and kids, remember to get Kel Mitchell to tell you about the Poopoo Waltz.

so, last winter i was subletting a room out of a duplex in minneapolis.

my roommate (the one i saw all the time) was awesome, and the other roommate was never around, but probably a cool guy. he had lived there the longest and had done some stuff. namely hooking up speakers from the living room stereo to play on our outside porch. however, we didn’t find this out until that day.

a church down the street had inspiringly decided to play Dr. King Jr’s famous “I  Have a Dream” speech on their external loudspeakers. however, my awesome roommate had taken that time to listen to my advice and finally watch “The Dark Knight.”

now, since the dvd player was hooked up to the stereo, every movie we watched was broadcast to the neighborhood. every game i played on wii. every cd we cleaned the house to. but, that day, it was The Dark Knight. specifically, the scene where the Joker convinces Harvey “Two Face” Dent place a gun to his head and flip a coin to decide whether he lives or dies.

arriving home, just outside the house, i was hearing a combination of-
“little white boys and little white girls playing with little black boys and little black girls” and
”become and agent of chaos… introduce a little anarchy…”

it was funny.

i like open source. if you know me, you know that. this fact, in tandem with price, is the main reason i don’t own any apple stuff. m4p? not for me.

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i recently purchased a new Droid Eris to fill my phoning needs for the next two years.

in a word: bestgadgeteverconceived.

the Android OS, for those not in the know, is an operating system developed by Google Inc. to be an open source alternative for mobile phones that can be built specifically to run on any phone you wish. with the HTC Droid Eris, they’ve built an iPhone lite. not as powerful of hardware as the iPhone, (and i doubt anyone will ever do that), but things are a bit easier to navigate and personalize.

in addition to this, i’m a Google whore, so their Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Voice, etc. can be synced to the phone quite nicely. and given the fact that i use Google Calendar as an interim for my Thunderbird Calendar, being able to edit it from anywhere is really, REALLY helpful.

also, i just rigged the phone to remotely access and control all the media (movies, music, etc.) on my computer.

rock. solid.

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happy holidays!

in an effort to be at least somewhat creative during these down months, i’m going to write about being unemployed. not “woe is me” stuff, but just things that will hopefully give some perspective (to, albeit, a small portion of the population) on what a lot of people are going through right now.

unemployment item: TIME!
i have an ungodly amount of time on my hands. too much. many might react with “i’d love that! i’d get so many things done!” and it’s to them that i ask this question:

would you?

it’s human nature to relax. chill out. take it easy. we’ve built our culture around ease of comfort and accessibility. so, in a world where i can have things handed to me a digital platter, it’s very difficult to motive myself to better my situation.

no matter how much most people say they hate their routine, they need it. without it, i’d say (and this is just me and my opinion) only 5% of the population would be be able to get a sense of accomplishment out of a completely free schedule. whether i like it or not, any job i’ve had (whether i like that job or not) yields a sense of accomplishment. and for it, i’m forced to condense my personal activities into a few manageable items. thus a break from the 9 to 5-ness of it all.

now, take out the job and give me unlimited time and i have NO CLUE what to do with myself. so, i’ve been filling my days with a routine of sorts. the gym, language lessons, writing, gaming (not too much though), etc., etc., etc.

and all of this is in the middle job hunting. i’m unemployed, i’m not a bum.

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i’m very proud of this years halloween costume. yes, this is coming two months late, but oh well.

dear holders of money,

use it well.

case in point: a friend of mine bought a Nikon D90. the camera i want. the camera i need. the camera… that was meant to be mine. it’s a DSLR of a higher quality, however (much like the snapshot brethren below it) it carries a feature to take digital video along with the many still memories it captures. this is what i want.

the video quality is unmatched due to the lens that fits the camera. it’s really the only thing that makes buying the camera worthwhile. there are cheaper iterations below it that do the exact same thing, sans the video. so, why buy a camera that can do a million times what you need it to do?

that’s iLife.

i blame Apple for this. this ‘overpriced = the one you want” b.s. i do know people who have bought an Apple machine and used it to it’s fullest extent. and kudos to them. but, to the rest of you: why buy a ferarri to just run the corner market? what you want for email, music and pictures is going to cost about $200. and if you just spend an afternoon getting to know the machine and what it needs, then “just wanting it to work” won’t be a worry.

it’s technology. not an insurance plan.