Ok … it’s not really a toy. It’s a tool. (And a bonus … it’s got a Biggest Loser game that came w/ it.)

I mentioned last week that I was embarking on a new journey … a journey to get healthy and happy. I’ve gotten off to a rough start. I’ve only worked out that first day. Oops. I have been trying to eat better, or at least smaller portions. I’m a work in progress.

I figured that if I’m gonna spend $100 on this thing, it damn well better motivate me. Now … I don’t expect to lose a ton of weight using only this thing. It’s only part of the plan. The rest will be my elliptical machine, Walk Away the Pounds dvd, and the EA Sports Active game I already have (it’s compatible w/ the Wii Fit board). Once the snow melts (if it ever does), I’ll start walking outside too (when the weather is nice).

I’m also working on setting up another blog specifically to track my workouts and weigh-ins. That’s gonna take a little more time to set up ‘cuz I’m planning on setting up some custom post types (WordPress geekery stuff) for a couple things. Hopefully that will keep me honest and keep me going.

I had an iPod Touch, which is basically an iPhone w/o the actual “phone” part. I liked it while I had it. I basically used it for the music player, but I did have some apps on it that I used on a regular basis. I say had because I sold it just before Christmas. I got $150 for it, which covered the cost of my Droid 2.

My biggest beef w/ the iPhone/iPod Touch is the fact that it doesn’t have an actual physical keyboard. I was never able to type very fast w/ the onscreen keyboard.

I got my Droid 2 in August of last year. I pretty much love it. Yeah … I do have some issues w/ some things (like the crapware that Verizon put on it that starts up all by itself even though I never use it, and when entering symbols, the cursor backs up a space), but they’re things I can live with. They’re not deal breakers.

Plus … w/ my Droid 2, I can take the battery off & replace it. I can get a bigger media card and put more stuff on it without having to get a new phone. I can’t do that w/ an iPhone. If I get the 16GB version, I’m stuck w/ it. Whereas w/ my Droid 2, it has 8 GB internal memory and came w/ an 8GB media card. One of the first things I did was replace the 8GB card w/ a 16GB card. If I need/want more space, I just need to get a bigger card (up to the limit, which I believe is 32GB, but I could be wrong on that). If I got a 16GB iPhone and found out I needed more space, I’d be screwed unless I wanted to pony up the cash to get a new 32GB phone. Talk about ridiculous.

So … you can keep your iPhone. I’ll stick w/ my Droid 2.

Even if Apple added a physical keyboard, removable battery, and removable media cards, I’d still stick w/ my Droid 2.

I’ve been waiting for the Droid 2 to be released for 2 months. There were rumors all over the internet about when the release date was. Verizon finally announced on Aug. 10 that there would be a pre-sale on Aug. 11, and the phone would be available for purchase in stores on Aug. 12. I was one of those crazy people who got up just after midnight on Aug. 11 to get the phone during the pre-sale. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t sold out by the time I got a chance to buy it. Verizon ended up shipping my phone out (via FedEx) that same day, and they had free overnight shipping for internet orders, so it was to be delivered yesterday (Aug. 12).

I was pretty sure that they’d try to deliver it while I was at work. I was hopefully they might try when I was home on lunch, but I figured that with my luck, that wouldn’t be the case.

The following is a sequence of tweets that had me hopeful that I’d be home when they stopped (even if I had to take a late lunch).

At this point, I sent her an email with the information she requested. I hadn’t heard back from her by noon, so I headed home for lunch (with my fingers crossed ) Just as I turned on to the street in front of my apartment, I saw the FedEx truck at the stoplight up the street waiting to turn onto 13th Ave. Crap. That means I just missed him. The following is a sequence of tweets after I got into my apartment.

Just after I sent that last tweet, my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number but a little part of me hoped it might be FedEx. And to my surprise, it was. FedEx Robin called me to see if someone was going to be home for a while. She said she’d call dispatch and see if she could get the FedEx guy to come back to my place. She called back just a couple minutes later to let me know that the FedEx guy was coming back. Rock on.

Within 5 minutes of her calling me to let me know, the FedEx guy showed up. He said that I was lucky … if I had been 15 minutes later, he would have been out of the area. I was so happy that I didn’t have to go to the FedEx office that night to pick up my phone.

And to think … this all started with a random tweet where I said I was hoping they’d try to deliver my phone when I was home. To think that FedEx has employees with jobs where they search Twitter for tweets about the company is pretty awesome. I know that there are others who do it, but those seem to be bots or just tweets to get you to do something for the company. This was a case where they were trying to help me out. They were proactive with a customer and that is something that I wish more companies did.

I can honestly say that if I had to ship something, FedEx would be at the top of my list for shippers because of the experience that I had. I wish more companies would take notice.

So … thank you FedEx. Thank you FedEx Robin. Now I’m off to play with my shiny new Droid 2.

The main reason I was waiting was because getting the phone would require me to get a data plan of at least $30/month. I wasn’t sure I could afford it since I was planning on buying a car, and I was close to being eligible for health insurance (so that would be taken out of my paycheck).

