I received a mail containing a simcard from Smart this morning; free, as the letter which came along with it had said (agressive strategies to steal subscribers from Globe, perhaps). Shame, I could do with a new cellphone. A new sim for an old humble Nokia 3210, whose battery life is reduced to 12 hours fully-recharged, whose screen cover fell off, letting beads of moisture to stick to its screen everytime I place it in my pocket, and whose posterior cover seem eager to depart from the rest of its body and expose its innards. Yes, I desperately need to replace it. But that will have to wait, I guess, until I'm employed (next year hopefully).

Well (shrugs), at least that battered gadget still functions properly, and it also goes with my crumpled look anyway.

I don't closely monitor the new models of mobile phones today, but everytime I pass the rows of tech shops each day on my way to the review center, I've noticed that they seem to have affixed every known appliance to the cellphone excepting the refrigerator; hybrids, part camera, part palmtop, part radio, part mp3 player, part television, part cinema, part credit card, part hacking tool, part chick-magnet, among other things. One of my boardmates owns one of those fancy-tech ones, aside from sending texts and making calls, it doubles as a voyeur cam and a porno library.

I still prefer the old-reliable (and infinitely cheaper).

Has anyone ever notice that people who are so attached to their phones seem to have forgotten the pleasures, or the etiquette, of normal conversations? You're engaged in a conversation with a friend and you're in the middle of the sentence and the other's cellphone rings; he grabs it and holds it high between you so you can't see his face, you decide to continue while the other person keeps nodding and uttering blank 'uh-huhs' while he incessantly thumbs the keypad until you're so irritated by the rudeness that you can just grab the beer on the table and smash his head with it. And most of them aren't even aware of their audacious impoliteness. Sadly, it would seem that the tool of communication is in itself hindrance to effective communication.

That, and the dark side of mobile technology.

Or maybe it's just rationalization or reaction formation.

Sour grapes. Hehehe.