Simply hilarious.

The screen suddenly froze, and went to a fuzzy white color, then to a fuzzy blue, then multiple reboots (of the same occurrence), then finally stability about 30 minutes later. This happened several times during the day, and AppleCare was called twice.

Upon my first call, the phone decided to act normal, and "notes were made," regarding my issue, and I was issued a case number in the chance that this thing happened again. Well, it did.

AppleCare was called again , but the "technician" I talked to before, didn’t really take notes, just gave me a case number. I was told I had two options.

1. Send in my iPhone, receive a replacement "service unit" while my unit was being fixed. For a fee, of course, to cover "shipping & handling." Nearly $30 for shipping ? Hah.
2. Drive to the nearest Apple store and receive a brand spankin’ new iPhone.

I didn’t want to do either, meaning I didn’t want to pay to have a new phone, and I sure as hell didn’t want to have to drive 2 hours to St. Louis to get the phone replaced, but I didn’t really have a choice. I couldn’t be without the phone for the ten days they told me I wouldn’t have one, so a trip to St. Louis was planned for the next day.

Upon calling and speaking to the Westport Apple Store’s "Genius Bar," I was told that I would, in fact, receive a brand spankin’ new, out of the retail box Apple iPhone, and that all my issues would (basically) magically disappear. I thought, "Sweet!," and away I drove to the ‘Lou.

Upon arrival to my scheduled Genius Bar appointment, I was greeted by a guy with spikey hair in a bright orange shirt, who clearly didn’t want to be at work dealing with low-level peons at 10 a.m., and my "representative" was summoned from his nerd cave to come help the less-deserving. My "representative" asked me what issues I was experiencing, and what I had done to try & remedy my situation. I had told him that I (of course) called AppleCare (which was why I was there), and the tried two separate restores–one from a backup, and one as a brand new phone–both, to no avail.

I was then told to basically, "hold tight," and that everything would be taken care of. He (the rep) pulled out a white little box from a locked drawer, which immediately told me I was getting a service unit phone, and that my issues wouldn’t "magically" disappear, and that I’d be going back to St. Louis at some point soon. I asked him "why am I getting a refurb? I was told on the phone that I was getting a new phone." He replied with sarcasm, "well, this is a new phone, it’s just a service model. It has a new battery." So, I guess my 30 year old camera with new batteries can be sold as a new camera ?

My "new" phone was activated without anything being told to me what was going on, I signed the little piece of s**t paper, and asked, "so, if this thing messes up, I gotta drive two more hours and get it fixed again?" He–again–said sarcastically, "yeap."

I don’t know what it is about Apple technicians… I am an Apple user through & through, but every one I have dealt with (sans one ) has been a sarcastic little p***k, who doesn’t really want to help, they just want to get you in & out, in a hurry. And to boot, I wanted that little plastic film that goes on the front of the phone. I don’t like fingerprints, I had an invisible shield that they didn’t care to save, so now I’m out $20 since I had to buy a new one.

This post is a simple warning to anyone who was to take their phone to an AppleCare rep inside of an Apple store… beware. You’ll receive shotty service, and a shotty "replacement." My "new" iPhone is already showing signs of failure: iPod controls don’t work, touch screen dead spots, and overall flakyness & crashing. If I wanted to own a s***ty phone, I would have bought a Windows-based or Palm-based unit.

With gas at $3.80, I can’t really afford to be driving back & forth to St. Louis every weekend to get this thing fixed!

What is the deal with today’s customer service? Does any representative actually care? Are they out to help you, or just kick you out the door?

I am a staunch supporter of the search for extra-terrestrial life, and a firm believer that there is intelligent life out there–somewhere. Is it on Mars? Who knows. We’re doing the research to figure it out, which is a giant leap in the right direction.

I have told both Kim & my dad today that I sure hope I see some sort of “encounter” in my lifetime… It doesn’t have to be of the third kind, I just want some sort of confirmation that we aren’t alone, and that all that matter that is out there, wasn’t just a waste of space.

