Just another point on my nerd card

I have installed Cyanogenmod 7 on my old Droid X2. The X2 was a really good Android phone when I first got it, but after a few Motorola updates and Android updates... and 100+ apps installed... there were bugs that just wouldn't go away. Too many force closes, freezes and random reboots, just to name a few. I tried the normal route by removing all the apps and only installing those that were used on a daily basis. To no avail. Many months ago, I rooted the phone and removed and handful of the Verizon bloatware apps, and the random reboots ceased, but it was still running quite slow. It was just prior to this time that I began wanting to sample other flavors of Android, the most well known version being Cyanogenmod.

Unfortunately, at that time, all I did was root. I am not a developer, and digging into the OS of my phone that deep to install something else... well it scared me. I couldn't afford to replace it if I bricked it. So I left it alone. Until now.

That's about right.

Dear Apple,

On January 9, 2007, you turned to mobile phone world on its head when you introduced the iPhone. Sure, there had been touchscreen phones around for years prior, but you did it right. No stylus, full internet browsing capabilities, MP3 player, and a phone, all on a device that was one giant touchscreen. We were impressed.

Yesterday, you unveiled the iPhone 5. I have one word for you:

Meh.

A personal goal

For anyone that knows me, you know that I am not a goal setter. I never have been. New Year's Resolutions have always seemed silly to me, and only applied to the first few weeks of January before they were tossed aside or forgotten. Well, I suppose I have made some goals in the past, but they were all mundane or petty. I wanted a tablet, so I saved my money and bought one. I wanted to wait until next week to mow the grass. And I'm still waiting. So my 'goals' are more like 'wants'.

I recently turned 32 (or 141, in dog years), and I realized that during the past decade, I really haven't done anything notable. I have found an awesome girlfriend, got a motorcycle endorsement on my license, kept a job for 10 years, and bought a house. With the exception of the motorcycle endorsement, those achievements are nothing more than a byproduct of getting older. In light of this discovery, I am officially setting a goal. A goal that has, for most of my life, been nothing more than a dream. A dream kept far out of reach due mainly to the cost associated with achieving it. A dream shared by many but conquered by only a few.

I dream to fly.

"Good artists copy, great artists steal."

Thank you to Steve Jobs for that pearl of wisdom. One would think, with that mentality, stealing would be somewhat tolerated. Not so, apparently. Stealing is only tolerated if Apple is the thief.

We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.

• Triumph of the Nerds (1996)

But don't you dare steal a stolen idea from Apple.