ipod nano
01 Saturday Mar 2008
Posted in gadgets, life stuff, music, retail therapy
01 Saturday Mar 2008
Posted in gadgets, life stuff, music, retail therapy
23 Saturday Feb 2008
Posted in gizmos, retail therapy, wine
Unlike these idiotic inventions, this wine cooler thingy is quite clever. No doubt they’ve been around for years but I only came across this one today by accident – someone had left it at the cashier’s stand where I was paying for something else. And so I had to buy one and try it out (it’s in the freezer as I type). I wonder why restaurants don’t use them instead of ice buckets – they’re much handier.
Anyone else got one?
17 Sunday Feb 2008
Posted in books & writing, films, food & drink, friends, language, life stuff, retail therapy, television

I came across this old post from last year on Letters Home the other day. Oh how I wish everyone had a ‘recent comments’ widget for people just passing through or for when I’m just having a quick look around a few blogs without using my feedreader. In fact, I probably would have just read the comment to this post on my feedreader without clicking on the post itself. But seeing it on ian’s sidebar I clicked on the comment and saw the original post. Anyhoodle … it was all about things ian misses from the places he used to live after having moved on to somewhere else.
Like ian, I’ve lived in a few different places since leaving my birthplace Winnipeg, Canada (aka Winterpeg) at age 25. Since then I’ve lived in Toronto, Bristol in England, and Salamanca & Seville in Spain. Here is my list of things I miss …
08 Friday Feb 2008
Posted in friends, geekiness, life stuff, retail therapy

Well, since then I’ve been staying in touch with Susan and Traci – two of the women who were sitting at my table. I’m going to be meeting Traci and her husband for tapas tonight at the new second location of Las Golondrinas (which I didn’t know existed until Traci told me), so stay tuned for some new photos soon.
And last Friday Susan and I met up early evening-ish for a few vinitos at Catalina. We had a great time and talked and laughed a lot … then what I thought was a mobile phone rang, but it ended up being Susan’s Blackberry. I’d never seen one in person before so of course Susan started showing me all the cool tricks she could do with it and, man, I’ve been hooked ever since and will start doing some research to see if I can justify getting one. Apparently these are also known as crackberries because of their addictive qualities.
But at least Susan is about to help out with another addiction. She is leaving for a ten-day trip to the States today and has agreed to be my popcorn mule and bring me back lots of Orville’s.
There was talk of duct-taping packets to her 4-year-old daughter to elude customs and we’ve also got code names now. It’s been awhile since I’ve had RL girlfriends – I’d forgotten how fun it could be. Especially little things like sending each other silly emails and having a laugh over a glass or two of wine. I’m so glad I went to that lunch!
30 Wednesday Jan 2008
Posted in computers, retail therapy

It’s Toshiba’s newest small notebook, âthe worldâs thinnest notebook series with an integrated optical driveâ, which so far hasn’t made it to any of the shops here in Sevilla. Isn’t it gorgeous???
The 0.77-inches thin 2.4-pound Toshiba Portege R500 has 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 ultra-low voltage processor with 1.20GHz clock speed, 2MB L2 cache, and 533MHz front-side bus. This ultra-portable is based on Mobile Intel 945GMS Express chipset with the integrated Graphic Media Accelerator 950, which manages a 12.1-inch 1280Ă800 LED backlight âhighbrightnessâ display. The R500 supports up to 2GB of DDR2 system memory and comes with 120GB 5400rpm SATA hard disk drive. A mentioned ultra-thin 7mm optical drive is a DVD burner.
Toshiba Portege R500 has Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n), Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth, but it doesnât include a 56k modem. Toshibaâs new ultra-portable has PCMCIA card slot, Secure Digital slot, three USB ports, VGA output, Firewire, and a fingerprint reader.
Hmmm … not sure I’d ever need a fingerprint reader, but you never know. So as soon as I get that fab new job happening (c’mon guys, I’m counting on you) , the one that requires me to have an ultra-portable super-sleek notebook with me at all times, I’m calling up Toshiba.