A few Tuesday night tidbits:
- I got a chance to play with Apple’s new MacBook over the weekend. I really like the compactness of the new machines as well as the raw performance of the Core Duo processors. The new keyboards are also quite nice, sitting flush with the surface of the computer and not poking into the screen. The glossy displays are a mixed blessing. On one hand, images are much brighter and more vivid that on matte displays. On the other hand, they pick up finger smudges far too easily, and glare is a huge problem. The MacBooks also seem to run really hot. I picked up several of the display models at the Apple Store, and the bottom sides felt uncomfortably warm – and that’s after I was holding my hot Tully’s Americano for a few minutes. This is a revision A machine, so I’m sure there are kinks to work out. Overall, I still like the machines. Now, if only a separate video card was an upgradable option…
- Last Friday I went to see Over The Hedge with a bunch of folks from work (team outing). Cute movie, so-so story, which wasn’t too surprising. I haven’t been particularly pleased with Dreamworks’ recent story-writing efforts. It just lacks the wide appeal that most of Pixar’s films have. The animation was top-notch, though. I kept wanting to pause and rewind the movie to re-watch sequences. Guess I’ll be getting the DVD when it comes out.
- On Saturday night, a bunch of us got together at Scott’s place to watch Crash. We all wanted to find out why this movie won Best Picture at the last Academy Awards. The dialog was a bit heavy-handed at the beginning, but I got used to it pretty quickly. Prejudice and miscommunication seemed to be the overriding theme of the film, which got somewhat tedious in the middle of the story. I did like how all the seemingly unrelated stories ended up crossing over each other towards the end. It was a nice payoff for all exaggerated, unnatural dialog. Despite getting an overdose of racial prejudice and stereotypes, I still enjoyed the movie. It was just something different from everything else I had been watching lately and oddly refreshing.
- Photos from Sunday’s photostroll in Seattle are mostly online in my Flickr photostream. I’ve got a few more photos that I’ll be uploading on Wednesday. I had a lot of fun using my 10-20mm lens for most of the shoot, getting some nice wide-angle shots. It’s definitely a lot tougher than working with a mid-range zoom, though. I really have to either get up close and personal or really pay attention to everything in frame. I need to go on more shoots with the lens before I really get comfortable with it.
And that’s all for tonight.
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