amaryllia.com » Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. ~ John Lennon

Amazon.com makes shopping waaay too easy…

Posted on September 2, 2008 in: Rants & Raves

I’ve just spent another good chunk of money on Amazon.com… I’ve come to the conclusion that Amazon is the new online Wal-Mart (minus the child labor): it sells practically everything under the sun at a lower price than you can find anywhere else. On top of that, there are some super useful tools that effectively persuade you to buy even more than you wanted to start with! Things like “Customers who bought this item also bought”, “What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?”, and “Subscribe & Save Items” that offer even steeper discounts. 1-Click Checkout and Free Shipping never hurts. And features that used to creep me out like “Recommendations for You” have slowly become an addictive game instead; I’m always curious how the next item I add to my cart will affect my recommendations.

I try repeatedly to shop elsewhere: eBay, craigslist, Target.com, and sometimes even Wal-Mart.com when I get really really desperate…but I somehow always end up at Amazon. It’s inescapable.

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PoleLaTeaz

Posted on August 26, 2008 in: Rants & Raves

About a month ago, I was flipping channels and saw an episode of Newlywed, Nearly Dead? on HGTV…oh yes, I said HGTV, that channel with all the house flipping, renovation, and design shows that I love. So anyway, this particular episode showcased the wife attending a “sensual dancing” class to re-spark the romance that was lost once they had their first baby. Now, I’m not saying my relationship needs re-sparking or that the show inspired me exactly, but it did remind me that I’ve always wanted to sign up for a Strippercise class ever since I heard of it a few years back. I did a quick search for something similar in the Atlanta area and signed up for a 90-minute Sampler Workshop at PoleLaTeaz (pronounced like pilates but with a ‘o’ in place of the ‘i’) that would give me a taste of their four most popular classes: sultry floorwork, chair dance, shadow dance, and a pole spin.

As usual, I completely forgot about the class until about an hour prior, when I happened to have my Outlook Calendar open and a reminder popped up. I quickly pulled together my yoga outfit and GPS-ed the address, arriving 5 minutes late.

Please Delight The studio is located in a business park with a small parking lot. I thought maybe my GPS was messing with me again until I saw 3 spandex-clad ladies in the parking lot, holding yoga mats. That gave me the green light I needed so I quickly parked and found the not-so-clearly marked entrance. Inside, it smelled like something sweet that I couldn’t identify. There were cute pillows shaped like lips everywhere and a small display of shoes, fishnet stockings and sexy lingerie. When I went up to the desk to sign in and apologize for being late, the lady informed me that the workshop might be canceled because I am the only one of 6 who showed up! Apparently it’s not uncommon for new students to sign up for sampler classes and completely “forget” (or wuss out) last minute…that alone made me feel pretty good about myself.

Instead of just sending me home and rescheduling me in another workshop, I was credited the amount I paid for use toward any other class I wanted to sign up for and allowed to join the following class which was already in session that day:

Chair Dancing

Date: Saturday, August 23
Time: 12:30 p.m. – 2 p.m.

This class is suitable for all fitness levels.The chair is used as a tool to do certain exercises, as well as a prop to incorporate sensual dance movements. You will learn some sizzling chair positions and will be amazed at the muscle and resistance this class will challenge you with.

All I can say is, I’m so glad I found this place – I’ve never had so much fun shaking my uncoordinated ass in public! and I got a good workout as well, bonus!

Since I was the only one in class without shoes, I ordered the pair you see above from Zappos first thing after I got home. They arrived today and are extremely comfortable for something that looks this good! I’m think I’m going to sign up for the full 40+ week Pole Dance Program, believe it.

No Comments |Tags: class, dance

Home for my MacBook Air

Posted on August 22, 2008 in: Mac, Microsoft

Yesterday I found time and a willing coworker (thanks Westphal!) to help me install XP Pro on my VM Fusion; Today I started installing some apps like Office 2007, Photoshop, Quickbooks, etc… I must say, people were not kidding when they said Windows runs smoother and faster on a Mac! and the 2-finger touchpad scrolling even works for IE!! (not sure why I’m sooo excited about that fact but it’s awesome.)

So now that I no longer have an excuse to tote around 2 laptops, it’s time to find my MBA a sweet place to sleep.

Hmm… eeny ($70), meeny ($34),
miny ($35), mo ($460!)

And just as I was starting to think that a $460 Swarovski crystal laptop case may be a bit spoiled, check out this $40,000 version!

2 Comments |Tags: laptop case, macbook air, vm fusion, xp pro

Creative Business Cards

Posted on August 10, 2008 in: Design, Gallery, Graphic, Rants & Raves

Here are some amazing business card designs that I love. Be sure to check out the complete list of 70 at fubiz.net

No Comments |Tags: inspiration

Brown Thumb

Posted on August 8, 2008 in: Bonsai, Japanese Maples, Tree Love

Yesterday, I returned home from a 4-day business trip to Missoula and found my barely 3 year old “Kamagata” hanging off my back patio in a cliffhanger-esque fashion, completely brown and crispy. It appeared that sometime between Sunday and Thursday, a large storm or gust of wind had tipped over the container so that the trunk of the tree squeezed right between two deck banisters and all of the soil poured out, leaving the tree hanging by its root ball. With Atlanta’s blistering heat this Summer, it would be surprising if the tree survived through one afternoon, let alone the 4 or 5 days while I was gone.