What remains to be seen/discovered, is if we are too early in discovering life on another planet (i.e. the surface/atmosphere hasn’t evolved enough to support life) or are we too late (life has come & was wiped out by some catastrophy).

Seeing the news of the Phoenix lander is, simply put: awesome. The amount of data that will be mined, and what our civilization will learn from this one mission, will be colossal. Will it help answer the questions? Hopefully. Are we closer to human settlements on Mars? Maybe.

I just hope it’s in my lifetime.

Landing day blog is here.

She found the SIGG Traveler bottles, which is made of a “single piece of aluminum,” with a “leech-free lining.” They’re not too expensive, to boot. We received them yesterday via Amazon, as the colors we “preferred” were out of stock at our usual store.

A big selling point for me was the fact that it was “non-leeching,” which means (I think) that you’re drinking water in the aluminum bottle, but the water doesn’t get that alumin-y taste to it, as well as the bottle is virtually indestructible, which makes it “Kim safe.” They’ve got a little carabiner-like loop hole at the top, which makes it easy to hook it to a backpack, or wherever you may have a spare loop to hook it to.

For us, it will work great for our everyday use, as it’s the perfect size (.6 L=20.27 ounces) for those single serving Propel or Crystal Light things (yes, I drink Crystal Light. I like their Cranberry Ice. It’s tasty.), as it will also work great for our camping ventures (1 time last year, 2 planned this year) since it fits perfectly into our bags side pocket.

If you’re looking for a great, non-BPA portable bottle solution that offers pretty decent insulation, I suggest you grab one! For the meantime, enjoy a picture of it:

Now, come nearly 20 years to the present. Last week, I got rid of my XBOX 360. Along with Halo 2, Halo 3, Gears, and all of the other games that were gathering dust on my shelf, due to my lack of interest. With the trade-in credit I received from Gamestop (about $225), I bought a Wii. Well, it’s more like Kim got a Wii for graduation because I didn’t play the 360 anymore. It worked out well for both of us, to be honest.

But, let me start over. I am a 21-26 year old male (Kim a 21-26 year old female), who is in the IT profession (Kim in… well, something with brains), with a high-knowledge of the workings of electronics (Kim, she can put stuff together). I prefer sports, action-adventure & platform games, with a few FPS’s thrown in there for some gore. I do enjoy a good MMO (WoW), to take my mind off of things. I prefer interactivity, than sitting down and grinding through levels, with no real sense of accomplishment. I like a welcoming user-interface, that is ad & promotion free. I was never a hardcore XBOX gamer, for most of the above reasons. I have owned a NES, SNES, Sega (and Game Gear), N64, Playstation, Playstation 2, XBOX & an XBOX 360 (holy crap, how many $$ were wasted on that over the years? Geeze!)

I can honestly say that I got about 1/3 of the money out of my XBOX that I paid for it. I truly “beat” three games–Gears of War & Halo 2 & 3. I did not buy it for the multiplayer experience, or the “quality & quantity of games.” I bought it for the HD goodness that was displayed onto my TV while playing Gears of War, and Halo 3… And even Halo didn’t look that good. In the end, I felt ripped off… I didn’t like that I had to pay $50 a year to play my friends over the net, or to download gamer pictures, that didn’t even give me a minuscule feeling that I was customizing anything. I also hated (nearly) every game that came our for the XBOX 360, as they’re all geared towards the people who want to blow s**t up, or play football over & over & over & over. Seriously, how many games of football can on guy play? How good must one be at Halo (no offense to the Halo’rs)? I just never felt that the content released for the 360 was for me. So, I went & bought a system that was.

When I played the Wii for the first time (a few months back), I loved it. I positively loved it. Even simply playing Wii Sports was a great time. Rarely in the 18 months that I owned my 360, did Kim & I actually “connect” during a game. The few times it did occur, was in Halo 2 & 3. We came together last night during the mutual owning of each other in tennis & bowling, and snarled at each other during the Mario Kart balloon popping, though I did admire her Pujols-esque showing during the fitness test in baseball!

