As of last night, I’ve started using the iPhone again, both to continue reading the most recent book club book, as well as to listen to music as I walk around, or am waiting for things to happen. This is the iPhone that, as I have mentioned several times, is pretty severely broken. I hadn’t thought of it in this way before, but you might say that it’s past its prime.

I was told recently by one of my supervisors that there have recently been a few rumors floating about concerining a version of the newest iPhone hardware for VerizonWireless, and I almost immediately said (paraphrased slightly), “I don’t actually think it’ll happen, as Apple has had three hardware generations’ opportunity to do this, but if they do, I might have to be the first in line to get one.”

It was odd, thinking about getting another iPhone. My supervisor then asked  why I’d do that, especially as I’m very strongly on the record as having switched to a Windows Mobile handset, and being interested in Android-based handsets.

Part of what would make a new generation of the iPhone significant, for me, is the possibility that I could have the incredible ease of use, fantastic Internet browser, fantastic calendar and contacts applications, along with the fantastic music playing application, in a larger form factor (hypothetically) along with some multitasking that would let Pandora or other background-suitable apps like an SSH client or IM application continue to run in the background.

… Anyway, it occurs to me that not only is my specific iPhone a little bit physically damaged, but that the first generation, EDGE iPhones in general are old. They can run the current iPhone software, but for how long? An interesting thing about which to think, as soon as I get over the fact that the TouchPro2 is extremely unlikely to ever run Windows Phone 7, even with the help of the homebrew community.

March 31, 2010 | No Comments »

Weekend

This past weekend was fairly slow. On Saturday, I worked all day as I am indeed wont to do, and rearranged the office a bit. We replaced the “countertop” at the window with a higher surface that will also sit flush with the windowsill, preventing us from dropping things behind the check-in counter. Additionally, the PC in the back of the office gained a second monitor, and became a nicer place to sit when you need to be in the rear of the office.

Sunday was a little bit more relaxed. I spent most of it working on the assignment for my business law course, as well as spending most of my day watching a Buffy marathon. Season 2 of Buffy is about to expire on Hulu, and I basically had a free day, what with my waiting most of the day for Glenn to wake up, as he had made some arrangements with me to go grocery shopping.

I waited until about 4:30 p.m. at which point Megan sent me a message, asking me if I was hungry. Naturally, having been on pyridostigmine, I was at that point where I was getting some hunger pangs. So we agreed on it, went to Taco Bell & McDonald’s and then made our trip to Basha’s where we picked up some food-like supplies for my room.

Afterward, I continued working on my paper and watched a few more episodes of Buffy. So naturally I forgot to post anything.

Monday consisted of the usual stuff, two hours of work, some classes (one of which I’ll admit I didn’t attend, in favor of finding some food) and, after spending a few minutes on the phone with Megan, another segment of my Buffy marathon, as I want to finish these next few episodes before they’re removed in a day or so.

March 29, 2010 | No Comments »

Uncool Morning

I usually love the morning time, it’s my opportunity to be very aware of the transition from being asleep to being awake, and it typically consists of three phases. Phase One is where I was sleeping, and then am awakened by an alarm clock, use the restroom and weigh myself if necessary, and then lay back down for another 20 to 25 minutes. Phase Two is where I get out of bed again and then take my shower and get dressed. During Phase Three, I tend to have become fully awake and am browsing the Internet and eating until it is time to head out for whatever I need to do that day.

Beginning with the part where I actually managed to get to sleep last night, this time was way different in that I never actually managed to get to sleep. My roommate never went to bed, at all, and although there were brief times where he wasn’t in the room, he and his other friend where in the room watching very loud videos on the TV until about 3 or 4 in the morning, at which point he did turn the volume down, but was still mashing buttons and had a lot of lights on. (Keep in mind that when he sleeps, he requires the room to be the perfect temperature, silent, and completely dark.)

Additionally, I haven’t had the opportunity to go shopping, and I ate the last of my oatmeal yesterday morning. So I woke up this morning to some fairly epic hunger pangs, as often happens when I’m taking pyridostigmine. So I lounged in bed fora  few more minutes, then deciding I needed to expedite the process of me leaving the room, so I started with my shower, weighed myself (222, almost back to where I was before spring break!) and then got ready to leave.

After a few delays, I headed out at like 9:07, and made my way toward McDonald’s, about a mile and a half away, got my sausage mcmuffin with cheese and some orange juice, and walked back to the office, still nearly shedding tears from the stomach pain, and then sat down next to a coworker at the lab desk, which I hate because the keyboard and mouse are always, without fail, very greasy. (So I had to grab a keyboard/mouse out of my office.)

