New Phone

Even though I have a new cell phone, I've still been using my flip because it's pay-as-you-go and my new phone is on a plan. Might as well use the minutes I paid for on my old phone. Slowly revealing my phone to people. As of now, eight people have my new number.

My new phone has a game called Piano Keys. It's a reflex game where rows of piano keys scroll down the screen and you have to tap the black ones but not the white. The keys scroll faster and faster until you lose.

So my friends would see me texting on my flip and playing on my smart phone. I'm like "My flip is for calling and texting, and my Android is for Piano Keys".

There are a few things about the flip I miss. The durability, for one. With this smart phone, the screen is always exposed, unlike the flip where it is covered in a protective shell when not in use, and since it has a touch screen, I feel like it's not just more vulnerable, but also more valuable than the flip's. Makes me nervous.The phone itself is also wafer-thin, which makes me anxious about it's durability.

Also, the battery. The difference is that I need to charge my flip once a week, and my smart phone once a day.

But the smart phone is far superior to the flip for texting. No more pressing a button six times to get one letter. No more writing half a message only to receive an annoyed text from whoever is waiting for it, forcing me to choose between saving my message and checking the one I received, or guessing at it and finishing my text there. No more having to delete texts. No more seeing messages piled haphazardly on top of one another.

And I have a camera that actually works.

I was using the pay-as-you-go enough that there really wasn't a financial reason to stick with it, especially at the sacrifice of so much functionality.

But I gotta say. Smart phones have always seemed like toys to me. Even though whenever I whipped out my flip people would say "Oh, it reminds me of the phone I used in high school!" implying the juvenile nature of a flip, I honestly have to say that when I see a guy in a suit with a smart phone, something just does not sit well with me. It's because with a flip, what do you do with it? Talk and text. It's a phone. It serves its function as a phone. What differentiates a smart phone? A lot of bells and whistles that make it more enjoyable.

That being said, I'm so clumsy with my new phone. When my roommate worked it over, using voice recognition, making words pop out, strange effects appearing as he touched it etc. my mind was blown. His use of it was in a completely different category. He capped it off saying "And that's why people don't use flip phones!" I think a few people took  offense when I said "Smart phones are like toys. I can't respect a guy in a suit playing with a toy."

Apparently it's a really good phone. I got it for free with the cheapest plan I could get with my provider.  But I get a lot of compliments and lots of people want to play with it and help me get it set up.

The last Respect Campaign event of the semester was the De-Stress event, and boy did I need it. It was like a celebration for all the volunteers who worked with us throughout the semester. We had food, announced the Leaders of the Month, we handed out pins for events, and we had karaoke. One girl that I have a competitive relationship with talked me into singing a duet with her of "Anything you can do I can do better".

This Thursday all the WALES staff are going to a Christmas celebration and they need relief staff. Guess who they hired? That's right, I'm going to be running the organization and getting paid for it. They also pulled a couple other people who did summer program with me. The team is back together again! Make way for the new generation!