Kaleb!
I’ve posted a bunch of photos on our Smugmug account. The four new albums are: Visiting Kaleb on Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, Getting Together at South First Billiards, and Genentech Holiday Party.
For me, taking photos has been a bit more fun the last several weeks. I’m not sure if it’s the holiday season that has gotten me snapping away, but I hope to have more updates in the New Year.
I’ve been in an inspirational slump. Often, I would bring my camera to any family occasion to capture moments. But even on those occasions, it’s been difficult to get up for taking photos. I’m hoping for a change, a spark. I would often find inspiration through photos people posted on flickr or on trekearth. But I’ve even been lost in this method of motivation. A new site is helping to spark motivation and inspiration.
One of my sisters recently was given a DSLR as a gift. She went to the Canon side, whereas I’m a Nikon person, so we won’t be able to share lenses. But we can share the abundance of resources available on the Internet. I have a few bookmarked sites and podcasts that are focused on photography I can share. This should be good for a few blog posts.
First off, I’ll provide a few sites you might consider visiting for general photography tips and information.
My photography background consists of taking a few classes at the local junior college, and what I’ve read online and in books. All of these resources have helped me along my journey in photography. I’ve taken a handful of photos that I really enjoy. But I still lack the ability to take decent photos in low-light situations.
Kayla’s volleyball game.
When I shot on film, using my Nikon N90, I was always anxious when shooting in low light.
I wasn’t here during the Loma Prieta earthquake 20 years ago. I was out of California, doing my stint for God and country. I remember when the quake happened. It was my day off. I had set the VCR in my bedroom to tape the third game of the World Series. I brought back takeout from Whataburger. I’m pretty sure it was a double-meat Whataburger with jalapenos. I remember setting down the bag, turning on the tv a little after 7 in the afternoon, and then seeing just a green screen with the words “World Series” on it.
My online reading habits lean toward technology. I read a lot of blogs and newsfeeds, keeping up with what I find interesting. One way to get me to read an article is to mention the iPhone. Lately, there seems to be a lot of hate for the iPhone. I’m not really sure why.
I Just Like It My day is often filled with music. The first music-media-capable phone I bought was the LG Chocolate.
Rethinking
I am rethinking this new blog thing. Yes, it only took me two months to start rethinking this endeavor. What started me thinking was Nick Cernis’ well-written post called “Rise of the Tablog”. I discovered this via Merlin Mann on Tumblr. It got me rethinking why I blog.
The answer is the same: I enjoy writing - when I can. I want to put my thoughts down on a variety of subjects.
So much read this week:
One of my favorite bloggers, Dooce, started publishing her hate mail/ comments. People can be nasty Is the Palm Pre really selling much Microsoft’s nifty Zune HD is out. Can’t we be civil? Did you catch the latest Twilight: New Moon trailer?
Paolo Nutini - Candy from Nikke Osterback on Vimeo.
This past weekend, we attended our first concert at the Fox Theater in Oakland. The theater opened earlier this year. It’s located down the street from The Paramount, a theater we have been to too often. There is no dedicated parking for the show, but there are several parking lots listed on their website. We easily parked in a lot just down the street.
This week’s Missing Link List includes:
33 things you should stay away from. Did you know Apple released a new iPod Nano this week? You do have superpowers. You just don’t know you do. If you’re in trouble, don’t forget to update your Facebook status. An update for Snow Leopard already?
A few months back I decided to change the way I rate movie reviews. Previously I used the old standard of assigning a letter grade to a movie. I then moved to a liked it slash didn’t like it scale. I didn’t find much flexibility in that rating system. Now, I’m moving to the real-world scale I use when asked about a movie. The scale, which I am sure is used elsewhere, is based on how much you are willing to pay to see a movie.
This weeks list includes:
Tips regarding secret menu items Rare photos of now extinct animals. How sad is this? An interview with Natalie Portman in Interview magazine. The evolution of movie titles. Is House science fiction? Finally, MMS for the iPhone on AT&T.
I am not really a handyman, but for the past several months I’ve had the urge to fix. I’ve attempted to fix things that I normally wouldn’t think twice about hiring someone else to repair. For example, I replaced a car battery, changed our front and back door locks, and fixed a leaky faucet. I know, I know, I’m not rebuilding a car engine, but for someone like myself who is not mechanically inclined, these are quite surprising feats.
A Missing Link List (MLL) is a weekly list of links, stories, photos, etc., I happen across during the week. The list will be things I want to share, but had no time to write a full blog entry. This week’s MLL is a build up of two weeks worth of web surfing. I apologize ahead of time if you’ve seen any of these before:
If you haven’t heard, Starbucks has raised, and lowered, it’s prices.
I’m starting a new blog. The domain name, alex-is.com, wasn’t my first choice. It wasn’t even my second or third. I wanted the domain name to be short and related to me or a hobby of mine. The name was inspired by the status updates you make on Facebook or Twitter. For example, when updating my Facebook status via the iPhone it starts with “Alex”, then you often use a verb such as “is”.
I’m watching videos and reading information on HE (High Efficiency) detergents. We just purchased a new HE washer - waiting for it to be delivered soon. You can watch two more videos on HE information here and here. We were hoping to get a front-loading washer, but space limitations forced us to get a top-loading HE washer. I think it’ll work out great.
I’ve had the iPhone 3GS for over a week. Here are a few thoughts on how I feel about the phone.
Background
I bought the iPhone 2G back in September 2007, just after the price drop was announced. I was on Verizon, a carrier I much enjoyed being on. But the last phone I had Verizon was an LG Chocolate, a phone that didn’t live up to expectations. I was hoping it would turn out to be a good music playing phone because I was tired of lugging my iPod and phone around in my pocket.
I just reserved our iPhone 3G S for pickup at an Apple Store next Friday. Reserving and buying are two different things, but I’m thinking we’ll end up gettting it. We still have the original 2G version, so our upgrade pricing wasn’t bad. I’ll be happy with the hopefully improved camera and expected bump in overall speed.
Dan Cook at San Jose Event Center
I’m not a big Dane Cook fan. If someone was playing his CD or DVD I would listen or watch. But watching him live in concert is a different story. I had no set expectations in seeing him in concert. Unfortunately, his concert at the HP Pavilion was fair to middling at best. He lacked any real energy or (fake) spontaneity, relying solely on his charm to push him through the night.
The reviews are starting to come in on the Palm Pre. Reviews from Engadget, Gizmodo, Walt Mossberg, and David Pogue. All the reviews seem positive for the most part. I don’t think I’ll be swayed to leave my iPhone though. I hate Sprint more than any other cellphone carrier I’ve ever had.
I was in a seminar about twitter a few weeks ago. One person about the safety of tweeting, such as mentioning you are at a restaurant or traveling and not at home. The answer the presenter gave was “you don’t have to share everything”.
Common sense people. Common sense.
mashable:
Going out of town? Most of us who tweet have been known to share that little tidbit of news with our followers, especially if that out of town journey is to a conference or event where we’re…
You don’t know what I’m capable of.
Liam Neeson does his best Jason Bourne in this action movie. Neeson is an ex-Preventer who must now use his skills to save his daughter. The movie moves along in a good clip. The violence can get intense at times, but the payoff works.
Rating: Matinee
Damn! Somehow, someway my main blog was compromised. I’m not sure if it was on the server level or if my password was somehow guessed. I don’t think it’s the latter. I tend to randomly generate my passwords and even I don’t remember them. I’ve reverted was was once the main blog back to Wordpress.com. If Wordpress.com account becomes compromised, well, that would be a surprise.
Once again I find myself with only a few opportunties to truly blog.
www.youtube.com/watch
We visited the California Academy of Sciences last week. I cobbled all the videos we took, and a few photos, and edited them in iMovie 09. I then added a track using YouTube’s AudioSwap. You can also watch the video on Vimeo, but the soundtrack is different. Watch it in HD for best picture.
It’s Wolverine, bub!
First off, I hated the title of this film. It’s more suited as a comic book title than a film title. I think they could have gotten away with Wolverine. Non-fanboys would have known who Wolverine was, at least I think. I know he’s no Superman or Batman, but the target audience knows who Wolverine is. Well, onto the film itself.
As an origins story, it provided pretty minimal grit to understanding the man who is Wolverine in all the X-Men films.
The crew of the Enterprise 2009
I tried to set my expectations low for this movie, hoping it would be good. Looking back I didn’t need to do this, as the movie succeeds on many levels. This incarnation of Star Trek is accessible to both those familiar with and those new to Star Trek. The story involves time travel — of course, it does, it’s Star Trek and J.J. Abrams — Romulans, Vulcans, and everything else in between.
Puppies. Evil puppies.
This is another one of those feel-good movies. But if you know your dog movies, then you know what’ll happen. Yeah, it happens, but not after Marley gets a hold of your heart. Wow, did I just write that? If you’ve seen the trailer, then you’ve pretty much seen the whole movie. Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson are likable, but their characters, and the story, really don’t go anywhere.
Hello Red. What are you doing here?
You may have seen Redbox in your local grocery store, Wal-Mart, or even your local McDonald’s. It’s a DVD rental machine. You get a DVD for $1 dollar for one day. Not a bad deal considering your other brick-and-mortar options (e.g. Blockbuster). I went to their website to see what movies they had to offer.
The site is easy to use. After creating an account, you can access their DVD catalog.
I think there’s something on your face.
I finally watched the Oscar-winning-feel-good-movie-of-the-year on DVD. Yes, the actors are likable. Yes, the story is predictable. Yes, I’ll watch it if it’s on cable television, but I don’t think I’ll buy the DVD or rent it again. If you have two hours to spend on a movie, this isn’t a bad choice. You won’t have to think about the plot points too much, and it’ll make you, well, feel good.
I remember individual baristas at Yahoo!’s coffee bars being able to make simple designs, such as a heart. But this is ridiculous! (discovered via rocketboom)
Oh Rick!
Casablanca is one of my favorite films. I’ve seen it on VHS, laser disc, and DVD. I anxiously wanted to see this on Blu-ray. I wasn’t disappointed with this rental. The film looks crisp and clean, and it sounds amazing. The amount of extras on this small blu-ray disc is astounding. There are deleted scenes, commentary by Roger Ebert, and documentaries galore about the making of the film.
I follow people on Twitter for specific reasons. I try not to follow people just to gain followers in kind. This sounds like the subject of a future blog post.
One of the Twitter feeds I’ve been following is @FilipinoFood. The feed is interesting to follow, especially for me, because I don’t eat much Filipino cuisine. My wife partakes in a broad variety of Filipino dishes, most of which I shy away from.
Another way to enjoy Twitter
Visible Tweets - Beautiful visualizer thingy, nicely done in Flash. (via and kangster)
It’s always difficult to hear about layoffs, especially in times like these. Flickr has always been a great site to look at, and be involved in. I hope it continues to be so.
Orson Wells!
I was able to watch a few movies over the last several weeks. A few were classics reworked on Blu-ray. The first film was The Third Man. I’ve watched it a few times before and each time I’m reminded that Orson Wells, who plays Harry Lime, portrays an ultimate scumbag very convincingly.
Rating: Matinee
I tried the beat. Simple, straight-forward setup. Not much needed to do afterward. The problem is I have a lot of data already on Mozy, so no compelling reason to switch.
I went into a Blockbuster a couple of weeks ago in the hopes of a blu-ray disc. Wow, the prices for renting two discs pretty much equaled my monthly Netflix rental fee.
Netflix FTW!
Printing their own money? This is getting scary.
We’ve been to a Gottschalks - the one in Santa Cruz - but have never bought anything from them. Nonetheless it is sad to hear of places closing.
I dealt with two different Windows viruses this week. The solutions were radically different.
With one, I spent 6+ hours backing up data, reformatting and reinstalling Windows XP Media Edition on a Dell machine. Most of the time spent was with lousy Dell support. The second one was simpler: I ordered an iMac for a friend Both problems solved.
Anyone ever buy anything from Warehouse Deals by Amazon? I just purchased a sound bar for our TV, hoping it gives it a little more umph! The best deal was through Warehouse Deals, and since I could use my Amazon gift cards and purchases are backed by the 30-day return policy, I thought why not.
[Reposted because the ‘Let people answer this’ wasn’t enabled]
I need to create a new profile photo. You can see my current profile photo on Facebook, as the favicon on this website, or on my old Vox account. I don’t want to fall into any of these traps, something I feel my current profile photo doesn’t fall into.
For a new profile photo should I do a simple headshot or does anyone have any other ideas?
Acquisitions are always tough.
Hey, it’s the Watchmen!
The graphic novel finally comes to the big screen. It translates fine and looks great on a big screen. There was a lot of information to digest in the 2-hour 40-minute movie, but some of it not working for me. See it on the big screen if you can - or get it on blu-ray (when it comes out) and see it on a nice HDTV.
It started out as a promising thriller but devolved into a forgettable action film. The leads are both likable, but they cannot save this movie from its flawed rehashed storyline.
Rating: Cable TV
Finally saw Kung Fu Panda on blu-ray. A simple straightforward movie, with humor and action that is appealing to both kids and adults.
Rating: Matinee
A surprisingly solid and suspenseful film. Solid acting all around by William Hurt, Demi Moore, Dane Cook, and even Kevin Costner.
Rating: Matinee
Watched Baz Luhrmann’s Australia on blu-ray this weekend. The movie seemed to be two movies in one. The first part was light and breezy. The second half had a more serious tone. Fair acting by most of the cast. Some of Nicole Kidman’s hysterics were getting on my nerves though. The film is beautifully shot, with gorgeous scenery throughout the film. If you watch it in HD or blu-ray you may enjoy it more.
I’m changing the way I rate movie reviews on the site. I started with an old standby — the letter grade. I recently moved to a liked it slash didn’t like it scale, but I found that didn’t have much flexibility. It was too black and white. Now, I’m moving to actually a scale Farrah and I use in the real world. The scale, which I am sure is used somewhere else, is based on how much you are willing to pay to see a movie.
It’s nice to see Target finally coming to the island.
Video no longer available
How to eat at a Sushi Bar (via Konkaver)
I’ve used Picnik and Photoshop.com. Both get the job done. I may need to try the others though.
I hope to not use these sites, at least not for the stated purpose in the article.
[Note: My reason for documenting my HDTV purchase is to simply share my experience. I’m just your average Joe trying to figure this out.]
I was only slightly hesitant in ordering a HDTV through Amazon. I heard good things regarding their white glove service when you order an HDTV directly from Amazon. They deliver the TV to your home, unbox it, place it where you tell them, and they will even take the box away if you desire.
Instant coffee from Starbucks?
Great site. The answer lately has been YES here in the Bay Area.
Fair acting, but a weak story. Not exactly a memorable movie.
My Rating: Neutral
I remember the first five DVDs I bought when I purchased my first DVD player. They were:
The 400 Blows L.A. Confidential Hard Boiled The Seven Samurai The Wedding Singer Yes, The Wedding Singer appears to be the odd choice, but I found the movie very funny. Anyway, now that I’ve converted to blu-ray, I wondering what my first five discs should be? I already have a head start with three, two of them coming from a deal when I bought the PS3.
Some interesting names: Blockbuster, Rite Aid, Chrysler, and Krispy Kreme. (via Steven)
[Note: My reason for documenting my HDTV purchase is to simply share my experience. I am, by no means, an expert in this or have a particular ’eye’ for TVs.]
I’ve been lusting after an LCD TV for about a year.
In general I like to research purchases as thoroughly as possible. I avoided researching TVs because I couldn’t get the green light for an LCD TV purchase from Farrah. Well, recently she relented.
This helps out in filling out the list.
The last time I saw my uncle was thirty-three years ago when I went to the Philippines. It was the first and only time I had been to the homeland of my parents. I was young and bratty, traveling without my sisters for the first and only time. I’m not sure why my parents took me, but I went willingly.
At that age, I had two concerns going to the Philippines, (1) the lack of a tv, and (2) the lack of food I was accustomed to eating.
It’s getting depressing. I really need to stop watching / reading the news.
Solid action from beginning to end. But the story falls short of the superb Casino Royale. The Bond character doesn’t develop as much as he did in the previous movie. Daniel Craig still kicks butt though.
Be sure to check your credit card statements.
Grace Park has only mentioned once in this article:
Other strong women on the show include Grace Park (pictured, right), who plays Lt. Sharon “Athena” Agathon and various other incarnations of Cylon Number Eight,….” Even Lucy Lawless has a full paragraph devoted to her.
Of the 25 films listed, I’m looking forward to “Inglorious Basterds” the most.
Never too late to read about money issues.
I’m interested in seeing how the phone is when it is done. But I wouldn’t go to Sprint for this phone. Sprint was my worst experience with a cell phone carrier.
Eastwood’s solid acting skills are on full display in this movie. The other actors, some apparent first-timers, are not so great. The movie moves at a brisk pace, with a mixture of humorous and dramatic moments. Eastwood’s character is more William Munny than Dirty Harry.
Grade: B+
I’m still learning Photoshop. There seems to be some good advice in this posting.
A few tips on how to trim a few dollars during these difficult economic times.
This girl averages 484 text messages a day!
On a previous version of janella.com…
…when I would write a movie review it would be long. Time is short, so my new movie reviews - when I have a chance to watch a movie - will be short. It won’t be extremely insightful, but it will convey what I feel about the movie.
For The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:
Brad Pitt grows young while Cate Blanchett grows old. Acting done well by both, and Fincher’s direction was spot on.
I blame the economy.
The web hosting account for janella.com has come up for renewal. Dotable, where the site is hosted, has been a great web host this past year. Their pricing and support have been great. I have nothing bad to say about their company or service. But money is money.
Granted it only cost “x” amount of dollars a year for the account. But “x,” when factored with “y” and “z,” makes hosting a web site an extra expense I can do without.
The Palm pré looks very interesting. Too bad it’s going to be on Sprint. I was with Sprint once. I had a problem with their billing / customer service, which made me move to Verizon (then later to AT&T). More info on the Palm pré here and here.
Wow. Now we can’t complain on Yelp?
If I update my “current” iTunes tracks, it’ll cost me about $15. I’m waiting until they update their whole catalog to DRM free. I’ll then decide whether I should upgrade them or not.
Happy (belated) New Year to everyone!
I suppose my year in review is a bit late, but hey, I was enjoying my Winter Break! I didn’t feel the need to blog. It was nice having almost two weeks off to recharge the batteries. Farrah and I didn’t go anywhere particular or do anything specific. We just simply enjoyed the time off.
Anyway, let me see if I can summarize my last year in one blog post.
