Mobile Blogging

My how adventurous I've become. I am writing a post on my phone for the first time. And of course, in geeky fashion, I am doing it not because I have to, but because I can. I am sitting in front of my computer and typing on my new iPhone.

The yet-to-be-renamed Ms. Fiancé is going to be interviewed tomorrow by ABC about one of her patients. She's a pretty big deal. :-)

As for me, going to Viking's training camp was great. I'm always excited for football season. I just bought tickets for the Stielers preseason game at the dome. The inlaws are Stielers fans and are coming up for the game. My parental units are also coming with to help me cheer for the Vikes.

I finished the summer softball season with the highest on-base percentage on the team. Not a bad change from last year, when I was near the bottom. I'm getting luckier with age.

Deal of the day: Vikings training camp in Mankato. Free to get in, you just have to pay $5 to park all day if you park at the stadium.

Removing Viruses, Trojans, and Spyware!

A late night post from the Mac Man while I attempt to remove internet viruses, trojans, and spyware from a friend's computer. It's loaded. You boot up the machine and you instantly start getting flooded with pop-ups, fake security warnings, etc. Reminds my of one more reason I really enjoy my Macs.

The wife and I got a bunch of pictures and wall-hanging-things hung up Sunday night. Those are the kinds of things that I just don't think about, but they add a little character to the otherwise empty walls. 

My volleyball team won 2 of 3 games tonight, which was a nice change of pace from the previous few weeks. We started off undefeated for a couple of weeks, and then it went downhill fast, to the point that we didn't win a game for a few weeks. The ref has some sort of family emergency, so he left right before we were about to start. The people we played were good sports, however, and we were all pretty easy-going on calls.

The new iPhone was announced yesterday, as expected, and I'm super pumped. My contract with Verizon has been up since April and I've been waiting for the new iPhone to be announced to switch. The new version has faster internet (3G), GPS, and longer battery life, among other things. It costs a lot less up front than the old iPhone, but the data plan now costs more so over the span of a 2 year contract it really ends up costing the same. The math still works out in favor of it over my Treo, however, since Verizon's data plans are more expensive and a new Treo wouldn't be that much cheaper up front than the new iPhone. The release date of July 11th can't come soon enough, although I'm going camping that weekend and will not be near a store for the launch.

DotD: Musical pillow for $1.19. Just plug in your MP3 player and fall asleep to Kutlass.

What's new in your world?

February, huh? Yeah, it's been a little while. And even that was sort of cheating. December before that. Wowsers!

Life has been a little bit busy lately, and I haven't really been sitting around at the computer blogging, reading blogs, or hanging around facebook. Sorry if you all feel neglected, it was not my intent. 

The big news since the last post is that I am a freshly-minted husband. I have the jewelry to prove it. Married life has been great so far. I'm no longer the only person who feeds and walks the dog (Mac), the cooking has more variety, and most importantly of all, I now have half the closet and dresser space I used to have. It's my way of working on the simple life. ;-)

The other cool thing that I did recently was play 7 games of softball in 2 days. I played in a church league tournament this past Saturday, and we ended up playing 5 games that day: 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm, and 3:00 pm. Whew! Then I had my normal double-header on Sunday  night as well. It was a ton of fun, but I got some nice sunburn on my face, neck, and arms. Oh, and my legs were just a tad sore...

I hope to be a little more regular in posting again, but don't get your hopes up yet Dan on a daily schedule. Baby steps.

DotD: Free MacBook Pro battery. Okay, so it's not for everyone, but my laptop has been acting strangely when running off of the battery recently. It would be fully charged and then after about 20 minutes on the battery, it would just shut off with no warning. It's only about 1.5 years old, and I don't use it every day or anything, so the battery should be just fine. I took it into the Apple Store today, they confirmed that the battery was defective, and gave me a brand new battery right on the spot for free. They never even asked me for paperwork or anything, other than to sign the form saying they performed the work and I owed nothing. Sweet!

