./janella.com

I was in my office, packing up for the day when I received a text from my wife. It simply said:

Steve Jobs?!

Sadly, it could only mean one thing.

I upped my Netflix movie discs this month in the hopes of catching up on a few movies. I hope to write a few words about each movie that I was able to view.

I was able to set aside a few moments last weekend to watch an excellent movie The King’s Speech. It would have been a good idea to see this movie before the Oscars. But knowing it had won several Oscars, as well as other awards, did not taint my viewing of the movie.

The film, from its synopsis, seems grand in scope. It tells the story of a man with a speaking issue who would be King one day. But as I sat and watched the movie it felt like a nicely made small film. The movie moved at a good pace, covering a little less than a decade of time very smoothly. It established its characters, relationships, and situations with ease.

The interaction between the actors and their characters was a sight to see. In a short period of time, you could recognize the love and patience that Helena Bonham Carter’s character has for Firth. And you could feel the tension, then later admiration and respect Firth and Geoffrey Rush’s character shared throughout the film. Yes, there was a montage here and there, but how else would you encapsulate all the speaking exercises Firth’s King George VI would go through?

Now, I don’t know the historical accuracy of this film. Heck, I don’t expect any film to be historically accurate. All I can say is that this film proves to be an inspirational piece worth repeated viewing.

If you like British movies and have two hours to spare, and an opportunity to rent this film, I don’t believe you’d be disappointed

Seriously?

“Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.”

After hearing this news from Sony, I’m wondering if I can ever trust Sony or the PlayStation Network ever again. I was winding down on my console video game play. Perhaps this is a sign to give it up altogether.

The full post is on ://Playstation.blog

You are waiting to hear the news. It might be good news you are hoping to hear, something favorable to your future. Or, perhaps it’s bad news you wish you could avoid, news that can prove to be an obstacle for some time. Either way, you just want to know what is going on, and what is going to happen, so you can take the next step(s) to arrive at a conclusion. You are almost not concerned about the why, you simply want to know the what. But all you can do is wait.

Why do you have to wait?

Well, the decision, the next move to make things happen, may be out of your control. Or perhaps time is a necessity, it needs to pass in order for results to occur. But all you know is that it sucks. And you wait.

I’m in a situation like this now. I’m hoping for favorable news. If a ‘negative’ is given as a response, it won’t be the end of the world.  But it will be disappointing.

A friend of mine is waiting for news as well. It could be good or bad. Not sure what it will be, but I’m hoping for a positive outcome.

Waiting, in either case, is the only option.

If you found me - if you are reading these words on this blog - you could have only come here one of two ways. Either you’ve come directly to ://giron.me or you followed a link from my photo site, ://janella.com.

Prior to this new endeavor, I wrote on janella.com. But as you can see, things have changed. Those older blog posts still exist. I didn’t delete those posts. I simply moved them to ://janella.giron.me. They are safely there to search and read.

Why the shell game?

I wanted to keep words and photos separate. Not that I won’t post photos here.  I’m just looking for a little more segmentation, a little separation. When people ask about photos we’ve taken, I’d like to simply point them to janella.com - which would load the photo gallery - instead of a blog where you would need to find the photo link.

Plus, I don’t write often. And I find it a bit embarrassing when I point someone to the blog - again, to see photos - they will inevitably comment that I haven’t written in quite some time.

So, I’m still settling in on this space of the interwebs. Drop on a by every once in a while to see what’s up here, ok?

I read a lot of things online. I would often read comments that accompany the articles and blog posts. But I’ve grown tired of the often snide and rude remarks people make in the comment section.  Instead of providing meaningful comments, and thoughtful responses that could add to the subject of the article, blog post, or photo, some people choose to make an ugly destructive comment. They make these ugly comments with ease, enjoying the lack of repercussion afforded by their anonymity.

I know my blog doesn’t run into this issue. What I’ve had problems with are spam comments. I receive more spam comments than actual comments each month. And since most people now comment via Facebook, where I crosspost often, having comments enabled on the site appears unnecessary. If you don’t have a Facebook account, I have to ask: “Who are you?”

This week I had the opportunity to eat lunch at Mobowl. MoBowl is a food truck serving Chinese cuisine with a twist. We’ve tried MoGo, a similar concept involving Korean cuisine, and we’ve enjoyed what they had to offer. Would MoBowl be the same?

