Technological Bitchings

Arrgghh!!

1. Mac's thin profile Aluminum keyboard & how they were too stupid to thoroughly test it
   
   I got one of those snazzy, thin Aluminum keyboards not that long ago. As I don't like dealing with batteries and such, and my keyboard never leaves the area near my computer, I went with the wired version. Did this a little while ago, and have only had a couple of issues.
   
   
   
   • They decided to be "cool" and "different" and remap the Function keys at the top of the keyboard. The new layout itself isn't horrible, but they left out the expose for a single application button and the show desktop, and moved them around. So when I want to access my dashboard on my macbook, I hit F12. When I want to on my iMac I hit F3. I could remap some of them, but they don't provide an easy way to map any keys to volume controls. To make this even more of a pain, they actually printed icons on the keys to represent a lot of the functions, so even if I could remap things, I would have to hit the mute key on my macbook to access Expose (since F3 brings up Expose on my desktop). So I'm stuck with either have two different button configurations and accurate key icons, or remapping them on one of the computers, having the icons not be actually indicative of the function on those keys, and would have to use my mouse to open my sound settings to be able to adjust the volume. Really, Apple? REALLY?! For a company that prides itself on design, this is a UI turd. (User Interface for you non-CS types)
   
   
   • In addition to mucking up the F keys, they somehow made the keyboard so it is recognized later in the boot process. While this may not seem like much of an issue, I have used Boot Camp to dual-boot my computer with windows. While I despise Windows, I do run into occasions where I find it necessary (e.g. the idiots at RIM only provide Blackberry Management software for Windows so I can't adequately backup/restore/upgrade my Storm without it). Just so happens, this time shift in keyboard recognition handily shifts it to AFTER you must hold down the option key to bring up the boot menu. So I can hold down any keys I want, it isn't even going to check them until it has gone ahead and decided to boot the default OS. In OSX, I can choose Windows to be my default, then restart, and vice versa in Windows. After some digging I found that you can use the remote that comes with it, hold down menu, and that brings it up. So they recognize the little remote that is just for playing media before the OS is booted, but not the keyboard? WTF mate? This is an APPLE keyboard on and APPLE computer using APPLE software to dual boot. They make all their own hardware!? How hard can it be to test something before you release it? I used to think it'd be cool to work at Apple, but with the quality of employees they seem to currently have on staff, I am beginning to have my doubts.
   
   


2. My second techy rant has to do with my Blackberry Storm. Apparently they have an Idiot-for-idiot hiring deal with Apple. They put 1 frickin' gigabyte of memory on the phone (which sounds awesome) then arbitrarily divide up in a completely nonuseful way. So I have a gig on board, and it comes with an 8gig microSD card. What takes up the most room on a phone nowadays? Media. So I have 8gigs to store movies, audio, ringtones, pictures, etc. Do you think I will need to store any of that on my phone? Of frickin' course not. On the phone I will have my contacts, calendar, applications and that's about it. So I have a gig at my disposal right? NOPE. The dingleberries at RIM decided I shouldn't really have too many applications so I'm limited to like 100 megs (don't feel like looking up the exact figure) of space for applications and the rest is for personal data. Do you know how many contacts and calendar events I would need to fill frickin' 900 megabytes of space? That is the most back-ass-ridiculous way to divide that space. Why divide it at all? Why do you need to limit the amount of space I can use for applications and personal data? If I want 700 megs of apps and 2 of personal stuff, so be it. If I don't want to install any apps but want to keep the entire phonebook in my cell phone (just in case) that should be my choice. An arbitrary, nay stupid, division of memory is not helpful to anyone. And to make it worse, they won't even allow their own stuff to cross the boundary! I'm trying to update the software, and it wants to only use application space to hold the update and any install files. Of course I don't have 20 megs worth of space, but I DO have 850 worthless megs of "personal storage." God these guys suck.
   

So that's the end of my rantings. This should not be that difficult. It's no wonder our economy sucks when big corps like RIM and Apple charge an arm and a leg for underdesigned crap.

