The Waffle House

As most of you know, I am anti (cr)apple. Therefore, no iPhone. On the same lineage, I was feeling the same towards the whole smart phone revolution. I admired my co-workers HTCs and Driods. I listen to Howard Stern talk about his change recently and loving it.

I just do not see the value of paying $30 a month to have internet between the places that you have internet. Same goes with texting. It is becoming the blight of our country first with kids/teens and now with the parents too. If Darwin has it right with the evolution bit, we'll be a species that cannot talk within 20 years.

What's with the title you say....

Well, Jessica's phone really was a piece of crap. She'd get an alert to voicemail and they would be over a week old. Some calls would not even ring through to her. Basically, it was time to replace the phone.

Into the T-Mobile store I go. I ask for the phones that do not require data plans. My salesperson, Leah, points me to all 6 crusty old phones in the corner. The conversation goes through the paces where I explain how we really do not need touch screens or data plans but I humor her and tell her to sell it to me.

Inside of 15 minutes, she has me ready to come in this weekend for the big 'free phone 4G event'. All phones (with contract extension) are free - even the HTC MyTouch 4G. But I was still waivering on assuming an additional $30 or worse yet $60 a month for data plans if I included Ashlie. She checks my account, nearly falls over having not seen anyone that had been a customer of T-Mobile as long as I (count time with Arial Communications and Voicestream).

She explains that with the texting I have on Ashlie's phone plus the amount I am paying for Jessica's ad-hoc texts, if I would change to their new promo-plan with the same minutes and cost as the plan I am on, the data plan drops to $20 per line and ends up being a net increase of about $20 a month. Now who cannot afford that? Add in the benefits of GPS to two women in my family that have challenges getting from Hudson to New Richmond. Add in the fun things like the bar-code scanners, video, good pics, etc. SOLD!

I brought Jess and Ashlie by last night to pick their phones. Thinking it might be pretty busy tonight, I stopped this AM and waited amost an hour to get 2 new smart phones (that I would NEVER own, right?).

The story is cute that I waffled....sure. I think what made me the most happy was to see a line for phones that were not filled with iPeople looking for iPhones and that these phones are 4G and (cr)apple is just 3G and we have flash support and so on and so on.

The biggest question is: Should I have bought one for The Orracle too?

A New Fan?

I looked at the computer this morning and saw my shadow (2/2 for those of you that don't get it)...looks like I can blog again.

After some requests from Paul (Mr. Baseball) to start blogging again and then today with a loose comment from my bossman about my blog, I had to come out and dust off the old keys. First of all, to the bossman, I cannot find ANY post related to work. I generally do not post about work so I think you were making it up just to get me concerned. If you are actually reading this, I am sure this post will get a mention...

So long since my last post....yet not much has changed. Same project at work...the one that does not seem to die but actually might! Rumor has it that Spiffy and I will be working together on the next one. If you remember, he is the one that likes to counterfeit money. I just hope he does not try to take me down with him. He and I have not worked directly on the same project in a while and so I am really looking forward to it.

The weather...what is to say there except IT SUCKS! I am really tired of winter. As I type this, my house is popping and creaking over by Ashlie's room. I am sure it is just the frigid temps but I am concerned about the damm ice dams. I am going to have to try to do something about those this weekend. One by my pool room is at least 10" thick. I have not been over by Ashlie's room as the snow is just too deep to get around the house.

Vacations....we love vacations. Nothing planned officially. We are thinking of taking a cruise or something around spring break which is very early for our kids this year but am waiting on a few 'things' before I can book. We have decided to plan our dream vacation though. I should make a post entirely about it....a teaser is fair though, don't you think? We are fortunate that my work travel has enriched my Hilton account with lots of points. I need some more but am in a position to do 2 full weeks at a category 7 resort. SO....we are planning to do a trip to Bora Bora and Moorea in French Polynesia. Hotel (which would be covered by points) is about $5000 per week there. If you've never seen pics, just google it. It is amazing. The trip would have us fly to Tahiti and then hop to Bora Bora. From Bora Bora, we'd fly back to Tahiti and then take a boat/ferry to Moorea as it is the next island to Tahiti. More to come on this. It could happen as soon as this fall but expect it to be the spring of 2012.

I am thinking of getting a new phone with a camera. I think having that to take a picture of something that prompts a blog in my head will help facilitate actually getting it to the page for all 3-5 of my fans.

Anyway - take care. To the boss - I hope you read this. Al - I hope you come back even though you are full blown on Facebook now. Paul....well.....this is for you I guess.

Over and out....The Orracle.