My soft spot for gadgets.

I believe I was a senior in high school when I got my first ever cell phone. I actually went through about 3 cell phones within my first year of having a phone. I remember the days when everybody was walking around with the lovely Nokia 6110. Or the old Motorola whose exact model escapes me right now. Eventually I settled down with a Motorola v60i. Back then, there was no 2 or 3 megapixel camera. Or media player. Or a SD card slot. Or mp3/polyphonic ringtones. And definitely no web browser. 3rd party applications? No way. GPS? TV? Wifi? Bluetooth?

What was born as a device to simply be able to send and receive calls while on the go, mobile phones have evolved ten-fold. Now we have trackballs, touch screens, cameras, fingerprint readers, GPS, you name it.

I've had a BlackBerry Pearl 8130 since late May. After my 2 years with a Nokia 3220, I was ready for a huge upgrade. Though not to say that wasn't a good phone, as it was. I dropped my 3220 countless times. Even got it wet a bunch. And I will admit, as I was at the Sprint office, filling out my new contract as my shiny new BlackBerry was no doubt giving my 3220 the finger, I felt sad to let go of it. I wasn't sure how I was going to like my new BlackBerry. I'm not sure why I even doubted that I'd dislike it. It is, in short, a near flawless phone. There are a couple of annoyances that invariably come with not having a full QWERTY keyboard. But overall, my 8130 is perfect for everything I need. Whether I need to browse the web while on the go, on Wikipedia something to win an argument, it has come in handy quite often, and if Google and T-Mobile hadn't teamed up to make waves in the mobile phone industry, my 8130 wouldn't be listed on eBay right now.

Quick side note here, as I don't want anybody to think I have anything remotely bad to say my my BlackBerry. See, Sprint disables MMS messaging (to you, that means sending pictures, videos, or music to another phone) on all their BlackBerrys. Why? No clue. You'd think their most expensive phones using one of their most expensive contracts would be able to perform EVERY function or task of the Nokia 3220. But, for some reason or another, they disable it. There are rumors flying around that they will activate it soon, but, I don't care to find out. My plan details specifically say "Unlimited picture messaging". I guess in some sort of skewed terms and agreement, that actually means "Absolutely no picture messaging". Sprint is also raising their line surcharge a whole 25 cents. But since these terms are being introduced after I've already agreed to 75 cent surcharge, I can cancel my contract early without being nailed the $200 fee. Yeee-haw. Let's also note I'm working at Microdyne again, which is owned by a much larger company called L3 communications. And through L3 communications, I can get some pretty decent discounts from T-Mobile. 10% off my monthly bill, and $50 off the new T-Mobile G1.



Now, I may or may not have mentioned before how impressed I am by Google and their efforts. I also may or may not have mentioned how much I completely hate the goddamn iPhone. Not because I'm some anti-Apple asshole (which I'm definitely not), but because, it's just..impractical. It lacks so many basic functions (which I don't care to discuss here), that it's just, something for shithead Apple elitists to tote around in their pocket. If Apple made toilet paper, the grittiest, most uncomfortable toilet paper in the world, I can almost guarantee it would sell like crazy. Anyway, onward.

Pictured above is the T-Mobile G1 with Google. What that means is, the brilliant minds at Google have designed the operating system the phone runs on, called Android. Being entirely open source, the G1 will without a doubt become the home of some truly great applications. Actually, it already is. Equipped with a touchscreen, an intuitive home screen, and a full keyboard, the G1 (or any phone running Android) could easily give any phone on the market a run for its money.

Watch these videos to really understand what I mean.

First, let's just start with a basic overview of the phone. This is a very impressive 5 minute video.



Barcode scanner. The G1 doubles as a barcode scanner as well. So when you're out shopping, and you want to know if you can find what you're looking for online for a lower price, go ahead and scan in your barcode, and then the G1 will look online for the lowest price. Observe:



Pretty neat, eh? This is of course one of those features that people will "not need", but, once you use some of those features you "don't need", you'll possibly realize that they are in fact pretty handy.