I guess technically speaking, this death can’t be blamed on my brown thumb. However, with “Shaina’s” root rot and passing 6 months ago, combined with “Kamagata’s” death-by-drought, I’m starting to wonder if I should move my remaining 9 Japanese maples to my parents’, where I know they won’t die, or continue to care for them here, and risk learning many more lessons the hard way…

I keep thinking that if only I could move to a new house with a large semi-shaded and fenced backyard, all my concerns with leaf burn, container-planting, West-facing afternoon sun, and tree-theft would be alleviated and I could grow my trees as successfully as any nursery. Luckily, I’m not so blind as to see past my own mistakes and I realize that a change in location can only fix a small percentage of my tree-killing issues. There’s never an easy solution to anything is there?

UPDATE 8/11: My coiled Hawaiian umbrella bonsai at work has been inflicted with some sort of white mold/fungus-looking spots on its leaves and has maybe 1 week left to live. Not sure what kind of chemical I need to spray on it, but given my luck recently it probably won’t matter what I try.

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Vista Downgrade to XP Pro

Posted on July 11, 2008 in: Microsoft, Techie

Continuing my rant on Vista issues from last month… I recently purchased a new HP Pavilion dv9700t notebook to replace the one my boyfriend accidentally cracked. The day after it arrived, I attempted to downgrade the OEM Vista to XP Pro using a disk I had before. Sounds easy enough right?

It’s been two weeks now, and I can’t say I’m that much closer to getting the laptop set up in a way that’s ready to use…this could easily be one of the most frustrating OS install I’ve ever encountered. Granted, I don’t do this all the time, but it shouldn’t been this difficult to figure out either!

So far I’ve gotten past the “hard drive not found” error by purchasing an external USB Floppy Drive, made 2 boot disks containing mysterious drivers, reinstalled XP Pro, and hunted down all but 5 of the hardware drivers that I need to reinstall. Unfortunately, those missing 5 include Ethernet, Wireless Network, NVIDIA Graphics Card, and Audio… which means the laptop is still mostly useless.

I would highly appreciate any input on where to locate these missing drivers.

1 Comment |Tags: vista, xp pro

Eddie Izzard: Stripped in Atlanta

Posted on June 26, 2008 in: Events, Rants & Raves

I’m a huge fan of Eddie Izzard and finally got the chance to see him perform live last night at the Cobb Energy Center. To be honest, i was a bit nervous about the show because I looked up a few Chicago reviews of this tour beforehand. Normally, I don’t do this kind of thing and take out the surprise element for a night out, but I did this time because I paid some prime dollars for two seats dead center on the 4th row and was determined to make my boyfriend, who has only seen Eddie in Ocean’s Thirteen, his newest fan.

Despite everything I read about Eddie being overly polished, under-made-up, and robotic on this tour, I found the show to be quite good! Maybe it’s always a good idea to catch the second show at each city, or maybe he read the same Chicago reviews that I did, but his performance was exactly as you would expect – full of dancing, leg kicks, talking animals, God, and of course, off-subject tangents. And even though a few jokes came up referencing his previous shows, they were not frequent or hard to catch for those who have never seen him before.

I feel your pain, Chicago, but I have to give this 2.5 hour Atlanta performance – worth the time and money, but I probably won’t buy the DVD if it comes out.

No Comments |Tags: comedy

MacBook Air

Posted on June 19, 2008 in: Mac, Techie

If you remember, I was just complaining about Vista two weeks ago… coincidentally (and special thanks to my co-worker Blaine), I was given a MacBook Air for work yesterday. How crazy!

Like any piece of shiny, new and expensive gadget, I delicately opened the packaging and attempted to use dainty fingers (with my pinky in the air, you know what I’m talking about) to lift out my newest toy. Unfortunately, this 3/4″ thick thing weighs more than it looks and I was forced to utilize all 5 of my fingers to get it out of the box.

So if you’ve ever made the switch from Windows to Mac, you’ll know what I’m talking about here – First I read the manual cover-to-cover (and I’m not one of those people that does this with everything), then I carefully turned it on, filled out some forms, repeatedly took my user account picture using the iSight and watched the amazingly smooth intro video for Mac OS X Leopard with the preset volumn that is almost inappropriate for work. Finally, I spent the rest of the day trying to familiarize myself with Mac and doing the following:

Expecting app install by double-clicking instead of click-n-dragging
Attempting to “right click” on the trackpad by pressing the right half of the single button
Looking for the app menu within the app window itself
Clicking on the red ‘x’ in the app window and expecting that application to quit/close completely
Trying to locate the scroll bar while browsing instead of the two finger trick
Hitting ctrl + something instead of command + something and waiting for something to happen (MacBook Air is so quiet and has no extra flashing lights anywhere for me to ever know if it’s doing something or if I just used the wrong key-combinations)

Today, I plan on installing all sorts of things to make it work-usable. I had never noticed before how many things are PC-only so I’m on a quest to find equivalent Mac counterparts for things like XMLSpy, Outlook, QuickBooks, etc. If you’re in the same boat, then definitely check out the list here to get a nice jump start.

1 Comment |Tags: macbook air