AVOID Stillpoint Lodge in Halibut Cove, Alaska!

Hey guys!

I know it's been a few years, and as usual, I haven't been blogging, but it's time to come out of my hiatus to post the one place that I HOPE will reach the message better than ANY ratings site that StillPoint Lodge actively tried to hide...

It's removed from Yelp and TripAdvisor trying to slander me as if I'm a competing company (see 2 paragraphs down), shadowbanned from Google (I couldn't find it just looking it up through incognito, but still up if I login with the same account I used for posting the review, and blocked from Facebook. However, I'm hoping that this blog post still stands and even shows up in major search engines to expose these shysters. If I can steer one tourist away from renting an overpriced log cabin and Kirkland Signature amenities, I'm happier to count that as my biggest achievement and contribution to society.

Again, to any attorney, Stillpoint rep, or whoever is reading this blog, this is my complete, with receipts and video proof proving that I was a CUSTOMER and NEVER worked for Stillpoint Lodge or ANY job in the hospitality industry. Even if it means pissing away my savings and going flat broke, I'd rather starve in the streets than to even be the CTO/CIO of a hospitality company offering me tens of thousands of dollars to work for them, just to prove that I have no intent to work for a company even remotely competing with Stillpoint... Just so when I'm pushing 55 years old, some lawyer can't come in and say "well, you work for [insert hotel group name] now, remember the review you made for Stillpoint Lodge 18 years ago? Now I can prove you're biased!". I'm THAT serious about proving my integrity with my review with these shady so-called people.

Here's the full review I posted, but also expanded on with more information to make it more "bloggy":

My experience here has been a rollercoaster ride, seeing both the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde side of JT Thurston, the owner. I was only able to record a small part, but I believe it sufficiently exposes them (video link at bottom) If I was able to perform my duties on public land I doubt we'd even cross paths, but most of the test area was on resort property.


Now, I have been an RF Engineer since November 2019 to present at the time of writing this blog post, and I had a brief stint doing an FCC-mandated test for an Alaskan wireless carrier; it was a temp job, and if anything (to preemptively quell any notions that I've been fired or whatever), I've been there the longest before all the areas that needed to be tested were ended since my staffing agency has commended me as one of the more skillful testers due to my extensive IT background, I am still employed by the agency, and I'm still a candidate for the next time my services are needed with said wireless carrier.

The FCC would give us a grid to test (I'm guessing a 1 mile by 1 mile square; I never measured it), and if it passes, great. If there's any hint of a connectivity issue, we either have to retest it if it's passing by a hair, or report that we can't get it to pass at all if it doesn't, which would mean that the carrier is either mandated to fix the problem, or pay a hefty fine, which some insider info did mention the worst-case scenario was multiple 7 figures for the entire project, so we were given carte blanche to charge as much as we wanted to, even at prices considered extortion to anybody from the continental US (e.g. $160 for the worst hotel I've ever stayed at in Anchorage (Chelsea Inn), 3 fairly basic meals for $100 in Old Harbor (including a ham sandwich, although to be fair it was pretty good), $125 to rent a '92 Ford F-150 with a severe vacuum leak for 5 hours in Kotzebue, or in this case, $700 to just ride an ATV or a boat ride for half an hour with Stillpoint - receipt below).

I gave JT the MOST exhaustive description of my work that I've EVER given to ANYBODY in my ENTIRE career from my first job when I was 15 all the way to present, and I've ran it all down in advance, and he was lucky to get it since either the employee directory was either horribly outdated (one village rep even passed away almost half a year prior), or ironically, 2 villages can't even make or receive calls outside the service area and I can't reach anybody, so I've had to make an unannounced stop and wing it with at least 5 tests... No reservations, no warning, just flying into say, Point Hope and hoping the locals would either find a way to contact the local representative, or let me borrow/rent their car or ATV on blind trust and creative problem solving; I even almost rode in the back of a police car in some town near Kodiak (forgot which one) to do my testing.

However, most of the testing grounds were on private land; if there had been even 10 square feet of public land for both grids I had to test, I'd rather run in circles on that 10 square feet than to even cross paths with anybody, but I had no choice but to deal with JT, especially considering that since there's no public land left on Halibut Cove; even their "post office" is a boat for that reason.

Once he (I can't stress this enough) FINALLY understood what I was doing, he practically sang to me about staying there and enjoying their amenities. Now since I'm used to working for the cheapest bastards on planet earth where I've had to fly on Spirit Airlines despite being willing to pay the difference, or drive 5 hours a day for a week in a cramped and underpowered 78 horsepower Mitsubishi Mirage, not to mention everybody loves an employee that stays under budget (despite the fact that I had so much expenses giving that company so many interest-free loans, 2 of my personal credit cards raised their credit limit by $11K, and I have enough rewards points on my Chase Sapphire card to pay for 2 nights at Stillpoint... That I'm going to use for paying for a week at The Maldives; I like tropical beaches better anyway; I probably would've come back here strictly for vacation, but soz, you guys lost a potential customer by being total assholes), so I only paid for the bare minimum with Stillpoint unless I had to retest.

