Gargantuan

So, here it is Saturday.  We're supposed to be getting heavy thunderstorms this afternoon, complete with hail.  Yippee!
I rode a bit over 10 miles this AM - a new route - Fallonica, where ever that is.  Instead of changing gears to make the climbs easier, I made myself work on the climbs.  Boy did I sweat, almost as bad as Trey Gowdy caught wearing only a towel in the Continental Baths.  I actually had to wipe down the bike since I don't want sweat ruining that nice, oxblood finish.
And I guess there's a bit of a religious upheaval happening down in DC.  Ryan did what the Evangelicals wanted and fired the Catholic Chaplain for the House of Representatives.  Some are saying he was ousted for political reasons, that he was too Liberal.  Me?  I think it was because he was a Catholic.  For those who don't know, Evangelicals really despise Catholics.  I work with an Evangelical who says Catholics are "false Christians."  He sees them as really bad people.  Phonies.  And it seems as though the Evangelicals are calling the shots when it comes to the House of Representatives.  Having a "false Christian" as Chaplain would really be a splinter under their fingernails.  Instead of being honest, they're using the Liberal gambit.  I doubt if it will work.  By now most people are beginning to realize that Evangelicals are really nothing more than hypocrites from Hell.
Which leads me to this picture of the Milky Way.  When I saw this I thought "that is freaking amazing!"

Are galaxy is really large... no, the galaxy is bigger than big... no, that's still not right.  The Milky Way is Gargantuan.  The Sol System is somewhere near the edge.  I find it rather pathetic that the same minds which want to evict the Catholic Chaplain from the House will probably never look at this picture.  Those that do will shrug and quickly move on.  For these people nothing really exists beyond the edge of our stratosphere.  The 'stars in the heavens" will never be anything more than pinpoints of light.  To be anything more than that might lead to unpopular questions.  They are much happier to simply suck on the opiate of the people.  These people will always choose stupidity because it makes them feel safe.  Unfortunately for us, they want everybody to suck on this drug.  Like the dinosaurs, they will die off.  The galaxy awaits.

Death of an ipod

So, I went to buy the new Beck album yesterday (Colors) and ran into a bit of a problem.  Amazon Music has always carried everything Itunes carries, and almost always at a more competitive price.  Sure, they don't get the exclusives, like Beyonce's music, but do you really think I'm the kind of person who's going to fork over money for Beyonce?  Nope.  What I've done in the past is buy the music I wanted and then exported it to my ipod.  I did this because for years I owned Hondas that relied upon USB cables rather than Bluetooth.  Well, yesterday morning, while I was syncing my ipod to my computer, I got an error message, number 3504, which said there was something wrong and I would need to restore my ipod.  I had no problem with this, however, when I started to restore I got another error message telling me there was another, bigger issue.  All of sudden this became very complicated.  I don't like complicated.  Simple is better.  Opening files to check on Host issues?  I don't do it.  I just want to plug the damn thing into my computer and have it sync my music, and that was evidently not going to happen.  I did a factory reset on the ipod and got the same error message.  Nada.  Nothing was working. So, I sat at my desk looking at this crappy Apple product which had last all of... a year and a half, and said "shit."
No problem.  I have a Galaxy S8 with a Bluetooth link to my Nissan Rogue and the Amazon Music App is on my phone.  All my music is safe.  All I have to do is open the app and play my music.  Easy peasy.
I did 30 minutes on my trainer this AM.  I'm avoiding the elliptical since it's too much like running and running isn't good for me until the 'issue' gets fixed, and the issue is getting fixed in a little over 3 weeks.
And did the Idiot Jerk in the White House Tweet something stupid yesterday?  I don't think so, but then he went golfing again.  I wonder if the Republicans have realized that they can never, ever point to a Democrat in the White House and complain about vacations, or golfing, for that matter.  This fool takes every weekend off.  I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't jump around the Oval Office every time Friday rolled around singing "it's Friday!  it's Friday! it's Friday."  What a loser.

