The Future of Stuff..

Forgive me for sounding old fashion, but upon discovering this article, I found myself slightly saddened by the some of the trends addressed in this article.

1. DVDs:  This is probably the easiest one the get over, assuming Blu-Ray still continues to sell.  I had no problems with changing mediums.  VHS to DVD was no problem, sure I had to by all of my Disney Movies all over again on DVD.  Those are really the only movies I own.  Disney also happens to be offering the alternative.  They sell their Blu-Ray discs with a copy of the DVD.  This way, even though I haven't quiet moved up to Blu-Ray yet, I'll have a copy when I do make the transition (not to mention Blu-Ray players are backwards compatible.  I have no concerns about the Netflix rentals either. 

This article, however, mentions that downloading movies is becoming to popular way to go.  This concerns me because when I like something enough to purchase, I would like something tangible to display on a shelf.  Files of movies on a computer would not satisfy me nearly as much.

2. Home Telephone Service:  I still have a land line, and for as long as they are available, I will continue to have a land line.  I also have a cell phone, but I try to limit my use on it when I'm in my own home as much as possible.  My land line service does not drop my calls as much as my cell phone.  I suppose if home phone service does become obsolete, then I will have to buy one of those devices that hook up to your cell phone so you can use it similar to a land line.  Cell phones are tiny, and much harder to keep track of in your own home.  I would much rather not have to wear my BlackBerry on my hip at all times even in my own home.  I keep it in my purse, and would rather not have to chase my purse down every time I hear my phone ring.

3. Newspaper/Magazine Subscriptions:  I love reading hard copies of the magazine.  Staring at a computer screen all day can be taxing. The best thing in the world is to just unplug and relax upon returning home from work.  To do so, reading a hard copy of the newspaper or a favorite magazine is great.  I do not think I will ever catch on to the Kindle thing.

4. CDs:  This is what I am saddest to see go.  As I mentioned of DVDs, I do not mind the media changes so much as I don't like to lose something tangible.  I will gladly use iTunes to download a single or two, but if I plan on buying an entire album from one of my favorite artists, I prefer to have something tangible in my hands.  This isn't the same as when Vinyl went to cassette, or cassette to CD.  It may seem like a waste of space to rip a CD to the iPod, and then put the CD on a shelf somewhere.  To mean, it doesn't feel that way.  They are like collectors items, the same way people keep their old Vinyl records.  I have had discussions about this in the past, and find that many of my peers do not feel the same way, so it could be just me.

Maybe this is just my apprehension at letting so many things of the past go.  We're moving into the digital age, and losing touch of everything tangible.  This is something I may just be having a hard time moving past, so perhaps I am just a little too old fashion.  This may be the same way future generations have felt at the creation of cable TV or moving from telegraph to telephone.

Readers:  How do you feel about the potential of these rapidly approaching evolutions in technology?  Do you think many of these items really will become obsolete?  Are you releuctant about the changes as well, or do you think I'm just crazy?  Their were a couple other items in the article I didn't mention because they aren't relevant to me.  Do you have any differing opinions on these items as well?

101 Things Update

Quiet a few of my goals are on-going things that need to be done regularly.  Because of this, I will allow myself to count them as complete as long as I do something 90% of the time.  The whole point of those items is to do something beneficial, so I have to allow room for improvement.  If failing to do something once knocked it off my list right off the bat, then there is no point in trying to improve.  I will touch on the goals that I've completed as a whole, and the goals that need improvement.  The day to day goals on my main list will reflect a score for how many times they were missed.  For a complete look at where I'm at, please see the original list, which I've edited to portray my success.

Completed (Key: Bolded on list)
Buy a designer purse
I received a Vera Bradley purse from my grandma as a gift.  I decided that gifts should count, as why would I want to purchase a new purse when I have a perfectly good one that was free to me.

Buy a video camcorder

This was another freebie we received.  My fiance's work gives away various items at their Christmas party, and we walked away with a Flip camcorder.  I am actually very pleased with this item, and this was the exact camcorder I was considering buying for myself anyway.  It is very simple to use, and creates a high quality video.


Remarks:
This week was rather tough, as I worked a lot of overtime, and was not home for other than sleep the entire week.  I missed out on a lot of house work and quality time with my fiance, so there are a lot of daily and weekly tasks that I missed.  I also failed miserably at keeping up with the blog last week.
         

 





 

Our Xbox is Wireless...Finally!

As I've said in previous posts, our Xbox 360 was purchased for Christmas over a year ago.  We had not even considered purchasing the Xbox 360 until we learned that Final Fantasy XIII was to be released on multiple platforms.  Our biggest reason for choosing the Xbox over the PS3 is that it has the ability to stream Netflix movies directly to the TV. (This is something the PS3 can do now, but was not available at the time we were considering the purchase).  The streaming ability of Netflix is awesome, but we are not big fans of watching movies on the computer.  We had been procrastination on purchasing a wireless adapter, and failed to do so mainly because we just never thought to when we were out and about shopping.

