The Adventures of Jim...

New header

If you've read my blog previously, you may noticed that the theme and header graphic I have now are different from what I previously had.  Lucky for me, my sweetheart Angie is a master of graphic design.  She put together my new header graphic, and I am VERY pleased with how it turned out.  (She was also the photographer who took the headshot.

Thanks, Angie, for making this blog (and me) to look better!!!

Returning to what works for me

In November, I had a first-ever experience.  I told a story as part of my speech of a personal experience I'd had involving a Motorola Razr cell phone.   That is not an uncommon occurence, I always use personal stories in my speeches, and I've frequently told that one.

The unique part was that one of the audience members worked for Morotola.  He thanked me for giving me his employer such air time...AND...he was instrumental in helping me come into possession of the exact phone that was in my story, on very favorable terms.  I was floored, and I have very much enjoyed that phone.

That being said, I've reached a point where I had to make a decision about whether or not to returned to using my previous phone; a Treo 650 from Palm.  The Treo has true PDA functions that my version of the Razr does not.  Among the PDA features that I love, my favorite is that I completely dig the idea of having my entire contact list & address book with me all the time.  I also like being able to use the keyboard to create memos, text messages, e-mails, and contact list entries.  It grates on me to have to use the alternate keys of the 10-digit number pad of a regular phone to enter text.  Too many times, it has turned into the extreme beat-down.

I'm not crazy about the size of the Treo; I much prefered the compact form factor of Razr.  Everything, however, is a trade-off.  I also wasn't looking forward to the step back in custom ringtones that I'd take in going back to the Treo.  The Razr let me use custom MP3 files that I created for individual ringtones.  Conversely, the Treo had a set of pre-programmmed tones, none of which are representative of the people for whom I'd want to assign a custom tone.  (And I'm not paying to download some chinsy MIDI-quality ringtones from AT&T that just sound goofy.)

Thankfully, I found a program on the Palm website that allows me to assign custom ringtones.  All I have to do is copy my MP3s to an SD memory card and leave it in the phone.  No problem.

Maybe I'll return to using a Razr at some point.  The V9 version is closer to a PDA, but has two issues: a) the same keyboard concern I mentioned above, and b) it's still a bit pricey, as far as I'm concerned.  When technology and price are in a more favorable position, who knows.  For now, I'm a Treo-totin' dude once again.