Go go Gadget Ipad!

I’m sitting here staring at an Ipad2. The original intent behind this post was to write up a review for the fancy piece of tech from the device itself, detailing all of its nifty features and posting it online via the build in wifi. I may have planned this poorly however. I’m sitting here at work writing this out for later transition when I get home. It turns out the Ipad2, while undoubtedly capable of doing what I wanted, can only do so once you’ve bothered to activate it.

In hindsight that should’ve been a fairly logical thing to expect to be built into a product like this, but for some reason (an apple rep who will go unnamed) I believed you could just start it up and begin using it immediately. Activation itself requires access to Itunes and I presume the ‘net. I can’t be certain though because I can’t get past the front screen plaintively requesting that I find that Itunes first. There’s literally nothing else I can do with this because all of it remains locked out until then.

So I’m sitting here staring at the Ipad2. H’okay, I guess I should review what I have. I mean, that was the original goal of this place, right? Reviews for various interests we collectively have. Wait, hold on. I need to poke the main button again to bring up my USB request again. Good. Alright, onwards with the review.

It’s certainly lighter and smaller than any laptop I’ve ever seen before. The screen is crystal clear and touch functionality seems to be working perfectly. I must admit my sole access to the latter is when I hold down the on/off switch and then use a slider to confirm shutdown. However it does do that very well, which means it’s doing good so far. I played around with a display version on a couple of different occasions before I decided to make my purchase so I can say that the typing interface is surprisingly effective for myself, but I suspect that opinion will vary greatly between users.

A simple method to determine whether it will function for you is to see precisely how you type. Those of you who drag your fingers across your keyboard to help mentally judge where the next key you need is will find the Ipad2 nearly unbearable. It detects all of those as independent strokes and if you’ve worked that into a habit it’ll be a royal pain in the ass to break it just for one device – more so if you still use a normal keyboard with your main computer. On the other hand if you type entirely without touching the keyboard except for the keystrokes themselves you’ll find virtually no problems. It may take a bit of fiddling to get back up to your regular speed, but the initial drop in typing rate won’t be all that noticeable. In fact, you’ll probably suffer a bigger issue now that I’ve forced you to examine precisely how you type than you’ll get from using the Ipad2. I sure know writing that last paragraph made my brain itch a bit.

I do doubt the range of utilities that the product can bring to bear though. Frankly, if you use a computer a very great deal this product won’t even come close to serving as a replacement. It’s designed with only casual use in mind. For idling searching things, watching video or buying and reading a book – it’ll be your new best friend. Anything related to gaming or storage? It’s light-years behind what your basic PC will offer. That’s the sacrifice it makes to be so portable though, and I can see it crafting its on niche. Granted that niche falls into only two categories of people I’ve seen so far. Those who purchase every new gadget the second it comes out either because they’re absurdly rich or value electronics over feeding themselves, or people who’re using it as a laptop substitute. Since this isn’t being typed from my private jet, I fall into the latter group. All my gaming needs and high end computer requirements are fulfilled by looming black monolith I use as a home PC, which meant my old laptop (being handed off to a friend in need now) was being used solely for note-taking and the odd secondary search or video when friends were over. All of that the Ipad2 can do just as well while being incredibly portable and having a battery that lasts five times as long.

The last comparison I can make is price. The closest thing I have to compare is the aforementioned old laptop, and for starters I should qualify that by saying its ‘old’ in tech terms. It means it was a low-end laptop bought three years ago. It cost just (as in about a cent) under $500 and while its capacity is enormous in relation to the Ipad2, just about none of that’s been used in all the time I’ve owned it. I have a PC tower with ten times more space on it than the laptop – of course I use it instead. The Ipad2 for reference cost $20 more only three years later. The finest attribute I can give to my laptop is that it was apparently made out of cement. I think I’ve dropped it about a dozen times over the years, and honestly the last few I didn’t even bother to check if it was alright immediately after. I knew it was. I don’t know how they managed make the obviously rock case look and feel like plastic, but kudos to the design team.

Anyways, whenever I actually toy around with the thing for more than a handful of minutes in a store I’ll write a more comprehensive review. Until then I’ll continue to try and ponder out the mysteries of the one screen I can see.

Titles.

