AT&T notified today via txt message that MMS is now live for iPhone users – the text message says

“Picture and video messaging (MMS) is now available for iPhone. Your existing messaging plan includes unlimited send and receipt of text, picture & video messages. To enable MMS, connect your iPhone to your computer and click “Check for Updates” in iTunes, then restart your iPhone.”

Your mileage may vary on the actual text depending on your individual plan.

I hooked up to iTunes with my macbook, did the carrier settings update, then restarted my phone, and the fabled camera link next to the text input box was there. I was able to send a photo back and forth with a friend, so it appears to be “working” properly.

Enjoy.
Thoughts?

This year I had some plans for Mardi Gras and they got all-out borked at the very, very last second. I was most miffed, in fact – I made a point of stating how miffed I was during my annual performance review (which was not reason for the change in plans).

Anyway, I overcame by some miracle and decided to give it a go on Saturday instead. Reaching back into the databanks where I stuffed 4 years of high school French to make way for subsequent years of Japanese, I arrived at Samedi Gras. I could probably swing Toujours Gras with enough motivation and an appetite for going sloth.

So, I stumbled down to the best local cajun eatery and helped myself to a heaping plate of blackened catfish with some jambalaya. There was even some drinking – Dixie beer, no less – and it was all a great time swinging the karma wheel back to center.

Did anyone else have to put off their Mardi Gras plans? What did you do?

I know it has been out for awhile, but I tackled a full session of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars over the weekend just to get a feel for it. If you’re not familiar with the game, it’s basically a humans vs. aliens FPS (first-person shooter) executed in little 3-scenario campaign segments.

While the game does have a single-player option (in the form of playing the campaigns with some computer teammates against a team full of computer players), where it thrives with its player base is in the online play on “ranked” servers. I do take some issue with idSoftware’s choice in only allowing leased servers from GSPs to be ranked, but oh well – it’s not my money, and they’ve already made theirs.

I must say, I’m not exactly good at it when pitted against people probably half my age that have been playing since the game first came out. But, I do get the basic gist of the classes and how to work with them, though I have an early preference for the straight up soldier and the engineer.

Try as I might, I couldn’t advance past the first rank online. Either it’s hard, or I suck at it; probably the second one is true. Early on I adopted a strategy of jumping right into a firefight and I usually lost multiple times. Towards the end of my experience I tried to take a more tactical approach – as if I were really doing it myself. I’ll say that my lifespans were longer, but I was still getting my ass tin-canned all over the map.

All in all, it’s a fun game. The gameplay is very good – it does have a few points of concern, but none that are deal-breakers. I could use some advice, however.

I picked up Chris’ new book the day it came out – I hesitated to read it right away because I knew I was going to attend the book signing stop in Denver, and I’d hoped to be able to hold out that long. However, I couldn’t actually resist for more than a few days, and I dove in anyway. What I found is that, like so many of Chris’ other stories, it starts strong and maintains momentum throughout.

Surely, you can’t take Shakespeare and make the bard’s plays better. Surely you can’t twist fate from some of the most widely-read scripts in the history of the world and make them better. Well, of course not. Chris doesn’t try to do that, either. He is recognized as one of the great satirists of our time, and with good reason. Fool doesn’t offend the purist, and doesn’t disappoint those seeking heavy doses of the elixir Chris provides.

I know that many have not yet read the story, so I shan’t spoil it for you, but it is a glorious mashup retelling of King Lear, with convenient borrows from other Shakespearean works, and from the perspective of Lear’s fool. In the play, the fool has no name – I found it great to have Chris name him Pocket (after his diminutive stature). We learn about his upbringing, about how he came to be the fool in Lear’s court, and about some serious misadventures in medieval Europe which spin the tale.

If you are familiar with King Lear proper, or even if you are not, you will love the tenacity that Chris brings to that world. I wouldn’t recommend reading “King Lear” before investing in Fool – there is certainly enough information in the story to carry it without foreknowledge of the plot.

But, the story is not for everyone. Even Chris says, as he is known to do, that it’s a bawdy tale packed with action and “action”. If you’re a reader easily offended by bad words and debauchery, you probably wouldn’t like the story at all – and let me recommend Pride and Prejudice as an alternative read.

Overall rating: 9.8/A+

This year, I’ve decided to take on a feat in defying arteriosclerosis. I’ve undertaken a challenge that I like to call the 12 steaks of Christmas.

First, a few notes to fend off religious naysayers. I am not attempting to emulate the real 12 days of Christmas, nor am I trying to connote that my consumption of a copiously large sum of beef equates to some form of religious ritual or any other object which may be related in some daft way to the practice of any organized religion. I’m simply a beef-eating grilling machine with a hunger for some steaks. Take it at face value.

Before taking on this challenge yourself, I suggest that you read up on the health risks associated with consuming red meat (mammalian meat) in large quantities. I’m not a vegetarian but I eat a heap of vegetables at every meal where I also consume these large steaks – mostly because I personally know the risks of binging on beef fat. Also, I plan to take the month of January off from most meats – though I do eat a significant amount of fish and chicken at home, which are both still meat but they’re not mammalian meats. My main rule is that every steak needs to be at least 1 pound – the goal is to get 15 pounds down during this course, since some cuts are significantly larger.

So – here’s the schedule.
#1 – 16oz. top sirloin
#2 – 18oz. NY strip
#3 – Chateaubriand, biggest I can find.
#4 – the biggest steak I can find (50oz Porterhouse)
#5 – 18oz. T-bone
#6 – 18oz. contre-filet delmonico
#7 – 18oz. ribeye
#8 – 24oz. flank steak
#9 – 16oz. top round steak
#10 – 16oz. shoulder steak (or a tri-tip if I can’t find one that big)
#11 – the biggest filet mignon I can find
#12 – 5 pound prime rib feast for all!

I started this quest early in December. Every other day until Christmas Eve I plan to knock one of these off the list. When I told my butcher about my task, he said he was up for it – they don’t normally keep all of these cuts (esp the delmonico) but they’ve done them up nicely when I asked for them. The most expensive one – aside from the porterhouse which I actually dined out to get – was the chateaubriand, but that’s to be expected since it’s a very specific cut and has a low yield per head. I found some that were just over 17oz, so that was the deed.

Except for the prime rib, these will all be grilled. I am a dedicated charcoal griller and I refuse to convert to gas, even in Colorado where there are burning restrictions.