I don’t have anything personally against Hardees, but I really don’t see how they are in business still… This whole plot to re-invent themselves with the giant burgers made of 100% angus is interesting, but if you can’t even eat it without the bun falling a part or getting so soggy in mayo that the meat slips out into your lap, it kind of defeats the purpose.
It seems like every couple years, the gadget cycle starts up again. My cell phone, the Sony-Ericsson t68i has been replaced by a succesor (and I’ve decided just to cancel service all together), the digital camera– a Sony DSC-S75 with it’s 3.3 megapixel resolution is now begging to be replaced by a Canon Digital Rebel or something more powerful, my Panasonic PV DV-401 video camera which was once one of the smaller cameras in existance is also seeming pretty antiquated and even my fairly new h1915 iPaq PDA is starting to show it’s age. On top of it all, my laptop, a Dell 1.13ghz Inspiron 8100 is now feeling pretty slow compared to computers that almost triple it’s speed. Yes, I find myself at the end of one gadget cycle and wanting to begin another.
I think it would be cool if there was a plan you could get on that would always assure you to have the latest and greatest gadgets. You pay a certain amount each month and when a new model comes out (either that or at a set interval) you are automatically upgraded to the newer device when you send in your old one. It wouldn’t be a lease–you’d own them so if you broke it or lost it, oh well, that’s the end of that. I’m sure there’d be a market for this type of plan… anyone know of a company that does it already?
It seems like there is hardly any time for just sitting around and visiting anymore. With work, family and the Internet and everything else that seems to come up, it’s a rare moment that I find time to relax and get to know someone better.
Tonight I had the opportunity do so and it was great. I met a guy about 55 years old, into Cadillacs. His wife recently broke her shoulder and was recovering. Nothing extraordinary, but it really felt good to just sit down and have some time to talk to someone without everything else getting in the way.
Try it sometime. It’s nice.
Tonight I bought a 160gb hard drive from CompUSA (80 bucks after rebates for the next couple days) and attempted to install it. Isn’t it funny how if you know how to use a computer for anything, ignorant people automatically assume you know how to do everything on computers? Well, I feel sorry for the ignorant person who asks me to help them with a hardware issue… especially if for some strange reason I agree to help them.
Let’s just say tomorrow I’ll be visiting a computer store buying a new wire–you know, the wide fat one, and not the wide flat one with 40 wires, it has to have 80. Soon, I’ll also be reviewing Upgrading and Repairing PC’s, a book whose content many have helped me avoid my present dilemna.
Every once in awhile, a few good lists are called for.
Tunes I’ve bought on iTunes Recently:
The Chimbley Sweep – The Decemberists
You Raise Me Up – Josh Groban
Fallen – Sarah McLachlan
A Sorta Fairytale – Tori Amos
Upward Over the Mountain – Iron & Wine
Pop Stars – Rooney
Float On – Modest Mouse
Reasons I’m thankful for our Election Process here in the US: (a.k.a. Countries I’m not up for Visiting Right Now)
1. Venezuela
2. Haiti
3. Iran
Most Clicked Program Icons (as of recent)
1. Firefox
2. Flash
3. Photoshop
4. jEdit
5. Dreamweaver
Things I feel like Buying
iPod Mini
External 120gb Firewire Hard drive
Nissan Murano
Alienware Desktop Compter (to replace my dinosaur)
Words/Phrases I’m Tired of Hearing
Vietnam (thank you John Kerry)
Homosexual ‘Marriage’ (thank you California)
Macromedia Central (thank you every-single-flash-blog on the Internet)
SCO (thank you SCO)
And… that’s about all I have to say about that.
Today I added a quick links section on the left hand side of this site. It’s a separate blog that I can post quick, interesting links to as I find them without creating a whole new entry in the main blog. Inspired by WhatDoIKnow.
I need to sleep more and play less…
Here’s a link to the news sites I read… it’s on bloglines, a very good online aggregator.
http://www.bloglines.com/public/zzzmarcus
Enjoy.
If you’re a guy in the US (possibly elsewhere, and maybe if you’re a girl too, I can only speak for my own sex & country), and if you’ve ever had any tendency to collect anything at all, you’ve probably collected (or at least been tempted to collect) Hot Wheels. I’m not sure what it is about this toy, but it’s the one toy I haven’t been able to resist since I was 3 years old. Tonight at Target I bought one, and I have a secret stash in my closet (including some pretty old ones from when I was a kid).
I’m not positive why they’re so addictive, but from what I can tell, it’s a combination of these things (in no particular order):
1. Price – you can’t beat $.80 for just about anything.
2. They feel solid. They’re made of metal and they don’t break if you drop them. I think most people are generally attracted to things that feel nice and solid, like Hot Wheels do.
3. They’re universal. Everyone drives or rides in car or at least is around people who drive cars.
4. They’re marketed by Ford, Toyota, Ferrari and about every other ‘real’ car maker in the country. Not directly, but all that marketing hype transfers pretty well over to the miniature versions of their products; which brings me to the next step.
5. They’re small. Unlike model trains, transformers, guns or skateboards, you can keep a collection of Hot Wheels in a box under your bed and still have room for all the other stuff you have under your bed. Maybe that’s why people still collect stamps too :).
Now I’m going to set about planning my next entry, thinking of a product that will be equally appealing to the young and old alike for years and years and that will eventually make me rich :).
Finally, I’m no longer using the default Movable Type design for the front page! This one is probably not going to last a long time, but it’s at least something a little more interesting.
The default Movable Type templates are all CSS and use only one table for the calendar. I’m not ready to spend the time to design the site without tables yet, but that definitely is in the future. I also have tons of ideas for future features… all in good time.
Being a web designer/developer is addictive! I’m not sure what it is that causes it, but once you’re in, you’re in and there’s no way of getting out (even if you want to). It seems like if a couple months pass by and I haven’t designed a new site, I’ll find myself randomly thinking of ideas for sites to start. The difference between this type of pondering and other random thoughts is that with websites, they actually get created. It’s weird. It’s not so bad if it’s just a site or two here or there, or a site for a paying client, but it seems like that’s rarely how it happens. At least that’s not how it’s been for me.
Currently I find myself supporting several not-for-profit personal websites. This weblog is one, I posted a like to my cheesy personal site and then there’s the mandatory family site and the very outdated business site not to mention a couple sites that are still waiting to be developed and of course the longboarding site-gone-wild that now has a forum with over 60,000 posts in it. Those are just some of the ones that I run for ‘fun’… getting into clients is a whole different story.
So, a word of warning, if you’re going to get into web design, just make sure that you know what you’re doing. It’s not a hobby, not a profession, it’s an addiction.