I've been Simpsonized!

Pretty cool, huh? Go to simpsonizeme.com and get one made of you.

The Choice is Yours

Normal, non-techie, sensible, productive, tidy, reliable, creative, don't-want-to-be-interrupted-by-system-nonsense people will prefer the iMac. Others, unfortunately, will go straight to Dell.

LAPD's Official MP3 Player - Update

The linked page has been updated since my original post. It's a German company that probably is unaware of our American lingo and connotations. I'm sure they got some outrage which caused them to change the product's name. But fortunately for you, I took a screen shot of the original page in case you missed it the first time. Click on the image for a larger view.

Click here to see the revised link.

Dear Tortured Souls,

I know over half my readers are logging on using Windows machines (aka PCs – rhymes with feces). Oh why use such an unreliable and boring system with unfriendly intolerant software? Don't you deserve better?

Apple recently announced the new iMac desktop computer. Fast, elegant, and fully loaded with the best programs normal people actually use (iPhoto, iMovie, etc.). But no, you continue to wallow in your clunky system using Internet Explorer, constantly closing pop-up windows and installing service patches and antivirus updates. Also you're getting the ire of your friends when you email them a 10mb attachment of 5 photos. Oh the agony.

"But Macs are so expensive!" Not necessarily so says this article. PC's are cheaper only in the sub-$500 range. But even in that price range, you can find a very capable used or refurbished Mac Mini. Remember, OS X is what you're buying. The computer is just a shiny container. It's software, not hardware, that will cause the most downtime.

Long-time Mac-basher John Dvorak wrote about his Mac experience:

I have no plans to move to the Mac platform for my personal use. That said, I have noticed that I've been recommending the machine to friends and neighbors when they want to know what kind of system they should buy.

I can see why the Mac is gaining market share, because the rationale for using one is simple. Do you want to deal with the agony of antivirus, firewall, antispyware, and other touchy software subsystems, many of which do not work well? Or do you want to boot Microsoft Word and write a document and be done with it?

Here's another article that claim the Mac is set to soar.

The word of mouth for any Macintosh is remarkably good, and with the negative press that Vista is getting, the shine on Apple only gets better and better. To put it simply, Apple's Macintosh is becoming the most logical choice for those looking to buy a new computer.

But I know many of you will probably never venture onto the fairer platform. You'll continue to ask me for help on converting PDFs, making slideshows and ripping videos because you "can't" do it on your machine. And that's ok, I don't mind helping (I currently have two video projects on my cluttered desk awaiting my attention). I know for you that your next upgrade will be a Vista box because you want the latest and greatest. So to you I offer this article yesterday from Walt Mossberg:

"If you install Boot Camp on a well-equipped Mac model, it can become a blazing fast Vista computer. A few days ago I bought a top-of-the-line model of Apple’s new iMac line, and installed Boot Camp and Vista. I then tested the machine using Vista’s built-in Windows Experience Index, a rating system that goes from 1 to 5.9, with scores above 3.0 generally required for full, quick performance. My iMac scored a 5.0, the best score of any consumer Vista machine I have tested. Obviously, a tricked-out high end Dell or HP box might do as well or better, and a lesser Mac might do worse. But the score was very impressive for a computer that wasn’t designed with Vista in mind."

In fact, our Mac is SO easy to use, today Dustin (age 7) called me on iChat from home to chat during lunch. Surely you are smarter than a 2nd grader.

Free Magazines

For the last 10 years or so I've been getting free 1-year subscriptions to various magazines. Chrissy is always astounded at all the junk mags that come in. Most of them we hardly read, but they're good to have around in case our guests get bored at our house. And when they're rolled up, they're great for killing spiders.

Freebizmag emails every few days offering various magazines – most of which I have no interested in. But once in a while a few good ones come in. Below are links to magazine offers I've received in the last few weeks. As you can see, they come in a wide range of categories.

Art in America
Tennis
Road & Track
Spin
Pink
Cruise Travel
Log Home Design Ideas
Popular Photography & Imaging
American Jewish Life
Black Enterprise

The sign up process is fairly painless. You have to select from about 7 pull-down menus describing your job industry and title. My guess is that the more important you sound, the better likelihood you'll get approved. And rule of thumb is to never use your real phone number. Once you get on their mailing list, you'll start getting free offers mailed to you weekly, so I would not recommend using your primary email. Enjoy and get them while they last.

Update:
Thanks to Matt for directing me to all-freemagazines.com. Here you can choose from hundreds of magazines. But beware that not all magazines are truly free. For example, TV Guide requires you to participate in other "offers" as I'm sure many of the other magazines will require also. And some of the magazines are electronic (email attachments) and not an actual magazines in your mailbox.

So when you click on each individual link, pay attention to where it sends you. If it sends you to Freebizmag or Mercury Magazines, then it is truly free. I haven't tested too many of the other links, but just remember not to ever use your real phone number and to not use your primary email in case it leads to spam.

