MP3 Player Odyssey - Steps Backward, Forward, Dizziness Ensues

Ok, so I've posted my thoughts on MP3 players I'm looking at purchasing here. I ended up buying the Cowon D2 8GB flash memory player. After reading numerous reviews, message boards, and even watching a couple videos on youtube, it was pretty clear this was the right choice.

This particular brand isn't available via local retailers, so I had to buy it online. After shopping around, I found the best deal for the D2 at a site called zipzoomfly.com (referred by Cowon's own site) This is a good site with prompt, efficient service.

My player arrived when promised, and setup was a snap. The D2 doesn't come with much of a manual or documentation, but figuring out the touch screen navigation and the menus wasn't a problem. I didn't have any problems setting up Windows Media 11 to synchronize with the player either.

However, a few problems with this player popped up when I tried to use the player for the first time.

1. Not all of my video files (all in .wmv format) were able to play. Some files would play without problem. Others would play on the player at all. On other videos, the image was very jerky - a frame every other second or so.
2. The menus require to much digging to get to basic information. When using the D2, I found that it would take up to 10-12 taps (sometimes more) on the screen just to get to an album/artist/track I wanted to listen to.
3. The player would show the wrong album art for the track I was listening to. This happened regularly. Some tracks would show the wrong cover art with different wrong covers numerous times. I checked the firmware, and didn't find any fixes for this.
4. The D2 would read any of my SD cards. This was a big deal since I hoped to view pics from my digital camera on my player. While the prices of these keep going down, I'm not interested in spending another $50 or more to get something I already have and use.

So I'm returning my D2. It's a shame, since I had high hopes for it - and I'm losing 15% of my $219.99 due to a restock fee.

After trying out other players, my Odyssey had me staring at the iPod Touch 16GB - but spending $400 on that player just seems crazy for a player that will be obsolete in less than 12 months.

Last week, Microsoft released their new Zune2 series of players, but I was disappointed in these players overall. The Zune flash drive players didn't offer any compelling features or advantages I was listed in, and I want to avoid getting a hard-drive-based player due to moving parts that are susceptible to breaking.

But I came across a deal that's too good to pass up. Amazon.com has the original (read: 1 year old) Zune player for only $89. This has a 30GB HARD DRIVE (ugghh), BUT!!!!! the player was selling for $249 about 2 months ago. When I factor the $89 for the cost per GB, this is a no-brainer. Also, when I considered that Microsoft is giving free software updates to their new software for their older models - there really wasn't a reason't a reason not to do it. Actually - on reason is that the player is out of stock and won't be available for a month - but I can live that. Getting a player for this caliber for only $89 is good any way you look at it. It's almost disposable at that price.

Updates to come later...

Work Rides: GMC Acadia

My employer switches travel agencies this summer. To most people, that's not a big deal - but for someone like me who is out of town most weeks, that can lead to big changes. One casualty of the change is that we switches from Avis to National for car rentals.

I had gotten used to the free upgrades as one of Avis' top tier of renters, so it was a welcome change when my regular use of National's fleet allowed me to start getting upgrades in their frequent user program as well. The nice thing about National is that you can pick your vehicle and go - no worries about getting stuck with a make/model you don't like, and they give you a whole aisle to select from (all at the same price). Frequent users like myself get access to the "Executive Collection" aisle, and there are always a couple good choices.

With this setting in mind, I decided to take advantage of National's fleet to take somewhat of a test drive of a vehicle I have some interest in purchasing somewhere down the road when my current lease is up. Enter the GMC Acadia (and is nameplate cousins the Saturn Outlook and Buick Enclave).

I did a joint sales call with a client that had one of these, and liked it. It's slightly larger than my Nissan Pathfinder, but offers a couple nice differences

• Seating configuration: The Acadia has 3 rows and can seat up to 8. The thing I like is that the second row can be configured with 2 captain's chairs instead of a bench seat. With 4 kids, this makes it a lot easier to get the kids into the back row since we have larger car seats for the younger kids in the 2nd row.
• Handling: while the Acadia is a fairly large vehicle, it handles well. Overall feel is more like a car than a truck. My model had a rear sonar - which was a nice touch for such a large vehicle.
• Sound. Engine noise was less pronounced than on my Pathfinder. Again, this seems to be attributed to the Acadia being designed more as a car than a truck.
• Amenities. These were great. On top of Sonar and XM Satellite Radio, my Acadia also had a rear DVD system. While this served no purpose or benefit whatsover, it's a nice touch nonetheless.

While my impressions overall were good. (So much that I rented the same vehicle two weeks in a row...) There are a few drawbacks:

• Cargo area: There isn't much storage area behind the 3rd row. While several bags/suitcases could easily fit there, there's no way this vehicle could accommodate our family of 6 + luggage/gear for any vacation or even a weekend of camping. Bummer. Only the Suburban or a 16-passenger van seem to be our options...
• Price: Starts a ~$30k. Steep.
• Intangibles: I've had great success with Japanese cars (namely Nissans and Hondas) and minimal success with American ones (Chrysler, Ford) I've never owned a GM car, but I do have concerns about their reliability. This could ultimately be a deciding factor...
  

