Censoring the Censor

Holy moly. Has it really been months since I’ve updated this thing? Well, I can believe it.

I had to at least get this post written so I could say I’ve taken a step to getting back into this blog of mine (which is almost a year old, by the way!), but this post isn’t going to be the crème de la crème post you might be hungering for. Trust me, that’ll be coming soon.

I’ll expand on this tomorrow (or in a few days). Until then!

Exercising Compassion

Something happened to me not long ago that brings into sharp focus the tough times people are going through. I was at the store, grabbing some food to make because my girlfriend hasn’t eaten in a while and has a bad headache. As I’m walking out to my car, there’s a woman, maybe in her mid-40s, standing in the middle of the parking lot, a red-and-green Easter basket in her hand, filled with some sort of shiny contraptions. She’s humbly dressed in red, green, and black garb.

The look on her face is that of a gentle helplessness. I know she wants something, and we all know how awkward those situations are. It’s probably why so many people don’t even acknowledge the presence of a homeless person on the corner.

“Excuse me, hun. Would you like to buy a Christmas ornament my kids made? We’re trying to raise some money for food.”

“I’m so sorry. I don’t have any cash on me.”

“God Bless you, honey.”

I got into my car, headed into the rush hour traffic, and started my slow crawl back home. As the time passed, and seconds turned into minutes, I started asking myself questions.

Why didn’t I go back inside and get cash back? Hell, there was an ATM behind her. Why didn’t I go withdraw some cash? Why have I resolved to so passively and glibly stand by?

I got home and started some food for my girlfriend, but I couldn’t get that woman’s words out of my head.

We’re trying to raise some money for food.

Food. This wasn’t the local band washing cars for their spring field trip, nor was it some club basketball team trying to pay for transportation to playoffs. It was about food. Think about it.

Food.

It’s something so many of us take for granted, food and drink. Sustenance. And here was this nice, middle-aged woman who didn’t have enough to eat not only for herself, but her family. The thought of it reduced me to tears.

She was trying to raise money, not simply ask for it. She didn’t have a sign, she wasn’t on a corner, she was trying to offer something worth people’s money. Little, glitter-covered trinkets her kids made. She was going about it as fairly and nobly as she could.

The weight of her words hung around my neck. I felt guilty for not helping her. Ashamed. So I grabbed some cash that was laying around the apartment and raced back to the store.

I drove around the whole parking lot, but I didn’t see her. I checked the fast food joint’s parking lot, but she wasn’t there, either. I went inside the store and combed the isles, one-by-one, looking for that small-statured, kind woman. She wasn’t inside.

I’d missed the mark.

The perfect opportunity to exercise compassion, to help someone out, and I blew it.

I find it ironic that this happened today of all days, both on the cusp of December, a month marked by charity, gift-giving, and good will towards men, and the end of November, a month wholeheartedly categorized as one of giving thanks. Thanks for health, family, friends, anything. And even as I type that, I wonder, did that woman’s family have a nice dinner?

I’m not a religious man, though I am somewhat spiritual, and at the risk of sounding preachy, I have to say this: exercise compassion.

So many of us are in a good spot right now. We obsess over our shiny new toys. A new webcam, new, high-quality headphones, the latest and greatest smartphone. We wonder how we’ll pay for them, or, in the case of some, don’t even wonder. The money is there. Hundreds upon hundreds of dollars spent. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But while some of us can buy things that we like, others can’t even have their needs met, and they need help. I’m not saying don’t buy your shiny toy, and I’m not even saying feel guilty for being able to. What I am saying is be aware that people need help, and if you’re like me, you can give even a little to help them out.

Religion aside, dogma aside, I think we owe it to ourselves to be compassionate to one another. Everyone needs a little help getting up sometimes. Maybe some of you have been there. Maybe some of us will be there and just don’t know it yet. Regardless, when you’re there, I think the help is appreciated.

There’s so much that can be done, too. Give food to your food bank. Donate to the Salvation Army and their legion of bell-ringers this month. Serve food at a homeless shelter and put a face with the idea of being down on your luck. Or buy from a lady selling ornaments in the parking lot.

Whatever you do, I implore you, I entreat you, do something, especially when you’re given the chance to.

Be compassionate. Don’t miss the mark.

It sucks.

Android Pint Glasses are here!

Android pint glasses have arrived! Due to the overwhelmingly positive response we got on Google+, I’ve made a makeshift shopping hub out of this site, just until a full website goes up. (I’m thinking www.androidetch.com, for now.)

