So, so ahead of the curve

In order to cement your status in the cultural elite, you want to be already sick of everything no one else has even heard of.

...If you can do this, becoming not only an early adopter, but an early discarder, you will realize greater status rewards than you ever imagined. Remember, cultural epochs come and go, but one-upsmanship is forever.

I will spare you the long list of items that I "discovered" well in advance of the madding crowd. Or the brilliant predictions I made which were ignored or pooh-poohed at the time, but which could have made someone (including me) huge portions of fame and fortune had we been bothered to follow up on them.

Bah.

Go read this article by David Brooks, it's amusing. (Thanks for the pointer, David!)

Tired

Gah.

When I took my car in for service a few weeks ago they told me I needed to replace three of my tires (namely, the three that hadn't blown at high speed on the highway last summer). I knew this was important, I knew it was urgent, I knew I should do it promptly.

Did I do it urgently and promptly? I did not.

Everyone who doesn't see this coming, raise your hand right now.

No? Nobody?

I thought not.

Yeah, I'm an idiot. The only good thing about this story is that the flat was a) on a BACK tire and b) half a mile from home. So, ninety reimbursable bucks later, the spare is on and the shot wheel with its snazzy rim is in the trunk.

Me, I'm still an idiot. I'm not a DEAD idiot, however, and that's gotta count for something. No more highway driving for me until I get this tire business sorted.

iPhone v.2 Software

I don't know why anyone was surprised by the SNAFUs around the release of iPhone 2. You remember what I went through when I got my original iPhone last year? Horrible, horrible experience.

So I waited until the reports of server frustrations died down, and then ~ in the wee, small hours of the morning ~ I downloaded and installed the new software uneventfully.

Yeah, there are some spiffy new features (although STILL no cut-and-paste, and still no mass mark-as-read in email). Everyone will have his or her favorite, but in my view the best is the simplest. Now, when the phone rings, you do not have to "swipe" to answer the phone, just tap an "accept" or "decline" button. This is a lot easier to do in a hurry, or one-handed, and a major UI improvement.

Frankly, I'd wish they'd allow you to answer a call by pressing the "home" button. But you can't have everything.

Dust to Dust

My trip to Boston, the memorial service for my father, and other family matters went about as well as I could have hoped.

We mingled my father's and mother's ashes together, as he had wished, and planted a small hydrangea bush on a strip of land right near their former studios in their memory. My brother and sister-in-law were headed to the cape, and were supposed to scatter the ashes in the ocean.

Life is fleeting, friends; show your love as completely as you can, while you can.

Tagged!

Oh dear, a meme, what shall I do, what shall I do?? Kelly tagged me:

So, I'm supposed to share a quotation and dedicate it to three other bloggers. This is a toughy. I don't have a lot of pithy little quotes hanging out inside my head. So instead of something short and sweet, you get the only poem I know by heart. I memorized it in my sophomore year of high school, and it's with me still.

Shakespeare's Sonnet 94

They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

I don't know a lot of people with blogs. So: two friends, Molly and Abbie, and one stranger, Shreve, consider yourselves tagged.

Mighty Service

So I was having this little problem with my Mighty Mouse: it would scroll every which way but down. And, unfortunately, down is the direction you mostly want to scroll when scrolling is called for.

I looked up all the troubleshooting procedures online and applied them all, to no effect. So this afternoon I toddled over to the Clarendon Apple store and hoped I could get helped without an appointment.

After ascertaining that my description of my problem was indeed accurate, the helpful guy at the Genius bar asked the magic four-word question: "Do you have AppleCare?"

Why yes, yes I do. Five minutes later I walked out with a brand new Mighty Mouse.

AppleCare: buy it. Worth every penny; it's already more than paid for itself.

Sick as a Dog

I've got some kind of stomach thing, or a flu, or something. My entire body aches and I'm as week as a newborn kitten. I feel like DEATH.

I had horrible indigestion all night, and the mere thought of eating is nauseating. I can barely take a sip of water.

This one is nasty, folks. I hope you don't get it.