Busted!

OHMERGERD! It’s busted!

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Busted Moto

As you can see I had an unfortunate mishap with my phone. Arrrgh. Ironically, I had yet to get a single scratch, ding, or dent on it up until the fateful drop yesterday. I knocked it off the top of the Zipcar while unloading Costco. More astutely, I did a mad grab finger flip 3 or 4 times before it flipped, flew, and fell on the concrete cracking the screen and busting the camera as well.

Motorola appears to offer a warranty repair, which means I pay to have it fixed. They are shipping me a temporary replacement in the meantime. I finally find a phone I am happy with and I go and break it. *grumble grumble*

I guess it is good I didn’t sell the G4. I was gonna tough it out but the screen was barely usable. I had to connect it to Bluetooth keyboard just so I could clean off a few things. Points to Tmo for making the process to activate my old SIM super easy and quick It took literally just a few minutes.

Sadly, I find myself still hating the G4. [1]Please remind me to never ever buy a LG phone again. I had such a negative reaction when it came on I was a bit surprised. I don’t think I’ve ever been so annoyed by an Android variant before. The OEM version is just annoying. The only nice thing about the whole thing is the sense tap. Going back to it is such a contrast to the Moto X PE. The pure Android experience has spoiled me once again it seems.

Pray for my baby to be returned fast.

References

References
↑1 Please remind me to never ever buy a LG phone again.

Axiom

I used to have a scrolling marque on my blog that ran thru a list of my favorite quotes and phrases. Some were my own and others were ones I always found inspirational. I randomly discontinued it in my never ending tinkering with my blog themes. One of my favorite phrases is "what you think of me is really none of my business." It has become one of my daily axioms. I mention it because I often say many of said phrases in conversation.

Just such a conversation came up recently. I had chance as part of one of my training assignments to interact with a couple coworkers whom I’m not overly close to. I know them well enough but we just aren’t besties at work. We rarely spend much time talking beyond specific work duties. Anyway, through our conversations one coworker caught me saying my phrase above and really latched onto it. She found it to be very "deep", as she put it, and felt like it was a great mechanism to learn by. This led to more talks and how the struggles in my own life led me to the phrase. We shared several life stories and connected in a way we never had before. It very uplifting.

It is also why I never close myself off from such random chance moments. Beyond being Southern [1]being friendly to strangers is in our blood , I’ve always felt simple human interaction is the key to most of our societal woes. It is much harder to objectify and marginalize someone when you know them personally. You can’t just disassociate yourself from them and act as if it doesn’t affect you. Anyway, I digress. My coworker really liked the phrase and hopefully she applies it in her own life in constructive ways. It came up in such a way regarding one of her own views and I think hearing it really made her feel good.

On a side note, it was also a great reminder of how far I’ve come as a person. I probably harp too much on my personal growth but I’m damn proud of it. I used to be a mess! lolol Back then, I’d never have thought anyone would value my advice or opinions. I didn’t value them so how could others? I’ve discussed here several times how finding my inner confidence [2]the realization was quite the epiphany for me at the time changed me in so many small ways. I forget those changes can and do have ripple effects. They radiate out from me and change forever how I interact with others. These are often subtle cues but it is so profoundly gratifying to still recognize it in myself.

And now, another very popular phrase I’m fond of, "Hope springs eternal….."

References

References
↑1 being friendly to strangers is in our blood
↑2 the realization was quite the epiphany for me at the time

Best

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Sista's

One of my best friends was in town this past weekend for a much needed visit. It has been a while (years actually) since we’ve seen each other and it was great to see him. He got to meet Shawn and they both liked each other. As for the weekend, we didn’t do anything overly exciting. We did a few touristy things but mostly just hung out and caught up on our lives. It’s actually been almost 3 years since we’ve seen each other. We have a mutual third friend who wasn’t able to come but he was with us in spirit. (Plenty of spirits where had, I’m sure he was in one of them!)

