Thanksgiving Beer Update

For no other reason than to find out how much I drink on Thanksgiving, I will post every time I crack open a new Miller Lite. UPDATE: See Spreadsheet Below.

Xbox 360

So, a combination of Amazon Associates Commission certs and Visa Extras afforded me the opportunity to buy an Xbox 360.

I actually got to play with the old OS for a day and a half before it was updated on Wednesday to the new spiffy NXE (New Xbox Experience) which also includes streaming from Netflix's "Watch Instantly" library. NICE!

Anyway, we don't have that many games. The 2008 Holiday Bundle included Lego Indiana Jones & Kung Fu Panda. I rented Call of Duty 4 from Gamefly (which I will keep with my $5 off coupon)

I plan to rent Gears of War 1 & 2, Halo 3, CoD:WoW, Left 4 Dead, Dead Space and whatever else strikes my fancy.

My Gamertag is: canonelan2

When I created my avatar Valerie insisted that I had too much hair so I was instructed to take it down a notch. :(

Bike Hero

Here is a video created by an ad agency (paid for by Activision)


I love this comment... "You, sir, win the internet."

Fire alarm....

...Just as we were leaving. I hope the hotel is still there after we
get back from the casino!

Beer Master Tour

Free dessert...

Horsey

Dinner on Thursday

Compliments of the management...

Best view in the hotel...

We Love $1.99!

Since Pangea Software's sale reduced Cro-Mag Rally on the App Store to only $1.99 it's been creeping up the Top 25 Paid Apps list. Yesterday, it was #3, this morning it is #2. At that price it will be hard for ANY iPhone/iPod Touch owner to pass up. Smart move Pangea! I really hope that starts a trend in price dropping. As I said in a previous post, there are several apps I'd buy if they were cheaper. There's no way I can be the only one holding out. Cro-Mag Rally is perfect proof of that concept. Some money is better than no money!

Oh, and to add to my Paid App Purchases List, I bought the #1 on the Top 25 Paid Apps list... "Pocket Guitar" for only 99¢. No, I don't play guitar but at least I'm learning to pay the beginning of "One" lol Since I put paid apps on both my iPhone and my wife's, I can easily get 50¢ worth of fun out of it. Grand Total on the App Store is now up to $42.90

Holy Shit Fail!

Food Poisoning Fail

I laughed out loud when I saw this one...

Apps on the horizon...

There are apps that I'm currently keeping tabs on (price, updates, reviews, etc.) that I haven't purchased yet.

Since day -1 I've been looking at getting a Planetarium app.

It's interesting that all 4 are in different categories...

Reference: iAstronomica - $8.99 (I noticed that their price is reduced from their opening day price of $19.99)
Education: Starmap - $11.99
Navigation: GoSkyWatch Planetarium - $9.99
Entertainment: Astronomer - $1.99 (programmer says "Don't bother buying this one")

I'm leaning towards GoSkyWatch Planetarium but one of the biggest things I HATE about the app store is that the VAST majority of apps have no "demo" or "lite" version to 'try before you buy'

There are also some apps out there that I'm interested in but the current price is too high...
Spore Origins $9.99
Asphalt 4: Elite Racing $9.99
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D $9.99
Tetris $7.99
Bejeweled 2 $7.99 (down from $9.99)
Scrabble $9.99

And of course I'm (we all are) waiting for the KILLER APP to appear. SlingPlayer!! I will buy it no matter the price. It looks like they've charged around $29.99 for mobile versions of it for other platforms, that will likely be the most expensive app I ever buy in the app store!

I will also recommend that if new iPhone/Touch users see something for free in the app store that they could be even the slightest bit interested in, get it. (You can always delete it later)

You never know when free app developers will start charging for them (Seismometer, whip, etc.) or if they get pulled off of the store completely (PhoneSaber, iPint, Tris, etc.)

New App Needed!!

Last month whilst at my Gun Club I found a need for a new app. Let's call it "Shot Timer" it will be an iPhone only app as it would require the mic.

