So, as of Sunday, I have crossed over to the darkside. Sick of my non functioning freebie Samsung phone (it was dropping calls, got terrible reception, etc) I decided to light it on fire. And replace it with a shiny new Blackberry Curve.

As of today, the only problem I’ve had with it is its terrible battery life. I’m hoping that after a little use it will settle down and work properly, but if not, I guess I’ll be calling up Blackberry/T-Mobile and demanding a new battery. That aside, I love this phone.

A little background- for the last ten years, I have been complacent, if not satisfied with the cheap freebie phones that T-Mobile gives to it’s customers. I just honestly didn’t care what the phone looked like, how cheap it was, who made it - as long as it made and received calls and text messages, it was fine. The last time (two years ago) my family renewed it’s service, I told my Mom to get me the simplest one possible - I didn’t care that it didn’t have a camera, or bluetooth, or internet- as long as it made calls, I could live with it. Needless to say, two years of abuse later…said phone stopped measuring up to even my paltry demands. Sick of terrible reception, cutting out on calls causing people to think I was hanging up on them, and the general falling apart physically battered casing, I gave in and allowed myself to be talked into picking up one of the latest and greatest.

Now let’s be honest, very few people absolutely NEED to get their email on a handheld, let alone have internet access. But…I will admit it’s very very handy to have and I have grown to like it very much. Also, that camera I thought was silly to have as a feature on any of my previous phones? Well, the Curve takes nice photos for a phone, and the fact that I can now upload them straight from telephone to my flickr account has me using this feature far more than I had anticipated. As a relative stranger to this vast city (I have now been a resident for about three months and some change), the google maps app excites me. I haven’t actually used it yet, but I’ve seen it in action while on shoots with a crew member who owns a Blackberry Pearl. Ideally, I will never get lost again, knock on wood.

The phone has so many buttons and keys that at first it was a bit daunting. However, given a few hours to explore, I learned how the menu functions and had no problem navigating around to the different applications and changing settings and preferences. The trackball is makes scrolling and selecting a no brainer. Purchased from T-Mobile, my phone came with a leather smart slip case, which automatically puts the phone in standby phone when inserted. It’s pretty perfect for me, adding a nice little protective sleeve that’s not bulky or terribly unattractive that can easily be tossed into my backpack or messenger bag. Something I can’t decide whether I like or dislike is the volume on this phone. It is LOUD. Even set to low, I can hear the phone when it’s buried in my bag. That’s great for when it’s buried in my bag and I might otherwise have missed a call. However, same phone, on the same profile, sitting on my desk at work? Its so loud it’s scary. I can’t imagine how loud it is on LOUD. But you win some you lose some, and I guess I’d much rather have a phone with capable speakers as opposed to the iPhone with subpar speakers.

All in all, I’m super happy with my transition. It was a quick transition, and I feel that should I decide to, this phone will help me be more productive. I’d recommend the new Blackberry Curve to anyone.

On a run to the post office last week, I happened across an old mail delivery bike in the lobby. It made me smile, because A) well, it’s a bicycle and if you’ve read any of the other posts on this blog, one thing we love is bicycles, and B) people probably used to get pretty excited waiting for mail to be brought on those two wheels. In an era pre cell phone pre email pre loss of actual life lived (replaced by digital friends, digital memories, digital life) handwritten letters were a way to reach out.

For our generation, a pile of mail is hardly anything to get excited about. If your piles look anything at all like mine, your mail consists of a bunch of bills (gross), some take out menus, the free neighborhood newspaper/newsletter you rarely read, junk mail, and sometimes wrongly addressed bits and pieces. This makes me frown. When I first realized this sometime last year, I decided to take it upon myself to begin a letter writing campaign, an effort to reach out to those whom I care and think about and felt deserved a little bit of my attention and time. Certainly more time than it takes to blast out a quick email. And then, maybe their little dismal piles of mail will begin to be not so dismal, when they see an envelope made out to them in my chicken scratch, and open it to find page upon page of barely legible (but loving!) handwriting.

I guess I got too caught up in the big idea of making other people smile to realize that nobody would take the time to write back, and that one sided letter conversations can only be so fun. So I slacked off. But seeing that bike made me want to bring smiles to faces and rays of light to mailboxes across the country again. So I have reinstated my letter writing campaign. Unfortunately my move to NYC has taken away about half the people I used to write to as I see them on a nearly daily basis now. So this is my announcement- if you’re sick of nothing but bills and junk, and would like a little handwritten sunshine straight from my little heart, leave a comment with your mailing address, and wait with baited breath.

I’m sick of emails and texts and instant gratification. I want old school courtship- long rambling letters you wait for days upon weeks to receive. And maybe if I write enough of them, someday someone will write back…