iDidn’t Know!
I took off the screen protector, held my breath and pressed a fat, oily-from-hand-lotion finger on the naked screen and…
OK, I’ll start from the beginning.
I’ve been rocking an iPhone for about 5 weeks. Like a good newbie owner, I got a protective case and screen protector for it.
I hate screen protectors because they show every finger print as well as oily smudges after holding the phone against my oily-skinned face. But, I rather have scratches, oil and fingerprints on the protector and not the phone’s naked (and expensive to replace) screen.
This morning I read Apple will not sell any more screen protectors in their Apple Stores or online. Evidently because they “hurt” the iPhone. Huh???
I just learned the iPhone 3GS has special coatings that already protect the screen and NEVER shows oil or fingerprints!
Kyaaaaa. I spent $14.94 for some sticky plastic that shows every fingerprint and smudge, when the naked screen does not????
Here we are; I took off the screen protector, held my breath and pressed a fat, oily-from-hand-lotion finger on the naked screen and….. NO FINGERPRINT!
Yes, I love Red ^_^
The Screen cleans 10x easier and looks crystal clear even after pressing it to my oily face!
Dang! iDidn’t Know!
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Posted from my iPhone
Starbucks Adventure
Hi,
Last week a co-worker approached me in the break room, and proceeded to introduce herself, as well as tell me lots of her life story, while I waited at the change machine to slowly give me change for $5 bucks. I ran into her again this morning by chance at a Starbucks. Here’s the story.
I created these cartoons using WeeMee Avatar Creator & Photogene iPhone applications
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Posted from my iPhone
Dork Tower
HiHi, Everyone! If you like fun, geeky cartoons, check out Dork Tower. Just click the Cartoon Above. >_<
Posted using ShareThis
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
This is my table at Batan Waru, a cafe near my home in Ubud, Bali. Notice I can only afford a hot chocolate. I go there for the Wi-Fi. But, what’s wrong with this picture? What seems out of order? Go ahead and look: I’ll wait. *~ waiting ~*
No, the spilt sugar is not what is wrong. Let me give you a hint: why is my Uber-Sexy BlackBerry taken apart? Why can you see its front AND its back cover AND its battery at the same time??? Because it got soaking wet!
Here’s the story:
I carry my BB in my hand everywhere I go. After two bottles of water, I had to go to the men’s room. To free my hands, I was holding BB between my chin and neck and DUNK!
BB fell into the toilet (the water was CLEAN, thank goodness)! I fished my phone out of the toilet and wiped it dry as fast as I could. I tried it out to see if it worked, but the screen now is blinking on and off, and the far 1/5th left side is entirely dim while the remaining 4/5ths was nice and bright. Water stains were all inside on the LCD. Now entire thing is blinking like a lightbulb that is about to die. When I tried the buttons, none did what they were supposed to: water has saturated BB’s inside.
After lots of CrackBerry.com forum searching, I found that the fastest and best way to dry it inside is to actually place it in a container of uncooked rice, which absorbs water even faster than silica gel!
So here it is, just before being covered over with rice, like King Tut’s tomb is covered by Egyptian sand….
But it will rise from it’s rice grave (probably in 1 or 2 days) like a vampire. Maybe I should name my BB “VampBerry” 
Don’t worry, everyone. This is not turning into a BlackBerry blog. It just seems a lot of drama these last few days has been involving my BlackBerry. I’m still thinking of a name for it. Any Ideas?
Are We Kryptonians?
Ok, if you read my last blog post, you realize just how much I love my Uber-Sexy BlackBerry Bold. I loved it enough to lick the thing clean of weeks old bacon grease! Now that’s love! How many of your “significant others” would lick you clean, even if you did taste like bacon?
