Category Archives: About Me - Page 33

Adjusting the Brightness

Posted by anachostic on July 25, 2010 No comments

I love how things work out sometimes. Friday morning when I woke up I was so, so tired. The sun is coming up later and I’m a pretty SAD person (meaning I get Seasonal Affective Disorder). So I thought this year I will finally buy a sunrise light. I know they’re around $100, so I started the buying process by mentally preparing myself to spend $100 on a light.

I went out for dinner Saturday and stopped by somewhere I’d seen but never looked in – an HSN outlet. I love outlets, junk stores, pawn shops, etc. So I get in there and right up front is a light therapy device with sunrise feature. Priced at $70. Awesome.

The store is pretty much how I thought it would be. Lots of crap I’d buy before I entered my mature "I don’t need shit" mentality. So, on the way out, I grab the device and head to checkout.

I didn’t pay attention to how the outlet priced their crap, but apparently, the longer a product sits there the cheaper it gets. This product must have been pretty old because it rang up at $17. Holy crap! I was mentally prepared to spend $100, happy to spend $70, and ended up paying $17.

Last night I hooked it up, but misunderstood and misprogrammed the sunrise alarm feature. I wanted to be up at 6:00, so I set the alarm for 5:30 with a 30 minute ramp-up time. That’s not how it works; it started glowing at 5:00 to finish at 5:30.

So, at 5:30 this morning, my room literally looked like the middle of the day. Damn that thing is bright! And I woke up. I woke up, immediately turned it off and went back to sleep.

It was interesting that the device really did wake me up. And the waking was pretty easy, not jarring like an alarm. This week will be the real test.

Yeah, and also on Saturday morning I got to stand my theological ground against a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The most interesting exchange was when they tried to convince me God was a person.

“So you’re saying, like a person, he has likes and dislikes?” I asked.

“Yes, of course.”

“So he’s biased?”

“I wouldn’t use the word ‘biased’ with God…”

I pretty much summed up my beliefs for them in that I do give thanks for what I have been afforded, although I don’t feel compelled to give thanks to a specific being with a name. And lo and behold, that night I find something I put into my subconscious the previous day at a price I never imagined. So I’m giving thanks for my fortune here and now.

Back in the Game

Posted by anachostic on May 12, 2010 No comments

I’ll just toss out a story I have on seating and lumbar support. Before owning the MX5, I spent 10 years in an Acura TL. Its lumbar support was pretty pitiful – just a lever that would push a bar forward in the seat. But still, I used it from day one because I heard that lumbar support was good.

A few months after owning the car, my back went out while I was standing up in the office. I had never had back problems before and at that time, I wasn’t really overweight. That injury put me out of commission for a week and changed my life forever. Those of you that have had back failures know you are never the same afterwards. But at the time I never considered why it happened. It was a mystery.

Almost 10 years later, I had another significant back failure (and blogged it). Another week of lying in bed, afraid to move at all. I attribute this failure to poor riding posture on my then-new motorcycle. The hump for the passenger seat was pushing very hard into my lower back. Still though, I never wondered why my back failed to begin with.

At this time in my life, I’m doing a 150-mile commute a day and working 9 hours at a desk – nothing but sitting. This is literally destroying my back. The pain was constant, I was popping Advil for days straight, and I was hating life. After a business trip for a few days, I was feeling better but when I got in the car, within 10 minutes my back was killing me. I was cursing Acura for having such crappy lumbar support, not like some cars like the old Ford Taurus with the inflatable bladder.

I fiddled around with the seat positions for a while and found two things that turned me around completely. One, sitting with my legs together. I used to drive more (ahem) spread-eagle and the bolsters on the seat were pushing on my hamstrings and the sciatic nerve. Two, turn off the lumbar support. This shocked me. After ten years of leaving that bar pushed against my back, I found I never needed it. In fact, I’m inclined to think that it caused my first, life-changing back failure. It makes sense that the same pushing of the motorcycle seat and the Acura lumbar support have the same result.

When I was planning the purchase of my MX5, I read as much as I could on the seats and it’s kind of a love-it-or-hate-it thing. I found a store that sells inflatable lumbar support and budgeted to buy one (at around $100). After a few weeks in the new seat, with proper seating posture, I don’t think I’m going to need it at all. I have a slight concern about the side bolsters pushing against my hips, but if I flex my glutes, I can push myself up and the pressure is relieved. This is kind of motivating for me to (re)develop those muscles that have atrophied from years of deskwork.

So, if you have back pain and are constantly searching for better or stronger lumbar support, maybe you don’t need it. Maybe the lumbar support is what is causing the back pain, as it was for me.

