Age of Anxiety I

I do not like when anxiety rears its ugly little head. 

Unfortunately for me, that running tumble I took in April really did a number of my phone. Granted, it was getting up there in years, but it never quite fully came back to life after they "fixed" it. It had finally gotten to the point I could not ignore replacing the damn thing. 

Yesterday was that day. 

There was a time when I loved going into the Apple store. 

I'd go in just to look, knowing I needed and wanted for nothing. Maybe that part was key. Going because you want to versus you must might make all the difference. 

710 has also been pushing me to get a new laptop, as the one I'm typing on doesn't really accept all OS updates due to its age. I kind of mentally shut down when he brings it up, even as a helpful suggestion. 

But yesterday. Ugh. I got to Apple ok. Well, the parking lot. And I sat there for 10 minutes psyching myself to go in. I put on my big boy pants and walk in knowing I'd be accosted. And I was. No less than five times just before and at the first table. 

At least at our Apple store there are probably one customer service rep or "Genius" for every 2.4 customers. It becomes claustrophobic and suffocating.  .....at least for me.  

"I'm just looking" passed my lips so often I lost count. Not so deep down I knew which phone, storeage size and colour I wanted, but I felt the need to see it and touch it - so yes, I could have just ordered it onlne and had it shipped.  ....but I didn't. 

I could have been out in 10 minutes had I just ripped off the band-aid and let someone help me. But not....I moved on to the laptops..........with a barrage of people asking my needs. One, Peter, not leaving my side and I pretended to look through the specs and pricing.  Peter was annoying me. 

I finally just went to look at a wall of cases I'd never buy just to get out of it all. Lo and behold the one Apple rep in a ortho boot was sitting behind me, craning her neck to see if she could be of assistance.  

AGGGGGRRRRRRHHHHHH.

Biting my lip and tongue, I walked right back over the phones and told the Apple employee what I needed. 

Swear to g-d:   "let me see if I can find someone to help you". 

Are you fucking kidding me?  

Why not you? Or one of the 173 employess within spitting distance. 

Oddly, I caught Peter's eye all the way over in laptops and he came over the assist. He had to pass at least a dozen other reps standing around. I'm not even sure he could do phones, but what the hell. He helped. 

As we moved through the process my anxiety was less than before, but still palpable. At least to me. But he helped me spend an inordinate amount of money - which I know is part of the anxiousness - on a phone that is orange. 

I did ask him one laptop question as we waited for the device to arrive from somewhere in the back. He emphatically told me not to get one today - phew - as if I waited until the 28th, I'd get a $175-250 Apple gift card, depending on the model I'd want. 

Part me me just wanted to get it now and never ever ever have to come back. The other part of me was thrilled I could just leave.................and I'm cheap so $175 bucks is $175 - even though you can't use it on that purchase, which seems silly. Just knock that off the price. 

So I got my new phone and went back to the car where I sat for 20 minutes. Just sat. 

The phone remains in the bag. It was too much energy getting the phone. I did not have the mental capacity to try to move everything over. I will try to do that this weekend sometime. 

Baby steps. 

Song by: Arcade Fire

the Old Man Down the Road

I. Am. Officially. Old.  

Am I Medicare eligible?  I am not. 

Got my subscription to AARP?  Had it since I was 49!

Do I have my Golden Buckeye Card?  Nope to that. 

Might I use creams for my age and liver spots?  That is not a 'should I' question.  ....but still......no. 

Have I been mandated to be on a pickleball team at the senior center?  Not yet. 

Am I of the right age to reside in an independent living facility?  Well..........technically yes. But that's not it either. 

Do more than half the ads on Jeopardy target "people my age"?  Absolutely. 

Over the last few years AT&T has really jacked up their prices for cell service. And it just keeps creeping up every few months. What was once a whopping $80 a month has increased to almost unfathomable $110 - with no additional services. 

I despise the Verizon, TMobile and AT&T ads of $30/month for unlimited talk and text. You have to go to their website for the "for four lines" - which is now adds up $120/month. 

What is a single person, or just coupled with no one else in the house to do?  Get gouged, that's what. 

See? I'm already talking like my alter kocker self.  

So there are a bunch of cheaper options out there. Mint Mobile. Visible. Boost. Straight Talk. You get the idea. All have seemingly decent discounted rates, but all with a few strings, as you'd imagine. Straight Talk is through Wal*Mart, and I'm just not giving them a dime of my money. 

I did what any Jeopardy watching, AARP card holding member would do: Consumer Cellular. 

Those commercials only have people of a certain age - ones trying to get photos of their grandchildren and who seemingly struggle with technology. This can only be good for me. 

They even advertise a device called.........

