Computer Problems

So I deleted the posts I wrote all about how HP and Compaq knowingly put subpar parts in the machine you see at the left (That's a Compaq SR5710F, a decent mid-level mid-priced machine that has served me well for the past couple years). When my computer started having BSOD's (blue screen of death) even in safe mode, I was peeved. Be thankful I didn't throw Nvidia under the bus as well because plenty of people have issues with Nvidia drivers in Windows 7.

So here's where we stand: yes, Compaq and their parent company HP did put a subpar power supply into my computer. Bestec is a name synonymous with spectacular failure (just do a search and you'll be bombarded with tales of charred motherboards, capacitors that take off like bottle rockets, and fireworks shooting out the back of people's computers) and it does seem suspect that HP would still be using them as a supplier given the history of failure. Also, placing a 250 Watt power supply in a computer that features a dual core processor is not the best of choices. Not only that, but powering a 24 pin ATX motherboard with a 20 pin power supply that has no native SATA connectors is not the way to go if you're building a machine to last. They're not off the hook, but I'm not as angry at HP and Compaq as I was before.

When my computer started having BSOD's (with different messages each time, no less) at random intervals, I thought two things immediately: 1) I need to check my hard drive and 2) I need to check my RAM. Chkdsk came back with nothing on the hard drive, which was a relief. By the time I downloaded and burned a copy of memtest86, it was time for bed. They tell you to run the test for at least 6 cycles to be sure. I think it ran closer to 12 by the time I got up in the morning, but it showed no errors. The only other possible culprits were the motherboard and the power supply. I bought a new power supply because I was going to need one anyway (yeah, I don't trust Bestec at all). When I popped in the new PSU, I got a BSOD within minutes. I was ticked because I didn't want to go buying a new motherboard. I decided to cut my losses and strip all the useable parts from the machine. I stripped it clean in no time at all and started using the case as a footrest. I was using a Power Mac G5 in the interim, and that should be another entry in itself. Developers really dropped support for non-Intel Macs of a cliff. I can run the latest itunes on a 10 year old PC, but I can't do the same on a 5 year old Mac? Please explain.

As I was reading in a computer repair forum later, someone suggested running memtest86 for each individual memory module separately. I had run them together and came up with bupkis. I figured it was worth a try because I wouldn't be able to buy a new computer for a while anyway. I set up the test for the first module and left the room because it takes a while. When I came back, memtest86 found over 3000 errors in that particular module. I ran the test for the other stick and it came up clean. So now I'm running way less memory than I'm used to, but the Compaq is back up and running. I'll be purchasing more memory when we take a trip to the city this weekend, so everything should be fine again. Even so, I'm still constantly afraid that I will get a BSOD in the middle of a

Getting Back Into Little Rubber Guys

Back in the day there was a seemingly endless supply of little rubber guys ready for your collecting pleasure. I had a few M.U.S.C.L.E. figures, most of the Guts Laser Fighters and Underwater Demo team, and I remember collecting pieces of a multi-piece Voltron-esque robot figure that I never completed. Little rubber guys were the thing in the 80's/early 90's.

Fast forward to now and I haven't collected little rubber guys for years. I don't know what happened to all my figures from years past, but I can only assume they were yard sale fodder at some point. Anyway, I was in Wal-Mart not too long ago because I live in a small town and there is a real dearth of shopping places. I was wandering through the toy section with my daughter and I happened upon a bunch of brightly colored balls with the Marvel logo on them. My curiosity was piqued. What I was looking at were Heroics. These are tiny rubber action figures featuring some of Marvel's best superheroes. I ended up buying a few Heroics that day, and have been hooked ever since. My Wal-Mart originally only stocked the Marvel line, but recently started stocking DC as well. I am now the proud owner of nearly all the figures in this line. I had to go online and see which figures are in which balls and buy a bunch of figures to finally get chase figures like Red Hulk. Below are a couple pictures of my collection along with a breakdown of how many of each figure I own.

Marvel
Standing Wolverine - 1 (Odd that I don't own more of these)
Jumping Wolverine - 4
Hulk - 9
Red Hulk - 2 (chase figure)
Clear Spider-Man - 1 (chase figure replacing the now rare black Spidey)
Spider-Man - 4
Spider-Man with web - 5
Thor - 4
Iron Man - 5
Captain America - 4

DC
Standing Batman - 4
Jumping Batman - 6
Up and Away Superman - 5
Superman - 3
Justice Lords Superman - 2 (chase figure)
Flash - 8 (all these flashes in a row look like 1 flash running)
Reverse Flash - 1 (chase figure)
Martian Manhunter - 2
Green Lantern - 3
Joker - 3

Anyway, for more information on these nifty little rubber guys, I refer you either to the product website or to the fantastic forum entitled Little Rubber Guys. Who knows how far it'll go with these guys? Maybe I'll get back into collecting Guts or something. You can see I've got a few other little rubber guys lurking in the background.

