January, 2005:

“A9.com”:http://a9.com/, (an amazon.com company) has unveiled a new Yellow Pages. They sent trucks with GPS devices and cameras down the streets of many metropolitan areas associating actual images from street level of the businesses listed in it’s directory.

To get an idea of how interesting this is look at “this result for a search of BWC”:http://www.amazon.com/gp/yp/B0003UVG6Y/002-4696393-8970452 in Dallas, TX, or perhaps, “this search for The Curtain Club”:http://www.amazon.com/gp/yp/B0003WKRC6/002-4696393-8970452.

Of course it needs a little work. The interface allows you to walk up and down the street, but. for businesses that are on street corners it can be difficult, sometimes, to see the business from the images without going down around the corner.

Regardless, it’s quite fascinating. Use A9.com to find your favorite place in your favorite metropolitan area and see how neat it is.

“GMane”:http://gmane.org/, everyone’s favorite mailing list reader/archiver, has released a “Blog interface”:http://blog.gmane.org/ to the mailing lists it handles. Initial messages to the list appear as posts. Replies to that message appear as comments. One can reply from the blog site and that comment will be sent back into the mailing list.

I think this interface is fantastic. It looks great, and is very usable. I’ve always wanted my personal blog to be capable of accepting posts and replies via email. Of course, neither of these tasks are that difficult, I’ve just never gotten around to it.

My only complaint is that the RSS feed for the Blog is the same RSS feed for the mailing list. This means that all the messages (initial messages and replies to that message) appear as items in the RSS feed. It’s like getting all the posts and comments in the same feed.

Regardless of that, it’s a great new feature from an already kick-ass service.

Here’s another image of Erica, who I have another shoot with this morning. I’ve said this before, but, I really think this is my favorite of her. We’ve got a bunch of ideas to go through this morning and if they come out even half as good as these did, I’ll be pleased.

Wishful Thinking

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So we did it. Jess and I made the switch to Cingular. Or, rather, we’ve put in the request to make the switch to Cingular. I’ve got a brand new Nokia 6620 coming my way, and Jess has the fashionable and full-featured Nokia 6230 heading towards her.

All in all, our monthly bill is just about the same, but we’ll have more minutes of use, so many included SMSes and MMSes that we’ll never go over, and I’ll have real internet access, instead of the crap I had with T-Mobile. Not a bad deal, over all.

I’m curious as to how quick and painless Wireless LNP will be. I guess I’m about to find out as my order is currently sitting in the “Porting” status.

Anyone in the market for a gently used Nokia 3650 or a Nokia 6610? Let me know.

It’s been 13 days since you’ve heard anything personal from me, never mind that ranting about mobile phones or the pretty pictures I showed you. So, I figure it’s about time.

Let’s do a quick recap.

My mom got here on Wednesday. By Thursday evening she was already rubbing against my last nerve. The problem with family is that you love them out of obligation. Thursday, Mom and I passed the time by repotting a few plants. I was ready to scream when she continued to complain that I was spending too much money on the pots I was buying. It’s my damn money, I’ll spend it any way I like, thank you very much.

Friday we did some sight-seeing and grocery shopping. No matter how loud I turned up the radio, she insisted on talking over the top of it. Talking, in itself, isn’t really a problem. I enjoy good conversation. Unfortunately, her talking involved remarks on the various street signs, and the telling of countless childhood stories, the same childhood stories she tells me every week on the phone.

Saturday was more sight-seeing. We went to the Dallas Museum of Art, on her request. I’ll sum this day up by telling you that, when we walked into the special exhibit on 18th century French painting, mom looked at a few and then said, quite loudly, “Thomas Kinkade’s got nothing on this guy”. One of the docents nearly keeled over upon that remark.

