maybe you've noticed the new addition to my sidebar -- a "moblog," or mobile phone log. after a month of debating, i finally purchased a new cell phone and plan.

i finally went with the nokia 3650 camera phone and t-mobile service. after a week of, at times frustrating, button punching, i must say that i'm definitely in love with the phone! don't know much about t-mobile yet, except that i've had great reception everywhere i've used the phone so far.

my apprehension was the size. it's not as big as it appears to be on tv, web or in print ads, or people make it out to be. i was pleasantly surprised when i saw one at circuit city in person, and it fit comfortably into my hand.

the round dialing feature is definitely awkward at first, but not hindering. i mean, how often will i be doing something that requires me to punch a key on my cell phone and not be able to look at it at the same time? not very.

the camera is such a fun toy! it's so easy to snap a photo and mail it off. and, i'm pleased with the quality of the photos as well -- much better than i expected to come out of a phone!

so far, the only frustrating thing with the phone was setting it up to send email so i would be able to email photos for the moblog content. it took at least four days of jon and i alternately trying to figure it out, reading user forums and repeated attempts of random guesses... but it finally worked on friday, miraculously. wahoo!

all in all, i'm happy with the purchase (free phone after rebates via amazon -- can't beat that!). expect more activity in the sidebar under my moblog -- i think it adds a touch of some much needed personalization to my blog. :) enjoy.

wednesday morning, i attended bob hope's memorial service. although, i didn't get to actually go inside the church, i did stand outside across the street and listen to the service on the speakers broadcasting it.

our entire street and most of the surrounding block was closed to traffic, which is normally heavy. it was kind of strange walking down the street to the church with no cars parked on the sides or driving by. a bunch of satellite trucks from various news channels took up one side of the street, other spots were filled with memorial guests' vehicles.

i, along with about 20 other people, were restricted to standing across the street from the church while all the guests arrived at the private event. the street isn't too wide, so we could easily see all that was going on in front of the church. tom selleck took his time speaking to all the media lined up outside the church's front doors. mickey rooney arrived late and quickly shuffled along stopping in front of a mass of cameras for a few minutes. kelsey grammer left early. barbara eden crossed over to our side of the street to get into her chauffeured vehicle to leave, and mentioned the mass was "beautiful." raquel welch arrived and left quietly. loni anderson posed for the maniacal paparazzi that had arrived toward the end of the service (and humorously were restricted to standing on our side of the street).

all in all, it was interesting to see all the media, secret service (because of the former president ford and nancy reagan being in there), lots of police and stars gathering so closely by. and, i actually saw myself on cnn later during a report about the service -- that was kind of cool.

here's a panorama jon made up from a few of the photos i took. (notably, tom selleck is talking to some media in the center near the table. loni anderson is the one in the pink talking to other media.) and here's a photo of the portrait of bob hope that stood at the altar during the service (no clue who the men are holding it -- the younger guy was walking it out of the church and across the street, the old man helped him hold it.)

haven't been round in a long time. here's a semi-update: in the past week i've acquired a "job" of sorts (although, i'm not sure you could really call it that) -- as a paid audience member. yes, paid. it's done through a temp agency and one of their clients is in charge of making sure there are people to fill seats at (less popular) sit-com tapings. easy money and only takes up, at most, four hours. so far i've seen a taping of "yes, dear" and "good morning miami."

you know how those "queer eye for the straight guys" are everywhere now and kind of teetering on the edge of annoying over-exposure? well, last night's taping of "good morning miami" featured a guest spot by the queer eye guys and even had one of the regular characters saying a line with the word "tjuzing" in it (i really hate that word).

oh, and i got an email from martha stewart a couple weeks ago. well, not her but one of her worker bees, asking for my permission to print a question of mine in the october issue of msliving. the question is about silpats and will be in the "ask martha" section. i had posted the question months and months ago on the martha stewart forums, and was kind of thrown off when i got the email asking for my name and city information. (i had to go search for my question because i didn't remember what it was exactly.) i hope it gets printed!

i love this idea, resin bottle caps -- i especially like the idea of adding a magnet to the back, the new craft girl magnet project!

talk about in-your-face annoying pop-up ads, this one takes the grand prize! american express is developing a web based ad campaign and this potential ad shows the kind of forward thinking they're playing with.

for most of the past two weeks, my phone has been ringing up to six times a day, every day, at the same times. this has happened 30 times so far and when i answer no one is ever on the other end. and, it always says caller id blocked, so there is no one to blame.

at&t's solution to this problem was to change my phone number, which isn't a huge hassel, but one none-the-less. i started looking over my phone plan and my "contract" runs out at the end of august. for the past two years i've been getting ripped off by at&t so i've decided to drop them and go to t-mobile.

and, while we're at it i'm going to get a new techno-savvy phone. a camera phone. i can't decide which one -- between a nokia 3650 and a sony ericsson t610. i'm looking forward to something different for a change. i've had the same cell phone style for over five years now, and the most advanced thing it offers is sending/receiving emails/text-messages.

so -- has anyone got any horor stories (or good ones, of course) about t-mobile and/or either of the phones i mentioned (and how do they sync with mac's)? i've got til the end of august to make a decision.