So I went to Atlanta two weeks ago and as a foreigner I have seen Atlanta plenty of times (the airport that is). I have never gone to Atlanta for the fun of it except for one time visiting the Coca Cola museum.

Anyway, I had a list of things that I wanted to do in Atlanta and I have formatted this list to make it easier for you:

• visit Apple store.

As you can see I spend a lot of time making up this extensive list!

So we decided to leave at 10 in the morning and packed 2 cars with people and were on our way around 10:30ish or so. I was the chauffeur for car number 2, after winning with RockPaperScissors against another chauffeur contender, and drove that car for the remainder of the day (and night)

Our first stop was the Bass Pro Shop. I am a man and so I had to act excited about this huge manly store stuffed with manliness. Really I could care less about fishing, boats, camo and hunting for that matter. As a foreigner I (thankfully) missed the whole redneck stage but before you get angry I can see why it’s cool to hunt/shoot animals. Anyway my manly adrenaline soon was gone after walking into the store. It was replaced with another manly adrenaline which is called hunger.....luckily I was not desperate enough to try the fried catfish (blah). So after looking at all these manly equipment we decided to move on to our next target.

Our next target was called “The Cheesecake Factory” (good solution to fight hunger). While on our way there I looked up the address for the Apple store on my Blackberry (which I want to replace with an iPhone) and discovered something interesting. I found out that both the cheesecake factory and Apple were in the same mall (Perimeter Mall) so I could ease my mind while partaking of some delicious lunch.

The Cheesecake factory was great. I hate to give out ratings so I wont.....but if I was forced to it would be a good 8/10 stars. The waiter was excellent and did a great job of supplying me with a stream of Pibb Xtra (I always drink a lot while eating...like a lot a lot). Funny side story: I was wearing my Dr. Pepper shirt and asked for that first while pointing at my shirt but they didn’t have it since they were a Coca Cola place. I like Mr. Pibb the best but Coca Cola changed it to Pibb Xtra adding a little bit of cinnamon and cherry flavor to it. RIP Mr. Pibb. But really I could go either way with Dr. Pepper and Pibb Xtra. I try to stay away from soda/pops as much as possible but I don’t mind it once in a while. I have never been a straight up pepsi/coca cola drinker but don’t mind Dr. Pepper, Pibb Xtra, Mountain Dew or Sunkist. So anyway the cheesecake factory...I had a pork BBQ sandwich and afterwards split an oreo cheesecake with a friend. It was some good food..especially compared to the pizza slice at the Braves game that night which was somewhat good.

Anyway after stuffing ourselves with food we decided to hit the mall which includes the infamous Apple store. We hit a sport store first and I almost bought another UNC cap but they didn’t have my size (Yes someone ruined by current UNC cap). I also like to buy an NBA jersey on of these days. Not sure which one thought. Maybe if Detroit is in the finals I might pick one up. Right now I would actually want to buy a Holland shirt (van Nistelrooy). Anyway next stop: Apple store

Now just to give you a little background: I have been a Mac user for 3 years now and I am a fanboy! I love everything that Apple does and I don’t care if I am under Steve Job’s dictatorship.....I mean it’s actually a blessing to follow and do everything that he tells me to do including buying all his products ;-). I have also worked for 1.5 years at an Authorized reseller/service provider so I am deep into the Apple culture. But I have never been to an Apple store and so I really needed the experience to enlighten me even more in the ways of Apple.

So anyway I walked into the store and it was an instant cloud 9 for me. They had at least three of each product set up in the store and the first thing I really wanted to play with was the Macbook Air. I have seen and touched it before but not in an elaborate fashion. So I checked out the MBA and the only good thing going for it is its size. Everything else is not a positive thing. In my mind the only way I would ever buy a Macbook Air is if it has a bigger HDD (which there is a 160GB iPod) and if it were cheaper. I would consider buying one if it were $1500 with a 160GB hard drive. But I don’t have that money at this point and right now it is $1800 with only 80GB of space. The second thing I did was played with the iPhones. I have played with the iPhone before so there was nothing new. But somehow it never grows old which I am sure it will if you were actually an owner. I have determined that I don’t like my blackberry and I will actually save some money switching to AT&T so it’s worth considering since a lower bill each month will help out, especially when I’m back in school (yes I will have to justify the iPhone purchase somehow ;-)). After that I did want to buy a couple of accessories because I am in the Apple store so I decided to pick up a Nike+ sport kit for my iPod Nano and a remote control for my Macbook. I recommend everybody buying the nike+ ipod sport kit if you own a nano and run! You don’t have to buy the special Nike+ shoes because you can just order a little pouch that you can tie to any shoe through your laces! So anyway I have tested it out once and it’s awesome! After you run you can sync it with the website online and it keeps track of all kinds of data including mileage, calories, times etc. And you can see a nice graph of how you did compared to your last runs.

After picking up the two aforementioned items a lady came up to me and asked if I wanted to check out...I said yes and she came with a little wireless card swiper (I recommend it for Church) and we processed my credit card right on the spot where I was standing. Of course I wanted a bag with my purchase or else it wouldn’t be a complete Apple store run. Overall it was a good experience and a lot of helpful people there to accommodate all the shoppers. Obviously I don’t have to tell you how smart it was for Apple to build brick and mortar stores besides their slick online website!

After that the boys and girls split up. The boys wanted to go to the Braves game to watch the batting practice. The girls wanted to go to Ikea. Well you can guess what I decided to do....yes I went to Ikea with the girls. I love Ikea. Ikeas are all over Europe (no duh it’s Swedish) and so I felt at home when going through it. Everything is set up just like the European store and even the products were all the same. Not sure about the price differences but it was nice to look at all the stuff and have an idea of how not to design the interior of your house :P. Of course sitting on some of those comfy chairs was very nice. We kind of had to rush out at the end since we didn’t want to miss too much of the ball-game that we paid for.

So getting to the stadium was.....painful. But we did make it and only missed the first two innings and we did order some good tickets earlier that day in the Apple store :P. I couldn’t care less about baseball but it was fun to cheer for the Braves even though they lost by one point. That night we drove back and I got home at 2 in the morning. I was tired....but still made it on time to Sunday School the next day :P. Good times in Atlanta and I definitely wouldn’t mind to go back again and visit the Apple store :P (Although Charlotte is a lot closer so I might have to make a trip up there first).

Tagz: Atlanta, Apple, fun

I haven't posted here for a while so I am going to summarize some of the things that are going on in my life.

1. I am still single. w00t!
2. I love my new place. w00t!
3. I am taking 1 summer-school class (Math in the second session, I am not allowed to do anything the first session)
4. I will be back for sure in the Fall to finish up my 23 credits in one year at BJU! (w00t)
5. I am still loving life.
6. I am slowly learning how to cook, do laundry and pay my bills at the same time while listening to music and clearing out the dish washer.
7. Bachelor's life is still not overrated as opposed to married life ;-).

Tagz: fun

Now I was thinking about this the other night. And what I'm about to reveal to you is not rocket science nor is it a new revelation that I had. I just straightened out some of these ideas in my head and now I am going to jot them down for you.

Now this is no secret and girls are well aware of this fact. And this simple fact is is that girls rule. And what do girls rule? Pretty much everything because they have control over "the men". The reason why they have control over us is because we cannot survive without girls (you can't live with them, and you can't shoot them). Guys simply need girls. Girls are beautiful, sophisticated and (highly) emotional beings that just blow our simple logical minds away. There is no easy logic to explain girls and their mysterious ways away. (see how I even in this blog post have to score some brownie points). So girls know that we can't live without them and they will use that to their advantage. They WILL manipulate you! And you will do anything to get their attention. Even without them asking we hold the doors for them, we carry their trays, we carry their heavy loads, we pay for them on dates, we scoot their chairs, we basically treat them like queens because we know we can't survive without them.

Girls also control over who they want to go out with. we are the ones that have to ask the girls. All they have to do is say yes or no (how easy is that?). If we want to go out with a certain girl that doesn't mean we actually get to do so because we have to ask their permission first.....girls just say yes to whoever they want to and don't have to ask anybody for permission (and yes girls can manipulate the situation so that they will get asked out by the guy so don't come with the sob story that you have to wait for the guy to actually call you).

So why don't girls need guys? A girl can go for weeks without thinking about a guy. I think it's because girls have this sorta clique behaviour among themselves. A girl and her "girls" will hug each other, kiss each other (on the cheek), shop together, paint toe nails together, massage each other, give each other gifts, compliment each other, swap clothes, talk on the phone for hours with each other etc. Now who needs a guy if you can have all that + a bowl of ice cream? See the only things we guys do together is watch a movie, eat and burp. Now that is not a lot of love so we need girls and their love.

Now do I want guys to start those cliques? NO, please don't. I think we guys don't have a lot of options here. We can either try to ignore girls by playing video games, drive our fast cars or talk about sports (notice that those three activities don't attract a lot of girls and so you don't "need" girls to engage in those activities) OR we can admit that girls rule and guys drool. I have accepted the fact that I need girls and so I too am subject of being a sucker (if you will)at times and do whatever needs to be done to keep them happy (yes even changing flat tires is one of my jobs). But it's not all that bad because the reward of doing these things is spending time with these mysterious and wonderful and beautiful creations that make me smile and feel loved :)

note: This entry may or may not be based on actual facts or on long extensive research and data. Also this entry may or may not be written by an educated expert with several social psychology degrees. And as a last note this may or may not be taken seriously.

ps. But you know it's true!

Tagz: life, fun

Well not really but I am here in Gainsville, GA up in a cabin with my family. It’s great cause my Dad and my Sister are here from Holland and this is the first time in many many years that all my siblings are together. We are here till Tuesday and this cabin is great. There are some big TV’s in here, a hot tub on the deck, a grill, a lake and wifi. What more can you ask for but to relax on the couch with my ibook + wifi relaxing with your family ;)?

Tagz: family, fun