Greatest Tribute to Pi Ever

The Pros and Cons of the Ion Profile Pro

Now that I've owned this turntable for a month or so and have had the chance to use it several times, I have a few thoughts about it. I use this turntable in the computer room where I am writing this entry. My other turntable is a vintage Pioneer PL-115D which requires a phono preamp (I run mine through a Marantz 2252B receiver and a pair of Philips bookshelf speakers) and a decent ground, so it's a a little hard to throw just anywhere. Also, my daughter pretty much owns the entertainment room where my other turntable is and if I ever open my vinyl cabinet, she bum rushes it every time. The Ion fits nicely in the computer room, doesn't require a bulky receiver (the Marantz is a work of art, but it's quite large and extremely heavy), and can be placed where my daughter can't interfere with it. There are however, some downsides. I know this turntable was designed for people who hate their vinyl collection and wish it was MP3's (really? There are people who think that way? They should send their records to me). This is a USB turntable that does have an internal preamp as well as an rca out. I run it through the rca outs into a set of very nice computer speakers (no, really. They're very nice). I have run this turntable through my other setup, so I have a decent idea what it sounds like in the best circumstances. I have also tried the recording software, and it's crap. So there's that. Anyway, without any more delay let's kick it to some pro's and con's:

Pro-
1. Internal Preamp- It is a nice feature
2. Portability- This thing is waaay lighter than the Pioneer
3. Sleek Design- I like the curves on this thing. It looks nice
4. Nice Slip Mat- You can buy a decent slip mat cheap, but it's nice to not need to
5. Great Dust Cover- The hinge break on the dust cover is perfect. It doesn't force itself down as some covers do. I have never skipped a record because I was putting the dust cover down.
6. Inexpensive- I picked the Ion up for $60, which isn't bad at all.


Con-
1. Cheap Cartridge and Stylus- Of all the places to be chintzy, the part that picks up the sound and turns it into a usable audio signal always seems like a bad choice. Still, most inexpensive modern turntables skimp here
2. Cheap Tone Arm- I don't expect too much from a budget turntable, but this is not quality workmanship
3. Complete Lack of Adjustment- There is no way to balance the arm, set the anti-skate, dial in needle weight, or anything of the sort. Once again, I don't expect too much. The Philips is in the budget range for turntables, but it still provides all the basic adjustments for a decent turntable
4. Skippy Skip Skip- Because of the cheap tone arm and lack of adjustment, the Ion skips on records that play perfectly fine on the Philips.
5. Thin Sound- Because of the cheap cartridge, stylus, and tone arm (and possibly because of the internal preamp) this turntable just doesn't crank out the rich sound my Philips does.

Please know that I am not an audiophile. I don't have a tube preamp, I don't have an air-suspended turntable, I don't have a dedicated listening room, and I have never spent more than $250 on a single piece of audio equipment. I'm just a guy who tries to get the best sound he can without dropping too much coin. I have had a lot of experience with vintage and budget audio equipment, so I generally know what I'm talking about. I would only recommend this turntable to two types of people: 1) People who want to rip their vinyl to MP3's (seriously guys, send me your records. You don't deserve 'em) 2) People who want a turntable but don't want to invest in preamps, receivers, speakers, etc.

I'm not saying that this turntable sucks or that it is the worst thing on the market. It plays records, which is what it is supposed to do. I paid $75 for my Pioneer turntable and it was a much more sound investment. I would suggest that anyone looking to buy a first turntable should steer clear of the cheaply made modern budget and USB market. Buy a vintage Pioneer, Kenwood, or Sony, put a new stylus on it, and invest in either a decent vintage amplifier/receiver or buy any one of a number of reasonably-priced phono preamps that are on the market. You can sometimes find decent/fixable vintage audio equipment at thrift stores. I have a friend who outfitted himself with a great system for under $100 ($25 of which was a new stylus) by picking stuff up at a thrift store, dusting it off, and fixing it up. The Ion will continue to get use until I can teach my daughter to respect her daddy's record collection, but it isn't my favorite way of listening to my records. If I could replace it with a vintage turntable, I would.

Air Supply: The Classic Lineup

Air Supply is (from left to right): Vince Vaughn in scrubs, The Fonz in mom jeans, weird beard in a white jumpsuit, Joe Pesci, Uncle Joey from Full House, random Asian teenager, and the owner of an unmarked windowless van.

One of the benefits of owning records is the ability to really look at album artwork and enjoy all the great hairstyles and outfits people used to wear. Someday my kids will do this with my high school yearbooks.

Things to Buy With Bookman's Credit

So my in-laws gave me a great gift for Christmas: Bookman's credit. If you're like me you're a 32 year old man who looks nothing like his profile picture and has too much time on his hands. You also know the joys of Bookman's, which is the greatest used item repository in Arizona. Most of the store's physical space is devoted to used books (which is less and less appealing to me since my acquisition of iPad technology) but there are also musical instrument, electronic, and video game departments. Bookman's is one of my happy places.

So the wife, kid, and I packed up and headed to Tucson (not my favorite place on Earth) to go blow my Bookman's credit. I ended up picking up a CD player which looked fantastic and turned out to be a total dud (The right channel is dead. Thanks Memorex for doing such a bang-up job making it and to Bookman's for selling it to me in such condition), a second turntable for the computer room, and three NES games.

This is the CD player I purchased. The main reason I'm so upset that it doesn't work is because it's a beautiful piece of machinery that fits perfectly on my shelf. I just wanted this thing to work so badly (I'm tired of listening to my CD's with my discman and headphones. It makes me too isolated) that it was doubly upsetting when it didn't.

