Category: Life

Life, Technology

iPad Adventures Part 1

This feels familiar. Unnervingly familiar. I am checking the tracking status on a particular order I just purchased. What could this be? A new iPhone? A new book? A new movie? Any of those would be fine I suppose. What wouldn’t be fine? A new iPad…

Let me give you clue, it rhymes with iFad. Yup thats it. In the mail somewhere in Indiana is an iPad Pro 9.7 inch with my name on it. I know what your thinking at this point. Why. Why. Why. I have a few answers and not surprisingly, many questions myself.

Many of you are very familiar with my history with Mr. iPad. We have had a interesting relationship to say the least. From iPad 2 all the way up to this shiny new guy. My past is marred with battle scars of trying to fit the iPad into my life. Truth be told, it never quite has.

So why now? Why again? I have 2 ( I think) very good answers. Numeral uno: PRICE. I can hear your eyes rolling but give me a chance to explain myself here. So black friday, ya. That happened. I happened to find a very expensive iPad Pro model for a fraction of its normal price. So that alone was hard to pass up.

But the real reason. Ah yes. The real reason. Simple put, Apple. Yes, Apple. You see I’ve been watching diligently as Apple sways in and out of keynotes making grandiose statements for certain products and utterly avoids others. You see one thing you have to know about me (if you haven’t already) is I’m a Mac guy. I always have been. I edited my first short film on a Macintosh. I wrote all my screenplays on a Mac. The Mac is near and dear to my heart. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about Apple anymore.

Of course Apple doesn’t want anyone to think they are abandoning Macintosh. That would be foolish. Unavoidably, their actions hint at such motives though. So to make a long drawn out story not too long, ill just say this: I see the writing on the wall. iPad is Apple’s future. And its hard to completely blame them for it.

So back to me… I had to make a decision. I had to decide if I was going to keep fighting the good fight and continue on in my Mac ways, or try something different. I don’t want to miss something if Apple has big plans for the iPad next year. More accurately, I want to be prepared. As it stands now. All of my heavy work gets done on my MacBook Pro. I love this machine. But I’ve also had this laptop for 4 years now.

I think its also important to not just be doing something because A.) your comfy with it and B.) its what you’ve always done. I would never subscribe to that in life. At least I try hard not to. So I have no clue why I do such things in my tech products.

Many of you will ask the specifics. What model, what accessories. My plan is to try and document what Im doing, how I’m doing it and with what I’m doing it with. So all the details will be on here shortly.

Its funny, I already sense that familiar feeling. And the voices, of Dear heaven; the voices: “Too many products, not enough focus. Waste of money. Waste of space. Not efficient.” All voices running through my head right now. All old voices mind you. I need to try and beat those. Or at least figure why they are so loud.

Who knows if this experiment will work. Im ready to give it another go though. I will try and document my experiences with new iPad and report back. Maybe I bring it back. Maybe history repeats itself. Or maybe it finds a nice spot in my life… Who knows? Will find out soon.

Life, Movies

10 Years Later: The Fountain

First off, if you haven’t seen The Fountain, please do.

My own experience in seeing The Fountain for the first time was in a near-empty theater, just before it left wide release during its disappointing U.S. run, making $15 million globally on a reported $35 million budget. That isolation—the dark theater with scarcely anyone sharing it with me—allowed the film to really affect me emotionally and psychologically.

Ten years on, The Fountain has been compared favorably to 2001: A Space Odyssey for its similar meditation on human existence, transcendence and acceptance of death. It has garnered a growing cult following among the spiritual, the philosophical, sci-fi fans and cinephiles alike. That it also remains a divisive film, currently sitting at 51% on both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, only speaks to the singular perspective of Aronofsky himself, who spent years getting the film into production. Its distinct special effects were actually produced as a cost-cutting effort. The film’s production had been delayed several times and was considered over-budget before filming began.

Its divided reception, according to Aronofsky, was due largely to Western audiences’ reluctance to confront and accept the passing of loved ones and ultimately ourselves. He used Eastern themes and imagery to relay his message, which surely turned off many American movie-goers; the color white most obviously standing in for the purity of death.

I’ve turned The Fountain over in my mind so many times since seeing it—questioning whether the three characters played by Jackman are reincarnations of the same person, slowly arriving to the final conclusion Tommy comes to; or if Tomás is just a character in a book Izzi leaves for Tom, whose work allows him to extend his life well beyond the constraints of humanity and Earth.

