could be writing about.

So I’m going to give Blog 365 a chance. I mean, I’ve got plenty to write about, I just have to start taking more time and sitting down and writing about it. I can do it, so let’s do this thing!

So much happened in 2007, it was, the year of bittersweet feelings if you will.

I had to admit when the spring weather came and it was all warm that I was not going to be able to skydive anymore due to a low blood sugar during midjump on the second to my last jump .

I began cycling, it was a sport, that with a little bit of work I could participate in, stops every hour to check the blood and eat a snack kept my diabetes mostly in line. I started cycling due to my friend Mark in MN that was given a flyer for the Tour de Cure for the ADA and he shared the information with me. I participated in 3 rides this year: Long Beach, California; Longmont, Colorado; and Fort Worth, Texas. I decided that I would like to participate in a ride in every state, even if it took me the next 50 years to do so.

I graduated college, ending my career as a life long student after being in college for 7 years. I got a bachelors of business administration with a concentration in management information systems. I also spent my last year in college terrorizing my professors because what they were speaking was incorrect and they needed to be corrected. I probably most likely threatened my ability to go back to the university of new mexico for my graduate’s degree simply because it might not be so easy to get the 2 professor recommendations required to get into grad school. While I was happy to graduate, I was unhappy that school was over. I was even more unhappy when the grad program that I wanted to get into wasn’t open for applicants for the fall 2007. I spent much of the summer bummed (only noticable when I spoke of it to my mom) that I wasn’t going to school in the fall. When the fall came, I was glad I wasn’t in school because I wouldn’t have been able to do work and school at the same time as I had initially thought.

I started my first full time job. I had interned with the company that I’m now employed by full time for 3 months before I graduated, and I fully enjoyed it. I was learning something new every day. When I got hired full time, we had some massive projects to get done and I’ve been working like a horse ever since. I have my days, the days where I love my job and the days where I hate my job. I’ve been there almost a year now (1 year in Feb). Although I love my job most of the time, I must say this, those times when I was a kid and I wanted so badly to grow up and everyone was like, it’s not all that grand to be an adult, they were right.

I got to travel quite a bit this year, and that part I love about being a grown up. I took more trips this year than I’ve probably taken in the last 5 years combined. I spent a week in CA in May where I went to Seaworld, Knotts Berry Farm, Disneyland, and California Adventure and did a bike ride. I went to Boulder, CO in August (and of course Colorado Springs and Denver) and while there I went to Seven Falls, Garden of the Gods, and the Aquarium and did a bike ride. I went to Ft Worth, TX in October and ate at a restaurant in the stock yards, did a bike ride, and went to the zoo. I went to Las Vegas, NV in Nov for Postie Con and met some amazing people whom blog’s I read. And I went back to CA in Dec for a day on the beach and 15 more hours at Disneyland.

Diabetes wise, I started on a new insulin pump, and haven’t abused it yet and it’s doing me some good.

I bought my first Mac. Before Intel put chips in Macs it was a crime punishable by disownership for me to touch a Mac (since Intel raised me) but now that there’s Intel Inside, it’s all good for me to be putting my paws on Macs.

That’s my 2007 in a nutshell, I’m sure there was other important stuff that I did, but these are the things that stick out in my head…

Ok, so Apple doesn’t say Merry Christmas, but Apple does say Happy Holidays, and I’d like to thank Apple for saying so. I bought my first Mac yesterday, a MacBook to be exact, and while I’m enamored by the beauty of it, and I love the little pictures at the bottom of the screen that make opening a program that much more fun, I’ve got a slight learning curve to adjust to.

