I absolutely hate the word “blog”

Turns out Apple’s call center has the best hold music I’ve ever heard to date. I suppose the pioneers of modern music media wouldn’t settle for anything less… but I might start calling on during busy times just to rock out.

On that note, I’m reminded of the time when the divorce firm I worked at fought tooth and nail with their phone company to get hold with classical music. They eventually succeeded, on the condition that they supply their own CD.

No one thought to check the disc’s content. Track three: The Wedding March. Yeah, that went over well with clients.

I feel like I’m in a Volkswagen commercial. I’m sandwiched between two other bus commuters who were previously both yammering loudly.

But they finally shut up and both started listening to music. And for the past two-ish tracks, we’ve all been subtly tapping our feet/fingers/neighbors in PERFECT TIME with each other.

Aww, Loud White Tapper just got off. Way to ruin the groove, buddy.

In other news, this post was brought to you by the new-ish WordPress iPhone app. Testing, one, two…

This time, I’m trying to figure out how to make my new iPhone Bluetooth Headset function with Ventrilo, the chat program our guild uses during WoW raids.  (Yeah — tech geek meets gamer nerd, I know.  But does anyone know the answer to this?)

I was told by a Best Buy employee with gamer cred that headsets with Bluetooth 2.0* capability would be able to pair with the PC and function as a microphone in Ventrilo.  While I can get the pairing part to work just fine, I’m not able to get the mic in Vent working.  At all.  Ever.

But Grant procured me a free USB microphone/headset, so I may just give up on this whole Bluetooth-to-Vent thing.  And besides, my Apple Bluetooth hotness is fabulous, whether I can raid with it or not.

Despite all the many reviews pooh-poohing its admittedly shitty audio quality and short battery life, I love having a headset that a) has a charge and pairing indicator on my phone, b) doesn’t painfully grip my ear like every other headset I’ve tried, and c) makes me look like much less of a tool than other Bluetooth headset wearers.

* And as an aside, Bluetooth 2.0 sounded totally made up, until I Googled it. What WILL these kids come up with next.

Grant and I wound up having to hit the Sub Pop 20th Anniversary Comedy Show without dinner in our stomachs last night, so we used my precious iPhone to locate some late-night grub. (By the way, the Citysearch Web app for the iPhone is pretty darn handy, if not 100% accurate.) We stumbled into the Virginia Inn (aka “My Inn”) fifteen minutes before the kitchen was going to close, and the staff were all super-nice and accommodating.

We recalled that the VA Inn had been closed for a while since they were expanding their kitchen, so we were hoping they’d have a decent selection of actual food, and not just bar fare. And it turns out, we were right!

I ordered the “Steak Frites” and requested it medium rare, thinking I might get a dried-out slab of charred flat-iron and some blah fries. But what I got was a thick, small but hefty, perfectly Pittsburghed (charred on the outside, rare-but-not-chilly on the inside) filet mignon chop, and some of the most superbly prepared potato strips I’ve ever tasted — for a total of $22.

Oh, how I wish my iPhone battery hadn’t died, so I could post a photo! For greasy pub food, I had a meal that rivaled the stuff one could get from The Met for three times the price. I was blown away. I’m definitely mentally re-bookmarking my inn as a place to head back to. I’m so glad they’ve re-opened!

So I don’t mean to be one of those people. Really, I don’t. I’m just in love with the fact that I finally have a gadget that’s gloat-worthy. But the last thing I want to be is one of those iPhone snobs, ya know? (Too late, I know.) So one of the first things I did when I got my phone (besides drink heavily and belt out ballads in Rock Band — it was a *birthday* gift, after all) was delete the “Sent from my iPhone” email signature.

But believe it or not, I’m finding I need to put in some kind of signature, so I can more easily create a Gmail filter that will allow me to sort the iPhone photos I email to myself. And because Gmail likes to over-filter and/or under-specify a bit, I have to come up with a signature that makes my phone-sent emails recognizable from my non-phone ones. So back to Signature Square One.

Once I figured out that I needed a phone-specific signature, I got stumped. The only real-life person I know who has an original signature is Hen, but I don’t wanna be the lame kid that copies the idea too late in the trend. (Hers says “iPhone love may result in typos”. So true, so succinct, so cute, so HEN. Not mine for the taking.) So being the witty, original, thoughtful, humorous writer that I am, I immediately started Googling for ready-made iPhone signature suggestions I could use.

Read the rest…