3G Cellular Data Coverage on the Oregon Coast (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

Living in Portland, we frequently visit the Oregon Coast (at least once or twice a year). It’s only about an hour’s drive away, and it’s breathtakingly beautiful. Some of our favorite places to go are Tillamook (the cheese and ice cream factory!), Cannon Beach (Mo’s and Tolovana Park are great, as is Ecola State Park), Seaside (kitschy promenade, etc.), Lincoln City, and Newport. There are tons of really nice little towns along the coast, too. Honestly, my favorite coast activity is just driving Highway 101 - the road is fun, and the scenery is out of this world.

We took a little family vacation to the coast last weekend, and of course, I can’t turn off my geeky parts (though I did leave the laptop at home - a first for me!). So I was paying attention to what kind of cell phone data coverage I was seeing, whether it was 3G or not, and what kind of speeds I was getting. I had three devices with me to test: my iPhone 3G, my wife Rachel’s original iPhone, and my Amazon Kindle, with it’s cellular “Whispernet” radio that works on Sprint’s EVDO data network.

In the past, cell phone coverage (even for voice) was spotty. You were probably OK if you were in one of the big towns, but outside that, you were out of luck. Data coverage was slow and spotty. Things have improved greatly in the last few years, and the one impression I got from this trip was that not only has cell coverage in general gotten MUCH better on the Oregon coast, 3G has arrived in a big way. It was really nice to be able to stay connected so well.

First, the iPhones on AT&T’s network. When they first started rolling out 3G (before the iPhone), the fast HSDPA data service was only available in 20 or so major metro areas. Cities like Portland and Seattle were covered, but not the towns in between, and not at the coast. AT&T has been building out it’s 3G network at an aggressive rate - no doubt in part because of the iPhone 3G. This weekend, except for localized “dead spots” (like our hotel room, in a deep hollow and right on the beach), where I didn’t have much signal at all, I had great AT&T 3G HSDPA coverage in all of the towns we stopped in: Seaside, Cannon Beach, Tillamook, Lincoln City, and Newport. I did some speed tests in a few places, and averaged roughly 600Kbps - about the same I get in the Portland suburbs.

I also did a few tests on my Kindle. I honestly wasn’t expecting much coverage, but I was pleasantly surprised. In the places I checked (mostly in Lincoln City, where we were staying), I had 4 or 5 bars of EVDO signal, and while I didn’t do any speed tests, it felt just as zippy as anywhere else I’ve used it. Which was great, because I really, REALLY needed to download the book Breaking Dawn (book 4 in the Twilight teen vampire saga - guilty pleasure!) the instant it became available at midnight EST on Saturday night. At 9:02PM PST, I made the purchase, and less than a minute later, I started reading (the book is EXCELLENT, by the way! - Affiliate links to the hardcover and Kindle editions).

So, it’s nice to see that the cell carriers (well, AT&T and Sprint, at least) are improving their coverage on the Oregon Coast. Now I can count on staying connected when I’m there, and a few people have asked me about my experiences with coverage there, so hopefully they’ll find this post through Google or however, and get their questions answered.

Maybe next time I’ll have more time to sit and read or surf or whatever - we took our two kids, Emma (5) and Gabe (almost 2), so this wasn’t exactly a “sit around and relax” kind of vacation. In fact, now that we’re home, I feel like I need ANOTHER vacation to recover.

Posted in: 3g , amazon , at&t , beach , blog , coast , coverage , evdo , hsdpa , kindle , oregon , sprint , whispernet

Weekend Fun! Open Air. DROID: Blue+Silver at the beach! [pointnshoot] (chris@csoltis (cjs)) by Chris

Yes I know there was a friggin earthquake today! i'm not blogging about it. ;)

John Tejada, Jason Emsley, Marc Schnider, and P-man played to a small crowd at a beach
i had to share for the choons.

earthquake weather right here, mother nature always wanting to take what she gave us, because it's too good. :-o

my friend rene dancing to a funky track
lol

yay! here's my last one.

I've also covered this for my pointnshoot series.

