We’re getting some thunder and I don’t know what to expect out of the weather. Yesterday we were supposed to be in for a quick thunderstorm and it just totally flooded. That’s what’s frustrating about Valdosta weather in the summer– there’s always going to be a late afternoon thunderstorm, but you absolutely don’t know how long it’ll last until it gets here! Most often it thunders for at least an hour, threatening a huge buildup, then it rains for ten minutes and completely passes. But sometimes it settles in and it’s just gorgeous to watch it pour.

Unfortunately though, that means a lot of power flickering and all-out outages. So I got excited when I saw this ups on sale. The CyberPower Intelligent UPS is an uninterpretable power source! It’s essentially a surge protector with a battery backup that has the technology to interface with a program on your computer for the best case scenario when it comes to losing power. So theoretically you could still be online for a little while when your power is out. But the big thing that means is that you’re not at as high risk for damaging your equipment in power surges and you’re not at high risk for losing data because it has all sorts of program settings for saving and hibernating or shutting down safely.

I try to shut my computer down when the big storms come, but as unpredictable as they are, I flip out a little when I know the power is flickering in and out at home and my computer is just having to roll with it. This would really ease my mind– and apparently all the people who’ve given it 5-star reviews agree. I’m putting it on my list of things to buy when I’m not broke ’cause it’s certainly a small price to pay for the service it provides.

I need all the Ocean’s movies– Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen. I can’t even pick a favorite because I love them all. They’re just so easy to get into. I can sit and watch them and pay attention, I can play them in the background while I’m doing something else, or I can fall asleep to them.

I’ve gotta have Star Trek back as well. That movie is just too awesome.

Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick– I love action movies that still have an interesting plot, plus Vin Diesel was just super sexy in those so, bonus!

Elf and Stranger Than Fiction are two of the only Will Ferrel movies I really like and I can watch them over and over again.

Evolution is just great to have as a choice when you’ve got company. You can pay attention and laugh at it, or you can sit around and chat with it playing in the background. Good for filling the lull in between conversations.

Finding Nemo– well I just can’t live without that one. Don’t ask me to. :-P

I can’t say I’ll ever watch them again, but I’d like to have the Indiana Jones Collection back as well.

And I bought Jeff Dunham, Men in Black, and the Xmen movies, but I bought them ‘for’ him so they stuck with his stuff.

And we used to watch both National Treasure movies fairly regularly so I want those back.

Lower on my list are Night at the Museum, Wedding Crashers, The Wedding Planner, and V for Vendetta, but I definitely do want them.

And if I can find it on sale, I want to get Super Smash Brothers Melee as well. I didn’t play it a ton, but it was one of my favorite Game Cube games.

I think Locksley was the best opener I’ve ever seen, not counting the shows I’ve been to specifically for the opener. They were a perfect fit for Butch, also, so that was a definite plus. I’ve seen far too many openers who were only there because they shared a label and that just detracts from the overall experience. They put on a really fantastic show and I loved their sound and lyrical content. I should’ve grabbed their newest cd on sale at their merch booth, but I’ll probably pick it, and their old one, Don’t Make Me Wait, after my next paycheck if I can. I hope the albums live up to their live performance.

I was expecting great things in seeing Butch live, and he delivered. The man knows how to work a crowd. He played a lot of my current favorites in a 2+ hour set. It was the last night of tour and he’s from Cartersville so he really let loose in Atlanta. Little guitar means party! In the end he made his way through the pit and climbed up on the chair directly in front of me and Brian for a while before moving back to the center of the pit and having us all sit down. Again, he knows how to work a crowd.

Wasn’t the best setup for pictures, but Brian got a few decent ones, you can see them on Flickr.

The set also has the Mystik Spiral music video “Freakin’ Friends,” the pilot episode “Sealed With A Kick,” the intros from Daria Day, and the top ten countdown Daria and Jane did, so you get everything there was to see from when the show originally aired.

I absolutely love Daria. It’s probably one of my top 5 favorite shows. I always keep at least one season on my iPod and I watch Daria! (the musical episode from season 3) when I’m in a really crummy mood to cheer myself up. It’s one of the few things to come out of MTV that I can genuinely say was worth a damn outside of just for nostalgic value.

I’ll have to wait until I can catch it on sale, but this will be in my personal collection. My dvd shelf needs it. My iPod copies aren’t great quality at all, and I’d love to watch it all in decent quality again.

When the razor cuts,
When they torch the huts,
When I hate your guts,
We’ll still be freakin’ friends.

Freakin’ friends, freakin’ friends,
Till we come to bad ends we’re freakin’ friends.
Freakin’ friends, freakin’ friends,
Till we come to bad ends we’re freakin’ friends.

