My Birthday!! Gimme Presents! >:)

[smitty]

I. Can. Not. Believe. That. I. Forgot to post this here yesterday. So yesterday was my birthday. I was supposed to go with my mom somewhere to pick out a cell phone, but she didn't get home 'til like 6 and I had to go to a school dance at 7. So supposedly I get a phone today. So far I have gotten some stuff from the claw machine at Friendly's, and a USB Rocket Launcher.

[HotDog-Cart]

No presentz 4 chu :3

It wasnt my bday, but I got a 32inch Dynex 720p TV for $350 yesturday. Pretty darn cheap and the thing is beautiful. The colors are better than the sony bravia, that I saw in store for $300 more.

[bicostp]

HAPPY DAY AFTER YOUR McBIRTHDAY!

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

[limpport]

Yippie! Happy Birthday! I got a cell phone for mine as well.

[Metallica Man X]

HAPPY AFTER BIRTHDAY!!

Phones are weak. You should get CB instead

[catsaiyan]

.

[smitty]

Got my phone yesterday! LG Rumor 2, pretty cool right? Only problem is, it's prepaid... And my mom's only gonna give me 20 bucks for three months. So it's really not meant to used as a form of communication, which is stupid, because that's the only reason I wanted a phone in the first place. But whatever, there seems to be multiple ways to earn free minutes/texts on the Virgin Mobile website...

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

Got my phone yesterday! LG Rumor 2, pretty cool right? Only problem is, it's prepaid... And my mom's only gonna give me 20 bucks for three months. So it's really not meant to used as a form of communication, which is stupid, because that's the only reason I wanted a phone in the first place. But whatever, there seems to be multiple ways to earn free minutes/texts on the Virgin Mobile website...

I don't mean to lecture, but don't complain that your phone that you got as a gift is prepaid/whatever. I bought my cell phone just under a year ago (at the beginning of my summer right before college). I also have "only" a prepaid phone from Virgin Mobile. I look at this as a plus, not a minus. Typically every other cell phone service out there has a 2 year contract (typically three years in Canada from what I've read) with obnoxious early termination fees. Obviously, if you're satisfied with your service, this isn't an issue. But I've become frustrated with my Virgin Mobile service over the last month or so (massive delays with receiving texts; up to 2-3 days late ), and will likely switch to something else at the end of May when my account with them runs dry. In Peoria, IL where I go to college, AT&T coverage is terrible, so you pretty much have to go Verizon or Sprint (or something that uses their towers). This screwed over many people who had AT&T with unfulfilled contracts before moving in; they had to either pay the annoying early termination fees and then switch, or give their phone to someone else and get a new one with Sprint/Verizon/whoever. In other words, it was a big hassle, not just because of the spotty coverage, but also due to the chronic stupidness of 2-year contracts. Cell coverage is not as good overall as all the cell companies want you to think, and it varies tremendously from place to place.
As for your phone "not meant to used as a form of communication" because your mom will only give you $20 every three months: that is 200 minutes on Virgin Mobile, which is a two minute conversation every day for three months, which is more than you'd think. Also, nobody said you can't buy more top-up cards yourself. I am far more anti-texting than most people of our generation, and it still is the biggest ripoff you will ever pay for (it literally costs the carriers nothing), but it can be a good cheap form of communication (Also, it amazes me how much people will solely text instead of talk). On Virgin Mobile, you can get 1000 texts a month for "$15" (actually about $17 including fees and other such garbage), or unlimited for "$20"/month. Now depending on your mindset, that may either seem expensive or really cheap. The whole idea of a monthly fee of any sort bugs me, but the average cell phone bill in the US is something like $55/month ( ). With either of those texting "plans", you pay 10 cents for every minute of talk time. Through a combination of those two texting "plans", I have paid an average of about $25 a month total for my service. Again, this adds up. As you are only 14, you likely have no money. When I was 14 I had a job, and could have easily afforded a cell phone. (I didn't get one until I was 18, but that's beside the point). Also, having a cell phone works wonders for a job. This past summer (the only summer I had my cell phone), I got way more calls to take people's shifts than I had in previous years. People are strange and don't want to call landlines anymore. My phone paid for itself several times over that summer. In retrospect, I probably should have gotten the phone a year earlier (and if I had, I'd have had the money to rock a quad-core in my PC. But oh well, hindsight is always 20/15).
Your last point, about getting free minutes/texts from Virgin Mobile.... don't count on it.
Teenagers (including ones my age with jobs ) taking cell phones for granted, not paying the bill themselves (unless they have a particularly good deal on a family plan or something to that effect, but it's just the principle of the thing), or not appreciating the value of a dollar is just a big pet peeve of mine.
[/soapbox]
While that all may have sounded like a big rant, just take it as advice from one guy with a Pikachu avatar to another.

Oh, and happy birthday!

