I have been a BlackBerry user for the past 4 years and it has been the only smart phone brand I have owned. It all started with the original BlackBerry Bold 9000 in 2008 and the original BB Torch 9800 in 2010. Thus I guess I am an early adopter to their new form factors. I have been a BB user out of necessity as it is mandated by my work. There have been rumors that we were going to be allowed to use the iPhone soon so I have been holding out for a new phone even though my contract was up. My phone took a turn for the worst on Saturday so I was forced to get a new one. I was really torn. Should I go with the upgrade model of my current one (the Torch 9810) or go to a new form factor like the BB Bold 9900 or the Torch 9860? I wasn’t happy that the 9810 looked the same as the 9800 even though it had different insides. I guess I expected a change when buying something two years Iater as people expect things to improve. I immediately discounted the new Bold because of its width even though I liked my original Bold and the new touch capability would be cool. It is just not very pocket friendly. I instead leaned towards the 9860 because of its great feel, size, and it looked up to date with other phones on the market. Thus I took a plunge and went with a totally touch 9860 unit that did not have a qwerty keyboard.

A day later, I am not sure if I am going to keep this phone. For someone who actually wants to use their phone for messaging and emails, a touch screen just isn’t practical. Maybe I am old school but a qwerty keyboard is so much easier to type plus it’s more natural. If your main purpose for a phone (besides talking) is media and web browsing then a full touch is all you need. But when I travel, I rarely break out my PC and instead use my BB to answer all my emails. With this new phone, it would take 4 times as long and it is just awkward. So I have 4 weeks to make a switch. I will give it two more weeks until I make my final decision.

That brings me to another point. Why does everyone hate BlackBerry so much? Even the AT&T guy asked me why I wanted a BB. BB sure is in trouble if the company responsible for selling their product is recommending against it. At a recent Windows phone event, I had a discussion with a Microsoft product manager on why I loved BB. First the qwerty keyboard is the best in the market. Everyone is on this iPhone craze and has lost their way in my mind. A good keyboard makes it so much easier. I can type with great accuracy and speed with both hands on the keyboard without even looking at it. I just don’t see this happening on a touch device. The second is the track pad. In my opinion, every phone should have this. It is the perfect mouse like device for selecting things without zooming in. I remember reading BB users reviews on the Torch when it came out and they were questioning why the track pad was still there. I think they are crazy for not utilizing it. It is so easy to select something or go back in the middle of a sentence to make a correction. Also, with BlackBerry’s trade in program I am going to get money back to make the switch as the phone cost $100 but I am getting $160 in trade-in. I don’t understand why they would do that but I’m not going to complain about it.

That is my two cents. What do you think?

There are so many exciting things to talk about these days so I figured a blog post was due.  I think I could list double the items below since I have so much on my mind but this is a good summary.

• Missouri dominated Texas this week. It has been an insane run the past two months for the Cardinals and it all culminated with a come from behind win against Texas. Missouri took notice and did the same against Texas A&M.
• What to do with Pujols is a very interesting question.  It is hard to see him leave knowing he is one of the best players ever in the MLB and in the midst of his prime.  It is also hard to pay him a long term contract for $22 million plus a year knowing (1) that could get the Cards two good free agents (2) a 5 year plus contact seems scary after seeing a chink in Pujol’s armor this year after having an “off year” (3) Pujols seems to be a little more dinged up and his feet issues don’t seem to be going away. Imagine what it’s going to be like in 3 or 4 years.  There does seem to be a lot of good free agents this year too.
• I am extremely disappointing in the setup that the St Louis ball park bars put out on Friday. Did they not expect thousands to be there? In 2006, we watched the game at Al’s under the tent in horrible weather conditions but there was huge portable tvs and the game was blasted over the loud speakers. I was expecting more this year as they was more hype and better weather.  Instead, it was the same setup at PaddyO’s . They did not even have the game playing over the speakers so the majority of the crowd there could not hear or see the game. They really needed to step it up. By 7, they were also out of almost every food item. How do you run out of hot dogs???? Kilroy’s had a TV on top of their building but the bathroom and beer line was so long that it was not worth staying.  At least they stepped it up a little. I was expecting beer vendors and a good spread. I was disappointed. Luckily Joe Bucks was a little more prepared and we had a great time there.
• So pumped about our Honeymoon to Maui. The hotel looks awesome and glad we got upgraded airline seats for the total experience.
• Totally addicted to credit card perks right now. I feel like I have spent hours on the Points Guy’s website researching the best deals.  Also, I have never gotten more compliments over my Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The Cards is like a piece of metal and weights about 3 times more than a standard credit card. Everyone I hand it too says how cool it is.
• The housing market sucks! I would be happy selling just one place for a fair price.
• My fantasy team continues to find ways to win but I am not invincible as I once thought I was. My defense is weak but improving based on some of my pickups the past two weeks. My defensive draft was basically useless as I only have 1 or 2 players left I drafted. My wide receiver stable is not excelling like it was which is giving me my doubts. I am also not happy that a couple players that I drafted and held onto for several weeks like Demarco Murray (who I had the first 5 weeks) which are doing much better.  At least I will be 7 and 1 and walking away with the Hodge Podge division title.
• Should I be getting back into video games? The new COD and Battlefield both look pretty awesome.
• I am really excited about Black Friday this year. There are a lot of new gadgets and electronics that I am interested in if the price is right.

