See photos at the bottom.

Three days ago, I took my experiment a step further. I allowed my cell phone to be turned off by not paying the bill. At present, I am not in a hurry to have it turned back on again. Here's why: My phone is a Blackberry and I have the "Everything" plan from my service provider. This means that I have text messages, Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook, sports scores (Go Dodgers!!), GPS navigation, a still camera, a video camera, an mp3 player, live television, and countless web sites all on my tiny little phone. Oh, also, it makes and receives phone calls. I have had the ringer set to vibrate for the past several months because the incoming messages never stop. I have decided to fast from all this. I have been without my phone now for 3 days and I am now coming to understand why they sometimes refer to Blackberry's as "Crackberry's". They are addicting and I am going through withdrawals. When I do finally reinstate service, probably in a couple of days, I am also going to downgrade my plan to only include phone calls and text messages.

You may be asking yourself, "What's next? Will you be giving up your car too?" Frankly, if I didn't have kids or if I lived closer to my work, I probably would. However, I already downgraded my car. Last summer, right when gas prices and the value of hybrid cars had reached their peak, I traded in my flawless one-year-old Toyota Prius for a 6-year-old Ford Focus that has been falling apart, piece by piece, since I bought it. If I downgraded further... well... it would be very unpleasant.

What about you? Have you ever thought about what your life would look like if your home burned to the ground along with all of your possessions? Would you consider that a blessing or a curse? What about your cell phone? Do you see it as more of a gateway to the Universe or an electronic leash?

To Give Away

 To Keep

To Sort