It's Been Too Long Since My Last Post

Hello everyone,

It's been some time since my last blog post. So I am here just to update you on what has been going on. A family member of mine was hospitalized about 3 weeks ago. She was in the hospital for over 2 weeks. So I did not feel like posting during that time. Then holidays arrived and I decided to spend that time with my family. I hope that everyone had a great holiday!

So what's going on for the New Year 2012 (if the Mayans were incorrect):
- Making and probably breaking new year resolutions such as losing weight, making more money, etc. I will do some updates as we move into the new year.
- More coverage on indie bundles that will inevitably be popping up due to their success in the last year
- Some TV show episode recaps with some of my thoughts and reviews
- Going to finally post some things related to design. I will post up links to my cafepress and zazzle as well as some other sites when I get some of my new designs uploaded.
- I'm actually going to try to branch out into videos, and new web series. I got some ideas that I'm working on at the moment. I'll let you know more about this project.

How to Save Time When Re-installing Software After Formatting: Ninite

My laptop is almost 6 years old and I have not formatted it yet. I know that it would be a good idea to wipe the hard drive and to start once again from scratch. I also know that re-installing all my software is going to be time consuming, possibly soul crushing, and overall boring. This is clearly one of those tasks that I try to avoid at all costs. I have found a website that makes the process more bearable. After formatting and re-installing your favourite operating system, fire up your browser and go to http://ninite.com/.

What is so great about Ninite?
On this website you can pick and choose which programs that you want to install on your computer. You will then be able to download the installer. Ninite will download and install all the software that you chose. The great thing is that the process is automated. Usually when you install something you have to click "next", "next"..."finish". This will eliminate that process. All software is up to date and you can re run the installer again to get any new updates. Also a great feature is that it automatically refuses to install any additional tool bars or any other software that will bloat your computer. It is now easier to get all the software that you would download and install in one easy package. You don't have to signup for anything. Just pick what you want and install for free!

Go to the website and take a look at what programs they have to offer. The following is a list of the programs and their categories:

I used this website after formatting a computer at a previous job. This saved me a lot of time and hassle! I'm sure everyone's time is important and we should not have to perform tedious tasks such as re-installing software after formatting. I hope this helps you out in the future!

Recap of The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 7: Pretty Much Dead Already

Sorry for the delay! I finally had time to watch the mid season finale of The Walking Dead. So here we go my brief recap of Season 2 Episode 7: Pretty Much Dead Already. There are spoilers up ahead if you haven't seen it yet. If you haven't been watching this amazing show since Season 1 then you can get caught up by:
Getting The Walking Dead Season 1 on DVD
or getting The Walking Dead Season 1 on Blu-ray.

The Walking Dead returns in February 2012. 

The episode begins with the survivors eating breakfast at the camp site. Glenn finally decides to reveal the secret to the entire group that the barn is filled with zombies! Shane wants to either leave or to take matters into their own hands by killing all the zombies. Rick wants to reason with Hershel.

Carl does not want to leave the farm even after they find Sophia. Where has she been all this time?

Andrea has volunteered to keep watch of the barn. Dale tries to tell her that basically Shane is not a good person and she does not know the real Shane. There is still conflict between these two. It escalates to the point where Dale decides to hide the guns from Shane possibly fearing what Shane might do. This plan does not go as planned because Dale is caught red handed trying to hide the guns in the woods. Dale raises his rifle at Shane. Dale says that Shane belongs in this world. A world that has been thrown into chaos.

Rick once again pleads his case to Hershel to let his people stay and he wants to discuss the zombies in the barn. Hershel wants them gone by the end of the week. He tries to tell Hershel that the world has changed. It will be a death sentence if they leave the farm.

Maggie tells Hershel about how Glen saved her life from a zombie. She believes that her dad has changed and not for the better. The world is different. Later, Hershel looks like he has had a change of heart and enlists the help of Rick. The task that he needs help with is to basically herd some zombies who have gotten stuck in a swamp area. Hershel believes that the zombies are people who have a serious sickness. They can be healed. If the survivors want to stay on the farm they to must treat the zombies as sick people and not as monsters. So they have to lead them back into the barn.

Shane feels that Rick is not built for this new world. He thinks that a lot of the troubles that have occurred happened because of Rick and his decisions. Shane says he is the father of Lori's unborn child. Carl later tells Shane that the group should stay until they find Sophia.

