Graeme Hefner

Graeme has been a historian of early modern England, a librarian, a professional mole and now spends his days as a project manager and team leader. Even he's not sure exactly how that happened. Well versed in pop culture, although not always CURRENT popular culture, and a lover of games, he always forgets to update this profile with current biographical information.

Hurray Customer Service!

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Mar 072011

Since I rant enough to cover the vitriol quota for five normal men, I thought I’d once again switch it up by posting an uplifting story (of sorts) here on the ole Jux Entente.

As many of you know, my poor Original Gangsta Droid has been having some hardware issues. Namely, the sleep/wake button died this weekend, leaving me with only sliding the phone open as a way to rouse it from its sleep. On my way home from the office tonight I stopped by the Kennesaw VzW store to ask what my options were. I knew I didn’t want to upgrade yet, since the fresh crop of Android phones is coming soon, but I figured since it’s an 18-month-old phone I’d probably have to file through insurance rather than get a warranty replacement at this point, and have to pay for the privilege. I’d heard on Ars that the refurbs of the original Droids were long-since out of stock as well. I was desperately hoping they wouldn’t try to give me something godawful like a Droid 2 if I had to replace the entire phone. About the only thing I’d want from the current lineup, even for 6 months or so, is an Incredible.

All of that worrying was pointless in the end, though. This is what actually happened: I walked in, told them what my problem was, told them I didn’t want to upgrade yet even though I qualified for an early upgrade, and they said they understood. Then they offered to overnight me a refurbished OG Droid to replace mine, for free.

So for $0 out of pocket I’m getting a replacement OG Droid to continue surviving on. This is excellent. I’ll just swap in my SD card, restore my Ti Backup, and go. The whole process took less than 10 minutes. Amazing, really.

A Dancehall King

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Mar 012011

Title has no bearing on content. This is all about how I fixed screen 2 with a new Power Control widget. Since it replaced DroidLight (finally!) I also killed RunKeeper from the screen, since it doesn’t have a good icon yet. I might setup screen 1 or 5 for that kind of stuff, but we’ll see.

Fancy new Power Control widget

Still Messing Around

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Feb 282011

I guess I wasn’t quite done after that last post. The icons were standing out too much to me, so I had to fix them. Some of these aren’t final, but they definitely fit in better.

Still need a better power control/toggle widget though.

Main homescreen.

Media and utility homescreen.

Social homescreen.

And, repasted from the previous post, just for reference:

Screen 1, showing what it looks like empty. Screen 5 is identical.

Messing Around with Android

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Feb 282011

Hello Internet!

I felt like doing something vaguely creative today when I got back from playing disc golf, so I started mucking about with the wallpaper on my Droid, which I hadn’t changed in over a year. I constantly tweak widgets and launchers trying to find something I’m fully happy with, and while I’m not quite there yet, I think I’m getting closer. Take a look at these, Dear Internet, and tell me what you think.

The image of Clare I found here and cut down to size. The rest is all Launcher Pro. Does anyone know of a better toggle widget bar?

Enough text. Screenies!

Screen 1, showing what it looks like empty. Screen 5 is identical.

My primary homescreen (3).

My utility screen (2).

Screen four, with clutter and social stuff.

Dear Internet

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Feb 112011

Remind me to make a post about how I’m such a sellout.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

Loverz,
Graeme

A Small Quest

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Feb 062011

I’m not sure how many more posts I can make about my poor deceased cat, but I’m going to keep going until I stop thinking about it, so there.

Yesterday I made that Picasa album because it was the middle of the night and the house was really lonely. I noticed when I was doing it that there was one picture I could remember but just couldn’t find. I was sure it existed, though. Today, after I got back from watching Anderson Silva actually fight for once, I decided to find it.

I scoured all of my image directories: nothing. Suddenly I knew where it had to be, and woe…woe unto me.

