The Ramblings of Octavo

How toxic are you? That’s what this innocent little pamphlet screams at you. I particularly love the font they used for the word “toxic” - dripping with goo.

It goes on to ask a series of vague questions that any normal human might answer yes to. Some of my favourites are: “Have you ever felt fatigued now and then for no apparent reason?” and “Do you feel irritable without reason or cause?”

Of course if you’ve answered yes to some of these questions then you desperately need to do the Purification Rundown procedure as developed by L. Ron Hubbard. Scientology is not mentioned anywhere on this pamphlet - your only clue being the email address at the bottom is @scientology.net. That this ”procedure” is a nice little money spinner for them and a handy way of suckering new recruits into their dark cult is of course part of the hidden agenda.

For those of you not in the know, Scientology is that wacky religion that believes a space alien named Xenu killed a bunch of people by dropping them into volcanoes and their dead souls attach to our bodys today and that’s what causes illness. Any sort of professional mental health is forbidden by their religion as are almost ALL medical drugs. They are an incredibly dangerous cult.

I encourage you to visit the two links above in case you are ever tempted by one of these pamphlets. Do some research on Scientology first and don’t say I didn’t warn you!

A friend of mine just found out that he’s now €750 short on his debit card! What a suck thing to happen. Luckily the bank will most likely cover the fraud, so he shouldn’t be out of pocket any, but still - it’s frightening how easy this sort of thing can happen.

So people, keep your card numbers safe and check your balance regularly - even better, if you bank offers an SMS notification service on your account - TAKE IT. FNB does and I’m forever grateful!

 

So although I went to bed last night with my heart set on a Samsung D600 as my upgrade phone of choice, I woke up this morning thinking that maybe I shouldn’t be so hasty.

The Cell C rep showed me other phones with similar functionality for similar price for a reason. So I can make an informed choice. And since I’m going to have it for the next 2 years, I figure it’s worth the effort to do some research.

So, there are three phones in the mix: The Samsung D600, the Sony K750i and the Sony w800i.

Now, according to t3h intarwebs the K750 and the w800 are essentially the same phone, althought the w800 has better MP3 ability and comes with a 512Mb memory stick.

So that leaves me with a choice between the D600 and the w800i - there doesn’t seem to be two much between these phones though.

D600: Uses SD Card for expandable storage which is a bonus, because my car radio also uses SD cards. The D600 form factor is nicer than the Sony.

w800i: Uses Sony Memory Stick, but comes bundled with 512Mb stick. Funky Orange colour! Supposedly better camera though

If anyone has anything to say about these phones, please comment I’d appreciate your input.

It’s not often that I rave about a company, but then good service is rare in this country - thus when I get consistantly good service I think I should say something about it.

I’ve had a cellphone contract with Cell CImage is copyright Cell C for the last two years. I initially signed up with them because they had the phone I wanted for a good price with very good call charges. I must first say that in these last 2 years I’ve hardly had any dealings with Cell C (which is a good thing). Their bills arrive on time and correct and I’ve not had any hassles at all with the service.

A few weeks back I realised I was probably nearing my upgrade period, so Ibis and went to a Cell C shop in Bayside Mall and had a chat to the rep. What a nice guy. Really friendly and helpful and he knew his stuff too. We were both impressed by his friendly attitude and good service. He told me that I’m due for an upgrade next month, so I decided to start researching some phones.

Today I finally decided that the Samsung D600 looks like a wikid phone so I went down to a different Cell C shop in Canal walk to find out if it’s available. The rep at Canal Walk was also very friendly and also VERY knowledgable about the phones on offer and the prices, which made a definate contrast to the MTN and Vodacom guys I’d seen earlier that day (hey it doesn’t hurt to shop around!). Both MTN and Vodacom reps had been a bit flummoxed when I asked about phones and prices and had to scramble for a price sheet to tell me what the phones cost. In contrast the Cell C rep had not only told me everything I needed to know about the phone and how much it would cost, he also demo’d phones with similar functionality and pointed out the pro’s and cons of all of them.

So, in summary, THANK YOU CELL C for consistantly good customer service and well thought out contract plans. Well done!

And here we have yet another example of how amazingly cool I actually am. There are two things I want you to note about this image.

A) My awesome logitech surround sound speakers that I still haven’t extended (the cables are too short) and as such aren’t plugged in yet

b) My 1337 glue gun skills as evidenced by the neat LAN cables stuck to the picture rail behind the router.

Yes, believe it cause it’s true! I have finally mastered that elusive and macho art of the glue gun!

And here’s a picture of Teaspoon just to further confirm my complete lack of any sort of ability when it comes to taking decent pictures. Horribly overexposed, but then I suck at taking fodiesbwahahahaha