What would you consider to be a collaboration forged in, say, Heaven? Pomplamoose and Ben Folds, perhaps? Hmmmmm?

yep yep yep yep yep yep commmmmpewwwwtorrrr! butttonnsss. buttttttonssssss!

The nice thing about owning an iPhone in D.C. is that you can always get some service just by bopping in at the Apple store. And the service is pretty damned good. I don’t know of many companies who will take a peek at your gizmo and, when it’s clear you have a serious hardware issue, will honor the warranty on the spot and replace the thing. But that’s what they did. They wiped my old phone and activated a new one for me and sent me on my merry way. That’s pretty awesome.

Unfortunately, one thing they don’t do a good job of at the Appley store is that of selling accessories. They don’t have squat to pair with your iPhone. Not even much in the way of cases. Oh well. I can always use an excuse to surf on Amazon.

Which brings me to the recent e-mail change. I have eschewed signing up for Apple’s “in-the-cloud” service, MobileMe. But, I recently figured what the hell, maybe in the 60-day free trial they can convince me that it’s worth $99 a year.

They did that in a day.

The synchronization is so good that when you delete an e-mail on your iPhone, it nearly instantaneously is deleted from your server. That ability to keep your mailbox cleaned up like that? Hell yeah that’s worth $99 a year.

So this guy’s new official e-mail address is as follows: aabp at me dot com.

Empirical evidence:

I’m sure by now you have heard about the earthquake we had here in the Northern Virginia Metro area last week. Although we were fortunate not to have had any damage at our house, this picture was taken right after the quake of my neighbor’s backyard. As you can see, it appears really bad.

http://www.adventuresintothewellknown.com/maryland_earthquake_damage.gif

Now I know how those folks in California feel after a shaker! WOW!

Mexico state candidate killed ahead of vote: media

Mon Jun 28, 2010 1:23pm EDTMEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A leading opposition candidate running for governor of the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas was killed on Monday local media reported, fanning fears drug violence will disrupt local elections this weekend.

Rodolfo Torre from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was favored to win the July 4 vote for Tamaulipas governor but was ambushed on his way to the local airport in Ciudad Victoria, the daily Universal reported. Four people from Torre’s election campaign were killed in the attack, it said.

Mexican drug cartels have launched a campaign of intimidation against some politicians running in local elections in a show of power that is defying Mexico’s army-led crackdown on traffickers.

Gunmen killed a mayoral candidate for the conservative ruling National Action Party, or PAN, in the border town of Valle Hermoso in Tamaulipas in May after he spoke out against drug violence while campaigning.

More than 25,000 people have been killed in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006.

Wanted for questioning:

It gives you a place to put your rib bones.

Thank goodness there’s Google.

In 1996, [Julie] Benz auditioned for the role of Buffy Summers in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), but lost out to Sarah Michelle Gellar. However, she was offered a small role the vampire Darla in the pilot episode. Her performance was so well-received that her part was expanded to a few more episodes. The role helped launch her career.

This is a rare raw talent of mine that I have yet to put to any good use. If I say it’s them, it’s them. I wish I could make some munny with it. But it’s useless.