TripAdvisor Review: Mayan Adventure

As the third (and likely, the final) TripAdvisor review of our Mexico vacation, I offer my recap of our day on the Mayan Adventure Snorkeling Tour with Aventuras Mayas.

My husband and I booked the Mayan Adventure Snorkeling Tour via the travel rep at our hotel during our April 2010 vacation -- we'd known we wanted to go snorkeling, but didn't know where. I'm so glad that we ended up with this tour!

Our guide, Julio, drove our tour group from Playa del Carmen out to Akumal, our first of three snorkeling locations. There, he distributed life vests (manually inflatable), masks, and individually-wrapped breathing tubes. After renting some slightly suspicious-looking snorkel gear on a previous vacation, I was glad to see the focus on hygiene.

There was also a focus on environmental awareness, mainly centered around sunscreen. My husband and I had been told by our travel rep that only biodegradable sunscreen was allowed; truth be told, though, the guides would prefer that snorkelers not wear sunscreen at all, since even the biodegradable versions need sunlight to biodegrade. We'd already slathered it on in our hotel room previously, though, and I can attest that most of it had washed off by the time we got to the underground cenote at the end of the tour. Julio suggested that those who are highly susceptible to sunburn simply keep their t-shirt on, although he didn't force us to shower off any previously-applied sunblock.

We snorkeled in three locations: an ocean inlet, an open cenote, and an underground cenote. Julio made sure to point out all the potential dangers and wonders of each spot. We were especially glad that he showed us a map of the ocean inlet, as my husband and I got separated from the group and had to find our way back on our own! (Both of us wear glasses, and there were several red-shirted tour guides for various groups, so one red guy started to look like another...) Apart from that minor scare, the snorkeling at Yal-Ku Lagoon was beautiful.

The open cenote that was next on the agenda included a diving platform and a zipline, for the adventurous types. I passed on both, but my husband did the zipline and loved it! Several people jumped off of the diving platform multiple times. Not as many fish as in the lagoon, but the water was crisp and cool and refreshing.

The underground cenote was even colder, but was completely breathtaking. A few beams of natural light filtered from above us down into the deep, and the crevasses below us seemed to go down forever. The beauty was amazing (and was, unfortunately, too dark for my underwater camera to capture).

Lunch is included in this tour, which we hadn't realized at the time of booking. The food was delicious yet basic: chicken, tortillas, rice, beans, all fresh and very welcome after a morning of snorkeling.

I brought a camera with an underwater case, but there were some staff photographers at certain locations -- at the zipline and diving platform, and in the underground cenote. They took some candid shots at the open cenote, and some posed shots of couples and family groups at the underground cenote. The price of the photos was extremely reasonable: about $20 for a CD-R of the candid and posed shots, plus some stock photos of the cenotes and wildlife.

Overall, this was a fabulous experience. Highly recommend!

TripAdvisor Review: Alltournative Mayan Encounter

This week's review, posted to TripAdvisor, details the fun we had going on a Mayan Encounter with our tour guide, Rodolfo:

My husband and I went on the Mayan Encounter in April 2010, and had a fabulous time! Our guide, Rodolfo, had a great sense of humor. He also made sure to keep the youngest member of our tour (about age 9) safe and engaged.

The day started with a trip to the ruins at Coba. We were the only two people in our group who opted not to rent a bicycle or take a "Mayan Limousine" (bicycle taxi) out to Nohoch Muul. If I had it to do over, I would have gone ahead and spent the extra money for the taxi. While the walk wasn't difficult, it took up valuable time -- we had just enough time to walk out, climb the stairs, take a few pictures, and come back, and we were the last ones back to the van.

After the ruins, we headed to the Mayan village, where we stowed our gear and went for a walk in the jungle....

I also brought a waterproof camera with me, and was discreet about photographing, as there are Mayan photographers with Alltournative that take photos during the activities. Rodolfo asked us, in his own dry and amusing way, not to interfere with the photographers on-site. He also made it clear that he wouldn't be climbing down into any ravines to fetch lost cameras. I believe his quotable on the subject was, "Too bad, so sad." Cameras ARE allowed, but you bring them at your own risk.

The activities aren't necessarily done in the order they're listed on the Alltournative website: we rappelled into the cenote first (after being purified, of course), then went down the zipline, then went canoeing. The rappelling was the most nerve-wracking for myself and my husband, but also very high on the fun factor (for me, anyway). The most dangerous, though, could well have been just walking in the jungle! It had just rained, so the ground was slick, and there were rocks and roots everywhere. My husband and I were glad to have worn our hiking sandals, and I would encourage anyone going on this tour to consider a pair. I would have been uncomfortable in closed shoes, especially with either damp socks or no socks at all after swimming.

The rappelling could have been disastrous, but wasn't: at the very bottom, as I was settling into the inner tube that was waiting for me in the cenote, my hair got caught in the hooks and ropes of the rappelling harness. The native guide in the cenote called up to the people back at the top of the rope, and they hauled up on the rope just enough to free my hair. An incident that could have ruined my entire vacation in a very major way ended up being just a 30-second blip in the fun.

The zipline was brief but enjoyable. We each got a helmet and a wooden stick to be used as a brake. For those of us larger types, the brake didn't seem to do much, and the photos of us at the end of the zipline were basically us with expressions of abject horror that we WEREN'T STOPPING -- but there was a foam sleeve around the zipline at the end that finished the braking process, thankfully.

The canoeing seemed to be just a timesink -- something to allow the staff to finish up the meal preparation and photo transfers -- but it was relaxing and enjoyable nonetheless. It had been years since either I or my husband went canoeing, so just tooling around a lake was fun and relaxing.

The Mayan meal was simple and delicious: chicken, beans, empanadas, tortillas, rice, and flavored waters (I'm a big fan of the tamarind water).

After lunch, we got to view the photos taken by the staff. There were a few that were well-composed and better than your average snapshot, but a single printed photo cost $20, and even the package deals (digital photos on CD) were entirely too expensive. I'm glad I brought my own camera, but disappointed that the staff photos were so overpriced.

On our way back, Rodolfo took us past the Alltournative shop for a "technical stop" and a round of tequila shots (for those of us of age). Unfortunately, he didn't mention that he wanted to do a toast, so one person grabbed her shot, and the rest of us followed suit while Rodolfo was away from the table for a moment. When he came back and saw that we'd already finished our shots, he seemed very disappointed that we hadn't gotten to toast our day together, "but this time we do it the American way, no?"

Overall, this was a great way to try some new things, see some amazing and beautiful sights, and learn about the Mayan culture. To Rodolfo -- I had a great time, and I hope you weren't too intimidated by my TripAdvisor hat. I wasn't really a "secret shopper." :-)

TripAdvisor Review: The Royal Playa del Carmen

As the first of several reviews I'll be writing about our experiences with the businesses and services in and around Playa del Carmen, QR, Mexico, I chose to review our resort, the Royal Playa del Carmen.

Despite a few negative experiences I felt necessary to point out, I gave the resort a rating of five out of five. My review reads, in part:

In a nutshell: The Royal has spacious rooms, a beautiful beach, delicious food, and impeccable service. There were negative points, of course, but the positives far outweighed those.

We stayed at the Royal for six nights, and ate at every restaurant at least once. Maria Marie, the French-Mexican fusion restaurant, quickly became our favorite; we'd had little to no prior experience with pricey French cuisine, and discovered that we love the selections at Maria Marie. Second on our list was the 24-Hour All-Inclusive Snack Bar, oddly enough. They had hors d'oeuvres that were appropriate for the time of day (breakfast, lunch, dinner, late-night), plus beverages both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, so it was a great place to stop in at off-times: for an early breakfast before a tour, or in the afternoon if we were planning a late dinner.

Regarding our room (Junior Suite): It was easily the largest and most posh room we've ever stayed in. The ceilings were amazingly tall; the bed large and comfortable, with plenty of pillows to choose from; the AC worked splendidly, as did the ceiling fan; and the double jacuzzi was much appreciated.

...

[The] negative points really were far outweighed by the fabulous experience we had at the Royal. There were beach chairs both in the sun and the shade (which we, as pasty white Midwesterners, highly appreciated), with servers who brought us beverages as we read books and surfed the internet on our smartphones using the resort's free wi-fi. The service at all of the restaurants was nearly impeccable: never before have I had my chair pulled out for me AND my napkin laid on my lap. The food was delicious and attractive, and the desserts (especially anything involving chocolate) were absolutely amazing. And whenever we were at a loss as to where to go or what to do, we'd simply stop into the Lobby Bar and enjoy the comfy chairs, the breeze, and a few drinks. (And the wi-fi.)

As far as relaxing, resort-style beach vacations go, this was an amazing experience. I would definitely recommend the Royal to anyone who is considering a vacation in Playa.

For my full review, along with photos of The Royal, visit my list of reviews on TripAdvisor. They take a few days to approve reviews, so it should be posted by early next week was posted on Wednesday.

