It was all going good and well until approximately 5 o-clock. We had even attained FREE Tacos from Taco Bell (thanks to the Red Sox doing something cool relating to Baseball and the World Series ... whatever)!! However, when we were on our way to the SSC, on our way to Chucks to stuff ourselves even more (welcome to America), we saw a LLAMA!!!! TWO llamas, actually. In front of the DMC. We were amazed, so we took a picture.

We continued our journey to the SSC to eat. Upon arriving at the SSC, we saw ANOTHER LLAMA!!! I think it's a rare event to even see one llama in or around a building in one day, but today we saw THREE. And this final llama was actually IN the SSC!! I whipped out my camera again and started taking pictures.

Don't get me wrong, these llamas were amazing. I loved seeing them in all of their beauty. The part that bites is that Jenna is still grounded from me, so I couldn't immediately send the pictures to her and call her and tell her about my rare sitings!!

This is the worst day ever ...

Tags: Jenna, Cedarville

The retail release date of Microsoft Windows Vista was January 30, 2007. Over the first week, Vista sold less than 200,000 copies.

Apple OS X Leopard was released on Friday, October 26, 2007. Over the weekend, Leopard sold over 2 million copies.

'Nuff said.

Tags: Apple, Microsoft, Operating Systems

I was perusing my favorite News Feeds this afternoon on the wonderful iGoogle, when I came across a topic I hadn't heard about for a while. How many of you know about about NBCs little money tantrum? (Show of hands, please.) Allow me to summarize ...

In late August of 2007, NBC declared it was going to break up with Apple (a.k.a., not renew their video contract with them for their TV Shows, etc.) because they couldn't manage to come to an agreement about pricing policies. The contract was due to end in December of 2007, if I remember correctly, but it may have been the first half of 2008. Instead of waiting out the rest of the contract and selling NBCs TV Shows until the contract ran out, Apple pulled the plug early, yanking all NBC shows from the iTunes store the same week NBC made their harsh statement. This was Apple's way of saying, "We don't need you anyway, NBC. We're going to define the next generation of audio/video, whether you side with us or not."

Apple is already paving the way for the next wave of audio/video communication, especially with the iTunes Music Store and the newly released Apple TV.

So, what was the problem exactly? NBC wanted to try out some "experimental pricing" strategies with Apple. Instead of charing $1.99 for each episode, NBC wanted their shows to cost $4.99. They also wanted users to pay more for "more popular programming." Apple's answer? Nope! Why make our customers pay more for something than they absolutely have to?

This brings us to today, when Zucker states that, "We know that Apple has destroyed the music business -- in terms of pricing -- and if we don’t take control, they’ll do the same thing on the video side." Right. Apple has destroyed the music business. He doesn't actually explain how Apple has done this, which seems pretty crucial to me. The way I see it is, unlike Napster, SpiralFrog, Connect, or Rhapsody, Apple offered a user-friendly alternative to these music stores, while taking down the hyper-aggressive DRM all of those other music stores force you to live with. Apple is currently in the process of transitioning into the same thing with video.

According to Zucker, “We wanted to take one show, it didn’t matter which one it was, and experiment and sell it for $2.99,” he said. “We made that offer for months and they said no.” He makes it sound like he's trying to us (the consumer) a favor! The show to which he was referring was "Heros," the very popular NBC equivalent to Lost ;).

Zucker stated that it wasn't a tough decision to remove their content from the Apple Music Store because they only had made about $15 million from the deal. I'm sorry you escaped with such little profits, greedy NBC.

Another thing I found very interesting was that NBC claimed it should get a portion of the hardware sales Apple was making off of the iPod and iPhone. Um, hello? Your content is strictly software. If someone watches your show on a Sony TV and DVD player, does Sony then owe you a portion of their earnings? Just ... please, stop talking, Zucker!

If you ask me, Zucker is being ridiculous ... I don't think Apple ruined the music business OR the video business, I think Apple actually gave the consumer what they wanted; cheaper, more reasonably priced products!

Well, I have only one thing to say in conclusion. NBC, as a member of the demographic to which you are selling, I would rather purchase your content off of the iTunes Music Store for a lesser price than from any other location from which you jack the prices like nobody's business. So Apple didn't ruin the music (and video) business. I would say they correct music (and video) pricing schemes.

