New Smart Phone. End of Civilization?

I was overdue for a new phone, so I finally decided to jump (somewhat reluctantly) on the "smart" phone bandwagon. I've been a Verizon customer for a long time and have always been happy with their service. So, I decided to stay with them and ordered the new Motorola Droid X. After a wait of about a week, It arrived two days ago and I've spent more time than I should getting it set up and figuring out the bazillion different features. Having never used a phone like this, my head was spinning for the first day or so. It did not make me feel smart.

Two days later, I've gotten used to it. In addition to allowing me to have email and internet on the run, I also bought a car mounting kit, so I can use it as a GPS. It has been about a year since my old GPS quit working, so it is good to have back. The phone also has an 8 megapixel camera and can record HD video, which might come in handy for blogging.

Okay, this is not my phone. But, it's not that far off.
Welcome to the future-for better or worse.

My reluctance to getting a "smart" phone, stems from my fear of becoming too reliant on technology. This is an age old fear that I'm sure many share. And perhaps its a fear that has been beaten to death in literature and Hollywood. But, I really do think it's a valid concern. At what point is all this access to information 24 hours a day, too much. At what point does technology override our natural life? At what point do we become disengaged from the world around us in order to be plugged into a cyber one? (is it me or does the word "cyber" sound dated?) As I already feel that I spend too much time "plugged in", what impact will this phone have? How do we strike a balance? How do we teach the next generation to strike a balance? Whoaa, this is heavy! Okay, I'll lighten up.

I guess only time will tell. And I guess these concerns don't (yet) outweigh the convenience factor of having this phone. So for now, I'm "buying" in.

Image of my phone. If I was really good, I'd of blogged this post from my phone.
But, I'm not ready for that, yet.

So there, I'm glad I got the phone, but it's kind of weird that every time I use it, I feel like I'm using something out of Star Trek. It's kind of like a Data Padd and Communicator rolled into one. That probably makes me a nerd, just for thinking that, but I can't help it. And for good measure I think I'm going to start referring to my phone as the HAL 9000. We'll see how long this is funny for.

Update of Randomness

In no particular order, here's an update of juicy randomness about what we've been up to over the last few weeks since my last post. If you care, read on. If not...click that "Next Blog" button at the top of the page.

Greenwood Car Show

We checked out the Greenwood car show, which is held just up the hill from our house. With almost a thousand cars on display, you can pretty much find every classic car you can imagine. Plus a lot of other random gasoline powered creations. And inevitable a few "green" vehicles have started to creep in, too. The picture is not one of "green" ones. Which is fine by me.

German Beer...my head hurts just thinking about it.

Drank too much German beer a couple weeks back. I'm not sure if its the fact that the German's drink their beer in liter glasses or my English heritage, but nothing good ever happens after drinking German beer.

Tour de Bike Shops

A couple of weeks back we and our friends (Kevin & Joe) rode our bikes up to Redhook Brewery in Woodinville to have lunch and then rode home again. It ended up being about a 30 mile bike ride. It was a fun trip, but it also turned out to be costly tour of bike repair shops. Ten minutes into the ride, I blew out the inner-tube in my rear tire and had to stop at a near by bike shop to get a new one. And then 10 miles into the ride both my rear inner-tube and tire blew out. Fortunately, once again, there was a bike shop right by the trail. And since these things always happen in threes, on the ride home we had to stop again at a bike shop in order for Joe to fix his malfunctioning bike shoe. Good times. As much as I enjoy cycling, running is cheaper.

4th of July.

Had some friends over for a nice 4th of July BBQ, even though the weather sucked, 60's and rain.

After our BBQ, we headed to Gas Works park to watch the Seattle fireworks display. Yes, this picture really is July in Seattle. But, the fireworks display was one of the best I've seen.

It promptly turned sunny and reached 85 degrees on the following Tuesday when everyone returned to work. Pacific NW. Gotta love it.

Shot Some Hoops...Badly.

Tonja and I went and shot some hoops at one of the local schools by our house. It was the first time I've picked up a basketball in about 5 years. It was ugly, but fun. Tonja's got some skills. I think she might of missed her calling. The court we played on, was one that the Sonics had refurbished a number of years ago when they still existed. I thought the fading logo was a poignant reminder of the fading legacy of the Sonics in Seattle. (That's my one semi-insightful thought for this entry.)

Z is for Zombies

And Finally...this photo doesn't really do it justice, but we went down to Fremont and watched a bunch of people dressed up like zombies set the Guiness Book of World Record(s) for the most people dressed up like zombies. You might not understand ( I don't really understand), it's a zombie thing. And yes, if you look closely there is a zombie Jesus amongst the crowd. I think that's ironic or something.

So, that's a very brief and very random recap of the last couple of weeks. We've actually done a lot more than this, but I don't have pictures of it.