Fitness — Comments
18
Mar 10

Sink or swim?

I’ve been thinking about how I need to incorporate more activities in my exercise regime. Running is fine and I’m proud of myself that I got off my ass and did it, but it still bores me to tears. Months of being unable to run made me reassess how I approach fitness. I want it to be fun again, not a chore. Finding my swimsuit had me thinking, “Triathlon”.

No, I don’t want to do a triathlon, but I watched so many of them over the summer, that I was psyched enough to start training. Only problem, besides the lack of non-stinky swimsuit, is that I suck at swimming.

You know those people who go to the pool, but don’t want to get wet? I’m only slightly more userful than them. Most of those types can swim. I can flail, splash, froggy-wiggle and float.  Taking swim classes with my daughter only served to remind me that I was never formally taught how to swim. Freestyle, butterfly, breastroke, backstroke…I’m aware they exist, but I have no idea how to do those fancy arm things without getting water up my nose (<–PHOBIA ALERT!).

I got my husband’s bike fixed today; I already have my running gear and just need a non-stinky swimsuit. I found this pretty neat triathlon training plan today. Let’s  just hope people can keep their giggles to a minimum when I start doing laps at the pool.

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Uncategorized — Comments
05
Mar 10

Why so mysterious?

Themes are getting redundant

Themes are getting redundant

Most people are aware that I enjoy Hidden Object games. Most of them are clever, in that there are intricate puzzles you need to figure out beyond the mundane part of finding items on a list. It seems safe to assume that market research shows that 18 – 25 year old white women are the biggest consumers of the games because that is usually the character we’re presented with in most of these games. She often has to travel the world or through time to find some hapless male relative who went and got himself missing either by messing around with stuff he shouldn’t have been messing with or messing around with the wrong mad scientist or evil wizard.

For mindless play, I guess this is okay, but usually the stories are so redundant that there is no point in playing them because you know how they’ll end. This is makes setting even more important. Mystery Case Files has a wonderful franchise in their games. While the puzzles and graphics are often excellent, what makes them more attractive is the setting. Ravenhearst and especially Return to Ravenhearst were just unsettling at times. There were areas of the games I wanted to avoid because they were scary.

Lately, it seems that other game companies, wishing to latch onto MCFs success with Return to Ravenhearst, have gone the mystery route. Sadly, they do it so poorly and just come off as cheap knock-offs. Most of these games don’t even have the awesome puzzles that are really the core of the MCF games. Now we’re faced with titles like in the graphic above (from Big Fish Games) and no compelling game play. Mystery for the sake of mystery is never a good idea. I need something to sink my teeth into.

http://www.mysterycasefiles.com/
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Me / Nature — Comments
04
Mar 10

It’s no secret that I prefer, no, love summer. I like the heat. I adore days that seemingly last forever.  There is a reason I’d never move any place where it snows more than one day a winter. Somehow, this winter seems longer than others and I’m not too happy about that. I could blame the weird, cooler weather in fall on the nearby fires. It feels like it’s been raining every week since December. There was that bright spot in the middle of February when it hit 81 degrees for 3 days in a row.

I want that back.

I need the sun kissing my skin.

Now.

Entertainment — Comments
02
Mar 10

Achievement Addiction

A few months ago, I read an article about people who only play Xbox to get achievements. I thought it was rather sad and depressing. From my point of view, life is too short to play bad games just because you can get points that mean and do nothing. Never in a million years did I think I’d be raising two kids addicted to achievements.

lego_batman_achievements

I think it all started this past week. My daughter, who has had her XBL login since ‘08, had 65 gamer points. My son, who got his login in December, had 150 points. Naturally, she thought that unfair. Somehow, in all of this, it became my responsibility to pass levels for them. Why? Not just because of the achievements, but because they want to play many characters at once. They can’t do that in Story Mode.

So, now my days are spent passing or “helping” them pass levels to unlock Free Play. High-fives all around once a level is complete. There is dancing if more than 3 canisters are collected in a round. It’s a good thing these Lego games are fun and pretty easy to play. I’ve played some levels 6 times now and I still find new rooms.

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Media / Reviews / Technology — Comments
09
Feb 10

iPad: Poll Numbers and Spin, or Why You Should Pay Attention

I got an email from Telecom TV with the screaming headline:

Oh dear! 52 per cent of consumers don’t want an iPad

I know, right? So I click the link and start reading. Keep in mind that Martyn Warwick will never be called a fan of Apple or Steve Jobs.

?Last month, before the new device was launched, an earlier survey showed that 26 per cent of consumers who were aware of the hype surrounding the imminent arrival of the iPad had no interest in buying one.