If you’re interested in buying an Android pint glass, just use this simple widget on the right of the screen with the big “Add to cart” button on it. You can order as many as you want in a batch and USPS handles the shipping price. It looks like it’s $4.80 minimum, and then it jumps to $4.97 if you order two, so not too bad. It’s done by weight and distance from where we’re at, but for folks on the far coasts, no one has passed $8 in shipping yet, so still, not too bad!

Hope everyone enjoys the glasses and if this looks like it is going well, we’ll be sure to roll out other things (like coffee cups/mugs!) that people are asking for.

Happy hunting!

- Josh

Why growing up in the 90s rocked: TV

To borrow a line from something I wrote a few months back, “I swear, July is just one of those months. It’s long, everyone gets really busy, the temperatures are horrible, and I don’t write.” Switch out July for September and it still holds true. I won’t get too far into why, just chalk it up to school being busy and lots of marching rehearsals.

Despite all of that, I still find time to get nostalgic about my childhood and the 90s. I say the 90s because really, growing up the in the 90s rocked. Television had no shortage of awesome shows to watch, both live action and cartoon. Before school, after school, or evenings on Friday (anyone remember the TGIF shows?), you could always find something everyone enjoyed that usually had a good message.

Doing some research also helped me to discover a trend among TV show intros: in the 90s, the electric guitar ruled. Four out of the five shows I’ve chosen not only have electric guitar in their intro song, but feature it at some point. Like shredding solos and melting faces. All of this for a cartoon!

Now that I’ve gotten my little spiel out of the way, here are five reasons why TV rocked so hard in the 90s.

5.) Spider-Man

The 90s felt like the Golden Age of Comics on TV, and Spider-Man fell right into that groove. Having never read a comic in my life, I quickly got caught up on the entire Spider-Man mythos, learned about his enemies, and essentially became a huge comic book nerd by proxy. I was even Spider-Man for Halloween once. (Gabby was a hippie.)

Also take note of the excellent electric guitar playing in the background, accompanied by “Spider-Man, Spider-Man, radioactive Spider-Man” in a pseudo-autotuned voice. When did autotuning become cool? When T-Pain did it?

Spider-Man, so ahead of its time.

4.) X-Men

Continuing the trend of incredible comics-turned-90s-cartoons is X-Men. I don’t even know how to get into this one. I remember that both Spider-Man and the X-Men were on Fox Kids, which was channel 13 for us. To this day I don’t know if channel 13 was supposed to be a cable-only channel or if our reception was bad, but I’d fiddle with the rabbit ears (did I just date myself?) everyday after school until the static was clear enough for me to watch both those shows.

Anyway, check out this intro. Starts off with strings, so we think we’re getting something orchestral, and then… BOOM! Enter the electric guitar. Add in some cheesy effects, like every X-Men having their name appear behind them in silver or gold, the dramatic stare down between Professor X and Magento (head-tapping and fist-pumping? Come on!), or the fact that the X-Men crashing into the Brotherhood of Mutants results in an explosion that spells the X-Men logo in metal (adamantium, anyone?) and I don’t know how you don’t have the epitome of 90s cartoon design.

2.) Batman: The Animated Series

I’ll admit, I copped out with a two-way tie for second place. Between Batman: The Animated Series (also known as The Adventures of Batman & Robin) and my other choice, there’s no clear winner. With Batman, you get pretty much the only dark, gritty show of the happy-go-lucky 90s, at least for chilluns. The art style is aggressive and ominous, plus you finally get an intro without electric guitar.

In fact, I’ve got to commend whoever worked on this show for opting to go full orchestra. That was a pretty sweet touch. And what else made this show awesome? Maybe the fact it won three Emmys, had Luke Skywalker Mark Hamill voice the Joker, and is probably the most influential Batman media next to the comics themselves.

And just watch that intro and tell me you don’t get excited. He’s shadowy, he’s shadowy, they show his eyes, he beats up bad guys, and then dramatic lightning.

2.) Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers

I’m not even going to go into how influential Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was on me growing up. I absolutely adored that show. LOVED it. Instead, let’s just break down the intro so everyone can how ridiculous creative and epic it was.

What are two astronauts doing on the moon in the 90s? Did we believe so much in the shuttle program back then? And better yet, if you saw a giant canister/trash can/barrel on the moon with a suspicious looking stone cover on it, would you open it? After opening it, what ever happened to those two people?

