This mission was SUPER COOL! What a neat concept... I know we've had night and day concepts before, but the advent of a timer that ticks down your impending doom is pretty sexy.
So basic premise, you are on a zerg infested world where the UV light from the sun cooks the infected people by day so they have to hid, and by night they come out and try and kick you back into your space craft.
A couple of tips, theres an achievement to finish this before the 5th night and its totally doable.
1. I was going slow and being a little stupid about it so I didn't make it, but since NOTHING attacks you during the day, just empty out your bunkers and go on an ass kicking spree.
2. Save the close towns for the bunker dudes, and use the cars you can create for the farther towns.
3. There is a hole in the back of your base that you can't see... on night 3, they bust through and will beat the crap out of you...
4. They don't just pop out of the ground like the zerg, they come from around buildings. What this means is that you don't have to be safely ensconced in your base before the sun sets, you can definately walk back while being chased by the baduns.
Other than that, its a straightforward protect and destroy mission. There are a couple of Zerg tongues (Don't know the names for everything yet) that are surprisingly destructive and hard to kill... with 20 flame cars I would tend to lose 3-4 before destroying the tower.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
StarCraft 2: First day impressions
OK so most of the people that read my blog are not gamers, so for those of you, sorry... check back in a month? I figure by then my ADD will have kicked in and I won't be as interested in Starcraft... as of right now however? This bus can't get me home fast enough...:)
Yes I'm lame, yes I need a real hobby, all that aside, anyone interested in what I think of Starcraft 2?
Its very similar to Starcraft of old, now admittedly I have only gotten through the first 4 scenarios so far, and already there are some interesting things going on, but still its not a brave new world with VR gloves, and weird interfaces, its all pretty similar. Blizzard brought in achievements from Wow, where they stole it from guild wars, who likely stole it from someone else. This brings an element of, hrm... I could have gotten 10 more points if no buildings died? Well hell the only building that died was that one bunker I put in the way, let me do the mission again...
What are achievement points for? NO CLUE! But I want lots of them so that when I do figure out how to get more of them I will. I haven't spent any time trying to figure out how to see what achievements I COULD get from a mission, just look at them when I am done and think, crap, is it worth another hour to get 10 more points?
The game is as fast paced as you remember, with the terrain having some fun new things like rocks that block the back of your base, and then on night two the bad guys break through and all of a sudden flood into your base from behind where you have no units to protect you... THAT was some good times.... Learn to look around, gather resources as always, but explore the map. There are lots of free goodies lying around, pallets of gas and minerals everywhere for the taking.
One neat intro was the "talent" tree that you get for Zerg and Protos as a human. You gather research points by doing the side missions, each mission tells you ahead of time how many possible points you can get, and the tree is set up so that at each level you can only learn one of the two options. When I selected the first one I thought I was locking myself into that side of the tree, thankfully no, but each side is similar in appearance.
Over all, a good spend, I suspended my Wow account so that I could pay for this, figuring I would be so entranced by it that I'd not log ito wow anyways, good gamble it would appear. I will post reviews on some of the more complicated levels later... once my hands stop shaking...
Yes I'm lame, yes I need a real hobby, all that aside, anyone interested in what I think of Starcraft 2?
Its very similar to Starcraft of old, now admittedly I have only gotten through the first 4 scenarios so far, and already there are some interesting things going on, but still its not a brave new world with VR gloves, and weird interfaces, its all pretty similar. Blizzard brought in achievements from Wow, where they stole it from guild wars, who likely stole it from someone else. This brings an element of, hrm... I could have gotten 10 more points if no buildings died? Well hell the only building that died was that one bunker I put in the way, let me do the mission again...
What are achievement points for? NO CLUE! But I want lots of them so that when I do figure out how to get more of them I will. I haven't spent any time trying to figure out how to see what achievements I COULD get from a mission, just look at them when I am done and think, crap, is it worth another hour to get 10 more points?
The game is as fast paced as you remember, with the terrain having some fun new things like rocks that block the back of your base, and then on night two the bad guys break through and all of a sudden flood into your base from behind where you have no units to protect you... THAT was some good times.... Learn to look around, gather resources as always, but explore the map. There are lots of free goodies lying around, pallets of gas and minerals everywhere for the taking.
One neat intro was the "talent" tree that you get for Zerg and Protos as a human. You gather research points by doing the side missions, each mission tells you ahead of time how many possible points you can get, and the tree is set up so that at each level you can only learn one of the two options. When I selected the first one I thought I was locking myself into that side of the tree, thankfully no, but each side is similar in appearance.
Over all, a good spend, I suspended my Wow account so that I could pay for this, figuring I would be so entranced by it that I'd not log ito wow anyways, good gamble it would appear. I will post reviews on some of the more complicated levels later... once my hands stop shaking...
