Goodbye Nokia… Hello Moto!

After just 3 months of using a Nokia 6600, I sold it and bought a Motorola E398. I wasn’t really planning on replacing my phone, since I am thinking of investing my money come Christmastime, but then my wife gave me the go signal. She told me it won’t hurt our finances, since we will be able to sell the 6600 at a price close to that of the E398. So, off we went to Motorola in Digital Exchange Glorietta to get a white/silver unit.

Why did I sell my 6600 when in my past posts (from my previous blog) I was singing praises for smartphones? I can think of several reasons:

1. Size. The phone was chubby-cute the first time I was using it. After the novelty wore off, I found that it’s hard to place it inside the pocket of my pants. Add the leather holster to its size, and I end up with a big bulge in my pants.

2. Speed. The 6600 was notorious for its slow interface. One of the workarounds I did was to turn off the phone log or at least set it to log 1 day’s worth of information. Still it wasn’t as responsive as I expect it to be — and I was just composing and sending messages at that!

3. Connectivity. I do have an IR unit that I use to connect the 6600 to my PC, but then the transfer speed is slow — and sometimes the connection gets cut. I don’t have any other option but to remove the MMC placed under the battery and stick it into a memory card reader.

4. Multimedia. The video recorder is not really of much concern to me, but the music output is. The 6600 plays audio files in mono! I tried to make myself contented with the supplied boom headset and the OGGPlay media player I downloaded from the internet, but I find myself longing for my stolen K750i’s Mega Bass and stereo output.

5. Application support. Don’t get me wrong. A lot of applications are available for S60 and other mobile phone OSes. However, I feel that these aren’t enough to replace — or event complement — PDA applications, or even PC applications that I use. Something important to me — a PDF reader — is available, but for some reason I cannot use it in my 6600. Tough luck.

6. I don’t know how to put this, but I am that kind of a person who wants to be as unique as I can be with regards to the things that I own. Some people may be put off with this, but I’d rather not walk into a room and see a lot of people using the same phone as I do.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate smartphones in general. It’s a great step in the evolution of mobile phones. The 6600 was a great phone during the time it was released. However at this time, it isn’t just enough anymore.

Now, on the next agenda — why get the E398, which like the 6600 is quite old by today’s standards?

1. Cost. At 10,990 the phone is as close as I can get to the price in which I can sell my 6600 with the features I want.

2. Speed. Using the K750i as a reference, the E398 is a tad slow — more so when playing MP3s in the background. However, for normal operations, the speed is acceptable.

3. Size. As compared to the 6600, need I say more?

4. Multimedia. MP3. Stereo speakers. Vibe sync that fools you into thinking that the sound is powerful enough to make the phone shudder. Stereo headset output. For an audiophile like me, this is a blessing. It doesn’t have video recording capabilities though, but I don’t mind that. Same is true with the VGA camera, which is enough for posting in this blog.

5. Application support. It’s not a smartphone, so I won’t be looking into this. Java application support is present though, so I’d be looking for an E398 version of Text Twist for my wife.

6. I got the silver/white model because most of the E398s I see are black/silver ones.

So far I’m very much satisfied in using the E398. I’ll be posting my observations about this phone in the following days.

My all-time favorite rap music

Not only for the tune, but the lyrics as well…

CHANGES
Tupac Shakur

I see no changes. Wake up in the morning and I ask myself,
“Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?”
I’m tired of bein’ poor and even worse I’m black.
My stomach hurts, so I’m lookin’ for a purse to snatch.
Cops give a damn about a negro? Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he’s a hero.
Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare.
First ship ‘em dope & let ‘em deal the brothers.
Give ‘em guns, step back, and watch ‘em kill each other.
“It’s time to fight back”, that’s what Huey said.
2 shots in the dark now Huey’s dead.
I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere
unless we share with each other. We gotta start makin’ changes.
Learn to see me as a brother ’stead of 2 distant strangers.
And that’s how it’s supposed to be.
How can the Devil take a brother if he’s close to me?
I’d love to go back to when we played as kids,
but things change, and that’s the way it is.

That’s just the way it is. Things’ll never be the same.
That’s just the way it is. aww yeah…

That’s just the way it is. Things’ll never be the same.
That’s just the way it is. aww yeah…

I see no changes. All I see is racist faces.
Misplaced hate makes disgrace for races we under.
I wonder what it takes to make this one better place…
let’s erase the wasted.
Take the evil out the people, they’ll be acting right.
‘Cause mo’ black than white is smokin’ crack tonight.
And only time we chill is when we kill each other.
It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other.
And although it seems heaven sent,
we ain’t ready to see a black President, uhh.
It ain’t a secret don’t conceal the fact…
the penitentiary’s packed, and it’s filled with blacks.
But some things will never change.
Try to show another way, but they stayin’ in the dope game.
Now tell me what’s a mother to do?
Bein’ real don’t appeal to the brother in you.
You gotta operate the easy way.
“I made a G today,” But you made it in a sleazy way.
Sellin’ crack to the kids. “I gotta get paid,”
Well hey, well that’s the way it is.