Tags: Apple, Internet, Music, Television

I wandered my way over to the SSC in hopes of putting my headphones in and playing a game or two of pool with myself; however, due to the large number of parents (and small children) on the campus today, all pool tables were and are currently occupied. And so, for the sake of my beloved Grandpa (and others who keep griping about this), I decided to finally report on the Canoe Race.

Originally, I had planned on writing this post and attaching descriptive pictures and a video of the race! Unfortunately, due in no part to the individuals manning (or womanning, in this case) the camera, all still photos and videos were lost. So it's actually going to be a bit hard to explain, but I'll do the best I can.

For all Freshman Engineering students at Cedarville University, we are required to build a cardboard canoe and race it across Cedar Lake on the Saturday of Homecoming weekend. Yes, this is part of our grade. It counts as roughly (if I remember correctly) half of the entire grade for (everyones FAVORITE class) The Engineering Profession. Essentially, the only real point of that class is this canoe race. But if you really want to know my opinions on that class, ask me personally and I'd love to vent about it.

I would also like to go off on a slight tangent here and point out that, after circling Cedar Lake multiple times within my first week of being on campus, I came to the conclusion that Cedar Lake is not actually a lake. It's a pond. In order to be a lake, it would have to have a fresh water source, be natural (usually), and be of "considerably size", according to Wikipedia (don't read this Professor Wheeler!). But there are signs all around the "lake" referring to it as "Cedar Lake". It's a pond. I'm sure of this. Ponds are small and man made. Cedar Lake is small and man made. But I digress ...

After receiving our instructions for the canoe race, each team was given a roll of cardboard and a roll of masking tape. That's all you get. I suppose that's why it's an Engineering project: You have to do all the measurements and calculations before making any cuts or you'll be sorry when you run out of material :).

We were all randomly assigned to groups of four. A video documentary was apparently filmed, so instead of actually trying to explain the construction process to you all, I'll just show you that sometime, if you're really interested. I'll just leave it at this: After putting close to, if not more than, twenty hours into our cardboard canoe in the evenings, we finally made her seaworthy.

We named our canoe the Titanic. Across the side, we wrote this in large letters. On the opposite side of the canoe we wrote, "NOTHING LESS THAN GOD CAN SINK US."

My FAVORITE part of the construction part was when we had just taped together the structure for the base of the canoe. We were in the Marshall lounge when the door burst open and three taller guys came strutting in. Chins high. Clearly, these were UPPERclassmen Engineers! There were about four groups in the lounge assembling their canoes, and I could just sense the wealth of knowledge that flowed into the room with these three. They strolled by each of the canoes, glancing down at them with a sort of, "Yah, I did that once ... ours looked better," glance. You know what I mean, right? Until, of course, they came to our canoe. They stopped and looked at our canoe and one grunted, "Ha, that won't float." A bit confused and set back, I wasn't sure how to react. So I just dropped the obligatory, "Uuuuuh ..." To which he replied, to his friends, not me, "Their base is too wide. It'll be one of the first ones to sink." They all nodded in agreement and, seeming content with their derogatory comments, they moved on and left the lounge.

I had the strong urge to punch a wall, but all of the walls in the Marshall lounge are made of cement, and that seemed like it wouldn't be one of my smarter ideas. So instead I just clenched my fists and teeth tightly, which the dentist has told me is bad since I broke a tooth doing that once and had to get it pulled. But I couldn't really help it. After passing these words of kindness onto my group, I said, "We're going to get across the lake guys. Let's do this!"

We finished our canoe. We were the third team into the water (Team 6)! The gun fired and Drew and I started paddling furiously.

I have yet to see those three again, and I probably wouldn't remember what they looked like anyway if I did see them again. But I hope they were at the race and remembered that our canoe was the one they said wouldn't even float. Fact: Our canoe made it across the lake. Fact: Since our canoe was wider than every other canoe, it actually floated HIGHER (it's amazing, the math behind that ...). Fact: Our team came in SECOND, overall.

Eat that.

It was a fun experience. But I think the best part about it was proving those three wrong. That was the most pleasurable part of the entire experience!

Tags: Cedarville