Category Archives: Fun Stuff
Upgrading my ASUS Tablet
Last night I decided I wanted to upgrade my tablet OS since it had been quite a while since the last official update from ASUS. I was at 4.1.1 Android (Jellybean) and I wanted to try out KitKat. This was partly due to the fact that I am now leaning towards moving away from a Droid phone and getting an iPhone. But I still want to be able to play around with Android and figured this would be a good way to do it.
I searched around and found a good site describing exactly how to do it. http://d3-media.blogspot.com/2014/08/upgrading-asus-prime-tf201-to-android.html did a nice job of running through all of the things I would need to do from unlocking to rooting to loading a recovery image.
The steps were easy to follow and I was doing well until I got to the point actually trying to load the new image. It got part way through the process and then the little android keeled over and I was done. The tablet would no longer boot to anything but the recovery image. I started to panic as my tablet was my primary source of Netflix and Candy Crush enjoyment. I went back to the site to see if I had done something wrong.
I found a statement about a problem they had run into with the recovery image not recognizing their external SD card. They had to load a different recovery image to get it to recognize the card. Since I was using the internal SD card I ignored it. But as I was desperate I went ahead and loaded the second image and voila! success.
I now have an upgraded and functional tablet. Now I can go back to my Trailer Park Boys binge watching!
New Years Resolutions
So it is now 2014 and time for everyone to start working on their New Years resolutions. You know the things we so passionately decide need to be done to improve our lives dramatically for the better and last about two weeks.
I have come up with a few of my own and I will share them here. First, let me say that I actually succeeded at one of last years resolutions to lose 40 pounds. In fact I lost 53 pounds. So my goals in the health department focus more on increasing my physical activity. More hiking, more swimming, more playing sports, more exercise. I still want to lose weight, say another 15 pounds which would get me down to 220. Certainly achievable as far as I am concerned.
My other resolutons for 2014 include doing a bit more writing. Things like this blog and some technical articles I would like to write. I find this to be one of the more challenging things as I always have an extremely hard time starting anything I write. Once I get over that hurdle things seem to come much easier and flow better.
This goal really leads up to my real challenge for 2014. I have always wanted to obtain an advanced degree and I was finally admitted into the MSEE program through the University of Florida. I will begin taking classes this summer and so I will take the first part of the year to get myself back into the swing of things. I am going through a bunch of online courses. I am breaking them up into groups of five and I just started the first group today.
I will check in regularly throughout the year to see how my resolutions are going. Until then I hope everyone enjoys the New Year!
Ghost peppers – I’ve reached my limit
So I have finally reached the limit of what I can consume for hot stuff. I came across these at our local hot sauce shop:
It is a jar of whole ghost chili peppers, the naga jolokia. It is one the hottest peppers in the world. I was very excited when I saw them and eagerly bought them up. I have had several Dave’s products including their ghost pepper sauce and always enjoyed them. As soon I got home I popped them open checked them out.
I planned to make some fish for dinner (tilapia) and though it would spice it up nicely to cook it with a few peppers I grilled it up and sure enough it added just enough kick for me. Then for reasons unknown I decided to eat three of the peppers I had used for cooking. I figured since I had already cooked them so they couldn’t be too bad, right?
They went down easy enough. Didn’t seem too hot, just a little bite. Everything seemed good until I went to bed. I started to feel a sharp pain in my stomach but I figured it would pass and went to sleep.
At about 4 am I woke up in extreme pain. I decided to get up and see if I could ride it out watching some TV. Unfortunately it only got worse. I finally had enough and made my way to the bathroom where I proceeded to throw up. Because of my diet the only thing in my stomach was those peppers, surpirisingly intact.
I immediately started to feel better. I realized I had hit my limit. I can’t eat three whole ghost peppers Next I will stop after two!