Oh man, Rita Repulsa. Don’t get me started on the outfit. Why was she in a space dumpster? And for 10,000 years? How did she know? What she keeping track? Why does the camera pan so dramatically to Earth?

My biggest issue: The criteria for the Power Rangers is that they are “teenagers with attitude.” I’m assuming Zordan meant sassy, stomping bad guy attitude, not the kind of attitude that walks away with their magic belt buckle and then tries to take over the world.

Why belt buckles? Belt buckles aren’t cool now and I know they weren’t cool in the 90s. I mean, I got a toy one for Christmas, but it’s not like I ever wore it outside or anything.

Also, Billy was totally my favorite ranger. Why’d they make him such a doofus in the TV show, but in the Power Rangers movie, he’s ripped as all get out? He obviously knows martial arts and despite being the “nerdy” one, he doesn’t need to act like an incompetent nobody fighting Putties (they’re season 1 Putties, for cryin’ out loud!).

What ever happened to Zordan? Or Bulk? I know the guy who played Skull has his PhD in something. Read it on Wikipedia.

And let’s not forget that the theme song is nothing but electric guitar and the show’s name about 40 times.

1.) Pokémon

Of it all, Pokémon takes the cake. There are almost no words. Pokémon was elementary school and middle school, plus a card game, some sweet games on N64, link cables and setting your Game Boy down on the table just right so the trade would go through. It was also pleasant, good-natured cartoons on Saturday morning and eventually after school.

Bumbling Team Rocket, always a source of entertainment. Ash is perpetually what, 11, 12 years old? And he’s short. If you look at him compared to Lt. Surge, Surge is twice his height. Assuming Ash is 4′ something, that makes Surge at least 8 feet tall.

The theme song is electric guitar heavy, but at least there’s real lyrics. In the full song, there’s a pretty sick synth/guitar lick that’s wicked fast. I know that because yes, I bought the “Enhanced CD” 2.B.A.Master.

Remember Enhanced CDs? Pop it in your Windows 95 computer and it’ll give you extra content. In this case, a PokéRap video. And boy, could I even spit that rap out. Like a master, some might say.

Plus there was Misty and Brock and Professor Oak, a PokéDex that had a weird voice that changed every season, badges, badges, badges. I don’t know how Ash kept getting those badges with as sidetracked as him and his friends would get.

Man, Pokémon was legit. And the 90s rocked.

And you are? – Identity in the digital age: Me

Online identity means a lot to me. I’ve thought about how to approach it frequently, and thanks to two blog posts I’ve read, I’m talking about it. Simply put, why do we approach our online identity in different ways?

Some people go the route of total anonymity for whatever reason, while others fully embrace their digital self being the same as their “real world” self. As for me, I started as the former but gradually migrated to the latter.

A little background on me: I’m a music education major working on my last year of school. Something that’s been stressed to me since forever (at least high school) is that you’ve got to have a clean record. No, not just criminally, but online as well. I’m sure this is something everyone is aware of, as people losing their job because of a misplaced Facebook photo tend to get great media coverage.

It seemed especially important, wanting to go into education, that I made the right moves. People already aren’t fond of the overpaid, underworked, lazy, tenured teachers (separate rant, I digress), so I figured keeping a squeaky clean record couldn’t hurt. At least it doesn’t give parents or administrators extra ammunition to try and remove you.

For a long time (think, up until last April, right about the time I started writing for Android Central), I was incredibly aware of my online presence. I stayed low-key, used a single pseudonym, and made sure I never very rarely said anything inflammatory, lest it could get traced back to me. I worked hard to have no online identity, Googled my name to see what would come up, and tried to have as small a footprint as possible.

The plan worked. As far as online searches were concerned, I didn’t really exist. I was pretty ok with that, because it meant I wasn’t jeopardizing future job chances and stuff. But then I started wondering, what if I did the exact opposite of what I’d been doing? What if I totally embraced online media, a social identity, and had it be who I really am?

This way I could control the flow of information coming out of my camp, I wouldn’t have to worry about some other fool with my name mucking up search results, and I could tailor my image as I saw fit. On total impulse, I bought this domain name for $4.99 and began my experiment.

Right around that time, I also started writing for Android Central. This accelerated everything a bit because I was writing for a high-traffic website using my real name. Writing for Android Central actually forced my hand a bit, because it made me commit to using my real name on the internet. No pretend name, no alias, no pseudonym. It was out there for everyone to see (and will probably remain in Google’s cache for a long, long time).

