xoagray

An iOS user, spends a month on Android.

So I've been an iOS user now for many years. At least the last six, and I used to switch back and forth between iOS and Android before that every two years when my phone leases were up. Since it'd been so long, I decided to give Android a try again.

Why would I do that if I was happy with iOS? Because I like to stay current with what's up on that side of things, and I don't arbitrarily hate Android its self. My issue is with Google, not specifically Android. That said, separating the two is very difficult, at least without making some sacrifices. But also, I did it because Apple has also been doing things I don't particularly like. One of these has been their recent dive head long into "AI". And introducing the same kind of assistant tech that lends its self very handily to data theft and overall insecurity. iOS had been my refuge from the endless "AI" push, now it's just as soaked in it as anything else. If I'm not more secure on iOS, why am I paying the extra for it? I wanted to see if I could happily use Android in 2026.

And honestly, from what I've seen so far, I can. But there are some pain points coming from iOS. One of the largest ones is the amount of ads. Some from apps loaded on the phone by the device maker, some from apps I've installed that have apps on Android, but not iOS. And some from Google's myriad of services on the phone and tablet I've got.

Both my phone and tablet also came with some kind of feed that just dumps mostly irrelevant information into a swipe to the left. Motorola calls it "Glance", and Lenovo calls it something akin to "Android Experience". I've disabled it on both my devices because the notifications from them were near constant, the Motorola phone seems to like to reenable Glance after an update though, which is also annoying but I can just shut it back off.

Speaking of apps, that's a bit of a mixed bag as well. Some apps seem to actually behave better, but some are decidedly worse. For example the Mastodon app seems to be a bit better on Android, But the BJ's store app is decidedly worse. To the point that it has been at times all but unusable. I've had to figure out a few tricks to make it work the way I want it to. But having figured those tricks out, it became manageable. And after a recent update it seems to be behaving a little better.

The experience of using Android overall has been that way, it's a mixed bag. Some things are a bit better, some worse. But there are some takeaways I've gleaned. First, apps developed for open source tend to be better on Android. Sometimes because they have a little more functionality, sometimes because the developers just use Android themselves, so that's where they concentrate their efforts. But overall, apps seem to generally be better on iOS. They're more polished, the interfaces are more similar. I know some people are going to hate me for that one, but for how I use my phone, they are. Things like universal copy and paste for example working in all apps is something you REALLY miss when you go from iOS to Android. I know a lot of people hate Apple for making apps behave certain ways, but that also leads to the UI being pretty solid across the board. On Android, it's gotten better, but there are still times when I can't find how to copy something, or I can't at all and have to download instead. Like with the afore mentioned Mastodon app, on iOS I can just copy say a photo from it and paste it somewhere else. On Android I must download it then use it.

One other strange thing I ran into is that my headphones, A pair of Jlab Go Sport + seem to not want to fully disconnect sometimes. On iOS this was a non-issue, even when they were connected to more than one device at a time. But on Android, I've had a few times over the last month where I have had to make sure they were disconnected in the bluetooth menues of both my phone and tablet or one of the headphoens would stay connected and just draw down it's battery. This too isn't major, but it's an annoyance that I have never had to deal with on iOS.

In general, all of the little things I mentioned though are little things. They're the kind of stuff that you can mostly overlook or work around if you're willing to take a little time to learn how. Really for the most part using either OS isn't that different from the other outside a few small things.

So can I use Android in 2026? Yeah, I can. Will I keep doing so? I'm not 100% sure. The question for me personally is broader than just me. My partner is decidedly team Apple here. And I have to admit that the experience on iOS has been better for me than on Android. But I also find myself using Linux a lot more lately. And iOS is pretty much entirely locked to Apple and the Mac. Apple has rubbed me the wrong way a couple times over the last few months, and Linux has gotten genuinely better. In the end I think I'll probably end up going back to Apple, but this has been a good chance to refresh myself with Android and how it does things. Besides, no one can tell me "You don't even use Android" when I criticize it for doing something bad now. I've even written this, on my Android tablet.

