Stu News and Photos

For those who worried, when I was playing with my iPhone in the car, I was parked at a fast-food drive-thru. So I was safe. Or at least part of me was safe. My arteries were about to be assaulted, but that's for another post. Meanwhile, don't worry, when I'm driving, I'm focused on the task at hand.

Heaven... I'm in Heaven...
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak...

Sorry, it's just that I've had my iPhone for a few days now and it's becoming more and more useful. Sure, it's a phone. And sure, it syncs up with my Mac, so it has my current contacts in it. And sure, it syncs to my calendar, so if I'm away from my desk, I still don't miss any appointments.

Lots of phones can do that.

But yesterday, I was driving, listening to the radio, and a song came on that I recognized from my youth, from my teen-age years. Except it was just a haunting memory, with no real information: I couldn't remember the name of the band. And I'm a music guy, and that kind of stuff is important to me.

iPhone to the rescue.

I pulled out my iPhone, tapped the button to launch the newly installed Shazam application, and held it up to the speakers. After about 10 seconds, the phone vibrated, letting me know it had found the song for me (turned out the band was Haircut 100, who had a minor career in the early 80s). No fuss, no muss, no need to memorize lyrics until I could use Google, just turn on Shazam and let it do its thing. It even gave me links to download the song to my iPhone from the iTunes store. Oh, and did I mention that I installed the application on my iPhone with two clicks, and that it was free?

Heaven... I'm in Heaven...
and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak...

A while ago, years ago, Leslie picked out a 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix (used) for herself. Nich and I went with her, and he helped her decide - incredibly cute to watch a 10 year-old take notes on different car features and discuss them with his mother. And he was pretty sharp about it, really helped us make a decision (well, it was Leslie's decision, but she asked for my opinion).

Anyway, I was at the casino last night (I was earning my comic book money) and I got a call from her that she needed help. Turned out that the ignition was doing something odd - she could remove the key and the car would turn off, except the transmission indicator would remain lit.

So I called a car-pro buddy of mine who came over and looked at it. Turns out that it's fixable by her pressing a button as she takes the key out, so the battery won't drain. But it started our conversation about a new car, which we started over a year ago.

We had the conversation again this morning, and she's decided that she doesn't want to drive her Grand Prix into the dirt. So at the end of this month, on the last day, at the last hour, we're going to go to a Toyota dealer and negotiate to buy a Prius. If I'm lucky, I can get the monthly payments down below $500 a month (over 48 months), but it depends on what they have in stock. We may end up driving one off the lot that is cheaper, but with fewer options - It'll be Leslie's car, and she doesn't give a tinker's cuss about options.

I'll be spending the next few weeks studying the Prius and the options and the pricing, in order to negotiate the best deal I can. Meanwhile, I'm excited that Leslie will be in a new car, as I'll feel safer about her being on the road with something new. I know she's a grown woman and incredibly capable, but I still worry. And that piece of crap that she currently drives always has me nervous. Sometimes it sucks to care about someone. But just the tiniest bit.

Thimbelle mentioned something about me being a correspondent, and while I don't exactly know what she means by that, it gave me the idea that I should write more about the things that interest me.

Today I am interested in writing about my iPhone, which is the tool that is enabling me to compose this blog entry.

The iPhone is a tiny computer, a mini-Macintosh. It has a CPU, a monitor, a keyboard, and most of the essential software that I use throughout the day. It has a fully functioning web browser (Safari), although it doesn't run Flash - I can forgive that on a phone. It syncs with my calendar and my address book and my bookmarks. It plays music and movies (it's an iPod). It's an ebook reader, it reports the weather and the status of my portfolio. Oh yeah, and it's also a phone, with fabulous clarity.

For the total cost, it's about the same as a bunch of other phones on the market, except it stands head and shoulders above any of the competition. I highly recommend getting one.

Wow - ok, so it turned out that the culprit was my email program, Microsoft's Entourage. After much frustration at only getting half my mail, I took a major step this morning - I switched to Apple's email application, Mail. The switch, the setting up, the importing of my Entourage mail, etc. went extremely smoothly - flawlessly. And now I get all my mail. So you can now use stumark@verizon.net when you want to send me mail.

Thank you all for your patience during this interesting time. Sorry if it was a pain in the butt.

How did your weekend unfold?

I had a great weekend, a perfect weekend - great time with Leslie, reveling in each other, laughing, walking, holding hands, doing chores. A grand weekend, one for the books.

Feel free to share my blog with others - I'm not about the whole privacy thing (for the most part) and would always dig more readers, so I can get into some new material - my readers, all two of you, really feed me ideas.

Random thought for Sully - all the great rock bands had a monster bass player. The almost-great bands had some great musicians, but mediocre bass players. I was listening to a Who record the other day and John Entwistle just *owned* the bass, played it like it had said something about his sister.

Random thought for Melissa - What are your favorite comic books?

Random thought for Thimbelle - teenagers.

My Verizon mail is still messed up - I'm only getting about half the mail that goes to that address - So, until further notice, would you please send correspondance to stumark@earthlink.net - I'd really appreciate it.

Hope you all had a peaceful Saturday.

Welcome to the inaugural post from my brand new iPhone!

It is far better than I imagined - it's a mini computer, just like on Star Trek.

While I can blog from the iPhone, the keyboard isn't overly conducive to thumb-typing, so I don't anticipate long posts to be generated from it.

As for the phone as a whole, there is just no comparison to my old Windows-based phone. The iPhone does everything with such elegance. Upon first blush, I couldn't be happier.

