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My Year in Review
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.
- Since the end of 2007, I’ve been lost in the idea of whether I should continue blogging or not. I’ve archived and deleted my Wordpress install on Janella.com at least a handful of times this past year. At times I feel the urge to create a long post, something seemingly unsuitable for Facebook or tumblr. This makes me think maintaining a blog is a must. But as I think about it more, it could really work well on tumblr. I just have a difficult time giving up control of the content. You know, what if the Tumblr goes under? Would I lose my data? I mean, Pownce went away. I’ll probably wrestle with this idea again this year.
- The big news for me this year was turning 40. I was in New York City when I turned 40. The trip was a present from Farrah. I must say New York was amazing. It wasn’t until later in the year that I felt a bit like a 40 year old.
- We went to Hawaii for Tiana's birthday in September. It was the first time we had been back since the wedding. Farrah went again in October for Grandma's 90th birthday.
- We started exercising more. (This is when I started to feel my age!) We kick-started with personal training and are now doing it ourselves! I feel so much better.
- I changed jobs and companies in May of last year. The type of work is different from what I was familiar with, but it uses skills I have in my “toolbox”. The work environment is familiar but different: I work from home! We converted one of the bedrooms into my office. What was it before? The computer room. What makes it an office? Oh, the speakerphone does.
- I met up with good ol’ friends in Las Vegas. It was nice catching up. And man, Vegas has changed since I’ve been there last.
- We watched several good concerts: The Bridge School Benefit, Rachel Yamagata, and Morcheeba. Farrah and Lotte saw New Kids on the Block on their reunion tour. Man, I wish I could have gone (he says sarcastically).
- It was nice to get into politics last year. The political passion for the masses should exist in each election cycle. Hopefully, the future will be as bright as we envision.
I look back at the resolutions I made for last year. I managed to attempt all of them, but was only successful in maintaining one: the exercising.
What’s the resolutions for this year?
- OK, I need to try using the CPAP machine again.
- Lose weight - always a good thing.
- Cook more / eat out less when possible.
- Get rid of things, such as clothes, books, papers, old computer cables, etc. Too much stuff just floating around.
- Write on blog entry a week. I twitter and tumblr more often then blog, but blogging has been lacking as of late. I think I need a particular weekday to post to get me going.
- Take more photos! Perhaps go out one day every two weeks for a photo assignment.
- Keep in touch with friends more - or at least talk to them via Facebook. This seems to be the medium of choice lately.
- Watch more movies! I’ve have not been watching movies much. I managed to watch several this Winter Break. I think I’d enjoy watching more good films, not necessarily in theaters though.
Well, that’s all the resolutions I can think of for now. Let’s see how I score next year.
Tips, TWIP, and Tack
I enjoy taking photos, but I am nowhere near being a good amateur photographer. My biggest problem is not spending enough time developing my skills. When I took a few photography classes at the local junior college, I managed to scratch-the-itch to take photos in order to fulfill class assignments. Now without that pressure of producing I find it difficult to, well, produce any photos.
This is where a good podcast on photography can help. How? Well, nothing like a bunch of people talking about photography to whet your appetite.v
The first photography podcast I ever listened to was Chris Marquardt’s award winning Tips from the Top Floor. I remember listening to Marquardt’s podcast on my new second generation iPod several years ago. He is a very knowledgeable photographer with hundreds of podcast episodes under his belt. I listened to the first twenty episodes, taking all the tips he had to offer and trying some of the assignments he provided, before I started decent into nothingness. I haven’t listened to this podcast lately, but I’m sure it’s still top notch.
The assignment aspect of Marquardt’s podcast and website is very important. An assignment helps in thinking creatively and in producing photos you wouldn’t otherwise think about taking. If you are gutsy enough, you can post your photos on flickr for comment. I guess I shouldn’t say gutsy enough. I have only run into a few people on flickr who can be crude with their comments. Most people are encouraging and provide constructive criticism.
This Week in Photography (TWIP) just started at the beginning of this year. The podcast includes two podcasters I like listening to - Alex Lindsey and Scott Bourne. The podcast is full of photography information and interviews with professional photographers. It’s fascinating to get insight from professionals on their craft. They often answer listeners' questions which is nice. I must admit I often find this podcast to run a bit long - closing in at sixty minutes. I have found myself losing interest on the discussion at hand from time-to-time.
TWIP does have a photo assignment / contest. They also have a blog linking contest that runs ever three months I believe. The prize giveaways are very big, so you might find it worth entering. Who knows, you can win a big prize and hone your skills at the same time.
Tack Sharp is the latest photography podcast I’ve placed on my iPod. I read about Tack Sharp through one of my favorite blogs, Daring Fireball. The podcast is hosted by James Duncan Davidson and Dan Benjamin. James and Dan play well off each other in discussing various subjects in photography. Dan - the amateur photographer - is a nice contrast to James - the professional. It’s an easy listen and the podcasts are short, lasting about twenty minutes on average so far. There are only three published episodes so far, so you can get in on the ground floor if you subscribe now!
If you enjoy taking photos or want to learn more about photography, I don’t think you can go wrong with any of these podcasts. You can subscribe to their podcasts by clicking the iTunes links below. Also, you may want to visit their respective supporting websites, which contain an enormous amount of information and resources.
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Tack Sharp - Dan Benjamin and James Duncan Davidson (no longer available)
Pownce No Longer
I’m saddened by the demise of Pownce - in its current form. They were acquired by Six Apart earlier this week which means…I don’t know exactly what it means. I wasn’t a heavy user of Pownce, but I did use it to communicate with friends. I was able to privately share small files, photos, links, and messages with various friends. I’m not sure if Pownce will be integrated with one of Six Apart’s services such as Vox or Typepad, but it won’t be the same.
And this brings up a problem that I fear on the Internet - the loss of content you created / posted on the Internet.
Luckily Pownce provided a way to export your data and time to complete the export. But other services that have gone the way of the dodo, such as Digital Railroad, didn’t give their users this opportunity. Imagine losing all the photos you posted online? What if you didn’t have a backup?
I have over 9000 photos posted on flickr, another 24GB of photos posted on Smugmug. My blog has 473 entries, and there are only about 100 entries on my tumblr account. Most of this data - minus the tumblr posts - I have on hand a local backup. But some data cannot be copied, such as my Facebook and MySpace account. Plus any comments made on the photos above cannot be backed up - or at least I’m not aware of a way to do it at this point.
My greatest fear is that flickr or Smugmug goes under without notice. It was a fear I had with Vox which is why I moved my blog back to my personal site. (If Vox provided a means to export my blog posts it would make me feel more comfortable using it as my primary blog.) I’m sure this reality is far from possible at this point, but with this economy you never know. I have always hear that flickr is a losing proposition for Yahoo! This unconfirmed fact makes me more confident that Smugmug is a stronger choice to share my photo data online. But I enjoy flickr’s community so much.
And this is the other aspect that is lost with the demise of Pownce - the community. A solid community is difficult to build - let alone maintain. While Pownce may have not had a choice but to sell itself to Six Apart, it is a shame it wasn’t able to keep the community it had built together.
The Bridge Benefit 2008
Farrah and I went to the Bridge School Benefit concert this past Sunday. The lineup for the concert on that day was:
- Cat Power
- Wilco
- Death Cab for Cutie
- Smashing Pumpkins
- Josh Groban
- Norah Jones
- Jack Johnson
- Neil Young (of course)
We chose to go on Sunday the day the Smashing Pumpkins were playing. We would have liked to have watched Sarah McLaughlin, who was only playing Saturday, but Farrah had never seen the Smashing Pumpkins in concert. They didn’t disappoint.
I wasn’t familiar with Cat Power’s or Wilco’s music but enjoyed their sets. Death Cab for Cutie had many fans in the audience, all enjoying their performance. I recognized three of their songs, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”, “Soul Meets Body”, and “I Will Possess Your Heart”. I walked away from their performance wanting to listen to more of their songs.
Smashing Pumpkins were up next. They came with two pianists, a trombone and trumpet player, a dual-violin player, and the regular core band. I didn’t recognize most of the songs, some of which I think was new. Josh Groban came out to sing “Disarm”. It was a good performance, though he did forget some lyrics.
The Josh Groban set was difficult to get into, though you can’t deny he has a strong voice. Norah Jones had her (somewhat) new short haircut. She put a country vibe to her standards, and also sang a couple of Johnny Cash songs. Jack Johnson’s set got the audience on their feet with ‘Bubble Toes’, “If I Had Eyes”, “Good People”, and “Banana Pancakes”. His set had the overall crowd more enthused than anyone else that performed before him. I can’t say how Neil Young’s set was since Farrah and I left right after Jack Johnson finished.
We did get to see Neil Young perform several times during the show. He came out to begin the whole shindig. He subsequently came out to perform with different artists at the end of their sets, most notably with Josh Groban, Norah Jones, then Jack Johnson.
Other things to note:
- Shoreline didn’t charge for parking. Does anyone know why they don’t charge? It seems like a money maker for them, but heck it saved me an expected $20.
- They charged $9 - $12 for a beer! Robbery.
Overall, the concert was a nice mellow affair. The concert began on a warm Sunday afternoon, which subsequently turned into a cold windy night (part of the reason we left early).
My Bandwidth Results
I wrote in a previous post about having to track my bandwidth usage since Comcast was implementing bandwidth limits. Well, my results for September are in. According to my Tomato router I used 195.11 GB total bandwidth. 57.51 GB was used for downloading content and 137.60 GB was for uploading.
What does this mean?
Well, my upload number is high because of the online backup service I use, Mozy. The data I am backing up - music, photos, and documents - is about 200 GB total. I had hoped I could have uploaded it all before October, but I ran into the end of the month before completing that goal. I hope this doesn’t screw up my October numbers.
From the looks of things I am well within the 250 GB limit imposed by Comcast. I hope my numbers are correct. I would hate to lose my Internet service.
Rachael Yamagata @ Cafe Du Nord
The other night Farrah and I went to Cafe Du Nord to see Rachael Yamagata perform. We enjoyed her first album, Happenstance, which is a somber but strong debut album. We downloaded and listened to pre-released tracks from her new album, Elephants…Teeth Sinking Into Heart . Some of her songs on the album go into a more uptempo direction.
Cafe Du Nord, in size, reminds me of the old Cactus Club in San Jose. Except Cafe Du Nord is much darker and has the vibe of Bimbo’s 365 Club. We had dinner reservations which gave us reserved seating. We could see the stage without obstruction, able to enjoy the show while sipping a nice cold beer.
Rachael started off with Be Be Your Love and Letter Read, the first two songs on her debut album and two of my favorite songs. Letter Read was actually the first song I heard from her, a song where she sounds like Fiona Apple. Anyway, after hearing those songs I knew the show could only get better and it did. Rachael moved from the keyboards to an acoustic guitar which she didn’t plug in at first. She then explained she was battling the flu with some Jack Daniel’s. She was a trooper through, continuing with her set and engaging the lively audience.
She played for about 90 minutes total, going through songs like
- Worn Me Down
- What If I Leave
- Would You Please
- Elephants
- Meet Me By The Water
- Faster
- Accident
- Would You Please
- The Reason Why
Part of her encore was Would You Please, a request from the audience. Rachael wasn’t sure she knew all the words but gave it a go, prefacing that she could not be criticized if she f’d up. She got through about 90% of the song. I really enjoyed her last song, The Reason Why.
I’d go back to Cafe Du Nord to see another show. The drink and food prices aren’t bad, but parking can be an issue. Well, it’s San Francisco, so parking is always an issue.
You can also find another review of this concert here.
Handsfree
Beginning in July, California went ‘handsfree'. Now, I don’t talk on my cellphone often while driving but Farrah does. And so I did some research on a solution that would work for her.
The iPhone comes with a nice standard headset for listening to music and taking phone calls. It can be used in the car as long as you only use one earbud while driving. I do this often, but it can be uncomfortable, and I think Farrah finds this so as well. Farrah also finds Bluetooth headsets uncomfortable.
I heard Leo Laporte speak of the BlueAnt’s Supertooth Light Bluetooth Handsfree Speakerphone as a good solution, and so I ordered it from Amazon and let Farrah give it a try.
The unit charged quickly, with Farrah being able to try it the next day. The main unit attaches by magnets to a metal clip you can fit into your car’s visor. Having the clip allows you to easily move the unit from car to car, or simply detach it from the clip to hide the unit in your glovebox. To activate the unit, you extend the mic boom.
The sound quality is very good. I was able to hear Farrah very clearly while she was driving, and she was able to hear me without my yelling. The unit also comes with a built-in ringer so you won’t have to hear your cellphone ringing unless you have the BlueAnt turned off. The BlueAnt holds a very good charge. We’ve only had to charge it twice since having it, but people who talk often may have a different experience. The only negative experience we’ve had with the unit is when pairing it with two different phones. The unit appears to forget the first phone it was paired with, but works fine with the ethe second. If you are the only one using the BlueAnt, then this will not be a problem. Overall, Farrah finds the BlueAnt solid and reliable, as do I.
There is a newer unit available, the BlueAnt Supertooth 3. I think this unit has a voice-activated calling, but I have no personal experience with it. You may want to read the reviews on that unit, but it does cost about $30 more.
Belated Congratulations to Lotte and Angche!
I don’t know how I forgot, but I did. Angche proposed to Lotte at her birthday celebration several weeks back. You can relive the moment on their wedding web site (or my almost similar video.)
Congratulations to you both!
Review - The Dark Knight: IMAX Experience
Anyone who knows me knows that Batman is my favorite comic book character. When The Dark Knight was announced, I couldn’t be more excited to see it. After all, I think Chris Nolan did a great job with Batman Begins. With my high expectations - believe me, I tried to lower them - Farrah and I headed into the IMAX theater at the Metreon to watch The Dark Knight. Did we like it? What do you think?
Following my standard review format, here’s what I thought of the Dark Knight.
The Netflix summary:
Batman (Christian Bale) teams with Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to continue dismantling Gotham City's criminal organizations in this sequel to Batman Begins. But a psychotic new villain known as the Joker (Heath Ledger) threatens to undo all their good work. The star-studded cast includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Michael Hall, Michael Caine, and Eric Roberts.
What I Liked
The acting all around was great. By now you’ve heard Heath Ledger does a great job as the Joker. Farrah and I, as well as probably many others, found this a sad fact. It was such a well-rounded, strong, and memorable performance. It is a shame we will no longer see him on screen. But the acting by Christian Bale, Eckhart, Gyllenhall, and others are on par with Ledger, making this a well-rounded Gotham City.
Gotham City itself is impressive, as is Batman’s journey to other places. The cool toys are just enough to get by, and the movie moves at an impressive pace. It does not slow down, making the 152 minutes fly by.
What I Didn’t Enjoy
I still have an issue with Bale’s Batman voice, something I pointed out in my review of Batman Begins. It’s scary, I suppose, but something just does not click with me when he’s talking.
Final Thoughts
I would not think it possible, but The Dark Knight exceeded my expectations. For me tops Iron Man (**** out of 5) and Indiana Jones (***) as my favorite film of the summer.
Rating: ***** out of 5
Last-minute Las Vegas
Two Sundays ago I received an unexpected phone call from old friends who were traveling to Las Vegas for a vacation they had planned over a year ago. They asked if I could meet them there. It was fairly short notice, but I asked Farrah if I could go to Vegas because I hadn’t seen these friends in over 20 years. After working out the financial details - after all, have you seen the airfare prices! - I booked a flight on Southwest Airlines, got a hotel room, and made my way out to Las Vegas last Friday.
James (Bubba) and Lisa, my friends from Air Force days long ago, picked me up at McCarran airport. When Bubba stepped out of their brand new Dodge truck, he didn’t seem to have changed much. Oh yeah, there were few wrinkles on his face, covered by a scruffy beard that we wouldn’t be allowed to have in the service, but he was the same old Bubba. I gave him a big hug, then went around the driver’s side to get into the truck. I greet Lisa, who was driving, with a warm hand to the shoulder as we drove away from the airport.