Well I’ve upgraded the BlackBerry Messenger to version 5.0 (allows for chatting between blackberries, like yahoo messenger, only it’s directly BlackBerry to Blackberry). There is a new option with version 5 for adding new people: Barcodes! Above is the barcode of Kevin Michaluk, of Crackberry.com. Your current BlackBerry (with BBM 5.0, and a camera) can scan the barcode, and add him instantly. This saves you from giving out private info (our BlackBerry PIN numbers, which uniquely identifies our BlackBerry to the BlackBerry Universe) to people, yet allow them to add you anyway. VERY Cool.
But, I was thinking. This unique-to-your-blackberry barcode sort of reminds me of a complex version of Kryptonians’ (people from the Planet Krypton, home of Superman, dweebs!) family symbols! How cool would it be to pay RIM (maker of BlackBerry) to use the Superman Logo (which is really his family’s Kryptonian Symbol) as your own unique BlackBerry barcode? I’d better rush before Shaq beats me to it!
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Sent from BlackBerry©
My BlackBerry Tastes Like Bacon!
Even worse is the fact I’m a BlackBerry Abuser: I use it constantly and everywhere! I even use it when I have greasy, sticky fingers, which add to the trackball’s shrinking lifespan.
*~ The Crowd Goes “Boooooo! ~*
So, I have searched the forums of CrackBerry.com to find ways to clean the trackball. I have tried every way, short of using little screwdrivers to remove the ball. I tried water, alcohol on Q-Tips, everything! NO SUCCESS!
*~ The Crowd Goes “Oh Nooo!” ~*
Finally, I found some guy’s post, saying the #1 way he has found that works is to “lick” the trackball. Uh, OK. I read on, and saw a few people saying they tried it and it worked. Uh, OK. Now, I know I can be gullible sometimes. I was thinking: is this one of those times? I read on further and saw this super cute girl even tried it, and said “it worked for me!” SOLD!
So, I picked up the Bold, closed my eyes, and LICK. I licked it, turned it some, licked again, turned it again, over and over until entire trackball had a good coating of my spit. AND IT WORKED! After 10 minutes of licking, it was turning freely again! And, the trackball is back to its original pearl-white color (it was battleship gray)!
*~ The Crowd Goes “Huh You Licked It!? Uh, Hurrah!” ~*
(the crowd’s looking at each other in utter disbelief)
Strangely enough, it tasted like Bacon!
Rodney Reloaded…
OK, you’ve all read in the previous blog post of my growing hatred of Indosat M2 Broom “Classic” service due to it’s pricing structure, plus the annoying fact it never delivers anything near the promised 3.6Mbps speeds. As a technical person, I realize the speed is actually “up to” 3.6Mbps, but only in a perfect world.
If there are no sunspots AND there are zero negatively charged protons in the atmosphere AND there is extra electrical power being fed to Indosat’s broadcast towers AND Jupiter is aligned with Mars and Venus in triange formation, THEN you will MAYBE see 3.6Mbps speed!
Even more sneaky is Indosat is doing “Bandwidth Throttling!” Put simply: they track users’ bandwidth usage then increase or decrease the speed for the user. Heavy-traffic gets slowed down, like BitTorrent and video streaming, while text-oriented stuff (like general browsing) is not slowed down. So, when hitting YouTube, maybe your wonderful pseudo-3.6Mbps speed will drop to just 5 or 10Kbps. BUT if you go to a speed-test site, to test your bandwidth speed, Indosat will then “throttle up” the speed, so it will test at near 3.6Mbps, then slow down when you return to your YouTube viewing hahaha. YouTube is just an example here. And yes, one of the Indosat Techs told me this: I taught English at Indosat’s Headquarters for over 3 months, and some of the students are system people.
I decided to ditch my IM2 Classic service, and go with IM2’s Broom Unlimited (for description, read the previous blog post). I called more than a dozen vendors that sell the Broom Starter Kits (which are used to activate the service) but none had kits for Broom Unlimited. They only had Broom Starter Kits for Classic only. 
