Little did I know that this was going to be one heck of a hassle, that ultimately, is not worth it!

So, here’s the first issue I run into.   I go to Gamestop and buy a copy after work on the way home.  Figured it would be a good way to waste some time when I got nothing else to do at home.  Yea, that’s how I justified it. But anyway, I get home, start to open up the case, and low and behold, I notice that there’s no plastic surrounding the dvd case when I slid it out of it’s box.  And worse, no game, no manual.  Not even a friggin sheet of paper!  Nothing!!  The result of some shoplifter who decided to just lift the cd, and the paperwork containing the registration code.  So, I’m pretty much out of luck until I let them know what happened, and have them set aside a replacement copy for the next day.  I love how this works.  They put in all sorts of copy protection, etc… so the people just steal it from the store.  If people are going to pirate a game, they are going to find a way.  Hell, just make it a little bit cheaper, and therefore more enticing to those who are cheap.  Yea, the deadbeats aren’t going to buy it even if it was friggin 5 dollars, but oh well!

Which leads me to my second problem, and  TON of frustration.  So, with the game finally in my hand, I start the process of installing it on my hard drive and then attempting to play the game for the first time.  But nope!! Even though I’ve bought the game, and put in a valid dvd key, I’m greeted with this

Are you freaking kidding me?  You mean to tell me that since your servers aren’t available, I can’t play the game that I’ve spent my well earned money on?  What if I don’t even have internet access?  I guess I’m screwed huh? So, around an hour later, I try again, and run into another problem.

So, for some reason, your software wants me to download it from the freaking internet for 4 HOURS?   The dang dvd is right in the drive, and you want me to download it off the net?  Fortunately, I started off from scratch and this time it wised up and decided to actually look in the cd-rom drive this time.

Alright, so the game is installed and I’m ready to rock. I click on the icon, and I’m greeted with this

Okay, so since your servers are having issues, I’m once again screwed over by not being allowed to use something that I’ve legitimately paid for.  Wow! At this point, I’m considering downloading a software crack just so I can use something that I’ve actually bought.  It’s like hotwiring my own car!

So anyway, I get past this eventually by just waiting and coming back and finally get to play the game.  Only to find out that my beloved series has been dumbed down in order to ‘appeal’ to the mass market.  The number of units drastically reduced, build times are insanely fast, and not near as complex as it once was.   This appealing to the mass market is simply giving in to the idiots who refuse to buy the product because it was too deep for them.   Once again, stupid, low IQ consumers define the market, and those looking for the full experience they were accustomed to are screwed over.  Yay!

Oh, but wait, it’s not over yet!   While back at my desktop, look what pops up!

You know, there is software out there that installs and runs in the background on consumer’s systems and pops up advertisements on their computer.  We call that malware, spyware, annoythepissoutofmeware, etc…  And it turns out that I actually PAID for something and despite the crap I’ve had to run into with the drm and sever issues, you guys want to have the nerve to throw advertisements in my face?  Screw you!

Looks like it’s back to the Xbox for me!  Pc gaming industry, see ya!  Rot in hell!!

Well, within the past few weeks, I had been evaluating different open source applications for project management.   And I must say, I’m pretty impressed with the stuff that you can find out there that is completely free and pretty dang powerful.  Especially if you are running a web server with php.

I’ve found several different applications that can do project management, and I have to admit, most of them are impressive, but there was one that just stood out WAY above the rest.  I didn’t even know anything like this was out there until I stumbled across another blog that had done some comparisons between different open source web based applications for project management.  First, the runner ups.

ProjectPier – This software has been out on the web for a while, and is actually highly recommended.  Fast, stable, and works pretty well for project management.  I was actually considering sticking with this until I had found my final answer.  Not to mention that the software hasn’t been updated in quite a while.  I tend to be weary of abandonware.

Collabtive – I found the UI to this software to be pretty simple and refreshing.  Not to mention that it was developed fairly recently, which means that it still has a lot of life and potential.  Due to it’s simplicity, I’ve considered using it for clients since my final solution might be a bit harder to understand, but I haven’t made a final decision yet.

