Welcome to another fine (albeit snowy) Snippet Wednesday. I'd also like to wish a Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends out there! Shalom!
Celebrations
On the topic of holidays, I have to apologize to some of my family. My recent spate of non-posting led to me not wishing some happiness to my family members. Back on November 21 was my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! And Monday was my brother's 32 birthday. Happy birthday, old man. I love you all and am sorry.
Run
Yesterday morning, due to bad planning, I didn't get to work out. I was dragging all day long. I could've worked out in the afternoon, but I just didn't feel like it. Wow, I've become a total morning workout person. I need to do it to stay awake. Anyway, so I made up for it this morning by running. Took a completely new route through the neighborhood and kept at it despite the dusting of snow we received overnight and the biting cold outside. I ran 3.09 miles total and that final 1.09 felt incredible. If I'd had more time, I think I could've kept going another couple miles without a problem. Of course, when I actually do have the time, I never feel like keeping going. Know what I mean? Oh, and in case you're wondering why the oddball distance, that's when I happened to get back to my driveway and it also balances my total run distance in the Nike+ GPS app at 26 miles even. Yep! I've almost run a full marathon (never mind that it took 9 or 10 individual runs to get there; we won't mention that).
Tweets
I Tweeted something today about some topic or other, blah, blah, blah. But it seemingly resonated with a few people as I got replies back from a couple friends that, when viewed in the mentions column of Tweetdeck, looked like this...
Yeah. I totally am. ;-) (no ego there, eh?)
Egypt
In response to the retiring of both the Indiana Jones and Prince of Persia lines of LEGO sets, the company has released a whole new series called Pharaoh's Quest. Sure, they may not be 100% faithful to Egyptology, but they're pretty darn cool. You can never have too many mummies!
And for those of you who watch The Walking Dead, there is a figure in one of the sets that I think is a total brick doppelgänger for Shane. Uncanny, ain't it? Well, yanno, for being non-contoured and yellow and really small and all that.
Slider
Someone at work brought in some White Castle Sliders for their lunch. We had been talking about it before he got them and I mentioned that I haven't eaten a Slider since I was about five years old. Considering I turn 36 on Sunday, that's a helluva long time. He thought it necessary that I try one again.
Well, that box arrived and I took one whiff and realized exactly why it's been 31 years since I've had one. I call it Gag-Reflex-Inducing-Scent or Eau de Crap. My sense of smell is still struggling to recover.
For many years, Katie and I have been using a tiny little food processor for our kitchen chopping needs. It's a great food processor, don't get me wrong... just really small. If we were ever prepping a large amount of food, we'd need to use the thing in phases and that just got to be a pain in the butt because you'd rarely have consistency.
A couple weeks ago, we finally took the plunge and bought ourselves a much larger food processor in the form of the Cuisinart Pro Classic 7-Cup Food Processor (model DLC-10S).
Geez, these things are not cheap. But once you've taken the plunge, there's no going back.
We used it for the first time last week to make large batches of guacamole and salsa. We like to make a lot of each and have it around for a while and even share with some friends. So if the Cuisinart can withstand all the chopping that would be necessary for Kapgar-scale batches, its place in our kitchen would be cemented.
Here are some photos of the affair. Bear in mind that I forgot to photograph the guacamole and only have shots of the salsa...
Starting with the onions.
Next come the tomatoes. Note the nicely chopped onion bed below
and Katie's blurred hand on the right.
A blur of red through the feed tube.
Adding more tomatoes through the feed tube while the rest is still blending.
After everything is done chopping and mixing.
Good stuff and perfectly made (the way that we like it).
This thing worked wonders with our Tex-Mex night. How do you say "hallelujah" in Spanish?
Here are some photos of the Cuisinart and all the stuff that came with it.
The blade is something you don't wanna mess around with and you don't want near kids. Click through on the photo to see how wicked the teeth are on that blade.
Other stuff includes (clockwise from top left in the first photo): dough kneading blade, detachable disc stem, stainless steel chopping/mixing blade, spatula, stainless steel shredding disc (cheese grater), and stainless steel slicing disc (4mm). In the right photo, we have what's called a flat chopping/baking cover.
The disc stem kinda confused me at first until the LEGO builder in me
put two and two together and got this.
Or I could've just watched the nifty DVD that was also included. Stupid me.
This is a beautiful food processor and I'm so glad we got it. Especially considering we have Thanksgiving coming up and we're hosting this year.
It was also nice that we got it on sale. It was $50 off the list price at CSNstores.com.
My only complaint with the product is that it's not easy to store all the stuff that comes with it. Having some sort of case or pouch to store the extra blades and wheels and lids would be nice. At the very least blade edge covers to protect people as they feel around through their kitchen drawers trying to find them would protect from bloody finger tips.
As for CSNstores.com, I gotta admit I was a bit hesitant to purchase anything there. Why? Well, we've been burned by enough online stores in the past to wind up being very choosy about where we order online. 99% of our online orders are through Amazon or iTunes. Once you've found a place you like and trust, you rarely go elsewhere.
But we tried it anyway.
CSNstores.com is pretty much an online shopping mall. It's got a little bit of everything all broken up into individual stores to make browsing easier. If I could think up a product, I came pretty close to always finding it there.
