With that as the guiding principle, I always thought that Florida’s slogan: “The Sunshine State” was just dumb. “We have something everyone else has too!”

Having never lived anywhere outside of Florida as I grew up, I just thought everywhere got the sun. Sure some places were more cloudy than Florida, and other places had snow, but they got the sun too. The sun was simply a constant for me as a child. Sure a rain storm blows through but we got plenty of vitamin D. And I never thought about just how much sun there was, except for the unbearable heat which our blessed air conditioners battled endlessly.

So when we moved to Seattle, I conceptually understood that I would see less of the sun as it rained. But keep in mind all three times I’d been to visit Seattle the weather had been mainly beautiful. Sure there was some rain but it was tempered with gorgeous days, and during my visit the gorgeous days easily outweighed the rain.

When we arrived here, we were gifted with a string of gorgeous clear weather days during which to move into our place. Once that was done, well, Seattle showed her true colors.

Rain.

Rain rain rain.

In Florida a rain shower would last for an hour, if a large storm system settled over Florida it might last for a few days and it would be miserable downpour for most of it but then it would peter out and the sun would return.

The reason is that these showers form over the ocean, the water evaporates from the ocean and rises into the sky to form clouds. Now due to temperature and pressure differences between ocean and land the rain gets drawn to land and across the state to be pulled back out to sea, or pulled apart in fairly little time. All the sand and the humidity creates the thunderstorms and lightning we’re famous for, but they rarely last more than an evening because of the peninsula of our land allowing for unhindered travel with pressure changes.

Here in Seattle, with the ocean to the west and the Cascade mountains basically boxing us in, well, there is only hindered travel. The rain comes in off the ocean or the sound and crosses over Seattle only to find itself blocked in by the mountains. So where it might be gone in a few hours, it ends up sitting here and churning as more rain comes in off the ocean.

That’s my completely unprofessional, uneducated, unmeteorological explanation for how this all works, I could be wrong.

With this stagnant rain I’ve had to adjust over the past four months. The biggest and quite frankly the easiest learning point was that in Florida, when it rained you only ventured out if you had to because those showers would quickly drench you. In Seattle, rain is simply part of reality. The rain isn’t a soaking rain, it’s more like a fine mist usually such that with a jacket of some sort it’s hardly an issue to venture out and walk your dogs or run to the store.

I’ve begun to really realize how much I miss Florida’s sun. Not to be confused with missing the heat, humidity, mosquitoes and bad drivers – just the sun and its light.

I’m promised that this rainy weather will be done by July, and then we’ll be ready to enjoy three months of the most perfect weather in the world. Seriously. Everyone who hears me bemoan the rain promises me that in three months I will become ready to accept nine months of rain.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my job and the people I know and work with – it’s just the weather I’m griping about.

Picplum is a service where we can send photos to their service from your smartphone or desktop and then on a regular schedule have those photos automatically sent out to a predefined list of people. The company is founded by Paul Stamatiou (Georgia Tech alumni) and Akshay Dodeja. They’re funded by Y Combinator (also funded Reddit, Justin.tv, Dropbox, and more) and are looking to turn the photo industry on its head.

I signed up far before I placed my first order with them. It was a service that I intended to use, but felt silly using for only two photos. I mean, it just feels weird. It’s insubstantial. At least, it feels that way to me. In a world where I get people’s random thoughts wirelessly on my phone. I can see videos of people eating their dinner, or watching tv, or I can open Skype and video chat with my friend in south-east Asia. In that world, two photos seems insignificant.

But to my grandmother, who lives in rural Georgia and who’s most exciting part of her week is a trip to see her doctor two towns over. Two photos from her grandson in Seattle, WA… that’s genuine excitement. That’s something she can show her neighbors. Something she and I can talk about when I call her. This isn’t a service for me, it’s a service for her.

This week I finally placed an order, sending out seven photos in the first batch. Five of me and Katie, one of our dogs, and one of the Seattle skyline.

The system is beautifully built and very intuitive. If you do end up having questions they have an on-screen chat service for customer service and when I asked my question I was talking to Akshay, one of the founders. The flow is quite simple once you setup your account, you tell it what email addresses it might expect photos from. In this way I set it up so that either I or Katie can email them photos and have them added to the system. Then I can log in on the computer to manage, either remove duplicate photos  or  upload photos from my PC.

