Introducing the aussiedroid

A while back I was thinking of buying a new phone and I just realized today that I forgot to post an update on the subject.

You’ve probably already guessed from the title of this post that I finally bought a phone and yes I got the Motorola XT5 that was on sale at the time of my previous post.

 

I’ve had the phone, which has been christened the “aussiedroid” for almost 3 months now and all I can say is that I’m so happy with it, truth be told I’m in love with the Android OS.

I only have one complaint about the phone, the internal memory sucks, I started off with 120mb, when the memory should have been 512mb, it seems that all the pre-installed apps that I can’t get rid off are using up all the missing space, and after installing some useful apps I now have less than 50mb left, so in other words I have to be really careful choosing any more apps, especially since the version I have (Eclair 2.1) doesn’t support saving them on the memory card.

Apart from that, the Android is a really cool OS, the apps in the market seem to work without freezing and are pretty cool, and I love that Google owns it, yes Google is like the coolest thing on the internet. With the droid all you need is a Google account and you’re set, I used my existing account so now all my contacts are synced on Gmail, I can access them from my account online if I ever forget my phone anywhere, I can add new contacts from my Gmail and sync my phone without having to bother using the phone for adding or updating anything. And best of all I can download market apps from my computer straight to my phone.

Most importantly I’ve finally started loosing weight again thanks to the MyFitnessPal app that was highly recommended on the market, the reason is that I can now update my food diary wherever I am and whenever I want, it’s always with me, before the droid I had to be in front of a computer and had to memorize what I’d eaten all day, now I just log it even before I eat it.

So yeah I’m pretty happy with my new phone and if I ever think of buying another phone it’s definitely going to be another Android.

 

I Don’t F’ing Know!

There are certain people in the world who always assume that I know everything. I keep telling them over and over again that I don’t know the answer to that question, that it’s not part of what I do, I have the exact same information you do, and that I’m not responsible for what you’re asking about, go ask the right person etc, and then these certain people run off crying to whoever will listen that I’m being uncooperative. Idiots.

Now to those idiots who might actually click the link on Facebook once I post this, please read on and let me help you understand how I’m just as clueless as you are:

Lets pretend I deliver mail* to your area and you just ordered a big giant metal chicken from the big giant metal chicken shop* and they promised you they’d deliver it in a week. Now I walk past your house every day delivering mail to your street, and every day from the moment that you placed the order for the chicken you stop me and ask the same questions, “Has the big giant chicken store shipped my chicken yet?” Now my answer to your question would be “I don’t know, call up the store and ask them, I’m just the mailman.”

A week later when I finally deliver that chicken to your doorstep and you start tearing apart the box because you can’t wait to hold it in your arms and hug it and tell it how much you love it, you discover that the big giant chicken shop sent you a yellow one instead of the red one you really really wanted so you start shouting at me and asking me why I screwed up and sent you the wrong color. Once again: I don’t work for the big giant chicken store, I work for the post office, call the store up and ask them why they screwed up your order.

A few days later you see me pass by your home again and stop me this time to ask when the big giant chicken store will stock new chickens, because the one you ordered is feeling lonely and needs a friend. Please understand that “I DON’T FUCKING KNOW. I WORK FOR THE POST OFFICE YOU MORON”

This is what I go through on a weekly basis and no one seems to understand that for most of the questions they ask me I really am just as clueless as they are and not as they seem to think uncooperative.

*I don’t deliver mail for a living and I don’t know if any big giant metal chicken online stores even exist in the world. And for those of you who know who I am and where I work, we don’t sell giant chickens, I swear.

 

Internet in Jordan Sucks

Decisions, decisions. In 2 weeks I’ll have to make a choice, either I renew my current internet subscription or switch to a faster plan with the same company for a slightly higher price.

Let me start by saying that internet in Jordan sucks. The 3 major companies, Orange, Zain and Umniah don’t even know how to compete with each other. Each one of them has an even suckier monthly download limit than the other..Orange is the worst at 5gb a month…yeah exactly, I use up 5gb a week! Umniah is the best out of the 3, I’ve been with them for 3 years, yes their customer service kinda sucks and yes their monthly download limit is only 10gb but at least you can download for free between 12am and 7am daily and all day Friday, So I don’t really use up more than 5gb unless I purposely download during the daytime.