Ok, I'm adding one more... WHY WON'T NESTED ORDERED LISTS WORK IN LJ! I've been trying to just make the two sub-rants of the first rant automatically be a and b, but it just ignores any indicators and always makes them 1 and 2. Sometimes technology can really be a bitch.

Food post

Food! I mentioned in my last post that I found pics of our last few culinary expeditions so let's see how much about them I can remember. :-)

Definitely not going to try to remember the date of these meals, but I think I have the order intact this time ;-)


The first is a Jerk Turkey Burger. Jerk seasoning plus some red pepper, salt, black pepper and a couple of other things were mixed into the ground turkey. Then the salsa to top was made with mango, papaya, red onion, green peppers, (maybe) lime juice, and a leafy veggie that I can't remember right now. It was definitely super scrumptious, though I couldn't find jerk seasoning and used jerk marinade. It wasn't nearly as strong so you didn't get much jerk flavor, but next time I'll be prepared!


The next meal I decided to show a before and after of the prep (I think we were so hungry we forgot to take pics post cooking!). I don't remember the spices, but it was tilapia **EDIT** Doh!, no it wasn't it was Red Snapper! **END EDIT** with I think mango, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes. Loads of veggies piled on there as you can see. The cooking time was noticeably longer than the recipe called for, but after a second baking it turned out great.

MC's plate

My plate

This meal MC and I kinda prepared together, but a little differently than normal. Usually one person is main cook and the other helps with little tasks, but for this one I did the fish and brussel sprouts, and MC did the sweet potato/pineapple and the rice. She had only had catfish once so she was a little weary. So I used the same blackened catfish recipe and substituted tilapia for her. The sweet potato/pineapple concoction was ridiculously awesome. Two of my favorites foods all mixed together! I ate a ton of it and it was awesome. The brussel sprouts were the easy frozen kind, but still yummy. Fun fact: MC had never had them before! Always cool to try something new. Rice cooking has been an ongoing project for MC, and while they almost always turn out different, they have all been very yummy. Afterwards, we made dessert by layering bananas and strawberries in banana pudding. Since I LOVE bananas, I thoroughly enjoyed this, even if there was something kinda funky going on with the strawberries.

Hopefully I'll be better at remembering meals we've documented in the future. :-) And for some of our more complicated meals, I want to get some more prep shots to really document the whole process. I'm sure our culinary adventures will continue to amuse us!

Yes, the workout posts continue

I'm hoping this week will be more of a standard week when it comes to my workouts. I figured I would go ahead and post since I added a little this week (and I didn't swim last monday). Not sure what I am going to do about workout posts in the future. I will probably just log more of a recap at the end of the week instead of a full breakdown of workouts that probably aren't going to change much week-to-week. Anyhoo, swimming this morning was a pretty similar workout to my last swim workout except I added another 250 kick at the end. I figure a little leg focus won't be bad if I am also using this as cross training for running some upcoming races. Still way out of shape, but it is coming along!

250 free
250 breast
250 kick (free-breast-fly-breast-free)
250 pull (free-breast-free-breast-free)
250 IM (25 fly-50 back-75 breast-100 free)
250 swim (free-breast-back-breast-free)
250 kick (free-breast-fly-breast-free)

Total: 1750 yards (0.99 miles) - 45 minutes

Another enthralling workout post

Man, I am definitely feeling the jumpstart into working out that I started a couple days ago. I still made it through my workout today, but definitely feel a little out of it. i even forgot to do the little cardio warmup that I am supposed to do before my workout. Doh! Oh well. And I skipped any kind of breakfast this morning so I didn't have any nausea while I was lifting, which was nice. Since there is a lot of overlap with my last lifting workout, I'll only include illustrations on the new exercises. :-)

Smith Lunge - 85 lbs - 8 sets of 10 alternating legs

Bench Press - 135 pounds - 3 sets of 10


Paramount Leg Press - 100 lbs - 4 sets of 10

Hamstring Curl (standing one was broken) - 50 lbs - 4 sets of 10


Leg lift - 10 reps straight, 20 reps alternating left and right, 10 reps straight

Calf raise on leg press - 225 lbs - 4 sets of 10

Dumbbell should press - 25 lbs - 3 sets of 10


Skull crushers + quick bench set - 20 lbs - 3 sets of 10 for each


Multihip - 70 lbs - 8 sets of 10 alternating legs

Lower back extension - 4 sets of 10

Expresso Bike - Fruitdale Track - 20 mins

Brief workout post

Started getting back into the swimming thing today. Could definitely tell that it had been quite a while, but I survived. Nothing too crazy, but a good start :-) I looked it up and the pool is a 25 yard pool so that's what the measurements are.

