So now I have a Droid 2 that's an unhappy phone. It powers up, but no display. I moved service back to my Droid 1, which other than the keyboard is a mighty fine phone. Unlike the Droid 2, the basic telephony UI doesn't have the appearance of a UI designed by someone 20 years away from presbyopia. And the speaker phone volume goes all the way up to annoying!
So I check on the Droid 4. Five hundred and forty nine dollars, retail, with no contract renewal. Or $99 for a refurb unit -- but only with a contract renewal. Somewhere in between, perhaps half retail, is a new unit with contract renewal. Contract renewals get rid of the grandfathered "unlimited data". I don't use anywhere near the limit. But goddammit, I might. One day.
To me this pricing is like Safeway, but more insidious. If you ever go in a Safeway, you'll notice the way they do "sale" pricing. Do you want to pay "absolutely fucking ridiculous price" or do you want to pay "discount price that only comes with a discount card." What Safeway is doing is coercing you to submit to data tracking.
VZW is practicing the same sort of coercion, but they're coercing customers into new contracts. And they get to do it by talking about "subsidized price". They're doing you a fucking favor.
So, I'm a Droid 1 user.
Next up, the depleted yolk omelet (because omelets should be at least pale yellow).
[The photographer accidentally ate the dry-poached egg during staging.]
Why is it that I can sip bourbon all afternoon long and never get more than a slight buzz with little impairment, but let me have a tall Sierra Nevada with lunch, and have a bomber of Stone IPA every 2 hours after that and by 6pm I am totally blitzed? Why?This post brought to you by Teachers™, your local "I've got the summer off and you don't, so "Plplplplp!" group.
The short answer: Carbonation and your pyloric sphincter.
The long answer, high concentrations of alcohol in the stomach (I think ~17% +) causes the pyloric sphincter to shut, blocking the passage of alcohol to the small intestine where it is more readily absorbed -- so your bourbon is pretty much just sitting there giving you a nice even keel buzz. However, carbonated beverages (such as beer, champaign, bourbon and soda) actively relax the pyloric sphincter allowing the full effects of the alcohol to hit you hard and fast. Huh, well, that wasn't so very long now was it.
This response brought to you by me, your local, "I've got tomorrow off and only two months of freedom until Med-School starts so I just poured a hole heaping handful of bourbon into what was left of my coke, pyloric sphincter be damned."
