Happy Burns Night

Here's to another Burns Night. It's been one big sucker punch to the gut of a day for me, so this gives me a positive excuse to get lost in a bottle of McClelland's Islay tonight.

Gonna kick it root down.

Entering the world of smart phones early last year changed my life. Now wherever I go, I have a little computer in my pocket. Need to check movie times or sports scores? No problem. Kill time by surfing the web? Can do! Need directions? Fire up the ol' GPS. Listen to European pop stations? There's an app for that.

While I love my LG Optimus V, I can't truthfully say a world of productivity and entertainment possibilities opened up to me. You see, while the phone is a great starter Android in many respects, there is one major drawback to it: a paltry 140 mb of internal that leaves little room for apps. Sure, a lot of apps out there can be moved to the SD card, but not all of them, by any means. With so many apps out there begging me to give them a spin, there was only one solution. I would have to root my phone.

When it comes to electronics, I'm a straight arrow that plays by the rules. (Well, I did complete the arduous task of punching a sequence of numbers on my remote control to make my DVD player region-free. Yar!) I don't cotton to voiding warranties should anything malfunction. Combine that with my limited technical knowledge and I didn't think I'd ever be able to unleash the full capabilities of my phone by myself. That is, until I found out about Gingerbreak.

With Gingerbreak, the process couldn't have been easier. I installed it on my Optimus and pressed one button. Boom. Rooted. It couldn't be simpler.

Of course, this was just the first step. With my phone "free", so to speak, I was now able to install apps that require rooting. One such app would solve my internal storage problem: Link2SD. This app moves any non-system app to the SD card and create a link to it on the phone, tricking it into thinking it is in the phone's memory. Installation of Link2SD was easy. It just required a partitioning of the card. (The first partition is for the moved apps. The second's for everything else.)

The one-two punch of Gingerbreak and Link2SD finally unlocked all of my phone's potential. I could now download many of the daily free paid apps from Amazon that I had been banking. Paper Camera for cool pictures. Lightning Bug to relax me! Flight Control to occupy all of my free time! And much, much more! Really, I am so glad that I rooted my phone and wish I would've done it sooner.

And here's one funny moment from my rooting experience:



We speak the same language, yet are worlds apart. I love my phone, but not that much. Sicko.

Requiem for a fashion icon/pundit

R.I.P. Tony Blankley, 1948-2012.



He was my favorite McLaughlin Group All-Star and will be missed.

It's the end of the world as we know it (and I'm totally cool with that)

It would be folly to make an effort to better yourself during the year that the world's going to end. Play for today, as the bard Robert Smith wrote so many years ago. So I'm not going to make any profound resolutions for 2012. But I will make a few tweaks in my life before the Mayans bring us all down.

Firstly, there are all of the previous attempts to improve things over the past couple of years. Some items were successfully completed (Redesigned blog! Read an epic-length book!). Others will have to be carried over for another year (More Bible time! More Britcom time!).

Now, the big thing I want to accomplish in the coming 12 months is to be more socially available. Living about 40 minutes or so from all of my friends has really secluded me. They don't really want to make the trip down south and all too often I regrettably return in kind. I really miss hanging with everyone. What's more, who knows how many professional/romantic/etc. opportunities have been lost by retreating into my cocoon of video games, DVDs, and books? So, I will make the effort put myself out there*.

Also, I want to get my writing and this blog back up to speed. In 2011 I made the first big step with the redesign and custom URL. Heck, I even did the same for A Very Micah Christmas, which I kept fairly up to date this season. Now it's time to take things to the next level. In the new year I will do more longform posts. In the meantime, all of the "drive by posts" - links, pictures, videos - have been transitioned over to the Micah, please! Tumblr**. Do check it out!

So, that's that. I think I can do those things before we're reduced to rubble. And if I fail, it's not like anyone will be around to call me out on it. Win-win!

*And, hopefully, that includes a move back to Richmond proper, which would greatly reduce any "effort" needed in going out.
**The exception will be that the Crushes of the Week will be staying put here when I bring them back. Gotta keep up those page visits!