andrew dodson

Not that a lot of people care about my Friday night plans, but this is my blog, so I figure I’ll write whatever I want 

Anyway, tomorrow night, I’ll be heading to Lexington to return a book to Barnes & Noble.  Considering there’s a Chick-fil-A close by, it’s easy to figure out where I’ll be eating dinner.

The point of this isn’t to show how big of a geek I am by spending a Friday evening at a bookstore.  My point is that I wish Frankfort would get both of these places to come to town.  Heck, I’d even settle for a Borders.  While Poor Richard’s has the charm of being the “small town” bookstore, I totally dig the fact that B&N stays open late and has a great selection at good prices.  Not to mention, they’re actually pretty good to their members by offering discounts and coupons often.  These reasons would be my biggest problems with Poor Richard’s – “poor” hours, not-so-good selection and… well…. I guess I can’t complain about their prices.

What can you say about Chick-fil-A?  Good, Christian organization and great food.  Why wouldn’t we want a Chick-fil-A in town (yes, I’m aware of the one on KSU’s campus, but there’s something odd about going to a college cafeteria for food when I’m not a student there)?

So… you know where to find me tomorrow night.

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Since it’s holiday time, and everyone is shopping for gifts, I thought I’d pass along a couple of good deals I’ve come across.

• Chris Tomlin: The Early Years – Wal-Mart is selling a double-CD set of Chris Tomlin’s first two albums, The Noise We Make and Not to Us at a bargain price of $13.88. I’m listening to Not to Us as I type this (side note: how do you write so many great songs on one album?)
• Barnes & Noble Members Only Coupons – I recently became a Barnes & Noble member, due to buying a fair amount of books. Members usually save 10% on purchases, sometimes more. This week, they emailed me a coupon for an additional 15% off one time. I bit the bullet and finally purchased an ESV Reformation Study Bible. I saved over $25 off the retail price.

(I’m realizing now that this post was for gift buyers, and I’m talking about items I purchased for myself. Sounds a bit self-centered, eh? Don’t worry… I’ve already done my Christmas shopping for everyone else!)

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As I’m sure most of you have noticed, I’ve started using Flickr for my online photo gallery.  It’s fairly easy to use, and it syncs up to this blog, so that I can share pictures here.  Tonight, I discovered that it’s not all that I thought it was.

You see, I tried to create a new album, or “photoset” as they like to call it, and I’d already created three albums.  I learned this is the maximum for “free accounts.”  I guess somewhere I missed the fine print.  I would’ve been able to keep uploading photos, but they would’ve been an unorganized mess if I couldn’t put them in albums.

I was prompted to create a “pro” account at the rate of $24.95 for a year.  While I wasn’t thrilled about it, I decided I like Flickr enough to keep using it.  Now, I get unlimited bandwidth, more storage space, and all sorts of fun stuff.  Click on my Flickr badge in my sidebar to see my photos.

1. Sleeper sofa to replace my aging fouton. If you know of anyone giving one away, or know where to find a good deal on one, please let me know!
2. 5-drawer chest. My current three drawer chest has exceeded capacity due to my employment at a t-shirt print shop. T-shirts out da ears, yo. And yes, I wear them all. Requirements – simple, clean design (preferrably a contemporary style), and preferrably lighter than a small vehicle. I don’t want another hernia trying to move it around. Picky, huh?
3. 80GB portable hard drive. I’d like FireWire, but I’m seemingly stuck with USB unless I want to pay a small fortune.

(there’s plenty of other, much more materialistic items on the list, but these are the things I want the most right now)

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting cable…finally. I’ve hesitated to this point because I think it would only be a distraction from doing other, more productive things. However, it creates problems in situations like yesterday – the UK-UofL game was on ESPN. I had to go home to watch the game. I’m also slowly becoming annoyed at the fuzzy reception of the four channels I currently get.

The biggest catch to me getting cable – with my schedule, I’ll miss a lot of shows & games when they’re actually on. So, I’d need a way to watch them later. VCR? No way. Not good enough. DVD Recorder? Now we’re talkin’. Not only could I transfer my video recordings from my seldom-used camcorder to DVD extremely easily, but I could set the timer to record all the shows & games that I might miss, and watch them later. Either later that night before bed, before work in the morning, or even on my iBook – whenever & wherever is most convenient. Not to mention being able to record all of my old VHS tapes to DVDs.

