Another new theme

Its been a while hasn’t it? Well as you readers are aware there has been a theme change from the ChaoticSoul to the new Motion theme. Why the change? I was bored, simply enough. Oh, and I really love the colors blue and green and this new theme suits those well.

I have not been updating near as much mainly due to working a lot of overtime at work. For instance, this past week I got up almost everyday at 4am to go in early. It sure does differ from the college days when I stayed up until 2am, but got up at 8am or so. Man I miss being able to do that . Oh well, such is life.

Oh and lately, I have been very obsessed with looking at Android phones and new laptops. I think I really want to get a smartphone and its going to be an Android one. The Google synchronization on those devices is so cool. I want t a new laptop too, but not sure if I want two. One being Windows and the other a Mac. I know its stupid, but I have wanted a Macbook Pro for quite some time, but at the same time I will want Windows too on another computer. I know that a Mac can do dual boot both now, but what if something goes wrong with one OS? Then you are s.o.l. for both “computers.”

Anyway, I hope to write another recommends sections again soon. It might be about a show I recently got crazy addicted to, but we shall see.

I want a Nexus One

Recently, Google came out with a new way of marketing their Android cell phone OS. They began selling their own branded phone called the Nexus One. They had it made by HTC and as of right now the only carrier that will give it service is T-mobile.

Thing is I really want one. The iPhone was always going to be my next phone until this thing cam along. I knew Android was cool, but this cool! I mean its customizable! What phone really isn’t? The iPhone. In fact, I don’t really know why I haven’t seen the trap before. The trap is to get you to buy Apple, simply put. You get locked-in to buying stuff only from Apple.

The Nexus One also has sweet apps from Google for Google services I already use. I have an iPod touch and most of the apps on there are sweet but you know what I use to sync them to stuff on Google? Google Sync over Wi-fi. I had to do that because Apple doesn’t let you easily sync with Google’s services otherwise.

Oh and my final thought on this is that open source software of any kind is a preference of mine. That includes OSes. Now I don’t use an open source OS on my computer (stupid Windows XP), but I might someday dual boot.

Well I shall see if the Nexus One or another Android phone is in my future. I’ll make a decision in the coming weeks if not months. Here is to hoping…But the bigger sticker is…how is the T-mobile service in the Grand Rapids, MI area because thats where I need to use it most?

Phil Recommends: William’s Semester in Britain Blog

The blog has been going by the way-side as of late. Why? Well at work they are having us pretty much come in for any amount of overtime that we can do. Basically, at I am at the end of the production “line” and us guys in coating cannot coat the circuit boards as fast as we are receiving them. So we are super busy and I have been going to bed more on time than I ever have before. Getting up early, like at 4am, gets a little tiring after a while too.

Anyway, this time I want to recommend my brother’s blog. My brother is currently in York, England for a semester abroad program at York St. John University through Calvin College. I think he is doing a awesome job so far at posting and there is plenty of content and pictures.

Some of his posts are a bit lengthy, but he is trying to keep more of a journal on it that way too. He takes notes in a notebook and writes his posts from that, which is a pretty good idea. Seeing as he has only been in Britain for a week now he has a pretty good amount of posts from there already, but might not be so regular so I would recommend subscribing to emails of the posts here. Or do like I do and use Google Reader to subscribe to the RSS feed (well actually I have both now, but whatever).

Where might you find my brother’s blog you ask? http://york.williamoverbeeke.com that is where. Well hopefully he does not lack in his bloggings as I do, but we all no that this whole blog thing is a bit hard to do all the time when it is not a necessary thing to do in life.I hope to get more posts up soon on other topics/recommendations, but I can keep hoping a lot with no results too, haha.

Phil Recommends: Lifehacker

Well this post is kind of a little late in coming. The recommendation for this time in a sense should proceed the ones I have already done. Why? Because almost everything I have and will recommend usually is found by me on it first.So without further ado this week’s recommendation is the website/blog Lifehacker.com.

Let me just say, I like Lifehacker a lot. As the name implies its all about doing things in life with “hacks” to make it easier or better.  It only started way back in 2005, but I have found it a pretty good resource for a lot of awesome life hacks when it comes to online and computer life. At least thats mostly the kind of stories and posts I look into.

If you want to know more about Lifehacker.com from their FAQs page, here. While it is primarily a digital life focus, once in a while they will post things about other aspects of life. Like one time they gave instructions on how to create Skittles flavored vodka. Who doesn’t want that once in a while? Needless to say I have not tried that, but a friend did and was impressed. I have noticed that a lot of posts are about food or drink, if they are not about digital things.

