A little TECH help please...

Here is my problem, desribed completely and perfectly in one, well-crafted sentence:

I am sick of using a stylus.

There. I said it. Not only am I sick of using a stylus (and won't, ever again) but I lost mine. So, when I am sitting in a meeting trying to input some notes into my little Palm device, I use a pen cap. Lame, I know.

So...I have a decision to make. Rather than simply go buy something that looks cool (which is what I usually do) I am trying to make this complicated by weighing all of the options.

PROBLEM: I need a PDA, cell-phone, MP3 player, paired down to one or two items (I'm not carrying three devices).

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: First off, here is what I'm NOT doing. I'm not getting a Palm-anything. Not the Treo. No Palm stuff. Don't ask me why. We'll get into this big debate about it and everything all boils down to me listing a bunch of reasons why Microsoft is making it easier for the aliens to take over our planet. I realize that Palm isn't owned by Bill Gates, but there are a bunch of connections...

Here are the most likely options:


ONE: I'll but an iPhone. I'd have to switch to ATT. But iPhones are cool. They don't have a to-do list that syncs with iCal (for some reason) and that is a problem. I could maybe use Google Calendar (which would be nice...no syncing at all). iPhones are expensive, they have a pretty small harddrive, but they are pretty cool, too. I like them.



TWO: Blackberry Curve or the Blackberry 8800 phone. I don't really need to have email capabilities from the PDA like BB's are famous for, but it would be nice I guess. Their data plans aren't cheap (the iPhone's is only $20/mo). I like both Blackberries quite a bit (but now I'm tired of typing...)

So, here is what I'm asking for. Will you ask all of the people you know who have either/any of these devices and get opinions and then post those thoughts? And quickly?

Is there such thing as a Conference hangover?

As my SIL so aptly described, conference was awesome this last weekend. I got to work on Monday and told the guy I work with that I thought this was the best conference ever. He said, "You say that every six months." Ya, I probably do. They get better every six months!

But, and herein lies the problem, I feel so gross right now. I start looking forward to conference months ahead of October. I start planning what I'll eat weeks prior to the event. We gather the ingredients we'll need days before. By the time conference starts I'm on the couch ramming nachos, Seven-layer dip, tater-tots, and french-toast with bacon into my mouth at such an unhealthy rate that I can literally feel my heart laboring under the pressure of shoving my blood through my now-too-closed-off arteries. My stomach expands to accept the double-portion. My knees buckle when I pull myself off of the couch. The buttons on my shirt hold on for dear life. While wrestling with my children, I nearly crush them like an elephant.

It isn't pretty. At all.

But, it feels pretty good. And, I love listening to the talks and discussing them with Janese and the children. So, it is a great weekend.

Then Monday comes. It isn't so much that I feel horrible. I just feel a little gross all over. My muscles ache. My head spins a bit. My stomach feels full all day whether I eat anything else or not. I can't enjoy food. And it last for days. Up to a week. Ugh...I'm not looking forward to the rest of this week.

So, though this was the best conference yet (this time I'm sure of it) I feel gross.

With that said, I loved conference.
The Elder Wirthlin Elder Nelson moment.
The "SHOWER, SHOWER, SHOWER" talk.
Every word Sister Beck shared.
Every word Elder Holland shared.
The calling of Pres. Eyring and Elder Cook.
Elder Hallstrom's Priesthood Session talk.
"Good, better, best".

And there was so much more. That is why I'm excited for conference to be posted on the church's website. I'll download the talks in MP3 form and print a few off to mark. Then the November Ensign will come. Janese and I will both have our own copy so that we can study and mark each talk. I noticed that Pres. Hinckley challenged us, again, to use the conference talks in FHE. So we're going to make a more concerted effort in our home to do that. I'm excited.

Even though I still feel so full I might fast for the next three days.

A few more edits...

I've edited a few more family pictures from our recent photo shoot...to see more, click on the BJM Photography Blog...

Brian's Pregnancy?

My pregnancy is going quite well...thanks for asking.

