The Non-Binary Conundrum

Ok. So this is going to be unpopular opinion, but please just hear me out.

A lot of people say they are Non-Binary or NB due to not feeling they fit into what society says a man or a woman should be. 

But what if, instead of being a neutral gender... That we simply say fuck you to Heteronormative standards? Instead of being NB, I'm saying no, I too, am what a woman is. Let's broaden the definition of what a man is. Let's broaden the definition of what a woman is. I also, with my short hair and men's clothing, am a woman.

Don't erase your gender identity simply because you don't fit into someone else's box. Expand that box, to include you. You, also, are what a woman is. 

The younger generations aren't going to understand my GenX rationale but I had to put this out there. 

I also don't like the term "gender non-conforming" because to me it indicates that there's a difference. No. See past what they tell you that you should be. Make society bend to you, don't bend for them.

Twitter Apps for Android

 As you know from previous entries, I enjoy reviewing apps from the Play Store on Android. Sorry, I do not have an iPhone so this is just Android.

I wanted to do a Twitter app review because it is interesting to see the different UI, features, layouts, etc on these apps. I have two twitter accounts, and enjoy tweeting my beligerance at the world once in a while. I mean, if something is wrong - tweet about it. I decided to keep my reviews to only 5 twitter apps - 4 of which are 3rd party, and the 5th is the official twitter app.

Albatross

Albatross has a rather clunky interface. This is the 2nd worst UI that I found out of these 5, because it looks like it was made in 2011 or something, and that they never updated it since then. It is cool, though, that you can change your accent colors, and it has a fingerprint lock. The Play store entry indicates the developer is always working hard on making the app great. 3 Stars.

Fenix 2

The interface is kinda basic, a little boring. Ugly UI. But you can change the font, which is cool. I was unable to change to dark mode, however. It may have just been a glitch. But no one wants a glitchy app. It has an interesting type of "conversation view" where you can see all the comments under a tweet, just by clicking onto that tweet. This allows you to see who said what, and when. 3 Stars

Official Twiter App

It seems like eventually everyone migrates back to the official app for some reason. Some of these 3rd party apps don't have the capability to send/receive DM's, and there may be other features you can only get with the official app. Now that Elon Musk has bought twitter, maybe we can see some improvements. Hopefully it's not going to be the other way around... I mean, he could probably afford to remove the intrusive ads right? 4 Stars

Harpy (free version)

Harpy has a very unique and beautiful UI. The free version gives you 3 really nice looking themes to choose from. Paid gives you more. There is no DM capability yet, and you can't use an @mention. I was told you used to be able to @ people but the capability is broken. So even though this twitter lacks a lot of features, it is currently in a Beta release for the pro version, and will likely include these things in a future update. Therefore, I give it 4 Stars.

Owly

This one is my favorite of the 3rd party apps. It has a very nice, clean UI that uses Material Design, and is easy to use/figure out. Pro version is just $2.99 one time fee which is so much better than having to pay for a subscription. As a result, I used some Google opinion rewards from surveys, to purchase the full version. it gives you themes and colors, as well as some other decent features that you may not find in some others. 5 Stars

In conclusion, I highly recommend Owly if you do not like using the official app. The official app is the best one for nearly every feature that is possible with Twiter, except for themes/colors. You're stuck with the UI of twitter's official app which means "suggested" tweets/users, and ads (if you dont have an ad blocker).. Fenix2 and Albatross were ok but nothing truly special. Navigation on these 2 were a little cumbrous. But you can't beat the UI of Harpy. When Harpy is able to offer more features, I feel like it will be the best one. I am unsure at this time, as to when they will update it. 

FREEZE: Don't Move!

 

In January of 2022, our landlord increased the rent to the point where we could no longer afford to live there - or anywhere in the state of Arizona. So we decided to move to St Louis, MO. I immediately began looking for a moving quote, and most places wanted us to pay $4500 or so for the move. But Home Safe Transit quoted me $2800 after going room by room and describing everything we owned. I told him it was a 2 room house and we had a lot of items. Kenneth was a real smooth talker, and we settled on the deal with him. When the movers came on March 11, we discovered it was a different company, 500 Move. Home Safe Transit was just a broker, apparently. The 500 Move guy said the broker put down “27 boxes” and since we had more like 300, it was going to be “thousands and thousands and thousands more”. We were between a rock and a hard place. Our lease expired at that house the next day, and utilities were being shut off. If we weren’t in St. Louis in person on the 14^th of March, our lease would lapse and we’d lose the deposit. If we haggled or tried to negotiate, this foreman seemed like he was going to just take his crew and leave. So we forked over almost $10,000 to move our things.

