The good news — summarized below, with my addendum in parenthesis — is that you might be entitled to some cash for the hassle.

“Depending upon the evidence that you submit with your claim (receipts or credit card statements), and other factors (time before failure and whether or not you contacted Motorola about it), you may be entitled to reimbursement for the cost of a replacement phone, repairs to your phone and/or the cost of a replacement charger.”

You’ll need to file a claim to be reimbursed. For a lot more information — including the official Notice, Claim Form, a listing of affected models, and the specifics on reimbursement — check out motorolaclaimsadministrator.com.

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Me: I think — after due consideration — that my laundry could have been done by now, thus it’s time to put it in.
B: yes, I think you might want to go take care of that.
B: b/c speaking from personal experience, it wont’ do itself.
Me: the scientists need to get on that
B: I told you about J’s washer/dryer combo, right?
B: I think the scientists are getting closer by the day to laundry that will do itself.
Me: better would be clothes that doesn’t get dirty in the first place
Me: and the next step would be to apply similar findings to people
B: yeah, but by then, you’re really asking for the MOON
Me: thus, showers would become for relaxation only

Granted, such a technology could put the laundry detergent people out of business. Probably a large portion of the personal grooming product people too. But I have these ideas, see.

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As many people have said, there’s a lot to take in. The first thing I went to do was personalize my profile, which I couldn’t find immediately (hint: everything is its own wavelet). There’s lots to explore and suffice to say people who need instructions aren’t going to fare too well at first. There’s a lot of functionality power to embed things and I can see where it might be useful if an entire enterprise were on, but currently there aren’t enough people that I know to make it super useful.

As it turns out, I have 20 invites. Typically, Google asserts that they won’t send them out immediately… but I supposed it’s better than nothing. Anyone** want an invite?

** Note: Folks who I think I’m likely to communicate with are going to get first pass. If there are any invites left after a few days, they’ll go to randomly selected comment authors.

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A year later, I decided to figure it out for myself.

I drive to work. As much as like mass transit, it doesn’t work for me. Not only does it cost more, it takes longer and doesn’t operate on my schedule. I didn’t consider the value of my time, either… but it’s definitely a factor. Being able to leave when you want to is a luxury.

So, the figures.

Car insurance costs about $2. Granted, this isn’t based on mileage. It’s for the day, regardless of how much I drive.

My commute varies in distance depending on the route I take; I usually avoid the shorter route due to evening traffic and opt for the longer but more peaceful back roads. Averaged out, it’s a 15 mile round trip. At 40 miles per gallon and estimating $2.75 per gallon (a tad high based on recent numbers), that’s $1.03 on fuel.

I didn’t include maintenance costs. Considering that most of my miles aren’t driven to or from work, I figure the majority of any future maintenance costs — since it’s effectively a new car — are going to be more a result of social engagements. And I barter for most of my mechanic’s labor; the cost turns out to be pennies a day.

So assuming I did my calculations correctly, that’s a tad more than $3. Less than a lot of people spent on a cup of coffee in the morning.

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It’s so simple, but it’s fascinating to watch a pumpkin rocketing out of sight into the blue sky. More entertaining is seeing them vaporizing upon impact with the ground.

There’s a line of these machines, each in its own pit. Each day for three days it starts at one end and progresses down the line, each team having three minutes to launch their pumpkin into the sky. After each device fires (or flings) its pumpkin, the whole crowd moves along down the line to follow the action. Pumpkins that hit the ground intact are measured for distance; exploding pumpkins (or pies) aren’t scored and are met with lots of “oohs” and “oh nos.”

Some of these pumpkins are being chucked several thousand feet, being propelled by nothing more than compressed air. One or two of the machines from this year cleared 4,000 feet. It’s generally believed that someone will eventually pass the one mile mark. As for the other machines, many are based on devices that were built and used in medieval times; the physics still work and seeing them in action is incredible.

The whole thing takes place in a cornfield. A twenty acre square cornfield. There’s a carnival-like atmosphere that pervades the grounds. There’s a Ferris wheel, games, live music, and raffles, all suitable for families with kids. There are food vendors, but some people choose to bring their own groceries. Many people bring their own beverages and coolers, rolling them along as they progress down the line. There aren’t many rules about what you can bring along, since the event takes place on private property. Everyone was incredibly friendly. It feels like amazement is a universal calming force.

The scale of everything makes it hard to document photographically. The machinery goes from silent and dormant to loud to spent and done in less than a second, so even video isn’t going to cut it a lot of the time. But it’s cool and definitely worth a trip out if the weather is good.

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A mixture of tomatoes, ground beef, spicy sausage, onions, bacon, beans — because I’m not a chili purist — and a few other other not-so-secret ingredients have been simmering in the Dutch oven for the past couple hours.

None of the ingredients were hard to locate. The preparation was easy enough, but took a bit of time. My largest skillet can only handle a pound of meat at a time, so there were several rounds of cooking, draining, and reloading. The recipe makes just about 7 quarts. My Dutch oven has a 7 quart capacity, which meant I had to keep an eye on it and shift the contents periodically to prevent it all from bubbling over.

With only a few minor modifications to the recipe, it turned out pretty well. I don’t know if it will win, but I think people will enjoy it. It’s sweet with a unique woodsy flavor. It’s a firm “medium” on the spice scale, but it’s the sort that grows in intensity the more you have. With eight other batches to sample, it should be approachable to most of the judges and my fellow coworkers. It’s perfectly fine solo, but would also be well suited over rice or tortillas.

The house smells amazing.

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Clooney is a face actor. One of those guys who can bring intensity and disbelief at the same time. Like a lot his past movies — Burn After Reading, Leatherheads, and O Brother, Where Art Though come immediately to mind — he’s involved in a lot of strange yet amusing-to-watch antics. In this one, his mug is in many up-close-and-personal shots as his character performs various psychic maneuvers.

Crisp narration by Ewan McGregor, dry wit, mustaches, and black humor punctuate an otherwise silly movie. I admit I was chuckling throughout the duration, but I was still hoping for more. I’d recommend a matinee, if not Redbox.

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Corollary: Days with no scheduled plans or tasks, it will be overcast, rainy, and/or too cold to be outside.

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I really enjoyed Zombieland. Funny, violent, and quirky, with a spectacular cameo. It was just as someone described it to me: “It’s definitely a zombie movie, but different than anything I could have expected.” I almost went to see it again this past week with a friend.

Instead, we saw A Serious Man. Despite being from the Coen brothers, I doubt it’ll do well in the revenue department. There are humorous parts, but for the most part it plays serious. If it’s comedy, it’s as black and wry as can be. You do end up feeling for the protagonist, as his life starts to crumble and he simultaneous tries to find meaning and solace. The dialogue oozes forth at a alarmingly slow pace, providing ample foreshadowing to the end of the film. You’ll end up wanting more and I think that’s the point.

Though my mustache growing and maintenance skills are poorly honed, I’ll be participating in Movember. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll be joining JJT and Evan in the crawl, but I’ve got a few weeks to figure it out.

This past weekend the plan was to see All Saints Day. Apparently it’s only in limited release, the closest showing being in Philadelphia. I was tempted to drive up there, but I’m glad I didn’t. My gut is saying that no matter how good I want it to be, that it isn’t going to meet my expectations. And three hours in the car probably wouldn’t have helped. So for now, we wait another week or two.

Still on my list, The Men Who Stare at Goats and Where the Wild Things Are.

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We will be upgrading your FiOS Internet speed to up to 10/2 Mbps in the next few months.

Emphasis theirs, it’s strange the way that the sentence is phrased. Maybe it’s boilerplate in that they can’t say that they’ll give you exactly 10/2 but that it’ll be somewhere around there, but it reads to me like it isn’t much of a upgrade. Maybe they’ll give me 6/2 or 8/2. Something around there, perhaps. Not that I utilize the 5/2 Mbps now except for the occasional Knoppix or CentOS torrent, but okay.

We also want to let you know that the rate for your FiOS Internet service will be increasing to $52.99 effective on December 1, 2009. No action is require to maintain your service at the new rate — you’ll continue to enjoy all the benefits your current Verizon FiOS Internet service has to offer. This rate increase is unrelated to the speed increase we will be implementing for your FiOS Internet service plan.

This is the real meat of it. A six percent rate hike.

And no kidding the hike isn’t related to any speed increase. The amount of effort required to change my connection from 5Mb to 15Mb (or even 100Mb for that matter) is a few keystrokes at most. No new hardware. No new cabling. No technician to come out to the house. The fiber optic line buried out back is more than capable of ten times that amount of data. If anything, I’d be burning up the CPU on the router.

In short, they’re raising the rate because they can. No additional costs incurred on their part. No additional benefit to me. It’s starting to feel a bit like my experience with Comcast.

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After ascending 103 stories in a one minute elevator ride, the views from the Sears Tower are incredible even on a slightly cloudy day. Standing well about the cloud line, buildings that I would consider tall look like flattened pancakes. Absurdly tall buildings — say 50-60 stories — look small. Cars look like ants. At times it doesn’t even look real, that things so big can appear so small.

You acclimate to the heights relatively quickly. There are windows on all sides of the building, but your proximity to the glass changes as you walk counterclockwise around the 103rd floor. The farther south you get, the less guardrails there are between you and the windows. On the southwest side, the windows are flush with the floor. It’s an odd feeling, being so close to the edge.

At which point, you have to let go. After a moments hesitation, you take that last step out onto the glass. It’s a cautious step, taken with a light foot. Then the other foot follows. And there you are, standing there, some 1,353 feet above Wacker Drive.

I was thinking all sorts of things, with random bits of my internal monologue becoming verbal as I gazed out over the city.

What if the glass gives out? No, it’s been engineered. But what if? Look how small everything is. This is so cool. How on earth did they test this thing? The Washington Monument is just over 555 feet tall and two of them could fit below my feet with the majority of a football field to spare. This is so cool. I can’t believe they have a Starbucks here. Man, we’re really high. I can’t get over the view. The Hancock Tower really looked short, didn’t it? I’m really standing here.

Eventually you get over any natural phobias. I felt absolutely giddy, drunk with enthusiasm, as I jumped up and down on that glass.

The logistics of the trip to the 103rd floor aren’t as cool as the view or the experience of walking on air, but they’re worth a mention. When you arrive at the building, you get in an elevator right away and go down two stories into the lower level (LL2). There are restrooms there, displays, and a lot of crowd barrier ropes such that you’d see for the lines at a movie theater. Once we proceeded through security, we had our picture taken against a green screen (for later purchase if you desire), paid $14, walked through some additional display areas with more line-forming barriers, before sitting down for a brief documentary film. After that, more walking, this time through a revolving door and onto the elevator that would take us to 103.

The only reason I mention all of this is that we went on Monday afternoon. There wasn’t anyone standing in any of those queuing areas. No lines to form. More importantly, it wasn’t crowded on 103. There was more than enough room to see, without having to push for a space at the window.

On a weekend, you’ll see people waiting in line outside the building. What those people probably don’t know is that once you’re in the building you still having a good wait ahead of you. Some people say it takes as long as 2 hours once inside. So if you can, go on a weekday during work hours if you can. The later in the evenings and the later in the week, the longer the lines.

I still can’t get over that feeling of standing on that glass, suspended over the city street. Short of heading to Dubai, I don’t know how I’d top it.

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Taking advantage of a quiet and relatively warm Monday afternoon, my buddy and I enjoyed a nice walk down North California to Hot Doug’s. There was a line, but nowhere near as long as it would be on a weekend (when they have their duck fat french fries and when people have admitted to waits excess of 2 hours). Once inside, your senses are overwhelmed. The seemingly Crayola-inspired paint job makes your eyes go wide with the loudness of primary colors. There is an indescribably good smell emanating from the grill, boilers, and fryers. After about 20 minutes we shuffled up to the counter where Doug — dressed in a black t-shirt that reads “there are no two finer words in the English language than ‘encased meats,’ my friend” — stood with a smile, asked how we were doing, then asked what he could get for us. There is something immeasurably cool about the proprietor of a establishment taking every order, but it pales in comparison to the fact that he’s taking your order.

Honestly, I wanted to try a few things. All of the items are reasonably priced and appear on the menu with tax included, many humorously named after celebrities. But based on the trays of the seated patrons it was clear that I’d only be able to have one or two before being completely stuffed. In addition to a large order of french fries to share, and a small fountain drink, I opted for two of the basics. Doug wrote down my order and my name on a shorthand pad, looked up in thought for a moment, then told me that it would be $7. Definitely less than the cost of everything when added up individually. While many restaurants do combo deals, it was a very cool moment. After filling our drink cups we took a seat near the back. In a few minutes our trays were delivered to the table.

Having never eaten a hot dog in Chicago, I opted for “The Dog.” A Chicago-style dog with all the trimmings.

“Everything” at Hot Doug’s includes mustard, relish, caramelized onions, tomatoes, celery salt, and a dill pickle spear. These ingredients seemed foreign to me, but I’m told they are fairly typical for Chicago. Individually I’m all in favor of all the ingredients, but on a hot dog? Tomatoes? A pickle? Really? And when I saw the relish — which is the color of the green nuclear ooze from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — I really started to wonder. But I had to try it out. When in Rome, right?

My wonder was quickly replaced. The hot dog itself was hot and juicy, but not oily at all. The trimmings added a lot of flavor as well as a mixture of textures and temperatures. Crisp and cool pickle, soft and cool tomatoes, slightly crisp and warm onions, crunchy and cool relish. I’m going to wonder how people can eat hot dogs with ketchup and mustard, without all of the other accouterments.

I also opted for “The Paul Kelly,” a beer-soaked bratwurst with everything.

Split and cooked on the grill, it was cooked through but far from dried out. Sweet, juicy, and delicious, the casing snapped on my first bite. All of the fixings worked really well on this one too.

I’d be hard-pressed to pick a favorite between the two.

My friend opted for one of the many daily specials, the Foie Gras & Sauternes Duck Sausage. Fancy. The thing was adorned with truffle aioli, foie gras mousse, and sel gris. Though a tad too fancy for my tastes, definitely a unique arrangement. The report from my buddy was that it was incredibly rich, so much that he couldn’t finish it all.

Not stopping the trend, the french fries were excellent too. Hand-cut and freshly fried, they arrived on our table a minute out of the fryer. Piping hot, these are some seriously soft fries — as opposed to crunchy — and by far the greasiest part of the meal. Very tasty. Our only mistake was thinking that we’d be able to finish them all. We regret that the duck fat fries are only available two days per week, but agreed that we’d have no idea what they would taste like. I’m not sure that I’d spend a few hours waiting in line to find out, but maybe on the next trip out.

We had a celebrity sighting as well. Hot Doug’s has been in the news a lot lately, so we weren’t too surprised to see a TV camera but we thought it was neat to see George Wendt enjoyed a few dogs while giving an interview to a local food correspondent at a table behind us.

While we were waiting for our food, we talked about the place. It has a simple menu. This isn’t a bad thing. It doesn’t need to be complicated. All of the food can be prepared from fridge to plate in a few minutes, no microwaves required. Between that and the affordable pricing, that makes for tasty meals and happier customers. The place is open from 10:30am until 4:00pm Monday through Saturday and closed on Sunday. That makes for happier employees. And it’s a cash business. That makes for a happy owner in most cases, but I got the sense that there was more than that. Getting to make your own hours and your own prices on the fly has got to be pretty empowering, but Doug — in my limited observation — definitely likes to make an impression on his patrons. We watched as a little boy ordered a second hot dog, holding a few dollars in his little hand. When the hot dog was ready, Doug reached down to hand him the plate and said not to worry about the money. It’s that flexibility and kindness than makes the place great.

So here it is, a delicious yet inexpensive meal. Prepared quickly and with friendly local flair, I found the experience at Hot Doug’s to be superb indeed.

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1. Opening the fridge in the morning and spotting the jug of milk, then grabbing the water pitcher and pouring the contents atop a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios before realizing what was happening.
2. Being slightly embarrassed about aforementioned scenario, but eating the cereals as-is rather than attempt to dislodge water from cereal.

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I really like this video. The means are different, but it reminds me of Take on Me.

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