After that, my day improved, fortunately, and I always love the opportunity to take a walk. Fortunately, as I discovered, it’s possible to make the walk from my residence hall to the McDonald’s here in town back to the office, all in about 40 minutes. However I suppose I shouldn’t try achieving this again, as I suspect I will never be able to duplicate those results.

March 27, 2010 | No Comments »

Writing about People

Sometimes I want to write about people I know in my blog. Sometimes it’s because I’ve been having a problem I want to explain or share, or because they’ve done something noteworthy or something that just made me think for an unusually long while on a single topic.

As an example, I recently wrote about some of my friends in a way that makes some of them seem like rude people. Usually when I do this, I either tag the post as private so I’m the only person able to look at it, or I leave it as a draft indefinitely, or I’ll write it on my computer and just fail to put it into my blog system. However, because my friends are such a huge part of my life, and because I’ve been having troubles writing about other things lately, it’s where my writing has been focused.

Part of what’s going on is I’ve been trying to decide how to handle the issue. In the aforementioned post that puts some of my friends in a negative light, I referred to each of my friends in the situation by a fairly generic title. My girlfriend, roommate, and “a mutual friend” were the players in that story. In previous situations, I have outright used names, sometimes without explaining  who the person is, and in certain cases, which I prefer, I can go back and forth between a person’s name, and their title in my life.

The ultimate problem, I suspect, is that I tend not to want people to know when I’m writing bad things about them, so if one of my friends reads the blog and just reads “another of my friends” they don’t know if it’s them or another person. But Susan(1) will always know that if I write Susan, I am talking about her.

This gets into whether or not I have the guts it takes to essentially publicly criticize people I think deserve it, and let them know it’s them I’m criticizing. Sometimes I can, and sometimes I just want to talk about the issue at hand, not necessarily the people. Almost more importantly than my own guts, however, is what other people think of being written about on the Internet.

Different types of people handle this in different ways. Some of the folks whose blogs I’ve read on the BlagoTubes are running blogs documenting their lives as parents, which is fantastic, I think, and those people choose either to refer to their family and commonly-used friends by codenames, and make any graphics on the blog illustrations. Some people write about everybody in their lives in terms of their true names, and post lots of actual photos of the family and close friends. Technology bloggers I read tend to do it similarly, most of them have revealed at least their own real names, (except for the Macalope, except I believe his actual name is somewhere on the page) — Except that technology bloggers typically have less reason to discuss people in a negative light on their blog. I’ve never heard John Gruber say anything negative about any member of his family, although because he writes about technology, most of the writing about his family involves his wife’s use of iCal or his son’s use of an iPod Touch.

There are a lot of things I could do, and unfortunately I suspect I’m going to continue working the way I have been, where in situations that I talk about people in a positive light, I will use their names, because I like explaining that my friends are awesome. On the other hand, there are some situations I feel like I need to explain in writing, but I don’t necessarily want to incriminate my friends. With my recent decision to work on writing something daily, I suppose the players in my life will be very apparent at some point.

(1) I don’t actually know a Susan.

March 26, 2010 | No Comments »

Signed Up for Classes

Today, I went ahead and signed up for my classes. I made the decision that because I’ll have a different living and scheduling situation next semester, I’m going to be fine with having fifteen units. The person with whom I had spoken at the advising center the other day seemed to be under the impression that it was really necessary for me to take fifteen units each semester until graduation, however I’m certain that I can get away with 9 or 12 units each semester from here on out until I graduate, which I still want to be in another two years. Megan had mentioned something about having money taken from me by the school, which I think is true for me whether I take classes during the semesters and just work over the summer, or I take a lot of summer and winter classes in order to chop off the last semester from my schedule.

Anyway, here’s what I ended up with, it’s very similar to what I’d planned, admittedly:

  • CIS320 “Operating Systems & Hardware”
  • CIS330 “Data Integrated Development of Business Applications”
  • CIS360 “Management Information Systems”
  • MGT301 “Production & Operations Management”
  • PHI105 “Introduction to Ethics” (This is the only one that’s not in the business building)

I am fairly excited for it, and am hoping that I can do 15 units and 30 hours of work. I suspect it’ll be fine, especially as I don’t have any classes (or work, yet) at 8 a.m. at all, although I may pick up a few 8 a.m. shifts because they’re easy and I can usually do a little bit of reading or writing or whatever.

March 25, 2010 | No Comments »
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