The Voice Of Reason

Just read about a lottery ticket that was rejected in a town in Newfoundland. A customer came into a shop and asked for a $10 ticket but the clerk printed off one that was more expensive by mistake. The customer didn't want it and the ticket was voided. You guessed it. Turns out it was a winner, $30 million worth! Aggghh!

Actress Rue McLanahan died. She was one of the Golden Girls. I think Betty White might be the only one left as Bea Arthur died last year and Estelle Getty the year before. That was a great sitcom. Rue was actually a breast cancer survivor but had a stroke earlier this year and died from a subsequent stroke. She did a lot of tv work and some films but Golden Girls is what she was mainly known for. She also had a small part as a deranged nanny on my old favourite soap Another World, back in the early 70s. I only barely remember that storyline and don't remember that it was her but if IMDB says it's so, it's so.

I'm in another phone quandary. Going to get a new mobile and change companies. Virgin has the best reputation for customer service so i'm pretty sure i'm going with them but it's not 100%. Even though Bell owns Virgin, i'd prefer not to go with Bell directly. They have extra fees and their plans aren't as good. I prefer to go pre-paid and that's the problem. It really pisses me off that there is so little choice of phones available for prepaid. You can buy one of their other phones but it's over the odds for price and then i don't think it includes all the features that the prepaid bundles include like call display etc. That would cost extra. I know that doesn't make sense but that's what i think i've been told. Prepaid seems the best fit for me since i don't use a phone for a lot of talking or texting, just short calls and a few texts now and then. A monthly plan means i have to add on for things like call display and other features and it ends up costing me double in the long run. I might like to do a bit of web browsing but again, not a lot so the pay per use is fine.

So the phones. The one that Virgin has that i like is the Samsung Vice and the other one is the LG Rumour 2. Looking up reviews of them online there's more bad than good for both of them. Gah! However my current phone is a Samsung slider and i've had it nearly 3 years and it's great. One sales person tells me they prefer Samsung and another says oh they've never had any of the LG one returned. They're both about the same price and have the little keyboard that slides out. I'm not locked into having one of those keyboards but the other phones either have a rubbish camera or i don't like the feel of the keys on them. I want a phone with a half decent camera. the Samsung has the best of the lot with a 2 MP one. The LG is 1.3.

Over at Telus we have the LG Keybo 2 and the Samsung Intensity. The LG has a 3 MP camera vs the Samsung 1.3. Reviews seem to indicate that the LG shuts itself off randomly for some people. Not good. However, this HTC smartphone could possibly tempt me into a contract except i know it'll end up costing me a bundle with the web browsing etc. But isn't it beautiful? I reckon with the way the plans work, and an addon for data, it would cost me in the neighbourhood of $50 a month. really, that's a lot, and would i use it enough to justify it? I'm not really a phone junkie and i don't really want to be one. That's a fantasy phone...but it *is* nice!

So, ok, anyone got any experience or preference between Samsung and LG in general?

I know i've not posted a lot lately, but there hasn't been a lot going on nor anything in the newspaper that makes me want to comment either. Am still perusing mobile phones but have decided to wait until i get overseas to get one there. If the prices are stupid, i'll get one when i come back. You know, i've been looking at a few of the UK websites that sell phones and it seems that some of them sell an unlocked phone at a lot higher price than one locked to a network and Virgin phones seem more expensive for the same phone than, say, TMobile. Tsk. If i'm going to get a phone and get it unlocked, i don't care what network it's on, thankfully, and have been thinking of switching providers anyway to something i don't have to top up every 6 months to keep the number active. Graham's with TMobile and only has to use the phone, top up or send a text once a year. that would work better for me. I shall investigate. Anyone got any recommendations?

Mom and i *might* take a one week trip to London next spring. Maybe. We're thinking about it anyway. It'll depend on finances mainly. I expect it would be over Easter so that gramie_dee can come down and visit for the long weekend leaving us to our own devices for the first few days. Mom's never been overseas and only fancies going if i go with her as tour guide :) I think if we go, we might be better off mainly using the bus because there are a lot of stairs in many of the tube stations though some aren't too bad. I don't want her hips and back to go out while we're on hols, and we'll be walking a lot as it is. Bad enough that almost every loo in the country seems to be up or down a set of stairs ;) I've already looked and the airfare for March is very good. We'll know a bit more after Christmas i think and we can decide then. I get an extra 5 days vacation allotment next year as it's my 20th year here so i have "wiggle room".

Buggeration. I just had a wrangle with the online banking which kept telling me i had my password incorrect. I had to go through all the hoops to reset it only to realize that i had indeed entered the wrong password at the start. No wonder it objected! When it comes to things like banking online or things financial like ebay or paypal, i don't use the same password for them all. I had just logged into paypal to transfer funds to my bank account and then went to the bank account just to check balances right after that. Thus, i tried to enter the password for paypal into my bank site. Doh.

I tried to plug in my phone last night for a recharge, which is having to happen more often these days as the battery is slowly dying i think. No power. No nothing, not in any outlet i tried so it's the charger, not the power in the outlet. I then removed it and put it on a table and realized one of the prongs was still stuck in the outlet! Okay then. Definitely need a new charger only it pisses me off because i'm going to get a new phone by the end of the year anyway so that's about 3-4 months use out of a new charger for a phone that's got a dicky battery anyway and will be replaced. Could i get away without the phone for 4 months? Yeah probably but it's useful so i'll probably get a new charger. They don't have a lot of choice for the PayGo phones so i'd rather wait until i go away in November to find one i really want.

( Note to self )

Discovered that Rogers now sells a $100 pre-paid mobile phone card where the minutes don't expire for a year and if you use them up before the year, you can top up with a lesser amount which would normally expire in 30 days but will not, as the 365 days takes precedence. This means would not have to buy another one year voucher until end of year for first voucher reached. I checked my last six months' bills and i've only used a total of 51$ worth of air time calculated on 33 cents a minute if using the "anytime" minutes plan. This is good. Probably means that when my contract expires, i should be able to stay with Rogers and go pay-as-you-go. Now i just need an unlocked tri or quad band GSM phone. Then i can use it for the UK or anywhere else as well. I doubt i can get one unlocked around here so will have to get one off ebay i guess, before next summer. Won't be in the UK to get a phone and get it unlocked before then. Don't suppose anyone has a used unlocked one they'd like to sell? I don't need fancy features, calling and texting will be enough. Prefer flip phone.