I’ve officially decided I hate my name. No one’s made fun of it or anything, but today while at work I came across a tiny memo from home office that was apparently sent by some random clerk named Dawn Vanderstarren. It was then I realized my name sucks. This thought was quickly followed up by wondering how in god’s name some one called that ended up being a clerk at Wal-mart instead of a masked super hero. Further investigation lead me to finding out that Dawn Vanderstarren (Pronouns do you no justice) may have to push around memos as one facet of what he does, but the rest is working for something called the Canadian Emergency Operations Centre.

This is still Wal-mart by the by. I didn’t even know they needed something like that – to be honest, I don’t even know precisely what that is. I mean, I know they deal with professional theft related memos; this is all the information I have on them. I begin to suspect that should my knowledge of them grow, it won’t be without their noticing.

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Anyways, back to things that scare me less. The vlog stuff won’t be getting filmed tonight; everyone’s collective schedules rose up and mutinied. The suppression teams are quickly putting things back in order, but I regret to say it won’t be soon enough for today. Thus our continuous to-do list grows by another few additions. We’ll just have to see what the weekend brings.

Now since this blog still isn’t frequented by anyone who would demand actual important content, so I’m going to go off on a personal tangent. I’m having trouble convincing some one to do something that has only net positive factors. Namely it’s moving to a new house in a different location. I phrase the factors in that peculiar way because there are downsides (it’s a ways off for one), but even the person I’m trying to convince has admitted all the downsides are less bad than the ones associated with staying. When you couple this with the benefits that come from moving that heavily outweigh the benefits of staying you might find yourself perplexed as to how I’m having any problem at all. Well, so am I.

After carefully considering it I’ve discovered it’s not a unique phenomenon. This weird set of circumstances has shown up in the past – also around events of a similar magnitude. Any large change is difficult, even if the change only seems to bring good things. Previously though I’ve always associated this behavior with stubbornly clinging to outdated ideas and beliefs in such a manner as to leave oneself unable to understand the benefits of whatever the supposed change is. Such tendencies are common enough that I don’t bat an eye at them anymore, but I never suspected they would apply to something as mundane as moving. Typically when I’m bringing up these ideas it’s in reference to wide reaching political or societal movements that upset the carefully crafted ‘norm’ most people enjoy, not personal level decisions.

To offer a much belated proper frame of context; the idea is moving out of the city to the country for my family. My mother is strapped with the role of giving the official ‘go’ due to the nature of the financial situation there. Most all of the family members agree it’s either beneficial or something not their concern, and the bonuses that come with finding more peaceful surroundings (the goal of moving in the first place) are clear after surveying any of the potential move sites. They’re all about 30~ minutes out of the big city and predominantly feature forested areas with the quiet and solace of a tamed country-side.

The downsides I’ve been presented with are all along the lines of potential discomfort for all of the other people who might have to move as well, and how it might affect their lives. I can’t help but feel this isn’t a real problem with the area in mind – and most of the people involved aren’t going to be living at the house much longer regardless. The concern of the other residents needing to be driven in to town to deal with their daily matters isn’t a new one by any stretch of the imagination. Even at our current location the demand for use of cars to get anywhere is enormous. It’s gotten to the point where we simply don’t have weekly or even daily routine anymore. Each day we have to sort out who’s doing what and when they need to be driven where; it defies planning. Adding an additional thirty minutes into the driving part once we’ve figured out who is actually able to do the driving hardly exasperates the original issue. After all, the time frame people need cars are often long and fluid, we haven’t been able to make any real plans that required people to be hasty in their return of the vehicle.

What it seems to be boiling down to is that moving is beginning to seem like it’s not worth it just because it might bring some hassle. Hassle being something we already have in abundance, by the way. I’d hate to see the idea be stomped out on that notion alone. Moving has clearly been something that my mother has been hoping to do for quite some time now. Getting a little house out in the country has been a dream; of the sort that she’s apparently starting to categorize in the same fashion most people handle ideas like winning the lottery. It’s not that at all though; the money is available and the houses are free to buy. She need merely pick one and start the undertaking. Taking those first steps is where the difficulty lies though, and I’m not entirely certain how to edge her along.

Ugh, well this post has been a bit scatter brained. Follow ups and whatnot some other time.

