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Lessons learned from vacationing with an iPod
Lincoln Adams | October 17, 2009 @ 6:06 pmI’m on the last leg of my vacation trip, and finally have some time to sit down and reflect on my experiences so far, especially when it comes to blogging about it all.
Rather than use an iPhone (which are not hearing aid compatible and relies on the crappy AT&T network), I went with the next best thing, an iPod Touch that I tether to my PDA Phone using Verizon’s Broadband Connect. This way I have the advantage of using a faux iPhone on the Verizon network, as well as access to the Internet wherever I had a signal. I didn’t have to worry about motels or restaurants not offering wifi for my laptop either, since I could tether my laptop to my phone instead.
As far as connections go, Verizon gets an A here. There were times when I completely lost the signal, but I was so far high up in the mountains that it was to be expected. If I had to guess, I’d say I had a signal and access to the Internet virtually 99 percent of the time. Total WIN there. It makes liveblogging or livetweeting my experiences as they happen as easy as pie. Mmmmmm, pie…
Many of the apps on my iPod relies on geolocation to work ideally, especially Google Maps, and as long as I was in New York this wasn’t a problem. It was amazingly accurate in pegging my location, despite the fact that the iPod had no GPS chip.
That is, until I wound up in Massachusetts. Then the iPod went from thinking I was in Martha’s Vineyard, to thinking I was in Seattle. 
Despite being unable to track me, I could still use Google Maps manually instead of having to rely on paper maps, except that it incessantly flashed popups telling me it could not locate me, even though I was not using the geolocation feature, and I couldn’t find any way to disable it either. I already know you can’t locate me, there’s no need to tell me that a hundred times a minute. Yeesh.
The net result of all this was a ton of wrong turns, missed exits, and complete absurdity when I came across a street in Google maps that simply did not exist in real life. FAIL
So it looks like I will have to supplement my iPod with a bonafide GPS device now. The TomTom is working on an iPod dock for the future, though I don’t know how reliable it will be, and I hear Garmin is better for the USA. A speakerphone would also be a bonus, as it would negate the need to get a headset (I’ve been thinking about getting one, but the only time I would really need it is for when I’m driving.) Something to research for the future, for sure. In the meantime, if any of you use GPS devices, I could use some advice on what you think worked the best.
Other than that, the iPod was very useful for finding points of interest, though it tended to be a hit or miss thing. Some things worth checking out wouldn’t be listed, so I always had the feeling that I was missing something right under my nose. As far as locating highly rated hotels in the area, the Simultravel app I was using for that gets an F for EPIC FAIL. It only listed a fraction of the hotels within the area I was in, making the effort of locating a good place to stay for the night on the fly a monumentally hair tearing experience. I ended up going back and forth from using Google Local to surfing TripAdvisor all on my iPod’s Safari browser, and since TripAdvisor is a slow and bloated site to begin with, just trying to find a place to stay on the go proved to be more ridiculously frustrating than it should have been. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon Hotels.com’s tailored made site for the iPhone that finding a place to stay finally became more of a pleasure than a horror. It’s how I found Best Western in Ticonderoga, New York, easily the best hotel I’ve stayed at by far, and while chatting with a friend on Google Talk on lodging ideas and checking my email, I booked a reservation there while I was pulled off the road somewhere south of Burlington, Vermont, doing it all on my iPod. Technology can be truly beautiful sometimes. 
As for finding points of interest and dining, I used a combination of Yelp!, Where to? and Google Local to find places worthy of checking out. It made such an impromptu vacation as mine all the more pleasurable and easier to manage.
Finally, I noticed when entering a dining establishment that the first thing I would check for was an electrical outlet to plug my laptop in. LOL My laptop’s battery gives out after only 40 minutes, so it certainly does create a handicap when I’m lugging it around. That MacBook with its 7 hour long battery life can’t come soon enough for me. 
As far as the digital/internet side of my vacation goes, I certainly learned a few things that will better prepare me for next time. Another thing I need to get a handle on is how to manage my blogging/social media time. I noticed I spent far too much time responding to tweets and comments when I should have been driving and getting to wherever I was getting. And once the day was spent, I found myself too exhausted to blog about the day’s events while it was still fresh on my mind. Ironically, when I finally had time to recap my vacation experiences so far, I ended up blogging about my third day of vacation, rather than the first day, so my chronology was all out of sorts. I was also using BrightKite to tweet/blog my latest movements, but I only used it intermittently, and there were times when it didn’t go through at all. It made for a disjointed way of getting the crux of my vacation experiences out there for all to read, but since this is all new to me, I’m sure I’ll eventually find my mojo and liveblog my experiences in a more consistent manner. 
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go light my fireplace. 
Tags: battery, blogging, browser, driving, experiences, geolocation, google, google maps, gps, hotels, internet, iphone, ipod touch, laptop, new york, PDA, phone, social media, technology, travel, tweet, vacation, verizon, wifi
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
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Loading ...Did I inadvertently help some British bloke find the girl of his dreams?
Lincoln Adams | February 27, 2009 @ 10:15 amSo I’m bored out of my mind at work, and just for fun I decide to do a Google search for “girl of my dreams.” 
One of the hits I happened on led me to a Facebook group started by a British dude who also had a dream about meeting “the one,” and then drew a sketchy (nay, make that VERY sketchy) picture of her after he woke up. He has been looking for her ever since and even traveled to the States to find her. Oy. But what grabbed my interest was the completely random Facebook ad that showed up when I viewed the page:
Tell me that you don't see any similarities here.
Yep, it sure looks like Mr. British was snogging himself a Snorg Tees girl doesn’t it? But you be the judge.
I decided to email the guy:
Dear Hopelessly Romantic Citizen of the United Kingdom of Weenies,
Take a gander at my site, because I think you dreamt about a Snorg Tees girl. If that’s the case, I will laugh, and laugh, and laugh and remember to tell this story around the campfire one day for an endless bout of jolly good laughs that will entertain me and all my slim shady friends for additional years to come. But if it’s true and by some astounding miracle you meet and marry her, I will hate you forever and pray to no end that you will some day spontaneously explode into a puss filled ball of fiery death.
Kindest regards,
Lincoln
I dunno, his group sure seems to have gotten a lot of attention though, and if the photos are any indication, there are some mighty fine bespectacled babes there that all seem to be vying for his attention (this one’s particularly attractive). Maybe he’s on to something.
Whatayathink? Should I start my own Facebook group based on the personal dream I had and see if Dream Girl comes a-running? Or maybe someone else can start one for me, that way I can avoid coming across as the desperate lonely man at the end of his rope that I am. 
Tags: ads, british, dream, dream girl, facebook, facebook group, girl, girl of my dreams, google, photo, SnorgTees
Categories: Romance and Relationships
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“Will I ever meet the girl of my dreams?”
Lincoln Adams | November 14, 2008 @ 5:36 pmSomebody actually paid $50 to get the answer to this question on Google Answers. Seriously.
Man, and I thought I was desperate. I would have only paid like 25 bucks, tops.
Tags: answers, girl of my dreams, google
Categories: Comic Relief, Romance and Relationships
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Getting Personal
Lincoln Adams | October 22, 2008 @ 6:17 pmOn Monday my blog decided to ruin my day by throwing a complete hissy fit and vomit my content onto people’s screens instead of rendering it properly, so I decided to take a personal day so I could get it resolved before it spun completely out of control. I rang up my peeps at work:
“Yeah hey Mick, listen I’m going to have to take a personal today.”
“How come?”
“It’s personal.”
“Why do you always have to be a smart ass?”
“Do I do that?” I smiled innocently even though he couldn’t see me.
“Whatever man. Did you call up front to let them know?”
“No, gonna do that now, can you switch me over?”
I got transferred and spoke to payroll.
“Hey Obie, I need to take a personal day.”
“How come?”
“It’s personal.”
“Why do you always have to be a smart ass?”
“I seem to be getting that a lot lately.”
Thank God I took the day off though, since it took me 10 hours to figure out what the flip was going on and get it running smooth as silk again.
Oh, and I added new advertising banners underneath each post. You won’t see them though as they’ll only appear to visitors who came in via search engines like Google. That’s how awesome I am. 
Tags: advertising, blog, God, google, personal day, search engines, work
Categories: Blog Fog
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Why A-List Bloggers Should Bite Me Hard
Lincoln Adams | August 22, 2008 @ 5:30 pmOne thing I can’t stand about the effort to drive more traffic to a site is the almost mandatory need to play suck ass to some high traffic megablog in the hopes that maybe, someday, somehow, they might acknowledge your puny existence for one microsecond and throw a fraction of their gazillion readers and visitors your way.
If I write a post I think is particularly funny, charming and relevant, I email a link to it to a couple of high profile bloggers, then pray, beg, sacrifice chickens and hope hope hopey o’ change hope that it doesn’t disappear into the darkest catacombs of that blogger’s inbox, never to be seen again.
Except that of course it does, because I am a speck of dust who can never evolve to the point that I could successfully grab their attention, though mostly I think it’s because I’m not a hot babe who blogs in her underwear (and leaves up a webcam to prove that she does in fact, blog in her underwear.)
Makes me feel like I’m in high school all over again, trying to get into an exclusive, elitist club that nobody wants me to be in, partly because they weren’t even aware of my existence, and if the time should ever come that they did become aware, then they’d rue the day I was born. It seems that I can only inspire either indifference or sheer, unadulterated hatred.
