And Now, Some Sad News...

I had a bit of an accident last week.  My phone mount for my bike snapped off when I was going home.  I hit the transition from the parking lot to the street and it just snapped.

And what's worse, as I was realizing what happened, I wasn't able to stop in time and rode right over the phone and mount.

I walked my bike back dreading to see what had happened to the screen.

Below is what I saw.

However, it turned out that I got lucky.  The arms of the mount ended up taking most of the weight of my bike and me.  And the case mostly got damaged from the fall and tumble.  The only damage to the phone is a small dent on the mute button and the dent on the back.

I chatted with Apple and they recommended taking it in to a store to have it checked out.  The diagnostic was free, so not a bad idea.  I went in and everything checked out okay, so it's all cosmetic.

And it's not even visible when you have a case on it.  I'm planning on switching to a Google Pixel and Project Fi soon, so I got a case that only has to last 3 months.  And the one I got is so cool.  It's denim.

dooooooooooo -- BEEEEEEEEEP!

So, my phone is a geek detector.  Yesterday, in my second day at the office after 6 months in the field, it rang, and one of my coworkers laughed and said, "That is a cool ringtone."

Being who I am, I have personalized the sounds of the phone, and so each one is a little slice of geekdom.  Jennifer got to enjoying my sounds so much that she asked me to find a way to personalize her phone.  It was a little harder as she has an Droid, but hers are all various sounds from R2-D2 with her ringtone being the award ceremony music from the end of "Star Wars - A New Hope".  My ringtone is the "conversation" between the technician and the alien spaceship from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

It gets lots of good reactions.  Geeky phone techs love it when it rings.  A friend who has an apparently very geeky brother laughs and wants us to meet.

I'll have to test him on the rest of the sounds.

My incoming text sound is the wrist-com sound effect from "Babylon 5".  My missed call/voice-mail is the message waiting sound from "Babylon 5".  The rest are from the game "Portal" where I use button sounds for sending and receiving emails, and the bouncy sound for calendar reminders.

For "Portal" to be such a popular game, I'm surprised I don't get more comments on the sounds.

Still, when people do hear it, and look up with a start, I can look them in the eye and smile.

Gotcha, geek.

BTW, Mom and Dad, your ringtone is the Turret Serenade from "Portal 2".  Just because I like the sound of it.