Oh, stuff. Yes, just stuff.

Life and stuff have been happening, and to the surprise of no one it’s often in bizarre ways.

First on the menu is Kung Fu again (Kung Fu Three: Tui Shou!). I’m aware it’s only been a handful of days since the last post on it, but that’s part of the reason why. The gripe was a distinct lack of traditional names or feeling in the class I’m currently in, and how I was going to head out and look for one that could fulfill those roles. This is why I find it mildly hilarious that the class I took yesterday had more in it than all the ones previously, and put a heavy emphasis on learning the old names of the moves. To be clear this was the first class that they actually opening by explaining that they’re teaching Praying Mantis Kung Fu, what it means and what its strengths are. Most other classes would at best teach us one or two simplistic moves that may or may not be even be combined by the end of the session. Here I learned three, their old names, how to chain all of them together and an additional two follow ups that can compound the effectiveness of chain.

It goes without saying that this threw me for a loop, (almost literally as the case happened to be. Never volunteer - that is all) and left me much more satisfied than any of the other classes. I even distinctly remember pausing about half way through the class and being bemused by the fact that I had quite suddenly gotten what I wanted just days after hoping for it. As it stands I barely took in half the names that were spewed at us and won’t even attempt to spell the ones I think I know here. It’s certainly given me more to practice than any three other classes put together and changed my view on the course noticeably. One thing’s for sure; my friend who was too busy with school-work to go and merrily instructed me to ‘tell him what he misses’ is more or less doomed.

As for checking out the other Martial Art centres in the area? Well, that’s going to be shuffled to the back burner for a bit. I’m going to see if the guys at Algonquin keep this up – it’s worth noting I haven’t been in the ‘full’ class for very long. They split inexperienced people with the rest at the start of each term for all the new people they get. I’ll see where they keep me and what the real classes turn out to be. The one lingering doubt out of this situation is the last class had an observer in it. For all of you who went ‘Ah’ and nodded solemnly content with the knowledge that the instructors were just putting on a show for the upper ups; that’s not quite the case. It was just a random prospective student who wanted to sit in on a class before he dolled out the money for the summer term. Still, they were being watched – even if by no one particularly important. It makes my already flimsy reason for believing things will change shake a bit.

Onto to vlogs and my hopes there-in. Well maybe not hopes so much as growing desires. Y’know, I don’t think that phrase has ever previously been attributed to the creation of random videos in a journal-ish fashion on the ‘net. Ah well, firsts for everyone today. Ever since I brought up the notion of going back to making videos and bought the damn microphone for the camera I have been trying to shoe-horn some use of them into our weekly activities. No luck thus far, but I have hope for tomorrow. Oh, in case any one was construing that as a promise to do something; ha-ha, oh no, we’re not going to post anything. If I do happen to get lucky and put together the raw footage tomorrow (Likely a vlog about us and upcoming potential events) it’s still not going to mean we’ll actually post anything soon. Video editing takes longer than audio and, frankly, we’re all a bit camera shy. We’ve done this stuff before but not anytime recently and I suspect we’ll need a period of time to get into the swing of things again. I’ll prod people to the best of my abilities though, see what happens.

Hobo with a shotgun

What the hell? I swore we were doing a pod-cast on Hobo with a Shotgun, what happened to that?

Well, life did I suppose. Damned inconvenient thing that is - time ran out on the night after we watched it so we couldn't just sit down and throw out an easy post movie show. It's been thrown to the back burner now and frankly I have no idea if/when it's ever going to get done; but hey, this is central to why I refuse to make promises anymore. We're just shitty at them. To compromise I thought I'd ramble about what I felt about it for a bit. It's been sort of a slow rainy day, so there's not much else going on anyways.

This movie was obviously intend for a very specific mind-set when going in. It's a grindhouse movie that hits home perfectly for what it's going for, but uh, if you don't fit into the group of people it's designed to appeal to you'll  either dislike it or be horrified by it. It's a B-movie, by the by. The acting is over the top, the special effects are no where to be seen, the plot is completely irrelevant and the action is entertaining. It's cheesy, it's hammy, it knows its fans and it's made solely for them. No compromises were made for a wider range and I suspect it'll be adored by its target audience for years to come.

As for what I thought about it? Well hell; I firmly fit in said demographic. It exists solely to entertain the part of me that knew it would be amazing the second it was brought up. I'm at a loss to adequately  review the movie from a critics perspective however. Really, the only test you can have is the name itself. If you hear Hobo with a Shotgun and you think 'awesome', then go. There is no way you will leave disappointed. If you find nothing particularly enthralling with that name I'd recommend you stay away from this one - it's not meant for you.

Aird interview!

Ha-ha! We actually did something we said we were going to do! This makes up for all the failures!


I present to you a filmsy mega-upload link to:


THE AIRD INTERVIEW!


The write up isn't done yet, because we can't have too much success in one day. But hey, you get a post and a pod-cast, you're already looking spoiled.

Kung Fu Take Tu!

(I’m sorry)

In case you missed the memo at the top of the page, I figured I’d talk about Kung Fu again today. The class I’m in right now is coming to a renewal date and I’ve found myself pondering my options once again. The current Kung Fu class is primarily good for working out – last time I spoke of it the post was me just finally beginning to feel comfortable using the things I’ve learned in the class for self defense. That was after several months of doing the work and from that alone it shouldn’t be hard to infer that the class doesn’t focus entirely on the practical fighting side of things. That really isn’t the problem though; I like getting a good work out and the cardio you get from doing several hundred kicks in an hour is note worthy. No, the class has succeeded in giving me what I initially wanted, it’s just my wants have expanded a tad.

I’ve grown to wonder about more about the traditional side of Kung Fu as well. We’ve been taught the bare basics about how to do a variety of moves, but frankly I’d have a hard time naming more than a couple of them. Everything is starting to turn into “that kick, like this” or “no, the other punch”, maybe “that grapple thing we really can’t do” - which leaves me feel like I’m missing an opportunity here; to learn. I know, it’s not exactly the most common of gripes, but it’s mine.

I do my best learning through practical work. A lot of people are built this way; it’s not exceptionally unique or anything. It’s just that if I have a hands-on portion of whatever I’m learning to occupy my mind I tend to absorb the rest of it more readily. This means I’m sitting there in classes with my brain so open it’s liable to invert, eagerly waiting for traditions and facts about the martial art we’re futzing about with. At the end of the class after several hundred takes on old kicks and learning a new one later I’m left with barely a single factoid to ponder on the way home. This isn’t to say the class has completely abandoned it’s roots; the teacher is still called (I’m going to mangle the spelling of all of these, by the by) Shi-fu – to the point I don’t know if he has another name, they consider the art the mix of Praying mantis Kung Fu and Shoalin boxing, and we have our little bow in at the start and end of every session. That’s it however, there’s no background or additional detail. I can’t blame the course for this; such things are obviously not what they had in mind when they marketed it. It’s simply to get you fit and teach you the art in as straight forward of a manner as possible. It does mean I’d like to find something like incorporates everything though.

Thus I begin my search anew. I’m looking for a place with a more historic feel to it, that’ll embrace any traditions I may still be ignorant of. If I be proven to be utterly wrong in this and all the Kung Fu places (Dojos? Is it dojo for Kung fu? Whatever) follow more or less these guidelines I don’t stand to lose anything. Most places are willing to run things on a month by month basis so I don’t need to invest any large amount of money, and I can always go back to the Algonquin course. It might end up being a bit of a fruitless search however – we went through a half dozen of the highest recommended places around where I live before we found this course we’re currently in. They varied only in precisely how terribly expensive they were and didn’t seem to offer any more tradition pass forcing everyone to wear white uniforms.

There is one bonus to a couple of them though; they offered the chance to go to a class or two to see what it was like before any money changed hands. One even offered a full month’s access (limited time) to check it out before you decided. It’s through those offers that I hope to see what the competition is. I suspect I’ll even stay on at Algonquin while I test the others. After all, signing up for three months for the Algonquin course was hardly more than only one month for a few other dojos.

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Oh, side note here before I end this. First pod cast is complete, going to post it shortly. Ideas for future pod-casts are rolling in, and we may see a few presentations on the long abandoned you-tube channel. We’ll have to see how well hitting people with the encouragement-stick works.