BlogRyan.Net

$10 iTunes to my ?th eMail Subscriber

Yep, I am really trying to promote subscription to my blog hard this month.

The title of this post basically tells everything…. If you by chance are the ?th subscriber to my blog, I will send you via email delivery, a $10 gift card to iTunes, Amazon, PayPal, whatever you would like just as long as it can be sent through email.

Now, when?

This contest is open from now until the end of February, or until the number of subscribers reach around 1000! So, if you want this $10 anything, make sure to tell your friends to subscribe!

And follow me on Twitter @rrfarmer, I will be tweeting this almost daily, so be sure to follow and then re-Tweet.

Any questions? Just send me a quick message on the contact page or comment here!

Oh, and stay here, cause future planned giveaways include a $50 gift certificate when subscribers reach 10k, and an iPod Touch around 50k subscribers.

And hey, you want all this potential traffic seeing your blog/site? Advertising on my site is only $5/month! You can’t beat that!

Thanks!

Sorry Girls, He’s taken…

I decided to post a story that was very good for Valentines week. So I remembered this story my room mate Chris Jackson had told me he did a few years ago when he moved away from home to go off to college and start the long distance part of his relationship with his girlfriend, Jennifer. I was very amazed. So without further explanation,

“I hadn’t seen Jennifer for almost two months. I wanted to do something special for her, so I decided that on my way out of town I was going to pick up a dozen roses. This just didn’t seem quite special enough though, so I decided to get creative. I went to the craft store and bought a nice silk rose, that looked almost real. When I picked up the flowers from the florist, I opened the box and put the fake rose in, and a note that said, “I’ll love you till the last one dies.” 7 hours later I arrived at her house, a little worried the roses had wilted. I went inside and gave her the flowers. Of course she read the note, and was pretty confused at first, but I told her to count the roses. There were thirteen, and the last one she saw was the silk rose. She started crying and then laughing, because she was so surprised by my wittiness. She still keeps the rose on her dresser, by our picture 2 years later.” -Chris Jackson

Wow! He is good!

I’m Launching a new page: Subscriber’s Page

Here is an excerpt from the landing page. And now you should subscribe to the email updates of this blog and you will also get access to this part of the site!

Hello subscribers!

I am excited to be launching this new page. I have put a lot of thought into this.

So here is how it works. This page is only available to BlogRyan.net subscribers. Here I will give away my videos, and the source files they were made with for you to play with and render them yourself if you would like. Also the PSDs to my graphics, C4D to my models and whatever I can think of to give away.

I would rather my media get out there for free and get used more than for it to just sit on SermonSpice.com for $5 not getting used but by a few hundred or so people.

But their is a catch. The versions of the videos I give away are not going to be the resolution or quality of what you could purchase on SermonSpice. If you have time and the application to render the files, then great! you can render it out however you like in full 4K if you wanted to! But this only applies to videos. The graphics and stills will be in full quality and in most cases ready for print.

Also, if you would like a graphic or animation, leave me a comment letting me know that you would like something! If it is a good idea, I will probably take the time to make it and put it here (and on SermonSpice.com).

Thanks and tell your friends about this free source of design materials!

3D Glass Cross Animation

I have made a 3D Glass Cross in Cinema 4D. I have the blue one for sale on Sermonspice.com (Link)

I have a poll at the bottom of this post. I want you to vote on which color you like the best!

The winner will be the next animation I’ll submit to Sermonspice.com for sale.
Why not do them all at once? Well, let me have your computer for 23 hours to render the animation, and I can still only get one done a day, I mean, I want to do other things on my computer too besides watching it render. For those of you that don’t know what rendering is, see this.

Blue

Green

Orange

Red

Yellow

White

Also, please comment on the animation and stuff if you think something needs to be changed or added etc. Feedback is the only way I will know that I’m heading in the wrong or right direction.

Actually, anyone that has real constructive comment will receive the animation for free to use however you like (the one in blue). I might even give it to you if you just say you like it… or hate it. Either way. I’m just trying to get people to comment and get evolved here. Thanks!

Oh yeah, and all my old and new subscribers will get it too. So…. Subscribe!

