I Want To Visit That Lone BlackBerry Store

Did anyone else read that sad story yesterday in The Wall Street Journal about that lone BlackBerry store in Farmington Hills, Michigan?  I read that and immediately looked on Delta‘s website to see how much it would cost to take a pilgrimage to what was supposed to be the first of many BlackBerry stores all across America (excluding their seven airport stores).  That won’t be happening any time soon, however, because I’d have to drive to Richmond in order to fly to Detroit.  That, and I don’t have time right now to do that.  Maybe I’ll go later this year, but I already know I’ll be going alone since I only know ten people at most, including myself, who still have use a Blackberry.

Personally, I don’t like the iPhone because I want a real keyboard, hence I’m still stickin’ with the Berry.  But, only because little Debbie from Season One of SNL nagged so much, I finally caved and agreed to let him buy me an iPad, partly because he offered and I wanted to call his bluff and partly because I’ve been told I’m not getting a new Mac for a few years so this will hopefully take some of the load off of my aging workhorse.  Plus, it’ll be great for traveling since I won’t have to take a computer anymore on trips.  I’m not really sure what I’m going to use this iPad for when I’m not traveling other than to read the newspapers I already read on my iPod because I’m still keeping my Kindle because I don’t want any distractions when I’m reading.  We shall see how this goes once it and I meet one another in May.

All that said about the iPhone, I did love that new ads they made with Zooey Deschanel and Samuel L. Jackson:

Movin’ right along, I hate April.  It’s starts with a day that makes gullible people like myself seem beyond dumb, it gives us awkward weather for which we can’t dress (it’s not too cold to wear a jacket, but not too hot to wear shorts), pollen, and if you’re a university student, April means papers; lots and lots of unnecessary papers.  Oh yeah, and income tax day, which I don’t think anyone other than the employees of the IRS look forward to each year.

Yeah, I’ll admit it.  These massive papers I’m currently avoiding like the plague are such a waste of time and energy.  But, I need good grades on them so unfortunately, I have to write them.  Besides, Justin tells me that my problems are trivial and I shouldn’t complain.

Speaking of His Royal Unemployed, Justin is getting ready to move to his new apartment this weekend.  This is going to be hard for Justin because he has some stuff and an extremely small car.  I’m going to enjoy hearing how he does it, especially since he has actual furniture.  I’d say I wish Justin well with this “endeavor,” but I’m really dying to hear some story about how something fell out of the back of his car while on the two mile drive to his new apartment and reeks havoc on the brick-paved streets of Winter Park.  I know it’s mean and how can I think something like that, but in reality, y’all were thinkin’ it too!

Grace, on the other hand, had a most amusing last week.  And by amusing, I mean she’ll look back on it and laugh in a few months.  So Grace had this horse show in Spotsylvania, VA, a city adjacent to Fredericksburg made of two sides: there’s this very beautiful country side that is part of Virginia horse territory; the other side is filled with cheap motels, bad fast food and chain restaurants, gas stations galore, and that’s about it.  We stop there on our way to and from Maryland when we go to the Preakness and Mother and I were the 100,000th customers at the Friendly’s there in Spotsylvania; we get two milkshakes and use the bathroom before heading to the nearest gas station.

So Grace goes up there and makes her hotel reservation by calling hotels.com (don’t even get me started on that little detail) and arrives at whatever hotel where she was supposed to stay only to find out that they don’t have her in their computer system, but perhaps it’s at the other one not too far away.  When she arrives at the other location, they only have her staying there one night and it had a unique scent that was not tolerable.  Obviously, this was not going to work, so Grace gets back in her truck to start searching for any streamlined chain hotel and even though there are literally thousands upon thousands of usually empty hotel/motel rooms in Spotsylvania thanks to its location just off of I-95, they were all sold out!  Even the Ramada Inn that has the most terrifying, 80s kind of Vergas-style swimming pool in the middle of the hotel and therefore reeks of chlorine was booked solid.

Apparently, there were three reunions/meetings in town that night and so Grace has to drive almost to Richmond, which is a good 30-45 minutes away, and mind you, she’s just spent the whole day taking care of a very spoiled horse sans a militia of helpers so she was exhausted to say the least.  Princess ends up staying at a Quality Inn outside of Richmond in a “smoking room with a bloodstain on the carpet.”  She and I both agreed that it would have probably been a safer and smarter idea to just sleep in the backseat of the truck.

Back here in the land of all things Jefferson (where today, the only professor I’ve had while attending UVa who had yet to mention his class’s connection to Mr. Jefferson finally made the connection.  I swear, there must be something in the contracts of every professor at the university that requires them to make a connection of some kind to him because every single class has managed to somehow.), this past Friday was Founder’s Day, which celebrates Mr. Jefferson’s birthday.

Mother, who was here for two days with friends, and I went up to Monticello, which was a lot of fun and we just walked around and enjoyed the perfect weather and views.  Unfortunately, this was a somewhat spontaneous decision so I didn’t have my camera along with me.  We’re going to go back and take photos this time.  On the upside, UVa students can visit Monticello for free, which is nice since it costs $24 to see the house and grounds, which is kind of steep if you ask me.