I bought my car toward the end of April and made my first car payment this month. We switched to a new insurance company at work with a cheaper premium. After working the numbers, it’s clear that I’ll easily be able to cover the data plan.

My intention was to order the Droid today. I usually get my phones online with Verizon because it ends up being cheaper than getting one in the store. I get a $50 discount for the New Every Two program, and there is a $100 online discount. The discounts brought the price of the Droid down to $149.99. That is until today. I was on the site looking at phones one last time before buying one, and the site was running ungodly slow. I couldn’t even load up the pages for the Droid or the Droid Incredible. Needless to say, I was getting pissed. I tried again about 10-15 minutes later and things were running like normal. So I pulled up the phones and looked at things. Then I took a look at the price for the Droid. It was down to $99.99. I was confused for a bit until Twitter and a Google search confirmed that Verizon dropped the price on the Droid today. I’m sure glad I didn’t order it earlier today or last nite.

Then @stevedrees told me the Droid 2 is rumored to come out next month. I had seen a couple articles earlier today about the Droid 2, but none mentioned a release date. The pictures in those articles showed a keyboard that caught my eye. It looks a lot nicer that the Droid’s keyboard (which I don’t really like). The articles didn’t really have a whole lot of additional info other than pretty much saying the Droid 2 is just the next generation Droid.

Now I’m torn. I want a new phone now, and I’ve decided on the Droid. But I’ve already waited a little over 2 months since I became eligible for an upgrade … what’s another month. But when the Droid 2 comes out, it’s gonna cost more than what the Droid dropped to today. But how much more? I don’t know what to do.

If you were in my situation, what would you do? Would you wait for the Droid 2, which has an unknown release date but is rumored to be released next month, or would you get the Droid right now?

I’ve been debating about getting a Wii for a couple weeks now. My main reasoning is for the fitness “games”. I figured that it would be cheaper to get a Wii and those things than to join a gym where there would be set up fees, monthly/annual fees, and who knows what other sorts of fees. And I could workout in the comfort and privacy of my own living room. And hopefully the “games” will make it seem more fun than just a workout. I’m hoping it will be a stress reliever as well.

I haven’t bought any games yet. I plan on getting the EA Sports Active fitness “game” with my next paycheck. Eventually, I’ll get the Wii Fit as well, but I’m trying to spread out the expensive stuff.

As the title of this post suggests, I’m asking for your interaction.

What are some of your favorite Wii games?

I’m looking for suggestions on games to rent and perhaps buy. So please post a comment letting me know. I’d really appreciate it.

AccuWeather
The Weather Channel (TWC)
WeatherBug
iheartradio
Facebook — I need my social media.
Brightkite
WordPress — In case I get the urge to blog (a short post).
Lose It! — I ♥ this one … it’s helping me lose weight.
IM+ Lite
Twitterrific — My fav … I gotta have my Twitter.
Around Me
iBowl — Not as fun as Wii Bowling, but still kinda fun.
Magic 8 Ball — Yes, I’m a dork.
Sol Free

Yeah, yeah … I know I’ve got 3 weather apps plus the weather one that comes already installed. But I do have a degree in meteorology, so does that surprise you?

Now comes the survey part (and hopefully some reader participation). If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, what applications do you have? Which are your favorites? Please share. Maybe I can find something cool to download on mine.

The main reason I did this was because I bought myself an 8GB iPod Touch the day after Christmas (thanks in part to a gift card from work that covered a good chunk of the cost). I already had an mp3 player (a 2GB Creative Zen V Plus), but since I’m a techogeek, I wanted an iPod. That wifi capability was just too cool to ignore. I’ll get around to doing a review on that at some point (hopefully before the end of this week).

Anyways, I’ve been playing around with that thing since the moment I got it home. So, I thought I’d geek out this blog by adding the plugin that made it easier to view on the iPod Touch/iPhone. I don’t know if I have that many visitors that have either, but what the heck.

I’ll probably be tweaking things during the week as I check things out. It appears that the templates can be tweaked. I tried to view the documentation on the plugin site, but the links don’t take me anywhere. So, if you’re viewing on an iPhone or iPod Touch, be aware … things might look funky at times. But be assured that they will be straightened out as I finish up tweaking things.

My plan was to do some research online to figure out what I wanted. Well, I never got around to doing that. But I was looking through the Best Buy ad and noticed that they had several kinds on sale this week. I did check out a couple of them online and decided to get the Western Digital 250GB My Essential Portable Hard Drive. So I went to Best Buy this afternoon and bought it. I couldn’t pass it up. It’s normally about $150 and it was on sale for $99.99. I also bought a case for it. That way I can take it with me if I go on a trip and not have to worry about keeping it safe.

I couldn’t believe how small it was. I have an external hard drive for my work laptop. It’s HUGE. And it has to be plugged in. The one I bought is tiny (see the pic below). It’s not much bigger than my digital camera. The pic shows it relative to my mouse and cell phone.

