Every once in a while, I come across a device or peripheral that makes me wonder - why would anyone think of making this? And the 6x zoom lens for the iPhone made me ask just that.
I tend to classify photo takers into three groups: the professional [...]
So I downloaded the Digg Firefox Toolbar a few days ago, and I’m pretty impressed. Every 15 minutes or so, the next hot story will pop up in the corner of my screen - it’s definitely a good way to keep on top of Digg without visiting the website [...]
So the big Web 3.0 buzz lately has centered around the Mozilla Labs Concept Series - an attempt by the creators of everyone’s favorite web browser to drum up brainstorming for how Web 3.0 will work. And certainly the most intriguing [read: the concept with the most expensively produced [...]
The internet’s come a long way in the past few years. Sites like YouTube, Facebook, and all the other Web 2.0 advances have created an internet almost unrecognizable to what it looked like five years ago. Many would say for the better; they’d at least try to convince you that [...]
Now, I’ve never had any problems with Dreamhost - I love them, in fact. And I would never want to simply make fun of them. But…. This testimonial ad on their homepage today made me laugh too much not to post it. Plus, the guy doing [...]
I was quite bored this afternoon, and decided to round up some of my favorite USB Flash Drive designs I’ve come across while web surfing. From food items to religious figures, these designs are certainly… Original, if nothing else. Click on the pictures for more info.
Integrated Media Measurement Inc., or “IMMI” (no, I hadn’t heard of them either) just released a report that analyzed the growing trend of people watching their favorite TV shows online. According to the report, about 20% of viewers watch some sort of primetime content on their computers, either in [...]
This is one that got me smiling: The government of Italy has set up a text messaging service for consumers to check the wholesale prices of various foods on-the-fly. With soaring gas prices, the cost of food has also been on the rise, making consumers a lot more weary of [...]
As you probably know by now, ex-Google employee Anna Patterson + husband Tom Costello and some guy named Russel Power launched a new search engine this morning. It’s called “Cuil” (pronounced “Cool”) from the old Irish word for knowledge - leave it to a search engine to come up [...]
So I tried headed over to The Pirate Bay a little while ago [not intending to do do anything illegal, of course…], but noticed something odd: it’s down.
In all seriousness, I don’t frequent the site, so I don’t know how reliable the servers normally are, but this seems to be [...]
So I’ve had my new phone for a few months now (okay, so that might declassify it at “new), and I’m quite happy with it. It’s a Samsung Blackjack. Unfortunately, everyone who sees or borrows it to make a call seems feel it necessary to fawn over it and freak [...]
Do any of you remember the joy you felt when you turned on the television to watch your favorite show, and discovered that this week’s episode happened to be a musical episode? One of those special episodes in which the writers decided to throw every common-sense limitation in the writing, [...]
Well, today was the first Sunday morning since I think Christmas (and one of only a few in the past two years) that I didn’t have to get up uncomfortably early and drive into WNRN to produce the Sunday Morning Wake-Up Call. Don’t get me wrong - I love Rick [...]
I have this ritual I go through the opening night of every show I’m in. It started with my school’s 9th grade production of West Side Story, and I’ve been repeated the process (more or less) with ever production I’ve acted in or directed.
But rehearsals for Live Arts’ production of High School Musical are finally over, with our free preview starting tonight. Overall, I’m really pleased with how the show’s come along. It was certainly a different experience being on both the acting and production/design ends of [...]
A) You spend between five and seven hours a day at Live Arts
B) You forget to eat for an entire day
C) You end up in the hospital due to stress-induced convulsions
For those of us lucky enough to be able to answer “All of the above”? It’s not a [...]
I’ve never really gotten into the whole, movie-watching-on-a-PC idea (mostly because the selection on iTunes - not to mention the price - is useless). With the exception of a few high-budget blockbusters (which, coincidentally, also means prices 40-50% higher), it’s mostly gaudy science fiction, or the equivalent quality of most [...]
I’m sitting in the Downtown Mudhouse right now, facing the desktop they have set up there, and having far too good a time. What do most people do when they get on a computer at an internet cafe? One of two things. They either A) Check their email, or B) [...]
I’m down to the last five days of my high school education.
Wow.
To be honest, I hadn’t really noticed until today. Up until now, I’d just continued to go through the motions of school: going to class, not going to class, doing the minimal amounts of homework associated with senior year… [...]
