The Town of Lame, Population: Me

Well then.. (iPhone Part III)

2010-11-12T21:18:00.000-05:00

Soo....
About that iPhone..
After some research, I did some research into how to remove the screen, to connect the wires I though had become loose. I was asking a friend about whether or not he had the tools I needed to do it. While I spoke, I was playing with the phone, touching the hold button, etc. Out of nowhere, it starts turning on. I was stunned, but happy. I just don't know what to think anymore guys, this just made me laugh.

So I celebrated by getting an app found on my friends blog, http://review-apps.blogspot.com/ .
The app is weather HD, and it's really neat. Features moving weather simulations, stunning graphics, and probably more stuff I don't know. You should really check it out.

Land of the Broken iPhone, part II

2010-11-12T07:06:00.000-05:00

As of last night between the hours of 9-10, the worst happened. Dearly beloved iPhone slipped into a coma, and it's uncertain whether or not she will recover. Her screen ceased functioning, and I believe it has issues turning on. On the positive end, I know some of the internal components still work, because upon plugging it into my computer, I get a response. The screen still stays blank however. Within the next week, I will take time to right what was wronged, and potentially have a working iPhone again.

Contacts

2010-11-10T23:02:00.000-05:00

Not many people seem to know this, but my eyesight is severely handicapped. For years I've hidden this fact with my best friend, the contact lens.

I would hate to forgo contacts at this point. My eyesight is around -8.5 in each eye, aka fuckshit bad. To wear my glasses is like wearing a piece of my car windshield on my face, in terms of thickness. My glasses literally make me look cross eyed because they are so powerful.
Without any eye wear at all, the furthest I can go without seeing something is around 3 or 4 inches. Everything from there on out is blurry. Objects become unidentifiable at about 2 feet, and people are indistinguishable by 3. Want to experience my life? Hold a magnifying glass to each eye, and you'll understand.
I'll likely try for laser correction in the near future, which sounds so fantastic. To be able to go in and fix my eyes in an hour would be unimaginable. It's like having a broken arm, and the doctor rubs it with his genie lamp, and poof! It's fixed.

So guys, lemme know what you think: Contacts or glasses?

The Cheesy Kingdom

2010-11-09T07:02:00.000-05:00

What is better than a world full of cheese? Not a damn thing, that's for sure. Made by our dear friend milk, it's probably one of the most enjoyed foods on the planet. Nearly every culture has a favorite cheese, from swiss to american. One of my personal favorites happens to be Havarti cheese, made from Danish cows.

It's got an awesomely creamy texture, and it's usually flavored with all sorts of delicious shit like dill.

Eaten plain or eaten with a meal, there's a place for cheese at almost every turn. Cheese and wine. Bleu cheese and hot wings. Cheese in a salad. Cheese on burgers. Even sometimes works without being eaten, such as when you go on a cheesy date.

In short, cheese is probably the best food ever made (excluding bacon). Just saiyan.

Let's Talk Mac and Cheese

2010-11-08T01:10:00.001-05:00

What a fantastic, cheap meal. The only insta-meal that even comes close is ramen, but it can't surpass my imitation Italian heritage.

My shit

So lets talk customization. Sort of like a mac and cheese body shop. I've experimented with two new tweaks in the past week. The first one should be mandatory at all times, because it's incredible and simple:

Bacon.

That's it, bacon. Cut a few slices into pieces around half an inch long, start frying it up. Boil that water, and by the time it starts to boil, the bacon should be almost done. Set it on the side until yo' mac and cheese is done, and mix it in after the cheese and milk and stuff is thoroughly stirred in. Be sure to get every piece of bacon in, and add all of the bacon grease too. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. The second tweak just came to me when I was looking through the fridge the other day:

Sour cream.

