Swamped

Every night, I have been coming home thinking, "I wish I had written something in my blog today." Heck, I often wish I had written anything that day, other than some legal document. I always wish I had more time to read and write for pleasure, but it never seems to materialize. I think it has to do with outside distractions and television.

This past weekend, my girlfriend and I went camping. It was a lot of fun, even if it did completely pour and get us and our tent totally drenched on Sunday morning. We read and we talked, toasting marshmallows and questioning why in the world we were trying to build a roaring fire out of hardwood. I suppose it was because that was the wood that they were selling. We even went kayaking, dodged alligators and saw several osprey. It was really so much fun and there seemed to be so much time.

I was suddenly able to take an hour-long nap in the middle of the day. Granted, I had heat stroke and awoke with the sensation that I was about to burn alive in the sweltering inferno that did not exist. However, even after it subsided, I still had plenty of time to do other things, including getting incredibly overpriced kite string. (I already happen to own these really nice fabric kites, but have not been able to fly them for a few years, as I no longer had any good kite string.) I even had time to read. It was fantastic.

With the writers on strike, I have been trying to make a concerted effort to read more. Nothing on TV? Let's see what this person has to say, as I slide out my current novel of choice. Granted, I could be blogging, fleshing out a couple of the characters I have recently conceived or writing something introspective and thoughtful, but I somehow do not have the time. (When I say "conceived" it means I thought about it for about 30 seconds and said, "Wow, that's cool. I should write that" because that, my friends, is how I conceptualize my characters.)

I arrived home at 7:30 Tuesday night, ate dinner and wanted to fall asleep, awaking before 5:00 the next morning to go to the gym and try to keep my lazy butt motivated. Where did the time go and why can I not find the time to organize and clean my apartment? I feel like I should be able to find the time to do these things. I feel like there should somehow be more time or less dust, or both. I do not know how those TV families do it. I think I would need someone to clean and iron my abode every day.

Vista Sucks

When I got my new laptop, I had no choice but to get it with Windows Vista. While I know some laptops are still available with Windows XP, mine was not and there was not a lot I could do about it. Begrudgingly, I played the Bill Gates game and got my shiny new laptop.

Upon receiving the laptop, I immediately tried to install XP Professional, but quickly realized that it did not have all of the drivers my machine needed and was really just going to be more of a hassle than I wanted. I decided I needed to try to learn to love this new operating system of mine, and there were some things that Vista did better thanXP ever had. For example, my startup time was about 30 seconds and it could go to sleep and wake up almost as well as a Mac. However, its constant warning messages and odd idiosyncrasies were driving me up a wall. After I figured out how to deactivate the bulk of them, I was greeted with the now familiar warning I get every time I start my system, alerting me to the fact that my system is not fully protected. Moreover, the Internet security suite that shipped with my system was not actually compatible with Vista. Yay, for me.

After finally getting Vista to run sort of the way I wanted, and getting the security suite removed, I started finding all the other programs it was not compatible with, including my journal program. Imagine my horror and misery when I found out the program that I was assured would continue to work with Vista no longer worked, and the more I looked, the more problems I had. Suddenly,iTunes was having issues and they were not going away. Now I had programs, and hardware related to those programs that would not work correctly. Bill Gates was ruining my life, piece by piece.

This weekend, I had to replace my flash based mp3 player. The one I used to take to the gym had decided to only turn on when it felt like it, and even once it had turned on, could turn off at any moment, without provocation. I tried negotiating with it. I tried multiple new batteries, but nothing was going to convince it. It was done. So, I went and bought a Sansa Clip. It was really a great little player, about the size of the newer Apple Shuffles but with FM radio and twice the amount of memory, for a much smaller price. Brilliant! Well, it certainly was perfect until I hooked it up to my computer and Vista said, "What the hell is this?"

I called Sandisk and explained the problem to the tech support guy. At first, he tried to tell me that it was just me, until I pointed out that other users on the Sandisk support forums were having my exact same problem. At this point, he confessed that some users did experience this problem because some versions of Vista had shipped with the required drivers and others had not. It seemed to him that mine had not, and what I would need to do is go to this Microsoft Web page and request that Microsoft send me a Hotfix (patch). This was awesome. I could not just go somewhere and download the driver I needed to run my new hardware, I needed to ask the Microsoft gods and hope that they heard my plea.

A few hours later, Microsoft emailed me back stating that they could not find the Hotfix I was looking for and telling me to call them, which I promptly did. The operator could not figure out how I had got this number and was dumbfounded at the idea that someone at Microsoft had told me to call it. Finally, he decided my story was too crazy to be a lie and connected me with technical support. I, once again, explained my issue, in excruciating detail, to the tech support dude (who sounded quite Indian). He was completely baffled as to why I was calling him. You could sense that he was hoping to be able to read to me from a script and "solve" my technical problems. This fell completely outside of the parameters to which he had grown accustomed. However, he made his best efforts, asking me if I was using Windows Vista, and that's where things went downhill.

I replied that I was using Vista and that it was the worst operating system ever. To which he tried to tell me it was an excellent operating system and I lost it. I pointed out every glaring problem with the operating system. I noted how many people and organizations were still unwilling to purchase it and how even Microsoft is starting to promote its next operating system, seemingly trying to brush Vista aside, and say, "Look at this really cool new thing that might actually work in a way you will like." I even pointed out the fact that the new Service Pack release forXP is supposed to add most of the best features of Vista to XP , making it almost completely pointless for anyone to upgrade, at all. It was right around this point that he decided he needed his supervisor, as I clearly knew too much.