Where to even start? I have been a bad blog writer this year. A combination of an extremely busy work load, selling two places, traveling (work and pleasure), and general lack of a personal computer have all contributed to not keeping up. Thus I thought I would give a brief run down of whats going on.

• Daytona with the family was awesome. It was relaxing on the beach plus I did not get burnt which is always good. The biggest surprise of the trip was visiting St Augustine. I had never been and would recommend it. It is a very European town (which you would expect from the oldest city in the US).  I would recommend Pizzalley’s Chianti Room (one of the best meals we had all trip). I would not recommend San Sebastian winery. Florida is not and should not be known for their wine. I did not like it at all.
• Work is insane. We are super busy which is great but extremely overloaded. On top of that, I have a lot of travel. I am definitely looking forward to my Germany/UK trip next month.
• Selling of the two homes is progressing. Very little activity on the condo which is disappointing. The house is looking good. We finished the upstairs this weekend and have just one more project left before it can be listed.
• We registered (and de-registered at another place…lol) over the past week. It was a lot of fun. We also went cake testing and picked one that is going to be awesome.
• I am despising my car. My extended warranty ends in two weeks and not sure what I am going to do. The truck broke again. I am really disappointed in the quality of Infiniti. I will never buy again and has me seriously reconsidering buying a Nissan too.
• The Cards are a huge disappointment. The Rams are a surprise….let see if they can keep the momentum. They have a lot of good players. Not sure what to think of the Tigers. The game this weekend will be a good test.
• We made some awesome chicken parmigiana last night after our first attempt failed. I love making new foods with my fiancee.
• I am not a fan of the stock market right now. It has not been good to me.
• Went to Iron Barley with some friends for my late bday present. It was awesome. It is in such a weird location but so good. I had the Schnitzel & Spaetzle. I saw others with the Prime Rib special which looked amazing. The sausage platter was good too.

That’s all I got for now.

• I really need to head out to the new bars by my house on Washington Ave. Rosalita’s and Jive and Wail all recently opened. I am really impressed that Jive and Wail is offering free cover to all downtown residents that can show a 63103 or 63101 zip code on their ID. I think that is a great idea and all the places downtown should follow. I think that would lead more “locals” to hit up these kinds of areas and increase the sense of community.
• I also need to hit up the Whiz Tech Cafe which is on my street and a block away.  I am a little surprised by the location and the concept but the menu sure looks good.
• I am extremely happy to see work begin on the Leather Trades building across the street from my condo. You can read more about the redevelopment in the Stl Business Journal. This place was in the process of being built when I bought my place and was part of the Pyramid collapse. It will be very nice to bring more action to my block. The end goal would be to fill up all the buildings from my block to Pepper Lounge. It is a work in progress as that area continues to add more business and redevelops.
• I love that Charter is finally catching up to their competitors in their HD line up. I have experienced my issues with Charter in the past but they are doing really well in Customer Service in my eyes now.  They added 11 new HD channels yesterday and I have been told that they will add another 14 in March. MTV is awesome for Jersey Shore, VS is good for hockey, Nick is good too. I can not wait for E to come out in the future. It will pretty much wrap up all my tv watching in HD.

11 New HD Channels:
Versus HD (Expanded Basic): 731FX HD (Expanded Basic): 732Big Ten Network HD (Expanded Basic): 733Speed HD (Expanded Basic): 734Hallmark Channel HD (Digital View): 742Cooking Channel HD (Digital View Plus): 743VH1 HD (Expanded Basic): 744MTV HD (Expanded Basic): 746Spike HD (Expanded Basic): 747ABC Family HD (Expanded Basic): 748Nickelodeon HD (Expanded Basic): 749

14 HD channels in March 2011 (No firm date released yet):
ESPNU HD (Digital View/Sports View): 737Lifetime Movie Network HD (Expanded Basic): 738CNBC HD (Expanded Basic): 739MSNBC HD (Expanded Basic): 740Travel Channel HD (Expanded Basic): 741Disney XD HD (Expanded Basic): 750Cartoon Network HD (Expanded Basic): 717ESPN News HD (Sports View): 718TruTV HD (Expanded Basic): 724E! HD (Expanded Basic): 723CMT HD (Expanded Basic): 722Oxygen HD (Digital View): 721HLN HD (Expanded Basic): 720BIO HD (Digital View): 719

• Here is a great analysis on Blaine Gabbert. Finally, someone has watched all the tapes and realizes that this guy needs a lot of work. He might be the prototypical build for a NFL QB but he sure does need some work on pocket presence. I can really see him bombing if he is drafted as a franchise QB and thrown into a starting role in the 1st year or two.
• The Colorado upset of Missouri doesn’t seem to be that much of an upset anymore after Colorado beat K State in Manhattan last night. The Big 12 is just really strong and every road game is going to be tough.

That’s all I got. I was going to break up these posts based on Matt’s comments but I am too lazy so you will have to deal with it.

I had to regretfully switch “brick and motor” banks today after Commerce Bank changed their minimum requirements for a checking account several months ago. First off, I did not even notice that there was a change until I receive a $7 service charge last month. Who reads those notification letters of changes anyway? Commerce said they made the change back in April so no clue why I wasn’t charged other months.  The new rule is “the account has to have at least one $500.00 direct deposit each month or a combined balance of $1,500.00 in checking, savings and money market accounts.” Most would hit this with the direct deposits but I do not since this is not my primary checking account since I switched to an online ING account which gets a lot more interest in my savings and earns interest in my checking with no minimum balance. I went into a branch today to find out that all their accounts had this minimum requirement. I told the bank rep I wanted to cancel it and did so. I thought I was going to do Bank of America but they have a $1000 minimum so I ended up with US Bank (which has an ATM 3 blocks away from my condo) so it is super nice. US Bank has a zero minimum balance on their Free Checking account.

I partially understand why Commerce could target a user like me because I was basically using that account to cash checks then transfer it to my other online account. What I am not sure of is low income people who can not hit the $1000 minimum and not have the ability to have a direct deposit pay check. I could be crazy but I would think that would be a lot of people.

I had been using Commerce Bank since I was 17 so I been a customer for 13 years. Sad to see them go since I knew where all the ATM’s were in St Louis.

So my driver side window in my car as been acting weirdly. Basically it has not been working in the afternoons and nights. I am guess from the heat. Its a big pain when you have to go in and out of a garage where you need to roll down your window to use your keyfob. I took my car in this morning to Plaza Lexus in St Louis. They gave me a loaner car like they always do. I walked out of the service bay with the service writer looking for the loaner car. The porter said it was one of the three cars in front of the building. We couldn’t find it so asked the porter. He said it was the one we were in front of even though my key said 3 and this one was 13. It started right up with the keyless ignition fob in my hand so I didn’t think anything. The gas also matched what my paperwork said which was between 1/2 and a 1/4 so I assumed this was it.  I drove away and hopped on I-270. I noticed that I had a bunch of alerts. The first two being oil change and filter needed. Thought this was pretty weird being its a dealers car. The third one said “no key.” I immediately moved the key closer but assumed that the diagnostic screen was messed up since I was now 5 miles away from the dealer and the car started. I got to my office after a 30 minute drive then tried to lock the car with the key fob. It wouldn’t lock. I then tried to start it and it did not. Looks like I did have the wrong car. So how did the thing start the first time. Either the porter had the key in his pocket or even scarier possibility is that the car was close enough to the office that it picked up the key fob. We were probably 15 or 20 ft away so not sure the range. What is scary about that is what if that was your unlocked car in your driveway. A kid or a thief could go start your car while you were watching TV in the house. Why did the car not shut down once out range of the car? Pretty odd.

