Travelogue: the miracle of technology
September 25, 2012
In flight from SFO to MSP.* Can’t tweet about it, so I might as well write an overdue blog entry about something, anything.
And what’s on my mind at this moment, big surprise, is the travel part of the trip. This is the first time I’ve flown since June 2010. In the meantime, things have gotten all appified. I flew on United Airlines and with their iPhone app, I never even had to look at a counter or live person. You frequent fliers are probably sitting there thinking, aw, isn’t that cute, but I got a big kick out of tapping a few buttons on my iPhone and having everything magically taken care of. Just showing a QR code on your iPhone screen to the magic red hole at security and the gate? Come ON! And when I crammed all the California beer that I bought into my suitcase thus necessitating a checked bag, how convenient to order that up via the app, too. Okay, so I had to briefly visit a person at a counter to drop it off, but still.
The car rental was very nearly as painless. Renting a car is something I never do. I’m going to say the last time was ten years ago, and that was only because my own (previous) car had trouble mid-trip and I had to leave it for service. Usually I embrace the local public transportation system (London, Chicago), but for this trip I had to get to a couple of inaccessible places on Saturday and Sunday. Anyway, the car rental process was very streamlined as well.
My only complaint about any of this is that the employees of these various companies process hundreds of people a day, probably, and it’s obvious they go on autopilot with what they’re saying which can make them a little difficult to understand, particularly if they have an accent. Though I could easily have gotten between airport and hotel Thursday evening and this (Tuesday) morning on the train service, I drove. On my free days Friday and Monday, I took the Caltrain into San Francisco from San Carlos and yet again, it couldn’t have been easier.Once in San Francisco, I got all excited and bought a day-pass for the MUNI and scratched off the date before I needed to use it, and then ended up not using it at all because I just walked and walked and walked. I regretted that had I comprehended better how it works, I could have saved it for Monday when I was back in San Francisco. But that day, I also just walked everywhere. I guess I don’t mind paying an extra $14 knowing I don’t have to stress out about a car in the city.
So now I will soon be back home, where I’ll hop on Minneapolis’ own light rail line, which will deliver me mere blocks from my home.
Technology and public transportation, for the win!Addendum: Today, three days after my return as I was bidding my coworker auf wiedersehen for her trip to Germany, I learned that she, too, was flying United. I promptly gave her a spiel about the app and sent her on her fröhlich way.
*As you may have guessed, I wrote this one before “I go out walking.” But “I go out walking” seemed more interesting a week ago, and it probably still is.Poor bowling excuse: video game tennis elbow
November 22, 2011
I did not bowl well tonight. I mean, it could have been worse and has been many a time, but when you play a sport you have certain achievement goals and tonight I did not meet mine. I blame Scramble CE.
Scramble is the word search game I play on my iPhone when I go to bed. It helps me relax right to the point of falling asleep. I used to read in bed but I never got very far because it would usually put me to sleep immediately. For a number of years I’d work crossword puzzles because I could stay awake a little longer. Then I got my iPhone and went back to reading, because I could take off my glasses, lay down, turn off the light, and if I fell asleep I wouldn’t lose my place and the iPhone would also go to sleep and everyone was happy. Then I discovered Angry Birds and Scramble.
Angry Birds isn’t a good bedtime game because I get too worked up. Not at the pigs, but at my lack of dexterity with the slingshot and timing the extra things the birds can do. But Scramble is a nice, leisurely, two-and-a-half-minute word search. I play in Advanced mode which means I have to find words of four or more letters.
I love this game. I can usually stay awake for four, five, ten rounds. I’d get a lot more sleep if I switched back to reading.
A consequence of my Scramble stamina is a tennis elbowy kind of thing that happens in my right elbow or, as I call it, my bowling elbow, because I use my right index finger to drag around the screen. At first I thought it happened because I laid on my left side so that my right arm could be free-swinging to facilitate faster wording. I conditioned myself to be comfortable playing as I lay on my right side, with my arm mostly resting on my pillow. My left arm doesn’t have nearly the staying power being up in the air, but that’s its problem. As for playing with my left hand instead, I am slow and clumsy and it’s just not a viable option.
