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Hot(Diggity)Sync
Before I left this afternoon I put some contact information and calendar events into Outlook. Unfortunately, after I left, I remembered that I didn't sync my amazing Palm smartphone with my PC. Well, I'm not going to have that problem very often anymore.
I hooked it up so that it can HotSync over the Sprint PCS wireless network on demand (as long as my computer at home is on, which it always is). It's killer.
Ahhh, Snow...
Finally, we have the second decent snowstorm of the year. Not as big as two months ago here, but at least it's been snowing decently all day and we have some snow on the ground.
I watched my new The Incredibles DVD special features last night... very nice stuff.
Shooting Ourself In The Foot
I now officially hate Governor Pawlenty. If anybody else is marching on the capitol, I'm there.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, it's an issue very close to my heart: Public transportation. This past year has found the introduction of the Hiawatha Light Rail line to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. It's a bunch faster than taking a bus and is lots of fun. It's almost as cool as a subway. But one stretch of track from downtown to the airport and the Mall of America hardly consists of a public transportation system, even when that system includes hundreds of bus routes.
In recent news, the system is under budget. Today it was announced that the proposed plans to put it on budget is to cut at least some part of 70% of the bus system. Some routes will be completely canceled, but some will be reduced.
This is no good at all. With the introduction of the our new rail line, people besides those without cars are finding that MetroTransit may actually be a viable way of getting around. If buses are running less often, that's not going to help. Plus, fares are probably going to be raised across the board, which is also no good.
Most of this is because of the fact that our stupid governor is getting paid off by Detroit or Iraq oil or something. He wants us to have to all drive around in our cars and pay outrageous prices for gas. If anything, right now the amount of money allotted to MetroTransit should go up so that they can expand their services. It would encourage ridership instead of discourage it. It's the only way that people besides the disabled and really poor are going to think about using buses for everyday tasks.
Gotta Get Your Phil
Whoa! I can't believe that I've gone a month with this blog and my links didn't include one to Phil Keaggy. That's just crazy!
For those who don't know of Phil, he's the most amazing guitarist I've ever seen on an acoustic, and he does pretty good on the electric too.
I just finished watching a concert of his on a webcast. You have to get past the worship band and the short talking from the pastor, but Phil's amazing. He can do so much with an acoustic and everything. And he's been making music since the '60s... wow. That webcast is almost as good as his Philly Live DVD, so if you like it, then get the DVD too.
Now I'm going to watch this church's service featuring Ashley Cleveland last week. That should be good too.
Toy Story 3 eh, Watered Down?
Although it's not been officially confirmed, it looks like they've chosen a director for the Pixar-less Toy Story 3. Let's hope it's not true. According to IMDB, the only "movies" this guy has directed is The Lion King 1½, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, and Pocahontas II. With all that to his credit, they'd probably get a better result if the movie didn't have a director.
Better yet, they should get somebody from Jerry Bruckheimer's stable to direct it. After all, Bruckheimer's produced almost all of Disney's successful movies in the past couple years (besides Pixar movies, of course).
And now for the trailer park:
Here's more proof that Disney's lost it. Lindsay Lohan stars in a new movie with the beloved bug, Herbie.
As usual, Will Ferrell is funny. But this time, it's Mike Ditka and little kids that are forcing him to whine, Kicking and Screaming.
Yes, this one has Keanu Reeves doing his normal thing again. But the animation mixed with live action in this trailer was what caught my attention.
Not only does this trailer to The Hitchhicker's Guide To The Galaxy make me want to go read the book and see the movie, it also serves as a hilarious definition of a what a movie trailer is supposed to be.
And finally, of course, head over to StarWars.com to get your first look at the final trailer for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. I just watched it twice in a row and then went through it frame-by-frame.
Oh, and I just found this short film of Batman created by a bunch of animation students. But instead of creating a regular Batman film, they rendered it so that it looked like it was all made of LEGOs. And it looks cool.
An Incredible Week
This past week was kinda ho-hum. I didn't get too much productive done, but it wasn't just a waste either.
But this next week is gonna be amazing. First of all, Thursday's St. Patrick's Day. Hopefully that means at least a glass of Guinness. Second of all, I'm going to hang out with my family a bunch and my sister is going to be in her senior play.
