cool iPod accessories

I saw this Apple iPod Camera Connector and thought to myself, “I NEED THIS!” But then I saw this blurb:

Compatible with iPod with color display.

It made me want to cry. But never fear! I found that our good friend Belkin has made these two items available for those of us without the iPod photo:

Belkin Digital Camera Link for iPod

and

Belkin iPod Media Reader

I will most likely be purchasing one of these soon.

TiVo == #1

TiVo now allows you to transfer mpg files from your PC to watch on your TiVo. Read about it here.

Actually, it’s been available since three whole days ago. They have filed an official request for me to send back my TiVo lemming membership card.

I hear this feature has been available on the replayTV for a long time already, but as the programming and user interface for TiVo is vastly superior (IMO) to replayTV (at least, as of the last iteration that I saw it), it is not really relevant to me. Now I just have to wait for the TiVos to get the upgrades to use with my new desktop software.

stuff

Since I moved to subcription-based web-reading (rather than websurfing), I haven’t visited Amazon in a long time. In fact, I only ever hit Amazon anymore when I click on a direct product link from someone else’s website. Odd. I give you the New Math:

Shocking.

My hair looks great today. Yesterday, it looked about as pleasant as Mobi’s ass.

I’ve been drinking coffee too often lately.

I still can’t figure out the toy on my desk. It’s one of those metal loopy things where you have to separate the two pieces that are linked together. I have done it before in the past, but I just can’t seem to get it now. It’s a sign of my mental deterioration.

I once thought Precious Moments figurines were cute. Then I realized that they were pretty gross with the constant depictions of child brides and grooms and, was appropriately horrified. Pedophiles! 😀

There are so many people staying late at work today that they ordered $400+ worth of food from waiter.com.

I signed up for a 15-minute massage at my desk for next week. It is $10 (the company pays another $10 on my behalf). I’m pretty psyched for it.

My eyes are drooping with sleepiness. My eyes are also so small that if I look even slightly downward (as I would when I read or type on my laptop), people think I’ve fallen asleep at my desk/seat. I weep. Actually, when I weep, people also mistake me for being asleep.

out of the closet

I worked fairly late last night, and left for Seppo’s work at around 8:30pm. We stayed at his work until about 11:45. We were both exhausted on the drive home, and not looking forward to this morning when we’d have to leave for work around 45 min earlier than usual due to a morning meeting I had.

We got home, locked up the car as usual, and went in the house to take out the trash and recycling, as Thursday morning is when the trash & recycling pick up occurs. As we went through the rooms, we realized that we couldn’t find Mobi. He usually comes running to the gate when we come home late. When we come home early, he just sits on the couch and looks at us through sleepy eyes.

We figured he was in the backyard, so we took turns calling for him in the dark. After a bit of this and asking Colin if he’d seen Mobi that evening, we came to the awful conclusion that he had somehow escaped. Seppo checked for and found both of Mobi’s leashes at home, so he could not still be with Seppo’s mom. Despite the fact that it was already past 12:30am, Seppo called his mom to make sure that Mobi was not with her. Indeed he was not.

In full panic mode, Seppo and I roamed up and down the street separately. Seppo went to get a flashlight, and I continued on my way in the dark, softly calling and whistling for our dog. I looked at his favorite houses and called between the alleys. I went by the entrance of the dog run that is near our house. I jogged up and down the hill in fear that we would never see him again. Images of dogs that had been run over in the streets flew through my mind. I remembered the last time he went missing. I was filled with the same choking feeling.

Returning back toward the house with hopes that Mobi stayed in a small radius of his home, Seppo met me at the fence to tell me that Mobi was home! I was so happy! Seppo had gone to Joe’s room and woken him up to ask him if he had seen the dog, when they both heard a little sound from Joe’s closet. It was Mobi! Poor little guy.

He generally doesn’t whimper or bark when he’s behind a door. He just stands there, waiting, or just lays down and goes to sleep. This is what he does if you go in the bathroom to take a shower or something. He just lays outside until you come out. And I assume he just felt like hanging out in Joe’s closet, hanging out in the dark, when the door accidentally got shut. He probably just lay down and went to sleep. He certainly didn’t bark or scratch. He’s a funny little dog. I’m so glad he’s ok. That dumb mutt! 😀

on communication

To be perfectly trite: Communication is a two-way street. Now, to be less trite, interpersonal communication involves two or more people who wish to convey information/emotions/empathy/knowledge/etc. One person may be the source and the other may be the recipient. Or both at the same time.

