New Year Thoughts

I recently learned that a friend from my high school days passed away.  I can't say we were incredibly close, we probably haven't spoken since our graduation.  But I would see her posts on Facebook and we would occasionally exchange comments on photos.  I know she had a great sense of humor, a beautiful family, and was incredibly helpful to other friends who were struggling with a similar disease.  Our 15 year reunion would have been this year, but no one actually planned the event.  When I e-mailed about the reunion in September the response was, "I guess we'll just have to wait for the 20 year."  Like we had all the time in the world.

But the reality is that we don't and we, as human beings, take so many things for granted.   Last year, I talked about focusing more on experiences and less on things.  Unfortunately, I don't think I did a very good job of it as the year went on.  So my thoughts have been on this the last couple of days. 

• My Health - I take it for granted.  I'm not doing the things I need to do to keep me healthy.  The fact that I haven't had any major health problems is pure luck.
• School & my Future - It's been this nebulous thing.  A general direction I'm headed in, but without any light at the end of the tunnel.  I'm finally starting my first semester of graduate classes after finishing up the pre-reqs last semester.  It's real.  This time next year I'll be stressing about graduation.
• My Friends - I've not made the effort I'd like to to try and keep up with people.  Having drinks or going out is like pulling teeth since I've started school.  It feels like depression, but it's really just that I enjoy my free time to do nothing.
• My Family - This is another area where I need to make more of an effort.  Shane is going off to the Marines in a few months and this may be the last real time I get to spend with him.
• My Finances - I'm not keeping track the way I need to and a few difficult decisions may need to be made.  They're not completely out of hand, but I've run up some serious debt again.  If I want to be the successful adult I envision after graduate school, I need to get this other debt in hand so it doesn't interfere with student loans and life plans.

We become so busy with the details of life that we miss out on the bigger picture.  We don't keep up the relationships that support us through the difficult times and then we wonder why everything is so difficult.

House Painting

I've been working on selecting colors for my new house.  So far I think I've narrowed it down to the following:

The Living Room:


The Guest Room:



My Room:

"Scary Future Plans" have turned into a "Not So Scary Reality"

In December, I talked about buying my step-dad's old house.  In April, I signed the settlement papers.  In May, I moved in.

There is too much to detail the entire process, but it was worth it.  When I filed my taxes in February, because I am also a grad student, I received additional money in my refund that allowed me to meet the minimum down payment required.  My step-dad also helped bridge the gap a bit with closing costs and other fees.  I still have to pay mortgage insurance, so it wasn't the recommended 20% down, but I'm okay with that.

It's been kind of weird living in a house that I've known for so long.  Part of me still feels like I'm house sitting even though all of my stuff is filling up the rooms.  It has this temporary feel to it, like I've had living in apartments the last 8 years.  The only thing that has helped me to feel like this place is truly mine, is the process of selecting color palettes for the rooms.  After 32 years of living in places where colors were either selected for me or I was forbidden to change anything, it's overwhelming to think of all the possibilities.

A Summer Break

I realized I haven't posted anything in about six months, largely due to the demands of school and work.  A lot has happened in that time frame and I'm taking a break from school this summer to catch up on things.  I'm trying to get myself in order and ready to attack the fall semester.

Major Events:
Purchased My First Home
Traveled to the UK with my sister
Dad and his Partner were legally married 

Important, but not so major, events:
Gained back 30 of the 40 pounds I lost in the last year
Recommitted to Weight Watchers
Joined a Gym

First Day of Grad School

I've been taking classes at CCBC this summer, as part of my prerequisites for Grad School, but there was something altogether different about traveling to Towson University for my very first Fall Semester class.  It's as if I finally believed I was doing this.  Not when I filled out the paperwork for school, not when I paid the semester tuition, not when I purchased the books for class.  But walking across campus with my bag slung across my shoulder, catching snatches of undergraduate conversation, and searching for my classroom finally made it real to me.

All of my classes are in Stephen's Hall on the Towson campus.  It's one of the original buildings on campus and the set-up makes me feel like Professor Indiana Jones should come sweeping through the door to lecture at the podium.  I am incredibly excited to be in this place at this time in my life.

First Scotch Tasting!

The Order of the Cask, Leaf, and Thought (a.k.a my Meetup Scotch Group) has their first official tasting last night.  Organized by founder, C.N., and J. at Bad Decisions, we were able to get a guided tasting of a flight of Balvenie.

