I didn’t watch today’s Super Bowl game. I was, however, able to keep up with most of the action thanks to my recently downsized Twitter account. And during the game’s halftime show, I noticed quite a bit of antagonism towards this year’s featured act. Continuing the post-nipplegate trend of keeping things “safe,” the NFL chose to hire The Who to provide this year’s halftime spectacle. I’ll admit, I had mixed feelings about this decision. I’ve been a fan of The Who for a long time. At one time, I probably would’ve even described them as my favorite band. But, guys. Seriously? Here’s some soon-to-be-removed-from-YouTube clips of the band’s Super Bowl performance:
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I’ve been using Twitter since April/2007. And since joining, I’ve had some simple rules about which Twitter accounts I would choose to follow:

1.) If I had an interest in the person/company/organization using the Twitter account, I’d follow it. No expectations here that the newly-followed account would follow me back. But it’s always been appreciated when that’d happen.
2.) If an account chose to follow me first, and that account was representing a person/company/organization I hadn’t heard of before, I’d usually follow it back unless it was engaging in obvious spam-like behavior.

And that lead me to where I was just a few hours ago. I was following well over 900 accounts, and it was too much. Sure, I had created a special list using TweetDeck to keep track of the accounts that I really cared about. But that list represented a fraction of the total amount of accounts I had chosen to follow. And that’s just silly. Why bother to follow an account and then never actually see that account’s Twitter posts? So, I’ve spent the last couple hours clearing out my Twitter account. I’m now following a more manageable 444 accounts, and I’ve removed that special list from my TweetDeck.
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We spent the New Year’s weekend moving things around. The plan was to take the stuff in the back room, and swap it with the stuff in the front room. I had the idea to do this last November, because I thought it’d be good to move the studio into its own space, and to make our living area a little more open and comfortable. We’ve been living with this new configuration now for about a month, and we like it.
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After the Big Room Move of 2009/2010 (blog post on that coming soon), Jen and I have been spending more time in our back room here at home. This is where the computers are, and we spend more time in front of our computers than pretty much anywhere else. Right outside the door to our new studio/computer room is a small utility area, complete with washer/dryer hookups. We don’t have a washer or a dryer. Instead, we use the utility space for media storage. And since we’re not using the space for its intended use, that means those washer/dryer hookups are also not in use. And for awhile, that was no big deal. But since we started spending more time back here, we noticed something. Something foul. A terrible smell that would occasionally creep into the room. Theories were proclaimed as to the possible source. The most likely culprit was that one of our neighbors was burning/smoking/storing something, and every once in awhile, that something simply reeked. No matter. We’d light a candle and deal with it as best we could until the offensive odor dissipated. And after nearly a week of dealing with this on again/off again problem, it struck me.
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In a way befitting of this roller-coaster of a year, this last week has seen its highs and lows. As predicted, Jen is once again unemployed.. That became official last Wednesday, the twenty-third. And while it is discouraging news, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. That day was followed by a fun-filled Christmas Eve with some friends, a nice dinner and an excellent movie. Christmas Day found us traveling to my sister’s house in the North County. We had a tasty home-cooked dinner, exchanged gifts and hung around. Jen spent some time holding my sister’s new baby. I played Nintendo Wii Bowling for the first time. That shit is fun and highly addictive. I’m looking forward to trying out some other Wii games in the future. Then, on Saturday, Jen received not one but three pieces of mail from the California EDD. None of them contained good news. But, do they ever? I came to the conclusion over the weekend that, I make enough money that we won’t go homeless and/or hungry. If there’s no money beyond that, then anyone else expecting money from us can just get in line or go away. (Sadly, I doubt any of them would choose the latter option.) Yesterday, we gave away our old TV. That opened up the log jam in such a way that we could begin the Big Room Move of 2009/2010. We should finish with that over the weekend, and I’m excited about it. Having our studio and living spaces in separate rooms should make for a more harmonious, productive and fun environment around here.
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I’m syndicating this podcast from Nathan Lott’s Rental Reviews site. Go here to leave comments.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 6:16 — 4.3MB)