With that in mind, I did specifically verbally mention I'd only stay the night if it failed*, and it's standard policy to retest at 6-8 AM the next day* to rule out network congestion (e.g. if there are a large amount of people using the network and there's not enough backhaul, it'll slow EVERYBODY down).

Sure enough, after riding an ATV in circles and making several circles through the waters both tests failed, and I did tell JT that I'm going to check out of my preexisting hotel in Homer (King's Landing) to return the next day, especially since I was completely unpacked since I did other tests in the Homer, AK region, had confidential documents on the desk (it's not anything that'd need a government clearance, but I could have my job on the line if someone else saw it), my unlocked .45 with a match-grade trigger in a drawer of the nightstand for self defense against bears or crackheads that I'd prefer nobody else touch, and I was due to check out the next morning anyway. Had JT not offered me a night at Stillpoint, I would've just extended my hotel stay at King's Landing for another night or two and took the water taxi to and from the island, or even just double-book for a vacant bed at King's Landing and stayed at the island despite it being a waste of money.

Since I chose to stay, I was even making plans for the next water taxi inbound to Halibut Cove with another employee within earshot of JT*, and even reiterated to JT that I was checking out of King's Landing to come to Stillpoint*. Although I do accept fault for not making it SO explicitly clear that a 3 year-old would understand it, apparently the 4 clues I've indicated by asterisks weren't enough for him to understand.

When I returned the next morning, JT was absolutely livid and hostile, even going as far as lying to Zach (sp?), the general manager that I didn't tell him I planned to return at all, and going back on everything we've agreed to as if it never happened...

It was also sad yet hilarious to see him vacillate between demanding I leave ASAP (even going as far as demanding I call a water taxi on speakerphone) and allowing me to stay on extortionary terms (e.g. allowing me to stay in crew's quarters, but no amenities for the same price as a full cabin)... I decided to leave out of disgust and let someone else handle this territory.

Although having me tag along in a luxury yacht was the most fun I've had in a while it's only changing my review from "negative stars if I could" to the 1-star you'd probably see on reviews, but as mentioned, they manipulated their reviews to keep any bad press away instead of admitting their mistakes with integrity.

EDITED TO ADD to a review: A business that operates with integrity accepts criticism and right their wrongs, not silence their dissenters; I hope Stillpoint Lodge's reply reinforces their lack of values fact loud and clear, which instead of "[hoping] that I choose to delete it [myself]", I will do the opposite and further expose their corrupt ways. As mentioned in my previous review (which they most likely haven't thoroughly read and understood... I'm seeing a trend), I've made many thorough outlines of my scope of work via many long phone calls, texts, and conversations over many days.

In hindsight, given their reply, I'm more inclined to believe that they're feigning ignorance and/or acting out of malice and perhaps even prejudice; I gave JT the benefit of the doubt, but further reflection dictates it's nearly impossible to misconstrue my intentions since I've expressed/implied minimum 4x that I'd be back (whereby my only culpability was that I didn't make it any clearer), and even then, a reasonable person would've figured it out instead of being hostile, belligerent and adamant about removing me, which is why I wrote the initial review, yet they still the nerve to claim my "response was unprofessional".

I've never claimed to be a guest, nor given their demeanor, would've been anyway. It would've been great to stay and enjoy the amenities instead of my coworker (though he doesn't really like seafood), but it's not within my morals & ethics to knowingly do business with racketeers who at one point, wanted to charge me a full rate to work for 4-5 hours (on video below). By the way, you never "provided" a water taxi; I paid for both days with my personal credit card (not even my work's) -- first day was a hyperinflated, price-gouging $700 that I still have the receipt of, and about $40 each way the next day via an unaffiliated 3rd-party water taxi.

To anyone else reading this, as you can see by the video below, they don't deserve your business; there are plenty of better resorts in Alaska that [hopefully] genuinely operate in a fair and equitable manner. While trying to look them up for the Better Business Bureau, it seems that the people that HAVE worked there are actually miserable about their lack of professionalism and even refusing to grant days off on Glassdoor and Indeed.

Video of my encounter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDJ0dFBSv6g

Say something, I'm giving up on you.

California, we need to talk… It’s not you, it’s me.

Scratch that, actually it WAS you.

It was you who decided to make housing costs unbearably high. My ROOM went up to $900 per month, when you can find an APARTMENT for that price or lower in most other states.. Also, your housing prices and property taxes are already pretty damned high, and your dubious plans to further increase taxes and put homeownership further out of reach is simply unacceptable.

It was you who decided to charge among the highest fees, taxes, fines, penalties, that as a consequence, increased cost-of-living. Case in point? The gas tax! Except for Cheyenne, WY and rural Alabama, the roads in the 10 other states I've driven in for the past few months are in good condition, but despite having the highest road taxes in the nation, your roads are HORRIBLE... But then you also repeatedly promised that your latest tax hike will fully go towards fixing the roads, but it STILL got diverted against our wishes to the high-speed rail to nowhere, and I don't doubt that some of it is still going to your corrupt comrade's pockets. When I must part with my hard-earned pay, I want it put to good use. I mean, why would I willingly want to buy a new laptop that doesn't even power on, or spend it dating someone I have no future with whatsoever?

