#56: Get a New Laptop

Speaking of my credit card.... I used it yesterday to make my first major purchase.... a new laptop computer, an HP Mini 210

Why did I buy a new computer?
Well.... My old laptop is from 2006, which makes it the laptop equivalent of Methuselah, or a saber-tooth tiger or something like that. At any rate, my old Dell meets my needs in terms of general tasks: word processing, excel files, etc... but it's slow as molasses when it comes to surfing the web, not to mention the gamut of other problems that afflict computers of a certain age (rheumatoid arthritis, etc...). Since surfing the web is pretty much the only thing  I do on my computer these days, I figured it was probably time for an upgrade. Plus, with Italia looming, I was guessing that I wouldn't enjoy lugging around close to 25 pounds of laptop just so I could check email while I was there. I have to admit, I was initially seduced by the prospect of  the iPad 2; but then I came to my senses, thought about the criteria I was looking for in a new machine, and made a more sensible purchase. So, what went into the decision?

My Criteria:

• Webcam: I think my Dell was made in the last year that built in webcams didn't come standard in all laptops. And would like to occasionally see my friends and family while I am in Italy
• Portability: As I mentioned before, I didn't want to be lugging around 15 pounds of laptop while I'm gone.
• Price: I'm not made of money (I'm told that I'm made primarily of water and carbon). Even though I intended to (and did) purchase my new computer with my credit card, I am going to have to pay this thing off eventually, so I was looking for something inexpensive.
• SD Card Port: A mere matter of convenience, but finding the USB cord to my camera is a pain in the ass. Being able to put the SD card directly into the machine makes things a hell of a lot easier for blogging and things of that nature.
• Quality: I prefer when my final purchase doesn't run like shit and fall apart as soon as I get out of the store 

With these criteria in mind, I set about seeing what was available and weighing my options.

Stuff I Looked At :

• iPad 2: While the iPad certainly is stylish and seductive (and now has the camera for video chatting), it also is fairly pricey and only comes with 16GB in its base model. And it doesn't have an SD card slot. Basically, I realized the iPad only did about half of the stuff I wanted and still cost an arm and a leg. No thanks.
• Dell Inspiron Duo: This is a pretty gee whiz piece of machinery, bridging the gap between tablet and netbook with a rotating screen. It has the full capabilities of your average netbook, with the convenience of a tablet when you want it. Definitely an interesting possibility. The down side, you never know how extremely new products like this are going to pan out, and it seemed to run slow in the reviews I saw. When it came down to it, the price tag and lack of SD Card slot conspired to turn me against it.
• Dell Inspiron Mini 10
• HP Mini 210

The Dell and the HP netbooks are essentially interchangeable in most respects; the processors, RAM, size, weight, battery life, and price are all comparable. Both met all of my criteria. In the end, the HP won out because the screen looked a little bit nicer and the keyboard was easier to type on (my sausage fingers make typing on these little laptops problematic at times). It's been a fine purchase so far, but I'm sure that I'll be ranting about it if it turns to shit at some point in the near future.

Thanks again for reading

-Nick

#65 and Things That Make Me Feel Like an Adult

(Note: As usual we have been making progress on the list whilst entirely ignoring the blogging process. Apologies. We'll try to get a few more things to get up here in the next few days. And, as always, thanks for reading.)

I don't know about you, but there are certain things that just make me feel like an adult... and I'm not talking about things like my voice getting deeper and all of those physiological changes that you learned about in sex ed, although I'll be stoked if/when I can finally grow a reasonable facsimile of a full beard. (I just realized that I should probably inform you all that I am Nick, because if you thought T was writing this post that last sentence would have seemed very weird) At any rate, I'm talking about when I started liking things that my former child-self would have thought was totally unacceptable (like blue cheese, onions, or having any dressing on my salad that wasn't ranch.... I was a strange child). At any rate, I did something the other day that made me feel that same way: I applied for a credit card.

Now, I know that that may not seem like a particularly big deal to some of you, but I had been putting it off for a long time. You see, I already had a perfectly functional debit card which acted just like a credit card... you could slide it through the card swipe at the supermarket, buy gas with it, open a tab at a bar, what the hell did I need a credit card for? And something about the idea of having "credit" made it seem so scary and grown up, I would have to start  thinking about building a credit score and paying bills on time and understand interest rates and essentially do a bunch of shit that required forethought instead of just flying by the seat of my pants. And I like flying by the seat of my pants. Besides, what if I couldn't handle the responsibility and having a credit card somehow sent me spiraling out of control, until I eventually ended up starring in one of those debt management commercials on late night TV, where the person had like 17 million dollars in credit card bills until they called some cheesy lawyer from Oklahoma who worked everything out for them. Scary, right? So, I gave my middle finger to the credit card industry and stuck to my debit card for the entirety of my collegiate career.... and I ate a lot of ramen sometimes.