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The Economy is So Bad

I try to come up with as much original content as I can. But I found something this morning that I really like…. So here it is: The Economy is so Bad

• I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
• I ordered a burger at McDonald’s and the kid behind the counter asked,”Can you afford fries with that?”
• CEOs are now playing miniature golf.
• If the bank returns your check marked “Insufficient Funds,” you call them and ask if they meant you or them.
• Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.
• McDonald’s is selling the 1/4 ouncer.
• Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.
• Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.
• Motel Six won’t leave the light on anymore.
• The Mafia is laying off judges.
• Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
• Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great!! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!
• And, finally…I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Lifeline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck!

CTV is back!

CTV Whiteout Graphic

That’s right! The CTV crew is back to work, storyboarding and coming up with wholesome entertainment for all the children of North GA!

Got any ideas?

Send us a message or just comment here!

Church Names To Avoid

Don’t know how to explain a few of these without offending anybody… Most of them do correlate to churches I have seen or heard about.
So I won’t and will just let your imagination run wild on these!

Church of the Living Dead
Church of the First Stones (perfect people only)
Church of the Painful Truth
Church of the Dead Weights
Church of the Open Minded
Church of the People Pleasers
Church of the Sugar Water

What Will Jesus Do (for me) Church
Me Church (stole this one from a video)

I would love to hear some more in the comments section! (or actually get any kind of comment at all)

My Name is Ryan Farmer, and I can’t even find myself!

Ok, ok. I know everyone has had to of done this sometime if they are ever bored and they have internet access (most people with electricity I hope by 2010?) But I Googled my own name, “Ryan Farmer” and didn’t find the actual Ryan Farmer of Hiawassee Georgia until…. well, I gave up after page 20. But I did find out that I am one in about a thousand other “Ryan Farmers” out there. But I mean, come on, it is 20X as Dr. P would say, and someone on the Internet as much as me can’t even be found?!?

But this makes me wonder, what if a potential employer wants to find stuff about me before hiring me? I don’t have a MySpace page, my twitter is just a reflection of my blog, and so is my FaceBook page. I have designed around 20 web sites that are out there on the internet, but they are tied to my company name, MacroWebHost.

So what do I do? There are hidden words at the end of this post…

I am guessing at all this, and I hope it all works so that I am at least on the first search page of Google. But I will start embedding my name in the footer (bottom) of all my web sites I design, and not just my company name, and will actually use my name on MacroWebHost.com as the owner or something.

Do this will be one of my New Year Resolutions, to get my real name up in web presence, and get found somehow. I mean, I’m just trying to be original at least in a resolution. What is your resolution? ….lose weight or get out of debt…. That should be something you do all the time and not just the special occasions.

So, this line is for Google to find me here, where I am nice and comfortable:Hello, my name is Ryan Farmer and I live in Hiawassee Ga. If you can read these lines and Ryan Farmer didn’t tell you that they were there, you have too much time on your computer and you should go outside and take a picture of nature or get a dog or something. Thanks!

So, as a last statement, I really went back and forth on this post. Should it be my last one of 2009? Or my first in 2010? So, I decided to be done with last year and make this post one of the first things that happens in 2010! I’m looking forward to what happens in this new decade!

I Finally Wrote an App…. “iTip” Calculator

App Screen Shot

Well, this Christmas break I have decided to start something I have been putting off for a while now. And that is to finally learn how to program applications. More specifically how to write iPhone applications, but first I have to get a feel for normal programming for Mac OS X.
So, I have watched Lynda.com videos for a while, read a few chapters in a programming Objective-C, and followed a few tutorials on developing iPhone apps, and I have finally after only 3 days, beat down a simple tip calculator.

Merry Xmas: Re-Post for Christmas

That’s right. I just replaced the name “Christ” with the letter X. Am I anit-Jesus? Am I going against tradition? Am I supporting corporate denial of religion and becoming neutral to gods and trying to please everyone? No.

During my time at the great Lee University, I might have learned a few things. As most people who are aquainted with LeeU know, everyone has to get a minor in Worship-ology. Through traditional and painful chapel, Lee students are immersed in tradition and doctrine. Not to mention the countless hours of study in New/Old Testament, Ethics, Theology, Paul Connology and Benevolence. However, I narrowly escaped having to endure months of this through grace, called Summer Sessions. I met professor M. Fuller every day for a month solid. And his lecture was very easy going and had multiple out of test points that were most of the time exponentially more interesting than the actual lecture. These “commercials” kept us few in the class from drifting away in the 2 and 1/2 hours a day of class time.

