I am way too connected right now

So this is pretty ridiculous but I’m texting, listening to a netcast, on IRC, 4 instant messenger clients, have my email client open, am signed into Windows Live Mail, just twittered and am sort of watching TV.  I guess if I turn on the radio and make a phone call, I might just explode!  Oh and I just checked Myspace and will probably go to Facebook next.  Oh well…that’s all I’ve got.  Oh…and I guess I just blogged too!  LOL

Monday’s suck

Yeah, that’s not much of a topic because it isn’t like anyone is going to disagree unless it is one of their days off.  But today was just a special bonus bad day with a whole bunch of little silly things going wrong from morning until evening.  And, of course, I was tired.  I always end up staying up (sometimes out) too late on Saturday so that means I lay around all day on Sunday and sleep too much.  That, in turn, means that I can never go to sleep Sunday night and that, in turn, means I’m tired on Monday.  At least I got to watch some fresh Monday night entertainment tonight which is a good thing.  And I can’t really complain much about the weekend.  I had a good one and all of my favorite sports teams did well.  The Jayhawks won their football game though it wasn’t pretty.  The Cubs clinched their division and a spot in the playoffs and the Cowboys won for the first time ever in Green Bay and remain undefeated.  So maybe I’m not that unhappy.  Maybe I’m just lazy.  Yeah, I probably am…and that’s why I’m going to end this blog entry now.  More later…maybe.

I guess I’m in a cult now

So a while back I started thinking about getting a new phone.  I realized that I’d had my old one for almost 2 years and I figured I would get something new.  I must point out that I’ve always had pre-paid cell phones and I’ve been mostly pretty happy with that.  The last few years have been through Net10 and I recommend them highly.  It is a good no-nonsense provider with straightforward pricing and does the job of calling and texting just fine.  The bad thing about Net10 and most any other pre-paid company is that the phones are just not very exciting and I kind of wanted something exciting.

So I started looking at phones I could get with a contract and, of course, that opened up a whole new world of options, maybe just too many.  Touch-screen phones, smart phones, TV phones, texting phones, etc.  There are a mind-numbing number of options and I spent hours online reading up on them as well as watching dozens of youtube  videos demonstrating them.  Last week I decided to take the plunge and bought a shiny new Blackberry Curve via ATT.  It arrived from Amazon on Thursday and I’ve been playing around with it quite a bit ever since.  It can certainly do a lot of things, some of which I’ll probably never use, and I think I’m going to like having it.

Not only that but, short of springing for an iphone, it has a pretty high “cool-factor” and that’s a big change of pace for me.  Going from my little no-frills Nokia that wouldn’t impress the crowd at the Greyhound terminal to a Blackberry is kind of like trading up from a Chevy to a Mercedes and I’m not sure how I feel about that.  Other than that high-end stereo system I bought some 20 odd years ago, my “stuff” has always been pretty unexciting.  Cheap (mostly) functional devices that I used until they  completely wore out and then replaced with another similar device.  Now I can actually whip out my new phone and impress people.  But I’ve done it a few times now and I didn’t feel that good about doing it.  I just don’t think I’m good at showing off.

It also turns out that this “blackberry thing” is kind of a cult-like little world and now I’m in their cult.   I can check my email everywhere and thumb type my text message and become a “crackberry addict” and apparently this is considered cool too…or maybe just lame.  I think I might actually prefer it being considered lame and nerdy because I’m actually more comfortable with that role.  More on this as it develops.

Day Off

After working 9 of the last 10 days, I’m off 3 of the next 4 and one of them is tomorrow.  Not only am I off but I get paid and this is an extra large paycheck so I plan to enjoy myself this weekend.  Have been living on the frugal side for the better part of the last week so it will be nice to have some money.  Am multitasking tonight as I’m listening to the Linux Link Tech Show on a live stream and trying to keep an eye on the TV so I don’t miss the 200 meter race where the guy from Jamaica broke the World Record.  And I just vacuumed for a few minutes too.  Done eating so now I’ll just lay around and kill time until bed.  Probably get up early so I can get a few things done around the house and that will also keep me on an early-rising schedule since I have to get up Friday morning.  Besides, one of the PBS channels runs nothing but cooking shows early in the morning.  Anyway, perhaps I’ll have something more interesting to talk about tomorrow but not tonight.

