So today was Monday, of course, which meant that it was the beginning of my work week (as I’m sure it was for a lot of you as well). I got to work and my boss was already there and he’d been there since 5am, which I personally think is a little absurd (considering he worked from home on Sunday until midnight). I have a workaholic for a boss, but after I told him this, he said that he wasn’t (go figure). Work was busy today… People came back from vacation, a certain government-authorized agency doesn’t like the company too much at the moment due to the recent ‘surprise visit’ and I spent a few hours sorting through all the paperwork that was on my boss’ desk because he was tired of not being able to see the fake wood. Good fun, isn’t it?

I also registered two new domains today, through my registrar of choice: namecheap.com. Both of them are .com’s and I’ll be revealing what the name are when I get the sites ready and up (hoping to do so before I get back to school in a couple of weeks). I’ve tried two other domain registrars before, but one was full of ads all over the place and the other was just a confusing interface to use (and this is coming from me!). I think websites, unless otherwise noted, should be easy to navigate and easy to use – this also goes for personal blogs where the navigation is just roman numerals like I. II. III. IV. V. <- this tells me nothing about what the links are for. </vent about bad navigation word choices> Anyways, what I was going to say is that it’s a great registrar and I highly recommend Namecheap, mostly for the ease of using their website and how quick it is (also, as a major plus, there’s promotional codes essentially every single month for new domain names and transfers, which I happily used today to get a little discount on my new acquisitions!).

Oh, the kicker for today is that I got a message from a girl who was my ‘BFF’ back in grades 6 and 7. We stopped being friends over a boy (juvenile, I realize that – but we were 11-12 and totally thought we knew everything). As it turns out, she’s attending the same school as me and only realized this when she added someone on Facebook and it turns out we’re mutual friends, so she added me to decide to catch up. And the weird thing is, I swear nothing’s really changed about her. She still plays the piano, she still goes to church every week, she still sings in a choir. But then again, I suppose some things haven’t really changed about me either since I was 11 and 12 years old – I’m still clumsy, I still blog, I still roleplaying. I kind of expected things to change, but I guess deep down inside, there’s always something that does stay the same. It’s interesting, to be honest, talking to someone who knew me when I was that age – but at the same time it’s a little unnerving because she would know all the crap I pulled back then, what kind of a person I was and it’s not the same person that I am now.

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Cell phones and, subsequently, cell phone carriers and customer service reps and, good lord, all the ‘discount’ mobile carriers…

Could you get anymore fucking* confusing?

Option #1 from my previous post – I called them up again. I’d really like to keep my current cell phone number (less hassle, less going around telling people my new number, less trying to remember what accounts need to be updated). But first, the account (which is under my mom’s name, because when I got the cell phone originally, I didn’t have a credit card and plus my parents already said they were going to pay for it, poor students don’t argue with that kind of good deal) needs to be changed into my name as the primary account holder. Guess what? They have a fee for that. Just like they have a fee for transferring the number from one handset to another and to activate the second (new) handset.

I’m pretty damn tempted to just throw in the towel with my current carrier and go completely pay-as-you-go with Option #2. I’m not sure if I’d be able to keep my current phone number, which I would love to do. But if I can’t keep it, I’d still like to change carriers now. I’m all fee’d up (apostrophe is on purpose, of course).

Moving on from cell phones…

Work was good today. And by good, I mean that the weather was godawful and I stayed indoors the entire time and hardly ever left my desk. My legs were unforgiving for that, by the way. Oh well…

I hung out with a group of friends this past weekend, missing a few other birthday parties (it’s not my fault everyone decided to be born around the same time – I blame your parents for that). And I didn’t go to sleep until it was very late (or very early, depending on your point of view). So sluggish on Sunday… Blergh.

And… yeah, I think that’s about it for today… Very sluggish today too, despite work going well and my legs hating me.

