eat, drink, men, women 飲食男女: this and that

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

this and that - oregon oct 2014, part 1

Finally I bit the bullet and upgraded my TV from 42 inch to 60 inch. It is something long overdue for someone loves movies.

I am fortunate to have a grandfathered unlimited cellular carrier data plan. My plan's 2-year contractual due day falls on Apple's iPhone minor refresh as opposed to the major refresh. What this mean is when Apple released the iPhone 5, I was in the middle of my 2-year contract. I had to wait for the release of the iPhone 5s 12 months later to entitle to full "subsidy". I parenthesized the word subsidy for a good reason. There is no free lunch in this world. In the US most cell phone contract are priced in with the assumption that the account holder wants to upgrade his/her old and tired phone after two years. Instead of paying the full price of the phone the carrier essentially extends a loan to the account holder towards the purchase of the new phone, with a 24-month long contract. This subsidy (loan) amounts to about $450 for a premium phone like the latest iPhone. Less desirable phones is much less and that is the reason that the carriers have the incentive to push the customers to a run of the mill Android phone.

Normally I am contend to live through my 2-year contract to renew my iPhone. Currently I have a 12-month old 5s. For the first time I am considering upgrading to the new iPhone that Apple just release. The reason is I want the large iPhone 6 plus's big screen. With a bigger screen phone I can ditch the data plan of my iPad when I am on the road. This would save me about $50 a month. The down side is I would have to do everything on the iPhone when I am travelling, and only use the iPad when wifi is available.

i went to the apple store at the shopping mall near me a few days after the launch - this was a weekday morning

this is the iPhone 6 in gold

much bigger than my current 5s but not intermediately so

this is the iPhone 6 plus is definitely monstrous

it supports landscape

it sticks out even on the back packet of a pair of jeans - i would not want to sit down with it in the back pocket

front pocket

i am not too crazy with the antenna lines on the back - but they are the necessary evil with an aluminum chassis

while i initial inclination is to get a gold 6+; after seeing it in person i find the sea of gold of the new iPhone does not look attractive as the gold 5s; the 5s has two segments of white which contrast nicely with the very modest amount of Champagne

Two weeks after the release of the new iPhones both models are sold out in all the Apple stores in my area. The online order of the 6 plus is 4 weeks out. I have went to the Apple store a few times now and I found out in nearly a week it didn't receive any shipment. With the pending release of China and additional countries the situation is not expect to improve much. I am just be content with my gold 5s until the minor refresh cycle next September.

my half-heart attempt to repair the center channel of the Sony receiver that i use for home theater multi-channel sound

salmon with sweet corn - bounty of the Columbia River

making braised pig stomach

updating the iPad to iOS 8.0

the mosquito screen on the driver side awning window does not retract; i waited until home to investigate; i have read the service manual of the procedure to clean and lubricate the spring tensioned roller; i am also too aware of an owner trying to service it but to have it self-destructed

inspecting the design does not inspire my confidence of the design; too much tension on rather skimpy shitty plastic parts

the plastic casing of the rather cheesy electrical terminal hardware used to hold the tensioned steel cable has self-destructed

i used a vice grip to hold on to the cable while assessing if i should attempt to lubricated; in the end i decided it is just too risky to mess with this rather half-baked design unless i prepare to spend days carefully disassembling the entire top and bottom roller assemblies; that cannot be done without the removal of a lot of plastic trim panels around the window; i hand rolled the insect screen up and have to remember don't ever use it again

fresh and smoked salmon

the spy who came in from the cold is one of the best spy movies; the bonus material in the blu ray disc is worth the price of admission; here is a photograph of the director Martin Ritt speaking to Richard Burton - they had the most tumultuous relationship through out the filming of the movie

i love film noir like this; a lot of excellent movies are released as the criterion edition and i not once be disappointed with; more often than not i would watch the movie 2 or 3 times in addition to once with the director's commentary

A remark by the author on Nov 9, 2014 - today is the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and this movie, while is fictional, is one of the most poignant stories of the victims of the cold war era Europe

i arrive to find myself the only one for the dawn patrol; the sailing season is coming to the end and any windy west wnd day can be the last of the year

as the day worn on a lot of regular sailor would show up

at Doug's beach in Washington

at Roosevelt park in Washington

the latino migrant worker so generously gave me some apples

at the spur of the moment i had the idea to use a bit of the Gala apple to cook with the mahi mahi; the hint of sweetness was just perfect

smoked salmon with mixed vegetable cooked with Tennessee country ham

again sailed at Doug's beach; very good turn out that day

i have been buying a lot of salmon from the native indians at their fishing reservation this year; i know now how really fresh salmon tastes like; by doing filleting myself i get to keep the fatty cut near the belly which typically discarded in store bought fillets