I went out and bought a BlackBerry 8330 (also known as the “Curve”) yesterday.

Coming from a Macaholic like myself, you may be wondering why. The answer is simple, really: AT&T sucks.

I would have waited, of course, to buy the contract-free iPhone.  That would’ve put me back $600.  Then, I would have had to pay the ETF (early termination fee) to Verizon.  That’s another $200.  All those iPhone accessories?  $100, at least.  And AT&T’s cheapest plan?  Yeah, that’s $70.

The BlackBerry was $400.  My activation fee was waived, and all I had to buy was a case ($7.99), an 8 GB microSD card ($30), and a software program to sync to my Mac.  So let’s look at the costs, side by side:

iPhone:  $970
Blackberry:  $480 (est.)

Yes, the iPhone would have cost me almost $500 more.  I’m the first one to admit that the iPhone interface is nicer and that it syncs wonderfully with my Macintoshes, but give me a break, people.  (Also, there’s the itty bitty problem that AT&T’s service sucks where I live; no one in my condo complex owns an AT&T/Cingular phone because they don’t work inside our houses, and I live in the biggest city in Connecticut.)

There was another nice added bonus, too: John, my Verizon rep, gave me 8% off my base monthly bill (about $4.00 per month) and 12% off my BlackBerry e-mail/browsing package (about $3.60 per month).  All I had to do was flash my Choate faculty/staff card.  I do love me some serious discounts!

So now I’m chillin’ with my Berry…and I like it.

(By the way, the gas at B.J.’s was almost 20¢ less per gallon than the gas at the Shell station right next to the B.J.’s.  For someone with a small car like me, that’s only about $2.50 less, but every little bit helps nowadays!)

Of all the things I’m excited about in the land of movies, I’m the most excited about this. (NSFW; it’s the red-band trailer.) I mean, can you believe it? George Clooney, Fran McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, and J.K. Simmons? With Burwell scoring? It’s like my dream movie.

Rest in peace, my friend.

We’ll keep using your seven dirty words here on Earth.

I’ve been grooving on this song the past week. The sound quality of the YouTube video doesn’t do it justice. I like how Roman has Matthew playing all the instruments, as he did in the song (except, of course, for the solo):

In the comments to that video, someone mentioned Fanclub’s “Starsign.”  What a great power pop song that was, too:

For a long time, I have been struck by two aspects in particular of the young adult, or Y.A., novel genre. The first is that, for the most part, Y.A. novels aren’t very good. Sure, there are some exceptions, most notably new works by authors like Gordon Korman, Christopher Paul Curtis, and the like. But the majority of Y.A. novels out there—especially the stuff that you read in school, like The Chocolate War and Soup—are as musty as my basement. (Yes, after I dropped the “lawyer” word, I was told that the sheetrock would be replaced “immediately.” Sometimes, the squeaky wheel does get the grease.)

Secondly, and more importantly, I’ve found that the good Y.A. novels aren’t ones that I would necessarily recommend to those students who really should be reading them: sixth and seventh graders. My two favorite Y.A. novels of last year, Chris Crutcher’s Deadline and Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, spent most of this year in the desk drawer in my classroom. There was too much sex, drugs, and rock and roll for me to recommend them to my impressionable class (at least, not yet—but impressionable class, if you’re reading this and you decide to read those, don’t say I didn’t warn you!)

After a particularly disturbing—terrifying, really—dream a few nights ago, I decided to write my own Y.A. novel. I had tried this before, getting more than 18,000 words into a story called No One Else Hears You. It was about a boy named Sam and a vicious hazing incident at prep school. Ironically enough, considering the genesis of my new novel, I left that story behind with this dream sequence:

That night, Sam Holden had a dream. He dreamt that he was standing in the middle of a big arena. Part of it was a coliseum, like they had learned about in their Roman history class, but the middle of the arena looked like a baseball field. It was night but the cavernous empty space was illuminated by dozens of huge, buzzing fluorescent lights.