Monday, July 26, 2010
Movies: Salt
Just wow... so I watched bad lieutenant and Salt in the same day. Both ends of the movie spectrum, Salt was non stop action from the start. I'm trying hard to figure out how to describe this movie without ruining it for you all... The taser remote control scene is awesome, and how she kills the bad guy in the end is amazing as well... With more twists and turns than the tour de france, this movie was really enjoyable. I didn't notice I had to pee until it was over....;)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Movies: Bad Lieutenant, Port of Call New Orleans
What can I say about this movie... maybe starting with this is possibly the worse movie I have ever seen... bad acting, bad cast choices, a weird story line and hacked together plot, it was just bad... not train wreck bad, just bad in general. I stuck through to the end of the movie hoping it would change, and it never did.. it was horrible from start to finish... don't watch it.
Now I don't read reviews of movies, I don't like them, I don't like tainting my impression of a movie with someone elses opinion... that won't (of course) stop my from giving you all my opinion...:)
Now I don't read reviews of movies, I don't like them, I don't like tainting my impression of a movie with someone elses opinion... that won't (of course) stop my from giving you all my opinion...:)
Monday, July 19, 2010
Movies: Inception
Inception is one of those movies that writting a review for would be incredibly difficult. How to describe the concept without blowing the movie... Basic premise is that people invade your mind while you are sleeping, and can steal ideas or thoughts from you...
That being said, it is exceptionally well written, the back drop is amazing, the cinematography superbe, and the storeline is convoluted, complicated, and yet easy to follow. Best described as a combination of the matrix and usual suspects for action and complexity combined, this movie is a definate must see in my opinion.
One thing they could have changed was to let you discover more, they really went out of their way to explain what was happening to you, and yet I still walked out of the movie to overhear people saying, I don't get it. Of course, those might be the people who fall asleep as soon as the lights go out... The ending was interesting too, but you'll have to go see it to see why everyone groaned at the end...:)
That being said, it is exceptionally well written, the back drop is amazing, the cinematography superbe, and the storeline is convoluted, complicated, and yet easy to follow. Best described as a combination of the matrix and usual suspects for action and complexity combined, this movie is a definate must see in my opinion.
One thing they could have changed was to let you discover more, they really went out of their way to explain what was happening to you, and yet I still walked out of the movie to overhear people saying, I don't get it. Of course, those might be the people who fall asleep as soon as the lights go out... The ending was interesting too, but you'll have to go see it to see why everyone groaned at the end...:)
Thursday, July 15, 2010
jPad: Don't Uprade to 3.2.1 just yet...
If you have jailbroken your iPad, don't upgrade the firmware just yet. Same goes for the iPhone 4.0 patch as well.
More to follow: http://spiritjb.com
More to follow: http://spiritjb.com
jPad: Wifi Syncing is here
So I've been putting iPad in front of all my posts about iPad recently, and its even starting to annoy me. Then last night I was thinking about the most recent app I bought and the little light bulb went on and I said, hey I can put jPad if the article is about a jail broken iPad app, that way if you're too skittish to jail break your ipad, you'll know the article is not worth your time. Of course, you could just tease yourself with what you are missing by not Jail breaking...
Last night I downloaded an app called Wifi from Cydlia. It allows you to sync wirelessly. Talk about cool. Now I was feeling pretty sleepy so I went to bed, and I had exhausted my supply of videos on the ipad so I wanted to sync some more over to watch... I remembered reading an article on TUAW about Wifi and thought why not give it a try.
As anyone reading my reviews knows, I pull no punches. And while this app is pretty cool, I question its usefulness. The initial setup has to be done while you are sitting in front of your computer, my first annoyance. I have Logmein and so I would remote to my computer (and unceremoniously kick my wife off the computer) to accept the invite from the app, but that would close the app on the iPad of course..
Once I got through that it began syncing. After about 15 minutes it was finished and I went to check out my videos, there were none. It had deleted everything I had watched, but not replaced any new ones.
Insert annoying itunes problem here. I hate that I can't decide what to sync to my iPad without plugging in my ipad first... I can't import video, books whatever, and say, yes I want these on my iPad the next time I sync. SOooooo back downstairs I go, wirelessly sync again, this time while standing in front of the computer so I can check off the various movies I want.
The wireless sync fails. It seems that while it launches iTunes, if it is interupted the client on the desktop does not close itunes. Also if iTunes is open, the system doesn't let you sync at all. Took me 5 minutes to figure all that out, and then everything setup the way I wanted, I went back up stairs and let it sync again.
Given I was syncing about 8 gigs of movies I decided I was going to just let it go and fell asleep. In the morning I checked on it, all keen to see how well it worked and the screen was informing me that I was not connected to a wifi network. Stupid apple and their stupid wifi issues.. So nothing has synced...