Resize, Reassess, Restructure, Relief

Posted by anachostic on May 6, 2010 No comments

Downsizing. No, upsizing. No. I’m not really sure. How about resizing? Yes, I have resized my vehicle. After 10 years of driving the same model car – an Acura TL – I have changed to a new vehicle. It is a new 2010 Mazda MX-5. I’ve been driving it for a week and I’ve had substantial time to reflect on the change on a micro- and macro-level. Going from a midsize, near-luxury sedan to a roadster is a pretty radical change. Most people add a roadster as a weekend car; I made it my only car. I had some logical reasoning going into the purchase, and post-purchase, I’ve affirmed these beliefs and realized others.

To begin, I simply wasn’t happy with my Acura. It had been purchased used and had the same transmission problem as my previous one. The “buying it used” part had a big effect on me. I never felt the car was really mine. I never had any emotional attachment to it – not like the first Acura, which I had bought new. So buying new was the only option for me. I felt that I wanted to be back in love with my car.

Looking at the vast choice of cars available, I was very uninspired with all the sedans. Even the sport coupes didn’t appeal to me. The thing that annoyed me the most was bulk and waste. I’ve hated SUV’s and trucks for a very long time. I’ve recently been on a simplification plan – downsizing and minimizing my footprint. Becoming a motorcycle rider helped with that. It’s simple, no-frills, no-baggage transportation. Looking at sedans, there’s two extra doors and an entire back seat area that will rarely, if ever, get used except to collect and haul crap. The two seat roadster was the answer. Of the available roadsters, of which there are very few, I didn’t want to deal with the cost of maintaining a BMW or Audi. Like I’ve said to others, “I could get a Z or a TT, but I like my money, too.” So the MX-5 was the answer.

So I satisfied my need for minimalism and initial-ownership. The roadster choice also fulfilled my need to enjoy driving again. With my massive commute in a bulky, heavy sedan, I had begun to despise driving. It was a chore. And I had to drive sensibly to save gas because my commute was so far. Riding the motorcycle was a totally different experience. The small engine meant I could go faster and ride harder without worrying about wasting gas. The light weight and general “bike-ness” meant I could handle it harder. The open air experience was unmatched. In the last few weeks of owning the TL, I drove everywhere with all the windows down and sunroof open. It was ok, but a convertible is a totally different experience, for the better.

So when I bought the MX-5, I was a little freaked out. The windshield view is tiny and I wasn’t completely prepared for it. It took a few days to feel comfortable with the car and then I could relax and understand my feelings in this new car. One thing that came into my head was an article I had read about people buying large houses. The article said that people don’t really feel comfortable in large open spaces. I applied that to my new-found comfort in my purpose-built driving cockpit. Everything is close at hand. It made sense. Then I thought of when I had my first Acura and I bought a cheap beater car: a Toyota Celica. The Celica was crappy in many ways, but I honestly think I liked it more than the Acura. Maybe because it was smaller and had a more sports-car atmosphere? Possible.

I think the TL was supposed to be my “all-grown-up” car. I had “made it” professionally, I was living on my own, and this was the next step. Grow up, be an adult, get a responsible car. I never considered that I didn’t have to follow the recommended path. So with the MX-5, I feel more like my old self. And that can’t be a bad thing.

And now that I’m here, the term “mid-life crisis” means something different. When you’re younger, it’s a joke. To see some middle-aged person acting like a teenager again seems dumb. They’re supposed to act their age. But when you get to “mid-life” yourself, you find yourself evaluating your life so far. You may discover you haven’t taken the time to have fun, maybe you’ve gotten wrapped up in work and chasing status and collecting “stuff”. You look around, see all the stuff you have, and while it’s nice to have, it’s also a pain to have.

“I’d love to have a dozen cars!” Really, no, you wouldn’t. You have to store, insure, license, maintain, and wash all those cars. “I wish I had a house with a few extra rooms.” No, you have to heat, cool, clean, furnish, and pay taxes on that extra square footage. People ask me how I’m going to get anything home in my tiny new car. First, if I’m buying more stuff than can fit in the car, I’m buying too much stuff. Second, if it’s too big to fit in the car, I should have it delivered. Third, if it can’t be delivered, I call Enterprise and rent a bigger car for a day. The likelihood that I would end up at the final choice is very slim. Buying a bigger car enables bad choices like buying too much stuff. I can’t take a bunch of crap with me because there’s no room in the car. If I have trash, it comes out right away, there’s nowhere to put it in the car.

Less is truly more.

