Image Courtesy of Android Community

This week marks the release of one of the highest profile phones in recent memory – Motorola’s revival tool (much like the Palm’s Pre), the DROID.  It is one of the first phones to walk the retail runway outfitted in Android 2.0, the Open Handset Alliance’s latest mobile operating system.  And despite my love for my iPhone and my glaringly obvious Apple fanboy-ism, I am really really starting to miss my old Android phone.  Here are the reasons why:

1. Android is [finally] starting to look beautiful
   When Android first was revealed to the world, it was one of the most hideous mobile operating systems to date – something that critics were fast to point out.  When the first public release came out, we were treated to a very different looking operating system, but….it was still hideous.  Google obviously has never been strong in their graphic design/user interface department, and Android was no exception.  However, with the 2.0 release it is finally looking like Android might have something stronger to offer, with the  Open Handset Alliance realizing that they will not surmount iPhone sales without paying close attention to the iPhone — the phone whose graphic presentation has stubbornly not been revamped since the first generation (save for a few teensy icons).
2. Cloud Computing, For Free
   One of Android’s strong points has always been that your data (contacts, calendars, gmail, etc.) is always synced with google’s world-dominating cloud, essentially meaning that you’re never without your data, even if you lose/break your phone.  Apple charges for this service – $100/year to be exact – MobileMe, however, forgoes google’s wonky contact management system (which can be livable with some minor tweaks).  Android 2.0 marks the release of universal Exchange support for Android phones, which is a big plus as well.
3. Google Apps!
   Google develops a lot of high quality apps for many platforms, including BlackBerry, Symbian, Mobile OS X, and of course, Android.  You probably have experienced some of them – google maps, google sync, gmail, and YouTube.  But what most people don’t know if all of the mobile apps are crippled versions of the real deal, which exists exclusively on Android.  If you have a gmail account, you should probably already have an Android based on its ability to handle gmail alone.  Push gmail, fully threaded conversations, label support, archiving and more exist on the Android version — and nowhere else.  Google Talk also outclasses all other mobile communicators as well, including BBM and mobile AIM.
4. MULTITASKING
   Listen up Apple, and listen closely.  What I miss most about my Android phone, and what makes me loathe my iPhone, is the ability to multitask.  Recently, I had to go through the hassle of jailbreaking my iPhone, only to lose all my contacts and photos in the process – all so I can respond to a text message without interrupting Pandora.  On my G1, I could do this with aplomb – whizzing in and out of Pandora, text messages, e-mails, browsing, etc. mostly with ease…maybe an occasional stuttering of a webpage (hello TI OMAP 3430!) but a sacrifice I would make 100% of the time.  The iPhone 3GS’ processor clocks at 600MHz as well, but Apple STUPIDLY refuses to take advantage of the processors abilities because apparently they don’t believe in sacrifice (only hypocrisy).
5. Network Freedom
   You can find an Android phone to work on any carrier today, with the exception of AT&T (which will be remedied soon by Dell’s Android submission as well as the HTC Fiesta). I’m looking at you, Verizon (the first carrier to upgrade to 4G LTE networks), with your big and bold blanketing 3G network and aggressive cell tower upgrades (not to mention DROID tethering!).  Even T-Mobile wasn’t so bad, now featuring their dirt cheap unlimited talk plans.  AT&T sucks.  The teensiest 3G network.  A crappy edge network (it’s nearly 2010 – why am I even writing about edge?) to fall back on.  Horribly delayed features (MMS on the iPhone was not released as you promised, and tethering still isn’t here).  And spotty/slow service!  I recently found out that I don’t get AT&T service where I live – when I DO manage to snag 1 bar, apparently it belongs to T-mo.  Because they sent me a letter saying I draw too much data from other carriers and they were going to boot me off of their pathetic network because they have spotty coverage.  Are you kidding me?  They also remotely activated something on my iPhone which now tells me when I’m off their network.  Suckers.  If I was employed, I would’ve been all too quick to jump over to Verizon (who might I mention, I am surprised by: I can’t believe they haven’t crippled their Android phones with their ugly finesse as they so often like to do).  When and if another carrier gets the infamous iPhone contract, people will be jumping ship from AT&T faster than the swine flu has been traveling.

