i bet president obama doesn’t whine about HIS blackberry

So.  I’ve ranted about pod-people only to become one.  And now, I fear, my technology addiction may only get

worse.  You see, last night, I got a Blackberry Crackberry.

I didn’t set out to get one.  In fact, I wasn’t going to get one.  Our 2 year cell contract was finally up, and Jon especially was in dire need of a new cell phone.  About a year ago, he washed his nice LG flip phone in the washing machine, and had been using a 5-year-old Motorola since then.  Not only was this phone 5 years old, complete with walkie-talkie-style telescoping antenna, but Olive had gotten ahold of it and chewed the crap out of it.  The battery was held on with duct tape.  Now, considering what it had been through, the Motorola was holding up pretty dang well.  In fact, if we hadn’t recycled it, we probably should have sent it to Motorola to use in ads, like Timex– takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.  Pretty impressive considering cell phones are basically DESIGNED to break within a year so you have to buy a new one (talk about Planned Obsolescence!), and there’s no one out there who will actually repair a cell phone.  They think you’re nuts.  Just go get a new one seems to be the attitude.

Anyway, we were actually thinking we’d switch to AT&T.  They are our internet provider so we could have gotten a deal for also having cell service with them.  But, after two visits to the nearest AT&T store during which we were NOT HELPED AT ALL (seriously, walking around the store for 15 minutes each time), we decided AT&T was a customer service: FAIL.  So we went home, started poking around on the Alltel website, and realized they were the better deal for us anyway.  We went into the store with the intention of getting Jon a Blackberry, to load up with medical software, and getting me just a normal phone.  After all, I sit in front of a computer all day long, and we have a laptop at home, and what did I really need a smartphone for anyway?

But then we found out smartphones were buy one, get one free, and we were sold.  Jon picked out a Blackberry Curve, and I’m now the proud owner of an adorable red Blackberry Pearl.  I must add at this point that the Alltel guy (sadly not Chad) was shocked he could even transfer phone numbers off of Jon’s battered, taped-together Motorola, but he did it! NotChad also got our email set up, Blackberry messenger set up, and gave us his card for the inevitable questions, sending us out the door while reassuring us that it takes about a week to learn how to use these babies.

A week? I should say right now that though I’m not proud, I have the patience of a four year old.  WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS EFFING PHONE WON’T LET ME SIGN INTO GMAIL?  WHY WON’T IT SYNC MY CONTACTS WITH FACEBOOK LIKE IT ASKED ME IF I WANTED IT TO DO?  HOW COME YOUUUUUUURS HAS PICTURES AND MINE DOESN’T? WHY CAN’T YOU SHOW ME HOW TO DO THAT? YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER HOW TO DO THINGS WHEN YOU DO THEM SO YOU CAN TEACH ME!! WHY ARE YOU NOT LISTENING TO ME? YOU DON’T EVEN CARE THAT I CAN’T WORK THIS THING! AHHHHHHH!  That was what Jon heard last night as we sat side by side in the living room trying to figure these pretty pieces of technology out.  There may or may not have been some pouting and some angry dishwasher unloading– like I said, not proud.

But after a couple hours I managed to get it all synced up with my Facebook and my Gtalk and my Google contacts and calendar, and I even got my address book all in order.  I still type like a total caveman on it, but I’m hoping it’s one of those skills I can get better at with time.  Right now my only beef is that I can’t sync it very well with my Macbook.  I don’t even understand why they don’t make better support software for Mac folks.  Do they just assume we all went out and got an iPhone?  As of right now, I can’t use Bluetooth to transfer files between my Macbook (OSX v. 10.4.11 if you’re wondering and have ideas to help here) and my Blackberry, and it wouldn’t let me transfer them via the USB tether either, as it refuses to recognize that I do indeed have an SD card inserted in the slot.  I think I need someone to give me Blackberry lessons.  I hear President Obama is pretty addicted to his, think he’s got some time to stop by and show me how to work it?