BlackBerry Inspires: Silver Edition

Yes it's been a while since I've blogged, I've been busy and have a had a lot of students.

 

Anyway, you probably remember my post "BlackBerry Inspires." I loved my Q10, but was shopping around for something even greater (hard to find!) for whenever my Q10 decided to leave the world. I initially considered the BlackBerry Classic, because it was as nice as my Q10 but had the optional trackpad like my primitive BlackBerry Curve AND it was available in blue (score!). Then I feasted my eyes on the BlackBerry Passport. Squarish, dorky, yet practical & functional as frick. THEN I learned of the BlackBerry Passport Silver Edition. I was like "It's just a different color, why is it $50 more??" I watched YouTube videos to see what the difference was between the Passport and the Passport Silver Edition. I began to learn of its superiority over the Passport. Better speakers, better grip on the back panel, protective metal ring around the camera, larger "chin" below they keypad, and a beastly stainless steel frame. I had to have it!

 

The Passport (including the Silver Edition), has a Gorilla Glass 3 screen, a touch-capacitive keypad (weird concept but handy), and a 13MP camera (more than my Nikon at 10MP!). In addition, this phone is unique-looking and beautiful, and in the week I've had it, I've gotten A LOT of comments on it. This is my lovely new phone:

 I have taken some pretty nice photos with it, and I have had a MUCH easier time reading messages and web sites. I have even flipped it sideways and scrolled through web sites on the touch-capacitive keypad. This phone also has EXCELLENT speakers. It's a loud phone, so the alarm clock never fails to wake me up, even through my earplugs. Music and even notification sounds are so much fuller sounding. The screen is VERY bright--it's turned down a little in that photo to save the battery. I was able to really blossom when taking photos on the go with my Q10, and now I blossom even more as a photographer with the Passport Silver Edition. Here are some of my favorites taken on the new phone:

 

 

 

 

 

Click here for a comparison between the Passport and the Passport Silver Edition.

Click here for a showcase of the Passport's speakers compared to most modern smartphones.

 

Also, because this is a BlackBerry 10 device, not only can it run Android apps through the Amazon Appstore, BUT you can also download the Google Play store and download any app that is available on Google Play, so you don't miss out on your favorite apps!

 

The screen is BIG and wide, I can see more of my emails and web sites, my calendar, my message hub, etc.

Here is BlackBerry's "Work Wide" Passport commercial.

Here is a video breaking down the touch-capacitive keypad.

 

I also love the video camera, it takes video up to 1080p, and you can enhance the video just like you can with pictures, including a "Slow Motion" feature that most of my Facebookies have seen me playing with a lot lately.

 

My New Year's resoltuion for 2016 was to use my Q10 to get and STAY organized, and I managed to do it for the entire year. Now I am continuing with that on my Passport Silver Edition. I've had it for a week, and already it's been an excellent tool for fun, for work, and for teaching music lessons. My students can easily hear the companion recordings that go with their books thanks to the juicy speakers. I can also send teachers high quality photos of their students' registration forms so they are able to read all the information clearly. It's been better for phone calls--the caller's voice is loud and clear, and they can easily hear me. The BBM Video function is better because I can see Nathan on a bigger screen, and he receives higher quality video of me that no longer lags or skips, even without wi-fi turned on (just over a data network). I have also spent a lot of time researching this particular phone model, so I knew a lot about it when I got it, and I am also learning more about the BlackBerry 10 OS. I started watching stuff from Jan Ole Helmbold on YouTube, and I have learned a lot from him (and I think it's cute how he says "Spo-dee-fy" instead of Spotify because he's German). Here's to more enjoyment of my BlackBerry Passport Silver Edition!

 

*Enjoy your day*

 

Photo Book on our State Fair trip

Photo Book on our Minnesota State Fair trip. Enjoy! :-)

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BlackBerry Inspires

Yes it has been a long freakin time since I posted, I know that. LOTS of bassoon playing going on these days, and I'm teaching lots of music lessons. Anyway, the post you clicked on...