Places Work Takes Me: Wichita, KS

This was the first time work necessitated that I make the trek to Wichita, KS. While I'm witholding final judgment on this alledgely fine city, I have a few observations:

• It's not easy to get to. It's about a 10 hour drive, so flying is the best way to get there and back. The problem is there aren't a lot of options to get there in a timely manner. I ended up having to take a 9:30pm flight unless I wanted to arrive at 1:30pm at the earliest if I left during the daytime.
• It's not easy getting back. Northwest only has 2 flight options coming home: a 7:30am and a 5:15pm. Not much of a choice at all if I want to get home at a decent time to see my family, but still conduct meetings that day.
• Wichita is bigger than I thought: I was told that the city itself has a population of around 350,000, and the greater metro area of approximately 500,000. I thought is would be closer to 100,000.
• I DID know that the economy is largely based in the avionics industry. Cessna/Citation, Hawker Beechcraft, Boeing, and I'm sure there are a few I'm forgetting. Surprisingly, the houses and economy seems to be very blue-collar. Again, this isn't authoritative - just a first impression.
• It's VERY flat: you can see for miles and miles just be driving on an overpass along the highway. Granted, it is Kansas, but it is definite proof that the world IS flat.

And this is the picture out of my hotel window in Wichita. There are a few things worth pointing out from it.

• Many of those houses had more wood showing than paint on them.
• It was somewhat scary driving through these neighborhoods trying to get to my hotel at 11:30 at night. These streets had no lighting whatsoever.
• However, the hotel and parking lot DID have lots lighting.
• Why is there a 6' high WALL around the hotel? I doubt it's for aesthetics
• This reportedly wasn't a bad part of town.
• The hotel itself was very nice. Probably the nicest Hampton Inn I've ever stayed in (and I've stayed in dozens of them.)

So, I'm still wondering where to rank Wichita. If you have any thoughts or comments, be sure to post them.

Halloween 07

The first two are the best of all 4 kids together. Admittedly, none of them are perfect (the pictures - the kids most definitely ARE), but they'll do nicely




Karsten was a firefighter (again).


Kiera was a ballerina. This picture was taken out our church's halloween party. It's always a big event. They have indoor trick or treating (they decorate all the classrooms in the basement like different houses), a petting zoo, carnival-type games, cookie decorating, crafts, and hayrides (outdoors) with a team of horses. There's usually 500 or so kids, there, so there's never a dull (or quiet) moment.


This is Teagan with Nikki's cousin Jessica.

Ava for Halloween

Here's a couple Halloween pics just of Ava. She didn't make for a very good Eyore - not mopey enough. :-)

Karsten's Birthday

My best buddy turned 7 a week ago. He's growing up so fast!



His favorite gift was a wheelbarrel from Mema. He's been begging for one for years, and uses it often in the yard. The John Deere tractor is definitely a favorite though.

Here's a couple more pics from his party. He and 11 other friends went to the local gymnastics training center (Ziplines, trampolines, etc.) - and it was a huge hit! They do parties just for kids his age, and I'm glad they had experience with this...no way I could manage 12 kids for 90 mins. with all that stuff around. (as you can see in the picture below that was taken about 100 mins. into the party)

Albino Squirrels

For the last couple weeks we've been seeing an albino squirrel in our yard. This, of course, is a bit unusual, but isn't THAT rare...until we saw a second one, then a third.


So we thought it'd be a great idea, but those squirrels knew we were trying photograph them, and would have nothing of it. Several attempts to snap a pic of them resulted in the albinos scrambling in different directions before we get close enough to take said photo.


Squirrels are very sneaky, you know. :-)


But my wife is MORE sneaky - and got several snaps of them. Enjoy. (oh, and we have several more that I didn't even bother posting.)


(Jodi - knowing your history with squirrels, I expect a reply to this post, if not several of them...;-))

Expensive Trees...

I'm all about doing what I can to "save the earth," so any random passers-by to this blog should know that we didn't want to have these cut down. We had two dead oak trees in our back yard that were each 50 feet or more, and we didn't want them falling on our house - or the neighbors' - so those had to go asap. There's also a tree that the previously owner felt should be allowed to live less than 10 feet from the foundation of our house - so much that he decided to build the deck around it. Since that tree overhangs the house, we had acorns, leaves, and even a little bit of moss growing on our roof. It only made sense to drop that tree as well.


So a tree cutting service came through the neighborhood, and gave us a good quote. (At least, I thought it was a good quote - there turned out to be a big misunderstanding - so these trees cost us far more than I thought. I'd rather not discuss it, but let's just say I could buy a decent used car for what these trees.)



The guys came out and did great work - and I certianly recommend them to anyone else. Here's a few pictures of their work. Since they ended up coming out on Karsten's b-day, he got to make a special trip home for the lunch hour to come watch.

Wisconsin Dells

We spent a weekend with some friends from church at Wisconsin Dells. The kids love spending time there, and so do we. Being with our friends who feel the same way made it even better!

The resort was great. Even though it was late October, and all the outdoor pools were closed, this resort had THREE indoor water parks - easily enough stuff to keep the kids occupied and entertained for the weekend.

Here are some pics from our room. It slept 4 adults and 7 kids (yep, 'tis true) with extra room for the adults to chat after all the kids were in bed. Well, "in bed" doesn't mean our kids stayed there, but we did have some chances to chat.

We're definitely planning to go back.

A Couple of IDIOTS

yep, one of these dweebs is me. Believe it or not, this was actually at work...in front of my customers...hundreds of them.

Sweet Ride

Yeah, I know this isn't a Ferrari or Porsche, but for a rental car it's pretty good. I drive a lot of rental cars when I'm on the road, but this is one of the best I've had. It beats the plain old Malibu's, Impalas, and Tauruses that I get stuck with far too often

This is the '07 Dodge Charger I had in Omaha last week. It's all "business," with a sporty edge to it. I've driven the similar Chrysler 300, and didn't care for it nearly as much. Another big plus with this particular model - it came with Sirius Satellite Radio...always a plus.

Although it wouldn't be at the top of my list if I were shopping for a new car, it certainly would get consideration.