(how dare you suggest such a thing)
I’m getting a new phone! It probably arrives today!
My old cell phone is rather on the ancient side for technology. It is almost three years old, and it was not the latest and greatest when I bought it. But considering the fact that I was moving from a flip-phone to a smart phone, I didn’t think it mattered much. And it didn’t matter for a long time, except that now there are a LOT of apps that abhor my operating system and refuse to be downloaded. Thus the new purchase. I’m getting a Marauder’s Map case for it, too. I’m such a nerd.
Speaking of being a nerd, one of those apps my phone hates is Ingress. WHICH IS THE GREATEST INVENTION EVER. Brian downloaded it a few days ago, and we spent hours running around the neighborhood linking portals. I tried to download it onto my own phone, and everything appeared normal at first. It wasn’t until day 2 that it froze up on me. And then it refused to run anything else, including the Kobo app, saying it didn’t have enough memory. That Kobo app is sacred. SACRED. Ingress had to go, even though it sorta broke my heart to uninstall it.
For those who don’t know, the Ingress basic premise is that our world is being infiltrated by strange energy and matter that you need a special device to see (your phone). Portals are appearing all over as well, and there are two factions. The Enlightenment (green) is trying to keep these portals open, the Resistance (blue) is trying to keep them closed. Enlightenment forever! (It’s the only way). I bet you can’t guess what team I’m on.
The game is overlaid on a Google map, and it uses your GPS position to tell you what portals/energy are around you. This means you have to walk between portals to access them, and you have to walk to pick up the energy you need to be able to do anything. You get plenty of exercise. As a bonus, you also get to know the neighborhood pretty well. It’s been fun.
I looked up the map of where all the portals are online and there are a TON by my work that are waiting to be claimed. I also found out that I’m in enemy territory when I’m at work. Home is about 50/50. So my mission is going to be to run around on my lunch hour and Enlighten the Claremont Colleges. It’s stupid, but I’m excited about it.
Brian is even worse than I am, though. There is a brown stump road barrier near our house that someone spray painted a face on. It’s a portal named “Mr. Tiki,” and Brian stole it from the Resistance. I was lounging in my pajamas and watching Netflix on the couch on Monday when he came charging down the stairs, a wild look in his eyes. He clutched his phone in his hand.
“Someone’s attacking Mr. Tiki!” he said. “I must go!” He pulled on his shoes and ran out of the house. Five minutes later, he came back out of breath.
“Did you save him?” I asked, looking up from my home show.
“Yeah, I guess they were attacking a portal he’s is linked to, and not Mr. Tiki himself. I don’t care about that. They can have all the other portals they want, but Mr. Tiki is mine. MINE, I say. They cannot have him.”
“Well, it’s good he’s safe,” I said.
So just think, by tomorrow I’ll be able to be as insane about my own pet portals.
The other things I’m excited about involve more than 4 hours of battery, a better camera, the ability to use Pinterest and Tumblr without crashing everything, and (hopefully) a faster loading time on Kobo. Sometimes waiting for chapters to turn kills me.
For those interested in these sorts of things, it’s a Moto G, 16 MB, 1st generation. The case I bought is http://amzn.to/1J6ks9k I’m SUPER excited, if you can’t already tell (!!!!!).
Casey E. Hamilton 