// goals for 2006.new_phone

o I have an ancient cell phone. I seriously believe that the only reason it still works is that, unlike most cell users, I don’t act like it’s a life-affirming accessory, so most of the time it stays safely at home. Since I hate talking on the phone, its actual degree of use is probably about 25% of the normal customer. So I never really thought about replacing it because it’s just not that important to me.

o Lately, though, the thing hasn’t been turning on when needed (you know, to see what time it is and for the occasional call to my parents or brother). This tends to make me nervous as this number is the only one I have for work or banks or insurance companies to get a-hold of me (although I think I have Brian as the secondary phone at most of these places). Still, not nervous enough to really care.

o Then, one day I was at work and decided to pay my phone bill during some off time. It automatically logged me in as a Wolters Kluwer employee. Apparently the uber-god that is my company has some massive deals with Cingular and I can get some pretty nice employee discounts because of it.

o So rather than waiting for the phone to entirely break on me and have them tell me my warranty/insurance agreement is long past effective (which I’m pretty sure it is—I’ve had the same phone since mid-2002), by December 31, 2006, I will have a new phone, new plan, and a shiny new communication tool which I will find any excuse to avoid using.

03.16.06
Update: Aaaaannnd done. I got a new phone on February 25, and so far it's been nothing but suck. My reception is half as good, the phone, a new model,is much, much worse than my three-year-old, bottom-of-the-line model--enough so that I'm tempted to switch the SIM card back into my old, faithful model. Even though the plan was rolled over from my old number and I was therefore told I would suffer no activation fee or re-activation of my voicemail, here I am, three weeks later with no voicemail and an over-$100 phone bill (they signed me up for a $50 plan and I'm being charged for a $60, as well as my old $40 plan and $27 of activation fees, all in the same month; it was a rollover--there was no point during which I had both plans, so there is no point in which I should be charged for both plans, but lookee there, I am).

Moral of the story? Sometimes it pays to be low-tech.

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	o	I have an ancient cell phone. I seriously believe that the only reason it still works is that, unlike most cell users, I don’t act like it’s a life-affirming accessory, so most of the time it stays safely at home. Since I hate talking on the phone, its actual degree of use is probably about 25% of the normal customer. So I never really thought about replacing it because it’s just not that important to me.
	o	Lately, though, the thing hasn’t been turning on when needed (you know, to see what time it is and for the occasional call to my parents or brother). This tends to make me nervous as this number is the only one I have for work or banks or insurance companies to get a-hold of me (although I think I have Brian as the secondary phone at most of these places). Still, not nervous enough to really care.
	o	Then, one day I was at work and decided to pay my phone bill during some off time. It automatically logged me in as a Wolters Kluwer employee. Apparently the uber-god that is my company has some massive deals with Cingular and I can get some pretty nice employee discounts because of it.
	o	So rather than waiting for the phone to entirely break on me and have them tell me my warranty/insurance agreement is long past effective (which I’m pretty sure it is—I’ve had the same phone since mid-2002), by December 31, 2006, I will have a new phone, new plan, and a shiny new communication tool which I will find any excuse to avoid using.