The Net Monkey

Title: Fish In The Sea

Uploaded By: mattbarton77

I was working late Friday night during a scheduled maintenance outage and received a phone call from Mom. It was 11:00 PM, and the fact that she was calling made me immediately worried because she’s never up this late.

She told me that another member of my extended family has died. His name’s Steve and he is the husband to my first cousin, Sandy. He was father to five children, including two young fraternal twins (a boy and a girl).

I feel absolutely awful for Sandy. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to lose the love of your life and then have to face the reality of raising children on your own. Thankfully, we are a family that takes care of itself, so I’m sure that Sandy will have all the support she needs.

All of this is just getting old. This is the third death in the family in the last two months, and it is really getting to me. When I got the news of Steve’s passing, I had to go to the other room and get myself together because I had work to get done. I’ve come to the realization that I will be attending a lot of funerals.

The funeral is scheduled on Wednesday. I think I’ll make it to the viewing on Tuesday since it is after work, but I haven’t committed to it yet. Regardless, I’ll be taking the day off work to attend the funeral service.

Someone was recently telling me, after my grandmother died, that these kinds of things happen in threes. I think I’m beginning to believe that, actually, and I sincerely hope all this is the last of it for a long while.

With its much anticipated release in a matter of days, the iPhone is all the rage at the moment. Knowing that I’ve been an Apple fanboy for many years, I’ve been asked by several people if I’m buying an iPhone when it comes out. The answer is a flat no, at least for now, and here’s why.

• The first generation iPhone here in the USA will not support 3G. For those of you who won’t know, 3G is the moniker describing third generation mobile data technology. AT&T has a 3G network in place right now, as a matter of fact, with coverage in major metropolitan areas (including Indianapolis and most of the surrounding suburbs). Since the iPhone requires a data plan, it behooves Apple to use the fastest available technology. On a positive note, they did promise to have it at a later date, but, for now, iPhone users will have to settle for EDGE, which is much slower, and will probably have to buy a new phone if they want 3G.
• Using the first generation of any Apple product can be risky. If you look at the brouhaha surrounding the original MacBook Pro, you’ll see that it is sometimes wise to just wait and see. This isn’t necessarily because of defects either, but because there is usually a big difference between Apple’s marketing hype and reality.
• Support for third-party applications is a farce. A lot of developers are itching to create applications that operate directly on the iPhone, but Apple decided to keep it a closed platform, claiming third-party support via web-based applications. Sorry, Apple, that doesn’t count. Even my old LG phone on Sprint could discover telephone numbers in a web page and place a call. I hardly call that integration or innovation.
• There’s no support for MMS. Without MMS, I can’t send pictures taken on the iPhone to someone else’s phone. I do this from time to time, but Apple is only going to support SMS (text), from what I’ve read. If I want to send a picture to someone directly from the phone, email is the only option. I haven’t read whether Apple intends to bring this to the iPhone or not.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m certainly not against buying an iPhone in the future, but, for now, there are cheaper phones out there that meet my needs and can tackle most, if not all, of the issues laid out above.

I know that Apple will eventually offer 3G. I know that the kinks will eventually get worked out. I also believe that Apple will eventually open up the platform, allowing me to install third-party applications directly on the phone itself. If they can tackle these issues, or at least offer some really compelling reasons for me to use a closed platform without MMS, Apple may have an iPhone customer in me after all, but for now I’m going to stick with Nokia’s S60 platform.

I made it to the Brew-Ha-Ha fund raiser for the Phoenix Theatre this afternoon. This is an annual event that brings hundreds of people downtown to drink near-unlimited amounts of beer and beer-like beverages, and helps raise money for an important community organization.

Photo Set: Brew-Ha-Ha - 2007-06-23

All of Park Avenue was closed off between St. Clair and Massachusetts, and that seemed barely enough to contain everyone. I had a hard time navigating through the crowd when I got there at around 5:15.

