My Christmas Break

This is what I've been doing with myself over the Christmas break!

Ever Had One of THESE Days?

I rode the Metro this morning for 15 minutes - standing, no less - before I noticed that one of the greatest fears I never knew I had was finally realized. Yes, the picture is accurate. And yes, I spent the remaining 15 minutes of my Metro ride trying to hide one of my feet - lest my carefully sculpted fashion sense become disrupted in the eyes of others.

Folks, today I have (literally) stumbled upon a new low. I mean, I've left the house once or twice wearing mismatched socks (seriously, no more than twice in my life), but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would EVER mismatch my SHOES!

Seriously, aside from those who may be mentally challenged, who walks out of the house wearing a different shoe on each foot?! Apparently, I do. And I'm thinking it may be time for me to get a MRI scan of my noggin, because something is definitely not right upstairs.

"How did this happen?" It's what I've been asking myself all morning. Well, I have an idea. My wife decided to have one of her friends organize our house this weekend (she has a business called Dutch Girl Organizing). She did an awesome job, I must say, and I hardly recognize our bedroom... However, somewhere in the process, the carefully managed chaos that is our shoe closet had suddenly become, well, organized! Well, in the beautification process, someone.... (I'm not naming names but she's hot and is my wife) paired up the wrong black shoes. So this morning in my haste, I grabbed 'em both, put 'em on and walked out.

Ultimately, I have no one to blame but myself... I mean, who doesn't pay attention to what goes on their feet? I did have to tie the stupid things... you'd think I would have figured it out then. Or, if not at home, then at least when I walked outside and noticed that one shoe clacked when I walked (hard bottom) and the other was silent (rubber sole). But no, I was too immersed in my mp3s... Ugh.

So if you notice an otherwise professional looking guy on the Metro today after work who just happens to look like he walked out of a homeless shelter from the ankles down... please, go easy on him!

RAZR2 is a Horrible Waste of a Phone

I really wanted to love the Motorola RAZR2 (V9), I really did. I even went out and bought one with the hope that I could overcome some of the bad reviews I had been reading. "It can't be that bad," I told myself. Well, I was wrong. I just got back form the store where I bought it and asked for a full refund. I've never been more disappointed in a phone. But before I really begin ripping into it, let me share with you the good things first.

It's a beautiful phone. There is no denying that. When you hold it in your hand, it feels solid and elegant. It's a sexy device. Unfortunately, that's all it is.

First, the software absolutely sucks. I've had Motorola's off and on for 7 years, and in that time there has been no significant improvement in their software. People have complained about how slow it has been in the past, so Motorola addressed this by putting in a super-fast processor in the phone - 500mhz (roughly equivalent to an old Pentium II). But in the shortsighted tradition in which Motorola excels, they didn't provide the phone with a battery to meet the new chip's power consumption. The result? I was charging my phone twice a day. It would literally die after 4 hours of off-and-on texting (My Samsung SYNC can go for days). I swapped the phone thinking it may have been defective (because I have never seen a battery go so quickly), but the exchanged phone did the same thing. This was my biggest complaint. There is no way I would feel comfortable taking that phone on a trip for more than a few hours without a charger. No way.

The other problems are idiotic oversights by Motorola that add up to make this phone a bear to use. For one, the phone has a beautiful, huge outer LCD screen that is as clear as the internal screen. The reviews said you could check your texts from there and do all kinds of things without even opening your phone! Well, maybe. AT&T's version only lets you play music from the outer screen. So when you get a text, you get a giant message saying "Message Received," but you have to open the phone and retrieve it to read it.

Another thing is that the center button doesn't select things that common sense says should be a no-brainer. For example, when you open to the phone to read a text - the center button doesn't open the message. You have to click one of the soft buttons to "read" it. That's just lame. There are little annoyances like that throughout the software that drive you crazy.

AS for the keypad. It's total garbage. It's not the solid etched metal of the first generation RAZR. It's etched plastic, and you'll be hard pressed (pardon the pun) to consistently send texts without fat-fingering the 7 and 9 keys. I can't believe that for this price, Motorola couldn't put something solid in there like they did in 2004. The keypad on this thing is abysmal.

The bottom line is that this phone is not worth anything close to the $300 AT&T is charging for new contract customers. And anyone who pays the standard $500 price for it is an idiot. There are SO many phones that deliver much, much more for less money and less of a headache. Granted, this phone looks stunning... but anyone who thinks it is anything more than that is kidding themselves.

Don't buy it!

The Tree is Lit!

I can't believe it has been a year. It seems like just yesterday that I was cleaning sap off my hands and arms, putting up our family Christmas Tree! We had the same arguments... Her, "Honey, you're putting up the lights wrong!" And me, "Well, you're hanging the ornaments too far on the end of the branches!" Ah yes, Yule Tide Cheer!

Anyway, here is a picture of the fruits of our labor. We made it though the ordeal, stronger for the wear... and one step closer to taking the plunge and buying a fake tree (although I still swear it will never happen as long as I continue to draw breath!).

Merry Christmas.