Mobile dilemma

I am convinced that the greatest force of evil on the planet may be the mobile phone carriers. It just seems that they exist to confuse us, obfuscate truth, and keep us locked into onerous contracts. They make us waste endless time trying to parse the details of their plans and when we finally do they change it all again.

There is a good reason they are among the largest advertisers in the US. They keep our brains filled with their ads and they stoke our base desires.

And, I plunge into the relationship willingly and somehow welcome the abuse.

Can you hear me now?

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Scaling down BBQ expectations

Advertising had clearly convinced me that I needed a big and powerful grill to get through the summer. I have a gas grill that is about 10 yrs old and does not really function very well anymore, so I was convinced I had to go spend $300 or more on a new one.

You see, it would be for all those steaks and chickens and sausage and pork loins I will be cooking outside this summer.

Whoops, we don’t really cook any of those things unless we are having guests. My family pretty much only eats seafood at home, with the occasional hot dog for the daughter.

I had clearly bought into the American male advertising created myth of big grills and hot meat.

Thankfully have come to my senses. First choice will be to clean up the old grill and see if I can just use it with charcoal. If that doesn’t work, then go buy a $50 charcoal grill.

Yep, I have beaten the advertisers at their own game. I am safe until I need a new big screen TV.

Big darn gadgets

When I bought my new Toyota Prius my wife told me that I had gotten the biggest gadget ever. She was oh so very right. The very presence of an LCD screen dead center in the console signifies the gadgety way my Prius rolls. Bluetooth? Check. Navigation? Check. CD Changer? Check. AUX audio input (Zune/iPod)? Check?

Best of all is the gas mileage and engine function display that manages to take a lot of space to say very little. I love that I am averaging 43.5 mpg. I really love watching when the gas engine is running and when the electric motor is running.