I got bit by the iPhone bug

I was minding my on business for the most part yesterday, focusing on work and getting to an appointment on time. While I was driving home, I decided to call my friend Hobbes, as I am wont to do on a Friday evening. He told me what he was up to: preparing to go to the local AT&T store to see if they had any iPhones; he was getting one.

The AT&T store had not received any, so he went to our local Apple store. They had some, so he got in line. He called me back after a bit and said, "I can get two; do you want one?" My first answer was no. My standard response when someone asked me if I was considering an iPhone was that I would wait for the phone to be out for a month before I would consider it, as I wanted to see how it was being received.

But the immediacy of my friend's question made me think more seriously, and I was tempted. After thinking about ten seconds, I gave in. "Yes, I do. Thanks!" He acknowledged me, I said bye, and I hung up. It was done. I was going to become one of the first iPhone owners.

I picked it up from his house this afternoon. I started activation when I got home; I had to wait just over 30 minutes. i called AT&T confirm everything was okay, and they assured me it was; they were just really backed up from all the activations. I guess the phone is selling quite well.

I was on the phone with my friend when I got cut off and couldn't get a signal. I checked my email, and my iPhone activation was complete. Then the adventure began.

So far, I'm completely impressed. Contrary to the opinion of a number of my acquaintances, I am not a cell phone junkie; it has all of the features I need, and most that I want. The number one thing I'd like to see for it is a real programming API so my favorite Pocket PC app, My Life Organized, can be ported over.

I have always thought that EDGE wasn't fast enough, but it feels faster on the iPhone.

All of the built-in apps work brilliantly. I am surprised to not see a to do list app; I'll start looking for one soon. In the meantime, I'm using a note. About notes; where do they show up on the PC after a sync? I've not yet been able to find them.

The call quality sounds better than any other cell phone I've used; it rivals my landline phone, which is excellent.

I need to get a new Bluetooth headset for it. I was thinking about getting Apple's, but it's not yet available at my Apple store. I did some research, and haven't found any reviews about it. My friend Hobbes recommended the JawBone headset. It seems to be getting excellent reviews; I may pick it up tomorrow.

That's it for now. I hope to write an update once I've used it for a while.

I watched two things last night

I watched a movie last night after work, and then I went home and watched a TV show.

The movie was Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good either. Lots of clichés and a horrible amount of product placements, many of them overt, with the Dodge Hemi thing being the worst. Ridiculous!

I watched the Studio 60 series finale when I settled in at home for the evening. It was a good ending: sad, happy, beautiful. I felt that the series started getting really good in these last five episodes or so, after taking a dive mid-season. It's too bad NBC didn't have the patience to let the show develop more.

my first presentable drawing

my first presentable drawing
Originally uploaded by wesleyt

This is the first really good drawing I made for the Monday night class I'm taking. I'm really happy with it.

Okay, a little background. I signed up for a drawing class; tonight was the second of four Monday night sessions. We did pencil the first night; we worked to really see what we were drawing.

Tonight we used charcoal, and we focused primarily on studying negative space. That part was fun; I didn't really enjoy the charcoal. I felt much more out of control than with the pencils.

We did this drawing by first covering the page with charcoal. We then used an eraser to remove the negative space around the subject.

Next week we will focus on shading; we're all excited.

My sensor is clean!

A couple weekends ago, a careless lens change atop the roof of a five-story parking garage, I managed to get dust on my DSLR's sensor. I noticed in the images of Mount Diablo I took there a bunch of spots in the sky. It was the dreaded sensor dust. I asked around and researched, and came upon the website of Copper Hill Images. They have two sensor cleaning kits: wet and dry. I wanted to cover my bases, so I ordered both. The kit arrived this past week, so I started work this morning.

I first used the blower to blow on my sensor. It just moved the dust around. So I next used the SensorSweep, a dry brush. On my first pass, I moved all the dust to the edges. On my second, I had only two spots on an edge. On my third pass, it was clean. I'm so happy! I'll be taking lots of pictures once again.

The moral of this story is twofold: 1) get out of the wind when changing lenses; ,and 2) be prepared to clean your sensor.