Category Archives: me + myself + i

Stuff about me, myself and I. If this isn’t enough you can find out more ’stuff’ in the meme category! If it’s in the me category, I generally do not put it in the meme category (except for when I do).

Happy Mother’s Day to all!!! Especially my Mom!

Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom! My Mom still worries about me and does all that other Mom stuff that she’s supposed to do and I love her for it!

mom-costa-rica-IMG-8107.jpgAs you can see, I did get my Mom to Costa Rica this year! She’s at the top of a overlook in Montezuma. We must have drove and parked nearby because I know I didn’t make her walk up that steep hill to get there (we had walked enough as it was!).

We had problems with flights at both ends of the trip (and a piece of my luggage was lost, I’m so thankful it wasn’t one of hers!).

And to all you other Mom’s out there, just do your best and don’t worry too (so) much. As kids we’re pretty durable and can weather much more than you think we can; and I’m talking both physically, mentally and emotionally. So just be a Mom and love us, model appropriate behavior and odds are that we’ll (mostly) turn out okay!

I’ve got to go! It’s time to get over to Mom’s and make our yearly Bahama Breeze pilgrimage!

Awfully Sick Poetry

Here I sit outside my bed,
Lots of pressure in my head.
SinuCleanse Nasal Wash System, Plastic Neti Pot With Salt Packets SinuCleanse
I really don’t feel so hot,
mostly due to all the snot.

It makes my head hurt so I can’t sleep,
It hurts my head so bad I want to weep.

I use my little netty pot,
But I’m so full, it’s just stops.

SItting up feels the best,
But that doesn’t help me get any rest.
NeilMed Sinus Rinse Regular Kit 1 kit NeilMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc

I use my high pressure netty pot,
and while it works better, I hurt a lot.

I’ve been up to long, that I feel dead,
Now it’s time to try to go back to bed.

FYI, it’s the one shaped like a bottle that I feel is the higher pressure neti-pot, I usually use the plastic gravy boat version.. While I get no payment for mentioning the neti-pots, I am a firm believer and member of the neti-pot cult of South-Eastern Michigan. It’s just my faith isn’t holding up during this time of crisis. Actually, these are Amazon Affiliate links so I do get a commission if you click and buy anything. But that’s really not what prompted my prose at this time of day.

What kind of computer do you use? How long have you been using it? Do you like it? Friday Question #154

If you don’t know by now, I’m a Macintosh fan as in: “Hi! My name is Gary and I’m a Mac User…”. This is from last week’s Friday Question, but I never got around to it.

I was a PC user before I used Mac and when I say PC, I mean DOS user, not Windows. Actually, I used Windows before that, but I wasn’t really a fan at the time, I think the last machine that I had was a laptop with floppy (no hard drive) that I had a crazy way set up to boot it and put some of Microsoft Works in the RAM drive and then I stuck in disc 2 with the dictionary and room for some documents (or something like that).

Apple MacBook MC516LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop Apple ComputerBut where I was doing work they were Macintosh so I was always converting my word processing files back and forth and couldn’t do any of the HyperCard* stuff at home, so I picked up a used MacPlus with an external hard drive and never looked back. That was probably nineteen years ago..?

Since then, I’ve owned (or work owned) a Mac Classic, IIcx, PowerPC 610, PowerPC 6100, MacBook Duo 280c (with a docking station at home and work) that I eventually converted to a Duo 2300, a monster PowerBook G3 (it was more lugable than a laptop), a tower PowerMac G4 (the first with a DVD burner), iBook 12 inch, PowerBook 12 inch (2 different models), MacBook 13.3 inch and for a few weeks a MacBook Air 10.6 inch (I returned it since it didn’t have enough storage for me (awesome machine though). I could ramble more about models and printers and stuff, but I did this in a Happy Twenty-Fifth Birthday Macintosh! post a few years ago.

Needless to say, I’m a huge fan. I’ve never been one to jump on their new things, but I do grow to love them. I waited until the color iPod before getting one. I waited until the third iPhone (the 3Gs) before getting one (and that was after specifically getting a iPod Touch to try out for a few months first since I didn’t really want to switch to AT&T at the time).

My MacBook is my main computer, my desktop is a little old, I think it’s ten years old and while it’s gotten a few processor upgrades, memory and hard drives, it’s more convenient to have everything on my laptop.

But my MacBook is getting a little old too, it’s just over three years old and I’m looking around. I’ll probably upgrade my MacBook this summer, if they come out with a new one (or else I’ll get the MacBook Pro)_, but I’m hoping they’ll do a new education promo with a free iPod touch again.

*Hypercard was one of the most amazing pieces of development software ever! You could learn how to do some pretty incredible programs without learning too much coding.

Jumping in the Lower Falls Animation

So I had to show my Mom how to operate my digital SLR for this one. It came out pretty good. This is at the lower falls in Montezuma, Costa Rica.

480-1-AnimationGIF.gif

I thought the colors stayed pretty good for converting this to an animated GIF, if you click the image for a larger version it looks pretty good too. I used GIFQuickMaker, which I got from the MacApp store.

