Sneaky Christmas Music

More and more, it seems that every year the holidays sneak up on me and suddenly it's Christmas. I was thinking about it last night, and I think I figured out why.

For starters, I'm older and time seems to go faster as you get older because a defined period of time is a smaller and smaller percentage of your memories. But it's more than that. I think it's the music.

Back when I was younger, the radio was constantly playing Christmas music. We had to go outside to shop and all the stores were replaying Christmas songs (driving their employees crazy).

This year, I listened to very little Christmas music. Due to the digital age, I had Pandora, podcasts, and my iTunes music library. I rarely ever turn on the radio anymore. I think next year I might try and mix in a little holiday cheer to my auditory experience and see how that affects me.

Hunan Express

I decided I'd also make a ringtone from Scott Johnson's Hunan Express story from episode 190 of The Morning Stream (If you haven't heard it yet, I embedded the YouTube, below).

Then you can eat rice! mp3 or iPhone

I also made a longer version that has an intro of Scott's angry little man voice in mp3 or iPhone

Justin Robert Young, Rolling in the Deep Ringtone

You might have heard Mr. Gordon Wilson Phillips's (A.K.A. Justin Robert Young) rendition of Adele's Rolling in the Deep he sung on NSFW or heard it mentioned on Frogpants podcasts such as The Morning Stream, where I first heard it myself. Well, I decided to take the audio and create an ringtone out of it which I make available to you, if you want it, as either an mp3 or an iTunes ringtone. Enjoy!

Apple Distorts Reality

I'm listening to a recording of Buzz Out Loud's live coverage of Apple's announcement of the iPhone 4s and I'm reminded of how many people, myself included, were so disappointed that it's "only" a 4s, not a redesigned iPhone 5. All the changes are incremental, not revolutionary. A better camera, faster processing, voice commands, nothing terribly exciting.

Then I watched the keynote.

Suddenly that camera rivals the finest DSLR, the games spring to life as glimmers of light shine off of dust particles in games, and Siri is my own personal Jarvis from the Iron Man movies. I don't know where Apple gets their magic sauce or how they make it, but man, they've got it. If you haven't watched the keynote, I highly recommend it, if only to learn how to make a good presentation, but be prepared to exert a little willpower or you might find yourself at the nearest Apple store.

I haven't preordered and I don't actually plan on buying one, but not because I don't want it. I'm just waiting for my contract to expire before I jump carriers. By then the 5 will be out, or almost out, so I'll wait.

Reality distortion field aside, it actually seems like a pretty good update, not worthy of the complaints I've heard. The only things it's missing are true 4G (LTE or WiMax), NFC, and a change in form-factor. I'd be willing to bet the reason it's not 4G is battery life. Current chips suck down power pretty quickly and I don't think Apple wants to compromise on that front. NFC isn't very widespread and I could see Apple wanting their own payment partnerships rather than going with Google Wallet or similar services. As far as changing the design, since the retina display has so many pixels, they could probably get away with having the same pixel count in a slightly larger screen. I don't foresee Apple changing the resolution since one of their biggest strengths is that developers only have to work with one layout for a phone and one for an iPad. I couldn't see them introducing a third standard. Because of that, a larger screen wouldn't really get you anything since you couldn't display anything more on the screen, everything would just be bigger.

World of Warcraft Interface Idea

Blizzard should release a change where you could right-click on the map and you automatically run to that point.  It would be easy if you were on a flying mount.

Where’s this cool stuff I keep hearing about?

A short list of the things I keep hearing about and want the most:

1. An electric car.  Even better would be a plug-in hybrid that can go around 60 miles on pure electric before needing to start the Internal combustion.  That would mean I could go to work and back on electric-only, yet I could still be able to go on longer trips if needed.  If I can’t have that, I’ll take a small electric car to get me to work and back and keep my current car for those longer trips.  Photovoltaics on the roof would be great too – even if it couldn’t fully charge my car while I’m at work, it would still reduce the amount of juice needed when I plug it in.
2. A new smart phone.  I haven’t decided which one in particular, but I’d take a 32 GB iPhone, a phone running Windows Mobile 6.5 (like the HTC Touch Diamond2 or Touch Pro2) or one of the new Android phones like the Magic.  I need it now, not in Q2!
3. A flying car.  I’ve been promised one of these in movies since the 80s.  Where’s my flying car?