I didn’t drink much, but I hung out with Tony, Jason, and Adam. It was a good time.

Following the passing of my Grandma, I received the following.

They’re perfect and are now living permanently in the hutch in my dining room where everyone can see them.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy myself a new Macintosh. I spent a lot of time going over all the possibilities in my head, but I ended up deciding to buy a MacBook Pro. Being that the line was recently updated, it made sense to make my move now.

I bought the 15.4 inch model with the LED backlit display. It came with 2.4 Ghz CPU and 2 GB of RAM, which should be more than enough for what I intend to do with this system. It should do well to replace my old PowerMac G4 (which I bought back around April of 2000).

Photo Set: MacBook Pro Unwrapping Ceremony

I spent a good part of my evening migrating data over to the system. So far, I think I’ve got just about everything setup the way I want. Should be really nice having a fast Mac, for a change.

I spent this past weekend up in Iowa City visiting my friend Daniel.

Photo Set: Iowa City - 2007-06

Daniel was down in Indianapolis the weekend prior and invited me up to hang out. I was in dire need of getting out of town (which I realized mostly after returning back to work on Monday). It had also been a long time since I had any kind of distraction from my life and the stresses of my job, so I just went ahead and drove up there.

Saturday was a lot of fun. It started off with Iowa City’s gay pride march.

I had no idea that I would end up walking with Daniel and his friend Dustin in the parade itself.

After the rally at the Old State Capitol, a group of us ended up at a bookstore. We had discussions with the lady there about Ireland, James Joyce, and lolcats. This cute little guy was there, too.

In the evening, we ended up eating a really good pasta dinner prepared by Daniel. Afterwards, we went out, as all gay people do during gay pride.

The gay bar there in Iowa City seemed alright, but it was very crowded (due to the fact that it was gay pride weekend) and extremely hot. Daniel and I only lasted for a few minutes before we had to leave. He and I ended up at some Mexican joint where we drank some liquids and talked for a long time.

Sunday was relaxing. Daniel and I had brunch with Dustin and some other friends of theirs. I got my eggs over and hard. Afterwards, people met back at Daniel’s place for some banana pudding he made the night prior. It was delicious, but very rich.

So, eventually, I had to leave and made it back home late in the evening on Sunday, ready to face the world the next morning.

Thanks, Daniel, for a fun weekend!

As promised, I’ve finally posted some photo sets of some recent events.

Photo Set: 500 Parade - 2007

Photo Set: Indy Pride - 2007

I popped m.youtube.com into the web browser on my Nokia 6682 and was able to stream a video on the homepage down to my phone. It only took a few seconds to buffer the video before it started streaming it normally.

I’m quite impressed, actually, since my phone is only capable of EDGE. I figured I would need a 3G phone, but apparently I don’t.

Video quality was about the same as it is on my computer, but a lot smaller, of course.

I haven’t been blogging much lately. It’s kind of bothering me, actually, because I really hate posting things about stuff I’ve done weeks after it happened, but I’ll just have to deal.

A few weeks ago I went to see Morrissey at the Murat with a bunch of people. It ended up being a spectacular show, even for a Sunday night.

Morrissey changed clothes a few times during the show. He started out in a suit, but ended up shirtless sometime about halfway through the performance. He eventually changed shirts a few more times before the end of the concert.

While walking outside to get a glimpse of the band getting back on the tour bus, I was stopped by this guy. He said that I looked familiar. He seemed familiar to me, too. He told me his name, and then I remembered that he’s this guy with whom I had a bit of a wild night back when I was 18 years old. It was the Summer after high school. Very surreal. (( le sigh ))

Anyway, I also went to the 500 Festival Parade with my nephew during Memorial Day weekend. Photos of that event will be forthcoming, as soon as I upload them to Flickr.

I’ve already documented the passing of my Grandma, which was a couple of weekends ago. The funeral was very lovely, and full of memories and stories about her. She’s going to be missed tons.