This is the turntable I picked up: the Ion Profile Pro. It's a USB turntable (a disappointing development if you ask me. So many turntables now are being marketed as a means for transferring your vinyl to digital formats. I could understand it if they were being marketed as a way of making your vinyl collection portable, but they always seem to be advertised as a way to be able to throw your vinyl collection out once it has been digitized. The only thing I can think of is that there has to be a whole generation of people who wish their father's Pat Boone records were MP3's.) but it also has an internal phono preamp which makes it much more versatile than my old Pioneer turntable. The Pioneer is a better turntable in general. It has a better needle cartridge, better tone arm (you can't adjust the balance or anti-skate on the Ion), better use of wood paneling (the Ion sadly has none. It's as if it wasn't made in the 70's at all), and better overall sound. On the plus side, I can plug the Ion into anything that can take USB or RCA connectors, and it doesn't have to be grounded like the Pioneer (older turntables have a ground wire as well as RCA plugs. Usually the ground plugs into the back of the receiver or amp, but my Pioneer doesn't ground properly unless it's wired to the screw of the outlet cover the turntable is plugged into. So not only can't I plug my Pioneer in just any old where, it needs an amp with a phono preamp and an outlet that is nowhere near the floorboards. Luckily I have such a setup here, but I might as well bolt my Pioneer to the shelf because it literally can't go anywhere else).

The Ion looks super sleek, which is nice. It also allows me to play records in rooms other than the one my vinyl collection is in. I keep my records under lock and key because my soon-to-be two-year-old daughter has already taken an interest in my records but has no idea how to treat them properly (I don't know what the age of consent is for a record collection. I want her to have great taste in music but I don't want her to ruin records like I did when I was a kid. She already sat on a fairly rare Scott Walker platter once, which prompted the locking doors on the collection). For the past 8 months I have only been able to listen to my records if my daughter isn't around, but she's always around. With the Ion I have a little more freedom, which is nice. So far it's been like inheriting my own record collection. Anyway, I'm talking too much about this thing and I'm sure I sound like a typical vinyl-centric hipster. I hope I'm not that guy. I've actively tried to take steps to not become that guy. For example: my actual prescription glasses are horn-rimmed (I got them in Cambodia. They were the only decent frames in the store) but I never wear them and choose to squint rather than even look that horn-rimmed hipster vinyl guy that nobody likes. Also, that hipster guy is a blogger so I'm on thin ice. I am not writing this from a coffee shop if it helps.

This is the first of three NES games I bought. I don't really care for Q*Bert on the NES. I own it for both of my Atari systems and without looking I might even own it for the Intellivision. It's a little too simplistic for a Nintendo game, but there's a good reason why I bought it. A reason I will reveal soon.

From all accounts this is not a good NES game. I looked at screenshots and was not impressed, yet there's a good reason why I spent Christmas credit on such an item.

Zanac seems like a good enough game, but that's not why I bought it. All three of my Nintendo purchases fill one purpose and one only: I needed a "Q" "X" and "Z." With these three games I now own an NES game for every letter of the alphabet. It's odd that I didn't own a game for any of these letters considering that prior to buying these games I owned 153 NES games. I'm not particularly excited about any of these games, but my collection feels more complete. This was an OCD purchase more than anything.



Anyway, that's what I did with my Bookman's credit. The CD player will be going back (it's a 2 hour drive back to Tucson. I miss living in Mesa) as soon as I can manage and I'll have another $30 to blow on Bookman's purchases. So look forward to another blow by blow of a nerdy shopping spree. I know you can't wait.

It Shouldn't Hurt to be a Nerd

Over the past few years I've seen a steep increase in the number of people who are willing to let their nerd flag fly. In some strange way nerds, who have traditionally been a marginalized group, are in the mainstream now. They have girlfriends and have people who admire them for their knowledge and skills. It's a whole new nerdy world. Guys who would have been stuffed into trash cans not that many years ago are now being lionized by people who aren't even on the chess team (I was invited to join the chess team, and I had many friends on the chess team. I just thought it was a bridge too far. I tried (and failed) to have some semblance of coolness). It's more okay to be a nerd now than it ever has been, and that means there are more out-of-the-closet nerds than ever before.

With the increase in overall nerdy numbers, the schisms that divide certain types of nerds have gotten pretty wide. No, I'm not talking about Star Wars vs Star Trek or anything like that. I'm talking about those who wish to inflict their nerd powers on you, to use them as some sort of nerdy weapon vs. those who seek the more communal aspects of nerd life and seek peace in nerdhood. We can divide nerds into two main groups with many subgroups among them. I will not attempt to make a complete listing of the subgroups, but I will try to cover the topic as best as I can. Do I sound like I'm writing some sort of nerd term paper? Yes I do.

The two main types of nerd (and yes, I know that binary classification systems are often flawed) are the Destroyer Nerd and the Builder Nerd.

