Phew – on holiday! Going to stay with my Mum in London, which will be the first time A. and B. have seen her since Easter, I think. My sister and neice are also popping over, so that’ll be lovely.
The downside is that we need to pack, and try and think of everything Ben will need. He’s asleep at the mo, so we’re just putting our feet up, but I guess when we wakes up we’ll start loading up the car in preparation of a good start in the morning.
We’re planning to watch Lost tonight, and then have an early night (which probably means a normal night, as the clocks have changed).
Oh yes, and my toy budget recently had a cash injection – a couple of sales on eBay, and then an honororium from Wiley books for reviewing a book proposal has pushed me well in toy budget surplus. In celebration I ordered a new wireless optical mouse (my old one is driving me nuts as it doesn’t work properly – and in fact it completely gave up the ghost just before I started writing this, so the new one is timely) and a bluetooth dongle.
I’m mainly saving up for my new phone though.
The question then hangs over what to buy with next year’s toy budget – a new GPS or a Sony PSP? I won’t be able to afford both, but reckon one might be a go-er.
I think that Terry Wogan has a lot to answer for; he keeps bringing music to my attention that I really like, and so I end up visiting iTunes. Doesn’t help my saving up for a new phone.
The latest is Juliet Turner, an Irish singer-songwriter responsible for the most catchy Dr Fell and Burn Your Black Suit (which is also the title of her second album). One of the unusual thing about her music is that she has a really strong irish accent, and it seems to be fairly rare to hear strong accents in songs these days.. I actually thought the song was about Dr Phil at first!! There’s plenty of examples of non-accents: for instance, would you think Kylie was Aussie from her singing? Would you think
KT Tunstall is Scottish? Or Charlene Spiteri? Then again other examples of accents showing through would be The Proclaimers, Gazza, … um all I can think off just now.
Juliet also did the frankly odd Business as Usual (“I’m standing next to lady liberty”), which I didn’t realise was hers until I listened to it. Don’t get me wrong – I like it – it’s just not your usual popular music. Her accent is not quite so pronounced in that one, which is why I didn’t attribute it to her.
Wandered up to the Orange shop in the Student Union to try and get some hands-on experience of the phones I’m considering. They had the Moto V3 and the K750i.. the latter was just the same as my k700 in terms of weight and size.. The V3 didn’t really grab me. I think it was just a bit too wide – not really entirely confortable in my hand. It also didn’t look as sleek as I was expecting it to.
So the z520 is definitly top of the charts at the moment, although nowhere really has it in stock yet. If it hasn’t physically appeared in a shop by the time I’ve got enough money, I’ll be sorely tempted to buy it blind. Probably more sensible to have a try first though.
On a completely different note, I’ve just discovered del.icio.us, which is sort of an online social bookmarks manager type thing. You basically store all your bookmarks/favourites, and anyone else can look at them, but the real genius is that it tells you everyone else who has the same bookmark (and you can browse theirs). It’s a lovely idea, and the way the information is presented is just.. well nice.
The Flock web browser uses del.icio.us as its sole bookmarking facility. I haven’t really got used to this, and suspect it needs a few iterations of improvement before it’s truly useful, but it does seem like a nice idea.
If I was to stay with Sony Ericsson, then I think the z520 is the clear winner. It’s so small and neat – the smallest footprint of any phone that satisfies my requirements – and I like the idea of those flashing side-lights.. The K750 is like twice the price, and I think my current mode of phone usage is “throw it in a pocket”, which is obviously more friendly towards clamshells. And, let’s face it – how long would it be before it developed the same joystick problem?
However a bit of web research has unveiled another possibility, in the shape of the Motorola (RAZR) V3. Slightly larger footprint than the K700i, but unbelievably thin! Price is broadly comparable – my three reservations are (a) the keypad has had mixed reviews, (b) it doesn’t have IR, and (c) I really like the SE interface, and will I just get annoyed with Moto?
I think the answer is to try and get hold of one physically, and see if I like the look and feel in the flesh…
Anyway, starting to flog off some stuff on eBay in order to raise funds, and I might just have saved enough to get a new phone for Christmas. Especially if I sell my guitar. 🙂
Wait a few months, any my theoretical toy priorities change completely. Am probably not going to bother upgrading my GPS, or indeed purchase the Akai footpedal. I’m even leaning away from a PSP!
