Re: Addiction: Only A Little Funny

1

I'm crying because I had to give up my Pearl when I switched jobs. Fucking Treo blows goats.


Posted by: Chopper | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 9:59 PM
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2

Oh, and you were so happy.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:00 PM
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3

You didn't tell us about dropping the Pearl when you asked for good vides, dude.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:01 PM
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4

Meh, the substantial pay increase (mostly) makes up for it.


Posted by: Chopper | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:04 PM
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5

Whenever anyone talks about the Blackberry Pearl I think of.


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:04 PM
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Also, holy fuck is there a lot of work. I'm sure I'll be back up to my regular commenting load eventually, but it's gonna be a while.


Posted by: Chopper | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:06 PM
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Since I have absolutely no interest in this topic, I want to mention that I am currently listening to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message", and never realized before that the version I'd always heard before was censored. Great, great.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:07 PM
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8

Whenever anyone talks about the Blackberry Pearl I think of.

It does that too.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:07 PM
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9

Censored like this? Brutal. But how could you not tell?


Posted by: neil | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:37 PM
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10

Huh. Have Blackberry, mostly ignore it. That dinky little screen and sorry excuse for a keyboard is way too much of a pain in the ass to use unless you really need to.


Posted by: DaveL | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:37 PM
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11

Hmm. Have one because of work. Use it only on occassion (when I'm bored, as an alarm clock, on the metro). But I tend to use the computer less at home too. the amount i use it for work is de minimus


Posted by: tweedledopey | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:43 PM
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12

minimis.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:44 PM
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13

I don't even like The Message, much less a censored version, so to make up for it, It's Nasty is much funkier.


Posted by: neil | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 10:54 PM
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14

Two of the people at my Las Vegas bachelor party this past weekend were Crackberry addicts. Fucking ridiculous. Half the time you say something to them, the response you get is them looking up at you from the Crackberry saying, "Huh?"

On the plus side, Vegas rules.


Posted by: NCProsecutor | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 11:21 PM
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15

When you say "my," does that mean you're getting married? Congratulations?


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 11:28 PM
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My mid-thirties bachelor ass getting married after many long years of solitude? Oh yes, I'd think congratulations are most definitely in order. And if you knew my fiance, you'd wonder how the frak I got so lucky. The answer, my friends, is easy: clean living.


Posted by: NCProsecutor | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 11:34 PM
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Congrats, NCP!


Posted by: tweedledopey | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 11:36 PM
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So the bidet thing really works? Cool! And congratulations.


Posted by: DaveL | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 11:38 PM
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Thanks! 16 days and counting...


Posted by: NCProsecutor | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 11:40 PM
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Congrats, Prosecutor. If a "get out of jail free" card didn't play a role in your proposal, I'm a little disappointed.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 11:42 PM
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21

Congrats, NCP!


Posted by: Gaijin Biker | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 11:43 PM
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22

Wow, I didn't realize I typed exactly the same comment as tweedledopey.


Posted by: Gaijin Biker | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 11:43 PM
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20: In that case, the real story will make you throw up in your mouth a little bit. Yes, it's true -- top of the Empire State Building.

Hey, I'm a natural born Tarheel, but I loves me some Big Apple!

But I did accidentally use my badge to bypass the painfully long line to get to the top. Does that count?


Posted by: NCProsecutor | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 11:48 PM
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But I did accidentally use my badge to bypass the painfully long line to get to the top. Does that count?

Leaving your fiancé (didn't know that was legal in NC, by the way) languishing in the queue? Classy.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 04-18-07 11:58 PM
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w-lfs-n is, as ever, a jerk. Congrats, NCProsecutor.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 12:01 AM
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Hey, I left her my month-old copy of the New Yorker. And by the time she got up to the top, I'd thrown up a couple of times, so my nervousness was pretty much held at bay.


Posted by: NCProsecutor | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 12:02 AM
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Stanley is the better angel of my nature (as ever). Congrats.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 12:04 AM
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So, comcast ate my cable/tv/phone for two days, and, unable to lurk/post,my only connection to the outside world has been intermittent car NPR.Apparently someone got frisky in VA. Anything else of note? Did anyone else catch the NPR interview w/ the janitor who actually intoned the word "förners"?
Also, if blackberry is an addiction, so is connectivity. Try going w/o it for two days, and see how you feel. It gives one a certain insight into the criminal mindset.


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 12:32 AM
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tweedledopey! How's New York? I'm sorry you moved, of course, because we would have loved to have you at the Boston meetup, but I'm guessing that you like your job.


Posted by: Bosroniangirl | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 4:48 AM
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It's incredibly crap and broken that RIM is forcing all the traffic through a box at HQ, no? There's no magic in push e-mail - it's basically a vpn connection to a mail server that occasionally pings the devices to see if they are still there.


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 5:05 AM
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12: What, "occassion" was too obvious?


Posted by: Todd | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 5:10 AM
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32

You didn't tell us about dropping the Pearl when you asked for good vides, dude.

