To Buy or Not to Buy—That is the Question

I can be so indecisive at times. I could list many situations where my own thoughts on what to do and/or how to proceed have bounced back and forth so many times it almost made me dizzy. One good example is what to do since my Mac is getting on in years.

Forgotten Gems

I have a fair sized music library. According to iTunes it's currently 7,771 tracks, spanning 678 albums and 302 artists. And while that collection has been built over the past 16 or 17 years, almost half of that is stuff I've purchased in the past 5 years. My music library started growing faster when the iTunes Music Store (since renamed to simply the iTunes Store, since they now have video and apps as well) opened in Canada since it was in most cases a lot cheaper than buying the physical CD (which would have just ended up in a box in my closet anyway after loading it into iTunes), and it really took off once I discovered the web sites eMusic and Amie Street. But what of the music from the previous dozen years?

A Plain Vanilla Post

Vanilla is a curious thing. I recently read that vanilla is the second most expensive spice, after saffron, since it's such a labour intensive process to grow the pods. And yet, vanilla has become such a common and sought after flavour. So much so, that lots of people seem to equate “vanilla” with “plain.”

Yes, it doesn't get any
fruitier than vanilla, does it?

So did I, for about the first two thirds of my life. Then at some point in my early twenties it clicked that vanilla by itself was a perfectly viable flavour, rather than the absence of a flavour like I previously considered it to be. And suddenly I had a greater appreciation for things like vanilla milkshakes, vanilla ice cream, and vanilla yogurt.

It's interesting how extremely versatile vanilla is, which I guess is why it's so widely used, despite its cost. Aside from it being a great stand-alone flavour, it complements so many other things well. Making chocolate chip cookies? The recipe includes vanilla. Want an ice cream sundae? Yep, start with vanilla ice cream and add your toppings. Order pie a-la-mode and you're never asked what flavour ice cream you want—you always get vanilla. And the one that still amazes me is Starbucks' Caramel Macchiato. Yes, the primary flavouring in that is vanilla syrup. The only caramel in it is what they drizzle on the top!

All this talk of vanilla has suddenly got me craving a vanilla latte... I don't have any vanilla syrup, but I found a very simple recipe I think I'll try. What better way to start out a lazy Saturday morning than with a nice hot vanilla latte.

Pizza: Nature's Perfect Food

This probably won't come as a surprise with me being a typical single male in North America, but one of my staple foods happens to be pizza. I rarely have pizzaria pizza though, primarily because of the cost, but also because it's really not all that healthy a thing to eat on a regular basis (but they sure do taste good!). Usually, I'll swing by the grocery store on my way home from work and pick up a nice, inexpensive, fresh deli pizza. Although occasionally, I'll have a frozen pizza. Last night, however, I decided I'd try something different and make one myself.

Happy Birthday, Mac!

Today is officially the sixth birthday of my Apple PowerMac G5. On July 18, 2004, I took the plunge and drove down to London Drugs to buy it. And to this day, it is still in active service. When I bought it I owned two other PCs but over the years they got decommissioned and I stayed with just my Mac.

And you know what, despite its age it still runs great. It manages my media libraries and feeds my iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV. It checks email and web sites. It even can encode video. Maybe there's no way it can run the latest graphically intensive games. And there's no way I can ever upgrade the OS any further than OS X 10.5 (AKA Leopard) since it's no longer supported. But it does everything I need it to and that's the important thing.

Occasionally I contemplate buying a new Mac, and whether the extra features and abilities justify the expense. Yes, video encoding would be over four times the speed. But whether it takes four days or less than one to take transcode those TV season DVDs I just bought really doesn't matter since I won't be watching the show that fast anyway. Yes, all the iMacs have built-in cameras. But I think video chats are just a novelty anyway. And yes, I would have a computer capable of running Sims 3, probably the only computer game I would really like to play (all other games I want to play are on video game consoles).

But is it really worth spending $1,500 or so on a new iMac just for that? As much as I like having new "toys" to play around with I think it probably isn't. There's nothing wrong with it, and maybe it'll end up being another few years before it gets replaced. Or maybe Apple will release a new Mac in the fall that's so amazing that I won't be able to resist the urge to buy one. You never know...

This Is A Post

This is my post for today.
I don't know what to write,
But I'll write something anyway
And publish it tonight.

Maybe I'll write about a cat
That walked across the street,
Or that kid who was a brat
And stomped hard on my feet.

But no, that would be kinda lame
So what's a better topic?
To simply write without an aim
Would just be too myopic.

