I was on TWiT's AAA! ...Kinda

Yesterday I was featured on All About Android #22, the TWiT network's weekly show about, well, the Android smartphone ecosystem!  Okay, not me in the flesh, but my question was read and answered on the air, and it was one of the best nerd moments of my life.  And of course, because it's TWiT, it's on video.

Let me set this up for you.  I've had my first Android phone, a LG p999 Optimus X2 / G2x on T-Mobile, for about four months now (since May '11), and I really dig it.  But lately I've been getting pretty annoyed by some of its quirks and decided to root it so I could get full control of and do a good backup in preparation for a change of some sort.  Having not gotten the OTA update to Gingerbread from T-Mobile, I was all ready to load the CyanogenMod ROM, but then I got a little freaked out by a warning about my phone being unrecoverable if something went wrong.

So, after reading the XDA forums for way too long, I decided to write to the all-star crew of All About Android and see what they had to say about it.  I remembered that Leo had a G2x (and apparently still does), and hoped that they could help me out.

What I got was way more than I could have hoped for.  A three minute walk through of exactly what to do for my situation, from the man, Leo himself.

(If you want to see Eileen read my slightly wordy question, start here.  And of course, watch the whole episode from the beginning for some really good stuff.)  

So there you have it.  I'm saved by the TWiT AAA team and Leo Laporte and now I've got a plan on how to attack my phone and put a sweet aftermarket ROM on it.

Of course, now I hear that you can force the update to 2.3.3 from T-Mobile, but I have a feeling that would undo my root, and at this point, I'm feeling pretty confident about just jumping right into CyanogenMod.

The Republican Primary So Far, and Why We Might Be Screwed

The Atlanta Wire, not known for its conservative leanings, had A Brief History of the Republican Primary So Far posted recently that is actually a very reasonable breakdown of the revolving door of media infatuation with the GOP's most recent presidential hopefuls. They chart the beginning, middle, and if applicable, end of each candidate's moment in the limelight, complete with Google analytics to back it up. Pretty nifty and worth checking out.

And here's why the Republican party is kinda screwed, at the moment: all of the candidates that the media has been in love with for more than a week or so are crazy. Trump, Palin, Bauchman, Perry -- they're all a little off their rockers on one thing or another.

And the actual crazy one, Ron Paul, is being ignored like he's not even there! I mean, the guy nearly won the Iowa straw poll, less than 200 votes behind then-sterling Michelle Bauchman. But Paul is boring and consistent with his message of isolationist and anti-war stance,which I think the press (and most of the Republican electorate) got bored with about five years ago. While Paul has some very valid points and concerns, he is about as unelectable in a national race as Mel Brooks would have been in the 1960s.

It seems like the only semi-viable candidates at the moment are the Mormon ones. Jon Huntsman is my current favorite, but he needs to learn how to run a campaign; and Mitt Romney is still attractive in that executive-experience and really-good-hair kind of way, but neither are garnering much positive attention right now.

Oh well, the GOP race got started way to early and there's still a year left before anything meaningful happens anyway, so I suppose I shouldn't get to worked up about it just yet.

Broke and Hungry

I'm pretty broke.  As in, my income is less than my expenses and has been for a while, and I'm nearly out of savings.  Hopefully a couple things will change in the next couple months to help fix that, but for now, broke is the status.

But I still have to eat.  I don't exactly have high nutritional standards (I've eaten a room temperature can of store-brand soup three days a week for the past four months), but I can't eat ramen noodles too often or I want to poke my eyes out.  Yeah, they're cheap, but they taste cheap, they're devoid of all nutrition, and eating them more than once a week makes you feel like a poverty case.  I'm also not an athelete, nor do I work out much, so I don't have the caloric or protein requirements that some people do.

So, inspired by a post from a friend and an MSN Money article I found via Lifehacker, I'm going to share some of my tips on how to save at least a little bit of money and still eat at least decently.

• Don't go to McDonald's.  I know the Golden Arches beckon, but you're going to end up paying $7 for 1,000 Calories of unhealthiness.
  
• Spend a lot of time at other people's houses.  Eventually they'll feel obligated to feed you.  ;)
  
• Date someone who works for a restaurant.  Sometimes there are leftovers or messed up orders than just need a good home.  Like a to-go box and then your belly.
  
• If you're always running late in the morning, don't hit the drive-thru and drop $5, keep a box of Slim-Fast handy and slam one on the way to work.  For only having about 200 Calories, they do a decent job of fending off the hunger until you have time to regroup.
  
• Buy bananas.  They're cheap, nutritious, they've got a built-in handle, and the thick skin means organic is a waste of money.
  
• Make coffee at home.  I use a Clever Dripper almost every day.  Yes, it takes a few minutes, but so does driving to a coffee shop, parking, waiting in line, ordering, paying, waiting again, and then getting back on the road.  I even bought a whole bunch of the paper coffee cups and lids that coffee shops use and take that instead of a mug that I'll probably loose.  Not exactly "eco," but at least it feels like a coffee shop experience.
  
  Also, if you're watching your weight, black coffee or tea is basically devoid of calories, while a Grande Mocha has at least 200.  

