Cowabunga: Turtle Love

The first day of a new month, so lets start it right with a new entry.

Everyone has an inner child. Many just don't hear it, or are afraid to let it out. I'm not either of those type's. I'm the time that likes to let out my inner juvenile delinquent from time to time. And no, this is not one of those times I'll be letting loose with a fart joke. At least, not yet.

So my youngest and I went shopping the other day. We were on a mission to get my oldest boys birthday gift. Easy enough, mission was accomplished. However I've been needing a new wallet for a while though. My old one was not only falling apart, but what counts for "real" leather these days was starting to peel away. It got ugly. Almost to the point of busting out some duck tape. I should have taken a pic. Yes, I've done that in the past too.

So during out little adventure to the mall, (Oy, I hate that place) I decided to kill two birds with one stone. A while back a certain store had a wallet that caught my eye. And my inner juvenile delinquent has been telling me to get it ever since. And why not? We're only talking about one of my all time favorites here. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Granted, it's the cartoonish version from the 90's, but none the less it's the about the best you'll find these days.

I have to take the chain off for work, but it gets put right back on when I'm off work.

Cowabunga dude. It takes me all the way back to the early days. We're talking Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The blood, the gore, the insanely stupid puns. And don't forget, originally in black and white, and before they had individual coloring. I've been a fan, that long. Out in my garage, I still have my original poster from the first movie, sitting in a frame.

I'd wear this, just for the looks.

It still saddens me that they've been toned down. But I understand they're looking for the kids, not the adults, to market too. But then again, in my younger years I was such a big fan that even their Coming Out of Their Shells Tour was on my list. I'm not sure if I still have the VHS, but I know I still have the cassette in my tape collection. I can actually hear Pizza Power running in my head as I write this.

Most have forgotten, or just didn't know about this venture.

Then as an adult, it's good to let out your inner child sometimes. Especially when it means quality time with the family. My inner child took my family to see the last TMNT movie, and will still sit down and watch the cartoons with my kids. While it's not the same, it's not totally messed up either. They've done a decent job of keeping to the roots, but making some adjustments to keep the attention of the new generation of fans.

This isn't my actual poster, but it is the one I have.

Now we have a new movie on the horizon. At first it was claimed that the turtles would be aliens, but Michael Bay has come out at least twice that I'm aware of and said that it's not true, and the ooze would still be the cause of their current state. Personally I think Bay is the last person that should be involved in such an endeavor, but that's just my opinion. The fact that he's cast Megan Fox as April is a huge mistake, but I know he has his crush on her. So sad. Bay you better not destroy the turtles. If you smell what the Burtman is cooking. (Yes, that was a Rock inspired fart joke.)

Meaning of Memorial Day

Memorial Day. It's an annual holiday which honors those whose paid the ultimate price for our country, and the many freedoms we have. Originally it was to honor the deceased troops of the Civil War, but quickly spread to honor all of the fallen. Unlike Veterans Day, it is only to honor the dead. Something that many people have forgotten, or take for granted and instead look towards family gatherings, an extra day off of work, and BBQ's. But many others still recognize it as well. And it truly holds a different meaning for the average civilian when compared to service members, and their families.

As of this morning, many people started enjoying parades, stalking up for various festivities, cleaning up the boat, and then some. For many of these people, Memorial Day doesn't hold much meaning. It's not a shot at them, but they just don't know anything else because they've never been directly impacted by this day of remembrance. They might know on an academic level what it represents, but beyond that there is nothing. 

Then you have those who have been touched in some way. Perhaps it's by a friend lost, or hurt in service. Possibly a veteran they met while volunteering at a retirement home, or helped at a shelter. Whatever the circumstance, they know that this is a day that represents a bigger picture than they realize. They go out to homes, and churches to help those veterans to pay their respects to fallen comrades. They go out to graveyards, clean them up, place flags, and possibly help others find the markers of the fallen warriors they're looking for. And yet others even go beyond that and do what they can to ensure that none of the graves are disturbed or vandalized.

You have the families of our warriors. They spend countless hours wondering if their fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, uncles, cousins, husbands, and wives are alright. They worry about them even when out training. They worry when they are out at their daily jobs. Then they worry when they are deployed. Seeing and hearing the news of an accident, ambush, or attack and wondering if their loved one will be next, while seeing their neighbor get the news that someone will not be coming home to them ever again. To the Memorial Day represents their lost loved ones, lost friends, and their loved ones family away from home.

