Surface vs iPad

Now that I have both a Surface Pro, and a iPad (that work has lent me), I find that I like using the iPad more :(
People who know me, know that I love my Surface Pro, and that I would not spend any money on a iPad. but now that I have been using them both, the iPad is better.
Here is Why:
If I want to do work, the Surface Pro, it can do it all. however it’s just too small, I need a larger screen. Also, the keyboard (“type keyboard” ) is just a bit to small, and the  touch pad does not always work well.  Now I can’t do any work on an iPad, but in both cases, I will go to my desk top computer to do any real work. I was really hoping that Surface Pro would help me with this case. I just don’t find it comfortable to use. Unlike a notebook that I can’t sit it on my lap, I find that I have too put the Surface Pro on a table, or find a big book to put it under to use it well. Another thing is that  I can’t hold it in my hands conformably either way. The is not just the weight, it’s it’s configuration; its too wide one way, and too tall the other way (both the RT and PRO)
If I just want to use it to watch YouTube, or read something the iPad is perfect for that, you can use the iPad or the iPad mini, and they both feel good in my hands. I can use them anywhere in the house and be comfortable. This is not the case with the PRO.
There are a lot of problems with Windows 8, but not with iOS. But I will wait for MS to fix these problems, because it will take some time. 
The pen is the best part of the Surface PRO
I’m hoping that Microsoft comes out with a smaller Surface, that is not a wide screen format.  I will get that one when it is available. (I’m still a MS fan boy at hart). But Apple has a better product. :(

Back to Blogging

I have not blogged for years, but I thought I would give it a try again. Right now I’m trying to see if this old windows tool “Windows Live Writer” will still work. I know that Word 2013 lets you blog from it, but I can’t seem to like my accounts to it, and it’s late, and I’m tried.

Omg I locked my keys in the car again!!! Calling CAA

Ok, I'm stilll sore from volleyball, but I thought that I would try it this new social networking tool I found "ping.fm"

Over a year of looking

I know it has been a long time since my last post, so why not start with this bit of news.

But before I get to the news, I just wanted to say that this social internet thing is really starting to suck. I find I just can’t keep up with all the new social services out there. Don’t get me wrong, I think that a variety of web sites are good; however it would be nice to have one place to go to see all my friends online. I have Twitter, Facebook, MSN Live, LinkedIn, Blogs (4 of them … LJ, MSN Spaces, Google Blogger and WordPress). Right now I’m using FaceBook a lot, and sometime Twitter (but eventual I will drop it; it’s a fad). Blogging is becoming a chore, but I sometime get the itch say something (Like now) .  Anyways I’m going to try and Blog more, from now on, and see how that goes. Apple is coming out with their 3.0 update to the iPhone, and I have downloaded an App that will let me post to all my Blogs, so that should help.  Anyways… let me get to my news…

Last year, we started to thinking about moving back into the city, so we started to look at some houses, around the March time frame. Our neighbors were also looking to move, and even came over to our home to see if they wanted to buy it. Well they did find a home, sold their house sometime in May (for over asking).  We were still looking, and could not find anything. By the end of June the housing market started to drop, and there was just crap on the market. We were hoping to sell our house for $530k in the spring, but the housing market was slowly dropping by the end of Summer  we were thinking that we could get maybe $480k (if we were lucky). Then we found out that another neighbor was trying to sell their home, it was bigger, had better and more upgrades then ours, and back onto a park, and they could only get $460k . Things were bad. Then the economy; well we all know about the economy, I don’t have to go into that. However we were still looking for a home. We thought that all homes are going down so it did not matter that we could not get much for our home.

Well last week our agent found a home that was put on MLS that morning, we ran to see it a lunch time and put in an offer, that afternoon (we did not want anyone else to see the home, because the market was starting to pickup), they accepted. Now we had to sell our house, so we spent the weekend cleaning, and this Monday afternoon we put our home on MLS.  4pm that same day I got a call; someone wanted to view the home. So I had to rush home, and take our Dog over to my parents’ house (I did not think we would get a viewing request so fast). The Next day, I was getting calls all day for viewing, and we could not go home until after 10pm. The next day our agent said that he will stop all viewing after 8pm (by then we had two offers on the house). At the end of the day we had 8 offers, and buy 12am we had sold our home, above asking; more then what we thought we get last year. WOW, it all happened in less then a week (I think the Market is starting to pickup).

