There have been very few movies I have looked forward to this year, 10,000 BC is the next movie I can’t wait to see, but there is one that stands out above all else and that is Get Smart. I am a huge Steve Carell fan, from The Office, Little Miss Sunshine, Dan in Real Life, he has been great, and I am so happy for his success. He is now in Get Smart a movie that looks fantastic, and is one that I will be seeing for sure. Here is a new trailer for the movie, enjoy!
It has been a long time since I waned to reformat my hard drive and start clean. In fact I have never done it on my Macbook, but was doing it all the time on my old Toshiba notebook. I was noticing in the last few days that my system was compacted with a lot of junk, a lot of programs I didn’t use, and just a lot of other things that I didn’t want to go through and try to get rid of. So I decided to go the route of a clean install, a scary feat as all of you know. I do have an external drive with Time Machine running and so I have backups of pretty much everything, but I wanted to re-do the backups and made some DVD’s as well as some other copies. I have had problems in the past with not being fully prepared to re-install the operating system so last night I made sure I got through all the precautions.
So after backing up everything last night, I through in my Leopard disc, and clicked the infamous button of continue and went along with the install. The actual install took about 1 hour or so, which was not to bad, I remember times where Windows would take 4-8 hours and way back when on Windows 95 all day. I have to tell you, after reformatting it once again reminded me why I don’t miss Windows. The transition was seamless, after the hour install I did all of the updates for my system which took 30 minutes, and was able to then start installing my software.
Wondering what software I installed? Well here is the list in order of what I installed right when I got my Mac back up and running on a new clean drive.
1) iWork 08 (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote)
2) Firefox (Plus Plugins)
3) Thunderbird (Plus Restored Old Profile)
4) Photoshop Elements 4
5) Cyber Duck (FTP Client)
6) MSN Messenger
So I am back up and running. I can get back to work on some of my sites, and get back to using my Macbook in a much cleaner and faster fashion. I really should try to keep my computer a bit tidier from now on.
So for those who don’t know, about five years ago I worked for Bob Buskirk at his very successful ThinkComputers.org website. At the time the site wasn’t the powerhouse that you see today but a developing technology website. I didn’t stay long, but recently I got back in touch with Bob and have checked in with him a few times to see how things are going. Well to get to the point of the post, Bob is doing a “Swag Giveaway“ and I thought what the heck I better enter, who knows. So here is my entry, and you all should go check out Bob’s blog, I enjoy it, and I am sure you will to.
So I have to say I am not one that has watched the Oscar’s since I was born, in fact it just became something I did in recent years, basically since I met Jenn. I just never have been a big fan of the scripted speeches, the somewhat staged jokes, and just the glitz and glamor of it all. But that cynical side of me has subsided a bit, and I have become a lot more into movies thanks to Netflix, and so I have followed the show a bit more in recent years. So going into this year’s Oscars I have to say I was pretty pumped up that Jon Stewart was back as host. As much as I would love to see Steven Colbert take over the lead, Jon Stewart did another great job as host, and is really making a name for himself. His opening monologue tonight was fantastic, nailed it.
Some of the highlights for me this evening was first off Juno winning best original screenplay. I loved the movie. I didn’t think it would win best picture, but I am glad it got an award. Secondly why did Transformers not win one of the animation/effects awards, they totally deserved it? I hadn’t seen any of the movies with Best Original Song, but I have to say I was rooting heavily against any of the music for Enchanted and hoping for Falling Slowly, because after watching the two preform tonight I became a big fan. And that was so great of Jon to put the girl from the duet back on stage to let her say what needed to be said, which frankly was one of the more memorable quotes of the night.
In closing I can’t say I was very surprised by any of the picks, the people who usually call the winners, called them. Daniel Day-Lewis got best Actor which we all expected, and No Country for Old Men Best Picture/Best Director. In all it was a good show, not great, but one worth the watch, and worth the three hours to just sit back and enjoy what Hollywood had to offer.
I have to say that I am very happy to inform everyone today that I have sold off a slew of my TV Blogs for a great profit. My buddy David Lithman pointed me in the right direction, and within 6 hours of posting my sites for sale, I had someone buy them for what I was putting them up for. I have been running short on time getting ready to graduate, so I thought it would be a good idea to sell off my TV blogs and start new again with some of the new pilots. I believe the purchaser is just going to be throwing up ads, but it will be interesting to see where the sites go. Here are the blogs sold
ChuckTVBlog.com, JourneymanBlog.com, OfficeTVBlog.com
CarpoolersTV.com, BionicWomanTV.com, and PushingDaisies.org
The final price I will leave unknown, but I think it was one of those deals that I think will work well for both parties. Lets just say it was a nice clean sale.
I have never read a book by Cormac McCarthy, in fact I have heard some mixed things about his style of writing but I read the brief summary for his book The Road and decided that this would be a great quick read. I started The Road on Friday February 15 on my way to school and finished it on my way back from work on Saturday the 16th. The book was only six hours and I felt a bit like I might not be getting my money value on buying this book with my Audible subscription. However the book was a Pulitzer Prize winner as well as a book on Oprah’s Book Club so I decided to give it a go.
The book itself is about a father and son’s journey in a post apocalyptic world. The names of the father and son are never given. What happened in the world to cause this massive devastation is never told nor is it ever necessarily discussed. The book follows the father and son’s journey down “The Road” south to get to warmer climates. I am not going to give anything away in this book because the encounters that the father and son go through are so intense and so heart wrenching that I can’t even describe sitting in rush hour traffic listening to the book on tape.
