Thanksgiving Excitement

This weekend was pretty exciting. I'm not used to extended weekends, and I'm not used to days so jam packed with things to do. The Girl and I went home for Thanksgiving for the first time since moving to Maryland. As an extra added benefit, our 10-year high school reunion also took place on Black Friday.

Thanksgiving proved one thing, as it does for many families; that my family is crazy. My aunt took the crazy crown this trip, stating that she was going to make her children (ten and thirteen) sit on Santa's lap so she could get a picture, and that they were going to do it because it was what she wanted, and she didn't care if they ended up hating her later in life. They will, rest assured.

The reunion (and associated activities) was more exciting, though. To quote a fun movie, "It was just as if everyone had swelled." I talked with some people who I never associated with in high school, really. Most importantly, we got to see George! We haven't seen him face-to-face since the wedding. It was awesome! He got drunk, the three of us hung out that Friday night, and we pretty much just had an awesome time being uncomfortable around a bunch of high school people, and comfortable with just a few.

Saturday, we hung out with George some more, as well as with another person I haven't seen in forever; Irene! I saw all sorts of people this weekend. George and Irene are just the same people they used to be, and it was just like old times. We're the ones who are different. The girl is pregnant, and I'm ten kinds of medical :-)

I Don't Get It

Apple could be the stingiest friggin' company ever. They have ads on their website for "1 day not to miss" for sales, which is pretty ridiculous considering shopping there today won't save you much of anything. Not even everything is on sale, and what IS on sale is less than 10% off. I don't get it. All this does is reinforce my belief that I should build an OS X86 machine instead of buying their hardware. My new machine will dual-boot with Linux, too, if I can raise the scratch necessary to acquire it.

Anyway, Apple, eat it raw! Your deals suck!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving all! I'm sitting here on my parents' sofa, watching TV, reading the Internets, and ingesting the massive amounts of coffee I need to properly wake up. I'm trying not to think of the potential food rampage to ensue today, which would probably choke a sufficiently large herd of cattle. O' ye gods of willpower, don't fail me now!

As this is the first time in four years we've gotten to come home for Thanksgiving, and the Girl is pregnant, this should be reasonably entertaining. That and, like other families, mine is probably strange enough to serve as the focus of a psychology major's Ph.D. thesis. May the entertainment ensue!

An Interesting Week For Cars

I haven't blogged about cars in a while. Suddenly, after no news, five stories come up in a day. Most of them were pretty good. I love it when articles talk about new cars and energy-efficient cars and HOT cars; most of these did.

First off, Road and Track talks did a story about the Dodge EV, which is every step in the right direction for what I want in a car; not the least of which is that the body is good looking. Remember the Lots Elise? The same guy designed the car. They want to use the same light-weight material to make it. The Elise weighs just shy of 2000 lbs, which gives it some quickness with a relatively small engine. Also, as the "EV" part suggests, it is fully electric. Just awesome. The drawback? It will probably be expensive for a while, just like the Elise.

Second, and equally cool (if not more-so for the design), the Honda FC Sport. It looks awesome and it is a fuel cell vehicle.

Another quick note is that Mini is releasing an electric Cooper. The Mini Cooper is already a fantastic car, what with it being light and fuel efficient and nimble.

One of the main points that we haven't seen before (in my opinion) is that a sports car can be both ecologically good and still look good. It's a trend in the right direction. I just pray that my car will hold out until these types of cars are widely available.

Finally, and this is of note just because I really like these cars, Nissan is releasing the next version of the 350 Z; the 370 Z. It's faster. It's better designed. It's just as hot. It's probably as inefficient as the 350 Z, though. Of note, however, is that Nissan has introduced a rev-matching component that could replace the heel-and-toe rev-matching requirement for all of you performance drivers out there. I rev-match while coasting, so I'm less efficient than I would be using heel-and-toe. However, I have big feet and I don't have the right pedals.

Update: This site talks about some changes to the 370 Z, including aluminum door panels, a shorter length, VVEL, etc., which would initially make it seem like it gets better gas mileage than the 350 Z. But, the site also talks about how its fuel economy is rated at 18/26. Bummer.

Climbing Shoes Review

OK, so I'm a little crazy. I suddenly feel like reviewing my rock climbing shoes. I've had several pairs, and I just received a new pair yesterday. I'm excited about the new pair. In the meantime, see what I have to say about 5.10 Ascent, 5.10 Galileo, La Sportive Miura, Evolv Defy, and 5.10 Spire. Then, when they're good and worn in, I'll review my brand new pair of Montrail Wasabi.

I got into climbing in October 2003. That was when I purchased my fateful first pair. I'm sure most people commit the same feau pax, and so did I. I bought them way too big, thinking they should be sized similar to street shoes; way wrong.

My first pair of shoes was a pair of 5.10 Spires. They're the famous purple lace-ups from 5.10. I recall that this was a good pair to learn on, but they suffered from two problems, one of which was my fault. They were too big, so I could used my toes very well. I didn't realize that was a problem until I got a bit better and actually needed my toes for something. The second problem is that they're shaped a bit more like a street shoe. Instead of having a really well-pointed toe, they curve up a bit in the front to be comfortable to wear. That also limits the use of their toes. I recall the rubber being really good, though, since they lasted me a long time and then I still got to give them to a friend to use even longer.

My second pair was a pair of velcro 5.10 Ascent. They have some little suction cup-looking things on the heels, although a recent redesign has changed that. I got these shoes a bit closer to the right size, but they were still a little big. These shoes have almost everything going for them, and one problem. The problem is that they may have been a little wide for my feet, so my feet moved inside them a little. However, that may have been because they were a little big for me. On the good side, the rubber is really good. They have velcro, so they're quick to get in and out of. They're really comfortable. The rubber is also really sticky, so they smear well. All in all, I was very happy with these shoes.

