Tuesday, November 30, 2004

some things just astound me...

my battery life, for example. i unplugged my phone around noon on friday. went through all sorts of bad-reception areas, made a few calls... phone didn't need to be plugged in until monday morning. it was fully charged by monday afternoon, so i unplugged it and brought it with me when we went to pick up the mail or something like that. brought it back, put it on top of matt's tower, where it always is.

... it is now down to one battery bar. don't know how long it's been there, but it's there. yeah.

Monday, November 29, 2004

afterthoughts

did i mention that i'm markedly more agressive than normal, as well? and considering me... well, yeah.

also, i was just thinking about the spree's suspension from... what? 7 years ago? something like that. i googled for an article on it, but only found "five years later" ones (there were three... and i didn't look past reading those three). the first had an all-too pessimistic view on the whole thing, and bashes latrell as if he's just "that kind of guy" and was trying to cover up for it.

how angry did spree look at the time, every time you saw him? how about now, with the t-wolves? did you ever see that smile when he was with the warriors? i know some of you are going to tell me that he was angry because his team was loosing, or that he just needed to grow up... but can you honestly tell me that you don't have an inkling of suspicion toward pj carlesimo now that you see how nice spree can be?

it's like 'sheed when he was with the blazers. that whole organization has something out of whack with it. he was the bad boy. i remember him hitting sabonis in the face with a towel after arvydas committed a (really) stupid foul against fox... supposedly because sabonis accidently hit him in the face during practice that morning.

now fast-forward to the rumble in the palace. 'sheed was the peacemaker. he was the one putting his body between big ben and... well, the entire pacer team. he was the one telling people to forget about it. he was the one trying to pull players out of the stands. this seem like the same guy to you?

i'm not saying that you have the right to choke someone if he insults your mother. i'm not saying that you have an excuse for being aggressive if you're surrounded by agressive people. but somewhere along the way, you have to admit that some some organizations, and some coaches (*cough*georgekarl*cough*), affect players negatively.

let's suppose for a minute that 'sheed really was the ticking timebomb he appeared to be while he was in portland. he was a team captain. he and bonzi wells. with those two characters for captains, how do you expect your team to behave?

i know i keep saying this, but i think that being traded to detroit was the best thing that ever happened to rasheed wallace (nba-wise, at least). not because it got him a ring, but because it allows him to be human. and a humanitarian.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

there's something in the air...

... or in the water, or in the stars, or something... fight at the palace last friday, obviously. the one at clemson the next day. the high school brawl. yuk.

as much as i don't like artest (as anybody who's ever heard me even mention his name before knows), i really don't think he should have gotten the rest of the season off. stephen jackson was much scarier than artest was (he was ready to *go* the whole time, and i think he threw the first punch in the stands), and he only got 30 games. not to say that artest was less at fault; just comparing the severity of the suspensions. of course, now artest has all the promotion time he could ask for...

i think ben wallace's suspension was too long, too, but in his case, i think it might actually be a good thing. he's probably still got his emotions running high (both from the brawl and his recent family tragedy), and a few games off might help him a bit. from what i've read, he's not even travelling with the team right now anyway, since he can't go to the games. so it's probably some good time off for him, at home, with his family. except for the loss of huge amounts of money part. but, of course, considering how much he makes, it may not be that huge a loss to him... not that i would know either way...

artests's statements about that night are much better than wallace's, though that may reflect a difference in personality more than a difference in attitude toward the incident. artest, however fucks it all up with his shitty "oh, and pick up the new cd i produced..." bit. dude, we know you have a cd. you got in trouble for asking to promote it. stop poisoning your apologies with lines for gain.


and then there was our game. now, i know i have a horrible tendency to blame refs for being human, but this game... first downs were given more freely in one direction, while measurements were taken more often in the other. spotting was spotty. pass interference wasn't being called when it blatently happened, and called when it barely happened. my point of contention in this is... yes, they may be human, but when you're throwing late flags for one team's whining players and putting your hand in the other team's faces, there's something wrong. okay, so you didn't see the guy spit in his face... but do you see the spit on his face? oh, you still can't call it? then how can your colleague throw a flag on a play he didn't think merited one until the player threw a tantrum in front of him? apparently we're pleading our case to the wrong ref 'cause the one on the other side of the field (side, not end) seems happy to listen to unfounded claims.

the reality of the situation is that a college field is still somewhat of a playground. you don't have enough teachers to watch every kid, every minute. cameras don't catch everything. i would be surprised of the player (whoever he was) gets any sort of punishment for spitting in another player's face. but we knew what he did. and then our d showed them what happens when you piss off hokies, even in the red zone.

... if only we didn't have to be mad to do things like that...