Feng Office – Wow!! What can I say?  This software is off the chain. Right now, I have a demo running at http://office.marcellusking.com.  The username is demo as well as the password.  This thing had document management, project management, calender with ical support, and a few other bells and whistles.  I plan on using this software to collaborate with other photographers, clients, etc… to collaborate on anything photography related and to also keep track of my own projects.  Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like when I log in under my account.

Since I have several projects that I’m a part of, any tasks for projects that are assigned to me will show up on my main view when I log in.  I can also click on the projects individually to see just the tasks for that project.  I’m actually VERY excited to see what I can pull off with this software in the near future and to see if enough people that I network with are interested in taking advantage of it.

Welp, back to the grind!

Now granted, the Iphone changed things, and I have one as well, but when it came out, it came out with a lot of things lacking.  Things that ’simpler’ users would not really care about, but for those of us who know our gadgets in and out and use them to their full potential, there were things that were lacking.  And well, once my 2 year contract is finally up, I’m jumping ship.  I’ve been eyeballing the development on Microsoft’s latest mobile phone platform.  And even though the last one wasn’t ‘pretty’, it did everything I needed it to do. 

But back to the subject on this Ipad. First and foremost, I think it sucks.  There wasn’t enough to separate it from my existing Iphone to justify having a bigger screen. Especially since it runs on the same operating system.  But here are the things that I do not like about the Ipad

• No HDMI ports – Sorry, but I want a device that I can hook up to my TV without having to buy some expensive proprietary cables to do so.  And don’t give us ‘technical reasons’ for not doing so Apple.  You just enjoy making the extra money off of that crap which is ridiculously priced for what it does.
• No expandable space – Secure digital, compact flash, so I can easily transfer my movies, pictures, etc… without having to go through Itunes or just keep documents on my device.  Nope, Apple doesn’t think you need to do so. I have this same gripe in the phone area as well.
• No multitasking – Are you freaking kidding me????? You mean I can’t listen to Pandora while I surf the web, or dart back and forth between face book
• No Bluetooth tethering to your phone – Oh, but if you want to access the internet while out and about, you can pay for an additional 3g service from AT&T.   Wow! Haven’t the consumers been milked enough?
• No flash – "Oh! But it’s too processor intensive!!!" says Apple.  No, the truth is that it will allow people to circumvent the Apple store for some of the cool games out there. Greed and arrogance is at the root of this one people.  Yet this thing can power through HD movies.  Enough with the BS Apple
• Weak operating system – The Iphone operating system is decent for a phone and for the touch, but this is a TABLET PC.  It would have been really wise to include a customized version of Mac OS on the device. 
• No Camera – Oh, this thing would have been SWEET for video calls and chat and many other things with the right software.  But nope!
• No removable battery – Running out of juice? Sorry, you can’t just put in another battery.  You gotta recharge.
• No usb 2.0 ports – SERIOUSLY APPLE!! HATE you guys for not including this stuff standard by now. Oh! Yea! That’s right, you want to use your own expensive overpriced cables and adapters so you can juice the consumer for more money.
• GPS – From the Apple hardware specs page, it looks as if only the WiFi 3g model has it.   Which will cost you around 130 bucks extra over the standard model.
• The back is not flat – Kinda negates the effectiveness of some of the accelerometer featured apps.
• Still have to go through ITunes for your software – Unless I want to jailbreak my phone, I don’t have the option of using some of the really sweet and effective software out there.

I’ll just stop here for the moment on my ranting about what I don’t like about this device.  Apple brought this thing to market too fast in a weak attempt to get the jump on competing products from Microsoft and other tablet manufacturers.  And for those that don’t know, yea, Windows 7 was designed with tablets in mind.  So once the hardware starts appearing, we’re good on the operating system. Not to mention that Microsoft has an "interesting" idea on how they think a tablet pc will be used.  Here are some videos.

