Cocktail Confessions

The last few days have been a whirlwind of small personal triumphs (I’ll take them where I can get them, thank you) and frustrating moments.  Most everything here deserves a small entry in their own right, and perhaps I’ll expand on some of them in the coming days.  It all really depends on how busy I am at work, or for that matter how bored I am…which has been the predominant theme as of late:

-         My weight loss plan started out good, but came to a stall this past week.  After five weeks of eating semi-solid food (oh, how I miss the ‘crunch’), riding the bike more often at the gym, and trying to really monitor my overall diet amongst other things, I’ve lost just shy of 12 pounds.  But this past week I lost nothing at all which is a little disheartening, but no reason to get into a tizzy just yet.  I did have a few drinks over the weekend, but I don’t think enough to ruin my regime; but then again since I didn’t lose anything at all, so maybe it did after all.  The other issue is that my shoulder has been nagging me again and causing some slight discomfort overall.

-         I was able to make roughly 7 lbs of sausage, over the weekend, and brought some over to my buddies house yesterday for Super Bowl.  Not sure if they may have been grilled on the BBQ a little too long, but despite great flavor, they were a tad bit dry.  That’s weird, because with the left over meat that I didn’t stuff in a casing, I made a patty which was very juicy.  It was a lot of work, and while not my best sausage to date, the effort involved after not making for close to 6 years still was an accomplishment in my book.

-         Made my way over to Home Depot on Saturday and bought a lot of wood to start my train layout bench work.  On the downside, however, their arm saw was broken so I didn’t get any cut plywood that would have been the base of my layout, nor did I get any pink extruded foam because despite the online website stating they carry it, when I was there in person, they told me they didn’t.

-         My wife said that her sink at her vanity in the master bathroom was leaking.  A leak I can’t yet find, but there was water about underneath and onto the carpet.  Yet another item that needs to be fixed at the house that I wasn’t expecting.  Sigh.

-         My 7.5 year old plasma TV died on Sunday.  While I’m excited to buy a new TV, we weren’t planning on it until the end of the year when we had more money.  Another untimely expense in my book.

-         My job has been sucking bad this past week.  I’m at an all time low for morale right now.  My managers (yes, plural), cannot make a decision or a stand on anything if their life depended on it.  It is so frustrating to work under those who can’t commit to anything and seem wishy-washy on anything thrown their way.  I wake up in the mornings imagining ways to get out early or to look busy, but neither I nor my wife are in a position to quit right now.

-         The Motorola Xoom tablet is going to be too expensive for me to purchase here in the next few weeks.  Rumor has it that it will retail for $799.  As much as I would like one, I can’t justify that price right now, especially with a dead television that is going to be replaced.

-         I am reading a lot again.  Not my comics that I used to enjoy so much, but I’m plugging away at hardcover books (especially used ones I get from the second hand market) as of late. 

-         My efforts in organizing a camping trip with friends has been dashed due to my friends inability (sorry guys if you’re reading this) to agree on a date.  In my final attempt, I threw out 3 separate dates for April/May coming up (3 months advance notice at that), and no one has responded.  I give up.

-         Saturday, March 12^th, I have a date to brew beer up in Huntington Beach.  Another mark in the ‘Win’ column for my 2011 bucket list.

-         Looks like there’s going to be some turn over in my neighborhood.  One neighbor has finally had their house reposed by the bank (I won’t miss them), but my next door neighbors just told me they are trying to sell their house via ‘short sale’ which means it’s a gamble on who it may attract.  I like my neighbors now…they are nice and quiet and even younger than us.  The potential outcome is making me a tad nervous.

Well, for right now I’m holding off on getting a new Droid phone.  As much as I would like to get the Droid X, my current Motorola Droid (gen 1) is only 9 months old and I can’t justify in my mind spending the money on a new flavor just to say I have the latest and greatest.  I’d personally feel more grateful internally if I can last a whole year before I actually upgrade, and I may even get lucky and get the Droid X at a slightly cheaper price anyway.