Alas, I have to go because I have to compile a five-seven page annotated bibliography that’s due tomorrow, so until next time…

-JD

Ryanair Wants to Offer Adult Entertainment, Annie Leibovitz Prefers iPhones to Actual Cameras and Other News That Needs to be Shared

So I was reading the Times this morning in bed, which I feel everyone should be required to do on Sunday mornings by some sort of law, and I came across an article in the Travel Section, my favorite, which highlighted an issue I thought only bothered me: viewing seemingly inappropriate material… it’s about Ryanair wanting to sell in-flight porn.  Let me be perfectly clear right now and say that I have never and would never do something like that on a plane because that’s disgusting (and if you can’t wait until you get home to see graduates of the Hugh Hefner Acting School in action, then you and Tiger Woods have a similar issue).  However, the article did remind me of an issue I’ve had before on planes concerning watching movies that have some nudity in them or are a bit violent.  This first became an issue for me when I flew home for Thanksgiving during my first year at Rollins.  As y’all know, Winter Park, the charming, perfect-America town that just happens to have a college attached to it, is completely surrounded by the greater Hotlando area and so naturally there are more children on flights going in an out of Orlando International Airport than there are in other places.

I like to watch a movie on my iPod Touch when I fly and at the time of my first visit home that first year of college in 2008, I had the following options: The Queen, Something’s Gotta Give and The Thomas Crown Affair (1999, though I own the original on DVD).  Now of those three, only one of them contains no nudity or no profanity (which doesn’t matter since no one else can hear it).  So there I am seated comfortably on the aisle with no one in the middle seat and I’m watching The Thomas Crown Affair because it’s actually a great movie and there is a rather extensive sex scene-the movie is rated R-which I figured I could watch because no one was seated next to me.  Turns out, I had another viewing audience, the mother behind me, who somehow managed to tap me on the shoulder and politely asked demanded that I turn off my “pornographic movie” at once!  I have now seen The Queen at least fifty times and can basically recite the entire movie because it’s the only movie I have purchased on iTunes, aside from Whatever Works (which I can only watch when in a very specific mood), that is appropriate enough for me to watch with children around (because The Hunt for Red October is too violent according to another parent seated next to me on a flight to Florida in 2009).

While I think that what Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, is insane for thinking that watching pornography on a plane is the same thing as watching it in a hotel room, I do think it’s a bit absurd that I’m not even allowed to watch a movie like The Hunt for Red October because it’s “too violent” for little children not seated next to me to watch.  Let’s think about this for a second.  I’m watching a movie on my iPod with the volume on a level that would make it impossible for someone else to hear and it is somehow going to terrify a child not sitting next to me?  I’m sorry, but network newscasts show more violent images than Alec Baldwin shooting a commie!  I get the nudity being an issue, but it’s a movie about a submarine during the Cold War.  I just… I don’t like this forced political correctness that’s been shoved down my throat by people I don’t know.

Moving on to other things, I saw the Brian Williams interview with Annie Leibovitz for Rock Center, which I think is a good show and much better than that stupid Dateline, and Miss Leibovitz made a comment that I found rather shocking  for a photographer of her caliber:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

I’m actually stunned by the fact that Annie Leibovitz would tell people to forgo an actual camera and just use the camera on the iPhone to take photos.  Yes, the iPhone takes lovely images, but they’re never going to be as good as those on a real camera, which is why I’m getting a real camera in a month when I go to Florida because I want a Leica and the Leica dealer here in Charlottesville only has vintage Leicas.  However, there is a dealer in West Palm Beach, The Pro Shop, which happens to be the first Leica boutique in America and so they will have my camera.  Going back to Annie Leibovitz, I just find it shocking to believe that she thinks that the someone should just get an iPhone instead of a real camera.  Now it’s about here that Andrew is going to call me to remind me that I bought the then-new iPod Touch last year because it had a camera, and while that is true, I still prefer the pictures I’ve taken from a real camera to the ones from my iPod.  And it’s here that Justin will be calling me to say that a Leica isn’t a good camera because it doesn’t do something or what not, but also because it’s not as good as his camera, which is older than he and I are.

Also this Sunday, the last before I get to play all of my holiday music (because I, unlike Walmart, Hallmark and Sears can wait until after Thanksgiving before I start thinking about Hanukkah and Christmas), I stumbled upon these two hilarious video clips for Macy’s featuring Martha Stewart and Donald Trump, respectively:

I cannot believe that these have been viewed so few times, plus the fact that Martha Stewart is in a fraternity house and talks about boys being naked just kills me every time.  As for el Donaldo, I’m not surprised in the least bit that he would have cookies with his face on them.

Finally, Grace’s Fascist landlady has finally decided that Grace’s range, which is missing two of the four burners because other apartments needed them and doesn’t even tell you the oven’s temperature, is no longer acceptable for anyone to use and is replacing it tomorrow.  This is momentous because otherwise, Grace’s food comes out burned.  It’s nice to see that it only took two and a half years for the nut to replace it.  At this rate, we will have graduated by the time she gets around to doing something about those holes in the floor next to the heaters.

Anyway, I’m off to write a paper about an infomercial’s impact on society in America, but we’ll talk before Thanksgiving.  Until next time…

-JD