I'm not quite sure when I'll be ordering the G1. I'll have to sell my BlackBerry first so I have the money to do it. I'll be saving money in the long run though. As I said above, my monthly bill will hopefully be around $10-$15 lower.

Here is a pretty comprehensive look at what the Android platform has to offer as of now. Applications have only been in development since April (I believe). Taking that into consideration, the applications in the market place are still quite impressive. Check that link to see what some of the great minds have produced for the Android.

In short, I'm very excited to see what some developers will come up with. Since Android is entirely open source, it can be customized in almost any way. Android is bursting with potential, and I can't wait to see what sort of developments there are in even a few more months time.

uTorrent.

Probably not, but; is anybody as irritated as I am with the new uTorrent tray icon?



What a step in the wrong direction.

I'm not really that upset by it. I'm just drunk, without anything to complain about.

Harvester17: I'm planning on going up to camp a lot in the fall

Harvester17: its nice in the fall

Harvester17: and no one else is around

Fetus Cake Mix: It must be hard for you going up there all the time.

Fetus Cake Mix: Since, that's where your husband proposed and all.

Harvester17: haha.. shut up

Fetus Cake Mix: Sorry. I didn't mean to bring it up.

Fetus Cake Mix: I actually saw him the other day.

Harvester17: Is he still a heartless bastard?

Fetus Cake Mix: I didn't think to ask him.

Fetus Cake Mix: He was test driving a new Mustang.

Fetus Cake Mix: From, which I'm assuming, is the money he got from the divorce.

Fetus Cake Mix: Gold digging cock sucker.

Harvester17: Fucker cleaned up

Harvester17: The judge ordered that my paychecks be signed over to his name

Fetus Cake Mix: You should have included a "If I find you in bed with my dad and his 2 brothers" clause into your vows.

Fetus Cake Mix: Would have made this whole thing a little less messy.

Harvester17: Well when you're getting married... the last thing you think of is that kind of outcome

Fetus Cake Mix: I've been hearing some rumors that he's thinking about bringing your dad up there.

Fetus Cake Mix: To go out on the middle of the lake at sunset.

Fetus Cake Mix: And propose on the canoe.

Fetus Cake Mix: Much like he did with you.

Harvester17: I wonder if he is going to be drunk for that proposel as well

Harvester17: I blame myself though

Harvester17: I fell under his spell

Harvester17: I can't blame my dad for falling under the same spell... We have had long talks about it, and according to my dad he has really grown up... I doubt it though

Fetus Cake Mix: Yeah, he splits, gets half your money, uses that to buy a Mustang?

Fetus Cake Mix: That sounds grown up.

Harvester17: When he breaks my dads heart I'm not gonna let my dad come crying back to me

Harvester17: I warned him

Harvester17: He's all flash and charm at first

Harvester17: then you get to know him...

Fetus Cake Mix: Who'd have thought Harris would have turned out this way.

Harvester17: hah

Harvester17: I know

Harvester17: So much more laid back

Entourage.

There are few things more difficult than trying to turn somebody onto a new television series. Though not in the sense of "It's on once a week, try to catch it next time it's on.", but instead "All 4 (or 5, 7, or 9) seasons are out on DVD now, so you can rent, buy, or download them." And depending on how much time you're willing to set aside each day (or week), watching 9 series of a TV show can seem like quite the task. So at that point, you've got...maybe...one chance, two at the most to get them hooked.

Since last summer (when I was hooked after just one show), I've been trying to get some of my friends into Entourage (look at that rating) to no avail. Not because it's a bad show show (which it isn't), but, because it's just hard to find a place online to watch it and/or download it.

So, what I've done is upload one of my personal favorites to Google Video, and you can view it below. This is episode 7 from season 4 entitled 'The Day Fuckers'. What makes the series great is that you can watch and be thoroughly entertained by watching any episode, from any season, at any part in the series. It's, simply put, just that good. And weighing in at a running time of about 22-24 minutes per episode (no commercials, since it's on HBO), they're pretty quick.

[-Google deleted my video -]

A few words regarding each character/the show won't hurt either. Although you'd easily be able to figure this out for yourself by watching just one episode, I figured I'd fill you in anyway.

Vince, Eric, Drama, and Turtle are childhood friends from New York. Vince starred in a commercial, and a Hollywood bigwig (Ari Gold {nothing short of awesome}) saw the commercial, contacted him, took him under his wing, and made him a millionaire movie star. And now, the 4 boys live in LA.

So, in short.

Vince is a millionaire. Makes his best friend Eric his manager. Their friend Turtle hangs out and smokes weed all day. And his brother Drama is a struggling/aging actor that starred in a 1980s TV show called Viking Quest. That's really about all there is to know about each character.

If you enjoyed this episode, I can easily put the entire series online.

Edit: I thought I'd be able to fly under the radar with Google Video, but, unfortunately, my video was taken down. Short of making my own video player (not as hard as you'd think), I will find some sort of solution.

Update from the road.

We've just made our second stop of the trip. Where? Why, the New Hampshire liquor store of course. Since I might not have any time to drink a beer or 6 before the show, I decided to get a few shots of vodka in me. The above picture is the result of my 4 dollar shopping spree At the liquor store. 2 oh which are already gone.

Cobra, Kourtnie, and Nick are in the back, working on a bottle of jager. Now, I'm not positive, but I think we're breaking a number of New Hampshire and Massachusetts state laws.

Anyway, the day is going great so far. We're passing around my iPod and making a playlist that'll last US the rest of the trip. We'll probably be there in an hour or so.

Hope we don't die.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

What a great day to land on a Friday.

I have the next 3 nights off. I am quite happy with that.

Due to rising fuel costs, At The Gates aren't able to play at my house like originally planned. Instead, after a slew of text messages, Facebook wall posts, and a couple phone calls, we have decided to meet them half way (half way between Gothenburg, Sweden and Waterville, Maine is, can you believe it, Worcester, Mass). Riding down in Zach's fine foreign made automobile is myself (shotgun), Cobra, Kourtnie, and Nick.

Being that At The Gates are from Sweden, I almost bought a too-many-servings-to-have-in-one-bag bag of Swedish Fish to eat, and share with my fellow passangers. But I didn't, so fuck you. One thing I might do though, is update my blog throughout the day/night from my phone, complete with pictures, and well, text (very similar to the familiar glyphs you're studying now). I mean, why not, right? It's not like I'll have much else to do for the 4 hour ride down (except for once we near the venue, shout "At The Gates????!!" out the window like they're a run away dog. {Re: Arch Enemy show a few years ago. Rest easy. We located them}).

I've also been thinking of bringing down my Swedish flag (signed by Arch Enemy and In Flames) to hopefully be signed by At The Gates, and of course, hold up during their set. What an all-star set of autographs that flag would have, huh?

The other night while I was at work, something popped into my head. Don't ask me how, or why, it just did.

Now, say you have a blind friend. Say you invite your blind friend to a party, and you're all drinking and having a great time. Being the drunken best friend you are, you decide to pull a prank on him, a prank that exploits his condition.

What I guess I'm getting at is, how easy/hard would it be to fool your friend into getting a blowjob from a guy? Getting your blind friend to accept a blowjob won't be hard, but, finding a guy to suck a blind guy's dick? And of course a girl to be there for the whole thing (to talk, and say sexy things, like she's doing all the work).

I wish there was some way to poll every person in the world, to see if they've ever participated in anything like this. It's too good of a prank to not have ever happened.

There might be more updates later today. No promises though.

At The Gates shows should be recognized as a national holiday.

