Only in Washington State

Can one go from so sunny that I have to pull out the shades to pouring down rain. All in the space of a walk to the bus stop. Then it repeated this at least twice on the ride in to work. Whatever. Its all Jeff Renner's fault...: Click Here for Location (via @zhiing)

To follow up…

A few weeks ago, I posted a recent (at the time) experience about the Orca Card and bus service in general. You weren’t the only one to see it. I kinda sorta borrowed a page from The Consumerist and deployed an Executive Email Carpet Bomb. Going to the Peirce Transit web site, I found their Board of Commisioners, took down all their email addresses, and let it loose (along with a copy to main@soundtranist.org and contactus@orcacard.com). This was bound to get results, since among the members are the Pierce County Executive, the mayors of Tacoma and Puyallup, and the CEO of Pierce Transit. I immediately noticed hits to my blog from Seattle (headquarters of SoundTransit) and Lakewood (headquarters of Pierce Transit). This lasted for about three days (I sent it on a Wednesday night). And on Tuesday, I received an email from a Peirce Transit who was responsible for the implementation of the Orca Card). The formal letter of apology was in a PDF attachment. And they mailed it to me. Via certified mail. And I haven’t had a problem with being overcharged by the driver since then.

I’m sure they didn’t want to hear it this way, but when you’re customer service reps are condescending, rude, and incompetent, then you’re going to have to deal with customers like me…

Sometimes people do read their mail, though….

My Next Act of Stupidity….

I joined Twitter. Along with Facebook, and MySpace. I don’t update to MySpace that much anymore, but I’m still on it. I’m more likely to be on Facebook these days (especially since my phone can almost integrate my facebook into my address book). This blog will will still be my Internet Soapbox where I can air my grievances at the world. Twitter I think will be a place to post my GPS updates when I want the Internet to know where I’m at (though I can post that here, too)…

Edit: I decided to delete Twitter. Everything I can do on Twitter, I can do here. And I’m already established here…

And Lo!

The Noodly Appendage did reach forth, and The Flying Spaghetti Monster has called home Harry Wappler, so Wayne Cody can have a decent weather forecast while they both frolic among The Beer Volcanoes and Stripper Factories. Ramen…

I really didn’t watch KIRO TV growing up, but I do remember Wayne Cody and Harry Wappler. There was another show, Almost Live (a local equivalent of Saturday Night Live), and Wayne Cody was on occasion a target, owing to his size… Harry Wappler, IIRC was the first weather forecaster that I remember being called a meteorologist. I mainly got my local news fix from King 5, but I remember watching KIro on occaision.

RIP, Harry.

PS, for those of you who don’t know about Almost Live, here’s a little bit of what you missed. This was always my favorite sketch:

Always remember to behave yourself…

Nothing to see here. Don't panic.

I make regret this in the future, but then again, the ability to post your GPS to your blog may come in handy.

IgwanaRob, the SWYPE onscreen keyboard kicks ass... : Click Here for Location (via @zhiing)

A way to irritate my brother….

As you may know from reading my previous entries, aside from the fact that IgwanaRob has very much definitely voided the warranty on his phone (see the first comment…) is yes, I got a HTC Rhodium, aka the T-Mobile Touch Pro 2. My brother, who bought my BlackBerry when I went back to the Shadow, was intrigued by it. He actually said that I finally got something cool. At the time, he was looking for an upgrade for his phone. Apparetnly this was the phone he wanted, and I got it first. SO he sent me out to find him and HD2. Wasn’t going to happen. So he finally settled on a Touch Pro 2, as well. I think he’ll manage…

Spring must be in the air...

All the windows in the apartment are open. I have to wear my shades to the bus stop. Both buses I'm riding on the way to work have the AC on. Spring must be here. The Bright Yellow UFO is in the sky (some people call it the sun, but everyone in Washington knows an extraterrestrial invasion is more likely than sunny weather...)

I'll enjoy while it lasts. Jeff Renner will eventually sober up...

It must've been my day off.

The daily weather feature on my phone tracks my location via gps. It can also dollw the weather in several other locations. It must have been my day off today. All 8 locations I had programmed said 'rain'...

Some things never change...

It’s been al little bit over a week

Since I got my HTC Touch Pro 2. The Shadow has been retired for all intents and purposes.  ANd really don’t regret it…

The second day after I got it, I flashed the ROM. Went from Windows Mobile 6.1 to Windows Mobile 6.5 (and actually the first time that I had a 6.5 device without voiding the warranty…) (and while we’re at it, this is the first time, I’ve flashed a phone’s ROM and still had it under warranty…).

Some of the new features I like with this phone:

1. The 3G. At my definitely non-IT day-job, we just had DSL installed very recently, and I commented to my boss that my phone still has a faster connection. Though knowing how ‘thrifty’ some employers can be, perhaps even the EDGE network of my previous phone might still be faster.  BTW, there’s now WI-FI at work… And it’s really great to watch youtube without it having to buffer…
2. The GPS. If your phone has a data plan, chances are you can get a pseudo-gps by triangulating the signal from the cell towers. Sometimes it’ll work, if you just need accuracy to the nearest ZIP code. WIth GPS however, I can fire up Google Maps, and follow my bus ride in real time (and theere are apps available that will track you speed and distance).
3. The touch-screen. There’s something to be said about being able to scroll by merely flicking your screen. On the BlackBerry, the track-ball has died, and my brother is stuck until he buys his new phone). And the on-screen keyboard ain’t too shabby, either… Which brings me to:
4. The keyboard. A five row qwerty keyboard. The Shadow has what can best be described as a SureType keyboard. It got the job done, and it was easier than a normal cell phone key pad, but there were still moments when I texted gibberish because the system didn’t understand what I was saying. It’s a godsend for entering usernames and passwords…
5. The memory. I hated the BlackBerry because of the piss-poor memory. I think I could only install  5 or six apps from the BlackBerry app store before I ran out of memory. The Shadow had a lot more memory, and also had the option of installing to the memory card. The Touch Pro has a whole shit-load more (and if necessary, I can also install to the memory card, too).
6. The speed. The BlackBerry was about average. It could handle everything you threw at it. The Shadow when I was running the original ROM could keep up with it, but when I went to 6.5, I had to start overclocking the processor. This one has the jiuce to spare…
7. The battery. With the Shadow, two batteries were the norm, and even then I still had to watch what I was doing (or keep a charger with me). I have yet to run the battery down with this one to worry about it…

All and all, I’d say I like the new phone. I’m not going to cook the ROM yet, but there is a well-developed community for software develpoment for when the warranty expires (or I just decide to say fark it and hack the phone anyway).

Now Igwanarob and I have one more thing in common.