Articles by lemworld

I had a most peculiar dream last night where I walked into a McDonald’s restaurant and overheard McDonald’s executives discussing plans for a new restaurant chain.  The idea was for McDonald’s to create a new high-end restaurant chain, comparable to a Wolfgang Puck-style restaurant catering to a larger segment of the middle-class dining market.  I guess a spin off like this could be compared to what McDonald’s did with the founding of Chipotle.  Their intentions were to make it just as unhealthy as McDonald’s and Chipotle, but use advertising in such a way to make it seem healthy (just like they currently do for Chipotle).  They were to name it “Karl’s” which is a play on the name of McDonald’s Corporation founder, Ray Kroc.  They were going to use one of those unmistakable “luxury” product voice over actors in their ads, like one of those guys who narrates fine jeweler commercials.  The commercial was very vivid in my dream, but I can’t remember many other details than just the sound of the voice.

It’s definitely a weird dream, and I don’t even like McDonald’s (it has been months since I’ve even been in a McDonald’s restaurant).  It would be interesting to see them come out with something like this now…

A little more than a year ago Erin and I made our first trip together to Amsterdam and Paris.  We had an absolute blast, and it was a great way for us to get to know each other better.  We’re making the trip again this year, in early June.  We’ll be spending a week in Paris, and then will take Thalys (the high speed train) first class to Amsterdam.  After three days in Amsterdam and possibly including a trip to Den Haag, we’ll return to Paris and fly back to the States (directly to Dulles).

We are very much looking forward to it.  I’ve been promised that in addition to visiting art museums and monuments that we will be touring several Parisian breweries.  The only thing better than a brewery is the free beer that awaits at the end of the tour!

I woke up this morning at, according to my alarm clock, 9 AM.  I came out to the living room and noticed that the cable box showed the time as 10.  My laptop had also displayed 10 AM as the current time.  Clearly I had forgotten to set my clocks ahead one hour last night.

This may seem silly, but it’s really the first time I’ve ever not noticed the time change the night before.  Usually the newspaper has some sort of notice on the front page, the news media discusses it endlessly in the days leading up to the change, and someone reminds me somewhere.  This year, none of that happened.  It all seems a bit odd, but in any case the glitch has been corrected and all of my clocks show the correct time.  Hopefully I’m not the only one who didn’t notice this!

I felt it would be a shame for March to go by the wayside without posting an entry.  Life has been very busy recently, but it’s a good kind of busy that leaves me with a nice feeling at the end of the day.

The past few months have flown by, and the weather is definitely getting a lot nicer.  I’ve put another couple hundred miles on the Vespa in the past few weeks, and earlier this week Erin and I rode down to the tidal basin to check out the cherry blossoms.  I took several pictures that I’ll soon post to my photo album for all to check out.

On an entirely different note, Erin and I will be going to Paris in mid-June.  We’re both very much looking forward to it, we had a blast last year when we went.  This time we’ll be flying directly to Paris, and from there may travel to either Madrid or Amsterdam.  I haven’t been to Madrid in years, but it tends to be a little hot during the summer.  Amsterdam is always a good time and comfortable in the summer.  We’ll have to see!

I’ll definitely try to update again soon, but no promises!

I was recently reminded of my high school yearbook quote, always good words to live by!

“Seize the time… live now.  Make now always the most precious time.  Now will never come again.”

I’m selling a cell phone of mine, the Motorola RAZR V3 (GSM version), on eBay.  If you’re in the market for a GSM phone, or know someone who is, please pass this along to them!  It’ll probably go for $150-200, which is significantly less than the retail price of $400.  Take a look at the eBay listing!

I’m always amused to read about new government legislation that limits individual rights, but lawsuit-weary companies taking the initiative is really quite odd.  See this article about how several major UK-based chocolate companies are labeling their products with warning labels.

I’m really not surprised by the content of Bush’s State of the Union speech tonight.  It’s the same rhetoric we’ve been hearing for five years, and I’m not sure it’s any more believable than it has been in previous years.  When incentives are created to encourage people to use renewable energy and to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels, then I’ll believe progress has been made.  Words just don’t do it for me

I do think the mention of Bush and Clinton’s 60th birthdays this year was hilarious.  Watching the State of the Union address is really about finding those few gems of humor!

I wrote the following review about a new phone I’ve been testing, the Treo 700w, for a couple of websites. I posted it here in its entirety for everyone else to see.

I have been running around with the Treo 700w for a couple of weeks now, and I absolutely love it. The Windows Mobile 5.0 platform is significantly more stable than previous WM versions, and the Verizon service has been superb.  Here is the breakdown:

PROs:

• WM 5.0 is a very solid platform
• The device itself is packaged well: the keyboard provides speedy input, the display and lighted keypad are bright and easy to use at night
• The camera produces amazing images, for a phone-based camera
• Signal strength is unparalleled in the DC area with VZW
• Included WM applications function flawlessly, and it took less than two minutes to set up Exchange ActiveSync via EVDO
• EVDO is lightning fast, and is highly available in this area
• Battery life is much better than expected, especially after I altered ActiveSync to update only when I have new e-mail available (otherwise, EVDO stays connected constantly and really drains the battery)
• Paired seamlessly with my Motorola Bluetooth headset

CONs:

• Phone doesn’t ship with a case, but I easily ordered one from Treonauts
• The phone is a little pricey

Bottom Line:

I highly recommend this phone, and as long as the user is smart about installing only well-tested applications and adjusting settings to conserve battery life, they will be very pleased as well. While the price may be a little high, I expect it will come down slightly in the coming months and is well worth it in terms of increased productivity.

Other Tips:

I think someone else stated it best, but essentially this phone is designed for work use, not for multimedia. I have installed only the essential applications and have yet to encounter a lock-up that others have described. In fact, it’s been running solid for the two weeks I’ve had it.

Before I purchased, I did a significant amount of research. The most helpful website that I found was the TreoCentral.com Forums which offered many cool tips and great insight for this phone.

(Cross-posted to PhoneScoop Treo 700w Reviews)

Friday night I went with Erin’s family to see the Capitol Steps perform live at the Ronald Reagan Building downtown.  They are a skit/comedy/musical group that pokes fun at all sides of the political spectrum, and they do it very well!  They featured songs about everything ranging from outgoing Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan to a debate between Kerry and Bush about why the chicken crossed the road.  There was even a song with Bill and Hillary Clinton making fun of the 2008 presidential election.

If you’re interested in going to one of their shows, they offer one every Friday and Saturday night at the Ronald Reagan Building.