(no subject)
Well, crap, I missed yesterday. So much for the every day in July thing. The major obstacle is at least four people, sometimes five, competing for one PC at home. We try to set timers, and I regularly kick everyone off if there's something important I need to do (like pay bills), but still, there's a lot of squabbling. I really need to set aside some money to get my laptop fixed - it's been sitting since last summer (or was it the summer before? It has Vista on it, that should be a clue), but there just hasn't been enough extra to have it done. Ha. I should know there is never anything extra, especially this year with three furlough days a month, and everything else that needs fixing.
Gadget news - Just got this new phone (only not blue), because somehow I lost my Kyocera Switchback the last time we went to Disneyland - which was a disaster for other reasons as well, and a subject for another post. Probably more than I should have paid, but it was on sale, and they no longer had any of the $10 phones - I had gotten one of those as a spare the last time I misplaced my phone, but now Dad uses it (sort of). It does have a much nicer screen, and Virgin Mobile has a new $25/mo. for 300 minutes/unlimited data access plan - a much better deal than the plan I was on (and which, of course, they can't bother telling me about, I have to find out from the signs at Target).
So I topped up my phone and switched the plan over, but then I get a text message telling me the new plan is going into effect in 4 days, and meanwhile, they've charged me for 2-10$ data packs. What?! Why on earth would I pay for data packs when I just signed up for unlimited usage?! Luckily, a phone call sorted it all out, but I never even clicked to buy any. That's not the first time that's happened either. Once I went to change from a $5 to a $10 pack, using the phone's interface, and VM charged me for both. It wouldn't have bothered me so much if they'd been additive, but buying the second cancels out the first, even if you didn't use any of it! Grrr. Anyway, it's a nice phone; has music and Bluetooth capability, surfs the web quite nicely, and has a decent keyboard. The only small botherations about it is, I have to re-buy the ringtones I was using - the ones the phone came with are awful, and they don't transfer from phone to phone - and I miss the Switchback's little coffin-falling-over-and-blood-coming-out-of-it graphic when a call ended. Kind of morbid, but it amused me. Also, there is no place to hang cell phone charms; it's kind of stupid, but I've gotten phones back in the past because of those kind of identifing tags on them. I suppose the Bluetooth is good, because I don't know how many times John & I have had a tiff because he tried to call me and I didn't answer because 1) I was driving or 2) it was in my pocket, and I couldn't hear/feel it going off - noisy places like schools being good for that kind of thing. The earpiece hurts after a while though.
As I mentioned, work made me start carrying a cell phone as well, because of travel. I had just been using my own phone, figuring I was only paying 10¢ a minute anyway, and the number of work-related calls I made during all my travel for last year probably amounted to less than an hour. So why bother? However, one of my managers thought it might be a safety issue and I shouldn't be subsidizing state calls, so since one of my co-workers retired last summer, I got his phone. Kind of funny, because my office/home are in Orange County, and it has a San Diego area code. It's this one - like the other, it's also a music phone, and can shoot (very low quality) video as well. So I get to carry around two phones now (which I really would have rather avoided).
Gadget news - Just got this new phone (only not blue), because somehow I lost my Kyocera Switchback the last time we went to Disneyland - which was a disaster for other reasons as well, and a subject for another post. Probably more than I should have paid, but it was on sale, and they no longer had any of the $10 phones - I had gotten one of those as a spare the last time I misplaced my phone, but now Dad uses it (sort of). It does have a much nicer screen, and Virgin Mobile has a new $25/mo. for 300 minutes/unlimited data access plan - a much better deal than the plan I was on (and which, of course, they can't bother telling me about, I have to find out from the signs at Target).
So I topped up my phone and switched the plan over, but then I get a text message telling me the new plan is going into effect in 4 days, and meanwhile, they've charged me for 2-10$ data packs. What?! Why on earth would I pay for data packs when I just signed up for unlimited usage?! Luckily, a phone call sorted it all out, but I never even clicked to buy any. That's not the first time that's happened either. Once I went to change from a $5 to a $10 pack, using the phone's interface, and VM charged me for both. It wouldn't have bothered me so much if they'd been additive, but buying the second cancels out the first, even if you didn't use any of it! Grrr. Anyway, it's a nice phone; has music and Bluetooth capability, surfs the web quite nicely, and has a decent keyboard. The only small botherations about it is, I have to re-buy the ringtones I was using - the ones the phone came with are awful, and they don't transfer from phone to phone - and I miss the Switchback's little coffin-falling-over-and-blood-coming-out-of-it graphic when a call ended. Kind of morbid, but it amused me. Also, there is no place to hang cell phone charms; it's kind of stupid, but I've gotten phones back in the past because of those kind of identifing tags on them. I suppose the Bluetooth is good, because I don't know how many times John & I have had a tiff because he tried to call me and I didn't answer because 1) I was driving or 2) it was in my pocket, and I couldn't hear/feel it going off - noisy places like schools being good for that kind of thing. The earpiece hurts after a while though.
As I mentioned, work made me start carrying a cell phone as well, because of travel. I had just been using my own phone, figuring I was only paying 10¢ a minute anyway, and the number of work-related calls I made during all my travel for last year probably amounted to less than an hour. So why bother? However, one of my managers thought it might be a safety issue and I shouldn't be subsidizing state calls, so since one of my co-workers retired last summer, I got his phone. Kind of funny, because my office/home are in Orange County, and it has a San Diego area code. It's this one - like the other, it's also a music phone, and can shoot (very low quality) video as well. So I get to carry around two phones now (which I really would have rather avoided).