rantings – Page 3 – Frissonic.net

iPad 3 Eve: What I Hope To Hear and See

frissonic / March 6, 2012 / Opinion, rantings

First off, let me caveat this by saying that I do not own and iPad of any generation. Yet. I plan on fixing that over the summer. However, for the interim, I’m perfectly content with my iPhone.

Tomorrow, Tim Cook et al will take the stage in Cupertino and announce the next generation of iPad, supposedly called iPad 3, or possibly iPad HD. Or, as I’m hoping, iPadS. The strong rumor is that an iPad Mini is coming down the pike–a 7-8″ tablet that would have all the functionality of a typical iPad, just in a smaller form factor. I would much prefer the smaller version for any number of reasons, but the over-riding factor is sheer size management.

My iPhone already has a 3.5 screen. I like it. It works for my needs, and it does the job just fine for the apps I use. However, a 7″ screen on an iPad would give me 4 times more real estate. Using Garageband would be *so* much easier. The real kicker would be a 128GB model. I think that would probably push me over the edge to getting one.

As far as the new regular sized model goes, I really have no expectations. I mean … at this point, NOT having a retina display is almost laughable, and from all the regular Apple pundit websites (e.g. TUAW, Cult of Mac, 9 to 5 Mac, et al), there’s no reason to assume that it won’t. However, all that means is that every iPad app out there is going to have to upgrade to look semi-decent on the new iPad.

On This Date in Literary History

frissonic / March 2, 2012 / Opinion, rantings, review

Last year, I wrote about Dr. Seuss’ birthday. The admiration I have for him has not abated over the course of last 365 days; if anything, it’s increased.

Today, my 2nd grade daughter is having “pajama day” at school. Her class earned the right to have a book party for reading the most out of anyone else in the school, and they are being rewarded with some pretty cool stuff (by 2nd grade standards, anyway). She was allowed to bring her favorite books to school. Being that it’s Dr. Seuss day, she opted to bring “Horton Hatches an Egg” and “Oh the Places You’ll Go.” I couldn’t be more proud of her. What a great way to celebrate Mr. Geisel’s accomplishments.

Maybe tonight, we’ll watch “The Cat in the Hat” with Mike Meyers. Actually, I kind of doubt we will. That movie was horrible. “The Grinch” is pretty good though … unfortunately, I like to keep my movies in their proper season. For that very reason, my wife and I only watch “Groundhog Day” once a year.

Happy birthday, Mr. Theodore Geisel. Your writings are as engaging and amazing as they were 10, 20, 50 years ago!

Buffcon 1

frissonic / January 19, 2012 / Blah-ness, Hockey, Opinion, rantings

As previously mentioned, I’m a hockey fan. Specifically, I bleed blue and gold. Lately, I’ve been bleeding a LOT of blue and gold, as has most of SabreNation cuz the team, as a general whole, sucks. There’s no heart. There’s no grit. There’s no scoring. There’s no defense. There’s no good goaltending. And it’s getting really, really old. So old that talk show hosts are actually excited to see them lose tonight in Winnipeg JUST to see if change will actually happen.

Lots want to blame Darcy Regier, the GM. And that’s fine. I get wanting to pin this on him. He’s the one who assembled this team; he should be held accountable for the on-ice performance. Right?

Except here’s what pisses me off the most. This same team, from Februrary 22, 2011, until the end of the season, were THE BEST team in the NHL. They went on a rampage and got themselves into the playoffs as a 7th place seed, then took Philly to 7 games in the first round.

Off season brought in some great acquisitions in Ville Leino, Christian Ehrhoff, and Robyn Regehr. Our defense AND offense was supposed to be upgraded. And it seemed like everything was going great.

Until November 11th.

Since November 11th, the Sabres have lost 22 games, 4of which were in OT/SO. They now sit in 11th place, 9 points out of 8th, and 3 points from the bottom of the conference. If they had won even half of those games instead of losing, they’d be vying for the top of the conference. Even if they had won just 5 more games, they’d at least be in 6th or 7th. But no … they haven’t. They’ve just about hit rock bottom, and if they lose tonight in Winnipeg, there very well might be some major shake-ups, from the front office down to the janitor (cuz he’s obviously not taking out ALL of the trash). \

So we of SabreNation watch nightly as the team collapses. I’m kind of on the side of WGR’s early morning hosts. There is nothing about this team worth watching right now, OTHER than to see what happens if they end up losing again.

I will wear my jersey with pride, and I will continue to hope that they’ll win and start climbing out of this funk. I don’t expect a miracle, but it starts with one game. Might tonight be that game? Could be. The optimist in me hopes that it is. The realist in me wonders if they can win another game before the All-Star break.

Confessions of a Sabres Hockey Addict

frissonic / January 4, 2012 / Blah-ness, Hockey, Opinion, rantings

Hi, my name is chris, and i’m a sabres fan. This is my 25th year of following them, and there’s no end in sight. Sometimes … sometimes, I feel like I *need* to walk away. you know … for my sanity, right? And I’ve tried. i tell myself every year, “i will *not* re-order the CI package this time. NO. I will save that money and put it towards a family vacation. Or my girls’ college fund. Or … or SOMEthing!” But no. Every year, I get recharged the $170 to follow a team I literally have dyed in my blood. If you cut me open, I bleed blue and gold. For a period, I bled red and black, but not anymore.

And really, isn’t every game like a little mini-vacation? A very stressful, anxiety-ridden vacation, where the kids are in the back seat beating on each other and screaming “MOM! SHE TOUCHED ME!” “DAD!! I WANT A CHEESEBURGER!!!” “ARE WE THERE YET?!” I want to tell them that yes–we’re there! we’ve reached the promised land! we have arrived at nirvana. But the reality is so much colder and darker than anything I want to tell them. They’re young. They do not need to be subjected to this ….. THIS!

The part that worries me the most is that they’re already there. They already have little jerseys. they already know Miller, Roy, Stafford, Vanek, Pominville … all by number. My daughter wants a picture of Roy, bless her gargantuan heart. They get exicted when the Sabres are ahead, and they know daddy is “sad” when they lose.

I mean … it’s just a game, right? It’s just a bunch of people getting paid to play with sticks and a puck. In the end, it doesn’t *really* matter … right?

Right …?

My name is Chris, and I’m a Sabres addict.

So Long, 2011

frissonic / December 31, 2011 / Blah-ness, Opinion, rantings

In all honesty, I’m glad to be leaving this one behind. It’s been a pretty bummer year–especially the last couple of months. But that horse is dead, so I’m not going to beat it anymore. I am MOST EXCITEDLY looking forward to 2012 for any number of reasons. Some great music coming out this year–most notably Rush’s “Clockwork Angels” is due to come out at some point. The first single (Caravan) was released forever ago, along with the “B” track “BU2B.” Cannot wait for the new music.

Also, we’re taking a cross-country trip that’s going to last for 3 weeks. THAT is going to be a lot of fun. Lots of pics, lots of blogging. WHOO!!

But most of all, I’m just excited to be where I am–loving family, great friends, excellent job. I cannot ask for more.

Happy new year, everyone. May your 2012 be the most excellent as possible!

Happy Almost New Year!

frissonic / December 30, 2011 / Blah-ness, Opinion, rantings

Well, December was an incredibly disappointing blogging month. Actually, November and December were incredibly depressing months in general–holidays notwithstanding. I’ll say this much: without the love of family and friends, we would have never survived the ordeal we’ve been put through for the last 2 years. However, we’ve emerged somewhat victorious (depending on your definition), and we are *really* ready to get to 2012 and move on with our collective life.

I think the same could be said for this blog. It’s ready to evolve. Don’t get me wrong–the blog will remain and I will be posting a lot more frequently (“Right. Famous last words there, Hoss.”) Yes, I know I’ve been off for a while now. I apologize. Truth be told, I … just couldn’t. Not from a lack of time, or a lack of desire. I wanted to write! I just … there’s been this huge block, and I couldn’t shake it.

I write this blog for me to share with you. Initially, I thought it would only be about music. And for the most part, that will remain true. There are too many good artists out there making a LOT of great music to ignore. There are also great music apps that are simply mind-bending in their capacity. The Animoog for iPhone is a perfect example. I picked this up the other day, and I’ve been playing with it off and on ever since. More on than off, at that. Anyway, my point is that there are a lot of great things about music that I enjoy and like writing about … but that’s just one part of me.

