My Love and Fears for Gadgets Part 2

My most recent incident was with my Ipad, my newest and most prized gadget. I have been extremely, extremely, extremely cautious with it. I had not let anyone other than my tech savvy sister use it yet. I got a shell case and soft polyurethane smart cover to protect it. Yet the first time, the very first time I let someone other than myself or my sister use my Ipad, my friend drops it within two seconds of me handing it to him. Now I had told him before handing it to him to be careful and he assured me that he would be careful. But I should have expected it. He drops is straight down, landing on the screen. Now my initial reaction is probably not appropriate for school, but needless to say, I was not happy. I quickly snatched up my Ipad and luckily, there wasn't even a mark on the screen. This has caused me to go back to my previous rules of not letting anyone else use it.

I had never had a nice cell phone up until about a year ago. I had never really cared for my cell phone because I usually just had a cheap, standard, flip phone. But things changed, somehow, I convinced my mom to get me a Droid 2. I will admit, I wanted an Iphone, but we had Verizon and that wasn’t an option at the time. As with my Ipad, I vowed to be extremely careful while using my phone. It wasn’t until bragging to my friend that I had never dropped my phone before, I dropped my phone twice that night. I felt like an idiot. I didn’t severely damage or anything, just a scuff mark or two. Since then I have dropped my phone a few more times, and every time I pick it up afterwards, I have the fear that when I pick it up, the screen will be cracked. Then I would be forced to go back to my old, outdated flip phone.

My last fear I will talk about isn't about breaking something; it's about getting something stolen. My TomTom. I have always had a fear of someone snatching my TomTom out of my car. I have had some instances where I have come out to my car to find it unlocked, meaning anyone could have simply opened the door and taken anything they wanted. This wouldn't only lead to self-frustration. It would also make me feel like my privacy was invaded. I would feel as though my car is no longer a safe place to store my belongings.

And those are my fears and close calls with my gadgets.

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My Love and Fears for Gadgets Part 1

As you could probably tell from my last post about my Ipad, I love it. It is extremely fun to use while also being adept to all my needs and wants. I also have a number of other gadgets and electronics that I love including my laptop, my droid, my desktop computer, my Xbox, my GPS, and my numerous Ipods. Now sure many of you guys are thinking "Nerd!" but call me what you want, I have a love for technology.

What comes along with all of these gadgets are the fears of them breaking or something happening to them. Much of these gadgets come as an investment to me, and I usually opt out of the available "insurance" with the mindset that I will be extremely careful. That has been completely true, so far, but now that I am blogging about it I am sure to drop something..., but it is true that I have been as careful as I can be and have never so much as cracked a screen on any of my devices. 

I have had my close calls though. For example, during an away freshman football game I brought my Ipod Touch for the bus ride, and on the way back I noticed a large crack across the screen. Now at the time this Ipod was relatively new, so you can understand how upset I was. It wasn't until later that night that I came across the idea that maybe it was just the screen protector that was scratched. To my relief, I pulled off the screen protector and low and behold, the "crack" disappeared. 

My Xbox on the other hand did end up breaking at one instance. I had just gotten back from a friend’s house where I had brought my Xbox over to so we could play together. Upon plugging everything back in at my house, and turning it back on, there it was. What every Xbox owner dreads, the Red Ring of Death. This is a flashing red ring that indicates that there has been a hardware malfunction within the Xbox. I had two options, one was to just buy a new Xbox, the other option was to send my Xbox in and wait a month for them to fix it and send it back. I chose to just send it in and have them fix it. This would have cost $130 dollars, but luckily for me, my Xbox had about 2 weeks left in its warranty so I got it for free.

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ipad and iloveit

Let’s start off by letting you know that I own an Ipad 16 GB version. Now some of you might think that is completely ridiculous for a high school student to own an Ipad. Now that could go both ways, in some ways it is very helpful. It can be especially useful at school now with the school-wide Wi-Fi. 