Instead of trying to craft the perfect description of what At The Gates means to metal, I will instead take some text from their Wikipedia page:

"The band continued touring, and in 1995, they took yet another step forward, releasing arguably their most commercially and critically successful album, Slaughter of the Soul. This album firmly rooted the band as one of the leaders of the Swedish metal scene, and is considered a benchmark album in the Gothenburg sound. ^[3][4] The band received international attention for the album, gaining them a U.S. tour, and heavy rotation of the music video for "Blinded by Fear" on MTV in America. Despite the success and acclaim the band had garnered, the Björler brothers departed in 1996. The remaining members decided it would be impossible to continue without them, so the band was broken up.<sup>[5]"

"</sup>The band's legacy is far reaching, because of their influence on the metalcore and melodic death metal genres. Many bands, such as Darkest Hour, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Killswitch Engage were influenced by their sound."

Anders' comments on the reunion:

"Well, it felt like the timing was right for once. We have been talking about a possible reunion for years now, but this was the first time everything fell into place. For me personally, it feels like getting closure. The break-up over ten years ago was abrupt and left a bad vibe between us that took years to get over. We have a better relationship today and a more relaxed approach to who we are and what we do. The time is right to get together and play some shows. Try to catch us live in the summer 2008. It could be your last chance"

When asked in October 2007 if the band was planning on writing a new album, Lindberg replied:

"No new record will be recorded. The legacy of Slaughter of the Soul will remain intact. It would be fun to write together, but not under the name of At the Gates."



Anyway, I mention this because At The Gates' 'Suicidal Final Tour' is already underway, and next week they make a stop at The Palladium this Friday (the 11th).

To say I'm excited would be a vulgar understatement. I would say that At The Gates could be considered by some to be the Beatles or the Led Zeppelin of the melodic death metal genre, but I hate The Beatles And Led Zeppelin. So how about I say, At The Gates are the Black Sabbath of melodic death metal? I only mean that in terms of what they've done to/for the genre. You can't make a paved road, without having a dirt road first.

So that's where I will be on Friday evening. They're playing with Municipal Waste and Darkest Hour. I haven't heard much from Municipal Waste, but Zach told me to check out a Darkest Hour album (Deliver Us) and it's pretty good stuff.

I've also been listening to a band called Winds of Plague a lot while at work. I wasn't too big on it the first time I heard it, but it has grown on me. Pretty heavy melodic death metal, mixed with some pretty snazzy synth to give it a real "swords drawn on the battlefield" feel.

I've seen Wall-E twice already, with a planned 3rd viewing tomorrow. It's great. I had high expectations, and still, it was better than I thought it would be. Another grand slam for Pixar. Name another studio with as many consecutive hits as Pixar. I'll make it easy for you; you can't. Pixar is synonymous with extremely high quality. Not just animation, but story. Every movie in their catalogue is engaging, and enjoyable for everybody.

I'm finally taking another monumental "2 or 3 cars full of friends" trip to the beach tomorrow. Many laughs will be had.

But now, I have to go take a shower and get ready for work.

A correction to yesterday's entry.

Now, I realize the Grand Canyon's worth of praise I gave Colt 45 yesterday. But, in an unexpected turn of events, I ended up taking a slight excursion on the beer drinking route.

At the local liquor store, there's a small part of an aisle which is dedicated to imported beers. Before making my way to the guarded vault where they keep their Colt 45, I decided to browse the said import aisle.

I admit, the only form of marketing or advertising that has any real effect on me, is the name and/or label of a product (in this case, the name).



























Three Philosophers.

Not only is the name totally badass, but the knowledge harbored by the Three Philosophers is sealed tightly with a cork. Priced at $7.50 for a 25oz bottle, their wisdom doesn't necessarily come cheap.

"The essence of wonder is a unique and masterful blend of strong malty ale and authentic Belgian Kriek. Our philosophers deduce that this powerful marriage of cherries, roasted malts, and dark chocolate will only achieve more wisdom and coherence as it broods in the dark recesses of your cellar."

