All Gadgets Aside...

So anyone that knows me and knows my technology preferences knows that I am a big fan of two technology companies, Apple and Nokia. Lately I have taken up issues with all this iPhone business. Being that I am a mac admin and everyone knows that I love to use macs and Apple related products there hasn't been a day since the original iPhone release that someone hasn't asked me where my iPhone is. I generally politely reach into my pocket and retrieve my Nokia N85 and say, "It's right here, only this iPhone does more". They usually respond by saying, "but, that's not an iPhone". To which I reply, "you are correct, but this phone still does a whole lot more".

Let's face it, even with the third rendition of the iPhone almost out, Apple is still playing catch up especially in the hardware realm. I would agree that Apple has done a marvelous job marketing the iPhone and I know better than most that if you slap an Apple logo on it you may as well just fire up the money printing press at the mint and drop the money off at Apple. The deal with the iPhone is that Apple has drummed up a pretty insane level of fanaticism. I would agree that I am a fanatic of Nokia and it would be tough to pry the Nokia from my hands even if I were dead but I can safely say that if someone came out with a phone that had:
A. The build quality of a Nokia
B. Software that is as tried and true as Symbian/S60
C. Features that best the feature set of a Nokia
Then I would give said phone the time of day and consider switching to it.

It is nice to see that I will finally be able to send pictures to my iPhone disabled friends, a first for those that have upgraded their handsets or paid the ridiculous amount to upgrade. I am also glad that those that purchase the 3Gs can get lost in the woods and find their way out (as long as their battery doesn't die first) with the incredibly useful compass app.

I get it people. The iPhone is a sexy little piece of hardware, not going to deny that. But really? I mean, before the iPhone came out most of these people couldn't give a crap what phone they had in their hand. Remember the RAZR? Remember how everyone jumped on that one and Motorola road it out until they couldn't even give the things away? The RAZR had a horrible camera, a lack of any extra functionality. But hey, everyone else had a RAZR and it looked good when you had it up to your head. At the time I was rocking a Nokia with a 3 megapixel camera. So fast forward a bit. All those people that had phones that didn't have any functionality beyond a phone that made a decent call all of a sudden care about a quasi smart phone? Is it that or is it that they really like to download an app that lets you pop bubble wrap on the screen of your phone?

A person that sits near me at work was asking another co-worker if he was going to upgrade his iPhone to the 3Gs because she was thinking about doing it. I had to interject and say "hey, if you are going to pay $300 while on contract to upgrade your phone then why not avoid the additional time on your contract and buy a Nokia 5800" I explained how it's been out for a little while, costs a bit over $300, offers up the same functionality as the iPhone and then some, can be used with Ovi for free (as opposed to $99/year for MobileMe), and a whole multitude of other reasons why it would make sense. 10 minutes later she says over the cube wall to me, "but there is no app store" to which I reply, "store.ovi.com, accessible both from the phone and the web". I think that even with all the positive things I laid out that Apple's marketing team did a better job selling their product to this individual even though they can't up with one reason why it would make more sense to buy their product. I tried, I usually do, but people in America are stuck in the "I need to buy what my carrier sells me" mentality.

The interesting thing is that AT&T, as of late, has even seen the light and realized that not everyone wants a subsidized phone. They offer up the ability to walk in and purchase a SIM card and a month to month plan, if you ask. People, listen to me when I tell you this. Cellular carriers are not doing you a favor by selling you a subsidized phone. Instead they are selling you products that they dumb down according to their wants and needs and essentially selling you a broken product. *Cough*iPhone tethering*Cough*

Ok let me sum things up as it seems I have gotten off on a much bigger tangent that I can go into at another time.

The iPhone:
-sexy
-sleek
-marketed very well
-extremely trendy
-behind in terms of technology
-even the 3Gs needs a hardware upgrade
-MobileMe should be free
-Useless free apps are just that, useless
-Compass on an iPhone won't save your life unless you know how to use a compass and the battery doesn't die

First things first. I should really put an update to some previous stuff I posted.

When it comes to the car I was going to purchase I changed my mind at the last minute. The car was set to arrive the next day and I even got to sit in someone else' of the same model to see how it was. At the last minute I realized how much I loved the 2009 Toyota Matrix S (S stands for sport). It has a modified body kit, fog lights, sequential shifting and an upgraded 2.4 Liter 4 Cylinder engine (over the stock 1.8L 4 Cyl.). Needless to say, for it's size and weight this thing is fast. Here is what my car looks like:


Ok so onward to this thing we call Ovi. Not quite the newest of of services but new enough and so incredibly useful that it needs mentioning. As most of the people that have read my Blog before know, I am an avid Nokia owner/user. I currently own a Nokia N73 and N95. Not too long ago Nokia introduced a new service/website called Ovi in which it will sync data from your phone with the web service so that no matter what happens to your phone or, if you have multiple phones, which phone you are using. The service reminds me a lot of Apple's Mobile Me although the big difference here is that Ovi is Free, unless you need to have data storage but for me that's not an issue. So essentially you sign up on the website, make sure you have the Sharing 3.0 application on your phone and follow the instructions while setting your user profile online and they will text you the service settings and away you go. It is incredibly nice to be able to have the same calendar no matter where I am and be able to update and see it either on my phone or my computer. The Ovi service also allows you to upload pictures and videos to your galleries and make them private or public for all to see. The service is currently in Beta so I am sure a lot more will be added as there are tabs on the site that tie into Nokia's Music service as well as N-Gage, (the Nokia platform for gaming and purchasing games). If you currently have any N-Series device I highly recommend checking this service out.