The line-up was as follows:

The Balvenie, DoubleWood, 12 years
The Balvenie, Caribbean Cask, 14 years
The Balvenie, Single Barrel, 15 years
The Balvenie, Madeira Cask, 17 years
The Balvenie, Peated Cask, 17 years

I am still learning about the subtlety of Scotch and this was definitely a  fantastic event for furthering that education.  J., at Bad Decisions,  led us through each glass and gave a lot of detail about the tasting notes.  (i.e. the nose, the taste, and the finish)  He explained about the Balvenie process and how they create their special limited edition Scotches.

J. explicitly told us not to "fall in love" with the Caribbean Cask as it was very limited.  So, of course, this was dad's favorite of the five.  Dad said it reminded him of the cough syrup he used to get from our old town doctor, Dr. W.  It had a hint of cherry to it and I could definitely taste the Rum influence.  Stepdaddy M.'s favorite was, of course, the Peated Cask. 

Of the five tastings, my favorite was the Madeira Cask.  According to J., and the Balvenie website, this one has a "deep, luxurious aromas translate into an equally rewarding flavour. Initial sweet vanilla oak notes gradually develop into rich spices and dried fruits (apricots, figs, dates)."  I think it was the "sweet vanilla oak notes" that make this my favorite.  Of course, this was pushed to the side when the founding members were presented with a PortWood (21 years). 

Little Sister Gets a "Super" Phone

Samsung Focus

After much debate, Little Sister has finally selected her phone upgrade.  I have to say I am a little bit jealous as she managed to get it completely free and with 4000 free XBOX Live Points.  I am sure it's also a beautiful phone with an amazing screen and other technical features, but it's really the 4000 points that I wish I had.

She was able to make such an awesome deal because she went to the Microsoft Store instead of the AT&T Store to upgrade her plan/phone.  I don't know why I didn't purchase my phone from Best Buy, with their new buyback program, or directly from the manufacturer.  Either one would surely have had some extra bonus that AT&T wasn't offering.

Anyway, good luck to sister-girl and her new data plan as she gets everything set up!

All-New NOOK

Well, Barnes and Noble has done it.  They've given me a reason to buy their product over the Kindle.  In my comparison of the NOOK and Kindle in previous entries , both here and in my Super Secret Bean Counter Blog, I liked the NOOK and all it had to offer except for that little itty bitty touch screen at the bottom.  I have said, on previous occasions, that if they offered an e-ink display with full touch screen technology it would make up my mind.

And now, they've introduced the All-New NOOK with the e-ink display and fully integrated touch screen.  For $139.   Those bastards.

I really liked the global 3G wireless offered by Kindle, but I failed to commit to it before my Ireland trip and now there is very little reason for me to get it.  But this NOOK does offer the same wi-fi access as the basic Kindle with the added benefit of reading ePub documents which would allow me to borrow books from a library or import publications from other vendors.  (Though, I hear Amazon is going to offer the Kindle 3G at a discount with special offers and the really appealing part is that the 3G would really make it like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.)  Plus, I wouldn't contribute as much to the destruction of the bee population with my cell phone like signals from my e-reader.

So many things to consider.  But it will depend on the actual NOOK product.  I intend to check it out in the stores as soon as possible and if I like the design and interface, I might just cave.

NKOTBSB

Today was a special day.  The sun was shining and the NKOTBSB compilation album was out a day early at Target.  It was like it was my Birthday!  61 days until I go see them in Greensboro, NC.

Volkswagen's 21st Century Debut

The new design of the Volkswagen Beetle, as seen in the view to the left, doesn't appear too visually different from the 1998 model.  But the side view offers a completely new, yet retro, vision for the beloved car.

Some of the interior shots of the new design reveal a whole set of bells and whistles that weren't available in the last model.  For example, I like the idea of the touch screen radio/navigation and the bluetooth capability.  Let me go on record as saying that I don't hate the new design.  I think it holds true to the original while keeping some of the spirit of the 1998 re-design.  That being said, I feel like it's missing something.  The thing about a classic beetle and the new beetle is that they are very unique and easily recognizable on the road, thus making road trips fun for decades with the Bunch Buggie game.  I haven't seen these in person yet but, from the pictures, I don't feel like they are quite as unique and will easily blend in with other cars.  We shall have to wait and see if my opinion changes when they start appearing on the highway.

**Please Note:  All photos from http://blogs.vw.com/beetle/picture-gallery/**

Passports in Time

from Gizmodo: "George Orwell is Crying"

Yesterday, I received my new passport.  I was starting to get a little worried what with the Government Shutdown and only a few more weeks until my trip.  But thankfully it came through and now the government can shutdown whenever it pleases.

