lyricsOFtheMIND

JQTouch and Google Maps API Rendering Issues

2011-12-24T21:14:00.000-08:00

Really quick one today. Today I implemented Google Maps into my JQTouch webapp using the Google Maps Javascript API V3.

Seemed easy enough except I was having a lot of rendering issues with the Google Maps (lots of gray areas where maps weren't rendering).

The key is, the Map constructor for Google Maps takes into account a div and renders a map in it. Let's call that the "map-div".

The issue was that I was using Javascript to render the map, then I called a jQT.goTo("#mappage") which changed the positioning of the map-div tag where the map was being rendered.

Quick solution: navigate to the page where the map-div is first - then do the Google Maps rendering. In my case, I had to call the jQT.goTo("#mappage") first, then I did my Google Maps rendering. Problem solved. Maps rendered gorgeously!

jQuery AJAX Post to a Rails Create Function

2011-12-02T06:19:00.001-08:00

Alright, I was going to do this posting when I discovered my solution, but I got super busy and never got around to it.

Basically the problem I ran into was knowing how to call Rails Create function using JQuery AJAX. There were a few parameters I didn't know about - like what was the URL, what was the type of AJAX call, how did I pass the data etc.

So, my setup was that I had a controller for my sessions and I was using rails "resources" routing to generate the routes for it. The "create" action of the SessionsController required a "session" object that contained an "email" and a "password" and the session was expected to be incoming via the parameters. That is, the SessionController.create was looking for params[:session][:email] and params[:session][:password].

So how do I get all this to happen with an AJAX JQuery call:

$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/sessions",
dataType : "json",
data: { session : { email : var_email, password : var_password } },
success : function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
},
error : function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
}
});

The thing that took me a while to figure out was the URL and the type and the data. Probably would have helped if I reviewed my "resources" routing in Rails and also new that you could pass a JSON object to a Rails controller.

jQTouch Dynamic Links and Event Handlers

2011-11-30T19:56:00.000-08:00

Alright, so one of the biggest worries I had while developing the jQTouch UI for my recent app (the first app I've ever developed with jQTouch) was generating dynamic links and getting event handlers for dynamic links.

Here's the basic idea, I had a list of items that was returned from a AJAX call, and I wanted to generate a link for each of the items.

So easy enough:

jQuery.each(data, function(){

ihtml += "<li><a href='#'>" + data.item.name + "</a></li>"

}

So that generated the links which was all good. But then I came across the problem of how do I react to each link - or at least how do I handle a click of the link and figure out which link was clicked.

The way I did this was by giving the same "id" attribute to all of the links, but then I added a custom attribute called "item_id". So my link generation became:

jQuery.each(data, function(){

ihtml += ihtml += "<li><a href='#' id='itemlink' item_id='" + data.item.id + "'>" + data.item.name + "</a></li>"

}

So each link woud have the same "id", but they would have a different "item_id".

Then using the jQTouch call back events, I extracted that "item_id" when the link was clicked.

$("#itemlink").tap(function(e, info) {

loadItem($(e.target).attr("item_id"));

}

The $(e.target) essentially grabs the element that was tapped. Then you can call your standard element inspection methods on it like .attr("item_id").

And my loadItem function would be something like

function loadItem(item_id) {

/*make AJAX call using item_id */

}

So each link will react to this, but then the attr("item_id") will be different.

Hope that makes sense.

Heroku, jQTouch, iPhone Fullscreen Image Refresh Issues

2011-11-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

Alright so today things were going pretty well with development on my open mic community app so I decided to work on some of the graphics. After spending some time deciding on what I wanted to change, I came up with some graphics I was happy with.

App Background: Ruby on Rails 3 app, hosted on Heroku with JQTouch for iPhone UI.

So I updated my local git repository, pushed it to github, and then to heroku. Since I've been testing my app a lot, I already had it added to my homescreen. So I hit the Homescreen icon which launched my fullscreen webapp - but my new images weren't showing up.

So to debug, I decided to launch safari and navigate to my page - the new images were showing up there. That's weird - because it was my understanding that the fullscreen iOS webapp was just Mobile Safari without the address bar and controls at the bottom.

So it's really weird that it was rendering the new images in Mobile Safari but not from my shortcut. So I decided to delete my homescreen shortcut. I navigated to my page (in Mobile Safari where the new images showed up) - and added a shortcut to my homescreen.

I tapped the homescreen icon - and still nothing! The old images were still coming up. I cleared my cache and HTML data - and still nothing.

I was getting quite frustrated and decided to leave it alone and figure it out later.

I came back to my app a few hours later - and boom - the new images had loaded!

So turns out it was just a matter of time. I have no idea what's being cached and where. Didn't seem to be an issue with Heroku nor with Rails since Mobile Safari was rendering it properly. It seems to be iOS's fullscreen app runner that was doing some caching somewhere.

So long story short - if this happens to you - just wait a while - the refresh should happen.

jQTouch, AJAX, Ruby on Rails

2011-11-29T11:49:00.000-08:00

Alright, this is the beginning of my blog entries concerning software development as I get more and more passionate about it.

Today, I findings on jQTouch, AJAX, and Ruby on Rails.

jQTouch is a nice little javascript library that makes is super simple to develop webapps that look great on the iPhone. So much so that if a user adds your homepage to their homescreen, it looks so much like a native app it hurts! (well, it doesn't really, but it's quite nice).

There are other alternatives out there like iUI, jQuery Mobile and Sencha, but I decided that jQTouch was a good in-between of everything.

So the big problem I had today was that I was having a lot of issues getting the my webapp on the iPhone to make an AJAX call. When I ran the app in Chrome on several computers, there was no problem.

Quick App Summary: App built in Ruby on Rails 3, using jQTouch for the iPhone UI, and jQuery to make the AJAX calls.

I narrowed it down to it being a 406 error. Using the following code:

$.ajax({
url: '/sessions/test',
dataType: 'json',
success: function(data, textStatus, jqXHR){
alert(textStatus + ': ' + jqXHR.responseText);
},
error: function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown){
alert(textStatus + ":" + errorThrown + ":" + jqXHR.status);
}
});

After that I realized my 406 error was actually stemming from how I interpreted iPhone requests.

In my Application controller, I had a bit of code that would basically look at the User Agent to determine whether or not I would use the regular Web Interface, or the Web Interface designed for the iPhone. To do this, I had a few methods like this:

def set_ios_format
if is_iphone_request? or request.format.to_sym == :iphone
request.format = if cookies["browser"] == "desktop"
then :html
else :iphone
end

# Handle AJAX Requests
if request.xhr?
request.format = :json
end
end
if is_ipad_request? or request.format.to_sym == :ipad
request.format = if cookies["browser"] == "desktop"
then :html
else :ipad
end
# Handle AJAX Requests
if request.xhr?
request.format = :json
end
end
end

You see that bit of code in there that says "Handle AJAX Requests" - this is what was missing. The problem is, when the iPhone was making an AJAX request, my Ruby on Rails code was treating that like a iPhone browser request - and setting the format to "iphone" which is an illegal format for the iPhone to accept via AJAX request.

So I do a quick check to see if the request is coming from a xhr, and if it is, set the format to "json" - could have set it to xml or whatever other AJAX response you want.

All was solved.

The ETC Podcast

2008-04-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

It's here:

The ETC Podcast

Thanks for reading.

The ETC Podcast

2008-03-27T20:17:00.001-07:00

Coming soon.

The Beauty of it all Working

2008-01-24T19:01:00.001-08:00

Hold your breath guys - it's yet another Casey blog about the greatness of Apple.

But really - it's not just about Apple, but rather the idea of high end companies and how their products are supposed to work.

See the thing is - companies like Apple, Sony, even Mercedes release a myriad of products which on their own are unbelieveably good - yet they design with the bigger picture in mind.

Now granted - not everybody, in fact not a lot of people have the money or time to spend on stocking their house with every product that one of these companies release - but nonetheless, my hat goes off to the designers.

See the thing is, the designers in these companies don't really design a product - they design a lifestyle. In software engineering its called use-case design. Instead of designing a product and giving it features and such - the people at these companies design an activity, and then build products around it.

For example, when Apple designed the AppleTV v2 - I have a feeling they thought to themselves - alright, I come home, I turn on the TV and I want to watch whatever movie I want right now, or listen to any piece of music I want. How am I gonna get a product that does that.

And companies who pay attention to these scenarios really soar. Yet, it takes some part on the public to understand these amazing designs. That's why Apple's keynotes are so good. Steve Jobs always go through typical scenarios.

Actually, come to think of it - the greatest demonstration of what I'm talking about are the first iPhone commercials.

Here, Apple had one of the most coveted electronic products this world has seen - but to really prove just how cool it was - the commercials went something liek this:

"Let's say your watching your favourite movie, Pirates of the Carribean, and then you think - hey, I feel like some seafood. Just simply browse to a seafood restaurant, and google map it."

Those typical use scenarios really shine for the product. I mean the product can do all these amazing individual things - but its these use cases that prove to the public - that hey - it's not just cool, the product actually makes a lot of sense to use in our life.

The same goes for OS X Leopard - things like Spaces, Expose (albeit Tiger), Quick Look just make the workflow so much better.

I think more companies should really base their designs around use cases - rather than just introducing new technologies. The iPhone had nothing brand new - it was all borrowed technologies - as was a lot of Leopard - but its how its executed where Apple succeeds. Bringing it to the mass market with a real use behind it.

Why did I bring this up?

I recently set my place up with streaming music, a wireless hard drive, and a nice TV. All Apple and SOny - and it all just works so perfectly together. It all just makes sense.

And coming home every night from work is such a pleasure as I can sit down and really enjoy my place.

So do yourself a favour. Building an "electronics foundation" is no different than furnishing a house. You can't just buy a bunch of random things here and there. Think about the big picture and how it'll all integrate with each other- and slowly build that up. Chances are, you'll enjoy your electronics so much more.

Thanks for reading.

Cloverfield

2008-01-20T17:48:00.001-08:00

Unbelievably good.

Has to be seen in the theatre.

Won't say more.

Thanks for reading.

Plug Off

2008-01-17T16:39:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I don't know if this is just because I'm tired and hungry and in a bad mood - but something's been bothering me recently.

So I had an amazing Christmas gift-wise. My family went all out this year and got me amazing gifts, one of which was a 1TB Western Digital MyBook. What a sweet drive. But there's one thing that's off.

The first time I plugged in the hard drive in - I noticed the unique shape of the plug. Rather than a down facing ac adapter, the ac adapter actually points to the side when plugged in. Pretty clever right? I mean when you plug it into a standard two socket wall plug, the other socket is free - pretty clever right? Wrong.

Let's think about this for a second. When do you use a hard drive? When you use a computer. And the average computer has how many plugs? 2. Right. And most computer users who would buy a 1TB drive would probably even have more. Save a router, or a modem, or both, plus maybe some speakers.

When you add it all up, a 1TB external drive will almost always be used near more than 2 other plugs. So enter the power bars that us techies spent so much money on. You know, the ones where the sockets are aligned side by side to allow for many AC adapters. Well guess what - this new MyBook Sideways style AC adapter now makes no sense on these expensive power bars. UPS's either - I mean the most expensive power bar you can buy now doesn't make sense with these new plugs.

Well, whatever. I thought I'd live with it. But then lightning struck twice.

I went to my post office today to pick up my Vonage package, and low and behold - the Vonage phone adapter uses a sideways power adapter! (which for those paying attention has to be used beside a modem and a router) What the hell!?

Now if the world was ideal - all these devices would have internal power bricks (take a hint from the AppleTV or the Wii). But the world of electronics seems insistent on producing these power adapters for things that clearly are used beside a bunch of other electronics.

Ah well - whenever they iron out the scary defects (and thoughts) or wireless power - we'll be flying.

Thanks for reading.

Dreams

2007-12-13T15:03:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I finished watching season 10 of Frasier yesterday, and I think it may have, just may have entered my mind as the best sitcom of all time. Yes, again, I do respect Seinfeld highly - but man, Frasier. What a season!!!

But that's not what I hear to talk about today. I've been getting back in the swing of things in terms of movies and getting caught up on what's up and coming. There's one film that really caught my eye: Cassandra's Dream. It's written and directed by Woody Allen and takes his more serious side. Don't get me wrong, I love his quirky stuff, but I love that he has the range to do other things too. And this one looks amazing. Check out the trailer at YahooMovies

And speaking of dreams, what a dream come true for me that my buddy Aaron found a performance of two of my favourite artists. Check it out:

Thanks for reading.

James Newton Howard

2007-12-11T17:44:00.000-08:00

That's it. Michael Giacchino, is damn damn close, and so is Craig Armstrong, but I have to say, at this moment, James Newton Howard is my new favourite composer. Alan Silvestri will have to step down from his throne.

In recent memory, every score that I've asked myself - I wonder who did it - it always ends up being James Newton Howard. Besides his awesome work on M. Night Shamylan movies, he's done some amazing work including Batman Begins (an amazing collaboration with Hans Zimmer), King Kong (which was done last minute), and Peter Pan (which floods Disney World commercials).

I finally got around to watching Blood Diamond yesterday. Great movie. Great score. And lo and behold - James Newton Howard was and the musical helm again.

I first took notice of James Newton Howard when he did the score for Primal Fear, but since then, he's definitely risen in my books to favourite composer. Be sure to check out his work. Thanks for reading.

Boxing Match

2007-12-11T17:33:00.000-08:00

DVDs. Yes - there are many of us out there who have this condition known as DVDA - DVD addiction, where we buy endless amounts of dvds every tuesday to stock up on our already too big collection. It gets to a point where a lot of the DVDs you own you don't even watch, or touch for that matter.

But that's never been the point of a collection. If all you wanted them for is to watch -you'd probably rent them. And you definitely wouldn't buy multiple editions of the same movie. The whole point of a collection is the collection. The fact that you have so damn much to look at all nicely alphabetized in your shelves - perhaps even sorted by category.

Because so many countless hours are spent just staring at a collection - one super important factor to a collection is the aesthetics of its elements. In the case of DVDs - it's the packaging. And without question - one of the nicest packaging on any DVD has to be the seasons of Lost.

I picked up Season 3 today, and man - it just reminded me how nice their box sets are. First of all - the consistency from season to season has been great. But on top of that - the plastic slipcase has been designed so nicely, and the fold out is just gorgeous. I can't really write anything about it without sounding pretentious - so basically, it just looks so damn good.

Not too mention that its also the greatest show of all time:) Thanks for reading.

Tech Gifts for Dummies

2007-12-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

Alright, so Christmas is upon us. Yes, that oh so amazing time when something magical in the air actually exists. For some reason having random people show up to your house singing is no reason to call the cops anymore. Lights on your house is no longer tacky. Listening to Jazz isn't just for the old folks anymore. And buying stuff for yourself is no longer the greatest joy - giving them is.

Or at least giving the right gift is.

The biggest problem I find in gift giving is that usually the gifts we give people are awesome in our mind - but not so much in their mind. And that usually happens most with gifts where the receiver is way more knowledgeable than the giver. This is especially true for little girls and boys who are into technology.

The problem with technology is that there's a huge range of products with a huge range of quality and buying the wrong one can actually have a bad effect. Take for example the XBOX 360. A while ago, I think a year or so, the XBOX 360 came in several flavours (as it does now), but one of those flavours didn't have an HDMI port - the ideal connection for video output. If I got the XBOX360 for christmas without the HDMI port, I'd be happy, but a little disappointed.

See the problem with tech gifts is that they're usually major purchases - and if the wrong one is given - it prevents the receiver from purchasing the one they actually want. Take the XBOX360 example - if I got the one without the HDMI port - there's no way I'd buy the one with it.

Some will say - then give them a gift receipt. True - but wouldn't it be awesome to give them the one they wanted in the first place? To be the one who knew them so well to actually get it right? But then it's the thought that counts right? Yeah - but this way you put that much more thought into the gift. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Well you've stumbled onto the right blog entry then. I'm gonna attempt to give some help to those of the giving end, because I know what I'd like to receive on the other end.

Alright, so my first thought is that there are really two types of technology you can buy your person. Gifts that matter what kind you buy, and ones that don't.

Category A: Gifts that don't matter what kind you buy
This is really for givers who don't feel like doing a whole lot of research but want to get their tech receiver a good gift.

Hard Drives - If you receiver is into tech stuff, chances are he/she will have a computer. And one thing you can never have too much of is hard drive space. It's like toilet paper now. You'll always need it - or at least you'll always be able to use it. The nice thing too is that hard drives come in so many flavours nowadays that are all useable. Any hard drive you buy for your receiver - chances are, they'll be able to use it. The only question is price, physical size, and amount of storage. I'd say anything 120GB or over is a good gift. The really nice gifts are the small Western Digital and LaCie external hard drives. Really sweet. Or you can go crazy and buy your receiver a 1TB drive - always useful.

Video Games - Video Games are nice in the sense that they're like buying movies for people- it's not like you can buy the wrong version or whatever that would hinder them from getting one they really want. It's just a nice bonus whatever game you buy them. The only thing is to make sure they don't already have it and that it's a decent game. How do you do that- just hop over to any game site (www.ign.com / www.gamespot.com) and look for the highest rated games.

USB Flash Drives - you really can't go wrong on these ones. If your receiver doesn't own one of these yet, or has a small capacity one, you can't really buy a USB flash drive that's bad. The smaller physical size the better, and the bigger the capacity the better. I'd say anything over 1GB in capacity is good - and if they can attach to their keychain, that's good too.

Nintendo Wii - If for some amazing reason you can find one of these, and your receiver plays video games, no question - pick it up. Unlike the XBOX360 and PS3, the Wii only comes in one configuration, so again, you can't screw it up. Not only that - it's such an amazingly hard product to find.

