Category: BLOG

Weekly update.

Pixel bites the dust…

On October 5th 2016, I ordered my Pixel 1 phone.  It was announced on October 4th.  I was super excited!  I’ve always been a fan of Google phones.  I had the first G1 that I used forever!  I’ve had a few Android phones before the Pixel.  (HTC Sensation and Nexus 5).  An iPhone was in there for a little while, which felt like I was cheating on Android.  I even enjoyed it!  

My Pixel 1 started experiencing screen issues a year ago. After calling support, they made me wipe my phone and it seemed to fix the issue until December when it returned.  The screen would jump up (the bottom of the screen was jumping up and down).  The screen would show snow and become unresponsive.   Being a long-term user, I was way out of my warranty.  The warranty was almost up the last time they had me wipe my device.  Conveniently, it went out after doing all the trouble shooting.

Shopping

It is impossible for me to show up at a store and pick something out if I haven’t researched it a ton.   It took almost a month of research and deciding what I wanted to do, before I could settle on a phone.  I paid $750 for the Pixel 1 with all the bells and whistles.  I was not going to do that again!  The pixel 4 is out and the price tag on that was super high!  It has horrible reviews!  

The Pixel 3 has an epic camera and phone stats, but the price tag is still high!   You can purchase refurbished on Amazon, but the reviews are kind of scary. The price is great, but who knows what you will get and what kind of warranty you get is questionable.   I also had a hard time deciding if I wanted an XL or basic phone. The XL is big, but how hard is it to use with one hand? (This will be something I regret.  My hands are stubby)

Insurance

Most companies offer a device protection plan.  T-Mobile has one where you pay $10 a month.  Best Buy has one where you pay anywhere from $8 – 10 a month.  They cover a lot of stuff and there is a piece of mind there, but I don’t want to pay an extra $120 a year for 2 years of “Piece of Mind”.  I want the protection though.   The Google Store the phones for a good price and they only charge $89 for 2 years of protection after the MFG Warranty expires.  That seemed like a pretty good deal to me.  Google has been fast at replacing my phones in the past.

The Big Day!

On January 4th, 2020, I ordered my Pixel 3A XL.  The bigger screen was appealing to me and the consensus was 50/50 on how good it is.  The order said it would take 5 days to get the phone!  I was kind of sad, because I wanted the phone now!  I checked my email everyday after it shipped.  The phone ended up taking 4 days to get to me.

Anticlimactic.

The phone, case, and screen protector all came around the same time.  Backing up the old device and installing the new phone was super easy!   The phone is much faster and has some fancier specs than the Pixel 1, but the OS version is the same!   Using the 3A is just like using the Pixel.  Not much changed, so it wasn’t as exciting as when I switched from the Nexus 5 to the Pixel.   I’m so glad that I purchased it though.  The phone works, and the screen is snappy!   I had the 128gb before, but this one only has 64gb.  I’m hoping I can get use to it! 😊 This one is already 80% full and it’s giving me heartache! The first time I used the phone one handed, I found that my thumb had a hard time reaching the “back” button without dropping the phone! AAARGH!! So annoying, but I’m going to get use to it.   The battery is the best part.  It lasts 20h per charge with my normal use!  I’m excited about the phone so far.

Work Update

Work has been busy this week.   It was mostly boring until Saturday when I got a call from my boss saying the machines were “super loud” and the server room was HOT!  The Air Conditioning stopped working.   After shutting off the machines, He called the building maintenance and had them come look at it.  When the maintenance guy showed up, he said his boss was up on the roof and noticed an AC was running (in the winter) and he shut it off! WHAT? 

We have been in this building for 5+ years and the AC isn’t new!   We were busy on Saturday night, out celebrating my Birthday, so Sunday was the only day I could go turn everything back on and get the Domain Controller, Firewall, etc all booted back up.  IT work is not what I do on a day to day basis, but I understand a lot of the machines and software.   The adventure took 2 hours to get everything working again.  With Copious notes and trial and error, I have a better understanding of how things are put together in the server room.  Everyone should be able to be up and running in the morning when they get to work.