The genius of that structure also works thematically, in that while everyone may take different paths to understanding, those paths all eventually lead to the same place. That’s The Fountain itself, really: the passage of time that brings us to an understanding we may accept with peace, or reject with further obstacles until we do.

Long story short, 10 years ago today one of most mentally challenging, yet beautiful films was released. If you haven’t been able to check it out, I strongly recommend it.

Family, Life, Videos

Liam – Age 5

Liam has grown so much in the past year… from playing video games and initiating super long question sessions to growing into a great big brother. It has certainly been a momentous year.

As time begins to go by fast now, I try to slow down things and realize how Liam was in the past, and how he is now. I try and be in the moment when I talk to him and really listen. I feel like everything formulating in his brain or coming out of his mouth at this point is original, wholehearted and sincere. He is curious about everything and has no boundaries imagination-wise.

Happy Birthday buddy. You may not remember every moment of being 4, 5, or 6 years old. But your mom and I will do our best to make the years fun, teach you new things and experience great places.

We love you.

Life

Hurting Others & Toxic Political Conversations

People lose their heads when it comes to politics. Let’s do the dirty work and dissect a normal political conversation nowadays. First, you have the aggressive (usually uneducated) partaker who “of course” feels strongly about something or someone. Then you have the voice of reason who gets sifted up because he/she is making “too” much sense. Then you have the overly wise scholar who joins in the last minutes and advises an overcomplicated reason of why people should or should not do or think, to solidify his wise stance.

This sounds like a nightmare because it is. Especially when you hold such talks on a medium like Facebook. As i’ve told Lindsey so many times , you just cannot have a “productive” connection between two or more people on that site. For the most part, Facebook is built on an ego centric foundation and permeates on personal, subconscious  reachings for attention and whats more, the concept of you sticking your flag in the ground and proudly standing by it with no room for thought. Sure there are things in life you should feel strong over. I’ll even give you the political subject being 1 of them. But when you crossover from an already toxic conversation to hurting people for your own gain, please stop.

I’ve long said and lived by a simple saying: “It’s not what you like, but what you’re like.” I’m not saying I’m even right in aligning with that concept. But it makes sense to me. I won’t force you to live by it and certainly won’t make you feel bad if you disagree with it. But maybe, just maybe you’ll actually read it. Even a more preposterous possibility, maybe you’ll think upon it.

I get it, its election season. People are on edge. People care deeply about this. I do it too. As noted on this site, I am a Libertarian. I am passionate about that. No doubt you’re certainly passionate about who you stand with. But its sad when we can’t have normal, logical conversations with other humans. Even more tragic when we hide behind pixels and deliver hurtful blows.

Please stop hurting other people and condemning them for who they are voting for. Everyone is different and from some of the awful stories I’ve heard coming out of Facebook recently, I thank God for it.

Life

The Storm has Passed 

It’s not that I’m unafraid of storms, but the overreaction to them is confusing at times. Maybe being a firefighter has helped me deal with really bad situations. Seeing people at the worst moment of their life, seeing things my brain just can’t understand, or just simply preparing for the worst but knowing we could handle it because it’s our job. Anyways Hurricane Matthew came and left, not as serious as advertised but still many, many affected negatively. My prayers go out to them. Thank God, our home was largely unaffected.

In other news yesterday night my well-documented iPhone 6 was showing some wear. The battery started really flaking out. The big problem was my battery would always read 100% and then just die so either the indicator was wrong or the battery is going. This is comical to me considering I really was trying to make it a third year with my 6 and hold off buying the iPhone 7. I tried a bunch of different stuff, I googled and troubleshooted, but in the end I went to bed thinking about what model of the iPhone 7 I was going to buy before our trip to Connecticut in a few days. Luckily, I woke up this morning and while driving to work I saw my battery starts to drain down! I’ve never been so happy to see battery loss. Phone is temporarily fixed and lives on to see another day!!

Starting this week to get prepared for Connecticut I’m excited and looking forward to the long drive with family and seeing everyone up in Connecticut.

Fall weather hot chocolate and maybe foliage. What more could you ask for?