Over all, this might be a cute app, but for 10$ I'm not sure I'd go back and buy it again. It doesn't have any of the functionality you would need to make this truly useful, like being able to run in the background so I could remote to my PC while the sync is up, and tell iTunes what to sync... Like closing iTunes when finished, like dealing with a cancelled Sync... I will wait to judge it after I have used it more, but as of right now, its a one star app.
Last night I downloaded an app called Wifi from Cydlia. It allows you to sync wirelessly. Talk about cool. Now I was feeling pretty sleepy so I went to bed, and I had exhausted my supply of videos on the ipad so I wanted to sync some more over to watch... I remembered reading an article on TUAW about Wifi and thought why not give it a try.
As anyone reading my reviews knows, I pull no punches. And while this app is pretty cool, I question its usefulness. The initial setup has to be done while you are sitting in front of your computer, my first annoyance. I have Logmein and so I would remote to my computer (and unceremoniously kick my wife off the computer) to accept the invite from the app, but that would close the app on the iPad of course..
Once I got through that it began syncing. After about 15 minutes it was finished and I went to check out my videos, there were none. It had deleted everything I had watched, but not replaced any new ones.
Insert annoying itunes problem here. I hate that I can't decide what to sync to my iPad without plugging in my ipad first... I can't import video, books whatever, and say, yes I want these on my iPad the next time I sync. SOooooo back downstairs I go, wirelessly sync again, this time while standing in front of the computer so I can check off the various movies I want.
The wireless sync fails. It seems that while it launches iTunes, if it is interupted the client on the desktop does not close itunes. Also if iTunes is open, the system doesn't let you sync at all. Took me 5 minutes to figure all that out, and then everything setup the way I wanted, I went back up stairs and let it sync again.
Given I was syncing about 8 gigs of movies I decided I was going to just let it go and fell asleep. In the morning I checked on it, all keen to see how well it worked and the screen was informing me that I was not connected to a wifi network. Stupid apple and their stupid wifi issues.. So nothing has synced...
Over all, this might be a cute app, but for 10$ I'm not sure I'd go back and buy it again. It doesn't have any of the functionality you would need to make this truly useful, like being able to run in the background so I could remote to my PC while the sync is up, and tell iTunes what to sync... Like closing iTunes when finished, like dealing with a cancelled Sync... I will wait to judge it after I have used it more, but as of right now, its a one star app.
Monday, July 12, 2010
iPad: The G-Drive finally here?
So after my last post about an app that lets you sync documents without a browser I spent the weekend doing a little more digging. Memeo, the people that make Memeo connect for the iPad, have come up with what can only be described as the G-drive, at least for PDF's.
While I had trouble with the first version of Memeo, for some reason I thought my trial had expired and unless the trial is 1.5 seconds it surely hadn't, I downloaded the Beta anyways. My desire for this software to work out stripped my usual adversity to Beta software, and I am glad it did.
The software creates a virtual drive that maps directly to Google, one more minor hack to add the drive to my Send To folder and now I can just right click on a file (so long as it is a PDF keep reading) to send it to Google docs. From there the Memo connect app for iPad allows me to pull down and I am good as gold.
Now this doesn't allow you to edit and re-upload from the iPad, still searching for that ellusive tool, it also is restricted to PDF files unless you have the Google Premium account. This might be a bug, because about a month back Google released all functionality of their google docs system to the general population. It might also be a technical loophole that Memeo hasn't solved yet, either way its 90% of what I want/need so I am hoping a future release will give me the rest.
While I had trouble with the first version of Memeo, for some reason I thought my trial had expired and unless the trial is 1.5 seconds it surely hadn't, I downloaded the Beta anyways. My desire for this software to work out stripped my usual adversity to Beta software, and I am glad it did.
The software creates a virtual drive that maps directly to Google, one more minor hack to add the drive to my Send To folder and now I can just right click on a file (so long as it is a PDF keep reading) to send it to Google docs. From there the Memo connect app for iPad allows me to pull down and I am good as gold.
Now this doesn't allow you to edit and re-upload from the iPad, still searching for that ellusive tool, it also is restricted to PDF files unless you have the Google Premium account. This might be a bug, because about a month back Google released all functionality of their google docs system to the general population. It might also be a technical loophole that Memeo hasn't solved yet, either way its 90% of what I want/need so I am hoping a future release will give me the rest.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
iPad: Document Sync app desperately needed.
There is a general problem with getting content onto and off of the iPad, now don't get me wrong its lightyears ahead of where the iPhone used to be, but its still cumbersome. Theres always some middle layer involved, its either a service on your computer, or some cloud based drop box style service that you have to upload things to and download from...
What I want is something stupid simple, so for all those people trolling my blog and taking notes on my ideas here it is. You right click on a file, send to, ipad. Done. Its now on your ipad via WiFi, or queue'd to go whenever the iPad is in range.