But then, after moving back in with the parents roommates and quasi-joining the workforce, it occurred to me.... "Holy shit.... I have absolutely no credit score and I'm assuming at some point in my life I'll probably want to like buy a house, or at least a car. I should probably work on that."

So I bit the bullet, started looking into things, realized that I was definitely going to be getting screwed on interest rates, applied for an Amex, and was declined.....at which point I thought, "F*&K, this all sucks just as much as I thought it would."

At this point in the story, I'm going to veer into a brief tangent/rant, but bear with me. As you may or may not be aware, if you apply for a credit card and are declined, you have the right, by law, to see the credit report that the company pulled (so that you see why you were declined, address any discrepancies, and so forth)... for free.  That is, if you can figure out how to access your free report. Even though I knew that I essentially have no credit history, I figured, since its free, I'll check it out. Amex referred me to the Experian website, but the bastards at Experian don't put anywhere on their website the option of reviewing your free report that has already been pulled, but they will try to trick you into paying 15 bucks for essentially the same thing. So I called the 1-800 number and, after about twenty minutes with their automated phone system, finally managed to come up with a url for that would let me see my free report. It's a part of their website, but is definitely not referenced anywhere on their homepage. In fact, the free report page didn't look anything like the rest of their corporate pay-to-see-your-shit website. Moral of the story: I had a right to see my report; they made me jump through hoops to do it and almost tricked me into paying $15 for something I eventually got for free..... and I now have a burning hatred of them.

Whew, I feel better now that I've got that off my chest..... Now where was I........

Oh yeah, so after being declined and nearly having an aneurysm trying to see my credit report, I had pretty much decided that I was over the whole thing and that it was going to be up to T to check off #65. But I decided to give it one last shot and started looking into getting a Visa from BofA and, I've got to say, their customer service was pretty fantastic. As I was perusing their site, one of those little chat windows popped up asking me if I had any questions that they could answer for me. I normally just ignore those things, but, since I did have a lot of questions, I figured why not. Lo and behold, there are real people on the other end of those chat windows that are actually very helpful. She not only answered my questions about the different options available, but she helped me with questions I had while filling out the application. And, mere minutes later, I had been approved.

For those of you that got tired of my rambling, here are the key points from the last few paragraphs:
-Experian = jerks
-The B of A customer service reps that I talked to gets an A+
-Amex doesn't find me trustworthy, but B of A does.

So here I am: feeling like an adult and holding a little piece of plastic with my name on it.
I think I'll go buy something.

#45: The Recap

Well, we've already taken photos for the last 30 days... and it flew by. We've decided to make today's post a brief wrap-up instead of the usual photo post. Each of us will give our thoughts on the project, pick our 5 favorite shots from the other person, and officially cross #45 off of our list.

N's
This was all sort of a difficult task for me seeing how as I'm not a natural photog... but I actually really ended up enjoying it. The hardest part was just trying to not just take a photo of what I was eating for dinner every night (although that might not be a bad idea for a future project), and just trying to figure out how to take a different photo every day definitely improved my camera skills a bit. On day 18 I discovered that my parents' roommates' camera had an auto setting with a picture of what looks like a baby (I refer to it as the "cherub setting"), but it makes food pics look bitchin without having to mess with manual settings. I feel like a food blogger when I shoot with it...

My favorite part of the project: getting to see T's photos every day. It was hard to pick just 5, but here they are:

Days 8, 9, 14, 18 and 23

T's

I loved this project and am so sad that it's over. It was nice to have to take time out of my busy days to find something intriguing, appreciate something around me, or admire the beauty in something, photograph it and share it with others. Life can fly by us, it's happening to me right now as I'm completing my last semester of college, and I love being able to capture things that I hope to remember for ever. Nick had bugged me about learning to use the manual settings on my camera and this project pushed me to do that and.... now I'm obsessed. The close- up setting was previously my "go to" setting however, I believe I only used once for a photo of the day (day 21). (Somedays I was stuck using the camera on my phone, but at least I remembered to take a photo, right?) I also loved seeing Nick's photos everyday... it made me feel like I wasn't 456 miles away from him.

Conclusion: I love photography.

I really have 10 favorites from Nick's collection but since I had to narrow it down to 5, here are my top 5: (The pretzel photo is definitely #1 on my list... it's foodgawker.com worthy.)

#45: Days 29 & 30

T's

Day 29: Made with love by Molly

A fabulous friend made me this delicious dinner on my very busy night.

Life is good :) You can find the recipe here.

Day 30: The Entertainer

My new project. Thank you Scott Joplin.

N's

Day 29: The Beets

Beet, Walnut and Goat Cheese Salad.... Sauteed Beet Greens....Beet Green Frittata

Yeah.... We had some beets to use up.

