Archive for October, 2007

15th Birthday

Published
by
Austen
on October 24, 2007
in Life
. 7 Comments

It’s about 6:15 Wednesday morning, October 24th, 2007. Approximately 15 years ago today, I was born! Yay.

I would like to take this moment to celebrate myself…

OK, I’m done. Hmm… I still don’t feel that special. Maybe this will help: Celebrating my 13th and 14th birthday on this blog. That’s better.

UUUGGGHHH. I’ve got an English paper due tomorrow. I hate having my birthday during the week. I’m not having my birthday on the weekend until… (checking gCal)… October 2009, my 17th birthday. 2 years. Ugh.

Everyone should just be born on the weekend. Like Martin Luther King. How come his birthday is always on a Monday? I want my birthday to always be on a Saturday!

Dumbledore is gay

Published
by
Austen
on October 22, 2007
in Books and Websites
. 6 Comments

From The Leaky Cauldron via Gothamist:

Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?
JKR: My truthful answer to you… I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. [...] He was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that’s how I always saw Dumbledore.

When I read this I though, oh - ok. Interesting that J.K. Rowling thinks that. Well, I guess that it makes sense. Which I think is a perfectly reasonable reaction. Wow, he’s gay. Big deal. The books haven’t changed, they haven’t been rewritten. It’s just the author’s opinion. Nothing wrong with that.

Aparently not. From a comment on the Gothamist post:

I am a christian who supported these books as they brought the joy of reading back to sooooo many kids and adults. I have read all the books and thoroughly enjoyed them. I argued with all my christian friends who put down these books and supported the Narnia books.

Now, I will make sure I throw away all the copies I have, and no one in my family will ever read that trash again. I will also advise anyone who asks not to let their kids read these books, which is an absolute turnaround from where I was [...] Not only has she destroyed a great hero, but she has tarnished the entire series.

Wow. Let’s see… has anything changed in the books? Did J.K. Rowling revise them so that it’s evident that Dumbledore is gay? Did she give him a boyfriend in the book??? No! The books are exactly the same! But now that the author thinks that a character she created is probably gay, the books are all of the sudden evil.

Oh yeah - that makes perfect sense. Let’s burn the Harry Potter books just because one of the characters is gay in the author’s mind. Not because of how Harry is orphaned as a child, and is witness to dozens of murders. That’s not a big deal, it’s ok. As long as there aren’t any gay characters, Children can read the book. </sarcastic>

Bruce Springsteen in concert

Published
by
Austen
on October 21, 2007
in Life and Music
. 5 Comments

I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert Thursday night with my parents. Just for the record, I’m not embarrassed about going with my parents. I just wanna clear that up. To the left is a pic of my dad via his camera phone during the concert. He was pretty happy.

And no, this wasn’t my idea. Of course it was my parents’ idea, and as they would note, their money. They were on the phone at 9:00 AM the day the tickets went on sale, and perhaps by extremely good luck got the tickets for… well, the price wasn’t that bad.

Anyway, it was very good. Everyone in the band looked like they were having the time of their lives - almost as much as the 40,000 people in the audience. It was also very loud. Like, my-mom-had-to-wear-earplugs loud.

And big. I didn’t know that so many people listened to Bruce Springsteen in New York City. Actually, come to think of it, I didn’t know that so many people listened to Bruce Springsteen period. Everyone there seemed to know the songs by heart, and during some songs you could barely hear Bruce singing - the audience was doing it for him.

Here’s the first song from his new album, called “Radio Nowhere.” For some reason this song reminds me of “I Want to Know” by the Mavericks. It’s probably just me though.

[audio:http://www.netsua.com/audio/bruceradio.mp3]

Oh, one last thing, Bruce Springsteen looks really funny when he sings. He’s smiling, but he looks… well, just funny.

[Photo from the LA Times)

The 3rd Annual Birthday List!

Published
by
Austen
on October 20, 2007
in Life
. 2 Comments

There’s a week left until my birthday, and as usual I have the list. I realize that this may make me seem like an ego-centric, spoiled, bratty, “gimme-gimme” type of person. But I’m not asking for everything on this list. They’re just suggestions, starting with what I want the most, then what I want the second most, and so on and so forth.

