MMS for the iPhone

One of the features missing from the iPhone is MMS. It is somewhat detrimental not having the function, but if you really think about it, is it all that important? I mean I can still receive pictures via e-mail, which for all intents and purpose is in my opinion a better way of receiving pictures. Two reasons:
1. Uses data, no MMS charge.
2. I can save the pic to my phone, then grab it later to save it to my computer.
Seems to me MMS is a bit overated. Yes, that's how phones send pictures to each other, but when you upgrade to a new phone, you have to copy those pictures off somehow. Kind of a pain if you ask me.


Geolocate this post

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How to carry things like groceries w/ a square piece of cloth.

Live Green:How To Carry Groceries With A Square Of Cloth

Surprising

I've been posting things here and there on my tech.zsoldier.com blog about things I run into regarding technical stuff. Of all my posts, there aren't many, I've been getting many good comments for my entry regarding *Blackberry tethering to the Mac. Kinda makes me fell all warm inside.

http://tech.zsoldier.com/2008/04/macbook-pro-osx-105x-sprint-blackberry.html

*BlackBerry Tethering is a way to use your Blackberry device as a modem for your desktop or laptop computer to connect to the internet anywhere you have cell reception.

Nintendo DSi announced... lackluster...maybe, but smart

So the new Nintendo DSi has been announced and alot of people seem disappointed. So what's changed, no more GameBoy Advance slot, but instead an SD card slot. A camera has also been added. Other things have slightly changed. The key here, in my opinion, is the addition of the SD card slot. I believe this is a sign of Nintendo connecting their portable gaming device to their ultra successful Wii.
If you don't already know, the Wii also has an SD card slot which for most intents and purposes, has been only used as a storage medium for saved games, downloaded games, etc. Now that the DSi will have an SD card slot, the Wii's online shop channel can be used to sell DSi games and even possibly make downloadable Wii games compatible with the DSi.

Smart, Very Smart Nintendo. It's similiar to what Sony is already doing w/ the PS3 and PSP.

Working from home is awesome, especially with the lack of gas in the state of Georgia.

Top Chef

It's been awhile since I last posted. Just thought I would share that I may show up on TV. I was invited to a cooking demo for a show on Bravo called Top Chef. It's apparently going to be held in a trailer set in one of my company's parking areas. Free lunch!! Woo-Hoo!!
If the lighting is good enough, I'll take pics w/ my iPhone.

Heading to Six Flags Georgia for Cox Family Day.

The simliarity is uncanny...

Both about a robot.

Both have tank type treads.
Both have a similar looking head.
Both cute in their respective ways.
Both built for a specific purpose.
Both with similar poster art.
One is animatronic.
One is CG animation.

Talk about weirdness...

Ever just wish...

Ever just wish that when you yelled,

"Hey Kool-Aid Man!"

That the Kool-Aid man would actually bust through a wall and offer you some awesome refreshment. If not for the pure amusement of seeing your co-workers cower in fear of a giant red pitcher carrying a smaller pitcher busting through the walls of your office. Yeah... that would be awesome.

iPhone and Blogging

Almost every other blogging site out there has made an application for the iPhone except the one I use...Blogger. It's not that I can't blog using the phone, it sucks that I can't post photos from my iPhone at least not easily. I can post links to my photos to my flickr account, but with lack of copy/paste function, this also becomes somewhat difficult. ARGH!! Frustration. Oh and it's also kind of annoying that I can't just transfer my photos over bluetooth to my computer to upload to this site.

There are just somethings that were better with my old Sony Ericsson than with this iPhone. But with all bad things, come good things. Like how I can type Japanese on my iPhone. That function alone is worth it to me.

Let's make some toast..

Speakin JIVE!!

Speaking Jive is fairly difficult, much less trying to spell it out. So, below this intro, you will see a translation of my speak into jive. You really want to mess with that new foreigner, send e-mails, and speak in jive to them. I'm sure they will appreciate it.

Speakin' Jibe be fairly difficult, much less tryin' t' spell it out. So's , below dis intro, you's gots'ta see some translashun uh mah' speak into jibe. What it is, Mama! You's really wants' t' mess wid dat new foreigna', t'row e-mails, and speak in jibe t' dem. 'S coo', bro! Ah'm sho' nuff dey gots'ta appreciate it.

