Eeeee! We did it! We did it! The future is now, and it’s pretty damned cool. I do think we saved money, all in all, because in the past four or five years we have bought two iPods, one digital camera, and two bog-standard cellphones. That’s all. So now the iPhones have taken the place of all the iPods, Blackberries, cameras and GPS’s that we could have bought. And they’re very, very spiff.
We got them Saturday morning, after the tumult and shouting had died, so I don’t have pictures of the baseball game that we attended on Friday night. It was hardly a squeaker; 9-2 for the Oakland A’s (they were playing the L.A. Angels) but we had really good seats* and one of the friends we went with was an extreme fan who was recording info in code on a big score sheet and everything, so she explained the finer points to us. And there was good food and beer.** And there was a fireworks show afterwards that was awesome! The pyrotechical state-of-the-art has come a long way since I last saw a big show.
And then Saturday was that Relay for Life, which was a good, if tiring, time. I did have my iPhone by then, so I took some pictures and was able to answer people’s idle questions about celebrity gossip and music lyrics! It’s the aspiring know-it-all’s dream technology! And our team raised just over $4,000, I think, both from straight-up donations (thanks, Chad!) and from the sale of various knitted items at the event. Each team had an area on the inside of the relay track where it could set up a booth to sell stuff, tents to rest in, whatever, and the only rule was that all money raised had to go to the Cancer Society. So we sold hats. Here are pictures of our booth, some of the hats, and the final lap at the end of the relay (most of the tents etc. had been taken down but you still can see a few to the right)
Oh, and we saw Hellboy 2 and it was really quite good. I want to go see it again; del Toro creates such… complicated visuals that it takes me a few passes to really appreciate them. Especially in the Troll Market scene, I badly wanted to be able to pause and zoom. I maintain that the animated Hellboy features are just as good as the first Hellboy live-action movie, but for this story, I don’t think that that simple Samurai Jack style of animation (as much as I like it) would work as well. Maybe it’s just a question of which I saw first, but del Toro’s rich visuals are really successful in making this other, parallel world believably present but different.*** Anyway, even apart from the spectacle, the story and acting were solid. Like Miyazaki’s stories, there wasn’t really a “bad” guy, just people doing what they think is right. Two thumbs up.
* So good that I was a bit nervous about being killed by a pop fly ball. It could happen!
** Good, expensive food and beer. I guess the baseball people have realized what the movie theatre people realized a while ago; you don’t make money on tickets, you make money on the concession and souvenirs.
*** If del Toro did a version of Neverwhere, I think my head would explode with glee.
Yay! You now have no excuses not to give us pictures of your adventures. :)
I am, of course, jealous of your iPhonage but moreso of your superior coverage and your not-retarded plans. It just makes no sense to have one up here.
And yes, baseball seems like the perfect sport to have an iPhone for. I mean, in football or hockey, looking at your phone might mean you miss something important, but not baseball. Watching baseball, something to keep you awake is a real asset!
"Watching baseball, something to keep you awake is a real asset!"
I agree and actually, I brought knitting. The game was more exciting than I thought it would be (i.e. better than watching televised baseball) but not near as exciting as hockey. Or lacrosse.
The The Angels Angels!
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Bananaphone!
I upgraded to iPhone 2.0 yesterday (day before maybe?).. I sure hope it works better for you than it does for me. Oof.