I did it.  I simply could not take it anymore.  It sang its siren song until I crashed my boat on the rocks.  What is "it" you may ask?  If there is one fundamental truth in life, its that men love electronic gadgets.  Its in our blood.  Ever since man discovered electricity, we adore things powered by it.  T.V.'s, stereos, MP3 players, video game systems, cell phones and even computers.  

So, what is "IT".  It is a computer.  A beautiful, glorious computer with an Intel Core i7 processor running at 3.0 GHZ with its 64bit awesomeness.  You may say to yourself, "Nick, that is cool, but its really just a fancy-smancy quad core, its not THAT awesome".  I beg to differ.  Due to its hyper-threading goodness, it essentially is a fancy-smancy eight core processor.  And with its glorious 64bitness, I will no longer be shackled by a mere 2 or 3 GB (let's face it, Windows XP does good to utilize 3GB). How much memory does it have you ask?  4 gig?  4 gig is for peasants.  6 gig? Nay! A whopping, 9GB of memory is at my disposable.  It will truly be an amazing machine.

So, now that I'm done with my nay-ing and what not, my new system will come equipped with Windows 7.  duh-duh-daaaaaaa.  (That was dramatic music.)  I keep hearing that Windows 7 is a lot better than Vista and that it "seems" faster than Vista.  I say it "seems" because everyone says exactly that.  There are simply no numbers out there that indicate a huge performance jump from Vista.  However, I am optimistic because I am making the leap from Windows XP 32bit SP3 to Windows 7 64bit.  

Well, I should be getting my computer in a couple of weeks.  I'm going to do one of those lame unboxing pictures, as well as an overview of my impressions and any new cool features I think you might want to know.  Its going to be a long couple of weeks.

Whew! Christmas is finally over.  Despite my best effort in destressing my Christmas preparation, it completely kicked my butt.  I was doing fine on Christmas Eve, which just consisted of visiting my family and even though it was late getting back, I still felt okay.  I think what put me over the top was hosting my girlfriend's family for Christmas dinner.  And you might ask, "Nick, did you have to cook and prepare all the food and stuff?" And the answer is no.  I didn't do much beyond picking up a few things from the living room.  Not really sure what my problem was.... maybe Christmas stuff is my kryptonite.  Regardless, I'm back in top form today, playing some video games and watching television... oh and updating my blog of course.  I hope everyone got what they wanted and gave somebody something they wanted as well.  The next big question is, do I host a New Year's Eve soiree?  

Christmas is nearly upon us and thinking about Christmases past, specifically how much they stressed me out.  The pressure of getting everyone what they want and shopping for the gift, which by the way, has got to be the worst part of the holiday season. It seems that everyone forgets their manners and straps their AK-47's on when out holiday shopping.  Since I'm a big fan of lists here on my blog, I thought I would share some of the things that have helped me destressify (definition: removing stress) Christmas. 

1. Save for the Holidays - Before the Holidays!  This may seem obvious, but in my experience very few people do this.  My recommended way of saving is to take a small amount of money out of my checking account every week and place into my Christmas savings account.  There are several ways of doing this, through your local bank as a Christmas Club account or my favorite way is a weekly deduction into a high interest savings account.  (Yes, I realize that now high interest is an oxy moron, but still.)
2. Reduce the size of your Christmas List  Again, this may seem obvious but people tend to buy people gifts for acquaintances or friends in general.   Let me make this easy, if you buy something for a friend there are only a few possible outcomes: you get them something they didn't want and they end up disappointed, you buy them something awesome and they get you something lame and you end up disappointed or lastly you get them something and they didn't get you anything and you end up disappointed.  Yes, yes I know its the thought that counts and all that jazz, but we are human beings after all.  So the best possible outcome is that someone gets disappointed.  Furthermore, you end up just swapping money with a friend anyways, so wouldn't it be better to just go out and have a holiday meal together where you can hang out and have fun?  The answer is yes.  Okay. Just in case you got it wrong.  So, personally what I like to do is to buy for my immediately family and my brother's family and if I'm involved with someone, they get a present as well.  (I'm not completely heartless.)  Its a good manageable size and its easy for me to save the money, see item 1, for my little group.
3. Gift Cars are your Friend  Okay, ladies, we're going to have a heart to heart here.  I know, you all hate buying a gift card for someone.  Its too "impersonal".  However, guess what?  Its quite the opposite.  So let me give you a little example here.  As I get older, which happens at an astonishing rate, the things I want, happen to be more expensive than I would want ANYONE to spend on me.  So one year, I asked everyone to buy me Best Buy gift cards.  This accomplished two goals, one, it helped destressify everyone who was buying for me and two, I was able to buy a Sirius satellite radio with all my collective gift cards, which was exactly what I wanted.  No returns required, no stress and everyone was happy.  So before you spend time trying to find that perfect sweater vest for your nephew/brother/boyfriend/man type person in your life, just give him a gift card, I'm sure he'll appreciate it.  Oh, and guys, if you are buying for a girl, buy them a gift card unless they have specifically requested something from you.  (Man Note:  If you have a girlfriend/wife/significant other this strategy will NOT work and will result in you being miserable well into the new year.  They will require you to work to buy them a gift that is meaningful and what not. Girls are uber-complicated.) (Woman Note: You shouldn't have read the Man Note.)
4. The Interweb to the Rescue!  Guess what?  Businesses sell stuff on the internet!  Wha...?!?!  Yes, its true.  And furthermore, I think it might be catching on.  (Note:  If you don't understand sarcasm, you will be relieved to hear that yes, I realize that there has been e-commerce on the internet for some time now.)  So before you spend weeks, searching the stores for that awesome thing that a store has continually just sold out of, look for it on the internet.  Yes, it may cost more, but it may also cost less depending on where you live.  I can hear you saying already, "Buy Nick, there are shipping charges and I refuse to pay for those."  However, there is no difference between you driving around a busy town all day, wasting gasoline that cost upwards for 3 dollars (here in Kentucky at least), when you can pay the 5 or 6 bucks for shipping to your house.  Furthermore, most places offer free shipping on items that are above a certain price range and places like Amazon.com even offer free two shipping for Prime members.  So, this year, er next year, stay at home and buy everyone on your list a nice gift on the internets.