Posted in: beach , droid , fun , funny , interesting links , openair , photography , random , techno

Photos from Beach Getaway to Lincoln City, Oregon (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

Rachel and I took a short two night getaway to one of my favorite places on the planet, the Oregon Coast, last weekend. We dropped Emma and Gabe off at Grandma’s (thanks Grandma! ), and headed over to Lincoln City. Of course, I took a ton of photos while we were there (more than three hundred). I narrowed them down to 100 “keepers”, and posted 60 or so of the ones I’m most proud of to Flickr in this photoset (you can browse them all there, watch a slideshow, etc.).

You can, of course, click on any of these to view the original on Flickr, including all sizes up to the original/full size versions.

Many of these were taken by Rachel, who just has a natural ability with a camera. I read books and try techniques and think and analyze, and get usually mediocre pictures. She just picks up a camera, and out comes magic. I’m totally jealous, and totally proud of her creative abilities (which extend far beyond photography).

Anyway, on the drive over to the coast from Salem, we actually ran into a heavy snowstorm in the mountains. As in, the trees were white and there was accumulation on the road. Later that night, when we were at dinner (Blackfish Cafe, recommended by friends on Twitter, was excellent), it snowed in Lincoln City itself - there was snow piled up and melting on the car when we came out. Weird weather for the first day of spring. But we lucked out the next couple of days - the skies were clear and blue, and it was warm and nice (for the coast in March ).

We went for a late breakfast (OK, it was 11:30 AM, so it was practically lunch) at Pig N’ Pancake. Mmm, bacon… *drool* After that, a walk on the beach, of course!

If you’ve never been to the Oregon coast, you don’t know that the water is FREEZING COLD. All year round. So, after my first couple of trips to the beach after I moved here, I learned my lesson, and I never go down to touch the water when we go to the beach. But Rachel, a native Oregonian (and part hippie), has to commune with the salt water every time (that’s my way of saying she took these pictures of the water).

While Rachel was splashing around, freezing her toes off, I found a nice driftwood log, and did what I always do when I have a few minutes to myself - pulled out my iPhone, read some feeds in Google Reader, and chatted with friends on Twitter.

Obligatory picture of my trademark orange Crocs on the beach (”the Crocs shot”):

We got some really cool silhouette shots of people when we shot directly into the sun and its reflection on the water and wet sand.

Of course, there were people with dogs everywhere. We felt out of place without a canine companion. Maybe next time we can rent one for the weekend, so we can fit in with the dog people.

I love how none of the girls’ feet are touching the ground in that shot above. Of course, Rachel took that one.

After a while, we retreated to our room, and took a nap. We watched the sunset from our room’s balcony, which was RIGHT on the water. As in, look straight down, there’s the sea wall, and when the tide comes in, the waves lap at the foundations. It was actually kind of creepy.

But the sunset was awesome, of course! And I took way too many pictures. Even after culling and throwing a lot of them away. I couldn’t help myself.

There was a flock of seagulls hanging out on the roof of the hotel next door, so of course, I was trying to take all kinds of artsy pictures with them.

And finally, I got some really strange/cool pictures thanks to a GIANT floodlight mounted on the roof of the hotel next door. It lit up the whole beach for hundreds of feet in all direction, and lit up the white foam of the waves especially well. Of course, I was out on the balcony at 10:30 PM, trying to take some pictures of the phenomenon.

Like I said before, you can view all 60 or so of the photos I uploaded in this photoset on Flickr. Leave me a comment on this post, or on any of the photos there. Photography critique, suggestions, ideas, thoughts, or whatever. I crave interaction and feedback, so let me have it!

Posted in: beach , blog , coast , getaway , lincoln city , oregon , photos , rachel , vacation

list-esque (Never melts (meef)) by jen

Wow, this is pretty bad. I am so sore. Just like I said I'd be. I can't move. My legs, they do not work. I am not really complaining, per se. I'm just trying to back up my arguments. I can't do anything. How pathetic to wheel one's office chair wherever possible rather than GET UP to fetch the children lunch etc.?? And at times it's kind of .. well. VERY .. overwhelming to think I have at least a MONTH to put up with this... and it makes me want to cry in frustration.

I am not trying to criticize what others do.. much.. though I do make it a sport to make fun of stupidity... understand I honestly don't deep-down give a flaming rat's ass what other people do. (Unless they are close to me and the things they are doing are dangerous but hey, I still can't tell them what to do.) But I have been having this problem lately where everything *I* do seems to be up for criticism. I know, I shouldn't care, right? But I have complex psychological issues and I DO kind of let it bug me. And most of those things are related to children. Things almost no one else in this world cares about. Or knows what they are talking about. I also seem to stand on the wrong side of the usual hot-button issues. Just call me lucky.