 

So I got a BlackBerry Q10 for Christmas. I'd been wanting one ever since they came out. It would've been a pretty big upgrade from my BlackBerry Curve 8530. I was also getting more & more sick of Virgin Mobile by the day. I did some research and found out I would need to purchase an "unlocked" Q10 so I could use it on the network of my choice.

As many of you know, I'm kind of a big photobug, and the Curve's camera sometimes captured things perfectly, but to really get just what I wanted out of a photo, I needed my big Nikon. I knew the Q10 was going to have a better camera than the Curve, but really, it has turned out to be an AWESOME camera for just being built into a cell phone. So much so that I started an Instagram account, and I impress the heck out of myself with some of the pictures I've posted on it. This is fun! Let me show you some of my favorites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't used to support the whole use of filters and stuff, but sometimes it really brings out the coolness of the photo. The above are just Instagram favorites of mine. Let me show you a couple other favorites that had been posted on Facebook since getting this phone:

 

 

 

 

This has been a lot of fun! Some of these didn't even need any filters, they were perfect just the way they were :-)
Meanwhile in addition to "scratching my photobug itch," this phone inspired me to REALLY promise myself as a New Year's resolution to stay freaging organized. I had tried several times in the past with my old BlackBerry or with my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to keep the calendar updated and add lists, reminders, etc., but this time I really did it thanks to my Q10. I've been looking at some of the other new, slick BlackBerry models like the Passport or the Classic, but for now I really REALLY like my Q10. It works nicely with T Mobile, they've been good to me so far :-)

*Enjoy your day*

 

 

Learning the Bassoon

Yes, I know you've been waiting for another post for quite a while, but I've been busy working and learning to play the bassoon!

I'd been wanting a bassoon for a few years. I'd ask for one for my birthday or Christmas and never get one. So I started asking band directors if their schools were having an auction or anything to let me know if any bassoons were going in it.

I happened to ask the band director at Cook County Schools in Grand Marais, and she said there was one there that nobody had used in SEVERAL years. It was just sitting there on the shelf in the band room. I decided to purchase it!

I bought Standard of Excellence Book 1, the same thing I started with on clarinet 21 years ago, and the same thing I start each one of my students on. I took home this bassoon I had just acquired, and sat down and got started. This was November 6th.

I learned to assemble it, and I made up a song to help me remember the correct order to assemble all the pieces. I don't need to sing the song to myself anymore, but in the future, my beginning bassoon students may like to use it.

I went through many of the same things I went through as a young clarinet player at Esko back in the day. Struggling with fingerings or lines in the book, or with reeds, or spit in my instrument, or trying to read the bass clef. I struggled a lot, but I also had more "juice" in me this time than I did back in 5th grade. I was able to see for the first time since 5th grade all the things my students see when they learn their instruments. My bassoon teacher was myself, and she was tough! She made me play every line perfectly before I was allowed to move on in my book. December 6th rolled around, one month later, and I had done it! I completed Book 1!

I held myself to the same, if not higher standards as I do my other students learning to play an instrument. I'm not only learning about bassoon, I'm learning about teaching. Meanwhile, I'm having a great time, regardless of the struggles I run into. Can't finish the maze without running into a few walls first, right? The cheese is being a bassoonist, so it's worth the run :-)

Meanwhile, I have accepted another bassoon related challenge. I have been an oboist in the Duluth Symphonic Winds Community Band for over 7 years now. I have taken on a bassoon playing spot in the group now since we gained another oboe player. Luckily, my good friend Kerry is the best bassoon player I know, and I'll get to sit with her every week at rehearsal, so she will be there to help me out :-)

*Enjoy your day*

I Witnessed The Jonas Evolution

Yeah. It's been quite a while since I've posted. This is our busy season at work and I've also taken on a bunch of new students. Anyway, on to the topic...

I DID witness what I like to call "The Jonas Evolution." We all remember the cute Disney boys back in 2005. These dudes:

They were adorable and all the young girls loved them. Fast forward to like 2007 or so when they started coming out with these totally INNOCENT lyrics in songs like "Burnin' Up," when they said "High heels, red dress, all by yourself, gotta catch my breath!"

Very clean, very family friendly, very Disney-appropriate. Today's generation's Hanson really. By the way, I LOVED the video for Burnin' Up, it was hilarious and chock full of celebrities (and of COURSE, Big Rob) (click link above to watch--VERY cute!)

