So I was cleaning the house last Thursday (or vacuuming, or something along those lines) and I was listening to my iPod, and then the KATG show I was listening to came to an end, and I glanced down at the screen, and it was blank with squiggly black lines across it. Nothing readable at all. I flipped the hold switch back and forth, I synced it with my iTunes, I surrounded it in a verbal blanket of profanity, nothing worked.
I Googled around and decided that it needed a new LCD screen, found a place that would do it for a nominal fee (“nominal” meaning “costs less than buying a new goddamn iPod”), and sent it off.
Saturday, I got a call from the place I sent it to. They’d received it and turned it on, got the squiggly lines, synced it up with their iTunes, and the screen came on just fine.
Might be a battery issue; might be because the iPod hates me. Who the fuck knows? So now I’m waiting to hear from the diagnostic department.
If this iPod is hosed, I’m going with a much cheaper alternative next time around. Tell me what mp3 player you use and adore – the cheaper the better!
We are considering what to do with our (phone) land line. Currently we pay $40 a month, which includes unlimited long distance. Which would be a good price if we ever talked on the phone, but we really don’t (and if there’s a long distance call to be made, we can always use our cell phones). We’ve discussed going with the cheapest plan from Vonage, which would save us almost $20 a month. We’ve also discussed going with the cheapest AT&T plan, which we like because it’s not tied to the internet line, so if internet were to go down, we’d still have a phone line.
We’ve also discussed just getting rid of the land line completely and using our cell phones. But the idea of not having a land line makes me a bit nervous. We’ve been talking about it for about a month now and can’t seem to come to a decision. I don’t knowwwwwwwwwww. You’d think it’s not such a big decision, but I AM a master ditherer, so dither I shall.
I think I didn’t mention that my contract with T-M0bile was up last month, so I switched to Virgin Mobile. Except for the fact that I got an email from Virgin Mobile every fucking day for the first week expressing their excitement that I’d signed up with them, it’s going well. I got the 1000 text messages for $5/ month option, AND I got a phone with a QWERTY keyboard, and I’ve gotta say, it sure does make texting a whole lot easier. 1000 text messages is far more than I need, but it’s nice to have the option.
It’s Spring, which means that Miz Poo has started finding and “killing” a toy, then drags it through the house, keening all the while. It’s cute at first, I’ll give you that, but holy CRAP after a while it’s like someone’s driving a steel pick through my eardrums.
She’s SO pleased with herself after she’s delivered her kill to whoever’s around, though, that it’s hard to tell her to FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE STOP.
The kittens have been named! Check ’em out over at L&H. Also, there’s a short movie.
Something about the way that daffodil leaf (?) is bisecting Mister Boogers’ nose makes him look particularly nostril-y, and it’s making me laugh.
Previously
2008: And then they tried to say that I was calling Rick’s feet “dainty”, so in one short day I managed to insult everyone in the house.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: I. Am. PISSED.
2004: “I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t believe I quite understand. Could you explain this “spoonful” word to me via pantomime again?”
2003: That, or she’s a stalker-reader.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: Some people just have a smack-me face, don’t they?
We like Vonage and if your internet goes out you still can use your cell phone if you need a 911 call. Ours has never been a problem.
Love the new kitties!!!
We got rid of our land line a few years ago. At first I was kind of nervous because what if I needed to call 911 and it takes longer because first you get the state police and by the time they connect you to the local police and they get here it could all be over but I got over that. I am so glad that we did it and really don’t miss a land line at all. It’s one less expense a month and that’s a good thing. The only bad thing is you have to carry your cell phone with you all of the time. If you’re up stairs and the phone rings there is no extension up there, you know?
We got rid of our land line about three years ago. The only problem we had – which was solved quickly – was that our alarm system went thru the home phone, so we had to have them add their “satelite service” or something lke that, so it would still work. Other than that, there have not been any problems.
