‘Apple’ Posts(2)

The quick brown fox jumped over the good, but lazy Parker family.

ipod

Wednesday, 24 February 2010

I’ve been without my music for about six weeks now.

I really only use my iPod during work or commute (and I’ve been on leave) and then something got nosed up in Austin that caused all my music to disappear.

so, when I finally got things straigtened out last night, it was a bit like the scene from it’s a wonderful life when Jimmy Stewart runs up and down mainstreet:

Look, it’s the good old Sleater-Kinney! And there’s Kate Nash! Kathleen Edwards! Oh, Liz Phair, perhaps I missed you most of all.

it’s probably a sign i need therapy … or better taste in music.

how at&t has made me hate my iphone

Wednesday, 6 January 2010

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I think I should have guessed something was wrong last fall, when i accidentally left my iPhone in the car overnight. the next morning, when i realized what i had done, i secretly wished that my window had been smashed in and my iPhone taken.

Rock bottom came two months later, when I dreamed that my iPhone was stolen … and i woke up bummed that it didn’t actually happen.

Don’t get me wrong, i love my iPhone. It’s arguably the best thing that I have ever owned. it’s just not a phone — because for it to be a phone, i’d have to occasionally get AT&T coverage within the borders of Washington, DC.

It turns out that my problem is a mixture of the science behind AT&T’s network, and location-location-location. The range of each cell tower shrinks as more and more people us that particular tower. In DC, all the towers are on the beltway. When the network gets busy, the coverage retreats from the center of the city towards the edges … which is exactly where I don’t live.

So, once the new version of the iPhone came out (and another gazillion people started using AT&T’s network) my reception went from spotty to non-existant.

When I walk around Mount Pleasant on an average day, I get limited, spotty access to AT&T’s vinatge EDGE network. I’ll average about two hours of cell coverage a day in my house, but more often than not those tenuous bars disappear as soon as I try and make a call.

In Columbia Heights, I don’t even get that … my phone tells me I’m roaming. Last week, I actually ducked into the Columbia Heights metro station because I needed to make a call. As far as i can tell, the best chance of getting a signal up here is to go underground.

To date, my only hope for salvation comes because Gizmodo.com is giving away a new Google Android if you write in to them and tell them why you deserve one. Which I did.

I need it because I’ve had 36 dropped calls in one day … because I regularly get voicemails a week after they are sent and text messages the following morning … because I now give my wife’s cell phone number out to friends and family … because I can’t stand the thought of riding out the last 6 months of my current phone contract.

So far, they have had 12,000+ comments, so I’m guessing i’m not going to be first in line to win. Either way, my contract with AT&T is up this summer, and once it expires, i’ll be long gone.

It turns out that it doesn’t matter how great your phone is, if your network blows chunks.

PHOTOS: Street in Mount Pleasant, DC by Chambo25 via a Creative Commons license; Darth Phone image courtesy Gizmodo.com.

bad facebook meme week, part three: iphone psychologist

Friday, 6 March 2009

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in part three of “bad facebook meme” week, I’m supposed to shuffle my iPhone and use the first twenty song titles to answer the questions below:

what do your friends think of you?
imaginary (evanescense)

what if someone says you’re okay?
under the weather (kt tunstall)

how would you describe yourself?
buffalo (kathleen edwards)

what do you like in a [wife]?
stay (dave matthews band)

how do you feel today?
it’s the end of the world (REM)

what is your life’s purpose?
the mercy of the fallen (dar williams)

what is your motto?
lazy dreamer (liz phair)

what do you think about often?
city of blinding lights (U2)

what is 2 + 2?
chloe dancer (mother love bone)

what do you think of your best friend?
fuck and run (liz phair)

what do you think of your love interest?
who’s to say (vanessa carlton)

what describes your life story?
wish you were here (rasputina)

what do you want to be when you grow up?
crazy in love (beyonce)

what [did] you dance to at your wedding?
love me two times (the doors)

what will they play at your funeral?
hey, jupiter (tori amos)

what is your hobby?
hurt (johnny cash)

what is your biggest fear?
grey street (dave matthews band)

what is your biggest secret?
freakshow (muffy nixon)

what do you think of your friends?
pumpkin soup (kate nash)

what will you post this as?
in my head (anna nalick)

some of these are disturbingly telling …

hiking in rock creek park (why we love dc #9)

