• Dial (617) 787-4242.
• Order.
• yummmm

iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone London Police Defuse Explosive, Thwarting Possible Terror Attack. iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iRaq iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone

I really feel like this post should already exist. Maybe it does. WTF is it with pretending it would be the deadliest. sin. ever. for your kids to be overheard in the background while you’re on a business call?

I mean, yes, I know, it totally would be mortifying. I too swallowed that kool-aid. I play by that rule. But what I want to know is WHY?

Let’s review. We all know that:

• Many people are at home when they work. Yes even supremely professional, supremely skilled, supremely qualified, hardworking people. Arguably, some of the brightest minds do.
• Children (and dogs, yes, there’re both here) likewise are in (those very same) homes.
• The mere presence of sounds in the background does not mean your work is any less good or valid.
• Working from wherever is fast becoming a new version of the American Dream

So why the FRIG would it be JUST AWFUL if someone overheard your child, dog, or hell, mother-in-law, in the background? Why do we all go to such lengths to pretend it ain’t so?

Noise would impede the call. Um, yes, but, um, no. Think conference calls where someone is dialing in from the highway with loud ensuing road noise. It happens. Everyone groans but accepts it. That’s life.

It’s Unprofessional. Sure. Ideally, I really would prefer not to listen to another’s (or share my own) screaming baby throughout the call. But why scurry for the phone shutting doors and giving the nanny (or other caretaker) meaningful weighty winks to “disappear” all sounds altogether? We have accepted home offices in the working world, why the “make believe” that the “home” part isn’t there?

This great NYT article about Ladies who Launch gives us the warm fuzzies, because it’s true that many professional women will “cut you slack” about kidnoise:

“There is just something about woman-to-woman legal advice,” Ms. Gabay-Rafiy said. “We’re never condescending. We explain things in plain English. And when I’m on the phone with a client launching a business from her basement who keeps apologizing because a baby is crying in the background, I just get it. I have two kids myself and I know what it’s like.”

But it also gives us pause. Why haven’t we as “the working world” come to accept this aspect of home-based professionals? Couldn’t everyone just learn to deal with it? Why should the entrepreneur/telecommuter/freelancer live in fear that the baby will wake up/dog will go off on the mailman/etc.? Why the unnatural dependence on email or carefully scheduled calls to be sure all will be silent when the phone does ring?

And to open a whole other can of worms, does this affect, as I suspect, home-based women a teensy bit more than men or is it the same either way?

… in front of the Palo Alto Apple store. He (not-so-humbly) calls it the PR person’s dream, and he does have a point. If you wanted a slice of Robert Scoble’s time and attention, or to pitch getting onto his podcast show, have at him. (Valleywag did).

But of course they are there for more than just the iPhones.

For starters, they’ve been interviewed almost nonstop since arrival. It’s a PR stunt. And the thrill of the weird. And something “to be able to say you did”. As he pointed out, it’s also a great time to pitch him, kowtow to him, (batteries, starbucks, pownce invites, whatever) etc. Hell, I’ve had professors who made themselves a lot less accessible.

But we think taking a dump on this is pointless and weak. The guy seems a decent fella, puts himself out there a lot for someone who is, relatively, in the public eye. Let’s face it, he’s in the attention business. If they want to camp out on the sidewalk for 31 hours just to say they did, well good on ‘em.

Bored? Watch ‘em wait UPDATE: Why not watch the whole gang wait on ZoomrTV? Get there in 10 minutes (it’s currently 6:35 out there) for pizza!

Oh no he didn’t. Crushing on Tom Shales (whoever he is) for putting that headline in the Washington Post. Did it really go that way in print? God I wanna see that.

“Oooh, pretty dress” Honestly, don’t you just want to dress her up? Try different outfits. What is WRONG with me?

Disturbed that my (long latent) play with Barbies impulse is triggered by this picture. I have absolutely no desire to own, try on or otherwise wear that dress myself, but…

Don’t get mad… Get funny.

OMG, my heart goes out to the parents of those screaming babies. I would have clawed through the emergency exit door. As much as it sucked for the other passengers, the parents (and, well, the children)… that’s just a special ring of hell.

Dear corporations with lousy customer service,

Your Base Are All Belong to Us.

Carry on however you like, but don’t come crying to us when your colossal bad moves turn up on CNN. Go ahead, keep heckling your customers. We could all use a good laugh.

Love,

The People Formerly Known as the Audience

Thanks everyone for posting/flagging/mentioning this. Thanks in advance everyone else who will have it tomorrow. TV Journalists, even though this has not been on BoingBoing yet, your timer has already started. Oh and thanks Aunt Gertrude who will forward this to me in, say, 2-3 years?

UDPATE: Jeremiah says Delta has failed to respond

Sigh. Everybody’s Doing It. So here you go, rare photos of iPhone in its natural environment, on Your Mac Life via Fake Steve Jobs.

My H-band figured this one out. I am so proud of him being adventurous in the kitchen. Especially when we get a yummy meal and a cool kitchen on a Butt Hot Day.

• Nuke some rice (how ’bout it actually comes out perfect this way?)
• Steam (or nuke) your favorite Trader Joe’s veggie mix in a rice cooker (ironic, ain’t it?)
• Steam shrimp after the veggies
• Sautee all of the above, very briefly, in frypan with sesame oil and oyster sauce
  • +/or garlic, soy sauce, ginger, go nuts…
  • yeah actually, nuts would nice too, peanuts, cashews…
  • sautee just long enough to mix and flavor everything

Serve with icy Coronas. With lime. Life is good.

TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR OWN HAPPINESS by Gary van Warmerdam

“Here is the critical point to understand when it comes to controlling your happiness. You can control your happiness to the degree that you can control your attention in your mind.

“By controlling your attention you are able to  determine the perspective you choose. With choice over your perspective you can decide what interpretations to make and which one you will believe.  Choosing the interpretation you make will determine your emotional outcome.

“It’s popular today for people to try changing their thinking or beliefs in order to create happiness in their life. However a prerequisite to changing your thinking is that you first have to get control over  your attention.  If you don’t do this, your thinking will attempt to control your thinking. This can become a circular loop in the mind.

Seen in Rob Breszny’s Astrology Newsletter

I can’t tell yet. But, here are the family jewels (thanks Boing Boing) for your perusal…