I remember when Crash Bandicoot came out for the Playstation, and I was always curious as to why no more of those games were ever released? I would gladly have paid $60 for a game like that on the 360. It surely would have helped in my decision to ditch the unit for a lesser system (hardware wise). However, most of the games that come out for the 360 are crappy re-presses of foreign games, or sports & shoot-em-up titles. Nothing I’m particularly interested in… I’ve had my fill of sports (MLB 2k8 really sunk the ship for me), I’ve had my fill of monster killing (I was happy with killin’ stuff after DOOM came out back in the day)… Is there anything else?

The commercials of the Wii are spot on with what the system is all about. It’s graphics are decent, but is that all that matters? It can do HD. Big deal. It’s fun, isn’t that what matters? I am anxious to get Wii Fit, if it every comes back in-stock! Just as they did in the 80’s, Nintendo has once again revolutionized console gaming. You’re no longer tethered to analog sticks and d-pads, you’re now controlling everything. It’s totally sweet.

I bought Mario Kart Wii, as well as Mario Galaxy, plus an additional Wii Wheel for Kim (it would be unfair if I was winning races with the wheel, while she was using the Wiimote), and “The Bigs,” for my enjoyment. The console came bundled with Wii Sports, which (in my opinion) is a party game to get everyone accustomed to the console, and how everything works. However, it is freakishly addicting to play. When was the last time that a console came pre-bundled with a game, that you didn’t pay extra for? Oh wait… that was probably back in the day with NES and Mario. Heh.

However, I do understand that each system targets its own demographic, as the PS3 & 360 are more for the hardcore, dedicated gamer, who likes to pwn the same thing over & over, as well as play the same sports games year in & year out, with minor graphical tweaks, and no updates to the actual game core. I understand that Sony & Microsoft prefer money of material, but do they realize they are losing customers to an inferior system, that has managed to “out-content” them?

Congrats honey!

After the ceremony is a 2 grill cookoff, hosted by yours truly.

It’s basically your regular popped popcorn (not microwave, but the stuff you actually have to work with on the stove, and not that tin foil bag crap, either) and nutritional yeast tossed together, to give it a nifty flavoring, that is really indescribable as to what it actually is. It’s kinda like cheesy, but not cheesy, and kinda salty, but not overbearingly salty, but is just an all around good time.

What I did last week (when the craving came on pretty heavy) was to go to my local natural food store, and pick up a few ounces of Red Star (brand) Nutritional Yeast. I then combined it with 1/2 cup of Orville Redenbacher’s unpopped popping kernels, and 3 tablespoons of popping oil, and let ‘er rip on medium heat. I am sure that you know how to pop popcorn, but once the popping slows to 1-2 seconds, pull from heat.

When I pull from the heat, I immediately begin “dusting” the still hot popcorn with a tablespoon or three of the yeast (while it’s still in the pan). I toss & toss until I think it’s “coated” decently, as not all of the flakes will melt or powder like they should, so it’s a trial & error as to how much yeast you should apply.

I then transfer my popped corn into a plastic bowl (with a lid), or into a big brown paper bag (that I got at the natural foods store) and additional yeast is added, and it is tossed & tossed, until I feel that it’s coated to my liking. I do add a bit of salt, not much, just a bit to satisfy the salt hungry taste buds, simply due to the taste of the yeast being so incredibly mild.

Of course, the “dusting” of the yeast is to taste, and it can always be added on later.

Nutritional yeast is naturally low in sodium and fat, and is used as a cheese substitute for those crazy vegans. Most nutritional yeast brands are fortified with B vitamins, which makes it even better. Nutritional yeast is of course a “deactivated” yeast, so you can’t brew any booze in your belly via ingestion with popcorn–sorry.

I strongly encourage you to try it, once you try it, you’ll be hooked. It’s a great low-fat, low-sodium alternative to the crappy microwave popcorn that is out there.