Yes. Scratch off the 'd' and you get their targeted demographic. They don't even try to make it subliminal. 

This is just my fate. 

At 710's insistence, I will also be hooking up my Apple Watch to their cellular for an additional $5/mo. Since I usually run without my phone, he thinks it wise - in my advanced age - to be able to get ahold of him, 911 or Uber should I be out on a long run and injured.  .....and not carrying and breaking my phone is a plus too. 

It's a 66% reduction in my monthly bill, so I'm hoping it is worth it. It looks to be running off the Verizon network. 

Mind you - when someone asks what service I have, I just might hesitate.

Oh ......

Song by: John Fogerty

Shattered Glass

Honest to g-d, you people almost didn't have a blog entry today. 

It started (and ended) with my broken phone. 

Due to the clusterfuck that can sometimes be Apple, trying to get the phone up and running - and more importantly, backed up - was just exhausting. 

It turns out it is REALLY hard to have double authentication - which Gooooooogle now requires - when they send the authentication code to your phone, but your phone has no viewable screen. 

Attempts to change how it gets to me became, let's say, cumbersome. 

If by chance you cannot get Goooooogle's prompt, you have to wait 3 to 5 days (!!!!) for them to send you one. So, it took far far far too long to be able to get into blobbysblog.com. 

My trip to Apple wasn't much better. 

Like last time I was broken (well my phone.......I'm still broken) they wanted to swap out the phone as opposed to fix it. I'm not fond of that, as then they have to reactivate everything, and last time, I lost so much stuff even though everything was properly backed-up. 

Here's the kicker: the swap out HAS to be the same make and model (I get that). The same storage as my current one (I kind of get that) and the same colour.  That, I do not get. Who. Cares. 

Apparently the "geniuses" at Apple's bar. 

Now let's take it that I'm 3-4 iterations behind the current iPhones Apple are currently sending. Finding one of my age in itself - any colour / any sized storage - is going to be a tall order. They didn't know if it would be days or week. 

I took my broken phone with me and went to a third party store to fix it. They had it done in 2.5 hours. Minus the Apple logo on the back glass. The didn't have the ability to do that.....as if I cared. As if my pretty much useless case covers anyway. 

Anyhoo......in the nick of time, I worked through getting my second authentication and was able to log in and write this lovely post. 

My angst level is through the roof.  Poor poor 710. He really is too good for me. 

Song by: Laura Branigan

Hey Baby

I kind of swear I wrote about this before, but I can't find it - so instead of doing an "extension" post, maybe it is an "initial" one. 

I'm assuming I'm not the only one who gets random texts that I assume are meant to lure someone in to get data or sell you something. It almost takes too many steps to block the number - which I always do - but not before I have a little fun. 

Yes, I get responding probably opens myself up to untold data breaches, well, I can't help myself. Or don't want to. 

I then screen capture and send out to my friends. Jon thinks I should save and collect them all and make them into a book. I've seen worse sitting on the shelves - so, why not? 

But here is a sampling. 

Song by: No Doubt

Hanging on the Telephone

 

My lack of post was due to delays at phone repair. 

Months ago, I dropped my phone, and while the case was fine, the phone still shattered something like the image you see. 

I finally went to get it fixed. And being I have Apple Care, it was only going to cost me $29. 

If that were only the case!

Since I was backed up, we were good to go. But they truly wiped out my phone completely. Everything. Still fine, since i had a back-up.  But then they went to reactivate my sim-card. 

Way back in 2007, when I got my first iPhone, it was a gift from 710. So while the bill somehow comes to, and paid by, me, the account is still under his name.  .....and now they wouldn't reactivate the phone without him being there with his I.D. 

FUUUUUUCK.  

I guess I'm just a '50's housewife who needs a man to get anything I need. 

They told me to try the AT&T store down the road, maybe they'd reactivate it. 

Short story - they couldn't. Not without the man of the household. 

But it took a long time to get to that point. Do you know who the AT&T store folks goes to for technical support?  Do ya??   The same fucking customer service line you or I would call.  Even their employees have to talk to Rajeet Brad.  And he wanted my account number.   Guess what??  I have it........on. my. phone. 

So while the rep was talking to the phone rep, I meander over to the display phones, which are operational. And I call 710..........nine times. At first he lets it go to voicemail, which I assumed he would from an unknown number, which is why I kept calling back. But then he just would automatically send it to voicemail.  Now I'm pissed. 

I'm upset for a number of reasons. One being it is now after 20:00 and I'm not going to have a phone. Second was, of course, being ignored when I needed to talk to 710. Third - and I can't stress this enough - is how dependent we are to our phones. Everything is on it. Personal. Work. All my contacts. How I pay for things. Spelling Bee!!!  

