Another Year, Another Cellphone

I didn't have any issues with my Samsung Blackjack - or maybe I just got used to it. My main complaint was that it was 3GSM only and didn't work in Korea or Japan. So I asked my company to upgrade me to the BlackjackII, which I hoped would give me a nice upgrade along with its quad-band functionality.

And my impression? Hmm, so-so. Not really all that different from the BJ1. They replaced the flywheel on the side with one on the front, which I was initially excited about, but I ended up not liking. It is too "slow" and they don't provide a way to update the speed (imagine using a very slow mouse with your computer and not having the ability to adjust its speed).

It has a nicer "surface finish" than the first generation and looks more stylish, which makes up for its slightly thicker size and a few extra ounces.

The updated Windows Mobile 6 is nothing to write home about, and the internet connection seems slower to me than my BJ1.

Overall it's an okay phone that I will be happy to be using on my trips to Japan and Korea. It isn't a blockbuster, but maybe that is because the iPhone upped the ante.

The Ultimate Gratifier

All of us are searching for the “ultimate gratifier” – that person that will fulfill our every wish and desire; the thing that fills us with Total Purpose.

In Freudian psychology, this usually represents the subconscious needs we didn’t get fulfilled from our opposite-sex parent. Whether this is true or not is debatable, but what isn’t debatable is that our lives are spent either searching for this ultimate gratifier, or subconsciously attempting to manipulate others to provide the missing needs.

When people attempt to transfer these needs to another person, it starts off well. But when that person doesn’t live up to our expectations – turns out not to be the Ultimate Gratifier - we get pissed.

For some people these days this Ultimate Gratifier is Obama. They are projecting onto him “hope” or “inspiration” or whatever else they have missing from their lives. So what is almost as scary as these people willing to vote for someone without experience is that these same people will be severely pissed when he doesn’t live up to expectations (if he became President).

No matter how much people are in love at the beginning of a relationship, if it is going to last a full four years, it needs to have realistic expectations; it can’t last on idealist projections and empty promises. And those relationships that try to last on idealistic expectations usually end up in the most bitter of divorces.

Update: I am not the only one applying psychological principles to candidates. Michael Weiss applies Gestalt Theory on the why McCain is doing well: McCain the Gestalt Candidate

Good Game

Some quick observations of the Superbowl:

• The game was WAY better than the commercials this year.
  
  
• I was happy to see the Giants win, although I started off not caring who won. That late forth quarter catch was really exciting and I was jumping up and down.
  
  
• The Bud Lite commerical with Will Ferrell gets my nod as the best ad. A couple of others I noticed, but didn't knock my socks off. The FedEx "Carrier Pigeon" was a good idea that wasn't quite executed right.
  
  
• Was that a quick game? Seemed like it to me. Or maybe it was because it was interesting for a change.
  
  
• Half time was really good. Tom Petty rocks.
  

First Review: HBO's "In Treatment"

One early reviewer noted that the new series "In Treatment" from HBO was the replacement for "The Sopranos", but zeroing in on the psychiatry. I really like Gabriel Byrne, who plays the shrink, so I thought I would give it a spin.

I watched the first night and was a bit disappointed, but that was because I didn't understand the format. This is like a weekly mini-mini-series where you watch four days of the shrink listening to his patients, and then the last day of the week you hear him talking to HIS shrink.

That's what I didn't like about the first episode - that we got nothing from the shrink, but heard a 30 minute session about the patient. Byrne only had about ten lines (after all, he's a shrink and is supposed to listen). Apparently each patient comes back the same time each week (so each Monday will be the same patient, etc.) then each Friday Byrne goes to his own shrink to wrap things up, so I assume that will be 30 minutes of listening to just him.

So I will give it a full week before I give my final verdict.

Like legal shows versus real law, there is a lot here that you wouldn't find in "real" psychotherapy, but that is a discussion for another time.

Update: The second episode was much better. Blair Underwood did a good job as the "Tuesday" patient and there was a lot more feedback from Byrne this time. A good write-up is here.

Can You Say "Kludge"?

Apple fan-sites probably already posted this, but I heard about this only today. What a joke - you have to encase your entire phone, removing its functionality, to get a few more powers of optical zoom:

Thanks to the people at Conice, iPhone owners can now get in close on the action without actually being close, because here is an optical zoom lens designed specifically for the Jesus phone. Because there is nowhere on the iPhone where this barrel can screw in, the optical zoom lens attaches to a transparent protective case that wraps around the rest of the iPhone.Yes, it takes away from the sleekness of the iPhone and it weighs nearly as much (4.69 ounces vs. the 4.8-ounce iPhone), but now you get to enjoy 6x optical zoom.

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