I also received my expired passport back in the mail, for which I was very grateful, and couldn't help but notice the differences.  My old passport had an actual photo taken and laminated onto the inside of the front cover with all of my important information.  This passport, even though I sent actual photos, was printed digitally.  Both, I feel, are not accurate depictions of me.  The one from ten years ago is so washed out you can only make out my eyes and mouth.  This one is so pixelated that there are weird reddish splotches around the shadows on my face, not to mention it's blown up and stretched out so that it looks nothing like the original I sent in.

E-Passport Logo

This new passport, which was updated in 2007, includes "a small contactless integrated circuit" that contains a digital copy of everything on my informational page.   This computer chip, embedded in the back cover, uses a biometric identifier (mostly face recognition software).  These are added security features but, as with anything, there is the possibility for them to be exploited.
There are questions about possible "skimming" of the information on the chip and general identity theft.  According to the US Department of State, they've already taken this into consideration:

“Skimming.” We use an embedded metallic element in our passports. One of the simplest measures for preventing unauthorized reading of e-passports is to add RF blocking material to the cover of an e-passport. Before such a passport can be read, it has to be physically opened. It is a simple and effective method for reducing the opportunity for unauthorized reading of the passport at times when the holder does not expect it. 

Also:

“Skimming and Eavesdropping.” We have adopted Basic Access Control (BAC) to minimize the risk of “skimming” and “eavesdropping.” Basic Access Control requires that the initial interaction between the embedded microchip in the passport and the border control reader include protocols for setting up the secure communication channel. To ensure that only authorized RFID readers can read data, Basic Access Control stores a pair of secret cryptographic keys in the passport chip. When a reader attempts to scan the passport, it engages in a challenge-response protocol that proves knowledge of the pair of keys and derives a session key. If authentication is successful, the passport releases its data contents; otherwise, the reader is deemed unauthorized and the passport refuses read access. This control would require the receiving state to read the passport machine-readable zone (MRZ) to unlock and read the data on the chip. The MRZ information is used for computing the encryption and message authentication keys used for the “secure” exchange. BAC mollifies the possibility of both “skimming” and “eavesdropping.”

Overall, it provides a more complex passport that will be difficult to duplicate or counterfeit.  When I think about my old passport, which could have easily had the picture replaced, I can't help but think these are changes for the better.  Of course, with the advance of technology comes new obstacles and challenges to security.  With internet shopping and online profiles it's easier than ever to gain access to private information, but it's also easier to learn of fraud when it happens to you.  We're never going to live in a world where we don't have to worry about these things.  Someone will always try to find the easy way or feel like they're cleverer than other people and therefore above the rules and regulations by which other people live their lives.  There will always be dishonesty in this world.  The best we can do is to protect ourselves without holing up in a cave somewhere.

A few other articles you might like to check out:
Worldhum - "New US Passport: Like being given coloring book that your brother already colored in"
New York Times - "Stars and Stripes, Wrapped in the Same Old Blue"
Gizmodo - "New E-Passport Is Patriotic, High-Tech and Ugly"

The dangers of owning an iPhone

This morning I received a friendly text message from AT&T to let me know that I had surpassed my 200MB usage and they would be billing me an additional $15 for another 200MB.  After consulting with my boyfriend, I learned how to check the usage amount on my phone and discovered I had actually used 396MB.  Realizing that I would soon get another friendly text message I upped my rate plan to the 2GB plan for $25.  Hopefully this will cover anything through the end of the month and I can reevaluate my usage on the next billing cycle.

The problem is that an iPhone is not just a phone, it is also an iPod.  I have run into this problem before with my iPods, where I hear a song I like and I simply download it.  Then iTunes suggests three or four other songs I like equally as much and I download them.  This problem is merely limited to my bank account on the iPods as it requires a separate Internet connection to download said songs.  On the iPhone, I merely have to think of a song and no matter where I am I can have it in only a few seconds.  Impulse control has never been my strong suit, especially in regards to music.  On top of these song downloads, I spent a considerable amount of time and data downloading apps that I wanted.  Of course, forgetting that I am no longer covered under the unlimited data plan AT&T used to offer.

Other than this, the Weight Watchers app is already proving very useful and I am happy with the choice I made.  Though, I still reach for my old HTC when leaving the house.

Selling Out....

Last night, I purchased an iPhone.  Not the new, fancy iPhone 4 that the associates at Best Buy told me would be $99 with a two year contract and then reneged on that when it came time to do the contract, but the older iPhone 3GS.  It was $50 at AT&T with a 2-year upgrade.  My choices were a new Windows phone, or the iPhone.

image from www.gandhiappliances.com

I was torn because I didn't really want to get older technology that will be obsolete very soon, but I wasn't excited about the Window's layout on the new phones.  I love, LOVE, my old HTC Fuze(aka HTC Diamond).   When I bought it I was coming out of a very bad place.  I had finally found a new job after my old company had folded and I had saved up the almost $300 to get it I desired it so much.  It was sexy and amazing, with a slide out QWERTY keyboard and full mobile windows suite.  It could do things no other phone I'd ever owned could do.  I'd made a conscious decision not to buy the iPhone when it came out over two years ago and I didn't regret it.  This phone has made it all the way through the 2-year contract despite my intense abuse and foolish decision not to get a screen protector the first day.

