Haven’t fixed a one of the other blogs’ commenting yet!

I’ll pick one to do tonight, I think.

Last night and much of today was devoted to a research frenzy on my chestnut of a topic, cell phones. I presented the problem, albeit with much greater specificity, in May of last year to the same venue with slightly differing results.

The upshot of all this is that I am pretty settled on a Treo 650, with the intent of installing one of several voice-recording software apps on the thing in order to allow an all-in-one replacement for my microcassette recorder, Palm PDA, and recording adapter. The apps under consideration include SoundRec, Audacity, and PAR.

(UPDATE: The preceding may be in error.)

My intended workflow is to record phone interviews to the Treo’s SD card. I have SD cards already, for camera use, and so can experiment with the approach before forking out for a large-capacity card.

In discussing this with Viv, I realized that our cell-use pattern is very likely to change when we have two cells in the house, and that therefore it makes sense to set up the new plan as a family plan, so that we can call each other without using time. Viv currently invests about $20 a month, so I can simply add that to my plan estimate. In the end, it does look as though Cingular has plans that will work well for us and our price point.

The problems come in when I try to think about how else I might use the device. It lacks wifi, for example, forcing me to rely on subscription data-access at Cingular, which had pricing that made me quite unhappy enough to simply not consider using the feature. Things got more ridiculous when I tried to set up a Family plan with two different phone models, as Viv doesn’t need or want the Treo.

“Cain’t get thar fum heah,” the pixels on my screen told me. I was unable to reach a Real Person (TM) even at the neighborhood Cingular store to check if the 650 is in stock or if it’s possible to get two different phones.

I did reach a real person at Fry’s, and he told me they only have the Sprint 650s, and that obtaining an unlocked 650 can only be done over the internet. I looked at Sprint’s pricing, and it’s crazy.

So as usual, I find myself nearly ready to cell out, but stymied by the bewildering pricing plans and purchasing decisions. I have a secret weapon, though. I know where all the PalmOne stores in the US are. If a plan makes sense, I don’t have to rely on the hardware the carrier provides.

That said, I doubt that I’m going to geek out about locked v. unlocked cells; I mean, last night, as I went to bed, I had only the vaguest idea what the hell the term even meant. Convenience and immediacy, given the specific hardware, will surely rule in this instance.

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Viv and I traipsed about the town today. My vintage car coat is coming undone, so I’m looking for a new one; a couple of weeks ago, I lost my beloved ninteen-sixties Pendelton wool fedora, and my ten-year-old glasses are falling apart. So I dealt with this by clawing through bins of the eyeglasses of what I have always assumed to be the recently dead, pawing though coats intended for sale to the indigent, and conducting a whistlestop tour of the vintage-merchant precincts of Fremont. No promising hats or eyeglasses were found. A fine specimen of car coat was fitted for me from the always-pristine stock at Private Screening, but alas, it proved too small.

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Right, so: the Oscars are on, and my Oscars feature intended for the mag got cut. So I don’t have to sweat bullets about getting things wrong, although I’m gonna be a little chafed about cutting the tie-in to Dr. John Dee’s stolen crystal ball. I made as many jokes as I could in 200 words concerning the words “ball,” “stone,” and “crystal,” considered in the light of a piece purporting to predict the Oscars.

Are we done here? Am I caught up? No? I have to cook the salmon? OK.

Sleep tight, my sleep-deprived beauties. The world is in fact accelerating, and yes, its’ goal is to sell you more crap faster! Buy in good faith.