The next era started in probably 2009 or so, when their "message" was quite clear to all. They wanted the world to know they were drug free, alcohol free, and totally abstinent and responsible, so much so that they constantly wore "purity rings."

The message was clear--"you can look, but you can't touch, and we will NOT drink, smoke or do drugs." Young girls everywhere rejoiced at having such fantastic (and TOTALLY HOT) role models who made great music that they loved. Nick also had his own following after writing "A Little Bit Longer"in 2008, where he lamented of his early days with juvenile diabetes (just finding out about it, having it change his life, etc.). The song made girls cry because the lyrics were so moving, and so many of those crying girls had juvenile diabetes themselves and could totally relate. The guys had also had their own show on the Disney Channel at this point, just called "Jonas," about 3 brothers in a band dealing with "normal" stuff like school and of course girls.

2009 was the year I first fell in love with these guys, though I had certainly witnessed everything leading up to this time (they were all over the TV and internet, being pop stars and all). Still "owned" by Disney, they released a sort of "themed" album, where all the songs had lyrics that eluded to the album's title "Lines, Vines and Trying Times." This was their fourth album as a group. The Lines, Vines and Trying Times were apparently pulled from their own lives, dealing with being popular, dealing with world issues, and dealing with lots of other things around that time. 2009 was a busy and crazy time for them all around. They had also come out with a new show on the Disney Channel called "Jonas L.A.," where again they dealt with the women in their lives and the complications caused by them. These guys were really beginning to grow up.

By 2011, they had gone their separate ways as a band (but definitely not as a family). Kevin had gotten married to Danielle, a girl he met on a family vacation several years before. They started their own TV show "Married to Jonas," and Joe recorded a solo album called "Fastlife." I enjoy several of the tracks from Fastlife, but it was VERY different from anything the brothers ever made. Nick also put together a band called Nick Jonas and the Administration, which is a hint at how his brothers always called him Mr. President because he was sorta the boss in their band, and there were hints of him running for actual United States president someday. I did enjoy Nick's new band as well. Their stuff was VERY different than Joe's, but I liked all of it.
Click this link to see my favorite Joe Jonas video, I LOVE this song!
Click this link to see my favorite Nick Jonas video
Notice how different they are? Not just in the music but even in the style of the video. But I enjoy both!

2013 comes along, and HEY! The Jonas Brothers (yes, the Jonas BROTHERS--back together?!) release a new single--and there is not a purity ring in sight!! In fact, there's half naked chicks and all sorts of sexual hints and messages in the video AND lyrics--"I want you on my team. Want you like a kid just wants a milkshake. And I won't let it go to waste if I get a taste I'm gonna drink the whole thing!" Whoa! Not Disney's boys anymore! But I LOVED "Pom Poms!" Yes, the marching band in the video was my favorite part, but oh my gosh, THE JONAS BROTHERS WERE BACK and they were rocking my socks off again in a whole NEW and DIFFERENT way! All grown up and VERY good looking and VERY different guys musically!
Click this link to watch the video for Pom Poms

That seemed to be the last match in the book though for these guys as a group. However, thanks to social media, I was able to continue to follow these guys separately. Nick Jonas split off from the guys in his Administration and went solo, releasing hits like "Jealous," that I again could not resist rocking out to! Click here for the video. Nick wasn't my favorite brother but that doesn't mean he isn't HOT :-P

Fast forward to THIS WEEK! I had been seeing that Joe has been DJing in the western United States (L.A., Vegas, etc) and thought that was that until Tuesday (the 15th) when I saw something about this DNCE releasing this "Cake By The Ocean" and I was like "Eh?!" So I clicked on it and I guess Joe is in this new band called DNCE, and this "Cake By The Ocean" is their first single. I was hooked on it immediately, though there is quite a bit of profanity! It's almost refreshing though, because of all the proper lyrics and behaviors these guys started out with! Sure, Nick's album did have a little "Parental Advisory" sticker on it, but his profanity was more subtle! Anyway I'm hooked on "Cake By The Ocean," and you can click this link to listen to it--but be warned about the profanity! :-P Friggin catchy though!!

