Two Week Smart Phone-less Challenge

  My adventures in smartphone user hit a huge snag last month.   Back in December I upgraded my failing, yet still more reliable, LG Cosmos to an LG G2.  Yes, the buttons were beginning to stop working.  Yes, the screen was scratched up horribly.  Yes, it had little Internet capability.  Yes, the battery would only last about 2 days at best.  However, it never failed me.  But, because of work demands I had to upgrade to a smartphone that had locking capability and ability to view email. 

   I didn’t pay for the phone but am still baffled how Verizon can justify their upgrade fee of $35.  The argument at the time was that if I added a new line of service, I didn’t have to pay the $35 upgrade fee.  If I just got a new smart phone I did, because it was an UPGRADE fee.  Yet, if I replaced my phone with the exact same one, it was still an UPGRADE fee.    Yeah, try and wrap your nugget around that idea.   Basically, money.   End of story.

   So, I’ve had this phone for about 7months, added all these apps, been all over the Internet, and become a zombie like everyone else.  However, I love the fact that I don’t have to pay for a Garmin, Tom Tom, or pay the $10 a month for VZ Navigator because Google does the work for you, though there are issues sometimes with the GPS getting lost.  I also love that I can handle the mundane tasks of checking email, deleting junk, scheduling appts, and banking without having to be at a computer or even in my home.  I can do it while standing in line at places, eating, or sitting in traffic (within reason).

  Yet, about six months into my contract I had issues with the phone overall.   Because I am a bit of a clutz with banana hands, I bought a $20 Body Glove rubber case for my phone which fits a little.  I say that because sometimes the corners of the phone can hang out or it doesn’t sit well inside the casing.   But, what I began to notice was that I would double tap on the phone to turn it on and that wouldn’t work.  It never registered my touch.  After a two minute ordeal, I decided to just push the button on the back.  The phone would light up and immediately shut off.  This would go on for an indefinite amount of time.  I don’t know if it’s because of the case, smudges on the screen, or defective equipment.   

  Three weeks ago, had tried to call my voice mail but couldn’t put in my password because the screen was blank.  Now, I like that the screen goes dark when you have the phone up to your ear so that your face doesn’t press any buttons, but when you return the phone to a horizontal position, the screen should detect it not being near your face and light up.   Well, along with the intermittent on/off issue, this was now a standard problem.   I pulled the phone out of the case, because it sometimes helped to take any pressure off the phone.   I noticed that I could see illumination along the edge of the screen which made me feel as if the screen was beginning to peel or detach from the phone.   I put the phone back into the case and pushed the corner in, settling the phone into the casing.  That’s when I heard it.  CRACK!!!   The glass spider webbed and cracks ran down from the top corner through to the bottom.  WTF?!?!?

  My first mistake was not immediately disabling the password.   The phone was somewhat still usable at that point though the keys were glitch.   My second mistake was letting the phone go dark.   Because now I could not shut the phone down or do anything else because the crack ran through the top of my dialpad rendering the 1, 2, and 3 buttons useless.   Most of my password used those keys.  Texts and messages came through with no way for me to respond.  I even informed my closest friends and my family of the issue and yet they continued to send me more messages even though I said, “I CANNOT RESPOND” before the screen went dark from being idle. 

  I took the phone to the Verizon store and they were less than helpful.   “You didn’t take the insurance, so you can’t get it fixed.  Even though you had this issue we don’t know if the phone was doing it before the screen cracked.  Warranty doesn’t cover this.”  Basically, I had a piece of crap on my hands.   And they peddled my ass to third party vendors to repair the screen… which was pointless because the one they suggested didn’t handle LG phones. 

• My options were, shit can the phone and spring for a new one at $500. 
• Get a used replacement phone for around $200 which would not have any of my stuff on it save the back up of files, videos, pictures, and contacts.  
• Buy the replacement parts and do the work myself for around $90 plus time and effort.  
• Find a place that does the work, which I finally did for $200.  
• Go without.

  Since I needed my phone for work, I couldn’t go without.  I remembered a time about 10 years ago when I resisted getting a cell phone.  “Why do I need one?  I have a home phone.  If someone needs to get a hold of me, they can call me at home and I can call them back when I am available.”   Of course, being able to find out what brand of whatever I am buying from the store, because I forgot in the time it took to drive there, is nice.  Being able to announce that I will be later, early, or nope is nice.   Still, I think we’ve become too reliant on this technology.  I know I have, because I spent the next two weeks without a cell phone.

  Could you do it?  Could you put your cell phone down for two weeks and not use it.  I don’t mean your work phone.  I mean your personal phone.   The one you use to text friends and family.   The one you use to play games and check out Facebook and troll through Tinder and Match.com.  The one you might be using to send inappropriate messages, or *gasp* pictures to that girl or guy you’ve been trying to date.   Whatever you use a phone for these days, could you do without it for two weeks.

