toys

I wasn’t like Linus [wikipedia.org] when I was a kid. I never really carried my blanket around with me. And it was a good blanket, soft, quilted, hand made by my great grandmother. I still have it, probably because I did not carry it everywhere. I just chewed on the corners while I slept.

What I did carry around as a kid was a stuffed kangaroo—called Kabby, that my mother got with Betty Crocker [wikipedia.org] points. I carried that thing everywhere. I left it out in the rain on night and was totally distraught because I didn’t know where Kabby was. I still have Kabby, missing one eye and there is a hole in the tail where the stuffing is coming out, but I still have it.

Kabby was the last toy I got that has not been subsequently and quickly supplanted by the next, newer, toy. Growing up a geek enshrined this as I am always on the lookout for newer and better toys. A new computer, new video games, new stereo, PDA, cell phone.

Cell phones are particularly bad. My first phone, after moving up from a pager, was the Motorola MicroTAC 550, of which I can’t even find a decent picture. I then got a Nokia 252n which I used and loved for several years. When I was in Europe I got a Nokia 3300—which I still think was the best 2G phone ever and possibly the best mobile phone ever. When I returned to the US I got a 3395 specifically because it had the same interface. My cell phone revolving door really got going after I started working for a company in the mobile services space several years ago. Since then I have had a Samsung 715e, a Sony Ericsson T610 (which is the best 2.5G phone I have ever used), a Trio 650, a Nokia N-Gage, LG 6000, a Motorola v600 and lately a Sony Ericsson k700i.

Last night I feed the need to have the latest and greatest by spending an inordinate amount of money on a new toy: the Sony Ericsson z800i [sonyericsson.com]. Oh, behold! Shiney!