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Passion

Dancing with the Stars Best of Week 2

The twelfth season of Dancing with the Stars is going into its third week tonight but before that, here’s my pick from Week 2 in the competition. It’s Mark Ballas and Chelsea Kane doing a weird and wonderful jive.

This unique dance didn’t go over well with the judges, deviating too far from a traditional jive. But hey, I had just watched Finding Neverland earlier in the week, and Mark’s choreography reminded of Johnny Depp character and personality. And I am entertained by the weird and wonderful 🙂

Sadly, something happened to my recording of the Week 1, but the surprising favorite has to be the Karate Kid, Ralph Macchio. Daniel Larusso may very well be Karina Smirnoff’s best bet at the DWTS mirrorball trophy, not Mario Lopez. Ralph’s common dude look, his aw-shucks demeanor, and yes, his dancing ability are a winning combination.

Not So Enchanting

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Wanted to get a head start on the day and went to Borders early since they open at 9am.  Not so fast as this pictorial explains…

And yes, I was there to look for Guy Kawasaki’s Enchantment, but the discrepancy in hours was not so enchanting. Yes, yes, I should have followed the directions stating, “Contact the store for the most up to date hours.” 🙁

Wednesday Was a Good Day

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Yesterday was a good day. Day after day, blogging away, I wonder what’s it all for? It ain’t for the income. Really, it’s just for me and my passions, addictions, and pulp, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that getting a perk or two isn’t appreciated. And that was Wednesday.

First, I was notified of The Weather Channel’s new show From the Edge with Peter Lik debuting today. After an email exchange, I’m hoping to get a copy of Peter’s photo book, Spirit of America.

Later in the day, I got a Twitter Direct Message about an upcoming social media tweetup for the Navy. While I might not be able to fit this event in my schedule, it feels great to be invited and to be able to extend this invitation to others.

To help the music program at my daughter’s school, we’re selling chili, Portuguese bean soup (not soap), or cookies from Zippys. A quick mention on Twitter and a cool retweet from @zippys and some sales were made. I’m still selling tickets ($7 each) if anyone wants instant ono food! 🙂

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/zippys/status/53292000463699968″]

And to wind down the day, I see that my IRL cousin, @oahu_re_etc, got to see the filming of Hawaii Five-0 in downtown and mentioned the sale of Daniel Dae Kim’s former home.

So what’s the morale of the story? Engaging in social media ain’t about making money, but it’s for the fun, the passion, and the occasional perk. 😉

March Madness 2011 Kicks Analysis #7: The Final Four

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What a remarkable and unbelievable Final Four this is. No #1 or #2 seed is playing for a National Championship. That is a historical first. We have #11 VCU, #8 Butler, #4 Kentucky, and #3 Connecticut, and all of them belong to Team Nike.

Which Nike Air Max Fly By do you like the best?

Butler
Kentucky
UConn
VCU

Back in 2008 when all #1 seeds met in the Final Four, Adidas was represented by three teams, UCLA Bruins, Memphis Tigers, and Kansas Jayhawks.

For You, I’d Chase a Lava Flow?!

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Back in the day, local music group Kalapana sang “For You, I’d Chase a Rainbow.” On Thursday, March 31, 2011 for you, The Weather Channel and photographer Peter Lik will chase a lava flow on the Big Island. The Weather Channel is premiering a new series called From the Edge with Peter Lik that captures the beauty of America in pictures.

Peter Lik is an international photographer doing what he can to take the perfect shots of the wonders of the world. His first challenge is photographing the fiery Madam Pele herself.

But patience, perseverance, and a little bit of craziness pays off with gorgeous pictures like this.

After the adventures in Hawaii, follow along with Peter, get some of his photography tips and take in the wonders of America from the edge.

Quick Thoughts About Amazon Cloud Player

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Amazon launched its cloud based music system yesterday, storing your multimedia files in your Cloud Drive and playing back audio with the Cloud Player. Kinda but not so surprisingly, Amazon beat out competitors like Apple, Google, and Spotify to a cloud based music locker to make your tunes portable.

What’s good? Amazon did a great job documenting and explaining their new Cloud service including step by step instructions. Every user automatically gets 5GB of storage for free and it’s easy to get more space. You can pay $1 per GB per year or simply buy an MP3 album from Amazon and get upgraded to 20GB for one year. And since Amazon has a bunch of deals on MP3 albums, it’s not hard to find something for $2-5 to get this one-year upgrade. Now what happens after your one year upgrade is over, I don’t know. Say I save 10 GB of music in my Cloud Drive and in one year, I revert back to a freebie 5-GB account, do I now have to pay? Amazon says no, but what then happens?

Back to the good. Any Amazon MP3 Store purchase doesn’t count against your Cloud Drive quota:

When you save your Amazon MP3 Store purchases directly to your Cloud Drive, they don’t take up any of your storage space and are always stored for free.

Uploads to Cloud Drive are speedy, and the MP3 Uploader app does a good drive scanning your computer for music files to upload, including unprotected iTunes purchases. I opted to upload a playlist of 147 songs which would take up 0.5 GB of space. The app estimates time remaining for uploads and provides good status feedback. Not too bad but…

Now for the bad. No playback for iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. Android yes, Apple no. So far, I can’t easily tell how I upload individual songs using the MP3 Uploader app. By default, your music is grouped and displayed in playlists and by artists. I’d like another way to view my music so I can select which songs to upload. The Uploader app is tied your login status with Amazon. If something happens to that connection, the Uploader app stops working. My overnight upload stopped for some reason, and it looks like I had to log back in to Amazon’s web site before the Uploader started working again.

And my biggest peeve is the clunkiness. Yes, Cloud Drive and Cloud Player work, but it doesn’t feel as elegant as it could be. You have to install some software on your computer to playback and upload files. That’s understandable but gives a pieced-together sort of feel. Amazon’s implementation masks the different parts well, but you still get a sense of the different components working individually, not harmoniously.

So while Amazon is first to the cloud-based music locker, the battle is far from over. Apple definitely can penetrate this market with an elegant implementation leveraging the breadth of iTunes. Then coupled with AirPlay to share (not file share) your files locally, Apple could have a more compelling service. Still though, Amazon’s service is a great step forward for your music, photos, and videos. Where ever you’re connected, you can get to these files. This freedom is liberating.

Apple AirPlay in Autos?

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Sure, Apple’s AirPlay is a silent but potentially potent technology, and it might be built in to your next television. But where it’s really needed is in cars, more specifically cars with entertainment systems, like minivans with a video screen for kids.

Having a DVD setup just ain’t enough, and it is a hassle to change discs. It’d be much more elegant to wirelessly stream a movie playing off an iPhone. No stretching behind to eject a DVD in the ceiling mounted player, no fumbling around with the remote control, just play and stream.

Which Is More Enchanting?

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So from two leading book stores, tell me which is more enchanting with Enchantment?

This first picture is from Borders. While I love Borders in Hawaii, the chain has hit a rough spell and is closing even more Hawaii stores including the first Borders location in Waikele. Besides unexplainable restroom issues, check out this anomaly. I’m holding a copy of Enchantment found in Borders, and I’m also looking up the book using the in-store computer system. See where it says “Not in store”? I don’t get it since I’m holding a copy of the book found in the store.

At Borders

This picture is from Barnes & Noble. Lots of copies for those seeking Enchantment.

At Barnes & Noble

 

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