As a series of nights goes by, I find that I gradually roll more onto my back to liberate my right arm, because I’m still faster that way (well, faster, assuming my brain is willing). Over the weekend I realized that my elbow, and even my hand, had the very mild tendonitis indicative of too much Scramble. And tonight, my bowling scores reflected the weakened state of my right arm or, as I call it, my bowling arm.
I must put myself on a Scramble moratorium for a few days or a week. This will be difficult but, if I am to save my bowling average, it is completely necessary.
I suppose I might play a little Angry Birds in the meantime. For that one I do use my left hand because that’s the side from which you launch the birds. If I used my right hand I wouldn’t be able to see what I was aiming for. I’ve always kind of thought that a nice feature of Angry Birds would be to have a choice of launching end.
As you can see, Scramble includes words from some Martian dictionary, so if I find a third of the possible words in a round, I feel good. I also like to get at least 50 points which can be challenging if the total points possible for the round is 150 or less.
In case you’re wondering, my high Scramble score is 209, my longest word is DEPOSITOR, and as of last night I had made a total of 30,090 words, none of which begin with X.
The cat???s the thing
June 4, 2011
Do you live with a cat? Then you know that if you put something down on the floor, they will come. A good box is hard to resist. Maru knows it, my cats know it. This, then, is the story behind the photo above, which I think ranks second of my all-time favorite my-cats stories.
A few months ago I finally joined the 2000s and got a large, flat-screen TV. I had been lumbering along with my old 21-inch CRT television that I think was close to twenty years old. I unpacked the new beauty and set it up, and put the box in front of some bookshelves in my middle room while I decided if I was going to keep the TV and then, having decided yes to that, whether I thought I needed to keep the box. During the time in which I was ignoring that monumental decision, my parents came to visit and I moved the box to the front room because I needed to get it out of the way.
(Even if you just started reading my blog a week ago, you can picture this, can’t you?, since I helpfully shared my floorplan on May 26. If you read that post—in which I semi-whined about the cool temperatures we’ve had so far this spring—please know that the forecast for the next week doesn’t show highs below 80F/28C. That’s how it goes in Minnesota. You can’t quite bring yourself to stash your winter coat, and then all of a sudden you’re screaming for air conditioning. But I digress.)
In the evening as we all were lounging in the front room where the large, flat TV box now was, none of us humans were really paying attention to what the cats (and rabbits, mine and my parents’) were doing until Dasie perched on the arm of the chair next to the box with obvious intent. She’s very athletic, generally, but somehow she managed to be in some weirdo position so that when she finally did vault herself into the box, she ended up doing a backflop into it. Not a bellyflop, but a backflop.
I grabbed for the iPhone because I knew there would be a photo opp. According to my mother, during the three seconds that I had my back turned, the cat came leaping right back out of the box, only it wasn’t Dasie. Unbeknownst to anyone (Dasie included judging by the look on her face), CJ was already in the box. My mom started howling with laughter at the sight of a black and white cat going in, and an all-black cat coming out. I just managed to snap this photo as Dasie surfaced, confused by any or all of the above.
This might be my favorite photo that I’ve ever taken of any of my four cats (two past, two present). It’s the gift that keeps on giving partly, I suppose, because I know that it fits right in with the rest of her personality. It makes a wonderful lock screen on my iPhone.
It’s not my favorite cat story though, because I didn’t actually see the cause and effect. Favorite story of all time goes to my original cat Dhia, pictured below also in a box. When she was just a squirt (read, young and spastic) she was lounging on the back of my bed, not asleep but not paying attention. I snuck up on her and smacked my hand down on the bed very close to her. She launched straight up into the air. Well, apparently not quite straight up, because when she came back down, she slid right down into the six-inch gap between my bed and the wall like a piece of bread in a toaster. The look of utter surprise on her face was priceless. Priceless. Mind you, I don’t make a habit of laughing at others’ misfortune but right now, twenty years later, it still makes me giggle out loud.