Shane wants to arm everybody to get rid of the zombie problem in the barn. The survivor then see the zombies that are being herded by Rick and Hershel. Shane goes ballistic, frees the zombies in the barn and begins the zombie killing spree.

Zombie Killing Highlight: While Hershel is still holding onto a zombie Shane walks over and shoots the zombie in the head.

Zombie Headshot!

Hershel is clearly not too happy...

  Finally the killing spree is over or is it?

In the big reveal to finish off the episode we finally know what happened to Sophia... she has been turned into a zombie!

 Rick decides that he is the one who should end Sophia's life.

That's the end of this episode and mid season finale. The Walking Dead will return in February 2012 on AMC. We will see what happens to the survivors. Something tells me that they may be told to leave the farm. Maybe Shane might go off on his own or with some of the other survivors which will fragment the group. Or they may enter a new town or area and meet up with other survivors. Can't wait for the next episode!

Random reference in this episode: Glen references the game Portal!

Recap The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 6: Secrets

Sorry for the delay but I finally was able to watch episode 6 and will be watching episode 7. So here is the recap and my thoughts for episode 6: Secrets. There are spoilers for those who haven't watched it yet.

Sunday nights 9 pm EST on AMC!

The episode begins with Patricia breaking legs of live chickens. We see that she is feeding the zombies in the barn. It seems that the zombies are attracted to live bait such as when Shane shot Patricia's husband Otis in the leg and leaving him for dead.

Maggie tries to convince Glen keep the secret of the barn to himself. Unfortunately, Glen is a bad liar and he eventually reveals to Dale that there are walkers in the barn and that Lori is pregnant. Dale decided to confront Hershel about the matter and does not convince Hershel that the walkers are dangerous. Hershel instead still views them as people will a horrible illness and he does not want to "kill" his wife and step son who are in the barn. It's clear that Hershel and the rest of the people on the farm have been sheltered from the gruesome reality that the others have faced. These walkers are not really people anymore.

Carl wants to learn how to shoot. He goes out of his way to steal a hand gun and tries to talk to Shane about  learning how to shoot. Lori, for obvious reasons, does not want her son around guns especially after being shot quite recently. Rick decides its the best course of action just in case there is an emergency and Carl should not be afraid of guns. Fast forward to shooting practice. We see Andrea excelling during practice. I have no idea how she got so good in a short time span. She is given an advanced private lesson from Shane. This, however, does not go well. Shane keeps yelling at her because she cannot hit a moving target. She has to turn off all thinking and emotion. He crosses the line when he brings Andrea's dead sister Amy who was killed by a walker in the first season. He apologizes to her. He tells her that they have a lead on Sophia and he could use her as backup.

Back at the camp Dale tells Lori that he knows about her pregnancy. She is heart broken because she realizes that her son Carl and the baby will have a life filled with misery. Dale tries to reassure her.
Lori once again asks Glen to go to the pharmacy in town. Although Maggie is pissed off with Glen, she accompanies him back to the town. She is not truly convinced that the walkers are a huge threat until she gets attacked. Glen saves her life. This is also the zombie killing highlight for this episode!
 

Glen comes swinging with a store shelf.

The walker is still "alive"

I'm not sure what tool this is...

Melee headshot!

This zombie got f'ed up!!!

 Shane and Andrea finally get to their destination which looks like a nice suburban area. Time to check out all the houses. They stumble upon a garage where they see corpses. There is no sign of Sophia but there are signs of a lot of zombies.

At first Andrea loses her focus and cannot shoot any of the zombies coming her way. Shane tells her to relax and focus. She ends up learning how to kill the zombies.

She has something on her mind...

Gratuitous crotch grab...

 After their daring escape, Andrea has sex with Shane in the car. Back at camp, Dale is suspicious of Shane and his motives. I'm sure that there will be more conflict between these two characters in the near future. Is Shane really that big of a douche? Or is his actions justified in the context of their new reality of a zombie apocalypse?

Lori first decides to ingest a handful of emergency birth control pills and immediately regrets her decision and throws them up. Rick finds the birth control pill packaging and confronts Lori. She reveals to Rick that she is pregnant and that she slept with Shane after she thought that Rick had died.

Finally secrets are being revealed. We have to see what happens in the next episode, which is the mid-season finale. I'll be working on the next post as I get the chance to watch episode 7.

