Me, baby, me!: Achtung! Achtung!

euroboy has just updated his website. i left comments here.

a rather dumb post, right? well, i’m just testing out my new browser plug-in for firefox. really, for all you wanna-be geeks…this is the browser.

incidentally, is coke it?

in my old age, my metabolism has sloooooooowed down. well, that and i eat like a horse and stopped smoking. so, inevitably, i’ve gained weight. and no, i can’t fit into my clothes anymore…well, not WELL anyway. think, al bundy and unbutton pants. so, naturally, i examined my diet to see what calories i can cut. it was easy to see that my soda consumption doubled by intake almost daily. an easy substitution with water or diet soda should help, right? well, yeah, except i need my water ICE ICE cold and my soda needs to taste good.

the problem with most diet sodas is the tell-tale aspertam-y, nutra sweet-ey aftertaste. the drinks themselves tend to be WAY too sweet and little flat as far as carbonation is concerned. diet dr. pepper is the one exception to this rule; i find this beverage acceptable and most others say that they can barely tell the difference between it and it’s full-sugar cousin. however, dr. p is by nature less sweet to begin….so that is probably why i can drink this diet beverage. c2, the new low-carb coke, is different in that it doesn’t use these artificial sweeteners.

I about to try the new coke and wanted to share my experience with you. no, no, it’s not a diet soda. it’s a low-carb soda……i KNOW….by virtue of the fact it has that ridiculous “low carb” label, i should have just passed in the grocery aisle. but my grocery-manager-friend insisted that i try it.

first of all, c2 is packaged in cans and plastic 20 oz. bottles. The canned variety can be found in 8 and 18 packs. (gee, coke, your marketing is sooooo savvy and cutting edge). I plunked down 2.99 for the 8-pack (but failed to see what i would save if i went for the 18 can version). the logo version is similar to that of coke…but in a deeper brick red color w/ black & silver and granulated logo design w/ c2 across the top. i, personally, think it’s ugly. but does that matter? prolly not. is taste more important? possibly.

so what is c2? (click here for marketing blah blah)
It has half the carbs and half the calories. how does it taste? like coke. sort of. it’s the same flavor. but…hm….ever drink club soda? has a hint of that aftertaste. otherwise, i really don’t have anything bad to report about it. will i drink it? maybe. if it doesn’t cost extra. since i’ve learned to drink a true diet drink…why should i get the half-calorie alternative? give me a zero-calorie soda that tastes like coke or c2 w/o the aftertaste and i’m sold. otherwise, i’ll just drink diet dr. pepper.

auf wiedersehen

like a poem without words…it’s just an empty thought

empty thoughts, in no particular order:

#1 {edited for lack of content}

#2 {edited for explicit content}

#3 {edited for dumb nature of content}

editor’s note: why are you reading this crap?

“my weekend” or “defering my palm post – again”

finally back again. this weekend was a food lover’s dream…had lunch at a fab spanish restaurant (the website is a little cheesey but YUM!!), dinner was at a greek wedding (can you say AUTHENTIC baklava?!?!), the next morning dim sum (best in cleveland) and the to round out dinner – italian at our favorite local place. i have a love/hate relationship with my stomach right now.

ooooo…p.s.-i got a skateboard!!!! (yes, i realize that i am too old to have a skateboard…but….i think i’ve been watching too much Tony Hawk Proskater 4)

OT: phishing (palms later)

no, i’m not talking about following that band around the country (although did you hear that they’re going to stop touring?). my regrets to erik – my childhood friend and band groupie.

anyway, i’m talking about those !@#$ing b@st@ges who try to lure you into giving up your 411. got the ‘ebay account suspension’ email today and got really pissed off. do me a favor, and never click on the links in emails that ask you for logons and passwords and financial information. cuz i won’t feel bad for you.

cleveland. wedding. dim sum. that’s my weekend.

vaarwel.

pda’s for nursing students, pt ii

so where was i…..oh! pda’s! when i last left off we had learned that sony is pulling out of the market. for obvious reasons i won’t go there in terms of reviewing different devices. though you may see good deals out there…what’s the point if software/support will be going down the tubes? agreed? good, i can move on.

