I AM BLOG.

I waited a long time to watch this movie and finally watched it last night. Overall, I think it was an enjoyable movie. Loved the “feel” of the way the film was pieced together and the music was great too.

It seems that in general, most guys hated the movie and most girls liked it. I know that that sentence has a few implications to it and it might imply that I’m a girl. I’m not. But here’s how I see it:

Summer was definitely messed up. That doesn’t mean to say that Tommy wasn’t an idiot. In one scene, Summer tells Tommy that she can’t give him what he wants and at that moment, he was OK with it. Lets just say he was thinking with his wrong head. But is it so absurd that someone can not want something they don’t fully understand? To Summer, she never experienced love and that’s why she never wanted a serious relationship.

So how did she end up married just a few months after breaking up with Tommy? She found the love of her life. That’s it. What she did was definitely wrong, but in THIS SCENARIO is it so far fetched? I don’t think so.

In any case, true love as media portrays it is not considered true love in my book. As Christians, we love because Christ loved us first. When we model that love to one another, it’s a beautiful thing.

Oh, and that Zooey Deschanel? Yeah, she’s freaking cute.

I rented a tilt/shift lens this past weekend for my cousin’s wedding. Sadly, the wicked witch of the north (AKA the wedding coordinator) prohibited me from using it to it’s full potential. But I digress…

All in all, the lens was pretty darn cool, but definitely requires some time spent with it to learn it’s ins and outs. In “normal” photography, the focal plane is always parallel to the sensor, but a tilt/shift lens allows the photographer to change this plane. This allows the photographer to have a tremendous amount of control over depth of field. Other uses allow the photographer to correct perspective distortion and to take panoramas without moving the camera back.

There’s so much more to keep in mind when using this lens and the tilt/shift adjustments. Not only does tilting or shifting change the perspective or focal plane, it also introduces vignetting and changes in the exposure are also necessary. I feel like extreme tilt or shift also affects the sharpness of the lens. But overall, the lens is very fun. If my large format lenses sell, this lens may be next on my list.

IN A NUTSHELL:

Pros:
- Options! Change that focal plane!
- Great colors
- Sharp (for the most part)
- Opens tons of creative doors

Cons:
- Lack of sharpness when using extreme tilt/shift (but could be due to poor technique)*
- Takes some time getting use to, but obviously there will be a learning curve
- If you don’t have Live View, you better have a split-prism focusing screen

I’m going to go against the grain here, so if you’re going to hate, just remember: haters wanna hate.

Overall, I thought the movie was OK. It wasn’t spectacular, but good. I feel like it’s one of those movies you can watch once, appreciate it for what it is, and not be able to watch it again (kind of like Little Miss Sunshine). There’s obviously some deep things going on during the movie. Not all families or relationships are perfect, but that’s LIFE. So deal with it. Got it.

The music on the other hand was nothing short of amazing. I thought Karen O’s stuff was pretty good, but was REALLY impressed by Carter Burwell. Actually, come to think of it, the two compliment each other so well. Really an impressive score and soundtrack.

So it was a good movie. Great in some regards and just so-so in others. In any case, it’s worth watching in the theater, but in hindsight, I wouldn’t mind watching it at home either. Cheers.

Ok, the last post was a bit of a joke. I’m going to share a few initial thoughts about Snow Leopard now that I finally have it installed.

“If you build it, they will come.”
Apple made a Microsoft like move and basically released a service pack for Leopard. Snow Leopard isn’t super crazy. Actually, it’s been more of a headache than enjoyment these past few hours. Honestly, you don’t need to jump the gun with this OS update. It’s not revolutionary to common folk like you and me. But like all other Apple products, the moment something is released, it becomes the new hot thing. Don’t get your hopes up.

Incompatibility but mostly compatible
Because Snow Leopard was newly coded, some of your old apps might not be compatible. I’ve already run into issues with my mouse (Logitech MX Revolution) and an FTP app that I use (Cyberduck). Luckily, Cyberduck issued an update today that is compatible with Snow Leopard. Logitech on the other hand hasn’t, which is surprising, seeing as Cyberduck is a one man show and Logitech is a huge corporation. However, I was able to find a quick “cheat” online that allowed me to reprogram my mouse so I could use most of the buttons. Definitely a backwards step.

On the bright side, the rest of the apps I use work. No issues with Photoshop or Bridge yet.

Bad things happen to good people, but Apple has your back
Apple promised more reliable installation with Snow Leopard. They didn’t lie. The power went out in our neighborhood TWICE while I was installing Snow Leopard. My iMac decided to shutdown TWICE while installing Snow Leopard. That’s FOUR times the installation was unexpectedly interrupted. Well, after a few more tries, Snow Leopard was able to install completely through. I didn’t lose anything important on my computer (remember to BACK UP!), so kudos to Apple.

Less is more
I should take a cue from my own title (this post is getting long), but Apple also promised that Snow Leopard would take up to 7GB of less space as an OS. Installing Snow Leopard freed up around 5-6GB for me. Not bad.

Leopards run faster in the Snow
It’s amazing how simply recoding an operating system can bring about hardware performance gains. Finder and Preview are definitely faster and noticeably so. Other apps however seem to run at the same speed. Apple also promised quicker shutdown and reboot times. It’s noticeable, but the difference isn’t night and day. Waking up from sleep seems to be about the same, if not a tiny bit slower.

Premature conclusion
Overall, I think my lack of enthusiasm for Snow Leopard stems from the nightmare installation process. Twice it wasn’t Apple’s fault. They can’t control power outages. But the other two times, they refused to fix my iMac, and for that, I hate them.

The bottom line is this: Snow Leopard is big. It’s a big update. But will people like you and me who browse the internet and edit a few pictures here and there benefit tremendously from it?

Not yet.

Fedex stopped by a few hours ago and dropped off Snow Leopard. This will be my 4th OS with Apple. I remember getting my Powerbook in high school and waiting for Tiger to come out. I only spent a few weeks with Panther and immediately moved onto Tiger. Then of course, a huge revision was Leopard. Lot of things changed, especially the UI.

Now, we have Snow Leopard. Apple built up Snow Leopard from the ground up. It is now entirely 64-bit compatible and a lot of the staple apps like Finder were re-written in Cocoa. What does this all mean? I don’t know. I’m assuming faster and more efficient. I just read all that other stuff on the interweb.

Since I am no expert when it comes to operating systems, I’m going to share my own take on Apple’s new OS.

The Packaging

Apple has revolutionized the way to package their products. They have consciously gone green and paid great attention to even the finer details… such as packaging. From this photo, we can already see how much less of a footprint (not to mention carbon footprint) the new packaging takes on the desk. If we take a closer look…

… We can appreciate just how thin and petite this box is. But don’t let size fool you. Packaged inside this small box, is an ENTIRE operating system!

Extras!

Apple graciously offers TWO of their white logo stickers so that you can give them to friends and family who don’t actually own a Mac. They can then put it on their Dells or HPs and try to feel better about themselves. Or if they’re feeling really crazy, they can stick it on the back window of their car to show the world their Apple pride.

In all seriousness…
A lot of the changes Apple did with their “new” OS is “under-the-hood” improvements. 64-bit this, 64-bit that… It will mainly benefit when apps are written in 64-bit. Sure the OS itself will run quicker now (which is a good thing!), but we won’t really see anything drastic immediately. As of now, I’m waiting for Time Machine to back up my current data on Time Capsule. I have CRACK DAT PAT software that requires a one-time license and I’m not sure if installing Snow Leopard will affect me in any way.

Sadly… I should expect faster Time Machine back ups with Snow Leopard but alas… I don’t have Snow Leopard installed. Yet.

And sorry. I just wasted 5 minutes of your life.