At the beginning of April, I bought a Nexus One smartphone from Google. It was prohibitively expensive. Since I use AT&T's wireless network and not T-Mobile, I was forced to buy it unsubsidized and without a contract, which cost more than $500. Needless to say, I do not plan on buying another phone for a long time.
Despite its high cost, I am satisfied with it and its role in my life. While I seem to have acquired a reputation of changing phones as quickly as most people change their socks, I am confident that my Nexus One is a phone that I can "settle down with." This has as much to do with the individual phones I have previously used as the specific attributes of the Nexus One. As a result, this is not a traditional review.
Late last month, when 2009 was rapidly ending, I decided that I wanted to compose a "best of 2009" essay ("Best Songs of 2009", "Best Albums of 2009", "Best People I Hung Out With in 2009", etc.) to celebrate the New Year. Eventually, I decided that the concept was somewhat arrogant. It might make sense if I was some media outlet with access to all of the music released this year (e.g. Pitchfork, the Onion AV Club, etc.). But as one solitary music-loving individual, ignored by major labels, indies, and bands feverishly making demo tapes, it is impossible to know what positively amazing music released in 2009 that I shall not hear until 2010 or 2011.
I only read about