....and we're back. 2011, Weird. I sort of fell off the grid for a while there. I went to Vegas, then hit Shreveport a couple of weeks later, then there was Christmas and New Years, its all a blur.

So I spent Christmas weekend in Shreveport gambling. Had a free room and free buffets and whatnot, so I said what the heck. I was only 2 weeks back from Vegas, but I figured that didn't matter, a good time is a good time, who says you can't have two good times in any given time frame. Anyway, I noticed something interesting when I was there. In case you don't recall my heartfelt opposition to cell phone companies, and their craft, you can reread the post as a refresher here: CELL PHONE ASS RAPE.

So there I was, in Eastern Louisiana, sitting at a Lord of the Rings slot machine next to a lady who had to be every bit of 75 years old. I heard a strange noise, and this lady proceeded to pull out her iPhone4, and start texting, and using apps and whatnot. Wait a sec. Did I miss something? Has that type of technology reached the elderly at this point? I must say that at first I felt sorta bad. Here I am a thirty-something white guy who has made technology a career. I should have the iPhone, and she should have my shitty low end Motorola RAZRv3. I felt like the old person in the scene. "Why do I need all that fancy new stuff, why would I wanna pay the cell phone company a thousand dollars a year when I don't need to", and so on. Someone could have given her the phone as a gift I suppose, or perhaps someone else could pay her bill for her, or maybe she could be rich beyond her wildest dreams, there could have been lots of variables, but I suspect in this case, things were just as they appeared.

Then the thought mostly faded when I realized that for the amount of money she spent on her phone and her service plan, I could go to that very casino probably 5 or 6 times annually. She is also bound to a 2 year contract, which could quite literally be the rest of her life. She got suckered into their scam, not me. I suppose this falls into my overall plan to balance 'having' and 'being'. She can have her iPhone, and I can be on vacation more. Is she better off than me? I think not. Cosmically, would someone rather listen to her story about her iPhone being awesome, or my story about the old lady with the iPhone, who thought her iPhone was awesome.

I realize this anecdote is weak, but it was one of those sort of whoa moments for me, when I realized a whole bunch of crap at the same time, so I felt the need to document it for posterity.