and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

Okay, so I am in a quandry and the quandry is this:

I hate paying for phones yet, somehow, I need to use phones. And by phones I mean phone services.

Currently, I make whatever calls I please at work and it costs me nothing but the self-respect I lost when I took this job in the first place.

At home, I have a land-line which I share with two other roommates so at $13/month that is completely reasonable. Long distance calls made from there are through a pre-paid 1-800 access card sorta thing (OneSuite - check it out if you like the idea of 2.5 cents a minute and 1.9 cents to Canada! Use this link and you'll get 20 minutes free as well as giving me 20 minutes free for referring you).. unfortunately OneSuite is a U.S. only dealio so I'm facked in Montreal.

Thing is, I don't even make that many long distance calls at all.

May: 117
June: 176
July: 35.

No joke. I told you I hate phones. Plus, I am so important that people call me.

So.. I've been looking into things and it might be time for 'ol Michael to get his first cell phone. I won't be splitting the bill with anyone so a landline at $30+ won't be too much cheaper than a cellphone, it won't give me nearly the convience of a cell, and it doesn't solve any long distance issues. I've been a rapid anti-cellphone zealot for the longest time mostly due to the mis-use of cellphones rather than the cellphones themselves but I've always found them to be way overpriced as well.. but cell plans are starting to seem almost reasonable these days.

Fido has per-second billing, unlimited incoming local calls, 100 weekday minutes, and 1,000 weeknight/weekend minutes (7pm to 8am) for $25 right now. Ultimately that would be ~$35 with taxes and surcharges and what not but it's CDN currency. Throw in voice mail at $4 and 100 extra long distance minutes for $5 (includes calls to Canada or U.S.) and I'm up to ~$45...

That is sub-$35 U.S.. really quite reasonable.

Reasonable is relative. Relative to other options, sub-$35 is reasonable but relative to the bigger picture... $35 for a fucking phone?!?

I can lease a brand new civic for $159.00 per month!... and I get 1,000 miles with that, not 100 anytime miles!

I find it, relatively speaking, quite obnoxious that 1100 minutes of my time, 2.5% of my life per month, costs as much as traveling 220 miles in my brand new civic. I just don't see how the two match up in this world.. it's like they're from two different dimensions.

What I really want to do is use a VoIP company, a software-based phone, and my laptop. This would give me a landline(ish) option, a semi-portable option (I could use my laptop anywhere I could get internet - which would be pretty much anyone's house with broadband AND the entire McGill campus, since it has complete WiFi coverage).. and it would be cheap. Vonage is $19.95 (CDN) for 500 minutes to Canada or the U.S. and only 4.9 cents (CDN) a minute after that. They also have a softphone for Mac OS X. Since broadband internet is included in the price of my rent, can I beat that? I doubt it.

In addition to being able to make/receive calls while at school or at other people's houses I could also take the phone adapter/laptop with me when I return home to Maine for Xmas break and use my parents broadband. If I spend a few months in Maine over summer vacation I could STILL keep my phone number and use it with an internet connection there.

Maybe that is the option I will have to go with.

Well, okay.. what would beat that is if someone wrote a softphone for a PDA, or, even better - a WiFi cellphone. The cellphone could detect and connect to WiFi networks or could have a wire option (ethernet plug). Once it was online it could make and receive calls from-to regular phones. If it was not online than the service provider (vonage, what have you) would drop the calls to voicemail.

The other added bonus of the VoIP option is that you can check voicemails through email, www, or phone.

Okay, I've wasted too much time on this discussion already.