If you’ve recently moved away from family, or have a young one who is entering your life and will require lots of photos to be shared with family, then Picplum is a fantastic service. And when you realize that it’s a service for the recipients more than for yourself, it all makes perfect sense.

Some Ideas for Picplum

• Notes. Allow notes to be written on back of photos, it might complicate the linear system but it would be invaluable to be able to write little notes such as postcards. “Sally at 3 months.”
• Distribution lists. I have my core who I want to send photos to regularly, but the more people in their system then it’s easier for me to send photos through Picplum.
• Pull from my social media. Integrate with Twitter and Facebook and Google+. Let me share a photo and in the tweet I type “#pp” signaling their service to pull the photo for my next batch.
• Expand capabilities. Rather than be just a “push” platform, meaning that they send out batches. Setup a gallery which is friendly for families and less tech savvy people, making it dead simple for them to get printed photos on my dime. I’d set a spending limit per person or overall, a pre-approved amount per month.

Problems for Picplum

• Where’s the pivot? As a photo platform there’s already a very competitive marketplace. How does this scale to a big business? I have to believe they’re building this and seeing where it leads them with the belief that they can pivot or respond based on the market response.
• While an easy and direct interface, it’s still a service that my grandmother can’t use. It requires a certain level of technical savvy even with the linear process.

We’ll see where Picplum.com ends up going, but in the mean time I’ll enjoy using them and following their journey.

This post was unsolicited and is my own opinion, I receive no compensation for writing this. I did include my referral link in this post, so anyone who signs up and uses the company earns me future credit for sending out photos.

I can recall vividly after a football game I was starving and I was in the car with my parents as we drove home. I requested we drive through and get me some food. We stopped at a Wendy’s and I ordered not one, not two, but three chicken sandwiches. And fries. And a soda. Oof. High school metabolism why hast thou forsaken me!?

It was my Junior year when sports stopped being fun and I began to really discover how much I liked hanging out with friends or better yet, working and earning money. So I quit. But as far as I can remember, I still ate like I was an athlete.

Once I entered college I fell victim to the Freshmen 15. Even with a meal plan and its healthy meal options, downing endless sodas in an effort to burn the midnight oil, the sedentary life of a programmer, and a healthy dose of depression after getting black balled from a fraternity, and that quickly adds up to a fattened Patrick.

There was a period in my freshman year where I was trying to work out, I had a workout buddy named Neil who was a fit Indian/American who was focusing on bulking his thin frame. Our workouts lasted maybe a month before I fell off due to some school project. The long programming projects made for convenient excuses for that sort of thing. Also, it gave me license to eat horribly. Long night in the computer lab? Order pizza or wings! Chug sodas and partake in the life of a Computer Science student.

On through college that’s how I went. Convinced of immortality my health and fitness concerns were minimal. In my junior year I left GT and had a programming job. My life consisted of getting out of bed into my computer chair, driving to work just to sit in a chair and program, drive home to sit on the couch, and then crawling into bed. Any walking beyond this was purely incidental like fire drills or… yeah.

This is when I really packed on the pounds. Depressed over school stuff. Work was a low wage job but had growth potential. I would drive through McDonalds on the way to work, go drive through Checkers for lunch, and then come home and maybe have a healthy meal with roommates or go drive through somewhere on my own.

Then I decided to move back to Orlando. Family needed me and I was there. Once in Orlando I decided to lose the weight and I hit the gym, without a job or school I was having an easy time with making the gym my job. I was going two hours a day with cardio and weights and I stripped off probably 20-30 lbs. It felt good. I didn’t break the 300 lb mark though, I nudged up against it and then life kicked me in the teeth.

My mom died.

Me, my dad and my siblings celebrating mom's life.

And my progress was completely derailed and I spiraled back into depression and eating poorly and since then I had packed on 60 lbs. I peaked at 360 lbs. Through sedentary jobs, omnipresent sodas and snack foods, and life in general I got fatter than I’d ever been before.

Fat with a food baby at my sister's wedding

And that boys and girls, is my fat story. Next time, I’ll tell you all the times and ways I tried to stop being fat and what has finally started to work. (Hint: It requires work.)