In other news I was kind of depressed to walk back into this dingy crap-hole after the bright sun and blue skies of my vacation. It motivated me to clean the kitchen a bit and hopefully start priming and painting the kitchen soon. Like, tonight! The fact that I can't move is just a MINOR DETAIL. I'll make him do all the hard parts :)

I feel like I totally bailed on the family by leaving this weekend on a spur of the moment vacation, but I have to say part of me was kind of tingly with excitement over that. I never do stuff like that, and I should. I'm so sick of hanging around other people's houses for various reasons so I'm going to be doing it more and more.. just what *I* want to do... call it my selfish years. Others might see it as bitchy. But I'll have a newborn and 2 kids to watch around various dangers and I just don't feel up to it. I'd rather stay home where my stuff is. My in laws are totally for that, actually. I go to the beach, because we pack everything we need, and pregnancy and boy-dangers aside, it's not that bad when you pack like that. But I'm not packing like that for a 5 hour visit.

And finally I feel I should end this on an interesting note. I am 34 weeks along as of this past monday, and we still have not discussed any names for this kid. Part of me is panicking, part of me is very very apathetic. Whoever had that name wizard book I want to hear from you! I just send the husband an email informing him that if he didn't send me a list of names, that I was going to pick one that I liked and that would be that. o far I've been assured that a list is in the making. I hope I can be as happy with what we pick as I am with the two we have.

And since I feel kind of spacey and disjointed... I'm going to stop talking now. Posted in: baby names , beach , kids , preg , random

anatomy of a vacation (Never melts (meef)) by jen

I am stuck here. I can't get up. I laid down on my side (the only way I can lay down) to get the kids to bed. After much hissing and yelling and threatening to get up or turn the tv off, they finally went to sleep. And I was going to go downstairs to get some kind of snack, but I can't get off the bed. My hip feels like a rock. I keep sending T urgent telepathic messages but he's probably being lazy or something. Hmph.

Yes, of course we wound up on vacation again this weekend, but that's okay, better t his weekend t han in 2 weeks when I'm REALLY cranky. It started out bitchy and snappy but here in the land where time slows down it's not too bad. The recent storms cleared off the beach and it was nice and flat and smooth just how I like to walk on it. The water feels great on my feet. So all that sand-walking has made my hips Not Happy.

This morning we all took a walk with the kids and the wagon. We went pretty far, far enough for me to announce that *I* was going to head back, but the rest of them should feel free to go on without me, snif snif... The boy had me going all over the place anyway. We had to stop to watch people do stuff, or to watch cars go by, we watched some guy backing a boat into a spot (it only took him 20 minutes.) and we watched some other guy load up a pickup truck. We even watched a really loud woman yakking on her cell phone in a very animated manner. That is, until she saw us and ran into her house. I did this again later in the afternoon, just so you know. T was going to go, but D practically pushed me out the door. I said I was only up for "a short walk" but I think I walked farther than T did.

***

8:00
boy walks by. What's that awful smell? oh dear god, go change him. Think about whether this will be a wasted diaper, realize it's 8:00, decide quickly to bathe him. He hate this, since the only place is the shower.

8:02
done with shower, put clean diaper and pajamas on boy, who only screamed until the water was turned off.

8:45
children still awake. Hiss and talk through gritted teeth to shut up adn go to sleep. Threaten to turn tv off. hear "it's dark out, it's time to go to bed" from girl. Hear girl repeat "it's dark out. It's time to watch tv" to her father. Snicker to self.

9:00
boy may or may not be sleeping, but girl is practicing all the saliva-related sounds she knows. Tell girl to knock it the hell off. Silence.

9:01
girl starts again with her slurping noises, only quieter. Threaten to turn off tv. Silence. More, quieter slurping and clicking noises. Nearly kill self standing up to make threat more foreboding.

9:02
give up and settle for an acceptable level of quiet. Move stupid bag that I hate stepping over.

9:15
children are both singing now. Tell them to stop talking and go to sleep. "but we singing mommy." "well sing quietly please." singing does not get quieter and has spoken bits.

