Tag: Android Collectibles

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Farmer @Work

In my Aroostook County hometown, students grades 9-12 returned to school last week (August 16). The summer start is so teenagers can go on break to help with the potato harvest: 10 school days, or effectively two full weeks, starting at the end of classes on September 22. During my growing up years, all the schoolkids had recess to help bring in the crop.

Confession: I hated picking potatoes, which perhaps explains the traditional basket kept as souvenir. A picker would fill one with spuds pulled from unearthed vines and then lug them to a barrel and dump in the load.

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Mug Me

I cannot say for certain that we still still possess the Android Collectible, but the coffee cup is here and it used almost every day. The Featured Image comes from Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Vitals: f/2.75, ISO […]

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Relic of the Fourth Estate

Since June 6, 2023, I have made several concerted efforts to write this post. Each time, I ran aground. This instance is no exception, because I cannot conceptualize what needs to be stated. So, simply: Journalism is dead. News reporting as I once knew it is no more. Reporters don’t properly source. They editorialize and subjectify the news. Advocacy replaces objectivity.

That’s what makes the Reporter / Journalist / Correspondent Android Collectible iconic. He marches along carrying his smartphone, microphone, and Leica rangefinder (see the red dot on the camera). He is intrepid and valiant. He seeks the truth, and knows that it demands trudging out into the field and documenting events and speaking to real people. He doesn’t mine Google, Instagram, Reddit, or any other online resources.

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Men @Work

During any typical weekday, between the hours of about 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., I am likely to see more men (and some women) wearing hard hats and yellow vests than I do encounter local residents. That’s a brash statement, considering constant movement of folks walking dogs.

Welcome to the whiles of living in a close-in San Diego neighborhood, where the mantra is more bike lanes, fewer parking spaces, and increase of population destiny (by way of replacing single-family homes, lush green spaces, or commercial properties with multi-unit residential buildings).

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Our Family Emergency Revealed

Tonight I reached into the box of @Work Android Collectibles and blindly pulled out a new figurine to photograph and share. Whoa, what unexpected, sad serendipity: Healthcare Worker / Doctor / Nurse. That compels me to finally, clearly reveal our family crisis. Our daughter is at one of the local hospital’s intensive care units. Her condition is grievous.

Around 4:20 p.m. PST, on March 2, 2023, her best friend texted about being at the hospital waiting to see our only child. Someone they both know called him about an emergency with her. By amazing coincidence, he was six minutes drive from the facility and actually arrived and parked seconds before an ambulance arrived. He saw EMTs quickly haul her out of the back.

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Android and Me: Back to @Work

With a sigh of resignation, I handed the shipping box containing Galaxy S22 Ultra to the guy behind the FedEx counter, today. The smartphone is headed to a Samsung facility—fulfillment of my trade-in commitment. The manufacturer already credited the (expected) vaue to my purchase of successor S23 Ultra.

Considering that I only possessed the now older model for about two months, and because of otherwise overall intrinsic value, letting go was a bit challenging. Sentiment also weighed into my reluctance. The S22 Ultra marks my return to Android, after a long hiatus.

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Year of the Rabbit Android Collectibles

They are here! Today! What better way to celebrate my escape from iPhone and return to Google’s mobile operating system than with the Year of the Rabbit Android Collectible Set. I ordered mine from Dead Zebra on Jan. 11, 2023—and good thing, too.

Because, according to the company: “Wow we sold out of our initial shipment very quickly! We are now taking reservations on a second shipment, however these will not arrive until mid-late March”. Yikes! Lucky me.

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Warty Witch Remembers

Seven years ago today, I posted a lengthy, revised review of the Nexus 9 tablet. In 2022, I use an 11-inch iPad Pro M1. That’s the state of my current computing life, which is matched by iPhone 13 Pro and 16.2-inch MacBook Pro. Not long ago, I was all-in with Google devices—as recently as 2019. But I eventually bit into the bitter fruit that is Apple, partially because Big G introduced excellent gear that later would be abandoned. Also, I saw increasing need not to be bound to constant Internet access.

That said, I had some satisfying digital lifestyle days using Chromebook Pixel and LS successor, among other Google devices. Pixel C remains one of my all-time favorite tablets, in part for the crisp display and Android utility. I still have one in the closet, languishing; four or five Android versions ago, support stopped. I also still own Pixel 2 XL, which similarly can’t be updated.