Jennifer & David E-Session

Here's a teaser of Jennifer and David's eSession images. I'm so glad to be around these two "Lovebirds". :-) I can tell they are so in love with each other. Congratulations Jennifer and David!Jennifer and David met each other while working at the Screen Actors Guild. So I know the happy couple many years. Ever since they both left the Guild several years ago, I have not heard from them until recently. Jennifer heard through the grapevine that I have a wedding photography business and wanted to know if I can photograph their engagement session. It was my pleasure to photograph the Lovebirds today even though we all got a little wet.

If It Ain't Broken, Don't Fix It

Well, I heard the news that the women's USA team lost in the semi-
finals of World Cup to Brazil 4-0 ending a 51 match record... Winning
2 consecutive World Cups, and a Olympic Gold Medal! Quite a run. What
bothered me and practically the entire US soccer fans is that the US
coach decided to swithc goal keeper right before a single elimination
semi-final round! Solo only gave up 2 goals in 4 games and a much
younger faster goal keeper than the 36 year old veteran Briana Scurry.
Yes, her resume is impressive, but what in the world would prompt the
US coach to switch goal keeper? Here's a classic case of "If it ain't
broken, don't fix it". It's a good lesson to learn.

Sent from my iPhone

SAG's Old Queen Music Video

Here's Residuals and Friends' rendition of "SAG Old Queen". Enjoy! :-)

Top 10 Reasons Why Allen Macey is Leaving SAG for an Inn in Vermont

This Dan Groya's Top 10 reasons why Allen is leaving the Guild for an B&B Inn in Vermont. Enjoy!

Happy 100th Episode to Photoshop User TV

Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, and Matt Kloskowski, aka "The Photoshop Guys", celebrated their 100th episode of Photoshop User TV (formerly known as Photoshop TV) today.

I look forward to Tuesday of every week to download the latest episode of Photoshop User TV via my iTune (Gosh, I'm such a geek!). I have all 100 episodes.(OK, I'm really a big geek!) They have gone a long way since the first episode. They started taping in Scott's office and now they have their own recording studio with studio lighting and quality sound.

The show is filled with Photoshop Tips and Tutorials. I've learned so much from these guys for the past 2 years. Besdies they are hilarious together, especially the memorable "Steam" episode. For those of you who are avid viewers of this show, you'd know what I'm referring to.

Anyhoo... Happy 100th Photoshop User TV!

Dennis Kucinich appeared as guest on the Tonight Show

Dennis Kucinich, presidential candidate, appeared on the the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I actually had the pleasure of meeting him in person at the Screen Actors Guild on August 22, 2007. Please refer to my blog post for that day to view images.

Bridal Show at the Pasadena Hilton

We were at the Pasadena Hilton doing a bridal show. Here's a picture of our booth. We met many beautiful brides to be today. It's alway such a joy to hear their stories about how they met, where they're going to get married, and most of all introduce our services to them on their special day. To those of you who scheduled to have a consultation with use next week, we look forward to discuss with you further regarding our services. Thank you to each and everyone who stopped by our booth to take a look at our beautiful albums. God Bless.

P.S. Congratulations to the lucky bride to be who won our drawing of a beautiful canvas portrait. We're waiting for you to call us. :-)

New Apple Touch iPod

Apple just announced the new Touch iPod. Its has a similar revolutionary multi-touch interface just like the iPhone. It also sport a sleek 3.5-inch widescreen color display. It doens't have a mobile phone so no AT&T Edge service, but it has built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) which you can use Safari, YouTube, iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, and only 8mm thin. Starting at just $299 for 8GB, and $399 for 16GB. It's like having all the cool features of the iPhone without the annoying features of the phone and PDA features of the iPhone. It's interesting that Apple already debut a iPhone want-a-be which will be her by September 28th of this month. I guess they are targeting all those users who wants all the cool features of an iPhone without the commitment to AT&T. Steve Jobs thought of everything and letting go of no demographics. I guess that's why Apple is now over $140 per share.

Al Gore won another Entertainment Award

Isn't this amazing. Al Gore lost he presidential election with the narrowest margin 7 years ago, and since then he won an Oscar for best documentary for "Inconvenient Truth", and now an Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievment in Interactive Television: Current.

