Happy Saturday!

Well, since I got married (and for a while before, even), I have been the subject of numerous jests from friends about how domesticated I have become. I had to giggle at myself today when I had an entire day free to myself, and did the following:

1) Woke up, got dressed, practiced guitar for about an hour
2) Addressed about 40 thank-you cards
3) Installed two new light fixtures in our walk-in closets
4) Did four loads of laundry
5) Bought a new phone
6) Practiced programming
7) Caught up on my blog reading

Not that many years ago my Saturday would have gone like this:

1) Wake up (late)
2) Locate friends and beer
3) Drink beer with friends

I think that this is a good thing, but I can't say I don't miss the utter lack of responsibility that came with my youth...

The phone I got is the LG eNV. I am not sure if it would pass the 'cool gadget test', but I think it's a lot spiffier than my last phone (LG VX-something-something flip phone). It has a QWERTY keyboard, which is really handy when I am writing my 10-12 weekly text messages. The camera is pretty good, I must say. Most importantly, the speakerphone is excellent - the last phone was completely useless in that respect. I went to the Verizon Wireless store with every intention of buying a so-called 'smartphone', but when I thought about being tethered to the internet, it just seemed like a bad, bad idea. If someone wants me to have a Blackberry, then they are going to have to pay for it themselves.

(Rant alert)
All I could think of as I evaluated the smartphones is all the people that I see/know who sit at the lunch/dinner table half-listening to the people they are sitting with, scrolling through their email, glancing every three seconds to see if another message has arrived, looking down into their lap, as if looking at the phone below the table makes it any less rude. When we were kids, we weren't allowed to talk on the phone at the dinner table, under any circumstances, and it is now one of my most gigantic pet peeves. I don't want to be that guy. Ever. If someone really needs my opinion on something while I am eating lunch or while I am out for a walk, they can call me, and leave a message. Or call twice so I know it's actually important. The fact is, 95% of these people and the messages they are ingesting like crack are not that important. The things can wait - they could wait before RIM incorporated, and they can wait now. Anyone who thinks that that email is that urgent is a bit full of themselves, unless they are working in a position where an immediate response is necessary (ie you run a production server that crashed, or you are a policeman, or something to that effect). I am okay with being unimportant enough not to need my phone attached to a POP3 server, for now anyway.

Sorry that was quite a rant, but today's phone store visit brought it to the surface. More later on failure, and picking yourself back up again.