Because of writing, I started using Twitter. My username there, @joshmunoz, is my real name. Granted, it’s not my full name, but that’s because @joshuamunoz was taken. Initially, I didn’t tweet often, but in the past month or so, I’ve picked up. Do I say anything bad? Of course not. Usually it’s just banter about Android or talking with someone I don’t normally have access to.

Soon after Twitter, I got invited to Google+. I already use my real name on my Google profile, so TOS issues skipped me right over. Again, because of my position at Android Central, lots of people added me. It’s awesome because there’s always people to engage with in dialogue, but at the same time, I always need to be mindful of what I’m saying. To interact with those folks means my posts are public, and if they’re public, anyone can see them.

Now I’m on all sorts of different social networks. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, even Foursquare. I’ve linked my Gravatar profile to my Disqus profile and have my WordPress site on both. I even put up Gowalla, just for kicks.

I sometimes wonder if this could backfire on me and will put me in the exact situation I’m trying to prevent. I’m definitely out there now. On Klout, I finally hit a score of 50. Google my name and (as of this writing) six of the 10 links on the first page are about me. The top link is my LinkedIn profile. Two out of the four images are me, too.

I think it’s to my benefit, though. Nothing out there is bad. I’m still especially mindful of what I say, even more now that my name isn’t hidden behind the digital curtain.

I heard someone talk about the “Friend, Mother, Boss” rule and if you follow that with your alternate identity, you should be fine. I definitely subscribe to that (and even censor myself some) when I’m posting on Google+ or Twitter. The way I see it, if there’s something crass I’d say to friends, I might as well just text them instead of broadcasting it for the whole world.

The internet is public space, in my opinion, and I treat it like such. That being said, I’ve found embracing my identity online to be both liberating and fun. It’s nice to control who I am, no matter where my name happens to be. I know some people aren’t afforded that luxury.

To the Anons out there, the next one’s for you.

So, my sister is engaged.

I don’t even know how to get into this one, really. Most of you probably weren’t aware I have a sister (she’s a year older than me), but we’re super close and she’s one of my best friends ever, and probably the best sibling I could have asked for. Anyway, after being with her boy for five years, she’s engaged.

I won’t get into all the how he did it (with a crossword puzzle/jumble thing) or how she had her suspicions. I just thought it fitting to write about it, because this is pretty heavy stuff. I’m also super appreciative I was way in the loop prior to the proposal and all that, because I specifically requested to know before her relationship status changed on Facebook.

Fortunately for all of us, her boyfriend fiancé had had all of the parents, his/her best friends, and me and my girlfriend up to date before anything happened. Noble even kept me updated when he was looking at rings, when he’d picked a ring, when the date he wanted to propose was on his best friend’s wedding, etc. It was awesome.

For the post-engagement celebration, everyone met up at Chuy’s for hours of talking, eating, and hanging out. Twas awesome.

I’ve put up a gallery of photos from the night off on the gallery page, but know I didn’t take a single shot. That was all my dad and his trusty SLR (a Nikon, I think).

Overall, Wednesday was probably one of the most joyful nights I could have imagined. Noble and Gabby are absolutely made for one another and I couldn’t think of a couple more suited for one another.

For my sister’s take on it all, check it out here.

Google + Motorola Part 2: Wild Speculation Edition

Alright, I know I promised the Google/Motorola post would be up by Tuesday, so I kind of dropped the ball. My bad! Anyway, I’ll just jump right into it.

Some of this is sheer speculation on my part (that others ended up bringing up, as well) and some of it comes from a post about the whole Nortel patent thing. Looking at the Google/Motorola acquisition, three big points comes to mind.

1.) Google had this planned out way in advance, and played the fool on the Nortel bids to drive up the price

This isn’t really my thought at all, but it bears repeating. For the original post about it, see RealDan’s blog. In a nutshell, Dan purports that Google bid those crazy prices (Brun’s constant, Meissel-Mertens constant, and pi) to artificially drive up the price of the Nortel patents and force the consortium to overpay.

Did Google ever plan on winning? Maybe. But the group of people working against them (of which Apple and Microsoft are leading the charge) wanted to keep Google’s pockets empty, and they knew that. So ever higher the price went.

Dan’s evidence for his speculation? The idea that you just don’t pull big, $12.5 billion mergers together overnight. He says all signs point to Google and Motorola working this out for a while, maybe even before Google went into the Nortel bidding process.

