I knew I’d be fairly useless today since the UPS web site hadn’t changed since I got my notification on Monday. Refreshing the web page told me that things were changing, but the things that were changing was just the time of the report. It still said it was on the way to UPS in Memphis until it was actually delivered today, one day early! My guess is that they almost crashed the AT&T system last year when all the iPhones were released on the same day, and this time they wanted to spread it out a bit. Especially since I heard they sold ten times the volume of phones this year.

Anyway, I’ve spent all evening transferring data into my new phone. I still haven’t made a phone call, but I’ve taken a picture and sent a text message to my sister. Whoop-de-doo, right? I guess I have to play with it more tomorrow.

Other than that, it really feels like Thursday. What is with this week?

My iPhone 4 is shipping or so the email said. AT&T has somehow sent it into the bowels of the UPS system and it should be delivered sometime. The problem is that I’m hitting refresh over and over trying to find out when I’m really going to get it. This is why I just wanted to stand in line and get it at the store. I’d know nothing until the day it arrived and I’d just waltz in and get it. It worked the last two times I got an iPhone. Ah, well. Not much else to say because I’m busy clicking refresh on the UPS package tracker.

I’m usually OK winging presentations, but I’m not entirely smooth at them either. I had to do a presentation with another guy today, and I only spoke for 10 minutes out of two hours, but it was still oddly tiring. And because of that my mind is drawing a blank right now.

Went out to dinner to an all-you-can-eat pizza place last night with my sister and some of her friends. Unfortunately there were other small groups there and we had to wait an hour to get seated. The problem in a group of six to eight is that not everyone is full or get the pizza they want and so you wait on the last person. Especially since you want them to get their money’s worth, too. Also unfortunately, the pizza was good but not great in my opinion. I’d certainly get it again, but someone else would have to pick it. And I over-garlicked myself and instead of just getting gas, I had more catastrophic stomach problems. Self-limiting, of course, but still unpleasant in it’s own way. I hate to think I have to avoid garlic from now on, but it would make more sense than I have to top cold-turkey. I wonder if there’s a twelve-step program for garlic.

I usually don’t blog on Fridays because Fridays are excitement time for me. A guy like me spends all week working for the weekend and parties hard on Friday night. And by party hard I mean I watch all the TV shows I have queued up on my DVR. Now that it’s summer, though, I’m not as popular with the DVR and I have to find something else to occupy my Friday night.

Actually I was so tired that I tired that I lied down for a few minutes before dinner (or is it layed down? this isn’t a grammatical rule I have to use much) and when I woke up I couldn’t remember what the hell I was doing. In fact, I thought I was late for the gym.  This contributed to lots of stumbling around before eating dinner.

Anyway, I’m actually Mr. Popular My usually quiet phone rang SEVEN TIMES today! Unfortunately, it was a number iI had blocked myself so it didn’t ring through. I wish I could say it was something exciting like an ex-girlfriend or a government conspiracy of some sort, but not only do I have an ex-girlfriend who calls me but I’m probably way too dull for the conspiracy parts of the government. From what I’ve heard, the number is some sort of telemarketing service. Ah well, II’m going to keep thinking it was more exciting than it was.

How you like me now? It’s WordPress 3.0 beaches with a new theme! I figured I needed a wide picture, and the only one I could think of is the view from Megan and Nadeem’s. Anyway, here it is!

Yesterday I went to dinner at Sushiland with Erin and MattyG after the gym and then hit the Nook Cafe next door for a drink. It’s in a house where my sister’s grade school classmate lived and I keep hearing that the house is haunted! I don’t believe in ghosts, but I love a good story. The guy who runs the cafe doesn’t believe in ghosts, either, but he said he felt something bump into him as he stood in the middle of the room with no one around him. It’s a nice little spot either way.

OK, time to hit the hay, I think.

I did make it back into the gym today, where I think I almost broke myself. I’m exaggerating, but I am tired.

I recorded the basketball game and I watched it, but really why do I always miss watching the Lakers get beat and have to watch them win? Perhaps it’s better for the Celtics if I just don’t watch the games. You know how this superstitious stuff works.

The worst news (which I realize isn’t all that bad) is that I don’t think I’m getting a new iPhone on the first day it’s available. I almost had it ordered this morning at 7AM, but I thought if I went to the AT&T store I could get in-store delivery and I wouldn’t have to worry about waiting for it to be delivered and then being unproductive at work while I waited for it to arrive home. Well, it turns out that EVERYONE wanted an iPhone 4 today and the ordering computers crashed. When I got to the AT&T store, they were taking orders on paper and running credit cards using one of those old manual machines. I got a call late in the day from the store telling me that the computer looked like it was limping along finally, but I also saw online that the pre-orders were all sold out and I probably won’t be getting mine until after July 5 or so. That’s two weeks after the launch. Oh, well.

Now I’m tempting fate by updating my Kindle software. These things happen in threes, right?

Sometimes it’s nice to get home from a beautiful week in San Francisco to a beautiful warm Portland weekend, but it really doesn’t help if you’re running a 100°F fever and want to stay inside napping. In fact, rainy and cold is usually better because my bedroom gets hot when it’s 80°F outside. In the true spirit of last month’s sinus headaches, my head felt like it was going to split open once again. Advil and holding still made it possible for me to finish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, like everyone else on the planet.

My return to work today wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. There’s a lot to catch up on, but at least it’s not all on fire. Thank goodness for that.

