Category Archives: Personal

Personal posts

Personal, Rant

“The Truth is Charity is a Lie” [Rant]

Comments (1)

So… my own honor was called out today.

My own family demanded to know what happened to my Blackberry Curve. I had asked “Why? What’s up?” and got the “Oh… you could give it to one of us in the family or we could sent it to Vietnam” response. I found this odd because of a few factors:

  1. My parents and my sister don’t like smartphones. They have always made fun of me for my love of smartphones. “Why is it like a mini-computer? Isn’t that foolish from the small screen size?” They never shared my passion of being able to have life prioritized all in my finger tips.
  2. Most of the Vietnamese public has gone gone ga-ga over the iPhone so phones like Blackberries and other phones have gotten the backseat from how everyone there wants one. I’d assume my Blackberry would not be appreciated and well… It wouldn’t be cared for by someone who’d honestly kill for a good phone.

I had intended to give it to my cousin Sol, ’cause his Sony Ericsson P910a had not been to kind to him with dropping text messages and other. I like being charitable to Sol, because to me… He’s not just my cousin, but he’s one of the closest friends to me. So on mentioning my intentions of giving Sol my old Blackberry Curve 8310 so he could have a decent phone…

Apparently, thinking that Sol is like blood was bad form. My family decided to remind me that even cousins, aunts, and uncles can’t be trusted and the schism they had with my uncle and aunt back in the day… I have told them that Sol and I have been friends through thick and thin… but that got me into the “You’re a foolish idiot” mess.

Maybe I was from my past covered in the sins of my foolish choices… Maybe I still am from the fact I am willing to climb mountains to become a full fledged pharmacy student. Maybe I am a fool for being so kind to a world that has had enough mercy to let me live. Maybe I am an even bigger fool to give my own life even if it meant that my friend could live just another day… In my opinion, I owe this world a big favor and I haven’t paid my dues so I don’t mind this “foolish” path. I know that this path is one that only a beggar would choose… but for me, it absolves me of my flaws from the past. It makes me happy that I have to fight hard to go further, because that is how life is to be!

So the ultimate result… Comparisons to peers I can “never surpass” and I will never succeed to anything. My charity is “misguided” and it will get me “killed”. That ended on the sour note of “Charity is a lie… it doesn’t lead to anything good”. Maybe that’s a cynical view of life… but for me… I believe that sometimes charity is the one sign that I haven’t given up on this cruel and ugly world.

Mark my words and maybe my grave… Charity is something I believe in and Sol will get my Blackberry! I will not die with the name of “Faithbreaker”.

Personal, Rant, Technology

Ode to the Blackberry!

Comments (0)

A few days ago… I managed to snag a new Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220 as a very belated “Congrats for a GREAT Fall 2008” and a Chinese New Years present for myself. However… I was looking at my Blackberry Curve 8310 and going “Hell, transplanting ALL of my contacts is gonna be a mother bitch… FML!” However… I had heard that Blackberry was one of the few mobile phone brands where the desktop/computer manager allows you to back up your information and then syphon it right over to your new phone.

I’d open the Blackberry Desktop Manager and there was a big icon that said “Device Switch Wizard” and the detail message of “Switch from a Blackberry device or other device to a Blackberry device.” With how many phones I have changed from… I have always hated re-entering or resyncing contacts. However… I figured cause I was going from a full keyboard to a compacted device, I should give the device change application a shot.

I was rather glad I did, to be honest. The process took about 20 – 30 minutes… The first portion is the old phone’s data being extracted, then the later portion is the applications and other things being ported over and installed. The end result was my 8220 not only had my entire phone book… It also had all compatible programs installed on it, my Blackberry Messenger list transplanted, and even my ringtone preferences! I dare say that switching phones has never been this easy in all of my life!

It’s just simple details like these that remind me how much I love Blackberry and how I don’t mind recommending them to friends and family who want a great smartphone that’s stable & stylish to boot. Blackberry has reminded me the most focal point of a smartphone isn’t all about “shiny apps” or “douchenozzle” factor… it’s more about being a great phone FIRST and a great data device as well!