But anyway, here’s what I would like to see in a Tablet PC and it’s operating system.

• HDMI out for presentations onto projectors, TV’s, etc…
• USB 2.0 – This could be used for charging, or just connecting to your pc in general
• Wifi
• Bluetooth – and support for a Bluetooth keyboard.
• Dual Screen – Which is what I love most about Microsoft’s courier.  The OS seems a bit off for what I would need it for though.
• Ability to Tether via Bluetooth
• Expansion slots – Compact flash or secure digital for transferring and carrying extra data
• Windows 7 or Mac OS operating system.  Even Ubuntu would be a consideration – This would resolve a LOT of the operating system related issues that I have with the Iphone, Touch, and the Ipad.
• Camera
• Accelerometer – Yea Apple, we can thank you for making this popular
• Microphone
• Speaker
• Headphone Jack
• Removable Battery
• GPS – This would be interesting on a tablet device.  I think it could come in handy
• Touch screen
• Ability to install apps without going through a store – This would be resolved by the operating system suggestion though.
• Enterprise level exchange support
• Peer to peer networking capability with other tablets of the same type – Would be sweet in a presentation to push something from your screen to someone else’s or send a message to another person in a meeting without disrupting the flow of the meeting.  Or just sharing files and ideas in general.  

Aight, enough of my rant.  I got things to do.

Well, first on the to do list was to get a staple gun from Home Depot and some staples.  And as always, I picked up a few more things from there as well.  Some caulk for windows, etc… (might as well prep now for spring) and some more clamps for the studio. And then, it was time to get started!

Here’s how the bench looked before I started.  Looks pretty messy.  Heck! I wouldn’t even sit on that myself.

So first, we start separating the old cloth from the bench board and at the same time, get those nasty staples out of there.  While working on this, it was easy to see that this has been done before. That actually made me feel a bit more comfortable.

And now, on with the new cloth, getting it stapled down, and then trimming the excess off with scissors.  In retrospect, using an exacto knife would have given me some really clean lines, but it’s my first time.  I’ll just note it for the next time I do this.

And here’s a comparison of the old cloth VS the new.  Yea, I don’t have the new one on perfectly smooth, but it’s not too shabby and will do the trick.

Who’s the man????

And on top of that, I picked up one of those Japanese style change clothes behind thingy at Hobby Lobby.  Might come in well for some silhouette shots as well as allowing for quick and discreet changes in the studio

The recent drama that I’ve been having lately with a certain person has been squashed.  For quite a while, I was pretty upset and angry about the things that were said and the fallout that resulted.  There are still some other people who are obviously holding their opinion on the matter based on what little information they have and formulating theories in their own heads, but that’s on them.  My friend apologized for what she said and I didn’t hesitate to accept.   I even shed a tear on the way home just thinking about it.  And to tell you the truth, it takes a LOT of strength to approach somebody and apologize.  I can’t hate on that at all.

My brother was also in town over the weekend to see his daughter, so he and his wife, my sister and her husband and my niece all went out to see Avatar.  3rd time seeing a movie which I originally had no interest in initially.  Wow James Cameron, I got to give you credit for making out the doubters believers. But then again, you created Aliens, my favorite movie of all time, so I should have known better.  Please forgive me man!

As far as my photography, I’ve been on pause for a few weeks in order to get some framework down.  Currently working on some backend projects for the websites to handle customer relations management software, project management,  and various other web based tools to assist me in the business and when collaborating with other photographers, makeup artists, and people with great ideas on various projects.  I’ve placed a demo at http://projects.marcellusking.com/demo/dashboard for those interested in taking a look.  All open source, running on Drupal which at the moment is WAY beyond my brainpower at the moment haha.  I think I’ll stick with Joomla for the majority of my projects whenever possible since it’s easier to get going on it even though it isn’t as powerful and feature packed as Drupal. 