Of course, Android is not without it’s issues too, but they are issues that I can start to reconcile with over the oft-too-coveted iPhone:

1. The App Marketplace (thankfully now out of Beta) has gotten sexier, but still is nowhere near as robust as Apple’s.  You might find a Facebook app, or a Shazam app or the likes, but the apps still aren’t even as nearly polished as they were to pass Apple’s ridiculous app-approval process.  And the games, well they suck.
2. Media Playback is horrible.  For videos, you might as well download a third party program.  And Amazon’s mp3 is nowhere as nice as iTunes.  And it’s still ugly, but hopefully that will come around.  Sony’s first Android phone has done a beautiful job taking care of that.
3. No central synchronization.  It’s time we moved past rudimentary dragging-and-dropping…come up with a program like iTunes that does it all.  My mom could never switch from her iPhone to an Android for this simple reason.  I don’t care who does it (google should step up to the plate) from the Open Handset Alliance, but it’s a glaring omission that needs to be tackled ASAP.
4. No multi-touch.  ’Nuff said.
5. How is it the whole alliance can’t make a good keyboard? Really? The onscreen one has gotten better, but it still doesn’t match the iPhones multi-touch keyboard.  So tackle the physical keyboard hard, will you?  The one on the G1 was horrid, and it seems as though Motorola (who is perfectly capable: you made a sidekick!) didn’t take that into consideration, pushing out a keyboard on a much celebrated device that probably took them at most about 5 minutes of design.

So what about you, readers? Please share your experiences and preferences – especially those of you who have double-dipped like me!

While many were prepared to parade down the streets signfying the economic upturn, the U.S. Department of Labor has something else to say about the matter.  Displaying the nation’s unemployment levels charted over the course of 1 year, the unemployment has done nothing but continue to rise — now reaching 10.2%, the highest in 26 years (since 1983 – before I was born).  This is a 0.4% increase since September.

Economists speculate that the surge in unemployment is the result of greedy cautious businesses protecting their assests by continuing to cut down on costs (read: people) despite trrends of growth occuring over past months.  Apparently, they expect consumers to keep spending at their normal levels while less and less of them have the economic means to do so (makes little sense, eh?).  I’m sure that business owners will counter that they no longer maintain large profit cushions to take business risks, but I doubt they have really considered the selfless alternative.

The US remains a conglomerate of the jobless, as a reported 190,000 jobs were lost in October, while economists say that there are roughly 175,000 job openings (how many of which are unskilled labor – like jobs for teenagers?).   According to CNN.com, “the unemployment rate for teenagers in the labor force soared to 27.6%, up 1.8 percentage points and hitting a third straight record high.”  For those with degrees or manangerial experience, the unemployment rates are dropping – down to 4.7%.

How about we quit with the unnecessary spending?  Current issues which aren’t paramount come to mind, such as looking for water on the surface of other planets.  Or fighting two senseless wars (are we seriously considering more warfare right now, Obama?).  Or how about bailing out the auto industry, which pretty much deserved their demise due to the sh***y products they were releasing.

Friday, the famed-entertainer-who-can’t-sing — Rihanna, appeared on 20/20 to discuss the details of her ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown’s assault on her.

In some sad but not uncommon protective measures, she claims that Chris’ soul left him when he was beating her, and that she couldn’t see the person she knew in him:  ”He had no soul in his eyes. Just blank. He was clearly blacked-out. There was no person when I looked at him.”
She says the fight started when an unamed woman sent him a text message unintended for Rihanna’s prying eyes.  She caught him in a lie, apparently, and wouldn’t let up – which prompted the violence.  She felt her only option was to escape by getting out of the car and walking – in a gown and masquerading a bloody face. 