.....and on the way home, I pass two grouping of deer on the side of the road. Now I get into safety. If I got hit / hit them, I can't call anyone.    .....which sends me down a spiral of, 'would he pick up if EMS was calling him'.   Now I'm inexplicably irate.  

We go through options and still had 30 minutes before AT&T closed. So we trek back - I.D. in hand.  And it's back to the customer service line. They ask which device I had - which they should know. And it turns out they didn't want my account number, but my 4-digit code.  And then said, "we went the code to reactivate to my phone"...........which useless, because the phone isn't active. 

I mean, WTF, people. 

Finally another guy shows up, and it takes him a bit, but he brings it back to life. He wants to set it up, but it's after 21:00, I haven't been home since 04:30 and I haven't had dinner. I'd set it up at home. 

OMFG.  It was worse than setting up a new phone. It still is. I'm finding apps I still need to reactivate and set new passwords. My Apple Pay stuff was wiped clean. My face recognition: gone. My bluetooth links - all disappeared. I'm still finding things to set up. 

I'm still not happy about how to be so dependent on the phone, but I don't know how to break from it either. 

Honestly, I was without it for 3.5 hours. How sad is that?

It's rhetorical, of course. 

Song by: Blondie

the Storm

I had half an idea to write about Jupiter and its big - yet shrinking - red dot. 

My idea was thwarted by an article that wasn't nearly as exciting for which I was hoping. 

It's good and all, but........

It might tie into the fact that I am dead tired. So, the article might be more interesting if I were more than quasi-awake. 

Still, Jupiter is out and making the rounds these days...........well......nights. 

In the pic, it's that thing next to the moon. Quite an impressive display. 

I'm less than thrilled with my new iPhone13 camera. It was a beautiful crescent moon and all it shows is a big bright blob. I have yet to rule out user error, but we'll see. 

Ok. Off to bed. It's 21:02. 

Song by: Big Country

the Call Up

It's new phone time. It was time. 

I'm not one to upgrade my phone annually. I've had the iPhone X for like 4-5 years. It's not that I'm not keen on technology, just that when it comes down to it, I'm lazy. 

The X was a huge upgrade from my 6 (or was it 7?). The screen was great, the camera better. But by all accounts, the 11 and 12 had much better cameras. 

As I've ditched all cameras that are not my phone, as a blogger, it's good to have a good camera. Ironically, you can't take a pic of your new phone with your new phone. So, what you're seeing is the last pic taken with my old phone. 

Truth be told, I would have kept the X, but I've had a few small fails with it. The phone itself - worked great with earbuds, through the car bluetooth or on speaker (though I hate people who talk like that). But put up to my ear.....you know......like an actual phone and I could barely make out words................and NO, it's not my hearing. 

The second issue was, a few times, the screen just went black. The phone didn't run out of juice or anything, it was still on, just could not see a thing. 

710, almost a year before, had much more serious problems. The phone would just come on and start deleting apps automatically. He thought someone was hacking it, but it turns out, it was a thing. The internet said so. He had to upgrade at the beginning of the year with the 12. 

Me? I ended up with the 13. Pro.  Not Pro Max, because it's not always about the size. The Pro is the same size as my X, which is fine. 

I don't get Apple sometimes. The regular old 13 comes in about seven colours. The Pro - four. And allegedly the one I ordered, in the pic, is Sierra Blue. Does that look blue to you?  and not silver? 

The phone arrived on Friday, and I let it sit for a day, as it had been a crappy work week and I didn't feel like *Nsync'ing stuff. 

Yesterday, I got, what I think is everything, moved from phone to phone. So far, I've only found one glitch that I can't figger out. The face recognition doesn't work on my MyChart app. Settings all seem fine, but we'll see.

The screen is pretty sweet. I have yet to take a picture, but today is BowWowBeach, so you know it's gonna take a Shep pic or two. 

At this point, I think / hope I'm good until the 17.

Song by: the Clash

False Alarm

So, there we were - taking Shep on a three mile hike, and socially distancing ourselves each other, as well as others.

Early into the hike, 710 gets a Presidential Warning on his iPhone. It kind of took me back for two reasons:  1. I didn't get a presidential warning.  2. a surprisingly unsurprising determination on national shutdown.

Except that it wasn't.

We started discussing this right away. And keep in mind, we were on a hiking trail and didn't look look at it that closely.  The url you're directed to isn't even in the U.S.

Oh and the second version came through too..........

....in French.

I mean, if nothing else, Spanish is the U.S.'s second language, not French.

But then, should this be from Canada, I mean, they don't have a President.  Everything seemed wrong about it.