Life, Technology

5 Years Without Steve Jobs

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Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.– Steve Jobs

I’ve never met Steve Jobs. I never will. But the impact his products have made in my life is undeniable. Today marks the 5 year anniversary of his death. I often wonder about many things; what he would think of current Apple products? The direction Apple has gone? Decisions they have made? Obviously no one knows these answers. But I still wonder…

I owe Steve Jobs my love to video production. I’m not great at it, and really don’t do it as much as i’d like anymore. But the truth is, his passion for getting complicated, expensive tools in ordinary people’s hands in a reworked, simple product is the direct reason for my filmmaking an editing projects.

Steve’s Stanford Commencement Speech was a huge influence of me filming a screenplay on a whim. His reluctancy until achievement of excellence still inspires me and truthfully, could be used at Apple currently. His drive for perfection is largely unmatched not only today, but in an all time spectrum.

In a world where iPhone is king, I think it’s important to remember SJ and Apple at their roots. At their simplest form: The Mac. Steve was passionate about the Mac. To a fault really. But the result is someone like me. I didn’t have to go to college to learn video editing, or filmmaking, or sound sampling, or color correcting, or graphic designing. I just had to buy my first Macintosh.

Thanks Steve.

Deep Thoughts, Life, Technology

The Most Skippable iPhone?

Like a kid at Christmas, there I was doing my part. I waited patiently. I was ready. This year though, Apple had other plans.

I have been anxiously awaiting this years iPhone release for more than a year. It has been my customary tradition to upgrade my most used tech device every 2 years. Even when Apple introduced their now infamous “Upgrade Program,” I still held off. Because frankly, I like keeping my phones for 2 years. I don’t why, I just do.

So around June-ish the rumors started to hit pretty heavy that the new upcoming iPhone is not what we thought it may be. It’s not redesigned, it’s not exciting and most notably it’s not even garnering the most attention. Turns out this year, the next next iPhone is getting more attention then the soon anticipated one. The rumors started to hit hard that Apple was working diligently on a revolutionary, edge to edge screen design for the 10th anniversary iPhone that would release in 2017. This was a first. I didn’t know what to think about this. Essentially my mind translated all this into: this new, unreleased iPhone (2016) is already outdated.

I didn’t like this. Who would? Here I am intentionally waiting for the new hotness, only to start hearing rumors that the new hotness is not the new hotness. I thought to myself, “Be Patient”. Wait and see. And wait I did…

Fast Forward…. Enter September 7, 2016. Apple officially reveals iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The rumors were dead on. Not newly designed. Not exciting. Not new hotness. To be fair, the iPhones 7 have a lot going for them. This marks the first time Apple has ever made a design 3 times in a row. At this point I would assume they have perfected it. So a big benefit is naturally, if your buying an iPhone 7, your receiving a very well polished, solid device to surely last you 2 years.

So there I was faced with this unusual situation I never chose to be in. I waited, I did my part. Apple showed their cards and I’m kind of left scratching my head. What do I do? I thought about this a bunch. I didn’t want to waste my upgrade on a phone only to be left out in the dark when/if Apple does release this magical, unicorn, 10th anniversary iPhone next year. Also another huge element in my decision making was Apple’s new operating system, iOS 10. In my mind, iOS 10 was going to make or break my decision. If it ran awful on my current iPhone 6 my choice would be an easy one. If it ran silky smooth. That would pull me in the keeping the 6 camp.

On the other hand, iPhone release week is a fun time to be an Apple fan. You get caught in the excitement extremely easy and naturally, you want to be a part of it and on my traditional 2 year cycle, I usually am. Another huge benefit I was to gain is simply having a new phone. My current phone is 2 years old and showing some age. The great thing about buying a new phone every 2 years is really receiving upgrades from 2 new phone generations, not 1.

So honestly speaking, the night preorders hit, instead of my usual super excitement, I set my alarm for 2:55 AM with an indecisive (who me?) mind. My alarm sounded, clock showed 2:55. Here I go. Pull out my trusty laptop. Apple.com here I come. Do all my preorder set up and come to the moment of truth: the “place order button.”

Excitement got the best of me. I preordered feeling “OK” about the decision but also in the back of my head knew iOS 10 dropped in 3 days. If iOS 10 would run smoothly on my current iPhone 6 and I wasn’t impressed with the 7, the plan of action would be pretty clear: my usual return policy which is return everything! Lindsey now calls it my “ride of shame” which I laugh at because it unbelievably accurate of my emotions when I’m driving to the Apple store with a receipt and a box.