Now a follow-up study indicates that, as the Retrevo blog puts it, Apple has suffered “a failure to convince any new buyers to consider the iPad.” It adds, “Not only did Apple fail to convince new buyers, it may have lost many potential buyers who now say they don’t think they need an Apple tablet computer.”

That’s because, to quote Retrevo again, “Consumers lost interest after the [iPad] announcement. Retrevo’s study asked consumers whether or not they had heard about the tablet before the tablet was introduced and again after the announcement. The word definitely got out as the number of respondents saying they had heard about the tablet rose from 48% shortly before the announcement to over 80% after the media frenzy on January 27th.”

Wow, right? But guess what? I’m not a tech person and I’ve never heard of Retrevo before this article. I’m not going to just take this at face value. I want to know the polling size, how the people were selected, the questions…in other words, the details. So, I searched for “Retrevo ipad survey” (without the quotes) and noticed a link to MacDailyNews at the top of the search results touting the same exact survey.

Continue reading →

Advertising / Entertainment / Internet / Newspapers / Race / Shopping / idiocy — Comments
21
Dec 09

New York Times suggest gifts for the people of color in your life

On FriendFeed, I was alerted to the fact that the New York Time’s Gift Guide for 2009, included a whole section for the people of color in your life.

Yep.

I freely admit to being slightly amused by it. At first I thought it was a joke, but seeing articles and tweets about it, made me realize that it was an actual part of their guide. In 2009.

Naturally, I had to look it up myself. And…uh…well, read:

>>Of Color | Stylish Gifts

By SIMONE S. OLIVER

Somali fashion, do-it-yourself henna kits, children’s books that draw inspiration from the lives of Barack Obama and Sonia Sotomayor: it’s not hard to find gifts created for and by people of color this holiday season. Here are some possibilities.

There are some defensive people out there who think this is positively acceptable. They point out that the author of the section is black, so that makes it okay. Get it?

Now, I read some of the different suggestions on NYTPicker and kept thinking, “This has to be a joke.”, but uh…well…

For your Latino friends…

sotomayor Continue reading →

Parenthood — Comments
21
Dec 09

Circular logic hurts my brain

The kids want a Christmas tree. I tell them that we can’t afford a tree, so we won’t have one. The girl says, “Then we won’t get presents.” To which I reply, “Well, we can’t afford presents anyway, so yeah…there’ll be no presents.” Her response? “Get a tree and then there will be presents!”

THUD.

Then I wonder how we got here.

We’ve only had a tree twice. And only last year, did we put gifts under them. In other words, Christmas just isn’t done here. I’ll assume that school and TV have filled their heads with this idea.

Manners / People / Social Media — Comments
14
Dec 09

You don’t always have to share

The past few weeks on Twitter and Facebook, I’ve been privy to the rejection of my friends. They post things like “Coworker had a party. Invited everyone in my department, but me.” How are they finding out about these affairs? Through social networking.

One year, a coworkers hosted a holiday party at a local restaurant. She only invited the administrative people in the office. I was an administrative person in the office, but I worked for the district. I was not invited. That did not stop her from sending out the email to her ‘admins’ list which I was on. At the bottom of the email it said not to tell me because I wasn’t a branch worker. It also said not to mention it to her bosses. Unfortunately, the way the email system was set up, the team and branch managers were automatically cc’d on emails sent from her. She had no idea.

While I was not hurt at being sidelined for this event since I didn’t like that coworker anyway, her team manager was pissed. She then spent the next 3 weeks making all the admins miserable because she was excluded.

It’s great that these services have made it easier to keep in touch, to let friends know what’s going on, but for whatever reason people forget to filter. Maybe they forget that they’ve “friended” coworkers on these sites or perhaps they just have no idea that a coworker is following them on Twitter.  All the same, when there’s a private event happening, I’ve never understood the need to share that information.

Even before the advent of social networking it was just awful not only to see friends feel down because they weren’t invited to things, but to hear of social events from friends that I was not invited to. What’s the point of sharing that? Or rather, why say, “We had so much fun at David’s house last night.” as opposed to saying, “Oh, we had dinner with friends.”

My husband and I know this group of people who have been friends with each other for a long time. They take trips to San Diego, Tahoe or Vegas together. They have never once invited us to go along. That doesn’t stop them from talking about it. And over the years, I wondered what was wrong with them they’d do that to someone. After awhile, I just stopped talking to them. To me, it was clear that we weren’t considered “real” friends.

During the holiday season & especially with so many people using Twitter and Facebook to update their statuses, it only makes sense that you don’t post, “Getting ready for dinner party @soandso’s house. I love my coworkers!” or “Last night’s party at @coworkers house was wonderful! Thanks for inviting us!” knowing full well that there were coworkers who were not in attendance or invited. After all, think of how you’d feel to learn you were excluded from an event.