Definitely my favorite condiment, if you can call it that. I love the taste, love the texture, love...everything about it. When I saw it in my fridge, I had the stroke of genius: This is...a dairy product. So is milk. So does sour cream = milk?
I thought so. I replaced the milk with ~equal parts sour cream. What cultivated was a beautifully rich mac and cheese, with a flavor of the gods. Incidentally, when I made mac and cheese today (with bacon again), I switched back to milk. It had the great bacon, which was nice, but it just felt lacking overall.

So Guys, I need your help. What are other incredible mac and cheese tweaks?

Edit: thanks for the suggestions guys, some nice ideas here that I'll have to try out.

Odd Man Out

2010-11-07T01:27:00.000-04:00

I am a sucker for orange juice. I go crazy for the stuff. Literally every meal can be improved with orange juice. It doesn't matter if I'm drinking it with my morning toast, or with a black diamond steak. OJ is totally fair game. Everyone I know seems to be confused or disgusted with the idea, but I get nothing but joy. The strong taste, sweet flavor, everything about it fucking rocks.

The best kind there is.

Do any of you have some magical beverage that you drink with every meal (besides say, water and milk)?

Cheap, Easy Party Dip

2010-11-05T16:12:00.001-04:00

I feel the urge to share my simple recipe to you, the internet. It has to do with my love for all things taco.

For real, easiest recipe you'll ever use, because it has two ingredients. You'll need sour cream and pre-fab taco seasoning.
For the seasoning, any kind should do. I personally used a generic brand (spice club) for the dip, and it worked fine. The for-real McCormick/other versions should be the same, if not better. As for the sour cream, definitely go with regular. no low fat here, no sir. Makes it extra thick, you know? I use a ratio of about 2 tsp to every 1/4 cup of sour cream.
Of course, that statistic is coming straight out of my ass, because I always just eyeball it and keep adding more until it tastes good.

This stuff is perfect for veggies, chips, fucking everything.
mmm

Wish I had this

What does the future hold?

2010-11-05T07:04:00.000-04:00

This blog post will be nowhere as epic as the title made it seem. It just means I ran out of subjects for the 'My stuff is awesome' series of posts. So in the meantime while I think up new posts, what sweet stuff do you guys have planned for this weekend?

Sennheiser, bitch

2010-11-04T00:08:00.001-04:00

Oh man.
Ohhhhh man.
Don't even get me started on one of my favorite companies, Sennheiser. Top notch personal audio, the best. They invented the most high end headphones to date, the Sennheiser Orpheus. Retailing at $16,000, only 300 were ever (and will ever be) produced. Claims were made that it's comparable to a $20,000 loudspeaker setup. pure headphone bliss.

The Orpheus setup in its glory

However, I didn't come here to talk about the Orpheus. I wanted to continue my blog on my best-of collection of things I own. And you can bet your asshole that some Sennheiser cans are involved.
I'm talking about the HD555's, the most cost-effective pair of phones in the audiophile line of their headphones. By cost effective, I mean the MSRP is still at about $170, but the audio is so well worth it.

These 555's remind me of MY 555's!

The soft looking parts above are a velvety smooth cloth (maybe velvet, Idfk). Every part, replaceable. Bends to fit any head. These things are built to last. Metal shell on the outside of the ears, which create the open headphone quality. It lets the sound move more freely, making it sound more natural. Circumaural cups, meaning it goes around your entire ear, doesn't even touch it. Most comfortable headphones I've ever worn.
As for the sound? Beautiful. Using it with a decent soundcard, my Sennheisers outperform every piece of audio hardware I own (except maybe my car, those speakers are killer). Light, touching treble, and broad, assertive bass, and a finely balanced mid. They just sound super duper.

So guys, what kind of headphones do you rock? Please don't say Skullcandy.