Busy Weekend

Well not that busy, maybe I’m just lazy. Saturday was spring cleaning, movie matinee  and poker with the boys; Sunday was house hunting and another movie downtown.

The movies I saw what “I Love you Man” and “Watchmen”

“I Love you Man” was a good movie, however it did not hit my funny bone. I think this may be because I could not relate to it. I would say it may be a good rental, there are a lot of people out there that will love this movie.

  6/10 Funny, just not funny to me

This was the second time seeing Watchmen, and this time I saw it in IMAX (It’s not worth it). I did not get anything from the IMAX experience; (Batman the Dark Knight was amazing in IMAX this one was not). However the movie was still good, and I enjoyed it. It not a move for everyone, but I feel they did a good job with the material (If you like comic books; SciFi/Fantasy; Action, you may like it as well).

Rod, the changes they made were OK, your just too picky. Transformers was bad, and they should have used the original voice for Megatron!!! 

  7/10, This movie will take some time to get its money back, good but not for everyone.

Testing my iPhone blogging tool

I'm just testing this new iPhone app I just downloaded from the apple app store.

At the airport, in the states, we saw a new type of vending box. You can get a PSP, iPod, and other items you will need for your new toy. LOL too funny.





-- Post From My iPhone

Trip to the dental Office

I missed my dental appointment yesterday, and had to run to the dentist this morning. I think I’m the only person I know that likes to go to the dentist. Dr Kotzer has been my dentist for ever (since I have gotten my first tooth).

Well I got into the dental office an hour early, so they took me at that time. however the lady that was cleaning my teeth, had to point out that she was missing her morning coffee; blah, blah, she was new…. heheh. they did not have to take me, I could have waited (I was having fun with my iPhone).

after she was done with me, Dr Kotzer comes in and double checks the cleaning. There is one thing about Dr Kotzer, that people will not like, he does not use gloves when he checking your mouth.  I know I know, but he is good, and I don’t want to try and find another Dentist. (Now when he is doing heavy cleaning, or anything else, he puts on some gloves).  And he did not charge me for missing yesterdays appointment.

This was a standard appointment, but got something extra this time. I got the standard tooth brush, but then Dr Kotzer asked me if I use lip bom. I said sometimes, so he gave me one.  I just wanted to know if that is the thing to give now?

Finding it hard to Focus

I’m really having a hard time focusing on my work, this week and last week. We just come back from a cruise, and I still have not gotten back into the swing of things. I have to catch up on my school work, house work, and just work.

In other news, my mother got a new camera, (just one of the gifts she got when she retied ), but she does not know how to use it. So she gave it to me to play with until she needs it. The funny thing is that I don’t know how to use it as well, but it is fun to try. So you will be see a butch of bad pictures from me. You can go to my Flickr account and see some of them. This one is of the evil rabbit that has been making a big mess in out backyard.

The picture is a bit dark, but I’m still learning.

Add last.fm widget to my blog page

Now you can see what I'm listening to, try not to laugh to hard.

azure_reverie told me about this.

Add last.fm widget to my blog page

Now you can see what I'm listening to, try not to laugh to hard.

azure_reverie told me about this.

Should I buy songs from iTunes

Now that I have a iPhone, and I'm using Last.fm to find new music, I find myself in a dilemma.

Should I  buy a song from iTunes; a song that I can only play on a iPod?

I just can't do it :(

Moving Back to Toronto

For the last 3 months, we have been looking to move back into the city, but now that we are ready to do so, the bottom is falling out from under the US economy. Perfect timing on our part. For now, we are going to wait until next year, and hope that things get better.

Not much else is going on with us, things are good, and we are spending more time with the family, witch is always fun.

Don't have too much to say today, hope to have more next time.

I Can’t take it any more!!

OMG, they are giving away free hamburgers at work today, and I can’t have any; this really sucks!! I’m trying to eat right, and I need to save my weekends for the bad food. I really need to find foods that are good for me that I really like, and do not take any time to make.

Oh ya, long time no blog. I was at a dinner party on the weekend, and someone mentioned that I have not blogged anything in months, so this is just a short blog to get me started, and back in the mode.

Ok I’m off to eat my crappy lunch, while others have their burgers

This is what I have to say about that. (Black-Focused Schools)

I don’t like to talk about controversial issues on this blog, however I have been asked a number of times, what is my opinion regarding Black-Focused Schools. When I tell them what I think, I do manage to make them see my point of view, and I find that they do agree with me.