"Accepting the award for Current, which makes significant use of user-generated content, were partners Joel Hyatt and former Vice President of the United States Al Gore. On a night in which the Television Academy and Fox were touting their efforts to produce the first-ever carbon-neutral Emmys, Gore, who has led a passionate campaign to raise awareness about global climate change, was a crowd favorite, and received a standing ovation as he took the stage.
“We are trying to open up the television medium so that viewers can help to make television and join the conversation of democracy and reclaim American democracy by talking about the choices we have to make,” said Gore. " Excerpt from Emmy's Website.

Apple New Nano

Apple just released the new Nano iPod thsi week which you can view videos as well at $149 for 4GB and $199 for 8GB. Now who on earth would want to watch video on such a small screen?

It's very small and sleek when I went to the Apple store yesterday. It comes in a number of colors. Picture here Red is their special "RED" project.

Jeanine and John Paul Zimmerman Wedding Preview

Allen and I had the pleasure of photographing Jeanine and John Paul's wedding today. Needless to say Jeanine was radiant in her magnificent gown with a long flowing vail. He looked so debonair in his tux. They are such a lovely and photogenic couple. I wish them many happy years together. Here are some of the photos of today's wedding at the Mission Inn located in Riverside, CA.

iPhone Review II

Now that I had an opportunity to work with my iPhone for the past 2 months, I have a revised review of the PDA/iPod phone.

1. The AT&T Edge is still slow and virtually no improvement during the past 2 months. I'm really hoping that Apple and AT&T will work harder to resolve this issue. Even though it's not a real problem for me because I have WiFi hotspot at home, my girlfriend's house, at SAG's office and conference rooms, I still find it a nusaince to have to connect via Edge such as when I'm driving and I want to check on LA Sig Alert for traffic condition.


2. The virtual keyboard initially was pretty cool and then I really hate it. However, after using it for the past 2 months, I'm, beginning to be very proficient at using it. My accuracy have tripled since the last post of the review of the iPhone. In fact, when I have the sound turned on, I can hear myself typing as fast as using a regular keyboard because it just clicks at a high rate incessantly. It also started to learn my most common words and words/names that are in my calendar, contacts, and emails and figures out what I'm trying to type. However, some words such as "bit" and "but" will never be fixed. There are other words, but it's not as annoying as when I first got the iPhone. I still wish they would learn a couple of lessons from RIM Blackberry on keyboard shortcuts such as holding the key for 2 seconds for capitalization and pressing the space bar twice for period. It would speed up my typing some more.


3. No To Do or Task List – Can you believe it? However, I discovered Tada List and it's free. It's the web base version of ToDo lists. It's compatible with iPhone's Safari web browser. However, it's web base, and it's slow when I'm not on a WiFi hotspot.


4. I inititially had a rough time synching my iPhone with Entourage, but after hacking at it for 3 days, it finally worked and it's now working flawlessly. I wish it would sync faster like my Palm Treo. Synching currently takes 10 minutes or so depending on the number of items I have.


5. Recently iTunes 7.4.2 update allows mp3 files ringtones converstion but you'll have to pay $0.99 for the song, and another $0.99 for converting it to a ringtone. Kinda sucks that you have to pay double, but at least you can do it. You can even edit, loop, and cut the song to fit your ringtone preference.


6. I still charge the phone nightly. However, I carry a charger in my computer bad whenever I travel just so that I don't have to worry about battery usage. The USB charging off of my Macbook Pro charges very slowly. It would take more than 4 hours to have a decent charge.


7. The headphone that comes with the phone is not so good. Because of the phone jack, it’s so narrow that any third party headphones such as the Bose headphones are not compatible with the iPhone phone jack. Belkin makes an adapter for $9.95 but it sucks because it's so big and long and cumbersome. Wasn't the whole purpose of getting the iPhone is for the sleek, beauty, and coolness factor of having the phone?


8. What sucks is that Apple just lowered the price of iPhone by $200 ($399 for 8GB) and stop production of the 4 GB due to no one is buying it. What's great is that Steve Jobs is rebating $100 for all current 8GB owners.

Midnight Madness Part II

This is a picture of a covetous limited quantity (200 only) Midnight Madness ticket. I only waited a mere 30 minutes for this ticket.

After dinner, Allen and I went to lineup at Midnight Madness room. There were only a handful of people ahead of us. We stand a pretty good chance in getting a good seat. Robert Vanelli, the defacto Midnight Madness Security arrived and entertained the crowd.

