Saturday March 29 2008 ~ recently received attachments/0508/0508.2/
Saturday March 29 2008 ~ driver's seat
When I need to have a car to use for work, I am able to rent a Zipcar for the day and fortunately I get reimbursed for it. The purpose is usually a press inspection. Actually that has been the only purpose, so I shouldn't say "usually". But I did.
Wednesday I rented the Jetta parked next door, and having it live next door is a great blessing. I can walk out and it's there, just like my own car. As I'm returning home from the press inspection my neighbor Sherif, who rents Zipcar the space, came out and we chatted for a while. I hadn't seen him in months (and the weather was gorgeous) so we hung out for a while.
He's trying to get a couple more Zipcars parked there, and he has the parking space for it. He tells me the Jetta is used about 30% of the time. It's always gone on weekend, changing hands several times with other Zippers, but I guess during the week it pretty much sits there. In additional to financial reimbursement for housing the car, Sherif also receives credit hours to use the Zipcar. But since he has his own car, there's no real need for him to be taking the Zipcar Jetta out. But he did transfer $200 to my Zipcar account which expire on May 09. Isn't that nice? So while I'll spend most of those rented hours using the Jetta but I'm also going to use some hours to try out the BMW 328 and also the Mini convertible. Need a ride?
Friday March 28 2008 ~ let's say it goes down something like this:
You're standing there, waiting like you always do, for a bus or a train or a plane to fall from the sky. Very routine. You're going through the familiar motions of removing yourself from the line of sight of drivers who might recognize you standing there pitifully. You've mastered how to do this.
But then unexpectedly there is someone coming out from the door behind you, a new stranger to pretend that you don't already know. Except this person is not a stranger and not alone. That's when everything that has lead up to the circumstances of why you're standing there, by yourself, with no one responding to your line of questioning, and why there are now two strangers walking over to the sedan parked across the street. They get into the car, smiling, and open the sunroof before they put on their seatbelts. Of course they do.
Their next destination will be a quick stop at a gas station for a pack of smokes and then they're headed towards a rooftop deck, possibly their own, where they will share margaritas, vegetarian hors d'œuvres and intelligent yet witty banter with almost-as-attractive-as-them-but-not-quite friends. You know this will happen because you hear a hearty laughter emanating from the sunroof as they drive off, leaving you standing there. Waiting.
Wednesday March 26 2008 ~ itunes tuesday (a day later)
What a busy day it's been checking out new releases
on iTunes. Today's Yesterday's most anticipated release is Cut Copy's
new release, In
Ghost Colours. This I downloaded from my iPhone about
15 seconds after waking up, still lying there in bed. All for the bargain price
of $6.99! It totally puts to shame Hot Chip's Made
in the Dark, which
is a good album, but listen up boys, we're listening to this stuff because
it makes it move, not for the minimalist ballads with abstract
lyrics. We want
to move, we want to dance. Hence Cut Copy. While the recent Hot Chip has some
great tracks on it and I still like the album as a whole, but Cut Copy's really
captured the dance album better. This aligns with the fact that I'm not too
worried about not getting Hot Chip tickets before they sold out (I saw them
last year and
it was a great show) but I'm totally stoked about the Cut Copy blue-&-white
ticket magneted to my fridge. May 15, Black
Cat, be there or be an octagon.
Other notable releases today yesterday on iTunes
are pre-releases: The first being Mad Rhonda's latest, Hard
Candy. iTunes
bills it as her "freaked-out R&B album". Good Lord. For a $13.99
payment (ahem: ripoff) you get about 18 remixes of the lead-off single 4
Minutes and
a cover of Anita
Ward's Ring My Bell. Plus the artwork at the store
has her looking more like a harlot than she has before. Can it top Confessions? We'll
see. Is it worth CD pricing? I doubt it. Milk it, girl. Just noticed: a non-deluxe
version without a couple of 4M remixes is $11.99, still two bux more
than usual.