So I’ve been putting off submitting my housing application for NYU - mainly because I hadn’t decided what dorm I wanted to live in yet. But I finally sat down today, and made my top five choices for residential halls:
I am getting so fed up with these internet filters. Youtube and MySpace have been blocked at Charlottesville High School for over a year now, but our dear friends in the school’s IT department have just recently decided to ban Facebook. And boy, is everone upset. You see, we often [...]
The auditions have been held, the songs sung, the necessary facebook group created, and the castlist posted. [Sort of.]
Over the past month or so, the production team for High School Musical at Live Arts has been working hard holding auditions, designing, casting, and reading those god-forsaken 100 pages of script [...]
I’ve been waiting for Moby’s new album since Hotel came out over three years ago, and I finally got my wish today. So here’s my (somewhat haphazard) review of Moby’s Last Night:
It seems like every single anticipatory review of Last Night mentioned the fact that it’s “more dance-oriented” than Moby’s [...]
As most of you Charlottesville readers know by now, the Downtown Mall is undergoing some significant changes. From rebricking to the new Landmark Hotel at the old Boxer Building, I’m a little worried that the mall I visit when I come home from college will be very different from the [...]
I’ve found myself spending a lot more time downtown lately… Maybe it’s the gaping 2.5 hour window I have in the middle of every school day with nothing to do, maybe I’ve just needed some escape time from the rest of my busy life - who knows? All I know, [...]
You know, I’ve almost posted about a dozen times in past two months (even written a few posts out, but by the time I finished, they were irrelevant) – but it just never happened. I’m not even sure as I’m writing this that it’ll ever be read by anyone. I [...]
This has been quite a busy week for me. Last Thursday, I was doing the NBC thing, when I got one of those “big breaks” you hear about. The photographer I was working with let me shoot the entire story we were working on (about the Albemarle County School Board), [...]
So I know you’re supposed to do the whole, “Best of 200_” before 200_ is over, but hey - I was busy driving from Indiana on New Years’ Eve to do that. So here it is: my list of favorite things from 2007 (in no particular order).
I feel really guilty I never kept up with my blogging about my internship at NBC. As my time over at Channel 29 is coming to a close, I’m starting to wish that I had a record of how my skills and views about the media have changed during these [...]
So a little more information about my previous post:
Carnegie Mellon has great film and computer science programs, and so does Chapel Hill; NYU, on the other hand, has the Tisch School for film, which would pretty much be my dream program. *sigh* Welcome to the next year of my life…
Over the past year or so, I’ve experienced Facebook’s “relationship status” from many different points of view. First, I was on the oblivious end of a profile who’s owner - according to Facebook - was single (but actually in a relationship). Later on, [...]
So guys, I think it might be about time for another Charlottesville Bloggers Meet-Up. Personally, I had a lot of fun at the last one back in May (has it really been over six months?), and if there’s still interest out there, I’d love to have another one of [...]
The Virginia High School League AA State Theatre Festival was on Tuesday. And, out of the hundred or so schools in our division that competed in the various district and regional competitions, we ended up with 2nd Place in the State (not to brag, or anything…). I’m always so impressed [...]
Here’s one way to get on the naughty list: suing a nonprofit. A Nigerian company is suing the One Laptop Per Child Association for apparently using a keyboard similar in design to one they hold under copyright (the use of 4 shift keys to increase ease of use in [...]
I love the times of day when you just need to talk to someone, but no one’s around. Your Gmail chat box is a solid mass of grayed-out names, chronicling all the people who aren’t around to comfort you. The one person online is sleeping - as they groggily inform [...]
I’ve spent the past few weeks listening to dozens of people complain about the decline in privacy online. From Facebook and MySpace letting the government snoop on people’s profiles, to the idea of a National ID Card, people stir up a storm every time they discover some minute way the [...]
I was driving through Pantops on Thursday, when I realized how utterly dead the world was that day. I don’t think I’d ever been out driving on Thanksgiving before, but as I had to go into NBC this week for my internship, I found myself cruising through town while most [...]
I woke up around 4AM on Saturday - our bus was leaving CHS at 5:45. The cast of How To Eat Like A Child was traveling up to Broad Run High School to compete in the Region II VHSL Theatre Competition. Six schools were there, with a surprising [...]