Great times. More celebration needs to be had, because my birthday is January 13th! 

Happy New Year

The new year is here!  We had a busy week ringing in the new year and enjoying time off not thinking about the inevitable.   Going back to work and school!? I went back to work on Thursday.  The boy goes back to school Monday, 6th of January.  I’m hoping it goes well for him.  We have been bad about keeping up with reading and some other daily habits that he has been used to.  This week hasn’t been that exciting so there isn’t much to report.

We rang in the new year at the Provo Recreational Center.  They have a lot of family-friendly things to do from 7pm until Midnight.  This is the second year we’ve been, and it is super fun!   They have:

  • A Hypnotist
  • Bounce Houses
  • Dog Shows
  • Acrobatics
  • Karaoke
  • Face Painting
  • Comedy Show
  • Game Shows (Family Feud)
  • Dancing
  • Virtual Reality
  • Fireworks (One at 10pm and one at 12pm)

There is a lot to do.  I may have left some out.  It felt like the night flew by!  We didn’t get home until 1am and then to sleep at 2am.  Jacob and I both slept until 12pm!  It was awesome!

He didn’t quite understand how to do it. I may be failing as a father!

One thing I wanted to talk about but I’m a big people watcher.  I love the big city.  There are a lot of people in a small place.   I can sit on the corner and watch people shuffle by.  I’ve always found it very interesting.   In the past, I’ve been a pretty shy person, so it was always a good time to come out of my shell by talking to complete strangers.

I don’t live in the city or anywhere I can watch people.  Where we live, we don’t have a lot of street traffic we can look at, so sitting out on your porch at night watching the world go by is hard.  My office window at work faces a driveway into the back of the building.   Behind our building, there is a path down into the neighborhood behind us.  It is used by a few people during the summer.    We are pretty sure there are some shady people using the path.   They are fun to watch but not as exciting as the big city.

I have found a few cool live camera sites that are fun to watch while I’m at work.   There is a very nice camera in New York, Time Square Cams, that is fun to watch It’s a pretty famous camera, so you see people stopping and waving at the camera.  Their Grandparents or Parents are home watching on the camera.   It’s fun to watch the interactions.   

While watching on Friday, a mother and baby walking one way and another lading coming towards them.  The baby tripped and fell.  She picked herself up and the lady stopped and helped and showed concern for the baby.   It’s a typical interaction you’d expect.  Two complete strangers (as far as I know) interacting.  Internally, this interaction I’m witnessing is playing out in my head.  I find it very interesting. Another camera I watch a lot is in Hermosa Beach at a restaurant. You can see the beach, people waiting in line to go eat, or people exercising up and down the beach. Super fun.

MILLIONS of people live int this world, and we will never meet them all. There are some that you’ll never want to see again, but there are some you’ll want to keep in touch with.  Personally, I find it fun to meet new people. 

Here is a story about meeting random strangers.  We were at Legoland several years ago, and Jacob randomly got on a ride with this girl.  They HIT it off and wanted to ride the next ride together.  It was just her and her mom and dad.  We had to stand in line with Jacob, her, and her parents.   The kids were treating each other like they knew each other before talking, laughing, and having a great time!   We were trying to get to know her parents.  It was slow at first, but we ended up spending the WHOLE day with them.  We learned a ton about them, and they did the same with us.   We were from two different worlds.  We were the Mormons from Utah, and they were Catholics from California.   Fortunately, that didn’t matter to anyone.  We were all sharing a great experience riding rides and enjoying a theme park.  It was great.  We keep in touch with them on Facebook.   It was a great experience and we never would have met them if it weren’t for two kids making friends.

Life is busy, and it’s hard to stop and talk to everyone you see.  A smile, wave, or a quick “HI” are super easy!  I’m not much of a “Goal” person. I think I’ll try it out this year and make it a point to meet new people and/or make someone smile.   Everyone has a story or something to say.   Give them a chance.   You should stop and listen to that story sometime.

Merry Christmas

Image by Becca Clark from Pixabay

Christmas is officially over, and it’s been a good one!   Of course, we were spoiled by everyone.   Here is a recap of the week events.

Christmas Eve

Jacob and I wanted to go swimming with my boss.  My boss usually goes swimming Christmas Eve with his family and We’ve also gone.  The Lehi swimming pool is only open until 12p, so we had to hurry.  It is like herding turtles when it comes time to get Jacob moving, so we didn’t arrive until 10am.   We found out that my boss had to go into work, so we didn’t get to see them.   Jacob and I had a lot of fun swimming though.   We got dressed and headed out.

My mother and father are buried in the same city, so we decided to go visit their grave site.  I don’t go there very often, and it would be embarrassing to count how long it has been.   We have a family friend who goes and keeps it nice and pretty! 

After the cemetery, we ended up going to visit Lehi Roller Mills and then home to get ready for dinner with Grandma, Aunts, and a Friend.   We had a great ham dinner and opened PJs!   One of the neighbors passed out Sky Lanterns to the neighborhood and instructed everyone to go out and light them at 8pm.  It was super awesome!   I’ve seen them in YouTube videos and pictures, but never in person!   It was super cool to see and there were a TON going up around us!   They went up and eventually disappeared.  I did see one falling to the ground after it has burned out.  I’m curious what the aftermath looked like after.   Good thing they were biodegradable.  

Sky Latterns lighting up the sky.

We spent the night wrapping gifts to each other and then trying to get to bed.  Jacob doesn’t get up super early, so that is a relief.  He once slept until 10am, but he only lasted until 8:30a.

Christmas Morning

Aunt J went and picked up Grandma T and they came over here to have breakfast and open presents.   We had a blast opening gifts.  Jacob totally got spoiled!   We already had a ton of legos in our house, and we have a ton more now.  He loves putting them together and I get to help every so often.

I received a Ring Doorbell and I can’t wait to install it!  I’m a little scared to install it. Having a camera on the front door will be interesting. Watching the boy in the summer will be interesting. I find my tools out in the front yard at time. Considering where we live,   It may be overkill.

After opening presents, we went over to Grandma T’s house for presents and then back to our house.  We were instructed by Jacob that we weren’t going to leave the house until the next day.  He played..played.. and played with his toys some more. I ended up working a bunch. 

Day after Christmas (Thursday)

One of my goals this break was to clean my office.  It has always been a dumping grounds for stuff.  When the house is cleaned, and something needs to be “hidden” it goes in there.  I spent a lot of time cleaning the room, which it still isn’t done, but I’ve made a good dent.  My time is usually spent on our kitchen table with my laptop.   This allows me to spend more time with my wife while she is watching TV.  A room where I can get work done where it is quite would be nice.   We headed up to Great Grandma’s (Jacobs) to visit with family.  Very cool family with a lot laughs!

Saturday….Dentist..

Jacob HATES the dentist and had to have a tooth pulled and a few cavities filled.  We had to be to the Dentist at 8:15am.  I woke up at 7:50a (I was the first one up), so we had to get Jacob up, ready and off to the dentist.  We have a 15-minute drive to the dentist.  I don’t think I drove too fast, but we made it there by 8:20a.   The place was a total disorganized and we had a hard time checking in and then had to wait until 10am before they could get him back.  It went well, but he ended up biting his lip a ton after surgery and it was bleeding pretty good.  His lip is super swollen now and looks bad.  The dentist instructed us to keep him from walking and keep a good eye on him.  It was hard to keep him from walking for 2 hours.  Jacob was on the move after about 3 and that is as good as we could do!  He was fine and there were no incidents other than the bloody lip!

Sunday

Pretty relaxing day today, so nothing to exciting to report.  Church was pretty good.  Our neighbor gave a talk.  It was great to hear from him (and the others). Jacob switches classes next week (New Year.. New Class)  He had some awesome teachers, and he is sad to be loosing his teachers. I’m hoping he is a good kid during class. We finished off the night with some games. We had a great night until we had to put the boy to bed. I’m hoping we aren’t the only ones who have a rough time getting their kid(s) to bed.

I hope everyone has a great New Years Celebration this week. Keep safe out there and if you drink remember not to drive! You have options with Lyft and Uber.