I got a call from them about 2 months ago with what I thought at the time was a pretty cool offer, they asked me if I was interesting in doubling my download speed and switching to wireless internet instead of ADSL for an extra 40JD’s a year, and to top that off they said that I’ll have “unlimited” download for the whole year, this is what the dude on the phone said after I asked him for how long was the “unlimited” offer. I was like WOW..hell yeah sign me up for it! Of course their idea of “unlimited” is 35 gigabytes a month which is about what I need anyway. At the time I still had 2 months to renew so the dude said no probs and that they’d call me back when it was time to renew. Boy am I glad that I didn’t have to sign up for that offer right away.

Last month they called me again with the same offer, a different dude..and being the smart person that I am who doesn’t trust Arabs asked again about the cost, download limit etc…this time he told me that the “unlimited download” offer was until September (that’s when my new subscription supposedly starts), then they’d enforce the 10gb limit, and wait for it…without the free hours from midnight to 7am and no free Fridays either.

I told the dude that the month before the other dude said that the offer was for the whole year, so the new dude started to beat around the bush and said that in September they’ll have a new offer. I told him I’d think about it, but I’d already made up my mind..no friggn’ way am I gonna trust you guys.

Same dude called again last week and it was basically the same offer as last month but now you get a free router and you get to choose either a USB wireless internet device or 3 free months. Once again I said that I’d think about it but I don’t think I’ll be taking them up on that offer.

When they started beating around the bush about their “unlimited” download offer I lost interest. You see It’s the Arab way, and when Arabs start to do that you KNOW that as soon as they have your money then tough luck you gotta live with whatever they end up giving you..there’s no such thing as a refund, and they don’t really care if you’re a happy customer or not.

I download A LOT of shows and every year I seem to add several more to my list, for every show that gets canceled and has me thinking, yay 1 less show to download, I end up finding 3 new ones that I like.

I’ve basically made up my mind to stay put with my current lousy speed of 512mb, instead of doubling it and running out of bandwidth before the 10th of every month.

 

That Nokia Ringtone Must DIE!

Before I start I have to warn you that this is a totally random rant brought on by a bad mood I’m currently in, same bad mood I was in yesterday when I thought it was a lack of caffeine, or sleep but actually turned out to be thirst (yeah I don’t feel thirsty today either…weird).

Anyone who’s owned a Nokia phone, or knows someone who’s owned one is probably familiar with the horrible default ringtone that comes with the phone. Right now in my office THREE people have it as their ringtone and their phones are always going off all friggin’ day…while they’re away from their desks, so yeah I get to listen to the whole thing several times until they answer their phones.

I hate it, I cant stand it and every time I hear it I want to stab someone or something. I don’t know why people use it. I mean if you don’t want to use any other ringtone then just use the standard old fashioned “ring ring”…it’s on the fucking phone!

 

Déjà Vu

Lately I’ve been getting these feelings of déjà vu. I have a dream, then weeks, months maybe even years later that thing I dreamed about becomes a reality…well not exactly how I dreamed it but it’s pretty close.

I had this exact feeling was last week, I was invited to a friends place for iftar along with some other friends of hers, food was great, company was great it was nice meeting new people. On my way home as I was walking down her street a couple of kids ran past me and it suddenly hit me that I’ve been here before (well I had visited her before) but what I mean was that I felt like I’d walked down that street alone before…met those nice women before…sat outside on her roof before (when I visited the first time we sat in her kitchen) I could have sworn it wasn’t the first time.

It feels so freaky that I’d remembered most of that night from a dream..and this isn’t the first time and probably won’t be the last.

 

Technology..a Blessing or a Curse

The other day I was sitting on my bed channel surfing and bored, nothing to watch on TV, nothing to do on the computer, and I started to wonder…what the fuck did I do for fun when I had none of the things I have today?