So, back to Christ’s name being replaced? Well it turns out that this is more biblical than actually writing out His name! Back in the first few centuries of biblical canon writing, Jesus Christ as a name was considered holy; to the extent that they didn’t write out His name completely! The original documents of the New Testament was written in Greek. Christ’s name started with the Greek letter “X.” So, in reverance to the Son of God, abreviating Christ with an “X” was considered proper.

So, now when you see the phrase “Merry X-mas,” just feel a special reverance for God’s name. Make sure to tell your Pastors and your church leaders the good news!

I’m just going to show off my work every so often: Part 2

This is a project for my senior year at Lee. The goal was to make a 30 second commercial about anything. So I decided to “sell” my guitar. The videoing and editing and graphics and audio was all done within 2 days of the project being due. So, everything didn’t turn out quite like I had planned it. The project was on lighting and sound anyways, but I am always stressing over all the other little things. This YouTube encode isn’t as good as I had wanted it. But I covered that in another post anyways.

Why am I blogging? Part 2 (Six Month Milestone!)

At this point, today is six months since my first post. A lot has happened in my life in this short time period. I made it through summer school, youth camp, Jamaica and am two weeks away from being halfway through my senior year at Lee University.

Here are some statistics about the popularity of BlogRyan.net:

Traffic from May to October

Remembering Alt@rd 2009

Mmmmmmmm….. Ricky, oh Ricky….. Have you accepted Jingus into your life yet?
And yes, Phillip fell off the golf cart, but he hit the “stop recording” button too soon as he fell for us to get the full effect. And no, none of this was staged, just part of how good Skaryoakie turned out this year!

This was a funny look at the Transformers coming to camp. “Guy” and Terren spent all day making the costumes and trying to put together a funny video. I had absolutely no faith in it…. But it turned out to be one of our best videos of the week! This is just a few seconds from the end of the video. (also the funniest part)

The END is Near! Well, my schooling at least.

So, the time comes when eventually you reach senior status in school. Yes, the feeling of superiority and a since of pride for the educational institution. All the teachers know you by first and last name, you are finally able to relax in the classroom setting, and for about nine months you are happy and peaceful while everything is going smoothly in the right direction…. Then graduation comes.

Me relaxing

What now? Do I go to college for another four whole years or a University for a higher degree? Do I try to find a job in the work force? Where am I going to live: big city or small town? How am I going to find that special person I (hopefully) will spend the rest of my life with?

Post keyword: Hopefully...

And the world comes crashing down. All of a sudden life isn’t as easy. Decisions have to be made and in many cases time isn’t an abundant resource. Money becomes an even bigger issue as students leave home or move out from under Residential Life care. In spite of all the preparation their whole life, students are most likely not ready to adapt to the business ecosystem. The norms of student life fade away as (again, hopefully) financial and personal adult maturity and responsibility set in.

Paul Conn Student Union

These are just my own thoughts and concerns as I progress through my last year at Lee University. I know the answers will come at the right time as He always provides for me. I have a great family and friends that have and (still, hopefully)  always will help me when I get into trouble, as I would do the same for them. Also, my southern Christian up-bringing tells me to always rely on God and He shall direct your path.

I’m just going to show off my work every so often: Part 1

Yep… Just what the title says. I will be doing this every so often that I accumulate some good design work. Hope you enjoy or even get some good ideas yourself! Please feel free to critique in the comments!

Welcome graphic for northmtzioncog.org

I like it cause the words blend different form the inside out.

A good announcement graphic I wanted to show off here.

Comp 1

Yes, I Ryan Farmer, do take your hand in marriage…. After Effects.

If you have ever worked in After Effects, you will totally agree with that statement above! But here the past few months me and after effects, well me… I’m just getting to know more about it!. I invested in a few nice presets, plug-ins and random stuff.

Ohhhh... Neon

And this is just my first post of a little something I have been working on. I will probably do this more as I already have a library of cool new things. And have already made a little side money doing some animations for a few churches and friends. So, here is just a little preview of some of my future comps. If you only see a black box, click on it twice for it to play again. (On mac it automatically will loop but on PC is stops for some reason)

Don’t become “That” Guy…

Pronoun: That Guy:
A miserable person who sucks all joy and happiness out of life, and makes life a little less worth living by their consistently lame attitude. When not complaining, their drama and gossip will fill the void. He or she refuses to do something with a group, and will for-go hanging out with said group unless they’re doing something they want to do. They will put their interest ahead of others every single time, just for the sake of being “that” guy.