Trev and I have always had an easy friendship. By easy I mean we could go years not seeing each other and when we do, it is like we just saw each other yesterday. We sat down, counted it out, and we’ve been friends now for 21 years. Twenty-one years! Friendships like that are hard to come by and I consider it a blessing in my life. In our talks, we looked back across the years of friendship at friends that are now absent. Some have passed on, some left on their own, and a very few we had to step away from, respectively. The latter is a very small number. All that are gone, for whatever reason, are not forgotten. We tried to focus on the good memories and laughed a lot.

We’ve both had big life events in the last couple years, but agreed we shouldn’t let that get in the way next time. We promised each other we wouldn’t go so long this time w/o seeing each other in person. It is a promise I plan to keep. I don’t even think I realized how much I missed him in my daily life.

Twelve

Well, here we are moving into year 12 of this here blog thingy.  Who woulda thunk it all those years ago when I started? Twelve years!

I’ve made many awesome friends along the way and said goodbye to a few as well. As I slowly pulled myself out of my immaturity and into adulthood, I got a chance to share my struggles with others. It was and still is my hope that others can gain insights from my struggles and be better for it.

I’m still at it . I went from answering questions of “What is a blog?“, to “OMG you have a blog too?“, to “You still blog?” and still at it. Hehehe I assumed it would be that way way back when. I kinda took to it right away and instantly expected to be doing it for years.

My favorite responses are often via Facebook when someone tells me they don’t read blogs but proceeds to go on and on about my Facebook post shared from my blog. I get on tickled. [1]It is the little things in life, ain’t it?  Anyway, moving into year 12 I hope to be a little more consistent. It seems life, laziness, and video games routinely interfere. I know, how rude?! 

I was looking back the other day and just sighed heavily with so many emotions. I didn’t think I’d ever find this point in my life. I never dreamed I’d find the contentment in my soul or the level of happiness I’ve achieved. It is still a bit much at times to accept it.

After so many struggles, so many battles, and so much angst, a boring daily life can be such an amazing blessing!  Here is to year 12!

References

References
↑1 It is the little things in life, ain’t it?

Loss

My fat ass is finally seeing some weight loss. Matrimonial bliss and 2 surgeries put me on the complacent path some time ago. I’m better at getting back to the gym on a regular basis but still don’t consider myself on a consistent schedule yet. [1]The struggle is real! It is good to see results of my efforts so far and I’m inspired to keep at it.

I’m down about 15 lbs to 202. I could actually put on my "regular" jeans yesterday for the first time in months. To be fair, I could still wear them before but they looked like they were sprayed on body paint. And the idea of camel toe for guys was a major concern. heehee Yesterday, they were snug for sure but looked pretty normal.

I hate feeling out of shape but the complacency has been strong. Video games and erratic schedules makes for a lot of impromptu (read ‘not very healthy’) meals as well. The combo of bad eating and no gym has made for a fat Moby. I can clearly relate to how often you see straight guys get married and then blow up in size. It’s so damn easy.

It doesn’t help that our society focuses on convenience over health in our diet. But that is only an excuse so no need to go down that path. Hope springs eternal….

References

References
↑1 The struggle is real!

Moto

I recently purchased the mid-range Moto X Pure Edition and I’m absolutely loving it so far. I know your shocked that I got a ‘non-premium phone‘ but it is true. I’ve been so frustrated with this years premium offerings I didn’t really have a choice. **If you don’t want the long drawn out version, you can skip to the last 3 paragraphs.**

It all started with my upgrade from the S3 to the S4. I loved the S4. The battery was immensely better along with a faster chip, better screen, and all around it was a decent phone. Life was good. Then Tmo comes along with their Jump! plan. And while not a necessity, I tend to like the emerging tech phones. I’m a geek, its in my blood. I’m definitely in the ‘heavy user‘ category and require a phone with a strong battery. Since few ever meet both requirements, it made it easier to change devices often. Said freedom might have been a slight downside as you read on.

