I Got A Rock...

Man...

The (Verizon) Casio G'zOne "ROCK."

The (Verizon) Casio G'zOne "ROCK."

The features I happen to like:

Mil-Spec on shock and vibration resistance, water and dust resistance, immersion in water, exposure to salt fog and extremes of altitude, high and low temperatures and solar radiation.

Bluetooth compatible
Camera
Music/MP3 Player
Removable Memory / Micro SD Card
Speakerphone w/ dedicated speakerphone key
Mil-Spec requirements for exposure to the elements and abuse
Emergency Flashlight
Earth Compass
Walking (Pace) Counter
Thermometer
Tides
Sunrise and Sunset
Astro Calendar
Speech recognition w/dedicated voice dial key & Voice commands
Alarm clock
calculator
calendar
stop watch
Phonebook / 500 entries with multiple contacts
Battery and Data/Charging Port Covers have gaskets!

The Casio ROCK is a clamshell/flip phone that also has Push To Talk (PTT) capability...which I have absolutely no desire to have!

Interesting though, Casio is a cool company and they did something really neat with that PTT button if you do not have the PTT service on the phone. Most companies would just have that button there, doing nothing. Casio did it right, you can assign that red PTT button as a hot key to some other feature on the phone of your choice. This is wonderful as I have the MP3 Player on tap via this red hot key so the Black Sabbath is only a touch away.

Being a clamshell/flip phone/communicator, this one has a neat switchblade feature. There is a coil spring in the internal area of the hinge and when you push a silver button on the side of the hinge, VOILA! it opens right up for you!

It can also be opened manually in typical drone mode.

Another hot key on the bottom of the phone is for all of the Casio G'zOne G'zGear features such as the Earth Compass and Thermometer, etc.

I am quite pleased with it so far. It is my first departure from Motorola. My first phone was a Motorola E815 and then after two years I "upgraded" to a Motorola Razor...some would say that was a step down...even though I have stepped away from the Razor, I still cannot decide if I ever really liked that phone.

This Casio Rock Thing? Yes...it is to be enjoyed...so far.

The MP3 Player, playing it with the speakerphone on is actually a cool little device!

Survival Kit Contents from Salvaged Aircraft

A friend of mine works for an aircraft salvage company. He was kind enough to send me a few items that were still in good condition in an otherwise ruined survival kit from an aeroplane.

The compass is an all-but-exact copy of a Brunton Trailbuster compass.

The whistle is very flat and suitably annoying to be acceptable as a survival whistle.

The snare wire is quite stiff. It's as stiff as steel but appears to be anodized aluminum...

The pencil is...well, it's a pencil!

A small instruction sheet for the compass and a decent little pamphlet of survival instructions and "mirror" inserts in the center of the book that appear to be Mylar, used as an improvised signal mirror.

The cord on the whistle appears to be quite tough and could serve other purposes.

The pocketknife is quite a find! It's basically a small version of the classic "Hobo" Knife. Folding Hobo Knives are generally quite large, this one is a great little pocketknife made by Colonial.

Knife blade, can opener, fork and spoon, great little knife! Not quite the quality of Victorinox...

New Survival Food - Emergency Ration Bar

They taste pretty good, too! Very Earthy and wholesome tasting. Here is The Bible Bar next to a full-size MetRx Bar, Blueberry Crisp Clif Bar and a package of Raspberry Gel Blasts from PowerBar...just for size comparison.