Just Like I’m Walking On Broken Glass

I got my Zune in yesterday!!! It is AMAZING. I am so glad about my purchase, and I can’t wait to really dive into the features and see what it can do. My only problem is the battery life. It is decent if you just listen to music, but watching videos and playing games as I will be doing often really kills the battery. It only last a little over 4 hrs playing straight video. I will definitely need to get something to extend the life of it if I am going for a long trip in a plane or something.

Why am I walking on broken glass? Because it seems every piece of glass I touch becomes broken. I have already described what happened to the Zune. As a side note, the thing was pretty solid. I dropped it multiple times and never even noticed a scratch. I’m not sure exactly what happened when the screen broke. I think it was somewhat of a freak incident where I happened to put the right amount of pressure in the right spot to ruin it. None the less…. Broken glass.

On Saturday of last weekend, our sliding glass door in the back of the house shattered. Liz and I weren’t around when in happened, and actually didn’t even notice it until the next morning because we got home late. Here is a picture of it. It is the same picture that Liz has on her blog.



It was actually very fascinating to look at. Clearly it started as a small web of cracks and expanded to cover the entire door. If you stood next to it and were quiet enough, you could here a new small crack form. A new one would form about once every 20 seconds.

Since bad things always happen in threes, you know this isn’t over yet. On Sunday night, yes the night of the same day we discovered the screen door. I broke the LCD screen on my work computer. We were about to go to bed and I decided to turn a movie on my work computer, it was just convenient at the time because our personal computers were malfunctioning / being used for another purpose. I was sitting on the floor setting up the movie, and then went to pick up the computer and put it on our dresser. I grabbed a hold of it from the top of the screen (as I do with my personal computer all the time, but highly recommend not doing) and I pinched a little to hard…. and crack. It was actually quite similar to my Zune. The outside didn’t crack, but the pressure on the screen broke the LCD behind the protective screen. There was just a small crack, but on an LCD, the whole picture is ruined. I just sat there in shock. I can’t believe I just busted my work issue computer…. By means of broken glass!! C’MON!

I promise I’m not a klutz. These were just very unique, and odd occurrences that happened to fall near each other. Though I am happy to report that everything is back to normal. I have my new Zune, we called the landlord and he just finishing replacing the door today, and my office called in their dell guy to replace the broken screen yesterday. Luckily, no one cared that much at work, they simply accept that accidents happen. Plus our new door is much nicer than the old one. I guess it worked out overall. No harm done at work, and much improved sliding glass door with an actual working screen, and a sweet new Zune. Not bad, but I do tense up a little bit when I’m next to a window or closing my car door.

Salivate, Salivate….. Decision!

A few sad months ago, I broke my Zune. It was a very upsetting an emotional time for me because I loved that thing. It traveled with me every time I was in the car or a plane. It provided entertainment of tv shows and movies if I was waiting to meet someone, sleeping at someone else’s house, or performing a mindless process at work. And some time ago, the screen cracked. I’m not sure exactly how it happened. I got to work one morning, slid it into my pocket, walked upstairs and set it on my desk, and the next time I went to turn it on…. Cracked screen. I must have oddly bumped into something or crushed it against the arm of my chair when I set down. Either way, I no longer had a display. It could still play music when I was able to successfully navigate the menus, but no videos, and I couldn’t pick the songs.

I was an early adopter in the way of Zunes. Having never had a video mp3 player, I dove right in as soon as they came out. I had some problems in the beginning, some with the software, and some with the hardware. I even had to send it back once to get it replaced. But overall, I was happy with my device. When it broke I immediately wanted to replace it. I went back to the iPod vs Zune debates and tried to get talked into making a rash decision, but it didn’t work out. iPod still seems to be winning the debate, but I had heard some bad things about iTunes, and dang it, the zune is just cooler. For a moment there I thought about getting a new Zune, but I did have some problems and my old one just broke. This decision vexed me and I ended up not getting anything. I even went through the iPod store, picked the right one, and wrote out the engraving at least 3 times. It got to the checkout and I couldn’t pull the trigger. Eventually I gave up and decided I shouldn’t have one, after all quite the expense.

Time passed, and I made the life adjustments to non video mp3 player life. I would still take a look at them if I found myself in a store with some time to kill, but would just sigh and walk away. Toward the end of last week I decided to see what was new in the Zune world. I typed in some random search, and BAM! “Zune 3.0 software / firmware released today!” Apparently there were some significant changes to the previous versions and the Zune is even better than before. After reading the release notes of 3.0 and salivating a little, I found “zune 120 released.” Just a week before Microsoft came up with a Zune with 120 gigs of space for the same price as the iPod 80 gig. Now I didn’t really need that extra 40 gigs, but that got me to salivate even more. After reading some more notes and reviews, the decision was made. I shall no longer subject myself to a dull and dreary non video mp3 player life. I bought one the next day. Check this out.

