Mission accomplished... Wahoo!

iPodiBook, originally uploaded by tgolamb.

Anyone who knows me very well, knows that I have been an Apple Computer advocate since... well forever. I enjoy working with them and I supported them as a developer and system administrator in my prior employment for many years.

Earlier this year I purchased a 15 Gb iPod and planned to fully load it with my library of music. Well, life and its associated priorities tend to get in the way of plans less significant, so although I had made a partial stand at doing it (and was happy with what I had done by the way), I never found the block of time I needed to complete the project. However, now that Sue and I are winding down our life in Korea, we have less to do and all the time in the world to do it, and projects like finishing my iPod music became realistic.

I am delighted to report that this is one project finally completed for the moment... although like anything of this nature it is a work in progress and will never be completely done. At any rate, at this moment all of the music I have and deemed worthy has been transferred from my iBook to my iPod. What is truly amazing is that this little 2.5 X 4 inch little unit could hold so much. It makes me wonder why anyone would consider having anything else to store and listen to music on. To date, mine has store about 2500 songs, amounting to somewhere over 200 albums and only has taken up about 11.5 Gb in storage, meaning I still have a little over 2 Gb left for future additions. Truly amazing when you think about it. I could listen continuously for more than a week and never hear the same song twice, which is better than I could hope for from any radio station. I'm more impressed with my iPod every time I delve more into it's capabilities... and I only use it for music. I know it does much more.

iTunesScreen, originally uploaded by tgolamb.

My iTunes on my iBook is equally amazing. My music interests run the gambit, from Punk to Classical... from Korn to Motzart to Uttara-Kuru to Consolidated (of course I do draw the line at Rap). Needless to say, I have lots of variations in my playlists and how I arrange my listening categories and genres. iTunes lets me do this with the greatest of ease, and although it was a LOT of work, it even lets me put in the album artwork. This can be particularly important as my music library grows and becomes even more diverse (as if that was possible). If you've never taken a look at compiling your music library like this, I encourage you to give it a glance. You might find it changes your thoughts on the matter. I can tell you that now that I have my music united into a central and easily manageable personal audio studio, my CDs may never again see the light of day. Isn't technology great?

Monster Island?

MonsterIsland, originally uploaded by tgolamb.

On our trip back to the USA from Korea at the beginning of November, our flight routed us through Japan with a layover in Tokyo. As we approached Tokyo, I looked out the window and happen to catch a glimpse of this apparently dormant volcano. I snapped a couple pictures and promptly forgot about them. It was only after going back through my digital camera that I ran across them again.

Now I watched plenty of Godzilla films as a kid, and at one time I knew the details of them as intimately as anyone my age. As I looked at the picture again I had to wonder, could this be Monster Island? Hmmm...

It's just a guy thing...

CraneDone, originally uploaded by tgolamb.

My wife has recently been calling me a country boy in a big city. This is all due to the major construction that has been going on next to our building since we moved in. We can look out our window and track its progress, which is what I've done from time to time. However, since they've been in the beginning stages for so long, it's only recently that the action has picked up.

They laid in some underground structural iron work and I knew it would only be a matter of time before the work picked up some speed. Now there are huge cranes all over Seoul; you can see them everywhere. As I looked at those, I could not imagine how they got those things assembled and working. I'm not a construction savvy guy, but I'm fascinated by the immensity of some of the equipment they use, and I always wondered, "How do they put those things together?"

My wife just sort of rolls her eyes when she catches me scrutinizing the job, but I just tell her, "Hey, it's just a guy thing I guess."

Anyway, they finally piled up the pieces to put up a crane at this site, so I took the opportunity to document for myself just how they do this. In case you were wondering yourself, the above photos should give you an idea. It only took these guys a couple of days to have it up and running, and I was impressed with the way they got it done. I also now understand how they will add sections when they need to make it taller. If I had a hard hat and could speak Korean, you could bet I'd be down there asking all sorts of questions (much to Sue's chagrin).

I made points with Sue though. She was commenting on the new portable cranes they had down there. I took her to the window and explained that those were actually cement pumpers, and described the process of what they were doing. She was quite surprised and impressed with my knowledge of the whole thing, but I didn't have the heart to tell her that this was general knowledge most dudes picked up in "Guy-101". Hey just watch a little of the Discovery Channel, some Home Improvement, bang around a little in your own garage and you're ready to go. More power, yeah!!
I did enjoy the praise though.

