This morning I woke up, rolled over, looked at the clock, lost my mind.
Given my insomniac-nature, I stopped setting my alarm clock a long time ago. I'm always awake long before it goes off, so why bother? Which is why I freaked when the first thing I saw after waking up was a clock that said "10:08" on it. "Holy crap!" I exclaimed, as a shot of adrenaline surges through me and I start bouncing wildly around the bedroom trying to get ready for work. Wanting to grab a slice of leftover cold pizza before hopping in the shower, I dash to the kitchen. And that's when I notice something odd.
Turns out my clock wasn't displaying 10:08... it was flashing 10:08.
The power went off last night, and my clock decided to display some random number on it.
The actual time? 4:30am
I'm not two hours late for work, I'm three-and-a-half hours early.
The odds of me being able to fall asleep for any meaningful amount of time before having to get right back up again is effectively zero, so I start in on work. And I work and I work and I work. Until I notice that it's 9:10, and I am over an hour late for work. Again. Kinda.
Can't. Catch. A. Break.
Except today was the day my new comic books arrived, and the current issue of The Brave and The Bold had George Pérez drawing both Batman AND the Legion of Super-Heroes, which is like a comic geek's dream come true. So I guess it's all good.
Oh yeah... since I've (obviously) decided to keep my beloved iPhone, I went to AT&T today so I could have my old Verizon phone number transferred over. Right now I feel like I should say something mean like "suck it, Verizon!!" but I really don't feel that way. I have no complaints over the quality of their mobile network at all. About the only complaint I do have is that their phones are always older generation crap (when I bought my first phone there, they had ONE Bluetooth model, whereas all other carriers were swimming in dozens). And when Apple approached them to partner-up for iPhone, they refused. This was a huge opportunity for them to leap ahead of the curve, and they blew it. Well, I wanted a damn iPhone, and so I was given no choice but to switch carriers. And, despite all the warnings, I have been very happy with AT&T... from the backwaters of rural Georgia to Atlanta to Minneapolis to Milwaukee to Seattle and back home to the backwaters of rural Washington State... AT&'T's network has performed no worse than Verizon ever did. I'm sitting here with 5 bars and loving it.
And now, if you will excuse me, I've got to go install new backup batteries in my alarm clock in case the power goes off again.
UPDATE: EXCEPT I BOUGHT THE WRONG KIND OF BATTERIES!! Can't. Catch. A. Break...
I work at a Sprint store, but don't have a Sprint phone, or any phone for that matter. I'll probably go with Verizon when the time comes, because I can't justify the iPhones price in my mind, especially since I'll be a broke college student.
Posted by James on August 02, 2007 | Reply
James... In many ways, I envy you and your mobile-free lifestyle! There are definitely times I wish that people didn't have constant access to me no matter where I am! :-)
Whit... Not as much as I used to, but I still love me the X-Men, Avengers, and a few other titles. Haven't gotten into the "Ultimate" stuff through. Back in the 80's I was a Marvel whore, and would buy every title they put out... including such fantastic titles as "Dazzler."
O that feeling of waking up late. The stomach dropping. Should I shower ?. Where are my shoes ?.
All running through the brain in a nano second.
We have not got iphones in England yet. I cannot wait. It will be interesting to see who they hook up with over here,as I think that it may well work out expensive. Great blog by the way.
A mobile free living style would be lovely... I think they bother much more than help. In my list of topics of what to write in my blog someday there already is "Cell phone reflections".
I think I will have to do two parts, though, a lot to write.
Nice writing style!
Posted by Anonymous on August 03, 2007 | Reply
A mobile free living style would be lovely... I think they bother much more than help. In my list of topics of what to write in my blog someday there already is "Cell phone reflections".
I think I will have to do two parts, though, a lot to write.
Nice writing style!
You didn't cut yourself on the package while opening the batteries or slip while scrambling to get ready? Bah. What are you whining about?
(Hang in there...this week has sucked so much ass for a lot of people. Maybe it's something in the air. Next week will be better. I promise.)
