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Apparently, I'm Superman.



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You are mild-mannered, good,
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House Hopping In Arizona

Just got back from spending Christmas with in-laws in Arizona. We looked at a couple of houses there in the desert--compared to California, they're practically bargains. There were a couple of houses we looked at where the backyards were so big, you could build (a) another house, or (b) an olympic-sized track and a pool. All for about the same price as ours at current market prices. Sheesh.

Of course, the weather isn't exactly agreeable. It was fine when we were there, but that's because it was winter. Otherwise, during summer, it's HOT. I like my environment to have a bit of green.

Apples and Oranges, part 2

Well, PJ's warming to the idea of using a Mac. I've explained what Boot Camp is (allows you to install Windows on an Intel Mac), so she'll be able to use it for the coffee shop. So it's possible that we'll keep it--if her friend doesn't wind up buying it. We're going to visit an Apple store in the near future, and she'll play with it--if she likes it, the plan is:

(1) Try to return the MacBook, explaining that we won it, but would rather upgrade
(2) Get credit for it and apply it to the purchase of the 15" MacBook Pro (that thing's pretty sexy)

Let's see if that works. We'll wait until the Christmas crowds are gone (the Apple stores are like Divisoria with all the people frantically buying iPods), and then proceed to test drive it.

If someone *does* wind up buying the MacBook from us, it's off to Power Notebooks for this little puppy.

Apples and Oranges

We've come into possession of a brand-spankin' new MacBook (the white one) via the luck of the draw. Question is, what do we do with it? I've told the wife to go ahead and familiarize herself with it, so she can use it at work. She doesn't want to. She's worried that she'll have a difficult time navigating it, preferring the safe environment of Windows. I've told her about Boot Camp, but she's having none of it.

*** cue gasps of shock and dismay ***

I have to admit--I'm not really an Apple fan. I have no problems with Apple in general (except for the fact that I had the opportunity to buy Apple stock at great prices and didn'tAAARRGGGGHHHH), but I'm just so sick of some of the Apple fanboys (not the sane ones who leave you alone to do what you want) that I'm tempted to just boycott all its products. It's an irrational dislike, I know.

However, now that we have a MacBook at home, why not poke around OSX? Check out the iLife suite, Delicious Library and Comic Life? I'm not married to Windows, so why not check out the water on the other side?

It's her laptop, though, so she'll decide whether she wants to use it or not. Another thing going against it is the small screen (she has trouble reading text and prefers bigger fonts on large amounts of real estate). Now, if we had managed to score the MacBook Pro (especially the sexy 17-incher) I might've been able to convince her to get over her fears, but we got the wimpy 13.3" screen. We just might wind up selling it.

No Pain, No Gain

A couple of months ago I posted that I've been trying to lose weight because of my high cholesterol. I set out to be more aware of two things: (1) my food intake, and (2) exercise. I cut down on the rice I ate and started walking around a mile or so every other day.

I managed to lose around ten pounds using this method, but at some point I hit a wall. I decided to take some sort of fitness class just to keep myself motivated, and have someone actually pushing me. I wound up choosing Krav Maga, which is a form of Israeli self-defense. I had heard good things about it from former co-workers. I tried a class, found it kicked my ass (in a good way), and signed up.

Today we did around thirty minutes of warm-up, which consisted of push-ups, jumping rope, crunches, leg lifts, hitting a punching bag, jumping over obstacles, running, wheelbarrows, jumping jacks, shadow boxing, and doing squats while carrying a two-hundred pound partner. My arms and legs were about to fall off after that; and these were only the warm-ups!

The rest of the training session was easy after that (not to mention fun). It gets embarrassing sometimes, though--especially when you're partnered with a pretty girl and you're told to hit her (although we do use pads and such--you don't hit anyone directly). Of course, she has no such qualms. After a while, though, adrenaline takes over, and all you see are the pads. You punch, elbow, knee and kick those pads like your life depended on it. Sometimes, you inadvertently hit your partner, as I've (painfully) found out (knees to the groin are not fun).

What's great is that I get to burn calories while learning self-defense at the same time. Hopefully I'm never in a situation where I need to use what I've learned, but it's always nice to be prepared.

Oh Christmas Tree

We decided not to get a tree this Christmas. The main reason is that the kids are in their terrible twos, and are prone to just grab ornaments and pull, risking (a) injury and (b) an electrical fire or two. It was supposed to be the year we switched from a real tree to a fake one; we put that off as well.

Instead, we went all out decorating outside. We have the snowman, and the snowflake lights, and even put a garland around the front door. The ornaments that were supposed to go on the tree went to the garland instead. Thankfully, everything's pretty tasteful and understated (in as much as a snowman in California is understated). No Mickey Mouse skating around beside Santa Claus, the baby Jesus, and a big cross with an inflatable snow globe and a Christmas tree in the background (yes, that's one of our neighborhood displays. Talk about tacky).

Hopefully next year we do get a tree. It was always fun putting it up, then my mother-in-law shooing us all away as she trimmed it. That was her baby.

It's a Sony

My friend recently lucked into a PS3 this past Tuesday. He was heading to Circuit City to pick up Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest when his wife called him up, telling him that Best Buy had the PS3 in stock. He immediately drove there, paid $50 for a pick up ticket, and scored a PS3. When he left, there were still 30 in stock.

Lucky bastard, huh? Except his kids really want a Wii. Whoops.

So, now, he just wants to return the PS3. He thought about putting it on eBay, but decided that it was more trouble than it was worth (plus he feels guilty about fleecing people). I told him to just sell it to our other friends.

I admire him for not succumbing to greed (i.e. selling it on eBay). Hopefully the good karma will net him a Wii before Christmas.