iPhone 4

So after some deep thinking and careful consideration, I finally purchased an iPhone. Actually, that's a line. A week ago, Apple finally sent me an email, letting me know that my position on their priority list has finally manifested into an actual working iPhone and that I had 24 hours to pick it up from the Manhattan Beach Apple Store. I subsequently dropped everything I was doing, drove up PCH, and got me my new shiny.

See:


Now, I will say that the infamous death grip is very, very real. The proximity sensor issues are also real. But at the end of the day, it's still a very, very beautiful phone.

Oakland Parking Lot Brawl

This video has been making the rounds yesterday (see Deadspin, Barstool Sports, and Cagewriter), and it's spectacular. I would recommend watching the first couple of minutes then skipping ahead to the 6:30-ish mark.

Uh. Warning. Not safe for work, or around women, or people with a normal conscience. There are many, many curse words. And the fighting. Always with the fighting.

Here's the video:

George Steinbrenner

Former Seinfeld star George Steinbrenner died today at the age of 80. Here's a story from ESPN.com.

As a Mets fan, it's a difficult thing. Steinbrenner was the ultimate villian, a hard spending, super competitive owner who literally stopped at nothing to make sure his Yankees were in contention. I actually would have loved for the Wilpon family to have a fifth of the competitiveness and intensity.

Steinbrenner is exactly the type of owner every sports fan wants, somebody who wants to win as badly as the fans, if not more. I'd love for James Dolan to be out in the blue seats at Madison Square Garden, cursing out Devil and Islander fans, the way Mark Cuban does.

On the other hand, the guy was a colossal asshole. Let's not forget that the Yankees was dismal when Steinbrenner was fully involved in the decision making during the early 90's. It was during his exile from Major League Baseball that the Yankees kept and developed Jeter, Posada, Rivera, etc. Let's also not forget that Steinbrenner was a convicted felon who tried to rig a Presidential election for Richard Nixon.

But, in death, almost all things are forgiven, and we only remember the good in people. So, God bless, Boss. Hopefully, Hank Steinbrenner is just as crazy as you were.

The Goodness in People

As a bleeding heart liberal (at least on most social topics), I love ideas like Panera's new pay what you can model store in an affulent St Louis suburb (link via the New York Times). I'm always hopeful about things like this because I'm hoping for the general goodness in humankind to win out, for people to not try and game the system for a free meal, and for people in general to subscribe to the golden rule and realize that life is a zero sum game. When you get something unfairly, that means somebody else has been wronged, even if it is a gigantic corporation.

So, I'm very happy to see, after one month of operation, the pay what you can store has been successful enough that they're opening up two more locations "within months", and the store is expected to start breaking even soon (link via Google News and the AP).

I love it. Hopefully, as I drive out to Boston, I can spare one meal to stop at this location and grab a quick lunch and check my email. I'm a big fan of Panera in general, though I do find that their sandwiches are a bit lacking, but their soups and salads are great. And the fact they're trying a relatively historically unsuccessful model for the greater good makes me want to eat there more often.

Plus they have free wireless internet, and I'll always be a big fan of any place where I can get online for free.

Free Agency

In and around the 2008 Bejing Olympics, rumors came out that some of the members of the US Men's basketball team bonded to such an extent that they pledged that they would play together. Specifically, LeBron James, Dewayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and Chris Paul all conspired to find a team where they could play on the same team, with James, Wade, and Bosh all coming over in 2010 via free agency, and Paul coming over via trade or as a 2012 free agent.

I heard this in 2008, thought it was hilarious, and dismissed it. Then the Knicks started tanking, trading away what few effective players they had for players whose contracts were expiring in 2010, and started a whisper campaign to start wooing LeBron. I still didn't really believe it since the Knicks are basically the Keystone Kops of the NBA.

But then yesterday, word leaked out that Wade and Bosh both signed with Miami. I still didn't quite believe it since Miami has tons of cap space and LeBron would probably want to be on this own team and be his own man.

And today, LeBron announced, via one hour television special on ESPN, that he would be joining Wade and Bosh in Miami. Bum, bum bummmmmmm!!!!

