I’ve decided on the iPhone 4

Posted on October 3, 2010 by Joel

Yup, the iPhone. It’s finely happened.

I’ve been a fairly happy with my BlackBerry Bold 9000 from 2007. It’s a nice large screen, comfortable keyboard, and overall good size for browsing AND slipping into one’s pants’ pocket. I have a healthy respect for the BlackBerry phones. They are good products. And I do a lot of emailing and texting, so having a good keyboard is critical.

So why do I want to upgrade to an iPhone no less? Four reasons:

  1. My Bold is becoming unreliable.
  2. The good apps in RIM’s App World are few and far between.
  3. I want something new.
  4. Jealousy.

Sound reasoning? Sure it is.

  1. My Bold becoming unreliable is the norm, as the normal wear-and-tear cycle is accelerated in a sphere around me. It hasn’t changed either. My phone constantly has an hourglass. The reception is hokey. The trackball becomes unresponsive. The hourglassing is the worst. As a side note, there’s a new BB OS available for the 9000, but AT&T won’t certify it.
  2. RIM’s selection of applications pale in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of apps in the iTunes store. App World was an attempt to compete, but you won’t find anything useful
  3. I’ve had a BB for about 3 years now (Curve, Bold.) Isn’t it time for something new, especially with all the Android phones out in the marketplace?
  4. Ah yes, jealousy. I’ll admit it. A base human emotion. My wife recently upgraded to the HTC Incredible, and it certainly has the wow factor. A beautiful device, a nice form factor, and just so useful. We used Google Maps on her phone during our Midwest roadtrip, and after using it, I was sold. I looked at my Bold in comparison, and it paled. Paled! I was immediately consumed with envy.

So here I am. One month to go until Nov 12th, which is when I can get my discount towards a new phone. AT&T allows you to upgrade at the 18th-month mark. While there are a number of interesting phones in AT&T’s stable, none of them wow me. I checked the Android phones, but they’re nothing special. The 2009/2010 BlackBerry Bold 9700 and Torch are interesting, but didn’t wow me either. As a matter of fact, I found the Torch underwhelming.

In the end, the iPhone 4 is different enough, interesting enough, and comparable enough to the Incredible or Evo, to be worth upgrading to. To be fair, The iPhone 4 has had its share of issues in the news, such as the antenna reception issues and this problem with the proximity sensor. Still, I’m going to jump in bed with Apple and ride it out for better or for worse.

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Sintel: The incredibly sad tale of a woman and her dragon

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Joel

Oh, those Europeans and their uplifting stories. This short was created as a proof-of-concept for an open source 3D animation package called Blender.

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Planet Hulk (2010)

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Joel

Friday night, the kids and I stayed up to watch Planet Hulk on the Disney channel. Planet Hulk is a direct-to-video animated flick based on a 2006 crossover storyline in the Hulk comics. The premise of the story is that Hulk has been banished against his will (and Bruce Banner’s?) to a quiet and uninhabited planet so that he can do no harm to others. Instead, his ship takes a different trajectory and lands on the planet Sakaar, an inhabited planet ruled by “The Red King.”

In a plot line that (as it seems to me) borrows heavily from Ridley Scott’s 2000 film Gladiator starring Russell Crowe, Hulk is enslaved and forced to fight gladiatorial games for the amusement of the Red King and the populace in a large arena. He becomes the leader for other prisoners, and eventually takes on the Red King himself. As I watched the film, it was extremely reminiscent of Gladiator. I like Gladiator, and the film wasn’t bad, but it seemed cliched tens years later after the original film.

Planet Hulk (2010)

Planet Hulk (2010)

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Flat tire #3 for the year

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Joel

Un-freakin’-believable. What is the likelihood that we could get three flat tires on the same car within three months? How about two flat tires in the same month? Isn’t this getting statistically improbable? And yet, here we are. Tire #1 in early June. Tire #2 in early September. It’s crazy.

This week, another flat tire on the Highlander. Thank goodness for AAA, because they have changed each tire in record time, and no additional fees. The 1st time in September was in the rain. The 2nd time this month I wasn’t getting home until late. Again, I had to use the Toyota Road Hazard warranty (good for two years), which meant all I was stuck paying for was $22 for tire balancing. Here’s a question for you. This Road Hazard warranty is good and all, but what kind of tire quality is there when the smallest road debris could cause a tire puncture?

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Celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary dinner

Posted on September 26, 2010 by Joel
7th Wedding anniversary dinner

7th Wedding anniversary dinner

Seven years went fast. This year we celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. We decided to make our somewhat annual dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Princeton, though we didn’t go last year for our anniversary. While we love the kids, there are a few restaurants that we like to keep exclusively to ourselves. Ruth’s Chris is one of them; the other is Mahzu, a nice sushi restaurant that we reserve for date nights. We timed the dinner with a monthly Kids Night Out program at the daycare center. We dropped off both kids, and went on our way to dinner in Princeton.

Dinner was good, and we had our fill of mojitos and Jack Daniels, “crabtinis” and soup, cowboy ribeye and filet mignon, and creme brulee. All very delicious.