Several years ago I had no job, no internet, no computer or laptop, no cell phone and no satellite TV. The only channels on TV (Syria Arabic channel, Syria English channel, Jordan Arabic channel and Jordan Movie Channel) only 2 of which I watched and they both started their programs at 6pm, and even then there was nothing to watch until 8pm.

So what did I do all day…I would sleep until around 11-12pm and then spend the whole day reading. I have proof of this every time I open my closet and see all the books I have inside…and this doesn’t include all the books and Readers Digests I left behind in Zarka when I moved to Amman…not to mention that I read every book that was worth reading in the Zarka public library. Back in the day I would finish reading a 400+ page novel in a week sometimes even less than a week…now I cant even finish a 300 page novel…I’ve been on this last one for over a year and I only have 47 pages left.

Years ago I watched a mini series on tv starring Patrick Swayze called North and South, and the sequels Love and War and Heaven and Hell…I instantly fell in love with the series so when I came across the first novel in a used book shop I bought and read it and discovered it was even more awesome than the series…I started to look for the other two books, but only found the third one, Heaven and Hell, after several months I gave up looking for Love and War and started reading Heaven and Hell but couldnt get past the first chapter…I felt that something was missing.

Last year when I was vacationing in Australia I was in Paddy’s Market and passed by a used book stall, I started looking around and guess what I finally found!

And sadly I still haven’t started reading it because I still need to finish reading the last 47 pages of that CSI novel.

Now my job takes up over 9 hours of my day..I occasionally go to the gym so that’s another 2 hours, and when I get home I’m too tired to do anything that requires using my brain, I don’t even cook anymore, so for about 2 hours I either sit on my bed with my laptop and check my FB every 10 minutes while I channel surf…or watch one or two of the many shows I download…but even that I sometimes save for the weekend..and then I sleep..and they cycle begins again.

So is technology a blessing or a curse…in my case it’s a curse..it keeps me distracted from doing other things..in other words…I have no life.

 

Pics From Down Under

Once again I have a project in mind, of course like all the many other ideas, project and things I’ve started this is probably going to sit in my Google documents unfinished for the next few years until I decide to delete it. 

I was going through all the photos I took while I was on vacation in Australia last year for said project, looking for the nicest ones of Australia in general and pics of my niece and nephews (you know since I’m going through all the photos then what the hell, might as well prepare for another project that will never be finished), I found some really nice ones I’d like to share…you know since this blog has been neglected for quite a while.

A beautiful view of the Sydney Opera House and the city from Toronga Zoo.

Should I even bother with a comment for this one? LOL!

View of the Sydney Opera House on a rainy day.

Aboriginal street performer dude playing some music at Darling Harbor

Seriously, no comment…

I don’t even know what to say here…lol

And last but not least….

…and by the way, no I did not wake up this early just to write a blog post and publish it…it’s been scheduled.

 

A Blog Full of Awesomeness!!

Last week a friend of mine introduced me to an awesome blog: The Bloggess. Warning: This blog may be addictive and you may not be able to stop reading it all night…oh and beware of Beyonce and Copernicus…they’re both out to get you! Mwahahahahaha!

 

I Just Had to Post it!

While walking up towards the main street on my way to work earlier today I passed by a Saudi car with the funniest license plate.

Now it’s not as funny or as awesome as the ones you see on the web, but this one had me wondering how a country as strict as Saudi Arabia let this one slip through the cracks.

For those of you who aren’t Arab, the word zbb is the “dirty” word for cock. Now how did that get past the Saudis?

 

Can’t Sleep

Today…I mean yesterday I get home around 3.30, open the tv, find nothing on, search for the Drop Dead Diva torrent, start the download and idiotically sleep for 4 hours even though I know that if I nap during the day I won’t be able to sleep at night…and yes even a 10 min nap will keep me awake.

Now it’s 5am and I still haven’t slept so I’m watching CSI hoping I’ll get a few hours of sleep before I have to go to work. Thank god for Ramadan hours, it means I can sleep in till 11 if I want to.

On the bright side I did find this super awesome wordpress app for my droid which is what I’m using to post this..yes my laptop is right beside me but I’m too lazy to turn it on.

Now that CSI just finished I’m gonna try to sleep.