lyrics

"I tried my best to be guarded

I'm an open book instead"

broken by lifehouse

ipad

Given the chance to try out an iPad, I thought I would write up my thoughts. First it is a cool step up from the iPhone, except the phone part. Can't exactly make a call and hold it up to your ear. Reading emails and surfing the web is great. The graphics and such that most web pages are designed with are actually viewable on the iPad (unless it is flash, which the Fox web site for the TV show House is).

All of the iPhone apps installed with no problem, even the settings carried over when I loaded from a backup. But the app has to be expanded to 2x to be usable. The apps made for the iPad really look awesome. I love the calendar, contacts and email view with the extra panel - instead of going back and forth between screens. When the iPad is in landscape mode, the typing for me is so easy and effortless. I found it funny that they added the extra mark in the letters F and J even though it can't be felt.

I was thinking that the iPad could be used in the home as a very useful tool. For example, creating a holder on the kitchen cabinet to slide it into. It would need a protector screen so that dirty hands can still touch the screen. Then recipes can be displayed and even the ability to look up cooking tips on the Internet. Also being able to control the music playing from my Mac iTunes can totally improve my attempt at cooking.

Next I will be testing work applications, like the Citrix receiver, and see how well that does. Until a camera facing you is added, I don't see much communication happening with the iPad. Planning on testing my headset with mic and Google voice to see how that works out.

Highly recommend a screen protector and carrying case when you buy the iPad. It comes with the power, USB and Apple stickers - that's it. Must be connected to iTunes, register, first before anything will work.

One other great looking app is the Weather Channel. They made it even better on the iPad. Simply swipe on the week forecast to get to the weekend. If only life were that easy.

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPad]

ufo

My uncle Mike told a story about spotting a UFO once. The thing is I don't remember the details, mostly because there was a punch-line at the end of the long mysterious story. He is great at telling jokes. I admire anyone who can tell a good joke well. The end of his UFO story is that it was actually a helicopter trying to make an emergency landing close by to where my uncle happen to be at the time. It was a UFO up to the point of knowing it was a helicopter.

I have a UFO tale as well, but it's not a joke. This really happened. While I was on vacation with my family in the 1000 Islands, I went up to the golf course. There is a really high up hill that has an amazing view of the little town and pretty far north. Well it happen to be a bit of a cloudy night and off to the west and also to the east there were lights. One in each direction. And I'm not saying like an airplane kind of light... it did not go in a straight line. Going behind clouds, going higher up and then circling around to where it would hover again. There was no beer or drugs going on that, I was only like 14 or 15 at the time. What stuck me as the strangest thing of all was that it went on forever. We kept thinking the light was go up and away at some point. But instead we finally had to just leave because it was getting so late. The kids I was handing out with were also non-locals and had no way to explain the UFOs.

I still like uncle Mike's story better than mine.

tv shows

Lately I've been catching up on TV that I've been missing out on for the past few months (years?). Here are my reviews.

Alias
This show was suggested by a friend and with the magic of Netflix I was able to get all 5 seasons in the mail. It took a good 2 months of watching all of the episodes to finish, but I watched them all. After the 2nd season the whole thing fell off a cliff, and then it started to burn up and smell really bad. The story lines were actually decent at the beginning and even had some fun character development. Then for some reason they decided to recycle the same exact storyline with the addition of HUGE holes in the pace and sequence and story itself. Since the show is kind of based on the movie La Femme Nikita, I decided to watch that movie and Point of No Return as well. Always good to see these action shows/movies when the woman gets to run around and blow stuff up. Maybe when Jen got pregnant they could have gone about the storyline a bit better. The girl that was able to throw knives and cool stuff they killed off. And the girl who needed to be taught how to be a sexy whore got to live and do a poor job at everything. Oh well... I recommend watching it, but if you can stop after season 2. It will be hard to stop, they end the second season with a cliff hanger, but like I said, it crashes and burns.

Community
Oh my god! Watch this show. It just gets better and better. There is some really smart funny writing on this show. I love that. You literally have to pay attention to the quick jokes. If you aren't into that kind of humour, forget it, and leave it alone. This is one of those rare shows that I would actually buy the season on iTunes so that I can watch it again. Since it's only 1/2 hour long, the commercials mess it up anyway. Recently Jack Black was on as this kind of awkward guy trying to get in on the "in" crowd. Classic. I will pray to the TV dudes to keep this show going into the next season.

House M.D.
I'll admit it, I purposely kept away from this show. Sometimes medical shows are a real turn off. I'm not a doctor or anything, but I've worked in 3 hospitals now and basically grew up around the hospital community (Mom has worked at hospitals my whole life). So anyway, I was skeptical. But when it's on the DVR and I can't stand to watch TMZ like shows, I watched House. Now that I mostly watch it for the drama of the hospital staff and what mischief House will get into, I really like the show. They got that part down. The medical stuff, well not so much. Sometimes I care about the patient, but usually I don't. I'm really impressed with Robert Sean Leonard's acting. He does play the part of a doctor very well. Funny that he is the same guy who starred in the movie My Best Friend Is a Vampire. Ha! There is just a way he seems to casually be the real professional doctor and carry it over to being a friend to House. That is the way doctors are. If you were to meet a guy at a bar, you would have the sense that they are a doctor. Doctor's tend to be doctors all the time. It's not a bad thing. It's like me being a computer geek all the time and it's my job. :)

Going to add in Bill Maher and Face of the Nation to DVR schedule. I'm looking forward to the new season of Robin Hood (BBC) to come in from Netflix. More reviews to come.

graduation speech

I'm done! As in, I've finally graduated from college. Took me long enough, right? Only 11 years. And yet it kind of flew by. Funny thing is I made homework like a habit. I knew it had to be done and I prepared to do it each night and weekend. Now what do I do? It's a hard feeling to explain. I can hardly do nothing, because I haven't done that in awhile. It's one thing to avoid doing something, then actually doing nothing. Know what I mean? I've been making plans to vacation and even a few big life changing goals. It's only been a few weeks, so I've been organizing and sorting through stuff.

I would have to say that it was a good education. There were some great classes and a few crappy professors (even a friend who is a teach would agree to that). The wonderful part is that a few awesome friends helped me out. I don't just mean support, they actually helped me. I was able to get research I never would have found, write a paper when I didn't know where to start, and even just a look over homework to insure it was correct. My dad and I had chats on the phone about accounting class, he was a bit surprised how tough the questions were.

Over the past few days I've been updating my profile information on web sites. I can finally say I've graduated. Even updating my resume. Also got a few cards in the mail from family, totally unexpected, but still hugely appreciated.

Now I guess I have to get a job and join the real working-class world. Oh wait, I'm already here. :)