how (NOT) to restore one of my favorite plants vs. zombies mini figure... (feat. Snow Pea)

As I mentioned in one of my previous articles that prominently featured all of my old Plants vs. Zombies toys and mini figures that I still keep after all these years (even with some wear and tear on them), I spotted few of them that has really weird interaction against our country's humidity. One of the notorious examples for these are several of my old K'NEX Plants vs. Zombies mini figures of themselves, specifically for most of those plant characters that have parts with solid matte plastics instead of all of them were made completely using ABS like the rest of them that I own. I was attempted to "restore" one of them (which was the Snow Pea, due to it was definitely the worst looking one among the others), but I ended up making it obviously look WAY uglier than how it originally looked like. Without further ado, let me explain about my short story about how come if I ended up "restoring" it like so.

(it's supposed to look like this when it was brand 🆕, but... ⬇)

Basically, I was once attempted to "clean" it in order to make it brighter like it was factory sealed from it's own blind bag that used to pack it. However, just like the most of the others that I mentioned there, it obviously didn't work with the casual ways of cleaning them (such as water and some soap [of any kind]), unless if I must bring it to a paint workshop in order to actually restore it (though I'm afraid if the painter would paint over it's own original prints like both of it's own eyes, yet I doubt if it's possible since it's so small to do so). Unfortunately, instead of doing so, I simply made a total blunder that singlehandedly caused it to look like so nowadays, by simply rubbing it's own entire head with a sandpaper. Not only the fact it totally ruined the way how it originally looked like in general, I also accidently rubbed the original watermark that was embossed on it, specifically this exact watermark that was embossed like this:

C E (first line), Made in China (second line), 2014 © K'NEX LPG (last line)

Well then, that was basically it, and I also accidently rubbed one of it's own original eyes too for a bit. Because of this disaster that I made, I don't think if I eventually able to feature it again on some of my social medias that I own (specifically one of my Instagram accounts and one of my Tiktok accounts that I recently made, respectively). Since this particular mini figure originally didn't come with one of it's own crucial parts of it (for this case, it was it's own stem, which it had the same green color as the regular Peashooter), it also caused me feel better to totally retire it for good, even if this was obviously one of my most wanted mini figure that I wanted back in those good old days (alongside with original Peashooter, Fire Peashooter, Garden Warfare/Garden Warfare 2 version of Peashooter, and Plasma Pea [which I still didn't have it until today, bummer])... If you have your own story when it comes to one of these, feel free to share your own short stories about it in the comments section below. That's basically for what I could recognize them back in those days, and as always, thanks for reading this article.

bloatware apps on your Android devices?

Have you ever deal with those of the bloatware apps (or sometimes games, albeit rarely) that comes pre-loaded with any of your Android devices since your childhood? If so, because I wasn't the only one who used to deal with them per each of the Android device(s), though I couldn't able to take some serious actions with them except for simply disabling them by default. Without further ado, let me list various of my Android devices that particularly have/had some of those bloatware apps that comes/came pre-loaded with each of them.

Note : Those of the Google apps that come/came pre-loaded with some of the devices aren't/weren't count, because most of them are indeed highly crucial for each of the Android devices themselves (most importantly GMS and GSF), unless most of them are now no longer supported especially for those ones that were existed since more than a decade ago. This exact trait also applied with some of the Meta apps as well, except I only use few of them for now.

A. Samsung Galaxy Y (2011)

From what I remembered, it only had QuickOffice. Not sure for the rest of them though.

B. Advan T1C and T1Ci tablets (2012-2013)

• SlideMe Market (a some sort of online app vendor that roughly resembled Aurora Store),
• Notepad (unknown developer), and
• apkInstaller (unknown developer)

C. Asus Zenfone 5 (2015) and Asus ZenPad C (2016)

• certain useless proprietary Asus apps (Party Link, PC Link, WebStorage, What's Next, etc.),
• MyAsus,
• Amazon Kindle: Reading App (Amazon Mobile LLC),
• Clean Master (Cheetah Mobile)*,
• Omlet (a social media app that vaguely resembled those of the popular ones like WhatsApp, Instagram's DM chat, Line, Telegram, BlackBerry Messenger [now defunct], and so on [albeit this exact 🍳 one wasn't so popular]),
• Zinio, and
• Data Transfer (FutureDial)

* means it is now completely defunct due to security breach issues that was occurred

D. Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 (2019)

• MyAsus, and
• Babe (Baca Berita, some sort of Indonesian news portal app that resembles Google News)