Destroyer Nerds are the reason you might not ever want to be a nerd. They are intimidating because they know more about everything than you do (partly because all they ever do is soak up nerd information. They usually have no friends and no life outside their nerdy pursuits) and they are always correcting you or laughing in your face at the slightest mistake. This type of nerd is typified by the comic book guy from The Simpsons. How often have you seen this guy derisively mock someone because they didn't know some nerdy detail that he knows? It's pretty much his whole reason for being.

The destroyer nerds I most hate to be around own a video game store in the city I used to live in. Because they own the store, all they do every day is play video games, read comic books, and discuss various types of nerdy crap. Their job allows them a certain elite level of nerd knowledge that people with a normal day job can't attain without completely sacrificing their social life. I once made the mistake of saying that there is a port of Gunstar Heroes on the Gameboy Advance. What I meant to say was that there is a sequel to Gunstar Heroes, not a port. When my mouth was spitting the sentence out, I couldn't think of the word "sequel." Maybe I was up too late the night before, or maybe I started talking before the thought was fully formed. I dunno. I said port when I meant sequel. When my little faux pas reached the ears of the nerd on duty, he basically jumped down my throat and called me a moron. Then he took the time to explain to me the difference between a port and a sequel, a difference I already knew. You would think I would get a little slack because I'm the guy who walks in once a month asking for Vectrex games (the nerd on duty never fails to point out that he owns the complete Vectrex library including all the peripherals and no, none of them are for sale). So now when I walk in that store, I pretty much keep my mouth shut. I don't want to make the slightest slip-up lest I get an "I know more than you about everything" lecture. Like I said, these guys use nerd knowledge as a weapon.

Builder Nerds are the reason you want to be a nerd. They love sharing and just plain old nerding out. Stan Lee is the perfect builder nerd. If you read the early Marvel comics he worked on, his little comments at the bottom of certain frames all  seem to be saying, "Do you think this is as awesome as I think it is? Seriously, I think this is super awesome." Reading a comic with Stan Lee comments feels like you're reading it with the man himself. You can tell he loves what he does and he loves to share it with the world.

The first builder nerd I ever got to be really good friends with was my friend Ryan. He lived in the small addition on the side of the bachelor pad I lived in during my first year of college. We had this huge house that was disgusting in every way, but the rent was super cheap. Something like 9 guys lived in it, and Ryan was the quiet guy who lived in the addition that had its own bathroom and kitchenette. We never talked to the guy during the first semester, and were only vaguely aware that he lived in our place. One night he knocked on the door to the main house to ask to use the bathroom or something. Once inside the house, he noticed my large collection of Calvin and Hobbes stuff. He got really excited and we started talking about how great Calvin and Hobbes is. He went to his room and pulled out some Calvin and Hobbes collections I hadn't read yet, and he loaned them to me. I, in turn, loaned him the ones he hadn't read. We talked about all kinds of stuff that night. It was, "Do you still listen to synthpop from the 80's even though almost nobody else in the world does? Me too!" "Have you used the cheat codes on Descent and laughed when the lady's voice said, 'cheater'? Me too!" "Do you hold Cinnamon Toast Crunch to be the superior sugar cereal over all other sugar cereals? Me too!" Ryan and I ended up staying up until 3 in the morning talking about all kinds of nerdy stuff. It was one of the best times I've ever had talking about nerdy crap. Since that time, I've had similar discussions with my music nerd friends, my movie nerd friends, my video game nerd friends, and all other nerdy friends. Sharing nerdy knowledge is one of the best things a nerd can do.  It's a building and rejoicing process rather than a destroying one.

And now we take a look at the subsets of nerddom.

Destroyer Nerd Subsets


The Old Guard- This is the guy who can't accept the fact that there are 12 year old kids who enjoy the same nerdy crap he does. Somehow he's forgotten that he was once a 12 year old  with nerdy interests and that at one time there were people who knew more than he did. He's probably forgotten all the builder nerds who helped him gain all his nerdy knowledge. The old guard nerd is, at heart, an ingrate.

The Ninja Nerd- This type of nerd is never a part of any conversation. He has no friends, and subsists in nerddom only by sneak attacking existing nerdy conversations. This is the type of guy who will sneak up and lecture you on the difference between a sequel and a port when he wasn't even a part of the original conversation. He's always there lurking in the shadows, waiting for someone to make a mistake that he can pounce on. He'll correct you, make you feel bad, and leave as soon as he came. It's no wonder he has no friends.

The Evil Career Nerd- This is a guy who works in the nerd industry but uses his powers for evil rather than good. It's the comic store guy who talks down to you because he knows everything and you don't. It's the record store guy who laughs in your face because you haven't heard of some obscure band who only has 45's on some Japanese label. It's the guys who work at that video game store who gave me a half hour of crap for a slight verbal mistake. These are the living versions of the comic book guy from The Simpsons.

The Claim Jumper- Although he is usually lying about it, this guy knew about every trend in nerddom before you did. He was on the bandwagon back when it was freshly felled trees waiting to go to the mill to become the boards that would eventually become the bandwagon. He will never stop rubbing your face in the fact that he staked his claim first. About the 90 millionth time you hear about how he had the screener for the pilot of Firefly before the series even hit the air and become a cult classic you just want to punch him in the face.