The only problem was that even if I could find it listed on the site, it didn't always mean it was in stock. I was initially searching for a chef's knife that I had seen in a bricks-and-mortar store and they had it for a good price. However, it was on a 12- to 15-week backorder. So were most other knives I thought could work as a serviceable replacement. Heck, many other brands of food processor were also on backorder. I almost think that CSN would benefit from an advanced search option that would eliminate backorder and out-of-stock items in addition to the options for model, price, ship time, and user ratings. Just to make it easier to find what you want that is available for immediate shipping.
Speaking of shipping, this is where my mind was blown. I ordered the Cuisinart on a Sunday and had it in my grubby little hands that Wednesday. An hour after I got it, I received the shipping confirmation e-mail. No, not the delivery confirmation, the shipping confirmation. This can be perceived as both good and bad. It's good because the shipping was faster than anticipated. It's bad because their e-mail confirmation system needs to be tweaked a bit. For me to have received it on Wednesday, the shipping had to occur on Monday. Yet I didn't receive the confirmation until after I received the product. I'm willing to forgive this right now simply because I got the Cuisinart so quickly.
All in all, my reviews...
'nuff said.
For the record, and to keep the FCC happy, this is a solicited and paid review.
Happy Snippet Wednesday and Happy @kapgar Day!
Cobaxl
Steven Hyden of The Onion's A/V Club wrote a fantastic piece on the long-running feud between Axl Rose of Guns 'n' Roses and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana during the transition period from the metal era to grunge. I knew there was animosity between the two of them, but I had no idea how deep its roots were. If you like music history, check this piece out. Thanks to @petcobra for the tip.
Moon
I saw the first Transformers movie and enjoyed it. Never saw the second and never wanted to. Only want to see the third because of how much of the filming was done in Chicago and the fact that I actually saw it as it was happening. But, let me tell you, if film titles were the sole determiner when deciding if I was seeing a movie or not, Transformers: Dark of the Moon certainly would have me running for the hills.
I must offer my sincerest apologies to George Lucas. The Phantom Menace is no longer the dumbest movie title of all time.
Netflix
I received an e-mail from Netflix informing me that they were sending me the next available film in my queue. It was the second film in the list since the first was on a short wait. Then, a day later, I got another e-mail telling me my first choice was available at a downstate distribution center and they were sending it to me as well. So my three-disc subscription was going to temporarily become a four-disc subscription. A way to keep users happy? Has this happened to anyone else?
iPhone
I've been using my iPhone 4 for two months now and I really need to get cracking on a review of what I think. There's just so much I want to say. I may have to spread it out over a couple posts or run the risk of having a post that reads like a novel. Yikes!
Typepad
This is the second time I wrote this post. The first time, I forgot to give it an interim save and the browser froze up. What I don't get is that Typepad has an autosave feature kinda like Microschlock Word and it constantly annoys me by telling me that it has a saved copy of a post that I already published a few days prior. Of course, the time that my browser freezes is the one time that the autosave feature kicks in only to save the title and nothing in the post. This makes no sense since I came up with the title after I wrote two and a half snippets. What gives?
Shows
So what shows have all of you given up on this new television season? There are a couple that we're thinking of ditching and wondering if any of you may have the same opinion. Please share!
Okay, I'm outta here. Time to catch up on the season finale of Mad Men.
Welcome to Snippet Wednesday. Just barely making the cut (again), but I'm here!
ALDI
Katie was out trying to use our bank card to buy something today when it was declined. We theorized that it was just a communication error with the scanner, but then it happened at a second place. She called the bank and found out that both of our bank cards had been canceled and new ones issued due to a data compromise on the part of a vendor. While at work, Katie had two customers come in paying by check because their bank cards had also been canceled by their respective banks. They told Katie it was due to ALDI Grocery Stores.
We had seen something on a news teaser last week, but never saw the actual story, so I Googled it and wound up with a bunch of stories about a debit card/PIN number swiping scam that had been occuring at several Chicagoland ALDIs (ours in St. Charles included) as well as some in Indianapolis. Oh yay! As a preventative measure, most banks canceled the cards of customers that had been used at potentially effected stores. Nothing had happened to our account, but it did make us wonder if this was how my bank card got spoofed last year. Hmmm...
So a tip to all you ALDI shoppers, USE CASH!
Brittany
Recently, Katie and I started watching Glee. We're pretty much all caught up on season 1 (missed a couple episodes, unfortunately) and we're up to date on season 2. It's an interesting show. Very well done and the actors are pretty good (even though I want to bitchslap Rachel Barry nearly every episode). I can understand why people are Gleeks over it.
But if there's any one aspect of the show that Katie and I love more than anything, it's Brittany. For those of you who haven't watched, she's one of the Cheerios (the school's cheerleaders) that is actually part of the New Directions (the glee club) and she is to this show what Ralphie Wiggum is to The Simpsons. Both are minor characters that usually meld into the background save for an occasional one liner that is typically more memorable than anything else in the show. She's got some true gems like...
"Sometimes I forget my middle name."
"I was pretty sure Dr. Pepper was a dentist."
"Does he mean like a burglar alarm?" (when told to use protection during sex)
"This room looks like that room on that spaceship when I got probed."