Lots of financial ups and downs for us in 2009. The year began with Jen starting a new job. While the job was the right move for her at the time, she wound up bringing in less money overall, and the once-a-month paychecks she received made balancing our bill payments into a fun game. (And by “fun game,” I mean a game that isn’t actually fun. At all. Kinda like any video game that requires you to collect magic points.) But we got through that. We even managed to save up enough money during those months to get us through the summer, where she made less money while working a different job, and even had one month without any work at all. Not long after she resumed her regular job in the fall, she was let go from that position with a single day’s notice. She immediately filed for unemployment benefits. We were lucky because, for some reason, her last paycheck from the old job was larger than usual, and that helped keep things afloat. However, in the time between that money running out, and the time it would take for the unemployment benefits to kick in, things looked bleak. I consulted two attorneys offices about bankruptcy, in the hopes that we could dispatch our unsecured debts, thereby converting those monthly payments into cash. We were told that we could do that, but we’d also have to file against our home. And while we weren’t likely to lose our home, there were no guarantees. We decided to give it a little more time before taking drastic measures. And, after waiting almost six weeks, Jen began receiving her unemployment benefits and she’s been getting them regularly ever since. And not too much longer after that, she picked up a part-time job. Then, I got some good news in relation to my own income. It seemed as though things had turned around. It felt good. And during this happy-fun-time-feel-good period, I had some ideas. One of which is to do some shifting of rooms around here so that we can have a more dedicated studio space for our many multimedia endeavors. As things seemed to be looking good financially, one of the contingencies I placed on the move was that we would get rid of our old TV, a 32″ Toshiba CRT behemoth that weighs like 1.5 tons (rough estimate). Here’s a not-so-great photo of the Toshiba:

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Today, my busted-up iPhone arrived in my mailbox. And it’s no longer busted! Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Since getting the phone back, I’ve reinstalled all of the apps I was using before I sent it off for repair (I removed some for security reasons), and everything’s working just fine. It’s almost like new, except the home button feels a little different. Nothing wrong with it. I’m pretty sure the button is part of the digitizer/display, so it was probably replaced as part of the repair. I give much credit to uBreakiFix for performing a flawless fix. I’d definitely recommend their iPhone service to anyone who’s unwilling to pay Apple’s expensive repair fees. Also, the entire process only took a week. Not bad, considering the phone had to be shipped from California to Florida and back, and it’s the busy holiday shipping season.

I’m definitely glad to have my iPhone back! Now, I need to find a good protective case for it. I’ve received a few suggestions, and I’m considering an OtterBox. Please leave a comment if you have any recommendations.

It’s been a little over a week since my iPhone got all busted up. I have since shipped it off to be repaired, and am now awaiting its return. In the meantime, I’ve had to revert back to a pre-iPhone lifestyle. And it’s been surprising to see just how much I had come to rely on that device. There’s the rather banal stuff, such as mobile Twitter posts and Brightkite check-ins. But I’ve also been using the iPhone’s clock as my personal watch. Being out and about and unable to easily check the time can be problematic, especially when traveling by bus. I’ve found that using the time stamps on cash register/ATM receipts has been helpful in this case. I’ve also spotted some things that I would’ve liked to have photographed. But that wasn’t possible.. Another thing I’ve missed is the iPhone’s built-in iPod media player. I’ve been using my iRiver to listen to audio files, and it works well. But it lacks the convenience of the iTunes/iPhone sync, and it only holds 512 MB worth of data. And finally, the iPhone is, after all, an actual phone. I don’t make many cell phone calls. But without the iPhone, I can’t make any. I haven’t found myself searching for a payphone yet. But it could happen. Anyway, I’m anticipating the return of my iPhone. According to the most recent update I received from the repair company, it’s on its way back to me. Considering that we’re in the heat of the holiday shipping season, it’s hard to say how long it’ll take to get here. I’m hoping to have it back by the end of next week. Then, I’ll be able to get back to the important business of letting everyone know where I’m having lunch.

I was walking somewhere this morning. As I crossed over what I thought was a clear corner between a parking lot and a sidewalk, something grabbed my right foot. I went down on to the concrete. It wasn’t a particularly hard fall, and I had managed to shift my weight on to my left side, which somehow helped to disperse the impact’s energy. And in that hurried moment just after the fall, as I was laying there on the wet ground (we’ve been having some actual weather this week), I watched in slow motion as my iPhone tumbled through the air, landing on its back, right next to me. I mentioned above that I had managed to fall on my left side. And I almost always carry my iPhone in my left coat pocket, and I almost always keep that pocket zippered up. But for some reason, this morning, I hadn’t zipped the pocket closed. A couple guys nearby, who witnessed the fall, asked if I was OK.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m fine. But my phone’s not.” I could see that the iPhone had been damaged. I picked it up to get a closer look. Here’s what I saw:
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