Ultimately you have service members. The men and women who raised their hand, swore an oath, and signed a blank check up to and including their very life. Memorial Day has a special meaning. We remember those who came before us. We remember those we called brother and sister, who have been called for duty by our Commander-in-Chief in the sky. For some it's a hard day, because to a point we feel that we are having it crammed down our throats that we've lost a part of our family. For others it's a good reminder that we have life to live for them and to make it count. We reflect on our fights, as much as we do our accomplishments. While some of us will let our eyeballs sweat, others will drown their sorrow in something else. But ultimately, we remember. We remember because for us Memorial Day isn't a holiday. It isn't a news report. It isn't a parade, or a BBQ. It's a face, a voice, a friend, a family member, a part of ourselves.

To those who have fallen, thank you. You are not forgotten. Semper Fidelis.

Adventures in Life

A lot of things change as we get older. When we're kids, we didn't necessarily have a lot of choice in how we spent our nights. But staying at a friends or relatives was usually great. Camping even better. But it was whatever was alright with the folks. Then we finally got that freedom to do as we pleased. Oh man, it's like dropping a tone of raw meat in a shark tank.

I think back to some nights before I enlisted and some of my early years in the military, and I shudder to think of some of the stuff I would do. A great night out was loading up some of the guys, and going down to Mexico for a night of booze, loud Mexican music, soggy chips, salsa, and then making the trek to Denny's after drunkenly testing the fates and coming back home. Yeah, I'm glad the folks didn't learn of that until years later.

A night out in Ishikawa, Okinawa, Japan.

Then came my service years. The first part of it, you could easily find me at an E-Club, or a local hole with some booze, loud music, or even some karaoke. This was usually topped off with the Okinawa offerings of yakisoba, taco rice and cheese, or one of the biggest corn dog's you ever imagined. There was usually more drinking to be done after returning to the barracks as well.

Gate 1 outside of Cp Hansen in Okinawa. Nothing but restaurants and bars.

The next phase I'm not sure how it came about. Either as my time as an MP dealing with drunks, dealing with drunks in the barracks, or just generally being tired of boozing it up. But for me at that time a good night, or weekend for that matter was SCUBA diving, sight seeing, or even just hanging out at the beach. I'd go out to the various restaurants, different beaches to lounge or dive, the various sites from the aquarium to waterfalls. It didn't matter where or what, just that it was there to be done and not in the confines of a bar, or barracks.

Playing with Nemo and his cousin in the East China Sea.

Posing with the A&W Great Root Bear in Nago, Okinawa, Japan.

Then I came back to the States, a little older, and a little wiser hopefully. And again things changed. Bars still do nothing for me. Clubs are a joke in general. There for a while a nice night out became a meal, and a movie. But even that changed quickly. There for a while I knew I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what. Going to the zoo is still a treat. A few years ago my youngest and I were treated to watching a giraffe being born.

A giraffe being born at the Albuquerque Bio Park around 2009. You can see the hooves under the mothers tale.

Sometimes going out is still the answer. Some place that isn't too rowdy, a restaurant here and there. The zoo a rare treat. But outside of taking a road trip someplace, or camping, there's one thing that I can do pretty much every night that makes me happy. Sit out on the porch with my wife, a cigar, a drink, maybe some music, and just stare off into the sky. Who'd have ever thought that a good night would become a night at home? Guess it's true. You can take the boy out the country (sometimes literally), but you can't take the country out of the boy.

You can see my bench  a little on the far left.

It's funny how things change.

Gaming in the Cloud

Time for a piece on technology. I'm not talking about driving around airborne cars, or our sneakers lacing themselves, but we're working on it. What I am talking about it something that those that are gamer's would understand. Especially those who are heavily vested in their cellphones. Game developers you are on notice as of now.

A little history first.

So once upon a time ago, you weren't saving anything. The arcade era was in full swing, and you played to beat the game in a single sitting. Even the original tough guys Atari and Intellivision were no different. But then came the next evolution when Sega and Nintendo came through the door. You could continue from save points in some games. Others just needed a password. And boom, you no longer had to start at the beginning. Which in some cases was a REALLY good thing, because many of us lost countless hours to the likes of the various Mario Bros, Zelda, Metroid, and then some. And in case you're wondering, yes, I still know the Konami code.Things stayed this way for a while, as the games themselves would evolve in graphics instead of storage.

