it pays to flirt (with sales-girls)

actually, the correct title should be -
my phone got fucking stolen!
BUT, i was having such a good time buying a new one, my mood's all good now.
anyway, i was in the office, my ipod and phone were side by side at the inner side of my desk as usual. i still remember checking the phone cos i got a miss call and some messages.
2 hours later, the phone's gone but the ipod was still there. grr.
i'm not very pisssed about losing the phone, although i only got it towards end of last year. it only cost me around RM250. what really pissed me off is that i lost over 100 contacts that were saved in my SIM card. it'll take me pretty damn long to get back those that i can still contact through other means. i dunno what to do about the others.
so, i went straight to get a phone after work. i've already suspended my phone account after i confirmed that i really lost the phone, not misplaced it. i can get a new SIM activated tomorrow at lunch, so all i need now is a new phone.
as usual, i looked through the few models that caught my eye the past few months. nokia N80 (RM2.4k), sony ericsson K800(RM1.9k), samsung D840 (RM1.5k+), samsung D900 (RM1.8k).
well, i didn't wanna spend more than RM2k. so even though i really really love the N80, that's outta the question. the K800 was around the same, cos adding in the memory card will bring it over 2k. D900 is just not that worth it, considering the only difference between it and D840 was a 3M-pixel camera. i don't need that.
so, i started bargaining with the sales-girl. asked for a memory card for the phone too, since the built in memory is 70MB. she was quoting me RM150 for the memory card. (she probably didn't know that i know that the card is selling for around RM80-90 outside...) so i started bargaining more. well, it ended up more like flirting and i got myself the phone plus a 512MB memory card for a total of RM1450. AND, i got
her phone number. :) kinda cute, so i'm thinking whether i'd call her out when i got my SIM tomorrow.
anyway, here's the phone. nice, eh?
specs

lazy or busy?

i've beeen more or less working my ass off for the past month. well, that was during my day shift week. night shift is slightly better, except for the times when i get shitty cases from even shittier customers.

outside of work, i've got quite a few books to spend my time with. really appreciate sheryl's help in getting me the books from borders in kl. they're much cheaper than i expected too, since borders was having a discount.

finished reading neil gaiman's the wolves in the walls already. well, anyone could've finished the book in 15-20mins. that's not the point tho. the books really good. great illustrations from dave mckean (as usual), extremely great ideas by neil gaiman (as usual too). i kinda wanted to post a couple of pages up, but i don't have a scanner. pics taken from my camera can't do it justice.

sandman: endless nights is also very good. new stories of the endless told, giving more depth to the characters, who, in the sandman library series, already are given a great depth, making them very believable. the colaboration of comic artists that drawn each of the seven chapters actually gave more live to the characters by using varying and suprisingly effective drawing styles, tailored to each of the characters nature. i think i'm gonna be rereading this book soon.

just started off with anansi boys. as usually, very distinctive neil gaiman writing style. so far, the story is quite engaging. i've only gone through 3 chapters.

playing a ps2 game called atelier iris. very very old school playing style, with a few new ideas. even the graphics are reminiscence of the ff6 era. susi saw it and asked if i were playing a girl's game. well, it does look kinda girlie.
almost done with the game. it's rare but it's the first time that i played an rpg but don't feel like going through all the trouble to finished all the side quests and find all the hidden items. i think that pretty much says the game is not that good.

my old nokia 7650 died last saturday.
i wished it could've at least lasted another month, since my bro's gonna be back from uk with some phones. as it is, i had to shell out some moolah to get myself a new phone first.
ended up with this:panasonic A200 (the black one, of course)


RM280. basic color phone, no extra functions. cheap and small, just what i wanted. i was trying to get the white one, but could only find the black one. the white one's cool, color is very ipod-ish. couldn't wait for new stock, since i needed to get a phone that night itself. it's about 2/3 the length of a nokia 8210. after using 7650 for so long, holding this phone makes me feel like i can drop it anytime.
well, let's hope my bro brings something good back.

phone choices

i've been shopping around for a phone for the past month.
well, at first, my choices were just limited to SE K750i, SE P910i, Nokia 3230, and O2 XDAII Mini. i thought my choices were very simple since i'm not really interested in getting a 3G phone. so it's either a basic phone with good features, or a PDA phone to play around with.

K750i is a great basic phone, 2MP camera, not laggy n has a good size. the only thing about it is that there just isn't as much to play with since u can't install any apps. price-wise, it'll lose badly to the symbian60 nokia 3230. the only thing i absolutely don't like about the 3230 is the ugly design. i can live with the laggy response from the phone if it had a better design.

i totally eliminated P910i from my choice after playing around with it for a few times. too bulky n heavy. the design looks really stupid anyway. so if i'm going for a PDA phone, it'll be the O2 mini.

what really delayed the whole thing is the coming release of nokia's N91, SE W800i and motorola V3x later this year.



the W800i is essentially the K750i, with an ugly color scheme, better firmware, better music player, n a 512MB memory stick packaged with it. it also doubles as an mp3 player when the phone is off. i've heard n read rumors online about using the W800i firmware on the K750i n getting all the functions. if i can manage to find out how to do that, i might just get the K750i.

N91 is just also. has everything the 3230 has, plus a 4GB microdrive. it's like bringing a mini pc around with that thing.

v3x is by far the one with the best design among the ones i'm interested in. i liked the v3 razr design all along, just didn't like the lacking in features for the price. the v3x addressed all the features issues. :)

the only thing left is how much are these 3 phones gonna cost once they ship.

well, if i suddenly decide i can't stand my old N7650 any longer, i might just get myself the N3230 since it's the cheapest. then maybe get a new phone early next year. :)