250 free
250 breast
250 kick (free-breast-fly-breast-free)
250 pull (free-breast-free-breast-free)
250 IM (25 fly - 50 back - 75 breast - 100 free)
100 free (easy)
50 breast (hard)
100 kick free (easy)

1500 yards total (0.852272 miles)

Getting in shape (one other than round)

So the last couple of weeks my workout schedule has been pretty open (as can be the case between academic terms). I haven't really done much and I am definitely feeling the blubber start to grow. I do well with consistent schedules so, since I have a class every day this term, I figured it was a good time to kick things into gear! After the car breakdown saga and such, I was feeling fatigued and "off" yesterday, so I didn't really get into doing much. Today it all started and so I figured I would post about it! Probably won't be a very exciting post for most, but I wanted to log it to help me keep track. Since my week-to-week workouts won't vary much, I won't be doing this a lot, but this week (and possibly monday of next week) I will be logging my workouts as I try to whip myself into shape. I doubt many people will be entertained by reading what I did in the gym today, but if you decide to delve in, hopefully some illustrations will help :-) (even if they are ridiculous images that I snagged off Google Image Search, haha)

Although I wish I had, I didn't pay any attention to how long I was actually in the gym. That might be something to pay attention to in the future. I have been seeing a physical therapist about a problem I have been having with my half (specifically I believe it is my flexor hallucis) so any exercises marked with a * are ones that are part of the "rehab" routine given by her. Illustrations will be posted below the logged exercise.

* Stationary Bike - Random Hill - Level 5 - 6 minutes
* Stairmaster - Roller Coaster - Level 5 - 5 minutes
* Smith Lunge - 85 lbs - 8 sets of 10 alternating leading legs

Lat Pull - 140 lbs - 3 sets of 10

* Paramount Leg Press - 100 lbs - 4 sets of 10

* Standing Hamstring Curl - 25 lbs - 4 sets of 10 with each leg

Calf Raises on leg press - (assuming base is 45 lbs) 225 lbs - 4 sets of 10

Lower Back Extension - 4 sets of 10

Multi-Hip - 70 lbs - 8 sets of 10 alternating legs

Leg Lift - 10 reps straight ahead, 20 reps alternating twisting to left or right, 10 reps straight ahead

Preacher Curls - (assuming bar is 25 lbs) 45 lbs - 3 sets of 10 (with a break due to nausea between sets 1 and 2)
Treadmill - 20 minutes at 6 mph, 3 minutes at 3.5 mph, 2 minutes at 3 mph


Needless to say, I was pretty wiped and was there for a while! Tomorrow should be easy to log, but Thursday should be pretty similar to today. Here's hoping I survive!

Up to Bristol

So my friend Doug got married near Bristol this past Saturday so MC and I decided to head up to Bristol for the weekend. Since the drive from Tally to Bristol ranges from 9-10.5 hours, MC took friday afternoon off. I took her to work in the morning so I could then pick her up at noon and hit the road. For some reason we both started getting a little antsy early in the drive so we decided to take the alternate route that uses more smaller highways and avoids Atlanta. Not only were we getting bored early, but we were going to be near Atlanta near 5 pm, which is never a fun ordeal. So since we were passing close to Athens, we decided to head into town to enjoy a little lunch break. Ate at the Five Star Cafe. I had a hamburger steak with onion gravy and mashed potatoes. Also came with a little cornbread muffin and, yes, that is Cheerwine! It was pretty good except the hamburger was infused with mushrooms, of which I am not a fan. Still wasn't too bad.