Frozen Pizza

And so it was that I prepared for frozen pizza again.  Not much cash today but, no problem, there is always Totinos, the king of “poverty pizza.”  Actually it is pretty good in an icky sort of way.  I’m not fond of the saltine cracker crust as I prefer something a bit thicker and bread-like.  Nonetheless, two of these babies at $2.50 makes a very filling dinner and are a great deal.  What cheese is present actually tastes pretty good and the meat is, well, it is meat-like at least.

I’ve mentioned my love for frozen pizza before so maybe I’ll do a short review of some of my favorites.  I used to be strictly a Red Baron guy and I still enjoy their pizza but not as much as a few years back.  They seem to have started cutting corners and the cheese in particular is not as good.  I think that the DiGiorno is probably my favorite but it quite pricey and is hard to polish off in a single setting.  The DiGiorno Ultimate is probably the very best frozen pizza I’ve tried but it is rarely less than $6 so I don’t buy it much.  Tony’s or Jack’s make good compromise pies, neither painfully “awful” like Totinos or Genos but not great like the expensive brands.  They are a very good choice when they go on sale for $2 or less which happens pretty frequently around here.  Both have good cheese and toppings (particularly Jack’s) and Tony’s has a nice crust.  Tombstone used to be a distant second or third to Red Baron but I’ve come to enjoy their Pepperoni quite a bit.  It (along with Red Baron) is a good deal if you can get it for $3-4 and that is fairly common.  Freschetta is pretty close to DiGiorno when it comes to higher end stuff but I find it dough-ier so I tend to lean the other way.

As to toppings, I enjoy the Pepperoni, Sausage or Hamburger and often a meat or multi-cheese combination.  Contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate all vegetables but the ones most commonly scattered on a pizza like green peppers, onions, mushrooms and olives are near the bottom of my veggie list so I stick to the meat and cheese.  So there you have it.  My thoughts on frozen pizza.  I think I’m going to go eat one (or two) now.

Television

I used to really like television but I’m not so sure anymore.  I don’t watch a lot of it but it is usually on in the background when I’m home in the evening.  I don’t have cable (and, based on what I’ve seen recently, I’m not missing much) so I end up watching a lot of weird things.  I’ve expressed my obsession with cooking shows but I watch other bizarre things and I sometimes wonder if I’m the only one who is in the viewing audience.  Reruns of King of Queens, Family Guy, Two and a Half Men and Unhappily Ever After are the normal things.  The weird things are the strange little shows on PBS and Ion TV.  They have a couple of shows on there that are just odd.  Girls Gone Fishing which is basically a couple of pretty cute girls who (ta da) go fishing.  There is absolutely no reason to be watching this.  But I do.  Worse yet is Get Out which features usually three very hot girls in bikinis who have adventures doing crazy wild things like sky dive and feed monkeys.  And I watch it.  And you think you’ve got problems.  Oh well…I’m going to go watch some TV now.

Sunday thoughts

So, yeah, today was a lot like I expected and I got to meet exactly the sort of people I had hoped I wouldn’t.  That being said, I actually got a lot done and it was a pretty productive day and one less day I have to work this week.

So I’ve actually been watching the Olympics this year (and I guess I’m not the only one) and I haven’t really watched them much at all the last few times around.  Maybe it is just that there are more compelling storylines but I’m not sure.  I have actually caught myself standing and cheering a few times and being genuinely entertained so I guess part of it has simply been that the events have been competitive and fun to watch.  Too often sports aren’t as much fun as they should be.  All the “feel good” stories and exciting performances seem to end in some kind of disgrace or scandal.  Let’s just hope this one doesn’t.  I’m not usually an optimist but I don’t think it will.