It was you who decided that when an antisocial neighbor threatened my life over his own wild assumptions, you made it almost impossible for me to defend myself by punishing law-abiding citizens for the actions of scofflaws... Isn't it enough that murder, robbery, and whatnot is already against the law? What am I supposed to do if he actually attacks me... Kiss him on the forehead, let him into my home and offer him a cup of tea? (Hint: The very constitutional law I’m talking about specifically says “shall not be infringed”. What part of that don't you understand?)

Last but not least, as the saying goes: “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, I understand you wanna stick up for the little guy doing Uber, Lyft, and Doordash gigs, but instead of directly helping them, you've decided to screw over just about everybody else that isn't working a W-2... I am one of them. I've made the most money I’ve ever made in over 10 years, I finally have a savings account, I'll be debt-free by next month, and I can pay back people I owe money to in just a few short weeks after that (sorry, I haven’t forgotten about you). However, Assembly Bill 5 is a death sentence to me and other 1099 contractors, and I will NOT tolerate any attempts to outlaw my honest, hard-earned pay.

All in all, if I were to stay with you, life would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, and unless you get Gavin Newsom and his corrupt comrades out of office, things aren't gonna get any better. Also, I know that given supply and demand, I don't foresee housing prices and cost-of-living to go down anytime soon. I'll probably visit family, friends, return for business, or take my future kids to Disneyland or whatever, but even then that's a stretch; even when I'd become a multimillionaire, you've harmed yourself way too much for me to ever live in CA again.

My experience is not alone; more Americans have moved out of CA than those that have moved in, and Newsom is even patting himself on the back despite ruining CA like a deranged narcissist. What's wrong with you? I know that you’re probably not gonna listen to me, but I hope this serves as one of many wake up calls; you've turned CA into an almost irreconcilable disaster by digging your own grave, and you have nobody to blame but you and your corrupt comrades.

What was once a great, beautiful state that was ACTUALLY the envy of the nation that I used to proudly call my hometown has now become a laughingstock and embarrassment, and I don’t want people to know that I was associated with you unless it's absolutely necessary... I had to haul ass and rent a Chevy Equinox (the only SUV the rental agency had left at $169.51, vs. U-Haul at $2,040 where the pricing is abundantly clear that there's a huge gap between supply and demand), on Christmas break (Dec. 21-26 and yes, I was driving to Idaho on Christmas Day) to make it here, and I had to pull a lot of strings to establish Idaho residency, get an Idaho driver's license and plates, change my phone number to a 208 area code, and even ditch an email I've had for 20 years simply because it has 818 (my hometown area code) in it.

 

I hope that you are satisfied with your inconsiderate choices that have doomed myself and a lot of other Californians.

Until then, farewell.

Shampoo Shenanigans

Since Facebook allowed for longer posts, I rarely made blog posts, but now I should begin again since this is not worth boring my FB friends over...

As some of you may have heard, California just passed AB1162, which bans the use of plastic bottles for shampoo and whatnot in hotels. Although there’s no such restriction here in Alabama (I'm here on business, I didn't move here), they use packets, and it may be a sign of what’s to come if you plan to go to CA. Please allow me to give you a comparison:

Plastic bottles:

1. Unscrew cap.
2. Rinse, wash, repeat.
3. DONE.

Packet:

1. Try to tear it open with wet hands. No dice.
2. Thoroughly dry hands and try again. No dice.
3. Try to tear open with teeth, hoping you won’t ingest some of the shampoo. Luckily in this case, it still won’t open.
4. Walk out to where your pants are while dripping wet to try to get your pocket knife.
5. Realize you left your pocket knife in your car, defeatedly march back and finish the rest of your shower.
6. Get dressed and go to the car.
7. Spent a few minutes searching the car and cut open packet.
8. Wash hair, squeeze out a bit too much since this is not an interface that you’re used to, but try to make due and wash hair a bit too lathered. Repeat with what little shampoo is left if needed.
9. Remember that you walked out of the bathroom and got the floor wet, dry hotel room floor with a towel.
10. Not wanting to be held liable for dirtying the towel, awkwardly hand-wash the dirt the towel picked up soap bar that is all flimsy by now.
11. (Really?) DONE.

Still not convinced?

