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Question: If you could have been at any single event in the history of mankind, which even would you have attended?

My Answer: There are too many to choose, so I'm going to have to go with the first halfway decent answer I can think of: the landing of the man on the moon. It's pretty recent, and I could have chosen "the invention of the wheel" or any number of wars, discoveries, or meetings of great minds, but I think that stepping on the moon was perhaps one of the most uplifting things mankind has ever done.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Question: Are "street smarts" and "common sense" the same thing? Why or why not?

My Answer: I'm going to go with no. Street smarts is something gained through experience, the "knowing the ins and outs" of a system. Common sense is more innate, a second nature of sorts. Street smarts is knowing how to talk your way out of painting a fence (Tom Sawyer), and common sense is knowing what time of year best suits painting a fence to begin with. Or something like that. Street smarts is a "savvy" of sorts, and common sense is a natural ability to see the "well, duh" in every situation.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

This Wednesday I'm going to go back to T-Mobile in a local mall to return the T610 (and to the Radio Shack to return the Jabra Bluetooth headset). I thought I might do this a few days ago but have since decided. In the interest of KISS, I'm just going to stick with my Motorola v60 and Cingular's TDMA network.

I liked the cell phone itself. It was nice. I even bought a Bluetooth adapter for my tower - something that I now realize is a bit premature - perhaps I can sell it to someone. The things that I didn't like - the poor screen visibility in the sunlight and some other minor things not even worth mentioning - could have been overcome by the "Bluetoothness" and the "polyphonicness" of the phone, as well as the games, the color screen, the style, the size, etc.

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Having previously considered a Riot and a Tarpon 100, I'm now looking at a Tarpon 120. Unfortunately, nobody has any. Anywhere. Florida is effectively "sold out" of Tarpon 120s. I could pick up a blue one if I wanted, but, well, I don't want it. I want the "sunset" color - an orange boat with yellow spray on it.

So here I am, willing to spend $1,000 to $1,500, and I can't. Another company currently has about $3,000 of mine if they could only ship the thing sometime in the next eon (I won't say what it is, and I ask that you simply nod knowingly instead of guessing in the comments). Waiting is extremely frustrating - it's great weather and I don't have 3-4 weeks. I want to be paddling around right now!

I'm fairly impulsive with large(r) purchases. I get it in my head that I can do something, and I research the hell out of it in a short amount of time, and then I go for it. I got a very highly rated (and expensive) Weimaraner in a week. My scooter was the result of a few days of intense study. My bed (a Tempur-Pedic), my Aztek, and now my kayak. Well, except that I have a month to kill now until I've even got a chance of getting the kayak.

So now I'll begin a little search. A search to find the best kayak locations and clubs (physical). A search to find the best kayak forums and user groups and news groups (electronic). A search to find the ability to wait (spiritual!).

I really, really don't like waiting.

Question: If you had to name everyone with which you've ever had sex, how accurate could you be?

My Answer: 100%. It's easy when you're as picky as I am. And when you're in a five-year monogamous relationship during your sexual peak. 🙂

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

I picked up a D-Link Bluetooth adapter for my aging tower today, and I realize that I've got no less than four kinds of networks between my laptop and my tower:

1. Firewire TCP/IP
2. Ethernet
3. AirPort
4. Bluetooth

Of course, as both have at least a CD/CD-R/DVD drive, there's always good old-fashioned sneakernet too. Heck, both have modems too, but I haven't ever hooked those up…

I've posted a question regarding which kayak I should get over at Confluence Water Sports, the forum linked to from Wilderness Systems. I'm curious to see what answers I get - the forums seem fairly, uhh, sparse. Hopefully I'll get a few good responses.

And as for the Tampon joke, well, it's not mine.

Question: If your children could read only three books while growing up, which would you have them read?

My Answer: Some questions you simply can't answer. This one is close. I liked Where the Red Fern Grows quite a bit. I liked a hundred other books quite a bit. Three books? To cover the entire range of human expression from birth until the age of 12 or so (that's how I define "while growing up" - that or it's an infinite process)? It can't be done. Instead, my answer is "any three they want." I'll read the rest to them.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Someone suggested on cocoa-dev the other day that OS developers should include licensing kits in their OSes so that developers don't have to "roll their own," often relying on "bad" things like the MAC address of the ethernet port or the hardware's serial number.

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Question: If you could freeze your mate's looks at any age while you grew older, what age would it be?

