OMGOMGOMG!!!

I'm going to PAX!!!

C's birtday kabobs

We did kabobs for Celeste's birthday. They turned out absolutely fantastic. After the meat and veggies, I made pineapple skewers with vanilla lime sugar glaze, served warm off the fire with ice cream. Yum!

Breakfast!

3G

I don't have it. Fort Collins for the most part seems to have AT&T's 3G coverage, but I've got worse than none at my house. Why worse than none? It's just enough to register, but not enough to make intelligible phone calls. Luckily, you can shut off the 3G if you don't need it, and since I've got wifi for connecting from home or work, the standard EDGE connection is fine, and had plenty of signal at home.

Yay, iPhone!

So, I finally got one. And I have to say, it's pretty slick. I've been a Windows Mobile user from before Windows Mobile, before Pocket PC, when the only MS option in the mobile space was Windows CE. So this is a bit of a change for me. But I think I can safely say that it was worth it (from a usability point, let's not discuss monetary). The mobile browser continues to be the best web experience you'll find outside of one of those tiny laptops, and for 90% of what I do on a daily basis, it works. The easy synchronization with my work's exchange server, plus gmail, all right there on the device. SMS prices still bother me, but since they're practically a necessary evil, the SMS app works well and the IM like conversation tree is intuitive. In fact, the phone itself is intuitive to use. I wish some of the apps were a little more polished, Bookshelf especially, as reading eBooks is my primary non-phone use for this thing. But all the other little things it does, it does well, in a very slick fashion.

I will say this. Having to pay for a song in iTunes, then pay for it again to make it into a ringtone, is absolutely rediculous, especially if you already legally own the song from another source. My ringtone isn't a free public concert, it's a way for me to know I've got a call. Heck, my current ringtone is a midi from one of my all time favorite games (Tie Fighter) converted into an MP3 and then converted into whatever format Apple uses for ringtones. There are ways around the silliness, but that doesn't make the situation any less silly. I'm ok with artists getting paid for their work. But I don't see how making a ringtone isn't fair use.

My iPhone has shipped

Yay!

100 Pushups

So I found this on the Lifehacker blog the other day, and thought it would be worth a shot. The pool I've been going to is closed for renovation, and I don't want to get out of the exercise habit. If I can swim a mile, why not try doing something else I would have thought impossible, do 100 pushups? So far, I'm not doing so hot. At the end of each session, you're supposed to do as many as you can, with a minimum the program thinks you can reach. I didn't reach my minimum today. But that's ok. You can always repeat a week.

The Dark Knight

Wow. It has been one heck of a year so far for super hero movies. I've enjoyed Iron Man, Hellboy 2, and the Dark Knight so far. As far as intensity goes, The Dark Knight probably takes the cake, but I'm not sure if it's my favorite of the three (Iron Man is probably more my style). Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, go to Apple's trailer site and watch the trailer for Watchmen. I'm very, very excited about this.

Working

I usually manage to avoid working weekends, but I'm at the office today. Luckily, this shouldn't be happening too often at the new job. Using the opprotunity between test sessions to get my iTunes library cleaned up for my eventual iPhone.

A question

Nik asked this in a comment on the last post:

Why Apple? They have little or nothing to do with phone service activation. They may as well be any run of the mill 3rd party AT&T retailer.

Here's why Apple. They sell the phone in their stores, and the phone requires activation. Sure, that may not be their usual line of work, but if they're selling a product that requires activation, I expect them to know how to do it. They didn't have some sort of list published that said if you're a new customer, come here, but if there's anything at all different about your situation, you better go to an AT&T store, cause we won't have a fracking clue. I would expect the same of any third party AT&T retailer who was selling the iPhone. If it has to leave your store activated, you better know how to do it.

But I'm still getting an iPhone

I went to the AT&T store in town when they opened on Sunday. Got one ordered. No idea how long it will take for it to get here. I'm still pissed about having to do things this way after being camped out in front of the store. But that anger is mostly directed at Apple.

So I don't have an iPhone

I camped out overnight. I had prepared beforehand, gotten myself set up as able to make changes to my wife's AT&T account, so I could just add myself onto her family plan. This possibility hadn't occured to anyone at Apple. They wouldn't let me do it. The only options they gave me were to set up a new, seperate account, which then may or may not be able to be merged with J's plan, or to go get in line at an AT&T store where someone might be able to help. I waited in line all night to get told to go get in line. I drove home.

The new iPhone

So, I'm going to get one. Two things finally did me in, the built in GPS, and applications. Heading out after a work dinner to go camp for one. *sigh* I'm increasingly wondering if there's something wrong with me.

1 mile!

Took me an hour and two minutes to do 36 laps. A mile in this pool is just a hair over 35. AB wants me to swim in a 1 mile race in Horsetooth. Not sure if I wanna. That water's cold!

While I'm at it...

...here are the pictures from Janie and I's trip to Spain. One of my all time favorite vacations. Man, I need to get away again soon.

Wall-E

We were out of town opening weekend (and we went to see Wanted on Friday), so J and I didn't get to see this until last Tuesday night. Pixar just has my number man. I swear they have meetings when they're planning their stories where someone says, oh, yeah, that'll really make Scott Ledet cry like a giant, hairy girl! Or something to that effect.

Almost there

So yesterday morning, I was up to 97% of a mile. If I had realized how close I was, I'd have kept going. So look for me swimming a full mile next week.

New Flickr dump

Man, do I feel like a louse. I went to Flickr to get some prints of a trip to France J and I took back in 2002, only to realize that I had never uploaded those images. So, here they are. Or rather, here are some of them. I used to have quite a few more on my old personal web server, but it died a well deserved death recently, and like the spiteful POS it was, it may have taken some of the images with it. If I can find the rest, I'll upload them, but in the meantime, here's what I've got. J's ok with it though. As she says, we'll always have the memories.