I know, huh? And at my age too.  Its embarrassing but you know when it happens, it happens.  I wasn’t expecting to become so utterly infatuated, so completely devoted.  And its the type of teeny-bopper love that makes you want to stop total strangers on the street and let them know how you feel.  I am now back home and still feeling the same way – apparently what happens in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas.

I know its wrong but I am completely and totally in love with my iPhone.  Yes, me who shunned cellphones up until a couple of years ago when for traveling reasons I grudgingly purchased a pay-as-you-go minimalist phone from VirginMobile.  Half the time the battery was uncharged and weeks would go by before I would use the phone.  It served its purpose.  But then one day, for many years of service, I was gifted by my employers with a rather handsome gift certificate to the Apple store.  After thinking about it for six months or so and researching all my options, I dropped in on the 21st century to see if I could tolerate it.  Well,  my, my, my how pleasant the future is.

I took my iPhone on its maiden voyage – my brother and I were escorting out of town relatives (way out of town from Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay out of town) to Vegas.  I used the phone to coordinate and keep constantly informed of where in the casinos my brother (with the octogenarians) was while I (and the underaged one) saw the sites and non-gambling, non-drinking attractions.  I used the my iPhone to take quick pictures, check the weather, verify the time in South America, as an alarm clock, to check my e-mails and let my poor cousin going through internet-withdrawal check hers and surf.  We had forgotten to bring the Southwest info for check-in for our returning flight – I just brought it all up on my new bestest friend.   And the coup de grace, that just sealed the deal on my love was when while walking back to the Luxor, we arrived in front of the Bellagio, video camera in hand,  hoping to see the dancing waters.  We had no clue what the schedule was so I googled it on the iPhone and voila, we knew the next show started in about 15 minutes.  Many, many is the time in the past that while traveling that I wished I had instant access to the internet – it makes life so much easier.  I know the iPhone is not the only phone you can do this with, but it is the coolest phone you can do it with.  It looks good, works great and its easy to navigate and I’ve not even started using the iPod feature or purchasing apps for it…. sigh … my love just grows.   I know this is old hat to most but to me who remembers looking for a pay phone so I could call someone to go to my house to check the flight information that I had left on the front of my fridge door – its magic!  

P.S.:  I just recently started wearing hearing aids and I was worried about not being able to hear properly with the new fangled contraption.  No worries there either – I can hear just fine.  The speakerphone is not quite as loud as I would like but really I don’t need to use it much.  The ringtone could also be a bit louder but since the phone is never more than 3 feet away from me (I even use it as an alarm clock) that issue is also moot.  My other concern was going back to AT&T – so far, they are behaving themselves – except for the $11.00 worth of taxes and fees they tack on to the bill and didn’t mention when I signed the plan – I have the cheapest plan s0 $11.00 makes a difference to me but at this point I’m hooked on the phone.   Oh, and the camera, not the best but I’m not looking for the best out of it – just the luxory of having immediate access to a camera in case the Mother Ship should make an appearance.

I’ve been away for a little bit and came home to find some HBP news  on the net – an eery scene that never made it into the Half Blood Prince.  Its rather good in my opinion but I can see why it was kept out of the film ending as it was edited (I didn’t like the film end as it was edited).  This scene gives us an idea of what the film could have looked like if they had rushed less and had taken the time to tell the story properly.  It is also available here at the Leaky Video Galleries) but here it is on YouTube….

I’ll refrain from heaping praise on Rickman – the few seconds of his performance speak for themselves.  I love the choral reference and the dark yellow green look of the cinematography reminiscent of Prisoner of Azkaban.  Hopefully, there will be more like this (including the It’s over line) on the dvd.

My six year old nephew dawdles.  He has his own sense of time and of what’s important.  While I’m rushing him in the morning to get dressed, eat breakfast, brush his teeth, etc., he has his own agenda.  He handed me this the other morning in the midst of my hurrying him along….

I had to stop and marvel at it.  Its a bat made from a dixie cup.  He made it on the spur of the moment.  Opened the cup up, got a marker, drew and created a little vampire bat. 

Pretty cool.  He took a look at on object, saw its potential and created something completely different than the original out of it – wow.  I still marvel at the simplicity of it.

Check out the Eels web page for the news:  Eels   End Times is a new album set for release in January.  Check out the Rock Hard Times for more info and analysis.  I’m still hoping the beard goes.  As for the title “End Times” – I’ve been doing a lot of media editing lately and I was wondering if the “end times” has more to do with editing an album than with biblical prognastications.

