My Curious Life

It’s always great to find a new blog that just resonates with you … as Bill DeRouchey’s History of the Button did for me today. He’s making it onto my regular reading list.

I especially enjoyed this post of his … a collection of computer objects (like keys) that have been transplanted or translated into other funny and entertaining objects of day-to-day life. In fact, I may just have to buy the Delete eraser for myself.

Brought back fond memories of receiving these Panic buttons:

They bring a smile to my face every time …

Is it just me, or has AT&T (nee Cingular) become a sloth when it comes to data transfers for those of us without an iPhone?

I admit it, I’d love to have an iPhone in lieu of my Motorola SLVR, but I’m just not sure I’m willing to pay that much money for a phone on a second-rate data network (EDGE 2.5g). If I’m going to fork out the money, it better darn well be top-of-the-line in all ways.

In all honesty, the SLVR has been a trusty, reliable phone for me for some time now. As a father of six (2 bio, 4 adopted — more on that in another post) I need a relatively small, indestructable device to service my needs, and I’m out of pockets to carry around an additional digital camera, despite my desire to do so, so a dual-purpose phone/camera combo is a must. The SLVR does just fine in both of those areas … the iPhone, well, I’m not so sure about the “indestructable” part.

The problem of late is that since the iPhone intro, any data I want to transfer, whether it be an email or the sending of a photo, has been terribly, horribly slow. I can now send an email from my phone and wait for hours (yes, hours) before it arrives in the recipient’s inbox. Prior to the iPhone release, this would take a handful of minutes at most, which is reasonable.

What I’m wondering is if this is a result of the hundreds of thousands of new iPhone users overwhelming AT&T’s infrastructure with data packets, or if those of us not on EDGE (hmm, pun oh-so-ironic) have been dropped to second-class citizens on the network in order to squeak as much bandwidth as possible to provide a better first impression to new iPhone customers?

That’s about 15.5 miles for those of us snobbish Americans. And it’s a heckuva long way to run.

Saturday (July 14th) was another benchmark run for the running group I joined back in March. They had aid stations set up along the way, and while the run was, I admit, quite scenic, about two-thirds of the way into it I lost any track of the scenery and just kept praying that they wouldn’t find me collapsed near the river and show pictures on the 10 o’clock news.

It’s funny, but my own mental motivation is picturing the “good angel and little devil” perched on either shoulder, either driving me onward or trying to convince me to give it up. Ironically, the angel is a ruthless taskmaster who reminds me that 40 pounds ago this would have been easy (at least, so he says) and to suck it up and keep moving. The devil is a sympathetic tempter who constantly reminds me that I’ve gone further than ever before so why shouldn’t I deserve a break (and perhaps an Umpqua ice cream cone)?

Through it all, though, I’m learning a lot. I’ve learned that my body is capable of a lot more than I’d ever believed possible. And that the biggest hurdle to overcome is just showing up. And that those little round band-aids that I never had a need for before fit nicely over your nipples to prevent chafing. And that some products that sound silly can actually be pretty tasty.

I took some time off the week of July 4th, which is why there were no posts for over a week.

It was time to spend with my family, away from things like the web, my cell phone, and the wired (even wireless) world in general. It was a much needed and well spent break.

It’s amazing how quickly our daily lives fill with things that don’t really matter that much in the bigger scheme of life. Sometimes time away from all of that does wonders for the body, mind and soul.

Life lesson learned: Don’t put off that vacation time until “someday” … there is no someday.