As far as being a homeowner, I was a bit worried going into the winter, but it’s been pretty good so far.  No busted pipes, not terribly cold, and no unexpected drama related to the weather.  Well, at least not yet.  But I’m definitely looking forward to the spring season and learning to do a bit of landscaping to really set things off for the following year.

Back to the photography though (Dang, even in my writing, I’m ADD).  I’ve gotten quite a few good shots for the modeling portfolio, which I’ll be combining with the events and sports portfolio’s soon enough, and will soon be looking into doing a couple of weddings before considering the portfolio well rounded enough to get a portfolio book created, which in itself will also be a portfolio.  And on top of that, get a logo designed for my business as well and follow through on getting a tax id.   So many things to do, that’s for sure.  I just need to work on my motivation and really focus on my activities and what needs to be done.

Welp, back to work. Gotta get some things done and hit the sack before getting up in the morning and heading to work.  Peace out!

Now, if I was at a movie theatre, it’s expected that I’m going to see the movie once.  So yea, you have one chance to advertise your upcoming movies.  But when I buy the movie on disk, well, it’s safe to assume that I’m going to watch this movie MULTIPLE times.  So if I’ve seen your advertisement once, I DON’T WANT TO SEE IT 50 MORE FRIGGIN TIMES!!!  I want to be able to just advance to the main menu screen, at which point I can either watch my movie from the beginning, or go to a particular screen.  Or maybe perhaps I want to watch the directors commentary.

But noooo!!! You have to FORCE me to watch this crap time after time, and on top of that, you want me to watch some short flick on movie piracy and how wrong it is.  You know what, I KNOW what piracy is and I bought your dvd so I apparently want to have a legitimate copy.  If you want to get the message across, create a few take torrents and put them up for download.  Just make it an endless 2 hour, 2 gig loop of this same “Anti Piracy is wrong! Don’t do it people!” message.  As for those of us who actually paid for your plastic product which costs a few cents per disc to print, PLEASE… STOP… ANNOYING… THE… CRAP… OUT… OF… US!!! Yes Disney, I’m talking to you since your the main culprit.  And if you keep on doing it, well maybe I’ll start considering copying your dvds just so I can edit out your crappy advertisements, anti piracy messages, and the annoying, mostly red screen saying that it’s illegal to copy this disc. 

From now on, how about putting it on a sheet of paper, so we can read it once, get the message and then throw that crap away.  So that the next time we sit down to enjoy the movie, we don’t have to be irritated with the same crap time after time.

So, when I started writing this post, I popped in a copy of Pirates of the Caribbean and came back to type of this post.  As of right now, the advertisements are STILL playing and I’ve pretty much finished my rant.  What was the total time?  15 friggin minutes!  15 minutes in which we can only advance, not go to the main menu, the top menu, scene selection.

Maybe if you didn’t irritate the hell out of us legitimate consumers, you wouldn’t drive us to the point of madness where we download your movies or copy just to spite your greedy hides!

Yea, I don’t see any reason for even TRYING to guess what’s on a woman’s mind, let alone what’s she’s hungry for.  Unless she says, “Can you tell the waiter I want this while I go to the restroom”, I don’t toy with this at all.  You’re a big girl, you can make your own choices.  Just don’t try your best to get the most expensive meal on the menu just to be trying to take advantage.

Okay, I’m pretty good at a lot of things.  And if you aren’t that good, well, it will be a crushing. If you actually have the skill to compete, then yea, it’s on, I’m going to drop the hammer.  I love a woman who steps up to a challenge.  But at the same time, I realize that it’s probably not fun for you if I beat the living crap out of you in something that I excel at.  It’s the polite thing to do. If I don’t let you win, I’ll at least keep it close.

I say it like this.  If you can’t handle me saying “I have to use the restroom, I’ll be right back” then I don’t see you being with me for long. So no, I don’t try to “codeword” it all.   I don’t know what’s up with guys trying to do that.

I’ll do this when trying to be funny, but generally, no.  I will open a door 99 percent of the time for you though.

