On second thought...

I guess I'm not as excited anymore about the *tv. (There's no apple key on my keyboard.) I find it to be really lacking, for the price. Sure, the iTunes sync is great, but I'm left wanting. I'm disappointed at the lack of inputs now that I know it has a hard drive... it would be great if it could also function as a drone DVR. At the very least, inputs would be great for allowing passthrough. As it is, the TV on which I'd use it, while not ancient, looks like it might not have the correct inputs to even use the *tv. Unless I'm mistaken, you can't even do 3-cord (composite? video-audiol-audior) connections with it. I guess I'm behind the times.

I still like the iPhone. I guess that means that Linksys is going to have to rename their products. It's weird to announce products with the name while you're negotiating with Apple to give them the rights to the name. But, speaking of names, Apple's to be commended for dropping "Computer" off the name of their company.

But what was with using Beatles music? Everyone was hoping for an announcement that the impasse was over. I've not been on iTunes to see if maybe they snuck the Beatles onto iTunes. Who knows.

Snow predicted tonight. Cool.

Spoke too soon?

Ok, just give them my entire paycheck. August 23 (the day my Verizon Wireless contract ends) cannot come soon enough. On the other hand, I have some time to save up money for two of these and convince Lori that we must have these. Cingular's web guys must just be biting their hands to keep from getting this up on their website.

Am I being a poor steward of my time at work? Fortunately, it's a slow day. I'm sending out tests and waiting for responses. And now I'm about to dive into data entry with too little else to do.

Apple (with complicity by Engadget with their moment by moment coverage) really knows how to kick the hype. I rarely feel this kind of emotional excitement except when I'm talking about my daughter or singing a really awesome song in church. Or used to sing in my old church in Pasadena, that is.

Sad Apple

Bummer... I was considering an iTV with the rest of my Christmas money and my (assumed) birthday money. Of course, Apple went and made it so cool it's out of my price range. Darn it all.

Less interested about the iPhone, but I'm guessing it's gonna be very cool and I'll probably change my mind and want one of those, too.

I picked the wrong week to give up coffee

Fortunately, I didn't actually give up coffee. It's not yet 11 and I'm about to go get my second cup. I'll have a diet soft drink with lunch and probably another cup of coffee after lunch. At 12:20 last night, Lori and I had just drifted off to sleep. All of the sudden the security alarm started going off. Scared the hell out of me. We didn't react as clearly as we ought to have, but if that happens again, I'm gonna be ready. I had my big, bad mag light (the kind with 27 d-batteries in it) ready, but I wasn't ready. I was freaked out.

We have a really sensitive trigger on one of the doors and something caused it to go off. Not sure what, not sure why. It's not a really accessible location and of all the doors I might try to use the break into my own house, this wouldn't be my first choice. So I'm pretty sure that it wasn't someone trying to gain access to our house. But when that thing goes off, seconds after you'd fallen asleep, you're not thinking too clearly.

It took me a little bit, but then I was both scared and angry. Armed with my maglight and broom, I was ready to hit someone. But still, utterly scared beyond belief. But I've definitely come to some conclusions. I need to replace the security light in the backyard. Shortly after we moved in, it decided to stay on. It's so high up that I just let the lights burn out. But I got a new ladder for Christmas and I'm going to get a new fixture and soon. Secondly, a 60-watt fluorescent is a poor choice as a porch light. As I checked one of the doors, I flipped on the light and threw back the curtains, just expecting to see someone standing there staring at me. Instead all I saw was the empty dog lead and thought "Boy, I chose the wrong weekend to give up the dog*. I could have sent her out there to sniff and lick anyone who might be lurking in our yard."

I could not get that image out of my head and ended up spending the next few hours playing SimCity with a lot of lights on. Only because I knew it had to be late, I finally gave up and went back to bed where I spent at least half an hour laying there unable to sleep.

Not sure which is worse... the peace of mind a security system can offer or the ignorant bliss of not having something that can scare the hell out of me in the middle of the night for absolutely no reason.

(*There's a separate post, made via Picasa, that seems to have disappeared.)

Beyond My Grasp

I need to preface this by saying I'm happy. I'm really happy. I'm blessed and there's lots of wonderful things in my life that I'm thankful for.

Lately I feel like there's an undercurrent of something being not quite right. I don't mean a disturbance in the force or that the matrix is breaking down, but that I'm just missing something.

But today I was wondering if it's more a matter of trying to properly fit into my skin (makes me think of the alien who put take over that farmer's body... so there's a weird Sci-Fi vibe going on today, apparently.)

Is it not that there needs to be a change in my circumstances, but possibly a need to change my thinking? Easier said than done. It's hard to put my finger on it. It's just like there's stuff still in the air, only I don't know what it is. There's something just beyond my mental grasp that's unresolved.

It's a weird feeling I can't shake today.

Well, anyway, best not to dwell on it. It'll present itself or flit away and be forgotten.

Starting the Cake Early

Was talking to Lori on New Year's Day and asked if she wanted to join this round of More Cake and she said yes, but didn't understand why I was planning to wait until March. With that, we decided to proceed and launched into it yesterday. Our first days' posts are still forthcoming, but would invite others to drop me a line if they'd like to join. The introduction has a few typos I need to correct and a question or two to clarify, but post a comment here or send me an e-mail if you'd like to participate. My goal is to find 2-3 more people who want to participate so we can see a collective weight loss goal of at least 100 pounds. (Lori and I together will be losing about 50 pounds.)

Walking in the Wind

Lori and I talked last night. She expressed interest in participating in Cake2, but didn't want to wait until March. So we decided to go ahead and start today. I'm still hoping to get a few more people to join in. She had a few questions I need to clarify in the rules and spotted a few typos that I still need to correct.

Nevertheless, even though we laid in bed last night talking until midnight, I got up by 6 this morning and rode the exercise bike and walked before work. It was over 50 which was nice. It was windy when I started, but the wind died down pretty quickly. The sound through the 30-foot-tall evergreens was really amazing. And then I put on my headphones.