Giantpaper.org

Category: The Paper

  • The Android Saga

    (Not that Android Saga!)

    Once upon a time…

    I got a sexay (prepaid) Moto G4 Play on Cyber Monday ($35!!!!!!!!!!!!* Out of $85). Since I have a Windows Phone1, playing Pokemon Go basically meant:

    • Using my iPod Touch 5G which crashes a lot on (these days, I can’t walk two feet without it crashing. Spinning a Pokestop? CRASH. Capturing a Pokemon? CRASH, etc)
    • Taking out my much faster iPad Mini, but walking around outside with an iPad is like wearing a sign around your neck that reads PLEASE MUG ME, soo…..

    *The “Play” version is the low budget phone of the Moto G4 series, but it’s a pretty decent phone and runs PoGo quite well. And seriously, how often do you find a decent smartphone for $35?

    Android smartphone in its vanilla state
    The device before I made it “mine”

    Giving It A Whirl

    This is the first Android phone I’ve ever used. So while I was able to figure out where some basic stuff was (adding new accounts, notification center and toggles like wi-fi, location services, etc), I was kind of lost when it came to trying to figure out more complicated things, like…

    I added my Google email when I first set it up. Instead of using the usual @gmail.com addresses, I use Google Apps (now called G Suite). So I could use a custom domain name for my email address (like @[firstname][lastname].com for instance). And immediately:

    • I ran into problems with the sign-in settings needing updating (which normally happens when you change your password but forget to update it on your other devices, but I didn’t change my password until I had that problem).
    • Also a thing about the account settings and data not being able to sync. (And I would get an error message about how it was experiencing problems and will be back shortly.)
    • And a persistent error message that kept popping up whenever I tried doing anything with my account (logging into other apps with the account, trying to access account info, etc) “Unfortunately Google Play Services has stopped”.

    And when I launched PoGo, I attempted to login through my Google account (the one I had logged into while setting up the phone). Thanks to the “Smart Lock” feature of Android, it lets me log into apps automatically that use my Google login. But once again, “Unfortunately Google Play Services has stopped”. I couldn’t just disable it. Because of the syncing troubles, it couldn’t save my settings I had set up for the account.

    I checked for software updates. (It needed software updates the first time I set it up and only once, even after the 10 factory resets I did.)

    Apparently Google Play Services needed to be updated for the error message to go away, but wait, isn’t that the thing that keeps stopping bringing about the error message…? I compared my Google Play Services version number to Mr. Giantpaper’s (who also got the same phone when I showed him the Cyber Monday deal), and his version number was higher, so mine definitely did not update.

    Eventually I added my non-G Suite Google account (the one ending in @gmail) and got no errors with it. So it was definitely some setting in my G Suite admin control center that I didn’t check. But no matter how much I searched and prodded, I couldn’t find anything about it! D:

    I searched online for some answers, but looking for “google apps google play services” didn’t get me what I was looking for (this was before I learned Google Apps was renamed GSuite). Neither did “gapps google play services”. This is like one of those situations where you think you’re the only one having the problem. D:

    A Revelation!

    Eventually, I figured it out. But it was a multiple step process.

    • Everyone including this Google CSR says to uninstall Google Play Services updates, which you can find by going to Settings > Apps > All > Google Play Services > Uninstall Updates. Well…ok, there was no “all” selection, Google Play Services was already on the list when I went to Apps (later found out it was already set to “All Apps” at the top of the screen). I went to Google Play Services and….THERE WAS NO UNINSTALL UPDATES. Just Disable and Force Stop. There was a Storage setting and going to that only gave you Manage Space and Clear Cache buttons. (Tapping both didn’t solve the problem). Turns out Uninstall Updates was hidden in the ellipsis menu in the top right of the screen under Google Play Services. D: (And then, you’ll get a notification saying Google Play Services needs to be updated, which is done in the Play Store)
    • I MIIIIGHT have had to delete Google Play Services storage before adding the account again.
    • I MIIIIGHT have had to do some of these steps over again since I think they needed to be done in a certain order? (Maybe needed to remove the Gsuite account, delete update, delete Google Play Services storage, then re-add the account).
    • (Gsuite users only) Make sure Android Sync is enabled through the G Suite admin panel–It’s under Device Management > left side of the screen > Mobile > Setup > Mobile Management. Looks like for me, iOS was already checked, I think from when I first setup Gsuite, BUT ANDROID WASN’T. 😁 So checking that fixed the whole problem and I was finally able to login into PoGo without having to create a new account!
    Personalized Moto G4, customized with Nova Launcher (replacing the default Google Now Launcher, after I kept hearing how awesome and amazing and customizable it is)