"It's a male duck." (when asked what a ballad is)
This week's episode, though, was Brittany's time to shine as it was all about Britney Spears. When all done up in terms of costume, hair, and makeup, I often couldn't tell the difference between Brittany and Britney. Eerily uncanny. But, dayamn! Brittany was rockin' the episode. The actress who plays her, Heather Morris, is a former dancer for Beyonce and it shows. She's got serious moves. I've seen her dance in previous episodes, but this was an entirely different ball of wax. All Brittany, all the time. I liked it.
Kevin
I got an e-mail the other day from a guy who shares my last name. I opened and read it and he detailed for me a family vacation they had taken, how his family was doing, that his dog had died and how he was feeling as a result.
Then he wished me a happy 62nd birthday.
Woah. Hold the phone. My birthday's not until December. And, while I know I'm getting up there in age, I'm certainly no 62.
Turns out he was trying to contact a different Kevin Apgar. One whose name I've seen many times when I've Googled myself and he even used to return higher results than me. Not anymore. I've kinda become cooler than him.
I explained this all in a reply e-mail to my mystery sender.
And I offered condolences on the loss of Gus. Sounded like a good dog.
WWF
Now that Katie and I both have iPhones, we've taken to playing a few games here and there. Our latest addiction is Words With Friends, which is basically a spin on Scrabble. Just a little looser in terms of useable words.
If you're a WWF fiend, look us up and challenge us. I'm "kapgar" and Katie is "ktkat216."
Okay, I'm outta here. Talk to you soon. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Welcome to a special Blogher edition of Snippet Wednesday. Am I at Blogher? No. I just thought it might get the attention of all the people there and actually drive a few readers here. Am I evil for doing this? Yeah, probably. Will it work? I dunno, I'll tell you in a couple days when I check my stats.
40
I don't really know why, but I TiVo'd 40 Days and 40 Nights and just finished watching it now. It really was a pretty bad movie, but, for some reason, I enjoyed watching it. Me and my bad movies.
Plants
This year, Katie and I pared back all the veggies that we planted. Last year, we just tried growing too much stuff and it got a little out of control. Some of it worked while some of it did not. So, this year, we're growing serrano peppers, tomatoes, squash, and zucchini. The peppers? Great! I've picked six so far and have at least 30 more sprouting. Squash and zucchini? Well, not much in terms of fruit yet, but damn if the plants are huge. Tomatoes? As a result of the squash and zucchini, the tomatoes aren't doing so hot. They're being crowded out. And it's the tomatoes that I really want. Check out the stuff that is growing...
Keychains
As I told you the other day, while in Chicago, I picked up a couple of those LEGO keychains. One was the alien from Toy Story and the other was a recreation of the original spaceman minifig that debuted in 1978. I was asked for some pictures, so here they are...
My only problem with the spaceman keychain is that he's not an exacting recreation of the original. The difference is minor, but enough to mean something to a purist like me. It's all in the helmet. Check it out...
The original helmet (right) is flush from the forehead down through the chin guard. The revised helmet (left) has a chin guard that sticks out further than the forehead of the helmet. This was done to provide a way for a visor to stop when pulled down over the face and appear flush with the helmet itself. Plus it looks more realistic.
Fine, I'm picky.
Truck
Speaking of LEGO, when Katie and I were at my parents' house, my dad gave me back an old set I had built years ago and that has been sitting on his desk all this time. It is the 5580 Highway Rig and it's apparently somewhat valuable on eBay. It's also gotten a bit grungy from grime, but I plan to disassemble, wash, and rebuild it. Should be fun. It's a pretty intense set. And I got a chance to try out photographing it with a nice background display.
Photos
I've been bad about this whole Photo365 challenge. The other day, I looked at the set and realized I was a month behind in tagging pictures. Well, I'm all caught up. Through today, even! It took a while to find them all, but I'm good again. And I've passed the 200 day mark. This has been anything but easy. I really can't wait for it to end, but I know I'll miss it. Is that weird?
It's time for bed. Yeah, it's only 9:15. I'm pathetic. I admit it.
This past Saturday, I hopped aboard a Metra line to downtown Chicago to meet up with Dave2! Just kind of a spur of the moment meet-up where we did nothing but really walk around the city, talk, and generally geek out. I think a photo-laden Snippet recap of the affair works quite nicely despite it not being Wednesday (or Thursday, for that matter), so enjoy!
Weather
Chicago and the suburbs have been sweltering for the last couple months so arriving downtown and seeing a thermometer in the Ogilvie Transportation Center read that it was 67 degrees out was refreshing to say the least! And it was already past noon, to boot. But, then, it always feels nicer in the city for some reason. Lucky bastards. However, by 4 p.m., it was back up in the mid-80s. Not terrible, but not nearly as nice as it was earlier. And Chicago is the greatest city on Earth by far, so when you mix it with nice weather and a good friend, how can you go wrong?
Dave
As any of you who have met Dave can attest, he's always a great person to meet up with and one heckuva gracious guest. So getting together with him never winds up in an awkward moment or with a lack of things to talk about or do. That's why it's always so much fun to meet up with him. I think this visit marks about a half dozen times now. Three Davecagos, one Depeche Mode concert, and a couple random visits. And, so long as he is always willing, I will be too.