If that’s true, Google knew they were going to be getting some patents regardless, so even if they did win the Nortel bid, they’d just have more patents to protect themselves with. Google wins no matter what, and, having lost the Nortel bid, gets to laugh all the way to their patent-filled fortress at the idea they drove the price up so much.

2.) Motorola Mobility makes set-top boxes, and thus Google has an easy way to raise Google TV adoption

If this is totally off-base, let me know, ASAP. I actually started off by asking on Google+ if Motorola Mobility makes the set-top boxes or if the other company does.

From what I gathered, that’s still MMI, and if Moto Mobility somehow works the Google TV stuff into their set-top boxes (and therefore removed the need for a separate box), that’d be awesome. I’m not very inclined to know what they’d have to do to make that happen, but it would certainly put Google in a powerful position in the home.

Granted, you’d have to then start bundling some of those ridiculous controller/keyboard contraptions with every new box, plus you’d need to include some instructions, but the cost-to-benefit ratio seems off the charts.

3.) Google wants to go the Apple route by controlling the hardware and the software

I have a hard time believing this one, but between Google actually buying out Motorola Mobility and Cyanogen getting hired by Samsung, I guess anything can happen.

Some people have speculated that Google wants to try and cut down on the number of mediocre Android devices on the market by controlling the hardware and software, which starts with Motorola. But making sure the hardware is always top-notch and runs the software without issue, Google could effectively cut out some of the fragmentation people are always QQ’ing about, but at the cost of alienating their other partners.

I don’t see this being the case because it would make all of the “they’re going to still run mostly independently” thing a sham, and I’m not sure Google would want to risk that sort of negative PR with the public, outright lying and all.

Some folks have also speculated Google wants to try and beat Apple at their own game by first clamping down on fragmentation, then building up a series of Google-branded stores where they sell their special Google merchandise exclusively (I assume phones, tablets, and Chromebooks would all make the cut). I don’t see it happening and I’ll leave it at that.

4.) Google is looking to protect Android… from Motorola?

This one is the most out there, and I definitely cooked it up myself. I’ll admit, I’m pretty sure it’s insane and not accurate, but after seeing an article suggesting Motorola (Mobility) might charge licensing fees to other Android manufacturers, it remains a slim possibility.

Obviously Google is looking to acquire patents, and rightly so, with all the patent trolls running around all willy-nilly. Would the Big G end up paying $12.5 billion just to keep Moto from hurting Android’s other OEMs? Probably not.

But what about getting the patents plus the added bonus of keeping Moto from putting even more hurt on the other OEMs? Maybe. I still think it’s probably the weakest of the four points, (yes, even weaker than the Google Store idea), but even if it wasn’t Google’s intention, they’ve inadvertently prevented Motorola from doing that anyway.

Everyone seems so excited (that is, other OEMs) about Google’s “commitment to defending Android,” and while that mostly seems like canned responses from everyone (because they are), could Google be protecting everyone else from more licensing fees?

So there you have it. Wild speculation from not only myself, but some of the other tin-hat wearers progressive thinkers (ha!) out there.

Agree? Disagree? Sound off.

Google + Motorola: The shot heard round the (tech) world

If you’re reading this, you’re probably as surprised as I am. (Here’s a hint: Google + Motorola.) I woke up to use the restroom this morn and I was greeted with my Gmail inbox blowing up over the fact that Motorola Mobility was just bought out by Google. With the little information we’ve got, it’s time to speculate just what this could me for Motorola, Google (and by extension, Android), and the end result for the consumer.

Let’s start with what we know for sure: Google is acquiring Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion dollars. This is significant for two reasons, one of which is Google is now in the hardware business, but more on that later.

Motorola Mobility has an extensive patent portfolio, something most of the other Android OEM’s (and Google, as well), don’t have. As a result, Moto was keenly poised to protect themselves from the onslaught of litigation surrounding every Android candybar and tablet released, and at one point, sounded like they were going to charge licensing fees to other Android OEM’s, too.

That might have made sense for Moto, as their newest phones (the Photon 4G and the Droid 3) weren’t moving units like HTC’s and Samsung’s latest stuff, but would have ended up hurting the Android ecosystem much worse than all of the lawsuits from our least favorite fruit-themed company.

