Alright, so this title may be a bit misleading. It wasn't quite a ditch... more of a field to the side of the road connected with a 20-25ยบ sloped patch of grass, maybe 2ft in height. Not a whole lot of grass but enough to give my 2009 Toyota Sienna minivan some trouble.
My friend Wendy and I were going to Fourth of July fireworks at a high school in the next town over. In our infinite wisdom, we underestimated how crowded the neighboring streets and parking lots would be due to these fireworks, so we didn't leave ourselves with very many parking spot options based on when we left. Maybe a quarter mile from the school, we found a long strip of road leading up to a park. The road had mostly become a parking lot, but there was still room for about 5 cars on the field (described above) at the beginning of this strip. So, I decided to do what I had always seen my family do in these types of situations and create my own parking spot in the grass. I figured it would be hard to back out of such a spot in the dark with people constantly walking past my car, so I backed into the spot, leaving the front wheels of my minivan on the sloped part of the grass. I made sure to turn the wheels as much as I could and engage my parking brake because I could tell what a precarious spot my car was in, and I figured I would be fine when I got back later.
Just as we got out of the car, I realized that it might be smart to make sure I could actually get out of this parking spot. So we got back in the car and tried to drive up this hill. Nothing. My tires spun and my car stood still. I was starting to get worried but I didn't think this would be too big of an issue. I put the car into first gear and tried again. Still nothing. Just a lot of revving. In fact, this time a light on my dash turned on but I couldn't get a good look at it. Next attempt: pushing it up the hill. I put back on the parking brake, fearing that the car would start rolling back if I took my foot off the brake. I went behind the car and told Wendy to get in my seat, take off the parking brake, and put the car in neutral, at which point I started pushing my car from the back. No luck. Wendy put the car back in park and re-engaged the parking brake and I got back in my seat.
At this point, I was getting pretty worried that we would have to call AAA or something of that sort. I don't know what I was thinking, but I decided to put the car into reverse to see if it would move. Sure enough, it did. Gravity worked to its advantage and it made its way down the slope and further into the field. So now the car was on flat ground and I realized that my only shot at fixing this without someone else's help from this point on was to just drive and hope that the car could pick up enough momentum on the flat grass to get itself up the hill. Truly a last ditch effort, I put the car into drive and pressed the gas, and to my amazement I made my way up the hill and back onto the road!
So, I was an idiot to think my minivan could successfully park in that particular spot, but I was pretty damn proud of myself for being able to get myself out of this mess without having to call for help. Go problem solving, wooo!
Friday, July 3, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
Tech: First Impressions, Apple Watch
I'm a geek. If there's anything you should know about me right off the bat, that's it. My high school senior class voted me Most Tech Savvy. That's not to say I'm socially inept (though my friends might argue otherwise), but I do have a particular appreciation for some of life's nerdier things.
Since I was young, I've always loved technology. Just to give a bit of my background with technology, I got my first iPod (4GB, 1st gen nano, black) in second grade and treasured it, as it was the first big piece of technology I owned that was truly mine (aside from my Gameboy). Fast forward 10 years + a month or so (which puts us 4 iPods, 3 laptops - 1 PC, 2 Macs-, 3 iPads, and 5 smartphones - 4 of which were iPhones -, and a Pebble later), and I graduate from high school. That was two days ago. That day, I was given by my family two big graduation gifts: a Conn 8D french horn (omg so beautiful) and a space gray Apple Watch Sport.
I would have gotten the watch when it came out 7 weeks earlier but a few days before that, I demoed it at the Apple Store and was distinctly unimpressed. I went home and told my whole family that I saw no reason that the Apple Watch would be any better than my Pebble had been and that I would happily stick with my Pebble through this first generation of the Apple Watch. Once it came out and I saw my uncle, grandpa, and brother (who also owns a Pebble) all loving their Apple Watches, I saw that maybe I hadn't quite gotten the full experience through the in-store demo.
I set up my Apple Watch at lunch with my family after graduation and immediately started using it, and instantly I could tell that it was a cleaner, more polished experience than my Pebble, and that it remedied some of the biggest gripes I had with my Pebble (responding to certain notifications, receiving notifications on both devices, long wait times to pull data from internet through Pebble app and into apps on the watch). The screen is beautiful, navigation is a breeze with the touch screen as opposed to the Pebble's buttons. The digital crown, though not intuitive for all situations (opening an app, scrolling through short text conversations, emails, etc.) comes in handy for others (customizing a watch face, scrolling through music), and it serves well as a sort of home button. I'm still not completely sold on the long button serving exclusively as a hotkey to the friends menu on a single click, but I appreciate that it opens Apple Pay on a double click. I also expected to miss having an always-on watch face on the screen, but the "raise to activate" feature of the Apple Watch deals with this beautifully, only powering the screen when it senses that I'm looking at it (which means people around me won't be reading my notifications from my watch when I'm not paying attention anymore).