Just like I chuckle every time I look at this photo of Dasie.
May 21, 2011
Birds don???t make me angry
March 30, 2011
I’ve never been a big game player. Oh sure, back in the day I was pretty good at Centipede and then Joust. Tempest held my interest graphically and I was just dumb-lucky enough at spinning the dial thingy around to keep going for a while. I think you can immediately tell from the preceding discription that, though I sometimes find a game that I find interesting and easily understandable enough to play a second time, you could hardly call me a gamer. I’m not.
Once I got my computer I, um, didn’t really start playing games. In the early days (we’ll call it 1996-ish) on my Mac, I enjoyed Peter Gabriel’s Secret World, which I borrowed from work, but my home computer was never quite beefy enough to make that a satisfying experience.
In about 2004, I finally found a game I could get behind—Super Text Twist. I play the desktop version, not online. I don’t care if I match my prowess against a bunch of people I don’t know. Initially I played the untimed version, but it didn’t take long before I took on the greater challenge (such as it is) of always playing timed. Of course, it helps that I figured out a sort of cheat that helps me figure things out if I’m having trouble.
Then I got my iPhone and boy, did things ever stay the same. I have a bunch of games on it, but my favorite is another timed word game—imagine that—Scramble CE. I don’t like, a little bit, that it’s by Zynga, but it’s free and I can play by myself. I do like that I have to think rather than shoot. There again, I play the slightly more challenging “Advanced” option, in which I have to find—oo-oo-ooh—four- rather than three-letter words.
And shooting brings us to, what else, Angry Birds.
I feel about Angry Birds sort of like I feel about the iPad. It would be fun, but I don’t really need it. Nevertheless, I forked out the US$1.06 for it because, let’s face it, that’s a lot more affordable than $400 or $600 or whatever the iPad is.
I know people who are obsessed with Angry Birds (well, really, and iPads, too). I’m sure you know someone. I am not one of them. Right now it is only a way to relax in bed for a few minutes before switching to Scramble and falling asleep, or maybe to reading a little, too (still on iPhone), and falling asleep. Though I do admit that, because I have failed screen 9 of Poached Eggs at least thirty times (see screen shot at top), the victory smirk(s) of the pig(s) is(are) beginning to get to me and I can see how it could become compelling to those with weaker resolves. I suppose there are cheats posted online, but fortunately I don’t care that much yet.
Anyway, Scramble and Angry Birds get to be out loose on page 2 of my iPhone. The rest of the games are combined into folders, one for the ones that I play occasionally and the other for the ones I don’t. I am going to give Crazy Penguin Catapult and Tangram Pro honorable mentions. Those are the other two that I like to play. The gameplay in Crazy Penguin Catapult is similar to Angry Birds—you fling penguins through ice blocks at polar bears.
I don’t know. I think the penguins in their battlefield helmets with their salutes are a lot cuter than the angry birds, and I know I like polar bears better than pigs, although pigs are very intelligent and I find that appealing. Plus, I paid a dollar for it so I feel like I should play it in order to get my money’s worth.
The day in winter: Tree fractals, part 3
March 10, 2011
My online friends might have noticed that I’ve been obsessing over winter’s bare trees in the last week or so. I have become fascinated with imagining the root system underground that’s comparable to the naked branches I see reaching toward the steel grey winter sky. I just think these trees are stunningly gorgeous in their seeming randomness that’s actually well-behaved fractal growth.
Large trees and small trees, they all inspire me with awe. These urban trees quite often are given very precise plots in which to grow, defined by the 3-foot by 3-foot metal grates that mark their entrance into the earth. But Mother Nature endows them with persistence.
