Thunderstorms – 2, Dogs – 0

Ash & I went out for dinner tonight, taking a rare chance to “date” since Gretch was at Vacation Bible School. We should have stayed home.

We have two dogs. We have two dogs because the primary dog is defective. We didn’t find out (conclusively) about the defect until we were well beyond the return period. As such, we’ve since acquired a backup dog, for the sole purpose of stepping in should when the primary dog fails to properly perform its duties.

Tonight, the backup dog malfunctioned.

While we were out, there was a quick thunderstorm, which freaked out the secondary canine unit, causing it to barricade itself in the main bathroom. He then proceeded to produce art supplies of a fecal nature so that he could attempt reproduce the city’s skyline in its entirety in some bizarre blend of pointillism and neo-impressionism.

I have to say, critiquing the dog’s work as an artist, I feel he failed to achieve any of his goals. It all aligned itself more with a surrealist approach. At least, it seemed surreal to me. Regardless, I was less than enthused with his efforts.

Rather than procure a tertiary dog, it may be time to look into a different species. A pygmy goat or pot-bellied pig, perhaps?

Android Appaplooza

My wife works for Verizon. As such, I do NOT have an iPhone. Up until a month ago, I would’ve told you I was not bitter – through gritted teeth and with a restrained yet slightly pained look on my face.

What happened a month ago, you ask? Ha HA! I got a Motorola Droid… and I LOVE IT!!!

Now, I could go into all the areas where I think the Droid surpasses the iPhone, but then I would feel morally obligated to also list out the points that are in iPhone’s favor. Frankly, I have no desire to try and even less gumption to contemplate either list.

BUT – I will give an index of apps I like/use, ’cause that’s how I am. So, without further ado, here, in no particular order, is my list of (current) favorites for my Droid, all of which can be found in the Android Market (If you have a QR Code scanner, like ShopSavvy listed below, you can get directly there by scanning the codes included):

Twicca (Beta)- while there aren’t as many Twitter clients for Android as there are for the iPhone, the ‘droid market has learned that people want features, features & more features. Twicca delivers all three – it’s only real flaw (considering it’s written by someone in Japan) is a lack of support for multiple accounts. That said, I love the ability to color code the different people I follow. This is also one of the few clients I’ve tried that gives you complete control over your Twitter Lists.
TuneWiki Social Media Player – looking for a different/better media player than the one that’s included? I was and this is the one I like the best (so far) for audio. Has a lot of nice features, including getting a song’s lyrics and displaying them on screen, sorta karaoke-style. Also included in this app: the ability to post to from this app to Twitter or Facebook, Last.fm and SHOUTcast Radio and YouTube music video search.
Advanced Task Killer – the Droid is great at tons of stuff, a lot of which can all happen at once. However – not every app is good about shutting down when you leave/exit it. I use this app to selectively kill off any straggler, especially if my battery starts tanking. The program has an easy-to-use interface such that the learning curve is almost nil. It also has an “ignore” list for those special apps that you never kill.
ShopSavvy – a barcode scanning program that allows you to scan a barcode and then get prices for the item both locally and online. It also supports the QR code, so if you find a site that has some funky square “code” (look to the right), you can scan it with this app and it should take you directly to the app in the Android Market.
SMS Unread Count – a widget app that displays the number of unread SMS messages you have above the Messaging icon; not a must have, but nice nonetheless.
Gmail Unread Count – another widget that will display the number of unread messages in your inbox. What can I say? I like being able to, at a glance, see how many items are waiting on me without actually opening the item in question. Is that lazy or efficient? And before you spend the time to send me a comment, I don’t care.
Dolphin Browser – yes, Android has a built in browser and, honestly, it’s not completely awful. HOWEVER, this browser supports Gestures, direct sharing to social networks, allows you to sync your Google bookmarks, download YouTube video AND multi-touch pinch zooming (similar to Safari on the iPhone)
chompSMS - since I just mentioned an app that sort of replicates some of the iPhone functionality, I figure this is a good place to mention this program. Texting on the Droid is great and it keeps your txt conversations in actual conversation timelines. This app just makes it look like the SMS threads on the iPhone… not a necessity, but it’s pretty.
Shazam - yes, it’s the same Shazam that’s offered for the iPhone, just ported over for Android… it’s still a cool app! Use it to figure out what song is playing on the radio, since the DJ is a jerk and refuses to announce the song titles and/or artists. It also offers you the option to purchase the track, once it’s identified it.
Droidlight LED Flashlight – yes, yes. I know – there are a million and one “flashlight” applications out there for all the different smartphones. I’ve probably used most of them. This one doesn’t do flashing strobelike colors or simulate a Bic lighter for your next concert. BUT – it is put out by Motorola and utilizes the super bright camera LED instead of merely turning your display white(ish).
PicSay Photo Editor (free version) – allows you to edit your pictures on the phone itself; color-correcting, adding word balloons/titles/graphics and different special effects. It also supports multitouch so zooming is a snap. There is a paid version available, which does offer more effects and such… but this version works well enough for me.
Movies by Flixster – great app for viewing what’s showing at local theaters & getting show times, view new releases on DVD, watch trailers, read reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and manage your Netflix queue (you are using Netflix, right?)
RedBoxer - okay, so this one is not free… but for a mere 99 cents, you get to find redbox locations (viewed on map) and see what they actually have in stock – or go the other way and look for a movie then see where it’s available. You can even go ahead and reserve a movie so that all you have to do is walk up, swipe your card and take your flick home (instead of queuing up a line of irritated individuals whilst you browse page after page at the kiosk). It also offers you the option to bookmark locations & movies and will send you a notification if one of your wishlist films becomes available. Can you say SWEET?!?
Droid Locator – personally, I think this one should be included with every phone. Barring Google doing that, everyone should go get this application!What’s it do, you ask? Ever set your phone down and then completely space on where it was you left it? Well, true, you can call it – but let’s say you (or someone you know/love) set the phone to silent mode… then what? Use this app and you can simply txt your phone a secret code (of your own choosing) and the phone will sound off – even in silent mode! – until you find it and turn it off.
AnyPost – this is one of those social networking shotgun apps… it’s a Ping.fm client that syncs with your Ping.fm account allowing you to post to Twitter, Facebook, whatever – complete with photo support as well as allowing you to view your recent postings.
zilch free – you know I’d have to include at least one game, right? This is a freebie dice game based on Dice 10000 (similar to Farkle, if you ever played that). It supports shaking to roll the dice, up to 4 players and a myriad of languages

