A Hand Full of Crack(berry)

One often hears about users of Blackberry devices as addicts; people with thumbs that honestly travel faster than the speed of light as they select, read, reply to, and compose messages. Over the past 10 years of training, I have seen my share of new technological 'gizmos' touted to enhance and optimize one's time in the business environment, no matter where one was at. In essence, even when you were out of the office, you could still be in the office. I mean really, what better way to spend one's time out of the office than to be connected to it, albeit tenuously, regardless of where one is located. It's just like I tell people at work on a Friday...TGIF, because that means it's only two days until Monday. Now we can be at the office 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, if we really had the inclination to be.

 

Prior to the Blackberry there were several business tools that had become actual human appendages--the laptop/notebook computer, the cell phone, and the PDA. Each of these new 'appendages' became indispensable in the minds of students. From my perch atop the Ivory Pillar of knowledge, I used to look at people and wonder why and how such 'appendages' became so utterly necessary for life. I, in fact, told myself that my phone and my laptop would never be attached to my hip. Well, we all know what happens when we use "never" in a sentence--invariably, we are liable to do the very thing that we say we never will. It is at this point that the Blackberry, more appropriately referred to as the Crackberry, came into my life.

 

It all started with a friend of mine who asked me to go with him to help him pick out a new cell phone. After looking at several different alternatives, he settled on the Pearl. It is a nice looking phone, very sleek and stylish. Additionally, it is, in essence, a mini-communications powerhouse with a phone feature. From the moment I touched it, I became addicted to the thing. Based on this quick addiction, I told myself that I did not need to upgrade my phone early, as I was quite pleased with it; I managed to resist for 1 week. After that, I had no choice but to buy one for myself. Long story short, I can now check my online email from my phone, reply to messages, even create my own, all with a keyboard that is laid out like a typewriter's QWERTY keyboard. To say that I am addicted to my phone, well would be understatement. For those of you that are new to Crackberries, I found a few really good web-sites for free Blackberry content, or for Blackberry accessories:

 

For accessories: http://www.blackberrysource.com/

For forums, downloads, etc.: http://www.pinstack.com/

For themes, mp3s, games: http://www.bplay.com/

 

By the way, I got a great Blackberry theme from pinstack.com that looks like Mac OS X Leopard (here is the link to aquaberry http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/showthread.php?t=72313&highlight=aquaberry).  You will have to register in order to download content. Just make sure you look for themes that are made for your model phone!

 

And, based on the fun brought to you by The Ap's Guy, here is a little fun from around the world musically, a la the Numa Numa song, more appropriately named Dragostea din Tei, an earworm song from Romania--here's one of my favorite translations from Korea (Korean version of Dragostea din Tei)! This tune will be in your head for a very long time, even if you don't understand a word of it, lol. Enjoy!