This evening Sylvia received her Christmas gift. The gift happened to be a black 8 Gig iPod Nano. She had been talking about getting one for months. I had already made all of the proper preparations. iTunes was installed, her music was synced up, and the application was hidden in a system folder on her netbook. All she had to do was open it and ask any questions. Or so I thought.

I decided, to make things easier, I would demo the things that she needed to know to use the iPod fully. We went over navigation, the video camera, and iTunes syncing. I was confident that she knew what she was doing.

As I was walking to bed I heard “Andrew, how do I play a song on here?” I knew that she had the iPod plugged into the computer, so I walked in to help. She was using the iPod as a kind of remote to try and play music in iTunes. I asked where she actually wanted the music to come out and she decided she wanted to listen on the iPod. At this point, she was getting frustrated and I was trying not to burst out laughing. I told her to get as far through each menu as she could, and then I would help her. She made it to the songs menu, and then tried to scroll by what I can only describe as gently caressing the select button. I then showed her how to scroll and asked myself how on Earth she got this far. She scrolled through and selected the song. Finally, the song began to play. I said goodnight and began to walk to bed.

The song was coming out pretty loud. For those of you that don’t know, the iPod Nano now has an on-board speaker. When she mentioned the song volume, I made the mistake of asking if she had her headphones plugged in. She said yes, and that they had been plugged in the whole time. I told her to use the scroll wheel to change the volume. At this point, the volume increased to a level too high for even the greatest headphones, much less iPod headphones. I walked back in and found that her headphones were plugged into her netbook. I told her to plug them into the iPod and that they were in the wrong device. She laughed at that one. As I looked over, she was trying to insert the headphone plug into the poor iPod’s camera lens. I then demonstrated the proper headphone jack, only after freaking out because she almost destroyed the camera’s lens.

As I walked out of the room again, she said that she wasn’t a good night learner and that we may have to go over it again tomorrow. I am sure that tomorrow will bring new abuse for this poor iPod, seeing as we haven’t even looked into the radio feature. I guess we shall see. Wish me luck!

of circumstances. This finale is so tired,
such a played out metaphor;
girl leaves boy, boy lies on couch,

vegetables are strangled by rogue
morning glories and begin to parch
in the dry sun of the summer.

Then the boy thinks of leaving too,
boxes up his life, sweeps out the house,
shuts off the power and returns

to the garden that he planted
to show her that he could do more
than just eat words and throw them back up.

And I should have done this first, but everything
got mixed up like everything else and I’m
stuck here without so much as a shovel,

pulling up everything by hand, eating
cherry tomatoes that have somehow
withstood. The zucchini plant has taken over

a corner, so prickly, weighed down
by five pounders that have molded.
The ears of corn have withered on the stalk

and are covered by bugs. The chamomile
which I promised tea from, is dry like hay,
not one flower missing.

The carrots, beans, cucumbers, strawberries,
all ripped up, leaving just the cayenne plant,
the first one in the soil after the thaw.

The peppers have dried and are as dark as blood.
I pick three off and tuck them into
my shirt pocket, to allow

this metaphor to extend even further.

By: Sid Miller

A poem that I really seem to like.

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The second thing that is happening is that I am going to California with our amazing neighbors to visit my equally amazing aunt! This is equally exciting because the last time I went, it was one of the best experiences of my life! This time I will be staying with my aunt in Carmel. I think it will be great and I will be SURE to get some great shots along with some great video along the way.

But, another cool thing! I will be visiting the lovely Jackie Danicki at the Qik offices in Redwood City. I cannot wait simply because Qik is one of my favorite video sharing websites (Although I do not use it nearly enough). This will be another experience with a lot of Photo and Video taken. :D Then there is the fact that I will be visiting Apple HQ (With no special clearance though. :()

Finally, I will be visiting my Dad in West Virginia and my Godparents in Kentucky. These, as always, will be fun visits and I even enjoy the trips to get there *usually*. I will be continuing my radio show, but only when I am at home. ie: Not a lot. But, that is okay because I think that this will be the best Summer ever!