With this acquisition, Google now owns the patent portfolio, and you can be sure they don’t plan to charge fees to other Android manufacturers. If their aim is to truly “supercharge Android,” stifling other companies with fees wouldn’t be the way to do it. I’d bet money, however, that Google won’t be afraid to use this newfound patent muscle to toss a more protective umbrella over all companies working with Android.

And speaking of Android, let’s not forget that Moto makes hardware, so now Google does, too. Google has always been quick to point out that they don’t do hardware, they just closely oversee things, but that’s done now. Even if Moto Mobility still runs largely as its own entity, Google is calling those shots, now.

How will that translate into phones for us, though? Hopefully it means a little bit better hardware design along with a new, improved UI. Phones like the Atrix (and it’s sibling, the Photon 4G) have been largely critcized for their unique design, with people asking where the smooth, rounded corners are. In a world of HTC, Samsung, and, dare I say it, Apple, the end consumer is fairly trained in what they think ”good” design is.

The one caveat to this is the (true) Droid line of phones. They were marketed as intense, hardcore, manly, cold, calculating pieces of awesome. Their design reflected that, with less-than-round corners and a sliding keyboard. With a fairly unchanged design even though the Droid 3, I doubt we’d see dramatic change for that line in particular.

For everything else, though, maybe Google will guide some creative decisions, eschewing the less mainstream designs to help Motorola actually move some product.

And what about Blur the UI formerly known as Blur? If I were to guess, I’d assume Google phases it out, if they don’t axe it suddenly and completely. On more than one occasion, Matias Duarte has mentioned how hard they’ve worked to make the vanilla Android experience so good people don’t need skins/UI over top of it, and now that Google is in the driver seat, perhaps it’ll finally be so.

And what about everyone’s favorite rumormill phone, the Nexus Prime? We know for a fact that Google has opted to use the TI OMAP 4 series to be the reference processor for Ice Cream Sandwich. The TI OMAP 4430 is already in the Droid 3 and the upcoming Droid Bionic. Could this deal help Motorola secure (or foreshadow) the inevitable Nexus Prime?

Maybe so. We know Motorola already has experience with the TI OMAP 4 (as does LG), and they haven’t manufactured a Nexus phone yet. OEM’s usually always have to capitulate to Google’s demands when they make a Nexus, so doesn’t it make sense that Google does their own Nexus, in-house?

Some of the rumors out in the interwebs would suggest that either Motorola or LG is/was making the latest Nexus, so with 50/50 odds coupled with this latest purchase, I wouldn’t be surprised to see MotoGoog end up being the Prime’s creator. Let’s just hope they drop the Pentile Matrix screen.

This is a huge move for Google and Motorola alike, and has huge ramifications for Android and the whole smartphone ecosystem over. With Google now in charge of hardware, they can start making some incredible (and hopefully stock) Android phones. With the war chest of patents Motorola Mobility owned, they can finally (and truly!) protect their OEM partners against Apple general patent trolls.

Just look at the outpouring of support from the other Android heads of state.

And this goes farther than just Android, too. Anyone remember WebM? Motorola owned Google owns a bunch of H.264 patents now, too.

Now things are going to get interesting.

Memories, or, what’s found unpacking

That’s a pretty ridiculous picture, I know. To be quite honest, I’m not even sure I’d seen it before we found it. Looking at it, I’d say I’m not older than two or three years old, but I can’t be sure.

Fun fact: I probably have more facial hair drawn on my face in that picture than I can actually grow on my own.

When I say found,  I mean found. Recently, my girlfriend and I moved ourselves into an apartment together. It’s been an interesting ordeal, having to sort through so much stuff.

For a long time, most of my things were in storage at the house I grew up in. Then my mom sold that house, so things went into storage at the new place, just waiting for us to move so she could unload them on me. Finally, we moved.

This gave us lots of my crap stuff to go sorting through, deciding what stays and what goes. I’m sure you’ve all been here before.

Most of it didn’t really bother me. Old things, things I had no attachment to but didn’t throw away or donate, etc. Then I stumbled upon a big, black plastic tub. I knew what was in it.

Beast Wars toys.

I was a huge Transformers nerd when I was growing up. (Un)fortunately for me, the actual Transformers franchise was on its way out, so Beast Wars were my “Robots in Disguise,” and boy, did I love them. I actually loved them enough to have so many of their toys you could fill up a big packing tub.

So that’s where we get to the meat of this. Memories came flooding back. I remember spending time at the K-Mart by our house (yes, K-Mart) scanning the toy aisle, up and down, looking for the latest soldier to add to my growing toy army.

