As I write this, I'm waiting once again for a Triple-A truck to come to my rescue with a gallon of gas.
My gas gauge is still broken - it turns out that this would be an expensive repair - but my car has a digital readout of how much gas I've consumed since my last fill-up. Apparently I didn't set this properly the last time I got gas (or else there is something REALLY wrong with this car) but when I started out today, it looked like I had over four gallons left. I now know that this was not the case. It seems that the "low fuel" light that comes on only does so when I'm actually low on fuel; I should have heeded its warning when I passed that gas station a few miles ago....
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
iPhone, Re-Visited
My iPhone is great, when it's working. But so far I've had to re-something-or-other it several different times.
RE-SET
First there was a mild glitch that caused the screen to freeze. A simple 'reset' did the trick, and it was back to normal.
RE-STORE
But a few days later, I found that I was unable to return emails sent to my gmail account (and viewable on my phone). A customer rep explained that I'd have to 'restore' the phone, causing it to put my 'settings' back to their default settings and forcing me to spend hours putting all of the music and podcasts back onto the phone.
RE-COVER
When I ran into my next glitch, the rep suggested that I perform an even more drastic type of resetting of the iPhone. This procedure is called a 'recovery,' and it seems a lot like the re-store, only more invasive somehow. This worked initially, but then a few days later, I was unable to sync the phone with my computer. I ran thru all of the other steps, but alas, the phone would not fix itself. I called iPhone support again (800-MY iPHONE). The support team is top notch, never making me wait longer than 30 seconds on the phone, and they immediately suggested the only step left at this point.
RE-PLACEMENT
I made an appointment at the 24/7 Mac Store near FAO Schwartz and uni'ed over there today. When I arrived, I gave my information to one of the zillions of reps floating about the store, and he quickly determined that I'd accidentally been given a time in the wee hours (1:30 am) rathrer than a quiet (ha!) afternoon time of 1:30 pm. Still, he was confident that he could squeeze me in and before I knew it, a young woman handed me a new iPhone!
Of course, if this fix doesn't work, I may have to think about this whole purchase again. That would be called...
RE-CONSIDERATION
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
A La Recherche d'un Temps Perdu, or What I've Been Doing the Past Month
Forgive me, Reader, for I have sinned; it's been four weeks since my last submission.
I bumped into a classmate from my elementary school, Fleming, while she was buying a birthday gift for the 2-year-old son of another student from our graduating class. The three of us hadn't seen much of each other in the 28 years since we graduated from our little French school, but we all decided to go to dinner and a show, and a few weeks later, we got together for a great evening. Over dinner, I mentioned that, in the pre-Internet days, I'd started a mailing and phone-number list of our fellow alums but that I hadn't gotten very far, managing to track down only one friend who sounded a bit tired and grumpy when we spoke. Our dinner inspired me, however, and when I got up the next day, I immediately started Googling some of the more unusually-named people from Fleming. My hope was that, if I found a few friends, maybe some of them would have leads to others. I also hoped that my sleuthing skills would have improved.*
Nostalgia Orgy
Long story short: I created a Google group for all of the people I found, and we've been emailing each other, like a forum, for the past 3 weeks, generating just over 1000 messages in that time. It's been overwhelming and wonderful, with memories surfacing about old shops, the smell of the science lab, and quirky teachers. These memories are often quite vivid, like ancient murals unearthed and exposed to light for the first time in many years -- just as vibrant as the day they were set down. I clearly remember the candy store where I'd buy penny candies, the social studies teacher with the bright orange hair, and the double banisters along each stairway. Nicest of all is how well everyone is getting along: The bullies apologizing and their victims accepting graciously. It's like we've all decided that we'd like a do-over of certain moments.
It's also been great to find out how people turned out nearly 30 years later. One is an executive producer for a hit TV show, several are professors or academic deans. One is a food writer living in London. One is a professional poker player who has also written for a hit cartoon show. And perhaps most strangely: Despite there being only a dozen boys in the later grades of our school, 3 of us became firefighters! There are plenty of parents, too: My old girl-friend has four kids of her own and is a French teacher. Many of us have submitted photos, and it's been fun seeing how people have changed since adolescence, since some of us look pretty similar while others are barely recognizable.
* About that sleuthing: I used Google, whitepages.com, USsearch.com, 411.com, and Facebook.
I bumped into a classmate from my elementary school, Fleming, while she was buying a birthday gift for the 2-year-old son of another student from our graduating class. The three of us hadn't seen much of each other in the 28 years since we graduated from our little French school, but we all decided to go to dinner and a show, and a few weeks later, we got together for a great evening. Over dinner, I mentioned that, in the pre-Internet days, I'd started a mailing and phone-number list of our fellow alums but that I hadn't gotten very far, managing to track down only one friend who sounded a bit tired and grumpy when we spoke. Our dinner inspired me, however, and when I got up the next day, I immediately started Googling some of the more unusually-named people from Fleming. My hope was that, if I found a few friends, maybe some of them would have leads to others. I also hoped that my sleuthing skills would have improved.*
Nostalgia Orgy
Long story short: I created a Google group for all of the people I found, and we've been emailing each other, like a forum, for the past 3 weeks, generating just over 1000 messages in that time. It's been overwhelming and wonderful, with memories surfacing about old shops, the smell of the science lab, and quirky teachers. These memories are often quite vivid, like ancient murals unearthed and exposed to light for the first time in many years -- just as vibrant as the day they were set down. I clearly remember the candy store where I'd buy penny candies, the social studies teacher with the bright orange hair, and the double banisters along each stairway. Nicest of all is how well everyone is getting along: The bullies apologizing and their victims accepting graciously. It's like we've all decided that we'd like a do-over of certain moments.
It's also been great to find out how people turned out nearly 30 years later. One is an executive producer for a hit TV show, several are professors or academic deans. One is a food writer living in London. One is a professional poker player who has also written for a hit cartoon show. And perhaps most strangely: Despite there being only a dozen boys in the later grades of our school, 3 of us became firefighters! There are plenty of parents, too: My old girl-friend has four kids of her own and is a French teacher. Many of us have submitted photos, and it's been fun seeing how people have changed since adolescence, since some of us look pretty similar while others are barely recognizable.
* About that sleuthing: I used Google, whitepages.com, USsearch.com, 411.com, and Facebook.
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