As for the bonus, I also recently have a 2019 Realme C2 which also pre-loaded with some bloatware apps in there, though I was able to remove them carefully using command-line ADB tricks on my 💻. Just for the heck of it, here is my short list exclusively about it for bit of fun comparison:

• Opera browser (regular one, not the Mini one if I'm not mistaken),
• J&T Express mobile app,
• Jakarta Baca Lite (similarly to Babe, another Indonesian news portal app that resembles Google News if I'm not mistaken),
• Lazada, and
• Vova

If you have your own short stories related to this in each of your Android devices since your childhood, feel free to mention those of the bloatware apps that came with your Android devices in the comments section below if your memory still serves it right. That's basically it for what I could particularly say to this, and as always, thanks for reading this (rather short) article.

pirate Angry Birds DVD(s)...

Back in ~2012 when I used to be an enthusiast with the Angry Birds franchise as a whole, I used to do so by various things apart from playing those old games themselves using some of my bad old Android devices that I used to have (which almost all of them were now omitted from Play Store [or App Store if you're an iOS user], unless if I have to resort on those of the old .apk files of themselves through certain websites), which those were collecting those of my old Angry Birds toys, purchasing a single plush of it (albeit it wasn't in-game accurate with one of the bird characters that I wanted [for this case, it was Chuck]), and purchasing two of the very cheap pirate DVD of themselves... Yes, I actually used to purchase two separate pirate DVDs of themselves from two separate cassette stores, and believe or not, it turned out to be just the compilation of old YouTube videos instead of the actual "movie" of it, though the actual Angry Birds Movie itself existed few years after that year.

Since I purchased both of those aforementioned pirate DVD of themselves from then, which means this was also occurred right before those of the Angry Birds Toons series were existed specifically in the next year. As for the old YouTube videos of themselves, here is my list of one of the compilations that was available on both of them, though I still couldn't remember the correct sequence of which videos that they usually pirated there, as I listed them here below:

• Angry Birds Rio - Nigel Mashup (Brazilian version)*,
• Angry Birds Rio Trailer*,
• angrybirds 3d movie (Graphic Fantasy),
• Angry Birds feat. Transformers 3**,
• Angry Birds feat. the animal farm(s)**,
• Ball Games with the Angry Birds**,
• Angry Birds feat. Plants vs. Zombies**,
• Angry Birds Bing Video - Episode 1*,
• Angry Birds Cinematic Trailer*,
• Angry Birds & the Mighty Eagle*,
• Angry Birds Presents: Summer Pignic*,
• Angry Birds - Hungry, Hungry Piggies - 3D Animation (TomLG1992),
• Angry Birds FTW! Animation (Sukoto),
• Angry Birds Rap song (A Video By El Amr),
• ABBEY BIRDS (Angry Birds Beatles Parody) (pcmvfr),
• Angry Birds Seasons (Christmas Edition)**,
• Angry Birds feat. Fruit Ninja**,
• Angry Birds VS Mario (A fan made Animation) (Yudhaikeledai), and
• Angry Birds No Speak Americano (jold profile)

* means it is from the official Angry Birds channel itself
** means it is from FunVideoTV

There's also another batch which I include them here below, but again, I couldn't remember the correct sequence of themselves:

• Angry Birds Rio - Nigel Mashup (English version)*,
• Angry Birds Seasons | Ham'O'Ween #Halloween*,
• Angry Birds Wreck The Halls animation*,
• Angry Birds Seasons - Year of the Dragon Animation*,
• Super Hero Angry Birds**,
• Angry Birds feat. Harry Potter**,
• Angry Birds Mission Impossible Adventure : Claymation movie (Mina K [except it has unoriginal audio now]),
• Angry Birds Seasons (Valentine's Day special)**,
• Angry Birds feat. Spongebob Squarepants**,
• Angry Birds feat. Sonic the Hedgehog**, and
• various of those unrecognizable ones (including the ones from FunVideoTV), though most of those ones from the first batch are included in this list, if I'm not mistaken

* means it is from the official Angry Birds channel itself
** means it is from FunVideoTV

If you remembered all of these old Angry Birds videos on YouTube (unless if you got those of the newer ones with Angry Birds Toons or those of the actual Angry Birds Movie ones), feel free to share your own short stories about it in the comments section below. That's basically for what I could recognize them back in those days, and as always, thanks for reading this nostalgic "elite ball knowledge" article.

The failure of me "fixing" the faulty Redmi 5 Plus 📱...

