The Man Trip (10 Steps)
Thanks to my HTC Hero and WordPress for Android, I decided to use the 5+ hour drive to Bull Shoals Buffalo River Nat’l River to blog about it.
I’ll be making on-going updates as the trip goes on to try to encompass the essence of… The Man Trip.
- Plan to start traveling to destination at an ungodly hour (ie 4am)
- Don’t get to bed til 2am the night before
- Sleep past “scheduled” start time by hours (reasons: see above)
- Discuss and compare new gear bought for the trip focusing especially on masculine items such as knives and hatchets
Try to have a ratio of one GPS device per person. This is mainly for effect though
- 4 GPS devices between two cars and we still found a way to get separated and add a couple hours to the trip by missing turns
- Once at destination, take a hike and talk with knowledge about things you don’t actually know how to do
- identify and “track” animals by their paw prints
- identify and comment on the type of wood in the area and it use for fire or camp set up
- Grow out facial hair… whatever you’ve got
Do simple man-activities
- Throw or skip rocks
- Throw or skip very large rocks
- Throw knives and hatchets at anything they’ll stick in
- Build fire (see #7)
- Build excessively large fire
- Build Fire
If this were a ranked list by importance, this would be #1 followed by growing out facial hair.- If nothing else is done on the trip… this MUST be done
- Discuss how well you and your buddies could survive back in “The Olden Days”
- Near the end of the trip as you begin to feel very comfortable and accomplished with your camping abilities
- Drink Beer
- Even if you’re not a beer drinker.
- Other booze will do as a substitute.
- Extra points if you drink the booze out of a rustic looking flask.
- Bring only enough food so that you believe you’ll actually have to kill something
- Be sure to have a few extra granola bars or cans of beans to survive on when you, inevitably, do not kill anything
Sprint HTC Hero – Rooted (for Screen Capture)
I wanted to do did a blog post and show some of the screens of my new Sprint HTC Hero phone. After a few failed attempts to get a good picture of it using my camera, I decided to look for a way to get a screen capture. I found out that you have to “root” your phone to be able to capture screen shots from it. So I went through that process.
This is the short list, “for advanced users,” you might say. This is simply for “rooting” only, not flashing ROMs.
Detailed How-To
Rooting my Sprint HTC Hero
Get Android SDK
- [FILE] http://developer.android.com/sdk/download.html?v=android-sdk_r04-windows.zip
- [LINK] http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.6_r1/index.html
Get proper ADB drivers
- [FILE] http://www.anddev.org/download.php?id=449
- [LINK] http://www.anddev.org/debugging-installing_apps_on_the_g1_windows_driver-t3236.html
Setup ADB
- [PROCESS] http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/06/how-to-set-up-adb-usb-drivers-for-android-devices/
- [ADVANCED]
- Start > Run > cmd
- cd\
- cd AndroidSDK\tools\ (or where ever your AndroidSDK directory is)
- adb devices
- if a serial number shows – you’re good
Got PicMe App for Screen Capture
- Takes it via PC (USB hookup)
- Creates an IP address to view live or static feed of your screen
My beloved new HTC Hero smartphone
I’m going to try to keep this page updated a touch… every so often. I wanted to give everyone out there a comprehensive review and breakdown of my HTC Hero. I’ll try to keep it to the point and organized so you can find the information you’re looking for.
I welcome any questions you may have, especially if you are looking at buying one.
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[caption id="attachment_195" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Click to Enlarge"] |
There’s a lot you can do as far as customizing the 7 home screens with your own style and productivity tools. This is my home screen, the “1st String Team”, if you will. Has the stuff I access and use most.
ClockAs much as I liked the big clock that the Hero is shown with in all the media photos, I felt like it was taking up more space than I wanted it too. As a good widget should, it offered configurations for smaller sizes and formats. So I shrank’er down. WeatherThe weather widget is great, nice interface, slick graphics. Punch in your city and you’re golden. Also offers several different sizes to suit your home screen layout. Smooth CalendarHere is where I had to go with a different app than the native app offered by HTC, but that’s the beauty of the Android Market. Smooth Calendar still had a nice interface (important to me), but allowed for showing more than one event at a time. I keep my calendars pretty full, so only being able to see the immediate next item was very confining. AppsAndroid Market |
Cons
Sometimes it reacts slowly
I’ve been having a lot of problems with the battery just completely draining out on minimal use after only 15 minutes or so.
Picmail sometimes gives me a “Media size exceeded” and I have to go back and retake the picture (if I’m able to) on a small resolution
Apps & Functionality
Text messaging
Easily the thing I use the most. I thought the touchscreen would really hinder my texting abilities (especially speed), but the word-prediction and auto-correct work REALLY well. So usually I’m still pretty quick on the draw with texting. I will say this though, it’s not quite the same as having a more tactile 10-key. I can’t text without looking nearly as well while I’m driving now. So text messages take a lot longer.
Android Google Connection
I wish that my gmail account was my main email account. Android automatically syncs with your gmail contacts. I’m still working out the merging of duplicate entries and getting everything sorted out properly, but it’s amazing
Update: Got all my old numbers & other email account contacts synced to my Gmail account and, thus, my phone!
