Murphy's Postal Service

In the past year, the only things I know to have gotten lost in the mail are a) my tax return and b) a stock certificate, both of which led to annoying fines. Why is the postal service so selectively crappy?

New toys

After some research, I ended up getting a D807 from Cingular (via letstalk, which unfortunately ported by number 2 days before it arrived but was otherwise great - I realized just before I ordered that Amazon can't port Cingular numbers. WTF). It's so nice to be able to install applications without paying a tax to profiteering control-freaks. I immediately (after some guidance from Dolapo) installed Google Maps and Opera Mini (which show up under "games" on my phone - sigh). And I can get to Reader Mobile and Gmail Mobile! The $10 data+messaging addon from Cingular is a real deal.

Also, Catherine and I dropped by our third-favorite Union Square wine store (after the Warehouse and Trader Joe's of course) in its new location. They have these automated tasting machines where you insert a smart card that lets you get samples of wines. As you buy wines, you get more credits. The staff was rather surly, but we were eventually able to taste a Montsant (next door to Priorat, which we enjoyed in Spain).

PearlJam++

So Pearl Jam performed an awesome revision of Phil Ochs's song "Here's to the State of Mississippi" on Storytellers, and at the time I couldn't find any copies of it online. But then they performed it at a recent concert, which you can purchase at their handy-dandy bootleg site. The whole concert - 38 tracks, no DRM - is $10. Other bands could really learn a lesson.

Back from Maine

(Grr, BlogThis in Flickr is cool, but the template is crap!)



I'm back from Maine! We saw moose in Rangeley, went hiking in Amherst, the White Mountains and Acadia (mmm, new hiking boots), and lounged on the great beach in Ogunquit. Remnants of our planning in my notebook (natch). But I'm still dealing with my accumulated work email. :-(

Congrats

Yay Carl. Now Gelf just needs to win an award. ;-)

This shot is on fire

It was quite an eventful birthday. ;-) Thanks to Harryh for recommending The Delancey, and Ak for Pangea (pictured here), and everybody who came out to celebrate.

As a present to myself (as decided after the fact), I bought Guitar Hero and a PS2 (from RedOctane and buy.com), both of which arrived in three days with the cheap shipping. Go figure. We've been playing a lot of both. I also bought myself some presents at Banana Republic and a new pair of hiking boots. Buying myself presents is very efficient!