Update and 25 reasons to elope to Rock Hill with your new phone

So it’s been a short minute since I last updated. Ironically enough, most people delay updates because nothing interesting ever happens and they just post surveys or random crap. Me? I didn’t post because too much interesting stuff was happening in my life.

One of the biggest things sucking up my time is my new phone. A friend gave me his Sony Ericsson W580i media phone because he was getting a new phone with a new carrier. He only had this phone for about 3 months, so it’s almost in completely brand-new condition. I’d been looking at it for a long time, but I didn’t want to upgrade my contract in order to get it and buying the phone without the 2yr renewal would’ve cost around $250. So I think I really lucked out.





Now, this phone is leagues better than my old phone, for many reasons:

-It’s a slider, so the keypad won’t break on me like the old one did.

-It’s got a metal chassis, so it’s not nearly as fragile. My old Nokia would fall, break into 5 pieces and was easily put back together, but eventually things began breaking and snapping. This one drops and goes “clang!” and the ground goes “ow, muthafucka!”

-The screen is a lot larger than my old phone and it’s got a protective layer to keep dust out, so it won’t get all filmy and hard to read.

-It’s a music-centric phone, so it doubles as an MP3 player and has dedicated music buttons when in Walkman mode.

-I finally have a phone that has a camera! It’s only 2 megapixels, but the photos actually look very nice if the lighting is good. The video quality for the recordings leave a bit to be desired, but what can you expect out of a phone that fits in my change pocket? Plus, the videos look great on the screen, since the resolution is very high for the size of the screen.

-You can upload videos and music from your PC to the phone or record sounds to it. I’ve got around 500 songs and 5 or 6 videos and close to 700 pictures on it, with the help of a 2GB memory card. I still have 800mb free, so I’m pretty happy with that.

-If you crop a song down to less than 40seconds and save it on your PC and then import it to the phone, you can use that as a ringtone for yourself or anybody. I’ve got a nice suite of sound editing programs, so I now have separate ringtones for about 20 of my contacts. The time limit also applies to videos, so my friend Kelli’s ringtone is the actual opening to the anime ‘Lucky Star’. I love it when she calls because I look down at my phone and see the video playing…and don’t wanna answer, lol.

Here’s a list of who has what ringtones so far:

General ringtone – “I’m Not Jesus” by Apocalyptica

Mike Shea – ‘Afterlife’ by Avenged Sevenfold

Matt Croshaw – ‘Bad Luck to Say God Luck on Opening Night’ from the music ‘The Producers’

Michelle Boyce – ‘Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial)’ by Coheed and Cambria

Beth Propst – ‘Bad Girl’ by Cowboy Mouth

Jestin Henry – ‘The Little Things’ by Danny Elfman (or however you spell his name)

Rachel Huskey – ‘The Mouse and the Model’ by the Dresden Dolls

Joe Birmingham – ‘Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me’ from some internet video

Chad Lane – ‘Handlebars’ by Flobots

My Dad’s Cell # - ‘Touch of Grey’ by The Grateful Dead

My Dad’s Work # - ‘Truckin’ by The Grateful Dead

Lawson – ‘The Internet is for Porn’ from Avenue Q

Daniel Brown – ‘La Vie Boheme’ from RENT: The Movie Soundtrack

Kelli Hall – ‘Lucky Star’ intro video

Jeremy Morrow – ‘Ooh Wee’ from the Need for Speed: Most Wanted soundtrack

Morgan Jesse – ‘Smoke Two Joints’ by Sublime

Russell Felder – ‘Tonto (Jump On It)’ by the Sugar Hill Gang

Dave Collins – ‘American Pie’ by Don McClean

Brady Robles – ‘Sandstorm’ by Darude

Jugger – ‘I’m the Juggernaut, BITCH!’ sound clip

All other TKE’s currently have ‘They’re going to take me away’ by Dr. Demento as their ringtone.

*- I’m still working on more and taking requests.


-I finally have a phone worth buying ringbacks for. If you call me during the daytime, you’ll hear the guitar solo from ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by Led Zeppelin, since I figure that’s safe for potential employers to hear, and if you call me at night, you hear my ringtone: the chorus to “I’m Not Jesus”, by Apocalyptica.

-When I receive a text message, my phone plays Bruce Lee going ‘Wataa!” and when I get a voicemail, my phone says ‘Mail, Muthafucka!’

-I love the fact my phone has light effects. The phone literally does its own laser light show when I receive a call.

-I finally have a phone capable of instant messaging and internet browsing. Too bad I refuse to pay for internet, lol.

