3G Whiz

For more than 6 months my phone company have been informing me that next year my phone service will discontinue, and so I'll have to upgrade my phone to one that is compatible with the new service. They've been sending me discount vouchers for a new phone and what not, and fortunately I've been ignoring them. I say fortunately because their latest campaign is giving away iPhones. I was hesitant to believe it, but after checking into it, it seems true. I'll know for sure when I get the first bill.

The new phone did mean having to sign up for a slightly more expensive package, but only slightly more. And that may well balance out with most of the people I ever talk to by phone (I rarely make calls. Who would I call?) now being free of charge, or at about half the previous rate.

The phone seems cool enough to drive, but will take a while for me to work out how to get it out of first gear. Battery life seems pretty weak, though. But I'm anal-retentive enough that I charge my phone daily anyway. All in all a good deal.

The downside was that I wasn't able to port my old address book over. The friendly but overly explanatory shop assistant assured me that I'd be able to download my old address book from a website that they'd uploaded it to. The website informed me I'd have one chance with one phone to do so. As usual the technological vision of plug and play refused to work, and so I'm left with manually typing in my old address book. This will probably see a culling of many names of unknowns, people who I've met once socially long ago or former workplaces mates who I've never talked to again since my escape. While this well make my new address book much easier to read, navigate and know just who is who, it will also put into stark reality the sad shape of my network of friends.

So in a desperate plea for acknowledgment my phone's new address is:
winstoninabox at i dot softbank dot jp

The 2 people who still bother to come here, please clap your hands loudly to stop winston from fading away.