A BIG misconception many people believe is the starter kits are generic, and thus can be used for activating Classic or Unlimited service accounts: WRONG! Some kits can be for either service, but MOST kits can only be used for Classic. There is NO visual difference between the kits: no wording or special code. Vendors just are told at the time they get the kits which they are. Vendors I contacted only had kits for Classic service! *~ cry ~*
I then decided to go to IM2 Broadband Center (main center) in Plaza Semanggi, a mall I absolutely hate. I got there and guess what: they don’t have any kits except for Classic! The IM2 customer service guy told me they are intentionally not selling the Unlimted Kits, as so many people want them (uhhh, that is a bad thing????). He went on to say there “may be” some Unlimited kits available in June. *~ WTF! ~*
I had The Evil Twin on the phone, and she gave lots of advice. Eventually the guy said “there is a new service: Broom ‘Xtra’ Unlimited. Only Giant supermarket downstairs at the underground level sells it.”
I asked him what is Broom Xtra as I never saw it on their web site or heard of it. He explained: The standard Broom Unlimited service is Rp. 100k/month, with 256Kbps speed for the first 2GB of data, and the rest of the month is at a slower speed of 64Kbps of unlimited data. The new Broom “Xtra” Unlimited service is Rp. 125k/month, with 256Kbps speed for the first 2.5GB, and the rest of the month is at 64Kbps of unlimited data. Basically, you get 25% more data at high speed for 25% more $ for the starter kit (starter kits are a one-time cost). Fair enough!
The only downside is the IM2 Broom Xtra starter kit is Rp. 200k instead of Rp. 150k (the price of the Classic/Unlimited kits). I’ll live with that one-time extra price! 
But here comes the kicker: The Indosat guy said “Giant’s selling “Extra” at Rp. 275k because they are the only location in Indonesia that has it until late May/early June! *~ WTF!? ~*
I go to Giant, and yup, they have it! BUT at that higher price. As you can see below, the price is clearly Rp. 200k, but Giant has a monopoly. OK, I still say that one-time price is acceptible.
![](http://www.rodneyonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/broom_extra-2.jpg "The Legendary Bigfoot, uhh I mean Broom \")
I’m using Broom Xtra right now. *~ Loves It! ~*
The Indosat guy is right, it’s very fast: faster than then predicted 256Kbps. I rechecked and Broom Xtra is not listed on their website, and not even found via Google search. It is a brand new product they were planning to announce in the future, and the only way to get it is by praying the IM2 guy tells you, AFTER you visit their location.
Now, how did Giant get the unheard of kits? I am sure some deal is made, and asked. IM2 guy said “the vendor stand owner knows ’someone’. Thus that extra Rp. 75k is going into the vendor booth owner’s pocket — and probably a percentage to the IM2 guy as well! Oh well, corruption is widespread in Indonesia. I will look at this time as “helping the Economic Crisis.” hahahahahaha.
The Matrix Has You, Rodney…
Internet access in Indonesia is not quite as widespread or has as fast access speed as in the USA. And certainly Jakarta lacks the city wide free Internet access that Singapore currently sports. But, one thing I do like is access via 3G networks: simply plug in a SIM card into a USB modem, and connect. My personal favorite access provider is Indosat. I like Indosat’s prepaid service, called Broom! Broom comes in two flavors: Classic and Unlimited.
Broom Classic gives you high speed, 3.6Mbps, access for a fee based on credit vouchers (about 200k Rupiah will get you about 300MB of data). Once you use up your Rupiah credit, you must buy more credit. That 300MB can last you for 1 day (if you do lots of YouTube videos or porn) or 3 months, if you only do email. The time it lasts depends on your personal type of usage.
*~ I’m currently buying about 600K Rupiah of credit a month! kyaaaaa ~*
Broom Unlimited gives you just that: unlimited data for only 100k Rupiah per month, but at 256Kbs for the first 2GB of data, and the remainder of the month would be at 64Kbs. If you leave your computer online 24/7 to download, there is no limit, but simply at a slower connection than Broom Classic.