One other application I use is actually for your desktop computer rather than the Droid itself. DoubleTwist (www.doubletwist.com) is a great app for syncing music, movies and photos from your computer (including iTunes) to your phone… AND it’s another freebie!

Whew! Okay, that’s my list for now. Hopefully you’ll find it helpful. If not, I hope reading it wore you out as much as creating it did me.

Lately…

Haven’t posted much here lately – mostly because I’ve been spending more time at Facebook. I’ve added a Facebook badge to the right-hand column so you can see some of the more recent entries there and you can click-thru to it, if you’ve got a facebook account, to see the full page.

Or you could just follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/bozric

Later!

88 Minutes

88 Minutes

Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, LeeLee Sobieski, William Forsythe, Amy Brenneman, Neal McDonough

Synposis: A thriller about a college professor who, while moonlighting as a forensic psychiatrist for the FBI, receives a death threat telling him that he has only 88 minutes to live.

Pacino is both great and completely irritating in this film.

The story managed to captivate my wife’s interest enough that she stayed awake WELL past 10 PM to watch it, so the “thriller” portion of it is worthy of 3 stars… but Pacino’s character is so flippin’ smug that you kinda wind up hating him even though he’s the hero.

Pink Panther 2

Pink Panther 2

Steve Martin, Jean Reno, Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina, Emily Mortimer, Aishwarya Rai, Yuki Matsuzaki, John Cleese

They spent a little too much time trying to make clever romantic innuendos when they should’ve stuck to the pratfalls that made the character famous. Still, it’s not completely awful and there are a few funny moments that weren’t spoiled by the trailer.

If you catch it on cable or some such, it’d be a decent watch, but don’t spend a lot renting it and it’s definitely not a “purchase” type of flick.

Tug-O-War

What do you do on a rainy Sunday afternoon? Actually, about a thousand good responses spring to mind, but since we just bought a Flip Ultra HD camcorder, I decided to shoot a quick video of Gretchen and Butter playing.

The two of them had been going at it for about fifteen minutes already, which is why Butter (the butterball) is so out of breath.