After lunch we grabbed some starbucks and hit the road again. Always a bit of a bummer when the prettiest part of your drive is dark, but we rolled in at a decent hour so it wasn't too bad. Plenty of night driving though!

Saturday my dad and sister were taking care of some things so Mom, MC, Jenny (lauren's friend) and I had a relaxing morning. I picked up some grilled KFC for lunch (pretty scrumptious!) then the girls went to the barn so my sister could ride and MC could meet Blinky (her horse). Dad and I opted to head to the lake, even though the weather was a bit foreboding.

You can see dad's new board in the picture. He got it at the end of last season. It is essentially the same board I have, just with updated graphics (and, as we later found, diminished structural integrity). I rode for a bit, then on just a small wake jump I felt something weird with the board and it seemed to have a lot of drag. I looked and sure enough I had broken the board. There was a big crack across it on the bottom and that quickly ended my run. That was the board's maiden voyage and I wasn't doing anything fancy so it is very likely a faulty board. And that was the first time I have ever broken a board too! Kinda crazy. We went back to the house and set up my old byerly so I got to ride a little more and then dad took a little set. Always good to be out on the water! Went back to the house then started getting ready for the wedding. The wedding was nice (like 15 minutes long!) and Doug had the biggest smile on his face the whole time. The reception was in the same room as the wedding so we had a 30 minute break to hang out while they re-set up the room. The food was very good and it was fun to mingle a little. It started winding down pretty fast because the band ate with us so there wasn't any music until a bit after we had all eaten. After a few dances (you can see mom and dad in the middle of the pic) we hit the road back to the house. It actually worked out perfectly because we were all pretty beat, even though it was still pretty early. Chilled at home for a bit and then crashed.

Got up sunday and headed to the local bagel place for a super yummy mother's day breakfast. I had locks and cream cheese on a spinach-feta bagel and it was very good. Went back to the house and packed things up so we could get on the road fairly early. This time we got to see all the pretty mountains!

We tried to catch Brandon and Bopper (or B-Bop as I have been referring to them in my head) for lunch, but they were camping for the weekend and weren't going to be back when we were passing through. So we stopped at Derek's favorite (Jack in the Box) for a quick drive-thru lunch. Well while I was at the window, I noticed a few lights on my dash flickering and I heard a couple of electrical popping noises. I unplug the things I had in the cigarette lighter and then we had to pull up to wait for our fries. So after I pull up I turn the car off to kind of reset everything, and low and behold NOTHING happens when I try to restart it. Like absolutely nothing. So a couple of guys try to jump us and that gets it to make some clicking, but still nothing close to starting. So we call AAA and an hour later a guy comes to check it out. Tries to jump it with the same result, then tries another way and we get it started. Then he tests it and my alternator isn't charging the battery. Stupid alternator. So we waited for a tow truck to take it over to the dealership. MC gave the BMW a stern reprimand for leaving us stranded in Greenville. Luckily, by this time B-Bop had gotten back in town and the airport (where the only open car rental offices are) was on their way to her parents house. So they were super awesome and picked us up at the dealership and took us to the airport. I was going to get a little compact car, but found out that I could rent a Prius for 8 dollars more so I went for it!

I had been wanting to try a hybrid out so it was pretty cool. There is a little screen you can view that shows the current power diagram (when the gas it powering the wheels, when the electric is being used, when the wheels are charging the batteries, etc.) that kept me entertained for a lot of the drive. It was still a little weird to stop at a light and hear the engine stop, but overall it was a pretty snazzy experience. We started out with a full tank (10/10 bars) and after the 7 hour drive to Tally we still had 4/10. That thing will go forever! The computer had listed the average mpg as a little over 45 mpg when we first got in it. That's a little better than the 16 mpg I get in the Disco on the highway! Crazy. So at a little after midnight last night we finally made it home. Almost 13 hours on the dot. NOT the most fun trip home and now we have to figure out how to get my car back once it is fixed up. What a pain. At least we made it home safely! Now I must take care of some things before my summer class that starts today at 2. I have high hopes for my exercise routine the first half of summer since I have a consistent school schedule (basically class at 2 every day) and while I'm not really feeling it much today, tomorrow I will kick it into gear!