Leopard

Well, the first week of my new job went well. Actually, day 1 was pretty crazy. My head was swimming from all of the new information, procedures, tools, etc. My current project is working on software for a medical device. I'll be generic at this point until I get a better feel for what I am allowed to say and what I am not allowed to say. Given that we have to keep the machine under a tarp when we are not actively using it, it is safe to say that confidentiality is a pretty big deal for the company making it. I currently have a small version of the machine in my cube for development and testing purposes. I can flip switches, turn dials, and pretend to be a great doctor or nurse. 

Of course, while important, that had nothing to do with the subject of this post. Because while I like to keep you informed of what I'm up to, you just want to find ammunition to use against me. Don't say I never gave you anything.

Ms. Fiance and I were meeting after work at Rosedale Mall, planning to have supper after a failed attempt to meet somewhere else...

*Insert side story here*

We were originally going to meet at Arthur's Jewelers to look at wedding bands. We already have hers, but I don't have one yet. Anyway, at a recent wedding expo she won a coupon for $100 off a wedding band if you use the coupon by the end of October. As it turns out, the place closes at 6 pm on 3 out of 5 days during the normal work week (huh?), Friday being one of those days. Well, by the time we both would have gotten there it would have been about 6:30, so no dice.

*End of side story*

While waiting at Rosedale Mall for Ms. Fiance, I decided to walk all the way to the other side of the mall to the Apple Store, since Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was being released that day starting at 6 pm. I had pre-ordered my copy online, but I figured I could kill some time and maybe even grab one of the free t-shirts they were handing out for the release night.

It was about 6:15 when I got to the store, and I saw the store was pretty full. There were employees standing next to the door offering people the free t-shirts as the left. I went to walk in past them when the first guy stopped me. I figured he was going to ask if I wanted a t-shirt. He said, "Did you just come from the line?" With me being surprised and confused, he continued, "We're only letting people in who waited in line." At this point, I turned around and noticed a line of people waiting to get into the Apple Store that extended all the way down the hall to about Macy's. Yeah, somehow missed that line of hundreds of people standing in a nice orderly line in the middle of the hallway. Whoops!

Countdown

Just a few more hours until I'm off to TEC 69. And I'm STILL not done with my wheat. Seriously, I need to concentrate and stop blogging and chatting, or someone's going to be very disappointed. Good thing Northwestern is open until 9 and is just down the street.

I finally joined Facebook last night, but then again, I think all of you know that already. Oh, yes, I know I'm years behind, but it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Even if that old dog is a computer geek.

Oh, and Cooper cheats at Scrabble. 20 points for sticking the letter 'p' between two 'o's? Seriously? That's an informal abbreviation, and you know it! I'm going to be dumping pop all over the conference room starting tomorrow and then we'll see what kind of words you use against me!

DotD: Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Family Pack - $189 - Oh sure, people complain about Mac's costing more. But how about this? The full, no-features-removed-or-disabled version of Apple's next generation operating system, usable on up to 5 computers for less than a single upgrade copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. Or, get a single license for $109. No product activation and no license keys, and everyone gets the full version.

MacDepot

Cooper and I were chatting the other day on the way back from a TEC meeting. We got to talking about websites and it reminded me of my old website from many years ago. It was a chance for me to spread my journalistic wings a bit and write about anything I wanted to. Which, of course, was all Macintosh related. A quick search in Google revealed that the long-forgotten website still existed out in cyberspace, but with many broken links, graphics, and features due to services and websites that don't exist 10 years later. In any case, it was fun to see the product of a young geek that I know very well.

Without further ado, I present to you the great archaeological find: MacDepot.

A couple things worth checking out include the News (including the Archives), Supporters, and Graphics pages. I wrote all of the news articles, gleaning information from tons of Mac-related websites and magazines. The Supporters list was a listing of people who had visited my site and filled out a form to have their name and location added to my list of Macintosh supporters who had visited my site and wanted it recorded, and the Graphics page is a page of various Mac graphics (gifs and animated gifs) from the pre-flash era of the web.