• Plastic bottles can be reused, like if I’m feeling cheap, I can just take the bottle and go to Motel 6 or even certain Extended Stay America locations, which as some of us know, you have to ask for shampoo. When you’re tired, it’s one more thing to remember if you do remember, or a walk back to the front desk to ask for it if you don't.
• Since there’s slim pickings for travel-sized body wash/shampoo, it’s hard to get the style you want, even the high-end organic stuff I use, so it’s either I awkwardly funnel some body wash/shampoo into the damned TSA-approved 3 oz. bottles (which I already used up, being on the road for almost 2 months and all) before leaving, or like what I’ve seen plenty of times: Buy a standard-sized bottle, then discard it upon flying out. Bureaucrats, if you haven’t figured out the latter yet, but this is creating MORE waste with a bigger plastic bottle AND a larger portion of whatever unused product is in the bottle, so we’ve regressed beyond square one (square… -5?).
• STILL have plastic waste, just in a different form. At least with a plastic bottle, you have a solid bottle that’s easier to discard. A packet, if it’s going to be an environmental concern, is more conducive to disrupting the ecosystem, and if this is intended to prevent animals from ingesting it, a flexible packet is much easier to ingest than a rigid bottle!

All in all, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Toxic Parents (well, mom)

IMPORTANT: Since I have only recently shared this in bits and pieces, I sincerely believe letting it all out would be therapeutic. However, since my dad was a writer and I am very close to having my works published (albeit as a hobby, not a career), forgive me for being long-winded and spilling my life story. *EDIT* I have kinda condensed it.

So, about 4 months ago (that's how busy I've been, but thanks to a layoff I finally found the time to finish this memoir of sorts), I had I found this article my friend who has an NMom posted on Facebook, and I'm trying my hardest not to cry, even though I'm 30 years old (at the time of writing in May 2016) and more hardened than reinforced titanium by all the bullcrap I had to put up with in my life, only because everything is SO frickin' true it hurts to even read it...

5 Reasons You Shouldn't Feel Bad About Not Talking To Toxic Parents | Bustle

Well, where do I begin? The details of my life are quite inconsequential... My childhood was quite typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we made meat helmets, and at the age of 14 my nards were ritually shaven by a Zoroastrian named Vilma -- Crap, I'm paraphrasing Dr. Evil.

Anyway, aside from the lame attempt at dispelling the tension of this post with a joke, here is all the main nuances, and the sole reasons I am posting this are:

1. I am sick of running this story top to bottom every time someone wants me to reunite with my mom since it hurts to recount it (and sometimes they are STILL convinced I should still make an effort to be close to her or ignore everything I said and share my contact information with her... Thank God for Google Voice and 2 GMail accounts (so that I can change my number "for free"), and
2. I am NEITHER inviting myself to trolling, flaming, or negative attention, NOR positive reinforcement. I am just simply writing an open blog post (and /r/raisedbynarcissists on Reddit) about narcissistic parenting at its finest. Or worst. Whatever. However, it is kinda therapy for me to rant about it too... But when I can't help but feel worried whenever she is near me, or having to be suspicious of her motives whenever she does something nice for me, I KNOW there's a problem, and I can't be the only one that feels this way. I mean, I'm sure there is, but still.

If you still aren't convinced, my mom does EVERY SINGLE THING in this article, ESPECIALLY points 1 (she even compared me to my aunt's dog), 2 (MANY examples below), 5 (I've been fixing computers since I was 15 and had a successful business, yet still call Geek Squad), 6, 7 (see XX below), 8, 14, and 23.

1. Even starting with my dad (who my grandmother claimed he has been less resilient ever since marrying my mom), my mom manipulated him into marrying her early. He's a strong man for the most part, but my mom knew how to exploit him AND have me in order to keep him. My mom is an evil genius; my IQ is 132 and hers is [anecdotally speaking] probably higher; I swear if she put her wits to help people instead of being able to connive people and stay 10 steps ahead of them, I swear, she'd be a millionaire.
   
2. The previously well-hidden Cluster B side starts to emerge. When I was still a toddler, my mom was arguing about something unrelated to me and slit my wrist and neck, then blackmailed my dad (her 2nd favorite trick) into not telling the authorities, but further reinforced it by scratching her own chest and saying that my grandmother tried to come after her and had her detained for a few days.
   
3. How inattentive was she? I had a seizure when I was 5 or so, but she told me to "quit squirming". My dad was in the car (or how I knew was that he recounted it to me) and said it looked like a seizure and to take me to the hospital, but she was adamant about not going.
   
4. When I was about 6 or 7, my dad got so upset with my mom, he was saying his final goodbyes and getting ready to commit suicide, and given a bunch of other mini-stories, I'm surprised he made it this long. However, his friend encouraged him to take my mom to see a psychologist (a big name in San Francisco... My dad showed me the papers but I have no idea where he stashed it or even if he kept it), but arranged it all to look like marriage counseling.
   
   His official diagnosis to my dad was: "Mr W_______: Through my 30 years of performing marriage counseling, my job is to keep couples together. However, as your wife is highly antisocial and has the worst case of passive-aggressiveness I've ever seen, this is a rare case where I think that divorce should do you a lot of good." and proceeded to tell him that she even threw silent treatments (her trademark move) at him.
   
