Category Archives: Rants and Raves

Winning and Losing from This Weekend

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If Charlie Sheen is winning, then someone needs to fix the &^!@*$ scoreboard. – The Charlie Sheen Roast on Comedy Central

We’ve had an interesting weekend. Here are a few winning and losing moments:

  • WINNING – Me! I came in third in my division and 16th overall out of 165 at the 5K yesterday. It was a tough trail 5K with lots of ups and downs and some uneven terrain, but the weather was great.
  • LOSING – The Cowboys. Really, guys?
  • WINNING – The eight-months-pregnant woman who also medaled in the 5k. I assume she didn’t run the whole way if at all, but she got out there and finished it.
  • LOSING – My Baylor Bears. It’s becoming clear that despite our star quarterback’s prodigious talent and video-game-level stats, we can’t be a top-tier team without a significant upgrade to the defense.
  • WINNING – Our new Dyson vacuum came in from WOOT! I’m actually excited about using it. Brenden keeps begging me to set up the new “gack-ume”.
  • WINNING (and then dying repeatedly) – A ridiculously hard and awesome adventure RPG called Dark Souls comes out on Tuesday. It’s a sister game of sorts to one of my all-time favorites, Demon’s Souls.
  • LOSING – We currently use AT&T for both internet and wireless. I got some junk mail from them over the weekend that said something like, “Since you already use AT&T for your internet service, we invite you to try AT&T wireless with this special offer.” Sigh.
  • WINNING – I listened (and sang along with) the entire two-disc recording of Les Miserable, original London cast. And it was glorious.
  • WINNING – When Jonathan sees me after I’ve been asleep or away, he now says “Dada!” and runs over to give me a hug.

How was your weekend?

March 2011 Rants and Raves

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Rave – Life Time Fitness Yes, it’s expensive, but it’s a fantastic gym with good facilities, a wide variety of classes, and great child care. It’s so good that my wife, who always hated exercise, truly enjoys working out there and misses it when she doesn’t get to go. She’s even training for her first indoor triathlon in September.

Rant – AppleCare When I bought my beloved MacBook in fall 2008, I sprung for 3 years of AppleCare, Apple’s extended warranty program. The battery has been acting weird lately, and I fear it has reached the end of its life. I had assumed that AppleCare would cover a new battery, but apparently the battery isn’t covered except for manufacturing defects. Apple considers the battery a consumable part, like tires on a car. Its useful life for this model is about 400 charge cycles. I’m sure we’re close to that figure if not past it. A new battery is $129. ***UPDATE – Jenny took the MacBook to the Apple store for a new battery. The rep initially said we would have to buy a new one, which magically cost only $99 at the store. But then their computer decided that the new battery was covered under AppleCare, so we got it for free. I’ve read several reports of Apple covering work that isn’t technically under warranty. They want to keep their customers happy.

Rave – The People of Japan In the face of natural and manmade disasters that many Americans will never face, the people of Japan seem to be handling the situation with remarkable grace and maturity. Instead of descending into anarchy, violence, and looting, the Japanese are sharing with each other, trying to remain calm, and patiently waiting in line for hours to pick up supplies. A skeleton crew at the damaged nuclear power plant is staying behind, knowingly taking radiation, to continue working on the reactor and contain the effects. See this letter to the editor for more commentary.

Rant – Door-to-Door Salespeople Want an easy way to put me in a bad mood? Try to sell me something. Want to put me in a really bad mood? Knock on my door and try to sell me something. I don’t care whether you’re selling vacuums, lawn service, or your version of God, I assure you that I am not interested. Door-to-door sales went out of style decades ago. Let it die. And yes, I’m looking at YOU, Girl Scouts of America.

Rave – Melatonin Although I enjoy working the night shift, it does make sleeping more difficult. Sometimes it’s hard to stay asleep during the day. It can be especially difficult to transition between night schedule and “normal” schedule. On my first night off after a stretch of shifts, I’m generally trying to put my body to sleep at 3:00 or 4:00am when it’s gotten used to 8:00am instead. An over-the-counter supplement called melatonin can be very helpful in handling these issues. For me, it has no side effects, but it helps me get to sleep and stay asleep longer when I need to.