During our out and about we talked about how, or if it would be different than what we're already doing in Ohio. We assumed it would just be because the eight asshole states who aren't already doing a stay in place. We had hoped there wouldn't be another assault on the grocery stores, as we are now three weeks into our process. But people are a bunch of panic-like folk. Clearly not taking it serious enough to stay home or not stay less than six feel apart, but enough so that you can't find a bottle of bleach of a four pack of toilet paper.

As the Doors sang, "people are strange".

After the hike, and back the car, 710 started looking at the Washington Post, NYT, CNN, anything that gave us more info. There was none. .....and I mean NONE.

Nothing about the U.S. or Canada releasing such a statement. So........what the hell?  There didn't seem to be any notice of a fake notice.

And not only that, it completely ruined my joke, which made 710 laugh.

After we assumed it was from BLOTUS and we discussed how he said we would never go on a national stay in place, I said, "awww.........it's Tiffany's first text from here dad!".



Song by: the Weekend

the Phone Call

Now and again, I consider leaving AT&T.

At those times, I have good reason, though I don't always know or remember what they are.

My place of employment is horrible with our cell reception. It's annoying for employees for sure, but I think of the patient and family populations who are trying to relay information and fine tons of dead zones.

Of course, the Verizon folks have slightly better reception than AT&T, so that's probably my rationale. That is........until I look at rates.  Mine is no prize, but Verizon has great rates...................IF you have four phones.

So somehow I'm being penalized for not having a wife and two kids, all of whom need phones. I think I should be rewarded for not.

As much as I hate Wal*Mart, that service I got my mother - unlimited phone and data - for $35/mo sounds good. I have no idea of their coverage though.

That said - I got a text message from AT&T (for which they didn't charge against my plan!) and said they were enacting a spam control starting.............now!

And honest to Yahweh, the next call came up:

Well, the next call was the second one.  The one above it?  Probably Rachel from Card Services. As I don't know anyone in Texas, let alone Rogers, TX - if it even exists.

But over the course of last week, I haven't seen 'Telemarketer' come across again.  Now it's.....

It's now 'Spam Risk'

I don't care that I left the Philly number there.  They're trying to get me to pay off my non-existent student loans.  So clearly, this isn't catching every call.

Mind you - with my mother now gone I rarely answer any call from a number that's not already in my phone. With her alive, it was a crap shoot that it was something I needed or someone needed me.  So that Philly number left a v-e-r-y long and detailed voicemail.

710, who does have Verizon, says he has not seen this as an option with his service, let alone one where the carrier reached out the customer to enact.  I do have 'opt out' options, but why the fuck would I want to?

So AT&T, you may have just bought yourself some time with my decision making.

Pretty sneaky, sis.


Song by: the Pretenders

In My Reply

NOTICE:  There is mandatory reader participation at the end of this post. 


Gird your loins folks.  This Thursday, coming directly to your mobile device, is a FEMA test message from your benevolent overlord - BLOTUS.

Yes, that is right the Federal Emergency Management Asshole-lickers will be sending the first end its first 'Presidential Alert' in emergency messaging system test that will allow BLOTUS to send a message to every U.S. cell phone.

There is no opt out feature

This is bad on SO many levels.

What little sub-fraction of privacy you thought you maintained with telecommunications is now officially gone.  Every. Single. Phone.  The U.S. government is using your carrier - the ones you pay money to - to forcibly accept an SMS or phone call to your device.

And now we'll be getting things worse than tweets from that blowhard in the oval office. And really - what's to stop him?  It'll be like living with Kim Jong Un, but without the whimsy.

So, since it is a text - well, I'm assuming - it should allow us to text back, though that would be so very very very foolish on FEMA's part.  Though my thought is, if they can inundate our phones, why shouldn't it be able to work in reverse?

I have a proposition for all of you.  ALL OF YOU.   Here me now......and heed me now.

• Think of your reply. I encourage you to be as vile as possible.  
• Text it. 
• Snap a screen shot. 
• Email it to me - do not post directly to the blog.  
• I will make an entry of what I can only guess are your witty witty witty replies. 

As Otter from Animal House would say:  "this is gonna be great!"


UPDATE:  the test has been delayed and rescheduled to October 3rd.  I found out after completing, but having no time to draft something different. You have time to come up with something clever.  Do not disappoint me. 



Song by: Linda Ronstadt

Caint Use My Phone

My 89 year old mother is now officially part of the 21st century. Yesterday, we got her an iPhone.

It's not quite as extravagant as it might sound. First off, we got her the 6 - and we got it at {gulp} Walmart.

I know....I know.  It wasn't my first choice, but what a crock that Verizon or Apple does. The latter was selling that phone for about $550. Verizon claims they don't sell them at all due to a lawsuit against Apple regarding slowing down of phones on purpose.