I remember carefully, lovingly, mastering how to go from beast mode to robot mode, (and then, with the addition of transmetals, vehicle mode) so I could transform these guys in a snap.

Even moreso, I remember staging huge, complex battles on the wooden floors in the living room (or the limited floor space in my bedroom), pitting Maximal against Predacon in fight to the finish. I remember plastic rockets and oversized laser-shurikens flying through the air like they were born to be there. I remember fun.

It’s not fair to say I’d forgotten it. Talk about Transformers and I’ll inevitably think about Beast Wars. I think it’s more the fact nothing had forced it in my face, grabbed those memories in their utmost vivid detail, and dragged them to the forefront of my brain.

And I think that’s what moving does.

I think back to those days where all I had to worry about was finding all the pieces of a toy’s weapon and I miss it. No, not that cliche, “Things were so much easier a kid” feeling, but those specific, happy memories. I wouldn’t want to be a kid just to shirk all responsibility and get to screw around all the time, but I wouldn’t mind reliving some of those fierce battles.

Then we get to that picture. That’s a memory I don’t even have, but I still feel warmly about it.

My sister, wearing an absolutely hideous cat mask, and the same kind of half-smile I’ve seen her flash more than once in her life. Is it a combination of happiness and embarrassment? Who knows. A bow awkwardly placed in her hair, and one of those dresses every little has, it seems, with a billion and one flowers crammed onto every square inch of fabric.

My dad, blacker hair, a bit thinner, and glasses that are too big for his face. A geniuine smile, a father with his two little kids. A wedding band on his finger.

And me. Where to even start? A tilted top hat, probably plastic, probably the kind you get at a party store for New Year celebrations. A thickly drawn on curly mustache, complete with goatee. A gigantic blue bow on my shirt (was that part of the shirt standard or did it get tacked on as part of the costume?). The deadpan expression, not remotely indicative of the person I’d grow into.

Look at just my face and you can almost see that expression on a portly, middle-aged man. It’s good for a laugh.

But that’s it. I’m leaving this one out, too. If there’s one other thing I discovered alongside memories and reminiscing, it’s that I really hate unpacking.

Senseless ROM 1.1 for EVO 3D review

Alrighty, folks. For the betterment of mankind, I’ve relocated this post to Android Central, so it might reach a wider (and more appreciative) audience.

The article can be found here.

Rebranded, renamed, and embracing uncertainty

I know what you’re thinking. Two posts in two days? This is madness! Madness? This is Sparta! I guess I’ve finally found things worth writing about and the time to finally write about them. Yesterday’s post left a lot to be said, but rather than unload it all at once, I might as well break it up into multiple posts.

And yes, I made that image myself.

Like I mentioned last post, the blog’s name has changed. Why not 30 Days and Nights anymore? Quite simply, it was an idea that only lasted as long as its description. That is to say, 30 days didn’t last any longer than that.

It’s not that I didn’t like being spontaneous, it’s just that it ends up being more work than it’s worth. If that sounds boring or pessimistic, bear with me.

From what I’ve gathered, you need one of two things to be regularly spontaneous:

1. Time
2. Money

As boring or humdrum as it may sound, once I’ve found myself in a routine (especially one I enjoy), I don’t see the need to go out of my way and disrupt it. And that’s what being spontaneous feels like sometimes, a disruption. Couple that with the fact that I’d have to invest time (that I might already have committed elsewhere) and/or money (that I’m saving for all sorts of projects) and suddenly, spontaneity becomes not only a chore, but also an expense.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can focus on the new. Why ±1? How is that even pronounced? It’s pronounced “plus or minus one,” just how it looks. It’s derived from a few things, one of which is my disdain for uncertainty.

I really, really don’t like uncertainty. Not about small, piddly things, but definitely about big ones. No, not everything, and I don’t really obsess about it, but when thoughts about say, my career, come into my mind, I find the uncertainty unnerving.

I just like to plan. I’m a planner. I like covering all my bases, making sure everything is accounted for, because that usually gives you a pretty good idea about outcome. The kick in the rear comes from planning as you might and still having the possibility of being left in the lurch.

It definitely reminds me of the Joker speaking to Harvey Dent in the hospital, as Harvey’s on his way to becoming Two-Face.

The mob has plans, the cops have plans, Gordon’s got plans… You know what I’ve noticed? Nobody panics when things go “according to plan.” Even if the plan is horrifying!

