the P.Pole v.2.1

Update: Check out the video I made of its unboxing here.

First, an aside: I just wrote my Business 111 Midterm (which is actually worth as much as the final exam) last night and I… well, I’m feeling great! I finished with time to spare (like, lots) and I had thought I had done something wrong (like skipping a page). I went back, checked everything, and left with 15 minutes left and much rejoicing. I suppose this is what I get for preparing well. Lesson, children: get reviewing early and thoroughly.

Everyone who knows me well knows I’m a bit of an OCD when it comes to certain things. One of them is how I treat expensive gadgets. I hate scratches, dents, nicks, or scuff marks on any of my electric toys. I noticed a hairline fracture on my white PSP immediately after it had slipped out of my hands (inside a hard, acrylic case, mind you) and onto the tiled floor. I get angry at scratches left from accidentally leaving my keys and a cell phone or GBA SP in the same pocket. These things bother me, and as a result I will go to no short lengths to ensure that they should never happen.

Since getting my iPod Touch this summer, I have been using a case I bought for the equivalent of $3 CDN. It is a great fit. It is a pale lime green. And it is silicone. It protects my iPod in the off chance that I drop it from a small height (this has happened only twice so far, and the falls were short). I rather liked this silicone case at the start. I put my iPod inside this case and have removed it a grand total of two times so far, each time to clean the silicone under the tap, and air dry.

I have since grown to dislike silicone. I’ve never thought the idea of it being in some breasts attractive one bit, and now I’m of the school of thought that thinks it unattractive on gadgets as well. Yes, it stretches to fit gadgets snugly, and yes it protects some decent shock protection while being cheap and easily replaceable. But damn, does it ever get linty and sticky and downright dirty.

I dislike not being able to slide my iPod easily in and out (and then back in, for good measure) of my pockets. The rubbery silicone ensures I get a sticky situation in my pants, where friction is maxmialius. That is also before I even begin to think about what sort of lint and trampiness it might pick up from inside such pockets as these. Gadgets, in my world, should be sleek, slim, and smooth to the touch. Silicone may not add much bulk or weight, but for its stickiness it might as well be sandpaper wrapped around a brick in my pants.

Thus, I went in search of the perfect case for someone such as I, with the specific needs I have. Not everyone will have the same criteria when looking for such personal things, but here were mine.

5 things I look at before buying gadget cases:

• Weight and Bulk: I need something slim, and lightweight. I hate having anything in my pockets that would feel and maybe look particularly out of place. I need to help, bulging in my jeans, thank you very much. I want something light and unobtrusive.
• Form Factor: This ties in very closely with bulkiness. I am a man with simple tastes. I like slim and slender.*Amy looks up from her work somewhere, with the creeping sensation that somewhere (namely, here) something magical has just happened*Anyway, I like many gadgets today because companies like Apple and Nintendo are gearing their gears towards making gear that looks good. That’s why I don’t understand these people who go out and buy the biggest chunks of leather, acrylic, or silicone rubber to cover up their otherwise beautiful gadgets. I am much in preference of minimal (but essential) coverage, with form hugging over parachute-airbagging.
• Pricing: I am not particularly rich compared with some of those crazy childrens I know/have seen on YouTube, reviewing iPhone cases because they have nothing better to do. At the same time, I don’t mind paying a little more than usual if I see something I genuinely like and could see myself using for a long time to come.
• Protection: I suspected that if I was going to fulfill at least two of the three above criteria, I’d have to compromise a little on the protection. But then I remembered that I do take care of my things, so I’m not tossing/sliding/spinning/throwing/dropping/endangering them opn a regular (or ever) basis. Thus, I figured sacrificing some unnecessary robustness for looks and usability began to make a lot of sense for someone like me.
• Availability: Some cases are great looking, very slim, and fall exactly into what I might want for myself, but I just can’t get my hands on them. Thus, out of the question.

In any case, I bought an Air Jacket hard-case (black matte) for Touchy Feely (i.e. my first generation Touch) the other day for just short of $30. Before you get up in arms about this extravagant price (but is it really?), the case comes with a pair of screen protector films (in Canada, they are about $15 for a pair, but are much cheaper in other places like HK); one is crystal clear film, the other is an icy, matte, anti-glare and/or fingerprint film. The case itself is a grand total of 0.7 mm of black, matte plastic goodness. I am very interested in just how much thinner that is compared with my already relatively thin silicone jacket. If anyone is interested, they can probably ask me how it is and whether I’d recommend it in a week or two, after it arrives in the mail and I have some time to get used to it. In the mean time, my breath is bated and my Business is mastered.

