Tico the Shell

As I head out for my last exam of the year with Computer Information Systems, I thought I'd leave with a video that I've been meaning to post. I was extremely excited for the class called Animation with Blender, because I thought it would force me to finally learn Blender. But I started hating it because in the face of Object Oriented Programing, Networking, and PHP, Animation seemed like a complete waste of time. Begrudgingly however, I started to work on my final project. After I was done, I had fallen absolutely in love with Blender and my faith in the class was reestablished. This is what I came up with:

The music (Pink Panther theme by Henri Mancini) was edited via Audacity and compiled with the video using Avidemux. Everything, other than the music and some textures, was made by me in Blender.

Matt Dallas Love

It's almost summer and perfect for my current obsessession with Matt Dallas, who is oh-so-goddamn-gorgeous. It's awesome because I feel like a twelve-year-old. Who doesn't want to feel like a twelve-year-old? Dallas is a new and upcoming American actor recently known for his lead role in the show that ABC so cruelly cancelled, Kyle XY. I won't go over it, because I want you to watch it. If you love pretty boys that is: it's not so much about the show as it is about the boy. ;) Here are the trailers for the three seasons. Things started off slow in the show:

Then it got interesting:

Then it got really good: =D

And then it was cancelled. Why the show was cancelled, I cannot fathom; I think something about the funding being cancelled. Seriously, who would be stupid enough to move THAT boy out of the screen? That has got to be the worst investor move ever. Well, that's not true. If I stop thinking about Kyle (Matt Dallas, if you haven't been keeping up), I see the show was headed is the wrong direction. Most of the mysteries were solved, and there isn't much craze for another super-hero show, I mean we all see what happened to Smallville. But the show did end abruptly, like a season finale just before a very exciting and long-awaited season premiere, except there was no premiere. That was kind of mean. I also, especially, miss the super-cheesy and cutesomeness of Kyle XY. Le sigh. It should be enough in itself that I have considered watching the show again; I don't usually ever re-watch or re-read anything, even if it's important (like textbooks?). I couldn't find another show to fill Kyle XY's place in my procrastination-land. I have a habit of picking TV shows from the pilot and watching them all the way to the end. I usually lose interest once I reach the current episode and have to wait a week or sometimes more for new episodes. But strangely lucky for me, Kyle XY was cancelled before I could reach that point. It was a good thing too, because the show started in 2006 and ran through to 2009; there was no way the hours that Kyle XY filled would be enough to spread over THREE years.

Anyway, in 2009, Dallas guest-starred in a few episodes of Eastwick and was killed off by episode 7, which sucked. Honestly, if you look at the ratings, they went down after his character died, and the show has not yet been approved for a second season. I am not surprised, I didn't go back to see episodes 8 through 13. I think I am going to piece together his scenes (like this one) from this show just for the heck of it; I really can't be bothered to watch the entire episodes again for his small appearances. And yes, I thought of doing that: I said I am obsessed didn't I? On the other hand, watching Kyle XY again would be worth it, since that was his show, no cropping required there. The Kyle XY Season 2 Episode 17 called "Grounded" has got to be the cutest (yes, and cheesiest) of all; especially form about 1:02 - 6:45. The rest of it is pretty funny too.

Beauty and the Briefcase was Matt's next project, starring with Hilary Duff and Michael McMillian. The movie was okay, nothing spectacular but I wouldn't mind a Matt-Dallas-only video from it. But for now, I have pictures. :D

For some reason I got the feeling that the promos for the movie gave Matt Dallas more attention than was deserved for the character that he played. It wasn't super important, but I think his face must've gotten more publicity. He was also in many scenes unnecessarily like someone made a deal to give him more exposure in the movie. I'm not really complaining though.

The next project of Dallas that I'll watch will probably be The Indian (2007), although the trailer doesn't look that great. Looking forward to his role in As Good As Dead (2010) (watch the trailer). Can't find a trailer for In Between Days (2010), but hoping that will turn up soon. Dallas appeared for like 40 seconds in the episode of Entourage called Chinatown back in 2005. Now, I don't know WHY, but I have seen the first 20 seconds of this clip a LOT of times. Repetition is becoming a new thing for me.

