A video from our whale (dolphin) watching in San Diego this past week. The 120 fps option on the new iPhone 5s is pretty sweet.
Despite everything that has been going on lately, I have still been reading some books. The most notable of the books I have recently read have both been graphic novels. I read The Sandman: Dream Hunters, which is a wonderful novel in the Sandman universe. It is apparently volume #11 in this series, so I will have to go back and read the other novels. The book had a wonderful fairy tale sort of feel to it.
I also read a book call Kabuki, Vol 1: Circle of Blood. This is a pretty adult graphic novel that follows a group of assassins who are modeled after these TV personalities. It is a bit hard to describe from that angle, but really just picture a dystopian future where a shadow organization is trying to control the world around it.
Jumping back over to novels I read an excellent indie novel called Bypass Gemini which was written by Joe Lallo. I picked this book up as part of the Storybundle way back when. The book was a very pleasant surprise and was an excellent fun, light sci-fi read.
I have to admit that I probably spend more time on my iPad these days than I do on my computer. The bulk of what I am doing on my devices is checking email, reading twitter or doing some other consumption practice. For better or for worse I have also found that the specialized apps for different services usually offer a much better experience compared to the website or the applications on most computers, including my Mac. So with that in mind here are my favorite iOS apps that I cannot live without.
So a couple if weeks ago Megan and I went to go see the Lego movie and it was one of those movies that just puts a smile on your face and makes you want to be a kid again. We had to go out and buy Megan some Legos.
Around that same time my mom also said she was going to start cleaning some stuff out if her house, so I had to make sure she wouldn't get rid of my old Legos. This evening we picked them up and had a blast playing with them while watching Spaceballs. Half the fun was going through the boxes and pulling out the other random things in there like a rubber triceratops, a Michelangelo head and a ticket from a Enchanted Castle.
Also, the show "The Goldberg's" is pretty amazing for a 1980's family sitcom.
Well, it has been a while since a book check in. Progress is still moving along slowly, but I think at this point I am getting to the conclusion point in this point of my story arc. I am working through the climax point in the book and I am approaching the final plot point. I really hope I can knock that out over the next week or two and then begin the process of my first round of edits. As I have mentioned before, the book at this point is little more than a collection of words. Most of the characters still do not have names, and I still need to do some major editing to reincorporate the religious aspect of the book that I haven't done thus far.
I was struggling for a long while on how to incorporate some of the religious tones that I wanted to do, but I have found some great inspiration actually from a book I just recently read. Nightbringer from the Warhammer 40,000 universe has really laid out an interesting world where the religion in the universe is the guiding point around the social and military structure. There are some interesting points in that world that I think I will borrow upon to bring in to my book.
So a few weeks ago, I posted about how i pulled out all of my old game systems and hooked them up to my TV. Since doing that I have done a little research on some of the great games that I missed from previous generations and also some of the really good Xbox Live Arcade games I missed from this past generation. I have to say that I am quite surprised at home many Gamecube games made it onto that list. I loved that system to death, but I sort of thought that I played most of the good games on it.
This weekend I had the opportunity to get in and play the Titanfall Beta. Man this game is a lot of fun. I wouldn't say it blows me away graphically (it is just a beta), but the gameplay is incredibly well done. Think the speed of COD along with the verticality and weapons of the last two Halo games, and you have an idea of what Titanfall is all about.
I also had my first opportunity to play around with the Xbox One's "Record That" feature, which also works quite well. It makes for capturing some game moments and uploading them online super easy. Above is a few of my favorite clips from some of my play time this past weekend.
Over the past couple of weeks since NAMM, there has been some positive buzz about the new iPad app from Korg called Gadget. I decided to pick it up this past week since it is on sale for ~$28. The price isn't cheap, but the software is really well designed. It is the first iPad app that for me has really found the perfect sweet spot of features and usability on the iPad.
I have tried numerous iPad music creation apps before and the top contenders for me were either Sunvox or Retronyms' Tabletop. Sunvox was great in that it had the full synthesis capabilities that I was looking for, along with the ability to easily bring the music back to the desktop. From a pure synthesis point of view, it is probably the most powerful app on the iPad. The interface however is not optimized for touch, and while Nightradio has done an admirable job and making the interface friendly, there are still some elements that don't full fit well with a touch screen.
On the flip side you have Tabletop, which is all instrument based, which works really well for me since I am very familiar with working in a groovebox sort of environment. The only thing that really held me up in Tabletop is that the song based sequencing is really poor. They have a pattern trigger box, which sort of triggers different patterns on the machines to create a song, but it is clunky and confusing. It is also sort of a pain to have to jump around to each instrument to then select and create the patterns.
Korg's Gadget has seemingly struck the best balance I have found so far. It has a very intuitive piano roll interface with a track for each instrument. Patterns are arranged in an Ableton Live sort of scene mode, where the next group of patterns triggers, sort of like how old school trackers work. The best part though is that there is a solid collection of synthesizers that have some real sound creation capabilities included. It is only v1.0 so far and there are a few UI quirks to be sure, such as the app always starting at the beginning of the song rather than the scene I am working in when editing, but I imagine those will all get worked out over time. It is a really strong showing so far and I am really enjoying my time with the app.
So Megan and I went to the motorcycle show again this Saturday. This has sort of become an annual thing for us each year. I have to say that there wasn't much that really caught my eye this year, with the exception of the new Yamah Bolt crusier. That bike looks really nice and has a great, gritty urban feel to it. I think it is positioned really well to give the HD 883 a run for its money. The specs as with most cruisers won't blow you out of the water. It only has a single disc for the front break and the engine is rather low for overall HP with only a 9-1 compression ratio for a V-Twin, but it makes up for it with some nice touches on the pipes and engine. It also has all LED lights that are positioned in a very modern looking setup.
I am not normally into cruiser style bikes, but if I had to pick one, I would probably take the Bolt. Spec'ing the whole bike out with the "R-Spec" accessories and the brass finishes brings the base price to $8,999 up to just over $10,000, but overall it has a great look as you can see from the customization site.
I also had a chance to check out the new BMW R Nine-T which everyone seems to be losing their minds over. I of course didn't have a chance to ride it, but my initial look was rather disappointing. For the price of the bike, there didn't seem to be much there and the comfort wasn't super apparent. The handlebars and seating position was leaning much more forward than I would have initially thought. the engine seems to be pretty much the same as the other oil/air cooled BMW twins, so I would expect there performance to be pretty well known. The lack of a a tele-lever though was obviously apparent and after having one of those for a few years now, I sort of find it hard to live without it. May be I will get to actually ride one later this year at a demo day or something.
The other thing that I really noticed at the show this year was the amount of "booth babes". They seemed to be all over the place and they never seemed to be prevalent in years past.
So last week I picked up and Xbox One in a whim. The console is pretty cool and honestly the Kinect works much better than I thought it would.
While plugging everything in I had to relocate my existing 360 to the other side of the entertainment center. My wife had the suggestion that I pull all of those consoles I had in a tub in the basement out and set them up as well.
It is awesome having a wife who is as nerdy as me.