This is the new intro page to the Eels web page:

Apparently “end times” will arrive on January 19, 2010.  There is speculation as to what it all means (check out speculation at Estranged Friends forum if you’re interested).  I personally think that’s the date the beard gets it (and not a moment too soon I might add)!  To back my theory, here is a link to Spinner.com story wherein E supposedly sent in this:  10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Eels singer’s Beard which appeared about the same time the “End Times” front page did.  Case closed.  Frankly, I miss E’s face …. 

This is it!  Now I too can be a Vulcan … perhaps a slightly manly Vulcan, but a Vulcan just the same (I couldn’t find a female Vulcan).

(I had the jpeg here but it was even creeping me out – so I took it down.)

Its enough to make my geeky heart giddy.  I kind of like the hairstyle – it takes about 20 years off my age doncha think?   Or maybe its the ears that do it…. You can vulcanize yourself too – just follow the link below for the full clip (with audio) and then vulcanize yourself and send me a copy!

http://www.trekyourself.com/?mId=31630190.3

How do I make these you ask? I take nasty bits of broken black and grey crayons and force them into molds with the severed pieces of brighter and once happier crayons. I then climb to the tower  ….. why, yes I do have a tower on my lovely home… how silly of you to ask….  Where was I, oh yes…. I climb to the top of my tower, on a dark and stormy night and wait for a bolt of lightning to strike and fuse them  …. into …. into  (cue the organ music)…. Skull Crayons!!!! bwahahahahaha …. (…altho’ they do look a little zombiesh to me).

These are perfect for Halloween treats especially if you don’t want kids wired on sugar.   This is a set of 8 crayon skulls made from only 100% Crayola crayons (so I know they’re safe for kids to use). They are all different and the colors within the black and grey will vary. The size of each skull is approximately 1.25 inches by 1 inch by about 3/8 of inch deep.  I can package them as one unit or individually clearly marked as crayons  so no one is tempted to pop it in their mouths – altho’ they are non-toxic, nasty tasting, but non-toxic – don’t ask how I know they’re nasty-tasting…. just take my word for it.

Click here or on the skulls to go buy some!

Git your bottles of rum and jolly rogers out cause ye’ll be needin’  ’em for inspiration, savvy?  International Talk Like a Pirate Day has rolled around once again  (see CNN story here).  Arrrr, see me previous post about it here why doncha?  (Ooops wait that was more like talk like a Minnesotan than a pirate wasn’t it)… Oh just add an “arrrrr” and a savvy and a  swig a rum to any sentence and you’ll be talking  like a pirate in no time….

I love Trader Joe’s.  No seriously, I do.  When I “discovered” TJ’s many, many years ago, I was in pig-heaven.  I was like a newly converted Christian spreading the word right and left to anyone who would listen.  They had vegetarian stuff, they had foods from around the world (garlic hummus next to the tzatziki next to the sushi rolls next to the… well you get the idea) and it was cheap (relatively speaking).  And they had inexpensive wine!  And in the last few years – good, low-priced wine from Argentina (Malbec – Oy! do yourself a favor and try the Argentine Malbec – its cheapest at TJ’s but you can get it anywhere these days – Norton’s is the most widely available).  I buy Argentine wine to help my family down there - I figure I’m helping the Argentine economy with every bottle of wine I drink!  I’m sure somewhere in Mendoza there’s a little vintner sending me muchas gracias as he sends his kids to college thanks to me!

 Anyway, I digress… I found an article about a talk presented by the founder of Trader Joe’s, Joe Coloumbe, and he states how he came up with the TJ’s marketing approach:

Over time, he realized that his stores especially appealed to the over-educated and underpaid, notably teachers, classical musicians, museum curators and journalists

Click on the quote to go to the article.  Its quite interesting.  He talks about everything from how Trader Joe’s started to the historical reasons northern Europeans are not wine drinkers to the world economics of wine production and how Argentina is on its way up the wine ladder.  Hmm, all this talking about wine has made me rather thirsty… I just happen to have a lovely $4.00 bottle of  La Finca Malbec in fridge (its good, not great – if you want great try Layer Cake Malbec - a lot pricier but really, really, really good) … must go now… tah…..

New video from Eels for That Look You Give That Guy.  This is one of my favorite songs from the new album (El Hombre Lobo).  The song is poignant and I think resonates with anyone whose ever been looking in from the outside.  As for the video, Padma’s okay, E is awkwardly funny and Bobby Jr. steals the show.  And while I acknowledge that my opinion on the matter matters not, may I suggest to Mr. E that perhaps it is time to retire the beard.  I’m sure there’s a casino somewhere that would be willing to buy it on E-bay to add to its collection of oddities.