5. At around that divorce, my mom argued with my dad daily and blamed him for everything, even things beyond his control (such as the failure of her restaurant... My dad was employed as a jeweler and made no business decisions). I raised myself on Top Ramen and a water boiler since neither parent cooked when they were pissed.
   
   The arguments got so bad, my dad actually slept in my room and locked the door; I didn't learn until I was 16 that it was supposed to be my own room. Why? my mom actually tried to kill him in his sleep and he didn't feel safe on the couch or sleeping next to her. The divorce was finalized around March 1993, where I was taken to Taiwan to "visit" my grandparents and "would be back soon", along with many false promises.
   
6. That "visit" turned into 4.5 years, where I enrolled in the local schools (instead of a school for expatriates) and started a few months in kindergarten [at 7 years old] for several months to grasp Mandarin phonetics, then skipping my way through elementary school until I was at the grade I needed to be; K-6 in 4.5 years. Of course, since I have Caucasian heritage, I was picked on. A LOT. I was even almost raped by a broomstick. Worst of all, if I wasn't wearing synthetic school uniform where I'm sweating like a pig all day, she buys the cheapest clothes possible, even if it looked gaudy (I even had a pair of pants that looked like it was for girls since it had a cartooned fox and letters embroidered down the legs).
   
   I still suffer self-esteem issues even despite having attended therapy, though not as bad; I used to only have 7 friends at 25 years old, but still haven't so much as had my first kiss until I was 27.
   
   Anyway, I was still abused by her; never mind the fact that corporal punishment was fully legal in Taiwan at the time, and I would get beat or silent-treated for the most ridiculous reasons, like for things as small as concentrating on my homework when the trash needed to get taken out to not finding the operating hours of a theme park attraction when it was a safety disclaimer (even after her friend verified it, she still didn't talk to me for a week).
   
7. Fast forward to around 20 years old: My mom visited on VERY short notice (she called on Friday demanding I pick her up from the airport Monday... Long story short, the boss didn't believe me and I got fired). I was renting my friend's room for $400 a month (in suburban LA, that's dirt cheap, but she thought it was "ridiculously exorbitant"; all similar rooms with a private bath were EASILY $600 a month).
   
   So, she learns the hard way that rooms ARE that expensive, but she'd rather be right than rational and still rents a room that is actually slightly worse for $550 a month; the landlord was a cheapskate that refused to fix anything. Then she blackmails me into moving there, stole my phone, and had her friend pull up with a U-Haul when I didn't comply. Then eluding common sense, she demands to go back to the old house to see what I need for the new house (which was immediately apparent was a "compliance check" since her method didn't make any sense). This time, she starts an argument when I even raised ONE objection, and I eventually started driving there in dead silence...
   
   She then pulls the door open on a leftward curve (which almost ripped the door off due to centrifugal force... Remember, she's a smart one) on the freeway and tries to jump out; had I never swung towards the shoulder and even broke the window's glass since it slammed shut so hard, she would've died. She didn't even want to buy a replacement window for the car and blamed ME for getting HER upset!
   
8. Eventually, I decided to go back to school, but I did computer consulting on the side AND took a job at a logistics company, or the busiest time in my life.
   
   Guess what? My mom decides to make another surprise visit dead in the middle of March (when I JUST finished filing my taxes), and insisted on staying with me again! YAY!
   
   So, she has a habit of trying to clean stuff, but she likes to put it in a completely different location so that you can't find anything, of course she doesn't know what it is that you're trying to look for when you try to find it, and worst of all, she arbitrarily decides what's worth keeping, what's not and even what to steal (yes, she does steal from me), such as a gift your dead friend gives you, the key to your first car, and most frustratingly, a good handful of my consulting receipts and contracts... ALL WITHOUT ASKING ME, AND I specifically told her to leave my home office's paperwork alone!
   
   Even more fun? a few days later, she tells me she's getting groceries while I was still asleep, so I didn't think to ask her for the work's gate key, then I had to play hell jumping the gate since the boss didn't have a spare key... It's an entertaining story; feel free to ask how it all went down.
   
   Worst of all, later that year? I got sued for a client's gross negligence (which if I could find the contract and waiver, I can prove I warned him about the water damage and his signature releasing my liability) AND I got audited, and I'm willing to bet all $21,000 in judgments and tax penalties that the missing receipts and contract could've saved me every penny. My mom had $250K in the bank and another huge retirement fund, but did she bother to lift a finger to at least partially help with my losses or even apologize for draining my life savings? HELL NO. "It's your fault for not filing everything"... I almost bought a plane ticket solely for the pleasure of strangling her.
   
9. So, my life recovers more than well enough in 2010, mostly spent in non-contact, but giving the occasional call at the wost time: Sunday morning at 7AM when I was often out until 3AM, and despite suggesting Sunday afternoon when it's her late morning and my time afternoon when I'm not doing anything, she doesn't go for it, so I'm having to spend half an hour on the phone half-asleep ... After spending thousands in what is classified as high-intensity therapy where I've expelled my inner demons and learned leadership skills, my business went from scraping to SOARING... I can finally afford everything I wanted, even starting to date after having self-confidence issues, life was awesome... Or so I thought.
   
