In two words, NOT NEEDED.

After spending an hour of my life looking for the best screen providing not only dirt protection but anti-glare, I decided on an Elecom-branded screen to protect my newly purchased iPad. After applying the protective layer (and not without some confusion as the instructions were in Japanese and not exactly correct matching the product oddly enough), I found it very difficult to wipe off the oils that collected on it from the screen. In fact, it was annoyingly difficult. It was so bad that within 2-3 days of putting up with it, I decided that doing without it would be much better.

The anti-glare wasn’t really all that effective either.

In the end, I found that Apple did a good job with protective oil-rejecting surface coating, so no problem. It also wipes off very nicely with the Apple cloth (came with my iMac as I recall).

Furthermore, the new Belkin case I bought for my iPad is sufficient protection to prevent unnecessary scratches.

He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

“One is Evil – It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

“The other is Good – It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

(Source: Unknown. Came through my mailbox.)

This theme is called iWood, which I really like. Has a nice feel to it. Not overly imposing. I’ve also dimmed down the background a bit using the settings.

There are a lot of different apps to download via the “non-official store” Cydia (app). There are many free apps as well as some paid ones. One below is called SBSettings which allow a simple 1- to 2-click toggles of different settings on your iPhone. Very handy.

But I’ve now found an app to use my Vonage Softphone line, which allows me to make/receive calls over WiFi to the States for no additional charge, other than the charges I already have for having the plan. There are other VoIP situations that can make it “free”-er, but since I have Vonage already, this is no big deal for me.

Lots to explore so far. Speech recognition is the latest… more to follow.

In a short break from my studies, I thought I’d whip up a small program using Apple’s Dashcode developers’ tool. It’s probably got more features, but I don’t have the time to figure it all out. For my own use, I created a Japanese Kanji stroke order lookup. You need the New Japanese-English Code (Halpern).

http://web.me.com/ianshen/iApps/kanji/index.html

One particular scene in the pilot episode caught me quite unexpectedly. The moment when the teacher Will Shuster watches a video of himself in the glee club during his days at William McKinly High. In that moment he tears up and recalls the happiness that he experienced “back then” when he performed on stage.

I too teared up. Not moved by his tears, per se, but by my vivid memories of the pure elation of performing as a proud member of The O’Fallon High School Great Expectations Show Choir.

I LOVED IT.

I have not words to really express the depth of how much I loved it. (I need to break out into song and dance to fully express!) And watching “Glee” reminded me realize how much I love … and miss it.

Nothing has since compared to the joy of being on stage during those years. It was the most self-expressed I think I ever felt. The most happy I had ever been. Like a drug. The adrenaline. The rush. The harmonies of the songs would drown all the cares of the world, fade them away — the music, dance, and sharing with an audience. I remember how hard we worked — the hours at rehearsal — and what sacrifices had to be made in order to make it all happen. The last minute changes in our show routine. The hours of repeating dance moves, learning new ones, relearning them. Perfecting each note, each choreographed arm/leg raise to military-like precision. Timing the ensemble tap of real tap shoes to avoid a runaway train-wreck.

Yes, we were mocked in school. Called names. Considered low-lifes in the high school social class hierarchy. But it was all worth it. I would do it again in a heart beat.

The Fox show brought back so much of those amazing memories, the extremes of emotion, when everything seemed like life or death when it came to crushes and loneliness, falling in love and finding oneself, working one’s butt off and kicking the ass of the reigning show choir champions at (regionals) competition.

The OTHS Great Expectations Show Choir (1988-1989)

For all its worth, I loved Show Choir. I was happy.

I’m forever grateful to those who made it possible, our school, my parents, others’ parents, especially to Gail Flemming, our visionary director who gave of herself in so many ways to inspire us (and to put up with our teenage drama and mega-inflated-egos). As I watch “Glee”, I count it a blessing that so many kids of this generation can experience a taste of it.

Let the music play on…! Thank you, Fox, for the show and the trip down memory lane.

Battlestar Galactica: Naturalistic Science Fiction
or Taking the Opera out of Space Opera

by Ronald D. Moore

Our goal is nothing less than the reinvention of the science fiction television series. We take as a given the idea that the traditional space opera, with its stock characters, techno-double-talk, bumpy-headed aliens, thespian histrionics, and empty heroics has run its course and a new approach is required. That approach is to introduce realism into what has heretofore been an aggressively unrealistic genre.

