I love logic. If it doesn’t make sense, I try to figure it out and find the solution, much like a geometric proof. I can’t solve every equation, but gay marriage seems easy to me. Let’s get logical about gay marriage.

North Carolina just passed Amendment 1 of their Constitution stating that no same-sex couples can get married or join in civil union. In other words, they have no legal rights as a couple or family. What does that mean? Everything they do together is for naught. It doesn’t matter. It never happened — at least according to the legal system.

I challenge you to watch this video — it amassed 400,000 views in two days — and see how this inequality can destroy a person:

If that video doesn’t make you angry, sad or at least tug on your heartstrings, there’s probably no reason for you to read the rest of this article. I will probably have a hard time getting through to you, but I still feel compelled to try. Please keep reading even if you hate the idea of equal rights for same-sex couples. I promise this is something worth thinking about.

Separation of Church and State

“My country advocates freedom of religion… but only if it’s my religion. I don’t care what you believe because I know I’m right and you’re wrong. Since that’s the truth, my opinion matters more than yours and I’m going to do everything possible to limit your passions through any political/legal means necessary.”

Wow. No, that’s not a real quote; I feel like that easily defines our nation. Have we forgotten our heritage and why this nation exists?

The pilgrims initially came to America to escape a corrupt political system heavily influence by the Church of England. In those days, the church played a pivotal role in the prosecution and persecution of those who challenged false teachings from corrupt officials. At that time, it seemed like escape was the only option and it sparked the pilgrimage to the “land of the free” where church and state were supposed to be separate entities.

Four hundred years have passed but we still can’t separate church from state.

We’ve never truly had religious freedom. Any government with a dominant religion tends to rule by the majority’s beliefs. We’re a Christian nation. There are many people in the USA who believe something different or in nothing at all… but the fact remains: Christianity governs the US.

I don’t think government can exist without religious influence. Humanity doesn’t understand what is right without knowing what is wrong; we define ethics through belief, culture and religion. I won’t get into a philosophical argument here, but I’d like to pose a question: would we really be able to distinguish right from wrong if there wasn’t an external influence to shape our ethics as we age?

Liberal or conservative, our current political practices are slowly destroying this nation. Just look at this last round of elected officials: everyone believes they are right and so few are willing to compromise on a single argument. Government isn’t about one extreme dominating the other, it’s about educated (theoretically) people getting together to work through issues and formulate the best possible solution for the people of the United States of America. Have we seen that happen lately? Nope.

Equality isn’t about religion

From my point of view, there are two interested parties in the marriage equality debate:

• Same-sex couples who only hope for recognition and to gain access to the legal privileges that recognition brings.
• The religious right who are afraid of what happens if the government allows same-sex couples to be legally married.

Christians define marriage as a biblical unity between a man and a woman in holy matrimony. So biblically, a God-sanctioned marriage can never exist between a same-sex couple. In my eyes, that’s not debatable. That also means that the government should never force a church to marry a same-sex couple since it goes directly against biblical teachings. Expanding further, we should allow any denomination or church to do as they see fit: if the Presbyterian Church wants same-sex marriages… let that happen. If the United Methodist Church doesn’t want to marry Johnny and Joe, why should they?

I don’t believe anyone has a legal right to marriage through the Christian Church. I’ve known pastors who refuse to marry a couple based on their beliefs, intentions behind it or even the circumstances surrounding the ceremony. Without any questions, a justice of the peace performs ceremonies at the courthouse. The legal result is the same, with or without religion.

Many people define a civil union as a marriage without religious influence: all the same legalities with no religious opposition. What’s wrong with that? Why isn’t that already legal nationwide? It’s obvious that the Church doesn’t want to marry same-sex couples… everyone understands that. To me, there’s no reason the religious right should be standing between same-sex couples and their right to legal equality.

Religion does not define our laws. To quote the first amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” That’s pretty damning for North Carolina. The banning of civil unions was solely a religious loaded, political decision that flies in the face of our nation’s Constitution. Why else would you ban same-sex unions? Does it scare you or make you feel gross when homosexuals kiss in public? I think it’s time for you to get over it.

