This year has been very good for me on the gadget end. I’ve been able to upgrade my living room sound system, phone, gaming, and just recently my computer, which I will get to in a minute. But I consider myself very fortunate for being able to buy some of these toys that come out, but I must say, it is time for a break.

Of course I love buying toys but this year alone, between the new sub, Xbox 360, Moto Q, and this computer I’ve spent over two grand. That’s sickening to me. And as much as I’d love to keep the streak going, I need to chill out for awhile. Not because it’s making me broke or anything, but it’s also not keeping money in my bank account. Thank god for freelance though. Because that’s basically all play money for the most part, which is why I’ve been able to buy some of this stuff. So sadly enough, I am going to simmer down on the buying. So I know stores like Best Buy and such will be a little upset with me, but we won’t be apart for long!

So anyways, the latest purchase was my new iMac, which I scooped up yesterday. Of course I there seemed to have been a few flashes in the pan that made this a little longer of a process than I thought, it all worked out, and holy shit was it worth the wait. Now since everyone that reads this thing isn’t all tech savvy and nerdy like myself, we won’t get into specs. But I will say this. It’s fast. Blazing fast. It makes my laptop seem like the Zach Morris phone. All of my applications run extremely well, and the transfer of files was very easy, not to mention, my desk looks so much sexier!

As far as my laptop, not sure what I am going to do with it. It will more than likely live in my living room now so I can hook it up to my tv and watch movies. And if I need something for on the go, then it’s not a big deal now since all of my stuff isn’t hooked up to it anymore.

So last night we kicked it at Trans place for our monthly hang out. It was mad fun. On the agenda was basically chillin, and bbq. We ate extremely well, so big thanks to Tran for housing us all. Unfortunately, Paulie D got a little sick from food poisoning, so he had to sit out on the juice. But for the rest of us, it was consumed quite a bit, and right now (at 4:37 pm), I’m still hungover. We had to get down on some beer pong too, and I must say that me and Tran’s brother whipped major ass. I couldn’t help to talk mad shit to our competitors. We had a bomb time though, like we always do. Our next gathering might be down in Ohio since we’ve never been down to visit Uncle William.
Anyways, that’s all I got for now. I have alot to do now that I got my new cpu, including branding for our company that we’re working on, a redesign of Tales of a Designer, the new feature of this blog, and a website for my sister’s company that she is starting. So I guess you can say that I have alot on the plate, with an empty stomach.

peace

Aahh, life is going very well right now, but damn have things been a tab bit busy. A business plan that I’ve wanted to have happen for a long time is in action now, and is looking very promising so far. I have quite a good feeling about it.

I won’t go into any details because it’s still too early but the idea surfaced last Monday. And just to give you an idea, we’ve had three meetings in the past week, we have a company name, a minor marketing plan, and a business goal down. How’s that for motivation? So a ton of progress has been made in just a weeks time, so I’ve been pretty busy with it, and I love it.
I also love the fact that I’m working with some very motivated people who seem to have the same thinking as I do. We’ve been on the same page since the first meeting, and that is very important. Now, I obviously don’t know much about starting up a business, but I have some people in line who I want to talk to, who have started their own business and have become very successful with it.

Now our approach will be a slight bit different than your traditional business, but I still think we have a good chance at being successful. And I also don’t feel so bad because the guys I’m working with haven’t done this before either, so we’re all going through this together, which is a little comforting. This will be no easy road, but it will be fun, and well worth the effort.

So I found this guy on Craigslist selling the computer that I want, for about $800 cheaper than the list price. So I got in contact with him and he said he’d hold it for me! But here’s the problem, he’s gotten other offers, and will only hold it until Thursday, which wouldn’t be a problem, if my client would get in touch and send me my check. The work I’ve done for her has been completed for a couple of weeks now, and granted, I know she travels alot, but damn, how inconvenient is it to wait around for money that is going to pay off the computer that I want. It’s quite frustrating.

