I never made the ChapStick flashlight. Instead, I got all the necessary parts, and then managed to snap a wire off my LED right at the plastic. Sucks.
But I'm back at school now, and trying not to slack off too much. I remember that homework sucks again. I'm thinking about getting a job, which will make getting homework done more unlikely. This stuff is getting pretty tough, but I guess that's what I expected.
My apartment is sweet, though. The roommate got a new TV over the summer, along with a media center PC. It is beautiful. We watch a lot of movies now.
So I'm going to finish off a few more saltines and this bottle of Gatorade, and then crash under my loft.
That's right. The bed is under the loft, and the desk is on top. Amazing, I know.
I'm making a ChapStick flashlight, but in order to do it, I'm going to have to go buy an A23 battery and some resistors. Eh, RadioShack.... That place is okay, I guess. I always end up spending more than I mean to there.
Olympics, man. Olympics. You already know what happened, so that's enough of that.
I'm working my way through some new bands. They aren't actually new, but I'm just starting to listen to them. Examples: Lydia, All Time Low, The Ting Tings, Cobra Starship, and This Providence. Thanks, Last.fm.
I need to face the other way in order to watch some gymnastics, so this is the end.
I'm not going to go to Bolivar so often this school year. It was too expensive, and I'd like to make some friends in Rolla sometime before Lee graduates. Sorry if that disappoints anyone.
I was reading stuff on my trusty Google Reader a little while ago, when I saw this Lifehacker article with a link to this Instructable, which I'll probably do sometime.
But on the the Lifehacker article, I saw links to some show and tell albums where people showed what they carry in their pockets or their "go bags".
Then I decided to empty my pockets and take a picture of the stuff in them, and decided that this was the obvious place to put it.
The only problem is that I don't have a digital camera readily available right now, other than the one on my iPhone, which I won't be using because that would leave it out of the picture. My friend, Dan, is on his way over, so I'll find my camera and finish this later.
If a large (or any) number of people read this blog, I'd feel like a big jerk posting this without the whole reason for its creation. But fortunately for me, that isn't an issue.
Wait for the update....
UPDATE:
So here's the list: 1. Black, 8GB, iPhone 3G 2. Orange Tic Tacs 3. Wallet 4. Cheap Gerber knife from Walmart 5. Keys and stuff. Actually on my belt loop, but close enough.
Wednesday was easily the worst day of work I've ever experienced.
I won't go into the fact that I wasn't planning on working this job ever again after last week, because I would feel immature and selfish, which I probably am.
I was on a rooftop, nailing some siding up on the face of a wall between that roof top and another one a few feet above it. I finished putting up the siding and started my descent, with my boss/coworker's nail gun attached to a hook on my tool belt, but the gun got to the ground much, much faster than I did.
It slipped off the hook while I was climbing cautiously down the ladder on the roof, slid 15 or so feet down the roof I was on, fell about 6 feet to a lower roof, then bounced or slid off that one the remaining 12 or so feet to the ground. After the obligatory "are you okay?" from a different coworker, I asked if the gun was broken, even though I already knew the answer.
"That gun cost $497," I'm told. Wonderful. After lunch the gun's owner told me it was about $200 worth of repairs, but he didn't ask me to pay for it or anything.
Being stupid, I didn't know how to respond. Then I was home sick yesterday, and today it's raining. That's actually what I was hoping for, because, as you may have guess, I hate this job. I hate it more now, though, that I'll barely be keeping any of the money I earned this week, thanks to gravity.
It's funny how it takes me 20 hours to earn $200, but only about 5 seconds to lose it again.
There really wasn't any madness involved, but I thought it sounded good.
I haven't written anything here since before I got the iPhone 3G to work, which was over a week ago. I went to Bolivar, so that's probably why.
Then I came back and went floating, and these are the highlights of the trip:
1. Driving under not just one, but two stealth bombers on the way to the river. Those things are incredibly cool. Unfortunately, after taking a sweet picture on my phone to post on Twitter, I accidentally tapped the "Retake" button instead of the "Use photo" button, and lost it forever.
2. Wearing the same clothes for over two days. Granted, I had the shirt off a lot, but still. Who isn't homeless and does that? And it was completely okay just because of the context.
3. Rain. It pretty much only rained while we were on the river, which was surprisingly nice. It kept things cool and relaxed, and we didn't have to worry about much sunburning.
4. "Epic fog". That's what we called it. I could see approximately 30 feet in any direction for a while during the float, and that was cool. My buddy and I may as well have been alone on the river, since we somehow got a mile or so ahead of the rest of our friends.
