Phone Upgrade

So I recently decided to upgrade my mobile phone on my phone network. I'm not going to name the name of the network.

I've been with them for three years and have not once had a problem with them, until last week of course. Phone upgrades have always been free for myself and everyone else I know. However, the other day when trying to upgrade they wanted to charge me £79.99 for the phone. I told them that they had surely gotten something wrong as my cousin, uncle, aunt and father (who I all told to go with this particular phone network in the first place) have all recently upgraded, for free, to the latest phones. After much debate I told them I wanted to cancel my contract...

...And it's here where you get your deals ladies and gentlemen.

The moment you tell a phone company you want to leave their network for a rival company because that other company is offering something your current phone company aren't, then they suddenly want to do everything in their power to please you. Which goes without saying really, but it's a shame that it takes something as much as "I want to stop giving you my money now" to do that.

Unfortunately and fortunately for me I didn't get the phone for free, I still have to pay £79.99 for the upgrade. But because I threatened to leave the company they have offered me the next 12 months of my contact (and my contract is 12 months anyway) for half price, which saves me in roughly £180 throughout the year.

Now let's question that for a moment. The phone company didn't want to give me the phone for free, because they presumably wanted the £79.99. However, they'd much rather literally give me £180 instead and keep me connected for another year, thus they've lost around £100.01. Now I'm not complaining because although I have to splash out extra cash now, I've saved £100, but isn't this a bit stupid of the phone company?

The reason I'm not mentioning the phone companies name is because up until this point they've been incredibly good to me with not one complaint from yours truly in the three years I've been with them.

Anyway, after some system errors and about 10 phone calls later, my phone is finally on its way and I can at last get rid of this ageing Nokia I've had for some time now - it's slow, big and ugly.

Sony Ericsson K800i here we come!

Personal Issues

Unfortunately for yours truly I've hit a rough patch. Things haven't gone the way they should have in the past couple of weeks and today has proven to be a bit of a low one for me. There's plenty worse things happening out there so I am grateful on that front. However, all belief and confidence I had has just been smashed into a large brick wall - with spikes n' stuff.

I'll post more when I'm happy enough to face everything.

Generosity For A Day

I run a Katie Melua forum elsewhere on the internet - so I'll admit that I'm a fan of her music. I'm used to receiving kind gestures from forum goers who appreciated my quick set up of the forum after her official forum was closed through petulant reasons. But today I was offered a gesture that goes beyond kindness.

A forum member offered me a ticket to her concert in December, which I've gratefully accepted. I think it was out of thanks for everything I've done for the fans of Katie. There's many members on the board and over 40,000 posts, which I think is more than the official forum (has now been re-opened).

Anyone interested? I won't be naming the site up here, but a quick search on Wikipedia should bring you to my message board.

I might not be the biggest fan of Katie's latest album, but I'm still fond of her earlier stuff and so can't wait to go to the gig. Should be a blast to meet up with other forum members as well.

Gaming Revolutionising?

It's console makers like Microsoft and Sony who seem determined to stop computer gaming evolving into something else. Rather than innovating ideas, they'd much rather stick to high end graphics, fast game play and well, that's it. I've finally realised why I get bored of computer games so much now and it's because they're all the bloody same. No one seems to want to make anything different these days, but with software developers it's down to what they can do, not what they want to do.

For example, the Xbox 360 has a bog standard controller with nothing particularly special about it, except for the wireless thing. Sony's upcoming PS3 controller is just the same as before but with a minute motion sensor built in. Neither of these controllers will allow anyone to do anything outside the norm of gaming.

Enter Nintendo Wii. A bit late with the news, I know, but Nintendo (who I'll admit to bashing for years) have finally created a computer console with a controller than can be deemed a little 'out-of-the-norm', and for the evolution of computer gaming this is the way to go.

The Nintendo Wii's controller doesn't follow the route other controllers run down. The controller comes in two parts - the 'remote control' and the 'nunchuck'. And their selling point on the controller? Motion sensor.

I love how Nintendo are trying something different from Microsoft and Sony. After all, hardcore gamers will surely be getting bored of the traditional games out there now, right? I know I am. I used to be an avid gamer but after buying a PS2 I just wasn't getting my kicks anymore. I figured the XBox 360 and PS3 would bring something new again, but they're just the same old consoles with a bit more power. It's about time they realised that graphics might look pretty but don't equate to making a great game. What's so funny about this on a personal level?

