College (Day 307)

Yikes, I am tired. I should have gotten a lot more sleep last night but I became obsessed with the idea of completing Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden. It was all for naught though because I didn't finish it. I'm on the last mission--but I'm not done. It's already ten o'clock now and I've pretty much just gotten home. It seems unlikely I'll actually finish the game tonight considering how tired I feel, but I expect I'll give it a try anyway. The cooler thing that happened tonight is the fact that I finally bought a new phone!

I haven't had a working cell phone since October, although I have nonetheless been inseparable from my iPhone for other reasons. It has been my quintessential music device for car listening as well as a great companion for reddit/Twitter/Facebook browsing while away from my computer. If we're being honest here, that's probably going to be the main function for my new phone, but the fact that I can actually send and receive calls now is a definite bonus. Plus, it's just a really nice phone. I had an iPhone for years, but I decided to try out Android this time around and bought an HTC One M8 after reading several glowing reviews of the phone. I haven't had much time to experiment with it yet, but so far I'm pretty impressed.

Right off the bat I'm really fond of the smooth shape and 90% metal body. It has a lot of weight to it and feels much more like a quality product than something like the Galaxy S5. I think both are good phones, but the HTC One M8 feels a lot sturdier and more solid. The screen is only a tiny fraction of an inch smaller than the S5's as well. I think I probably would have been mostly satisfied with either phone, but I'm thus far not regretting my choice. We'll have to see how I feel in the coming months. I was satisfied with my iPhone for the many years that I had it and I think it'll be hard to replicate that kind of longevity. I have to admit I'm somewhat afraid I'll damage the phone before I have it completely paid off. I ended up buying a case for it even though one of the major selling points of the phone for me was how heavy and sturdy it was without any kind of protection.

One thing I'm really interested in doing is trying out the Android versions of Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI. Let's set aside for the moment that I have played other versions of these games to death already. I really like the new graphical style the Android versions have, aside from a few of the overworld sprites. I generally always enjoy replaying these games, although I'm ambivalent about the $15.99 price tag for each. Considering the age of these games, a price of $9.99 would be a lot more appropriate. It's true they're classics, but I think Square Enix is pushing it a little with those prices. This is pretty much the only reason I'm not snapping up Final Fantasy VI right away.

It appears that there may be compatibility issues with my car stereo and the USB cable included with the HTC One M8. This is a little annoying considering how often I listen to music from my phone in the car--not to mention the convenience inherent to charging my phone via USB. My lighter no longer works, so a specialty car charger isn't even an option for me. I don't know if the incompatibility has something to do with USB 3.0 or if I can just tinker with the phone's settings to make it work. Let's hope it's the latter--and also that I can at least communicate between thw two devices with Bluetooth.