That was the 300,000th comment on the site, btw.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 5:35 AM
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33

I have a Blackberry. I know others who are addicted, especially to Google Talk, so I'm careful where I allow myself to use it.

Mostly I use it to read Unfogged during odd moments. (By the way, I get 403 errors when I try to comment. Not sure if it's you or me.)


Posted by: sam k | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 6:34 AM
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NCProsecutor:

Clean living got the good girl? You trolled Promise ceremonies, didnt you? Congratulations.

Thank goodness for women willing to date/marry below themselves.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 6:44 AM
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(By the way, I get 403 errors when I try to comment. Not sure if it's you or me.)

This happened to me the one time I tried to comment from a mobile device, which was my cell phone. (In the train station in Summit, NJ; I was way excited to see a sign saying "BRIDGEPLATE" next to a sign saying "STANDPIPE" and wanted to let everyone know. Excited enough to type in a comment using my cell phone's numeric keypad.)


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 6:55 AM
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36

I also get errors when commenting from BB.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 7:13 AM
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w-lfs-n can explain in detail, but I think the mobile device problems come from their browsers not supporting something (javascript?) that's necessary for getting past Ben's spam-blocking code.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 7:29 AM
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So what's the fucking use of buying a mobile internet-access device if you can not use it to comment on Unfogged? It boggles my mind that anyone would seriously consider such a purchase -- less than useless!


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 7:32 AM
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39

Okay- I am willing to accept spam on the website in exchange for the ability to comment from my BB. Thanks.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 7:36 AM
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40

I went out to dinner with a friend and her husband last week and they told me that he had quit playing World of Warcraft cold turkey two weeks ago. The way he talked about it was very much like recounting a past addiction experience. He got kind of jittery halfway through talking about it and she took his hand and looked at him in a way I only associate with people talking about their decision to go into AA. I didn't realize it had gotten so bad for him -- he'd even missed paying some bills (like their mortgage one month!) because he was so into playing the game.


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 8:00 AM
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41

My BB browser supports javascript, though it may have some limitations. When opening comment threads, for instance, it automatically jumps to the bottom of the page, which I believe is a javascript function. In any case, no big deal.


Posted by: sam k | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 8:04 AM
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42

I've been like that with some video games. Like I say: only a little funny. And this was in the days before video game playing could be lucrative, so I had no excuse.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 8:42 AM
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43

42: For me, it was MUDs in law school. That's TEXT gaming, people!


Posted by: NCProsecutor | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 8:45 AM
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44

I have, sitting on my desk in a box, my first Blackberry, purchased by my employer. I've got an appointment this afternoon to learn the thing. I have just the sort of addictive personality that makes this an ominous development.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 8:56 AM
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45

This is definitely an area in which I'm keeping my fat mouth shut. Except for this, obviously.


Posted by: Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 8:57 AM
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46

I used my BB constantly at first, but later decided that people really didn't need responses from me right away, and managed to regulate my usage. (Not immediately -- there were more than a few restaurant dinners at which my wife was fairly frustrated.) I still check my email fairly compulsively when the BB goes off, but I'll usually just give it a 2-second scan and if it's not something truly urgent, I ignore it until such time as it's convenient for me to respond (which is usually the next morning at work).


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 9:07 AM
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re: 46. My experience has been much the same as Brock's. And, of course, you can set it so that it does not do anything (or just flashes a light--my setting of choice) when you get a message, making it easy to ignore when you want to.

That said, I do think the BlackBerry is a great device. How else could I read Unfogged on my commute (but I can't comment [sigh]).


Posted by: Idealist | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 9:11 AM
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48

I meant to say people don't usually need responses from me right away. And yes, for those times when they do, having the BB is wonderful.


Posted by: Brock Landers | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 9:14 AM
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Y'all are going to make it so we can comment from our shiny new iPhones, right? Otherwise, let us know so we can save our money.


Posted by: DaveB | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 9:17 AM
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42: I've definitely been like this with video games. For me the trick to keeping it managable is to play games that aren't open-ended. Eventually, I win/finish, and then the addiction is gone.
(Many of my friends play Worlds of Warcraft, and I figure that the reasons I don't try playing are closely akin to the reasons I don't try heroin).


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 11:21 AM
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NCProsecutor, many congratulations. And top of the Empire State Building is fabulously romantic, good for you.

32: And appropriately so. ATM.

I speak as someone who doesn't have one, but who will drop whatever I'm doing at home if I hear my email ding

This could be your problem with the whole dating women thing, you know.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 11:25 AM
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52

My job isn't very email driven. Having a blackberry wouldn't be that useful. My wife really liked hers when she had it but I would find it annoying if I had to be reachable outside the office.


Posted by: joeo | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 11:50 AM
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51: Thanks, B. Life is good!


Posted by: NCProsecutor | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 3:07 PM
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Congrats, NCP!


Posted by: Chopper | Link to this comment | 04-19-07 10:23 PM
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