I spent a fair bit of time before my last post, and after, considering why the changing of Android to iPhone bore such weight for me. In some ways, I’ve tried to champion Android among my less tech savvy friends. I held up the openness, showing off my customized interface with unique icons and moving wallpaper. I constantly defended Android to my tech savvy friends who had iPhones. I even, for a short time, converted one to the world of Android only to see him return to iPhone ‘because it just works.’

The fact is that Android is following the path of Windows, becoming a more open OS and trading cost to the detriment of stability or smooth function. When a sizable OS change occurs, as did with their still-rolling-out Ice Cream Sandwich version, old phones are left in the dust. And unlike Windows, where users tend to cling to the versions they know and love, many Android fans lust for the next version. Why? Because it might do more better. The OS still feels unfinished.

So here I am, converted, happily using my iPhone. I would estimate that I spent roughly $50 on apps for the phone, from top notch games like Puzzlejuice and Ascension, to the best app for Twitter, Tweetbot, and on to other necessary apps such as ones used to help me eat healthier. It’s sad, because I’d happily weigh the best Android apps with the best iPhone apps and say that they will often match up excellently. But there are also arenas where Android simply falls flat. Tweetbot far outshines anything I found on Android, but on Android I found I prefer the selection of Reddit apps such as Reddionic (which is still in Alpha.)

In the first days I had the iPhone, I spent probably six hours toying with it and adding apps, here is the current list of apps I’ve downloaded.

Games

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer – $4.99
I love this game and was always frustrated at being unable to play on my Android, so it was one of the very first apps I put on my phone. The game is a great game made by Magic: The Gathering pros.

Words with Friends – $0.99
I have had a long standing running series of games against my brother Adam, and I enjoy playing them so I needed the most popular version on iPhone. Though I am also like to get Scrabble. As for why pro? Well, I hate the ads.

Chess with Friends – $0.99
Same as with Words with Friends, enjoy playing with others and hate ads, so I pay the minimal cost to save me the frustration of interspersed ads.

Puzzlejuice – $0.99
Now this game, just don’t get it. Don’t put it on your phone. You’ll end up regretful and angry that I let you become addicted. It’s like that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Wesley plays that video game, or doesn’t play that video game and everyone else does. Whatever the plot was, it’s like that. This game is addictive and awesome. I’m curious how many hours I’ve sunk into it in the 4 days I’ve had my iPhone.

Bejeweled – $0.99
Old classic, great for passing time in waiting rooms without having to think too much.

Notable absentee: Tetris. Puzzlejuice fills some of my Tetris cravings, but I may succumb and send more money to Mother Russia EA.

Productivity

Wunderlist – FREE
Best productivity / to-do list app I’ve found. I loved Android’s AnyDO, but it hasn’t come to Android yet and until then I shall make do with Wunderlist. If AnyDO is a 9 on the scale, Wunderlist is an 8. Still strong, just not the app I know and love.

Evernote – FREE
Fantastic notebook app, stores pics, content etc. I’ll use it more now that I’m on iPhone, on Android I used more GoogleDocs.

Photography

Instagram – FREE
Instagram is great fun. Sort of its own social network, but more a fun camera app with easy and nifty filters for your photos.

Camera+ – $0.99
Another fun camera app, has some excellent features missing from the standard camera app including improved post processing and things like timer shot, or setting it to snap a photo when the volume peaks which is pretty cool (though I haven’t tested it yet.)

iMovie – $4.99
The most expensive app I’ve purchased, but also one that I am not sure was worth it. BUT, I also haven’t really tried shooting video on my phone yet aside from a few journal-esque videos.

Action Movie FX – FREE
Mostly silliness. Has some fun effects to add to your videos.

Health

Weightbot – $0.99
The best looking weight tracker app you’ll ever find. You have your portrait mode for entry, and then turned one way for stats, and turned horizontal the other way to see a graph of your weight log. Lacks the other feature I wish I could find in a good weight tracking app, which is allowing a second chart for body fat tracking. But that’s minor as no one else seems to have it.

Nike+ GPS – $1.99
I bought it, but RunKeeper is free and provides the same sort of functionality. I haven’t used this one enough to really be able to talk much about it yet.

