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With a title like that, you wouldn’t expect a post about my cell phone of all things, eh?

Last night I had one of my last two finals of my undergrad collegiate career. Cool, huh? Well, to get to campus I usually use the shuttle service that’s provided for some of the off-campus areas. Instead, I decided that I’d walk to campus.

Now why would I do that, and why would I leave at 3pm? Well, this weekend on Saturday and Sunday, I’ll be taking a First Time Mediation Training through the UCF Dispute Resolution Services–two day seminar from 8:30a-5p. I thought it’d be nice to add to my resumé, as well as just in general it’d be good to undergo before even wanting to be a manager one of these years, as I’d like to eventually be able to attain.

So I leave home and along my way while I’m on an open stretch of road, it starts to rain with heavier drops. Fairly spaced out, but still heavy enough for me to start getting wet. And then, it really picked up.

For folks who aren’t from Florida, you might not understand the idea of “sideways rain.” We see it all the time over summer. Its that really fragrant and fresh rain with the heavier drops that instead of normal rain that seems to fall from a 90 or 75 degree angle (i.e. straight down, slightly from the side), you’re talking more like a 40 degree angle. And that’s what I faced.

With no shelter to even duck by or behind, I was drenched. My jean shorts were soaked through to my boxers, and my shirt was a wet mass that I was wearing that started to droop. I was thankful that my bookbag was waterproof, or so I thought, but more on that in a bit…

But in my pants, I had my cell phone, wallet, keys, pens: the usual for me. And my phone seemed alright, and I got to the parking garage and flipped open my phone and read the text that Sarah had sent me. I had made it to campus in about 30 minutes. Not bad.

Not bad? No, my phone got it bad. I went to reply to my wife’s message and my phone started freaking out as if I was adding spaces right after letters. Just horrible. It’s 3:30, I’m soaking wet, my phone is acting up, and my final is at 6. Things weren’t looking good for me.

I started looking at my phone (a Samsung m510) better. I noticed that it was primarily a few buttons that seemed affected: 3, 6, 9, #, and “Back.” Now, while that might not seem too bad, well, Sarah’s phone number was saved to speed dial on 9, and I text message a lot and that means that I’d have issues with: d, e, f, m, n, o, w, x, y, z, and “space.” Ten out of twenty-six characters. Damnit.

I couldn’t turn my phone off right away. I left it on and brought it to a bathroom and tried to use hand dryers to dry it out a bit. It mostly started to seem like it cleared up. So I called up Sprint’s customer service because *2 wasn’t affected. The gentleman I got was extremely helpful and gave me the number that I’d need to call to do a warranty replacement. Of course, that’s $50 to do that, which sucks, but still not bad. Of course, I have to run this by Sarah.

Now, its about 4ish at this point, and its still a bit frustrating and it seems to get better. If I push the 3, 6, or 9, it automatically adds a # after it. So texting is out of the question. Seriously, have you ever tried to text without using 5/13ths of the alphabet? Yeah, doesn’t really work all that well. I was able to get off “Call me” from the preset messages in one text, and then “ASAP” to Sarah, but because of the way my phone was acting up, it turned out more like–and I kid you not because I’m transcribing this from my sent messages–”Asap pjfox e o-w fox dozenyfowemen-yene my book for youfox.” Mr. Bush and Homeland Security: I swear to you that its not an encoded message and that it has no meaning. I may be critical of my government, but I’m no terrorist.

Needless to say, I finally get ahold of Sarah and she says to just wait it out and see what happens. I’d say that I agree with this, but if you know me? You know I’m addicted to my phone and I do almost everything on or with it. But seeing I can go to recent calls and access her number to call her, and any/all calls that I need to make, I can always use my GrandCentral account as a dial interface to make my calls. And because I can still receive calls, its not too bad. I could always use my wireless backup to add new numbers to the phonebook to make calls if I need to as well.

Still, I’m frustrated.

So at about 6:30 after calling Sarah after my final, I turn my phone off and leave it off. When we get home around 7 after getting dinner, I take out the battery and the memory card and let it sit on a paper towel. I powered it on last night and it seemed to be doing a little better, but still messed up. I then turned it off and re-divided up the pieces.

This morning, I turned on my phone and I crossed my fingers… And honestly?

It works.