   At the peak of everything, she waited an entire month before telling me she came back to the US, despite having the phone number and addresses of both my new house (for a housewarming gift she never got me) and business... Her friend's mom had Alzheimer's and they hired her to help with household duties and helping their mom around...
   
   However, despite clearing out my ONLY day off for her, she still thought it was not enough. When she got let go since her patient became vegetative, she didn't let me know... She not only "forgot I had an alarm" (after I armed/disarmed the house every time she came over), part of it is my fault: I forgot to tell her my buddy left his Rottweiler with me since he had go out of town for 2 weeks... Had I not been rounding the corner, my mom would've gotten arrested since the police came shortly after. If she didn't run back outside after tripping the alarm, she would've become Harley's dinner. Mother is smart when she needs to be, but incredibly naive otherwise.
   
   Anyway, after becoming a reluctant host to my mom and now spending almost ALL my free time with her, is that still enough? Apparently not... One of my friends started falling for me... But then my mom suddenly decides to time trips just right to come between us... San Francisco one day, Vegas the other, then suddenly buying a plane ticket to Taiwan (and expecting me to tag along without telling me so that I can make business arrangements) and wanting to take the entire day for her errands and forbidding me from contacting who could've been my girlfriend or the taker of my first kiss.
   
   Then when I finally make it home, momma sees me on the front porch and comes chasing her away with a knife, saying that "I've spent too much time with her" then corners her and waves it in her face... "Listen you c**t, I don't want you around my son anymore. If I find you with him one more time, I'm going to kill you, are we clear?"
   
   So I storm my car out of the garage without even closing it (and it was still open when I got back after she was confirmed to be on the plane), then a whole host of friends and my dad warned me against going to Taiwan; my best friend called my dad crying, and even a psychic friend who knew nothing about the trip suddenly called me and warned me of impending danger... Then she called everything off up since she was scared for her life even though we're not BF/GF yet, but she can't imagine what it'll be like having her as a MIL. Then after my mom leaves, I discover a 24K gold heirloom ring, my watch and a bunch of things missing. Thanks, mom.
   
10. After that, I went no-contact for another 4 years. Instead of calling, emailing or anything, she decides to work her way back into my life in early 2013... By adding random people on my Facebook friends list, including my wealthiest friend and trying to seduce him (eww... Plus he's married and has a daughter) instead of talking to me directly...
    
    But after learning from past failures, I informed him of what's going on and he blocked her right away, then I decided to reluctantly open communications by getting a Google Voice line and a forwarding address in case she wants an address, but thankfully she isn't coming to the US any time soon.
    
    My dad was also battling severe depression; mostly due to flashbacks of him and my mom, as well as his current situation (he didn't plan his retirement at all plus medical problems), so he took his life on June 15, 2013. When my mom started trying to become a family member again, suddenly me taking my .45 and joining my dad seemed like a good idea (sarcasm)... But in all seriousness, my dad's death hit me pretty hard, so I fell into depression and didn't work until March 2014, but things were worsened by the fact that the first couple of jobs I got either severely underpaid me or had a good start that eventually ended in I.O.U.'s.
    
    Then in mid-2015, she wants me to come to Taiwan to take care of paperwork, or the same reason she tried to pull me from my business in 2011, but this time around I couldn't make it since I was living paycheck-to-paycheck and couldn't afford it; I even sent her a snapshot of my account balance of $250 at the time and instead of taking her generously-sized wallet out, she insisted that since I didn't go with her to Taiwan the last time [again, last minute at the worst timing], that I pay for it and she'll reimburse me, and to borrow from my friends for airfare (which most were either equally broke or didn't want to lend that big an amount).
    
    Instead of just taking my word for it when I can't get the money, she viciously insulted me in a family group chat, and I actually had to clear the air and re-block her. She wasn't happy that I dared to defy her, so we haven't talked since August 2015... Of course, she never shared her phone number or address, so the only way we used to talk was through LINE or Facebook, but she has blocked me on both.

I have almost no family left, and getting married and having children is my last hope for anything resembling an immediate family... My dad passed away, both my dad and I are only children so I have no aunts, uncles, brothers or sisters; only 2 grandaunts and 3rd cousins... The relatives I have in Taiwan almost never talk to me, so it's me against the world...

New Starts, New Lady

Hello all...

I know it's been a long while since I last posted, but it's been one depressing debacle after the other (you may read about it here, but you DO NOT have to donate anymore; I'm financially stable now and this is merely information I don't feel like typing again... You get the point)... But, things are looking good; every single problem on the dear-ol' Bimmer is now fixed, I'm going to be moving back to Orange County soon not just for my own sake since I miss it out there so much, but also since I do have a high-paying position out there and commuting 1.5 hours and leaving at 6:00 AM, then another 1.5 hours to come back to this place I lay my head down at (I don't even want to call it "home", but that's another story for another time) is getting old. FAST.

