Pierce Transit is a fucked up clustermuck

This just happened a half hour ago. So I get to the Parkland Transit Center. I see a bus in the 410 bay about the time the 410 is about to leave, but it's sign is out. So I assume that it's a 410, like a reasonable person would, and the driver doesn't say anything otherwise about it being another route. The bus pulls out, and it turns turns out that it's the 204, which goes in the opposite direction. And, of course, the driver has nothing but excuses about the bus not being able to start and/or his sign not working. But that doesn't answer the question about why shit-for-brains parked in the wrong bay to begin with. Needless to say, I'm not going to get to where I'm going on time, and I'm not happy. But this is Pierce Transit we're talking about. They're more about maximizing revenue, while minimizing service...

I know that calling it in won't do any good, and supervisors will just ignore it; so I'll just remember this the next time I see a ballot measure for Pierce Transit.

And I give a special regard to Lynn Griffith, the CEO of Pierce Transit: you're an incompetent jackass.

What a difference a year can make...

A year ago, I posted that Tavaris Jackson should be cut, and I made some smartass comment about sacrificing Tim Tebow. Fast forward to today, abd Tim Tebow is cut, and Jackson is still a Seahawk...

Them 'hawks went 4-0 this year in preseason, and I think they'll make the playoffs again. After all, we did it last year. With a rookie quarterback.

The Sounders FC have also had their best August in club history. It's nice to have a professional sports team the great northwest that can post a winning record in the summer. Unlike a certain other team (The New World Order (Mind-Control Division) confess to mind...

On the Zimmerman verdict

So the verdict came in yesterday. Not Guilty. To be honest, I don't agree with it. He called 911, and was told to confront him, but he did. Abd an innocent life was taken. Yes, I think George Zimmerman is guilty. But I want on the jury. I didn't see all the evidence. And he got his due process of law. So ready the only course of action is to accept the verdict and move on.

The legal system is flawed, but in the long run, I would rather see the occasional guilty person go free rather than one innocent person go to prison.... The system is flawed, but it's still the best one available.

On the use of the n-word...

Much ado has been made in the headlines about Paula Deen getting shit-canned by the Food Network for using the n-word. Here are my two bits:

One upon a time, it may have been acceptable to use the n-word. Then again, it was also acceptable to publicly burn people alive just because somebody decided that they might be a witch...

But times and society have changed. We no longer have public Autos da Fe in the town square. And slavery is no longer practiced. The n-word is no longer an acceptable weird to use. Period. It might have been okay when you were growing up to use it, but not anymore. I think what has happened here is a failure to adapt. Now if she did happen to use it back on a time when it was politically ok to use it & and she hasn't used it since, then I can be ok with that (people can change). However, at age 66, she had spent most of her adult life in the civil rights era, and should've known better. As harsh as it may sound, I would've shit-canned Paula Deen as well.

Once upon a time in some parts of the country, you could be denied fundamental civil rights just on the color of your skin. And to this day, there are people who would still do so. I've seen out both ways. I've been called the n-word myself (and I'm a stereotypical white guy...), and I've seen people play the race card just because things weren't going there way, or they were caught red-handed. But I try to be colorblind in my speech. I try to avoid even mentioning one's race (to paraphrase Martin Luther King, it should be about the content of one's character, not one's skin color).

No one should use the n-word. Ever. It doesn't matter who you are, how you were brought up, or what color your skin is.

All Hail Our New Overlords!

Of late there has been a new UFO sighed in the western Washington sky of late. It has been very bright, enough to make me want to open the window and install the Wally World air conditioning (cheap window fan). It has been bright enough that I've had to pull out the 'shades on my walk to the bus stop. I've heard some conspiracy nuts say that this mysterious object is called the 'sun' but I know better. This so-called Sun is nothing more than an internet fueled rumor. In Washington state, we're more likely to be invaded by extraterrestrials than to have sunny weather.

And I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords....

Bought something online the other day...

When  I've purchased paid apps for my phone or tablet, in the pay I've always bought them through Spamazon, mainly because when I flashed a new ROM, they'd be available to reinstall without any fuss. Last Saturday, I noticed that the Swype keyboard was out of beta, and available at the Google Play store for only 99 cents. I had been using the public beta on both my phone and my tablet (yes it can pre-installed on my EVO 3D, but there were more features on the beta), abd I was sufficiently impressed with it to buy it. But it was only available on Google Play for now. So I figured what the hell, I put my credit card in (ordering it from my computer) abd it was pushed to both my devices.

And I'm impressed. Especially on the tablet (it will work on both the phone and the tablet). It is now my default keyboard. I highly recommend that you buy it....

So I’ve made some purchases the past few weeks…

It started with my tablet (read about it here). I was originally on the Wally World website to get socks and boxers, and I just had to get it (an a 32 gb memory card, the real reason why I updated my tablet being I was running out of the 8gb memory). So I told my co-workers I spent $300.00 on socks and boxers. Anyway I was at Spamazon, and I realized that my tower was a socket 775 motherboard (I learned this a couple of years ago right when I bought my first laptop, and I knew how to change the processor (if you can take the processor out to clean off excess thermal paste, then you can probably replace it). So I searched, and I found a used Intel Core 2 Quad-Core to replace my Pentium 4. And I upgraded the video card, too (still the budget end, but it’s a definite improvement over what I was running).

WIth the upgraded tower and my new tablet, I’m thinking about selling my laptop. It still runs well, but I feel it’s now redundant. I can’t take it to work, as it’s a 17.3” display, and I just don’t have enough space in my locker. I’ve had a couple of people express interest, but if this goes like all my other attempts to sell my electronics, I’m probably just going to end up giving it away.

Technorati Tags: Spamazon,Wally World

A new toy (or hello world)

I had a Kindle Fire. My brother gave it to me. It has served me faithfully, but from the point of view of a tablet, it sucks. It does kindle ebooks pretty well, and you can Netflix on it, too. But beyond that, you're going to have issues.  So I was was at the Wally World website last week too buy socks and underwear, said I ended up buying a Samsung Galaxy Tab II 7.0. What can I say? It has Jellybean (the Kindle has Gingerbread), 2 cameras, GPS, and a slot for a memory card. And it has the Google Play store on it (I had to root the kindle to get that installed), as well as the Amazon appstore & kindle app (and I didn't need to root it to get them installed either).

Rooting it was very difficult, but I got it rooted somehow. I'm right now not interested in running a custom rom on this device (which is good, as I could never get a recovery installed). Unlike all the other android devices I used, the /data directory is sized dynamically, so I can use the full 4 gB to install my apps without having to use a 2nd partition on my memory card (which I do for my phone). The email client is the same as my phone (in fact I like the email on the tablet better than the phone because of the bigger screen size...). Netflix is a piece of cake (I was watching little bit of Star Trek last night).

App-wise, it runs more apps than the kindle fire. If I have any regrets about the galaxy, it's that the paid apps that I bought for my kindle aren't compatible with this. But then again, I've more apps available from both Google Play and the Amazon Appstore, so there's a lot more versatility.

All in all, I heartily endorse this product. Please go out and buy this. And unlike the iPad mini, you can still keep your man card while using this...

Edit: good tech doesn't need to go waste. My kindle fire will find a new home with my father ...

One Ring to…

Give to Ray Lewis, and tell him not to let the door hit him on the way out. The Ravens won the Super Bowl, and I can think of no better way to go out than on top. A while back the Cardinals won the World Series, and right after that, Tony LaRussa hung up his mitre.

On a not so related story, I think the name ‘Redskin’ is racist. So I will no longer refer to the Washington Redskins as the Washington Redskins. From henceforth, they shall be referred to in this blog as the Washington Colin Mochrie. It’s far more politically correct to make fun of a bald Canadian improv player than it is to use a pejorative term towards Native Americans.

;

And you wonder why I picked him…

I never knew this....

Apparently, yesterday Jim Nabors married his partner. I never knew he was 'out' until now. Well, I think it's great that Gomer Pyle knows the difference between teal and fuchsia as well as Marine issue od green....

Of choose this is yet another example of how I have absolutely zero functioning gaydar. And to be honest, I really don't care either, aside from wishing Jim and his partner the best...

It’s been a week or so

Since we’ve had NHL Hockey back. Personally I’m of the opinion that if the NHL cancelled the entire season like it did in 04-05, it wouldn’t have recovered. The players would’ve found work elsewhere (there are professional leagues in Europe). And the fans would’ve moved on to other sports, like The New World Order (Mind-Control Division). In the end, the NHL would’ve only hurt itself. But cooler heads prevailed, and they got back to the rink.

In a semi related story, the Sonics might be coming back. Oklahoma City poached the Sonics, and it looks like we’re going to poach the Sacramento Kings. Finally, Seattle will once again have year-round professional sports. Though, to be honest I usually end up watching whatever is on Fox Soccer Channel. The one sport that I want to see more of is Cricket. My previous employer was from India, and apparently cricket is to India and NASCAR is to Charlotte….

Yes, i know it's been a while...

I'm at home right now. I could've blotted about so much the past three months, but I stayed silent. There was a reason. Here's the story:

Throughout the last year, I had on occasion noticed that the time sheets at were being edited. And sometimes it was mine that were being changed, usually to knock 15 minutes off. I didn't question it at the time, until the day after labor day when my coworker mentioned that the owner did that whenever we weren't doing our jobs. He never told me what I was doing wrong, or that I was even in error.

So the next day, I asked him about it and he confirmed it. Problem is that it's illegal to alter the time card if an employee has worked the entire shift. I pointed that out, and was promptly pink slipped, told that I would no longer be needed after the holidays. So I started job searching immediately. In November I just stopped posting here. Throughout this time, I held my peace, trying to amicably resolve my differences wig my boss. He still insisted that I was gone. So in December, I formally requested a copy of my time card from both stores that I worked at during the past year, and I indicated that Washington State Department of Labor and Industries would be hearing about this. That got my back pay in question returned, but I was still gone.

So fast forward to New Year's, and I'm now unemployed right when most retailers are dumping there holiday temps. I put a resume on monster, registered with snagajob, started trolling Craigslist. In Washington, when you register for unemployment, you have to be actively searching for a job (the minimum is 3 employer contacts a week). I was dropping about 8 to 10 a week. I saw an ad for an opportunity up near the other store, and so I went up there to inquire about it, and saw a former coworker. We discussed my job search for a bit, and then I left. Owner's wife saw me leave, and asked about what I was discussing with coworker. I got on he bus to go apply at this job (before deciding to pass, as I had also gotten a call for an interview closer to home). While on the bus, the owner called wanting to know what I had said. I told him basically that I no longer work for him, and he can go felate himself. The resulting text from him said I was now persona non grata at his stores. His company was 2 franchises. So I fired up Facebook, and I told them the truth. One of the companies hasn't responded back, so I'm going to folllow up with them. The other one took a week and half to respond, but the shit has hit the fan with the other. They said that it's between him and me (basically lawyer up), but they're doing there own investigation because apparently breaking the law is breaking the franchise agreement....

While all that was going on, I was applied at another retailer and scheduled an interview right away. The morning of that interview, I got another phone call from another application wanting to interview over the phone. So I had a job interview while not wearing pants. Went to the first interview, and got the standard rejection line, and he rejection email to my phone before i had even left the building. Next day, second company called, wanting me to come in for an in person interview (this time with pants on). From that interview, I was sent out for a drug test. That usually means you got the job....

As for the circumstances leading to my original dismissal, I'm reporting them. First to corporate, then to the Labor department. What happened there was illegal, and I was retaliated against for complaining about it....

So there's the story. Hopefully I have a job now. And for the purposes of this blog, all that I will say about where I work is that I'm employed. Nothing else....

For the first time. Ever.

The Seattle Sounders FC have gone past the first round of the MLS playoffs… Sorry, Real Salt Lake, but the LA Galaxy seriously need a Tom Brady Well-Deserved Beating (at least somebody needs to beat the sock out of David Beckham’s shorts…), and it’s going to come in Rave Green….

Hail to the chief, 2012 edition….

If you haven’t noticed it yet, Barack Obama won another term. And unlike 2000 he did it without having to carry Florida (as of right now, Florida is still counting). Some people are rejoicing, some are in mourning, but the most have accepted it and are moving on. I’m encouraged by the fact that there are now calls from both sides of the aisle to compromise. This election was very close, and that indicates that America doesn’t need just one party’s idealogy, or the other party’s. America needs unity. We need to cooperate. When Obama leaves office in 2017, both democrats and republicans will have had equal time in the White House since 1961. If your party/candidate doesn’t have the White House/Capitol Hill today, don’t be discouraged. It will average out in the long run.

And Donald Trump is a right-wing birther nutjob. And it wouldn’t surprise me if he got some extra attention from law enforcement (namely, the Secret Service) for some of his tweets….

So I bought some music…..

Many years ago, I saw this video (I can’t even remember where. Could’ve been MTV, VH1, or PBS…). And very recently, I remembered it, and searched youtube for it. I like it so much I bought it from Spamazon. I don’t have an iPod (I like my Man-Card), and digital music from Soamazon isn’t drm’ed, so I can back it up locally, and copy it to my phone. BTW, this isn’t the first time I’ve bought music:

Ok, so I’m not getting rid of my tower

Apparently, only Flight Simulator 2004 and Flight Simulator X will play well in WIndows 7 64-bit (what my laptop runs). My tower normally runs Windows XP 32-bit, and everything runs fine in it, so I had to put it back together today. Which means I need to buy another SATA hard drive for my usb hard drive enclosure (which is really good for sneaker-netting backups)….'

In a moment of wrath late last night, I also wiped my laptop, so today, I was ‘moving in” into two different systems today (this post is being written from the laptop). This is a serious pain in the arse right now, but in the end printing will be easier, since I keep the printer on the tower, and I can network it (it’s a lot easier for me to turn the tower on and print through the lan than to fight the printer cable and plug it in…).

On a more political note, I noticed the address was off on my absentee ballot (to be precise, my apartment number was one letter off). Since last Monday was the last to register to vote in person at the county auditor’s office, I called to make sure, and I was told not to worry, my vote would still count. She even made a specific note about the address, and confirmed my correct address (which surprisingly was correctly listed on my voter registration card). So, I dropped my ballot off (there’s a drop box at the library), and they picked up my ballot last Wednesday. So you can stop campaigning now….

Goodbye, tower....

I was in Worst Buy today. I ended up buying a hard drive enclosure. So, I've pulled my terabyte hard drive from my tower, and I'm going to use it as a USB drive for my laptop. I spent the past couple of weeks trying thing out with the tower, but in the end, my laptop is faster and it's capable of doing anything my tower did (except for the two monitors & and the Tv tuner). I really don't need to crt monitors, and they now have USB Tv tuners (to be purchased later).

So, as I've already mentioned, my p4 tower has been retired. I'll give it one last wipe and reinstall WinXP. I've already found a home for it, and maybe I'll get paid for it…

That time of the year (or my positions on the issues)

Absentee ballot came in the mail today. Some of the issues involve a lot of controversy. Here’s my positions:

• Initiative 1185: Voted against it on principal for being a Tim Eyman initiative. He’s put similar measures on the ballot before, and they’ve all been defeated by the court. Tim Eyman is a dumbass. You can’t change the state constitution via the initiative process….
• Referendum 74: Voted for it. Mainly the opposition to this comes from the religious right. Religious doctrine ought not to have the force of law. And besides, from what I’ve seen same-sex couples are more faithful to their spouses than their foes are (think Newt Gingrich, anyone?)
• Initiative 502: Voted against  it. Marijuana reform should first take place on the federal level, where it’s still a crime. Once that takes place, then we can revisit it….
• Joint resolution 8223: Rejected. Public funds don’t belong in the stock market. I pay my taxes to fund them, and I don’t really feel like paying them again to recoup somebody’s losses on the the market. Aren’t we in the middle of a recession now because of somebodys’ irresponsibility in the market?
• Advisory votes 1 and 2: Voted for them. Neither of these would change the law either way. We voted the legislators in to office, with the implication of trust that they would know how to pass laws for the state. I prefer to let the do their job, and if I’m not satisfied with them, then that’s why we vote for their opponents in the next election….
• Pierce Transit Proposition 1: I voted against it. People would think that I would vote for it, beings as how I take the bus everywhere, but I’ve had my issues with Pierce Transit. And Pierce Transit has explicitly told me to go pound salt. If you’re going to cop an attitude with me then you don’t need a tax increase….

And now some of the candidates:

• President: I voted for Barack Obama. He is the best qualified to lead the nation. Most of the economic problems he’s had to deal with he inherited from Dubya…. Mitt Romney just isn’t qualified to be president (and I’m concerned because he isn’t releasing his tax returns….).
• Senator: Maria Cantwell. She’s been senator since 2000, and she’s pretty good. No major scandals. Let’s keep it that way.
• Congress: Denny Heck. As a result of the last census, the state gained another congressman, and I’m in the new district that was created.
• Governor: Jay Inslee. I’m not thrilled with Rob McKenna as AG, and I don’t want him as governor…
• State Attorney General: Abstain. All I’ve seen from the candidates is them smearing each other, and negative advertising. I will not condone a negative campaign with my vote.
• Superintendent of Public Instruction: It’s Randy Dorn Time! Yes, he did a DUI, but he also admitted his responsibility.
• Insurance Commissioner: Mike Kreidler. An elected official who had deomstrated that he has a pair.

These aren’t all the issues I voted on this year, and they may not even be the most important. But my voice will be heard…..

This time of year, it doesn’t really matter how you lean pollitcally. What matters is that you vote….

Hello world, for yet another time.

My brother had a kindle. Then he upgraded to a kindle fire. And so he gave me his kindle. Which I used to download and read Aesop's Fables. And then it went into my drawer. He decided he wanted his kindle back (he said it was lighter). And so we traded. I tried to root it, but there were some issues with the adb drivers (namely I thought I downloaded them, when I didn't). But after unbricking it, I now have a kindle fire. And I'm impressed.

This won't be an ipad killer by any shot, but I have kindle on it (obviously), and have the overdrive media console. So I can read all my books on it (even from the library). Ive also got netflix on it, so I can catch a flick if I can get wi-fi. It's not going to replace my phone but it'll come in handy when I don't want to pull the laptop out.

They’ve choked it!

Ok, you get a fortuitous first and goal thanks to a near goal line apss interference call. Then you get a referee’s blunder in your favor, and you get a fourth time-out. And what do you do? You throw four incomplete passes in a row! But, it’s only the first game of the season, and a rookie quarterback. Just don’t fail me again, or I shall have to be complelled to call for you to be telekinetically strangled…

But on the bright side, Seattle’s other football team is doing pretty well, beating Chivas USA 2-1…

They're at4-0 now...

And now it counts. They shit-canned TO (imo they should've never signed him to begin with. They got rid of T-Jack, reading him to another team where he can warm the benches with pride.

And now it starts for real. The 'Hawks first opponent will be the Cardinals. They may be a good opponent, provided they wear their helmets and not their mitres...

To the Moon! And Beyond!

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE87O0B020120825?irpc=932

Neil Armstrong has passed away. He was an inspiration, even though his ground breaking trip happened before I was born. I may not have grown up to be an astronaut, but I could still dream...

3-0

So the Seahawks are 3-0 in the preseason. It looks good. But then again, 5 years ago, the Detroit Lions went 4-0 in the preseason, and then they went 0-17... But I'm impressed with our second stringers. I think the best football in the preseason comes from these people. The starters have there employment lined up fur the season, but these are people looking for work, and they're leaving it all on the field. And the fact they're administering a Tom Brady Well-Deserved Beating to other teams' starters says something.

TO is a washed-up man-diva. During the Broncos game, all we saw were drops. During tonights game, there was one good catch, but there were also too many drops. If he wants to stay, there better be the performance. I may be a little too hard on him for your tastes, but in previous years, his antics of the field have over shadowed his on the field performance. How many bridges has he burned in other teams?

T Jack is gone. The writing is in the wall. I've heard that if he's trade they'll get no more than a fifth round pick for him. I say cut him. Shit-can his ass. Send the message to the team that your job has to be earned, not handed to you....

And would somebody please sacrifice Tim Tebow fit crying out loud? The Ram's blood is going to spoil....

It was a sunny day today….

Rule of thumb, when you have to get up at the butt-crack of dawn (at 5:30, to be precise), perhaps a little bit earlier than 2:00 would be a good time to go to bed….

So I get up at bright and early in the morning. Because I had an eye appointment. So I get there, and find out I still have 20/20 vision (the eye doctor said that about my age is when bifocals start getting prescribed (I have a brother who already has them). In fact, I’m the last of my siblings who doesn’t need corrective lenses (I needed them growing up, as I was near-sighted in one eye, and far-sighted in the other eye)…

But that’s all a side track. This was mainly a diabetic eye exam. Which means I had to have my eyes dialated. On a very sunny day. Even with sun-glasses, it was an adventure at the very least trying to get back home….

Hello World, Again….

OK, it’s been over a month. But I’m back for now…

Yesterday was my birthday. My brother celebrated with pizza. And then the Mariners, the Seahawks, and the Sounders FC won there respective games. All in all, a good day despite the fact that I had to work.

Felix Hernandez threw a perfect game. Those who follow The New World Order (Mind-Control Division) would know that the Mariners had a perfect game thrown against them earlier this year. And if you can take it, then by all means dish it out. Felix Hernandez is awesome. He told Chuck Norris, Red Foreman, and Sergeant Hartley to go fuck themselves, and thus homosexuality was invented….

I voted in the primary this year (usually I just abstain the primary election, and concern myself with the general election). To be honest, I don’t know who I’ll vote for this year for President. JP Patches passed away, and that was my usual write in candidate… I’m looking for a candiate who will promise to have the Tea Party deported to France, and (most importantly) have Arnold Schwarzenegger tarred and feathered… Although I am going to declare my endorsement for the state Superintendent of Public Instruction: Randy Dorn. Yes, I make fun of him on Facebook. A lot. Mainly because of his DUI. But he was responsible enough to own up to his actions. But as an elected official, he makes the bed, he has to sleep in it, and the ridicule is my right, my privilege, and my duty… Besides whenever I crack open an ice cold ‘Adult Beverage’, part of the experience is posting that it’s Randy Dorn time on Facebook.

Speaking of JP Patches, here’s what he did to Harry Wappler:

Newscasts are always better with a clown.

Kathi Goertzen also passed away. With her anchoring, Wayne Cody on sports, and Harry Wappler on weather, the afterlife now has a full news team.

So my cable bill just went up....

Went to the local Comcast kiosk today and asked about Xfinity Streampix. Basically, I was told that it was über-on-demand. Whereas normal on-demand on Comcast usually only has a few episodes from a given series, Streampix will allegedly carry the entire series (basically a cheap imitation of Netflix...)...

It was only about $5 a month. We'll see how it goes....

Ok, it happened a week ago, but...

This happened about a week ago, but I was busy (boss was out of town, and co-worker called out on me. Twice), and I still wanted to comment on it.

Jerry Sandusky was found guilty of 45 out of 48 counts against him. And while the jury was deliberating, his son came forward with further allegations. Penn State is probably going to get taken to the cleaners over this since civil lawsuits are much easier to win when there's a criminal conviction. But you can expect that when you try to cover it up.

Normally when a person is accused of something like this, I hold my tongue. They're only accused, and they have a right to a day in court (to this day, I'll hold the line that Michael Jackson was innocent because that's what the jury said). But in this case, they came back with a guilty verdict. He did it. Even with a minimum sentence, he'll probably spend the rest of his life locked up. In solitary. Some have said they hope his cellmate Bubba has certain issues that he can work out on him, but u call that cruel and unusual punishment. Why should Bubba, who's trying to turn his life around, have to spend any time at all with him. I'd say, out him in the general population, and let the other inmates handle the matter. Some people are probably calling for a (New Testament) Christian approach, and that is completely appropriate, too. Though I have no idea where one would find a millstone...

For the fourth time...

I'm now on Twitter again. My handle is @ogre1500. My three previous attempts all lasted about two hours. Together...

So for so good...

Everybody get a book!

And I think even LeVar Burton liked this version, too.

But the message is clear: get a book and read it…

So I went to the doctor last week….

I know I haven’t been posting as often as I used to. I mainly Facebook now, though I’ll still use this as my original soapbox in the Internet. With Facebook’s IPO royally tanking, and talk of Facebook’s eventual decline (a la MySpace), I may come back to this blog. I’m not abandoning it. I just may not be as active on it…

Having said that, I went to my doctor’s office last week. As a type I diabetic, every check-up comes with an A1C blood test. 10 years ago, when I was initially diagnosed, this test was done with a full blown blood draw (they did a finger-stick in the office to check my sugar at the time, too). Ususally, they also did a full work-up (ie cholesterol, liver, thryoid, etc), which is also how I was diagnosed 4 years ago with hypothyroidism (which runs in my mother’s family). Nowadays, they can do the A1C on a fingerstick, too. This was the first doctor’s visit in a while where I could get away with not getting bled. But I was told to lose weight….

Ice Cream Sandwich, Anyone?

This is where all the trouble I went through to get s-off on my phone paid off (you may read that tale here. Hmmm, I think it’s been awhile since I posted here…). Anyway, Sprint pulled the HTC EVO 3D from its online line-up a while back. And there’s a reason for that. It’s going to Virgin Mobile (don't believe me? You can pre-order it from Radio Shack here). But on Virgin Mobile, it’s going to have Ice Cream Sandwich. With Sense 3.6. And somebody leaked the ROM update. Which a bunch of idiots when and promptly flashed, and they’re idiots because it included a firmware upgrade specific for Virgin Mobile and it’s network (while it does use essentially the Sprint network, there are enough differences that you can be seriously fückered up and not have a way of getting out). So I waited. And the developers at XDA Developers did their magic, and Sprint specific ICS sandwich ROMs have now appeared. And I’m running one now. Right now, I’m running MikVirgin. And I’m sufficiently impressed with this phone that I’m using it as my daily driver. I’m sure that it’ll only get better when a Sprint specific version is leaked/released. Maybe the Energy treatment could be possible?

Hello World, Once Again!

Ok, so Sunday was Mother’s Day. My boss bought his wife a shiny new MacBook Pro (actually I work at 2 locations, and at 1 I work for the husband, and I work for the wife at the other location). Anyway the husband bought a brand new MacBook Pro for his wife, which meant their ca. 1 year old laptop was on the market. I was at Worst Buy when the husband bought the laptop, and I was impressed with it (it's spec’ed to be a desktop replacement). A few months later, my WinXP tower started having issues, and I bought my own laptop as a hedge against it dying. It never did (just some dust that I took care of). SO I put my laptop on the market, and I found a buyer, and my boss offered me terms that I could afford for his ‘old’ laptop. And now it’s mine. With the really big display and hard drive, it will become my new default computer. My windows XP tower, with it’s 1 Tb drive, will become my storage & and backup server. And there will probably be some games on it that won’t get installed on the laptop (there are just some games that Windows 7 won’t take…).

I’m still here….

Boss had a baby boy about three weeks ago, and I’ve been working a lot. In and of itself, that’s wouldn’t be a problem, but I’m the one who gets the calls from my co-workers whenever something goes wrong, and that gets old real fast. I guess that’s what I get for being there for so long. But that also means less posting here. Though to be honest, I’m more into Facebook…

• I saw some of the Stanley Cup playoffs last week. There was a lot of extra-curricular activity, though I think Raffi Torres’ 25 game suspension will tone that down. You’re going to be an example. You can either set the example, or we can make an example of you. The choice is yours. Although some of games I’ve seen would indicate the officials need to grow a pair, too.
• Wiped my tower. A month ago. And I’m still restoring it. I think my next purchase at Worst Buy will be a another Tb sized drive. While I do most of my web surfing & video streaming on my laptop, the tower still has plenty of oomph in it, and all my games work on it.
• My brother got a kindle fire. He had the original kindle before. Now I have it. The first book I ‘bought’ for it was Aesop’s fables. I hear the Pierce County Library now supports the kindle, so I suppose I should check out more books.
• I finally got the cable bill paid off. What happened was I fell behind one month, and I was just paying the past due amount every month. But I finally paid it off, and my bill is now current. T-Mobile was also paid off, once and for all, and I will never go back to them again. They have an ok network, and some good phones. But the employees are ass-holes and incompetent clods… Besides, my Sprint bill is less than T-Mobile for the same service, and they haven’t pulled a bait-and-switch on me…

Ok, that was only because I wanted to post a video. To be honest, I never heard this song when it first came out (IIRC Love and Rockets was originally an alternative band, and they weren’t on the radio stations that I was listening too. The very first Love and Rockets song i heard was So Alive, and at the time I hated it….

Not for the faint of heart

(I'm on my phone, I'll post the web-links later). I have an HTC EVO 3D. I love it. The Sprint 4G may be a bit spotty in some places, but it does the job with ease. My previous phone, the Sensation, I unlocked it with the Revolutionary tool. Then I installed recovery and went from there. That wasn't the case with my EVO. When I got it, it had hboot 1.5, which was locked. To unlock it, I had to use the HTC Dev tool. Which unlocked it so I could flash a recovery and install a custom ROM. But because the bootloader was locked, I couldn't flash a new kernel from recovery (most if the custom ROMs use different kernels), so I have to pull out the laptop and use the fastboot command to do it.

But there was an xda developer who wag just as annoyed by it as I was. And he figured out how to revert the hboot from 1.5 to 1.4. It's not for the faint of heart. I'd you don't know what you're doing, you'll end up with a $600 battery charger/paperweight. Long story short, I had to relock my phone, reflash a stock ROM, and then intentionally brick it. Then I had to boot into Linux, and run a special downgrade tool. Then I had to flash another stock ROM, and then run the Revolutionary tool.

But it's worth it. I'm now s-off on hboot 1.4 running my custom ROM.

Spring is finally here

Well, yesterday was the Godless Pagan Holiday (Spring). I would've offered the customary human sacrifice for it were it not for the fact the ram's blood is so expensive (and there's the whole it being illegal part, too...). But the  rain is gone for now, and our extraterrestrial overlords are now flying that big yellow UFO in the sky (it is more likely for for us to get invaded by aliens than to have sunny weather in western Washington...). This marks the first day this year that I can put the heavy coat away and go with a sweatshirt...

My boss had been pregnant for about the last nine months or so. Emphasis on the past tense. Thursday night/Friday morning, she had a baby boy. I don't know too many of the particulars, I just saw the pictures on Facebook, and they're not answering the phones (and I'm not calling them, either).

A political post:

First, the first political ad officially posted on my blog:

I really try to stay out of political issues. Yes, I have my opinions, and you have yours. Just because they’re not the same doesn’t mean that either of us are equal. I grew up conservative, but gradually turned towards the liberal side of the spectrum. But not all the answers are going to come from either the left or the right. They’re going to come from both sides. But neither the democrats or republicans can seem to work together. And we’re going to lose because of it. The government almost went into default last summer because they couldn’t work together, and that would’ve royally fucked the country. Maybe the politicos should put aside the Party Dogma, and start talking to the person across the aisle. A house divided against itself  cannot stand. And partison politics in DC is in essence dividing the house against itself…

Payton gets the hammer dropped

Well, the No Fun League has dropped the hammer on Sean Payton. Suspended for the entire 2012 season. And Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams have gotten even worse, with an indefinite suspension. Meaning, at season’s end, he still may not have a job. The Saints also lost some draft choices, and were fined 500k. I completely disagree with Roger Godell’s handling of this. He was way too lenient. They both should’ve been shit-canned outright, and they Saints should’ve forfeited games (basically suspending all the players).

In the NHL, they can call ‘attempting to injure’. It results in an automatic ejection from the game and the offending player has to have a long and awkward conversation with the league prior to returning to the game. Perhaps the NFL should consider this rule as well. Or another angle the officials in the NFL could try  is a page from MLS’s book. A yellow card means your first, last, and only warning from the official. A red card would mean you wouldn’t have to worry about your choice of soap in the shower.  Yes Football is in and of itself a violent sport, but there is no place for deliberately attempting to injure your opponent. I guarantee you that if you’re not pulling a 7-8 figure salary, you’d have your ass thrown in jail for assault if you pulled this shit off anywhere else.

In other news, Tim Tebow was traded to the New York Jets. As Jay Leno put it tonight, perhaps we have thrown a Christian to the Lions. I am disappointed. I know have to return the Ram’s blood and tear down the altar. Though I think Denver is taking too big a risk in signing Payton Manning. He’s missed an entire season due to neck problems/surgery, and I’m not sure he’ll be able to perform again. And what if he reinjures his neck?

The Clipboard Jesus is back in San Diego. The Seahawks signed Matt Flynn, formerly the backup to the Green Bay Packers. You may remember the previous Packers backup we signed, Matt Hasselbeck…..

On my way home from work

I get off work, and head to the bus stop, which is on a major arterial. While I'm waiting, a car stops, and asks me for help (I'm thinking they want directions), but no, they're panhandling me. *From* their car. Sorry guys, bit of you can afford a car, then you should be able to afford gas. If you can't, then don't panhandle the pedestrians. Join them and walk...

I saw this over 20 years ago….

I just realized that there is one villian that James T. Kirk couldn’t defeat: Damon Wayans…

Yes, it is dated. In Living Color ran this sketch years before George Takei came out of the closet…

Spring is around the corner…

Ok, the calendar says spring is eminent. But the weather that we’ve been having of late has been more reminiscent of January/February/Winter. I got off work on Sunday, and on the way to the bus stop, saw snow coming down. It wasn’t sticking, but it was snowing. Tuesday, on my way to work I noticed that it had snowed, and it stuck until afternoon. Owing to Pierce Transit being run by a bunch of incompetent clods, when I work late, I have to walk an extended distance to catch a bus home. Fortunately, one of my co-workers has a car and she’s been more than generous in giving me a ride home when the weather turns ugly.

My boss is due almost anytime know.

So my already erratic schedule is shot to hell. But, you can only be pregnant so many times, so I’m not going to complain….

Yes, I know have’ve been slacking off in posting. But other things are coming up that need my attention. And I’ve got Facebook, too. But I’m not going to give on my internet soapbox. Then again, there’s so much I want to say, but I hold my tongue because this is a public blog, and it’ll come back to haunt me. I’m no fool. I’ve seen what’s happened to Rush Limbaugh (although I will say that I didn’t need to see the current controversy to know he’s a drug-addicted, misogynistic bigot)….

And now about my new phone…

With my last post about T-Mobile, I said I went to Sprint. When I left the T-Mobile store Saturday after returning my HTC Sensation, I walked right across the mall concourse to the Sprint Store and started asking question. I knew Phil wanted an iPhone, and I had an idea about what kink of phone I wanted. The clerk ran my credit, set my account up, and said that I was pre-approved for up to 5 lines without a security deposit (a needless redundancy since I only need two). anyway, I didn’t get them then since I had to settle a few affairs. After being told how much the phones were and that I was preapproved, my brother texted back that he could pay for them himself.

So next Wednesday, we were in the Sprint store in the South Hill Mall in Pukeallup, picking out phones. I was going to get an EVO 4G, mainly because of it’s similarity to my HD2 (I knew that there were Energy ROMs being for it, and that there was a2sd support for it). But they didn’t have any in stock (it’s actually been discontinued/in the process of being discoe’ed). So I went with the EVO 3D. I’m glad I did. With the announced release of HTC’s ‘One’ series, it may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer anymore, but it’s still got what counts. When it comes to internal phone memory and processor, it’s essentially a Sensation, so there’s no real surprise there. Even though it had a gB available to the user, I can still run out of space really quick, but liberal use of apps2sd attenuates that problem. Compared to what I was running, it just zips along. Even a reboot after wiping the Dalvik cache take less time than it did for my HD2 to do a normal reboot (reboot after wiping the Dalvik cache took over 30 minutes on my HD2). Add that to the one gigabyte of RAM, and it has more power than my first computer (which was capable of running windows XP).

So I get my phone, and I find I have to do the official HTC unlocking in order to root it (what’s the point in getting Android if I can’t root it?). It took a few tries (ended up having to download the RUU and reinstalling it in order to get it to unlock). For about 3 days, I just ran the stock ROM. Out of the box, it runs Gingerbread on Sense 3.0 (just like the Sensation). Saturday, I discovered that the stock ROM is compatible with UOT kitchen, so I can change the icon sets (mainly I wanted to change the battery indicator). Sunday night, I finally worked up the courage to wipe it and flash a custom ROM (a difference from when I had the Sensation. With that phone, I had the custom ROM downloaded, tweaked and ready to flash before I bought it). I finally found a Sense 3.5 ROM and downloaded it Sunday. It wasn’t an Energy ROM (he doesn’t cook for the EVO 3D), but I gave it try. Installed all of my apps and moved into it Monday, and it crashed and burned on me Tuesday on my way to work. So Tuesday when I came home from work, I decided to try my hand at a Frankenstein ROM. So this time, I took a few elements from the Energy ROMs that I’ve downloaded from my phones and cooked them into my ROM. And I’m pretty impressed with it.

But there was drawback: space. My memory card had a second, hidden partition for a2sd (which I used on my HD2). None of the a2sd scripts I used would work on this phone. Then I saw one the on of the xda fora someone mention link2sd. It’s free and available on the market. Installed it, and it recognized my ext4 partition. So I can install all my 300+ apps on a phone that has the horsepower to run them. The main drawback to having your apps installed on your sd card is that you just pull your sd card (with windows mobile, the sd card was hot pluggable). But the again, I have to pull the battery out to get to the memory card on this phone.

All in all, I think I’m going to enjoy this phone. And there’s a forthcoming upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich due shortly, too (there are a few ice cream sandwich builds out there, but I’ll wait for the official HTC one first). Did I mention that my brother paid for this? And he willingly surrendered his man-card?

So what all happened with my new phone, and a few other things…

Ok, so I had my nice shiny new HTC Sensation 4g, and all was well, as I had posted previously. I got the phone on Saturday, and I was told that T-Mobile’s system was down, and my sale/contract renewal was done with an ‘off-line’ sale. The clerk went over all of the terms with me, I thought, and my boss was there to provide his credit card (the promotion at the time was that the phones were free after rebate, and my boss would simply get the rebate). I took the phones and then left the T-Mobile store.

The first red flag should’ve been raised the following Sunday. I got a call from the T-Mobile store saying they had charged my boss’s credit card the wrong amount, and would actually be charging it for $20 more than what was supposed to be the charge, I thought. But due to my erratic work schedule, I wasn’t able to get back to the store till the ensuing Wednesday. I get there and the manager pulls out my paperwork and hands it to me. I then saw that not only was I on a two year contract, but I was also on an equipment installment plan, which no one had said anything to me before! So, not only was on a contract, but I was going to pay full price anyway. The next Saturday, I returned my phones. I had my HTC Sensation 4g for only one week. When I returned my phones, I was told that I had to pay a $50 restocking fee per phone. I simply told the clerk that I would eat the loss.

What happened here was fundamentally wrong on a few points.

• The amount charged to the credit card was changed ex post facto. This was my boss’s credit card, and he sure wasn’t happy when he found out about this.
• I had to sign a contract without actually seeing it, let alone the fine print. IIRC this is illegal, and I should probably report this to the state Attorney General’s office. This is a real sticking point, because:
• The terms were either changed ex post facto, or the clerk failed to tell me about it (in fact, the clerk who handled my return said that it appeared that this was most likely). It doesn’t matter to me. I see no between malice and incompetence.

So, being a reader of The Consumerist, I knew what had to happen. I deployed an Executive Email Carpet Bomb (something I’ve had to do before, with Pierce Transit). A couple of days later, I got a call from Christopher Lowe at T-Mobile. Basically, he said T-Mobile was right, I was wrong, but he was going to offer to credit my account for the restocking fee in question. I declined. I don’t need to fucking freebie if you’re going to talk down to me. Having checked my account online prior to the call, I also saw that my phone line was still under contract, even though I had already returned the phones. I made sure that he set my account as not under contract. I hung up, and I thought I might still give T-Mobile a chance.

While all this was happening, I talked to my brother about switching to Sprint. The day after I got off the phone with Christopher Lowe, Philip and I were in Puyallup to celebrate our parents’ birthdays when we came by a Sprint store. We went in, and picked our phones out, and at this time Philip told me that when I talked to T-Mobile executive care, his data service was cut off. That was enough for me. I dumped T-mobile. My brother got an iPhone 4s, and I got an HTC EVO 3D. Basically, a Sensation but with a different radio, and 3-D camera.

T-Mobile is a royal cluster-fuck when it comes to customer service. There were at least two (possibly three) occasions where T-Mobile could’ve kept my business. All they had to do was not be total incompetent clods. I’m now starting to get collection calls from T-Mobile about my last balance. I’ll probably pay it. But I think a complaint to the FTC and the state attorney general’s office is in order, too…

Hello World!

Ok. So I renewed my phone contract yesterday. T-Mobile had a sale, where any smartphone they had was free after rebate. And my boss was willing to lend me the money. So I went top the local corporate store and got the HTC Sensation. It was unrooted with the stock ROM. And that lasted all of abøøt an hour and a half once I got off work. To be honest, by the time l bought the phone, I had already downloaded and tweaked the latest ENERGY ROM for. It is essentially the same as the one for the HD2. So I have good comparison for the hardware.

And all I have to say is that it's lightning fast. I guess a 1.2 GHz dual-core will do that. And the Ram (768 mB), meaning I don't have to mess with a swap file or zRam (both are more trouble than they're worth on the HD2). I guess running Android on a phone that's designed for it (with proper drivers) makes a difference (remember the HD2 original came with WinMo 6.5, putting Android in it is kind of like putting a Corvette engine in a Mustang: you'll very the performance, but there will always be issues).

There are a couple of drawbacks to it. While all the literature I saw about it advertises that it has 4 gB of internal storage, only 1 gB is available to the user. Ok, I thought. But I soon realized that no one had implemented A2SD for the Sensation. And currently there is no way to repartition the NAND. So I'm making very liberal use of the move to SD. If I don't need a particular app for a widget, it'll get moved to the sd card...

But overall, I'm impressed. Right now, I'm running Gingerbread. But they have Ice Cream Sandwich coming right around the corner....

And did I mention that in the 10th and Commerce test, I can pull about 5 megs? Not too shabby. A short while ago that passed for broadband speed....

Stood up….

Saturday, I was at work, and when I got off, I noticed one of the employees at the business right next us had an HD2 like me. He told me he wanted to Netflix on his phone, and the only way to do that is either put windows phone 7 or Android on it. He still needs WinMO, so i told there was a way to run Android off the sd card (which I did for a while), and he said he’d be back so I could (I have all the necessary files on my laptop).

So I show up. At my work on my day off. And the id10t stands me up….

Ok people, if I’m willing to fix your techie items, then you need to show up when I say meet me. I didn’t buy a bus pass this month, and I have to eat the loss for the round trip bus fare. Fortunately, A co-worker called out, and I can make some use of my time here. But still, this is something to consider when you decide to no-show….

And he totally deserves it!

The Giants won a football game yesterday. You may know of it, but I won’t mention it because the No Fun League are total assholes when it comes to anything even remotely close to it…

Yes Eli Manning deserves the MVP and the obvious Ring that goes with it. At least until Frodo decides to throw it into a volcano…. But the title if this is about Tom Brady. He got a Well-Deserved Beating yesterday. And if there is anyone in Football who deserves a Tom Brady Well-Deserved Beating, it’s Tom Brady. His wife was asking everyone to pray for him and the Patriots during the game.during the game. There are many things that I may pray for. For one team during a professional sports event is not one of them. If I were to invoke a religious ritual for an NFL game, there is but one option: sacrificing Tim Tebow…..

So I just nuked my laptop..

And my tower is next. I thought I addressed the issue of my laptop freezing when I nuked Firefox, but they persisted. So I took the nuke from orbit approach and wiped it. I wasn't looking forward to it, but it was necessary. With my laptop almost literally going everywhere I go, I decided this approach would deal with any malware, if it was the cause. If it's a hardware issue, them I'm fückered...

While I'm doing this, I also backed up my tower for a wipe and reinstall. I think it's time for that, too. I had to turn off the automatic updates when the last round of updates caused my computer to stop being able to make new folders.... And while is safe for now behind a NAT router, It's something I should probably address...

In a semi-related story, I've discovered I like FS 2004 better than FSX. I don't have the fastest of computers, and I probably will never be able to afford one, and FS 2004 runs pretty decent on what I have....

So Google is updating there privacy policy....

And apparently its: All your base are belong to us. And there's no way to opt out. A lot of people have a problem with. I'm one of them. The only way to not have all of your information tracked everywhere across the Internet, is to delete your Google account. I don't think it'll be that bad really. To be honest, I don't even think it'll survive the extra-special attention the State Attorney General's office will inevitably give it. Nor will I think the FTC give them a free pass over this.

Also I should add that I don't see any personalized ads in the future. Something about all my computers and even my Android Powered HD2 all having a HOSTS file...

Paula Deen and I have something in common….

Paula Deen and I have something in common. We’re both diabetic. Yes, I know there is a fundamental difference between what I have (type I) and what she has (type II). But as she says, it’s not a death sentence. I’m coming up on 10 years of insulin shots (and needles still scare me) this year, and I’m not dead yet. I can’t go ape-shit on sugar anymore, and I should watch what I eat, but the world still goes around.

People are sure to rise in condemnation about this, especially given the food that she is known for cooking. but I won’t. The responsibility doesn’t lie with the chef who cooked your meal and put it on your plate. The responsibility lies with you. You ordered it. You’re eating it. And you should know better….

Taking a look outside

I think I now know the secret ingredient in Frosted Flakes: dynamite. That’s how I’m explaining the white stuff I see on the ground. Or is it raining cocaine? The roads haven’t been all that bad today (I live along Pacific Avenue in Pierce County, and that’s usually one the first roads to get de-iced/sanded when it rains cocaine). I take the bus to work, so that leaves me no excuse to call out. However, certain shifts I work fall outside of Pierce Transit’s operating hours, and I’m not too particular about walking upto 4 1/2 miles home in the snow. But I’ll discuss that with the boss… According to the weatherman, the worst of it will hit on Wednesday which is fine with me. I’m off that day….

So my neighbor at work…

There’s a portrait studio next to work. And I’ve become acquainted with the manager (it’s a small business). I noticed he had two computers on the front counter: one for actual production , and he had a second one with internet access that he just used to watch youtube. Last week, he did something stupid and downladed a ‘screensaver’. He then asked me to clean up after his misadventures on the internet. Even booting into ‘safe mode’ wouldn’t work. I thought I could try to fix it, but I’ve come to the conclusion that we need to ‘nuke it form orbit’. There is no virus that can survive the ‘format c:’ command. Maybe the next time I go up there (I’m off for the next couple of days), I’ll give it another crack, but I’m just waiting for the owner to bring in his windows disk. I burned a live cd (OpenSuSE KDE), but it didn’t work.

There was another business who wanted me to look at a computer, saying that they needed a cpu or a motherboard replaced (evidently I was a second opinion). I advised them to just replace the whole computer (with the way hardware is evolving, that’s probably the best bet)…

And on to my house: my tower (the WinXP box suddenly wouldn’t let me rename folders). I fixed it temporarily by using to system restore to go back to last week’s windows updates. When I’m not as busy, I have a feeling that a wipe/rebuild is in order. Ugh. I used to do it on a weekly basis when I had my pIII (running both WinME, WinXP, and SuSE). Now it’s just a PITA just to do one.

My laptop has had some issues of late freezing. Going on a wild guess, I unistalled/reinstalled Firefox, deleting all the user data (the only thing I kept were the bookmarks). I then reinstalled my extensions. No issues, so far….

An insight this morning...

On may way to work this morning, it dawns on me: this was the first Christmas in ten years that there absolutely no candy canes in my house. Even being a diabetic hasn't kept me away from them...

But this year was a cane free Christmas. Maybe I can find some at Wally World today..

Some detective work of late….

If i haven’t said so before, I now prefer to use the Energy ROM for my Android powered HD2. The phone is old, and mine is starting to show it’s age (I hove about 10 blocks in my phones memory that are going bad), but it still soldiers on, and it can still run software that’s designed for phones that are coming out today. In fact the version of Android and HTC Sense on my phone are my advanced than even what my brother has on his HTC Sensation (btw, there’s and Energy ROM for the Sensation, too….). Team Bluedroid also publishes a pretty decent Sense 3.5 ROM (in fact it was the first Gingerbread ROM that I had for more than 2 hours). Also of mention is mwakious. When it comes to the overall look and feel, I like Energy. The issue is that while Energy has the looks, it doesn’t have all the features I’m looking for, so I take elements from the other ROMs (like Flikr, laputa, etc. Usually from the Bluedroid), and incorporate them into the ROM (not that hard to do, since all the ROMs are .zip files, and you just have to unzip them, make your changes, rezip them, and flash). 9 times out of 10, this goes well. Even up to the December 14 ROM. When he release the December 19, I downloaded it and installed it. And then noticed that it wasn’t rebooting. In fact, it was on the boot animation screen for 4 hours while I was at work (at the most, it should be a half hour, even after I wipe the Dalvik cache). My quick and dirty workaround was to reflash the ROM whenever I needed to reboot. A pain in the ass, but Energy ROMs are generally stable enough that you don’t normally need to reboot everyday… When the December 25 version, there was still issues. Finally the December 26 version came out, and this version was supposedly address the rebooting issue. When I tried it, I found I could hot reboot the phone without any issues, but whenever I powered off the phone, or pull the battery, there were issues. The December 28 version came out, and it had the same problem. If frustration, I switched all the way back to CMYLXGO. Then acting on a hunch that it was an issue with the kernel in the ROM, I redownloaded the kernel and recooked it into the ROM before I flashed it. No more problems. So far.

Christmas has come, and is almost gone….

Went to my sister’s for Christmas Day. Texted my nephew to have the Altar and ram’s blood ready for the human sacrifice, and I was disappointed. Food was served, and there was a lot of it. To confess, I forgot my insulin at home, and I did over-indulge in sugar (but as soon as I got home, I immediately took a shot, though). But the food was good, and I got to see the brother that I hardly ever see (in Christmases past, we had the tradition of the Christmas Mule, where one brother did his Christmas Shopping, and the other was the bearer of the back-pack (the shopper had to pay for lunch…), But we’ve gone our separate ways. It is nice to see him and his girlfriend, though.

Eventually, it came time for the distribution of the loot. My parents gave me a gift card to Wally World, which is what I requested. I don’t necessarily need stuff right away, but with the gift card, when I realize what I need, I’ll be able to get it then. My aforementioned brother and his girlfriend gave me a big bucket of popcorn, and some sugar-free candy. I promptly regifted the popcorn (and one of the bags of candy) to my nephew (after explaining that I really don’t have the best of teeth, and I don’t do nuts that well, and the popcorn is just months of hyperglycemia). The armor-all gift set I got last night I regifted to my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law (and my sister) gave me a new coat, which has a removable liner (which can also be used by itself). I also got a hat and some gloves.

The gifts are irrelevant. I really don’t care about what I receive anymore, or even if I receive anything at all. It’s about family, friends, and having a good time.

Bah! Humbug

Well, it’s that time of year. The Godless Pagan Holiday (Winter). This year, I got Christmas Eve off, a simple gesture from my boss, but greatly appriciated. With those incompetent clowns at Peirce Transit cutting service to the bare bone and then some more, it would’ve almost been impossible to get to Grandma Bryant’s for Christmas Eve. I was originally planning to overnight there, and so I packed my laptop, the power cord for it, and the usb cable for my phone (so I could charge it from the laptop when I plug it in. I only forgot my phone at home. Phil and I decided to give Dad (he lives with Grandma Bryant) the old WiFi router that I replaced a last October. And I set it up as a Christma present to him.

We do a modified Secret Santa, where you buy the present, and they’re distributed by lottery. Usually there’s the one present that’s chosen by the one person that results in a big laugh. A few years back, it was a cousin who got a kid’s photo album (at the time, they were very definitely not having any children, she and her husband). This year, my name was called, and it was my turn to pick a presnet from under the tree. I picked one, and I heard a cousin try to dissuade from picking it. As I opened it, I realized why. It was a car detailing kit (in the big Bryant family, I’m the only non-driver). A good laugh was had by all, including me. It’s not about the present. I won’t be using it in the near future. But a good time was had by all, and that made it all worth it. I brought a Target gift card (my line of reasoning is if I don’t know who’ll end up recieving it, then I might as well get them a gift card. If they can’t find what they want at target, then they don’t deserve a Christmas present…). This year, the same cousin who brought the car detailing kit grabbed the gift card. She also grabbed the gift card I brought last year.

Well, tomorrow, we’ll have Christmas at my sister’s. But right now, I’m doing in my own Christmas tradition: watching midnight mass on TV. I’m definitely not Catholic, but I do have a couple of friends who are, and I figure this is one of the things we can do together…..

Today’s lessons:

What I’ve learned in the past week:

• When you’re thinking about selling your laptop, don’t actually delete your account until it’s agreed to change hands. Then if you do, don’t delete your user account, just wipe the drive.
• When you delete your user account (thinking you’re going to sell your laptop and later decide not to), perhaps you should consider that opportunity to wipe your laptop drive rather than try to rebiukd you account.
• if you decide to simply rebiuld your account (along with all your files) accross the network form your tower (with it’s 1 Tb drive), then remember that even with an N WiFi network, it’s going to take about 36 hours using the windows 7 migration tool. However, if you just bring the router back into your room, pull out the ethernet cables again, and manually copy them from one machine to another will only take you about two hours.
• The Windows 7 data migration tool is really good at transferring your Firefox and Thunderbird settings…

BTW, yes I did finally get smart and wiped the drive on my laptop. I don’t have all my programs installed yet, but I have enough for now. I’ll finish the rest later….

Spelling mistakes are left here on purpose….

See you in Hell, Dear Leader!

Kim Jong Il is dead. Maybe his replacement will have more sense. What’s the point in acquiring weapons of mass destruction (with his nuclear weapons program) when your people are starving? The scary part about his is the unknown. Who will succeed him? Granted you can’t go that much further off the deep end that he was, but that is also a possibility. But it also brings hope. Hope that his replacement will have more sense. Or at least two neurons and the ability to rub them together…..

Seahawks vs. St Louis...

Tonight the Seahawks are playing host to the St Louis Rams. At the Clink. While both teams royally suck, theSeahawks should do well. Historically, they have the best Monday Night record.... And in nationally televised games, they usually never do too shabby, either. Note if they could only win the non-national games...

Approaching usability….

When I last blogged about using Gingerbread, I was using bluedroid. And the next day when I went to work, I had to reboot the phone to swith from Wi-Fi to 3g. And then I had to reboot to get back on W-Fi when I got to work (one of my employer’s unwritten perks is I’m allowed to use the company’s Wi-Fi for my laptop and my phone, as long as it doesn’t interfere with my job). So, as soon as I get back home, I switched back to CMYLXGO’s Froyo. I don’t know what it’s been, but ever since I got my 32 Gb card, I haven’t been able to finish setting up that ROM. I can install it and start setting it up, but usually before I finish moving in, something happens, and I end up starting over….

Anyway, it’s been a month or so since I tried Gingerbread, and a lot of progress has been made. I’m now using Energy. The only drawback is that it doesn’t have all the widgets that I’m used to in other Sense 3.5 ROMs. No problem. Some trial an error, and I copied everything I needed from the Bluedroid ROM I downloaded. Some things that I’ve noticed:

• It is now possible to switch between 3g and Wi-Fi without rebooting. A real plus since T-Mobile now meters my 3G bandwidth, and I really don’t need to reboot my phone at the start and finish of every journey…
• I can now switch between keyboards. Which means I now use the Swype public beta on this ROM. Though for the most part, I still use the default Touch Input….

Compared to Froyo, this biuld seems to be more stable. Then again, I haven’t finished installing all of my apps yet. This ROM (which is rooted, as all the others ROMs I’ve used) comes with Titanium back-up cooked in already. So, I’m doing a back-up every night to save my work. It’ll also make it that much easier when NRGZ28 puts out the next version.

BTW, did I mention that when I first bought the HD2, the first WinMO ROM I put on it was an Energy ROM. And it was also my preferred ROM when I had my Rhodium.

I will be finishing up my contractual obligations torwards T-Mobile in the very near future. Then I can upgrade. I’m debating between getting a Sensation, or an Amaze….

Just saw the game….

I Just saw the Seahawks game tonight. Vince Young is going to have a terrible time taking a dump tonight. With all 11 pairs of Seahawks’ shoes up his ass and all….

Seriously Vince, Seahawk defenders are not your wide recievers. Granted, I (and most likely the team) really don’t mind that you give us the ball consistently, but that’s probably not the way you want to play. Try throwing it to your teammate, next time.

If it wasn’t for the interceptions, this game would’ve been close. Possibly an
Eagles victory. Offense sells tickets. But it’s the defense that wins games…

So I have a dvd in my laptop…

Never really used it. Between YouTube, Netflix, and the uber-high speed wi-fi (now that I figured out how to configure my router to the ‘n’ standard), I never really used it till now. Netflix doesn’t have all the movies I want to see, and I’m not going to pay extra to rent a dvd.

Cue the Pierce County Library. They have DVDs. And a pretty good selection, too. And the 1-week loan is longer and cheaper than blockbuster. So, I’m watching Battle Of The Planets. I remember seeing this growing up, and Ted Turner did a version of it a few years back. You can tell that it was obviously an adult anime edited down and redubbed into essentially a Childrens’ show…

The original series must’ve been good, but trying to watch it through the editing is a bit tedious….

Thanksgiving has come and gone

For those of you who chose to do The Airing of Grievances and The Feat of Strength, you jumped the gun…

Went to my Aunt’s for thanksgiving. Turkey was served. Along with the usual sides, and what I could’ve swore was Soylent Green… Although I did appreciate the effort she went through to bake the no-sugar added pumpkin pie.

Ok, I got my flu shot...

I got my flu shot a week and half ago. So why am I still getting sick? I guess its part for the course that get sick during the holidays. Last Christmas I had a very passable Brian Johnson voice. Hopefully this year, it won't be so bad...

I voted today….

I filled out the absentee ballot today. This is an ‘off-year’ election, where the main issues are the initiatives. There were also a couple of miscellaneous candidates, most of whom were running unopposed. I had some fun with those. I wrote in JP Patches, Gertrude, and Brakeman Bill. On the initiatives, I voted this:

• I-1183, I voted no. Both sides have been running misleading ads. I don’t think we need to change the current system of state liquor stores, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I also voted against this on the principle that the initiative process is there for people to change the law directly, not for Costco to try and buy it.
• I-1125, I voted no, just on principle. It is a Tim Eyeman initiative, and he has admitted to doing this as a profession, and most, if not all of his initiatives are pure crap. the first one he did that actually passed was promptly thrown out by the supreme court for being poorly written. <rhetoric>Maybe somebody should propose an initiative to have him tarred and feathered. Or deported to France.</rhetoric>.
• Prop 1. I voted no. This would authorize a tax increase to improve 911 service. If the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department has enough funds to accost me when I’m walking home at night, because I’m on some sort of double-secret probation or because Parkland residents are beneath the protection of the law, then they don’t need any more funding. Hint: not everybody you encounter is a criminal, and treating everyone like suspects and criminals is not really fostering trust in the community. Maybe it was a stop and frisk initiated under false circumstance, but the end results are the same….
• There were a few other issues, but I voted for them, namely one that would require background checks for senior caregivers. The vunerable need to be protected…

We have Gingerbread!

Finally, I found a Gingerbread ROM for my phone with tolerable issues. Yes, they all have problems, but this is the first that I feel comfortable with. I’m going with Blue Droid. Right now, they only have posted the version for the European version of the HD2 (which uses an ext partition on your SD card, to overcome the only 512 Mb of space on the phone which is not good when you’re trying to shoehorn HTC Sense into it). The CMYLXGO Froyo ROM dies have it’s advatages, and I’ve also updated my version of it, but I like this ROM. I know NRGZ28 updated his ROM recently, but I’ve had too many issues with it. I’m also doing a few things differently with this ROM:

• The only app that I’m cooking into it beforehand is the Amazon App Store. And the Terminal Emulator. Everything else can be manually installed when I install Root Explorer (which I paid for from the Spamazon app store.
• No alternatives keyboards. I tried cooking in the native Gingerbread keyboard, and I think that may have caused more issues than it’s worth. I’m not even going to use the Swype public beta. Besides I really don’t need to. With the HTC Touch Input, there is also a trace feature (like what swype uses as well), so I don’t need it. The other keyboards, while the looked good, and worked well, aren’t worth the hassle…

Tony LaRussa hangs up his mitre…

After leading the Cardinals to another World Series title, Tony LaRussa has announced his retirement. One of the very managers to go out while at the very top. Usually when I see a manager go, it has been due to a mid-season shit-canning (usually well-deserved). On occaision, I’ll see news of one retiring, but it’s usually after one losing season too many in The New World Order (Mind-Control Division), I just want to know, since he’s a Cardinal, if he’ll be allowed to wear a mitre and take part in the next concave…

Patience, Roger, Patience

Ok, since I have Apps2sd on my phone, when I uprgraded my memory card, I had to reinstall everything on my phone (my apps are installed onto a hidden partition on my memory card). My first attempt at this was a dud, since I set the second partition at 4 Gb (I have a 32 Gb card now, so space isn’t an issue). When xda-developers says to use 2 Gb at the most for your ext3 partition, there is usually a good reason for it. So after repartitioning, reformatting, and re-copying everything to my card again, I had to re-flash my ROM again. I thought seriously about giving Gingerbread anither try, but I decided to go with my highly modified CMYLXGO ROM. Yes it’s Froyo, but it’s stable, and it does the job. At this point, I don’t think there’ll ever be a reasonably stable Gingerbread ROM for the HD2.

Anyway, long story short:

• When you first flash a ROM, set the phone down and walk away. It’ll take a while for it to actually be ready. The same goes when you initially put your acounts in. Especially since my phone doesn’t have that much RAM compared to other Desire HD based phones.
• If you can, try to use wi-fi to download your apps. For some reason, my 3g service has been rather spotty. And when my internet cuts out, it usually means my phone freezes, and only a reboot will fix things. Probably I should have a chat with T-Mobile. Fortunately, one of the local employees also uses and Android Powered HD2, so I might be able to get somewhere with it…
• Root Explorer is definitely worth the $3.99 I paid for it (through the Spamazon app store).

Today’s lesson is patience. If you don’t let your ROM settle after you install it, you’re going to have issues…

So, the Sounders lost tonight.

So the Sounders FC lost 3-0 tonight. They can still pull it out. They have one more chance when Real Salt Lake come to town. It’s difficult, but it’ll be possible….

OTOH, I got to see the Huskies game tonight. Defense needs some serious work. And there were a couple of questionable calls by the officials. But they got the job done, with timely turnover and a lot of touchdowns…

Full 90 time, playoff edition

Sounders FC vs. Real Salt Lake. In Salt Lake City. I like the MLS playoff structure, where each they play a game in each team’s stadium, with the winner decided by cumulative goals. This way, every team is guaranteed at least one home game in the playoffs. On like some other professional sports promotions, MLS knows what side the bread is buttered on, and that without the fans, they’re fucked. The NHL is still recovering from it’s last labor dispute where they lost an entire season. The NFL almost lost the season, but cooler heads prevailed in the nick of time. The NBA is going to find out really quick that loyalty is a two-way street. If they don’t show loyalty to their fans, then the fans won’t show up. They won’t buy tickets, and they won’t buy the merchandise. Lose the ego, people. Your fans won’t take it lying down…

A few more misadventures on the internet…

Day off today. Normally, I’d sleep in (especially since I have to be at work überearly tomorrow morning). But I had to get up early today, and keep watch at the door. Last week, I ordered some probably useless crap from Worst Buy, and both items were supposed to arrived today.

