Interesting article on the iPad and boredom

http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2010/06/why-i-returned-my-ipad.html

I agree with some of the points on there, and I'm guilty, too.  I've mentioned to people before that I think kids are overstimulated these days.  There is not much of a concept of boredom anymore, is there?  They have constant access to tons of things, and most of them that aren't even that beneficial to you (not educational, not active, etc).  TV, internet, twitter, video games, etc.  Boredom sucks, but it also makes us search for something else, sometimes something that we wouldn't normally do.

this week

Let's recap, shall we?

Last weekend was a three day weekend, and I finally took my motorcycle in to get it inspected.  In other motorcycle news, Taylor got a helmet and jacket, so now we can go riding together [safely]!  We needed to go down to Doc's on South Congress to pickup our shirts for kickball and softball (more on that in a minute), so we took advantage of her new gear and rode my motorcycle down there.  I'm way more comfortable on my bike than a month ago, since I hadn't ridden in a few months before that.  I really need to go out and practice my u-turns.

Saturday was our company picnic at Reunion Ranch.  I'd give it a 6/10.  We got there at 10am, and shortly afterwards, Andy and I teamed up for a washers tournament.  For those who are not in the loop, washers is the game where you stand about 20 feet back, and try to throw a washer into a small hole, or at least get close to it. It's kind of like horseshoes.  We actually did really well, surprisingly, and got all the way to the final game.  Unfortunately, we lost 19-21 (SO CLOSE!), and missed out on a $100 prize.  Damn!  I also played sand volleyball, which was more fun but we were bad.  Who would have thought that there'd be some serious volleyball players there?  We had barbecue which was good, and we wrapped up the day exploring the kiddie playground, maze, and ziplines.  That place seems dangerous to me by today's standards.  They had a 15 foot rock wall at the playground for kids to climb, but if you fell, you just fell 15 feet down into packed sand.  I mean, that place would be totally fun if I were a kid.  But I saw like 18 different places where you could easily fall 10 feet and break your arm.  Nice.

Saturday night was Justin's show, followed by people hanging out at the house.  Stayed up til 3AM, and figured that was late enough for me.  Others stayed up way later.

Sunday I guess I just hung out at the house, because I can't think of what I did.

On Monday, I went to work, then left a tad bit early to take my car to the body shop to get repaired.  I had two choices for my rental: a PT Cruiser or a Chevy HHR.  In case you didn't know, those are two out of the list of maybe 10 most hideous cars.

Crappy HHR

PT Crapper

Luckily, it wasn't a hard choice because you always say no to a PT Cruiser.  B&B told me it would be about 5-7 business days, but they didn't actually do an estimate so that might change.  I might call them today if I don't hear anything by this afternoon, because I think they were supposed to keep me informed.

Tuesday, we had softball practice.  Taylor, Travis, Andy, Molly, and I met out in a field and threw the ball around, pitched, and batted.  It was fun, and I'm looking forward to our game this Thursday.

...which brings me to summer sports.  I'm playing both kickball and softball, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.  Only time will tell if that was a good idea or not.  It's going to be a hot summer, and the fields for both are way the hell south.  Our Wednesday kickball team was given the name "Urine Trouble" (get it??), and yellow shirts.  Thanks, Austin SSC.  We got to name our softball team (We Got The Runs), but they gave us pink shirts.  Man, we can't catch a break.  Our first games are this week (today is kickball in fact), so hopefully we get off to a good start.  I don't have high hopes for softball, but I just like playing.

In other, more exciting news, I preordered the iPhone 4 yesterday.  AT&T's servers were apparently not ready for the onslaught, because it took me 5 hours to be able to progress far enough into the checkout process to actually complete the order.  It was pretty ridiculous.  Who wants an iPhone 3G?

In other, less exciting news, Texas is staying in the Big 12.  Colorado left for the Pac-10, Nebraska went to the Big-10, and everyone expected us and several others to go to the Pac-10.  Instead we get an even crappier Big 12 (with only 10 teams) that has no good team in the north now that Nebraska left.  Also, because the rules state that you need at least 12 teams to do a conference championship, we will not have a conference championship game anymore.  That is both good and bad I suppose.  Now we'll probably play all 9 other teams every year, round-robin style, which might cause less problems between us and OU fighting it out to go to the bowl games.

