11 posts tagged “reviews”

Just heard about the new feature for Flickr Pro members - the ability to upload video to your account and tag/organize it just as if it was a picture.  Decided to test it out for myself to check out its capabilities, drawbacks, etc.

Pros:

• The video quality is much better than YouTube, and by default is bigger than the default YouTube size.  Also includes a full-screen option without any hacks!
• You can organize/tag the videos just like you do your photos, including adding it to a set/collection.
• You can embed the clip in a blog or webpage very easily through the "embed" option, which allows you to set parameters such as size of the clip.
• Has the same public/private sharing options as your photos, so if you already have these set up for family members, they'll be able to access the videos the same way they do your photos.
• Videos are uploaded the same way you upload photos, and can actually be uploaded in a batch along with photos.
• No limit on number of videos you can store in your Pro Account.

Cons

• Video size/duration is limited to 150 MB or 90 seconds (whichever is less).  Not a big deal for little clips, but it would be nice if this got bumped up a bit for longer videos.
• Video uploading is limited to Flickr Pro members.  Free members can view publicly-shared videos, but cannot upload them to their accounts.
• No Vox integration yet, so no tagging, linking, etc on Vox.  You'll have to use the "embed" code to insert a video into a page, for now.

Even if Yahoo/Flickr isn't touting this as a YouTube killer, it's still a very nice application and one that I'll definitely be using in the future. 

And a comparison test, for you to see for yourself:

This weekend I got the chance to try out the "HRM Rex Goliath!" Giant 47 Pound Rooster merlot.

HRM Rex Goliath (front)

The back of the bottle gives the story behind the name:

At the turn of the 20th Century HRM (His Royal Majesty) Rex Goliath was the treasured attraction of a Texas Circus.  People came from far and wide to behold the 47 lb. bird, billed as the "World's Largest Rooster."  Our label replicates the one of a kind, vintage artwork from the circus banner that hung above Rex's roost and we proudly honor HRM with our premium varietal wines.

Amidst the natural splendor of Central Coast California, our vineyards enjoy the most optimum growing conditions and the beauty of untamed hillside landscapes.  We invite you to raise a toast to Rex with our "free range" Merlot.

HRM Rex Goliath (back)

Lady in the Water

You may have liked M. Night Shyamalan's previous work in The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, and/or The Village.  You may think that because of this, you should give his latest flick Lady in the Water a chance, even though you have heard bad reviews about it.

Trust me here - this is one to pass on.  My wife and I finished watching it last night, and as the credits rolled, we turned to each other and both said, "That was REALLY bad.  I can't believe I wasted 2 hours of my life watching that."

The premise is simple - a live-in superintendent of a motel (Paul Giamatti) discovers a woman swimming in the motel pool and subsequently is saved by her after he slips, hits his head, and falls into the water.  As the movie progresses, he discovers this woman (named "Story") is actually a creature called a "Narf" out of an old bedtime story/fairy tale.  She has come to our world to "awaken" a chosen human being (played by Shyamalan) before she can be carried back to the "Blue World" by a giant eagle, all while avoiding a creature called a "Scrunt" (basically a big-ass wolf made out of grass) who is trying to kill her.

After the movie was over and my mind finally got past the point of only being able to think "WTF?!?", I came to some basic conclusions about what made this movie so bad.

