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Back in the Spring we decided to upgrade our phones, I chose the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic. I liked the features, the size, the music player, camera, video and slider capabilities.

I knew the iPhone would be out in a few months when I got it, but I didn’t want to shell out that money for an iPhone and I figured once this contract was up the iPhone will be more affordable and there will be more iPhone competitors.

In the end, the phone has been pretty easy to use. I previously used a Nokia 6600 Smartphone. I absolutely love that 6600 and still do, but it is a little oversized and there are limitations on it’s media capabilities that really bug me. However, the one thing built into the 6600 that is not in the 5300 that pisses me off to n extent is email.

The 5300 I got through t-mobile, I didn’t even think to ask. I mean my previous Nokias all had built in email capabilities (able to send and receive email if you have an internet or wap connection). With the 6600 I could take a picture and fire it off in an email right awat to someone. With the 5300 if I take a picture, I have to wait until I get home, connect it to my computer and offload the picture. This is the most ridiculous process in my mind. How could they leave such a simple and widely used feature off of the phone.

Now there is the ability to have email on the phone, but only in the service provider offers a “special” service which is stupid. The more I think about it the more it pisses me off to the point I want to throw this feature packed phone across the room!

Other than the irritating point that there is no email, the features built in are great. It has an awesome speaker so you can play music for everyone. When i do it at work, people are surprised to see it is a phone. The included headphones are required to pick up FM stations, but it’s nice to have radio capabilities built in. The PC software is okay, it takes a little toying with it to get everything working right but the learning curve is small.

I do think the 5300 is a great phone, if you’ve never had a smart phone or anything other than a base free phone this is a great option. Even with the new offerings on the market I think this is a viable option through T-Mobile if they are your carrier. Just know in advance, if you want built in email, keep looking.

This is what the Scout was like circa Summer 2001, badly rusting through the floor boards, cab mounts, rockers, rear quarters and more. Hey from far she don’t look too shabby.

In late Summer 2001 I had the floors redone, a rusty door replaced and a new steering wheel put in and swapped out the chrome wagon wheels for some 15×8 black rock crawler wheels.

In Fall 2003 I decided it was time to convert the Scout to a Super Scout II. This model was a factory option from 1977 - 1980. Since my Scout was a 1977 I thought it would be somewhat legit to do. Also, since I was only using the Scout for recreational purposes I thought why not, I like taking the top off in the Summer and having no doors then is nice too. This involved replacing the rear quarters that were rusting with fiberglass, some fiberglass door inserts and some patching of the front quarters as well.

So this is pretty much what the Scout looks like still today, four years later. For four years I have said “I’m going to paint it this year!” Well health reasons, money, time, you name it I had an excuse. Here is a picture from a couple months ago.

After a lot of thought, I realized the conversion experiment was just not working out for me. I mean sure, I love being able to go topless and doorless on a whim, but it really doesn’t make sense living in Colorado and for what I use the Scout for. I really like using the Scout for wheeling and camping and hauling stuff around so I have come to the conclusion that it’s time for it to go back to a regular Scout II. Back to a steel top and doors. Most of all, time to get it painted!

I hope to have a friend of mine do the work, the same guy that did all the other work. I can’t imagine I would still have the Scout today if it weren’t for his excellent body work.

Other than getting it back to “stock” I need to determine what color to paint it and whether or not I want the top painted the same color or a different color.

Stay tuned, and if you have any good ideas let me know.

My Audi has been out of commission for a few weeks now with a broken spring that I am trying to get covered through a warranty. In the mean time I have needed to rely on my trusty old Scout to be my primary form of transportation. I have the bike too, but I can’t ride it every day.

This little rant is about what jackasses drivers are and it’s all related to what you drive. When I drive the Audi, or even the Passat I very rarely if ever get cut off. In the Scout it happens about every 100 ft. What’s even more ridiculous about that is these people do it and they don’t even consider they are cutting off, and typically slamming on their brakes so they don’t rear end someone on, a 30 year old 3 ton truck.

Braking systems were not all that fancy back then and the saying is “He with the most tonnage wins.” Of course this puts me in a bad position because it would be me rear ending Mr/Ms Jackass so then I have to slam on the brakes and lets not forget the guy tailgating me for some unknown reason.

