dma lives

Over the course of the last six Wednesdays, I have been enrolled in one of the writing classes at Killing My Lobster. Great group of people and I learned a lot about what it takes to be a comedy writer.

With all the writing, feedback, listening to other sketches and their critique, I present to the world the fruits of my labor, my two sketches performed by professional actors and actresses.

I'm looking forward to my next class, Writing 2. Who knows where this will lead after that class.

Walking through the aisles of a local Target about a month ago, I came across a safety razor being sold right next to traditional disposable razors.

I was intrigued by it being there and wondering why it was there? I always figured the men who shop at Target are either disposable razor users, or electric shaver users.

Curious, I picked up the Van Der Hagen, Traditional Safety Razor (shown below). $20 doesn't seem like a waste if I don't wind up liking it. I could always find someone else to use. Besides, my barber and his apprentice could always educate me on the proper usage.

So this morning I decided to break into the safety razor. It was a Van Der Hagen branded safety razor.

For those of you unfamiliar with traditional safety razors, these came after the straight razor; the kind of razors you see in old time barber photos. The traditional safety razor came around the late 1800s and fell out of favor and were replaced with more modern four or five blade disposable raors. The traditional is likely a shaver your grandfather used back in the day.

After I got my face ready with my Imperial shave products, I began shaving my face very delicately. It's a bit unnerving at first, but I was able to make several passes and I could actually feel the hair coming off a lot easier than my usual five blade.

Aside from the expected nicks I received, my face does not feel irritated as much as it normally does. The problem I have is that I can't shave every day. If I do, my face hurts for a while so I generally space it out every few days of shaving. 

I think with a few more shaves, I'll have mastered the traditional safety razor and will likely dump the modern style for this. Yes, I am bleeding. But you realize that when you shave, you're taking a layer of skin off of your body right?

Kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if the iPhone took a year longer to be announced on how different the mobile landscape would be. It’s all about timing, presentation, and penetration in any market.

So I was fortunate enough to preorder a Motorola G last month from Amazon at a really good price. Roughly $200 for an unlocked, virgin Android phone designed for emerging markets. Initially I was skeptical about purchasing this phone. On top of the skepticism, I had friends who said I would be happier with the Moto X, but for an unlocked version, we're looking at about $550. I don't really want to dabble full time in Android, but I like the idea of having a phone minus the normal Android bloatware. I already got burned on the HTC First as my first attempt at dabbling in Android.

So I've had the Moto G for about 24 hours now and can say I like it. I like it a whole lot. In fact, the only thing really holding me back from switching over from iOS is:

5MP camera. I know real Kodak moments should be taken with a real camera. I like not having to lug and extra item around for photos.

3G. I'm with T-Mobile and the phone goes up to 3G only. It's the faster 3G though, but it's still not LTE.

Aside from the two points I've listed, I like the phone. I also like where Android has come as a mobile phone.

I bought the iPhone 5C when it was released. I wasn't a fan of the 5S due to the questionable fingerprint scanner. However in the last few months of using the 5C, I'm having issues with iOS 7 in general. Don't really think it's related to hardware, but iOS 7.0.4 is riddled with bugs. I don't like my phone rebooting when I answer a call. On the topic of answering calls, when I swipe over Answer, it should answer. I shouldn't have to swipe ten times before it answers the call. Is that hardware or software?

It’s really bothersome knowing this:

- Smartphones are now Trojan horse trackers for everyone. Even if it was a regular phone, your whereabouts are easily trackable. - Smartphones have built in mics and cameras. Imagine having your camera or mic turn on without you knowing. - I had heard the reason Obama is not allowed to use an iPhone is that it has roughly 36 trackable features baked into it the NSA can track.