• The person everyone loves to hate and never wants to become.
• You’re driving and get stuck in the middle of the intersection just as the light turns red. Now, because of you no one can get by. You have now become “That Guy”
• What you become when you fail at pool, bowling, Quake, english, math, Wii tennis, etc.
• Having a thankless job where you work lots of overtime without pay while your boss is on vacation.
• Having to sit in the middle seat between two people in a car or plane.
• Being last in line to get cake or ice cream at a party.
• Crying and throwing a tantrum about something nobody cares about, including you.
• “I’m not going to give you $6 for my share of an $11 pizza when all I owe you is $5.50. I shouldn’t have to pay extra, waaaaaah!”
• Having a high opinion of your looks and a sense of entitlement when people compliment you. Your ego is usually punctuated with a “hottie” shirt, which makes you slightly less tolerable to be around than children, and slightly more tolerable to be behind than a group of tourists driving on the mountain.

Don’t be “that” guy.

Multiwinia on my dock, Part 1

Every mac person immediately knows I am referring to a shortcut on my dock to an application somewhere on my computer. I just read the title and imagine everybody else wondering how I am on a dock? What is Multiwinia? And what is it doing on a dock? If you are not a gamer, or not interested in the subject at all. Don’t read this post. You will probably be bored out of your mind and then not want ot come back and read any of my more meaningful posts in the future. Thanks!

Well, this is (currently) my favorite indie game. It is for Mac and PC so I can potentially run it on whichever partition I currently feel serves my interests better. An awesome hit since day 1, the small UK company, Introversion, produced this game in late 2008. I got this game as a “freebie” in the latest MacHeist bundle this past spring while my entertainment habits were changing rapidly. I guess this is part of my actual confession to an addiction; that there has always been an eagerness to curb my appetite for something new in this field. However, I would want to include here the natural humans’ desire in every emotion to never be satisfied of cravings. (Am I trying to justify myself?) But anyways, here goes my first attempt to post on a video game.

Pew, Pew

Formations

Line of Formations

Attacking Formation

Formations are an easy way to keep your ‘winians in order and not just to wander off and get into trouble! They slow down the overall speed of movement over the landscape, but they have greater distance and accuracy and firepower. I have found that these formations work better as a defence instead of an offence. This is suprising since the game itself introduces them to you as an offensive power in the tutorials.

I don’t want this post to be any longer. I will probably make another part to it soon. So, I will leave you with a screenshot of a failed attempt of an invasion of an island.

Fail!

First of all, I do play games… Gasp!

I would have to say that I do play these waste of time, could be doing something better with my life, video games. I am usually ashamed of this. So, if you asked me what I did this past week, it would typically not include any phrase pertaining to any artificially rendered storyline or graphics of that nature. But I can make a descent argument that is almost logical for and against electronic based reality.

Anything can turn into an addiction. It may be a part of our culture, but that doesn’t mean it can’t become an addiction. I believe almost anything (with the exception of unusually obscene or illegal material) can be good in MODERATION. Salt is good on most things, but too much will give you a sore throat. Eating may or may not keep you alive, but gluttony can lead to some problems. This goes with most everything, including entertainment. You may sit down in the evening after work and watch the evening news or your favorite TV show. I actually don’t have TV (outside of Hulu, but that requires very fast internet) so in my evenings (after homework and web design work or whatever else I should get done today), I would play some genre video game. I have to catch myself, as we all should, where if anything keeps us from normal responsibilities (or sleep) to step back and take a breath to assess the situation as to what we really should be doing. Not everything leads down the road of self-destruction; learn to distinguish between addictions and normalcy. Of course, I could go into what and who defines normal, so I could replace in this instance with “average.”

I will ask you to asses something you do every day, maybe out of habit or out of what is normal to you, to see how you would measure up to self-criticism. I am young, and learning who I am more and more every day. But youth is no excuse for that. Sometimes innovation of yourself is the starting point for true contentment and happiness.

Yay Hulu!

Easy Interface

Ok. I have dreamed of the day when I could watch TV on my computer for free. This seems too good to be true! Free TV from major networks and the convenience of watching whole shows whenever I would like? Hulu has the potential to totally change the industry and how we think of entertainment at home. I am especially in awe of their new flash application for both Mac and PC called Hulu Desktop. I don’t have to worry about my browser wigging out on me while I watch my TV shows. So far, it just works. I am usually afraid to run “browser applications” like that. There havebeen too many times my browser has suddenly quit because the server side application it is trying to run comes across a bug. And did I mention that it works with remotes?

