i needed to go to the post office to mail off the latest norwegian-bound package for frances. i was going to do it yesterday but the stormy aftermath made it difficult. i thought about taking the bike, but the roads are still a slushy mess, and on the nicer streets the bike lanes are hidden in the snow banks. i decided to walk down to the post office instead, the safer option. fortunately the box wasn't very heavy.
besides the package, i also sent my california grandmother a custom dvd with chinese breathing exercise videos (my father gave them to me to burn onto a disc). hope she knows what to do with it or at least get someone to help her.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
walking back, i took as many bicycle photos as i could. for some reason the area around the porter square T entrance is full of really nice bikes. i'm guessing they belong to local residents commuting into the city to work and then returning to their bikes in the evening.
 |
 |
 |
despite the cold, the sky was clear and the sun was out. it gave me a chance to admire some of the architecture in the agassiz area of cambridge.
while waiting for the client to upload the latest content onto the server, i went back outside and dug out two parking spots in front of my house. i did it mainly for the exercise, since there's no other reason why i needed to do it because i don't even own a car. hopefully my gesture of kindness will be appreciated by whoever parks there later.
i went on a little electronic shopping spree today. first, i saw a great deal for a lenovo wireless multimedia remote with keyboard. it retails for $65, but a $40 discount coupon cuts the price down to $25 with free shipping. you can't tell by looking at it, but it's actually very small; the keyboard is about the same size as a flip-cellphone keyboard. i got it figuring my parents might use it; they already have a wireless keyboard/mouse setup (for their HDTV-attached PC), but the full-sized keyboard is unwieldy. having both the keyboard and mouse in one thing seems like a more elegant solution.
later my father contacted me. a week ago, i sent him a link to a deal for a garmin nüvi 295W, which is essentially a handheld gps with wifi capabilities. it's a stripped down version of the garmin gps nüvifone, which word on the street says it wasn't a big a hit as garmin thought it'd be (especially since most smartphones can do gps); the 295W is essentially the nüvifone without the phone. 
that may also explain the sudden price cut, down to just $80 from an original price of $280. my father has been recently obsessed with portable gps navigation for walking around the city (particularly new york city). he'd been playing around with a deactivated nokia smartphone (a gift from our relative when my parents visited china last year), filling it with street maps, taking it with him wherever he went. i didn't think he was interested in the 295W because he never said anything about it, but a week later he finally checked his e-mail and said he wanted to get one. the advantage of the garmin over the nokia is that the garmin is a dedicated gps, while the nokia is more of a phone with a gps add-on. but i've read some very bad reviews for the 295W: people either love it or call it a POS. even those who love it readily admit some imperfections: short battery life, weak speakers, twitchy gps/wifi reception, slow internet access. regardless, my father still wanted it so i ended up ordering one for him.
it seems the only times i eat well is when i go to my parents' place for dinner on the weekends. the rest of the week, i'm foraging for food, eating whatever that comes along, regardless of nutritional value. for lunch today i had two slices of wheat bread and some leftover cold cuts my roommate left behind along with some hot jasmine green tea. sometime in the afternoon i had some pretzels and a glass of orange juice, then a banana in the early evening. for dinner, 2 tea eggs, an expired can of cream corn, and some coffee ice cream. i really need to do a grocery run tomorrow (but first i have to figure out what i want to make).
edwige fenech: she's my new infatuation. a maltese-sicilian french actress, she starred in european giallo and erotic films during the 60's, 70's, and 80's. it's a surprise i never heard of her until now, but there are legions of fans online, especially anyone who enjoys exploitation films of our bygone eras (like i do). i'm making up for lost time with a crash course in her filmography: i'm currently watching grazie...nonna (1975 italian film retitled loverboy in english), with the case of the bloody iris (italian 1972) waiting in the wing.