Nothing Good Comes of Sister Being Home...

... all she does is turn bears into zombie aliens!

Iron Media

With the largest comic convention in the world (The San Diego Comic-Con) kicking off tomorrow, I felt it an appropriate time to share some recently released pictures from the upcoming movie Iron Man 2.

Robert Downey Jr. & Gwyneth Paltrow reprise their roles as Tony Stark, Pepper Potts.

Don Cheadle takes over for Terrance Howard as James Rhodes.
Sam Rockwell is seen in the background, portraying the nefarious Justin Hammer.

Newcomer Mickey Rourke looks... interesting as Whiplash.

The Black Widow, Scarlett Johannson, between takes awaiting makeup.

Iron Man 2 is scheduled to be released next May. Look for a slew of details (and possibly a teaser trailer) to emerge after the Iron Man panel at Comic-Con this Saturday.

Telephonies

My cell phone is on its last leg. Two years of wear and tear, two drops within the last four months resulting in physical parts of the phone popping off, and the general age of the Windows Mobile 6.0 operating system results in an unfriendly and unruly telephoning experience. External sounds (ringing, speakerphone) are inaudible, the phone has to rebooted often to try and connect to the internet (my main use of which is checking local traffic), and the screen will randomly fade to white mid-use. I've been eying upcoming cellphones for months to see if I could find a suitable replacement, but little has really caught my eye. Here are the candidates.

HTC Magic (or... MyTouch)

I've been leaning towards an Android based telephone (Google's open-source operating system) after trying out a G1 at the T-Mobile store. However, after experiences with my last two phones I'm wary of a phone with moving parts, and the G1 has a slide out keyboard. With moving parts in a phone one also has to worry about mechanical failures either with the physical moving parts or interaction with the software -- there's nothing more annoying than sliding out the keyboard ready to type a message and having to wait ten seconds for the screen to switch orientation.

The HTC Magic is the answer to that, as it is essentially a physical keyboardless touchscreen only G1. I think it's one of the best looking phones I've ever seen, and has been getting pretty good reviews online. The problem? It's on T-Mobile, and they have decided to name it the "MyTouch 3G". They are marketing it as your phone that you can personalize, making it 100% you. Available accessories include hot pink leather carrying case, purple or deep red rubber cases with matching colored tassels, and customizable back plates with pictures of pink flowers. Besides the potential factor of having a phone that will become identified with tween girls, I don't know if I'm willing to switch to T-Mobile, as it seems the plan pricing would be comparable to what I'm paying AT&T right now, and traditionally people who have had T-Mobile at my house have had streaky reception at best.

I've been tempted by picking up this phone for the full retail price when it is released in early August and using it on AT&T, but I won't be able to use the 3G bandwidth. I don't care too much for the loss in data speed, but the main benefit of having 3G is being able to use data and voice at the same time. I'd rather not miss calls because I was using Google Maps.

HTC Hero

Another Android offering from HTC, this phone is using a modified version of Google's operation system which HTC calls the "SenseUI". It adds many features to the widget based operating system and in theory has made the basic Android system much more friendly, usable, and accessible. Preview hardware has been widely lauded by cell phone aficionados in the know, and there is a very good chance that AT&T will be getting it. The downside? I think it looks butt ugly. Also, having not been released anywhere in the world yet, no one has any idea on the battery life of the phone. I'd rather not have a phone that dies before the end of each day with normal use.

Sony Ericsson "Rachael"

Relax, Rachael is just a code-name for the indevelopment phone. I hope. Little is known about Sony Ericsson's first foray into Android (having used Windows Mobile for their high-end phones before) including even whether it slated for release in the US or whether it will support AT&T's 3G bands, but take a little look at the video below to see what this phone is aiming for in terms of its modified Android interface (which, by the way, may or may not be a real video). The hardware also reportedly packs an 8MP autofocus camera (so if image quality is good enough, I won't have to replace my dying 5MP Canon Powershot), and a next-generation Snapdragon processor. While again little is known about the phone, one thing I already see that may bother me is lack of a volume rocker button on the side of the preview renders. Whether I'm missing it and it's craftily hidden away somewhere or not there at all remains to be seen, it's the button I use the most on any cellphone and is something that would factor into a purchasing decision. Rumors also say this may have a 4" touchscreen, which might make this phone just a tad too big (the iPhone has a 3.5" screen).

I've also kept my eye on the recently released (and previously previewed) Palm Pre, but build quality issues, potential pitfalls of the Synergy software, and switching to Sprint are huge roadblocks. My coworker got one and while it looks and seems to work really well, the keyboard buttons are too tiny. I've also kept my mind open on Blackberries, and the upcoming Onyx seems like the one I would get were to join my sister in the Blackberry world. Optical trackpad (to replace the trackball), 3G, wi-fi, Blackberry quality, proven operating system, and traditionally a battery charge that will last days are the main draws of it. The Onyx will be released around December though, luckily on AT&T. I can deal with my current cell phone for now, despite its drawbacks and limitations. The real question is whether it will continue to remain operational until I find its replacement.