After more than 6 months I made the ‘jump’ to the S5 and was sorely disappointed. [1]I seem to remember an unfortunate incident with my S4 and the back tire of my motorcycle necessitating an upgrade anyway The battery life went down and not much else improved. Sure on paper it had a nicer screen but in reality it looked and felt the same. Plus, Sammy in their greed started diverging away from traditional Android for their home-brewed version, Tizen or some shit. It sucked. But I was able to root it and get rid of a lot of the bloat. I stuck out my 6 months but was chomping at the bit to switch. I’d heard rave reviews about the HTC M8 and gave it a whirl. I didn’t even last the full 14 days before returning it. Beautiful phone, great camera but dreadful battery life. I gladly forked over the restock fee to get rid of it.

I heme’d and hawed until I settled on the Sony Z3. For all my bitching about Sony’s lousy customer support, the Z3 was an absolute dream. I wasn’t a fan of the square edges but it was excellent. I could use it all day and it still had battery when I plugged it in to go to bed. It has become the benchmark for battery on all my future phones. Sadly, after unfortunate drop from a vehicle while in LA, I was forced to jump again. It is no secret I’m hard on my toys and luckily enough, I was 1 day over my 6 months. Jump! lolol The Z4 was still a distant release candidate and had virtually no real upgrades other than the name and knowing Tmo was ditching any future OS upgrades for the Z3, I switched back to Sammy and the S6.

As you probably know the S6 was getting high marks for finally being a beautiful phone. And it’s true. It is a beautiful phone. Imagine my total surprise to see the battery life went down even more. I’d say it was on par with the S3, which was dreadful. I could barely muster 4 hours of heavy use out of it. An absolute failure IMO for any smartphone today with a premium label. I think I’ve given up on the S-line. Needless to say, I didn’t even last the full 14 days again.

Against my nagging instincts, I jumped to the Lg G4. Something told me not to get it but I couldn’t remember anything specific so I got it. It had a noticeably better battery life right off the bat. And by ‘noticeably’, I meant I went from awful to mediocre. But having exhausted all my jumps, I resigned myself to stick it out. It was not to be though. I quickly grew to hate the damn thing. The device overall worked fine; however it was ugly and annoying. Lots of little things just bugged the ever lasting shit out of me and I couldn’t stick it out 6 full months. (Oh the first world drama, right?)

At the annoyance of my bank account, I broke away from going thru Tmo and got the Moto X Pure Edition direct from Motorola. I had misgivings after witnessing Lenovo brutalize IBM’s laptop business after taking it over. I was concerned they’d do the same to Motorola. Surprisingly, my fears were once again unfounded. I love the X Pure. It may not be a premium handset but it sure acts like one. True to their statement, it came with almost pure Android. You’d think it was a Nexus device if you didn’t know better. There is very little bloat, and I mean very little! If you’ve ever gone from a Nexus to an OEM version or vice versa, you understand the description here. No fancy launcher, no gimmicky overlays *cough – touchwhiz*. Just Android. That also means only a small handful of apps running in the background constantly zapping your battery.

Since you aren’t going thru a carrier, you get a little extra say in small aesthetics when ordering online. Normally, I scoff at such things but I have to admit, I like my personal twist of colors. You can choose colors for the back plate, the back insert, and two little front accents meant to protect the screen from scratching when you lay it face down. The battery is not up to par with the Z3 but it performs quite well under moderate to heavy use. I’m pleased and can live with it. If you use an idle throttle app, like Juice Defender, you’ll probably get way more battery as the cell radio seems to run a lot unnecessarily. It doesn’t offer wireless charging, but it really does charge super fast! Almost 50% in just under 15 minutes. The camera is pretty good and definitely the fastest focus I’ve experienced on a phone. Low light photos are slightly above decent but not awesome. Beyond that, it is a solid camera, front and back. NFC, Bluetooth, and Wireless all work fine.

