feren

Dear Lazyweb,

foxish and I are having a bit of a disagreement, and I need you to show him how wrong he is.

[Poll #1416142]

FYI: This is settling the argument between Foxish and I. I know there are tasty fry options from other fast food (or not-fast food) restaurants, but I'm not looking for that information right now. What I need is a decision between these two competitors! So you have to choose who, between these two options, has the tastiest fries.

Dear Lazyweb,

It's that time of the season again, just two short years after the last time! Yep, the cell phone contract has expired, and lady_curmudgeon and I are looking at new phones and carriers. It's going to be a mix of plan cost and finding phones we like. Curmudgeon wants a phone with a full QWERTY keyboard and a camera. I don't care about a camera, myself. QWERTY is a requirement, virtual or real I don't care.

So I'm not even going to poll this time around, and instead just invite you to comment with your thoughts. Here's where we stand:

• I love my iPod Touch, so I'm naturally biased towards the new iPhone 3G S, but I hate AT&T. Their plan is sorta meh as well, and Curmudgeon didn't see anything she liked phone-wise since she's not sure an iPhone is the device for her.
  
• I'm alright with T-mobile, I could put a jailbroken iPhone on there, but she sees no phones that she's down with (doesn't think she likes the SideKick). On the plus side, we could do a month-to-month no commitment plan.
  
• I have Sprint right now on month-to-month, and get a 15% discount. No iPhone there (duh) but the new Palm Pre is out and the reviews seem fairly positive so far. I haven't had a chance to play with one but I'd consider it as an alternative to the iPhone. Curmudgeon likes the LG Lotus that they carry. Their prices are better than AT&T. We have yet to see if the Pre catches on and apps come out of the woodwork like they have for the iPhone.
  
• Verizon's not shown me or Curmudgeon anything that we're interested in thus far.
  

So, recommend away. I know warphammer is twitching hard at the thought that I might join the iPhone ranks, so I'm curious

I require guidance on a few things and you, dear Lazyweb, can make me dance.

[Poll #1205340]

Sometime between 2100 hours last night and about 1400 hours today I managed to lose misplace my primary debit card. lady_curmudgeon is pretty convinced that it's not actually lost and in the nefarious clutches of somebody who will spend my money wildly. I agree with her and am pretty convinced it's actually somewhere here in roho & genet's house, but damned if I can find it. So rather than take chances while I half-assedly lumber around looking for the card, I opted to hit the web and filed a lost card notification with my credit union. Since I was filing after normal banking hours the website's form had me call into the necessary 800 number to cancel the card as well. While I was on the site I also checked my online balance statement. There's no unrecognized charges on the register so I think I dodged a bullet if the card fell out somewhere somebody unsavory could find it.

If I somehow stumble across the wayward card before this weekend is through the card is now disabled and useless, but I don't care. The replacement will be here in a few days and in the meantime I can use the debit card from my other bank. This is just a mild inconvenience and it certainly isn't anything insurmountable. I'm just glad to know the balance in my checking account is safe and, for the near future, still mine.

Since we drove up to Chez Cheefennec last night my usual Friday posting of something photography-related has been delayed until Monday or Tuesday.

PS: Dear LazyWeb, why did you not tell me there was a video of a cat playing a theramin?

Dear Lazyweb,

A long time ago I worked under the name Black Panther Enthusiast Networks. Sadly that shop shuttered operations some time ago and I don't think it's worth resurrecting since it was geared towards networking anyway. Now I need a new company name. Though I'm nowhere near good enough to do something "professional" at this point, I'd like the name to invoke something that is focused on photography. Vague is good as I don't have a definitive focus beyond this idea of "Hay, business cards are good."

One idea that I've had has been Sleeping Panther Media, but that seems awfully long and unwieldy.

Any thoughts? Comment with your idea.

[Poll #948625]

Dear Lazyweb,

I read yakko's rant about IM clients and decided that I was curious enough to make a poll about this very topic, to see what you use. This is especially interesting to me as I've been working these last few weeks to organize my IM contact list.

Edit 1430: I had a poll here, but the goddamn poll builder shit itself and died a horrible death. I'll come back to this.

