Pulp Free

It’s been a little while since I last shared in my stuck song efforts. This one popped into my desktop this afternoon and has already been moved to the front of the pack. I heard a few months back about Brandy getting a new CD ready (called Human - releases in November) - probably from Yo! on E! or something… Who knows… But in any case - it’s a fun song that I think is a good start out after being quiet for awhile. (Still always liked The Boy Is Mine…)

So here comes your 30-second clip… get to it!

Right Here (Departed) - (Song Sample)

As being mentioned a bit more in the news lately… It looks like broadband bandwidth caps are being rolled out for real this time. This tidbit on Comcast looks to start the ball rolling starting October 1st… Charter - you need to look the other way:

Cable Internet provider Comcast said Thursday it will begin limiting how much data subscribers can transfer online each month. The 250-gigabyte monthly cap begins Oct. 1 and is designed to prevent Internet service becoming sluggish from heavy use.

First-time offenders of the bandwidth limit will get a call from Comcast, while future overages result in Internet service suspended for a year, reports said. In May, the second-largest Internet service provided talked of a $15 fee for every 10 gigabytes above the limit.

In announcing the limit, Comcast stressed the 250-gigabyte cap is far above the maximum of the majority of subscribers. The new cap would allow each customer to send 50 million emails or download 62,500 songs per month.

Others Internet providers are experimenting with the idea of limiting their users’ bandwidth. Cox Communication employs limits ranging from 5 gigabytes to 75 gigabytes while Time Warner Cable is mulling a cap between 5 gigabytes and 40 gigabytes.

Seriously - why am I paying some $80 a month for top 16M speeds if that just means I use up my “fair share” quicker. Since the last time I mentioned caps, I’ve broken through my all time monthly usage rate…

Let’s see how much that would cost me… Hmmm… At $15 for every 10 GB over - um… ugh… $545 if you count uploads and downloads… Plus the $80 - for almost $7500 a year? And with no other competitive broadband alternatives… DSL is out because it’s capped at 3M. And I mean - Charter’s home office is just a few miles down the road… Like I said, Charter… Don’t get any crazy ideas from your peers!

So what pushed me over this month, you’re probably asking? Thank you TVTonic and your wonderful HiDef downloads for the Olympics.

That’s right - quite legal TV coverage of the Olympics…

Without a doubt I’ve always enjoyed Acura cars (and SUVs). Probably back to the Legend and Integra days they really set themselves apart. When the MDX came out - my mom was right there almost first in line. My sister picked up an RSX a few years after that and I found myself in a brand new TL when the updated 3rd generation showed up in 2004. After a nice few years the TL was moved aside (front-end T-bone totaled it) for a really nice 2005 RL (shout out to Buddy even if his voice has changed a bit lately.)

But c’mon, Acura. What are you doing with the “refreshed” RL & TL lines for 2009? They’re just fugly.

Acura TL Before:

And after…

How about the RL for this year? The old:

And the new…

A face only a mother could love… Honestly now… At least they kept the interior the same… Which is already impressive enough… (They did add cooling seats… Hello 2002 Lexus?) I will say they also got the back end dead on…

Why they messed up the new TL so badly who knows… So the RL wins out over the TL by a long shot… But it’s still two “L’s” in the losing column. The new wide grill, otherwise known as “Dynamic Power Plenum” grill just destroys any appeal for me…

We all held our breaths for a while… Waiting to see if the cars most of us had grown to love over the years would be “betterfied” by Acura - even if they haven’t been selling for years (just 6262 RLs sold in 2007). The wait is over and I’m just not sure with what’s left that I’d trade up my current Acura for a new one… Makes the Audi A5 look awfully good next year…

Here’s hoping that the NSX can save Acura’s image…

It’s Monday now. That means that I’m already in my first day of no Olympics. I’ve been carefully getting in my several hours of High Def coverage a day (along with a few hours of standard definition… ugh…) and have enjoyed every bit of it. TiVo made it a joy to watch as I could zip through 8 hour segments without missing events in between…

But nevertheless, it’s over. It’s a little depressing… Like the end of a party that you just didn’t want to ever end. And that’s what has really made me impressed with the Olympics. Here’s why:

It’s a celebration.

16 days of glory, defeat, close calls and the power of the human body. While there are a few events that bring the mechanical into the events - most telling are essentially the story of incredible athleticism and human strength pairing off in competition to declare the world’s best. You can see it on all of the faces of the athletes as they compete, rich - poor, veterans to first time Olympians - all put their best into the effort to win. It’s different than a World’s Series - a Super Bowl or the World’s Cup. It’s a culmination of 4 years of non-stop effort with a 2-week adrenaline party… Who wants that to end?

The world’s problems seem to take a break.

That’s not to say that the Russian/Georgian conflict didn’t take place or hurricane Fay wasn’t the on the minds of Floridians… But the talk, the news, the discussions with friends, families, co-workers and strangers were mostly about the amazing Olympic events. And knowing that there’s plenty of bad news to be seen every night on the news concerning political, financial, global and local crisis… It was truly refreshing to leave those behind for two weeks.

Chance to change your outlook in life.

I’m sure we’ve all had the moments in life that prompt us to become better… to change. Move a different direction or just take a long breath and open your eyes to opportunities. Watching athletes like Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres, and Jason Lezak do the unimaginable makes me want to accomplish more. World records falling the most this year than any other Olympic competition requires a dedication to a new mindset.

Funny enough as I was putting my thoughts together on this, I came across another mind set message from Monika Mundell:

Feel it. Smell it. Dream it. Live it.

Olympic mind sets: Determination, Strength, Hard Working, Motivation, Ability To Deal With Adversity, Optimistic and Positive Perspective, Strong Focus, High Stress Tolerance

There is no doubt that Olympians are hard working. You need to learn the difference between hard working while unfocused, or hard working with focus and intention.

Many people fail exactly at this stage. They try really hard, all the while thinking that they are doing the right thing, when in reality they waste a lot of their energies for unnecessary things that don’t fit in with their vision.

There is nothing wrong with working hard - but you have to work smart to make it work.

While this could bubble down into a quirky motivation message, I truly believe that the Olympics provide a chance to check yourself. Take time to think about what could be and to map a way to make a difference. Perhaps a few too many NBC Olympic featurettes have been snuck into my subliminal TiVo watching… But I have to believe that the there is a communal goodness that can come from the efforts, accomplishment and motivation that these gifted athletes have shown over the last few weeks. The party does end at some point… And I suppose today is that day… But that just means 18 months to go for the Winter Games!

It recently came to my attention that a Saint Louis local idiot once again purchased an iPhone and returned it back to the store just within the 30 day return policy.

With the purchase of the new 3G iPhone at an AT&T store a few weeks after release, it was told to me that with even with a nice leather case - the size of the phone eventually proved to be just too large to keep in his pocket. Asked if he really thought the size changed that much between iPhone 1.0 and iPhone 2.0 - his eyes rolled into the back of his head and asked for another sweet tea.

Good luck with your cheap-o phone, idiot. I’m sure the size of your new phone is in relationship to the peanut-size brain rattling around in your head… How could you not just love the iPhone…

Just to be fair… This local idiot is a great friend of mine… And long time lunch partner (and don’t read anything into that!) This was just a cynical, sarcastic, tounge-in-cheek effort to hassle him and his Apple iPhone issues… I’ll be sure to report when he picks up an iPhone 3.0 phone as well… And returns it!