i love you iphone

It has been a long time since I’ve update my blog, I know. I have been busy being tired and crabby hahaha. Anyway, I was recently approved by my sister get an iphone–so I did, and I love it. It is amazing. It does everything you can imagine and more. It has all sorts of fun gadgets, too. I love it.

There are a few drawbacks. Sometimes it takes a few clicks to get to what you want (because there are no buttons), and overall it seems less customizable that each individual device would be by itself. Oh, and the battery definitely doesn’t last that long at all…must be charged daily or more! But, it’s all worth it (although the battery thing is something to monitor) because the things you can do are amazing.

I had to wait in line four hours to get this iphone and it was not an efficient process, which I had no problem telling Apple in its customer survey. They called me today, and I gave them constructive feedback. I was like, “I fuckin’ hate you.” hahaha Not really, but whatever. As you should know, I love filling out surveys. I have filled out four or five in the past two weeks.

This may sound like a negative entry about the iphone but only because I can’t spend the time to write about all the cool things it does. My sister who didn’t want me to get it is almost on the verge of getting one herself after playing with it one time. She hardly even uses her cell phone, but it’s so functional and awesome that everyone wants one.

That’s all for now, but I’ll try to write more very soon.

it feels like the fourth of july

Highlights:

• Paging Reflections introduces CNN-style story highlights, new blog entry structure
• California, HGTV both on fire
• Re-branding resurfaces, episode No. 5
• Homesick without fireworks, gays take to streets
• Going green, gross and homeless

Intro:

…it makes me want a hotdog real bad! Actually, it was just the fourth of July and it is also approaching the surface temperature of the sun. Tomorrow, for instance, it will be 110 degrees (Kelvin). I wanted to point out that I have begun using CNN’s story highlights idea at the top of my blog. That way you can get an idea of what you’re reading–but, if I find out that’s all you’re reading, I’ll perform random surveys and bullet trickery. I may also, from time to time, identify some issues or current news items of interest…like right now (but these will come after the introductory paragraph:

Reflections:

• I wish maybe that California weren’t always on fire. As mentioned previously, this uniquely shaped state continues to burn like a cigarette in my arm.
• Rolling over your 401k IS a big deal. I find this to be true primarily because it is the most annoying thing ever.
• HGTV continues to impress me with amazing programming that both entertains and educates for hours on end.
• Itunes’s (s’s is correct, look it up, bitches) song of the week has been rather good for the past several-to-many weeks. This song is free if you didn’t know. Download this week’s. Do it. Do it now.
• Horatio continues to poop in the plants and now he’s started peeing in them. I’m getting annoyed by it, so he has to be supervised or blocked out of the atrium-foyer.

Paging the rest of the blog:

Back to me now. It’s been interesting, except now that I’m blogging about it, I forget. One thing I found amusing was that my new company will be re-branding to rid it’s name in favor of adopting the parent company’s name (previously the parent company name had been secondary). This will be my umpteenth re-branding experience in two years. It appears, however, that this company knows what it’s doing, and I think it will go over well once people have their fears addressed, etc.

Fourth of July was the first time I felt homesick. Usually I do something really cool with friends on the fourth and see fireworks and have a great time…previously I’d go to Columbus for the big celebration downtown. Then I’d do ancillary family stuff. This year, my sister and brother-in-law were out of town, so I had no one to do anything with on the actual fourth. So I just went to dinner and a movie alone. The rest of the weekend was good. I got over my homesickness quickly. I was social and hung out with friend (singular) and went out to a gay bar and had fun, etc. First of all, the bars here are mostly cash only, and I hate that. But I guess it was still pretty fun.

I have stepped up my recycling efforts in order to reach Mazlow’s Self Iphone-ulization. Of course I was collecting cans and bottles, etc whose contents we consumed, but I decided to take it to…. a whole ‘notha level. The bike jumps by the house provide access to a wealth of deposit-bearing recyclables. It’s like the people who go there just throw all their shit on the ground. And, I swoop in like Captain Planet and clean it up.* I’ve even started collected items to and fro the jumps whilst walking the crazy puppies. My goal is to find something every time I go out. And, I’m not gonna lie, if I see a bottle in the bushes when I’m at the store, I totally take it home with me. My latest goal is to get tied in with the recycling efforts for the upcoming company picnic. Hey, I’ve got to get a  couple hundred bucks, and this is the way to do it.

Speaking of money for Iphones. The new Iphone comes out this Friday. As I continue to save up, I will monitor reviews and plan my purchase with much anticipation. My goal is to have one by Halloween. Although my phone bill will go from about 65-70 bucks a month to 85-100. I don’t have specific details, but it will definitely go up, but I need data access anyway. Most importantly, I need a phone that works! Donations accepted.

Donations are also accepted for the plane tickets I just bought to Cleveland for Christmas. For a cool $661, I will be home from the afternoon of Dec. 20 to the morning of Dec. 28. The ticket may be a bit more than other tickets (actually when I bought it, it wasn’t more, but last week there were cheaper flights), but what I love about Continental is that I can book the flight and get billed later for it for free. I won’t pay for the ticket for 90 days. Not that I’ll have any money then either, but whatever.

 

*Cleaning efforts based on profit-generating, recyclable materials only.
Although, i will admit that I kind of like the thrill of scavenging for garbage…it’s gross, but thrilling. The jumps people also play paintball at the jumps. Why does that matter? Well, some of their paintballs seem to not break, so I collect those as well. I have a large cup of unused paintballs so I can have free ammo when I finally play. I would define myself as a Freegan, second tier.

battle of the green

We all remember how I led the charge in Ohio, at least in my life, as far as “going green.” I was the leader of the green team at the M plus H, and I recycled cans and water bottles every where I could–even driving them from place to place in order to recycle them. By the way, my mom just LOOOOVED having her lawn full of shit at all times, but whatever…she lives in a cardboard box in Streetsboro, which I recycled, so now she’s homeless. Anyway, my latest charge in Ohio was to become green and reduce my carbon footprint–reduce electricity, water consumption, etc. I was doing pretty well, too. With an average electric bill of $16.50, I wasn’t complaining, and CFLs are my best friend.

Moving to California, however, I have discovered I am “environmentally acceptable.” While I excel in some areas like recycling devotion, the depth and breadth (ugh, I hate that phrase) of the recycling capabilities here are spectacular. They recycle everything, and they even pay you to do it. I love it, and will measure my wealth as previously stated in “millions of nickels.” We have an entire corner of the house (the dining room) set up for recycling, and everything gets it’s own bin, so’s I can gets my moneys. I have, however, decided to step up to the plate on other environmental items as well. Living in Ohio, things never seemed too important, but when companies don’t have electricity (brownouts) or water (vineyards) to function, it can be pretty serious. So, I’ve enacted several more practices to save the environment.

Well, I guess I should say that I’m being more diligent about my previous practices, such as turning off the lights when I’m not in a room, etc. But, I am on a massive campaign to reduce water usage. Now nearly every time I wash my hands I get them wet, turn off the water to soap up and lather, and then turn it back on to rinse. I even do the same thing in the shower. If you think about it, you just waste all that water, so why not just turn it off? It makes sense for me because I wash my hands at all times and very thoroughly. For others, though, the shower trick may work. Or even the old “if it’s brown, flush it down; if it’s yellow, let it mellow,”adage. Of course I use this principle as well, but you must stay hydrated, and it is not recommended for the early morning hours or when color is equal to or darker than PMS 101 (that’s a color on the Pantone(R) Matching System, which can be seen here).

I think I’m going to try to get on the green office team at my new job. They don’t do paperless faxing or Ecobuttons, both of which could help reduce expenses and world destruction. Speaking of 401Ks, I enrolled in mine today, and I’m happy. I just need to roll my M—–H one over and it seems like it may be annoying. I’m doing 8 percent, which maybe too much for me but we’ll see. I also did an FSA, which is sweet because I bought Equate Ibuprofen liquid-filled capsules (Not to be unlawfully referred to as Advil (R) Liqui-gels(R)). I am also going to use it to buy my prescription sun glass, for which I need to make an appointment.

Anyway, stay in touch!