The 2nd pre-release comes from bathroom-sex-passing-out-at-the-wheel 80s super trouper George Michael. Who? Exactly. His latest, Twenty Five, which is also avail in regular and deluxe versions, is the greatest hits package that would have been fun about 15 years ago. The beauty about the deluxe versions ($34.99) is that it also includes videos from Wham! and the solo career. This includes Club Tropicana (where drynx are free) from the first album, but leaves out Young Guns. Was there a video for Wham! Rap? I wonder. If you purchase either 25 version by March 31st, you will receive a special code which allows you pre-access purchase for tickets to George's upcoming US tour, his first in 17 years. The word on the street is that he will NOT be playing Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go or I Want Your Sex, probably his biggest hits with Wham! and solo. What's the point then? On July 29 he tries to sell out MCI's Verizon Center. Do you think he can do it?
And then today, actually today, while I was on press inspection, I instantly downloaded The B-52s Funplex (also released yesterday) and rocked to it all day while reading POPism: The Warhol '60s. Absolute gold.
UPDATE: This Boy's in Love: Jocko points
out a video for The Presets upcoming album, Apocalypso. Some craggy
teeth, but still all kinds of hawt. The video's not bad, either.
UPDATE 2: The Presets play Rock
& Roll Hotel on June 7. Tickets
are avail here. Get
'em while they last.
Monday March 24 2008 ~ spam, a lot
Hang Ten over on his blog has created something really fun and brilliant. He's taken the familiar titles and copy of the spam emails we all get (check your junk or filtered folder if you don't get too many in your inbox) and composited them on top of images of celebrities, with ironic, sarcastic and downright biting results. A sampling is below, and you can find the entire set here.
Sunday March 23 2008 ~ how can i sleep with your voice in my head?
The Cherry Blossom 10-miler is two weeks from today. And I haven't been keeping up with my training schedule. Part of this is due to injuries, while part of this is due to my out-and-out laziness.
For instance, today's training run was supposed to be an 80-minute run:
Time: 80 minutes
Goal: Finish the long run without walking
Tip: Try to stay relaxed during this run. It may seem really long, but if you
have been doing the training you might be able to complete it without stopping.
Do you see how it's rubbing it in that I haven't been keeping up the training? Needless to say, I didn't run for 80 minutes today. I did run for 35 though, which is about 1/3 of the race. At the end of my 3 miles I didn't feel tired or hurting though, I just stopped because I was bored (it was treadmill running). And the gym was closing.
The last week before a race is usually a 'taper' week, with plenty of rest days and easy runs of 20 minutes or so, easy compared to the lengthy runs that have been building up for the past two months. So this basically means that I really only have one more week to train for this doggone thing. Yikes!
Saturday March 22 2008 ~ it has begun
Big Brother actually is watching you. And there's no reason to fear, because it's absolutely legal. Right? Right.
Eliot Spitzer, the New York Governor who met with high-price prostitutes in our very own Mayflower Hotel, is the first to be taken to Room 101. At least he's the first that we know of publicly. And he was an Inner Party member, just like Winston Smith.
He was able to be caught because of the "Patriot" Act, which allows the government to circumvent the guidelines set forth by the Constitution. Full details can be uncovered here.
Now let's all say together:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Friday March 21 2008 ~ potential titles of future posts, v5
boy howdy!
when making a masterpiece, be sure to hide the brushstrokes
all of which makes me anxious/at times unbearably so
slide to unlock
bravado is all but gone
automatic test
11:09:15
top model is returning to its roots
i think too much (on things i want too much)
payment must be received by:
tiger tiger
90125
just because i couldn't say doesn't make me a liar
charms in limited supply
dare
soo-puhpuh troo-puhpuh
"everything you did's already been done"
when i run out of blue give me red instead
sooner or later this happens to everyone
188/181/118
hot with no neutral
255.255.255.255
Thursday March 20 2008 ~ everything's gone green
How hard is it to go to bed and have to turn your alarms back on? Very. And then six hours how difficult is it to have to wake up to then, after having the luxury of the past week of being able to get up whenever my body told me it was time? So very.
Tip: do not lie in bed at night watching TV shows about sociopathic serial killers. It is not good for one's peace of mind. Or want of sleep.
One day back into the grind and it seems as if I haven't take the last seven days of vacation. It's not physical exhaustion, it's mental. Maybe part of that is New York, as it's difficult to get a moment's rest there. I did go to bed at 9:00 last night, but due to the above-mentioned Dexter-marathon, sleep didn't come until well after 1:00 am. It can't come quickly enough.