We told them we’d like them to be there on the 16^th with our items. Kenneth at Home Safe Transit had said this could be done, and just keep in communication with the driver to arrange a date of delivery. That was not the case. We kept calling to get a status on when the truck would be here and got the run-around from Lisa, the lady who answers the phone no matter what option you press on the phone tree.

We were told our items were being stored in a warehouse, on their property, until the truck was available. Did they not own their own truck? Did they only have ONE truck??? So they finally arrived with our things on the 27^th of March. From the 14^th - 27^th we had basically nothing.

When the truck arrived, it was 2 old men with COPD obviously out of shape, in an 18 wheeler with several other people’s items, as well.

My Significant Other did the majority of the moving of boxes and rubbermaid bins. It took 6 hours to unload the truck. As items came in, I was doing inventory check. We are missing several items including the most important ones: Her specially made quilts from her scrubs (she used to be a Veterinary Assistant) and a quilt made frm her cheerleading and graduation gown clothing items. We are also missing her pants. There’s probably about 60-80 pairs of pants and now she has no pants to wear. As you can believe, that is quite a problem.

When my Significant Other was helping unload the truck, she saw her quilts in the box on the sidewalk. She tried to take them but the box was way too heavy. She assumed one of the men had put it on a dolly and brought it up. It didn’t make it up to the apartment, so we assume somehow it was put back on the truck.

The company does not seem interested in finding the items. They keep telling us to just file a claim, but we actually want our items back. They declined to give us any contact information for the people who delivered before and after us. They stated they looked for the items and called the other customers and no one could find anything.

We’ve contacted the BBB, FTC, Move Rescue, the Glendale AZ police, the St Louis Police, the FCMSA, the Attorneys General of Missouri and Arizona, and abc15’s Let Joe Know. We really don’t want anyone else to have to go through this.

This has been the most stressful, horrible experience.

 

UPDATE!!

 So last month, our landlord was like HEY YOU KNOW HOW YOU GUYS RENT FOR $XXX? WELL NOW ITS GONN BE $XXXXXXX HURR HURR

That's basically how it went. Anyway so we could no longer afford to stay here. Or anywhere here. We are all priced out! So.. moving. We chose a location clear halfway across the country because it is #1 cheaper and #2 where our company's got a few locations to work from. Still working on that part, but after a few weeks we finally found a place to live.

Then I got COVID19, and that was weird. I couldn't believe I'd gotten it! I've had my 2 vaxxes and a booster. I wore a cloth mask. And I found out Omicron doesn't care about cloth masks. I was in the store maybe 10 minutes, that's it! Serious business.

It started with aching legs. Real bad aches. Then a headache, and that fevery icky feeling. And then.. the chills. Oh, the chills! So bad. No sore throat, no cough. In fact I was incredulous that it could be COVID. But what else could it be? Flu can't get past a cloth mask. 

2 days later and feeling better, except for a few body aches still. So. weird. I'm lucky it was relatively mild. 

So.. a new adventure! Here we go!

Android App Reviews: Mood Trackers

 So, since I have bipolar disorder it seems only appropriate that I review some mood tracker apps and see how they compare. I have an obsession with finding the best apps for things, so this ought to be fun.

First, we will start with the obvious one.

Daylio: This is probably the most popular mood app. But not only does it track your mood, it tracks your habits, activities, goals, let's you add text and a picture, and has a lot of stats and interesting insights into your moods. It can help determine patterns based on your mood + activities. This app pretty much has everything you need in the free version, but the paid version (subscription) gives you extra features you might like, such as No ads, auto-backup, unlimited goals, export your entries, etc. I have used this app for years as my main tracker. 

 

Bearable: This one has so many things to track it actually became overwhelming, however it is fortunate you can change your home screen to only show you certain things that you want to track. It lets you rate your mood many times throughout the day, mark your symptoms, rate energy levels, productivity, social live, and even, yes, your bowel movements. This is the most comprehensive app you can get for mood tracking. The user interface is very pleasing to use and look at. I have used this app for a while in the past but then I found I didn't have time to track all the things that I wanted to, and didn't want any inconsistencies in my reporting. But overall a "beary" good app. See what I did there?

 

Pixels: This app shows your stats in colored pixels. You can explore the pixels using score, tags, text. You can therefore find patterns in your moods. You can change the colors of your pixels. The opening screen is a plea for a cup of coffee (a donation) but don't let that confuse you, you can still access the app by the icons on the bottom. 