So my birthday is less than 3 weeks away and I’ll be 45.  That sounds much older than 44 for some reason and I’m not all that thrilled with it.  And just two days ago, I completed 20 years of service at my job and I’ve thought about that a lot.  Very few people do anything for 20 years anymore and so I guess it is somewhat of an accomplishment.  Oddly enough, those years have seemed to fly by but I suppose that is life.  I can’t honestly say I regret having done what I’ve done but it does make you wonder about the road not taken.  I guess I have taken the “road less travelled” but I don’t really think that makes me better, just different.

So I’ve started every paragraph with “so” and I’ll do the same with this last one.  I am making a concerted effort to blog daily and this posting is a part of that.  I just don’t think I’m a very good blogger.  I always try to say too much or try to be just a little too clever.  And, given other blogs that I read, I try to be far too original.  Most postings seem to just point at something else that someone else has written and then make a smartass remark about it.  Oh well…I yam what I yam.

Back to School

No, I’m not going back to school.  Those days are long gone.  But it is that time and it is mixed blessing.  Working in the retail world, back to school means a lot of extra work and customers.  It is like a Christmas rush since most of the college students come back over a few days and half of them seem to stop in.  Thanks to their reappearance I get to work tomorrow (Sunday) instead of enjoying the rest of my weekend.  Worse yet, the “occasional shopper” tends to be richer, more impatient and just generally high maintenance.  They are often clueless about where anything is located and they often travel in packs, whether they need to or not, creating needless crowding.  Some are nice and understand that it is a busy time and there is simply not time to babysit them.  Others seem to think they are the only people on earth and insist on occupying your time and asking endless questions.  Now I don’t mind helping people.  That is a big part of my job.  But if you expect expert assistance, you might want to come in when it is  not wall-to-wall humanity.  I guess I could rant about our culture of entitlement and how the young are the worst at expecting everything for nothing and I guess I just did.  If you really require “hand-holding” to do your shopping, you should expect to pay for it, not go to a big box store where everything is cheap and there simply isn’t the staffing to do that.  But that isn’t how people think.  They want it all and they want it now.  Oh well.

On a positive note, back to school means all the little “rug rats” have to spend their days in cramped little classrooms instead of running around making a mess.  Ahhh, how I long for year-round boarding school!  And, of course, some of those college students are not bad to look at though, at my age, I’m starting to find the mothers more interesting than the daughters.  If only they could learn how to drive (or better yet not drive) in this town, they would be a lot more appealing.

Oh well, I’ll survive.  I’ve done this for 20 years and starting my 21st year tomorrow means a raise and extra pay for doing my thing on Sunday.  Wish me luck…or, better yet, patience.

Top 10 Guilty Pleasures

So this idea just popped into my head. Thought I’d think about all the things I like that I probably shouldn’t. I guess I’ll make it into a Top 10 because, frankly, I’ve got about a hundred guilty pleasures that I could throw in here.

1. Cheap Beer – So this is kind of a new one. In the last year or two, I’ve become a guy who drinks beer. I used to go for the cocktail thing but, lately, I’ve leaned towards the suds. And I’m far from a “beer snob” as I’ve discovered I’ll pretty much drink anything. I usually stick to something slightly classy (if you call Budweiser classy) when I go out but pretty much anything goes when I pick something up for my home consumption. Been picking up 12-packs of “the Beast” lately at the local grocery store and it pretty much does the job. Let’s be honest. I’m just looking for a cool beverage and a little buzz and if I can do it for 25 cents a can, all the better.

2. Bad Girls – Yeah, this one is probably pretty common but that doesn’t make it right. Give me a girl who’s made a sex tape or gone to jail or rehab and I’m probably going to think she’s hot. Paris, Britney, Lindsey…got to love ‘em all. I’ve become rather obsessed with Kim Kardashian lately and she’s obviously not a “nun in training.” I have to say that I find “nice girls” pretty uninteresting, even if they have plenty of wonderful personal qualities. Probably why I’m still single.

3. Frozen Pizza – I have to confess that I eat frozen pizza at least 3 times a week and I have for many years. Partly it is because I am terribly lazy and all I have to do is throw it in the oven and enjoy the cheesy goodness 10 or 15 minutes later. But I actually like it. And I’ve eaten them all. I could write a blog just on the many variations of frozen pizza out there (and I might) and the various pros and cons of each. Oh yeah…and it’s cheap. Hmmm…seems to be a trend here.

