Well then.
Guess who got a $1/hour raise yesterday! Nono, go ahead, I’ll wait *plays Jeopardy music* January was apparently our best month on record, so I’m not incredibly surprised that the raise came now. I’ve been here for almost a year and a half, and other than the occasional nerve-wrecking period, it’s been fantastic. Hopefully the rest of this year is great too. It’d be nice to end up with a big Christmas bonus to match my shiny new paycheck :D
Eddy and I had planned to start using the fitness center at my complex yesterday, but because of some incredibly dumb decision making, the only access to the gym is inside the “clubhouse,” which is only accessible through the leasing office. So the “brand new fitness center” they’re touting as one of the great reasons to move into the complex is only open 8am-5pm each day. Granted, we could still go use it on the weekends, but honestly? Who the hell wants to work out on the weekends, and only the weekends? Anyone who’s got a regular job (yanno, to pay that pesky rent) won’t be able to use the gym. It must be nice for them, that they never have to go in and clean anything, since nobody can use it. This makes me want to put on my shit-kicker boots and go stomp some sense into these people DX The complex itself is not bad. It’s not fantastic, but it’s not bad, and I really do like my place. But some of the policies and decisions make me wonder if the management has any clue what they’re doing, outside of taking our money.
So, in an attempt to start up some sort of exercise routine, I’m hunting Craigslist Atlanta, and various places online for a recumbent bike. Kelly has been getting great results from hers, and while, granted, I won’t be able to have the same awesome setup as she does (spinning and computer gaming at the same time!) I’ll be able to work out at home, while I’m watching tv or reading. Sounds great to me! I may go out and run a couple miles every now and then once I get back into the groove, but I don’t see that happening often. But I bought the first new pair of tennis shoes I’ve had in like…five or six years, I think? Yeah. I’ve been wearing the ones I had since about a year before I sep’d. I used to do unit runs in these things for cripes’ sake! :p It’s amazing how happy my feet are now now that they have nice springy new kicks. New insoles and everything *bouncybouncy* And New Balance still rocks the casbah. I’ve loved their shoes since I was issued my first pair on boot camp.
FridaySaturday is gaming with the boys (DJ Weasel and Metalepsis) & co. for the first time since December. I definitely think I’m way overdue for some purple-dreadlocked-halfling-ninja goodness, and it’ll be a nice change of pace from the usual Friday “come home from work and veg out on the computer” gig. Went and hung out with them for a bit last Friday. Watched the two Grindhouse movies On Demand. They were…weird. But very fun. Kinda makes me wish I’d gone and seen the double feature when it was in theaters.
And that’s pretty much it. Tweaking is mostly done on the website, though I think I may actually add static info pages for the handful of characters that I mention occasionally *shrugs* It’s my blog, right? Might as well have some junk up here that’s pretty much solely for me :)
No baby for me! I’m safe until next year! :D
Our shop was introduced to the (slightly belated) Mardi Gras tradition of the New Orleans King Cake. It’s a kind of more a coffee cake, wherein a small plastic baby is hidden, and whoever gets the baby (hopefully before biting into it) buys the cake the next year. Fun and very, very tasty! I think about two thirds of the cake is gone so far, and nobody’s ‘fessed up yet, so I might think twice before having seconds. This pastry goodness is apparently not cheap.
Meet Joe Black is on the Sci Fi channel right now. I have never seen the entire movie in one sitting, but I love every scene I’ve ever…um..seen. It’s an incredible story. This is the movie that made me love Brad Pitt, in spite of the fact that I’ve never been a fan of the “golden boy” look. His mannerisms and his voice are enthralling in this role.
“Then tell me, Joe, how come a man as attractive, intelligent, well-spoken, diffident in the most seductive way, and yet powerful, is all alone in this world?”
*shudders* I need to just go out and buy it already.
I’ve had my ipod since May of 2005. It’s a drab little white 20Gb Gen3. It has no color, and no video. But despite being the single most heavily-used piece of electronic equipment I own (other than my computer), it gave me no real problems until November of last year. When I’d first gotten, we had the foresight to buy the three year protection plan that Best Buy offers, so when the harddrive finally decided it’d had enough, I was covered. Rather than wait the 2-3 weeks to have it — fondly referred to as Ishi, after the Ghost In the Shell character, Ishkikawa — fixed, I opted to have it replaced with a refurbished unit. Unfortunately, “refurbished” doesn’t necessarily equal “fixed,” and the new ipod (Ishi II) almost immediately began displaying quirks similar to the old one shortly before it had kicked the bucket.
I actually ended up not using it at all from Thanksgiving to New Year because local radio stations were playing Christmas music (and I loff eet! <3). But the first or second day I hooked it back up in the car, it gave me the sad little dead ipod face, and hasn't worked since. For various reasons, I haven't had a chance to go back and have it fixed/replaced again, but that's beside the point.
The actual point of this entry is that I’m trying to figure out what I want to do when my warantee expires. I’ve already checked to see if I’ll be allowed to renew it, and that’s a no-go, so I’ll pretty much be on my own if problems arise in the future. I’m halfway over the fence toward getting a newer model altogether, and donating my current one to some — shall we say, “charitable cause.”
I’m not really looking for anything fancy — just something I can fit my entire music library on (it has only breached the 20Gb mark in the last few months). Friends have an occasional chuckle over the fact that, from time to time, I’ll randomly discover music in my library that I didn’t know was there, or that I hadn’t actually listened to before. For me, though, that’s one of the best parts about having an ipod. I can set it to random and listen — literally — for days. Yeah, not all of it is fantastic, and some of it I’ve listened to until the notes ooze out my ears, but regardless of whether I’ve heard it a million times or never, it’s something different everytime I plug it in.
So what exactly does the current market have to offer me? I went in, wanting an upgrade compared what I have now, but nothing crazy. The iPhone is certainly a fine piece of hardware, but a) I’ve got a phone already (did, in fact, just recently get a new one), b) wouldn’t want to pay the fees every month just to be able to use an iphone, and c) have had enough experience with handheld electronics to know I don’t want my phone and my music player eating up the same battery. Plus, the largest capacity iphone available right now is only 8Gb. If I’m going to pay $400 for something like that, it would need a little more substantial storage space. I’m not saying it’s not an awesome bit of technology, and I’m not saying I’d never buy one. I’m just saying something like the iTouch (ipod Touch, whatever :p) is more attractive to me right now because the phone features aren’t. And even the Touch is sorely lacking in the hard drive arena. So it would appear that I’m stuck with the ipod “Classic” if I’m looking to upgrade, at least for the time being. With a minimum (these days) capacity of 80Gb, it’s hands-down teh winnar!, even if the price hasn’t come down any since the haydays of my little Ishi.
This all leaves me wondering, however, if it’s part of their marketing strategy to introduce new models of products into the market, and then phase out “older” ones so they don’t have to lower prices any. I could be perfectly happy with a 60Gb ipod. Hell, I don’t even really care all that much about the video feature that’s now standard. As far as the music is concerned — and really, wasn’t that the point of the ipod from the beginning? — my only real concern is storage space. I’ve begun my first forays into the Zune world to see what that’s all about. I’ve heard good things, but I think I’ll wait for the research to really get under way before I make any judgements of my own. I have really enjoyed Ishi while I’ve had it, but who knows? Maybe I’ll end up making the switch.