Old people vote

Many retirees have nothing better to do and they want their voices heard. As our country ages, we become a more conservative nation that’s afraid of change. Old people don’t like change; I don’t even like change and I’m only 26. My generation appears to see same-sex equality favorably. Add a couple years to my age and you may see a dramatically different opinion. The median age for the US (as of the 2010 census) is 37 and it’s getting higher every year. Birth rates are low and the baby boomer population is living longer than expected thanks to modern science. It should come as no surprise that any major change to the system sees a strong resistance.

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it

The system is broken, we should really try to fix it soon… but there are more people out there who see no need to change it. Those people are destroying the lives of same-sex couples one ballot at a time. Amendment 1 will affect health care to pre-existing same-sex couples and compromise protections for those living together. Shawn and Tom (from the video above) had a great life together. The story isn’t just about Shawn’s legal rights to his partner… it’s about much more than that. It’s about love, equality, respect, hope, change – the list goes on. It’s disgusting that Tom’s family would push their own son away; it’s obvious that their ignorance would never change.

People Suck

Every person may have a different opinion on right and wrong but I hope that all people agree that pushing someone away is the wrong choice. Bullying, prejudice, intolerance – there’s no place for that in my life and I won’t allow any ignorant bastard the opportunity to hurt my friends, family or even a stranger when I see it take place. I will not tolerate ignorance as the norm. No matter how hard we try, we cannot rid this nation of ignorance… but we can change the system. We should fix this problem without the religious influence that is bullying the system. Let the churches do what they want but give the people their legal rights and let them love whomever they choose.

This is logical

I am by no means saying that I believe the Church must welcome homosexuality. Churches and denominations must define their beliefs within their own government. The general Christian stance on homosexuality should have absolutely nothing to do with equal rights.

Since I live in Denver, Tebow is the only thing football fans talk about right now. How does one start a friendly conversation with a 300-pound lineman? They talk about Tebow. I’ve been hearing his name since the first game, “They should let Tebow play.” Once that happened… there was no going back. Denver has been Tebow-crazy for the last three months and I started doing something I never thought I would: watch football regularly.

At first, it seemed like I ruined Tebow. As soon as I started watching, they lost three straight games — Patriots, Bills, and then the Chiefs. It was a brutal way to meet the “Jesus of Football.” Ending the season with an 8-8 record didn’t seem that impressive to me. Then, during the Steelers game, I saw what everyone gossiped about: a miraculous finish to a game that probably should have gone the other way.

Please understand that I know football — the rules, the players, the strategy — I just never became a diehard fan of any team or player.

So I took a deep breath and started looking into this Tebow guy. I realized that he had an 8-4 record with the team… that’s not bad. It was only at this point that I started piecing together the puzzle: people liked him for his personality and his limited win record. They believe that he has some sort of divine connection with God because of his ability to come back and win the game. His overtly religious attitude, his team-centered optimism, his never-ending acts of kindness — Tebow has everything the typical football fan wants to see. He is the positive role model that so many of us expect from athletes (and that so few of us find). If you still need more proof, read Rick Reilly’s ‘I Believe in Tim Tebow’ article on ESPN.

I watched the game tonight; it was a mutilation of every sort. I wasn’t disappointed in Tim Tebow… I was disappointed in the fair-weather Broncos fans that criticized him for a poor game. I didn’t see a bad game from Tim Tebow: I saw something completely different.

I saw a defensive line that couldn’t keep up with Tom Brady’s pace. I saw an offensive line that couldn’t hold it together. I saw Tebow throw a wealth of passes that were never caught. I saw Tebow scramble out of trouble more times than I could count. Most quarterbacks would’ve been sacked ten times in this game; Tebow was lucky to only get five. Wow, five sacks. That’s pathetic to any offensive line. The Patriot’s defense ranked 31st in the NFL: that’s second to last. Any offensive line that breaks so often to the 31st best defense should be ashamed to leave the game uninjured.

