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My Thoughts On Nexus One

I’ve had my Nexus One for a few weeks now, and I thought I’d weigh in a bit.  I guess you could say I’m a bit of a cell phone guru, as I’ve had close to 20 cell phones in the past 10 years.

In terms of the physical hardware, I’m beyond impressed.  It oozes class and sex appeal.  It’s sleek, light, comfortable to hold and attractive to the eye.  The screen is simply stunning to look at, which leads to it being the biggest battery culprit.  I like the track ball, which is functional to use at times, but more importantly, extremely helpful when it lets loose its little pulses to let me know that a notification is waiting.  This is a feature I yearned after for months on my Palm Pre, which is STILL only available as a hack.  I also enjoy the soft buttons at the bottom of the screen, which add another layer of usability and helps save on screen space.  All in all, I’d give the design an A+, with the only thing I’d have changed is the addition of another button on the side to map functionality to (the camera in my case).

The OS itself is a truly solid.  It contains all the functionality that I could think of, and more. It is designed in a way that is simple to use, yet extremely customizable.  You can get your fingers into all the little nooks and crevices, and if you can’t, there’s an app that allows you to on the marketplace.  I’ve had very few issues with lockups or crashes, but there are still hiccups.  There will be times when I’ll have to force quit an app, or something won’t respond appropriately to my input, but it’s few and far between.  Android 2.1 on the Nexus’ Snapdragon processor is blazing fast.  I can move with ease from screen to screen, app to app.  I initially didn’t think I would use the multiple screens, but it definitely makes things easier and less cluttered.  I haven’t dove into widgets too much, but the few I have are very useful, in particular the widget that lets me turn on/off WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS/sync and adjust screen brightness -  I absolutely love that feature.   Notifications are done great, and in an unobtrusive way.  The transcribing tool built into any text field makes life easier, in particular because of the fact that it WORKS.  I sent a friend a text the other day that said “Off to see Doctor Parnassus, will let you know”, and it transcribed the entire message including Parnassus without any intervention from me.

Some things that need work:  UI design, and the marketplace.

The UI needs a redesign to compete with Apple.  I’m guessing Google wants to let the TPM’s put their own UI flavors on their devices, but with the birth of the Nexus, the onus is on Google to improve the look and feel.  A lot of the apps are lacking in the beauty department, in particular third party apps.  Say what you will about functionality, but the sex appeal of a phone is a huge selling factor.  Many developers seem to be dropping the ball on this front.  I’ve seen very few developers pay attention to design in any meaningful way, and I’m left yearning for more.

I’d really like to see more of a direction of how the gallery app looks in 2.1.  It’s clean, it’s beautiful, it’s simple, and it’s functional.  There’s just another level of fidelity that you don’t find in the other applications, and it’s something that I think many iPhone developers would be jealous of if they were to implement this into other applications.

But most importantly, is the marketplace.  The success of any (smart)phone at this point is directly related to its application support.  So far, Google has dropped that ball into a well, and covered it with a lid.  There are some great apps on the marketplace, but I’m talking about maybe 15-20, that I’ve found that are not made by Google themselves.  If I search for “top apps” on Android, I see the same apps listed on every site.  Very few games look appealing to me, and very few of the major publishers have titles on there.  Apps that I’ve used on the iPhone or even in some cases the Pre just lack the polish on Android.  Google needs to make a massive push for developers, and soon.

Aside from that, this is the best phone I’ve ever owned.  I could not be happier with my purchase, and I strongly believe that Android has a long and healthy future ahead of it, especially if they can tackle the developer issue.

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By Andrew
February 8, 2010

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It’s been a while

I need an easier way to update this thing while on the go.  My new Nexus One (which I adore by the way) has a fantastic voice -> text engine on it, but it certainly could not craft the well written prose that I create with a keyboard.

Aside from the recent Nexus One purchase, nothing else has been very earth shaking.  I’ve been looking for a new job, which is difficult in this environment coupled with the penchant for .NET here in Chicago.  I actually will potentially have an interview with a game development company this week, which I’m quite excited about.  I put my dreams of game development on hold recently, simply because it wasn’t conducive with living in Chicago.  But if this is an established company (which I find hard to believe due to the barren scene here) or even a start-up with some talent, it could be an incredible experience.

I’ve started doing some work with XNA recently to cut my teeth on .NET, but a position in game development would really let me spread my wings in an entirely new way.  Cross your fingers!