The most interesting part of it all is her feelings towards him.   ”I don’t hate him at all,” she said. “I actually love and care about him. I want him to do well, have a great career, have a great life and grow up. And just take this as something you had to go through to grow up and learn.”  – REALLY Rihanna?  You have no bitter feelings towards him at all?  You think that he will just “learn his lesson” without counseling (no, ‘talking things through’ with his mom doesn’t count as much needed therapy), and become a better person?  This is what happens when love blinds.

Many artists today attempting to attain international celebrity by releasing music in multiple territories and languages have quite simply failed.  Beyonce, one of the world’s biggest billboard -droppers today has attempted numerous times (Amor Gitano, Irremplazable, Oye) and yet many still don’t even know she tried.  And failed.

Nelly Furtado ambitiously trotted into Shakira’s territory with ler latest release, Mi Plan.  Her plan in actuality is quite simple: “It’s not so much about the lyrics or the language, it’s about the emotion, the whole package”, states Furtado.  Realizing that many of her fans can sing along to her songs in English without a hint of knowledge of the language, she decided to branch out and tackle the unifying feeling.

Upon listening to her new album, it’s amazing to me that Spanish is her third – yes third – language.  Spanish is a language she pursued in high school, and the language of preferred communication between her and her now Cuban-American husband.  The practice has paid off; her Spanish is beautiful for a non-native speaker, and it’s obvious why she had no qualms about releasing a full-length Spanish album, despite rating her own fluency between 50-60%. 

Latin America was paying attention too, and it’s a good thing.  Nelly’s own record label, NelStar Music, commanded the collaboration of such widely acclaimed stars as Mexican Alejandro Fernández, bachata legend Juan Luis Guerra, songwriter and friend Alex Cuba, the hauntingly emotional Concha Buika, and even has the not-linguistically shy Josh Groban singing in a Spanish duet “Silencio”.  The album release  follows a one-year sabbatical in which she enjoyed strengthening the bonds of motherhood with her daughter Nevis, 6. 

Her album has already reached the highest sales for a Latin Pop debut in 2009.  As for 2010?  Look for a new English release with the god of tracks, Timbaland.

Check out a preview of her entire album here (my favorite is Fuerte, ft. Concha Buika!)

Last night Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros kicked off their tour with a performance at Belly Up in Solana Beach, CA.

Starting off the night was an opener that really warranted their own review, The Deadly Syndrome. What a band! They kicked off the show with a set from their signed 2007 album, The Ortolan. Where the guitarist William Etling lacks any type of performance values worthy of paying to see in a live show, vocalist Christopher Richard makes up the slack. He has an amazing range and a honed stylistic quality only owned by a true musician. I’m glad to see them signed and hitting CA through TX this tour. They have an excellent start.

The main attraction, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros were the flyer attraction, drawing a large percentage of the crowd out to the venue. Knowing their music and having seen them prior I am actually disappointed.

It started with set-up which was incredulously long, but acceptable considering their large size and vast equipment such as a piano. But once that was completed, they disappeared from the stage and didn’t return for a very long time. The crowd lost it’s excited murmur and grew disheartened due to the lack of professionalism of both Belly-Up (for not either making an announcement, pumping loud music, or having the Deadly Syndrome perform more songs), and the band for it appears as the delay was caused by a delayed band member. For a band trying to mobilize their music by a kicking off a tour, I would’ve expected a little more professionalism, save for an unpreventable emergency which would’ve warranted the aforementioned announcement.

Alex Ebert (lead vocalist) is a prime example of why musicians, no matter the genre-bending innovators they might be, could benefit from classical training with their instrument. On both occasions when I have seen him, he has complained of a recent voice loss and has been unable to sing in his upper register, which is disappointing to say the least. When I go to see a live venue I want to experience the talent, and I think he should take more steps to preserve an otherwise unusual but powerful voice.

Other than that, everything was spot on – the rest of the band was great – even Jade’s usual eccentric personality (is there something odd about her that strikes you the same way it does me?).

The highlight of the night for me was when Alex invited fans onto the stage to sit with him in a kumbaya-esque circle and sang a really good song of which I cannot remember the name. The girl who sang yellow roses was definitely a better sitter than singer.