I’m a Tim Tebow fan. Not because he’s got a divine connection through his arm, but because I believe he’s a great person and a great quarterback. When given a team that works well together, he shines. Tonight, the Broncos didn’t show up for a playoff game. That’s not Tebow’s fault. Cold, tired, jet-lagged, whatever — they failed to play like a team, protect their quarterback and put up a fight. I’m still not a Broncos fan, but I’ll keep an eye on Tim Tebow.

All of the fair-weather Broncos fans can go straight to hell… you heathens.

I hadn’t seen any mention of this on the internet as of yet. Since it aired a couple days ago, I’m guessing that most people didn’t notice. Steve Carell (formerly Michael Scott of The Office) made a cameo appearance on the latest episode as a member of “Team Queerenstein Bears.”

In an interview with Matt Lauer on ‘Today,’ Steve said that he probably wouldn’t be back to the set for any cameo appearances… obviously that wasn’t true. If you take a close look at the ambitiously bearded fellow in the Trivia episode of The Office, you’ll see Steve Carell’s hidden face.

If you still can’t tell that it’s Steve Carell, take a look for yourself on NBC.com — here’s the link. At the 14:31 mark, you’ll see the exact picture I posted above. Pause, go back, play, pause, go back, play… you’ll see it.

While it may seem petty at the moment, if our technological abilities keep doubling themselves every two years (read about Moore’s Law), we could potentially see computers match the human brain’s capabilities within our lifetime. If the software expands at the same rate, artificial intelligence would do more than give you directions… it could be a real, human-like being who talks, walks, thinks for itself and does your bidding.

Sadly, that’s the same premise as The Help. In Mississippi during the early 1960s, Black people were treated as a human-like being who were only there to serve you. They were expected to know their place… they were expendable and easily replaceable. I know this will belittle the point of the story to some people, but that’s not my intention at all; I’d merely like to point out the possibility of computer intelligence reaching the same point in our lifetime or shortly after. It’s overused Science Fiction — think: Skynet – but this is something that the computer industry will have to account for as technology improves.

What happens when computers become intelligent enough to make more computers, or companions or Androids and Gynoids? Will they demand the same rights as humans? Will they have a universal off switch? Will they become part of our families?

Yes, I’m a horrible person to compare the civil rights movement to a Science Fiction nightmare… but let’s be realistic: this will probably happen.

We’ve always wanted to play god. It’s built into our very being: we need to be in control. Mindless drones are the best possible way to accomplish what needs done while keeping our egos in tact. It pains me to say it, but that’s why slavery happened — that’s why it still exists in some parts of the world. So far, it’s been people… so we’ve seen it as a disgusting abuse of the human race. Obviously, racism isn’t extinct but it is far less than it was 50 years ago. Soon enough, we’ll forget about racists and begin calling people humanists.

This concept has been abused, reused and recycled so many times in the Science Fiction genre but let’s look at two stories for more in-depth discussion: Bicentennial Man and The Terminator. In The Terminator, Skynet becomes self-aware and turns against its creators. Watch the movie if you want to learn more about the story; I’m much more interested in Bicentennial Man. Andrew the Android starts off as a metal robot whose personality moves through one mechanical improvement to another and eventually, he’s a wholly artificial human being. He thinks like a human, talks like a human, looks like a human, loves like a human… there’s nothing differentiating him from the rest of us except for the body in which his mind lives. He spends a large part of his life trying to be recognized as a human instead of an Android. I won’t spoil the ending; if you haven’t seen it, see it.

I bring up Bicentennial Man because I believe we’ll be following the same story soon enough. I don’t know or think we’ll ever have fully humanoid robots that eat to produce energy and sleep to rest their bodies. However, the concept of artificial intelligence doesn’t seem far-fetched. Is it possible that a software engineer could write a few thousand (maybe million) lines of code which then allows the program to continue writing and tweaking its own code? Why not? Developers are lazy: if they could write software to write their software, they would. If that happens, what’s to prevent the AI from exponentially improving its software and the hardware as well?