$35 per Fridge

On Saturday, JACO Environmental came and picked up our old fridge. I just signed up online and they came in 5 days. Not only was it free, but they said they'll do the paperwork for PG&E to send me $35! Woohoo! That's a huge savings compared to paying "professionals" $270 to remove it. Thanks to my professional crew of Chris, Martin, Oliver and Wayland for removing the old fridge and installing the new. I've never moved anything over 500 lbs. so this was quite a challenge for all of us to tip it down onto a couple of floor dollies and roll it out the patio door.

So to you fridge shoppers, here's your tip to get your $35. When your new fridge gets delivered, just have them move your old one into the garage for JACO to pick up at a later date. Western Appliance charges $10 to haul away, while others offer it for free. But if you don't mind giving up some garage space for a week, that $35 is easy money. And to you non-fridge shoppers who just want $35, just go on Craigslist and find a free one. Haul it home and call JACO. Hmm, I wonder if there's a limit...

Well we've been using the new fridge for a week now, and to sum it up in a word: small. There's an obvious void surrounding the fridge, but we have another cabinet to fill the top space. As for the inside, we used to buy 2 gallons of milk, now only one. All bulky boxed items are now transferred to ziploc bags. And our freezer is a bit heavy to pull out because it's jam packed (with ice cream heehee). A lot of getting used to. But are we worried? No.

Within an hour after JACO left, my coworker Eugene dropped off his old 18 cu. Whirlpool fridge. He just happened to have an extra one to give away (along with an extra friend and truck to deliver). God is good! We even have a dedicated space in the garage for it. A great backup plan to store all my mom's frozen chickens, potstickers and jungs. We haven't started using it yet, but when we need it, it's readily available. And if we decide we no longer want it, cha-ching, $35!!

More familiar faces

Two weeks ago I was at Silver Dragon attending the wedding luncheon for Sam Lau and his wife Charis (pronounced "charr-us" like charcoal or char siu-bow). I don't know Sam too well but his dad is legendary Bill Lau. We're related as inlaws. Bill's brother Daniel married my sister. The funny thing is that I remember some 30+ years ago, I was sitting in almost the exact spot for Bill's wedding luncheon. At that time I had no idea why people were clanking their plates. Anyway, I'm sure I'm not the only one that was there 30 years ago. And of course I see all kinds of XCI people like all the former pastors (Wong, Liu, Loh).

At our table was most-eligible-bachelor Wingate. I see him at many parties but each time I never remember him as being bald, so it's always a shock. Maybe he's had really really short hair all along, and each time I've seen him, it's gotten 1/16 inch shorter. Or maybe I'm confusing him with his brother Winford, who has lots of hair. I dunno. Well at least this time I have his picture to compare to the next time I see him. He's still at Caltrans (govt. employee), going on 14 years. He's already excited about his retirement. I think he said 80% at 55.

So as we're leaving, who do I see as I pop out of the elevator? XCI Steve Kwok! The last time I saw Steve was at Albertsons five years ago. He's married with 2 young boys and lives in CV.

Back in the day I remember riding in his white Ford Maverick cruising through Oakland to get Winchell donuts. (It was either his car or Dave's Dodge Dart). We used to go on donut runs after Ichthus, and all the Winchells were in the blackest part of Oakland, each being run by a single Asian guy. We used to call the guys Kwok-Tran and Limey Louie (I forgot which one was who). They were always delightfully shocked to see a car full of Asians in their part of town at midnight. We sometimes even got an extra donut!

48 hours House Arrest
I was off the last two days, staying at home doing kid duty because my mom (aka babysitter, cook, dishwasher, security guard, etc) is on her annual pilgrimage to Vegas this week. We pulled Dustin out of daycare and invited his best friend over. And then Colby protested, demanding to stay home too. And Justine (10 months) is now mobile and picking up stuff which means no napping on the job. Sigh. I'm just glad to be back at work today to get some rest.

What can I say? I'm a BEAST!

Much love to Dean for providing me the pics and video from yesterday's action. Unknown to me, he captured my one and only great spike of the afternoon. It was like watching Sportscenter. It felt great! Superstar!!

There are many factors that lead up to the great kill such as physical prowess, mental toughness, and perfect timing. For me it goes like this:

1. Wimpy serve
2. Great setter
3. 55-year old non-threatening blocker
4. Defenseman not realizing it's sailing out
   

Yep, the recipe for greatness! I'll take it any day!

Truth be told, for every ONE of those great hits, I've probably shanked 5 into outer-space! I've already informed my teammates of the 5-step rule, meaning that if my pass is beyond 5 steps away, forget it. Fortunately for me, we play with a great group of friends with varying skill levels. Everyone is encouraging and helpful. The weak try not to get hurt, and the strong try not to hurt the weak. (Let it be known that I associate with the weak. The only thing strong is my scent!)