So the question before the court is, will I go ahead and fulfill my fantasy of getting an iPhone? Many pros and cons, and while I do need a mobile phone (especially with 2 teenagers and a wife to work for), I am nervous about buying a touch-screen device, as I don't have the steadiest hands on the planet. On the other hand, I'll be able to blog from the iPhone, so that's kinda cool. If it had copy/paste, then I could do my GNMParents work from my phone, and that would be awesome.

...thinking, thinking, thinking...

Again with the email issues - yes, you're tired of these posts - I hear ya. Still, be a pall and comment on this post - Try it logged in, if you have some sort of account, as well as logged out, as an anonymous comment. Say what you will, be creative, make suggestions, confront me with criticism.

Oh, and have a great day.

Please click on this link and stumark@verizon.net - I'm trying a new test in order to prove to verizon that the problem is on their end. Thank you!!

From an Associated Press article:

Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA official maintains.

Read the rest here. Then call your Congressional representatives and demand hearings - Vice-President Cheney clearly violated his oath of office.

Before we get started, my email is still buggered to Brahman and back, so please send any old/new correspondence to stumark@earthlink.net - The management thanks you kindly.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... I just finished reading my 2nd book by Alan Moore, V For Vendetta. This follows on the heels of my reading of Watchmen. I realize I'm incredibly late to the party on these works, but they are tremendous, exciting works of art.

For those who don't know Alan Moore, he writes, among other things, graphic novels. Except these two read like regular novels. In fact, Time magazine put out a list of the top 100 novels of all time and Watchmen made the cut. I would agree, although V For Vendetta was equally good, just a different form. I highly recommend both, and for those who aren't into super-hero type stuff, get V For Vendetta and prepare yourself for a wonderful ride. It's taut, thrilling, at times so astonishing that you'll put the book down for a moment just to catch your breath.

And while I'm making recommendations in the graphic novel medium, let me point out the wonderful 30 Days Of Night. It's a horror tale, but a brilliant one, told in the modern era, a thriller to the last page. Very scary stuff.

I'll probably read a few palette-cleansers next, but after that, I'm not sure what I'll dig into. I may finish the series Y: The Last Man. Been meaning to get to the rest of those.

Next art review: The opening of The B-CAM - LACMA's newest building, dedicated solely to modern art.

As it is mid-season for professional baseball in America, I thought I'd share my opinion on the standings - Red Sox only 2 and a half games back of the front-running Devil Rays, and 6 games over the third place Yankees, so good stuff in the American League. In the National League, the Mets aren't doing that well, despite what their 4 and a half game deficit would have you believe. The Mets have some history in come-from-behind second-half-of-the-season runs, so I'm holding out hope. But they just don't seem to be gelling the way they should. They've got a solid team, but they don't seem perfectly connected on the field. Not just Reyes' error on Sunday, but all of them aren't working together to the top of their capabilities.

Anyway, I've never played the game, so what do I know...?

I'm a big fan of America. Always have been.

I use the word 'fan' the same way I use it if someone asked if I rooted for the Boston Red Sox - I'm a fan.

Now, being a fan doesn't mean you are necessarily blind. A fan of a baseball team, a true fan, will admit to their team's weaknesses. It's how we help the team - that's our job, as fans, to help the team. And if the team's star right-fielder isn't doing well, a true fan will admit that maybe they should bench him for a while, give him time to get his priorities straight, give him time to decide if he wants to give 100% for the team.

So when I say I'm a fan of America, I am a true fan. I believe in our country, in the concept of our country so strongly that I am comfortable in seeing our weaknesses.

And so, on this, our Nation's birthday, I call for all of us, community members, civic leaders, government officials, et al., to take a step back and truly evaluate our team, and to then step up to the microphone and speak candidly about our weaknesses. I ask this with the deepest of humility, with the utmost respect for America. And I ask this because it's high time we did it. It's high time our President stepped up and admitted that we have made mistakes. It's high time our Congressional leaders 'fessed up to all of our nation's past, not just the highlights. Because, while our team is great, we can do better.

I set up a forward email address for my verizon account, as I discovered that all the earthlink mail was being accepted by my verizon account - so now if you email my verizon account, it will reach me. Sorry for the trouble.

stumark@verizon.net

I am tired. Being a stay-at-home parent is energy-sapping, at least part of the time. For me, today was non-stop, concluding with a marathon grocery run, as the kids will be with us for 5 days in a row. Oh, and the cat pooped on Noelle's bed, so a blanket and sheets had to get washed. There was other stuff, but that was regular housewife stuff (bills, phone calls, cleaning, fixing, organizing, etc.).

Now, whether the house catches on fire or the dog steals the car, I am taking a break.

First, my verizon email is still wacky - if you want to send me email, please send it to stumark@earthlink.net - I've got FIOS at home, so I don't want to give up my verizon account just because of the email snafu.

Second, if you visit my site (rather than read it through email or whatever), you'll see my Twitter updates on the right hand side. If you are a Twitterer, please leave me a comment with your Twitter feed. My Twitter feed is http://twitter.com/stumark

Third, anything you'd like to hear about?

Fourth, I hope you're having a great day - you deserve it.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Stride Gum found out that a guy named Matt was keeping a travelogue on a website, to keep his family up to date, while he bummed around. He did this goofy dance, for fun, at each place he visited. Stride thought it was a great idea, so they paid for him to travel wherever he wanted, so that his girlfriend could shoot video of Matt doing the crazy dance in all their destinations. I find the video not just funny and sweet and heart-warming, I also see it as a perfect example of the big-picture concept of the internet - to bring our big blue marble into perspective. Tell me if you can get through the entire video without getting a little misty-eyed.

tip of the hat to BoingBoing