August 2010 Rants and Raves

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It’s been a while, so I’m bringing back an old favorite: rants and raves.

RAVE: IBC’s Back to School event. One of the main reasons I love my church (and keep going despite the fairly long drive) is its relentless focus on helping people in need both abroad and here in DFW. On Saturday, IBC plans to invite single parent families to get free backpacks, haircuts, medical and dental care, clothing, and ice cream sundaes.

RANT: Corn. OK, not corn in general, but the little bits of kernel that get stuck in your teeth when you’re nowhere near a toothbrush or floss, leaving you tortured by a splinter-like irritation with no good way to remove it.

RAVE: Blog category clouds. Check out the sidebar under Topics. I just added a plugin that lists the categories for my posts in different sizes based on their frequency. The most common topics are biggest. Sure, I’m a nerd, but I thought it added a nice touch.

RANT: “Voice-recognition” phone systems. They save the company money by annoying the heck out of their helpless customers. You know the ones I’m talking about:

Phone: “Are you calling about auto insurance or homeowner’s insurance?”
Me: “Auto”
Phone: “I heard you say, ‘Homeowner’s’. If this is correct, say ‘Yes’.”
Me: “I HATE YOU!!!!”
Phone: “I’m sorry. I didn’t understand. Are you calling about auto insurance or homeowner’s insurance?”

RAVE: The secondhand market. I can think of few better ways to save money and save the earth than the secondhand market, which includes garage sales, Craigslist, Goodwill, Kid to Kid, and GameStop. Much of the stuff we use only benefits us for a limited time. Kids’ clothing and equipment, video games, exercise equipment, computers, furniture, and other items are often quite expensive to buy new but readily available and much cheaper to buy used. We found a fantastic swingset for the boys on Craigslist for perhaps a quarter of its retail cost. Mad Bomber just gave us a treadmill they no longer used. We’re about to sell Jonathan’s outgrown car seat. It’s fantastic!

September Rants and Raves

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I’m in a good mood, so you get more raves than rants today. Here we go…

RAVE – USOpen.org

The official tournament site, USOpen.org, is excellent. On top of the usual information on scheduling, draws, and players, it also offers streaming broadcasts of the top matches. This feature came in very handy on Saturday night when The Tennis Channel held exclusive broadcast rights. Since AT&T doesn’t offer The Tennis Channel, we would have been out of luck. The site’s broadcast offers surprisingly high quality for an internet broadcast. I also heard a rumor that it can sneak through some workplace firewalls, but I don’t know anything about that from personal experience. Ahem…

RAVE – High School Football at Cowboys Stadium

On Labor Day, the new Cowboys Stadium is hosting a four-pack of high school football games. I always loved the way Texas Stadium’s officials opened their doors for high school playoff games. MacArthur, my alma mater, got to play there a few times back in the day. Mocking me with the mother of all conflicts, one of the Labor Day games at the new stadium features MacArthur versus Colleyville Heritage, probably Brenden and Newbie’s future high school. We won’t be there, but I’m thrilled for the players, coaches, and fans who get to experience these games in a world-class facility.

RANT – Obama-hating parents whining about Tuesday’s address

I like Obama. I don’t agree with him on every issue, but I like him overall. I also respect your right to dislike him if you so choose. But I am sick of hearing about parents who are whining about Obama’s Tuesday address to the nation’s children and young adults. The leader of the free world cares enough about your students to want to personally tell you about the importance of hard work and education. To encourage them to stay in school and do their best. To prove to them that a black man from a single-parent home can rise to the highest office in the land. From what I understand, his message is NOT political. Yet some parents, particularly down here, are complaining to the school administration and even threatening to keep their kids home on Tuesday. Bush delivered a similar message to students several years ago. Let’s use some common sense here, folks.

RAVE – Fall

Fall is possibly my favorite time of year. The temperature cools off enough to make outdoor activities pleasant, which will be VERY helpful with a toddler. Football and hockey return. At work, the weather is best overall, making my job easier. My grass quits growing. Leaves transform into all sorts of gorgeous colors. I can grill without having to sweat from the radiant heat. Several people in my family, including myself, celebrate birthdays. The electric bill drops significantly. SWA celebrates Halloween with the annual skit contest (anybody have a Dr. Evil/Mini-Me costume set?). I’ve had enough of the heat. Although I’m shocked at how quickly this year is passing, I’m very glad September has arrived and fall is drawing near.

