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Fixing broken laws
I've written before about the California hands free cell phone law and how useless it is. While studies say that hands free still distracts people (my wife says that I'm distracted when I'm just talking to her in the car), a hands free law is a start to getting people to focus on the road.
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Another run
I went on another run today following the same course I did 2 weeks ago, but 2 miles longer. The course, around a bay and along the ocean is a decent run as there is only 1 stoplight which lets me keep running (I encounter it both ways) and pretty much I can go whatever distance I want without looping back until I'm done half way. Today took me within a block of my parents' place, but I didn't stop in as I wanted to keep running. Maybe next time I'll have to use their place as a refueling stop. The Forerunner again told me all I needed to know and kept me going at the pace I'm targeting (right now about a 9 minute mile). I actually beat my pace the last time I did this run which shows that I'm improving. Now I hope that I can make the distance.
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Useless case protector
Since the Samsung Reclaim isn't a flip phone and the screen risks getting scratched in my wife's purse, she wanted a case. I saw that Sprint had a plastic case that clips onto the Reclaim to protect it. I didn't order it right away because the price went up from the time I looked at it and the time I was going to purchase which basically meant that I could get it cheaper at the Sprint store with my Sprint Premier discount. I was at the store today and tried out the case; the sales person was nice enough to clip it onto my phone.
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Misguided financial values?
On the news the other night, we saw a story about how the stimulus package is providing jobs for some teenagers. The teenagers get paid $10 to work in different office capacities. In order to qualify, the teenagers must come from families that live below the poverty line. I'm not going to argue the merits of this program. They interviewed a few of the kids in the program and one kid said that he'd use some of the money to help out his mother, but then said that he was going to spend some money on himself to get a new cell phone. First off, is a cell phone necessary for everyone? I don't know and don't have to deal with that, yet. (My 2 year old son plays with our cell phones, but he doesn't have his own plan and doesn't actually make calls.) Second, the kid pulls out his brand new iPhone. Let's do a little math. With Apple's new pricing, the lowest priced iPhone is $99. AT&T puts every iPhone on a minimum $30/month data plan in addition to at least the lowest priced voice plan which is $39.99. Let's also assume that the kid doesn't do any text messaging. For a 2 year contract, that is $70/month * 24 = $1680 + $99 for the initial cost of the phone. I've excluded taxes for this example. So at $10/hour, this kid has to work 180 hours or effectively one month full time to pay for this gadget.