First of all, I want some black diamond earrings. Maybe something a little more intricate than these 1.50 carat studs, but I could certainly settle for something that simple ;) I do prefer studs– something I can pull off with jeans and a tee, or that I can dress up with. I like versatile things. I hate items that I can only wear with something specific.

I want to kick it old school and get some jewelry with my birthstone, too. I’m a November baby, so I’m stuck with topaz, which I hate, but I can cheat and go for mystic topaz. It’s hard to find good pictures of mystic topaz in jewelry because they try to play up all the colors you can see in it, but I love the dark color of it, and the subtlety of the other colors popping up.

I really want a mystic topaz ring and this triangle cut ring is almost perfect. I’d absolutely love to have this same setting, but in white gold. The stone just stands out so much more against white gold.

I’d love to have something like this white gold mystic topaz pendant as well, though I’m not sold on the heart shape.

Hopefully if things in the next few months go the way I’m really hoping for, I can move these off my wishlist and into the ‘own’ category. I just can’t believe I’ve made it to 24 without really buying myself any expensive jewelry. Ha– and I say that as if anyone else really has either *eyeroll* Maybe I’m not a typical girly girl, but every girl can get into jewelry, dammit. It doesn’t have to look pretentious, you can have expensive jewelry that looks badass. I’ll prove it :-P Consider me officially on the lookout for a good jewelry sale.

I’ve gone through all the excuses I can come up with for not starting and I’m out now, so I’ve started! I’m starting small. I know how I am– if I just jump into it, then the first day I don’t feel like doing it, I just won’t go and I’ll stop altogether. So I’m starting small. I’m walking a mile at the track. And like all things I’ve been successful in changing, I’m not forcing myself to do it. If I make other plans that make going to the track during an ideal time (when it’s cool enough out) impossible, I won’t go, but if I’m just going to be at home, then I’m getting off my ass and going to the track. It doesn’t take that long to walk a mile. I’ve gone a few times already this week :)

So now I’m ready to pick up an armband for my iPod. It’s not totally necessary while I’m just walking the track, but I’d like to get this basic iPod cover/armband so I can get an idea of how they fit and what I might want in a more complex one. I’m also working on going through my music to get a playlist together so I don’t have to bother with cycling through my whole collection while I’m walking/jogging.

I really, really need to get some new shoes. That’s at the top of my list of must-buys when I get my new financial position all sorted out. I just need something basic, like these Reeboks. Just a good, durable shoe with some good supports in a basic color. I hate flashy tennis shoes.

If I actually stick with it, not only will I be doing more than a mile, but I won’t be able to stick to just nighttime, so I’ll be in this South Georgia summer heat and dehydration is a very real, very fast-approaching threat, so I’ll need something like this Nathan Quickdraw Plus water bottle. It’s just a basic 22 oz bottle with a hand strap, so it’d be perfect for the track and, bonus! A portion of the proceeds goes to Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and I’m always up for sending some support that way.

Once I really get into it, I want to start jogging around our neighborhood. Being so close to campus the sidewalks are neverending and there’s enough regular traffic and lighting that it’s safe enough to go out whenever I want. At that point I think I’ll upgrade to the Nathan Triangle waist pack. It’s sort of like a fanny pack, but less silly ;) It holds a 22 oz bottle as well and has a zippered pocket for keys etc. It hangs on your waist at your center of gravity for a completely hands-free jog, and this one also supports Susan G. Komen.

And finally, while checking out all the different types of accessories on sale for jogging, I came across these Asics Running Mittens. I clicked ’cause I wondered why you’d need specific mittens for running– they’re actually just fingerless gloves with the fold-back mitten overlay to help you regulate your temperature when you’re running in colder weather. Totally makes sense when you know that one of the quickest ways to change your body temperature is through your hands or feet. They’ve also got a built-in pocket for small items (like a key or a little bit of cash)– and none of that is all that special, but I really got a laugh out of one of the listed features:

Terry surface at outer thumb for nose wipe

Yeah, it absolutely says that! It’s funny, because you know you’d end up doing just that with your gloves because a runny nose while working up a sweat in the cool air is just completely unavoidable, and you’re not carrying tissues with you! But I thought it was hilarious that they’d actually just straight-up list it! I’m more inclined to come back to these if I’m still jogging next winter just for that alone.

So I’m doing it. One step at a time. One accessory at a time. If any of you are runners/joggers, I’m totally open to any tips or other accessory suggestions!

I always want to have music playing in the background, but I cannot keep from singing along. Problem solved!! Unfortunately, instrumental versions do tend to just make me want to listen to the original, but that’s okay, too.