9:32
all is quiet... almost home free. That is, if I could move my hip, or even if I thought my legs could support me.

9:34
bunch of freaking kids outside start arguing with each other RIGHT OUTSIDE THE WINDOW. Of course! Stare out window, wondering if maybe screaming "hey! STFU!" would be called for. Decide to be nice.

9:37
boy sleeping, girl half awake. Tell girl "I'll be right back" and shuffle and waddle downstairs to see what's going on down there. Husband is watching boring sci fi movie that makes pta meeting look like high comedy. return to bedroom. smack boy's crib with door upon entering, waking him up and causing him to mewl "mommy mommy mommy" over and over for 5 minutes until he finally drops off again.

9:39
girl starts singing again.

9:45
both children finally quiet again

9:46
OOH GOODY the fireworks are starting!!

9:47
give up and settle for a state where everyone is at least laying on their bed/sleeping surface.

10:04
fireworks still going, but by golly, they're out. woo hoo. Contemplate late-night snack. Can't move. Give up. Write journal entry. Posted in: beach , kids

ruff (Never melts (meef)) by jen

1. I am having a rough month. I know, I know. I feel like I can't face this thing anymore. I can't write anything witty to save my life. My thoughts are all over the place. You think this blog is tangential, imagine the inside of my head. I've had kind of a rough week, 3 major things, none of which I really want to talk about here. I suppose that wasn't fair, I hate when people do that to me. But they involve other people, and it's not fair to them.

2. Yo Gabba Gabba. Discuss.

3. Last week I went for my saturday appt at the ob. I had told T we should all go, then we could to go the store afterwards. But then we ran out of money and the store trip was canceled. But for some reason we all went anyway. I didn't question it... maybe he just wanted to go. I dragged him in the exam room for my 2minute exam so he could hear the heartbeat. The kids acted in a way that reminded me why I don't bring them. The dr gave T the doppler and let him find the baby's heartbeat. I thought that was kind of cool. T was afraid to push down very hard but really pretty much got it on the first try. Okay the dr told him where to press, and the dr remembers where to get it.

4. The week before that we spent up at the beach. I convinced T to take half of Friday and all of Monday off and we had a great time. We arrived late Friday night (thanks traffic!) and left Monday after lunch and got home for dinner. The kids fought like rabid weasels in the car and we vowed never to go anywhere again, at least not without a dvd player or something. But we had perfect weather for it. On Monday we went to the museum, and that was fun, but a whole other bitch fest. I'm only mentioning this so I remember the pain but I am not going to dwell on it. I also had occasion to hit chuck-e-cheese for the first time in my life and I have to say a) that place is totally overrated and b) that place is totally smaller and brighter than I was expecting.

5. T wants to go to the beach one more time this year, but I'm mentally done. I am so lazy and fat and unmotivated it's not even funny. I just want to sit in a comfortable chair all day long and talk to my friends online or something. I don't want to clean or walk around or go to places or have to eat at the table with those stupid chairs and the zero amount of room to maneuver around the table because naturally the fat pregnant lady has to sit all the way at the end of the table that's surrounded by 3 walls, and the 26 lb three year old gets to sit on the other end that's open and has a better chair. I don't want to eat out, or not be able to shower at the drop of a hat, or not be able to sleep, or climb the steps, or have to walk in sand... I am just feeling sorry for myself. Actually I hate myself for being so unmotivated. But I know it's temporary, why can't HE understand that? I know how stupid this all sounds. None of these things are a big deal, but added up they just get me all aggravated. I guess the biggest thing is my mind isn't open anymore. Last week the door closed and I feel like that part of summer is over now. But no one will agree with me, everyone is actually aghast that I'm not currently packing. Feel free to hate me. At least YOU don't have a 52 inch lead balloon hanging off the front of you.

6. I switched my feed to "full" because it kind of annoys me when I'm in a feed reader and I still have to go to the page to finish reading the post. What are your thoughts on this?

7. Congratulations to semi desperate housewife on her cute baby boy. It's been a long trip and I enjoyed reading along. It seems like so long ago I started reading her blog and she was something like 15 weeks along and I thought she was sooo much farther along than me. Ha! I guess at this point I have 6 weeks, tops.

