Thursday, October 28, 2010

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Where I've been map

Testing this out. At some point in the next year I'm hoping to revamp my website a bit and include a travel section, link to travel journals, and talk about future trips.

This map helps plan out the next area to visit :)

Monday, October 25, 2010

If all movies had smartphones

haha, I guess future movies will have to justify why everyone doesn't have a smartphone, like how now they keep having to justify why there's no cell reception at the moment in the plot where one character should just call another character. :)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Mumford & Sons show, San Francisco

Oh man it was insane. Super crazy crowd, everyone was freaking out and so excited. The show was really solid, they played a lot of the album and really rocked it out. The new stuff that isn't on an album yet was REALLY AWESOME, in fact a few of them are even better than their stuff from the album. Amazing!!!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Making scones

Tonight I made scones for the first time! They turned out pretty darn well. Frank and Jess came over they they LOVED them which was really encouraging. :) Jess said they tasted better without jam so she could taste the flavour, and Frank said they were like "real Southern biscuits" - YES!!!!!!!!!!!

So that was an epic win for the first trial. I think next time I need to use a little less salt and maybe mix the ingredients together a little bit better. Also I left them in an extra few minutes since they weren't brown enough on top - maybe put them in a little lower down next time. Overall I was pretty happy with them though, even though my Mom makes them about 1000 times better. :)

Messy counter after cutting the scones

Clean up!!

Ready to bake

Table set with a bazillion kinds of jam, lemon curd, and whipped cream

Done!

Frank and Me going to town on the scones

Skype released Group Video Chat

This is awesome. This is a feature I've been wanting for a lonnnng time, and it's awesome that it's finally available!! It sounds like they are planning to charge for it but there is a free 1 month trial of it now. I will give it a shot next time I talk to my parents and my sister. I expect everyone will be talking at the same time... like usual in my household :)

For those iChat users, this is similar to what you've had for ages but it's only available on Windows at the moment... presumably Linux and Mac is coming soon. To finally have a usable group conference tool that is also multi-platform is just fantastic. Really psyched. Let's hope the Mac release comes with a Facetime hookup...

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/features/allfeatures/group-video-calls/

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Friday, October 08, 2010

Blue Valentine trailer

Man there are a lot of great movies coming out soon.

This one looks pretty intense, and basically anything heartfelt but insanely intense with Ryan Gosling in it is pretty much an epic win.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Movie Review: The Social Network

Only the people involved know the true story, for real... but man was this one hell of a cinematic experience. As with many films, characters are oversimplified for dramatic effect, trying to set the stage for a classic, epic battle between good and evil - in this case set on the (ultra) modern stage.

How much of it is true is certainly a question. But this was a very well made film. The power of Facebook and it's true pervasiveness in our modern lives is undeniable. This is a truly legendary idea, and to get a chance to even see the (even fictionalized) versions of these larger-than-life characters battle out the story was really inspiring. Facebook truly is a life-altering experience for so many of the users, and to see an "origin story" if you will, was really very cool.

The music by Trent Reznor was a strange, perfect fit and the pacing and script was top-notch. The part that was filmed in Tilt-Shift was mind-blowing. Seriously excellent job on the film. I hope at least some of the Facebook founders can enjoy it for what it is, rather than taking it for complete face value. The fact that they were (or are still) a part of such an epic story is truly inspiring. I think the public knows that there are a lot of grey areas in the film that were not truthful, not completely correct, or even complete fabrications for dramatic effect. I don't think it's meant to be a documentary, it's meant to be a twisting tale of epic proportions - where the "character" takes on more importance in the film than the truth.

Great movie, this is gonna win some Oscars for certain. Founders of Facebook: you've created a platform for the world to communicate and share their lives on, and that's certainty one hell of an accomplishment.