iPhone

This is an email I wrote to Jon Partridge (UK regional hero, 53rd best in the Thames Valley region etc). I raised some points that I agreed with (obviously) and I thought 'Ah I'll write a blog entry about this' and then I thought 'Hmm, actually I'll just copy and paste it from the original email because that's quicker'. Here is it. I'll interject new bits using italics.

 

Apologies for bailing last night. My mum went to Costco and I ordered some bits. I got home and watched Princess Bride. And ate popcorn. I bought 32 packets of the stuff. And 1 kilo of rump steak. When in Rome. 

Well like Costco. Bulk buying. I was going to go to see Jon and other friends but I decided 'nah' because I was really hungry and I had the flat to myself and I thought that I'd just watch Princess Bride on Kat's big 40' 3D TV. 

 

What did you do in the end? Did you see Nick Ripper? He rang me 3 times in quick succession. I don't really like people calling me. I was in the toilet the first time he called so didn't answer (it's a personal policy, sometimes I write texts but I generally never call or receive calls), and when he started calling in quick succession, I thought 'Ohh that's weird, probably important. But if it's really important then I'm sure he'll text'. Surely a text would be sufficient. I'm going to disable the call feature on my phone and put my voice mail message as 'Hi, please sum up what you want to say to me into a text'. Texting is always better. It's virtually instantaneous, it takes seconds to read, it's ok to reply curtly. To me a text message represents pure efficiency. I like texts and emails. Emails are amazing too. Or perhaps a better way would be to call once, then send a text. That way you have it in writing. From now on I'm going to make it a point that I don't receive phone calls. The only way to contact me will be using the medium of texting or emailing. I'll still receive phone calls from companies (I think they lack the infrastructure to send texts, though I do get bill reminders etc from Barclays and O2, so the situation is improving in that respect). If one of my friends calls me now, I'm going to text back saying 'Sorry for not answering the phone (I'm not sorry, I wrote that because I couldn't think of another way to start the message), what's up? Also, please reply via text. Cheers.'

Also, I'm going to get the new iPhone. It's only £80 more than the current one, but twice as much storage and more features. I'll worry about the camera later. Besides, the camera on the new iPhone is pretty good, I could always film the Hueco film using it - I doubt you'd notice any difference considering that the film is for youtube/vimeo anyway which heavily compresses the video so it looks the same as a pro film (except the depth of field will be deep and the colour levels will be restricted). I can make the film look nice using my professional editing software. F*ck you Jon, I can see your eyes rolling from here. I've made my decision. I can't go one using my current crappy phone. I need an iPhone Jon, you must understand this. Once you've used an iPhone, everything else just seems rubbish.

 

You must understand.

The camera on the iPhone will be crap, I wrote that to 'add more ammunition to my argument'. I'm still going to get a decent camera, like a Nikon D7000. But I really want an iPhone.

I have quite a few emails to Jon that I could copy and paste onto the blog.

Also, Nick Brown - this isn't that same as when I was deciding whether to buy a PS3 or go to India. I'm going to Hueco.

Skills

I have been training for a climbing holiday in Hueco, Texas for the past few months now. Today I feel shattered. Had a climb at Reading yesterday and I felt bad there too. I think my body is destroying itself. The day before yesterday (Wednesday) I went to the Climb in Amersham and had a woody board/campus board session. That felt good, I felt like I was getting stronger. Then I went home and hanged out with Nick and Kat for a bit. Then they went to bed and I went to my room. I knew what I had to do. I had to regulate. It had been weeks since I last killed people in a virtual environment. I remember a kid at school saying to me 'You know Will, everyone has a talent, God gives us these gifts. Look, you have a talent at throwing'. Hmm, that's true I am amazing at throwing but I wasn't satisfied by that. Anyone can throw. I needed something more substantial. I no longer believe in a deity (stopped believing in my pre-teens). Hmm. I was going to build this up into something interesting but I've lost my train of thought because my colleague has just asked me if I knew where some labels were and after helping her out, I am now lost in a blizzard of thoughts. Basically what I was trying to build up to was that I have a talent at FPS console games. Like Call of Duty and Battlefield Bad Company 2. I mean, I'm seriously good. I worked out that my equivalent bouldering grade would be about 8B, maybe 8B+, definitely 8B base level. I don't even play that much anymore. Ahh yes, that's the reason why I'm writing this, I was training and then I went home and played a bit of Battlefield. I jumped into a game, armed myself with the M1 Garand to instantly handicap myself (it's an 8 shot WWII era rifle, when everyone else uses modern assault rifles with optics). Kill after kill, I was dominating. So amazing. I killed this sniper who was trying to bitch me, but I bitched him. I ran off and saw 4 snipers on a hill in the distance. I ran back to where I slaughtered the other sniper and picked up his rifle. I aimed at the snipers on the hill. 4 shots, 4 deaths. Spectacular. I won the game and the next 3 games. I was well chuffed. Especially after not playing for ages. It's nice to have a talent*.

Also, going up to Sheffield this weekend, should be nice to see other people.


*Well five if I include: my fighting ability, singing, wit and being deceptively strong. Unfortunately, I never use my fighting skills much since another talent I have is to have panic attacks. Hmm, not really panic attacks as such, maybe more 'getting scared' moments. Hmm. I haven't actually been in a situation where I would even have to punch someone. I guess it's due to my charming nature. Plus, I don't think having panic attacks would classify as a talent, it's probably more of a hindrance if anything.