Sugar, Spice and The iPad 2 (with a DIY Case!)

So yesterday, after much waiting, I went out and bought an iPad 2. The whole ordeal if I should even call it an ordeal was actually quite pleasant. Target and the local Apple reseller, Mac Haus hadnt gotten their shipments but word on the street was that the local Walmart had. I showed up an hour and half before the release and they told me they only had about 16 in stock but there were only three guys waiting in line so I jumped right in there! We only had a few more people trickle in when 5 o'clock rolled around, but it was nice, no hordes of people with pitchforks or anything.




So to the main point! The iPad 2 is much thinner than I expected. I've pretty much gotten used to holding it but whenever I catch a reflection of myself with it I'm startled by how thin it really is. It's so thin that it makes me nervous at times. I'm not entirely sure if I could take this out into the wild world without some sort of case (Walmart didn't have any of those spiffy magnetic squares yet).  Without a case I would probably constantly envision it kissing a cold concrete floor somewhere, its face spidering into a million tiny little pieces.






Here's a case I made just for the time being:

I cut a rectangle out of an old accounting workbook and lined the inside with thin cardboard.

I even went as far as and labeling it 'workbook' just in case anyone got wise.

Anyway.

The iPad 2 is comfortably fast. I haven't once had to pause and wait for it to process anything. It keeps up with my stream of consciousness and smoothly carries out tasks just as fast I can think them up. Right now I'm typing with it comfortably in my lap. I find it ironic that I can do this on an iPad just fine but not with a laptop without at least some sort of hard surface for it to sit on so it won't overheat.

I'm really glad the keyboard is so comfortable. It makes editing documents on apps like Roambi, Pages, and Keynote (which cover your basic necessities from Microsoft Office) incredibly easy.

So far, the only thing I'm not all that impressed with is the camera. Here's a still of my phone:

It actually doesn't look all that bad when it's that small but when you're setting up the shot on that big iPad screen you can tell the difference. The video is fairly good and I imagine if you're on facetime with someone it'll be fine so long as you're in a well lit room.

The iPad really is a remarkable machine. I only whine a little about the camera because I can't find any real issues with it overall. A few years ago, it was difficult to produce visual displays this thin let alone a fully functioning computer. Eugh, what an exciting time to be alive!

Grandma Reminisces: The Gun

In the late 80s my Grandma was working at a family-run dry cleaners in Los Angeles. Every day, her daily commute consisted of a short walk down the street and around the back of a little market. It was normally a quiet walk and seldom would she run into another person let alone witness something unusual. One day as she was nearing the market she was startled to see a figure, either an elderly man or woman pointing what appeared to be a gun right at her! My grandmother recalls herself thinking "oh my, today's the day I get struck down by a bullet" but without a second glance she just scuttled along forward just as she had intended, all the while thinking that her legs couldn't move fast enough.

When she arrived at work, her co-workers asked her what was wrong and when she told them the story they knew exactly what she was talking about. Apparently that was a local grumpy person (possibly suffering from dementia) that walked around pointing a toy gun at people. She thought of this story because we were watching a show about the DEA (drug enforcement agency?) for a little while before lunch. I think I want to be like my grandma when I grow up. By this I mean I want awesome stories to tell while watching a show before meals... and also the bravery part.

Titanic II: An Appropriate Title

Back cover blurb: On the 100th anniversary of the original voyage, a modern luxury liner christened "TITANIC II", follows the path of its namesake. But when a tsunami hurls an iceberg into the new ship's path, the passengers and crew must fight to avoid a similar fate. 

Oh man, I was at Blockbuster the other night just skimming some titles when this straight-to-dvd beauty caught my eye. I started laughing out loud when I read the back cover. Ok OK! Let me just walk you through the logic of my back-of-the-video-store-hysterics. I don't know much about the sea-faring business, but I do know that they're a rowdy and superstitious bunch. For example sailors think having a woman on board is a bad luck good luck if she's naked, that's why so many Victorian era ships have a figure of a naked woman on the bow. Bananas are supposed to be a sign of disaster because in the early 1700s almost every documented ship carrying bananas as cargo sank (which is ironic since bananas float). There are a bunch of dates you're not supposed to sail at all since they were days of biblical disaster, and there are a bunch of other ones that include stolen pieces of wood, silver coins, dolphins, cutting your hair and nails, and avoiding flat-footed people and red-heads. 

With all of this in mind, I would imagine that the people in the fictional world of this movie would think to avoid naming their ship after the largest maritime disaster of them all! But then of course you don't get to use a sweet tagline like "100 years later, lightning strikes twice". Which is odd since it seems like the majority of their dilemma seems to be that darn tsunami that happened to smash an iceberg right up into them and nothing at all to do with a lighting. And if you were going to put an idiom in your title why wouldn't you pick something like "come hell or high water" or "a bunch of people get together and make bad decisions".  Not only do I love the fact the the fictional people of this movie decided it would be a good idea to name their new ship the "Titanic II", I love that the actual people of this world, responsible for this movie, decided it would be a good idea to name their move, "Titanic II". 

I realize that I've written too much about this and now I need to watch it before I say anything else, which is where my dilemma lies, I have no trouble judging a movie by its front and back cover because I've seen enough movies to know that this practice actually works wonders. My dilemma is that I really don't want to award any more film-makers for bad film-making by renting their work yet I want to watch them to witness the disaster. It can't be a luke-warm disaster though, I have little patience for that, it needs to be full on cringe-worthy embarrassment  like the opening night of the local middle-school thespian performance.

Toyota: Housewife Commercial Ft. Deb Oh

Deb Oh sings for the new Toyota Housewife commercial, the second TV spot for Sponsafier Round 3 campaign, which invites racing fans to design their own NASCAR car.



I love the part when that young girl screams, "you're not my dad!". It brings a little taste of how confusing a time it can be for young children when an iconic race car driver shows up at your doorstep and attempts to woo your mother.

Listen to more of Deb and her new EP at http://deboh.bandcamp.com/album/cold-glory

'Sponsafy' your own car on Toyota's Racing Site at http://www.sponsafier.com/#/home

Northern Lights

My friend Tyler was able to capture some of yesterday morning's northern lights when I could not. I won't exasperate you with any more words. Enjoy the pretty colors!

 

Closeup of Massive Solar Flare

 

Click here to watch the video: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/5483193591/ 

We've been getting some huge solar flares lately which explains the spectacular northern lights display we had in the valley this morning! I had to get off the highway and and onto an on ramp to watch for a few minutes on my way into Anchorage. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures but I'll keep the memory of those vibrant colors for years to come!