Land of the Broken iPhone

2010-11-03T01:36:00.001-04:00

To get things straight: I would never buy an iphone, because apple is so stuck up with their hardware. "Hey I'm apple and you buy my shit for twice what it's worth." Not what I'm looking for. Furthest I will go is the ipod, since I have a 160 gig classic.
So I never actually thought I'd own one of these, due to the large cost and small hard drives (hence the 160 gig). I was wrong. About 3 months ago, my best friend [who in all honesty is totally dopey] dropped his iphone straight onto sharp rocks. Boom. Smash. iPhone no happy.
So the one day, my friend comes up to me [before I know about the death of the phone] and said "I know you always wanted an iphone, so here you go." He handed me this:

Surprisingly, everything on this iphone works perfectly, even the screen. I've been so happy ever since he gave it to me, and I jailbroke it the day after I received it (which is now legal, thanks to our wonderful library of Congress)

What's the best piece of beaten-up tech you guys own?

Columbia, the Finest Hats for the Price

2010-11-01T23:19:00.000-04:00

Before October 2009, I believed it was impossible for me to wear a hat of any kind. That was until I found the Columbia Boundary Run 2009 Visor Beanie, the sexiest beast on the planet.

Ignore the jacket, admire the hat.

With these hats, I feel like a fucking god. They're the only hats to fi my style, and they fir it so damn well~. This thing is comfortable, warm, and hella soft. No arguing with that.

Unfortunately, after a few months of owning the hat, I lost it at the ski area I work at. Sadface.. Sooo, I bought another just a month or so ago, in preparation for winter. Nothing beats a nice new hat.

Charcoal = my choice second time around

I purchased the second one from this site for $20 free shipping, but it appears that the free shipping has run away. still better than paying 25 bucks plus 7 shipping from most places.

Not much more to say about this hat, other than it's a damn nice hat

Taking a Coffee Break

2010-10-31T19:11:00.001-04:00

Just taking a moment to talk about one of my favorite drinks, coffee.

So guys. Coffee. I like it, you like it, everyone likes some good coffee. What type do you guys like? Guatemalan blend? Ethiopian?
I really like dark roasts, with some real cream and sugar in the raw. Local coffee place serves some of the BEST coffees, mochas, steamers, smoothies, etc etc, and he does it single-handedly. That's right, works all by himself. Great guy, I wish there were more of him.

So what kind of coffee places do you guys have near you, and what do you prefer?

My shoes > Your Shoes

2010-10-31T13:24:00.000-04:00

I guess I'm starting a series about how perfect everything I own is. How...egotistical of me.
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So about 2 years ago, I discovered the most bitchinest pair of shoes in the world, aka these motherfuckers.

These shoes have an interesting story behind them. Started off as a regular pair of shoes, until three of my friends decided to purchase the exact same pair after seeing that I had them. We may have worn them for different lengths of time, but we all agreed on one thing. Those were the single most comfortable shoes we had ever put on our footsies.
Imagine putting clouds of love and caring on your sweaty feet, and you've successfully pictured wearing these shoes. Seriously off the wall good. Even perfect for people with wide feet like myself.

Now I have 3 pairs of shoes I've purchased since then, yet the pair I wear most often are the ol' Nikes. None of my friends, however, still wear them, which is a disappointment. But in making this post, I've learned that the shoes themselves are called the air twilight shoes. How badass is that?

came with yellow laces too.

The Story of my Broken Propels, and Why Nothing Else Compares

2010-10-30T02:00:00.000-04:00

Samsung is such a fine company. Apparently they're the largest technology company by sales. They make a lot of god damn neat stuff, from 3D TVs to refrigerators, and even stuff like this:

Samsung more like the demigod of electronics

But what I'm hear to talk about is probably their most well known sector (at least to the youngins), cell phones. In my opinion, they've mastered the art of something called a 'slider phone,' (the single slide phones, not those dumb 18 direction slide phones) which is nearly extinct in the age of the touchy-feely iDroids and Anphones. For the past year or so, my fingers have enjoyed the joy of my little blue Samsung Propel.

The cause of my many gasms

For a vertical slider, this thing has such a boss screen, obviously due to the full keyboard layout. Resolution is pretty decent, and the I can type with flow like a motherfucker because they know how to organize the keys correctly for once. Most phones fail at that part. Only real downfall with the phone is its camera, at a wimpy 1.3 megapixels. but they give you a good deal of settings for the camera, that it can do some pretty neat-o stuff.