Well, there it is.  My short list on how to destressify your life during the holidays.  Happy Holidays to you and yours.

In my continual mission to be awesome, yet frugal.  I present my dual 22 inch monitor LCD monitors and monitor stand.  I found the monitor stand for only 40 bucks on the world's best website, Amazon.com.  You'll also note, I left the side of my computer off for added affect or is it effect?, whichever.  Feel free to be jealous and/or leave comments about how jealous you are.  

This is the third installment of "What I'm listening to, right now" and I'm having better luck updating that previous attempts at blogging.  However, does it ever seem the music industry has lulls in awesome music?  It seems that way to me and ask Socrates said "Perception is reality".  Well maybe it wasn't Socrates, but someone smart probably said that.

1)  Come On - Green River Ordinance
  I think this group falls into the Pop Rox category, which is my term for rock music with a very pop feel.  It has a very catchy chorus and I think its cool thier name has been mentioned in an Andy Griffith episode.  Points to anyone who knows which one..
2) Hallelujah - Kate Voegele
  Yeah, well I like it.  So there.  The song has been done to death, but I like her version.
3) Meet Me Halfway - Black Eyed Peas
  I haven't much liked anything BEP has released as of late, but this song features a lot of Fergie which is probably why I like it. 
4)  All The Right Moves - OneRepublic
  I have always liked OneRepublic, but it seems with their new album they have taken a turn for the worse.  Don't get me wrong its a good song, but no where the caliber of their other songs and definitely not in the same vein.
5)  Back Again - Parachute
  I gotta admit, I discovered this song while playing Band Hero.  I admit I like the Guitar Hero games.  I mean its either that or air guitar, so I stick with Guitar Hero.  I believe this song also falls into the Pop Rox category.

Anyways, that was a very lack luster list in my opinion but maybe you'll enjoy more than I do.  Oh, something new I'm trying is an Amazon widget (seen below) that the songs I've talked about here.  And yes, I will get a kickback if you happen to buy them, but I'm mainly looking for an easy to to share the songs on my site.  We'll give it a go and see how it shakes out.

I believe this year has to be one of the best and biggest hauls I've ever had for Black Friday, without ever leaving the comfort of my home.  (I refuse to leave my home on Black Friday for any reason besides the house burning down around me, just to give you an idea about the complete hate I have of Black Friday.  However, I thoroughly enjoy the online deals.)  The deals I got were as follows (in least awesome deal, to most awesome deal:

1. V-Moda Headphones  Regular Price 22 bucks and some change, Black Friday Price: 15.85
2. Staples Desk Chair Regular Price 99.99, Black Friday Price: 69.99 and 30 dollar mail in rebate
3. Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard, Regular Price 79.99, Black Friday Price: 19.99  Booyah!
4. Assassin's Creed  for PS3  Regular Price 17.32, Black Friday Price: ZERO point ZERO  By some miracle, the game was supposed to cost me 9.99, however because I love Amazon.com so much, they decided to give it to me for... on the house!  And I hear you say, "But Nick, you had to pay for shipping! Its not that awesome of a deal".  I am an Amazon Prime member, which gives me the awesome benefit of paying ZERO point ZERO for anything that Amazon fulfills.  And it gets even more better (yes, I know that's bad English, but I don't care), Amazon has a trade in video game program.  The current trade in value for Assassin's Creed, you ask?  12.50.  That's right.  I'm going to end up 12.50 in the green by "buying" a video game.  Thank you, thank you.  (I'm thanking everyone for their spontaneous applause that had to erupt after reading that.) 

I hope your Black Friday excursions yielded equally awesome treasures.  Feel free to tell me about them!