So yeah. Translate whatever you want here:
http://skylab.org/~fireball/jive.cgi

Metal Gear Solid 4...Awesome!

My weekend consisted of going to watch "The Incredible Hulk" this Saturday. Which on a side note was a pretty good movie and was what the first one should've been. Anyway after that I holed myself up in my room and played Metal Gear Solid the rest of the weekend. And let me tell you, the game was freakin awesome. I finished the game on Normal Snake Mode (next is hard mode)
The story was awesome, albeit confusing. The graphics ridiculously nice. The one qualm I would have with the game would have to be the lack of a starting tutorial to explain the games controls. I figured it out eventually though. I want to go play it again now.

Duck..Duck...Crane!?

I taking Ein for his walk as usual around the lake/pond. I was seeing the usual ducks swimming about when I saw this weird bird. I think it's a crane, but I'm no bird expert. Only was there that one day, haven't seen it since...

Roswell Tea House (Belgian Waffle)

Belgian Waffle w/ Strawberries and Cream
Dauntingly large, surprisingly light. Sweetness is provided by the powdered sugar and fresh-cut strawberries. A TRUE belgian waffle. As an American though, you may crave some maple syrup as a topping. (Carine, the owner will more than happily provide some if you request it.) I think had the strawberries been more sweet (they were kinda tart), I would have enjoyed this dish a bit more than I did. Unfortunately, my expectations for dessert left me wanting for something a little sweeter. Again, the whip cream is REAL whip cream, so it was not that sweet. It was good though in that it was light and crispy on the outside.

Roswell Tea House (Chicken Wrap Panini)

Matcha Tea Smoothie
I started my meal off w/ a Matcha Tea Smoothie. Soy milk, crushed ice, and matcha powder. Not sure what if anything else was in it as that is all I could taste. The basic taste is exactly what you would expect from the ingredients. The matcha has only a slight presence of taste, with more reflecting upon its color. If you don't like soy milk, this is definitely not the smoothie for you.

Chicken Panini Spinach Wrap
GOAT CHEESE!!! That's the first thing that will hit you biting into this yummy panini pressed wrap. If you don't like goat cheese, avoid it like the plague. If you haven't tried goat cheese, go on and be a little adventurous. It comes paired w/ a side salad of spring greens, sliced strawberries, craisins, chopped red onions, and some green tea ginger dressing. Oh and a cantalope slice. The wrap is a bit crunchy from the panini press, hot, and oh so delicious.

Berry Cake
The consistency reminded me more of a bread pudding rather than a cake. Mildly sweet with mostly coming from the berries. I taste blueberries and I want to say cherries or cranberries, maybe both I can't quite tell. Definitely need to work on my palette. Possibly some sweetened raspberries or strawberries as well. The whip cream is REAL whip cream, not the canned sugary stuff. Also another delicious dish.

News Story

For those of you that may not know, I was featured in a news story for a brief moment giving my 2 cents regarding child internet safety. Here is the link: http://www.klas-tv.com/global/story.asp?s=5102559&ClientType=Printable

If I find the video, I'll post that later. I sound like a retard in my opinion, but oh well.

Comcastic Service!

