SCRIBBLES

rowlandanthonyimperial

Saturday, December 8, 2007

19:24

Mobile phones.

As far as I can remember, I had my first mobile phone when I was in the middle of my 4th year in elementary school.

My phone was a Nokia 5110, which I frequently enjoyed changing casings every two weeks for a new look. To impress my classmates, that was the main intention.

And I was so happy because, finally, I could start sending messages to a girl that I really liked back then.

And I was living in an era suffering the wake of an economic recession, where mobile phone industries such as Motorola and Nokia initiated a frenzy for mobile phones among the Filipino masses. A simple Nokia 3210 unit in the late 1990s was considered to be an exorbitantly valuable possession for a typical Filipino. Talk about living in luxury back then. Everyone was sending and receiving texting messages everywhere; I can still remember how popular graphic messages were, and how obssessed the Filipinos were about text jokes - corny jokes, new jokes, self-invented jokes, racist jokes, dumb jokes, Juan-at-Pedro jokes, green jokes - which earned the Philippines' title as the "Texting Capital of the World". Of course, if we look at the world today, the Philippines no longer holds that once pretigious title. China, screw you.

- The world's best-selling phone, the Nokia 3310 / 3330 sold 126 million units from its launch in 2000 until its "retirement" earlier in 2005. If you want to realize its significance, well you must also know that the combined total of all Nokia phones sold between 1991 and 1998 is 100 million.

Two years passed and I finally changed my phone. Finally. It was a sunny day, a day I had been waiting for so long. The money was ready. It was MY money. Zillions of new models were out, sexily, fabulously and attractively displayed inside malls and shops, conspicuously tagged with the cheapest, most affordable possible prices in town, a plethora of non-living floozies waiting to be bought, caressed and touched by the gentle fingers of the owner for q

uite some time, until the purchase has finally served its limited purpose.

I got a beautiful, sporty Nokia 5210. Talk about the fun times we had together.

After one and a half years, the purpose had not yet been fully served, because my mobile phone was stolen. Shit. But I knew who stole it anyway. Well, it was just a matter of understanding HER, the thief. Maybe SHE needed money? I did not bother to put HER to shame. SHE pretended that that SHE was an angel, though. And many people fell for it. Well, sorry MISS, you weren't. Hope YOU've changed for the better now. Screw HER.

Well, it was really time for a new change anyway. I got a Sony Ericsson T630.

It was not bad, I actually liked it. Plus, it had served me for four years. It accompanied me to Singapore, underwent terrible bumps and falls because of my careless handling, and provided me constant communication with my family back home. I miss my T630. But of course, there was a limit to its life. In the middle of this year, it totally broke down (I thought), and to my dismay, I could not repair it because I knew no repair shop in Singapore and I did not believe it could be repaired (although it can be repaired, my uncle is using my old phone right now, hahaha). So I decided to ask money from my parents to buy a new one.

Rheyza helped me to buy my new mobile phone, and I am very grateful and thankful that I asked her to go with me, because if not, I would have been tempted to buy a more expensive phone and that would have made me broke for the next few months in Singapore. We looked in Toa Payoh for an affordable phone with the features I was looking for, and luckily, we got a good one. And it's my current mobile phone. And I'm happy with it.

Sony Ericsson W610i.

I wonder if I can get an iPhone some time soon.