So I am still pondering how to go about and write my incredibly horrible review of the overly large and uncaring Progressive Insurance, in the meanwhile I have found solace in my scooter.

I am not sure what it is about riding a two wheeled vehicle that is so enjoyable. Perhaps its the wind blowing past you or the freedom you get from laying out a hard turn. I know that for me it doesn't stop there. As I type this my rather new scooter (with a lot of love on it, 2600 miles of love so far) is in the shop getting "tuned". The engine is being upgraded to 70cc with a Malossi cylinder kit, the matching carbon fibre reeds will be installed to make it run well. I am having a handmade Leo Vince Exhaust installed as well with roller weights and clutch springs to match. I think a replacement performance clutch might be the next step for the internals of my super 9. I think what I love about this is the fact that I can essentially hot rod out my scooter for a mere fraction of the price of tuning a car or even a motorcycle for that matter. Currently my scooter looks like this:



The next step that I have planned for my scooter is to strip off most of the factory decals and replace them with custom ones and performance decals to coincide with the parts being put on my scoot. Not to give off the whole secret before I actually have it ready to show off but I think I am going to stick with the stock colors because I really like them and then I plan on ordering up some large vinyl skull decals in either white or chrome and place them at the front of the scoot, cutting the excess off as it over hangs. We'll see how this works out. It's hard to describe exactly what I am thinking but I have a good picture in my head.

Last night I went out to a club I had neglected for a little while to see the internationally famous BT. It was one of the best nights I have ever had in my life. I FOUND MYSELF AGAIN while listening to a friends DJ set of hard breakbeat electronic music. A strange soothing calm came over me and I knew that my streak of despair had ended. I ran into every person at the club that I would want to see and be around and even though some people had some sad issues in their personal lives I feel that my amount of happiness was enough to rub off on them. The music was incredible last night. A lot of it I had heard but I once again felt at one with the music even though I wasn't performing myself. Life once again became beautiful. Everything seemed to continue to align as we even decided to hit an after party where the oddest mix of people that I know came together in some sort of symbiosis that worked perfectly. Junglists were hanging out with house heads and hippies were hanging out with young ravers and every single person had a big smile on their face.

Of course seeing my family yesterday was probably what initially spawned me finding myself again. It was my brothers birthday so my parents had come to pick me up and we hit up a restaurant on the way home, then I made fresh guacamole and Mango/Black Bean Salsa. We had a dinner of tacos, I made mine fish tacos since I am a pescatarian (vegetarian that eats fish and/or seafood). After we all ate me and my brothers did something I hadn't done with them for a long time...we busted out some fireworks and blew stuff up .

It's really strange how things go around and how one second you can feel horrible and then out of the blue you get smacked across the face with the giant salmon of happiness and you feel better than you ever had before. I have a feeling that from this point on things will continue to be great.

I never really realized when the accident happened that it would hit me so hard. I mean look at me, I am virtually unscathed...on the outside at least. There isn't an hour that goes by that I don't think about what happened and how rapidly my life changed. It took me a long time to work my way up to being able to buy a brand spanking new car just the way I wanted it and in a matter of seconds it was taken away from me. In the state of Minnesota a person in a car accident where they don't find themselves physically injured has no rights. I am constantly reminded of how Minnesota "no fault" laws protect the rights of the insurance company over the person that went through such a traumatic event. So far I have been "slapped in the face" by the other parties insurance company by being offered $500 as a sorry in exchange for me to sign a piece of paper that says I can never go after the other driver in the event that injuries do show up in me. Obviously they can't pull the wool over my eyes and I didn't sign. The issue is that I do have injuries, on the inside it hurts so much thinking about the accident that it makes it difficult to work and do daily things. When I informed my insurance company that I was going to go talk to someone about all of this they informed me that insurance does not cover mental health related to the accident. Aside from the medical side of thing the insurance companies aren't willing to buy me a new car even though we all know that someone was beyond negligent and nearly killed me. I am forced to settle for what they feel the car is worth and foot the rest of the bill myself meaning that I will be without a car for a few months at least. To top things off my insurance company informed me the other day that since they made me a "fair offer" on my car that I have to return the rental car that comes with my insurance coverage... once again I am without a car. Dealing with 6 insurance agents on a daily basis really takes its toll on a person.

Through all of this I have realized something, no matter how hard I try the people that are supposed to help me won't. I have once again realized that I just don't care anymore. I am going to give up? No. But why should I care if nobody else does? I can do nothing to recover what was lost from inside of me and no one else wants to own up and help me fix that portion of me. My car is obviously gone but I don't really care about the car. I care about all of the time in my life I have worked to own something I was truly proud of.

I am starting to feel better slowly at this point as I begin to care less and less and realize that I should be out having fun with friends. Going out and having fun with friends is part of what is making things difficult as my constant lack of transportation is a reminder of what happened.