HD TV on your PC

There is a ton more about this Hulu thing. I oculd go on how this is going to be industry changing, you should go ahead and quit your cable/satellite company, hooking this up to a TV set + speakers is very easy, investing in something like this would be a good idea… on and on I could go. But I would rather go to bed right now…. GO TO BED!

Seriously? YouTube…. How did we let this happen?

I am not 100% against YouTube. But I am 100% against anybody wanting me to put anything there. Sure, it is a fast and easy, convenient way to put a less quality video on the web for whoever to see. This is fine too…. for those of you who don’t have the equipment to host your own video someplace with some dignity (quality in other terms). I would describe myself as a quality freak sometimes. The people working with me this summer on video projects are probably going to hate me after the first day. I would rather produce 14 seconds of quality, than throw out something that is a full minute. The little things between the frames get on my nerves. And if you can’t fix it? I wil throw it out. One example, the new CTV logo (which hopefully none of you have seen as of this writing) took about 6 hours to complete. The final rendering time (well, pre-rendering but lets not get technical) took about 45 minutes! Wow! And guess how long the video is? …..about 8 seconds (246 frames in 1080p to be exact). Anyways, sorry for the side thought, back to YouTube.

Lets try a google search. “How to {fill in the blank}” and what do you get? YouTube videos! Yay. If I wanted videos from YouTube, I would have gone there. Once again I find annoying information filling up my computer screen. Ouch. Maybe I am too harsh, I think about it too much, my internal geek is showing. But really?

So, YouTube is a success anyways. I am just sorry that it got eaten by the bigger company Google. I may go ahead and change my search bar to the new Wolfram Computational Engine. Seriously? this thing can do almost anything!

For the rest of the YouTube argument? You would have to be a telecom major to understand, or work a lot with Flash vs. Quicktime…. (Guess which one I prefer?)

How iPhone changed my life. Part 2

Look at any major analyst firm report since the Apple iPhone was released, and you’ll see the earnest intoning to stick with the buttoned-down and pinstriped BlackBerry—widely admired in executive corridors for its safety and security—and beware that odd, colorful, possibly dangerous Apple device that consumers may love but professionals should avoid. If the iPhone were meant for work, it wouldn’t be so much fun to use, would it?

Yes, it was Mac versus PC all over again: The iPhone was quickly pigeonholed as a fun, polished device for the cool kids to play with versus the RIM BlackBerry’s rep as a corporate standard designed to get work done. As with the Mac-versus-PC dichotomy, Apple’s focus on visual interface, exotic technologies like touch, and fun stuff (music, video, and games), coupled with its lack of “serious” capabilities such as encryption, let that perception take root as the conventional wisdom.

I was able to play with a few BlackBerry phones for a few hours and, I was shocked to discover how bad an e-mail client the BlackBerry is compared to the iPhone. And the BlackBerry is terrible at the rest of what the iPhone excels at: being a phone, a Web browser, an applications platform, and a media presenter. With its Windows 3-like UI, tiny screen, patched-together information structure, and two-handed operation, the BlackBerry is a Pinto in an era of Priuses.

So, taking all opposition to the iPhone out of play as inferior, old technology. I will go on with my lifesty-leize of iPhone.

texting

I never texted before I got my iPhone almost a year ago. Texting is such a slow, almost primitive way of communication. Even if you use the T9 input, it is still relatively slow. Typing on a full (even though small) keyboard is so much faster. I constantly get messages form my friends that they can’t respond to texts fast enough. However I argue my pooint, for me it is much easier to text on an iPhone rather than a cramped flip phone. This is probably why I would rather text you a whole converstion than call you. No offense, but this is a generation thing right?

I will probably get more aggreement with the music/video side of the fence. Even Windows people will use

Rythms Yo

iTunes over other music clients. Almost everybody’s MP3 player is an iPod of some sort. Well, imagine your music world working with everything else you are doing (in tech world that is). I’m sitting here listning to some Lecrae on my Bose dock when I get a call from a friend. What happens? Turn the music down or off, get out your phone (if you actually hear it ring over your music) and finally answer your call. Wow, that might have just only taken about five seconds, but it could be stressful. Right? Lets try iPhone now. When that call comes in, your music fades out, the call fades in and you can answer (or ignore) the call. Cool. But, after the phone call what happens? Well the music just fades right back in of course! I usually can’t sit/stand/ride for any long amount of time without some music or other noise. So this ease of use comes in handy all the time. I commute over an hour every weekend between my home and school. This definately has an effect on my life.

