Objects of My Desire

I have been covetous.

It started with our printer. I had one from the 90s that no longer connected to anything and another with degraded print quality that could have been cleaned, but I opted to get rid of it instead. In place of those, we got a new HP scanner/printer that operates on our wifi network, too. It's pretty sweet - three computers can scan or print wirelessly.

A few years ago, I went through a similar tech upgrade. I had a Palm Pilot and upgraded to a Sony Clie since I already had a Sony digital camera and could share Memory Stick media between the devices. The Clie has gone by the wayside as it's bigger than an iPod and does a lot less. The camera was state of the art when we got it, but now I realize that I would benefit greatly from image stabilization. Oh, and Panasonic is making one with a stabilized Leica lens and it's waterproof!

On our last trip, we decided not to take any tech with us. We had film cameras (not digital) and no laptops or smart phones or anything. I'm still not ready to pony up for a data plan ($30/mo.) since I'm surrounded by wifi and computers all day. On the other hand, I think I would be more reliable with dates and appointments if I could get a Palm-like device that would fit easily in my pocket. So, it's been suggested that I look into the iPod Touch. I can't justify the price of that without the phone (especially considering it'd be another device to carry). Catch 22 - I'm still thinking this one over. I suspect that either Verizon will have to acquiesce on its smart phone data plan requirement, or I'll have to figure out a viable VOIP solution for the Touch.

Last summer, I built a new computer for music recording and game-playing. That turned out great, and my plan was to use the old computer as a home theater PC (HTPC) for our nice, new television. That old PC is, indeed, old. While it does work, it reminds me of why I pushed to build a new one in the first place. Using it as a HTPC is just frustrating. So, while it's totally impractical, I have had the urge to build a whole new HTPC on the cheap.

Here's another thing - I sold my old Free Agent BMX bike a couple of years ago and scored big. I only decided to sell it because I didn't foresee using it again. Since then, I've had really bad seller's remorse and an urge to ride a BMX bike. Traditional BMX bikes have 20" wheels, while an average mountain bike runs 26" wheels. There have always been 24" BMX bikes (cruisers) and there are a few companies that make 26" BMX bikes, too. Anyhow, I think I've narrowed it down to these:

Haven't even thought about new drums in a while...

Action City Limits

Just kidding - I'm talking some ACL here, but the Austin variety. I've always liked that show, and it doesn't matter who is playing; I'm usually in for at least a few songs. When it's a group I actually like, it's easily my favorite live music show.

A short list of bands that I think would be perfect in that venue:

• Radiohead (loved the free webcast show from the end of their last tour)
• Portishead (almost as fun to watch as they are to listen to - the Live @ Roseland DVD will suffice)
• Slint (would love to get a close-up view of the drumming and strumming)

Here are some of the bands they've had recently that impressed me:

St. Vincent
The Decemberists
Arcade Fire

And you can find lots of older footage on YouTube. I recommend it.





Here's the very first episode. Awesome.

Terrorism Begins at Home

Watching Good Morning America whilst burning off some anxiety this morning, I saw the story of an older politician and his young girlfriend. Apparently, things didn't work out between them, so he had her killed, then went to a cemetery and slit his own wrists. Tragic story, but missing a key component: it wasn't reported as terrorism.

There were warning signs, apparently;  a pretty clear agenda by this psychopath, and he carried them out even further than anyone would have suspected. Next, this horrible story is carried nationwide on the major networks, which reminds us that anyone can snap at any time. Classic terrorism.

We don't hear about the heroic, coalition-building efforts of a senator that passes a droll bill to curb corporate pollution, but we do hear every bit of information on a politician who killed his girlfriend. It's not a shock to me that people in other countries think we're crazy. We kill our own fairly frequently. Our representatives are just as dangerous as their constituents.


Somehow, we're able to live with street gangs in our towns. Police do their best to curtail gang impact, but in general, we just know it's a part of our society that probably won't go away. On occasion, gang activity spills into the civilian world, and someone innocent dies. I've not seen the same fervor toward eradicating gangs as I have around "terrorism". In fact, we hardly ever see gang activity equated with terrorism, and it's the very definition. The main difference is that the Latin Kings have not openly stated that they want to bring down the U.S., I guess.

We go through weeks or months where a neighborhood is terrorized by a mugger or rapist before he's caught. That's terrorism.

Gacy, Kaczynski, McVeigh, Klebold, Kazmierczak, Rader (and plenty more) - all domestic terrorists. Worse yet, like with the politician, we see every grisly detail of the murders, the murderers' lives, and how helpless each victim was. Terrorism depends a lot on PR. 

I guess this post came up after hearing the debate on whether profiling should be allowed for security measures. What would that profile be? Would it include "pasty white nerd"? How is that even remotely American?

It's Getting Ugly Around Here

I'm a proponent of innovation, but the term "crossover" makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up. If you design something new, or even something to specifically fill a niche, that's great. If you try to shoehorn two existing things into each other arbitrarily, it can get ugly.