Isn’t that just sexy? So much cooler than those apple doohickeys (except for iTouch). I know iPod just came out with their own 120 gig version to compete, but I just like this so much. Sleeker design, bigger screen, and apparently they greatly improved the wifi capability. It should be coming in the mail today or tomorrow, and I am ridiculously excited. Unfortunatly, I am worried about breaking a screen, so I went out and bought this guy.

This is a pretty nice looking leather case that is also quite fashionable. It is more like a nice man’s wallet than a goofy case. I am all sorts of excited and I can’t wait to find some good music and videos to fill this thing up with. I hear tell that it also has games now. All I have to do is get used to the goofy squircle.

Here Comes The Rain Again

You may not know this about me, but I absolutely adore times in my life where songs apply to my situation. Even in the bad times, if a song applies, I will embrace it and sing it at the top of my lungs and honestly feel better. You may remember my post “23 Syndrome” where I discussed the songs about people that were 23 years of age. A couple months before I turned 22, I couldn’t wait until I turned 23 and could sing those songs of personal significance. Every time I hear one of those songs now, I always turn up the volume and embrace it. When I turn 24, my excitement for these songs we most likely decrease.

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends

This song just has a good sound to it. I’ve always liked it, and like it even more in the month of September. Looking at the lyrics, it doesn’t really apply at all other than the fact that the current month is September. None the less, if I happen to hear that song this month, its go time for singing in the car.

Picking a favorite song is a really hard thing for just about anyone to do. Most people say it is too hard to pick, or revert to a lame answer like “it depends on my mood.” In an attempt to not be lame, I decided a couple years ago that my favorite song is “I’m Moving On” by Rascal Flatts. What can I say? I like everything about the song, including the sound of my voice singing it. Yes its true, we’ll deal with that issue at another time. Another reason I like the song is that it applies to my life only on occasion. It doesn’t often apply, but it doesn’t never apply. It applies occasionally at significant moments in my life like when I got a new job, moved on from a relationship, or relocated. Many of these moments were scary and full of emotion, and that song just gives me hope that I am doing the right thing and the change will be better for my life in the long run.

This brings me to my last point. I am happily married. I love my wife and kid (whoa) and celebrate just about everything about marriage. There is one thing that I realized a few months after getting married: All of those songs about heartbreak will probably never apply to me again. Granted, Liz and I could get into some kind of grand argument and those songs my quasi apply, but they should never fully apply again. Part of me is a little bummed out about that. It may be a little sick, but I really like some of those songs and they will never apply to my life in the foreseeable future. I know that heartbreak is a terrible feeling, and I would have never wished it on myself before marriage, but dang it, I really like when songs apply. I guess I’ll have to lean on the songs of joy and about having a family and what not, but I’d say a large % of the songs out there relate to heartbreak. Oh well.

Thanks for reading.

Baaaaalooooogg

It appears that I have this web journal of sorts and said journal requires my attention. These things unfortunately do not update themselves, and in order to keep my audience captivated, I need to post more than once every 3 or 4 weeks. Bearing that in mind my dear reader, know that I really don’t have a lot to talk about. Life has jut been ticking by and I’ve been doing my thing. I have been really busy at work for the past few weeks which I am happy about. Being busy makes my days go faster and gives me a greater sense of accomplishment. However, the lack of posts has been a direct effect of that busyness. For a while there, I was in a consistent routine to go to work, come home and exercise, eat dinner, and watch the Olympics until I feel asleep. Then the Olympics were over and we filled some of that time with tv, or cleaning out the nursery. That has mostly been my life. Somewhere in there Keith came over for a weekend and we played a bunch of Rock Band, saw Tropic Thunder, and hung out at the Coliseum. There was also a 3 day weekend in Beaverdale hanging out with Liz’s family and playing golf.

A possible point of interest to add to this post is my consideration of joining a gym. I have not really found a consistent time at home to work out. There are other distractions and I want to spend time with Liz, so I end up not working out as much as I would like. A while back, I was running on my lunch break, but it was a struggle to get the work out in, get a shower, and make myself some lunch. It got even more challenging when Liz stopped working and I wanted to say hi to her and see how her day was going. Lunch break workout was too cumbersome, morning was miserable, and directly after work took up too much of my precious free time. I have therefore decided to switch back to the lunch break workout, but in a gym. That takes out any distractions at home, and I save time because I will pack my lunch in the morning and eat it while I am working after my lunch break. It may not be 100% optimal, but a 1hr lunch break is too much time to waste eating and sitting around doing nothing. I’ve decided to go to Planet Fitness because they have the best deal by far. $30 to sign up and $10 a month! That’s not bad at all. There is also no contract, so I can stop at any time. I checked out the place yesterday, and today will be my first day of exercising. Wish me luck.

Also, if you have any suggestions for a work out plan at a gym exercising 40 mins a day 5 days a week, let me know. I’ve been looking online, but haven’t found any specific plans that meet my needs. I don’t want to waste my time doing meaningless exercises that don’t really do me a lot of good. I want to make sure I am doing hard workouts to progress forward and get in shape. I know that will be a challenge with my time constraints, but it has to be possible. Thank you for any comments and suggestions.