Alice In Chains

Posted on 4/27/2010 by Trev at 12:18 am

10 days ago my wife and I had the pleasure of seeing Alice In Chains live at the Mohegan Sun Arena. I have been meaning to post about this, but simply haven’t had the time to. Well, I have the time, and here is my post.

Alice In Chains was one of those bands that I never thought I would see in concert. Up to the 2009 release of ‘Black Gives Way To Blue’, they haven’t done anything since 1996. Add to the fact that lead singer Layne Staley died in 2002, the odds of ever seeing Alice In Chains in concert was slim to none. So needless to say I was pumped to find out not only were they touring, but they were coming to my hometown! Needless to say, buying 2 tickets for my wife and I was a no brainer.

Having purchased their new album after buying tickets, I listened to it intently for a few weeks. Jerry Cantrell’s vocals were spot on, and their new lead singer, William DuVall, sounded great with Cantrell. My big question was could he pull off singing Alice In Chains’ classic songs as a pseudo Layne Staley.

After hearing DuVall and Cantrell belt out ‘Them Bones’, my fears were easily laid to rest. The concert was amazing from start to finish. But rather than banter on about what it sounded it, let me share with you what it was like. Here’s some video from the concert.

‘Them Bones’

‘Angry Chair’

‘Man In The Box’

‘Would?’

‘Rooster’

Balance Achieved

Posted on 4/11/2010 by Trev at 11:32 pm

This is the first weekend that I can remember achieving perfect balance between relaxing and getting things done. Here’s how the weekend started.

I woke up Saturday morning later than expected, but it was not unwelcomed. Jess was kind enough to get up with Jackson and allow me to sleep in since I was at work late the night before. Since Kelly and Katie were coming up fr the weekend, I decided get a start and go get the supplies I needed for the projects I wanted to get done. After fighting mall traffic for a few hours, I returned with everything I needed. Having picked up lunch on the way home from Sonic, I jumped right into my first project – cutting the grass. Once that task was complete, my next project was tackled – planting new grass. After removing the dead grass in the side yard and working the soil, I planted new grass and gave it a nice healthy drink. It was right around this time that Kelly and Katie showed up. I put away all my yard tools and headed inside to spend some time with them. After about 2 hours, we were all getting a little hungry, so I hopped in the shower and we headed off to the buffet at the casino for dinner. After an amazing dinner, we came home, relaxed a talked for a few more hours, and we all headed to bed.

This morning was my turn to get up early with Jackson. So, letting my wife and the girls sleep, I was up with Jack at 8:20am. After his bottle, we playing on the floor for about another 20 minutes until he ended up falling asleep on me…literally. Being tapped by my little man, I decided that I should take a little cap nap myself. After our mutual 45 minute nap, we got up and joined the newly awakened women in my living room. After they played with Jackson for a few minutes, the conversation turned to food and our lack thereof. So, I threw on some clothes and headed to the grocery store to fulfill their desire for breakfast sandwiches. Once at the grocery store, I decided it was foolish not to pick up a full order of food for the next 2 weeks, so I did just that. After getting home and having Jess help me put everything away, I made good on their request and made my ladies some breakfast sandwiches for brunch. After brunch, we again talked for a few hours and then the girls decided to head home. Once they left, Jess had to start her homework, and I treated myself to a long overdue haircut. After a nice shower to rinse away all those cut follicles, I got Jackson dressed and we headed outside with some power tools to put up his new porch swing that I bought him the day before. After about 20 minutes of work, he was in his new swing and loving every minute of it. But don’t take my word for it!

After we got done swinging, Jack and I headed back inside and played for the rest of the day, with a few naps mixed in there. Around 7pm, Jess was done with her homework so I made some homefries and grilled up a couple of 6oz. sirloins for dinner. Everything turned out most excellent. After dinner, I played with Jackson some more until my wife had to go to bed. Once she want to bed, I Jack and I watched some TV until he fell asleep on my chest again, at which point, he was put to bed.

All in all, it was a most excellent weekend. I got everything done that I set out to do, and I still got to have a fun and relaxing time with some great friends. And best of all this weekend, I got the spend the majority of today like this!

It’s Never Too Early!

Posted on 4/10/2010 by Trev at 12:45 am

Just in case anyone has been sitting around wondering, “Gee, Trevor’s birthday is less than 6 months away. What in the world could I get him that’s cool, affordable, and doesn’t require me to leave the house or even see him?” Have no fear citizen for I have the answer for you. Behold!

Not only can you order it from the convenience of your own home (or smart phone), but you can have it shipped directly me to that you won’t have to even see my ugly mug. No awkward social interaction required!

Did They Just Do What I Think They Did?

Posted on 4/9/2010 by Trev at 1:42 am

So today (4/9/10) was the day that Apple, and his highness Steve Jobs, held a keynote unveiling iPhone OS 4.0. I was getting ready for work at the time of the keynote (1pm EST) so I wasn’t able to be like the legion of pathetic people who sat for an hour or so hitting the refresh button on all of the ‘live blogs’ covering the event. Instead, I did the normal, sane thing which was to check out a few stories on my break at work, and then watch the entire keynote in MPEG-4 glory after I got home from a full day of work. Hey, call me what you will, but a refresh slamming fuck-tard I am not.

So while I was reading some really poorly written articles on Engadget during my break, I started to get excited about what features were being brought to the iPhone with OS 4. Then when I was showing my wife some of the features about 3 hours later on my dinner break, the poorly written articles were updated to simply contradict themselves.