  I called a place named ubreakifix, which was appropriately named.  They could get the parts and do the work for $199.  It comes with a 90 day warranty against repairs.  I had to wait a week for the parts to come in but they could do the work in about an hour and were open until 7pm which was convenient.  Yes, I could have bought the parts myself for around $90, and even though the videos I watched were around 20 minutes long, the amount of crap socked into a phone that is a half inch thick that needs to be unscrewed, unhooked, and unsnapped made me cringe.  I have all the dexterity of an oven mitt, so there is a lot that could go wrong that would be worth an extra $100 to keep me from doing it twice.

  After the parts came in, I ventured over to Bloomfield, EVENTUALLY finding a place to park which was a little lot with those newfangled parking meters.  Actually, at $0.25 an hour, it was worth it.  I walked in and less than an hour later, walked out with my screen fixed.   Worth it.  Of course, the phone still has the issue it had before which means I am going back to Verizon to give them hell.

  But, through all this I learned to deal with not having a phone 24/7.   Yes, it sucked when I picked up my car from being fixed and found out it was still screwed up and I could not call to bitch or complain, let alone call for help if it broke down.   I also learned to just listen and not multitask in a conversation while clicking away.   There are times when the cell phone is useful, but we rely on it for everything.  

  We have replaced the idea of wonder and discovery with instantaneous information and gratification.    With a smart phone you won’t get lost, or you won’t plot out a course, at least.   Having my phone back and plugging in a destination was nice, but when I got out into the middle of nowhere, beyond the route I knew, the GPS decided to say, “Well, I’m done.  You’re on your own.”   So, I had to rely on my sense of direction and visual abilities to find my way around.    But even still, with GPS support fully enabled and unwavering, you miss out on what’s around you.   You don’t discover new ways and take time to look around.

  We have this problem with living life as it is.  We manipulate the odds and outcomes.  We fill the gaps in our quiet with noise from technology.  We are in constant fear of boredom.   We need instant gratification and constant contact.  We are trying to cram so much into the empty spaces of our lives that we aren’t living it, we’re scanning it, skimming it, noting it, and moving on to the next thing.    How long do you stare at your phone after sending a message, expecting a quick response?  How many times do you look at your phone, wondering if you missed it?  How many conversations have you had going at one time?  How focused are you on any given one?  How well do you manage your time with others when you have the outlet for multiple interactions at once?   It’s all maddening.   

  So, if you can, and I suggest you try, detach.  Put the phone down for two weeks.   I don’t mean detach from technology altogether.   But there is a time and place that can be allocated for it, in a location conducive to it.    But while you are out, rely on what is around you to navigate your way.  Make decisions based on experience and given circumstances, not reports and statistics and search results at your fingertips.  Live life in real time, out in the open, and not in the palm of your hand.    

  In the last week that I’ve had my phone back, I have found that I am not as attached to it.   I walk away from it sometimes.  I forget to bring it with me from one room to the next or *shudder* almost walk off without it.  I keep the mobile data setting off for most of the time.   I don’t feel the need to constantly have it in my hand and on while I am sitting somewhere, like traffic.  I mean, I still find times to use it, but I am learning when those times are, now. 

  Can you?   

  Can you do it voluntarily?   

  Maybe we need to start shifting back into a world that doesn’t need to be connected all the time.

WUMF: December 2013 Edition

Hey, I’m still consistent.  It’s after the New Year and I’m just now getting out the WUMF.

Maybe this will be the last one.

Seriously, it’s hard enough to come up with some blog posts let alone a random wrap up of the month, but here it goes, anyway.

Steelers’ Season

I admit, I quietly cursed Succup for missing that field goal but then realized, “I’m blaming Kansas City’s kicker and the refs for the Steelers not getting into the playoffs.”  Really?  They were 8-8 and blew games against New York, Minnesota, and Oakland.   If they had won those easy games, they would have been 11-5 and been in the playoffs.  They just didn’t get it done this year.  And let’s not blame Ben Roethlisberger on this one.  He looked better than ever on paper and on the field.  The first four games were the death of them.  But looking back at the other games, New England is the only team that blew them out on offense.  Otherwise, they were on pace with scoring.  The defense was the culprit on a lot of these losses.  Ryan Clark and Ike Taylor need a good stern talking to.   It also doesn’t help that half of your star players were out with injury throughout the year.   That team had an identity crisis with the revolving roster and no banned table game time is going to fix that mess.  Better luck next year.

YouTube

I’ve actually finished some walkthroughs.  WOW.  With Sims 3 and Minecraft ongoing, I’m looking to start some more.  If I could get the PS3 box to record right, I would have put up me and Bailey playing Little Big Planet or even me playing GTA V.   I still can’t figure it out and there’s no alone time to play those games.  Bailey is kind of getting herself into a lot of vids, which is fine, but I can’t be as bad as I usually am with language or situations.  But she’s doing her own adventure maps for me to play… which is pretty neat for a six year old.  She’s got quite the sense of humor when it comes to this stuff, so maybe we’ll see some humor incidentally from her work.  With Limbo and Little Inferno done, I need to get back on the Design It series since Game of Thrones will be back up in a couple months.  I still have probably 10 design videos to record.  I’d also like to do some shorts.  I got a new phone with a better resolution and video capabilities… so, here’s hoping.

