I don’t think I’ve ever been late for work simply because I “slept in.” Until this morning, that is. The first thing that I noticed on waking was the amount of sunshine poking through the slats of the blinds. Something wasn’t right. Grabbing for my cellphone on the windowsill, the clock said 8:45am. Crap… somehow I missed the alarm. At first, I jumped out of bed in a rush, flying around the room. Then I realized, there’s no reason to rush. I took my shower, did my morning hygiene stuff, emptied the cat’s litter and took off. Getting to work at 9:30am sure makes the day more tolerable. Maybe I’ll make that my regular thing.
The tissue-paper toilet seat guards hanging above the commode at work are called “Life Guard.” Is my life really at stake here?
I don’t know if anyone actually ever notices whats on rotation in my Winamp over there in the sidebar – but if so, you may have noticed I’ve been listening to some different stuff the last couple days. Old NIN? Skinny Puppy? What the hell is all that? I don’t care what people say about Skinny Puppy, Rabies and Too Dark Park were landmark albums during my brief industrial phase. Along with NIN, Frontline Assembly, Nitzer Ebb, and of course Ministry… they sustained the dark, gritty, beatlust that my 10th grade ears so craved. I can remember one brief embarrassing month (maybe not even a full month, who knows) where my standard-issue uniform consisted of shin-length black shorts, black socks, black steel-toed shoes, and black t-shirts. It’s a wonder I didn’t wear eyeliner and dye my hair. I guess sunlight-blocking visqueen velcroed to my windows and patchouli incense isn’t too far off.
After my rant yesterday about my wireless woes, I decided to try another brick-and-mortar store today to see if I’d have different results (y’know, kinda like getting a second doctor’s opinion or something). While the 2nd store did have some more promising Cingular rate plans, they still couldn’t look the other way on the $18 migration fee. So on a suggestion from a friend at work and as a last resort, I called the sales department. Turns out, I was able to negotiate a killer deal over the phone with their corporate sales department (previously, with AT&T, we got some decent discounts through work, and some apparently carried over to Cingular). In the end, I scored two Nokia 6230s (one for me and one for the Mrs.) for $150, what they wanted to charge me for a single phone in-store. On top of that, our monthly rate when down by a buck under the new Cingular plan, and we got 100 additional minutes plus rollover. Not bad.
The new phone is what I’m excited about though. Not only is it slightly smaller than my current phone, it’s got camera and video functionality (a first for me, as I’ve always valued the reception over the frills). In addition, it’s got a built-in MP3 player. The really cool thing though, is that both the camera and MP3 player utilize memory on a removable MMC (multimedia card) – and you can currently get them in 2GB sizes (and I was just there, I wish I’d known). That means, in addition to my first video/camera phone I’ve also just scored a 2GB portable MP3 player. Nokia touts a 10hr battery life for MP3 playback, but extra batteries are only $20… so I could always buy a backup for long trips if I find the actual performance to be less. The only slightly-less-than-awesome thing I could find to pick on is the fact that the camera is only 640×480, whereas some of the more recent phones have 1MP+ offerings.
Goodnite.
Also written on this day...
- rideshare culture - 2019
- at least it's better than falafel balls - 2009
- party's over - 2008
- my baby is yellow - 2006
- no diving - 2004