I have an obnoxious amount of current events I’d like to touch on, but I don’t have the time or patience right now.  I have to get back to banging my head against the wall on this Requisition database.  While it isn’t as bad as it once was, I’d like to get back to working with a normal programming architecture for once.

P.S. I cannot wait for Mass Effect 2 this week.  I really hope the latest launch trailer wasn’t just cut to make it look that good.

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By Andrew
January 25, 2010

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The Bubble Boy

Why are we so obsessed with such asinine things in life?   A boy rides off in a balloon, and the networks become utterly hyperfocused.  Twitter erupts, jokes, images, concern.  Do I sound callous if I say I do not care?  Even if the boy was in there, and he had in fact fallen to his doom, does it really matter?  Should we take our focus off the important things in life, such as men and women dying in Afghanistan, or the debate over health care?  And if we are going to take our attention off such important things, why does it have to be redirect onto something so useless in our daily lives?  Why not cut away from coverage of the dow reaching 10,000 to highlight a story of a young girl who beat cancer, or a story of a father who raised money for his local homeless shelter?  Why do we only focus on the good things, the truly important things, in a one hour special on a Saturday night when the news cycle is slow?

The boy falls to his death.  How many boys have been killed on the south side of Chicago in the past few months?  How many boys run out into the street to fetch a ball, and get struck by a car, instantly ending their premature life?  Do we drop everything we’re doing to highlight these tragedies?  No, because they are normal day occurrences!  Why would we want to focus on something so customary?  Let’s focus on the extra ordinary events that occur, no matter how utterly pointless and irrelevant they are; at least they get ratings!

The boy is fine, it was a big prank.  Instead of throwing our hands up in disgust, and forgetting these fools even live in this country, we continue to do the disservice of giving them our attention.  Larry King,  Good Morning America, The Today Show, how many people can ask them the exact same question?  How long until they get a reality show?

We have a serious disconnect in our culture, or our priorities are just in the wrong place.  People always complain about how fucked up the world is, but then they tune in every night to watch the news and see how many people were stabbed that day, or how polluted our water is.  Perhaps if we cultivated a culture of positivity, and a focus on the good in the world, we would notice a subtle shift in not only how we perceive our surroundings, but also in the fundamentals of those surroundings.

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By Andrew
October 16, 2009

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The Obama Effect

There has been a heavy air over the country in recent months, something that many weren’t expecting with the election of the 44th President of the United States.  Many thought that with the coming of Barack Obama, the skies would open, the Earth would flourish under our feet, and our Utopia would finally have arrived.  Instead, we’re saddled with a teetering economy, a health care crises, torture investigations, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Venezuela, global warming, energy reform, and heaven knows what else.  If we step back, though, and get some perspective, things really haven’t changed that much.  It’s nothing unusual for the President of the free world to have a lot on his plate; that’s part of the job.  The difference for this President is that not only does he have all of these problems to solve, he also has a hefty dose of racism served up, piping hot.

Most people want to avoid playing the racism card for a various number of reasons – the stigma it carries, the inability to truly prove it in many cases, the weakness of the argument in many cases, and the simple fact that it doesn’t really advance society to fall back on calling any person who disagrees with a black man, a racist.  But there really is no other reason for the pervasive idiocy we’ve seen in the recent months.

One of the most important things to remember in this situation, and one that people often forget, is that George W Bush presided over one of the greatest expansions of government in our countries history, and was instrumental in ballooning our debt to unseen heights, and implementing wasteful spending across the board.  Yet, there wasn’t a single tea party protest of wasteful government spending over the past 8 years (unless I’m mistaken).   The right sat there, and essentially gave Bush and his cronies carte blanche to do what they want, with nary a peep.  Yet, when a black, Democratic President arrives, the flood gates open, and out pours this venomous mass of angry right wingers hell bent on stopping wasteful government spending.

In defense of these protests of the President (in particular the invocations of Hitler, Mussoulini, Stalin, etc.) is that the left did the same thing to Bush during his reign.  While this fact is true, there are two caveats that should be pointed out.

  1. The number of people who protested Bush, and invoked the kind of messages we are seeing today, was not nearly as pervasive as we see with President Obama (nor this early in his Presidency).
  2. The protests that did occur, were protesting actual, physical policy (for the most part) and not this nebulous, insinuated, manipulated, twisted, utterly false, fear mongering.