First, I was shocked by the single click mouse, I panicked to be completely honest, I was sure I was going to die if I didn’t have right click anymore. I did find that I could enable right click, and that I could enable click on the touch pad, that was another thing, when I booted up my beautiful MacBook, neither click by tapping touch pad nor the right click (which is actually called secondary click in Mac verbage, were enabled)

I’ve also realized that none of my PC software is going to load on the MacBook, which really isn’t a problem, except for Adobe Photoshop and all my video games…but I can adjust right…I mean, I’m sure I can get Kings Quest for the Mac somewhere…

I was intially freaked out that I couldn’t find Word on this computer, but then I found it, and found out that it’s a 30 day trial, but that’s cool, because I found out that if I order Office:Mac 2004 by Jan 13th then when Office:Mac 2008 comes out they’ll send it to me for only $6.99. That I can handle…

Also, iMovie doesn’t like the mpeg movies that my digital camera produces, most likely because they’re not mpeg4 videos, so I may need a new digital camera in the future…but not the near future, cause I just bought the MacBook and I can’t justify all new toys in the name of one toy requiring them right away.

And there’s got to be an easier way to get to my applications without going to the finder and clicking on the applications folder…but I guess learning that comes with time, and I’ve got time, I’ve got the lifetime of this little MacBook to figure out how things work. I can handle it.

For those of you interested in specs, this is how this MacBook looks on paper, or the screen rather:

• Intel® Core™2 Duo mobile processor with 800MHz frontside bus, 4MB shared L2 cache and 2.2GHz processor speed
• 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM for multitasking power, expandable to 4GB
• Slot-loading SuperDrive multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support records up to 8.5GB of data or 4 hours of video using compatible DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media
• 13.3″ TFT-LCD widescreen display with 1280 x 800 resolution
• 120GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
• Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared video memory
• 1 FireWire port (400 Mbps) and 2 high-speed USB 2.0 ports; built-in Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) wireless interface
• Built-in AirPort Extreme Card and antenna for wireless networking (802.11n); 10/100/1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet
• Built-in iSight Web cam, stereo speakers and omnidirectional microphone; Apple remote included
• Weighs 5 lbs. and measures only 1.1″ thin for easy portability; lithium-polymer battery for up to 6 hours of battery life
• Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” preinstalled; software package included with Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, iChat, Safari, iCal, Photo Booth, Xcode developer tools, iLife ‘08 (with iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, iWeb and GarageBand) and more

I bought a little bag for it to go in:

Cause I want to keep it nice and pretty.

And beyond the few pieces of software that I need to get for it, I really only need a thing to go over the keyboard when I close it because I’m anal and don’t want to destroy the screen.

*rubs hands together* Yes, my MacBook is a beautiful thing :)

Only can dad call me “creep” and me consider it a term of endearment. He called me a creep on Christmas day and I didn’t care because it wasn’t your typical creep, it was a special creep. He had tears in his eyes as he was saying that too.

So, what happened to make him cry and why was he calling me a creep?

Those are excellent questions, let me explain:

Dad was opening his computer. I had wrapped it all nicely, there were 4 boxes, one for the computer it self, one for the monitor, one for Adobe Photoshop Elements 4, and one for the Netgear Wireless adapter dillywopper thingymabobber.

I hadn’t changed the boxes that the computer came in so they were marked with the Dell logos. When he unwrapped the big one and saw the symbol, he said, “You Creep” and there were tears in his eyes. Of course mom had to intervene and be like “how do you know it’s a computer, it could be a box full of rocks” I hate when she interjects…a few years ago she did something similar to me, I was fully convinced that I was getting a brick for Christmas. I digress, for a few moments anyways. He responded, “if you had cut open the tape that’s on the box, and covered it with new tape I’d be inclined to think that it wasn’t a computer but it’s not and so therefore it is a computer.” He proceeded to take the knife I had brought out and open up the box. Comments were made about him taking his merry time unwrapping the gift and opening it up. I don’t remember what was said, but I suppose it wasn’t important. So he opens it up, pulls off the foam stuff, sees the computer and proceeds to call me a Creep again.

It’s only cool for him to call me a creep, should anyone else call me a creep I’ll get offended, but dad called me a creep and it was ok.

At one point, mom was like, tell him who bought it. That pissed me off, the money that paid for his computer was money that I earned house sitting, but had I not gotten that money housesitting, I still would’ve bought his computer. I had planned on it since October, and since October I was planning on getting him a good computer, not a cheep one like the one he thought he could get. The fact that the housesitting money i earned bought his computer was not relative to any kind of anything. That pissed me off too, that mom brought it up. I worked hard to get him his Christmas gift, it wasn’t just some fluke because I had extra earnings. I digress again.

