My HTC Infatuation

There is so much to blog about regarding HTC, and I don't know where to start, aside from the beginning, of course. I love HTC phones. I don't know what it is, but anything made by HTC gets the "Thumbs Up" in my book. My first encounter with HTC was my trusted G1, and though I have dropped it numerous time, it's outdated, and I'm ready for an update, this phone has stood the test of time.

The screen has no scratches on it, but the rest of the body shows signs of brutal treatment. Honestly, if I was that bothered by the dents and dings, I'd just get myself a case. My problem is that they don't make any damn body kits for phones with extended batteries, so whatever.

But HTC has always impressed me with their phones, and when the Nexus One came out, that pretty much sealed the deal in my book.

Maybe not in your book, but whatever, I don't want to read your book anyway. First up is a site I check often, HTC Source, which is a good resource for HTC, WM and Android news.

I'm going to jump right into it and say that the TMo US version of the HTC HD2 would seriously be the phone that makes me leave Android. I may just have stat shock, but compared to the 528 MHz | 256 MB of ROM | 192 MB of RAM my G1 has, the 1 GHz | 1 GB of ROM | 576 MB of RAM on the US HD2 looks to be a monster. I love the form factor. They made it slim enough so that the screen DWARFS the damn phone.



The only downside is Windows Mobile, but allegedly, the specs are increased to account for WM7. I'd just load a custom ROM on it anyway, but the Dev community for Android is so much more dynamic that I'd have a hard time looking away.

I'll probably get over this phase though, since it's simply more practical for me to use Android due to the fact that my life is so immersed with Google functionality, and I love the flexibility of the platform.

I'll probably wait for a nicer phone to come out for Android, but at the moment, my requirements for my next phone will be at least 512 MB of RAM, 512 MB of ROM, 1 GHz processor and 480 X 800 screen. At this point in my life, I've given up on Qwerty Keyboards for Android phones, because I'll do form over function. I've resolved to just get a Blackberry for BBM texting and all that fancy stuff, and use an Android phone for data and ROM flashing.

So yeah, Blackberry as my main phone and Android as my "I feel like having fun" phone. You know, cause Blackberry's are for adults and stuff, duh.

According to this leaked HTC Roadmap, the next HTC phone to feature 480 x 800 resolution is codenamed "HTC Supersonic", and allegedly it'll run Android 2.1, so we shall see.

Regardless, it's time to start researching 3G Blackberry phones, lol.

I Give Up On The Democratic Party

Because they're a bunch of pussies.

I haven't watched the State of the Union, but the aftermath of the Massachusetts Senate election and the opinions on the left and the right just irritate me. Never have I had less faith in ourselves as a country.

The Fizzle Award of January goes to the Democratic Party.

Special mention, of course, goes to the Republican Party for thwarting change and being xenophobic, ignorant, oblivious and selfish.

I'm going to also throw Obama in that pile because he makes me angry, but I'll make a separate post for the State of the Union.

Pancakes with Syrup Traps

Their drowning victory over the denizens of Pancak'nistan now a glowing ember from the flames of a brutal war, the demonous leaders of Syrutopia plotted their next move.

Even though their Lygar Dragons patrol the skies, they will be unable to prevent the storm of fury that the last descendant of Empress Jemima and her royal lineage is bringing.

The Waffle Samurai is back to take his throne.

Girl Scout Cookies

What would you be willing to do for a lifetime supply of Caramel DeLites? Me? I'd give up every single one of my friends. I'd sell my parents into indentured servitude. I'd be celibate for the rest of my life.

Americans bought over 200 million boxes of Girl Scout Cookies last year. This is one aspect of our gluttony that I talked about previously that actually gets put to use.

Heck yeah, it's Thursday

Going to be doing some minor modifications to the Blog.

I have this feature called "Reactions" enabled, and I only have 4 there. I'm willing to take suggestions on what people would like to see below. Also, how's the logo? Too plain? Not enough colors? Don't like the text? Well me neither, but it took me a couple minutes in GIMP, so deal with it.