To find out where MoBowl will be on any given day, you need to either look on their homepage or their Twitter stream. They only serve food on weekdays during lunchtime. On this particular day, they were only three minutes away from my workplace.

On to the review.

Atmosphere

Well, it’s a food truck. The truck is clean, with available drinks and plastic utensils available upfront. The menu is written in chalk and is easy to read.

Service

They were a half-hour into their lunch service. I only saw one customer in line. I wondered if this was a bad sign, but I walked up to the truck and ordered. The order taker – possibly the owner – was friendly, giving me several options for what I ordered. I had the Five Spice Pulled Pork bowl. There were two additional options with my meal, a fried egg, and brown rice. Each would cost an additional dollar. I opted only for the fried egg. The meal came out to nine dollars total.

They were able to make my dish in less than five minutes. I took it to go, as is the case with these food trucks, and took my meal back to the office.

Food

The food comes in a sturdy plastic bowl. Items in the bowl are segregated into three areas: a salad, rice with a fried egg on top, and pulled pork. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like that much food. Then you realize the bowl is deep, and the contents of the bowl make up a hearty meal.

The salad was a normal regular green salad with a light dressing. The egg was fried medium with a slightly runny yoke. The rice was perfect, not too soggy or too dry. The meat, at first taste, was extremely tender and flavorful. I enjoyed it for a while. But after some time the five spices, which I’ve had before in other dishes, became overwhelming.

Verdict

I enjoyed my meal, though again, the five spice was a bit heavy-handed in my opinion. I think I’ll go back to try another offer. But for now, I give it 2 1/2 stars out of 5.

I’m trying to invest in a cross-platform note-taking system. What I’d like for this system to do is:

• Be available on whatever device I’m on - primarily a Windows machine, a Mac, iPhone, and an iPad.
• Have the ability to take notes offline, then upload them for later access.
• Have the ability to access notes while offline, somehow storing a local copy on each device.
• Easily export all my data - just in case the company or system goes under.
• Be easy to use and secure.

I like the idea of Evernote. I’ve tried to use it before when it first became available on the iPhone. For some reason, I haven’t taken to the system. But now that I have the application on all my devices, I’ll take the opportunity to take it for a full run. I’m going to try using the free version of Evernote for all my note-taking (e.g. blog posts, blog ideas, longer personal projects, etc.) The only thing the free version appears to be missing from my list above is the offline abilities. Those can be had with a premium account. Let me set a 30-day trial period, ending on February 25th. Let’s see how that goes.

So what am I using now?

I’m trying to get by with Elements. It’s a cool little iPhone and iPad app that syncs with Dropbox. But that’s the limitation, the availability of the app on those two platforms. I know I can use a simple text editor to access the Dropbox-created file or create a text file and put it into Dropbox for editing in Elements. But it seems laborious at this point. But it might be the more elegant solution if the Evernote software on the Mac and Windows machine proves to be cumbersome. Who knows.

I’ve also been trying out Scrivener for writing. Again, the problem is it only resides on my Mac. And again, I suppose I could export the file to Dropbox to make further edits, but it seems too much work to accomplish this.

I’ll let you know how it progresses.

Angelina Jolie as Salt

Netflix Synopsis:

After she's accused of being a Russian sleeper spy, rogue CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) goes on the run, using every tactic, accent and disguise she knows to elude her pursuers, clear her name and protect her husband. Her supervisor, Winter (Liev Schreiber), buys her story, while counterintelligence officer Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) decidedly does not and will do anything to stop her in this fast-paced, intrigue-filled spy adventure.

My Take:

I really wanted to like this movie, and I did for about the first third. But then it took a sudden turn down when the movie changed direction from plausible to unbelievable super-action hero. I mean, I believe the Jason Bourne movies more than Salt. Granted, the film was well shot, and the chases and stunts were well choreographed. I know, it’s a movie, and things don’t have to be realistic. Perhaps it was my mistake going into this film hoping for an actual action/espionage film, as opposed to pure cartoonish action sequences. I prefer Angelina Jolie’s in Wanted than in this film.

For me, any empathy for “Salt” was lost, as the story failed to support her actions or motivation. But I guess this isn’t a movie about character motivation, but of the momentum of action.

Rating: Cable TV Worthy