Update/Apple/Dream Post

First of all, an update on last evening's bird's nest picture post.

Bummer dude.

Along with this post there was a less-than-140-character summary along with one of the pictures posted at twitter. Almost immediately after the tweet hit the stream I got a response from some one in Seattle saying it could be an eagle, or a heron, or an owl depending on my location. Or it could be a squirrel.

hmmm. We have lots of squirrels in our neighborhood.

Shortly after there was a response directly on Flickr saying it looked like a squirrel nest. Two votes for squirrels is enough for me to cave in and accept that I don't have an exotic bird like a condor or an albatross living in my yard. I have what my eyes tell me I have: squirrels. Later in the evening I got another response agreeing with the squirrel theory.

Bummer dude.

>change of subject<

Today at 1:00pm Eastern time (10:00am Pacific time) Apple Computers is having a press event. They told us they would be announcing a new product. If said new product is anything other than their much anticipated despite no proof to it's existence touch screen tablet computer then there will probably be mass riots throughout all of geekdom.

I will be following the event as best I can through twitter, although with the number of my fellow nerds salivating over this (or any) Apple press event it's safe to say that the fail whale will be making many an appearance. I am also going to try and find some live blogs to follow. I usually end up at cnet for such things and they have already put up their page here.

I am not going to buy an Apple tablet. If it hits the market at a price similar to a Kindle I might consider it after some time has past and the initial bugs are shaken out of it. Until then, nope. Don't need it. I would like to have something like that to play with, and it would be cool to have a wireless computer with a little more umph to it than my iPhone to carry around, should I ever want to surf the net in the woods or anything. But lets face it, I have no real need for such a device.

There is also a rumored update to the iPhone OS. I heard that version 4.0 might be on the agenda today. In anticipation of which may I once again announce to the world in general that, boy it would sure be cool to have a flash plug in for the iPhone version of Safari. Gee, that'd be swell.

One final rumor is that the exclusivity contract with AT&T might be terminating which means iPhone users can switch to other cell phone carriers. AT&T is shit, to be blunt. They are not even close to capable of handling the demand created by the iPhone. The cell network drops calls constantly, and the data network is slow and unreliable. Not to mention the fact that within 30 miles of Boston, Massachusetts there are many, many places where their 3G network is not available. (I can only speak from my greater Boston experience, but from what I hear holes in the network in the Boston suburbs are nothing compared to huge holes in the network in little towns like San Francisco, CA and some little hamlet called New York, NY.)

Now, having said that... I don't think jumping ship to Verizon or T-Mobile the minute the option becomes available to us might be the smartest thing to do. Sure, AT&T sucks and their network cannot handle the current iPhone population... but what if suddenly there was a massive reduction in the number of smart phones using the AT&T network? Would enough people jump off the sinking ship to relieve the burden and leave a network that is capable of meeting the demands?

Maybe, but I still see us moving to Verizon, if not immediately then after our contract is up. I think we have another year to go, but I am not sure. I will have to look into that.

>change of subject<

Do you remember your dreams? When I was a kid I had nightmares every night. My parents chalked it up to being constantly freaked out by old Star Trek episodes and the occasional Channel 56 Creature Double Feature. When I was waking up terrified every night I always remembered what I dreamed about. I can actually still remember some of them now, 30+ years later.

But at some point I lost the knack. More likely I taught myself to stop remembering so I wouldn't wake up scared.

Last week though, I woke up with a clear memory of dreaming about Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden fame having an NBC talk show. (I wrote about it here but am too lazy to link to it.) Today I woke up with another clear memory of a dream. That's twice in about a week. Odd for me.

This one was a commute dream and I would guess that I have these all the time, given that I spend almost three hours a day commuting.

I was traveling on a two lane black top through a very rural wooded area (not one that I recognized) on my way to work. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 8:00am which meant I had plenty of time to get to work.

Accept for one small detail...

I was walking. WTF am I doing? I asked my dream self. I lucked out though and saw a breakfast joint type restaurant that was like a two story Cracker Barrel just up ahead and there was a transit bus leaving the lot. I figured there was a bus station and I could take a bus to work.

I got there and bought a ticket to Boston. (that's another thing, I was trying to get to Boston to go to work in a place I haven't worked in since 1995 or so) I waited for what seemed like forever until a bus finally arrived to pick up me and a small throng of other bus-commuters. When I got to the bus though it wasn't a bus, it was a big van and all the seats were taken. I had to stand up, leaning against the sliding side door. At this point I guess the dream became a you-are-ridiculously-tall dream as I had to stand hunched over to avoid having my head rip through the roof.

I tried to engage in small talk with my fellow passengers (very out of character for a non-speaking guy like me) but most of them ignored me. The only one who said anything said in a perfect Boston accent, "I don't speak English." Clearly the asshole did speak English but I left it alone. (note: that actually happened to me once. I was a kid tagging for Tewksbury Little League baseball outside a long closed down supermarket that was called Heartland. I was asking the people going into the store for donations. One woman said to me in a perfectly formed Boston accent, "I'm sorry, but me no speak English." I was flaggergasted. That scumbag woman had lied right in the face of a 12 year old kid. I can only hope she choked on whatever food she bought that day.)

Just after being told off by my non-English speaking, English speaking fellow traveler the alarm went off and I woke from this bizarre dream. Can anyone tell me what it means? I think it means I have a long commute, but I'd like some one in the brain shrinking field to concur with me.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my Update/Apple/Dream Post.

You're welcome.