I know the full quote makes things sound a bit more dramatic (insane?), but I love Batman, so it’s still the first thing that comes to mind.

So that brings me to “plus or minus one” and uncertainty! It’s a play on margins of error (or uncertainty) and also, a thinly veiled homage to Google’s +1 button.

Google has a juggernaut-in-waiting on their hands with Google+ (or so I think) and I pretty much enjoy all of their products, be them web-based, desktop applications, or mobile. ±1 is almost +1, and it sounds so similar, I think it’s hilarious.

As for margins of error, it’s just something I’m trying to embrace. Recently I had a talk with my dad about some stuff, mostly about things in the future, and how it was making my stomach turn, despite being so far away. He gave me more words of wisdom, as he always does, but closed with this, “This is an opportunity to be calm in the face of uncertainty… a valuable skill.”

So that’s my new focus, and if renaming my blog helps me keep that focus, I’ll do it. Uncertainty isn’t like spontaneity. I don’t have to work towards it for things to be any less nebulous, so it feels right.

And it’s just so close to sounding like +1.

Return to Facebook, stuck on Google+, and what is Klout?

I swear, July is just one of those months. It’s long, everyone gets really busy, the temperatures are horrible, and I don’t write. Sorry about that. Here’s the highlights from the past month:

My self-imposed exile from Facebook finally ended, and while I thought I’d be really excited, turns out it’s still one of the best decisions I’ve made. Facebook is noisy, bloated, and worst of all, ugly. I think I’ve only posted twice since I’ve returned. It really feels like a different experience.

Plus, Zuckerberg & Co. added this hideous monstrosity of a friend bar/instant feed thing. I’m not sure if all of you have seen it (I know for a fact it hadn’t gone into effect on my sister’s Facebook account), so here’s a link to it. (Normally I’d embed it in the post, but it’s just so damn tall, messes up all the formatting.)

What do we call that thing? FaceBar? FriendStreamThing? At any rate, I think it’s one of the worst ideas I’ve seen yet on Facebook, and that’s including Farmville.

The worst part about it? You can’t choose the people it selects for you to chat with. Using some proprietary stalker learning algorithm based on who you interact with (I assume), you get some unchangeable, unyielding, and unsightly pseudo-chat bar coupled with an even more real-time streaming thing. It’s like Frankenstein 2.0.

I think that’s why I’m still so enamored with Google+. It’s clean, there’s some really nifty little Chrome extensions that make it even better (Usability Boost for Google Plus comes to mind), and I can talk to the people I want, when I want to.

Well, that’s not entirely true, because so many people still aren’t on it. I’m glad some of the people who’ve been invited have sort of integrated it into their social lives, but most people I know aren’t even on Google+ yet. This makes me sad for myself, because invites have been given the green light, and there’s lots of you who I think would totally dig it. I mean, hey, 10 million isn’t bad, but if I don’t really know 9.9999999 million of them, Google+ still isn’t as fun as it could be.

And maybe I’m a little late to the party, but has anyone heard of Klout? I first heard of it because someone sent me some link so they could score free Spotify invites, but on a hunch, decided to investigate further. As it turns out, these guys are apparently a big deal in the social media arena, aggregating your total number of connections on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare, and from that, they calculate your influence.

I couldn’t even begin to guess how they do it, but I know people Liking posts, re-tweeting Tweets, and other things like that end up making you look “more influential” to their search engine’s cold, unfeeling eyes. There’s a number of categories you get labeled as, such as Socializer or Networker (both of which I’ve been in the two days I’ve been enrolled), as well as what I think is the most boss title ever, Thought Leader. Your Klout score goes up and down each day, and it’s supposed to give you an idea if you’re using social networking sites effectively.

Everyone has a Klout score (at least everyone who uses one of the social networking sites), so you’ve even got a number if you’re not signed up for the service. Signing up for Klout lets you hook up more social sites for it to poll, as well as opens up the opportunity of you being rewarded by companies with free stuff because they know you have sway over people. Wild, right?

Anyway, as you can no doubt tell from the image up top, my Klout score is 39.5 (half-point isn’t listed!), which tells me “You are effectively using social media to influence your network across a variety of topics.” My head’s still spinning, but I’ll take it.

Sorry for the long stretches between posts, I’ll try to be better about it. For you eagle-eyed readers, you also might have noticed the blog’s name change. More on that later.