• Marriage recap
• Honeymoon recap
• Switzerland pics (to Facebook)
• 5k recap

• Chrome integration. Marco more or less ignores browsers other than Safari. The RIL devs may also, but third parties have done a heck of a better job creating tools for their product than for IP. I spent a few hours trying all the IP extensions and was happy with none of them. I ended up with two buttons on my toolbar to get the functionality out of IP that I had been getting via one (Orbvious Interest) with RIL.
• Page rendering. Of the first handful of pages I attempted to read inside IP, half rendered incorrectly. I was forced to visit the actual pages of the articles, which turns my reader into a bookmarker. If I was offline, which is a strong use-case for these applications, I'd be without a paddle.
• App design. I never felt comfortable in IP [IMAGE]. It is more feature-rich than RIL, but more features isn't always necessarily better. RIL is simple and works beautifully [IMAGE], which is the pinnacle of design IMO.

• The increased weight (10%) is fairly noticeable. I believe teardowns have revealed that a larger battery is responsible for this. Why then does it hold the same charge time as the previous generation? It's a lot more powerful. Regardless, I think they've tipped the scales to "a little heavy."
• It takes a heck of a lot longer to charge. The iPad2 was no gem here, especially since it required a "high performance" USB port or a wall outlet, but this thing takes FOREVER. It's the same tech, but with 70% more capacity to juice up? Yeah...
• The new display (probably the biggest new feature) is pretty amazing for small text, but most of the time is noticeable when an app or site is using "old tech" graphics... jaggies/pixels galore.
• The new camera is a huge improvement. You can take photos that aren't embarrassing with this thing. I wish they had upgraded the user-facing camera, though, as that gets 90% of the use from me; I tend to not pull out my iPad when I see something to shoot... I use it for video chat and such.
• Benchmarks have shown that the processor is really not any faster, and that's fine as only Android and PC users care about processor power more than WHAT THE DEVICE CAN ACTUALLY DO. They beefed up the graphics and RAM, and that shows in a slightly zippier experience. Some of the new Retina-supporting games that were released are pretty draw dropping when you consider how many pixels they're pushing.
• Dictation is very cool. I've used it a handful of times now. I don't have the ability to think like a writer and speak, but I do think it'll be useful to jot down notes and such. I can only hope I remember to use it often. Given the button placement (it's a keyboard button), I have to think it'll be difficult to forget.
• 4G leaves something to be desired. Sure, it's ridiculously fast, but coverage is still a bit flaky (AT&T in Northern Virginia), which can cause the device to bounce between it and 3G, a is not an entirely smooth transition as the device establishes a new connection.
• Apple still fails on the device upgrade process. Everyone I know has faced similar hurdles when upgrading their device, but all different as well. And these are people who work on the devices every day and are very tech-savvy. I had to manually reinstall/resort every app from a list of apps I'd previously purchased and I lost saved data on about 50% of them, a coworker had to re-sort all of his apps, and another had to start anew after his restore caused every app to crash.

Riding multipurpose trails on a weekend between 1PM and 7PM when the temperature is between 60 and 80 degrees. This is when the idiots come out to play. On my ride on Sunday, I nearly crushed two pedestrians who felt the need to ignore my passing warning and jump into the passing lane for no good reason. If I need to get a ride in during these hours and these temps (they only coincide for a month or two each year), I need to drive somewhere for a road ride or drive somewhere for a mountain ride.

Riding the "Arlington Loop" (triangle created by the W&OD, Custis, and Mount Vernon trails) in the dark. Poorly maintained pavement means a lot of difficult to see potholes and such. I'll stick to the W&OD in the dark; better paved and straight as an arrow.

The gym after work. Too many people.

Grocery stores on weekends and between 5 and 8 on weeknights. Too many people.

Driving between 5 and 8 on a weeknight. Too many people.

Springfield, Rosslyn, and Georgetown. All terrible.

Outside the beltway. Yes, I grew up there. No, it's not the same as it used to be. Most everyone out there has a massive commute that causes them to hate life and be angry. Once you pass under 495, there's a clear difference in demeanor.

Maryland. 9 times out of 10 when I'm cutoff or see someone pull some asinine or inconsiderate maneuver on the roads while IN VIRGINIA, they have Maryland tags. It's difficult to avoid Marylanders on Virginia roads, but it's easy to avoid Maryland altogether... so I do.

I hope you were able to pick up on the common theme, which is most unfortunate; as other folks workout more, I'm likely to workout less. Alas, it'll be hot soon and all my worries will be melted away, back into their centrally cooled little huts and eventually, I'll live somewhere where there are simply fewer people. Time is on my side.

Surely you avoid certain things. What, when, and why?

In case it wasn't clear, I will reiterate... I will not be blogging every morning. That's not what I set out to do and it's not what I will be doing. On Tuesday morning, I put together and published three pages of meeting minutes for my running club. On Wednesday morning I took a day off from the task. Yep, I'm fallible! I'm also not keeping up with the goal on weekends because it's not as feasible without a morning routine.

I digress... After asking me about it, we had a bit of a conversation, which led to today's topic...

Chris and I got hung up on the word "produce." It's a nasty one. He argued that being productive was the same as producing. Reading your daily e-mail is certainly productive, but is it an activity of production? No, it's consumption. To me, producitvity does not necessarily produce. By definiton, "produce" is "to make or yield a product". One could argue that an empty inbox is a product. I would not agree with them, but I could see their viewpoint and would be happy to agree to disagree.

So... To clarify, I'm looking to create product each morning.

Words are fun.

A solid closing to the story. In producing this painfully honest story of his father's life, Art Spiegelman has done a heck of an honor to his father and other Holocaust victims. I most appreciated how he took a no-holds-barred approach to it. He didn't hide his father's faults. They made him who he was. They were the brutal truth of the effects of survival. I think we can all likely relate to him struggling to understand why his parents acted certain ways; all our parents come from drastically different times. We are better people to understand, appreciate, and respect that rather than what I do all too often by getting frustrated. Art never made that realization during his father's life, but I'd have to think in completing this story he went back and did, and probably even has some remorse.

An interesting note is that this story (both parts) was slowly produced and published in segments to the author's own magazine. From start to finish, the project spanned 19 years.

If you have any interest in the Holocaust or great reading material, this is a must-read.