Rate iPhone Apps Friday: Fitness Edition

Gymboss (3 ★)

The highly customizable multiple timers are the main selling point of this app, and is the reason why I'm keeping it on my iPhone, despite its major flaws. As others have mentioned, the timer pauses when the iPhone screen locks; also, the individual elements within a timer aren't editable (to change duration or alert sound). The sounds available are also very limited, and aren't able to be previewed while setting up a timer.

With a few adjustments, this could be an excellent app. As it stands, with its flaws, it's pretty good for free.

Other fitness apps I rated today:
Interval Timer (4 ★)
Weight Watchers Mobile (4 ★)
SparkPeople Diet & Food Tracker (4 ★)
iFitness (5 ★)

Rate iPhone Apps Friday

It's that time again: time to show some appreciation (or disdain) for the apps you love (or love to hate).

Today on iTunes, I rated Photoshop.com Mobile (5 ★), TimeJot: a time log / journal (4 ★), and Words With Friends Free (4 ★).

New Nightly Ritual

[Taken 11 Feb 2010 | 1/25 sec @ f/6.3 | ISO 800 | 50mm | ambient light, handheld]

Just ordered some new facial products from SpaGoddess on Etsy, after reading an interview with her in Ready Made magazine. I'm not usually one to get overly excited about such things, but these are definitely worth trying. I'm not ashamed to admit that, the day these products arrived, I washed my face RIGHT AFTER DINNER. I just could not wait.

I purposely bought several sample sizes of different products, to give them a test drive. I already have an idea of what I may be ordering again in the future (including one item she included for free!), and what I may pass on next time. Even the products that haven't completely sold me, though, feel better than the over-formulated, chemical-laden commercial products I've been using. These products from Angel Face Botanicals (aka SpaGoddess on Etsy) literally make it a joy just to wash my face at night. Highly recommended.

Koreana: Delicious Food, Friendly Service

Koreana serves up delicious Korean food with genuine hospitality, time and again. That's why my husband and I are repeat customers, dining at Koreana an average of two to three times a month.

The owner is friendly and gracious, and will gladly give suggestions on what to order — which is helpful when trying Korean food for the first time. For first-time diners, he frequently suggests that each member of the party order something different and share with the others.

There's something on the menu for just about everyone. For those with a low tolerance for spicy heat, bulgogi (marinated beef), chap chae (thin noodles with beef), or jajang myun (noodles and pork with black bean paste) may be a great introduction. Tang-su-yuk is essentially the Korean version of sweet and sour pork, but with more of a distinctly tangy sourness than the sickly sweetness of American-Chinese sweet and sour.

For the slightly more adventurous, there's dolsot bibim bap (beef, vegetables and egg with rice in a stone bowl) — or, for those with a penchant for sinus-clearing spice, the kimchee chigae (fermented cabbage soup), o-jing-a bokeum (spicy stir-fried squid), or any of a number of savory and spicy soups involving various meats and vegetables.

Each meal is served with several side dishes, some of which look unfamiliar to the average American diner. Try them all at least once; my favorites are the fish cakes and the black beans. A word to the wise, though: the red ones (kimchee) are indeed spicy.

Plenty of the soups and other entrees are appropriate for those who, like myself, are watching their girlish figure. Bad news for the vegetarians, though: the vegetarian selections are basically nonexistent.

The only other minor complaints I have about Koreana, as a frequent patron, are the sometimes-odd musical selections (from easy listening to classical) and the slowness of receiving the final bill. Those are minuscule issues, though, compared to the consistently delicious meals we've enjoyed there, especially over the past year. The owner's handcrafted woodwork continues to beautify the restaurant, adding charm to what was once a small, plain restaurant next to a strip bar. His wife's cooking is always extraordinary. And we will keep coming back for more.

(The Toledo City Paper is currently running a coupon for a free appetizer at Koreana! Try the shrimp shumai.)

Enjoying Toledo: Korea Na or Koreana (1/24/2010)
Toledo Blade: Restaurant review: Korea Na **** (7/9/2009)

Rate iPhone Apps Friday

I'm taking a page from Garrett Murray's playbook, and participating in Rate iPhone Apps Friday. In his words:

It’s that time again: Take 10 or 15 minutes out of your day today and rate/review some of the apps you use on your iPhone in the App Store. Most people have tons of apps on their phones, many of which they love, but we’re all guilty of forgetting or not bothering to review them in the store.

Today I reviewed Smart.fm (★★★★) and Echofon Pro for Twitter (★★★★).

Alas, I am discovering that, by using applications that my husband actually purchased and authorized me to install (up to 5 computers can be authorized, don't ya know), I will be unable to write reviews of many of the apps I have installed!

So, despite the fact that that people who need to see these reviews won't know they exist, I'm still going to write them anyway, and post them here on my blog, starting with Echofon.

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Wii Fit Revisited

I bought the first Wii Fit game and balance board back in May 2008. I used it for a while, but eventually got tired of not having the option of doing an entire workout — just individual exercises, one at a time, even when the game suggests several specific exercises to do together. ("Is that a yoga pose or a strength exercise that it thinks I should do next? It doesn't say...")

Today, I picked up Wii Fit Plus for $19.99 — not a bad price for a new game! Despite the "Plus" moniker, which might suggest you need Wii Motion Plus to play, it seems to only require the normal balance board (as far as I can tell). So far, I've only had it re-weigh me (I've gained six pounds since the last time I played, earlier this year), so I can't speak to the game's new features (including customizable workout routines), but you can bet I'll be talking about them later.

What was particularly fun, though, was getting Aaron back on the balance board. I made him get on it back in May of last year, to record his weight and input his info, and he hasn't touched it since. It's been 508 days, and he's lost over 67 pounds:

It took his Mii from looking like a Weeble-Wobble to looking like a normal, cute, superdeformed Aaron. Awesome!

Farewell, Saigon Bistro

Over a month ago now, Aaron and I were planning to take Aaron's brother out to lunch at the Saigon Bistro, the only Vietnamese restaurant in Toledo. When we arrived, we were angered and confused that the "Closed" sign was up. Upon closer inspection, they were VERY closed: the decorations had been removed from the foyer, and pots and pans were strewn about the dining area. Only then did we catch the significance of the truck and trailer that were parked in front.

The Saigon Bistro was closed. For good.

While we were contemplating where we were really going to eat lunch, I posted this unusually profane tweet:

Last weekend, Aaron and I drove past the restaurant again, just to make sure they hadn't been doing some major remodeling, or moved to another location. Alas, all the signage had been removed from the building, and a Restaurant For Lease sign was posted where the Closed sign used to be.

Writing a review is pointless now. Suffice to say that the Saigon Bistro had been one of our favorite restaurants, and became our go-to when we weren't sure what was for lunch. I sincerely miss my bún and chrysanthemum tea. Aaron was partial to the phở, which was also quite delicious.

I guess that when we want Vietnamese food now, we'll have to make a pilgrimage to Ann Arbor or Cleveland or some other more culinarily savvy city.

We miss you, Saigon Bistro.

Roadshow Recap

After reading this article about how to present while people are twittering, I thought it would be fun to have the iPhone out and a-twittering during today's MicroStrategy Roadshow in Cleveland. Alas, it seems that I still scribble physical notes faster than I can type on my iPhone. So, instead of live-tweeting the roadshow presentations, I opted to take notes for later publication instead.

If you're interested in Business Intelligence software and would like to know what I thought of the new features in MicroStrategy 9, read on. Otherwise, just know that I got up excessively early, learned a lot, and got excited about an updated product for my work.

[Update: in response to a reader's comment, I've expounded on a couple of new features of MicroStrategy 9: Personalized Prompt Answers and the new Graph Report Designer.]

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Review Addendum: Sigma 18-200mm Lens

My husband was surprised when I gave such an uncomplimentary review to the Sigma 18-200mm lens I recently purchased. True, I did originally drool over the idea of having a wide-angle and a telephoto in one lens. It's also true that the entirety of my "test" involved only low-light interiors: a sushi restaurant, a coffee shop, and our living room.

Before passing final judgment on this particular lens, I thought it only fair to research the other comparable lenses. By "comparable" I mean similar focal lengths and maximum apertures. I had thought to find a faster and more expensive lens but, as I discovered, even the most wide-open superzooms or walkabout lenses aren't suited for low light photography.

I do own a Sigma 50mm macro lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8, so I thought it would be only fair to compare the new superzoom with the 50mm prime lens, just to make sure I would be able to get the shots I was after with a faster lens. Earlier this week, I took a few identical photos with each lens to see how they compared.

This image basically embodies what I found: the results from the 50mm prime lens were definitely more passable, due to the faster shutter speed, but were still nothing to write home about.

If I were to want to take ambient light photos in this kind of lighting situation, I would likely brace myself and/or my camera against something stable, rather than shooting handheld alone. I would also crank up the ISO as far as possible — something I failed to do in either test.

