Grant Glewwe

As I was on my way to gaming Tuesday night, I had a few extra minutes. I intended to run into Kmart for a quick trip. As I opened the door, a commanding elderly black woman pushing a cart told me to “keep the door open for her” in a no nonsense town. Gentleman that I am, I held the door for her as she pushed a shopping cart out of the store with a heavy-looking suitcase in it and some sort of plastic bag in the child area. She then matter of factly started telling me how rude the store manager was, and how rude some other customer had been, and asked me to help her get the suitcase out so she could retrieve a camera. She wanted to snap a shot of a table she had told another customer to buy. She even encouraged the customer to make an offer instead of pay the posted price. She seemed miffed the manager or customer (not sure which) had not compensated her for her suggestions by giving her something. We got the camera out, and she took a polaroid of the table in question that was sitting outside. She kept up a running dialog of “trained as an architect”, “live in Brentwood”, “I don’t expect to be disrespected”, “I sold cars for a day and was the most successful salesperson. They gave me a car.”  She either has led the most interesting life imaginable, or she is a bit off her rocker. I couldn’t tell if she was waiting for someone to pick her up, or if she might even be homeless. She was dressed very nicely, thanked me warmly for helping her with the bag, and we parted ways. It was a very surreal experience. I went with the flow and helped her, was polite, and nodded my head appropriately. I hope I went a little way to brightening her day (”that nice young man that helped me at Kmart” sort of karma).

Sandra and I discussed the idea of me giving up costly vices to achieve justification of purchasing an iPod Touch. The two vices I came up with that have monetary costs attached were:

1. Consumption of carbonated beverages; typically caffenated - sadly, I rated this at about $5/wk (sadly, b/c that is too much in any case)
2. Consumption of gourmet espresso beverages (Goodbye Starbucks!) - I rated this at $10/mo (one every two weeks)

I identified a third as I wrote this post:

1. Lunch “out” at the company cafeteria; it means I have to stay a little better prepared, but saves $5/wk

All three of those means I save about $50/month. The 16 GB iPod Touch will run me $437 less 20% on $425 of it ($85 savings - I can get Circuit City cards at 20% through a gift card program - e-mail me for details). That means $352 for the iPod Touch. At $50/mo, the iPod Touch is paid for by the end of April. Here I go!

So Apple released the new iPod Touch a few weeks ago. The thing looks exactly like a handicapped iPhone. They released a 8 GB and 16 GB model. I read posts by a lot of angry whiners that want a hard drive based iPod Touch. I’ve currently got an iPod Video 60 GB and I’ve come nowhere close to filling it. Admittedly, I’m not purchasing seasons of Lost to watch on that tiny screen, but then again, even if I did, would I need to carry them around 24/7?

I gave myself an iTunes project. Could I live in 16 GB of flash memory for my iPod needs. I started tossing out music that I don’t listen to. Ever. Never. Those previously mentioned whiners said they needed the 160 GB iPod Touch hard drive because they had HUGE music libraries. On the order of 30 GB or more. Then the other 100+ GB would be used for hauling around their extensive video collection and their two photos of their children. One person wrote

“You build a gorgeous iPod with video, wifi, etc and you only give me 16gigs?! I’ve got 40+ of music, and god knows how much more in video!”

40 GB of music is about 33 days of music listening 24/7. I think this guy has issues. Choice issues. I’d love to look at this iTunes library ordered by play count. Like most people, he probably has 1000 tracks with play count > 1 and 200 tracks with play count  > 10.

I recently reset all those play counts, but my play counts aren’t going through the roof. I can stick 2000 songs in 8 GB which is way more than I need, another 1 or 2 GB for pictures of my kids (which is way mroe than I need), 2 GB for podcasts (especially audiobooks), and have 4-6 GB for video. 1/2 a GB gets me a “1 hour” episode of Lost. 1.3 GB would let me watch a 2 hour movie. I can live with that. It just means I can’t keep Seasons 1, 2 and 3 of Lost (about 36 GB) on my iPod all the time. Darn. You know, cuz I won’t see my computer any time in the next 54 hours of solid Lost watching.

I’m pretty convinced I will have an iPod Touch. The two guys at work with iPhones tried to sway me in that direction. I have a cell phone. I don’t need an $80 plan just for my own iPhone (I pay $100 for 4 phones right now with as far as I am concerned “unlimited” calling). Insult to injury, iPhone has only 8 GB of flash memory. That might be tough to live in.

The clincher for me was the WiFi web access built into iPod Touch. Sure the iPhone with an $80 plan gives you unlimited data and browsing (in fact, all plans must pay the $20 for unlimited data). I won’t mind using Safari to browse at Panera. Or Krystal. Or any of the other 2 million places that now offer FREE WiFi access. Starbucks can cram their pay service.

Now what if iPod Touch offered unlimited data for $20/month. Would I buy that (no voice calls mind you)? No way! I don’t own a PDA now. I’m not that desperate to be a web monkey. Cool? Yes. Need it. Not!

So clearly, tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and tauntings of outrageous iPhoners, AND take an iPod Touch, and by opposing, end them.

Does this really qualify as tech? To me it does!

This little device saved my marriage. I love cold drinks. Ice cold drinks. As-close-to-freezing-as-possible cold drinks.

One good way to achieve that is to put your drink in the freezer for a while.

That tends to result in the occasional “I forgot it was in there” followed by the can (or worse yet, glass bottle) exploding sending soda, beer (and in the case of glass bottles, glass) throughout the freezer compartment. That tends to miff your spouse.

In an effort to not add us to the divorce statistics, Sandra bought me a Cooper Cooler. Fill with ice and a little water, hit go, and in a matter of minutes you have an icy cold beverage. My toddler enjoys cooling my beverages for me, or for that matter, for anyone who wants a drink (”I made this from…for you!”).

Mine came from Costco: Cooper Cooler - $70

Now if only I could complement it with this: Mr Freeze (PS Gift Givers - I don’t really need one, but they are cool)