As you may know, I actually keep this particular old 2018 Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus 📱 (3 GB of RAM, 32 GB of internal eMMC storage), which specifically has it's own strange problem where it only blinks it's own white LED notification indicator light every single time I plug it into the power outlet using any 📱 chargers. Even if I actually know about the actual problem itself judging by how both of my parents told me if I recklessly bring it to any 📱 service center around my hometown (including that one repairman that I know since my childhood, because he was one of my neighborhoods of my childhood 🏠), that will cost similarly to purchasing a brand new modern day Android device. In the meantime though, I ever attempted to "fix" it by myself specifically using my 💻 with two of those separate programs, which those were Mi Flash Tool and QFIL, but of course they both ended up failing for obvious reasons that I couldn't able to do them by my hands.

Before I explained about my failure of me "fixing" it, let me tell you about the background story about the entire device itself. Back in those days, my mom purchased this particular 📱 in order to replace her old white Oppo Neo 7. This was her daily driver device that lasted about 3 years, until she decided to replace it's job with Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro. Upon she replaced it with the Redmi Note 9 Pro, she gave it to my dad by replacing his old black Oppo Neo 7. It was lasted for 2 years until the aforementioned problem itself suddenly occurred on him. After the said problem itself occurred, my mom immediately gave her Redmi Note 9 Pro to him, and replaced it with her current Oppo A77s (?). Since then, the Redmi 5 Plus itself remains in that exact state, even if I ever tried to bring it to service center for multiple times, but the repairman always refused me to do so for that exact reason that I mentioned earlier.

Now, as for the way how I tried to "fix" it by simply connecting it to my 💻, I had to ensure if the device itself must be detected as "Qualcomm HS‑USB QDLoader 9008 (COMnn)" instead of "QUSB_BULK" on my Windows 💻's Device Manager, specifically on "Ports (COM & LPT)" section. After I did several tricky steps in order to connect it properly to my 💻 (including the way how I installed the correct Qualcomm driver on my 💻), I attempted to "resurrect" it with two of those programs that I originally meant to do so, which those were Mi Flash Tool and QFIL, respectively. Even if I also downloaded the correct official stock Global Stable Fastboot ROM itself, unfortunately they both simply failed after several seconds right after I clicked the "Clean all" button on Mi Flash Tool or "Download" button on QFIL. They both failed due to their respective reasons, which those were Mi Flash Tool's timeout error and QFIL's Sahara fail... Either because of my USB cables were underpowered or other causes that are related to it, I obviously have no clue for troubleshooting it specifically on my own, even if I actually know about the way how the entire device itself suddenly got that exact problem since then. 

Well then, there's not much else that I could particularly say to it apart from the fact it still remains limbo after all these years. I feel like I want to actually fix it, but since I already discovered those issues on both of those programs that are installed on my 💻 which meant to do so, I doubt if I can try that again later for sure. If you have one (or some) of your Android devices which has one of those problems, feel free to share your own story particularly in the comments section if your memory serves it right. Anyway, that's particularly it for what I could say to it, and as always, thanks for reading this particular article.

unknown scam phone calls...(plus extras)

I thought those of the online Instagram scams that I was being a victim in 2020 was bad enough, how about this one which is currently occurring on me through MANY of those unknown phone numbers? Believe or not, they call me specifically using regular phone numbers instead of WhatsApp like several of those advanced scammers with their respective methods out there, though this particular type of classic scam is already existed since more than decades ago, way before those of the advanced ones with combination between WhatsApp and those online social medias are now exist. Since I also installed GetContact on my 📱, I somehow leaked the slight secret about who are the culprits behind all of those unknown phone numbers, which I have no clue about how come if they also leaked my phone number there too.

After I briefly checked it through several of the identified ones (specifically for those ones which GetContact flags them as a spam, because there are many of them that are remains unidentified, oh boy), it turns out if those culprits are indeed either fake online loan promoters and fake (supposedly) technicians from one of the popular ISPs in our entire country, for this case (if I'm not mistaken, unless if I already read those popular articles related about them from various online news portals). There's not much else that I could say to them apart from the fact I still able to simply ignore them at all costs, unlike those online Instagram scams that I mentioned just earlier. So that's basically just it, I obviously DON'T accept any of those suspicious regular phone calls like so for highly obvious reasons. Which means, the only action that I'm gonna do against them is obviously blocking their phone numbers specifically using my 📱's built in contacts app (and possibly using Getcontact app too), though I'm not sure if they somehow able to call me back with a vengeance.