 

Moodflow: This app has a beautiful interface as well. You can track your mood and activities, and it has a calendar view that will show you your patterns. You can find personal insights such as relationships, and "correlations" with social interactions. This app gives you a lot of information but I didn't find it difficult to find time to track. You can lock it with a PIN too, in case you need privacy. I like this app, I feel it is very well done. 

 

eMoods: This one says it is for Bipolar, but I bet you could use it for any mental health purposes. You can choose your amount of sleep, your moods and extremes, anxiety, map your psychosis, and register if you had talk therapy in that day. There is a helpful calendar view, and a whole shit ton of graphs and charts to show you your patterns. This one would be most helpful for you to share with your doctor, I would think. In terms of UI, it is ok nothing special. Not a complicated app by any means, but helpful.

 

 The winner is a tie! Daylio and Moodflow were the best ones out of these 5 that were sampled. Give them a try and see how they work for you!

I also use one on my Android phone called EvenMind which is a simple graph/scale that you drag to indicate your mood and energy. It however, don't seem to exist on the Playstore anymore, and I haven't had any updates to it in about a year so I guess it doesn't exist.

Android Note Taking Apps

 I enjoy doing mini reviews and I enjoy android apps. So why not combine the two? Here is part one of my note taking app reviews. At the end of the series I will dub a winner. Please note not all images are MY screenshots.

- Joplin : Constantly on Reddit I am seeing recommendations for this app. It has a desktop and mobile version and there's a web clipper on the desktop version. The app allows you to attach photos and files, and tag your notes. The interface was a bit too simple for me. It needs more "pizazz". I tried to change the theme in settings, but nothing happened. This app has a lot of features and settings, not all of them were explored.

- Obsidian: Something about vaults? I... I don't know. This app was too weird.

Bundled Notes: Ok I have the most to say about this one. The intro splash screen is something to behold. What a fantastic user interface. Loads of features like tasks, lists, kanban boards, idea boards, etc. Notebooks are sorted into "bundles" and you can add attachments like photos in them. You can use tags and rich text. You can also choose the style and layout of each bundle. You can also use templates. You can bold and italicize notes and add pictures. Adding a photo attached it to the bottom but didn't embed it into the body of the note. It appears to have a 150mb storage limit for the free version which is kind of small. I couldn't figure out how to change the color of my notes, they were all orange. Overall I really liked this app. It was a different way to do notes, but not difficult to learn at all. Unlike Obsidian which I just started at for a good 30 seconds before uninstalling. Bundled notes has a good UI. It doesn't have password protection on any notes though which is a big important feature for me. There is also a 6 bundle limit on the free version and sadly, it's a dreaded subscription model for premium.

Notally: Very simple. The UI is very rudimentary and there weren't many features other than archiving and tagging. No text formatting or inserting photos or files. I was not impressed.

 

 

 

Notesnook: This one says it's a 100% encrypted end to end app. You can sync to unlimited devices, add images, videos, tables, and edit markdown. I'm still not too sure what markdown is or why that's important. Tags and colors help you organize your notes. Signing up makes you enter into a free 7 day trial with all of the full features. Inserting a picture was easy. You can pin notes and archive notes. There are other features but no password lock on the notes. I like it but it's missing that important feature, for me.

Notion: This app makes you login with Google or Apple which I don't like. You can choose a collaborative experience or just for yourself. You can download Notion for Windows, and sync, too. It has a task list. The interface overall is a little clunky. I couldn't figure out rich text editing. Doesn't seem to be available, correct me if I am wrong. I like this app but it's either missing some important features or it's hard to find them. I couldn't find a password lock either.

Standard Notes: Pretty standard. I mean, a very, very basic notes app. Not feature-rich. You can pin note but that's about it. I wasn't impressed. 

D Notes: A good alternative if you like the Google Keep aesthetic. It has the most features that I like and need. Categories/tags, pin to notifications, favorite notes, add files, lock private notes with a pin. But there's no way to format the text. You CAN change the height but no rich text editing right now. That is really the only feature I find to be missing from D Notes. I don't need syncing to my computer but it would be a nice feature to have.

 

Nimbus Note:  You can sync across devices and it has nice widgets. You can embed video and photos, as well as pdf files. I didn't see how to edit text like bold or italicize though. Looks like there are extra features in the paid version. I was not as impressed at this app like I thought I would be.