I'm planning to give the walkaround lens more of a walkaround, learn to use it properly, and develop a steadier hand. I really am looking forward to having such a wide range of composition options open to me... although this will force me to consider all of them, rather than just working within what my 28-70mm (and my feet) can give me.

Treating Myself

The last time I got my hair cut was late September, when I got a much shorter 'do than I'd requested. It took four months for the front of my hair to finally grow out to where I'd wanted it in the first place. Meanwhile, the back was growing out all funky and ragged, and the layers I'd been given were atrocious.

So, this evening I headed out to my long-awaited appointment at Attitudes, per the suggestion of Kris's girlfriend. I knew going in that my haircut was going to be literally four or five times more expensive than my discount cut, but I was perfectly fine with that.

As Connie had promised, the receptionist asked if I'd like a beverage, and offered to take my coat for me. (Fancy!) Shortly thereafter, I was ushered in by my stylist's associate (read: understudy). When my stylist Kristie arrived, I explained to her the debacle of my previous haircut, and gave her an idea of what I wanted — basically, to shorten the back and to have the whole style generally cleaned up.

Now, to anyone who regularly goes to a "real" hair salon, the whole salon experience will seem like no big thing. For me, though, what followed was such a 180 from the discount place that I absolutely fell in love. First, I got an awesome shampoo and scalp massage. Incredibly relaxing. It made me realize how much I neglect my scalp when I wash my own hair.

When I came back out for my haircut, Kristie was especially attentive to details — down to checking the hairline at the nape of my neck BEFORE cutting it too close and realizing that I have a bit of a cowlick. She also showed her associate what she was doing and why, which was informative for me, too.

The proof is in the pudding, though. Here we have my before and after shots:

It's tough to see in the Before photo, but the back of my hair was horribly scraggly and long. Kristie cleaned it up fantastically, and, like I said, with exquisite attention to detail. The final outcome is a little rounder than I'd been thinking originally, but she didn't steer me wrong. I like it.

If you're looking for a hair salon in south Toledo, I highly recommend Attitudes. Everyone was very friendly and professional, and I came out with a hairstyle that I absolutely love. (Their shampoo and styling products also made my hair smell fantastic!)

I tipped Kristie 20%. I hope that's sufficient to express my appreciation.

Fujiyama Restaurant, Toledo OH

Fujiyama Restaurant is about two miles from our house; even if it weren't so conveniently located for us, though, I think we'd probably frequent this Japanese establishment more than the others in town.

Being the creatures of habit we are, Aaron and I tend to find something that works for us and stick with it. That said, although we stick with makizushi these days, we've tried several of the entrees at Fujiyama in the past, and haven't been disappointed with any of them. The shrimp tempura is huge, and could easily be shared by two people. The nabeyaki udon is also very large and very delicious.

Ordering from the sushi menu wasn't always up our alley, either; we used to prefer to pick the pre-selected sushi dinners, so we wouldn't have to choose from so much delicious sushi that we weren't really familiar with. The U.S. Collection was one of my favorites (Alaskan, Boston, California, and Philadelphia Maki). The sushi entrees also come with miso soup and salad (with the standard ginger dressing), so they're a great deal for a lot of food.

Lately, though, we order our sushi a la carte, from the sushi menu. We always start with a shiitake mushroom roll (one of the best in town) and usually a Philadelphia roll (possibly THE best in town). Beyond that, there are a wide variety of rolls to choose from, ranging from inexpensive vegetarian rolls all the way up to the Love Hotel (delicious, but expensive - see photo, left).

Most of the rolls at Fujiyama are inside-out rolls, with the rice on the outside and the veggies and protein on the inside. This leaves the outside available for the sesame seeds that we so enjoy, and that make Fujiyama's rolls just a little different from the others. Also worth noting is the size of the less expensive rolls; they all seem fairly large, unlike some other places in town that skimp on their cheaper vegetarian rolls.

(Top to bottom: shiitake mushroom, veggie futo, and Philly rolls)

Between the two of us, we generally order five rolls — four reasonably priced and one more expensive — plus an appetizer and tea. This usually runs us around $40, which seems to be on the less expensive side of sushi in Toledo.

Of the half-dozen sushi establishments we've visited in Toledo, Fujiyama remains our favorite. Their rolls are decently sized and reasonably priced, the presentation and plating is classy and unique, the service is always pleasant and prompt, and their location is ideal for us (and for University of Toledo students).

Fujiyama is highly recommended by Diana! If you're ever in Toledo, and you like Japanese food, definitely give it a try.

Time For A New Favorite Indian Restaurant.

Aaron and I tried Indian food for the first time at a little buffet in (or near) Pittsfield, Massachusetts, during our honeymoon. It took us a few years to discover that there are, in fact, Indian restaurants in Toledo, and we've been frequenting one in particular for probably a year now.

The Indian Jewel has a daily lunch buffet, featuring both meat and vegetarian dishes which are prominently labeled with their Indian names (and, sometimes, the English translations). The buffet comes with delicious naan (bread), and the service is perfectly acceptable for a buffet. The dinner portions are generous and reasonably priced, and are served in stylish copper serving vessels.

My Aikido dojo tends to frequent the other Indian restaurant in town, the Tandoor. I was honestly underwhelmed with their buffet selection, and only ate there once or twice with the dojo. As for our regular Indian fix, the Indian Jewel had given us no reason to go elsewhere — until recently, that is.

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Literary Dichotomy

I recently purchased two books on Amazon.com; one was a book on macrobiotics, and one was a book on mindless eating. One was recommended by someone I trust, while the other was one that I'd stumbled across online.

After reading both of these books (actually, I'm not quite done with the second book), I'm amused by the completely opposite nature of these books, and am intrigued by my reactions to each.

Before purchasing this book, I Googled the title and found the author's blog. I followed her posts for some time before deciding that, yes, I did enjoy her writing style, and she seemed like a reasonable and intelligent person, so I would buy her book. Plus, the price was right, at about $12.

I probably should have Googled more of the actual practice of macrobiotics before purchasing the book.

This book was a quick read, and I loved Ms. Porter's witty and accessible writing style. I still subscribe to her blog. But I just can't get behind the actual practice of macrobiotics. The book explained everything to me, clearly and simply — enough for me to realize that I just can't get behind the idea of foods having yang or yin energy by virtue of the direction in which they grow. (The fact that I keep getting my yin and yang mixed up is no fault of the author's.)

I would read about the different grains, about vegetables, about ways to prepare these foods — then get jolted out of whatever credulity I'd developed when I would read a passage about how a sludgy liver stifles creativity. The left-brained me was craving an excerpt from some sort of scientific study, or discussion about the acidity or alkalinity of certain foods (which was mentioned on occasion), or anything to bolster my belief in this way of eating. Alas, I rarely got anything of the sort out of the text.

(In fact, when I Googled the words "macrobiotic" and "scientific" later on, I was gravely disappointed to find that studies rarely find in favor of the macrobiotic diet, in terms of reversing illness and disease.)

As a freethinker who doesn't take anything on faith — not even teachings from my Zen teacher — I wasn't able to buy into the idea of macrobiotics for the sake of yin and yang and its effect on the body. I can appreciate eating whole, unprocessed foods; or "slow" foods; or even vegetarianism. But I can't link my spirituality to my eating habits.

I almost didn't post the name of this book, or the author, or a link of any kind, just because I did appreciate the book itself so much, and I'd hate for someone to find this review and decide not to buy the book because of what I have to say about it. The fact that I didn't personally get behind the ideas within is secondary to the fact that this is honestly a very good book about macrobiotics. Just because I wasn't converted doesn't mean it didn't explain things well. It also doesn't mean that I won't be using those 80-some-odd recipes contained therein; I'm actually looking forward to trying barley and couscous and quinoa. Just not quite to the degree the book suggests.

The second book, on the other hand, is chock full of scientific studies centered around the science and psychology of eating. Every chapter has multiple endnotes cited, references specific studies, and gives provable information about what makes people eat more or less. Mindless Eating is so full of tips and tricks and facts and ideas that it will probably take me another reading before I can actually absorb it all. It's a much slower and methodical read than the macrobiotics book, just because of all the densely-packed information written in a more formal, scientific tone.

It seems backward that I would have so much to say about a book I disagreed with, and so little to say about a book I'm so enthralled with, but the truth is that I'm unsure how to sum up all the information I've gleaned from Mindless Eating — especially since I'm not quite done reading it yet. One thing I can say, though, is that the reader might be better served to get this one from the library. Granted, I did just say that I'll need to read it through again to get everything out of it; after that, though, I don't see me using this as a reference book. This will have been more of a source for diet strategies, party food tips, and Jeopardy answers questions.

I just found it so amusing that I simultaneously bought two books about food that represented such different stances on the process of understanding one's food consumption. They did agree on one thing, though: we should rely on internal rather than external cues to decide when we're full, and we should eat more slowly, and chew more. Now that I can get behind.

