"Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly."

[hermionesviolin]

That’s currently on the front lawn sign of UCN, and i approve.

It was occurring to me later last night that one of my big problems with Saved! was the lack of textual engagement. Like when one person said of the gay issue, “It’s not a grey area,” i wanted the other person to say something like “Yes it is” and start pulling out texts, but instead he said, “It’s all a grey area.” I mean, i know it’s a wide-appeal movie and part of the point is that everyone’s just throwing around rhetoric and not really thinking about it, and at least no one on either side quotes Bible.

The “Town Meeting” was rather lame. Basically it was a luncheon with a pre-dessert interlude in which the heads of various committees talked about what they were doing. At the end, PB asked if anyone else had anything they wanted to say or ask, and i kinda wanted to suggest rotating lay readers (i never did find out to whom i was supposed to mail that piece of paper) but have we mentioned how i’m lazy/avoidant/nonconfrontational? Plus it was hot and humid and dessert was sitting on the center table.

During the service, PB reminded us of when it was 44 degrees in the sanctuary, and i shouted, “That was wonderful.” The heat has not made me miserable yet, though, which is impressive. I know summer is just beginning, but since i usually have my hate on for the hot and humid summers with statements like “it made me want to die” the fact that i’ve been uncomfortable but not miserable is rather impressive.

My brother and i went to Linens&Things and i learned that a company called TableCraft makes Restaurant Classic housewares, so you can have stuff in your home like they have in restaurants and bars. Other neat inventions (from other companies) include ice cube trays in the shape of tubes -- so you can put them in water bottles.

My grandma got rid of a white dress, which fits me and which i’m actually willing to wear, so i now have the option to participate in Alumnae Parade if i so choose.

I had my dad explain the washing machine to me (i’d never really looked at it before -- in part because it’s behind all sorts of stuff -- so i hadn’t realized that it actually does a lot of self-explanation, though i was still glad i had my dad’s explanation) so tonight i did laundry for the first time on a real washing machine (the ones in Smith basements aim to be super-idiot-proof). I may yet leave home with actual skills.

My brother’s leaving the Boston area for the Troy, NY area in a few months to go to college (RPI), so he’s been looking into new cellphone plans ‘cause roaming charges are evil. He can’t find what he wants in a reasonably priced single-user plan, but if he got a Family Plan with me he could get what he wants for what he’s currently paying. And i’ve been thinking about getting a cell phone for some months now since it would be nice to have a permanent (non-land-line) phone number given that once i move out i’m not likely to stay in my first apartment for years and years (and who knows what the Internet phone line situation will be like). Plus with job interview stuff now, it would be really useful to be reachable even when i’m not at home.

This is the Cingular plan. We can also get the exact same thing from Verizon except the Verizon activation fee is a couple bucks higher, and Cingular has roll-over (though we probably wouldn’t have much in the way of surplus minutes anyhow). And my brother currently has Cingular, but switching shouldn’t be a big deal. So the decision will likely come down to the breakdown of our friends because on top of the regular minutes and the free nights&weekends, we get free mobile-to-mobile (read: it’s free to call any cell phone that’s on the same network). So, a poll.

[Poll #511845]

Comments

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

Cingular are assholes. But, that said, their nationwide plan works really, really well. Verizon is just lame.

[moxiemuse.livejournal.com]

I have a Verizon talk-America family plan, which is great considering that when I'm at Smith, I call my family in Michigan from Massachusetts. The no-long-distance thing that cellphone companies offer is a real boon, I tell you.

Verizon is okay. Most of my friends seem to be on Verizon, which is nice for no-minute calls. But, whenever I call home from Massachusetts, I either seem to get really crappy reception or the phone just cuts out. It's not unusual for it to cut out two or three times in a call. When I'm in Michigan, though, I've only dropped calls once, and that was when I was talking to my dad in Mexico. So I don't know if it has to do with the mountains in Massachusetts or just that there's bad reception in Northampton specifically or what.

But other than that, no complaints, I suppose.

[sarah-p.livejournal.com]

Yay, RPI! And yay Troy, which is near Albany, where I'll be starting this fall ;)...

And as for phone plans, I just stick to the prepaid stuff, because I can't afford an actual phone plan. No help there, but good luck :).

[marginaliana]

I TOTALLY wanted to check "You should not get a cell phone" because they are tools of teh deviiiiil and I dislike them intensely. That said, they are becoming necessary in society, especially since you want to go into bartending. So get one. But I do not know which. We have Sprint, which gets great reception everywhere except in our apartment, and so far have had no problems with it.

[hedy.livejournal.com]

Havingt had Cingular, and currently having Verizon, my only advice is to check your local coverage area. While *theorhectically* Vz claims to get better reception, my house in the wood is in the middle of a verizon bubble, so if you're on our couch you don't get reception.

In terms of customer service, I'd say they're about the same, as well as price-wise (I've never used a ton of minutes per month, though we get Vz for less bc they have a deal with my mom's work).

So, I have Vz, and while mobile-to-mobile minutes are nice for, say, calling my mom to see if she needs something from the store, I figure if I'm *really* worried about minutes I can a)wait until after 9 pm or b) call on the weekend.

I doubt this will make any difference to you, but if you're planning to leave the country for an extended period of time, Vz lets you put your contract on hold, Cingular does not.

Vz cell phones in the Boston area have their own area codes, which I've heard conflicting things on whether it's a local call from (781), I do not know about Cingular's area codes (one of the pluses of my old cell phone was that it was a local call for my parents when I was at college.)

[akronohten.livejournal.com]

I'm going to concour with hedy about checking the coverage; for my first couple of years at DePauw, there wasn't very good coverage at all from any company except Sprint; eventually, Verizon got a tower up there, but it was a pain before that (of course, that was 4 or 5 years ago, and out in the middle of nowhere in Indiana. . .)

My family uses Verizon since we've been using it or its predecessors since, oh, the early 90s (car phones walk in?), and we've been content with them. . .

[bella-loki.livejournal.com]

As RPI is right where I live I, for once, actually sorta know something. Also known as Verizon doesn't work at my house (out in the boonies) but does work quite well in Troy. and, I assume, in Boston as our cellphones work there. But I *know* it works well in Troy, unfortunately, as soon as you're out of the city there's no guarantees. I've never had my cell be roaming if I was in a city.