Which brand, Vortex? Kindle, Nook, or something else?

Sony.

My friend Marcia just got a Droid and loves it madly. If you want particulars I can ask; I suspect she will be very happy to enthuse about it at length. Although she's still finding new features.

I think I've hit the mildly-panicked stage of prepping for my trip on Thursday. If I clean the kitchen tomorrow and assemble most of the stuff I'm packing, then Wednesday morning I can go in to ship my laptop & training crap, and in the afternoon I can go buy chinchilla supplies and tights and whatever else I need more of, and go by the bank. Where I need to remember to get a lot of small bills for tips. And then I can have dinner and spend the night obsessively packing. Whee.

Hmm I've seen 5 inch Sonys for $159. Given what else is out there, I wondered when the price for the lower functionality ones would come down. To tell the truth, I would take the Sony over the Nook. I just hated the sluggishness and general feel of the Nook I test drove at my local B&N so much. The Sony I played with at target, though far from perfect was at least acceptable. The controls were intuitive to me, and the response speed was OK. I might like a Kindle better if I ever got to see one.

I bought off the internet for my last phone. When I suddenly needed a charger for it, I wish I'd shopped locally.

But I suspect there are phone stores other than these Verizon ones listed at their site that can sell me the Droid and explain the new data plans. I may drive past one or more of them on the way there.

Verizon is supposed to have that great map. TMobile has been decent, nothing special. I've had calls go quiet, more than actually drop.

Okay, bed now.

Who are these portraits by Matthew Rolston? I see:

• Isabella Rossellini (x2)
• Jodie Foster (x2)
• Michael Jackson
• Sade
• Robert Downey Jr?
• Sylvester Stallone
• George Michael
• Bono?
• Sinead O'Connor?
• John Malcovich
• Tracy Ullman
• Cyndi Lauper
• Rudolf Nureyev
• Molly Ringwald
• Don Johnson
• Madonna

But I know I'm missing countless others.

Rudolf Nureyev

Mikhail Baryshnikov, I think.

Tom Waits is in there too. Christy Turlington. The guy with his tongue sticking out is probably John Lydon.

And yes to Bono, Sinead, and RDJ.

I love Verizon's network - I might trade in my BB Curve in May, though I'm not in love with the Droid yet. I remember many "network issues" with AT&T in the middle of SoMa (where most of the putative SF iPhone users tend to congregate). T-Mobile... people have problems getting a signal in SF, to the point where they have to go to the top of the nearest hill.

AT&T works well for me at home, at work, and at my sister's place. Actually, my sister's cell carrier works badly at her home, so I get better reception there than they do. They haven't given up their land line yet, so it's not much of an issue for them, especially now that the kids are mostly out of the house.

Skipping lots because, according to the Buffista Calendar, today is Frisco's birthday.

Happy birthday, big boy! With lots of wishes to Stephanie, Ellie, and all your family!

I drop calls constantly on T-Mobile, and when dialing in to conference calls, which I do all the time, it often doesn't pick up all the numbers when I punch them in. Don't know what that's about. I'm just waiting out my contract so I can switch, probably to Verizon. I do still like my BB though, so I'm not sure if I'll switch that out or what.