Also, it's tax time. My friend Yvonne has a nifty blog called But Now What, and it's a pretty nifty resource of things to do with your life after college. The latest entry talks about tax returns, and BNW has partnered with someone that'll be giving free tax advice, but only until next week. Check out the site at www.butnowwhat.com.

My fellow Greek Cassie has a blog that I simply ADORE called Brenda Dynamite that I fully recommend all my peoples to read. Cassie has a pretty fancy Ivy League edumacation though, so you smarter folk might be able to appreciate her wit more than I can.

In case I haven't mentioned her before, my friend Erin's blog is SO AWESOME, especially her music selection. The only thing I don't like is that the wonderful music changes when I navigate around the different pages she has. It looks like the title (for this week at least, lol) is "The Ink of a Scholar", which is part quote from the prophet Muhammad wherein he says “The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr”. (Ren: For the record, I am not Muslim, and I do not believe that Erin is either.)

That's all the updates I have for this morning, more after work!

Surprise! America isn't Perfect

Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this entry are not an attack on America, but rather a criticism of the faults of its society as seen by the author. The author does not claim to be an expert in this field of sociology, and is merely putting together observations from their limited life experience. The author wishes to convey that the criticism conveyed in this entry is merely out of love for America in the hopes that the few people who come across this post might be influenced or inspired to change themselves, their community and/or their country for the better.

Furthermore, if you're seriously that offended, at least have the decency to navigate away from the page and go about your life instead of giving me grief about why there is a stick up your bum.

Everyone in this country has an opinion, and we usually think that everyone who doesn't think like us is wrong.

From the time we're kids, we're taught "Clean your plate" and "Think of the starving kids in Africa" and "Don't waste food". I totally disagree with this method of thinking for a number of reasons.

I was at Applebee's with my lady the other week, and I ordered a regular salad and the appetizer platter. The meal came out to about $22 dollars, and we had enough to bring home and snack on the next day (Ren: For the record, that Apple Walnut Grilled-Chicken Whatever The Heck It Is Salad at Applebee's should be illegal for being so damn delicious).

I eat at Applebee's often since it is right around the corner from my girlfriend's house, and I know from prior dining experiences that they serve hefty portions in their meals. If I was to order an appetizer, an entree and a dessert, I'd definitely have way too much food to eat in one sitting.

Three courses probably work in European countries as a meal, but with American-sized portions, it's a waste of food. Honestly, there's no way I have room for a pasta after having Honey BBQ Wings, Mozzarella Sticks and an immensely unnecessarily large salad.

In many cases across the country, however, it all gets eaten. In America, we have a problem with moderation, we have a problem with excess, and we have a major problem with portion control. Simply put, we see something on our plate, and we eat it.

We see something in a package, and we eat it. Does anyone except me realize that most store-bought drinks contain servings for TWO people? That 16 oz Snapple® is supposed to be shared with another person, damnit. (Ren: Social experiment. Go up to someone in public and ask them to split their soda with you because they're only supposed to have 8 oz, and see what happens). Worse yet, some SODAS some in 21 oz, which is about 2 and a HALF servings.

I have a bag of Lays® potato chips sitting on my desk, and the damn thing says "Serving size 1 oz (about 15 chips)". Then on the line below it, it says "Servings Per Container: About 11".

In one afternoon of sitting at my desk and watching TV, I just half this damn bag. At 190 calories a serving, I just gave myself 1140 or so calories in JUNK, when I'm supposed to have a 2500 calorie a day diet. Now, even though I'm a sensible person, many people would eat the whole damn bag, have it with some soda or ice cream or a Twinkie® or some other method of Diabetes Injection™.

This blog is long overdue: I wanted to write it since Thanksgiving, a perfectly American Holiday. A Holiday where we give thanks by eating as much as humanly possible, and sleeping it off. A Holiday where we celebrate by indulging in the sin of Gluttony, but hide it under being thankful for the companionship of the evening.

A Holiday that is oversexed in its own endeavors, quickly eclipsed by its overtime follow-up "Black Friday", where patrons line up as early as 10pm on Thursday to wait until 5am when they can get "deals" and such as 20% off some random electronic they probably didn't need anyway.

