I would post about the fact that I finally bought my condo and am now a homeowner, however I’m busy packing. Sorry if I’m slow to respond to emails and such for the next week or so.
Author: Otto
Google Checkout Prime!
You know what would be very cool?
If Google rigged up their new Google Checkout service with something like Amazon Prime, but for multiple sites.
Amazon prime is pretty cool. I signed up for it for a while, and getting free 2-day shipping for virtually everything you buy really rocks. You can order stuff without thinking about it too much. It’s a hell of a lot more convenient than hitting the store. And I ordered a lot of stuff through Amazon while I had Prime. Mostly books, but basically it lets those impulse purchases be extremely easy to satisfy. And that’s cool with me, because if I suddenly need Pocky, then I can satisfy that urge. Pocky rules.
But what sucks is that a) it’s like $80 a year and b) it only works with Amazon.com’s stuff, not all their partner’s stuff. When you search for stuff at Amazon, and get a list of products back, you have no idea whether or not it’s sold by Amazon and thus prime eligible. So you still kinda have to pay attention to some degree.
Google’s searching for products, on the other hand, is great. Google for it, then at the top of the page you get some products and prices and such. Hit the button to show all Google Checkout results for that product, sort by price, and bam, you’re right there. Go straight to the site and buy it. Since you use Google Checkout, no account setup crap is generally involved, it’s easy and painless.
If Google Checkout had something similar to prime, where the individual vendors didn’t charge for shipping, then it would be perfect. I don’t know how that would work, as the only way Amazon can do it is because of bulk or something. Maybe Fedex would be willing to cut Google a deal for all its partners with the Checkout service. I dunno. But still, it would rock a lot more than Amazon Prime would.
Beer is the basis of modern static civilization
Not my title. It’s a quote from Charlie Bamforth, Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Brewing Science at the University of California (which is possibly the greatest professorial title ever).
More on the subject at Scientific American.
Some good quotes here:
Because before beer was discovered, people used to wander around and follow goats from place to place. And then they realized that this grain [barley] could be grown and sprouted and made into a bread and crumbled and converted into a liquid which gave a nice, warm, cozy feeling. So gone were the days that they followed goats around. They stayed put while the grain grew and while the beer was brewed. And they made villages out of their tents. And those villages became towns, and those towns became cities. And so here we are in New York, thanks to beer.
And this one explains my theory of Sunday morning brunch:
He who drinks beer sleeps well. He who sleeps well cannot sin. He who does not sin goes to heaven. The logic is impeccable.
Good stuff.
Busy, busy…
There was a Nike Liquidation Sale here in town, over at the convention center. Imagine if you took a football field and filled it with Nike gear. Shoes, shirts, socks, caps, jackets, pants… anything they can stick a logo on, basically. Then imagine they were selling all of it for 85% off the normal price. Yeah, it was a bit crazy over there. Still, I got some nice sandals out of it.
After that and a few drinks, I went over to see the condo. I’m both happy and disappointed about it. Happy because it’s basically done and practically ready to move in. Disappointed because they have not started replacing the carpet yet, the exterior door is still messed up, and there are some nasty scratches on the hardwood floor in one place. So that’s something I’m going to have to deal with in the next couple weeks that I really just want them to do without me having to pester anybody about it.
Still, I can’t wait to get the purchase done and move in already. Gotta find and talk to some movers, gotta find some new furniture for the living room, etc. Too much to do.
Also, last night I discovered that I’m pretty good at darts again. It’s been a few years since I really played, so it’s good to know the skills ain’t gone.
Spending money like it's going out of style…
So, it looks like I’m buying a condo.
I’ve been looking at the market downtown for the last several months now, going to friends places in various buildings, tooling around town on my own and walking through various places, and just generally getting a feel for the area and its pricing. So last week, when Clay told me about some new construction going on near the South Main area, I had to check it out.
The place is impressive.
What’s more is that it was impressively priced. With new construction, there’s generally very little haggling over price. The price that is given is the price that it is. When it goes on the market, realtors tend to buy up the properties and then sit on them to make a profit and raise the prices up. Then you can haggle. But when you find a place that’s not on the market yet, the prices are what they are. And these were pretty good for downtown.
So I toured the place, went home and did the math, called a mortgage guy or three, and will be buying it here in the next 30 days. I went in and started the paperwork and have the place waiting for me, more or less.
Since they are still constructing the building, I won’t really be able to move in until sometime next month, and even then, the lower floors will still be under construction. But I got a place on the upper floor that was almost complete anyway. All that’s really left for them to do in my place is to put in the rest of the hardwood flooring (I’m making them remove the hideous carpeting in the bedroom area in favor of hardwood), and clean the place up.