Wii Fit: After One Week

I'm still regularly checking in with Body Tests using the Wii Fit Channel, although I don't actually "play" Wii Fit every day. It's been helping me notice and start to correct posture flaws and habits that I hadn't noticed before — for example, I tend to put more weight on my heels than on the balls of my feet. My center of balance also tends toward the left, presumably as a result of (or at least related to) a long-ago drum corps injury.

The balance tests that Wii Fit uses in the Body Test can be... well, they can be learned, shall we say. There are certain tests that start out challenging, but your reaction time can be increased once you learn the pattern (lean to the right to anticipate the first stage, then tweak your balance slightly until you clear the stage, then lean to the left to anticipate the next stage, and so on). There are other, more random tests that I haven't yet found the pattern for, though. The combination of predictable and unpredictable tests makes my Wii Fit Age volatile sometimes; if I get two predictable tests together, my Wii Fit Age can be as much as 12 years younger than my actual age. If I get two challenging tests, it can be several years older. Usually, with a reasonable mix of tests, I end up either at or just below my actual age.

I have noticed that my tricky left knee (again, from that old drum corps injury) has been acting up lately, and I'm guessing it might be from either playing Wii balance games or from tweaking my balance during the day. I'm thinking that it's a combination of both, as my knee doesn't take well to being put in different weight-bearing positions than it's used to. This will likely improve as I strengthen my leg muscles (and lose some weight, too).

If I wasn't already an anal-retentive bastard about recording my weight on a regular basis, the Wii Fit weight chart would be a new and swell thing. As it is, the Wii Fit chart is but one more weight charting tool in my arsenal, added to my multiple Excel graphs (tracking over the past five years) and the widget on my iGoogle page. Even so, it is nice to stand in front of my giant HDTV and see a slowly-declining weight plotted before me.

In other fun news, Wii Fit asked me yesterday how Aaron's doing. Not rhetorically, either — it had me answer whether I thought he was losing weight, gaining, or staying the same. Aaron did create a profile in Wii Fit, so it knows that he exists, even if he hasn't actually "played" Wii Fit. That makes me wonder what kinds of questions and comments it would throw out there if Aaron were actually using the game regularly...

When I do play actual mini-games in Wii Fit, I tend to stick with the balance games, and sometimes aerobic games like Hula Hoop. I'll do the occasional yoga pose, but I rarely delve into the strength training (although I probably should, judging from my performance on the push-up / side plank exercise).

Overall, I'd still give the game a B. It's not the awesome breakthrough hit that I thought it might be, but I'm not disappointed that I bought it.

And, finally, here's the difference a set of balance sensor extenders can make.

Before adding the extenders:

And after, with my correct weight (and Mii proportions):

Sigh.

Wii Fit: A Clarification

After discussing our respective Wii Fit experiences with an old college buddy (specifically, an RCC employee, for those RCC alumni playing at home), I decided that the Wii Balance Board can't be that flawed. So, I installed the Balance Sensor Extenders that I had assumed would be unnecessary for as short of carpet as we have.

Voila! My weight registered today as... well, as my correct weight, shall we say, and my BMI was the 29-and-change I had expected it to be. Unfortunately, it means that my Mii got way fatter, since Wii Fit extrapolates from your BMI and adjusts the corpulence of your Mii accordingly.

So, I take back my assertion that the Balance Board is not a good scale, and instead replace that assertion with the completely valid concept of RTFM.

I tried a couple of new exercises in Wii Fit today, while I was waiting for my dinner to get done: one new yoga pose (sun salutation — again, simplified in a big way), one strength (torso twist), and a few balance games (soccer ball headers, ski slalom, and ski jump). Apparently, I just skipped the balance games last night entirely, in favor of the aerobics. The balance games are by far the most fun for me at this point, as far as actual gameplay is concerned, and I did myself and my readership a disservice by deeming the game meh-worthy before playing said balance games.

I will, therefore, give Wii Fit a tentative rating of a B. I may change my mind after I play it a while longer.

Wii Fit

My first impression: OMG, I've spent $90 on a piece of crap that I'll never use. Go me!

I warmed up to it after a while, though, really. It just didn't hit me as totally awesome right off the bat like Wii Bowling did, or like Dance Dance Revolution did years and years ago.

Things that made me a little doubtful from the get-go:

1. The Balance Board is NOT an accurate scale. It shows me as being at my ultimate goal weight, some 30 pounds less than I am now.
2. I took the initial Body Test twice (once before dinner, and once after), and it gave me two VERY different Wii Fit Ages. The first time, it said I had the fitness level of a 34-year-old; the second, 27. I'm actually 32. How can I be so unfit and then so healthy in the same day?
3. The first activity listed is Yoga. While I understand why — stretching is important before exercise, and yoga is all over that — doing deep breathing, half-moon pose, warrior pose (a simplified version), and tree pose is not exactly party time.

What saved it for me was the aerobics. The Hula Hoop® is actually quite a workout (especially when you open up SUPER Hula Hoop®). Step aerobics are done much like DDR — step off behind or to the side, and back on, in time with Miis on-screen and simple, easy-to-understand footprint graphics. Running is actually fun, too, which I hadn't expected, since you're just putting the wiimote in your pocket and jogging in place (not on the balance board), basically changing the speed of your footfalls to keep up with the Mii in front of you.

I tend to think of the Wii as a party-game console, as many gamers do. This *could* be used as a party game, I suppose, if you hang with people who like to point and laugh at their friends trying to twirl a virtual hula hoop. Some of the balance games could be mighty fun, too... especially if you're drunk.

Will I actually use this for fitness? I'd better, since I paid almost $100 for it. Seriously, though, some of the games and activities are engaging enough, while still being quite the workout. (I was breaking a good sweat after 10 minutes of Wii Fit aerobics.) It'll be more fun than throwing in a 45-minute workout DVD, and I can decide when I've had enough without feeling guilty for ducking out early on Billy Blanks.

Anime Punch 2008: Armageddicon III

This weekend, Aaron and I took a trip down to Columbus for our first anime convention in over a year. Honestly, it was nice just to get out of town for a weekend. The convention, however, was a great time, as always.

Anime Punch has been one of our favorite conventions the couple of times we've attended, just because they a.) stick to actual anime themes, instead of being an all-encompassing anime / gaming / J-rock convention; b.) insert their collective sense of humor into everything; and c.) include intellectual and intriguing academic panels alongside the typical fan panels. This year was no exception.

But let me begin at the beginning: with bologna sandwiches in Waldo...

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All The Better To Kiss You With

I'm not usually one to be immediately sucked in by any sort of endorsement, be it from a friend or a celebrity or a celebrity blogger. Somehow, though, after Dooce posted about All The Better To Kiss You With organic lip balm last month (with a much better photo than my own, as always), I found myself on the BABYBEARSHOP website, ordering myself a three-pack of organic lip balm.

Apparently, the Force is strong with Dooce, because I was just one of many who bumrushed the BABYBEARSHOP all at once, so much so that they felt the need to apologize for the (very minor) delay in shipping my order.

I was tickled when I finally received my lip balm — probably a little *too* tickled, honestly. But they were all wrapped together in this ornate blue butterfly tissue paper, which was all folded and tucked in around the tiny tins like a cross between origami and a note I'd have passed in Junior High. As silly as it sounds, I enjoyed the process of unfolding the tissue paper and revealing the product inside. The packaging for the lip balms themselves is also very ornate and antique-inspired. I love it.

As for the actual product, it also does not disappoint. The three flavors available are Chai Mandarin, Lavender Vanilla, and Pepperminty. My current favorite is the Chai Mandarin. For the first few days I had the lip balm, I was applying it every hour or so. At my desk. In the office. My lips were just drinking it in. It was awesome. And I'm not sure I believe it myself, but it really seems like my lips are softer and not so prone to chapping in this nasty cold weather as they were a couple of weeks ago.

Plus, man, this stuff smells great. It's giving me ideas for soy candles.

The Flaming Lips in Concert

[Posted on Flickr by dianaschnuth].

This was quite possibly the most fun I've ever had at a concert.

Not only are the Lips an incredible band from a musical and lyrical standpoint, but they put on a great show. The audience participation bits actually don't seem cheesy or silly. —Well, I guess they do seem a little silly, but no one really seems to mind. Who cares, when you're beaming a laser pointer (provided by the Lips) off of a giant mirror, or participating in a "scream-along," or bouncing a giant balloon through the crowd up to the very top of the upper balcony?

You MUST check out the rest of my Flaming Lips photos. They tell some of the story. As for the rest of the story... you really just had to be there.

Best concert EVAR.

ETA: Here's the first couple minutes of the show, recorded by Yours Truly:

Deathly Hallows: Done. (No Spoilers)

I'm not quite ready to write a giant spoileriffic review yet. Suffice to say, without mentioning any real plot points, that this book was packed with adventure in places, ungodly slow in others, and most of the loose ends were wrapped up to my satisfaction. I chuckled, I got all misty, I generally got as involved in this book as any other HP book. The epilogue left me wanting, just a little, but still gave me that little morsel of So Now What?

