My iPhone has survived a number of things that should have killed it dead (getting thrown to the pavement, getting put through a washing machine, getting knocked off an 8′ loft by my cat, etc.), but it’s never been anything other than perfectly functioning. Until now.

This past week, in the midst of the launch of the new 3G iPhone, it is all of the sudden going to shit. It won’t let me take pictures. Sure it says it takes them, but they show up is white squares on the preview screen and then the contraption freezes when i try to view the. It also won’t let me do anything while a phone call is in progress. It’ll go back to the home screen but then completely freeze except for a continuing call time counter. If I try to force it off, it won’t let me move the “slide to turn off” slider.

Conspiracy?

Someone sent us the Planetarium chocolate set by Enric Rovira as a thankyou to Jonah for giving a talk at the Web 2.0 Expo recently. A much cooler concept than a lot of the crap they cook up over at Vosges (the Groove collection?), where my partner works, but also a little less tastey. I ate Pluto, which was included despite its not being a planet anymore.

They were redundant at best, insanely annoying at worst. I don’t post often enough for that sort of thing. If you are interested, you can still follow me on Twitter itself or just look in the upper right.

In the vein of my new “kicking ass at work” effort comes this new mug, designed to be distinguishable from the oppressive “BuzzFeed standard” white office mugs. I picked it up from Loma Prieta Pottery via Etsy, my first purchase of this kind. I am thoughly satisfied. Mark pointed out that this kind of gives off a “art teacher” aesthetic, but i figure that’s not too terrible. It reminds me of my grandfather, a chemist turned sculpter, and I like that.

Also of note is the fact that I’ve been sneaking into the BuzzFeed publishing system again and have published a few more trends. Try:

• Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
• World’s Largest Self-portrait

I’m sure they will cut me off sooner or later. I don’t really want to annoy the editors, but the system is pretty fun to use. That’s good since I am spending my days working on it’s working.