with that out of the way it’s really just a matter of what you want out of your palm. wireless? thumbpad? gps? multifunction? how much do you want to spend? let’s get a couple out of the way here…

garmin ique 3600
for the nursing student, i’d have to say this baby is a little overkill. it has integrated gps and has a msrp of around $590. what is gps? it stands for global positioning system. in short, it’s a map on crack. so unless you’ll be needing driving directions often, I don’t feel this is the way to go for a money-concious college student. on the other hand, it’s a cool gadget. so if gps is your bag, go for this one. (side note: if you really want gps you can (most) always get something to add on to the device you buy). if you’re interested, check this out.

samsung sph i500
here’s another combo device that is sure to please. it’s a phone/pda that i believe is offered through sprint pcs. so in addition to the msrp of $560, you’ll have to pay for the phone service. bummer if you’re already locked into a cell phone plan. it runs palm os 4.0 (currently palm is working on the 6th version of it’s software.) i’ve heard some gripes about the small screen size and some software compatibility – if it weren’t for these problems, i would have looked more seriously into this option…but, at least to me, there are much shinier toys out there. here is the product page for this pda.

am i missing any non-palmone branded devices (aside from sony)? please let me know.

(deep breath) so what do you want out of your palm? as a baseline, the product should be running at least palm os 4.0, have a color screen and memory expansion capabilities. you will not be able to house large drug databases and the like w/o this. so while an older pda can work…you really are limiting yourself to software options you have to use, for work/school AND for play. (i somehow feel like this is turning into a palmone commercial. sorry, our options are severely limited now.) before i move from this topic….if an older, used pda is the route you want to go to, good for you. let me point you to a couple places to buy these. there’s ebay (be wary of people w/ no feedback!)…sometimes the palm store’s factory outlet has some…and there’s always amazon (an online store that i have never had a problem with.) now i realize that a google search will find you plenty more options…but be cautious, the web is full of not very nice people. feel free to email me if you want my opinion of some online retailers.

ah…’tis getting late in the day. i shall return w/ my final post on this subject.

arrivederci.

pda’s for nursing students

ahhh, technology. don’t you love it? yes. except for the endless upgrades and new releases, cracked screens and incompatible hardware, hackers, viruses, expensive software and….hey, wait. this post is all about the love…so here we go:

pda 101 (1 credit)
personal digital assitants (pda’s) are handheld computing devices that provide the user with a number of productivity-enhancing programs. the most basic pda’s have a calender, task list and address book function; the most advanced act as multi-function gadgets that simultaneously act as pda/phone/camera/mp3 player/media device/lawn mower. and just as computers have different types of operating systems such as windows, macintosh and linux- pda’s run (generally) on two platforms: palm os and pocketpc. the latter is a microsoft product, the former is the ‘original’ pda computing platform. each has it’s advantages and disadvantages, but i will focus on the palm platform since it has more medically-related software available and offers an almost unlimited number of software programs/shareware/freeware. (i am also a mac junkie and generally shy away from all things microsoft).

okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about the pda’s that are available with this platform.

NEWS FLASH: sony is pulling out of the us market

i suppose that in itself doesn’t make a difference. but it does leave the potential buyer with fewer options and the -slight- chance that pda’s will go the way of the dinosaurs. anyway, i’ll leave you to ponder that, i’m getting tired. but i’ll come back and add more later.

ciao.

etiquette of blogging or political junk

i suppose that someone/somewhere has determined how/when/where/why blah blah blah….the appropriate way to blog. do i care? not really. so why do i write this? honestly, it breaks my heart that this blog isn’t being filled with brilliant posts sprinkled with intriguing human insight. so i write to fill space.

okay…here it comes…my thought of the day:

admittedly, i am not a political person. i hardly follow the republican/democrat saga farther than the front page of the newspaper (but can you blame me? the columbus dispatch has less than desireable coverage). but i have a visceral hatred, strike that….um…dislike for the man sitting in the oval office. my logical brain hates me for not having hard data to back up that feeling…but yet it persists. (could it be the war? tax cuts to the rich? spending cutbacks on social programs? or perhaps the his open agenda to line his friends’ pockets with money?)

side note: scary thought. people may have the opposite feeling for bush w/o the data back it up.

my solution: read more books. debate about politics? no time. where the hell are the cliff notes for the ’04 election? open call to pro-republicans: how has bush actually helped maintain or improve american’s quality of life? why shouldn’t i vote for for the new guy?

ttfn.