This year for Christmas we recieved the wireless adapter for our Xbox from my parents.  Out of all the gifts we've received, this is the one we put to use first.  It fits securely in the back of our Xbox and stays out of the way.  We set up our Xbox Live membership, and can now watch any Netflix movie or TV show that is available for instant streaming.  Hopefully this will help with checking off some movies from the list I must watch for my 101 things.  This also enabled us to access downloadable contents for Dragon Age: Origins, and will probably provide us with the motivation to purchase some massive multiplayer online games.  I don't even know why we waited so long in obtaining this.  If you have an Xbox 360 and aren't online yet, I would recommend a wireless adapter.  No messy cords to trip over, and it is easy to set up.

Readers:  Any of you Xbox 360 users out there?  What games do you like to play online?  Any recommendations?

Post Chrismas Thoughts

Christmas has passed again this year. It always seems to go by so fast. At this time of the year, I try to reflect on the past year and think about ways I can improve over the next year. I also take advantage of this time to enjoy quality time with my fiancé and the post- holiday bliss.

We had a good Christmas this year, and received a multitude of gifts that will greatly improve our home. We have artwork to decorate our walls, utensils for our kitchen, and the newest edition of Wii Fit to help with our New Years Resolutions. It is sad to return home, and get back into the daily grind, but at the same time I am glad to be back home after the long weekend.

On to New Years... I hope to put this blog to good use in keeping up with the resolutions I make. I plan on posting a list of 101 things I plan to accomplish in 1001 days. I have attempted this in the past and failed miserably. This year (and then some) I will have my readers to hold me accountable, imagined or not. So, expect to see a list being published first thing New Years Day, if all goes according to plan. I will post follow up posts periodically that link back to the original and explain my progress. I am currently unsure of how I will go about doing so, but more on that when the time comes. This will by no means be the meat and potatoes of this blog, but will provide regular content in addition to my periodic reviews and meetings with my book club.

Readers: Do you have any resolutions for the new year? If so, by all means, share. I may need some inspiration in coming up with 101 items by the end of the week.

Where does free time go?

First, I apologize for the span between posts.  When I started this blog, I anticipated a post a day.  I thought the simplest way to go about that would be to spend as much time as possible whenever I thought about it stockpiling posts, and then scheduling them to be posted later on.  This is a very effective method for me, as long as the post isn't relevant to some sort of current event.  If that were the case, I would schedule said blog to be posted earlier.  I know it seems silly to want to be so diligent about a blog that may not have many readers, if any.  If I don't care; however, than why should any potential readers?  I would like to be reliable, as that can keep readers coming back.  The fact that I fell behind a couple of days on my blog really brought up the subject that I am surprised at the lack of free time I have.

 

When I was in college I was balancing class for 18 credit hours (most of the time), working part time, homework, and a very active social life without sacrificing the much needed "me" time.  I also had that mentality that I was very busy, and my ability to balance straight As and my social life was something to be proud of.  I mean, if you took into account my work schedule and class schedule, not to mention homework, it came out to close to a 40 hour week.  Enter the real world.  I work 40 hours a week, and find myself with less free time than I've ever had.  I wake up at 6:00 AM (sometimes I'll hit snooze until 6:20 AM), leave my apartment at around 7:20 AM to catch my train.  I work nine and a half hour days in exchange for an extra day off every pay period.  Thus, I sacrifice a good portion of my day.  I arrive home at a little after 7:00 PM in time to eat dinner, catch up on a little housework, and then retire sometime between 9:00 and 9:30 PM.  I do not go in bed at this time, but use it to sip some tea and unwind before a fall asleep sometime after 10:00 PM.  Weekends are hit or miss as far as how busy they are.  Summertime we're often taking trips to visit family, and with the holidays coming up we've been booked many of the weekends.  My extra day off has been moved around to make up for Holidays that my fiance has off, but I do not for our trips home lately.  I dread how I will manage my time when in the (distant) future I have children.

 

Keep in mind that I am by no means complaining about my schedule (I know many people work and keep tougher schedules than this).  I am more remarking on how naive I was in college thinking that I was busy with school.  I do manage to fit in several of my hobbies in that short period between 9:00 PM and 10:00 PM.  I will read, or work on my blog, catch up on DVR, or just spend that time chatting about my day with my fiance.  The extra hour and a half on the train each day also helps.  Unfortunately, I have no way to blog on the train.  I'm trying to see if I can find an app for my new iPod that will offer this capability (many may be rendered useless without an internet connection), but I fear the small keypad may become taxing.  We will see how this goes in the future.  Perhaps a good topic would be how I manage my busy schedule.

 

Readers:  Any time saving tricks you use to get through the day?  Do you feel you're far busier now that you were when you were younger?  Also, any recommendations for blogging apps for the iPod?