5. No-stop pee breaks. Thanks to the fog, we could just stand up and aim sideways, and there was nobody around to mind.
6. Skipping rocks. It's just fun.
7. Putting on sunglasses to allow less obvious people watching. I only did this once, but it was effective and worth it.
8. No phone service. It's always nice every now and then. I did still use the iPhone to watch an episode of Weeds yesterday afternoon when everyone but me passed out, and I used it to listen to Death Cab for Cutie to drown out the obnoxious cicadas last night when I went to sleep, but the actually phone/communication part was nowhere to be found until the trip back.
9. No chicks. I think that's a lot of the reason we got done floating sooner than expected, leaving plenty of time for the afternoon nap during which I watched Weeds.
10. Using up the last of the firewood, along with some lighter fluid, to melt a few pop cans. It was just cool in pretty much every way.
That seems like a good number. I'm going to bed because I have to get up and get back to work tomorrow. Construction is not for me, by the way. Thank God for college.
The plan? Jason and I have already taken care of not working. We're going to the AT&T store around 6am, and then we'll wait.
Once I get the new phone, we're going to drive somewhere. We haven't decided where, or if we even will pick a destination. Regardless of that, we'll then use the new iPhone's GPS to find our way to the nearest Chick-fil-a, which will undoubtedly be farther away than I really want to drive. But I won't mind as much, because I'll have a new iPhone.
That is, assuming they don't sell out. And if what I just read about people who show up later only being able to buy white ones, I'll be a little upset. I don't want to pay for a 16GB iPhone, so I would have to wait.
But let's be optimistic, and just assume it'll be fine, alright?
I just realized it. On Friday, I'll be replacing this thing with a new, shiny, black version that initially costs half as much.
It's interesting to think about my feelings toward the iPhone since its announcement last January. At first, I was amazed by its capabilities and design. I had to get one, but I didnt think it would be worth $600 for 8GB, or whatever it was at the time.
Over the next 6 months before the release on June, I learned to despise it. It seemed to be the only thing that sites like Gizmodo and Engadget would write about, and I didnt like it taking up so much space on my favorite sites
Then came the commercials. Oh, those commercials.... The ones with the people in front of black backdrops on the street. I hated them. The one with the airline pilot who's iPhone was supposed to be more reliable than the control tower's weather reports actually made me angry. How could someone possibly be so arrogant because of their stupid phone.
Sometime in January of this year, I got so annoyed with my Motorola Q that I started looking for a new phone to replace it when my Verizon contract expired in the spring. I wanted to change to AT&T because almost every one of my friends is on that network, so it just made sense. Also, I've never liked Verizon's phone selection.
Anyway, I looked at AT&T's phones, and I was thinking about getting a Blackberry Pearl, because my roommate had had one earlier in the school year before he dropped it off the mezzanine track at the gym at school. He replaced it with a Curve, instead.
Then I realized the iPhone's capabilities again, partially in thanks to those dreaded Gizmodo and Engadget articles, as well as a little GeekBrief.tv. Then I requested a credit line increase, and when I got it the next day, I ordered the my iPhone.
The next weekend, I traveled to visit some friends in Bolivar, MO. During my drive there, these friends decided to leave for Springfield, which is about a half hour away. They called and told me to just drive there, instead of going to Bolivar. My friend, Matt, asked if I knee how to get to this Chinese restaurant from where I was. My response? "Dude, I have an iPhone."
Needless to say, I got there with no trouble at all. Then, I apologized for being one of those arrogant punks from the commercials I hated so much.
After being in awe of it, then annoyed by it, then downright hating it, I was in love with the iPhone.
And now I'm replacing it. I have a deal lined up to sell the one I'm using to type this to a friend of my friend's ex-girlfriend in Ukraine. Crazy.
I'd better remember to appreciate my last week with the pretty, aluminum back on this one. As long as the new one can still click into my windshield mount, I'll be happy.
I think I tried blogging once, but I got bored. I figured that posting it from the iPhone when I'm bored could make it slightly more interesting, but I'm actually using my mom's stupid laptop to type this one up.
I'm at my grandparents' house in Center Point, IA. The town is about as exciting as it sounds. My dad and I went to this golf course today that used to be my great grandfather's. It was his farm for however long, then he made it into a golf course instead, and sold it when he retired.
We didn't get to golf, though. See, we had to fit five people in my dad's Honda Pilot for the trip up here, along with a few belated Father's Day presents for my grandpa, so that didn't leave room for any golf clubs. Then the guy at the course didn't care too much that we're descendants of the creator of the place, and they didn't have any clubs to rent (which is a terrible idea), so that's that.
At least I got to see the place.
Lunch time. I'll post something from the iPhone when I'm bored later, I'm sure.