The Player Hater- Nothing is good enough for this guy. He believes true nerd power comes from staring awesome things in the face and declaring them to be not nearly good enough for his refined palate. No matter how good something is, he'll find something wrong with it. He thinks he's a great critical thinker and a very refined person, but he's really just a two-bit hater. It takes no skill to find fault with everything you see. Nerds of this variety are probably very insecure at heart, and their player hating is a smoke screen.

The Hoarder- This is the guy who's holding four aces but will never show them. He'll let you see the two of clubs that fills out his hand, but you'll never see the single of spades. He feels like he'll lose his power and status if he ever lets anyone else know about some nerdy area of knowledge in which he is an expert. He seriously thinks his life would be perfect if nobody else knew about Voltron or whatever it is he is hoarding. In addition to robbing the nerd community of his expertise, this guy is robbing himself of potential friendships and good times.

Builder Nerd Subsets


The Old Timer- The old timer is the guy who has been doing nerdy crap his whole life. He enjoys seeing a new generation come up and take hold of the nerdy crap he loves. My Dad is this kind of nerd. For Father's Day I gave him some DVD's with tons of digital comics on them. He started talking to me about why Jack Kirby's Marvel stuff was the best there has ever been, and we ended up having a nice long discussion about comics that both of our wives rolled their eyes at. It's fun to be able to talk about stuff with a guy who remembers when The X-Men were brand new.

The Good Career Nerd- This is the guy who works in the nerd industry and manages to not let his status go to his head. It's the comic store guy who gladly introduces neophyte nerds to comics they will probably enjoy. It's the record store guy who will put on a record of a great band you aren't aware of because he wants you enjoy it as much as he does (His name is Steve and he co-owns Hoodlum's in Tempe). It's the video game store guys who love to direct you to awesome games you haven't played (Some of these guys work at Bookman's in Mesa). They are guys who use their positions to bring good stuff to good people.

The Rejoicer- This is my friend Ryan. It's the guy who you can talk to until 3 in the morning. He loves that anyone else in the world knows about M.A.S.K. (because illusion is the ultimate weapon y'know). His mind is blown any time he meets someone who loves Get Smart as much as he does. Life is a 24/7 party for this guy because at any moment he could start up a conversation with a random stranger about how great Patrick Stewart is.

The Librarian- This guy owns an extensive collection of nerdy stuff, but is somehow not opposed to constantly lending it out. He views his collection as less of a personal property and more of a collective pool. Unfortunately, this guy is very easily exploited by destroyer nerds. If he surrounds himself with builder nerds, however, this guy can create a nerd commune where peace and happiness reign.

The Sherpa- This is the guy who will take a young or aspiring nerd by the hand and guide him through the admittedly convoluted world of sci-fi, comic books, and other nerdy crap. He helps you avoid the jabs thrown at you by destroyer nerds. He helps you set up your nerdy base camp with your nerd essentials and may even help you reach a nerdy summit or two. The sherpa is a true friend and is of great value to aspiring nerds.

Anyway, I might add more nerd types when I think of 'em, but these will suffice for now. As you can see, destroyer nerds are self-centered and bring nothing of value to the nerd community. Builder nerds are the nerd community. There wouldn't be conventions and gatherings if there weren't nerds whose purpose in life is to share and rejoice in good things.

If I were president of nerds (and no, this is not me throwing my hat into the ring. If I ever run it won't be until at least 2016) I would actively seek to set up some sort of nerd rehabilitation to help destroyer nerds learn to contribute positively to society. There really needn't be a rift in nerddom. It pains me to see it.

That's How I Do

Strawberry Short Kook, Sir Isaac Lime, Alexander the Grape, Louis-Bloo Raspberry, Poncho Punch and Li'l Orphan Orange.

What's all that jazz? Oh, that's just me rattling off all 6 zippy flavors of Otter Pops, my favorite summertime snack, from memory. No need for cheat sheets, I know my Otter Pops by heart. Oh, and for kicks I did them in order from most delicious to least (you know when you're down to the dregs of your Otter Pops when it's just Li'l Orphan Orange and nobody else. It's only fitting that the Orphan gets picked last).

Now that it's summer and I'm well into my second case of Otter Pops, I thought I drop a little ode to my very favorite frozen sugar-laden treat. Not nerdy enough material you say? Well how about the fact that I have visited the Otter Pops website and actually downloaded songs performed by the fictional pop group called Otter Popstars and used them in mix tapes (yes on actual cassettes) to woo the woman who eventually became my wife. If that ain't a nerdy devotion to Otter Pops, I don't know what is.

My Mom used to buy these things in bulk from Price Club (remember when that was a place?) and my siblings and I would down these things like nobody's business. At that time, my Mom was taking our family off processed sugar. We didn't have any candy or sweets of any kind in the house and yet Otter Pops made it under the radar somehow.

In those days I would only engage in 3.5 of the six flavors. I was all about Strawberry Short Kook, Alexander the Grape, and Sir Isaac Lime and could be talked into Louis-Bloo Raspberry if everything else was Li'l Orphan Orange and Poncho Punch. I didn't do Li'l Orphan Orange because she's the most boring of all the flavors. I once puked up a Poncho Punch, so that took him out of the rotation. Louis-Bloo Raspberry was ok in a pinch, but not nearly as good as the trifecta mentioned before. I can mark the official date of my becoming an adult as the day I bought a case of Otter Pops when I was in college and I taught myself to love each and every flavor. No longer am I an Otter Pop racist. Each color is beautiful and delicious (except those tropical flavored ones. That's just heresy).

