I bought some new shorts – summer is here you know. Lots of pockets. Nice fit. Brown denim. They look nice now, but I’ll be wearing them all summer.

There was a pocket with a big cardboard label on it that said “Cellphone Pocket”. I guess owners of cell phones are so stupid they can’t figure out what to do with them. That would explain why they’re ALWAYS talking on them.

Anyway this “cellphone” pocket is the ideal size for 3×5 index cards and a pen. And the battery never fails on that.

In other news, I canceled the Call Notesâ„¢ on my phone. About 6 years after I should have. (It used to be a business expense.) At $8 a month, here are the pluses and minuses of Call Notesâ„¢.

Pluses

• Because I don’t have call waiting (it’s just rude to excuse yourself from one call to answer another – there is nothing that pressing – if there is, your life’s priorities are askew) people can leave a message while I’m on the phone.

Minuses

• I don’t notice messages have been left until I next pick up the phone.
• AT&T sometimes drops the ball and digitally messes up messages that have been left. At about a 5% rate. Totally unacceptable!
• I can’t adjust how many times the phone will ring before being picked up.
• If it picks up, I can’t grab it just afterward.
• $8/month vs. $18 once

And now Locutus of SBC/AT&T whose “synergies” have been screwing up all their integrated services (I also just canceled my Yahoo!/SBC/AT&T Web Hosting) now gets $10 less of my money per month. They also tried to sell me satellite TV – only $50/month. Hosebags.

As for the missing “plus” above. Now people won’t leave a message while I’m on the phone only for me to not notice for hours. So, if you call and it’s busy, call back in a few. (Or pay AT&T extra money for the service to keep calling a busy number. Or not.)

Bad News: Locutus controls the iPhone for a few years.  Can 3 of 7 (1 was Macintosh, 2 was iPod – 7 is wishful thinking) every truly escape the hive mind and attain free will?