Category B: Gifts that matter what kind you buy

Playstation 3 - Alright, so this is one hot-ticket item this year, but there are some things you want to understand about it before getting one. Although it'll work with any TV, the full potential of the PS3 isn't unleashed unless it's hooked up to a High-Definition TV. However, because a HDTV can always be bought down the road, a PS3 is still a good gift for those who don't have a HDTV. What's important is understand the difference between the two currently available models. There's the PS3 40GB model and the 80GB model. The most apparent difference is the Hard Drive size. If your receiver wants to store lots of photos, music, movies, trailers, and more - then the 80GB model is the way to go. However, 40GB is a lot already. A typical game will take 1-2 GB of storage for saved games, a typical music collection would be anywhere between 10-30 GB. However, this isn't exactly the biggest determining factor because the PS3 has a hard drive that's easy to replace. What you should consider is the differences that are permanent. As it stands now, the 40GB model is not backwards compatible with PS2 games. So if your receiver also wants to do this, the 80GB model is the way to go. The second major difference is that the 40GB model doesn't feature the multi-card reader - which is essentially a bunch of slots that you can plug memory cards into. Cards such as those used for digital cameras. So you could take photos and plug that card into the PS3 to view them. However, note - that the 40GB model still has USB slots - so you can still view your photos that way. Basically - for most purposes, the 40GB model is pretty much sufficient. It won't be a huge problem. I'd say, if price dictates, the 40GB model is fine. But if you can afford it, the 80GB model's got some nice bells and whistles. (The only other major difference is that the 40GB model only has 2 USB ports vs. 4 on the 80GB model, and currently, the 40GB model ships with Spider-man 3 on Blu-ray, whereas the 80GB model ships with the Motorstorm game).

HDTV - If your receiver is lucky enough to be getting a High Definition TV this christmas, there's a lot you should consider. If you really want to get the top notch TVs - you want to be getting a TV that has a 1080p resolution. Basically, HDTVs come in 2 major flavours - 720p/1080i and 1080p. What this refers to is the number of lines of resolution. The more lines of resolution, the sharper the picture. Now, 720p/1080i are still considered high-defiintion, but they won't look as good as 1080p TVs. If price dictates, 720p is still nice, and at <40-inches, it may be hard to tell the difference. If you are again going for top notch TVs - another feature you want to look for is 120Hz refresh rate. This basically means how often the screen refreshes when displaying video- this basically makes motion look smoother, and sharper. The last thing you want to look for is the number of HDMI ports. The more the better. There's actually quite a bit more to consider. But if you get a 1080p TV with 2 or more HDMI ports, with 120Hz refresh rate, chances are, the rest is good.

Let's pause for a second.

I just realized I could go on and on about as many products as I want, but this will start to get long.

So, I'm just gonna list my top picks for gifts and if you have anymore questions, just leave a comment. (It's probably 'cause I'm just getting tired and lazy:))

Top Picks (all prices in CDN)
-Western Digital Passport Portable External 2.5" Hard Drive 320GB ($229.99)
-LaCie Big Disk Extreme w/ Triple Interface 1TB ($341.99)
-Crucial 4GB Gizmo Jr. ($50.00)
-Guitar Hero III Bundle for XBOX360 or PS3 ($99.99)
-Playstation 3 40GB ($399.99)
-Sony 46" Bravia LCD 1080p TV V3000 ($1799.99 on sale)
-Sony 46" XBR TV XBR4 ($3299.99)
-iMac 20-inch ($1299.99)
and more.

Thanks for reading.

Twosixsix Eataganza 2007

2007-11-12T10:14:00.001-08:00

So as my roadtrip to visit all my friends starts to wind down, me and my boys decided to cook us up a nice dinner. But no, of course we couldn't just cook it up - we had to make it a Eataganza. Enjoy, and thanks for reading.

Gus Khouri for Liberal Candidate for Newmarket-Aurora

2007-11-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

Hey, so I know it's been forever since I've posted anything and it's sucky that this isn't gonna be a real blog entry. I've been kinda roadtripping and visiting friends and just haven't had any time to jot down my thoughts. I have a strong feeling that lyricsOFtheMIND may end up being a podcast. It's so much easier to talk than it is to write.

Anywho, my buddy Gus Khouri is running for the Liberal Candidate position in the Newmarket-Aurora riding in Ontario. I made some campaign videos to support him. So here they are. Thanks for reading.

Gus Khouri on The Environment:

Gus Khouri on Foreign Policy:

Gus Khouri on Canadian Youth:

Ray of Light

2007-10-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

I'm probably one of the biggest hypocrites when it comes to music. I'm always going around suggesting artists to countless amount of people. "Oh you should listen to this", "Oh have you heard their new album?", "You have to download this song!". Yet, when it comes to people suggesting stuff to me, I barely give it a thought.

Well, that's not entirely true. But it usually takes me forever to listen to anything that people suggest to me. And I'm always a little skeptical. I used to be a massive massive Dave Matthews fan (I'm still pretty damn big, but I used to be ridiculously into him). As such, the suggestions came flying in. Hey, you should listen to Jack Johnson. Hey, you should get into Ben Harper. And I gotta say - both those artists - yeah - not in my books of good music.

But among that style of music came the suggestion of Ray Lamontagne. And holy wah have I ever been missing out. I mean I listened to Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Damien Rice, Jason Mraz, Teitur - all these acoustic singer songwriters, yet somehow Ray Lamontagne never made it into my collection. And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure why I decided to start listening to him. It all started with Barfly - it was a pretty relaxing song that I'd put on occasionally at night or while I was cleaning up the house. Then recently, during my endless nights of editing - I decided to listen to his whole album, Til the Sun Turns Black. And again - holy wah! Every song just kept getting better and better until it culminated into one of the greatest endings to an album I've heard since, Eskimo. The two tracks Til The Sun Turns Black and Within You create this epic 10 minute or so ending that's perfect for late night whatevers.

I love albums that have a universal feel throughout. Obviously some albums are praised for their diversity and ability to hit so many different notes - and I respect that. But when it comes to tossing on an album, I want an album that I can listen to front to back and not have to change the mood I'm in. Teitur's Poetry and Airplanes and Damien Rice's O are perfect examples of these types of albums. And those albums are held pretty freakin' high in my books.

Ray Lamontagne's Til the Sun Turns Black now joins the ranks. Well done Ray. Thanks for reading.

Nothing Else Matters

2007-10-08T21:52:00.000-07:00

Seriously. Nothing Else Matters.

One of these days, I'll stop promoting Apple products. But that'll be the day that Apple stops making products that blow my mind wide open. For you see, last Friday, I finally had the proud pleasure of spending 10 minutes with an iPhone. And being Canadian, that's 10 more minutes than a lot of my fellow residents.

Up to this 25 year mark in my life, I've always toted that the nicest piece of technology I've ever owned has been my Powerbook G4 - and if I ever get around to getting an iPhone, I'm afraid that title might be stripped from my 1-inch thin marvel of a computer. It's completely true what they say - once you get your hands on an iPhone, you'll get it. You'll get what all the hype is about. You'll get why it's been the most anticipated gadget of all time. You'll get why people overlook its many flaws. You'll just get it.

My first pleasant surprise was just how small the thing was. Not that it's any smaller than any phone in its class - but the images and the capabilities make you believe that this thing might be a behemoth of a phone. Quite untrue. When you hold it, it's just one of those things that just feels right. Almost similar to my first seating in a Porsche 911 - it just feels right.

And then it starts.

After reading countless articles and watching countless videos - you put all your iPhone knowledge to the test. You select the iPod app, you start flicking through the artists, you flip it sideways to enter cover flow, and start flicking through that, you hop into photos, and start pinching away, you enter safari, and start double-tapping your way through web pages. It's all there. Everything you've wanted to try just works so perfectly. It's such a pleasure to use.

And part of that is the screen. The animations that greet you with every action you take just make everything so much cooler. Almost like the first time you minimize a window in Mac OS X, your mind gasps a hint of giddyness every time you do something. Even the way the home menu reconstructs itself when you hit the Home button. Besides that though - the quality of the screen is just unbelievable. The black levels are nuts. It's almost as if the home menu is a sticker on your phone and not a screen.

The touch screen is just so absolutely responsive that it feels futuristic rather than primitive (as a lot of other touch screens in my life have felt). But I actually don't think its the response time that's making it so. Most touch screens that I've come across - subway stations, movie theatres etc, use CRT TV monitors - and the distance between the surface of the screen (and consequently your finger) and the actual pixels was always really far. The iPhone on the other minimizes this distance making a lot easier to feel just where it is you're touching.

Now just like all reviews of the iPhone, I must state - of course this phone isn't perfect. But tell me - what product is? What product in the history of man is perfect? If that's all that can be said about the iPhone - "it isn't perfect", then it must be that good to be even considered in that category of perfection. The keyboard - yeah - it's not great. It's useable, but in the short time I spent with it, I wasn't typing all that well. That recessed headphone jack - damn, Apple - why?

Whatever, you've all read the reviews. What I'm saying is that this thing is absolutely unbelievable to hold and touch. If you're at any degree interested in gadgets, you need to get your hands on one of these. Every other phone, every other iPod, none of it matters now. The only thing worth buying now is the iPhone. K, that's a bit of an overstatement. But if you're looking for the basics - an good MP3 player, and good Phone, and good Internet browser, and some other goodies - it can't be beat.

Thanks for reading.

Tis the season to be DVD-lly

2007-09-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I counted my DVDs/Blu-ray discs the other day. And after about 6 years of collecting, it would seem that I've hit over 400. Hmmm, I guess I officially have a decent sized collection.

Having a collection is kind of bittersweet. You indulge in the greatness of owning so much, and can't wait for the next releases, yet at times, you really hate spending that much money. Sometimes you're just buying things to add to your collection - say like sesaons of TV shows where you bought the first season so you can't stop now.

Well, it's that time of the year again. The most bittersweet for any DVD collector - the fall winter season. Studios start to gear up for the Christmas season by releasing pretty much every show and movie you could want if every super ultra deluxe collector's director's cut version. So I thought I'd just take some time to mention some which I'll be pocketing at some point hopefully. Starting from last week.

Avatar: The Complete Book 2 Collection (Sept. 11th release date) - Ah, yes, the little pseudo-anime kids cartoon that could. My friend Brian who's always bugging me to watch new shows got me into this one. This definitely has it's kid moments that make it not the greatest show, but what's interesting is that it's one of the few kids shows that has a serious cross episode story arc - which keeps things quite interesting.

Family Guy Volume 5 (Sept. 18th release date) - Is there really anything I need to say about this. I mean this was the series that was revived because of its DVD performance. I will say this though that this box set does feature one of my favourite episodes of the series, "Peter's Two Dads".

Smallville Season 6 (Sept. 18th release date) - Oh still struggling to survive. This series is the only WB series that I used to watch that's still on. It definitely has its moments, but as a whole, I'm more or less watching because I've followed it this far. I must admit though, this season was definitely pretty good, and season 5 definitely had a lot of strong moments.

Doomsday: The Death of Superman (Sept. 18th release date) - This is the big one. This, in all honesty, is probably one of the most anticipated for me. For my regular blog readers, they know that I've recently gotten into the Marvel Animated Features - really high-quality 2D animated straight-to-dvd movies. This is DC's first jump into the ring and what a story to start off with. I wasn't a huge comic book reader, but this was definitely one I picked up, so I'm quite excited to see this.

Reign Over Me (Oct. 9th release) - Not a perfect movie by any means, but definitely worth a see. Suprisingly funny and heartwarming at the same time. Adam Sandler's performance is great, but not to disregard Don Cheadle's equally good. It's one of those nice hidden gem movies that's actually not that hidden.

Transformers (Oct. 16th release) - Ugh - why the hell did Paramount pull out of the Blu-ray camp!!!! This is the main reason I'm angry about that. Now I've got the contemplation of buying it on DVD, or waiting for some HiDef reconciliation. Anyway, there's a nice 2-Disc release of this coming out, so be sure to check that out.

Seinfeld Season 9 (November 6th release) - November 6th is a crazy day for releases. Starting with Seinfeld, this is a beautiful year because so many of the TV series that I collect are starting to wrap up. Seinfeld ends its DVD run with the release of the 9th and final season. For those lucky enough to not have been collecting this series, there's a complete series collection arriving in a sweet oversized black book.

Cosby Show Season 5 & 6 (November 6th release) - One of the great sitcoms that's great not only because of nostalgia reasons. This is one of those shows that when revisited is just as funny, just as good. My only beef is that I can't seem to find any of these box sets since season 3 anywhere in Canada!

Ratatouille (November 6th release) - Among the best Pixar movies (and that's saying a lot), and definitely the best Brad Bird film - hmm, maybe not:) Anyway, it's such an amazing movie, and being the first Pixar film being released on Blu-ray, this is definitely quite anticipated. Not too mention the great short "Lifted" at the beginning.

Pixar Shorts Collection (November 6th release) - Just as good as their full length features, the Pixar shorts always impress. From Gerry's Game, to Lifted, to For the Birds, I don't think there's been one Pixar production that I've been disappointed by. For the first time they're being all released together, and on Blu-ray nonetheless. Should be a good buy for sure.

Lost Season 3 (December 11th release) - The show that was made for DVD. Seriously, this show is a billion times better on DVD than it is on TV. And talk about nice box sets. The packaging for these seasons is probably among my favourite. And who could forget that season finale. Damn!! I might have to go as far as saying that this is my favourite TV show of all time.

Frasier Season 10 (December 11th release) - If Lost is my favourite TV show of all time, then Frasier would have to be my favourite sitcom of all time. And this is the big one. I've seen every episode of Fraiser except for the last two seasons. And with the pre-release of Season 11 (the final season), Season 10's release marks the final releases for this show. It's gonna be a good day for DVD collectors - or at least me:)

And that's all I've got for now. I'm sure there's a whole whack more, but these are the ones I've had my eye on.

Thanks for reading.

In our bedroom, after the war

2007-09-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

Oh I how love thee.

The Stars. One of my favourite bands to come along in the indie scene that I truly love. For those who don't know, the Stars are a band from Montreal that now falls under the monolith that is Broken Social Scene. Their first album, errr, first big album (Heart was really their first album...oh wait, I've just found out there was some album before that too:), whatever), Set Yourself on Fire, was simply amazing. The more I listen to that album, the more I appreciate it's arrangement, production, overall catchiness, and originality.

The thing that initially drew me in to that album, and probably most people, was Amy Millan's ever so sweet voice. Seriously, take one listen to anything that she sings and you'll be blown away. I've never been to any of their concerts, but apparently the crowd goes absolutely insane anytime she sings.

But their was a problem with that. You see, the Stars are made up of two vocalists: Amy Millan and Torquill Campbell. And up til now, the problem has been that Amy Millan has completely overshadowed Torquill. Most songs you'd be waiting for his part to be over to hear hers.

That's all changed though with their latest album, In our Bedroom, After the war. Thanks god for this album. I was in a music lull for a long time not finding new music for the life of me. Along came this album (not to mention the new National album), and I was back on track. I wouldn't say In our Bedroom is as good as Set yourself on fire, but it does definitely feature some of the best songs from the Stars - but even better, the balance between Amy and Torquill is the best it's ever been. I no longer wait for Torquill's part to be over. Quite the contrary. In songs like "In our Bedroom, After the war", a long grandiose epic of a song (not as grand as Sao Paolo by the Guillemots, but grand enough), Torquill is the only one who sings, with some harmony provided by Amy, and the song is amazing. Seriously amazing.

"Midnight Coward", one of my new favourite songs by the Stars, again, features such a good balance between the two. Torquill's part is just as good as Amy's.

These are only two of the tracks from this great album. An album that definitely gives shine to Torquill's talent. Of course it still reminds of of how good Amy Millan is, but then again, we never forgot did we.

Definitely check out the Stars if you haven't already. Thanks for reading.

Oh how I hate Thee

2007-09-11T22:56:00.000-07:00

All these commercials that try to capture the essence of youth/gen-x culture. Oh I how I hate thee.

It seems that they're all cell phone related too. There are 2 commercials in particular that recently have me irking and cringing everytime they come on. One is the current T-Mobile, Sidekick commercial that has a bunch of teen/twenty some year olds messaging each other to congregate at at a grocery market to perform the oh so cool act of having a cart race. Ooooo, look at us, we're so rebellious, we're so cool, we're racing down the aisles of a grocery market, we're young and free, Ooooo. I think what would have actually saved that commercial would have been better music. It's not that the music is that bad on that commercial, but it's just not good enough to overshadow the stupidness of the commercial.

The second commercial that really annoys me? Well it's actually a set of commercials. It's for the Canadians - the Rogers My5 commercials. Man, are these ever annoying. Again, they're trying to capture the way teenagers actually act. Now, granted I'm no longer a teenager anymore, but still, these commercials just don't seem to come even close and manage to annoy at the same time. One of the commercials features a bunch of kids sending off their best friend to college and wondering who this girl "Ellen" is in his My5. Turns out to be his mom. Oh, how funny. How about the other one they had running where a couple of friends were playing rock, paper, scissors to get into their friends' five. They say something stupid about how Paper crushes rock or something like that. I couldn't be bothered with remembering how stupid the commercial was. Whatever, it just annoys me. I think what makes it worse is that this is coming from the company who not to long ago had a really sweet parkour commercial. Actually, what makes it worse than that is the fact that the equivalent T-Mobile My5 commercials are pretty damn good. Case in point, the "Why is my girlfriend in your 5?....Secret Lovers" commercial, I thought was hilarious.