Never before have I been so annoyed w/ a company than now. My whole ordeal started out simple enough. I wanted the triple play package (phone, digi cable, and internet), but instead of a digital dvr box from them, I wanted to cable card for my TiVo. Rep said he would get back to me as he was unfamiliar w/ the whole cable card thing. He got back to me the same day and said they have the M-Card Cable Card. Cool.
So far so good, got a call scheduled for Saturday installation week of Memorial day weekend. Confirmed w/ the rep twice that it would be a M-Card, not a S-Card. Tech comes out, doesn't have a M-Card, but digital box. Doesn't have a M-Card w/ him. So he installs internet, removes the 4-way splitter in my smart box and replaces it w/ a two way splitter like I wouldn't notice. The modem/emta he gives me is missing the battery, you know for when like the power goes out so my phone service continue to work.
Call the rep, he apologizes, schedules to have a tech come out Sunday to get me an M-Card. No call, no nothing. Call him Tuesday after Memorial Day, he schedules a call for Wednesday morning. Tech comes out installs the cable card, (opens TiVo slot, inserts, give rep over the phone serial number) done. He says give it about an hour before channels start coming in. Had to leave for work, so I would check after I got back. Still not working.
Call Comcast tech support, they try something. Doesn't work, they say I need to replace the card and that a tech would have to be scheduled to replace it. He asks me if the same time is fine. I say yes. Next day, waiting, waiting, waiting... nothing. Come to find out I was scheduled for a different block of time. Nice... Waiting, waiting, get a voicemail on my cel, didn't receive call weird. Voicemail says, "sorry we missed you, call comcast to reschedule"... WHAT!!!!??? No knock, no note, but a voicemail!? WTF!?
Call Customer Service pissed beyond belief at this point. The rep tells me that I can just exchange the cable card at a payment center. So I drive to payment center, wait 15 min in line, then the payment center rep tells me they don't have them and that a tech must come out... I'm about to turn into the hulk here.
This is who the tech is going to see tomorrow opening my door. Fine, I have them schedule another tech to come out tomorrow morning. That boy is not leaving until I get all my channels and he has a battery for my modem.

[Update: The tech came out improved my already really good signal (was getting 90% now at a full 100%). He also replaced the two way-splitter w/ a four way in my smart box. And finally he called tech support and they were finally able to figure out the provisioning error on their end to get all my channels.]

Walking Ein in our new apartment's neighborhood

I thought this was cool looking. It's a small bridge that leads to an island w/ a couple of benches.This picture was from the other side of the lake. You can see the apartments that Ein and I are in.

Ein wanted to sit for bit and take in the view... He was really curious about the ducks.

He wanted to take another break, this time in the grass, he had just pooped near by. The lake was beautiful and with a nice trail all around. The weather was also beautiful.

Optical Illusions

I love the optical illusions, something about messing with peoples heads.

Curry Udon in a can... part 2

Heating up the can...

First impression... Looks kinda gross...

WOW, Curry Udon in a can is pretty good. Like SURPRISINGLY good. It looks kinda nasty and I had warm it up w/ some boiling water, which worked pretty well by the way. They really should get this stuff out here in the US. The downside...I'm still kinda hungry.

Cool Mac OSX Music Video

I love my mac. The damn thing is so versatile. I'm really curious to find out how someone was able to make this. Imagine the amount of time it must of taken. It's also a pretty good demonstration, albeit, ridiculously fast demo of a bunch of Mac OSX features.

Curry Udon in a can...

For those of you that don't know what Udon is, it's basically Japanese style Ramen. The noodles are thicker than that of Ramen and the soup base tends to be less oily. Anyway, you can think of this as Ramen in a can. Complete w/ fork for you eating pleasure. My wife brought this back for me from Japan since I wasn't able to go to Akihabara on my last trips to Japan. Akihabara is where these things seem to have originated from and have exploded in popularity.

I wanted one out of pure curiosity. I wanted the Ramen version, but wife could only find this one. Apparently they've expanded out to other classic japanese foods like "Oden". Anyway, I'll post later on about the taste of Curry Udon in a can. Since it's in a Steel can (yes STEEL can not aluminum), I can't readily throw this into a microwave. Probably will need to get a hotplate or maybe immerse the can in some boiling water...

Quick Peel a Potato

This is freakin' awesome. I'm so gonna try this next time. I have to peel a potato.
Video Courtesy of Sprint's Waitless campaign. (www.waitless.org)

Roswell Tea House (Beauty Boost Salad)

Today I had the "Beauty Boost Salad". Yes yes, I know what you're thinking, "isn't that just a little too feminine Well so what if it is? Wanna fight about!? ANYWAY... The server lady which I'm afraid I don't know her name, but she knows me which I feel bad about, suggested it since it was discounted today and she knew I liked Salmon. Well low and behold I was pleasantly surprised, although I'm not sure why should be at this point.

