Fiction has been a passion of mine for a long time. As I've mentioned many times I'm currently writing a novel of my own. It's currently being proofread by my sister, who consequently is doing a fantastic job. I was sitting around thinking about my life and career choices. I think sometimes when I try to think about these choices objectively I feel like I've made a lot of mistakes in this area. But when I stop and remember why I love fiction I remember why I made them and why given the opportunity I would make the exact same mistakes again.
In the past ten years of my life I have worked in a number of jobs. I've had a lot of relationships outside and in addition to these jobs. In many, if not all, of these I have received an identical feedback. Everyone seems to think I should have a career in [fill in the blank with whatever they do]. When I worked with engineers I was told often that I should go back to school and become an engineer because they believed I would be good at it. I once had a counselor (well more than once) tell me I should become a counselor.
I'm not writing all of this to brag. I'm just trying to create a setting. The fact is I'm not good at everything I have done or attempted but I excel at a great many things. This leads people to think I should become a person who does one of those things for money. Okay, maybe a little bragging. In my current and nearing complete job there are many people who have come to call me a modern renaissance man because I've become known as the person who can do anything that needs doing.
The most tempting of these things is counselling. Particularly clinical social work. You get to help people with problems they are facing in this line of work. But there is a huge downside. You have to help people with problems they are facing. The burn out rate for this is about the same as accounting. I understand it's something like 7 years. Not a long career for something that would take me an additional 4 years of schooling minimum to get into.
I'm not trying to say I don't want to help people. In fact the opposite is true. I love helping people. In fact I think this is central to my personality. For some reason I have this personality that others find approachable with their problems. I like to think over the years I've helped a lot of people with things. In some cases complete strangers.
Let's talk about problems. Problems are important. We all have them. In fact today I was reading an interesting post on an old friend's blog about their personal financial problems. I found their post to be important. It's important because financial problems are an opportunity for character growth. It's also important because their my friend and I can relate to this problem.
And the real importance of dealing with problems is in relating to those problems. In my younger years I was often met with unbelieving stares from adults that couldn't believe a teenager could relate or understand their adult problems due to lack of life experience. But I could. I can. I have always been able to relate to people and their problems very well.
The way I see it there are three ways to relate to problems other people are having. First, you have experienced it yourself. Second, you haven't experienced it but have experienced enough hard things to understand how hard a thing must be. Third, you can feel the pain of the person experiencing a problem without having any prior experience. I'll explain that one later.
As a teenager I think I had a lot of life experience that was unusual for people my age. I believe this was mostly due to the fact that my parents were much older than the parents of my peers. A lot of adults used to say I shouldn't know some of the things I knew about. Whatever.
Moving forward in my life there is a singular experience that has been more valuable to me than any other when it comes to problems. I battled deep depression as a teenager. I know this is probably common today. But let me relate the story as it relates to where I am going.
When I was 16 my parents moved from Vallejo, California to Orem, Utah. The adjustment was hard for me. I left all the friends I had in Vallejo. As a sidebar these friends are still my closest 16 years later. In Orem I had no friends. There were kids in my neighborhood and in my school. Most would not talk to me. The few who did were somewhat polite but not friends. In fact I can barely remember any of their names.
So for the whole year between 16 and 17 I was depressed. It was caused mostly by a feeling of being an outcast. It didn't help that my sister left for college in Idaho almost the moment we got to Utah. My parents were overworked at the time and often spent weeks at a time in London doing work. I was a loner and the other kids in the neighborhood made it abundantly clear that they didn't want to change that.
I turned to fiction at this time. Not that I didn't like to read already. I loved to read as far back as I can remember. I loved to read Indiana Jones novels and Star Wars novels from as young as 11. I just never engrossed myself in it as much as I did at that time in my life.
I started listening to punk rock in earnest at this time. It wasn't as important to me as my books but I almost always had something running through my head.
At this time in my life I really remember feeling terrible almost all the time. I felt like people just didn't want to be around me and I couldn't figure out why. I spent weeks at a time with minimal human interaction despite going to school and working fast food. It got to the point where I was honestly considering suicide at one point. Before you get alarmed this time passed. The point of this is how it passed.
