So I thought I’d take a look at the iPhone goings on today at the local AT&T store here on Fruitville Road, near Target and Firehouse Subs.
I drove by briefly before heading home for lunch; at that point there were four people waiting in line. I wasn’t really expecting to see that given how sleepy Sarasota can be. After lunch I drove to the store again, and this time I decided to stop in. Outside their store, they had a whiteboard, titled simply “iPhone”, with a hand-drawn Apple logo beside it. They outlined their main points:
-One iPhone/customer
-Two-year contract required
-Credit check will be run in-store
-No iPhones will be opened at the store
No sooner had I read the whiteboard and turned toward the door, than did it open, and the manager popped out.
Him: “Can I help you?”
Me: “Oh, sure, well, I’m just coming to check out the iPhone stuff.”
Him: “Oh, I can tell you all about that.”
And he went over the details, and made a special point to note that if I waited in line, I’d get one.
Me: “Well, how many do you have in stock?”
Him: “I can’t tell you.. if you wait in line though, you’ll get one.”
Me: “Okay. Can I go inside?”
Him (trailing off): “Oh, sure, I just thought I’d try and answer your questions out here.”
Inside the environs were pretty iPhone-free, save a big display that had an Apple logo on it, and what looked like two dock connectors, ostensibly for iPhones, but it looked awfully insecure. Probably why they were empty. The text on the screen of the display was oriented sideways and was stuck on what looked like a DOS setup screen, odd.
I came back out and did a head count — there were about ten people now waiting. Overheard someone asking about the credit checks, and the manager’s response was: “you’ll need to have the credit check done against you personallly, it won’t work to have it done against a business.” Interesting. Someone in line remarked, “Oh, so now the iPhones aren’t business-friendly.” Which reminded me of the rumor that the phone would have Exchange support. I don’t really believe it will, but I’ve heard the rumor from a couple different sources and thought I’d see what the manager of the store thought. He didn’t know; he said he had a training session coming up at 4:30 where they’ll be learning more about how it all works.
Snapped a couple pics as I left, and came back to ask if I could take a picture of his sign, which kind of flabbergasted him. He agreed, though 🙂 Ah, good fun. I’ll have those pics up later, probably tonight.
That’s all for now — Victoria bound in less than 24 hours.
Update: Here’s the pics!



and a bonus, from my drive home from work tonight:

Had a great weekend; spent a little “me-time”, which, if you’ve been keeping score, I’ve been lacking lately. Saturday, got myself down to Red Bug Slough Preserve, which is down South on Beneva; I’ve been meaning to go for at least a year now, and finally got to go.
I took a few panoramics this time, reasonably huge versions of which you can get by clicking on the images below; get the superbig versions by clicking here, here, or here.



I’ve posted a bunch of pics from the trip in a new gallery, which you can view by clicking on the pine cone.

Today headed out to the ice rink with Cam, Melissa, Joe, Shannon, Christopher and Tiffany. Fun times were had; afterwards, Cam, Melissa, Joe and I headed to the outlet mall next door and I picked myself up a backpack for cycling into work with and a French press (something I’ve been wanting for years). Afterwards, we went to the local Chinese/Thai restaurant, where I enjoyed a good Thai basil-chicken dish. All this was topped by watching an episode of one of my favorite TV series, Firefly, back at Cam/Melissa’s. 🙂

A to B
Different degrees…
So much style without substance
So much stuff without style
It’s hard to recognize the real thing
It comes along once in a while
Like a rare and precious metal beneath a ton of rock
It takes some time and trouble to separate from the stock
You sometimes have to listen to a lot of useless talk
Shapes and forms against the norm
Against the run of the mill
Swimming against the stream
Life in two dimensions is a mass production scheme
So much poison in power, the principles get left out
So much mind on the matter, the spirit gets forgotten about
Like a righteous inspiration overlooked in haste
Like a teardrop in the ocean, a diamond in the waste
Some world-views are spacious
And some are merely spaced
Against the run of the mill
Static as it seems
We break the surface tension with our wild kinetic dreams
Curves and lines
Of grand designs…
mp3