Anyway, with the weather officially hot it's time for the Otter Pops to find their way into the respective freezers of every person in the world who knows what cool summertime treats are all about. Oh, and do yourself a favor and hit up the official Otter Pops website and download a song or two. I recommend "Place in My Heart." Play it for that special lady or guy in your life and then give them a Strawberry Short Kook, proving that you love them enough to give them the very best flavor. That's summertime love Otter Pop style.

Nerd transmission complete.

Who Still Uses Palm Pilots?

I do. You bet I do. Lemme talk about it. Back in the day all my friends in high school had Franklin planners (yes, I used to run with a very nerdy crew). I wanted a Franklin planner, but they made those things so ridiculously expensive that my parents wouldn't cover it (smart move on their part. Those things were overrated). I ran around with the inferior Cambridge planner with a fake leather binding and much cheaper fillers. If you're too young to know what a Franklin or Cambridge planner is, think of it as a glorified Trapper Keeper (just look it up).

 Anyway, I'm not sure what the obsession was with planning your day as a high schooler. I did the same crap every day. The only real benefit was keeping track of which speech and debate tournament was which weekend. Anyway, as I said, I was behind the times with my lack of proper planning accoutrement, but it wouldn't always be that way.

When I got into college, my Dad gave me an unexpected gift: his old Palm III. He had just upgraded to the Palm IIIC (which I would later inherit from him) and he gave me his monochrome Palm III. I bought a fold-out keyboard for it and used my first PDA for everything from playing games (what I did the most) to taking notes in class (what I did the least). Best of all, I had technology that my pen and paper toting colleagues did not. I was on top of the world. I indicated that I would later inherit my Dad's IIIC. This happened after the III got dropped and suffered irreparable damage. So the Palm IIIC became my first color PDA. I've owned several since then, but have only held onto three.

Here's a list of PDA's I have owned inasmuch as I can remember and in no particular order: Dell Axim X30, Palm Tungsten T, Palm IIIC, Ipaq H5150 (given to my wife), Sony Clie N760C, Palm IIIX, Palm VX, Palm M130, Palm M505, Palm Tungsten E, and probably a few others I'm forgetting. Now that I look at it, that's a nerdy freaking list. It's important to note that none of those PDA's double as cell phones. I don't currently own a cell phone and don't want one. Yeah, I'm weird.

Anyway, I just wanted to talk a bit about why I love the three PDA's I've held onto and why I keep using technology that the world has largely given up on, especially now that tablet pc's and smartphones are all the rage.

Palm IIIC- Despite being released 11 years ago (not that long ago for a car, a million years ago for tech) the Palm IIIC actually has one of the best color screens in the business. It doesn't suffer from being in direct sunlight as many other displays do, but I couldn't possibly venture to guess why. I actually carried this thing around and used it on a daily basis until 2006 or so. I would see people with Tungstens and other higher powered PDA's and I would always say, "When I can find something I need this thing for other than keeping phone numbers and playing games, I'll upgrade." Of course I eventually did upgrade, but imagine being a girl in 2005 and having me ask for your number and jot it down on what was, even at the time, a dinosaur of a PDA. I didn't care. This thing was 100% reliable for me. I actually pulled it out and charged it a couple days ago. Not only is it still holding a charge, but it still works just as well as it did when I first got it (2001 or so). I still have the foldout keyboard for it, and that still works like a charm. I don't know what ever happened to the Rhino Skin case I used to have for this thing that allowed me to wear it on my belt like dorky mcdorklepants, but I have all the other accessories and software and were it not for two more recent PDA's, I'd still be trotting this thing out. A classic, a tank, a machine that reminds me of simpler times. I love it.

Palm Tungsten T- I bought this bad boy at Bookman's in Mesa (one of my happy places. A great store for books, electronics, video games, and general nerdery) as a replacement for my IIIC. Mainly I just came across a bunch of games I wanted to play that I couldn't play on that old dinosaur. The Tungsten T is my favorite of the Palm Tungsten line, mainly because it includes a feature that helps me combat boredom: it slides open to reveal the graffiti pad. Look at the picture on the left. Do you see a graffiti pad? Nope, it's hidden. Slide the bottom portion down and voila, you've got graffiti. Because I'm the sort of guy who likes to click, pop, or slide things when he's bored, this bad boy is a prize of a boredom reliever even when it isn't on. The Tungsten T is much more powerful than the IIIC. It can play MP3's, it has a microphone and voice memo button, it has a nifty spring loaded stylus, and it can play the all the Astraware games you could wish for. I put a bazillion hours into Bejeweled on this thing before my next PDA purchase which came a short 8 months or so later.