The supervisor (another person sounding Indian, dots not feathers) and I traced the same path regarding the horror that is Vista and all the problems I have had with it. However, as we came back to focusing on my problem of the day, she remained completely bewildered as to how I had even gotten transferred to her department and insisted that I needed to provide her with theHotfix ID number. After I asked her for the third time where I was supposed to find such a thing, she decided I needed to call Sandisk back, as obviously Sandisk knows better than Microsoft how to patch Vista.

It was at this point that I took my new Sansa Clip, walked it straight back to Best Buy and spent $20 extra to get a new Shuffle. Sure, it has half the memory and no FM tuner, but it works and keeps me from having to deal with Microsoft, and you simply cannot put a price tag on that. Besides, if I decide to go Mac in the coming months, it will still work with my new system.

Harder To Breathe

Several years ago, a doctor started me on an asthma medication called Advair. You may have seen the commercials for it. The medicine comes in a purple discus and actually contains two different medications. Its goal is to prevent you from having asthma attacks at all so that you do not have to use your fast acting inhaler and scar your lungs. Excellent things to strive for in my opinion. However, my insurance company decided to re-categorize Advair as a much higher tier prescription medication. Suddenly, I was spending much more on the product. A representative there recommended that I switch to the generic form of both medications in the Advair, which saved me a lot of money, but was quite a hassle. So, I just stopped taking my medicine entirely. Thank you, United Health Care.

After about a week of not taking the medicine, however, I seemed to actually be sleeping better. No, I was no Rip Van Winkle and I still sometimes had trouble making it past seven or eight hours, but I really was sleeping seven or eight hours. This was fantastic. I looked online and found that a possible side effect of the medicines in Advair is trouble sleeping. Well, guess what, that possible side effect page was written for me. It even said the medicine could worsen your asthma attacks and cause death. That was a little scary.

I now seem to be sleeping pretty well. Not all the time, but on a much more frequent basis. My body is even able to return to sleep sometimes after it is awoken. I am in complete awe of this crazy new thing called sleep. However, my lungs are a little less than happy. Sure, I have not had any sever asthma attacks and nothing bad enough to force me to use the fast acting inhaler (which I do not have), but I have had bouts of shortness of breathe and occasionally my girlfriend will look at me with those questioning eyes that say, "You aren't really going to go run a mile now are you?"

Now I am faced with the ultimate question, would I rather breathe or sleep. Somehow, I feel the latter will prevail, as I am just too tired to think about these difficult questions.

Twelve Days of Christmas

This year, I feel like Christmas is like the holiday that will just never end. It seems every time I turn around, I still need to get a gift for someone. Most of this is resulting from the fact that my best friend and my girlfriend both have birthdays that fall within weeks of the Christmas holiday and also by the fact that some of my friends are impossible to shop for and the older they get, the more restrictions are in place.

"Maybe I'll get you a bottle of wine."

"I am not allowed to really drink very much anymore."

"Maybe some good food."

"Yeah, not allowed to really eat very much anymore either. I will be able to again after all this medical stuff is over, but for now, I really have a bland and limited sort of diet."

"Dude, you suck."

"Yeah, I know."

One of my friends is a Jehovah's Witness and all I can think is that she gets off so light, never having to worry about picking out gifts for all her family and closest friends. Great gobbly googly. However, I feel like if I did not have the holidays to remind me to get people gifts, I would forget and then people would say, "He never gets me anything."

However, the more I shop and the more my friends and I shop for one another, the more I get confused as to the point. My friends and I often ask one another how much we are going to spend on the other person. After all, we "need" to get the other person something comparable in value. One of my friends had a guy buy her a $50 item and she had only planned on giving him something small. An extended conversation between us ensued. More and more, I am failing to see the point of spending a lot of money on someone if all they are going to do is spend a similar sum on you. Would it not have been easier if we had gotten each other cards and said, "Go buy yourself something nice."?

Some will say that is not very thoughtful, but I feel like it's plenty thoughtful. I mean, you did pick out the card, right? And what's the difference between that and a gift card? I have been using my gift cards to buy gifts for other people. At first, my friends saw this as flawed - "Those cards are for you". Yes, I know. I am using them so that I do not have to spend my own money - that is using them for me. It is almost like a gift of cash, except not as good as cash because you actually have to use it at the store that the card is for. If you ask me, cash is plenty thoughtful. However, if my friend gives me $50 and I give them $50, what have we really achieved? Same thing, for me, when it comes to gifts. If my friend gets me $200 worth of gifts and I get that friend $200 worth of gifts, what have we really achieved, other than spending each other's money - in a more indirect way.

At the end of the day, I think it should be the thought that matters the most, which is why a card and maybe a small token should be sufficient for almost everyone concerned because this attempt to match everyone with equally priced gifts is giving me an enormous headache.

I can see gift giving for a couple people in your life, but all of them just seems excessive and a recycling of currency. Getting gifts for children makes sense, as they are not going to get gifts of an equal value for you, and because how else are they going to get that really cool overpriced toy. And, of course, with your significant other and maybe a friend or two, you may be able to pick out something sweet and thoughtful, but when all you are doing is telling the person what you want and having them go buy it for you so that you can go buy them a similarly priced object, what is the point.