A Trip Back In Time

I had a pretty neat thought just now. What if I could go back in time and visit myself when I was eight years old? I would do some major showing off to impress my younger self.

I would definitely have to show eight-year-old Rebecca my iPhone. For all intents and purposes, let's just assume that, if I have technology that can send me back in time, I also have technology that allows me to connect to the phone service and WiFi of the future.

Because how impressed would someone from 2001 be with an iPhone 4S? The first version of the iPhone didn't even come out until 2007 (thank you, Wikipedia). I think the eight-year-old version of myself would freak out over the sheer awesomeness. In 2001, the cell phone was still a relatively new gadget in my house. I think my mom was still using her Nokia brick. If not, then my parents had upgraded to the not-much-more-impressive proto-flip phones. Only half of the phone flipped; it was the part that covered the number pad, and it was also the part you talked into.

But I really do think Mom was using the Nokia phone at that point. It was a box with some number keys and a sort of black-and-white screen (we didn't get cell phones with a color display until 2006). I think it had a game or two. That was the only part I would have been interested in, anyway.

It was a while ago, but I don't really remember being too excited about Mom's Nokia. I think that was mostly because cell phones were pretty much just portable telephones back in the day, and I didn't like talking to people on the phone (I still don't). I guess it was an improvement over the pager she had for work, though.

The main technology in my life was the PC that sat on a computer desk in our family's library/living room. If memory serves me right, we had three computers then: the desktop computer in the library, the desktop computer in my parents' bedroom, and the laptop in my dad's den. It would be another year or two (or three?) until the "community" computer got moved into the bedroom I shared with my sister.

Since my parents had their own computers to do their parent-y things on, the one in the living room/library was designated mostly for the computer games that my sister and I played. We played all kinds of computer games, although I don't remember ever actually using the Internet on that computer. The Internet was slowly growing on me (at some point between the ages of 5 and 9, my dad taught me how to use a search engine), but I think at that point I was still mostly concerned with playing computer games.

So imagine if eight-year-old Rebecca was just hanging around the house one day, deciding whether to play with Barbies or to go outside and play in the backyard, when all of a sudden almost-twenty-one-year-old Rebecca walks in and whips out an entire computer that is roughly the size of a chocolate bar.

I would be like a character from Star Trek or something! Compared to the desktop computer I was familiar with at the time, my iPhone would definitely seem like something out of a sci-fi movie. At that point in my life, I had seen a computer with a touch screen apparatus before, although I don't know how I managed that, because touch screens were not common AT ALL. The closest thing I would have seen to an iPhone would have been my mom's Palm Pilot or my dad's Jornada (totally forgot about those until this very second), and I didn't even care about those because they were boring.

So I guess that raises the question... If I wasn't interested in cell phones or personal data assistants when I was eight, would I care at all about an iPhone 4S?

My prediction: Yes.

Why?

The games.

Because cell phones today are more than just phones. They're, like, everything. And I think my younger self would be astounded by the fun things my iPhone has to offer. I think she would also consider my iPhone way cooler than my best friend's brother's Game Boy Color, because even an eight-year-old would be able to tell there's a huge difference between the graphics on a GBC and the graphics on my iPhone 4S.

Also, I think she'd find it super awesome that I can talk to my phone and it'll talk back.

So basically, I would be the coolest person she'd ever met.

Although she would probably wonder why the heck I haven't published a book and become a millionaire yet and what the heck I'm doing with my life.

Welcome Blue

As always, click the photos for a better view!

I fought and fought with the Orange website, and I found out how to unsimlock (or whatever you call it) Red, but I can't do it now because my credit has expired and I can't find recharging cards here. So Red is now on vacation (and very pleased about it; he likes vacations) and my new Irish cell phone is on duty. I've decided to call him Blue.

Some friends I hit the streets today around 2:30 P.M. We stopped for lunch at a pub (I skipped straight to dessert and had apple pie-- delish). Then we split into different groups. My group explored a little bit. Here are some photos!

We're studying James Joyce. That's why I took this photo.

Two iPhones Walk Into A Bar...

This is just a sketchy comic that I thought ended up being kinda funny. It was written sort of as one long strip across a sheet of paper, but I don't currently have access to a scanner and it was too wide for my iPhone camera, so I split it up. You'll need to click on the images to read it. And even then you might not be able to, so I'll write out the dialogue underneath. Just in case.

iPhone: Two iPhones walk into a bar... I forget the rest.

Samsung Reality: LAME! Just look it up!

LG Phone: Yeah! You've got Internet... Use it!

Disney Mobile Phone: What's Internet?

These are all the cell phones I've had in my lifetime. My iPhone, Samsung Reality, LG brand phone whose model never had a catchy name, and... the Disney Mobile phone. Did you know that Disney once had its own line of cell phones and service? It did. It didn't last very long.

I had a Disney mobile phone. It was my first cell phone, and I was completely in love with it. These were the first cell phones my family ever had that had a color display. It came with "Bare Necessities" and "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" as ringtones, and I bought the Pink Panther theme to be another one. My parents liked it because we could send special text messages called Family Alerts to each other for free. I got the phone in eighth grade and kept it for about a year until Disney Mobile gave up the ghost and we had to switch to Verizon.

I got another flip phone. I remember at the time I really wanted a Razr, but I was talked out of it for some reason or other. Man, talking about this makes me feel old... and it really wasn't even that long ago. We had four identical phones in the house, so we got our phones mixed up a lot. At one point we were able to tell whose phone was whose by seeing if it was broken at the hinge. I think every single one of our phones broke that way eventually.

My next phone was awesome. It was the Samsung Reality. It had a touch screen, a slide-out QWERTY keypad, a doodle pad, conversation-style text message view, and it could go to the Internet. Awesome phone, and awesome for texting. If I hit a point in my life at which I am no longer able to afford a smartphone, I'll go back to something like this. I became very, very fond of this phone. It got me through the end of junior year and senior year of high school as well as my freshman year of college. The only reason I upgraded was that it couldn't quite do all the things a smartphone can.

Just before the start of my sophomore year of college, something miraculous happened. Something I'd been wishing for since eighth grade but with no hopes of ever actually getting it. My parents got me an iPhone. I don't have to tell you about iPhones. They're pretty cool. I got a white iPhone 4S just a few short months before they came out with the iPhone 5. And you know what? I don't even care! My phone is awesome. So there.

Cell phones have changed a lot in a relatively short period of time. My little cell phone time line spans seven years- and look how much has changed!

I got into a habit of naming my cell phones over the years. From earliest to latest, their names are Flippy McFlipperflip, Buttons McButtonbutton, Touché McTouchemoi, and... Well, I never actually named my iPhone. For all intents and purposes, let's just call it Siri.

But really... Quit avoiding the question, Siri. You're capable of doing Internet searches. Why don't you just look up the end of that joke?