Monthly Archives

June 2007

I wish I was a tetrachromat…

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It’s just not fair. While all men and most women see colors because of three color receptors in our eyes, some very special ladies have a fourth color receptor. A tetrachromat can see the world in more shades than I’ll ever experience. I think this is something that should be an add-on for any interested human. I would certainly have tetrachromatism installed in my eyes immediately. Think of the design possibilities! And how much easier choosing things would be! Oh, if only… (Read the article.)

Dusty had a birthday and at some point he may blog about it?

I spent yesterday evening having all manner of fun while celebrating Tessa’s 25th birthday. I met what felt like all of the coaching staff at WAC and, with Sarah in tow as well, we all loaded into the biggest car I’ve ever been in: Kyle’s Jeep Commander. It’s massive. Trust me. Dinner and much beer was had at The Granary in Galena which is like 20 miles from ye olde Chestertown-e. There is photographic evidence on Facebook, should you care to see.

Things to do yet this week:

  • Reserve Neverwhere, Blankets & Psycho Kitty at the library
  • Take Klaus for repair in Annapolis
  • Find things to do with Alex while he visits from Colorado
  • Try not to get bashed in the head while Nancy puts up trellis posts with her new sledgehammer
  • Go to Baltimore and find some more summer work clothes

New Nokia phone…

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All of you probably realize that I have a bit of a Nokia phone fetish. What you may not realize is that I’m currently testing a new Nokia for work! Hooray for fun jobs!

The phone that’s in my hot little mitts right now is the Nokia 5700 Xpress Music. This is a wonderful Series 60 3rd Edition smartphone that doubles as a music player and 2.0 Megapixel still and video camera. Now, I know most mobile phones offer those features, but the 5700 is different. Instead of just dedicating software to the three specific functions, Nokia decided to use industrial design to impart the device with three distinct arrangements. By rotating the bottom half of the phone, I can instantly “call up” the camera, music player and, well, phone. It’s really rather enjoyable and makes for a much less muddled smartphone experience.

Plus, since the 5700 uses it’s own Texas Instruments music chip, you can use the phone with no bogging-down of performance while the music player operates in the background…or even the camera, for that matter. It eats through MPEG-4 video with no problems, even clips converted from much higher data rate QuickTime files, too. And by “eats through,” I mean it creates and plays back these videos.

I’ve upgraded my AT&T account to unlimited data and I’m glad I did so because this little monster has devoured 55 MB of digital “stuff” in two days time. I’ve been accumulating podcasts from Moscow to Mexico City, video clips from the British Rocketboom, indie music tracks, etc, etc, etc. With stereo speakers (that are actually REALLY good) and a 2.2,” 16 million colour display, the phone proves to be a multipurpose entertainment device that I actually want to use.

And, if we only lived in Europe, the 5700 offers a final surprise functionality. Rotate the camera towards yourself and you are placed in video call mode. Seeing as we use the wrong flavour of UMTS in the States (where we use it at all) this is rather useless. However, it does make for a nice position to prop the phone up for media viewing.

I couldn’t be happier with the way the Nokia 5700 Xpress Music functions, looks and performs. This is a really solid phone and not a bad deal at $350 unlocked. I may even pick up my own when Nancy or Brian decide that I’ve had enough fun with the new work gadget. 😛

P.S. All of the cat madness that follows was captured with the 5700. Thought you should know…

And the winners are…

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The other red glasses were both too purple (read: magenta) and far too red. The green glasses were a nasty sort of teal and swamp green. These were the perfect color and the shape worked well. So, now I wait for a week…

Thanks for your votes and comments!

This just in…

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…Dusty would like all birthday gifts redirected to me. I have no idea why he has decided this, but he said it was his one true birthday wish and who am I to deny him? Perhaps this is why it was so difficult for him to come up with a list? Because he knew he would somehow have to give it all away without being awkward about it?!? Well, I’ll bear the burden for you, friend. No worries.

Perhaps you like dogs?

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Lindsie took some really great photos at the 2007 “Mutt Strutt” here in Chestertown this weekend. (Go ahead, Linds, admit it. You are a great photog afterall!) There are like a zillion pictures, including one of my partner in crime, Nancy with our new HD camera. I’ve posted to Flickr and you can get there from here.

All told, this was a great weekend. I’m so glad Lindsie is only an hour and a half from me now…we’ll have many more of these visits in the future, I’m sure. It was really great to introduce a long-time friend to so many of the people I talk about, especially Kate. (And Ms. Bella, by association.) We didn’t do much of anything, but the company and conversation – and champagne – made for an excellent time.