But, the best part of my Christmas was dad and his computer, and it didn’t even really become the best part of Christmas until he began setting it up, and I was getting calls and questions were being asked. The coolest thing, was perhaps him setting up his personal email account. I’ve had email for 10 years now, personal email at that, him, he’s only ever had a work email address. That was cool, because after I got him connected to the internet (which he didn’t want the computer for the internet in the first place, he just wanted it for his photography, but I gave him the connection to the interwebs because he was going to need it at a minimum for those constant windows updates), he said, “the first thing I’ll need is an email address” I of course sent him to gmail.

I’m happy that dad’s happy with his Christmas present, I had planned it for months, and I had worked hard to get him what I thought was going to be good for him, and there was one point where I was bummed because the computer I got him wasn’t “good enough”. But he’s happy with it, and his Nikon slide scanner that he’s had in his closet for over a year is set up on it. So, I’m a creep, but it’s all cool, because dad had a good Christmas.

Think back to when you were a kid…actually, you may not have to think that far back…think back to the last time something was cooked, a treat if you will, and you were told “don’t touch it, it’s for later” or “don’t touch, it’s for [insert name here]”. With the holidays just past us, Thanksgiving and Christmas you’ve probably heard it a lot. “Don’t touch” I used to hear it a lot as a kid, we’d be going to the store, “Remember kids, don’t touch anything, you look with your eyes, not with your hands” or we’d go to someone’s house and we’d hear the same thing “don’t touch”. Everywhere you go, it was don’t touch, don’t touch, don’t touch. *rolls eyes*

But now, there’s something that just begs us to touch it, the new iPod touch, aka, iTouch. This little bugger is all about the touch and all the touch is done on the screen. With the iTouch, we’ve lost the click wheel that once made the iPod’s famous, while this is a cool feature, I find that it’s also a bit of a downside (more on this later).

I’ve gone and done a quick run through of a few of the features of the iTouch. Personally, my favorites are the ability to surf the interwebs from the itouch and the video capabilities. It was very nice of Apple to put the YouTube player on there as default.

The iTouch encompasses so many cool things, things that Apple has created nice clean demonstrations for. Apple has videos of all the iTouch features on their website. The one feature that I didn’t mention anything about was the video feature, but it works the same as though you combined the music and youtube features. You could browse your videos as you did the music and then when you were watching your videos it would be like the youtube video I showed. The video feature is very nice and as I mentioned, one of my favorites.

I did skip over the photos feature as well, I said if I had photos we could view them, I don’t have photos on my iTouch because I don’t feel as though they’re what I need to be wasting space on. My iTouch does have 8gb and it will take me a while to fill those 8 gigs because I’m picky about what I load onto my iPods but photos aren’t one of the things that I need on my iPod. But that’s me personally. I will say this, from watching the photos demo on the Apple website, there are some cool features, like the ability to resize the photo and set it as the background on the iTouch. Me, I’m simple, and thus, my background is plain black.

I did find, and this isn’t a complaint because it could be a user issue, that the touch screen was a bit, touchy…it didn’t always work as I expected it to, as you can kindof see in the video, there’s a few times where I’m forced to “touch” something several times before it works. But, it could be me. As time has progressed with my iTouch’s and mines relationship, I’m finding that less often am I having problems and more often is it behaving as it should be.

There’s only one downside to the iTouch that I can think of, and it’s really only a downside when I’m out there cycling, and it’s only really extremely bothersome when I’m not attached to my stationary trainer.

I just can’t change songs or turn up the volume on the iTouch when I’m riding, I have to make sure all the songs on there are ones I like, and the volume has to be preset to perfection before I take off. If I make sure of those 2 things before I begin my ride, then I’m good to go, if one or both of those things is off, I’m likely to cause a wreck, ruin my bike, break a couple bones, maybe get some cuts that require stitches, but it’s really not so bad in comparison to all the good we get with the iTouch. Besides that, in any official ride that I participate in, I’m not supposed to be listening to music, so, really, the one thing that I deem as a flaw in the iTouch, in my case, isn’t a flaw at all *shrugs* …thus, we have a winner with the iTouch. It’s golden, or silver rather, silver backed at least, or chrome, I have a tendency to call stuff silver if it looks silver, but it could be chrome, *sigh* I digress.

