Stargazing (In The Metaphorical Sense)
It was a fairly quiet week at work, though I don’t mean “quiet” as in “not busy.” With another product release out the door, plus a newsletter campaign and a variety of internal system upgrades, bug fixes and testing, there was plenty to do. Just not much in the way of communication, because my boss was out for the whole week getting his family moved from Kansas to Texas. And if things weren’t already quiet enough, next week the entire office will be shut down while the company gets moved to Texas as well. We won’t be really back to full-power until July 6th, I expect, although we’ll all have operations covered in the interim while some of us work remotely. For my own slice of workspace, it’ll be business as usual.
Yesterday I received a call from our real estate agent, who asked if it was all right for a buyer to come by for a showing this morning at 10:30. It’s our first showing since we put our house on the market about a month ago, so we were pretty excited. The real estate market is, again, tanking — since the federal government’s homebuyer tax credit expired at the end of April, the month of May saw a worse-than-expected 30% drop in sales. It’s no surprise that there’s been little interest.
But things might be starting to pick up a little bit for us now, what with today’s showing and an open house that we’ve got scheduled for Sunday afternoon. On top of that, our most promising lead right now is a co-worker of Apple’s, who expressed interest in coming by to take a look at our home. If she ended up being the buyer, we’d save half on the commission since she would not have enlisted the services of a real estate agent. That would be a real boon for us, considering we need all the money from the sale that we can get. (But when is that ever not true?)
My parents are here in town this weekend, and a few hours ago we all enjoyed a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant downtown. For the weekend ahead, we’ve got the aforementioned open house going on, and I ought to change the oil in the GTO. Aside from that I don’t have any definite plans. I’ve been in the mood for some writing, reading and bookish hobby work lately — converting all of my PDB eBooks to ePub format, adding onto a story I haven’t touched in a while, perhaps even getting back to my wiki project. Through all of this, the addictive properties of Red Dead Redemption on my Xbox 360 continue to tempt me greatly, a constant struggle between creative expression and self-indulging entertainment. I suspect I won’t know the outcome of this battle until the weekend ends.
A few nights ago I did another new search over at Realtor.com for newly-listed properties in the Frisco, TX area where we’re looking to relocate. A few new places have come online, one of which is actually in Plano but is particularly interesting because it appears to have all of the features we’re looking for, including confirmed availability of Verizon’s FiOS TV and Internet service, and the coveted three-car garage that I so lust after. The only thing I don’t like is the potential proximity to the Sam Rayburn Tollway (otherwise known as the 121). There’s always some issue, isn’t there? No home is perfect — you have to decide which flaws are more important and which you can ignore.
The iPhone 4 Signal Loss Paroxysm
For the last week or so, I’ve been following the news of Apple’s latest generation iPhone: the iPhone 4. Since AT&T made most of the owners of last year’s iPhone 3GS eligible for upgrade immediately, I decided to go ahead and get an iPhone 4, then sell my 3GS to make up the difference. It was a potentially net-zero-cost transaction for me, so I couldn’t really lose.
Yesterday, however, as the first of the iPhone 4 pre-order customers began to receive their phones by mail, something strange and unnerving happened. There were lots and lots of complaints. I occasionally follow the discussion forums at MacRumors.com, one of the premier Apple fan sites, and the vitriol was really flying around in there.
Now, don’t get me wrong: Serious aficionados of just about anything, from electronics to fine wines to sports cars, tend to be the most vocal nitpickers. Accordingly, there are always complainers during every Apple product launch. Last year, for example, when the iPhone 3GS arrived, many people were complaining because the color tone of the screen was too warm compared to earlier models. Others pontificated that the sleep/wake switch was loose and rattly. I didn’t experience these problems, either that or I’m just not hardcore enough for them to affect me. Since I bought it a year ago, I would describe my experience with my 3GS as “outstanding.”
The iPhone 4 launch was different. I started seeing many threads of complaints, some about trivial matters as you would expect (“My speaker sounds tinny!” or “Does anyone else’s phone rattle when you tap on the back, like, really hard?”), but others about potentially showstopping problems. One thread that seemed to be gaining traction was the “proximity sensor” thread. The iPhone has a sensor so it knows when you’re holding it up to your ear to make a call, and thus shuts off the touch screen so you don’t press buttons with your face. Apparently, a handful of people received iPhone 4 units with faulty sensors and were pressing all manner of buttons with their cheek, even hanging up in the middle of calls. Ouch.
The worst issue, however, and by far the fastest-growing one, was the signal loss issue. Specifically: What happens when you hold your iPhone 4 a certain way, and your palm, thumb or finger happens to cover up the small black seam between the Wi-Fi / Bluetooth / GPS antenna band and the UMTS / GSM antenna band? Apparently, as some users were finding out, it causes their iPhone to lose almost all reception, drop calls and completely stall data traffic.