For those of you not living in Toronto, here is the issue: Some areas of the city that have schools with high a population of black students are finding that there are high drop out rates, and the student are scoring lower academically. Some people feel that the school system is not looking at the needs of the black students, because they do not understand were they are coming from, and that a Black-Focused school may address this problem. This is just my opinion of the issue as I see it, and I know that there is a lot more to it then that.

Now what do I think? Yes there is a problem, and yes the school system is not doing what they need to do to fix it, and yes we do need Black-Focused schools. However I don’t think that a government run black-focused school will help the problem.
First off; I did not support giving government money to Faith-Based School, (that issue made me change my vote from the PC’s to the Liberals) so giving money to have a Black-Focused school is the same thing.
Second; the school system needs fixing, and doing this will just put a new problem inside a broken system, fix the entire system first.
What needs to be done is have Black-Focused schools, that are created from the community, run by the community, with community money, and these schools must be run out side of the public system (but also complement that system). Now I know this is something that would be harder to get off the ground. The black community in Canada does not have the level of funds that they do in the States, however unless we as black people start to look at the problem within and stop pointing the finger at others, we will not move forward as a community. Yes there are problem from the out side, but in Canada, those problems can be fix with education, and a strong family, and we are starting to waver on both fronts. 

Technorati tags: Black-Focused, schools, toronto, black

LiveJournal tags: Black-Focused, schools, toronto, black

Windy Morning

I guess I will start up this blogging thing again. Long time no blog. Not a good first month for 2008. New Years Eve, was sick, and could not get out of bed for two weeks, then my first night of volleyball, I sprained my ankle, and it will take 4 to 6 weeks to heal; and just last weekend, first poker night of the year, I lost big time (my first lost in a long time). And to top it off, yesterday I locked my keys in the car. Here’s looking forward to February.

Woke up to a lot of nose out side, and did not know what it was, it was a strange sound. I was not too concerned, because the dog was not barking, so I did not care. Then Just before Dan left for work, he told me to look out the window; that gave me my answer to the noise in the early morning:

Green and Blue recycle bin’s all over the street, and no garbage in them (oh god, I bet all the neighbours garbage is at the side of our house. People don’t heed the News; they did say that it was going to be very windy today.) Oh god, let this month be done with.

I think I’m done with TV

Well not completely done with it, I will still watch the news and other types of informational programming; however, I will not go out of my way to watch entertainment type programming. From now on I will wait for people to tell me a show is good, and then I may watch the “DVD”.

Oh yes, and yesterday the neighbours came over, to look at the house; we are thinking of moving and so are they. I really don’t want to move at this time, but moving downtown may be better for us, financially.

Back to Movie reviews: Elizabeth: The Golden Age

So if you have not seen the first movie Elizabeth, and you like movies about history, shame on you; Elizabeth was an amazing film. As for this one; Elizabeth: the Golden Age, I would say that it is  not as good as the first, and that is too bad. It had all the story elements for a good film, it just did not flow well. The film looks good, the actors are all good in it, and the fact that it's history, you would think that this could not disappoint. Well it did disappoint; some scenes felt way to long, and other scenes that had more historical information were way to short.

I did not walk away from the film hating it, but I wanted it to be more in the end. 5.5/10

Technorati tags: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Shekhar Kapur, Clive Owen, ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE, Sir Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth I, Spanish King Philip II, movie, movie review

First Tooth gone, Three more to go

Last week I had my first wisdom tooth removed, and it was not as bad as a thought. Well the removal was not too bad, however, a few hours later I was in real pain, and the pain lasted for the next 6 days. This was the first time in my life, were I let myself take some drugs so that I could get relief.

Even thou the removal of the tooth was not that bad, it took my dentist, around 20 minuets to remove it, (when it should have taken 5 minuets). He was scared that my tooth was going to brake, and that would have been bad. lucky for the both of us, it came out all in one piece. He told me that he waited keep my tooth and show it to his students, because my roots were pointed out to the side, and not strait up, and he was surprised that he got it out without braking it, (lucky for me). However, to me it just looks like a normal tooth, what do you think?

My next appointment is in February and I'm not looking forward to it.

Technorati tags: Wisdom Tooth, Dentist, pain, blood

Fun with Windows Live.

OK, I have not blogged in a long time, and I don't know how long I will continue blogging, but I thought that I would give it another try.