For those of you who have been to my apartment, know that the new place is smaller than my current apartment, in terms of actual floor space. However, it is larger in terms of feel, because it’s basically one/two big open rooms. The pictures don’t really do it justice. But here they are anyway. 🙂
Post-vacation weariness
I’ve been unable to think properly for the last week and a half since coming back from St. Pats. Because of this, I’ve sorta slacked off on posting pictures and such. Also, I didn’t take my camera to St. Pats (because I’m an idiot), so I’m just really waiting for everybody else to send me their pictures and thus I can create a compilation.
Still, I have some newer pictures, so I may as well post those instead.
Last week, Mike and Paola had a beer tasting party. It was a hell of a good time, and I’d like to thank them for having it. I look forward to brewing a bunch of new beers up for the next one. They posted some pictures, which I shamelessly stole and stuck into my own web album because this lets me keep things in one place.
On Sunday, we were having brunch at the Majestic, when Mikey gets a call, walks outside, and comes back with a plastic light-up Spuds MacKensie. Naturally, we had to take him on a tour of the town before returning him to his rightful owners. Mikey has more pictures than I do, these were taken using my cell phone, which I’m getting better at using nowadays.
So that was last weekend. I missed Trivia night at the Saucer last night, because a) I was really tired, but mainly because b) I was actually unconscious on the couch at the time. I’ll be there next week though. 🙂
On the plus side, I received my cell phone gear from Cingular, including a data cable (pictured to the right), which I used to modify my phone. See, the LG CU500 I have now is a 3G phone, and thus capable of good data reception. Google Maps Mobile is extremely cool, for example.
However, Cingular annoyingly broke this functionality when they released the phone. After installing any “unapproved” Java application onto the thing, it asks for approval every single time it connects to the damn network, while you’re using that application. With Google Maps, this makes it damn near unusable.
But those clever people over at howardforums.com figured out a way to bypass this. So with the cable and a piece of software called BitPim, I was able to modify the phone to stop asking me those stupid questions. Suddenly Google Maps Mobile and GMail Mobile are the greatest things ever. 🙂
St. Pats pics up soon. 🙂
Blog by phone: Not so simple
I’ve been trying to get the ability to post pictures to my blog from my phone working for the last week or so. Previously, I used Postie for this sort of thing, but since I’ve switched to GoDaddy hosting, I’ve discovered that that method just don’t work. The fault is, basically, GoDaddy’s shared hosting plan and their insane method of supporting PHP. Ugh. I will not be renewing my hosting with them. I may switch hosts and attempt to get a refund on the remainder, actually.
So I tried a few other tricks. XML-RPC works and I can post from my phone with it, however the clients I’ve put on the phone don’t support pictures too well, or the phone doesn’t support the clients too well, or some damn thing like that. I dunno yet. I tried to get a cable for my phone to let me hack it open a bit wider and allow that sort of thing to work, but finding one turns out to be difficult on short notice. Stores just don’t have them.
So I tried blogmailr. It’s a service that combines the two.. You send email to it, it converts it into an XML-RPC post to your blog. That works too, but photos don’t seem to survive the transition. I suspect this is a problem with blogmailr.
All in all, it looks like I’ll be unable to post photos of my trip this next week on a “live” basis. So just look forward to a gallery of images when I return instead. I’ll have to sort out the live posting capabilities that I used to have sometime later.
Interesting weekend/life
You know, I moved here 3 years ago, and until last year, my life was kinda uninteresting and dull. But then I made a positive decision to actually go outside and make my own life, and that really sorta changed things for me. Now I have interesting friends who live in interesting places and do interesting things. I really dig that.
More so because of weekends like this. It was a busy weekend. First, I’ve got Mikey’s Texas de Brazil event, which was, frankly, incredible. More meat than I could possibly imagine, for free. And it rocked. I’m now a fan of de Brazil.
Second, there was the Rapscallions trivia team drink-fest Saturday night, which was a hell of a lot of fun. I got to try several new beers on the trivia tab, and enjoyed myself immensely.
Next, there was the crazy brunch this morning at the Majestic. At one point we had completely filled the entire bar, which, at the Majestic, is no mean feat. I counted 16 happy people enjoying a quality menu and drink selection. Our bartender, Tiffany, seemed to be quite happy with it as well, for obvious reasons. It was an interesting time full of interesting people.
Finally, after my semi-required weekend workday, I met up with Chad and Rebecca and had an entertaining few hours eating $0.25 oysters over at the Flying Fish (a new and fun place on 2nd street).
