Skunk Update

I did not kill the skunks.

I really wanted to.

But I was too lazy to get a pellet gun.

And I did not want to stay up late stalking them alone.

Maybe Tom will go hunting with me some day.

That would be sweet.

Here is a haiku.

I hate the skunks a whole lot

They stink up my dogs

I want to kill them real bad.

 

Thank you.

Mac Madness

So several years ago, I got my first Macintosh. It was 2003 and I got an old 1998 Wallstreet Powerbook. It was a little foreign at first, but as I used it more and more, I found that I wanted to use it more and more. I began to really like it and in 2005, I bought myself and Kasey two new iBooks.

Since then, my 14 incher has worked flawlessly. Kasey's 12 incher however has had… issues. First off, let me say that Kasey has gotten every penny's worth of use out of that laptop. She has used it so much that the letters have been rubbed off of many of the keys. Her laptop has had the hard drive replaced, the power supply replaced, the hinge clutch replaced, the mother board removed and reflowed (fixes a poor solder job at the factory that causes the video to not work) and the memory upgraded (ok, that is really simple). Anyway, I have done all of those myself and needless to say, I have gotten really good at taking that laptop apart.

She recently has had to abandon it and start using mine because it would just stop working sometimes. I looked into it and it seemed to be a bad hard drive. After a trip to Altex, 20 minutes replacing the hard drive, and another 30 installing OSX, it ends up that it is the ATA controller that is bad.

This is pretty bad news because that is what makes the hard drive work. If that is broken you pretty much cannot use the laptop. Since it is built in to the main logic board, it is expensive to replace. I looked around on eBay and I can get a new (used, but working) logic board for $150 or a whole identical working laptop like hers for $200. It looks like that is the end of the road for her laptop. Mr. FrankenMac will be sold for parts when I get back from Montana.

On another note though, I was cruising craigslist and found someone selling 2 17 inch G5 iMac's for $400! The catch: they are broken. One just needs a fan ($20) and the other needs a power supply ($65) and a hard drive (I have one already!). So for about $500 Kasey and I will be enjoying OSX desktop style!

I did tell Kasey that if I do not have them fixed by her birthday that I will sell them. That gives me two months! I have a really bad habit of starting or planning projects and never getting to them, but I have already ordered the power supply, I already have a hard drive, but I cannot get that stupid fan out! I am afraid that I am going to break something just trying to get the stupid fan out of there.

Anyway, I looked on Apple's website and it seems that I can get a refurbished 20 inch new Intel iMac for about $800. I think that once these iMac's are fixed, I can sell them for about $450 each, so I may do that and just buy a new iMac. I think that this time I am just going to plop down the $250 for Apple Care also…

Yeah, so I am a nerd and that is what I have been up to. :)

It’s Like Crank

So, the other day I ordered samples of N.O. Xplode. N.O. Xplode is one of those "dietary supplements" that come in a big bucket that you are supposed to take before you eat. It has all kinds of stuf in it, like vitamins, caffeine and amino acids. I had never taken it before, but in my quest to get all kinds of buff and loose the gut, I thought that I would give it a try.

Anyway, the three samples came in individual pouches and were flavored orange, grape and lemonade. It says really big on the package that there is no aspartame, which I was happy to find, but it is still loaded with sucralose (Splenda) which I do not like the taste of, but I have yet to determine how bad it is for my body. (As an aside, it is bad for the environment because it does not break down in your body and it does not break down in nature, so basically after you
"expel" it, it ends up SOMEWHERE and never goes away.) Today, I figured that I would try the orange flavor.

I mixed the whole packet with a tall glass of water. As I stirred it in, it created a creamy and foamy looking drink, similar to a watery milkshake. I decided to let it settle for a bit or else I would just be drinking a bunch of foam. After like 10 minutes, it was still foamy on top, translucent in the middle and opaque at the bottom. Hrm….

I decided to lightly stir it and take a big swig.

My first impression was "Yum! Dreamcicles!" followed quickly by "OMG, it is tingling my tongue!" I quit drinking and put the glass down. The tingle was kind of strange and unexpected. A short minute later I was thinking "I hate the Splenda aftertaste." L (Still, it is not as bad as aspartame and does not seem to be as bad for you.)

So, I let it sit a bit more while I thought about it and continued to work, then had to stir it again before taking another drink. This process continued for a while and after 20 minutes, I had drank about half of the glass and was feeling very… Jacked Up… I was shaky and kind of tingly all over. I was a little worried, but went ahead and finished the whole glass.

That was probably too much.

I read the package and it ends up that each one is two doses. It recommends trying just one and seeing how that works for you and then having two at a time after that. Well, I did not, so whatever.

I went to the gym and I was really excited. I could tell that it was going to be different, and I was really looking forward to working some of this off and feeling normal again.

In the locker room, I changed with jittery hands and then spent way too long untangling the headphones for my iPod. I needed to get moving!

I hit the inclined bench and did 50 sit ups without even thinking about it. I then grabbed a ball and did another 50 sit ups. I really only stopped because I got bored. Usually I do 20 on the bench and 20 on the ball, just as a quick warm up.

I then went down stairs and noticed that my heart was really going. I figured that it would be a good idea to take my blood pressure, and it turned out to be a little elevated, but not as much as I expected. It sure felt like a lot more though.

I then hit the machines and did bench press, preacher curls, triceps push down, rows and squats. At each machine I set it for the same weight that I have been working out with, but I was easily able to do more than twice the number of reps that I usually do and was not wore out after each set. What I mean is that my muscles were not tired. I was breathing really hard though and was light headed, so I would stop, but I could have kept going if I had a better cardio vascular system. (I still need to work on that). When I did my squats I actually did twice as many with twice as much weight and would go to my toes to work my calves too. I was squatting with 240 lbs, which to me is pretty impressive since I usually work with like 120!

After my squats though, I was really out of breath and light headed. I had to take a break and stare at a TV for a while. I could not concentrate on it though since I had too much going on in my head. I decided to take it easy since I was not too sure what to expect from this stuff. I then went up stairs and walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes. I feel like I could have gone for hours…

N.O. Xplode is something else. I have never taken anything like it before and it was definitely an experience. It is now about 4 hours later and I still have a ton of energy, but I do not feel like I am going to have a heart attack. Next time I will definitely just use half of a packet.

I am not sure if I recommend this product, since I have nothing to compare it to, but I can image from this experience that it will definitely make your workouts a lot more intense!

Montana

So, the end of this month I will be going to Montana to visit my uncle Paul, go snowboarding and just basically chill and do nothing. I am really excited about it, but Kasey will not be going with me. L

We have been watching Phelix (one of 4 of 7 and Big-A-Toe's brothers) for an extended period and the pups have found it necessary to play the pecking order game. This means no fun dog fights. They have not been that frequent lately, but they did have three of them within a two week period. They were not too bloody or anything, just a couple of scratches, but it is still enough that we do not feel comfortable leaving them with someone else.

I wanted to go on a trip to France, or even just on a cruise with Kasey, but it looks like that will have to wait until the fall. Maybe, if we plan early we can do Christmas in Paris. That would be pretty sweet. J

Anyway, that is neither here nor there. In the end, I am going to Montana and I am going to have a great time. Kasey has gone on several vacations and just visiting trips without me, so she is ok with it and I suppose that she probably does not want to freeze her butt off either!

I will be sure to get some pics while I am there. I just hope that I don't break my legs in the mountains!