Dogs
The first thing we decided to do was get some lunch. Neither of us had eaten yet so we were a bit famished. Dave knew of a place nearby called America's Dog. I figured, heck, why not? I love hot dogs. In fact, I've been darn near addicted to them lately. I can't explain it, but anytime I find myself having dinner at home when Katie's working late, I wind up eating a hot dog. Well, for this special occasion, I had my first-ever full-on Chicago-style hot dog. I've come close in the past having eaten one that only lacked pickles, but I went the whole nine yards this time. Actually, I ordered two of them. I really liked them... a lot. That scares me. Dave had the same, but with a veggie dog, which intrigued me. I've never had a tofu-based hot dog before but if it will cut back on the fat and calories and still taste pretty good, I'll give it a shot. Maybe next time.
(This is Dave's photo, BTW)
3
On our way out to Michigan Avenue, we happened across the set of Transformers 3. While it's not a movie that either of us really want to see, it was still cool to see them out there shooting and we each took some photos. One thing that I noticed in a photo of mine is that the guy situated on top of the pile of rubble is none other than Patrick Dempsey. Cool. Sorry, ladies, I didn't get much closer than this.
LEGO
Being the LEGO geeks we are, you bet your sweet bippy we beelined it for the LEGO store on Michigan Avenue next! Some time was spent drooling over the new sets, but, shockingly, neither of us bought anything. Yet. Oh, and speaking of LEGO, yes, Norman was with us.
Apple
And what kind of Apple Whores (tm) would we be if we didn't hit the flagship Apple Store on Michigan Avenue? Bad ones, duh. We played a bit with the Magic Trackpad, which just blew my mind. I love using the trackpad on Katie's MacBook so knowing that a similar device is now available for desktop Macs is way beyond cool.
Disney
We also visited what we believe to be a relatively new Disney Store just a little bit away from the Apple Store. Pretty nice inside and they had a huge selection of crap. Cool crap, mind you.
LEGO
Yes, we made a return trip to the LEGO Store after Dave told me that they did, in fact, have a key chain of the little green alien from Toy Story. I missed it entirely. Sho 'nuff, they had it and I bought it for Katie along with an anniversary edition key chain of the very first white LEGO astronaut. Hadda be done.
Millennium
And what trip to Chicago is complete without a requisite visit to Millennium Park? We went there, snapped some shots and then took the skywalk over to the Modern Art wing of the Art Institute. We didn't really go inside the wing. It was just a means of getting across the street. Oh well. It worked for us.
Gay
While walking around, we happened across a guy on State Street petitioning on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign specifically for gay rights. We stopped to let him explain to us what he was doing. At one point in his speech, he said something along the lines of "these rights we're fighting for would protect all gay people" and there was just something about the way he said it that made us both think he was referring to us. Dave must've caught on to it too because he then said, "ummm, we're not gay." The guy stopped, taken a bit aback, and replied, "oh... really???" I mean, sure, Dave and I make a cute couple, but c'mon, we're totally not each other's type. Psshhh.
More photos are available in a Flickr album.
With just a couple hours to spare, here I am! With Snippet Wednesday! Huzzah! Huzzah!
Reminder
There are so many bloggers that have kinda sorta given up on blogging in recent months. Several of them, I'd like to just reach out and say, "what gives? C'mon! Just write a couple blog posts!" But wouldn't that be hypocritical considering I haven't blogged in a week and, even when I do blog, it's infrequent at best. So I'll just shut up, okay?
Fantasy
As I was logging in to write this blog post, an e-mail came in from Brandon informing me that he's starting back up his Blogger Fantasy Football League. Now this is something worth celebrating! YES! It means we're that much closer to the real NFL season. Oh happy day!
Drives
Yes, my replacement Time Capsule arrived and is hooked up (within two days, mind you). And we bought a Western Digital My Book as a secondary drive and it is hooked up. Our WiFi network is up and running. The TiVos have refreshed their recording queues. The hard drive on the iMac is backed up. And...
Works
I finally got around to downloading one of those pieces of software that will allow me to transfer my music from my iPod back to my computer. I went along with Juliette's suggestion and purchased the full version of PodWorks. And it works! It's currently transferring all the music back from my iPod to my iTunes account and it's copying right where it is supposed to go on one of the external hard drives. I was considering PodManager, but discovered that it pulls the music from my iPod and places it on my desktop for me to then copy into iTunes. PodWorks cut out that extra step and is uber easy to use.
Juliette, you are a goddess amongst mere girls! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you so much right now that, I tell you what, I'm going to buy a copy of your book, Morning Neurosis, and attend one of your signings so you can throw your John Hancock on it! Oh wait, I already did that. I guess you're just going to have to take my word for it, okay?
Runaways
One of the movies I've most been looking forward to this year is The Runaways. It's the biography of the all-girl rock band from the 70s featuring Joan Jett and Cherie Currie. I figured that if there was any one movie that Kristen Stewart would excel in, it would be one in which her regular drugged-out appearance would be a natch fit. Basically, I was just waiting to find out it was in theaters. Then, a few weeks back, I opened up my Rolling Stone magazine and saw a big two-page spread for the movie. This is it, I thought. Um, not exactly. It was an ad for the DVD/Blu-Ray release of the movie the following Tuesday. Huh? Did it never make it to theaters? How did I miss it? Well, whatever, it is now coming in from Netflix. So I'm a happy camper.
Playlist
I had fun today asking all my Tweeps to set my musical playlist for the day. I challenged them to just name any artist or band and, if available on my iPod, I would add a pair of songs from them to an On-the-Go playlist to set my musical mood for the day. Damn, it was fun! I got some great suggestions, a vast majority of which I had available, but several I did not. I should do this more often. It was even more fun than setting my iPod to shuffle.
Well, I'm out of here. Adios.
My Time Capsule died.
The external hard drive that we use as a data backup source, the primary operating drive for iTunes, and the recipient of data from the Time Machine on Katie's MacBook.
It up and died.
While it's not terrible, it's not good either.
We won't have to pay hundreds of dollars to a data recovery company. Why? We have all our photos on the internal hard drive of our iMac (thankfully I hadn't deleted a bunch like I was going to). We found all of Katie's grad school files on a thumbdrive. I can download the most recent copies of websites I was working on from their servers. Almost anything else is so incidental so as no to be of no real concern.
Save for my music.
I had run out of hard drive space on the iMac so I resorted to using the Time Capsule as the primary drive for iTunes. I had no choice. I just have too much damn music.
The good news is that I do have it all on my iPod (and people thought having a 160GB iPod was stupid... ha!). I just need to figure out how best to get it from my iPod back onto a hard drive in iTunes. Any suggestions from anyone who has done this in the past? I know that there are pieces of freeware out there that can do this, but have never heard from a person who has used any of them. My buddy Eric told me of a piece of software last night as we were leaving Pitchfork, but I can't remember the name. I may have to contact him unless one of you jogs my memory with a suggestion.
There is one shining light in this whole thing and that is that Apple is going to replace the Time Capsule free of charge. They're going to send out a new one today and I should have it by the middle of next week.
They are doing this because the MacBook is still in warranty and the Time Capsule serves as the backup destination for Time Machine on that computer. If we weren't doing that, I may have had a little more difficulty getting the free replacement since the manufacturer's warranty on the Time Capsule is kaput and they don't offer AppleCare plans on them.
Say what you want about Apple, and there are plenty of haters willing to do that, but at least they are trying to make things right and they do give a damn about their customers. I used the Apple Expert system on their website and they called me up within five minutes of the time I scheduled the callback and they walked me through potential fixes and, when those failed, they told me how they were going to take care of it. Very calm, very professional, very much aiming to make the customer happy.
And people wonder why I'm willing to pay more for Apple products. Now you know.
Never got service like this when I was a PC owner.
Oh, and I am going to buy another external hard drive that will be used as nothing but my iTunes music drive. Time Capsule can back that up (and not do double duty as an operating drive as a result). Suggestions on external HDs that play nice with MacOS?
Okay, it's not totally unrelated.
It is about Apple and is a video that was played at yesterday's press conference about the iPhone 4 and its antenna problems. I love it.
I don't get the hoopla either. I know several people with iPhone 4s and none of them have been having problems. Are they missing out? Should they be trying to make problems so they can cash in or be part of the pity party?
Because of the holiday-shortened week, I almost forgot today was Wednesday and, therefore, SNIPPET WEDNESDAY!!!
Faith
Marty nearly blew my mind the other day when he Tweeted about Faith No More playing a gig in NYC the other night. Faith No More? They broke up more than a decade ago! Well, apparently it didn't stick and they got back together last year (minus guitarist Jeff Martin) and have been on tour for a bit and I had no idea. Sure, the U.S. leg of the tour is/was lacking more than just a bit, but how cool would it be to see them play? I loved these guys and never got to see them live back in the day.
Attic
I gave the attic one more shot. Lo and behold, in one container that I thought contained old board games, I found them! My Speed Racer LEGO sets, my robo-monkey, and my Octan Racer. Just some all-around cool stuff. I was stoked. But also in the container were a couple of my old stuffed animals that I loved from back in the day, including...
Opus
I had no idea how old this guy was. This Penguin Lust Opus from Bloom County dates back to 1984! So hard to believe. But he's in pretty darn good shape, don'cha think?
And I also found...
Woody
That kid Andy from the Toy Story movies had his Woody in the form of a Old West sheriff. My Woody was Woody Woodpecker. I have no idea how old I was when I got this, but he's still around. Pretty beat up but I would think that's an indication of the degree to which I loved this guy.
However, being as young as I was, I could not, for the life of me, pronounce "Woody Woodpecker." So I wound up saying — and, yes, this has found a place of prominence in the annals of Apgar history — "ooo-nee cock-er." Well, "woody," "pecker," "cocker"... not that I was too far out in left field with that one.
Cubs
Speaking of funny stuff, I was driving behind a car on the way home today with the license plate "CUBS BY 2." I had to laugh.
Cubs? By 2? What? Lost by two? Only won two in the month of June? Missed being in last place in the NL Central by two?
You become rather cynical as a Cubs fan.
I'm trying something new for the next month.
In an attempt at a final melting off of weight for Florida in May, Katie and I are back on the Weight Watchers points plan and we're going to the gym in the morning.
What's the big difference? Well, we actually have been keeping points using our phones so we have our list available to us 24/7 and going to the gym in the morning ensures we really go. Katie's been pretty good about going upwards of four or more times a week for the last several weeks. But I've had greater difficulty with all kinds of things planned at night during the week (signings, work, general laziness). During these same "last several weeks," I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've made it to the gym.
That's changing starting yesterday.
I've been packing my clothes for the day the night before. I'm waking up at 5:15. I'm not using the snooze bar. I'm at the gym by 5:30 or 5:40. My workout is done by a little before 7. I shower and change in the locker room. And I'm off to work by 7:20. No ifs, ands, or buts.
