Right now my weekend looks like it will be full of Adobe Flash for my midterm project that's due Monday and a website for the website competition through JJC which is due by March 11th. Not only that but I also have a client I picked up over the week, so I've got his site I need to do. Blargghh, no time for anything anymore.

Either way, I don't mind it so much but sometimes I feel like I never get ~me~ time anymore to do whatever I want. Perhaps this is what I can use to justify the fact that I want to purchase the Astro A30s for myself. Kind of tired with my current headset and wouldn't mind having these. I almost bought a new 23" Acer LED but I stopped myself for some reason. I suppose I felt that since I still have a secondary monitor that's 19", that I don't need the 23". Pfft.

Since I'm pretty much a 'freshman' level (I've only got about 16 credits from the classes I took back in 2007) a lot of my courses are more rudimentary but I'm sucking it up and taking advantage of what should be an 'A' for the class. Ionly took four classes for a total of 12 credits as I didn't want to go too crazy since it's been quite some time since having a full school load. I've got a Flash CS4 class, Photoshop CS4 class, Adv Web Design and an E-Commerce class. Of the four the only one that will actually be new to me is my flash class. I've never enjoyed flash (and the last time I even attempted it was probably 2006) so this will be a nice little addition for me. The photoshop class is definitely going to be something I already have experience with but I decided that I would like to LEARN how to be more efficient with it. I'm ass backwards when it comes to working with it. What I should be able to do in ~10 minutes with various tools within PS, I probably take ~20+ or more since I do it the 'hard way.'

Adv Web Design and E-commerce are other Major Core requirements for my AAS so I'll be trying to make the best of it since these are two I am very knowledgeable in. If anything I can take all the pride in being a teacher's pet or something ;). So here's to promising myself to not act like a spoiled know-it-all like I did in 2007 when I wrote this: It should be easy for a webdesigner taking rudementary webdesign classes, right?. I'm here to take the class no matter what my skill level is or isn't so I can get a good grade, finish through 68 semester hours and receive my Associates in Applied Science so I can be that much more bad ass.

For the last two and a half years, I have been an avid iPhone 3G user. I've probably spent upwards of $80 on various apps and just as much on random accessories. Once iOS 4 came out I really started to hate my iPhone. The new OS made my 3G ridiculously slow to the point where I would be waiting 1.5 seconds or more for the touchscreen to actually respond to any actions I was making. I contemplated going with the iPhone 4 but I honestly wanted to break free from the iPhone. I didn't care about the front-facing camera which meant that the Galaxy S series phones would be the next best thing for me.

So in November I finally decided to make the switch to an Android based phone. I went with the Samsung Galaxy-S Vibrant. It is an amazing phone! The Vibrant has a 4" WVGA Super AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass, 5MP Camera, supports 720p recording, 1GHz Humingbird processor and has 16GB of built-in storage with support for up to 32GB more with a microSDHC card.

The learning curve was pretty easy going from iOS to Android. The one thing I was hesitant of before even using the phone was the default Android keyboard but I installed Smart Keyboard Pro so I wouldn't have to deal with the default. Other then that I was able to jump straight into the Android OS with little issues. In fact, some of the default UI was SO much better than on the iPhone it really made it's usage much more efficient. No longer did I have to jailbreak the phone to have a springboard; I can just drag down my status bar on Android to access quick on/off functionalities for certain features and of course being able to see all notifications.

It's been over two months since I've gone Android and it's definitely the best choice I could have made. I lucked out on my timing for switching to Android. Majority of the applications I used on iOS now have their own Android version in the App Market. Perhaps this was another reason why I held off on changing my phone for so long and not switching to Android earlier--I just didn't want to have inferior Android apps and/or not have any alternative. Sure, there are some apps that I will no longer ever see on Android (TapTapTap, I'm looking at you!) but when I look at how often I've utilized them on iOS after purchasing, it's not really a con for me. You can check out what apps I'm using on my AppBrain.com profile. It may look like a lot but it includes stock apps. I also don't like utilizing too many apps so I often install/uninstall pending on its usage.

This has honestly been the best phone I've been able to use thus far. I tried out the iPhone 4 and a few of the WP7 phones that were out during early November but the Galaxy S series stuck. I think my favorite thing about the phone is the softkeys on the phone. I've got a settings key (works in phone itself and for apps that utilize it), home key, back key (works awesome for browser and in apps) and of course the search key. The first day of playing with the Vibrant, I jumped back to my iPhone 3G (since it was still active with old number) I found myself already fumbling to use the home and back button only to be annoyed I had to either tap the screen to go back or just hit the home button. I also love the haptic feedback when pressing the softkeys and various other UI elements that work with it (like the keyboard or clicking links in the browser.)

Since Froyo (Android OS version 2.2) has been delayed on the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant perhaps until early next year, Steve and I ended up flashing our phones to an unofficial ROM for Froyo thanks to the awesome people over at XDA Forums that have posted up on it. Which, by the way, XDA Developers is probably the best site/forum to be a part of and reference for anything you need to know about your phone. The members there are serious about their phones and anything else related to them (accessories and the like) so it's where I've been referencing for optimizing/updating my phone as well as ensuring I've got quality accessories to use with it.

So after a little over two months of usage, I've really got the phone optimized for the best battery performance. I have the display brightness dimmed down which is probably the number one reason for extra battery life! I use Advanced Task Manager by Arron La. This app helps me end running processes and/or apps so they're not sucking the battery juice up. That way if I open up Gowalla, FourSquare, Facebook and Twitter.. they're all not running which can honestly really drain the battery if I'm off charge for awhile and constantly using the phone. With the slide down status/notification window, I can also turn off wifi easily when I'm out and about. Turning off wifi prevents it from constantly running trying to pick up a signal. It's just easier for me to stick with 3G data since I've got an unlimited data plan. With all of the little tweaks I've done, I've been able to get to 40 hours of life off of a single charge (from 100%). This includes gMail syncing, minor text messages, minor voice calls, web browsing and app usage. More often I can be found whipping the phone open when I hear my email notification going off.

All-in-all I really love my Samsung Vibrant. The only hard part was having to leave AT&T for T-Mobile. I thought about going for the Samsung Captivate but I was a bit disappointed that AT&T took a nazi approach to locking down the OS. They block 3rd party apps by default and right now there really isn't a ROM for 2.2 that I'd flash to. I was also really annoyed that I wouldn't be able to keep my $30/mo unlimited data plan that I've had since mid-2008. I'd be going for either 200MB or 2GB, neither of which are suitable for my usage. So I'm with T-Mobile right now and just ported over my number. I tried to get CUP-CAKE but all area codes for the area were taken! Oh well, I don't mind sticking with a number I've been using for 8 years now ;).

A few weeks I wrote about how I was disappointed with Razer and their Lycosa. I was holding off on buying a new keyboard when I ended up receiving a message from cultofrazer on my Youtube account. Hilmar 'Razer|Water' Hahn, a Product Evangelist at Razer, handles the Razer Lycosa and contacted me after seeing my blog post about the issues I've been having. He wanted to make it up to me and renew the relationship. As a result he wanted to send me a replacement Razer Lycosa and send me a free Razer Orca as he thought it would be perfect for me.

Needless to say I was extremely grateful to see that a Razer employee has gone out of his way to ensure that I am once again a satisfied customer! This positive response from them definitely guarantees that I will no doubt continue using and purchasing Razer products. In fact I'm finally going to replace my poor, dirty, worn out Goliathis for a new Goliathus Fragged Control Edition surface pad... Now if only they'd release their damn Onza controller that I've been waiting on for eons!

I went with the Razer Lycosa keyboard. I wanted something with laptop-style keys that would be quieter and of course the backlight was a plus. Unfortunately for me, I didn't read up on any reviews on this product at all. I just went blind into the purchase as I was already familiar with Razer.

Razer Lycosa

The first few couple of months were fine; I used the keyboard on a daily basis for hours at a time. After awhile though I noticed that the occasional time a key would not respond (eg: the letter 'g' would not respond) and unplugging the USB cord would 'reset' it. This happened so seldom that I never thought anything of it. However, after awhile it turned into more than just a key here and there. Eventually the touch screen to change light settings (WSAD, all keys lit, off) would randomly stop responding and various keys would be 'stuck' despite not having even touched them.

It has gotten to the point where I would unplug the USB cord for my keyboard every few hours. A couple of months ago I finally researched a bit on the product and found various articles that this was a common problem with the Lycosa. Lycosa's with serials that started at MT0803, MT0802, MT0801, and MT07 were those that were affected however Razer stated that "were limited to a small batch of customers" and since the problem was 'so small' no recall was necessary. My Lycosa starts with an MT09 serial number and apparently I should not be affected--but I am!

I finally decided to contact Razer last night as I was tired of putting up with the poor reliability of the Lycosa. I received a reply within a few hours asking for more details on the purchase. And finally around 10PM last night I received a response that they would not offer me an RMA on the Lycosa due to my purchase having only a 90 day warranty on it from November 2009 to January 2010. WHAT?!

The main article I read on the issue was from Tomshardware.com "Razer Responds to Lycosa KB Issue"

"Frick also mentioned that the problem was small enough that there wasn't any recall performed, and that customers with affected serial numbers can get their boards replaced free of charge."

So just because my serial isn't specifically listed as affected yet those with MT09 keyboards DO have this issue, I'm screwed no matter what. I just think it's poor that Razer knows of this issue yet has done nothing about it in the three years it's actually been present. The sad thing is that the MT09's are obviously affected because looking around online will yield tons of posts about the MT09 being affected just as well. I think that they really should have immediately taken my keyboard for an RMA despite the serial being MT09 and the warranty being up--especially when they've even admitted to the problem and stated that they would replace the boards free of charge.

I was really looking forward to continuing on being a loyal Razer customer. I've been waiting for the Razer Onza to release and after this issue, I'm not even sure if I want to continue using Razer's products. Between the issue STILL being present and Razer failing to replace the obviously defective product, I'm already looking at picking up a Logitech Illuminated keyboard and a Xtrac pads for future mouse/surface pads.

Logitech Illuminated Keyboard

Since 2006 I haven't had any kind of pets in my life. It's just been my obsession with pugs growing larger than life. Pugs on my birthday cards, cards to other people, stuffed animal pugs, pug statues, pug jewelry.. If it has a pug on it you can be assured that I either own it or at one point wanted it. Last year while I was in the hospital, my mom decided to agree that I could get a dog although we didn't have any time frame in mind. I did agree that it would be after I was able to walk.. November came around and I didn't really think about a dog. February came by and there was a news story on a puppy mill raid that had a bunch of pugs in there. Unfortunately the animals were not being put up for adoption as the judge ruled against it. May came by and I was HOPING that for my birthday I would be surprised with being able to get a dog. I had an inkling of doubt but I fooled myself as I was given a card that had a little PAWS print with a note saying it was time I get a dog!

I looked through all listings for shelters, rescues and stores for a pug. The closest Pug rescue was in northern Illinois and majority of the Pugs were 7-8 years old, half-blind and would require someone with the finances to take care of their major ailments. Looking at rescues in other states were not an option. The Kentuckiana Pug Rescue required that you lived in the area as they did a home check.. they had a large selection of pugs too! When I was able to find pugs in my area, they were mixed breeds--Pug w/chihuahua, Pug w/German Sheperd, Pug w/ Beagle, Pug w/ Greyhound (this was an UGLY mix).. So I made the decision to hold off on a pug. I know, it was a rather shocking decision to everyone as they all felt I should wait.. But I had discussed that it would be best to get a family dog right now and in a few months if I'm able to find a Pug, then he (or she) will be adopted by myself.

Last night we went to our local PAWS last night after I had stalked their dog listings for days. I had narrowed my choice between two dogs: Carmel, a white/tan sheperd/husky mix, and Dodger, a fawn/tan/red sheperd mix. Going there last night was pretty tough as you've got a bunch of other dogs there just looking at you with the saddest eyes you could ever imagine. I wanted to take almost all of them home! Seeing Carmel was a bit of a disappointment. She wasn't interested in me when I approached her--heck I think she pretty much ignored me! As I walked up to Dodger's spot, he immediately looked at me and begged to me touched, licked my hand and was overall jovial. I spent a few minutes with all of the other dogs but ultimately said I wanted to meet with Carmel and Dodger.

Dodger was first up to meet with my family and I. He immediately went over to all of us and went nuts with face licking, sniffing us, laying on his back for belly rubs and of course licking every nook and cranny on the floor. We then had Carmel come in but she was just not interested in us at all. She wouldn't come to us to be petted, didn't want to be touched and was more interested in standing in front of the door than anything. The only time she did give any attention was when the PAWS volunteer gave us some treats to give to her to try to motivate her attitude a bit more.. But she still wasn't having any of it. I was a bit discerning as I was really hoping to get along with her. This is essentially what made my decision easy.. Dodger was going to be my final choice. I think what really helped was that when my dad went up to his cage, Dodger got on his hind legs and let my Dad ruffle his scruff. My dad has never appeared to be a Dog whisperer of any sorts, so if Dodger can make the ice in my dad's pet heart melt, then this was obviously going to be the one!

So without further ado, Dodger is now a part of my family! :D.

Dodger!

Dodger!

Dodger!

You can also check out my Flickr set to see a few more pictures of him. Obviously more to come over the months (and years!)

Drobo S by Data Robotics - $899

I have had my eye on the Drobo S for quite some time now. I regularly backup to an external Seagate backup drive but it's down to 50GB now, so I've started to backup to a Western Digital 500GB SATA drive that I've got in one of my bay drives in my desktop. While this is feasible, I prefer to backup to an external device that I can easily upgrade to without having to spend more money. Granted, this is an $800 backup solution but given how invaluable the data is that I'm storing it's not a concern for me.

The biggest advantage is being able to toss in any SATA drive into the 5-bay network storage. This version also includes eSATA for connectivity so I wouldn't need to rely on crappy USB 2.0 speeds or fireware (although it still is an option.) No installation required! All I have to do is pop in a drive and I'm done. I don't need to setup any kind of RAID config, format, screws or anything. The Drobo will do it all for me. My other favorite features are the glowing status lights which when more space is available more blue lights are available, the less space there is the less blue lights you'll see and when near full they'll be red. But the best feature is that it is self-healing. If it sees that there is a disk failing, it will automatically start pushing the data to the other remaining disks so you don't lose that data on a disk crash. Perfect redundancy ftw!

X-Files: The Complete Collectors Edition - $175.99

I have been an X-Files fan since the show first aired back in 1993. I remember being so excited for Friday nights to eat Chinese food and watch the X-Files and be completely creeped out by some of the episodes. Heck, some of them are still pretty creepy when I watch them over 10 years later. I used to own seasons 1-4 to grow my collection of them but unfortunately an old roommate of mine had stolen them. I lucked out with these because I bought them for $75 for all four seasons from a discount I had when working at Best Buy. Since then I've yet to replace them or buy physical copies. I have watched them online on streaming websites but it's not the same. This is probably the only physical form of entertainment that I want to own. I need to have this on display AND so I can watch it at anytime without lag or loss of quality. I love me some Duchovney!

Tilt-Head Stand Mixer - Kitchenaid - $399

Here's the domestic in me coming out! The stand mixer I used that belonged to my mom bit the dust a few years ago when the neck snapped so if I use it, I have to stand there and hold it. So I usually resort to getting a large tupperware bowl out along with a handheld mixer and use that when I have recipes that require intense mixing. It's annoying since I have to turn the bowl, hold the mixer and also use a spatula to feed it towards the mixer when it gets spun to the outside of the bowl. I have been dying for a stand mixer for awhile and red happens to be my favorite color. I'm not partial to any stand but this one I loved because you can use attachments with it for putting out pasta, and who knows what other apparatus' to do whatever you need. Now I don't need to hold off on a recipe because I don't have the right tools.

The world's cutest pug

Anyone that knows me knows I have two obsessions: Pugs and Cupcakes. The biggest being with pugs. When I was in the hospital a lot of my little get well items were pug related like "Pugs and Kisses, Get Well!", my life-like 2 foot Pug that sits in my room, a Pug statue, a Pug beanie and more. I've also got pug thank-you cards I found on Etsy, pug stationary, and pug address labels. I've also get a few Pug calendars that I've saved so I can frame them into a little wall display for shiggles. A pug is the one thing I have wanted for years now and will always want a pug until I have one. I love the fawn breeds and would prefer a male puggy versus female.

I've been partially joking and teasing when I ask Steve to get me a pug for Christmas but in reality I know that's not going to happen. I drop my parents hints every chance I get; When I see a grocery list laying around I'll add in "Pug and pug toys" in either of their handwriting to make it look more realistic ;). When I was in the hospital my mom was seemingly serious about getting me a pug around the time I started walking but I've yet to even really see any sort of notion that this would happen so I guess this is one present where I'll have to just settle for trinkets and other oddities in lieu of an actual pug. *sniff*

What's on your Christmas list?

In other news, in four more days I'll have been walking for a month. I started off using a walker for a couple weeks and eventually moved to just using a single crutch on my right side. Now I can pretty much walk without it although I did have an issue sprout up on Thanksgiving. My tendons are moving over the knee whenever it bends thus causing it to pop. There isn't any pain involved but it's very awkward walking. I'll find out Thursday at my orthopedic appointment on what I can do to help it.

I also graduated to being able to walk up and down stairs although I've yet to accomplish this feat at my house (excluding the patio stairs which are only 5 steps total.) My house stairs are both wooden so it's a little more difficult to use without the fear of slipping. Otherwise I've got not problems at Steve's house or the movie theaters (which we've gone to twice for New Moon & The Blind Side.) Now it's just a matter of getting more therapy (done by myself) to be able to squat without needing any kind of support and gaining mobility with my hip and knee.

Happy Birthday to the person that stuck with me through the worst time of my life.