We had a great turnout: Anna/Stephen, Jon/Karen, Oli/Winnie, Chris/Libby, Al/Christine, 2 coworkers, Mr. Chan and the Seiji Smash Brothers. Some played and some just played with the kids. All in all around 26 people. Afterwards we had a pizza dinner where we were joined by Gleason/Lolita and Patty/Glenn. Fun, fun, fun, except I'm a bit sore today.

Decisions, Decisions

So I've been stressing over this fridge situation for two weeks now. Can't work, can't sleep, can't blog (and no ice cream to calm my stomach). With all the stores I've visited this past week, I've probably opened and closed a fridge door 500 times. And I think I've developed tennis elbow because of it. On Friday I actually found an awesome 42" Kitchenaid built-in with FREE delivery and installation (practically unheard of). The final price was ONLY $6250! Hard to imagine that I was so excited to spend $6000. For a fridge. The bluebook value on our Dodge Caravan is not even $6000.

At church I spent some time talking with some "kitchen experts" and the general consensus was to NOT buy a 42" fridge. Instead just buy a 36" for under $3000 and figure something out later in terms of cabinet remodel. Now all of a sudden $3000 is a total steal. On Craigslist I found several newish refrigerators for about a third of the price. But transporting a fridge is no easy task. You're NOT supposed to tip it on it's side because it will cause the oil to leak from it's compressor onto the cooling coils, so I would need a truck. In the end, it was just too much effort. And it's heavy.

So last night I bought a GE counter-depth french door fridge for $2500. It will be delivered Saturday, which means we will miss Faith's birthday party – Sorry Grace. I never thought choosing a fridge could be so hard. We finally decided on this one because the side-by-side fridges are a lot narrower and will never be able to store a half-sheet cake or a super max-pack of chicken legs. And my poor mom will no longer have to squat down everyday to dig through the produce drawer (she'll just have to squat to dig through the freezer). Plus, bottom-freezer fridges are more energy efficient (only $44/year to operate). The main downside is no in-door ice dispenser. But according to Chrissy, we never had it so we're not going to miss it. Also, the freezer is a lot smaller. Heck, the whole fridge is a lot smaller. We're downsizing from 26 cubic feet to 20.9 so it will be jam packed most of the time. I hope we can survive. If not, I've already put my name on an extra garage freezer Chris may be getting rid of.

This story is not over. We're still considering different ways to fill the gap around the new fridge, whether it be a new matching pantry or extended countertops. And we still need to figure out how to get rid of our old fridge because I refuse to pay someone $270 just to pull it out (FYI, because of its size, built-in's require "specially trained" people to remove. Um, ok). We're feeding 30 people this Sunday after volleyball. I think among the 30 I might be able to find a few "specially trained" people.

Can I borrow $7000 for ice cream?

When we first bought our house, I immediately noticed the nice fridge that came with it--a real fancy Kitchen Aid Superba with matching wood panels. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that if it ever broke down, it would be expensive to replace. Well fast forward 6 years and our fridge is crapping out. Here we are in the heart of summer and we can't store ice cream because it's not getting cold enough! Ahhhhh!!! Furthermore, we've been hosting a lot of dinners lately and I feel horrible feeding my friends smelly meat, room-temperature milk, and moldy cheese (haha, I'm just kidding, really I am).

We tried to get it fixed but the repairman said there's nothing he can do, except sticking me with his $95 bill. Thanks a lot! So I guess we'll have to bite the bullet. The fridge is, in fact, 15 years old.

Going fridge shopping is pretty fun. You get to check out all the latest brands and styles--that is until you find out that you don't have an ordinary fridge. All the fridges at BestBuy and Lowes don't fit. We have what you call a "built-in" fridge. Standard fridges are 36" wide. Ours is 42" (and 84" tall). Standard fridges cost up to $3500 for the top-of-the-line GE Profile counter-depth model. Built-in fridges start at $6000 with an additional $400-650 for installation/haul away. Ouch!!

I tried to be creative by having a contractor come over to review my options. I was hoping to just buy a standard 36" fridge, which would leave a 12" gap on top and a 6" gap on the sides. I could then replace the kitchen cabinets (above and to the right) with larger ones, like a huge pantry. The solution would be perfect. With the $4000 I save, I can use that money to expand my cabinets to store more junk food, as long as I can match the existing cabinets! Well the contractor called last night saying that although the pantry size was not an issue, he couldn't find the exact "honey oak" finish. They come darker/redder and lighter/whiter but not close enough. Ugh!

So this weekend we're embarking to search for a good deal on a new built-in fridge. These things never go on sale. I'll be looking at brands like Subzero, Thermadore, Viking, GE, and Kitchen Aid (no Kenmore or Whirlpool). It's going to be painful. So if you see me at church crying, you'll know why.

If anyone has any better suggestions or recommendations, I'm all ears.