To think the holidays are suppose to be about rushing to the mall, waiting in line forever, and having joyful arguments with family members you haven’t seen in months, well this year nature decided to make it even more uncomfortable by showering the midwest with plenty of cold weather. I don’t know what I enjoyed more, early frost on my windshield, or the torrent of ice and rain that left me without power for eleven hours! About the only two things that worked for me last Tuesday was my F-150 pickup and my iPhone. I used the truck to get some food and the iPhone to call MidAmerica and let them know our power was still out. The lesson learned is that you should always speak with a live operator when calling the power company, otherwise they will assume that the truck they sent out an hour ago fixed the problem, and you will still be sitting in the dark without power. It could have been much worse though. There was no wind at all during the storm and when you have at least a half an inch of ice on trees, any slight breeze is a catastrophe waiting to happen.
Author: Francisco
Huhot Mongolian Grill
One of the better places in Coralville, Iowa to eat lunch is Huhot Mongolian Grill. I often go there during the work week to do an early lunch. For less than $15 (that’s including a drink and tip) you can have multiple servings of make your own mongolian style dishes and have them cook them for you on their huge grill. Personally I prefer early weekday lunches because there is less of a crowd. On the weekends and during dinner hours the place is often packed and so you find yourself waiting in line for about ten minutes at the grill.
I personally recommend the following ingredients: Chicken, your favorite noodles, a good helping of bamboo, pineapple, onions, and celery. For the sauce use five spoonfuls of the yellow curry, on spoonful of garlic chili, and half a spoonful or ginger. This makes for a good combination of flavor and heat. If you have a sweet tooth after all those servings, they have some tasty desserts. For minuses, do not order the soup; it is a tad watered down and not very memorable.
Overall, HuHot is a good place for lunch, and is one of the few places where the food is pretty healthy for you.
8GB iPod Nano Review
This summer I was looking forward to spending a lot more time with my iPod, but as luck would have it, my 3G iPod decided to die a premature death and I ended up having to replace it. From all the choices available, I narrowed it down to a 30GB iPod or the sleeker and smaller iPod Nano. In June I dropped by the local BestBuy and picked up the 8GB Black iPod Nano and began my summer travels. Now after two trips to Maryland and several airports later I can detail just how great Apple’s iPod Nano really is. Note that on September 5th, 2007, Apple will most likely release new iPods.
An MP3 Player That Works
The first thing you notice about the Nano is that it just works. The controls are smoother than first generation iPods and there is not any annoying hard drive noise because it uses flash memory instead. Songs load immediately and volume levels are more than adequate. The iPod interface is now more than just neat, it is almost second nature and you can navigate easily through more than 1500 song titles. Battery life is excellent. I ended up not needing to recharge it at all during a two day trip to the east coast. The most annoying factor about plane travel is that they always ask you to turn off your iPod at takeoff and landings.
The Small Screen
The only feature that the Nano has missing is video playback. The small screen is not at all adequate for video and so the Nano lacks the video playback features of its bigger iPod cousins. You can however view photos from your iPhoto collection. The iPod will also display album art, which I must admit I spend time setting up in iTunes, just so I could see album thumbnails on my Nano.
Accessories
Not being a fan of earbuds, I spent some money on some inexpensive Sony headphones. However, most people will end up considering a case for their iPod. While the choices are vast when it comes to iPod cases, I ended up getting a ToughSkin. This particular case bulks up the iPod Nano’s rather thin design, but for the added protection it can’t be beat. I did not really care for the included belt clip attachment, so if you absolutely don’t need it, I would not recommend attaching it.
Overall
Apple really has an excellent MP3 player in the Nano. Over the years I have owned countless portable devices and the Nano beats them all hands down. I’m sure somewhere a Sony Walkman is dying a slow death. Since I don’t usually carry a cell phone the Nano even helped me out when I got stuck at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. The handy address book is all I needed to give my brother a call and have him pick me up. Without the Nano I would have been stranded.