When I read books filled with rich characters and amazing plots I felt like my world of problems were less significant. I actually didn't even feel my problems as long as I was engrossed in others problems. I especially liked fantasy novels because the problems they faced were often things that seems insurmountable. They helped me feel like my problems were only temporary. And in truth they were. Before the school year ended I had a friend. He was sort of strange in his own right and outcast a bit by his former California home.
So I learned that problems are often temporary. I learned that they can often be waded through with help from a good book. I learned that I wanted to belong. I also realized that I wanted to share this with other kids who needed to learn that they could also wade through troubled times with a few words penned by a caring author.
To this day I think the very core of Punk Rock is a sense of belonging for those who don't belong. Nobody who ever met me would guess for a second that I was a punk. I've never looked the part, ever. But when I'm at the show I belong. Put me in that mosh pit and I belong. The kids there and the adults there know me because I'm them. I'm the outcast. The thing I have come to understand as I grow older is that we are all their screaming and spinning and taking an elbow in the chin. In the mosh pit we all know that we are the bruised and the broken. That's why when we get knocked down the guy that knocked us down reaches down to pick us up and give us a hug that speaks volumes about our collective sense of belonging with those that don't belong.
Fiction is Punk Rock. It's where we belong when our problems seem insurmountable.
So I think back on my choice to write stories. It was a choice born out of a belief that I had to share the escape. I can't play music but I can weave a tale on occasion. So I feel it's my responsibility to share that story. From time to time I think it's also my responsibility to listen to your problems. Because your problems and my problems are the same. That's the secret to being able to understand adult problems when I was a teenager. I realized those were my problems in the future. It wasn't hard to put myself in those shoes and think them through if as an outsider in some sense.
So to finish the title, it's about belonging. It's about remembering we are all human and we all share these problems. It's about remembering that your problems were once my problems or may one day be my problems. Fiction is about us.
August 27, 2012
Android Apps - Paid Edition
Perhaps by now you have had some fun playing with your free Android apps. Let's talk about what money can buy you now.
Before we get started talking about apps we should get out of the way that once you start buying stuff in the Play Store you will set have to set up account info. Basically the process is simple. You put a credit card on file. This card can then be associated with your Google or Gmail account (they are the same thing in case you didn't know). Once you have a credit card on file you are now utilizing the Google Wallet system. This comes in handy if you buy stuff from websites that allow you to checkout using Google Wallet. It's nice in that you don't have to have the website store your credit card info as Google let's them charge it without them keeping the card info.
I'll start with Google Play Music. Yeah, technically it's free. In fact it might be one of my favorite free apps. Here is how this one will work. First, since you have an Android phone already (I assume), you kind of already have this. If you ever try to buy any music in the Play Store you have this. But I want to make sure you utilize it correctly. You see Play Music is more than just an app for your phone. It's a music system. Start by going to play.google.com on your computer or laptop and clicking on "My Music". Once there you may have to set it up. This should be a few clicks at most. Once complete look for the "Upload Music" button on the right side of the screen. Follow the instructions to download and install the Google Music Manager. It'll be worth it.
The Google Music Manager is a very small program that uploads your music library to the cloud. What this means is that you will be able to access your music from anywhere there is an Internet connection. This is really good. It takes some time to upload a music library. It took me about 5 days actually. Times will vary depending on the size of your library. The good news is that you don't have to worry about losing your tunes again. They will be stored forever for free.
Now, back to the app. The reason this app is on my paid app list at the top is that buying music from the Play Store is a really great experience. A lot of the music I have purchased on sale at $4 or $6 for an album. Now the selection isn't perfect, for instance they still have basically no AC/DC, but it is growing. The part I love is that once you buy something it is instantly added to your library. If you want to download it later, no problem. The app makes offline a one click option from an album menu and for a computer the website allows you to download your entire library if you want in 1 click(ish).