Now, I’m not going to be like “omg, perfect like before!” I do notice that there are some differences. For one, the # key seems to falter 1 out of 7 times or so, give or take. Meaning when I’m typing messages, sometimes it doesn’t recognize when I push space all of the time. And there’s one other problem. The backlight for the keypad? Is dead. So there’s a little more battery saving right there…

All in all? I think I lucked out on this one. But if I ever text you and I’m missing a space? Yeah, now you know…

I thought I’d share something that I “just found out” now.

First off, I upgraded to Firefox 3, and I’d recommend the same. Tim, when you read this, I know we were just talking about it tonight and why I wasn’t going to, but I figured I might as well try it out. It seems mildly faster, but only negligibly so, which is nice.

Needless to say, if anyone uses GMail and has been trying to setup their “mailto: redirects” in Firefox 3, I found this nifty little guide which really helped out with that info.

Just thought I’d share that little tidbit for anyone who might be looking for it…

Oh, and for people wondering why this is in “Webmaster Woes,” I’ve just been using that as my all purpose computer one…

I’m finding myself looking forward to final exams.

I’ve got one tonight and one in 3 weeks, but because its at the end of the line? Well, I think that has something to do with it…

So I’ve been watching MSNBC like usual while working on homework and studying and preparing for a presentation tonight, and I saw this interview between Matt Lauer and Luke Russert, and it was just beautifully done… It seems to be a little slow in loading, but I’d imagine because a lot of folks are trying to access it, but wait for it, I think its worth it.

I thought it was worth sharing because its definitely something amazing. I’ve read and heard so many stories in the aftermath of Russert’s untimely passing, and just to see the interview with his son, who’s just barely younger than myself and my peers, I’ll admit that even days later I’m close to a tear or two…

I think I heard the best comment from a viewer e-mail in to Morning Joe: “It’s such a big news story that you expect Joe [Scarborough] to say ‘Coming up after the break, we’ll hear from Tim Russert on this.’”

So true.

More later when I have the time…

let a cat lick them!

For this sunday’s Sunday Share, I thought I’d share a little video clip that I took this Thursday with my cell phone. As you can see, that’s my cat Cassandra licking my feet. So to all fathers out there? Kick back your own feet and relax and have a great Sunday there.

Recently, I haven’t been listening to as much music as people know me for. Instead of leaving on a different album here or there, I’d have my TV on and be watching MSNBC out of the corner of my eye whenever I was at my computer.

But, as I’ve been finding a few new albums, I’ve been taking the time to stop and listen to them and try to absorb them, as well as moving through a few older albums…

So, I ask of you friends:

What bands/albums that have been keeping your days and lives running?

I’ll come back with some of my answers later in the week…

Just another Friday that I find myself drowning in the homework and schoolwork that I should have been doing over the course of the week that I’ve been nit-picking at slowly. The truth of the matter is, I’m a horrible procrastinator: I can jump the horns of a bull anytime, but I’m still working on that organizational skill that keeps me on task.

I think we’re all like that, though. Its much easier than we think it is, but sometimes we just don’t want to sit down and “do it.” Its much easier to just slack off a little, enjoy ourselves now, and then come back to it.

That’s where it all happens… Or so I think.

Maybe more insightful tomorrow…

Not much for today, seeing I had a paper that I submitted and I’m in the library right now, studying for a midterm. But, that’s what happens when school is a responsibility… Needless to say, the title of this post refers to my day. For all of my time on the UCF campus, I always walked by the Clip Joint hair salon. In dire need of a hair cut, I stopped in today. Not only was it a good cut–one of the better ones I’ve had–but it was reasonably priced, costing me $15 including tip.

Long tale short, stop along the way sometimes. You never know what you might always be passing by…

I found a guitarist the other day that really caught my ear and eye. The guy’s name is Newton Faulker. Your best bet is searching for him on YouTube.

Which the only reason I suggest that is because he’s a red haired, dredlocked musician who has phenomenal guitar skills… But when I listen to his album, Hand Built By Robots, I wouldn’t know half of the stuff he was doing if I hadn’t of watched him do a video or two.

And that’s the interesting thing as a whole which is sad. I’ve run across guitarists like him who have amazing technique, but if you didn’t watch them play? You wouldn’t know it.

I really don’t have much today… Still brain-fried with a ton of stuff, but I promise I’ll have some good stuff soon… I hope.

Thank you ever so much for making something as awesome as your Chai Hai energy drink. While I had one yesterday to compliment the double strength Rock Star from that morning and the Sugar Free Rip It A’tomic Pom from that afternoon, I’ve got two more in my fridge and even though I just finished another A’tomic Pom, you really sound good right about now as I’m finishing off my second Wall Street Journal assignment for Capstone.

You see, my dear Chai Hai, your caffeinated goodness of doom is what will be helping me get through these next few days. With a paper due in my International Management class on Thursday, the WSJ assignment due tonight, a mid-term to do before Friday in Capstone, and a paper to start assembling for Capstone for next Tuesday? This week is perfect for your assistance.

P.S. I might have to call you up again next week, my dear sugary and milky tea energy drink friend: I have two presentations and a final exam next week, and I know that you of all things will assist me. In this modern era, why should I be concerned with this thing we call “sleep” and “well-rested” when I can find my joy contained within your 16 ounce cylinder of recycled aluminum.

P.P.S. Don’t feel bad when I cheat on you with a Rockstar Juiced when I’m on campus. They just don’t have you, my friend… They just don’t have you…

The following conversation took place on the afternoon of June 7th via AIM. Screennames have been reverted to real names to not protect the individuals involved…

(4:18:08 PM) Glenn Matlin: Holy shit
(4:18:09 PM) Glenn Matlin: Dude
(4:18:25 PM) Glenn Matlin: Some RNC operative or someone just released the video of obama’s wife dropping the whitey and other racial stuff
(4:18:28 PM) Glenn Matlin: It’s pretty heavy
(4:18:31 PM) Glenn Matlin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZi6U811hxE
(4:18:33 PM) Glenn Matlin: Not good
(4:18:38 PM) Adam J. Cohen: ::shakes head:: oy vey
(4:18:47 PM) Glenn Matlin: Im not looking forward to this
(4:19:24 PM) Adam J. Cohen: rick roll?
(4:19:28 PM) Glenn Matlin: :3
(4:19:33 PM) Adam J. Cohen: ass
(4:19:34 PM) Adam J. Cohen: hahaha
(4:19:35 PM) Glenn Matlin: My work is done here
(4:19:48 PM) Glenn Matlin: Best RR ever. I fell for it bad
(4:19:53 PM) Adam J. Cohen: i didn’t even listen to it
(4:19:58 PM) Glenn Matlin: wtf.
(4:20:03 PM) Adam J. Cohen: i just was about to put my headphones on
(4:20:07 PM) Glenn Matlin: Son of a bitch
(4:20:08 PM) Adam J. Cohen: and i saw the still of her
(4:20:11 PM) Glenn Matlin: Unsuccessful RR
(4:20:11 PM) Adam J. Cohen: and then the rick roll
(4:20:12 PM) Adam J. Cohen: hahaha
(4:20:21 PM) Adam J. Cohen: haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha
(4:20:22 PM) Adam J. Cohen: pwn
(4:20:24 PM) Glenn Matlin: Its not an RR w/o the singing and the opening badumpadump
(4:20:27 PM) Glenn Matlin: fine fine w/e
(4:20:29 PM) Glenn Matlin: ok studying
(4:20:30 PM) Glenn Matlin has signed off.

Little did I know, when I successfully pulled the “Rick Roll” on my friend Ben, that there really was rumors about this tape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtdc-cHFnf0

Truth of the matter is, if there really is a tape like this? Well, I’m sure that somewhere around McCain dropped a racial term or two in his past. There’s an interesting truth to the fact that just because there’s a tape out there that supposedly its real.

But what I think I find even more interesting is the more and more I hear about these Clinton supporters flocking away from Hillary to McCain? I wonder how many of them are paid bloggers for McCain. I know that there were 18 million voters and probably hundreds of thousands of more supporters, but I really wonder how many of them really were supporters or were just paid to give that illusion. The internet’s “mask of identity” sort of allows people to do that. And when you see sites like WriteHillaryIn.com or Hillaryis44.org, it really makes me think. I see the comments everywhere and because anyone could be anyone else, well, there’s no telling. And before anyone suggests, I already checked the domain registrations and they’re private by proxy, so there’s no way of really knowing (unless someone would like to delve into it further)…

The fact of the matter is this, and I said it before and I’ll use my analogy again:
This isn’t a game or a set of playoff brackets where you root for Team M because Team O beat your team, Team C.

The differences between Hillary and McCain are so vast and deep and for folks to keep running their mouths about how they’ll support Hillary to the end and are posting wherever they can “McCain ‘08, Hillary ‘12,” really makes me wonder about the future of this country…

Even still, that’s a rant for another time…

I was laughing yesterday when I started talking about upkeep and housekeeping around here because lord knows I need to do the same thing on my computer. Since a reinstall of a number of things and a complete wipe by a friend a few years ago, my old Gateway desktop has not only a 40gig drive that it came with, but a 150gig drive that he put in for me as a “data drive.” So all of my music sits on a 150gig drive with my documents, raw waves, movies, etc. All of that fun stuff. The truth, though, is that I’ve been running out of space. See, I don’t have a DVD burner, just an old CD burner on my computer. Add to that the fact that I have 15,698 songs on my computer, and most of them are in multiple formats from when I converted from WinAmp to iTunes and iTunes then converted over my collection. So I’ve got 2-3 versions of the same song on my computer.

I have two weeks at the end of July that I think I might need to go through and find all of these extra files and get rid of them. Why? Well, I had 44megs free on that drive last night. I deleted some old backup wav files from music that I had recorded and already mixed down, but I was only able to clean up about 8gigs worth of space.

So come those two weeks in July? I think its time that I get a DVD burner and burn off some of the movies I have, then clean up these duplicates, and maybe get a bigger external drive to backup stuff onto. And probably delete some of the music that I have that I don’t need. I mean, who really does need to have Milli Vanilli on their computer? My point exactly…

I started thinking about it, and the more I write, I’ve been getting a few comments here on the site, and a few over on my LJ feed, but I’ve not allowed any comments on my LJ. I always thought it’d be better for folks to come on over here and have accounts and be able to comment about whatever. But, I think as a whole, why have my feed and my journal on your friends list if you’re over there, eh? So I’m opening it up where you can actually comment on my LJ entries. Its only about time.

Next up, I’ll be (hopefully) working on some new recordings soon. So if you have an account on my site, make sure you can log into it. If you have issues, please contact me and I’ll fix it.

Finally, come August, I’m going to be in need of a few guest writers for a few weeks when I’ll be away from a computer for a good period of time there… If anyone would be up for that, let me know. Same goes for folks who have guested for me in the past.

And a double historical note as I close this: Today marks the 40th anniversary of RFK’s passing (shot on June 5th, held on for a day, passed on June 6th) and the 64th anniversary of D-Day. Everyday has something historic to it. Sometimes, we need to stop and remember. Today, we should definitely do both: for the men who stormed the beach for our freedoms and for the man who followed in his brother’s footsteps and ushered in change…

The other day, I got a random text message from my old college roommate, Rob. And sorry that I butchered it, Rob, but I think I got the spirit of your question right:

If you had to single-handedly REVIVE a band, who would you choose:
Donnie Osmond or Winger?

Really?

Read more

For those who watched last night around 10pm when Obama took the stage in St. Paul, Minnesota, he had crossed the “magic number” that we kept referring to. Beautifully done speech, I watched it and felt just as inspired as I’ve always been. I sat in class, refreshing an article on MSNBC.com on my cell phone, just to watch as the superdelegates rolled in and the delegate margin to 2118 got smaller and smaller. I know that the AP reported around 4 or 5pm that Obama clinched the nomination, but I like waiting for the MSNBC/NBC count, just for the sole reason that they wait for official confirmation and public announcements before making any calls at all as to what way anyone is supporting. And with that? A more conservative and accurate count, I believe.

As of today, we are starting the official McCain versus Obama for the 2008 general election. So honestly, what’s next? What’s on the horizon? Here’s a brief rundown…