But as these things go, I suppose as soon as I get the Droid X, a new Android phone will be announced that will even be better.  On the bright side, the long awaited update, Froyo (aka 2.2), is supposed to drop OTC this week which mean Flash is just around the corner.

And despite all those people that have the iPhone, a report was issued today stating that in North America, out of all the smart phones, that the Android OS is the most widely distributed.

Doesn’t Lady Gaga look like Marilyn Manson?  I don’t know why, but in this pick I can’t help but think that she does.  I don’t think she’s all that great looking, but she has a new spread in Vanity Fair this month, and it’s the best I’ve ever seen her (BTW: this isn’t one of the pics).  Me thinks she had plastic surgery in the past…..in the nose region.

Had a wonderful smoked brisket this weekend.  It was a lot of work, but my friends seemed to enjoy it pretty well and gave me accolades for my efforts.  It’s definitely a social thing though, and would benefit a group of guys hanging around sharing a case of beer and stories all day than doing it solo.  I took plenty of video’s and pictures of the process, and I hope to have those up soon here and on YouTube.

Speaking of which, my friend Brian made an excellent potato salad with blue cheese, chipotle, and smoked paprika amongst other ingredients and it was delicious.  He said he’d give me the recipe and I’ll post here in the future as well.

Er, why does Lindsay Lohan get released after 14 days of her 90 day sentence?  If it were any Joe Blow or Jane Doe, we’d serve the full time.  Pisses me off, this double-standard crap that so-called spoiled celebrities get to take advantage of.  It’s crap on all levels.

Worked on a HO structure model this Sunday during my personal down time.  I love my hobby of model building for trains.  It’s fun and relaxing, although it can be a long and arduous process.  Wish I had a bit more money so I could start my benchwork for my layout.

Started a new book: “The Art of Racing in the Rain”.  It’s a novel whose story is told through the eyes and soul of a 13 year old yellow Labrador.  Very touching and moving.  Dare I say I’ve already been moved to tears after the opening chapter?  I’ve been reading more books lately based on animals and have been enjoying them immensely.  I just finished ‘Dog Town’, based on true account of the Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah.

Finally, I really need to start my diet as of yesterday.  I have approx 2.5 months to drop close to 15 lbs for a wedding in which I am the best man.  I had an excellent meal and beer fest this past Saturday, so the last two days I’m just drinking water, coffee, and ice tea.

possible Droid 'Shadow' seen in the wild.

It’s been a little while since I last did a technology posting here.  As a matter of fact some of my recent free time has been occupied by my continual research into ‘share & shoot’ flash camcorders (but that’s another post).  However, I was squealing like a little school girl today when a few ‘leaked’ images of the upcoming Droid II surfaced on the web today as well as some of its rumored specs.

Now, first and foremost, remember, the keywords here are ‘rumored’ and ‘leaked’ and may not be the final product released.  As happens many times, there are pre-production prototypes shopped around and tweaked before things go golden and make it to the public, but everything I see so far looks very promising.

The only major drawback is that I just got my original Droid back in the late November or early December time frame making my device only about six months old.  When I got my phone, I signed a new two year contract which makes me ineligible for a free upgrade for at least 18 months as of this writing, unless I want to pay a small penalty and upgrade when it does come out ‘possibly’ this summer.

Just when the HTC Incredible made me green with envy, the new Droid, aka ‘Shadow’ looks even more impressive than the current hard to find HTC.  So without further ado, let us all begin to salivate on Droid’s upcoming big brother:

• 4.1 or 4.3″ TFT screen (this replaces Droid’s current 3.7″ screen).
• Possible that the current prcessor will be dropped for either a 1GHz Snapdragon or a 720MHz OMAP3630 which is an upgrade from the current Droid 3430 (this new chip will reduce overall power consumption).
• It’s rumored to be 9mm thick which indicates the physical keboard will now be gone thus making it lighter.  Not sure I like this myself as I tend to fat-finger using the touch screen and often find myself using the slide out keyboard out of habit now.
• Motorola Motoblur will be included which is an intergrated front end UI that melds many of the popular social networking services (Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, etc) into one sign on account.  Also look for an optical trackball like the newer HTC models are sporting.
• It will most likely launch with Android OS 2.2, codenamed Froyo, but if you have a regular Droid or like phone most everyone will be getting this upgrade OTA in the coming weeks anyway, so it’s not really a selling point to me.
• Kinda vague, but I’ve seen reports of anywhere between 2 and 8 GB of internal memory.
• The camera will be upgraded from 5 MP to 8 MP with 720p video recording.
• An exciting new feature is the ability for 1080p output via a HDMI port.

*Note HDMI port and overall thickness.

If it indeed released this summer (meaning next 2-3 months) that will make my current Droid only about 8 or 9 months old.  It’s a pretty significant upgrade and I feel like I was one of the last people to jump on the smart phone bandwagon.  I use my Droid and many of its built in apps daily, especially the maps and GPS functions.  I like Buzz and gmail contacts and messaging a lot, so do I dare spend the money?  But as these things tend to go, and more and more often than before, whatever current flavor of the month is, it will soon be made obsolete by the newest and slickest phone just around the corner.

Anyway, your thoughts?

Today is December 18th, 2009….and I’m bored out of my skull.  I stare at the clock and realize that I have just under four hours before my shift ends, and it days like this that seem like time stands still.  The four hours will feel like six and in a two hours from now it will feel like eight.

It’s Friday and I have other things on my mind right now…like finishing some last minute Christmas shopping, going to the grocery store to buy for a Christmas Eve meal I am preparing for my family, wrapping the last few presents, a load or two of laundry, and of course a final cleaning of the house before my relatives arrive.

It’s hard to look busy at work when the phone is silent and the whole staff is here and your boss sits only a few feet away.  I tap furiously here at the keyboard taking a break every few minutes to see if there is any ‘breaking’ news on CNN or FoxNews.  It’s more or less the same crap as it was an hour ago, and pretty much the same crap as this morning.  You know you’re bored when as a guy you start reading the ‘Living’ sections as I seem to muse that I am discovering some feminine side of my psyche buried deep within the recess of my mind.

As of today I haven’t had a drink in 2 weeks.  Yup, not once of alcohol in 13 days.  Oh, I haven’t stopped drinking by any means, it’s just I wanted to try a small experiment on myself.  See I went to the gym two weeks ago and I was very forlorn to learn that I gained all the weight back I had recently lost, most likely due to a few recent hop and barley induced binges.  So, I wanted to see how much weight I would actually lose naturally if I cut out all alcohol until Christmas Eve, or a total of 19 days.  Today is day 13, and while I have yet to weigh myself (most likely tomorrow), I actually do feel better and do feel ‘skinnier’.  Now since I haven’t actually weighed myself, I really don’t know if I lost anything or not, but it ‘feels’ like I did.  There have been a few days (okay, at least two that I can recall) that I really was jonseing a stiff drink or a beer, but I didn’t cave.  Hopefully I won’t cave tonight, but I have a feeling I may have at least 1 or two beers with my friend Jon.  After work we may go to a wine bar that serves craft beers and the only way I can avoid his mocking scorn and my own temptation is if I do not actually go.

Oh, last week I went to a bar with a bunch of my friends and I got a healthy dose of razzing for not imbibing in at least one drink.  I don’t blame them or am mad at all…I’m usually the first to have a drink and a decent tolerance.  It should be interesting to see how I do if I hold out until Christmas Eve.

In other things….I am loving my new Motorola Droid.  It really is a fun phone and I get a chance to Face Book and chat with a few friends throughout the day.  The Google map and GPS feature is really fun and interesting, especially since I added an account with FourSquare.com.

