I went to update my iPod shuffle. The list of songs I have on there (strictly for the gym) was getting tired. As it turns out, the connector (seen in the above picture) was bent slightly in multiple places. I played around with it for a while, nothing worked. I took the whole thing apart, no wires were broken inside. The only noticeable thing was the very tip of the connector was clearly broken and unfortunately un-solder-able.

Since Apple sucks for some reason, a new dock by itself is $30, while a new shuffle (which includes the dock) is only $20 more. I was hoping to spend like $10 on a new cable. God dammit. Given those prices though, people should be able to buy both shuffle and dock for $50 and (new) shuffles by themselves for just $20. It’s only fair.

I’m going to use this post to draw your attention to a cool little website, called MixTurtle. It’s similar to The Hype Machine without any extra information or news or whatever. If you want to just play a song, check out MixTurtle.

Also, I have this song stuck in my head:
http://mixturtle.com/song/529381/3/peter-gabriel-down-to-earth…

(1) I’ve watched 5 movies since Tuesday: The Shining, Batman Begins, Get Smart, The Dark Knight, and Full Metal Jacket. I think my sixth tonight will be Back to the Future Part 1, or Children of Men. (2) I finally bought a cookbook. The one I had in New York, I left in New York. I’ve gone far too long just throwing random things together and calling it a meal. “Hmm, here’s some canned tuna.. and.. oh, teriyaki sauce, that could work.. annnd, hmm.. I’ve got some peas.. something else, something else.. rice! Maybe I’ll crush up some Cheese-its in there for some extra texture. Great, its a meal!” (3) I need to buy a plane ticket, and that’s all I can say about that for now. (4) This morning I made a latte.

Also, I’d like to say that The Dark Knight is probably the best movie of 2008. Though I want to let it sit with me a little longer since it’s still “fresh”. I would hate to jump to such a bold conclusion. Really though, I rarely see a movie twice in the theater. Let alone twice in about a week! The second viewing was at the IMAX, which I would highly recommend (Some scenes in the film were shot with the special IMAX camera to get the highest resolution possible. The sound’s not too bad either).

I think I’m going to make chicken marsala for dinner.

Ok finally I am going to write another post! I need to keep up on this a bit better. And by “need” I don’t mean “need” at all.

Anyway, I think I’ve finished uploading all of the pictures from the sailing trip. The set (which I will try not to duplicate in this post) is here, nice and chronologically organized. I’m still tagging everything, and adding some titles/descriptions here and there. It’s a tedious process. I made a tour of the trip in Google Earth and was all ready to export it as a movie, but it turns out you need Google Earth Pro to do that. Absolutely sucks. So all I have for you is pictures, for now. I took a few movies with my camera which I need to edit (down to 90 seconds) and then put on Flickr. That should follow soon enough.

The trip began last Friday. I had taken a full week off of work for both the sailing trip and a little additional vacation time to visit my family in CT. My flight was out of SFO at about 10:00 pm Thursday night. I landed in New York at 6 am and, after waiting forever at the gate and bag claim, I made my way to Brooklyn. I do not like red-eyes.

We were all scheduled to meet in Greenport, NY, at the eastern tip of Long Island. The ferry there would take us to Dering Harbor on Shelter Island where our boat was docked. Pete, Keith, Ian and I took the Long Island Railroad from Brooklyn. Somewhere along the line of our 3 separate transfers, the train stopped. We were told that there was a fatality somewhere down the line - someone had walked across the train tracks and was killed. Ultimately, we missed our last connection and had to take a bus for the last hour or so. Totally crappy. But, it made for a good opportunity to run to the nearest 7-11 for a 6-pack. Yay.

The first day (evening) was spent mulling about Shelter Island. We set up camp on the boat and had dinner at the Dory Restaurant. Also we stocked up on some food supplies for the trip the following morning which began bright and early. There was no set destination, we were just sailing east. It was eventually decided to head towards Block Island. Some of us had never been and for the others it had been a while.

The town was quite nice. There was a microbrewery that had a very tasty IPA and two ice cream places that were a little disappointing. We were docked onto a mooring which was good for a cool breeze at night, but bad for a $3 one-way launch ride into and out of town. I slept outside for the second night in a row.

We sailed around some more and made our way to Stonington, CT. There’s some historic story associated with the town and Cannon Square. I don’t plan on trying to write it here. Check Wikipedia.

Then, after sailing and more sailing, we stayed in Mystic Connecticut, home of the famous Mystic Pizza. I dunno, they made a movie about it. Julia Roberts was in it. Anyway. There was also a bunch of boat-related things which was fun to walk through. Also, I got the new Chuck Palahniuk book. I suck at writing recaps.

Anyway, that’s all I’m going to do for this thing. After the sailing trip, I visited my family in Fairfield (minus my brother, who is currently in Alaska). It was a lot of fun, and very very hot. The end.

PS, the title is an inside “joke” from those of us that were on the sailing trip 3 years ago.

Boy howdy am I ever excited!

Anyway, I’m curious about something. After a shower I dry myself off from head to toe pretty thoroughly with a towel. Do some people completely air dry? Maybe minus their hair. I don’t think I could let myself drip while I walked around the apartment. Besides, what do you do after the shower? You get dressed of course. So, it wouldn’t make sense to get dressed till after you were completely dry. Otherwise you’d be wearing wet clothes all day. Or there would be a large gap of nothingness while you waited for the air to dry you off. Correct me if I’m wrong of course. Thanks bye.

So, two weeks ago kinda really sucked.

We’ll recap beginning with Monday. After work I went to the gym and, as usual, I drove and parked my car in the same general area I always do. Well, about an hour and a half later I returned to my car to find the back passenger window smashed and my briefcase (”hidden” under one of the seats) stolen. What was in the briefcase? My iPod, a book I had received in the mail from Dan, a Sigur Ros T-shirt that I also received that day from my Dad, some checks, my work ID, and a USB drive that I also had received in the mail that day. Totally crappy. Next, I got a call from Pete who said that the sailboat we had rented for our trip was sold out from underneath us. And lastly, was this other thing.

THIS week has so far been better. I just went and bought a new iPod. We managed to find a new sailboat for our trip. There’s a slim slim chance that the third thing will not cost me as much money as I had planned. And lastly, I got my economic stimulus check in the mail! Hooray.

I really need to shower. I am going to go do that now. Ok bye.

Happy July. Happy new month. Happy halfway-through-the-year!

*update* Also, Happy Canada Day!

*2nd update* Speaking of Canada, this is hilarious…

Photo Credit: Amy