It’s funny because I caught myself smiling as I took it out of the box. Setting it up was super simple and all my annoyances with the G4 melted away. I absolutely love the Moto X Pure.

References

References
↑1 I seem to remember an unfortunate incident with my S4 and the back tire of my motorcycle necessitating an upgrade anyway

Follow

I got into a rather odd conversation with a casual friend on social media the other day. Apparently, he was ‘disappointed’, as he put it, that I had yet to accept his friend request on ‘site C’. He follows me already on Site A, B & D, but somehow my not accepting him on site C was somehow an imaginary slight. In the end, he seems to have “unfollowed” me on said sites. I’m devastated. /sarcasm

I’ll be honest here, I don’t get this sort of behavior. Even if you are a good friend I know in person, I may not follow you on every site that we might mutually be on. I use different social outlets in different ways. Sometimes our interests may overlap enough that I follow someone on multiple sites. Sometimes they don’t and I won’t. That is pretty much the end of my reasoning. The implication I got was that he felt since we were ‘friends’ I had an obligation to follow him? It seems a bit odd to me to base a ‘friendship’ on whether we follow each other online everywhere.

Now this particular person and I have never met in person. Granted, that wouldn’t be an immediate reason either way. I stalk follow several people I’ve never met daily. Heehee But, I also don’t feel any obligation to follow people I know on every site I’m on. Actually, if I know you in real life, I feel like I’m obligated even less.

Is this a thing? Is there something that has developed as some bizarre unwritten rule? I’ll be breaking it if it is but I’m just checking.

*
And on a related tangent but not the same person, if you block me [1]and we know each other in the biblical sense because we have differences in political views, be sure to block me again when you get kicked off of Facebook and create a new profile whining about getting kicked off for posting nudie pics. It saves us both the awkwardness of being recommended in the “People who may now” section…

References

References
↑1 and we know each other in the biblical sense

A/C

Speaking of hot weather, we broke down and bought a standing A/C unit for little Cooper. Shawn found one we liked on Woot of all places. It arrived while we were down in PHX.  Cooper tolerates random warm days, but when the days stack together w/no breaks he struggles. Bullies can develop severe respiratory distress if they pant too long. Anyway, I didn’t want a full a/c as much as something to break the heat in the apt. The standing unit fit the bill nicely. It will knock the temp down about 8-10 degrees, which is just enough. It would probably work a little better if we had better seals around the venting window, but since it is meant to be temporary it doesn’t make sense to try to seal it tighter.

Cooper has figured out if he lays in front of it, he feels better. Shawn pulled his bed in front of it one day while it was on and Cooper took to it right away. The next time I turned it on he ran over and plopped down right in front of it. hehehe  Bullies aren’t the smartest but they do tend to have long memories. So it is working out perfectly so far. Cooper seems to like it and I don’t stress when I’m at work. Sadly, the one we bought is not IFTTT compliant so I can’t set it to come on based on temp settings. While it will switch from fan to a/c based on temperature, it won’t just come on that way. However, it has a on/off timer so it still works out. I slightly later work hours so I turn it on when I leave and set it to shut off right about the time the roomie or Shawn gets home.

If it is a wee bit noisy but you’d expect noise from an a/c unit. You do get used to it. It sort of blends in with the background noise after awhile. If you are in the market for one, I can recommend they do a good job for small to medium size rooms. However, they are not a replacement for a full window unit. You won’t be cooling multiple room with these things.

Late

After my last post, I realized I forgot to post about the trip to Phoenix. Oops. hehe

It was hot! Ok, all done.  j/k

Yeah, it was hot but at least they have A/C. You basically go from a/c to a/c to pool to a/c. Tangent/ We had thought of taking Cooper with us but it was so hot I know we’d had to leave him in the empty condo most of the time anyway. I don’t think he would have done well at all. /tangent  The nights weren’t that bad actually. Oh, it was still hot but it was easier to handle and there was usually a light breeze blowing. I was totally bummed I missed the big haboob that hit right after we left. Well it was a thunderstorm that caused a haboob. Either way, I was not amused to have missed it. I love me some violent thunderstorms.