1) What’s the deal with Clinton? - She still hasn’t suspended or conceded. She’s skirted around acknowledgment of Obama’s goal and has said she’s going to “make a decision but not [Tuesday night].” At any rate, the question will be when she concedes, what will happen? Will she be the VP candidate? Will she turn it down? If I had any sort of answer, I’d say it here. Only she, Bill, and Chelsea know.
2) What’s going on with the veepstakes? - The “veepstakes,” or the race for the vice presidential nomination, is one that is a carefully crafted one. I’ll get into it a bit more, but it has to be done right to balance out the candidate with qualities that they’re missing. For example: McCain needs someone who’ll reach more to the Republican evangelical conservative base who’s younger; Obama needs someone who has the policy experience and is a trusted face that can bring in the white working-class voters he’s had problems with. I’ll devote an entry to a few of the names when I see short-lists come out from each candidate. Oh, and before you ask “what’s a short-list,” its just as it sounds: a short list of names of possible candidates.
3) What’s going to go on now? - Well, both McCain and Obama have reached the required number of delegates as per each of their committee’s rules for the primary system used to select candidates. From there, we just wait till the conventions (DNC in Denver end of August; RNC in St. Paul, Minnesota in September) and for the candidates to be officially vetted and then the tickets solidified and started to run a full campaign. While both candidates will establish stronger positions–like Obama with the AIPAC and McCain stumping in a town hall format, both happening today–they’ll just mostly be running around and watching each other and starting basic attacks.
4) What are these “formats?” - This is the final thing I’ll cover for the time being, anything else would be nit-picking… These are my rough definitions, so don’t count them as definitive:
Appearance: Just a “show up and leave” type of thing. Maybe an opening speech, but nothing much at all.
Ceremony: Awards something to someone. Pompous. More just for the sake of being there.
Debate: Candidates facing off against each other in a moderated forum, attempting to one-on-one attack on varied issues.
Forum: A goal based meeting usually on a certain topic or agenda.
Fundraiser: Entry cost to get in. Usually centers around paying per seat or paying per plate.
House Party: Closed private events to give more of a one-on-one with the candidate.
Meeting: Usually means a gathering of the party minds to discuss issues. Usually closed doors events.
Party Event: Sponsored by the political party, but can be any of the above. Usually some sort of rally or fundraiser.
Rally: Think of this as a combination of an appearance and a speech and a party event. Its a massive gathering to boost campaign morals with big name lead-ins before launching into a “current events” style recap.
Speech: Usually policy based. Against a plain background or a presidential setting (blue curtain & flags on stands), its a 20+ minute delivery with few to no questions at the end to state serious points or ideas.
Town Hall: Styled after the old town hall meetings with one speaker and 200-400 people in the audience able to ask anything of the speaker, this is a fairly common-stance situation nowadays.
Whiste-stop: Mentioned mostly by the press, this is just when a candidate is blowing through a good number of cities for appearances left and right. So its just an appearance on steroids. Comes from the old happenstance of trains just stopping at the stations and the candidates giving speeches from the back before the train continues along the tracks.

For now, though, I’ll probably return to my fairly mundane average posts till I have more to say. So to everyone who found me and added me expecting more of the same? Please stick around, it might be a while, but I’ll make it worthwhile when I do come back to more of these politics posts.

But as a whole? I’m going to say something that I said last night on my MySpace as a bulletin.

As I’ve said in the past, I fully support and endorse Barack Obama myself and I will campaign and promote him as much as I can because he is my support to be the fourty fourth President of the United States. While I write these posts, I will read into McCain and try to present him and his views as I can, seeing a lot of my upcoming posts will be policy/position based for each of them.

But last night when Obama clinched the nomination, I heard a lot of friends of mine say immediately “Well, if Obama’s the nominee, I feel sorry for Hillary. Fuck it, I’m voting for McCain.” Right here and right now, I will say this and I mean this dearly: Hillary Clinton is a phenomenal woman and an amazing politician. She holds an uncontested position of power within our government in the Senate and whatever role she has in government as a cabinet or elsewhere.

But I’d like to simply state this, and I’d like for people to be clear on this: just because she’s not the nominee doesn’t mean you should immediately vote against the nominee because they won. Its not like a playoff bracket where you root for Team M because Team O beat your team, Team C. This isn’t a game.

This year, we have a chance to change the face of America as we know it for all of history. I highly encourage each and everyone who stumbles across this blog to sit down and think about what’s going on in your life and what issues concern you and then to see what each candidate has to say about these issues. Really think this through and don’t go with the visceral urge to vote with a playoff rooting mentality. Please, please, please read about what’s going on and take an interest because we’re picking someone who’ll be controlling the direction of this company at least the next four years. We’ll be picking someone who’ll be in charge while myself and many of my peers are finishing school, finding their first job, buying their first house, and starting a family. Look at each of these candidates and read through their policies and their records and their histories. Make sure that the person that you choose supports your interests. Make sure that your views are represented in what they’re running for. Most of all, make sure that you’re picking someone whose records go with what they say and how they say it and not just someone who’s pandering to a group of voters to draw attention. I know that this takes a bit of research and a bit of time, but you’re making an important decision here.

This, is all I ask. That you be educated and from that, you vote.

Thanks folks, enjoy your Wednesdays…

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About The Site


Thanks for stopping by, folks! My name is Adam J. Cohen, and I'm a guitarist/songwriter in Champaign, IL, recently relocated from Orlando, FL where I'm a UCF grad. Here, you'll find vignettes on my life, setlists and show reviews, and whatever else crosses my mind. Enjoy!

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