Yesterday, a friend of mine pulled me away from my oh-so-urgent reading of Pride and Prejudice (*cough* *cough*) for AP English. He’d been having some relationship issues, and needed someone to talk to (who’d have thought anyone would ever come to me for advice on girls?!?!). Listening to him talk [...]
I’ve been slowing down on posts lately, but I though you should all hear this quote from a “top U.S. Intelligence official”, when speaking about the increased surveillance on American Citizens:
It’s “time that people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.”
I was surprised early Wednesday morning to learn that, due to cancellations, I had been offered a spot in this year’s Film Symposium at the Virginia Film Festival. The Symposium, led by NYU instructor Harry Chotiner, will involve me and 19 others (me being the youngest…again…as in everything I do…) [...]
I was driving into school this morning, when I heard that a teenager had been arrested for two armed robberies yesterday. “Oh great, more teens with guns. I love Charlottesville…” I was thrown off when I heard the kid’s name, though: “Quentin Levar Gray.” Smack. I knew that guy; [...]
As I was driving to the Jefferson District Theatre Competition this morning, a live version of The Fray’s “Over My Head (Cable Car)” came on the radio. As soon as the lyrics started, you could hear this sort of echo on about an eighth of a [...]
So, I was quite literally awoken on Saturday by my boyfriend complaining about Dumbledore being gay. Dumbledore, for thoseofyou that refuse to read Harry Potter, being a character in, yes, Harry Potter. As most of you likely know, J.K. Rowling mentioned on a tour stop [...]
I drove for upwards of eight hours on Friday and Saturday, and ended up listening to a lot of music on this wonderful thing called XM (*gasp*, WNRN sacrilege!). And there were a few things I noticed about modern music in general:
First, music used to involved just one person singing. [...]
The street I live on has had an odd little tradition for at least as long as I’ve lived here in Virginia (at I think it’s odd - I don’t actually know how many other neighborhoods do this). Whenever we drive by someone else walking their dog or getting the [...]
I’m a bit ashamed that I didn’t start this earlier. As many of you know, I’ve been interning at NBC29 here in Charlottesville for the past month or so. And I’ve decided to do weekly blog entries on my experiences there. I bring you: Adventures of [...]
I came to school today, expecting to meet with administrators about their school club policy - an issue that’s threatening to shut down CHS’s male a cappella group, the Testostetones (of which I am a member). Ready to “fight for our rights,” I walked down B-hallway to the Media Center, [...]
Just a small rant: As I’ve been listening to the radio lately, I’ve heard a few commercials that involve background noise of horn honking. There will be people in a drive thru, or a busy intersection, or just some random ambient noise, that includes an angry driver honking. Is it [...]
I just set up phpBB on my school’s Theatre website - supposedly the Theatre classes will be using them to continue discussions about movies and plays, as well as throw around set design ideas for the upcoming Spring Musical. The theatre teacher, Mr. Small, has even offered extra credit to [...]
Today’s the 1 year anniversary of me coming out to my friends at school. I remember it well - I’d told a close friend of mine, then my family, then debated for a few weeks about whether I wanted to come out to everyone or not. And then, after realizing [...]
My school’s male a cappella group, the Testostetones, finished holding their auditions today, and I helped judge. We actually got a fairly large turnout - I guess the T-Tones have gained some sort of reputation over the past year (for better or for worse…). But our teacher sponsor (my [...]
This weekend, I drove up to New York for NYU’s open house. Holy crap, I want to go there even more now… Unfortunately, the Film & Television program is pretty much the most popular major Tisch has to offer. Which means out of the few [...]
I just got back from having lunch downtown, and let me tell you: Christian’s tastes soooo good during the school day… I love having two “free” periods…
Anyway, I was walking down Garrett St. and noticed all this random graffiti on the backs of signs. They’re like, little squiggles that aren’t [...]
Well readers, today I started my internship at NBC29, and I must say I think I’m going to love it here (I’m still in the newsroom, actually). There are stretches where I’ve been sitting at the computer for 90 minutes doing nothing - like now, for example - but I [...]
I written about the iPhone before - speculated about its success, even defended its $600 price tage. But, amazingly enough, in a move I doubt many expected, Apple has decreased the price of the 8GB iPhone by $200, brining it down to just $399 (they’ve stopped selling the 4GB version).
I was driving home from school last Friday, when I decided to stop by the Giant on Pantops to pick up some food (by “food” I of course mean ice cream). So I park my car and begin the exhausting walk up an entire row of the parking lot - [...]
