gadget lust strikes again
i’ve been eyeing the Treo 600 for a few months now, reading all the pre-launch hype and now that it’s out, all the glowing reviews about it. at $450 with activation it was more than i was willing to spend, but amazon had some rebates that brought it down to $300…so i finally gave in and ordered it last night. 
and it’s also the phone Howard Stern uses!! 
as partial justification for YAG (yet-another-gadget), i figure i can sell my tmobile sidekick and sony clie since the treo 600 essentially replaces both. that’s a net loss of 1 gadget…not bad, eh? plus, i’ve been unloading tons of gadgets/crap on ebay. i sold 9 things in the past month for over $1300!
i also bought a Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop as a surprise retirement gift for my dad. props to
techbargains for pointing out all the latest deals (the laptop was $999 – $300 in coupons = $699, free shipping, no tax). Dell was also great, getting it to me 6 days after placing the order.
i’m customizing it right now, because all new systems these days are shipped with so much bullshit bloatware installed it’s impossible to figure out how to do anything. for example, it came with Paintshop Pro as the default image editing program. but it’s a 30-demo version, so it’ll poop out after a month unless you feed it your credit card. i also use a program called Startup Cop to disable the tons of hidden startup programs that slow your system down. programs like AOL, Quicktime, RealPlayer, MusicMatch…they’re ALL running little startup agents whenever you boot. it’s so f-ing annoying!
anti-ahhnold
i finally watched "Pumping Iron", the documentary movie shot in 1975 about Arnold’s 7th Mr. Olympia win. watching it, you realize what a psychotic freak he is. he’ll say or do anything to win.
i’m now officially anti-Arnold because he dissed Howard while running for governor. Arnold had always been a guest of Howard’s over the years, and he called in to the show to get Howard’s endorsement. Howard represents the "idiot vote", which is actually a significant force (i’m part of it). anyways, Arnold promised to call in every week with updates and also to invite Howard to the inauguration should he win. he did neither, even though Howard urged all his CA listeners to vote for Arnold. Arnold hasn’t even called back to the show to thank Howard…what a DICK.
on my flight back from JFK to LAX, there was a lady sitting next to me that also had lived in both LA and NYC. she had a pretty good way of characterizing the difference: New Yorkers run around more high-strung, pushing & grabbing to get the things they want – but if you assert yourself they’ll backoff and give you respect. on the other hand, people in LA are calmer and more polite, but have an air of expecting only the best, to be treated better than others. i hadn’t thought of it that way before, but i see her point.
everyone’s fucked up…except me!
i came to a disturbing realization the other day. i noticed that when i think of a lot of the single people that i know, i see them as flawed in ways that i think will prevent them from ever being happily married. either there’s a major character flaw, or their expectations are too high, or they’re going to settle for whoever says yes first. i rarely think "now that’s a great person just waiting for another great person to come along."
but that’s not the disturbing realization (i’m more self-centered than that). the realization is that if I’M thinking this of them, then surely THEY’RE all thinking that I’M fucked up, too. i’m 32, single, and haven’t been in many serious relationships – there’s gotta be something wrong, right? yet, in my own little fantasy world, i feel totally capable of being madly in love and look forward to having a great married life. am i as delusional as all my fucked up friends? 
Friendster should allow anonymous testimonials where people can receive messages from a friend (which one, they won’t know) giving straight up, real, no-BS opinions.
ahh, i’m back in LA-la land. land of spacious and clean Starbucks. the ones in NYC are really beat-up and crowded, with never-ending lines for the bathrooms.
Nerd tip of the day: Run
Ad-aware periodically on your PC to scan for spyware. It’s a free program that roots out tracking cookies and other secret things put on your computer by bad people. It’s like anti-virus software, but for spyware instead of viruses.
Oliver posted a
video clip from his show in Springfield, MA, where i was the video guy. it’s an 11MB Quicktime file. my first official video credit.
this song is "Sex Machine", a more industrial sounding track. most of his other stuff is hardcore and really whips the crowd into a frenzy. i have some video when he MC’d a hardcore party @ CBGB’s – major mosh pit fun.
Random thoughts:
- the new Blink 182 album rocks! can’t wait to snowboard to it
- i watched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers this morning. it’s really good! i can see why the kids dig it. great fight choreography. cool effects. it’s AWWWTHOMMME!!!
