My friend and I have had some cool discussions over the last few days about our iTunes libraries. Both of us have have been collecting CDs since our high school days in the mid 90’s. As a result, our iTunes libraries are 5,000+ songs.

Today my friend asked about my top 10 played songs on iTunes. I looked it up and was a little surprised. So, here they are:

A few things to note:

1. It’s obvious that Depeche Mode is my favorite band and I love their super old music. I don’t particularly like the song Boys Say Go. So how did it end up on this list? Here’s how…
2. The live Depeche Mode songs are from a live concert in the early 80’s. The recordings were released on several different European CDs that had blue, green, yellow, and red album covers. When I imported them into iTunes, I assigned those songs to a made up album (Colors – Live) so I could easily find them. It’s one of my favorite “albums” and gets played a ton. The best song on that album - – Secret Garden – just missed the top 10 with 20 plays.
3. Right below this top 10, you’ll see a lot of Depeche Mode, Coldplay, Cake, Weezer, and Ben Folds.
4. Those aren’t my favorite Coldplay or Franz Ferdinand songs.  I’m not sure why those are played more than the other songs on the albums.
5. The results are from my work PC. I bet the results would be different on my MacBook Pro that I share with my wife at home and use to sync my iPods and iPhone. I sense another top 10 in the future…

Rule 2: Don’t Forget Your Debts

Debt: the necessary evil of modern life. We take out loans for education, for cars, and homes. Some people even have tons of unsecured debt. Some people can handle the debt and some can’t. A manly man knows how to manage his debt. A manly man honors his debt.

I have a few acquaintances that failed to manage or honor their debt. One family racked up tons of credit card debt. At the height of the housing bubble, they sold their house to cash out. They took the money and blew it on new cars and frivolous spending. Then a few years later there were broke and bankrupt. Now they can barely qualify to lease a home. They didn’t know how to manage their debt.

Another friend of mine bought a house at the peak of the housing bubble. He had no problem making the payments. However, after the bubble burst he was upside down on his mortgage (house was worth much less than he owed). His solution? A strategic default. He walked away from his house even though he could make the payments. He did not honor his debt.

I strive to manage and honor my debts. It’s the manly way. Last week we made our last car payment, and now our mortgage is the only debt we have. We bought a home near the peak of the bubble in 2006. I’m upside down on my mortgage (not by as much as some of our friends). It’s not a great feeling knowing our house isn’t worth what we owe, but my wife and I love our home and neighborhood. We know that if we stick with it, we’ll be back on top in a few years.

This is part two (of four) of my thoughts about Genghis Khan’s four laws. Part one can be read here.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, the wife and I enjoyed a few days alone in Vegas. We did the fancy dinner and stayed at a fancy hotel. The last piece of the puzzle: a Vegas show with the wife.

Before I booked tickets, we got advice from our friends and family about what shows to see. It came down to three choices: Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, or the Phantom. We’ve already seen the Blue Man Group, so they were eliminated from contention. That left Cirque and Phantom. After watching the trailers for the many Cirque shows and checking ticket prices, we decided on the Phantom.

Phantom was the manly choice. The Vegas version is condensed into 95 minutes: long enough to appease the wife and short enough for my manly attention span. It had the cool special effects (the chandelier particularly) and all the recognizable hit songs. Plus, the Phantom does some cool stunts and he kills somebody.

My wife loved the whole experience. She got to dress up in her nice black dress, wear some new jewelry, and enjoy a nice dinner after the show. I tried to impress her by putting on a nice pair of slacks with my best dress shirt and shoes. (I may not have been the best looking/dressed guy there, but at least I outclassed the jack-hole in front of us that was wearing jeans and a Red Sox hat.)

In then end my wife has thrilled and I was more than satisfied with the show. It was the perfect cornerstone to the Manly Dad (and wife) Vegas trip.

Image source: phantomelasvegas.com

My wife needed a break from the kids. Ever since our first boy was born 4.5 years ago, we haven’t had a single day alone. Thanks to some scheduling for work, I planned a quick getaway to Las Vegas. We dropped our boys off with my parents and headed for Vegas.

Since it would probably be a few years before we can do this again, I knew I had to make the most of it. So I booked two nights at the newest resort & casino: The Aria. It did not disappoint.

The casino had a different feel than the others in Vegas. Something was noticeably missing: a theme. My wife and I joked that its theme is that it has no theme. There were no pirates, pyramids, Romans, or knights. There were no fake volcanoes, towers, or canals. The Aria was just dark contemporary casino. Very sleek. Very modern. We loved it, but probably because we don’t like the noise and gaudiness of the other casinos.

The hotel room was great. The entire room was controlled by a single touchscreen remote control. Need to open the drapes to see the Vegas strip? There’s a button for that. Need to dim the lights by the bed? There’s a button for that. Want to order a pay-per-movie? There’s a button for that, but don’t touch it because the movies cost $12.99.

The bathroom was amazing. Honestly, this is why I chose The Aria. It had a huge walk-in shower and a huge soaker tub. No need to say more about that…it wouldn’t be manly.

If we go to Vegas again (and we probably will at some point), we would consider going back to The Aria.

It was bound to happen sometime. My wife and I both struggle with cavities, so it was only a matter of time before our oldest son got his first cavity. Well, today he had to get his filling. Somehow my wife declared it was my job to take him in for his first filling.

Not fun. They gave him some nitrous oxide to relax him. Then they numbed his mouth and started the drilling. Two assistants had to hold him down. He cried and screamed. Then he yelled at the dentist, “You’re killing me!”  (Nice manly reaction, I think.)

The hard part was over in less than 10 minutes. Now he has a silver “space tooth” (he loves space) that he gets to proudly display next week at preschool for the letter T show-and-tell.

Yep. You read that right. $13.50 for 7Up. I was ripped off. Here’s how it happened:

The wife and I enjoyed a few days alone in Las Vegas las week. We stayed at the Aria, the newest resort/casino. Wanting to impress my wife with a fancy dinner, I made reservations at Jean-Georges Steakhouse. It did not disappoint. I had a killer filet mignon and my wife enjoyed perfect soup and salad (she’s not much of a meat eater). Since I don’t drink, I ordered a 7Up. It came in a small glass that was 3/4 full of ice. It still tasted good, and I quickly downed it. The server offered me another and I finished that during my meal. I had one final glass of 7Up after the I finished my steak. In total, I had 3 glasses of 7Up (and my wife had one).

Then the bill came. Four glasses of 7Up at $4.50 each. I drank $13.50 of 7Up. Apparently, free refills on soda is only for high end establishments like McDonalds, Subway, and Applebees.

At least the steak was worth the $38 price tag.

8 years. I knew this day would come. My trusty PC officially died on Monday February 1, 2010. A lot changed in those 8 years: RAM upgrade, hard drive upgrade, DVD burner upgrade, one complete reformatting and reinstall, one new controller board, and a new power supply. We accomplished a lot together: school projects, a CPA review course, numerous fantasy baseball drafts, work projects, a little web design, and tons of web surfing.

Sadly, a rogue spyware program took my PC down. I tried to save it, but I just couldn’t safely remove the program. I was able to grab my important files before my PC sipped its last bit of electricity.

Yes, I could reformat and reinstall Windows. But I won’t. It was my PC’s time to die. Reinstalling Windows XP would be an insult to my PC’s legacy. It’s time for it rest in peace. Who knows…maybe he’ll be reincarnated as a Linux box in a few years.

Good bye, PC.  You will be missed.

My son was playing a game on my iPhone right before bedtime the other night. I loved the way the iPhone lit up his face and I wanted to capture that. I used my programmed setting, but the camera was trying to make up for the lack of light. It opened the apture all the way, bumped up the ISO to 1600, and slowed down the shutter speed. The end result was a grainy, overexposed, slightly blurry photo.

I messed around with the settings a little by trying out Aperture Priority (AP) and Shutter Priority (SP) modes. The AP mode didn’t work out the way I wanted. SP mode came very close to what I wanted – - it’s the photo above.

Feeling confident with what I was doing, I turned the camera over to full manual. I adjusted the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed to what I thought would make a good exposure. The result was a clean photo, but it was just a tad underexposed. At least I was working in the right direction. Before I could make the necessary adjustments, my son quit playing the game and wanted to go to bed.

This was my first real attempt at going complete manual mode. It did didn’t turn out exactly like I envisioned in my head, but at least I’m learning how all the settings work together.

After watching District 9 and Mongol, I owed my wife a solid chick flick. I made sure the movie at the top of our queue was The Proposal. I like Sandra Bullock, so I was OK with watching the movie. Plus, I had my iPhone handy just in case the movie got boring. However, I never had to break out the phone to keep me occupied.

The movie was good. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it. Sure it was predictable like all chick flicks, but it was still funny. More importantly, my wife loved it. And that’s what I needed. Now I can add some more manly movies to the queue.

This is part one (of four) in my attempt to explain why I think Genghis Khan’s four laws are manly and should be followed. These are lessons I want my sons to learn.

Rule 1: Don’t kill women or children

That’s a pretty simple law, and I’m sure Genghis meant that literally.  His men were warriors; so, he had to establish his army’s code of conduct. (Let’s just overlook that fact that he wiped several civilizations off the face of earth…that was just how he rolled.)  But how does this law apply to us, the modern man? Of course, there’s the “don’t kill” part of the law. If you don’t follow that one, you go to prison. Everyone gets that.

I believe a real man takes it one step farther. A real man loves his wife and children. A real man respects and listens to his wife and makes decisions with her. A real man teaches and disciplines (with love) his children. A real man protects his family from harm or danger.

Those aren’t novel ideas. It boggles my mind how many guys don’t live up to those simple standards. Hell, just look at the slimeballs we elect to office: Sanford, Spitzer, Ensign, Edwards, Clinton…and those are just the ones I can name off the top of my head. I could probably come up with similar lists of sports stars, celebrities, preachers, and businessmen if I really wanted to.

Please, be a man. Don’t kill women and children.