Such is the case with cars. Driving in to work today, I saw a BMW X6. Yikes. The vaunted German auto manufacturer was never known for its outlandish or innovative design; more for their top-notch driving experience and relatively conservative look. The X5 was innovative back when the SUV was still a truck that you could stand to drive for more than 20 miles. It offered luxury and stability in a larger package.


The X6 follows this new trend of genre-busting, but to unfortunate results. It's ugly. It's a BMW hatchback, a la the Gremlin, the Aztek, or the Crosstour. That's right, Honda's in the game, too. Take a standard Accord, make it about 10 inches taller, add a clunky-looking hatchback, and you've got a Crosstour. Or a Venza.

To be fair, the recent crossover crop started with Toyota. Credit where it's due. This one looks like a snubbed and shortened Highlander, which looked like a neutered 4Runner in the first place. There must be a market for these cars or BMW and Honda wouldn't be racing to produce their own, but it's disheartening.


Maybe we're working toward a convergence, and "crossover" is only the intermediary step. Maybe all cars will be essentially the same in the future - one centralized, evolved design. Maybe Apple should look into this...

Nuggets and Tidbits

I meant to post this yesterday, but I was actually proud of my fellow drivers on the way to work yesterday. The roads sucked, and yet for my brief stretch of highway, everyone just slowed down and moved ahead. There were no accidents that I saw and only one douchebag speeding along in his Hummer. Kudos.

On the one hand, I like cross-country skiing. On the other hand, I am pretty tired of shoveling snow.

A group of Internet pals embarked on an exercise exercise a few months back, and while I had intended to join in and track my push-ups, that ended for me as soon as it started. I did make it into the gym three times this week where I ran for 20 minutes and did 50 crunches each time. Starting slow while I'm under a deadline at work; I'll turn it up when that passes.

Side benefit of working out - I was on the treadmill right by the window when a coyote cruised by in search of some half-frozen carrion. It looked like a smaller German Shepherd. Awesome.

Dear CES - Here's What I Want.

My office and my home have wifi networks and my job requires zero travel. My wife and I travel only a few times per year and we're fairly good at planning those trips. I don't need e-mail on my phone, but I would love a device that had a reasonable camera, reasonable phone clarity, no extra data plan, and great media capability.

I used to use a Palm Pilot (Sony Clie after the original Palm became obsolete) and that was the first device to get my ADD-riddled brain a little organized. I have had a cell phone ever since my first job on the road. When my wife had to drive a decent distance to work, I preferred that she have one, too. We primarily call each other and our moms.

Our current cell phone bill is less than $70 for two phones/lines with 250 text messages included on the Verizon network. I can't justify the extra $30/month (more expensive than our DSL bill) for mobile data on a phone. However, Verizon requires a data plan with their smart phones, despite the fact that most or all of them have wifi connectivity as well. This takes the Droid or Droid Eris off the table for me. Nexus One, too.

The other primary option is the iPod Touch. The setbacks here are the lack of a camera, a 64 GB high-end option for $399 (!), and iTunes. I've done battle with iTunes on Windows before and I could live with it, but it wouldn't make me happy. I am interested in the Apple apps, but I have a tendency to be a little compulsive with the micro payments.

I've done a little research on the Archos media players, too, but they don't fit nicely into a pocket, they are still a little new to wifi (and now Android), and the GPS function is reported to be a little sketchy. Also, there's no camera and I'm not sure if there's a microphone input for Skype or the like. The PVR option with HDMI connections (record HD shows and watch them on the device or on my HD television) is neat and would definitely come in handy on the road, but it doesn't solve the portability problem.

In summary, I'd like a smart phone that can make calls on the Verizon 3G network, runs the Android OS, supports wifi for data connections, has a 5 MP camera (with a flash of some sort), 100 GB of solid state memory, a processor and GPU that can push streaming video smoothly, support for the majority of audio and video formats, and it should be a little smaller than an iPhone.

p.s. Verizon - lay off the data plan and you get my money sooner than later.

Uncoordinated

Disclaimer: Bears talk.

The big mea culpa at the end of the season sends the offensive coordinator on his way, and removes Lovie from the defensive coordinator position. We all know now that Lovie has an iron-clad lock on his defensive scheme. He's passionate about it to get rid of Ron Rivera over it and defended it yet again at this most recent press conference. Two problems here.

First, all we know about Lovie's offensive scheme is "we get off the bus running the ball." This statement came about when we had Thomas Jones, who could actually run the ball, and a line who knew how to block for the run. Since then, what have the Bears done to support that game plan? Hire Jay Cutler. Hm. The new offensive coordinator will have to have a complete, balanced plan in place, I think.

Second, Lovie's defensive scheme is old. The "Tampa 2" wasn't even being used by Monte Kiffin AT TAMPA by the time he left. The problem with this scheme is that you need key players with the right mindset to pull it off. I still believe that Tommie Harris could come back and have a few good years up front, but if not, that's a difficult position to fill. If we get Urlacher and Briggs back, that's a stout middle with plenty of solid backup. The safeties we had this year were okay, but it seemed to be a rotating cast. Definitely no standout there, although I'd be interested to see Charles Tillman move to safety. It makes sense on a few levels - he's smart, athletic, and knows the system.