Pandora

HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS!?!?!?  I’ve been using YouTube to get my music fix but with the new phone, Pandora has been awesome.   I’m joining the 21^st century, I guess.  The only thing that sucks is well, the ads, and that I can’t get skip too many songs before I get stuck on something I don’t like.  I can thumbs down it, but it may actually be a song I like, but just not at the moment.  I tried I Heart Radio and it’s not bad if I want to listen to my local stations where I can’t.

PNC Float

OK, if you have a checking account with PNC, you’re going to notice that it’s free but it isn’t.  The reason is that you need to have at least $1000 in direct deposit into your account in order to keep them deducting $10 each month.  But, if you do have that, they still deduct it and then put it back in the next day.  So, you get your $10 back and they get the interest off of $10 times their total customer base.  It’s called a float I guess and even though it might be a miniscule amount of cash in that 24 hour period, the number of customers they do this to can add up in terms of total profits. 

I know, people say, “Get a credit union.”  Yeah, well, that would be fine if I could hit up an ATM for my credit union wherever I am.  PNC has that luxury.    They’ve slowly started to strip out all the benefits from being a customer.  I guess that’s the cost of doing business with a bank looking for every available loop hole to make money off its customers.  

This was a pretty easy write up… maybe the WUMF will stick around.  Be sure to post your thoughts on me, my writing, or anything non-spammy.

Happy New Year.

Textually Active

Mongo don’t text.

OK, that was true about five years ago.  In fact, I held out on getting a cell phone for as long as I could.  I think the first one I ever had was an LG flip phone from 2004.     I was 29…   To that point, I waited until I was 27 to get a credit card.  I lost that battle when I became a homeowner.   I regret what my balance is today.  Evil little plastic thing!

Even with that giant leap in gadgetry I resisted texting.  For one, I have meat hooks.  Banana hands.  Flippers.  All the dexterity of an oven mitt.  For me to get my plump digits to correctly type out a message using nine numerical keys, waiting for the right letter to pop up or T9word  suggestions takes too long.  I could call you, have the conversation, talk about nothing for ten minutes, and be done before I hit send on the first text.  Secondly, why would I have an entire conversation  this way?  Emails can be long and contain multiple ideas.  Texts are basically you spamming a keyboard with  “OMG”, “K”, or “WTF?”

However, these days that has all changed.  I have become a little more adept at texting, though some days it’s like playing the Game of Thumbs, I win or I diet.  I miss words, it takes forever to spell something out, and I have only advanced to an LG Cosmos.  I’ve had it for probably four years, now.    Why do I not have a Smartphone?  Because my bill is only $92 a month and that covers three phones, texting between two people and enough minutes to never run out.   If I move up to a Smartphone, I will probably increase my charges 3x and the temptation of using a Smartphone like most people do will become a problem…  Remember my credit card issue?

Now, as far as texting goes, I do only get 250 a month.   In the past that wasn’t a problem.  In fact, I didn’t have a texting plan before 2012.   If someone sent me a text, I paid as I went.  Then, we opted to get 250 for an additional $5.00 a month.  Which, wasn’t too bad.   Of course, my wife decided that she needed to up hers to 1000 last year for an additional $5.00 a month.   That’s another story for another time.   Still, I maintained my 250 limit and was fine.

Until it was not fine.  In the past year, I’ve found myself going over my 250 threshold and it feels like I’m breaking the law.  Actually, I was getting treated like a common criminal for doing so, with no reason.   With no conTEXT, there was a lot of speculation.   Turns out, I have friends who text.  I work in IT and we text issues back and forth.   I am on the hook for being an application admin and when it breaks and I’m not around, I get pinged.   Sometimes people text me an entire thought, one word at a time.   Don't ask me why.  Still, even at its worst, I’ve only ever gone over my 250 limit by no more than 10 texts.

Now, how bad is that?  Why don’t I just up it to 1000 and pay the extra $5.00?   I could.  It would be no skin off my nose.   However, when I look at my average amount of texts per month, I’ve gone over maybe four times in a year.    Like I said, I’ve never gone over by more than 10 texts.   Beyond my limit, I pay as I go.  That whopping overage is $0.10 a text.

So,

four months at $1.00 per month = $4.00

OR

12 months at $5.00 per month = $60.00

Now who is smart?  Eventually, I will have to get with the program and get a new phone and new plan.   I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.   Not to mention, they want you to pay them $30 just for the privilege of paying for a new phone and staying on as a customer.   Mongo also doesn't double dip.  If you want me as a customer, show me the money.   Waive the fee, upgrade the phone, and let me pay like I should, for a phone and a plan, not for loyalty.

Yes, my phone sucks.  The reception sucks.  Half the buttons don’t work.  It’s not cool.  I look like that old guy in the commercial “Two cans and a piece of string!”   But, hey, I have $56.00 extra in my pocket a year to spend on worthwhile things.  Remember when we actually used phones to call people?  Those were the days.