BP spills coffee

well that was quite the thursday

My day was mostly centered around work. For various reasons, I decided to work a longer day than usual, so I got to work at 6:30am. The day went by mostly quickly, so that was good. I make it a habit to not really talk about work on here, so that's where I'll leave that. I wanted to stay until 6pm, but I could only stay until about 5:30 before I was burnt out.

During the day, we got this spicy piece of news: Colorado accepted an offer into the PAC-10. In case you aren't keeping up or haven't heard, the Big 12 conference is falling apart. The Big 10 wants Nebraska and maybe Missouri. The Pac 10 is trying to make a move on 6 other Big 12 teams: Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Colorado. Poor teams like Kansas, Baylor, Kansas State, and Iowa State are going to get left out in the cold, and will probably have to join a minor conference such as the Mountain West or something. We might hear news as soon as today about other teams accepting the bid into the Pac 10 conference. That would mean that we would be in the same conference as USC, UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, among other teams. Some good academics there, and some good football programs there, too. Speaking of USC, do you remember that whole Reggie Bush scandal from 4 years ago? Well the NCAA finally punished USC, and did they ever. USC cannot partake in postseason games for 2 years. That's right, folks. For the next two years, USC is forbidden from going to any bowl game. Serves them right for running a corrupt athletics program. Sucks for the current recruits, but they should have thought about that possibility before making a decision on a university.

I got home and messed around a little bit with FF7 and my bass. When Andy got home, I taught him some motorcycle basics for an hour. The first part is always the most stressful for a new rider, because you are trying to get used to using a manual on a motorcycle, and you're afraid of doing something that will cause you to fly or fall off. Once he got the hang of the friction zone and getting up to speed, we practiced getting your feet up on the pegs, second gear, third gear, braking, and turning. He picked it up pretty quick, but it's actually not as hard as you'd think. If you know how to ride a bicycle, you'll know how to ride a motorcycle. The only "hard" part of a motorcycle is learning the muscle memory of shifting with the left side of your body, and braking with the right side. I think he had a good time.

Lookin' good, sir!

Once done with our little training session, I got in my car and went to Taylor's. "But wait!" I thought. "I'm hungry, I should get some Wendy's!" What a mistake that turned out to be. I was in a left turn lane (no light at this intersection), waiting to turn left because of oncoming traffic. Some guy trying to turn left onto Braker apparently didn't see me, and just drove STRAIGHT INTO ME. That's right, someone drove straight into a car that wasn't moving. Apparently if your car isn't moving, it is invisible to some people. Here is a little diagram to better explain what happened. Red is me and what I wanted to do, blue is them and what they did (click for a slightly larger version).

Obviously those cars in the satellite photo are irrelevant. So I am the red box, politely waiting to make a left into Wendy's. I was debating between a Spicy Chicken Sandwich, a Grilled Chicken Sandwich, and their Bacon 'n' Blue, which was pretty good last time I had it. Before I knew it, Mr. Blue Box was pulling out of that driveway. When I first saw him, I thought he was being a dick and was just going to cut across me, even though he didn't have the right of way. Then I noticed he was cutting too close to me, instead of out in front of me. Then I noticed he was literally driving right into me. I honked, and he hit me. It was pretty marvelous.

I wasn't upset at all when it first happened, I thought it was both stupid and funny, and in fact I was laughing when I got out of my car. The other guy was throwing a really awkward temper tantrum in the middle of the road, obviously really upset at the fact that he's a complete moron. I calmed him down a bit, and we went back into the parking lot where he originated. We exchanged insurance information, and then it occurred to me that this guy could lie his ass off to the insurance company, and without witnesses, it would just be my word against his. I thought about how ridiculous it would be if the insurance companies couldn't find blame, without witnesses. How shitty would that be? I'm sitting there, waiting to make a left, and some dude drives straight into me out of no where. Then, because he could have lied to the insurance company about his story, it would be a push and my rates would go up. That would be some bullshit right there. So I decided that we needed to call the cops. I had Taylor head over and call them over on her way, because this guy was clearly a bit unstable. He was a pretty big guy, probably 6'3", maybe around 250 pounds, but big as in fat. Now that I think about it, he might have only been like 17 or 18, hence how immature and retarded he was acting. Anyways, I decided that he would go apeshit if I called the cops in front of him, so I had Taylor do it, and while she was heading over, I told him that I was going to get the cops involved so they could assess the situation and get an official police report. That's when things got a bit more tense. He clearly didn't like that idea because he was worried about getting a ticket, and probably realizing that he was gonna get screwed by his insurance when they find out how terrible he is at driving. So he started going on about how it was my fault for being "in the middle of the road" and how he was going to tell them that it wasn't his fault. Yeah, good luck with that one, man.