My iPhone had begun to crack starting at the edge of the 30-pin connector and growing into a nice hairline crack. I was really disappointed to see this, as I had been obsessively careful with the phone, so this type of thing would not happen. I immediately reviewed the day and realized I had not done anything to cause the crack.
Knowing this, of course, I called Apple while I was at school (best teacher ever). They basically told me that they couldn’t finish the service call before the schoolday was over (15 minutes). I said this was okay and they gave me a case number.
As soon as I got home I made it a priority to call back, and after emailing the rep a couple pictures of the crack, he decided to send me a brand new phone, free of charge. I was, of course, thrilled! I thanked him profusely and went on with my day.
I finally received the box and shipped the phone off. I couldn’t believe the attention to detail in everything down to the shipping supplies. The sent me TAPE. I did not even have to track down tape to pack the phone. Apple never ceases to amaze me with their customer support!
Four or five days later, I had an appointment and had to come home from school early. On the trip from school in the car, my mom asked me why on Earth Apple had sent me 2 iPhones instead of one. Of course I replied that she couldn’t be right. It must be to ship something else back! Nope Apple really had sent me two brand new iPhones.
I, being the amazing person that I am ;), immediately called Apple (only after thinking about keeping the phone :P). When I got on the line with the guy, he sounded flabbergasted that they had sent me two phones. He mentioned that this had never happened. I told him the days they were received and the serial numbers, and he told me how things needed done.
But, the cool part happened at the end of this call. He asked me my age, and I told him. He then replied that he was thrilled that I was honest about it, and forwarded me to his boss or whoever. His boss yet again commended me and asked if there was an iPhone accessory that I had my eye on for my iPhone. I told him I really liked the Apple bluetooth headset. He said he would overnight it personally that day!
This simply proves why Apple has such a faithful user base. Apple has always had the best customer support I have ever used. And, as far as paying for support, it is worth it.

The only class that I am very happy with is Radio. The teacher, as always, is AWESOME. Those of you from school know she is the video teacher as well as TV and Radio. I will be ON the school’s station, which runs 24/7. I am so verrrry excited.

That is about all for now. TTYL

Boring is exactly the kind of person that I have never wanted to be. Yet, I have been settling for the easy standard of mediocrity. The standard of being boring in my life. That is not good enough, nor will it ever be. When people ask me how I am doing I always respond in the same way. “So, So,” or “Okay”. Never do I say “Pretty Good” This is a small thing, but I know for a fact how being around people who are doing well or are happy can change the entire experience.

Listening to Troy, who I had the pleasure of spending most of the week last week with, amongst many other great folks, helped me see what was wrong with me lately. Ya know, I never thought about how to be more positive, or how to be more friendly, or, God forbid, more exciting. I started to realize that I have been on autopilot for the last 2 years.

I have always told myself that I want to be one of those people who is constantly doing something exciting and new. And, I feel like MonaVie is one of those things. Yes, it is juice, but it is bigger than just juice. The people that I get to hang out with because of this product are amazing!

I wrote this post because of something that Riley said to me after dinner a couple nights ago. He, in essence, said he did not want to be one of those people who went through the same routine every day. He wanted to be someone who was exciting. He just didn’t know how someone could spend their life bored and alone. I know! I’ve been doing it for two years.

That is going to change. Just within the past two days I have seen how much better a day can be when you spend it with a positive outlook. Your outlook on life even improves when you stop hanging around with negative people. I intend to do both of those things. I intend to be the outgoing, adventurous, friendly, happy, and positive person that I was before my life got turned upside down. Which, I am now realizing may not have been as horrendously horrible as I thought it was.

Things will be different. Things will be better. My life shall improve. My life will no longer be blah, but instead vivid. And whe asked how I am I will be “Great!” Thanks to anyone I mentioned in this post. You know who you are.