Beauty Boost Salad Review:
This salad was delicious and fulfilling. It had a natural sweetness thanks to the perfectly balanced blend of fruits (blackberries, sliced strawberries, dried cranberries). The green tea ginger dressing seemed to have a base of mayonnaise that I wasn't too fond of, obviously since I don't like mayo, but after the initial bite it didn't seem that harsh. I spread it lightly and it gave the salad a nice light creamy tang. The salmon was absolutely delicious and complimented the coolness of the salad very well.

Chocolate Chai Cake Review:
This cake was interesting. The cake was nice and moist. It looks incredibly sweet but to the contrary it was more on the bitter side. The interesting thing about this cake is that you do not taste chocolate at first but rather a chai essence, followed by a strong dark chocolate bitterness. The added whipped cream gave it the perfect combination of bitter-sweet creaminess heaven. This combined with the anti-aging blend tea turned out to be a wonderful combination.

Anti-Aging Blend Tea Review: It's been awhile since I've had tea outside of Japan that I thought was tasty. I'm very much a classic green tea drinker. The Anti-Aging Blend that is served here is marvelous. It's not at all bitter and has something of a sweet caramel aroma. Drinking this tea is in my mind absolute bliss. No need to add any sugar, lemon, or whatever else you can think of to this tea. To truly enjoy it, you must drink it as it is and be sure to take in the aroma while drinking it. Drink it correctly and you will be rewarded with a sweet unsweetened tea.

I absolutely love this place. I even brought Ein with me and dined outside since the weather was nice. The ladies here were so nice and even brought Ein out a bucket of water.

TypeRacer

How fast can you type? I placed 2nd w/ 40WPM, 1st was 46WPM. I can't even imagine what the 139'sWPM do to type that fast.
http://play.typeracer.com/

I like TURTLES!!

Traffic Lights

Saw the strangest thing on the way to class today in Alpharetta, or maybe it was Roswell... I can never figure it out, anyway... In the way of excessive, I saw two left turn traffic lights at an intersection w/ only one left turn lane. I saw this not only once but twice!! Seriously, what's the deal w/ that? Were the planners and construction crew on some different plane of existence when this happened? Or was it an elaborate plan to make sure that if one turn light went blew, the other one would be there as a backup until the broken one could be repaired?? Really, strange place this Georgia is. I would have taken a picture, but you know I was driving at the time. Besides, in my search I came across this much more amusing picture. I'd had to see the poor slob that would come accross this traffic light.

Kinda funny space take on space invaders...

The Sheep who thought he was a Monkey...

So for as long as I can remember being introduced to the whole Chinese New Year/Animal concept, I was under the impression that I was born in the year of the Monkey. Then recently, I was looking at my blog profile. I was curious about the 'show astrological sign' checkbox. When I would look at my profile it would show 'sheep'. I was thinking that was weird so I was wondering what astrological sign blogger was referring to. I look up Sheep and Astrological sign. Low and behold to my surprise the Chinese new year for Monkey actually began on Feb 16 1980. So I fell into the year of the sheep... I always thought I was a Monkey... So strange... Weird thing is, my personality closely relates to Monkey, but lately I'm really not too far off w/ the description of a sheep.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep_(zodiac)

Omega-3

Maybe it's just my imagination, but I really think eating fish helps me be more productive in my work. I had not eaten fish for almost 2 weeks until two days ago. During those two weeks, I felt so unproductive in my job. Today, the day after I had some mackerel, it feels like my brain is clear and I am just rocking and rolling. The day has flown by and I feel like I've gotten so much accomplished. Strange feeling this is.

Earth Hour

Are you going to turn your lights off? I am...

Mos Burger Gift Plant (Day 9)

Looks like they are growing nicely.

Mos Burger Gift Plant (Day 8)

They're sprouting from all over the place now. I think I may have over watered a bit again since the paper towel I have underneath is a bit moist.

Looks like rain today, my umbrella said so...

Here you can see that my umbrella is flashing. For more information, click here.

Mos Burger Gift Plant (Day 7)

They've started to grow!! Woo-hoo!! I think I was dangerously close to killing them though. I meant to stop yesterday by work after Judo practice, but forgot. The soil was so dry when I got into work this morning. Hopefully they'll be all right.

