Ok, maybe I do need a cell phone...

[tirinian]

Work was moderately productive this week, although I failed to do anything today, which means I won't be as far along on the thing I would have liked to have done by noon tomorrow as I'd hoped. We'll see how much mad toolage I can do in the morning.

Monday was hanging out with Mom and my sister, who were stopping in Boston on the way to take a bunch of her stuff up to middle-of-nowhere Canada, where she'll be living soon, and then taking her out to CA where she'll be visiting for a month or so. It was a fine dinner and hanging out, but nothing amazingly special.

Tuesday was Tarkanan. We got diverted from our current mission to a different one on the other main plot (switching from intra-continental war to the extra-planar invasion), which sounds like it will be an exciting change of pace, and it will give us a chance to sell stuff and resupply. I don't actually think we can kill an entire town of 6,000 first+ level people in a single day, though. We'll see exactly how the numbers or reinforcements work out.

Wednesday was handout for Reindeer Games, which went fine. We kind of had two, as laura47 and baniszew showed up about half an hour late, at which point everyone else had read their packets and gone, so we hung around and let them read their packets and ask us questions too.

Thursday was nothing much, as Talarin was canceled due to out-of-town-ness.

Friday was Reindeer Games! It really is a fun little game, and I was very pleased with how it went. Even if laura47 did keep calling it an Intercon game. Chaos and precariousness everywhere, but in the end, the magic of Christmas came through. ironrat and Germany were wonderful as Calvin and Hobbes (my favorite pair of characters), Wilbur was deadly with the christmas lights, the Games were fun for the GMs to watch (their major purpose :-) ), and the contract got put back together right. Yay! Didn't get to bed until four or so in the morning, but whatever.

Saturday I went to work at about 11, and actually got stuff done, and then got dragged off by Germany for shopping and then dinner, and then met ironrat for Taming of the Shrew on the Common. Where by "met" I mean we didn't find each other until intermission, 'cause we didn't set it up well and I didn't have a cell phone. Shrew really just doesn't work for me as a show. It was a fine set of performances, trying to make something that just isn't funny funny. I think it might barely be possible to pull it off acceptably by subverting the text entirely with the action, letting Kate steal food and eat it when Petruchio's starving her, and making "he's crazy, play along" signs to the father when they do the "young woman" bit, and things, but really, once you've gone that far in redoing the meaning of the play, why are you bothering to put it on at all?

Today was board games at my place. Didn't get as many people as I'd hoped, but enough to play the game rifmeister brought, Traders of Genoa. It's a fine game in the Puerto Rico style, although as the name implies, the major mechanic is making trades between the players, which is not my forte. I'd give it a try again sometime, despite being crushed this time. After we were done and I got back from dinner, played goofy phone tag with Germany, who called while I was at dinner and said he might be coming late, and then I went out to find him and when I got back he'd called again to say no, he wasn't coming after all. Two critical cell phone failures in two days might actually convince me to get one of the damn things.

Anyone have recommendations for what kind, if I do?

Comments

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

Monday was hanging out with Mom and my sister, who were stopping in Boston on the way to take a bunch of her stuff up to middle-of-nowhere Canada, where she'll be living soon

Oooo! Oooo!

Middle-of-nowhere where, exactly?

We gots lots of them. ^_^

[tirinian.livejournal.com]

It's called Gwelf, or something like that, north of Toronto.

[sorceror.livejournal.com]

Right, Guelph. After the ruling house of Hannover.

Alas, not terribly near to Montreal. ;_; Oh well...

[jadia.livejournal.com]

I liked the adaptation of Taming of the Shrew that got turned into a movie: Ten Things I Hate About You. It was cute. Have you seen it?

For cell phones, my LG flip phone has served me well. It's very bare-bones, which I like.

On the other side of the spectrum you could get a shiny Razor phone. ;)

[countertorque.livejournal.com]

Anyone have recommendations for what kind, if I do?

Haven't you seen other people ask this question? Yes, we all have recommendations. And they're all contradictory. We're idiots. Figure it out yourself. Or, just buy the first pretty thing you come across and rationalize it, like the rest of us.

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

More charitably (to us, not the cellphone companies): all of the providers have technical problems, and all of us have run into one or another of those problems at some point, and therefore hate one or more of the providers.

Unfortunately, the thing to do is probably to look at a couple of local providers' plans, and what phones they offer, and think about what you'd prefer.

For example, I'm currently using Verizon because I got tired of Sprint having no coverage in a number of places I frequented; after I switched I discovered that Verizon had no coverage at my apartment. However, I have coverage at my new house, so that annoyance is now gone.

along those lines

[twe.livejournal.com]

Check out various providers service in areas you're mostly like to want to call from (e.g. home, office, MIT campus, whatever) using friens/co-workers phones.

Flip vs. non-flip - flip phones are nice & small and save you from accidentally dialing people (non flip phones have a keylock function, but keylock can be annoying), I do find they don't work as well for holding to your ear with you shoulder tho (then again, small non-flip phone may have this trouble too). Again, trying playing with your friends phones to see what shapes you like, how intuitive you find the user interface, etc.

Camera or not - some places don't allow phones with cameras in, but it can be had to get phones without them.

You can probably get your phone basically free with your plan if you don't care about fancy features. :)

[ironrat.livejournal.com]

I have had good luck with Verizon's coverage, as have a lot of other people. It's good in both Boston and DC.

I have also had a good time of Verizon's pay-as-you-go plan, which nicely accomodates my low-use habits. It's something like a minimum of 15 (20?) dollars a month, plus the cost of the phone, but that's less than a contract plan, money/time rolls over, and you can add more as you need it.

[izmirian.livejournal.com]

I have a T-mobile phone with a prepaid plan, which comes to about $10 per month. The phone costs about $80 up front. No major problems with coverage, though it may be slightly less good than Verizon, at least in the few cases where I've had a chance to compare them.