• The symbolism/coincidences from Signs that "gave people chills" have been re-purposed here in new forms for another story.  Every odd quirk or behavior has a reason behind it.  Most are blatantly obvious, but all fall flat and don't add anything to the plot as it moves along - they are there solely to provide a deus-ex type feel to a scenario later in the movie.
• The fairy tale/bedtime story plot is laughably bad, as is the exposition of it through the film.  Giamatti ekes out the storyline as the movie progresses, only learning enough at one time to carry him through the next scene.  When he gets stuck, it's a sure bet someone will come around the corner with some "I found out more about that bedtime story!" dialog.
• People act contrary to human nature.  When Giamatti reveals what is going on to a group of people, they immediately believe him and tag along to take part in the action.  No explanation or disbelief is ever expressed until near the very end.  This could have been a much better film if the main conflict was Giamatti getting a group of chosen individuals to believe what was going on, rather than having them initially accept his story and pushing the conflict to an "us vs. them" mentality.
• The film can't make up its mind as to what it is supposed to be.  There are scenes intended to be humorous, tongue-in-cheek, poking fun at the plot of the movie itself.  Other scenes try to make you jump in fright, using scare tactics and sharp scene cuts to try to keep you on the edge of your seat.  All that happens is you end up with a film that feels pieced together, with enough expository dialog to fill in the holes the actors can't fill in their scenes.

I will still give Shyamalan a chance on future films, but in my opinion, there's nothing redeeming about this movie.  If what I've said above hasn't been enough to disuade you, good luck with your viewing, and don't say I didn't warn you.

Yod's post about his mystery beer got me hankering for some beer of my own, so I stopped off at the nearest grocery store on my way home on Friday.  I was interested in checking out something new when a 6-pack caught my eye.

Genesis Ale

That's right.  This is HE'BREW: The Chosen Beer.  Genesis Ale, to be specific.  The fake Hebrew-looking letters and the corny packaging drew me right in.  By the time I had read the side of a bottle, I was hooked:

Why is this beer different from all other beers?  In the beginning, there was an idea, and it was good.  A Gourmet Kosher Microbrew to celebrate the bounty of our own American land of milk and honey.  Our first creation is Genesis Ale, a rich, smooth, and distinctive light brown ale.  A smidgen of Middle East, a dash of American West.  Then we tasted it, and it was very good.  After 5000 years of civilization, finally a microbrew with the chutzpah to call itself The Chosen Beer.  From the Golden Gate to the City of Gold, may HE'BREW join in the blessings of your lives...To Life!  L'Chaim!                  

                -Jeremy Cowan, Creator

Definitely a beer after my own heart.  Needless to say, I bought some and stuck it in my fridge for tasting later that evening.

The beer itself is actually quite good.  Like the packaging says, it's a brown ale.  Even though the Shmaltz.com website says it's a cross between a west coast style pale ale and and amber ale, I thought it was closer to some nut brown ales I've had before.  Of course, I'll need to try some of the Messiah Bold nut brown ale they brew to make a comparison.

Just like it said on the bottle, the beer itself is Kosher, and has the little kosher certification stamped on the bottle, the cardboard packaging, and just about everywhere you could think to look.  Sort of a gimmick, but still interesting to note.

Overall, I'd give the beer 4 out of 5 stars.  Definitely one I'll be picking up again.  After all, "Chutzpah never tasted so good!"

Logo

Recently, I've been trying out a free online service from Techrigy called BlogBackupOnline.  Up until now, I wouldn't have recommended it for Vox users due to a bug that wouldn't let them back up my posts past a certain date in history.  However, now they've fixed that and I feel comfortable recommending them here on my blog.

What It Is
What BlogBackupOnline claims to be is "an effortless way to backup, restore, and export your blog".  Supporting more than 10 different blog sites (including the big ones of LiveJournal, Vox, Blogger, Movable Type, Typepad, and WordPress), BlogBackupOnline crawls a specified blog for all your posts and comments, and creates a backup on their third-party servers.  Once the blog undergoes one full backup, you can then turn on daily update scans, that will record changes made to your entries, new comments, and back up any entries made from that point on.

How It Works
Once you sign up for a free account (50 Mb storage per account), you can register one or more blogs to be backed up using this "full scan" crawl.  After the scan is completed (took me about 7 minutes for ~200 entries in my blog history), you can enable the daily scans.  From that point on, all the existing entries, are scanned daily for changes and new comments, which are then added to the blog's backup.  New entries are also backed up the same way.

Dashboard

The Backup
Once your entries are backed up, you can go check it out using the dashboard provided at the BlogBackupOnline website.  The "Content" tab shows you all of the individual entries, and selecting any one of them will show you the full HTML backup of that page, as well as all the comments that have been backed up.  Although some people may only want the text portions of their posts backed up, I like having the HTML because it includes all hyperlinks, text formatting, etc.  Plus, if you ever want to restore/transfer your posts in the future, you're probably going to want this info.  There's no way to turn off the backup of all HTML, though, so for now it's like-it-or-lump-it.

Restoring Your Blog
Although BlogBackupOnline claims to restore blogs, there is NO option yet for restoring a Vox blog.  Although this may be due to the nature of the Vox platform, I hope that at one point in the near future, BlogBackupOnline will have a means to restore individual posts or full blogs to Vox blogs.  In the meantime, you can restore/transfer your posts to Blogger, LiveJournal, Wordpress, or Windows Live Spaces.  You can, of course, copy/paste an individual entry from the backup into the Vox compose screen, but that defeats the real purpose of the restore feature and would be tiresome for someone with a large number of posts.

Exporting Your Blog
Are you one of those untrusting souls who can't stand not to do it yourself?  You can always export the entire backup's contents to a single .xml file (in RSS 2.0 format) via the export tab on the dashboard.  You can do whatever you like with it, including burning a copy to CD in case you want a hard-copy backup.  (Theoretically, you could try doing a Vox import off of this file if you hosted it somewhere, and see if Vox was able to pull it all in - that might get around the "restore" issue, but I can't vouch that this works.  If someone would like to test this and let me know, I'll update the review to let everyone know how it works.)

Other Features
The dashboard also contains a "log" tab that lets you view status of recent full/daily update scans (helpful, but not necessary unless you're paranoid about ensuring your backups took place).  There is also the option to back up "media files" (currently images), but this doesn't seem to apply to Vox blogs, as checking this box made no change to the backup content of my blog.  With a 50 Mb storage limit, I'm not sure you'd really want to back up media anyways - you might be constantly pushing the limit if you tend to post a lot of photos on your blog.  A better way would be to post your photos on flickr and link to them via Vox, if they're that important to you.

In Summary
BlogBackupOnline provides a quick-and-easy means to back up your blog.  I like the ease of signing up and setting up an account.  Tech support was very courteous and quickly responded when I had issues with my backup, and worked to fix the actual bug I discovered, rather than just putting it on a "to-do list" for a future rev of the site. 

While the site DOES say that "backups are free during the beta period" and gives no indication as to when this beta period will end or what the fees will be after that point, it IS a free service for use right now, and does a good job of doing what it is supposed to do.  At the very least, it provides a modicum of protection for your blog in case of catastrophic loss of posts/comments.  I'd recommend anyone without a backup solution in place currently to look into signing up.  It only takes a couple of minutes of your time, and can't hurt you to try it out.  Because really, who wants to lose their posts?

Life of Pi

Yann Martel

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is one of those novels that everyone and their mother seems to have read about 5 years ago, but ended up on my bookshelf, only to be overlooked and forgotten in multiple moves.  I finally pulled it out to take with me on my trip to Houston and ended up absolutely loving it.

Piscine Molitor Patel, known to "all" as Pi (i.e. 3.14), comes from a small Indian territory called Pondicherry.  Son of a zookeeper, Pi has spent part of his youth exploring and practicing multiple religions, from his native Hinduism to Islam to Christianity.  When Pi is sixteen, his family and their zoo animals emigrate from India to Canada aboard a Japanese cargo ship, which sinks along the way.  Pi finds himself stuck in a lifeboat with a number of zoo animals, including a 450-pound Bengal tiger.

The book tells more than the story of a stranded teenager and his ark full of animals.  It is a look into religious beliefs and faith, the importance (or lack thereof) of material goods in one's life, and the indomitable will of human beings and animals to not only survive, but flourish under conditions of adversity.  Pi's story is told non-linearly, with interruptions to recount stories of his past or accounts of interviews that occur in his future.  Rather than detracting from the plot, this only serves to strengthen the story-line and give deeper emotion to every castaway scene the reader encounters.

Yann Martel's prose is beautiful and humorous.  Descriptions of the littlest thing can leave you wondering why you never looked at the item that way before, and his observations on people and religions are interesting and often profound.  "Pi" characterizes scientists early on as:

I never had problems with my fellow scientists.  Scientists are a friendly, atheistic, hard-working, beer drinking lot whose minds are preoccupied with sex, chess and baseball when they are not preoccupied with science.

But one of my favorite passages deals with his philosophical view of life and death:

When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.  My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition.  I mock this skull.  I look at it and I say, "You've got the wrong fellow.  You may not believe in life, but I don't believe in death.  Move on!"  The skull snickers and moves ever closer, but that doesn't surprise me.  The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity-it's envy.  Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs what it can.  But life leaps over oblivion lightly; losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.

Life of Pi lends an element of the fantastic to the story, while at the same time appears as if the story could have be an all-too-real occurrence.  The unique blend of zoological, philosophical, and religious insights draws you in and lets your mind chew on a heavy meal while your eyes hunger for the rest of Pi's castaway tale.  It's a brilliant story by a wonderful storyteller, and one I'd recommend for anyone who wants a deeper look into the human condition.

If you are ever in the Houston area, I highly recommend going out to eat at Papadeaux, a self-proclaimed "Seafood Kitchen".  Although there appear to be multiple locations in the US, the one I at at is located southwest of Houston proper on Highway 59, and provides an excellent meal with good service, a nice atmosphere, and reasonable prices.

I went to Papadeaux for dinner twice during my stay in Houston (yes, it was that good).  Each time, I left feeling sated, happy, and glad that I had chosen that restaurant for the evening.

The restaurant itself feels cozy, but is actually quite large.  A substantial bar area to the left of the main entrance looked to hold quite a few people, but did not feel packed.  The main dining area had plenty of tables, but they were spaced far enough apart that you did not feel you were intruding on another's meal.  Wooden pillars painted to look like old wooden columns were interspersed with the occasional fish mounted on the wall.  The ceiling appeared much higher than it actually was, due to the light grey spanish tile decorating the entire span of the restaurant.

The service was also excellent - my waiters were attentive, polite, and answered all of my questions regarding the menu.  Both times I felt they actually cared about my dining experience, as opposed to some places where it seems the waitstaff is only concerned about pushing tables through their meals.

Meal #1:

I started off with a Manhattan and a half dozen raw oysters.  The drink was very strong, but offset slightly by the large amount of ice they put into it.  The oysters, on the other hand, were some of the best I've ever had; they were large, plump, very fresh, and were actually seven in quantity (I guess they throw in an extra for the half dozen).  It wasn't long before they were gone, but not forgotten.

For my entree, I had two soft-shell crabs, served blackened, with dirty rice on the side.  I was surprised to see that in addition to the dirty rice, the plate also appeared with a side of mixed vegetables.  While pretty, these vegetables had little taste and I quickly ignored them in favor of the spicy, flavorful dirty rice and the exquisite soft-shelled crabs.  Each of the crabs was medium in size, crisp and blackened on the outside but juicy and tender within.  Between the crabs and the rice, I found myself reaching for my water glass often, but in a good way.

I chose to end the meal with the bread pudding, which was half the price of all the other desserts on the menu, at a surprisingly low $2.95.  Served warm with a bourbon sauce, it was topped with whipped cream and was the perfect portion to end my meal without leaving me overstuffed.

Meal #2:

Wanting to mix things up a little bit, I chose to try a cup of the "Louisiana" Seafood Gumbo for an appetizer along with my typical Manhattan.  While full of rice and seafood, including two large shrimp and pulled crab meat, the gumbo was not anything out of the ordinary, and the small size of the cup was probably not worth the $5.50 I paid for it, in my opinion.

