UPDATE: Based on reader recommendations I have performed a system restore on my iPhone and not restored it from previous backups, instead opting to set it up as a new phone. I’m going to use it this way for a couple days and see how things go. I’ll let you know.

I’m an Apple fanboy, there is no doubt. Ever since I switched over from Wintel machines to my Mac Pro and Mac Laptop, I never want to go back. It’s hard not to champion them to other people, even though I know how annoying that can be on the receiving end. This week, during my visit here at the Penny-Arcade offices, Mike bought a Mac Pro and I was giddy. I felt elation FOR him. I just love Macs.

That being said, I hate my iPhone. I hate it so much.

My iPhone was something I waited in line for when they first came out. I waited a couple hours actually, in the Texas heat. I paid 600 bucks for it too. And for that first year, it was the best phone experience of my life. Great interface, great way to check mail and surf the web on the go. Visual voicemail is lovely. It was a glorious time.

Those days are over, my friends. Since the 2.0 update, this thing barely does anything after the “i” part of it’s name. It certainly doesn’t “phone” anymore. I miss calls constantly. Sometimes, around 8 or 9 pm, I just get pelted with a series of buzzes in my pocket. My missed calls have finally caught up with my iPhone and it wants to let me know I missed some important shit.

It needs to be rebooted 3-4 times a day. Once a week I do a full restore on it. I don’t keep any apps on it at all because all they do is slow down the device. Several times a day it tells me voice mail is either not accessible or not set up yet.

The bad thing is that I got used to checking my IMAP email on the fly. I check it a lot. I twitter and text a lot as well. But not even that works. The iPhone’s internal mail app can not look at any attachment. I am constantly backing out of the mail app and opening safari to look at my gmail on the web where a 56k jpg can actually be viewed.

My friends here are telling me to dump this iPhone and get a blackberry. I’m seriously considering it. The only bad thing is that I would totally miss using this thing as a video iPod. I’m being told that once I deactivate the “phone” part of my “iPhone” I can no longer use it to watch episodes of Dr. Who in bed.

I hate my iPhone. The question is, what do I do now?

My time in Seattle comes to a close. I rest this evening in the house of Khoo and then return to Dallas early in the morning. It has been a productive visit on so many levels. Think of my relationship with the Arcadians as a clay sculpture that, over the years, is continually spun and altered. PAX and the week following it has glazed and fired that clay into a finished piece.

Mike forbade me from abandoning my second painting, which I lost patience with two nights ago. He demanded I come back to it today and finish it. I’m glad that I did. It was rushed and not as good as it could have been. But I’m happy with the results. None of these are finished pieces. They’re all exercises in learning and as such I don’t think I want to keep them in my house to act as constant reminders of my failures in this medium. Painting is so much work. It’s such a journey to get from start to completed piece. Would it make any sense if I described it as gruelingly addictive?

Jerry picked the subject for my second painting. I was going to paint Skull next, but the idea of something as “meme” as the LOLBAT being rendered in so traditional a medium gave him a chuckle. The results are posted on my flickr page. Once I get back and settled in, I’ll put it up on eBay. Just think. You could be the first person to own one of these horrible little experiments.