A couple of games I recommend are the Cut The Rope series. I think there are a couple of games now. They are relatively low cost. I think I paid 99 cents for each of them. They are great little puzzle games you can play to kill a few minutes while waiting in the laundromat or for a movie to start.
Another game I found to be a real time waster is Plants vs Zombies. This game is great. Hours of playtime. What I found to be really interesting about it is that this game cost me $1.99. A long time ago I was interested in buying the PC version but was always turned off by the $19.99 price tag. It amazes me that the phone version costs a tenth of that and is the same game.
One last game to talk about. A friend recommended Where's My Water to me a while back. It's great. I think it's $1.99. I would say it's about as entertaining as Cut the Rope. Just be careful because this one is a battery drainer. Also it doesn't run great on older phones though it does run through the use of downgrading water effects.
A couple of honorable mentions. Though free I recommend the Amazon and Papa John's Pizza apps. Nothing like ordering a pizza from your car on the drive home from work. Amazon will come in handy when you want to do some price comparisons while you are out.
That's about it. I also own a Sudoku app that I paid money for. I used the free version for over a year. I paid money for it because I figured they people who made it did so good that they deserved my dollar. Otherwise I don't own very many paid apps. If you have any you would recommend leave it in the comments. I'm always looking for apps that cost money that are worth the price. I'm always looking for recommendations.
Before we get started talking about apps we should get out of the way that once you start buying stuff in the Play Store you will set have to set up account info. Basically the process is simple. You put a credit card on file. This card can then be associated with your Google or Gmail account (they are the same thing in case you didn't know). Once you have a credit card on file you are now utilizing the Google Wallet system. This comes in handy if you buy stuff from websites that allow you to checkout using Google Wallet. It's nice in that you don't have to have the website store your credit card info as Google let's them charge it without them keeping the card info.
I'll start with Google Play Music. Yeah, technically it's free. In fact it might be one of my favorite free apps. Here is how this one will work. First, since you have an Android phone already (I assume), you kind of already have this. If you ever try to buy any music in the Play Store you have this. But I want to make sure you utilize it correctly. You see Play Music is more than just an app for your phone. It's a music system. Start by going to play.google.com on your computer or laptop and clicking on "My Music". Once there you may have to set it up. This should be a few clicks at most. Once complete look for the "Upload Music" button on the right side of the screen. Follow the instructions to download and install the Google Music Manager. It'll be worth it.
The Google Music Manager is a very small program that uploads your music library to the cloud. What this means is that you will be able to access your music from anywhere there is an Internet connection. This is really good. It takes some time to upload a music library. It took me about 5 days actually. Times will vary depending on the size of your library. The good news is that you don't have to worry about losing your tunes again. They will be stored forever for free.
Now, back to the app. The reason this app is on my paid app list at the top is that buying music from the Play Store is a really great experience. A lot of the music I have purchased on sale at $4 or $6 for an album. Now the selection isn't perfect, for instance they still have basically no AC/DC, but it is growing. The part I love is that once you buy something it is instantly added to your library. If you want to download it later, no problem. The app makes offline a one click option from an album menu and for a computer the website allows you to download your entire library if you want in 1 click(ish).
A couple of games I recommend are the Cut The Rope series. I think there are a couple of games now. They are relatively low cost. I think I paid 99 cents for each of them. They are great little puzzle games you can play to kill a few minutes while waiting in the laundromat or for a movie to start.
Another game I found to be a real time waster is Plants vs Zombies. This game is great. Hours of playtime. What I found to be really interesting about it is that this game cost me $1.99. A long time ago I was interested in buying the PC version but was always turned off by the $19.99 price tag. It amazes me that the phone version costs a tenth of that and is the same game.
One last game to talk about. A friend recommended Where's My Water to me a while back. It's great. I think it's $1.99. I would say it's about as entertaining as Cut the Rope. Just be careful because this one is a battery drainer. Also it doesn't run great on older phones though it does run through the use of downgrading water effects.
