As I've been doing research on this whole teaching Zumba thing, I find that I am freaking myself out about things I don't need to worry about. At least not yet anyway. Things like business debt consolidation. The word 'debt' worries me. Then again, I'm also bored enough to do be doing research on things way out of my league. Like commercial buildings to rent or buy to run my own fitness company. Then ideas of hiring other instructors to teach other classes and....I'm getting way way ahead of myself. This is why I should not have ideas. Ideas are bad for my brain. But don't worry. I won't actually act on any of these ideas yet. I will take this slowly. I promise.
Favorite Friday
On Monday, I'll be posting my review for the jdorama Tsuki no Koibito. Until then, here is the theme song:
Teaching Zumba
I am seriously thinking about becoming a Zumba instructor. I'd need to complete the Zumba training, which shouldn't be too difficult. Then I might need to complete some other courses, depending on where I'd teach. I already have a dance background and I really love the official Zumba class I attend on Saturday mornings. I guess I'm just not very confident in myself right now. (Not to mention that I'd need to get together like $200 for the training course.) Maybe I should just take a deep breath and plunge in. It might be good for me. (Better than asking "what are the best diet pills" at least!) After all, I'd be doing something I love instead of something that drains me every day. That's good, right?
Buy.com iPhone app
Sometimes my sister is totally hysterical. She found out that buy.com has an iPhone app. I was over her house Thursday night (getting ready for Zumba) and she was using the barcode scanner to scan everything in her house. See, you can point the iPhone camera at an item's barcode to scan it. Then the app finds the item on buy.com so you can get reviews and deals on stuff. I have to admit that it was pretty awesome. I took a few minutes to play with it myself. It was super easy to use. Just scan, type or even speak what you are looking for and *boom* there it is. I know that sounds dumb but so many apps take forever to do a simple search. We went through a good portion of my sister's house in less than a half hour. (She has a lot of stuff so that says a lot.) I'm just amazed at how fun it was. Stuff like this shouldn't be fun. It should be boring and informative. This makes me want to run out and buy an iPhone. I wonder if there is a Android version available that I could use on my Epic.
Speaking of apps for my Epic, should I start reviewing phone apps? No one in my house has an iPhone but my mother, my sister, and my stepfather do. I'm sure I could get them to tell me about their favorites. Maybe this will be a new feature!
TV review: The Cape
Vince Faraday is a cop in Palm City. Many of the officers around him are corrupt and a mysterious blogger known as Orwell has been outing them. When the city's new police chief is killed by a masked criminal called Chess, Faraday sets out to make things in his hometown right again. He joins Ark, a private security company, run by Peter Fleming, on the edge of privatizing the police force.
Shortly after joining Ark, Orwell sends Faraday a message pointing him toward a shipment of a deadly toxin. Faraday and his partner, Marty Voyt, check out the cargo train delivering the shipment. Unfortunately, Voyt instead delivers Faraday into the hands of Chess, who is none other than Fleming himself. Fleming frames Faraday as the masked villain and sends his security force, armed with Nikon rifle scopes, to catch him. During the chase, the news helicopters above see him die in a large explosion.
However, Faraday is not dead. He is discovered by the Carnival of Criminals, a strange circus-themed group of bank robbers. Faraday buys his freedom with his Ark passcard. Soon, Faraday asks Max Malini, the head of the circus, to help him clear his name and get back to his wife and son. Max and the others teach Faraday hypnosis, cape tricks, and other skills that will transform him into the superhero known as The Cape.
As The Cape, Faraday goes after Chess and his henchmen. While on one such mission, he comes across Orwell trying to get the dirt on Chess. Quickly, Orwell and Faraday join forces to take back their city.
I had a lot of fun watching this show. My favorite character, by far, is Max Malini. He's not only wise, he's also funny and devious and just plain awesome. I almost wish he was the superhero! As for the rest of the characters, I am willing to give them time to grow. It seems like a lot was shoved into two episodes, almost like the audience missed a season and had to catch up to the storyline. I think that the writers should have kept the pilot as an origination story and kept some of the baddies for later. Hopefully they will not disappoint me. I want this show to be successful and, in order to do that, it has to be good.
Aluratek Cinepal
I was planning on waiting a few days to talk about this...but I just can't. On Friday, I received my Aluratek Cinepal multimedia player. After charging it and loading up a few jdorama episodes, it was ready to go for my daughter's Saturday morning swim class. I expected it to do "OK." It did a lot better than that. It blew my expectations away. For my first viewing, I used the earbuds that are included in the box. They are rather uncomfortable, but so are most packaged earbuds. The sound still came through nicely. There was no fuzziness, even when I had to turn the volume up to overcome a very loud swim instructor. Acceptable but not preferable.
The video, however, was beautiful. Absolutely no artifacting or slowness at all. It even handled the subtitles well. My one complaint here is that it auto-plays the next video if you have more than one uploaded. I had the first and second episodes of Tsuki no Koibito ready to go. Once the first episode ended, the second immediately started. I would prefer to make that selection on my own. But that really is a minor complaint that is more of a preference anyway.
Today, I used the device's speakers to listen to the second episode. They aren't anything amazing but they are adequate. No fuzziness or tinniness or anything distracting. Just don't expect to be amazed by them. However, I would suggest using the speakers over the earbuds. The speakers sound better and it will eliminate the uncomfortableness of the earbuds.
I can't believe how awesome this 8.9" media player is. It doesn't play video games, like an iPad, but it will play mp3s, be an eReader, and be a photo album. If you're looking to pick one up, I got mine at Newegg. Hopefully you will be as happy as I am.
No more snow please!
Today was a snow-filled day. It started shortly before I left for Zumba class, which made the drive slow-going. By the time the hour-long class ended, a good inch or two had fallen. Then my daughter had her first swim class for Level 5. Luckily, the roads were cleared by the time we had to leave. But the snow was still falling. It slowed a little as we walked into class but it was back in full force on our way out. In all, I think we got three or four inches. (I'm terrible at guesstimating that sort of stuff.) At least I don't have anywhere to go tomorrow. I'll be spending the day doing laundry, snuggling with my daughter, and trying to stay away from Googling things like North Carolina health insurance. Whatever I end up doing, I want the snow to stay away!
I love horseback riding
As you all know, I've been exercising a lot recently. I've been looking for ways to keep it interesting since I get bored fairly easily. When I was younger, I adored horseback riding. I thought about picking it up again, but I'm not sure when I'd find time to do it. I do spend a lot of time drooling over riding boots and outfits. Now if only there were another 24 hours each day for me to do the stuff I want to do instead of the stuff I have to do. More riding and less working!
Favorite Friday
My daughter was sick today so she stayed home from school. I spent most of the day watching the "We Are SMAP" 2010 concert with her. This is the dance Nakai performed in honor of Michael Jackson. Unfortunately, the dance was not included in its appropriate spot on the DVD. He uses some of Michael's songs and the copyright holders wouldn't give permission to include it. If you have the DVD, you can see the dance with different music in the bonus features. But it's just not the same.
My innate gifting ability
Why is it that I find the best gifts for people after the holidays? First there were some rare NASCAR collectibles at the farmer's market that my father would love. Then I found some christmas gifts at Personal Creations that my mother or my aunt would adore. (They totally need the snowman water glasses.) Needless to say, I purchased a few of these goodies already. They will sit in my attic until next year. Maybe I'll be lucky and I'll have my Christmas shopping done by February!