OS X 10.5 Leopard - $109

Apple’s newest OS comes out 2 days after my birthday. So what I had in mind was more of a certificate to buy it… Anyway, it’s got some great new features like the Time Machine backup system, virtual desktops (Spaces), a shiny new dock, Boot Camp built-in, and new versions of Mail, Safari, iChat, iCal, Photo Booth, Front Row and DVD Player.

Final Cut Express - $240

This is the program that I always planned on saving up for, but never really had to patience to wait for the money to accumulate. Final Cut Express is the (slightly stripped down version of the) pro movie editor for Macs. Why do I need it? Let’s just say that I’ve been bumping my head repeatedly on the ceiling of iMovie’s limitations.

Oh no, there’s much more, trust me…
Continue reading ‘The 3rd Annual Birthday List!’

The “Real” Windows Vista (video)

Published
by
Austen
on October 15, 2007
in Technology and Videos
. 0 Comments

I’m sure you’ve all seen David Pogue’s sarcastic video explaining how Windows Vista did not steal ideas from Mac OS X. It’s hilarious. This video promotes the same idea: “Windows Vista downright copies OS X.” The audio is taken from someone explaining the “new and innovative” features of Windows Vista, while the video shown is Mac OS X Tiger (an operating system over 2 years old now) doing exactly the same things.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

OhMyGod that’s Creed

Published
by
Austen
on October 14, 2007
in Television and Videos
. 0 Comments

You know Creed, right? Creed - the old weird guy on The Office. Turns out he was a part of the Grass Roots, making his character on the show somewhat autobiographical. Here’s a video of 20-year-old Creed performing with the Grass Roots… in black and white:

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

He’s the guy in the striped shirt on the left. Still not seeing it? You can see him up close at 1:30 and 1:48. I recognized him for real just when he looked up at 1:51. Somehow that’s incredibly creepy.

(Thanks to Aaron, TV Squad and Best Week Ever)

iPod BAD, iPod GOOD

Published
by
Austen
on October 13, 2007
in Life and Technology
. 1 Comment

This post is mostly a response to my Uncle Bob’s recent comment on my recent post, entitled “iPod Classic.” He says (among other things) that:

IPOD BAD
Can’t uncorrupt database;
Can’t delete anything using ipod interface;
Must use Itunes to manage files;
Can’t read filenames in the ipod;
battery life about 4 hrs and diminishing

- My Uncle Bob, (my UB) who has had very bad luck with the iPod.

True, true. I know that the iPod has faults, all of them stemming from the closed-shut structure of it. The DRM’d music, the exclusivelity (not sure if that’s even a word) of iTunes, and various missing funcions like a mic, delete option, easy battery replacement, etc.

BUT… iPod still good!

Continue reading ‘iPod BAD, iPod GOOD’

iPod Classic

Published
by
Austen
on October 12, 2007
in Life and Technology
. 3 Comments

I went to Circuit City Saturday and bought an iPod Classic! Why? A couple of reasons:

  1. Aaron and I just got paid another sum of money for advertising on our podcast.
  2. My old Nano was overfilling, and my library (including podcasts) was over 10GB.
  3. I got tired of seeing so many “convert to iPod” things on YouTube downloaders, DVD rippers and video conversion applications.
  4. I want videos on my iPod!

16GB would probably do for the Touch but it’s $450! I’d rather spend $250 for a slightly smaller screen and 5 times the space which is virtually unlimited from my point of view:

But I know that I’ll eventually fill up at least half of that. It’s Steve’s Law: If you continue to add music to your iPod indefinitely, eventually you will meet any capacity. (And have to buy a new one.)

The only downside: It’s the last and only (I think… not sure about the Shuffle) iPod to be based on hard drive memory instead of flash drive. Result: Slow. Videos take a few seconds to load and scrolling through music is painful after becoming used to the super-fast Nano (which I still have and plan to keep.)

Still, the new interface is great, and as you can see above I’ve been adding videos from many different places using some awesome free applications…

Continue reading ‘iPod Classic’