First day back

The day started early, but I took it a little easy. I went and got a pedicure in the morning and then had a look around for cell phone. I'm still debating on which cell phone to go with. Verizon supposedly has the best nationwide coverage and good customer service. However, they are on a CDMA network which is not available outside the U.S. I would need a global phone with GSM capabilities in order to use the phone overseas. Sprint is also CDMA. AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM. I suppose no matter which GSM provider I go with, I suppose I will have the problem of a locked phone. Maybe I will be able to use European T-Mobile SIM cards with T-Mobile phones tho. I'll have to look into that. Could be screwed tho for Asia, but perhaps if I beg them enough they will unlock the phone for me when it becomes necessary. The only thing about T-Mobile is that they didn't seem to have a very good coverage map. I only checked Virginia, but their coverage seems limited to major cities and highways. If I go off into the boonies of VA, I'm not sure I'll get coverage.

One of the things I noticed as I hopped from one store to another was how polite all the customer service reps were. I know I complained a lot about the Dutch Service, but I never really thought that customer service in the U.S. was particularly spectacular. Cell phone providers were notorious for bad service, but I think perhaps people got sick of putting up with it and the BBB is cracking down or something. It wasn't just the cell phone companies either, the nail salons and the Chick-fil-A girl were also really nice and polite. Maybe I used to take it for granted and never noticed before. Speaking of Chick-fil-A, mmmmmmmm... that was yummy.

Oh, I had thought I made up my mind about getting a 30" LCD Monitor and use my computer for watching TV, movies, etc. However, my brother recently bought a 56" 1080p DLP TV and it's niiiiiice. So I'm having second thoughts. In the land where everything is big, 73" and 60" TVs are on sale like it's the norm. Who needs to go to the movies anymore with a TV that big?? They are like $4000/$3000 though, and I think my new place will not be so big. So I think 50" is more than enough, maybe even too big. I should really take a look at the place first. The only problem with my brother's DLP is that there's no DVI input, which is surprising. Anyways, I need to look into this a bit more....

I also went back to my karate class for the first time in about a year. I knew I was really out of shape but I had jump right into a fighting class. Lucky for me there were not too many advanced students so I didn't get my butt kicked much. My 6'3 200 lbs instructor, however, kicked me really hard in the back of my head with his heel. That hurt.