    So far it is pretty awesome. The GPS didn’t work for a while (unless if connected to my phone’s hotspot), but that seems to have resolved itself after using it for a while. Sometimes it just gives out, and says GPS Signal Could Not Be Found. The only thing is that the Moto G4 Play (not sure about the regular G4 and G4 Plus) doesn’t have a gyroscope, so the game’s Battery Saver thing doesn’t work on this device. Though between a crashy iPod Touch and an iPad Mini that makes you muggable, I’m not really complaining about a $35 smartphone that works decently otherwise.

    Early on my adventure, I remember reading someone’s post who said “I now know why people get iPhones.” And now, so do I.

    (Ideally, I would be able to play PoGo on my actual phone, a Lumia 735. 😀 But Niantic is unwilling to release it for Windows 10 Mobile. And while there is/was an unofficial build going around on Github, installing it is kinda hacky, since it has to be sideloaded. Also Niantic is unwilling to play along and will ban anyone they find using the app. 😕)

    – THE END –

    Edit (3/25/17): If your Android phone doesn’t have a gyroscope/digital compass thing and you want to be able to use the battery saver feature in PoGo, download the GO Extender from the Play Store. It’s free (with unlockable features for $1.49 USD). I think it works better than the regular battery saver and will also kick in if the light sensor at the top of the device is covered up (so you can just stick it in your pocket and not worry about whether it’s upside-down or not). Obviously, it won’t emulate a digital compass, so the in-game compass remains static and you won’t be able to use AR mode when capturing Pokemon.

    1That I love and cherish and would need to be pried from my cold dead hands. So instead of the G4 replacing my current phone, I plan on leaving it not activated and tethering it to my phone’s mobile hotspot.

  • Dreaming About Job Interviews

    I heard from my mom about a company that was looking for a new computer artist type person, so I applied. Turns out they had a lot of interviewees, so they had me come in and add my name to a waiting list. A few days later, they finally reached my name, the boss/interviewer called me into a separate room.

    The entire building was designed to look like a medieval castle, complete with a moat. The interview room (which I think was the boss’s office) was in a separate tower that was accessed by crossing a bridge over the moat. He took his seat in front of his desk which was directly in front of the window, facing away from it. I sat in front of the desk, nervous about what to say.

    Ummm, apparently the boss was part reptile. So he kept turning into a snake when the sun started pouring in through the window and was falling asleep. We weren’t even halfway through the interview when I woke up. 🙁

  • Bunny Bunch State University

    Had a dream where I went with Valerie to Bunny Bunch in Montclair. They had merged with a local college, and so now was a rabbit/guinea pig/chinchilla rescue and a college. They also started rescuing horses apparently and were offering classes on horse care.

    In order to attract interest to the college part, they were letting rescue visitors sit in for a day in one of their classes. I went to some kind of an intermediate English class. Assignment for day one was to pick a video game and discuss the themes in it. Some folks picked Mario Kart 8 and others picked Super Mario 64.

  • Classic Dreaming: The Fugitive

    Once had this written down somewhere, then I lost it, huh.

    An oldish dream from about 7 years ago.

    Samantha and Nellie (from American Girls) were trying to solve the mystery of Ravenscourt (in Samantha’s first mystery). I was up in L’s room, when I heard that Samantha planned to call the hotel and ask them a few questions. Except that she didn’t want her aunt and uncle to know that she was involved in a mystery. So instead of calling the hotel directly*, she asked the operator to have the hotel call her instead, claiming that their phone wasn’t working correctly.

    *it seems that they now have the newer phones that allow them to dial a person’s number, rather than getting the operator to do it

    I heard about this. And since I was feeling overprotective of them in a big sister sort of way, I knew I had to stop them before someone got hurt. I jumped into my car, and hurried down Lewis Rd…and ended up running a red light.

    © 2020 Google

    Immediately, since both my parents and I have psychic powers, they knew what happened. And I knew through them immediately, that a traffic ticket was waiting for me at home.

    I probably did get a ticket waiting for me at home. But I didn’t go back home for a long time, and I was to appear in trial, but didn’t. So I had the government on my tail!

    Now A Fugitive

    I joined a caravan-type of group of wanderers, blending in as one of them. We traveled around a lot. One of the places we visited was the top of a bunch of steep, craggy mountains, everything in a beige-colored mist–almost looked like the traditional Chinese ink paintings.

