Artist: Saves The Day

Album: Stay What You Are

Release Date: July 10, 2001

This is my first post where I’m doing a re-review of an album which, I feel, has held up well over the years. I’ve mentioned doing this in an earlier post and chose this album to start this series off. When this album came out, it polarized a lot of their existing fans. Through Being Cool was a lot harder and more upbeat than this one, but that doesn’t mean this album is slow and boring. I have more respect for bands/artists who experiment with different styles and musical influences. It’s real easy to write songs that are about the same subject matter, just change a few arrangements, release the album and call it a day. It’s not so easy to try out new ideas and have your fans like what you release. I feel the band successfully changed their sound with this album while keeping their old fans and gaining new ones.

Stay What You Are is widely considered Saves The Day’s breakout album. They got some radio play with their first single “At Your Funeral”. While it’s a great song, the rest of the album deserves recognition. Their second single, “Freakish”, also got some airplay but isn’t one of my favorites. “Nightingale” is a hidden gem on this album. It’s a hopeful song that can be looked at on different levels. I’m sure everyone can relate to this one line in the song, “I’ll do everything I can, to keep you by my side.”

“This Is Not An Exit” is probably one of my top 3 favorite songs of all time. It has all the criteria that, for me, make a song great; a catchy melody and thoughtful lyrics that anyone who’s been in a relationship can relate to. The last verse of the song best describes the most hopeful and bittersweet way anyone would want a relationship to end.

…the actor in this play.
And you walk across the stage,
Take a bow, hear the applause,
And as the curtain falls,
Just know you did it all
The best that you knew how
And you can hear them cheering now.
So let a smile out and show your teeth
cause you know you lived it well.

Stand Out Tracks: At Your Funeral, Nightingale, This Is Not An Exit (iTunes links)

Enjoyed Best: While driving by yourself on a summer Sunday afternoon.

I finally had the chance to see Inception last night and the hype is all real. That movie was probably the best science fiction movie I’ve seen since The Matrix. It’s one of those defining films that sets the bar for special effects and multiple level plot lines. I’m definitely buying the DVD when it’s available and that’s saying a lot from someone who thinks physical media is dead.

I’ll probably be posting a lot of Inception links now that I’m obsessed with it. Here’s an interview with the film’s costume designer. I have to admit, watching that movie makes me want to upgrade my wardrobe. Warning: semi-spoilers ahead.

Inception: Jeffrey Kurland Costume Q&A

Whenever someone asks me if I like a current song, they are usually surprised when I say I haven’t heard it. They are also surprised when I tell them I don’t listen to the radio. I spend my working days listening to AM talk radio. Some might say I’m getting old but I attribute it to the sad state of radio today. That is not to say I’m not a fan of music. I’m a HUGE fan of music. Just not what they play on the radio.

I’ve noticed that even though I keep up with a few of the artists I’m a fan of, the overwhelming majority of the music I listen to now I discovered back when I was in college. I’m constantly going back and listening to a lot of the albums from that time in my life. I thought I’d re-review albums that I loved back then and have held up well over the years. I hope its a nice change from the tech stuff I regularly post here.

Like any self proclaimed Apple fanboy, I reserved a 32GB iPad the day pre orders were available and this past Saturday, woke up early to pick it up at my local Apple Store. After using it pretty much nonstop since I opened it, here are my thoughts on it. This is in no way a thorough review, there are a number of in depth reviews that you can read, these are just a couple things I like, don’t like and my general thoughts about the iPad.

After unboxing the iPad (photos here) the first thing you notice is how heavy it is. You’ve heard the specs; 0.5″ thin and 1.5 pounds but when you look at it in person, it sure doesn’t feel like something this small and thin could be this heavy. If you’ve set up an iPhone before, syncing an iPad is very familiar. Once I set up my iPad, I was ready to go. The first thing you notice is the speed. No one is lying when they say this thing is fast. Imagine the feeling when you went from the original iPhone/iPhone 3G to the iPhone 3GS. That’s how I felt using the iPad. There’s no lag switching from app to app. Pages load in Safari on my iPad faster than my MacBook Pro. It never stops or lags or has to “think”. I have a feeling we’re going to expect this type of speed from now on.