Then came the dark times. New systems that had incredible graphics and new ways to save came out But they were so over priced, you were cutting grass for more than a summer to save up. Systems like the 3DO, CD-i, and Sega Saturn took advantage of having real actors, on real sets pushing the story of the game. Mad Dog McCree, Wing Commander 3, The Daedelus Encounter, and Night Trap to name a few. The systems were way ahead of their time. You could save your place in the systems memory itself, and play music CD's. Man, I killed a lot of Kilrathi back in those days. My first taste of the awesomeness that is playing video games in full surround sound.

But like all hardships, things turned around. Sega launched it's final system, Playstation and Xbox were born, and we were now saving our games to memory cards. And memory cards brings me to where I wanted to be today.

Today, we have a hand full of quality portable gaming options. And with them advanced gaming. For many of us, the bulk of those games are on our cellphones and tablets. And this is where developers have taken a step back. Sure, many games will save progress at certain points. Most have you set up a login to track your stats and keep your friends. But what happens when you upgrade your phone? What happens when you go from your phone to your tablet? What happens if, (gasp) something happened to you phone like damage, or even losing it? Well, quit simply you're out of luck. Only parts of games are backed up on to memory cards, but you usually end up having to wipe and start from scratch again. And save points in games just aren't there on the cards. Being that we are in a world of cloud computing (oh no, he's going to make sense again) why don't developers not only bring back the ability to save to a memory card, but into the could itself?

It's not just annoying sometimes, but down right aggravating when you've finally gotten to a great point and then are looking at losing your game. Because lets face it, nobody really wants to go back and forth between a current phone and an old one. And let's look at that cloud save, customers would be able to switch out devices without worry! Just upgraded your phone? No problem. Just activated a replacement phone? No problem. Gave your old Xperia Play to your kid who loves that old Spiderman game? No problem.

Not long ago +Alexander Maxham made a great point about mobile device storage in general. Some people want to stay with cheap devices with an SD card, but others would prefer to have a solid device with cloud storage. (Alex, thanks for that by the way.) Mobile gaming would be able to expand that further, bridge the gap, and lead the industry in a new direction by opening that cloud storage. I know for sure Microsoft has at least looked at this with the Xbox 360 some, so I'm sure the likes of Sony and Nintendo have at least eyeballed it as well. So not only would our mobile gaming be better, but our consoles would be looking at going in the same direction as well. Better gaming all around! Those people who stay away from mobile gaming, for fear of not having an agreeable way to save their session would probably be a lot more likely to reconsider and ..... wait for it.... spend some money on a game for their phone. But no, the game industry couldn't possibly want that. What's a few million bucks from happy customers, new and old alike?

But to quote Dennis Miller, "That's just my opinion, I could be wrong."

Quality Sushi in the Desert

I've always loved seafood, and fish. Now I know some are looking at that statement and thinking, "it's the same thing." It's not. If it doesn't come from the ocean, it's not seafood. If you've ever been fishing, and pulled a bite out of a lake, river, or other fresh water source, you know what I'm talking about. And I'm not talking about the breaded stuff you'll find at the local Walmart. Then one day I hit one of the best places in the world for one of my favorite dishes. I got stationed in Okinawa, Japan. It's a bit like letting a cat loose in a fish warehouse without storing the fish.

Welcome to Okinawa

Then I came back to the U.S. and learned just how accustomed to quality food I had become. With exception of living in a coastal city, you're going to have a hard time finding restaurants with "real quality" seafood or fish in the U.S. Being that I moved to New Mexico, I figured it would be a long time before I found something resembling the food I left behind. What's that? Red Lobster? Come on, that's the McDonald's of seafood. Sure it's decent food, but doesn't compare. And just because a place says it's a real Japanese kitchen, or seafood house doesn't make it so. Get rid of the theatrics and actually sit down for the food alone, it's not that great. Sadly, for a good while the best sushi to be had came out of an Albertson's grocery store.

My wife enjoying some quality food.

Now my wife didn't used to like seafood much. But she's slowly become more adventurous over the years. And recently has learned that sushi is good! A friend told her about a place called Sushi Hana here in downtown Albuquerque. So we checked it out. I was shocked, and overwhelmed with joy because it's the real deal! My wife even planned a surprise birthday party for me there.