Oh, I mustant forget to tell you about all that comes with the iTouch (or what was lacking and thus we had to accessorize).

The iTouch comes with of course, the iTouch, the classic Apple earbuds, a cute little stand for the iTouch to sit in (not that it would ever sit in the stand as theoretically it’d be in a pocket or in the armband, or in a backpack, but if you want to sit at your desk and watch a movie I suppose the stand would be helpful), and a USB sync cable, which also happens to work as the charger. Stickers, cause stickers are cool. And a little clothe with which you can free the iTouch from all finger prints and smudges left on it but at the same time open it up for more.

Now, I had to accessorize, not much, but some was necessary. I had to get a USB Power Adapter. I normally wouldn’t need one because I’m often near a computer and so charging the iTouch from my computer would have been no problem, but lately, I’ve been traveling a bit and the laptop doesn’t always go with me. For such occasions, I bought an off brand power adapter.

Another accessory that’s a necessary, but that I didn’t have to buy this time around is the iHome. I had bought one a year ago or so for my iPod Mini and so using it for my iTouch was no question. I did question whether or not my iTouch would work in the iHome simply because the iHome was put out before the iPods were fandangled with features. I am happy to report that the iTouch does work in the iHome. (My most favorite feature of the iHome, since I know you were wondering, the remote from which I can point and click to turn off the alarm in the morning.)

And finally, because I needed to wear it while cycling (even if I’m not supposed to), a sports band was necessary. Just remember that if you need your hands on the handle bars and your eyes on the road that only songs you will enjoy for the duration of the ride should be loaded and volume should be preset to a level of satisfaction.

And thus, we have a review of the Apple iPod Touch. If you’re in the market for an mp3 player, I’d recommend the iTouch. I’ve had a good time with it and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Christmas has officially died this year. It’s just dead…completely dead…it fell apart back in September when we had to draw names and spend $50 on the person we drew with the list received on Nov 1. What kind of Christmas is that? I should’ve known then that Christmas was going to be a dud this year. And worse off, I agreed to it (as I’ve gotten reminded everytime I’ve said “Christmas sucks” this past week). I don’t even know where to begin.

I’d like to blame it on my sister and brother in law that can’t afford to buy Christmas for everyone, but that brings back how I was so deeply offended that I got a $5 giftcard from them (I would’ve been less offended had I not received anything) last year for Christmas. So in an effort to help the poor, we drew names and we had to spend at least $50 on the person whose name we drew and they had to give us a list by Nov 1. My sister at our Nov 1 tribal council when lists got turned in wanted the limit to be raised to $100 (because she had found stuff that she wanted that was more than $50), her movement was vetoed and she was reminded that we were doing this because of her and her husband.

By this time I had already thrown a fit over the list thing. There were family members that were disgruntled that they had to buy off the list, what if they wanted to get the person something they thought they’d like. I was perturbed by this, because hello, 1) you guys can’t afford what I want 2) I made a list of stuff that you can afford and I can’t buy it until after Christmas in the event that you buy/don’t buy it for me 3) if you want to help me out, giftcards work wonderfully, here’s my list (yes, I handed in a list with giftcards to 5 different places, any of them being a place I could get cycling gear from).

Of course, *rolls eyes* it’s not all about me right…oh but it is…I finagled my way into getting dad’s name who had handed in the Cabela’s catalog with pages dogeared for his list, each page have sweaters on it that hey had wanted circled. We already know this part of the story though, he’s not getting sweaters from me, and I didn’t spend $50 on him either. He’s getting a computer, and it’s a properly attired computer (read: I spent over $1200 on my loving father, stay tuned to hear how that went over tomorrow), it wasn’t on his list, but he wanted it, so he’s getting it, because Christmas used to be, in some small way, about getting what you wanted, at least one thing on that Christmas list, at least, it was like that when I was a little kid.