Once on the iPad you can open one app and select a file then use the open in function to open that document in whatever other application is relevant. The developer of this app wouldn't even have to bother with supporting whatever apps they would just need to deal with handing off the file to the ipad.
iAnnotate has a service for PDF files, but its very clunky and requires you to be clicking all the time. I would prefer a more active polling type app that syncs bi-directionally so I don't have to do anything... Some of the cloud based ones are really nice, like Memeo Connect (which I just discovered has a dektop app that you can use for 9$ a year which I might spring for), but it still requires that you open and sync, and that you upload to the cloud... all a bunch of extra steps I could do without... I'd even settle for having to put documents into a specific folder to have them get transferred... something, anything that lets me get the document to myself in a hurry before I go to my next meeting... any suggestions?
What I want is something stupid simple, so for all those people trolling my blog and taking notes on my ideas here it is. You right click on a file, send to, ipad. Done. Its now on your ipad via WiFi, or queue'd to go whenever the iPad is in range.
Once on the iPad you can open one app and select a file then use the open in function to open that document in whatever other application is relevant. The developer of this app wouldn't even have to bother with supporting whatever apps they would just need to deal with handing off the file to the ipad.
iAnnotate has a service for PDF files, but its very clunky and requires you to be clicking all the time. I would prefer a more active polling type app that syncs bi-directionally so I don't have to do anything... Some of the cloud based ones are really nice, like Memeo Connect (which I just discovered has a dektop app that you can use for 9$ a year which I might spring for), but it still requires that you open and sync, and that you upload to the cloud... all a bunch of extra steps I could do without... I'd even settle for having to put documents into a specific folder to have them get transferred... something, anything that lets me get the document to myself in a hurry before I go to my next meeting... any suggestions?
Saturday, July 10, 2010
iPad: Angry at the Angry Bird People
I posted about the Angry Birds app back in April, but their most recent refresh brought about close to 90 more levels and a new bird to play with.
I had just about recieved 3 stars in all of the levels up until now, and with the new bird (a toucan which acts like a boomerang when you tap) the levels are increasingly complexe... I don't think I have recieved 3 stars on more than 2 of the new levels, and am about 2/3 of the way through the refresh.
I'm angry at these people for refreshing my adiction, and impressed. The refresh basically doubles the content, and yet is free. How many companies out there release new versions of software that contains fundamental improvements or additions, and don't charge you for it? Damn few, thats how many. I think I can get over my anger at the Angry Birds eventually... if only I can figure out how the stupid boomerang bird works...
I had just about recieved 3 stars in all of the levels up until now, and with the new bird (a toucan which acts like a boomerang when you tap) the levels are increasingly complexe... I don't think I have recieved 3 stars on more than 2 of the new levels, and am about 2/3 of the way through the refresh.
I'm angry at these people for refreshing my adiction, and impressed. The refresh basically doubles the content, and yet is free. How many companies out there release new versions of software that contains fundamental improvements or additions, and don't charge you for it? Damn few, thats how many. I think I can get over my anger at the Angry Birds eventually... if only I can figure out how the stupid boomerang bird works...
Friday, July 9, 2010
Carnival Cruise: Wrap Up
So while packing our luggage we got a little sticker for our baggage, that tells you when you can get off the boat... If you don't tag your luggage you can get off earlier, if you do, they stick it the hold and when your number is called it's on the other side of the water in the immigration building. We were group 27 of a total of 32.... All things being created equal I would recommend you either don't tag your bags, which allows you to walk off whenever you are ready, or plan a post cruise excursion to get off faster... that or sleep late.
We had a long leisurely breakfast, and then went and sat in the lobby and waited... I caught up on my blogging, and then we waited some more... I dont know when they kick you out of your room, but when (not not if) I do this again I will certainly sleep later...:)
The Carnival experience was Really amazing and I will certainly do this again. The atmosphere is very relaxed, the staff are very friendly (with the exception of the pizza guy) and we both thoroughly enjoyed the cruise. After 15 years, seems like just yesterday really, it was well deserved and i am glad we convinced ourselves we could afford it, even if my bank account will be screaming at me tomorrow...
We had a long leisurely breakfast, and then went and sat in the lobby and waited... I caught up on my blogging, and then we waited some more... I dont know when they kick you out of your room, but when (not not if) I do this again I will certainly sleep later...:)
The Carnival experience was Really amazing and I will certainly do this again. The atmosphere is very relaxed, the staff are very friendly (with the exception of the pizza guy) and we both thoroughly enjoyed the cruise. After 15 years, seems like just yesterday really, it was well deserved and i am glad we convinced ourselves we could afford it, even if my bank account will be screaming at me tomorrow...
Carnival Cruise: Day 7
The vibe that we got from St. Maarteen caused us both to think, separately, that we would be willing to move here when we retire. Forget the average temperature of 90 degrees, or the insane relative humidity, it just seemed more civilized than any of the other islands we visited. More civilized, and yet not industrial like Puerto Rico.
We chose the island tour for St. Maarteen, and while it was interesting and full of historical facts, I am not sure I will ever do a island tour again. It's basically a glorified taxi ride around the island with one stop for pictures, and one stop for shopping in the French district.
Seeing French again was weird, Jenn kept showing off and saying mercy to everyone...:) there was relatively little shopping near the cruise, and with the time we had and the duration of the tour we didn't get anything else done.
It being the last night we had a long long dinner, and watched a movie before packing up our stuff. Back to reality tomorrow.
We chose the island tour for St. Maarteen, and while it was interesting and full of historical facts, I am not sure I will ever do a island tour again. It's basically a glorified taxi ride around the island with one stop for pictures, and one stop for shopping in the French district.
Seeing French again was weird, Jenn kept showing off and saying mercy to everyone...:) there was relatively little shopping near the cruise, and with the time we had and the duration of the tour we didn't get anything else done.
It being the last night we had a long long dinner, and watched a movie before packing up our stuff. Back to reality tomorrow.
Carnival Cruise: Day 6
So turns out that maybe a 7 day cruise is a little too long for us... After a brief tour of St Kitt we decided to go back to the boat and just chill.. Theee did not appear to be much on st. Kitt that was not available on the other islands and since we didn't plan anything we decided to just head back to the boat.
That was when some guy said, want a picture with a monkey? This guy was a classic hustler, we looked interested, he threw a monkey on each of Jenn's shoulders, then one on her head etc, after which he said 20$. I lost 20$ faster with the monkey man than we did in the slots ffs...
Tomorrow St Marteen and at least one planned excursion.
That was when some guy said, want a picture with a monkey? This guy was a classic hustler, we looked interested, he threw a monkey on each of Jenn's shoulders, then one on her head etc, after which he said 20$. I lost 20$ faster with the monkey man than we did in the slots ffs...
Tomorrow St Marteen and at least one planned excursion.
Carnival Cruise: Day 5
First of all, we didn't have strawberries... No they weren't out, and yes I could edit my previous post since I will be uploading these all at the same time, but I won't. I had planned on it, and failed in the execution of my plan... Luckily, it was a hardware problem, so it's someone elses responsibility.
Zip lining was hell a cool... We had a 30 minute bus ride up the often one lane roads to the back end of St Lucia, and we were "blessed" with 12 jeuvenile delinquents in the bus with us. Their chants of "we want to party" rang through the rain forest... I was impressed with my restraint through the 30 minute ride up and back, even if Jenn wasn't...
Once we arrived and started our tour we found out that three of the delinquents were in our group of 8, needless to say, I was ecstatic. One of them was the typical all talk hot shot that we all have to dealt with at some point in our lives, he was talking about how he wanted to do some base jumping and cliff diving and this zip lining was too timid for him... They were saving something for him... If I do this right, there will be a YouTube video below... Enjoy, I took a couple of clips of the experience, note the girly screaming, and then the girl who comes after... Love you babe!
One of our delinquents, Oscar, the video is tilted, some day I'll learn how to do this properly...
This video doesn't do Jenn justice, it stops before she drops but I will figure it out and fix it...
For those of you worried about zip lining, here, this is my holding a camera and zip lining, note, no screaming.. its really easy.
Zip lining as nowhere near as scary as people led me to believe, its basically sitting in a harness and sliding along a wire... If you can control yourself that's good, but even if you can't they keep you from slamming into the trees so really there is nothing to worry about. The show tonight was awesome, it was a musical medley from the 60's 70's and 80's. Jenn was in heaven. Tomorrow St Kit and no real plan as to what we will be doing...
Zip lining was hell a cool... We had a 30 minute bus ride up the often one lane roads to the back end of St Lucia, and we were "blessed" with 12 jeuvenile delinquents in the bus with us. Their chants of "we want to party" rang through the rain forest... I was impressed with my restraint through the 30 minute ride up and back, even if Jenn wasn't...
Once we arrived and started our tour we found out that three of the delinquents were in our group of 8, needless to say, I was ecstatic. One of them was the typical all talk hot shot that we all have to dealt with at some point in our lives, he was talking about how he wanted to do some base jumping and cliff diving and this zip lining was too timid for him... They were saving something for him... If I do this right, there will be a YouTube video below... Enjoy, I took a couple of clips of the experience, note the girly screaming, and then the girl who comes after... Love you babe!
One of our delinquents, Oscar, the video is tilted, some day I'll learn how to do this properly...