Day 30: Incense

#6: Bumping Uglies, Knocking Boots, and The Horizontal Mambo

By Nick:

So... I read another book and I was done with it back at the beginning of February. That makes 2 out of 20 books, and this was a library book (so I can cross off #78 for myself).
What's that?..... Yes, I did say I finished the book in February....... Yeah, I know it's March......Look it's not like there is a due date on this stuff, and I've been procrastinating busy. I never did like doing book reports, but I did like this book:

Bonk is about the science and sex (or so it says on the cover anyway) and Mary Roach is freaking hilarious. The book is filled with all sort of information about the research being done on sex (both cutting edge science and old school quackery) and a bunch of hilarious stories, phrases that Mary suggests you not google (, and insightful commentary. To give you a sense of the quality of her work, I'm going to steal a review off of the back of the book:

Mary Roach is the funniest writer on sex and death since Sigmund Freud,

but without the misogyny and cigars. -Peter Sagal

I want to keep this post brief so I'll hit the key points. You will like this book if one or more of the following things apply to you:

• you have a sense of humor
• you can read
• you have ever read a trash magazine that promised to enlighten you to "100 things you didn't know about sex" (Not that I've ever read one of those, but this book will actually come through on that promise for you)
• you like "bonking"

This book is not for you if:

• you are dead
• you are a child
• you are stodgy and easily offended

I'm guessing that if any of those last few things apply to you, you aren't reading this blog anyway.

Moral of the story: Go read this book.

#45: Day 28

T's

HAPPY MARTI GRAS!

Celebrating with cupcakes from Teacake Bake Shop.

N's

#45: Day 27

T's

Day 27: I love Peet's

(Ethical and sustainable) coffee makes the world go 'round.

Fun facts for the day: "5 health reasons to not quit coffee"

N's

Day 27: What's up Doc?

#45: Days 24, 25 & 26

T's

Day 24: Local eats...

(Taken with my camera phone)

My favorite meal of the week. Everything was locally grown or made, except for the garlic olive oil from the Temecula Olive Oil Co. Crushed red pepper pappardelle from the Santa Cruz Pasta Factory, sun dried tomatoes from Napa, broccoli from Nunez Farm in Watsonville and sun dried tomato pesto from East & West Gourmet in Concord.

Day 25: Back on the water!

The beginning of my last collegiate ski season.

My team hosted a "Learn to Ride Day" at our lake- Eagal Lakes.

Day 26: Keeping calm and carrying on

N's

Day 24: A well organized workplace?

Note everything that you need to write a two page paper in less than an hour and a half:

beer, water, laptop, headphones, tiny desk concerts, reference material, assorted clutter

Day 25: Little Purple Flowers

I'm guessing no description is necessary, since the title is fairly self explanatory.

I found them in the backyard.

Day 26: Sourdough Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits and gravy remind me of my childhood. Back then my dad would cut them out into fanciful shapes, like penguins, and dye them with food coloring to entertain me (What can I say? He was and still is awesome). I also used to forgo the gravy in favor of honey. Since then, my tastes have matured. Now they just wouldn't be complete without a generous helping of gravy and the liberal application of habanero sauce.

#45: Day 23

T's

Day 23: Make a difference.

N's

This is a quasi-violation, since I'm posting two photos... But I missed a few days earlier, so I feel justified.

Day 23: Liquids

Night

Morning

#45: Days 21 & 22

T's

Day 21: Simple Pleasures...

Day 22: Goodbye gym, friends, and sleep.

Hello PACT #2.

N's

Day 21:

Day 22: Thai Food Carnage

#78: Check out a book

This isn't the first time I've checked out a book (or books) from the library since we made the list. I didn't post about the book I checked out for my Jan Term Urban Food Justice class - Food Not Lawns- which totally changed the way I look at lawns and other spaces full of non-edible plants.

This past week I checked out these four books at the Moraga Library for a group project in one of my teaching classes. We are supposed to select a genre and 5 books that fall in that category for different elementary reading levels. My group has chosen the "Bibliotherapy" genre because we have all experienced things in our lives that we believe literature has helped us through or helped us relate to others. So far, I have found these four books. #1- The Higher Power of Lucky is a chapter book about a little girl who looses her mother, #2: A Terrible Thing Happened is a picture book about a little raccoon boy who witnesses a "terrible thing" and the memory of that "terrible thing" begins to impact his emotions, behavior at school and even his dreams, #3 Bridge to Terabithia (now a motion picture) is a beautiful story about friendship and the death of a friend, #4 Imagine Me on a Sit-Ski! is a picture book about a little boy who has cerebral palsy, who is given the opportunity to ski at a ski resort with some of his other classmates who also have physical disabilities. This one hits close to home... I've spent many summers volunteering with an amazing disabled waterski camp at Long Beach's Marine Stadium through the Casa Colina Rehab Facility. And I'm still looking for book #5....

Cheers! -T