esrosedotblog

My "traditional" flip phone gave up the ghost today.

It would not dial anymore. Just quit.

So I went to AT&T and succumbed to the inevitable.

I got an iPhone.

I have been a long term holdout but I changed over because there is no doubt it is a better phone than alternatives, And the flip is no longer enough to take care of what I would like to do "out there".

I would, for example, like to try texting.

I would like to have the net in one hand.

I like my iPad which I use as an alternative "back yard" computer. I will keep it as a backup but it is too unwieldy for other uses and it doesn't make phone calls.

It is expensive but after the first blush not so much. John already has a tablet phone and so the add-on isn't that steep.

I will have a learning curve. It already feels like I ma holding a brick up to my face. Where do you put your chin? Today I put it on the Stop sign at the bottom. The phone call stopped.

Labels: phone

For about a half an hour today I was sure I had lost my mobile phone.

Well, for the first ten minutes, uncertain, then sure it was gone.

How could this happen?

What will I do.

My mind abandoned the search for finding all the trouble I would be in if it were lost.

Missed calls, coming and going, all those fucking phone numbers stored in it (and nowhere else) and, of course, the cost and inconvenience of going to ATT to get a new phone.

It is not an expensive phone as phones go. It is the bare minimum. Maybe not the cheapest but almost. It has no features. Not even a shitty camera.

And that is fine with me. If I have the phone. But if I do not, trouble city.

Well, after half an hour of running about, it turned up. Right next to the driver's seat, down in that tight little space between seats, where it fell out of my pocket.

I must remember to look there first. But I think the same thing happened before and in the same place but that did not register when the phone was "lost".

I do not like the dependency of this.

I do need the phone, as everyone does, for the basics. A few people who call me and I call them. Family. Messages.

Nothing big.

Until it disappeared down the seat crack.

Labels: phone

The worm has turned; back from whence it came.

Pass the Word: The Phone Call Is Back

Let's face it. Email is the only successful alternative to voice. Even then it is subject to all kinds of typos and other weird errors. It takes time to type it in.

Text? No way. It is well out of my territory. I never started.

Basically, I am a die hard voice guy. I want to hear yours and I want you to hear mine. And I like the interchange of voices deciding in the here and now (hear and now) what is going on with each other.

Sure. A long email message is helpful. I use it to "call" all my kids. For one thing I can email them all at one time. Five separate emails? No. They respond in the same way. Never text.

But day to day contact? No way will I text. I am an easy study in the use of texting. I never started.

Oh, I will grudgingly indulge in a bit of back and forth. But I will quickly say, "hey I will call you".

Call me old fashioned.

I amaze some young friends when I show them my phone. A clamshell. Old style.

Of course, that makes texting more difficult for me but that's the way I like it.

I don't even want to get used to doing it.

I think that my aversion to texting arises out of several places. One is that it is just fucking inconvenient. Calling? Easy. Hit the fast dial and get a connection. Even if the person is not there I can leave a voice message.

Is it OK to say that I just enjoy it more? Intertalk is much more satisfying.

Another thing. Texting is all about abbreviation. A sure sign that it is a tedious chore. This leads to even less communications.

I could use Skype or iChat more if I had partners who wanted to do it. It is unhandy. Appointments required. On the desktop, well, I have to be at my desk. On my iPad you have to sort of hold it out like a book, arms length. Maybe the "phones" are better for seeing but I doubt it. I don't even want to try.

If the phone phone was good enough for Alexander Bell, it is good enough for me.

Labels: culture, phone

I have been working on my new phone "settings".

I finally figured out how to set up the auto dial part of it today.

I put one in for John and then for my sponsor in the Program.

I was exhausted after doing it.

It is not that hard really but paying attention is exhausting.

I am not blessed with an abundance of patience and so this has been good for me.

In the same way that bad tasting medicine is said to be good for us.

I am sure I will appreciate it the next time I want to speed dial these two frequently called numbers but right now I am sick of the whole business.

Labels: phone

I am making more of this than I want to.

But new the phone works fine. I went and got it today and guess what?

The first calls were made and, almost simultaneously, I found the old phone. It had fallen down between car seats where "no one" would ever look.

So now I have two.

You probably saw that coming. I didn't.

I had already taken the time to transfer the address book to the new one. So now I have two complete phones. One has been disabled because a new chip is in the new phone but that is a formality. I can easily get the old phone working with a simple download at the AT&T store. Who, I might add, have been superb about the whole thing.

Well, they should be. They sold a new device. They are devices now. Mobile devices. But the only got 14 dollars for their trouble with me. They have done better than that today, I am sure.

It is a cheap phone and does nothing but make and receive calls. It will text but I don't do that although John is talking about sending me texts when he goes to Europe in a week. Sicily.

I will not text. Ever. It is not found in my religious beliefs. Indeed, we are anti texting. Not even on a week day or on the day you can eat fish. Or something. But I don't picket or lobby about it. Those who want to text will text and there is nothing to done about them. Except not participate. And to not give a fuck about texting at all. Even the ones I get. I always call back. Voice. I am a tough nut to crack.

Labels: phone

Somehow, I lost my mobile phone today.

Like a lot of other people, you might say, "how did you do that?".

May I submit that is a dumb question?

If I knew how I lost it, I wouldn't have.

But it is lost. With all its numbers and shit.

Poor me.

So I got motivated and activated.

What else?

I went to ATT and got me a new clamshell. Not the cheapest but close.

I am using it already and have put in three or four contact numbers.

It is fine.

I had a good salesman. He got very quickly that I was not interested in the screens, the smart stuff.

A clamshell.

Of course, I lost all my numbers. That is a chore. But there were also a lot of junk numbers in it too. Yards and yards of them.

Now I have another clamshell that doesn't even have a brand name on it. It works fine.

The photo is of the actual phone. It is a "non contract" phone even though I have a contract. I guess.

I do not pay much attention to the whole phone thing. Basic service. Period.

As I go, I am adding contacts. Easy peasy.

Then, I had the dentist. Cleaning. No cavities.

No need to report on this except that, yes, it was a new hygienist. He can't keep people worth shit. And I won't go to the one guy who may not even be there anymore but that is OK because I liked this one. Fine.

A big day so far. Can it be over soon?

Labels: dentist, phone