Basically, it would be similar to Apple's "stopwatch" and use the iPhone's mic to hear the gun shots and automatically record the times for "shot 1", "shot 2" etc. just like it records "lap 1", "lap 2" etc. when you touch 'Lap'. Obviously the large numbers at the top would be the overall time elapsed... not the next 'lap' like it's setup now.

I would need a mic sensitivity setting so I could fine tune it. It would need to keep at least 10 sets of data (I need the ability to name each set) and be able to e-mail them off easily.

It would need to have a few modes...

Timer starts at the first gun shot
Timer starts at the tone (customizable sound of course)
Fixed timer countdown... (You have xx seconds to shoot your xx shots in)

I would not need it for competition, just informal target shooting so timing to the 1/10th of a second would work. (but I certainly wouldn't say no to the 1/100th)

Do we have any programmers/shooters out there that wanna give it a try?

App Store Purchases...

Darren sent me a link the other day to a Chicago Tribune article about a new affliction called appiphilia. Now unlike the author I haven't downloaded 80 apps. Nor have I spent $90 since its launch... but I have made a few purchases. A 1/3 of them today alone.



It started with the early opening of the app store the day before its official launch date of July 11th.

For those willing to download and install an early release copy of the iPhone firmware on Apple's website (unofficially), they could install and play with new apps the day before it's official launch.

I was among the MANY I assume bought Super Monkey Ball that day for $9.99. I'm sure the vast majority of people who saw the App Store keynote and the demo of Super Money Ball were eager to try one of the coolest App Store launch apps.




Later that evening I purchased, iBeer for $2.99 and Comic Touch for $4.99. A few days later, and after restoring the iPhone with the REAL and OFFICIAL firmware, I bought another app... Texas Hold'em for $4.99. By that night I had also downloaded 28 free apps to screw around with (and sometimes delete).



About 2 weeks later I tried the free version of Labyrinth and then a couple of days later bought the full version for $6.99.

A few weeks later when Koi Pond went #1 on the paid side of the store, I (along with LOTS of others apparently) decided hell, it's only 99¢ I'll give it a try!


I didn't buy a another 'paid app' until today. I was perusing the store and came across Cro-Mag Rally for a too low to resist price of $1.99 (80% off of the app store launch price of $9.99). There was a note on Cro-Mag's page that mentioned that all of Pangea Software's apps were on sale. Having some interest in Enigmo at launch but not $10's worth of interest, the 50% off was too hard to resist and at $4.99, I bought that too.

Lastly, I looked at Pangea's other title called Billy Frontier it was on sale for $3.99. Down from its normal price of $5.99. Ok, not that big of a discount, but I was on a roll, give me a break! But it looks like I could have got it for only $2.99 had I seen the app when it first came out.

So let's ring up a total.... $41.91 + tax. Yes, iTunes charges me tax for apps but not for music. Strange. Anyway, between free and paid apps it looks like I'm around 60. So on second thought, I'm not too far behind that guy from the tribune after all!

TV Shows I'm watching this season...

This is not my first complete season in HD (that was last year in the bedroom) We got the TV for the living room last Christmas so this will be the first (complete) TV season that I'll have a nice big HDTV to watch in the living room.

As some of you know, I'm rather picky about new TV shows. The normal rule I've used the past several years is I won't watch a new show that I'm interested in until it gets picked up for season 2. (with the internet, it's real easy to track that shit) I've been burned too many times by networks who don't give a new show a chance and just as I begin to get interested in the story, they pull the plug. It's like reading a book and having half of the pages pulled out and burned before you can read them...

Firefly - Canceled on its first season without an acceptable ending.
John Doe - Canceled on its first season without an acceptable ending.
Harsh Realm - Canceled on its first season without an acceptable ending.
The Lone Gunmen - Canceled on its first season without an acceptable ending.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith - Canceled on its first season without an acceptable ending.

The rule doesn't save me from a network canceling a show without a proper ending in a later season...

Joan of Arcadia - Canceled without an acceptable ending.
Dark Angel - Canceled without an acceptable ending.
Early Edition - Canceled without an acceptable ending.
Boston Public - Canceled without an acceptable ending.

