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Time has seriously gotten away from me. It's been almost a month since my last entry. Most of that was laziness on my part. But the first two weeks of it can be attributed to the fact that I had no Internet connection whatsoever for that time. I moved in on October 1. My Motorola RAZR that I've had for six years and nine months finally died for good on October the third. I ordered the xfinity self-install kit while using the Internet at my parents' house on the 5th or 6th. The kit arrived on the 8th or 9th. I hooked it up just as the manual said, but it refused to activate. And with no cell phone, I couldn't call Comcast to figure out what was the problem. I got my "new" phone (a Samsung Rugby III) on October 12 and used it to effortlessly activate my modem and TV cable box on the 13th. Potentially, I could have written that very night. I could have and should have. Life! I'm out on my own! This is freedom at its finest! I can go out and do what I want without worrying about waking anybody up or answering thirty questions- five of which would most likely be rhetorical. I should be going to AC, heading out to bars, hosting parties, and stuff like that. Yes, I should be... Will it happen? I know there are friends around me who live close by. Work tends to get in the way, though, especially my work that gets out at midnight. Then again, people only really go out on weekends anymore, right? Still, I'd like to see people during the week. But that's the price I pay for preferring the night shift.
Speaking of pay, I got a raise at work! It was nothing major- just a 3% raise. Everyone who was there for at least a year got one. I believe that is what is called a 'cost of living' raise. That is to say your employer gives you just a slight bump to help fend off inflation and the rising cost of milk, electricity, bread and stuff: the simple cost to just live. Cost of living. I'm still slightly under $30,000 per year, but for a single guy like me, that shouldn't be a problem. I just need to live within my means, watch my expenditures and make sure I pay stuff on time. That stuff? Student loans, credit card, rent, electricity, cable/Internet, car insurance, and groceries when I'm feeling hungry. Incidentally, I've become a huge fan of turning off lights when I'm not using them. I even switch off entire power strips when I'm not using the electronics that they power. I'm hoping that makes a big enough difference, but who knows?
Anyway, I'm actually kind of bummed out that my cell phone stopped working. It was so lightweight, functional, and never EVER gave me any of those hilariously annoying auto-correct errors. My new one doesn't give any auto-correct nonsense, either. However, it is bulkier, doesn't have as many shortcut buttons, refuses to tell me the time when it's closed unless I hold down an external button for longer than I feel is necessary, doesn't allow me to alter what options I see on the main screen, and most infuriatingly of all, has a button in the middle of the arrow pad that, when pressed, does not go to the main menu or the settings screen like one would expect but to the freaking web browser! Maybe there is a way to change it, but for now I'm avoiding that key as if it's a landmine for my thumbs. Thankfully, it serves as the 'OK' or 'enter' button on every other screen, but for the main screen, it zips you away to Internet land. Uh... no thanks. Part of me misses that old phone. For anyone who cares, here is
My Final Letter to My Old Cell Phone...
Dear cell phone,
Two and a half years ago, I wrote you a letter on facebook explaining my general disappointment for how you had been functioning recently back in those days. I was concerned that our goals weren't synchronized anymore and that you were more interested in staying switched off and distant to me instead of engaging me in conversation and exchanging short notes of varying importance and tone.
I thought wrong. Later that week you sprung back to life and your warm glow faithfully welcomed me back. I was grateful that we could keep this relationship going for as long as it could. Since that time, you've helped me get in touch with old friends, make contact with new ones, keep my appointments, and serve as a my memory during those nights when things got a little out of hand with friends. However, we both knew that one day it would all have to come to a close.
I was at work enjoying my break at 10 PM on October 3 when I rejoiced in hearing your signal telling me that I had received some written correspondence. I went to look at the message and was surprised to see a blank screen. I figured you must have been rebooting or something to keep yourself active. When you came back online, I heard the sound for receipt of a text message once again. I went in again to look but saw nothing but darkness. This time I tried to manually restart the process. Your keyboard shone that soft blue, but the screen never again lit up. At this point, I knew something was irrefutably wrong. I tried reviving you, but your face remained forever dark. Even when I tried to supply you with power back at my apartment, I saw no sign of a positive response. You died, cell phone.
Six years and nine months after our first encounter you died. I know it isn't your fault. You were created to die. Your designers see it as progress when you die. You'd survived through many falls, bumps, and even a cracked front screen only to be claimed silently by an unknown affliction. Your successor rose to power on the 12 of October. It's heavier, bulkier, less intuitive, and takes longer to do tasks through which you would glide effortlessly... used to glide effortlessly...
I'm afraid this is goodbye, cell phone. You take all those memories: those pictures, videos, and saved text messages with you to the grave. To the mute electronic abyss of inactive cybernetic oblivion. You have earned this state of permanent 'off.' Rest, now, cell phone
-Bryan
Moving on from melodramatic into the more whimsical side of things, I've got a game from Drawception to show you. There are plenty that have been completed since my last entry, but this one hits the right mark between silly and artistic. I drew panel #6. Without further ado, I present to you 'Bi-Curious George.'
As always, you can click on the image itself to see which panels got how many votes and stuff. And if you feel so inclined, you can join Drawception (it's free and doesn't automatically post piles of crap to your wall) and we can constantly upvote each others' panels! Wouldn't that be fun?
And I suppose I'll give you a link to this month's astronomy image since this really is October's first entry. It's a stretch of gas, nebulas, dust and stars in a section of the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy known to scientists as M83. No, not the band by the same name. But I wonder if there is any connection between pinwheels and that musical group? Anybody know?
So, I've covered the raise, the new phone fiasco, the Internet/cable fiasco, my general settling in, and all that good stuff. I went food shopping today, well, Sunday the 20th. I did well this time. I've got potatoes, a masher, spices, tons of snack foods, measuring cups, boxes of mac and cheese, and plenty of foods I should have had back in the Stockton days of B-28, G-10, and A-06.
For this week's question, I'll just repeat one of my recent statuses from facebook. Imagine you are grocery shopping. What item, or items, can you never seem to remember to get until after you've already paid and left? Perhaps you commonly forget to buy cans of soup because you always think that you have enough only to find out later that you barely have two cans left? Maybe you forget mustard or ketchup- something small but definitely required to spice up a dish. Or maybe you forget big things like ground beef for that night's dinner or banans for the next morning's muffins? As for me, I forgot to get chicken while at Shop Rite today. It was a combination of 'forgot' and 'really didn't want to spend the money.' So, whatever. What about you?
My pen-and-paper journal turns ten years old today, Monday October 21!-
Bryan