Check them out on their tour – www.edwardsharpeandthemagneticzeros.com

Yesterday, my dad mentioned to me that Obama planned to lift a restriction on citizenship: that you must be HIV-/AIDS free.  Turns out, he had only part of a very important picture wrong.

The almighty USofA has had a 22-year ban on people with HIV/AIDS traveling here, often resulting the ambitious hiding their medical states and interrupting very important medical treatment.  What the heck is this world coming to when a human being, let’s say in Africa, is born with AIDS, and despite all the efforts in the world (like working their butt off to get into American academia) will never have a chance at entering out country?  The life expectancy of patients with HIV/AIDS is increasing all the time – you can’t say that they would never make it to see that day.

I had no idea this ban was in place otherwise I would’ve had quite a few things to say about it earlier.  This makes the US seem less of a melting-pot, and more like a country which selects the “fittest” from a pool of candidates to come and populate our country.

The goal was to have dinner on the table by the time my parents got home from San Diego.  Well for various reasons, I hadn’t started yet, but of course I get a phone call, and my mom is like, “how’s dinner coming along…we’re starving!”  ZOMGIhadntstarted!! So I told her truthfully that I hadn’t started and a surge of guilt washed over me.  She responded by saying, “oh we’ll figure something out” – not mad at all.  Anyway, I took that to mean we’d make a community effort when she got back.  Feeling sooo guilty, I decided I could manage the meal I had been planning in 20 minutes.  I dashed into the kitchen and started throwing stuff together at iron chef speed.  Literally stuff was flying everywhere and I was sprinting through the kitchen from cupboard to fridge to sink.  But I knew what I was doing: earlier my mom had told me we had chicken breast in the fridge and I already had my recipe in mind.

Here’s how it all went:

1. I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sautéed diced onion, celery, and garlic in 2 tbsp EVOO for 3 mins.
3. Removed it from heat and added 1.5 chopped apple, 1/4 cup walnuts (actually I substituted pecans), and 1/4 cup raisins.
4. I tossed this all together with one lightly pre-beaten egg.
5. Next, stuff the chicken with the mix.  So I go to the fridge to grab the chicken, and realize that apparently she told me “chicken breast tenders” and I completely didn’t hear the last part, because I was looking at a pallet of thin chicken strips.
6. Panic….F******!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7. I heard the garage door start to open, so I made a 5 second executive decision.  I was throwing the mix on top of the chicken.
8. Originally I had planned on basting the tops of the chicken with EVOO and 1 tbsp tarragon.  After throwing the inside stuffing on top, I threw the tarragon mix on top of that.  Stupid stupid, it should’ve went the other way around.  Oh well.
9. Cooked for 25 mins under foil, and another 6 or so without the foil to brown it.

JUST seconds before my parents walked in the door, I managed to get those bad boys in the oven.  And then I see it…my parents striding in holding McDonald’s bags.  WHEW!  A part of me felt guilty and a part of me felt relieved.  I really thought “figure something out” meant at home, not go to a drive thru.  Thankfully she brought us grilled chicken salads because the chicken in the oven had 30 more mins to cook.  Well halfway through my salad it started to smell REALLY good.  The kitchen smells amazing right now.  I guess we’re going to have it tomorrow with sweet potatoes, because my mom kept talking about how good it looks and smells.  Hopefully it tastes somewhat decent.  I was planning on plating it with an almond rice pilaf, which never even made it to the stove. LoL.  What a night.

My wonderful 1stgen iPhone camera makes it look like a jumbled mess but it actually looks quite good, and tastes pretty good too.  I only wish I was quick thinking enough to put the tarragon directly on top of the chicken…duh.  Next time.  & with more fruit.

Diphenhydramine, a first-generation antihistamine manufactured by a division of Johnson & Johnson, has become one of the most common household drugs under the name Benadryl.  Benadryl is used to curb allergic reactions by stopping a massive exodus of histamines.  Many people also know or have experienced diphenhydramine’s effects as a sedative: it’s used in many OTC sleep-aids as well.  But what don’t you know about Benadryl?

