I’m still sick. After about a week of not getting any better, I finally decided to go see a doctor. He diagnosed me with a respiratory infection and prescribed some antibiotics. That was on Thursday afternoon. After being on the medicine for a couple days, I’m starting to feel better. However, Thursday night, I did something that probably wan’t too smart in terms of my recovery from the respiratory infection, I went with Jen to a midnight showing of Alice In Wonderland. The reason I say this wasn’t so smart is that I wound up being out rather late, and I had to get up early the next day for work. Still, I’m glad I went, and I don’t think the lack of rest did much to aggravate my condition. Anyway, here’s some photos from the movie opening.

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Tags: California, Flickr, health, San Luis Obispo
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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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Tags: Apple Computer, Flickr, podcasting
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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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Tags: Flickr, life
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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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Tags: Flickr, life, money, TV, work
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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.

Tags: iPhone, life, uBreakiFix
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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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Tags: Apple Computer, California, Flickr, iPhone, San Luis Obispo, uBreakiFix
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Jen and I had lunch today for the first time at Chilie Peppers. Hear all about it in the podcast. Pictures of foodz:

Podcast: Download (3.0MB)

Tags: California, Chiiie Peppers, Flickr, food, NaPodPoMo, podcast, San Luis Obispo
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I had lunch at a new pizza place. Hear all about it in today’s podcast. Some pictures:

Podcast: Download (8.5MB)

Tags: California, Croce's Pizza, Flickr, food, NaPodPoMo, podcast, San Luis Obispo
Posted in audio, photo | 2 Comments »

Guinness the dog walked with me to the store. Listen to the full story in the podcast.

Podcast: Download (5.1MB)

Tags: California, dog, Flickr, NaPodPoMo, podcast, San Luis Obispo
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Jen and I played a card-based game of music trivia. Play along, and leave your score in the comments section. Also, if you enjoyed this year’s music-trivia challenge, check out the 2007 edition.

Me, with the microphones attached to my hat that were used to make this recording.

Podcast: Download (17.6MB)

Tags: Flickr, music, NaPodPoMo, podcast
Posted in audio, photo | 4 Comments »