Some pros of having one in school are it is lighter and easier to carry around than a laptop. It is also smaller than a laptop, allowing you to take up less of that valuable backpack space. It is handy for looking up quick facts or looking up words on Dictionary.com. You can play games on it in your free time. You can do general surfing the web anywhere with Wi-Fi. You can also get an Ipad with 3G allowing you to surf the web anywhere, regardless of Wi-Fi. But that can get expensive because it is $20 a month. Even then it is relatively slow internet and limited data plans.

Some cons are obviously that they are expensive. $500 expensive. Especially for student without a job. I initially bought an Ipad for the sole reason that I wanted one. I had no specific plans for what I would use it for and such, I just wanted it. I can now say that it was well worth. I also have a laptop, a relatively large laptop at that, 17 inches and a couple of pounds. I almost never move it. I usually just keep it in my room and move it if I really need to. But have an Ipad has seriously cut down on my time in my room and on my laptop, I can do most things I would do on my laptop, on my Ipad. The only thing I usually do on my laptop still rather than on my Ipad is blogging or typing a paper. I personally don't believe I could write a whole paper on a virtual keyboard. Plus you would have to download a $10 app just to use as a word processor.


Despite these cons, I love having an Ipad, and it is extremely easy and fun to use for both work and play.

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Dancing with the Star's Relatives

Last night I was casually watching Dancing with the Stars while working on some homework. I couldn't help but notice that there was a lack of "Stars" on the show. The only people I actually knew was Nancy Grace, Ron Artest aka Metta World Peace, and Rob Kardashian, who in fact I did not actually know, I just recognized the name from the ever popular "Keeping up with the Kardashians."

When I got home last night I expected to walk in to my dad watching the new season of Dancing with the Stars. He usually follows the reality TV. show closely, but this year was different. When I questioned him about it he responded, "Oh yeah, there is just a bunch of losers on the show this year. And that Nancy Grace girl, I can't stand her. From what little I have heard from her, she is a complete idiot." Now by this I could totally see where he was coming from. I had also heard a lot of ridicule about this season's Dancing with the Stars. .

During the show they showcased their "new" ballroom that had been completely renovated with grand central staircase in the middle. The choreographers were all excited because of the new layout of the floor and the different dances they could choreograph. In addition to the new floor and staircase, they have the largest disco ball in all of North America hanging high ballroom floor. Despite these renovations, I don't believe they are enough to save the show from the obvious fact that there are hardly any stars. The biggest star on the show, Ron Artest, was eliminated first last night on the results show.

The boldest and in my opinion, the funniest statement about this season is the name "Dancing with the Star's Relatives." This is obviously referring to Rob Kardashian, he of course is definitely not a star. He is simply, as the name states, a relative of a star.

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"CRapids"

Surely most teenagers living in Cedar Rapids have heard the phrase "CRapids". In reality though, is Cedar Rapids all that crappy? That question you could argue either way. Cedar Rapids definitely has some pros, but it also carries some cons.

Cedar Rapids has that suburb feel, without actually being near a big city. It is a mix of big and small, and I like it. Cedar Rapids is the City of Five Seasons, which to this day, I don't know what the fifth season is. There is a parody of this phrase that calls Cedar Rapids, the City of Five Smells. This refers mostly to Quaker Oats. When driving by on the interstate or downtown, you can usually tell what kind of cereal they are making that day based on what the smell is.

As far as calling Cedar Rapids, CRapids, is this name really just, or not? Some pros of Cedar Rapids is the nice size and feel of the city. We have our own minor league baseball team, The Kernels. We are in the process of getting a semi-professional football team, The Cedar Rapids Titans. There is a new outdoor amphitheater being built by the police station. We have large businesses such as Alliant Energy, Quaker Oats, ADM Corn sweeteners, and General Mills. There have been some famous people that grew up in Cedar Rapids, such as Zach Johnson and Kurt Warner.