I Never Really Believed in Curses Until…

Posted by anachostic on February 6, 2010 No comments

…I started travelling. There’s some pretty bad mojo brewing up whenever I want to go back to my home state. Last time, I was delayed a day and it was because I took the last flight out and because of previous delays, it was impossible to make my connection. This time I scheduled the first flight out, meaning I got up at 2:45 in the morning to get ready. Despite the plan that I could be bumped to later flights and do to people what they did to me the first time, the flight was still a no-go. Thank you, blizzard.

And I thought I did everything I was supposed to. I checked the flight status before I went to bed and when I woke up – all good. When I checked in, I asked “any news?” – no, the flight is still active. I got to the gate and within 10 minutes I hear my name paged. Damn it, I know what this is about.

Similar to last time, I could make my first leg, but the second leg was cancelled. I had the option of going to the first airport and trying to get on the next flight at 5:30. That’s a 10-hour layover with a great chance of the flight either being overbooked or cancelled. No thanks. So after rescheduling for tomorrow, back home I went.

I call the car rental company and modify my reservation. Apparently, when you take one day off your reservation, you’re not in the “special rate” anymore and it suddenly costs you over $100 more. So a brief check on Yahoo and I’m now renting from another company. However, I’m still out $5 for my brief time of parking at the airport. And gas, and time. Luckily, no hotel reservations to change like last time, where they knocked me for $90. I swear, companies make the most money when their customers are miserable.

The Quickening II

Posted by anachostic on December 18, 2009 No comments

Like a bad sequel, I get to continue a story that should have ended. As I discover some things in Quicken I don’t like, I check the opinions of blogs and Quicken’s own support forums and I am saddened by what I learn. I guess none of my gripes are new, but they are mine.

I’m sure I’m going to have lots of fun matching transactions as time goes on. I’m convincing myself that the real numbers matter starting next month – a fresh month of a fresh year. But right now things are off. One of my accounts had to have an adjustment posted to make it match with the last bank statement. That worries me. As I cleaned up the categories for my transactions, I found that when I would categorize a transaction as a transfer, it would helpfully create the other side of the transfer for me, duplicating a previously-downloaded transaction in another account. So with all the credit card payments I categorized, I suddenly had a massively negative balance in my checking account. More cleanup…

As I worked through these various screens I found myself missing a Microsoft standard: the Back button. I remember years ago when I tried out the Zune at Staples, I thought to myself, “MS loves the Back button.” The Zune has one. And you know, it is the easiest concept for anyone to understand. I also was a little weirded out at how some screens are windows of their own and some are in the main window.

And continuing with UI issues, I found the little things to be the most annoying. Like being unable to resize columns. The text in a column is truncated, but you can’t expand the column to see it. You have to mouse over each row to see the tooltip. I’m slowly getting used to Quicken’s way of doing subcategories – using a colon. Money had that format as an option, but I turned it off. The UI, overall, is definitely from another line of thinking – and not very much in line with Microsoft’s design recommendations. I’ve had the argument before about how being consistent with Microsoft design helps a user understand your application quicker. The additional time it is taking me to understand how Quicken works is a fine example of this. Holy crap, I just discovered that some (4) popup windows I thought had closed actually didn’t. They’re in a pseudo-taskbar at the bottom of the main window. Good god.

Now the bigger issues. The biggest being that the filtered view in the register does not maintain the proper running balance. It shows a running balance of the transactions shown. This makes the filtered view useless, but Quicken users have been living with it since the feature was introduced. That’s nearly a deal-breaker, but I’m going to stick it out. The other big one is there is no transaction entry form (that I can find). You have to enter all your info directly in the register. This brought back a very distant memory of when I first used Quicken and I didn’t like that method of entry. Money provided a more presentable form for entry and it was a significant selling point. Money also allowed the option to enter transactions Quicken-style. Funny how Money tried to implement a more Quicken-esqe experience and ended up being the one that failed.

I feel a bit sad that Quicken is now the only major player in this software category. Mostly because I know they can never make the changes needed to satisfy the MS Money crowd without ruining the experience of legacy Quicken users.

The Quickening

Posted by anachostic on December 17, 2009 No comments

So I’m at the 7th and final stage of grieving: acceptance. I have accepted that Microsoft Money is gone and will not be coming back, so I must move to Quicken. It’s not without trepidation that I purchase Quicken and try to recapture the enjoyment of tracking my finances with a new program. I had used Quicken a long time ago and was not as pleased as I was with MS Money, which is probably why I’ve used Money for over 10 years.

