I’ve never been much of a “phone person”, in fact I find phones to be a disruptive nuisance.

A few weeks ago, I upgraded Therese’s iPhone to the 3g model so that we could consolidate to AT&T’s family plan – and so that I could inherit her year-old original generation iPhone.

It didn’t rollover without a hitch – AT&T switched off all Therese’s net services when adding mine, plus a few of my texts continued to somehow go to my old Verizon phone. Now that all the kinks are out, I think it’s very cool and convenient to have my email and Internet access in my pocket. Not to mention the ability to blog post from anywhere like this. I see why people love these things.

On the other hand, having “No Service” all day today in Troy, Michigan was infuriating.

Well, I called it. Maybe not in a blog post, but in the morning pow-wow with my posse at work I pronounced that someone was going to get killed at one of these Black Friday shopping riots.

I wish I had been wrong, but sadly Jdimytai Damoura – a temp worker – was trampled to death in a crush of bargain-hunters at a Wal-Mart in Long Island. For some detail and similar sentiment, check out Blog For Arizona.

I can understand waiting on line prior to a store’s opening. I did it for my son, for the Nintendo Wii. I walked away disappointed twice; both these small outings could have easily resulted in fisticuffs or violence against unsympathetic store employees. But to wait with a mob for a mad dash for an unspecified, probable savings? I don’t get it.

Are the profits worth endangering another life? Surely there will be one fantastic lawsuit on behalf of the family, if Wal-Mart doesn’t quietly settle to keep it out of the media.