I need some more time to let it sink in (and to let all my friends — including my spouse — finish reading). Overall, I feel that this was more than a sufficient ending to the series. It does feel a little saddening, though — no more Harry Potter books to look forward to.

Later, perhaps, I'll give things some more thought and write more in-depth. For now, though, I'll just let everyone finish first.

Harry Potter: Spoiler-Free!

Don't worry; no spoilers here. Not even for the movie that just came out. I know there are people like my friend Mark who only watch the movies and don't read the books, for whatever reason.

So, I just finished re-reading Book 6 (Half-Blood Prince) this evening, and saw Movie 5 (Order of the Phoenix) on Sunday. Suffice to say, I am completely stoked for Saturday's release of Book 7 (Deathly Hallows). The only problem is going to be staying spoiler-free until I can finish the book!

I have an aikido seminar on Saturday, so Aaron will get a few hours of reading time while I'm off being tossed about (10am to noon and 3pm to 6pm, I believe). Then we'll be spending Sunday together, as per usual, but I'll get a little reading time while I'm doing laundry and he's off doing grocery shopping. By the time I really get into the meat of the book (Monday evening after work), most hardcore HP fans will have already finished this final book of the series.

I don't remember how I got spoiled for HP6, but I do remember that I was halfway through reading it when I heard the big spoiler about the ending. Granted, I still didn't know how said event would take place, and it may have even made me more jumpy about every little plot twist... but I knew what would happen in the end, and that took just a little wind out of my sails, and took just a little of the Oh Shit moment away from the inevitable.

So, here I declare that I intend to remain SPOILER FREE about the final book of the series for as long as possible. Woe be unto anyone who spoils the story for me, for I will be Pissed Off. Please, *please*, at least ask me what chapter I'm on before blurting out something in conversation (verbal or otherwise).

Staying spoiler-free is a challenge already, though, because the HP books make me want to speculate about the characters and their motives. That's one of the great things about JKR's universe. Granted, I can see what some authors and critics say about her writing style in places; but once I get wrapped up in the story, the adverbs honestly don't act as speed bumps. Hell, I have a hard time not letting my eyes stray to the facing page to see what will happen next, more often than not.

Back to the point, though: JKR's characters just invite speculation and introspection. That, to me, is the sign of a successful and highly engaging universe. However, one can't go speculating too much right before the release of a new book, or one is likely to have the book spoiled for oneself. So, no Leaky Cauldron or Mugglenet for me — not like I'm a frequenter of either under normal circumstances. However... if you ARE looking for spoilers, Mugglenet might be where you want to go, from the looks of some of their link titles. *I'm* certainly not clicking on the link that says, "Confirmed Information: What we actually know about Deathly Hallows."

Regarding the Order of the Phoenix movie... I haven't historically been a fan of the HP movies. I watched the first movie on DVD, and half of the second, but I just couldn't get into either. I vastly preferred the characters and settings that had been painted in my mind already. I couldn't get behind Alan Rickman as Snape, although he really does fit the part. (I was still hung up on him as Metatron from Dogma.) After seeing Order of the Phoenix, though, I'm going to have to at least go back and watch Goblet of Fire.

Without giving away any plot points in particular, let me just say that, as in all book-to-movie adaptations, a good deal of characterization was dropped from the story in favor of proper cinematic pacing. The book was a major building and backstory piece, whereas the movie seemed almost frenetic in getting all the necessary plot points in. Nothing was dwelt on quite long enough, it seemed. A very few minor plot points were changed completely, either to cut down on the number of major characters involved or to close some loopholes (one in particular to which I had been desperately clinging).

The special effects, for the most part, were amazing. Broomstick rides, magic duels, settings in general were well-done; they didn't eject me from the movie ("Wow! Those are cool special effects!"), but rather drew me into the magical world of Harry Potter. The acting was greatly improved from what I'd seen in the earlier movies, of course. Some of the lines that were added near the end, though, that weren't originally in the book, did come across as overly hokey and out of place.

I know I'm not a movie reviewer (nor do I play one on TV), but I did want to go over some of my thoughts about the movie while it was still fresh in my mind.

Not long now until the final installment is available for public consumption! And remember... no spoilers!

CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

I Think I'm Learning Japanese

A while back, Aaron borrowed the Pimsleur Language Program Japanese: The Short Course audiobook from the library. It was really almost on a whim — we were looking through the books-on-CD, and there it was. We hadn't booked our trip yet, but we'd seriously discussed it; so Aaron borrowed the CDs from the library and ripped them to mp3s, which we promptly loaded onto our respective iPods.

One of the basic tenets of the Pimsleur Approach is that you listen, repeat, and engage in "conversations" with the native speakers on the CD — but you are NOT supposed to go look up how to write or spell the words. This is problematic for me, as I am naturally a visual speaker: I remember what words look like. Some people remember what letter a word or name starts with; I remember how many letters it has. If I can't see how the word is formed properly, I'll make it up in my head, and that's probably not good.

For example, in the first lesson, you learn the word for "a little," which is pronounced "skōsh". Knowing what I know about Japanese already, I knew that the romanji spelling was probably "sukoshi". While I really, REALLY appreciate the correct native pronunciations, not knowing how things are spelled (in our alphabet, anyway) makes some words difficult for me to remember.

I've discovered a solution: fellow bloggers who have already completed the Pimsleur Method lessons. These individuals have transcribed the conversations, new words, and review words in each lesson. I glanced over the Lesson 3 notes briefly before I listened to Lesson 3 today during my lunchtime walk, and I think it helped.

My favorite phrase right now? Watashi wa Nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu. Demo mada jouzu ja arimasen.

I'm also enjoying the JapanesePod101 Survival Phrases. I've taken to listening to one 30-minute Pimsleur lesson during the beginning of my lunchtime walk, then following it up with a 10 to 15-minute Survival Phrase podcast. I find that it brings me down slowly from the intensity of the Pimsleur method of learn-and-recall, but it lets me stay in the zone just a little while longer and learn some more vocab in a more light-hearted way.

Both JapanesePod101 and Pimsleur are teaching me phrases that will be ultimately very helpful in Japan, I think. Pimsleur is giving me stuff like, "I'm sorry," "I understand Japanese a little," "Do you understand English," and other standard niceties... so far. JapanesePod101 is teaching me stuff like, "(Repeat) one more time, please," "Slowly," "What is your name," "All right (OK)," and other helpful tips, like using the "magical 'wa'" to infer a question. I'm enjoying having the dichotomy of the formal vs. the informal, and I like aspects of both. If I had to choose only one, I'd pick Pimsleur, hands-down... but I really do prefer pitting the two against each another for a more robust learning experience. ^_^

I had a bit of a Japanese epiphany today, and it combines my otaku geekery with my musician geekery. It occurs to me that some vowels in Japanese are pronounced like you would "ghost" notes in jazz. When I marched in the Bluecoats (a drum corps known for performing jazz), there was one particular phrase in which the brass staff had us "ghost" a note. That is, we pushed down the valves that would produce the note, but didn't actually blow any air through the horn. The result is a note that is almost audible; it's difficult to explain verbally, but makes perfect sense if you have a musical background. (Musicians and former musicians, back me up on this.)

Some Japanese syllables — most notably, "su" and "shi" and "ki" (and many others, I'm sure, in various word positions) — have vowels that aren't voiced. They don't seem to be silent, exactly, but they aren't as pronounced as the others. And it struck me today, during my walk, that those vowels are like ghosted notes. You move your mouth like you're saying them, but no sound really comes out. The result is a vowel that you might almost hear if you know it's there. Not really like a apostrophe... it's still there, just not emphasized, or really voiced at all. (Japanese language enthusiasts, tell me if I've got it right.)

I'm really enjoying learning a new language, and for a purpose, working toward a goal — that goal being basic communication in a foreign land at a specified time in the near future, rather than a high school or college exam. I'm enjoying making my brain wrap itself around new concepts again. It's a feeling I hadn't realized I'd missed.

OMG Japan trip! *squee*

Ohayocon7 Retrospective, Part I: Fried Bologna Sandwiches

[Posted on Flickr by dianaschnuth].

I haven't blogged about the last few cons Aaron and I have attended, mainly because I prefer to save my opinions and narratives for Aaron's podcast. This time, though, there are enough other random, un-anime things that deserve mention that I think I'll go ahead and blog about the weekend. And I will begin at the beginning, with fried bologna sandwiches in Waldo, Ohio...

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Au Naturale

When I was in middle school, I had the hardest time finding a deodorant that would keep me smelling fresh. Mom's deodorant didn't cut it for me, and it wasn't until I saw an advertisement for a deodorant that was "So effective you could even skip a day™" that I finally found my brand. Over the years, my Lady Mitchum has served me well, though the products have changed from normal solid antiperspirant to a roll-on to a "hydrosolid" to a gel.

Recently, I got razorburn on my left armpit. Around the same time, I switched from my normal gel back to the "hydrosolid" that was on clearance. The hydrosolid ended up giving me a nasty rash where the razorburn was, so I had to forego the use of deodorant on my left pit for a few days, so it could heal. Eww.