Game Recap 6: vs Sea Wolves

So... take a look at the box score from my last game.

Batters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	AVG
M. Piper	4	1	1	0	0	1	0.217
I. Hoyos	4	2	3	0	0	1	0.261
D. Mertens	2	1	0	0	1	0	0.538
S. Adams	3	1	1	2	0	0	0.450
D. Shin	3	2	3	4	0	0	0.545
J. Flores	3	1	1	2	0	0	0.467
E. Meyer	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.308
J. Osnaya	3	0	1	1	0	0	0.231
D. Smith	3	0	1	0	0	1	0.250
K. Jones	2	1	1	0	1	0	0.273
Totals	29	9	12	9	2	3

HR: D Shin (2); 2B: S Adams (3); D Shin (3); SB: I Hoyos (1);

Pretty good huh? I went 3 for 3, hit another inside the park home run (another shot down the right field line), and drove in four runs. Many of my teammates also had varying degrees of success -- S. Adams missed a [real] home run by probably a foot, curving a long drive just to the left of the left field foul post. But then, check out these numbers:

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	ERA
J. Osnaya	5.0	12	20	13	7	0	10.57
I. Hoyos	0.0	0	7	7	7	0	120.90
E. Meyer	1.0	5	7	7	6	0	30.34
Totals	6.0	17	34	27	20	0

Those of you who are familiar with box scores will noticed that my team scored nine runs, while the opposing team poured in... 34. Thirty-four to nine (!). Even football teams don't anticipate this sort of success. In probably the most one sided game I've ever been involved in, we were absolutely demolished on Saturday night. Our second pitcher faced seven batters... and walked all seven. All came around to score. I didn't help matters any by misplaying three semi-routine flyballs in the early innings.

Though to be fair, my stomach was churning like nobody's business. These damn fiber bars I've been eating give me an immense amount of gas, and apparently with the concentration and adrenaline of game time, there is little to no avenue for this gas to escape. I felt like I was going to duke my pants rounding third base on my home run sprint. Luckily I could have slid and passed the brown stain off as dirt, but scoring standing up is much more satisfying. I was pretty OK for the rest of the game, but the second I got into my car I let lose with a series of gaseous eruptions that lasted for no less than (I kid you not) twenty straight seconds. So lesson learned: no fiber bars before athletic events.

I finished off the night with a trip to Arby's to try their BBQ Bacon Cheddar Roastburger from the commercials. Oh my goodness was it delicious! It almost made me forget that I had just been involved in one of the most lopsided shellackings in the history of modern amateur sports. Here's a picture, which may or may not do the sandwich justice:

It looks disgusting because I used a cell phone camera. Yeah... it's the cell phone camera.

Go and try it, before or after my
Next game: Sat. July 18th, 12:30PM @ Eastlake Community Field

Back to Work!

"Chuck Norris beats the odds... with his fists."

                     -Thomas, friend

I was able to go to the gym today for the first time in nearly two months. One could say that this trip cost me about $60. While I was happy to be able to move some weight plates around, I was unhappy to see that L.A. Fitness [Renton] had replaced the scale in the locker room with a common bathroom scale. They used to have a nice big one, the kind that you see at doctor offices with the physical weights that you have to manipulate and balance to get your number. Now, they have this crappy one that firstly barely accommodates me with my size ten.5 shoes (meaning it is completely inaccurate), and secondly maxes out at about 225. This is a gym -- half the guys walking around are more than 225 lbs! I was tempted to go into the women's locker room to see if I could use theirs, but I couldn't be sure that they would have a different type of scale in there.

To get the full benefit from my workout, I went home to immediately fix myself a protien shake. Usually I put the protien powder into a blender and make a smoothie with it, but today I went with the suggested serving size of two scoops. Anything more than a near-full scoop into the smoothie would make it all bubbly and nasty, so I went with the recommended instructions of mixing the two scoops of powder with sixteen ounces of cold water, made easier by my fancy twenty ounce blender bottle (a plastic cup with an enclosed top that contains a metal ball shaped whisk that you shake). It tasted like feet. But, I manned up and quickly downed it pinching my nose, making a mental note to get another flavor of protein powder next time.

The gist of the story is that I'm back at the gym, and glad to be back. Despite being half way through summer, I still may be able to mold a beach-ready body before the the autumn leaves start to fall. My baseball game definitely seems to be helped by the time I put into the gym pre-season, and I can feel what seem like legitimate abs under a flab of fat.

Err on a side note, there's a vicious rumor going around my work that I have washboard abs. I'm not going to prove anyone wrong by completely disgusting them after lifting up my shirt, so my only recourse is to get the washboard abs and fulfill the prophesy as told [read: spread] by my HR person.