I had gone cell phone only for about 8 years. I was fine with it until I found out that in my county, 911 operators don’t have to try and trace a cell phone if they (a) don’t have time and (b) feel that it isn’t an emergency. Which in the case of (b), no response from the caller means no emergency. I decided if I could get a call off to 911 as I’m passing out or being attacked (as in the case when I found out about (b)), I want someone to come to my house. So I signed up for Vonage. With taxes etc, it comes to just over $30. Since it had unlimited long distance, I got the cheapest cell phone plan I could. I’m thinking about switching to Virgin pre-paid, but I’m not sure. I don’t text message at all – I do get a few from some friends. Unfortunately, for pre-paid, you have to pay .25 for incoming texts which is annoying me. I’d only save about $10 a month on the pre-paid and would have to remember to purchase more minutes every 30 days. So I’m sticking with my cell phone the barely holds a charge waiting for the ulitmate deal. So far, in 6 months, no real good deals since the deals are for the fancy dancy BlackBerry with data plans for a gillion dollars. I already have a BlackBerry for work, so I don’t need another one. Hmm. Maybe I should just cancel my cell phone all together and have people call my work phone. I only average like a call a week these days.
Mr. Boogers DOES NOT like people laughing at him so STOP IT!
We canceled our landline in 2005. Never had any problems with just using our cell phones.
Don’t know what capability you want in an MP3, but I love my SanDisk Sensa Express. Don’t remember what I paid, but I think it was $20. My husband got one on Woot for some ridiculously low price RIGHT AFTER I GOT MINE.
OK, this is REALLY minor in the scheme of things, but why are the “previously” links (2006 and older) the same as yesterday’s? (I certainly don’t mind reading Fred’s comments about “hookers and blow” again, I was just looking for some new old-stuff to read.)
I haven’t had a landline in about 9 years. (Actually, we probably have one right now because it was cheaper to get the phone/internet/cable bundle, but we don’t own any telephones to try it and see.) It is possible to get 911-only service, at least it was back when I first went phoneless.
I canceled our land line about 6 years ago because I was fed up with Bell South. Now, I have Vonage, which is good in case you need to fax, and my cellphone. I haven’t missed the land line at all.
we’ve used vonage for almost 4 yrs. i believe there’s an option to have calls go to an alternate number (like a cell phone) if there’s an outage. there’s lots of fun things you can do with vonage. like… i have ours ring a bazillion times before going to voice mail. unsolicited messages have gone waaay down. guess they don’t like waiting! family/friends call our cell phones anyway.
I have a 1GB Sansa I got on Buy.com for $10.99, I love it. My daughter has a Creative Zen, it’s bigger but it works very well. I’ve been w/o a land line for over a year now, don’t miss it at all! For some reason I think even though you have no phone service in a house you will still have a dial tone to call 911 only, I don’t have a phone to plug in an try this so I’m not sure if this is correct.
Val pretty much stated what I was going to. My husband is a 911 operator (who’s always yelling at his mom and sisters to get a landlne) who absolutely hates when a caller only has a cell phone. If all you have is a cell phone it makes it much, much harder for them to get the police/fire/rescue people to your home. Especially if you’re only able to call and then nothing else. And some places (the more rural) they may take HOURS to triangulate and even when they do it’s not exact. So at the very least get the very basic for a landline. My parents have that and for any long distance they have a calling card to use. Or as you said, use your cells.
Oh yeah, plus cell phone’s batteries die, they crackle and pop and sometimes a call is just dropped for whatever reason. He’ll try to call back, if he was able to get the number before then and so often it won’t go through. There’s just so many reasons not to only have a cell phone when it comes to emergencies. God forbid you ever have an emergency but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
How odd, we’ve just spent the last couple of days talking about getting rid of our land line. I think what we are going to end up doing, at least for a while, is to knock down our land line service to the most basic level. We don’t need it for long distance because we have it free on the cell phones.
One of the things I worry about is that we live in a really small community and then we wouldn’t be in our little 10 page phone book 🙂 I suppose it’s not that big of a deal….
Oh I had the brilliant idea to sign up with Vonage at my job (executive deciosion as I am the only employee). Vonage sucked. Well, let me backtrack a minute and say that the wireless internet connection sucked and Vonage sucked right along with it. Went back to reliable ole land lines at work. The other thing was that Vonage let me sign up online for the service but since it was in the boss’s name HE had to call and cancel it even though I was the contact person.
At my house, however, the boyfriend uses the voip AT&T phone service with a UPS and he likes it just fine. We were without power for several hours not long ago and never lost a connection.
