Monthly Archive for November, 2005

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UT Long Horns Vs. Texas A&M Aggies

Published on November 26, 2005 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Texas vs. Texas A&M

I’m torn over this game!!! On one hand I’m happy that the Aggies lost the game, and that always warms my heart a little bit. On the other hand, if how the Aggies played UT is a sign of how the Longhorns are going to play in their next two games….they better get their act together for the Big 12 Champ game and for the Rose Bowl (assuming they take the Big 12 Champ game). The Aggies got their butts kicked this year by teams who UT ROLLED over , like my beloved Red Raiders, Colorado and OU. Hell, Baylor took the Aggies into OT and just barely lost. With all of my loathing for Texas A&M aside, they have a weak team by almost all standards this year and UT really should have played better against them. After all they played UT better and closer than anyone since the Ohio St. game. If I were the Aggies, I would consider that rivalry game a victory. They made the Long Horns pucker up a few times, and were still in the game well into the 4th Quarter.

My general rules for who I pull for: I pull for any Texas team (except the Aggies) against any non-Texas team just out of pride. I pull for any Big 12 team over any non Big 12 team out of pride. So now we have a chance for a Texas team to take the Big 12 and to also go to the Rose Bowl. My support will be behind UT because they have the chance to win the National Championship for my conference and for my state. So, Long Horns, Mr. Brown and Mr. Young…. Get you act back together and get your A game back for your next two games. USC will eat you alive if you don’t step it back up. Don’t embarrass the state or the conference. If you play like you did against A&M in the Big 12 Conf, and then hopefully the Rose Bowl….bad things guys, bad things.

I’m Sorry that Vince Young probably lost his chance at the Heisman Trophy this weekend. Maybe that will be his motivation to get back on top of his game for the next games.
P.S. If Tech gets into the Cotton Bowl… I will be there loud and proud!

Ian Moore at Two Frogs, Ardimore OK

Published on November 22, 2005 in Travel, trips, and such. 0 Comments

Chalk another good idea up for my South African friend Militza. In place of our normal Friday night adventure, last week she sent the word out that we should all make the 100 mile trip up to Ardmore OK to go see Ian Moore play at a little restaurant called Two Frogs. So Robert (Naked Boy), Militza and I all made the trip to Oklahoma.
Ian Moore at Two Frogs

First Question: Who is Ian Moore? Ian is a musician from Seattle. He plays a bluesy/rock /soul style of music, and has been around for probably 15 years or so. He has had a few songs that were on the radio (like Muddy Jesus) but most of his music isn’t what you would call mainstream radio music. He has tours all regularly to smaller venues and has a pretty strong following amongst those who know him. I have been following Ian Moore for several years now, and have had the pleasure of seeing him live 5 or 6 times.

We made it up to Ardmore around 10:00 and got there at the perfect time. We procured a round of drinks, sat down at our table just and Ian started to play his first song. This show was just Ian and Kullen, and that is my favorite show format of his (as opposed to the solo or full band shows). Ian plays the Guitar and sings, and Kullen(sorry, can’t find his last name) is the super hero who does a little bit of everything to back Ian up during the show. He played bass guitar, trumpet, xylophone, drums (foot pedal), keyboard, and sang back up vocals. At one point he was playing the trumpet with one hand, keyboard with the other, and the drums with his foot. My hat is off to you sir! The only thing that I can play that makes music is my stereo, and I’m not even very good at that.
Zach and Militza Naked Boy and good beer.

The music was wonderful. Ian’s voice is something you almost have to hear to understand. You might even say that you have to hear it live to really get the full effect. The songs he sang during this show probably made up the best playlist that I can remember him performing. At the end of the show, he didn’t leave me wishing that he had played a specific song or two. This time he played a lot more of his older music than he did the last time I saw him in Denton at Hailey’s, but still had a good mix of his new album. He even played Room 229, which I have not heard live since the first time I saw him 4 or 5 years ago at the R-Bar.

We had a great time; we had a few drinks and enjoyed great live music in the middle of nowhere. The rest of the fans were bifurcated almost perfectly. We were sitting in the middle of the room, and the people in front of us were there because they knew who Ian Moore is, and came to enjoy his music. The people who were sitting behind us were there because there wasn’t anything else to do in Ardmore OK, which is truly in BFE, half way between Dallas and Oklahoma City. I was elated when the table right behind us with Bubba One, Bubba 2, Bimbo and Bimbett left. Right in the middle of great music they couldn’t shut up or stop talking about whatever came to their drunken minds. It was annoying how loud the people behind us were, but I still enjoyed the show.

At the end of the show, Ian and Kullen came into the audience (the restaurant probably sat 100 people) with just their voices and one guitar (no mic or amps). That is one of the really cool experiences you can get by going to small venue shows that you just cant get at a big concert. That was a great way to end the Friday night.