Last night I had a bout of severe itching similar to hives.  I was already at the peak of exhaustion, and handling the itching horribly, so I decided that a Benadryl would be nice to help knock me out and stop the itching.  I took 50mg.  Pretty soon after, my head started to feel incredulously heavy; I knew I was tired.  I tried to stand up, and while my body was vertical, my head literally snapped to the side, resting on my shoulder and I toppled over.  I was so tired!! Trying again, I made my way to my bedroom and climbed into bed.  But something was wrong.  My breathing was rapid, and I was suffering from what felt like a severe case of RLS (restless leg syndrome).  I couldn’t lie still, and I was crawling out of my skin and starting to actually panic.  It was one of the more unpleasant moments of my entire lifetime.

Turns out I was actually suffering from what’s medically coined as a paradoxical reaction to the Benadryl.  That just means I was having an opposite reaction to the normally expected effect.  It can happen to a host of drugs, for example pain meds actually causing more pain.  With Benadryl, it is most common in young children, and sometimes the elderly, but rare for adults.  It ended up with me jogging around the house, dancing in place, sitting and shaking my legs violently until I fell asleep on the couch.  Highly unpleasant.

Most Americans these days wouldn’t hesitate to label marriage and reproduction with a first cousin as “incest”.  However, the labels for the word are not so black and white, even within our nation, where the only clearly defined boundaries for marrying a first cousin masquerade as state borders.  Whatever you chose to label consanguineous marriage as, one of the greatest counter arguments against it is that it results in genetic anomalies and therefore should be avoided at all costs.  But is the risk that great?

To be specific, most genetic disorders are not affected in the least by consanguineous marriages.  Chromosomal abnormalities, sex-linked conditions, and autosomal dominant conditions are exempt.  The killer?  Recessive genetic disorders — and quite the killer they may be.  Examples of recessive genetic conditions include sickle cell anemia, tay sachs, cystic fibrosis -just to name a few.

So what are the chances of these deadly diseases occurring? According to the Human Genetics Commission, “The absolute risk to first cousins having a child with a recessive genetic condition is about three in every 100 births, unless they have a family history of an autosomal recessive disorder, in which case the risk may be higher”.  3%.  Add that in to the general population’s risk of having a child with any congenital or genetic disorder, and you’ve reached 6%.  So consanguineous conception doubles the risk, but most pregnancies are normal.  Does that number strike you as smaller than you expected?  Comparatively, the risk of having a child with down syndrome is 0.1% if the mother is under 30 and jumps to 8.3% if the mother is age 49.  Many women chose to have children earlier than later for this very reason.

There are many countries in the world that actively seek consanguineous marriages due to economic, social, and societal benefits.  Jordan is one such country.  Popular belief is that the “best” males are retained in the family.  The result? According to an outdated 1980 survey of nearly 2,000 households, 51.25% of marriages in Jordan were consanguineous, with roughly 33% of those being to first cousins (the majority).  I would be curious to compare their rates of recessive genetic conditions to ours.

When words become superfluous.

Honestly, today I awoke to myself dry humping the sheets.  Rolled over and my girlfriend was wide awake.  Ouch.  Call it what it is.

At any rate, it’s not the lack of sex that bothers me so much; I was actually happier when I thought we were really practicing abstinence because it was easier.  But what bothers me is the silence.  Our love has been silenced and that is more difficult than anything else.  What constitutes silent love?  A lack of expression.  So I thought about what it takes, the small things that emote love, that don’t take a lot of work.  And I realized it’s been over a week since I’ve been kissed.  Sure, I do it all the time, but I haven’t been kissed in over a week.  Consequently I feel like I haven’t been loved in over a week.  That’s a long time.  And if I could take my pick, that’s what I could use during this difficult time.  Kissing says so much.  So I have compiled a small gallery of kissing just as a reminder – go kiss someone, something that you love today.  We may not be the only species to kiss, nor do all varieties of humans kiss, but it sure is an effective and enrapturing way to show your affection.  Think of all the things you can communicate with a kiss!