But looking at the options before me last night, there just wasn't anything nearly as exciting as my Fuze.  So why get a new phone at all?  The answer is, apps. (Well that and several phone drops that have left my beautiful phone a little wonky in its operations.)  When I purchased this phone several years ago there weren't any apps, at least not as we know them today, and therefore no reason to include them on the device.  But in the last ten months or so, I've wished I had the capability.  First of all, Weight Watchers offers an app that would make my tracking more efficient.  Second of all, I've been obsessed with the idea of an e-reader recently with no practical idea of whether or not I would actually use one.  I figured I could download an e-reader app and see if a separate device is worth the extra money.  (If I like the idea and convenience of an e-reader, I don't think I'd continually want to read on a back lit screen.)

I was presented with the Sony Ericsson, Windows Phone at my local AT&T store.  It was also very attractive and was definitely newer technology.  But I really wanted a non-screen QWERTY keyboard and that is simply not offered on the new, new phones anymore.  So it came down to the actual apps I knew I would want to download immediately.  I did a search on the AT&T medianet for any and all apps and there was the Kindle, Nook, Gutenberg, and Stanza apps that I'd previously seen and envied on my boyfriend's iPhone.  Then I tried to find the official Weight Watchers app; it wasn't there.  There were a lot of calculators created by other companies but not the one that was already included in my monthly membership fees.  I could still access the mobile site by going to the same location I used on my Fuze, but that is cumbersome.  I checked on the website today and sure enough it was confirmed that there isn't an actual app for Windows 7, yet. 

That fact combined with my general dislike for the layout of the new Windows 7 led me to look at the iPhone.  I didn't want to get caught up in the near religious fervor that most iPhone owners have so I have avoided it, but it was the most attractive option to me last night.   I couldn't have the QWERTY keyboard I so enjoyed on my old phone so everything was second best in my opinion.  It honestly came down to the official, and not so official, apps I would be able to download on either phone.  My weigh-ins for the last two weeks have been unsuccessful; I've gained a total of 2.2 pounds in the last two weeks and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.  So, as much as I hate to admit it, the Weight Watchers app was a big motivator for me.  I also enjoy the old school pictures that my sister's girlfriend takes with her iPhone and I'd like to do the same.  I like the apps my boyfriend uses on a near daily basis and it's a more cost effective way to see if I like the e-reader.

I think it also satisfies that desire for a new gadget, which may have been the main force behind my obsession with the Kindle & Nook.  It could be because so many people have the iPhone and it's such a common piece of technology, but I am not nearly as excited about this phone as I was about my Fuze.  But how often does one get that connection to an inanimate object?  So I purchased an older model phone, but for a severely discounted price.  And in a year I may regret that, but that's a year from now.

Note: The iPhone is a little sassy, though, and could almost match the attitude found in my VW New Beetle.  Last night, I was typing a message to my father about what phone I decided to purchase and I wrote "iphone" with a lower-case p.  The iPhone auto-corrected my typing so that it read "iPhone" with an upper-case P.

A Beginning

8:42p.m.

It's amazing how invigorating a new year can be.  As of my last official weigh-in at my Weight Watchers meeting, I have officially lost 30 pounds!  It's something I started after my birthday last year and have been working on for the last  nine months.  I am sure it could have gone a lot faster if I were more disciplined, yet I am still making progress and working my way toward a healthier version of me.  I don't know if it was because I was turning 29 or because I was recently single or simply because I was over 200 pounds and hated the way I was looking in photos, but something clicked and I realized I wanted to make a lot of changes in my life before my next birthday.

I have successfully made many of those changes and I have a few more to go before my birthday in February.  I have lost a lot of weight and have been feeling really great about myself lately.  I moved into a less complicated living situation and nearly cleaned out the storage unit I'd been keeping for more than three years.  (I still have my piano and grandmother's table to transport before I can fully close it.)  I have a plan to pay off a large amount of my debt and even one of my student loans.  And I feel really positive about the start of this new year.

I don't really know what I am going to do with this blog and I can't even guarantee that I will faithfully write everyday.  But I learned a long time ago that it's not the destination but the journey that makes you strong.