Leslie and Rick

It is that time of year again to dust of your Alf costumes and show up to DragonCon. Leslie and I are heading out in the morning to begin the fun. Expect updates to this post to include some great pics of costumes we run into.

Work uses my phone to its limits. I was hoping to gain some battery time by upgrading again this year. Side perks being the increased photo and video resolution along with the front facing camera.

As expected I do not really want to stare at my mug and video chat requiring wifi connections for both sides means the front facing camera will get little usage. The increased video and photo resolution on the other hand will be greatly used. We are heading on a family trip to Hawaii soon and will be doing so with four iPhone 4′s in the family on this adventure. I am hoping they are put to task and we come home with tons of memories recorded.

The sad aspects of the phone are both structural and political. The antennae design being built as the exterior frame of the phone sounded cool. The results however seem to be of no surprise to anyone who understands how antenna work. If you come in direct contact with certain places along the line of the frame you can diminish the phones ability to get a strong signal. Several experts have documented the phones literal drop in quality of signal obtained when holding it different ways. That alone is disheartening. What is more upsetting is that instead of admitting a unforeseen error through design apple at first denied then admitted a issue. However, when they admitted a issue they diverted attention from the real issue by pointing out some other issue with bad signal display calculation. Tho visually relevant if accurate it has little to do with the real problem. The antenaae design is physically flawed. No software calculation is relevant to that fact. The response from Apple is simple. If you do not like it. Return it. Logical and yet still disappointing.

I will likely keep my iPhone. I have gotten a case and use a headset so most of my issues are addressed. The phone is speedier then its predecessor and overall pleasant to use. Not to mention that after signing another 2 year contract my cost was equal to what I sold my old phone for. So I ended up again upgrading for near free. So not much to really complain about right? Unless of course I wanted to start up on a rant about AT&T.

It seems mother nature and us are on better terms.  After saving several critters including a raven from a untimely kitten caused death… our bad luck with the outdoors knock on wood seems to have subsided.  Today I saved a very small chipmunk.   Poor thing looked like it was going to have a heart attack.

I think I have angered mother nature somehow. Perhaps it is that I have not recycled much over the last year. Maybe I squashed one too many bugs. Or that I harbor two car criminals wanted for the needless slaying of some untold amount of mice, moles, and chipmunks. Whatever it is she is mad!

This morning ran across yet another attempt a the structural integrity of my home. This time stepping up the strength of the attack a much larger branch hit our property. Luckily MN missed. The branch hit our porch, grill, and one of our planters.

This is one of the frogs outside Elizebeth and Chad’s front door that we saw through the window while we were watching TV. I had to resist bringing some of these guts home with me.

I have now had the phone for a bit and here are my thoughts.

FAIL

Do not get me wrong.  I love the features.  I love the sleek look.  I love all that it strives to be.  I however I do not appreciate a second round of incomplete buggy product coming from Apple.  They have long been known to release well thought out and stable products.  The last one crashed regularly and had major signal issues.  This one has many of those same issues with a even worse battery life then the predecessor.   The irony is they had claimed improved battery life.  What makes me sad is the response from them is that customers were making usage of the new features such as Push technology and that is why battery lasts less.  They recommend customers that are not happy with time battery lasts not use the new features of the phone.  ??? Did they really think that was a respectable response.  “Hey buy our new phone it has a better battery and great new features.  Just remember not to use the new features or your battery wont last you.”   All I can say is wow!

So now that I have vented on the epic Fail of Apple.  Lets look at the good.

The video capability is great.  I have already gotten several great videos of Shelly and Leslie.  I also appreciate the ability to choose my focal point for pictures/filming.  The compass is another great feature that tho not yet implemented in most apps will be great when it is.  Not sure if the extra space on the phone will eventually be used.  I never filled my previous 16GB model so who knows if I will this one.  I was kinda thinking I would take so many videos it would fill up.  Only time will tell.

Over all I am sad about the battery life, but then again I upgraded for free.  My old phone sold on eBay for almost the same amount as my upgrade cost. 

Yes its that great time of year again when I have managed to successfully cheat death and experiment with adding wrinkles to my face.  This year has been a smashing success. I even managed to sneak in a few gray hairs. What happened between then and this first anniversary of my thirtieth birthday? I started this journey in Cabo, Mexico with a hangover. We have married off two siblings (Joe and Ginny… to others not each other were in the south… not Southern). Leslie and I have gotten settled for the most part in our little circa 1956 castle in Marietta. I now own my own salon! Yipee… still can not cut hair tho. After playing the role of crash test dummy I finally got around a few months later to getting a new steed to cart me around. My new 09 Honda CRV. Complete with leather seats, a roof rack, and a extra glove box designed to hold my manhood. It is basically a sleek, sexy, and sophisticated station wagon for carting kids. None yet, don’t read into it mom and dad.

We now have two cats Patrick and Penny. Only further showing that Leslie’s hypnotic powers know no end. Our roof was attacked by a falling spear from above. When the storm had passed it looked as if a tree had managed to take root in our ceiling and sprouted out to the sky about fifteen feet. State Farm being the quality company they are almost instantly set us up with our own representative to handle the claim and a person to come out and evaluate the damage. Of course, the two people they chose for us were on vacation for two weeks starting the day before. Overall I would deem this first anniversary year a victory. Good times had by all and I still do not need a walker. Three cheers and best wishes that the upcoming second thirtieth birthday anniversary is as good as this one.

Courtesy of Patrick and Penny we now have a baby Robin in our family. I rescued it from our overly skilled hunters and it is now relaxing in our guest room. I have given it water using a medicine dropper. Now for the icky part … Grinding up earth worms and bugs and feeding it the goo through the dropper.