Ahren’s Blog

The only thing I really look forward to in Winter is Christmas and snow–both of which are coming soon! Oh, and just so you know…that’s not me in the picture. I wish it was though!!

So, last year I started to snowboard and absolutely loved it. I rented the equipment for the first few times, took a lesson, and then eventually bought my own board. Last year, I only got to go about six times since I started near the end of the season. This year, however, I plan to go a lot more. I am going to buy a season pass to Willamette Pass and try to go as many times as possible. The pass costs $299 for students, so I would have to go at least seven times to make it worth it. I think I can manage!

I got pretty excited the other day when it was pouring down rain here in Eugene (weird, huh?) because I knew it would be dumping up at Willamette Pass. They got around 30″ over a few days, but sadly, the warm temps and rain caused most of it to melt… They are planning to open up by Thanksgiving, so they better start getting some more snow fast!

Here’s my gear:
Solomon Board (156cm)
Ride Boots
Burton Freestyle Bindings

Come on snow!!! I need you!

Yes!!!!! I couldn’t be more happier right now. Barack Obama has officially won the 2008 US Presidential election. This is a great thing for our country and instantly improves our status around the world.

It has been an extremely long campaign and watching Obama speak has definitely re-ignited the interest for politics inside of me.

You can view the results over at CNN.

I look forward to see what the next four years has in store for us!

I have waited a very long time for this day to come. Since this was the first Presidential election that I could vote in, I felt the trememdous responsibility to vote. This is not only one of the most (if not the most) historic elections in our nation’s history. There is an African-American running for president, a woman (Clinton) almost was nominated as the Democratic party’s candidate, and we have a woman running for vice president (Palin). No matter what your political opinions are, you have to agree that this election is vitally important and is like none other.

I urge any of you that can vote, and still haven’t, to get out there and do your duty as a citizen. You can’t complain about the state of our country unless you let your voice be heard.

Now, one thing that I dislike about the electoral college is that if you live in a state where the electoral votes usually always go the opposite way that you vote, some people don’t vote because they think it won’t matter. This is not true! You should ALWAYS VOTE!! So do not let this stop you. Get out there and place your vote. Remember there are local elections, too!

Here are some places to watch the election coverage:
Google
MSNBC Video Stream
CNN
AP Video Stream

CNET has a good compilation of sources, too.

Go Obama!!!

Hmmm….well I didn’t think this would happen to me.

I knew that Eugene has one of the nation’s highest rates of bike theft, but I still thought that this was a kind of myth that didn’t actually happen that often. However….I found myself to be quite wrong.

So, last Thursday I parked (and locked up) my bike right near my Carson dorm. On Sunday, I went back to go ride my bike and boom….it was gone. At first I thought that I may had just parked it somewhere else, but I walked around to all the bike racks and couldn’t find it. Yep, so there. My bike was stolen.

It was a Schwinn Ranger. It was only $125, but nonetheless, I really liked the bike. Just for the record, I was using a Master-Lock cable lock. Hmm…guess I won’t be using another cable lock since they just cut right through it.

Well, so it looks like I will have to walk our skateboard.

Hey everyone,

A lot of people seem to be coming to my blog from YouTube, so I just wanted to do a quick little post saying thanks for all the nice comments that people are giving me.

It really means a lot to me is cool to hear what you guys think.

I am hoping to record some new songs within the next month. The main reason I haven’t been doing more is because I am in a fairly small dorm right now which is hard to record in!

I’ll keep you updated. Thanks!
-Ahren

First let me start off by saying that I have used Windows my entire life and only used Macs at school sometimes.

Since I was heading off to college, I thought it would be a good time to give Macs a try. I heard the rumors that they were releasing a new MacBook soon, so I decided to wait it out. Last Tuesday was the day they finally announced the new ones. They look freaking amazing, too. Apple has some amazing designers.

So, right after they announced them, I ordered one since I was waiting for what seemed like months. The shipping was extremely fast and I received it approximately two days later.