But the biggest one is on Tuesday: The Incredibles on DVD! I've seen this movie in theaters three times, but I'm still looking forward to actually owning it and seeing all the special features. Seriously, if you haven't seen this movie, you'd better rent it Tuesday night, because you don't know what you've been missing. Better yet, just buy it Tuesday because I know you're gonna like it.
OK, so maybe I'm a little too excited about the movie. I tend to do that with movies I like. But, then again, I've never heard of anybody who hated the movie...
Live Music and More
Well, it's been days and days, so what have I been up to?
Hmmm..... not too much, actually. For lack of much more to do, I'm just waitin' to see if that interview develops something.
Last night I went to a show at Club 3 Degrees where my friends Hugh and Andy were playing. It was pretty cool. The band definitely has room to get better, but they were pretty good. Plus, there were cool friends to hang out with and some of the other musicians weren't too bad.
And then we watched my favorite comedy I got at Best Buy for $5: Josie and the Pussycats. Really stupid, but Alan Cumming, Parker Posy and Tara Reid are hilarious. Not that I'm saying you should bother renting it or getting it, but I enjoy it.
What's A Wiki?
My friend Billy asked me what a Wiki was yesterday. We talked about it a bit, but here I am to talk about it a bit more. A Wiki is an online repository of information that can be edited by just about anyone.
The most notable example is Wikipedia, a huge repository of all the information you'd ever need. Whenever I want to look up a technical term or just find general information on a topic, I go to Wikipedia for a good overview. Of course, not everything's in there, but that's mostly because somebody hasn't gotten around to writing on it. All this information is free to use, so if you have an area of expertise, why not join in and contribute to an article?
Another Wiki I'm very familiar with is the Homestar Runner Wiki. This has everything you'd ever need to know about the inside jokes on that Strong Bad email you just didn't get. Plus, most of them are there within hours of it getting posted on HomestarRunner.com. And, all these people did the work in finding those little hidden easter eggs, so you just read where they are and then go back and watch 'em.
The article that spawned an idea of a post was the following. Wired interviewed those who have made their hobby the updating of the Wikipedia. For them, the Wiki truly has become a way of life.
Join The Revolution Pt. 2
Colleen, you're absolutely right. UST students spend way too much time on Facebook.
To do a bit of research on my own, I decided to sign up for Facebook just to see what it was. Don't worry, I'm not going to the dark side, I just wasn't that impressed. Actually, I have no idea why you'd be on there as a student, but myself being an alumni of UST, it is a bit useful. There's some people with all their contact info on there that I haven't seen or heard from since graduation. So contacting them is a bit easier now that I have that method of finding their info.
But to prove how much time current students spend on Facebook, two people that I haven't seen for at least six months put me on their friends list. Just the fact that within six hours of me signing up two people had noticed I was on the system is scary. I can see myself using it from time to time to recconect with friends, but actually hanging out on there? You've got to be kidding. If they want me to hang out on there, the website design has to be at least as cool as my blog because I just put my blog look together in an hour or two!
Maybe I should make a little "no facebook" icon that we can put on the corner of our pages or something. That would be kinda cool.
da Interview
Today I spent a couple ours at NextNet Wireless. They're a rather new technology company that is working on some of the hottest stuff in the industry now: wireless Internet access. Their product allows users to get wireless internet anywhere within 30 miles of a base station that's connected to the net. The speeds can be really fast, depending on how fast the ISP will let you go. Their product is starting to be used by tons of companies, so it would be a great company to get into.
Although I had the distinct feeling that I had very little experience in the fields of networking or wireless, I feel the interviews went well. I got to talk to a number of people who work there, and they were all very nice and had great discussions. I learned a lot more about their company and technology. I put my best foot forward and really am interested in proving that I can learn the things they need me to know for this position.
As an aside, you'd think in a high school class of 42 students I could remember everybody's names. But it took me almost two days of thinking of the name "Sarah Klein" to even get a mental picture of one of the Trinity School Class of 2000. Shows you how much I hang out with my high school classmates.
So I hope this job thing goes well. I know some people who work there so it would be ideal to start my career there. Plus it would stretch my skills significantly. So please pray that they make a good decision. ;-)