Facebook Connection / Import
Connect contact profile pic and birthday
Update: Used a program by @koush to sync my Facebook Friends info with my Google contacts automatically.
| gTasks Google Task List works like a charm |
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Gowalla (m.gowalla.com) With the native Android app coming soon, the mobile web version of Gowalla has been working great! It’s such a fun game that you can play in a moment when you arrive somewhere or make a day of it. They’re very responsive to their users and always working on new functionality and fun additions. Be Gowalla friends with me! Update: Gowalla BETA App is out |
Coming Soon! |
| Backgrounds Phenomenal app for backgrounds. Well categorized, easy to set your background, high quality designs and photos. Top notch, really. |
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| Facebook It’s ok… actually, no, it’s crap. Aside from the fact that I don’t use facebook a lot these days, you can’t click on links in this version of facebook. So you’ll get notifications about being tagged in a photo, but you can’t click to see the photos! Dumb. |
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| Peep It’s usually pretty slow, but it works. I’m open to other options. Update: I’m trying TweetCaster, but not sure if it’s much better. I wish TweetDeck would just make an Android App |
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| Monkey Kick Off | ||
| Shot | ||
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Brain Genius Deluxe | |
| GeoQuiz |
Thanks to Cyrket for the images and barcodes.
Helping the Homeless
This is a good post by Nathan Graves. And it’s a big issue I think everyone should know how they want to respond to these interactions with homeless people and why they’re doing it. Read Nathan’s post first, this is a response article.
[I started writing this as a comment on Nathan Graves blog, but realized that it was getting far too long, so it became my own blog post.]
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="384" caption="Homeless, anything helps, God bless"]
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I pass the same intersection (West Pennway & I-35) every morning and often see a guy, not always the same one, standing at the corner with a sign. Sometimes it’s as simple as “Homeless, please help.” Other times it has been a bit more verbose, “US Veteran. No job. No food. Anything Helps. God Bless.” I think there are few people in my circle of friends that do not have at least a degree of compassion for the homeless or otherwise less fortunate people around them. The question is ‘how do we respond in the best way?’
No more money
I have made a decision to no longer offer money – almost with no exceptions. This is due to several interactions over the last few years that have left me reconsidering what I give and probing the truths about street beggars. (“Street beggars” might sound like an offensive term, but I think it’s accurate.)
— More than once I’ve offered a part of my lunch (or the food I had with me) to a man at the I-35 / West Pennway off ramp intersection and been asked instead for cigarettes or cash. When I told him I didn’t have either of those but I had an apple and sandwich, he waved me off and rolled his eyes as if to say, “Why are you bothering me? Stop wasting my time.”
— I was once approached by a man while I was at the gas station on 37th and Broadway asking me for money to get him and “his girl” (who was no where in sight) something to eat from inside the convenience store… hard times, explanation explanation explanation. I gave him $5 and he never went inside.
— More than once, I’ve been asked for money to help someone out and when I offer to go inside some place and buy them a meal, they refuse, but usually ask for the money one more time.
— On cold nights I’ve offered to give guys a ride to City Union Mission where I know they could get a bed to sleep in and a warm place out of the elements. I’ve never had any takers. In fact, most have a down-right negative reaction to that.
These are how the majority of the interactions go. And this, to me, says that they don’t want to improve their situation. I don’t want to sound I’m cynical about it, although I probably am. I know that there are hurting people out there and they are struggling to get by and they are held down by addictions and brokenness. I want them to find healing and growth and purpose and the love of Jesus Christ. I just don’t want to perpetuate a cycle of no self-respect and no sense of accomplishment by giving them hand-outs. And I don’t want to reward people for lying.
Bottom Line
I don’t want to contribute to a system that ends up keeping people down just because I don’t have the time to help in a more meaningful way. I’ve decided that if I don’t have time to help in a meaningful and engaging way, then I will just live with looking like a heartless jerk for that moment.
Why I haven’t given up
On the flip-side, I had a guy come up to me at a gas station in Mission, KS a few months ago. He was very sincere, had his family in his car, and asked for some help with gas just to help them get back home to Olathe. “Economic downturn… lost job…” etc etc. I went to the pump and swiped my card and said “go ahead and fill it up.” He declined and said, “No we’ll just take a little bit, thank you very much, we appreciate it a lot.” I went inside to grab some gum. Checked the pump when I came back out and he’d only pumped $7. Man of his word. Not taking advantage, just getting enough assistance to make it. I pray for all the people I get the opportunity to help, but for this man I may have prayed a little more.
In conclusion…
There’s no conclusion to this post, it should be an on-going and open discussion. Most of us live in a city (or close enough to one) that has some sort of homeless population. If you’ve never been approached by or even seen someone begging on the street – you might want to leave your gated community a little more often. We can help. We should help. But we need to be educated and intentional about it. There are several beautiful outreaches in Kansas City that are worth partnering with or donating to.
Feeling guilty for not giving your change? Feel better by checking out these websites and giving to organizations that are making a concerted and organized effort to help the less fortunate.
| City Union Mission | Care of Poor People | Kansas City Rescue Mission |
| reStart Inc | Cherith Brook | Just One – Kansas City Hub |
Not in Kansas City? Search out “Homeless Outreach” in your city or get in touch with your local church.