Here is where I should have called bullshit on that. A. The Verizon website says they sell them.  B. IF they are suing Apple, why are they selling either the 8 or X?

Walmart had the phone for $199 - and a monthly cell rate of $35. Verizon said going from a flip phone to smart phone package would start at $100 per month. 

Used car salesmen have much much much more integrity than cell phone shysters.

The bigger reason to get this for her is as she ages, her voice is.....challenged. She's finally going to a doctor about it, but at this point, I'm assuming it will be to keep it where it is, as opposed to improving it. Losing it anymore would be close to the point of mute.

So, she needs a device to keep her communicating. Her flip phone didn't even have texting capabilities, and even if it did - do you remember how texting worked on those?  She could never do it. I couldn't.

And she can use apps to order Uber, etc, where she won't have to talk to anyone to arrange such things. She has an iPad, so she has some of the functionality down. but we were over there doing a tutorial for her.....or with her.

I got her to get Siri to set a daily reminder to take medications at a certain time. She thought that was great.

So we got it, got it all set up for her, including importing 2-3 dozen contacts so she'd be ready to go. We can return this in the first 15 days, so if she's really not feeling it, we can take it back.

This is really for convenience. Honestly, sometimes it's just easier to understand her in text / email then sitting across from her at the table. But we have to be practical - at some point, this might be the only way she can communicate.

I will say, Siri picked up on everything she said, no matter how hard it was for me to understand (though truth be told, yesterday was a pretty good vocal day). I showed her she doesn't even have to go to 'favourites' or 'contacts' and just tell Siri to call me.  That made her face light up.

So, she'll give it a try and write down any questions she may have regarding the device. 




Song by: Erykah Badu

Cell Phone

It's here!  It's here!!!!

And three weeks early!

Of course, I was hopeful that I wouldn't have to wait until the second week of December to get the new iPhone X, but I resolved to myself that is what had to be.

That said, I started getting worried. My old fuddy duddy phone wasn't holding a charge. And not for hours, but half-hours. Well, kind of.

A fully charged phone could go to less than 10% power in 30 minutes. Yet if I plugged it into charge, it would almost automatically jump to something like 53%. So I never knew how much power I actually had.

I was also out of space because I never delete anything. Mainly because I'm too lazy, if truth be told. But there's always the 'what if'.

And there was hoop jumping to get the delivery. I'd have to be home to sign. I wasn't willing to e-sign for them to just leave it at the door. Not for this. And you can't have it delivered to a UPS store - go figure - but the UPS distribution center.

Safe to say, yesterday, I saw parts of Cleveland that I never knew existed.

Oddly, 710 got his phone the same day, though earlier, as his was delivered to his office, since it was ordered from his place of employment.

So our wild evening last night was setting up two new iPhones. We are the crazy couple.

I'm so less a tech guy than 710, and I had a way easier time of activating my phone for some reason. Photos, contacts, calendar et al came over without a hitch. I thought music would too, but I didn't. Which isn't a bad thing. I've had basically the same playlist on there for years. It's time to mix it up.

With the old 6, I was a little limited in what I could put on - technically, I could put my entire music liberry on my phone, but that isn't going to happen. Yet, physically moving songs it tedious. I think it will be a few days before I can get that going.

It's odd - my X now has 16 more gig of space than my MacBook Air.  That's crazy.

So far the changes have been ok and seem fairly intuitive, but time will tell. I haven't used the new camera yet, but you can be sure you'll be seeing images in the near future.



Song by: Roger McGuinn

3 am

What are you doing at 03:00 EST today (though most of you are reading this well after that time)?

I'll have been up for a few minute to pre-order the iPhone X.

Let me rephrase:  I will attempt to be awake to pre-order. I'm up early usually, but not 3a early.

I know. I know. It's extreme for a materialistic object. Sue me. I want it.

As it turns out, I need it. My lowly 6 (not even 6+) is cracked, it's deadly slow and it barely holds a charge for more than two hours. It's time to go.

Though, at this writing, I don't know when it will be replaced.  A. I haven't pre-ordered yet (5 hrs and 35 minutes to go!).   B. I don't know when I do order where I'll be in the pecking order.

In theory, I could take delivery on November 3rd. In reality, I know no matter how soon I hit 'buy', I'll be on the March 24th delivery cycle. Every geek in the universe will be up at that time equivalent to place their order.

But I'm all prepped.  I have downloaded the Apple Store app. I've got my info all set-up in my account settings to pay for it. I've built my device (silver; 256G.....thank you!) and saved it as my favourite.  All I do now is wait till the hour of need, drop it in my shopping bag (it's not a cart with Apple) and then use my thumbprint to pay.