I hope you enjoy your trip into the past as much as I did.

DotD 1: TEC! TEC! TEC! It's coming this weekend! Hurray!

DotD 2: USB Vacuum Cleaner - $5.99 - I guess you can use it for vacuuming between the keys on your keyboard or in your cat's ears or something. But it was strange enough and cheap enough that I had to put it on here.

Fireworks vs Cars, Round 1

The first round of the battle pitting fireworks against cars to capture our hearts, imaginations, and interest is over. The results are a bit mixed, so let's take a look at the fight so far...

Pre-fight warm-up

While making a late-night run to Blockbuster on Tuesday to rent Along Came A Spider due to the DVR cutting off the last 20 minutes when something ahead of the movie ran over its alloted time, we were suprised to see big fireworks going off in Anoka (this was July 3rd, after all). We happened to have Charlie (my cat) with us at the time, since he loves car rides. We pulled into a park, got out of the car (bringing Charlie with us), and watched the fireworks for about 25 minutes.

Ding! Round 1 begins

I held Charlie in my lap as we watched the fireworks, but he could care less. Instead, he kept turning his head to watch the cars go by on the street next to us.

1 Point: Cars

Last night, some friends and I (including Cooper) went to see the Roseville 4th of July fireworks. Tom's 1 year-old, Kira, was with us. She was a bit afraid of the fireworks, but stared intently at them the whole time, ignoring the passing cars that kept driving by.

1 Point: Fireworks

Before the Roseville fireworks began, a little boy near where we sat yelled out, "Look, a Corvette!" It was a Pontiac. And besides, the fireworks hadn't even started yet.

No points awarded

Ding! End of Round 1

Like I said, the results are mixed. It's a close one, certainly too close to call right now, as we're all tied up 1-1. Keep tuning in for your up-to-the-minute Fireworks vs Cars coverage!

All in all, a pretty good 4th of July. I had the day off from work, we played some games and pool at the Marlin's while grilling, and I got to see two different fireworks displays, even if one was by accident.

The bad news is that the next holiday I get off work for without using vacation is Labor Day.

DotD: iPod Shuffle - $29 - A refurbished original white 512 MB iPod Shuffle that is the size of a small pack of gum. It cost $99 when it came out, and is a great cheap small iPod. I got one for this price about 6 months ago, and it's been great for those times when I don't want to carry around my regular full-size iPod (because of size, weight, or fear of it breaking). Also available, the newer clip-shaped 1 GB refurbished iPod Shuffle for $49. Smaller, twice the storage space, and a convenient clip instead of a lanyard for a little bit more than the other model.

Here we go!

I begin my new adventure as a member of the worship team this morning (approximately 2 hours). Hopefully that goes as well as Baron's day at KT.

Also, today is the first team meeting for TEC. My sister, fiance, and I will be in the conference room, and my Dad will be in the Support room. Can't wait!

DotD: iPhone - $499 or $599 - Couldn't resist. Buy one already!

Yesterday

So, here we go. Mac Man is starting a blog. He's been harassed, prodded, begged, and then ignored. Plus, I post enough in Cooper's blog to fill my own blog anyway. And the timing is perfect, since Mr. Baron is out of town. So here, you go, Mac Man unleashed, uncensored, and uncannily funny! Okay, maybe uncensored is taking it a little to far, I do have my standards you know.

So, yesterday was a big day. Why, you ask? A couple reasons:

1. First day of summer

2. 15.5 hours of sunlight (if the clouds weren't in the way)

3. 3 months since I got engaged

4. 1 month since Cooper's birthday

5. Softball game

6. 8 days until the iPhone is released

7. The last day without a blog (Baron will be so happy!)

See, we both survived my first post together! Cue the sappy music and start the hugs!

DotD (Deal of the Day): Plush Elephant LCD TV - $109.99 - It's a toy, it's an elephant, it's aTV, and it's just plain cool!