Lastly, as I type this, I am using my Droid to listen to LastFM.com and streaming Daft Punk radio.  This thing is awesome in that respect that I have a 24 hour, real time DJ to any type of music genre I can think of, commercial free.  Dare I say it’s even better than my Sirius satellite radio?  Yes, it is.  It’s pretty awesome that I also have this as an app on my XBox 360, so I can stream the same radio content through my home stereo that is hooked up to my game console.

Update on my Ford Sync and Droid issue…

Well, the Internet is a smart thing and after a brief perusing of some forums, I see that I wasn’t the only one having issues ‘sync’-ing there new Droid with MS Sync in Ford cars.  It appears this is a know issue and various reports share that there is a ‘rumored’ fix coming Dec 11 in the form of a patch.

However, after a bit more digging, I did discover there is an alernate Motorola pairing code that uses four digits instead of Sync preferable 6 digits.  The good news?  Well, after fiddling with teh menu option on my steering wheel, I discovered a ‘Special’ PIN number on my Ford Edge, and once entered into my Motorola Droid…..VOILA…it works!

Granted, I’ll feel much better when both the Droid patch comes out in a few weeks AND I get Ford to upgrade my Sync firmware to what it actually should be, and not the version that is currently installed when I bought my car two years ago.  But for now, it appears I got the Bluetooth to now work.

Well, against better financial judgement I broke down and finally upgraded my cell phone after almost 3 years of using my sturdy and reliable LG. 

I went ahead and purchased myself a Smartphone, and a new Motorola “Droid” at that.  I went with the Droid as it comes pre-installed with Android OS 2.0 (Eclair) by those nifty tech heads over at Google.  Also, being my first smart phone required me to get my very first data plan as well.  Thank goodness the company I work for has a corporate account with Verizon as it affords me a nice monthly discount as well on both voice and data.

I’m still getting used to the phone.  It’s much bigger than my LG workhorse, and of course more expensive, and most likely more fragile.  So far, I love it.  It has a lot of nifty features and I’m really digging the GPS with turn-by-turn instructions and live traffic reports.  The way it handles contacts is pretty cool tool, either via the phone interface or a gmail account, and updates pretty much on the fly.  I also enabled Latitudewhich will allow me to track and locate my friends if they so choose.  I can also update my Facebook and have access to a lot of apps, although I suspect most are junk or duplicates and up to this point I’ve never used any, so I can’t really think of too much of a need to start going app crazy now like Apple-heads do.

However, one cool app that of course made it to my Droid is ’10001 Cocktails’.  As the app describes itself: “Put the bartender in your pocket!  Browse and search thousands of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink recipes on the shot-cocktail-recipe.com website!  Add fresh drink ideas and drink reviews and save your favorite drinks to your personal list.”  Don’t think I won’t!

As far as using my new phone as my MP3 player and viewing YouTube videos….well, not yet.  I’m still hoping to get a new Zune HD in the coming months.

The only drawbacks so far to my new toy is that battery life (when in use and not in standby mode) seems to get sucked dry faster then Motorola would like you to believe it does.  Also, the Bluetooth cannot sync with my Ford Sync yet…that may be a firmware issue on Ford’s part though.  The last 3 attempts at updating my Sync at the dealership, the machine has been ‘down’.  Ugh.  I mean the phone’s Bluetooth works great…I already paired it with my old Motorola headset just fine…I just can’t get it working with my car stereo yet.

Now in a completely different and unrelated tech issue, my XBox took a dump on me late last week.  I got the dreaded RROD (Red Ring of Death) which signifies an internal hardware error that is most likely attributed to a faulty design when it comes to dispersing the temperature inside the console.  So the bad news is my XBox has been shipped back to Microsoft and may not have it for the next 3-4 weeks….Awesome, just in time for Christmas and my holiday break where I’ll get all these new games I can’t play.  The good news is that it is still under warranty and Microsoft is supposed to fix it for free.  So it shipped out Monday this week.  I’ll just have to cross my fingers and make sure it gets back new and improved in 3 weeks.