Low Tech? 2

It has been a while since I last wrote in this blog.

The last time I wrote, I was using my storm about to give it up and go to a flip phone. During that time, I did give up using my storm. It was too big and bulky for me. Don't get me wrong I loved it, but I thought I could handle something without all the hassle. I decided to go low tech, kind of, with the LG Decoy. I got so far as to order it as an upgrade from Verizon and open the box to check out the phone. All in all it was a good phone. Convenient to say the least. It had its own bluetooth headset built in and can be removed at a touch of a button. While sitting at my desk at home, messing with the phone, I came to the conclusion that this may not do it for me. I would call myself a tech person. I would even go so far as to say that I am a "connected" person. I need to stay connected to the Internet. Whether it be email, rss feeds, or even facebook. Something to get me away from what I am doing at the present. That it why I kept the decoy in its box, and returned the faithful blackberry phone. There were issues for me going back from a regular phone to my BB phone. The main issue was I didn't know which one to go back to. I have the storm, the curve, the world phone 8830, and the pearl. The world phone is a no brain-er. No camera no play. The storm is new and high tech but I couldn't get over the accelerometer issues. I decided to activate the pearl. Once it was active, my girl and I went to walmart to walk around and get some McDonald's. While we were walking I was playing with the phone to get re-accustomed to the features. I tried video recording with the pearl but it would not record. Let me rephrase that. I can record just fine on the pearl. It was a matter of the pearl saving the video to memory. This was just fantastic. I want to use a phone and use all of its functionalities. I was disappointed but I tried to troubleshoot the problem. I checked the settings on the phone to make sure it was saving to the memory card. I checked the directory folder on the memory card to make sure it was the memory card and not the device memory. I verified all my settings with my gf's pearl, which can record video. But none of these items worked. It would say that it is recording but the file is always at 0kb. When we got home, I immediately went online and switched the pearl to the curve. Everything went well. I was able to activate the curve and use it. However, I forgot that the curve's trackball would not scroll up so easily. It would take me a few swipes for the cursor to go all the way up the screen. I have lived with this problem since I got the phone but I sure wasn't going to live with it now. I decided to do a little surgery to fix this problem. I took off the silver ring around the trackball off the phone. The trackball was easy to take off after that. Since the pearl and the curve use the same equipment I just swapped out the trackball and silver ring off of the pearl and placed them in the curve. Powered the curve on and I was able to scroll in all directions without a problem.

A couple of key points from this splurge of my mind:

• I want to be low tech
• But I need to be connected

• Thus I need my blackberry.

What else can I do to save some money.

In part one of Low Tech?, I stated that I had 5 lines and I wanted to consolidate those into 2 lines. As I was speaking with the Verizon rep to help me activate the pearl, she kindly helped me reorganize my lines and my plan. So instead of having 5 separate lines, she turned them into a family plan. I have yet to see the total bill for this change but it has to be better than what I was paying before. I will eventually ( meaning some time soon) cancel my 3 lines and just pay the 2 lines. In the end it will turn out nicely for me. I will most likely have to pay about $550 to cancel 3 lines compared to paying $3000 a year for all 5 lines. In the long run this will work to my benefit. I just hope I can pay this chunk in smaller chunks.

I guess low tech for me would be using what I have to benefit me without the need to spend a lot of money. For instance, I have multiple large usb drives I can use for back up and storage. I have several external hard drives for back up and storage. I have several ipods for music and videos and entertainment. I just need to calm down with my spending and use the tech that I already have. Wish me luck with that!

Low Tech?

Happy Monday to all you out there in cyberspace.

I am here at work and the one thing that I did today was downgrade my phone. I was using the BB Storm with Verizon, but as much as I love bb's and I was getting used to the storm, it just wasn't doing it for me. I think it was the accelerometer on the storm. I would go to answer the phone, and I would hit the answer button and the screen would just shift to the horizontal view. The other issue is size of the phone. Well maybe it was because I had a clear case covering the phone, but it was still huge in my pocket. It is somewhat heavy. Also, the price for this phone plan was somewhat expensive for me at the time. I have 5 lines on my plan and I need to downsize to 2 lines, one for the phone and the other for the Internet. So this is why I chose to "downgrade" to a regular cell phone. I think I have had my fill of smart phones. But we shall see. I kind of flip-flop between phones but this is a good look for me. Hopefully I can keep this up so I can start saving money for the future. It is about time I realize what is priority and finally deal with it. I need to do this. Low tech? Naw, I'll say perfect for me tech.

Present wrapping

Last night I think we finished buying all our xmas presents. Well, except for one person. After that then I will be done. One thing that I do not enjoy doing is wrapping presents. It is actually the fact that I do not really know how to wrap presents. But with the patience of a doctor, my girl showed me how to wrap. I have not yet used my new found skills to wrap more presents but maybe when I get the last item on my list I will use my skills. Other than that, all is well. It was raining and cold this week, but it looks as if the storm is over. There is snow on top of the mountains and the air is brisk. It does feel a lot like winter! I just wish it felt like xmas. Maybe it is the times now, but money is tight and presents are unfortunately limited. At least I'll get to see my family for that one day. Work is on Friday. No calling in sick. Oh well!

