It's a new month so that means it's a new budget! (well, fiscally, not a new month in that thick Franklin Planner) OK, perhaps I get a little more stoked than the average user over his Gnucash usage, so much that I want to learn Python to code my own application. It is a resolution for this year that will likely have to be pushed to 2022 for I'm running out of time. I see Python somewhere around wood whittling and Sudoku, funzies just to keep the head sharp and not wind up like my 93-year-old grandfather whose world became blank. When I die at that age, it's because I took a wrong turn at Pamplona!

My other grandfather, Bill I, clocked out WAY earlier at the age of 39 by literally burning out instead of fading away with that barge explosion on the Mississippi River, a tragedy that occurred 71 years ago tomorrow.

Nevertheless, a new budget, and this time around we're turning up the knob on beef liver, making the rotation a ground beef : liver daily thing. We're flipping off the switch to my beloved Kerrygold in lieu of that chalky standard butter and going to turn out our pockets and toss the extra change to try out Costco beef. Sadly, I can only fondly remember yesteryear's ground beef at $1.30/lb and $1.99/lb. That said, back then, I ate 2-3 lbs of the stuff daily when today it's just a single pound. So things even out, even if my diet price has leaped with youthful energy.

Last night, I attempted to switch my phone's OS to either /e/ or to LineageOS but ran into a HUGE showstopper in the very beginning when I discovered that the bootloader for Samsung S10+ for North America only cannot be unlocked because of mobile carriers' demands. I could really rant on this...but, just insert the wagging of my head or a hammer hurling—you get the idea! Again, this is why phones feel more like a rental than something we actually own.

So, I went back and ran my script to move some bloatware from Android. While I removed the obvious ones, keeping 11 apps on my screen as a starting point (and I think I've successfully stopped it from auto-installing bloat like Candy Crap), there's another 415 programs I have to Google individually to determine if it is system critical. And then there's examples like ANT+ stuff, does my Garmin rely on it? Worse case scenario is just another factory data reset and rerun my delete script.

While I need to spend more time on the hidden apps, the only normal Google app that remains on my phone is Google Maps. There's map alternatives out there, but I haven't put any of them into real-world practice.

Of course after wiping everything out, I need an Internet browser, so I'll drop F-Droid over into a directory on my phone and install DuckDuckGo. I'll then add Tutanota for email and Aurora Store as a Google store alternative so I can grab Garmin Connect, Spotify and Bitwarden. Honestly, I want to think in terms of app minimalization for when I drop smart phones altogether, I won't miss the extended functionality (and only out of convenience do I install most of these apps).

Years ago, when I first heard that there was basically an app for each website, I thought it was NUTS. I mean, that's the whole point of a browser as it serves as a cross-platform wrapper for content!

Overall, all of this feeds into my mindset of the return to country: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And while I had my moments of tech out there, especially with respect to connecting a Yagi antenna for LTE access to the Internet that was then shared throughout the house, I may need to retool myself for the future.

I ran across this song the other night when my head was slapped silly from the pressure of an incoming stone. Remarkably, merely placing my phone atop my forehead with this song playing was soothing. Looking back, perhaps I should have opted for the USB sleep mask instead.