Oh, How I Love My Coffee

I hadn't always been a big fan of coffee.  I would drink it on occasion when I was high school aged, but it would require tons and tons of sugar.  I'm pretty sure the saying "would you like some coffee with your sugar?" would have fit me like a T.  I didn't realize how much of a benefit coffee could be until I had moved out of my parent's house for college.  My parents had bought me a little coffee maker before I left.  It was a really nice coffee maker, and made twelve cups.  I would drink around two mugs of coffee with a little bit of flavored creamer before heading off to class.  It became part of my morning routine.  Then I discovered when I ran out of creamer, drinking it black was not a completly terrible thing.  I found myself enjoying the taste of coffee.

I graduated from college, and moved out on my own.  I began to find myself more rushed in the morning.  My co-workers had started a coffee club, so I found myself neglecting my little coffee maker at home in exchange for coffee already prepared by one of my co-workers who was an early bird and always arrived early.  When staffing changes occured, I found nobody was willing to keep up with the coffee club, so I was on my own again.

At this point I had fallen in love with a single serve coffee brewer that a friend of mine had.  I purchased a little single cup brewer from Keurig.  I fell in love.  It was the cheapest one available.  The only down side was that I had to add water each time I used it and the brew time was a little long compared to the other ones.  I kept it for about a year, until Keurig ran a promotion in the city I work in.  They were handing out coupons for 20% off a brewer, so I decided that was enough justification to purchase an upgrade.  This brewer makes all the difference.  It has a resevoir, so I don't always have to worry about adding water everytime I make a cup of coffee.  It brews in about a minute.  I have a timer on it, so by the time I wake up it is already kicking on and warming up to make me a wonderful cup of coffee.  I would recommend one of these brewers to any coffee drinker.  It even has options for those who do not like coffee, such has hot chocolate or tea.  I have a cup of camamile tea every night before bed.

Readers:  Have you tried the single serve coffee?  Do you have a type of coffee brewer you just swear by?  If you haven't tried single serve coffee, would you consider switching or would you stick to what you know?  Why or why not?

X-Box Wars

Last year for Christmas I bought my fiance an X-Box 360.  He played it a little bit, but found he didn't have time to obsess over it the way some boys do.  I play on it probably about as much as he does.  Neither of us had touched the darn thing in a couple of months until we heard of the game titled Dragon Age: Origins.  Sure enough, we purchased the game with some gift cards I received through work.  The second I started playing I was hooked.  Upon beating the game, I will need to post a review.  In the meantime, all I can say is that it is a constant battle over who can play.

My fiance's argument is that I had spent more hours on it than he, and he needed to catch up.  He was out of town for a weekend, and I'll admit that I played a little bit more than I should have.  Heck, at the moment I am typing this blog he is playing, though I had my turn this afternoon.  That is the problem with this game is that there is no way to play together, and he would rather not watch me play as I am ahead of him and he doesn't want to spoil the plot.  At the same time, I don't like to watch him play since he is more diligent at discovering party members and techniques that I just passed by in my haste to advance the story.

I haven't been this addicted to a video game since Donkey Kong Country came out when I was in grade school.  That was when I experienced my first and only case of Nintendo Thumb.  Of course, it was very minor, and went away the second I quit playing (which I did).  No blisters or anything, though I'm sure if I continued that is the route it would have taken.  Unfortunately, the difference between now and then is that I didn't have to share my SNES with anybody.

Finding a Social Life in the Suburbs

About a year and a half ago I found myself graduated from college, and facing a move to a big city thanks to my choice in career.  I chose to live in the suburbs as I am from a small town, and wanted something that would not overwhelm me too much.  I am currently very happy with that decision as I have the choice between a fun night in the city or a quiet evening in the quaint downtown of the suburbs.  The biggest problem I faced was meeting people.  I thought a book club would be fun, and had always been interested in trying one out.  I found a website for new comers to the town.  Unfortunately, everything was scheduled during the day.  It seemed to be targeting stay at home moms.  So, I continued to commute into the city and befriend my co-workers.  They all lived in the city, so if I ever wanted to spend a night out, it had to be in the city.  My now fiance moved in shortly after I did, so at least I wasn't completely on my own.

We eventually found out that a couple we knew from Michigan (where we are originally from) had moved to a neighboring suburb.  We spent many weekends having a wonderful time, and meeting mutual friends.  All of these friends happened to be significantly older than the two of us, though we managed to relate to them wonderfully.

A month ago, one of my co-workers posted something on facebook about wanting to start a book club.  I casually commented that I had been wanting to join a book club for a while, but figured that not much would come of it.  People often post statuses on facebook on the whim.  To my delight, I received a message about starting up.  A few of her former high school classmates were interested as well.  We had our first meeting in ealy November.

Now, to my readers. If you are interested, feel free to follow along and participate in a virtual book club. The review of the first book we read can be found here. Feel free to share your thoughts you have read it.  Currently, we are reading Devil in the White City.  We will be finishing up by the 20th of December, though I may not post our thoughts and my personal review of it until the following Monday.  Please follow along and let me know what you think.