Oh - and then go back to sleep for another 2 hours and 56 minutes.

That is assuming the app / platform doesn't crash. Then I will be up forever, just stewing that I got up at 2:55 and got nothing to show for it.  So when I do order, it will push my delivery date  October 2019....just in time for the iPhone XI.

Bother.





Update:  It only took forever to get into the app itself. Then there were unexpected hoops to jump through. Long story short: I get it the phone in 4-5 weeks.  Sigh.


Song by: matchbox twenty

Some Girls are Bigger Than Others

...and this girl just happens to be a phone.

I finally upgraded to the iPhone 6. I'm still coming to terms with my selection and figuring out all I need to figure out.

....story of my life.

710's iPhone 5 wouldn't really charge easily anymore, so he thought it time to upgrade. Since his work was willing to pay for his phone and monthly plan, we opted to save a little money by doing that - and he gets to keep his number, so that's good. But their plan is on a different carrier - so that was logistically challenging.

Since we were bundled in a family plan, it made sense to look at new plans for just myself and with that, the realization of a new phone.

Sure, I've played with the phones at the Apple store and they seemed nice, but unlike other other iterations, I didn't feel the need to jump to the new level immediately. Of course, I had moments of 'me want', but I resisted as I could not really justify it just to get Apple Pay and slo-mo videoing.

Here it is, two days later - my old phone backed-up, my new phone synced and ready to go.

Everything seems faster, brighter, clearer and more slippery.

But the size. Yes, guys are always about size. Bigger is better.   ....but is it?

In the store, you know for a minute or two at a time, it seemed ok and it slid into a shirt pocket easily enough, as that's how I carry my phone often.

Except the models didn't have a case. I don't either.........yet, as the Apple ones currently are f'ugly. And pricey. So I don't know avec case that the new phone will slip easily into my normal carrying mode.

The 6 Plus seemed to be out from the get-go, though I was intrigued by it. I just can't carry anything that big.

But the problem I'm currently having is grip. Partially due to the size. Partially due to how smooth and curved the phone is. Texting is no longer easy. Hell, holding the phone is no longer easy. My typos have gone up exponentially and to the point that autocorrect is going 'huh'?????

Maybe part of the problem will resolve with getting a case. I won't worry about movement and dropping the device. And the other part will resolve when I get used to the size and how to text with the new placement of everything.

Oh, I guess I still have to set-up bluetooth for the device in my car. And my Apple Pay - which I have not done, but now that our grocery store accepts Apple Pay, it seems like a no-brainer not to.

I have to figure out storage too. I backed up my old phone and actually cleared out lots of crap I didn't use and decided to start up with no pictures on my phone. But iTunes is reading the new phone as having 13G of photos - or almost 900 pics. I've never had that many images on my phone ever, so I don't know what is going on with that. Ditto with 8G of documents.

I do like the print-recognition to get into the phone without my security code. Of course, I'll have to get used to it because 91% of the time, I'm still using the code. You know - old dogs; new tricks.

And just for David: true to my Apple nature, I stayed with white. White front, silver back. 710 has the black / matte, so why confuse things. And I like the continuity.



Song by: the Smiths

Suspended Animation

Remember a few months ago when I went on about really wanting a Steve Jobs frozen in carbonite iPhone case?

Really?  You don't?  I thought that would still be cocktail chatter amongst you people. I am almost sure I went on for about 3-4 sentences regarding it a year or so ago?  Hard to believe you're still not yakking about it.

Anyhoo, of course Apple and the now-late Mr. Jobs had a little hissy fit about it being out there, because apparently neither of them have / had any sense of humour.  Seriously, who was it hurting?

In theory, they should have taken the design and sold it making a huge-ass profit. We know Stevie-boy liked doing that.

So what few of those iPhone cases were actually out there shot up in price well beyond what I was willing to spend on a lark or a gag.  Pooh.

Fast forward 8-10 months and I get the mail earlier this week. An envelope with my name on it, but it wasn't a letter, and I remembered ordering nothing. There was no return address or receipt.  Curious.

But I do love when the Gift Fairy arrives.

I make lunch, then take the envelope up to my office to work and to open and eat.  Yes, I can multi-task.

I was ever so surprised when I pulled this out of the package:

No, it's not Steve - it is the original....well, scaled down.  Han Solo frozen in carbonite, ala The Empire Strikes Back and into Return of the Jedi.

Sure he didn't invent the iPod or the MacBookPro, but he did do the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. That has to account for something, no?

So my first thought was that 710 got this for me, but a quick text had him perplexed as to what I was talking about, so I ruled him out almost immediately.

