My timing is just so impeccable.  The old laptop died today.  2 papers and an exam to write in the next two weeks and it can’t boot up.  Couldn’t have happened on the 15th when time would have been a luxury to figure out if it was the drive, the motherboard, or simply jammed with cat hair.

So, this evening is security patching, installing software and restoring backed up files (yay, Mozy!  Last backup 20 hours ago.  Gotta love it.)

Really old laptop – you couldn’t hold out for 2 more weeks?

Once again, we are not being failed in the food department.  Did our usual Friday night outing for Awful Arthur’s so I could get my crab & lobster bisque and clams casino fix.  Saturday we tried the Cafe & Wine Bar at Coastal Provisions – another great meal.  I had seared scallops with linguini that was just perfect and Donald got the surf & turf and I believe he might have left the pattern on the plate.  They are now on the “definitely going again” list.  It’s small and quiet and really nice.  Only open Thursday – Saturday, so call ahead.  Sunday we hit Port O’ Call for another good meal that included shrimp stuffed with gouda and wrapped in bacon and slathered in barbecue sauce.

Last night we did foodie night and hit The Left Bank.  This summer, they not only have the 5 course tasting menu, but a 7 course and 9 course blind tasting menu as well.  We went with the 7 course and it was spectacular.  I go the wine pairing with it, and if you do that, someone else better be driving.  (The *huge* old-fashioned I had to start probably had some effect as well.  I swear, this was a double and a half.)  There was heirloom tomato gazpacho, fennel & goat cheese macaroons, kingfish tartare, braised pork belly & short ribs, a plate of cheese, almonds, & honey, a plate of heirloom tomatoes and strawberry gazpacho, and a couple other things that I am now forgetting, but it was all just incredible.

I’m still a little shocked I’ve been here 4 days and still haven’t gotten any shrimp & grits yet.  That will definitely be rectified soon.

In completely unrelated news, I am on Google+ now, and it says I have invites, so if you want one, shoot me your email address.  I like it.  I doubt I’ll be dumping Facebook for it, but I do see myself using it – just probably not quite the same way as I use Facebook.  No ads and a lot less clutter.  The “Circles” make it a lot easier to determine who will see what, and make reading easier as well.  I’d really like to see some news organizations & businesses get on to G+ – I follow a lot of pages on Facebook, but I have no way of separating them out for viewing on Fb – all the pages are lumped together.  On G+ I’d be able to separate them out to things like news/politics/businesses, etc.  (I’ve found one breaking news page so far, but nothing else – if you know of any businesses or other non-person profiles you think I’d like, let me know.)

So, today was, “Donald, grab a cat!” day. Fortunately they like him quite a bit, and they sat right in his lap and he kept them from other appointments, and the feline manicures were done in no time, and we didn’t even have to break out the towels.

In other news, picking out a new cell phone is a lot more involved than it used to be. Granted, the last time I actually picked out a new model of a phone was at least 5 years ago. They have some new features! Everything is enabled for GPS navigation, which is really cool cause I think I would use that a lot. It would be nice to go new places without having to factor in an extra 30 minutes for getting lost. So, it looks like I’ll have a data plan regardless. I could still get the current iteration of my old phone, but if I’m going to have a data plan anyway, I figure I might as well go ahead and get something a little more shiny. It’s down to the Samsung Reclaim (free) the LG Lotus Elite ($30) or the HTC Hero (Android, $100).

I think the Android phone, cool as it may be, may be way more than I’d ever need – tons of apps, but I really can’t think of any phone app I desperately need. So for the moment, I think the Lotus Elite is in the lead, touchscreen and a better memory card than the Reclaim. So, we’ll see.

So, if you have gotten a new phone in the past year – what did you get? What do you love about it and what do you hate about it?

Also, did you end up adding a data plan to your package cause of all the shiny stuff that’s now available?

(My current phone just does calling and text messages. Very un-shiny.)

Then I hear a hissing noise coming from the right side of my laptop table. At first, I thought it was the soda can. Then I saw what appeared to be steam or smoke shooting sideways from the vicinity of my AirCard, but I still couldn’t really figure out what exactly was happening.

Then I heard a pop. Which as it turns out, was the battery cover to my AirCard being shot across my coffee table. Then things started happening in a rather rapid and disturbing succession.

