Review: Gillette Fusion Power

While out shopping I saw the new Fusion series of razors from Gillette and figured I'ld buy the Power model (vibrates) and give it a try. Upon first trial I had four days worth of facial hair growth (for reference I could shave my goatee and regrow it in about 10 days). Normally with this much growth and using my old Mach 3, I have to do about 4 passes on the same strip of skin to get a close clean shave. And each pass feels/sounds like a cheese grater sliding across sand paper. Overall a pretty painful and time consuming endeavor. On the very first use with the new razor I was amazed at how well it performed. A quick clean, pain/sound free cut. At first I wondered if it was even cutting hair, that's how smooth and quick the passes were. More importantly however there were no nicks, cuts, or razor burn. I constantly have problems with razor burn because my facial hair is very thick/strong, and my skin is very sensitive. I definitely recommend everyone try out one of these razors and see how it works for you.

Reconnected

Approximately two months ago my Nokia 3120 cell phone went through a wash cycle in the pocket of my jeans. The phone was fried. The next day I stopped into a cingular store to see what could be done about the situation. I found that my only option was to buy a new phone, since I didn't have insurance coverage on my plan. Since I'm already a cingular customer, I don't qualify for any discounts on their phones, and would have to pay full retail price for a replacement. Full retail price on a replacement was $100+, for a bottom of the line phone they usually pay you to take at contract sign-up. And if I wanted anything fancy it would be upwards of $200-$300. Sorry, I'm not paying that for a piece of crap. Since then I've been looking around on eBay and craigslist to see if I can find a decent replacement or upgrade phone to use. Finally yesterday I got a replacement Nokia 6800, thanks to my good buddy Damon. He recently upgraded to the new Motorola V3 RAZR, and graciously donated his old cell phone. It's good to be connected again. So for any of you that need to, you can contact me at the same old cell phone number.

Free Food! Run Fattie Run!

It's happened again, it's like clockwork it's so regular. This afternoon one of my coworkers put cookies in the break room and then sent out an office wide "Free Cookie" email. Literally 5 seconds after the email popped up in my inbox, I could feel the floor rumbling. The water bottle on my desk was reverberating just like the one in Jurassic Park when the T-Rex was closing in. (I work on the second floor and due to the weight of all our equipment, the whole floor bounces whenever someone walks down the main aisles. Fortunately my cube is near a wall which helps to keep it from getting too bouncy). So the herd was off, a full on stampede towards the break room to get a cookie. It's moments like this that truly prove the human species has become a docile herd. We even have our own little barn stalls. Moments later all the free cookies had been devoured. Sometimes the stampeding herd can get really ugly. Just try to go in the break room during a "Free Ice-cream" time. Everyone fights to be the first in so they can make sure they can get an Nutty Buddy. I've actually seen two of them having a tug-o-war over the last one. And these are 45+ year old people! Sometimes these free ice cream days are planned, in which case the biggest fiends show up 15 mins early and stake out the break room. It's insane. This brings me to another rant about my coworkers and food. There's a lady at my work who keeps a huge box of free candy in her cube. People stop by every so often to get a little sucker or a small candy bar. It didn't bother me until she moved onto my row. I couldn't believe how many people stopped by to get a friggin piece of candy. And a lot of them stopped by multiple times per day. It annoyed me so much I started to record statistics on the candy box. Who stopped by, When they stopped by, and if possible how many pieces of candy they took. The stats were crazy, the average person stopped by 4-5 times per day, with a total of about 30 people per day. This doubled whenever she would put out a fresh batch of small candy bars. And even crazier the foot traffic started to wear the carpet. There was almost a visible worn path down our aisle that stopped right at the candy box. I was so happy when I was moved off that aisle a month later.

Never Buy a Volkswagen

We've got a 2003 VW Jetta 1.8T. This thing is a pile of Garbage! It's had non-stop problems since Darci first bought it. And what really surprises me is that it was brand new when she bought it, and it's the top of the line model. I could understand some of the problems if it had been used, and/or was the base model. So WTF!? Here are just some of the problems: faulty ignition coils (twice), pierced oil pan (caused my the numb-nutts tow truck driver), $150 a piece low profile tires that are defect prone and pop constantly, constant failing sensors (temp, O2, etc), faulty traction control chip, faulty in dash wiring causing the hazard relay to freak out, factory defect power window mechanism, remote trunk release button failure, driver side heated seat failure, faulty arm rest storage lid hinge, and ?? There is so much more that I can't think of at the moment. We are just about ready to drive this piece of crap off a cliff soon. On the bright side, VW customer service is great and they really took care of us each time it was in the shop under warranty work. However they are likely so good in this area, to make up for the fact that your car will be in their care 25% of the time.

A Healthier 2006

I've been smoke free since the 12/18. So that's a little over two weeks. Not that my intention was to quit, I just haven't been around smokers since then and I haven't had an uncontrollable urge. (For those who don't know I've been smoking for a long time, and in the last year I've cut back and now consider myself a social smoker. As I only smoke when around my smoker friends a couple times a week, amounting to approx ¼-½ pack/week). It's been a goal of mine to eventually quit completely, so I think I'm going to keep the good streak running and try to avoid smoking as much as possible. I'm not making any public claims to quitting, as I don't want the self appointed habit monitors. I'm just planning to cut back even more then I already have. This feeds into my goal to be healthier and get into better shape this winter. I suppose you could call it a new year's resolution, however it's been on my mind for far longer. I'm planning to cut back on the beer, eat healthier, start taking supplemental vitamins, do more physical activities, and start working out seriously.

New Years in Phoenix!

We're back! Man it's good to be home. Even through it was sunny and warm (70°-90°) all week, I really miss being home. I was starting to feel dried up with all the sun, sand, and lack of moisture in the air. It's nice to be back home and enjoy the 50° temps, lots of rain, and greenery. Our trip was a lot of fun, but it wore me out. I'm dead tired. We got in at 1am this morning (1/2), went to bed around 2am, and then I had to get up at 8am for work. That on top of already being sleep deprived, as I went to bed at 3am on 1/1 and got up at 8am to go golfing, and I've had a lot of late nights/early mornings the last few weeks with all the holiday activities. I think I need to crash early tonight to try to recoup some lost ZZZzzzz's. I'll be putting together a full write-up on our trip as well as numerous photo galleries of our adventures very soon. So check soon.