I currently have Broom Classic, and I hate it. I, nor anyone else I know with Classic, NEVER sees speeds anywhere near 3.6Mbps! I barely even see 256Kbs using Classic! So, why bother?
I’m buying another Broom Kit (Rp. 150k) and activating it for Unlimited! Unfortunately, you cannot change Classic into Unlimited (Indosat knows they making a fortune on people using Classic, for nowhere near the promised speed!).
I received a free Broom Kit with a new modem I purchased. I tried to activate it for Unlimited but could not. I called customer service, and was told “oh, kits with modem already set to classic” hahaha. They trying soooo hard to force people to classic. Screw That!
Tomorrow, I’m going Unlimited!
Take care!
Bahasa Indonesia Lesson for Today
Prabayar: Prepaid
iCarumba, Batman!
I know it’s really ‘Aye Carumba’ and not iCarumba–I studied Spanish for 4yrs! I’m using my “i” version because I’m noticing there are so many i-things in the world: iPods, iPhones, iGlasses (a software) and even iDogs, iFish and iCats! It’s enough to make you scream “iYaiYai!” *~ok, bad pun~*
Even worse than the iCat is the fact social networking web site popularity has dramatically increased over the last year, to the point many people have multiple accounts, with mostly the same individuals on their buddy and friend lists! Even more worse is some sites begin with one vision in mind, and it mutates due to the demands of a user base they never intended to attract. Facebook is a great example:
Facebook began as a way for people to be in contact with others they rarely meet or see: family who live on the far side of the country, fellow students from the university you used to attend, etc. And you can share pictures to them, since they are currently away from your “real” life. Facebook was not intended for daily friends to interact, or for posting quick, poorly written status messages every 5 minutes. It was meant to be a representation (or “Face”) of your life, so others who cannot see your life firsthand can at least sample it. Search was pretty much limited to companies, universities, and high schools (not for current high school students, but for high school ALUMNI to find each other). All was wonderful, until: teenagers!
Teenagers turned Facebook into Friendster (which is actually designed for your often-seen-real-life friends and buddies to have a cyber-life in addition to real life). While Facebook creators were not really happy with this newly rising group of users, it did increase their total number of customers, which in turns attracts advertising and revenue (as businesses did not care “who” was online, only that it was hundreds of thousands of them).
I’ve noticed that more than 90% of the people on the average person’s Facebook friend list is a person they see fairly often, talk to on the phone often, or SMS to often (or all of the above!). I’ve even seen people communicate in stereo! (e.g. sending SMS to each other, while also updating each other’s “walls”). When asked “why?” I often hear “well, they wrote me comment, so now I must write one.” (uhhh…)
These web sites are supposedly to be all in fun, I know. But, lets say you have Facebook AND you have Friendster. Does the average person interact with different people on the two different services? NO! most of the people on a person’s list for one service is on the list of EVERY service account they have! So now people are getting messages from the same individuals on Facebook, on Friendster, on SMS, on the Phone, and lets not forget Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger (hates it!), Sypke, ICQ, IRQ, Google Talk (I can name easily more)! *~OK, Moving On…~*
I am the same. I have all these services too! And I have SMS, Blackberry Messenger, and Twitter (which is the only service most people need, as all most people do is make quick comments to each other on all the other services, which is what Twitter does better than anyone, but anyway…). I have SO MANY Web 2.0, Social Networking Accounts, that when I do remember to visit them, I must always request “email me my password” or worse, “email me my username” Because it been SO LONG I cant even remember them for the web site! EVEN MORE SCARY is some people can’t even remember which email address they used to sign up for that particular web service, because they have SO MANY email accounts too! So, some people can’t even tell that web site where to send their forgotten info!
*~ How Fucked-Up is that? That you have accounts you not visit for so long, you cant even remember the username or password or even email account anymore, yet you STILL KEEP IT! It like keeping Duncan Donuts even though they are 3 months old! ~*
I recently began to think “why do I have these accounts? And I don’t even log into all of them alway, so why do I keep them?!” I asked friends and they too said the same! Most of the adults log into one or two often, and maybe check the others from time to time, simply to clear the messages from the inboxes. Teens like to use them all, but that’s OK: they’re teen hahaha!