We first talk about the weather in Vegas - it was about 98 degrees at 10 PM! - and about my flight. We take care of the things I needed to get done - check into the hotel, dump my stuff in the room, grab a bite to eat - then we head to hit the slots (them) and blackjack (me).
Of course, we talk about the past, about people’s names we can, at times, barely recall. We talk about things we’ve done together back-in-the-day, the shared memories or how we remember them. We speak of the 20 plus years apart, and the people in our lives now, about family and friends on each side who are unfamiliar to each another. We convey to each other our individual triumphs and hardships we’ve endured, the journey and battle scars that life inflicted upon us up to this point in time. We spend the next three days sharing all of these memories.
It’s difficult to predict how often we will be in contact with each other after leaving Las Vegas. We left each other with big hugs and the promise of staying in touch, and I know we’ll try our best to do so. But I recall making such a commitment to my Uncle David in the Philippines when I was eight years old. I promised I would write. He said, “You’ll forget me. You’ll forget to write. But that’s OK, for we will remember each other until the day we die. This is just how it is.”
I wrote to him briefly, but I grew up and, as he predicted, forgot to write. Who knows, with email and the Internet this may change with Bubba and Lisa. And as they read this, as I hope they read this, I’m sure they are saying, “You’re damn right we’re keeping in touch.”
Welcome Timothy!
Yen and James welcome Timothy into this world. Congratulations!
Update: I just posted the photos we took.
The Sidebar
I’ve incorporated, once again, RSS feeds into the sidebar of the page. This should give my many visitors - I say this smiling - access to our friends' blogs, as well as updates to my found Tumblr page. You can simply click on the link to view the blog entry. The sidebar should update as they post more (hint hint!).
Always Behind the Curve
It’s a fact that when it comes to hi-tech toys you will eventually be behind the curve. Sometimes it can take a year to fall behind. Other times it can be weeks.
I was reminded of this when I read Gizmodo this morning. I found out a new version of Drobo came out. I only bought mine three weeks ago. Should I send back the old one (if I can) and get the new improved one? Actually it would be too much of a pain to do so. I would need to offload the tons of data I already stored on the hard drives, then box up the unit, go to UPS and pay the shipping. I would then be without a unit for some time.
It’s like when I bought the iPhone, or the iMac, or the Powerbook - I knew something better was going to come along. But you can’t wait on your purchase. If you need that hi-tech device, buy it after doing the research. It just needs to do what you want it to do. Waiting isn’t going to stop a newer and better version from coming out after your purchase. Just do it.
Other notable behind the curve moments for me:
- iPhone - Purchased September 2007. New version July 2008
- 24" White iMac - Purchased late 2006. New aluminum version mid-2007
- 12" PowerBook G4 - Purchased October 2005. New Intel MacBook Pros release February 2006.
All I can say is keep up with the read the reviews and keep up with the news before buying.
The reasons haven’t changed why I bought the Drobo in the first place. I was tired of buying external hard drives and wanted a simple and secure solution that Drobo offers. So what if it’s only USB 2.0. I did my research and knew this fact going in.
Will You Upgrade?
Are you going to get the iPhone 2.0?
I have been asked that several times the past few days. As Friday fast approaches the answer is still the same, no I won’t be upgrading.
My three reasons why I won’t be upgrading:
- I don't want to pay AT&T the $18 for the privilege of changing phones.
- The fact that the data plan cost slightly more, though understandably with the 3G speed and GPS included.
- The fact that you have to pay so much extra for text messages, which I have been doing more of since getting the iPhone.
The iPhone App Store will still work with my current iPhone when it goes online. The only applications I won’t be able to take advantage of - that I can foresee - are those using GPS. I haven’t really played with GPS enough to say I need it. Goggle Maps have worked very well for my current purposes.
A year from now when my AT&T plan is up I will consider whatever version of the iPhone is available. I think I’ll consider upgrading then.