Joey Wendt

Yes, it is the iPhone I have been waiting for, but with less than a week left until the release I have began questioning if I really want to get one.  Right now I have a v1 iPhone that I bought off of a friend and have been playing around with.  With my mac having a powerpc processor and not an intel I haven’t gotten to play around with the iphone sdk yet, which brings up another question for me.  If I do get the iPhone 3g, should I get a new Mac with an intel processor so I can make my own apps?  Probably the biggest thing keeping me away is the fact that I will have to switch to paying a monthly cell phone bill with a two year contract instead of my current bill of $0 since I am on a family plan.  Right now I am in an undecided state.  Decisions Decisions, hmmm..

Got a wonderful email this morning from iTunes letting me know Coldplay’s new album Viva la Vida was finally available.  After tons of listens of the song Viva la Vida, which has been out for some time and owning, I was quite ready for the rest of the album to see what was in store.  I was actually so excited and clicked buy so fast I forgot to check Zune to see if it was available with my zune pass, which turned out it is.  If you have a zune pass go ahead and grab it, I have already listened trough it twice this morning and enjoy it.

Grab it on iTunes or for about the price of the album get a Zune pass and get the new album plus millions of other songs.  Viva la Vida!

Just sitting here on this monday quite bored.  iTunes has been getting a little dusty since getting my Zune Pass, but until theres a Zune Movie Pass or Netflix has more movies available for immediate viewing, I think iTunes will own my movie rentals.  But theres one thing missing from the movies that the music has.  “Complete My Rental” as I am calling it.  Basically similar to Complete My Album so when you rent a movie and like it, you can but it minus the rental fee you already paid.

One other thing that bothers me is that there are no HD rentals through iTunes, only with AppleTV.  The quality of the regular movies are decent and watchable, but this is 2008 and 480i~ resolution is only acceptable for crappy youtube videos, not a movie I spent four bucks on.  For example I have two monitors on my G5, a Dell 24″ with 1920×1600 resolution and a Dell 22″ with 1680×1050, so when I go full screen with a rented or purchased movie it just doesn’t impress me.  With my primary monitor being higher than 1080 HD and my secondary close enough, give me better quality video!

I’ll admit, I was a bit hesitant when I first heard about the Zune pass.  But after hearing more about it on Diggnation I decided to give it a try.  For a while now iTunes has owned my music purchases.  Albums, Single Songs, TV Shows and Movies but now that I have my Zune pass I don’t think I will be spending loads of cash on music at least.  I will probably still buy movies and tv shows though until netflix or similar provider has their online viewing library pimped out.  For the price of one album you can have access to MILLIONS of songs!  Yes, you read correctly.  For fifteen bucks a month you can have yourself a Zune pass too!

I have yet to purchase an actual Zune player, but that is mainly because I do most of my music listening at my computer which just so happens to also be where I spend most of my time, 12+ hours a day kthx.  The only real time I use my iPod is when I am mowing the grass other than that I leave it at home.  Now that I won’t be broke from buying so many songs on itunes I just may be able to budget for one since I am getting such a good deal on millions of songs.  Zune is more than just affordable music, it is a social network where you can share what you are listening to and see what others are listening to, that is if they choose to share.  Music Videos and some TV shows are available but so far what I have seen require purchase so I guess there not included in the zune pass, bummer.

If you dont have a zune pass, get one!  My Zune tag is JoeyDotW.  I want to know what your listening to, share you zune tag in a comment.  Or ridicule my lacking review of the zune network, it deserves better.

So uncreative I couldn’t think of anything to write here, click the picture to go to flickr.

Well as me and my friend were out fishing the weather started to take a turn towards to bad side.  With lightning, rain, and even some small hail we continued.  We caught about 5 fish during and shortly after the rain had passed.  But before it started pouring I make a feeble attempt at some pictures of the lightning.  Most of them turned out blurry and even most of the ones I uploaded on flickr are.  To keep my equipment safe I rely on professional waterproofing equipment, such as the waterproof laptop device in the picture below.

And heres one of the pictures, clicky it to see the rest on flickr.

I still have a lot to learn…

Heres some of the things I have been thinking about today and for some reason I feel like posting them unlike I usually do.  Maybe its a step forward and starting point or whatever you want to call it but I hope to have more of this kind of motivation.  Without further delay heres some of what floated around my head today.

