Death

RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman. At first it seemed the Super Bowl coverage eclipsed your passing, but no more. You will be well remembered at the awards, I trust.
Your death was  a tragedy. I read a blog post that said your death affects us depending on our circumstances. So though, of course, I barely knew you, you are of a similar generation, and thus every man’s death diminishes me.

My iPhone 3Gs (yes you read that correctly 3G) is dying a slow prolonged death. First it started with quirky behaviours, and obstinance. It refused to download certain Apps, telling me the OS was too old. Then the alarms would all disappear all at once and I would no longer know what to do with my time. Then it refused to charge. It will still connect to iTunes and so all is backed up. This happened on the same day that PSH died, which is already four days ago, and in terms of iPhone life is surely a ridiculously long time to wait to do something about this death.

I delayed as it came to life on Monday evening and charged to 100%. So Tuesday was a half-day of use. It has not sprung back yet. Hope does spring eternal.

iPhones

At the same time I’m about to beta-test an app I’ve been collaborating on (an art project) and that means I had 3 iPhones (4s) lined up all charging at the same time, showing exactly the same time on the screen. Soon they all merged, like women whose menstrual cycles follow the same schedule and the green bar showed 100% full.

The time was completely in sync as well. Soon everyone will be on the same schedule. Except those few analog hold outs who wear wrist watches, with those long arrow things, I don’t what they’re called.

Celebrity

Facebook is 10. Everyone is getting their 15 minutes of fame with those videos. I want to say they are cheesy, but that doesn’t quite encompass the spirit of the thing. Andy Warhol is probably delighted and begging to come back soon embodied as an iPhone 6. Instead of Siri we will hear his delicate timbre dictating where to go and who to hang with.

Decisions

Forced Obsolescence. Obsolescence is a hobby of mine. I did a year long blog (every single day kids) about stuff that was obsolete.

This iPhone 3Gs was obsolete about 2 years ago, but still I held on to it. It worked. Crappy pictures, but I’ve got an obsolete Nikon D5000 for those. Texting was fine. Talking (don’t do much of that). Emails – managed to juggle 5 accounts. Apps – fitness tracking check. financial tracking check. miscellaneous crap to waste time on check.

I also resisted because on our shared business plan, the other phone still has 5 months to go before an upgrade. And here in Canada, it’s only very recently that the switch has gone from 3 to 2 year contracts. Even that seems like too much time.

I like pushing things to their edge. I will repurpose the 3Gs into something. Only the battery is dead.