Dell Axim X30- This is my current PDA that I still carry around with me and get strange looks for owning despite the fact that this little machine is only 6 or 7 years old. I found it at a thrift store for 5 bucks and couldn't help but buy it. This thing is quite the little powerhouse. It has a 624MHz processor, which is actually faster than the first computer I ever built. It can play all sorts of games. I've even played Doom at full speeds on this bad boy. It can run emulators. It can surf the net. It can play video and audio. Most importantly, it can hold the entire Astraware and Popcap library without depleting all the memory. Oh, and you can write native Word documents on this thing. It's so much better at so many things than my other two PDA's that it's my natural choice for a day to day PDA. It even comes with a little leather snap case that makes it look like I'm carrying a miniature Franklin Planner (full circle, eh?). This is the PDA for me, and since it doesn't look like anyone will ever be building PDA's ever again, this may be the last PDA I ever buy. I'll probably carry this thing around with me until I'm lured into the tablet PC market.

Anyway, those are the three PDA's I still own. They all still work and I still own all the accessories for them. I love each of them in their own way. I don't really use any of them for planning, but I never really used my first Palm for planning either. I didn't use my old Cambridge Planner for planning. I used it for doodling and writing cryptic messages about the girl I liked.

So if you ever wondered what kind of outdated nerdy nerd would still run around with an old PDA, that would be me. I tend to not throw technology out. First of all, I'm always nostalgic for old technology (which explains my vast Atari collection) and secondly, if you choose (as I have) to be the sort of person who isn't driven by market forces and the need to own the latest and greatest thing, you'll find that the things that were the latest and greatest thing 10 years ago are still remarkably nifty. This is why you should have a working Mac Classic in your house and why you should have a utility belt with a working pager and a Palm Pilot. Never give up, never surrender.

Getting the Nerdship off the Ground

So I'm not the first person in the world to start a nerd blog just like I wasn't the first person in the world to start a music blog. Why do I even bother? I dunno. If you're actually reading this and you're not me, you have doubled my anticipated readership. I guess that answers a few questions anyway.

So I'm a 30 something year-old guy who has been a nerd pretty much his entire life. I'm not an uber-nerd nor am I a poseur-nerd. I did not create this blog to tout my nerdly powers. I personally know many people more nerdy than me with much more nerdy knowledge and ability. I'm just finding that as I get older I care less and less about being cool and try to spend my time doing things that I enjoy. As I have followed my heart I have come to the undeniable conclusion that my heart is a big ol' nerd too. So this being the case, I decided I needed to start a nerd blog so I can have a place to talk about nerdy crap. I thought of a bunch of different names for this blog, all of which are taken. My frustration on this point is illustrated in the graph below:

Without fail if you choose to start a blog, the name you want is taken. This isn't a major problem in and of itself. There are smart people in the world who may have just beaten you to the punch. It doesn't hurt if the blog name you wanted is the name of a popular blog with hundreds of entries and hundreds of followers. It will drive you crazy, however, if the awesome name you wanted is taken by a blog with 1 or fewer entries. That's what I came up against. I would mention some of the offenders, but it would only serve to drive traffic to their non-blogs (that is, of course, assuming I ever get traffic on this blog).

So why the sudden interest in writing about nerdy things, you ask? Well, I started reading comic books two days ago. Why start reading comics at 30+ years old? It was just time. I have always been the guy who has enjoyed movies and tv shows about superheroes, but I have always kept myself apart from the comic book reading crowd. Something about those guys (many of whom were my friends growing up) who live and die with their monthly issue of whatever comic they collect just seemed a nerdly step too far for me. It's the same reason I didn't play D&D even though many of my friends did (I've been meaning to take up D&D). Anyway, I was watching Wolverine and the X-Men, a series I highly recommend, and when it was all done (Wolverine and the X-Men only ran for 26 episodes) I just wanted, nay needed more X-Men in my life. I took a look at the X-Men series that I loved as a kid, but when I was a kid I didn't realize how bad it sucked. All the girls looked and sounded like April O'Neil from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, way too many of the characters had mullets, and the points on Wolverine's mask were about two feet too tall. I couldn't enjoy it. So I found a way to acquire digital copies of the original run of X-Men comics (starting with issue #1 of the original Lee/Kirby series) and I started reading them and quickly found that I love them. So I guess I have another 400+ X-Men comics to read, after which I'll dive into Spiderman, Batman, and all the other things I should've been reading and loving all along. If you have any suggestions for my comic reading, feel free to let me know.

Anyway, I'd better quit writing. Game 3 of the NBA Finals is on and I don't want the Mavs to win (I guess I'm not a total nerd). Look for more entries to come. This won't be your one entry wonder when you're trying to make your own nerd blog.

Finite Space Time

So I made a couple new additions to my music collection since the last post. I had to drive 3 hours back to the big city just to sign two pieces of paper. Seriously, a total of 6 hours of driving just to give my Herbie Hancock twice. The upside to such a trip is that I was back in the big city and had access to all my favorite records stores (the only place to buy CD's in the small town I currently live in is Wal-Mart. They don't tend to stock too many CD's that I want to own. Yes, I still buy things digitally, but I prefer hard copies. Also, I love picking through bins of vinyl and racks of cassettes. There's something very pleasing about shuffling through hundreds of records to find that elusive Berserkley comp you don't own yet, or that copy of Moondog Matinee complete with the wraparound poster. Anyway, this parenthetical statement is way longer than I intended. The point is this: I love actual brick and mortar record stores. Two of my absolute favorite bands of all-time were introduced to me by super smart record store employees who knew what I should be listening to). So I took advantage of the time before I turned my car right around to home and visited some of my favorite haunts.