Addendum – I will be working on a Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220 review after I get decent time to completely evaluate my experience.

Personal, Rant

Leaves of the Lovestone Vine on Saint Valentine

Comments (0)

It’s almost Valentine’s Day. I’m sure you all know too well what that means: romance and the consumerist frenzy! So here’s the deal, I feel us as Americans and maybe we as humans have more or less lost sight of the independent concepts of love and romance. I discovered that recently when challenging a friend to tell me a romantic story. It wasn’t terrible. It was cute and funny. Not terribly romantic. Maybe I am just hard to please. That’s entirely possible.

But more to the point… Who deemed flowers and candy and gasp maybe even jewelry to be essential to romantic evenings? It may be essential to you getting laid if you’re a straight guy. We chicks can be materialistic sometimes, but really it’s silly. Love isn’t wilting beauty, shiny metals, and empty calories. It’s about learning how to make the one you love happy.

Sometimes, this is harder to learn… It’s about letting them be happy even if it isn’t with you. Like many others out there I will be alone on Saturday in a metaphorical sense. Mostly because of just how difficult it can be to figure out how to go about letting go of something you had all too briefly… or not at all.

For the record I’ll toast to you all when we open the wine and hide our secrets behind an alcohol scented haze. Be happy even if you’re alone. Remember you’re one of the lucky ones if not.

Ivy out.

Personal, Technology

Minor Set-Back… No 8900 for me, yet!

Comments (0)

So, I decided to plan a pre-emptive attack and ask some T-Mobile stores if they had any Blackberry Curve 8900’s in stock. Reason being is that Engadget has reported most stores only got 5 in stock… To my dismay, most of the Dallas stores in the metro-mess have sold out of them. So as much as I wanted to get one close to release, I’ll have to hold off on that thought.

I will say that it may not be a bad thing to wait on getting it anyhow… I got a rather large blessing for my IRS tax refund and maybe by then T-Mobile may be blowing out deep discounts much like how they were with their last Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220…

For now… I need to see if there may be something fun I can spend my “li xi” (lucky money) from the lunar new year to facilitate good luck. The question now is what should I do with that cash.

Personal, Rant

New Semester, New Food

Comments (0)

So… The new student center is quite a riot. The Dining Room has been a huge change from last semester and I am glad to see that my tuition has gone to improve student morale through our stomachs. Some things have been recycled, like the waffle irons and toasters and even some things like the utensil holders. For the most part, there has been good changes. The “Grill” area has become a much more effective machine at shooting out burgers quickly and deliciously. The sandwich/deli area has become a meal-plan subsidized Subway of sorts. The pizza area now has a bonafide wood-fired pizza oven, rather than that conveyer belt oven.

This has made food taste better and good food always promotes good moods. Though the staff is not perfect, cause the new cafeteria does have its foibles. The pizza oven is not quite 100% mastered, ’cause there are sometimes where the pizza is bang-on perfect and it would give Red Brick Pizza a run for the money… While there are days that the quality is lacking in substance.

There’s also a return to my cafeteria buddies, folks like Drew, Penguin Commander, et al. Over my holiday break, I will admit, I missed them! However, there are some folks I have missed on linking up with… It’s good to be back with my lunch and dinner buddies. It helps ease the passing of the dull days when you have a companion to talk and vent to.

Thanks Texas A&M Commerce for putting some of our tuition to good use. Now… if you could do something fun like either make use of the new LCD HD-TV’s in the New Sam Rayburn Student Center or create an SAE Formula team… then I would be wickedly proud of the school I attend.

Personal, Rant, Technology

New Article at BerryTastic is Up!”What to do, What to do?”

Comments (0)

The article is up for everyone’s enjoyment, if you want to see it… it’s here at this link: “What to do, What to do?”

For those of you who are a bit lazy at link jumping… click the “Read On” link here to check it out!
Continue reading New Article at BerryTastic is Up!”What to do, What to do?” →

Personal, Technology

Bravo T-Mobile and Hooray for Me!