June Rants and Raves

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It’s been a while, eh? Here are some rants and raves for June:

  • Rave – Motion Control Light Switches – I recently installed some motion detector light switches in our garage and utility room. Anytime we walk into either room, the switch detects our body heat and turns on the light for 1 minute. Due to the location of our light switches and a problem with the garage door light, the new switches save us from having to walk into a dark house. Great invention!
  • Rant – Speeders – I am one of those really annoying people who drive at or even below the speed limit on the highway, especially on my commute when the traffic is light. Why? 1) It saves gas. A car’s wind resistance increases exponentially with speed. The faster you drive, the greater your drag, and the more fuel you burn. 2) I don’t want a speeding ticket. I have NEVER been pulled over for any reason and hope to keep it that way. When a car speeds past me, its driver shows disregard for the law, for the environment, and for the safety of the other drivers on the road. He/she also doesn’t really save much time except on a long drive. I have no sympathy for people who get speeding tickets. I also hope Congress will reduce the highway speed limit to 55.
  • Rave – Wii Punch-Out – As a kid I played a boxing game called Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out on the original Nintendo. It wasn’t a typical boxing game because it was also a puzzle game. Each boxer had specific moves that you had to dodge/block and then counter. To beat him, you had to figure out the pattern and respond. Nintendo remade/updated the game for the Wii with better graphics and incorporated the Wii-mote. It’s just as fun, but now it’s a serious workout! After we got it and started playing, I was sore for two days. =)
  • Rant – Wipeout – I want to compete on ABC’s game show Wipeout. The prize for each week’s winner is $50k, but I would compete for free. I would PAY THEM to let me compete because it looks so incredibly fun. But they only accept California residents.
  • Rave – Blogging – I like blogging. No surprise there. I love being able to talk about whatever I want. It’s like having my own newspaper column except I have no deadlines and can pick any topic I want. I love knowing that you guys keep coming back to check my blog. I love it when you leave comments. I love tracking how many hits I get and where my referrals come from. I also love other people’s blogs. In the sidebar at the right of your screen, you can click links to some other blogs that I find interesting. Some of you might even have your own blogs. (please tell me if you do!)

September Rants and Raves

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RANT: If the weather people and city officials call for a MANDATORY EVACUATION due to a hurricane and warn of CERTAIN DEATH to those who stay, and you decide to ignore that order, don’t expect the rescuers to rescue you. You deserve to be ignored, but the rescuers won’t ignore you because they understand the concept of grace. I’m sure they want to slap you, though.

RAVE: Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano threw a no-hitter against the Astros and came within one walk and a hit batsman of a perfect game. I remember seeing the end of Nolan Ryan’s 7th no-hitter against the Blue Jays on TV when I was a kid. The replays of Zambrano’s feat reminded me of Nolan’s glory days with the Rangers.

RANT: On a few websites, such as apartmentsratings.com, people can post and read reviews of apartment communities. Sounds great, right? There are two significant problems, though: 1) Those who take the time to post reviews are generally unhappy enough to want to complain, meaning that the reviews have a tendency to make the property sound worse than it really is. 2) There’s nothing to stop unscrupulous employees of competing apartment communities from posting fake reviews, and supposedly it does happen. Other rating sites such as Expedia, Travelocity, and Hotels.com have the same problem.

RAVE: Facebook is one of my favorite sites because it does a great job of keeping me connected to my people, both the ones I see often and old friends whom I haven’t seen in years. Through Status Updates and other posts, we can see what everyone is doing throughout the week or even the day. For example, thanks to Facebook I know my friend Rudy from Irving is going to the Cowboys game Monday night, my high school friend Scott is thinking about angels in Boston, and my friend Tamra in Keller hasn’t had her baby yet. If you’re not on Facebook, I HIGHLY encourage you to get onboard. Jenny’s mom did recently and already has over 100 friends, many of whom she thought she might never talk to again.

GUEST RAVE FROM JENNY: Food Network cake challenges rock! So does dinner with friends! Our small group plus some other friends go out to eat every Sunday after church. The dinner schedule is on my site.