Archive for the 'Viva la Consumerista' CategoryPage 2 of 6

The Weekly-ish Update

Published
by
Jake
6 months, 2 weeks ago
in Bits & Blips, Folx, Getting Fit, Homebody, TechnoLust, Televisio, Viva la Consumerista and World Gone Mad
. 5 Comments

Random tidbits once again:

  • I’m really pleased with the results of my latest slate tile project. Now I’m itching to switch into woodworking mode. I’m super excited about the new episodes of the New Yankee Workshop: Norm is building kitchen cabinets. I plan to eventually build cabinets for the mudroom and perhaps the garage (as practice for the potential “big job” of the actual kitchen). I think I’ll go ahead and buy the DVDs.
  • I’m gradually building up my home entertainment system to match the new TV. I’ve gotten a fancy HDMI-switching receiver and a fairly cool iPod dock thingy. Next on my list is a TiVo HD. Then some surround speakers of some sort (I’m still living in stereo, folks…). And then maybe an Xbox 360, finally. (Still holding out for GTA4 on that one.)
  • On the fitness front, my weight dipped below 200 pounds for the first time in a while yesterday. It’s back above today, but we’ll assume that’s temporary. I’m going to join a climbing gym soon, I think. A great new motivator I have is the Garmin Forerunner 205 I got for Xmas. It’s not as sexy as the new 405 everyone is drooling over, but it’s pretty darned cool. Of course, now I’m obsessed with tracking the slightest walk / jog / jaunt to the mail box. When The Wife teased me about it I quipped, “Are you kidding? I’m gonna track my trips to the bathroom from now on!”
  • Lots of interesting gossip about former coworkers and new coworkers. That’s about all I’ll say about that, I suppose.
  • I’m still an Obama cheerleader, though I don’t generally like to air my politics on this site. I like the look of things right now.
  • Trent Reznor isn’t exactly excited by the results of the Niggy Tardust experiment.
  • TV sucks almighty ass right now. I know there’s a writer’s strike going, but why aren’t networks taking better advantage by replaying some of the good stuff we might have missed previously? Example: AMC’s Mad Men? (Ooh! There’s an encore starting Jan 21. Nice.) At least I always have books to read.

So yeah… What’s new with you?

4-Hour Workweek: How to Be a Huckster in 4 Easy Steps

Published
by
Jake
1 year, 1 month ago
in BiblioThingy, Jake's Life and Viva la Consumerista
. 1 Comment

Anyone else reading The 4-Hour Workweek?

I’m listening to the audiobook on my commute. It strikes me as incredibly meta. There’s a definite undertone of

“Here’s how you can make yourself and expert and sell information to other people — just like I did with this book! (Sucker.)”

He also explains everything he’s doing (”tricks of the trade”-wise) on the book’s companion web site.

That said, it’s also quite interesting, plenty entertaining, and disturbingly inspirational. (Lord help us…) It’s really not as slimy as I’m making it sound, but it’s in there.

Let me know your thoughts if you have read it, are reading it, or plan to read it. I actually think I might pick up the dead-tree version in order to cement my own feelings about it.

So… I guess it’s recommended…?

Merry Ho Ho Ho!

Published
by
Jake
1 year, 7 months ago
in Folx, Jake's Life, Love, Life, and Cam Neely, TechnoLust, Televisio and Viva la Consumerista
. 4 Comments

Here’s hoping everyone had a happy and fruitful holiday. I certainly did.

Highlights:

  • My darling mother got me a solar powered atomic watch, so not only does it never need its battery changed, it never needs to be set either. This is timekeeping heaven for me. Now I just need to read the manual to figure out how to use its other functions. And of course, I need to get it sized waaay down for my girlish wrists.
  • The moms made out well: Mine got a cobalt blue Kitchen Aid mixer (she’d been eyeballing ours lately) and The Wife’s got an iPod Nano (which is ridiculously small).
  • I got The Wife a Bella Umbrella. Without her realizing it, I noticed that she’d been talking about getting a parasol for the past year or so, so this was a home run for me. ;)
  • I also got my better half a Mac Mini, as her old iBook was having a hard time keeping up. That means I get to play with the iBook: So far I’ve reinstalled OS X 3 times and I plan to install Ubuntu as well (the third round with OS X was to get a partition for the linux).
  • As for me, I got some woodworking and home improvement accessories, some DVDs (namely two big time personal faves: Pete & Pete and The Greatest American Hero, and a CBC history of hockey that looks awesome) and lots of other stuff.

So yeah, materialistically, we all did pretty well. Better yet, though, we had some nice time off at home thanks to the blizzard, and yet we were mobile in time to make it down to my mom’s house on Christmas Eve.

God bless us, every one, eh?

Ten Bucks

Published
by
Jake
1 year, 9 months ago
in Viva la Consumerista
. 0 Comments

That’s all it costs to refresh your hipster cool when Threadless has one of its $10 sales. (Like now, yo.)

$10 Tees

Published
by
Jake
1 year, 11 months ago
in Viva la Consumerista
. 2 Comments

Threadless is having a $10 back to school sale, y’all. So go buy lots of hip, ironic t-shirts and stuff, OK?

Update: Oh, sweet! They reprinted Flowers in the Attic!

Call Me Waldo

Published
by
Jake
2 years, 2 months ago
in Folx, Linkage, Love, Life, and Cam Neely and Viva la Consumerista
. 3 Comments

Work is… um… aggravating/draining these days, and much to my surprise, I’ve had a bit of a social life in the after work hours lately.

So… Yeah… Light on the posting. Nothing much going on worth reporting anyway. I have continued to post junk to del.icio.us in the mean time, though. You can spy those under the “Link Dump” tab.

I get to go to my first NHL playoff game tonight, though. Sadly, it may be to witness my Avs get swept by the Mighty Ducks.

For the record, my Viva El Papi KinTee got good reviews at last night’s poker game.