Sunday, July 15, 2007
In other cell phone related news, I now have a camera in my phone. This is very exciting because now, in all those situations where I used to say "I wish I had a camera" I will in fact have a camera. This has already come in handy on a few occasions: when I was at a picnic at work and one of my supervisors had a balloon tied to her head, making her look vaguely reminiscent of some Dr. Seuss character; when I was on the subway with my parents on the 4th of July and we spotted someone dressed as a Revolutionary-War-era British solider; and when Joanna and I were on our way to the fabric store and passed a car all decked out Halloween-style. On the last two occasions the people I was with said wistfully, "Oh, I wish I had a camera," and I felt extremely pleased with myself when I was able to whip mine out of my pocket and snap a picture. I was especially proud of myself for the car picture since that was done in a moving vehicle. And because I'm incredibly clever, I've now figured out how to send the pictures to flickr so you can all see them. Yes, I know everyone else has been doing this for years. Humor me.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Here is a quick lesson in compulsiveness:
You know those little rubber plugs that go in your cell phone, that fill up the slot where the charger plugs in? When I got my first cell phone I always managed to keep track of it and always put it back when I was done charging the phone. At first it was just because it still happened to be sitting there, next to the charging phone, so I thought, why not? After that it became habit. After a while I noticed that no one else seemed to still have the rubber plugs for their cell phones, and some part of me felt smug, as though my phone were somehow more complete because I had this little object. And then every now and then I'd misplace it, and I'd feel incredibly distressed and I would NEED TO FIND IT as though it were a crucial component of some sort. Usually it was just on some nearby piece of furniture, but the worst time this happened was when I was moving to a bigger room in my apartment last summer and I'd somehow lost it in the disarray. I located it somewhere on the floor in the hallway and felt very relieved.
I kept very good track of it until last week, when my phone contract was finally up after two years and I switched networks. (Hi Dave! Now I am a free call!) I went to the store and got a new phone and decided on a new contract. At the end the salesman just had to switch my phone book from the old phone to the new one. I handed him my phone and he disappeared into a back room for five minutes or so. When he came back and handed me my phones, neither the old nor the new phone had a rubber plug in the slot where you plug in the charger.
I did not say anything about it, because I am aware that the rubber plug is not actually an important feature of the phone. And also that if I asked for them I would sound insane. And also I was hoping that maybe the rubber plug for the new phone was just in the box somewhere, with the charger and instruction manual and everything. Alas, it was not. This distressed me a great deal for the first few days: not only that I have never seen the rubber plug that presumably came with my new phone, but also that my old phone (which is sitting on my desk just waiting for one of my family members on the old network to throw their phone in the laundry) does not have the plug which I had guarded so carefully for two whole years.
I am slowly getting more comfortable with the idea that a phone can do perfectly well without its charger slot being protected from pocket lint at all times, which is probably for the best, since in the time that I have spent keeping careful track of a largely useless object, I can now instead write a blog post telling you all exactly how nutty I am. Delightful, no?
You know those little rubber plugs that go in your cell phone, that fill up the slot where the charger plugs in? When I got my first cell phone I always managed to keep track of it and always put it back when I was done charging the phone. At first it was just because it still happened to be sitting there, next to the charging phone, so I thought, why not? After that it became habit. After a while I noticed that no one else seemed to still have the rubber plugs for their cell phones, and some part of me felt smug, as though my phone were somehow more complete because I had this little object. And then every now and then I'd misplace it, and I'd feel incredibly distressed and I would NEED TO FIND IT as though it were a crucial component of some sort. Usually it was just on some nearby piece of furniture, but the worst time this happened was when I was moving to a bigger room in my apartment last summer and I'd somehow lost it in the disarray. I located it somewhere on the floor in the hallway and felt very relieved.
I kept very good track of it until last week, when my phone contract was finally up after two years and I switched networks. (Hi Dave! Now I am a free call!) I went to the store and got a new phone and decided on a new contract. At the end the salesman just had to switch my phone book from the old phone to the new one. I handed him my phone and he disappeared into a back room for five minutes or so. When he came back and handed me my phones, neither the old nor the new phone had a rubber plug in the slot where you plug in the charger.
I did not say anything about it, because I am aware that the rubber plug is not actually an important feature of the phone. And also that if I asked for them I would sound insane. And also I was hoping that maybe the rubber plug for the new phone was just in the box somewhere, with the charger and instruction manual and everything. Alas, it was not. This distressed me a great deal for the first few days: not only that I have never seen the rubber plug that presumably came with my new phone, but also that my old phone (which is sitting on my desk just waiting for one of my family members on the old network to throw their phone in the laundry) does not have the plug which I had guarded so carefully for two whole years.
I am slowly getting more comfortable with the idea that a phone can do perfectly well without its charger slot being protected from pocket lint at all times, which is probably for the best, since in the time that I have spent keeping careful track of a largely useless object, I can now instead write a blog post telling you all exactly how nutty I am. Delightful, no?