At first, I always envisioned “frissonic” as being a blog, maybe even a recognizable one in the music blogging community. The more I use the name for logins and such, I myself identifying more and more who I am beyond the music writer. I love photography. I love taking pictures and making HDR pics. I also like movies. I like dining out. I like working on my house. There are a lot of facets to me that go beyond music. I want to start sharing those experiences as well. I’m still in the idea development phase of rolling out a new … something. Not sure what it’s going to be yet. I like a lot of aspects of my friend’s blog, where she picks a theme a day and sticks to it weekly, but there are things I dislike about it too–like feeling like I’m tied to writing about books on Monday, or a movie review on Wednesday … or Thursday House Fixing Tip day. I want to write what I want to write, WHEN I want to write it, ya know? But then again, I look at her site and its success, and I think she has the right idea. I don’t know. I have to believe that there’s a happy medium in there somewhere.

Anyway, my point is this: There will be a new feel to the site after the new year. I will be expanding my writing from just music to more about me and my interests in all their various facets. Won’t that be exciting? 🙂

iTunes Match and SongKick Awesomeness

frissonic / November 18, 2011 / iPhone Apps, Opinion, rantings

Discovered something wicked awesome about the iPhone SongKick app the other day. After I updated iTunes to the newest version and got iTunes Match up and running, I checked out SongKick to see if one of my favorite artists would be stopping by any time soon. Sadly, no–she is not, but that’s okay. A new CD is in the works, and that’s even better news!

However, I started playing around with some of SongKick’s options. As you’ll recall, along the bottom, there are 4 options:

Concerts
Locations
Artists
Settings

I tapped Artists, thinking that it would only pull up a list of the artists that actually had a digital presence on my iPhone. Not so! The list is comprised OF EVERY ARTIST I HAVE IN THE CLOUD. 25000+ mp3s, probably at least 2500 artists … and I can find out if/when any of them are coming at any given time from the SongKick app. THAT is wicked awesome.

Just from scrolling through the list, I can see that Abigail Washburn, Alela Diane, Ani DiFranco, Apocalyptica, ATB, and Azam Ali are all on tour, and that’s just a sampling of the As! Very, very, VERY cool!

A Test Post Using WP App

frissonic / November 7, 2011 / Blah-ness, rantings

So now I’m in physical therapy for a severely sprained ankle that I sustained 4 weeks ago. While waiting, I thought I’d test drive some of the new functionality in the WordPress iPhone app. Feel free to ignore this post.

There should be a pic of my ankle wrapped in a heaty thing. That’s right … “heaty.”

italics.

bold. lovely.

here is a link.

And Once Again …

frissonic / November 7, 2011 / Blah-ness, Opinion, rantings

I’m happy to report that I’m back. The mother of all technical glitches with WordPress software and Godaddy hosting kept me from being able to access my own admin side of things, but thanks to some serious help from a sweet gal at Godaddy, the Phoenix has risen from the ashes and is ready to fly once again.

At least until the next crash. However, even if my WordPress software does go belly up again, this time I’m better prepared to know how to handle it. Learned a lot about database backup, Godaddy navigation/tips/tricks,

So, yah. I have about 5 dozen things I could write on, all of which I hope to address over the coming month. November looks to be a promising blogging month. Learned some new writing techniques that I think are going to help take this blog to the next level, but hey, if not, really I just do this for fun and self-entertainment. If others along the way are entertained, all the better. But for now, I’m content to write about music for the sheer love of it.

iPhone 4S IS OFFICIAL

frissonic / October 4, 2011 / Opinion, rantings

First and foremost, it shoots 1080p video. For me, that is absolutely HUGE. For all the concerts my wife and I attend, this is big. BIG. BIIIIIG! Not to mention the overall quality of the camera is vastly improved over the 4. This might be a good enough reason to buy the 4S instead of waiting for the 5. i’m still trying to justify a reason. If it comes in a 64GB model, i’m almost definitely in.

Looks like data speeds have gotten a big bump as well. The “theoretical maximum” is 14.4MBPs, as opposed to the 4’s 7.2MBPs. Hmm. Not sure that’s exactly a deal-swinger for me.

Still holding my breath to see if the 5 is announced in any way. Doesn’t have to be released today, or even this month or year, but it has to be soon.