So, I have decided to delete all my social networking accounts, except Yahoo! messenger, Twitter and Facebook. (I’m still undecided, Maybe I will keep MySpace instead of Facebook, which is Hell-A-Boring to me with its lame applications, while MySpace has lots of cool content, like Music artist pages, enhanced video capabilities, etc., and MySpace has many more users than Facebook–contrary to what most people may believe). For Facebook status messages, I do not even update them! I only update Twitter, and have Twitter auto-feed Facebook status box hahahaha.
Now that that’s settled, what about the buddy and friend lists? How many “friends” do you have on your Yahoo!, Friendster and Facebook? How many of them are really friends u interact with, or have history (such as attending the same university class, or coworkers) via that service? How many of those “friends” on your lists do you never even hear from? How many of them do u comment to (not counting you ‘replying’ their comments) because you are thinking of them, and want to give them a cool shout-out? I’ve seen “friends” with over 600 “friends” on their list (usually the pretty girls have this many, cos guys can’t help but add them, so they feel they are cool hahaha). Is it so bad to “decline” a friend request? Is it so bad to clean the list and keep just people you “actually” know and interact with? Is it so evil to delete 300 of those 600 people, because you heard from them only once, and not ever again? Let’s find out!
I’m trashing anyone on my list that I cannot immediately remember who they are! On my old Yahoo! Messenger account (I trashed it about 3yrs ago, cos so many people and spam email) had like 150 people on it! and I had NO IDEA who they were! Today I have maybe 20 total on my Yahoo! Messenger buddy list, but I know who they are, and I hear from them at least once in a while, but I separate them into Yahoo! Messenger groups. I’ve 5 groups:
- “A-List” (for those very few who are close, real-life friends I constantly interact with)
- “Friends” (nice people who I know in real-life, or interact with for many years)
- “Friends-At-Large” (good people who I don’t get to chat to often, due to distance, real-life things, etc, but we stay in touch from time to time)
- “The Others” (stolen from the TV show “Lost”: people who I’ve met, and rare to talk to, but feel I should maintain contact to. Usually ex-coworkers, or networking-relationship)
- “The Psychos” (only 3 on this list: Neurotic people I’ve marked as permanently offline, and ignored. Miss Split-Personality with her multiple accounts, The Stalker, and The Nympho-Travel Agent are in this group)
Anyway, I will soon be freed from the chains of too much Web 2.0 (social networking web sites, for you non-geeks). Later I’m cleaning house! I’ll keep only those services that have unique specialties, then trashing the rest!
Bahasa Indonesia Lesson For Today:
Lengkap: Complete
Contoh (example):
Ibu saya senang karena dapur saya sudah lengkap.
My mother is happy because my kitchen is already complete.
Take care! Oh crap, I forgot I used to have a Multiply Account! I have to log back on at home and trash that one too *cryyyy…. Lord All Mighty, Please Deliver me from the Evil that is “invite your friends to use this service”!
It’s Coming! + Mail Call :)
It’s Coming!
I knowwwww, I did not post within two days of the last post. I am STILL writing the blog post (yes, this is not the one I wanted to post). The forthcoming post is so deep that I am forced to review and rethink some things (in positive ways). Trust me, it will be worth the wait.
For now, I will tell you what is happening, share some incredible news, and answer some emails (which I still get hundreds of each week: maybe I should create a forum).
I have been exploring some avenues for my current photographic project. I’ve made some amazing breakthroughs! I may be published in not one, but 4 publications, I may be interviewed by a well-known talk show host (I wont say any names, until it is confirmed). I may be able to get some of the impoverished children I’ve encountered some lasting support, and there may be a book!