Write some haikus about food?
No, I've done that before.
I'm not really in the mood;
Today writing's a chore.

It's been two days since my last post
So I should post something.
Perhaps if I made some toast
Ideas, it would bring.

But no, that didn't seem to work.
My thoughts refuse to flow.
Sorry, not trying to be a jerk;
Come back instead tomorrow.

The Case of the Leaky Travel Mug, Part 2

I wrote previously about a travel mug I have that suddenly had a mysterious leak. Well, I am here to say that the mystery has been solved. And you know what, it wasn't terrorists after all. Or robot ninjas. Or terrorist robots. Someone else had the same experience and shared his findings with me, and I decided to test them out myself.

The Old Lawn Chairs

I usually spend most of my lunch break sitting in the windowsill of the lunch room at work. As such, most people probably believe I am part cat. On the contrary, I believe I am actually part rodent—packrat to be precise. Maybe not anywhere near as bad as those people you might see on reality TV shows, but I still have trouble throwing away something that might have some value in the future or could be repairable. Or in some cases I know it has no value, but I just never get around to throwing it out.

Techno Chicken

A dancing chicken.  What more could you want?

Don't judge a book by it's cover. Or sell it without one.

Last weekend I bought a bunch of books. One of them said it was a 30th Anniversary edition, so I decided to check the copyright page to see when it originally came out. At the bottom of that page, there was the following text:

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher. In such case neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."

I thought that was a bit odd, that it would be assumed that a missing cover was a sure sign that it was stolen. After all, it's not like if someone broke into my apartment and stole some books they'd be ripping the cover off them, right? And how would they know the publisher wasn't paid?

A later Google search informed me that "A 'stripped book' is a mass market paperback that has been stripped of its cover in order to be pulped and recycled as a result of lack of sales. The covers are returned to the publisher as evidence that the books have been destroyed and the books are discarded or recycled into paper or cardboard products."¹ Ah, that makes more sense.

I checked other books I have, and some actually go as far as to say that it is illegal to sell the book without a cover. Others say you're not allowed to sell or even lend the book to anyone with anything other than the cover it was published in. But that still left me with the question, who would actually want to buy a book without its cover? I know I wouldn't.

¹http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripped_book

The Perfect Iced Tea

As previously noted, summer is a great time for cold drinks. As such, I decided I'd share the special iced tea making technique passed down the Hildebrandt line for generations. Well not really, I just stumbled across this sometime last summer and now I'll only use the powdered iced tea mixes if I have to.

Anyway, as every good recipe always starts with the ingredients, here are the ingredients in iced tea:

• Ice
• Tea

Hamburger

I want a burger. Yes, that would be great.
That is the food I've been craving of late.
I get out a bun and I get out the meat,
Then get all the condiments. Set them out neat.

Raw would be gross so I turn on my grill.
Finally it's hot but it's 7 minutes still
That I must wait 'til the patty is done,
So while I wait I put stuff on the bun.

Finally I hear the awaited "ding!"
So I hurry to get the meat out of that thing
And onto my bun which is ready to go.
I look at my plate and what do you know?

Now I have a hamburger. It is quite good.
It's loaded with meat like all hamburgers should.
Some relish, some mayo, a big slice of cheese,
And even some ketchup—whatever I please!

Summer

     Summer has arrived, bringing

     Hot days and cold drinks,
     Walks at the park,
     Days at the lake.

     Hamburgers and Popsicles,
     Eating fresh peaches,
     Sunlight until late.

     Hiking and camping,
     Picnics with family,
     Reading books under a tree.

     Melted ice cream and sunburns,
     Too many mosquitos,
     Neighbors partying too loud.

     Pools too busy and so are all the parks,
     Too hot to go outside,
     Felt sick after the roller coaster.

     Air conditioner's noisy and costs lots to run,
     Kids getting too bored,
     Almost got heatstroke again.

     How much longer until Autumn?

American Woman

Sorry, I couldn't resist posting this video today...

The Case of the Leaky Coffee Mug

I have a travel mug I use on occasion, which was given to me a couple years ago. It's nothing fancy, but it does the job. For me, at least. Others who have the same travel mug have complained in the past about it leaking, but it never did that for me. Until yesterday morning, that is.

I noticed that the place I set it down had a wet circle, and the bottom of the mug did indeed feel damp. After finishing off the remaining coffee and letting the mug sit for a little bit it felt dry again. Then I refilled it, and as soon as I picked it up the bottom felt wet again.