Actually, it could have been worse. I put baby powder on my freshly-washed pit every morning, and it was fine until well after I got home in the evening. And, strangely enough, I enjoyed the feeling of letting my armpit breathe. That, plus a well-timed article in a health magazine, made me wonder if maybe I shouldn't switch to a more natural deodorant.

Early this week, I received a shipment from Kiss My Face: natural deodorant, with no aluminum salts to clog the pores and possibly cause a host of medical problems. I've been using it all week, and it seems to work OK. Honestly, I'm not positive how much more effective this stuff is than the baby powder method, but it does smell nice. Like lavender. (I haven't tried the patchouli yet, but it smells pretty strong. I'm gonna smell like a hippie.)

Right now, at almost midnight, my deodorant has long since worn off. That's OK, though. I don't mind the smell of me as much as I once did, especially since I'm all by my lonesome. I might reapply in the evenings if Aaron were here to smell my naturalness. :-)

Again, as I said once before, mentioning that one has BO is probably not the best thing to do on one's blog. But I'm feeling liberated from the evils of aluminum, and wanted to share. And the point of the natural deodorant is not to have BO in social situations, which I don't.

It really does make you think about what our deodorant-deprived ancestors smelled like on a daily basis, or about people in other cultures or other countries — like the Mennonite I shared a Greyhound bus seat with, once upon a time. I don't smell *that* strong, but it does make you wonder. Doesn't it?

Ouran High School Host Club

My experience with anime and manga has mainly been through Aaron. After ten years together, he has a feel for things I would probably like, and introduces me to them. That's how I found out about Neon Genesis Evangelion, Serial Experiments Lain, Tonari No Totoro and all the other Studio Ghibli movies, and all my other favorite anime (of which I may or may not have yet finished watching the entire series). Hence, I get exposure to a lot of robots and mecha (like Eva), or blatant mind-fuck anime (like Lain, and like Eva), and some sci-fi type titles. I haven't really gotten into the shonen titles, because I'm not much for ninjas and hack-and-slash type entertainment.

However, I am also not a overly girly person by nature. I shy away from anime featuring bishonen or magical girls or anything overly girlish. If not for Erin's manga review of the Ouran High School Host Club, I would certainly have passed it by without a second glance. I mean, really. A bunch of obviously bishonen guys on the covers of this manga, and with a pink and purple cover, no less? Please.

Erin's review piqued my interest, though:

By 2002 host clubs were all the rage.... Rich women would pay big money to talk to hot young men. Ouran High School Host Club is the high school equivalent thereof - idle rich girls at a private academy hang out with the host club's hot young men in an ornate, unused library. They're not looking for sexual favors later, but they might want a date.

The protagonist, Haruhi (Haru for short), stumbles unknowingly into the club, breaks an $80,000 vase, is mistaken for being a hot guy herself, and is forced to work as a host to pay back her debt. At least one character is surprised to discover that Haru is actually a frumpy girl and not a guy - as a scholarship student she simply couldn't afford the school's fancy uniforms.

Much of the humor of the book is derived from fact that Haru is middle class while the boys are upper class. They've never had instant coffee or instant ramen! Haru has never had fatty tuna! The rest of the humor stems from Haru's calmness as she is surrounded by metrosexual prettyboy dramaqueens, many of whom need their egos stroked continually. Haru becomes the calm in the middle of the host club maelstrom.

Ever since listening to this review on the Ninjaconsultant podcast, I've been buying up the English translations of the Ouran High School Host Club manga. And just last week, Aaron told me that he'd heard that the manga was being made into an anime — so, of course, I went out and downloaded the fansubs via BitTorrent.

Maybe it was just my inexperience with the act of reading manga (right-to-left just ain't natural to me), but it took me watching the anime to finally realize why it is that I love this series so much. Sure, there are the guilty pleasures of looking at cute (yes, cute, but not necessarily handsome) high school boys. Even more than that, though, is the protagonist's view of the metrosexual guys she's forced to hang out with, and the flighty fluffies who come to the host club to drool over them.

The biggest draw for me, I just realized, is the satire. The stereotypes are fantastically funny: the supposedly popular guy whose ego gets crushed whenever anyone sees through him, the twins who border on having just a little too much "brotherly love", the baby-faced Senior who carries around a stuffed bunny, the smart and diabolical schemer behind-the-scenes. Even Haru is kind of dull-witted at times, more so in the anime than in the manga, which makes for hi-jinx and hilarity when the punch line needs a little more beating into the ground to be truly funny.

There are six volumes of the manga available in English, and currently there are 13 episodes of the anime, which is still in production in Japan. Until Ouran is licensed in the U.S., I will valiantly download and watch every fansubbed episode, and be proud of myself for reading a manga and watching an anime that Aaron didn't find first.

Fan-Freaking-Tastic

So, I saved five bucks by getting the new Civilization IV Presell Edition from Amazon with free shipping, which meant that, yes, I got the cool spiral-bound manual and fold-out Tech Tree and keyboard shortcut map and neato box and all that. For only $44.99!

It took a while to get it, what with the free Super Saver shipping and all, so when it arrived, all my willpower to resist playing Civ 4 went straight out the window.

Then I tried to play it.

Dude, where's my map? I can't see anything! I thought at first that maybe I just hadn't explored far enough, but once I started building cottages and roads and pastures and shit, and I *still* couldn't see, I realized something was terribly wrong.

Dude, where's your head?! This looks like the outtakes from Shrek — you know, where they accidentally rendered Donkey inside-out? And his teeth and eyeballs were on the outside, and his fur was all spiky? Yeah.

Updated my video drivers, no help there. Tried a Windows Update, but I'm good there, too. Finally, I found a forum off of the 2kgames website, where I learned all about the "T&L" graphics thingie I read about on the box:

Solver (forum staff member) says:

T&L is a requirement, and that Intel graphics craptroller doesn't have it.

Yes, indeedy, my Dell Dimension 3000 has an integrated Intel graphics card.

*pauses for giant hissy fit*

OMG, Civ is one of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE games. I never needed anything fancy with my graphics card before. I'm not a big PC gamer, really. I'm content with Civ and Starcraft and occasionally Warcraft.

I'm not sure who to be pissed at: the makers of Civ 4, who assumed that everyone who's anyone would have a graphics card that supports T&L (which I'm honestly still not sure what it is which stands for Transform & Lighting, an apparent staple of 3D graphics), or the nice people at Dell and Intel, who didn't integrate what seems to be a fairly normal and not at all cutting-edge technology into their graphics cards.

In either case, the game is currently fucking unplayable on my machine. I either have to a.) hope to God it plays on Aaron's Dell Dimension 4600, and that he won't mind if I bogart his computer while he's gone at work, b.) spend X number of dollars on a new graphics card (does my computer even have another slot for a graphics card?), or c.) cry a lot and bang my head on my keyboard.

Fuckity fuck fuck goddamn mother fuck.

It looked like it was going to be so super fucking cool, too. I am severely pissed right now.

FUCK.

(And, yes, I know it's just a game. But I've been super-geeked to play this game for over a month now, and this is really shitty.)

Update: Wish I would have known about this site before I blew $45 on Civ 4:

Oh, and FYI? I am not buying any of the fucking $300 video cards they recommend. Maybe I'll dig up some reviews of the Diamond Stealth S80 or the GeForce4 MX 4000 or something. Effectively turning my cool $45 game into a $100 game.

*sigh* Just chalk another one up to me being a big stupid fuckhead sometimes.

Bob Mould: Detroit 10-1-2005

Here's my first attempt at a homegrown MySQL photo album: 10 photos from the Bob concert last weekend.

Fantastic show. Bob started out with three songs from his early-90's band Sugar, which I'm fairly sure gave Aaron and me simultaneous geekgasms. The entire gamut of Bob's solo career, Sugar, and Husker Du were all represented in the setlist, which almost made up for my missing Sugar in concert by a few years.

Aaron's better at concert reviews than I am, so maybe he'll post something more in-depth in the comments. Until then, suffice to say that this was the best concert I've been to in a very long time. I hadn't seen Bob for fucking years, and this show was extraordinary. Awesome.

Last.fm

Audioscrobbler was, at first, a curiosity for me. I downloaded a plugin, and it gave me stats about the music I listen to. It could also spit out an RSS file of what I've been listening to in the recent past, which was also quite cool.

It suddenly got cooler.

Audioscrobbler has rebranded itself Last.fm, and can now give even more statistics. Click the "recommendations" link, and Last.fm will look at your favorite artists and give you some other artists you might want to check out. (For me, Last.fm suggests The White Stripes, Wilco, Weezer, Badly Drawn Boy, and Ben Folds Five, among others. I'm already a White Stripes fan, but I don't listen to them much anymore — Last.fm doesn't know that, though.)