Never the less, I will have a new computer within the next two weeks, and I’m already planning out the next feature of this blog. I won’t spoil it yet, but let’s just say I’ve never done it before so it will be quite interesting. It will be apart of a main blog post so it won’t be anything sneaky, but expect that within the next two weeks as well. That’s all I got for now, it’s time to pass out and get ready for a fucking Monday.

peace

I have been replenished. I emailed Darko, because we share interests, about my quarterly purchase. Now you know that I have a love obsession with my gadgets, and every once in a while I figure that I work hard enough to purchase a little something for myself. All of my money that I make basically goes to the bank and back out for bills, so I don’t feel guilty for buying something for myself. After my first paycheck at the new job, I banked it all, bought Kell something and went out to a nice dinner. Because of the fact that I only get paid once a month, which blows by the way, these will be the routine. Check, bank, bills.

So enough beating around the bush, you’re probably wondering what I bought this time huh? Well I’ll tell you. This time it was the Motorola Q.

What was wrong with my old phone that was mearly 7 months old you ask? Well, nothing. Nothing at all, however, I wanted an upgrade in the types of services that my phone provides for me. Basically I feel like clam-shell (flip) phones are a little too limited in what they can do. The internet services always suck on them, and the applications aren’t that great.

Now I’m usually not a fan of big phones, but this one is different. For one, it’s thin as hell, as you see in the picture. Although it’s a little wider than I thought it was going to be, it weighs about the same as my previous phone. So you barely feel it sitting in your pocket, and doesn’t feel like a brick. So that is a huge plus. The internet browser on it is sick, and unlimited internet access is very nice. There’s a bunch of other stuff that it does, but I won’t bore you with all of that, but I’ll just say that the phone is tight as hell, and I like it alot. So as I’ve said with others, welcome to the fam Mr. Q!
Both Paulie and Batio asked for my old phone, but Kell had already called dibs on it the minute I told her I was thinking about getting one. It’s still in really good shape, and I dropped it probably under 10 times so that’s always good. I was just going to wait for Colleen to ask for it since she seems to drink every night and break a phone about once every two weeks.

In other news, it’s going to be a long next week. I have this side work to do, and although there isn’t a deadline, I want to get it done because I have no reason not to. So I will be putting in some long hours in the home office over the next week or so, on top of the 8 hours I work downtown. She signed off on my rates too ($45/hour) so that’s a very good feeling. I mentioned that I’ve worked with this lady before, and she’s a really good client. Communication is always good, and she gets me stuff when needed, those are the best ones.

So that’s what the deal is for now, life is still good.

peace

Hello, my name is John and I’m addicted to buying. All of these damn sites on the web need to have some kind of registration that checks your buying habits to not allow people (like me) to spend even more money than they should. It could be worse though. I could be spending my last bit of money and go broke, but have a hot new gadget. I’m not that pathetic though. So anyways, my course of destruction this time came in the form of Amazon.com. The first purchase was this new book called CSS Mastery. It’s to help me brush up on my design skills and learn more. So that was definitely worth spending the money on….not that it was expensive anyways.

My second purchase was the dagger, and hopefully won’t get me into trouble (not financially). My living room was in need of an upgrade. A sound upgrade. So I decided to start where I was annoyed the most. The subwoofer. I genuinely hate my subwoofer. It was built very poorly, and I never turn the volume all the way up on it, yet it still rattles. I’ve tightened all the screws countless times, and yet, more rattles. So I figured that this needed to change asap. I had been pricing subs for the past month or so, trying to get the best one possible for a good price. The one I had really wanted was this Klipsch but nothing what-so-ever sounded appealing about the $500 price tag attached to it. I’m not that crazy, so I started looking for other solutions (because yes, this is a problem). Along came Amazon that had tons of different options, for good prices. The verdict: The JBL S120P II. The price tag was a little more friendly, for just about the same size, little bit less wattage. So I got it. As much as I got a good discount on it, shipping for it was a swift kick right in the balls. The trouble I could get into is that it’s apparently loud. House-rumbling, glass breaking loud. So after about 8 months on South Shore Drive, I might meet my neighbors. I won’t get too retarded with it, but you better believe that I will be listening to that THX movie opening like 10 times when I first get it. It will be lovely!

So thats all I bought…………yesterday. I was home this past weekend so of course I had to do a little shopping there too(please refer to the first sentence of this blog if you are confused). Got a some business attire clothes though. My mom wanted to take me and my sister shopping so what person in their right mind would turn that down. That’s like free clothes. My mom offered to buy me these shoes, but I told her no because I didn’t want her to spend the money on them. I’ll pat myself on the back for that one because you will rarely see me turn down free shoes that I like! I spent my own money too because she wouldn’t have agreed to buy some of the stuff that I wanted……..no big deal. I like buying stuff anyways. But i’m done for awhile. After Kell’s diamond earrings for our 2 year, my shopping over the weekend, and my current wave of electronics, I’m fucking done. My account took quite the hit over the past couple weeks. It needs time to breath.

I didn’t get to spend St. Patty’s day in E.L. like I had planned on because I had to go home to see the fam. My grandpa is kinda sick and the family needed to be there. I won’t go in depth about that because I don’t really feel like it. But anyways, my St. Pattys day was spent in Chi Town, and it was quite the fun one. It was a slim line-up of me and Steve in attempt to take down the city. First we went to this place in Wrigleyville. There were TONS of people out, it was ridiculous. It was hard to even walk up the street without bumping into people. We went to this place Sluggers. This place was a close resemblence to the crowdedness on the street. It took a good 15 minutes to even get a drink. Not fun. The DJ sucked. Not fun. My brother had called me and said that he was going out to Zentra, so it was a no-brainer about where we were going next.

After our drinks, me and Steve hopped in a cab to meet my brother and Craig. We got right in, and it was like a breath of fresh air. Good music, lots of people, but not too many where you couldn’t get a drink. This big name dj was there, Derrick Carter, and that’s why we went there. He put on quite the show, and played bomb music all night, as did the dj’s that were on before him. Good music makes a night so much better. So we partied pretty hard there and just kicked it til who knows when. Alls I know, is that when you get home at 5:30 a.m., and didn’t go to jail nor get in a fight or something, it was a fun night. Three hours later I had to get up to go to breakfast with my sister, so I was pretty cashed out all day…………well all weekend actually. I think I’m still catching up on sleep from Friday night. So although I didn’t get to spend the holiday up here like planned, it still turned out alot better than I expected. Zentra is the shit, I think i’m gonna move in there on day!

So it was a good weekend, now its time to start another week, which might turn out to be a big week, but more on that later. Don’t want to jinx myself. Im out.

peace

What up peeps?! I woke up extra early this morning cause I couldn’t sleep last night cause of who knows why. So I decided to put down some text. I was going to blog yesterday but just never got around to it. I hope you alls Christmas was good, because I think I had the best Christmas ever…………..minus back in the day when I was getting Ninja Turtles, nothing will top that. So your prolly wondering what I got huh? Well, my biggest gift was this graphic design tablet. I LOVE this thing, which is why I might be retiring the use of a mouse. Anyways, then I got this printer/scanner/copier/fax, which was much needed, because I always printed shit I needed at work. I also got a digital camera. So now I have 2 digital cameras. The new one i’ll use when I go out, which will be rare in E.L., and the other one will be for more photographic stuff. Then I got a new robe, like 2 sport blazers, a hot shirt, and a bunch of gift certificates. I have to say, that at this point, I have everything that I need. I haven’t said that in a long time, but I honestly don’t think there is shit else that I need. My home office just got the major upgrade, as well as my wardrobe!

