Jake’s Life

Well after that whole car fiasco I needed something to make me feel better.

Okay, well I have a bit more self direction than that, but that’s just what I say.

I picked up the new T-Mobile Wing yesterday and decided that if I don’t like it or get that awful buyer’s remorse I would take it back. I do, after all, love my Dash. Before I got it I placed a Craigslist ad for my Dash to help pick up some of the cost of the Wing, and found an almost immediate buyer. I met with him in the early hours of the morning at a Shell station and we found his old Voicestream SIM card wasn’t working. He went and got a new one this morning, so that was sold, and now I paid about 60% of my Wing’s price off with my Dash. This doesn’t mean I had buyer’s remorse…it could have been letting-go-of-my-Dash remorse though.

So far I like the Pocket PC version of Windows Mobile 6 a lot. It’s more involved, obviously, and one thing I miss about the Dash is one handed messaging. The Wing has a set of keys on the left side, as well as the right. On the right (thumb area while holding it like a normal phone) is Voice Command and Messaging. Left side is the volume slider and camera app. The front has the usual keys: Send, End, left soft, right soft, and a navigation wheel with center key. It also has a Windows key and an OK key. It sounds crowded, but it doesn’t really feel like it.

So far I’ve installed the following:

Resco Explorer 2007: replacement for the file explorer and has several useful plugins such as registry editor, etc.

Spb Finance: financial tracking app which can sync with Money/Quicken/QFX files from your bank.

Spb Insight: RSS reader.

Spb Mobile Shell: This is a shell replacement which many PPC users preach about. Still trying it out.

Also, my car reached my birth year! I know, Sandro says I’m a geek too.

They both fly, I guess. Well, one does right now, and one doesn’t.

I looked at a T-Mobile Wing today at the mall, and it’s pretty effin’ sweet. I’ve read a lot about it lately in comparison to the MDA: same processor, enhanced features, and the rubberized exterior that I love about my Dash so much. T-Mobile can give it to me for $349 with 2 more years (which is no big deal, Tmo is great for me), but I’ve found it on Craigslist lately for $300 or less.

I have also been posting on Craigslist lately to get rid of my Thunderbird…which ran great when I parked it and started driving my new Scion. Today someone and their son came over, we started it, and it looks like the small tranny leak became larger, the oil gasket is toast, and there may be alternator issues. Well fuck. I am happy that I decided to get a new car when I could afford it as it probably would have died on me when I needed it, but I also won’t be getting my asking price of $1800 for it.

If you’re anything like me you read a lot from your mobile device. While Pocket IE is a great browser to read on the go, often web sites and their designers do not take into account the fact that images, Flash content, and those million rotating ads won’t load very quickly. I personally love it when designers aim for quick loading times.

Today I installed WP-PDA, a Wordpress plugin which renders the web site in a very friendly view for mobile devices. It doesn’t redirect the browser to a mobile version of the site, it just uses a modified mobile-friendly CSS style. It allows searching posts, category browsing, protected post access, and commenting.

This is how it looks on my T-Mobile Dash running Windows Mobile 6.

Of course, most of the blogs I read also have RSS feeds that I read through Newsbreak.

Well now, today was fairly pleasant. I woke up and heard from Dizzle, who of course needed something. I don’t mind though, because every time I’ve needed something he was there too. Anyway, he came over and I installed Windows Mobile 6 on his new T-Mobile Dash. Sandro wasn’t feeling good so he stayed in bed until Dizzle got here. Damn, he is so cute in bed.

Moving on, we went to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch, then picked up Gammy to go grocery shopping. After that I put her groceries away and took Sandro home. Then I went to the mall and got a haircut. I usually get an even umber one all around, but have been missing actually doing something with my hair for the past few years. Despite the fool trying and failing to decapitate me with clippers (got a nice little gash on the back of my neck now), I’m overall pleased with it. Sop the blood up and I’m good as new! Here’s the result:

Since then it has just been me, my homework, a bottle of pinot grigio, and my Juvenile Delinquency textbook.

Jakeslife.net is now fully back up. For the past week it’s been either down or short of several entries. Once I got it back up Wordpress was having some issues finding everything due to an upgrade. Anyways, that’s all fixed now. I’ve restored all of my posts, although many have been protected now. If you need the password and aren’t a douche, let me know.

Sandro gets back from Peru next week, and I can’t wait to see him. We’ve been sending video messages back and forth from our phones via e-mail since text messages are about $4 per for Peru. Nasty. He’s also been taking pictures of some sights in Lima. I also switched up my schedule some to spend more time with him when he gets back.

Upgraded my Dash to Windows Mobile 6. Good stuff, even though WM6 leaves me wanting to ditch my Smartphone for a PDA, like the new T-Mobile Wing. The only real difference is touch screen and screen real estate, but my Dash works great for me right now.

Mint, a new free online personal finance manager is in “Elite Beta” right now ad I can’t wait until it opens. It looks like it’s going to blow most others out of the water. Well, right now there aren’t many others out there. Sure, I have online banking, but I am in the process of figuring out how to track everything I do on my laptop on my mobile device. So far, financial software is lacking for Windows Mobile aside from basic checkbook apps. A web solution would be great if it displays right on my device’s browser.

I’m almost done with this school term too. I finished my rough draft for my Effective Writing II final (148/150), which can be viewed along with the final draft at Scribd.

Well, off to another night in paradise.

Like a fuckin kitten, I tell ya. It’s like a poison overtaking my mind…a light, happy, fluffy poison…wearing a Spiderman costume.

Work was pretty boring for me last night, although The Sarge happened to get some good stuff going on. All I had was a guy I found who made $80,000 a year head first in a dumpster eating thrown out Chinese food.

I ordered a new case for my Dash which looks downright nice. Surprisingly I haven’t gotten so much as a dent, ding, or scratch on it yet and I’ve had it for a few months now.