• Get off your high horse and shop at Wal-Mart for at least some things.  Yes, they're a gigantic corporation, but they employ a lot of people and pay their taxes, just like everyone else.  (Plus, they're basically free of union influence, if that matters to you.)  Their massive size enables them to get screamin' deals on some common items, but don't just assume they're cheapest on everything - Safeway and King Soopers are sometimes better, just check the ads.
  
  Food "staples," like oatmeal, yogurt, eggs, etc are generally cheaper at Wally World, and non-food necessities, like TP, dishwasher detergent, etc, can trim a few bucks you can spend on better food.
  
• Figure out what you can eat a lot of or what you can eat often and try to find the raw materials in bulk. My favorite items are pasta, oatmeal, eggs, peanut butter, and pretty much anything involving broccoli.  Not really anything that you can get in bulk, but the big can of store brand oatmeal is always less per ounce than the smaller packages.
  
• Buy things that keep while they're on sale and stash them in the cupboard / pantry / stack in the corner.  Remember about what's there, and supplement them with the fresh or perishable stuff when you're looking for that night's dinner at the store.
  
• Your freezer is your friend.  A big hunk of cheese isn't that much more than a little one, but it'll spoil if you just leave it in the fridge.  Cut it up and freeze the part you're not going to eat right away.  Also, frozen veggies are usually a better deal then fresh, and their texture and nutrients are better than canned.
  
• All that being said, just buying the cheapest crap you can find isn't really going to help your body or mind.  You should also figure out what you need to or are willing to spend a little extra money on to feel better.  I noticed that when I buy cheap bread, I need to eat a lot more of it to feel satiated; so I've started buying the redorkulously expensive Ezekiel bread that's in the freezer section, because it actually has some food value and fills me up.  

Of course, I don't follow all of these tips all of the time.  I get lazy and buy a frozen pizza sometimes, and I still go out to eat, and out for good coffee, but keeping this stuff in mind does help save a bit here and there.  

Now here are a couple of my fave cheap meals...

• Oatmeal.  I have a hard time getting bored with the humble oat.  It's just so versatile.  For breakfast I often do hot oatmeal with brown sugar and some combination of peanut butter, fruit (bananas or blueberries are the best), bacon bits (the real kind, not the weird little crunchy ones, and yes, I said bacon), raisins, walnuts, etc.  Water or milk, 4:30 on half power in the microwave.
  
  For a cold breakfast, half a cup of dry, rolled oats with a little tub of yogurt it the shizz.
  
  For a savory switch, make oatmeal and stir an egg, some soy sauce, and salt and pepper into it.  It may need to be re-nuked a bit to cook the egg all the way, but it's pretty tasty.  Bacon is also a good addition, as always.
  
• Grilled cheese.  You can't go wrong here.  Bread, cheese, condiment of your choice, butter on the outside (or in the pan, if you prefer), and BAM, lunch.  Or dinner.  I like to make mine with a little piece of lunch meat and mustard inside, then fry an egg over-easy and put it on top.  The egg, meat, and mustard kind of simulate a fancy French sandwich that I can't pronounce.  Pesto is a nice touch, if you've got some handy, but there are infinite possibilities here.
  
• Crazy-ass peanut butter broccoli noodle concoction.  I can't find the actual recipe, but here's the basics: Japanese noodles (buckwheat, maybe?), broccoli, cooked chicken or tuna (canned is good) or raw or cooked shrimp, peanut butter, soy sauce, cider vinegar, something spicy.  Cook the noodles in boiling water and when almost done, add the broccoli and shrimp, if you're using it, and cook or warm through.  Meanwhile, mix the peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, and spicy stuff in a small bowl (gently microwaving or heating on the stove helps combine everything).  Drain the noodles and add chicken or tuna if you want that way, then stir in the peanut sauce.  There ya go, nutritious and delicious.  Adjust seasonings to taste, of course.  

I hope this gives you some good ideas, but you know your body best, so don't deprive it of anything it needs.  Hopefully cheap food can be fun and healthy, too!  Got anything to add?  I'd love to hear it.  

Les Paul's Birthday Google Doodle

Even though Les Paul passed away in 2009, he will always be remembered as the father of the solid body electric guitar as well as multi-track recording.  Plus, he was one heck of a guitar picker!  For what would have been his 96th birthday, Google has unveiled probably their coolest interactive Doodle yet - the electric guitar doodle.  After the fact you can probably see a picture of it at Google.com/logos, but you'd better hurry up and and try it out now!

You can just aimlessly pluck strings with your mouse pointer, or you can use your keyboard for a bit more precision   Here's a link to me slowly tapping out "Happy Birthday" - http://goo.gl/doodle/hfQh.  Not sure how long the link will last, but it's pretty nifty while it does!  (My version of Happy Birthday is played "5565 887 5565 998 5508 8876 440898")

Also check out LesPaulonline.com and the Wikipedia entry on him.

Rainy morning

Just a quick post to try out a couple things. First, posting from my new phone, the G2x, using the Blogger app, and secondly posting a picture edited on the phone with the Little Photo app.

I have a feeling the picture might be oriented the wrong way, but we'll see!