Similar to Boston, they spoofed game shows and reality show. We started off with the Dating Game. Corey Barker was the bachelor, and he picked a pair of bachelorettes because they came as a pair and he was intriqued throughout the game.

Next, was Deal or No Deal. A lady went up, and right off the bat she opened the case with the free roundtrip airfare ticket and a pair of Photoshop World ticket to Photoshop World 2008 in Orlando FL. She later passed the opportunity to take the deal for a brand new iPod nano that was just introduced less than 48 hours ago. She ended up winning the 6x8 Wacom tablet.

Next came the Krispy Creme donuts. Everyone was on a sugar high be now. It would have been nice had they offered coffee as well. :-)

Finally, a rendition of American Idol, titled Photoshop World Idol. Nelson won it in Boston with "Ain't No Sunshine". He started the competition with a couple of verse of that song. Many people got up to compete. A couple was really good, and then several were horrible. In the end, a young woman named Laura won the competition. I actually thought she competed in Boston and was the co-winner with Nelson, and got a free pass to Photoshop World Las Vegas. I thought she had an unfair advantage, and also won a free pass already. Anyway, despite that, we had a lot of fun.

Dinner at Terribles Casino Hotel

We spent quite a bit of money to come to Photoshop World Las Vegas, especially dinning for the past few days. We decided to hunt for a good bargain and we went to Terribles Hotel and Casino just off of Paradise Road and Flamingo. Prime Rib dinner for $9.95 Friday special. It's not Ruth Chris, Mortons, or Arroyo Chop House. It was nonetheless dinner. I would rate this 4 out of 5 stars for bargain value.

Treasure Island Show: Siren

Here's a picture of Brian and Allen at the Treasure Island (TI) outdoor show "Siren". It used to be the famous "Pirate" show, but they revamped it to entertain the more mature audiences as these semi-bikni clad beauties swinging through ropes and dances toe hip-gyrating music. Of course, we picked the wrong side and got a good view of people's heads rather than the sirens. We did, however, got a real good look at the guys who played the pirates on the opposite side. I would rate this 2 out of 5 stars for entertaining value. That's only because it's also free but you'll have to get there early to catch the show.

P.S. the Wisconsin College team and alumni were here to open the show as they will battle against UNLV tomorrow.

Mastermind behind NAPP

NAPP, National Association of Photoshop Professionals is founded by Scott Kelby. He's the genius who created this great community of Photoshop users. It's now 70,000 member strong worldwide.

He's also the chief editor for a monthly publication, Photoshop User magazine. This magazine is filled with step by step Photoshop tips and tutorials. For the price of annual NAPP memberhip you get the magazine for free plus access to all tutorials in the membership section of the Photoshop User website.

Famed Photojournalist: Joe McNally

I attended Joe McNally's location lighting class this morning. It was amazing to view his images and his stories behind these images. He's one of my inspiration to become a photojournalist when I was younger. I've been a long time admirer and I have applied his philosophy of lighting to my Wedding Photojournalism.

I particularly admire Joe's "Faces of Ground Zero" work of full size polaroids of friends and family of 9/11 victims. It toured around the country several years back. I saw it at the Skirball Center. I remember walking out of the exhibit with just one thought in mind... WOW! Go to his website and check out his compelling images.

Midnight Madness

We got up at the crack of dawn this morning (well 7am) to wait in line for Midnight Madness tickets tonight. We thought we would be near the front of the line but to our surprise there were at least 145 people ahead of us. (Do you see the big long line behind me?) The first guy got here @ 5am! Yikes! He must really wants to go to Midnight Madness! He's not going to sleep until well after midnight tonight.

The event really starts @10pm and lasts until midnight. Years ago it used to start @ midnight and ends @ 2am. It was just too hard on the instructors (and students) to wake up next morning for the early session. I always have a ton of fun @ Midnight Madness. Their motto is to learn absolutely nothing about Photoshop. I can't really go into too much details it would spoil the fun for you. (What happens in Midnight Madness stays in Midnight Madness) if you want to experience this unique event, you'll just have to come to Photoshop World and wait in line patiently at the "crack of dawn" like we did.

P.S. I'll post more details about Midnight Madness tomorrow. I just don't want to spoil the fun for some of you just in case you're reading this entry.