What I am about to say is something very rare coming from my mouth. But I am fucking sick of malls right now! I was at a mall the first 5/6 days I was here. Im burned out. I can’t do it anymore! I am mentally and physically tired!!! I got some good shopping done though, I got myself two more blazers, couple polos, and a hot pair of Kenneth Cole shoes. My new years outfit is just about complete. Its lookin good! But yeah im not going shopping for hella long, although I do still have gift certificates………….SHIT!

So I went out Christmas night with my brother and Dan. I know, who goes out on Christmas? Well, my parents were spent, as well as my sister, therefore, I was like the only one up. Now the night had its ups and downs, more downs than ups, but overall the night was fun, minus the downs. I almost confused myself. Ok i’ll start with the ups. First, I got to chill with my brother other than family functions. Free time is very scarce for him when im home because, well, he has two kids, and his son alone feels like 3 kids. So he obviously does lots of family shit. So it was cool chillin with him for the night and just talkin and whatnot. Another upper on the night was the music. The dj line-up played some sweet ass house all night. The music was really chill and tight, and no it wasn’t techno, there is a huge difference for all you music-retarded people. And yes I was kickin it to shit other than hip hop……I expand my horizons!! But anyways the music was really good, I was watching the dj’s for awhile to see how different house dj’s were than hip hop dj’s, and I was impressed. I’ve never watched a house dj, but I have a few respect for them. They are constantly turning knobs and using effects and all kinda shit. It was interesting.

Ok so now for the downs. First downer, my ass almost passed out. It was not fun for the 45 minutes that I felt more spent and wanted to kill myself. I don’t know what brought it about, but it wasn’t fun. I got all hot all of a sudden and broke into a bogus sweat, and that is when the mass chugging of water started. The shit sucked, Dan was all tryin to be funny about it, no no, shits not funny. If you haven’t never passed out before, then you have no idea how much it sucks, therefore, I don’t find it humorous when people decide to joke about it. So after the 45 minutes of feeling spent, I started feel ok again, all the sweat dried (yuck!), and I felt safe actually walking again, and thats not sarcasm. So then I joined my brother and Dan again, because I had left to sit at a chair with a back to it, and they were at the bar. So the rest of my night was spent drinking water. Im suprised that I actually ended up having a good time bein all extra sober. The other downer was extra bogus. Now I don’t know if Sunday nights are, um, “special” nights, but damn there were hella dykes and gay people there. Now, before you pass judgement, this place is not a gay bar. BUT, it also isn’t far from Boystown. So yeah there were mad gay people, im like what the fuck kinda place did we come to. My brother, who’s recommendation it was to go there, only cause this one dj was there, thought the same thing. Everywhere you turned, you were bound to see either two chicks that were quite fond of each other, or outfits on guys that looked like they were at a metro-sexual convention. And i’ve been to this place once before, and all was straight (literally). Then the bouncers looked like they were pure skin heads. I swear, they had the jean outfits, skinned heads, and the extra-medium Wrangler jeans rolled up to the top of their combat boots. I was waitin to see a patch that said KKK on it. Ok thats not that funny, but seriously thats what it looked like. So yeah, gay people, lots of them. Luckily im not homophobic or anything, cause it didn’t really bother me, but it was weird.

So the night was fun overall, and of course, goin out with my brother I didn’t get home til 4:30. His ass said all night that he wasn’t tryin to kickin til 4, but I told him not to kid himself. One day my brother will be the 32 year old that everyone thinks he is.

Its been so nice being home, ive had a bomb ass time with the family and friends. I took mad pictures on Christmas with the fam. Im going to add a photo gallery to this site in the near future, but I need new pics before I can do that.

New years is a matter of days away, and I cant wait. I just gotta make sure my shit is hydrated, cause I dont need any threatening pass out episodes. And hopefully Dan will be able to walk by the end of the night, unlike last Thursday night. I think im gonna write a blog about this year, kinda like a 2005 in review, then mix in my predictions for 2006. Not sure about the predictions one, but im def. gonna write one about this past year.

So until next time…..

peace