***
i'd never heard the word "coldcocked" until the incident on friday. now i've heard it and seen it so much, i wonder if it's going to be the new "from downtown"-type in-phrase. this one, i think, came from jim gray, not bill walton.

got my firmware updated over the break. hope this solves some things. one thing i've noticed is that the volume out the earpiece seems to be much louder. might just be my imagination, but i'm not complaining =]

Saturday, November 13, 2004

a moment was happening... and you ruined it.

juxta. always special. always fun. something's missing...

a good chunk of the concert was old music. zack took over "clocks" (from nate) and "your body is wonderland" (from chris). josh and matt took dave's old solos ("slide" and "here is gone," i think...). didn't really miss chris or nate (they didn't do any michael jackson), but listening to others sing dave's songs was really painful. like, sad painful.

the group sent off a good chunk of its members at spring concert last year. i knew things weren't going to be the same this year. but hey, at least dave didn't get one of those wall-thingies. that meant he was staying, right? he was the truly exceptional soloist of the group. and he wasn't there anymore. due to "circumstances beyond his control." greatest tragedy of the night.

al... his voice sounded supported, but thin. which could have been because of the amps being equalized funny. but he just sounded... maybe it just sounded unbalanced. guess i'll have to sit closer (so i can hear the guys instead of the speakers), attend a non-amped concert (kicking myself for missing juxta and java earlier this week), or somehow manage to hear them un-mic'd differently.

speaking of un-mic'd performances... dave once performed an entire solo un-mic'd, while everybody else was... my guess is that, if anybody can do it now, it would be josh/james. but i wouldn't bet on it.

intermission was the virginia belles (of uva). what crap. unsupported, un-energized, limited range... not everybody, but nearly everybody. and these were the solists. especially the chick that sang "toxic." what a nightmare. she would go from chest notes straight to head notes. that's right, randomly busting out the falsetto. painful.

chick that sang "whose bed have your boots been under?" was cute. at least i thought so. matt didn't like her hair. anyway, have nothing to say against her singing. nice voice, good energy, sufficient support. nothing dazzling, though. and i thought she was hot.

end of intermission brought jeff and dave to the stage. scratching and beatboxing, of course. guys came out... i thought maybe they would have joined them. no such luck.

i should have thought ahead. i was thinking of bringing matt's camera, but i figured... why would i record anything? i should have remembered "shake your booty."

***
oh, and did i mention that matt cried? last time he was to sing magic with the guys. from the back of your big brown eyes...

also... i lost all my notes for the rest of this post because of the damn wysiwyg editor trying to convert my <>'d notes into html tags. bitchy.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

happy tummy =D

had a craving for duck... ordered chinese...

after i started shoveling stuff onto a plate, and i just thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world. grabbed matt's camera, took a snapshot... then grabbed mine and did the same thing. both were on full automatic.

on the laptop right now, so i can't do any real comparison (stupid lcds), but i'll put them both up anyway (hey, if his is better, i'm not one to try to hide it... just no commentary on the differences yet):

matt's - sony cybershot dsc-w1
mine
- canon powershot s50


anyway, ate dinner afterwards, and... my tummy hasn't been that happy in a long time..

i think my my mind is going... i can't keep my train of...
i don't have a train...

i probably came here to post something...

yeah, so the title field in the blog entry thing... somehow has the same name as the search field at mua. so when i clicked on the title field to type in a title, all my past searches came up in the drop-down that firefox so politely offers. yes, i want my blog titled "glycolic acid."

i came here a few days ago to say something about the election, but blogger was down (hmm... apparently the election is a large blogging milestone...), so, yeah... none of that. i'm sure everything that needs to be said has been said somewhere already, so i'll just leave the subject with one of the best by-products of the election... the mass-assumption apology pictures:

i love old people. the funny ones, anyway.
oops! - probably my favorite picture on the site
they come in pairs, too - with a sense of humor
looks can be deceiving - awesome
and they pout - i'm not even sure if she's trying to be funny...
and, of course, i also love...
the dorks - at least these showed their faces...
hello world - updated, and with a twist
mac user? - i'm not even sure what to think of this one...
some funny people hide their faces too...
athiest? - maybe, but more respect (from me) if they believe in "God"
font whores (ie: me), when browsing in jpeg form, become handwriting whores
graffiti - asian chicks often have grafitti handwriting that i love... but not me...
another - hmm... also asian... (so why not meeeee?) love the "california" part
a little late for halloween, but...
scary! - okay, maybe not *that* scary... but something about this guy leaning over the camera (and therefore, me) gets to my stomach...
ones i have to apologize for/to (also kinda scary...)
it's not the dress - sorry... not that i'm trying to be mean, but it's just not.
no goddamn excuse - ? for the choker that makes your neck look two inches wider?
and must people resort to...
child abuse? - okay, maybe just exploiting a cute face, but...
crying - usually isn't a sign of a happy child
better to look at... chickies!
recording chick - is this chick supposed to be famous...?
this one probably isn't - but she looks like she's in a public service announcement
travis county seems to have some of the hottest chicks
black & white - one of the first on the site
another - i wonder if they know each other... "don't blow us up"
but what about florida
maybe - well, maybe...
on her back - is this real?
and this chick is...
very goddamn sorry - don't know where she's from, but i just like her... maybe 'cause her eyes remind me of my wifey =D

working on an animal portion of this. while i don't support animals and children as political statements (they don't understand what you're doing to them!), i saw one that was just too damn funny to leave out. and now i can't find it...


