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.

My Bad

You tried to warn me, but I didn't listen. You tried to tell me that I was making a mistake, but I ignored you anyway.

Turns out, you were right. Serenity is an awesome movie!

Mr. Da Coops and I got to talking about movies on our drive up to camping, and he brought up Firefly. I mentioned seeing one episode, but not liking it much because I had no idea what was going on. Well, Mr. Da Coops, I'm ready to start watching Firefly now. It might be a bit weird, since according to IMDB, Serenity supposedly takes place after the last Firefly episode, but I guess that just makes the experience somewhat like Memento. And there's nothing wrong with that!

For what it's worth, I'm also now just one episode away from finishing season one of Star Trek: Voyager, with season one of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine waiting in the wings (backwards again, I know). Yeah, I'm a bit behind on a couple of shows... ;-)

Oh, and if you run into Ms. Fiance, don't forget to tell her happy birthday. The official day is Sunday, but everyone except me gets a free buffer of a couple of days to let her know that you didn't forget. Because you didn't, right? Right?

And because I completely forgot about Deal of the Day in my last post, you get two today. And what better way to spread the savings than with two more Apple deals!

DotD: Apple iPhone - $399 - Just 2 months after being introduced, it's now available for $200 less. Plus, the people that already bought an iPhone get a $100 credit at the Apple Store because of the sudden and massive price drop. First time I've heard of that happening!

DotD Part 2: 40 free digital prints - Sign up for York Photo (a sister company of Snapfish) and get your first 40 prints free.

What have I done?

Well, that'll teach me to try to get people involved...

I just got a sad email about the next TEC. I'm on the waiting list. This, of course, comes after convincing some other adults to apply to work. And then they take my spot! Sheesh!

And then Cooper has to rub in the fact that Baron is overall Rector (read the candidates a bed time story!). Stop with the heaping coals already!

Okay, so I'm not exactly down in the dumps here. I just need to ham it up a little to get some attention, since you guys and gals have left my comment section dry recently (yep, and my posting has been too, I know). So I'm trying for a virtual hug here, and pity seemed like the best tool.

I am excited about those that get to work. It'll be a blast. And hey, if a couple adults have some unfortunate run-ins with Tonya Harding, well, it wasn't me. Mostly. ;-)

Bitten by a horseshoe

Camping last weekend was a ton of fun, even though Ms. Fiance couldn't make it. We were up at a resort on Mille Lacs Lake. Unlike the majority of the people we saw who stayed in cabins or RV's, we brought tents. Cooper and I shared my tent, which was quite spacious for just two people.

The four of us played horseshoes, croquet, 2 on 2 sand volleyball, went swimming, and went biking on the Soo Line bike trail. The bike trail was not my favorite thing. It used to be an actual rail line that was removed and converted to a combination bike and ATV trail, so it is perfectly flat and perfectly straight. There also wasn't a lot to see around us, but hey, it was exercise and we had fun biking on it as  a group.

The horseshoes, on the other hand, were fun. We played countless games, sometimes while watching the sun go down over the lake. The problem is that horseshoes are dangerous. Very dangerous. I had my camera along and was taking pictures of everything, including the games of horseshoes. I decided after awhile that I'd like to get a good action shot, so I squatted behind the horseshoe pit with the wooden  wall in front of me, and took a picture when Cooper was throwing a horseshoe towards the pit I was behind. I said to the friend next to me to tell me if I needed to get out of the way so I didn't get hit, but Cooper's horseshoe was clearly landing in the sand pit about 6 feet in front of me. I looked down at my camera, while still squating, to see that I had gotten the horseshoe in mid-flight. Sweet!

BAM!

PAIN!

Cooper's horseshoe had hit the sand in front of me, and then instead of settling in the sand, it bounced up, over the the wooden barrier, and hit me directly on the knee cap. Remember, he had just thrown this horseshoe about 40 feet, so it had a lot of momentum on it and is made out of solid metal. MOMMY!!!!!

I survived, but my knee was really sore the rest of the day. I couldn't really bike because it hurt to push down on the petals, so we moved biking to the next day. It even hurt when I was just sitting down. Luckily, my knee felt much better by the next morning, so we could continue with our biking plans a day late.

I dominated at croquet, to the point that we decided to change the rules a bit on how many extra shots you could accumulate by hitting other people's balls. Of course we were playing croquet out in an open field in the middle of the day after playing sand volleyball and swimming, so at this point we realized that we were getting crispy. Oh yeah, we kind of forgot to put on that sunscreen I had brought with me...

We did an awesome job with our food. The highlight of the weekend's cuisine was Saturday night. We built up a big fire and then cooked corn on the cob and a special potato, carrot, and cream of chicken concoction by wrapping everything up in tin foil and sticking it directly in the fire. It took awhile to cook, but boy was it good! We also cooked some pork loins on my gas stove, so in the end, it was quite an extravagant meal.

