Monday, June 08, 2009

Should do an update - so here goes...

Haven't updated blog in a while. So feel like I should. Now I'm getting re-acquainted with it, like a friend you haven't seen in a while.

I've been a little better about doing a Twitter post every day or so, but lately have been slacking on that too.

The thought process behind doing a 160 character tweet vs a potentially unlimited blog post is certainly different, and I guess I feel like it's time to balance out the super-brief posts I had been doing with something that offers, well...at least 300 characters. :)

Some thoughts:

1. Getting sick - not sure how this happens, but it's crazy how one day you can be feeling pretty good and the next day suddenly run down. I think the wife was stealthily contagious.

2. Apple Keynote today - I admit, I was quite interested with news concerning the latest iPhone (and potential significant firmware upgrade for people with the 3g). Contrasting it with the flurry of attention around the Palm Pre has made for some interesting podcasts to listen to. My take: Palm Pre may have the more compelling OS & software but it needs to quickly gain a lot of adoption by customers and developers in order to remain viable. I really hope it works out for them, but I'm currently only 4 months into a new 2-year contract; I'm not about to go anywhere from that. Apple has shown that they've been really good at pushing new functionality onto their iphone platform and keeping upgrades steady. I figure that they're a safer bet. The iphone will also be getting a version of PlecoDict at some point, which is still my personal "must have" app. Hopefully I'll be in a position sometime in the next year or so where I will need to use Chinese more often during work or travel.

(Also, after living in China and dealing with the convenience and freedom of using GSM phones, the prospect of becoming really locked down to a CDMA provider with gimped phones like Sprint & Verizon offer seems very unappealing...yeah, I know that the iPhone is locked down too but it's still trivial to unlock should you wish to travel with it and not be tied to "the man").

3. Conan O'Brian making fun of Twitter - I'm a fan of (but not obsessed with) Twitter. I found the recurring jokes last week at the expense of Twitter to be very funny. A good contrast to its treatment in mainstream media otherwise, which tends to be fluffy, fawning, or dismissive by people who don't quite get it.

4. Hiking - when the weather is nice in Seattle, there's really no acceptable excuse to be inside. There are so many trails & hikes to do around here (for very cheap), it's a shame to not see them. So Marsha and I are finally getting started with that.

5. Long days - one benefit of living in a very northern location is that the summer days last a long time. Still having twilight at 10pm is just fine by me.

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