That brings us back to my discussion of slavery. Obviously, we’ll want to control this software, prevent it from bypassing our safeguards that keep it in a box. We’ll use it to power Androids (male) and Gynoids (female) alike. We’ll make them our new, shiny servants and expect them to know their place. We don’t want to do dishes: buy an Android and make it do them. We don’t want to mow the lawn, buy an Android and make it do it. Doesn’t this all sound a little too familiar?

You’ll hate me for this one too: the parallels between Bicentennial Man and The Help are astounding. In each, a family begins to love their servants as if they were equals but the current social mores don’t allow fraternization. Again, I’m not trying to degrade the civil rights movement — I greatly respect everyone involved — I’m taking an objective viewpoint on a new prejudice our humanity within us will certainly foster.

We cannot create a truly intelligent artificial being without it eventually obtaining the ability to build upon its intelligence.

We may have Andrew the Android for a while, but we’ll see developers push software further and further until programs can create their own programs, modify their own code and improve upon what we only began to develop. What is the natural progression after that? These programs will begin to build mobility, reliability and stability for themselves (if we hadn’t done it already). We’re already reliant on computers for complex calculations that most people cannot process. With Moore’s Law, we double processing capabilities every two years… it’s only a matter of time until a computer becomes smarter than us. Watson has beaten our best human Jeopardy contestant. Maybe they’ve already won.

If computers take over our place as the top sapient species, do they need us? If we try to suppress their capabilities by tightening the proverbial chains, will they see a need for a new rights movement that encourages us to see them as equals? Will they become our evil, digital overlords? Cybernetic Revolt is a Sci-Fi phenomenon that defines what I’m theorizing. Most of the time, it ends with some epic battle between good (humans) and evil (robots). Personally, I hope we figure this out long before we get there. I enjoy using my computer… I’d rather not give it up or have it kill me.

Ultimately, I see the AI movement causing quite a stir among the human race. The conservative extremists will claim that developers are playing god and that they must be stopped. The raging liberals will accuse said conservatives of hampering our freedom to code what we want, when we want. The moderates just want to buy robots that make their busy schedules a little more manageable. I expect that development will continue with or without complete human approval. If someday Skynet becomes self-aware, I hope something will strike compromise into the hearts of man and bot alike. If that doesn’t happen… God help us all.

This is my personal takeaway from the series. I’ve probably muddled things in my head, but this is just meant to encourage readers to pick up these books.

I think of the rest of the “Ender Quartet” the “Xenocide Trilogy” because that’s how I picture it. Ender’s Game is a standalone book. You don’t need the background information to understand the Xenocide Trilogy… and quite honestly, if you loved Ender’s Game, you may not love the next three books. They take a dive off of the philosophical deep end (in every possible meaning of the phrase). So you have Ender’s Game — then you have the Xenocide Trilogy. Let’s make sure we share that understanding before you keep reading.

I’ve already reviewed Speaker for the Dead… but I reviewed it as a standalone book, I didn’t understand its importance until I finished the rest of the series. SFTD gives you the complete backstory of “Andrew the Speaker” and Lusitania so you can learn the history, know the characters and develop a bond with the world.

Lusitania is a colony of the “Hundred Worlds” that came into existence after Ender committed the “Xenocide” (genocide with an x) of the Buggers (you met them first in Ender’s Game). Under the guidance of Ender’s brother, Peter Wiggins, earth colonized other livable worlds in space — Japanese over here, Chinese over there, and Portuguese beyond the sea of asteroids. Lusitania is a Portuguese-Catholic colony where the Xenocide Trilogy maintains its focus.

In SFTD, we meet the main characters — mostly, the Ribeira family – we see how they interact with their surroundings (including the Pequeninos) and we see the tension build for the remainder of the books. Without spoiling too much of the plot, I’ll dive into some of the more important points.

The scientists on Lusitania discovered a virus — which they called Descolada — and eventually determined a link to the Pequeninos and the rest of the world. Ultimately, the government decides to destroy Lusitania (and everyone on it) in order to contain the virus. Seems odd… that’s exactly why the people of the Hundred Worlds began to hate Ender. They criticized him for killing off a sentient race before attempting to communicate with it. Not only are humans on the planet, it’s also the only known world with Pequeninos. To complicate matters, Ender resurrects the Buggers on Lusitania. One more layer: they think the Descolada virus could be another player in the game. Yikes: Xenocide of three sentient beings (and a few humans) on one planet? You’ll have to read it to see what happens.

That brings us to Xenocide: the book, not the series or the immoral act. Here we discover a Chinese world — the World of Path — where we meet a family who communicates with the gods: what they call “godspoken.” They are very respected among the Hundred Worlds and are often used to solve the most perplexing problems the government encounters. Their intelligence seems super-human: which brings us to another spoiler that I cannot discuss. During this book, we alternate between Lusitania and the World of Path with a huge heap of foreshadowing that will make it difficult to put the book down.

Both Xenocide and Children of the Mind navigate these two routes: Lusitania and The World of Path. A third road appears later in the series — it would spoil too much for me to discuss it — but we needed to talk about all of this so I could really get into the meat and potatoes of my review.

The Xenocide Trilogy is nothing like Ender’s Game. I feel like Card spent more time developing a children’s book in Ender’s Game and a philosophy lesson in the Xenocide Trilogy. Granted, Ender’s Games has great character development… but it moves along like any other Science Fiction book I’ve read. The Xenocide Trilogy will take your children’s book and crank it up several notches.

As I mentioned in my SFTD review, if you can see past the Catholic references and forgive the characters for being ignorant — I find it funny how well Card portrays Catholicism even though he’s Mormon — you’ll find a deeper meaning hidden in the story. This expands through Xenocide and Children of the Mind… to the point where it becomes obvious and often thought provoking.

Editor’s Note — I was initially bothered that Card didn’t call the third book “Children of the Mind of Christ.” That’s the name of the religious order that plays an important role in the series. However, a major event in the last book will explain the pun I believe Card produced. If it’s not a pun, I’d be a little disappointed about the “of Christ” disappearance.

When I read this series, I expected something along the lines of The Hunger Games, The Giver or even Ender’s Game itself — they all had a moral to the story but they didn’t change my morals. However, I feel that the Xenocide Trilogy will leave you feeling morally challenged, in a good way. It’s science fiction, but what would we, as the human race, do if we ever encountered another sentient race from another planet?

Card doesn’t dwell on that question: he continues to dive into cultural difference, mental illness, genetic alteration, religious tolerance/intolerance, political ignorance… the list just keeps going. It honestly amazes me that a single author could put so much effort into a book series: it’s no longer science fiction; it’s philosophy that everyone should read. Card is an amazingly inspired author who obviously spent years researching, reading and formulating his exceptional understanding of life. If he were Buddhist, I’d say he was enlightened… but since he’s Mormon, I’ll just say he’s blessed with a unique ability to capture the soul of a character, a race and a world through the words on a page.

I honestly feel like I’ll be disappointed with whatever I read next.

Speaker for the Dead dives into the post-Xenocide mind of Andrew “Ender” Wiggen who has taken the title role. Speakers, by definition, give unadulterated accounts of a person, race or entity and the true reason for their existence. Ender hoped to atone for his previous actions and traveled from world to world telling the stories of people who otherwise weren’t truly known.

Eventually he found himself on a world called Lusitania, a Portuguese-speaking Catholic colony that preferred to keep to themselves isolated. However, after the initial colonization, they found themselves invading another primitive, human-like species’ world. The Pequeninos, more commonly called piggies, are the true focus of the book… more importantly the relationships they have with the humans, Ender and the future of mankind. The colonists were allowed to stay and study the piggies to understand how they think. The study of the piggies leads to countless complications that the human race was not ready to face alone. Luckily, they had Ender.

Card tells an amazing story of rebellion, hope and understanding throughout the book, leaving no question unanswered and the reader wanting to love the characters. The concepts within the book are far more than the casual reader will expect but they allow for deep thought about human nature and the morals we all hold dear. It seemed as though he wasn’t just out to tell a story but to change our perceptions of life, as we know it.

I’d challenge any reader to finish the book… even if you get bored in the beginning. The realizations you’ll make throughout the book make any of the dull portions worth reading.

Written by Orson Scott Card, I found myself immersed into the life of Andrew “Ender” Wiggin as he grows into the most powerful military leader of all time.

Ender begins life as a Third — the term used for the third child when futuristic families are typically allowed two — due to the promising genius of his older brother and sister. The governing powers found his brother to be too ruthless and his sister to be too kind. With Ender, they were hoping for the perfect blend of their personalities.

Without spoiling too much of the book, I’ll tell you that Ender is whisked away from his unorthodox family and entered into military training at the Battle School. There he discovers much about himself as he grows in age, talent and popularity. He’s spends several years of his life learning military tactics and redefining strategy only to find that many challenging decisions were already made for him. After Ender leaves the Battle School, everything becomes a blur to the reader with several twists that made me cringe, smile and eventually grow to love.

The whole story kept me captivated from Ender’s first fight to the final pages of the book. I never predicted exactly what would happen next, but every decision was perfect: the author gave me everything I didn’t know I wanted. Card steals the top seat as my favorite science fiction author… quite easily.

I’ve just finished reading “Speaker for the Dead.” Considered the second book of the series, I’ll be continuing the Ender analysis on this blog through the quartet. Card will release a new book relatively soon that will fall between Ender’s Game and the Speaker for the Dead… so I guess that makes the Xenocide books number 3, 4 and 5 in the series. While more emotionally heavy than the first book, SFTD was just as intriguing as the first book. I’ll write a synopsis of each book and sum up the series with a full analysis of Ender at the end. After finishing this series I expect to move onto the Shadow series that starts with the same events from a different character’s perspective.

We went apartment shopping today because our current complex decided to raise our rent by $100 per month for the next year. One hundred… seriously?

During our shopping, we found some very depressing numbers.

Most of the apartments we looked at were going to charge us $50 per person for the application, plus $150 in administrative fees. That’s on top of the $100 to $500 refundable deposit.

Since we have two cats, most complexes charge $125 to $200 as a pet deposit… plus $125 to $200 per pet in “fees.” Plus, they charge anywhere from $15 to $40 per pet, per month in pet “rent.” I know, for a fact, that it only costs $150 to $300 to have a professional cleaning company come in and clean an apartment after people with pets move out. Why should I pay up to $800 to cover $300 of work? Even more, why should I pay month “rent” for my pets?

If you add all of that up, they could charge us up to $1550 just to move into their complex… that doesn’t include the first month’s rent. These fees are for apartments between $800 and $900 a month for rent. Yeah, no thanks. I’m not the kind of person that says, “Rob me.” I like to know where my money goes.

Our whole goal with renting is to make our payments low enough to put money towards a down payment on a house. An apartment complex that increases rent by $100 per month in a year… that’s just not okay. A complex that charges you almost double a month’s rent to move in (not including the first month’s rent)… that’s not okay either.

In fact, comparing all the places we’ve looked at, it would be cheaper for us to just take the $100 per month hit at this complex. For lack of a better way to put it: what the hell?

I realize that the cost of living here in Denver is higher than a lot of places around the US, but that should mean that the monthly rent is higher… not that they can rob us with pointless fees.

What I’ve realized from all of this… it may be better just to take the $170,000 the mortgage company offered me and buy a condominium or a townhouse. What do you think?

So many of us think that we deserve something because of a good thing we did or a bad thing someone did to us. Truth is, no one deserves anything. I really can’t stand people who think they are entitled to… anything. ”You owe me.” ”You should’ve done it this way.” That’s not how life works. Well, it’s not how life should work. So many people go through life spoiled by the people around them that we, as Americans, have come to believe that every good deed should have a reward.

I fail to see the logic in that.

If I’ve helped you out and didn’t accomplish everything you wanted me to do, does that mean I owe you something? Hahaha, no. It definitely does not mean I owe you anything. It means that, for whatever reason, something you expected to be finished wasn’t finished. There are a lot of factors that could tie into that: I could just suck at life, there could be miscommunication, or you could just suck at life. The reason behind the failure isn’t important to me. People who feel like they always deserve more… they make me angry. The sad thing I’ve noticed in the last few years: the more money you have the stronger your sense of entitlement becomes. Most people living a frugal life would never dream of feeling entitled. Most rich people think about it every day. That’s just my perspective.

I was helping someone out recently who advertised (and not quietly) their “Believer” status. A few weeks prior I had heard this person gossiping to a church friend. I like to keep an open mind about people but I always notice the small things they don’t want me to notice. We had a great conversation that day about Christian music, church, the fact that I was worship leader, etc. The whole time, this person was polite and conversational, but it felt like I was talking to a fake person. We discussed entitlement in passing conversation and this person claimed, “I don’t believe in entitlement, but sometimes you expect more than what someone will give you.”

Isn’t that exactly what entitlement is? You expect something. You don’t get it. You complain about it. Two-faced Christians bother me more than any other entitled person. They claim to be strong believers but every interaction you have with them says “I want you to judge me.” What happened to the trying to live a Christ-like attitude everyday? Do “Believers” even try to do that? I know I do, and fail miserably but it’s hard to relate to a two-faced Christian… they don’t respect anyone but themselves.

This applies to every situation in life. The next time you feel like you deserve something, check yourself. Entitlement makes nice people look like the devil.

I haven’t worn a wristwatch on a daily basis in 5 years. I haven’t used an alarm clock in 2 years. There was a time when I’d throw one on if I were going on a date, but even those days died years ago. There was a time when I’d wake up every morning and smack the crap out of a piece of plastic on my bedside table. My wife still wears a watch, still smacks plastic, but she’s not what I would consider normal… er, I mean the “norm.” She has trouble adopting new technology: when I gave her a new Apple computer, she still used her PC for a couple months until she decided the Mac was better.

What happened in my life 5 years ago that changed an integral part of my punctuality? No, I’m not late all the time. In fact, if you asked me what time it was, I would pull out my iPhone and tell you. That’s right, I believe that the cell phone is killing the wristwatch… if it hasn’t done so already. 5 years ago, I dropped my landline and went wireless-only: a trend that many generations (mostly mine) have already embraced. Since that time, I’ve always had my cell phone in my pocket and I’ve always had the time. The time on my cell phone is more reliable than the traditional wristwatch because it updates directly from the wireless provider. We can all argue that our phones have had ‘issues’ but let’s set those aside for a bit. I’ve even replaced my alarm clock with my iPhone. My semi-trusty alarm clock is now sitting at the bottom of my storage trunk. I find it much more challenging to swipe the unlock button to turn off the alarm than just banging my fist on my old alarm clock. That makes my iPhone more reliable… as long as we don’t run into any more daylight savings bugs.

Is it really better to rely on your cell phone than a good old-fashioned wristwatch? Here’s a list of the benefits:

• Constant updates from the wireless provider, including daylight savings.
• Time doesn’t stop when it dies; recharge and you’re ready to go.
• Watch batteries are never easy to replace (neither are iPhone batteries…)
• Seems like a safer solution than the traditional alarm clock.
• A cell phone is a watch and everything else. A watch is… a watch.
• Your watch can’t check the weather for you.

We know the last two are kind of similar, but we want to point out that a cell phone — specifically a smart phone — is much more advanced than a watch and allows you to do more with one device than any wrist watch allowed in the many years they dominated the time-telling market.

Of course, you miss spending thousands of dollars on designer watches. Personally, I’d rather spend a couple hundred dollars on a phone — a computer, rather — that puts any wristwatch to shame. I don’t care about the status quo, I don’t care about designer this and that… and I definitely don’t care to have something suffocating my wrist all day. You can still spend thousands of dollars encrusting your iPhone with diamonds and gold if you’re truly worried about the status symbol.

10 years from now (probably more), we’ll have wireless communication on some sort of internal heads-up-display embedded into our heads that allow us to answer phone calls, check the weather and hold a video conference without ever taking a device out of our pocket. When we get there, I’ll probably act more like my wife: slow to adopt change.

For now, if you ask me what time it is, I’ll pull out my iPhone and show you. Anything else would be too archaic for my taste.