35.25 hours

… eh… that’s a lot of hours i have did this week past. oh wells, i am cutting down for this coming week anyways, probably not by alot, but enough to make a difference.

alot happened in the past week though, beyond just work.

A New Phone

my nokia 6280 finally annoyed me. i did some research on google as to how to solve the problems, rather than the “why”s that’s related to it. amusingly, the returns pretty much told me i have got a screwed up problematic phone, and half of it has to do with the firmware, and part of the rest of the reasons were the “locked” firmwares placed it. in short - it’s not about to improve, and probably never will.

the problems aren’t all that major, but i had like a phone that isn’t about to reset on me, or reset in the middle of a call or something. i have sent it in for “repairs” once now, and it took too much effort and issues, simply because three doesn’t produce at least 2.5G compatible sim cards.

so i went down to the Three shop, basically stated my problems with the stupid phone, and asked if it’s possible if i can just upgrade my phone early rather than wait till much. funnily, they allowed me to, without too much questions, AND i get to keep both phones. pretty much - i got a new phone for free. i get to choose which phone it was too. While i crave a sony ericsson phone, i decided to be practical and got myself nokia n73 - just for sms reasons you understand. i kind of regret it now though.

1) the keypad’s too tightly packed.

2) the joystick’s too tiny and as such too sensitive.

it’s not an entirely bad phone though. i have only had it for less than a week though, so i am not about to overly praise it. at the same time, i also figured out there’s too many apps on it. it’s actually slowing down the processes a little bit. if i want to complain.. it’s that alot of phones nowadays have many functions, but does not seem able to have the processor speed for it.

but i do like this phone, so don’t mind my whinging a little bit.

at 3.2mp, the camera phone is pretty much on par with my old camera that died last winter.

the quality of the photos aren’t all that bad either, in comparison with the 6280’s 2mp camera. 6280’s biggest problem was that some of the pixels were odd coloured, as well as a faulty flash that sometimes just refuses to work. n73’s flash works all right so far, but it’s a little too bright and too… tiny? not sure how to explain this, but the line of flash pretty much goes into one line, so when i take the picts, it seems to show up pretty bad on the picts.
most of the bad picts are deleted at the moment, and not in a good position to show them either, so perhaps i will show it at a later time.

That said, the camera is a marked improvement from any of my cameraphone collection (containing no sony-ericssons mind you, and are mostly vga related ones). not only is it 3.2mp, it also have auto focus now, and different modes (FOOD MODE! ok no so food, it’s more “upclose” mode). that pict above? that’s taken on a MOVING bus. still looks pretty good to me.

you can also change the exposures, have red-eye reduction. pretty much quite a package for a mobile phone - although i am sure these functions are also available on other mobile phones, but this is my first full apps 3G phone that’s actually somewhat functional.

i run around with a 5mp camera in my bag though, with more macro modes and stuff that a camera phone can’t possibly replace at the moment - plus the fact that it doesn’t look half as clunky as a N73, so i am not about to sell my dear lumix that quickly.

music wise - i don’t get static shock from this set at all, compared to 6280, so i think it’s a good sign. the hands free’s white too - pretty ^_^ the only real problem arises when my phone starts ringing. it seems my phone’s trying to say something unintelligible on top of my mp3 that’s my present ringtone - “The Used - Buried myself alive” - which i suspect it’s something lame like, “you have a phone call”. the sound produce was also a little scratchy over the speakers.

so, for now, pros and cons:

pros - no static shocks, 3.2mp camera with a little whizz bang, lots of functions, flickr uploading tool, ability to switch between vga and 3.2mp cameras, uhm.. just that it has white handsfree?

cons - bulky and ugly looking; it has a keitai/phone accessories hole - that i can’t seem to fit anything into; slow processor thing; weird flash; scratchy speakers.

on the whole, i do like the phone. for now anyways :p after the 6280 experience though, i am going to reserve fully commenting on it. i am half inclined to blame it on Three’s hard locking the phones though.

Summer Housemates

initially, i was supposed to spend the summer alone in my house. towards the end of the exams period, my housemates decided to tell me they have invited someone who was here last summer to stay over for this summer too. no probs with that really.

joe’s a CIT student in hairdressing, so he’s got tonnes of tools. incidentally, he cut my hair today :p i now sport a weird fringe, bordering on looking like Sailormoon’s fringe because he blew dry it up with a huge roller.

of course, with that, also came his mannequins. i don’t hate them, they scared me a bit though.

because, seriously, when you’re half asleep, still exhausted from work, and it’s 9 a.m, and u turn around to see this shadow from the corner of your eye - to realise it’s 2 heads - and you’re not wearing your glasses, you had be half as freaked out as i am.

Peita, one of my ex-managers, whom i am pretty closed to, have also joined the household for now. she needs a home as she met with some offer that was suddenly withdrawn. Since she was intending to go overseas for 1.5 years worth of travel/work, she just decided to commando it. however, alot of people didn’t like the idea of her camping in her car in strange places. so now, she’s house hopping. i didn’t know how to broach this to my housemates after they told me about joe’s arrival for summer, so i just said she will sleep in the living room for the short term instead of 3 months.

luckily, joe didn’t mind her presence so much, so she will be here for 2.5 weeks rather than 1 week.

and she’s very at home :p

and… i have been treating myself real good this week… and so has someone nice