Photoshop World Party

Allen and I went to the Photoshop World Party @ the ESPN Zone tonight. Big Electric Cat played a live set tonight featuring Scott Kelby on keyboard, Felix Nelson on bass, and Scott's wife as the lead vocal. They were rockin' the house. Here's a picture of Allen in action at miniature blowling. Naturally, I beat him both times. :-)

Live Taping of Photoshop User TV

I'm sitting and waiting patiently for the live taping of next week's episode of Photoshop User TV podcast in the NAPP theatre. If you haven't tune into Photoshop User TV, you should try it this week. It's filled with Photoshop tutorials and tips. Best of all, it's free! You can download it from Photoshop User TV or if you use iTunes, you can download it through the podcast section. Have fun watching and learning Photoshop. Scott Kelby and his co-hosts Dave Cross and Matt "rockin' the houski" Kloskowski are so funny. They make learning Photoshop easy.

Photoshop for the iPhone

Announced today by Adobe Sr. VP Johnny L. It's a funny spoof on the iPhone video at the Apple Computer website. This video was debut at the opening ceremony of Photoshop World '07 in Las Vegas today.

Oyster Bar @ Palace Station Hotel

Allen flew in tonight for Photoshop World and I just picked him up and we drove directly to our favorite restaurant in Las Vegas... The Oyster Bar.

Since I have nothing better to do right now, I'm blogging. We've been waiting for more than 45 minutes and it's worth the wait. Everyone waits at the Oyster Bar. The food is awesome. Their famous panroast is to die for. They cook right in front of you while you sit at the counter. You'll be salavating by the time you sit down because you've been waiting for the past hour and smelling the aroma. It's torturous but we love it! Oh by the way, did I tell you the price is very reasonable. It's definitely a must if you ever in Las Vegas.

Afternoon at the Beach

I spent the afternoon at the Mandalay Bay Beach. It was my first experience in the famous wave pool. At first I was a little nervous about the wave pool especially, I'm not a good swimmer. So, I hung around the edge just soaking water around my knee level. Boy, that was a mistake. I got hit so hard by an end of a wave, it knocked me down and I almost passed out. It's like getting whipped by a gigantic wet towel. I was later suggested to move near the "blue" line by a life-guard. And sure enough, the wave is much more gentle there (middle of the wet towel) and it pushed me back 15 ft to shore. I rode this wave for about an hour with my water proof iPod housing and ear phones. I can't wait to do this again next year.

On a side note... the Mandalay Bay Hotel recently revamped their facilities which includes their famous man-made beach. They now have a beach side restaurant and on the top floor of the new structure by the beach, a mini-casino. Who in the world would be tempted to gamble during a fun time at the beach? I walked in, it had a black-jack table, roulette, craps, and it was empty. The dealers were just standing around watching the game on the flat screen tv.

Holiday Pictures and Holiday Greeting Cards

Now that Summer is almost over, it's time to prepare for the Winter Holidays! You might say that you still have plenty of time but it's really just around the corner. To have holiday greeting cards available to you by Thanksgiving weekend, we are currently scheduling family photo sessions starting September 15, 2007.

Please take advantage of our holiday photo session promotion and discounts. You'll save a bundle of $$ and at the same time capturing a special family portrait and preserving it forever. Kids grow up so fast. In a blink they're grown and off on their own to college, pursuing a career, starting their own family. Special moments like these only happen once in a life time. Wouldn't it be great to preserve these moments forever by having top quality photos framed and placed on your mantle, bookshelf, desk, etc.

Give us a call today! Our limited promotional photo packages are filling up very quickly.

Epson Stylus 3800 Printer! Yeah Baby!

Since, I forgot to enter in the PhotoshopUserTV weekly contest a couple of weeks ago, which Scott Kelby and his crew offered as a Photoshop Trivia contest prize... I had to purchase one myself. (Bummer! And for once, I knew the answer to the contest question.) I'll need it for my annual onsite photo printing event at Truckin' For Kids next month. (Stay tuned, I will write more about this event next week)

Our much anticipated Epson Stylus 3800 printer arrived today. I heard and read many great reviews for this printer since last December. At around $1200.00 (Street Price) it has all the goodies in the "big brother" Epson 4800 printer, (which we purchased a couple of years ago) wrapped up in a smaller package.