Comments (1)

Almost a year ago… family had asked me to switch from at&t Wireless (formerly Cingular) to T-Mobile so they wouldn’t have to waste minutes on calling me. When I tried to do the switch, my credit was simply not good enough to snag my own line without a ridiculously huge deposit. I was devastated and at&t hiking rates on me was making me rather sick. It didn’t help that I was also recovering out of debt so my dinged up credit record wasn’t helping at all. So family stuck in and had said “Use one of our names and get your own line.” Which I did and I joined their ranks with T-Mobile…

However… This past December, family had said “You need to get your own line with T-Mobile, if you can’t… have fun losing your phone number”. That was something I couldn’t have happen as my phone is now my second life line other than the web. I had to get T-Mobile to do a “change of responsibility” to my account under my family’s name and see if I could get one in mine. They informed me that my account under their name had a full discount upgrade available and that by transferring responsibility to me, I would more than likely lose that and have to wait 30 days for a “partial upgrade discount”. I just decided to bite the bullet and see if my credit was able to pass me. Fortunate for me… My credit seems to have healed enough to qualify me for my own line. I decided to do the change of responsibility to ease my family’s burden of supporting me and I just went with knowing that I probably lost my upgrade.

However… Today, on trying to pay my dissapearing final bill over the phone with T-Mobile… I found an interesting revelation from my dialogue with the representative:

Zero: I wanted to know how long before my account is able to do a full discount upgrade? I had heard from a few reps in-store and over the phone that I would more than likely lose it and start from square one.

Rep: Actually Zero, your account seems to have gotten that upgrade discount transferred! Did you have a question over that?

Zero: Is it a full discount? The reason I ask is because I am rather excited for the Blackberry Curve 8900 coming to T-Mobile on 2/11/09.

Rep: I am showing it is a full device discount should you decide to do a 2 year agreement. I will say that I am glad you’re excited about the Curve 8900 coming to T-Mobile and I hope that we hear from you again when the time comes for you when you do choose to get the new 8900!

I will say that the outstanding customer service that T-Mobile has is the reason I don’t want to change providers. The “Death Star” had failed to even answer simple questions with the amount of zeal that T-Mobile has. I am glad that my upgrade didn’t vanish and it just shows how much I am glad to be with T-Mobile.

Personal, Rant, Technology

A Phone Hacker’s Memories Revisited…

Comments (0)

A while ago, I had posted an entry on ZeroXR about needing advice on a new phone. In the post I detailed about my previous history with phones and my time with them. What I didn’t get a chance to do was to really get into the nit-picky details of why I loved and/or hated each one. There’s the old saying that “Every rose has its thorns” and I am one who believes that even applies to technology. Especially since the “Jesus Phone Part Deux” came out, everyone wants the “hottest” phone or the cutest looking ones. I present to you my “memoirs” of hacking phones up until this present day. Click the jump to read this opus of my memories!

Continue reading A Phone Hacker’s Memories Revisited… →

Personal, Site News

Saving a Demon and The Fall of the Ramparts

Comments (0)

Of all things… Devil had an odd misfire issue. When I was replacing the spark plugs and the plug wires, I came about something odd… One of the metal firing contacts had corroded. Now, I need to figure why the service light is still on… I hope it’s not ’cause the misfire issue has killed my catalytic converter and possibly O2 sensors…

The school also will need $244 from me cause my student loans suck. I get the loan injection on 1/12 but I will have to scrounge up money somehow. Hopefully with a tolerable GPA, I will get more cash next school year.

My apologies for lacking a nice solid update as I have had some personal struggles come up I know I am highly overdue for my Men Science review. I have also decided to go ahead and work on an early Valentines special article too. I thank my closest friends and my loving girlfriend Ice for being so supportive in shouldering my personal problems.

As far as work… Let’s just say the ramparts are giving way and either leaders will fall or there will be mutiny among the crew. I have done my best and the sanity of the battleground will not hold.
(Updated from my Blackberry Curve)