My Answer: 25. I don't have a mate, so this is an arbitrary assignment. I'm 25 now, and women about my age look as good as they've ever looked (without looking 18), so I'm going with 25.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

I think I'm going to buy a kayak. Specifically, I think I'm going to buy the Wilderness Systems Tarpon 100 seen at right (though I think I'll get it in yellow). I had previously been looking at the Riot, but the Tarpon line is a bit more "professional." I hesitate to use that word - there's no way in heck I'm going to be anything but a guy splashing around on a kayak - but I've always disdained the cheaper product lines. I like quality products.

At any rate, I'm looking to get a kayak for a few reasons:

• I live very close to Lake Ida, which would be a perfect little lake for kayaking.
• I live two or three miles from the ocean, another great place to kayak.
• There are some intercoastals and whatnot around southern Florida that should provide good kayaking destinations.
• I've got an Aztek, which may or may not be a good thing: it's got a roof rack, but the crossbars may be too wide for the standard fittings. I think a 10' kayak may not fit inside my Aztek. 🙂

I have kayaked (in a solo kayak) exactly once before in my life, but it's an interesting (albeit short) story.

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I think I'll be returning the T610 to T-Mobile very shortly (in about three days). The reasons? There are three:

1. The screen is ass when I'm outside. Absolute ass. Even in the shade you can barely see it, and in any variety of sunlight, just forget it. I picked the highest contrast theme possible, and I still couldn't see squat.
2. T-Mobile must have a crappy network where I am, because I get between zero and one bars of reception, sometimes two, very very rarely three. Dropped calls? Inability to place calls? Yeah, been there, done that all within the first day of use. Not a good sign. My Cingular phone maintains three to four bars at all times (even in the bathtub - don't ask).
3. There's a third reason, I just can't think of it right now. So let's go with "because I said so." That always seemed to work for my mother.

This is a bit of a bummer because I really, really, really wanted to like this phone. I did. There's still a slim chance I'll keep it - calls I've placed with one bar have still gone through. The bluetooth support is nice, as is the Jabra Bluetooth headseat I bought - absolutely awesome (and good range!). The ringtones are pretty sweet too.

I guess we'll see… Hrmph. When the hell will Cingular get off their butts and go GSM in my area? I love my Motorola v60, but it lacks color, polyphonic ring tones, Bluetooth, and a few other nice things.

P.S. I'm attempting to synchronize my Address Book to the phone right now, but it's taken over 10 minutes already, so I'm not sure I'm doing that correctly. Hmmm. The Address Book button is dark blue and the phone has the <> double arrows to indicate synchroninzation is occurring. How long should this take? 😛

Gabe and I finally went climbing again after nearly a two month absense from the wall-scaling world. Long story short: "ouch" and "ugh." The ouch: I was attempting a 9.1 climb with a very slanted foothold. I went for a reach, my foot slipped off and out, and then my foot (specifically my big toe) slammed into the wall. When your toes are already small because they're cramped into a tight climbing shoe, banging them against a wall doesn't help. The ugh? We're out of practice. Gabe and I both couldn't climb routes we could have climbed a few months ago. I was limited strictly to 5.8 routes and Gabe could barely manage some of the 5.9s he tried, and couldn't do any 5.9+s. We suck. 🙂 We'll get better, though, and hopefully we'll get back on a regular schedule.

Question: What's the most difficult thing you've ever had to climb?

My Answer: I climbed Crested Butte Mountain (if that's the name of it?) in Crested Butte, Colorado. I was quite young, and the last 500 feet up were mostly rocks, and so that made for an interesting climb. According to my parents I "scampered right up" but I remember spending most of the 30 minutes waiting for them to catch up catching my breath as well.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

"My New Cell Phone" is one of the lamest damn titles I've ever put on my blog. Like any of you care. Why am I even assuming that anyone reads this drivel? Whatever, okay, I'll console myself by pretending that I am my own audience. I am - the me in the future will wonder what day I got my new cell phone, and here it is.

I found out from Jon's comments in my Cingular: Crappy Phones post that - duh - Cingular is TDMA in my area and that only T-Mobile is GSM. So I stopped by T-Mobile today and picked up a Sony-Ericsson T610. It's charging, so I haven't played with it yet, but the features I like include:

• Polyphonic ring tones
• Bluetooth
• Color Screen
• A game or two

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