Two nice things about today being Valentines day.
1. It is a Saturday
2. It is not in Lent!

This time last year Lent had already started and i had given up chocolate. No chocolate on Valentines Day is no fun at all! This year i both gave and received chocolate as a gift! :)

My just-happens-to-be-on-valentines-day gift to myself is a new phone! Haha! My other phone is definitely broken, so i got a nice cheap and cheerful Nokia 2600 from Argos. Plug in my SIM card, ready to go. Yep, much easier to go to Argos. We went in all the phone shops and it's all like, "£15 a month, £9 a month, £45 a month, 100 free texts, 500 free minutes, Skype, Facebook, unlimited internet, £10 top-up, free handset, latest latest …!!!" You go into Argos, pick the phone in the catalogue, it just works. Okay, it's not the latest and greatest, but it has a camera and plays music, and lets you record your own ring tones. The user experience is almost exactly the same as my previous phone, although i notice a few minor improvements.

Right now i'm having a little lie down, geek about on my netbook in bed, read a bit of the "Getting Things Done" book, just cloned the source code of ykyat.com so i might even code up a few improvements! My beloved is making something nice for me … it's a surprise! :)

After turning it off and on again a few times, fiddling with the buttons, sliding it up and down a bit, my phone decided to work again!

It seems it was in a perpetual state of believing it was locked, but not letting me unlock it. I've really no idea how i fixed it. I did pray for my phone last night … maybe that's the answer! haha!

So now i don't need to buy myself a new phone, and i can continue to wait for a good Google phone! :) Although i'm not convinced whether the phone is truly fixed. It seems to be having trouble charging too. Maybe it is time to get a new one anyway.

My phone broke last night. It's a software error, i'm pretty sure. The buttons stopped responding, a few at a time, except for when they bring up the missed calls screen. I took it apart to try and clean it, but that didn't help. I left it overnight in hope that it would "fix itself" but it did not.

Funny, it's just after my insurance expired and i didn't renew it. It must KNOW!! Or perhaps the insurance company sent it a virus because i didn't renew! (I am joking, i don't think they'd really do that!)

So i'll get a new phone. But do i get a nice cheap pay-as-you-go from Argos, or maybe look for something different? I like Virgin PAYG because it suits my phone usage (mainly text messages) – i just top up £10 every couple of months. Most of my family are on Virgin which means 3p text messages.

What is a Skype phone? Free calls sounds awesome, but what about text messaging?

Alternatively, maybe i should spend a bit more money and get something more advanced. Mobile internet (with wifi) would be great, but an iPhone seems rather expensive to me. I have been waiting for more phones to come out with the Google Android operating system, but i think there's still just the one at the moment, and it's only on T-Mobile.

Any help/advice will be appreciated!

I got my computer fixed last night! My wonderfully helpful work colleague came over to help me get it all wired up back together in the new case. It was absolutely the power supply that was broken. We plugged it into the new case and it just worked straight away. Hooray! The new PSU is way quieter as well, which is an added bonus. Here is the new equipment:

We also installed the graphics card and got it working with minimum of fuss, meaning that i was able to go on Second Life last night for the first time ever! Haha that was a fun experience! :)

I should also be able to install Beryl for all sorts of wonderful desktop effects like this!

I also treated myself to a new mobile phone today. It was kind of a whim, but i am really pleased with it. It has a camera, video camera, radio and plays mp3s. It came with a 1GB micro-SD card with an adapter to SD. I also got 800 free text messages for the next four months which means i won't need to top up until at least June!

Beautiful! :D

Plus things are going great at work! I have spent two days coding and loved it! I'm unfortunately not going on the C# course until March, but i have made a start anyway, just picking up what i can. It is the first time in ages that i have been truly enjoying my job!

Sooo … good news all round! I am so happy to have my computer back! :)