My Weekend 12-13-08

It is Monday, the 15th of December and I am on my 2nd cup of coffee. What is going on you may ask? Well this weekend was pretty cool. Well kind of but its all good. I left happy on Friday after work. I got to my area of the valley in a relatively quick time. I decided to go get a hair cut. I went to my local supercuts and was taken right away. I knew it was not gonna turn out good when I told the lady that I wanted a number 1 fade and she asked me if it was with or without the guard. (side note: a hair cut without a guard is referred to as a Zero) I just said, let me have a zero fade. She said ok and got me ready for my hair cut. She started with the clippers with no guard and went up kind of far up my head. (side note: I am trying to grow my hair out on top) To balance this out she used the other guards to blend into my head but instead of going straight up, she kind of went up and then curved in. She cut some of my bangs and the rest of my hair on top. You should have seen my face. I was kind of upset, but I blame myself for telling her not to go up so far. Any ways, I got to my car, poured water on my head to see if my hair looked that bad. I really couldnt tell. I rushed home, got to my bathroom, and rubbed some gell in to my hair. Since I am growing my hair out my hair is usually flat. When I styled my hair I put my hair straight up and then in a faux hawk. That looked good. Ok I am happy!! I took a shower and finally relaxed after a crazy start to the weekend.

On Sat, was my friends' engagement party in Newport Beach. I left my house early so that I can pick up my girlfriend at her place. There was no traffic so I got there on time. I dropped off my bags in her room and watched some tv as she finished getting ready. Once she was finished we hopped into my car and left. I put the addy correctly into the gps and we were on our way. As we got closer to the place there were a few obstacals. One, I didnt read the gps right so I turned right when I should have went straight. Knowing me, I made a quick left into a structured parking lot as cars were trying to exit. I made a u-turn, didnt want to back up so I curb-jumped unto some grass and made my right turn. That was fun! I guess in Newport there is a group of houses that is built on an island. We crossed the bridge and entered the island per the gps instructions. As soon as we hit the "auto ferry" we knew something was up. Thank goodness for my baby girl. She quickly decifered our way out of that stupid island and back on the right track. We got to our destination without further incident. However, there was valet parking and metered parking. We looked for the valet but there was none. So we found some nice metered parking. Not to bad, it was close enough for us to walk. However, it was only a 2 hour meter. We entered the restaurant and we were one of the first couples there. Once everything got started it was fun. We ate we laughed and I gave a toast. All in all the day over there was great. We then left to go back to my girl's house. She had class in the morning so of course there was homework to be accomplished. We got to her place, she did her work and I watched tv and slept! What a great day!

On Sunday, I pretty much just chilled in her room as she left for class. I got to see her when she came to visit for lunch and then right after her class. We hung out for a while, then got ready to go to Redondo Beach to my other friend's 30th birthday party. It was at her parents' house. It was good eats. I saw her family again, which was nice. We left around 8:30pm and got to my freezing house. We unloaded my car and got ready for bed. Now she is there for this whole week! I have something to look forward to when I get off work.

That was my weekend.


Now...Back to Work..Blah. and Christmas Shopping.

Recycle Thy CDs

Cd Recycling

As I was surfing my usually sites during the day, I came across this site, www.cdrecyclingcenter.com What they do, is recycle all used cds that are in the field. You know all those AOL free cds you can pick up or the install cds from the electronics that you have purchased but dont need any more. Or with the digital age, the cds that you have ripped into MP3s and use those instead of the cds. I figured since I am on my organizational mode again, I would rip my cds to MP3s and recycle those cds. I know for sure I have extra cds from my phones that I have purchased. I dont need them any more. I have other cds that I have copied onto my flash drive so if I do need them, I'll just plug them into my computer. No More need for cds that are taking up space in my drawers.

I think this is a good start to make my Carbon Footprint Smaller!

Have a good day!!
Happy Friday!!


btw, the site I put up has a list of supporters. Look in Cali and you will find my name!! WOOT!!

havent sent any cds yet, but I intend to do so!!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday!

 

Yup I know it is Monday @ 7:31am. I am up early. The reason I am up early is the fact that I started a new job! WOHOO! Technically I started on Oct 20th. So in all actuality this is my 3rd week here. I am working at a company called MDL. This is a medical diagnostic lab. Whenever you get your blood drawn or you pee in a cup, the doctors send the samples to my company. This company then performs all the necessary tests that your doc has requested. My job is to support the 1 and only IT tech person here. We have about 50+ computers that we support. My job is to take all the small things that happen around this office so that my boss can handle all the big jobs that are required of him. I like this job. It is right up my IT field. I am learning a lot with a lot more to learn. I can't wait. My hours are 7a - 4p which are good so that I can go home before the sun sets. I also have a lot more time to do stuff I want to do. Or stuff I need to do. ya know, work out, fix up my room, and get my learn on. I think I will try and start up my Tagalog training again. I bought the Rosetta software a long time ago but haven't picked it up yet.

 

This is where I am @ right now. I left WaMu and now I am working here. I could not be happier. Even though I miss my peeps over at WaMu, this is a better place for me. I am much less stressed out and I even enjoy going to work.

 

OK, I am done for now. I will try and write back sooner.

 

 

 

@work

I am at work just hanging out. I am waiting for the boss man to come to work. I like this job. Its cool and so far the people are nice. And the boss man is a berry user too. Wooot!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry