russellholly

It's important that, should anyone actually read this, I be extremely clear about the purpose of this blog. I am not using this professionally. I will likely never operate a website in competition with anyone I know. I hold a deep respect for the people I work with, and as long as they treat me right, I will bend over backwards for them. That being said, I had something that I felt both needed to be off my chest, and needed to exist as a warning to fellow travelers. I have no intention to be nice, cordial, or even mildly polite on this blog. This is my space. It's not up for discussion, and it certainly does not reflect my professional opinion in any way. Got it? Cool, buckle up bitches, I aim to misbehave.

I have been referred to quite a bit as the "android doorknob" in terms of my writing for many of the Android related blogs out there (at one time, I was writing at around 9 or 10). "Doorknob" was deemed appropriate because while i agreed to write for them, I did not participate in their politics. Every got a turn. I felt this was the best was to reach a maximum amount of people, and I have been pretty successful in that endeavor. For those bearing any interest at all in following in my footsteps, stop it. I could not have possibly made a bigger mistake. My goal was to reach a massive audience, and bring together this insanely fragmented "news" community. In truth I have never met a bigger group of backstabbing, lying, thieving, distrustful individuals. This is not all of them, or even really most of them, but the group to which this applies to cast a very large and very dark shadow. I have no stomach for the nonsense that follows with associating myself with the likes of these people, so I decided to separate myself from a number of Android focused publications. My work in the future will be much more focused, and I hope you enjoy it. 

I'm only going to touch on two. One site, Absolutely Android, I have absolutely nothing bad to say about. They have a solid site, backed by one of the best admins I have ever had the pleasure to work with, and a truly friendly and warming staff. Unfortunately their site is, for all intents and purposes, inactive, save for the talents of Xiwei Ying, a talented writer who I consider a good friend. AA took me in as a budding writer and I flourished beyond their capacity, nothing more. I look forward to a day when that site makes a comeback, truly. My second, however, is not such a nice story. When I started with The Droid Guy I was happy. The pace of the site challenged me, and the owner was local, so it made communication easy. Kyle had figured out how to take his existing skillset, radio and DJ work, and apply it successfully to the blogosphere. He then attached it to a Twitter account and in a year had become a self made news source that carriers and manufacturers both recognized as legitimate. He made a very successful one man band. He did not, however, make a good boss/coworker/partner. The more we worked together the more I was invited to events where I was introduced to the industry. My early time with Kyle was extremely valuable, and he taught me a great deal about being a success in this industry. Unfortunately, like most everything else, Kyle's disorganized life caused him to make mistakes. My ability to work with Kyle reached a breaking point at the Big Android BBQ, where I was introduced to his current girlfriend.

I think Kyle would have been ok to work with if he hadn't been trying so damn hard to impress this girl. He has made nothing but bad choices since they met. At the BBQ is when I first started noticing him lying to people. Starting with the G2. Google sent one to the hotel we were staying at, and Kyle publicly announced it was sent to him from his PR contact for HTC. Privately he tells a different story, that it was addressed to "The organizer of the Big Android BBQ". Unfortunately things didn't end there. I would continue on that topic, but it's really not for me to do. The BBQ, and her stories, belong elsewhere. So we fast forward to coming home from the event, where I broke things off with Kyle. Upset, he talks at me for awhile and I agree to cover CES with him, and I would re-evaluate our working relationship. Where do I even begin? He's moved on to lying to the girlfriend, making her drive to Vegas across country so "he could get them a TV from the show" when reality bears a far darker reality. He was gracious enough to cover not only my travel and room expenses, but those of my wife as well. The experience seemed as though it would be a pleasant one until the "happy couple" arrived. In truth I have never met a couple who bicker as much as they do, and it's 90% her. She's bitter, selfish, and completely fucking crazy. The other 10% is the headcase who not only thinks the relationship is working, but coddles her and clings with eyes glowing the deepest of greens should any man look at her. Not that he'd survive 30 seconds in a fight with the Cheshire Cat, but whatever. by the time the event has started, I have opted for taking cabs everywhere instead of climbing into the car with them and went on my way. Halfway through the week, I receive 4 email in direct succession, all from Paypal. My account had been locked down, and I had just received $300 from Kyle. Apparently, in an act of desperation during a phone call in which PayPal was telling him they were locking his account. Kyle tried to shoot me some money so he would have it until he got the account fixed. Shocker, they are smarter than him. It didn't take me long to see that he had been running a business out of a personal account, and they frown on that. shortly after giving him instructions on fixing this, the accounts were freed, but every transaction that was in progress during this had been affected, including his attempt to purchase our flight home. 

Now, I have two different emails from Kyle, one dating back MUCH before the event, of my travel itinerary, each including my flight home, so I had no reason to assume he would wait until 4 days before we went home to buy the tickets. After all, he knew we were going home, why not just get a round trip? I'll never get a straight answer as to why, but what I did get for my troubles was a bitter black woman at US Airways 55 minutes before we are supposed to be on the plane telling me that my tickets were never paid for. I call Kyle, enraged, and he resolves the issue, discovering that it was a mistake. The flight had actually been paid for, but because of the interruption of his paypal, the fraud department intercepted the transaction. We had to take a different plane with a different layover. When we landed at Charlotte airport, we were told that all flights had been cancelled due to the snow and the ice. This became a nearly two and a half day long trek home, ending in a bus ride from Charlotte to Baltimore, all of which could have been avoided by any amount of planing, or just plain not fucking lying to people you consider friends. 

So will I return to "Team TDG"? Not fucking likely, and I don't recommend you do either. Kyle has the ability  to put his head back in the game and be a responsible guy. However, as long as getting pussy, even crazy pussy, is worth more to him than honesty and integrity, I wouldn't work with him for any amount of money. As for the other sites, I have much less beef, but beef nonetheless, so I will walk. Starting Tuesday I will be much less the "Doorknob" and much more the "guy who writes things". So that's me. Russell Holly. I write things. Though, hopefully never on here again... Livejournal is kind of... bad.