Posted by hot coffee girl on August 03, 2007 | Reply
I've had att/cingular for a bit now, had a huge amt of minutes then decided to downgrade my plan as I have about 5K excess minutes ("... they don't expire"). Humph. They don't expire, but if you decide to downgrade you only get to keep the same amt as what you downgrade to. I wanted to go down to 400/mth but I would lose my 4600+ extra rollover minutes and hafta start over. Why didn't they tell me THAT when I signed on?
Bastards.
Business first: How do I install a gravatar so my pretty face will show in your comments? i wouldn't want anyone missing that.
I'd love to have a live link to a webcam installed in your place so that I can watch you as this all unfolds. Sounds reminiscent of something I'd see on a sit-com. As an At&T guy now, you know we can text bad-boy messages to each other....this could be the start of something new and exciting! More bars in more places.....now where do we get a drink?
Q: do you moderate comments from your iPhone or are you still chained to your 'puter for that?
wrt alarm clocks and whatnot - for the last month or so, I've been waking up literally 1-3 minutes before the alarm. I remember when I used to do that back in my early 20's, then I "lost it" (the ability) and now it's back. I wake up refreshed, ready and RIGHT BEFORE the alarm. So I turn it off and get up. I'm a little too scared to actually do without the alarm clock, tho.
Oh and doesn't verizon claim the most reliable network yada-yada? If it *IS* the most reliable, maybe it's because they only use the tried-and-tested phones and not just every new POS that comes out. I'm just wondering tho - I don't know. I *do* know that when I was on verizon, I had better service that when I was on voicestream, att wireless, then cingular, then AT&T again. I'm still on AT&T (4 lines) and none of us get great coverage.
Doesn't your iPhone have an alarm clock? If it doesn't it should and I'm sure developers will soon have it offered... Either that or Avitable can call you with a cheery message every morning at 9 to make sure you are up.
Posted by bogup on August 03, 2007 | Reply
I can sooo relate to the clock thing. I never set the alarm unless I'm needing to be up early for SURE (like catching a flight) but then I don't sleep worth a darn as I keep waking up and looking to see the clock to make sure it hasn't gone out (and, yes, I DO have a backup battery installed.) Sorry you had to have such a rude awakening. Oh, and for the record? 4:30 is about my normal waking time... ;)
...monkey better watch out for banana peels on the sidewalk today!
...must give my kudos to Verizon. Only place I wasn't able to get service in the U.S. was at a high elevation in Lake Tahoe--hmmm, maybe also in the little Montana town on the north end of Yellowstone Park.
Posted by In her own Voice on August 03, 2007 | Reply
I seem to be in the minority... I'm one of those people who can fall asleep anywhere anytime. I can sleep in the car, on a plane, at a desk - I'll bet that if I tried, I could probably fall asleep standing on my feet leaning on a wall ~shrug~
As far as alarm clocks go, I have to set two of them to make sure that I get up on time the morning. My vote for one of man's greatest inventions has to be the snooze button. I must hit that thing at least four times before I finally get out of bed. My question is: Why is it that the most comfortable sleep time is the five minutes before you absolutely *have* to get up?
Posted by Jill on August 03, 2007 | Reply
Hi Dave!
I am really enjoying your blog. Two quick comments on the iPhone portion of this post:
1) I understand being an unapologetic proselytizer for Apple as they've made many fine products. I particularly like the hardware/software manufacturing symbiosis of the Mac. And the iPod still is the state-of-the-art in MP3 players at this time. However, as your Apple Bluetooth headset post shows, not every Apple product is infallible or even market-worthy. After all, how quickly did we forget about the Lisa?
2) I don't blame you for the service provider shift. The launch of the device you so clearly wanted on only one network left you with no other choice. Although I can see you three to six months from now wishing you had waited for iPhone v. 2.0, just like the early iPod adapters.
I appreciate the fact that you have been reasonably fair and balanced in your comments on the service quality and products of the cellular carriers. But I did want to address your lament that Verizon Wireless didn't accept the iPhone when Apple offered it to them. My understanding is that Verizon reviewed the option of delivering a $500 to $600 handset with no discount possible as is usually the reward to the consumer for signing a contract, and they also reviewed the fact that the deal required the service provider to share a portion of the monthly service revenue with Apple. For Verizon, even to get the coveted iPhone and the hundreds of thousands of users who were going to want one, that deal wasn't worth making.
Posted by blanetalk on August 07, 2007 | Reply
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