I don't know what they're trying to prove here. The alcohol content is 9.8%. After a 25oz bottle of Three Philosophers, I was anything but more wise and coherent.

Now, I'm in no position to review a beer (my favorite beer used to be Coors Light), but Three Philosophers wasn't bad at all. I drank it kind of slowly, since I'd just eaten a big dinner (provided by Wendy's). When it got a little warm, it really tasted/felt like it was straight whiskey. Had that slight whiskey burn as it went down. I can see myself taking in another lecture from the Three Philosophers though. I just hope there isn't a test right after.

Catchy title name.

Last night before I left work, I noticed that we have 1tb external hard drives for $200. For the ill informed, 1tb (1 terabyte) is 1,024 gigabytes. At $200, that's an incredibly good deal. I've been looking for a huge external drive to save stuff on. It would be real nice since I have 2 computers, and it'd be nice to be able to have all my stuff wherever I go. But, I need to buy a car ASAP, and I'm in debt, which, is awesome. Maybe I'll just wait a few months and the price will drop a bit.

While I'm on the subject of Sam's Club. We have this machine (it's called a baler) at work that we load all our cardboard into. We load it up, crush it, load it up, crush it, repeat until it's full. Once it's full, we put straps on it, and pop it out, and then send it off to get recycled. Which, according to a chart in our back room, saves 17 trees. Really adds up when our Sam's Club (Just one of thousands of Wal Mart stores in the country) makes 2 or 3 bales a day.

Anyway, I'm not bringing this up for any other reason than this button:


Yes. The 'MAN UP' button. You can tell from the picture that the area surrounding the 'MAN UP' button was recently painted, but careful measures were taken to not paint over the 'MAN UP'.

It might mean 'MANUAL UP' since it is actually placed on a large hydraulic crushing press, and lies just above a 'MAN DOWN' button.

But, let's not bullshit a bullshitter, the button means exactly what it says. Man the fuck up. Sam Walton wasn't a man of layered meanings or cryptic words. He was a man's man. A man, with a 'MAN UP' button in each one of his stores.

So today is Sunday. I have the next 2 nights off. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with myself. I can say this; it will involve a couple of these:

My dearest friend, amber in color. Easily worth two-hundred and sixty-five pennies.

Who crowned Budweiser the king of beers? I don't remember ever going to the voting polls and seeing Budweiser on any ballots. Then again, I don't kings earn their title from winning a vote. Deeming yourself a king is kind of a pompous thing to do anyway. Fuck that beer, and its attitude. You're only the self-proclaimed king of beers because you were born into royalty.

Couldn't we elect Colt 45 to be the president of beers? To oversee its beer democracy? Or, beereau?


If you couldn't tell, I really have nothing else to say. I've just been putting off the shower that the dirt under my fingernails has been dreading. Time's up, you gritty hitchhikers.

Net evolution.

Kind of strange when I think about how far the internet has come in its short life. It's hard to nail down an exact date of birth for the internet. But the internet as it exists now (accessible through a browser and not a terminal) I would say was born sometime around 1993. Huge world wide networks existed before then, but it was all terminal based. So to many, the birth of the internet (as it exists now) came with the advent of the first browser.

Anyway, this isn't a history lesson on our dear friend here. If that's what you want, feel free to read all you want. I am going somewhere with this, I just want to make clear how fascinated I am by the internet and what it has become. It started as a network only accessible by command driven terminals, and now it's evolved into a place where you can go to essentially find anything.

Enough about that though. The reason I started this, is because I want to share a site with everybody.

What is Wixi? It's a media sharing website where members can sign up, and share any media they please with other members on the site. If your CD and DVD collection could make their own MySpace pages, Wixi is where they would do it. You can upload movies, music, and pictures. Nearly anything you'd want to share with others. Some uploads (such as movies) can probably take a while to upload, depending on your upload speed. Once you have uploaded something to your Wixi, users can copy that piece of media to their Wixi, for future use (at least I think so anyway). You can also share folders with certain people.