The police came, I told my story to one of them and he told his story to the partner. It didn't take long for me, and they were still discussing something over with Mr. Douche Nozzle, so we just started chit chatting with the officer. He was actually one of the coolest cops I've dealt with. He was crackin' some funny jokes, telling us some stories, and we even took the time to ask a few unrelated questions that he offered to answer. After about a half hour, they told me that they cited him for "failing to yield right of way from private driveway." Hallelujah! I'm not out of the woods yet, but I think that strongly solidifies my case with the insurance companies. I'm pretty sure there won't be any question about who is at fault because he was cited for a violation. I just called his insurance, and now I'm awaiting the rest to unfold.  As always, click to enlarge:

My poor, innocent bumper

Moron's car

what the hula hoop

The new iPhone is here!

Details can be found here

Basically, here are the major selling points:

• New, more powerful A4 processor
• Crazy-high resolution screen
• New form-factor (stainless steel edges used as an antenna to improve signal)
• Support for wireless N
• iPhone 4 OS, which includes a type of multitasking, among other things

I expected I'd get this phone, but I didn't expect that I'd get it around its release date, June 24.  Why?  I am only one year into my two year contract.  However, Apple and AT&T are offering "early" upgrades for anyone eligible for an upgrade in 2010, which I am (in September).  I'm not a big fan of Apple or AT&T, but the truth is that there isn't a smartphone out there as good as the iPhone... yet.  I'm hoping the Android phones catch up, and they seem to be, but it probably won't be for another couple years until they are strong competition.

Why do I want this phone?  Well, that's a silly question; it's a nice-ass phone!  Do I need this phone?  No, I don't need it.  However, if there is one thing I use all the time (that isn't my computer), it's my iPhone.  My iPhone is the 3G model, which is now two generations old (the new one is the iPhone 4, and last year's was the iPhone 3GS). It is running an older processor which already bogs down sometimes when doing different things.  Also, it won't get all the features that are being rolled out by the new iPhone 4 OS update.  Since I'm not really paying extra for an "early" upgrade (well, technically $18), I figure I might as well just do it now, instead of September.  I use my phone a lot, and enough in my opinion to justify $199 for a much improved version (speed and otherwise).  I'm not thrilled about being locked to AT&T for another two years, but if I end up hating them that bad in the next year or so, I will just pay the early termination fee and leave.

What does that mean to you?  Nothing, unless you want an old iPhone 3G!  If you already have an AT&T plan, it might only cost you an extra $15 a month for their cheap data plan to switch to an iPhone.  I don't think you'd have to make any other changes, but I'm not an AT&T rep so I don't know for sure.  If you're interested in my old iPhone, let me know, since there isn't much else I can do with it.

New way of sharing links

As you know, I like to share links to all sorts of things: news articles, youtube videos, funny pictures, etc. Well in light of that, I have added a little box to the right that will have my shared links from Google Reader.

I use Google Reader to aggregate all the sites I check regularly (food, news, tech, culture) into one easy-to-check view. In fact right now I have 44 sites that I'm subscribed to, and that's how I'm able to keep up with all the happenings in the world (or more correctly, just the things I care about). If you're interested in more info about Google Reader, leave a comment and I'll help you set it up. Right now I scan through literally 500-1000 headlines per day, expand the headlines that spark my interest into full articles, and then obviously read those. It's actually really nice, and will broaden your internet-horizons.

As an added bonus, Google Reader can follow your favorite blogs, like mine!

Cliff notes: don't forget to look at my shared links to the right

Here is a little screenshot of mine, in case you want to know what a fully-stocked Reader looks like (click for full-size):