Today, for the first time, I saw a practical use of text messaging. Up to now, I've only seen text messaging used to pass notes in class by engineering students (who can't afford not to pay attention). Oz and I on very rare occasions exchange text messages of a word or two, mostly to be silly, and then afterwards we say, "God damn, but entering those letters sure is tedious! My thumbs hurt!" I realize that text messaging can be very useful, but I've never seen it with my own eyes, until this morning at the hair salon. The woman who cuts my hair, who happens to be deaf, needed to call her (ex?) husband to find out when he was coming to the shop to fix the air conditioner. Instead of having someone else make a telephone call (she doesn't have text telephone gear at the salon, only at home), she pulled out a Sidekick and text-messaged him. I thought this was most excellent: off the shelf technology that meets her needs without modification. She just made a face and said, "Eh. It's the only way I can call people."
And thanks to the Internet, I made ozarque's Frugal Cheesecake this afternoon. It was easy to make and turned out very tasty. I made one substitution and had to adjust the baking time. I have ideas for a few variations on the theme, so when I don't have a blinding headache and I've done some more fiddling in the kitchen, I'll post my version.
257 words | May 10, 2006 08:22 PM | Wired