So far I've felt really good both days that I've stuck to this plan. I'm more awake throughout the day. I'm more relaxed. I feel better when I leave work knowing that I can just go home and crash instead of going to the gym and fighting it out with the post-work crowd for machines and weights.
I'm sick of being fat.
Fuck this shit.
The more I learn about the iPad, the more I love it.
No, I still don't have one. And I won't for some time. Gotta pay off Florida and the cruise next year. Heck, I haven't even played with it in an Apple Store and I work two blocks from one. I don't want to tease myself just yet.
Plus, considering some of the lengths that people are going to in order to get their hands on one, I think I may just wait until the fervor dies down a bit. If you're going to be afraid to use one of these things in public, what's the point?
Besides, I prefer my fingers intact.
I think I'll aim for the fourth generation iPhone when it comes out later this year. If it's anything like what Gizmodo reported (and the likelihood is VERY STRONG in this regard considering the actions Apple has taken in response to the loss and reveal), then me likey! It's pretty. Nice physical changes from the earlier versions.
I know it's a day early, but I wanted to make sure I got these good wishes out to all of you when you might actually see them.
So, have a great Dead Bunny Day!
Seriously, though, have a great holiday (if you celebrate) and, if you're traveling anywhere, do so safely, okay?
Funny thing... seems that everybody I know thinks that, at this moment, I'm in line at one of any number of local Apple Stores (we have five in the Chicago area that I know of) waiting to get my grubby hands an iPad.
Okay, yeah, I'm an Apple Whore (tm), but when did I become an early adopting Apple Whore (tm)? I got my first iPod more than three years after they first came out. I still don't have an iPhone (but everyone around me seems to). No Apple TV. I must be missing something.
I do think the iPad is one of the coolest things around and I do want one. Just not yet. Maybe a couple more generations in unless I win a lottery sometime soon.
So, um, no review of the iPad from me anytime soon. Sorry if that disappoints you.
I swear, sometimes the stupidest things can make you completely lose track of time.
For me, today, it was one of those old handheld Tetris games (literally Tetris, the actual game, you sickos). Katie and I found a bunch of them recently and discovered the batteries, after years of non-use, still work.
This morning, I woke up and got out of bed and started playing it instead of taking my shower and getting ready for work. I figured I could get in a couple dozen rows of a game and then pause it to continue later. That's kinda how Katie and I take to this Tetris game, one person starts, another continues, and so on and so forth to see how far we can get (our record is 985 rows and it took a couple weeks of on-again/off-again play).
Well, I sat there this morning and started playing a new game and got sucked in.
A little while later, Katie comes in and informs me that nearly a half hour had elapsed. I was more than 160 rows deep in the game and seriously needed to start getting ready for work.
I need to watch out for that damn game. I feel I could easily lose a whole day to it.
Two years ago, I took part in an NCAA March Madness bracket pool with some people I know. I did pretty decently.
Last year, I did horrifically.
I think I discovered the reason why... two years ago, Katie helped me with my brackets. Last year, she didn't because I was in a rush to get them done in time and she wasn't around to help.
Damn right she helped out again this year. She pretty much took it over. She has a strange insight when it comes to this sort of thing.
And all I can say is... GO UK!
My favorite U2 song ever.
Well, last week was "under." This week is "over." Kinda weird that I take a themed blogging day and break it into subthemes, isn't it?
Over-
-expectant
A friend e-mailed me with the information on the new HTC Android phone that AT&T will be carrying is the HTC Desire. It's supposed to be a slightly upgraded version of the Google Nexus One and without the Google branding. It's such a pretty phone. It seemingly does everything I hope it would do. I just am unsure if it has a physical keyboard or if a touch screen is the only option. We will have to see. But, for now at least, I'm drooling.
-exposed
I'm still freaked out about this. In Pennsylvania, a school district that gives all their students a MacBook, activated the built-in iSight cameras and observed a 15-year-old student doing something deemed "improper." He got in trouble as a result. But, when confronted by school officials, they showed him the photo of him doing whatever he did and he recognized it as being taken while he was at home. Now a class-action lawsuit is being started up because what the school did may violate federal and state wiretap and computer intrusion laws. This is nuts. I'm sorry, but this is just wrong. God only knows what I might have been caught doing in high school. Yikes!
-reaching
And then there's the kid that got a five-day suspension for his "I hate my teacher" page on Facebook. Some people are claiming that the kid was at home and was entitled to do whatever he wanted on his own time. I'm on the fence about this one. The ACLU or some other group claims that this is no different than talking to friends outside school or on a phone or whatnot. But, in my estimation, it's exactly the same as if the kid wrote a note on his own time and sent it to his teacher. If s/he felt threatened by the note, even written on the student's personal time, the school has every right to act and remove the student for the teacher's safety. Add to that the fact that a couple dozen fellow students became fans of the page and that would potentially add to the perceived threat level. At least that's what I think. You?
-stretched
Last week, I was introduced to a killer yoga pose called the Pigeon Pose. I was actually able to go full stretch on that one and hold it for a few minutes. It was a great stretch. But, of course, my legs were killing me for the next couple days until I did the stretch again and all returned to normal. But this is the closest my body has ever come to doing the splits. Bear in mind, although I did do the forward fold, I didn't go full One-Legged King Pigeon or anything. I'd like my body to not hate me entirely, thank you very much.
