The Week #193

  • πŸ“± I've realized there's a few different habits I have from growing up without a whole lot. One of them is using things until they're falling apart... and then some. It's good because it means you're not always out spending money on things you just want and don't actually need. But sometimes using things for so long begins to introduce some (big or small) stresses and annoyances into your life that you just kinda get used to.

    Enter my iPhone XR. I bought it when it came out in 2018 to replace my iPhone 6+. I only bought the XR because of hardware fatigue on my 6+. One of the pins broke so I was no longer able to charge it...it was bitter sweet using it for it's final charge...knowing that it wouldn't wake up.

    It's been 5.5 years since I got my XR. I've replaced the battery on it...at least once and the current one is almost in needs servicing territory. As you can imagine software hasn't gotten any nimbler since its release. Launching the camera from the lock screen used to be instant-ish. Now it takes seconds, if it even works, causing me to miss opportunities or introduce some unneeded frustration and or friction into my day. Searching for apps takes ages. Every interaction on it has gotten slower.

    But It still technically works just fine. I can make calls on it and it charges. I don't need to worry about a pin breaking to charge it (I usually use a charging pad). It must be under-clocking itself because of the the battery health, so another new battery would probably eek out another couple of years on it.

    But I've noticed these aforementioned habits of mine and I'm going to try and change them. Buying a new phone isn't a financial burden (thankfully πŸ™πŸ»). I don't even want a new phone, I'd be happy if my current phone just worked like it did when it was new. Either way, it is causing me stress and 'tis the season to use some of my hard earned yennies to remove stress.

    This is a very long-winded (public) justification just to say I ordered a yellow 256GB iPhone 14. I considered a t 15, but that yellow was not nearly yellow enough. I'm curious to see how it compares to my yellow XR.Β 
  • πŸ“‘ Removing more stress, I'm looking at changing cell providers as well. I currently use OCN Mobile ONE. Two phones, both with voicemail and 10GB of data is around Β₯4,000 a month. But it's an MVNO, so data is frequently slow during rush hour. We also run out of data towards the end of the month (you may remember a bullet point dedicated to this on our last visit to Disney in December). Whenever I go aboard I have to buy a sim card/e-sim and deal with that. 'tis the season to use some of my hard earned yennies to remove stress.

    I'm looking at switching to Docomo's ahamo. It will work out to be a bit more per month, but whatever. It has more data, the same docomo network quality I'm accustom to (excellent), and international data included, so I'm never without connectivity abroad.
  • 🏒 I've been promoted to the global Head of Engineering for Comms (inbound/outbound emails/sms/phone calls etc..) at work. I'm excited by the new challenge of leading a much largerΒ  team. Though this does mean my number of pull requests will likely significantly decrease...maybe more energy for Tanzawa? (Probably not)
  • πŸ’ˆ In preparation for graduating pre-school Leo got his hair cut. The barber asked me if I wanted them to shampoo his hair...my response was the same as usual, ask Leo (it's not my hair/head). To my surprise (and hence why it's being included), Leo got his hair washed for the first time while getting his haircut πŸ’ͺ.
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  • @jamesvandyne I've been using https://www.nihontsushin.com/ (by Nao's recommendation) for a year and a half now and I'm super happy with it. You can get the 10gb plan for 1390 and configure it with a max cap of say 15 or 20gb, and each additional GB will only cost you some extra yen. Or you know, get 30gb for just over 2000. I used to get the 30gb but I was almost never over 10, so I recently downgraded. They use docomo.ζ—₯ζœ¬ι€šδΏ‘SIM εˆη†ηš„γͺγ‚Ήγƒžγƒ›ζ–™ι‡‘θͺ•η”Ÿγ€ε…¬εΌγ€‘

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