Why the changes? Well, toy budget is a finite resource, and the spending thereof must be carefully weighed up. Also, my k700i (which is quite possibly the best phone I’ve ever owned) is starting to misbehave, so I’m wondering what to do about this. I’ve narrowed my options down to three…
Straight replace with it a new k700i. Cost: About 100 quid.
Upgrade to the k750i. Cost: about 250 quid.
Change to a z520i. Cost: about 160 quid.
The k750i is the obvious choice; it does everything the k700i, but more so (including up to 4Gb memory stick, RDS radio, 2MP camera), but it is awful expensive. Ok, I could probably get it cheaper on eBay, and perhaps get 20 or 30 quid for my k700i, but it’s still going to totally wipe out toy budget.
Getting another k700i is a serious option, but I just wonder if the little annoyances I have with this phone will just annoy me even more when I’ve brought two of them!
Finally the z520i. This just looks like a lovely phone, as a clamshell design, and I like the sound of a lot of it’s features. Oh yes, and it’s also Quad-band. My two reservations are
It doesn’t have a radio
It has only 16Mb memory
The first is an issue because I’ve got quite used to listening to the radio on my way to/from work. The second is an issue because if I’m going to listen to MP3s on it (which I do on the K700i), that’s not very many. But then I could buy this phone, a portable FM radio, and a reaosnable MP3 player, and still have quite a lot of change from the cost of a k750i.
The other option is to dump SonyEricsson altogether, and plump for another manufacturer that will do what I want. The trouble is that Nokias are plain common, I didn’t like Siemens or Sagem models that I had, and I wasn’t wild about my old Motorola either. Whereas every E/SE phone I’ve had has been just the thing for me.
Inevitably lots of things broke in the upgrade. The only two I’ve noticed so far were MySQL, which broke because it didn’t replace the config file, and PHP which broke because it did!
Actually not really fair to say PHP broke; rather parts of my website broke because of the default memory limit on PHP programs. Still, fixed now.
Was a little disheartening actually – I burnt the FC4 DVD, and upgraded, then ran a
yum update
and it had to download 1.4Gb of updates! I’d only downloaded the image a couple of weeks ago. Ah well.
Still fighting my chest infection. It had threatened to get a lot better, but yesterday came back with a vengence, and now my cough and nose are as bad as ever. That said, I’m actually feeling ok, and have started sleeping well at night, so can’t complain too much.
Today’s excitement is going to see the Bishop for lunch. Not something you get to say everyday! 🙂
Went to the doctor and got antibiotics, which have actually cleared up my chest really quickly; I’m hardly coughing at all now! Just don’t ask about my stomach…
Speaking of stomachs, I find myself at home this fine autumnal morning, as young man threw up last night! Nursery had warned off a stomach bug going around, but we can’t really work out if that’s his problem.. So, he goes to nursery Thurs afternoons, which means he would have had to catch and succumb to it in about 6 hours, which is pretty speedy. Or he might have caught in on Tuesday, in which case that’s really quite slow (48 hours).
He also doesn’t appear to be ill at all (apart from his cough).. perhaps more tired than usual, but basically full of beans. Best working hypothesis at the moment is that he hasn’t got the tummy bug (yet?), but either a particularly violent cough made him gag, or something he ate in the afternoon disagreed with him.
Pretty much sums up the week though – I’ve done all of about one days work, and spend the rest of the time pretty much in bed. I did upgrade my Linux box to FC4 this morning though, so that was satisfying.
Came down with the the lurgy over the weekend; some form of chest infection, most likely a virus. Although I don’t feel too bad in myself (even made it into work today), I’ve got a nasty cough and am completely bunged up, and generally feel spaced out. 🙁
It’s actually the nights that are the worse times, as my nose and cough keep me awake even though I’m really tired. It’s very disheartening lying awake in bed, checking your watch and finding that – yes- another 5 minutes have passed since last time you looked.
Still, I’m definitely getting better – on Sunday I was in a dreadful state, yesterday I was back on my feet (just!), and today I’ve staggered into work. Hopefully my cough will clear up in a day or two, and it’ll be back to business as usual!