The battery life is advertised at 10 hours. That usually means at the lowest brightness level and doing absolutely nothing. But in my quick 2 days of use, the iPad EASILY lasts a whole day. I’ve used this thing as I normally would. I didn’t watch a loop of videos to see how fast I could drain the battery. I surfed the Internet. Checked Twitter. I posted to Twitter during that 7.2 earthquake. Watched video I loaded and streamed through Netflix. I can tell you that I started using my iPad this Sunday morning at around 9 am and through normal use I still have 44% battery left (11:30pm). Amazing. If only the iPhone could have this type of battery life.

The iPad ships with 13 default apps but we all know the real fun is with all the 3rd party apps you can install from the App Store. I downloaded a few and there were a few that stood out. If you have a Netflix subscription, the Netflix app is a no brainer. I’ve been a fan of the online streaming feature for awhile. The app launches and takes you to the same web page that lets you manage your queue. Once you tap on a movie, it just starts playing. ABC also has an app that lets you stream the latest episodes of their shows. CBS also has plans to release an app and NBC is working on setting up their website to stream shows. The one site that would make the iPad a no brainer for TV show consumption is Hulu. Currently, Hulu streams shows via Flash which the iPad does not support. For me, the other killer app is Safari. When Apple says it’s a totally different experience to have the Internet in your hands, it may sound cheesy but it’s true. It’s a total “I’m living in the future” moment when you’re on your couch, you pick up the iPad, bring up the New York Times website and just start reading. Check out the screen shots below. Websites in Safari show up like they do when you surf from a laptop/desktop but when you zoom in so that the article fills up the screen, that’s when the website disappears and it’s just you and the content.

You don’t have to wait for iPad specific apps to be developed, you can already use most of the existing 150,000 apps already available for the iPhone. They show up in a small square in the middle of the iPad screen at their native resolution. Or you can double the size so it fits the entire screen. Though while completely usable, the apps look like garbage scaled up.

The new iBookstore looks interesting. I’ve always said I should read more and I have a feeling this will push me to read since the iPad makes a great eReader. The Calendar, Contacts and Mail apps are way better than the desktop versions. It feels like you’re back to using a real physical day planner. The Maps app never gets old. With the bigger screen and Google Maps integration, this is the first thing I turn to if I need to find the number of a location. Games are also a big attraction for those looking at an iPad. I didn’t buy it strictly to play games but I did play some Labyrinth 2 (iTunes link) with my brother on our two iPads connected over a wireless network. I can see how it can be very entertaining.

Before the iPad came out, a lot of people asked me why would one need a third device in between a laptop and a smartphone. After using an iPad for a weekend, I see it as a consumption device. You read email on it. You check your Twitter feeds. You surf the Internet. You buy eBooks and read them on it. You watch TV shows and movies on it. The iPad becomes your recreation device while your laptop/desktop becomes your “I need to get shit done” device. I’m hesitant to call the iPad an appliance because an appliance does only one thing well. The iPad does a lot of things well. Do you need one? Probably not. But if you’re like me and your main source of information/entertainment consumption is the Internet, you probably also don’t need it but it’ll definitely change the way you use your computer and your smartphone. This won’t change the way you use your computer today, but this may be the first step in that direction.

If you would’ve told me at the beginning of the year that everything about my life would be completely different by the end of the year, I would have a hard time believing you.

Two weeks into 2009, I was laid off. I invested four and a half years into a job where I worked my way up from an afterthought hire to an inside sales assistant to a fully commissioned outside sales engineer. I completely remember the events of that day.

I got an email from my boss asking if I was going to be around after our weekly Friday sales meeting saying that he had some things to discuss. My boss NEVER asks to speak with me. He pretty much let me do my own thing and occassionally he’d stick his head into my office making sure I WASN’T there and I was out visiting clients. So when I got his email, along with rumors of layoffs, I couldn’t help but freak out.

