Going to the gym... getting smaller.

Holly and I made an arrangement with the Monday to Wednesday babysitter to come in at 5:30 AM, so that we could hit the gym *before* the work day. Today was the first day of that. I made it to work, after a harrowing reminder of high-school post-gym-class-showers past and forgetting a belt and a hair brush.

I think that will work out. I weighed myself on the way out... and I'm an astonished at my 285-pound outcome. Geez, if I start working out more, I could probably lose more weight... and then get my fuel efficiency up in my car! And be healthy! And... yeah yeah yeah...

At the store, before work, I picked up a brush, some Crystal Light powder, and a couple of belts... just a bit smaller than the huge belts that needed extra holes because I've gotten smaller. A couple more inches, and it'll be new pants time. Yay!

After a weekend... the week starts.

Okay, so, this weekend, I helped my sister-in-law and brother-in-law with some painting. Good times. I might have to actually do the painting I'm supposed to do at my house now.

Phone is working with facebook. I just poked someone from my phone at work. I remember that bit about Facebook starting something bad... yeah, I think this is it.

I also worked on Paul's old computer. he had a Dell with a Socket 478 Celeron in it. the chip was dead, and the retention bracket for the heatsink was broken. I had some replacement parts, and fixed it. Awesome. I'll see if we can fix his desktop machine sometime before that baby comes. LOL.

My wife didn't get paid last week from her old job... last paycheck... clerical error... whatever... ugh. Good thing I didn't splurge on random crap this week...

I did get the "new" media center assembled and rewired some stuff with the TV to make the installation easier. The case fits in the cabinet, and all I have to do is install the software. I'm going to go with MythTV, probably using the MythDora distro. I got that downloaded, but didn't get around to trying it. I wanted to sleep last night, so maybe tonight... after the kids go to bed.

Facebook on a T-Mobile Shadow

I FAIL at Facebook. I mean, seriously, I never get on there... but I have this nifty phone that can get the Internet, so I figured I'd try. Friend Mobilizer is awful. I knew that, because I read about it before, but I tried it anyway. I really couldn't even get it to work.

I'm currently downloading Snap2Face, but it is going really slow. Not sure why, but I don't have a machine at work that I can download the application to and then sync... so I guess I'll wait it out.

Again, I don't really do anything on Facebook anyway, but I want to at least give this mobile Internet thing a try.

Oh, and um... I can't register my phone on the mobile version of Facebook, since I use T-Mobile. Ugh... Again... being cheap has bitten me in the bottom. Oh well.

Yahoo Go! works well though, I think my wife (who uses Yahoo! Mail) will really like it. I liked the Flickr Integration too.

Catching up...

Man, blogging is hard work. A few friend requests on Facebook went un-returned... sorry about that. I might catch up, I might not. I tried to put Julie down for bed, but she cried. I can't stand that, so I let her sit on my lap as I used the computer. She wanted to bang on the keyboard... I also can't stand that, so I put her on the ground... she turned off the power strip...

My dad and his wife came into town this past week, and we had a cook out... Grandma Deb already sent out pictures... I'm so bad. I really really need to get on this picture stuff.

At least I forwarded the pictures to my Mom. I need to call her, I was supposed to give her a call on Thursday, but my dad came into town, and I've been busy. You know how it is with two kids under two...

Work might get even better. I might have an opportunity to transition into more of an Application Support role, from the Document Control role I'm playing now. We'll see how that goes.

I'm still pretty stagnant on the whole media center/DVR/Linux thing. New seasons start up soon... I did get around to reading a plot synopsis for the last episode of Smallville that I missed, so I'm totally up to date now.

I have my new character on World of Warcraft up to 26. I'm enjoying it, and enjoying crafting and selling stuff a little more than I did the first time around... maybe I'll be able to afford a mount, LOL. This LCD is nice, but 1024x768 really cramps my style. I think I may just save up money... pay off my other bills, then get a MacBook Pro and a large LCD monitor. LOL. I can dream, can't I? I did find a bluetooth mouse for my PowerBook, but it is made my Microsoft... probably a no-go. At Staples it was on sale for $80 from a usual $100. Bleh.

Hold up... phone call... argh... another 1-800 call with no response. We must have gotten on some automated sales line or something. Might be time to do some more screening, or at least get that thing that lets you look and see who's calling on your computer screen, so I don't have to get up to be disgusted.

A quick post before I start work.

I did resubscribe to World of Warcraft. I started a new Hunter and got him up to level 21. My brother-in-law is trying to get his wife hooked on WoW, but I think he'll have a tough fight. She used to play Mult-User Dungeon text-based games, and it was bit much for her. Besides, they are going to have a baby in a few months... he's done, LOL

I finally got this trade performed with a guy, so now I have a 15-inch LCD, some extra processors... some laptop RAM, a wired Linksys router, and a wireless G PCI card. Nice. I also picked up an ATX media-center-ish case... an old Silverstone LC03 <http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/legacy_product.php?pno=lc03&area=usa>. Of course, I already put the two tuners and the processor in a very small case that can sit next to the TV. Media Center works, but I still need to figure out whether I'm going to go "all-in" on MythTV. I guess I had bettter hurry... summer is ending, and the Networks will be pumping out more crap that we need to record soon. Anyone got an extra AM2 processor?

I cleaned the carpets downstairs... my wife took the kids out. Yay! I took the kids out shopping on Saturday morning, and fed them steam-grilled goodness known as White Castle... my son says, "Chicken". I think to my self... it's not chicken, but hey... I guess there's a reason there's no kids meals at White Castle.

Okay, that's enough random stuff from the weekend. Maybe I'll turn some of that into a real blog post later. Thanks for listening.

T-Mobile makes me want to Cry.

I see that my blog post was tracked back… nice. Anwyay, I called monday, and got hung up on.

I called yesterday, and almost let the Rep transfer me to “accessories” but mentioned that I didn’t want to buy one, and that she should look in “Streamline”, as indicated in the comments at AllShadow.com. She found it, but said that since I needed to be a customer for 30 days in order to get the battery.

WTF? I might not keep this phone for the 20 days — since they bothered to send me the phone with the old battery, and I *just* got it. Grr… I am seriously thinking about getting my friend's iPhone and giving it a go with Ma Bell again...

T-Mobile Shadow... Batteries... and back to imprisonment with a Windows Mobile smartphone and a contract...

My wife missed an important appointment the other day. Time for action. "You need a smartphone, I say" and suggest that I get her one. The Sidekick was too big and bulky, so I sold it on Craigslist.

I signed up for a 1-year contract with T-Mobile, since their rates are less killer, and used a special code I found on the Internet to get two T-Mobile Shadow phones on the cheap.

Of course, I just got through kicking the ball and chain of AT&T to the curb, but I really didn't want to pay $300 for another set of smartphones, so I signed up for a 1-year contract. I ported the numbers from our pre-paid phones to the new lines of service, and signed up for the slow EDGE-based Internet plan (to get the $50 rebate for each phone).

The phones have WiFi, so I might not need to keep the Internet service... however, the biggest reported problem with the phone seems to be battery life... but then there's this post on AllShadow.com: Get an Extended Battery from T-Mobile. I recieved the phones Friday, and didn't get the new batteries, so I guess I need to call customer service.

Then I have to figure out why I want to spend $30 each for a couple of car chargers at the corporate store. And get my wife a dedicated setup of Outlook to sync her phone with, and organize her address book, and all sorts of crap... Getting new phones is hard work!