I'm back

Well... I'm back... As I said before, It's been absolutely too long since I've had a chance to post here, and there's so much I could talk about. I made a couple changes to the blog, out with the old, in with the new, hope you like the new look!

Funny thing, after I finished the post yesterday I headed over to the jsquared podcast blog to see if they had updated, and it just so happened that a new post had come up just a little bit before I finished mine. Head on over there for a good review of the new Facebook chat, and some other catching up with jsquared. Anyway, while reading through their post, a learned about a new Twitter client. I had previously been using Twitterific. I really didn't have any problems with it. It's features were limited but I figured I couldn't complain for a free app. All that to say, I found out about Twhirl. Twhirl is a similar app. It puts a fairly small box (a little bit bigger than Twitterific) on your desktop that displays the tweets of people you follow, and allows you to post tweets of your own. It has a lot more features than Twitterific, and also makes some of the same features easier, such as messaging and replying. It also has built in URL shortening, and instant access to your friends/followers. The best part is, it's absolutely free! Needless to say, I'm already a big fan of Twhirl, and I've only had it for a few hours. I'm sure there are more features I haven't even found yet!

On to... politics. The Democratic party just can't find a winner. As of now Obama holds a slight lead over Clinton.

Obama 1,724 (Super-delegates Included)
Clinton 1,589 (Super-delegates Included)

From my viewpoint neither of these candidates are going to give up. Why? If Clinton looses this year, she's done. In 4 (or 8) years, one, she'll already have this loss going against her, and, two, people will begin to talk about her age, her capabilities, etc. Obama, on the other hand, simply has nothing to loose. Worst case scenario for him is he continues as a Senator. However, if he drops out, it would diminish his chances of winning if he runs again in the future. Looking at this, I see a brokered convention coming up, however, the Democrats aren't talking that way. Why? I don't know. Any ideas?

Well, there's so much more I could say, but this post is getting to be pretty long, so I'll end it for now and hopefully be back in the next couple days with some thoughts on other issues. I'd love to hear your comments. Check out my links, stories, and all the other great stuff provided here on the blog! Talk to ya later!

Catching Up & Jott

It's been a while... Sorry about that. Hopefully I'll be back on in a few days with some recent thoughts I've had, but for now I've got a quick review.
Jott is a free web based voice recognition tool. Basically, this is how it works... first you sign up for a free account at jott.com. Then, it will ask you to verify your email address. Simply check your email and click the link to verify. Then, it will ask you to enter your cell phone number. It will then give you the Jott number to call and verify. Once verified, you are ready to use Jott. Jott can be used in various ways... to send yourself reminders, to update Twitter (another awesome tool), to update blogger, etc. All you have to do is call the number from your verified phone, tell Jott what you want to do, say your message, wait for Jott to say, "got it" and your done. Jott is quick, practical, and very easy to use. Not to mention, the voice to text recognition is almost error free... I said ALMOST.

Vantage Point

What up?  So I just saw Vantage Point last night and I absolutely loved it.  EXCELLENT!  Great story line, great original "story-telling" method, good perfomances, just an all around  great movie!  Basic plot:  The President of the United States is shot at a global anti-terrorism rally in Spain.  We (the audience) see the event take place from different peoples vantage points (a Secret Service agent, a man in the audience, the President himslef etc.)  Throughout the rest of the movie, as the whole city is in chaos, the Secret Service search for the shooter and seek to figure out how this could've happened.  This movie is filled with action, suspense, and even a few twists in the plot.  See it!

I've decided also to add something to my movie reviews... my own personal 1-10 (10 being the best) ratings in three different categories: Entertainment quality, Storyline quality, and Directing/Production quality.  So...

Entertainment: 10
Storyline: 9
Directing/Production: 9


For more reviews and info:
IMDb
Rotten Tomatoes
PluggedIn

Divine Day

Here's another new band I just heard of. Divine Day is a young band based out of the Cincinnati area. Their self-proclaimed influences are the likes of John Mayer and Maroon 5 and I have to say I can hear a similar sound. Check them out on MySpace and go see them compete in the finals of the Battle of the Bands at the Underground on March 8th.
Divine Day on Myspace

OneRepublic

I recently discovered a young band... OneRepubic.  They have a really cool unique sound.  They are probably most known for their song "Apologize" that they recorded with Timbaland.  Check them out:
onerepublic.net
Myspace

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Cloverfield

-SPOILER WARNING-

Ok so... I know I told some people that I was going to write a review on this movie a long time ago... and I didn't lie... it just took me a while.  Sorry about that.  Anyway...
So I went to see "Cloverfield" shortly after it opened.  I'd seen the previews for this movie and I was really excited about it!  It looked sweet.  The CGI looked amazing and the movie just looked like it was going to be sweet!  I heard some different rumors about what the monster was leading up to the movie... and I was almost hoping that if it was simply just a monster, that it was going to a new Godzilla flick.  All that to say, I walked into the theater with pretty high expectations for this movie.  After about the first ten minutes I began to have doubts, and by the end I was extremely disappointed in this movie.  First of all, the back story of the movie is that the government has found a tape recording the incident of the attack and is playing it for the public.  The video the government supposedly found was there because a guy was videotaping his friends going away party while the attack happened and he left the camera on.  All that to say, the entire movie was filmed from a single hand held camera.  As the characters run, jump, hide, and climb throughout NYC one of them is holding this camera.  There were literally times I had to look away from the screen to avoid getting motion sickness...  I really liked the idea of the single hand held camera but it was simply too much.
My second beef with this movie was the motive of the monster... Why was it attacking?  Why then?  Why NYC?  To may loose ends.
Third, what was it?  It wasn't Godzilla.  It kinda looked like an alien lobster... anybody know what it was supposed to be?
Fourth... the ending was terrible... those of you who've seen it know what I'm saying, maybe you disagree, but I think it was terrible.  I'll just say it was kinda like "A Perfect Storm" on steroids.
In summary, it seemed to me that "Cloverfield" was basically people who had this good, original idea, and rushed to get it out there without really thinking about it and developing a good story.
 

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To read more reviews on "Cloverfield" follow these links:
IMDb
Rotten Tomatoes
PluggedIn