Seppo and I were talking in the car yesterday about communication and when it goes awry. Communication is one of the social contracts that we make with others. The contract says, “I will strive to make myself as clear as I can in a way that you can understand with hopes that you will understand me. You will ask me questions in areas that you are unclear about in order to understand me until we are clear. This doesn’t mean we need to agree, just understand at least the position of the other person. Our roles will switch throughout our conversation, but we will both work as hard as possible to make this comprehension happen.”

There are misunderstandings and frustrations when one feels that the other is not upholding their side of the communication bargain by not trying hard enough to understand; jumping to the wrong conclusions; jumping on the non-salient points of the conversation; etc. When this happens, instead of getting frustrated, we should uphold our part of the social contract by examining ourselves to see if we have been absolutely clear in the way that the particular listener will understand. It is possible that the other person is also not upholding their end of the contract, but merely pointing that out doesn’t solve the problem.

By seeing communication and conflicts as team efforts to come to agreement/understanding, rather than getting annoyed at someone for not understanding you (which I’m extremely guilty of, as Seppo knows), it is possible to progress beyond, “That’s not what I said!” and “Oh yes, it is!” to something much better.

I think we talked about this in context of coworkers who don’t understand social cues and parents who have a difficult time seeing their adult children as adults.

When you think someone doesn’t understand you, instead of thinking to yourself, “Any buffoon in the universe would understand what obviously just happened and why I feel this way; why can’t he/she?!” which does not help you at all, try to realize that something in the communication failed and that you may not be doing your best to let the other person know what is going on inside your head. And if you don’t know, how did you expect the other person to figure it out?! 😀

Keeping track of who’s right and who’s wrong in a conversation is ok in many instances, especially if that is the point of the conversation, as in a factual debate. Not everything has to be touchy-feely. But in a committed relationship, there is nothing to be gained by always angling for the upper hand. You only win if you both win. /cheesy counselor voice.

This entry was brought to you by the Committee to Stop Passive-Aggressiveness, a.k.a. The Group That Thinks You Should Already Have Known What It Stands For, I Don’t Know What’s The Matter With You.

google desktop

Could this be more awesome? I can track my blog feeds with Google Desktop now. I just used it once and I already love the interface. I ::heart:: Google’s products. See “all sizes” from the flickr page to see details.

Read and download here.

difficult, difficult, difficult, then suddenly very easy

I just closed out one of my credit cards. It is the first one I got after college. It had a high interest rate and didn’t really offer much of anything except it racked up AmericaWest frequent flyer miles. I braced myself for an annoying but polite discussion with the customer representative and dialled their services number. After entering my account number and the last four digits of my social security number, I waited to hear the menu options and selected to speak to a representative. Then the service went to the busy tone and disconnected! Arg.

So I called again and repeated the process. This time, it went to a pleasant little waiting music which lulled me into a false sense of security, then suddenly, busy tone and disconnection! Oh noes!

I looked up a different service number and called, but it must have channelled the call to the same place, because it was the same process over again.

I tried one more time, because I’m stubborn like that, and bam! I got a friendly voice. She immediately connected me with an account manager who was exceedingly polite and asked me a couple of simple questions to verify my identity and that was it. No questions as to why I am closing out the account, no tempting offers to try to keep me, nothing. Sweet! Thanks customer representatives*!

*Who are they representing me to? The corporation? Are they watching out for me? Is that what they are paid for? Yeah right. I’ve also heard some places call people “customer advocates”. Weird. Anyway, these people were fantastic and I don’t hold them responsible for what was obviously a phone system error, as frustrating as it was. Good on you, Bank of America, for having a decent process for closing a card without hassle.

insider knowledge*

Oooh, yeah. Insider knowledge*, baby.