Honestly, I’ve never quite understood the High School Musical phenomenon. My friends have watched it, even my sister finally broke down and took the DVD to college with her. It’s ridiculous! Very few self-imitating movies are good, and this one premiered on Disney Channel with teenage actors… Really, now. There [...]
I stopped by the NBC29 studios today to finalize things with my internship there for this year. I worked out my schedule (I’ll be working there every Thursday from 3-11PM…yeah.), and they gave me a quick tour of the place, during [...]
As many of my friends will attest to, I’ve spent the better part of the past month on web design work (even spending 35 hours straight working on my school’s theatre website). Yesterday, Sean Tubbs and I released the new design for the Charlottesville Podcasting Network, which is an [...]
Like every other student lucky enough to be zoned into the Charlottesville City School system, I started school today (there was only a hint of sarcasm there…). Unlike every other student, I was actually pretty excited to get back to school. I guess maybe this summer’s just been so productive, [...]
So I was planning on writing about a CD that came out today by Darren Hayes (formerly of 90s pop band Savage Garden - don’t you dare laugh): “This Delicate Thing We’ve Made”. I’ve been waiting for it to come out for months now - I have kind of an [...]
But in addition to me turning 17, this is also a special day for something else - my blog turns 3! I started this blog back on my 14th birthday in 2004, right before my first day of high school. 1095 days, over 200 posts, several [...]
I’ve been having a lot of server problems, as of late. I’m working on about three different site designs at the moment, and starting to play around with Joomla for the more advanced ones - but I’m running into some problems with Dreamhost’s PHP installation. I guess they think setting [...]
Logo held the Visible Vote 08 Presidential Forum last night - the major Democratic presidential candidates all came to discuss issues that apply to the LGBT crowd (none of the Republicans accepted the invitation… surprise surprise…). Here, I’ll respond to all the candidate’s [...]
I spent the last two days in Massachusetts, helping my sister move out of her summer dorm (she does research at her college during the summer), and found it appalling how there was no air conditioning in said dorm. Now that I think about it, I believe some halls at [...]
Being a convention geek, I found this incredibly funny: Michelle Madigan, Associate Producer of NBC Dateline, went to hacking convention DEFCON 2007 posing as a regular attendant. In reality, she was there to catch someone planning to commit a felony by hacking. The staff found out about it, announced to [...]
This has been about six months in the making (literally), which is kind of sad, actually… But, I’ve finally finished my piece of education reform and the tracking system in public schools, and I posted it on the Charlottesville Podcasting Network. It’s worth a listen for anyone that currently [...]
I’ve been sick for a few days now - quite sick, actually. Ever since I got back from Governor’s School, I’ve had a killer cold. Plus, I got an ear infection yesterday, which thankfully has all-but disappeared by today. Under any circumstances, this would be annoying. But I’m trying to [...]
Well, not really a break. I’m just spending a lot of time right now creating the new Theatre CHS website - and trust me, it’s worth it. Should only be a day or two more now before I submit it for approval, so stay tuned to take a look!
I’ve been fiddling around with website development for about seven years now, and I’ve picked up a few skills along the way. For instance, in a situation where a sane person would call tech support and try to explain their problem to a condescending man in some HQ, I prefer [...]
Back in middle school, my best friend’s family was asked to participate in a week-long survey of their television habits by Nielson Media Research (the company that figures out how many people watch TV shows each week). I was very jealous. Ever since, I’ve been interested in the seemingly-random statistics [...]
Things are going alright here - not too many days left in the month… I’ve had such a great time, though; if any of you ever get a chance to do something like this, take it immediately!
They played my Avril Lavigne video at the Variety Show [...]
Edward J. Markey, a Democratic representative from Massachusetts, has been raising hell over in the House on the iPhone’s early termination fee ($175), and the inability of iPhone users to switch to a network other than AT&T. For example, if you move to a place where AT&T service sucks (like [...]
I remember the good old days when a 128 kbps internet speed was considered relatively good. Heck, it was only a few years ago that my family moved past that benchmark and into “broadband” goodness (I use quotation marks because satellite internet can seem slower than [...]
Here at Governor’s School, we have classes that we choose that meet once for one hour - just small discussion groups or workshops that you can go to without any real commitment (they only last for 60 minutes, after all). Today, I went to a discussion about Harry Potter, which [...]
