Lately I’ve been tormenting Doc by talking about selkies every chance I get. You would think he’d be grateful that I’ve (almost) stopped going on about trolls, but this is not the case.
During a selkie rampage, I drew this:
I figure, if you have the ability to turn into a seal, a leopard seal would be the way to go.
But then! I got invited to hang out with Gail and say good-bye to her before she leaves for Antarctica for 18 months. She told me that she will get to see penguins and leopard seals and go ice climbing… I told her, “hold that thought!” and then gave her this drawing as a going-away gift. To her, it is a leopard seal. To me, it is a selkie.
So I finally bought a new phone. I’d been using my hardy old HTC G2, and it had been serving me quite well so I didn’t see any reason to change. Plus, none of the new phones seemed that much like an upgrade (not like back when I upgraded from the G1 to the G2, I couldn’t wait to stop using the clunky old G1). One bonus feature of the HTC G2 is its indestructibility. I threw that phone into the pavements at high speeds at least 4 times a day, and yet there is not a single scratch or crack to give my violent secret away. Nevertheless, I bought a Nexus 4.
When it arrived today, I was so excited to start using it. Until I noticed that my big fat old SIM card couldn’t possibly fit into the Nexus 4’s petite micro SIM card tray. I was super sad that I’d have to wait to get a new SIM card. Would I need a new phone number as well? While researching the issue, I found this article at CNET, about how to cut the plastic off your SIM card to make it a micro SIM card.
I could bring my card into a T-Mobile shop, and have them cut it for me; I could buy a SIM card puncher; or I could cut it with scissors. You guessed it: I took the scissors to it.
SIM card on the chopping block
You might notice some oxidization on the top left bit of my SIM card. The Southern United States of America collectively did that to my card. Apparently it was so humid there, that my SIM card started oxidizing and not working. There was a puffy green mineralization growing on the surface of the card. When I got back home, I cleaned it off with some ethanol on a Q-tip and it seems to have worked well ever since. The connections on my phone’s battery also oxidized, I might add, and I had to clean them in a similar way. People of The South: do you use SIM cards and how do you prevent this from happening?
Snip snip snip… a new micro SIM card is born!
Here you see the bits of discarded plastic, the cut up template, and the Nexus 4 receiving signal from T-Mobile (thus indicating that the SIM card actually fit inside). Hooray!
Yes, I did use my G2 to take a picture of my Nexus 4. As you do.
This past weekend, we went up to go backpacking in the June Lake area. The idea was that we would hike over from the Rush Creek trail head to Thousand Island Lake, and then make our way back out the next day.
Silver Lake
However, the hike was fraught with disaster, not least of which was taking the wrong turn to get to Thousand Island Lake. So instead we accidentally made our way up to Gem Lake. Continue reading “June Lake Debacle”