Simpan: A good looking app. I've used it long ago, as my go-to notes app. It has password lock, as well as you can save your passwords securely which is neat. It can do notifications and backup your data. The UX is easy to use and understand. 

Bublup: Now this app isn't specifically for notes but it has note-taking abilities, as well as many other things. You can save things from the internet, recipes, whatever you need.  It's like a bulletin board or Pinterest type of thing. I enjoy using this app for many things, not just notes or important things to save, such as screenshots. 

The winner/personal favorite out of all of these apps was D Notes, with Bundled notes a close 2nd. Check these out if you need a good notes app.

How Hard is it To Do?

 It's very hard to do. That is - find a To-Do Task app that has all the features I want and need. I have scoured the Google Playstore looking for the right app. The features I need are: Ability to put both habits and tasks, have a pomodoro timer, notifications in my notification panel AND pop up with a sound, and most importantly, ability to snooze the item for any length I want or need.

I am currently giving Tick Tick a chance, as well as Microsoft's To Do, as well as Loop Habit Tracker and HabitNow. 

Habit now seems the best but it is extremely limited unless you pay for it which is only $5.99 and I earn google rewards for the playstore so that one might be do-able. But Tick Tick seems promising. I like the simplicity of Microsoft though, so time will tell.

Tick Tick

Loop Habit Tracker

Microsoft ToDo

Habit Now

I am going to give an update when I decide which one is going to work best for me.

UPDATE: 1/19

I chose Tick Tick. It pops up with a reminder at the bottom of my screen at the time I planned for, and I can complete the task, snooze it, or dismiss it. I can snooze for a custom time or pre-determined times that it comes up with. The pomodoro timer was cool, except that it made my watch buzz every single second as the time counted down, so I had to fix that. 

The others just weren't as feature rich without having to pay (Except for Microsoft's To Do app) . So the winner is Tick Tick. 

You can even sync it cross-platform if that is something that you need. And no I don't get paid to do app reviews. I simply enjoy doing them. 

From The Archives: Goa Trance Makes You Dance

 I wrote this on my previous blog, but it was a good one so I wanted to share it here.

Feb 3, 2020

I’ve been listening this week, and last week really, to a lot of Goa Trance. It hit me today: No one knows about it in the mainstream music world. So here is some enlightenment.

Here is what I know off the top of my head about Goa trance.

In the 1980’s, acid music was starting to become very popular. That was a style characterized by strong Tb-303 synth basslines originating in England. A lot of people who enjoyed that style either went on holiday in Goa, India, or they moved there completely. A lot of them were hippies, like Goa Gil, who was one of the very first DJ’s of the goa trance style of electronic trance music.

A lot of small parties formed on the beaches during the early 1990’s, and by 1992 electronic music had become a thing. I think they played music on casette or DAT, or something like that, first, because they didn’t have turn tables. But they would chop & splice acid house/trance and make it into something more psychedelic. And there you have the birth of goa trance.

Acts would soon spring up from all over the world by the mid to late 1990’s. Some of them were Astral Projection, Koxbox, Etnica, Pleiadians (who were also Etnica), Man With No Name, and Prana, to name a few. Goa trance is mostly characterized by rolling arpeggiated basslines and often times with a sort of ‘indian’ or ‘middle eastern’ melody. At least it was back in the old days, now the ‘neo goa’ has been made with modern instruments/software, so the style has changed a little bit. It still rolls heav on the acid sounds though, which is a definitive difference between Goa and regular psytrance. Sometimes Nitzhonot/Nitzhogoa can sound very similar to Goa trance, as well.

In 2001 I went to a goa party and had so much fun, so I went out and purchased a Various Artists album. The World of Goa vol. 2 and soon I purchased Vol 3 right after that. Instant fan.

My favorite track in this style of all time is Astral Projection’s “Kabbalah”, but it is also tied with Man With No Name’s “Teleport” (the original mix). These 2 tracks are amazing, and both came about in the mid 1990’s.

Apparently around this time in goa acid was free or next to free, so everyone was on acid which made the psychedelic sounds and visual accompaniments so much more visceral.

I wrote this blog entry merely to pimp my latest DJ mix, a goa trance delight.

https://www.mixcloud.com/aliennavelcord/goa-01/

If you like the mix, drop me a comment on mixcloud or on here and let me know what you like, or what I could do better for the next one!

 

An example of a Goa party from India circa 1992:

 

And an image of a new-skool style (neogoa) Goa party (psytrance party now):

If I missed anything please let me know, drop a comment about it.

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