The Grinding Shed: darkstrEam - Viewing Profile

There are two that I listen to with some regularity;
Athletico Mince is a podcast by Bob Mortimer and Andy Dawson. It's a surreal view of society, and football. The fact that I have no knowledge of, or interest in football but still find this really funny, speaks volumes.
The Sequelisers is a panel-show contest format where two teams are challenged to come up with improved follow ups to great films that had terrible sequels. They go relatively in depth as to why the original sequel was bad, and go so far as to suggest era specific cast and crew for their improved version, in addition to the plot. They're a few seasons in and still tweaking the format, but it's something entertaining for when I'm busy doing other stuff.

If I don't have a party or gig to be at, I'll generally just stay in. Time was, I'd usually be DJing, but those days are long gone. This year, however, a I've got a cold, so me and the missus are crashed out on the sofa. I just watched a YouTube video retrospective of the entire Friday The 13th film series. Good times.

You can try creating something different and fail entirely, of course. There were those modular phones that never really amounted to anything, but presumably cost a fortune in development. More recently the Red Hydrogen One - a ridiculously expensive failed attempt at a 3D-screened phone from the makers of the excellent Red digital cinema cameras. It's also supposed to be modular, but reviews of the base model they launched were not at all favourable. The most interesting different concept I've seen lately is the Nubia X, which takes an interesting route to the apparent holy grail of a smartphone with no bezels around the screen. You have a main screen taking up one full side of the phone with no sensors to clutter things up, then the back of the phone has another screen filling up about 85% of the surface with all your cameras and whatnot, so it's like a phone from five years ago with chunky bezels stuck to the back of a giant screen-only device that seems to be currently desired. It's an interesting idea, though you couldn't have a case on it at all (maybe one of those side bumper things). A lot of the current innovation seems to be around how to manage a big screen with no bezels or cutouts, eg. Samsung having the camera behind the screen as a little dot cut out of the display.

I'd be quite happy sticking with my current phone (Samsung Galaxy Note 4) but I've had it around four years and it could do with more RAM and has trouble finding/holding onto a decent data network connection. Upgrading every one or two years, you probably won't notice much benefit apart from the latest styles and trends (notches and absent headphone jacks currently) but wait longer than that and the bump in spec becomes more obvious and worthwhile.
There are phones with unique features if you really want them, but there's always a compromise and that's often going to be more annoying than the benefit of the gimmick. There are phones that focus on photographers or gamers, but the most successful designs are the ones that give you as best a taste of everything as is manageable, so popular phone designs often feel homogenised.
Then there's the issue of firmware support for longevity, which is invariably better from firms with reputations to uphold (your Apples and Samsungs). You can get a great, fully featured Android device for a third of the price of the market leaders' flagship devices, but you buy them on the understanding that they might lose developer support quicker than something with an industry behemoth behind it.

I've gotten steadily less interesting, in my opinion, but I'm not sure if that matters much. Been in the same job for almost 19 years, a relationship for over 13. I have a mortgage and a house full of stuff I don't really need - stability as long as I keep working. I should probably have fun more and worry less.