As for the bonus related to this short article, specifically in one of the popular online marketplaces. In the exact time where those of the aforementioned unknown scam phone calls that are now a thing in mass numbers instead of few, I received a single direct message thread from a fake (some sort of) customer service account on the direct message section where "they" claimed if my account would eventually suspended if I didn't do certain tasks which "they" specifically give to me, and "they" also sent me a random Google Drive link of an unknown file which I didn't even check it due to the fact I immediately deleted the entire direct message chat itself anyway, particularly in order to save my account from getting banned or hacked... This also reminded me to those times when I used to receive those of the SMS inbox message threads, which particularly claimed if I won IDR 500.000 (❔) from (supposedly) those of the popular marketplaces including that one where that particular unknown fake customer service itself used to exist there. They also even provided me those links that redirected to their fake Blogspot "winner" websites instead of redirected directly into their official sites from those online marketplaces, though they clearly stated if they don't do certain stuffs like so outside their official events from themselves. Those fake Blogspot websites also provided those WhatsApp numbers led to those of their following scammer syndicates, which roughly using the same scamming method like those online Instagram scams that I also mentioned earlier.

Well then, there's not much that I particularly say about this apart from the fact you MUST avoid them at all costs. If you suddenly caught those of the unknown phone call numbers especially outside WhatsApp, DO NOT call them unless if they're from the trusted source, or specifically from people that you know through your own phone app or contacts app. As always, pay FULL attention when it comes to dealing with one of these even if I already being a victim for few of those, because like majority of those scammers out there, you definitely don't want to lose your bucks over those simply for nothing.

maintaining the legacy with my old Plants vs. Zombies toys and mini figures...

It's been a long time since I featured all of those old Plants vs. Zombies toys and mini figures that I own for years, so it's time to explain about how I maintain the legacy specifically with themselves. Since I do live in the country where it has really high humidity yet I constantly "play" with them instead of keeping them in their storage or display, resulting by how come if most of them suddenly had some wear and tear on them. Without further ado, let me explain about those figures that already suffered from the way how they withstand against it.

Before I begin, I exclude most of those Chinese mini figure sets that I also own, since they seem to survive just okay overall since I purchased them. As for the ones that they suffer from those issues apart from the fact they already accumulated quite amount of dusts on majority of them, here are my examples about them:

A. 2013 KFC Plants vs. Zombies toys (ID)

All 3 plants (such as Peashooter on Pumpkin, Cabbage-pult, and 🌻) do share their own issue where their own black eyes are easy to be erased by simply touching them any objects in the slightest touch. Because of this, I had to DIY fix one of them with the combination of the black marker and correction pen, though it obviously make the appearance of it looks slightly uglier than how it should. This also applied to the green eyebrows on the Cabbage-pult, but since I already learned the lesson with the exact same toy that I borrowed from one of my old friend's house in 2014, I have to be very careful when it comes to "playing" with it in general.

As for the 🌻, the bottom part of her stem already has some light stressing marks on it due to the way how I tried to connect her stem to the original base, since it's so loose every single time.

B. 2014 KFC Plants vs. Zombies 2 toys (ID)

All of them do seem to survive just reasonably okay, except for both of these moments that I mentioned here:

• I lost the "🔥" disc projectile that originally came with the Snapdragon, and
• I broke the inner workings of that iconic walkable Zombie toy since roughly a decade ago

Even with both of those aforementioned moments, but all of them still survive just like so, except with slight wear on each of them.

C. K'NEX Plants vs. Zombies

This one is possibly the weirdest one when it specifically comes to react against our country's high humidity. The fact I also "play" with most of those plant characters that I always wanted back then, they led to their weird issues which most of them couldn't able to fix them by myself. Apart from their original pieces that were loose overtime, here are more examples about the issues themselves:

• Weird darkening issues on their own original paints, specifically occurred on certain plant characters with solid plastics like Peashooter, Snow Pea, Cabbage-pult, and Garden Warfare/Garden Warfare 2 version of Peashooter. Unfortunately, those aren't fixable unless if I have to bring each of them to the paint workshop in order to make them "bright" again.
• Just like those of my old 2013 KFC Plants vs. Zombies toys, most of them do have their own similar issues where their own original prints are easy to be erased with the slightest touch from any objects (for example, 🌻's face, Peashooter or Snow Pea's black eyes, Bloomerang's face and his own boomerang's petal accents, 🌹's mouth [and possibly her eyes], and so on).
• Some light stressing marks that already occurred on most of them, such as 🌻's stem, 🌹's feet, and so on.
• Cracks on the bottom "leafy" part of my Fire Peashooter, since it clearly made using a translucent plastic, therefore it's partially hard to mount it on any of those Lego or any of those popular Chinese building block plates with ease anymore.
• Even if I saved my Kernel 🌽 on the storage (for this case, a small jar), it strangely has some tiny bit of black spots on it's own yellow 🌽 parts (possibly some sort of mold spots, especially for his head).