It's pretty obvious that money did matter to the Bears in this decision. The offensive and defensive coordinators would, presumably, be operating under Lovie's schemes and overall game plan. Firing them (himself included) indicates that it was the coordinators who didn't get the job done this year. With that in mind, I still don't understand how he continues on (defiantly, even) as head coach. If everyone in my group at work gets fired for poor performance, you better believe the manager will come under fire, too.

There's a lot of hypocrisy coming out of Halas hall these days, but his remaining contract is the only reason I can imagine why he's still the head football coach. For that bold-faced lie alone, Ted Phillips should be removed from his post.

I'm not a Lovie hater, I just don't think he's an effective head coach. I wonder if he'd be successful as a defensive coordinator anymore, either, if that was his only job. Reality is, his defense wasn't prepared this year, and the whole team seemed flat going into every game. The games we won seemed like the flukes, not the other way around, and that's the main problem.

In Like a Lamb

Monday started off pretty well but ended with a broken toilet. Way to go, 2010. Way to go.

Mike, the trainer in our company workout facility, remembered my name after more than a year of apathy. That was a good sign first thing in the morning. I ran for a solid 20 minutes, did 50 crunches, then stretched pretty well. I did forget shampoo, but soap works just fine.

Once back to my desk, I got an e-mail with some of the information I'd been seeking for a while. More good news. This is where the wheels start to loosen.

Next e-mail was all about the new feature I missed in my initial research, and now, with only a week and a half until the deadline, I'll have to learn and document it. Two weeks of work in seven days. Bye Bye weekend.

Got a ton of work done anyhow, then stopped at Home Depot to get a new wax ring (couldn't find the one we got a few weeks ago) for the toilet. I had something totally different in mind but still let the plumbing aisle guy convince me otherwise.

First thing back at home, I brought the toilet inside the house to warm up. Called up Zappos to return a pair of shoes I got that didn't fit. That went really well, so I figured that was my precursor to another productive evening. I swear, it's dangerous for me to get optimistic.

I decided to get down to it and cleaned off the old wax from the toilet bowl and the drain cap. I siliconed the shim the Home Depot guy suggested and put it down, then realized the bolts he sold me were way too long. Hoping I could pull it off before the silicone dried, I ran downstairs and started furiously sawing down the bolts. It actually worked, so I put them in, set the shim, and put the wax ring on the toilet.

I flipped the toilet bowl onto the bolts and set it down, but the wax didn't seem to make contact. I knew I needed the bigger wax ring, but I let H.D. guy talk me out of it. At this point, it was after 10 PM, so there was no chance I was getting another ring. I opted to clean my sawing station instead so something would get done. When I pulled out the vacuum, I found the correct wax ring I originally bought a month ago or so. Things were looking up again, right?

This time, the flip worked, the bolts lined up, the wax ring gave some resistance before sitting flush, and I think I got the bolt length right. (There were correct bolts in the original wax ring box, for the record.) At this point, it's just a water connection and three bolts that hold the tank to the bowl - no problem, right?

Well, I hand-tightened two front bolts and started tightening the back bolt when I heard a crack. It was the sound of 2009 reaching into the future (our present) and snatching a possible victory from my hands. Even as I loosened up the bolts again, more cracking happened. Bah. That was that.

Today, no workout. No time. I didn't sleep much last night and there's (hopefully) band practice tonight. I'll be back on the exercise track tomorrow. I might have the toilet fixed tonight. Deadline at work is set for 1/15, after which I might have to decompress a bit.

This is not how I envisioned posts on ACTION CITY. Stay tuned!

Off to a Good Start

Since 01/01/10, I've nearly finished the trim around our new floor, painted and trimmed out the bathroom, and will have swapped out/fixed two light fixtures. I also got to work early this morning and ran for a solid 20 minutes, did 50 crunches, and stretched a lot.

As for fun, Jennie and I played House of the Dead on the Wii and spent some Christmas money over the weekend. Good times all around, and it's only the fourth of the month.

I have deadlines next week, so some stress this week, but I should be able to finish the bathroom and the trim AND get my little work area cleaned up tonight. That opens the door for practice tomorrow night (and Thursday if we can get back into a groove). I prefer a pattern.

One more thing - as meaningless (and possibly detrimental) as the game was, it's never bad to watch the Bears win convincingly. Poor, poor Lions...

Where the Action Is!

My plan was to make a bunch of specific resolutions for 2010 (a.k.a. MMX), but I think I can sum up my resolution for MMX like this: DO MORE FUN STUFF.

Here's the main list of stuff I'd like to accomplish this year:

- clean the basement
- take networking classes
- lose 20 lbs (and keep it off)
- travel through Canada

My great hope is that MMX brings us all some prosperity and joy. Cheers!