A couple of honorable mentions. Though free I recommend the Amazon and Papa John's Pizza apps. Nothing like ordering a pizza from your car on the drive home from work. Amazon will come in handy when you want to do some price comparisons while you are out.
That's about it. I also own a Sudoku app that I paid money for. I used the free version for over a year. I paid money for it because I figured they people who made it did so good that they deserved my dollar. Otherwise I don't own very many paid apps. If you have any you would recommend leave it in the comments. I'm always looking for apps that cost money that are worth the price. I'm always looking for recommendations.
July 2, 2012
Android Apps - Free Edition
I got to thinking the other day about things I might write about. I realized that I've had an Android phone for more than 2 years and have yet to talk about those things that make smart phones great. So I am going to spend a bit of time reviewing and recommending a handful of apps that I find to be worth writing about, the free ones at least.
Whenever a conversation comes up with a friend thinking of getting a smart phone I mention that the number 1 app that I use and that I know others use is Google Maps. If you ever use a map program on your computer you know that it's a great way to get to new places and get around while you are in new places. Having this on your phone is awesome. I can't count the number of times when my wife and I have used it to find places to eat while we were already out somewhere. We love to read reviews of places nearby that we can see but are sometimes skeptical of. There have been times where Maps has helped my wife get home from trips around Los Angeles. And there have been many days where the traffic report in Maps has helped us avoid hours in gridlock. It's a no brainer really and it comes with almost any Android device. If you bought an Android phone and it wasn't already there you might consider returning it for something else.
Recently I read a good review for an app called Vlingo. Basically it is a voice search feature similar to Siri. Now Android comes stock with a voice search capability and has long before Siri ever showed up on an Apple device. Vlingo tries to expand on what is already there. One excellent feature is the safe driving mode. When turned on it will read your incoming text messages to you. It's not bad when going on long trips. Vlingo does a few things that Google's voice search doesn't. For instance it will open apps. I think this is the main shortcoming of the previous versions of Google's version. However, in coming months a new version of Voice Search is being packaged with the newest version of Android that will probably make Vlingo irrelevant. I'm not certain this feature will be ported to older versions of Android. So my recommendation is to go ahead and give Vlingo a try.
Another free app I recently downloaded that I can't get enough of is called Silent Time. This app is something that runs in the background once you set it up to provide you with, wait for it, silent time. I got used to CyanogenMod recently. CM has a similar feature built right in where you can set certain times of the day or night to not take phone calls. Silent time is a bit more powerful. It gives you options similar to alarm clocks. You can set up a lot of timers if you have a lot of needs. In my case I set up 3. I have 2 timers set up to make my phone shut up all night long during the weekdays and longer on weekends. I have a few friends in Africa that occasionally forget to parse the time difference when they call me. It's not fun having your phone ring in the middle of the night on a work day. Also since I use my phone as my alarm clock I find that I almost never turn it off at night. The last setting I have for church. Since I take my phone to church and always set it to vibrate I thought it would be convenient if the phone did the button pushing for me. The neat thing here is that it lets you distinguish between full silent and vibrate modes.
Some of my friends like to tell me they could never read a book on a phone. I currently have 4 apps designed mainly for reading. I have Nook, Kindle, Play Books and LDS Scriptures. At first I was skeptical of reading on such a small screen. I have been pleasantly surprised at how comfortable reading on a phone can be. I am currently reading The Reality Dysfunction on my Nook reader. There are a lot of eBook readers available now. Almost all of them have apps that can be used on a phone or a tablet. Why settle for 1 reader when I can have 4. I should add that they are not all equal. I personally prefer the Nook reader experience. The pages turn and it is easy to read type. I know other people prefer the Kindle app for other reasons. I have used them all and usually just read on whichever one sales me the book for the best price. If the prices are the same I default to the Nook. The apps are free though the books are not.