Mobile Safari

Ok, so what about the web? To do something on the internet you get a laptop, go to the library, even get a desktop or Netbook (please, please, please don’t get a netbook!) Ok, so we have a computer…. check…. Now we need the internet. Get DSL, Cable, Wireless, fill in your favorite flavor here. Ok that even could be limiting and costly. I already explained partly the internet on the iPhone and even tethering in Part 1 of my post; so I won’t repeat myself on that. I haven’t found any website that the iPhone doesn’t pull up exactly right! Some places it is even better to look at it on the iPhone! Given the drawbacks on the speed and reliability of the AT&T network, the pages come up fairly quickly. I am very happy to be able to look anything up right on the spot with my iPhone. The applications on the iPhone make use of the internet very wisely also; but with the 35,000+ apps available for the iPhone, I can’t exactly go into everything about that subject easily. There is one drawback to the internet on the iPhone, but it is something that currently no mobile device anywhere can overcome: Flash. This is something I can live without. However, YouTube and a few other flash based video streaming sites do work in the iPhone. I don’t use YouTube ever, so this isn’t really something for me. I will address my anti-YouTube-ness probably in a future post. But seriously? For now, no comment.

I didn’t plan on writing past a Part 2 of iPhone. But I still have plenty to cover on this topic. So, Part 3…. here I come!

Oh my gosh! Youth Camp 2009

So, I hope you are coming to the legacy retreat center for at least a week this summer! You might be like me, or you might be laughing at me; but this is probably going to be the highlight of MY summer.

I can already tell you that we at CTV have been hard at work cooking up some sweet new logos, intros, outros, lower thirds, games… you name it, we have had a few hot wings and ideas for each. As of this posting, we are still two weeks away from high school camp. So it is still too early to show any of our progress on the video. Not that you would care, but if I were looking forward to camp, something to get me pumped even more would just make my day! So, I will post a few screen shots of what is in store for this summer.

Wow! Sparkle, sparkle!

What is this? Another swirling vortex of color?

CTV News Live, please don't stare...

We will have more exclusive clips from Camp TV as camp nears even more!

How iPhone has changed my life. Part 1

Wow. I look at the title of this post and realize that I really must be a nerd/geek. However much that may be a good or more so a bad thing, it is true; iPhone is one of those life changing things. Kinda like a microwave. It makes almost every aspect of tech life faster and easier.

Needs better service

First of all, I will write a disclaimer. AT&T’s service is slow, spotty and depressing. I wish Verizon carried the iPhone. I am sure the dropped calls that I never experience or the locking/freezing up that I always haven’t gotten would be cleared up. Did I mention how most problems with your cell phone come from the software makers anyways?

Ok. At first sight, the iPhone is traditionally Apple. Glossy, shiny, smooth, glassy, sleek and the usual fetish of hardly any buttons. It is thin and you just have to wonder, ” how do they have a cell phone, flash drive and a battery in there?” But hey, these are the same guys that also make a pretty slim laptop also. If it wasn’t for the case on my iPhone it would probably drop it every time I picked it up after eating something greasy. Hmmm… I guess I’ll just have to live with it.

I may also mention that I am writing this form the perspective of iPhone Software 3.0 beta. Why do I mention this? Tethering.

Tethering you say? Only on a Mac.

Which brings me to the first point of how the iPhone is fiscally better than any other phone. Sure, cry… the data plan is $30 extra. But right now I am sitting in my apartment listening to my iPhone in the Bose dock rocking out to some Dave Matthews band mix and writing an article on the internet. Confused? Well, I don’t have internet at my apartment. One word: Tethering. Yep. So, how much does it cost to normally cost to have internet? I checked with the local monopoly service provider and ding, ding, ding…. $40! Oh wait, who else does tethering also? Crackberry you say? Ok, just add $15-$30 more dollars on top of their already $30 data plan a month plus it is only compatable with Microsoft operating systems. I think we have a winner. Which one gives me at least $10 extra a month for Moe’s?

Google Earth Anyone?

Up next, where am I? No really… where am I? Well, lets go get a map. No, lets go buy a GPS so I will know how to get someplace. Cost? A cheap decent one would be around $120! I seriously can’t even begin to list how many advantages an iPhone has over ANY other GPS system in the world. Ok, maybe the Army has something better, but I want them to be able to track everything too.

The next thing on my list is MobileMe Sync. Non-mac people especially are saying, “What are you talking about?” Well, imagine a world where your contacts list was always up to date, your calendar was accurate and your email was a reliable way of communication? Well, you may think your Gmail or Yahoo (God forbid you still use Hotmail) can even do this, but the truth is… it can’t. Well, maybe it can, but not on it’s own. Your Outlook client or even Mail can’t tell their cloud if you read your email or not.

Cloud

You would usually ahve to apply a blanket statement to either send from server and delete, or have to check your email in multiple locations. I thought we were going for efficiency? Well, anyways. Long story short… MobileMe does all this and more. It even works on a Windows! OMG the world is coming to an end!

I can’t even begin to explain how the iPhone is not just a Phone/GPS/Calandar/Music/Video/Internet/Game Console/Camera/Radio/Social party device, it’s a lifestyle.

Did I mention that it can make phone calls too? Wow.

A few words about the new Star Trek movie

I was looking forward to the Star Trek movie. I really, really did. But I ended up being the living embodiment of that awesome Onion sketch about nerds hating Star Trek. It just seemed like a mediocre action movie with the names of some characters from a TV show I like spackled on top.

So, as much as I fought it, I’ve ended up being That Guy. Oh, lord. Please don’t let me watch Up. Please, please, please.

Camp 2008, oh the Memories!

Just a funny video I found while going through last year’s stuff to get ready for this year… Don’t tell Greg!

Why am I blogging? Part 1

Why I blog? That is a question that I am asking myself with every key I type. I can just hear my mom, and a few other family members now, “why waste your time” or “blah, blah, blah.” Some other reason, that is probably going to be perfectly logical and good reason for me to just stay with my current non-blogging life. But this is something that I have always wanted to do. I just haven’t had the time (I have but just been lazy about it) to get this thing started. Also, thanks for the inspiration to start a blog from a friend, Brandon Chatfield. Check his out here.
The hardest part of anything is just getting started.
Getting started is one of the hardest parts of writing. It’s something I struggle with a bit myself. It’s easy to become paralyzed by trying to think of how to phrase things, and how to organize your thoughts. Sometimes, you just have to sit down and bang out some text, even if it sucks, because that gives you a starting point for revisions.
But this can be applied to almost everything. Getting up in the morning, going to bed at night. I don’t want to go into much detail or that would probably scare even me of how lazy I can be sometimes.

Maybe I am writing a blog site cause I think I have something to say to everyone?
Most of what I say, most of what I do, who cares? That is the view (and generally my attitude) that most people my age have towards everything not close to them. I look at my Facebook home page with all the quizzes and status updates and new pictures and whatever else and just say to myself, “Why am I doing this?” If you are about to go to bed… just go to bed! I don’t need to know what time you go to bed at night, just go to bed! However, I am not insensitive to something like, “Someone’s dog just got run over” or “I just got saved.” Some things do matter. But 99% of these updates or profiles, facebook, myface, bookface etc. WHO CARES? Please, stop cluttering my screen with worthless information. Thanks!

Most of what I say here will probably not be about what I am doing. But maybe something insightful to what everyone does in general. Or maybe some cool new (new to me at least) way to Photoshop or video something. I tend to get excited (yes I am nerdish) about this kind of thing. But this is what I do, and hopefully one day get real, physical, colorful, powerful money. Yes… Being able to provide for a family one day AND doing something I have always liked to do. Wow! Right now while still in college (one year left) and looking at the current state of the economy, it can be depressing for those who are about to try the real world outside of campus. In what I do, for years the thing to do has been freelance work or going into news. Well, with everything coorporate condensing and the local, and even state based news services (newspapers, radio, and now TV) going down the tubes, what are we prospecticves in this business going to do? Hopefully we will land sone job somewhere doing something related to our degrees. My plans for my life and God’s plans for my life are probably very different right now. From a Christian perspective, I would have to reference the verse where God even provides for the birds, so why wouldn’t he moreover provide for the ones He died for?

Finally, if you have read this far, I thank you, and my self-esteem thanks you. So I will leave this post at that.

Hello world!

Just getting this thing rolling. Right now still ironing out the design features.