Technology & MSG

I Am Such a Woman

Nov 25th, 2007 by Alex

I never go shopping.

I am the epitome of exemplary male psyche and behavior when it comes to buying stuff. I have a set list of items to get. I get in, purchase the items I need, then I get out. I don’t linger. I don’t cruise the store for other things that aren’t on the list. The only exceptions to this are when I’m grocery shopping, killing time before a movie, or have been suckered into tagging along on someone else’s expedition. I absolutely can’t stand to be in a shopping mall for any longer than is humanly necessary. Mall goers are nuts and can’t park their vehicles worth a damn, especially around major holiday seasons.

Yet this weekend I ended up purchasing a new 2GB USB stick, a pair of shoes, two belts, and a planner for 2008. WTF?!? None of these items were on the list, and in the case of the shoes/belts I went into the store looking to purchase jeans and a jacket. I’m not overly pleased with my behavior, but they are things that I need. The current USB stick isn’t large enough for my needs, most of my shoes are older than today’s middle schoolers, two of my belts are shredding from overuse, and my 2007 planner isn’t going to last me into the new year. Those are my rationalizations and I’m sticking to them.

My friend’s computer was jacked up, so he brought it down from Philly for the holidays to have me take a look at it. BSOD during boot, regardless of safe mode, the errors suggesting a problem with a non-paging data area. After a hour or two attempting to get Windows to boot properly and testing the memory thoroughly with Memtest86+, I resigned to reload it from scratch. I booted into Knoppix and had him backup all of his personal files to USB stick. Reloaded the OS to a new Windows directory without issue, then was able to move all of his files from his old account to the new ones. The backup wasn’t strictly necessary, but it certainly didn’t hurt and it made him feel a bit more at ease. Set up a few accounts for him in a more secure fashion than was there before. He’ll have to download the latest wireless card drivers, but otherwise he should be good to go for a while.

To reward myself I had some excellent take-out from Beijing. Their chicken with curry sauce never fails to please. Pampered myself and hung out in the hot tub for a while with friends and sampled a bottle of Winter’s Bourbon Cask Ale (PDF), a darker seasonal beer with a hint of vanilla which I enjoyed. I’ll have to make a point to see if its available at a store near me (or ask him where he acquired it).

Ocean's Thirteen Watched the majority of Ocean’s Thirteen this morning. I don’t know if it was because I missed the first 10-15 minutes, but it was a tad confusing. Al Pacino was the bad casino owner this time around and Andy Garcia was okay (although still a tad underhanded), I gathered. Sure, the usual cast of characters were fun to watch as they played with their gadgets and made witty comments, but I felt like I wasn’t sure what was happening most of the time. Before passing complete judgment it might be worth my while to give it a dedicated showing without distraction. So far the original — by which I mean the 1st remake — is still my favorite of the trio.

The cowlick was getting out of control. It had gotten to a point where hair conditioner was required to keep it manageable. For hair that’s less than an inch long that didn’t seem acceptable, so I gave myself a haircut this morning out in the yard and had a buddy line me up afterwards. Short and all trimmed up, I look like a young recruit minus the sideburns and goatee. Much like my passport photo, actually.

I was originally scheduled to be out of town this week on business, but plans have changed considerably. My trip was canceled but this week is already shaping up to be very busy. There’s a few social events, a few nights of volunteer work, and some consulting work that has yet to be scheduled (but will be sometime this week, although I’m not sure where its going to fit). Every day and evening is already spoken for with the exception of Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening. Figure I’ll have to do laundry at some point, so probably Sunday evening is all that remains. It’s a very good thing that I’ve slept a lot the past couple days.

In the meantime I’ve got to make a holiday gift list so that my holiday shopping experience won’t be a repeat of this weekend’s.