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My Deep Dark Secret: Part Two!

 
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7921
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:55 pm    Post subject: My Deep Dark Secret: Part Two! Reply with quote

My Deep Dark Secret: Part Two!


By Maurice Ali, Journalist


It all started with this report I made back in 2004:


Maurice Ali wrote:
My Deep Dark Secret!


By Maurice Ali, Journalist



My phone in full glory with leather cover and huge battery with spare batteries (the
two new slin-line batteries are in the charger). Also seen are car adapter and
permanant car adapter and wall socket adapter!



There is a skeleton in my closet that I have pushed into the back of my mind for years. There is a part of me hidden from the rest of the world. A part of my life that would affect the way most of you would view me. That dark part of my life is my cell phone.

I probably have one of the oldest cell phones still in use. It is an old first generation Motorola personal communicator (I wonder if they still call them that.....). I got lucky in that it was one of the first of the digital phones; so I just kept using it. Using it? Well that is how all this came to be. When I was married (back when dinosaurs ruled the earth), I gave my wife a cell phone; it was 1990 and she got one.....not one in the car, or the large ones in a "purse", it was a genuine mobile phone that looked like a large black walkie-talkie (wonder if the things are still around.....). She could actually carry it in her purse (just barely) if she needed to use the phone, big stuff back then.

Technology was moving quickly back then and the new flip phones became the rage, I needed one to call my wife while I was one the road everyday (her idea) and jumped at the thought of getting a flip. It was a rental (the real reason the thing has lasted so long) but I quickly bought the phone so I could pick the plan I wanted. It was cool, with the thin battery, you could carry it in your back pocket of your Levis (I have a nice little ass so it actually looked good). For a while, if you wanted to look cool, the flip was it! So, it got used that first year or two until me and the wife got bored with each other and split up. That is when the fateful moment came and the phone was relegated to glove box status. I became a bit "anti-women" for a while and so did not need a cell phone and so it became a habit. That phone just stayed in the glove box, forgotten except for the few times I really need it (breakdowns and the occasional call from the mortgage people when renewing the mortgage and such). I really am not the phoning kind of guy but it was always a problem for others that I could never be reached by cell. I used the phone so little that after a two year stint without a call; I phoned my home just to see it it would work (it did).

So eleven years go by and now I start to need a phone as the FOF and IAIJ projects start up. I pulled the old phone out of the glove box only to find that the batteries no longer worked (I had plug ins for the car). Nobody seemed to sell new batteries any more. By chance I found a lithium battery at Radio Shack and I was back in business. As much as I would try to keep others from seeing the old phone in action, slipups occurred. The result was usually a laugh from the old folks to amazement from the teenagers: "Does that still work; can I phone my phone from that!" That was the reply from one girl after seeing the phone. I was so old fashioned and behind the times that I was not even boring or dumpy to people.....but it was actually a funky thing to have around. It was also in almost new condition which helped in the effect.

So where do I go from here? Well I found two more batteries today, and I got them very cheap as they were nicad and old but they seem to charge up so more life for the old dog yet. I am a realist and know that most women that would approach a guy they found interesting; would probably think twice if they found a guy with this phone, so the writing is one the wall for this bit of history. I still prefer this phone when I need ruggedness, like when we cover some of the more "questionable" news stories. I can drop that phone and nothing happens because the plastics are high quality and dent and "recover" rather than crack and break. The hinges on the phone are enormous compared to the popular Samsungs of today.

Anyway, I passed by a wireless store at the end of work and found a guy with a tiny phone that fit inside his ear; I did not react to this (and he seemed upset I was not drooling the sight) as it just seemed the way things always go..... Once upon a time, seeing a man babbling to himself alone was a sign of mental illness; today it is a status symbol of the latest in high technology. I can't wait to join the herd.....



Well that was almost three years ago, times have changed.....but not much.....


The Nokia!

I replaced that old Motorola flip with a six year old Nokia. I loved this thing as it seemed indestructible. I could also get away with using it, as it was small enough that your hand obscured it when talking. But it was old and this FOF stuff started making more demands on the phone, that the writing was on the wall.....


So I finally got a Blackberry, but I did it my way.....

First, that thing is a refurbished unit as I despise buying new (why I don't know) but the phone is vertually new with not a scratch on it. It cost a lot less than new and for those in the know, probably had all the fixes the original ones don't. Interesting, the phone actually works on my old sixteen year old plan I got with the Motorola, but I can assure you the data transfer will be enabled when I finally get kicked off the plan in about a month, and there is more to that story and may be written up later in the year.



Ok, so I am cruising with a two year old phone design, but what a difference that phone makes with people's perception. The girls love it, not that it does anything my old ones could not do in the past; but the image is everything. I still find this very funny that a phone that costs just a few hundred dollars new would impress people so much, but that is the reality. Since I am now in the entertainment industry representing artists and the company, I guess I will have to follow suit and stay current, Yes I have been assimilated.....




My first thought after buying the thing was that I really needed the Blackberry Pearl, and this is true. That phone as the Mp3 player (probably can record too) and the camera, all that a journalist needs and always there. But I will wait for this unit to fail and by that time the bugs should be worked out of the Pearl and then things will be complete.

In parting - with one of the more trivial reports - perhaps all this is just another social talking point to break the ice. The weather can only be interesting for so long; so we may as well talk about our phones..... Anyway, that is where my cell phone needs stand on this day February 10, 2007 - More to follow in the future - As I am sure many of you are interested to know.....
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