Since moving to Hawaii Droid has been invaluable. Without the included Google Maps with turn by turn navigation I never would have been able to do all the running around I've had, with such ease. I don't even have to have an address, I can just tell it what store I want to go to, and by tell it I mean literally tell it, it listens.
But for today the car is resting in the shade while we enjoy what we came here for in the first place.....the beach.
My new backyard view off the lanai overlooking the tree tops, with the ocean peeking through. Now all we need is for someone to creat a better Bird App for the Droid and we'll be all set.
Ask me how much I like moving furniture. Go ahead, ask.
What I'll tell you is that every time I move (over 25 times now) I swear that next time I'm just going to burn the house down.
Actually, next time I'm taking two suitcases. That's a different story.
Today we didn't move houses, just a little furniture. One bed in, one bed out.
Somewhere in the grumbling, complaining and grunting there was light.
Droid's been working good over here in Waikiki, in fact Droid's been working hard. This morning I used the Places Directory App to find a branch of my bank, then used the Maps App to navigate us there via the walking route. Then later in the day I walked towards Honolulu to pick up the van we just bought, also coordinated via Droid. Now if Droid could just get me a lanai like this......
We drove our home of the last 3.5 yrs into Phoenix, Arizona two days ago and although I got 3G back, it's been sketchy at it's best. Verizon is investigating, but by the time they get it worked out we'll already be in another state. Luckily I've been too busy visiting and packing for our big move tomorrow to really care, but I do hope they figure out the problem, and it does not involve a replacement Droid.
During the snowstorms we really relied on Droid for weather updates, mileage info, and internet searches so it's been a big let down not having full Droid capabilities while traveling.
My girl gas grown tired of her loft bed and has been hinting around that she would like something more her style. Meaning something more grown up and less like you might find in a frat house.
So today we shopped, Droids working overtime finding furniture stores, directions, and prices.
Droids also calling her brother and asking him to measure her mattress at home because I forgot to do it and couldn't remember if she had a full or a queen. Oops.
After five stores we found what she wanted, and she fell in love with the bedding on the display too. She's now thrilled to have a new, purple, fancy grown up room.
Not my little girl any more, but always my little girl.
HUGE drawback to the 3G network is when it's not available it renders my Droid to a mere cell phone. With my old cell phone as long as I had cell signal I could still access the Internet with Mobile Web 2.0, but not with Droid. In the meantime my daughter still managed to have fun with Droid by trying to recreat her own Mona Lisa portrait.
I searched Twitter this morning for "volunteer Houston" and am now following two charities we can help with, and got two more leads. I've bookmarked their websites on my Dolphin browser & will add their phone numbers to my contacts.
All before I got out of bed this morning.
The only thing Droid didn't do for me was drive over and show up to help. That one is up to me.
While a massage would certainly help ME feel recharged and full of energy, that's not what I mean.
I know I'm not the only one to complain about the Droid's wimpyness in the battery department. I was getting a little annoyed at needing to plug my phone in as soon as I got home every night, so I got to poking around on my settings and by Jove! I'm on to something!
I've taken nearly all my apps and notifications off of their auto settings and only refresh them when I actually look at them. That includes Twitter, Facebook, email, newsreaders and whatever else I'm forgetting. The only thing that keeps constantly updating is my contact notifications which I can't figure out how to stop. Is there a secret button hidden deep in the preferences somewhere?
Now I only get my updates when I actually have time to look at them, and my battery is still 3/4 charged by the time I go to bed. That makes me happy.
Maybe not as happy as I would be with that massage, but it'll do.
I have no idea what this has to do with my Droid, but I couldn't resist a picture & a post.
My Girl and I went to the book store today, thinking we'd find a book or maybe two. We had Christmas gift cards to spend, you see.
Ten minutes and EIGHT books later, we realized that turning the pair of us loose in a book store is not a good idea for my budget. At least we only went over the gift cards by $14.
The girl showed her book wish list (kept on her Droid using the AK Notepad app) to the help counter and was loaded up in minutes.
They taste exactly like a McDonald's burger.
Bonus: no messy ketchup drips on your Droid
While waiting for our appointment, my girl and I kept busy with our Droids. She read email and played Blocked Stone, I checked email, twitter, Facebook and read the BBC news (nubinews app) while we sat side by side making fun of ourselves.
As I headed to bed I grabbed my Droid off the counter, set it on the headboard & plugged it in for the night.
Only when I reached for it as I thought of a late night tweet (twitteride app) did I discover that I had my son's Droid, not mine.
These are the dangers of being a three Droid family.
When my Droid crashed I wasn't the only one heartbroken. An eight year old lost her virtual pet, Furdiburb. Good thing trusty old Stuart was there to console her.
Favorite use for today? Pandora radio app at the gym, so I can have Shakira's help to shake shake shake it.
Sometimes you take your beauty where you find it.
Today was just another regular day, with no big highs or lows. Just me getting through the day at work, and laying down a chunk of my paycheck on groceries. And then, on the way home...
The sky lit up.
It only lasted for about 30 seconds.
I'm always grateful for these reminders that even inside the boring, the pale, the ordinary, there are moments that are absolutely brilliant.
I've never been very good at carrying my kids photos around in my wallet, but I finally figured out a better alternative..... Traditional yet Techy.
Just as I was going to write my review for my Motorola Droid, more specifically about how wonderful all the Apps are, my Droid goes into complete shutdown. After spending what felt like half a day with Verizon troubleshooting my phone, after a full day already of it not working......... I had to do a complete master reboot of Android. But no worries, it's so smart it'll remember all my Apps!....... Google only remembered five of them. It took me a month to collect all those treasured Apps and then set them all up just how I like them, just to lose them all. I lack the enthusiasm to even rebuild my collection that has become a requirement for the phone now.
Then today my husbands Verizon phone stops working so I got to spend another morning on the phone with tech support. thankfully Verizon has great customer service and everything was fixed in the end, but I did start to question our dependency on all this technology. We can go get cell phones for half what we're paying now, is Android really worth the extra expense? Evidentally he is, I'm still here....but I'm still mourning the loss and rebuilding very slowly for fear of losing it all again.....and I'm still just a little bit disgruntled.
This is my awesome PhotoShop teacher who has no idea how much I'm learning from her, or how that might change my future. Kristiemac, you rock.
Can my Droid help me with that?
Not to worry, its just my night club entry stamp, unlike some of the truly hammered drunks we saw last night. I'm pretty sure some of them woke up with startling surprises today!