I’m sitting here in the library of the University of Richmond - the heat index is 105 degrees, and the air conditioning inside this building is a bit less than adaquate. And it’s only going to get worse as the month goes on, I fear…
During my first free night at my summer college, I sat in my room, finishing up the last bits of homework I had for the following day. The rain poured torrentially outside, and I could hear the airborne flood, its sound drifting through my open window on the [...]
I never knew you could play the cello with that much ferocity… with a straight face, that is… This video’s instrumental, but the players’ “seriousness” makes up for it.
Apocalyptica - “Somewhere Around Nothing”
Oh, the angst! The pain! The post-teenage drama all electric cello players have to deal with!
As many of you have probably noticed by now, I’m not doing all that well at the moment. I’m going through a really hard time right now, and I’m sorry for largely cutting myself off from people. To tell you the truth, I just can’t handle being with most people [...]
What happens when you mix Mrs. Doubtfire with Peewee’s Playhouse? Verka Serduchka happens. Be careful, though - they had to pixilate parts of this video (which makes it all the more funny, in a way…).
It’s been a while since the video games industry has been hit with an outright ban of a game - 10 years in fact, for Britain. Even the Grand Theft Auto buzz a few years ago about the hidden sex level never garnered the complete removal of the game from [...]
Google announced their Public Policy Blog yesterday, outlining the internet giant’s hopes and dreams of a future where we can communicate openly and freely, discuss with civility the issues that face our culture, save the children, help the poor, cure the common cold, end world hunger, etc. The big discussion [...]
As the good folks over at Aving now report, Samsung is prepared to showcase 53 new cellphone models this week at CommunicAsia 2007 in Singapore. You saw the right number - 53. And from one company, at that! Now, maybe I’m being simplistic here, but when I go into [...]
I never would have guessed this one: According to Ellacoya, a company that creates broadband networks for clients, HTTP internet traffic (with 46%) is barely beating out P2P networks (41%) as the largest source of bandwidth usage. And only two years ago, P2P file sharing accounted for 65% of [...]
I figure the readers of this blog could use a nice Patrick Stewart photo every once in a while, so I’ve dug one up for you, straight from the Patrick Stewart Network website. It needs no additional commentary.
As flash memory prices continue to drop, they are readily replacing disc media as the “chosen” form of inter-computer data transfer. You can already find USB sticks that can hold almost as much as a standard DVD disc for less than the price of what those ten packs of DVD-RWs [...]
This week, we’re going back to the roots of my obsession with European music videos. It’s Lordi’s new video of their hit single that won the Eurovision Song Contest last year:
Sound-pattern recognition is an interesting subject - it’s really cool, everyone’s trying to capitalize on it, and it never quite works perfectly. Nevertheless, Microsoft just took out a patent on a voice recognition-based caller-ID system, and if it becomes widespread enough, could serve as a more accurate alternative [...]
A teenager in China recently killed his mother and “seriously injured” his father. The catch? He was a supposed “internet addict,” and his government is blaming his online obsession for his violent behavior. In an even broader generalization, state officials are using the increase in popularity of the [...]
There’s been a lot of complaints over the past few days from gamers and bloggers alike over the Church of England criticizing Sony for using Manchester Cathedral as a backdrop in the video game “Resistance: Fall of Man.” A gun fight takes place in the cathedral, prompting the [...]
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I’m a bit ashamed that I didn’t start this earlier. As many of you know, I’ve been interning at NBC29 here in Charlottesville for the past month or so. And I’ve decided to do weekly blog entries on my experiences there. I bring you: Adventures of 
I’ve had such a great time, though; if any of you ever get a chance to do something like this, take it immediately!
Sound-pattern recognition is an interesting subject - it’s really cool, everyone’s trying to capitalize on it, and it never quite works perfectly. Nevertheless, Microsoft just took out a patent on a voice recognition-based caller-ID system, and if it becomes widespread enough, could serve as a more accurate alternative 
A teenager in China recently killed his mother and “seriously injured” his father. The catch? He was a supposed “internet addict,” and his government is blaming his online obsession for his violent behavior. In an even broader generalization, state officials are using the increase in popularity of the 
There’s been a lot of complaints over the past few days from gamers and bloggers alike over the Church of England criticizing Sony for using Manchester Cathedral as a backdrop in the video game “Resistance: Fall of Man.” A gun fight takes place in the cathedral, prompting the 