[smitty]

Heh, your Pikachu avatar is, in my opinion, about a decillion times better than whatever you had before. I realize while I could talk to people 2 minutes a day, kids my age tend to text more, I guess because they can have multiple conversations at the same time. The free minutes/texts seems stupid and tedious... You get one dollar for every 100 "points". I'm not sure exactly how many of these "points" you get at a time, but you get it from creating ringtones from previously recorded sound effects and beats, or by making a picture, which you can actually upload a picture that you made in a decent editing software, instead of some flash-based crap on their site like the ringtone maker. I do look at the phone as a plus, but I think if I actually started talking to people on it, I would use up my money too fast. And of course, I can buy my own top-ups, but like you said, I have no source of money. As I haven't had a birthday party yet, I will be coming in to some money soon, but I'm going to use that to buy me a netbook. My laptop works fine, but it's big and battery life is little over an hour, or about 35 minutes if I'm sshing into the desktop for the use of it's music and speakers. I'm really thinking about getting some kind of job so I can buy a texting plan... And did you say 10 cents a minute on the texting plans!? For me it's 20 cents. So I think I should get a job that I would know and enjoy, so I wouldn't quit after a day because I don't need it. So I think fixing people's computers might work, since I know my way around a computer, (quite literally, their insides are fun to exchange) but I guess I'd have to do some research about viruses and bugs and such, as I use Linux and have, as far as I know, never encountered a virus when I used Windows. And, since I am only fourteen, my mom doesn't think that people who don't know me will trust me with their computers, so my older brother should drive to the client's house and pick up the computer and I'll do the actual fixing. (I think she was kidding, but it's actually a good idea.) Thoughts?

[vskid]

As I haven't had a birthday party yet, I will be coming in to some money soon, but I'm going to use that to buy me a netbook. My laptop works fine, but it's big and battery life is little over an hour, or about 35 minutes if I'm sshing into the desktop for the use of it's music and speakers.

Specs on laptop? My brother was thinking of selling his netbook to get something bigger/more powerful and he might be interested in trading if you want.

[smitty]

Actually, the Netbook would probably be more powerful. It's a 10 year old Gateway, 700MHz. Still interested? Probably not.

[vskid]

Nope, not really.
At least that means you'll be gaining speed and battery life by getting a netbook.

Cell phones are expensive. I've gotten by by just using my friends' cell phones when I'm out and about, and my home phone the rest of the time. I text using gmail. That texting plan ketchup was talking about sounds like it would be the perfect fit for most people. Texting seems to be the main way most people use their phones, but having the option to talk for cheap would be good.

[smitty]

Yeah, that texting plan (called texter's delight, I knew about it already) sounds great, but I don't gots no money. So, anybody have any advice, tips, or ideas about my job idea (^^^a few posts up^^^)?

And about the computer, most things won't be much faster, but things that do run slow should have a significant speed difference.

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

Yeah, that texting plan (called texter's delight, I knew about it already) sounds great, but I don't gots no money. So, anybody have any advice, tips, or ideas about my job idea (^^^a few posts up^^^)?

And about the computer, most things won't be much faster, but things that do run slow should have a significant speed difference.

Ask around about places that hire 14-15 year olds. I was able to snag a job at my local Dairy Queen at 14 dipping Dilly Bars. It wasn't the most exciting work, but having money was nice, and I met some cool people. As for fixing computers and all that, that can be a nice supplementary income, but it's not really all that consistent. This past summer I also worked for a small business run by one of my high school friends. I fixed RRoD Xbox 360s for him. I got paid $30 for each one I fixed, and after doing a few, got it down to a system where I could fix one in an hour. So while you could look at it like I was making $30/hr, I was working no more than 1-2 "hours" per week, while I was making $8.50/hr working 20-30 hours a week at the Dairy Queen. I also "fixed" a few computers for people at work for $60/each (their price not mine ), and all that really entailed was ripping out their hard drive, backing up stuffs, reinstalling Windows, and throwing their data back on. Being known as "the awesome computer geek" at work has its benefits. My point is, while doing geeky things can make you money, unless you have the right situation, the real money for people our age is in doing tasks a trained monkey could do (not that there's anything wrong with free ice cream ). As for actually getting said job, ask around for places that are hiring 14-15 year olds, and fill out the applications to a t. If the place wants you to "just submit your own application" (in other words, they don't have their own application for you to fill out. The Dairy Queen job was like this for me), just type one up as professionally as you can; BS some stuff and make it look pretty (high school should have taught you how to do this). The point is to make it stand out from all the names and phone numbers scribbled on the backs of napkins (and I'm only half-joking; you should see some of the "applications" we get). If you don't get a call, call them up, stop by, bug them. That's how I got an interview, and as a 14 year old, that pretty much means you're in. Just be polite in the interview, talk about how great the place is you want to work. I did pretty much all of this things, and soon I was dipping Dilly Bars and making $6/hr. Or, if you already know someone your age with a job, ask them to put in a good word, and depending on the job, you're pretty much guaranteed a spot. Again, this is all stemming from my personal experiences as a 14-year-old, and what I've heard; your miles may vary.

Regarding the netbook, netbooks are awesome. I have an Acer Aspire One D250 that I picked up on Black Friday for $168. It's quite a bit faster than my previous laptop (which had an 800mhz P3), and has stupidly good battery life (around six hours). You will be pleased with a netbook. They beat the crap out of mini-laptops from 2002 (I had a lifebook b2610, well still have it ) in every respect except the pointing device, which I have yet to see on a netbook. The big benefit though was the battery life. Six hours is the point where I don't have to worry about really ever running out; just have to remember to charge it, as it's easy to forget.