This video doesn't do Jenn justice, it stops before she drops but I will figure it out and fix it...
For those of you worried about zip lining, here, this is my holding a camera and zip lining, note, no screaming.. its really easy.
Zip lining as nowhere near as scary as people led me to believe, its basically sitting in a harness and sliding along a wire... If you can control yourself that's good, but even if you can't they keep you from slamming into the trees so really there is nothing to worry about. The show tonight was awesome, it was a musical medley from the 60's 70's and 80's. Jenn was in heaven. Tomorrow St Kit and no real plan as to what we will be doing...
Carnival Cruise: Day 4
Barbados was the first island we have been to that didn't seem completely alien. St Thomas was pretty good too, but Barbados just felt like any other town... Granted it is surrounded by amazing beaches, all public, but was still very comfortable.
We decided to not do any activities with the cruise line again on this island, and no there really was no rhyme or reason as to which island we chose other than a tight budget and more interesting things on other islands. Anyways a point of interest is that there were no private cabs at the exit point of the cruise, the best bet (we found out much later) is to take a cab for 2$ into town and hire a private car there for a tour of the island.
What we did instead was take a cab for 7$ a person to the beach. There I spent another 25$ on a snorkle, I really should have held out for something cheaper but we were only planning on being there for a couple of hours. Once I had the snorkel I swam out to a couple of boats who were in the process of feeding the turtles. The water on the Caribbean on the side of the island is really murky, so the turtles would swim in and out of the murk and eat bits of fish the divers were putting out for us. I'm pretty sure there was only one turtle, but he had some attitude so it made it really fun.
The murky water really did make me think about jaws, and while I was swimming with 30 other people I was fine, however once I broke from the group and swam the 200 or so yards back to shore there were a couple of moments where I was having trouble breathing. I told myself the same thing I told myself as a kid, if it's going to eat you, there's not much you can do about it so I swam along the way happily snorkeling and swimming around in circles due to a bad knee....
Once we got tired of being alternately burnt and rained on we hitched a ride back to the port and grabbed some more delicious free food before heading back into town where I found out that shockingly the bank machines didn't give out us currency... Yeah I know right, what a moron, of course they don't give out us currency any more than a machine in Montreal would... But after 30 minutes in the bank we settled that particular snafu and were off to wander around downtown Barbados. Other than some kitchy junk there really wasn't anything to see or do that we found in the hour or so we spent there. The one thing I did note was that the watches in the watch store we stopped in were less expensive than the ship, of course if they weren't real there wasn't much I could do about it.
Most of you know that my opinion of watches is that it's the only piece of jewelry that a man can wear without looking silly, that and maybe glasses, but beyond that I feel anything else makes me in particular, look stupid.
Tomorrow being our 15 th anniversary we will be zip lining through the rainforest of St Lucia, and sampling some chocolate covered strawberries, shhh don't tell Jenn.
We decided to not do any activities with the cruise line again on this island, and no there really was no rhyme or reason as to which island we chose other than a tight budget and more interesting things on other islands. Anyways a point of interest is that there were no private cabs at the exit point of the cruise, the best bet (we found out much later) is to take a cab for 2$ into town and hire a private car there for a tour of the island.
What we did instead was take a cab for 7$ a person to the beach. There I spent another 25$ on a snorkle, I really should have held out for something cheaper but we were only planning on being there for a couple of hours. Once I had the snorkel I swam out to a couple of boats who were in the process of feeding the turtles. The water on the Caribbean on the side of the island is really murky, so the turtles would swim in and out of the murk and eat bits of fish the divers were putting out for us. I'm pretty sure there was only one turtle, but he had some attitude so it made it really fun.
The murky water really did make me think about jaws, and while I was swimming with 30 other people I was fine, however once I broke from the group and swam the 200 or so yards back to shore there were a couple of moments where I was having trouble breathing. I told myself the same thing I told myself as a kid, if it's going to eat you, there's not much you can do about it so I swam along the way happily snorkeling and swimming around in circles due to a bad knee....
Once we got tired of being alternately burnt and rained on we hitched a ride back to the port and grabbed some more delicious free food before heading back into town where I found out that shockingly the bank machines didn't give out us currency... Yeah I know right, what a moron, of course they don't give out us currency any more than a machine in Montreal would... But after 30 minutes in the bank we settled that particular snafu and were off to wander around downtown Barbados. Other than some kitchy junk there really wasn't anything to see or do that we found in the hour or so we spent there. The one thing I did note was that the watches in the watch store we stopped in were less expensive than the ship, of course if they weren't real there wasn't much I could do about it.
Most of you know that my opinion of watches is that it's the only piece of jewelry that a man can wear without looking silly, that and maybe glasses, but beyond that I feel anything else makes me in particular, look stupid.
Tomorrow being our 15 th anniversary we will be zip lining through the rainforest of St Lucia, and sampling some chocolate covered strawberries, shhh don't tell Jenn.
Carnival Cruise: Day 3
Dominca, what can I say about dominica, it's bigger than it looks and full of fruit bearing trees... While the island is making a transition to a tourist destination Eric, our unofficial tour guide, told us that after they left the British commonwealth they no longer had a market for their produce, and so have decided to shift to tourism.
At this time of year there is only one ship a week that is docking at the island, something about hurricane season... Anyways, two things would make Dominica a much more tourist friendly location in my opinion, first and foremost, a beach within walking distance of where the cruise ships should be high on someones list... Secondly maybe a air car or tram through the mountains like st Thomas had, the back roads were so twisty and turney that it was difficult to see anything.
Eric was a really good tour guide, and at less than half the price of the official tours, if you are going to be in the Dominica drop me a line and I will give you his contact information. He had a standard tour, but since he has been doing this for close to 30 years, he knows the island very well and was able to answer all of the random questions that came to mind as we were roaming our way through the back roads of Dominica.
Tonight, after a generous donation to the carnival casino, we watched city lights, a off off off broadway production put on by the cruise line. It started out a little rocky, but then the choreography got much better and I found myself singing along. There were a couple of missed moments, but the two main singers were extraordinary, and really made the whole production worth the effort. I caved and bought a drink for me and jenn, 15$ later... So glad neither one of us is a lush...
At this time of year there is only one ship a week that is docking at the island, something about hurricane season... Anyways, two things would make Dominica a much more tourist friendly location in my opinion, first and foremost, a beach within walking distance of where the cruise ships should be high on someones list... Secondly maybe a air car or tram through the mountains like st Thomas had, the back roads were so twisty and turney that it was difficult to see anything.
Eric was a really good tour guide, and at less than half the price of the official tours, if you are going to be in the Dominica drop me a line and I will give you his contact information. He had a standard tour, but since he has been doing this for close to 30 years, he knows the island very well and was able to answer all of the random questions that came to mind as we were roaming our way through the back roads of Dominica.
Tonight, after a generous donation to the carnival casino, we watched city lights, a off off off broadway production put on by the cruise line. It started out a little rocky, but then the choreography got much better and I found myself singing along. There were a couple of missed moments, but the two main singers were extraordinary, and really made the whole production worth the effort. I caved and bought a drink for me and jenn, 15$ later... So glad neither one of us is a lush...
Carnival Cruise: Day 2
Ok, so, they tell you that you can't feel the boat moving... You can. I am subject to sea sickness, something I uncovered when deep see fishing with Kyle on his eleventeenth birthday.... The first night I was second in line for anti nausea medicine, but turns out I just ate too much.
The movements that are really disturbing is when you bend over across the ship, like reaching for the salt at dinner... but other than that, while you can feel a gental motion up and down, it's not too bad.
I really think our boat needs it's propulsion system looked at, feels like the engines are out of sync making it feel like the boat is crab walking across the ocean... Truly awesome for us pukey people..
I went on the beginners scuba lesson, and let me tell you, it's awesome... The ocean is a really noisy place, even when you aren't blowing bubbles all over the place it's super loud. I kept thinking it would be like being in my pool at home, not so much, not at least unless your pool has salt water and is 40 feet deep... We dove on a reef, tickled some feather anenemies, annoyed a arrow crab, and generally had a blast. Jenn did the shopping excursion, shocker I know, we split up on our first day on the cruise!!! But we both had fun, came back and over ate some more, then went to a really interesting art auction..
Personally I think the art guy was stretching the crowd a little when he was trying to sell us 20,000$ art work, but anything under 300$ sold pretty quick, there was some really great art by Peter max, as well as another guy who'se name I cannot spell.. Was very interesting, the free champagne was really horrible,but other than that was fun...
About the only thing on this ship that costs the same as on shore, Internet is 100$ for 250 minutes, a can of code is 2$, is a movie... Still 10$ for a firstish run movie... Now off to lose some money in the casino, or as Karl with a K says, make a donation...;)
Editors Note: I am posting these all at once though I did write them on the day, so something of interest to people stopping in St. Thomas, your import restrictions are MUCH higher on things you buy in St Thomas, for example you can bring in 4 bottle of alchohol you bought in St Thomas, but only one from anywhere else... Similar restrictions apply to tabacoo, though I didn't listen to them because I didn't care.
The movements that are really disturbing is when you bend over across the ship, like reaching for the salt at dinner... but other than that, while you can feel a gental motion up and down, it's not too bad.
I really think our boat needs it's propulsion system looked at, feels like the engines are out of sync making it feel like the boat is crab walking across the ocean... Truly awesome for us pukey people..
I went on the beginners scuba lesson, and let me tell you, it's awesome... The ocean is a really noisy place, even when you aren't blowing bubbles all over the place it's super loud. I kept thinking it would be like being in my pool at home, not so much, not at least unless your pool has salt water and is 40 feet deep... We dove on a reef, tickled some feather anenemies, annoyed a arrow crab, and generally had a blast. Jenn did the shopping excursion, shocker I know, we split up on our first day on the cruise!!! But we both had fun, came back and over ate some more, then went to a really interesting art auction..
Personally I think the art guy was stretching the crowd a little when he was trying to sell us 20,000$ art work, but anything under 300$ sold pretty quick, there was some really great art by Peter max, as well as another guy who'se name I cannot spell.. Was very interesting, the free champagne was really horrible,but other than that was fun...
About the only thing on this ship that costs the same as on shore, Internet is 100$ for 250 minutes, a can of code is 2$, is a movie... Still 10$ for a firstish run movie... Now off to lose some money in the casino, or as Karl with a K says, make a donation...;)
Editors Note: I am posting these all at once though I did write them on the day, so something of interest to people stopping in St. Thomas, your import restrictions are MUCH higher on things you buy in St Thomas, for example you can bring in 4 bottle of alchohol you bought in St Thomas, but only one from anywhere else... Similar restrictions apply to tabacoo, though I didn't listen to them because I didn't care.
Carnival Cruise: Day 1
Well after a not too interesting flight, where we were allowed the honor of buying movies for 6$ which only worked for the first 30 minutes of the flight, sorry no refunds, we arrive in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Now if you went whole hog on the carnival cruise experience you bought tickets to get to the boat using their travel service. We were smart, actually we thought we were arriving early enough that we had time to see San Juan, not so much. Turns out however that taking a taxi is far cheaper than the carnival bus...
Anyways, once you check in and wander around the enormous boat (we are on victory, carnivals Triumph class ship which is one of their smaller ships at 110,000 tons) trying to orient yourself, find your room and bags and figure out where the free ice cream is, things settles down nicely. Karl, with a K, our cruise director gave us the welcome aboard speech and then opened the casino. Disney has nothing on carnival when it comes to organization, the logistics of feeding, moving and entertaining 3000 people while cruising at 24 miles an hour its amazing.
Anyways, once you check in and wander around the enormous boat (we are on victory, carnivals Triumph class ship which is one of their smaller ships at 110,000 tons) trying to orient yourself, find your room and bags and figure out where the free ice cream is, things settles down nicely. Karl, with a K, our cruise director gave us the welcome aboard speech and then opened the casino. Disney has nothing on carnival when it comes to organization, the logistics of feeding, moving and entertaining 3000 people while cruising at 24 miles an hour its amazing.
iPad: Notepad App Wish List
I've been trolling looking for a goo note taking app and they are all over extended in my opinion. Now granted, I am using it at work as a glorified note book and would like to be able to take notes, refer back to them over time and organize them.
I don't care about Images, Voice, Sound, Html Links, Hand writting, all I want is an app that can let me take simple notes, and organize them into folders so that they are easier to find. Ideally it would be around the ipad's existing note app that syncs with Outlook when you sync, but I can even give that up as I find myself never looking at my notes in Outlook anymore, I just grab the pad...
Anyone know of such an App? I've tried everynote, simplenote, penultimate, they all fail in one or more of the aspects I want. With over 50 notes already its getting harder and harder to find things on the existing one and its becoming more and more of an issue...
I don't care about Images, Voice, Sound, Html Links, Hand writting, all I want is an app that can let me take simple notes, and organize them into folders so that they are easier to find. Ideally it would be around the ipad's existing note app that syncs with Outlook when you sync, but I can even give that up as I find myself never looking at my notes in Outlook anymore, I just grab the pad...
Anyone know of such an App? I've tried everynote, simplenote, penultimate, they all fail in one or more of the aspects I want. With over 50 notes already its getting harder and harder to find things on the existing one and its becoming more and more of an issue...
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Random Thought: Network LED's
Now granted, LED's take 0.07 volts to fire (if my engineering memory is still intact) but how much energy would you think is spent every day by those two blinking lights at the back of your computer that tell you that your network connection is alive?
Multiply that by the 5 billion computers that are active on the planet every day, now how much energy is consumed by that... How much could be saved just by turning those lights off... Not as much as turning off all the computers in the world at night, but my computer takes 30 minutes to boot up, so I'm not willing to turn it off any more than anyone else is...:)
Still... food for thought...
Multiply that by the 5 billion computers that are active on the planet every day, now how much energy is consumed by that... How much could be saved just by turning those lights off... Not as much as turning off all the computers in the world at night, but my computer takes 30 minutes to boot up, so I'm not willing to turn it off any more than anyone else is...:)
Still... food for thought...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)