Seven years went awfully fast. I believe our marriage has had various eras or phases:

  1. From 2003-2005, it was the newly-married honeymoon phase. We’re working and figuring out the whole marriage dynamic. Some nice times, some good fights. We were both younger, thinner, and more rested back then!
  2. From 2005-early 2010, marriage and life got a little tougher. We experienced shock and awe moment #1 when Joshua was born, and we had to figure out how to manage a child. We bought our first home. We experienced shock and awe moment #2 when Lly was born, and we had to figure out how to balance two children, housework, and our careers. We got new cars, did some work on the house. Money was tight, and we had fights, but we had a lot of laughs. We spent more time to better understand each other, and I think I matured a little bit.
  3. We’re in the next phase now. Both kids are little older, and (somewhat) easier to deal with. Lily is almost potty-trained (almost), and Josh has started kindgarten. Finances have lightened up with one less kid in daycare, and we’re making a better attempt to have date nights and spend less time focusing 110% of our attention on the kids.
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Break.com: Geek and Gamer Girls song

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Joel

I give this song only for a rapping Seth Green, and appearances by Stan Lee and Katee Sackhoff. Stan Lee is a cameo machine!


Geek and Gamer Girls Song – Watch more Funny Videos

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Katy Perry and her usual wardrobe on Sesame Street

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Joel

I’m not a prude by any means, but couldn’t Katy Perry wear something a little less revealing for her appearance on Sesame Street this season? I mean, was anything else available? I suppose the stay-at-home fathers aren’t complaining.

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io9.com: The 10 strangest creative liberties ever taken on superhero TV shows

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Joel

I have no words to describe what I have seen in this article, and the embedded video clips that go along with it. Hollywood has always seen fit to drastically alter source material to suit “the suits”, but some of their decisions border on the remarkably insane. io9.com published this article, The 10 strangest creative liberties ever taken on superhero TV shows, and truly, it boggles the mind.

  • The Human Torch replaced by a floating robot?
  • Wonder Woman needs a husband?
  • Wonder Woman is a ninja?
  • Spiderman fights giant monsters in his giant robot (of course, only in Japan.)
  • The Brady Brunch spun off a Brady Kids animated show with pandas and a magic-wielding bird?

The clips are priceless, so please, view the clips. My favorite is the Fantastic Four clip featuring a bizarre Magneto. Please, please, please. Otherwise, Magneto will get angry!

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Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths (2010)

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Joel

How did I forget about this? Last month, Josh and I watched Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths, a direct-to-video animated film release this February. This is a DCAU film, but not connected in any way to any of the animated series that have come before it (Batman: TAS, Superman: TAS, Justice League, or Justice League Unlimited.) I consider it fairly standalone, in so much that even the character drawings are different.

The basic story is that Lex Luthor from an alternate universe comes to our universe seeking help to battle evil versions of our superheroes. Calling themselves “The Crime Syndicate”, they are set up much like a mob, with a Superman analogue called Ultraman who is the crime boss. Lex Luthor in that universe is good, and requests the help of our Justice League to stop the Crime Syndicate. Our heroes travel to the alternate universe to fight their evil counterparts, and there is a whole subplot where the Batman analogue named Owlman has an ulterior plot to…. well, I can’t say. It was an okay story, good voice cast, but nothing earth-shattering.

Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths (2010)

Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths (2010)

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Superman: Doomsday (2007)

Posted on September 19, 2010 by Joel

When you fall behind on your updates, and you want to catch up, I guess there’s no time like the present. A few weeks ago, Josh and I watched Superman Doomsday, a 2007 animated DC Universe film. It’s a direct-to-video film, and we watched it a la Netflix streaming. This movie is a kind of one-off in the DC animated Superman films. Although Bruce Timm helped write and direct this particular film, there’s no continuity with Timm’s late 90’s animated show. Different voice actors (Adam Baldwin, Anne Heche), a different rendition of Superman, and a modified Fortress of Solitude. It’s PG-13, with cartoon blood, and lots of ancillary characters dying in the background. I fast-forwarded through some of the violence for my 5-year old’s sake.

The film retells the Death of Superman from the 1992-1993 comics storyline. Growing up, I actually never had the opportunity to read those comics when they were published. When those Superman replacements came out (Superboy, Steel, etc), I was very confused. In this film, the writers merged the various replacements into one Superman who appears after the funeral, but has very different morals and ethics. The animation was good, but I didn’t like the lines on Superman’s face. What’s the deal? Is he supposed to be older? I didn’t mind the voice acting, but I missed Tim Daly as Superman.

I thought the film was okay, as it went quickly from Doomsday’s release from incarceration, the big battle, Superman’s death, and then a quick rush to the end. There’s an unusual amount of cartoon violence related to Doomsday’s rampage on his journey to Metropolis. If you intend to watch with your kids, do some fast forwarding. While I understand that the writers could not realistically shoehorn the Reign of the Superman storyline, and condensed it into a questionable Superman replacement, I would have liked to have seen the various Supermen in action.

Side note: I like the Netflix streaming option. I’ve watched a number of films using streaming, and it’s a good alternative if you don’t mind the 720p video quality, and stereo sound. The 720p video doesn’t bother me at all, but the stereo surround needs a serious upgrade to 5.1 surround sound.

Superman: Doomsday (2007)

Superman: Doomsday (2007)

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