8. D is doing something to his naps. He wasn't always willing to go down at his normal time so I pushed it back. Probably too far, but it's hard to work around certain parts of our day. But now he wakes up crying and screaming and does so for an hour. Nothing makes him happy. I can let him cry in his crib or I can let him sit on the floor by my feet and cry (crying louder if I leave the room!) Either way, I want to cry too. Maybe I should go back to 11:00 naps. But with the 2:00 naps, they both nap! hmm... normal day... vs.... 3 hour nap for me, ending with some crying and drama. HMM. Posted in: beach , cranky , kids , preg

another list (Never melts (meef)) by jen

1. I just got back from a four day weekend, 3 days of which were spent alone with my in laws, and I have zero complaints. In fact, I'm really kind of sad that my little vacation is over.

2. I have road rage. No, I don't flip people off and drive like an idiot. I have rage towards my husband. I don't want to be a backseat driver or anything, so as a result of bottling up my feelings I find myself full of rage and wanting to chase down drivers who mouth "asshole" at us, and inform those pricks that I was not the one driving, if I was, I wouldn't have done that, and I totally understand their position, and the guy next to me? Is too clueless to understand that he's being an asshole. The fact that he's so clueless is part of what makes me so mad!

a. it is okay to speed up a little when passing someone. if there's someone behind you, it's even more okay.

b. trucks speed up down hills. If you can't pass them before the hill, or aren't up to going 80 to keep passing them, then get back behind them.

c. try to anticipate, please. Do not merge back into the right lane when there is an onramp coming, especially when there is no one behind you.

d. that guy with his signal on? Has had like, four hours to make his move. Pass him already.

e. If you line yourself up with the people merging, no one will have to slam on their brakes.

f. Do not try to answer your cel phone that's in the bottom of your pocket while driving.

g. can you just fucking sit there and DRIVE? Is it really necessary to scratch every single one of your limbs repeatedly from here to Connecticut? It's really unnerving.

h. Stop moving my sun visor flap over to the side. I have never had a problem with side sun so much that I have to forcefully yank the thing over. In fact, I wish it didn't even come off.

i. when there's some ugly impatient guy in a huge suv up in your ass... maybe you can stand to slow down a few mph's and just let him go, you know?

*ahem*

3. Number of ways in which the boy got hurt this weekend:

a. slammed his head on the side of a wooden couch, bruising his eye socket and making his ear swollen and purple

b. smacked his head into countless tables, walls and other assorted furniture

c. fell down the steps. 5 times.

d. fell down the outside steps... twice... once hitting his head on some concrete block at the bottom.

e. fell backwards off a chair after an umbrella blew over and hit him

f. fell got pushed off a slide

g. got his fingers slammed in the door. twice.

h. ran into a wall at full speed.

i. fell off the bed. twice.

4. The girl had a fake wrist injury this weekend. We all totally thought she broke her wrist and were trying to figure out when. I tell this story to people and they scoff at me and tell me it was just my imagination and it was probably (something benign) but at the time we were all seriously freaked. She was laying there so pathetically and screaming when you touched just one spot. father in law gave her some ice and I gave her some tylenol and no one was saying it but we all thought she should get some x rays or something. Then she randomly sat up, gave me the ice, said "put that away. I all done now." and hopped up off the couch and went about her business while the rest of us tucked our gray hairs back behind our ears. I am afraid she's just taken her dramatic acting abilities to scary new levels. She also likes to tell daddy that I hurt her.

5. For a 3 day span, I occupied myself for 2 days with my friends. It was really nice. I should do that more often. I think the drudgery of sitting around trying to find interesting things just needs to be broken up by stuff like that. Or maybe I just have more fun when I'm surrounded by non-children type people.

6. I did not pack any hats, to save myself any unfortunate comments from MIL. I also tried to keep the clothing kind of neutral. Oh sure the kids got sunburn on their heads, but hey, at least they weren't DOOFY.

7. I don't really hate MIL.

8. MIL has offered to drive here and help me out in ways which I was bitching and fuming about no one else helping me last week. That doesn't make me like her any better - in fact I was saying last week how sad it was no one here would help me, but I knew if I called her she'd totally drive 2 and a half hours to help me for an hour.

9. IL's got new appliances and a washer and dryer at the vacation place. W00t! Posted in: beach , kids , list , random , vacation