Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Another step into the future

I got a new PDA over the weekend. My old one, a Palm Pilot m100, was dying ever so slowly ... actually, a little more quickly than that, lately. I had to redigitize it every time I turned it on ... sometimes several times in one setting. And if you don't know what "redigitize" is, neither do I, really. I just know I had to do it.

So now I got a nifty Sony Clie TJ-26, I think. It has (WARNING: GEEKSPEAK FOLLOWS) 32 megs of memory, as opposed to my old one, which had a whopping 2 megs. Which means I uploaded all my info from my old PDA, which was nearly maxed out, into my new PDA, and it tells me i'm still 94% or so unused space. So I loaded it up with a bunch of other software that I had taken off my Palm for space issues. And I still have a ton. My next purchase of software (my FIRST, actually, because all the other stuff I had was freeware) will be a Bible, which I always wanted to put in my PDA but never had nearly enough room.

The next step, maybe a couple years down the road: the all-in-one phone-mp3-pda-digital camera thing.

If I can afford it.

-Zube.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

It's all Greek to me

Olympics fever, catch it!!

Well, OK, maybe not.

I do like getting the chance to see sports that you don't EVER see otherwise. Today, shotput from Olympia. Watched a little of rowing the other day ... and saw some highlights of badminton! How's THAT for an Olympic sport?!

I wonder what will be the big breakout odd sport this time, like curling was at the Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002. I remember everybody near me at work watching every match they had on TV. It was great ... odd, but great!

Athens really doesn't seem to be getting crowds this time ... I wonder if the International Olympic Committee is going to lie and say, at the conclusion, that these were the "Greatest Olympics ever!" as is their custom ... except at Atlanta.

-Zube.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

The most wonderful time of the year

Football season finally is starting up ... as I told one friend at work, "I'm home again!"

I'm widely known around here as a football nut. I'd rather watch a 20-year old college game on ESPN Classic than a World Series Game 7. But I mean, who wouldn't? I hear that ESPN's all-time weekend rating was set this spring ... for the NFL Draft! C'mon, people, admit it! Football is King!

My favorite team is the Dallas Cowboys. I have high hopes, but I don't know how they're going to do this year ... they still have a lot of rebuilding to do.

Notice that I say "they" ... I never refer to my favorite teams as "we" ... I'm a fan, but I'm not an employee! That's one of my pet peeves ... but I guess it's natural in sports fandom to refer to yourself as part of your team. It's just weird, I think.

But I hope WE get to the Super Bowl soon again!

-Zube.

Friday, August 06, 2004

The rain and the hours

It rained today ... for awhile. I slept through a good deal of it. Slept in because I was working a later shift than usual.

The past couple weeks have been odd ... Instead of my usual 11-7 shift (which I love), I've been working whatever is needed, because of vacations, etc. ... 1-9, 12-whenever (my boss' shift), Saturday 2-whenever (filling in), and next week, 3-11. the jobs all have different needs and expectations, different things I need to take care of ... and most of the times, I still have to do parts of my usual shift, which is a hodgepodge of little things. Pretty easy to forget something if you're not careful.

These kind of changes are draining ... headaches and a bit of my visual migranes. Fun, huh?

I'm waiting for the day all the vacations are over for the year!

-Zube.


Monday, August 02, 2004

These movies today ...

Back at work after a busy weekend.

We all saw a dollar-movie showing (for $3 dollars each, incongruously) of "Around the World in 80 Days." We all loved it ... Why didn't this movie do better at the box office? It wasn't GREAT, but it was a lot better than any of us had been led to believe.


I think the reason this movie largely tanked is no swearing, no double-entendres (well, maybe 1 or 2), no potty humor (well, maybe once), nothing you had to shield your kids from. The action scenes, choreographed by Jackie Chan, were wonderful, and funny. I'm not a big fan of his, or Kung Fu-type movies, but this was a lot of fun.

I know our family isn't typical. We still go to see Disney movies, even though our kids are 13 and 10. ... Who am I kidding, we'd go see them anyway WITHOUT the kids! Our kids don't seem to be caught up in the sex-and-violence-and-fratboy-humor movies that are being put out with abandon these days.

As I look up, I see a TV ad for "Alien vs. Predator." Now THAT's a kids movie for you, right? I'm sure it'll do big box office. And that's a shame.