The Other Drummer

In the words of Dave Barry, “I am not making this up.”

I was just reading an article on why Julian Assange should be the 2010 Person of the Year. A controversial topic, to be sure. He has much of the Federal Government shaking in their boots from a combination rage, embarrassment and anxiety. They’re warning anyone who has any interest of ever working for the government to not read anything from Wikileaks which is a bit “book burning-ish”, don’t you think? People are calling for the man to be hunted down like Bin Laden and assassinated – by our own government.

As I’m reading the article, my cell phone rings. It was a number I wasn’t familiar with which had a 202 area code. Curious, I picked it up.

“Hello?”

Nothing.

“Hello?”

Nothing.

I waited a few seconds longer and didn’t hear anything so I hung up. Curious, I Googled “202 area code”.

Washington DC.

Stay tuned for the dramatic conclusion. Same bat time! Same bat place!

Image courtesy of racheocity.

“Hello, David.”

I was accused in my last post (by sincere friends who only have my best interests at heart) of being a phone slut. To this allegation I can only say, “Well, yeah.”

There. I said it. Step one? Check.

You would curl your toes if you knew how many phones I’ve owned. I can’t tell you because, honestly, I don’t know – it’s that many. But I can guess.

Around the block a time or two. Or three.

In the four years between returning home from my mission and getting married I think I had about 13 phones. This includes phones I tried for the “14 day trial period” and then exchanged for a different model, phones I bought and sold, etc.

Ratio: A new phone every four months.

Family man.

After getting married I realized I needed to settle down so I scaled way, way back. In the six years I’ve been married I’ve only had eight phones. I do have a vague recollection of some of these:

1. Sanyo Sprint phone 01
2. Sanyo Sprint phone 02
3. Motorola Razor (T-Mobile)
4. Sony Ericsson k750i (imported and unlocked – T-Mobile)
5. iPhone (original – unlocked on T-Mobile)
6. Sony Ericsson phone (Sold unopened – T-Mobile)
7. iPhone 3GS (unlocked on T-Mobile)
8. Motorola Droid 2 (work phone – Verizon)

Ratio: A new phone every eight months.

I’m half as phone slutty as I used to be! This is progress people!

Turning point: the iPhone

When the iPhone was announced it was a, “That’s it. Game over.” moment. I’d futilely jumped between phones for the lamest of reasons (except the k750i – that was a truly awesome phone) but after seeing the iPhone, I realized there wouldn’t be a reason to use anything but that for a long, long time. It changed the entire market and, through the lens of a geek, the world.

Now that the iPhone has become a bit stale I’ve ventured out looking for greener pastures. Although I did turn on my iPhone 3GS last night and played with it again. Definitely wish Android had that level of polish and refinement. Where are you my mythical HTC Incredible HD?

Image courtesy of beachblogger42.

Took a few minutes this morning to compile a list of nostalgic music – mostly from high school but some earlier stuff, too (I’m looking at you Vanilla Ice).

What would you add/remove from the list?

“Don’t be amazed if you see my eyes always wandering. In fact, this is my way of reading, and it is only in this way that reading proves fruitful for me. If a book truly interests me, I cannot follow it for more than a few lines before my mind, having seized on a thought that the text suggests to it, or a feeling, or a question, or an image, goes off on a tangent and springs from thought to thought, from image to image, in an itinerary of reasonings and fantasies that I feel the need to pursue to the end, moving away from the book until I have lost sight of it. The stimulus of reading is indispensable to me, and of meaty reading, even if, of every book, I manage to read no more than a few pages. But those few pages already enclose for me whole universes, which I can never exhaust.”

from page 254, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller, by Italo Calvino

I totally agree and I totally think you should check out Keri Smith’s blog and maybe even subscribe to it because there’s cool stuff there.

Image courtesy of Martin Gommel.

I’m a bit…anal retentive when it comes to my journals. People who know me, know this. I only use on kind of journal (Moleskine) and for the longest time would only write in them with a particular type of pen (Pilot G2 .05, although Pilot now makes a G2. 038 which is the unbelievably perfect stroke which caused me to do a little happy dance when I found them).

The reason for my retentiveness? A number of things, I’m sure, but I’ll only mention two here: I can’t help but think that someone, someday, will value what I put in them and, secondly, that I’m a writer, not an artist.

And by that, I mean some people express themselves in bold, beautiful, flashy ways which look really, really cool in a journal. Me? I write. Or, more accurately, scribble.

To feel passion and express it (in the form of anger, love, distress, sadness, joy, etc.) through visual means can be very striking and apparent. You can take one look at an artist’s canvas and be struck by the emotion of it. But what about writers like me? If I’m feeling passionate about something I could…write…bigger…?

Short version: to cut loose as a journal writer isn’t an easy thing to do. An artist can do a simple picture. I have to write 1,000 words. Know what I mean?

So I got Wreck This Journal for my birthday as a gift from my beloved sister. Each page is something you are supposed to to slowly destroy the tome.

Thus far I’ve chewed on a page, snapped the spine by standing on it, began covering a page with nothing but office supplies, started my stickers-you-find-on-fruit collection, initiated my Stain Log (cooked carrots was the inaugural entry) and all that is in addition to the abuse I was able to inflict on my father in-law’s work bench using a 12″ metal file, a vice, jumper cables, a staple gun and some rough plywood.

The book didn’t actually tell me to do any of those things to it. I just did. And it was fun. Really fun.

I’m doing some of the same things to my main journal as well. The cover now has quite  a bit more personality (thanks to the aforementioned tools). I always hated finishing journals because by the time you’re done with them they’re just starting to look broken in which is a shame because that’s when you really want to use them. Now I can expedite the process. Excited.

Wreck This Journal was written by Keri Smith (who has a number of other books I’m eager to check out) and is available wherever fine books are sold and Barnes & Noble.