Ghostbusters!

So I was on I35 driving to my parents for my day-after-birthday lunch, when BAM.  I saw it.  A real live ghostbuster mobile!  I think it's pretty obvious why I put my life at risk when I decided to take this photo while driving.

Best Birthday Gift. Ever.

Mom: What time are you getting home from work?
Me: On my way home now.  Why?
Mom: Oh, just wondering.

Me: (take my time driving home, stop and get gas, clean out my car)

Me: (Open my front door) It smells good, clean. Wait. Things have changed. (eyes dart around my living room) It's CLEAN!  My mom! (call my mom) THANK YOU.  THANK YOU. THANK YOU.  You're AMAZING.  Best birthday present.  Ever.

Moral of the story: Make sure your parents have a spare key to your apartment, so when they have the day before your birthday off work, they can come over during the day and clean it to surprise you when you get home from work.

The Day I Got In

I'm almost there.  One class left.  A half of a class to be exact.  Then I'll finally be done.  After two years of sweat, blood, tears, and nearly losing my mind, I'll finally have my Masters in Social Work and be free.

It was about this time two years ago that I got my acceptance letter to KU.  I remember the evening distinctly.  It was a Friday evening and I was just getting home from work.  I opened my mailbox and saw it.  A large white envelope.  My heart jumped.  I knew what it probably was, I had been coming home everyday for a couple of weeks looking for it.  I carefully pulled it out and then saw the logo.  This was it.  

I had wanted it so bad.  I hadn't told anyone how bad I had wanted it.  Not even my family.  But I wanted to go to KU badly.  I heard so many great things about their program and met lots of social workers who went there.  To top it all off my mom had gotten her MSW from KU and her BSW from K-State, like I had.  I wanted to keep following in my mom's foot steps and go to KU.  But, I also knew the stats weren't in my favor.  KU had turned down some good social workers, really good, and a mentor had already given me the "don't take it personally if you don't get in" speech.

Now it was time for the main event.  I tore open the envelope, yanked out the contents, and started skimming until I saw it.  The word.  The one word that would satisfy.  My heart leapt.  It said, "congratulations."

Sawyer

What I'm Reading

So good.  Enough said.

Running Shoes and Cat Toys

Last week, I got a new pair of running shoes.  It had been a long time coming.  I probably shouldn't even admit how long it had been since I had replaced them.  They were well past their milage expiration.  Anyway, this story isn't about the shoes.

It's about the packaging materials that came with the shoe and my cat, Sawyer.  So here's what went down.  Sawyer was loving how he could play with the box and has an affinity for things that crinkle (see picture above from play time with a magazine page).  So the paper inside turned out to be what he was really after when he was playing with the box.  To have some fun with him, I decided to put the paper in a bag of catnip for a few hours then got it out and let him play with it.  He had days worth of fun.  More fun then should be legal for a cat to have.  He hadn't touched it for a couple days so I assumed he was done playing with it.  I was apparently very wrong.  I balled the paper up and put it in my recycling bin (which is a small waste basket).  No more than 20 seconds after I put it in there did he go and get it out of the recycling bin and bring it back to play with a bit more.  I know, seriously.  He's like a little man.

Soccer Season

I love soccer and lucky for me I get to to play indoor soccer each week with an awesome team called The Hawks.  I know, cool name right?  The coolness factor would make much more sense if you knew the names of the other teams in our league, ones like Rugburn, Gums and Roses, Stormy Weather...the list goes on.  A new session of indoor soccer started up this week.  We're the team in black (Hawks, black, makes sense, right?)

Anyway, while taking a breather on the sidelines, I grabbed my my phone and snapped a few pictures.  I know there not the greatest, but what's super cool about them is the blurring.  Here's why: check out the feet of the players.  Some of them are crystal clear, meaning they were not in motion...which means they were stopping during each of the steps toward the ball.  However, notice Anna, the gal bursting out in front of them.  No crystal clear feet.  Meaning she was moving and fast.  It's no wonder she was ahead of them.

Blogger's Block

I had a great post I was working on, then I decided it was too depressing so I scraped it.  Outside of that, I've had what I can only classify as Blogger's Block.  Fresh out of blogging ideas.

If I blogged about more of my personal life this wouldn't be so much of an issue, but after my blog in college where I blogged about my personal life waaaay too much, I've tried to reel it in.  My blog in college was more like my diary.  On one hand it was awesome, because now I can look back at the posts that I have saved and remember all kinds of awesome and not so awesome things.  On the other hand, I started working in social services and my mom read my college blog and told me it was too personal for my professional career.  She has a point if any of my clients found my old site they could have crossed some serious personal boundaries.  So I shut my old site down and started this one.

