Category: iPhone

End of days

Woke up this morning to a post-Apocalyptic looking sky. It’s creeping out the Bay Area.

Owing to some pretty bad fires down in San Jose, the Bay Area skies are filled with smoke. It makes for spectacular sunsets, but can’t be good for the lungs.

The sun this morning TOTALLY creeped me out.

Took a fast snap on my iPhone (below) which hardly does it justice. This photo in the SFGate doesn’t really get there either.

Imagine a blood run sun on a vaguely gray sky. : shudder :

One radio DJ this morning called it a Zombie Sun.

It is a sad comment that instead of commuting to work, battling zombies under a blood red sky sounded more fun. Get mah Buffy ON!

*sigh*

Back to battling paperwork and whining employees (upon which, by law, I’m not authorized to use a wooden stake….) instead.

What I did on my summer vacation.

By Karen Fayeth

:)

Man oh man….back at work today after a most luverly week off. It took me three days to just relax enough to realize HOW MUCH I needed a vacation.

‘Course it took me three hours back at work to *forget* I ever had a vacation.

By 11:00 I’d already nervously eaten my packed lunch (I do tend toward emotional eating…something I did a lot less of last week when slings and arrows weren’t flying at me from all directions).

By noon I already had to ask someone to stop yelling at me. You know for one full week I never once had to ask someone to cease yelling at me? (Unless you count the meowling four-legged one who does get snippy when the bowl is empty…but that’s justified, IMHO.)

We’d originally planned a fairly elaborate road trip, which would have been wonderful, but at the last minute, my partner talked me into bagging the road trip and having a vacation at home. I was not thrilled about this at first, but he ended up being right (ssshhhh, don’t tell him, okay?)

We managed to get to “those things” on the home list that need to get done but never do. You know what I mean, little improvements to the living space that would be nice, but by the time the weekend rolls around everyone is too exhausted and running errands to even think about it? Right.

So we go those done.

We had a nice sit down breakfast every day.

Bikes were ridden.

Lots of good food was eaten….(I believe I’ve name checked Sodini’s here before….)

Sleep was had. Oh glorious lovely, beautiful, nourishing sleep!

We even played tourists a couple days. In the ten years I’ve lived here do you know I still hadn’t gotten around to walking on the Golden Gate Bridge? Driven over it a zillion times. Been to the fort below the bridge. Been on the Marin side and looked back and took photos, but never once actually walked over the bridge. So we did that. (Crappy iPhone photo at the bottom).

And I read…a bunch. Just for the joy of it. No contracts. No vast emails. Just, books, fiction, enjoyable. Watched some movies.

And mostly I reconnected with my partner. He and I have been running too far too fast. It was nice to just be together. To remember how nice it is to just be with each other. He’s still my favorite person to spend a day doin’ nothing with. For just the pleasure of his smile alone, it’s worth it all.

He took care of some much needed correspondence, I sent off some photos for a contest, and we let the days pace slowly by. God, it was wonderful.

Today I got stuck in a traffic jam on 101. Got to work and was set upon by my over caffeinated program manager, got buried in a mound of papers, and got yelled at.

*sigh*

Here we go again……..

I sold out

Ok, maybe I didn’t totally sell out. It was given to me by my employer and I’m expected to use it.

I’m so *ashamed*. This morning when I stopped for a cuppa to get me through the day, I was bored (there was a backup in the line) and so since work is sizzling and I decided to check email.

A man in line asked me “how do you like it?” I smiled and said, “oh, it’s great, I really like it!”

Why did I say that? I don’t like it. I loathe it. IT HAUNTS ME! Ok, it *is* kind of cool. And it does cool things and makes cool noises. But it also does a lot of things I will never need or use.

And there’s plenty not to like.

And at the end of the day, it’s still *just* a phone.

But it sure is kind of fun to have all the interwebs browsing whenever I want. And the screen sure is nice…and it’s pretty.

AAAARRRGH!!! This thing is evil, PURE EVIL.

This, I believe is the only appropriate treatment of such a device:

iHell

So, it’s out. You can buy one (inventories permitting).

Cancer hasn’t been cured. Kids are still starving in some parts of our world. Bad people do bad things. Good people still try to be good. No one has been healed. No shift in the karma of the universe has been made.

An electronic gadget has made its way into the hands of wealthy people willing to splash out $600 on a phone.

Can we all go on about our business now?

(ooh, what an iBitter little girl I am!)

Bittersweet

As mentioned yesterday, my quest for “feel good” stories continues on, unencumbered.

When I read the headline of this ABQjournal article “Recent Widow Gets Back Her Stolen Car”, I thought it was right up my alley, and it was, in a way.

But I found a lump in my throat by the end.

Alia Dahl, a very pregnant Alia Dahl, is having a pretty rough month.

Her husband, Joel, stationed in Iraq, was due to be home in about a week. July 9, actually. He would have missed the birth of his son, but he would have been home.

I say “would” because Joel became yet another sad victim of the war on June 23.

The week after the death of her husband, her car was stolen.

Leaving her about a week away from having her labor induced and without her husband, car, or her packed overnight bag to go to the hospital.

I think Alia must be a stronger person than I am, because I’m not quite sure how I would have managed to stay upright and deal with all of that.

But here’s the part to feel good about. I’m not the only one who felt this nice lady got a real bad deal.

People starting taking up donations, pitching in, and in 24 hours $18,000 was raised to get Alia a new car.

The police also got pretty tenacious on the search for the lost car.

And you know what? They found it.

So Alia and her mom went to pick it up on Thursday. Alia was in good spirits, happily talking to reporters and answering questions.

When her water broke. She delivered a baby boy. Mom and son are healthy, happy, and they endure.

She even had the strength to make a joke, a joke referencing her husband:

“‘Just like his father, he has to be the center of attention,’ she said, laughing and holding her abdomen.”

*gulp*

Here’s to the abundance of everlasting human spirit found in Alia. Here’s hoping she can rebuild her life and carry on, for her herself, for her husband, for their son.

Wow.

For some reason this story has really got me by the heart.

My past week has been a flurry of ferocity in the run up to the release of an over-hyped product. I keep feeling like I’ve lost perspective.

This article, this story, helped, a little………

Happy Friday to all.