yeah, so my phone's been having issues lately... first, it wasn't ringing all the time when my parents called (but not anybody else, as far as i can tell...), so i'd end up getting phone mail from my parents without a missed call while my phone was sitting in full service. lovely.

middle of last week, it started randomly losing signal. and i don't mean drop to no bars like it used to... i mean "no signal." poking at it a bit helped sometimes, and i've never been in a situation where i couldn't get the signal back, so i wasn't *too* worried. it worsened at the end of last week to where it was bouncing around between no signal and a signal with no bars (a condition under which my phone can actually place and receive calls), but it turned out that matt's phone was doing the same thing at the time, so i'm going to blame that on a transient network problem.

now, my feelings toward my phone rise and fall like the tides... thought it had bad reception, just to find that it can hold an extremely stable call with nearly no reception (stable being no breaks in sound... calls still get dropped sometimes, but that's usually when i call with one or no reception bars). it's a really quiet phone, but the sound quality is better than most cells i've heard or tried, and it's not a problem when i use my headset (a motorola-specific one with the answer/hangup/redial/dialout button =D). of course, the low volume on ringers would be more forgivable if the phone's vibrate function worked enough to alert you when it's not in your pocket (holster or purse).

and then there's the crashing. the damn thing froze the first week i had it. i looked over at it about ten minutes after putting it down, and the outside lcd was still lit. and it still had the time from when i set it down. opening, closing, and butting mashing had no affect, so i pulled out the battery. hasn't done it since, but it does have a bunch of strange bugs. and it's slow.

when the hinge cracked, i was torn between being mad about the design flaw and being sad that my phone-phone was breaking. i'm still not sure what to think, but i have yet to hear of one doing any more than cracking... <knocks on wood>

but i'm willing to put up with this stuff because i'm not willing to trade my problems for others' problems. i have an ouside lcd, for one, and it's monochrome. and i don't mean like a gameboy, or the old samsungs. it's "on" is as dark as my watch lcd (there's no visible space between the pixels, but i doubt that's even a problem with phones now), but the background is silver instead of greenish, making it even more readable. most other phones can't be read in the sun, which leaves you with only your ringtones when you receive a call in the sun. the inside lcd is still color, which gives it the same problems as the others when it comes to making calls, though. and for a color lcd, it sucks (4k color depth... what is that about?), but i don't even need color, so that's not a problem.

and it's tri-mode, which, unfortunately, is rare. i just know that, if i get an all-digital phone, i'm going to get stuck somewhere with only analog signal, unable to make my emergency phone call. i like the interface design (except for the backwards hangup/call buttons, which has me dysfunctional on other phones now), and i love the voice button.

but tonight, i checked my phone (a habit i've gotten into after discovering my phone sitting in no service a few times last week), and the battery was down to one bar. not an uncommon occurence, considering my phone's battery life is about a day and a half on standby and an hour and a half talktime, but i had just unplugged it a few hours prior (less than half a day), and i hadn't talked on it at all. it had been in service every time i checked it, and the battery wasn't warm (which it tends to get when it's looking for a signal). it's a lithium ion battery, and i conditioned it properly when i got the phone... so if this is how the battery behaves... i don't know what to think. i'll update the issue when something else happens, or when i get my ass to the verizon service center.


and... blogger has been fucking with its entry interface again. it no longer reads my double spaces (poopy), and it does generally strange things. like, it's supposed to be wysiwyg (i think), but i typed "<cell phone stuff>," and it translated it to a "<cell>" tag. i thought it might be a fluke, so i typed it again, and it did it again... so i deleted it all, and used "&lt;" insead of "<" well, for some reason, instead of deleting the <cell> tags, it hid them from me... which i only found because i went into the html editor to check a link (did i mention that you have no way of editing a link once you create it?).

i think i liked it better in the old days when i used html tags instead of those stupid little buttons. i'd use them now, but they only seem to work half the time (and only when i don't want them to).

of course, it's a free service, and it's still easier than doing everything by hand, so... just ranting, no complaints...

***

*UPDATE: i've discovered that the lack of cell phone ringage has nothing to do with the fact that nobody wants to talk to me (okay, so maybe it still does... but there are other reasons!). calls to my cell have gone straight to voicemail. i don't mean that half-assed "i'm trying to ring the phone, so i'll just ring in your ear three times before i kick you to voicemail" crap that my parents were experiencing... i mean, seriously, you dial the number, you get voicemail.

i checked this while my phone was showing three bars signal, and same thing... then i tried to make a call out from my phone, and it got stuck on connecting... no calls out, either, huh? tried rebooting the phone to see if it would behave, and then damn thing wouldn't turn off. it acted like it did: it turned off the internal display... and it got stuck. i only found out when i couldn't turn the damn thing back on... then i found that the outside display still said "verizon wireless," which is what it always says when you're turning it off... but, most of the time, it goes away.

of course, pulling out the battery makes it good as new. as always.

when matt goes to the service center to address his issues with his keypad (his 6 only works if you press it really hard, and the 9's slightly on the fritz too), i'm going with him... problem is, as above, i don't think i want a new phone... i just want the issues to be fixed with my phone (battery that lasts at least a day with average usage and, most importantly, os stability!)

anybody know if they have a firmware update for my phone?