Thanks, everyone for reading my rant about Macy’s blunder. I felt good just knowing that people cared enough to read, and a lot of you even chimed in with your own horror stories of Macy’s. Now if you could all continue to visit my website daily, that’d be great.

Estimated Delivery Date: 11/03/2011

Since then I’ve received an email every business day telling me that the order has been delayed and that I need to confirm the change or the order will be cancelled. There is an option to accept all future delay notices, but that would mean Dell has free reign to continue pushing their ship date back indefinitely. I can understand a business week to ship, and that would be acceptable, but don’t lie to me about being able to ship when you know you can’t do it.

It’s no wonder Apple, HP, and Lenovo are kicking your ass, Dell. Even Gateway has come back from the dead to take a piece of the pie.

Michelle, Fairy Princess.

Me, Toddler Rocket! (That sounded terrible.)

Jack Skellington, The Pumpkin King.

Boba Fett, The Baddest Mother F’ing Bounty Hunter in the Galaxy!

I converted over from and Android phone to the latest iPhone, and these are my thoughts in the week and a half that I’ve had the phone. Please bear in mind that my use of the iPhone is still very limited, and there may be ways to tweak the experience that I haven’t discovered yet. I’m definitely open to suggestions.

The camera is incredibly responsive and takes clean shots, one after another. That’s something I could never get the camera on my Droid to do. However, the lack of any zoom and weak flash make the iPhone camera still just a phone camera. The arguments made about point-and-shoot cameras becoming obsolete is still a ways away. It has no ability to compete with a point-and-shoot unless everything you take a picture of is within a ten foot radius and in decent lighting.

Inside each iPhone app I’ve used the experience is great because it’s uniform. In some Android apps, there doesn’t seem the be the same uniformity of user interface.

Outside the individual apps, however, there isn’t enough integration. When I am sent a Facebook link, the Facebook app should open. A Google Maps link should open my maps program. There doesn’t seem to be a way to do this. That’s disappointing.

The screen is smaller than the screen I had on my Droid. Where this becomes most apparent is the keyboard. It’s got a smaller area to display, and it makes the keys smaller. Not only are the keys smaller, but there is a lack of punctuation characters available on the first keyboard screen set. It’s odd to me that something so common as the period or question mark is placed on a second screen.

GPS navigation is sorely lacking on the iPhone. I was spoiled by Google Maps on Android. It was incredible. The search results were accurate. The turn-by-turn navigation was solid as well, and you can’t beat a free price tag. The free navigation apps are not very good on the iPhone, either missing some key features of navigation or trying to make me drive the wrong direction on a one-way street. I ended up settling on MotionX-GPS Drive, an app that costs only $.99. Thus far it’s been good on navigation but the interface is quite confusing. I’m still getting used to that.

I dislike very much that the only really easy method of pushing files to the phone is via iTunes. I really don’t use iTunes for anything except playing my music catalog. Instead of using iTunes to push my songs to my iPhone, I’m currently pushing my library up to Google Music. I’ve also sync’d up some of my files using Dropbox.

The iPhone really excels when it comes to battery life. I am getting 60% more life out of my iPhone than I was getting out of my Droid, even when it was new. All the things I dislike about iOS are probably contributing to the longer battery life.

Overall I’m very happy with my iPhone. I would have been pretty happy with a new Android phone too I’m sure. Still if I have to suggest a phone for someone to get, the answer would probably be an iPhone. I know there are other good phones out there, but if you don’t want to do the research, you know the iPhone will be solid. Plus, I won’t have to pay for my text messages if you have iMessage.

My one wish for the iPhone right now is better Google integration. Come on, Goople! Appoogle? Whatever. Make friends and make apps.

Han Solo frozen in carbonite…ice cube tray!

C3P0: Oh, they’ve encased him in carbonite. He should be quite well protected.

Jabba the Hutt: There will be no bargain. I will not to give up my favorite decoration. I like Captain Solo where he is.

That’s right. I will never be drinking alone as long as I have one of the best smugglers in the galaxy by my side. Pick up your own ice cube tray here.

Finally, I can wear my hoodie without fear of judgement.

OMG! It’s starting. Luke and Leia are sitting in front of us too!

Darth Vader! Michelle looked at her hoodie and said, “That’s me!”

Mr. Anthony Daniels, C3P0 himself narrated the show.

They had some really cool animations and sketches they showed during the show.

The firing of the Death Star’s primary weapon, a superlaser created by the hypermatter reactor.

How dare you fall asleep during this awesome display of awesomeness!

Special effects and screen display aside, the orchestra was fantastic. I would find myself bobbing my head to the music of my favorite sci-fi franchise and then realize the music was being played live. Incredible performance.

Those are all light sabers, being swayed back and forth along to the music. These are my people.

This was such a great experience. Many thanks to Michelle’s dad and mom, who not only tolerate my love for geeky things like this, but also encourage it by getting us the tickets. Michelle is on her way to joining the Dark Side, which is the best side because “evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb.”

What I enjoy about this software too is that they try to mimic the actual process of painting. The software recommends you sketch out your drawing in pencil first, and it gives you choices on fine point or shading as well as the softness of the lead. When you get to painting you have choices of brushes, mixing colors, how much paint you want on the brush, and even whether you want to dilute the paint with water to make it more fluid. There is no undo button, because in real life you just have to paint over your mistakes. There also isn’t a limitless supply of paint either. After you make a few strokes, you have to pick up the stylus and put it down as if you were dipping the brush again.

This is what we were supposed to paint in the class.

These are the moldy looking oranges that I was able to paint.

Although from far away, it looks like everyone did a pretty decent job.

As far as how well it teaches you, the jury is still out on that. I haven’t had enough time to play with it thoroughly. I would definitely recommend buying one of these if you have a child and wanted them to explore their artistic side. There’s no mess to clean up in the game, and after the kids are done for the night you can play some Mario Kart.

Check out larger sizes from the source, here.