Sunday, 28 September 2008

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it turns out that rock creek park (of Chandra Levy fame) has a network of trails … *actual* trails with switchbacks, elevation gain, wildlife, streams, and mud. not just the paved rec paths or glorified sidewalks you would imagine in a city park.

it amazes me that residents of Mt. Pleasant won’t shut up about the glory that is the National Zoo — though it is pretty awesome — and yet they neglect to mention the National Park-grade liking trails less than three blocks away.

even more stupefying is that we had the trails to our selves. sans a couple or dog owners and a pair of septuagenarians warning us about the perils of poison ivy (they had just been interviewed by News Channel 8 on the topic) there was nary a human in sight on a stunningly beautiful Sunday afternoon.

there are two main trails around the park … the western ridge trail and the valley trail. we looped through the bottom third of both in about two hours. the trails go from the Zoo all the way up to Maryland, but we weren’t that brave (and, frankly, should have been in better shoes).

we did get lost (yes, in rock creek park) and used my fancy-pants new iPhone’s GPS locator-thingy to save our bacon. I’d like to think that the coolness of the iPhone balances embarrassment of actually using it in the “wilderness” … but, sadly, it’s still just humiliating.

speaking of maps, those provided by the Park Service show the trails as one unintelligible smudge, which makes navigation (without an iPhone) that much more exciting. there are larger, more printer friendly rock creek trail maps here:

Map: Hiking Trails in Rock Creek Park (South)
Map: Hiking Trails in Rock Creek Park (North)

Explore the Photoset:
Hiking in Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC

iPhone makes wife love you

Monday, 22 September 2008

on the way back from the airport last night, i had my first “come to Jesus” moment with my new, beloved iPhone …

it was late(ish) and we needed to get some food. there is nothing around the airport (bwi, yick…) and the lady sparkler said she wanted something that wasn’t fast food … like maybe baja fresh or panera, and then proceeded to start chatting up her cell phone.

so, ever looking for reasons to play with “my precious,” i brought up the fancy GPS/map thing, and typed in baja fresh. it immediately brought up my location, the location of the closest baja fresh (8.2 miles towards D.C.), plotted directions for me, and then proceeded to blink a blue dot to guide me in.

this, in itself, should have been enough to make me babble about the technology revolution all through dinner.

however, it turns out that when we made the blinking blue dot (us) match up with the steady red dot (them) there was no restaurant — but (!), when i clicked on the red dot to get more information about the restaurant, there was a phone number listed (which i clicked), and the phone dialed it automatically (!).

a nice boy told me we needed to go two blocks farther down the street. wifey ate, i didn’t go 20 miles out of the way, and evvvverybody was happy.

i’ve totally drunk the iPhone kool-aid. nothing will come between me and my precious … <ominous> noothiing </omninous>.

Karma

Saturday, 13 September 2008

I’m writing this from my brand new iPhone … from the side of the road next to our broken-down car.

Ain’t karma a #%*£?

It’s hard not to think that something is up. Hurricane Gustav came after the Louisiana Spindlers. Hannah tried to get the Virginia Parkers (but failed) and took a swipe at us (the DC Parkers?) but we had fled south.

And, just today, the Texas Spindlers took Hurricane Ike on the chin, though by all accounts they weathered the storm. But, in the immortal words of The Lady Sparkler, “if I were [the Oregon Spindler], I’d be on typhoon watch…”

So, considering every one is happy and healthy (and I have an iPhone), I guess a temperamental radiator isn’t such a big deal … thank the good sweet Lord.