Janese caught these uniquely flattering pictures of me swimming this summer. I thought I was playing enough tennis to counteract the huge amount of nachos I consume. Apparently I was wrong. Really wrong.

I hope the 2nd and 3rd trimesters go as smoothly as the first one has...

Since I'm up anyway...

I'll post a picture from the most recent family photo shoot...ours. Go to the photography blog to see more...

4:44 am...

Or maybe 4:41 am...I don't know. Last night, the last thing I said to Janese (besides telling her that she was a wonderful wife an to never leave me) was that I was excited to sleep in until 7:00 am. That is all I wanted. Well, I just woke up and the first thing I saw was 4:44 am on the dang alarm clock. The dream I was having woke me up.

In my dream I was in charge of diving to the bottom of a swimming pool at a restaurant and trying to sift through the debris on the floor of the pool, looking for items people may have lost. I couldn't see very well and kept asking people for those mining strap-on headlamp things, but no one would oblige. This was all taking place during dinner. Meaning, the pool was surrounded by people sitting at tables eating dinner. They were all wearing nice clothes and there was music and the lights were low. It was a pretty nice place...with this gross, unused, debris-filled swimming pool smack-dab in the middle of the room.

Well, I pulled up some forks and necklaces and other lame stuff and finally was able to go home from my shift. As I was getting to the parking-lot to head home, I realized I had forgotten something "at work" so I headed back in. As I opened the door to the restaurant, the head waiter said, "Well, Mr. Mickelson, we've been waiting for you..." He escorted me to one of the nicer tables and everyone stood and clapped. They awarded me some medal or something because I had rescued all of the garbage from the pool.

It was a pretty satisfying dream.

And here I am. Posting on Blogger at 4:42 am.

Lame.

Greased Piggy...

After our FHE lesson, our family decided to play Monopoly. As the children were setting up the board and the pieces, I noticed Madelyn staring at the game board from the kitchen. She was wearing only a diaper and a wicked smile. In a starteling display of athletic prowess, she dropped her head and shoved off, running at the group of siblings quietly setting up houses and counting out fake money. Like a bulldozer without a driver, she rammed into the children, stomped all over the game board, and sent Monopoly houses and money flying everywhere. It was awesome. For the next five minutes or so the kids tried everything to stop her and she enjoyed the new-found attention. Over and over she ran into the kitchen, waited for the dust and giggles to settle, and then made another suprise attack. Round after round of baby carpet bombing ensued. After a few minutes of this, the children begged us to not play Monopoly, but instead, to play, "Try to Catch Maddie While She Screams and Giggles and Stomps All Over the Game Board". Or, in other words, Catch the Greased Pig...

Love FHE...

My Favorite "stuff"...

I don't know if I spend a lot of time on the internet or not. I hope I don't. But, I spend enough time to have a starting list of favorite stuff online. So, here is the current and incomplete list (in no particular order):

The podcasts RadioLab and This American Life. There is no doubt -- these are the best podcasts being produced today. No doubt. I just wish I hadn't melted my iPod be leaving it int he sun in my car all weekend. I opened another checking account at Key Bank just to get the free iPod Nano they give you. As soon as it comes I'm closing the account. It is worth it -- these two podcasts alone are worth it.



Wikipedia is great, too. I know there is some big arguments concerning whether a student can use articles from Wikipedia as sources for papers. I don't care. I'm not a student. It is a great place to start when you are studying ANYTHING.

That brings me to CarTalk. The website isn't anything great. But, the radio show, heard on NPR on Saturday mornings, is the most entertaining show on about any medium. And...I don't know anything about cars (or even care).

Apple. A Mac works. It looks cool. iPods are cool. iTunes is easy to use. Steve Jobs is much more enjoyable to listen to than Bill Gates. Microsoft's Zune is fairly lame.

What other stuff do I like? Amazon. Ebay. I read, well, scan, CNN everyday but Sunday.

The LDS church has a tech site for people who like to see how the church is using technology.

I can't think of anything else right now, but I'm sure there are more things on the list. As I think of more "stuff", I'll add them.