New gadget

Even though I'm a computer professional and a serious geek, I'm not a gadget freak. I believe in function, not technology. My cell phone just makes phone calls, I've never owned a Palm, I listen to the radio, etc.

Anyway, I'm a runner and I listen to music while I'm running. For a very long time, that has just been a small portable FM radio. I've heard a lot about MP3 players but didn't get it for one simple reason, I thought you had to either buy the music (per song) or steal it, neither of which appealed to me.

Last week I was on Yahoo and happened across their music site. I was astounded to learn that you could download music for $5 a month AND transfer it to your MP3 player. Not on a per song basis but as much as you want for $5 a month. I know I'm probably the last person on the planet to realize this so be gentle, I've always admitted to being something of a dinosaur.

That started me on the hunt for an MP3 player. I only want this to use while I'm running so it has to be small and have a good way to clip it on the wasteband of my shorts. I have had to carry my radio for a while because the belt clip is weak and that is a serious PITA. After buying one that didn't work right and taking it back, I found this one.

MP3 player

The first thing that attracted me to it was the large metal clip integrated into the body. No spring to wear out, just a big curved piece of metal kind of like an old ink pen. The second nice thing was the size, it's really only about as big as my thumb. Of course the screen is tiny but I don't want to watch TV on it, I just want it to play my music. The thing would have to be 5' x 5' for me to be able to read it without my glasses anyway (which I don't wear while I'm running). It also has a battery that charges while it's plugged into the USB port, another cool feature preemtping the need for AAA batteries or yet another device (an external charger) to keep up with.

I discovered something else which, once again, I know I'm the last person on the planet to discover and that is that I can "rip" my CDs and transfer them to my player using Windows Media Player. I have drug my entire CD collection into my computer room and am ripping them one by one. I just grab any good running songs as they go by and sync them to my player.

There are only a few gripes I have about this thing. The randomizer seems rather poorly done. Sometimes I get the same song twice in a row, some songs I never seem to hear but others play every 10th song or so. I need to dig into the menus a little and see if I can fix that I guess. The buttons are really, really tiny as you would expect but I'm getting used to them.

I've used it for about a week now and really like it. I went for a 7 miles run last Friday before I bought it, using my radio and probably got 2 decent songs the whole time, now I get nothing but good music. The only problem is that people look at me weird when I start singing as I run by...

It's about damm time

DeLay Indicted

Tom DeLay represents everything that is wrong with our political system today. There are two questions here:

Q: Is his indictment politically motivated?

A: Probably.

Q: Is he quilty?

A: Abso-freaking-lutely.

OK, there is one more question.

Q: Is he going to be convicted and held accountable?

A: There is not a ice cube's chance in Hell that will happen. What will happen is that the people who just followed orders will get all the blame and all the punishment.

More to come on this one.

Starbucks in church

Sorry for not posting in a while. I'm busy as a one armed paper hanger at work which is where I usually do my blogging (you're tax dollars at work, eh).

Anyway, back to the topic. One of the guys who works for me just came in talking about how his church is opening up a Starbucks IN THE CHURCH. His church is a pretty hard line conserviative Christian bunch so this was a little surprising to me, very money lenders in the temple type thing to my simple mind.

On the other hand, I'm seriously impressed with Starbucks' business sense. The whole idea makes perfect sense, having a cup of joe while sitting in church seems as natural as putting cheese on macaroni and should be a whopping success. The church gets the profits, Starbucks sells them the supplies and equipment and gets the Starbucks name in yet another place.

I sure wish I could come up with ideas like that.

California does it first

Gay marriage again

Lots of good stuff here.

First off, this bill does nothing but take religion out of the picture when it comes to marriage. That is the right thing to do. It simply makes marriage between two people instead of making it based on what they carry or don't carry between their legs.

Second, I still wish someone would explain to me how this affects straight people? It simply says that any two people of legal age can get married. It simply says that any two consenting adults can enjoy the same priviledges as any two other consenting adults. You hear a lot about how gay marriage destroys the institution of marriage but I also once heard that the earth was flat, the problem is that there are no facts to back up either assertion.

Third, WWAD (What Will Arnold Do?). It's gonna be a lot of fun watching what everyone's favorite action hero/governor does with this little nuclear potato.

Lastly, you gotta love these folks who create organizations with names like
The Campaign for Children and Families. There has to be a special place in hell reserved for these self righteous assholes who want to tell everyone else how to live.

This one is gonna be a lot of fun to watch.

BTW, Texas has a constitutional amendment on the ballot for November to define marriage as between a man and a woman. More on that one later.

A Great Day

As you all know, my oldest son Jimmy and his girlfriend Stephanie made me a grandpa a few months ago. They were planning on getting married sometime in the future at some unspecified date.

Two weeks ago, they announced that "sometime in the future at some unspecified date" was actually Sept 2, 2005. They were planning on just going to the local JP and having a quickie.

Last Monday my wife decided they were going to have a ceremony at our house on Saturday, Sept 3. Nothing fancy, just something simple with a few family and friends. BBQ from Rudy's and our normal party fare were the menu.

Believe it or not, we pulled it off. My wife made the cake and our daughter Jessica and I pitched in and helped with the rest. The wife used to work with a bunch of judges and one of them routinely does weddings, he performed the ceremony for my father and his wife, so he came and did this one for us. The ceremony was truly special, lots of laughter and then lots of tears when they each read what they had written for each other. They really do love each other and Stephanie has been an unofficial part of the family for so long, it was just good and right that they made it official.

The house was full of people with lots of kids, everyone ate and drank too much but no one broke anything or got out of hand. One guy showed up completely wasted but his friends just immediately carted his ass home. I bought 25 lbs of BBQ and about 20 lbs was gone along with a lot of other stuff. We bought way too much beer and liquor but it's not like that is hard to get rid of. Everyone made their way out the door by 9:30 or so, my wife is in bed sleeping it off and I'm just enjoying the quiet again.

So, the Edwards clan just grew a bit and that is always a good thing. Like I said, a great day.