I'm not sure why these things get on my nerves so much. I guess it's because I'm someone who really respects a good commercial. And I guess it's because I've seen good work from these companies in the past. And I also guess it's because these commercials think they're actually doing some good - it's not like their harmless. In my opinion, they basically fail miserably at what their trying to do; in this case appeal to the younger generation. Alright, I've vented. Thanks for reading.

Sour Apples

2007-09-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

Just what is people's problem with Apple?

Ladies and gentlemen, I am back. After the most severe hiatus in the short history of this blog, it would seem that I may be back if not only for a little while. I must apologize to those who gave up on me and stopped checking if I had updated my blog, but life jus became so utterly busy. Was it worth it? Hell ya. I got to direct a short film! So that's good. I'll keep y'all in on the loop whenever it becomes available.

So today's post? Yeah. Just what is people's problem with Apple? Is it just their natural incling to hate anything that becomes too big or too good? Is it just that they hate Apple fans. I remember my friend Jess in high school. Her favourite quote was "I don't hate the band, I just hate their fans." Whatever it is, I think people's hate for Apple stems more from Apple's high profile, and less from the actual faults of their products.

I mean, I've never heard so much complaint about electronic devices. People - no one's forcing you to buy/use these products. Yet you do - and complain about how sucky they are. If you hate the fact that Apple's iPod's battery can't be replaced, then don't buy one! If you hate that Apple comes out with a new iPod every two seconds, then don't buy one! It's that simple.

Sure, I will agree, Apple fans are obnoxious. Super obnoxious. They hate this stupid superiority complex, that stems from an insecurity. I mean I suffer from this too. So, if you're knocking Apple products just to shut those people up, fair enough. And sure, I will agree, that Apple does paint itself into the high profile corner. I mean what other tech company hosts movie-premiere-sized introductions to their new line of products? What other company invites the likes of Kanye West and KT Tunstall to play at these unveillings?

But for a moment, put that all aside. And look at the products for what they are. Sure they're not perfect. But in my opinion, they are the best.

Let's start with the iPod. People might think, oh whatever, I can get the same thing just without the touch wheel. But the touch wheel is what seriously makes the iPod such a joy to use. It really is the epitome of why Apple products are so great. The touch wheel, is a simple interface addition that other products don't have that make using the iPod such a joy to use. It's not just functional, but seriously a joy to use.

Throw in the iPhone. Sure, the functionality is pretty much the same if not less than other smart phones. But the touch screen itself makes it a joy to use. I haven't personally used one, but I'm sure it's one of those products that once you buy, you're constantly looking for an excuse to use it because it's just that fun to use.

When I bought my Powerbook, I was constantly seeking homework just so I could type on its absolutely pristine keyboard and stare at its gorgeous display. I've never felt that way about a display or a keyboard before.

Here's the thing about Apple. They basically get the things that the other people do right - for example, the iPod offers playlists, browse by artist, song etc., large storage. But what Apple also does is pay particular attention to the other things to make their products that much better. The touch wheel, the multi-touch screen the thin form factor of the Powerbooks, the design of the new iMac, and the list goes on. What does this all fall under? Industrial Design.

Basically, you can have your opinion. But really, you can't dismiss Apple award winning Industrial Design. It's what adds so much to their products. Their researching areas that a lot of other companies dismiss as not important. Some companies may say, who cares what Materials we use to build the enclosure of the computer as long as it's functional. Apple on the other hand will pick it so carefully.

Again, I've said it time and time again. Apple is by far not a perfect company. Apple by far does not make perfect products. But I think they make ridiculously amazing products that don't deserve the unjustified flack that a lot of people throw at them.

Next post? My beef with Vista:) (and for the record, I'm not anti-Microsoft. I love XP, I love their Surface computing, I even like IE, but a couple of weeks ago I got to sit down with Vista, and I must say, quite unimpressed).

Thanks for reading.

Where have all the good foods gone?

2007-07-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

Alright, so today, for some really really odd reason, I started thinking about a food that I haven't eaten in a long time. Actually, y'know what, it wasn't for some really odd reason come to think of it. I was watching the Simpsons in the gym. The thing is, by the time I hit up the gym, I hadn't really eaten in a while, so I was damn hungry going in. Now, the episode of Simpsons that was on was the episode where Bart becomes the "I didn't do it" boy. He gets his in when he steals a danish from Kent Brockman. And that's when it happened. I guess because of my hunger, my attention was focused on the danish - and then it hit me - what ever happened to Pop Tart Danishes? Those were damn good!

Then that got me thinking about all the foods that I'd been missing that seemed to have disappeared off the earth, or just in whatever vacinity I happen to be in. It's weird because no one ever kicks up a big fuss when certain foods go off the market - I guess it's because the companies that produce them don't go under, it's just the specific products. Before Fit to Live started, I would gorge on these foods like crazy - but now, I just want a small taste of my earlier days.

So today, I decided to create a list of foods that I sorely miss and plead the companies to consider bringing them back.

-Pop Tart Danishes (even better when not toasted)
-Rice Krispies Squares (Treats) cereal
-McDonald's Pizza
-Planter's Cheeseballs (apparently there's a huge internet community who feels the same way about this one)
-Cap'n Crunch: Crunch Berries cereal
-Eat-More Caramel Version Chocolate Bar
-Soft Runts

and if you have anymore to add, please do.

Btw, for those wondering, I'm been so on and off in the gym, that's why Fit To Live has kind of been on hiatus. I'm so busy with school that it's hit or miss everyday. I did go today, and it looks like I'm coming in at about 172 lbs, so that's pretty good. Anyway, it's probably gonna be like this for a couple of months, so I can't promise Fit to Live episodes on a regular basis.

Alright, thanks for reading.

So much is said with no words at all

2007-07-11T00:47:00.000-07:00

Alright, so one of the things I pride myself on and make an effort to justify that pride is finding hidden gems. Whether it be movies, music, or tv shows, I love finding shows that not many people know about and spreading the word of its greatness. Today, we're talking about one of the most original and in my opinion, one of thebest cartoon TV shows of all time. Now granted, it shares that praise with many other shows as I am a huge cartoon watcher. But let's just say, this is one of the best shows that you might not yet know about. The sad thing is, if you don't know about it now, it's already over. It survived only a couple of seasons on Canada's cartoon network, Teletoon and only survives now in a rare Vol.1 DVD and as a torrent.

I'm talking about the cartoon, The Untalkative Bunny. It started out as a show that me and my sister would just flip on when there was nothing else to watch, but in the end, we discovered what a great show it was. It's basically about this Bunny who lives in a downtown metropolitan area, and basically lives life with funny results (k, that was a bad sentence - but trust, me it's a good show). It's also laced with awesome jazz music.

Part of its charm is actually its simple, almost lazy looking, style of animation. You have lines that cross other lines, you have off-model characters and more. But it's actually funnier because of that.

Most of the stories are great too - and what's amazing is that a lot of these stories are told with little or no dialogue.

Basically, it's a really soothing and funny cartoon to watch that you should get a hold of one way or another.

Thanks for reading.

--.--.--

2007-07-09T23:55:00.000-07:00

Alright, so a while back when I officially migrated my blog from my various incarnations to blogspot, I brought along a lot of my older posts - one of which was the Top 10 Movie Trailers of all time. I had picked 9 of the 10 and made a lot of honourable mentions, but I hadn't decided on a number one trailer at the time.

Well, I'm sure at some point I'm going to change my mind, but I do believe I've found the greatest movie trailer that I've seen in a long time, if not ever. And for all you Transformers movie goers, you all know what I'm talking about. And best of all, it comes from one of my favourite producers in the industry, J.J. Abrams.

I'd tell you the title of the movie, but that's just the brilliance of the trailer - it revealed no title! All it had was a bunch of shaky, handheld handycam style footage mixed in with high-end special effects, bringing a scary sense of realism. Flash the name J.J. Abrams, and a release date, and that's all you got - but all you've got is again, probably the best trailer I've seen in ages.

The movie is under the codename Cloverfield and has rumours of being the next Godzilla, but who knows. What excites me further is that Matt Reeves is directing it - and the last time Reeves and Abrams were together (at least as far as I know), they were Executive Producing one of my favourite shows of all time (you can look it up:)).

Alright, check out the trailer here.

Btw, also saw Ratatouille on the weekend - great, great movie - Pixar really is unstoppable.

Thanks for reading.

Yes, it's THAT good.

2007-07-02T23:59:00.001-07:00

OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD! Alright, I'm not gonna dance around the subject with a lazy introduction like I usually do. TRANSFORMERS IS THAT GOOD! I'm probably one of the biggest transformers fans for sure. As a kid, I collected like mad, I'd watch the cartoon series ad nauseum, and not to mention the 80s movie (one of the greatest movies of all time). When I grew up, I'd still keep in touch with my childhood love by watching the 80s cartoon/movie in its many reincarnations - VHS release, DVD release, DVD 20th Anniversary release.

But now, Hollywood was put to the test when it decided to take my childhood and put it up on the big screen - and changing a whole helluva lot along the way. Now, as much as I've disliked Michael Bay's recent attempts (Bad Boys II, Pearl Harbour, Island), I was actually a huge Michael Bay fan back in the day (Bad Boys, The Rock, and Armageddon). So I knew his style was just absolutely perfect for this movie. What I was weary of was the liberties he took and the sponsorship - all GM cars, flames on Prime, Prime's lips, Bumblebee as a Camaro and on and on.

But screw it. Seriously. Forget it all. TRANSFORMERS IS THAT GOOD! Any little flaws you find with the movie, any fan displeasures or even atrocities are completely wiped off by everything that's so good about Transformers.

The movie doesn't waste time, gets you on the ride, and doesn't stop for the next 2 hours. The slow motion, the swing around dolly shots, the explosions, the destruction - it all works so well in this movie. Michael Bay, I'm glad your time has finally come.

Again, it's not perfect, and yes, again, I know there are things that go against the holy bible of cybertron - but you forget it. Seriously, as you watch the movie, you forget it and just enjoy the beauty of the movie. I can't remember the last time I felt so happy after leaving a theatre. I can't remember the last time I smiled so much watching a movie.

I think the thing is, as the movie starts and the company logos start - your heart beats so fast and so hard because you're so worried that the movie is gonna be bad - that they're gonna ruin what's left of your childhood. And because it doesn't - everything seems so amazing!

And because you forget about what doesn't please the fans - you enjoy what does! (SPOILER WARNING FOR THIS PARAGRAPH) - the addition of "One shall fall and one shall stand!", the attack on devastator's turret ala Cup in the 80s movie, and just hearing Cullen's Voice!!!! Oh my god Cullen's voice!!!! It sounds so amazingly good in a theatre!

The sequel's not nearly gonna be as good becuase it'll suffer from the Jurassic Park syndrome - once you've seen the special effects for the first time, you'll never have that feeling again.

Listen, Transformers isn't a perfect movie. But because what's good about it is SOOOO freakin' good, it makes you compeltely forgive the bad.

It's weird, as I was sitting in the theatre, I thought about what I'd say when people would ask me how good Transformers was - and I didn't think I'd be saying "It's SOOO FREAKIN' GOOD!", but as soon as I left the theatre, there was no doubt.

IT'S SOOOOO FREAKIN' GOOD.

Thanks for reading.

Monday, 8:00pm

2007-07-01T14:04:00.001-07:00

I have my tickets, do you have yours?

Just a phone?

2007-06-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

You know what I hate. I hate people who think they're too good for everything and who down talk people who say get excited about movie premieres, DVD releases, TV show season finales, video game releases, concerts, new albums. I hate people who think that getting excited about these things is a bad thing.

What I love is obviously the opposite. I love when people group together to go see midnight premieres of the latest Lord of the Rings installment. I love people who buy the super ultimate crazy hyper-extended platinum edition of the Matrix on DVD when they already own the gold plated edition. I love people who come to work the next day and say, oh my god - did you see the last episode of Lost!

It's not because I love these things that makes me love the people who get excited about it. I just love the fact that the people are excited about anything. Somewhere along the line, it became cool, or morally better to be apathetic towards these quote fluffy things. But seriously - screw that. These people are excited and positive about something, and they're generally happier people who bring you up and make you happier to. I tell you, I'd much rather hang out with those people than the downers.

So, why has this come up in my blog today - because of the hype of the iPhone. Today was a monumentous day for tech lovers as the most coveted digital product since, well the beginning of time perhaps, was released creating lines and lines of people.

On several blog posts, people would pass the lines and shrug lines like "all this for a phone? man these people are idiots?" Again, maybe the phone doesn't deserve this amount of attention. But who cares - it's the commotion and excitement that's so cool about it. The hype. The fact that people will camp outside stores for days is just all so positive and energizing.

For me - I don't care how fluffy the product is - I respect the fact that people get excited. Of course I'd question if they're were massive lines to buy this brand new bottle of water that features an added grain of salt - but I'd still respect the excitement and the commotion surrounding the event.

Similary - I don't care what your feelings on the iPhone (I think it's an absolutely brilliant piece of hardware), but don't shun those who spend days on end lining up to get one. 'Cause I guess in the end, if I didn't live in Canada and had $700 to spend, I'd be one of those people. And I'd probably have a blast being one.

Thanks for reading.

(image courtesy of Engadget.)

iWish iWorked for Apple

2007-06-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

So if there was ever a time you thought about a career change? One year ago might have been a good choice. And one year ago, you should have applied for one of the over 17,000 positions at Apple Inc.

A while back, during a "Town Hall", Steve Jobs wanted to thank his employees for all the hard work and thus, gave them all a free iPod shuffle. Fair enough, each one is only $79 and that's after markup. Pretty tame.

But now, during today's "Town Hall", Stever Jobs announced that once the hype and sales have subsided a bit (July), every Apple employee who had been with them for at least a year will be getting a FREE APPLE iPHONE! How crazy is that! Like this is probably one of the most, if not THE most coveted product to come out over the next couple of months - not to mention one of the most expensive - yet if you work for Apple, you're getting a free one in July. Man that's nuts!

I guess the ever so small downside is that Apple employee friends will have their iPhone first. But that's a small price to pay - especially compared to $500 or so US.

One of my buddies from back in my university days is one of the lucky ones and happens to work for Apple. Check out his website Give Me a Dollar Ottawa.

Thanks for reading.

If you're gonna ride Dan-o, ride in style

2007-06-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

So it's finally coming. After years of anticipation one of the most exciting events in my ilfe is about to happen. And oddly enough - I'm not talking about the iPhone (as amazing as that device is). Rather, I'm talking about the release of Michael Bay's Transformers.

I didn't have a lot of crazy treasured childhood memories, but Transformers was definitely one of them. I was fortunate enough that for a long time, my parents would take me to K-mart almost everyday to buy a new transformer. How cool was is to have a toy that actually acted like it did in the cartoon! Transformers were seriously probably the greatest toy of all time.

The show was half decent too - but what really sold me on it and what has truly kept me excited about Transformers is the 1980's Animated Feature Film. That was absolutely unbelieveable! I won't give any spoilers away, but everyone knows what an original, breathtaking film that was (I'm not exaggerating).

When news came of the live-action movie, there was of course nervousness running around. As we loomed closer, robot designs, Michael Bay's direction, Optimus Prime's lips and more put the movie into question. But now that we're only days away, the movie is shaping up to be one sweet ride.

According to early reviews, the special effects are supposed to be utterly mind-blowing and set a new standard - ILM does it again!

All in all, I'm super excited about this movie, and you should be too. If you haven't watched a trailer or have no idea what I'm talking about, be sure to visit the official site.

July 3rd is fast approaching.

Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.06.25

2007-06-25T23:46:00.000-07:00

Sick sick day! (for those just tuning in, sick=good). Anyway, drink water and thanks for reading.

To Blog or Not to Blog

2007-06-25T01:38:00.001-07:00

Hmmm, that really seems like a lazy title. So today, my buddy Arjay was considering starting a blog and asked me the profound question of what the appeal to blogging was. And although I had something to say - who's to say really what the appeal of blogging is?

There's really several reasons. I mean, for me - I think it's really the sense of little fame that I'll achieve from this blog. The idea that people are actually interested in what I have to say is always a nice feeling. When I get evidence that people I completely don't know are reading my blog - it always gets me a little bit excited. I think that's kind of the appeal of youtube too. People will post their videos for the little bit of fame they'll get for it. And really, there's nothing wrong with that. I think it's great that the internet provides a means that anybody's voice can be heard. Filmmakers, musicians, and even quote regular people who have something to say now have an audience.

I guess the other thing is that a lot of the time, I just have a lot on my mind and no one to really talk to - enter the blog. The nice thing about blogging, is that you can kind of just speak your mind without feeling the need to defend anything or fight for your beliefs. You just type, and people read. They either like or not. But you're never caught in a situation where you actually have to defend your point of view. It's a nice place to just speak.

The bonding's nice too. Think about it. You run into so many people in the world that you share common interests with. And when you find out you have that common interest with someone, you instantly feel a bond, a connection. And most of what I write about falls into that category. I was telling Arjay, it's like a comedian. Comedian's do a really good job of bringing light to situations that we all know - the basis of observational humour. We all know what they're talking about but they articulate it in words to make it entertaining and funny.

I guess that's what I kind of feel like as a blogger. I take situations that everyone knows about and articulate it in a way that's hopefully interesting. I mean that whole Klondike Big Cookie Sandwich posting - c'mon, I can't be the only person who loves that treat. But I'm probably one of the small percentage in the world that would actually right about it's perfection. And the other people in that small percentage will read it and say "Hey, that's so true."

