Speakout Wireless from 7-Eleven

I'm writing this up in case someone googles for 7-eleven US service numbers; it's been a real pain to find this information myself.

When I was in NY, I planned on buying a SIM for my phone. A bit of research told me that the one I wanted for US prepaid minutes was 7-Eleven's "Speakout Wireless": 20 cents a minute, minutes don't expire for an entire year, 5 cent text messages, and if you bought $50 more airtime, the SIM (and a cheap Nokia phone) came free.

So, what happened? I stopped at the Henrietta NY 7-Eleven; bought my phone; turned it on after I left the store (yes, that was a mistake; I just wanted to get on the road again) and the phone said, "SIM Registration Failed."

On Friday and Saturday I spent a little while parked in the call queue for the service number reported on the airtime card, without getting through to anyone.

When I got back home, I called Nokia; they had me take out the SIM and blow on the phone's contacts; and wait a minute then put the SIM back in. When that didn't solve it, they told me to call 7-Eleven's service number. It took me a while yesterday to find the correct number, which was 888-832-8633, speakout dealer support. When I got a hold of a human being, she told me they will mail a new SIM within two weeks.

Whether that will work is anyone's guess.

Movie Review: Paprika

If you like magical realism; if you like anime; or if you like really chaotic movies, Paprika's one for you. The story follows a psychiatrist researcher using a new technology that allows her to enter the dreams of her clients. She's not authorized to do this, though; and when three of the "DC Mini" widgets are stolen, she, another pair of scientists, and a policeman who she's been treating must find the widgets before they are used for nefarious purposes. The story will alternately make more and less sense, and by the conclusion if you must have loose ends tied up, you may leave dissatisfied. On the other hand, if you are fond of kawaii and bubble gum japanese pop, you may leave very happy indeed.

This was directed by Satoshi Kon, who also did Millennium Actress. While I liked Millennium Actress, I liked this more- it has more energy, less stereotypical characters (?) and it's certainly less predictable.

I liked the somewhat ambiguous morality here. One of the themes is irresponsible, childish discovery for discovery's sake versus the proper ethical use of science; also science as redemption versus tradition as dead end.

It seems to me another theme is Western appropriation. It makes all of the movie-in-movie references Western; much of the schizophrenic dream-parade is "traditional" Japanese culture. Many of the main characters are drawn as Westerners, they slip into Western vocabulary surprisingly frequently, and the big tension near the beginning is between the Western-appearing researcher with the bubbly alter-ego and the traditionalist, respectable Director. I thought this was an interesting counter to all the old cyberpunk: William Gibson and Neil Stephenson set so many novels under the theme that technological Eastern Traditionalism/collectivism will subsume Western individualism/capitalism to set the people free.

In case you want more of a taste than the trailer, at least for now, somebody's got the whole thing on YouTube. Watch the first 9 minutes- if you liked that, you'll enjoy the rest.

"The mailbox and the refrigerator shall lead the way! And the 24-bit eggplant will be analyzed!" Er, yeah.