Seems like November is Birthday Month around me.  Happy Birthday to all my friends and family (about a dozen).

Gils has asked me to update my wishlist for this year.  I’ll keep it up for Christmas too. Clicky here!!!

PS: Since wordpress has added a Poll feature, lets try it out.

With the iPhone being out in Canada for close to 3 months, there has been a flood of accessories on the market. There are at least a hundred cases out there. But, one of the most useful accessories that I’ve come across and purchased is the Anti-Glare Film made by Power Support.

The phone comes with this beautiful scratch resistant glass display that is Super glossy–which is part of it’s beauty. However, it does leave a lot of streaks when you touch it with your fingers. And, when you are outside there is major glare, even with contrast levels turned up.

This is where the film comes in handy. It sells on the Canadian Apple Store (online and retail) for about $15. There are 3 items in the package: 2 Anti-glare films and 1 applicator–since there are 2 films share it and the cost with a friend. The applicator is basically a slightly adhesive piece of plastic you use to pull the dust of the screen. Then you apply the actual film which, contrary to the name, is more like a sheet of plastic than a saran wrap type film. The whole process takes you less than five minutes.

The colours on the screen does lose a little vibrancy, but being able to see the screen, without glare, in the brightest situations make it worth every penny. On top of that, it also does an excellent job hiding any greasy finger marks.

If any of you are iPod Touch users, they have one for you as well.

I spend a fair share of time away from home at hotels or in Victoria. For anyone that travel frequently, you know how much hassle lugging chargers and cables can be. On top of your pluggables, you also have to worry about finding enough outlets at hotels.

The first solution that I found is the Monster Outlet To Go 3 outlet surge protector. Lina and I travel with 2 or 3 cell phones, laptop, and a couple of iPods. Of course, we have one surge protector each. It’s the perfect travel companion as the short cable plug into itself, and is neat and tidy. Couple that with a USB-to-wall-charger and we can charge your USB device with ease.

Perfect!

Or so I thought…

Recently however, I’ve discovered an even better device while browsing at Vancouver’s only Apple Store.

Belkin offers what they call a Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger: a surge protector with 3 household plugs and 2 USB outlets. How awesome is that. The main plug rotates 90 degrees to hang vertically or horizontally off the wall outlet.

Now I don’t have to take my charger for my work Moto Razr and iPhone/iPod. And, that still leaves all three outlets for things like laptops and other battery chargers.

All this for only $25 at the Apple Store.

Nice!

The iPhone is an awesome way to kill time on the ferry!! This was the first weekend that I headed to Victoria with my new phone, and it made the time absolutely fly.

I was very sceptical of Rogers/Fido coverage for Data between Tsawwassen and Swartz bay. I expected that my internet use would drop out frequently and be super frustrating. But, to my surprise EDGE coverage is wide spread and strong. 3G isn’t too bad either.

I noticed that, with 3G, I dropped my connection a few times which caused it to switch to EDGE, dropping the entire connection momentarily. If you just turn off 3G, the connection is very solid–a strong and steady signal.

(As I am typing this, the captain announced that a pod of Orcas can be seen up ahead. I’ve never seen so many people moving so fast on the ferry.)

I’m looking forward to future ferry trips.

I’ve heard murmurs about “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog” on Twitter and podcast, and being the the curious person that I am, looked it up on iTunes. The reviews were pretty good and the price was only $5.99 (CDN) for 3 acts at about 15 minutes each. Sounds like good entertainment value.

The story is about Dr Horrible and his struggle to get into the “Evil League of Evil” and to win over his love interest Penny. You can watch this for free on Hulu (if it says you can’t watch it because you are not in the US just ignore it and you should be able to view it) or purchase a high quality version on iTunes. Who knew that Neil Patrick Harris could sing?

Edit: Looks like Hulu is only allowing it to be seen from the US.

Trailer below:

I’m always surpised with the internet.  There are alot of people with great talent giving away their hard work.

Last night I was updating my “RSS et al” portion of my sidebar when, all of a sudden, all of it disappeared.  I don’t know what I did but it was gone.  What sucks about the sidebar is you have to type out the entire HTML code for the icons and all hyperlinks.  Pain in the BUTT!

Originally, I was just planning to add an icon, but now I thought I’d look for new icons.  I came across AODdesign! blog.  They have very cool web2.0 icons.  All for free!  All you need to agree is to use it for non-commercial applications and to link back to the website. Now I’ve updated my icons with the glossy ones from their site.

Check it out.

I subscribe to many blogs and RSS feeds. They are always a good read, but one of them really stand out. You won’t get a post-a-day or maybe not even one a month, but it is my most anticipated. Improv Everywhere is a blog of a group of people based in New York who like to pull of pranks. They are never doing anything against the law or endanger anyone’s safety.

The latest post, Human Mirror, takes place on a subway train with 8 sets of twins. Each sibling is on opposite sides of the train mirroring each others movement.

All their pranks are really funny, with my favourites being Frozen Grand Central, Best Game Ever, Food Court Musical, and of course their famous No Pants 2k8 days.

Check out the video for below and followthis link to the post itself for the behind-the-scenes look.

Now that we are back in Vancouver, and surprised by how hot it is, we will be heading out to Seattle for a Mariners game. Seattle vs. Toronto on Tuesday night. Do I cheer for Ichiro or the Jays.

By the end of the week, I will post up details of the SF trip as well as the pictures taken there.

Time for some sleep. Must get up in 4.5 hours.

I’ve just finished packing my bags for my Vacation. It’s Fio and Phil’s wedding in San Jose this weekend–Congratulations! I am totally excited.

Tomorrow after work, I’ll be picking up Lina and heading to the Seattle. Why am I flying out of SeaTac and not YVR? Because we can buy two roundtrip tickets through the US compared to Canada. Boo. Then Rendezvous with Gils and Sammy-poo for a 2 car convoy down I5.

I’ve loaded my Ipod with as many Podcasts and Family Guy episodes that I can; packed my carry-on with some magazines and a novel; and have my cameras ready to roll.

So many places to visit, so little time. I hope I get to bump into some internet superstars while I’m down there.

*singing to myself* “…where little cable cars ~ climb half way to the staaars.

IMG_0900

Originally uploaded by Ryoh A

I took this from the ferry at Swartz Bay as we docked. I was waiting in the line up to get off the ship, when I looked over to my right and saw this magnificent beam coming through the clouds. Of course I had both my cameras on me (did you expect otherwise?) and started to snap away. I didn’t realized the line had already subsided and I was the very last stragler. I also had my Shure earphones on, so I couldn’t even hear the lady from BC ferries trying to verbally flag me down.

Anyway, it was a very good day to be taking photos.