So to recap, in two days we over-eat and over-spend. One of these days is a National holiday, and most employers give both of them off, by the way. November quickly comes to an end, and then we, as the Greedy Americans we are, proceed to spend the rest of the month shopping. Shopping. Shopping. And Shopping. That's all December is; A ClusterF&$K to debt and unnecessarily trivial things.

But who am I to blame? We're America(ns), damnit, and we deserve bang for our buck. Spending only 4 dollars on a Big Mac is a bargain, so why not eat the whole damn thing? It's only 550 or so calories. Don't even mention the fries or the Coca-Cola®. Spending $8 on a platter at a restaurant is a steal, so we eat the whole thing. This perpetuates itself throughout our daily lives, and we end up exceeding our caloric intake and not working it off.

Obesity In America reports that "Between 1980 and 2000, obesity rates doubled among adults. About 60 million adults, or 30% of the adult population, are now obese."

Wow. Give it a wig, slap on some lipstick, and give Piggy Palin a kiss, because that's disgusting. No wonder sex sells; most people are buying into an image that they wish they had (Ren :Hmm, that's another post I'll probably not get to until around March).

Everywhere we eat, we get wagons of food shoved in our faces. We even have contests on July 4th to determine who the Hot Dog Eating Champion will be (Ren: Regardless of how angry I am in this post, I still feel that Joey Chestnut is an American Hero). "Eating" is a friggin sport, with sponsors and contracts

And we wonder why the rest of the planet hates us.

And then there is lovely capitalism. Granted, because of capitalism I can enjoy Sony® Playstation™, Dell® Laptops and the Apple® iPhone™, but our predisposition towards overconsumption tends to reflect in impulse purchases.

Americans Love Stuff, 'nuff said.

We love our stuff, and damnit, don't try to take it away. Don't tax us, don't bother us, and let us have our stuff (but also give us good governmental services and everything else we want).

I have no idea what the tax rate is in America, but it's not nearly high enough. We have too much stuff in our lives that we don't need, and Americans are only patriotic some of the time.

That's truly why I hate America(ns). The xenophobic mentality that anything foreign is wrong and the hoarding of everything from food to natural resources is really why everyone else hates us as well.

What's the point of this blog other than pointing out the obvious? Well some Republican in Massachusetts won the Senate seat that was left vacated by the late Senator Ted Kennedy, and now Health Care won't exist anymore, so I'm getting out all my preemptive anger now.

I hate the Republicans for their ignorance and I hate the Democrats for their arrogance. I hate that I live in a country with the lowest average life age of all industrialized nations. I hate the fact that there are still people in this country so ignorant in their convictions that they believe lies and debauchery, and don't hold anyone accountable for much anymore.

I have no faith in politics, I have no faith in my government to do what it needs to do to protect me and ensure my health and safety, and I have no faith in the vast majority of the people that live in this country.

Americans don't want to be taxed cause we like our stuff, and we expect things to just work. This country hasn't sacrificed since World War II, the overwhelming majority of this country takes showers too often and for too long, wastes food, wastes water, drives around too much and too far with too few people, doesn't care about anything outside of their locus of knowledge and in general thinks everything is ok.

Obama said a couple years ago that we have to make sacrifices, and 20 people listened to him. Don't start complaining now.

Computer Maintenance

This blog post is inspired by something I tweeted earlier in the evening:

"Some of ya'll need to treat your genitals like I do my computer: Protect yourself around unfamiliar files/sites and frequently virus scan."

Your computer is a living and breathing thing. But it doesn't respond to language.

What that means is that you need to care and maintain your device, but yelling and banging on it won't result in a response.

You'd hate it if you had an STD, right? Well treat your computer with the same respect!

Website I Found Entirely Too Late

I definitely bookmarked this last week but I never got around to reading anything on it.

SIGH......

TwoOfUs.org

For the record, I'm an inconsiderate jackass with bad time management and messed up priorities.

-RTJ

Blog Status

Per the insight of my good buddy Snipes McGee, I will try to be as meaningful as I can with these blogs. While I'm not here to give advice or try to convert anyone to the Tao of Ren, I do feel that I might have a certain brand of insight that I am eager to share (with anyone willing to read).

