Tales From The Ipe!

The new HTC Touch Pro looks cool.

I can not believe the trials and tribulations that I am enduring regarding cellphone holsters.

1. In January 2008, I bought a cellphone holster for $30, as I didn’t want to take the chance of losing my BlackBerry.  I once lost a Nokia 8260 back in 2000 when it slipped out of my pants pocket (that’s what you get for being heavily inebriated with your friends (see Aug 30 2002) walking out at 4am.  BTW, check out this page from PC World — I used to own both of these Nokia phones, in chronological order.  They were nice phones, but archaic by today’s standards.  Ah, the memories.
2. I appear to have misplaced the holster somewhere, so I purchased one online for the amazing price of $8.  I proceeded to break it within 24 hours after getting in my car, and snapping the clip off against the driver seat.
3. Afraid to lose the phone while attending meetings in the city, I found an AT&T Wireless store in Times Square, and purchased another holster for the now-I-realize-marked-up price of $30.  For a short time, I thought maybe the $8 one was inferior, and that’s why it broke.
4. 48-72 hours later, I proceed to break the holster. On the driver seat.  Again.
5. This week, I found the holsters online for $6, and ordered TWO of them.  I figure the price is right — if anything happens to the first one, I have a spare.  They arrived today.  I’m going to construct a glass case, put the holster in it, and hang the case on the wall.  One of those “In case of emergency, break glass” type deals.

I did consider getting one black and one red, but I wasn’t sure if the red one was considered “unmanly.”  When in doubt, always bet on black, as Wesley Snipes eloquently put it.  I decided to purchase two identical black holsters.  I also resolved myself, going forward, to carefully enter and exit my car.

Nokia 6160

Nokia 8260

Curve 8300 Holster (black)

Curve 8300 Holster (red)

In other news, I have been searching the Earth for decent in-ear headphones. Here comes another stupid history lesson:

1. Back when I had purchased my 4G iPod in November 2004, I used the included white headphones, but I wanted something better.
2. In Sept 2005, I purchased the well-reviewed Sony Fontopia Headphones MDR-EX71SL in-ear headphones.  Within 3-5 months, they literally fell apart — insulation opened up exposing the wires.  So much for Sony brand name quality.  Feh. Sony, your Quality Control Department sucks.
3. Fast-forward to this week.  I’ve looked at the Shure, Etymiotic, Jayz, Bose headsets, and they have been all more than what I want to comfortably spend.  I could argue spending between $50-$100, but they gotta be good.  Well, the fat lady sung.  CircuitCity.com is offering a 15% discount on MP3 & accessories until Sept 13 2008.  I also had a $75 Circuit City gift card to spend unwisely.  I had my eye on the Shure SE210 headphones in black (good reviews all around), but they were out-of-stock on Monday.  They just restocked on Friday, and I put the order in.  Instead of $124, final cost (and free shipping) is $38.  This Indian in me rejoices.  Should be here in 4-10 business days.

Original iPod Headphones

Sony MDR-EX71SL

Shure SE210 (black)

I tell ya, the BlackBerry Curve has to be my favorite, best cell phone I have ever owned.  Every so often, I try to convince my wife to to get a BlackBerry or other smartphone, but I don’t think it will ever happen.

Anyway, RIM debuted their new, long-awaited BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 at the Fall CTIA show Tuesday night.  Cool!

I’m working and attending meetings in New York City this week (Tuesday and Wednesday.)  It’s certainly been a long while since I was working in the downtown office.  Heck, so many different things going on in the city.  All the construction on the new subway/transit center near WTC, all the construction and security for the upcoming anniversary of the attacks in two days.  You can forget how vibrant the city can be.

I was all set to eat Chipotle steak fajita burrito today.  I haven’t eaten from Chipotle in months, and there are two in the downtown area.  I read how the burritos are nutritionally enough for two people, so I skipped breakfast and morning snacks, so I could balance the large meal.  However, it was pouring rain today, and not worth the walk to and from in the rain.  I ended up eating a chicken salad sandwich from the cafeteria downstairs.  I tell ya, when I fall from grace, I really fall from grace.  Better luck tomorrow.

I should check the weather.  How will I do that?  Why, with my iPod.  Now that the price has dropped, and more features have been added, I’ve bitten the bullet and upgraded to the v2.1 software for iPhone and iPod Touch.  I held off from January to August, but I finally cracked when I saw all the really cool apps in the App Store, and many gratis!  You can now supposedly view saved song lyrics.  Weather, Stocks, Maps, and all those apps for education, entertainment, etc, for the recently lowered price of $9.95. Done. I also installed iTunes 8 for the low, low price of free.  We’re synching at the moment.

Speaking of purchases, I have lost another phone holster.  I keep snapping off the belt clip piece when I get in the car.  I’m such an idiot.  I lost the original $30 one…..somewhere in the house, broke the $8 replacement 24 hours later in the car, and broke the $30 one from Manhattan in 72 hours.  My new plan is to purchase 2-3 of the $8 ones, and keep them on hand.

And move the seat in my car back a few inches.

I was surfing, and found this ad promoting Kerala tourism.  [Note: Kerala is a state in southern India, fairly conservative, and where my family originates.]  I was a little surprised.  A little risque, don’t you think? If it gets the seats filled on the next Air India flight, more power to them.  I don’t remember the backwaters being this sexy.

Wait, maybe I do.  😉

Kerala Tourism Ad