Sunday, Jess and I went to my parents house for my Dad’s birthday. It was a much needed vacation. Unfortunately, Jess got a fever and we had to come home early.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were much more of the same. I was at work Monday and Wednesday, so that was a nice break. Tuesday and Thursday I worked from home. A portion of Tuesday was filled with Mom’s insistence that I bring a computer downstairs for her to use. Afterwards, as I attempted to work again, I hear her screeching my name. It turns out she wants speakers too. I lug them downstairs and hook them up only to hear her complaining that “Real Player” wont work a few minutes later. I correct the problem only to be entertained for the rest of the afternoon by the booming voice of the gentleman whose voice is featured in the Online Audio Bible. Ugh.

Friday we did grocery shopping again. As we walked out of the store I noticed a police officer behind my car writing a ticket. It turns out, I was about 30 seconds away from a $250 ticket for parking in a handicap space without a permit, since my mom and I had forgotten to hang her tag on the mirror. The cop was nice and tore the ticket up, thankfully.

Saturday morning I went to Keller to get my brother so he could see my mom too. I had a blow out on the way there. I knew my tires were bad and had already arranged for Jess to meet me somewhere to get them replaced on my way back from Keller. Ugh. $810 later, and the truck drives like a dream. Saturday afternoon we went to lunch, then for coffee, then to a movie. My brother decided on “The Life Aquatic”. I enjoyed it, but the girl that ran around without her top on, constant swearing, and the joint hanging out of Bill Murray’s mouth in every other scene made me uncomfortable around my mom. Luckily I didn’t sit next to her, but my brother said she gasped throughout the entire movie. Saturday night we had a little birthday party for my Mom.

On Sunday mom decided she had to have nice pictures of all of us to bring home with her. She said “nice pictures” so I thought I’d do the best I could and give her something worth looking at. However, it turns out that by “nice pictures” she simply meant taking a picture or two with her disposable while we all stood in front of the couch. My frustration was eventually evident so we opted to do it my way. By then, however, I was more interested in getting it over with than doing it right, so they aren’t very good at all. Later we brought my brother back to Keller and spent a little time talking to my uncle who’s in town for a while. Then headed back home for the evening.

Monday was mostly uneventful. During the say I was at work and in the evening, since all my nerves are shot and my fuse is quite short, most conversations ended with me simply walking away from her mid-sentence. She actually apologized to Jess Saturday morning, apparently, for staying as long as she did. We strongly urged her to book a one week stay, but she opted to go for two. I’m glad that, in the end, she realized that that was a mistake. I’m sure, however, that the next time she decides to come, she’ll stay just as long. During the day Jess attempted to get her car inspected. She didn’t pass because her front tires are too worn. I checked them out, and they are indeed quite worn. The back tires look great. That’s what I get for not rotating them. That’ll cost $200 – $500 to correct, depending on how “right” I want to do it. I know it needs to be done and I expected it would happen eventually. But the timing is quite poor.

Today’s been pretty quiet so far. I’m working from home again. Tonight we’re going to a nice dinner and then she has to be at the airport tomorrow morning. I’ll go to work after dropping her off and then come home to the peace and quiet of an empty house.

Here’s another image of Erica from a fun set that we did.

You Want This

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Another image of Erica. I really look forward to working with her again at the end of this month. We’ve got quite a few wonderful ideas in store.

Just Like This

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So, I have a problem. I’m stuck between two choices, and I don’t know where to go.

I currently have a Nokia 3650. Jess has a Nokia 6610. I like my phone a lot, mostly. More on that later. Jess likes her phone a lot too, but would also enjoy having a camera.

After looking at lots of phones, I’ve decided that I’m quite impressed with the “Motorola v551″:http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=591. It’s got a camera, an email client, bluetooth, SyncML, and does video. It looks nice, is pretty small, and all around decent. And, of course, at $-25.00 on Amazon.com, you can’t go wrong.