* I swear. Someone at work the other day mentioned never hearing me swear before (I said “FFS” out loud, whoops). My defense? I always swear more during the summer and then I spend the school year trying not to swear.

My beloved LG Chocolate is cracking. And by cracking, I mean it’s already been cracked several times over on the keypad portion only. The touch sensitive spots on the front are still great and responsive, I have no issues there or with any other keys, except for the keys for 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 0 and #. I must not use 4 (ghi), 7 (pqrs) or the * (vibrate) keys very often, hehe.

Luckily, my cell phone (which is on a 3 year contract) is coming up for a contract renewal soon (my current contract ends on September 2, 2010). So I have some options!

I don’t talk on the phone much at all – my big thing is texting (last month I may have had 1500+ incoming and 1500+ outgoing) and I’d really like a phone that also comes with separate keys (for the LG Chocolate that I have, the number pad is all one piece with grooves to separate the numbers – not the best thing in the world, but it didn’t really start to die until maybe this year…)

Both phones that I’ve been looking at (that would be at $20 for a 3 year contract and $100 for buying outright) have slide-out QWERTY keyboards. The phone for Option #2 is also touch screen (oooh, ahhh), the phone for Option #1 does not have a touch screen (awww). Both have expandable memory with a miniSD card, both have a music player, camera, video camera, voice recording, alarm clock, calculator/tip calculator, global clock and a lot of other features that my current (beloved, but cracking) Chocolate has.

Phone for Option #1 has up to: 5.5 hours talk time, 12 days standby

Phone for Option #2 has up to: 12 hours talk time, 7 days standby

Option #1 – Stay With Current Provider

• $10 – move current cell number to a new phone
• $35 – “one time” activation fee
• $30 – per month for a plan with unlimited text/picture/video messaging, 150 minutes, evenings & weekends, voice mail (3), unlimited talk on my birthday
• $20 – cell phone, on a 3 year contract

Total cost (for 1 year): $425 (before taxes)
Total cost (for 3 years): $1145 (before taxes)

Caller ID is $8/month and not included above. If I include Caller ID, it would be $96/year and $288/3 years and bring the totals up to $521 and $1433 respectively.

Cons: No Caller ID without additional money. On a contract. What in the fudge is up with this fee to move my number from one phone to the next?? Activation fee?!

Pros: Would for sure be able to keep the same phone number. Picture messaging! Unlimited evenings and weekends – no need to ‘top up’ or worry too much about running out of minutes. Voice mail.

Option #2 – Jump Ship

• $100 – cell phone, no contract
• $20 – per month prepaid plan with unlimited Canada-wide texting, unlimited mobile browsing, unlimited calling from 3pm-6pm, INCLUDES CALLER ID, voice mail is pay-per-use (takes out of whatever prepaid credit I have in my account), I’d also get unlimited talk to people on prepaid with the same company (i.e. my sisters)
• $40 – SIM card
• $100 – for minutes outside of the package listed above in Option #2, at $0.25/minute – 400 minutes spread out over a year (at $100 for ‘top up’, it doesn’t expire until day 365).

Total cost (for 1 year): $480 (before taxes)
Total cost (for 3 years): $1160 (before taxes)

Cons to switching to Option #2 is that I would be unlikely to transfer my number from provider #1 to provider #2 (and I’d then have to go through and change my number on a bunch of accounts – like school, the libraries, bank, etc, etc – not to mention telling everyone about it) – however, if it is possible to move my number from provider #1 to #2, provider #2′s website states that it will do it for free. I’d also have to pay additional $$ for regular minutes (hence the $100 or additional top-up money).

Pros would be… unlimited mobile browsing? I’d get the unlimited texting that I want as well! Also, no contract. Overall, less expensive if I were to add in caller ID for Option #1. No activation fee. Free chatting with my sisters (like they don’t hear me talk enough as it is).

So… Internet, what do you think? Tell me your thoughts on my Option #1 and Option #2!