I'm also curious -- if you use a "hybrid" or "multi-client" IM program, what do you use? On the Windows side I used to be a pretty big fan of Trillian but it's become insanely bloated. No IM client should take two minutes to start on an AMD64 machine with two gigs of ram! Insult to injury is that since the new version came out I would have to re-register if I want to use any of the features I'm actually interested. This has generally forced me to use Gaim as it's relatively cross-client and lightweight.

On the OSX side I use the super-sexy Adium for my MacBook. It is lightweight and fast, highly configurable, talks to damn near any IM platform you can think of (even client protocols I didn't know existed) and integrates with other parts of my OSX environment like the built-in address book.

Instead of writing an actual update about things that are going on in my life I'm posting this poll and asking you, the general public, to settle some things for me.

[Edit: YOU MUST CHOOSE ONE FROM EACH CATEGORY! Yes, sometimes you want both or you want neither. Deal with it!]

[Poll #889982]

I have two new user pictures, commissioned from screwbald (Warning: Posts in Screwbald LJ are generally rated NSFW and the journal should be viewed at your own risk). Behold!

and
Also, I have some items of note that are vaguely organized in some sort of order...

• Work sux at $EMPLOYER, and that's all I've got to say about that right now.
  
• On August 23rd I drove to Milwaukee to see a kick-ass concert courtesy of a surprise birthday gift from captain18 and spoothbrush -- more on that in a later entry. There was Too Much Awesome For This LJ Post, and suchforth, so I'm writing a detailed entry.
  
• I'm going to see lady_curmudgeon for the extended weekend.
  
• I fly to Maine next week for my part in roho and genet's wedding. I miss flying for business, so this helps make up for the cutback in my work-related travels.
  
• I still am sad that a little girl died, but I think all this coverage about Jon Benet Ramsey is ridiculous.
  
• I still love my MacBook and I'm currently in a truce with my iPod that may lead to further purchases of music. There will be a poll on this tomorrow.
  
• There's about 2.3 months until Midwest FurFest.
  
• Remember how my Expedition had that Check Engine Light (known as a "Malfunction Indicator Lamp" or "MIL") for the last two years? Remember how Roho and I spent $200+ dollars and scalded our arms and hands on red-hot exhaust pipes to change out O2 sensors that I thought were the root cause, but weren't? Remember those P0171 and P0174 OBD-II codes that wouldn't die and how I was at my wit's end? Well, guess what! Last Saturday I fixed the problem with a $4.95 can of electronics cleaner! FUCKING. CARS. I failed emission testing once and spent three hours chasing down parts and over $200 for this?
  
• I still like my gin, very much.
  
• I have apparently blown out the left ear bud of the ear buds that are provided with my iPod. Yes, I set the volume cap but I still seem to have blown the damn thing out anyway - I hear a most disconcerting buzz/rattle when certain frequencies are hit by my music, but only on that side. When I swap the 'bud from left to right the buzz/distortion/rattle follows. So! Dear LazyWeb: Does anybody with an iPod have a suggestion for replacement ear buds that are compatible with a G5 (Video) iPod but without the shitty "Blowing out at the slightest provocation" feature?
  
• I have to go to court about the missing piece of siding on my house. That's right, my village is actually taking me to court over a ten foot length of fascia. Of course I'll plead guilty (I can't deny the fascia is missing) and pay the fine, but for fuck's sake, don't they have better things to do?
  

I'll post a bit more tomorrow, work permitting.

But today there is no black or white

My contract is up with my current provider in about two months and I want a new phone. While I have been mostly happy with the service I've received with my current carrier the phone has failed to impress me on a number of fronts -- namely it isn't slim enough and it doesn't support Bluetooth. Once my contract expires I'm looking at taking my money to one of two different carriers. Each of them offers a product that meets my requirements and has a service plan I'm comfortable with. However, each one trades off against the other for some features and the choice has left me scratching my head. Since it's mostly a toss-up between the two I figured I'd sample the public at large and see what my friends are using. If one carrier is more heavily favored over the other I'll probably let that be the deciding factor.

Notes:

• I realize that some of us have multiple devices/phones with multiple carriers due to work, PDAs and such. When I ask who your provider is, I'm asking as it applies to your personal phone that you utilize for voice communications.
  
• I realize that Sprint and Nextel have merged, but right now Sprint phones don't run off iDEN technology so I consider them to still be separate.
  
• For PTT: if you subscribe to the service I'm going to assume you're carrying a phone that supports it.

[Poll #664525]