* Festivus at last! Nobody expected Festus Ezili to go 21 minutes last night in his first game of the year, but we needed every one of them to eke out a 4-point win over Davidson after blowing an 18-point lead in a span of six minutes down the stretch. The book in Vandy basketball is this: hit them hard out of the gate so they play from behind, and don’t worry if they make a run; just go hard at them in the home stretch and you can dig it out. It worked for Xavier, it worked for Louisville, and it damn near worked for the Wildcats. We have to learn to finish games if we’re going to survive.
* My current iPhone plan is a legacy account from a previous employer which, to protect its identity, we will refer to as Grapefruit. My plan includes 450 minutes a month, 5000 night/weekend minutes, unlimited data (no longer available with a new contract), 1000 texts a month for $10 (no longer available; it’s unlimited at $20 or nothing), and a sizeable discount for Grapefruit employees. And right now, exclusive of taxes, fees, etc, my plan runs me $66 a month, of which $60 has been picked up by my current employer in exchange for using it as my work phone.
Out of curiosity, I tried to reconstruct this now. Looking at sixteen months of data, I essentially never break the 400 minute mark or use more than 2 GB of data, and I’m not tethering – but I do need messaging. And that package – 450 minutes, unlimited messages, 2 GB of data – now would set me back around $75 a month plus tag, tax and title, and the difference between Verizon and AT&T is less than $5 a month. And that’s with the discount from my current employer.
As it stands, my reimbursement has been cut to $25 a month, so my out of pocket cost for my phone is going to be $41 plus the government. The alternative is to take the work phone and possibly be billed for personal use at $15 a month, and then find myself without unlimited data or the cheaper text service if I leave (because I don’t go over 1000 texts a month at all). I’m not surprised at this turn of events – since text messages go over the control channels, they’re essentially free to the carrier, whereas data is in demand and highly profitable in a world where people want to stream sitcoms to the phone. But I’m keeping my phone for now.
* Looking at footwear again, I’m intrigued by the Australian work boot as exemplified by Blundstones – basically a Doc Marten-ized Chelsea boot, with the side elastic rather than laces. Probably not distinct enough from my current footwear, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in something that didn’t have to lace. Not just for air travel purposes either, which I’m grateful I’m not dealing with right now.
* In three days, Vanderbilt has sold 88% of its ticket allotment for the Liberty Bowl and has gone back to the bowl committee to ask for additional seats. Now I kind of wish we were going, but I’m not cised to fly. To Memphis. On New Year’s Eve. Kinda shady.
* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: having my comments at Anchor of Gold quoted out of context by the Memphis Commercial-Appall [sic] with regard to the hiring of Coach James Franklin. For the record, my remarks about “Do you want me to cry? DO YOU WANT TO SEE ME CRY??” were directed at the prospect of Redskins coach Mike Shanahan suddenly becoming Vanderbilt’s coach, which is clearly obvious from looking at the page in question. People wonder why I disrespect American media, well, there you go. So to Geoff Calkins: read, motherfucker.
* Once again, I am exploring alternative platforms for social media. Right now, I am intrigued by how many iPhone apps are a world unto themselves, or the basis for one anyway: Instagram, Path, Glassboard, etc. -not to mention iMessage itself, or exotic location-based single-purpose things like Untappd. Proof, if any were needed, why mobile companies would rather give you unlimited texts and soak you for data. Or put another way: the price for 2 GB a month on the iPhone from AT&T or Verizon is 50% higher than the unlimited data plan when the first iPhone launched.
* My Buddy Vince Sez, “What is this Path you speak of, and does it lead to bourbon?”
Fin.