Month: October 2009

Saturday Travel

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I am on NJ Transit on my way to my sisters for the weekend. My parents are visiting every weekend this month since my brother in law is away at some training every weekend this month. I had a work event planned last weekeend so couldn’t make it. Turns out that got canceled at the last minute but that is a different story. I am on my way over there via train and then will get a ride back with my folks Sunday night.

It has been a few weeks since i have seen the kids so I am excited to spend some time with them.

Friday Work From Home Day

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Today was a work from home day. I was thankful for that since I had a conference call at lunch time and then a 2 hour technical review right afterward. Lots of technical talk. it was interesting but a lot to take in. Thankfully my noon meeting ended early and I was able to make something for food. All the calls and the icky weather took its tole and I started to get a migraine in the afternoon. I was hoping to go out and meet up with Mike and probably a few other friends tonight but I wasn’t feeling up for it. Well there was that and the fact that Mike left early and couldn’t meet up either. We will reschedule for two weeks since he is out of town next week.

Overall I didn’t get a chance to get very many work tasks done since I was pre-occupied with calls. I am aiming to take Monday off so I am going to try to stay away from doing work this weekend. That means tons to catch up on Tuesday!

Is There Anything New That Is Good on TV?

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I was having lunch with a friend and work and we started talking about new good things on TV. He couldn’t think of anything new this season that was any good. That got me thinking, is there? Good is extremely objective I know but I am thinking from my perspective. The answer so far is not really. I am Tivo’ing a bunch of new stuff, and several older shows that are still good, but most of what I am recording is actually not that great.

I think this season the only two shows that I say I actually like are Modern Family, and Stargate Universe. You have to like Ed Oneal as the grumpy grand dad on a well written show. For Stargate Universe I have always been a Stargate fan even when it wasn’t that good. This new version is a bitt gritty and interesting so far. I know the whole lost in space theme will bother me sooner or later, but for now I am enjoying it.

As for everything else that is new, I am still recording a few shows, but when they show up on my Tivo I won’t watch them unless there is nothing else out there. WIth seasons like this I am glad for the precious few returning shows that are funny and or interesting.

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A New Netbook

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When my parents signed up for Fios they were eligible for a new Netbook. I didn’t realize this but my dad called and told me what he was getting. I told him thanks for my new toy. He wanted to know why he couldn’t use it. I told him get it, open it up and see if he likes it. I said this knowing what my parents can and can’t do electronically. I also think by now I know what they like and don’t like getting. He got his netbook and called me like 20 minutes after asking when I would come and take it. He didn’t know what he could do with it. I told him and his only comment was could he watch movies on it. I said sure and explained his options and he was like to heck with that. He wanted a nice easy DVD movie player like he has.

The netbook is a great idea, but it is defiantly not for everyone. I will probably sell this one or my existing HP Mini 1000 but I am not sure what one is better. i am going to see if my sister has any need for this thing either, but I am thinking she will have the same thoughts about it like my dad did.

New Macbook Pro

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I got a new 13″ Macbook Pro today. Back in March I decided I didn’t need a personal laptop so I ditched my Aluminum Macbook for a 24″ iMac. Recently however I have wanted the potential portability of a laptop. I know I have my work laptop but it is really not the fastest thing out there and I don’t like putting personal stuff on it, and work also frowns on that! Problems with my iMac have also soured my opinion of all in ones. I am still a bit pissed at Apple, but the reality is I looked around and I couldn’t find anything as nice from Dell or HP. I don’t care what the Microsoft commercials say, the Macbook’s are still really well built nice to look at, and perform fantastically. I was open to running Windows 7, heck I may still dual boot the Macbook Pro. Now I know I didn’t need the laptop, but I never treated myself to anything after my tax return this year so I splurged. With my employee discount I was able to get a really good deal. I also had a much bigger hard drive I still had that I pulled from my old laptop so I didn’t have to configure the higher end model.

I still really want to get a 30″ display. Right now the Dell 30″ is looking better than the Apple one, but both require the dual link DVI adapter for the Macbook Pro. I have read horrible reviews about it so I don’t want to shell out money on a huge monitor and have it not work because the cable is crappy.

With this new purchase I will probably use my 24″ iMac as a media center machine. I will most likely sell the older 20″ iMac I was using as the media center since it has great resale value. I could probably make back most of the cost of the laptop on that sale! Gotta love Craigslist and Ebay. I may also just give it to my sister for the kids, the reality is I think it is way more powerful than they need. I might just buy them an upgrade to the old dell they currently have. I need to check out how their computer is working when I am out there this month.

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