Last night was the big WWDC bash, and the music was OK Go! I wish i could say the sound quality was good enough but it really sucked ass, sort of like the food this year. The sessions were very iPhone/iPad based and after seeing so many of them I think I really want one. But I’m still holding out for a video conferencing camera, even though I NEVER VIDEOCONFERENCE. It’s my weird hang-up, so I’ll have to deal with it. Anyway, the lunches were especially bad and we didn’t get as much loot this year. Usually we get a t-shirt mailed to us, a laptop bag of some sort, and a DVD with the latest OS on it. This year we got a nice American Apparel jacket which I’m sure I’ll use much more than the bags, but it still seemed like I should get more swag. I did score a “square” so I can take credit card payments. Not that I have anything to take payments for, but it’s still swag.

Anyway, I did get to spend some time drinking with an online friend from London who no longer seems like he’s 12, though he was born in the year I graduated from MIT. This morning it was tough staying awake at the WWDC sessions. After the conference ended at 2PM, I sat in the hotel lobby for the afternoon, feeling a little sick. I finally realized it was my allergies that were bothering me.

The worst part was trying to make it back home. I got on the Super Shuttle and they had no idea what they were doing. I scheduled a 6PM ride to the airport and they spent an hour driving around San Francisco picking up other people. Then they finally picked up two random people at a hotel and crammed nine of us in that van somehow. I got to my flight 10 minutes before boarding started and I was in a bad mood. At least I made it home.

So now that I’m here I have to move my data around my hard disks and do all the weird stuff I was thinking of doing at the conference. Or sleeping. I think I really ought to be doing the latter.

Megan wanted me to see that all of San Francisco hadn’t gone completely to hell, so she took me to the Mission Beach Cafe last night. I was reading yelp reviews and they’re supposed to have a great burger, and they do. It’s in the upper tier for me. From what I’ve heard, the top rated burgers down here seem to have hard buns, which is not my first choice, but it was quite nice. It came with tomato relish, lettuce, and I also had bacon. Why not? They’ll even cook it rare for you if you want. Spectacular.

(picture later)

So there you go. I told off some Germans at the conference since I’m getting cranky after sitting in these conference rooms  but whatever. It reminds me about my conversation with the Skype guys. I told them I don’t use Skype because:

• Phone calls on landlines are “free” for local calls.
• Cell phone calls are expensive but it’s the same price to call anyone in the United States.

So, basically this means the reason an American would use Skype is to call someone in another country, and since we’re American WE DON’T KNOW ANYONE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY. Nice logic there, huh?

So there you go. Still having some kind of fun here at WWDC in San Francisco and the weather is beautiful today. But I’m ready to be home soon.

I spent 30 minutes or so at the gym in my hotel and I’m pretty tired. I would have done a full “Kill me now” but my left knee hurts. I’m not sure if it’s the same one I hurt on Sunday when Megan and Nadeem drove me to the Union Street Fair and parked on a steep street, head in. I had to get in the back seat of Nadeem’s Jetta and he’d put Armor-All on it, making it quite slippery and I went ass over teakettle, sliding all the way to the other side. Today was even stupider. I saw an attractive woman at the developers conference and wasn’t looking where I was going and ran my knee into a chair. I’ve been limping ever since then. In any case, I did the renegade rows, push presses, sit ups, and just a few minutes on the stair climber while watching the end of the first quarter of the basketball game.

So far I’m falling out of love with San Francisco on this trip. The hotel is loud, the food is mediocre, and the crowd seems to be out-of-work aging hipsters who ditch their babies and continue drinking excessively. I think the women in Portland are better looking too. I went to Ristorante Ideale in North Beach tonight, a favorite of an Italian friend, and my breaded pork chop was tasty but over cooked. I’ve had better at mid-level restaurants like the Widmer Gasthaus. I went to a bar to see Nelson on his birthday and it was a weird crowd. I think I’m better off staying in Portland.

I’m so tired. I just realized it’s “tomorrow” and I should get some sleep. I didn’t sleep real well last night and I had to get up early to go to see Steve Jobs announce just about nothing at the keynote address. The new iPhone is pretty cool, but sheesh, I was expecting a little more than Farmville in the announcements.

The hotel room wasn’t all that comfortable last night and there sure are a lot of sirens in downtown San Francisco. And just now I heard some guy screaming in the hallway and he just stormed off saying someone was “damaged goods”. Whatever, aren’t we all? It’s 12:15AM. I hope these earplugs work well enough for this drama.

I made it to San Francisco and hung out with Megan and Nadeem all day, though Megan was feeling a little under the weather. I hope she’s feeling better soon. Even sick, Megan gets out out and about a lot more than I do. We checked out some shops in Bernal Heights, took some things in to donate to SF Smiles, went to a street fair in the Marina, and had dinner at the Fog City Diner just to see how that was lately. And check out the view from their new apartment!

Besides driving around for half an hour looking for parking at the street fair, which turned out to look like a giant frat party filled with people from the outer suburbs (which is what the people in the Marina look like, I’m told) it’s bee n a good time. Actually, the giant frat party was even fun because of all the people watching. It was sort of like Portland plus some Eurotrash and added extra Asians. And just like Portland, there sure weren’t many black people there. I was told that they don’t bother coming to the Marina much. Honestly, I don’t think they’re missing much.

Time to get some sleep before I have to get up early and stand in line to see the Steve tomorrow.