Roswell Tea House (Super Omega Anti Aging Sandwich)

The Roswell Tea House was an excellent find. Good food, nice atmosphere, and the weather couldn't have been better. I had just finished up w/ Iaido training and it was about time for lunch. Saw the Tea house's menu at the budokan and decided to go there since it wasn't really that far. I passed it on my way there, it looks just like a regular house as you can see from the picture.

I got inside and since it was such a beautiful day outside decided to have my meal outside on the porch. Looked over the menu and decided on the "Super Omega Anti-Aging Sandwich". That's a super cool way of saying Salmon fillet on wheat bread... The sandwich was really good, the salmon almost tasted creamy. It came with a Lentil Salad, which as you can see from the picture is not your typical salad. The lentil beans were all underneath the fruit. Tasted great though.

Finally I finished off w/ the Matcha Tea Service. They bring out a tray with iron pot of hot water, matcha powder, and Japanese whisk. The tea is prepared in front of you w/ an explanation of how to enjoy the tea and treats. The dessert I was served w/ was asuki bean (red bean) w/ sprinkled powdered sugar.

Mos Burger Gift Plant (Day 4)

Mos Burger Gift Plant (Day 4)
Originally uploaded by Zsoldier

I watered it today cause it felt like it needed it.　　What's that in the pot you ask? It's a kappa... Don't really know how to explain it. Click the word kappa anywhere in this post to look it up.

Graffiti in the restroom and my hypothesis

Ever wonder what goes through the mind of a person who 'carves' their name, remark, tag, phone number, etc. into a bathroom stall? Well, most of the time neither do I since it seems to be common place, but hey I had a few minutes to think.
First off, when you think of someone going into the bathroom for a long period of time, it's usually because they are old, have diarrhea (cha cha cha), barfing, or are constipated.
So let's look at this, if you're old, you probably can't remember what you came to the bathroom for. Oh that's right to poop, or was it to pee... Anyway, probably not enough time to really care about carving your name into the wall.

So you have diarrhea...cha cha cha...I think you would be too busy slumped over in pain while you pee out your butt let alone carving your tag into the stall's wall. Probably the same with barfing, only that you are slumped w/ your head in the toilet and reliving the bad sushi mixed w/ too much sake.

Now we're down to constipation, it's likely that you are just sitting there very angry with a lot of time to look forward to. For some strange reason, you decide to break out your keys and begin carving in the phone number of someone you blame for your constipation. Somehow, by doing this you pass the time, and once you've finished carving your wonderful words for the next occupant of said toilet, you pooped enough rabbit pellets to feel satisfied.
So, the more graffiti you see carved in the bathroom is simply a reflection of just how many constipated people frequent that bathroom.

Mos Burger Gift Plant (Day 3)

モスバーガー草三日目
Originally uploaded by Zsoldier

I gave the plant too much water two days ago, so I didn't water it yesterday. My fingers were so numb this morning because it was so ridiculously cold this morning so I really couldn't tell by touching if the soil needed more water. I gave it some anyways. Oh and that banana...It's gone to my belly.
Also, you can click on the picture to the right to see my notes...

Japanese Streaming Sites

This is awesome. It's been awhile since I've looked for streaming sites and I ran across this one that lists a bunch.
http://broadcast-live.com/japan.html
It's pretty slick. I found this TFMi-TV application off of there. They seem to do 24/7 streaming of Japanese music and apparently some idol shows.

Mos Burger Gift Plant (Day 2)

Uhh, I put too much water in the pot.. The paper towel I put under it was all wet this morning...*sigh*... Day 2 No results yet.

Mos Burger Gift Plant (Day 1)

Mos Burger is like the Japanese equivalent of McDonalds. The difference being is that they use all organic ingredients and actually taste good. Being the 'hippy' place they are, I was given a plant as gift for their 'birthday'. Today, I opened it up, put the dirt and seeds in the pot and watered it. Let's see how well it grows in my office cube under my artificial lamp.
I'm officially tracking it on my japanese blog. I'll try to update both so you english speaking cave men/women can watch too.

Me Painting...
Originally uploaded by Zsoldier

I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. What did I do you ask? Painting, lots and lots of painting.