So I’ve gotten Quicken Deluxe 2010 installed and the first thing that pisses me off is that it has put icons on my desktop. Not just one icon, which is tolerable, but 4. One for the application and three sales pitches. This is a terrible first impression. One shortcut is to a co-branded version of FreeCreditReport dot COM – one of the biggest scams out there. One is for their BillPay service, at $10/mo. Even Wachovia, a premier bank, only charges $6/mo for integrated BillPay. Unless Quicken doesn’t have 2-way integration with Wachovia, which is practically a dealbreaker for me. MS Money had it. (Turns out, yes, Quicken does support online payments through Wachovia) The final offer is for a typical rewards credit card provided by Chase.

First Launch: I am prompted to “Get Started”. I have to enter my banks and their login info so Quicken can download transactions and whatnot. I’m mildly impressed. In MS Money, this was a separate step after setting up accounts. It picks up my Wachovia account without a problem. Then I do my Chase account. Oops, there was a problem. It says to try again later. So I think, “Maybe it should be entered as a WaMu account, since that’s where it was originally opened.” Nope. Not found there. It’s later now, so I try again under Chase. Quicken crashes. Ok, my impression of this program is sinking fast.

Second Launch: I get all of my accounts set up. And I am quite impressed with how well it handled ALL of my accounts. If I had a login for it, Quicken handled it. I got my loans entered and the wizard was pretty easy to work through. I browse through the preferences and set a few things to my liking, like two-line registers. Now, I am downloading transactions for an account that doesn’t have real-time transaction updates. And it’s frozen. However, I was able to close the window (X) and it seemed to be a successful update. We’ll see how that turns out on the others… ok, three of the four I had to close the window, but they seem current. Not sure of this is going to be an annoyance or it’s just a fluke.

I’m going to give it an honest try, since I have no other choice, really. I’ve tried GnuCash and that was definitely a step down. So we’ll see how quick things get.

Trip Log 11/26/09

Posted by anachostic on November 26, 2009 No comments

In a previous blog entry, I took a ride to a local beach, but at the time the beach was closed for renovation, to be reopened in the fall. Well, now it’s the fall and I headed back out to see all the new and great changes that I’d nothing to previously compare to. It was a little late in the day, partly cloudy and about 65 degrees. I got a few blocks and decided, no, I am not going to make this trip without insulation. So I turned around and got my riding jacket’s rain liner, which is a great wind breaker as well.

Back on track, I realized, it’s pretty cold. But I pressed onward and I made good time because of my comfort level at higher speeds. Maybe a little over halfway there and I noticed there were some actual clouds ahead. If it started raining, I would be in a huge amount of trouble in this temperature. I got under the clouds and the temp dropped even further. But, no rain.

I made it to that park again and as fate would have it, the beach is still under construction. So, a good 1 and a half hour ride in the cold and wind for nothing. I need something to cheer me up. Oh, you poor thing. Have a donut.

Thank you, I will. That will have to do for now. It’s now mostly cloudy and the temperature drop I had earlier under the clouds is the new normal. So I slipped on my 2nd pair of slightly warmer riding gloves and blasted back home. So cold. So tired. So disappointed.

Trip Log 11/22/09

Posted by anachostic on November 22, 2009 No comments

Today was a beach trip. To a different beach, on a different route. That meant (oh boy) Interstate travel: 60 minutes at 70+ mph in chaotic conditions with a good wind. I could see that there were storms to the north and south, but I seemed pretty safe in my path.

An uneventful trip to the beach and a fairly empty parking lot. I had just gotten off the bike and gotten to the walkway when the parking authority vehicle pulled in. I walk back to his truck and asked if he could break a $20 for the meters. He told me not to worry and kept right on going. Slow day, I guess.

So I got my pictures and took a leisurely ride up and down the local roads. Not much traffic and what was there was casual. Stopped at a local place to have a lunch. The sandwich was not as I would have expected. What is the deal with sticking a huge pile of meat between slices of bread? You can’t get your mouth around it and all you taste is meat. There’s a balance when making a sandwich: the meat-to-bread ratio (or meat-to-bun as I originally termed it for fast food). You don’t want the flavor of the meat to be lost in the bread, nor do you want excess in the other direction. Some places just don’t get it.

I did bring along the Zune HD, but I didn’t get to do any Internet surfing. All the available networks were secured, insulting, or both.

So, I guess I won’t be going back there. I should have had the burger.

Cooking

Posted by anachostic on November 15, 2009 No comments

Ahhh. I just had a great meal, and I cooked it myself.

I hear you now. “What? Mr. I-eat-fast-food-three-meals-a-day-and-somehow-keep-living… cooks?” That’s right. And on top of that, I’m good at it. No, I’m awesome at it. I know this because I eat what I cook, and I’m one picky bastard, so my cooking must be awesome in order to meet my standards. Tonight it was a simple, fairly healthy meal of steak and rice. Ok, chopped steak and rice. Ok, it was actually hamburger and rice, only it was made so awesome it could have been steak.

