Good day everyone and welcome back to my blog. I’m sure you’ve been wondering “where’s Jimmy gone?” That is, unless you’re one of the many people who sees me on a regular basis…
In any event, I am not a summer person. Summer has the effect of really slowing me down…too hot to work out, too hot even do much thinking, so I mostly have just been sitting on my duff. All that said, I still got a few things done recently.
First of all, I HAVE actually gotten some blogging done. I’m still writing a few articles a month for Bright Hub. I have never really enjoyed “SEO baiting” types of assignments, but I think Bright Hub has set it up so the experience feels less like selling out and more like a network for answering questions that people may Google.
My writing for Geeks Are Sexy has decrease a bit (I think it’s just cyclical…sometimes it’s nice to take a little break), but I also got one story out for them as well. I tend to write in order to AVOID work, so when I have little to do, I tend to slack off on blogging itself. Hopefully once I’m nice and busy again, the freelancing will be a nice little diversion.
For the most part, the rest of my time has been spent puttering about in the lab. Working in a lab over the summer can be tough because sometimes your experiments kind of hit a wall and you can’t figure out how to move forward. I’ve spent a lot of time reading protocols or trying to make found protocols work in real life. Thus far about half of the stuff I’ve tried has worked and the others just give me nothing!
The semester (and my move into new housing) is fast approaching though, so I should be neck-deep in new responsibilities fairly soon. I’m ready for summer to be over and for autumn to rush in and take its place!
At the beginning of the summer, before it got hot, I actually went camping. Well, it was still hot, but not like the 100+ degree heat we’ve been having in the mid-Atlantic recently.
I went to Harpers Ferry, WV and it was quite a trip. The town of Harpers Ferry is very nice. Little shops and restaurants share the hillside real estate and look down on tubers who float down the Potomac (many of them a tad intoxicated.
One of the neat things about Harpers Ferry is that it’s the corner of three states: Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia. It’s pretty much impossible not to cross state lines every day you stay there. Another line involved is the Appalachian Trail. Harpers Ferry is considered the “spiritual half-way point” on the AT and I think it would be a fantastic little place to take respite from the trail. Here’s an interesting sign you don’t see every day!
We took a walk across the river at one point, a walk that parallels the old train tracks that still run by the once-thriving trade town. They had to make a hole in the mountain to get the trains where they needed to go.
At the end of a long day at Harpers Ferry, its good to get a scoop or two at Scoops Ice Cream Café. They have a TON of great frozen treats and even offer a discount for Boy and Girl Scouts! I tried to claim the discount but the lady said I was too old!
The weekend went pretty well overall. The camping part was a hassle and the decision to rent a site near the water was a mistake of bugtastic proportions, but at least I got to pitch my tent for the first time in years!
Well Summer is FINALLY here (though I think the heat of Spring kind of stole its thunder). I’ve been busy these last few weeks, mostly trying to enjoy the season while not getting killed by oncoming traffic. So far in the last month or two I’ve been pulled over twice for incredibly minor stuff and have had my car crunched on from each end (fortunately I’ve had very minimal damage). I don’t seem to have incurred any injuries, so that’s good.
On the topic of relaxing, I attempted to attend Crystal City’s showing of Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan out of doors (which was also attended by Think Geek). I say attempted because I made it all the way down there, but just as the movie was starting, it began to really pour and soggied up the ground. While Wrath of Khan is a great film, it wasn’t quite worth it to sit on wet ground for two hours, so the trip was aborted. Don’t worry, though, I later watched it on Netflix streaming in all of its glory (and I got some Think Geek/NASA swag before I left the showing)!
Speaking of the internets, I have been kind of a busy blogger recently. I wrote a few more stories for GeeksAreSexy.net this last month and have also realigned myself with BrightHub.com. The latter is network for bloggers to write more “Googleable” stories. Essentially the idea is to answer those questions that people ask directly of the Google search box. It’s a great little site because even though the per article pay is fairly low, you get a large part of the revenue from long-term ad sales. So far I’ve made a noticeable amount from the 14 stories I wrote two years ago, so I’m willing to give it another go!
Anyway, I’ve got some more stuff to share on the ol’ blog, but this post would be too long if I crammed it all in, so I’ll update it again in a short while. Have a nice Thursday!
Today, I want to share my enthusiasm for the new iPhone. I don’t think it’s as revolutionary as the original device (despite Apple’s claims), but I definitely it allows the iPhone and its platform to move to the next level. The details and specs are all described well by Engadget, so I’ll leave you to read up on them if you want that level of knowledge. Here are the highlights though:
The phone has a new shape. With square sides and its antennas wrapped around its edge, it is the first significant form-factor change we’ve seen in a while. Also, both sides are made of a super-hard glass that is (as always) resistant to scratches.