Last time I checked, the reason people were so upset about going to fight in Iraq, was because we KNEW that the administration lied to us.  Obviously there will always be people who protest wars, because there will always be people who don’t believe in killing other human beings.  The fact remains, there was such a virulent outpouring against the war, and Bush (as the figure head) because people knew that there was no yellow cake, that the people who attacked us were not from Iraq, and that the people we needed to be going after were in Afghanistan and not Iraq.  People protested Bush because he did order ANWAR to be drilled, and he ordered domestic wire tapping, and because he could barely formulate a coherent sentence.

Ok, the last one is unnecessary.

You cannot say the same thing about the current President.  So far, he has, in every measurable way, governed from the center.  Clearly there are Democratic values that he has stuck by, but for the most part, he has driven right down the middle of the road.  The only real policy effort that he has undertaken, his health care reform, has been utterly marred with blatantly false facts, and misinformation, from the right, and the special interests that stand to lose the most.

No one in their right minds would protest giving health care to all Americans.  As conservative as some people might be, that is a truly callous and selfish stance to take.  On top of that, many of the people protesting this initiative, do not have health care, or are on a government run health care plan.  Factor in the reality that if we do not control health care spending, it will literally bankrupt our country (see IOUSA) and sprinkle in the fact that the President has said on numerous occasions that he will not sign a bill that is not budget neutral, and you have to wonder what it is these people are protesting?

I doubt, in all 8 years of the Bush presidency, that there was a single black protester walking down the street with a poster of George Bush eating a saltine, and yet at almost every rally against health care, or wasteful spending, there’s at least one poster depicting the President as a witch doctor, or a teletubbie, or a reference to him being a Muslim, or Muslims taking over the country.

Most people won’t come out in public and confirm that they hate blacks, or they hate Jews, or they hate Hispanics, but as the old adage goes, actions speak louder than words.  You can see from the videos, from the sheer inanity of the comments at the town halls, from the sheer disrespect shown by both civilian and government official, that this goes beyond wasteful spending, and a fear of more government programs (because again, where were they over the past 8 years?).

We can bury our heads all we want, but it won’t make the problem go away (and only will make the problem worse).  We need to confront these issues head on, and eliminate this cancerous growth on our country, one that has lay dormant, yet close to the surface, over these past 40 years.  Racism, bigotry, hatred, all of these things have no place in our great country.  Unless we confront this cancer when it is at the forefront, it will continue to fester, and spread and grow, and we will never be able to remove it and move on.

What better time, then when there is a black man sitting in the office of the President?  Truly, what better time?

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By Andrew
September 21, 2009

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How’s it Hanging?

I’m always looking for great new shows to watch, and HBO rarely fails to disappoint.  I saw a preview for a new show called Hung starring Thomas Jane (The Punisher, The Mist) as a high school gym coach, and former all around popular jock, down on his luck.  In hopes of actually making something of himself — after a failed attempt at making it in the Major Leagues — Jane decides to attend a get-rich-quick seminar.  He runs into a lonely, awkward and artsy former hookup named Tanya (played by Jane Adams).  She lures him back into her apartment with the same tricks she did the last time (tea?), and they proceed to have a wild romp in the sack.  Jane gets up to leave and doesn’t give Tanya the affection and attention she’s looking for, which causes her to launch into a tirade about his lack of respect for women, capping it off by her yelling after him that if he wants to make a million bucks, he should “market his dick” (which happens to be quite large).

And here we have the thrust of the show.  Jane’s character Ray Drecker heads home and devises a plan to become a male escort.  It’s an intriguing premise — even though it is essentially Weeds with a penis instead of drugs — and I really wanted to see where the show was going to go.  Unfortunately, it seems that the only place the show is going to go is off my season pass list.