My second assumption proved to be correct. Rebecca. She's the only other person who ever buys me anything - and yes, that includes my mother and father.  And trust me, my mother barely knows of the iPhone and while we rented Star Wars when we first got our Betamax (yes, you heard me!), my mother fell asleep each of the 15 times we watched it that weekend. She never really saw it, let alone know of Han Solo.  It had to be Becky.

Of course, after posting the pic on Facebook, she let me know, but not before Ditto tried to steal credit.

I'm almost a-scared to put it on my phone, but I will.  I have to see who notices.

Here's hoping.



Song by: Rachel Sweet

I May Know the Word

It seems that Words With Friends can be all-consuming. This isn't a good thing.

I find myself waiting for people to finish their turn so I get mine back - all so I can lose another game.  I suck at the game, but I keep trying. And yes, it can be a total time suck. I'm even starting games with - gasp - strangers!!!!

For g-d's sake, the game isn't called Words With Strangers!

Unlike Morty or Becky, I haven't yet played strategy, so it always leads to my demise. Or almost always. Usually.

You see, I'm happy just to get rid of some of my letters and not focus on if it is both a double-letter and triple-word score - all the while using my Q, J and Z in the same word. This is why I lose - big time.

I find myself trying random letters to see if they make words that I do not know. I can't remember which word I did come up with but Becky called me on it and asked if I was cheating. Trust me - if I were actually cheating, I wouldn't actually be losing by 100 -150 points per game. I mean, I suppose I could be a bad cheater.

As you can see in my image, I can't even get the easiest words to work in my favor. And if it did, it would have only gotten me seven frickin' points. But the PC Police stopped me dead in my tracks. Yet Morty gets 34 points for LAZE.

Do you want to know the word I did end up using?  Look at my tiles with all those 'O's. That along with the 'F' I was trying to use ended up spelling 'ROOFIE'. And it scored quite nicely, thank you.

Two nights ago, the game actually let me spell 'JISM'.  Yes, I can spell date rape drugs and the consequence from them, but I can't use the name that many of us have been called since 6th grade.  Unfortunately, I wasn't playing with a friend, just a random person. I can only imagine what she thought.  I don't know why I assumed it was a woman, I just did.

I do like how 'fag' "not an acceptable word" - on many levels. And clearly, before some of the militant homos get on their soapbox, you know I'm joking and all I was just trying to use up my letters. It's about winning - any way you can.



Song by:  Natalie Merchant

Come Together

How long has it been since my laptop was stolen right from under my nose?  A month? Longer?  I haven't been keeping track of time.

The new MacAir is great and I'm loving it, but my iPhone has been woefully un-updated until I got my iHouse in order.

I had to resync my iPhone to update it for the new OS, but before that, I had to make sure all my music was pulled off and saved, or when I did update, everything would be wiped out.  I had too many songs and albums from library visits that I had not backed up to just lose.  I wasn't willing.  But I never had time to do the deed.

As beautiful as this last weekend was, 710 and I got me to where I needed to be. There is a "free" service to pull songs off your phone, and it would identify any duplicates so you don't have to spend the time doing it for crud you already have.  Oh, and this "free" service only allows you to pull 1000 songs at no cost.  After that, it is $20.

The problem is, between two devices, I had 3700+ songs, clearly a number of them duplicated.  1700 to estimate.  After realizing the duplicate identification part of the program was not working, and a few hours of stupidly thinking I could know which song had been backed up and which had not, I gave up and paid the $20 and downloaded everything and then used iTunes to sort duplicates.

Even that was a painful process.

On our back-up drive, we had most of all our ripped music, but I noticed at least a dozen disks that are not, so I'll have to fix that  But in my OCD state, over the last few years, I made sure I had artwork for all the stuff on my laptop.  That was not backed-up now.  So I am trying to repress anxiety attacks when much of the reloaded music comes up with no artwork or the wrong "tag" and artwork attached to the song. 

It's not easy.  Anxiety normally wins out.

But I did get my shit updated, so I have 2000 songs back on my iPhone along with a new OS, which I am liking, if not still getting used to.

All I can say people:  back-up.  Do it often. 

Song by:  the Beatles

For the Birds

I have a new obsession. I've had it for weeks now. Months actually.

Angry Birds.

It is all the rage - it has been, as it was the biggest iTunes application download of 2010.

Naturally, I downloaded the 'lite' version, since that was a freebie. You know how cheap I am. But I pretty much breezed through most of the levels from the time I first booted it up on the way from CLE to the time I landed at LGA.

It took Denton a while to convince me to put a crowbar in the wallet to spend $0.99 for the full version.

It might be the best 99 cents I ever spent. The game really soothes my OCD, while perpetuating it at the same time. It sounds crazy, but it is true.

Why pigs have army helmets and TNT is beyond me. Nor do I understand why birds who can actually fly need slingshot launches, but who am I to know these things?

