Sailing, Sailing... oh, I used that title already.

Hmm... News! The Incredible is not removed from the market - it merely has had some teething trouble getting enough of them produced at the factory! So, when it's available again, I would really recommend it. Awesome phone! I used it just yesterday, travelling to a community near St. Louis, for it's GPS Navigation. Yes, GPS Nav does tend to run the battery down, but if you know most of the route someplace in advance, and just turn it on for the last 20 or 30 minutes, it survives fairly well. My Incredible got me to the address, exactly.

And why, you may ask, did I need to go to St. Louis? For a small sailboat! I was going to get a Super Snark from a man in Columbia, but he wasn't returning my phone calls... so I changed the area I was looking at on Craigslist from Lake of the Ozarks area, to the St. Louis area, where I found an advertisement for a 15 foot sailboat. I got a better price, and I think probably a bit better of a boat, too! Yay!! I've looked up the boat online, and it's a Dolphin Sr. I'm about to step outside and epoxy a couple of minor cracks in the hull, then it should be ready to sail on the first good day that comes along. Yay again!

Yes, the sail is in good condition - I just put the sail up this morning to look it over. Very nice.

So, that's about it for today. I'll catch up with you all again soon!

-Mathew

Android Incredible - short run?

Hey, as promised, I'm here to talk about the new Incredible phone available through Verizon. As the name says: it's Incredible! Mine just arrived in the mail yesterday, and I've got it all charged up and running well. I was having some trouble applying a screen protector to the phone, so stopped at an authorized Verizon dealer in town, where I learned something interesting: HTC and Verizon are shutting down production on the Incredible already! Not because of a problem with the phone, but either because Verizon wants to push the Motorola X, or because (maybe?) the company that provides the snapdragon processors to HTC for the phone has closed. I'm not clear on the details. I did get a chance to look at a demo (read - empty/fake) Droid X phone; it's HUGE... a LOT bigger in it's dimensions than the Incredible. Ladies with small purses and small pockets: you won't know where to put it. Gents, as well: this phone will stand up and show above your shirt pocket, and probably be sneaking out of your rear pants pockets, too.

I'm glad I got the Incredible while I could. Once I got the GPS function turned on, it pinpointed me very closely to my actual location. I can watch streaming video online easily with the 3g connection, it doesn't slow down at all no matter how many apps are open at once (that I could tell), and... and... well. Let's just color me impressed, right? I do wish it worked for watching tv shows on Hulu.com, though. Not the fault of the phone, but of Hulu itself, I'm pretty sure. I'll be keeping my eyes open for any workarounds so I can watch my tv shows there, though, as I'm sure many other people are doing.

Aside from playing with my new phone, I mowed a bit, this morning, and am now inside the house and thinking quite seriously about lunch. Perhaps I'll reheat some chicken I grilled last night; it turned out really good.

That's all for now, from the Nagogami Hills Farm, in Missouri. The cows say Hi, and the cats expect you to bring a fresh mouse with you on your next visit. ;-)

Until later!

-Mathew

Local Lake, missed the Market

We got out of the house a little late to catch the full farmer's market on Saturday - apparently it closes around noon, so we just didn't go. They also hold the farmer's market on Tuesday mornings, in a downtown parking lot, but I think we'll wait until next Saturday and see the full Farmer's Market, instead.

So... After mowing the grass at a property in town, I took off a few miles out of town, to the Little Prairie Community Lake - a small lake run by the Missouri Conservation Department - where I should be able to take a small sailboat, so long as I also spend a few minutes of my visit casting a line for fish. Who knows? Perhaps I might become a fisherman, as part of my learning to sail, too.

Speaking of Tuesday, Verizon sent me an email today that my new Incredible has been shipped (Finally!). I look forward to finally getting a chance to play with it - I'll post a review of how it does for me, probably around the end of the week.

Also, I should have enough scrounging done by the end of this week to be able to go and get a small sailboat! As I mentioned before, just a 10 to 14 foot "little" boat, but that's perfect for learning the basics. By this time next week, I hope to be taking advantage of some nice breeze on the lake at Little Prairie.

Storms, and possible tornadoes in the forecast for... right now! No storms to speak of, yet, although we have had a small amount of rain, and there is some distant thunder to be heard.

And so, I leave you once again, oh friendly, yet largely nonexistent Nag-Reader. Welcome to the Nagogami Hills Farm, with cows chewing cud, and cats catching mice. Come back again soon.

-Mathew

Good Morning, Wednesday

So, that feels like I'm part of the Addams' Family - Good morning, Wednesday; Good morning Pugsley; good morning Morticia. Let's have a little fun, today, and give Lurch a tongue twister. He should be able to finish saying it the first time by lunch.

So: Verizon. Android. The Incredible.
I ordered the phone June 16, and don't expect it to ship until July 14. Good news, though! Verizon is shipping all phone orders by next day shipping! Yay!
I mean, what is the point of shipping it "next day" if it takes a month to get the item put into shipping in the first place? Gimme the $5 or $10 the shipping upgrade costs; after waiting a month, I can afford to wait 2 more days. Even better, I should be charging the cell phone company for the delay. I know I've always wanted to charge these telephone advertisers and sales companies for the minutes when they call me; also, I want to charge phone companies for my time when they put me on hold without my permission.

So, maybe I'm slighly upset, having to wait for a month for my phone to be sent by next day shipping. It's okay - Verizon is still the best carrier out there. AT&T is having the same problem with the new i-Phone 4g, and it's got programming errors in it that go all the way back to the very first i-Phone. An error which, having now been discovered, points out that AT&T has poorer coverage, after all.

Why, you might ask, have I not blogged about anything IMPORTANT, so far? Well, that's pretty simple. Out here, on Nagogami Farm, life moves at a different pace than it does in many of this nation's cities. I've complained about my new phone taking a month to arrive; I did not go out and try to mow down hundreds of people with an uzi. After all, in a month's time, the cows will still be chewing cud, and leaving messes in the field. The farm cats will still be showing up around 3pm every day, wanting to be fed. And gas prices will still be outrageous.

Until whenever, this is Mathew, logging out.