My birthday cake made by my brother Stephen. You can contact him for your personalized cake at:
https://www.facebook.com/SweetToothDragon

They have a large selection of delicious morsels. And even cater to those who don't care much for sushi, but love noodles. So now I have a spot where I can enjoy quality seafood and fish away from home. And it gives me a place to reflect on the good ol days.

Unplugged Review

So recently I discussed unplugging, and my quest to settle on an mp3 player. Well kiddies, I finally got an mp3 player that meet my needs. I settled on the Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2. And so far I'm pretty happy with it.

Is it perfect? Well no, but nothing is. So time for a quick rundown. It runs smoothly, and has no trouble keeping up or multitasking. As you can see I have a couple of apps downloaded to it, with is great when near WiFi. But of course, I'm breaking away from that as well. So onboard it has 8 GB's and supports external memory via SD card up to 32 GB (though some testers have had luck with some 64 GB SD cards). So I can drop a ton of music on it, and a couple of games for that down time as well. It is running on a slightly dated version of Android, Gingerbread, but that's fine. Gingerbread has been good to me, and I'm not looking to replace my computer. WiFi is strong, and the Bluetooth is as solid as we can expect. I had no trouble connecting to my Roku with either.

Sound is pretty good, though I find it to be high towards the treble and low on bass, though that can be adjusted with various apps from the market place. Typical of FM radio, it uses wired headsets as the antennae. But I have say here that it is one of the best FM players I've ever used. I don't have to position the device in a certain direction, nor do I have to fidget with my ear-buds. It just reaches out and grabs those stations, and holds them well. And volume from the two speakers on the front is solid. I actually don't have to even turn it up half way and can hear my music strong.

Here on the back you can see the rear camera, no flash. It's nothing great but works well. It also came with a few different back plates as well. Ultimately you can see which one I chose obviously. The front camera is only VGA, but it works well for what little purpose it really serves. Here's a picture of yours truly using that VGA camera.

So far I'm pretty happy with the direction I'm headed. Now it's on to the next phase. Time to decide on a basic phone that will suit my needs. So in the immortal words of the late, great Paul Harvey, "Standby for news!"

A Rant for the Future of TV

So a few years ago I cut the cord. No more cable/ satellite TV. No more letting the industry gouge me on what I want to watch. Will I still overpay some? Sure, anyone that watches anything outside of just having rabbit ears on their TV will always be overpaying at some point. For instance the cost of a DVD costs a fraction of what we usually end up paying, even when something is on sale. So I invested in a Roku. LOVE IT!

My Roku (Angry Birds Edition)

It sets me up with what I am willing to pay for, and I can stream it when I'm ready. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, PBS & PBS Kids, etc. It's all there. But once again, the industry got those of us that have cut the cord in a position for it to laugh at us. Sure, it's not bad to have to wait a day or two for a new episode with some networks. But others (ala Turner Networks to name one) are jerks about it. Now I can understand still having us pay. For instance, I don't mind purchasing a full season here or there. SouthLAnd, SOA, and a few others, I'll happily shell out a few bucks for. But it's really poor decision making to force people into cable to watch something. Some networks say, "We have it online now!" And technically they do, so long as you're a paying cable subscriber. But that's garbage. Now, I'm not saying they have to go to a service like Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu. They could open a website for subscription on their own. Or even put their product up for purchase on Google Play, Xbox Video, iTunes, etc. If they run their own site, they don't even have to worry about a middle man.

After all, why should someone have to pay for cable when they only watch a couple of actual cable channels? It would make more sense to go a la cart, or through a streaming service. In some respects I wonder if it's the individual companies unwillingness to move forward and take a chance with new technology such as smartphones, and multimedia devices like tablets, ipods, and Android mp3 players. 

What's more is it punishes those who are trying to better live within their means, or just plain can't afford the luxury of cable. And make no mistake, it is a luxury. I hope the streaming companies such as previously mentioned, and others like Crackle keep putting out quality original programming in addition to the various other content. So to all who see this blog, I recommend cutting the cord and putting more pressure on the networks to move into the modern technical age by putting their products online for us. If YOU work for a cable provider, please put my suggestion in your local suggestion box.