Something happens when you detatch yourself from your planet. You lose something. You lose your connection to the land of living.  You’re not dead exactly but your not thriving either. You have chopped yourself off from your community and it is through that community, what you give it and what it gives you, that you know who you are.

When we fly from point A to point Z, we lose points b, c, d and everything in between. That right there is the trouble with flying, and not just the flying that’s done in airplanes. All around us we see people flying here and there, flying from this commitment to that appointment, ears pressed to cell phones, fingertips on the keyboard, eyes glazed over in a 1,000 yard stare. We’re going fast as hell, but where we are heading and what happens when we get there? That’s the question.

-Orba Squara

During our three-day journalism workshop, we were asked to write a feature story about a special guest. Unfortunately, mine didn’t make the deadline. So instead of having this go to waste, I’ve decided to post it here for everyone to read. I’ve omitted some info for privacy purposes.

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I liked my last theme (Freshy) until I realized it looked more like a ripoff of a late 90s webpage. So I spent all morning looking for a good free wordpress theme, but to no avail.

The current theme is the best one that I could find, and it will be my current theme until I find something better.

Feel free to suggest a good theme if you know of one. My definition of a good theme is:

• Black(or at least dark) and subtle tables
• White Text field background
• Abstract banner header; preferably Neon (think Las Vegas!)

[edit]

I just got a new header banner thanks to Firebucket and to iAlex for some php stuff

Where do I start? Pop punk has always been my all time favorite genre since I began to have my “musical taste reasoning” as what I like to call it. It’s bright, upbeat, airy, and it just keeps you going. The late 90s to ’00s were the days when pop punk and alternative rock really flourished into mainstream from being underground for so long. Unfortunately, pop punk has slowly lost popularity in the later years while emo music took over the rock charts -I’m not talking in proper music genre terms as these are based on my own opinions so.. yeah- . I personally hate emo music because they tend to be cliche and doesn’t have that upbeat vibe that I always loved with music.

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Since I’m into audio production (I mix music and sound effects occasionally), I just created a new subdomain to store, archive, and share my works as well as store some of my favorite songs, which unfortunately, i am not able to share with everyone for legal purposes. My self produced materials however, are free to download. do whatever you want with them but be sure give me back some credit for it in one way or another. I haven’t uploaded some of my works yet, but rest assured they will be ASAP.

My archive can be found here.

I was looking at the iPhone with the voice recorder screenshot the other day, it had an “analog” VU meter at the bottom for monitoring audio levels and thought to myself; “what if I had a VU meter for my PC it would be cool”.

VUMeter

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The new Macbook Pros as seen from the Apple Online Store

The WWDC opened up with a refresh of the macbooks, with the 13″ now integrated into the MacBook Pro family. And major design updates and features have been on the way starting with the longer life (up to 7 hours of wireless productivity) but non user replaceable battery that has a guaranteed 5 year lifetime, an SD card slot, perfect for photography enthusiasts like me, and backlit keyboard comes standard in all macbook models.

Another significant improvement apple has up its sleeve is that they’ve reintroduced firewire to the 13″ models with firewire 800. Apple also lowered the price points by $100 starting with the cheapest from $1,299 to $1,199, and so on. This price drop has been the most aggressive apple has ever attempted and can actually compete with PCs with more or less the same specs.

A polycarbonate macbook is still available with 2.13GHz of processor.

The Pros come in 2.26GHz and 2.53GHz for the 13″, 2.53GHz, 2.66GHz and 2.8GHz for the 15″ model, and 2.8GHz for the 17″.

The new iPhone 3Gs

This is just in; by the time i’m writing this, I’m watching the WWDC keynote and they just unveiled the new iPhone hardware dubbed the “iPhone 3Gs” Notable features over the current iPhone are, just to name a few:

1. Faster Processor and Media chip speed
2. 3.2MP camera with autofocus and auto exposure
3. Built in Digital compass
4. Voice control
5. Video
6. MMS

so the 4GB rumor wasn’t true, instead, for $99, you get a regular iPhone 3G 8GB, and unlike the rumors, it doesn’t have the front facing camera for video calls.

iPhone 3Gs is available in 16GB and 32GB capacities and will be coming out in June 19th

The banner caption indicates the focus of Apple's developer conference will be on features of the iPhone OS and third-party apps.

The Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) 2009 will take place today. The much awaited annual conference which is followed by Developers and tech geeks alike have been an opportunity for Apple CEO Steve Jobs to deliver a keynote address and would often present new apple products and/or any development to the media.

Months before any Apple event takes place, rumors would come out from tech sites like Engadget and MacRumors regarding upcoming apple products. This hype combined with with apple’s secrecy raises public expectations have been known to boost sales and garner a huge chunk of the market share.

As for my own, here is a list;

1. OSX v10.6 Snow Leopard – everybody have kept their hopes up for the final release of the next OSX update announced last year which promises better core functionalities; Grand Central - which has the ability to take full advantage of multi core CPUs, a 64-bit kernel and support of up to 16 terabytes of RAM.
2. Refresh of the MacBook line – this is more of a personal expectation for me, some guy in chat told me that they might have a refresh of the current macbook line by discontinuing the 2.0GHz, dropping the 2.4GHz to $1,299 and a new one will take its $1,499 price point. I must admit this came from an unreliable source, but since Apple is keeping quiet about things, it won’t rule out the possibility for such a refresh.
3. New iPhone – this has got to be the most discussed rumor on the intarwebz. Rumor has it that the new iPhone will come out in a wider range of models by bringing back the 4GB model for $99 with a 3-year contract, together with new 8GB, and 16GB models, and introducing a whopping 32GB version. It has also been reported that they will come with the ability to make Video Calls through iChat and that 8GB and above iPhones will have 3.2 megapixel cameras while the 4GB will get the current 2MP.
4. iPhone 3.0 software update – this anticipated update will have 100 additional features which includes; Spotlight searching, Copy & Paste(FINALLY!!!), Push Notifications, MMS, and Peer-to-Peer connectivity just to name a few.

What are your expectations for the upcoming keynote? Feel free to comment right down, there..  ^_^

I got bored so I went out with some friends this afternoon just a couple of hours before dusk and took some random photos at the boardwalk. I take photos as a hobby and I’m the type of photographer who likes to take a photo that sets the mood, and keeps the story open for the viewer to interpret. Taking photos just before and after sunset are the perfect time for such.

I’m an advocate of photoshopping pictures as long as you only play with exposures, hues, saturation, levels, and cropping if necessary. I don’t like to manipulate images such that it modifies the composition which defeats the essence of photography as an art.

Take a look at some shots I took here. and be sure to comment if you can.

-jem