We considered purchasing the RIP software along with this printer from LexJet since we had such a great experience with our Epson 4800 printer. However, we wanted to test the capability of the 3800 printer by itself. Surprisingly, I was able to print a couple of 8x12 images with no user intervention (color correction and management). In fact, I didn't even bother to download the icc profile of the LexJet eSatin paper. The print came out of the printer @ 2880 dpi in less than 6 minutes, and I have to say the quality is awesome. There were details in the dark shadow area. The Epson UltraChrome K3 inks really "kicked-butt". I can't wait to do a couple of prints in Black & White, and Infrared Black & White. Stay tune, and I'll write more about this printer in the weeks to come.

Krista & Karl Wendt Wedding Album

Beth & Jesse Chapman Wedding Album

Photoshop World 2007 - Las Vegas

I’m getting a little anxious right around this time of the year because it’s only 2 weeks away from Photoshop World in Las Vegas. I always have a great time at Photoshop World ever since March 2004 in San Francisco. I learned so much every time I leave Photoshop World and it had helped me tremendously with my photography business. I learned to streamline my workflow, faster post production and raw file conversion, and image enhancement.

Scott Kelby and his crew of knowledgeable instructors always put on a great event. Go to their website to get more details. Stay tuned and I will write more details regarding this event.

Presidential Candidate, Dennis Kucinich visited the Screen Actors Guild today

Dennis Kucinich, presidential candidate visited the Screen Actors Guild today and met up some of SAG's executives for a brief meet and greet. I was fortunate to be the designated photographer to cover the event. Here are some of the photos of the day.

Yum Dom Cha, Sic Gor Bau

My good friend Robert Hom sent me the video below this morning. Pretty Rad. This is the first Chinese rapper that a major record label signed. He broke the stereotypical image of Asians as being only good at school, work, smart, un-interesting, not talent enough for the American public.

For some reason, I've always been proud that there are Chinese entertainers who can cross cultural boundaries and make it on the big screen. For example, John Lone, who starred in "The Last Emperor", and his not so prominent role as the head Chinese Mafia boss in "The Year of the Dragon". He spoke Chinese and English dialogue virtually without any accent. As far as I can remember, this is the first time an Asian actor who spoke perfect English was not directed to speak with an accent in a starring role. I really like that movie because it was filmed in NYC and it hit really close to "home" because I witnessed many of the things/events that movie depicted. I also remember the Chinese community was outraged at the time because that movie represented a very negative image in the Chinese Community. I on the other hand, could not agree more. I should know... I lived through it during my teenage years.

Self-Portrait with my iPhone

Here's a self-portrait with my iPhone while I was driving home from work. LA traffic is so bad that I have time to whip out my iPhone and
do a little creative work. What do you think?

N'Chink Music Videos

These guys are hilarious. They are UCLA students doing a parody of the boy band N'Sync. They created a streaming website several years back and later ran out of funds to maintain the bandwidth to withstand the thousands of downloads. This is before the invention of YouTube and Google Video. Check these guys out... very funny and very talented.

Nathalie and Ronald Zuletta

I heard the bad news today. I know you guys are going through some rough times. I'm sure that you'll pull through the trials and tribulations. I still remember on December 3rd of last year, you guys were so happy during your engagement photo session. (please see previous post in the archive). Furthermore, you were so happy on your beautiful wedding day on February 17th of this year.

I wish you guys the best. Trust in Him and all will be well in the end. Godspeed.

Eunice & Sheldon Butler Wedding

I have the pleasure of photographing Eunice and Sheldon's wedding today at the St. Bede Catholic Church. She's so beautiful in her gown, and Sheldon looked so handsome in his tux. It couldn't hurt that both of them are very photogenic. I love photogenic couples. It makes my job so much easier.

Their bridal party was a "hoot". Needless to say I had a wonderful time documenting their special day on digital film. I can tell that they are so much in love. Sheldon kept telling me Eunice has such a big heart that she's so nice to everyone. It's the one thing that really moved him.

During the reception, Eunice's father, Eryl Buan, made a speech to toast the happy couple. With regards to Eunice as his only daughter, he said he can safely say that she's his favorite daughter, and Sheldon is his favorite son-in-law... unless, one of his sons bring home a son-in-law to be. That brought the crowd with a roaring laughter.

He also added that Sheldon inadvertently paid him the ultimate compliment by saying he wants to raise their children just like the way Eunice was raised. If you think about it... when you found the perfect soul-mate, you'd find that they are perfect in every way. Why wouldn't you want your children to be like that as well. Of course, when Mr. Buan said that, he brought many teary eyes. He sure knew how to entertain a crowd, and bring them to tears as well.