  • First of all, whoever cast most of the main characters in this show seems to hate beautiful people, because aside from Anne Heche and Thomas Jane, there isn’t an attractive person in sight.  Someone has to explain to me how two attractive people like Jane and Heche could produce two of the most unattractive people I’ve ever seen on television before.  Not only are they unpleasant to look at, but they’re two of the most vapid, uninteresting characters I’ve had the misfortune of meeting in a while.  It doesn’t help things that Jane Adams is an eye sore as well, even though that’s the least of her problems.
  • Speaking of Jane Adams, I could easily look past her unattractiveness if she was a likable character, but she isn’t.  In fact, I can not stand her, and literally cringe when she is on screen.  I understand that she’s lonely, and awkward, but she’s also annoying, and foolish, and I don’t want to see good things happen to her.  I want to see her get hit by a garbage truck, and have Ray go off and have sex with all sorts of beautiful women without having to answer to his obnoxious, bumbling task master.
  • I’m not a huge fan of Anne Heche, but I saw her recently on Jimmy Kimmel, and although she exuded awkwardness, she looked super hot, and so I’m willing to give her a chance.  The problem is, she has the most boring, asinine story line in the entire show.  She’s married to an awkward dermatologist who lost a bunch of money in the market, her kids hate her, her mother is a mix of evil mother in law and gestapo concentration camp guard and she just kind of floats there as if she’s lodged between boredom and hopelessness with no clear direction in which she is heading.  I can’t imagine what is going to happen to her character, but I can only think of two things;  Jane Adams gets hit by the garbage truck, and Anne Heche becomes the new pimp or Jane Adams is talking to Heche when they both get struck and killed by the aforementioned garbage truck, leaving the show to focus entirely on Jane’s new love interest, Jemma (played by Natalie Zea).  Speaking of which…
  • I’ve been pretty negative to this point, and I am probably going to continue on that vein, so let me sprinkle on something I like about the show.  Jemma is fantastic.  Not only is Zea drop dead gorgeous (bring back Dirty Sexy Money PLEASE), but her character is interesting, sassy and human.  The episode where they meet, and have encounter after encounter trying to get things right, was one of the best half hours of television I’ve seen all summer.  It was totally unpredictable, fresh and interesting.  I never imagined that the show would explore this aspect of a woman trying to work through the baggage from a previous relationship, with Ray.  It’s an utterly fascinating concept, and something that might actually make for a compelling television show.  Imagine an entire show dedicated to a man who supplants the role of a previous lover, and facilitates a renewal process by allowing the women to deal with their hurt, find appropriate closure, and move on.  Hmmm…
  • As much as I love Jemma and Ray’s encounter, I don’t love how the show is heading with it.  This early in the show, to have Ray fall for one of his clients and vice-versa, opens up a whole can of worms.  First of all, it’s just too soon in the plot to do this sort of thing.  You know it isn’t going to work out, so why even breech the subject?  Second of all, now I’m going to wonder if this is going to happen with all of his clients in the future.  Does this mean any time he meets an attractive woman he has some connection with, he’s going to invite her into his life and have a relationship with her?  Just doesn’t compute for me.

I’m going to give the show a few more episodes to play out, but I don’t hold out much hope.  Other people may enjoy it, and that’s fine, but it just isn’t doing it for me.  Having one semi-compelling plot line buffered between multiple other uninteresting ones doesn’t make a great show for me.  Which leads me to one last thought that I had the other day.

I posited something to myself after the most recent episode ended, and I wish more people read this blog at this point so I could test my theory out.  As taboo as it is to admit it, I think I started, and continue to watch this show because I want to see naked women.  I’m not ashamed to admit it, but it definitely was and is a driving force behind my tuning in.  Obviously, a show about a gigolo is going to translate into quite a few sexual encounters with attractive actresses, famous or otherwise.  I just wonder if that is a driving force behind other people tuning in as well, and perhaps even causing them to claim to enjoy the show.

Let me just clarify, I’m not saying people can not like this show, I just feel like the show is, for the most part, uninteresting, it doesn’t have much humor, it doesn’t have any real deep moving messages, it doesn’t provide any sort of color commentary on society, it doesn’t give a differing perspective on things, it doesn’t have any suspense,  intensity, or drama, except for wondering when the next nude scene is going to show up.  With all of those things I’ve mentioned, I’m struggling to understand why someone would say they like the show, other than the fact that there isn’t much else on, or they want to see more boobies?

I think I might start spending my Sunday nights developing my new series based around the guy who helps women get over their hurtful relationships, and let Hung run its course.

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By Andrew
August 15, 2009

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The Literal Insanity of Healthcare Reform

This summer has been a strange one, at least here in Chicago.  Actually, I don’t know if I can call it summer, as the temperature has languished in the 60’s for the past 3 months, as opposed to the blistering 80’s and 90’s.  But as the summer comes to a close, two things have been heating up.  We had our first blistering weekend here in the Windy City, and it looks as if the health care debate is feeling the heat as well.