Anyway, per popular(?) request (so far it's about 5 people in my car forums), I've decided to do a play-by-play.

So, a girl named Nicole has popped into my life. Not just someone I recently met, but someone that I chit-chatted with about 4 years ago while visiting my dad in Portland, but never exchanged info.

Anyway, [cue Calvin Harris], when I met [her] in the summer... Of 2011, my dad was working at a vintage eyeglass dispensary in Pioneer Square (Erstwhile Opticians on SW Yamhill and 6th), I decided to chat with her while I was waiting for coffee at the nearby Starbucks (I know, I know; I'm a connoisseur, but I wanted an iced coffee RITE NAO!)... She was a student at PSU, or about 1/2 mile up the street, and we bonded over the fact that she was Asian and wore a Led Zeppelin shirt NOT because it was something she got from the thrift store...

Now mind you, almost all Asian girls I've met usually listen to Pop, Top 40 and Alt Rock like Maroon 5 or Panic at the most, and only 2-3 of my friends my age [that I know of] actually listens to classic rock, so imagine my surprise, eh? She officially became the coolest Asian girl EVAR. If it was today and she cooks decent meals, knows how to drive manual transmission and keeps a well-maintained car, I think I'd look like this:

I didn't consider exchanging numbers (dumb move), since I figured with a long-distance relationship that I really wanted for it to work out (but didn't), I'd avoid the headaches of LDRs and swore off dating anyone that lives beyond 30 miles from me ever again.

Fast forward to last Tuesday, ironically we meet at Starbucks again--this time in my neck of the woods; words cannot describe how surprised we both were!

And it goes a little something like this [HIT IT]...
Me: Excuse me, but you seem kinda familiar...
Her: Actually, you do too. I wanna say I've met you, but it was far away.
Me: Hmm, that's where it... [long pause] Wait... Have you been to Portland?
Her: Wow! I never thought I'd meet anybody from Oregon here!
Me: Hold up [pause]... HOLY SMOKES, you're that girl with the Led Zep shirt at Pioneer Square!
Her: [gasp] Oh my God, yes! [squeals and hugs me] how have you been?

...Then after some catching up, she agreed to a date! So excited!

Android, you disgust me sometimes.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Holidays. I say it generically to not start a war with all the non-religious people, so there's that.

WARNING: This is going to be a bunch of geek talk that I will not stop and explain, much unlike my previous blog post about FB Messenger. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google is your friend. If you STILL don't know what I'm talking about, please steer away from this blog.

Anyway, I STILL don't get what the big deal with rooting is. People pay top dollars for phones, either getting stuck in a 2-year contract or paying $500+ for a hunk of metal, plastic, silicone and glass that lets you do all sorts of things... Except unlock your phone's true capabilities? Isn't blocking root going against the whole purpose of Linux, which is founded as an open-source operating system? Isn't that what Linus Torvalds wanted?

Also for the sake of example (I have none of these things, I swear... OK, minus having Linux and a VM of Mac once), if I can put a Corvette engine and solder a dragon's head onto my BMW 3-Series, put a fake dead hooker on my lawn and paint an [insert offensive organization's name] symbol on the side of my house, put Macintosh or (wait for it) Linux on my laptop and have the glowing HP logo superimposed to look like the Bat-Signal, why is it that the most I'm able to customize my most frequently used device is the wallpaper and perhaps a limited array of cheapy decorative shells from the mall?

Here's another example: Why is it that I can have an alarm, immobilizer and BMW Assist recovery tracking on my car that's hardwired into the car's computer system, ADT at my house that's hardwired into the household wiring and either have cops swarming the house or you'd have to pull some pretty hardcore ninja stuff to bypass the alarm, have a hidden theft recovery tracker AND have Intel Anti-Theft embedded into BIOS on my laptop... BUT NOT have a security solution that'll survive a factory reset? NOTE: I have no clue if there are any solutions without root, but I've been using Avast Anti-Theft, and Android Device Manager failed me the last time.

Why do I say this? I still have a Motorola DROID RAZR Maxx HD. Yes, it's from October 2012, 2 years and 2 months old as of Dec 26 or simply... Old as hell in Android terms since they seem to rapidly evolve (just for scale, my previous laptop was still able to keep up despite for 4 years, but I hope phone evolution stabilizes after I get the newer phones); I get it. I got it as an emergency, but the DROID Maxx was announced the very. Next. Month.

Even worse? I can't upgrade this thing since it's amazing that Verizon is willing to give me a loyalty bonus of doubling my data plan, but they can't just give me an early upgrade, meaning I have to wait until June 27, 2015 (2nd year to the day) to upgrade... And since I had an identity theft issue, I'm sure that further screwed up the credit that I was desperately trying to repair... And possibly any chances of upgrading via EDGE or early MORE plan. So I'm stuck unless I'm willing to drop $599.99 on a new phone.