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Kids / Manners / Parenthood / idiocy — Comments
13
Dec 09

Top 5 questions people say when they hear you don’t want to have more kids

I stumbled across this article titled: 9 Silly Things People Say When They Hear You Don’t Want Kids (And Ways to Counter Them). Just from that you know that the author is one of those so-in-love-with-their-own-cleverness sorts. Not that’s bad, but you know…you can come off like a jackass. I should know. I’m that sort.

That being said, the author has been kind enough to give unreasonably stupid responses to the unreasonably stupid questions nosy people ask or unreasonably stupid statements they make when they find you don’t want children.

The only one that was rather amusing was:

5. “But they’re so cute!”

This is a topping good reason to buy a Hello Kitty “vibrator,” but to bring a whole new person into existence?

We hadn’t planned on having kids. Even though I was asked these questions (which I do think is extremely rude), I was never a jackass like the author and most childless-by-choice people I see online. People did tell us that we’d change our minds and clearly we did. Otherwise, my stock answer to strangers asking “Do you plan on having children?” was “Not at the moment.” Pushers got ruder responses. To my friends, I typically responded, “The day after never!”

Having kids does NOT stop these rude questions. I have a girl and a boy and people still push us to procreate. When I get the questions below, I just, smile and say, “Yeah…we’re done.” (Hey! Who says I lack tact?)

1. “Well, I was raised in a large family. I loved the chaos. “

That’s great. For you. But I have to raise that chaos. My two already create enough chaos for me.

2. “But don’t you think your daughter should have a sister/son should have a brother?”

I have one of each and my husband has no siblings. We turned out just fine.

3. “But you make such cute babies.”

Your point?

4. “But what if something happens to one of them?”

My. Aren’t you just a ray of sunshine?

5. “You’ll change your mind.”

Just because celebrities have babies in their 50s doesn’t mean I want to join them. As it is, having these two in my 30s have wiped out all of my energy reserves.

Also note, the ones who push you to procreate are NEVER around when you need a sitter.

Housing / Internet — Comments
11
Dec 09

Hmmmm…something smells

On Dec. 8th, I saw a listing on craigslist for a 3bd. home in Pasadena for $1050 a month. Sounds great, right? So, I emailed the listing asking when we can see the house. My husband, unbeknownst to me had made a phone call to the 626 number on the ad to ask the same thing. That was on Tuesday. That night, we decided since it was close by to drive by and look.  There’s a sign outside, but it was obvious someone is living there, you know…since we could see them walking around inside the house. Today, I got this email:


Hello
 
Thanks for your response regarding your interest in having my house for rent.The house is much available for now and it a 3 bedroom home..I want you to know that i am the owner of this building situated at [redacted].But i am now presently in West Africa for my Hospitals Project prayer crusade with my wife and we have the keys right here with us.I will like to inform you that it was due to my transfer that makes us to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own..So for now,We are here in West Africa,NIGERIA our new house and also with the keys of the house,we are trying to look for an agent that we can give this document before we left but could not see and we are as well as don’t want our house to be used any how in our absent that is why we took it along with us here..We are only willing to give the house out to a lovely and caring family only, so if you know you cannot give the house the neatness it deserves please don’t contact me.But if you promise to always take good care of the house,get back to me on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting a home.Hope you are okay with the monthly price of $1050 with hydro,heat laundry facilities,air-condition Etc.I am looking forward to hear from you ASAP,Our house number is[foreign phone number] OR [foreign phone number], below is the application form for you to fill and discuss on how to get the house for rent..
 
Kindly confirm your interest by filling the form below:
 
TENANT RENT APPLICATION
FIRST NAME: __________________
MIDDLE NAME: __________________
LAST NAME: __________________
PROFESSION: ________________
PHONE (____) __________ (CELL)
PHONE (____) __________ (WORK)
PHONE (____) __________ (HOME)
MARITAL STATUS: _________
KIDS _____ (YES/NO), HOW MANY ________
Home ADDRESS: ___________________________
CITY: _______________
STATE: ______________
ZIP CODE: ____________
HOW LONG? ___________IF RENTING
WHY ARE YOU LEAVING? _______________________________________________________________________
CURRENT RENT: _______
IF THIS House IS BEING GIVEN TO YOU,
HOW LONG DO YOU INTEND STAYING? ____________
WHEN DO YOU INTEND MOVING IN? ______________
 
Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting  you.Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the key to you,please we are giving you all this base on t r ust and again i will want you to stick to your words,you know that,we do not see yet and only putting everything into Gods hand,so please do not let us down in this our property and God bless you more as you do this.
 
Regards…
[named]

Yeah…i think we’ll pass.

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