I am now officially a believer in the great Olympics/NBA Free Agency Conspiracy of 2008. By the way, the rumors that Chris Paul was looking to get traded out of New Orleans leaked about two weeks ago, and now I'm sure rumors are going to fly. Very, very interesting times in the NBA hot stove.

Joining the iCult

I don't think I'm a big fan of Apple. I don't really like the way they do business, I don't like the way they overprice things, and I don't like the way they have such a closed system.

By the way, I'm writing this blog post on a 2010 15" MacBook Pro, while watching a movie on my AppleTV, with my iPhone 3G plugged into my MacBook to charge, with my iPod Shuffle sitting right next to me. Also, my iPod Video is around here somewhere, and I'm on the priority list for an iPhone 4.

So yeah, I'm a hypocrite. Or at least I am for now, since I'm actively reconsidering my smartphone situation. I'm really frustrated by my current phone situation. I have an iPhone 3G running iOS4. It's exceptionally slow, there's no jailbreak for it yet, and downgrading back down to 3.1.3 is a huge pain. I've been trying to upgrade to iPhone 4, but that's impossible due to it's Wii-like supply chain issues.

The easy alternative is to move to another phone, most likely an Android phone. Unfortunately, that's not easy to do since the only phones I'd consider (HTC Droid Incredible, Motorola Droid X, Samsung Galaxy S) are on CDMA networks and/or have the same availability issues as the iPhone.

All in all, I'll probably end up with an iPhone 4. But until it actually happens, I'm going to complain about it. A lot.

///

Update at 9:15PM. I've used redsn0w to re-jailbreak my phone, and I'm much happier now. Redsn0w allows me to enable Apple's multi-tasking and home screen wallpapers in addition to the application folders, unified email inbox, and threaded emails. In fact, I haven't installed any jailbreak specific applications other than sbsettings, which is a wonderful, wonderful applications.

Come on, Apple. Give me widgets on my phone. Android does it, even though most people have no idea how to do it. It is not always 73 and sunny. It should auto update based on the GPS chip.

Anyway, I feel much better about my phone now, actually to the point where I'm no longer really antsy for the iPhone 4.

A Note About the Name

I think a little discussion about the name of this blog is in order here. Or, it's been two days, and I already don't have anything to write about. So yeah.

Anyway, the name is a reference to the various fleeting hobbies, interests, and junk that I've accumulated along the way. The typical process goes something like this:
Step 1, Zero Hour: I hear about something interesting, via blog, podcast, or good old human interaction.
Step 2, First Day: I do tons and tons of research, going so far as to ruin my ability to function as a productive human being.
Step 3, Third Day: I flirt with the idea of actually pouring some money into this endeavor. About 50% of my potential hobbies die here. Who says I'm careless with my money? I could be so very much worse.
Step 4, End of First Week: I start putting out feelers to see if anybody else I know is interested in the same topics. This usually ends badly.
Step 5: Middle of Second Week: Interest is waning. Normalcy is returning.
Step 6: End of Second Week: What was I talking about? What? Mountain biking? Really? I thought that was a good idea?

So yeah. I don't think this is anything unique to me, except for the part where I write about it online. But that's the new name of the blog. It also helps that I think that it's somewhat catchy.

Two Weeks of Intensity

I've had a personal blog for almost eleven years now. Seven of those eleven years are archived over at LiveJournal, but due to some developments, I had to make that blog a friends only experience. It's not what I wanted, but as social media becomes more and more of a professional problem, I can't be as forthright as I would like to be without knowing exactly who is reading the blog.

This is the solution to that problem. The personal blog will continue to exist in its current friends only incarnation. This blog will remain public under any circumstances. Always. Not matter what. By default, I will post to this blog, but if there's anything that might get me into any sort of trouble, personal or professional, I'll post it to the personal blog. That's it.

If you want to read the personal blog, sign up for a LJ account and friend request me. Otherwise, read this blog.

So that's it. New blog. Same me. Nothing has changed.