-dunn
This whole "under/over" subtheming reminds me of the crew introduction sequence in Airplane!
"Unger, Ober... Ober, Dunn."
For a little while now, I had been tentatively looking forward to Neil Gaiman coming to my old hometown of Naperville as part of the Naperville READS program that they host annually. I say "tentatively" because, while I've read a couple of his books and enjoyed them as well as his Sandman graphic novels, I've had the worst time getting through Good Omens (tried to read it twice now) and I wasn't a fan of the movie adaptation of his fairy tale Coraline.
But, with the signing and reading happening next Tuesday, I was getting a little hyped up.
I went out today and spent a while anguishing over which of his many graphic novels I wanted to buy to have signed (I only own his novels, but had always borrowed his graphic novels from friends or the library). With helpful advice from some of my cool Tweeps including @lesombre, @lynneNaranek, and @MightyHunter, I chose a hardcover copy of Sandman: The Dream Hunters.
Then I went to pick up the ticket for entry to the event.
As the woman handed it to me, she informed me that things had changed and that Gaiman was only going to do a reading and discussion... no signing.
WTF? Seriously? I know this program is all about promoting reading and whatnot, but the cool thing was that they always got great authors to come in and SIGN BOOKS in addition to the reading and discussion.
C'mon Neil! Be my friend! Stick around and sign! Don't just sell pre-signed books!
Besides, Norm wants to take a picture with you. Don't make me Photoshop it.
Katie LOVES her iPod.
I got her the project RED iPod Nano, in case you wanted to know.
When I gave it to her, I already had it charged up and loaded with music and videos, including South Park, The Simpsons Movie, and Star Trek. Oh, and the UNO game I bought last year.
I gotta admit, it's one cool little device.
The fact that it has that Nike/iPod exercise tracker available plus the built-in radio with song tagging and live pause as well as the pedometer, video camera, built-in speaker, and shake shuffle makes it pretty damn rockin'. I almost want one, but still love the uber-capacity of my 160GB Classic iPod, which is actually about half full.
I haven't legitimately drooled over an iPod in a while.
This is totally drool-worthy!
I'm feeling in kind of an "under" mood for this Snippet Wednesday.
Under-
-exposed
I couldn't believe it when Marty sent me this link to a story about one of the members of The Crystal Method who has been chronicling his tour with pictures of his son's Lego Stormtrooper in the different locales he visits. The trooper is even named Norm. In his case, though, it's for "NormTrooper" whereas mine was "Stormin' Norman," but still. Too creepy. I think my Norm needs to get out a little more.
-shirt
I bought a pack of Jockey undershirts a month or so ago without realizing that I normally buy them in tall sizes. Now, after a couple washings each, these things could barely be worn by a toddler and provide full coverage. So, until I have a chance to get back out to a store to buy new ones in the right size (and exchange the one pack I didn't open), I've been wearing T-shirts as undershirts. Last week I used a Blackhawks shirt one day. Yesterday was my Flaming Lips skull shirt from last December's concert. Today is my Ami James skull tattoo shirt. I'm stylin'!
-played
The mysterious gift I bought for Katie for her birthday was a new iPod. As you know, her old iPod died and was outside the warranty period. So I got her an iPod Nano and loaded it with music and video for her trips to the gym. Yes, she has an iPhone, which she has used at the gym, but she's always afraid of dropping it in mid-run (this has happened) and that's a bad thing to do to something that expensive. So she's been languishing for some time with the radio at the gym set to some crappy Top 40 station. Ick. That must change. Humanity dictates it!
Oh, and since I ordered it from Apple, I did get it engraved. But that stays between us. ;-)
-mined
In an attempt to circumvent Netflix, which has had me on hold for the show Glee for a month now, I asked if my library would order it. I received an e-mail yesterday saying, "Unfortunately, because Glee is a network television show, I
will not be purchasing it." Huh? What the hell does it being a network show have anything to do with it? And what sense does that argument make when you already stock 24, also a supposed network show?
-estimated
Lindsey Vonn takes the gold in the Women's Downhill while teammate Julia Mancuso takes silver? NIIIICEEEEE! Way to go, ladies! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
The iPad is official. There is some rejoicing. There is some groaning. There have been jokes about the name. And some of my bloggy friends are already in on the action with their views on the new device, including Dave, Kevin, and Bob. You can find all the news you need about the iPad over on TUAW.
Being the Apple Whore that I am, I will admit tentative optimism about the device, initially. I really need to get in an Apple Store and play with it a bit and get some questions answered before I lay down my final verdict, but, for now, I like it.
This is funny since, upon initial inspection, it really comes off as no more than an iPhone on steroids and I am not an iPhone fan for several reasons. So why do I like this? Because it fixes some of the issues I have with the iPhone. Primarily the lack of a tactile keyboard. I CANNOT type on an iPhone for much longer than a search query or a text message. Anything longer and I start to go nuts. I just can't take it. So when I saw this, I swooned...
IT HAS A REAL KEYBOARD!!! Or, it can anyway. I'm pretty sure it comes separately.
Yes, that has been the breaking point for me with an iPhone. I will admit. The iPhone has killer apps and cool cross functionality between just about everything. But if I can't bring myself to even remotely tolerate the touchscreen keyboard, then why would I bother? This iPad feature settles that concern for me.