Call it ” Naturalistic Science Fiction.”

This idea, the presentation of a fantastical situation in naturalistic terms, will permeate every aspect of our series:

Visual

The first thing that will leap out at viewers is the dynamic use of the documentary or cinéma verité style. Through the extensive use of hand-held cameras, practical lighting, and functional set design, the battlestar Galactica will feel on every level like a real place.

This shift in tone and look cannot be overemphasized. It is our intention to deliver a show that does not look like any other science fiction series ever produced. A casual viewer should for a moment feel like he or she has accidentally surfed onto a “60 Minutes” documentary piece about life aboard an aircraft carrier until someone starts talking about Cylons and battlestars.

That is not to say we’re shooting on videotape under fluorescent lights, but we will be striving for a verisimilitude that is sorely lacking in virtually every other science fiction series ever attempted. We’re looking for filmic truth, not manufactured ” pretty pictures” or the “way cool” factor.

Perhaps nowhere will this be more surprising than in our visual effects shots. Our ships will be treated like real ships that someone had to go out and film with a real camera. That means no 3-D “hero” shots panning and zooming wildly with the touch of a mousepad. The questions we will ask before every VFX shot are things like: “How did we get this shot? Where is the camera? Who’s holding it? Is the cameraman in another spacecraft? Is the camera mounted on the wing?” This philosophy will generate images that will present an audience jaded and bored with the same old “Wow — it’s a CGI shot!” with a different texture and a different cinematic language that will force them to re-evaluate their notions of science fiction.

Another way to challenge the audience visually will be our extensive use of the multi-split screen format. By combining multiple angles during dogfights, for example, we will be able to present an entirely new take on what has become a tired and familiar sequence that has not changed materially since George Lucas established it in the mid 1970s.

Finally, our visual style will also capitalize on the possibilities inherent in the series concept itself to deliver unusual imagery not typically seen in this genre. That is, the inclusion of a variety of civilian ships each of which will have unique properties and visual references that can be in stark contrast to the military life aboard Galactica. For example, we have a vessel in our rag-tag fleet which was designed to be a space-going marketplace or “City Walk” environment. The juxtaposition of this high-gloss, sexy atmosphere against the gritty reality of a story for survival will give us more textures and levels to play than in typical genre fare.

Editorial

Our style will avoid the now clichéd MTV fast-cutting while at the same time foregoing Star Trek’s somewhat ponderous and lugubrious “master, two-shot, close-up, close-up, two-shot, back to master” pattern. If there is a model here, it would be vaguely Hitchcockian — that is, a sense of building suspense and dramatic tension through the use of extending takes and long masters which pull the audience into the reality of the action rather than the distract through the use of ostentatious cutting patterns.

Story

We will eschew the usual stories about parallel universes, time-travel, mind-control, evil twins, God-like powers and all the other clichés of the genre. Our show is first and foremost a drama. It is about people. Real people that the audience can identify with and become engaged in. It is not a show about hardware or bizarre alien cultures. It is a show about us. It is an allegory for our own society, our own people and it should be immediately recognizable to any member of the audience.

Science

Our spaceships don’t make noise because there is no noise in space. Sound will be provided from sources inside the ships — the whine of an engine audible to the pilot for instance. Our fighters are not airplanes and they will not be shackled by the conventions of WWII dogfights. The speed of light is a law and there will be no moving violations.

And finally,

Character

This is perhaps, the biggest departure from the science fiction norm. We do not have “the cocky guy” “the fast-talker” “the brain” “the wacky alien sidekick” or any of the other usual characters who populate a space series. Our characters are living, breathing people with all the emotional complexity and contradictions present in quality dramas like “The West Wing” or “The Sopranos.” In this way, we hope to challenge our audience in ways that other genre pieces do not. We want the audience to connect with the characters of Galactica as people. Our characters are not super-heroes. They are not an elite. They are everyday people caught up in a enormous cataclysm and trying to survive it as best they can.

They are you and me.

Epson's Preference Panel

I couldn’t help but wonder this morning while changing my ink cartridges who “the voice” was. James Earl Jones, perhaps? The little moments of Japanese->English translations…

Ian as Tigrus in Rolling (The Movie, 2007) from Ian Shen on Vimeo.