I suppose other people have various other reasons for blogging. Some people have very personal diary style blogs. I've never found that super interesting. Of course you'll probably follow those blogs if they're family related, or if you have a crush on that person, or if you're just a really good friend who's interested in your friends' lives. But I found those blogs or more for the bloggers themselves. And that's totally cool - after blog stemming from the word web log, it just makes sense. It's just it never interested me in writing entries that detail my day to day activities.

Rather, I take something in my day to day activities and then turn it into something that might be interesting to read for others - not just my friends and family. For example, when I found out that Nestea Green Tea had more calories than regular Nestea - it was part of my daily activities, but I turned it into a "did you know" kind of article.

Basically, when it comes down to it - bloggers main blog for themselves. Or at least that's what I think. I basically blog for myself. I basically just speak what's on my mind. If other people happen to be interested in what I have to say - that's all the better. I'm not gonna pretend that the audience aspect doesn't play a huge part in the reason I blog - but again, the audience factor plays into a reason that benefits me. Kind of the no-selfless act theory.

So my advice?

Sites like Blogspot have made it so easy to start a blog. It's one of the main reasons I started. Because of this, really it's an awesome venue to get your voice out there, keep in touch with family and friends, or just keep a diary of what going on in your life (sometimes the greatest part about having a blog is going back to your old posts). If nothing else, it gives y ou something to do in your spare time.

I love blogging, there's nothing really else to it.

Before I go, all this talk about blogging I thought I'd give a shout out to all my fellow bloggers and tell you a little bit about 'em.

Black River Paddle Company
This is my buddy Chris' blog. It's basically the website to his Paddle company. Definitely check it out and support his business.

Canadian Civil Service Reform
This is my buddy Dave's blog which doesn't really update much, but I'm sure if you guys visit it enough, you can bug him to start posting.

Convoluted Coalescence
Andrew's blog. Andrew is one of my friend's who blogs about some pretty cool things (like random celebrity encounters) and other randomness in his life.

Joining the Masses
Alicia is a friend who I met purely through blogging - she's been nice enough to visit my site multiple times and drop me some comments. She updates nearly everyday, and has a lot to say.

Miscellaneous Debris
This is NIk's blog which hasn't been updated in awhile, but features some really cool photography that he has taken over the years.

Nancy and Lee's Amazing Belizian Adventures
This is a couple I know from my University days. They took a trip to Belize and diary'd (is that a word?) it on blogspot.

Nelson
This is a blog that was started by two of my good friends from back home, Aaron and Brodie. This is a blog that in the same realm as mine - basically random thoughts and feelings that we share with the world in a semi-structured article form.

So that gives you a taste of just what's out there - and that's only 7 out of 50 billion gillion blogs out there. Be sure to browse 'em.

So that's it. To blog or not to blog? Who knows, but when it comes down to it, it's a part of my life that I don't see going away for awhile. Thanks for reading.

Casey's Simpsons Quote of the Moment 2007.06.24

2007-06-24T03:27:00.001-07:00

(this one's coming straight from the movie)

Marge: How did the pig's footprints get on the roof?
Homer: Spider-pig, Spider-pig, does whatever a Spider-pig does...

(...speaking of, you guys should check out the new trailer if you haven't yet. Here's the link.

Perfection

2007-06-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I hand out the word Perfection quite a bit. Every year when a new 911 comes out, I call it perfection. And I've pretty much run out of examples. So maybe not. Maybe I don't hand out that compliment all that often. But it looks like I found another product worthy of my praise.

Every now and then you decide to splurge and indulge yourself with the luxuries of life. Whether it be buying over $100 worth of DVDs in one shot, or treating all your buddies to a shots at the bar (not that I'd know considering I don't drink) - it just feels good sometimes to just cross that line of morality and responsibility and indulge.

Me? What was my latest indulgence? Well, since I'm kind of on a workout program that has dietary requirements - my indulgence involves buying a high calorie treat for myself the other day. It was a nice summery day, and I decided to browse the ice cream freezer at 7-Eleven. I stumbled upon Breyer's Klondike Big Cookie Sandwich - and let me tell you - PERFECTION!!!!

Wow, this ice cream sandwich is pretty much as good as it gets. It features amazingly soft (but not too soft) chocolate chip cookies surrounding vanilla ice cream that has been marbled with hints of chocolate ice cream. The perfect amount of chill between the 2 perfectly textured discs of sweetness! Don't let the picture I put up fool you - there are no chocolate chips in the ice cream itself - that'd completely ruin the prefection.

480 Calories later I was quite satisfied and did not have the buyer's remorse - which I've been finding lately with junk food (which I guess is a good thing). But whatever, it was a deviant move from my diet, but was well worth it.

Be sure to try one yourself, even if it means you should walk to the store rather than drive. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.06.22

2007-06-22T20:16:00.001-07:00

Am I ready for Parkour? Not quite. Thanks for reading.

Plastic Surgery

2007-06-22T02:27:00.000-07:00

Alright, so if you've been following my recent posts, you'll know that I recently bought 3 box sets of DVDs - Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, and the Powerpuff Girls (yes, I neglected to mention that last one). Here's the thing. For about 6 years now, I've been collecting DVDs, and more recently Blu-rays - so my collection has definitely gotten up there in terms of numbers. Now, I've completely enjoyed this collection of mine, including all the hours of watching, the special features, the beautiful packaging, and such. But there is one thing that has constantly annoyed me - the plastic packaging! I realize it's an necessary thing to keep your DVDs nice and new - but seriously, the peel off the plastic you spend countless minutes trying to open the damn thing. What makes it hard is that you're trying to be careful not to damage the rest of the packaging at the same time. Then there's there are those security stickers that they have on each side which sometimes leave a terrible sticky residue.

Basically, there's a big hassle to opening your DVDs. Granted they're not nearly as bad as those hard plastics that can cut, but it's still a hassle. That's why this week, I was quite pleasantly surprised to find all three of my box sets packaged with an easy to open plastic system. Basically, it's plastic that just overlaps itself at the back, so you just reach under and rip it apart.

So, if I may - I'm sending a shout out to all DVD packaging companies to make it easier. Get rid of those stupid security stickers. No one steals DVDs anymore (they all just download them:)). And as for the plastic, just create this easy to rip overlap system. It'd save me previous seconds in my life.

Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.06.20

2007-06-20T22:29:00.001-07:00

I'm back. Thanks for reading.

September 18th is Doomsday

2007-06-20T00:16:00.000-07:00

Alright, for those who've been reading my blog since the early days, I had a posting about the beauty of 2D animation. Specifically, I was praising the recent Marvel Animated Features, The Ultimate Avengers, The Ultimate Avengers 2, and The Invincible Iron Man. These were three great straight to DVD movies that deserve some recognition. Well, it seems that DC will not sit idly by while Marvel rakes in the fame and fortune - and I couldn't be more excited.

I recently, as in today, bought volume three of both the Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain TV series. I slapped in the DVDs and was delighted with a preview of DC's first animated feature - and what a way to start - they're releasing on September 18th (same day as season 6 of Smallville), a straight to DVD animated feature based on The Death of Superman! It's being called Superman: Doomsday and although only at the animatic stage, this is shaping up to be a sweet feature.

Check out the official site here.

Thanks for reading.

Blog Entry 2007.06.18

2007-06-18T23:33:00.000-07:00

Alright, so as usual, an apology is in order. Actually 2 are in order. First of all, to my regular readers - I'm sorry for the lack of updates over the past week or so. As my fellow blogger, Alicia, guessed - I was shooting a short film again. We had 6 night shoots - which basically means we work from 7:00pm or so til 7:00am or so - so that leaves me really tired and unable to blog. So sorry for that - and thanks to those who have been checking in.

Second apology? After reviewing my past posting, the Top 10 Most Overrated Cars - I have to retract my statement about every lotus being overrated. They are actually nice cars and deserve the recognition that they have going for them. Or if they don't, they for sure don't deserve to be at the top of that list. What does? I'm not sure really, but you can be the judge.

K - so now that that's out of the way - I was wondering what I should write about today? Well, I thought I just may take the leap and actually just write about what's been hapenning in my life recently. I know that's a stretch for a blogger, but I'm just gonna have to do it.

Well, I'm not gonna talk about the shoot 'cause as exciting as it was - it's not really the kind of thing I could make interesting. So I'm gonna jump into some personal exciting news. My long time friends just announced that they're getting married. So a shout out to Tess and Iain. They're the kind of couple that you couldn't wait to get married. The kind of friends whose marriage you've been waiting for because all the other weddings you've been attending haven't been all that involving. I've actually been friends with Iain since kindergarten - so that's definitely chill. What's more - he's named me his best man - so that's definitely cool! Basically I'm pretty stoked about this wedding.

Video Games. Ah video games. Me and my buddy Arjay on Friday - after finishing shooting our films, had some time to hang out and we just had the itch to play some video games. So we rented ourselves an XBOX360 along with Fantastic Four, Forza 2, Call of Duty 3, and Fifa '07. And I gotta say, as fun as those were to play - they just didn't scratch that itch quite fully. So then today, we, along with our other partner in crime Chris, decided to pick up Gears of War. K - seriously - how amazing is this game!!!!! I can't remember the last time I had this much fun with a video game (well, actually i can, it was Guitar Hero, but nevertheless). The graphics are absolutely phenomenol, and the gameplay - oh man the gameplay. That "A" button movement is so brilliant, and the challenges they present are just so intense. No to mention the co-op mode - that has to seriously be the best part. I'm sure most gamers have gotten their hands on this not so hidden gem, but if you haven't do not deny yourself the pleasure.

Saturday night. Oh man Saturday night was a blast. Back where I was living for the last five years, I had a weekly gig at a bar playing acoustic shows for about 3 hours every saturday night. It was a sweet time to actually have a place I could regularly play. After I moved out here in October, however, I had nowhere to play. I was new to the city and it was just hard to get a gig anywhere. So I had been missing it sorely. Come last saturday, this house party popped up and I was invited to bring my guitar - so I did - and I played my heart out and it was amazing. I don't think I'd ever sung better, and the people there really enjoyed it. So that was definitely an amazing night. I was pumping out the Dave Matthews, Damien Rice, Blue Rodeo, and even snuck in an original tune. Just unbelieveable night.

Alright, so I guess that's really it. I'm gonna try to get back into the gym this week and potentially startup Fit to Live again. We'll see. Realistically it'll be happening earliest wednesday. The good news is, I've been losing weight over the shoot week anyway:) (maybe not the healthy way, but some way:))

Hopefully I'll be updating more frequently, but as for now, thanks for reading.

Top 10 Overrated Cars

2007-06-06T22:13:00.001-07:00

Alright, so I couldn't resist. In response to my posting about the Top 10 Most Underrated Cars, it got me thinking about the most overrated cars. So here they are, for your controversial pleasure. Thanks for reading.

10. Ford Mustang
9. Every Maserati
8. Every Bentley
7. Hummers
6. Chrysler 300
5. Mercedes CLS
4. Dodge Viper
3. Nissan 350Z
2. Every Jaguar (except the new XK)
1. Every Lotus

Casey's Mix of the Moment 2007.06.06

2007-06-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

Alright, every now and then, and it's pretty rare, but you come across an album that's completely in the same mood. Some album's are praised for the variance in sound, but usually, when you're in the mood for music, you want one type of music. Luckily, their are some albums that are pretty uniform in feel - and they are great albums - Damien Rice's "O" and Teitur's "Poetry and Airplanes" are perfect examples. In celebration of the movie Once, I'm dedicating this edition's Mix of the Moment to the stars behind the brilliance that is the movie "Once". So today's mix of the moment is just the Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova album, The Swell Season. Do yourself a favour and buy this album. You won't regret it. Thanks for reading.

1. This Low by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
2. Sleeping by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
3. Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
4. Drown Out by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
5. Lies by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
6. When Your Mind's Made Up by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
7. The Swell Season by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
8. Leave by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
9. The Moon by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
10. Alone Apart by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Random Thoughts of Casey Li

2007-06-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the sens lost - fans, suck it up. Be glad that your team made it to the finals at all, and it's not the end of the world that they lost. On a completely different note, let's think for a second. My blog since its inception - like before it was on blogspot, before it was on facebook, before it was on myspace, when it started out as a MS Word published webpage on my school server, it had always been called lyricsOFtheMIND: randomTHOUGHTSofCASEYli. But to be honest, and as my old roommate Aaron pointed out - there's hasn't been really anything random about my postings. They're all structured articles on my life and the world around me.

So I decided that today would be a day for actual random thoughts. So enjoy and thanks for reading.

-Once is probably one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, and it's soundtrack is some of the best work Glen Hansard has done.
-Why don't all iPods have the headphone jack at the bottom like the nano. Seriously - if you think about it, it makes so much more sense at the bottom - from when you hold it, to the way you'd naturally place it in your pocket - they should all feature the headphone jack at the bottom.
-Why didn't Futureshop or HMV have season 3 and 4 of the Cosby Show on the release date? I've been waiting for those box sets for a longtime.
-Does it mean you're getting old when you love the routine of watching the Leno after you brush your teeth but before you go to bed?
-If you're one of those people who's anal about keeping things clean and organized including your toothpaste, then you probably squeeze from the very end of the tube, and roll the tube up as you use it. Now, if someone messes that up, have you ever considered that you can fix it in 2 seconds just by leaving the cap on, and squeezing everything to the front. While we're on that topic - this doesn't work with the Colgate flip cap.
-Doesn't it suck that it justifiably makes sense that someone who fails then succeeds get way more recognition than someone who's succeeded all along?
-Why can't I write any songs that are nearly as good as Falling Slowly by the Frames?
-The iPhone is going to be one of the greatest gadgets on the market, and anybody who disagrees is probably just jealous of those who have one
-As much as I respect Steve Jobs' business saavy and his company, and products, I think I respect Bill Gates more as a person.
-Are Steve Jobs and his minions robots that are preprogrammed to say certain phrases? Case in point, anytime anybody mentions a feature of the iPhone, they always seem to word-for-word say "It's also the best iPod we've ever made".
-Why do I respect the craziness of soccer fans more than that of hockey fans?
-Why do people, including myself, like something, but then hate it when everyone knows about it?
-On that same notion, is it a form of insecurity when people say "I liked their older albums better" - aren't they really saying "I know them more than you do"?
-And on that notion, I think most of what annoys me most about people can all be traced back to insecurity
-Film buffs may dislike Michael Bay - but c'mon, his style is absolutely perfect for the Transformers movie.
-Let's give M. Night Shamylan a break - stop comparing all his movies to the Sixth Sense, and stop basing his movies entirely on the shock endings and realize that his movies are good for other reasons.
-I think some of the most underrated, or at least underacknowledged artists, are composers for TV commercials - no, not liscened pre-recorded music, I'm talking music that was specifically composed for the commercial.
-House is an amazing show, but it wouldn't be nearly as good without Hugh Laurie.
-For those of you who kind of enjoy weddings, but realize they're never really as fun as they're made out to be or should be - how could they fundamentally be improved? What radical ideas could make weddings truly fun for everybody?
-People complain about Apple releasing new iPods every several months - but seriously - it's not like after you buy an iPod, they release a new one, and you're all of a sudden mad that you have the one that you have - you still love the product you own.
-And while we're on that topic, why doesn't anybody get angry at any other company that does that?
-You know what's good - those little things that tech companies put on their products that are specific and don't apply to all, but if they apply to you their amazing. For example, Sony puts Memory Stick slots on their TVs - which only applies to Memory Stick camera users. If you don't have one, it's useless, but if you do have one, it's great! These little specific things don't make it annoying, they make it great.
-If you get an iPhone - would you be nervous about using it in front of people? Like, how could you casually use something like the iPhone without showing it off?
-There's so much that House says in the show that makes so much sense.
-Screw the disbelievers, LOST is an incredibly amazing show.
-Am I the only person who thinks Jessica Alba is overrated when it comes to looks?
-I'm pretty sure Samsung has surpassed Nokia as my favourite cell phone manufacturer
-Slider phones are the best form factor for a cell phone for sure - but even better was the pop-sliders that seem to have gone extinct
-I feel like I could keep typing, but I think I'll stop soon.
-I hate when people bring up things that they think they sound insightful about, when really, everyone knows that already. Example? I hate when people say things like "Reality TV isn't really real. There's a lot of staged stuff." - yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know that already.
-While we on the topic of Reality TV - I hate people who think they're too good for it. Like somehow they're better than the people who do watch it.
-Disney's The Weekenders is actually a really really good show. I know the target audience is young, but it's really entertaining. Not to mention Disney's Fillmore.
-If you haven't seen the movie "A Simple Plan", you really should.

Alright, that's it for now. Maybe this'll become a regular segment, not sure. We'll see. Again, thanks for reading.

...just once

2007-06-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm sure you'll be reading a very similar entry on Convoluted Coalescence - but that's because what we're writing about completely blew us both away. I'm talking about the movie Once.

In short - take all the brilliant frames songs, lace them into an incredibly sweet and touching love story and you've got probably one of the greatest movies I've seen in a really long time. Along with Shopgirl and Eternal Sunshine, this movie definitely ranks among the best love story movies.

Here's the thing - I could talk ad nausea about how great the movie is - but I don't want to overhype it or nitpick at it. It's one of those all encompassingly good movies, that talking about any individual part kind of diminishes it's brilliance. So I'll just say this. Once is a great movie. Go see it. Nuff said. Thanks for reading.