All I can say is, I had a lot of fun and it's such a blessing to be among these great people and be an integral part of their wedding. Wishing Eunice and Sheldon long and happy life together!

I dropped my iPhone today

I dropped my iPhone today. The scratches are on 3 of 4 corners of the phone... see below.

Not only did I dropped it, I let it bounce and tumbled several times before resting face down the concrete floor. It never fails, whenever I drop my mobile phone, it's always when I'm on the run. You see, when I'm running, it creates additional momentum when the phone lands on the ground. So, the damage is more severe.

When I was using my Blackberry 8700C I used for SAG, I was running to the elevators from the garage, and it literally drop with a thud and slid across the floor 35-40 ft at approximately 10 mph. During it's journey across the floor, it picked up debris, dirt and crud which left permanent scratches on the phone. I later had to replace it with a newer BB 8800. Yep, you guessed it... within 2 weeks, I dropped it while chasing a subway car when I was in NYC in April for my 25th High School Reunion.

So, again, within 3 weeks, I dropped my iPhone. Aargh!! The darn Griffin holster broke on me. Do not make the same purchase becuase wen the clip broke off, it launched my iPhone in flight. Save your $$.

Country Wide Tennis Tournament

Yvette Foley, my co-worker at SAG invited me to watch tennis at UCLA, LA Tennis Center.

I had a great time watching James Blake almost losing to Paul Goldstein after winning the first set convincingly @ love. Then the table turned around and Blake lost the 2nd set quickly 6-1. They were neck to neck in the 3rd set and Blake had many chances to break Goldstein but he couldn't close the deal. In fact, he was down a match point at 5-6. Fortunately, Blake served a great 2nd serve wide and pulled Goldstein off the court, and followed with a forehand crosscourt winner. He then broke Goldstein next game, and served 4 aces the following game to win the match. What a "nail-biter"!

Melissa Gilbert came for a visit

Melissa Gilbert, former president of SAG came by the office for avisit. Here's a picture we took together. You might have to tilt your head because we photographed with my iPhone sideways.

Blogging via the iPhone!

This is so cool. We can now update our blog from any place and anywhere.
Sent from my iPhone

Movie Review: "Live Free or Die Hard"

Lan and I watched "Live Free or Die Hard" today at the Edwards 14 theatre on Main and Garfield. This is Bruce Willis's 4th movie in the character of John McClain. For those of you who is not sure it's the 4th movie, let me count them for you...

1. Die Hard (1988)- Nagatomi Tower, Hans (Alan Rickman, I love his work, such a great actor, British too) robbing the company's vault. Blowing up the whold building
2. Die Hard 2 (1990)- Die Harder - where John McClain picks up his wife at the airport but end up spoiling a bunch of terrorists.
3. Die Hard 3 (1995)- with a Vengence - With Sam Jackson going about NYC to avoid bombing of a school full of children. Robbing Fort Knox of NYC and the villain is none othe than Jeremy Irons, another British Actor.
4. Live Free or Die Hard (2007) - along with Justin Long as Sam. Justin has been very popular and appeared in many films lately. However, his most famous work are the numerous Apple commercials portraying as Mac opposite to PC. However, recently with the emergence of the iPhones commercials, his commercials have subsided.

Anyway, back to the movie review. Live Free or Die Hard "kicked ass" and 4 thumbs up as Lan also agreed. It's wall to wall action from the beginning to the end. Don't miss it!

Movie Review: "Ghost Rider"

Lan and I spent the afternoon watching DVDs and just 'kickin' back" and relax a little. We watched this horrible Nick Cage movie called "Ghost Rider".

It's no wonder it went practically straight to DVD rental because the acting was horrible, which is consistent to all Nick Cage movies with the exception of "The Rock" and "National Treasure". The story and the plot were lame. His character and outfit which mimick Evil Kenevil of the 70's were a joke. There hardly any action. Sam Shepherd as usual mumbled through every dialogue he had in the movie. If it weren't for the beautiful Eva Mendez, and the sinister Wes Bentley as the villain, I would have turned off the DVD player.

It's 4 thumbs way down because Lan hated it too.

