Smart new baby

I got myself a new baby. It took me three years to get another phone, so mom was able to forgive me a half-second after I broke the news of my latest financial burden. As earlier reported, I no longer pay cash for stuff I want these days. I do a quick hand exercise with the little black card (LBC), and voila, there goes my peace for the next few days, or until the monthly bill arrives.

I love my new baby: brainy, good-looking, total package. The choice was well-researched (thanks to the power of Google, and even of those run-of-the-mill smartphone reviews), friends’ recommendations over the past two months well-considered. It was a Wednesday night when J and I made a  trip to Megamall,  even having to delay dinner a bit to catch the last mall hour. Tip: MemoExpress is a nice place to buy mobile phones, with solicitous female attendants assisting you. Cute freebies, too.

So far I’m rejoicing over these:

• Now there’s a phone that no longer dies on me in the middle of an important call. I don’t have to charge every-single-effing day, and no disrespect to my grown-up Samsung baby, but this one has a much longer battery life.
• Apps overload. Snaptu and Easywords vie for the top position in my heart.
• The superb functionalities of Nokia handsets since my 5510 and 7360 days (high school and college years are sorely missed). It’s been a nice reunion with Nokia’s simple, no-bull features: its messaging, phonebook, and handy security and personalization tools. The QWERTY keypad agrees wonderfully with the fingers.
• “So no more whorish pink phone for you?” kidded G, who almost convinced me that the E63 is the best option at the moment. I love the gray steel design of my new baby. The grown-up Samsung, however, still has to stay because I’m as steadfast as a Mary.
• Okkkkkkay, I surrender. Mobile web is the shiz! Thanks to the office’s free wifi, too.
• A friend chided me some years ago: get with the freakin’ times. This doesn’t sound bad and offensive to me now.

Now to start the banquet on time…

(Un)wired neophyte

I’m blogging right here in my humid room, walking myself through this whole thing they call plugin internet. Of course it isn’t rocket science or any recently divulged man-made wonder; I’m just IT-challenged, period. B had long thought of getting me a router, but it didn’t push through out of some vague reason (divine intervention, maybe). So probably the ads and classic WOM are to be blamed when I suddenly mouthed “Globe prepaid Visibility kit” after he initiated the discussion on Christmas presents a few weeks back.

I’ve been using the DSL connection here at home because it rarely fails me, and because I have separation anxiety. There wasn’t any immediate need, too, for wireless internet; I check my mail in the office, and there’s hardly any time and energy left for browsing every weekday night. Most of the field work locations for Writers Edge are also WI-Fi hotspots so I’ll just have to have my laptop in tow to get that bring-it-on vibe.

The challenge, though, came in the form of sloth (say, an article for urgent revision or something and I have to drag myseelf out of bed to get Net access) and the constant pressure to give in to crude consumerism masquerading as the harmless pursuit of convenience. So there, my spanking new life as a plugin internet user.

Operating at an average of 236 kbps (EDGE connection; HSDPA/3G is perhaps nonexistent in a peasant area such as ours), this USB modem’s good enough for checking emails, random voyeurism at Multiply and Facebook, and some new book exchange activity at Bookmooch. Connecting to the Yahoo Messenger and Skype, though, is a pain in the ass, if not an outright alien concept. It’s a monumental FAIL if communicating with the boyfriend is to be considered, but hey, there’s always mobile phones and imagination (wink).

I just have to have the aircon in this room working, because it feels stifling hot in every corner and everyone knows that’s a bad case for personal computers. Save for the temperature and the worsening backache, this wireless stuff is a blessing so far and I forget about my usual companion more intimately known as Boredom.

(Though I haven’t given up DSL; I’m still a sucker for speed, after all.)