Not doing it.

I just found out on Thursday that it will cost me $700 for an iPhone, including my special deal I get through work. I will also have to opt out of my current contract 2.7 years early. I am not happy about this. I spent $100 on a phone I thought would be alright, but it has this way of randomly deleting ring tones I've saved to it, including the free Star Wars one that Rogers texted me about 2 weeks ago. I want to get a Blackberry, because text messaging seems to be much faster, and I'm not very good at T9. However without a new 3 year contract, I'm looking at about $400.

As well, I'm very sad to say that my awesome Samsung 27" TV that I bought for $555 at Visions in Saskatoon, the Tv that moved with me is about to bite the dust. Moves:

From Saskatoon to Kelowna.
From Kelowna to Chilliwack.
From Chilliwack to Kelowna.
From Kelowna to Kamloops.
From Kamloops to Kelowna.

Plus 13 other moves in there from house to house on all those towns. That thing has been more than excellent.

It started about a month ago when I noticed that there was a weird green tinge on the screen in the upper left hand corner. We were playing Wii at the time, so I thought maybe the burned version of the game was faulty. Though, I don't see how that's possible. Anyway, about a week later my sister and I were watching TV, and I saw it again.

Then last night I bought a PACE PVR from work, and noticed that the picture is shaking. And the volume control doesn't really work. If I try to turn the volume down, I get all the way to the very last block before it's about to have no sound, and the volume level is the same. The last one down renders it almost completely quiet, but not completely quiet as it should be. I give it about a month, and it will die. Dammit. I've had a lot of good times with that TV. It's been on the bus, and been in about 12 different cars, plus one moving truck. I'll miss it when it's gone.

They Caved.

But it's still not enough. For me personally however, 6G is way more than I'll ever use, especially considering I forgot to charge my current phone a lot.

More cell phone woes

This time they aren't my woes (for once). We got an email at work regarding the new charges that Bell and Telus are about to introduce. That's right, they're about to start charging for incoming text messages. Almost the second the news was released, there was outrage. Everyone brings up a good point: we don't control who texts us and when, and now we have to pay for it? That's like saying if someone calls you long distance, you're paying for that call just because you had the nerve to answer the phone. Since the news was released, more information has come out to the effect that those who are paying for unlimited plans will not be charged, however those who rarely ever use the phone (the emailers) will have to pay for every incoming message. The worst part about all this, is Rogers is NOT on that band wagon. This means they will attain more customers.

How do they keep winning?

Update

Over 40,000 people have now signed the petition for the god awful Rogers iPhone rates. Let's hope something will happen to get at least a decently priced unlimited plan to be released.

*****UPDATE: the number is almost at 60,000. They also have a page where you can "sign" to say you are willing to cancel if something isn't done. Almost 1200 have signed that one.

Brain Bake

I'm not 100% sure what's happening with my head these days. I can't tell if it's the heat, or the "I might have to move to Calgary" thing that's been plaguing my mind, but I'm definitely suffering from 'brain bake'. 10 minutes ago I paid my Rogers wireless bill...for the second time. I paid it on the 16th and for some terrible reason it took forever to go through, so when they sent me the email saying that my bill was available to view, it wasn't showing a payment. Rather than take 4 minutes to log into my bank account and see that the payment was made, I just logged in and paid it. So now I'm $123 down. Dammit. I really hope I remember to check around Friday or so to make sure that my payment has gone through. If not, I will have to call Rogers to find out why they haven't posted my (by that time) 3 week old payment. I know they're under a lot of fire from the iPhone package announcement, but really. The day should go on as normal...

Last night I went to a Canada Day (one day early, as we all have to work the next day) party. My sister is house sitting at a place that has a pool and a hot tub, and quite possibly the most awesome backyard I've ever seen. The family that lives there is plant crazy. We played badminton for a few hours, drank some beers, had some steaks, and went home early. It was awesome.

Hope everyone has a great Canada Day.

Unbelievable

Yesterday the voice and data plans were released by Rogers for the coming iPhone. I wanted to throw up when I saw the prices. $60? For almost nothing? No thanks. To get just what I have now on my phone, I'm looking at $80 a month. I pay $54 after taxes right now. Where does Rogers think they get off charging that much? We seriously need some competition in this country, as we as Canadians are being gouged. The phone itself is a lot cheaper than I thought it would be. I followed the initial launch in the states, and though I wanted one, I wasn't about to pay $800 for it.

For that reason, I stopped paying attention to what was happening. Then one day a guy at work showed me the price on the Apple website, and suddenly I was ready to start thinking about getting one. The issue now is the damn plans. The plan I have right now is one I got through work about a week before Rogers decided not to offer us special plans anymore, and I'm pretty sure if I get the iPhone I can stay on the new plan (it's just a sim switch, after all) but what happens in November when my contract runs out? I can't see that I'll get that same plan again. I never was one for using the internet on my phone, mostly because it was too slow and too expensive. I've heard lately that the iPhone 3G has done some work on connection speeds and signal reliabilty, which is great, but the data plan would kill any hopes of a decent budget for next year.

Hopefully some (sadly) American company is planning to roll into town and kick Rogers/Telus' collective asses to the curb. I'd rather pay them for a decent plan than keep breaking my budget while trying to remain patriotic.

Chain Normal

Feeling awfully lonely these days. There's people around me, but they're not with me. Friends and family are distant. The odd thing is, the sun is shining every single day. I had a bad work week that sadly continues tomorrow. Then I'm off for 3 days and on overnights for 8 straight. Then 6 off, and back to normal. A payday is in that time, so maybe I'll take a little trip. Go visit the friends in Kamloops perhaps. Maybe I'll just tell people I'm going but stay here. Who knows.

My dryer is acting up, which is not a good thing. I won't get anyone in here to fix it, I'll just replace it. The reason is because first off it's butt freakin' ugly, and it's TERRIBLE with power consumption. The next time a power bill comes I want it to be less than $100. In this tiny apartment, that's atrocious. It's a good thing they're only like $300 each. My friend has a special deal she can get me, so I'll definitely be hitting her up for that. The thing is, the places out there are more expensive than they are here. Not sure if it's worth it or not. I'll look into it and see what I can find out.

I tried a Lipton Green Tea yesterday. Actually I tried a raspberry version first, and it wasn't very good. Then I checked out the label on the Green Tea bottle and opened it up. I turned the bottle upside down and dumped the entire thing out. It was a waste of $2, but stores don't like refunding drinks. On the label is said 32grams of sugars. Um, no thanks. The added sodium took the joy out of trying something new for me. I won't do that again.

In other news, the car is working fine.

The cats are extremely healthy right now. Both are at healthy weights, both have healthy mouths, but unfortunately both are eating a lot of wet food, which makes their excrement deposits FOUL. WOW. This apartment of mine has almost NO air circulation, so when I come home from work some days, I want to throw up. Any suggestions anyone? It's seriously horrible. I've always prided myself on whether or not my house smells like cat. I've always been told that it doesn't, but nobody says that anymore...