Summer was definitely meant to be enjoyed in a hammock, swaying back and forth in the wind. With temperatures on Saturday climbing to the mid 90s and today fluttering around the high 80s, there’s nothing else you can do but kick back, try to enjoy the heat, and save your energy.
92 F and Climbing
This weekend has been quite a journey. On Friday, Greg, Adam, and I headed to Albany, about a two hour car ride away. There we saw Ted Leo and the Pharmacists play at Valentines, a bar that appeared to be pretty much in the happening section of town. Opening for them was Radio 4, a band very similar to !!! that had easy to follow bass lines and pretty good vocals. Additionally, there was also a local opener that, unfortunately, was pretty bad. All together, the concert was pretty good. I liked the venue quite a bit because it reminded me of the ELS basement here on campus and there was generally a good vibe. The crowd was also more to my likening, being mostly Indie followers, and such, acting and dressing in that way. Plus, for the first time since I’ve moved to the US, I was able to legally go into a bar and buy myself a beer … Killians in this case which, by the way, tasted excellent.
With the current warm summer days, my desire to post updates seems to have mostly vanished. So, once again, this will be one of those all encompassing posts that put a lot of random things together and just update you mostly on what’s going on.
Research work continues and I’ve spent the week mostly focusing on the user interface and dealing with monitoring a folder in windows, creating backup files before they are modified, and generally creating code that can be reused once we understand fully the constraints we’re under. Working with Visual Studio is continuously a chore but it’s good. I’m understanding a lot more each day and in all reality, the .NET framework is very similar to Cocoa’s Core Foundation in that it attempts to help you by providing the basic functions you need. We’ve also been coming to realize that Visual Studio 2005 (currently in beta) is a much better IDE than Visual Studio 2003 .NET. Perhaps it’s simply a re-organization of dialogs, but we’re finding ourselves more productive than before.
Greg and I had our second radio show yesterday. We played mostly indie songs and generally had fun, although for some reason, I really wasn’t too into the show in the second half. Maybe it was being tired, or simply I had chosen too many down beat songs. The playlist is up online in my radio section if you’re interested and want to post your advice.
I’ll admit, over the past few days I’ve gotten into a groove of watching quite a few movies. Whether it’s the poor weather making it harder to do stuff outside, lack of a computer for a couple of days, or simply the way summer is, I’ve seen five movies over the past four days. Here’s a quick summary of the last five movies I’ve seen and my own rating (on a 100 point scale).
Batman Begins: I didn’t have any expectations going in to this movie. I’d heard from friends that critics “liked it” and that it should be good. Having never seen any of the other Batman movies (at least that I can remember), I thought this would be an appropriate time to start enjoying the series and see the movie that explains his beginnings. Yet another prequel, if you will. I was pleasantly surprised, as after the just over two hour movie ended, I felt fulfilled, entertained, and left with a general good overall feeling, exactly what a superhero movie should leave you feeling like. The acting was good, the dialogue decent, and the fight scenes, settings, and choreography well done. If you’re looking for an afternoon movie to pass your time with no other benefit other than entertainment, it’s worth watching this movie. Grade: 89.
Gunner Palace: On the urging from John, we decided to go see this movie with Greg at the Munson Williams. The only thing I knew about the movie was that it was about Iraq and that it was a documentary. The movie lasted about 90 minutes and was a documentary on the 2/3 Field Artillery that lived and worked out of one of Saddam’s palaces. It detailed some of their missions and way of life, and generally speaking, was a view of a soldier’s life in Iraq. I don’t know how I feel about this movie. At times, I was angry at the way our troops acted. Other times I was angry about the whole war. In other cases, I was angry about the lack of a desire for peace by Iraq’s own citizens. In the end, the movie brought me through many emotions and I left feeling displeased with the knowledge that I lacked the know-how, power, or perhaps even resolve to accomplish something meaningful in this situation. I’d urge anyone to go see the movie, if only to feel the same way and perhaps feel empowered to do something. Grade: 91.
I figured I should post something a bit different from my computer woes so here’s a couple of interesting things. First, tomorrow (June 15) I finally turn 21. For me, it’s not too much of a deal - I’ve been of legal age to drink (at least in Europe) since I was 18 and of course, even earlier in France. It will be nice to be able to pick out what I want myself and have a drink with friends in a bar, but it’s nothing more than an artificial milestone in my mind.
I’ve also gotten my hands on a bike. Well, I still need to write the check to John’s sister (note to self: do that tonight) but I went out today and bought myself a biking helmet. It’s nothing special but it allows me to feel a bit more comfortable when I’m biking on the roads around Hamilton. Also, yesterday I tried out my Timex Digital Heart Rate Monitor/Watch for the first time. It’s a watch and a heart rate monitor that communicate with each other to record your pulse. Using this information, you can see how your workout is going and it can also track the amount of calories you burn. I don’t know how reliable the calorie tracking is but so far, it has been quite useful in my workouts and it does inspire me to push myself. So, if you’re interested in a heart rate monitor that doesn’t cost too much (it cost me $55 on sale), I’d recommend this one.
What else… last night I watched the movie Primer with friends. It’s a movie about friends who discover a machine that will change the world. It was filmed on a very limited budget (I’ve heard figures between $7000 and $12000) and was quite good. The story was a bit hard to follow and at the end, I felt confused, but I think with a second sitting, I would have understood the full story. Whatever the case, it’s worth watching the movie for it’s independent qualities and storyline/dialogue. [Update: For a decent review and links to various timelines that explain the plot, visit this page.]
Finally, Thursday between 6 PM EST and 8 PM, Greg and I will be hosting a show on WHCL 88.7 FM. You can tune in live via shoutcast at www.whcl.org and I’ll be posting a playlist of our show (containing a full spectrum of music) later. Any requests should be left in the comments :)
Wow. So both of the Apple computers I own are out of commission, in the process of being repaired! This afternoon, after work, I did a bit of minor troubleshooting by myself to see whether or not I could fix my PowerMac G5 that wouldn’t start up. I checked that all the components were connected properly, checked to see if the RAM was seated properly, and of course, tried the machine both plugged into the UPS and directly into the wall. Nada. Last ditch effort on my part was to reset the PMU and see if that would help. Nope. So it was time to phone AppleCare (whose number is quite elusive although now memorized, 1-800-275-AAPL).
I was connected immediately. Yes, immediately. No wait time, no hold, an immediate connection. I was overwhelmed! I spoke with the tech who unfortunately seemed to be new at the job, although eager to help. We reset the PMU and left the machine unplugged for 3 minutes but no luck. He decided it would need to go in for repair. Now, although I have a three year AppleCare warranty and on-site repair is part of the deal, the tech suggested that I bring it into a dealer so that they could use parts on hand to diagnose the situation. As Connecting Points is only about a 10 minute drive away, I agreed. So, as of now, Lynx (my G5) is sitting in a shack in New Hartford awaiting surgery. The person I spoke to in the store said it would be ready by mid next week. So, here’s to hoping my PowerBook comes back by the end of the week!
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