The screen is SUPER high quality and has a level of detail above that which can be recognized by the human eye. Essentially they claim to be approaching the appearance of “ink” instead of “dots.” For me, this is definitely one of the most impressive feats, as picture quality is becoming much more important in this generation of smartphones. I’ll have to see it in person to really know if it’s better, but first-hand accounts seem to generally support Apple’s claim.
The iPhone now has TWO, count um TWO, cameras. One on the face, one on the back. This was expected based on leaks and such, but even so, it’s a big step for Apple’s golden device. The video chat/video call function doesn’t really exist outside of Skype and enterprise users, so it’s fairly uncharted waters. Personally I expect very slow adoption of video calling, primarily because people are so used to doing other things while talking on the phone. You can’t really carry out a video chat while grabbing your groceries or doing household chores. Even so, much like the iPad, maybe people will find a place for it in their lives.
I don’t really need a new iPhone at the moment, as I have the 3GS and that is getting a lot of the new software perks for FREE, but if I DID I’d definitely pick the iPhone 4 over any Android out there at the moment (even though The Incredible is very compelling).
Well today was a pretty tiresome day for me personally. Where I would have rather have been researching and obsessing over WWDC’s iPhone launch (look for my take on that later), I was instead trapped in a body shop and then a auto repair garage getting all of the many things that are wrong with my car fixed. Even so, here’s my take on two recent movies:
A few weeks ago, I saw Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. I have to say I was very impressed. While it was certainly not the greatest movie of all time, for a video game movie it did very well. I’ve never played the game upon which it was based, but I found the plot very interesting and approachable.
The action sequences were great and many of the chase scenes mirror (some very closely) the chases in the animated Aladdin movie of yesteryear. As a child of that time period, these chases had a very strong appeal. Think throwing apples at bushy-bearded guards with scimitars and you’ll generally get the idea. Oh and it always helps when the leading man and lady are both fairly attractive!
I would have to say there is some complexity in the plot, but only from the mystery and sharp turns in the plot, not from any deep philosophy. That being said, it’s nice to have a fun action/adventure movie unburdened by the dark overtones or deep psychology that has become some common among modern movies. Also, it’s family friendly without losing its edge. Definitely see it with friends or family before it leaves theaters!
Also in the theaters this week was Splice, starring Adrien Brody. I saw it with @jbrown915 on Friday and it’s hard to even describe this one. The story follows a couple of scientists (both in the plural and dating sense of the word) who are working on creating new life forms. This iteration of “artificial life” (which might be better described as “synthetic life” because it just borrows from nature) combines the genes of several different organisms to form these gelatinous blobs. These early creations don’t look very good, but they produce proteins important for pharmacology. Things go awry when they add in human DNA and all of a sudden things get out of control.
My first big problem with this movie is that ALL of the science is essentially a distillation of public misconceptions about genetic science. They make most of their discoveries over the course of a busy week (which pushed forward the idea that “scientists just need to work harder!”) and it also proposes that there is something magical about human DNA. For some reason splicing in DNA from people is WAY harder than DNA from closely related mammals, and once they succeed, it turns into a horrible humaniod monster!
The real reason NOT to see this movie is the middle to second half of it. I don’t want to give away too many spoilers to the poor souls who subject themselves to this film, but essentially the female lead develops this VERY creepy maternal complex that her boyfriend (husband?) never notices. After this, the plot begins to follow the same lines of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, only with graphic detail where the cult classic leaves much to the imagination. The circumstances, stupidity of the characters, and the incestuous suggestions really take the more visceral scenes way beyond the pale of a normal scifi thriller and into the realm of “why did I pay to watch this?” Overall, unless you’re needing a feature film that feels like two B movies crammed together, skip Splice and don’t even rent it.
Hope you enjoyed my doling out reviews and general wisdom. Let me know if you agree OR disagree in the comments!
My name is Jimmy Rogers and I'm here to bring you lovely stories from and about the internet. I love technology and the sciences that are very big and very small. Currently I'm studying Microbiology at the graduate level (hoping to earn a PhD).
A few weeks ago, I saw Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. I have to say I was very impressed. While it was certainly not the greatest movie of all time, for a video game movie it did very well. I’ve never played the game upon which it was based, but I found the plot very interesting and approachable.
Also in the theaters this week was Splice, starring Adrien Brody. I saw it with 
