The Personal Blog

Before I get into how tonight went, I must say that this is the biggest league I've ever bowled in.  It has 38 teams and bowls in a 40 lane house and the 50\50 pot brought in over $700, which means the winner brought home over $350.

With that put aside, I must say that I bowled pretty well tonight.  I pulled the first ball, sending it through the nose and leaving a split.  I quickly learned my mistake and finished out with a 245.  The line didn't go anywhere even though I was expecting it to dry up fairly quickly by watching the other people on my pair.

The 2nd game was filled with single pins.  I left 3 ten pins and 1 seven pin, and missed one of the ten pins.  Again, the line didn't go anywhere.  I put a bit more speed on the ball in the 2nd through 4th frame because i thought it was simply going to hook more.  That didn't happen until the 3rd game.

The ball went a little high a few times, leaving some 4 pins and leaving a split in the 7th frame and scraping the 6 pin.

I ended up with a 695 series, giving me a 231.6 average for 3 games and working with a 216 book average.  I was setting average in that league, so the 231.6 average will be my official average.  It will not, however, be a USBC book average because a bowler must bowl 21 games in a league for it to become a book average.

I didn't do too bad the first two games, but fell off on the 3rd.  I was using my Fired Up, which is supposed to give me a little more length down the lane before it starts to hook.  It was hitting pretty good most of the time, but if I didn't have just the right roll on the ball, it would leave a single pin.

The first game was quite a test with many adjustments.  I started playing straight down the 7 board and found the pocket quickly.  I didn't have a good roll on the 2nd frame, leaving a washout.  The other shots were either 10 pins, 7 pins, or a 10th frame fast 8.

The 2nd game started out quite nice.  The line was perfect for me.  I didn't move from the last game, so I was still playing straight down 7.  The 5th frame was a complete screw-up on my part.  I pulled the ball, it went high and left the 6-10.  The two single pin misses back to back on the same lane were 10 pins.  I didn't get out of the ball exactly how I wanted, so they fell off into the ditch.  The last shot was yet another fast 8.

The 3rd game was a struggle all the way through.  My ball started hooking very early, so I moved just a bit inside and played down 10.  With this came very bad carry.  I can recall a few shots that the 5-7-10 stood before something made two of the pins fall.  I didn't really want to make an adjustment because the ball was hitting very nicely into the pocket, but just not catching everything.  The 10th frame produced my only open in the game with a stubborn 10 pin.

If you downloaded any of the betas from Microsoft, of it you're like me and are now running the RTM (Release To Market) version, you'll realize just how nice Windows 7 is. For those that don't know, let me fill you in.

Windows 7 has been highly anticipated since shortly after the release of Vista. A lot of people think that Microsoft jumped the gun on releasing an OS with they released Vista, and I'd have to agree. There are a lot of vulnerabilities, as well as some performance issues. Personally, on my Dell Inspiron 530 desktop, Windows 7 dances circles around Vista. But wait. Whenever I updated the OS on any other computer, like when I updated 95 to 98, 98 to XP and so on, I noticed a decrease in performance. Here, I'm getting an INCREASE? I'm for that any day of the week! I noticed a significant difference in opening programs, rendering videos, and performing daily tasks such as checking e-mail, loading pictures, surfing the web, and using instant messengers.

The stability of Windows 7 is also quite impressive. I can honestly say that since I've been running the OS, I have not once had it crash on me. Trust me, I've tried. The earlier betas had a hiccup once and again, but the RTM has ran flawlessly.

But all of Windows 7's glory isn't just under the hood. The interface has been changed slightly, while sticking close to it's Vista counterpart. The main difference is the task bar. No more waiting to have 51 Firefox windows open before it bunches them together in one nice, neat icon. Say you have multiple windows open, but you want to see each individually. All you have to do is hover your mouse over the icon on the task bar, and if you have Aero activated you will be able to highlight which window you want to see, then click it to bring it to the front. You can also pin programs to the taskbar like the "Quick Launch" bar did, only with 7, if you open a program that's pinned on the taskbar, it will not take up more room by adding another icon. This makes for a very slick, non-cluttered workspace.

There are so many different things that I can say about this OS, but I just don't have the time or the patience to sit here at this keyboard and tell you about every single one of them. If you wasn't able to take advantage of the Windows 7 beta test, you may have to wait until October 22nd to get your hands on it. If you know what you're looking for, you can find the RTM version on torrent sites around the net, then access the Windows 7 beta test site to get your product key. If you are unsure on how to install an OS, if you are not sure you have a legit copy, or if you just aren't sure what to do, I would just wait until October 22nd for the official release.

July 30th was turning out to be just another day. Me and my mom went out and got some O'Charleys for dinner and brought it back for all of us to eat at home. I was getting my cajun chicken pasta out of the sack when I noticed the television in the back. It showed a severe thunderstorm warning for Crittenden County, which is just across the river. I went about my way, helping get the rest of the food out and ready to eat. I went to the fridge to grab a drink and peeked at the television again. This time, it was a tornado warning. So I grabbed my food, ran upstairs and fired up the television and computer to track it.