The specs of my MacBook are:
13″ 1280×800 LED Screen
2.0Ghz P7350 Core 2 Duo (3MB L2, 1066mhz FSB)
2.0GB RAM (DDR3)
160GB Hard Drive
Nvidia 9400m Graphics

The price was $1250 after the student discount.

After using it for a few days now, I can confidently say that it was definitely worth it for me to switch to a Mac. The design of the product is amazing and the operating system is awesome. There are so many little things that Mac OSX does that make it more useful to me. I love the iLife programs like iPhoto and iMovie. They seem to crush the Windows equivalent in terms of functionality and design.

It seems so cliche to say, “Yep! I am a Mac convert”, but it really is true and apparent after just using it for a couple days. The dashboard, dock, and finder all are amazing little things that make work just that much easier to do.

In looking at Eminem’s Wikipedia article I suddenly discovered that Eminem is releasing a new album in December of this year (2008). This got me really excited since the rap industry is in an absolutely poor state these days.

This will be Eminem’s first album since 2004 with the release of “Encore”.

His new album entitled, “Relapse” is rumored to have collaborations with Akon, DMX, Obie Trice, Dr. Dre, Eminem, TI, and potentially LL Cool J.

This would be freaking amazing. Eminem was one of the greatest rappers left and it was sad to see him go. Maybe we’ll get another gem this December!

Hey Everyone,

I posted this on the Cell Phone Forum, but thought it would be good to put here in case someone was searching Google trying to find a solution to this.

Just thought I’d let you know something that I found, as it was VERY frustrating for me.

I bought the LG Venus about 4 days ago. I personalized my phone, and just recently took some video with it. Upon reviewing the video I was shocked to find out that the audio did not get recorded, but instead there was just a clicking (like a chipmunk) on ALL the videos.

I messed around with it for hours, and got the video to record the audio by pressing volume up directly before recording. That was the only way I found out how and that was pretty janky. Even then, the audio still had skipping problems.

I got fed up and went to the Verizon store. The clerk said that they had never seen the problem before on any phone. They then did a phone firmware upgrade/restore. That DIDN’T fix the problem.

So, they gave me a new Venus. I checked it out and it appeared to be working find (the video). I changed my personalization settings back to what I wanted, and boom, there was the clicking again. UGH!

I went back in the store. We then replicated the settings on the display model of the phone and tried it. Boom….it had clicking also, no audio.

I took steps backwards and narrowed down the settings culprit. After messing around, I FINALLY found the problem.

When the user has “Vibrate Only” enabled using the volume rocker AND the “Touch Keypad Sounds” is turned to off, this combination causes the video to have the clicking.

So, the SOLUTION to this problem is to just leave “Touch Keypad Sounds” on. It may be annoying, but it’s the only known fix for that settings combination.

So, in conclusion, this is most definitely a software bug on the VX-8800 Venus. We replicated the problem on three different models.

Sorry for that incredible long post, but I just wanted to let you guys know in case anyone else is having this problem.

The Verizon guy made a note to the manufacturer.

If anyone has any questions, just ask. I’ll try to clarify.:)

The day is drawing closer! On Thursday, I will be moving into my University of Oregon dorm.

As you probably know from following my blog, I am living in the Carson Hall, which was somewhat of an upgrade from the Bean Hall that I was previously placed into.

Over the past week or so, I have been “dorm shopping” and have got some pretty cool things. I am just not sure how I’ll do with the laundry…that’ll be a scary one. I think I’ll be good with everything else though.

I also won’t have a laptop for the first month of school since I am waiting for the new Apple MacBooks to come out (in October). So, that’ll kind of suck.

I am excited though! It should be a fun and interesting experience!

Wow, I have to admit that after seeing the Seinfeld ads that Microsoft did, I lost all hope for their ability to advertise.

Thankfully, they have ditched those ads in favor of a new “I’m a PC” campaign to conteract the ones Apple are running. I went into it a bit skeptical, but I actually really liked it. It features people from all around the world, with different accents, heritage, and culture. There are bits of humor and none of it seems to be scripted, which is awesome!!

Take a look at Gizmodo.