My third pair have been the best pair; La Sportive Miuras. They have quick laces, so they're easy enough to get in and out of. They have a super pointy toe, so I can get my toes into just about anything. The rubber is really sticky and pretty durable, so the first sole lasted a long time, and they helped me climb really well. They aren't the most comfortable, but I bought them really small, over-compensating for my two previous purchases. I love these shoes. I resoled them, and I still use them, though the resoles now have a hole, so they're not long for the world. They also cost a bit ($130), but you get major quality out of this price. They're technical, durable shoes.

I have really conflicting feelings about my fourth pair; Evolv Defys. Of the shoes, they are the most comfortable and are really fantastic for technical climbing. They have really pointy toes and really sticky rubber. They have velcro, so I can get in and out of them quickly. I love these shoes. The drawback to them, which is pretty significant, is that the rubber just doesn't last very long. The rubber wore out really quickly. I have developed holes in both toes after about 5 months. If I could put La Sportiva rubber on these shoes, they would be the best. I intend to do that when I get them resoled. On the bright side, they're cheap. At $75, they are a really good pair of shoes.

Then we have my current pair; 5.10 Galileos. I think I like these shoes the least of all of my shoes. Initially, the rubber is not sticky at all. Once they're worn in a bit, they're decently sticky. The rubber wears out a bit quickly, too. The bonus is that they're also velcro shoes, so they'll go on and come off quickly. But, they cost way too much for that to be the main selling point. Steer clear of these.

Stay tuned for my review of the Montrail Wasabis...
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OS X Apps

With the successful installation of OS X Leopard today, I figured I would share my own strange little software world with you all. I'm a big fan of FOSS, so most of these are free.

The User List

• Adium X - The only Instant Messager you ever need for OS X. And, it integrates with Address Book and Growl


• Firefox/NoScript - Browser of choice


• Safari - For those times when NoScript is just too annoying


• Mail/Address Book - Each is individually nice, and organized the way I like, but the icing to the cake is that they integrate amazingly well


• Quicksilver - So I don't need to go digging around my file system for applications


• Growl - It's just nice to be told what's going on, and when

The Power User List

• iTerm - Because I'm uncomfortable without a terminal


• Deeper - I like to have control over my environment


• Spaces - I like desktop real estate, and I hate clutter


• Disk Inventory X - Because I want to know where my hard drive space goes

The Multimedia List

• Handbrake - Who knows anymore whether DVD backups are legal. Screw it. I'm using it.


• iSquint - My iPhone likes videos too!


• VLC - I like to be able to play all of my videos, and Quicktime is unreasonably locked down by Apple


• Perian - This makes Quicktime just a little bit nicer, and so I can watch things using FrontRow (which uses Quicktime)


• Delicious Library ($40) - Because I have a lot of DVDs, and I like to keep track of them. The Girl just wants me to get rid of them so that they don't require cataloging

The Developer List

• X11 - I like to sit on my couch and program, but most of my development environment is on my Linux desktop. With X11, I can run applications on my desktop, but display them on my laptop


• Eclipse - A nice, free IDE

Update: Wow! I just tried out FrontRow as well. It is WORLDS better than it was in Tiger. It is unbelievably more responsive (it looks like the properly threaded it this time), has a much more manageable layout, and is just generally much more fun to play with.

A Day Off...

I have a reprieve from work. It's kind of nice. It's been a fun day. My keister has taken permanent root to the futon. I've learned a few things today, too. There are virtually no good free ERD (Entity relationship diagram) tools available for Linux or Mac OS. The only ones I could find are DBDesignerFork, MySQL Workbench (which doesn't work well for Linux), and a really weak plug-in for Eclipse called Amateras ERD. Edit: For ease of use and availability, SQLite Manager gets honorable mention too.

Apparently baby mandarin ducks jump out of trees...

I also made dinner for the first time in a long time; rice noodles with peanut sauce. A tasty, quick (15 minutes) meal, assuming you are obscure enough (as I am) to regularly keep rice noodles on hand, and could happily replace your blood with peanut butter despite the inevitable artery clogging that would ensue. I say it's worth it for peanut butter blood.

Fordham Copperhead is tasty...

The end.

Halloween Goodness

Since we got married, we've tried to throw some form of Halloween party every year. It almost didn't happen last year, but we made it. Next year could be interesting with a newborn, but we'll see about that. I'm not entirely sure how this year went, though.

See, I missed most of the party. I missed Laura. I missed Amanda. The party started at 6:00. I got home at 9:00 due to circumstances beyond my control. Because I got home so late, I only had time to dress up as a colossal geek for Halloween, wearing my anniversary gift. I saw exactly one kiddie dressed up for Halloween.

On the bright side, the part of the party I did experience was pretty cool. The Girl did a wonderful job setting it up. I got home to a bunch of happy people enjoying each others' company. I immediately had some home-brewed pumpkin ale, and pizza, and general junk food. Later on I got to have some anniversary cake, which is just so good it has to be part of the crack food group. Definitely. If you're ever planning to be at Penn State and you need a cake, call Kim Morrison to get a cake. She's awesome. She's a wonderfully nice lady, and her cakes are phenomenal. I'm telling you; crack food group.

My childhood "homeboy" JV came down for the party, too, which was awesome. I haven't seen him in forever. We got to hang out with Noelle after the party, and JV stayed over to Saturday. We got to play Wii, eat awesome seafood, and have the tastiest ice cream ever. It was pretty awesome. It was just like the old days, and it really felt like not a day had passed. Reminiscing about pre-school is just so much fun.