Here is my tribute to these wonderful plant creatures. They all exist within the linear mile and three quarters between my office in the heart of downtown and my home neighborhood that’s only slightly less in the thick of things.
The tree at the very top and the tree directly above are, in fact, the same tree. I thought the vertical shot had nice composition, but the horizontal photo really shows off the branches.
All of the trees have their own personalities. The ones below I also found particularly appealing and beautiful. Each shows its own history. Maybe it has fortunate wind blockage from nearby buildings and can grow straight. Maybe it doesn’t and lists to one side. Maybe it’s in a healthy location and has grown an even crown of branches. Maybe it has to eke out a living on a dirty, busy, polluted corner and makes gasping grabs toward the sun.
If you are in a deciduous winter, go outside and revel in the beauty that has yet again been provided you by this planet we live on.
Photos were shot as dusk approached with my iPhone 4 and processed with Camera+ app, using the Ansel filter and thin black border, because today’s mission was to share a black and white photo.
Break time
January 6, 2011
Other than eggs to make breakfast, I don’t really break things. The only thing I’ve broken recently—and that was six months ago—was a glass dinner plate. That wasn’t a big deal, because it was plain, clear glass—generic and easy to replace should I choose to do so. It was much more of a crisis when I finally finished breaking my iPhone 1.
This happened in April, just shortly before the iPhone 4 was even announced. I had been pondering the possibility of upgrading to iPhone 4 anyway because who wouldn’t want to from iPhone 1? At the same time, my iPhone 1 was a little bit of a badge of honor, that I still had the original (even though I held out for nine months after it was originally released).
I was intrigued by the better camera on iPhone 4 and thought that it would be nice to have it for my then-upcoming vacation to London. A camera in my back pocket was much more appealing than carrying around some huge thing slung over my shoulder. At an early season Minnesota Twins baseball game, my hand was forced.
I had already flung my iPhone 1 to the ground several times and the glass had been cracked in a few places for quite some time. I had gotten smart and sealed the shatter at the bottom of the screen (pictured below) with clear nail polish. That area was obviously impaired so I gave it some attention.
The cracks on the upper part of the screen (pictured top) seemed more innocuous because although cracked, the surface still felt smooth. I guess I was in denial, or at least not paying attention. In addition, I got a kick out of casually, conveniently, riding the thing around in my back pants pocket while other people encased theirs in bullet-proof cases or old socks. Who’s laughing now?
Well, at that fateful Twins game, there was a rain delay. I had planned ahead. I sat confidently in my seat in my baseball cap and rain poncho, feeling superior to those who ran for the shelter of the concourses. To amuse myself, I took self-portraits of the situation and went about uploading them to the social networks. Trouble was, although my rain poncho was clear plastic, it was getting steamed up inside and I couldn’t see through it to work on my iPhone. So what did I do? Why, I adjusted its position so that my view was no longer obstructed. I put it out in the open, outside of my rain poncho. I could see again!
I’m smart, but sometimes I’m a dope. I was a dope that night. What did I think was going to happen? Raindrops penetrated through the upper cracks and from then on, the top half of the touchscreen ceased to function. I held my breath for a week until iPhone 4 was announced, and then gave a big sigh of relief that I could get it two days before I left on my trip. I was glad that by that time, iTunes had the capability of rearranging iPhone screens on computer and then syncing, so I could move all of my heavy-use apps to the bottom halves of the windows.
I limped along like that for almost two months. I was ecstatic when I picked up my shiny new iPhone 4. I took immediate advantage of Apple’s offer for a free case. That rubber bumper has already saved iPhone 4 from several perilous situations.
Apple-flavored Kool-Aid
June 17, 2010
Despite my best effort, I do not have an iPhone 4 pre-ordered or even merely reserved. Why? Because Apple??AT&T decided to discriminate against people who, for whatever reasons, only have a debit card and not a credit card.