I have a Sandisk “Sanza Fuze” 8 gig and love it. I mainly bought it to download audio books free from our library and to take on vacation. I’ve only used 2 gig and have 6 books in it, tons of music and photos. Small size, a little bigger then a business card. $100.00 at Best Buy, plus a USB elec. converter for $30.
I’m an everyday lurker and love to hear what’s going on at your house.
We gave up our land line 5 or 6 years ago. Would never go back. Saves us at least $70 a month (that is the cheapest plan around here, just for local).
I don’t know that I would use VOIP. Our internet connection can be kinda wonky sometimes, but the only time I’ve ever been without a signal is when a tornado came through last year and took out the closest tower.
I dropped my landline phone service about 2 years ago and only have a cell phone now. The FCC requires that all 911 calls be transmitted to a Public Safety Answering Point regardless if you subscribe to a wireless service or not. In addition my cell phone has a GPS feature that will pinpoint the location of all 911 calls. I recently read that nearly 50% of US 911 calls come from cell phones these days. I have used this feature twice and had immediate local emergency response. I live in the boonies outside Richmond, VA so it’s not a particularly metropolitan area.
I also purchased a bluetooth device which lets me connect my cell phone to my inactive house wiring and use the system of the telephone receivers I previously used with landline service. This way I don’t have to carry my cell phone from room to room.
it is obvious to me that Mr Boogers *hets* spring.
Hi Robyn,
I have a question for Friday. I just created a blog for the first time. I really want it to be a place to rant and rave. I know you’ve had some issues when people “discovered” you. I am mostly worried because there is no way to keep it a secret from my husband. Yet, I know I will want to rant and rave about him. Is there a way you and Fred have dealt with this, or should I just suck it up and come to terms that I won’t be able to freely express my thoughts without him possibly seeing it. In other words, should I just leave him out of it? Also, do you have any other advice? I have changed all names to protect the innocent.
“… a verbal blanket of profanity…”
Robyn, I love you! 🙂
I first got a cell phone about 8 years ago. I dropped my landline service about 6.5 years ago. Never had a problem, a regret, or a moment’s worry.
If you have someone in your family with poor health, mobility problems, abusive tendencies, whatever, then okay, odds are fair that you might need 911 at some point. The media has convinced us that there are Masked Strangers lurking at every window just waiting to come in and bludgeon us all, but really, statistically it’s so very unlikely. And my way of thinking is, if someone breaks in and I DO have to call 911, I want to be on a phone that I can be talking on while I’m running all the hell over the place so he can’t GET me – every cordless phone I’ve ever used, if you get a certain distance away from the receiver, you get crappy signal. (But again, it’s been more than 6 years since I’ve used one on a regular basis, so maybe they’ve fixed that.)
It’s your own comfort zone, ultimately, but most people I know who have kept their landlines in case they need to call 911, and DID need to call 911… used their cell phone to call anyway.
We recently said, “Aww, fuckit, cancel the landline.” We haven’t regretted it until today when the babysitter forgot her own cell phone, so DH had to leave HIS cell phone at home for her use in case of emergency or whatever. I still don’t care, really. I don’t think we’ll get another landline soon. Especially since I gave all of our landline phones to my parents, who needed them!
I live in the city and I *gasp* don’t have a cell phone. But my land line is Qwest, with no frills, and costs about $13 a month. If I lived in the [pseudo-stix] country, I definitely would want a land line, in addition to my (your) cell phones in case of an emergency. Just get the cheapest, most basic plan you can.
Tony and I both have Creative Zen V Plus Mp3 players and love them. And if you watch you can get them cheap.
The best long distance rates would be with Pioneer Telephone. You pay per call, per percent of minute and NO additional fees. I used to pay five dollars for a year and called Las Vegas, Arizona, Wisconsin and Florida. You get your bill and pay it online. They are also incredibly great with customer service and following up with questions. For about seven years I used them, until my daughter wanted a cell phone.
MP3 player–I have a couple of Creative products (both since discontinued) and they’re great! You will be SO HAPPY when you don’t have to use Itunes! They act just like a USB drive–drag and drop. My boyfriend has a Creative Zen which takes SD cards–it has 16 Gig, plus takes the cards. It’s the size of about 4 credit cards held together. It’s great.
Canz we hearz Miz Poo keening?