Why oh why oh why is there not just one simple little feature for cell phones: a skip-to-leave-a-voicemail function/key sequence? Lovely as my girlfriend’s voice is, I already know she is going to tell me to leave a message and that she will get back to me. I already know she is not available. And goodness, I already know (if I’m listening to a Verizon-serviced phone) how to leave a voicemail. Is this a money-making move? I suspect it is. Keeping customers on the phone longer (the call begins when voicemail picks up) allows phone companies to make good money in very small increments. Consider this: Cingular features a direct to web button on most of their phones which, if pushed, almost always transfers web data before the user can mash enough buttons to stop the transfer (or in my case, try to rip the battery out) before charges are incurred.
The devil is in the details for the consumers, fighting large telephone companies making millions by charging customers cents. These annoyances are stupid, but when the realization that massively distributed WiFi has the potential to disrupt even mighty wireless telecom (especially in cities), perhaps users will see cell service improve. Looking at the bigger picture, perhaps voicemails as we know them will simply cease to exist. Maybe all those calls saying “I’m 10 minutes from X” will yield to a live network reporting user’s positions to selected other users. Wireless technology still could make our lives easier, less swamped with work, and more relaxed. Until them, I’ll be mashing buttons trying to disconnect my accidental and costly web connections.
Unbelievable magnet train - A Japanese magnetically levitated train moving at 500 kilometers per hour - 311 miles per hour. Unbelievably fast - check out the train fly-by about midway through this 6 minute clip.
Really great New York Times article about facebook - Consider the kid who had a party that he suspected was busted because campus security read about it on facebook. So, he plans a party centered on beer that really just involves a cake that says “Beer!” on it. Campus police get there, they are nonplussed, hilarity ensues.
Welcome to the first post of 2006. So many things have happened to me in this year, that I’ll toss them out in random order, maybe they’ll be funny, and maybe you’ll get bored. Who knows. First, Nils is in Norway - he’s overseas along with many people I know (for example: Emily, Emily, others). He called the experience “once in a lifetime” complete with backpacking Europe later in his 7 month stay, and total immersal in Norwegian culture and general Norwegianess. This type of horizon and world-view-expanding activity strikes me as extremely desirable for the complete college experience. While I am unable to partake at this point in my existence and for the forseeable future, I plan at some point to do some real traveling. It would break my routine-building tendencies, show me things I’ve never seen before, and make me a more interesting life-experiency type father. “Let me tell you what the Cathedrals of France look like at sunset” is generally more interesting than “let me tell you about the Saint Paul skyline at sunset” but not necessarily as practical as “if you use the correct attachment on the wrench, removing the oil filter doesn’t have to be that difficult.”
Anyhow, we brought some people together from high school to discuss these changing times, but mostly just to joke around about life. It’s refreshing to see that, yes, everybody has classes that are ridiculously hard and, in fact, planning the steps to a job is never a sure or set-in-stone thing. Right now in life is hard - you can sense the enormous potential and the gigantic room for error that you have. Freedom to pick a life path allows for both fantastic opportunity and wrenching decisions. It’s like being on top of a mountain - you can decide many ways to ski down it, but when you choose one path, you are unable to experience some of the qualities of the others. To a certain extent, we are skiing partway down the mountain, running into trees, and then trekking slowly back up to try a different run that we like better.
I saw The Family Stone and The Sting. About the only two things that these movies have in common is that they both begin with “the.” Family Stone is, really, a good holiday movie and one that accurately portrays the drama that every family sees. I initially cringed a little at the ideal aging process that movies seem to show (the grandparents always have suspicisouly stylish glasses and an impossibly unrealistic casual elegance), but this movie bucked that trend later on, revealing the toll of aging in a way that, if shared, would spoil part of the movie. The Family Stone is good for a family to watch on a cold day - it’s a little too wintery to go well with a summer crickets in the background kind of evening.
The Sting was just as good as I had hoped - combining such spectacular acting, music, and plot twist that I realized watching it again would reveal more layers of cinematic goodness. This complexity is a mark of a good movie, making the intial viewing a sort of whirlwind tour of everything the film has to offer. Furthermore, the pace of this movie has something to teach today’s films: the audience doesn’t have to be left breathless after being pounded with 46 plot twists and turns: space the development out, let the actors do their jobs, take your time. Watch this movie earlier in the evening to allow it to sink in.
Another thought: I’m coming up on the most important semeseter in my life, a time to get in some good grades for my dental school, time to prepare to do well on the DAT, time to do any resume rounding out that is left. I’m skiing down one of those slopes, I hope I do not hit too many trees.
I some other really neat things to say, but right now they elude me. I will close for now, and hopefully post further thoughts later.
Well, it’s been one heck of a ride this year, folks. The site received a complete overhaul, a long-anticipated digital picture section, and recently some ads to test out a new revenue stream. No, I don’t anticipate tumbledry “selling out” in the near future - we don’t get enough traffic to do that. But running a website still costs money, and we aim to offset that wherever possible. This year I blew up my first stuff in summer chemistry lab (the glass top of a sep funnel), drank my first cup of coffee (black), ran my first almost-sub 20 minute 5k (20:08 i think), had my first weird knee injury (still have to get that looked at), saw my first cross-dresser in person (at Whole Foods), got my first iPod (thanks, everyone!), grew my hair out long for the first time (it was curly), ate my first crab (less than 24 hours old, shipped chilled), and dissected my first cat (more fun than I would have thought).
I’ll be around next year, which is the year where I try to get into dental school. Your memories from last year, everyone?