Pool parties are the big thing in PHX apparently. It sure as hell isn’t the bars. For such a large city, the gay bars are reminiscent of a small town. I’ve been down with Shawn several times now and each time we’ve checked out different bars. Most were a disappointment. Several seemed to have potential but it just seems like not as many folks go out. No the pool parties on the other hand are the shit. We squeezed in several and they range from intimate gatherings of 6-10 people to mega shindigs in the 100s.  If you have a pool, you tend to be popular.

Anway, the trip was part work, part fun.  We were actually worried we’d be bored alot. We managed to fill a lot of the time with things to do and only got on each others nerves a couple times. Shawn’s dad came down to help us do work on the condo. Shawn has decided to sell it and it needs a little work to tidy it up for sale. No single major project but lots of little ones. Shawn’s dad was such a trooper and helped us quite a bit. I’m always envious of their relationship. It was something I never had with my dad. Seeing his dad miss and help him so much was very heart-warming. Sadly, we only got about 1/3 of the projects done. hehehe.

We spent a lot of time in the car, which was my only real complaint. Part of my love for SF is you rarely need a car. In Phoenix a car is a must. Everything pretty much requires a trip in the car. Breakfast? Car. Starbucks? Car. Dinner? Car. Pool party? Car. You get the drift. I think a lot of places are still like that so I’m not picking on poor Phoenix. It was jus very noticeable since we spent a whole week this time.

Everyone kept saying we picked the worst time to visit and that the weather is so much nicer in the fall/winter months. We are going back over the Xmas/NYE break so I’ll get a chance to verify said ‘better weather’. heehee

Of course, the last couple weeks here have been on and off heat waves. Nineties in the city several days in a row!

Work

There has been some major drama at work lately. While I was gone on the PHX trip, 3 of our union chapter officers resigned. There are only 5 positions. (I leave for a week and all hell breaks loose apparently. Oy!)

Frankly, the whole mess was completely counter-productive to our goals. It has already set us back on several ongoing critical negotiations w/management. While I won’t be fleshing out the details, the point is I got drafted to be the acting chief steward again. If you read with any frequency, you’ll remember I chose not to run in the last election. After 12 years, I needed a break. And the break has been nice. I show up to work with no cares. [1]I realize the irony in thinking just handling life/death calls is less stressful than my Union duties. I only have to be responsible for myself and I’ve loved it. But, we have to have a functioning chapter. If we don’t, we give up a lot. It is my hope that more folks will step up for the interim elections for the 3 positions vacated.

One of my continuing frustrations from within is the lack of support. Many employees think because they pay dues that absolves them from any involvement. WRONG! A union is only as strong as it’s members. Members that work together toward common goals are capable of changing just about anything. Sadly, it just isn’t that case in my department. There is a lot of infighting and conspiracies. It borders on high-school to be honest.

I think part of the problem is the chapter doesn’t communicate well to its members. We put out meeting notes from one of our monthly meetings from management but that is just a snapshot. There is so much more going on behind the scenes. The antics aside, it is human nature to fill in details with guesswork when we don’t understand. I get it. People need to know what is going on.

I’m left with the choice of stepping down again after the interim election in a couple months or stepping up for a bigger position. I have time to think it over. Part of me wants to go back to being just a member. No worries, no cares, just work and go home. I did my time and then some. It is somebody else’s turn. Then the other part of me sees the big picture and really wants to step up to see if I can really make a difference. I have no idea what I’m going to do. Maybe someone else strong will run and I won’t have to. Yeah yeah, that’s it. I’m totally sure that will happen.

References

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↑1 I realize the irony in thinking just handling life/death calls is less stressful than my Union duties.