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This month was gloomy, with only a small glimmer of hope… I hope August is calmer. I really do.
There's truly never enough time on this planet with our furry family members.
Today, we sadly said goodbye to Felix the Cat, the last surviving cast member of our Odd Couple, as he told my mom it was his time to sign off the air. As he was the oldest of our cats, it is hitting us all really hard right now.
My mom's cat from the start, he would've been 16 years old this year, right on my dad's birthday and parents' 16th wedding anniversary. He would also cat-call my parents in order to get them to go to bed too. It was quite funny.
He was the smallest of his litter. You could literally hold him in the palm of your hand when he was young. He had the softest fur that felt like silk. It was unlike anything you'd ever feel. He also KNEW how to snuggle (and practically suffocate my father lol!)
But, even still, this is a really sad day for us. We just said goodbye to Oscar not that long ago. It has been a really hard year. Today sucks.
But we love you lots, Felix. And we miss you so, so much already… 🖤
Felix Watkins (2009-2025)
The first in a series of black and white photos I’m doing… (B&W Series) 
My aunt and I placed flowers on my great grandparents’, Richard Rice and Carolyn Slade, as well as my grandmother Kathy’s graves on the 1-year anniversary of my grandmother’s passing. 
Beau Snuggles, anyone? 
The Hoosick Falls Community Band, circa. July 2025 
My grandfather’s dog Lucy laying at my feet, enjoying the concert. (B&W Series) - ✴︎ Links
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Just wanted to share since I thought it was cool — my friend has this modified Twitter app (based on/forked from BHTwitter) called NeoFreeBird that is wicked awesome, and restores the Source label to the bottom of the Tweet field (added in by @nyaathea on Twitter!! Another lovely human!)
Check it out! Adnan’s a wonderful human, and so is Thea!! 🙂
So, TL:DR so you don’t need to read the long explanation: I’m pulling a Marques Brownlee and going back to carrying two phones again. Quite literally doing the exact setup on the phones he has too, iPhone in the left, Android on the right. But I’m doing something a little unique, too. I’m wearing two smartwatches–Wear OS on the left, Apple Watch on the right.
But why? Won’t this get annoying? Well, sure. So if you’d like to go on a little dive with me, let’s do it:
iOS is too restrained
I feel like iOS is too restrictive. It’s restrained, intentionally. Apple’s holding back its potential because it doesn’t want it to become too open, at risk of it eating into its profits. Fair enough, I suppose, especially when the App Store is a multi-trillion dollar operation. Apple wants their slice of that pie, perhaps rightfully so! They made the damn bakery, after all.
However, that doesn’t stop me–someone new to the tech review world–from craving more control. I want to tinker. I want to drill down into Settings, find that thing that has been driving me up a wall, and turn it off. Or adjust it to be Just Right. You can’t really do that on iOS in the name of simplicity, which I can totally appreciate, but it just isn’t what I want.
What I DO want
My primary phone is a tool for communicating with family and friends; it is my gateway into the things I am doing in my personal realm. Be that creatively, with family, with friends, whatever it is. I want something that’ll do what I want it to do, how I want it to do.
Not that long ago, I wrote a story on switching to the Samsung Galaxy S22+. Having spent so long on the iOS side of the fence, Android has shown me a lot of what it is capable of now. But I also don’t want to give up iOS entirely, either. I have a lot of app purchases and a bevy of apps and services I rely on that are Apple-only.
So… what now?
I’m moving my personal SIM over to the Google Pixel 8 Pro — and my secondary SIM to the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Those will be my new daily driver smartphones. Two equally important phones, one in each pocket; with two smartwatches on my wrist paired to those phones. This way I get the best of both worlds, and I get to experience what both worlds have to offer at all times! Which is a great thing for someone new to reviews like I am.
I couldn’t be more excited! Oh, and P.S. can’t wait to review iOS 26 and Android 16 a little more thoroughly now! More on that later… 😉
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Just wanted to reshare my Grandma’s obituary… I keep it bookmarked, and I read it often. I really do miss her.