Ok, so I’m pissed over the gift thing…we all understand that…but I’m also pissed about when I get to open my gift (not plural, just 1 gift). Somehow, in adding an aunt to the mix that didn’t used to live in my neighborhood (or state for that matter) but now does, gift opening got moved from morning to afternoon. I’m sorry, I don’t care if I’m an adult now, but this is crap, for 26 years we’ve been opening gifts after breakfast and now I have to wait till after lunch…it’s just not fair…not at all…plus opening gifts in the afternoon interferes with my “go to a movie in the afternoon” tradition, now I have to wait till evening to go to a movie…it just throws me off and it’s just not cool…

I’m declaring Christmas dead. It’s no fun anymore, it’s all about politics…family politics…even up until last year, I was still getting gifts from Santa. My dad was all cute, he’d label my one big gift from “Mr and Mrs Claus”. This year there is no one “big” gift from my parents, because amidst all this stuff going on, we weren’t allowed to buy for anyone else other than the person on our card that we drew…it just sucks…I don’t like Christmas anymore…all that it was…it isn’t anymore…

I can remember Christmas Eve’s when we’d all go to church and my sisters and I, we’d all be in our special Christmas dresses that were bought just for Christmas (or when I got to a point where I refused to wear a dress, I’d get a new pair of slacks and a nice button up or sweater). I can remember when after dinner at about 8 or so we’d all pile into the car (us kids in our pajamas) and we’d go look at houses all lit up with Christmas lights. I can remember when we were little and we were far to excited to sleep in on Christmas mornings, we weren’t allowed out of our rooms until 7 and God forbid if we woke anyone up, so we’d open our doors, and grab our stockings which were hanging on our door knobs and we’d go through all the goodies and play with the small toys that we got until we could come out of our rooms…I can remember when there used to be so many presents that they’d flow halfway out into the living room.

And I realize that I’m an adult now, and that I’m the only kid still at home, but is it so necessary for all of to be gone? It just makes me so sad…I’ve known for many years now that mom and dad aren’t santa, but can I seriously not have that one gift from santa anymore? Can I really not buy for other people…I may be irresponsible with my money but I’m not poor, do I have to be limited to only buying for 1 person…it’s just not fair…and thus, Christmas sucks, and it has died…

So I have this issue every summer. It’s called swimsuit season. My issue is this, I have a little belly (I really think it’s larger than little but people tell me it’s not so I’ll say little, attribute it to beer or all the shots I’ve taken in it over the last 15 years whatever you like, I have a belly) and I don’t think it needs to be covered. Women in general seem to think otherwise.

I just have to wonder what the hell is wrong with them. I have a right to wear a bikini and I don’t have to be a super model to do so. I just don’t understand how guys can walk around in their swim trunks with their bellies hanging over their swim trunk line and I can’t wear my surf shorts and a bikini top. Explain that to me, someone, please…tell me why it’s ok for sir chubsalot to run around in his swim trunk with all his fat slopping over the sides of his swim trunks and it’s unacceptable for me to have my belly (little belly) sticking out slightly over my surf shorts?

And while I’m on the subject of swimsuits…a fat belly on a girl looks just as disgusting in a 1 piece swim suit as it does in a 2 piece, that’s my opinion. And being so, I wear a 2 piece, well, surf shorts and the bikini top…

Contrary to my normal habits of Christmas music listening, I’ve been listening to it on the way to work in the mornings the last two day. This morning, while listening to Gene Autry’s version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, something dawned on me.

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid and Donder and Blitzen

Actually, I don’t know them.

But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?

Yeah, that’s the only reindeer I know. Rudolph. On a good day I can remember Prancer (because of the movie Prancer) and Blitzen, is that the one that Tim Allen rides in The Santa Clause 2 to go rescue his son from the naughty list.

But yeah, we don’t know the normal 8 reindeer. Because when I was in school, we didn’t sing about the other 8 reindeer, there was one song, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and when we sang it, we didn’t sing the part about knowing the other 8, because, well, we didn’t know them.

This is the realization that I had this morning on the way to work…why would we know about the other 8 reindeer, they weren’t “the most famous reindeer of all”…