I will argue this against my beloved Propel, however: quality control is so laughable on these phones, because there is none. I've owned two so far, both of which have had problems. What's worse is that I still want another one because it's such a nice phone, even if it'll break in a year.

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In the case of my first propel, there was an interesting chain of events that lead to the eventual shit eating of the phone. Before I acquired the phone, it was owned by my brother for a few months maybe, and it got pretty soaked by a rainstorm once. Cleared up, worked like a beast pretty soon after. Then it became mine. Fast forward a year, and you'll see me placing the phone on the floor of a van to let it charge. Little did I know, that floor was going to heat up to 100+ fucking degrees and evaporate all the water that was somehow left in the phone. As it usually happens, condensation followed evaporation and left a huge cloud in my screen.

Not a huge problem, until the screen started flickering like crazy. Luckily for me, it stopped flickering soon after. Unluckily for me, it was now about the brightness of an extinguished fire. So that phone was now perma-beat. On to phone number two.

Again, not my phone originally. It was my sisters this time (huh, I just realized we're like one big propel family), worked great for her, but she had a new phone, so I took it. Not soon after, I discover some fatal flaws, such as with calling people. Turns out, the phone now makes a noise like a crumpled plastic bag at 110dB to the other person on the phone. The other major issue was connectivity. Good luck trying not to drop a call with that thing. I'll hear 20 seconds of silence on the other line (which I'll keep rambling during), and eventually hear the disconnect tone. Cue "whatthefuck," and an angry callback.

Moral of the story: Fix your god damn quality Samsung, I like products that work without manufacturer's repairs. I especially like for your products to work.

So, "where can I buy one of these magical creatures?" asks the internet stranger.

Out of luck, they're no longer manufactured. There is however a child phone, born from the ashes. That phone is the Samsung Propel Pro, and it's ready to kick some serious asshole.

...Except it's not, they pretty much fucked up EVERYTHING that was good about the propel. Tons of shortcut keys on the front of the phone? Gone. A perfect phone OS that ran fast, did everything I asked? Gone, replaced by WINDOWS FUCKING MOBILE. They probably fucked up the camera too.

All in all, I'll end with this: Propel was the best slider phone in the world until it was discontinued, and its successor did its best to fuck up the legacy.

Beware these damn things

2010-10-29T13:13:00.000-04:00

So I was in hershey world the other day. I see this unsuspecting candy, basically fake mike and ikes.
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Background on these things: Originally there was a candy called Good & Plenty, which were made by the Quaker City Confectionery Company in 1893. Basically, licorice pieces in a candy shell. I'm not a fan of licorice, but I hear they're good to people who are.
Through the years, money won, and company after company kept buying each other out. Eventually the candy landed in the hands of Hershey ~1996. Before that, some company made the Good & Fruity's, which I suppose led to this most recent product.
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So I see the packaging, and think "Cool, cinnamon candies mixed with fruity candies," as the box implies.

WRONG WRONG WRONG FUCKING WRONG

I open it, find a cinnamon piece. Not half bad, but it tasted a little beat. Nowhere near as good as Hot Tamales or anything like that. I move on, and try a lemon piece, and I suddenly I realize they must have mixed the lemon with cinnamon. I couldn't believe the shittiness of the idea, so I tried another. Same deal. I move on to the orange, and I couldn't believe it. It tasted like I ate a gumdrop released from the ass of satan. Apple was equally bad. Picture Eating an apple scented candle with cinnamon sprinkled on top.

Question to Hershey: What the fuck was going on with your taste specialists? Lemon + cinnamon != good, in fact it's quite the opposite. Throughout this blog post, I've been trying to eat them. I have to pause after every piece. Cinnamon flavor makes me want to throw up, orange tastes like poison, etc.

Fuck this, I'm going to go eat some gummy bears.
EDIT, I just found a piece of plastic wrapper in my gummy bear. fuck candy.