Wednesday March 19 2008 ~ nyc/soundtrack
This morning is a relaxing morning, having espresso and hanging out in the Loft. I'm meeting mcG @ 2:30 to catch our bus so I've got plenty of time to lie around and have a little downtime after three days of hectic running around, sighting-seeing, dinners, drynx, etc. I'm planning on going to brunch with A&D and Christine, and as the weather turns a little drizzly we've already headed out to Gemma at The Bowery Hotel.
We're seated at one of those rounded-booth tables that I particularly like, the kind that only has one open side, where the waiter services. It's very cozy feels Mediterranean with lots of dark woods and melted candles around. I had a basil, tomato and parmesan frittata and also a bloody mary. They had fabulous banana bread too, which they simply bring out to the table for you to munch on while your order is being prepared.
After brunch I'm needing to go back to the loft, gather up my gear and make a beeline up to meet mcG. Here are some pix of the Fabulous Loft, which in no way do it any justice, it was stunning and to live there would be amazing. There's still two bedrooms and a bathroom beyond the kitchen with the half-wall. And did I mention it has it's own elevator that opens right into the space, just like Alexis Morrell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan? Incredible. It's right on Broadway and Spring across from the Puma Store, if you're familiar with SoHo.
As I meet up with mcG we're able to score two seats together on the bus, ensuring we'll having a relaxing and uninterrupted trip back to DC. One interesting detour we ended up making is when we where in Delaware, on I-95, we ran into a nasty mess of traffic and the bus driver yanked us off the highway and into the country, heading south. I flipped on my google maps on my iPhone and tracked where we were going, turns out we ended up on 301-South and came across the Bay Bridge through Annapolis and Route 50 into DC. And we still made it in record time, four hours flat!
Coming home from a NYC trip is always a little exhausting, needing some relaxing recovery time and I'm glad I have Monday and Tuesday off work. Monday will be spent sleeping in a bit, and then going through photos, events and posting. And step class Monday evening if I'm lucky.
Saturday March 15 2008 ~ nyc/3
I'm up early today, in a rush to make it down to Jam & Cam's hotel, in order to see them off. They have an afternoon flight and are going to be poured into a taxi around 1:30. It's before noon, so I'm making good time. Jam, on the other hand, is not making good time at all as is little late in getting his bags together, which is making Cam a little anxious (as it would if I'm needing to get into a taxi and an airport that is a good 45 minutes away). So Cam and I go down to Church and have a bloody mary, which is most appropriate for everyone this morning.
After getting the boys in their cab, I'm spending the day walking around and enjoying the sunshine, shooting photoshoots that I stumble upon while shopping in SoHo and the Village. I head over to Record Runner, of course, my favorite shop to find imports and rarities of bands that I may or may not have obsessions with. A plunked-down debit card later and back out on the street, stopping into Monster to give my feet a break. I have one of three iPhones in the joint, and there are only about ten people in there. Do the math.
Earlier today, I have checked out of my W83rd room and I'm luckily enough to be staying with friends Andrea & David. I know them through Zippy, and stayed with them last summer when they lived in Hoboken. They have since moved into the MFLEiSH (most fabulous loft ever in SoHo) and I'm thrilled and amazed at how much light and room they have (it's a 3-bedroom with overhead loft space.)
After Monster I'm heading back to A&D's and find no one is home, so I've got a little downtime (luckily!) and decide to get some rack time, taking a nap until around 9 or so. At this point A&D and another houseguest, Christine also from Munich, is there are they are hanging out watching TV. I hang out with them for a while and then need to head out to hook up with mcG and friends at Scratcher, a discrete little pub in the East Village where the Irish pop music is playing all night long and pints of Guinness and Smithwick's are the call of the evening.
Saturday March 15 2008 ~ train interlude
There is a guy, sitting across the subway car from me, and as we're stopped in the tunnel he whips out his 2004 thinkpad, complete with Price Waterhouse business card glued to the top, I'm assuming it's a troubleshooting hotline on the card, in case these consultants can't figure out how to print their Powerpoint presentation and need some assistance.
Does anyone remember Persuasion??
So he breaks out his laptop on the subway, which is always a little odd, even when this happens in DC. I'm think he's going to start crunching numbers in a spreadsheet or something but instead he puts his hand on the keyboard and sits there, a blank state on his face. And yes I realize he might be composing an email suggesting that his superior needs to be replaced by none other than himself, to be sent to his superior's superior. But then I notice that he's just blogging.
