Cabin in Pinecrest and Disconnected
This past weekend Dave and I hung out with our good friends Adam and Shawna. Shawna’s family has a cabin in Pinecrest, CA and we stayed there for a night. This cabin was the cutest little house ever! The whole thing was made of knotted pine and it was recently remodeled with beautiful tile floors, granite counter tops, and modern bathroom. It had one bedroom and a loft. I could easily live there if it wasn’t so far away from normal civilization. We had a great time and so did our dogs. Adam and Shawna also have a dog, Lucy, and she is quite the little princess. It irritated her to see our dogs play with each other.
School, Blogs, Pies, and Travel
So it has once again been too long since my last blog post. This past month has been pretty busy. So the 2 of you who read my blog, I’m sorry :/
I am now pretty much finished with the school year. I have a few more labs to grade and a “final” to attend at a nearby bar. Yes, you read that correctly, instead of a final, our class will be hanging out at a bar. My professor’s email informing us of this was so awesome, that I just have to share it with you:
Folks,
We will have our last presentation Wednesday. I will also return some homework and the midterm, and make some comments on the latter. Then we will do evaluations.
My habit of long standing is to retire to a nearby bar for a little socializing in lieu of a final exam. This is a celebration of the completion of two quarters of hard work learning about automata. I see no reason to break this tradition, but if you have objections, now is the time to air them. In the absence of such objections, I propose we meet at Jordan’s at 6:30 on Monday, the day of our scheduled final exam. (The final is scheduled at 2, but that’s too early to drink beer, and [name removed] said she had a final at 4.) Kindly let me (and everyone else) know if you’d like to make other arrangements.
Is that not the most awesome thing ever? Even better was that in the next class I got my take-home exam back with a grade of 85/85!! I about had a heart attack trying to contain my excitement.
Much of the free time I’ve actually had to spend away from school has been at The iPhone Blog. I have recently started writing reviews for them as well as moderating their forums. I have a lot of fun doing this and love the group of guys that run the site. TiPb also had a video contest recently and I won! I spent quite a bit of time making this video and was so excited to win! I really wasn’t expecting to.
Chocolate Puddie Pie
A recent “hobby” I have started is baking. I have long wanted to bake for my husband but never really have. So I bought a Williams-Sonoma Pie & Tart cookbook and have baked 4 pies: banana cream, chocolate silk, cinnamon apple crumb, and chocolate pudding pie with cookie crumb crust. All of them came out wonderfully except for the chocolate silk. I think it actually came out ok, the recipe was just way too rich for Dave’s or my liking. I’m quite proud of myself for sucessfully making all 4 of these pies because food preparation has never been one of my strong suits. I’m the girl that took 3 boxes of Mac & Cheese to get it right. I may not be able to cook, but I’m discovering that I can bake! This makes me happy. I feel like a better wife after each pie I make! 
Dave and I will be driving back to CA soon. In fact, we’re beginning our journey on June 3rd, my birthday. Kind of a lame birthday, huh? I figure it’ll be fine, I’ll make it fun. I’m planning to make a mini travel vlog out of it. Also, Sims 3 will be out for both Mac and iPhone, so I will have plenty to keep me busy during the drive We’re planning to make a slight detour through 4 corners just for the heck of it. I know it’s not something that exciting, but what the heck, why not check it out?
Well, it’s 2am, so I’m going to bed! More blogging to come!
Don’t you love how elegantly I always end my blog posts?
Calvin and Jobs
I stole these from Gizmodo. I love Apple and Jobs, but I still think this is hilarious. Enjoy!
At the Airport
I am sitting at a laptop station at the San Jose International Airport killing time before my flight to Denver, CO. We arrived at about 6am and I couldn’t help but notice how there are SO many business people this early. Half the area I’m in just cleared out to board a flight to Seattle.
As I watch all the businessmen walk by, I kind of envy them. They look so professional with their suits, laptop cases, bluetooth headsets, iPhones/Blackberries and nice hair. They have very little belongings with them and walk through the airport as if it is their home. They are the quickest ones through the security gate as they know the process inside and out; you will never see a businessman getting searched at security.
Speaking of getting searched, I think this is the first time in like 5 flights that I did NOT get searched! It never fails, I forget to take something out of my bag like lotions, fingernail clippers, scissors, gun… ok, I’ve never brought a gun, but the way the security people treat me, you’d think I did. Sometimes they just search my bag, and sometimes they search my whole body and practically require a strip show out of me. There’s nothing like getting felt up by a big, angry, female security guard. One of the instances was because I forgot to take off my knee brace and I kept setting off the the metal detector. I told them I could remove it and send it through the machine, but NO, they had to search
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me from head to toe and put some weird stuff on my brace to make sure it wasn’t really a bomb. As annoying as it was, I found it to be an interesting experience.
Now, I must give yet another little promo for my iPhone 3G. I currently live in a location that will does not have 3G coverage (but I’m moving to Denver next month) and haven’t been able to test the 3G leetness. Now that I’m in San Jose I got to really get a feel for the change in speed. I must say, I am VERY impressed! Although it’s still not quite as fast as WiFi (naturally), there is a HUGE improvement from the EDGE network. Yay for iPhone 3G!!
Well, I am nearing the time for my departure and should start packing up. Wish me luck on finding a place to live in Denver, CO!
iPhone 3G Activation… or Not!
