Regan Norton

The new year started off with a bang in 2006. In truth, the bang came a day early. On the 30th I was hit from behind while sitting at a red light. The offending driver was visibly drunk and the police arrived almost instantly to take him away. Fortunately there was no damage to my car and, more importantly, no one was hurt. The event was so unexpected and shocking that it drove home the speed with which things can change. Clearly I was not involved in any unusual event - accidents such as mine happen every day, multiple times per day.

This event signaled a time to step back and appreciate the moments that are too often taken for granted. My accident was not a big deal at all, but it could have just as easily turned out to be life threatening, as it was recently for my close childhood friend, Sam Riney. Please keep this good person in your thoughts.

So, after I crossed paths with the inattentive driver I chose to stay in for New Year’s, and it turned out to be a great time. I ate some delicious food, drank some bubbly wine and thought about the many ways that I would like to make life better in 2006. Stay tuned to see some of these positive changes unfold before your very eyes.

The hurried nature of life over the last few months has prevented me from continually updating y’all on the reclamation of my life (who says irony is dead?). So, I’m going to wrap-up this “series” of posts once and for all. Although I thought I was getting into the groove of taking pretty good care of myself the holidays were bad in that I saw the pictures taken of me and I was saddened at the widening of my face, the protruding stomach, etc. I do not believe in new year’s resolutions - if you’re going to do, just do it™. Therefor it is a complete coincidence that the new year is going to mark a revamped lifestyle for me concerning eating and self-care. Stay tuned for progress reports.

Cursing the tastiness of chocolate desserts aside, the holidays were boatloads of fun. I hung out with plenty of fun, nice people, recieved some great gifts, made some merriment and got to generally relax and let things be for a while. There are some big changes coming up for me, so any chance to sit back and simply exist is welcomed right now.

What was your favorite part of your holiday?

I cannot abide another post-less day on this journal. Like most people, I have been too busy for leisurely pusuits such as writing. Today, however, will be different. I am taking a few minutes out of my day for some Regan time. After leaving college and entering the world of gainful employment the number of breaks, vacations and “mental health days” decreases dramatically. The last Thursday in November is one of those great exceptions to this rule. For the next four days there will be no working - just great food, great friends and great family.

Never fear, there is more reclaiming my life journaling to be done, but I thought I would seize this opportunity to do a blanket life update. Truth be told, there is only one item of real note that has happened this month. Last weekend my relationship status was upgraded from boyfriend to fiance. To say that I am excited doesn’t begin to describe my feelings. In a few ( or 8 ) short months I will be married to a spectacular woman who has made my life wonderful. For now I am simply basking in the fact that she agreed to marry me, but soon planning madness will begin. Stay tuned, and have a great Thanksgiving…

Life spiraled control over the last couple of weeks. Work got pretty busy. There was much to be done with the festival. Regardless of how lame the excuses are, the house fell apart, diets were poor, hygiene was spotty, you get the idea. The only good thing about times like those are how good it feels to start putting things back in their rightful places again. The first, and most vital, step was laundry. A mountain of clothes were cleaned (see illustration below). Next up I’ll give a little TLC to the car. Stay tuned…

Based on the wise advice of my mother we decided to remove the skirt on our garage-sale bargain sofa (a wonderful find made possible by the wisdom of another mother). I wish I had been smart enough to take a “before” picture, but it was not to be. So what you get is an after picture.

To imagine the before, just picture a green skirt going down to the floor. Removing the skirt gave the sofa a much more contemporary look. Now we just need some fun new legs.

Most of my friends know that I am a Macintosh user. I am by no means a zealot - at the end of the day I couldn’t care less about what flavor operating system or computer I am using. For the most part, although it’s a big part of my work and play life, I just loathe staring into a screen. I do, however, really enjoy the simplicity that Apple has achieved with the OS X operating system. I relish connecting my digital camera and importing photos into iPhoto, playing my music collection from iTunes, using iCal and address book, and whatever other “i” applications I use on a daily basis. They are super-intuitive, fun to use and look great.

I also have an iPod (thanks to Higgs) but I am not iPod crazy. It just doesn’t work with my lifestyle, but it is super cool when it does get used. My boss just got a Nano and it is really nifty to play with, but again, I can’t see using it a lot. For lots of people they are a major part of day-to-day life, and I can easily see the appeal. Yesterday Apple updated its iPod line to include new models that not only store and play music and photos, but also video. This confounds me as so many people have lusted after this functionality for quite some time, but I do not see any use for this at all. Outside of a flight I just don’t see when anyone will be able to take advantage of this. Nobody is going to “gather ’round the iPod” to watch Lost or a U2 video.

This post is not a critique of the new iPod though. I actually want to talk about the red-headed stepchild of Apple’s newest product offerings - the new iMac. I use an iMac g5 (obviously not the one announced on October 12, 2005) at work and I like it very much. It is beautifully designed, more than speedy enough and has all of the inputs and outputs I can use. With the new iteration of the iMac family Apple has taken a step toward integrating its personal computer line with its iPod “personal media” line - arguably Apple’s economic savior. When I sit around and dream of a device that integrates my media interests into one device (sad as that may be) I imagine a music and video storage device that plays movies, surfs the web, output’s 5.1 channel sound, allows me to use instant messenger, etc. With the Front Row software and an integrated remote control the new iMacs have taken a big step toward being that device.

However, in true Apple fashion, they fall short. There are a couple of key items missing from the new iMacs that would have likely positioned them as front runners in a race to replace a host of media equipment in my house. The missing features are a television tuner and a 5.1 optical output jack. Even at only a 20 inch screen size it would be phenomenal to hang one of these flat panel iMacs on the living room wall and have it serve as jukebox, television, DVD player, slideshow, easy iPod dock, so on and so-forth. My uber-geek side is showing, but I can’t be the only person whose life would be so much more fun with an all-in-one device like this. Instead we again get a device that I just don’t see being too useful once you get over the initial neat-o factor.

Wintel machines are already breaking into the media hub game with Windows Media Center Edition and PCs that are fully capable of all of the dreams I have listed above. Apple has the ability to champion this market with much more class and style. If they choose to continually do things half way, though, I don’t see a bright future. Apple is dominant in the personal media player industry and I feel they are missing a big opportunity to integrate that market share with the home computer/home media market. Many people feel that Apple is in the fast lane toward dissolving its personal computer line and focusing solely on iPods. I for one hope this is not the case, but the baby steps they are taking make me think that it is not too far out of the realm of possibility.

Getting smooth has been very popular in our house lately. We are holding on to the last little remnants of summer by blending up any fresh, tropical produce that is still available at the grocery. Ordinarily the smoothies consist of bananas, peaches, and mangos. However, on the night pictured here a newcomer, papaya, was substituted for peaches. Papaya is a beautiful, unusual fruit:

With the fruit, yogurt and honey in there it looks good enough to eat already. However, blending it up will make it ten times better:

The finished product:

That’s tasty & nutritious snacking! It is really fun to hack up your own fruit and blend it all together. While there is still a little summer in the air I suggest you make up some cool, fruity smoothies of your own.