Verizon

I got my Verizon bill today, the first bill since I got my new phone. Hoo boy. I’ve been on a $15, 25 minute per month, plan for the last few years, and that’s generally been enough time for me. Sometimes I go a bit over, but usually not by more than a few minutes.

I went a little nuts with the new phone though, and racked up $75 in additional charges. Since it looks like I’m already well over the 25 minutes for this month, too, I’ve decided to switch to the $40 plan, which gives me 450 minutes. That ought to cover any ridiculous amount of phone usage I can manage, and it’ll let me use Mobile Web with (relative) abandon.

The $15 plan, though, was some kind of special plan that I’ll probably never be able to get back into, though, so that’s a bit of a pain. And I’ve always been kind of proud to have a calling plan that was cheaper than anyone else’s. Well, I knew it wouldn’t last forever!

San Diego news

Four-day memberships to SDCC are now sold out, according to Newsarama, which I presume means that this con will be just as crowded as the last one, if not more so. I’m fine with that. I’ll just stick with stuff that’s a bit off the beaten path, and stay away from most of the Hollywood stuff.

NYC Kwik-E-Mart

I’ve been meaning to drop by the NYC Kwik-E-Mart, but the last couple of times I’ve been in NYC, I’d forgotten to look it up and make a note of its location. Well, now I know that it’s on 42nd between 8th & 9th, so I’m all ready to head over there and pick up some Buzz Cola.

the couch is here

The new couch showed up today. It’s a little bigger than the old couch, which is fine, except that it’ll be interesting trying to get it out of the apartment when I either move or throw it out (whichever comes first). It looks fine, and it’s plenty comfortable, which I guess is all I can ask for in a couch. It’s outgassing like crazy right now, though. I opened the windows up, turned the fan on, and went out for an hour or so, and that seems to have helped a bit, but I can’t leave the windows open overnight, since it’s so hot and humid right now. I’ll leave the windows open all day tomorrow, while I’m at work. Hopefully, that’ll help. Meanwhile, this page has some interesting tips on how to deal with “new sofa stink”. I’m all out of incense, alas.

out with the old (couch)

My old couch, which I’ve owned for about 15 years, is now out on the curb, awaiting tomorrow’s bulk pickup. The couch was a hand-me-down, and wasn’t in the greatest shape when the previous owner gave it to me, so it’s probably at least 20 years old.

The new couch should arrive tomorrow. This will be the first time in my life that I’ve actually bought new living-room furniture with my own money! I was originally going to get something relatively expensive, maybe from Crate & Barrel. I wound up deciding to go with something more modest: an Ashley couch from Crazy Deals, a small furniture store conveniently located right downstairs from my apartment.

more phone stuff

Okay, this is hopefully the last post on my phone for a while. (See previous posts for context.) I went out last week to find an adapter to allow me to use a normal pair of headphones with the phone, for listening to music on it. It turns out that a normal $5 Radio Shack adapter, plugged into the Motorola USB adapter, only allows sound to come through one channel. I’m not 100% sure why this is, but it’s annoying. For now, I decided to just give up, and bought a pair of Motorola headphones that plug directly into the USB jack on the phone. They cost $30 from Best Buy. The sound is pretty good, but the earbud design doesn’t fit my ears that well.

Looking around on the internet now, I think I could have just bought something like this, but I didn’t see it in either Best Buy or Radio Shack last week, so I’d probably have to mail-order it. I may still do that, though I don’t think I can return the earphones now, since I tossed all the packaging.