500 Apples

I upgraded to a fancy new phone, the Palm Centro, this weekend and, as expected, I feel a little guilty given my stance on consumerism and simple living. I will use this space to justify my purchase and forever purge this guilt which is doing me no good. So, here it is…

A CONVERSATION WITH MYSELF TO JUSTIFY BUYING A “SMART PHONE”

Why the hell do you need a PDA anyway? I know you have, like, 12 notebooks and journals and a growing pen collection.

You see, I suck without lists, structure, and pre-planning. Since I have no boss who throws work at me from 9 to 5, it’s up to me to decide how I’m going to spend my time. Today, If I give no thought about tomorrow I will wake up without a clear purpose (beyond taking care of the kids). When this happens I feel this awful sense of unease and I wander around trying to decide what to do. For years, I have tried and failed using pen & paper for this and nothing has “stuck” if you know what I mean. Since I started using the Palm z22, my time is more structured and that leads to a happier me.

Okay, you already have the Palm z22. Why did you buy a Centro?

My wife gave me the z22 because it would not sync with her computer at her new job. Well, I couldn’t get it to sync with either of the computers here at home. The thing is 4 years old, if it crashes, everything in it is lost because there is no back-up.

That’s a good reason, Mike, but I didn’t see you spending much time trying to FIX the problem because you were too busy out phone shopping.

I did spend some time searching for a fix. Maybe an hour. I know what you’re getting at though. You think I just wanted a new phone and was secretly happy about the problem. Well, you may be right. When I was out and about, I quickly realized that it was a hassle to haul around two devices, the phone and the PDA. Especially, when I started looking at the new phones available. I realized I could have everything I needed in one device instead of two.

Instead of THREE devices. Doesn’t the Palm Centro also have a camera?

Yes, it does. I’m glad you brought that up. In the past, the idea of always having a camera with me was appealing. After a thousand times of saying (or hearing) “I wish we had the camera” it was obvious that it was time to own a camera phone. Without it, the world wouldn’t have these great self potraits or this spontaneous photo of my foot.

Well, you’ve convinced me Mike. You have made a very wise purchase. Anything else?

Yes, and this is very important and it kind of relates to your first question. I cannot stress how important it is for me to have a simple method to quickly jot down “things” that arise. By things I mean ideas, thoughts, things we need to pick up at the store, etc. For example, Saturday, while painting a ceiling and listening to podcasts (and this ALWAYS happens when listening to podcasts) I found it necesarry to write down interesting book titles, song titles, inspirational quotes, and other podcasts that I wanted to explore. Trying to remember a bunch of random items stresses me out. On the other hand, recording all of this stuff on the spot is very satisfying to me. Another example: after my bike ride/jog last night, I was on the couch and felt a strange lump on our dog. I wanted to remember to show it to Jennifer. I scribbled “Sammie L.F. under leg bump” and set an alarm to remind me about it today.

Thanks for your time, Mike. Have a great Sunday!!