Movie Review: "Happy Feet"

Lan and I spent the lazy Saturday afternoon watching DVDs. "Happy Feet" was surprisingly good and I can see why it beat our Pixar's "Cars" for best Animation Features at the Academy Awards.

Elijah Wood, famous for his character in Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins, was the voice of Mumbles... the lead character in this movie. Nicole Kidman, Britney Murphy, Robin Williams, and Hugh Jackman were among the actors who gave life and voice of these characters. It started out very entertaining and I love the songs, and the animation of tap dancing, which looks very similar to the late Gregory Hines moves. And then the story when kind of weird when they added live actors in this animation and ultimately tried to convey a "save our animals, save our planet" message.

All in all, Lan and I gave a 2 thumbs up (with 4 hands) because I still don't believe that it's as life like as Pixar's animation of "Cars".

I thought of returning my iPhone today!

Well, I was think about returning my iPhone today because today is not only Friday the 13^th, it’s also the last day you can return your iPhone if you bought it on the first day (6/29) of the launch. Mmm… now that I think about it… do you think Apple purposely launch the iPhone purposely 2 weeks before Friday the 13^th?

Well, initially I was ecstatic when I got the iPhone. (Read my previous posts regarding getting iPhone on 7/3). It was so cool having it in my hand and the GUI (Graphical User Interface) was so cool and never before seen in another PDA phone. I was really digging it so much that I was willing to overlook the “turtle-speed” AT&T Edge mobile service. However, the cool factor wore off pretty quickly as I found more and more annoying aspects of the iPhone listed below. The cool user interface and virtual voice mail is second to none. In fact, there are no other PDA phone can equal the iPhone’s “Coolness” factor.

1. The AT&T Edge is way too slow for any real function for Internet use such as surfing the Web, retrieving emails, updating weather, updating stock market, streaming YouTube videos, and checking directions from the Maps module. Although if you can get to a WiFi hotspot such as Internet Café, your house, or your neighbor’s unsecured WiFi access, the iPhone becomes a much speedier Internet device. But really, most of us didn’t get the iPhone just so that we have to be near a WiFi hotspot.
2. The virtual keyboard initially was pretty cool. Apple even has a video tutorial on it and it really got me sold on how smart the iPhone is initially. With the design of the virtual keyboard, it expanded the size of the screen. The keyboard is neatly “tucked away” when not in use and the entire real estate of the screen can be used for viewing video, movies, etc. However, the video is mis-leading. The accuracy of the keyboard is pretty low. In fact, during the 1^st week, I had to type over and over again to get the right keys to register. As the weeks went on, my accuracy got better. Another draw back is that, I can’t type while driving, which is something I shouldn’t do anyway. However, if you live in LA like I do, traffic is pretty slow most of the time. I also have to type focusing on my fingers rather than the display which I’m not used to.
3. No To Do or Task List – Can you believe it? I used to do lists and tasks lists all the time to remind me to do things with an annoying alarm. It will keep reminding me every 5 minutes until I’ve completed the task.
4. Can’t directly Sync to Entourage (Mac version of Outlook) without using iCal, and Addressbook. The whole synching was a nightmare to begin with. Like most of you, I’ve been using a PDA for quite sometime, and I wanted to off load that information onto my iPhone. It was a monumental task to move it from my Outlook, to my Entourage, and then iPhone required the latest version of iCal, and iTunes to transfer data. At times, I wanted to chuck my iPhone out the window.
5. Can’t copy and paste document – which is a major issue for me because I hate to re-type similar things or information from an email to a calendar event. Especially, I wasn’t that proficient with the new iPhone virtual keyboard.
6. Can’t view websites created in Flash. At first, it would be so cool to use my iPhone to showcase my Flash driven website (http://www.tiamophoto.com/) but I soon realized that it won’t work with Flash sites because they require a mouse pointer which the iPhone lacks.
7. Can’t download files nor applications. Here’s a real good one for you… are you sitting down? I signed up for a iPhone workshop after I got the iPhone with a local Apple Retail store. They sent me an email confirmation to my iPhone mail program. The email says to click here to add to my Calendar, so that it will remind me when my workshop appointment is near. Guess what, it can’t do it because it can’t download a file to add to my Calendar. Please bear in mind that I’m working with all Apple products and software and it’s not even compatible!
8. Can’t use mp3 files you own or purchased from iTunes as ringtones, The preloaded ringtones are a little on the “weak” side.
9. Battery life is horrible. I have to charge it every night otherwise, it would not last me for the whole day. Worse, the battery is embedded into the phone. Therefore, you can’t replace the battery or bring an extra battery. In fact, after a number of hours of usage, you must return your iPhone to Apple and have it serviced and have the battery replaced.
10. It has a notebook, but it doesn’t sync with Memo, Notepad, etc. I keep many of my passwords to websites sign on my Memo module. I can’t use it with my iPhone.
11. The headphone that comes with the phone is not so good. Because of the phone jack, it’s so narrow that any third party headphones such as the Bose headphones are not compatible with the iPhone phone jack.
12. It needs more storage other than 8 GB since the OS takes up 900MB.

