andy | team soell

Nice Location, Lousy Service

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:57:17 -0400

With the summer months in full swing, it's been getting harder and harder to get the whole crew together for Saturday morning breakfast. One week Jay may be out in Chicago visiting all my favorite restaurants without me, another week I might be on an impromptu road trip to Indiana, and another week Cameron's wife may have up and had a baby -- typical summer activities. Several weeks back when Cam was out of town, Jay and I decided to meet up at the Cafe Creekside restaurant in Gahanna. I don't get over to Gahanna very often, but Jay's been a good sport about driving down my direction for breakfast so often, I was more than due for a bit of a drive myself.Café Creekside is located, surprisingly enough, in the Creekside district of the Columbus suburb of Gahanna. This area was redeveloped several years back and looks great; I'm not terribly familiar with the Gahanna night scene, but it looks like an area that should be hopping on a Saturday evening.... [ Read More ]

Simple Math

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:11:56 -0400

Despite the recent horror stories surrounding the iPhone -- ranging from hours-long waits in line to spotty service coverage -- I've been fairly happy with it. In all fairness, the reported coverage and call-dropping issues aren't as big of a factor for me, as I probably spend significantly less time talking on the phone than most people do. I'm just not that big of a fan of the telephone in general. I know I sound like some old man who can't bear to give up his carrier pidgeons, but I've always felt self conscious talking on the phone, so I usually try to avoid it whenever I can. Needless to say I'm a big fan of text messaging.The one thing I will complain about a little bit is the "App Store." I really liked the idea that independent software developers could write their own programs and sell them directly to iPhone users, but I really expected that by now we would have a lot more impressive offerings to make my life a little more convenient and productive.... [ Read More ]

Cheapskate

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:59:28 -0400

If you've been keeping an eye on the iTunes App store for new programs like I have, you've no doubt heard about the latest, and most worthless, app released to date: I Am Rich. I'm sure it was developed as a general programming exercise, with the thought that even if one person buys it just to see what it's all about, it will pay off in spades. In short, this is an application for your iPhone that is priced at $999.99, and it does absolutely nothing. In all fairness, the author fesses up to that very fact in the description of the application."The red icon on your iPhone or iPod touch always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this. It's a work of art with no hidden function at all."Since I myself do want people to think I'm filthy rich -- despite the fact that I'm a notorious cheapskate -- I have cooked up my own free version. Head on over to http://andy.teamsoell.com/iamrich on your iPhone or iPod Touch and pick up your own copy, for the low low price of free.... [ Read More ]

I Love Coffee

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:51:18 -0400

If you know me at all, this is not a big shock. Interestingly enough, though, I didn't really start drinking it until about three years ago when I visited my good friend Jazzy Dave out in Portland. Dave introduced me to Stumptown Coffee Roasters and my eyes were opened to the magic that is the french press. Three years later, I'm roasting my own beans and drinking a good 24 ounces every morning.On a semi-related note, this past Christmas my parents dug up my favorite cup from when I was a kid. I remember drinking milk out of it, seeing the frog inside slowly emerge. Twenty years later, it's just as fun seeing the frog emerge from the delicious dark goodness every morning.... [ Read More ]

Introducing Pingnode

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:36:14 -0400

About a month ago, I wrote up a tongue-in-cheek post about nanoblogging, the obvious successor to the recent rise of microblogging sites like Twitter and Plurk. The idea was that if everyone is so excited about short, two sentence updates, maybe we should just go to a system where you update your status in two words even more often. At the time, I meant it as a clever little "look how stupid everyone is" post, but a month later I have to eat a little crow.I've had a few conversations with some folks whose opinions I respect, and while I still don't really get the whole point of microblogging, I do think there may actually be a legitimate use for a smaller nanoblog-style system. I've kept up with my nanoblog, to an extent, consistently over the past month and have found out a few things about the process.It's so much faster than microblogging. This one is obvious. Two words are generally quicker to come up with and write than a one or two sentences.It forces creativity. My first day, I put in an entry that just said "coffee.... [ Read More ]

Kind Offer

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:24:26 -0400

in March, a college friend of mine had the chance to appear on the legendary game show Wheel of Fortune. For various programming reasons that are beyond my understanding, the show never aired on my local NBC affiliate station, but James was kind enough to pass along a copy of the show for anyone interested. The show itself isn't incredibly exciting, but he also passed along a version with his own commentary along the way which was actually pretty interesting. He talked a bit about the behind-the-scenes details that go into a taping of the show, interacting with Pat Sajak, Vanna White, and the other contenstants, how heavy the wheel actually is. He asked me to keep that video semi-private, but if you're interested just drop me a comment and I'll give you the address to check it out.... [ Read More ]

I really do like broccoli

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:17:57 -0400

At some point growing up, I decided that I didn't like broccoli. I don't remember whether I actually didn't like broccoli, or whether I just thought I wasn't supposed to, but I carried on this ruse well past the point where I knew that I not only didn't mind it, but I actually enjoyed it. In fact, I kept this dirty little secret hidden from my parents until around the time I got married in late 2006. I'm pretty sure I could see the pain in my dad's eyes when I confessed my deception... the pain that can only be caused by the lies of an only son. I'm sorry, Dad.But I really do despise cucumbers. I swear.... [ Read More ]

Pay Dirt

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:16:16 -0400

It's starting to look like all of our efforts are starting to pay off; This weekend, after getting back from a little family vacation to Michigan, we came home to discover a veritable cornucopia of veggies waiting for us. We had actually already picked about a half-quart of green beans just last week, but in one week's time the plants we had were already full again. As far as I'm concerned, you can never have too many green beans. On the other hand, I think we may have overdone it on the jalapeño peppers; We picked about 20 peppers last night, and left behind at least half as many that weren't quite ready yet. If they keep up the same pace that the green beans have been taking, we'll be swimming in homemade salsa by the fall. Unfortunately, the tomato plants are thirsty little devils and we're barely keeping them up; We did get a ripe tomato yesterday that I'm excited to try out, hopefully the rest of the plants will hang in there.... [ Read More ]

Legal Maneuvers

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:18:22 -0400

Part of the "perfect storm" that convinced us to wait in line for seven hours on a perfectly good Friday was that, due to a legal technicality in T-Mobile's contract, we had an opportunity to cancel our mobile contract without any early termination fees. Unfortunately, while this process did end in no cancellation fees, it didn't end without frustration and perseverance.The bottom line is that, effective August 29, T-Mobile is raising their per-message rate for text messages from $0.15/message to $0.20/message. In and of itself, no big deal; January and I already have a "text bundle" that should be sufficient for even the most popular teenager. The interesting part, though, is that this is a basic change to the contract we initially agreed to and, as a result, we're entitled to the cancellation of our contract without the standard exorbitant fees.Well, today was the day I summoned up all my resolve, gathered up my contract, highlighted clauses, and hunkered down for a fight. I knew they weren't going to just let it go, and I'm really not very good at debating, but I definitely didn't want to get stuck with $400 in cancellation fees.... [ Read More ]

iHypocrite

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:32:31 -0400

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.... [ Read More ]