I keep a paper journal that I actually write my thoughts down in, most of the time that and this aren't actually the same. But today I'm going to share directly what I just wrote in my personal journal, because I might not be the only one thinking this, especially if you live near a spaceport.

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Sun, 21:24 okay. TWSBI Eco 1.1 stub 5-31-26

I've been hearing rumbles all weekend. Some of it was thunder, some of it was a Blue Origin rocket exploding on the launch pad up in Canaveral. The crazy thing is I couldn't tell, at least not right away. And with all that's going on in the world it made me wonder... If there were bombs falling, would I know? We all assume there would be some kind of warning, but what if there wasn't? What if there was just a rumble, and that's it?

That may sound nuts, but with all the bullshit that our government is doing right now, is it too far to consider someone might attack us here at home? I don't think so. I hope nothing like that ever happens, but I also think it's folly to believe it couldn't. That thought kind of haunts me now, Not that it hasn't before, it just feels like we're closer to it now than we've been in a long time.

Outside that, Shawn and i had a good weekend. Tried out a good, but spendy BarBQ place, Slow -n- Low, Food was really good, prices, a bit too high. But that's everything today.

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That's it, was just kind of a surreal day.

I haven't really said anything about my December and New years so far. But there were a few different things going on in my head and my world.

First off and probably the most profound for me was it was the first year I celebrated Yule instead of Christmas. I was brought up Baptist, but walked away from that in my teens, largely due to an overbearing stepfather that wanted to go much harder on religion that I or my mother did. Between then and about a year or so ago I didn't really consider myself religious in the classical sense. I have felt the draw here and there of a few different things, but bad experiences just pushed me away from everything. So for the next 30 odd years I was somewhere between agnostic and atheist.

But as you probably figured out from my celebrating Yule this year, I have become a Norse Pagan. Largely brought on board by my boyfriend who converted about 2 years ago. So this has been my first year living as a Heathen. It's been interesting, and I'm still learning a lot.

It's just been strange. Partly because I'm still adjusting to the change, and partly because for the first time I'm seeing what it's like to be a religion that isn't Christian in the US. People seem to have less trouble with you being atheist than being a religion that isn't Christian here. So it's caused me a little confusion when someone would say things like "Merry Christmas" but that's not me anymore. But I would usually just say "Merry Chirstmas" back. Just to be polite. But it also kinda' feels isolating. I've found other Heathens but mostly online.

I'm hoping this year my boyfriend and I can get more involved in one of the good groups I've found, it's not exactly local, but it's not too far to go hang out once a month or so. And there are some really good folks in there. I've heard there's also a Heathen group in Furry, though I have yet to actually find / talk to any of them.

But yeah, December has just been kind of weird for me this year. Hopefully by next year it'll be better and I'll be in a better place around all this.

As far as the New Year, Honestly, I hadn't even had the chance to think about it when it was happening. And even now almost a month later I'm still not really sure what I'm going to do with this year. I have a bunch of things I'd LIKE to do, but actually having the resources and time to do them is the hard part. I've had things I want to do on my mind for years now that I haven't been able to get to, so I hate to say, "I'm doing X this year!" and then not be able to do any of it. So I just haven't really settled on anything. I'm just going to kind of go for a general, "I hope this year is better than the last" and hope I get there.

I'd like to do more traveling this year, more photography, and more writing. I'd also like to take some real steps towards getting out of Florida. I'd say getting out of the US, but that seems so impossible right now I don't know if it's even worth mentioning.

Anyway, that's about it from me for now.

Hail Oðin! Happy New Year! May we all find ourselves in better places!

Over the span of 24 hours yesterday, I found out that two of my old friends had died. I was hoping that I could be done with pain for a little while, but it turned out I just swapped one kind of pain for another.

I mentioned in a previous post that I haven't had the chance to spend time with friends like I used to. I've started trying to change that. I've been quiet and away from most people for over a decade now and I need to change that. I've started reaching out to people, at least the ones I still have contacts for, and trying to gain contacts for others.

I needed my time and my isolation to fix some things wrong with me. But I also need to be part of the lives of the people I care about. And hopefully, they still need me to be part of theirs. I've become a ghost to most of the people I know. Someone they only think about in memory, or as a "used to know". That's at least in part my own fault. But the good side of that is that I can change it. I'll probably never rebuild all the bridges I've neglected over the years, but I want to try.

