Well, today is the day! My Grandcentral account has been upgraded to Google Voice. Below are some screenshots I took of the process. For more on how I ended up with here, see these two posts.
The upgrade message in GrandCentral
Step 1: Choose the google account to use
Step 2: Provide additional information. I didn’t have to do this…probabaly because I used an existing google account.
Step 3: Wait. About 30 sec or so.
Step 4: Accept T&C for voicemail transcription.
Step 5: Don. If you look close, you can see I was given $1 worth of credit to use. I guess this is to call international numbers. Calls within the US are free.
“Your account will soon be available for upgrade to Google Voice. Thank you for your patience”
What does that mean? Don’t know. To me, it means the same thing as the previous message. I went to the blog–as suggested–no additional information there. I guess it means that 1) sometime in the future I’ll have a google voice account and/or 2) someone got tired of fielding all the e-mails asking “when…when…when” so they decided to change the status message to tell everyone “soon.”
[Update 03-18-2009 09:24:35] As I was updating my previous post to point to this one, I thought I should add something. I understand why they didn’t do it all at once (heck, just the processing time to migrate everything would take some time to run). But, it would be nice to have a better error status message than your account is not yet ready. Why not make a blog post stating that this group goes first, this other group goes next, etc….? Then, they could have nipped the complaints in the bud–everyone would have known when they would be upgraded–and not had to answer tons of questions.
Now, if they just add in the ability to call it with SIP I would be set!
It has been several days since the announcement that GrandCentralwill become is becoming Google Voice. All accounts are supposed to be upgraded then the public rollout will happen. My account is still showing “Your account is not yet ready to be upgraded.” When oh when??
[Update 03-18-2009 09:23:42] See this post for my newest grand central status update.
Yesterday, several of us met to study the Bible. The passage we read was Mark 6:45-52 (Jesus walking on the water after feeding the 5,000). Today, while I was reading in my quiet time, I was struck with some irony. See, one of the things we talked about yesterday was how the disciples had just seen Jesus feed 5,000+ people. On top of that, previously, they had been given power to do miracles when they were sent out (Mark 6:7-13). AND, they did something with the power (Mark 6:13 says they actually cast out demons and healed the sick).
Why were they like this? Verse 52 tells us why: their heart was hardened and they did not consider the miracle of the loaves. In short…they had just come off a high, were in a real rough place, and didn’t remember what had happened in the past. We’d never be like that, would we? Would we?
What about the Israelites? How about when they came out of Egypt and were looking at the promised land? They–excelt Joshua and Caleb–said the people were too great . They ignored the fact that God had 1) given it to them and 2) had worked a great many miracles in the past (manna, parting of the Red Sea, etc…). Those goofy Israelites…how could they not remember? I’m glad we aren’t that way. Or are we?
What about Christians today who ignore things God tells them to do–myself included–for all manner of reasons? How about voting? Do you vote for the person God wants you to vote for, or do you pick a lesser of two evils? Do you take the step and give as he tells you or do you not trust Him to provide? How many times do we shirk from our responsibility to witness and pass it off? See…it is easy to be hard on “those” disciples or “those” Israelites because “they” aren’t us. But, we have a record of a huge number of miracles done by God…but what do we do?? They are ignored for whatever reason.
So, while it’s easy to blame “they” we need to constantly look at “me” and “now” to make sure we aren’t the pot calling the kettle black.
About six months ago, many of my conversations here centered around politics. What did I think? Who was I going to vote for? What did I think of Obama? Isn’t Obama great? My general answer to all of these questions centered around the following thoughts: No, I won’t tell you who I will vote for or who I voted for…I don’t even tell Cyndi; I’m always hopeful that the person who wins will be honest and stick to his word; BUT, I have seen too many politicians promise huge lists of stuff and in eight years nothing on that list gets done; and I’m sure they have their reasons–the primary one is that they couldn’t know so many things while they were running for office–but they should have taken that into consideration when they made the promises because a promise is a promise.
Well, it looks like my general skepticism of politicians is bearing fruit. What was one of Obama’s biggest promises? Change . Change everything. Well…here are just a few of his promises he has already broke (from this WND article ):
Sunlight Before Signing
Capital gains tax elimination
New American jobs tax credit
Hiatus on 401(k) penalties
No jobs for lobbyists
Earmark reform
Bring troops home in 16 months
Sign Freedom of Choice Act
$4,000 college credit
Transparency
Now, some of these, like the Sign Freedom of Choice Act, I’m glad he hasn’t done. Others of them were missed outright–the Porkulus Bill for example. Some of them were neat–like the open government and giving people the opportunity to review things before they were made law (but what does it matter then? The time for review and comment is in the law making process. The President can’t do anything once he gets it. We need to tell our representatives and senators about issues before they are passed. Has everyone forgotten basics?)
ARG!
By the way, if you think WorldNet Daily is biased, how about looking at this article.
Ok…you guys may not have ever heard of this before; however, I stumbled upon Improv Everywhere a while ago. This morning, I came across this article on Fox News talking about flash mobs. In their top 10 list, three of the ten are from Improv Everywhere (the top 3 actually). I agree with the main premise of the article (namely that the people need not leave a mess for everyone else like the pillowfighters did); however, that isn’t the point of this post.
On their website, Improv Everywhere notes that they are not flash mobbers. In fact, here’s their FAQ entry:
Arent these flash mobs?
No. Improv Everywhere was created about 2 years before the flash mob fad. While some of our missions may have certain similarities to a flash mob (large numbers of people appearing in a public place and then disappearing suddenly), we really dont have anything to do with flash mobbing. Some missions use just a few folks while others might use hundreds, depending on the idea and depending on how many people show up to participate.
I tried to find contact information for Fox to let them know this…but I didn’t find any on their website. So…this blog post.
I came across O2 (Oxygen) Wireless yesterday. Their gimic is that you can call 50ish countries (only landlines…of course) for nothing but normal airtime minutes. Their rates are kind of steep (14 cents as opposed to 10 cents from ATT) but, if you do international calling, it looks like a nice alternative to calling cards. From their coverage map, it looks like they piggyback off another cell company…I’m not sure who though.
I also found out that you can buy their SIM cards–so we know it is some GSM provider–at Best Buy.
First off, nothing is wrong with me. I’m fine. Although…if there were something wrong, that’s what I would say. I guess you’ll just have to believe me.
1. Learn about the Funeral Rule. 2. Consider a direct burial with a memorial service. 3. You may not have to worry about embalming. 4. Learn how to shop for a casket. 5. Find out if a military burial is an option. 6. Turn to religion.
You should look into these. I need to read up on #2…I don’t understand (even after reading the article). As for number 6….I would not advse “turning” to religion but turning to Jesus while you have the opportunity. Now is the time…today is the day of salvation.
I visited a few of the links provided in the article for caskets. The cheapest one I found was this one. And it was $700. INSANE. I have already instructed Cyndi that I’m to be put in the cheapest box she can find. I’m dead. She can spend the money for something better. When Lydia gets old enough, I’ll tell her too. Note…the cheapest might be paying someone $50 for 2 hours of their time and spending another $50 or so on some 2x4s and plywood at Lowes (or Home Depot…I don’t care).
Anyway, think about this stuff. Don’t make your loved ones worry about it after you are long gone.