One of the biggest problems for a collector like myself is the finite nature space and time as it relates to the size of the homes we inhabit and the time we have available to devote to music. There are only so many records I can fit in the house before my wife starts hinting that I own too many. I can only own so many discmen, walkmen, minidisc players, mp3 players, etc. before my wife indicates that I can't let any more of these things follow me home. Let me state emphatically that I'm not trapped in a Lockhorns sort of marriage. I love my wife very much and I am typing this statement without any sort of weapon against my head. My wife is generally very understanding, but seeing as how I own 5 computers, 13 video game consoles and hundreds of games for them, 600+ vinyl records, 500+ CD's, 100+ minidiscs, an innumerable cassette tape collection (unnumbered because about half of it is in my car), three bass guitars, two bass amps, two guitars, two guitar amps, and probably a few other collections I'm overlooking. I'm not bragging about my collections (I personally know people with much more impressive collections. These people also happen to be single), I just want you to understand that with all the crap that fills our house, 96.8% of it is mine and 87.6% of it is stuff my wife never uses. She is an absolute saint to let me keep this stuff. So adding another listening device may not have been the best choice I could have made, but as stated before, my wife is a saint. Without further discussion of my marriage, here is the addition:

This is the second Sony Sports walkman I own. When cassettes ruled the world, the sports walkman was the one everyone wanted. Not only was it bright yellow when all the competing products were black or silver, it had a clamshell-style snap shut case that was supposed to be at least water resistant if not waterproof. In its heyday, the walkman pictured above was the very knees of the bees.

I was listening to a Mitch Hedberg album once (I don't remember if it was an official release or a bootleg) but he tried one of those jags that he would occasionally cut where the audience didn't go with him on the little journey inside his head. Anyway, he was talking about a boombox and about how if he took the batteries out, it would feel significantly lighter and thus feel like a piece of junk. The weight added by the batteries gave the boombox legitimacy. Without them it was just a hollow piece of molded plastic. Even though he wasn't able to find the laughs on that jag, he addressed something that I have often pondered as it relates to electronic devices: weight matters.

As I mentioned before, the case on my discman is essentially a solid piece of metal. It's fairly hefty and thus feel much more real than the two plastic ones I keep in a drawer but won't throw away because I'm some sort of sicko hoarder who is lucky to have a woman in his life. The new walkman also has a significant heft, especially when compared with my other walkmen. This being the case, which walkman do you think I've been listening to my cassettes on? If you guessed the heavy one, move to the head of the class.

In addition to the unnecessary purchase of a hefty outdated listening device, I also picked up a new cassette. It just happens to be a cassette that I once owned in high school which took flight out the window of my car after very few listens. The cassette in question was Bringing Down the Horse by The Wallflowers.

I was intrigued by this album because it was the son of Bob Dylan hitting the big time. When I was in high school, I only knew Bob Dylan through the artists that covered his music (The Byrds, Peter Paul and Mary, Jimi Hendrix). My Dad couldn't stand Bob Dylan's voice (though, oddly enough, many consider Dylan to be the voice of my Dad's generation). My Dad was so emphatic that the only way to enjoy Dylan was through covers that I believed it without firsthand knowledge. So I basically avoided all original renditions by Dylan until I was in college and made a couple hippie friends. Anyway, the point is that I bought this album because the son of a man whose voice I'd never heard made it.

The first single and opening track of the album is "One Headlight" which got waaaay overplayed to the point that I decided that it was crap and chucked the tape out the window. Here's the thing: I was just as guilty as the dj's who overplayed the song. In the days when cassettes roamed the land and it was a hard thing to listen to the same track over and over, yet I still took the time to do it. You had two choices: either listen to your song, flip the tape over and listen to the other side until your side has rewound enough (this option resulted in less wear and tear on your cassette and the player) or you could just hit rewind at the end of your song and wait for the tape to cue up again. I always took the second option. Imagine my relief when I found out about CD's. When I bought Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins on cassette, I would rewind "Today" over and over. It wasn't until a friend put "Mayonaise" on a mix tape that I realized I was missing 12/13ths of a really great album. "One Headlight" by The Wallflowers was also a victim of my rewinding habits and because it's the first track on the album, I never heard so much as a snippet from any of the other songs before the cassette took a flying leap.

Here's what I learned from listening to the entire album on my trip back from the big city: I'm an idiot. I was so big on Counting Crows in high school, there was no legitimate reason that I should not have absolutely loved The Wallflowers. The two bands are definitely kindred spirits. They must both celebrate The Band's entire catalog. I can especially imagine that Jakob Dylan does because his old man played a big part in getting The Band off the ground. I can picture a Garth Hudson or Rick Danko hanging around the Dylan house when Jakob was in diapers.

So The Wallflowers are actually a pretty dang good band and Bringing Down the Horse has plenty of good songs other than the overplayed hit single (which I can dig now that it's been a dozen or so year since I heard it last). The song below is "God Don't Make Lonely Girls" which was hands down my favorite song on the album.