As Snipes so eloquently put it, "Daily blogs just become SuperTwitter after a while... And people's ideas are, most times, more interesting than people's lives."

Well spoken, sir.

As of earlier this summer I stopped playing Final Fantasy XI. Matter of fact, once FFXIV was announced, I finally didn't feel bad about giving up. I was going to anyway, but the announcement of FFXIV just helped further my cause.

As it was, I was just doing Dynamis and Sky, and I didn't really care about gear from either. I was broke, no good at working the market and bored with the pacing of the game. Also, I was at the very peak of what I could be as a player without gear, and being as how I'm allergic to end-game and too lazy to solo, it didn't leave many options.

So while I will fondly remember my time as a Tarutaru Red Mage and a Bulletproof Paladin, I won't be revisiting any Vana'diel adventure soon. Besides, there are a ton more FFXI blogs out there, written by people who have accomplished a ton more, so Google them shits, son.

I most likely will go back to writing stories, and I'll try to keep them in a separate section as soon as I figure out how to finagle a bagel Blogger like that.

-RTJ

Seasons of Life

I haven't had an easy year.

My accident, the decline of my relationship, my suspension from school, the non-existence of funds, my abysmal grades, my inability to commit to pretty much anything and the laughable trust that my word seems to have.

There have been many times when I really didn't feel like getting out of the bed. I extend my condolences to any of the people out there who truly suffer from depression, because this small iota of what I'm experiencing is almost unbearable.

I am broke, I haven't been able to afford a haircut or groceries, I don't have a job, I haven't been to the gym, I'm out of shape..

I feel like such a scrub. Most days I don't even want to get out of the bed.

I deleted my Twitter account over the weekend.

I doubt anyone is going to care, because I know I sure as hell don't.

I had a girlfriend. We had our problems, but she's a great person. The reason our relationship declined is pretty much 100% my fault because she truly tried to go above and beyond while I didn't step up to the plate.

I'm an inconsiderate jackass and I'm incapable of maintaining a prolonged relationship.

I see no point in praying about this, or asking for some sort of strength or wisdom, or believing that this small speedbump in my life is a part of a grander scheme. Ya see, I'm not religious.

Sure, I have a feeling that there might be some sort of higher power, but I firmly believe that whoever that believer is, they don't care about the personal prayers of someone who is a small part of a population of 6 billion in a Universe that stretches and expands faster than we can calculate.

Therefore, it's truly ironic that the best bit of insight I have comes from a sermon I attended when I was home some time ago.

On this fair planet, we experience four main seasons, and these seasons are synonymous with the harmonies and discords that occur in our life. While we may enjoy the new developments and opportunities that the Spring brings in addition to the prosperity and liveliness of the Summer, we try to avoid the fall, so to speak, of Autumn.

Everyone would like to appreciate things when times are good, and scramble to avoid the bad, but as is the nature with these cycles, there are two parts. What is important to realize is that the Autumn and Winter periods in our lives are not necessarily bad.

When things are crumbling apart, and the chips are stacked against us, it is extremely overwhelming. This part, however, is important, because it is the Autumn that prepares us for the rest that comes in the Winter.

This resting period is a time of reflection and a time of planning. It is during the Winter where we can sit back and take inventory of our lives, and figure out what we need in order to be successful.

Is is the rest of the Winter that prepares us to jump into Spring, revitalized with energy, motivation and the drive to succeed.

At least, that's how I understand the sermon. Paster Bernard tied that into how it's God's work and such, but I listened to it as it pertains to me, such is the nature of sermons.

Then he also asked if anybody didn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ and I respectfully stayed in my seat.

I have a lot of things I need to work on. I lost a good woman, my grades suck, and I'm unemployed and feeling like a scrub. I still have my friends, and most importantly, my health, so I can't be too down on myself.

Things suck, yeah, but they're not hopeless. Perhaps in my fall from Facebook and in the Twilight of my Twitter account, I will be able to reconnect with people and become a better person in the process.

Even if not, I'll try my best.

-RTJ

Update [10/29]:

Me and her are working things out. She's coming to visit me on the 31st and will be staying with me for about a week or so.

Reflection is the best therapy?

I am gracious for her forgiveness.