The absolute coolest part of the new Last.fm, though, is the free Last.fm player. Without paying for a premium Last.fm subscription, you can download the player, click the "Start Radio" link, and select "neighbour radio" to listen to music selected from your Last.fm Neighbours, people who share similar musical tastes with you. Plus, the Last.fm Player transmits the songs you've heard, so that they count in your own Recent Tracks and get added to your stats. If I thought shuffle play on my iPod was sweet, this kicks it up a notch. BAM!

But wait! There's more! On certain artists' Last.fm info pages, you can click a "preview track" button to listen to a stream of 30-second previews of the artists' songs. Very cool feature, and it saves the time of going and searching for the most popular song by an artist and downloading it and deciding whether it rocks or sucks before downloading (er, I'm sorry, I meant buying) the entire album.

No, I was not paid for this plug. I've just enjoyed discovering this new aspect of my cute little Audioscrobbler. I mainly use Audioscrobbler / Last.fm for finding new music, and this makes the process much more streamlined.

There are some bugs with the system, though. The Last.fm Player is still a touch new, and the buffer stutters sometimes, but I haven't had too much trouble with it and it's starting to bug me, especially when it totally stops playing and I have to relaunch the app. Also, the Audioscrobbler plugin for iTunes doesn't upload the play count from my iPod — which is unfortunate, as I listen to most of my music on my iPod these days (several hours at work vs. a couple hours at home).

It's fun, though. Go sign up. I'll be your friend, and it'll be keen.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

In recent memory, there has been no other book that has made me so pensive for an entire day after having read it. Almost melancholy, even. I was distracted all day at work, thinking about the ending and the relationships between characters and what was set up for Book 7.

If you haven't finished reading HBP yet, and you intend to do so, you might want to hold off on reading this spoiler-laden post.

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Bob Mould: Body of Song

No, I haven't found the leaked album. But it's not for lack of trying.

It's late, so this will be kind of disjointed, but I wanted to get my first thoughts written down.

I was surfing through my blogroll, hitting sites I hadn't hit in a while, when I surfed over to Bob Mould's blog. He's been promising us a guitar-driven album for a while now—several years, in fact—and, lo and behold, Body of Song is finally due for release next month! I also learned from Bob's blog that the album had been leaked.

Which, of course, set me to trying to find it.

I did manage to find it on Soulseek, but the guy logged off before I could get ANY of it. Now, you watch: I'll wake up in the morning and Aaron will have read this and downloaded a torrent of it overnight. [No, wait, there it is. Only 3.5 KB/sec, but it's going. I'll have it by the time Aaron gets home.]

Anyway, I did find a couple of sanctioned tracks: (Shine Your) Light Love Hope, and Paralyzed.

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Revenge Of The Sith

I don't want to like it. I don't want to look forward to it. I don't want to even hope it will be "good."

But... damn. I just can't help it.

Could it be...? Characters in which we feel a vested interest? Plot that draws us in? The dark, ominous feel that we all loved in The Empire Strikes Back?

Is it too much to hope?

Picking Up Another Old Hobby

Genealogy.

It's been quite a while since I worked on my family history, but the thought crossed my mind this week that I'd promised my Grandpa Cook that I'd send him copies of some of the work I'd done. Yeah, that was back in August of 2004. I'm a bad granddaughter. :-/

So, this evening I made it my mission to fire up the printer and scanner and copy the pages Grandpa had requested. During this operation, I realized that there was a death certificate I had received a while ago that I never recorded in my genealogy software... Then I remembered that I'd wanted to search for a decent genealogy program for Windows, so I wouldn't have to fire up the now-obsolete Power Mac just to do genealogy work.

Next mission: burn a hybrid disc of all the stuff on my Mac that I might need in the future, including importable genealogy files. No problem.

Now I had to find some Windows software to one-up my wonderfully-simplistic and long-beloved genealogy shareware for Macintosh (called Gene). See, I'd appropriated a copy of the popular Family Tree Maker years ago, and decided to stick with Gene because I found FTM way too fussy. Too many features for my taste.

But, tonight, I found Brother's Keeper, which is working smashingly for me so far. It does have a slight learning curve, but I'm liking all the features that allow me to fix my database, relinking spouses and children and such. It even has a search for "unreasonable" dates, like a parent being less than 14 when a child is born (or, in the case of a few of my entries, a child being born before a parent).

So, I've spent all this time playing with the database-streamlining features of BK, and I still haven't entered Granny Maudie's mother's death certificate. I'll have to do that before I go to bed.

Damn... Like I said before, too many hobbies.

Ohayocon5

I'm still working on a weekend review, but I did manage to finish my Ohayocon5 photo gallery. (I've gotta come up with a new way to make slideshows for my site—besides Flickr.)

There is also a great collection of photos at fansview.com, in addition to an informative narrative on the weekend.

Edit:
OK, here's the overview I promised. Now, it's kind of cold in this room, so my fingers are a little stiff; plus, I didn't take notes during the weekend like I'd planned. So, I don't promise literary greatness here. But, hopefully, between my photos and my narrative, you'll get the general idea.

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Just A Geek

Before I begin my review of Wil Wheaton's latest book, I'd like to take a moment to point out one thing.

I think that I've figured out the difference between us simple plebes and the blogging elite of the Blogosphere™. They don't necessarily have something wittier, funnier, stranger, or generally more worthy to post—well, OK, maybe they do. The point I wanted to make, though, is that when the rest of us post, it's almost stream-of-consciousness. At best, it's a first draft. You can't make me believe that when Dooce or Wil or any other well-known blogger posts, that they haven't at least read and edited once before they hit that Save button. Sure, I skim for spelling and grammatical errors and other indignities, but I don't draft my blog entries like I once drafted ENG 112 syntheses.

And maybe I should.

Now, for the review...

My husband bought me Wil Wheaton's latest book, Just A Geek, as a Christmas present.

I read it yesterday.

OK, I exaggerate. I read one chapter at the laundromat Sunday, the end of the appendices at work today, and the rest I read yesterday. It was that engaging.

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Tegan & Sara: Live in Cleveland

After the mildly disappointing BGSU Libraries Record Sale on Saturday, Mark came over to our house and we headed out to Cleveland to see Tegan and Sara live at the The Grog Shop.

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Aaron's New Toy

...is tres cool. It arrived last night (with my Christmas present, which I'm trying to forget about like he tried to forget about knowing about his party. That reminds me: I still need to post pics from the surprise party).

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Reynolds Laundromat: Maiden Voyage

After last week's highly disappointing trip to the Marathon Laundry & Tan, I decided to try out the other local laundry.

First, though, do allow me to tell you of the highly annoying experience I had at the Marathon Laundry & Tan last weekend.

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The Incredibles

Last night, Mark and Aaron and I went to see The Incredibles at Showcase Cinemas Maumee.

I have decided that all Pixar films rock.

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Kill Bill Volume 2: Less Blood, More Plot

Upon seeing the "sequel," I could really tell how the two halves were supposed to fit together as a whole. Watched in succession, the pacing of the two movies would be perfect. While Kill Bill Volume 1 focused on The Bride and her single-minded revenge, Volume 2 focuses more on the backstory and why her revenge is so necessary (and so flawlessly executed). The alteration of pacing would be a cleansing of the palette after two hours of jam-packed hack-and-slash gore—you've got it out of your system, so now let's see more of why she's on a murderous rampage. If you didn't enjoy Volume 1 because of the over-the-top blood and guts, you may enjoy Volume 2 more for its drama and plot and character development. However, if you enjoyed Volume 1 solely for the gratuitous violence and much fast-paced kicking of asses, you may be mildly disappointed in the lack of equally massive gore in the second installation of the story (although it does still have its share). Remember, The Bride has fewer people to kill in this movie, anyway. :-)

Apart from seeing Kill Bill, Amy and Aaron and I went to Subway for lunch, then the Low Carb Solutions store for the infamous pork rinds, then to Allied and Goodwill and Savers before we got our movie tickets. Fun weekend, great weather, and Amy's visit most certainly saved us from doing yardwork all weekend.

Ah, well. There's always next weekend.

Rollins in Ann Arbor

Need to get my shower and get to sleep, but I just felt the need to update. It's been a few days.

Went to see Henry Rollins do his spoken word thing in Ann Arbor on Sunday. I was worried that the drunk bastard sitting behind us would ruin the entire show instead of just the first 20 minutes, but he mercifully passed out and didn't wake up until the show was almost over, nearly three hours later. I swear, we can't get away from the drunken fucks even when we pay for reserved seats. —But drunken debauchery aside, Rollins was on top of his game, as always, with tales of his recent USO tour in Afghanistan and of a would-be burglar "running like a scared bitch," as one Abe-lover I know would say. :-) Gotta get a Rollins fix every couple of years, just like Clutch.