I’m far more excited than I should be, but that seems to be the norm for me.

I downloaded a bunch of random stuff just to check it all out and make sure the few I heard weren’t just the best examples, and really they’re fantastic! You’d be amazed how well some songs sound in strings. It’s a little crazy.

So far my favorite of what I’ve listened to has been their version of Incubus’s Pardon Me. But I can’t deny that their renditions of my Weezer favorites are just straight up epic, in my opinion.

I don’t know how I’ve gone this long without stumbling across them. Lucky for me, though, since they’ve been out for so long I don’t even have to look for them to be on sale, they’re already cheap now!

I’m absolutely getting their Tribute to Matchbox Twenty when I get back from Augusta.

So when someone wanted a file I had, or could get for them, I’d burn it an tell ‘em not to worry about getting me a blank DVD.

Now I need to burn some stuff before I leave for Augusta next week and I don’t have any blank DVDs!

Luckily the Weekly sale page almost always has some sort of deal on blanks so I can grab some whenever I’m ready to.

This week they’ve got 100 Maxell DVD+Rs for $19. I think I’m gonna go ahead and snap those up. Ideally I’d like to have some RWs on hand, but it’s not necessary and a stack of 100? I can go back to treating them as dispensable.

I’d probably be tempted to backup a lot of my stuff on these. It’d be time-consuming, but I’d really feel better having hard copies of my stuff instead of counting on my external hard drive to keep kicking. It’s great, but I really put it through its paces when I used it as the only storage for my music. It got used a lot more heavily than it was meant to be used.

I’ll take a sandwich to work for the next two days– skip fast food and pick these up!

As you can see, I apparently do a lot of copy/pasting and my C & V keys are disappearing. I have no idea why M is fading so much. My spacebar key only works when it wants to, you have to be firm with it.

But of course I couldn’t just find a cheap replacement. No, I’m ready to go wireless again. If I could find the MX Revolution Keyboard on its own, I’d probably just snap it up and call it a day, but so far I’m only seeing it sold as a pair with my mouse. I don’t need another one of those, mine is still functioning splendidly. I really love the backlight and the dynamic display.

And then there’s a basic Logitech Wireless Keyboard. Right now, it’s the most logical choice. If I’m sensible, it’s what I’ll go with. And it has the tiniest dongle I’ve ever seen! (That’s what she said!) I really love Logitech and all their accessories.

But I didn’t stop shopping there! Nope! ‘Cause then I saw the thumbnail for this Wireless Keyboard with built-in mouse. Built-in mouse?? Say what?? It’s got an appealing design and this built-in trackball deal. I almost tossed it on my Wishlist, but then I realized it doesn’t have a number pad and I’m not so sure I’m ready to give that up. I’m intrigued, but not enough to replace my current keyboard just yet.

But then I found it. The Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard. Logitech has me drooling again– rechargeable keyboard? Yes, please! Again, built-in mouse, only this one is a touch pad. This one is also lacking a number pad, but the Delete, Page Up/Down, Home and End keys are still placed where I’m comfortable with them so I think I’d be a little more forgiving.

There’s a great review up answering questions about use, range, and battery life. They claim a 5-minute charge will sustain you for a day’s use and a 2-hour charge will supply power for 2 months– and according to this reviewer, and some of the other product reviews, they’re not joking.

I was not at all expecting to find a keyboard that would get me this excited. I’d hoped I might chance upon a good rechargeable one since battery life was the only thing that bugged me about my old wireless setup, but I wasn’t holding my breath. I’m so excited to see this.

I want it. I can’t buy it right this second, I just can’t justify the cash, but you better believe I’m keeping an eye out. If I can catch it on sale like I did with my MX Revolution mouse, this keyboard is mine. I shall call it Squishy and it shall be mine and it shall be my Squishy.

*pushes glasses up* Sorry, my geek is showing.

Most of the devices I’ve looked at are in the $100+ range, which is okay since we’ll save that much pretty quickly when the cable is shut off, so I’m okay with spending a little more for another 360. We’ve got an extra hard drive here that we can use, and plenty of controllers, so I can look around and get a bare bones system on sale and be ready to go. I’d probably end up getting a Universal Remote for the Xbox as well just so I wouldn’t have to worry about keeping a controller up here and charged.

At this point, I’ve talked myself into wanting it, so now I just have to get it. I’m just so sick of not knowing whether or not the cable is going to work, or having no choice but to hang around my computer if I want to watch something. And I think I might play my games a little more often if I could do it without taking over the television downstairs. I just always feel a little guilty when playing some of my silly games gets in the way of the boys using all the other systems downstairs. And I could be evil and rock out on Guitar Hero from the bed to wake Ryan up ;)