Some of you might be saying, “Rice? that’s so bland and boring.” or “I can’t eat rice, they look like maggots.” Well, if you were eating with me, you’d be eating it because I make it right. And I’m going to share the recipe. There’s a special ingredient you might need to go to the store to buy, but it’s worth it. Now, here’s the ingredient list:

2 cups Rice
1/4 stick of butter

Yeah, I know. It’s awesome. You people who think you have a bowl of maggots in front of you aren’t going to complain when that larvae is coated in a thick layer of butter. And rice is boring? Try eating my rice with chopsticks. That’ll keep you busy. And thanks to the wondrous power of butter, it’s awesome.

Now, the entrée: steak/burger/whatever. There is a special art to seasoning beef before cooking it. I’ve seen plenty of marinades, rubs, and spices, but I know what I like. After all, I eat at Outback and Longhorn enough to get a taste of good seasoning. So, here’s my custom seasoning blend for my burgers:

Salt

If I wasn’t already employed, I’d be opening my own restaurant. I’m saying, it’s that good.

I remember when I first moved out and had never cooked for myself before. It could be the reason why I eat out all the time. But anyway, I took the time and mastered the art of cooking. All you people who say “I’ve never cooked. I can’t even cook a burger. Fire scares me.” Here’s my step-by-step instructions to cooking a burger:

Shut up
Buy a George Foreman grill
Cook a burger

I was going to write a book on this special technique, but figured the information is better in the public domain. If you fail to cook your burger properly, simply follow the directions again. Pay close attention to the first step – it’s the most critical. If you can’t get a good burger after five attempts. Throw all your George Foreman grills away and just disregard steps 2 and 3.

I’ll have to take the time someday to explain the killer grilled cheese sandwiches I make, but I’ll close with a tip on making tea drinkable. If you don’t like tea, it’s because you don’t have enough sugar in it. It’s that simple. In fact, I’ll bet you can eat concrete if you have enough butter, salt and sugar available.

Ride to Eat, Eat to Ride

Posted by anachostic on October 4, 2009 No comments

Just a couple of random bike trips for food. The first was to a place I’d not heard of before, although there are a few locations around here: Village Inn. I hoped this would be like a King’s or Eat & Park from the northern area, but was a bit disappointed. I tried the staple meal – burger and fries – but the burger had some seasoning or spice that wasn’t suiting me very well at all. I could only eat a few bites of it.

It’s not all bad. I gave up on the entrée and went to dessert. The chocolate pie was excellent and made up for most of the meal’s failure.

Then I went out to tourist country and ate at a Ponderosa. It’s a location I’d been to before when I was not a local resident. Interesting how differently you act towards attractions when you could go there every day… Not that Ponderosa is an attraction, but Old Town is right there and it’s Halloween, which means they have a big push on the haunted house.

This meal I was treated to the excellent stories of a very special person behind me. My impression is that he sees himself as some sort of consumer superhero. As I understand the story, superboy was performing some bank transaction through the automated telephone service and answered some personal verification question wrong. This immediately locked his account. To resolve this, he called the bank directly. I have no idea why, but he felt it necessary to disguise his voice, taking on the tone of an agitated old man with respiratory issues. “Yes, this is so-an-so *cough cough hack snork* and you have locked my *cough COUGH* account with your damn computer *gag hack*.” During this trial to get him verified, he answered all the questions correctly. If he didn’t know one (and I’m not sure why he wouldn’t know his personal information), he would have a coughing fit to buy time. Using typical hyperbole, he said they asked him a hundred questions. Then using some sort of hybrid of hyperbole and stupidity, he said they asked him for his grandmother’s maiden name, but he answered using her married name. The only thing I can deduce from these facts is that he was faking access to his father’s account (which would be his father’s mother’s maiden name).

Superboy goes off on a tangent. Now he’s pissed because everything’s a ripoff. Drinks are $2.50 (“that’s where they get ya”). The onion rings cost an extra dollar (“That’s a scam. They asked me if I wanted onion rings but never said it’d be an extra dollar.”). But like my Village Inn dessert, it wasn’t all bad (“The 10% coupon I used paid for the extra charge for onion rings”) , but at the same time, he wasn’t letting go. He somehow changes gears and relates a story about how he had to give a 7 cent refund to a customer because they felt they were incorrectly charged tax on a dollar item and how stupid and petty it was. He somehow fails to relate his current bitching about the dollar upcharge to this story.

Please let me out of here.

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