If you haven’t listened to Ian Moore before, you should hop on iTunes and at least listen to some of the samples (free). They have several good songs that I would recommend on there:
Room 229, Angelyne, Caroline, *New Day, Kangaroo Lake (personal favorite), and Bastard. He plays pretty regularly all over the country, so check out his webpage to see if he is coming to your city. Ian Moore

*New Day is a great song, but don’t get a good feel for it on the clip they have on iTunes.

Ian Moore and Kullen

Jay and Lin Johnson on Wife Swap, Zach’s chance of being a movie star shot down

Published on November 21, 2005 in Strange things people do. 7 Comments

Ok…Ok….ok…So there won’t be any Leer Jets or multi million dollar TV contracts for me. After carefully review of all of the little specks in the background on this weeks Wife Swap, I have come to the conclusion that I was not one of the said specks. Man, what were the producers of the show thinking? They had tons of footage of people like me at the Boot Camp sessions, and tons of footage of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders working out in spandex. For some odd reason, they seemed to think that the viewing public would prefer to see beautiful, gorgeous, hard bodied girls working out in skimpy spandex outfits. So the producers made the tragic decision to show the lovely young ladies a lot more than the Boot Camp sessions. So shallow. ;) Oh, by the way: If there are any Cowboy Cheerleaders reading this blog who like poor and ugly white guys…. My name is Zach and I’m your biggest fan, feel free to e-mail me at any time :) .
All kidding aside, I’m happy that I went to the 6:00 am Boot Camp, even though I didn’t make it as a speck in the background on TV. It gave me a chance to get a taste for Jay Johnson’s Boot Camp without any commitments or cost. I gained a HUGE respect for the program he runs. The type of fitness he promotes and teaches is incredible and so different from the definition for being in shape that I used to hold for myself. I’m thinking about signing up for one of the 4 week classes at the Ranch Health Club after the new year. If any of you jokers want to join too, let me know. I could use a partner for some motivation!! The classes are 3 days a week, and start at 6 am (I think there is an afternoon class also).

I’ve never really watched Wife Swap before, but must say that I enjoyed the show. I’m sure it helps that I got to see the gym I work out at on TV, and know who Jay and Lin are, but I really did enjoy the show. I expected them to demonize one person on the show for drama, and they did. They made Mrs. Blackburn look terrible. I also expected them to make look Drill Sgt. Jay Johnson look more intense than he really is, and they tried their best. What really made the show great was Jay’s wife Lin. I met her several times a few years ago when I worked at the printing shop they used for Boot Camp (neither Jay or Lin would know who I am). She always seemed to be polite, but on the show you could really tell that Lin is one of those honest to goodness good people who really cares about others. It is so hard to convey that on TV without looking cheesy or fake, and I really thought you could see how genuine she was on the show. If she is half as nice as she seemed to be on the show, then she is truly a wonderful person.

Too bad Boot Camp isn’t a public company. With all of the publicity they got from Wife Swap, I’m sure the Johnson’s phone will be ringing off the hook. If you want to read my other posts about Jay, Boot Camp and Wife Swap, see the links below. I also added a link for Jay’s page.

Jay’s Boot Camp

First update

Zach gets his butt kicked for TV

Jay Johnson – Wife Swap update

Published on November 19, 2005 in Strange things people do. 0 Comments

If you follow this blog, you may have read my story about getting my butt kicked at 6 am for a one in 50 chance that I’ll be visiable as a speck in the background on the show Wife Swap. I just found out that the episode that will feature Jay Johnson and his wife Lin will be on ABC this Monday at 7:00 Central. So look for me as the little speck in the background at the bootcamp session who looks like he is about to die. This could be my big break! Some rich producer is going to see the little speck in the background of the show and say “That guy…that speck panting and drooling on himslef in the background….That guys going to be a star! Send the Leer Jet down to pick him up and offer him 10 Million to sign on the dotted line”.

If you want to read the origional post on here about getting my butt kicked for Jay Johnson’s Bootcamp/Wife Swap Click Here

Sony Ericsson W800i Walkman Phone

Published on November 18, 2005 in Reviews and This and That. 0 Comments

Sony W800 Walkman phone

***UPDATE**** Please make sure you read the update here on this phone. It turned out to be a terrible phone.

My new phone arrived last night, and I thought I’d go ahead and give a first impression post on my new toy. The phone is the Sony Ericsson Walkman W800i, the first of the walkman phones to hit the US market. When I first saw this phone online I as very interested, but worried that it might be too good to be true. I have always had great luck with Sony phones, and this phone had all of the features that I really wanted in a phone. I take a ton of pictures (as you may have noticed) and the idea of having a true 2 meg camera in my pocket at all times (and NOT having to carry another camera) was really appealing. I have an iPod, but I use it for home theater use and don’t often take it to the gym. Also, my gym broadcasts the audio for the TV’s on FM radio, and the iPod can’t be used as a tuner. This phone is packed with features, but the ones that I really thought looked great: mp3 player (512 meg stock, expandable to 2 gig with Memory Sick Duo); FM radio; Bluetooth; speaker phone; all in a small phone that is actually smaller than the Sony Ericsson T637 that I have been used to carrying for the last year or so.

I plan on doing some torture testing on battery life and some other long term testing and posting updates in the near future, so stay tuned. For now I just wanted to write down my first impressions.

First impressions:
The phone is expensive. Since I paid $400, it will probably be down around $150 or 200 by the end of the week just to spite me. If the phone does everything I hope that it will do, the cost will be justified in my opinion.

I have had Sony phones for the past 3 years or so and am very used to how they function, and have all of the accessories. So this gripe that I have is more based on me hoping that it would be a seamless transition to this phone, and not so much with something wrong with the phone. The power and hands free port are now one large plug, as opposed to two separate ones. This means that my car charger, hands free, and wall chargers will not work on the phone. The good news is that they supply a wall charger, and the data cable also will allow you to charge via USB. I think it is a good improvement over the older style and technology, but was also hoping to be able to use my old accessories. Also, some of the functions are backwards: For example, locking the phone and turning on silent mode require you to input the opposite keystroke as they were on the older Sony’s. Not that it’s bad, just not what I am used to.

The headphone jack bothered me a little bit at first. However I think that the overall positives will out weight the negatives. You have to use the Sony Ericsson jack to use the headphones; there is no 2.5mm (standard) headphone plug on the phone. This would be nice for listening to the mp3 player at work or any other place that you might have an extra pair of phones lying around. The good news is that the headphones they supply are great. Very good sound quality (even base…who woulda thunk it?) and are better than the stock iPod phones by far. They are very comfortable and do a great job of blocking outside noise; this allows you to hear the music better at lower volume. There is no need to turn up the volume to overcome the background noise, so you can listen at a reasonable level and save your ears and your battery. By the way, it has a LOT of power if you turn it all the way up on the headphones or on the speaker. You have to have the headset plugged in to use the radio; I think the headset also doubles as the antenna. The mp3 player can be used through the speaker phone speaker, and is pretty impressive for it’s size. The headset also seamlessly double hands the hands free headset.

After putting the SIM card in and charging it up a little bit I installed the software on my computer. This has to be the weakest point in the chain. The software install was a little bit annoying. If you don’t read the manual (and me being a guy…of course I didn’t!). When it recognizes the new hardware, it finds it in the CD drive no problem and finishes the install. Then it pops up again and says new hardware found. Same thing, point it to the CD drive and it installs the drivers and says everything is ok….Then once again the new hardware found popup comes up. I thought something was wrong and it wasn’t installing correctly. I was wrong. It has 5 drivers that it has to install, so repeating the process is how Sony wants it to be done. The software used to actually move music onto the phone (Disc2Phone) is laughable compared to iTunes. It is VERY basic and simple. It does however work, and it may not be fair to compare Apple’s pride and joy iTunes, that they use to make millions of $$$’s off of music sales, and to support their multi Billion dollar iPod product line. None the less, the Sony software could use a lot of work.

Once I got my music onto the phone I have had a little bit of time to play around with it. Figuring out how to add music to the play list took a few mins (remember, me and instructions don’t play well together). Your uploaded music will not play if you don’t activate them in a play list. From there, as far as music is concerned, it has been smooth sailing. Very easy to navigate the music, and use the player. It will stop the music when a call comes in, and restart it in the same place when the call is completed. From usability and functionality standpoint, the walkman side of the phone is wonderful. You can also still use the phone’s menus and features at the same time you are using the Walkman features. I have been listening to my music for the past 4 hours or so, and the battery is still at %75. They claim something like 18 hours of play if you turn the phone function off. I’ll test that out soon too.

I took a few test pictures with the camera and I am very impressed. The auto focus works very well. The white LED lights are very bright and work great as a flash substitute (the SOS flashlight function is my personal favorite gizmo haha). The pictures were clear and vivid and looked every bit as good as the 2 Meg camera I used to have. The resolution on the screen is better than on my Gateway point and shoot 4 meg camera.

This phone might be a sleeper though. With Cingular selling the Motorola/Apple ROKR, it will probably not get all the press or be the “rage” even though it looks to be a much better product.

So, so far so good. It looks like it is everything that I needed it to be, and probably a little bit more. Small, easy to use, good reception, camera, radio, mp3, data storage and much more. What more do you need? I was worried that Sony would try to stuff the features into the phone half-heartedly. A crappy camera, or a terrible mp3 player just so you can add that function to the spec list of the phone. That doesn’t seem to be the case. I’ll add pic’s soon, and will be back with more reviews and torture test results.

Updated review here