Tag Archives: iPod

Thou Shall Not Covet

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Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

I got an email from Shane Raynor (please go read his blog and check out Ministry Matters, as well) playfully asking me about the (a bit disappointing?) iPhone announcement and if I had plan on getting one.
I can’t.
I have T-Mobile.
For another good year. And T-Mobile, I read, isn’t getting the iPhone any time soon, which doesn’t make sense, if they’re merging with AT&T soon.

Anyway, I currently have a myTouch 4g from T-Mobile.
When I first got it. I loved it.
I thought, since I have an iMac, a MacBook, an iPad, and an iPod… I’d figure, I can forgo the iPhone.

I was content with my decision.
And content with the phone. It had what I needed: texting, email, and gps. (I get lost easily. Even with the GPS).

Content, that is until one day, my wife came home with the white iPhone 4 (when the white ones were still new).
She had an iPhone 3 from her work place, but it’s glass got cracked, and since she was due for an upgrade, she got the white iPhone.

You have to understand that my wife is technologically challenged. She doesn’t even know what to do with an iPhone. She told me, “All I want it do is just make phone calls.”
“What!?” I cried. “Just phone calls?!?”
“I don’t care if it’s 4g, 3g whatever g. I need to make phone calls and receive phone calls.”

Ugh.

I set everything up for her, her email accounts, some games, some music…
And then all of a sudden, my myTouch seemed clunky, old and lame. Oh. And ugly.

I wanted to find a way out of my contract and get me an iPhone. Or at least an upgrade of a phone that was barely 6 months old.
It drove me crazy.
My wife, flaunting the iPhone and taunting me. “Oh, Joe. I don’t know what to do. Can you help me with this?” Of course, she wasn’t taunting, but that’s what it felt like.

It took me a good week to realize how awful I was being.
What in the world am I thinking?
I have a perfectly capable android phone.
I don’t need an iPhone.
And it’s truly, truly, truly sinful the way I was thinking.

I felt a bit embarrassed that I was falling into the trap of the-newer-the-better syndrome.

I’m okay now.
I’ve come to peace with my phone.
I really don’t need an iPhone. And to solidify the claim, I haven’t stepped foot into an apple store for about a while now. Okay, that’s a lie. A new Apple store opened in my neighbor. I HAD to go visit. But I walked away before I felt the urge to sinfully splurge.

An iPhone isn’t going to improve my life.
At the end of the day, it’s just a gadget. Something that I can live without.

I came across something interesting recently.
A Rabbi said that the 10th commandment, “Thou shall not covet” is less of a commandment, and more of a reward.
He said that if you followed the first 9 commandments faithfully, you would not have any reason to covet, and therefore, live a life of non-coveting and a life of devotion to God.

I like that.
I wonder if I’ll ever come to a point where I won’t be coveting for the next new thing in the wizardly world of gadgetry.

Angry Birds Are Not Your Friends At Night

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Angry Birds

Image by sheehanpaul via Flickr

I couldn’t sleep.
How do you sleep on the eve of something big?
But here’s what you don’t do: play Angry Birds, in your bed. In the dark.
I tried to go to bed around 11p.
But I couldn’t fall asleep. I didn’t mind the tossing and turning. It’s my mind that bothered me. I just kept thinking about the interviews and playing the worst-case scenarios. It was getting me more riled up and agitated. So I decided that I needed a distraction from my thoughts. I didn’t want to go to the living room to watch TV. Didn’t want to surf the web. But, I saw that my iPod was next to me, so I decided to play Angry Birds for the first time in months. That was a little before midnight.

The next time I looked at the clock, it was 130a. Where did the time go?

Did I put it right away? Of course not. I had to beat this stage with 3 stars. But then, that turned into, “one more stage.” And next thing you know, it’s 230a. So. If you have a restless nights, Angry Birds is not, I repeat NOT, the solution.

I woke up early this morning.
Headed to church.
Had a good time of prayer and worship.
I feel good and (for now) am at a good place.

We’re going to head out in about an hour or so.

I’ll be alright.

Thank you for all your prayers, thoughts and wishes of good luck.

GoodBye iPod, Hello Radio

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My wife accidentally dropped my iPod in the toilet the other week. (Don’t ask why or how).
So I’ve been mp3 player-less. It has taken some getting used to. Didn’t realize that I don’t like many of Starbucks selection of music, or more like, the music is distracting more than anything else.

But the hardest part is the radio during while I drive.
They say a sign of getting older is criticizing the current music of the day. But seriously. I can’t stand to listen to the radio anymore. It’s bad enough that three stations play the same song at the same time. I can’t understand why songs like “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Got A Feeling” and “She-Wolf” and “Don’t Trust Me” (with a killer line: shush girl shut your lips/ do the Hellen Keller and talk with your hips) get soooooo much radio play.

My wife’s a big country fan. These past weeks, I found myself listening to country more. Only because it’s still new to me.
And while I’m at this. OMG. What’s with the Fish? My dislike of Contemporary Christian Music has gotten more intense during the past week. Half the songs on the Fish is just a really poor and generic attempt to copy what’s on the mainstream pop. And KWAVE? It’s just a bunch of sermons about Armageddon and the rapture. I love Switchfoot, but why do they insist on playing their sappiest and worst songs? Just because it sounds like Miley Cyrus doesn’t mean it’s good. Miley Cyrus isn’t good to begin with.

Maybe it’s all about control. I can’t control what I hear when I’m listening to the radio.
Maybe this is the time to start doing “grown up” stuff and listen to NPR or talk radio. Or not.

At least I still have ESPN radio in the car.

Put Away the iPod

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I’ve noticed a rather disturbing trend amongst people. Well, I guess it’s not disturbing, but more saddening.
I learn to tolerate the people who leave the bluetooth ear piece on all day. I tolerate because I’m afraid that I may become THAT GUY. Especially since California is enforcing the hands free driving law. That means no cell phones (unless using hands free set) whilst driving.

Anyway, when I see kids in the car, whether they’re sitting in the back, or sitting shotgun, a lot of them have their iPod earphones in the ear and kind of stare out the window with a blank stare. That I can understand. Car rides are boring. Mom never wants to listen to the music I want to listen to on the radio. That’s okay.

But more and more, I see kids with their iPods on at a restaurant while eating dinner. Not only kids, I went to Todais and there was this guy around my age, listening to his father talk to them during lunch, and the dude still had his iPod earphone in one of his ear.

Has it become that hard to interact with people?
I saw a couple walking together at the mall. They both had their own iPods in one of their ears. What’s the point of going shopping together?

Do we need music playing in our ear constantly?

Are we as people becoming less and less interactive with one another as technology continues to advance?
I don’t know if you’ve seen Wall-E, but I think it is very possible that humans can become like the way they’ve been portrayed. And that’s sad.
(Totally off the subject, but are there no more minorities 700 years into the future? Why were everyone is space and in the future white? Tsk, tsk Disney and Pixar)