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Ya, go ahead and laugh iPod fans, but my Zune 2 kicks ass!  It was hard to find this baby, since all the Best Buy’s around here and Napa/Vallejo area were all sold out, but I purchased the last one in Colma today.  It’s everything everyone’s been raving about and the 80 GB version is out-of-stock at most places.  I’ve only had a couple of hours with it, but I’m very happy I waited for the 2nd gen Zune vs. selling out to the iPod hype!  Check out the pics by clicking on the image below.  I’ve also included some Zune links for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about.

http://www.zunescene.com/comparison/

http://www.zune.net

Amazon.com Zune 2 Reviews

So Melanie gave me my Christmas gift early this year.  I got the Xbox 360 Rock Band game to fulfill my need to become a Rock Star drummer!  I’ve been playing it since Friday and is this game AWESOME!

The game is great, but the equipment is horrible quality.  I already have RMA’s in for my drum-set and guitar.  What really sucks is I could still play my drum-set, even though it would miss some hits, but tonight I was using the kick pedal and it cracked in half.  Now my addiction will have to wait for 3-5 days.  Check out the pics by clicking on the picture below.

So I put up our Christmas lights this weekend, they came out pretty good with my after-season lawn deer and seal I purchase on clearance at Target last year.

As you can tell, I haven’t posted in a while, mostly because I’m crazy busy at work!  So for now check out the pictures I took tonight by clicking on the image below.

Melanie and I got back from Hawaii last weekend, it’s been so crazy at work (I worked a 31 hour day the first day back), but I’ve finally been able to get the pictures up this weekend.

We went out for my cousin Roger’s and his wife Amy’s wedding and visted with my close friend’s the Nakamura’s in Oahu for 4 days, then we went to Kauai for 6 days.   Jared, Colleen, and their beautiful daughter Jolie (Jo Jo) flew out from Mon – Wed, and Rad was there for Monday and Tuesday.  It was very much needed vacation and it was so awesome meeting Jo Jo, plus a great trip all-around.

Below are pictures you can click on to see our Hawaii picture, enjoy…

 Roger and Amy’s Wedding

 Our Picture’s In Oahu and Kauai

At the beach with the Yoli and Tim after the wedding

Pictures of Jolie (Jo Jo) Nakamura

So it was my close friend Skip’s 40th birthday this weekend.  It was a surprise party for him at his mom’s place in Cazadero, CA on her 48 acres of property.  When Skip walked out, he had his new look, which he started on the annual Jacks on the River camping trip this year.  Jacks on the River got together again and it was such a blast!  Check out the before and after pics, click on the first picture of Skip for pictures of the party this weekend and below that is Skip’s “before” picture when we went our camping trip end of July.

Moved into my new cube yesterday, it’s pretty cool.  Check out the pics by clicking on the image below.

One of my fellow Zazzler’s and friend Andy is having a baby the end of the month, so one of our ZUI engineer’s and my boss Eric had to help Andy test the new baby wrap garment.  Check out these pics by clicking on the image below, they’re very funny!

I was at GameStop this weekend and low and behold I saw one of my favorite games I use to play on the Playstation 1 for the PSP, which was PaRappaTheRapper.  Of course I couldn’t resist and I had to pick it up.  For you Dance Revolution/Guitar Hero fan’s, you should check this game out, it was one of the first of the coordination/rythm games and I’m having a blast playing it again.

The new stuff is they’ve included remixed levels you can download, for level 1 there were 4 new versions, I still have to download the other levels.  Also there’s a game sharing mode for the first level even if your friend’s don’t own the game.

I highly recommend the purchase, don’t expect killer graphics, just fun game play and you’ll get to see how good your rythm really is…  Like all my other blogs, click on the pic below if you want to see some other shots.

So for high-priced items, I tend to purchase Best Buy extended warranties.  For the past couple of months my Gateway 21″ LCD has been getting darker and darker.  I took it into Best Buy for them to look at over a month ago and was informed this week that they were junking my LCD monitor and giving me a replacement.

 Today I got my BEAUTIFUL replacement.  It cost me an addition $50, plus the new warranty I had to purchase, but my new LCD is INCREDIBLE!!!  They just got these bad boys in, the 28″ Hanns-G HG281D and it displays at 1920 x 1200, check out the specs at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254026 

I was originally going to upgrade to the LG 24″, but they just got these in and I decided to roll the dice, since I couldn’t pass up an additional 4″.  I’m glad I went with the Hanns-g and I am one happy camper and totally recommend the Hanns-G brand.  Below is a pic of my new LCD on my desk, click on the pic if you want to see more pictures.  BTW, that’s a 17″ LCD next to it on the left, so you can get an idea of how big it is 🙂

After 2 weeks in manfacuring, I head to headquarter’s and walla!  Cube’s have appeared with really cool Zazzle art from all our contributors.  I took some pictures of the cool new cubes in the QA area.  I’ve never seen cubes this cool!  Our CEO had all the perforated dividers silk-screened with images for our Zazzle contributor gallery.  It’s pretty cool when walking around Zazzle, it’s like an art gallery.  Below is a pic of my cube, click on it to check out the rest of the cubes in the QA area.

So I have a bunch of mini-blogs I want to write and here it is…

 Napa Valley Castle or it’s real name the “Castello di Amorosa”

If you’re ever in the Napa Valley there’s a new tourist site in town which you should check out.  It’s a castle Sattui built in the Napa Valley.  I went there with Melanie, my mom, and cousins and it’s pretty cool.  Check out the pictures on flickr, below is a pic of the castle front and the URL if you want to visit.

http://www.napavalleycastle.com/

And click on the castle picture below to see our flickr pics of the castle.

My new toy…  Melanie and I had our 5 year anniversary this year, man how time flies.  Anyways, she got me a really cool toy for my present, it’s the new Motorola Razr 2.  Ya people are getting tired of the Razr, but I think the new design is pretty cool and made well.  It’s made of Stainless steel and has 2 really cool video screens, plus I no longer have big brick in my pocket (the Treo 650).  I’ve added more pictures on our flickr site, but here’s one pic of my cool new phone and you can see all of them by clicking on the picture.

Oh ya, I should mention I created a new “wish list” gadget page which also lists the gadgets I’ve acquired, check it out at:

 http://paulandmelanie.wordpress.com/toys/

And my last mini-blog for the day is that I spotted a US “Smart” Car in the parking lot at Fry’s the other day, check out the pics on flickr by clicking on the picture below.