So, at this point, I’m both drunk and full of oysters, and really sort of in a contemplative mood. About a year ago, I would not have said my life was a good one. I had/have friends that I loved but rarely saw, and spent much of the rest of my time working/sleeping.
Today, my life is complex and busy, and I love it.
Weekend madness
Unfortunately, I’ve been entirely too busy this last week to say much, so here’s the brief rundown.
Last weekend was a massive blowout on all fronts. Friday night, I was at Sleep Out’s for the last Friday ever. What a blast. I went in early, hung out to hear the band’s first set, and then headed over to Mikey’s for the housewarming. Mikey’s place is cool. I like it. Mikey got a little drunk, so I left and headed back to Sleep Out’s at about 11 for the evenings end. 4 hours later, I passed out. 🙂
Saturday, I tried very hard to make it to Sleep Out’s for the last day, and I was there that morning, but I had this weird delayed migraine hangover thing going on. It kicked in around 2 and I was unable to move very rapidly until about 10. So my Saturday was spent in pain, with iced tea.
Sunday was a lot more fun. We had brunch at the Majestic, which I like for a couple of different reasons:
a) They always have good food at good prices, and,
b) It’s literally right downstairs from me, so it’s not like I have to walk anywhere for it.
They showed off their new brunch menu, which was fantastic. I had a andouille sausage and cheese frittata that was just incredible. I highly recommend it. Paul had good things to say about his smoked salmon hash browns, so I’ll try those this weekend.
Sunday afternoon was spent back at (now closed) Sleep Out’s, helping Mikey remove some TV’s and such. Kinda sad to see it all torn apart like that. I know I’ve only been going there for the last year or so, but still… That place had character.
Sunday evening I went over to Chad’s place for his and Rebecca’s Oscar party. It was a lot of fun and I drank a lot of Boulevard Wheat and had a really good time. I also got the worst score of anybody else in the Oscar pool (a whopping 2 correct answers! woot!), so that was good. 🙂
The rest of the week I worked. A lot. It’s been a vicious week. I put in almost 60 hours.
This weekend is shaping up to be interesting though. Apparently , we’re having a multi-brunch. There’s the brunch at Texas de Brazil on Saturday, followed up by the Majestic on Sunday. And Saturday night, the trivia team is spending the winnings at the Flying Saucer, so it should be entertaining to see how much beer we can go through.
On the whole, all this drinking is good training for St. Pats, which I’ll be going to in T-minus 277 hours, 23 minutes. So that’s nice.
Birthday fun and a Celebrity Sighting…
Yesterday was my birthday. Yay me!
So I go over to Sleep Out Louie’s last night to meet up with whatever people feel like showing up. I hang out there for about 4 hours before getting hungry. Rebecca was kind enough to bring me a bunch of cookies, which I totally was not expecting, but nevertheless, food was calling me. I suggested Sushi, Rebecca and Chad agreed, so we went over to Bluefin.
I like Bluefin. It’s a really neat place, what with that weird electric fusion type atmosphere. I kinda wish we’d snagged one of the couch areas, because those are cool IMO, but we sat up front, close to the sushi. We ordered a crapton of sushi and Frank got a flatbread pizza of some kind.
All of a sudden, Chuck comes over to us and says “dude, that’s Tommy Lee Jones”. I have to have him repeat it, because at this point I’m thinking that I misheard him, being quite drunk like I am. And he says to me, “Tommy Lee Jones is at the back table having dinner.” So I get up and walk to the bathroom, which involves passing within about 5 feet of that far back table, and sure enough, Tommy Lee Jones is sitting there with a couple of other people browsing the menu and having drinks.
I’m not the kind of jerk who bothers people having dinner, so I wander back to my table and finish my meal. We wonder why he’d be in Memphis and such, but can’t think of a reason. Later I hit the internet to discover that he’s in town to film “In the Valley of Elah“, but at the time, I just thought it was kinda neat.
So we have a hell of a meal, I eat 2 rolls and a bunch of Nigiri, Chad ends up paying for it despite my protests (well, it was my birthday), and then we head over to the Peabody lounge for some end of evening drinks. On our way out of Bluefin I notice Tommy Lee Jones still sitting back there, annihilating what appeared to be a giant plate of sushi, although I might be mistaken on that. It was some distance away from me at the time, plus I had added Sapporo and some sake to my libations at this point. Anyway, we walk over to the Peabody, picking up Paul along the way.
They make some really good coffees at the Peabody, which is why I like it as an evening ending place. Very laid back, some guy playing piano, sitting on the couches and enjoying an Irish Coffee. Nice.
All in all, a good night, I’d say. Not the strangest birthday I’ve had, but one of the more laid back and entertaining ones.