New phone

So, I'm getting a new phone.  Nine months ago I was also in the market for a new phone, looking for a replacement for my aging S4.  Back then I looked at a lot of reviews for many different makes, a minor adventure in pointlessness; no matter who was publishing the review, it was most likely written by a fanboy (or girl).  There is no neutrality.  The negatives are always minor since no one wants to actually dissuade from avoiding one specific phone.  I ended up choosing an LG which turned out to not be a very good fit, which is why, 9 moths later, I'm getting a new phone.  One my biggest complaints was not being able to adjust the screen sensitivity.  You have no idea how many apps I accidentally turned on while putting the phone back into my pocket.  Talk about draining your battery fast.
And in case anybody is wondering, iphones don't even enter the picture.  I have never been what I call and 'applehead,' an individual infatuated with Apple.  Now, I don't discriminate, in fact I have several friends who are 'appleheads.'  Brandon, for example, talks to Siri all of the time.  He's always asking his phone questions, mostly, I think, because the first time Siri answered back he experienced some sort of mini-rapture.  Another example is the HR woman in my store who switched from an iphone to a Galaxy for... oh, 4 days, and then went back to an iphone.  When I asked her why she said, "oh, it was just too complicated."
Anyway, I ordered an S8 - it should be here on Wednesday.  Orchid Gray.  You see, I like things that are complicated, well, that's not exactly true, I don't find Samsung phones complicated.
Also, certain other phones weren't even in consideration.  Anything related to, or using Microsoft was out of the picture; not android compatible.

Well, I'm off today and I've got a ton of outside chores to get done before the temps creak in the low 90's.  

Manhattan Project for Appleheads

Since this is one of my early morning start days, I've only time for a quick 'piss and moan.'  Yesterday morning I saw that there is now a 'virtual tour' of The Manhattan Project which is being distributed by Los Alamos National Park (that's right, it's a park now).  Anyway, the article was really splashy, how there are virtual bread crumbs to lead you on your way, and I thought this might be interesting.  So, I go to download the app and discover... it's only for IOS.  They must think Appleheads are special.  I own a Galaxy phone and a Pro Surface tablet, no Apple products in this house.
Way back, when I bought my first smartphone, I did some research which included asking the clerk at the store what the differences were between Android and Apple.  Her answer was simple "Iphones are easy to use and are made for people who are less tech savvy."  Not being computer illiterate, I bought a Galaxy.  I see people in the store struggling to unlock their Iphones or to show me pictures of paint can lids and I laugh because these are phones designed for people who have difficulty dealing with technology.

So I sent an email to Los Alamos National Park with a complaint.  If you're going to pay to have an app written, you need to be inclusive, not biased or prejudiced against Android or Microsoft.  Apple's market share has been slowly dropping over recent years. Their popularity is waning.  This is how life goes.

The hair up Apple's ass

Let's wait for the next version

Well, the new Iphone is out.  Who cares?  Why the Appleheads around the world.  Who are Appleheads?  Those individuals who live and breathe Apple.  Every time a new product comes onto the market they upgrade simply because it's the newest toy by Apple.  This is a very good reason to question all of the press releases they dump into the media as a form of massive advertising.  At this point they're bragging about having orders for 5 million and there may be problems supply the vast demand.  That's pretty much horse shit.  No company worth it's weight in gold is going to be caught with its pants down when it comes to meeting the demand of their customer base.  Yep, that's right, Apple puts out a lot of Ho Ho Ho.  I think it's funny that this time around they took off Google Maps and installed their own mapping software which just happens to suck.  Basically they shit on their base because they hate the competition.  Now don't read this to mean I hate Apple, I don't, I own an Imac and have my music on 2 Ipods, but I also own a Dell desktop and a Dell laptop.  I use a Samsung Galaxy tablet and a Garmin phone.  Each one fills a need I have.  Too many limit themselves by deciding one product is more holy then the other.      Wrong.  The maps on the Garmin phone are better then those in Google Maps, I know because I used both to go to a Team Depot and found that Google had me wondering around on dirt roads way off from my destination.  What did I do?  Plugged in my Garmin and wow, there was my destination less then a mile away on a well traveled highway.

So why does Apple have this big hair up its ass?  Because they want to own market share.  It's all about domination.  They failed with Apple TV because, well, there is such a better selection out there.  They think they're golden because there has been no Ipad killer.  Unfortunately for them the Ipad has already peaked.  When ever somebody releases a new product they actually lose market share since those customers buying a Kindle Fire or a Galaxy note or even new Nook being released shortly are choosing those products over Apple.  The slow death has already arrived and they're doing everything they can to deny it.