Oh really fool... er, iPhone?

I have arrived. Not only am I tech-savvy enough to be sporting Apple's newest installment of technological magic, I am also cool enough to blog about it. And after having the iPhone 4 for only 3 hours, I have a few observations, complaints, suggestions and compliments.

First of all, compliments to my wife, TH, who showed up at the Perimeter Apple store with the penultimate of Apple faithful, the second day iPhone devotees who for various reasons couldn't make it on opening day. She only waited for about 90 minutes to get a 16GB, black iPhone 4. Because she wants the white one, which has not been released, I get this one. She is great.

Moving on, I am still disappointed in the iPhone's inability to take a picture of itself. I had to get these photos with my old iPhone 3GS.

As can be seen in this photo, one of the major disappointments of the iPhone 4 is it's sheer size. Here it is compared to a 1979 Piper Archer propeller driven airplane. The iPhone's enormous size and subsequent weight hinders its functionality and was an obvious oversight in all phases of production.

The camera is pretty awesome though. It's got a flash and a photo can be taken from the front or back. The back plate is now all glass and the phone itself feels more comfortable as a handset next to my ear. Steve Jobs went on and on about the screen resolution. Some mumbo-jumbo about the screen resolution being sharper than the normal person's eye can process. I think he was just confusing that with a normal person's ability to process the BS that frequently comes spewing out of his mouth.

Apple is art. Plain and simple. It's not the most functional phone out there but it's pretty and sleek and a lot of fun to play with. That's why I keep getting one.

And as in last iPhone installments, I'm still waiting for iPhone to become self-aware.

If you boycott BP you are a complete idiot

For the record, I know that many moons ago, I said we wouldn't be discussing political or politically related issues on this blog. Well, its my damn blog and I'm going to break the rules. If you are unhappy with my political leanings or issues on certain topics, I don't give a damn. And if you are seriously boycotting British Petroleum, you are an idiot.

British Petroleum is no doubt responsible for the worst environmental catastrophe in the history of our country. They are liable and likely negligent as more information comes out about their lack of safety and disaster preparation.

What really irks me about this whole thing is that to be a fat, dumb and happy American requires that you watch a few 22 second news clips depicting some poor sap of an oil-stained pelican being washed in Palmolive dish detergent, become righteously indignant and proclaim that your giant moral stand will come in the form of joining a Facebook page called "Boycott BP". Then, shortly before you fall asleep feeling all warm and fuzzy on the inside because your moral stand will somehow magically save 17 crude-coated sea turtles, you realize that you have actually done nothing more than convince some other idiots more pretentious than you to specifically avoid patronizing BP. The end result is that the small business owner who owns the BP station and does not work for BP will be forced to layoff the overnight kid who works the register while trying to get through college. Then the stock takes a hit and pensions, pensions belonging to policemen, firefighters, teachers who have investments tied up in BP begin to suffer. And then BP has no money and you switch to the Facebook group "Make BP pay for the cleanup!!" except BP doesn't have any more money because you bought the gas for your SUV from Chevron because it made you feel better about the damn Pelican.

Really people, think this one through. I'm not letting BP off the hook, I'm just trying to point out that college freshman activism is cute until you start looking at the big picture and realize that it's a bit more complex than "Boycott BP" and that really, we're all in this together.

Call Failed

It is no secret that I am, on a good day, moderately upset with At&t and on the worst of days, steam-coming-out-of-my-ears, terrifyingly incensed. And just when I thought their service couldn't get any worse, that they couldn't drop any more calls than the 17 I experience before noon on any given weekday, they reached a new low. My At&t sponsored iPhone actually dropped a call before I could make it. Not kidding. All I did was think about calling TH and the all too familiar "call failed" screen displayed on my curiously omnipotent iPhone. It may be that At&t Wireless has become self-aware and finds purpose in torturing me with dropped calls and weak signals, that its evolution into intelligence is fueled by its ability to frustrate and torment. Having an At&t phone in Atlanta is a foray into the depths of Hades that I wish upon no one. iPhone is in desparate need of replacement but I'm holding out hope that Verizon comes along with the iPhone so that I don't have to lock myself up in the Alcatrazesque prison known as At&t Wireless contract.

In other news....

Check out my new office here. Well, one of them. This one doesn't actually fly but you can certainly pretend for $175 an hour.