• I have not played video games since I came back from Chile almost two months ago. Pretty odd considering I was addicted before I left.
• I can not get on top of my DVR situation.  I have my DVR 75% full which is about 900 GB. I have complete seasons of Chuck, Dollhouse, Tudors, Flash Forward, V, and probably others. I have over 5 episodes each of Simpsons, Parks and Recreations, The Middle, American Dad, America – The Story of Us, and many others.
• I do not know what to think about this shift from the Big 12. I thought it was a money issue but I read last week that MU has gotten around $22 million a year in the Big 12 revenue sharing program where the Big 10 programs get 20 million. Doesn’t make sense. It sounds like the whole league could fold if MU and Nebraska leave which is eerie. I read a stupid article yesterday that said KU and K State would be out to dry. Both are major sports programs so I am sure they will have no problem finding their way into a strong conference.
• I love that I somehow got new HD channels with Charter. I believe 6 in total. Comedy Central is huge and the Disney channel is not bad. Bravo is also a big one even though I do not watch any shows from there. My girl friend can now watch Drop Dead Diva in HD on Lifetime now too.
• I had a brief stroll down Wash Ave last night and saw a lot of development started back up again. The market that was started before Culinaria opened looked to be going again and almost finished. There is also a convenient store next to Lucas Park being built. Copia looks to open any day and the Vodka bar next door to Copia is open.
• The Lakers Celtics series is pretty good but I think the referees are deterring from the game. There has been a lot of missed calls in terms of fouls….more than normal on both sides. It seems life refs automatically call a foul if the player falls down but don’t call one when players get whacked in arm. The 2  minute replay review needs to be looked at because the Odom-Rondo reversal was ridiculous. Rondo fouled Odom (and it was easy to see) on a rebound that made Odom knock the ball out of bounds. The refs originally called it Lakers ball and reversed. Obviously he would not have knocked it out of bounds if Rondo would not have knocked is right hand off the ball.
• Looking forward to Vegas. More and more people keep signing up plus I can’t wait to hang out with friends I have partied with in a while.

My girlfriend and I went to some of the Augusta, MO wineries on Saturday for a friend’s 30th bday party. My girlfriend had been planning it for the past month. She decided on the Mount Pleasant winery since this same group had such a blast last year at the same winery. The weather was amazing. There was barely a cloud in the sky and the temperature was in the mid 80′s.

Unfortunately, Mt Pleasant was a huge disappointment. We were the first group to basically get there at 11:30. We grabbed some tables and went back to the entrance for the tasting. Upon looking at the list, we realized that the choices were pretty dismal. We were told that the sweet wines were moved to Branson but we could still buy them at local stores like Walmart. My big problem is why would you not offer all the wines even though they might be made at different locations? I just got back from Chile and went to several wineries where they made only certain wines at each locations but all the locations carried all the wines. Don’t you want to market your products? Especially in Mt Pleasant’s instance that their Augusta location has always been their bread and butter location (in my eyes). This was huge for us since my girlfriend and I both prefer Merlots. The second big problem was the winery changed their policy and did not allow food to be brought in. Thus we were told after being there for an hour that we needed to take our food out to our cars. Every single table had food and was equally distraught. They told us we could buy food at the market. The problem with this statement was that the normal market was under renovation so they didn’t even offer winery basics like meat and cheese plates. Instead they offered pulled pork sandwiches which they supposedly ran out of anyway. We continued to eat our food out of protest (along with everyone else) until we were told again a hour later. We argued that they did not state their no food policy on their webpage not are they providing an alternative source for food. They explained it was a trash issue which is just hogwash….that is the logistics of running a business. The other big issue I failed to mention was the price of the wine. It was outrageous. We were buying $33 bottles of wine which is ridiculous. Like everyone else, we decided to go somewhere else. It was actually pretty sad because the place had probably 4 or 5 small groups at 3 o’clock on a perfect day. Their policy has to be a losing proposition in their revenue plan. I know they lost a couple hundred dollars from our group of 15 since we went somewhere else.

We went to Sugar Creek because we heard from other groups that they allow food. We were a little worried that we were not going to get a table being so late. We arrived just as a group was leaving to secure a table so it was pretty awesome. The place was packed. There was a band, all the tables were packed, and even the grass was full of people on blankets. It was a great atmosphere. People even brought their own tables and chairs. We had a huge spread so it was good that we could enjoy it here. Plus we got two bottles of wine for $31 and it was better tasting so goodness all around. Also, Sugar Creek specifically stated their policy on what can and can not be brought unlike Mt Pleasant. I would definitely go back.