Though I'm not sure how this site can get away with essentially sharing tons of copyrighted material. That's not really for me to worry about, so, I won't. Wixi is a great way to share new albums with some friends. Unless you have a private FTP, and all your friends know how to use FTP clients (which I know for a fact is pretty common), then, Wixi is probably one of the easiest ways to share your media. I'm not sure what they have for in place as far as space limitations go. They say 'unlimited', but often times, 'unlimited' means 'extremely limited'.

To the left here, you will see a sample screen shot of what it looks like once you're signed up and logged in. You get your desktop with folders and icons, a user bar to the left, and your friends network along the bottom.

So go ahead and check it out. It's a very impressive site. I don't want to think about the amount of hours their dedicated developers put into this. It's still technically in its beta stage, but, it's running and working fine. If you do signup, go ahead and add my wixi. On the left user bar click on 'find member' and type in 'fetuscakemix'.

I can see Wixi being a pretty useful tool if it had substantial exposure. I don't remember how or where I heard about Wixi. If all my friends used Wixi, I could see myself using it quite a bit.

http://www.wixi.com

Update: I just spent some time really checking this out. You can browse some of the more popular Wixies, which are LOADED with content. Full movies and albums and all that good stuff. Definitely worth checking out if you're bored. It looks like they really do mean 'unlimited' space, as there are accounts that have over 1 terabyte of media (which is 1,024 gigabytes). Looks like you can back up your entire media collecting if you so desired.

Beware though, I imagine Wixi would run quite sluggishly on older computers. Although it is all browser based, Wixi is just about 95% Flash, which can bog down some machines.

2nd night of work down.

Working nights is a rather different experience. I've worked 2nd shift before at LL Bean which was 4 to midnight, but 9pm to 5am is the text book overnight kind of shift. It isn't bad. I absolutely hate having to wake up early for work. Having to wake up to the harsh displeasing sound of the alarm clock, and forcing yourself out of bed and into the day. I definitely prefer being able to sleep for as long as I'd like, and not having to rush out the door.

I think I have eaten my last McGriddle from McDonald's for a while. I've only had 3 of them in my life. For those of you running the numbers, that's 0.00035232 McGriddles per day since the day I was born (ballpark). I don't know if it's the mixture of Diet Pepsi, a Monster energy drink, and some cold pizza, but, I'll be the first to say it, I don't feel well. Could possibly be my body just adjusting to this awkward schedule. A terrible diet isn't exactly a foreign land to my body.

I would venture a guess and say that if the working class as a whole could choose between an extra dollar an hour, or never having your feet hurt ever again after a day on your feet, I bet most people would actually opt for the immunity to sore feet. Uncle Sam can't touch your sore feet (unless of course he wanted to give you a lovely foot massage, in which case, deny it, because no foot massage will wipe away the lingering effects of a long day's work). Think of all the stuff you'd feel like doing after work if your feet didn't hurt.

There are of course occupations that do not require you to be on your feet all day. Those are the jobs you can only get from going to college. If you went to college, and you have a job where you stand on your feet all day, you got shafted somewhere buddy. Stand up comedians (<3) are a perfect example. They drop out of college and they know exactly where they're going. It's right in the job description. That can only be defined as rock bottom. Getting paid to stand up. Really putting those skills to use. Though judging from a certain stand up comedian that I let associate with me, standing up is quite the challenge for him. Love you buddy.

It's time for bed. Do you remember how much it used to suck as a child, having to go to bed when it was still light out?

Check out this picture I took at work tonight. This was one of many boxes of tissues I had to move tonight. It took me a while to actually notice that he was on these boxes of tissues.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

A blog for blog sake.