Cons of Cedar Rapids are numerous. The downtown area is relative unattractive, especially after the Flood of 2008. Because of this flood, downtown Cedar Rapids has dramatically taken a hit on businesses. There are not a lot of things to do. Potholes are numerous all throughout the city. Geographically in Iowa, the seasons suck. In the winter, it is extremely cold and there is a ton of snow. In the summer it is unbearably hot, so hot that you don't want to go outside.

Although there both pros and cons of Cedar Rapids, I have lived here for 17 years and it is home to me.

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Credit Card Cluster Cont.

This system explained below works much like you see in commercials for telephone service. The telephone company offers a great deal such as 29.99/month for the first year, but then afterwards the price hikes up to 99.99/month. At this point the figure since people have already set up their phone for that specific telephone company, many will just continue to pay the ridiculous price instead of going through the hassle of changing telephone companies. 

The icing on the cake for my Xbox live ordeal was what sent me over the edge. I scoured xbox.com/live for a way to cancel the monthly subscription that I was over paying for. After about 10 minutes of searching their website, I decided to call their toll-free number, something anyone dreads doing. After pressing about 5 different buttons through automated prompts I got on hold for an operator. I was on hold for about 15 more minutes while they played horrible music, in addition to running an advertisement every 30 seconds. Then once I finally got to speak to a gentleman named Sam, he tried to sell me just about everything Xbox had to offer before he would finally cancel my monthly subscription. 

Sometimes I just wish people and big time companies can just be honest with you. Everything seems to be a scam these days. These days you have to be extra careful in a society where everyone is trying to earn a dishonest buck. It worked on me; I fell for their little trick. Surely they didn’t get me in the long run, but they still made me pay double what I should have to for one month. It isn’t so much this one instance that they physically got five extra dollars out of me. It is just that it physically happened. On a larger scale this could be a much bigger problem, and as many have said before me, if it happened to me, it could happen to you.

And that was my credit card cluster.


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Credit Card Cluster

As we all know, the credit card is a revolutionary way to pay and get paid. You can use the piece of plastic to pay for things when you do not have cash on hand. Despite these conveniences the credit card is a very dangerous tool and can result in disastrous situations financially.

Along with the common mistake of overspending, there is another thing credit card holders should watch out for. This is scams. Scams are everywhere. There are numerous types of scams and they all result in one thing, you losing money. Now some things are not legally considered "scams". 

What prompted me to write about this topic is because recently I had a $9.99 charge on my debit card. Now I knew I hadn't used my debit card recently and I didn't have any monthly subscriptions. But this was where I was wrong. Apparently I had signed up for a monthly subscription to Xbox live for $9.99 a month. But I know I never did this, so this is where I was confused. Three months ago I had purchased a package deal for Xbox live that was on sale for $9.99 for 3 months. I was under the impression that this was all I was doing and this was going to be a one-time deal for the 3 months and that was it. Nope. Little did I know, they decided to throw in a monthly subscription in 3 months later at 3 times the price. Surely $9.99 isn't a whole lot of money, but still I was being way overcharged for the service. Another factor fueling my anger with the situation was that I had been deceived. Maybe if I had paid more attention or "read the fine print" during checkout I would've noticed that there was a monthly subscription upon the conclusion of the initial 3 months. 

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Airsoft: The Controversy

Many people believe playing Airsoft is hazardous and ridiculous pastime. Sure enough, you are renacting real life, dangerous situtuations. It is true that one could be seriously injured or blinded while playing. But for us the worst injury we have had is probably just a rolled ankle.

In the ethical respect, airsoft is no different from paintball. Both can cause serious damage to your eyes when not wearing the proper eye protection. This is why my friends and I strictly make sure our goggles are on at all times, even if they fog up. As far as the idea of shooting at other humans, I believe it is nothing like that at all. It is harmless other than an intitial stinging pain when your are hit.

The biggest controversy among the use of airsoft guns is the realness of them. This is where airsoft separates from paintball. Because paintball markers are not made to scale and models of real-life guns, police officers would not mistake it for a real gun. But for airsoft guns, there are in fact made to closely resemble real guns. The only thing separating a airsoft gun and a real gun at a glance is the orange muzzle or flash hider at the end of an airsoft gun. But this is ineffective because these orange tips are easily removable or painted black to resemble the real thing.

This realness comes into play with many crimes committed recently using airsoft/bb guns. Examples of this include armed robberies such as the links provided below:

http://www.masscops.com/f79/cops-teen-shot-clerk-face-pellet-gun-65729/

http://easterniowanewsnow.com/2011/03/23/cedar-rapids-police-arrest-woman-for-two-robberies-in-one-day/

Another very common crime committed using bb guns, not airsoft guns, is shooting out car windows. This accounts for $1.4 million in damages in the past six years, with each window costing $200 each to replace. Because of these serious and sometimes fatal crimes, the Cedar Rapids City Council has enacted a law banning people from carrying a loaded airsoft/bb gun. Before this change, the law only banned discharging of airsoft guns. The penalty for not abiding by this law is a $625 fine, and up to 30 days in jail. Here is a link to the blog I received most of my facts from, it outlines the problems with and steps taken against airsoft guns:

http://airsoftgun.blogspot.com/2009/05/cedar-rapids-tightens-law-on-airsoft.html

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Airsoft: The Dying and the Dangerous

Among the instance below, there were other incidents involving ignorant teens with airsoft guns. All this led to the banning of the use of airsoft guns within city limits without a permit. Of course this enraged my group of airsoft friends and I, because now we would not be allowed to play in the woods behind my house without the risk of receiving a $600 ticket, and probably our airsoft guns confiscated. We were left with few options, one of which was one of my friends had a friend who owned a piece of land out by Wikiup Nature Center. We had played there multiple times before, and was easily our favorite place to play. But, there were some issues with it, such as, we need to request permission to use the land at least a week ahead of time, plus it was a twenty-minute drive to the place, and this was when non of us could drive. Although better, it was hassle and required much more planning than just going out into the woods behind my house.

About two years ago, there was a group of airsoft-ers that received a permit from the city allowing us to play airsoft on predetermined days. Ironically, the location was on the north east side at the First Assembly of God church. There are some woods next to the church, right between Lowe's and Highway 100. The event planners had to coordinate injury waivers for everyone, as well as let the police station know when they were holding an event. This turned out be a great event that attracted upwards of 30 people on a good day. Other than this, there haven't been many opportunities to play airsoft since the ban, resulting in the hobby dying down among many of my friends.

Despite my time away from the sport, I still have a deep desire to play, and hope to continue playing airsoft for years to come.

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Airsoft

Airsoft is a competitive sport closely related to paintball. It is similar in that you have a gun or a marker and you re-enact a real life firefight. They both require a lot of strategy and physical fitness. In some games of airsoft, I probably travel up to mile in distance.

The main difference between the two is the projectile. In airsoft, the projectile is a 6mm plastic bb that comes in various weights such as .12g, .25g, .28g, .36g, and the most common being .20g. On the other hand, paintballs are .68 caliber. Another big difference is that airsoft tends to be more life-like than paintball in that airsoft guns are actual "model" guns, whereas paintball markers tend to just be a functional design, in no way resembling a specific gun. As far as being shot by each, I would have to say that getting shot by a paintball marker hurts much more than getting shot by an airsoft gun. Although paintballs travel slower than airsoft bb's, they have more mass, which leave a large bruise at the impact site. Airsoft shots travel much faster, but have severely less mass resulting in a smaller, but more precise welt that can sometimes draw blood. Regardless both are a fun way to pass time and exercise at the same time

Recently airsoft has come under the public spotlight. This is a result of robberies being committed using airsoft guns as a "fake gun" used to rob the store. My mom use to always tell me this story of a man who robbed a store with an airsoft gun, but the police had no way of knowing that it was a fake gun. In the end, the police ended up having to shoot and kill the robber. After the fact, it was discovered that the robber was using an airsoft gun and not a real gun. She would warn me never to use an airsoft gun in public because, despite the orange muzzle, it could be mistaken for a real gun.

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