Apple has a new girlfriend

Well, as you may have already heard, Steve Jobs announced today that Apple will switch (no pun intended) from IBM to an Intel microprocessor over the next 2 years. Some die-hard Apple fans are whining about it but I think this was the smart move by Apple. IBM just wasn’t cuttin it (what happened to the promised 3.0 Ghz of last summer… and they STILL don’t have it?) and Apple was smart to dump them.

For those of you that don’t understand what this means… Basically Apple used to use a different processor hardware type than the traditional PC computer. This is a big reason why Apple software doesn’t run on a PC and vice-versa and why you could only buy a computer that run Apple OS X from Apple itself.

Now that the processors will be basically the same between Apple and PC, it will be interesting to see how things go in the upcoming year or so.

Will Apple Software (such as Final Cut Pro, iLife, etc) see the light on the PC platform?

Will we see dual-boot machines?

We can only pray.

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Elementary Religion

Kids in church are learning the Gospel through morality. Is this the best way to be teaching children Christianity? I don’t know I’m just posing the question.

Obviously, it’s not a bad thing to teach children morals and guidelines based from the bible. But, what about the relationship of Jesus? Maybe it’s too advanced for younger children to learn. But I know sometimes people become resentful of religion because of its strict rules on us.

I have no degree in child psychology but is there a way to teach kids about the relationship of Jesus without trivializing it into a list of rules and things you aren’t allowed to do? And then merely tying this to a cliche every-week-answer that Jesus loves you.

Even that concept alone could be distorting their view of love. They are to believe that supposedly they are loved by something they can’t tangibly see or touch, and obviously have never met. What if this leads to teenagers who are ‘in love’ in junior high? After all, they can actually see their object of affection.

Organizing Life

I’ve been on sort of a kick the past many months to organize my life, trying to get stuff done more quickly and help kick my lifelong habit of procrastination, laziness, and general lack of any organization.

I’ve always enjoyed organizing things, which is weird because it doesn’t really seem like it would fit my personality. But I am the type that will organize, arrange, and re-organize my DVD collection over and over again. When I was a teenager I spent many hours organizing Magic cards, Star Wars cards, CDs, tapes, and more plus I would always buy backpacks and stuff with a ton of pockets so that I could organize which would go in what pocket and all that. I’m a little obsessive under the surface.

Several months ago I triple-booked myself for 3 different things one Sunday morning, I knew it was time to start being more organized with my schedule. First I bought a day planner at Target, which worked for about 2 days. I found myself really enjoying filling out all these little pages of information but the thing was just too large and cumbersome to carry around with me so it was never around when I needed to write down a date.

Then I thought a PDA would be the cure-all for me, so I decided on a model (HP iPaq rx3115) and started to save up a few hundred to get it. In my “let’s save money” phase I was casually researching pda stuff and happened upon the mention of a Moleskine notebook, which I quickly found a deep affinity for (as you will likely see in future postings) as a way to write down thoughts and ideas on the go.

I finally saved up enough to buy my PDA and it was great, but I wasn’t completely satisfied with the included PIMs (Personal Information Management software) so I purchased a software upgrade, which worked perfect. Unfortunately, then I had to carry around a PDA, Moleskine, Fisher Space Pen (for the moleskine), iPod, lighter, cell phone, keys, and wallet. So now I’ve eliminated the PDA (probably to sell on eBay eventually) and I’m attempting to do all of my day planning with a combination of my Moleskine and another productivity piece I use - my Backpack which lets me set up reminders that will call my cell phone at specified times and gives me a nice place to plan out blog ideas.

I wonder where this obsession with organization comes from? I get this idea that I could be doing so much more of something else if I could just figure out the quick easy way to do what I already have to. I think I’m getting more organized - but I don’t know if I’m getting any more done.

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Commercials

Here are a couple of great commercials I ran into over the last couple of days. Why don’t I ever see commercials this good on the actual television?

Rexona - Stunt City

SeV iPod

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The Machinist

4 (out of 4) Fantastic, Christian Bale is quickly becoming a new favorite actor.  He lost something like 90 pounds for this role and, it’s disgustingly obvious in his skeleton form. In the vein of Memento, The Machinist has you guessing and working out in your mind all the way up til the end of the film, and begs to be watched again once the conclusion is revealed.  Cinematography is fantastic, and there is plenty of brain-candy to keep you thinking and theorizing.

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White Noise

0 (out of 4) Michael Keaton’s not-so-triumphant return. This is your generic “The Ring” leftover that tries too hard to be clever when it isn’t. The ending was pointless - it eluded to something mysterious, but I just didn’t care to guess what it was.

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The United States Of Leland

2 (out of 4) An interesting movie with an indie appeal to it. I really cared for the characters and almost wished I could find out more about them, especially the central family. A little too preachy but all in all a pretty decent movie.

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War Of The Worlds

2 (out of 4) Acting and special effects were fantastic, although I grew weary of Dakota Fannings medoicre screams. See this in the theater if you can, the carnage is massive and definitely enjoyable.  The ending felt very rushed and I left the theater hearing the murmurs of “So wait, did this happen or was it that other thing.  And was it related to this?”

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The Station Agent

3 (out of 4) About a midget, er… dwarf. An odd little story about Fin, a dwarf who inherits a train station in a small town. I’ve been talking about liking characters in movies a lot lately, but this is another film here the characters definitely make this worth the watch.

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The Triplets Of Belleville

3 (out of 4) One of the most original animated features I’ve seen in a while. I would liken this to Spirited Away for all of it’s very bizarre but creative elements… although I felt Triplets to be more entertaining - and not to mention hilarious at parts. Although it’s short and the plot is about as complex as an 8-page children’s book, this is a must-see just for the originality and humor.

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