After talking to a coworker, I grew the balls to go in and ask him if we could talk about it immediately as I couldn’t stand to obsess over what he needed to talk to me about overnight. As soon as I walked in and brought up the email, he quickly said, “No, it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.” I even asked if he could tell me what it was about. At this point my voice was quivering and I was breaking into a sweat. Again I got, “Nope. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” What. The. Fuck.

By now, I pretty much knew what all this meant. Later that day at around 4pm, he stopped by my office as he usually does but instead of just checking in, he came inside and closed the door behind him. He ended up doing the decent thing by letting me know I was getting laid off since he knew that I wasn’t stupid and that I probably figured out what was going on. So he gave me all my papers the day before and spared me the humiliation of having to clean out my office the next day in front of all my coworkers. In the end, being laid off wasn’t so bad. I got unemployment, I was able to find a new job quickly and with the time off I was able to take a “vacation”.

Shortly after starting my new job, I took the leap and decided to move into an apartment on my own. No longer would I be living in a frathouse-style living arrangement. I’d be paying the rent and the utilities all by myself. I found a great move in special in the Artists Village area in Downtown Santa Ana. In retrospect, it was totally an impulse move and if I sat down longer to think about it, I wouldn’t have done it, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. I enjoy having an entire space to myself and the bars and restaurants that are within walking distance are about as unique as you’ll find in Orange County.

Those were the two biggest changes for me in 2009 but a lot of other things happened as well. I snowboarded for the first time in Mammoth. I had my own housewarming party. I attended two weddings this year. My good friend, and old coworker, Christian got married in August. And my parallel Van literally had her dream wedding in Washington, D.C. in September. Two more of my close friends got engaged in 2009 so that’s at least two weddings to look forward to in 2010. Throw in a Vegas trip, a camping trip, and multiple drives down to San Diego and that pretty much describes how I spent 2009.

I found out first hand that A LOT can change in one year. Here’s to looking forward to all the changes and events I’ll encounter in the next year.

Eight years ago this month, I signed up for a Blogger account and started this website. I always take time to commemorate this because I’m actually proud that I’ve maintained and updated something throughout the years. However, there was a point in 2008 where I didn’t post from May until November. That was the longest stretch of inactivity for this site. Since then, I’ve made an effort to post more updates. I’ve been pretty consistent by posting at least once a month and I even got around to that long, LONG awaited redesign. It’s safe to say that this design is probably the one I’m most proud of, which might not be THAT pretty, but not bad considering I consider all this a hobby.

While I still have no “real” direction for this site, I’d like to post even more frequently than once a month. As sort of an experiment, I’d like to see how many people I can get to read this site through Twitter. I’ve noticed that whenever I announce new updates through Twitter, page views spike. That’s obviously a no brainer but it’s a lot harder to come up with content to write about than it seems. When I was in college and did this for fun, all I wrote about was all the mundane things I did during the day. Nowadays I write more about things I take interest in, mostly Apple, tech stuff and the occasional interesting web link that I’ll post and then add my own thoughts. I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing for the past year but with a little more frequency. Previously, when I’ve solely used Twitter to post interesting links that I find, I’ll try to post them to my site first, then add my comments and blast that link to my site over Twitter. I’ve seen some bloggers/Twitterers do this already so I’ll try doing that for awhile.

In 8 years, I’ve written 347 posts. Here are some of my personal favorites.

Best Camera
I particularly like this post because it was the first time that I considered any of the pictures that I took as art and posted them as art. The great thing is that they’re from my camera phone. I don’t even use a traditional point and shoot anymore.

2004 Year in Review
This started the yearly tradition of going over everything that happened in the past year.

Guest Blogger
The first and only time I’ve had someone else author a post on my site.

Well I Guess This Is Growing Up
My favorite thing I’ve ever written on this site, not only because of all the reaction it got on Twitter, but of the subject matter and relevance to my life at the time.

