Skip navigation

Category Archives: Stuff

2009 Toyota Corolla

A few weeks ago, I decided it was finally time for a new car.  I was happy with my 15 year old car for a while, but it was time to find something that wouldn’t hit me with unexpected repair costs a few times a year.  So instead of periodically taking my car to the shop, I decided to get a car payment.

My last car was a 1993 Toyota Celica.   I decided to stay with Toyota and leased a 2009 Corolla.  They came out in February, which was way too soon, in my opinion.  I almost wish I had come a month earlier, when they still had great deals on the ’08 models.  But I did end up getting a good lease deal.

My favorite feature is the Auxiliary input on the stereo system.  I can plug in my iPod and listen to anything I want.  My last car didn’t have cruise control.  I forgot how convenient that was.  This is my first car with keyless entry, and I love how easy it is to unlock now.  Also, this is my first car with automatic lights.  I’m getting used to that.  I’m never sure when they’re on half the time at twilight.  I end up turning the switch as it’s getting dark.  But if I get in the car when it’s dark, I know the automatic lights will work.  Another feature I like is the backseat folds down to make more room in the trunk for large cargo.  I haven’t used this particular feature, but I’m sure I’ll appreciate it the next time I play a piano gig that requires me to bring my keyboard.

This is also my first car payment.  I know what this means.  Less extra money for purchases.  Less money for eating out.  I’m okay with it, for now.  I imagine, as I keep moving up the salary ladder, I’ll get more and more used to having that large monthly expense.  For now, it is taking some getting used to.

Blockbuster News

I’ve canceled my Blockbuster online membership.  It was a good run: over a year.  I probably spent over $250 last year, renting all the movies I could handle.  But, they changed the price on me, twice.  I was upset with that.  And now, I can’t live with the reduced service.

That’s life, I guess.  One of my friends was telling me the other night, “Life either moves forward, or it dies.  There’s no going back.”  He wasn’t referring to my Blockbuster membership, but he does have a great point.  I’m no longer happy spending less money for fewer DVDs.  I want everything I had before, but I can’t afford the ridiculous price.

Last time I was at Blockbuster I struck up a small conversation about the whole experience.  Apparently, it was the former CEO’s idea, to offer free, unlimited in-store exchanges for delivered movies.  But what happened was that the online service became too popular, and no one was spending any money in the stores.  Certain stores had to close down.  People lost their jobs.  I’m surprised the online division didn’t subsidize these stores.  They had to keep records of all the movies they were giving out for free.

But alas, this poor CEO lost his job, and the new guy started raising the price of the online membership to reduce the number of people who didn’t spend money at the store, like me.  Well he did his job… except, really, which is worse?  Failing brick and mortar stores, or a failing online business?  I’m certainly not sticking with the Blockbuster Online membership.  I wonder how many other subscribers, like me, have switched back to Netflix, or something similar.

Zune 80GB

I know my last post about the Zune seemed rather negative. I was a little put off by the lack of “instant satisfaction” when I got my new Christmas present out to play with. But, having used it for the past couple of weeks, I have to say I’m very pleased with it.

The screen is really big, when you compare it to the iPod at least. It’s still small, but I have no complaints. The updated, version 2, firmware has an excellent user interface. The main menu has almost ridiculously large text, but that’s actually nice.

In fact, I like the Zune so much that I’m upgrading it to the 80 GB model that came out with the release of the Zune’s second generation. I need the extra space: my music collection is over 25 GB, and getting larger. That left me very little space for video on my old Zune. I wanted some room to grow (I’ll probably subscribe to the $15/month unlimited music download service through the Zune marketplace).

The 30GB model is for sale on ebay right now, but the auciton only has like 20 minutes left. I didn’t expect to find any buyers through my blog. There are enough bidders on it right now.

The second generation is a big improvement over the first, in my opinion. The touch/tilt center button is unique, and works very well. It requires a little longer adjustment period: I’m still getting used to the “flicking” thing with my thumb or finger. But it’s kind of fun to mess around with, so the learning process is very tolerable.

The appearance of the player has improved substantially, also. The second generation 80 GB is actually noticeably thinner than the first generation 30 GB model. I was shocked. I actually expected it to be thicker. And also important, it’s black. I wasn’t sure I liked the brown color of my Zune 30 GB to begin with. But black is my favorite color, so it’s perfect for me.

The headphones that came with the 80 GB model are spectacular. They don’t sound quite as nice as the JVC in-ear headphones I was using before, but at least these stay in my ear. The JVC headphones kept falling out with every little tilt of my head, which would degrade the sound quality. They needed to be kept in my ear, tightly, for the best sound. I’d rather the sound be consistently good, than have to push the buds in my ear every few minutes to get excellent quality.

My whole music collection, plus the videos I’ve put on it, total 45 GB right now. That leaves me plenty of space for future downloads. The whole reason I wanted a new mp3 player is because my old one (a Sansa e250) was only 2 GB, and I was constantly have to put new music on it, so I wouldn’t get bored with what I was listening to. Too much trouble. Now all my music is one place, and easily accessible. I’m happy.

Zune 30GB

Well today is Christmas, and this year I received a Zune 30GB. What’s funny is I had requested an iPod classic (80GB) from my parents, but they had already bought the Zune. For the first 8 hours after opening this product, I was very disappointed. I couldn’t decide if I was going to like the Zune as much I was expecting to like the iPod.

The first problem I ran into was with the installation CD. It simply didn’t install on my computer, and the error message was very vague, saying simply “try again later.” I did so, and the same result. So I went to zune.net and downloaded the latest version of the Zune software. This installed fine.

The second problem I had was the state of the battery when I opened my new toy. It was fully drained. In my experience, most tech toys with rechargable batteries these days have full, or near full batteries. The dead battery on my Zune was surprising.

Lastly, the most irritating problem was the Zune’s failure to respond to any buttons, a PC connection, anything. Even after I had started charging it, the screen wouldn’t budge from a picture of a battery with a plug inside. So I unplugged the Zune, and the screen still remained the same. I tried the key sequence for sleep mode, for doing a soft reboot, everything! I finally called Zune customer support, and after registering the product, was informed that I should simply let the Zune’s battery drain for a matter of hours (7-9), and then charge again. This in fact did fix my problem, and in less time than predicted. I am now listening to some great jazz on it now.

I plan on putting some movies on it to watch on the plane trip back home. That is, if I can figure out how to convert the videos I have in Divx format into Windows Media Video.

Blockbuster Online

I was a Netflix member for several months before switching to Blockbuster back in January. Blockbuster offered really sweet deal. It solved my major problem with Netflix, and gave me more movies, more often. All for the same price.

My major problem with Netflix is that my apartment building doesn’t have an outgoing mail box. To send mail, we leave it on top of our inbox, for everyone to see. I had a neighbor that liked to open my Netflix envelopes to see if he wanted what I had rented. I would find empty envelopes, torn apart. Driving to the post office, or the nearest drop box was inconvenient.

Blockbuster lets me return videos to the store. And I can get new movies instantly. When they scan my envelopes, the cost of the movie rental is deducted from my receipt, and I walk out of the store with 3 new videos, free of charge. And the best part is that they mail me 3 new ones the next day (even before my envelopes reach the warehouse). So I end up with 6 videos to watch that week. I make it a point to go to the local Blockbuster every weekend.

So everything is great, right? Well, no. Blockbuster, it seems, introduced the basically unlimited store rentals at the same price as Netflix as a teaser, to get people to switch. Recently, some changes have been made.

First, their pricing schema now reflects how many videos you can get from the store. The purely-by-mail option is actually a $1 cheaper than Netflix, I assume because they do not offer instant movie downloads, like Netflix does. But the in-store exchanges have raised the price significantly. For $1 more than Netflix, you can get 5 in-store exchanges per month. For $7 more than Netflix, you can get unlimited in-store rentals, like they started offering from the beginning for the same price as Netflix.

I still wanted the unlimited store rentals, so I started paying $24.99 each month for that privilege. So basically, they raise the price 39% , and I get nothing. Same service as always.

Except it’s not the same. Recently, I’ve noticed that the warehouse has been waiting to receive my envelopes before they send me the next movie in my queue. This was NOT advertised at all. The main advantage to returning the movies to the store was that the store told blockbuster.com to mail me my new movies instantly. Not 2 days later!

So, the 39% price hike was for a service that, in fact, was less than what I signed up for.

I think I might switch back. Instant downloads are starting to sound pretty cool.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.