What does cable have to offer? ESPN, first of all. Something interesting to watch during the once-in-a-blue-moon that I get bored. Movies, occasionally. The Weather Channel (notice the link to Bill Meck’s blog in the sidebar – I’m a closet weather geek). Fox News. Lots more.

Ehh…you all know how I am at this point. I’ve pretty much made up my mind. Cable is fairly affordable in Frankfort – $30/month. FPB is a good provider, and they’re good about adding channels and making the expense a good value. DVD recorders have become very affordable – $150 can get you something to get the job done well. I’ve got plenty of overtime pay coming to me in the coming month, so I’m not worried about being able to afford it. Most importantly, it won’t go on a credit card (what are those?).

After over a year of thinking about it, I finally broke down and bought a bicycle last week. I’d tried fixing up my old bike last summer, only to find out the frame is too small (I hadn’t ridden the bike in about eight years).

The reason for getting the bike was two-fold:
1.) I’m close to church and work – there’s no reason to waste gas in my truck (approaching $3/gallon), when in 10-15 minutes, I can get to two of the places I go to the most.
2.) Another method of keeping in shape.

I was able to ride the bike to work a few times last week, and to church once. I also went for a quick ride on Sunday to East Frankfort Park. As would be my luck, it’s either rained, or there’s been a good chance of rain the past two days, so I haven’t been brave enough to ride it to work any this week. I’m hoping to ride it tomorrow.

I found myself in need of a new set of computer speakers this past week. I wanted something nice, but didn’t want to spend $75-100 on the “really nice” sets on the market. Being the audiophile I am, I of course wanted something with a subwoofer, and wasn’t opposed to experience a set of 5.1 surround speakers for the first time.

I headed to Wal-Mart late the other night and found a set of Altec Lansing speakers for $25. Since Wal-Mart will take anything back with a receipt, I decided to buy them. Here’s where the plan gets good. My next step would be heading to Office Depot or CompUSA or Best Buy. There, I’d actually be able to listen to different sets of speakers in the store. A “test drive” for speakers, if you will. Should I find a set that sounded better than the Altec Lansings, I’d buy ‘em and take the AL’s back to Wally World.

Tonight, I was in Office Depot and checked out the speakers. My findings? A small set of $22 speakers sounded far better than a set priced at $84. I think I’ll keep my $25 set. After hearing what $50-84 speakers have to offer, I’m quite pleased with my purchase.

I went to the UPS store yesterday to pack up and ship my Creative Zen Xtra MP3 player to Illinois. Some of you received my mass email a couple of weeks back with a list of things I’m selling. Looks like some people passed it along to other friends, and it payed off. Thanks! Here’s what’s still for sale:

1. Gateway Profile 4 all-in-one (think iMac) computer.
2. Canon camcorder – really nice, but I’ve only used it handful of times. Can’t justify keeping it when I have credit card debt!
3. Some odds and ends stereo equipment. If you’re needing something, email me and I might have it.

If any of you in the blogosphere are needing any of this stuff, or know someone who’s interested, shoot me an email at andrew@brianandrewdodson.com. I’ve found that shipping stuff from the UPS store is really, really easy, so I’ll be able to send it anywhere in the country. Adios…

Memorex gets it right. I bought a pack of Memorex CD labels a few weeks ago. I find them to be of good quality (on par with Neato) and very affordable (compared to Neato). I was also surprised to find Adobe Illustrator (the software I use to create labels) label templates on the included CD. A definite plus considering I normally have to create my own label template when I try a new company’s labels and don’t want to have to use their not-so-great labeling software. I highly recommend Memorex for all your CD-labeling needs.

1. Creative Zen Xtra 40GB MP3 player – $150; two years old; excellent condition; no problems; being replaced by my new iPod.
2. Sony stereo receiver – $50 or best offer; approx. four years old; excellent condition; I’m looking to buy a new surround sound home theater system.
3. Cerwin Vega tower speakers (1 pair) – $100 or best offer; these speakers are about as old as me and still in excellent condition; the subs in these are amazing; hard to let these go, but I’m willing to part with them to get a new system.
4. Echo Layla 24/96 multitrack recording unit; $150; just over two years old; great for multitrack laptop recording.

Delivery available in the central Kentucky area. Email me – andrew@brianandrewdodson.com – if interested in any of the above.