October 2009

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beautiful lips and infinite sadness

October 30, 2009 by osteoderm | 1 comment

Dear Miss Zellweger,

Last night I had the most interesting dream about you, well, about you and I. We had met somewhere, taken a train together, and later taken together the views from some windowed place. I had admired you some long while as we sat -near, but not really together- in those low canvas slingback chairs, eyes narrowed against the seawind, seasalt, and seaview of some Connecticut beach.
I felt that we were friends, save for a certain formality; I thought of you as Renée, and yet never addressed you as such. I felt nervous around you; not for your star-power, but for your lips pursed against the wind, and the incredible loneliness wafting from your eyes, and for the want I had to say to you:
How beautiful you are! and why such sadness? But the words are never said, never spoken, and in morning I wake and rise, pedal away to the coffeeshop, letting cool predawn airs wash away the image of your fingers trailing in the sand, and my own little fears of finding out why.

But At Peace,

Me

Reviews

October 17, 2009 by osteoderm | No comments

Yes, yes, reviews. I find myself making more and more purchases online these days (does anyone else get sick of walking into retail stores and hearing, “Oh yes, we carry that, but we don’t stock it… But we could order it for you!”).
Part of online shopping is reading as many peer reviews as you can stand. I like to get a wide cross-section to flatten out any bias, but it’s still hard to find frank and direct reviews written by neither either elitest snob haters nor cross-eyed gibbering fanboys.
So I’m doing my part, and writing up a few reviews of stuff I’ve picked up, with a focus on picking up on those facets not covered anywhere else I’ve encountered; the little everyday things that most reviewers miss, the stuff that only shows up after a little hard usage and time.
Yes, boring stuff for many of my three regular readers, but maybe useful for some other practical online shoppers out there.

I taught him everything he knows

October 17, 2009 by osteoderm | 1 comment

Okay, maybe not everything. But I am taking credit for introducing him to second-curtain flash-sync and slow shutter pans.
Because of this, and because he’s my buddy, I always take a moment to flip through all the mountain bike mags at the bookstore whenever I can, hoping to see some awesome centerfold gloryshot.
Yesterday, it happened for me: a John Wellburn gatefold in Bike Magazine. Fuck yeah.
Now they’ve got a few of his shots available as free desktop image downloads.

Reviewed: Seidio Case for Palm Pre

October 17, 2009 by osteoderm | No comments

After over a week of delicately shuffling my new Pre from one carefully-emptied pocket to another, fiddling with the supplied faux-leather sleeve, etc., I ordered up a skin and holster. Then I ordered another.

I tried out a few at Best Buy, and they all sucked. Unlike the otherwise brick-like iPhone or Blackberry, the curvy and sliding Pre is hard to wrap a useful protective surface around. I went back to the internet, read a slew of reviews, and ordered the Seidio Innocase Surface sleeve and Innocase Holster from pre|central.
The Surface sleeve is great. I got mine in flat black; the exact same shade/texture as the Pre Touchstone back cover. The cover snaps on in two pieces with these tiny precise tabs, no problem. The cover works well enough with the Touchstone; the magnetic attraction is a bit diminished (the phone sometimes needs an additional nudge to find “home”), but the charging seems to work just as well as without the cover.

The Innocase holster I got is the one specifically made to fit the Pre with the Surface cover attached. This combination has pros and cons:
The screen is very protected, as the extra .6mm of the cover keeps the screen from making any contact with the already-felt-protected face of the holster.
However, the spring clip of the holster bumps over/around the cutouts on the top of the cover, by the power, mute slider, and audio port. No marks on the cover or phone yet, but the action is less smooth than otherwise.
The belt clip on the holster is very good: positive rotating detents, strong clip spring, and a pronounced hook on the clip. This will not fall off your pants.
The sole major failing of the holster is in the way the retaining clip is attached to the body of the holster; with the Pre removed from the holster, the empty holster is a Snag-O-Matic seatbelt- coat- door- and countetopr-grabbing Claw of Self-Destruction, and the retaining clip only lasted me two days before snapping off. It is simultaneously perfectly designed to hold the Pre securely when in place, and woefully unable to withstand any other stress with the Pre removed.
However, everything else is so good, I couldn’t help but immediately order an exact replacement from pre|central, who, by the way, have provided me with nothing but quick, simple, and direct service. I’m trying my best to be more careful with the new holster…

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