...but at least I won't bother getting into a new show at all if the network has no faith in it to give it a second season. This rule has saved me time. There are several shows I didn't waste my time with due to this rule. I've skipped shows that at least mildly interested me... Blade, Commander in Chief, Daybreak, Invasion, Lyon's Den, Karen Sisco, Journeyman, The Nine, K-Ville, Bionic Woman, Moonlight, etc. The most recent of which was Women's Murder Club on ABC. I've read every "Women's Murder Club" book by James Patterson but since ABC had no faith for a second season, why should I watch a single episode?

Then of course I'll throw my cheap shot at David Chase just because I'm as asshole...

The Sopranos - Don't Stop.................. without an acceptable ending, Jerk Off!

There are many more but off the top of my head, I can't remember what they are.

Anyway... here's my list of TV shows I'm watching this season. It's broken down in a few categories...
Shows I Watch Religiously...
Heroes - (kids will watch it with me)
Lost
The Office - (kids will watch it with me)
Prison Break
The Shield - (sadly not in HD)
Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles
Weeds - (almost done)
24 - (been waiting a LONG time for the new season!)
Ghost Whisperer - (kids will watch it with me)
South Park
Mythbusters
Nip/Tuck - (not sure when the next season starts up)
Rescue Me - (not sure when the next season starts up)

New shows that I am/might be giving a chance this season...
Fear Itself - (all stand alone stories, so I broke my "2nd Season Pickup" rule - all eps already aired)
True Blood - (I broke my rule here for 3 reasons. 1. Anna Paquin, 2. Vampires, 3. It's HBO)
Fringe - (Rule in full effect. I'm recording it on my DVR... Time will tell if I will actually watch it.)
Destroyed in Seconds - (Discovery Channel show... the rule doesn't count on non-scripted shows. And it sounds like more fun than Smash Lab!)
Sons of Anarchy - (2nd Season Pickup rule applies. I'm not recording it. In the event it's picked up for a 2nd season and reviews aren't half bad, I will torrent it.)
My Own Worst Enemy - (2nd Season Pickup rule applies. I'm not recording it. In the event it's picked up for a 2nd season and reviews aren't half bad, I will torrent it.)
90210 - (Valerie is watching it, as is most of my office. The 2nd Season Pickup will apply for me.)

I will watch if I have the time (guilty pleasures)
Cops (in HD only)
Dog the Bounty Hunter (if not in stretch-o-vision YOU SUCK A&E!)
Modern Marvels (HD only and if topic is of interest)
Unwrapped (HD only and if topic is of interest)
American Chopper (if I'm really hard up for something to watch)

I'm sure I'm forgetting something but that's the list for now. It might seem like a lot of TV but at least it's good TV. My list isn't filled with 90%+ crappy reality tv shows like others I know.

49 minute wait

Now... Time to eat!!!!

Sent from my iPhone

Line #2

The Line #1

100% Off

Moron Fail

Proof that God is a vengeful bastard

We get an absolutely beautiful day here and I'm stuck in the fucking
office!

How long does it take to get a Bluray via Netflix?

The movie Jumper has been in my queue since it was just a 'saved' title with no release date. Once it got a street date and was transfered to my queue I bumped it up to the top.

That was sometime in May. It's street date was June 10th.

Since then it been listed as "Very Long Wait" at the prime spot of my queue. Sadly, Netflix isn't getting enough Bluray discs to meet their demand (at least in Chicagoland) so the movie didn't ship to me until TODAY! August 25th.

Now, I have no idea why it would take so long to get a Hayden Christensen movie, and I fully expect it to be a 3 star movie but come on... According to timeanddate.com, 76 days!

6,566,400 seconds or 109,440 minutes or 1824 hours

And it's not the only movie with a wait...

Vantage Point has also been in my queue since before it was given a street date and it still listed as a Very Long Wait. Its street date was July 1st.

More near the top of the queue...
21 - Very Long Wait
Harold and Kumar...Guantanamo Bay - Short Wait
10,000 B.C. - Short Wait
Category 7: The End of the World - Long Wait
The Bucket List - Short Wait

Get your shit together Netflix!!

Heroes Countdown

Missing Pics

As I'm sure some of you noticed... I didn't renew my .mac account in January. I may at some point join Apple's new 'Mobile Me' but in the meantime all of my older posts that had pics linked to them will not work until I edit every post and upload the pics to google. As I have almost 500 posts, this will take some time.

Fuck you WLS!

A BIG thumbs down to WLS 890 AM this morning for revealing the results of the Women's Gymnastics Balance Beam Final which won't be aired in the U.S. until this evening! I didn't even have a chance to avoid it. My alarm went off at 7am and at that very moment they spoiled it!

Assholes!

Another one I found amusing...

FAIL

Has anyone checked out the Fail Blog?

Some seriously funny shit there!!












This one gave me the giggles!

iPhone App Needed...

Last night whilst at my Gun Club I found a need for a new app. Let's call it "Shot Timer" it will be an iPhone only app as it would require the mic.

Basically, it would be similar to Apple's "stopwatch" and use the iPhone's mic to hear the gun shots and automatically record the times for "shot 1", "shot 2" etc. just like it records "lap 1", "lap 2" etc. when you touch 'Lap' Obviously the large numbers at the top would be the overall time elapsed... not the next 'lap' like it's setup now

I would need a mic sensitivity setting so I could fine tune it. It would need to keep at least 10 sets of data (I need the ability to name each set) and be able to e-mail them off easily.

It would need to have a few modes...

Timer starts at the first gun shot
Timer starts at the tone (customizable sound of course)
Fixed timer countdown... (You have xx seconds to shoot your xx shots in)

I would not need it for competition, just informal target shooting so timing to the 1/10th of a second would work. (but I certainly wouldn't say no to the 1/100th)

Do we have any programmers/shooters out there that wanna give it a try?

There's only one Bob Rohrman....

I guess to start my week off with a bang Bob Rohrman's Nissan decided to do something special for me after my Sentra was brought in for a recalled Master Cylinder and an oil change.

Click on the pic to enlarge. Yes. That's oil over EVERYTHING!!

They apparently didn't make the service dept. oil changers take "Oil Change 101" because one of the first things they'd learn is... MAKE SURE YOU PUT THE OIL CAP BACK ON!!!!

Line for wristbands

Cake

We forgot to preorder

Playlist

Breaking Dawn Party

Lost Boys 2...

"Build a man a fire, and he's warm for a day. Light a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life." - Edgar Frog

Better than I expected. Glad to see Edgar back.

I give it 3 stars on the Netflix scale.

Things I love about the 3G...

I figured I'd also post the things that made the upgrade to the 3G worth it for me...

• Twice the storage (16GB. I can actually carry a movie or two with me now)
• Twice the speed (EDGE vs. 3G)
• GPS (actually A-GPS... I now carry a map of the entire country in my pocket and a GPS to both assist with location services and mapping)
• Louder Speaker (both locations... ear & bottom)
• Ability to talk on the phone AND use the internet at the same time (in a 3G area)
• No longer a recessed Headphone jack. (I hated that on the original)
• $100 less than the first one I bought
• Wife needed a new phone and now has my iPhone v1.

A few days with the 3G...

A walk back through time shows my list of what I wanted improved in the iPhone v2.

After a few days with the iPhone 3G and almost 2 weeks with the iPhone 2.0 software, I've decided to update this list...

Apple To-Do List...
* Safari STILL needs to run FLASH and JAVA
* COPY/CUT/PASTE REALLY (Is it really that hard to program??)
* Video recording (Where the hell is it??)
* Sync "Notes" back to iTunes or something to save them off phone (cause it's STILL completely worthless to me otherwise)
* Turn keyboard sideways in any mode that requires a lot of typing... (E-MAIL)
* MMS messages
* Ability to change the "alert" sounds for incoming E-Mail/SMS (custom sounds)
* Ability to send pics from camera via e-mail at FULL res! (why the hell is Apple limiting this?)
* Ability to tether as a modem via bluetooth and/or USB
* PDF viewer needs bookmarks + searching
* Mail count indicator for multiple email accounts
* Allow iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store use via 3G

