The Lewis Show

Where have I been you ask? I've been working...at work. And I've been working...at home (with a lot of help).

So I've gone a couple weeks back into the grind after my mini vacation earlier this month. The weather started to get warm and then right when spring hit, back to winter. That's okay though, warm weather will prevail and my struggle against the yard will continue again. In my free time though, I have been focusing some of my attention to a new gig. I decided a long time ago that putting Android stuff in my blog is great, but making it a regular habit makes this less a journal and more of some kind of semi tech blog that's not a tech blog. So to keep things cohesive, I'm starting to write now at a small blog called Android Activist. I'm writing with a great bunch of writers and pundits. I just hope I can keep up. I feel this will help get me out of several ruts and I can go back to being creative. Android Activist was started by an evangelist to the platform, Scott Brown, host at the Radio Android network that he started. I feel I can fit into place with his bl...

No, nothing has gotten away from me. Janine and I decided to get away ourselves for a couple days. We loaded up the Mom car (my Ford Escape), and we headed to Virginia Beach to listen to the ocean for a couple days. There's something about that sound alone that can really recharge me. I'm 37 now for those trying to keep count. I figure it's time for me to stop trying to count and rely on the kindness of strangers to do the math for me. I feel great though. Going to the gym and being motivated have made me very content overall. Now for pictures: Making a run for the Mom Car on Tuesday afternoon Immediately kicked my feet up Soaked in the view. I love this time of year at the beach. No people! Did I mention I got a Nook ? Thanks, Janine ! I've also already hacked it.

I'm reading through my timeline the other day and I thought of an interesting course of action Twitter could take to grant them more of a foothold in people's digital lives. Google has brilliantly created an apps platform to keep their users within their environment. I can start a typical day loading Gmail, then Maps, Docs, Voice, Reader, and so on. I can do all of this on their cloud based operating system or I can do this on  my desktop. There's so much rich integration, I'm hard pressed to go outside of that space because so much of my cloud life lives at Google. In Twitter now there are events, location check ins, photo/video sharing, and so on. People don't just post what they're watching or eating anymore. But those tweets just kind of float into my timeline for a second and then they're gone. It's not just a space where people banter on endlessly anymore (unless you're Charlie Sheen). I would have to star every other tweet of importance or...

I really have not been up to much at all. As winter fades into spring, the hibernating Mike will begin to emerge from his cave. I did get a new phone. It's new to me anyways. I was able to get a hold of a used  Nexus One . This was Google's first phone branded specifically as their own. All Android phones are Google phones, but this is the first one made by Google via HTC. It was a much needed upgrade and I got a great deal. I'll be posting more app suggestions down the road now that I have a phone that can keep up with new apps. I did have a nice long weekend recently too. I was able to visit Sam and Jessi in Lynchburg then attend a birthday party for Janine's cousin. It's always refreshing to see the state. In all my travels, Virginia is most unique and it's always rewarding to see its history on display. All in all things are going well, I am rested, we're going to the gym with more regularity, and I'm ready to take on the year. Wait, it's a...

To those that know me I'm sure they are surprised and perplexed as to why I didn't post about my team winning the Super Bowl... Here it is! One team can claim to be a cornerstone in the foundation of professional football. One team has fans who wear cheese shaped foam hats on their heads. One team can boast to be owned by its cheesehead wearing fans, a non profit organization located in a small town with just over one hundred thousand people. There is a waiting list of over 78,000 people for season tickets for this one team. One stadium is considered to be the best football experience year in and year out. One team comes to mind when the terms frozen tundra and ice bowl are mentioned. One team's quarterback holds almost every record in the NFL. Thank you, by the way, Mr. Favre. One team boasts probably the best pure yet underrated talent. Even after winning this year's championship most of these players are still unknowns. One team will never get that name brand...

I know I am not alone. There are others like me who jumped the gun and purchased an early model Android phone. There are much bigger problems in the world, of course, but it's excruciating to watch someone demo a Nexus S or EVO or whatever happens to be the Droid of the week. But I still very much enjoy my phone, I just have to find creative ways to enjoy certain things. Like the gallery. People with newer phones can click on their gallery and their pictures jump to life in 3D folders, or whatever they're called. For people with phones like mine, I have a 5 minute spinning load screen that barely loads apps and freezes. Boo. So I went looking for something that had a classic gallery feel and found: QuickPic for Android on AppBrain QuickPic looks and acts just like the Donut/Cupcake gallery that I used to love and enjoy. All of my pictures are neatly sorted by folder and I can quickly access them, edit them, and share them. This is a very simple app that handles my one s...