Sam stood in the middle of the field, alone. As he looked out over the seats, he saw people he knew: his parents, sitting to his left; Nate and Martha Wilson sitting behind him; Trill, Jeff, and Tommy to his right. He was nervous; frightened. He tried to call out to them, first to his mom, then to his friends. No one answered. His parents looked straight ahead. Nate and Martha were talking and laughing.

Sam tried to walk toward them, but with each step he took, they moved farther away.

Sam’s dream might not have gone anywhere, but mine certainly has:

(By the way, I took the cover photograph last night at about 11:00 while I was on the phone with my brother. It’s of the lamppost outside my house. You’ll understand more when you read the book, and I’ll understand more when the scene is more fully developed than the “standing under lamppost?!” note that I scribbled to myself.)

(UPDATE: Last night, when I wrote this post, I wrote that I had written 12,000 words and knew where I was going.  I wrote another 3,000 today when I realized that where I was going wasn’t where I wanted to go.  So the prologue and most of the first part stays, but I’m otherwise back where I started.  I’m going to be able to mine a bunch of stuff, but I’m heading in a different direction.  In a way, I’m glad; I was spending too much time on exposition with the vampire scenes, even though I quite liked them.  So the story has moved from “vampire” into “straight horror.”  I’ll keep you posted.)

If you’re coming here from my TBI Computer training class, you can click on this link to download some of my music!

It’s here! I ordered on Sunday night, late, and the package arrived today. I can’t recommend Peter’s creation enough. It’s absolutely beautiful. These photographs don’t do it justice. (You’ll notice that its place of honor is right next to my Harmony touchscreen remote; I like a little anachronism here and there.)  If you click on the picture and then click again, you’ll get a huge picture; just hit the back button twice to get back to the post.

Bridgeport, Connecticut, 10:56 A.M., Tuesday, June 10, 2008. The number on the left (underneath the sun) is the outside temperature. The number on the right is the inside temperature. And it isn’t even noon yet.

UPDATE: 11:18 A.M., 111.2°F.

Let’s review all the things I have done so far to try to make this house as green as possible:

1) Every lightbulb in the house has been replaced with an energy efficient CFL.
2) The computer’s surge protector will be replaced with APC’s SurgeArrest power strip by the end of the month.
3) The household thermostat was replaced with a programmable thermostat; the entire HVAC unit was serviced and recharged at the beginning of the summer. A/C runs at 74° 72°, and heat ran at between 66° and 68° for the entire winter.
4) The temperature on the refrigerator and freezer was turned to “energy saver.”
5) The washing machine is set to “quick wash” and the drier is set to “quick dry”; the dishwasher runs its drying cycle without heat.

All of these changes, though, pale in comparison to tonight’s decision. As of July 1st, all of my electricity will come from 100% renewable resources. Yes, it costs a little more, but as my brother pointed out tonight, I am paying for research and development as much as I am paying for the energy itself.

So goodbye, coal. Goodbye, nuclear. Goodbye, natural gas. Hello, 50% windpower and 50% low-impact hydroelectric!

Any other green suggestions would be appreciated. (And by the way: I ordered the clock.)

Those of you who know me well know that I love clocks, watches, and other timepieces. Tonight, I was watching Brian De Palma’s 1980 thriller Dressed to Kill when I spotted a clock unlike any I had ever seen. You can click on the picture for a closer look:

Here’s a better picture of the entire clock (it’s in the lower left-hand corner of the screen).

It looks like those L.E.D.s are suspended in that plastic case. I have no facility with electronics, but do you think it would be easy to make one of these? It’s one of the coolest clocks I’ve ever witnessed.

UPDATE: We have an answer, from Doug!

Hi Ben, Those numerals were created using nixie tubes. Nixie tubes were used before LEDs popped up. They are vacuum tubes with segments that are controlled by applying electricity to each segment that needs to be lit. Nixie tubes can get quite warm.

Here’s a whole website on nixie tube clocks. Thanks, Doug!

Here’s a video of a nixie tube clock.  I’m just fascinated.