Summertime Experiences

"Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness." - Chuang-tzu

The summer has hit and the heat has been mixed with lots of rain, which I do not mind considering how hot last summer was. I have yet to see a beach this summer, but hopefully I'll find some time to take a real vacation, but honestly I haven't thought of it much. I haven't been doing a lot of thinking lately it feels like. I just feel very uninspired as of late.

I'm a bit delayed on this, but I recently got an iPhone 4. I must say is a pretty awesome phone and my favorite part is that camera/video camera. It is much better quality than my iPhone 3G and has a flash. I was able to test it out at Mark's wedding and rarely used my digital camera. I did have some issues with my mic, so I exchanged it, which wasn't too bad. Now I'm trying to find a good case for it, but there are not many options out yet. I just hope they fix their reception issues.

One thing that sucked was that my iPhone wasn't working on my TomTom iPhone car kit mount when I plugged it in. I use this everyday and paid way too much for it, so this was disappointing. After reading some ideas on the web, I decided to try my own fix. I used velcro and made a quick video to test out my video camera on the phone. Well that video got posted on Engadget.com

Here is the article with my video embedded: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/25/iphone-4-and-tomtom-car-kit-brought-together-with-velcro/. I was very excited about seeing my video on a site that I read daily.

I sold my old iPhone 3G, which I kept in pretty good condition and even gave the person the original box, bag and a free case. The cash came in helpful for my trip to Louisville. I probably could have gotten more money for it, but that always feels like the case after you sell something.

I can't seem to cement Chloe as my puppy's name. So far it is winning and I'm going to have to make it official at some point very very soon. I usually don't take this much time on picking a name. I guess I was really excited with Maddie (the kitten) and I wasn't as creative after. So I have been crate training her. This is not going as well as I hoped. She is getting used to her kennel. So I think we got this routine down, I take her out, she doesn't pee, I think I mistimed it and bring her back in where she pees on the carpet. Patience. Puppies are so much more work than kittens.

The other day I was out having sushi after playing tennis and I ran into an actor (Frank Lapidus) from Lost. I thought it was cool. I just admired from afar.

I'm still watching the World Cup despite the US and Mexico being out of it. I really thought Germany would make it to the finals, but I guess Spain was too much for them. I'm looking forward to the final this weekend. Another 4 years before I watch full games of soccer again.

While I was at Mark's wedding, I was recommended the series Mad Men. I had been wanting to see it for some time, so I decided to watch it. Less than a week later I was done with season 3. It is a very good series and I can't wait for the new season on July 25th on AMC.

There are not a lot of shows on this summer. There is Trueblood which I watch, but am not as big of a fan as others. I checked out Persons Unknown and wasn't too impressed, too bad it got bad ratings and was moved to Saturday. I like how they called it a mini-series since it wouldn't last past one season.

I got plane tickets to Phoenix, AZ for the end of the month for my cousin's wedding. I'm looking forward to it and to visiting a state I have never been to before. Too bad I'm trying to boycott AZ at the same time. I'm going to spend as little money as possible. I would really like to visit all the states (with exception of AK) at some point. I got a lot of them down and I can't imagine a reason to ever be in the Dakotas or Wyoming, but I'll figure it out.

Finally, my eyes are still healing from the Lasik, but I wish it would be quicker. I'm still seeing rings around lights at night, my eyes are a bit dry (not as bad as before) and they strain when using the computer at work. Of course, all this is a great trade off for being able to see and I'd do it again, but I'd like those side effects to go away anyway.

can only imagine the two weddings I did not attend