I have wanted a camera phone. I have begun the process of taking blurry, poorly-lit pictures at low resolutions of anything interesting (or not) that I see. Here is me holding my new phone:
I think the photos actually don't look that bad.
I've been messing around with the photo and video taking capabilities of the phone, and I really like it. I've also set up Bluetooth between the phones and the Powerbook. What this means is that I can send the pictures I take on the phone to the computer for free. I find this infinitely nifty. I can take pictures of anything I see and save them for later.
I've also figured out how to use iTunes to edit MP3s into ringtones and use Bluetooth to transfer them to the phone. I've already done this with The Killer's "All these things that I've done", Franz Ferdinand's "Jacqueline", and Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time is Here". It's a good feeling to be able to turn any song into a ringtone without having to pay $3 for somebody else to do it for you (and they probably selected the wrong clip of the song, anyway).
I also tried out the Redbox DVD rental machine for the first time yesterday. For those of you that haven't seen one of these:
basically, they are vending machines for DVD rentals. You go up, pick a movie to rent, and swipe your credit card. Out pops the movie. If you return it before 7:00 pm the next day, it only charges you one dollar. Every additional day is another dollar. I think they cap it off eventually and you can just keep the DVD, but I don't know how expensive that gets. Where it gets really, interesting, though, is that you can return your DVDs to any Redbox anywhere in the world. So, you could rent a movie in Dallas and return it in Norman. Or, you could rent a movie at the Albertson's on the east side of Norman and return it at the Albertson's on the west side of Norman (as I did with "The Devil Wears Prada"). I think they would have a real money-maker if they could put these in all the airports in the US. I know tons of people who take laptops that play DVDs with them on trips, and if I was sitting at my gate and saw that I could rent a bunch of new releases for $1, watch them on the flight, and then return them in the other airport... well, I think I might do that. Pictures of what the DVDs look like:
McDonald's actually owns Redbox. The machines started out in McDonald's in select markets, and they've slowly been rolling them out to additional locations. Albertson's has said that by the end of the first quarter of 2007, they will be in all of their stores. I've also heard that some Kroger's have them.
Also: you can go to www.redbox.com and check which movies are in stock at all of their machines. More than that, a lot of times you can select which movie you want to rent and pay on-line, then just drive up, swipe your credit card, and accept the movie. These things are great. I'm bout it bout it.
For codes to get a free movie or two, visit Inside Redbox. You'll be glad you did.
Jake's 2006 Christmas List
There were, however a few things I learned in the 4th class that I will share:
- Some people go to their pediatrician until they graduate college
- Some pediatricians keep seeing people until they graduate college
- Norman's hospital is nice
- April and I both like hospitals*
- The labor rooms at Norman have tvs with DVD players, so I could theoretically bring in Kill Bill to watch during the day-long process of April having this baby to acclimate myself to blood and guts**
I finally posted some pictures from the trip April and I took to Colorado back in September to Flickr. We've been meaning to do it forever, but never have. Click on the little flashing photo thing off to the side to go check them out. Here's one to whet your appetite:
*She says they're cozy. Babies come from hospitals. You get to ride an elevator.***
**I probably will not
***April expressed that she would be disappointed if they expected her to have the baby on the first floor since we would be robbed of an elevator ride or two
- Way more about epidurals than I even wanted to know.
- "He-he-he-who"
Last night April and I completely vegitated out in front of the TV. We watched:
- Veronica Mars
- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
- My Name is Earl (April fell asleep during)
- The Office
- Jericho
- Lost
Jericho vexes me. April likes it a lot, and I want to like it a lot, but I feel that they are not doing enough with the show to warrant my affections. The premise is great: nuclear bombs go off and we get to see one dinky little town in Kansas as they fight for survival. That's great. My very favorite novel of all time, Stephen King's The Stand, has a very similar premise. The problem with Jericho, though, is that they don't look like they have any idea what they're doing with the show. Let me give you an example or two.
Last week, the power came back on. Yeah! We have electricty again, said the residents of Jericho. Unfortunately, the influx of electricity must've overloaded the sleeping transformer boxes, because fires sprung up all over town! Oh, no! The library's on fire! Oh, no! A little girl ran in to go save her favorite copy of Alice in Wonderland. Oh, no! Her teacher ran in after her! Oh, no! They both end up trapped in the inferno, with smoke filling their lungs! Oh, no! The son-of-the-mayor/deputy-mayor/husband-of-the-doctor/volunteer-firefighter ran in after the teacher and the girl! Oh, no! He gets trapped with them, too!
Sound familiar? This was about half of the episode. Watching these people breath through clothes they soaked with the handy water cooler that was present in the library room they ended up trapped in. This is a fine story to tell, and about a million other television shows have told it. I generally do not mind watching this particular story. My main beef with Jericho here is that there should be about a million other interesting things going on. It's the end of the world as REM knows it, and we are watching stupid people nearly die from running into a burning building. I honestly felt like the week before the writers were sitting around, and had this conversation:
"So, boss, what should we write to fill in this half hour of TV we haven't written yet?"
"Oh, crap, we didn't plan anything! Quick, what's a dramatic incident we can use to fill in a half hour of TV time?"
"How about a burning building!?"
"Yeah, yeah, and we can have a little boy trapped in there!"
"No, no, make it a little girl. They're much more sympathetic."
"Wait, let's add in a courageous teacher who runs in to save the little girl!"
"Yeah, but then they get trapped!"
"And one of our lead characters puts on firefighting gear and runs in to save them!"
"Awesome, yeah! Keep it coming!"
"And then he gets trapped with them!"
"Wait, wait, won't it look ridiculous if a firefighter gets trapped in a room for half an hour?"
"No, no, he's not a full-time firefighter, so it'll be OK. He'll use his smarts to tell the ladies to lie down on the floor and breath through wet cloths!"
"I smell deep-fried Emmy."
- One centimeter is about the size of a grape.
- Four-five centimeters is about the size of an Oreo.
- Ten centimeters is about the size of a Bagel.
Special bonus: Overheard today in the Spencer Home
"Do you want sugar on these?"
"On my Frosted Mini Wheats?"
"Yeah."
"No."
"Okay."
Accusing Tone: "Why, are you having some on yours?"
"Yeah.... look, babe, they're only frosted on one side."
So, my son is awesome. He kicked me in the hand the other day. He has a personality, and even though he is still in April's womb, he has found some interesting outlets to express it. The other day, we went to the doctor's office to get him checked up on. The nurse used the little machine to check his heartbeat. It was funny, though, because every time she would find the heartbeat momentarily, he would roll around and move so you couldn't hear it anymore. This went on for 3 or 4 minutes. This is just like how he would roll and spin when we were getting ultrasounds and attempt to hide the evidence of his manliness from us. He wakes up and kicks April in the stomach every night at 4:00 AM. He sounds like an awesome little trickster of a dude, no? He is kind of a practical joker--at least in my mind. I look forward to meeting him.
April just cleared 21 lines before she died.
The other night I ran to Taco Bell to pick up some dinner for us. I had a delicious 32 oz Dr. Pepper in my hand that sounded really good. You know how sometimes you have a slight headache, and a fizzy, caffeinated beverage sounds like just the thing to assuage it away? That is what I was feeling. I had been sipping on it on the car ride home, but I was seriously jonesing to sit down and drink it with a delicious grilled stuffed burrito. I walked in and dropped it. On the floor.
The lid popped off and Dr. Pepper and ice went all over the carpet. This was probably the worst thing that happened to me last week. Not only did I not have an icy cold Dr. Pepper to assuage my pain away, I now had to embark on a campaign of cleaning icy cold Dr. Pepper off of the floor. April helped me, so that was nice.
I'm thirsty.