The one other issue I had with both wineries was their no outside water policy. I understand trying to prohibit liquor, sodas, and other liquids but water? It promotes safety when it comes to alcohol. Especially in the hot sun. Even Busch Stadium (the mother of all rip offs) allows you to bring in water. Even more is that their was another DD checkpoint on 94 which has to hurt business for the winery. I was responsible and had only one glass of wine at both locations but brought a group of people that was drinking. Should I be punished by having to buy water when I am bringing revenue to their business? I think not.

Here are my thoughts on Lost and my experience as we hit the stretch run for the final episode.

I first started watching Lost right before the second season started. My friend Matt kept telling me that I needed to watch this show. Especially since I was depressed that HBO’s Carnivale was not picked up for a 2^nd season. Carnivale was the first show I really got extremely into and read a lot online about theories and what not. So I downloaded (I know but this was before they were online) the first season of Lost and watched all the episodes straight in 3 days while I was on a business trip. I was addicted and could not wait till the second season.

The first two seasons of Lost were the best for me. It took two seasons to get a full understanding of the main characters back stories and see how everything was related. All the other seasons are just filler now that I see how the series is ending. The reason I say this is because it seems like the writers kept throwing out more and more questions which seem like they will never be answered. I know I hate to think this but the show would have been perfect in 3 seasons. Going into this last season, I was expecting it to be jammed pack with action and finally understanding what was going on with this island. Instead, the writer chose to continue with a lot of fluff and give half answers. I may seem upset and I am but I have come to the reality like many other Lost followers that it is not the intention of the writers to provide answers. Instead they want to focus on the theme of redemption. It a great storyline but it makes it seem like a lot of the episodes and what we thought we major occurrences and plotlines were worthless. This is why I think the show would have been better in 3 years. The Lost blogs keep referencing the idea that the 1^st season was written so the show could have ended hitting the writer’s storyline if it wasn’t picked up for a second season. I agree that it is possible after looking at some of the facts.

Even though I am complaining about the ending, I am going to be so disappointed to never have Lost again in my life. I know that sounds creepy and weird but I have never been into a show this much. It is the one show that I have to see as soon as it is on. It is also a show I spent countless hours reading about online and discussing with my friends. This is why it is the best show ever! The downfall of the show is that you basically can’t start in the middle thus why viewer ratings went down every year (even though I did convince two coworkers to watch all the episodes in a couple months before the start of this season…and they loved it). It is also another reason why the show should have only been 3 seasons.

And one theory that I can’t wait to find the answer to about the show is why the island was sunk in the beginning of this season. Everyone has speculated because the people found a way to kill Flock, MIB, or whatever you want to call him. The last episode gave a new possibility that the MIB can use Desmond to destroy the island. Is it possible that Lost could end with a sad ending?…I hope not but Carnivale did which made we crave it even more.

I can’t wait till Sunday and dreading it all at the same time!

I was recommended this Yahoo article earlier in the night about things not to buy in 2010. There was a couple items in the list that intrigued me thus I looked it up. Overall, I highly agree with 8 out of these 10 items but totally disagree with the other 2.

I disagree with the Smartphone logic. This articles logic seems to be that you should only buy an iPhone or a Blackberry because they are the market leader. I bet ever consumer electronic company wishes that everyone followed this ideology on market leaders. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The iPhone was once a disruptive product and earned its market share from Motorala and Blackberry. What makes new smart phones incapable of doing this? This topic is even more hot since CES is this week and Google’s Nexus One was unveiled. There are plenty of new phones out there to cut into Blackberry and Apple’s market share.

The other one I disagree with even more is their theory about SLRs. Larger and better cameras have always been around albeit more expensive. Compact camera became popular because their ease of use, good quality, and small size. This concept still holds true today. You can’t tell me that every girl in the world wants to carry around a SLR in their purse instead of a small compact! They even disprove their theory by saying “Canon’s digital compact cameras start at $110, while the SLRs start at $570.” The average consumer is not going to buy a SLR when they can get a good picture out of a $100 camera. What the article fails to call out and which also goes back to the smart phone logic is that I can see the compact camera losing popularity in the years to come as phones are starting to have standard 5MP or more cameras. With that said, I still don’t see people getting rid of the compacts in the next couple years.

5 out of the items I believe should have been on the list for 2009 or earlier. I guess this writer is out of touch with technology….or at least behind. For example, I haven’t had a friend with a home phone line in 10 years.