Summary: The iPhone is a great iPod/Phone combination... second to none. However, as a PDA phone it still has a lot of room for improvement. You're better off with the Blackberry Curve, Treo 700p, or the Samsung Blackjack phone if you need a PDA phone.

Movie Review: "Transformers"

Lan and I watched Transformers today. This movie totally rocked because it's filled with actions from the beginning to the end. They also managed to insert a comedy slippet in between the action pack scenes. Lan and I gave this a big 2 thumbs up!

Movie Review: "Knocked Up"

Lan and I went to AMC Santa Anita for "Transformers" but it was sold out! The next show is at 7:30PM and we have 3 1/2 hours to kill. Fortunately "Knocked Up" starts at 3:15PM and we sneaked in to watch this movie in it's entirety. We had plenty of time to get out of the movie and wait in line for "Transformers".

It was surprisingly funny. Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl was electrifying as a on screen romantic comedy couple. But seriously, in real life, it's highly unlikely that Seth's type would hook up with Katerine's type. It's movie magic! Seth showed his range in this movie... first as a bum with no real direction in life. But everything changed when he realizes (with a lot of help from Katherine Heigl's character Allison) that being a parent means taking on new responsibilities. His character (Ben Stone) really took charge in controlling an angry OB-GYN doctor and a meddling sister in law.

Lan and I loved the movie... a 2 big thumbs up.

The Most Popular Wedding Date of the Century 7-7-07

Today is the most popular wedding date of the 21st Century... at least for the non-Chinese families. We Chinese like the number 8. So, next year 8-8-08 (Friday) would be swarming with Chinese couples trying to get married on that date. It should be good business opportunity for me if I try really hard to target the Asian couples who are getting married.

Actually, I might not be available that day next year, as I might be planning on getting married with Lan on that day as well. She's such a great person and I'm so happy to have her in my life. She's very generous with everyone else except for herself. She's always thinking of me and for me. I love her so much.

Receiving my first call on my iPhone

From reading yesterday's post, you would know I got an iPhone. I spent the whole night charging the phone for the first time because I was too tired to activate the phone last night. The phone was half-charged when I opened the box. That was a nice of Apple to do that for us, just in case we need to use the phone right away.

Activation of the iPhone requires the latest version of iTunes and it allowed me to contact AT&T directly and activate the phone. The whole process took less than 5 minutes. I heard some poor fellow, took over 10 hours for AT&T to activate the phone. I really hate AT&T's service.

Below is a video of Lan calling me for the first time after I added her to the Contacts folder and with her distinctive ring.

Got my iPhone today! Yeah!

I got my iPhone today. Allen found a seller through Craigslist. He had 3 phones but all we need is just 2. He has the original receipts purchased on 6/29. It's brand new untouched, the seal is still on the box. He was willing to part with these 2 phones for a nominal fee... for his trouble for lining up on 6/29. Allen and I thought it was fair so I went to pick these phones up.

What's coincidental is that the seller is James Poon, one of my former scouts from Troop 206 (now Troop 283). It was nice chatting with him again. I'm glad that he's doing well in college.

Didn't get my iPhone yet.

I came in the office early this morning and Steve Graham told me that his wife got an iPhone and that Mark Friedlander waited in line last Friday at the Grove and got one as well. It turned out that there were plenty last Friday at some Apple stores as late as 9PM.

Boy, I could have gotten an iPhone had I made a trip to the Pasadena Store on Friday. Oh well, I can wait. I read the review and Apple has many areas to improve on the iPhone. It was kind a cool that Mark came by and show me the iPhone in the afternoon. He and I actually had a pact back in January that we will show each other's iPhone.. whoever gets it first. :-)