Could have been better

In August (way back when it was warm all day long), Heather and I went hiking to celebrate our anniversary. As I wrote about before, it was an amazing hike. The final waterfall, shown here, was amazing.

However, when we got to the end destination, there were just too many people.

I admit to a bit of selfishness. I wished we had been there alone or with a few close friends. What is it that makes me want to keep all the good just for myself? Maybe it's just a desire for feeling that we were enjoying it alone - and that the starving masses were stuck in darkest suburbia. In any case, it's hard to chalk that up to anything but looking after number one.

I also admit to being spoiled. It was incredible to be there - but that wasn't enough.

What experience did you have lately with unrealistic expectations?

Coffee deal of the decade

If you live near a Big Lots store, go there. They may have this brand of coffee on the shelves. It's only $3.50 for 26 ounces. Yes, that's more than a pound-and-a-half!

The great thing about this coffee is that it's pretty good. It's not as good as the premium brands at the coffee stores or your local supermarket - but it comes pretty close. And it is certainly a better deal than the premium brands at three or four times that price.

Big Lots has carried it off-an-on for about the last year. My local store has had it on the shelves for about a tenth of the time. So if you see it, buy a bunch!

Coffee snobs need not try it. The beans are ground at the factory. (I'm too lazy to grind my onw, anyhow.)

Saw the MacBooks

Yes, I went to my nearby Apple Store - 3.8 miles, my door to their door.

I love the new MacBooks. They reek of quality. The solid construction is amazing. The ports on the sides are so clean. The screen - well, it's cool, but that wasn't the most impressive thing to me. I loved the tiny speaker holes and power button! (The speaker holes are on the MacBook Pro.)

The speed of the 2.4 ghz models was noticeably faster than my 2.16 ghz model, which is about 18 months old. (The new ones are running a different CPU chipset, as well as substantially improved graphics chipsets.)

Why did I put this weird photo of the store's facade? Apple has a "no camera policy" for the inside of their store. The only cameras allowed are the ones they sell. And even if you bought one there, you couldn't take a picture with it inside the store.

Thought for you

"In those few hours, we both caught that extravagant feeling of learning — the one that everyone gets when discovering is the priority. It’s the feeling that happens when we chance to wonder not just look. The feeling showed in how we sat. The more we felt the learning, the more we leaned toward the computer. We were plants leaning toward the light."

From here, by Liz.

Friday weirdness

Whenever I see a truck with these silhouettes on its mudflaps, I almost go livid. They reflect the most sexist attitudes around. You know - the kind of guys who spend a chunk of money at adult-only establishments every week after payday.

I was intrigued to see a Chevrolet Blazer with a breast cancer awareness loop thingee just below the silhouettes. I don't normally think of a male chauvinist as being sensitive enough to support breast cancer research.

But then, when I stopped to think, it started to make sense...

Pretty cool watches

...but totally impractical. And too pricey for my blood. (Besides, even though I like watches, I rarely wear one.)

Style does not always equal function. But I'm an old form-follows-function guy.

Go here.

Stop already

I'm SO ready for November 4th to get here.

One simple reason is that there will no longer be quite so many trees cut down to fill my mailbox with propaganda.

Blog Action Day - Poverty

Today is Blog Action Day. The focus is poverty.

I'd like to focus on a ministry that is small compared to many, Adopt-a-Legacy. Brian and Heather Jamison are providing hope for orphans in western Kenya.

When a child loses their parents to AIDS, it is no fault of their own. How will they eat? Where will they live? These are hard and complicated questions to answer. Since Brian and Heather lived in western Kenya for more than seven years, they do have a pulse on some of the answers. They help Kenyans to help themselves.

Your gift to that cause is truly an investment in the future. Make a difference today!

Finally, many say something like, "We should look to the needs in our own backyard first!" I beg to disagree. Having lived in Kenya for five years, I know that the physical needs there are deeper and wider than those of the neediest people in America.

New MacBook Review

Yes, new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are out.

They look pretty cool. My favorite feature is the smooth edge-to-edge screen.

On the face of it, there aren't that many huge advances over the just-obsolete line. The entry price point has been dropped to $999 for the base model (which is an old one - faster than the cheapest new one, curiously). But if you want a new one, you must ante up $1299. The screens are now LED - using less power than the old LCDs.

Forums seem focused on the loss of firewire for the MacBook non-pro line. That means no bootable external hard drive. But I see that as a minor loss - kind of like how Apple first rejected the floppy drive. In time, everyone followed suit. (My analogy breaks down in that firewire was never part of most computers.)

One thing I haven't heard anywhere is that I think it was a strange decision on Apple's part to blur the lines between their pro line and their consumer line. Both now look and act very similarly. For $500 difference, you get a larger screen, firewire 800, a slot to fit a wireless cell phone connector and not much else.

Apple has released a great little video in which the design team discusses the new MacBook. If you're into design at all, it's worth a watch. (The photo shows Jonathan Ive, the head of the design team.)

So if you've got $1299 burning a hole in your pocket, go for it! Better yet, hit the refurbs store and for the same money, get a faster just-obsolete MacBook Pro, for the same money.

Ikea badness

Well, I raved about how great Ikea is to sell a wonderful clock for just 99c.

It died.

But what did I expect for just 99c ?!

So now the clock that is double-stick-taped to our car's dashboard is an old Casio watch that I've had for at least 10 years. It's a little hard to see, but it does the job.

What item did you get your money's worth out of recently?