I dropped my phone

I mean, I really dropped it. It slipped out of my sweaty hands when I was checking a message while walking. I kicked out with my foot and the phone hit the soft part of the padding, but bounced off, so I technically punted my phone into the asphalt. It immediately died, and after trying various online recovery techniques, I could not get it out of a bootloop. The multicolored “Google” logo appears and disappears endlessly, as the device seems to scream THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR DROPPING ME. But that’s when it’s plugged in. When it’s not plugged in, there are no signs of life at all. So maybe taking it apart and unplugging the battery might help, but I’m not optimistic and have already ordered another phone (a Xiaomi 14t) that was on a Flash Sale (these are happy words for online shopping in Thailand).

For now, I’m using my old Pixel 4 and spent a couple hours getting into my various apps without access to my broken main (a Pixel 6). I will have to repeat this process when the new phone comes in a couple days. The fact of the matter is, changing phones is a much bigger pain than it was when they were less useful.

I was hoping my Pixel 6 would last me until my next trip to the states, but now I’m kind of relieved. Buying Pixels outside of the states really sucks without the support, US pricing, and loyalty incentives. I mean, they are great phones, but you better be ready to find expensive parts and maybe even dissect them yourself if there’s a problem.

Camera, photo quality, and price are my top priorities, which is why I like previous generation Pixels, but settled for a last-gen Xiaomi with good Leica design. I’ve already researched the bundled app debloating and Revanced compatibility, etc. We shall see how it works out.

Here are some Pixel photos from around August that I never got around to posting:

Farewell, Pixel 6.
We had some fun together.

Pickle is gone.

My cat died today. Sad.

She had FIV from getting into fights with neighborhood cats and her health was in decline. There were a lot of trips to the vet over the past year. She became lethargic and incontinent for the last few months and we put her in a cage outside with a litterbox (which she had never seen before but instantly took to) at night. We fed her rich foods she wasn’t used to having like mackerel and chicken liver to supplement her normal meals. Basically, we tried to make her life very nice, because her mouser days were kind of over (although I found the remains of a pokey pokey dude near my charcoal grill and Wave 100s as recently as two weeks ago).

Pickle was the runt of her litter, and that’s why she outlived all the others — she stayed close to the house and out of the road when she was young. Her father or granddaddy (we forgot the exact lineage over time) was the spookiest cat we ever kind-of-owned and had a huge head and broad shoulders, so we called him Pumpkinhead. Her mother was either Donut or Mommy Cat. It’s amazing how little these things matter to cats. Her son was Marmalade, and he passed this year, too, back around June, also from FIV. Our gardener buried him in Nam’s mom’s garden next to where the water buffalo graze, so I took Pickle there today as well so they could rest together.

Luckily, she did not suffer too much and I was there petting her neck when she took her last breath.

Goodbye, Pickle.

A Good Day Day?

Can’t believe I missed this update 11 years ago: The Return To Finding Out Ice Cube’s Good Day

The original post blew up the internet a couple years before that. I found my link to it searching for an old post.

A big problem with blogging for so long is that most links and video embeds end up broken… Which was a selling point for social media back in the day (your memories are safe with us!), but of course, even Facebook has started deleting live videos this year after realizing storing that shit costs money.