So, I’m pretty sure Jess will be getting a v551. For me, however, I’m not sure what to do. If I just want a phone that does phone stuff, a v551 would be perfect. However, I’ve grown quite accustomed to my Nokia 3650. The only problem with it is that I can’t do everything I want because the Nokia 3650 doesn’t have enough RAM. However, the “Nokia 6620″:http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=453 does everything the 3650 does, and more, with 4 times as much RAM, faster data transfer and lots of other nice things. This phone is currently not available from Amazon, but I can get it from letstalk.com for $150.00. Unfortunately, this means I either have to get two separate plans for Jess and I which ends up costing a little more per month, or I have to get her phone from letstalk.com also, which is $50.

So… to break it down for you. For $-50.00 I can get two (what seems to be) best-of-breed mobile phones. Or, for $200.00, I can get one best-of-breed mobile phone, and one excellent smartphone.

I like having the 3650. But, I don’t really use it for much more than a mobile phone now, because it doesn’t have the apps that I really want. And I can’t write them myself because I refuse to learn Symbian C++ and Python just plain doesn’t run well on it. But the 6620 fixes all of that. So, I think I’d get a lot of use out of the 6620. Moreso than I did with the 3650 since I can now write myself what doesn’t come with it. But, in the end, I could just end up using it as a phone, in which case I would have wasted $200 on a big, bulky, heavy…. phone.

So… what do I do?

My mom’s flight was coming in at 6:15pm. That meant I would stay an hour late at work in order to pick her up.

Well, she missed her flight and the next one comes in at 8:15pm. So, I can either stay at work for three hours and then pick her up, or I can drive home for an hour, be at home for an hour, and then drive an hour back to the airport. Two hours of travel in the pouring rain doesn’t seem like a good idea without purpose, so, it looks like I’m staying here.

That means I need *lots* of “distractions”:http://revjim.net/page/distractions/. It’s easy. It’s fun. Send me something.

After having such a good Monday morning, monday evening turned into crap. I got to have dinner with two of our best friends (one of whom was leaving the next day), so that was good. However, in the middle of dinner, I had another “Meniere’s Attack”:http://revjim.net/item/10047/. Since I could feel the symptoms building for nearly three weeks, I knew it was coming soon, I just was hoping it wouldn’t happen that night. Well, it did.

I tried my best to keep having fun and not bring the group down but, after a while, I had to go home and get some sleep. I assumed I would throw up all night long as usual, but I didn’t. When I woke in the morning, however, it was worse than ever.

Since we had been meeting friends the night before, Jess left her car at work and we only had my truck. So, I got ready for work and had Jess drive the truck to her work with me as passenger to see if I’d be able to clear my head a bit in order to make the rest of the drive. As soon as we got to her work, I jumped in the driver’s seat. The first turn onto the road and the head turning needed to check for oncomming traffic sent me spinning. I assumed this would happen. However, in my planning I knew there was a hospital less than a block from Jess’ work. I drove myself there and went into the E.R.

The E.R. was very nice and fast. They had me in a hospital bed with an I.V. and lots of drugs in no time flat. The drugs worked well, and the room stopped spinning almost immediately. Jess showed up afterwards and sat with me until I could walk and the doctors were ready to discharge me. Then she drove me home.

I slept a lot all day. It couldn’t have come at a worse time since Jess and I had planned on being quite busy all day yesterday getting ready for my Mom to come visit (her plane lands tonight). I’m so grateful for Jess. She put up blinds, moved beds and tables, cleaned the house, and did just about everything, while I watched, trying not to move much and doing my best just to stand on two feet.

Another night of sleep and I’m just a little lightheaded this morning but, otherwise, I feel fine. It’s nice to have avoided, for now, the constant, and quite painful, hours of vomiting, but I can’t see myself going to the E.R. and shelling out $75 (plus who knows what) every time this happens.

I wish I could understand it more. If someone chopped my arm off I could say to myself “the reason I can’t pick up things, and that my chest is sore is because my arm has been chopped off”. But this makes no sense. I can’t tell when it will start, when it will get better, and when it will end in one long terrible day.

All in all, I feel good now. Thanks to those of you who were concerned. And thanks, especially, to Jess for taking such good care of me.