It cracks me up every time. :D I do have a life, I promise. Going back to which, I'll leave you with this:

Now I'm off. Moooo~!

Task App Wanted

This is out to the iPhone lovers and know-alls. I switched over from a Treo 650 to the iPhone about two years ago, and as sad as it makes me to say this, it wasn't all gain for me. I had to make a few compromises with this move.

I have obviously gotten from the iPhone more than I did from the Treo (wi-fi capabilities, more storage space, and better interface all around - internet browsing, e-mail, music, sms, camera...). However, even though I have managed to reintegrate almost every thing I used my Treo for, I was never able to use the iPhone as an organizer as I did my Treo. There is just something that is missing; actually there is a very particular something that is missing: a native task application.

It never fails to boggle my mind why Apple would leave that out. This one simple app could bring the iPhone over from the cool, electronic "toy" to something those busy, important people would take seriously. I know that there are excellent 3rd-party apps out there that more than cover the capabilities of a simple Treo 650 Palm Task List. But there is one major issue with them: they don't have access to the iPhone outside the app (when the app is closed). This means they require some sort of internet connection to send any message (like an alert) to your phone when they are not open.

Apple did come up with the Apple Push Notification Service, which I had thought would be a way for 3rd-party apps to communicate with the iPhone even when they are closed. And it is, only that it needs an internet connection. Point of this new service? You can now get alerts for your tasks, if you have access to the internet and are willing to drain your battery life by leaving notifications on. APNS checks every 30 seconds with the server to see if you have a notification waiting, or so I've heard. My iPhone did go in a comma once or twice when I had notifications on. So not only does this help nothing (there are already ways to get alerts via SMS - see later), it actually makes it worse.

If you can settle for SMS alerts instead of the built-in iPhone alerts like the ones you get from the Calendar app, you still need an internet connection. The task app needs to save your tasks on a server somewhere, which will send you the text (or e-mail) when you need it to (and, as far as I know you need a subscription for this kind of service). This means that say if I wrote a task and needed an alert for it before I could find an internet connection, say I went camping for a few days, there is no way to do this other than make a calendar event or set an alarm with a note.

What I currently have on my iPhone is Appigo's Todo iPhone app. I can add tasks on the go and set a due-date and due-time; I can make check-lists and projects, as well as specific tasks like call a contact, visit a website, e-mail a contact, right from the task list. The only problem is, no alerts. It can't remind me to do what I need to do, unless I turn on push notifications - power-drain and internet required. I currently sync my tasks with Toodledo.com (which also has its own iPhone app that I haven't tried yet) which in turns keeps in sync with my task list at MS Outlook.

Here is a peculiar problem: Toodledo has an sms-notification service, but in order to get this alert, a "remind-me" check-box must be individually checked for each task. The Todo app I currently use does not have this option, there is no way to check this option on the iPhone. I was wondering if the Toodledo iPhone app has this ability, I wasn't able to tell by the pictures on the App Store. Anyone use this app?

I am just now downloading Appigo sync, which will sync my Todo list on the iPhone to my Task list on MS Outlook, via wi-fi of course. This would prevent needing Toodledo to sync my tasks, but the alert problem still isn't solved. MS Outlook apparently has an sms-notification service, but as luck might will it, it doesn't support Fido. Even if it did, I'd still need wi-fi to synch my tasks first, before I could get an alert.

I have actually reverted to using my school agenda for tasks (homeworks, projects, due-dates), and haven't used an electronic task-list for about a year. If I need a reminder for something, I just make an event in the iPhone Calendar app. All these problems, and all Apple needs to do is make a native iPhone Task app, which wouldn't need to leave the iPhone via an internet connection just to come back and initiate a message when needed.

I have come to think that finally jail-breaking the iPhone might be a solution, but I am yet to find an app that does what I need. Any ideas?

edit: when I say "native" I mean "default" - those apps by Apple itself that you can't delete. These have access to the iPhone even when they're closed it seems ex. the Calendar, Alarm, Mail apps. I just realized that "native" technically refers to what I've called "3rd-party" apps here. Sorry for the confusion. I want a default task app; or any way that I can get alerts for my tasks without an internet connection.