Swimming in the Pensieve

Ribs, steak, hot dogs, corn and…

Holidays, in general, have a habit of passing under my radar; and, along with my own birthday, Father’s Day is probably one of the foremost of those stealth holidays.

This past Father’s Day was no exception.

As it happened, I was kept busy–out of the way–in the days leading up to this past Sunday, while the family members conspired together to do something that I would have considered to be exorbitantly, and unjustifiably, expensive for me.

Sunday: We cooked-out on the grill, in the back yard. As alluded to, above, we had what some might consider to be unhealthy fare…the kinds of food that I tend to thrive upon anyway.

After we were all stuffed, a bag was brought out, and gifts were bestowed upon ‘unworthy me’.

I have to admit to struggling with a life-long feeling of…for lack of a better phrase…an identity of unworthiness, when it comes to receiving such things as gifts–for any occasion. I am far more comfortable with giving than I am with receiving gifts.

Perhaps this is yet another symptom of the pseudo-Asperger traits that I possess, or you can simply refer to it as my characteristic social ineptitude. It really doesn’t matter what you call it, as overcoming ‘it’ has been a life-long battle. I believe that I am a bit better about it now.

(Yes, I am digressing, am I not?)

At any rate, I was–nearly literally–showered with material manifestations of love and adoration. Nibbles, clothing, and works of art which I will prize for the rest of my life.

The family also went over-board on a new cell phone for me, as you can see, below:

The stated goal was to go for something that I would never purchase for myself, possessing a ‘Cool-Factor’ of 10.

They met, and exceeded, their stated goal.

One can observe quad-color status indicators, and turn on the power to the phone at the top of the device:

One listens here:

…or, when using the ’speaker’ function, here:

…and talks here:

Intuitively speaking, one can see that the device case loop that forms the mic recess/shield is also intended to function as a point of attachment for a lanyard.

The headset (an absolute must for me) plugs in on the left-side of the phone, and the charger/USB interface connects just to the right of the headset connector:

The unit, of course, charges while USB-connected to a host computer (provided that the host computer can source sufficient charging current).

Data can be backed-up to a host system, and syncing can be accomplished–alas and alack–at this time, only through windoze; however, the Open Source community is on top of the situation; and is working on it as I write this. Not because I asked them to, but because the Open Source community is just that way, if that makes sense to you.

Data entry and control input are accomplished via an escape button and trackwheel/switch located on the right-side of the unit:

…in conjunction with a (surprisingly) intelligently-designed QWERTY keypad:

And, yes…it is BlueTooth-enabled; so I can (should I have the overwhelming desire to bathe my neurons in the continual ebb and flow of low-energy RF) use a BlueTooth headset with this thing.

Upon first inspection, I reasoned that there would be a very steep learning curve involved in using this thing; yet, I was quite mistaken. This thing is amazingly easy to use…from the ‘get-go’…and with minimal reference to the user manual–if at all.

Text entry is a literal breeze. Even though the keys are what would seem to be small for my larger fingertips, this really doesn’t present a problem for me. The use of the escape button and trackwheel are intuitive enough for anyone who has used a Logitech Marble Trackman Wheel.

Menus and options are logically structured and easily accessible. The applications are sensible for a device like this; and, perhaps most importantly–the Cool-Factor-10 features don’t get in the way of using this thing for the intended purpose: As a cell phone.

Am I the next CrackBerry Addict that you’ll love to hate?

Hardly!

What makes BlackBerry users so irritating is their egotistical reliance upon the very functional extras which I see no logical reason for having in a cell phone. I have both a desktop computer and laptop for web browsing and email, compiling source code, development, editing web pages, and so on.

It’s enough for me to be continually accessible via the cellular network. I don’t want to bother with email when I’m on the run. Anything that I must have, via text communication, is trivially sent through SMS.

Then there’s the price of those additional data network ego-massagers: Too freakin’ much!

Now…compared to your typical cell phone, accessing messages, voice mail, address book, text files, speed dialing, call logs; or, for that matter, anything I have had to access on other cell phones; is far easier and faster than I would ever have imagined. Where other cell phones were a drudge to use, this ‘BlackBerry-Thing’ is actually so easy to use that I simply don’t have to consciously think about the process used to do accomplish the task at hand.

I can now keep all that information, which would otherwise live on slips of paper in my wallet, in a format that does me the most good, in a device that I have a rational reason to have on my person at all times.

The ability to–right now–sync the device with the contents of my KMail address book, as well as various other files on my Linux desktop or laptop, would be cool; but I can exercise a modicum of patience. I’m used to being patient in waiting for such things to become available.

Then again, RIM Technologies could Open Source their sync app and make a few more friends, you know.

To my family: I will enjoy using this cool, new, communications device; yet, it has no bearing upon how much I love you all–so very dearly.

I love you all because of who you are, and because you also love me.