Over the weekend, my original iPhone decided to jump out of my pocket head first into the concrete. While there were no obvious signs of damage at the time, the next morning I noticed a crack had formed and the entire screen was unresponsive to my finger inputs. This was a truly sad day because not only did my original iPhone have to be retired, it meant I had to purchase a new one. And with that, I was going to have to leave T-Mobile and sign a 2 year contract with AT&T.Almost 2 years ago, I purchased an original iPhone and decided to unlock it to avoid cancellation fees and stay with T-mobile. I didn’t realize it at the time but using an iPhone with T-Mobile, in my opinion, is a much better experience than using it with AT&T. For one, the phone and data plans were cheaper than with AT&T. T-Mobile’s data plan starts at $20/month whereas AT&T’s was $30/month. And on top of that, you can use T-Mobile’s myFave plans. Text messaging plans were also cheaper on T-Mobile as well. Finally, T-Mobile consistently ranks highly in customer service (this is something I can personally attest to). Needless to say, I wasn’t looking forward to switching.

The one thing I was looking forward to was getting a new iPhone 3GS. You can read about all the features but I’m going to write down my own observations coming from an original iPhone to an iPhone 3GS.

The first thing I noticed was how snappy it felt. They really mean it when the “S” in 3GS stands for speed. Opening apps or switching from app to app happens instantaneously. I would always get impatient whenever my original phone would “think” before it decided to open up an application. This is also my first experience with a 3G phone and compared to Edge, there’s no contest. There were times I felt like I was on a WiFi network. I also love the GPS and built in compass. Just having the compass orient to your current heading in the Maps app makes finding your away around a million times easier. And as much as I hate to admit it, AT&T’s has coverage in areas where T-Mobile doesn’t. I’ve heard stories where AT&T has horrible coverage and network service but in the short time I’ve had my 3GS, I haven’t had any calls drop and I now have reception in places where T-Mobile would drop out.

Overall I’m very pleased with the new hardware, somewhat cautious with the network and data performance, and totally bummed on the cost of their data plans.

This is unofficially the fourth edition of my yearly reviews. I’ll be blunt about it, 2008 is one year I would rather forget. I won’t go into the details now, but I am more than happy to see 2008 see its way out the door. Looking at my other reviews, a lot can change in a year. In one year, I can’t wait to read over what happened in 2008 and write about what will happen in 2009.

After 4.5 (!) years of faithful, almost trouble free service, I retired my 12″ Rev. A PowerBook and upgraded to a 15″ 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro. As part of my promotion, my company paid for half of a laptop since I’ll need to have a mobile office. After some relatively easy convincing, I was able to talk my IT department into approving a purchase order for my Mac. After trying explain what Boot Camp was, all my IT guy said was, “As long as it connects to our network and doesn’t fuck it up, I don’t care.” I was actually surprised not because of his reaction but more because he didn’t really seem to understand what dual booting was. And this was coming from the head of an IT department in charge of a half a billion dollar company?

Coming from a 1st generation 12″ PowerBook to this Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro is like night and day. These new Intel processors scream when running OS X. Before, running any more than 2 programs caused my PowerBook to feel like molasses, but I can now run 6 or 7 programs AND run Parallels and Windows XP before my MacBook Pro starts to break a sweat. Having the option to virtualize Windows or natively boot is seriously the best thing ever. While I’m at work, I’m in Windows all the time. Once I get home, I reboot into OS X and if by chance, I have to do something work related, I just fire up Parallels and do what I need to get done, and log out. Easy as that. I almost like booting into Windows just for the novelty. Scary.

My old PowerBook is not completely retired. In its second life, it serves as Crystal’s notebook while she finishes up her nursing requirements. It does its job beautifully as all she needs it for is MS Word and light surfing. Other than a busted CD drive that only reads DVDs, not CDs, it still works fine. As my first Mac, I can say I am fully converted because of my experience with that computer. None of my other PCs lasted anywhere near as long as my PowerBook did and it’s still going. I’m looking forward to another 4 years (at least) with my new laptop and I have no doubt that I’ll enjoy every minute using it.