While we were in Ann Arbor, we stopped by the anime store (of course), a couple record stores, and a couple of book stores. I ended up buying Nichelle Nichols' autobiography, Beyond Uhura, a book on the making of Star Trek entitled Star Trek Lives!, and a trade-paperback edition of an Asimov-universe book that Aaron had already bought for me in small paperback form for Christmas. I felt kind of bad buying that one, but the size and artwork matched the two hardbacks I have for the other books of the set, and I just couldn't resist. I may eBay the other paperback, but I may not. It was a present, after all.

Incidentally, I am absolutely hooked on Nichelle Nichols' book. I can't put it down.

I ordered some new candle scents that should be arriving soon: ginger, chamomile, green tea... and marshmallow. I also ordered tealight tins and wicks, so now I can pour a bunch of little candles and burn them together to test-mix fragrances. I still need to get some additives and a couple more dyes before I get going full-steam again, but I'm looking forward to it.

OK, my 20-minute session of Pilates kind of whipped my butt again tonight, so I'm hitting the shower and going to bed. Of course, once I'm there, I'll probably read for a good half-hour before I actually go to sleep...

Clutch at Howard's

Here's a (slightly edited) e-mail Aaron sent out to our friends about the incredible Clutch show at Howard's last night (Thursday):

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Ohayocon4

...was a lot of fun. Arrived at the Hyatt Regency Columbus at noon, got registered (after standing in line for a half hour), and ate lunch at the Subway in the hotel's food court. (FYI, the Atkins-friendly Chicken Bacon Ranch wraps are yummy, and the actual wheat/soy wrap itself is really quite good, but the portion size leaves a little to be desired.)

After lunch, we hit the Dealer Room to spend our respective wads of cash. Two circuits around the Dealer Room yielded:

• a Chibi Totoro plushie (the white one)
  
• a Chu Totoro keychain (the blue one)
  
• a deck of giant Totoro playing cards
  
• Warcry: a book of Berserk postcards / art
  
• a Berserk Dreamcast poster
  
• a Gamera toy
  
• an Aruru capsule toy (with Puyos—from the Puyo Puyo video game)
  

...and left us enough money for dinner later.

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Great Weekend

This weekend was the most fun and productive one I've had in a while. Saturday started off with lunch (of course), followed by the Wedding Fair at the small (aka Woodland Towne Centre). There, we ate some yummy moist wedding cake, avoided the DJs, talked to photographers, and ended up choosing one. She has interesting, professional-looking work; she has a good sense of humor; and she has very competitive prices. We scheduled a meeting at her studio for the following day at 7:30pm for contract-signing and an engagement sitting.

After the Wedding Fair was an attempt at the monthly BG Flea Market, held at the fairgrounds. However, by this point it was after 3:00, and most of the vendors were closing up shop. We walked in, saw this, and opted to wait until Sunday. So, we went to Wal-Mart instead.

At Wal-Mart, we got some basic necessities, like new dress pants for me and a can of compressed air for my streaky laser printer. Then back home to chill for a couple hours before heading back out again.

That evening, we met a couple of friends up at the Red Robin in Toledo for dinner. Excellent food, great alcoholic milkshakes, biggest BBQ Chicken salad in the known universe. Weirdest mascot you've ever seen. It's a giant red robin (go figure), in the new-Freddy-Falcon style, for those of you from BGSU. You know, the cartoony-looking Freddy with the creepy big eyes and huge smiling beak. Mark got a picture of Aaron with the scary robin dude. We'll see how that turns out.

Anyway, after dinner, we still had a couple hours before we had to be at Frankie's, our destination point for the evening. So, we hung out in Barnes & Noble. Aaron & Kris both bought William Gibson's new novel, Pattern Recognition, and I bought a copy of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. We tried to waste a decent amount of time there, but eventually we decided to go seek out Frankie's, where none of us had been for years (and some of us never).

Back in the heyday of the Alternative Music Scene, Frankie's was apparently the place to be to see great bands like Goober & the Peas, the Afghan Whigs, the Smashing Pumpkins, Pure, and dozens of other groups whose flyers are posted on Frankie's Wall of Fame. Now, though... Frankie's has turned into a bit of a dive. Unbeknownst to us, of course, until we found the place and wandered into the cold, dim bar.

After the door-dude found us and took our seven bucks apiece, we wandered about, reading the Wall of Fame and wondering what the hell happened. As the first "band," MC Habitat, was setting up its turntables and mics, we made a break for the outer room, where lived two pool tables (in use), six chairs, and three dirty tables. We pulled a table from against the wall, found four chairs without too many tears in their linings, and proceeded to sit and freeze our asses off.

We sat there for an hour.

Finally, after one of our friends came to join us and promptly gave up and left, and a few of Kris's friends (who are also friends of the band we were there to see) showed up and said hello, and after our tizoes and nizoes were frizoze, we decided to go check out band number two of three: The Satisfactions. This band is from BG, which gave us pause. Historically, very few bands from Bowling Green have amounted to shit. The Satisfactions were no exception. Their set started out mediocre, and only went downhill. By the end of the set, the lead singer took notice that the crowd (except their groupies) no longer gave a shit about their music, and decided to go climb on the light rig just above the stage. When he didn't fall and crack his fool head open, or bring the lights crashing down on everyone, he climbed back down and lay on the floor in the midst of the disinterested crowd to sing the remainder of the penultimate song.

The final number of their set took the proverbial cake, though. The opening riff reminded me of a song I knew, and I tried to pin it down as they sang the first verse. I still hadn't figured it out when Kris poked his head in between Aaron's and mine and started singing, "I'm comin' baaaack with my dinosaur aaaact..." Their chord structure was an exact mimic (OK, ripoff) of Matthew Sweet's song "Dinosaur Act," from the 1993 album Altered Beast. We sang the chorus a couple times, as the band sang the words to their own little song. Then, mercifully, they were done.

After that came the band we'd actually gone to see: The Soledad Brothers. (You know, I think eventually I'll put all these paragraphs into my reviews section...) The Toledo-based Soledads were once a two-piece, but have added another Brother to the mix, to make one drummer, one guitarist/lead vocalist, and one guitarist/saxophonist. This is the most explosive band I have ever seen live. The genre is blues. The atmosphere is electric. The volume is loud.

Yeah... I think I'll expound later in my reviews section. At any rate, we got out of there at around 2am. Kick-ass show. Amazing. I've never seen anything like it. Go to their website and take a listen, though they're much better live than in the studio, IMO.

So, Sunday morning/afternoon rolled around, and Sheryl called. She wanted to go to the Flea Market. Well, I'll be damned... so did we. We told her we'd give her a call when we were going to head out there. We finished waking up and getting ready, then called Sheryl and left a message to meet us at said Flea Market at two o'clock. And we went to have our lunch at the China Dragon. Yummy.

When we got to the fairgrounds, Sheryl was inside waiting. She surprized the hell out of us by giving us the gift of a prepaid cell phone. Apparently, her Japanese friend Mariko was going to come visit, and Sheryl had gotten her the phone for her stay. But... Japan says that the U.S. is going to war in March, and that was going to be when Mariko's return trip would have been. So, she opted out of the visit, leaving Sheryl with much unhappiness and a paid-for cell phone.

But once again, the BG Flea Market was unfulfilling. The only real amusement came from the generic Ken-doll look-alikes, dressed in full 80's gay regalia, with black mesh tops and shiny shorts. We made the rounds of the building, thanked Sheryl and bid her adieu, and headed off to do our grocery shopping.

Usually, we do shopping and laundry on Sunday evening. But, since we were planning to go meet with our photographer in the evening, we'd had to rearrange our little schedule. So, off to do shopping and laundry. Fun times.

By the time we were finished with laundry, it was time to get ready for engagement photos and head off to Fostoria. We'd never been to Fostoria, so driving at night in the boonies was a lot of fun. Anyway, we got there with little incident, and found the studio no problem.

Carol Creeger reminds me of someone's mom. She has an open and honest sense of humor about her, but is totally professional about her work. We sat down and completed the contract first, with her giving us some time to discuss while she set up the studio for our portraits. Once all the details were ironed out, she gave us the nickel tour of the studio and got us ready for our sitting. She shot digital, which was excellent; she got to see the images as she took them, and got to get our approval before keeping them. We got a feel for how she works, and she got a feel for what we like. I only had to mention my stupid double-chin once before she adjusted our posing and her lighting to make it disappear. We also learned not to make Diana say anything silly before taking the exposure, because Diana's eyebrows go up and her mouth looks funny. :-)

After the sitting (which was short and sweet), she showed us around her office, and we just shot the shit for a few minutes before Aaron wrote her the check for the deposit. The engagement sitting is included, and we'll get a matted 8x10 of one photo for guest signatures. We can also order reprints — we'll probably get some wallets for $15 a dozen, which isn't unreasonable. Two weeks before the wedding, we need to send her the remaining balance plus our sheet of necessary shots. Overall, we came away from Carol's studio with an overwhelming sense of relief, and the knowledge that we will have some quality photos of our wedding day.

Nine o'clock. Hungry. Dinnertime, chillin' out time, TV time, printer-cleaning time, computer time. Which then brings us to now. Which is midnight. Bedtime.