First item to arrive was the wi-fi card. I like the Netgear WG-311v3, but the driver installation can be a bit tricky. And it’s darn near the only wi-fi card that I can find that has a Win9x driver for it (come to think, I’m probably going to end up just parting out the other tower I have, but in the rare possibility that I use it, I’d like to have a compatible card for it). Looking around, I noticed that Worst Buy is going from pci Wi0Fi adapters to usb (which I don’t like, as components like this sometimes tend to throw you rude comments when you pull them from one port, like during system maintenance, and then put them in a different port. Besides I have enough of a cable jungle as it is…). On the website, they had a deal for a factory refurbished Linksys WMP600N, so I went for it. A glance at google shows the possibility of Linux dirvers for it too (though that is not a high priority now).

The second item was a microsd card for my phone. A 32 Gb one. Meaning I can sync my entire music library over, and still have plenty of space for my hidden data partition, and several ROMs at once. And it’s a class 4 (might not be workth bragging about, but it is replacing a class 2…).

A little moving….

Nothing much. I’m not going anywhere. I’m just moving my cell phone’s files (basically the ‘kitchen’ where I cook my ROMs) from the laptop to the tower. While I like the laptop for it’s portabiltiy and (mainly) the fact I can surf and tinker around from the easy chair in front of the tv in my room, I do appreciate the dual-monitor display that the tower offers, which make’s it far easier to manage windows.

I really don’t cook ROMs. I just drag and drop files. Most of the Android ROMs for the HD2 are Clockwork Mod recovery type. Meaning that they’re .zip files. If you unzip them, you can then delete the files you don’t need, and add some of the programs and/or other files, that you have to have (I do have quite a few ringtones that I use). Just rezip and you can then flash your ROM, with your ‘tweaks’ cooked in…

I explained this to my boss when he had me root his LG G2x, and then he started downloading new ROMs for it. After a phone call to me (which I reminded him to be in the T-Mobile forum, lest he get a $500.00 battery charger. BTW, it’s easy to flash a clockwork ROM on a LG G2x. I should know. My boss can do it. BTW, he now has the latest Samsung Galaxy S II, and the LG is now for sale. Given his modus operandi, the new phone will be for sale in about three months. Not that I have anything against it. That’s how I got my first T-Mobile Shadow, and my HD2 (which I still use).

Sic semper tyrannis

Hello, it’s been a while. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t forgotten to write. I’ve just had other things that, in hindisight, probably don’t mean much, but they had to be taken care of…

• They got Gadaffi. We will probably never know how he died (aside from the gunshot to the head), be it he was shot by a rebel intentionally, or caught in the crossfire between the rebels on the loyalists, we may never know. But he was a tyrant who ruled with an iron fist. And eventually, his own people got the point where they weren’t going to take in anymore. He almost immediately threw out the country's constitution (and the rights that went along with it) while seizing power. And then there was the theft. If perhaps he’d put the profits from the Libya’s oil revenues back into his country (instead of keeping it to himself and his cronies), perhaps… Well, I’m not going to speculate on that.

Gadaffi is dead. I’m not rejoicing in and of itself over his death, like I didn’t rejoice over Osama Bin Laden’s death. We should remember that violence only begets violence. But at the very least, he is out of power, and there is hope for the nation….

One of the many reasons I’m grateful for being an American is the opportunity to change regime every four years peacefully.

They still rock….

So I’m about to retire for the night, and I’ve got Late Nite with Jimmy Fallon on. And tonight, The Moody Blues are performing. To be honest, this is a band I haven’t really followed. Ever. But they sounded good (I remember Nights In White Satin on oldie’s station growing up) and what I heard on Jimmy Fallon sounded similar. But what matter most is that they sounded good….

Ok, who wants to see Paul Stanley in drag?

Ok, everybody should know by now that in the ‘80s, KISS ditched the make-up, and became yet another hair-band for the most part. With the execption of Revenge (which is the best KISS album. Period). Case in point:

Perhaps the Star Child should’ve been seeing a therapist…

No, I don’t consider myself a fan of KISS anymore. Sorry guys, but The Boulder Pledge has been invoked. You chose to spam me, and I realized that with the aforementioned excetion of Revenge, you’re nothing more than overly-merchandised clowns. And for the most part, not really good…

I know this one is late, but….

I just have to say that Jay Cutler chose the wrong week to become a Christian. Who would’ve figured that the Detroit Lions would now be 5-0? And the Seahawks beat Eli Manning. In New York. Not too shabby…

Eventually, I’ll get it right….

I’ve been trying to get my Android Powered HD2 to run Gingerbread. Everytime I think I solved the problems, another one comes up, and I decide to go back to Froyo. It’s olders, but it still works. I’ve swtched from Rafdriod back to Cmylxgo, with some modifications:

• I’m using the apps2sd. I’ve given 2 Gb’s on my memory card for a separate paritition. Even though my phone has a full Gb onboard, I’m still running out of space on my phone. This means I don’t have to worry about running out of space, and I use a larger system directory (which means I can cook even more stuff into my ROM).
• I’ve also cooked in the Topia and the Color transformation packs. And I shamelessly cooked in the start-up animation from the Bluetopia transformation pack. I tried using the color transformation pack in Rafdroid, but Rafdroid uses a diferent sized font, and the results didn’t come out looking quite right (It functioned just fine).

My boss has a T-Mobile G2x, and he’s been trying to sell it. I rooted it for him when he was running Froyo, and I upgraded it to Gingerbread. He asked me to root it for him (which is basically install Clockwork recovery and then flash a copy of the stock Gingerbread Rom that had been rooted). Now he’s asking me to cook a special ROM for him….

I now officially have three computers in my room: my XP tower, my laptop (that this is being written on), and a Win98 tower. I finally have all the necessary power cords, network cables, and even a surge protector for it. I just need to get a monitor for it (my XP tower has a dual display, and I can easily pull one monitor off for the other tower, but I like my twin-headed display too much). With all three of them going, I don’t think I’ll need to use the heater too much this winter (and this is going to be a La Niña winter, too).

So long, Steve Jobs

Steve jobs had passed away. I’m not going to bother with linking to any story on this blog entry (if you want the whole truth, just google it…). Some of things companies brought us under his leadership:

• The iPhone: about four years ago, my boss’s wife got him a T-Mobile Shadow for Christmas. He was impressed with it, almost happy. Then he discovered you could jailbreak an iPhone and it’ll work on the T-Mobile network. And that shadow was my very first smartphone when he sold it to me. A few years later, his wife got him an HD2. I’m still using it… The iPhone brought us the app store (before the android market and the spamazon app store).
• The iPod. Essentially the original iPod was an mp3 player with a hard drive. It’s gone through many evolutions, but you can still get an mp3 player with a hard drive.
• OS X. I’ve never had a mac, so I can offer no opinion on this.
• The iPad. The very first tablet to have anything resembling success, though IMHO some of the current Android powered offerings are better…..
• Itunes. It revolutionized the way we buy music. When it first came out, I was semi-impressed with it (I’m a windows user). For the first time, you could legally purchase music and download it (instead of pirating it or ripping your cds). Not only that, but you could also buy induvidual tracks (later came the option to buy entire albums). I didn’t like it because it didn’t support .wma playback, and to convert .wma files to something itunes compatible took forever and a day. I just stuck with musicmatch jukebox and/or windows media player (when windows media player 10 came out, it finally came with the ability to natively rip .mp3 files, so I’ve used wmp exclusively since then).

I know this isn’t a complete list of his achievements, and there were some things he did that even I regret, you can’t deny his influences. Remember this even when you turn your pc on (remember the original MacIntosh had the very gui for a computer)…

What when down this week….

I got a second monitor again for my computer. But I’m still drawn more to my laptop. There have been a couple of things that I’ve wanted to blog about this week, but I’ve also been mastering the art of putting things off. And that is a skill that you need to constantly practice…

Anyway, some if the pointless (and some not-so-pointless) stuff that has happened recently:

• Fall has arrived. I can tell this from the rain. On my day off. Like this afternoon, I guess off form from work, and I couldn’t help but notice the droplets falling on the pavement around me as I walked home form the bus stop. And it really picked up when I got home. Like cow pissing on a rock.
• It’s over for the Mariners. Another season of losing. There were a couple of streaks, and iirc we went a week before the first w. But we only needed The New World Order (Mind-Control Division) for a few weeks this year… Because then we have Association Football (that’s soccer, idiots)…
• The Sounders FC have clinched a play-off spot. And the Cascadia Cup. And a return to next season in the Concacaf Champions League. Three winning seasons, and three playoff appearances. Though the Seahawks have demonstrated that you don’t necessarily need the former to have a latter… Though I hope they can repeat next year, as Kasey Keller is retiring at the end of this season (hats off to Keller, though. In MLS, it’s usually Latinos and Europeans who are the stars. Keller, an American was a star in Europe before coming to Seattle.
• The Seahawks aren’t too hot (as usual) Jackson ain’t getting the job done, and Caroll needs to get Whitehurst in there, or he needs to go back to the NCAA….
• The Detroit Lions are *team* to be reckoned with this year. 4-0 (that’s right, undefeated), not 0-4. They’ve defeated the Vikings (in Minneapolis, a feat that’s not supposed to happen). And they went into the fourth quarter with Dallas down by 14 points. Then Tony Romo decided to embrace Christianity. And we all know what Lions do to Christians…
• Tonight’s Sunday Night Football match had all the features. Lots of touchdowns, like you’d expect in a good professional game. It’s just none of the touchdowns came from the offense. They all came from the teams’ defenses or special teams. And this wasn’t a low-scoring affair. It has been said that offense sells the tickets, but it’s actually the defence that wins the games. Tonight was no exception.