-I actually love the way the phone looks. It just oozes personality, unlike the super minimalistic conformist phones that are coming out now. iPhone, I’m looking at you.

-I can customize the GUI to insane lengths. I have a custom theme, custom wallpaper, custom screensaver, customer menus, the works.

-Reception is awesome.

-Sound quality from the speaker is really nice and surprisingly loud.

Things I Don’t Like:
-You can only use M2 memory cards
-No 3.5mm jack for headphones.
-All accessories are either proprietary through Sony or have to use the proprietary input.
-Battery life is meh.
-The actual earphone speaker is too quiet.
-Nothing else. This phone rocks!


Ok, enough about the phone. Now, as to the other reason I haven’t update in a while: I eloped to Rock Hill for 2 days without telling anyone, lol. I had only planned to go to Columbia to visit Mike and meet his girlfriend, which I did (She’s such a cutie, Mike! And so smart, too! Congrats!) but they couldn’t stay to hang out for very long, so I was left with a night off work and half a tank of gas and a huge restlessness within me. It was a 2-hour drive home and I wasn’t looking forward to it. It’s a 1-hour drive from Columbia to Rock Hill, where I hadn’t visited in nearly a year.

I got to Rock Hill in 35 minutes; spent 5 minutes having to go in the back way, though, since some ASSHOLE IN A HONDA ACCORD blocked me from getting onto the right exit ramp. Everyone was really surprised to see me, except for Meredith and Becca because Mike TOLD THEM I WAS COMING. Jerk. Just kidding, bro. I’m not mad. I told my dad I was crashing with Mike in Columbia, though. He still doesn’t know I went to Rock Hill.

But I had a lot of fun. I caught the flu from hanging out with Rachel while crashing at her place, lol. Luckily I’m already over. Sadly, she is not. *Hug for Rachel*. The first night and day were awesome. I got to hang out and meet a lot of people I’d missed a lot more than I knew, like Kelli, Meredith, Becca and Rachel. I missed my little sisters so much. Of course, Rachel’s hardly a little sister to me. I think she’d kicked me in the shin if I called her that, lol. I just think it’s a little odd to refer to your ex as your sister. I mean, I don’t live THAT far south. I just consider us super-amazing close friends, lol.

The only bad part was that I’d been nearly 30 hours without sleep by the time I crashed at Rachel’s place and for some reason, I had trouble sleeping. I just kind of dozed in and out and tossed around for the night. So upon the next day, I was hardly a bundle of energy. I spent most of the second day wandering around campus and hanging out with lots of my TKE brothers at the Wall. It was really good seeing them again. My last semester had left me pretty inactive and I’d forgotten just how much I’d missed being a TKE.

I got to hang out with Michelle and catch up on stuff. She’s engaged to Vick now. Not sure how I feel about that pairing, but whatever. If they’re happy, then I’m glad for them. I’m just glad that she and I were able to actually hang out and laugh a bit without it being too awkward. Don’t get me wrong, it was VERY awkward, and I still can’t stand how she just grunts along like a guy when you’re confiding in her, but once she told me about her and Vick, most of the tension was gone and we were able to just hang out and shoot the breeze. I think it was a very healthy thing for me to do. It gave me a sense of closure that I’d substituted with anger, mistrust and resentment.

I also got to hang out with Kelli for a good while. She’s probably my closest little sister from Winthrop. We even share the same last name, lol. But we’re always able to talk to each other about the most personal things no matter what, despite the fact we haven’t known each other for all that long. It really is strange how quickly that Big-Brother-Little-Sister bond formed. She confides in me and all I wanna do is protect her. As such, she was feeling down that day, so I decided to take her for a ride while I went to get Rachel some food form Sake Express since Rachel was too sick to drive. I’m really happy that I got to introduce Kelli to Maximum the Hormone. I can’t believe she didn’t know who they, but she did recognize the songs from the Death Note anime. She said she really likes them, which is awesome because I LOVE THEM!

Once we dropped off Rachel’s food and I decided to stay another night, I called my dad, told him, I was driving straight to work (I work nights) from ‘Columbia’ and not stopping by the house. I also called work and told them I had car trouble and was not going to make it in. So, yes, I skipped work and lied to my dad in order to spend the night in Rock Hill, hence the word ‘eloped’. I know, I’m going to hell and all that jazz.
Like I care.

