I bought a tripod.

I went to the L.A. camera swap meet in Pasadena today and bought myself a tripod. If you don't know about it, it's a monthly event where people come to buy and sell camera goods, from vintage cameras to used dSLRs. I spent less than what I expected to for my tripod, so I would say that the trip was a success. I was tempted to buy a sweet camera bag but I managed to control myself. It's going to take some practice working with the tripod, but it will come together at some point. A more immediate effect of this purchase though, is that I'll probably do a bit more video blogging since it will be easier rigging up my camera. I might record a conversation with my mom or something. That would be hilarious.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab

Samsung was one of the major sponsors for the World Cyber Games this past weekend. At their display booth they had their competitor for the iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, out to use. It was a little sad because I knew more about the product than the woman who was working the display. However, from the five minutes I had to play with the device, I thought it was a pretty solid product. The cameras weren’t as good as I thought they’d be, but hell, it’s not like the iPad has any. What the picture doesn’t show, is how small it is. I can hold it comfortably in one hand. I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see how well it does.

I'm such a grown-up nowadays.

I just got back from meeting a friend of a friend. I wanted to meet her because she's currently in the graduate program that I'm interested in at Cal State Long Beach, so she answered a few of my questions. That's what's fucking crazy though. The me from two years ago could have never imagined discussing grad schools over a cup of coffee with someone. I was too busy playing video games and avoiding writing essays. There are a lot of times when I don't feel like an adult though, like when I ate a frozen pizza and some candy for breakfast today. I guess some things never change.

My thoughts on the iPad after one month

It's now been over a month since I bought the 32GB wi-fi iPad that I'm currently writing this blog post with. Having used it on a daily basis since then, I have to admit that I actually love the device. I currently have 106 apps on my iPad. About a third of them are silly games, three apps are for books, about twenty for media, a few blogging apps, six for photos (editing, uploading, and management), and the rest are random utilities like calculators, weather, and navigation.

The iPad has changed the way I use the Internet, but it hasn't revolutionized anything. However, what it has done, is made content a lot more accessible, which I think is the real point of the iPad. Sure, I still use a desktop computer for a lot of things, like real PC gaming and more complex photo editing, but I do pretty much everything else while sitting on the couch with my iPad.

I'm well aware of all the criticisms of the iPad like, "It's a big iPod," or that there's no flash support, and I have to admit that those are all valid. For me though, I have only encountered the flash issue a handful of times. this whole month. There is a lot of truth in saying that the iPad is a lot like the iPod touch or an iPhone. I can definitely see that and I would have had a hard time justifying my purchase if I owned either of those, but I don't so it works out for me. However, there are a few things that I can only see myself doing on an iPad and not one of the smaller devices, like reading books for longer periods of time or just browsing the Internet as much as I do.

Now if you were to ask me if I would recommend the iPad or any other tablet to someone else, my answer would vary, because even though I love it, I know it's not for everyone. If you were looking for something to replace a desktop PC, then it's not really what you're looking for. There are a lot of things that I know that I wouldn't be able to do on my iPad that I could do on a desktop or even a high end laptop. If you were considering purchasing an iPad, I would wait for a bit. As of now, the only thing on the market worth purchasing is the iPad, but in a few months time, there are going to be a few competitors. The Samsung tablet is one that I can think of off the top of my head and Blackberry just announced theirs last week, let alone the second generation of the iPad is still floating up in the air.

I know that in a year or so, I'll probably be purchasing my second tablet and giving this one to my mom. I'm not sure if it'll be the second gen iPad, but for now, I'll be enjoying the one I have now.

The World Cyber Games

So the World Cyber Games finished yesterday. I only attended day 2, but I followed a lot of the matches in the tournaments. A lot of the events turned out the way I thought they would, like America winning Guitar Hero. However, there were a few major surprises, like Jae Dong losing to flash in the Starcraft semi-finals and China not even taking a medal in Warcraft III.

There aren’t any surprises in what e-sports athletes look like, though.

I shot guns yesterday.

I feel so American.

It must be something I ate.

A carnitas burrito foam Chipotle