Click to enlarge

And the other thing that I like is that it doesn’t have to be plugged in. It’s powered just by plugging it into my laptop via USB. It’s exactly what I wanted. It did have some software installed on it to set up a sync program as well as a few other things. I removed all that stuff … didn’t want it. I did copy it to my laptop in case I change my mind later. But for now, I just want a hard drive that I can copy my stuff to. I don’t want to set up any syncing software.

I copied all of the pictures I have on my desktop to the drive this afternoon. That didn’t take long. A while back, I burned a bunch of pics to CD because I was running out of disk space. So I don’t have much left on my desktop. Now, my mp3s on the the other hand, that was a different story. I have around 5GB on my desktop. That took a while to copy over. But it’s all on the portable drive now. I need to get busy ripping the rest of my CDs. I have a bunch that I wish I had on my computer. I’ll get to that eventually.

I sure have been busy getting tech toys lately. Since Christmas, I have gotten my laptop, my digital camera, and now the portable hard drive. My next new toy will come toward the end of July. I’ll be eligible for a new cell phone (using Verizon’s ‘New Every Two’ program). I’m contemplating getting a ‘fancier’ phone … one with a qwerty keyboard, maybe even a BlackBerry or a phone like that. I just don’t know that I need one that fancy. And I don’t know if I could justify the cost of a plan for internet access. But I have time to decide.

I’ll usually turn my tv to the “door channel”, as I call it. There are cameras at each door. That way, if someone stops by unexpectedly, I let them in. I didn’t recognize who was at the door this time. So I hit the ‘talk’ button and asked who it was. He said “UPS”. Huh? My camera and other stuff isn’t scheduled to be delivered until Tuesday. And I’m not expecting anything else. First I thought he was just buzzing me even though the package was for someone else. But there was a knock at my door. I went to open it, and the package was on the ground. The damn UPS guy just knocked on the door and dropped the package. WTF? Aren’t they supposed to get signatures? Dumb ass.

Anyways … it was a letter sized package. I opened it up, and there was my media card. Talk about confusing. As of the end of the day yesterday, it hadn’t shipped … according to the NewEgg website anyways. When I checked this morning, it did say that it shipped. But no tracking number. And as of 10 minutes ago, there’s STILL no tracking number for it. Someone in their shipping department sure dropped the ball on this one. Another confusing thing … the website says it was shipping from PA. The package I got was shipped from IL. But it was the right thing. So who knows. All that matters is that I got it.

Not that it does me any good. I won’t get my camera until Tuesday. And the camera I currently have doesn’t take SD or SDHC cards. So there it sits in its packaging until Tuesday when they deliver my camera.

I’ve been wanting to get a new camera for a while now. I have a Canon PowerShot A75 that has served me well for years. Almost 4 years, to be exact. It still works, but the display is starting to peter out. Some times I have to whack it to get it to come on. Other times, you can see some discoloration around the edges of the display. And still other times, I get lines through the display. All that and the fact that it’s only a 3.2MP led me to finally get a new one.

I wanted to stick with the Canon model. It’s a name that I trust. I did decide a month ago or so to get the SD1000. But, of course, as soon as I decide that, it gets discontinued. I then started leaning toward the SD1100 since it was the replacement for the SD1000, but it was about $300. I didn’t want to spend more than $250 or so on a camera, so I decided to wait a little while.

Well, in the Best Buy ad for this week, the SD1100 was on sale for $250. I then checked NewEgg.com, and lo and behold, it was only $219 there. Since I got paid today, and I should be getting my stimulus rebate around the end of next week, I decided to bite the bullet and get the camera now. I did go to Best Buy tonite to get my hands on the camera and play around with it a bit to make sure it’s what I wanted. And it is. I also priced out a spare battery and a larger media card. Also cheaper online.

I stared at my shopping cart on NewEgg.com for close to an hour, debating if I should really get it or not. I also did some comparison shopping. Everything pointed to getting it from NewEgg.com. So I did. This is what I got …
Camera: Canon SD1100IS – $219.99
Extra Battery: Dolica DC-NB4LA Li-Ion Battery (Replaces Canon NB-4L) – $12.99
Media Card: SanDisk 4GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SD/SDHC) Flash Card – $29.70

Shipping (Guaranteed UPS 3 Day) was $11.04 and there was no tax on my order. So all added up, I paid $273.72. If I would have gotten the same stuff at Best Buy, it would have been around $360. The only difference between the 2 was that Best Buy doesn’t have the same battery as NewEgg. But they’re still pretty comparable.

So now the waiting begins. If they ship it out tomorrow, I should have it on Monday. Hopefully they all show up the same day. They split my order into 2 separate orders. And each item shows up as being shipping from a different location. The camera is coming from NJ. The battery is coming from TN. And the media card is coming from PA. I guess that means that they’re drop shipping from different vendors. It would be nice if it all came in one box. But I’ll be happy if they all show up on the same day. Then I’ll get to play.