I’m surprised at the vitriol that has been generated over this attempt at change.   I would expect the threats of violence, the comparisons to Hitler or Mussolini, and the electrically charged atmosphere over a reform to gun control, or abortion, but Health Care?  I don’t really see what everyone is getting so upset about.  In fact, I feel like the only people getting upset, are the ones who are totally uninformed about the situation.  Well, perhaps I should include the people who are rallied by lobbyist organizations, GOP operatives and insurance companies to the group.

One of my favorite stories, that literally boggled my mind, was that of Kenneth Gladney, a man who has become one of the faces for the fight against reform.  Kenneth showed up at a rally to protest against health care reform when he was supposedly beaten by SEIU members and thrown to the ground.  He was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, and emerged as a martyr for the cause.  Unfortunately, Kenny has a bigger problem than the supposed injuries he sustained; Kenny was recently laid off from his job, and has no health insurance to pay his hospital bill.  In fact, a collection was taken up to help Kenny pay off the fees he incurred.  Wait, did I say the face of the fight AGAINST reform?  I’m as confused as the rest of you.

I don’t know how many people that show up at these town halls are actually plants (I’m going to guess a decent amount, though) but I believe that there are a great number of American’s who are utterly confused by the health care system, let alone the need for reform.

A close friend of mine, Amir Satvat, has started a wonderful blog over at http://www.satvathealthcare.com, and one particular piece that I believe everyone should read is his 5 Key Issues In The Healthcare Debate.  Amir lays out the benefits of moving towards a single payer system, while also illuminating many of the common pitfalls of healthcare, and how reform would lead us to not only providing better care to all American’s, but also preventing the eventual bankrupting of our country.

We need more and more high profile people to step forth and educate the public in the same way that Amir has.  I believe the lack of a comprehensive discussion on illuminating the facts about what this plan contains, and why we need reform, is exactly what is torpedoing Obama’s goal.  If the public were educated on the facts about the path that we are heading down when it comes to health care, there would be a tremendous ground swell in support towards reform.

Why wouldn’t there be?  Who wouldn’t want better care, lower costs, fewer hassles, fewer exclusions, and a reduction in costs for the government?  The only people I can think of are those who have something to lose from the change.

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By Andrew
August 11, 2009

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Was hope, and change, a sham?

I just read a great op-ed piece by the venerable Frank Rich over at the NYT, and I can’t help but feel that he’s verbalized something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time; way before hope and change were even in our vocabulary.  Is America so corrupt, that we can never emerge from underneath the corruption?  The more I observe what’s going on in Washington, and the more I try to wrap my head around the decisions that are made by our government, the more I am coming to realize that the shining beacon that was America, is no more.

I don’t blame Barack.  In fact, I think what he wants to do is exactly what the country NEEDS to do to survive.   Unfortunately, his fanciful ideas on what this country needs are just that, ideas, and not very likely to actually make any headway at being implemented any time soon.  Not only is he fighting the right, and his own party, he is also fighting the most wealthy and influential corporations and institutions on the planet.  How do you stand up to people who control the country?  You’d think, in this wonderful country of ours, that these corporations would have to stand up to him, but that’s not how things work.  Our country is now run by power brokers, who manipulate events behind the scenes, and which only come to light after it’s too late to do anything about it.

I often think about how ridiculous the world seems to me.  I may be more enlightened than some, about certain aspects of reality, but I think most people realize that we are all human, we are born, we die, we suffer, and this binds us all together into one fraternity.  I realize that people are prejudiced based on race, and religion, and they also can lose their cool when they find out someone’s been sleeping with their spouse, but I always thought that the institution of government had our best interests at heart.  I thought, that when it came to taking care of the sick, feeding the hungry, and helping the poor, that the government really had our best interest at heart.  But I don’t know how I can believe that anymore, when that really isn’t the case.

If it was the case, we wouldn’t be having violent town hall meetings about giving health care to the people who truly need it.  People wouldn’t be seething with rage at helping out institutions such as Goldman Sachs or Wells Fargo, because they are the pillars of our economy, and beacons of hope for people all over the world.  And yet here we are, conducting these literally insane practices right now, for all the world to see, and no one seems to care.  Sure, people write anonymous emails to congressman’s office threatening violence, but that’s easy.  You can shoot that email off while you’re sipping on your skim latte at Starbucks inbetween checking Facebook and Twitter.  If people cared, we’d see demonstrations like we did in Iran, but they might actually work, because we don’t (yet) live in a totalitarian regime.  If people cared, we’d see email campaigns, websites, viral marketing and op-ed pieces flooding the papers.

