A weekend in Wyoming

We drove up to Amy's grandma's in Wyoming. As we drove through northern Utah and (barely) into Wymoning, was amazed at the desolate landscape on which people decided to settle. It kind of makes me wonder why people live in the places they do. How did people get by back in the day before central heating, indoor plumbing and grocery stores? There is NOTHING out there. I think there was a creek or something in the town we were in, but that was about it. Oh yeah, and a Walmart, because you can't go anywhere without seeing one of those, no matter how small the town. In fact, this town is so small it has TWO Walmarts. Really. It does.

Wait. I was wrong. I was just told they sold the old Walmart when the built the Supercenter Walmart and turned it into a Western Wear store. I stand corrected.

Anyway, the weekend progressed nicely. It was very relaxing just being out of Salt Lake and doing...nothing. I read quite a bit, watched a movie and enjoyed hanging out with family and eating Grandma's cooking. (Pork roast. Oh yeah.) A good weekend overall.

A cool word

I just made up the word "Quish". I think it's pretty cool, and may name a pet that someday.

What kind of pet do you think best fits the name "Quish"? Goldfish? Hamster? Great Dane?

Outdoors

I realized today, as I looked at my pale reflection in the mirror, that I don't go outside nearly as much as I used to. On an average day I probably walk to and from my car four times and that's about it.

Horrible!

I took for granted walking around campus as a student. It really afforded me the chance to spend some time outside, grab some Vitamin D from whatever sunshine may be available and, in general feel a little more refreshed.

Should I add "spend time outside" to my already long list of things I need to do in a day?

Customer Service Reps

I have this theory. It is that there are really only about six customer service people, for all companies and organizations, throughout the entire world. Most calls are routed through the bitter woman from the South, who reads everything off the screen in front of her and is incapable of outside thought processes. She has been programmed: THE SCREEN CANNOT LIE.

Well, that's not true I try explain, because I just got a cell phone bill for $978.81 and my monthly plan is $69.99.

But the system (they never refer to it as "the screen", it's always "the system") says you owe nearly one thousand dollars.

...

I should mention that Shayna, the girl who just helped me with my old Sprint contract was excellent. A non-sreen reader.

Scare-o-nator™, where art thou?

The Scare-o-nator™ must have gone into some annual hybernative (that's a new word) state, because it has not been seen for quite some time.

I still think we need to incorporate a laser scope and possibly an Artificial Noise Source (ANS) in a new Scare-o-nator™ model. Perhaps the Scare-o-nator™ 2000, or the Scare-o-nator™ 2006. Or we could be like car companies and release the Scare-o-nator™ 2007. The new model would also feature Stealth Core Bindings (duct tape instead of packaging tape) which would improve sneaking capabilities.

OS X MMMC

OK. So I couldn't fall asleep last night (I think that had something to do with the two hour nap I took at 5:30) and as I was trying to fall asleep I started thinking about the ideal Mac Media Center, based around the Mac Mini. So here's what I'm thinkin'...

So the Mini gets a big hardware boost. I'm thinkin' a high-end Duo Core processor, 250 GB hard drive, at least 1.5 GB RAM and a nice video card, at least 128 MB. You'd have WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, and a smaller version of Apple's Keyboard (essentially the same one, but without the numeric keypad on the right. Maybe even chop everything from "F12" over, although you'd have to work in the arrow keys somewhere. Software would of course be OS X, but you'd need some kind of DVR software (a TiVo killer) which is rumored to already be in the works.

The basic gist is that you run your cable line into the MMMC (Mac Mini Media Center...clever, huh?) and from there into your TV. The MMMC would serve as a DVD player, so you wouldn't need to worry about that.

Using airport, you can transfer things from your TV to your computer. For example, an instant message pops up while you and a friend are watching TV. Hit F5 (or whatever the keystroke would be) and something like Expose comes up, but in addition to showing all the windows open, it also divides the screen in half: one for TV and one for desktop. Slide the IM conversation over to the desktop and the conversation is transferred off the TV to your deskop where you continue chatting, uninterrupted, while the TV show continues.

Partner with Sirius or XM Radio and integrate it into iTunes. In the bar on the left, have an icon for their service. Select the station you want to listen to and listen to it through iTunes. Like the song you're listening to? Select it and you'll be taken to the Music Store where you can purchase it. E-mail, IM,and RSS alerts could be incorporated into watching TV, movies, etc.

Hmmm... yeah, I think that's about it. I'll ponder more though. Don't worry.

Steve Jobs is my hero

Yes, I'm a nerd. But I'm lovin' the new Intel-based Macs.