Now, to be fair, there are people who are reporting that they cannot recreate this issue. I happen to know one of them. But there are also way, way too many people reporting that it is a problem for this to be an “imagined” defect, or a case of PEBCAK (or PEBCAP, in this case). I mean, there are problems that aren’t really problems, like the moron who posted “Every picture I take with the iPhone 4′s flash enabled is all washed out!” only to discover that he had forgotten to remove the protective plastic sheet from the back of the phone (and, thus, the camera lens). But then there’s something like the antenna issue, where you have dozens of people posting YouTube videos demonstrating it. (Want more videos? Oh yeah, there’s more.)
SHO-CO-REVIEW 16: Romances sans paroles
Romances sans paroles Album Cover
Released on July 15, 2009, Romances sans paroles~bande originale du film~ is the soundtrack album to the documentary film about Shoko Suzuki, entitled Mugonka~Romances sans paroles~. The album was released on Shoko’s own label, Bearforest Records (which is actually her second private record label; two previous releases — Love is a sweet harmony and Absolutely Alone in Kyoto Jittoku — were released on Shoko’s Angel Records label) and was preceded by a single, “I’ll Get What I Want (Chou Tsuyoko na Onna)” (which is the theme song for Mugonka). Interestingly enough, the single was released only on a 45 RPM vinyl single and cassette single.
As there are only six songs used in the entire film, the rest of the soundtrack album is filled with various live performances, taken from one of three live dates: December 21, 2008, February 14, 2009, and March 22, 2009. Most of the live cuts are Shoko solo, though the four tracks from March 22 feature Moonriders member Masahiro Takekawa on violin and trumpet, and Takeshi Shibuya on keyboards and backing vocals. Additionally, Takekawa plays violin and mandolin on “Do You Still Remember Me?” (the b-side of “I’ll Get What I Want”), and Larry Fujimoto plays bass on “I’ll Get What I Want.” Other than that, it’s Shoko’s show all the way (she plays keyboards, drums and guitar on the various tracks).
In a slight oddity, this is probably the first record I’ve ever seen where an inanimate object is thanked in the liner notes. It’s true: the Sony TC-D5 stereo cassette recorder is thanked by Shoko in the album’s notes, for “revitalizing passion & curiosity.” Several of the tracks on the album are of near-demo quality (audible hiss, etc.), because these were recorded on the TC-D5.
As for the documentary itself, it roughly covers a year in Shoko’s life, beginning in late 2008. Much of the footage is self-shot; i.e.. Shoko filming herself in her home and talking. The film starts with Shoko’s 20th anniversary concert (Sept. 2008), and the rehearsals surrounding it. You then see Shoko working on a new composition in its various stages (“I’ll Get What I Want”), including lyric writing (where you can see Shoko has YouTube bookmarked on her laptop). Next, she meets up with Shinji Harada (whom Shoko backed on tour before becoming a recording artist) and Moonriders guitarist Keiichi Suzuki (who, if at all, is known among some people my age for composing music for the video game EarthBound) for rehearsals — Harada and Suzuki are to be special guests at a (then) upcoming Shoko concert.
Cruisin’, and Other Happenings
Last weekend, Apple and I went on our first cruise. Thanks to my parents’ membership in the Disney Vacation Club, we were able to book a three-night cruise to the Bahamas that included Nassau and Castaway Cay, the latter of which is Disney’s own private island. I’ve never thought of myself as a “cruise person”; for some reason the thought of being trapped on a ship at sea with nowhere to go never sounded appealing, despite the fact that I often trap myself in my own house not only wittingly, but happily. Ask me today, however, and I’ll tell you that I would definitely go on a cruise again — especially if it’s a Disney cruise.
We may have been a bit spoiled. After all, the ship we sailed on — the Disney Wonder — was recently rated #1 for crew and service by a Condé Nast Traveler magazine poll. Disney does have a reputation for making every experience about as polished and professional as is possible, and our cruise was no exception, filled with some of the most friendly staff, finest accommodations and nicest locales I could imagine. And like most cruises, all of the food was free. Hard to beat that!
Mostly playing it low-key, we did just a smattering of activities, ranging from a tour of Nassau and its Ardastra Gardens and Zoo to taking in some of the musicals and shows that the ship’s crew put on for us. Even so, we felt like we filled each day to the brim with stuff to do, sights to see and food to eat, and it was a rare thing for us to even have a moment to just lay around and watch TV. (Which is perfect — because we probably do enough of that at home!)
I think my favorite day was the one we spent at Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island. Those were some of the most incredible beaches I’ve ever seen, and talk about quiet — there was total silence out there at Serenity Bay. We made the most of it, basically just floating on our backs in the crystal clear waters and soaking up the tranquility. Just like in the movies, servers would walk up and down the beach every so often and ask if you wanted a drink. You could sit out there like Milton at the end of Office Space and complain about the margaritas. (Although once you got a load of the scenery, I’d imagine it’d be hard to complain about much of anything.)
Earlier today I spent a while uploading all of the best photos from the cruise, then titling and tagging them. If you want to see them, check them out right here.
I also edited together a collection of footage I shot using my iPhone, including stuff from the cruise ship, Ardastra Gardens and Castaway Cay:
