As I sat in line outside of the Stonestown mall in San Francisco Friday evening, waiting to purchase the brand new iPhone 3G, I couldn't help but take a step back and look at myself from a 3rd person perspective. I thought of what I would think of myself if I were 5-6 years younger, back in the days when I was in a punk band and whatnot. I would definitely think my current self was a big tard. I've grown into a huge, flourishing nerd and that's OK.

I've never waited in a huge line for anything, not for new Nike shoes, not for an XBox or a Wii, nothing. So this was a first, and probably a last for me. I got in line at around 7pm and I was thinking, "If this line moves along nicely, I'll stay, otherwise I'm getting the hell out of here." We had tried going to the AT&T store by our house about 15 minutes before the store opened that morning. We waited til about 15 minutes after it opened, with no line movement with the 200+ person line, and left. After standing in line at Stonestown for about 15 minutes, I was told by a friendly Apple Store employee that I was the very last person that was going to receive an iPhone that night, and I was now accompanied by a security guard that was going to make sure of it. It was a sign, and I had to stay now! I was the chosen one!

The most entertaining and sad part of the night was all of the people who just couldn't believe the line was closed. It's truly amazing how selfish people can be! Apple Store employees are human after all, and need to go home—don't they? There must have been a good 50+ people who came and argued with the security guard and/or the Apple employees monitoring the line, things like: "But I called ahead and they told me to come down and it was only an hour wait", "But I drove here all the way from the northern part of the city (for any non-San Franciscans, that's a grueling 8.5 minute drive)", etc. I mean it's just a phone. And everyone who was complaining followed their complaint session with a cell phone call (a good 90% of whom made their calls with 1st gen. iPhones) to bitch to their friends about it, so it's not like they were in dire need of the phone.

You might be thinking, "Well Chris, you were waiting in the gigantor line, so you're as pathetic as those complaining people". No dude. I was the chosen one. And if they had told me the line was closed, I simply would have left and gone to eat at Chevy's, which was conveniently located within about 60 feet of the line. They have this really good corn stuff and Dos Equis Amber, mmm.

So we waited until 10:30pm, when we were about 15 people from the front of the line they announced, "Sorry folks, the AT&T servers are completely down". Lots of cursing, ooh-ing and aww-ing ensued, but thankfully they gave us front-of-the-line vouchers to use the next day. Woohoo! While waiting for our vouchers, me and the wife manage to thwart a few would-be line-dropper-inners who tried to grab the goods without waiting the 3.5 hours. Hi 5, wife.

So Saturday we took a nice leisurely morning, headed back to the Apple store around 12:30 and got right in line with about 5 people ahead of us and got our phones, woohoo! I have to say the iPhone is pretty amazing, and with all of the new apps, so very useful and fun! I've always resisted getting a Twitter account because it's just never seemed interesting to me, but as a result of my iPhone and the Twitterific app, I am now the nerdy owner of a spankin new Twitter account.

I'm not sure if it's because I'm already a Mac user, but it's crazy how easy and intuitive it is to use. Within hours of using it, I already felt like a pro. The one tricky part is the keyboard, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I've already got the AIM app, Loopt, Twitterific, and I'm going to give Evernote a try since it has an app, and I've heard such good things about it from TUAW. Anyone else get a new iPhone? Any new apps that are rockin your world?

On an entirely unrelated note (or two), Juan stayed with us for the week and stole our toothpaste upon departure. We all went to Phil's (another fellow Cubano) wedding last Sunday, which was beautiful and awesome. We had the most delicious tacos in the world on Friday at La Taqueria, and it was bitter-sweet without Phil around. Normally we all do 2 tacos without going into a food coma but Phil always challenges us to a 3rd. He's usually the only one who accepts the challenge. He's in Jamaica with his lady, rockin' the ganj and getting dreadlocks. That's all for now folks, talk to you soon!