So, iPhone 7 preordered and coming on launch day and awaiting iOS 10. The day of iOS 10’s release I was excited. Kinda like the excited I used to be for new iPhone releases. And that spoke volumes to me. I asked myself why? The truth I came to find out was simple. I really didn’t want the iPhone 7. In many ways I was hoping to pass on it. If I passed on it, I would have many, many options for next year.

iOS 10 released and I honestly think my phone runs better then it did on iOS 9. The big things checked out: battery life, responsiveness, all good! I was excited. I felt confident my 6 would be good to last another year, Then my 7 came in the mail. And to give Apple credit, the phone is gorgeous. I ordered the matte black model and boy I’m happy I did. Even without a new design, somehow Apple made this phone better looking then ever. I was tempted briefly to keep it (of course I was) but after some clear thinking and adding up all the moving parts: iOS 10 performance on my current phone, next year impending magical phone and keeping my upgrade intact. I just couldn’t do it. Ride of shame, we meet once again.

So thats it, thats my story (so far). The back up plan is if something happens to my third year iPhone that deems it unusable, I’ll bite the bullet and head on over to Apple and pick up a 7. Until then I feel at peace with my decision. An odd choice ill be the first to admit. I’ve never had a cell phone for 3 years. So we will see how that pans out.

I should note, people have mentioned the obvious to me. What if Apple’s magical unicorn phone does not come out next year? Do you hold on to your iPhone 6 a 4th year? The answer: I don’t know. I doubt it, but we’ll see. For the record, I’m really hoping Apple comes through.

Like many reviewers currently out there, I can’t bash Apple. My decision was based on what I wanted and not what Apple did or did not do, if that makes sense. Sure the iPhone 7 didn’t ring my bell this time around. That doesn’t mean it’s not a great phone. In fact it is a great phone. Any time Apple makes something 3 times over you better believe its a solid product. You also have to give Apple props that my current daily driver (iPhone 6) is 2 years old and simply running better then ever. What other tech company can boast about something like that? So in one way the iPhone 7 is Apple’s most skippable phone. In many others, Apple’s most conceived phone. Its all in how you look at it.

If you ordered an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus. Be excited. It’s a worthy representation of the newest iPhone. But as for me, When I returned mine I finally got to play with one in the store. The best way for me to sum up my hands on experience of an iPhone 7 is simple. IPhone 7: next year’s iPhone hidden in this years casing. Its extremely clear to me that this years iPhone is a transition phone until next year. And you know who can’t wait to be excited again for a new iPhone announcement? This guy.

Life, Technology

Austin Mann’s iPhone 7 Camera Review

 

Whole thing was shot on iPhone 7 and 7 Plus cameras. If you can, look at his example photos on a display with wide color gamut. Mann on the 7 Plus 56 mm camera:

It works exactly as I hoped. It is super quick to switch between lenses, even while you are rolling video. As seen in the video above, jumping from 1× to 2× while recording can be a great way to punch in and emphasize a detail.

In terms of quality, I found the the 2× zoom lens to be equally as sharp as the iPhone wide-angle we’re accustomed to. However, I do not recommend the digital zoom beyond 2×. The quality of digital zoom degrades quickly and I find it unusable for photography (although it’s actually kind of nice as an animal spotting tool).

The 2× works in ALL modes (photo, video, time-lapse, slo-mo, and even pano), which surprised me. I didn’t expect it in each mode, and I really enjoyed shooting 2× panos, capturing extra detail in the area of the landscape I found most interesting.

And on search:

Shooting photos is one thing; finding them and sharing them is another. The new Photos app in iOS 10 has a great search feature (the magnifying glass at top right) that hasn’t been talked about much.

I’ve found this feature to be very powerful and way beyond what I expected. For starters, I can search for a location like “Lake Kivu” to see all the photos I took on the lake. But going further, I can search for “tree” or “mountain” and immediately see all images containing trees or mountains. Even further still, I can search for “palm tree” and it accurately displays palm trees I’ve photographed in the last week.

Watch Austin’s excellent review here

Life

The Truman Show & Today’s Political World

Many of you know The Truman Show is one of my favorite films. So when one of my favorite youtube channels put a video including it, I had to share.

Nerdwriter has a fantastic new film analysis up comparing The Truman Show to today’s political landscape. One of his best in my opinion. He directly hits on so many things that its hard to dismiss his theory of the “current state of us”. Take some time to check it out: