The last time I mentioned the iPhone, I was less than complimentary to the whole situation.  At that time, about a week after the launch of the first version, I had been forcibly exposed to this phone by at least four people and was, frankly, tired of seeing people "pinching" and "swiping" their phones screens.  As I'm sure you know, Apple launched a new version of their phone this past week and, due to the perfect storm of the death of both my and January's blackberries, the arrival of our economic stimulus payoff, and T-mobile raising their text messaging rates, we decided to further expand our dependence on Apple products and pick up a couple. It also helped that January offered to buy mine for me.  It's a pretty sweet deal, being married to my photographer sugarmama.

I'm not going to pretend like I wasn't eager to get ahold of one, but I do believe it was January's decision to show up on launch day and wait in line.  We didn't go all-out, like some people I've heard about, but we did show up about an hour before the store opened.  Surprisingly, the lines weren't too bad at that point; I would guess we were around #100 in line, and with 30-40 employees on the job I didn't expect the whole process would take longer than a few hours.  I also managed to con Nathan and Jason into coming along, so at least we had some good company while waiting out what would eventually become seven hours of boredom interspersed with bouts of frustration and annoyance.

Really, it wasn't that bad of an experience.  We only waited a couple of hours in the line, but the big hassle was once we got to the counter and were trying to activate our phones with our existing phone numbers.  Apparently we initiated this process at the exact moment that the Pacific stores were opening up shop.  The entire Apple/AT&T network ground to a screeching halt right about the time they were trying to port my number to my new phone, and as a result my phone number got locked into that phone without the account itself following with it.  Four hours later, we were able to get the whole situation worked out and were on our way, but it was kind of a pain in the ass.

Now, as for the phone itself, I have to admit that it is pretty slick.  The only complaints I can muster up so far are the lack of a "copy and paste" system for text and the inability to mark all of your email messages as "read" in one simple step.  I have noticed that due to my annoyance with the phone being shoved in my face this time last year, I am super self-concious about using the phone in public; I don't expect people to fall all over themselves about it like they were with the first version, I'm really not interested in giving a tech demo to a perfect stranger.  I just want a good phone that plays my music, and so far I'm happy with what I've got.

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Seriously, he is a scourge upon my senses.  Can someone explain the reason for his existence?

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January had this idea -- instead of writing a boring "About Me" page for her blog, she is trying to compile a list of 100 facts that you may not know about her.  I don't have the patience to sit down and think up that many facts about myself, but I did agree to adopt a similar project.  Twice weekly, random facts about myself that you may or may not know.

I don't know how often I'll go into a detailed explanation on each fact, but I feel like this one deserves some explanation.  In 2002 I had an unfortunate accident with a utility knife.  I was trying to build a DVD rack out of the wrong equipment, using the wrong equipment, and ended up slicing off the tip of that finger.  One over-reaction later, and I was in the hospital getting a couple of stitches.  Six years later, I still can't really feel anything in the tip of that finger.  It almost feels like there's a really thick layer of dried glue stuck there.

So there you have it.  Part one in the series of 100 facts that you may not know about Andy.

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I don't want to get into a big debate about the artistic merits of sampling, but it's always annoyed me when I hear the "hot new song" that is nothing more than a clip from another famous song with a minor beat added on top of it.  It's usually something innocuous like John Mellencamp or Sting, which doesn't get me too worked up.  But it really gets me when this summer's "hot song" is just a 5 second clip from The Clash on repeat, with a few cliche gunshots thrown in for good measure.  I mean, it's The Clash for crying out loud.

I'm not going to bother providing a link to this new, bastardized version.  But it's never a bad time to give the original a listen.  And while you're at it, how about a little Guns of Brixton?

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