Normally, I can figure out the levels pretty easily. I get which birds do which special things and the trajectory you need to knock down structures and crush the pigs. I like how the pigs get black eyes when part of the debris hits them, but I hate when the swine become cocky when you don't kill them and they smile, showing their teeth to you, in that superior, "ha-ha", kind of way.

Bastard pigs.

There are about 21 different challenges on each level. Right now I'm on level six, so you can do the math yourself how much I've been playing since December.

Yesterday, I finally made it through level 6-14. Honestly, it had been like two weeks of on and off attempting to make it through. Using toucans are not the easiest bird to bring down pigs or their houses - whether made out of hay, sticks or brick. (see how I made a reference to the three little pigs there?)

I will admit being stumped on level 6-14 and even back on 3-15. When you say it or spell it out, it sounds like scripture passages. They way I was muttering 'g-d fucking damn it' when failing for hours on end to get past them, you'd being to wonder if evil was upon me. It was.

Admittedly, I used Goooogle to look up 'tips' on how to get past these levels. It worked for 3-15, but the biggie, 6-14, it seemed I was completely on my own. Those suggestions meant nothing. Nothing, I tellz ya.

But last night, I finally made it past 6-14....and now it's time to set the game down until my next flight, which is on Tuesday. It's time to join the land of the living.



Song by: Juliana Hatfield

Forever Lost

It didn't take me too long to figure out that my iPhone 4G was gone. Gone gone. Long gone. Gone gone gone she been gone so long; She been gone gone gone so long.

It isn't coming back. Ever.

Wouldn't you know it - that about four days after losing it, Apple came out with a free version of Find My iPhone via MobileMe.

If you don't know about it, even in vibration setting, it can send out an audible signal for someone to hear it. You can also locate it by logging on to the internets and it will GPS it to tell you where it is. Even better - you can wipe out all the information on the phone so no one can access it at all.

Yes, this feature was available via MobileMe, at the cost of $99 a year. And yes, I'm as cheap as they come, so I didn't get purchase it initially. Obviously.

So now I have a new iPhone and the freebie of MobileMe. I've also put a security code on my phone, so I have to sign into it all the time now, which isn't such a pain, but it also means that anyone who gets a hold of it without permission can't get into it either.

....wellllllll....eventually they could, since they only have 9999 combinations to work with, but by then I would have wiped out all the information. So suffice to say, the code isn't 0001-0100. Ooops.....I've said too much.

I'm still bummed about some of the NYC and DC pics that were lost, especially the one I had taken of Denton at the W. Honestly, it was the bestest one I had ever taken in 2.5 decades. (no, I do not have any wedding pictures to post yet.......you'll know when I know.)

Yes, I have it still in my mind, but like my iPhone, I will eventually lose that too.


Song by: the Magic Numbers

Out of Touch

I'm beside myself. I lost my iPhone yesterday.

I know, it's just a "thing" that I shouldn't get upset about and truth be told, I could care less about the phone itself. That is replaceable.

What isn't, are the pictures on it.

Yeah, I synced the phone an hour before we left for NYC, but I didn't take my Mac with me, so I didn't sync during the trip.

So it would seem, unless someone does the right thing, and contacts me, I have lost many pictures I took on not only vacation, but of our wedding day, Yes, there are some on my actual camera, some that Rebecca took and then of course, the professional photog took.

But I liked some of mine. A lot!!! Including one of Denton that I found to be possibly the best picture I had taken of him. I'm heartbroken.

Yes, the pictures are just pictures and not my memories, but fuck, man! This blows.

I had it in the cab ride to the airport and then could not find it before going through security. Maybe it was on my lap and I stood up....or....or....I just don't know. I've called it dozens of times and no one picks up. It doesn't help that I had it on vibrate.

It also doesn't help that the cab company are complete assholes. "No one turns in anything - ever." "No, we don't have a lost and found." "We cannot help you.".

So, what I need is someone to grab a ride in that cab and find it and not turn it over to the driver. And I need that person to be more honest than the cab company itself. A tall order.

Of course, I'm racing against the clock too. It probably only had 10 hours or so before the battery just dies and no vibrations are even heard. So, unless they have a charger.........

And if I deactivate it and purchase a new one, then I can no longer call it attempting to get it back. UGH!

Denton sent a text to it saying if it were turned in there'd be a reward.....but so far nothing.

He's trying to console me, but it is not working very well. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm not sure what I can do. Images of my wedding, from my perspective, are probably gone forever.

I'll have to get a new phone. It's not good to be unreachable and I feel very lost without at least the ability to be connected.

Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck

That's all I've got to say!



Song by: Hall & Oates