Scheduling Made Easy: Tungle.me

I'm just writing a quick post about a great application that allows you to share your availability with others whether it's for personal or business reasons. The name of this app is tungle.me. This app was created back in 2009 as a start up venture in Montreal, Canada. As of April 2011, they have been acquired by Research in Motion (RIM), the makers of Blackberry phones and tablets. In my opinion this is a great web application!

I first learned of this app when I was trying to schedule a recent job interview. The hiring manager sent me a public link to his tungle profile to show when he was available to meet. I just had to propose a meeting time. This was synced up with my blackberry calendar and also I was sent an email to remind me of the date and time of the interview. Below is an example of the public profile.

The interface is easy to use. Once you have set up a profile you can choose to sync it with other calendar applications such as google calendar, ical, microsoft outlook, blackberry calendar, facebook, and others. Once all calendars are synced up you can see your events and appointments on the tungle.me calendar. The good thing is that when you share your tungle.me calendar with someone else they can't see your events but only see that you are not available or busy at that time. Another great thing is that this prevents double booking. Also the person who wants to propose a meeting does not have to sign up for an account to propose meeting times.

This is definitely a great application to increase productivity. It is a great way to minimize the time and sometimes confusion of scheduling meetings with each other. It is free to sign up for an account. There are also the app versions that you can download for your mobile phone. So far blackberry and iphones are supported. There is no word on an android app on their website but I am sure one will be on its way.

I suggest you check it out and see for yourself if this app can be useful in your life. I think that it will be!
Here is the link again: tungle.me.

Recap of The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 5: Chupacabra

Here we go Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 5: Chupacabra. If you haven't seen the episode from last Sunday there are going to be spoilers here.

Sunday 9pm EST on AMC!

Episode Recap:

The episode begins with a flashback. We see events at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. We learn that the government has dropped bombs destroying the city much to the horror of the people waiting on the highway.

The group is planning out a search party for Sophia. Shane and Rick have differing opinions about what should have been done regarding searching for Sophia. Shane believes that there should not have been a search party because it uses up resources and makes the survivors susceptible to danger. Rick is stricken with guilt over how he could not protect Sophia and lost her. He still believes that Sophia is alive and that they will find her. Rick begins to doubt his decisions. We find out later we find out that Shane's top priority is to keep Lori and Carl safe. No one else really matters. Lori has not told Rick (or Shane) that she is pregnant. I'm thinking that this might be Shane's baby but not sure of the timeline of events thus far.

Daryl's missing brother Merle from Season 1. Is he still alive?

Darryl goes off on his own after borrowing a horse without asking. He finds a doll possibly owned by Sophia down by a lake. However, before he can make further progress he is thrown off by a horse down the side of a short cliff. Unfortunately, one of his arrows has pierced his side. He attempts to climb up the cliff to get back to safety. He slips and falls again. He has visions of his brother Merle who keeps goading him and tells him that he is not liked nor respected by the other survivors. He finds the strength to climb back to the path but not before making a necklace out of the ears of the zombies he just killed.

Zombie Killing Highlights: Darryl fights off two zombies.

• Zombie A gets owned by a large walking stick to the head. 

Well place walking stick to the head.

• Zombie B is killed with a well placed arrow to the head.

Headshot!

Andrea wants to keep the camp safe by keeping lookout. She spots a zombie who is really Daryl covered in dirt and blood. She can't properly identify who it is because of the sunlight. She takes a shot which just grazes Daryl's head. 

Zombie or just crazy Daryl covered in dirt and wearing a zombie ear necklace? Andrea take a look...

...what Andrea sees through her binoculars.

Andrea's shot just grazes Daryl's head.

Glen confides in Dale about having sex with Maggie. Dale is not impressed and mortified by the whole situation because he knows that Hershel is going to be pissed off if he ever finds out.

Ever done it in a hayloft? Funny story there was this one time...

Creepy barn alert. There better not be any zombies in there...

The big reveal comes at the very end of this episode. Glen wants to meet Maggie at the barn hayloft after dinner. He makes a shocking discovery that Hershel has kept living zombies locked up in the barn. Maggie tells Glen that he was not supposed to see this.

WTF! There are zombies in the barn! 

How will Hershel explain this secret to the survivors? Will this drive a wedge between Team Rick vs. Team Hershel. Will Lori reveal her pregnancy?  We will see what happens next episode!