Things to do before I die. Most everyone makes a list or thinks about things they'd love to do before they die. Wouldn't it be great to just be able to do it ... now? Not post-pone it like in the movie The Bucket List (in which they do their desired things literally before they die), but instead now - in your youth. I think everyone should just create a list right now of things they'd like to do before they die and go out and do those things as soon as possible. The things on the list could range from "Learn a new language" to "hike through the mountains".

Sometimes I wonder what holds people back. I wonder what holds me back from doing different things. Is it my constant lack of money? Or am I using money as my crutch that is ultimately holding me back? Some things that I want to do are inexpensive or free yet I haven't done them. Like one day I'd like to go to Lowell Massachusetts, the birth place of Jack Kerouac and look around and act all touristy - and look at the statue that is apparently there in his likeness. Yeah, that would only cost me gas money, but that's about it. Another thing I'd like to do is actually start my own publication of some sort. I got all the materials to do one - except I keep holding myself back from actually going out and getting stories and materials to fill the pages. I'd also like to learn Japanese - which I am trying my hardest to, but sometimes it's difficult.

I really need to make a list, and make it my goal to make some of these dreams materialize in the not so distant future.

I am beginning to think that there are some serious problems with my phone. For awhile I thought it was my battery, so a week ago I bought a new battery. It worked great for awhile, then tonight when I go to use it, it's all on the fritz, the screen starts going all white, the picture, when it does appear, is all snowy and distorted, when I try to shut it off, it won't respond at all.  When I plug it in and try to turn it on, three different screens flash back and forth wildly, then my phone gives me a notice that it is searching for a network before giving me the scary white screen again.

The HELLOMOTO screen is no longer something I look forward to see, especially when it is frozen on the screen of my phone.  I know it is highly recommended to not throw your phone under any circumstances, but I think I've found a loop-hole in that recommendation.

Like some of the technology in my life, I am developing this strong love/ hate-hate-hate relationship with my phone. It seems my phone has learned some traits that my old car had like "crap out at the most inconvenient times" and "cause as must stress as possible" and "KILL ALL POSSUMS". I am sure my phone wants to kill a possum or two, it just hasn't figured out how yet.

I am declaring right now that as far as the technology in my life, there are two eras, the "Ana-era" and the "post - Ana era".  Stuff in the post-Ana era seems to be doing alright which I'm convinced is a good sign. My new car hasn't given me any evil white screens, or threatened to search for a network. I think I'm just going to throw my phone into a nearby body of water, then teach my car to make phone calls . . . then I'll have the largest cell phone ever, and guess what, mine will have features no one else has - four wheels, a windshield and an engine, oh and leather interior.

Good bye old cell phone, hello new quarter-ton phone on wheels!

Today was a huge release day for a Wii game called “Super Smash Bros Brawl”, yesterday at work I got a whole bunch of calls for it. Well it was supposed to go on sale at 12:01am today - and it did. Everything, I assume was going along just fine until a customer called into the store and told Thomas, the 3^rd shift electronics associate that the game was not working. Thomas told the customer not only to bring the game back but asked that the customer bring in their Wii console (I’m assuming to assure the customer that they’d be leaving the store with a working game). Well the customer gets to the store, apparently with their Wii in tote and goes back to the electronics department. Thomas hooks up the console and begins attempting to find a Super Smash Bros Brawl that will actually work. After opening several and trying them, all to no avail, Thomas declares that all the games are defective. Thomas then takes the games back to the claims area and pretty much stops selling them.

This is what I found out when I got into work at 7:00am. Thomas had made notes saying that we should expect a lot of returns of this game.

As the day went on we did not get one single return of this game and I could not figure out why. If we sold so many, and they are “defective”, why hadn’t people brought them back yet? This question crossed my mind a few times during the day. I looked up the game on Walmart.com to see if any one had mentioned anything about the game being defective in the game reviews - not one mention. I looked on the Walmart wire to see if there had been any mention of the game being defective - once again, nothing. I was confused and started to doubt all those games were defective, but I had no concrete proof of it they were or were not.

When I got home I Googled the game to see if anyone else was having issues with the game, I didn’t have any luck until I was just about to give up when I seen a small link reading “Smash Bros. Brawl broken? Nintendo is on the case”, when I clicked on the link, I got the answer to the “defective game” question I had all day:

“Super Smash Bros. Brawl utilizes a double-layer disc which has a large memory capacity. A very small percentage of Wii consoles may have trouble consistently reading data off this large capacity disc if there is some contamination on the lens of the disc drive. Nintendo has specialized cleaning equipment that can resolve this problem. ”

This wonderful bit of information told me that it was not the game, but the customers Wii that was the problem. This was horribly amusing to me, the best part that I found out though was the notation on the Nintendo website:

“Please note: returning the game to the retail store will not solve the problem. ”

Mystery solved! I called the store and told the manager why those games appeared to be defective. The only thing now is to find out what, if anything, will happen to Thomas for opening up all those games in his small endeavor to find a non-defective game. At $50 a piece, and I think Thomas told me he opened like 15 of those games, that is like $750 of perfectly OK merchandise that the store no longer has.

Well the following day at work I discovered Thomas didn't open just a mere 15 copies of the game, but instead, ALL of the remaining Super Smash Bros. Brawl which means he opened 47 copies of this game.