The Way of the Johnny

Last year, I did a "The Bad, the Good" type list for the year, so I thought I'd do it again this year. I wasn't quite sure how many things actually happened this year because it was such a blur, but Sophia and I were talking and there were indeed a lot of things that happened. So here they are as best as I can remember at the moment (had a little wine to ring in the New Year): The Bad Had to replace the Element's windshield 2 times Needed laser retina surgery because I had a detached retina for the 2 nd time The Good Got a job! Photographed 3 weddings Got lots of house projects done Elected president of the Filipino American Society The Awesome Celebrated 2 years of marriage with Sophia Celebrated Cecilia's 1st birthday Watching Cecilia develop: going from being non-mobile to walking, babbling more and more, starting to eat solid foods, etc., etc.

I've written before about the headphones I use and I still use them to this day ( here's a blog post I wrote years ago about them ). Recently I modified the PX100's by replacing the ear pads with bigger replacement pads from Radioshack to make them more comfortable. I also cut a hole in the middle of the pads (called the quarter mod or nickel mod to describe the size of the hole) so I could hear higher frequencies better. The modifications have made a BIG difference and I find the PX100s have a whole new character. They're much more comfortable now and sound much better. Here are some photos I snapped: After doing the mods, I got to thinking about headphones in general and how overpriced they can be, especially for those well marketed headphones made by Bose and Monster Beats by Dr. Dre. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a headphone snob by any means and I do think the headphones by Bose and Monster Beats sound very good. But I don't think the quality of so...

There seems to be a big epidemic out there right now that people are really concerned about. The news did reports on people who suffered from this disease. It was spreading wildly and there were rallies against the disease saying it must be stopped. What's this disease I'm writing about? Anger. If that first paragraph seemed like hyperbole, it was. I don't think all the anger out there is a big deal, but for some reason people seem to be really concerned about it. I have even been accused of being an angry, paranoid right wing nut. That's fine, but anger happens for various reasons and I feel the news media and people who don't like the angry reactions expect us all to be more Vulcan (logical with no emotions) than human. I happen to believe we should be more human than Vulcan. The best way I can illustrate how anger isn't all bad is to relate to you my experiences in customer service. I've never worked in a customer service position per se , but w...

It's been awhile since I updated this blog and, based on my experiences creating a new ACE Photography website using Squarespace, I was considering just closing this blog down. It was just looking really antiquated next to other blog engines out there (like Squarespace, Tumblr, and Wordpress). But I was pleasantly surprised today to see that Blogger had some new templates to offer. I found a template I liked, changed the background and colors to my liking, and lo and behold, you are now looking at the newly refreshed "The Way of the Johnny" blog. I'd like to get back to writing posts again, so be on the lookout. But for now, enjoy the new look and, while you're at it, check out the archives. There's some juicy stuff in there!

"Music is a language." - Victor Wooten "Music is a listening art." - David Burge I saw the tv show "Glee" for the first time over Memorial Day weekend at a cousin's place. So many people are fans of the show and I wonder what makes it so popular, even after watching finally watching it. I also wonder why American Idol is so popular, even after so many years. Being a musician, I don't consider either show having the best quality music, but I also realize high quality music isn't the point of the shows. As a musician, I believe music is an art form worthy of lifelong study. I like the quotes above very much because I think music is a means of expression, just like a language is. And music is more about listening than it is about making sounds. Musicians just have a more highly developed sense of listening. With American Idol, Glee, and the rise of show choirs lately, it seems to me that music as art is in decline when it comes to the genera...

If you go onto YouTube and search for Fr. Euteneuer /Sean Hannity , you'll see a very heated "discussion" where a cultural Catholic ( Hannity ) criticizes the believes of an orthodox Catholic (Fr. Euteneuer ). The main issue of disagreement was contraception. The Catholic Church teaches contraception in all its forms is wrong and approves natural family planning ( NFP ) for birth regulation. Hannity doesn't agree with the Church as says that contraception is necessary for people how aren't Catholic because it's better than having abortions. Hannity also claims NFP and contraception are the same thing. They aren't. But, unfortunately, most people still think they are, even Catholics. So I was thinking about a good analogy to explain the difference and I realized a good one relates to the recent acceleration problems with Toyota brand cars. Here's how the analogy works: Let's imagine the forward acceleration of a car as intercourse. The in...

I love photo and video editing on my Mac. For photography, iPhoto is a wonderful application I use for casual photos and Aperture 3 is what I use for my serious, professional quality photography. For video, iMovie is easy to use and can give great results. But we also have a netbook in the house ( Asus EeePC ) which runs Windows XP and it gets a lot more use than the Mac does. Between my wife's iPod Touch and the EeePC , she doesn't even use the Mac anymore. She also takes a bunch of photos and videos with her Canon Powershot SD1000. So, to me, it makes a lot of sense to dedicate the EeePC to my wife's photos and videos. It has a fairly big 160GB hard drive and has a decent screen. The question that comes up is: What software can I use on this low powered netbook for editing Sophia's photos and video? More specifically, is there free software out there that can come close to doing the same job as iPhoto and iMovie do on the Mac? I'm happy to say ...