That’s just the way it is. Things’ll never be the same.
That’s just the way it is. aww yeah…

That’s just the way it is. Things’ll never be the same.
That’s just the way it is. aww yeah…

We gotta make a change…
It’s time for us as a people to start makin’ some changes.
Let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live
and let’s change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn’t working so it’s on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive.

And still I see no changes. Can’t a brother get a little peace?
There’s war on the streets & the war in the Middle East.
Instead of war on poverty,
they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.
And I ain’t never did a crime I ain’t have to do.
But now I’m back with the facts givin’ ‘em back to you.
Don’t let ‘em jack you up, back you up, crack you up and pimp smack you up.
You gotta learn to hold ya own.
They get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone.
But tell the cops they can’t touch this.
I don’t trust this, when they try to rush I bust this.
That’s the sound of my tune. You say it ain’t cool, but mama didn’t raise no fool.
And as long as I stay black, I gotta stay strapped & I can never get so laid back.
‘Cause I always got to worry ’bout the pay backs.
Some buck that I roughed up way back… comin’ back after all these years.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat. That’s the way it is. uhh

That’s just the way it is. Things’ll never be the same.
That’s just the way it is. aww yeah…

That’s just the way it is. Things’ll never be the same.
That’s just the way it is. aww yeah…

Some things never change.

Fear, Fatigue, or Gluttony?

My wife and I had an argument.

We don’t have any more money left in our semi-monthly budget.

I don’t know how it happened, I tried computing and yet it seemed enough for us.

I’m really frustrated. The argument never seemed to stop and just now I realized that we were already shouting on top of our voices. I just left my wife and went to a dark room. Inside the dark room is a small door to another room which was lighted. I went to it and found out that it was a toilet. I banged my head hard to the wall of tiles and cried my heart out.

Just then, I felt somebody shaking my shoulder. The place grew dark, and then there was my wife.

It was just a dream, thank God. It is 4:35 in the morning. My head hurts and felt like it was about to explode. She told me that I was murmuring in my sleep and thought that I was having a nightmare so she tried to wake me up. Then she hugged me tightly and asked me to tell her about it.

I don’t know why I had that dream. My wife and I were never into an argument as heated as what we had in my dream, nor were we strapped for cash, since we always have something in our emergency funds in case we need it.

Was it my fear of getting cash-strapped and not being able to provide for my family? Was it because of 2 plates worth of rice and adobo I gobbled up for dinner? Was it because of fatigue? I don’t know.

I hope it stays just that — a nightmare.

Two long weekends have ended

Time has come for a few days of rest to end.

It’s back to work, whether I like it or not.

Unfortunately, my migrane is starting to act up a few minutes ago. I hope by the time I wake up tomorrow morning, this will wear off.

I’ve been thinking about the things that happened the past few days, and I’d say that I did not go to waste.

The most significant was the time Raven took a few steps on his own — we were caught by surprise! I left Raven with my in-laws to fetch my wife (who unfortunately had to go to work even on a holiday — call center schedules, bah!), and upon entering the house, we saw Raven standing. No significance there, since we’re already used to see him standing on his own and walk around, holding onto something for support. But when I stretched my arms to call him, he stood by himself, made three baby steps without holding onto anything, until he got hold of my arm. Everybody’s laughing after that, and I can’t help but feel proud of our baby. We had our doubts about it for a while, but when the time came that we were at my parents’ house, he again walked 4 baby steps toward his grandmother! Now that’s something!

It was also a time for me to visit my in-laws — I wasn’t able to stay for long the last time we were invited to their place since I had a favor to do for a friend. At least now I had a taste of Tatay’s inihaw na pusit and super hot suka at toyo… Excellent for pulutan! The only thing lacking was beer, hahaha!

I also had a day to go to my parents — fortunately some other relatives came there and we were able to update each other with what’s going on with our lives. I had another taste of Mama’s Mechado and spaghetti — something I really missed after I got married.

It will be a few weeks more before we will have a long vacation again — Christmas is just around the corner. I’m sure a new set of experiences will make those time spent with my family all the more memorable.