Unwanted Commentary

I'd really like to try out a manual push mower, or what they call a "reel" mower, but those suckers are expensive. I admit I am intimidated by the internal combustion engine, and this seems like a much more basic contraption, one I could be more comfortable around. I do fear though, that it may prove to be too manual, or not sufficient in cutting the blades of my grasses. It's hard to say, I'm not sure I want to spend $95+ on an experiment. Perhaps I shall look at pawn shops, since I need to buy some soil manipulation devices to aid in a potential vegetable gardening project anyway. We'll see.

Posted by Jeff at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm pleased that Microsoft has responded with its own ads, fighting back against Apple's "Hi I'm a Mac..." ad campaign, that while amusing is also annoying. Since all they do is play up the same old, tired Windows and PC cliches that have been around for a hundred years, and are at this point essentially moot. I would actually postulate, and I'm not alone, that once you remove any sort of "fanboy" adoration of an OS, be it Mac, Linux or Windows, they all do the same thing. I use both Mac OS and Windows, and the base functionality is practically identical, going back and forth between OSs I can do all the things on one that I can do on the other, without missing a beat. If an app isn't available on the Mac I can usually find an equivalent, and vice versa. Now there are some exceptions to this, but in a work-a-day environment there isn't much difference. I have had several long time PC users switch to Mac with little to minor fuss, and I attribute this more to the two OSes being similar than some inherent fantastic design quality of the Mac OS.

I'm often surprised that so many people put so much loyalty to Apple based solely out of some farcical belief that Microsoft is a big evil empire, when in actuality Apple is as about as fascist a company as you could hope to find. Right from the start Apple charges a premium for the same hardware you get from any other manufacturer. When you pay top dollar for your Macbook Pro you're paying for the OS, and whatever aesthetic quality that Apple's marketing can make you attribute to the product. I came awfully close to buying a Mac for home, but at the end of the day I couldn't justify throwing down that kind of bread just for the cool factor, and I ended up paying less than a 1/3 of the price for a Windows Vista system that does everything I need, and has more horsepower. I like that MS has taken off the gloves a bit, and makes me think of the big mutt that's finally getting tired of the yip-yiping of the high-priced fufu show dog.

Posted by Jeff at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I no longer enjoy blogging, but there are things I'd like to share with whoever it is that still looks at this thing, either intentionally or accidentally.

Last weekend we got to be a part of something what under the current world atmosphere is wholly insignificant and irrelevant, but taken in context was fucking awesome. I mean seriously fucking awesome. Last Saturday night at Club Dada the Nervebreakers reunited for what right now was a one-time-only show in Dallas, so you missed it and you shall forever live a shallower life because of it. They were the most fucking badass Texas punk band back in the day, and you can read the whole nuanced story on their myspace page. They are still the most fucking badass Texas punk band...I wasn't there then, but I can tell you they've lost no potency over the years. One could make comparisons to well-aged whiskey.

Another noticeable upside to the evening was the band that opened for them, Spector 45, and I'll warn you right now that these guys put on a capital rock and roll show. Nothing more, nothing less, just straight up, kick in your teeth rock-n-roll. I highly recommend them, and you can used a lot of canned terms for them, but I enjoyed "wall of sound" the most as a descriptor. You can also look them up on myspace. I suggest the cleverly tender song, I Love You. It is my favorite, and Mitzy's.

I'm posting now links, do the dirty work yourself.

Posted by Jeff at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Found this really cool site. It's a travelog of a guy who travels by train all the way from Vienna to Pyongyang, North Korea. It's an interesting read, and the author posts some amazing photographs on far eastern Russia, and the PDRK.

The forbidden railway - a train trip to Pyongyang

This story is a bonus if you're a train nut, which he obviously is. The story isn't finished, so hopefully the guy didn't abandon the project.

Posted by Jeff at 03:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We flew down a week last Thursday, from Austin via a little airline called Viva Aerobus, with a group of folks we met through meetup.com. The group organizer had spotted the cheap airfare and then arranged a place for us to stay. Mitzy and I had been talking about making a trip to a touristy part of Mexico, so this turned out to be a good opportunity. The drive to Austin was uneventful and getting checked in at the airport was smooth for everyone except me. The counter lady tells me they have a problem, my reservation was not made out exactly like my passport. That set me back another $138, so much for the cheap airfare, but what could I do at that point traveling with a group and 4 hours from home? Looking back on it I think they just played me, I know I watched Mitzy make the reservation, and I know she did it correctly. I feel pretty certain they fucked up, especially after what happened when we got ready to leave. Anyway, the flight down was fine, the attendants tried to be entertaining and that was appreciated, especially since it wasn’t over done.

After getting off the airplane and sliding through customs, we had to run a gauntlet of very eager taxi drivers. Our group leader already had a plan, so we dodged those guys to find a booth at the very end where we hired a taxi van to drive us out to the house we’d be staying at. The house was beautiful, perched on the side of the mountain and sporting a spectacular view of the bay. The inside was super cool, and well furnished, the place had three bedrooms and three baths. It also had its own small pool and Jacuzzi. The group spent some time getting settled and then we were somewhat eager to venture out and get something to eat. I say somewhat eager because a fellow group member and myself threw ourselves onto the lounge chairs on the balcony, and felt pretty content at that point. The house had come with the option of a chief for hire, but due to the expense of that we had decided against it. Lying there, Glen and I both agreed that we had perhaps overlooked the benefits of having someone bring us food right then. The view was spectacular and the ocean air pushed me eagerly towards considering nap time.

In what had been an unfortunate miscommunication we had been led to believe that there would be two restaurants close at hand, but this turned out to be false. This was the one downside to our house, it was not in walking distance of anything, especially food, so we were forced to trek back into town via taxi. The upside to this is that we ended up at small restaurant on the beach watching the sun go down. The place was name Burros, and they had two burros made out of palm tree trunks. The food was subpar and the free margarita was terrible, but you couldn’t beat the ambiance. It was so terribly touristy, but terribly enjoyable.

After dinner we found a small grocery store and stocked up on some food for the house. We figured we could save some money and at least cook a breakfast and a dinner at the house. It was pretty disappointing to find that the produce was really subpar, not at all what I had expected, the only exception being the avocados. I still wonder if we’d found the Mercado if they would have had better produce. After that bit of shopping we made our way back to the house to rest up for our first full day. My first impressions of Puerto Vallarta were mostly good, and while I loved the house I was a little disappointed by its positioning. I had dreamed in my head that we'd be at least in walking distance of a nice beach and some descent spots to get food, at least some tacos or gorditas. I could already tell at this point that PV wasn't as cheap as Guanajato, they obviously see the tourists coming and jack up the price accordingly, and even though the exchange rate was 13.5 to 1, you really didn't see any benefit. That was kind of expected though, and while I say it wasn't as cheap as I hoped, it still wasn't crazy expensive.

Posted by Jeff at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This time last week I was sitting on the beach in Puerto Vallarta on the coast of Jalisco, Mexico. Right now I’m sitting at my desk under fluorescent lights. The two really don’t compare. The idea behind vacation is to relax and unwind, at least for most folks, but this is the concept that I especially cling to. Vacation is not some ultra sport where I engage in outrageous activities, no this is a time to legitimately do nothing what so ever. I can safely say that I accomplished this completely in Puerto Vallarta.

Now, I had some expectation of coming back home and being ready to get back to work and be more productive. That hasn’t exactly happened, not that I haven’t been busy, but I’ve found myself in a sort of post-vacation malaise that I can’t quite shake off. I want to go back, and be on the beach. I think I’ve found what I’m good at and it really calls to me.

Puerto Vallarta was great, Mitzy, the group and I had the best time while we were there. I’d recommend it to almost anyone, mostly because you get the distinct opportunity to luxuriate in your gringo tourist areas, while being able to go out and pretty much experience what Mexico is really like. I was surprised to find that the city really isn’t all that different from the others I’ve been to in Guanajuato, indeed it was comforting. We didn’t get to see the whole city, mostly just the south side, the airport being as far north as we ever got.

The place is touristy, but that was expected, and the locals are totally geared towards finding creative ways to separate you from your Yankee dollars. It is after all pretty much the only industry there, and they excel at it, you have to give them credit for that. You get used to the flow of it, and perhaps due to the smallish crowds while we were there we got more inundated with the hawking than one usually would, but it wasn’t all bad. In point of fact it has some advantages, primarily that you can sit on the beach and get all of your souvenir shopping done, you can get tasty snacks, including pie, and even get a lizard put on your head. All while not moving a muscle.

The food was disappointing, the seafood I had wasn’t anything special, and the produce we picked up at a grocery store was much lower grade than what I’ve come to expect in Mexico. The exception was the aguacates, they were as large and succulent as you could hope for. On our last day there we did finally find a really excellent little restaurant, and we had breakfast there. The bus system was as awesome as it is in the other part of Mexico I've been to, and at 6 pesos a ride you can't beat the price. There are plenty of taxis if you don't like mixing with the locals and veteran visitors.

I'll probably be detailing out the trip for posterity, so you can come back and chew on that if you like. Safe to say this was a great trip and I love Mexico so much, there's this feeling to being there and once you're back in the US you start to miss it. I can't really describe it, but if you've been there you probably know what I mean.

Posted by Jeff at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)