I found some interesting quizzes to take since it’s been awhile since I’ve done any surveys. Here are my results for three (of the four) GamerDNA quizzes:

Today I went down with Amy and her sister to check out Word On the Street, a festival in downtown Toronto. I can’t really explain what it is like, except that it’s sort of like Anime North but with more refinement, no cosplayers, and books as opposed to manga. I went mainly to listen to a panel discussion involving Ryan North (from Dinosaur Comics) and a bunch of other webcomic writers. That was at 5 o’ clock until 6 but I arrived extra early. Amy wanted to hear a reading of “An Imperfect Offering” by James Orbinski (reading material for her PoliSci course) which was at 12:30. I found em after a bit of searching around just outside Queen’s Park.

The day was quite delightful, walking around talking mostly and getting to know her sister, Lynn. She was very shy at the start but was playing with my hair by the end of the day. Strange little girl (who has forearms approximately the same thickness as Amy, her elder sister of ten years). I thought having a young child in tow would be slightly dampening on any mushy fun we might have, but as the day went on it was clear that she actually added an interesting and altogether enjoyable dynamic to the date.

Anyway, meeting Ryan North (again) was neat. No photo this time, but I did have an actual conversation with him. That, and with one of his other webcomic authoring buddies. In the panel, they discussed lots of things to do with webcomic writing as well as giving commentary on broader aspects of society as well. I had a great time because, as is to be expected, comic writers are comic people. I do believe today was well worth the long bus ride down and rush to get back into Loo after. Thanks Amy!

Note: I originally wrote this up on August 7 but I failed to realize it hadn’t posted properly.

Don’t be flustered if the name makes little sense to you. Apart from the obvious drawing upon similar initials (MBP), there is little else public about my brand spanking new Macbook Pro and her name.

Miss Bellamy (just “Belle” for short) arrived yesternoon, at the security desk and Khalid (one of the various security guards) signed for her delivery. I got bored of waiting for them to write up a pink slip and put it in my mailbox, so I checked the online tracking form manually at around 3:00 PM. When I found that Belle had been waiting for me since noon but had been held up by the guard, I immediately printed off a copy of the online proof of delivery and marched on down to the lobby.

After a few moments of waiting for Khalid to process the parcel and signing for her pick-up, I brought the large box home and carefully (but excitedly) started unpacking her. I have since installed a tonne of stuff, scrapped a tonne of crap (thanks to Herman for pointing out Xslimmer to me), and got a lot of stuff set up just right. In fact, I have only turned on my PC system once since meeting Belle, and that was only when I accidentally bumped into the oversized ON/OFF button. It didn’t mean anything Belle, I swear!

I’m writing you now, thoroughly pleased with my decision to buy a MBP (Macbooks are nice, but are they this sexy?). I’m almost certain no one is particularly interested in the photos I took while unboxing Belle so I won’t go to the trouble of downloading (from my camera) and then uploading (to my server) the pics. Anyway, totally badass. OS X Leopard (I’m on 10.5.4, most up-to-date version, I think) took a little time to get used to but after I did, I am loving it. I wouldn’t go as far as to totally disown Windows (say what you will, but Microsoft and its Windows was really one of the main reasons behind why we’ve got a PC in virtually every home, at least in the Global North, and that’s something to be applauded). I still use an XP iteration (stripped of the bloat and slipstreamed thanks to Adwin) as my Boot Camp to game on.

Anyway, I don’t regret for even a second paying out tonnes of money (which I’ve rationed out of my leftover scholarship funds) for my Pro + Touch + upgrades + accessories. There are a few things I don’t mind spending more than usual on (clothing and shoes are not part of them), and these will be new additions to that small, small list of elite purchases.

This morning I headed across the street with family in tow and we hit up the opening sale of the sports apparel store inside Woodside, across the street. Now, stalkers can trace me even more precisely! In any case, we got in and saw a variety of tasty deals (such as my two new pairs of Hurleys and my Adidas duffel).** After driving to Scarborough Town Center and being sorely disappointed at the lack of Old Navy jeans going for $12 (television ads, you lie to me). My parents and sister had to go downtown (father for a work-related exhibition, and my mom and sister for the CNE). I ended up hitting up the Best Buy for a keyboard skin (so stuff doesn’t get in the cracks). The iSkin key-condoms were almost $30, whereas a sexy little USB wired, Microsoft media keyboard was only $20, so I ended up opting for the keyboard (of my dreams) over an overpriced piece of rubber. I abandon the rubber as soon as Amy leaves town on a family roadtrip, it seems.

To get to the point of the post’s title, I got home after this slight spending sexcapade and saw an episodes of Superships (or something to that effect) on the Discovery Channel. This one happened to be talking about a small fleet of ships called Super Servants, originally designed to carry (within themselves/on board) destroyer sized ships after some war or something in Europe. That is more or less irrelevant since now they ferry yachts, mostly between Port Everglades, Florida, and European harbours.

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Yesterday I went out with Amy and her long-time/best (I think) friend Nancy downtown for some correspondence (chatter) and nourishment (Jack Astor’s), as well as some thrills. We had planned to go (with Raf in tow) watch “The Dark Knight” in IMAX glory at 3:30 PM but the showing at the Scotiabank Theater on Richmond was sold out by the time we got there (to be fair, it was 3:25 PM and a Saturday afternoon showing). Having trekked all the way from the Eaton’s Center in the pouring rain (Amy and I comfortably squished under my umbrella-ella-ella and Nancy under hers) and itching for some superhero action, we would not be deterred. Using Amy’s three mysterious gift cards (which ended up only holding $5 a pop, as opposed to the expected two or three times that amount) and ten extra dollars each, we were soon in possession of three spiffy tickets for “The Dark Knight” in IMAX at 7:00 PM.

With approximately three-and-a-half hours to spend before the film, we had our work (of keeping ourselves and each other entertained) cut out for us. There is a Chapters + Starbucks next to the theater, and that is where we spent most of our following time. We sat around a Starbucks table, drying off, and browsing through my photos taken while in Hong Kong on my iPod. It was not so bad once I got comfy around Nancy (previously a vague stranger) and I started telling stories about the random items I snapped at. I had really been looking for an opportunity to show and tell to Amy about my trip and it was a bonus that Nancy enjoyed it too. Oh yeah, and skip-spinning coins over other coins is surprisingly fun. I suspect it would be even moreso on drugs.

Subsequently we went to acquire for ourselves some light reading material from the stacks. I gravitated towards “211 Things A Bright Boy Can Do” and “The Dangerous Book For Boys” while Amy went for collections of the “Suicide Bunnies”. Nancy also read through an entire graphic novel during our short nerd/worm session. When I went aside to look for “The Anarchist Cookbook” in the same section as “The Dangerous Book For Boys”, Amy came to help look too.

“Well, now that we’re alone…”
[Interesting ensued]

When asked about dinner suggestions, Nancy suggested we get crêpes from a nearby store. Amy and I both went up in arms, pointedly explaining that crêpes were most definitely not dinner material. I then spotted the Jack Astor’s just across the street (being somewhat taller than the females, perching grounds favoured me for spotting prey) and suggested we could “totally hit that up”. And hit that up we did. Amy picked a bluecheese burger with fries and Nancy picked a chicken parmagiano (I am almost sure I spelled that wrong) while I was classily taking a whizz in the washroom. That urinal flushes rivers. Anyway, when I got back and asked Amy what she had picked, I thought I might as well join her in trying something new out, so I got the same burger. It was pretty damn tasty, especially with all the Tobasco sauce I unloaded into the burger.

After dinner, we promptly went into the theater once again and muddled our way into the IMAX roomatorium. The screen was massive. The speakers (all forty-two of them) sounded amazing, coming from six different directions (take that, Dolby 5.1), and there was even a laser show to kick off the night. Without overstating anything, Batman never looked so stunning. Having seen it once already, this showing of “The Dark Knight” was actually/arguably quite a bit better than the first time around. The screen, for one thing, was easily four times bigger, and the six-storey tall IMAX shots were simply ecstasy (to Amy before the show, “I hope you won’t mind if I have an orgasm in my seat… Yeah.”). If you haven’t seen this movie yet, go see it in IMAX if you get a chance. And even if you have, see it again, in IMAX.

Anyway, after the movie, we sauntered down to Osgoode station and headed home. I saw a crazy lady on the bus. That was about it. Oh yeah, and did I mention that Amy made me a little birthday package thing full of sweet little goodies (including a stone fish-eleton necklace) in a hand-made poche-poche? It was and is very sweet, sort of like honey, but without the mess. Well, no mess until later.

Don’t be flustered if the name makes little sense to you. Apart from the obvious drawing upon similar initials (MBP), there is little else public about my brand spanking new Macbook Pro and her name.

Miss Bellamy (just “Belle” for short) arrived yesternoon, at the security desk and Khalid (one of the various security guards) signed for her delivery. I got bored of waiting for them to write up a pink slip and put it in my mailbox, so I checked the online tracking form manually at around 3:00 PM. When I found that Belle had been waiting for me since noon but had been held up by the guard, I immediately printed off a copy of the online proof of delivery and marched on down to the lobby.

After a few moments of waiting for Khalid to process the parcel and signing for her pick-up, I brought the large box home and carefully (but excitedly) started unpacking her. I have since installed a tonne of stuff, scrapped a tonne of crap (thanks to Herman for pointing out Xslimmer to me), and got a lot of stuff set up just right. In fact, I have only turned on my PC system once since meeting Belle, and that was only when I accidentally bumped into the oversized ON/OFF button. It didn’t mean anything Belle, I swear!

I’m writing you now, thoroughly pleased with my decision to buy a MBP (Macbooks are nice, but are they this sexy?). I’m almost certain no one is particularly interested in the photos I took while unboxing Belle so I won’t go to the trouble of downloading (from my camera) and then uploading (to my server) the pics. Anyway, totally badass. OS X Leopard (I’m on 10.5.4, most up-to-date version, I think) took a little time to get used to (about an hour of fiddling around for me) but I have since grown very fond of the way Belle handles… well, herself, in most everything. Splendid!