All I can really do then is watch from the sidelines while these successful bloggers happily fondle each other and share links and traffic and readers, and yet I myself can only but trudge endlessly in the mud of Google irrelevancy. It all seems so unfair, because really, all I’m asking for is a microcosm of acknowledgment, just a F*%&ING link or two from your millions-of-hits-a-month blog that takes all of two seconds to post, which would at least give me a fighting chance to succeed. And I’m not even doing it for me, I’m doing it to help my sick, sick Mommy, who I can’t fully care for unless I can find a way to supplement my already heavily taxed salary. A link for a life. That’s all it takes, but noooooo, I’m not in your “speeeeeecial” club see, and worse yet, I’m not a half-naked chick prancing around my blog and uploading sultry looking photos of myself to Flickr either, so therefore I’m not worth the poopie poo on your shoe.
Well screw you big boy, and screw this ridiculous internet caste system we’ve made for ourselves. A-list blogs and B-List blogs and C-list blogs and whatnot? F&^% that. I got my own label: the One-of-a-kind, All-night-long, I-am-your-Daddy’s-Master Blog.
And this club can only fit one member, baby: Me.
Tags: blog, blogger, bloggers, blogs, caste system, elitism, email, exclusive club, funny, google, Links, traffic
Categories: Comic Relief
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BACK IN BLACK
Lincoln Adams | July 29, 2008 @ 1:12 amBOOYAH!
It’s time to not only celebrate my blog relaunch, but my two year blogging anniversary!! And dude, the video totally captures the moment here. I’m talking a blog wrecked to death, only to come back stronger, sleeker, and totally badass with some badass music cranking in the background and leather jackets and cool black vintage cars cruising the highway and let us go have a throwdown and kick some serious scum of the earth hellbags because baby, I am back!
Yeah, I’m a little excited here.
But really, what I just pulled off was a miracle that only God could have given me, and I now have the latest version of WordPress along with a new Who-is-your-DADDY theme that is all kinds of awesomeness.
I still need to work out a few kinks and decide on a new photo gallery to use, but for all intents and purposes the site is now live, with a sleeker, faster look and a few new bells and whistles I think you’ll all enjoy. For an idea of what’s new, see the little oval thingie jiggy to the right of each post title? Go give that a click.
Cool, huh?
In addition, you’ll now be able to edit comments as well. I also dropped a few plugins, added a cache system and went with a 2 sidebar look again to reduce clutter. Yes the ads are still there, but they are no longer as obtrusive as they used to be. To be honest I got tired of having a larded up ad block embedded inside my posts, partly because I couldn’t quote or post any media content on the fly. The ad would jam it up and I’d have to manually remove it in order for the post to show cleanly. Not cool. But I still need the ads though, since the 50 cents I’m making a day is paying for my newspaper, and I just don’t know how I could live without those two quarters a day, ya know?
As for the dark theme, I’m working on creating a white backdrop just for the posts and comments for easier reading (while still maintaining a dark look), so stay tuned there. I might have gotten it done sooner but the theme kept overriding my color settings. Regardless, let me know what you think.
It wasn’t easy though, but I got through it, and now I can finally enjoy the fruits of my labor…. except of course, Google just had to rain on my parade by dropping my pagerank from a 4 to a 3 while I was busy upgrading. 
Really Google, why don’t you just suck my ass times a thousand? Dweebs.
But meh, whatever. I finally made a leapfrog in upgrading without having to spend a fortune to have a designer do it, my sleek black car will get a nice facelift and wax job by the end of the summer, and in a few more months I’ll be out of debt, cruising the road and enjoying my new lease on life. All I’ll need then is a weathered black leather jacket, and my life will truly be complete.
Tags: anniversary, back in black, blog, blogging, css, google, music, pagerank, theme, update, upgrade, vintage, wordpress
Categories: Blog Fog
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(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)It’s Cuz Your Girl is a Ho, You Schmuck
Lincoln Adams | April 11, 2008 @ 7:02 pmTo the visitor who found my blog using the search term:
“my girlfriend stays out till 4am”
Newsflash: Your girlfriend dumped you. You just don’t know it yet, and apparently your mind must be so hazy that you’ve had to resort to doing a Google search just to figure out why a girl might want to stay out till the wee hours of the morning rather than stay in with her honey snuggles.
But if you still need some convincing, here’s a couple of solid reasons why you’re hugging the air instead of a warm body at 3AM in the morning:
Your one true love has another boyfriend(s). Yep, after spending the entire evening telling you just how much she yearns for you in your absence and how you complete her, she then casually leaves you as you snore away to go see her other true loves, Bob, Mike and Omar, so she can tell them all how much she yearns for them in her absence and how they complete her too.
Or… your girl is a strip dancer at the local hoinkie boinkie bar. While you dream of gingerbread men dancing on your head, your darling sugar pie is shaking her gimmy-gam gum-gums in front of a horde of drunk, strange men, one of whom she takes back home with her for a witching hour special.
But perhaps I’m being too unreasonable here. Maybe your girl is simply just a light sleeper, and sometimes likes to take 5 hour long walks in the park so she can clear her mind and think about how truly blessed she is to have you in her life. That’s gotta be it right?
Tags: funny, girlfriend, google, ho, search term, stupid
Categories: Comic Relief
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