Nokia 3390

I'm going to miss this phone dearly. It has served me well for close to 10 years. The terms of our parting is worth mentioning. The reason I had to get a new phone was not because this one stopped working, but it was because my wireless carrier (ATT, which bought out my original carrier Cingular) started charging outrageous rates for very limited usage. It was hard to turn down an offer from Sprint that was not only cheaper, but offered unlimited everything....(except for the whole phone tethering option, but I can live without that).

This phone has gone with me to hell and back and people have told me that they don't make phones this durable anymore. I have lived a pretty extreme lifestyle since the start of my college years when this phone started tagging along. I have had number skateboard wipeouts in which this phone took the blunt of the force due to where I clipped it on my belt. One fall was so hard that it shattered my belt clip and attaching mechanism on impact while the phone that was attached to the front of it was left unphased. Most of my wipeouts were due to tiny rocks on campus which caused me to fly off the skateboard, hitting the ground and sliding a few feet. After 4 1/2 years of skateboard abuse and drunk college parties in which it has fallen up to 10 stories, it only had minor scratches. One time during my junior year, I took it up 8600 feet to the peak of Mt. Baldy. As the rest of the hiking group was struggling for oxygen, the Snake game still ran fine. I actually fell and slid off the side of the mountain on the hike back down from the summit. My blood-covered left arm didn't look too good afterward but the phone still worked. The phone gained one or two small battle scars while I had gained a giant one on my arm. Sometimes I wished my body was made out of this space-aged stainless steel plastic that my phone has.

Post college years, it discovered the true meaning of "roaming". I started working on a nuclear powered submersible warship. It survived many trips to test depth, countless hours getting healthy doses of radiation, and it even had a chance to see the beautiful tropic paradise of Hawaii. Thankfully, it never really got too wet although I was sometimes tempted to drown it only to realize that the case is not even close to being waterproof. It's last epic journey occurred last year when it had a chance to experience the Extraterrestrial Highway in Rachel, NV. If our group had been abducted, I would have offered this phone in exchange for our freedom since it is a technological symbol of mankind's early 21st century.

It's a shame I never had a chance to take this phone up into space. Even though it wouldn't get any reception, I'd still turn it on to play some Snake. Now that NASA announced their cancellation of their manned-space program, I can't even put in an application for it. I can fly up with the Russians but my gut feelings tell me that it may not be such a bright idea.