We played a little poker Saturday night as well, inside the screened-in part of my tent. Everyone lasted quite awhile, but as the night wore on, it was getting really cold. I was in the final two, so I decided to just bet everything on one hand, and ended up losing by a hair. Oh well, great fun!

Our last camping adventure took place on our way home Sunday. We stopped by Grand Casino initially just for lunch. It was my first time in a casino, and Cooper's as well. I watched everyone lose a couple dollars at the nickel poker machines, too odds-inclined to actually play a game myself. Total lost between my 3 companions: $9. Total time spent playing games: An hour? Not too shabby.

I, however, won the big one. There was a 2 cent poker machine behind where the others were playing and I saw that it said there was half a credit available. Someone had apparently left and decided cashing out a penny wasn't worth the effort. I thought otherwise, especially since it gave me a story to tell about my first casino trip. I went over to the machine (no one had been there in the 15 to 20 minutes we'd been in that area) and hit the cash-out button. A paper slip was printed saying I had a $0.01 credit. Sweet! I had Cooper take a picture of my glorious winnings, and later went to the automatic cash-out machine to claim my winnings (I didn't want to waste an actual human's time at the counter). I then took another picture outside showing my new-found riches with the casino in the background. 

So yeah, if you need some good luck, ask for me. I'm the guy that wins money at the casino without actually playing a game!

DotD: Buffet lunch at Grand Casino - $9.99 - Great food and plenty of it. And then free pop while you walk around afterwards.  And then for me, free money at the casino!

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

The great and powerful families have finally met. This past weekend Ms. Fiance's parents met my parents for the first time. It went swimmingly well. Not that we were worried or anything, but it's nice to have that past us.

We did a little steak and corn-on-the-cob grilling on Saturday, and then played a few games of cards. No, Cooper, not THOSE cards. ;-)

On Sunday, Ms. Fiance and I were on worship team at church, and we sang a duet during offering. It went really well. We had some issues getting to that point, however. The first plan was to sing along to an instrument-only CD track, but the range was too high in a couple spots, and if I dropped down an octive, it was too low in a couple spots. Basically, the worst possible range for me. The other option was to have someone play the piano (actually keyboard), but then Ms. Fiance had some trouble with the harmony since it was in a different key. In the end we slowly worked out the harmony and sang with the keyboard, guitar, and drums from the worship band backing us up. It was really cool that both of our sets of parents were there for our duet debut.

After church, we headed down to the Metrodome to see the Twins play. Wow, what a game! This was the Johan Santana performance you may have heard about, where he struck out 17 people in 8 innings. Think about that. He had to get 24 outs, and 17 were strikeouts. Crazy! And only Sammy Sosa caused it to not be a no-hitter, as he had both hits that the Twins allowed.

And you thought all it did was rain this weekend!

DotD: Refurbished iPhone - $399 or $499 - For a hundred bucks less than a brand new phone, you can have a just-like-new, factory-refurbished iPhone, in either the 4 GB or 8 GB version. Yes, it is still expensive, but it's an iPhone! Why aren't you running yet? Oh...yeah...it's on the internet... Why aren't you clicking yet?

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.

Satan is Dead!

Card day has come and gone, and it was a blast. We played Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and Reclamation. A couple of us also managed to sneak in a couple games of ping-pong. 

Reclamation was fun, although there's a bit of work to be done to balance things out (which is completely expected). People tend to do strange things when given the chance, and often find ways to do things in a game that the designers never expected. I pulled off a very unique trick in my first game of Reclamation against Joel. Here's what happened:

I had played Reuben on a previous turn and then I played Levi next to him. I then used the Human Sacrifice card to kill Levi to draw 4 cards (I was losing, and desperate times call for desperate measures). This is where things got weird. One of the cards I drew was Vengeance of God, which says if your character was just killed, you can make another character Might +5. The idea was that if a Hell character killed your Heaven character, God may take some action. Instead, I had actually chosen to kill Levi on my own (as the Heaven side) just to draw 4 cards, which then made Reuben really strong. I used another card to start a battle between a Heaven character and Hell character, and I chose to have Reuben fight Satan alone. Normally not a good idea, but because of the Vengeance of God, Reuben not only won the fight, but killed Satan! Following this? Here's the recap:

Reuben murders his brother Levi in a messed-up human sacrifice, this makes God angry, God grants Reuben super-human strength as a result, and Reuben uses this strength to kill Satan.

Not quite what Cooper intended, me thinks.

The other unusual event of the day occurred in Star Trek. I was flying my ship around, and ran into a Borg Cube in hiding. It attacked, and obliterated my ship completely, killing all of my people. And then it happened again, one game later. ;-)

DotD: Free PC case and Free USB hard drive enclosure - Both rely on mail-in-rebates to make the final cost free (before shipping). I'm a sucker for free computer stuff. I built one of my PCs with a free PC case (not the one shown here), a free power supply, and a $10 AMD 2 Ghz processor.

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!