If you use a RSS or blog reader of some kind then I would suggest adding Lifehacker to it. You never know if you will find something useful there. I know I favorite or star a lot of their posts everyday in Google Reader. Maybe that will be my next recommendation.

Anyway, go to Lifehacker.com you might just find something there that makes your digital life easier, if not you might just find a recipe that suits you too.

Thinking of retirement

Since getting my coating operator position at Borisch I have already began to think about putting money aside for retirement. I know that sounds rather crazy, but with the way things go its safer to do it sooner rather than later. Also, I have heard really good things about starting a Roth IRA from fellow people around my age.

I guess I will qualify for a 401k at the end of the year from work, but I want to do something now. I want to get the most “bang for my buck” while I have an easy life right now. I think this is the best time because right now I still live at home and all I pay for is student loans. Also, I kind of had nowhere to go after college was done, seeing as I had no job lined up at the time. But I am grateful to my parents for letting me continue to stay at home.

Anyway, I want to start a Roth IRA, but have no idea where to do it. I prefer a place with no minimum starting balance and no fees for having an account. I do not really know much about other “characteristics” of places, but I’ll take those on as they come. I want no minimums, because I have a minimum amount of money to use. So where on earth do I start an account? I read its better to just start one rather than wait and wait. Please feel free to comment. Hope someone reads this and can give me some tips.

Chuckles is back

Tonight my favorite show starts its 3rd season and that show is Chuck. I like the show quite a bit and am really happy all the fan reaction allowed it to be renewed this season. It was not looking that good last April when the show ended. And the amount NBC has been promoted this coming season shows that they actually have started believing in the show. Before they did a minimal job. I even saw tonight the local news was promoting it, thats crazy!

Alan Sepinwall, a TV critic and blogger, happens to love the show too, like many other critics. Its just that the viewership is not all that great in the past seasons. But now I believe NBC knows they have a good show and they know their is people watching who fight for it to stay on. Oh, and Alan blogs here about pretty much all the shows on TV right now.

If you have not watched Chuck in the past and are considering picking it up now that awesome. Sepinwall gives six good reasons to start watching. And don’t worry you really don’t need to see the other seasons, at least thats the word. His reasons to watch are 1) It’s funny, 2) It’s exciting, 3) It’s dramatic when it needs to be, 4) It has great guest stars, 5) It has great music, 6) It is, simply, fun. Some of those are more so than others. I particularly like the funny aspect and the music. I even got a bunch of songs off iTunes from songs that were in the show in the first 2 seasons. I cleverly entitled the playlist Chuck vs. The Music. Here is Alan Sepinwall’s reasons for watching Chuck.

Well here is to a new season of Chuck. I hope it builds on the greatness of the previous two seasons and lends itself to a 4th season after that. Of course, you may not think so highly of the show, but thats why there is so many shows out there, so that everyone can have a favorite. Do you plan on watching the show, either way answer below?

Well if you do watch its on NBC at 9pm EST with 2 new shows and another new one tomorrow, January 11 at 8pm for another show. Happy TV watching everybody!

Apparently it’s 2010

Yet again, I am not the regular blogger that I thought I might turn out to be. Then again I started this when I had no job as a thing to do to take up time and such. So I guess its not really surprising that this blog is gone by the wayside. At least its better than my first attempt on Blogger 2 years ago or so.

But apparently I never got to doing a special post for Christmas and New Years. Eh, thats not the worst but I thought maybe they would have happened. Well I guess in my vacation mode from work I chose not to make posts those days. And what do you know? It’s fricken 2010! How fast did that past decade go?

In those past 10 years a lot happened and it all started with the end of middle school and the beginnings of high school. And then the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. So it started off rather “exciting” with all the changes in my life and the changes in the world. Of course, the terror attacks aren’t really exciting, but they sure as heck changed the way the world works. The rest of high school was rather an average experience, so thats not worth telling. Then I graduated from Calvin Christian High School to go on to Calvin College. (Yeah, went to all schools with Calvin in the name.)

Calvin College was by far my favorite days in school. Not the whole homework aspect, but the meeting of new friends and the classes were fun for their part too. I majored in Engineering and concentrated in Electrical and Computer fields. Graduation was in May 2009 and then it was time to find a job.

The whole finding a job thing took a long time, especially in a crappy economy like we had. But as it turned out a place I had been looking at before school even ended hired me in mid-November. Borisch Manufacturing is the place and I like it there. I am no engineer, yet, but thats ok with me for now. Hopefully, there is some future opportunities there for advancement, it seems they do that a lot, which is good.

So thats how the decade and therefore 2009 ended. Pretty good for at least me maybe not so much the world, but it will change again soon enough. So what will 2010 and the new decade bring? Who knows, but it will always be fun to find out.