Top 10 Underrated Cars

2007-06-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

Alright, so of course you have your 911 Turbo's, your Ferrari F430's, your BMW M5's, and even your Honda S2000's. Yes, most car lovers, and even non-car lovers agree on the cream of the crop cars. But there's a few cars that people seem to forget about that once they're announced, people put them in the back pockets of their minds and never talk about them again. Yet, when it comes down to it, they're excellent cars. Whether it's their value, their uniqueness, or their beauty, these cars deserve recognition. Of course when you bring them up, people will still agree with you that they are great cars, but for some reason when you ask people to name you their favourite cars, these never seem to come up. So, here I am, bringing to the public's attention once again, the top 10 underrated cars:

10. Cadillac CTS
9. Infiniti G35 Coupe
8. Masda MX-5
7. Acura RL
6. Lincoln LS
5. Mazda 6
4. Porsche 911 Targa
3. Volvo S60R
2. Acura 3.2 TL
1. Honda Accord Coupe

Hello, I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC

2007-05-30T22:59:00.000-07:00

Alright - nerd alert - tonight was a highly historical moment in the computing world. And really, maybe it's not just for nerds anymore - 'cause really what happened tonight was a historic moment involving two people who have probably ta one point or another touch everyone's life. Today at the All Things Digital conference, for the first time in around 20 years, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs appeared on stage together. Now I haven't read the entire transcript yet - but the general conversation between the two was in my opinion very respectable.

I mean, basically, it showed that neither one could deny the success of the other - which I'm a huge advocate of. When it comes down to it - if I had to choose one computer, it'd be a Mac. But like they said in they're interview, it's not a zero sum game. There are things that make a Mac better than a PC and vice versa.

Jobs and Gates conducted themselves very well. Of course if either had behaved badly it would've have reflected bad on their own company - but still, from what I've read so far - the respect seemed genuine. Of course, they disagree on topics - that's what makes their companies so different from each other - but again, neither could deny their counterpart's success, and neither could deny their roots.

Their was some video I watched a while back featuring the VP or something er rather of Microsoft dissing the iPhone. I found it pretty stupid, and I guess that's why that guy isn't the CEO of Microsoft.

Although Steve Jobs can be a pretty viscious person, there's a certain modesty that seems to come across when you're at the top and it seemed to come across during this interview. Kind of like when you meet a truly talented musician versus someone who's just getting good. Basically what I'm trying to say is that there's a lot of people even within the companies themselves that are so one track minded that they basically think it's one company or no company. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, two people I highly respect and the two people responsible for these companies as they are, seemed to have a different light, which only drives my respect for them higher. Check out the transcript here:

http://d5.allthingsd.com/20070530/d5-gates-jobs-interview/

Thanks for reading.

Well Done Microsoft

2007-05-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, so up until this very moment - the only real computer company that has been able to blow my mind wide open has been Apple. From their iPod, to their 8-core Mac Pro, to their 30-inch display, and iPhone - really there's so much they've released that has completely blown me away.

That all changed today. After so many years in the industry, and after flooding the market for so long - Microsoft has finally been able to truly impress me with something their introducing at the conceptual stage today: Surface Computing. Yeah, yeah, multi-touch has been done before on an iPhone, but check out the wireless syncing, and check out the sheer size at which multi-touch is operating! Seriously, check out this video:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4217348.html

Well done, Microsoft. If you can just focus on coming out with more stuff like this, you might be able to compete with Apple when it comes to industrial design. Thanks to popular mechanics for the behind the scenes look. And thanks for reading.

The Ultimate Driving Machine

2007-05-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

Alright, so a while back I had a posting about the annoucement of the new BMW M3 - although specs were amazing at the time - let's actually sit back and think about it. This is a car that's about $100,000 CDN and competes with the likes of a Ferrari F430! A V8 engine in a car the size of an accord coupe! Not to mention the most perfect stylings I've seen in a long time. How about the carbon fibre roof! Geez, seriously, if you haven't checked out this car, head over the www.bmw.com right now. This car is seriously gonna kick some ass. Along with the Audi S5, I'm pretty sure this will be my favourite car of the year. Ultimate Driving Machine? I think so. Thanks for reading.

My Life of Music is naNo More

2007-05-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

Well, that's it - the little pocket sized machine that supplies the soundtrack to my life is no more. No more music as I walk the streets of my city, no more music to work to, no more music to take my mind off how much time is left in my workout. It's really amazing how much music I listen to in life.

My iPod Nano started acting up the other day. And like I said in one of my previous blogs, yes I tried all the usual fixes. Still no solution. I even got it restored and everything, and still my problem was persisting. I decided the only way to truly reset it would be to disconnect the battery. A while back, say a couple of months, I managed to fix the fuse in my lamp (refer to one of my early, early posts), and I even opened up my Powerbook and replaced its hard drive. So I was feeling pretty good with my handiness and ability to fix things.

Thus, I decided to open up my little nano and peak inside. After poking around, I managed to crack open the thing and take a look inside. However, despite all my efforts, in the end, I had to rip the wires that were connecting the battery - and boom, end of my nano. If I can solder the wires back, I might be able to get it to work - but it's a tiny area to solder. Plus, I don't have a soldering gun.

I've had the thing for a year and a half - so I really have no justice to buy a new one quite yet. Hopefully Apple will release a new one soon to justify me spending some moolah on it.

Either way, life's gonna be a lot more boring now that I have no soundtrack to it. It's kind of depressing when I think about it. Ah well, life goes on. Thanks for reading.

Too Much of a Good Thing

2007-05-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, there is. There truly is such a thing as too much of a good thing. I'm sitting here just having finished my dinner. I hadn't eaten since breakfast so I was starving, and I didn't really feel like cooking anything. So I decided to stop at Subway on the way home. I ordered a Chicken Teriyaki, 12 inch, Double stacked sub. Now for those of you who haven't stepped into a subway recently, you can now double-stack the meat on any sub you order.

The funny thing is - this is not the first time I've done this. The first time, I ordered a Subway melt 12-inch, double stacked. And at that time, I thought it was way too much meat. But I also thought that it was because it was cold-cuts that made it not so great. I thought for sure the double-stacking would be good with the chicken teriyaki.

Nope. It's just way too much meat. By the time you get down to the last quarter, or even last half of the sub, you kinda feel gross and you're just shoving meat into your mouth and not really enjoying any of it. And this is coming from a guy who is essentially a carnivore. I love my meat, but double-stacking a sub at Subway just isn't good.

I'm open to maybe double-stacking a six inch sub - 'cause that's basically a 12-inch with less bread, but as it stands now, I'm highly against the double-stacked 12-inch subway sub. Thanks for reading.

Casey's Mix of the Moment 2007.05.26

2007-05-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

Well, my iPod has finally joined the masses - it's officially on the fritz. It's kinda sucky because it's still functional, but just can't be synced, and it keeps draining battery. And before you all start replying, yes, I've tried the millions of solutions to try to fix it. But despite this, I think I've actually got some new music for a new mix of the moment. It'd be so long since I've found new music - and although a lot of this isn't the newest, it's still something. Anyway, enjoy and thanks for reading.

1. Outside by Aqualung
2. Falling Slowly by The Frames
3. Ache by James Carrington
4. Great Balls of Fire by Teitur
5. Wicked Little High by Bird York
6. Dear Me by Mike Schmid
7. Everything by Craig Cardiff
8. Lover's Side of Town by Joe Purdy
9. Maybe I by Mere
10. The Way we Get By by Spoon
11. Garden of Love by Aqualung

Finally

2007-05-24T00:35:00.000-07:00

Alright, this is gonna be short, but it's a piece of news I've been waiting to hear ever since last Christmas, and it's a piece of news I'm sure all fellow PS3 owners have been waiting for. You see, when we embarked on the Sony train and shelled out all that money for their dream system, we got a lot. We got a sweet new system that acted as a media center for photos and music. We got a next gen gaming platform (albeit still awaiting killer apps), as well as my favourite part, a blu-ray player. Even though it carried a hefty price tag - for what you were getting, it truly was worth it.

But there was a pretty significant factor that was missing. You see, although I own a PS3 and am starting to collect blu-ray discs, the vast vast majority of my collection remains as standard def DVDs. And the best way to watch these of course is with an upscaling DVD player. Well, it seems that Sony forgot to package this little feature in with their behemoth of a machine.

Here we are, sitting 5-6 months after its release, and Sony has finally blessed us all with update 1.80, to be released today in North America which adds DVD upscaling (along with a whole other set of updates). These firmware updates are showing Sony's dedication to their customers and is giving more peace of mind to the owners.

So thank you Sony. Now just get on gettting some good games out. MGS4 is way too far off. Thanks for reading.

Three Hours

2007-05-22T23:04:00.000-07:00

Alright Lost fans, this is it. Tomorrow night may not be THE night we've been waiting for (that'll be the series finale), but Wednesday night will for sure be one to clear your night for. This posting is just a reminder that not only do we get a 2 hour season finale tomorrow, but we also get an ABC special on lost preceeding the episode. This gives us three hours of Lost! What more could you ask for.

It all goes down tomorrow at 8:00pm on ABC. Be sure to catch it. Thanks for reading.

Goodnight Seattle, We Love Ya'

2007-05-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

So ever since the blog has started, I've dropped lines about postings that I would do in the future. For example, in my posts about Richard Hammond's return to Top Gear,or the score for Top Gear - I would mention that eventually Top Gear would get its own post. It finally happened when I hailed it the greatest television show ever.

Another posting that I forementioned that would happen was about my favourite sitcom of all time - and here it is. My posting about Frasier.

Now, again, i do absolutely respect Seinfeld and its amazing accomplishment to never stoop to seriousness. There is never a serious moment in Seinfeld. Almost every other sitcom succombs to some amount of seriousness at one point or another. So I do respect Seinfeld for being truly orignal for that. But truth be told, I like the seriousness at times - that is, when it's done well. I've mentioned this before, but I absolutely hated Friends anytime it got serious. Mind you, I wasn't a huge fan in the first place - it was an alright show - but when it got serious, it got really annoying.

Frasier on the other hand does seriousness perfectly. It attacks the complexity of Frasier's character and does it so well. It helps that he's a psychiatrist because it presents very interesting insights into things the audience can relate to. The sweet, nice, serious moments in Fraiser are done with just the right amount of sap for a sitcom.

Let's talk about the humour. What I love about Frasier, is that it pokes fun at 2 sides of a spectrum. On one hand, it makes fun of all the pretentious snooty actions that Frasier and his brother Niles partake in. Yet, at the same time, it completely makes fun of the "regular joe" actions that they're dad is involved in. It's nice to have a show that's not so one-sided.

Experimentation. Frasier does a lot of experimentation that seems to work out really well. There's one episode where they split the storyline into two decision paths each exploring what would happen if Frasier made a different decision. The only thing they've done that's close to a clip show actually puts Frasier and Niles in past episodes through special effects. There's one entire episode that's played out as a hypothetical in Frasier's mind. And it all works so well.

The thing about Frasier is that it maintains this level of integrity and maturity, while still lacing the show with low-brow humour which is reflective of the range of characters featured on the show. It's bascially done what most sitcoms haven't - it setout to be multi-dimensinal and it actually succeeds at it. It attacks your senses on so many levels.

I recently purchased Season Nine and started watching it again - it's been a long while since Season Eight came out. From the get go - the first episode was amazing. There only remains one season to be released on DVD (since they've already released the last season), and what excites me is that the last two seasons are seasons that I've actually never seen. I haven't exactly expressed my thoughts so clearly here, but if the last two seasons are even half as good as the first nine seasons, Frasier will remain as my favourite sitcom of all time. Thanks for reading.

How often do you find the right movie?

2007-05-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

Alright, so first off, let's apologize for my hiatus from the blogging world. I know I have at least 2 readers, and I've been neglecting my lyricsOFtheMIND - but with a legitimate excuse. I've been on a production shoot for a short film as a Director of Photography with crazy long hours - leaving me aboslutely no time to do anything else.

What does that mean? Well besides the blog - my fitness program has been on hiatus as well. That's why Fit To Live's been on hold. Has all been lost? Luckily no. Because of my long hours on set being on my feet all day - I actually lost some weight! I'm actually sitting around 179 lbs right now! So that's good. I'm thinking probably monday I'll be able to get back to it.

But what's today's post all about? Well, it's about a little movie that my buddy Andrew told me about called Once. Why am I so damn excited about it? Well basically because it features the lead singer from one of my favourite bands - The Frames' Glen Hansard. Not only that - it features an arsenal of the Frames music! Package this with what looks like a really sweet love story between music writers, and festval shattering reviews - and you got yourself one highly anticipated film.

You guys should definitely check out the trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/once/

This'll be a movie for the books. Thanks for reading.

Lost

2007-05-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

This'll be quick - but for all Lost fans - looks like we've got some great news, or at least great news in my opinion. The reason Lost has been so good has been because of its crazy anticipation for an explanation for all the craziness that happens. Well, announced today, ABC is intelligently setting an end date for Lost, giving them 48 episodes (3 seasons of 16 episodes uninterrupted) to wrap up the series. Why is this good? Well, it's good because they won't keep the show running needlessly just for ratings - they'll actually have a plan. I read an interview with Damon Lindelof where he said the plan from the beginning has always been to have around 100 episodes. So it looks like that's about what they'll get. Just like ABC said - Lost is one of those shows that to maintain integrity, it has to bow down at the right time. Looks like 48 episodes later will be that right time. Can't wait. Here's the rest of the story:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ie9108c1dc34a16eadbfcfe7003f96ad8

Thanks for reading.

...to those who wait

2007-05-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

When I was young, say 10 or more years ago, I was a huge video game fanatic. I was one of those chinese kids who had every system on the market - we're talking NES, SNES, Genesis, Sega Master System, Gameboy, Game Gear, and even the dreaded 32X and Sega CD. Back in those days, I was always on the ball with release dates and with the help of my friend Rob, I got into the game of reserving games. When MKII came out for SNES for example, I made sure to reserve my copy on launch date. This trend lasted a while for all major releases - mind you MKII is the only one that really comes to mind.

Fast forward a couple of years and a new obsession was born - DVDs. After a couple of months of collecting DVDs whenever I could, I discovered the industry's New Tuesday policy - that is new music and new DVDs are always released on Tuesdays. So then I started marking in my calendar when my favourite movies were being released in all their Special Super Extended Collector's Platinum Edition glory.

My point is - I've pretty much always been an impatient person who had to get things the first day they came out.

But here's the thing. Somewhere in my university career, my obsession for games started to dilute. And hence, I stopped getting games on their release date (with the exception of Metal Gear of course), and I even stopped buying video games entirely. Well, sometime during exams, I got this craving for video games and decided to venture in the world of Splinter Cell. But by the time I decided to buy it - it was about a year or so since it had been released - making it just $20 CDN!!!!! How great is that!

Let's take another example. I've always semi been a fan of King of the Hill - it was never my favourite show - but it was good, and the more I watched it the better it got. By this year, I was a pretty big fan of the show, and one weekend I just had this craving for the show. So I finally decided to buy the season sets - and by this time, they had been out for a long time and they were just $25 CDN a piece!!!

You see - if you just wait for awhile, these things go down in price like crazy and it's great! Why do I bring this up today? Well tomorrow, I'll get to experience it again. I've only recently gotten into two great shows that have been on the air for a while now - Battlestar Galactica and House M.D. For BSG, season 2 has been split up into two box sets up til now, Season 2.0 and Season 2.5, each about $50 CDN or so. Tomorrow, the studio is packaging these two box sets together and selling it for a lower $69!!! Same with House - they're packaging seasons 1 & 2 together for a lower price! Granted, I caved on House, but still BSG will be nice.

So you see, good things do come to those who wait. Thanks for reading.

Fit to Live 2007.05.07

2007-05-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

It's good to be back. Thanks for reading.

Fit to Suck 2007.05.05

2007-05-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, i guess it had to happen one day or another. But on thursday and friday - sadly, I must report, that I missed my workouts. I was quite mad about it, but I've been seriously busy with school. On thursday, I was at school from 9am til 1:30am - yeah, almost 15 hours, so when I got home, I was dead tired. And the thing is, this kind of schedule will continue over the next couple of weeks. However, I should be able to slide in my workout.

But sadly, my streak has been broken. I am by no means giving up - no, it's just with a film we're shooting - my schedule's been swamped. We'll see how things go, but I'm still gonna make as much effort as possible to maintain my 5 days a week. I am sorry for this, and sorry that there was no episode of fit to live.

In other news, box art has finally been released for Cosby Show seasons 3 and 4 - making it more official (for those who don't know, the Cosby Show box sets have been on a really long hiatus) - so that's quite exciting for me. Plus, season 9 of Frasier comes out this month, another bonus indeed - not to mention a fully packaged season 2.0 of Battlestar Galactica, and I may as well pick up season 2 of House. With Smallville and Lost running out their seasons, I'll need something to watch over the summer, and it looks like that won't be a problem.

Alright, that's it for now. Updates might be a bit scarce this month, but I'll try my best to keep my readers informed on what's interesting (or at least what I find interesting). Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.05.02

2007-05-03T00:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates guys, it's been a busy week. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.04.30

2007-05-01T00:19:00.001-07:00

I'm back. Thanks for reading.

1080p, the 'p' is for Planet Earth

2007-04-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I must apologize for my absence from my blog, but I've enjoying my time back in my parent's home, just chillin' and enjoying some high defintion watching. And let me tell you, if there's one thing that high definition was designed for, it was for the incredible BBC documentary series currently airing on DiscoveryHD and recently released on HD-DVD and Blu-ray: Planet Earth.

This series completely lives up to the hype. Never before have I been so enthralled by nature and what it has to offer. Not only does this series present some of the most incredible high definition shots of the world we know - but it also dives into some of the most exotic never before seen places. Seriously - when you watch this series, you think to yourself, how have I lived this long on this world and never have known about these places.

More than that - the series actually presents some really good story structure. Each episode actually is told really solidly leading to some of the most climatic moments I ever seen in a documentary - much less one about the sweeping landscapes of boring old earth.

My only regret is that I didn't get to tsee the whole series. I bought the Blu-ray disc on tuesday and didn't have time to watch it all. In fact, I only got to 4 episodes. But let me tell you, unbelieveable! The episode "Caves" absolutely blew my mind. You really have to see this episode to believe and understand what I'm talking about.

Without a doubt, Planet Earth is one of the best things in screen entertainment to come around in a really long time. I can't remember the last time I dropped my jaw so much and just said to myself, I can't believe what I've missed. It's one of those amazements that completely opens your eyes to something so new when you think you've seen it all. Planet Earth - everybody out there - you can not miss this series. Thanks for reading.

The Turn

2007-04-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

K. There are some movies in life where you just have so much damn anticipation that by the time you actually come to watch it, you fail to see the greatness of the movie. Your hype just overshadows all the elements that make it great. Then, there are some movies that are so overhyped because of twists, and turns, and shock endings, that all you concentrate on while watching the movie is solving the puzzle rather than, again, realizing all the other things that are going on to make the movie so great. Movies like Big Fish and Finding Neverland I was waiting for forever since the first trailers, and by the time I saw them in the theatre, I was dissappointed - just because of the hype. A few months later on DVD, I watched them again - and guess what, they're like two of my favourite movies. I finally got to sit them and watch them with no bias.

Its funny, though, in the second category, the one with the shock endings etc, it sometimes can have the opposite effect. If you go into a movie not knowing it has a shock ending, then the ending blows you away, and you think the movie is utterly amazing. But then, you watch it again, and you realize that the shock ending is the only thing good about the movie - the rest kinda sucks. Once you know the secret, it gets worse.

But as I originally stated, if its advertised with plots/twists etc, you can miss a really great movie because of your focus on the puzzle. Its really a two edged sword this shock ending deally. And there's one movie that I built up with so much pure awesome movie anticipation with a side of crazy shock ending that, again, I was blinded to the brilliance of the movie.

The Prestige.

Let's take the movie itself. Directed by Chris Nolan (one of my new favourite directors), with a cast of Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johanssen, Christian Bale, and Michael Caine about Magic! I mean c'mon, it's gonna be, eerr,, magic! I was totally blown away by the preview and could not wait. But on top of that - promises of a shock ending, and a movie that plays out like a magic trick completely had me locked in again.

WARNING SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

The thing is, the first time I saw the movie, I was concentrating so much on Angier's (Jackman) magic trick, that I completely forgot that Bale's character had a trick to figure out too. Angier's was really simple to figure out, but really - the beauty of the film was concealing Bale's trick. Again that shift in focus completely threw me off - so when we saw Angier's trick - I was like meh, and then when we saw Bale's trick - I was, oh right, there was that trick too.

So, already the shock ending didn't let me sit and enjoy the movie.

Secondly - all that pure anticipation didn't let me sit and enjoy the movie - so really I came out of the theatre rather dissapointed.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I revisted the Prestige yesterday with a clean head and let me tell you - this movie is aboslutely amazing. It's weird. It's one of those movies that's actually better if you know the shock-ending. 'Cause then it becomes a game of figuring out how clever the director was in laying down all the hints - and believe me, there are a lot! Some are really subtle, but really smart!

K, let's strip away that, and look at the movie itself. This movie is a great tale of rivalry and never before have i felt so much pain for characters. The scene when Jackman's wife dies, the scene when Bale is shot, the scene when Jackman's birdcage trick goes horribly wrong, the scene when Jackman falls to hit a wooden board floor. Never before have I felt so much physical and emotional pain for a character. And the rivalry is just so amazingly constructed. Not only that - its a complex relationship - I mean really who do you root for. They're both viscious in the rivalry.

The narrative structure is even amazing - albeit at times hard to follow - but the idea of someone reading someone's journal who's reading that same man's journal was a really nice device. The acting was top-notch, the setting was amazing - I was watching the making-of and Nolan talks about setting it as a period piece with a very contemporary feel.

Basically - if you've watched the Prestige and felt a little disappointed, look at it again. Seriously - the second time I watched it, it went from being a good movie - to a great movie. I guess that's why they call the second act the turn.

Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.04.20

2007-04-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

End of week 5 - definitely the most tiring week yet. Thanks for reading.

Top Gear

2007-04-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, here it is. I've danced around topics on Top Gear - but finally I've decided today to post my thoughts on why Top Gear is the greatest show of all time. I was just browsing around the Top Gear website, and read Jeremy Clarkson's blog - where he asking the fans just what the new series will look and feel like and its got me all excited about the show again.

So where did it start? Well, really - with my roommate Aaron (from the NELSON blog). Usually, he and I would watch TV together like Futurama, Simpsons, Family Guy and some sitcoms here and there - and occasionally while one of us was doing homework the other would pop on a show that the other one didn't watch. Top Gear was one of Aaron's. I remember the first time I watched it I had sat in on one of the awards shows and I remember just being really confused as too what the format of the show was. I couldn't understand the live audience, and the studio setup etc. It was just very different from any North American show - radically different from any North American car show.

As time went on, I caught more and more episodes that Aaron would watch, and he'd always mention the production values but I never really took notice. The transition from knowing nothing into hardcore fan was actually pretty damn subtle. I'm not really sure when and where I said - man, this show is good.

Now, I live in North America, so its not like we get it on TV here - so we acquire it through other 'methods'. But basically, one summer, I asked Aaron to give me every episode thus, far. That was 7 series (seasons) at the time of 60 minute shows (no, not 44 minutes + commericals, true 60 minute shows). I went through this phase where I was watching at least one episode a night and that's when I really grew to appreciate the brilliance of the show.

K, let's rhyme off the reasons why its so great: its informative, its funny (really funny), its stylish, it has some of the greatest cinematography, editing, music supervision, and overall production I've ever seen, and more. Let's start with the car reviews - what the show used to be solely about. These sequences are filmed so stylishly that it just makes anyone who's handled a camera drool. And the beauty is - this is one place where its justified. Like if you put all the stylistic elements they shoot into a feature film - everyone would criticize the lack of substance and abundance of flash. But on a car show - that's all you want - flash. Now, granted - some people criticize the car reviews and being kind of vague. When Jeremy Clarkson describes every car he drives as "the greaetst car he's ever driven", its hard to guage just how good that supercar is. But if you strip away word for word analysis, the car reviews are actually quite helpful - they give you the overall impression that Clarkson, May, or Hammond have when they drive a car. I mean basically they'll give you the feel of whether or not you'd be happy with the car. Top Gear alone shattered my 20 some year opinion that 911's were the most gorgeous cars on the planet (they sold me on the DB9). They even convinced on cars like Honda Elements! The car reviews also feature great writing and it helps that Clarkson, May, and Hammond are great narrators. Yeah, nuff said about the car reviews - the segments are just so well put together its just unbelieveable.

Let's move on - how about challenges? To keep the show interesting to non-car buffs, Top Gear also features a whole whack of ssegments that would please anybody. For example, in the last series - they build a space shuttle out of a car in one of the greatest things I've ever seen on TV. How about triple challenges featuring Porsches for under 1000 pounds? Best of all - they feature amazing races across Europe (a Bugatti Veyron vs. a Plane for example!)

That not enough for the non-car buffs? How about a star in a reasonably priced car? This is where basically Top Gear becomes like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. They have celebrities come on every week to have a track time in a cheap car. Stars in the past include Ewen McGregor, Simon Pegg, Hugh Grant, and Michael Gambon.

Now, in recent seasons, the show been taking a different direction in that it seems that car reviews are becoming more scarce and the other segements are starting to come into the spotlight (especially in Series 9), but I think the shows run recently has just been a little unstable in terms of its contract with the BBC and stuff like that.

Whatever.

By the way, I do appreciate North American car shows, and I do appreciate the limits they have in terms of places to shoot, the culture of cars here, and the censorship that exists in North America - but really if you've watched a North American car show - you have no idea what you're in for when you watch Top Gear. I can't stress enough how different this show is. So don't pass this off as your typical car show that's just better quality. It's a completely different genre of show.

Basically when it comes down to it - yes Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, Frasier, Seinfeld, Lost, Felicity, The Wonder Years have their place in the top TV shows - but really in terms of overall production, humour, information, frequency of good shows - really, Top Gear is the greatest show of all time.

Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.04.18

2007-04-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

The last two days have been rough for sure. Thanks for reading...err watching, eerr whatever. "Thanks for reading"'s kinda become the slogan of this blog, so I'll keep it at that.

Six Strings

2007-04-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

Y'know, if you browse through my blog, there's a lot of posts about cars, movies, electronics, music, etc. But there's one hobby that's a major part of my life that I've seemed to have ignored - my guitar.

Last saturday, I had a nice day off, so I decided to go to the music store and try out some new guitars. As a guitar player, its always nice to keep up to snuff about what's on the market. For the first time, I had the opportunity to play a Paul Reed Smith - a McCarty model at that. Actually, the first guitar the guy handed me was a Custom 22 - and there's always this etiquette with guitar stores. You don't really ask to play the nicest guitar first - because you have to establish a trust. I mean, when you're dealing in the $2000+ range, you shouldn't blame them for being reluctant to hand you a guitar. So, I played the Custom 22, and once the guy saw that I had some decent skill, he handed my the McCarty model.

I'm a Les Paul player- and to date, the nicest electric guitar I've ever played is my Les Paul Standard. But I gotta say, the Paul Reed Smith's are definitely close. I still think the Les Paul is better, but the Paul Reed Smith's definitely have their advantages - the number one being its body. The Les Paul is a heft guitar and can become quite cumbersome after awhile - but the Paul Reed Smith almost feels like a strat (well, not quite, but definitely on that end of the scale). So, its really like the best of both worlds- the fat, robust sound of Les Paul with the jump-around-the-stage lightness of a strat. Not to mention its looks. PRS's are gorgeous guitars - especially the ones with the bird inlays. The tops are sweet too.

The other guitar I tried when I was there was the Gibson ES-335. Now, when I started playing guitar, I was big time into Oasis and Noel Gallagher at the time was a big advocate of semi-hollow Archtops. Since that time, I've bought a Epiphone Supernova and am quite happy with it. The narrow neck is a very nice touch. Anyway, back then, before I really knew what I was talking about - I went to a guitar store and tried an ES-335. It must have been the first $2000+ guitar that I tried. Back then, the store clerk was staring me down when I played it, so I never really got a good feel of the guitar. That must have been 7-8 years ago. So that's how long its been since I've picked up an ES-335.

Last saturday, I decided to revists my love for the archtop - and let me tell you, I was rather dissapointed. Now, granted, it's really hard to tell how good a guitar is in a guitar store - but overall, I wasn't very impressed. Both clean and distorted tones were kinda ugly - the overall playability was shabby, and the newer models were rather heavy. I'm sure if I had more time with them, my opinion might change - but maybe not. As it stands now, it must say, rather dissapointed.

Not last saturday, but awhile back, I did try an amazing guitar though - The Taylor T5. This is a sick guitar! For those who don't know, it's in the realm of the Chet Atkins SST and the Godins - basically an acoustic that's designed to be plugged in. Of al those guitars- the T5 is for sure my favourite. I plays an sounds so nice. The Chet Atkins SST has been a favourite for a long while (mainly due to Dave Matthews), but the Taylor T5 (now played by Dave, and Jason Mraz) is taking the winners seat. It is such an amazing guitar. What completely blew me away was how good this thing sounded even unplugged.

When all is said and done, in my life to date

-The best electric guitar I've ever played is a Les Paul Standard
-The best electic/acoustic guitar I've ever played is a Taylor T5
-The best straight acoustic guitar I've ever played is this 10 year old Yamaha 400 series

Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.04.16

2007-04-16T23:43:00.001-07:00

Apparently these videos are doing some good. Thanks for reading.

The Power of HD

2007-04-15T21:59:00.000-07:00

I'm not really sure how long its been since the introduction of High Definition to the public, but it has definitely been awhile and the world is still taking its sweet time easing into it. I don't blame the world either - 'cause really, to upgrade to HD, you have to spend a lot of freaking money. Lets take the jump from VHS to DVD as a counter example. When DVDs first came out - people were asking the same question that they are asking now, "Is it really that much better?" I actually remember the first time I realized the sharpness of DVD. I was in a Sony store and they were playing a Bad Boys trailer - besides everything just looking so great - I remember that the "This Preview has been approved for all audiences" text on that green background looking crazy clear! And very shortly after I could answer the question, "Yes, it really is that much better!"

Now here's the thing - with the advent of DVD there was only one thing you needed to buy - a DVD player. That was the beauty. You could use all your existing equipment (i.e. your existing TV) to enjoy the beauty of DVD. Now granted, it was also the first time you could enjoy 5.1 surround sound - which required you to buy a 5.1 system - but even if you didn't have that system, you could still marvel at the beauty of DVD quality.

Well, now HD has been introduced and you can probably tell what I'm getting at. The question is being asked again "Is HD really that much better than DVD?" Well, its a tricky issue. I find that HD isn't as consistently better than DVD as DVD was better than VHS. Like you could pick up any DVD back in the day and it would blow the VHS equivalent out of the water. With HD on the other hand - there's quite a range. And its really due to the range in HD material that exists out there.

For example, lets start with the output. Already HD doesn't have one standard. You have 720p (720 horizontal lines of resolution) and 1080p (1080 horizontal lines of resolution). So right there, some HDTVs look "that much better", and some don't. Secondly, lets talk about transfers. Because DVD was a pretty sharp format to start out with, HD transfers to Blu-ray and HD-DVD have to be excellent to be "that much better". And from the reviews I've been reading - not all the transfers are coming out that great. (For those who don't know, basically the source material that's shot needs to be compressed down to the Blu-ray and HD-DVD format. This transferring process can vary in quality). Just as a comparison, I own House of Flying Daggers on Blu-ray and Invincible - and there are worlds of difference in terms of how great they actually look.

Another issue I've found is projection size. Sometimes you really can't appreciate how good HD material is until you blow it up to a theatre size screen. HD is the first video source to rival the resolution of film. Thus, it is "that much better" in the way that when you project HD material to a theatre size screen - its still really sharp, unlike DVD. You probably wouldn't notice as big a difference on a smaller screen.

The last issue I've noticed in comparing SD (standard definition) and HD material is what the source is shot on. For those who don't know, there's basically 3 things they transfer successfully to HD output: material shot on film, material shot on HD-video, and CG material. The thing about material that is shot on HD and CG, the transfer is almost flawless, if not flawless. That is, the digital material is transferred perfectly. However, stuff shot on film has to go through a process of scanning each film frame into a digital equivalent. And sometimes this isn't done so successfully. Actually, sometimes its done perfectly successfully, but just the nature of film - it doesn't look as sharp and clean as HD. This is completely fine artistically - like I'll definitely argue for the film look over HD look in some cases - but if we're talking about seeing "how much better HD looks than DVD", the best material you have to consider is stuff that's shot on HD. That's why I still stand by, the absolute best stuff I've seen in HD is stuff like Jay Leno or Conan O'Brian - because the source originates from an HD camera.

While on that topic - sometimes what constitutes something looking so much better is how the film was shot itself. Because HD is so sharp - you notice stuff that's out of focus (usually on purpose). So really, to appreciate the magnificence of HD, you have to have a shot that has a extremely large depth of field. Than you start see details.

Oh, and details? Well, sometimes, CG material really isn't the best material to compare. Again, since DVD is a pretty sharp medium to start off with, sometimes DVDs capture all the detail that a CG artist has rendered. I mean, when you look at CG skin, a CG artists may render it pretty flat and smooth. Well, when going to HD, you can't really get anymore detail out of that skin. Whereas with really life stuff, you can always get more detail.

So with all of that said - what HDTV your watching it on, the size of it, the source material, you can see how HD may not conivnce people. But the problem is the people aren't watching the right HD material that showcases how good it is. So with that said, in my opinion, when you take the best DVD material and the best HD material that

HIGH DEFINITION IS TRULY THAT MUCH BETTER THAN STANDARD DEFINITION.

You just need to find the right stuff. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, back to the point of using your existing equipment. Again, when DVDs came around, you didn't really need taht much new equipment. With High Definition - you pretty much need to completely overhaul your home theatre/TV that you watch. 'Cause quite honestly, SDTV sucks on HDTVs. DVDs look alright, but even then. I mean, to truly make HD worth your while, you need to get at 1080p TV (say $2500-$3000 CDN), an HDBox (extra $20-$40 CDN a month), a Blu-ray/HD-DVD player ($500-$1000 CDN) - so it all really adds up. The only thing that you can use from the past is your 5.1 surround sound system. So it is a lot to convert to HD.

However, really the point of this entry was to say that, once you have converted to HD - its amazing the power it has over you. Particularly - the power it has over you to watch things you would never have watched in the past. I haven't made the complete conversion to HD yet, but I have a bunch of friends who have. And I can't tell you how many countless hours people will watch the same Coldplay concert over and over again. Or how people who have never watched sports in their life start to watch sports. Or how much of a kick you get out of watching a helicopter flyby shot of landscape.

Here's the thing about HD that's unlike DVD. DVD kind of revolutionized how we watch movies, the quality was great. However, HD - takes that approach and applies it to everything that we watch! Not just movies, but tv shows, the news, sports games, etc. I mean when DVD came out, the resolution of hockey games stayed the same. But with HD, everything got upped!

And that's great - 'cause it gives documentaries like the much takled about "Planet Earth" a real home. I mean EVERYONE's talking about Planet Earth and how brilliant it is. And I think its highly due to the fact that it is done in HD. The same filmmakers did a documentary called The Blue Planet and no one kicked a fuss about that. Granted Planet Earth is a way bigger project - but still, I think its publicity has gotta be at least 50% due to the fact that it looks so gorgeous.

So yes, HD is that much better than SD. Yes, to upgrade to HD, its a huge chunk out of your wallet. But the thing is, if you do, you'll will be pleased with how much stuff you'll be watching again. I mean you'll basically fall in love with your TV again. It's almost like you stop watching the show for the show and more for just how good it looks.

I leave you with some things you should watch if you have an HD setup. And be sure to visit www.highdefdigest.com for all your Blu-ray and HD-DVD needs.

-Invincible on Blu-ray
-Planet Earth on DiscoveryHD or HD-DVD or Blu-ray
-The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
-Late Night with Conan O'Brien

(my list is limited 'cause I myself don't have an HD setup)

Thanks for reading.

Casey's Mix of the Moment 2007.04.13

2007-04-13T23:37:00.000-07:00

Alright, so to go along with my Fit To Live series, my Mix of the Moment today is my running mix. These are some of the songs I work out too and I think are great songs to run to. Enjoy.

1. Trains to Brazil by the Guillemots
2. Get By (Remix) by Talib Kweli f. Kanye West, Jay-z, Mos Def, Busta Rhymes
3. Man Burning by Josh Ritter
4. All These Things That I've Done by The Killers
5. How to Save a Life by The Fray
6. Gone by Kelly Clarkson
7. Touch the Sky by Kanye West f. Lupe Fiasco
8. Save Me by Remy Zero
9. White Shadows by Coldplay
10. Definition by Black Star
11. Knife-Grey Sea by Pilate
12. We'll Never Know by Lifehouse
13. Blinded by Third Eye Blind
14. Numb/Encore by Linkin Park/Jay-z

And actually most of the stuff from my hip hop mix of the moment works well too, and some of the stuff from the movie version of the RENT soundtrack works quite well. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.04.13

2007-04-13T23:35:00.000-07:00

End of week 4 - my first 5 day a week workout. Thanks for reading.

iWish iOwned an iPhone

2007-04-13T00:21:00.000-07:00

Alright. So as most Macophiles know, we received some bad news today - the much anticipated Mac OS X Leopard was delayed until October. The amazing new iChat, Spaces, and of course Time Machine capabilities will just have to wait. The reason? Well, it's due to possibly the most coveted electronic device to come around in a long long time: the iPhone.

This post has really been a long time coming. I mean everyone knows about the iPhone, everyone knows just how amazing it is. But really, because of the long period between its annoucement and its release - that steam sometimes fades. Seriously, for those who have put the notion of the iPhone on the shelf since its announcement, may I invite you to revisit it. Take a look at the keynote speech again, watch the many YouTube videos about it, or whatever - just reacquaint yourself with this device. Because I did last night - and man - THIS THING IS FREAKIN' AMAZING!

The thing I love about Apple - is they're all about interface. And it's a different approach to interface. It's not just about making it the easiest interface to use in my opinion. The way they design their interfaces is that yes, they are easy to use, but moreoever - they're really fun to use! I mean, all you're doing is scrolling through artists to get to the song you want to play - but the click wheel actually made that process fun. When iPods first came out - when you saw someone scrolling through a list - you wanted to be doing that. When I first got my Powerbook - it had such a gorgeous display and perfect keyboard (to date, the best keyboard I've ever typed on) - that I wanted to find work just so I could be on my Powerbook.

The thing is Apple designs interfaces that if you're not using them - you want to be. Or if you try it once, you just want to keep playing with it. They make the mundane fun.

The iPhone in my opinion is probably the greatest demonstration of this. Let's take a few examples - the flicking of your finger! How cool is that! Everyone will have so much fun when they do that to do a relatively boring task - I mean all you're really doing is scrolling through lists. How about resizing pictures? The dual thumb-finger deal? Man, how fun is that going to be.

Basically - Apple makes they're interfaces so smooth and so perfect, you almost feel like you're not playing with a real thing - it's out of this world and some mini-man is just interpreting your movements and controlling the device for you. (what the hell does that mean? not sure really) But what I'm trying to say is - do you remember Minority Report? Do you remember how Tom Cruise browsed through the files with those cool gloves and how everything just moved so smoothly? He'd just flick his wrists, twists his hands and found the killer? Well to me, Apple's interfaces are the closest thing we have to that.

The iPhone is an absolutely incredible device and although costing an arm and a leg - I think it's totally worth it. If I'm lucky enough in life to own one - there's no doubt in my mind it'll be the nicest piece of technology I've owned since my Powerbook.

So, again, I invite you guys, revisit the iPhone and fall in love all over again. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.04.11

2007-04-11T23:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I got so caught up in Lost that I forgot to post today's episode. Thanks for reading.

Casey's Garage

2007-04-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

Alright, people, this one's long overdue. Really, it's almost like it should have been a "...of the moment" segment, but whatever. Basically, I have my favourite cars of all time in my head that changes subtly over the years (with the 911 Turbo and Aston Martin DB9 topping those charts), but then there's just my favourite cars of the moment. There's a lot more to consider when compiling a list like this. Because, it's really what impresses me at the moment - like when the Audi TT was released, it was my favourite car of that year just because it was so bold and stylish for its time. It was by far not the greatest car, but the year it was released it was a great car. So basically what I'm saying is that the list below isn't my favourite cars of all time, it's just my top 10 of the moment. What currently is impressing me. One thing that kind of goes big into the equation is previous models. For example, the Mitsubishi Evo has always been a gorgeous car, but the Evo Prototype X is just stunning. Also, to be fair, I'm only putting down cars that are in production, or will very shortly be in production. So without further a due, here's my top 10 cars of the moment. Thanks for reading.

10. Nissan Altima Coupe
9. Jaguar XK
8. Honda S2000
7. BMW M3
6. Porsche 911 Carrera
5. Bugatti Veyron
4. Ford Mondeo
3. Mitsubishi Lancer (Evo X)
2. Audi S5
1. Aston Martin DBS

Fit To Live 2007.04.09

2007-04-10T00:53:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter to everyone. Thanks for reading.

A League of Her Own

2007-04-09T01:10:00.000-07:00

Alright, I apologize for the lack of updates over the Easter Weekend. If there's one thing I hate, it's how all internet updates (or most) stop during the holidays. Of course I understand it, but it just sucks. But the fact of the matter is, I've just had nothing to write about over the weekend. My easter weekend's been pretty good. Saw SharkWater which was good and bad. Lots of good things in it - but not sure about that narration. Ah well, still worth a look.

Anyway, as such, I still really have no update today either. So I'll do the easy cop out and just port over one of my posts from my old myspace blog. Enjoy and thanks for reading.

A League of her own...

You know, you go through life accomplishing a lot of just building your confidence and stature and succeeding at everything. I'm not trying to sound cocky or boastful here - but I'm damn proud of everything I've accomplished - my work with film, my work with music, my grades in school, my breakdancing and free-running - heck I'm even pretty happy with my personality. And of course I'm not for everybody - there's a lot of people who hate me out there - but I don't care, no one's loved by everyone.

You go through life and your head is up high and you think - I'm a pretty decent guy and deserve anybody that comes my way. Even though everybody might not be my taste - I at least go through life thinking I deserve any one of them. There are times where of course I've been rejected - but in the end I always end up saying - y'know what, you deserve better and those who reject you are just trash and don't deserve you.

But then it hits you.

Every now and then - and although it's happened twice this year - it happens very seldomly. And it pretty much kills you:

You actually meet someone who truly is out of your league.

You tell yourself the old cliche that I just mentioned about deserving better, but time and time again you start to find out more about these people and realize that - wow - they really do deserve better than yourself. I've met 2 girls in the past year that I truly feel this way about. Now again - don't get me wrong - I'm not down on myself and am not feeling sorry for myself. I really do think I'm a pretty frickin' amazing person. But let's face it - they really do exist - girls that deserve better. All I'm saying is that it sucks sometimes. Why am I writing about it now? Well, tell you the truth, for some unknown reason - I just woke up thinking about one of them this morning - and thought - man that sucks!

I think what's worse sometimes, is that because they are such great people - they're never really mean or jerkish to you, and they never lead you on, etc. Like - you basically have nothing to be mad at them about. All you have is the situation to be mad at. Bascially to sit in your bed in the morning at think - man - this kinda sucks.

But I guess there's always the bright side. And I truly believe in this - it's not some kind of self-consolation. I'm talking about the revelation that these people give you - they reveal to you that people like them exist in the real world. You start to think sometimes that your standards are too high, but then these people always validate them for you - and in the end, despite the sucky feeling - you're usually overcome with the feeling and notion that it was a privilege to even meet them. They'll never be in your life again to any significant extent, but at least you got to know an amazing person who'll do amazing things in this world. They're out of your league, sure, but all it does it force you to be a better person.

Or at least that's how I feel. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.04.06

2007-04-06T23:22:00.001-07:00

Episode 9, business as usual. Although the numbers will be done consistenly from now on.

I remember it well

2007-04-06T00:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, this is kinda old news for the hard-core fans, and I do consider myself a hard core fan, but I just forgot to read up and get my updates recently. But some really sad news has hit.

Damien Rice is one of my favourite artists of all time. "O" is one of the best albums of all time. And as great and amazing as he is, one of the best parts about listening to his music is listening to his vocal partner in crime, Lisa Hannigan. God her voice is amazing. That raspy compliment to his raw hatred of relationships was always great.

Unfortunately, it seems that their professional career has run its course. Damien Rice's official website (www.damienrice.com) had an official statement where Lisa Hannigan would no longer be singing with Damien Rice. And for Rice fans, this is a huge hit. I can't believe it. I guess it makes sense for her to pursue her own endeavours, but man, it's sad to see her go.

So as a tribute, to our beloved Lisa Hannigan, I'm gonna list my favourite moments in Damien Rice's music that she added:

Top 10 Lisa Hannigan Moments:

10. Her Harmony in the bridge of Volcano
9. Her harmony on the live version of The Professor & La Fille Danse
8. Her harmony in Face
7. Her harmony in Toffee
6. Her part in 9 Crimes
5. Her part in Unplayed Piano
4. Her part in I'll Remember
3. Her duet with Damien during the bridge of The Blower's Daughter
2. Her singing of "I'll get a cheaper ticket next time" in Woman Like a Man
1. Her amazing live performance in Delicate (you really have to see this, at the end of the song when she hits those high notes, holy wah!)

Thanks to www.eskimofriends.com for being the best update site for Damien Rice and thanks to you guys for reading.

Eight and Three

2007-04-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

K, just got some house-cleaning news bits to deliver to the public. First up, the new Mac Pro. It seems that Apple just isn't satified with 4 cores to run their powerhouse of a computer. The new Mac Pro houses 8 cores - that's right, essentially 8 parallel processors for all your computer needs. Why am I excited about this? Well, here's the thing - I don't even own a Dual Core computer and never have. So by the time I do buy a new computer, they'll be up to 6 billion cores (ok, maybe not that much), but it just may feel like it for me. Another benefit of owning a mac - you'll own it for awhile and by the time you're ready for a new comptuer, computers will have advanced so much that you'll actually feel great about your new purchase.

Secondly, while Subaru seems to be questionably redesigning their iconobile (yes, that's a Casey-ism, no charge), BMW seems to be staying true to their "design the sweetest cars" motif. That's right ladies and gentlemen, the official M3 photos are out - no, not the M3 concept, the actual production model. Although looking a lot more tame than the concept (that's a given), the new M3 is looking every bit as good as any new M3 when its released. Not to mention its new V8, over 400 BHP engine! Will this bring Clarkson back onto the M3 team? (Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the RS4 and actually put it above the M3 for the first time). We'll have to see. Jump over to www.caranddriver.com for more info and pics.

Alright, that's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.04.04

2007-04-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

Recorded during Lost, so forgive the glances up to the TV:) Thanks for reading.

Casey's Simpsons Quote of the Moment 2007.04.04

2007-04-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

Lisa: Can I sit there?
Comic book guy: Yes! If you can answer me these questions three. Question First!

Why wReck eXcellence?

2007-04-03T00:28:00.000-07:00

I know Alayne will take note of this one. Do you remember back in the day when no one really knew about Subaru? Do remember when the four wheel drive on every vehicle mandate didn't really matter to anyone. Remember those australian outback commercials showcasing, well, the Legacy Outback? Remember how no one cared?

Well, at least the general public didn't seem to care. That is until the words "Street Legal Rally Car" starting popping up. I'm talking of course about the car that single handedly made Subaru one of the coolest car companies in the world - the Subaru Impreza WRX. Winning Rally Championships all around the world, it was sweet when they finally decided to give the public their best product. Not to mention the STi shortly after.

Now the thing is - ever since the WRX came to the public market, there's been a significant debate about its styling. The original Rally Car that the public WRX was based on had nice little slit rectangular headlights. However, its street legal brother sported circular, bug-eyed, almost beetle-esque headlamps. I don't think I've ever heard so much controversy stirred up just because of 2 pieces of round plastic. But I must admit, the rectangular headlights did look better.

But then another generation came out that would become my favourite. It was a subtle change, but the round headlights became half rectangles (on the outer brim), and half circles (on the inner front). This styling in my opinion was definitely the best of all the WRX's. It was big and bulky and in your face - on top of which, it was beautiful.

What happened after? I'm not sure really. It seemed like for the sake of change, Subaru added this funny piece of front fascia - this weird arch right at the center. Granted the new headlights looked pretty good, but that stupid thing in the middle just made the whole thing bad. In fact so bad that you didn't realize that the rest of the car was actually pretty nice. My old roommate pointed this out- cover up that middle piece at the front, and the rest of the current generation WRX actually looks as good as the generation that preceded it.

Why did he bring this up? Why am I writing about the WRX? Well - Subaru, it would seem, has pulled a Volkswagon. That is, they took a pretty good looking stylish car, and made it look like a bland Toyota (cough, the current Jetta). That's right folks - Subaru has released official photos of the new WRX, and if you're reading up to this point, you've already seen the photo I've posted. And is it just me, or at quick glance, does it not look like the new Toyota Camry? What the hell? The aggressive street legal rally car now looks like the bland family car of the decade? Don't get me wrong - I love Toyota (in fact, I used to own one), but Toyota has its niche, and it's good at it. Toyota is not good at say making a street legal rally car. So when a company like Subaru takes its best product and makes it look like a new Camry - I have to question it.

Ah well, not all is bad. Upon closer inspection, it doesn't look too shabby. And I do respect the bold move to make such a radical exterior redesign. And knowing me, I'll probably grow to like the styling. But as it stands now, Subaru's release of the 2008 WRX official photos is a pretty sad showing. Head to www.caranddriver.com for more pics. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.04.02

2007-04-03T00:27:00.000-07:00

Two weeks in and feelin' good. Thanks for reading.

I like you, but only because you own a 3 Series

2007-04-02T00:34:00.000-07:00

Alright, so there's a lot of cool things going on around the world including DRM being dropped by EMI, cool episode of Lost being aired (but that's a given), I just went to a decent auto show, and so forth. But I thought I'd talk about something else today (well, considering this isn't a news feed, this may not be much of a surprise).

Let's talk about Materialism vs. Enjoying Materials. 'Cause something I can't stand is the misjudgment of people who just enjoy materials but aren't materialistic. I guess the reason I can't stand it is that I think at times I can be judged to be materialistic. Just so we don't have any discrepencies of the bat, let's define what I believe as being materialistic: putting great importance on material items, even more importance that people values (spiritual, moral, family, etc.).

I am the last person to judge someone if they own a certain car, a certain computer, a certain TV, or a certain cell phone. Now, the thing is, I'll think it's cool that they own say a Porsche 911, or a Nokia 8801, but I'll never judge them as a person for owning those possessions, nor will I judge someone for not owning them.

Now on the other hand, I love materials. Like, I love Sony 1080p TVs, I love Samsung's ultra slim slider mobile phones, I love everything Apple's released, I love cars, I like nice clothes, I like nice guitars, I like nice sound systems etc. But I'd never put their importance above people. When I grow up, if I own a 911 Turbo, and my kid asks me to drive it, of course I'll let him/her. I'd never value my car over my kid.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, people shouldn't judge others as being materialistic just because they enjoy material goods or just because someone owns a lot of nice stuff. Somewhere along the line, being successful and being able to enjoy what you want to enjoy became a bad thing. If I've loved the Porsche 911 Turbo all my life, I shouldn't be ashamed in the future if I can afford one. If I worked hard to earn the money to afford one, and I buy one - I shouldn't be labelled as materialistic. I guess some of that hatred comes from jealousy rather than a true judgment of materialism - and that's understandable- if there's someone who sympathizes with jealous people, it's me.

Now, if on the other hand, I only hang out with people who own $50,000+ cars, then yes, you can label me as materialistic. But the day that happens will be the day that I think the 911 sucks. That is, never. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.03.30

2007-03-31T02:07:00.000-07:00

End of week two. Today was rougher than wednesday. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.03.28

2007-03-29T01:07:00.000-07:00

Long day. But I got through it. Thanks for reading.

There's a new kid in the valley

2007-03-27T23:46:00.000-07:00

Pretty much for a good chunk of my life, I couldn't understand people's obsession with peanut butter. Don't get me wrong, I liked peanut butter, I liked peanut butter and jam sandwiches, I liked all peanut butter versions of chocolate bars, all peanut butter sweets - but I was never like "Man, peanut butter is soooo great". There was always this thick gross feeling when eating it. And the thing is, I really think this obsession with peanut butter is a relatively new thing (or at least publicly). I never remember as a kid people saying "I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER. I COULD EAT IT ALL DAY". Yet, in the last 5 years or so, I hear that statement or variations thereof all the time. Maybe it's the fact that I entered University within the last 5 years where people seem to revert to the simple pleasures in life.

But somewhere along the line - I fell into that group of people. I can actually pinpoint the moment. It was last summer when I was helping a couple of my friends with their wedding. I was in the basement helping with a slideshow when the groom to be, my buddy Jeff, came down eating a piece of peanut butter toast. He offered it to me, but I was deep immersed inside my work, so at the time I refused. But from that second on, all day, I was thinking about eating peanut butter toast. There's something when you see someone else enjoy a good piece of food that triggers something. Anyway, it must have been that night or the morning after- where I had myself a piece of peanut butter toast- and boom, I was hooked. That summer, back in my non-exercise days, I was eating so much peanut butter toast it was nuts. (pun definitely intended, actually it wasn't intended when I typed it but then I realized it).

So, through my love of peanut butter (chunky of course), I got hooked on Nature Valley Crunchy Peanut Butter Bars. These are great! They're a welcome change from the traditional quaker granola bars. They're really full bars - like you really feel like you're eating a lot when you eat these things. If you haven't tried them, and you don't experience anaphylaxis when someone cracks a peanut, you have to jump on this bandwagon. Yes, life for Nature Valley it would seem is going pretty well. They've kicked ye' ol' Quaker Granola in the @$$.

Or have they.

It would also seem that Quaker has taken notice of the success of these NVCPBB (yes, the name is that long that they merit an acronym - feel free to use this is your msn conversations)., because quaker has released they're own crunchy peanut butter bar. The verdict? Pretty damn good.

The new Quaker bars are smaller - but that can be a good thing - sometimes you don't want something as full as a Nature Valley bar. The other plus, is that I think they contain about 100 less calories. That's pretty good. The other major advantage? Well, they're a helluva lot less messy than the NVCPBBs. I've, in the last couple of months, perfected the art to eating a NVCPBB without ending up with a haystack size pile of crumbs. But nonetheless - it's a messy bar. With quaker's, nope. Disadvantages? Well, there's a lot more peanut butter taste with Nature Valley. Rather than a peanut butter taste, NV bars feel like they're lathered in actual peanut butter. And again, the size issue. If you want a heartier bar, go for Nature Valley.

So Quaker has for sure introduced a worthy contender to the NVCPBB that's not just a rip-off. It has its place in the market for sure. It definitely has my approval. It's hard to say which one I like better - but I'd have to say the quality of Nature Valley's bar is higher. Be sure to try them both. Also of note are the new Nutri-Grain sweet and salty bars - quite good for sure. Now, I haven't tried the Nature Valley sweet and salty bars (that is, NVS&SB), but I've heard some good things. Anyway, good work Quaker. You've proven that you can't be just pushed around by the new guy. Thanks for reading.

Appendix A: How to Properly Eat a Nature Valley Crunchy Peanut Butter Bar: The Crumb-Free Method

1. With the package of 2 bars still sealed, break the bars into thirds - so in total you'll have 6 segments.
2. Open the package along the seam so when laid horizontally with the label facing down, it acts as a bowl.
3. Pick out the bite-size segments leaving the crumblings in the bowl wrapper.
4. Eat the entire bite-size segment (do not nibble at it)
5. Rinse, lather, repeat.

The Pooperbowl

2007-03-27T00:32:00.000-07:00

K, that's a god-awful title, I know.

So following my entry about how good it feels to clean a place, and how fast the rewards come, I thought I'd speak about something I bought for the first time today. But first some back story. When I first moved out of my parents house and out into the wonderful world of undergrad university, I definitely had a great living experience. The first place I lived in rez actually had 1 bathroom per two people - and get this, it had a weekly maid service to keep it clean. So no worries there. Then I moved in with my sister for a year or so where most of the gritty stuff - say the toilet, or the sink, or anything like that was cleaned by her. Then when I moved into my final resting place during my undergrad, things just stayed relatively clean.

Now, before I move on, I need to make a distinction between clean and tidy. I'm a tidy person, but not a clean person. And no, I'm not talking about my personal hygiene - I'm talking about my living conditions. Tidy means organized - like the bed will be made, the books will be on the shelfs, the clean laundry will be folded, the dirty in a bin, the dishes will be put away etc. But besides dishes, and up until this year besides laundry - I was generally not a clean guy. Like all the dirt and grime that gets between nooks and crannies I'd never care about.

But here's the thing - my place that I'm living in right now is small enough and collects dirt enough that you just can't ignore it. So earlier this year, for the first time I bought Tilex to get rid of the mildew stains in my bathtub. It was quite a revelation. I mean, there was some generic bathroom cleanser left by the old tenant that I tried to use to scrub like crazy - but one spray of Tilex destoryed all the hours of effort I put in using that stupid cleanser.

Well, today, it happened again - another revelation in the world of household products. By this time, my toilet bowl was starting collect a rim of whatever and getting dirty. Boo-yeah - bought a bottle of toilet bowl cleanser, one spray and my toilet is sparkling clean. Awwww yeah.

I guess the thing is, just like exercise, when you do things right - things are a lot better. Whether or not Tilex and my Lysol Toilet Bowl cleaner are environmentally correct is a different story - but they're definitely cleanliness correct - whatever that means.

So is this just another random thought of Casey Li? Perhaps. Or perhaps it's a greater message to kids out there about to set foot out of their parents house. "It's really not that hard to stay clean". Just perhaps. Thanks for reading.

When the Ends justifies the Cleans

2007-03-27T00:28:00.000-07:00

(this is a blog entry from my old myspace blog - I put it up 'cause it's related to my next entry)

K, this is gonna seem like a rather boring Blog entry - and quite frankly, it's probably because I really don't have that much to write about today except for my philosophies on cleaning. Let me say straight off the bat - I don't necessarily love cleaning, but I'll do it more often than not because of one reason - the results! Cleaning is one of those rare tasks in life where the results really reflect the effort that you put into it. I'll clean because I can truly enjoy the fruits of my labour (is that the right phrase?).

Let's say I'm gonna sit down and watch a movie in my family room and there's junk lying everywhere - say dishes, maybe some newspapers, and the carpet just doesn't quite have those lines you get after it's been vaccuumed. I'll put in about 15-20 minutes of cleaning up and vaccuuming, and boom - instantly I can enjoy a nice clean room to enjoy my movie.

Take dishes as another example. Dishes are piling up in the sink and you have nothing to eat off of - put in 15-20 minutes of washing dishes, and boom, you've got clean dishes to last you a good week or so.

Ok, ok - I guess my point would be a lot clearer if I used an example where you can't instantly enjoy results - school! I mean, you study and study and gets marks etc. - but really you don't enjoy the results 'til you're fully graduated and settled down with a wife/husband and kids. I mean, they'll tell you in school - study hard and you'll get a great life - but man, that's not til 15-20 maybe even 30 years from now! With cleaning, you instantly see and enjoy the results!

Why am I talking about this today. I just cleaned up our garage a bit today and am loving how much better it looks.

Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.03.26

2007-03-27T00:27:00.000-07:00

Episode IV discussing getting through the weekend. Thanks for reading.

Checkin' da email

2007-03-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

I think one of the greatest things the internet has brought us since its inception is flash animation. I can't really remember when I first started seeing them, but all I can remember is that I have rarely seen a flash animation cartoon fail when it comes to comedy. One of the first ones I must of watched was Radiskull and Devil Doll - anybody remember those guys? If not, google it, it's pretty damn good. Then a bunch of forwarded emails started showing up with things like Lobster Magnet, which was just funny 'cause of how strange it was. And who could forget the Star Wars rap - man that's funny stuff.

What always impresses me is how full and detailed these flash animation cartoons are. You have to be a pretty talented person to create all the motions in the real world using vector graphics - yet these artists do it well. What further impresses me is how good the writing is sometimes. I mean there are some flash animation cartoons where every episode I'm laughing pretty hard. That's a better laugh ratio than most TV shows on nowadays.

One such show that's been in my repetoire for a while thanks for my friend Wayne, is Strongbad - part of the homestarunner crew. Strongbad is one of those characters who's already funny because of the way he talks. Add some good making fun of people's grammar, names, and hometowns, toss some great storylines, and you have one of the funniest - dare I say funniest flash animation series I've ever seen.

Thanks to the gloriousness of podcasting, strongbad also has a podcast that's updated quite frequently which is always good. Definitely a good video for those of you lucky enough to own a Video iPod.

Anyway, check him out at http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html. You can check out the other homestarrunner stuff, but imo, Strongbad e-mails are the funniest part of that site.

His podcast is at http://podstar.homestarrunner.com/ or you can find it through the iTunes store. Either way, if you haven't jumped on the Strongbad bandwagon, do so quickly - you won't regret it. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.03.23

2007-03-24T01:12:00.001-07:00

Episode III, thanks for reading.

Casey's Mix of the Moment 2007.03.22

2007-03-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

Alright, so today's edition is all about Rob Hing's and My Music. This is just a list of songs I'd put together if people didn't have time to listen to all our songs and just wanted a taste (which is probably more than often the case). Enjoy and thanks for reading.

1. My Life by Rob Hing
2. Blind by Rob Hing
3. All that Really Matters by Rob Hing
4. Feel Love by Rob Hing
5. Phonebox Sermon by Rob Hing and Casey Li
6. Red by Rob Hing
7. Paris by Rob Hing
8. Listen by Rob Hing
9. Untitled by Casey Li
10. Horizon by Rob Hing
11. Goodbye (+bonus track) by Rob Hing

Rob Hing

2007-03-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

Alright ladies and gentlemen, it's about time I introduced you to my partner in crime when it comes to music. We both started playing guitar separately but have been close family friends since the beginning of time. Eventually, we realized we liked the same music, and were more or less playing the same kind of stuff, so the only logical step was to start playing together. After putting together an acoustic cover album called "Thought it would Happen", we went on to write original songs and came out with 2 albums, "Tonight" and "My Life". In between there's been a lot of songs written that are just kinda hanging around.

His name is Rob Hing. And as much as I like the stuff that we write together, I gotta express how much I love his own songs. Rob seems to write songs at about 10 times the pace that I write. Every time we meet up, I'll show him a new song I wrote, and he'll have like 10 up his sleeve. And they're all really good at that.

The only step that's kinda missing in our music career is the resources to record a professional album. Everything we've recorded has just been at home on a computer, so not the greatest quality. I mean we're pretty pleased with some of the stuff we've recorded, and it's definitely listenable, but definitely not at a professional level.

But the recording quality aside, Rob's songs are great. It's kind of all around the internet, so here are the links:

Most of 'My Life' can be downloaded at www.site.uottawa.ca/~cli047
Some of 'My Life' can be heard at www.purevolume.com/robhingandcaseyli
Some of 'My Life' and some other b-sides can be heard at www.myspace.com/roberthing

My next posting's gonna be a Mix of the Moment of Rob Hing and Casey Li music, so be sure to check that out to find out which songs you should be listening to in my opinion.

Thanks for reading.

Stop The Music

2007-03-21T22:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, what is it with certain artists today? No - this isn't a pretentious pitchforkmedia-esque post about the current state of music. And no, I'm not talking about great great bands sselling out, or putting out bad music recently. I'm talking about mediocre everyday artists that have gotten horribly worse. And in my opinion, it's not because they're selling out or anything like that - they're just plain and simple making really bad and really annoying music.

I never liked Nelly Furtado to start with. I'm like a Bird I thought was a pretty annoying song sung by a pretty annoying person. Even that stupid Powerless song that everyone seemed to catch onto I thought was kinda boring. But either way, as much as I hated those songs, it wouldn't kill me to not turn the dial when they came on the radio (if I ever listened to radio). But now - well, not now, more like 4-5 months ago - she comes out with Maneater - holy man do I ever find this song annoying. Permiscuous was rather catchy, and decent clubbing song, not great, but not horrible. Maneater on the other hand - man can I ever not stand this song! The chorus is pretty damn boring, but the verses - ugh! Quite annoying.

But why am I bringing up a song that's 4-5 months old now? Well, there's another song kinda in this category. Avril Lavigne's new one. Ugh. Now, I'll admit, I actually liked Avril's first album. Songs like Tomorrow and Naked were actually really good songs. And I did enjoy My Happy Ending from her second album when I felt like appeasing my guilty pop-music pleasure. But holy wah - what the hell happened with her new song - Girlfriend is it called? - man is it ever annoying.

The thing is - I can deal with songs that aren't that great, or if they're kinda boring, or if they're harmless. But the thing is - I can't stand songs that drive me mad because they're just so annoying! Anyway, I really hate these two songs and felt like bringing it up. Hmm, come to think of it, those are 2 canadian artists. That's too bad 'cause we have so much good music coming out of this country too (Arcade Fire, Stars, Broken Social Scene, Stabilo, Pilate, Sarah Harmer, Ron Sexsmith, Matthew Good just to mention a few). Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.03.21

2007-03-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

Episode II. Thanks for reading.

Old and Fresh

2007-03-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

You know how when you're young, or even just younger, or even just a year or two ago, you fall in love with something, a song, an album, a tv show, a movie, perhaps even a girl, but somewhere along the line in your busy life you forget about it for awhile. I mean, if people mentioned it, you'd instnatly remember it, no hesistation, but for a while it just doesn't cross your mind for awhile. Well don't you love it when something brings it back! Say the release of the tv show on DVDs, or you're browsing your old music collection and come across that song of summer '98. I loved Oasis when I was younger, and rediscovering them the other day when I was maknig a retro mix was great. I bought their There and Then DVD and it totally rekindled my love for them.

Today's case? The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Awwwwwww yeah! I loved this show. Used to watch it everday after school after its Monday 8:00pm run on NBC. When I was really young Will Smith was my idol, and in most repsects he still is. But, Fresh Prince was just a damn good fun show (damn good fun...hmmm, not sure what the hell that exactly means). Anyway, all I know is that YTV (for all our non-canadians, it's the Youth Television network), is replaying episodes of Fresh Prince!!!! From what I gather, they're playing it at 8:00pm and 12:30am. Nice!!!! Either way, the last 5 minutes of today's episode completely rekindled my love for it. There's been this huge hiatus in the DVD releases on the seasons - so hopefully that's not an indication of it ending its DVD run. Either way, it's on somewhere, and I love when things like that happens. Especially when it happens on network TV - 'cause then you know you're not crazy - that someone else out there feels the same way.

Alright, thanks for reading.

Fit To Live Premieres

2007-03-19T23:23:00.000-07:00

Hey all, so the first episode of Fit to Live - the stupidest most boring reality series ever has been posted on YouTube. Thanks to YouTube for hosting this:

Thanks for reading, and I guess for watching this time.

Fit to Live

2007-03-19T00:58:00.000-07:00

Alright, so starting tomorrow, I'm on an exercise program to get in shape. And to celebrate, I'm going to launch a YouTube reality series - well really, it's just gonna be my video diaries tracking the progress of my exercise. The series will be called "Fit to Live" and I'll give you the link as soon as I post the first episode. I figure this will give me even more motivation to continue until I'm actually semi-healthy. Special thanks again to my friend Alayne for setting this all up for me. We'll see how it goes. Thanks for reading.

Casey's Simpsons Quote of the Moment 2007.03.18

2007-03-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

Captain Tenille: I'm a man of few words. Any questions?
Homer: Um, is the poop deck really what I think it is?
Captain Tenille: I like the cut of your jib.
Homer: What's a jib?
Captain Tenille: Ha, promote that man.

lyricsOFtheMIND

JQTouch and Google Maps API Rendering Issues

jQuery AJAX Post to a Rails Create Function

jQTouch Dynamic Links and Event Handlers

Heroku, jQTouch, iPhone Fullscreen Image Refresh Issues

jQTouch, AJAX, Ruby on Rails

The ETC Podcast

The ETC Podcast

The Beauty of it all Working

Cloverfield

Plug Off

Dreams

James Newton Howard

Boxing Match

Tech Gifts for Dummies

Twosixsix Eataganza 2007

Gus Khouri for Liberal Candidate for Newmarket-Aurora

Ray of Light

Nothing Else Matters

Tis the season to be DVD-lly

In our bedroom, after the war

Oh how I hate Thee

Sour Apples

Where have all the good foods gone?

So much is said with no words at all

--.--.--

Yes, it's THAT good.

Monday, 8:00pm

Just a phone?

iWish iWorked for Apple

If you're gonna ride Dan-o, ride in style

Fit To Live 2007.06.25

To Blog or Not to Blog

Casey's Simpsons Quote of the Moment 2007.06.24

Perfection

Fit To Live 2007.06.22

Plastic Surgery

Fit To Live 2007.06.20

September 18th is Doomsday

Blog Entry 2007.06.18

Top 10 Overrated Cars

Casey's Mix of the Moment 2007.06.06

Random Thoughts of Casey Li

...just once

Top 10 Underrated Cars

Hello, I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC

Well Done Microsoft

Top 10 Video Games of All Time

The Ultimate Driving Machine

My Life of Music is naNo More

Too Much of a Good Thing

Casey's Mix of the Moment 2007.05.26

Finally

Three Hours

Goodnight Seattle, We Love Ya'

How often do you find the right movie?

Lost

...to those who wait

Fit to Live 2007.05.07

Fit to Suck 2007.05.05

Fit To Live 2007.05.02

Fit To Live 2007.04.30

1080p, the 'p' is for Planet Earth

The Turn

Fit To Live 2007.04.20

Top Gear

Fit To Live 2007.04.18

Six Strings

Fit To Live 2007.04.16

The Power of HD

Casey's Mix of the Moment 2007.04.13

Fit To Live 2007.04.13

iWish iOwned an iPhone

Fit To Live 2007.04.11

Casey's Garage

Fit To Live 2007.04.09

A League of Her Own

Fit To Live 2007.04.06

I remember it well

Eight and Three