This entry will be a short one. A few days ago I was listening to a podcast, a podcast about windows, Windows Weekly. Well they were talking about, MS Live, and the new Live bata download, you can get it here. Anyway's, today I saw this link in the new Photo Gallery program, "Create Panoramic Photo"; so I thought that I would try it out, and this is what I got.

First, I did my office, it did not work that well, you can see the errors in the picture.

These are the posters that I just put up, in my office

My Family room, with Frodo. This one worked out well.

and the Living room with the front door.

I think I will have some fun with this tool. Now I'm thinking that MS is not that bad, and I might not get a Apple. Well still thinking about it.

Technorati Tags: MS Live , live , photos , panoramic photo , Windows Live Photo Gallery

Just Stuff

The last few days have been long, but things are going well, however I did miss going to the gym (which is not good)
 

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
This past Friday, Rod, Hethos, and I went to see, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It was not a bad movie; however I was a bit disappointed. I don't want to give anything away, but I felt that the end was a big letdown. And there was less action in this one, then the second, I feel. As usual the effects were amazing, and the pace was good, however I was expecting a bigger action scene at the end. Oh well on to the next summer movie

  5.5/10 it’s just ok
 
Saturday, was a busy day. We first went over to my parent's house at 9am just to say hi. Then we were off to see co-workers of Dan's; she was nice. After that we ran home so that I can meet up with Jim; he was coming over (with his dog) to help me wire up the house (I really did not know what to do, and I did not want to make a mess of things).
Frodo was not happy that the other dog was in the house, and he did not behave well at all. Jim and I managed to get one of the room wired, however we still have to do my office. Later, we had a small BBQ; the stakes were really good.

Oh, and on Sunday, I finally got back to decorating my office. I put up some posters, which brought me back to my childhood.

The Good Bad, and Birds and Bees

Well this has been a bad week. First, last Saturday night my cell phone (O2 Atom) stop working, and it looks like they can’t fix it. Then on Tuesday we woke to find our six year old refrigerator not working and all the food in the freezer had gone bad. Then On Thursday I found myself stuck at work until 9:30pm and missed my Thursday night beach volleyball game (that one was my fault). I hope things get better this week.

Shrek the Third
Last Saturday, We saw Shrek, and I was a bit disappointed. I guess the first two were so good, that this one had a large mountain to climb. The main problem for me was that I did not find myself laughing, and I was a bit bored. The ending was a big letdown, and I felt the movie did not flow well, (what ever that means). Maybe they just ran out of good ideas. I would not say it was a bad movie, but I could have skipped this one
5/10 You can skip this one

Spring has come to our back yard.
Some birds have come and built a nest in one of our trees, I think we should name them. I just a bit worried that the nest is too low, and if Frodo see it, he may not be too happy.

Technorati tags: Shrek the Third, movie, movie reviews, Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Justin Timberlake, Eric Idle, Birds, nest, Spring eggs, back yard, evergreen tree

Toronto has become addicted to Facebook

LOL, this is too funny, now I know why there are so many people I know on Facebook.

 Click here to read the article

Technorati tags: Toronto, Facebook, social networking, social network

Pick a Social Cause you believe in

I know that this a cheap ploy, to get more people to use Windows Live Messenger. But I’m using IM Messenger anyways, and it does not hurt me in any way, so I did it. Take a look, and see what you think. (thanks for the link Feli)

Technorati tags: social causes, Windows Live Messenger, American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, National AIDS Fund, National MS Society, ninemillion.org, Sierra Club, Stop Global Warming, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, UNICEF, Global Warming, AIDS

Spider-man 3

So I saw Spider-man 3 this weekend…. Well… I did not hate it, but I did not love it. So what was done right for me, and what was done wrong?

First the things that were good...
It had a good ending (I will not go into it, but it was good).
The problems that Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) was going though, was well done, and it felt real.
Thomas Haden Church, and James Franco AKA. Sandman & Harry Osborn both acted well.
The effects were amazing.

Now for the bad...
First off the story felt like it dragged.
They did not need both Venom, and Sandman, they could have cleaned up the story, by just having one.
This had to be the worst acting job I have ever seen Tobey Maguire do. There were parts in this movie were I felt uncomfortable watching him, and he looked uncomfortable performing them.

 
Oh well, on to the next movie.

4.5/10 Some will love this film just for being a spider-man movie, but it does not deliver, too bad.

 

Technorati tags: Spider-man 3, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Kirsten Dunst, Tobey Maguire, Topher Grace, movie reviews, movie