HNT 13 - Keeping up with the Joneses

Growing up I never really understood the phrase 'keeping up with the Joneses.' Mostly because my last name is Jones, and my family was fairly average. And personally I am not a role model for that phrase either.

My parents may have had the first microwave on the block (in 1976), but figured that was hand for heating up baby bottles. Sure I also recall in the mid 1980s my Mom communicating via 'e-mail' with my Dad when he was at a conference in Toronto; she would dial up into my Dad's academic account and leave a message in his intra-office computer system, and my Dad would read the message and leave a reply for my Mom. I also recall we were one of the first to get a VCR.

However, we had none of the gaming systems popular that my peers grew up with (Nintendo, Saga, Atari - though we did eventually have an Atari ST computer). My sister was the first to introduce our family to a CD player in the late 1990s. And I believe I bought my parents their first DVD player. As well as being the first in the family to have a mobile phone (Jan 1998), when a number of my friends already had mobile phones.

I had that first mobile phone (on Rogers) until about August 2001 - 7 months past the end of the contract. I got my next mobile on a deal with Bell (in August 2001), I passed that phone, and remaining 3 months on the contract, to a friend when I moved to the UK in May 2004.

My third mobile phone was purchased (on a 2 year contract) in June 2004, with O2 in the UK, and Fido when I returned to Canada. It was my first GSM phone, and I loved it. Just last weekend I replaced that phone....

In the meanwhile however, I also got a couple other mobile phones:
One for temporary use (when I was on a return visit to the UK), and the other a work mobile phone with my current company (which is the same as the second mobile phone I had - from 2001).

Needless to say, all my previous mobile phones were essentially the basic you could get - no bells and whistles (well made those sounds, so I guess it would be no colour and cameras). That is until I got my phone last weekend.

I felt I needed a new phone, and perhaps a new plan, so I shopped around first for what was the best plan I could get, and found that Koodo (new provider), seemed to offer the cheapest. Now they don't have a wide selection of phones, but anything was better than my 4 year old phone. So I got their top of the line phone: Motokrzr with MP3 player, 1.3 megapixel camera and video, & bluetooth (though I learned after buying it there is no headphone jack).

This soon lead me to attempt the 'classic' naked photo with camera phone... which is what I present for my HNT post:

About this photo: It was taken Monday 7 April 2008, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Photo taken on my Motokrzr phone, with automatic picture settings.

About this photo: It was taken Monday 7 April 2008, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Photo taken on my Motokrzr phone, with indoor home lighting setting.

About this photo: It was taken Monday 7 April 2008, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Photo taken on my Motokrzr phone, with black and white setting.

About this photo: It was taken Monday 7 April 2008, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Photo taken on my Motokrzr phone, with antique setting.

About this photo: It was taken Monday 7 April 2008, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Photo taken on my Motokrzr phone, with negative setting.


Now all I need is one of these:

About this video: Commercial for Philips Wireless Headset, I originally found on Dailymotion.com (updated in 2022 to YouTube link as dailymotion one had disappeared)