The battery on the AirCard then shot out of the battery slot, ON FIRE. Not just smoking and threatening fire, actually shooting out FIRE in several directions. I’m then jumping up, cursing in several languages I never knew I was fluent in while half my brain is screaming PUT IT OUT, PUT IT OUT!!! While the other half of my brain is thinking, “Dear lord, my life has just turned into the ‘Caravaning in Dorset’ episode on Top Gear.”

I then upended a near full can of Coke over the entire thing. (Guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t drinking vodka.) Then dumped it in a large glass of water in the kitchen. Then stood there for a while just wondering WTF had just happened.

Guess it’s time to see if I am eligible for an upgrade on my AirCard.

The original came out in 1982, we got a (likely pirated) copy on VHS when we were overseas – I cannot tell you how many times we watched that movie, and this one looks FREAKING AWESOME.  I didn’t realize they were actually going to extend off the original – I cannot tell you how completely geeked out I am that this isn’t just another remake.

If my Dad were still around, he’d be in line at 12:01AM on December 17th to see it.  Hell, *I* may be in line at 12:01 AM.

From what I can tell, it looks a bit like a cross between a Kindle and an iPhone, which again – incredibly cool. However, having no need for a Kindle or an iPhone, I also have no need for a combination of the two. But I almost wish I did, cause damn, it is shiny! The price points run from $499 to $829 right now, but I do wonder when it will change. (Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that Apple tends lower their price points pretty quickly. Could be my imagination though.)

But, if you’re an AT&T subscriber, enjoy your bandwidth while you have it, because they are once again partnering with AT&T, and I just
can’t say I have any faith in AT&T to be able to keep up with the demand if this thing turns out to be really popular.

Still…SHINY!!!

One day recently, Cynthia Newton’s 12-year-old daughter asked her for help with homework, but Newton didn’t want to help her, because she was too busy on Facebook. So her daughter went upstairs to her room and sent an e-mail asking her for help, but Newton didn’t see the e-mail, because, well, she was too busy on Facebook.

Yes, it’s Facebook’s fault that she seems to have abandoned parenting.

I’ve been on Facebook for about 6 months now. It’s got some great timewasters (Poker, anyone?) and yes, it can be used as a tool for avoiding real life. But it’s also been a great way to reconnect with old friends – a wonderful friend I haven’t seen in near 20 years found me on Fb and it’s been terrific to be able to catch up with her. I honestly don’t know how we would have found each other had it not been for Facebook.

Sure, I doubt that anyone really has a desperate need to know what I’m doing at any given point in the day – but Facebook Mobile was a nice little sanity saver when I was stuck in AZ at Christmas. There’s a lot to be said for being able to toss out an “I’m losing my mind” status update and get some quick support from friends. (And comments that the mind had long since gone as well.) I like being able to know what my friends are up to and how they’re doing and to be able to toss them a quick note if they need bucking up.

Facebook is also much more interactive than a regular blog, so sure, it can consume some more time than other websites. (Also why my blog feeds into the Facebook notes – not everyone knows I have a blog.) It’s a great all-in-one place for thoughts, notes, pictures and whatnot.

But, if you’re “addicted to Facebook”, it’s not Facebook’s fault. If Facebook didn’t exist, people would find other ways to avoid real life – trust me, people avoided real life and real problems long before the internet existed.  If you spend an ungodly amount of time doing anything, you need to take a quick step back and look at why you’re doing it.

This particular excerpt really bugged me:

“One of my clients met up with an old boyfriend on Facebook. They started spending hours and hours into the night talking to each other on Facebook. She made some really inappropriate comments about how unhappy she was in her marriage,” Pile said. “Her cousin saw the comments and told her parents, and the parents told the husband, and now they’re in the process of getting divorced.”

Guess what? Those two were going to get divorced eventually anyway. Using Facebook didn’t cause the divorce – it just brought the underlying problems in that particular relationship to light.

Sometimes, a little avoidance of the real world isn’t the worst thing in the world. But you can’t blame Facebook for building a killer app that enables you to do it. Suck it up and face your fears and address your issues.

Just be sure to update your status when you’ve conquered them – I’ll hit the “Like” button.

New theme this time around – I need a better banner for it, and then some more color tweaking, but it’s the layout that I want, which is a good start.  And this theme has more pick & click options that the older ones have, so I don’t have to go diving into the stylesheets as much as I used to.  (It’s not that I can’t, but it’s a pain.)

Given my track record with WP upgrades, I suspect they will have a new one out within about 48 hours. :)