I will also admit that I've become more and more interested in some style of eBook reader lately, but I've never been able to decide between the Amazon Kindle, the Sony eReader, and the B&N Nook. All have their upsides and their downsides, in all honesty. But, now that Apple has entered the fray with the iBooks app on the iPad, I gotta say that one takes the cake at the moment. Reading a book on an iPhone or anything similar is too difficult (my wife actually tried it; she had headaches until she was finally done and declared "never again"). Too small a screen for a legitimately sized book. Plus, why wouldn't you want your eBook reader to double as a movie player or a Web browser? Only makes sense, doesn't it?
Okay, sure, you can't add software to it. It doesn't act like a real computer in many senses. But, as Dave said, it's not supposed to. This is the ultimate in-flight entertainment device. Small, thin, lightweight, solid-state drive, plays movies, reads books, plays music (I won't be using it for this), shows photos, browses the Web on WiFi or 3G (skipping the 3G part as I don't want to have to give AT&T any more money than I already am), etc., etc.
I'm kinda stoked.
'nuff said.
Why do people have problems going to the bathroom?
I was going to use the bathroom in an office building yesterday when I smelled something horrible. I went to investigate (MISTAKE! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!) and found that someone had shat on the toilet seat. Just left it there for the world to find. No attempt made to clean it up at all.
WTF PEOPLE??? Seriously? That's fucking disgusting. Animals like you should be tied in a barn and left there. Root around in your own shit for a few days.
I know it's technically illegal to place security cameras in bathrooms, but maybe it's time to revisit that law or at least find some way to work around it. Maybe the camera stays on while you're walking around in a bathroom and washing your hands or some such, but a pressure switch turns it off when you sit on the seat. That way you can at least see who comes and goes but not see them in the act.
Considering what custodial staff have to go through to clean that up, it's only fair that we can hold them responsible, don't you think?
We're kinda pissed at Best Buy right now.
Yesterday, after giving it a full night of charging, Katie's iPod crapped out. And I don't just mean battery death, the entire unit was showing no life at all. We were at the gym and she was trying to use it for working out and... nada.
The reason we're pissed at Best Buy is that Katie had seen signs of the iPod going down the crapper and she described them to me. I took it into Best Buy's Geek Squad for warranty repair and they said they could not replicate any of the symptoms that I was having right there on the spot. I tried to explain that they were intermittent, they didn't happen all the time. They said sorry and that they could do nothing about it and refused to help me.
Now here we are, outside her warranty period and stuck with a dead iPod. Simply because Best Buy refuses, like always, to listen to their customers who know better about what is happening to their own electronic devices.
I know some people scam them and this is what they're trying to avoid. But when I am trying to explain a problem and then get that teenaged, pimply-faced, asshat Geek Squad fucknut looking at me like I don't know what I'm talking about (yeah, I'd LOVE to know what "extensive training" he went through that qualified him as an EXPERT on such matters) just pisses me off.
To anybody reading who may ever buy a gift for Katie or I down the line, please NO BEST BUY GIFT CARDS. We would much prefer a Visa or MasterCard gift card that gives us the option of choosing where to spend it. PLEASE!
If I can help it, I'm done with that place. Ever since the "Geek Squad" started, the holier-than-thou mentality in that retail hellhole skyrocketed through the roof. And it's only gotten worse since Circuit City stores closed down giving U.S. customers pretty much a single dedicated source for electronics purchases.
[Thank you, Random-Good-Stuff.com, for creating this fine T-shirt!]
Okay, not totally unrelated, but still...
After the death of the iPod at the gym, Katie and I made the painful decision to listen to the radio station that was playing over the PA. It's some crappy suburban Chicago top 40 station that I just cannot stand.
And how'd they annoy us this fine day? They played that God-awful "Summer Nights" or whatever it's called by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John from the Grease soundtrack.
Simultaneously, Katie and I groaned and looked at each other and said "oh Christ, no."
If anything good came of it, it's the reminder that my wife has never seen nor ever wants to see Grease and anything related to that movie makes her ill.
I love my wife.
I'm a bit bummed.
I got in my truck this morning and found a fuse on the floor of the driver's side. Not an automotive fuse, but one from electronic components. I thought maybe the guys at the auto shop where I had my oil changed may have busted some tool and left me a fuse.
Sadly, not the case.
Turns out the plug end of my iPod dock decided to sever itself. The cap came loose and the plunger end and spring flew out... somewhere. I cannot locate the spring, plunger, or cap. I just have the dock unit and the fuse. I cannot plug the thing in at all.
No dock = no iPod = radio for Kevin during his work commute.
I guess I'm lucky I've been prepping for this to some degree. I've made it a point to listen to WXRT 93.1 FM every morning on the way to work since the new year began. I used to listen to that station all the time until iPod happened. Even when I stopped listening to the station, I was still subscribed to their podcasts.
Now I'm back. And I'm sure they appreciate it. I've missed it.
All the text and opinions and most of the photos and design elements on kapgar.com are © 2005-2012, Kevin Apgar, unless otherwise stated. If there's something on here you'd like to borrow, please ask. 9 times out of 10, I'll say yes. I just want to know that you're using it and where. Plus, you'll feel better about yourself knowing that you didn't steal it. Warm, fuzzy goodness. I should also say I'm not responsible for content on nor continued existence of the websites linked off my blog. I'd like to wield influence over them, but I don't. Sad.
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