Random thought #123

"How did you celebrate your birthday?" .... errrr, I went to work and had an extra bit of chocolate from the vending machine?

The thing about birthdays -- and most other major calendar events e.g. New Year's Day -- passing me by mostly uncelebrated is there is no forced evaluation of where I am in my life (more than normal anyway) hence no feelings of regret/disappointment when I realise a year has passed and certain aspects of my life still aren't "up to scratch".

When you're one of those people who can't switch their minds off, life planning is for a quiet weekend or impromptu lunch time walk, not so?

They said I couldn't have 5.0 ...

There are guides all over the web to upgrading your BB OS.

I upgraded because I was curious and had an idle Saturday night on my hands. Plus BB Messenger 5.0 installed on top of OS 4.6 on my shiny new Curve (8520) kept driving me insane. Every so often the cursor would disappear and I would need to do a hard reboot (battery pull or Shift-Alt-Del). The other participants of group chat would snicker at my typos and badly spelt swear words.

Anyway, make sure you have the latest version of BlackBerry Desktop Manager (free from blackberry.com) on your Windows machine (I think they have Mac versions, but the OS install files are all Windows AFAIK) and then back up all your data onto your PC.

Now I'll punt you over to a guide :-)
http://blackberrysync.com/2008/09/how-to-upgrade-your-blackberry-os/
(that deletion in Step 4 is very important)

It includes the link for all (?) mobile phone providers worldwide, so you can find your own. Or, if you're feeling adventurous you can select another provider -- but you have to pick the correct phone model! Bold OS on a Curve is a no-no!)

For example, my provider *cough* is still on 4.6 for the 8520, so I got another link off TechnoSpot in place of the file from Step 1 on the previous page:
http://www.technospot.net/blogs/download-official-os-5-for-blackberry-8520-released/ (Click "Download from Blackberry.com" below the ads.)

The file has the words "Wind Hellas" as that particular provider already approved 5.0 for their customers :-)

My backups didn't completely work (had to get added back into some BBM groups), but at least I got all my mp3s and contacts back. Ubertwitter reverted to non-paid version for a little bit but phoned-home and took the ads away in short order.

I also like the new "threaded SMS" in OS 5 -- check it out. It goes well with Facebook texts, so you can potentially carry on entire Facebook conversations without even logging into the site. (Now that's geeky.)

I got a wedding invitation

So I was in London last weekend, and as I usually do when I'm in London, I lime (or hang out, if you prefer) with a few friends, including an old friend of mine also from south Trinidad.

He is single, and also in the unenviable position of being the last in his close circle of friends to get married. (In future, that is. Or would be...)

And he got hit with THREE wedding invites from his buddies for this year. And a fourth -- from a friend of a friend. Damn. It does bring the word 'unenviable' to mind.

I hate stereotypes as much as the next person ;-) but his parents still conform very much to the 'Indian parent' syndrome. That is to say, every other conversation manages to have marriage/girlfriends/relationships worked in. And with no shame as it sure is time.

(And it's catching. My grandmother is not Indian, but her deceased husband was. As advanced as her Alzheimer's is getting, she still remembers to scold me for not having married as yet. Mm.)

As the night went on, every so often he would mention something else about one of the weddings he got invited to, and it was clear he wasn't half bitter about 'being last'. And I really felt for him. I don't know why lasting romance hasn't come into either of our lives but I personally don't bother about it too much. But I imagine receiving several wedding invitations from the 'happily engaged' friends -- when they know you're single* -- can grate. And I'm not sure what I would do if I were in his shoes. (I did mention turning some down, but still thinking about that...)

All I know is I find it quite inconsiderate -- in fact cruel -- for the lot of them to be sending him all these invitations for the same year. Airfare, tux, vacation days, hotel possibly -- all for a chance to shake your friend's hand, congratulate the blushing bride, and then shrink into the background as the bitter singleton. It's as if they didn't know him that well. For a close circle I'd expect more of them.

The least they could do is set him up with someone during the reception.

* and if they don't, why the hell not? They're your friends, aren't they??