Physical media will die

Well I kind of forgot about writing anything for Christmas, but whatever. Mine went rather well and got mostly things I needed anyway. Seeing as I am getting older thats about all I expect anyway. I did get the first 2 Dresden Files books. If you haven’t read any of Jim Butcher’s writing, then I suggest that you get on that as soon as possible. This is especially true if you like mystery and detective stories, then Harry Dresden is for you. There is 11 book in the series so far and the 12th comes out in April 2010. I plan on reading it once it comes out.

Anyway, on to what the title of my post is. Yeah, thats right I say physical media will die. I have thought this for quite a while, especially after the struggle for Blu-ray to declare dominance over HD-DVD. Yes, we needed a new standard and all, but I believe it came too late for it to really make the difference that regular DVD did when it came out. Oh, and what the heck is wrong with the name? Blu-ray? Its made using a blue laser and thats about it, woopdedoo. HD-DVD makes much more sense to me. The fact that they have to promote Blu-ray as high definition everytime a new one comes out. But whatever really thats not my point.

Apparently though recent reports show that Blu-ray is being adopted about as fast as DVD was when it first showed up on the scene. I don’t think it will have the life of DVD though. There is too many new ways to get media that will become even more widely used over Blu-ray and other physical media. For instance, Netflix pretty much streams alot of the content on-demand over to your computer, gaming console, or other streaming media device. This is the future. Physical digital media will probably not be around in the future. Music is already offered on places like iTunes and Amazon. Oh, and a lot of movies too.

Phil Recommends: Pandora

This recommends column/post thing is a lot harder to keep up on than I thought it was going to be. Not really for lack of suggestions, but more for lack of time to write such posts.I think its this new thing called work that get in the way of such activities. oh well, such is life.

Anyway, this time I would like to recommend the internet radio service, Pandora. Its a pretty sweet way to listen to music that you want too, rather than regular radio that serves up a mash of everything most of the time. Its as simple as typing in an artist or song title and Pandora will do a pretty good job at matching the styles and “genes” with others in the same genre.

So if you really like a certain artist then put that in and it will play songs of that artist interspersed with songs from others that are similar.  For instance, I put in Coldplay and it plays Muse, Athlete, and Keane just to name a few. Of course, you may not like any of those, so what do you do? Hit the thumbs down on the slide for the song and Pandora will learn eventually what you like and do not like. I think its only with that particular artist/station you create.

If you get sick of a single artist type playing on your radio then you can either make another or add some variety by selecting the variety option. I’ve done this on occasion where I think 2 or more artist are alike but not really played by Pandora together. It can also make in more interesting of what streams through too.

Downer part of using Pandora is that you might run into the 40 hour/month limit of streamed music rather quickly if you like listening alot. If so, I think its a $1 a month for unlimited listening for the rest of the month.

Well I don’t know whats next for this recommends column, but I have a feeling it could happen sooner. I have an actual Christmas break coming up from work! A whole week to boot. Isn’t that a bit weird this day and age? I think so. But I will take it and should I be at Borisch next year then I will actually get paid for it too. Until next time!

Paycheck Surprise

Well I this week I was certainly surprised when I got my paycheck. There was two of them this week. Why? Because apparently they give out bonuses every so often at work. Well, I had heard about it at work from other fellow employees, but did not think I would get anything because I had not put in my 90 days yet. Well that obviously proved false, which makes me happy.

I think I am going to love working at Borisch for those simple little things. I knew they were a Christian company, but did not really expect too much to come out of that. But they know how to treat their people/employees. I have heard that over and over again from others there. And thats awesome.

Oh, and I am pretty sure its awesome that I get the whole week of Christmas off! That on top of every other Friday off of work provides a lot of nice mini vacation time. I will get paid for the holidays eventually, but that bonus makes up for that this year. At least thats how I look at it.

As for do I like it? Well, yes, I believe I do. I cannot really think of any negatives. Especially negatives that outweigh working in the food manufacturing industry the last 2 summers. That was dirty and nasty, this is clean and controlled. Much more attuned to detail, like I consider myself to be. And its technology oriented! I mean come on. Food is boring, defense and aerospace is way more awesome!

Well, just wanted to write something down again because I got feeling bad about not updating. Why? I don’t really know. Its not like there is many viewers anyway. Although, I am tracking hits and get strange ones from Amazon.com and stuff. Don’t really know who that could be, but let me just say I love Amazon! Haha. Creep out the readers is my game. Anyway, I should get another “recommends” post out soon too or something completely different, who really knows. Tot ziens!