Cervelo P2C
The bike, she is finished. Well, mostly. I need to chop down the seatpost a bit so I can make it fit me properly. But other than that, yeah. It's done. And I am very pleased by this.
I will be following this post in the near future with a full review, as well as a HOWTO article on moving cables through a carbon frame.
Review: iPhone 3G
I bought a 16-gig White iPhone 3G the Tuesday following their release, and while I was initially wowed by it, the glow has started to wear off, and I'm thinking I have something approaching a lemon.
While I am impressed with the concept, the execution has left me cold, both from a hardware and software standpoint.
From the hardware side, my only complaint thus far is in regards to the cracking issue (more here). I'm infuriated. You'd think that Apple would have learned its lesson after the debacle with the G4 Cube systems. But no. Now I'm stuck with an iPhone that's going to look progressively more and more shitty as time goes on because someone at Apple either decided that using a cheaper plastic was acceptable, or that they could skip the QA process.
On the software side, I have a laundry list of complaints. Those are:
- When purchasing from the iTunes store directly to the iPhone, I would frequently lose the song from both the iPhone and iTunes when trying to sync the purchases. I think (but am not 100% sure) that this is due to trying to do the sync while the iPhone is backing itself up.
- Oh, and here's another one -- why in the name of Christ do I need to sit through a tedious, time-consuming backup every time I dock my iPhone? There ought to be a setting in the config that lets me select my own backup interval, rather than be stuck with someone's "good idea" as to what constitutes "back up often".
- Dear god, has Apple's coding really gotten so bad that the keyboard lags? Because I, and many others, are seeing that. I even experienced it last night while trying to dial a phone number from the keypad.
- This thing loses its connection constantly and I mean constantly. I can be walking through the middle of the parking lot at work, and about half the time I have five bars, and the other half I have "No Service".
Now, let me state explicitly that I have treated this phone with kid gloves -- with what I paid for this phone, I'm treating it with kid gloves and am not going to do anything to put it in harm's way.
So. This was my first iPhone and it might very well be my last. What I expected from Apple would be what I've historically gotten from them -- rock-solid hardware and software that performs well and is aesthetically pleasing. With what I've received, in the case of the iPhone 3G, I'm so beyond disappointed that it's not even funny.
(Pictures of the cracking in my case to follow.)
Career Option
Back in the day, after Dot-Com Bubble 1.0 burst and left me living in my parents' basement, I went through a period of despair while looking for jobs and started to consider alternate lines of work. I would list things like "helicopter pilot (army)" and then list the pros and cons. As desperation set in, the list became more and more outlandish. After viewing the following video, I cannot believe I never considered the option of "Official Team Mascot", because this shit is hilarious:
On the Use of Language
To know me is to know that I have exceptional skills when it comes to profanity. I credit two organizations -- my parents and the U.S. Army.
When I was young, perhaps 9 or so, my father and stepmother informed me that profanity was okay by them. And I took to it like a hungry lion to a lamed gazelle. In short, I devoured that motherfucker. (See?) All through my elementary and middle school years, I was so far ahead of the curve on the profanity use and abuse, that I shamed my classmates for their woefully inadequate attempts to express frustration, anger, and all other variety of emotion. By the time high school rolled around, I had exhausted all the possibilities and varieties of fuck, shit, damn, and so on. The art had grown boring, and others were catching up.
And then the Army rolled around and profanity transcended the expletive and became an adjective, adverb, and all-around modifier of every word in a sentence.
And it became a hard habit to break. Oh, I can keep it under control at the office, for example. But when I'm around friends and family, when I'm relaxed, the profanity, it just spills out of my mouth.
Just this last week, I met my girlfriend's father for the second time, and her mom for the first, and I swore a blue streak without realizing I was doing it. And these aren't people I want to offend, and I don't want them to think of me as being one-dimensional, a typical schmuck.
I'm in love with their daughter and I hope to show them that I hold her in the highest regard, that I respect her and care about her, and that I'm a decent human being that always tries to do what is right, and is worthy of her affections.
So fearing that I've already started off on the wrong foot, I am looking to correct that. Quickly. There's more to it than the girlfriend thing -- this is something I want to do for me. Someone once said something to the effect that anyone who has to resort to profanity to express themselves is illiterate.
As a wannabe-writer, I've been thinking about that the past few days, and it's sinking home.
Does this mean I'm going to start sounding like Ned Flanders when I talk? Hardly. I'll leave you with a quote from Mark Twain, who said,
Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.
Items from the Intarweebs
Seth Godin's got a good piece on two easy-to-start web businesses. If I ever need to start freelancing on the side again, I'll probably do one or the other.
Need a good Tour de France fix? Cyclingnews should be your first stop.
ABCNews, in its commitment to journalist excellence, provides us with the Animal Kingdom's Odd Couples. Okay, so it's not earth-shattering news, but it's good for a serious "awwwwww" response.
And here's a great piece on Sign-Up Form Design from the folks at Smashing Magazine.
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Mmmm. Thunderstorm. [fontosaurus]
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I'm at 3M Center- Building 225 (3M Center, Building 225, St. Paul). [fontosaurus]
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Checked in at 3M Center- Building 225
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Willing to bet money that we sign LaDainian Tomlinson today. #Vikings [fontosaurus]
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At my first NBA game. [fontosaurus]
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T-wolves/Nuggets (@ Target Center w/ 11 others) [fontosaurus]
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Checked in at Target Center
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Wants Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
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Kickin it in the bar. (@ The Westin Minneapolis) http://4sq.com/91urJg [fontosaurus]