After some text-messaging mishaps and afternoon naps, I'm meeting up with the Aussies, Jamison and Cameron (Jam & Cam) in the late afternoon, for Target-sponsored Free Friday Nights at MOMA. Luckily it was nowhere near as crowded as it was last when I went with the Thalhammer's, but last year we got in before the freebies came in, and they looked to be a herd of cattle trying to get in. Maybe we were just a herd of goats this year, but it was manageable.
Afterwards Jam wanted to have a cocktail at the Grammercy Park Hotel, which was swank, swank, swank! We grabbed the last spot avail at the bar, and continued to have our $19 martinis. Yes, that's right, $19. Jamison then proceeded to get us a tour of some of the rooms, with the sales manager, something to do with his job and organizing trips or tours or something. We were showed a one-bedroom, a suite and the hotel guests-only rooftop deck, which was closed in because it's winter, but our brochure showed it during the summer, completely open. It had a great view of the Chrysler Building, and was quite spectacular. Rooms start at $700 per night.
Dinner was across the street at Bread Tribeca, where I had linguini with clams (the clams, while plentiful, could have been a little larger). The calamari appetizer was delish, though. Afterwards we popped into b-flat, a recommendation from the host at Bread, for an evening cocktail to get our night going. Then it was on to Splash, (link has loud sound) for Full Frontal Friday. I don't remember seeing any Full or any Frontal, but it was still a lot of fun. It was easy to lose each other in the crowd, though, and so that made for a kind of awkward evening, trying to find the rest of your party in the club. Regardless, it was another late evening, with the last pic at Splash being taken at 3:12:28 AM.
Thursday March 13 2008 ~ nyc/1
As always when arriving in NYC there is a frenetic energy and I get high simply walking down the street, being a miniscule part of all of energy going on around me. I even enjoy taking the subway while there, as it's new and different and exciting. And this time I maneuvered underground without mistakenly ending up on the express train and taking it all the way to 125th St in Harlem. The place I stay on the W83rd is convenient to the blue A/C/E and the red 1/2/3 lines so it's pretty easy for me to get downtown quickly.
I drop my bags and then head to Canal Street to meet up at Jam & Cam's hotel, the fabulous Tribeca Grand. We meet and have cocktails in the hotel bar, cleverly named Church Lounge. We decide to have a bite to eat, and I'm forgetting the name of the restaurant, but it was a Japanese tapas (sounds odd, doesn't it?) restaurant right down the street, so we opted to stroll there. The food at Tokyo Bar was delicious and the presentation was spectacular, with manga cartoons and highlighting-neon on the walls. I remember my contribution to the tapas-ordering-frency was optopus dumplings. I knew I should have written these things down, but it's hard to text and keep up with two Aussies at the same time. (A more user friendly page with a rundown of Tokyo Bar can be found here).
After dinner we headed out for the evening, pitstopping along the way but ending up at g-lounge in Chelsea. I should have taken more pictures after dinner, but I didn't want to be too obnoxious in the clubs with the flashbulb, especially if I'm doing the double-exposure-flash like you know I like to do.
Thursday March 13 2008 ~ crisis vs victory
Crisis 1: as I'm heading to the bus stop to catch the 10:28 D6, I noticed that there are literally 25–30 kids waiting to get on the bus. It's a field trip or something. So I walk back to the previous stop so that at least I can get on before the swarm does. It was a long 15 blocks to Union Station.
Victory 1: there are electrical outlets on the Amtrak! This means I can watch video (and check email) on the way up without worrying about running down the battery. In the queue: more episodes of Dexter and last night's ANTM.
Crisis 2: My empty seat next to me has been taken. After ignoring all who have boarded after me, as they look around for seats, one man asks if the seat is taken. I move my stuff that had been occupying the seat and he sits down.
Victory 2: I'm here! That was a quick trip. I love taking the train to NYC.
Thursday March 13 2008 ~ baugh
I'm off to the citythatneversleeps! I'll blog from the
road but won't be able to post 'til Sunday night Monday morning afternoon.
Cheers!
Wednesday March 12 2008 ~ all day blong
11:07 pm
After the return of the electricial crew to fix some wiring issues with the
upstairs heat for the J/T's, and a sub-porch party with said J/T's, it's
time to get tomorrow into motion. Luckily, I've already pulled together most
of my essentials for packing.
5:07 pm
Filling and charging my iPod shuffle. I'm going to take this with me for the
transport up and back just in case there is no outlet on the train and I
won't be able to plug in my iPhone. I can't have that iPhone battery drained
by the time I roll into the big city, I've got to hit the ground running!
And the beautiful thing about the shuffle is that I can charge it now and
it will have power for the trip up and back, without having to bring along
cables for it. I'm traveling light: three outfits for four days. Plus essentials.
4:43 pm
The electricians have cleaned up and left, leaving minimal damage, only two
grapefruit-sized holes in the kitchen ceiling and two in the laundry room
ceiling. I thought they were going to have to rip the entire ceiling out.
Now it's time to start getting sorted, laundered, organized and packed for
tomorrow's 11:30 am train. I also think it's time for a rum & diet.
3:36 pm
The bus driver has stopped the bus, exited the bus and helped some children
cross (illegally, I might add) the skreets at Stanton Park.
3:30 pm
The woman in the Jeep Liberty with DC tag 1ANGEL
is experiencing roadrage because the bus I'm on takes up both lanes when it
makes a left-hand turn and she can't pass.
3:18 pm
There us a man on the bus sitting in the lotus
position. He opens the window and pulls a roll of toilet paper put of his timbuk2
bag. He is wearing a digital watch and a rubber band on his wrist and Vuarnet
sunglasses on top of his head. When he exits the bus, leaving a bit of paper
trash, I take his corner seat (traffic side) and once we're moving again
the breeze from the open window feels nice.
2:59 pm
I decided to go to Macy's, where Levi's are
forever on sale, to look at some new jeans for my NYC trip. I might even buy
some up there, or other assorted sundries, but I thought it would be nice to
arrive in new jeans. I also wanted to pick up some new black dress
socks, because I can't figure out where they're all disappearing to. I can't
blame their disappearance on The Twins™ anymore; maybe 1526 is a sox
vortex (SoxTex) and I haven't come to terms with that yet. Hmn.
It turns out Macy's didn't have socks on sale, and I refuse to pay full price for socks, undershirts or utilitarian underwear. So I skipped on the socks. They did, however, have Calvin Klein medium-weight jackets on sale. The forecast us calling for temps in the 40s–50s, and having a new black jacket would make me feel a little special in the City of special people so I purchased that. And I got a $20 coupon for purchases in the next four weeks. That will be put toward my sock fund.
12:57 pm
In true blogger fashion, I have reversed the order of these entries so that
the most recent is on top. Time to go outside and wait for the 1:08 D6!
12:54 pm
Time to run out (I got over my showerphobia). The turmoil in the kitchen is putting
a wrench in my plans of getting prepared for tomorrow with no access to laundry
facilities and no meals basically the kitchen is simply off limits right
now. Plus they're getting ready to start ripping open the ceiling so I guess
I should put the clean dishes away so they don't get ceiling dust all over
them. Now the situation presents itself before me: where to go for lunch?
11:40 am
Working on fuju html updates. I just Twittered that too. I think it may be time
to move this Dreamweaver coding into something a little more entry-friendly,
like Wordpress or Typepad or
something. Any suggestions or recommendations?
11:18 am
Now Steve is back here, again, verifying and supervising the work. I've put on
a pot of coffee. I'd like to take a shower but being wet while all these
wires are getting spliced and diced is maybe not such a good idea.
10:55 am
The electricians, Edwin and Andre, are here at the 1526. When I came home last
night there was no power in the kitchen: no outlets, no frig, no lights. Steve,
the owner of the electrician company, came out last night to see if it was
something as simple as a blown fuse needed to be replaced and it wasn't. His receptacle
tester <insert joke> tested "hot with no neutral". They
seem to have isolated the problem and it seems to be the old wiring in the
overhead light (which, oddly enough, I never use). They're thinking they are
going to have to run new wires from the laundry room, and that's going to mean
bustin' & dronin' some holes in the ceiling. Whether they get this fixed
today or not is the big question. It's not really a big deal for me, since
I'm going out of town tomorrow and the fridge has been shored up with an extension
cord. If all my frozen chicken and salmon and skrumps had thawed, that would
have been a massive Peapod order to replace that!
With electricity, it's all about continuity on the wire. Apparently.
10:14 am
It's nice to have a day off before actually leaving town. Tomorrow I'm off
to New York to visit with Jamison, whom I know from the days in H-Town, but
who now lives down under in Melbourne. Originally the plan was to meet up
in Key West, but that trip was so outrageously expensive that I had to bow
out of that journey. Then I discovered Jamison was going to be in New York
for the week before Key West, and I jumped on that opportunity to spend some
time with him. I think it's been seven or eight years since the last time
I've seen him? That was in New Orleans, pre-Katrina and even pre-9/11. So
that had to be the spring of 2001 or even 2000.
It's been so long that I don't even have any digital photos of that time, not everyone had digicams then, much less a camera built into their phone. Did I even have a cellphone back then? I don't think so!
Tuesday March 11 2008 ~ who wants to go?
From the press release:
Duran Duran roll out their 2008 RED CARPET MASSACRE North American Tour
Speaking from their studio in London, where the band are currently in the middle of tour rehearsals, Duran Duran front-man Simon LeBon, said today... “These are going to be extremely exciting shows for us—taking a very different format to the last world tour we did in 2006. We are introducing a lot of new elements to the show both musically and in terms of the staging. We have been working on completely different arrangements for some of the older material and will be integrating a lot of our latest record into the performances. We need to keep things fresh—not only for ourselves, but also for our audiences, who can be assured of a lot of surprises with this new production.”
April 29th Vancouver, BC General Motors Place
April 30th Seattle, WA WaMu Theater
May 2nd Concord, CA Sleep Train Pavilion
May 3rd Santa Barbara, CA Santa Barbara Bowl
May 4th Los Angeles, CA Nokia Theatre
May 6th Phoenix, AZ Dodge Theatre
May 8th San Diego, CA Valley View
May 9th Las Vegas, NV The Joint May 10th Las Vegas, NV The Joint
May 12th Denver, CO Wells Fargo Theatre
May 14th Chicago, IL Rosemont Theatre
May 15th Detroit, MI Masonic Temple Theatre
May 17th Atlanta, GA Chastain Park Amphitheatre (already on sale)
May 18th Orlando, FL UCF Arena
May 19th Boca Raton, FL Mizner Park Amphitheatre
May 21st Raleigh, NC Koka Booth Amphitheatre
May 22nd Philadelphia, PA Mann Center for the Performing Arts
May 24 Paradise Island, Bahamas Atlantis
May 27th Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion
May 28th Boston, MA Agganis Arena
May 30th New York, NY Central Park Summerstage
May 31st New York, NY Central Park Summerstage
Monday March 10 2008 ~ traveling underground as much as i do, it really doesn't matter if it's light out or not
Just as I was starting to welcome the early morning light, as I wouldn't have to turn on lamps to get get dressed or stand at the bus stop in total darkness, the gub'm'nt has imposed Daylight Saving Time. It's apparently supposed to help farmers or Nixon deal with the energy crisis or allow suburban kids to play soccer later into the evenings, I forget. All I know is that I'm now plunged back into total darkness, making it that much harder to get my ass out of bed in the morning. And I still didn't make it home until well after sundown.
Sunday March 09 2008 ~ drinkin' the kool-aid
In my last 30 days with my iPhone, I've realized that this device I'm typing on right now is so much more than a "smart" phone. For my usage, the phone application is actually the one that I use the least.
With the RAZR, everything was a nightmare, usually having to drill down six menus just to get to a simple volume or preference change, and while the BlackBerry was sufficient for email and text communications, the internet usage was horrid and the screen was about as big as a matchbook.
On the iPhone, text-based communication (and set-up of accounts) is a snap, plus it has a video iPod, a camera, one-touch access to Google maps with navigations that accesses and knows locations from my Contacts, and an actual web browser that displays pages as you would see them on a desktop display. Plus it has calendars and photos that seamlessly sync with my computer everytime I plug it in for recharging. And one of the neatest features (and most damaging to my bottom line) is that I can wirelessly access the iTunes store at any time to download new music to immediately listen to.
On Thursday, Apple announced details of the future of
the iPhone platform. Actually they showed the details while making announcements
of the official Software Developer Kit (SDK). Let me backtrack again. Apple
made announcements while the developers showed demonstrations of software builds
that compiled during a two week period. While not knowing anything about writing
code, it all seemed pretty amazing.
Demos were made by Electronic Arts, Sega, AOL and other companies that are more business software oriented. The email is also being enhanced for push-technology, which will benefit iPhone being used by business customers. But the really brilliant piece presented is that all new 3rd party applications will be distributed the same way on the iPhone as the iTunes store method, with a new icon on the desktop that will wirelessly download and install new apps, on the fly. The Apps Store, as it is to be called, features a blue 'spinart' icon, similar to the purple iTunes button currently in use, with a pen, paint brush and ruler forming an "A", similar to the old AppleWorks logo. During the presentation (which can be viewed here) I noticed the iTunes button will be changed from the current "download arrow" icon to one similar to the iTunes double eighth-note logo we're all familiar with. This makes sense, since music will no longer be the only commodities for downloading come June, when these software updates will be available.
UPDATE: here are screenshots of the difference between the two purple iTunes download logos. Also, they mention that the Calculator icon has been updated with rounded-corner square buttons instead of the current circular buttons.
Thursday March 06 2008 ~ as of yet untitled
Wednesday March 05 2008 ~ turning minutes into hours
Since today is my last day of PJ:IvanWatch (read: having a borrowed car) I decided to time my daily commute so I could have numbers to compare to my normal daily grind of bus/train/train/bus or bike/train/train/bus or bus/train/walk. I like to shake it up.
So normally as I'm sans car, I catch the 7:09 D6 as the first leg. This combination will get me to work in time for my 8:30 meeting, with enough time to spare in case the trains are running late (which is most of the time, btw) because of something as simple as leaving a briefcase unattended at a rail station 20 miles away, forcing me to catch a later (final) bus. This total one-way commute usually takes about 1.5 hours (8:30 - 7:09 = 1:21). Today I left at 7:53 (about the time I'm normally getting off the train at Braddock Road Station, waiting for the final connection) and I made it to work at 8:16, a total of 23 minutes.
On my return commute, normally I leave at 5:30 and do not get home until about 7:15, if everything runs on time (7:15 - 5:30 = 1:15). Today, driving, I left work at 5:38 and walked in the door at 1526 at 6:02. That's 24 minutes.
In summary, that's 58 minutes in the morning and 51 minutes in the evening, for a total of 01:49 of my life every day, 245 times a year. That equals 26,705 minutes, or 445 hours + five minutes that I will spend on public transportation each year. Tired of me complaining about this? Yeah, me too.
---
PJ, day seven on IvanWatch:
Tuesday March 04 2008 ~ dis-googled
These are some examples of the google's Earth that have
not been updated, due to road construction, a once white-hot housing market
or government trying to safeguard its assets from its denizens terrorists
in truck bombs. Can you identify these locations and what has changed?
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PJ, day six on IvanWatch:
Monday March 03 2008 ~ visitor pass c-22993
Instead of doing my 27-minute running training, I ducked into Harold's hour-long Advanced Step class. Is that so bad?
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PJ, day five on IvanWatch:
Sunday March 02 2008 ~ visitor pass c-22993
Driving a car through Arlington Cemetery is certainly a different feeling than busting through on a bicycle. In a car it is more reverent, from the crawling along at 10 miles per hour to the solemn looks I'm given by those walking which seem to say: you have a permanent Visitor's Pass on your dashboard, you belong here, we are only sightseeing.
When I arrive at my Mother's grave, the guy who is always there on Sunday's is there again. He sits near a headstone two rows back from my Mother's. I've seen him a lot in the last eight months, and I right his flowers if they've blown over in the wind when he is not there. It is only the two of us there and I introduce myself. I find out his name is Carlos (USN Retired), and it's his wife's grave that he is visiting. She died from an asthma attack last spring. She was 52. He asks about my Mother, and we exchange condolences and "have a good day's" and then part. I'm sure I'll see him again soon.
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PJ, day four on IvanWatch:
Saturday March 01 2008 ~ pj photoshoot
Day three on IvanWatch:
