I worked at the UCI Bookstore during the last 3 years I was at UCI. It was probably the best job on campus job you could have. Your job was on campus so that made it super convenient. And they were understanding of your life as a college student so they would do anything to accommodate your schedule. While most of the times I had with my coworkers was fun and enjoyable, there was one shift I’ll never forget.

I was working a closing shift with one of my coworkers. It was pretty slow so we were just goofing around waiting for our shift to end. He goes into the back to grab his cellphone and is gone for a couple minutes. He comes back and he is visibly shaken. He tells me that someone close to him was suddenly taken away. His friend was in a motorcycle accident and he didn’t survive. I didn’t know what to say. I’d never been around anyone who has received news like that. After awhile, we started talking about his friend. I don’t remember much of the conversation but I do remember talking about the car club he was in. It turns out that I knew someone in that same car club but in San Diego. I talked about my high school friend and the car that he had. We talked about the picnics they would throw in the summer. We talked about how funny it was that we were able to make that connection. By the end of our shift, I felt that somehow I was able to make him feel a little bit better. I reflected on what happened that day and was moved enough to write a post on how people come into and out of your life.

Last March, I was out with my friends having dinner at the Gyu Kaku in Tustin. Towards the end of dinner, I check my phone and notice an old friend of mine checking in at a bar in my neighborhood. Surprised that she was in my neighborhood since she lived up north, I asked how long she would be there and she invited me to meet up. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, Mary is my girlfriend and I’ve never been happier than any other point in my life.

At the stage in our relationship where we went from flirty text messages and IM chats to late night phone conversations, we talked about that night in March. She was at The Copper Door to celebrate her younger sister’s birthday. She was also in town because it was her brother’s birthday as well. I knew that she had a brother and that he was no longer with us. We started talking about his passing and how it affected a lot of people. She started telling me about how one of our mutual friends even went to the viewing.

Light bulb.

My heart was beating out of its chest while I was trying to send her the link to a post I’d written ten years earlier. She read my post. We were both speechless. I’d written the post late at night, on December 18, 2001; the day after her brother had passed.

I’ve been meaning to write my annual year in review post for over a month now but didn’t know where to start. I decided to share these two stories to show that everything happens for a reason. Little insignificant decisions you make in your everyday life, may have an significant impact in your future, who knows how many years in advance. After our first date, I knew that Mary and I had something special. I connect with her on so many different levels; music, food, movies, sense of humor. I could go on. The one thing I couldn’t relate to with her was with her brother. I’d never met Clyde and I hope to never know what it’s like to lose a sibling so suddenly. When I wrote that post, I had no idea that this was the one way I would be able to connect to Clyde. I had no idea he had a younger sister that I would meet for the first time at a bar in Fullerton 5 years later. I had no idea that I would run into her again 5 years after that and fall head over heels for her.

It’s funny the way life works sometimes. Here’s to 2012.

The company promised a mid level 32 GB wifi only iPad 2. however, due to certain accounting reasons, instead of shipping us actual units, it was much easier to send checks for the amount of the iPad. And due to tax reasons, they sent us enough money to get us a top of the line 64 GB WiFi 3G iPad with enough money leftover for a smart cover.

As an original iPad owner, the thing I immediately noticed was how thin the iPad 2 is. Even after having this thing for about a month, I still marvel at how thin it is. Even with the smart cover covering the front, it is still thinner than the original iPad. Along with the thinner form factor, the iPad 2 is 33% lighter. Again, it doesn’t sound like much but in actual real life use, it’s noticeable. With the original iPad, I would feel uncomfortable bringing it out to use in public. I’m sure part of the reason why was it’s novelty but second, I felt like the device was too bulky to carry around, especially when carried around with a case. But with the iPad 2, I don’t feel awkward carrying the device around. Even with the Smart Cover attached.

You can read other reviews and read how fast it compares to the first iPad and I can vouch that those claims are true. The feature that actually motivated me to earn the iPad 2 was FaceTime. I currently own an iPhone 3GS and am waiting for the iPhone 5/4S release to upgrade. And aside from a beta version of FaceTime available for Mac OS X, I don’t have a FaceTime compatible iOS device. Being in a long distance relationship is not the easiest thing and while cell phones and instant messaging helps, nothing beats seeing the emotion on someone else’s face. Using FaceTime on the iPad makes it feel like it was initially designed for this device, rather than the iPhone 4 it debuted on. I still am amazed whenever I use FaceTime.

If you’re on the fence about the iPad 2 and you’ve never owned one, I can’t recommend it enough. If you own the original iPad and have the funds to upgrade, do so. If not, start saving your money for an iPad 3. I can’t imagine what new features they’ll come up with by then.

Yellowcard released their seventh (!) album yesterday. I was introduced to them in 2001 around the time One For The Kids was released. Ten years later and their sound hasn’t really changed since then. On first listen, I was a little disappointed to hear essentially the same Yellowcard album I’ve heard for 10 years. I was hoping in the 4 years since their last album they might have tried something different, something new. A couple listens through, however, I’m glad it’s the same old Yellowcard I’ve listened to since college. I guess you can call it my guilty pleasure but I’ve always enjoyed pop punk songs about love lost and forgotten. They have always been experts at putting those feelings and thoughts into melodies and lyrics so why change? My pick for damn-that’s-a-good-song-because-I-can-totally-relate is “With You Around”.

All I can think about is
You and me driving with a Saves the Day record on
We were singing till our voices were gone
And I was falling hard, you were barely hanging on
And now I wanna chase forever down, with you around

In all, a solid, if not short (10 songs) album. If you’re a Yellowcard fan, I’m sure you already have the album. Otherwise, grab this album (iTunes link) and wait for the weather to get warm so you can blast it with the windows down.

• A native iPad app. I use my iPad primarily for reading, surfing the web and watching video. While I do have some music on my iPad, I’d rather save the space on my iPad for movies, TV shows and apps. Since I can now stream music through Rdio, I can give up some of the space I had for my music collection for more video and apps. While I use the iPhone Rdio app on the iPad upsized to double resolution, a native iPad app would make the Rdio even more enjoyable.
• Ability to hide unavailable music. One of the downsides to licensing laws is that, for whatever reason, not all music is available for streaming. Nothing is more frustrating that looking for an album and finding out it’s not available for streaming. I’d like for there to be an option to hide any music that’s not available to stream. If it’s not available, why even show it?
• More social integration. There are some social media aspects to the site but I’d like to be able to interact more with my friends. There is Facebook and Twitter integration but the only thing I can see from this is searching your friends to see which ones are on Rdio. While you can subscribe to your friends’ playlists and can collaborate on playlists, I’d like to be able to make fun of someone when they add a questionable artist to their collection. Or be able to tweet that I’ve added an album to my collection or post that someone released a new album from within the app.
• A more streamlined app. The native Rdio app for Mac is way better than the previous option which ran on Adobe Air. It’s set up like iTunes and feels very familiar to anyone who has used iTunes but I feel like there could be a better way to view your collection and playlists while having the browser to view the Rdio library.

I already have been singing the joys of Rdio but if they made these small changes, Rdio would be near perfect.

Up until recently, most subscription based music services generally involved you paying a monthly fee and allowed you to stream an unlimited amount of music to your desktop or a device that worked with their DRM. In most cases that DRM didn’t include the most popular music player, the iPod. If a service wasn’t on the most popular device, it was doomed to fail. In 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone and later the iPod Touch and the App Store. This opened up opportunities for companies to create apps that let you access libraries of licensed music for a monthly fee. One of these companies that has done this is Rdio.

Rdio’s business model is similar to what others have done in the past. Ten dollars a month lets you access up to 8 million songs in their library. The reason why I like Rdio compared to what I’ve seen before is their desktop app and their iPhone app. Their desktop app scans your existing iTunes library and if they have it in their library, it adds those songs to your collection within the Rdio desktop app. Once you browse through the Rdio library you can choose to “Add to collection” so you don’t have to search for an artist or album each time you want to listen to them. It’s like adding them to your iTunes library. What makes Rdio worth it to me is the iPhone app. You also have the option of syncing to mobile. Next time you open the app, it will sync any tracks you’ve opted to sync for mobile. The app has access to all of Rdio’s library and for some reason music sounds better when you’ve paid for it and you’re streaming it over the air to your cell phone. But there are times when you don’t have the best data connection. Any track you’ve marked to “sync to mobile” will still be available when you have no data connection. So for me, just this feature alone makes me feel like I’ve “purchased” those tracks. Also any artists you add to your collection and playlists you create from the desktop app show up in the iPhone app. It really does feel like iTunes in the cloud.

I’ve only explored the service for about a week and I’m sure there’s a lot more I haven’t discovered. I haven’t gone over Artist Radio (similar to Pandora), collaborative playlists or even the social aspects of the service. I highly recommend signing up. There are two options, $5 for access to the Rdio library from a web browser or the desktop app, or $10 which adds syncing to the mobile app. And be sure to add me to take a glimpse into what I’m listening.

Kanye West released My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on November 22. My site was offline when it was released but I wanted to write down my thoughts on his latest album.

I don’t care what your opinion is on Kanye West, the person, but Kanye West, the artist, is one of the most brilliant artists today. When his last album came out, I wrote that he was a true artist and releases music that means something to him and doesn’t stick to the same formula from album to album. The same is true with this album. Everyone remembers his auto tuned 808s and Heartbreaks because it was a huge departure from anything he released before. With this album, he does use auto tune and he does a fair share of singing but not to the extent on his previous album. Prior to this albums release, Kanye teased the album in the form of a 30 minute long short film with excerpts from 9 songs from the album. And it wasn’t just slapped together last minute; it is a real genuine short film with a plot, dialogue, a well known director, Hype Williams, and of course, the amazing soundtrack. It was the perfect way to build anticipation for the album’s release.

The album is great from beginning to end. It flows perfectly from one track to the next; this is one album that you definitely should NOT skip any tracks or listen shuffled. The production is perfect, the beats hit hard and the lyrics fresh and witty. “All of the Lights” is easily the most radio friendly and I expect it to dominate the airwaves soon. If “All of the Lights” is the most pop friendly, I think “Monster” truly shows what Kanye is capable of. It features Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj and Rick Ross. His verse easily tops Jay-Z’s in my opinion. I doubt Jay would purposely out do Kanye on his own track but I can’t think of a Jay-Z song with a comparable verse.

I don’t listen to a lot of hip hop, but Kanye is one of my favorite artists in the genre and his latest album is easily my album of the year.

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

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.

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.