1. Lack of use of my Apple G5

It sits on the floor on the right side of my desk connected to my Dell 22″ ultrasharp monitor, which honestly hasn’t seen much action recently itself as I have been mainly on my laptop.  Anyways, the main reason that deflects me from using it as much as I want is because it is, I believe, one of the reasons for global warming.  The room normally runs anywhere from 70-75 degrees F, which is comfortable to me even though I could go cooler, the cost/comfort level keeps it in check.  Whenever the G5 is running though it raises the room temp. to about 80-85, quite uncomfortable.  If I wanted to suffer like that I could go sit outside with my laptop in the shade and be miserable.  Anyone have tips for keeping the heat down?

2. My still photo camera

I have a Canon Rebel XTi digital camera with a kit lens (eek, yeah I know but I don’t use it enough… yet).  But basically the same problem with my G5 in the since that I don’t use it much.  Not because of heating issues though.  Basically I don’t really go to a lot of places that are really worth taken photos,  to be honest I don’t leave that much to be in the position to take pictures.  BUT,  about a week or so ago while I was walking my dog Scooter I took it with me and took some pictures out in the yard.  I probably took about 50 or so photos but there are only a few I kinda like, I am still quite the newb photographer and if I didn’t have horrible memory and forget my flickr login I would upload them for you to see.  If I ever remember it I will up them and edit.

Finally remembered my flickr info and it only took me a few days…

3. My video camera

Now since I don’t really have a cheapo camera and I consider it to be quite pricey I am really upset that I don’t use my Canon XH-A1 HD camera more.  So far I have only filled up one tape full of junk and it was pretty much just that - junk because I recorded a ride to the landfill to dump a trailer full of stuff pulled out of the shed.  Could it get much dumber?  But being the shy person that I think I am, I’m not so eager to jump in front of it and start uploading videos to the web for everyone to see.  I like the idea and like watching other people online so maybe Ill warm up to it soon.  Until then maybe I will find a use for it.

Three points seems to be enough for me, good for you?  I hope this will kickstart my creativity at least a little bit because it seems to be at a standstill almost.  When it starts flowing more I will post more and be more…  uh… creative.

Oh man what could that mean?  If you don’t know then you must not be that hardcore of a Lost fan!  If you are a huge lost fan like me then you cant wait for tomorrow for the new episode.  These few weeks of no new lost has me twitching from deprivation.  After soaking up the new podcast and previews that have been posted at lost.abc.com have gotten me itching even more.  So many questions left unanswered, so many more to come guessing the pattern of the show thus far.

If you want to see the bonus clip I am referring to in the title, go to Lostscape and find the right items to click on to trigger it. http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=lostscape.  Or find the right niche or longtail to google and find it easy.

 Edit: Seems this is no longer special, you can see the video clip on the lost page without having to find it.

Where to start?  I’m not sure, but if I don’t start i’ll never get there.  A problem for me sometimes is wanting to jump to expert without going through the novice stage.  I recently put off designing a site because I know I am not at the level I want to be.  I think my mindset is wrong because if I don’t start I won’t ever be able to design anything close to what some of the design masters have created.

I orded a few books from Amazon that came in yesterday, one of which is Designing With Web Standards written by mastermind Jeffrey Zeldman.  As of writing this post I have made my way into Chapter 5, I’m no book review expert, but so far I am pleased with what he has to say and would recommend it to anyone interested in standards based web design.  Since Zeldman has been around since the begining of the web and knows the old ways and the new and what it will take to progress, his view of web design is one I can easily respect.  Reading his book is definately helping me on my road to designing great websites.  If you have a book suggestion that will help me, feel free to leave a comment.

You can find out more about Jeffrey Zeldman and his great book on his website, http://www.zeldman.com.

Buy his book, Designing with Web Standards on Amazon.

I was fed up with my long hair being in my face and couln’t take it anymore. At 4 am I snappped, went into the bathroom with clippers and started shaving away. I hadn’t had a haircut in over a year and now that I look back I dont understand why I didnt just get a freaking hair cut. It may not have been the best haircut I’ve had, but life  seems so much better now that I can see. Click on the picture to go to my flickr and see the other photos.