I drive the Scout at least the speed limit in zones 65mph or less, and since my commute never hits the 75 mph zones speed is not a factor. Not to mention I have a lot of torque with my little V8 so I can handle the hills just fine throughout the commute. For some reason as soon as their is a hill people decide to race up on me and pass and cut me off because I can only assume they aren’t expecting me to stay at a constant rate of speed.

In the Audi, I am rarely tailgated and no one questions if I will have enough power.

In the Scout, if I put on my signal well ahead of time people will accelerate to prevent me from coming over. Keep in mind I will not get in the left lane on the highway unless I absolutely have to and even then, I make sure I have ample room. So those rare times that I need to get over (accident, concrete truck going 40mph, etc.), just let me over, you’ll be surprised how quickly I can get back to the speed limit. If these jackasses would not have sped up to prevent me from coming over I could have moved over and their momentum most likely would not have been impeded. Especially when you figure another car ahead of me is just going to slow them down anyway.

With the Audi,I put on my signal and most people let me in.

Now the best part about this, is on the road people treat me with no respect, but these same people will come out of their way in a parking lot to come talk to me about my Scout for 10 minutes.

So lets recap here, if you want to drive like a total jackass go ahead, sooner or later it will wind up being a bad situation for you. I have a test for you, with your typical morning commute go ahead and drive like a total dickwad like you normally do, and time it. Just drive “normal” for you. Now the next day, be courteous, meaning let people in, plan ahead for your exit instead of waiting until the last possible moment. Time that. I think you’ll be surprised to find very little difference at all.

I had a guy cut me off FOUR TIMES on Friday on my way to work, and I mean bad each time. Sure he got way ahead of me. Then as I got off at my final exit for work I rolled up to the light and guess what vehicle was RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Not only did he probably increase his stress level and endanger the lives of other drivers, he wasted a lot of fuel and for what…to be at the same spot as me at the same time. Sweet.

Also, if you are going to drive like a jackass, don’t come up and talk to me in a parking lot after being a total fucking dick on the road. I really don’t care what kind of a hurry you were in or how cool you think my “Jeep” (sigh) is. If you have the time to talk to me in the parking lot chances are you aren’t in that big of a hurry.

Yes this is way late, but I was fortunate enough to attend the World Series and root on my doomed Colorado Rockies. Back in the day I was a big fan, but I fell to the wayside in the late 90’s as one dissappointing season after another went by and the management and owners did nothing.

Anyway, it was quite an experience to go and something I will remember forever. It was really great because I got to go with my Dad who took me to my first MLB game when I was a kid. The Cleveland Indians back when we lived in Ohio. I don’t even know who we played, but I got a ball cap and a bat!

Congrats to the Sox, it was pretty cool to play such a high salary high caliber team. Next year looks to be another great year for the Rocks so it will be nice to be able to root them on without swearing at them.

I get it, the iPhone is kick ass. If you haven’t had the chance to check one out I say avoid it unless you are ready to get a new phone because once you get your hands on one you’ll want to keep it. Enough about what we already know.

These iPhone commercials are terrible, they are such a stretch.

Commercial 1: The guy with too many gadgets. The premise is this dude standing there talking about how he has one device for texting, one for phone calls, one for something else and a PDA. So four devices. So sure, some folks may have a phone and a PDA, that makes sense. Who, other than this guy apparently, in the world carries around 3 or 4 mobile devices to stay connected. If he is so picky about texting then he would be furious with the iPhone so we know that this commercial is totally lame.

Commercial 2: The guy talking about how they are going to dinner with his wife’s boss and his fiance and they can’t remember the fiance’s name. Sure, great way to blab about internet access on the iPhone. They mention they go to the website for the couples impending wedding to find the fiance’s name. Well often people use their first names for websites. Yes, wedding planning sites may use the grooms name so I understand that, but to me it seems like they would probably end up knowing the fiance’s name before getting to the site.

Commercial 3: The pilot, this is really bad. Basically this pilot gets held up becuase of weather and uses his iPhone to check weather.com to see the storm has passed and radios the tower to clear them. Unbelievable no doubt.

Am I a picky sonofabitch, yes. Commercials have gone so over the edge as of late in terms of “testimonials” that crap like this just has to be highlighted.

Just to reiterate, iPhones have changed the world in 4 months, and will continue to kick ass, but please, spare us the horrible advertisements.