Now I should stop right here. This is not, nor have I ever made claims that this site is one of literary excellence. I freely admit that some of these posts make no sense, the grammar ain’t that great, and I have more speling mistaks then anyone else. I don’t pretend to be something I am not. This is a personal blog where I spout whatever might be on my mind at the time, and then throw up a few pictures of half naked women. That is what this site has been like since 2001, and it’s not changing anytime soon. Get over it.

Now, back to those poorly written articles by a site that is an ACTUAL ‘journalism’ site. I got frustrated by the sudden contradictions so I decided to get it from the horse’s mouth myself and just watch the keynote myself when I got home. I just got done doing just that. My first reaction was humor, since the original, non-updated Engadget articles were right the first time. My second reaction was HOLY SHIT!! THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!!! And then my third reaction set it. That was a total ‘Did Steve Jobs just do what I think he did?’ Let’s look into that reaction more closely.

Steve led off the keynote with some updates on the new iPad. If you’re curious about my thoughts on the week old device, you can get my opinion here. I am still of the firm belief that said device fits a certain niche. I am also still a firm believer that it is currently nothing more than a large iPod Touch. And lastly, I still believe that it is useless to me without multitasking. Once day I would love nothing more then to run my business using just an iPad. However, today is not that day, and tomorrow isn’t looking too good either. I watched the iPad info with simple amusement. It would be later in the keynote that the irony would really sneak up on me and bite me firmly in the ass.

After his little iPad speech, Steve them moved onto the iPhone and more importantly, the iPhone OS 4. He then started to rattle off a list of new features.

Multitasking – FUCK YEAH!!
Home Screen Wallpapers – Cool!
Folders for Apps – FUCK YEAH!!
New Snow Leopard-like app dock – Cool!
Touch to focus while taking video – FUCK YEAH!!
5x digital camera zoom – Cool!
Unified Mail Inbox – Cool!
Connect to Bluetooth keyboard – FUCK YE…HUH?!?!?

That last feature stopped me dead in my tracks. I can finally connect a Bluetooth keyboard to my iPhone? This means that I can finally write proper emails and work on documents on Google Docs without using that tiny, onscreen keyboard? For real?

Yes my friend, it was indeed real. And that’s when I realized that Steve Jobs had just made the first generation iPad totally obsolete to me. For the cost of $268 ($199 for an iPhone and $69 for Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard) I now had a unit that can take pictures, video, make phone calls, works on WiFi, works on 3G, and can sync with a Bluetooth keyboard. Sure, the iPad has a much larger screen and a longer battery life, but for all functional purposes, they just turned the iPhone 3GS into the ultimate portable device. I can no longer think of a single reason to buy this generation’s iPad. In fact, I plan on driving down to my local Apple store before the release of iPhone OS 4 this summer, buying the Apple Bluetooth keyboard, and using it to run my business on the go. It now literally does everything I need it to do.

And of course, just to kick the poor iPad when it was down, Steve announced that iPad owners have to wait until fall to get their update. What a kick in the nuts too all the people who just dropped $499 (starting price) on an iPad.

iPad? iWouldn’t Just Yet.

Posted on 4/5/2010 by Trev at 9:09 am

With every news outlet spitting out iPad news for the past 4 days, I felt I needed to chime in on the subject.

I assume you know what I am talking about by referring to Apple’s newest product, the iPad. If not, head on over to Google and throw the term ‘iPad’ into the search box and prepare for the flood.

So here’s the long and short of it for me. Did I get one? No. Do I want one? Yes. Do I want this iPad? No. Can I explain more? Certainly.

The iPad to me is my inner geek’s dream come true. Why do I say that given I already have an iPhone, a Mac and a laptop for all my computing needs? For that, you need to go back to Google and enter in the following search term – ‘Star Trek PADD’. Go ahead, I’ll wait here.

See? The fictional computing devices that Geordi LaForge, Data, and Picard have been using is finally a reality. Not since the advent of the flip cell phone has a product come to market that so closely resembles a fictional piece is Star Trek equipment, not only in looks, but function as well.

So why am I not running to my nearest Apple store to secure one? That’s an easy question to answer and it can all be summed up in one simple word – multitasking. That’s right, multitasking. This is something the iPad cannot do. Writing that document in Google docs and get an email? I hope you saved that document before you check your mail because you have to close out the browser to do so. Want to check Twitter really quick? Be prepared to drop everything else you’re doing in order to do so. See a pattern?

Now I will fully admit that this is the current experience on the iPhone, the very device that not only do I swear by now, but am writing this very post on. However, this is okay. This is a small, portable device totally intended to be a phone first, and a computing device second. Right there I fully accept there will be not only some limitations, but concessions for it’s size. Now for something as large as the iPad that is literally nothing more than a computig device, I would expect at least half of the functionality of my laptop. However, all we’ve been given right now is a lage iPod Touch. Is this a bad thing? Of course not. This will fill a need for a great many people. However, I want more.

Wanting more was the very reason I waited until the 3rd generation of the iPhone to come out before buying one. I refused to spend that much on a phone, iPhone or not, that did not take video. Then when Apple released the iPhone 3GS last year, I was out the following week buying one for me and one for my Blackberry loving wife. Neither one of us have looked back since.

So in conclusion, is the iPad and awesome device? Of course it is. But I am patient and can wait until a unit comes out and does exactly what I need it to do. And knowing Apple, I’ll be punching out more than a few blog posts via my 2nd generation iPad sometime next year.