Quote of the day
"Sam, you are a pyromaniac in a field of straw men" George Will to Sam Donaldson during a debate on the stimulus on This Week
Today's Fun Fact
The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the MLB all-star game. And since the day before the all-star game has the Home-run derby, that really makes only one truly sportsless day.
I continue to be unbelievably swamped at work and I continue to know that no one cares about my excuses.
This week I took two great leaps forward into the 21st century. The first leap was with my cell phone. I no longer am stuck with my wife's used, pink Razr that I have been toting around for the last year. Even though I had purchased a Cubs cover for it in a feeble attempt to hide my shame, all that really did was manage to call attention to the little pieces of bright pink that shone through. I had been hoping to hold out for an iPhone but with our T-Mobile contract that wasn't going to happen for another year, so I went with the G1 (i.e. the Google phone) instead. Haven't had time to try out all the bells and whistles yet but so far I like it. Surfing the net is fast and just as convenient as on the iPhone and I like the one-touch access to Gmail. Another feature that I think is really cool (although I haven't used yet) is that it has a UPC scanner so if you're in a store and see something you like you can scan it and it will instantly do a search for the best price for that product so you can avoid getting hosed on the price and/or making another trip to return it.
The other leap forward was that I finally got my Kindle yesterday. I had ordered it on Christmas day but everything was backordered for so long that I just got it now. Personally, I think the reason everything was backed up was because they knew that they were releasing the Kindle 2 in late February and they didn't want to keep shipping 1st-generation Kindles and then come out with the upgraded version a month later. I always joked that the new Kindle would come out a week after I got mine, but I truthfully would have been super pissed if that had really happened. Fortunately, they upgraded everyone who had not received their Kindle yet so I can now say that I am one of the 1st people to receive a Kindle 2. Have only played around with it a little since I am (gasp) still reading an actual book, but everything I've tried has worked exactly as advertised. It accesses the Kindle store via a wireless network and you can easily download almost any book you can think of in about a minute. I also signed up for a 2-week free trial of the New York Times and when I woke up this morning it had already downloaded it and it was waiting for me. I also found out that you can e-mail Word documents and PDFs to it so that you can read those as well on it. You basically never really need to carry around a piece of paper ever again (except for my Economist, which isn't available for the Kindle yet). A couple other neat things: you can underline and save passages you like to "My clippings" to share with other people later, you can add notes anywhere, it can hold over 1500 books and even after you delete them off the device Amazon stores them for you and you can add them back at any time, you get instant access to Wikipedia, and you can also just move the cursor to any word you don't understand and it instantly gives you the definition. Lastly, they have this interesting but weird "text-to-speech" function where the device will actually read to you. It's an odd robotic voice that obviously can't get the intonation and emphasis right but it does work. Probably something I'll never use, but it's still neat. OK, here ends the commercial for the Kindle.
Both of these new toys will get good use during our trip out to Phoenix next week! We leave on Friday and are seeing 4 Cubs games (including 2 Cubs vs. Sox). We're also taking a side trip up to Vegas next Wednesday to see the Cubs game there and also see Love, which I have heard amazing things about. It would also be nice if during that trip I could leave Vegas a winner for once but we all know that's not gonna happen.
In any case, I will try to get a blog of some substance together before we leave or, if nothing else, will blog from the laptop poolside just to make everyone jealous.
Hope everyone is having a good week!
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7 comments:
1. The Home Run Derby does not count as 'sports.'
2. I am really interested in the Kindle and would like to hear a review from you in a couple months after you've gotten some time in on it. I hear the text-to-speech feature is causing some problems with the audiobook people though. Also, does it strike you as odd that the Kindle looks eerily similar to the "pads" they used on Star Trek? Like this one.
3. Fuck you, I don't have a 3. Have fun on your trip. Go Sox.
*poke poke*
When do we get a new blog entry?
Here's a topic: In The Economist this week they said we should give up and legalize drugs, as it is the only way to rein in the drug trade and the bloodshed that goes with it. Your take?
Also, they hinted at the idea that Prohibition in the 20s was a contributing factor in poisoning the economy and (along with other things) may have eventually led to the stock market crash. Yes, no?
Finally, what, if any, parallel exists with today? Global drug trade, flattening earth, ever-strengthening links between world banks, governments, armies, supply chains, etc.
Go.
If we're suggesting topics I'd like to hear what you think should happen to the Madoff investors.
I'm seeing people suggest that people who lost money should get it back.
I'm also hearing people suggest that people who MADE money should give it back.
I'm also hearing that people should get back the taxes they paid on 'false' profits.
I find all of these ideas (especially the second one) to be spectacularly ridiculous, but I am frequently stupid and would like to hear your opinion.
I know, I know. I completely suck. Thank you for the topic suggestions; I will try to write up something about each of them (since I do have thoughts about them) in the next couple days but I have just been crazy busy. I have curling games tonight and tomorrow night and then I leave on Wednesday night and . . .let's face it I pretty much won't be sober from Wednedsay - Sunday (at least not enough to write a coherent blog). And of course since I was out on vacation and am taking two days off this week work is just piling on.
I'm sure you all are thrilled to be reading about all my excuses; just wanted to let you know that I do appreciate the suggestions and I did not intend to be such a slacker.
Where are you going that your sobriety will be on vacation for 5 days?
Almost every year since college I go away with some of my high school friends to watch the first weekend of the tournament. This year we're going up to a lakehouse just north of Madison.
I, for one, vote you blog drunk... It'd be nice to win an argument with you at least once :-)
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