Personal

Submarine Shopping

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It is hard to find the perfect gift for people. I needed to find a gift for my friends Jayson & Gretchen for their house warming party next week. What do you get? Some kitchen appliance, a painting, alcohol? Who knows. I ended up going with the fun and frivolous gift. They have a pool, so I went searching for a submarine to drive around in it. The selection for remote control subs wasn’t that great but I was able to find something nice on Amazon that got good reviews. I look forward to seeing if the kids can sink it this weekend.

The Submarine

Unemployment, For Two Days Anyway

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I am technically now unemployed for two full days. I am finished with my old job, but the new one doesn’t start until Monday. I haven’t done anything today since I was “resting” from going out last night. I didn’t get much sleep last night so it was nice to nap a bit this afternoon. Other than that I really didn’t do anything today. It feels good. I say that on day one of my mini vacation. I know by Sunday I will be begging to do anything at work.

I talked to my sister today. I don’t know what to get Zachary for his birthday. Her response was to ask how much money I want to spend. That is a tough question. I will get him anything he wants, within reason. He is only two. An expensive gift will really not be appreciated by him. Now getting something nice for Morgan if she asks for it would be appropriate! I am stuck. I will wait and see what Carrie thinks of for the little guy. I don’t want to be like my dad and buy whatever he wants for the kid even if that means it is something for a 3 or 4 year old and he is only 2.

I am thinking of getting out a bit tonight. I wanted to do a little shopping but I am lazy. It is almost 6pm,and I do have 3 full days to do shopping. Hmmm, what to do. Let me go ponder that for a while until I decide to sit around and order in dinner and not go out!

Anthro Desks Rock!

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On Tuesday I received my new Laptop Cart (its like a mini desk for me). I wanted something I could wheel a computer or TV on that I could keep in my bedroom. I don’t have a TV in there, and there is no fixed spot that would be good to keep one. I figured having something that I can move would be cool. I had been using the 19″ LCD TV I won at my company holiday party on a plastic cabinet that has wheels, but it is really flimsy. I order the cart from Anthro. They are the same company that I got my computer table from. The Laptop Cart even matches the computer table. See mom, I do pay attention. Anthro makes some fantastic stuff.

2008-05-08_imac_unboxing_01 2008-05-08_imac_unboxing_10 My New iMac

It took me 20 minutes to assemble the cart. Now I need to setup the TV on it when I get some time. With the cart order I also bought some cable management kits for my computer table. The cable management kits are an idea so simple that I haven’t seen many other companies offer. The desk is modular so it took me 10 minutes to add the cable management. It was so simple and looks so much better than cables tied together with velcro. I love companies that actually make good stuff that works! I would recommend them (and I have) to anyone.

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My Attempt At Social Networking

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I announced last week that I gave my two weeks notice at work. Lets face it, once I gave notice there was a whole lot less to do at work than there was before. That is saying allot when one of the reasons I am leaving in the first place was I am bored. One of the things I have wanted to do but never really had the time was to sign up for one of the social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, etc) and search out long lost friends. I have used Linkedin for several months, but that is more for professional use than anything else, so I wanted to try one of the real social networking sites out. If you knew me you would think I would be one of the first people to use a site like that. I am in the technology field after-all, and a fan of the new and interesting. For some reason I have been slow to adopt new online social concepts like online dating or social networking. I think it was because when I was actually interested in that stuff I was so far ahead of my time that everyone I knew would make fun of me about it. Now it is acceptable.

I signed up for the two big sites Facebook, & Myspace. As it turns out I already had a Facebook account that I never did anything with so it was easy to start using. My initial assessment of both sites follows almost exactly a study I read about both sites. It basically did a study of who uses both sites and said that there are distinct general demographic differences between the two. After my brief experience I am believing in what I read. I am not going to get into the details, but I ended up using Facebook. Myspace looked like it was designed by a 16 year old, and was too busy a site for me. It seems most of the people I know thought the same thing. After a brief search I only found one friend on Myspace and that was because I knew she was on it. Within 20 minutes on Facebook I saw like 30 people I knew.

Too me the whole idea of using a site like Facebook is to find friends who I have lost touch with. I had a list of a few names I wanted to look up. I actually suceeded in finding a few people, and in the process found several others I had not thought about. The funny thing about this process is you end up getting invites or hello emails from other people you may not have found, but who have found you. Here in lies the problem for me. I am horrible with names. It is hard to remember a name of someone you knew 5, 10 or even 15 years ago. I have already had to reference my college and high school yearbooks to verify that I knew someone. Sad I know, but it is true.

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Six Weeks Wait For a Watch Band

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When I turned 30 my dad gave me his vintage 1969 Omega Speedmaster. I haven’t used it much since I have always been afraid of damaging it, even though my dad wore it in surgeries for 30 years. In the few months that I did wear it I began to scratch the underside of the steel watch band. It was scraping against the desk when I typed. I have a similar problem with the Titanium X-33 I use as my day to day watch.

Recently I have wanted to wear the Speedmaster Professional more often, but I don’t want to mess up the original band any more than I already have (I really haven’t damaged it, but with continued use it will be messed up). I decided to go and try to buy a leather band that I can swap for the steel one I currently have. Well that was easier said than done. I went to Tourneau on Saturday and was basically told if they could get me a band it would be 6-8 weeks. I say if because since they couldn’t find the serial number on the watch they couldn’t validate that it was authentic. They claim that Omega won’t let them order anything without a serial number. I informed the lady that watches as old as the one I have don’t always have the serial number on the outside. For some reason I read that older models had the number inside the watch, if at all. She said it didn’t matter. I just shook my head as I provided my contact information in the hopes that Tourneau can order the band. If they can, I have no idea what color it can come in, or how much. I just don’t get some businesses. Is this company thinking in their head and saying lets take a loyal customer who has paid a premium for a product that double digit percentage of the population are stopping from buying (yes with mobiles and other electronic devices less and less people are buying watches) and make it harder for them to pay money for an accessory. It sure feels like that.

Oh and to be clear, I will blame the store not the manufacturer in this case because the sales lady didn’t handle the situation well at all. Places have to learn how to treat their customers better.

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Weekend Update

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Friday night I went out with a ton of people from work. It wasn’t an official going away party for me, but it felt like it. We ended up at Windfall to start. We hung out there for a while until the crowd thinned out. After that about 6 or 7 of us went to a Japanese Karaoke place. I am not a fan of Karaoke, but I had a good time. I cannot confirm or deny if I sang anything.

We started drinking around 5pm, and I finally stopped around 11:30pm. Starting early like that can kill you. I rested most of the day Saturday because of it. I did run out to do a little shopping. See a future post about the antics involved in getting a new watch band.

Saturday night I meet up with Danny to see Iron Man. I haven’t wanted to see many movies in the past few years, but I have been waiting to see this one. It looked fantastic, and I was also a fan of the comic when I was growing up. The movie was really good. Afterward we went to Heartland Brewery for some drinks and dinner. I shied away from the drink after Friday nights festivities.

Today was a hang at home and relax day!

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What Do You Get a Two Year Old?

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My nephew Zach’s birthday is in under a month. That means I am thinking about what to get him. I don’t even attempt to get him the most outrageous present. That is reserved for my dad to come up with something crazy. My problem is I can never think of what my niece or nephew would want for a present. I rely on input from my sister, otherwise I would never have thought to get a 5 year old a printer for her birthday. Zach is only two so he will probably get some traditional two year old gift. My issue is I don’t know what that might be just yet. It is always fun to shop for him, but I need guidance:(

I Can’t Sleep Again

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I have been having trouble sleeping for weeks. I have a few ideas why, but I won’t go into them here just now. A by product of my lack of sleep is a noticeable increase in the number of migraines I am getting or rather the number of times recently that I have needed to take my migraine medication. I even left early from work one day this last week, and worked from home another because I wasn’t up to my normal 100%. I am hopped up on meds right now because I woke up not feeling so hot today. Normally on a weekend day I would just suffer through the head ache because I don’t like to medicate when I don’t absolutely have to, but you can only take so many migraines before you break down and just take something. Sleeping helps, but if you can’t even do that you have to take something. Thankfully the stuff I took is working and I have been fine since about 1PM. Today is wasted but at least I feel semi normal.

I am afraid that the Johnnie Walker Blue I had last night might have been the trigger for this mornings issues. It is the second time that I have woken up with a head ache after drinking some, but i have had other scotch’s and bourbon’s before without any problems so I can’t see how it is a problem, but I don’t believe in coincidences.

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Passover Weekend

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This weekend was the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Now I never claim to be a religious person but on a holiday like this I do get together with my family and do the whole family holiday thing. If anything, it is nice to get together with my family.

On Saturday I went with my parents to my mom’s friend Martha’s house for the first night of Passover. It was a nice night. Thankfully I wasn’t the only person my age there. I was the only guy, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Overall it was a nice evening. Carrie and the kids were in Jamaica, or shall I say coming back from Jamaica so we didn’t see them on Saturday. What is so weird about going to my mom’s friend Martha’s is that my mom actually met her through me. Martha was actually one of my High School history teachers. I actually did well in her class, and ended up doing service work for her in I think the attendance dept. Turned out that she went to the same beach club my family went to, so my mom and dad would meet up with her and her husband every so often. After I was out of school I guess the began hanging out more, and last spring my mom went to europe with her. Martha is a knowledgeable traveler. Well I just find it a funny side story, so i decided to throw it in here.

Sunday the entire family went to my sisters father in law’s apartment in Manhattan. That meant that besides Zachary & Morgan there where 3 other little ones. Lauren and andrew were there with the twins (Ethan & Tyler) and Evan. There was lots of yelling and running around, but they are all so cute! It wasn’t a restful night but it was fun getting together with everyone.