Ummm, no.  And as a matter of fact, I don’t know ANY guys that do that.  That’s just plain strange. I will carry the diaper bag or anything non feminine for you though.

To be honest, we may ask, but we really don’t care what he says.  We just want to know if he’s the enemy or not so that we can take the necessary steps to deal with him. We especially do not care what your mother things either.  We will do it regardless. It also lets us know if your parents will be detrimental to our relationship.

Here’s the deal.  Men are providers and like to be seen that way.  If offers, just let it roll.  And offering to do it yourself is a VERY good thing.  It lets us know that you’re not just trying to take advantage of us.  But we’re going to want to foot the bill anyway.  At least until we’ve been dating for a while or know you long enough to where we are comfortable with it.   Truth be told, when a woman pays for a man’s way, it can be emasculating.

If I do it, it’s to be romantic and to really sneak in a smooth close move on you.  I will only do this if I see body language indicating that you actually like that type of thing.  Otherwise, I’ll just hand it to you haha.

Haven’t shot any soccer this weekend due to recovery, but I’m still waiting to see more participation from the parents as far as buying pictures.   Can’t work for free, you know!

My brother and his wife her in town over the weekend so I got to hang out with them.  Surprisingly, even though the camera was with me, I just hung out without taking any shots.  Of course, he ribs me about being a camera/photo geek so I wanted to avoid that too haha.

Over the weekend, Renee wanted me to come hang out and get some good pictures for a get-together that she was having.   Turned out to be a pretty good time.  Oh! And never have too much to drink when a photographer is around.

Also, on Monday, when I was about to mow the lawn, I saw my neighbor Ed out with his camera trying to take a picture of something.  Turns out that he had spotted a praying mantis in his garden.  I hadn’t had the chance to photograph any yet, so I was definitely more interested in doing that rather than mowing the lawn.  While there, I got some interesting shots of other insects around as well.

Well, it’s time to start cleaning up around the house!  Peace!

Mc Brain, Oochie Coochie

Candyman – Knocking Boots

Bell Biv Devloe Poison – My Uncle actually liked this one too

Jodeci – Come and Talk to me

Boys II Men was my favorite group of all!

Bell Biv Devoe – When will I see you smile again.   This song is STILL the bomb

Guy – Let’s Chill – This is the one that kicked me into smooth mode and inspired me to ask out my first real girlfriend

Shai – If I ever fall in love.  I remember me and my best friends would all try to sing this one.  We weren’t too bad either.

Luther – You will be missed.   This is my favorite song of all time

Young MC – Bust a move

Tone Loc – This song was played like crazy!

Biz Markie – Just a friend.  Can’t forget this one hehe

A photo on the Redmond-based company’s U.S. marketing Web site microsoft.com shows two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table. But on the Web site of Microsoft’s Polish business unit, the black man’s head has been replaced with that of a white man. The color of his hand remains unchanged.

Microsoft apologizes for changing race in photo – Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com

You know, after reading this article, I’m really kind of stunned.   But the thing is, I’m not stunned at Microsoft.  I’m more stunned at the attention that it’s getting and who it’s coming from.  Of all the people that I have seen complaining about this, I have really yet to notice this being a hot topic within the Black community.  Myself included, we really don’t care.  It’s called MARKETING and it’s for a different country.  Hell, if Microsoft wants to create an advertisement for a different country that really doesn’t have too many black people, then so be it.

Hell, after looking at the photo, I’m not even sure if the guy was ORIGINALLY black.  I mean, look at his wrist in the below shot.

So, should people get upset that the guy was not originally black to begin with? I mean, cmon people.   It’s a shame that stuff like this makes it to the top of our news topics just because people with thin skin consider it racist.  Hell, the ethic groups that were changed in the picture really don’t care. As a black man, I do not see this affecting me or my life in any way, and therefore, I don’t care.   Hell, I LIKE the fact that Microsoft is portraying blacks in the office environment in roles other than the mail boy or the cleaning guy. 

Go Microsoft!  Don’t apologize to these politically correct pansies!