Previously, on incite a riot, I brought you In-N-Out’s “secret” menu. Today, I bring you two more little tidbits, which I’m sure the entirety of the world’s population was aware of long before I became aware of them. I ordered a short cappuccino at StarBucks today. Yes, a short. It’s the only reasonable size they have, and it’s not on the menu, but they will serve it to you. And life has not been the same since I learned you can ask for bagels “toasted dark” at Noah’s “Bagels” *cough*. Of course, the last two times resulted in burnt bagels because the local shop’s toaster is busted, but generally, they just pass it through twice and the bagel halves come out awesome.

You know you can get your credit report for free every year, right? AnnualCreditReport brings them to you. If you are worried that it is a bogus site, the FTC says it’s not. The smart thing to do is to get one credit report from one of the three agencies every 4 months, rather than doing them all at the same time, but I didn’t think of that until I saw that tip on LifeHacker. Duh. I check my credit report every two years anyway, but this is better because it’s free and it’s from all three major credit reporting agencies.

*Disclaimer: I am not an insider. It was a misleading phrase designed to lull you into a sense of security and trust in my words. You can trust me. Please email me with your credit card number and expiration date. Don’t forget the security code on the back! kthnxbye!

insensible eating

I had started eating sensibly, in reasonable portions, paying attention to the variety and quantity of food that I have been ingesting in the past couple of weeks. I have started to use the rowing machine little by little, trying to build up in small increments so I can’t tell myself I have no time to exercise.

Today was our company picnic at Paramount’s Great America. The company paid for parking, admission, and a “picnic” of indescribeably horrible food and ok drinks, so we only needed cash for snacks and games, so it was a great deal. In 4.5 hours, we rode 4 rides; ingested hot dogs, sodas, ice cream sandwiches, cotton candy, lemonade, and funnel cake topped with whipped cream; and walked until we were sore.

Man, I am such a huge baby. The rides we went on were mostly the non-super-popular-thus-non-super-dangerous-or-scary rides, but I was so scared and dizzy that I thought I was gonna puke. I used to go on ride after ride for full 10 hour days in high school, but clearly those days are behind me. We went on Invertigo, where I cried for my mommy and realized my life was about to come to a screaming end, then on Orbit, where both Seppo and I accused each other of rocking the seat then got nauseous enough to almost hurl, followed by Centrifuge, which caused me more pain that I expect to ever experience before childbirth by being crushed between Seppo and the outside wall of the seat (curse you, ride operator dude, for not warning me that the person on the outside will be crushed, like you warned that man with his tiny little daughter that were seated in the wrong configuration — never mind our mechanical engineering degrees), and finally the White Water Falls ride, where I thew all my efforts into protecting my phone, never mind getting a faceful of splash. Hee.

We followed this insanity with a trip to a Korean restaurant known for its banquet space. Seppo and I spoke to the manager, who let us take a peek at the party of 75 that was celebrating a birthday there. It was a pretty nice place. The prices are amazingly reasonable for the sheer quantity of food, but we were not sure about the quality, so we ordered some food to go. Yes, on top of all the food we had already ingested. Because we are masochists.

The verdict on the food is two thumbs up. Delicious food. The meat I had was a touch too sweet on its own (but fine with rice and sides), whereas Seppo’s shrimp was memorably good. Yum.

Then we went to Seppo’s work, where he worked and I ate a little dinner and read. After several hours at his work, we dropped off birthday presents for Uyen and Charles, then the four of us took a very quick trip out to grab some ice cream at a locally owned ice cream shop. I also bought a tiny piece of fudge. It was delicious.

That was the end of the most insensible day of eating in a very long time for me.

not enough time

I don’t have time for this! I can’t watch another tv show. I want to live a real life with real people in it. Stupid Rock Star: INXS. I just saw my first episode tonight (TiVoed from earlier this week, which was apparently week 6) and man! I am blown away. The top four in my opinion are Jordis, Marty, MiG, and Ty. Personally, I think it should come down to Jordis and Marty, but what the hell do I know. INXS was and is still one of my favorite bands, but I have proven over and over again that I am fairly tone-deaf. I think Marty and MiG fit the group’s style the best.

I’m almost ready to buy the dvd of the season if it ever comes out. I’m thinking maybe torrent will be my friend for now. Sheesh.