Personality

Posted by lara Fri, 01 Oct 2004 03:04:13 GMT

Hey, what's your personality type? We've been having fun with this lately. Check it out and post the results in the comments! I tested as INFJ. But no, I don't do ESP.

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Three to four weeks

Posted by marshall Wed, 22 Sep 2004 19:49:30 GMT

Well, I've gone and ordered one. Configured with the maximum screen size, hard drive size, and RAM size, along with the wireless keyboard and mouse.

I found out today (after placing the order) that the 20" flat panels in the iMac G5 are actually the same ones they were using for the pre-aluminum Cinema Displays, so the brightness, viewing angle, and response time are fantastic.

They started taking orders at the end of August, and the product just started shipping about a week ago, so mine's on backorder for 3-4 weeks. At least it's not several months like it was when the iMac G4 first came out.

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Movies

Posted by marshall Wed, 22 Sep 2004 17:19:35 GMT

This must have been Movie Week for us or something; we've seen quite a few more than usual, and then this weekend we're inviting some friends over to watch the new Star Wars Trilogy DVDs. Getting those were something of an adventure; Wal-Mart had them for around $38 (they're $45 or so elsewhere), but when we got there to pick them up, the widescreen version was nowhere to be found. The display cases were filled with the gold boxes of the "full screen" version (which isn't full screen if you have a widescreen TV). I asked a salesperson and was told that they were sold out of the widescreen, but then I saw a guy walk past with the silver widescreen box. I asked him where he got it, and he said it was behind a bunch of gold boxes in the display case. I went back and dug through the boxes, and sure enough, hidden away in the back was a single silver box. Success!

Here are some of the other movies we've watched recently...

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - Wonderfully enjoyable movie. It's a globe-spanning adventure like Indiana Jones, but with giant robots. Very stylish, filled with silly nostalgic film references, and a blast to watch. The last line in the movie is just inspired. Recommended if you know it's not to be taken seriously.

Collateral - A suspense thriller with a lot more character development and brains than most. Lara didn't go see this one. :-) It's quite violent, but it's got some good dialogue and subtle humor that raise it above most entries in the genre.

The Black Hole - Disney's late-seventies attempt to cash in on the Star Wars excitement. It's amazing how a movie can be so creepy and so bad at the same time. I had forgotten that Ernest Borgnine was in it. Strange, stupid ending. Still, it's one of those so-bad-it's-good kinda things.

Laws of Attraction - A completely predictable romantic comedy, but that's not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to romantic comedies. Despite being a movie about divorce lawyers, it actually promotes working to save marriages. A fine married-date movie.

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Mom's blogging too!

Posted by marshall Sat, 11 Sep 2004 16:13:00 GMT

This is great! More family joining the world of near-instant content publishing. Check it out!

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Labor Day

Posted by marshall Tue, 07 Sep 2004 13:29:58 GMT

It's been a busy but very enjoyable weekend. Lara and I went with our friend Danielle (who both works for MAF and goes to Trinity) to Castle Park in Riverside on Saturday for some mini-golf. We did one round of 18 holes, and then we were ready for a break from the warm summer sun. We drove down to Newport Beach and went to El Torito Grill for a mid-afternoon dinner, and then we visited Fashion Island for a while. The stores at Fashion Island all closed early at 7pm on Saturday; we stayed until they forced us out, and then returned to Castle Park for another round of mini-golf (Castle Park has 4 courses), this time without the sun. After that we all returned to the apartment and reviewed some classic Strong Bad messages (including the one for Labor Day).

On Sunday we went to Cuca's for some Mexican food after church, and then Lara and I spent the afternoon doing various projects at home. We went to 20somethings in the evening, and then I joined some friends at Denny's while Lara got some extra rest at home. I demonstrated the fork trick to the table, and taught a couple of others how to do it. Special thanks to my friend and former roommate Allen Cheng for introducing me to such a fine late-night diner amusement.

On Monday we met some of the 20somethings group at California Adventure. Strangely enough, Labor Day isn't a "blockout day" for any of the season passes, even the one that blocks out almost half the year, and we ended up with 10 people going. We rode Soarin' Over California (one of the best rides at either of the Disneyland Resort parks, in our opinion) together, and then some of the group rode the rapids while Lara rode the swings and I and a friend (Anthony) rode the roller coaster. We then journeyed over to Disneyland and rode Pirates of the Caribbean before Lara and I had to leave for a BBQ at the Manleys' house. At the BBQ, we attempted to re-create Nick Tahou's Garbage Plates with the cheeseburgers, macaroni salad, and home fries. We then played an amusing kind of reverse-Clue game called Kill Doctor Lucky.

Friends, fun, food, fellowship...what a great way to spend a holiday weekend.

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Motion

Posted by marshall Tue, 07 Sep 2004 12:47:01 GMT

I got to play with Motion this weekend in Newport. Motion is one of those breakthrough software applications that is just so natural, so straightforward, that it's all too easy to forget that no one's done anything quite like it before. If you've ever had to wait for a preview sequence to render in After Effects or some other video keyframing package, check out the intro video for Motion, or stop by an Apple Store and try it out. Really neat stuff.

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Weekend in Chicago

Posted by marshall Thu, 02 Sep 2004 15:38:16 GMT

We spent the last weekend in Chicago celebrating Mom's birthday. She didn't know we were coming. We flew in to O'Hare airport on Saturday evening, Andy and Ingrid picked us up at the airport, and we surprised her at home. I think she enjoyed it. :-)

After church on Sunday, we went to see Andy and Ingrid's land where their house will be built in the coming months; they should be moved in by Christmas. We had some good Chicago-style deep-dish pizza at Giordano's for dinner. On Monday -- Mom's actual birthday -- we slept in and then celebrated at Portillo's/Barnelli's, which has excellent ribs and delicious chocolate cake. We spent Tuesday morning visiting Mom and Dad at Moody, walked over to the Michigan Ave. Apple Store (free parking with the purchase of a computer!), ate at the Moody cafeteria, and then flew out of Midway airport back to California.

Overall, it was a short but very pleasant trip. It was great to see Mom, Dad, Andy, and Ingrid, and there was plenty of time to relax and read or watch TV or whatever. Both Lara and I enjoyed it a lot.

Sadly, I did suffer a loss over the course of the trip. The overzealous security people in the Ontario airport took away my little Victorinox classic style pocketknife that my uncle Dan gave me many years ago. Never mind that the forks and knives in the restaurants inside the airport are far more sharp than my pocketknife was; it obviously was a Threat to National Security. Another reason to fly out of Palm Springs; apart from the more pleasant feel of the airport, they never gave me a problem about my keychain.

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New iMac

Posted by marshall Thu, 02 Sep 2004 14:58:54 GMT

Apple just released the new iMac G5 the other day. I had heard that they were putting the computer on the back of the display (as opposed to the iMac G4, where the computer was in a hemispherical base attached by an arm), but I had no idea it would be so thin. It's about the size of a Cinema Display -- but with a complete 64-bit computer in it!

Compare the pictures: Cinema Display image | iMac G5 image

20-inch LCD, 64-bit processor, DVD burner, 250 GB 7200rpm Serial ATA drive, AGP 8X graphics, 802.11g wireless, Bluetooth, UNIX-based OS...all packed into a flat monitor...mmmm...

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