Well it looks like I won’t be getting an iPhone until 2010 at least. I can only hope that in the meantime Apple continues to improve that thing if for nothing else than to put Motorola out of business. This shouldn’t be too much of a task given some of what I’ve read about Moto recently. Motorola makes decent phones and at one time they made great phones, but their glory days are in the past. My phone for the past two years has been a Razr. My phone for the next two years will also be a Razr. And why would one get the same exact phone? Sit down a spell and let me tell you.
Back in 2006 when I originally decided on getting a Razr, they were still relatively great phones compared to most of what was out there. I won’t go into the sordid details of what all happened in my attempt to get one. Suffice it to say that it involved 2 different phones, 2 different service providers, and used up part of my 4th of July vacation. Interesting that today I get invitations to a 4th of July get together. Anyways, my Razr has been a good phone for the duration of the time I’ve had it. Up until yesterday that is. Yesterday it decided it no longer wanted to turn on.
Now since I don’t have a significant other/spouse with a cell phone and this is my only type of phone, this presented a slight problem for me. So after work today I went by the Alltel store to see what they could do to help me out. Sadly I knew the outcome of this going in, but it didn’t make things any better. I showed it to the guy there and told him what was up. He takes it in the back then returns a few minutes later trying to find an extra battery. Apparently Alltel does not keep any extra batteries on hand for folks. I thought about the fact that surely they had an open box one in the back somewhere. After not finding a battery he asks me to come over to his desk and he pulls up my account. Of course because I didn’t get the phone insurance they can’t do anything about it, but I’m in luck because I can get the upgrade discount…if I sign a new contract. Begrudgingly I go over and take a look at the phones they have for sale. I really didn’t want to spend very much on a new phone. Too bad even the crappy ones cost over $100 without the discounts or I would have sprung for one of those for the time being. They had some relatively cheap Blackberry Pearls, but it appeared the cheapest plan for those is twice what mine is now. If I’m going to pay that much for a plan, it’s going to be for use with an iPhone. In the end I just decided to stick with the Razr. It was fairly cheap and I wouldn’t have to change my plan. I didn’t really notice it while I was in the store, but thinking back I don’t recall seeing any Nokia phones there today. What’s up with that Alltel?
Thankfully the guy helping me had disappeared into the back where he wouldn’t return from for like half an hour because nothing is more exciting than standing around in the Alltel store completely bored. Finally Count Slapula came back from wherever he was and got to sell me a new phone. He seemed a little disappointed in my choice of the now cheap Razr. I don’t know if they get commissions or anything, but I hope not because he did nothing to earn his. If he really wants one, he should go work for AT&T. $199 iPhone 3G…suck on it Alltel. I digress. He gets out the new Razr and decides to try its battery in my old phone. Lo and behold that thing fired up. It apparently cut off again, though. That or David Copperfield trying to get his sale just made it look that way. Not wanting to deal with it anymore and run the risk of the thing crapping out again I stayed the course and got my new phone and contract. As much as I loathe the idea of it, I even went for the phone insurance so when this one bites it less than a month before freedom I can get it replaced.
When I got home I swapped the batteries again to hopefully get the old one fired up long enough to get my contact numbers off of it. One plus for the new phone is that it works great with iSync. Typing on this new keyboard is way better than entering in all that info using the phone’s keypad. There you have it. Meet the new phone, same as the old phone (mostly). The best part about all this? The fact that the old phone with it’s original battery fires up at will once again. Seriously.
Many of you have heard me speak of Youngsville. This is where my mom’s side of the family grew up and where her sister and youngest brother still live. This weekend her other two brothers and their wives came to visit so we had dinner out there Friday night and lunch on Sunday. There was also a family reunion on Saturday, but I had no intention of going to that.
Well my Aunt Shirley and Uncle Wesley live at the end of this dirt road. His parents used to live just up the dirt road from them, but have since passed away and now their daughter Angie lives in that house. Their other daughter Vickie and her husband Tim recently built a house in between the other two on the opposite side of the road. Besides the houses, though, all that is around them is woods, a pond, and some fields which they let people grow vegetables in.
After dinner on Friday night, I was leaving to go meet some folks to see The Happening, and as I was driving down the dirt road in the dark I saw three deer on the side of the road which then proceeded to cross in front of me. Nothing scary or tragic about it. I was going slow and they were well in front of me. Sunday afternoon on my way out there going down the dirt road, I saw two more deer up ahead in the field who took off across the road in front of me. Deer are funny when they run. It looks more like they’re bouncing than actually running. At least that’s how these looked.
This isn’t the first time I’ve been out there and seen deer on the road. As somewhat remote as it is, the chances are actually fairly good for a sighting. It is still kind of an interesting and moderately awe inspiring thing to see. Maybe because they’re probably the largest wild animal I’ve ever really seen out and about.
Okay, so it’s technically not my birthday until next Sunday (the 22nd), but I decided to start the festivities a little early by going ahead and getting a birthday present for myself. And what did I get? A new iMac. Yes, after 9 years old Pimp Suave has been moved to the other end of the desk to make way for a newer machine. I’m sure the first thought from some of you is “It’s about time!” I knew it probably had to happen sometime this year, I just wasn’t sure when. Thankfully one of the advantages of being busy at work means getting overtime and therefore some extra money. I figured I could wait longer or just go ahead and do it. I decided on the latter since in the end it all comes out about the same. The other thing that helped push me over the edge was that my faithful HP printer decided to bite the dust last weekend. Now I needed a new printer, and Apple usually has a deal where you can get a rebate back on one with the purchase of a new computer, so that helped make the decision a little easier. And for those wondering, I got the 24″ 3.06Ghz model.
I think I confused the sales people at the Apple Store a little. I walked to the back and told the girl I wanted to buy a computer. She called one of their personal shoppers over to assist me. I’m guessing they’re probably used to people coming in there and not really knowing what they want because he looked slightly stunned when I rattled off the exact specs of the machine I wanted. It was that look where it seemed like he was ready to go into sales mode to help find me the right machine and then wasn’t ready to switch gears quite so fast.
If anyone is looking for a good used scanner, I have one available for sale since my new printer scans and copies as well. Also the HP printer may be fixable if anyone wants it as well.
Posted by: jon b. in Music
I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time now, but I think my iTunes is psychic. On any number of occasions I have thought about or been reading about a band and some time in the next day, a song by that band will come on. Probably the weirdest time it happened was when I was reading an article on the lead singer of Boston’s death and Boston came on while I was reading it! Now to some extent maybe iTunes operates in a similar fashion to Gmail where it can gather info while I’m computing away and pick something from my collection that I’m interested in at the moment. This wouldn’t surprise me much. It doesn’t always happen after I’ve been looking at stuff online, though. Sometimes, it will happen after I’ve thought about or talked about a band recently. I wouldn’t even find this to be quite as odd if it weren’t for the fact that iTunes has roughly 18000 songs to choose from and the fact that it seems to have it’s personal favorite bands that it plays fairly frequently. So when it throws in something a bit more obscure that I just happened to have been thinking about or discussing with someone, it just seems bizarre.
I’ve come to a lot of random conclusions lately. One of these is that the DVR is the credit card of TV recording devices. Given that train of thought, I’ll add that the VCR is probably it’s cash equivalent. I got my VCR about 8 years ago or so when I moved into my first apartment after college and didn’t have a roommate to provide one. Since then, most people I know have moved onto using the DVR. I, however, have not. My VCR still runs just fine, so I can’t really justify the extra cost. It’s also because I don’t watch a whole lot of TV, and would kind of like to keep it that way. I’ve noticed that people with DVRs record what seems to be just about every show that comes on TV. I suppose if you can record more than one thing at a time, why not?
DVRs apparently have any number of options which make it easy to make sure you get your shows recorded. No more of this having to remember when things come on and whether they’re new or not. Hence my analogy to the credit card. The DVR makes recording super easy just like a credit card makes buying things super easy. Of course then you get the bill only to see that you’ve spent a lot more than you probably should have. I think the same applies for the DVR. People end up watching a whole bunch of stuff they probably wouldn’t have under other circumstances. When you have to sit down and program in each time something needs to be recorded, it makes it a lot easier to see that you’re watching a whole lot of shows. Kind of like watching the amount in your bank account dwindle down as you take out cash or write a check.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the DVR or watching a lot of shows for that matter. Some day I’ll get one after the VCR kicks the bucket, but until then I’m happy with my 1-2 shows a night and my TV on DVD.