4. Las Vegas – This one is pretty obvious if you’ve read any of the rest of my blogs but that doesn’t make it any less real. Good Lord…I’ve visited Vegas fifteen times. I don’t even know if I’ve visited my family that many times in the same time frame. I think I’ve figured out that I have slept in the state of Nevada something like 75 nights in the last 10 odd years. And it isn’t like I really do anything all that interesting when I’m there. I really need a hobby.

5. Cooking shows – OK…I can’t really explain this. I’ll pretty much watch any program where people are cooking. I’ve been that way since I was a little kid when I used to watch the French Chef and the Galloping Gourmet. And I don’t really cook. At least not very often. I just find them fascinating and I probably always will.

6. Naps – So I’ve gotten to the point where I can pretty much sleep anywhere or anytime and, when the opportunity presents itself, I do. In fact, I don’t so much sleep normally anymore. I just take a series of naps. It has totally messed up any sort of normal sleep schedule and I can’t recommend that anyone else take up this practice. It is at its worse on the weekends and it makes Monday an even longer day than usual.

7. Abusing my computer – No, I don’t go around striking it with a hammer or subjecting it to any sort of physical abuse. I just can’t leave well enough alone. I’m constantly tweaking settings and reinstalling things and changing operating systems and it just can’t be all that good for the poor thing. I’ll probably get a new system next year and, if this one survives until then, it will have been some sort of miracle.

8. Podcasts – Honestly, I can sit around and listen to people babble on about things for hours and hours, particularly if it something I am interested in. Talk radio is too full of idiots and I mostly want to slap them. But, on the internet, I can pick and choose what I want to listen to and avoid the idiots. So I do. Probably listen to 10-12 hours a week of podcasts and it keeps getting worse.

9. Neglect – I have a remarkable ability (dis-ability) to ignore things. I don’t clean enough. I don’t fix things that break. I even neglect people that I should spend more time with than I do. Then, when I finally do get around to doing what I should have been doing all along, it is always harder and more involved than it needs to be. I really need to work on this one.

10. Making lists – Somehow I feel like I am accomplishing something if I write down a list. See, I’m doing it again. But really, it is just a way to waste time and I’m very good at that. And, worse yet, I often don’t even get around to finishing them. Oh well, at least I finished this one.

A week with Slackware

Been doing my best to use my expanded hard drive space to install and monitor most of the major Linux distros. Currently, I’ve got Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Mint and both Debian stable and testing up and functioning and maybe I’ll even get around to reviewing one of them someday. I’ve also got Windows XP running nicely in a little Virtual Box where it can’t really hurt anyone. A few weeks back, I decided that it was time to put in some time and get Slackware up and running again. I’ve used it a few times before but never spent much time with it and decided that, once I got it installed, I was going to spend a week living in Slackware.

So how did it go? Pretty well. As a confirmed Debian user/fan, Slackware is a big change of pace. I love using aptitude to update my system and Slackware has nothing official like that to perform updates. That being said, I like the purity of Slackware. While Debian likes to patch and tweak everything, Slackware pretty much takes the upstream packages and works with them. Sometimes the second approach seems like the more sensible one. I can’t really say that I found Slackware particularly fast (as opposed to say Gentoo or Arch) but it does feel very solid and I do like that.

I’m not a huge KDE fan and so I decided to play around with some alternative desktops. In particular, I installed Enlightenment (E17) which was not a particularly easy thing to do but made much simpler by the folks at SlackBuilds.org. This is really great source of additional Slackware packages and a wonderful addition to the Slackware community. Took some time but I got E17 up and running. I’m not really sure how much I like it but there is definitely potential.

That being said, I’m back using Debian (mostly testing) and haven’t spent much time on Slackware since that week. On the other hand, I feel very comfortable in saying that Slackware is still a very viable distro and, if you’ve never tried it, you should give it a chance. You may not love it but you’ll learn a lot about Linux and that alone is worth it.