My biggest concern about leaving my Pebble for the Apple Watch was battery life. With my Pebble, I can confidently wring out 5-7 of usage without having to recharge. The Apple Watch is quite a more powerful device and draws quite a bit more power, so I knew that I would have to sacrifice the amazing battery life I had grown used to with my Pebble. But surprisingly, I unplugged my watch at 2:45pm yesterday afternoon. It's now 2:56am (it's summer, I don't feel like sleeping, shut up) and I have been actively using my watch all day. It has 47% battery. I'm shocked. Granted, I don't think this battery life will last, and I still plan to plug my watch in overnight every night (I will plug it in as soon as I publish this post) but it is extremely reassuring to know that I really won't have to worry about my watch dying on me mid-day.
So all in all, my first impressions of the Apple Watch are extremely positive. I still think it has room to grow as a platform, but overall I think the future for the smartwatch is bright. I still love Pebble and appreciate all that it did to change the way I interact with the world through my technology, but now that I have seen such a cleaner iteration of a similar experience, I just can't go back.
Since I was young, I've always loved technology. Just to give a bit of my background with technology, I got my first iPod (4GB, 1st gen nano, black) in second grade and treasured it, as it was the first big piece of technology I owned that was truly mine (aside from my Gameboy). Fast forward 10 years + a month or so (which puts us 4 iPods, 3 laptops - 1 PC, 2 Macs-, 3 iPads, and 5 smartphones - 4 of which were iPhones -, and a Pebble later), and I graduate from high school. That was two days ago. That day, I was given by my family two big graduation gifts: a Conn 8D french horn (omg so beautiful) and a space gray Apple Watch Sport.
I would have gotten the watch when it came out 7 weeks earlier but a few days before that, I demoed it at the Apple Store and was distinctly unimpressed. I went home and told my whole family that I saw no reason that the Apple Watch would be any better than my Pebble had been and that I would happily stick with my Pebble through this first generation of the Apple Watch. Once it came out and I saw my uncle, grandpa, and brother (who also owns a Pebble) all loving their Apple Watches, I saw that maybe I hadn't quite gotten the full experience through the in-store demo.
I set up my Apple Watch at lunch with my family after graduation and immediately started using it, and instantly I could tell that it was a cleaner, more polished experience than my Pebble, and that it remedied some of the biggest gripes I had with my Pebble (responding to certain notifications, receiving notifications on both devices, long wait times to pull data from internet through Pebble app and into apps on the watch). The screen is beautiful, navigation is a breeze with the touch screen as opposed to the Pebble's buttons. The digital crown, though not intuitive for all situations (opening an app, scrolling through short text conversations, emails, etc.) comes in handy for others (customizing a watch face, scrolling through music), and it serves well as a sort of home button. I'm still not completely sold on the long button serving exclusively as a hotkey to the friends menu on a single click, but I appreciate that it opens Apple Pay on a double click. I also expected to miss having an always-on watch face on the screen, but the "raise to activate" feature of the Apple Watch deals with this beautifully, only powering the screen when it senses that I'm looking at it (which means people around me won't be reading my notifications from my watch when I'm not paying attention anymore).
My biggest concern about leaving my Pebble for the Apple Watch was battery life. With my Pebble, I can confidently wring out 5-7 of usage without having to recharge. The Apple Watch is quite a more powerful device and draws quite a bit more power, so I knew that I would have to sacrifice the amazing battery life I had grown used to with my Pebble. But surprisingly, I unplugged my watch at 2:45pm yesterday afternoon. It's now 2:56am (it's summer, I don't feel like sleeping, shut up) and I have been actively using my watch all day. It has 47% battery. I'm shocked. Granted, I don't think this battery life will last, and I still plan to plug my watch in overnight every night (I will plug it in as soon as I publish this post) but it is extremely reassuring to know that I really won't have to worry about my watch dying on me mid-day.
So all in all, my first impressions of the Apple Watch are extremely positive. I still think it has room to grow as a platform, but overall I think the future for the smartwatch is bright. I still love Pebble and appreciate all that it did to change the way I interact with the world through my technology, but now that I have seen such a cleaner iteration of a similar experience, I just can't go back.
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