For years I bashed Apple Computer for making rubbish computers, despite their innovation. Until the iMac G4 was released I just wasn't impressed, but they finally did something that stood out and made me (and millions of others) take notice. However, it wasn't until their latest home desktop computer, the G5 (now been updated with Intel processors of course and simply called iMac) that I changed my opinion of Apple completely and purchased one of their machines. After years and years of bashing, I ditched my PC for a Macintosh.

Come the last quarter of this year, I think I'll be ditching my PS2 as well.

Godfather Fever

One of the first things I did upon my return from the Isle of Wight was to check my e-mails. I had over 30 e-mails spread out over three days just sitting in my Inbox wating to be opened, but 28 of those e-mails were Spam. Okay, so not exactly a lot compared to most, but I almost never receive Spam. So to be away for three days and return to find 28 crappy e-mails sitting there was a bit of a shock to the system - and of course, a let down that none of my friends or family had e-mailed me.

Anyway, the Christening was lovely although at times I felt a bit out of place as I'm actually an athiest, so becoming a Godfather was a little bit hypercritical, right?

Here's a small gift from my sister as a thank you. It's nothing official (that's left for the Church of England apparently) but it is a little reminder of my duty to my nephew. It was fun spending some time with the family and I'll hopefully be doing it all over again in just over a months time for my 21st birthday.

Oh and by the way, the other two e-mails were newsletters - Mr Pop You Lar, I think you'll find.

Apple Computer's Pet Leopard

I've come across this blog of someone running a few previews of Apple's next OS, due in Spring next year, called Leopard.

I'm pretty sure it's breaking a few copyrights, especially as the blog owner admits to downloading an illegal beta copy of the operating system through Bittorent. Still, it's an interesting read, especially if you're a Mac owner.

I'm liking some of the new features of Blogger Beta version x.something, or whatever version it is, but I'm still finding errors when trying to comment on other blogs when signed in under my Gmail account username. Unfortunately I can't sign in on my other username anymore as I made the transition to the new blogger. Hope they get it sorted soon because I want to comment on a few blogs I read (check out my links bar).

Going away for the weekend now for a Christening. I'm Godfather for my nephew in the Isle of Wight on Sunday. Spent a lot of time rushing around trying to sort out a nice suit, only to be told it'll be casual wear over anything else. Pain in the arse or what?

Anyway, would like to get a few pictures and post them up, but I shan't for anonymity reasons.

Pluto Shambles

Before I begin, I should probably apologise to a few people who have left comments on my blog and not seen them appear. I'm still pretty new to Blogger and until I updated to the Beta today, I didn't realise I had any comments awaiting moderation. They're all up now though and I'll have anymore e-mailed to me in future.

Anyway, it's a complete shambles that Pluto has been taken off the Planet list. I can't see how it would make a difference anyway, it's not like it's actually leaving the solar system. All this scientific rubbish annoys me at times, no matter how much of a space enthusiast I am.

Update - In response to some comments left by a few readers, I've tried to comment on your blogs regarding posts you've made and, unfortunately, this new Beta blogger doesn't like me making any comments - I got a horrible 404 error after trying to reply.

F.Y.I to one, I find that if you're in the middle of cocking up dinner for guests, it's best to cock it up completely, rather than just a little bit. Come Christmas, you can all laugh about the time you completely cocked up dinner for everyone. Try it, it's kind of fun.

Doll Mistake?

My cousin (with his parents) left for their holidays about an hour and twenty minutes ago, but not before I put a kids 'baby doll' into his suit case.

I told everyone about it, except my cousin, and now I'm worried that it's going to disrupt their journey considerably. With the extra security checks in place at British airports right now, I just know he's going to get stopped as his case goes through its scan. What will his reaction be in front of everyone when the security guys pull out a baby-doll?

Ahah, sod it! It'll be something to talk about at Christmas.

Henry The Internet Junkie Monkey

YouTube.com has been getting a lot of shouts over the internet and on British T.V the past few days - apparently there's been a huge boom. I don't use it often as I find watching crap people have submitted to be rather boring, although if you take a peak through this blog you will see a couple of instances where YouTube has come to my rescue with some interesting clips.

I stumbled on this following video clip which is of Henry, an internet junkie Monkey. It's quite funny, especially with his accent. I suggest you just hush up and watch it now.

Watch now.

Pet Hate

One thing that really bugs me about MSN users is when they come online with their status already set to 'Away'. What's the bloody point in coming on if they've got no intension of talking to anyone, it doesn't make sense.

Another thing that annoys me. I hate it when users sign onto MSN and, once you've initiated a conversation with them, they apologise for not being able to talk because they're busy with an assignment. So again, what was the bloody point in signing onto MSN?