MyFitnessPal – FREE
I’ve been using this to track my daily calories which I eat and how many I burn while working out. A great app with a huge directory for calories in foods, and an online website it integrates with.

Media

Downcast – $1.99
A fantastic podcast app for downloading and managing them on your iPhone. Huge directory, smart playing, lots of features. I use it for my daily commute and sometimes while working to listen to my favorite podcasts.

Netflix – FREE
Watch Netflix. Makes sense to me.

TwitchTV – FREE
For watching gamers stream games on their iPhone. I have a guilty pleasure of watching Starcraft 2 streams without owning or playing the game, and also Magic: The Gathering streams have picked up and are gaining steam. Great to watch them while on the treadmill working out.

Pandora – FREE
For when I need radio music. A general guideline of music and off we go for aural pleasure.

TED – FREE
For inspiration and awesome videos from the TED conference. Easy enough.

Xfinity – FREE
For controlling our home DVR box while out and about. I admit I thought there was some more TV streaming capability when I installed it but it’s functionality will still come in handy… eventually?

HBOGO – FREE
Watch Game of Thrones on my iPhone? Yes please.

News

AP Mobile – FREE
Seems to be among the best news apps on the iPhone, it’s ad supported but they aren’t full screen or anything like that.

The Onion – FREE
The older I get, the more I enjoy the Onion. Having it mobile is handy and good for an awkward laugh in an elevator.

ESPN Scorecenter – FREE
This is largely a direct equivalent to the app I had on Android. Good for tracking the scores I most care about.

Read It Later – $2.99
Fantastic for syncing and reading interesting articles on the phone. Good for the morning constitutionals and other such times.

Shopping

Amazon – FREE
Being an Amazon Prime member, being able to place orders quickly when out and thinking about it is a fantastic utility.

Amazon Price Check – FREE
Amazon does it again. I can’t bear to spend extra money on something i can as easily order from Amazon for free shipping.

eBay – FREE
I do very little impulse shopping on Ebay but there are times when I’m trying to find something or curious how things are doing, or also for monitoring auctions I’ve bid on if I go out and about.

Oink – FREE
Like Yelp, but for the things inside restaurants or stores. It’s the brainchild of Kevin Rose’s latest business Milk, developing mobile apps. It’s a good app though it still is struggling to catch on as a service and so it can be hard to find places which have rated items unless you’re in a metropolis like NYC, San Francisco etc.

Yelp – FREE
Like Oink but for rating the businesses as a whole, not the things inside them. Unlike Oink, it does have a big following and can be quite good to learn about locations or businesses.

Money

Bank of America – FREE
Say what you wish about the bank, but the app is fantastic and makes my life quite a bit easier in terms of making sure accounts are what they should be.

Paypal – FREE
I don’t use Paypal much, but it comes and goes in spurts for side business or something.

Square – FREE
The main thing I use this app for is for sharing the cost of a meal. Got a friend with a card and I have cash, then I’d use this to swipe their card while I pay the bill. Easy, simple, straight forward.

Social

Tweetbot – $2.99
This is the best Twitter client on iPhone and the difference is stark. Allows multiple accounts, a clean and responsive interface. Leaps and bounds above any Android Twitter clients.

Facebook – FREE
A good way to access Facebook, it does have some problems in showing new content with it being slow to load updates for comments.

Google+ – FREE
I don’t do a lot on G+ right now, but it’s good to have. I do miss the autosync of photos that G+ provided on Android.

Pinterest – FREE
I’m still wrapping my head around Pinterest, but it is pretty and a good diversion from time to time.

Path – FREE
Another social network I’m still learning, but the app is quite good.

WordPress – FREE
I use this only to post photos and videos to a small private blog I share with a small group of confidants. Does its job well!

Misc

Gmail – FREE
A great app for my email. Much preferable to using Gmail through the iPhone mail app.

Dropbox – FREE
Ahhh Dropbox, how I love thee. Such a great app.

New York Times – FREE
Why isn’t this Media? Because it’s not classified as an app. It shows up on the Newsstand in the phone. And the free version lets me scan the headlines and see what’s the news from the grey lady.

And there you have it, an in depth look at the apps on my iPhone. Hopefully I shared some which you haven’t seen or used before!

But, are there any I missed?