Urbanites version of Nature

I had an interesting sensation walking through Barnes & Noble...relaxation... Something about the smell of rows of books stacked around me. Then I thought, this can be kind of ironic in the sense that these books are essentially trees. They are made from trees, albeit dead at this point. But back to the point, surrounded by nature with fresh mountain grown coffee beans in the store next door. You even have some of inhabitants of this nature preserve that you can point and stare at.

It's no wonder coffee shops and book stores mesh so well together.

Science is neat...

I love science, especially when it involves fire. RINGS OF FIRE!!! MUAHAHAHA!!!

Growing up in Las Vegas and the things you just don't realize...

Funny thing growing up in Las Vegas... I'm talking to a customer support gal who, mind you, was pretty cool and troubleshooting my GPS device. It was having problems looking up cross streets. She thought it was because I had old maps. I mentioned it was only having issues looking up the second street, even by flipflopping street names.
So she asks me:
"Ok, give me two street names that you know are on your map."
At first, I was going to reply w/ some street names in the state I was in, but I'm so new to the state, I have no idea what crosses what. So I reply w/ the major cross streets in Vegas that I grew up near:
"Flamingo and Rainbow"
Without skipping a beat, she responds:
"Well that's kinda fruity."

I bursted out laughing... It had never even crossed my mind.

I lived near two of the two 'fruitiest' named streets ever in Vegas and never even realized it...

Otsukaresama (お疲れ様）

So the wife sometimes calls me at work in the middle of my day. I'm doing my thing, while she talks to me on the phone about something. (Yes I am paying attention) She asks if I am still working, I say, "yeah" and she proceeds to respond with "Otsukaresama"... Now mind you, I am second generation Japanese born here in the US so I consider my Japanese second rate at best. My wife is 1st Gen born and raised in Japan.

To me it sounded strange for her to say "Otsukaresama" to me while I'm working... To clarify, "Otsukaresama", from my understanding, is used after you've finished something. It's a term that is used to acknowledge someone's efforts or show your appreciation for the trouble that they have gone through. So I mention to her that is sounds strange for her to use "Otsukaresama" while I'm still working. According to her, it's used to show appreciation for the work I am doing... Still, even after she said that, it feels strange for me to hear the term used in a fashion that I've never been introduced to.

I'm calling shenanigans on my wife!!! (hahahaha, just kidding wife...she is so going to kill me) In all seriousness though, I simply want to make sure I sound intelligent in conversation in the Japanese business world if I were to ever be presented w/ the opportunity. So because it sounds strange to me in her usage, I need that confirmation.

Chinese Language Pronounciation

Just to preface, this is in no way meant to insult the Chinese language. Just a curious uneducated observation.
A friend and I were talking one day and he happened to mention that he is starting to learn to speak Cantonese. I speak Japanese and learned some phrases in Mandarin so I mentioned to him that I think Chinese is a very difficult language to speak. To me, the idea of having to pronounce a vowel w/ 5 different intonations (he says Cantonese is 9) is absolutely absurd to me. I feel like I have to be choir boy to pronounce anything correctly.
So he and I were on the same page with which we came to the following epiphany:
How in the world is it possible to make song or sing songs with out totally screwing up the intonations? (Total White Guy Quote)
Crescendos, DeCrescendos, and many other classical methods of writing music deal w/ intonations. Yet, I've heard Chinese pop stars singing and it all sounds fine to me. Maybe because my ears on uninitiated in the language, but GEEZ. My friend and I are totally baffled by Chinese.

HD-DVD Dead

If you haven't already heard, Toshiba, the big buy behind HD-DVD has called it quits. They plan to shut down their HD-DVD manufacturing by end of March. Time to sell those machines or if you've been waiting, go ahead an buy yourself a Blu-Ray player. I personally recommend the Playstation 3 even if you don't like games. It's probably the most cheapest, yet most comprehensive player out on the market.

You could almost consider the Playstation 3 a computer. You can use it browse the internet, read your digital camera's pictures and print them by hooking up an Epson printer(. It can also copy your CD's music to it's hard drive to play over your home theater system. Play your DVD or Blu-ray movies, and lastly play games. Not a bad deal if you ask me.