One last one I want to recommend trying is HeyTell. This is an app that reproduces the push to talk functionality of older phones like Nextel used to have. I remember my uncle had everyone on his construction crew carry those things around back in the day. Heytell doesn't use phone minutes. It sends short voice messages over the internet between users. It doesn't use your contacts like a phone either. You set up friend lists. Right now only a few people I know use it so I only message a few people. But for those few people it has replaced texting. It's simple and easy and the voice quality is excellent. The audio does come out of the speaker portion of your phone so if you have a bad speaker phone it will sound as good as your speaker can handle.
I have a lot more. I will follow this up later with some games and some things I actually spent money on.
Whenever a conversation comes up with a friend thinking of getting a smart phone I mention that the number 1 app that I use and that I know others use is Google Maps. If you ever use a map program on your computer you know that it's a great way to get to new places and get around while you are in new places. Having this on your phone is awesome. I can't count the number of times when my wife and I have used it to find places to eat while we were already out somewhere. We love to read reviews of places nearby that we can see but are sometimes skeptical of. There have been times where Maps has helped my wife get home from trips around Los Angeles. And there have been many days where the traffic report in Maps has helped us avoid hours in gridlock. It's a no brainer really and it comes with almost any Android device. If you bought an Android phone and it wasn't already there you might consider returning it for something else.
Recently I read a good review for an app called Vlingo. Basically it is a voice search feature similar to Siri. Now Android comes stock with a voice search capability and has long before Siri ever showed up on an Apple device. Vlingo tries to expand on what is already there. One excellent feature is the safe driving mode. When turned on it will read your incoming text messages to you. It's not bad when going on long trips. Vlingo does a few things that Google's voice search doesn't. For instance it will open apps. I think this is the main shortcoming of the previous versions of Google's version. However, in coming months a new version of Voice Search is being packaged with the newest version of Android that will probably make Vlingo irrelevant. I'm not certain this feature will be ported to older versions of Android. So my recommendation is to go ahead and give Vlingo a try.
Another free app I recently downloaded that I can't get enough of is called Silent Time. This app is something that runs in the background once you set it up to provide you with, wait for it, silent time. I got used to CyanogenMod recently. CM has a similar feature built right in where you can set certain times of the day or night to not take phone calls. Silent time is a bit more powerful. It gives you options similar to alarm clocks. You can set up a lot of timers if you have a lot of needs. In my case I set up 3. I have 2 timers set up to make my phone shut up all night long during the weekdays and longer on weekends. I have a few friends in Africa that occasionally forget to parse the time difference when they call me. It's not fun having your phone ring in the middle of the night on a work day. Also since I use my phone as my alarm clock I find that I almost never turn it off at night. The last setting I have for church. Since I take my phone to church and always set it to vibrate I thought it would be convenient if the phone did the button pushing for me. The neat thing here is that it lets you distinguish between full silent and vibrate modes.
Some of my friends like to tell me they could never read a book on a phone. I currently have 4 apps designed mainly for reading. I have Nook, Kindle, Play Books and LDS Scriptures. At first I was skeptical of reading on such a small screen. I have been pleasantly surprised at how comfortable reading on a phone can be. I am currently reading The Reality Dysfunction on my Nook reader. There are a lot of eBook readers available now. Almost all of them have apps that can be used on a phone or a tablet. Why settle for 1 reader when I can have 4. I should add that they are not all equal. I personally prefer the Nook reader experience. The pages turn and it is easy to read type. I know other people prefer the Kindle app for other reasons. I have used them all and usually just read on whichever one sales me the book for the best price. If the prices are the same I default to the Nook. The apps are free though the books are not.
One last one I want to recommend trying is HeyTell. This is an app that reproduces the push to talk functionality of older phones like Nextel used to have. I remember my uncle had everyone on his construction crew carry those things around back in the day. Heytell doesn't use phone minutes. It sends short voice messages over the internet between users. It doesn't use your contacts like a phone either. You set up friend lists. Right now only a few people I know use it so I only message a few people. But for those few people it has replaced texting. It's simple and easy and the voice quality is excellent. The audio does come out of the speaker portion of your phone so if you have a bad speaker phone it will sound as good as your speaker can handle.
I have a lot more. I will follow this up later with some games and some things I actually spent money on.
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