Non-Apple related...
* Gmail Push (I assume Google is working on this and it will be up when Apple fires up their Notification Service)
* Google Calendar App
* Google Reader App
* Google Talk App
* Google Mail App
* Google Docs App
* Google Notes App
* SlingBox app (SlingMedia is currently working on this)
* NetFlix app (To manage the queue)
* NetFlix On Demand app (To play their on demand library via the iPhone)

And of course I have to include these for the iPhone v3...
* LARGER STORAGE (64GB+)
* Memory card support (will never happen but a man can dream)
* User-replaceable battery (will never happen but a man can dream)
* Higher Quality Camera (3-4 megapixels seems like a nice bump)
* Notification Light for new e-mail, SMS, MMS, etc. (like the blackberry)

Say Hello to my new 3G...

So on the way home from work last night I stopped by the Apple Store to see if I could buy a 3G dock. (they're evidently hard to find) While there, (still out of stock) I asked if they had any iPhone's. The girl (cute... sorta Ellen Page looking) said they had one 16GB left and it was white. I told her to go get it.

While waiting in the one person iPhone queue (me), I quickly called AT&T and asked them about my Direct Fulfillment. 1. Where am I in the list? (#52), 2. What is the realistic time frame to get it? (21-30 days) 3. Can I cancel? (yes)

I decided to cancel my direct fulfillment at AT&T. I had originally wanted a black iPhone but I didn't hate the white version, after all, all of my iPods have been white.

Anyway...

While waiting in the queue a lady walked in (I'll call her Mary), she had apparently driven two hours after calling to see if they had phones in stock. She said she even called ten minutes before she arrived to reconfirm they still had stock. Mary was told by another "orange shirt" (Apple Employee) that I had taken the last one.

Ellen came back by, I asked how long it will take, she said it should be a few minutes... she pointed to a guy (let's call him Mike) who was walking in while I was pulling up, getting his iPhone.

Mary was disappointed and pissed off. She threw the word fuck around a few times. The orange shirt told her that there were several things that could go wrong with a 3G purchase and that she should wait to see if the transaction completes.

After walking around and talking to a couple of more orange shirts, Mary eventually made her way to the queue area where I was standing. "Do you have good credit? They said they do a credit check on everyone and if you can't pass the credit check they won't sell you the phone."

A little taken back by her brazenness, "Actually I'm just upgrading my current iPhone and am already an AT&T customer... they don't need a credit check."

"Well, no offense, but I hope something goes wrong with your order." she replied

Another iPhone guy came out of the back and came to assist me. The process is way more complex than it needs to be and is quite annoying. It has to be activated in store, no online sales, no cash orders, etc. I had to bring a State Issued photo ID, Credit Card, Social Security Number, DNA swab, urine sample and my first born child (sorry Alyssa!)

About half way through the process I was watching Mike with his iPhone guy. I couldn't hear what was going on but I could tell by his body language that his purchase wasn't going smoothly. While my guy was entering my credit card manually (their handheld computer thingy could not read it.) I walked over to the Mary. I told her that it looks like Mike's purchase is falling through. This was confirmed by Mike leaving the store without an iPhone in hand. She was very thankful, and if SHE passed the credit check perhaps she was lucky enough to get his iPhone.

END OF LINE

PS I'm still looking for a dock.

Day #6 of the 3G wait...

Today is day #6 of my "7-10" day wait for the iPhone 3G. Based on the 7-10 days I was quoted, Tuesday is on the short end & Friday is on the long end.

I fully expect AT&T to NOT make the dates....
http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/07/21/iphones.virtually.sold.out/

Day #2 of 3G watch...

I got sick of trying to track down an iPhone 3G locally so I did a "Direct Fulfillment" from AT&T. They will ship it to the store in 7-10 days. I did this Tuesday afternoon. Looks like I'll get it by next Tuesday or next Friday at the latest. Doesn't really matter to me. I'm having lots of fun with the 2.0 software and the App Store on my v1 iPhone. It seems that my wife is more eager to get my v1 than I am to get the 3G.

Hard to find...

Nice day today...