Yeah, I know I’ve shown you high-def video of a similar thing not so long ago (but I’m in Montezuma again, so I’m doing it again), but I’m playing with the photos and animation software so you get it again.

Jumping in at the Upper Waterfalls in Montezuma

I got some other traveler I’d been talking with to use my camera to video me jumping in at the upper falls in Montezuma. I’m guessing this is 30 feet(?) up, I worked out the people behind me are about 40 feet up (did some GPS based calculations a few trips ago), so maybe a little higher than 30 feet.


Watch in HD.

The water really hurt my face when I went in the water. I guess my head is tilted a little forward but I’ve jumped from the higher spot (where you can see the people) a few times before and never noticed anything. But then I can see it took me longer to come up than from the higher spot (which makes no sense either).

He tracked me pretty good for a fast as I was going and he’s way zoomed in, here’s some other video of the upper waterfalls in Montezuma.

upper-falls-IMG_1630.JPG
This isn’t the most exciting photo of the upper falls
but you can see the whole falls and the ledge where I jumped from
(the ledge on the right that looks even with the top of waterfall).

Someone else in his group got a picture of me with the SLR, but she never e-mailed it to me, which isn’t a huge surprise, but since I actually got him jumping in on hidef video I thought they’d at least e-mail for that…

Household Chores – Friday Question #147

This week’s Friday Question is Which household chores do you like and which do you try to avoid?

Hmmm… Laundry is easy for me, I’ve got my own washer and dryer right off the living room and dining room. So I’m always doing laundry and it’s not much of a nuisance at all. Living alone I’m able to just leave things hanging up down there and wear them again (then start the process again). Every so often I take everything back upstairs and intentionally wear different stuff so people think I have more than the same seven outfits over and over again.

I don’t like cleaning the shower, so I’ve got one of those Scrubbing Bubbles automatic spray machines. It’s not perfect but it definitely helps keep the shower cleaner longer. Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower CleanerStarter Kit Scrubbing BubblesThe refills add up, but it really works and I just noticed the refills at Amazon (with subscribe and save) isn’t priced too bad, considering they’ll deliver to my door (I’ll have to double-check that with store prices); I’ve never done the “subscribe and save” there before (have you?).

And I don’t mind running the dishwasher either, I usually run it twice a week. I’m usually out of frying pans before it’s full. And I can multitask and empty it while cooking or something.

Vacuuming, dusting and scrubbing my floors are my least favorite. I don’t like stirring up the dust, it seems counter-productive, and washing the floors is … Well, who really likes to do that?!?

I’ve got a condo, so shoveling isn’t much of a big deal, just getting a few nooks and crannies that they couldn’t get to around the garage.

What are your likes and dislikes with cleaning?

My regular breakfast…

So I’ll blog about things I get at restaurants or check-in via FaceBook, Foursquare and/or Twitter so some people think I never eat at home. I’ll start with mentioning that I’m a grazer, I eat all day long.

bacon egg cantaloupe orange juice

I always start off with cooking breakfast at home (pictured) although I usually get the cantaloupe that’s orange in the middle. If it’s a workday it’s generally fast food for lunch (Wendy’s or McDonald’s is the closest) but in the summer I’ll usually pack a lunch and eat at a nearby park. But also during the day I’ll eat a banana, trail mix, chips or a small sandwich (most days, probably 2); sometimes that’ll be a candy bar less healthy or a salad (the one I got with my Wendy’s combo but didn’t eat). I love my Sausage McMuffins, so if I’m running early for work or run an errand for work near McDonald’s, I’ll get one of those (that’s in addition to the breakfast I already had). For dinner, sometimes it’s eating out (not fast food) or cooking dinner (steak or pork chops on the grill) or microwaving something. Also, there’s a bowl of cereal after work or in the evening many days.

FYI, feel free to friend me on any of the above social networks. I’m probably most active on Facebook, but I post stuff to the others also…

What do you use for your alarm clock? – Friday Question #143

This week’s question is What do you use for your alarm clock – an actual alarm clock or your phone (or maybe the sun, your kids, your pet, other)?

Sleep is a complicated issue for me, I like a fan or a white noise machine (fortunately there’s a White Noise app* for that) to help me sleep. whitenoise-app.pngGenerally I sleep with a fan on, that automatically turns itself off about 10 minutes before the alarm clock; if I got enough sleep, sometimes that’s enough to wake me up. Then a few minutes later a bright “natural” light turns itself on. Then the alarms start going off, the alarm clock (with the traffic report), then the phone alarm, then the alarm clock CD player (currently an upbeat Avril song is playing), then the phone again. And my friend Mark will call sometimes to make sure I’m up…

There is (generally) a new Friday Question every Friday.

* The White Noise iPhone app I mentioned is great, it’s got lots of sounds (I like the white noise) and timers (countdown, alarms, etc.). It’s quite possibly the best $2 I’ve spent in the app store.