I switched teams Pt. 1

Woz giving me an iPhone, originally uploaded by JonBauer.

June 19, 2009

Last week on the official release date of the Iphone, I finally gave in to the tremendous pressure building up inside me to finally cut the Blackberry Messenger umbilical.

Given that I have owned a 1st Gen Iphone(despite never taking it out of the box) and have countless friends who champion them and continually remind me of their superiority, I was surprised that I held out this long.

However, the massive rumour mill and weekly screencaps and updates on boygenius were the eventual turning point. I will admit it, I got caught up in the hype. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but 1 week in and I am confident it was the correct one.

When I got in arguments for the sake of arguing as the pro-Blackberry guy I always found myself really clinging solely to the same 2 points. Blackberry’s have instant messaging and a physical keyboard and the Iphone doesn’t.

When I finally realized the Iphone in fact packs the power of a real computer and replaces my defunct 15 gb 2nd gen Ipod, I started to waver on my dedication to those 2 things.

Here is how I have adapted since making the switch. Firstly, the touch screen keyboard: It is so much more intuitive than a Blackberry.

Yes, a Blackberry will auto capitalize a letter for you, but they also clung foolishly to certain abbreviations in their auto-fill that were maddening. I am already finding the Iphone to be adapting to some of the slang and words that I use that others might not and giving me the option to auto-fill words that a week ago it would be afraid of. This looks to be a feature that will save me time since once the Iphone learns how I type, it will give me the option to auto-fill over half of my words. I definitely ALREADY don’t miss having squared off thumb tips that are going numb from pressing my Blackberry keys!

Not to mention the other touchscreen functionality that goes completely against Blackberry’s no-frills, utilitarian aesthetic. I love enlarging pictures with my thumb and forefinger, I love that when I tap a field on a webpage, that portion enlarges automatically and the keyboard pops up, I love my screen quickly adapts when I turn the phone sideways like most worthwhile digital cameras already do.

I haven’t played with a Blackberry Storm, so forgive me if it has those features but it got such low reviews and isn’t sold legitimately in Canada with a Sim Card so I really didn’t bother with it.

Not to mention the flexibility that having a larger screen gives me when trying to view enlarged images or read a document, I didn’t even think of those limitations until given the option to hide my keyboard and only use it when I need it. I’ll take the slight learning curve that comes with the Iphone as a tradeoff for watching a widescreen movie trailer on my phone while on a road trip to Montreal.

I’ll get into the Blackberry Messenger pros and cons in my Pt. 2 of this post, have a great weekend everyone.

“Don’t stop til you get enough” RIP MJ 6/25/09

Vented Spoonbill

CS, originally uploaded by sizzled.

Observed here in it’s adapted native urban environment sported by a much younger version of myself.

I’m surrounded by my crew, we have a secret handshake and at that point were the most prolific promoters in town. It’s my smile that really makes this picture for me, I formed a big piece of my identity in these years and everyone could use a bigger grin these days!

Parkin

parkin, originally uploaded by sizzled.

There’s something about how eerie fog and mist are that really appeals to me. A late night walking home through it on a mild winter night was the setting for this shot, its been foggy a couple times and I’ve made sure to walk through potentially creepy places to take advantage of it.

Rain shadow in action

bead, originally uploaded by sizzled.

I was out in Utah in 2007 for a training course on some inventory management software that we used at my old gig. It was painfully dull and borderline torture at times due to being cooped up in a room learning something I pretty much already knew. However, there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and that of course was that Patagonia has an outlet store in Salt Lake City.

We got completely lost looking for it and nearly missed the store’s opening hours but luckily we got there and inside before the doors locked and in fact, the employees were nice enough to let us hang out after they closed after they called us a cab!

This is a close-up of my only purchase(restraint+odd sizes made this less than it would have been) from that outlet store. A rain shadow jacket in this amazing slate blueish greyish shade. If I can ever remember the exact colour name, I can assure you I will edit this post to include it.

That was in fact my 2nd Rain Shadow jacket, and from what I can tell they are a continuation or evolution of the Torrentshell jacket from around 2000 that no longer seems to be available. Essentially, a low price point but high-performance shell for days when the rain doesn’t let up and you need a jacket that isn’t too heavy.

I’ve put this jacket through the ringer, and so far i haven’t had to wash and retreat it with a DWR wash-in product. I honestly can’t think of where else I could get such a reliable spring/fall/summer jacket for just over $100.00 US. Mind you, the MSRP is higher but still, very reasonable for how well this badboy does exactly what this picture is highlighting.

Spoonbill Cap

Today18, originally uploaded by sizzled.

Oh, dear friend.

How I miss you with your exaggerated brim and wonderful patterns. I still remember when I saw my friend meddy wearing one and was so bent out of shape that someone had taken my signature headgear for their own look. Never mind that he had a colour that I had never seen before in this same pattern, which I believe was simply dubbed Hibiscus.

At one point I had about 30 Vented and Non-Vented Spoonbill caps in my roster, but sadly they all disappeared somehow when I moved out of my mother’s house and stored some things at my sisters for a while.

All I have left now are 3-4 Vented ones, pics to come in the following weeks.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes, originally uploaded by sizzled.

I had never seen or tasted an heirloom tomato at this point, and was only really starting to mess around with tomatoes that weren’t the traditional shade of rouge.

These delicious sun-kissed marvels came from the magic soil of Prince Edward County and I recall having some incredible salad enhanced by their full, juicy flesh.

If I’m not mistaken, this was sometime in 2004 and these were purchased at a farmer’s market on the side of the road. Coincidentally, this is one of my favourite places to purchase produce when anywhere, but especially in that area of Ontario.

Here’s to country/cottage livin’!

Moisture-wicking

sizzhike, originally uploaded by sizzled.

To say that this running hat is effective on long, hot hikes would be a total understatement. My 2 staples on my march trip to costa rica were my active boxer briefs and this hat. Both performed incredibly well under the sweaty, sticky, muggy, humid conditions that I experienced nearly everywhere I went. I wore this hat when I was trekking or jogging, and didn’t have sweat dripping into my eyes once. Lovin’ it. Still kind of sad that it’s predecessor that had a deeper body and slightly less floppy brim is no longer, but it’s a decent trade off.