So it's been a LOOOONG time since I did anything that was beyond a PG rating. Most of what I write isn't even that harsh other than occasional language. But I had a story come into my head that took my mind off the pain I was in back in early October, and I wrote it down. IT's not a tour de force to be sure, and to say I'm rusty is a massive understatement. But it fits the Halloween theme and It kept my mind off the pain I was going through.

Hopefully it will make ya' feel good too if you read it.
Obviously not safe for work.

FA link,
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/62821607/?upload-successful

If you just want the story.
https://tales.tiggi.es/just-monster-things/unexpected-warmth

Sorry I've been pretty quiet lately, but I've been going through some shit. I don't usually bring up my health issues, mental or physical but I've had to deal with them both over the last few weeks.
I typically look to October as one of my favorite months. I"m usually pretty into Halloween and love the vibes of it. (And I have to admit, I love scaring people.) But the last few years October has been pretty traumatic for me. And unfortunately, this year wasn't an exception. I'm doing better now though, so hopefully I can be around more.

That said, I am now trying to do more to get back into the Halloween vibe. Hopefully I can salvage the rest of the season.

If you've read this far, I hope you're having a great day, and a great Halloween season if you're into it.

X

A little over 10 years ago, I found out what demisexuality was, and that was revolutionary to me. And to this day it remains the closest thing I've found to describe myself. But recently I've found that even amongst them, I am an outlier.
I more recently found out that most demisexuals are also predominantly asexual, and I most definitely am not. I know demisexuality is considered part of the asexual spectrum, but I thought that was because our emotional connections often dictate our attractions. Not being asexual doesn't disqualify me from being demisexual, but because only a small percentage of people who are demisexual aren't asexual it's lead me to again question if this is really what I am.
Am I just unusual even amongst people who are unusual? Or am I something else all together? I may never know. In the end I don't need a specific label to put on myself, but it is nice to have a simpler way of explaining what I feel, and why I am the way I am. And now I'm not as sure as I was that this is the right one.

I actually wrote this when it happened, about a week or so ago, but never got around to posting it.  So everything was fine, it was just really weird at the time. 

I want to go to sleep, but I also want to stay up and write.  But it's become a pretty weird night, and it has me feeling uneasy.  There's been a storm outside for a couple hours now, which is pretty strange for Florida already.  Most storms here tend to come and go in a matter of minutes. But also the thunder that's coming along with it is being strange. 
Most of the time the storms around here, while unusually short, have normal lightning and thunder.  But this storm has a constant rumble that never stops.  It's been over two hours and it's still going.  It's like the rumble of a rocket taking off from very far away.  Not enough to rattle the windows, but enough you can hear and to some degree feel the low rumble. 
I got a video of a storm that sounded like this once a long time ago, it was eerie back then too. 
I'm sure everything is fine, but I'm going to double check that the doors are locked before I go to sleep tonight. 

i've noticed myself reaching backwards a lot lately.  Like reaching back for things from a simpler or more desirable to me period of time.  As if to try and hold on to some things from the past because I don't like where their modern counterparts are going anymore.  I've watched tech for example go from something where I was always looking forward with anticipation to it's advances, to where I fear every new update or release will bring some new enshitification.  Or remove a feature or function that I rely on. 

And then there's the ever increasing data collection that has become just rampant now.  My smartphone and smartwatch feel more like tracking devices than tools that serve me half the time anymore. I find myself avoiding them just to get away from the feeling of being constantly monitored.  It makes me want to go back to a simple flip phone and a PDA.  Sometimes I go straight past that and just use a pad and pen, forgoing any electronic solution entirely. 

Nostalgia is also part of it.  That's why I've started shooting film cameras again.  There's just something about the feel of it, it's like typing a letter on a typewriter instead of sending an email, it just feels more visceral, more real.  I've heard talk of an analog renaissance, and i guess it's fair to say I'm part of it.  For a multitude of reasons, I've leaned back into the analog world.  And I find after decades of being into tech and living in the digital world, I'm really the most happy there.