Now, first thing's first. You probably won't find much of anything here of any interest at all. I've had a LiveJournal for years, but, I hardly ever update it. 1) Because I think LiveJournals have become a place for whiny pussies to complain about shit that won't really matter in 2 months. 2) I just flat out hate the design of their site. I hate navigating it. It's annoying, and ugly. 3) Most of my LiveJournal entries are set to private, which means that only I can see them. A blog, or a LiveJournal is pretty much pointless if all you're going to do is bitch about your friends or girlfriend, when the people you're bitching about can easily read what you're saying about them. Thanks, but no thanks, shitheads. (And I'm glad FireFox didn't give me the 'red spelling error line' under shitheads. Thank you, Mozilla.)

Now, second thing's second. What I plan to write about here is shit that I find interesting. Just about anything I feel like writing about, basically. Whether it's just a picture from my phone, or just a blurb about a new piece of technology I wish I could afford. You won't find anything here about girlfriends, relationships, or personal issues. You might, if I feel like writing about them. Bottom line is, nobody is going to want to read everything I put in here. I'm not forcing anybody to read this, though I'm flattered you cannot pull yourself away.

You can plan to read about shit I like: Technology, computers, neat gadgets, music, movies, and anything in between.

I will start with this.

I'm pleased by the amount of websites that are beginning to utilize the mobile phone. Facebook has the Facebook mobile app which is available for BlackBerry phones. MySpace has the MySpace mobile app for Helio users (the less intelligent breed of mobile phone users {Just kidding, I've never used a Helio, I'm sure they're sweet[that's my get out of jail free clause.]}) Similar to the FaceBook and MySpace apps, blog sites like this one, and LiveJournal (though LJ tries to charge you for it) allow users to update their blog while on the road, whether it's text or pictures. For some reason, I find that incredibly cool, and albeit handy. Sometimes you see something while you're not at your computer, and you need to take a picture of it, and write about it right at that second, otherwise important details are in danger of being lost. I think that sort of mobility and connectivity are cool.

A couple months ago I decided to get off my family plan with Unicel, and venture out on my own. I didn't have a texting plan, and though my old phone could browse the web, it wasn't the best phone for web browsing. All I could really do with it without paying a ton, was just use it for calls. Only perk was, it was paid for by my dad. The family plan contract was up for renewal in April, and since I'd wanted to get a nice new phone with an unlimited plan, I figured I might as well sign up with a new provider, and get a sexy new BlackBerry Pearl 8130. Sexy is an understatement. If JT brought sexy back, it was because the 8130 let him borrow some, and he was just paying back some outstanding sexy-debt. I'm sure there were haystack size piles of paperwork between JT's people and RIM (Research In Motion, the manufacturer of the BlackBerry). Either way, I love it. The 2mpx camera is great as for as a camera-phone goes. Coupled with a 2gb memory stick, it makes for quite the impressive little media center. Take pictures, record videos, load up mp3s and use it on the go as a media player. A few weeks ago, I went on a rather lengthy bike ride. About 27 miles round trip. I brought my phone with me for a few reasons. 1) I could load up a good few hours of music on it, so I wouldn't have to bring my iPod as well. 2) To have a phone in case of emergency. And 3) So I could use the GPS on my phone to determine how far I'd really gone. Which, again is only cool if you're a huge nerd, like myself. The headphones that come with the BlackBerry 8130 are also great because they're rather comfy, and while they're worn, there's a small mouth piece on the cord that dangles just below your chin. It's quite unnoticeable, and unless you knew it was a mic, you'd never suspect that it was. That was great to make/receieve hands free calls while on the bike. And the sound quality was great. I'd get into all the features of it here, but I have to head off to work soon.

I'm employed, which, I suppose is never a bad thing. Overnight floor stocking at Sam's Club in Augusta. Pays well, and it's a pretty laid back atmosphere. I get to listen to music all night, and go at my own pace.

Anywho, time to make sure I've got the essentials before work, and apply some band aids to some wounds inflicted upon my persons from stacking boxes of paper reams.