Tom Stechschulte who did the narration for this book was excellent. He had two tones, one for the dad and one for the son, and the way in which he captured both of those characters was beyond impressive, it really made the book. I can’t imagine reading the book without having Tom Stechschulte read it. He truly brought this book to life.
Favorite Quote: The word “ok” was used in the book I would say over 1,000 times throughout the book. If you read this book you see the different ranges of the word, and how the son and dad use the word. I was captivated by the relationship and just the struggle for survival.
If you haven’t read this book, and don’t have much time to do a big read, this is a perfect book. Its a quick read, its a read that I would really recommend, just be warned its a pretty dark read.
I have been asking Jenn since reading The Kite Runner to sit through an entire audio book with me. It took a few more books, and I finally convinced her. So for the past few weeks when it is my turn to drive my car we have been listening to an audio book, this one A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini the same author of The Kite Runner one of my favorite books of all time. This book however not necessarily the same sort of up beat tempo as his original. If you read the reviews of Khaled’s sophomore trial you would think that this book was going to be even better, and I have to say I was a bit let down. However when you consider The Kite Runner easily being one of my Top 3 favorite books of all time, thats a tough measure to surpass.
Without giving a lot of the story away, A Thousand Splendid Suns follows the lives of two Afghani women who both have major struggles in their lives. The book focuses a lot on the struggles that these women and many other Afghani women have to face even to this day. More then anything this book was a wakeup call to not on the class struggle in Afghanistan but also the effects on religious rule.
My biggest problem with the book was that it was a bit slow. Not that I wanted there to be more struggle, because there was plenty of it. I just think, and Jenn agrees, that there were a few portions that didn’t need to be in the final draft. WIth that being said I have to give Khaled Hosseini credit, he is one brilliant writer. He is working with many readers including myself who know very little to nothing about Afghanistan but after reading this book I feel like I know the streets of Kabul. The way he brings things to life, and the shear magnificence of even the smallest detail is one of his strongest suits.
I have to say that even with it being a bit slow I still really enjoyed this novel, and find Khaled to be one of my favorite new authors. He has such talent, and the stories he tells are things that you just don’t forget, there unique. Fans of The Kite Runner, or really anyone just interested in our fellow humans in the middle east this is not only a good tale, it is a good education lesson as well.
Favorite Quote: “One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs / Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls”
I deal with a lot of cash. Not because I am rich, but because I work as a Senior Teller at Bank of America, so its my job to count cash, and count cash quick. I have actually gotten really good at it and could probably work in a Vegas casino if I really wanted to. However I have always found it interesting how everyone has a different way of counting cash. According to this video, I do it in a very American fashion. Enjoy this wonderful video on counting cash, and how it differs between countries.
So I haven’t been as on top of my posting as I would like. My countless fans, well Jenn that is, has been telling me I need to post more on her. So here I am, happily posting on what is supposed to be the day of all days to share my love for Jenn. For those of you who don’t know our story of Jenn and I, here it is in brief. We met her freshman year of high school my sophmore in a Biology class but it was very brief. I didn’t talk to her again until her Junior year my Senior year. A good friend at the time Kristle who was friends of both Jenn and I, asked me if I wanted to play some tennis with her. She was planning on inviting some people for some mixed doubles and didn’t know who to invite. I had my best friend Chris come along and I remembered Jenn a star tennis player at high school who I had a small crush on my Sophmore year to come along. So we did, the four of us went to a local country club where Chris belonged and played. From there I met Jenn another time for some doubles and got her number and the rest really transpired from there. We started dating on November 3, 2003, I graduated High School in June of 04, and went to CSUSB for two quarters. Jenn graduated high school in June 2005 and went with me to CSUSB in Fall of 05. Jenn and I then transfered to UCI where we both are now, me in Winter of 2007 and her in Fall of 2007.
Through the four and half years Jenn and I have been together we have gone through a lot. The changes of high school life, to college life. The changing of ourselves into adults. The constant desire to get the best out of life, and to follow our dreams while supporting the others. However through all of the big decisions, the plans, the relaxing sunday afternoons, I consider myself the luckiest man in the world. Many of you don’t know this, and many of you I am sure do, but Jenn is like my guiding light. She has never steered me wrong in four and a half years and I don’t expect that to ever change.
Happy Valentines Day my love. You truly make life worth living.
I have become a Mac user through and through. Jenn owns a MacBook she loves it, I own a MacBook and a Mac Mini and love them. I love the new Leopard which I got for Christmas. It just seems like Apple is on a roll with there Mac lineup. When Apple announced there latest thin notebook the MacBook Air I sat there are really scratched my head. This wasn’t one of those sit and scratch for a minute, I am talking at least ten minutes. I remember thinking of going through the positives and negatives. Here they are
Positives:
- Super stylish/sexy
- Light, thin, and according to Apple great Battery Life
- Beautiful Large Display
- iPhone Like Gestures on Touch Pad
Negatives:
- Looks like it might break easily
- No on board CD-RW/DVD Drive
- Not great system specs.
- Price $300 overpriced.
To me when I sit back and look at those Pro’s and Con’s I didn’t have these problems with the MacBook or Mac Mini. There is something about that MacBook Air that attracts me to it but at the same time says wait for something else. If money was no object I would love to try the Air with the solid state drive. It will be interesting to see how places start benchmarking that drive. You got to hand it to Apple though, even if I am not necessarily sold on the product, the commercial for the Air is fantastic.
At the end of the day, I would say I am going to be on the waiting end, whether money is or isn’t an object.