    We were standing on a bridge, suspended over a stream about sixty feet below, when we were stopped by a group of FBI agents for some kind of inspection. One of them looked like Rude, the bald Turk from Final Fantasy VII. Everyone else in the caravan accepted this as a routine sort of thing, but I knew that they were really looking for me. If I took off, they would become suspicious and I would most likely be caught, and found out. So I stayed. (Actually, even though it seemed like we were in some far off country or land like Middle Earth, we were only about ten minutes away from where I lived.)

    One of the other wanderers, somewhere in his twenties in the caravan was becoming increasingly paranoid and kept sputtering left and right, “I didn’t do it!! I didn’t do it!!” When one of the agents approached the both of us, he first interrogated me, with me thinking I was already caught, because wouldn’t he recognize me? But he seemed completely clueless, and went on to question the nervous guy. After he was done, he gave us both a piece of paper. The guy’s paper was a yellow, index card-sized flyer to a local event taking place. Mine was black with yellow lettering.

    After glancing at the paper (but didn’t actually read it), I knew that the agent knew who I was, and the paper just mentioned what was going to happen to me. The agent told me, “Just give it up. (Something about how my punishment would be worse if I tried to escape.) All the missions in the world had been canceled.” (“Missions” as in the missions you get in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.) And I thought, ‘All because I ran a red light.’

    Immediately, I threw the paper to the ground. (I was hoping it would fall to the stream below for drama, but it didn’t, darn.) Then I jumped off the bridge into the stream, thinking ‘you’ll never catch me!’ Except the stream was a lot more shallow than I thought. I probably would’ve been killed if I hadn’t tweaked the dream a bit, so I would just fall in the stream. I was hoping that I would go downstream and away from the agents. Only once again, the rocks made it difficult, but with a little more help from lucid dreaming, I was able to get away.

    The closest example I could find of the stream

    Starting A New Life… (Sort of)

    I ended up at Ventura Harbor and swam out to an empty oceanliner, thinking I might use this as my new hideout. Even though I was the only living being there, it didn’t mean I was alone…

    Photo by Giuseppe Murabito on Unsplash

    The ship was a lot more rusted than I thought, telling me it was abandoned. Just as I walked into what looked like the dining hall, these…ghosts, some of them were green (think Slimer from Ghostbusters) started popping up in song and dance. And zombies. Yup. That kinda freaked me out a bit, but I wasn’t that afraid of them. I figured if I were nice to them, they would be touched and accept me as one of their own. (Well, except the zombies, who didn’t seem that interested.)

    I was right about that. For years, they had lived aboard the abandoned ocean liner, longing for one of the living to treat them as their equal, whether they be dead or alive. Just recently, with the government hunting them down so much, they ended up having to stay in the ocean liner. They pretty much hated the living, and the government especially.

    I stayed with them for a while and had a lot of fun. Almost like I was as though I were a part of their family. Eventually the FBI agents heard of my whereabouts and came aboard the ocean liner, accompanied by Leon S. Kennedy (from the Resident Evil series), who had been sent to help with the search. Before I could be taken in by them, I explained what the undead wanted. The agents agreed to talk with the government about it. And I think the undead were accepted back into the living.

    The credits started rolling (with the craggy mountains from earlier in the dream as the background), panning downwards, passing by many railroad tracks running horizontally across the mountains. I waited for the bridge, that I was on with the caravan when the FBI stopped us, to appear… More railroad tracks, and not one of them was the bridge. I was getting impatient and once again, lucid dreaming kicked in, turning one of the railroad tracks into the bridge. And on the bridge were the FBI agents all mingled together with the undead, talking like old friends. I was among them, and yaaaaay, we’re all friends! The end.

    (Btw, as for what happened to me after running a red light and trying to escape the consequences of it, remains unanswered).

    Post-Credits Scene (Because Why Not?)

    After the mov—err, dream, came a little short feature dreamed up by…me! We were at my mom’s friend’s house. She had three parakeets that she kept in separate color-coordinated cages. The cages looked more like those cat feeders with the reservoir for the food at the top. O_o The bird in the red cage had three baby birds, but somehow they fell out through the opening at the bottom (which was too small to fit them all). I picked them up and asked Mom’s friend what to do about them. She said for me to just come sit by her, since she’ll be able to keep the dog away from them (who she was afraid of getting to the birds). Umm…that’s about it, other than a few, brief flashbacks of the previous dream, featuring Leon. 😛