I searched for the box I knew it to be in, and there it was: my old LG VX6100. Then I poured through the box some more…the DATA CABLE! I press the power button and the phone comes to life, reminding me how terrible the battery life on smart phones really is, since this phone hasn’t left a box in over three years and had a three-year-old battery that was half charged when it was put into the box in the first place. So, anyway, I start flipping through the images directory of the terrible digital camera and find quite a few gems I probably should have moved off, but finally there it is, the picture I remember. Skirt was, obviously, one of the most awesome cats around, but I think this was the only picture ever taken of this particular habit of hers:

Just Chillin'

She didn’t do that as much in her later years, and as far as I know this was the only time she did while a camera was available. It’s an awesome photo, though, and one I knew had to be found. All I had to do was find my old cell phone, find its data cable, find a driver, download bitpim, and connect all of the pieces in exactly the right order to make this happen. The order being: both cables, open bitpim, power on phone. Anything else wouldn’t work.

But, there you go. My cat wandering the house by laying across my shoulders.

Skirt

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Feb 052011

Everything I have, which I wish was more (and why did I take so few pictures in 2010?):

Skirt

It’s amazing how okay I am with this in the middle of the day and how upset I am by it in the middle of the night.

I’ve cried more over this cat than I did over the last two human members of my family who passed away combined. What does that say about me?

I miss hearing random jangling bells in the hallway, especially when the doorbell rings or a door opens somewhere. I’ve been surfing the net all night and no one has poked my elbow with their paw to tell me to stop. No one has burrowed under the covers on the bed because the heat’s gone down for the night. No one to race me out of the bed when I wake up, either. The treat ball is just sitting in the corner. What am I supposed to do with all of this stuff?

It’s not fair that she didn’t get an old age or even any warning. Her heart just stopped, in the middle of the night, for no reason. That’s not fair.

Just some photos.

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Feb 052011

This is my website and I can do what I want!

First Picture

Skirt's Nip

Last Picture

Skirt…? SKIRT!

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Feb 042011

At 12:28am my cat Skirt suddenly died. I’m not sure why. It seems like it was a heart attack or something similar. Shocked..so young.

She was sleeping on the floor in the bedroom and then kind of jumped in the air and fell on her back while I was reading in bed. When I called her she didn’t respond at all so I got out and checked on her and she seemed to be struggling to breathe. She made a few gagging noises with her eyes wide open and her tongue out and then just stopped…completely limp. I tried to bring her around but she was just gone, like that.

She was only 5, and healthy.

I wrapped her in a quilt because I’m not even sure what else to do. It’s the middle of the night. What can I do, really? She was dead before I could even think to call an emergency vet much less get her there.

I’ve lost pets before, even instantly to things like cars, but never in such a strange manner in the middle of the night.

Skirt :(

Edit: Results are in. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and an undersized heart on top of it. She didn’t have long one way or another. :(

EDH it Up (Bitches?)

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Jan 272011

This weekend Billy, Scott, Brad and I gamed it up at GP Atlanta. Due to my broken hand only recently being capable of shuffling, plus the pain of not owning [card Mutavault]Mutavaults[/card], I decided to skip the extended main event and mostly play Elder Dragon Highlander side events, which I will absolutely refuse to call Commander.

Being the frugal person that I am, I took this as an excuse to immediately spend more money pimping out my EDH decks than I would have building the rest of Faeries to play for real money. In my world this is how penny-pinching works. The plan was for Billy and I to shark all the free-for-all tables like assholes with our new, full-power decks. I also took the time to upgrade my more casual/fun blow-shit-up deck a bit too. Here’s the lists as they ended up, white control deck first:

[cardlist title=Eight-and-a-Half-Tails] [General] Eight-and-a-Half-Tails [/General] [Creatures] Academy Rector Adarkar Valkyrie Admonition Angel Akroma, Angel of Wrath Aven Mindcensor Baneslayer Angel Devout Witness Eternal Dragon Exalted Angel Karmic Guide Kozilek, Butcher of Truth Linvala, Keeper of Silence Purity Reya Dawnbringer Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant Serra Angel Stonecloaker Stoneforge Mystic Sun Titan Sunblast Angel Twilight Shepherd World Queller [/Creatures] [Artifacts] Akromas Memorial Crucible of Worlds Expedition Map Gauntlet of Power Mana Vault Nevinyrrals Disk Planar Portal Scroll Rack Senseis Divining Top Sol Ring [/Artifacts] [Enchantments] Aura of Silence Land Tax Luminarch Ascension Oblivion Ring Sacred Mesa Story Circle Worship [/Enchantments] [Equipment] Lightning Greaves Loxodon Warhammer Skullclamp Sword of Fire and Ice Umezawas Jitte [/Equipment] [Planeswalkers] Elspeth, Knight-Errant Gideon Jura [/Planeswalkers] [Instants] Condemn Crib Swap Enlightened Tutor Path to Exile Return to Dust Swords to Plowshares [/Instants] [Sorceries] Austere Command Catastrophe Hallowed Burial Idyllic Tutor Martial Coup Mass Calcify Revoke Existence Rout Saltblast Wrath of God [/Sorceries] [Lands] Arid Mesa Boseiju, Who Shelters All Dust Bowl Eiganjo Castle Emeria, the Sky Ruin Ghost Quarter Kjeldoran Outpost Kor Haven Marsh Flats Miren, the Moaning Well Mishras Factory Mistveil Plains Mystifying Maze 19 Plains Strip Mine Tectonic Edge Temple of the False God Thawing Glaciers Vesuva [/Lands] [/cardlist]
This deck is designed for multiplayer. It makes itself look unassuming compared to the other decks on the table, wraths when needed (the deck has 9 wrath effects) and finally ends up casting big fatties angels and doing weird recursion or drawing a bunch of cards. It’s mono-white control stuffed with good stuff. It’s not the most aggressive deck in the world, but what it does do is survive. This is the one I played at the for-pay tables at the GP.

[cardlist title=Ashling the Pilgrim] [General] Ashling the Pilgrim [/General] [Creatures] Akroma, Angel of Fury Anarchist Anger Bogardan Hellkite Dwarven Blastminer Flameblast Dragon Flamekin Harbinger Hateflayer Inferno Titan Jaya Ballard, Task Mage Steel Hellkite Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre Viashino Heretic [/Creatures] [Artifacts] Basalt Monolith Expedition Map Gauntlet of Power Mana Vault Planar Portal Scroll Rack Senseis Divining Top Sol Ring Tower of Calamities [/Artifacts] [Enchantments] Blood Moon Braid of Fire Mana Flare Pyrohemia [/Enchantments] [Equipment] Basilisk Collar Lightning Greaves Loxodon Warhammer Magebane Armor Sword of Fire and Ice Umezawas Jitte Whispersilk Cloak [/Equipment] [Planeswalkers] Chandra Nalaar Koth of the Hammer [/Planeswalkers] [Instants] Comet Storm Price of Progress Reiterate Reverberate Shattering Pulse Starstorm Wild Ricochet [/Instants] [Sorceries] Banefire Decree of Annihilation Demonfire Fireball Molten Disaster Ruination Wheel of Fate [/Sorceries] [Lands] Boseiju, Who Shelters All Dust Bowl Madblind Mountain Mercadian Bazaar Miren, the Moaning Well 39 Mountain Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep Spinerock Knoll Strip Mine Tectonic Edge Temple of the False God Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle [/Lands] [/cardlist]

This is the fun deck. It goes boom and tries to Voltron someone to death with general damage. It is an absolute blast to play, though it’s not necessarily “good”.

I’d talk about individual matches and games, but meh. Who really wants to hear that? I just wanted to show off the EDH decks! I’m working on a full-power, hateful combo deck around [card Teysa, Orzhov Scion]Teysa[/card] next, and I might update with that if I feel like it.

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