Stuff in the refrigerator

Now that we've looked at the stuff in my living room, let's wander over into the kitchen and check out the fridge.

1. Grapes: There's some other fruit in there as well (peaches, strawberries, and some pineapple). But I like the grapes, especially the seedless ones. You can just keep popping them into your mouth, one after the other after the other. Before you know it, you've eaten way more than you should have. My rating: A+
2. Milk: Combined with some chocolate chip cookies, this is my ideal after-dinner treat. Oh, and it's useful for coffee and cereal. But, really, it's all about combining it with cookies. My rating: A
3. Diet Dr. Pepper: Of all the different sodas I've tried, this is the one that tastes least like diet soda. This, of course, is important as some diet soda ends up tasting horrible reminding you that you've opted for lower calories over good taste. It also happens to be my favorite mixer with certain alcohol. My rating: A
4. Salad: I don't usually eat all that healthy. I mean, I try to. I want to. However, I happen to like the way certain foods -- usually the ones that are not good for you at all -- taste. I do like salad though, particularly simple just a simple combo of tomatoes, lettuce, and radishes. My rating: B+
5. Southern Comfort: I haven't drank Southern Comfort straight up since college, and it was the leading cause of some of my stupider decisions. I do like to, occasionally, mix it with the aforementioned Diet Dr. Pepper into a very tasty adult beverage. My rating: A+

Things on my living room floor...

To continue with the theme of "Stuff in Steve's Apartment", I'm now going to survey items found in my living room. To qualify, they must in some way or another, be in contact with the floor (which, by the way, is a nice hardwood floor that just cries out for you to slide on when wearing socks).

1. Kramer electric guitar: I don't know the model number, as it was a gift from a friend when he was moving out of his ex-girlfriend's place. He didn't know how to play it very well, so he handed it off to me; not that I'm really any better at it. I know some scales, and a bunch of chords though. And I can play a mean "Bad to the Bone" and "Creeping Death". Yes, I know the songs aren't related to each other, but my musical tastes are all over the place. Rating: B+ (has an electrical fault in one of the pickups, so the sounds fades at times)

2. Yamaha FG720SL acoustic guitar: Got this one as a Christmas present. Originally a left-handed guitar, I restrung it as a right-handed guitar. I'm sure that's against some rule in the guitarist's rule book. On this I usually just exercise my knowledge of chords, and play "Horse with No Name" and/or "Wish You Were Here". I'm sure my neighbors are sick to death of those songs by now. Rating: A+

3. Peavey TKO 80 amplifier: Something else that my neighbors must really love. I try to keep the output level low. Really, I do. My daughter occasionally will play with the dials when I'm not paying attention though, and then, at some point, later I'll turn it on and it's reverb and distortion city. Rating: B+ (don't use it enough to get a higher rating)

4. La-z-boy Couch: I love this thing. The end seats recline. It's very comfortable, and I can fit on it when I lay on it and stretch out. Rating: A+

5. Dell PowerEdge 400SC: This is my web server, mail server, and FTP server. It runs Linux (an older version of Fedora actually) and a whole bunch of custom-build packages and programs. It's the outlet for my inner computer geek. Rating: A

Unlike with the stuff on my bookshelf, I didn't move these items in anyway before reviewing them -- some were too big (the couch) and others, well, moving them would have made writing this entry difficult (the Linux server).

Later in the week, I'll be reviewing stuff in my rerigerator. (I actually have to go food shopping first, as there's nothing to review at the moment.)

Stuff on my bookshelf

I'm picking 5 things off my living room bookshelf (ok, so they're already picked off the shelf ... I did do some footwork before I started to type this). Let's give them a quick review, shall we?

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: This isn't my book. Honest. My daughter loves it. She talks about it constantly, in that way that only ten years can. At her school's book fair last week, she bought the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book. She hasn't done anything with it, but she sure keeps talking about it. My rating: n/a. Daughter's rating: A+

2. The Light Fantastic: The first Terry Pratchett book I bought, because I had read a review of it in an old Dragon magazine. Yes, I'm that much of a geek -- no need to talk any further about it. Very funny book, as just about everyone who I've ever lent it to will insist. Skewers that highfalootin' fantasy genre, which can get a bit full of itself at times. My rating: A+

3. Another Fine Myth/Myth Conceptions 2-in1 (Myth 2-in-1): Another book I bought based off of a review I read in Dragon magazine. Yes, yes, I know. Geek. Anyway, very good stuff here, very ... uh, punny. Re-read it last year after the author, Robert Asprin, passed away. My rating: A

4. Colloquial Russian: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series): An odd selection off the shelf. I was, at one time or another, a linguistics major in college. I picked up all sorts of language books -- German, Latin, Russian, Danish, Old English, even Sanskrit. Eventually, I wandered over into the world of computer science, where my fascination with languages continued on with books on Java, Python, C, C++, and Perl. Once a linguaphile, always a linguaphile. My rating: B+

5. The Path Into Darkness: Hey, the Web wouldn't be all about shameless self-promotion, if I didn't mention this book. Yes, I wrote it. I also have a hardcover copy of it on the shelf, but since I'm only doing quick reviews on 5 items, I choose the paperback version. I like it. Hell, if I didn't like it, I wouldn't have finished writing it, re-reading it, and editing it. It's self-published, which I know some people dislike, but there's a very good reason for that -- but I'm not goind to tell y'all what that is. My rating: A-. (Ha! You expected me to give myself an A+, didn't you? C'mon, fess up...)

Well, there you go ... 5 items off the shelf, reviewed, and then they'll be going back onto the shelf a few minutes after I click on the "Publish Post" button.

Stay tuned for another riveting chapter in "Stuff In Steve's Apartment" continues...