My own story is that I had personal bankruptcy effective December 31, 2004. I have found it surprisingly easy to lead a cash-based existence. I suppose that???s in part because banks for a long time have given you VISA debit cards, so I can pretend that I have a ???charge??? card, even though it comes (relatively) right out of my checking account.
That was all fine and dandy until yesterday, Day of the iPhone 4 Pre-Order. Yesterday, Day of the iPhone 4 Pre-Order, was the first time I have ever run into a SNAFU because my card is debit not credit.
At lunchtime, I made my way over to the downtown AT&T store because that was most convenient. I drank the Apple Kool-Aid a long time ago, as I believe I have mentioned previously, and would have preferred checking in at one of their stores, but as it was a non-weekend workday, I made do with what was available.
I can???t blame anybody but myself for this lack of fulfillment. I arrived at the AT&T store where the line-managing concierge made a frequent point of mentioning that debit cards would not be accepted and that if that was all you had, you should save yourself some agony and turn back now. I smugly watched three people ahead of me in the line of nine bail. I am an experienced Apple line-waiter. I stayed.
Oh, and I also answered to at least two passersby who wondered what the line was for, that AT&T was giving away a million dollars but that they should keep it on the down-low.
Yeah, then reality set in.
My turn with a CSR came and I had an enjoyable fifteen minutes with Zach while he waited for the overloaded AT&T and Apple systems to process each screen of information. Then came the Moment of Doom. I realized that my card was debit not credit.
It???s not that I???m dumb. I know the charges come right out of my checking account. But I???ve never been denied, because the card with the VISA logo, etc., is supposed to work “everywhere VISA is accepted.??? Right. Apparently not in Cupertino, California??AT&Tland.
The official line is that in previous pre-order situations, people were confused because a ???hold??? is placed on the total $$, though (as usual) the account activity doesn???t occur until the purchase is shipped. People less smart than I did not comprehend that it was not an actual duplicate removal of funds. Apple??AT&T decided not to deal with the questions this time around.
Freakin??? awesome.
I tried to be interested in picking up something for lunch on the way back to the office, then decided I???d see what would happen if I tried pre-ordering online at the Apple website. The first two attempts failed. The third attempt denied me for some reason other than my debit card, because I never got so far as being asked to enter the number. But what it did ask me was whether I wanted to ???reserve??? one at a store to pick up on the Day of Release. YES, PLEASE.
I then got a friendly web page that said something to the effect of ???thank you, your iPhone will be ready for you to pick up.??? There was no subsequent email confirmation. I was nervous that I had any kind of deal.
In the evening I saw the headline informing the world that AT&T stores had sold out of their allotted pre-orders. Skepticism crept closer.
This morning I tried the Apple site again and saw that instead of ???Ships: Arrives on June 24th??? it said ???Ships: By July 2nd.??? After lunch it said ???Ships: By July 14th.??? What?
Then I saw the headline that over 600,000 iPhone 4s had been pre-ordered. Whoa! Panic!
I called the store where I thought I might have an iPhone 4 on reserve. Nope, they didn???t have me on their list and, of course, I couldn???t be added.
My main motivation for wanting to acquire an iPhone 4 on the day of its release is because I???m leaving for ten days in London the next day, and my current iPhone 1 (bless its Edge network soul) is beat up and cracked, and water seeped into those cracks a few weeks ago and caused the top half of the touch screen to no longer work. Although I have gotten quite adept at creatively rotating the thing to accomplish tasks, there are some important actions that I can???t do, such as dial a phone number with the keypad.
So it???s down to this. I will draw on my line-waiting experience at an Apple Store around dawn on June 24th and hope for the best. If the iPhone 4 stock has been depleted by the time it???s my turn, I will instead get the $99 iPhone 3GS and figure out the rest (with regard to contracts and upgrade prices) later. I really want to take something that is fully functional in every way with me on my trip.