The storms got closer and closer as the skies got darker and darker. I'm sitting here thinking to myself, "It's going to die out before it gets here. Nothing's going to happen in the city." Then, I saw a tornado warning pop up directly over me, and for a good part of Bartlett, which is just northeast of here. The rains came and we lost satellite signal for our televisions, but we still had the internet. I tracked the storm as it moved directly over us, but it never dropped a funnel. That is, until it got closer to the Wolfchase Galleria area. For those of you that don't know about this area, it is the main place to go in Memphis to shop. It has the city's largest mall, as well as a TON of stores all around it on both sides of I-40. We watched the storm as it moved over the area, and when we got our television signal back, the damage reports started coming in.

The first reports were making it sound like the shopping area was a warzone with buildings destroyed and leveled. As it turns out, the main area of concern was around the Kohls on Germantown Parkway at I-40. The corner of the building has broken off, almost exactly like what happened to the Sears store at the Hickory Ridge Mall a while back. It also overturned a tractor trailer truck in the parking lot and shattered windows in cars and nearby businesses.

Another tornado, pictured above, dropped in Olive Branch, Mississippi causing quite a bit more damage. There were no homes completely leveled, but in one sub-division, the entire 2nd story of a home was ripped off. It was quite a bit more powerful and was on the ground for a longer amount of time than the one that hit inside the Memphis area.

The official ratings of these two storms were quickly determined by the National Weather Service here in Memphis. The one that struck the Wolfcreek shopping area here in town was rated an EF-1, while the Olive Branch tornado was rated an EF-2. Luckily, nobody was hurt or killed during the storm. However, there was one reported injury during cleanup in the Rock Creek Pkwy. area when a man fell 20 ft. We were very lucky, this time.

Until now, I have never, ever had a problem with either AT&T or Apple, but now I have a big one. I was finally able to get my Mom to get an iPhone. After my Dad saw it, he loved it and decided to get one too, the same day. So all 3 of us have iPhones and are very happy. At least, that's what it's supposed to be.

After having the phone for only about a week, the speaker on my Mom's iPhone went out on her. She couldn't hear any audio out of the bottom speaker, including when it was supposed to ring. Me and my Dad brought the phone up to the AT&T store to see if we could get some assistance there, but they informed us that we need to go to the Apple Store, which was about a 30 minute drive away in Germantown. They told us that they work on an appointment system, but if we let them know we need to swap the phones, then it wouldn't be a problem and would only be about a 10 to 15 minute process. We grabbed some lunch and made our way to Germantown to the Apple Store at Saddle Creek.

We arrive to a store buzzing with people at both the main counter and the Genius Bar. We spoke with a young lady at the main counter in the front of the store, explained our situation, and she told us that we would need an appointment. She did, however, tell us that we could be placed in "stand-by" in case someone didn't show up for their appointment. We asked about how long it would take to be waited on, and she informed us it would be somewhere around an hour. We agreed to be put on the stand-by list, and began our wait. Over an hour passed, and we were still patiently waiting. The genius at the Genius Bar did a quick roll call, and called out the next people in line. Everyone was there, including the 3 stand-by's in front of us. Me and my Dad both agreed that we couldn't stay and wait, and decided to leave. My Dad is a diabetic and can't just sit around and wait with no food or anything to drink.

On the way home, I called AT&T once again, and asked them if we couldn't just go into the store and swap the phones out instead of going through the whole Apple Store process, but they told me that the only way to swap the phones in the store is if my Mom upgraded her iPhone to a different model, which would be another $100. Of course, she's not going to do that, so we decide to make an appointment at the Apple Store.

We visit the Apple website and navigate to the Saddle Creek retail site, where appointments can be made. We input our information, and get to the screen where we are supposed to choose our appointment time. Instead, we see a screen that says that all reservations are booked, and to try again later.

All of this occurred on Saturday, July 11th. We tried that Sunday and that Monday, and the message still appeared when we tried to make an appointment. My mother called AT&T's main customer support line and spoke with an Apple Technical Support associate. They told her that it was no problem to swap the phones through the mail, and it would take 2 to 3 days. She agreed, and began the process of giving the information to get things started. We gave the service agent the serial number of the phone, and was then informed that there was a $29 service fee to swap the phones out. Basically, we have to pay them to swap a broken phone we've had for a week. Then, the associate told us that there was going to have to be a hold placed on a credit or debit card for the amount of the phone until the broken phone arrives at their hub. My Mom said that it wasn't a problem to hold $100, but the associate corrected us, saying that the hold was going to have to be for the full price of the phone, which is $499. My Mom declined immediately, saying that if for some reason the phone didn't arrive, her $100 phone would end up costing $600, and she will never pay that much for a phone. So we went back to the Apple website to check for an appointment, and they STILL didn't have any available appointments. We even tried calling the Apple store to set an appointment, but were informed that they do not take appointments over the phone.

The next day, we go to the AT&T store for one last try. We meet the associate that sold us the phone in the first place, who is a very nice person and was as helpful as he could be. We explain the situation, but he, too, says that there is nothing that the store itself can do with the phone unless she wants to turn it in on another brand phone. My Mom had to trade in her iPhone that she wanted so badly for another phone that she's not nearly as happy with, all because of a vicious catch 22 caused by Apple and AT&T.

The reason for this post is to ask the question, why? Why is it so hard to just swap a defective iPhone? Why do I have to drive 30 minutes one way to service a phone when the nearest AT&T store is right here in Bartlett? And most importantly, what can we do now? My Mom still wants her iPhone, but can't get it because of some insanely stupid agreement between Apple and AT&T. If they aren't careful, we'll take our 3 phone family plan elsewhere, iPhone or no iPhone.