I just thought of a good analogy as to my reasoning for not liking cell phones for the majority of their uses.

Okay. Here we go.

As I’m sure most of you are aware, I have a car here in Waterloo. Normally, it doesn’t get much use.

So, lets say that - hypothetically - I wanted to actually drive from time to time, and I extended to local RCG members the following privilege. If you need to get somewhere in Waterloo, but cannot make it to this engagement on time on foot, by bicycle or by bus, then you could call me at 1-800-RCG-RIDE and I would come and pick you up.

At first, I imagine people would only make use of this free service when something really important is happening. Someone has a dentist appointment in 10 minutes that they’d forgotten about. Someone has a midterm that is a day earlier than expected. Someone needs to drop off a Distance Education assignment on Gage St.

But - after I while - I feel that people would stop trying to do things punctually because they know they have a fall back. Yes, I could leave for campus at exactly 8:00 to get to an 8:30 class, or I could do other stuff until 8:20 and get a ride. You get an extra 20 minutes, and you aren’t late. Seems like a win win.

Then, people start leaning on this service as a crutch, and sacrifice any efforts at punctuality for the convenience of a more technological mode of transportation. What happens when it is no longer available? People have developed a bad habit. No longer would people get ready for engagements well in advance. Everything would be left to the last minute.

This is my view of cell phones in a nutshell. They can be useful in certain situations, but dependence on them (which most owners of them seem to exhibit) ends up fostering bad habits in the long run.

Figured I should get this better worded justification out there since my stance on cell phones has always seemed to irk people, and I figure if I’m justifying my disinterest in Twitter, I may as well go for the cell phone angle to and clear up the two big things that most people disagree with me about.

Brendon recently Tweeted regarding this Youtube video.

I think that it is a really good piece of marketing, but I find it hard to believe that Microsoft will make such a massive impact in technology in the next 10 years. I mean…what have they done in the past 10 years?

It is a well crafted advertisement piece, and while I’m sure we will get to this level of technology eventually, I doubt Microsoft will have spread their influence into airports/airlines/newspapers and the technology that can analyze a plant by looking at it. If this stuff is in wide circulation when I am 32, I will eat my hat (if I happen to be wearing one at the time).

Isn’t there some sort of plug-in that syncs your Twitter feed up with a website?

I’m just thinking that since half of the RCG regularly uses Twitter, is it possible to sync it up with your blog so that those of us who are Twitter-less can still know what’s going on. Especially Bravado and Niamu, who appear to have forsaken blogging all together. At least Binks still visits on a regular basis. :P

Finally got one of those flash cards that lets you play “acquired” games on your DS. Any suggestions from anyone?

I’ve tried things like Lost in Blue (which I hoped would be interesting, but it really wasn’t), and Electroplankton (which is a fun little diversion, but I cannot play it for extended periods of time).

So, does anyone have any DS game recommendations? I’ve already beaten Hotel Dusk Room 215, which was a very fun adventure game (and in my opinion, it is what adventure games are supposed to be, not like Zack and Wiki).

I also tried playing Myst DS…but boy did it suck balls. Controls are awkward, graphics are miserable, and it is just frustrating to play on the DS. I think they should have given us a DS version of realMyst instead. Oh well.

Anyway, leave any suggestions in the comments.

Twittered about it during the experiment.

Here it is in case you haven’t seen this by now.

So, this week, I was set to have a CS 230 midterm on Wednesday and a MATH 239 midterm on Thursday.

So, I’m sitting at home this morning, lounging around and studying and whatnot. At around 1:00, I log onto the class website to confirm the room, time, and seat number of my midterm. *

*Brief Aside: For those unfamiliar with computer science midterms, they typically have a specific seat assigned to each student, and the student’s name is already written on the exam

So, I log on to the secure site and check my seat. But then I look at the date. Tuesday, March 3rd? That’s not Wednesday March 4th, as previously advertised. More importantly, Tuesday March 3rd was TODAY!

So, I’m sitting there in my room, in my bathrobe, with no clothes (because the laundry machines were occupied the night before), and I have a midterm in 3 hours. Oh…shit…

So, I quickly have a shower, run to the drier and grab some of my clothes, and drive to campus. I study as frantically as I can, and go to the midterm room.

The midterm went terribly. I wouldn’t be surprised if I failed (or am close to failing).

Really sucks though.

A person in my program had their midterm from this course for last year. I studied a lot off of that before the midterm itself. And I checked the date on the front of the old midterm. It occurred on March 4, 2008.

Turns out that my confusion stemmed from the fact that the professor - in his negligence - didn’t change the course notes or the course web page so that until shortly before the midterm, it said it was March 4th.

However, I set the date on Google Calendar during the very first lecture, and have left it untouched ever since.

Really shitty. I’m just glad I discovered it before the midterm was already happening.