Before: G4 // After: Mac Mini vs. iMac
December 31, 2009
This past weekend I spent time with geeks who, on their resumés, sport former and current employers such as Apple, Yahoo!, Topix, and Activision. When I proudly added my iPhone to the collection on the table and it was observed to be a first-gen among all the 3GSs, I was asked if I still liked my 128k Mac, too. Well, touché. I still use a G4.
I have the mirrored drive doors dual 867MHz, just the lowest model. I’ve had it since 2002 and it has been a tank for me (like most Macs, except maybe G5 desktops). The thing still works just fine. But the software I use as a graphic designer is at the point of superceding the hardware. Therefore, when I get my next income tax refund, a new Mac is in the cards. I don’t need much; I have maintained for a while that it wouldn’t be that much longer until my puny human brain would be unable to discern performance increases. Sure, maybe for heavy duty video and animation you can tell, but for what I do, not so much. So I only have my sights set on a Mac Mini or an iMac. There is no reason why a Mini wouldn’t be just fine. I have a monitor and display. But after working on a 30-inch Cinema Display at the office for the last few years, I think it would be nice to have that quality at home, too, hence the consideration of an iMac. But the one huge advantage the Mini has is that if I up and go to London like you all know I want to, I can pack it in my suitcase. There is at least one of you out there who reads this who could tell me if it’s as simple as getting a different power cord to take a Mini international. Because I plan on my next Mac lasting seven years like my G4 has. If it isn’t possible to just plug in a different power cord in another country, then the iMac would inch up in the standings. I suppose there are laws about taking software over national borders. I’m probably hosed. In that case, the Mini would still be the front-runner. If I were going to have to discard my fine Mac after a two or three years, then I wouldn’t want to spend more money than necessary. Hmm. Looks like the Mini wins either way.Camera ubiquitous
December 2, 2009
I have always loved to take photographs. I bought my first film SLR as a senior in high school, and I still have it and it still works. But I haven’t used it in seven years. I went digital. And then I went iPhone.
I never thought of my previous cell phones as acceptable cameras for the simple reason that I’m a Mac girl and I didn’t have an easy way to offload the pictures. I also never used to do a data plan for my cell phones. Then iPhone came along.
Now I not only have a computer and the internet in my pocket, but I have a camera that is always with me. It couldn’t be easier to get images off of in any number of ways. With the ease of emailing and/or uploading from within apps such as Facebook, I have become an indiscriminate snapper of pictures. No occasion is too trivial. No subject is too insignificant.
It’s just too bad that on the first generation iPhone (which mine is) the camera is not of better quality. A good portion of my life is being captured in subpar pixels. But gosh, you just can’t beat the convenience. And with third-parrty photography apps for iPhone, its capabilities are extended. My favorite is Pano for iPhone which does all the heavy lifting for you to manufacture a pretty darned good panoramic image stitched together from up to 16 individual photos.
My favorite theme of iPhone photography has turned out to be self-portraits. Once I figured out how to hold iPhone in one hand and touch the shutter button with a nearby finger it was all over. Now I document the daily mundanity of myself and the universe I move through. It just wouldn’t work with my “big” camera.
I also use iPhone’s camera to make notes for myself. If I see a poster for something I’m interested in, if I sample a new beer or wine while I’m out, any number of things, it’s quite easier to just snap a shot of it to jog my memory than it would be to type a note (even though that’s very straightforward on iPhone, just like everything). And if I’m pressed for time or being particularly lazy, I will use it in lieu of my scanner to digitize something on paper, such as my handwritten notes from yesterday’s post.
Its constant companionship causes its overuse. This is the most recent photo from earlier this evening. I felt it necessary to preserve for posterity my joy at trying Magic Hat Brewing’s Black as Night Winter Lager.
iPhone is a constant companion, and I see I’m calling it iPhone like that’s its name, without any preceding articles or possessive pronouns. People name their cars. Do you other iPhone users name your iPhones?
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