After hanging out at Rachel’s for a bit, I took Kelli back to campus (in a much improved mood) and met up with the token TKE twins: Brett and Bryant. We hung out, had adventures drifting in the Wal-Mart parking lot and hunting down associates in Wal-Mart for phone accessories. I am sad to admit that the cashier played a trick on me. I swear to all that is odd and strange, though, that I would not have fallen for her trick if I was not low on sleep! Anyways, after Wal-Mart, we all got Taco Bell. Now, me, Meredith, Rachel and Becca had already gotten Taco Bell the night before and had WAY too much fun with the drive through girl and nearly exploding Rachel’s microwave, so I think I’m good on my Taco Bell quota for a couple months *pats stomach*.

Once the twins knew I was staying the night, they took me to the TKE Rock Band night. Suffice to say, it was very fun, but I regret the fact that, in my sleepless delirium, I actually got on the microphone instead of staying on the drums where I belong. Much shameful screaming ensued and I shall speak no more of it. Though I will say this: THAT TV SUCKED! Lol.

I stayed the night at Rachel’s again because I couldn’t get a hold of anyone else (Meredith why the hell don’t you EVER answer your goddamn phone!?) and when I awoke the next day, it was plain to me that I’d caught the flu, lol. As such, the drive home was not fun. But it WAS fast. I had to get home really fast because my dad thought I was down in Myrtle Beach fixing a friend’s PC and needed me to bring Joe and Mike some tools out of my car and they’d been trying to reach me all morning.

It’s a 3.5 hour drive if you take the interstate. I made it in 2.

I did 90mph all the way home. I literally smoked tires on the ramp that connects I-77 to I-20. By the time I got to the bottom, I was finishing the right hand turn by steering left…in a front-wheel drive car, lol. Thank God for stick-shifts!

I swear my car was sweating when I finally turned it off in the driveway. I mean, my car is pretty fast for a Saturn. I’ve taken it up to 125mph before, but it’s not made for doing 90mph on a trip from one end of the state to the other.
Once I made it home and skirted getting found out…I slept. Deeply.

I’m still kinda tired and I can feel the after-effects of my short bout with the flu, which is why this entry, as long as it is, doesn’t go as in-depth as my blogs usually do. But despite the flu, the lack of sleep, the lost wages from skipping work and narrowly escaping being found out, it was completely worth it. To all my friends in Rock Hill, I promise to make it up for a longer, more legitimate trip before I move to Missouri. And this time, I’ll be plenty rested and ready to party!



And, just because I was tagged close to 10 million times:

25 Random Facts About Me:

1 – I hate movies with happy endings. This pretty much excludes any inspirational sports movie from my list of movies to watch. Seeing a happy ending with no major consequences from the crisis just makes me ill.

2 – I listen to very little American music. Most of my favorite rock bands are either British or Japanese.

3 – I would gladly give up sex for a year if that meant free internet, Netflix, Gamefly and Xbox Live for that year.

4 – I am an extreme social liberal and a fiscal conservative.

5 – Boxer-briefs.

6 – My dream car is a Mini Cooper S, which only costs $30,000. Pathetic, I know.

7- I don’t want a peaceful death. That’s boring. I want an exciting, unusual death that will make headlines and be remembered for decades.

8 – I have a phobia of people touching my neck.

9 – I generally don’t like hanging out with guys. I get along with girls much better.

10 – I love cats. I can’t stand dogs.

11 – If I had any super power in the world, it would be Hiro Nakamura’s power from ‘Heroes’: the ability to manipulate time and space.

12 – I am 5’11”, which is extremely short for my family. I’m expected to hit one last growth spurt and finish up around 6’4”.

13 – It was snowing the night I was born has snowed every year of my life since I was born. No matter where I've lived, each winter it snows at least once. Even when I was living in Austin, Texas for 2 years, it snowed both winters: 6 inches the first winter and 8 the next.

14 – I get really nervous and anxious when I drive cars with automatic transmissions.

15 – My favorite books are the kind that make you sometimes put the book down and just sit there and think about what you just read.

16 – My life experiences have led me to have a really dark and twisted sense of humor that centers on the humor of irony.

17 – I had been 10 months and 14 days since I last cut myself.

18 – I get really serious about getting gifts for people. I make it a huge personal challenge to get each person a gift that is special to them. This makes me an awesome boyfriend around Valentine’s Day and a broke-as-fuck friend at Christmas time.

19 – I cut my own hair.

20 – I have been homeless and have lived on the street before.

21 – I believe in true love.

22 – I am extremely good at reading people. I can usually know exactly what kind of person someone is after only being around them for a couple of minutes. It’s getting to the point where I only have to see them in person, now, instead of having to see them and hear them talk.

23- I am an agnostic, but the closest approximation to what I believe is Wicca.

24 – I believe in magic, ghosts, auras, aliens, and other dimensions.

25- The one that that arouses me more than anything else in the word is a nice, long kiss.