A Quiet New Year

Bonnie and I are hanging out tonight at home. We managed to pick up a cold bug sometime in the last few days. So we're both less than 100%.

Yesterday we returned from The Villages where Bonnie's parents have been getting their new little retirement house in order. It's quite a place.

I've got just a few hours to come up with some resolutions... Hmmm...

All We Are Saying - New York Times

Here's a few new words from 2007. Apparently there are now blog sub types. "Tumblelog” describes one of my favorite sites - Daring Fireball.

Airport Observations

So we're sitting at the Jacksonville airport. It seems Southwest has
greatly complicated their boarding process. Previously they just had
three lines, but now they've subdivided those lines by what appears to
be seat rows. All we heard the last 20 minutes was the poor gate
attendant trying to explain the new process. And it doesn't help that
half these people haven't flown in years.

Speaking of inexperienced travelers, we also overheard a woman asking
for help with her ticket. She was trying to understand the connection
process. She'd never flown before. The lady who helped her realized
that her connecting flight isn't until tomorrow. Doh!

Where are the Crowds?

With Christmas only a few days away, I've yet to see many jam packed stores. Even at the St. John's Town Center, Jacksonville's newest and most high end shopping mecca, the crowds appear light. Of course it is possible that some of the new stores are just too high end for this town's red neck roots. But even the essentials like Apple and Target have been rather quiet.

If the Jacksonville retail activity is even remotely indicative of the national trends, the holiday earnings will be quite gloomy. Maybe now is a good time to start hoarding the cash.

Then again, maybe it's the balmy weather. With sunny skies and temperatures in the 60's, it just doesn't feel like Christmas.

Gotta Love the Locals

This afternoon Jacksonville residents witnessed a deadly chemical plant explosion. Not to make light of the tragedy, but I couldn't help but laugh after reading a quote from this local news article.

Derek Pratt, 24, was flying a remote control airplane at a field about a mile away when he heard a series of explosions and a smoke plume extending hundreds of feet in the air.

"Those shock waves came straight through these hills," he said. "It was just like Hiroshima."

How does he know? Was he there?

Mom's Visit

Tomorrow Mom heads back to a frigid Cleveland after a quick weekend visit with us. We did a bit of shopping, relaxed at the beach, and then drove down to St. Augustine for lunch. The weather was near perfect! Hopefully she got enough sun to last until spring break.

A New York Times Year in Review

You may enjoy reading Ben Stein's reflections on the past year. It's quite comforting to know that a mind as brilliant as his favors an indexing investment strategy.

And my personal favorite - the Annual Year in Ideas magazine feature.

Jiu Jitsu Class

This week I tried two classes of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I warmed up with the class and then I was paired with guy who worked with me on a couple variations of the class drill for. The first class didn't really make much sense. It wasn't until after the class that I started thinking through the steps for each maneuver that it started to click. At first glance it looks like everyone is just rolling around on the mats, but there's actually quite a science and strategy to everything.

This particular martial art is focused on grappling with lots of joint locks, submissions and chokes. But the first steps are simply learning the basic escapes. Jiu Jitsu training seems to hold up well against most other martial arts. Once the fight goes to the ground, fancy kicks and punches fail.

Tonight's class made a bit more sense, partially because we were doing some more fundamental moves. Throughout each maneuver there's a place for each limb, joint, hand and foot. And if something isn't in the right place, you get beat.

After running through a couple drills we paired up against the more experienced guys. Just when I thought I had learned something, I realized how much more fine tuning is required to resist just little more resistance...

If nothing else, it seems like a great workout. The class seems relatively low key and not too macho. Originally I thought it was an all guys things, but a couple women showed up tonight. That further shows that size and strength aren't the sole determinants of a fight.

I'll make the decision to sign up over the next few days. It's definitely a commitment, but it seems like a good skill to pick up.

Shopping for a new PC

No, not for me. Bonnie's old laptop has about had it. With the old USB ports, it takes her what seems like hours just to load a few songs to her iPod. Even with Apple's marketing muscle (including the very amusing new Vista attack ads) and my testimonials (which might have worked against me), she insisted on getting a PC with Vista. The last Windows machine I bought was my original college computer, about 10 years ago. I don't know the first thing about the virus software and I tend to shun the idea of shelling out another few hundred bucks for an extended warranty, so I wasn't much help in the process.

Our first stop was the local Circuit City. She found a model she liked on sale, but of course it was out of stock. We asked the associate (it appeared to be his first day at work) if models were in stock at other stores. He found a few but didn't know which stores were which (they were only identified in the system by store zip code). After the first couple blank stares, he finally was able to call and confirm the stock at a store about 20 miles away. Incidentally, I was able to find the other store's phone number faster on my iPhone than he was. It was a nice day for a little road trip, so we jumped back in the car and headed to Orange Park.

Arriving at the second Circuit City, we headed in to find another sales rep. Of course, whenever you actually need assistance the reps are nowhere to be found. Finally, the Fire Dog (Circuit City's Geek Squad equivalent) employee helped us out. But all he was good for was making the sale and pushing the warranty. He didn't even know (but admitted that he should) if Bonnie could use the Vista Office Upgrade, or if she would have to buy the full version. So then she had to stand in line for about 20 minutes just to get the box. I browsed the TVs and Wii games, twice.

Sure, I'm biased to Macs. But the PC buying experience is so terrible it shouldn't take Apple to improve it. All the laptops are braced to the counters with heavy steel bars. How can you really get a feel for the machine when it's so locked up? The machines don't have any meaningful software installed (unless you include Vista itself). And an Internet connection? Keep dreaming. Circuit City has free wifi (which my iPhone picked up quite well), but it's of no use to the toys they're supposedly selling. All the network connectivity is turned off.

It'll be interesting to see how the initial setup of the machine goes tonight. I can't wait to see what curves Vista will throw at us.

I've been debating about selling a few shares of my Apple stock. The run up has been quite solid. But after today, I think I'll keep holding on.