But where is the line?  I could use the rule of thumb that I only blog about things I would be comfortable talking to my clients about - but then that would lead me to where we currently are, which is a rather impersonal blog.  Hmm.

Maybe I should ask myself this...what's the purpose of my blog?  To share my life with my friends?  To bring tech goodness to my friends?  I think this maybe the real source of my problem...a blog without a purpose.

Good blog therapy session.  Thanks.

Oh.  Let me know your thoughts on this...I'm curious and impressionable about where to go with my blog.

My Brother is a Blogging

Not sure what got into to him, but my brother is a blogging.  Food blogging to be exact.  I like this a lot because I get to be one of his taste testers.  It works out pretty well for me.  He's new to the world of blogging and a man, so you'll have to excuse his lack of design on his blog thus far, however the content will be awesome!

Here's his blog: kaisersfoodblog.wordpress.com

Pop Art

It's been awhile since I posted, because I don't have much to post about currently.  So I thought, what a better time to use the camera on my computer and use the pop art effect.  I've never really been a fan of this effect, but today for the purpose of having a blog post, it works.  Besides, look how cute my cat is...and how not too chunky my bangs look.  (See my tweets from earlier this week about my chunky bangs.)

Would I buy an iPhone?

I've been a big advocate for the Android platform here on my blog.  I've had an Android based phone for about the last year.  In August, I got my first iPod when I bought my computer (yes, first), then in November I got my second (I realized I needed waaaaaaay more storage than I got with my free one).  When I got my iPod in November, I got an iPod Touch again and got the most recent generation that Steve Jobs himself called "an iPhone without a contact."

At first, I found the lack of personal controls on the iPod a little annoying.  I couldn't tweak every little thing about the iPod, like I can with my phone.  However, my annoyance quickly wore off, because some of my desire to tweak had come out of necessity to optimize my phone.  For example, I have several apps on my phone that help manage and control the running activities of my phone so my battery won't drain completely half way through the day.  There are certain things I eventually just got over, like being able to customize where I do and don't want icons on my home screen like I can with my phone and being able to put widgets on the screen to make my life easier.  However, eventually I just didn't care enough to care.  This is the magical key that Apple has figured out.

I realized that Apple has figured out that most people who would like to use a smartphone want and need simplicity.  Only a small percentage of us are willing to take the time to learn all the in's and out's of a phone and then put the time and effort in to optimizing it.  For most people, it's like having a camera or camcorder (or insert other complicated device) that you know does so much more than you do with.  Ever had one of those?  A device that you don't use every function that it has, or even know how to use those functions.  Eventually you wonder why they couldn't make it do exactly what you want it to do when you want to do it.

That's exactly what Apple has done with the iPhone.  They figured out the things that are most important then, as they do with their computers, made it simple.  They already optimized the battery for me.  They realized that most people aren't concerned with making pretty designs out of their icons on their home screen.  And then they through it in a tiny package with a beautiful user interface.

I now use my iPod more than I use my phone, which is basically a paper weight.  I have to think less with my iPod and focus on fun more.  I don't want to think.  Apple did all the thinking for me.  They took out features that are unnecessary and through research (I assume) figured out how I would like most of my settings.

So yes, I would buy an iPhone.  It's simpler.  More beautiful.  More intuitive.

Verizon iPhone

Rachel asked a good question:

Here's my point of view:

It's a good thing.

It means those who want an iPhone don't have to sacrifice service by going to AT&T.

It also means that Apple can put out an iPhone that can run on a 4G network, because let's face it, I bet Apple was really hoping that the iPhone 4 could have been named the iPhone 4G, but no AT&T couldn't hold up there end of the deal (during the original talk about an iPhone existing, Apple and AT&T had a little chat about how AT&T would build there network to keep up with Apple's innovation). 

It means that Apple will take a bit out of the growing Android market share, which let's be honest had a lot to do with the lack of a decent phone on various networks.

It means Apple's going to roll out one badass phone, expect your world to implode.

It means that all of us who have come to appreciate our Android phones will have some serious thinking to do.  It's easy to embrace Android when the option of iPhone isn't available.  Will Android be as awesome as we once thought it was?  Probably not.  (I have other reasons for this, but that's another blog post).

Hopefully, with network alternatives it might mean that there will be a price point competition for plans.  But don't hold your breath.  Apple has a short lesh on the price of their products and I doubt plans will drop much, if at all.

It really means we're about to see a million more iPhones and Apple will officially begin making a huge dent in Microsofts world.  With Verizon iPhones will reach the hands of millions - of Window's users who are going to get curious about this awesome Mac world and when their PC burns up (as they all eventually do), they will begin looking at our dear friend Mr. Mac.

Maybe as I'm lying in bed sick tomorrow, I'll come up with a few more things, but for now, these are my initial thoughts to help bring clarity to this very confusing world.