But people in America don’t really care.  We’ve become bloated and lazy in this day and age, and so companies like Goldman and Lehman Brothers are able to get away with what they want without having to worry about any accountability.  It’s fun to elect a President, and really get things mobilized, but once he’s there, we wash our hands of it.  I remember people chastising blacks during the election, and subsequently after he won, because some were saying things like “Oh, Barack will take care of me, he’ll give me a house for free now that he’s in office”.  But aren’t the rest of us just as bad as these people?  Aren’t we just waiting for Barack to change how things are done in this country?  Aren’t we just sitting around waiting for him to give the needy the care they deserve, and when it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, the only way we manifest it is by telling the gallup polls that he “isn’t living up to expectations”?

We’ve become lazy.  Fat, and lazy.  Once the economy rebounds, and the housing market improves, people will be sated, and not really care about what goes on in the White House anymore.  Corruption will continue to run rampant, and that’s ok, because we still have our reality TV, our skim milk lattes, and our hybrid vehicles.  The only time we’ll really care, is when the next time the housing bubble bursts, or when the stock market crashes, or God forbid, when the seas rise, or the crops stop growing, or whatever other catastrophe arises.

I have a lot of faith in humanity, and in America, but I feel like we need something terrible to happen to wake us up from this trance that we’re in.   Things truly need to change here, and I believe that change needs to come from we the people, and not from whatever the symbol of the moment is.  Yes we can was about us, not about him.  It’s too bad we’ve already forgotten that.

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By Andrew
August 10, 2009

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A New Food Network Star

I love food, plain and simple. I love eating, I love cooking, and I love watching people cook. If I was to pick the best network on television, it would be a close race between HBO, ESPN and Food Network for the incredible work that they do day in and day out. But Food Network holds a special place in my heart.

The shows that Food Network produces are warm, interesting, compelling and fun, which essentially embodies what cooking and eating food should be like. One show in particular that I have grown to enjoy, is the Next Food Network Star, which pits 10 chefs against each other for a chance at their own show on the Food Network.  After watching religiously last year, I was disappointed to see that the weaker contestant (Aaron McCargo Jr) won the spot.  I was able to understand the executives choice, because Aaron was slightly more personable, and I think they wanted to reach out to more of a minority audience (only having the Neely’s on the air) but I found Aaron to be boring to watch, contrived, and with very little authority on food.  I watched his show once, and turned it off about half way through as I couldn’t take much more.  I was surprised to never see the second place finisher, Lisa, with her own show, but I guess things never worked out.

This season of the Next Food Network Star started out slow, but definitely built up to something enjoyable to watch.  From the get-go I felt that Jeffery Saad was the clear candidate to win the show with the confidence that oozed from his pores, to his impressive culinary knowledge, and how pleasurable it was to watch him.  I was convinced at one point that Debbie Lee would win, because there was no Asian talent on the network whatsoever, and she did seem like a great cook and a charistmatic personality, but she definitely had some slip ups, and her “I’m Korean and from the south” shtick got a bit old.  In the end, Melissa and Jeffrey being the two finalists was how it should have been (Jamika dropped the ball, and I couldn’t fathom watching more than 10 seconds of Michael at once).

I like Melissa d’Arabian, but she brought very little to the table.  She certainly toned things down at the end, and her food looked like it was good, but she her message was one that had totally been played out to this point.  Making cheapo meals for moms with too little time after work or dragging the kids around all day?  Um, hello, I can tune into Rachel Ray, Sandra Lee, or Robin Miller for that sort of thing.  Robin Miller just released a cook book that has 365 350 different recipes in it for every day of the year.  Rachel Ray has about 25 different cook books for exactly what Melissa d’Arabian is peddling, and so does Sandra Lee (who’s much better to look at too!).

Jeffrey interested me.  I wanted to watch his show to learn more about different foods from different cultures.  His pilot clip was fantastic to watch and made me want to rush to the computer and download his recipe as soon as it was over.  I could picture him hosting any different number of shows, almost like a foreign Guy Fieri.  Although I like having a quick recipe I can put together on a Tuesday night after a long day at work, I have access to hundreds of those recipes.  I want to watch a show that educates me, and inspires me, and makes me want to branch out and try new things in my on home, as well as in restaurants.  I never know what’s good to order at an Indian restaurant, and I feel like Jeffrey Saad could make a show that would show me what I should try.  Look, there’s another show he could host.

