Batteries, Widgets, and Radioactive Cockroaches

Part I

“Batteries”

This summer I had a stroke of luck and was able to get a Wii for my birthday. And no, it has nothing to do with urinating, it’s actually Nintendo’s new revolutionary gaming console. And the reason I use the term “revolutionary” is because of the new, and unique way in which players can interact with this new system. No longer is video gaming a sit down sport, with the Wii you spend much more time on your feet moving around than on your butt. In fact, I about threw my arm out playing tennis with my wife in our living room the other night, how cool is that?

The key component to this interactivity is the innovative new controller, the so called Wiimote. It’s about the size of a king size Snickers bar and is completely wireless. The wiimote is a very virtually versatile device, playing the part of tennis racket, golf club, baseball bat, gun, etc, so that one actually uses their “Snickers bar” to control their tennis racket on the screen.

The only drawback I have seen so far is being that it’s wireless, this groovy new device runs on what else but a pair of AA batteries, the one piece of electronics that has remained unchanged for the past 30 years or more. Think about it, when you were a kid, lo those many years ago, what did you always need a handy supply of to keep your toys flashing and beeping but double A batteries. Now here it is the year 2007, I buy the latest, greatest piece of hardware available and what brings me to my knees and has me crawling back to it like a crack whore but more AA batteries.

So, being that my wiimote sucks down batteries faster than a Chamorro with a Budweiser, I seemed to have a real dilemma on my hands. After much deliberation, I decided rechargeable batteries would be the way to go. So I headed down to one of our favorite local markets, whose name will not be mentioned (), and proceeded to search for some rechargeable batteries. Upon finding them I was shocked to find a charger and four batteries priced at $34.99! Well, that was way more than I wanted to pay sooo I decided to go across the street to everyone’s favorite bulk market and buy the brick of 48 AA batteries for $15. In my mind 48 for $15 was a helluvalot better than 4 for $35.

Well, apparently, my wife does not agree. After proudly showing her my battery investment she frowned and replied “all you needed was two.” “Yes, but you’re not seeing the big picture here, darling” I retorted. “No,” she said, “you’re just too lazy to go out and get batteries only when you NEED them…you’re such a guy.” But that’s ok, she’s just a woman, so I know she couldn’t understand that this purchase was not just for the puny wiimote but was for all of my many devices that run on AA batteries, plus the package claims that these bundles of power have a 7 year shelf life, beat that you little rechargeable pansies.

It was at that point in the discussion that good old reliable CUC (never thought you’d see those words proceed CUC did ya?) came to the rescue with an unannounced (as though somehow they’re better when announced) power outage. But were we scrambling for flashlights filled with dead or dimming light?…noooo, we had enough battery power to light the stage at a U2 concert. Who needs a diesel generator when you’ve got 48 AA’s on hand? Now if I could just figure out how to wire my apartment to run on batteries instead of CUC, shoot, at a mere $15 for a brick of 48 I could probably save myself some money every month. To be completely independent of the grid would be so nice, then without fear of interruption, I could kick back and play with my Wii.

Incidentally, I find I receive queer looks when I tell the guys that I’m leaving Godfathers early so I can go home and play with my Wii…still not sure why that is…Wii envy I suppose. I mean my wife likes playing with my Wii, I’m sure they would too if they would just give it a try...wait somehow that didn’t come out right…

Part II

“Widgets”

Widgets are what they call these nifty neat little thingamabobs over to the left of everyone’s blog which do everything from chat to balancing your checkbook. Recently I’ve been checking out many different kinds of widgets and trying to decide which ones will work first off, and then which ones I want on my blogsite.

Finally I’ve decided on one which I was pretty impressed with from a site (which PSS bans) called Stickam. You should (crossing my fingers, provided you're not at PSS) see it over to the side there ---> in the light blue skin. I was pretty impressed with this widget cuz, like I mentioned in a previous post I really like to share my music with everyone and let people see what I’ve been listening too lately.

But this one caught my eye because not only does it do music but, with it, I can also share pictures and videos, hence the title “Photos, Videos, and Music…Oh My”. So I hope you’ll take a minute to check out some of my music, see my videos (there’s two original Redd Productions on there now) and you better look at the photos too cuz you never know if you might show up in one.

Part III

“Radioactive Cockroaches”

Haha…I know, probably the part you’ve all been waiting for. And I don’t even know why I’m including this except that when I sat down to write this I was trying to come up with something unique that happened to me today and this is what struck me.

It all happened this morning when I went to microwave my frozen Jimmy Dean Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Croissant (another purchase from the bulk store where I got like an assload of them, and no, the wife was not thrilled with that purchase either). So I put the thing in and nuke it for one full minute per the instructions and as I open the microwave to retrieve my highly preserved carcinogen, er I mean breakfast, shooting out of the open door comes this little cockroach. He’d been in there for a whole minute, 60 full seconds, and didn’t seem fazed by it at all!? I mean it had turned my sandwich to mush but he looked like he was on cockroach crack or something, he was running around all super fast and stuff and darted under the counter before I could kill him. (Not that I was in any hurry)

So if you see a smoking fast little glowing cockroach over in the Kagman area I hope you’ve got some kryptonite on hand to kill his ass cuz I think he may have rode in on that asteroid spacecraft thingy with Superman.

Random Quote of the Day:

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything

-Mark Twain