RIP cell phone

"In memory of my cherished cellphone
along with the cherished phone numbers,
cherished pictures, and precious bejeweled game."

January 2008 - March 2008

Today, while on my way to church I lost my cellphone. I'm not sure how it happened. My only guess is that it fell off my lap and onto the ground as I got out of my car. I searched high and low, emptied my purse, ransacked my car, and still no sign of the phone. I had already borrowed a friend's phone to try calling my own phone, but I thought I'd try again with the hopes that someone, a kind, friendly soul would answer it.

Much to my surprise the ringing stopped, and I could hear voices in the background. I tried calling out to the voices I heard. I yelled and screamed so someone would hear. That went on for about 5 minutes until the phone hung up. I tried again, and the same thing happened. I hollered into the phone pleading for a response and then the phone hung up for the last time. I've called again repeatedly, and I've sent text messages, to no avail.

I know that I need to cancel my service, but I'm just hoping upon hope that the phone is actually in the posession of a small child and their parent will find it at any moment and try to return it to me. If I cancel my service, then that hope will be completely dead because there will be no way for the parent to call me back.

I'm not yet ready to face the fact that the phone is gone, and purchase a cheap replacement. But when in do, rest in peace my Sony Ericsson.

Somebody is Watching You

So I got this ominous email this morning:

As a courtesy, we are notifying you that Spokeo users have found the following accounts for you:

(username) on Flickr
(username) on Picasa

If you would like to make these accounts private, please
change the privacy settings on the original network and
Spokeo will update its search results to reflect your changes.

So first I googled Spokeo to know what I was dealing with. Once I was convinced that it is a legitimate website, I signed up for it to find out really what it was all about. SCARY.

After Spokeo took a look at all the email addresses in my contact list it told me exactly what my friends had added to the shopping cart at Amazon, what pictures they've added to Picasa and Flickr, what profile updates they had made to Friendster and My Space, and what new radio stations they've added to Pandora.

The problem is that this information is accessible to ANYONE who's address happened to be in my contact list. People I had only emailed once or twice. People I would rather not remember. And this of course means the reverse could be true. People who happen to have my email address from various places could see my blog entries and look at my pictures. This is not good.

If this information were only accessible to my good friends, I would love for them to be able to check out what I've been up to, and share with them my photos and profiles, but the general population need not be browsing my Amazon shopping cart. So sorry all you Spokeo users, I'm going to change my privacy settings on my accounts for Pandora, Amazon, Flixr, Picasa, etc so that they are unsearchable and I will no longer be visable on Spokeo.

Multi-tasking Disaster

or "How to fail at multi-tasking without even trying. "

When I arrived at the gym a couple days ago, I jumped onto my treadmill. Starting with a brisk walk at 3.5 miles per hour, I turned on my ipod to listen to some Russian Techno music for a good exercise beat. At my gym all the treadmills, stairmasters, and other repetitious exercise machines of boredom face a wall lined with TV's. Since I had nothing else to look at, I soon found myself alternately watching a movie on one TV and a television show on the other.

I was well engrossed in this media overload, when I accidentally knocked my ipod off and onto the treadmill track, where I promptly stepped on it and then watched it fall to the ground behind me. By this point, I had stopped walking and also fell to the ground behind my machine, again stepping on my ipod.

I picked up my ipod and **surprise** it still worked. I was so happy that I stepped right back onto the treadmill, and immediately crashed to my knees. That's what happens when you step onto a treadmill that's still going 3.5 miles per hour. I must have made quite a spectacle of myself with this fall since gym employees rushed over to see if I was all right and offer helpful advice like "maybe you should slow it down."

And that my friend is how I sustained two skinned knees and a battered ego, and an entertaining story of how multi-tasking brought me to your knees. ;)

Off the Wagon

Darn it. Two weeks. Two weeks without a Diet Coke, and I had to throw it all away. You know it's amazing how little self-control one exhibits in a complete melt down. I'm in the middle of my 4th can, and if someone were to try and take it away from me right now, they'd do so at the risk of losing a limb.

I guess I get to start all over again tomorrow. At least I know that I can make it at least two weeks.

Diet Coke Detox

I decided last week that I needed to kick my Diet Coke habit. The back of my throat was scratchy and raw from the large quantities of artificial sweetened battery acid I was consuming. I even had sores in my mouth. I was up to about 3-5 cans a day, and I simply needed to be done with the stuff.

I’ve tried kicking this habit before to little avail, but this time I had a plan. I was going to use a “patch” for when the headaches hit or I had an overwhelming desire to drink a two-liter bottle. I bought a bottle of No-Doz which I would only use in emergencies. A half a pill contains about the same amount of caffeine as 2 cans of Diet Coke. With this patch in my arsenal I figured I was well on my way to recovery.

I quickly discovered a couple problems. One there is something else in Diet Coke that I’m addicted to. Perhaps it’s the artificial sweetener or it’s a psychological dependency. Regardless, I find myself sitting at my desk—my mouth watering for a DC and that’s after taking a No-Doz “patch.” Problem two—exhaustion. I am a night owl. I stay up until at least 11 PM, but without the large quantities of caffeine I’m dying at about 10:30 PM. It was so bad last night that I honestly contemplated sleeping on my floor half naked because I was too tired to clear off my bed and finish changing into my pajamas.

Well I’m only on day 4 so maybe this will get easier.