All in all, it was another disappointing season of Next Food Network Star.  If Bob Tushman thinks that he has another Rachel Ray on his hands, he’s sorely mistaken.  Melissa d’Arabian will have a small following, and that’s about it.  Jeffrey Saad, on the other hand, could have been something special.

Posted in Food.

By Andrew
August 3, 2009

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Who the heck came up with the word “birther”?

I don’t know what is stupider; the fact that people believe that the President is not a US citizen, or the moniker assigned to said people.   I find conspiracy theories interesting, especially since I’ve probably ascribed to a few in my lifetime.  People often think that the idea that some yokel out in Texas being abducted by aliens is a pretty difficult thing to swallow.  Personally, I don’t see how it can compare to the insinuation that the entire federal government is complicit in hiding the fact that the current President of the United States is an illegal alien.

A lot of people out there are still struggling to accept the fact that a black man was elected to the office of the President, and they are doing whatever they can to try to distract from that fact, and attempt to subvert his administration.  It’s pretty shocking to see people like G. Gordon Liddy on Hardball, or Lou Dobbs on his radio show, paying this story even a glimmer of attention.

My favorite part is that not only are these people insinuating that the federal government is covering this up, that the (Republican) Governor of Hawaii is a liar but they are also suggesting two other options based on the following document:

  • Barack Obama’s parents knew that 48 years after his birth, he would become the President of the United States, and thus, they forged a birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser in order to help cover up the fact that he was born in Kenya.
  • Time travel exists.

This would be a great plot for an episode of the X-Files or Fringe. Time travel, premonitions, government cover-ups. Emmy Award-worthy.

Remember when all the Republicans called people who disagreed with Bush, or the Iraq war, un-American? Yeah, me too.

Posted in Politics. Tagged with , , , , , .

By Andrew
July 24, 2009

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Just to get things started

I setup Wordpress last week, and as opposed to doing anything productive with it, I’ve just let it sit here and stagnate while I could be filling it with all sorts of goodies.

So, without further ado… I don’t really have much to say.  I saw Public Enemies tonight, so I guess I can comment on that.  I knew about the film for quite some time, considering I live in Chicago, and had heard about the work being done at my old stomping grounds on Halstead and Fullerton, but I never really bought into the hype.  I enjoy Johnny Depp films, but he has never had the must see quality about him that others seem to derive.  The previews rolled around, and they never grabbed my attention.  I thought it looked like another generic gangster film that lacked any sort of magic or uniqueness.  On top of that, I already knew the ending!

I’m glad I waited, as I got to see it tonight for $4.75 at Rivertree in Vernon Hills – pretty much the perfect price for a film you aren’t too psyched about.  After settling in, and enjoying some interesting looking previews (the new Damon film directed by Soderbergh looks quite interesting) the film got started.  I have no interest in going through frame by frame, so I’ll simply jump to the statement that I enjoyed it.  It wasn’t a great film, it wasn’t a bad film, it was just… good.  It’s like when you ask someone how they are feeling, and they say “fine”.  I thought that Depp did a good job, and definitely grew on me in terms of the character.  I thought his girlfriend, Billie (played by Marion Cotillard), was meh (she seemed really lazy throughout the whole film), while Bale was pretty forgettable as well.  It’s funny, Bales role reminded me a lot of Terminator Salvation, where I felt he was totally secondary to the plot.

The entire affair was just, ok.  It felt like one of those films you watch on HBO one lazy Sunday afternoon when you have nothing better to do, as opposed to an Oscar winning, or even blockbuster flick.  I always hate these films because I feel so lost in them.  There are so many characters, with so many similar names, or totally unforgettable roles, who then get mentioned at important parts through the film, and then I feel totally lost.  There was also quite a few strange edits, and the end of the film seemed to completely switch the type of film being used from this high quality grain, to this almost live documentary stock.  It was pretty disjointing, and one of my companions mentioned it as well.

All in all, I’m glad I paid $4.75, and not $10+.  Depp definitely played the role well, but the film overall was just mediocre (just incase you haven’t realized that these were my feelings by now).

Aside from that, I’m really glad to have Entourage back, and I am counting the minutes until Harry Potter on Thursday.

Posted in Uncategorized.

By Andrew
July 12, 2009

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