webcowgirl

My new phone has arrived! Unlike every other delivery I've had to sit at home and wait for, this one came EARLY, before 10! This is good because I need to do some shopping (so I can do some baking) and now I'm free to go run my errands.

I am a bit excited, which might make sense to you if you knew how many problems I've been having with my calling people since the old Orange phone took its last, screen-damaging, short fall to the floor of my office (it was about 15 inches and completely inexcusable that it should fatally kill my phone). Basically, the latest replacement phone I bought has this disturbing habit of sending data packets to the web (I don't even know why, it's not the BlueTooth, which I've disabled), and also doesn't have any of my phone numbers. And then I've been on pay as you go for two months, which means I haven't really been calling people or I've been running out of money. And of course there's the saga of "where did my phone numbers go." But now I have a new phone that I can import my old phone number list into and most of my problemsare about to be solved.

And it's not an Iphone. Neenur. It's an Android. It has the Qwerty keyboard I like (and have been doing without, poorly, for two months now, making me feel strangled communication-wise) and feels way more solid than my old phone and is surely able to handle the web-stuff I like to do (i.e. blogging) without dumb stuff I don't need like a GPS.

It's packaged better than about anything I've ever bought - like jewelry or Vosges Haut Chocolates - gorgeous layers of black (cardboard, but still) that I would expect to see a little something "wow" from Toys in Babeland hiding inside instead of a cute little phone and all of its little doo jabbers (like a screen cleaner, think I'll use that on my glasses right now). AND it's got stickers in the box, which is extra great because I have been putting stickers on the plastic casing of my gadgets since my first Walkman back in high school - I like to make these things look like MINE and not just the completely interchangeable plastic thing everyone else has. (This was not true of my Honda Civic, which I let be almost entirely anonymous.)

And I feel like giving it a name, so I'm not saying, "Hey, honey, can you pass me the Android?" or, "Ooh, my Android is vibrating, I think somebody wants me." But what to call it?

[Poll #1373569]

I'm also just generally interested in what the names of other androids (such a C3PO) from movies and literature that I didn't come up with when I made this list. What famous androids can you think of?

I have just spent ten minutes trying to find SOMEWHERE on the Orange site the cost per message of texts sent to the "Channel Islands."

While I thought the Twitter number I had been using was rolled into my UK limit, it looks like texts to the "Channel Islands" are treated as outside of the UK - but I cannot find anywhere on Orange's site how much that costs a pay monthly customer of any sort. If I've been charged 35 p per message, I have been racking up some fat, fat charges for Orange.

I hate Orange. I should have been on TMobile by now but my move screwed up my credit rating. Oh, the rage!

Oops. We apparently forgot to leave my sister keys to the apartment.

And she didn't realize that the door to the building locks behind you.

This was nearly a very bad day for her. It's a good thing she got up as late as she did and called me before the Great Tragedy happened.

In other news, Orange "customer service," which consists in "please look up stuff on the internet" and "please press a million buttons before a real person will talk to you" have just bothered me for the last time. Come December 6 I will have a new phone contract.

Tonight we're off to see La Clique, which I think looks as much fun as the Miss Behave's Naughty Nightie of August. And since it's opening night, I'll get to scoop the print media!

And tomorrow ... Italy! (And I just found the menu for the Da Cesari restaurant, where the three of us will be eating Wednesday night ... ah!)

My phone's been "pulling a whitey" regularly for about a week now. It's like the blue screen of death but it's white. shadowdaddy and I were calling it "IWS syndrome," for Irritating White Screen. What would happen is that the display would slowly fade to white and all of the touch controls would die, so you'd be in the middle of sending a text and suddenly the whole thing would turn into the Cheshire Cat, disappearing in front of your eyes. Aargh.

I took it into the Orange store and, seriously, I was the Unwanted Customer of Doom. Not buying a cell phone? We don't want your business. I mean, as it is, you can't get a bit of service there unless they know your cell phone number, which is _on my cell phone_ (sorry, I just have a hard time memorizing number). The girl said I can't upgrade for another seven months (which I think will be free) but meanwhile I could buy a new phone for a mere £150 - or, oh yeah, I could pay £15 to get my phone fixed ... _if_ I had the original receipt. "And what would I keep that for?" I asked her. "So you can use it when you get rid of your phone." "But I want to fix it, not get rid of it. Come on, I bought the phone _at this store_, surely you have a record of the purchase." Then she played her trump card: "Yeah, so, that would work only if you know the day you bought the phone." And, well, you know, I pretty well had that in hand because I'd looked it up to figure out whether or not I'd crossed the one year line. To her extreme irritation, she was even able to find me on their system. So now I am out of a phone for a week, and I don't really have a backup right now. I'm trying to use W's old phone, but ... I just can't figure out how to, or if it's working, or where my contacts list is, or if I even had it on my sim card or not. I'd try to use my old Motorola phone, but the charger, er, has exposed wires and has been thrown out. So right now I have no cell phone, but since I don't get a lot of calls or texts I don't think this is really going to rock anyone's world. Contact via email - it's the best! And in a week and a half I should have my old phone back, or something.

Anyway, the echocardiogram/graph (before the trip to the phone store) was pretty cool. At one point I could see the little ventricle thingies in my heart opening and closing like pinball flippers on the screen. The technician said my heart looked good, no build up or anything, but the exercise and stuff was definitely a good idea. Next visit (Wednesday): how is my liver looking?

And now I'm going to take a nap and then move the cat back from W's to my place. I sure lead an exciting life, don't I?