Because of all of those issues, I had to DIY fix it to most of them depending on how difficult I could able to restore each of their appearance, otherwise I just simply accepted their fate (since all of them are obviously nowhere to be possible to search each of their identical replacements in case if I accidently break or lose each of them, even if they're already flawed to begin with since they produced them from an unknown factory in China).

D. Other figures...

That one cheap static Plants vs. Zombies 2 Grave Buster mini figure that I got since 2014, it has it's own issue where it suddenly separated both the top part and bottom part of it due to the fact I accidently dropped it to the floor multiple times, though it's still easy to be fixable by simply gluing both of those pieces together.

Well then, there you have it for the way how I maintain the legacy with those of my following old Plants vs. Zombies toys and mini figures that I particularly have for years. If you have your own story related to this, be sure to write your own short story in the comments section if you're able to. Anyway, that's basically it from what I could particularly say over this, and as always, thanks for reading this exact article. 

archive: the "winner-less" Angry Birds toys online photo contest... (2014)

Back when I used to be a big fan of Angry Birds thanks to that one (some sort of) sweet chocolate chips brand in our country used to release their Angry Birds "egg" container toys, there were two online photo contest events that used to exist back in those of their "bird" days (specifically on their own Facebook page), which were once existed for few months in 2013 and 2014, respectively. However, I didn't participate in the former one; instead, I was once briefly participated in the latter with my cousin in the photo that I posted there back in those days. Though the former did select about the top 3 winners who used to post their own pictures of their children with their respective Angry Birds toys that they had back in those days. However, for strange reason, the latter simply didn't inform any of the winners whatsoever. Well, without further ado, let me particularly explain my own short story about how come if this particular "elite ball knowledge" still recognized on my mind until today.

Before I explained to the 2014 one that I was referring to, let me explain the throwback to the 2013 photo contest that they used to do with their own Angry Birds toys. Basically, you took a picture of yourself with your own Angry Birds toys regardless of your pose, location, the amount of those Angry Birds toys that you used to collect back then, and random props that were suited for the franchise itself. Then, you posted it on their own Facebook page specifically until the last day of the May in that year, simple as that. There were lot of pictures by those guest who posted them on that aforementioned Facebook page, and believe or not, one of the guests also featured those of the 2013 KFC Plants vs. Zombies toys as a cameo (except for one, though they didn't win it anyway)... As for those prizes for the top 3 winners in this particular online photo contest that used to exist back then, the third place got some sort of iPod knockoff (❔), the second place got a folding 🚲, and the first place got a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.0.

Then, there was the 2014 one that I was concerned for. Similarly to the 2013 one, you took a picture of yourself with your own Angry Birds toys regardless of your pose, location, the amount of those Angry Birds toys that you used to collect back then, and random props that were suited for the franchise itself. The only difference between the 2013 and 2014 was the way how you played them instead of casually capturing yourself with your respective Angry Birds toys. Unlike the last contest, they claimed if you would win IDR 5.500.000 for doing so, instead of those items. However, after I waited it right past the May of that aforementioned year since I posted my own picture in there, specifically after few days since they passed the deadline itself (which was in the last day of that month in that year), I simply got no announcement from themselves. Seriously, I didn't even see any of their official announcement of themselves about who would come out to the top after all these years, even if I no longer being a big fan with this particular franchise anymore. Even if I used to highly doubt it if I would won the contest thanks to the way how I captured my own collection of themselves with my cousin, but I was also disappointed by the way how they simply didn't announce the winners themselves for strange reason that I obviously had no clue about it as a whole. Also, don't ask me if this was one of the reasons about the way how I quit enjoying Angry Birds and focusing more with Plants vs. Zombies stuffs, though both of the franchises are now in their absurdly dreadful state thanks to the way how both of those modern day companies behind their respective franchises ruined them to bits.

Well then, if you also remembered the time if you used to post those of your own pictures of themselves in their particular Facebook page, feel free to share your own short story in the comments section if you're able to. Anyway, that's basically it for what I sum up about this particular article, and as always, thanks for reading this particular archive article.