So last week, for me, was one first world problem after another and it just wasn't a good time to be having one. Why? Because typhoon.
First, a few days before the typhoon, I decided to reset the Cherry mobile unit I use as a secondary phone, primarily for mobile Internet and for some apps that aren't compatible with or don't fit on the onboard storage of my main phone. I thought resetting would activate the many sensors I just discovered the phone had (thanks to Android Sensor Box) but weren't responding.
Then, the day before the typhoon, my mom's decade-old feature phone finally conked out and she asked to borrow mine. I lent her the keypad-enabled Alcatel unit I use as my main phone since she wasn't ready for full touchscreen yet. For some reason, I thought it was also a good idea to reset the damn thing to its factory settings.
And last, since both Gingerbread devices were out of commission, I had to use the agonizingly slow Acer phone that I use, along with my Acer tablet, mainly for apps that are only available to post-Gingerbread devices, particularly the native Google apps. See, I have this thing where I keep the Jelly Bean devices strictly on a Google diet. Even if Opera Mini, which I use on the Gingerbreads, is so much faster than Chrome.
Yes, I've turned Android into a hobby. I wouldn't say I'm addicted yet or that I need an intervention (or maybe I do) but I love the experience. I can discuss what I do with all these droids around me in another blog but for now I want to share this related photo I took as soon as the power was restored to the house.
Seriously, I began charging everything thinking we would lose power again. I wanted to post it on Instagram and caption it "The extent to which I'm allergic to boredom" or "My idea of disaster preparation". I ended up not posting the damn thing because: One, I myself found it tacky to post my excesses at a time when other people were likely suffering; and two, because I wasn't sure what sort of reaction I was soliciting by posting it. I didn't think it was funny, cute, interesting, or even urgent at all. I just found it telling of my lifestyle.
While the power was restored to our house midway through typhoon day, our connection to the ether was still severed and Globe and Sun services were spotty. The thing is that I really just wanted to rebuild the app list on the Cherry phone, which for some reason was snappier than the Acer, with the ones that I now consider essential: Feedly and Opera Mini. I didn't even need the games or social apps and everything else (Instagram, Pocket, Evernote) could just be added again later.
In a way, I'm glad I was disconnected from everything as it allowed me the time to finish another article AND the video for that birthday party I covered a couple of weeks ago. My problem was that being perpetually online has become one of my biggest distractions. To be fair, I just allow myself to be distracted when I have open deadlines (ie, none at all) and I'm just forcing myself to be productive. In this case, though, I think productivity, creativity, and inspiration were distractions from boredom, so it all worked out.
My biggest concern being disconnected last week, though, was I thought SDCC was last weekend and I might miss out on all the announcements, which was why I wanted Feedly back so bad. Turns out I was a week too early to fret but there were still news on the Marvel front, which I understandably only got wind of days after. I guessed that there was gonna be a black Captain America a few weeks ago but the female Thor came out of left field. However, since I don't really actively follow the comics anymore, it's hard for me to care but I do welcome the change. On a technology and comics related note: ULTRON!
Going off on the Apple-esque Superior Iron Man tangent, my mom came home with a new iPhone last Saturday, which means I got my main phone back and life has slowly returned to normal minus Internet. I want to point out two things: a) This woman got a new power brick for her Macbook, a new battery for her iPod, and a new cable for her iPad just a few weeks ago (I'm not the only techcessive in the family); and b) Yet I still had to be the one to set up her iPhone and load her contacts (I'm surprised there's no way to transfer contacts from the Mac OS X Contacts via wire to the iPhone).
To close off the tech-adled week that I had, I went to my geek friends Duds and Carlo's kid's first birthday party last Sunday. The thing is: I was supposed to go to Cubao early in the morning so Mark E. can pick myself, Jovan, and Paul up and drive us to the venue. But then I overslept so I let them leave without me. Thankfully, some of the guys were still waiting in Trinoma and I was able to reach them and join them instead. Obviously, technology saved my ass in this situation but I hope never to be that guy who gets away with being constantly late or absent because texting makes it "polite" to be so. Yeah, I know a few people like that.
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| Medievalicious cake design by Jovan |
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