Well, I lined up at my locat AT&T store at about 6:20 this morning and was about the 15th person in line. Everyone was in and out at a relatively quick rate, but with non-activated iPhones. The iTunes server has crashed so customers are being sent home to do the activation at home when iTunes is up and running again. I wish that was my only problem! For whatever reason, I was the lucky person who had even more issues at AT&T. I was under the impression that since I was already a customer of AT&T with the first generation iPhone that the process was going to go rather smoothly. Nope, not at all. The computer freaked out on the employee and was giving him errors when trying to update my account to the new iPhone plan. I was in the store for at least 45 minutes waiting for them to figure it out. In the meantime, they handed me the “accessory package” they were offering for $155. I couldn’t help but stare at the beautiful Jawbone bluetooth headset and fall in love with it. I also found a decent case that will look sleek and sexy on my hip. My dad was the one purchasing the iPhone for me and noticed I couldn’t keep my eyes off the accessories and bought them for me as well!
I am now sitting at home with a beautiful, sleek, white 16GB iPhone 3G that doesn’t work. WAIT WAIT!!! Update!!! As I am writing this post, iTunes is finally beginning to activate my phone. This is very exciting! I am currently restoring the new iPhone with the backup of my previous iPhone.
If you are having issues with activating your iPhone 3G, here’s what worked for me. Keep your iPhone connected to iTunes! When the error messages pops up about being unable to connect to the iTunes Store, click OK. Then click on another item on your list (I clicked iTunes Store), then click back to your iPhone. It will attempt to connect to iTunes Store again. Repeat this process over and over again until it works! Once I started doing this consistently and immediately after receiving the error message, I was allowed to connect after about 5 minutes. Not bad. I read that this is what Apple employees are recommending as this is what keeps your place “in line”. Be patient, and I’m sure it will work for you!
I hear that there are also issues with updating to the 2.0 software on first generation iPhones. I would suspect that this will be a problem all day. Not only are thousands of people activating new iPhones, but another group of thousands of people are trying to get the new software. This is going to be a log day for all us impatient iPhone lovers, but oh well, it’ll be worth it in the end.
UPDATE 1: AT&T screwed me. Instead of fixing the issues they were having when I was updating my account, they just sold me an iPhone and sent me on my way. iTunes has done everything it can to activate my phone, but since I “don’t have service”, I cannot finish activating. I basically now have an iPod Touch. I can play with the new software, but all the phone features are disabled. Sigh. I called AT&T and they said I need to return to the store where I purchased my iPhone to get it resolved. VERY ANNOYING! I’m gonna try to get something free out of the ordeal. I’ll update you when I get back.
UPDATE 2: Well, I went back to AT&T and got everything worked out. I actually went back to the same kid who was helping me before and the computer let him do the process just fine. I asked AT&T to waive my $18 activation fee for the inconvience for having to drive back to the store for an error on their end and they gladly obliged. I am now a very happy customer with a very beautiful white iPhone 3G.
During this 2nd attempt of activating my iPhone, I chatted with the employees about how many iPhones they sold and the somewhat long line at the store. This location received about 60 iPhones and only 5 white ones! I am SOOOO glad I got in line at 6:20am, otherwise I probably would not have gotten the white version.
Thank you Apple for this beautiful product. Now I’m going to try to get my MobileMe account up and running. What a day. I only had 3.5 hours of sleep last night. Thank God for Starbucks!!
New CA Cellular Laws
Beginning Tuesday, July 1, it will be illegal for adult CA drivers to talk on their cell phone without a hands-free device. If you’re under 18, than you cannot use your cell phone AT ALL: no hands-free, no texting. Here is a summary of the new laws taken from http://www.dmv.ca.gov/cellularphonelaws/index.htm:
- The first prohibits all drivers from using a handheld wireless telephone while operating a motor vehicle, (Vehicle Code (VC) §23123).
- Motorists 18 and over may use a “hands-free device.”
- Drivers under the age of 18 may not use a wireless telephone, pager, laptop or any other electronic communication or mobile services device to speak or text while driving in any manner, even “hands-free.”
- The law does not specifically prohibit text messaging (for adults), but an officer can pull over and issue a citation to a driver of any age if, in the officer’s opinion, the driver was distracted and not operating the vehicle safely.
- The law allows a driver to use a wireless telephone to make emergency calls to a law enforcement agency, a medical provider, the fire department, or other emergency services agency.
- The base fine for the FIRST offense is $20 and $50 for subsequent convictions. With the addition of penalty assessments, the fines can be more than triple the base fine amount.
- There will be NO grace period. The law becomes effective July 1, 2008. Whether a citation is issued is always at the discretion of the officer based upon his or her determination of the most appropriate remedy for the situation.
Using a handheld devise is considered a primary offense and motorists can be pulled over for it. Violations will result in a fine and will be put in your record; however, there will not be a point penalty against you. Teens using a hands-free device is considered a SECONDARY offense. This means that a teen cannot be pulled over for it but can be cited if pulled over for something else. So if you’re under 18, make sure you are driving perfectly and your car is in 100% legal condition if using a hands-free device.
Well, I guess this means I need to go purchase a bluetooth headset or really good headphones for my iPhone. This is going to be a big change for me as I call people out of boredom every time I drive. I think this is a good law though. I have been in so many near accidents with idiots on their cell phones. And I’ll admit it; I’ve been that idiot a few times myself.