For my main course, I chose a "Blackened Catfish Opelousas Fillet", which, in addition to the blackened catfish you would expect, came served with blackened oysters, shrimp, and crab meat in a creamy lemon garlic butter sauce.  The fillet was HUGE, so large I couldn't dream of finishing it, but was extremely tasty.  The blackening added spice, but the meaty fillet was still tender and flaky to the touch of the fork.  With three or four large, plump oysters, a handful of smaller shrimp, and assorted pieces of pulled crab meat, this was an entree that could not be beat.  Served with a huge half-plate portion of dirty rice, I really could have turned this dinner into two meals, had I chosen to take the rest home with me.

Having stuffed myself on gumbo and catfish, I declined to order a dessert after this meal.  I left the restaurant to the well-wishes of the host-staff bidding me a good evening, sure that I would return again the next time I was in town...

So a couple weeks ago I railed against National rental cars and their insistence that I pay them $50 over what I had already been shelling out to them, so they could come jump-start the car in a situation where I had nothing to do with causing a dead battery.  For this second trip to Houston, I asked the company travel agent for an alternative, which turned out to be Hertz car rentals.  Having not used them before, I could only hope that they were better than my experience with National.  Boy, have they impressed me!

• Check-in time was about the same.  Hertz and National took the same amount of time to process my reservation, charge my credit card, etc.  No difference here, and the two lots were right next to each other, so no time lost on either case getting to my car.

• In terms of price, Hertz is a lot cheaper.  National charged me ~$450 for 4 days of driving.  Hertz has estimated that 5 days will be ~$300, including all the "hidden fees" that they load on your rental bill.  National didn't let me know of these charges until I returned the car; instead they only quoted their daily rate when I rented the car from them.

• 
  
  
  In terms of car quality, I received a much better car from Hertz.  My National car was a Pontiac G6 with the bare minimum of features (I believe it had power windows/locks, and that was about it for "special touches").  On the other hand, my Hertz car is a Mazda 6 with lots of extras, including a Bose sound system, retractable sunroof, power seats, heated seats (not that these are useful in Houston in the summer!), and of course the uber-cool flip-key that Volkswagen started to popularize a few years back.

• In terms of service, I cannot yet compare, as I have not had to call Hertz about a dead battery.  Not having to call customer service is a benefit in itself, however.

So which of these two companies will I be renting from in the future?  Hertz, hands down.  National had their chance to keep me as a customer before I even ventured to another company, and they lost it quibbling over a service fee.  From the talk I've been spreading around the office, I might not be the only customer National will be losing from our company...

(This has also been a 5 Word Challenge entry)

Album Review: Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss

Soul Coughing's 1996 creation may be known best for the first track on the album, "Super Bon Bon", but a few of the other songs on the album have also received some notoriety, including "Soundtrack to Mary", "Soft Serve" and "Disseminated".

Nothing on this album, not even the keyboard samplings, is perfunctory.  Everything is intended to throw you further into the groove, from the intuitive lyrics sung/spoken by lyricist/lead M. (Mike) Doughty to the precision drums by Yuval Gabay.  A conglomerate of emotions is expressed through the often repetitive but never stale voice and sampler work that haunts the songs.  Inane observations mixed with a hint of the sardonic draw the listener in and seem to burn on in the head long after the songs are over.

I think this is probably Soul Coughing's best album.  Unfortunately, due in part to his flagitious addiction to heroin, Mike Doughty broke up the band in 2000, or else we might have seen influences from today's hip-hop/jazz/rock scene create an even more engaging album.  

Mike Doughty has since beat his addiction and produced a couple of solo albums (Skittish/Rockity Roll and Haughty Melodic), both of which possess the same intensity and hypnoticism of Soul Coughing's earlier work, but lack some of the rounded feel the band provided.  They are definitely a must-listen, but Irresistable Bliss still is my number one recommendation to anyone who wants to get familiar with the band, or rediscover Mike Doughty's melodic roots.