friends

No I’m not getting an iPhone today. Nor will I be getting one tomorrow. Verizon has decided to punish me and every one of their existing customers for Apple’s innovation by making sure to enforce to their dying breath the 2-year contracts we signed. So, I won’t be getting an iPhone for about a year. But, I will be bad-mouthing Verizon in the interim.

Constantly. Whenever the chance comes up.

Now, that being said, I’m okay missing out on this Apple insanity. Mainly because, no matter how bad Verizon is (did I mention that they’re really, really bad?), AT&T, the exclusive wireless carrier for the iPhone, is worse. They’ve been documented installing equipment in their central offices to allow the NSA to snoop on their customers’ internet connections. Didn’t Verizon do this as well? Probably, but at least they are saying the right things, like how they’d never allow wiretapping of their customers without a warrant. AT&T just shrugged their shoulders and said that if you aren’t doing anything illegal, you have nothing to worry about.

Uh huh, heard that one before.

So, to my friends that are getting their iPhones tonight, please see my entry on FireGPG and think twice before sending me any e-mail from your shiny new device without encrypting it first.

Because J is such a good sport and because the band he’s in, The Skullcranes, is so freakin’ good, they get the trackoday nod.

CDBaby | iTunes | YouTube

Love Them From The Skullcranes by The Skullcranes from Wt. Trashmore

I always insist to the band that this is their hit song and that they’ll be obligated to play it during every stop on their State Fair/Indian Casino tours in 20 years. I really do believe that this is the “radio hit” on the album, but the band rarely plays it live. Maybe they’re already getting sick of playing it or maybe they’re just afraid of success. Whatever the reason, it’s probably good to save it while only their friends are screaming for it live. After all, friends can forgive them their “artistic temperament.”

The picture is taken with a cell phone by our friend J (who’s in the amazing band, The Skullcranes). Jennifer and I missed the show because we both got sick during the day on Monday. By Tuesday we had dropped off the face of the earth (but luckily, not our bed).

We’re back in the land of the living now and hopefully The Hip will be back at least one more time. Apologies to J and Lisa for the short cancellation notice. We owe you.

My friend Jef (who runs an amazing online game of nomic called Nomicron using his mad Java Kung Fu) said one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a long time last night while we were running around Azeroth.

God is mad at Kansas for not teaching Evolution.