Anyway, back to the main point. Why do I want root? It's simple... There's more enhanced battery managers (Greenify), I can get rid of the bloatware instead of simply disabling it, and most importantly since I got my tablet stolen from a [so-called] friend's car (he even showed me the police report and busted lock so it's legit)... He's being a weasel about replacing it and it's severely putting a hamper in my business since it comes in REALLY handy, and there are times where losing $2,000 of revenue is a very modest estimate, or GREATLY simplifying another task I had at hand... But anyway, that VERY important function is retaining anti-theft tracking after factory reset. Since the anti-theft is written into /system, it'll be harder for Mr. Thief to get away with stealing my stuff forever. I understand that someone can simply re-image my tablet, but will the average crook know this? Not too likely.

Also, why was it not until 4.2 (November 2012) that Android thought of multi-user on tablets? Because when I let my so-called friend, I forgot that I was lending a tablet that only came with 4.1.2 borrow it, and he happens to be the most paranoid person I've ever met. He's the same person that inspired me to write my previous FB Messenger debunkment blog post, and also a person that not only turns off all track requests for his phone (no GPS, no triangulation), but also has a sticker over the front-facing camera, and knowing his paranoia, probably disabled everything that makes theft recovery worthwhile on my tablet, and the Motorola Xyboard didn't have root options at all. Before you can say iPhone/iOS... Wait. It's ALMOST worth considering... ALMOST. Now their phones aren't as tiny and cutesy, plus their features are pretty much on the same league as Android. But not quite enough, sorry.

Now, what prompted me to post this, you ask? Well, it's pretty hard to mask the disappointment when your phone WAS rooted and survived a minor upgrade that closed the loophole that enabled root. Following bad advice, not knowing that this particular phone is no longer able to be rooted from scratch, I tried resetting the phone to install Lollipop since if Android and Motorola can't decide on whether or not to put Lollipop on this thing (or even 4.4.4 to at least fix the battery drain and Heartbleed issue), since I REALLY wanted to at least have ART on it since Dalvik was hanging a lot (my main hangup with keeping this phone, otherwise I'd use it into the next year, really), but ART almost made it worse (hence another reason I reset the phone)... Plus the enhanced security, multiple user/guest mode, Project Volta battery management, updated Material Design look-and-feel... In that order, but all stuff I want.

Anyway, hope some Google and/or Motorola exec sees this post and at least has a butterfly effect that'll say... Please don't bogart our right to root. Don't let Apple win the entire war with iCloud.

More on the Unnecessary Paranoia over Facebook Messenger

Seriously... If I had a dollar for every post I've seen bashing Facebook Messenger, or for every post telling people "I won't be able to check my messages because of FBM's policies, I have deleted it" and the supposed FBI/NSA/CIA/BLT involvement (which minus a BLT, I'm sure that they'd have other ways of accessing your information and already doing so... But that's another story), I wouldn't need any other source of income.

Facebook and Facebook Messenger
Permissions side-by-side

Comparison of FB, FBM, Hangouts, BBM and WeChat

First, Facebook's official app needs even more permissions, but I don't see anyone complaining about that. Other popular messengers including BBM, WeChat and Google Hangouts need about the same amount of permissions, and I don't see anybody complaining about that. I haven't included other major messengers/social networking services (e.g. Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, LINE, etc.), but I'm sure it needs about the same amount of permissions.

Facebook has also been advertising Facebook Messenger for a long time to have enhanced features that supersedes just having the app alone, but only recently made it mandatory... Not to mention lots of other services have made their apps and messengers separate, like, China's Tencent has Qzone, similar to Facebook, QQ -AND- WeChat, BOTH messengers made by the same company... Doesn't make a lick of sense to me, but is anyone complaining en masse to Tencent or catching flights to China to protest this matter? Foursquare just spun off Swarm, but I don't see anybody making conspiracy theories, Google+ and Hangouts are separate (although let's face it, the user base isn't the same).

So folks, please put away the tinfoil hats. What if it was your own sibling/child/SO/BFF stuck somewhere with no cell service and only Wi-Fi, or your ghetto friend who doesn't believe in paying for cell service and your paranoia is so deeply encompassing that you don't get an important message until you turn your computer on (which for me is every 2 days)? What if that same message was his/her last words and your arrogance let him/her die in vain? Now THAT is the right kind of paranoia instead of worrying about something that FB has been doing and using all along!

Keep in mind a few things:

1. I am not playing devil's advocate; this is a neutral standpoint. I am writing this on my own observations and free will, not paid, endorsed or coerced by any company to do so.

2. The screenshots are UNMODIFIED from my own phone (Motorola XT926, 4.4.2, unrooted/unmodified OS. The ONLY PSing I did was stitch the screenshots together, change the contrast since there was a gradient effect and erased useless data such as total space occupied, clear cache button, etc.), using latest versions of each app available at time of writing (Aug 31, 2014 7:25 PDT). NO permissions have been added or removed.

3. All trademarks, logos and copyrights mentioned and implied are copyrights of their respective holders, and used for educational purposes. All rights reserved. Please don't sue me.

Please pass the word along if you're so inclined.