Keep Right, Pass Left

Kindly Driving Advice via uwvark27

If you are in the fast lane and aren't passing anyone, move over.
If you are in the fast lane and someone is directly behind you, move over.
If you are in the fast lane and people are moving into the right lane to get around you, move over.
If no one is in the right lane and you are in a long line of cars in the left lane, move over.
There is no pride in driving. Don't get the attitude that 'I am driving fast enough' and stay in the fast lane blocking others. There is always someone driving faster than you whether you agree with it or like it or not. Pull over for a second and let them go by then you can pull back and proceed.

If you change lanes, use your turn signal. This includes turning into the turning lane.
Use your turn signal to turn even if you are in a turning lane and you think it should be obvious. Believe it or not, that's not always the case. Using it removes all doubt.
Put your turn signal on before you start turning. This is intended to be a warning to other drivers. Once you start it's obvious what you're doing so putting your turn signal on then is kind of pointless although then we do know for sure what's going on and you're not just weaving around willy nilly.

If everyone lets one car in front of them at a merge point then we don't need to stop the whole works. That's why it's called 'Merging'.

They put the 'Maintain Sped Thru Tunnel' signs there for a reason. Please heed them.

Informative article about older drivers and how long they should keep driving

Today was a Good Day

2010/07/19 didn't start that great. It certainly didn't get any better in the next few hours but I do consider it to be a good day. Let's see what happened.

First I woke up. I was still tired. I stayed up late all weekend and wasn't able to fall asleep early enough to get enough rest. Not good.
I got to work and the lady from the Westmoreland County Clerk of Courts called me back about a letter I got on Saturday. They say I owe them $575 for me being on probation for 23 months between 1996 and 1998. Apparently whether this is made up or not or a 12 year charge or not, I have to pay it even though this is the first I've ever heard of it.
I also looked up obtaining an immigrant visa for my fiancée. That costs $455 to submit a form. Yes you read that right.

You could definitely say my day didn't start off that great.

After I finished my work and went home though things really started to happen. I was waiting for this and I jumped right in. Since it was possible for me to sit and the computer and get stuff done without Isaac bothering me (he was at his mother's this week) that's exactly what I did. I was just in the zone when I got home and I feel I made the most of it. I did branch around and do a lot of smaller tasks not my 'main list of things' but the bottom line was that things got accomplished.

• I ended up making progress on one of my work related goals.
• I started a LinkedIn profile.
• I started cleaning up the mess that is the 'My Documents' folder on my desktop PC.
• I messed with my Delicious toolbar and made it way more useful and productive.
• I updated the progress on a bunch of my Goals.

It seems like I did so much more too but I guess most of those 5 items there are a lot more detailed than the one sentence description I gave there. My main point here was that doing all that made me very happy. It was a few weeks since the last time I had a day like that. If I could find a way to increase the number of those days I'm certain that things would really start happening for me. Alejandra was with me last time and I was sad that she wasn't this time but that's cool. She was at a belly dancing performance. I would like to see one of those live someday soon but it's okay because she will be with me later this week.
Right now when I don't have Isaac we take out 3 days to 'Be Productive' - 1) Work related goals, 2) learning Spanish and 3) learning development by hobbyist programming. I can't wait until all my hard work on these areas pay off. :D

I need a new phone

Well despite all the news going around right now about the iPhone 4's reception problems I went out to the AT&T store the other day (07/14) and ordered one. I had to. I had a bit of an accident with my almost 2 year old 3G.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Me and my friend, Lana, were standing outside of work that day and we were underneath the awning in front of the door. She was talking about doing pull ups on the beams holding up the awning. She is short and I didn't even think she could reach it but whatever. I didn't think it would hold up to anyone hanging on it but I wondered if I could reach it. I jumped and touched it no problem. Unfortunately for me my phone was in the breast pocket of my shirt and jumping like that caused it to fly out. It sort of hit my shoe and the hard cement at the same time and the glass shattered. I had a screen protector on so right now it still works. I think it's the only thing holding the glass together at this point. I am very bummed and kind of shocked that happened. I took such good care of it for this long.

WHAT DID YOU DO?

I went right to the AT&T store after I picked up Isaac and did a few errands after work. It was kind of busy but I got my turn eventually and the lady was very nice and helpful. I knew I bought the Applecare plan but she told me I was going to have to go thru Apple directly to make a claim on that and that would cost money and be a pain and yadda yadda yadda. That wasn't going to do me any good so I did not get it on the new phone. It would be $199 to get the same phone (which didn't make sense), $99 to upgrade to a 3GS and $199 to get a 16GB 4. I knew before I even got here what I was doing. I ordered a 4. It would take a week to get here and because UPS needs you to sign for it I had it shipped to the store directly for me to just pick up. I was trying to convince her that I couldn't use this broken phone for a week and asked her if they had any loaners. I guess they don't do that and I'll have to deal. :|

I don't know what to think about this issue with the dropped calls. It seems to me this issue is more media driven trying to put a dent in the iPhone party. I don't know anyone who is having this issue. I was kind of forced into getting this because of the accident. I hope it is not a tough fix and that it ships to the store repaired before I even pick it up. There is a press conference today in a few hours that Apple will announce what their plans are. I'll note what they say here and when I find out how that affects me.

UPDATE:
It actually took 2 weeks to get here and I had to deal with my crappy broken phone for that much longer. Now that it is here though it was awesome. It's like a brand new phone but one that I already know how to use. I do get a free case which I already downloaded the app to order it.