Earth calling Mars One....

"Mars One.... do you copy?........

"Tzzzz...zt...of free applications and....Tzzzzz.....just like a mini PC...tzzzzzt...."

"Earth calling Mars One...... do you copy?........"

"Tzzzz.....zzzzt....can't......Tzzzzzzzzzt.....call....tzzzzzzztttttt..."

"Earth calling Mars One, have you landed yet..... repeat.... have you landed yet?"

"Tzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt.....Tzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt..."

"Okay....Mars One, guess you've finally landed then!"

............................................

What you were reading above was actually a transcript of a phone conversation I just had with a friend.

A friend who was trying to talk me into getting an i-phone, and guess what he was using when we had that conversation? An i-phone!

I'm not trying to say that i-phones are not good, as I believe the result of this poor reception was more of a combination of the service provider as well as the reception within that particular location. But the whole conversation was so comical that I almost laughed myself into tears. He was just telling me how good the phone was and what gadgets it has and how efficient things were, blah blah blah, when the phone just started to crack up and he started to fade away. The more I joked about Earth calling Mars One, the further away he went, until he finally faded into plain oblivion.

In all fairness, I did try calling him again with my other phone, just to make sure that it wasn't my phone or my service provider that has gone bad. But all I got was plain static as well.

In the end we had to continue our discussion through text messaging - guess nothing beats the i-phone when it comes to that!

And the most ironic part was, this guy was calling me from his home in Hong Kong's Cyberport. The Cyber--freaking--port!

An i-phone in the Cyberport. I would be expecting one of the most crystal clear receptions.

Hmmm....wonder what service provider he's using?

Guess I better remember asking him when he returns to Earth!

Oh, man, this really made my day!

-AM