Blogs a plenty

My wife was still asleep this morning, and since I had already read and answered all my email, read the news of interest, I decided to poke around Blogger.com for a bit by clicking on "Next Blog" to see what was out there.

I found it interesting and worthy of a little of my time. In doing so, I realized several things. Here is my "Top 10 list" of what I learned:

1. There are a lot of people out there experimenting and enjoying the blog experience.
2. There are a lot of people out there with an axe to grind. All that's missing is the soap box.
3. There are a lot of people out there who have no idea what to do with their spare time. Maybe they should find a life away from their computer.
4. There are a lot of people out there with silly, blockheaded, and sometimes vulgar ideas about with to do with their blog. Freedom of speech can be a powerfully good and regretably bad thing in front of an unknown audience.
5. There are a lot of people out there who have some important things to say about serious issues. I promised myself to take more time to look at these in the future.
6. There are a lot of people out there contributing to a common blog collective who speak many different languages. Who knew there were so many?
7. There are a lot of things I don't know about what else is happening in the world, but would like to. I will keep working at this until my brain is full.
8. There are now a lot of things I'd like to say, but don't know how to express them.
9. I have come to realize how insignificant and yet important my one voice is among the many now contributing to the chorus of voices out there.
10. I think everyone should take the time I did and wander around to see what else is out there. It's not a critical "must do", but it will open your eyes to the volume of thoughts and ideas so very different from your own.

Planes and Noodles

OK, we've made the trip back to Seoul for the last time. This last trip was real torture too.

Normally we don't mind it so much. Although the 12 hours or so is a -- not so great -- way to spend your time, the airlines do a pretty goood job of feeding you, entertaining you, and giving you what comfort they can under the circumstances. We've flown Asiana, American, Singapore, and we both feel that Singapore Air is definitely the best among the three, so far. We'll be trying Korean Air too, so judgement has yet to be passed on it.

Anyway, the reason the last trip was so bad has nothing to do with the airline we took. The 6000 miles was an eternity due to a young child of maybe a year old or less. I swear, she must have cried, yelled, or otherwise made a ruckus once a minute for the entire time we were on the plane. Everyone around us was wornout as well. I felt sorry for the parents, but not enough to not be frustrated with them. Next time I'm taking a set of ear plugs with me.

After we got back we treated ourselves to one of my favorite restaurants here called Pho Hoa. It's Vietnamese style food, tasty and a great treat when you're hungry. You can check out their web sites at:

http://www.phohoa.com/ -- or -- http://www.phohoa.co.kr/

I really love the rice noodles there, and get them every time we go. One of these days I'll try something else, but I'm in no hurry. I like what I like and that's good enough for me.

Back in Arizona

Sue and I have been in Arizona for a couple of days now, and in some ways it feels like we've never left. Not much has changed, but the environment has a different feel to it. Staying in a hotel in my own home town feels strange to be sure.

One of the things we didn't expect is that the change in climate has left both of us quite dehydrated most of the time. We have had to increase our intake of fluids, but so far it hasn't helped a lot. We both still feel like we need to drink more to get our systems back in balance.

We took a break from looking at future apartments the other day and went to see the new movie "The Incredibles." Funny movie. Animation has come a long way, but the humor translates fine. I'm sure the subtle adult humor is something that passes most kids by, just as it did me when I was young, but all the kids in the theater seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.

No pain, No gain

As you can see from the dates, we haven't written much lately. Not much has happened here, and we have been (for the most part) focused on getting ready for our visit to Arizona, and for our relocation back to the states early next year.

We've consistently been hitting the gym and I think it's beginning to show some results. Over the past couple of years our lifestyle changed causing us to be more sedentary. As a result, we got a little softer, and I lost some of the muscle mass I had built up. Getting our diet back in line with the right proteins and carbs has helped, but getting the right workout combination of weight training and aerobic workouts has made a big difference in the way we feel and look. I am regaining some my lost muscle, although it hasn’t been without some pains, to be sure. Sue and I both enjoy the new us, and I think we feel we are getting to the point to where, if we don’t get out and get some sort of workout, we have missed an important part of our day. I hope that is now a habit we can sustain. Our new approach inspired me to get my certification as fitness trainer. Although the credential is nice, the education I received in the process was well worth the effort. I wish now that I had done it earlier.