then she appeared

I ran a couple of errands at the mall today, and while there wandered into the Apple Store. Touched the iPhone for the first time. Ooh! So NICE!!!  It's much slimmer than I thought it would be. It feels nice in my hand. It's not heavy. 

Then I looked at the monthly plans. The iPhone only lets you use AT&T, which I think sucks for several reasons. AT&T's coverage isn't as good as Verizon's (my current plan). AT&T has a slow data transfer system.  AT&T has never been one of my favorite huge corporations. I like competition.

But when I compare it to my Verizon plan, it's looking a little more appealing:

Feature	AT&T	Verizon
Minutes	450 minutes ($59.99)	450 minutes ($39.99)
Data	Unlimited (inlcuded in price)	10MB only ($24.99)
SMS Messages	200 (included)	200 ($5.00)
Night & Wknd	5,000 minutes	Unlimited (included)
Rollover	YES	Hell no
Unlimited Mobile to Mobile	YES	Only to other Verizon phones
Monthly Total	$59.99 + tax	$75.99 + tax (i have insurance)

Assuming there is the same rate of taxation (ugh) I would save at least $15 per month.  Over a two year plan I'd save $360, which would almost pay for the phone. I can almost rationalize that!

I wonder if I'll make it all the way through the end of next week without a shiny new phone. *Resist* *Resist* (Next week is my birthday, and I find that week is the toughest to resist buying myself something. It's the week I got my Treo two years ago. In fact, my service contract is apparently up 8/25. Sigh.)

Google really IS trying to take over the universe. Or at least the galaxy.

Cool, though!

A quick link to a couple of This Modern World strips over at Working for Change:

The Year in Review (Part I) and
The Year in Review (Part II)

The mind boggles...

The sneaky trees of the awesome holiday lights display that I linked to earlier are now prominently featured in a Miller Lite television ad!

Tagline: "Enjoy the Lites"

If I drank beer, I'd drink Miller Lite just because of that. At least a few times.

This is a pretty cool trip down Internet Memory Lane. So many things I've seen and forgotten! Like I'd forgotten "Suck!" I used to read it every day and somehow, since then, I completely forgot that it ever existed. And now it sort of doesn't, but the at least the archives are there. But...the hamster dance! and the I Kiss You guy! and the Abe Vigoda Status bar! and ExplodingDog! and all of it. It's weird to feel nostalgic about something so recent, but there you go.

And this:

Found on kottke -- in case you're feeling warm and fuzzy toward nature, here's a little reminder that it's brutal and vicious: an extremely cool video of honeybees being wiped out by evil hornets (WMV format). I never felt sad for honeybees before! Poor little guys...

A note: Not for the fainthearted! Decapitation and dismemberment and eating of young! Scary voiceover! Sorta low res! Jumpy cuts!