This past weekend was Indy (Gay) Pride. I took a bunch of photos of the parade down Massachusetts Avenue and the festival in University Park. I’ll post a note when they’re up on Flickr.

Also this past weekend, I had the pleasure spending a good part of my time with a very cool guy named Daniel.

He came into town with his best friend Dustin (on the right in the photo above) to visit his family. I met up with them at the homo pride festivities and had a great time. I hope to see him again soon (and Dustin, too).

That’s it for now.

Today is one of those weird days: three birthdays and an anniversary.

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Happy Birthday, Quigley!

Happy Birthday, Steph!

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

My kidney stone passed this morning with little fanfare. I have collected it so that I can take it to the hospital for analysis. I hope it isn’t a symptom of anything serious.

You want to see it? OK.

I apologize to those of you who think it is gross, but there you go.

As I wrote in my previous article tonight, my grandmother died today. I got that news this morning at about 6:30 AM when my mother called.

After speaking to Mom, I tried to get more sleep because I had been up late the night before, but I kept having this pain in my lower abdomen. A bit of time afterwards, I had go to the bathroom, but my urine was brown. Of course, I dismissed it as the result of the Indian food I had the previous evening.

I finally got some more sleep, but I woke up later with a lot of pain. I started throwing up. So, I called my physician and was redirected to another office who had a nurse that said I should go to the emergency room.

I went to Westview Hospital, which was recommended by a co-worker. It’s a private osteopathic hospital. Since it isn’t one of the big hospitals here in town, they were able to get me into a room and in front of a doctor within an hour. I recommend Westview to anyone, as long as your insurance covers it.

To make a long story short, I have a kidney stone coming from my right kidney. The recommendation is for me to simply pass the stone by pushing liquids through my system, but I’m to call a urologist in the morning on Monday if it still hasn’t passed. I just hope this ends in the next day.

I’m on hydrocodone (vicodin) right now, which is working wonders for the pain. I don’t feel any discomfort at all, but I’m sure drowsy.

I was so very happy to have my sister and dad show up at the hospital to see me. They were very helpful in driving me home and picking up my car for me (since I drove myself to the hospital). It’s sure nice to have family!

I was woken up this morning by a phone call from my mother informing me that Grandma passed away just before 6:00 AM. She was 95 years old, and my last remaining grandparent.

This is a photo I took of her back in June 2005 for her 94th birthday party at my Uncle Tom’s cabin.

Her maiden named was Laura Clark, and was born on June 15, 1911, in Clinton County, Kentucky. In 1929, at the age of 18, she came up to New Castle, Indiana, and not long thereafter met Thomas H. Counceller. They married on September 24, 1928, after just a few months of dating.

Grandma raised eight children: six boys and two girls, including my mother.

What I most admired about my grandmother was the fact that she was a very strong and independent woman. She was very opinionated and fiercely defended her family. She drove a car up into her 80s. She was a Democrat who thought Franklin Roosevelt was the best presidents of our time, while George W. Bush was one of the worst.

While she had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure around 15 years ago, she maintained a very active lifestyle, for a woman her age. Up until she broke her hip about two years ago, she was still cooking lunch every day for my uncles. She was able to take care of herself well into her 90s, which is not something many people are able to do in their late years.

Grandma outlived two husbands. My biological grandfather, Thomas Counceller, died in 1979 when I was just two years old. I have no memory of him at all. Within a few years, she met a man named Charles Ripperger (a widower ten years her senior from Brookville) and married him. We adored Grandpa Charlie, who died in September of 1999 at the age of 98.

The last time I got to see Grandma was last weekend. After the 500 Festival Parade, I went with my nephew, Jake, to see her. She was in a lot of pain and very tired, barely awake for us to talk to her. The last thing I said to her was that I loved her.

She passed at just before 6:00 AM this morning, peacefully, surrounded by loving family.