I’ve been on a journey to try and simplify my life, own less and have more multi purpose devices.
I’ve also been trying to take more control over my devices, especially with the changes happening to android that make it more of a closed platform like Apple’s iPhone. (See Keep Android Open for more information on this.)

I’ve found GrapheneOS has helped on several goals, one or two were unexpected.
I wanted to try and ditch my travel router, these can be great devices but I found they weren’t being used to their full potential and just took up weight in my bag. Even before GrapheneOS I found that I could just use my headscale setup to keep everything talking privately and securely, use travel eSIMs for internet or local wifi and call it a day.

I had one thing this didn’t solve, I’d stay in place for a lot longer than a typical slow traveler, and so I’d also bring a Roku Streaming Stick or Roku Ultra. I’d have to hook this up to a travel router or setup my laptop to do the same job. I’ve since found that a Google TV stick (such as a cheap onn model from Walmart) can install the tailscale client directly and weighs a little less than the roku streaming stick too. Even better is a USB-C to HDMI cable, I can connect my phone or laptop and just stream off that, minimal weight.

It also created an issue, most services apply their geographic restrictions by the ip address connecting to it. There are some that use location services as an additional measure (I’ve not used any service that does in awhile, as there’s always an alternative)

However I found at least one service that went a different way, Tiktok blocks their own service in Mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong via the mobile country code portion of the IMSI, basically your SIM cards serial number. (they also filter by IP, but if either check fails, it’s blocked.) I’ve found most if not all travel sims I’ve come across are using a Hong Kong MCC

Interestingly enough, GrapheneOS doesn’t have this problem out of the box. It seems the default privacy settings give the app no SIM information. Just like a WiFi only Android tablet.

It’s not been perfect, I can’t use Airalo as it doesn’t pass Play Protect Verification, I also used Gigsky before and it worked without issue. I had some issues getting logged into Twitter (I can’t call it X) tied to Play Protect but I got that working. I don’t have a working tap to pay yet, something I’m working without for now.

I’m currently writing this on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold on a trip to Toronto. I wasn’t able to make this a laptop free trip due to some work reasons, but I think otherwise I could do it. I’m not sure I could run off only my phone long term. However, it’s merely as a matter of preference at this point.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for so long, honestly things are so routine now I actually had most of the day go by before I realized what day it was. I’ve gotten used to many of the subtle differences to the point where my last trip into the US I was surprised the restraint needed to take my card (In Canada, the card processing machine comes out to your table)

Thankfully we were already at Peggy’s Cove and able to celebrate it while we were there, shortly after got some days off. I’ll try to update this post and add the pictures and the Natal Day fireworks. I have to process them first.

Sorry it’s been so long since my last update, I’ve been preoccupied with new jobs these past few months and just really haven’t had much to say here. I wish I could say I’ll be more active going forward, I’m just not sure if that’s true. Right now my main goal is planning a trip to Jakarta, Indonesia within the next 12 months and just keep working. Hopefully it will be a calmer year, last year was a year of chaotic good.

Right now my main projects are working on some maintenance scripts for various services and servers I run, getting my ham radio license in the US upgraded and getting one for Canada too.

Sorry for the long time between posts. I’m working on some video content by the years end. I’m also going to finish some of my drafts later this month.

I’m actually surprised and at the same time disappointed with how my New Year’s Resolution went.
This post will mark 13 published posts this year out of the 15 total published posts.

I started out with a goal of posting weekly, but quickly realized that was too frequent and actually defeating the point in some respects. I scaled it back to once a month thinking that’d be the bare minimum, that I’d always be able to write a personal update, a technical how-to or maybe a post about a previous trip I’ve taken and ideally be able to actually do more. I fell short of this in a few ways, which covers the disappointment.

However I’m surprised that I never gave up on this blog, even when writers block kept me away, it got harder with three jobs or times where I felt unmotivated. (I actually made some private posts for some of those days, not a part of the count above)

I’m even more surprised that I wanted to keep coming back, write more posts and improve this blog, it’d have been so easy to scrap it and move on/start over with a clean install.

I kind of hoped that this year I’d have Permanent Residency in Canada, my application is still in process. I’ve hoped to see my family and meet my girlfriend’s family for the first time, as border requirements have changed, risks of those requirements changing mid trip and Covid’s own evolution as new variants occur have all played a role in postponing these plans for the time being.

I’m going to talk about 2022 goals in my next post, partly because I’m still ironing out what exactly I want out of 2022 and partly because I’m considering trying a different format for that announcement.