Actually I have a horrible reporter to thank for all of this, as his actions made me feel I must give a more accurate accounting of some things. My friend, Yensi, told me to check the JakartaGlobe’s features section, as a reporter published a very short article about the very subject and location of my current project. But, he did not get formal permission to be there, and he only spent a few hours there one time. His information was so inaccurate I almost screamed (from laughing and from disgust). This was just another example of what my Ministry of Health acquaintance mentioned before: how foreigners ignore the government rules, and exploit the people for their own gain. Very sad. I took the time to get permission to do this, and to share my data, findings, and images with the government, and this reporter guy comes along and exploits the people! He only made it harder for sincere researchers to do work, as the government has yet another negative experience to cause them mental trauma. After I “googled” the reporter’s name, I found he published the same inaccurate article in other newspapers, with the same, singular misleading photo! *~kyaaa~*
All of this let me to take more action and move my timetable “up” a few months. Instead of waiting longer, I decided to proceed with bringing thing project into public view: thus the publications, the talk show appearance, the possible book, etc etc. And yes, gallery showings. I will tell you more next week
Mail Call:
Justin wrote: “Do you have gallery showings? If yes, where?”
I’ve only had one gallery showing since being in Indonesia, but you can count on another coming in the very near future. Actually, I’m planning for 3 showings, one month each, back to back in 3 different locations in Jakarta. I am still working out the details.
Kim wrote: “Your website does not allow purchases of the images. How can I buy one?”
Actually, some images are not for sale, such as the sex worker images. But when you select a photo on my website, it gives you the option to contact me. So far I’ve given away images, rather than sold them, when I see they will be used for the powers of good.
Kim (another Kim) wrote: “How are you and the stalker?”
Hahaha, funny you ask. I tried to work with the stalker on my current project, only to find out she was still telling people a bunch of bull. I made it clear I wanted co-worker relationship only (and others were witness to this) but it did not matter. Every time she and I work, it seems to be a 2.5 month time limit before she converts into craziness; at first, all is well, but as time progresses in that 2.5 months, she converts into a … not nice person. I won’t work with her again, ever.
It’s sad actually. When we “work” together, we are an *extremely* good team: we blend and mesh very well as we have the same goal: to help the people we are encountering. We know what the other is doing at the time we are doing our part; we even worked together to get the poor kids school supplies for their make-shift school. Working together has never been an issue, when we stay on-topic. It is the private-life items that ruins things every time, like where she tells people, in Indonesian language, we are married, then say they are lying when I learn what was said, or how she say my friends hack her email and cell phone to send me those hate emails/sms messages (ex: how all Muslims are going to hell, and they trying to take me with them, and she will kill them before she allows it, and God hates them all, and God told her it is her responsibility to keep me from their evil. God also told her I had a light blue sofa in my house, and a Hispanic babysitter (I’m not shi!tting you!): insane!).
At our last insane blow-up, 3 friends, the car’s driver, and I had to use a system to jump into the car, and lock all the doors, as she was insisting she wanted to go with us on the project (after I declined her because she cannot separate work and personal topics). I won’t go into more details of how we did it (it’s funny actually), but it ended in her breaking the car’s back-window and door with a brick! The driver got out and almost smacked her! People told him “don’t hit her, she’s just a woman.” (omg)
I had the choice of either giving the driver her address and phone number, so his co can sue her for $, or pay for the damages myself. She is a gov worker: committing a violent crime would certainly get her fired, and she would not be able to go to the USA for her PhD (UCLA, watch out!). I paid the damages (she does not even know they wanted her info, or that I paid the damages) so she would not be fired. I also paid the damages, so her chances of going to the far side of the planet Earth, far away from me, would not be ruined. I’m happy to say she is staying away (no calls or messages), and I certainly am too. Life is happy again.
Ivan wrote: “When shooting, how many images do you keep out of the bunch”
Hmmm, I have to say this will be in a future blog, but to give an base answer: maybe 1 out of 500. The future blog will explain why I am so “picky” about what images I keep.
ENOUGH. Take care, I have to work! And, I have to prepare for next week’s presentation :)