Monday, October 17, 2011


            Today is October 17, 2011 and I guess autumn is here to stay, well, at least until December 21st. It was 43 degrees this morning, and even though I had my window open all night I was as snug as a bug in a rug. I had taken my down blanket out and have been using it for the past week. I decided that I am not going to turn on the heat until it gets cold. Well, the heat is on, but it has been staying warm enough, in the house, so that the heat really doesn’t have a chance to come on.
            I kind of have been feeling under the weather for the last three weeks or so. I can down with, maybe, an URI. I went to Urgent Care two weeks ago got some meds and felt better after about a week. I went and played racquetball, but I couldn’t really catch my breath. I had a whole lot of energy, but no breath. Lost all my games that day, but I played hard.
            Now, my throat just hurt, more like scratchy. I got my cough syrup and cough drops and I am ready to go. Gotta play racquetball tomorrow, I just hope I can breathe. And to top it off I haven’t been to the gym in about four weeks. I want to go back and probably will this coming Wednesday. I just feel weird all around, because of not working out.
Anyway, speaking of weird, I have been meaning to write all the weird stuff I have seen or gone though, the past two week down but haven’t done so, for some mysterious reason. So, here it is as I have remembered.
            Anyway, I had to go to the supermarket and get some supplies; it looks to be a long winter for me. I decided to get some cereal and noticed that the store had a 2 for sale. I walked in the aisle and noticed three little kids and their father doing the cereal thing. They had on T-shirts and shorts.
            But that’s not the weird thing. In the aisle was a woman, looking at the cereal boxes. I had to stop and look at her for a moment because she had a winter coat on, a large, long and thick red scarf and a thick red wool cap on. The scarf was covering her mouth and nose and you could only see her eyes.
            I wanted to say something but I just looked at her. Besides she was in the spot where my favorite cereal was located. I saw something else, a little beyond her and went and got it. As I went back to my cart the lady pulled her scarf from her face and asked me if I could reach the only and last box of cereal, of her choice, on the shelf.
            I agreed and got it for her, but it was what I liked too. So, I told her, kidding of course, that I was taking it. She kind of laughed and I handed to her. But, I had to ask anyway…I said to her, “Is it that cold in the store?”
            She kind of giggled and said, “I can’t breathe the air outside.”
I responded, “Okay, then why are you outside?” She pulled her scarf back up over her face and walked away.
I also started bowling about six ago. Anyway, this past Sunday, and I gotta figure out what the heck I am doing or my team mates are going to kick me off the team before I quit. I bowled a 139, first game, 168 the second game and a 161 the last game. I am getting frustrated to no means end. I gotta get focused. Now if I can remember what I did that week so I can bowl better this next Sunday. And to top it off, I still couldn’t catch my breath.
Other than that, only one other weird thing happened last week, well, not really weird. But it is becoming more common as it gets colder, as I sat on my bed, to put my socks on so I could go out and get my mail, I looked out the window at the lake across the street and I saw a bunch of deer.
They stopped, in the opening, and looked around for a few seconds…where is my camera when I needed it, or for that matter, my cell phone camera. They were gone a few seconds later. I gotta remember to keep that phone with me. When I first moved into my house I saw deer, maybe three of them, in my backyard. And in the last couple of months, as I run I have seen them along the lake. Maybe I should carry my camera with me when I run. Oh well…

Friday, October 14, 2011


Today is October 14, 2011 and I have had my Motorola Droid Bionic for a few days less than 30 days, now. After 18 months I replace my original Motorola Droid with the Bionic. I would have to say, I like it, but…

To be honest with you, there are only a few things that are different between the two. And those few things are what I like about the new Bionic. I like the fact that it’s a lot slimmer and has a larger screen, 4.3 inches qHD display versus 3.7 for the Droid, and The Bionics’ screen is a lot brighter and easier on the eyes, considering I still have to wear my glasses to see it.

Another thing I like about this phone, it’s on Verizon’s 4G LTE network. Don’t ask me what that mean, this is the 21st century and that’s the way it is for now or until the next incarnation of speed for smartphones come into fruition. I mean this phone is fast. Unlike my old Droid, I downloaded most of my apps; I would have to say more than 25 in about 5 minutes. It would have taken all day at 3G speeds.

One of the killers, it seems, is battery life. I know my old Droid I could charge it up all night, unplug it at 7 a.m. and the charge would last until about 7 p.m. or about 12 hours. Now, that usually amounts to about one 10 minute phone call, a half-hour of games, maybe an hour on the internet, using Wi-Fi and the phone would have been drained. And if I had to go out on the road, let’s say the park, the battery would die by 1p.m.

In the month that I have had my New Bionic, I have taken note, the battery has lasted up to 17 hours and still had 10 percent or more of a charge left. Even out on the road I get a longer battery life. But, now that I think about it, I use my phone over Wi-Fi, because I am retired and five days out of the week I am usually at home. Well, besides going to the gym every day and the supermarket and stuff like that. All in all this is the best battery life I have had on any of the phones I have had in the last, well since I had my first cell phone.

One of the things that just burns my whistle, the camera. There is a noticeable shutter lag, meaning when you push the button you have about a second or two before it takes the picture. Even though it has an 8 megapixel camera versus 5 megapixels for the Droid, I think the pictures look about the same. The quality is very good, if I don’t say so myself. But the lag sometimes causes the pictures to blur, and I don’t think is takes macro photos. Not sure about that, I am going to have to read more about it in the manual. I know my old Droid did.

I read in a review, on Cnet.com, that they were hesitant in recommending the Droid Bionic because of the cost of the phone, which starts at $299.99 with a two-year contract with Verizon. But, I got a bunch of discounts and got my phone for $219.99, not bad. But what really attracted me to this phone, the accessories! I love the fact that it comes with a laptop dock, that’s what turned me on to this phone, but the laptop dock cost $299.99, which is far lower than the laptop dock that comes with ATT’s Atrix which cost $500!

One of the things that I hated about my old Droid, it only had 512MB of ROM and only 256MB of ram, but it did come with a 16GB memory card. The only problem with that, most apps couldn’t be put onto the memory card, so it was short on what apps you could add. I had to delete a lot of apps just to use a newer app. And its slide out keyboard was crappy, I couldn’t type on it to save my life, my fingers were just too big. But, you could use the virtual keyboard, which I liked anyway.

The Droid Bionic doesn’t come with a slide out keyboard, it has a virtual keyboard. What makes it handy it is loaded with Swype another app I love. You can type with one finger using Swype. The Bionic also comes with a 16GB memory card and 16GB of internal memory! I love it! I can add a 32GB card, if I have the money for one, also. But I am fine with what I have so far. I don’t think I have to add more apps. I like what I have now, but there is room, just in case.

So far a better phone, but it, as it seems, probably will change. Every year there is a newer phone on the market that will change everything that I expect in a phone. I have a two year contract so I will be happy with this one for a while. I would guess the only thing that will out do the Droid Bionic will be if they come out with a phone that you wear on your arm with a 3-D image. I can’t wait for that.