Fast forward a whole day to YESTERDAY, when I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and saw that Nick has a new single called "Levels." So I of course had to check it out! I saw the video and there are a LOT of ladies wearing very little! No profanity, but lots of hints at sexual messages. I do love the song though! Click this link to watch the video.

It's just weird to be so old that I watched a "boy band" evolve THIS MUCH, and STILL LIKE THEM! Most people sorta just fade away from their favorite boy bands after they dissolve. These guys always kept me hooked, and I think at this point, I'm gonna continue to be hooked until they're doing choreographed dancing with walkers and/or wheelchairs at the senior center :-)

P.S. Aren't they hot?! :-)

*Enjoy your day*

Saturday night's NOT all right for fighting, Elton John :-P

So Elton John was wrong. There really isn't a night that's all right for fighting, especially not in Big Red's neighborhood. Let me give you the run-down on this whole neighborhood thing and the whole Saturday thing. I'll start with the neighborhood. Yes this is long but these issues are important to me, and if you live in this neighborhood at all, you'll appreciate it.

I live on what has GOT to be THE MOST DANGEROUS intersection west of Spirit Valley. I actually filled out a complaint form and mailed it to the police department. Every night I hear people either speeding from Fond du Lac, from Superior, or back TO Superior (the Oliver Bridge is down the road from here). People from Superior are known to be pretty horrible drivers, especially way out here in GNDLand, a neighborhood "in the middle of nowhere where you can do whatever you want." NOT the case! In the almost 9 years I have lived at this address, I have observed pedestrians almost getting hit, a dog who DID get hit (by a lady from SUPERIOR who DROVE OFF), people yelling at each other from their vehicles, people LEAVING their vehicles to confront each other, people throwing things from their vehicles, people driving VERY recklessly (including speeding, screeching and honking), people going through the stop sign, and people actually BACKING UP because they tried to go too soon. This kind of crap goes on pretty much EVERY NIGHT. I live upstairs so I can't read license plates, but I see everything because I'm often right at the window.

This brings me to this past Saturday night when I had been posting several angry updates to Facebook. I arrived home from work at about 7:30. I sat down on my bed and fired up my laptop (I usually sit at our main computer, which is by that window). I heard some screeching a fe minutes later, rolled my eyes and said something like "for God's sake..." or whatever. Not too long later, I heard more screeching and thought "oh cool, I guess it's Reckless Driving Night in GNDLand..."

So as I look at my BlackBerry right now, it looks like this next thing occurred at 8:38, slightly over an hour since I had gotten home.

I heard screeching AGAIN, and was still sitting on my bed not feeling like getting up and running over to the window, but I WAS getting pretty damn mad at this point. I then heard some YELLING! I thought "FOR GOD'S SAKE!!" I DID get up and run over to the window at that point and saw a guy who had GOTTEN OUT OF his car and was yelling at a lady who had GOTTEN OUT OF her car! I tore open the window (causing me to break a nail), and with my BlackBerry in hand, called the cops. I could tell this guy was a real A hole the way he was yelling & screaming at this lady (for what appeared to be no good reason). I yelled & screamed out the window at HIM to get him to hopefully get in his car and get the f**k outta my neighborhood and stop bothering random people. He looked up at me and yelled some stuff back of course. I couldn't see his license plate but could see he had gotten out of a dark colored Jeep-y looking SUV (out of the PASSENGER side, mind you). I was narrating the whole situation to the cops on the phone trying to describe the car and the situation as best as I could. The lady got back in her car and turned the corner and pulled into the parking lot of the building on the other corner (turned out to be my neighbor). The guy got back in his Jeep and just ripped outta there in the opposite direction.

The cops did call me back to get more information, and I told them to tell the dispatcher that I wanted to apologize for being angry and for him having to endure me yelling & screaming at this rude jerky A hole who was hassling my neighbor!! He informed me that there are TWO, yes TWO cops working the area between 40th Avenue West & Fond du Lac. TWO F**KING COPS for that whole area is frigging stupid as hell. I told the cop that if they ever need to meet their speeding ticket/reckless driving quota at the end of the month to come on over here, it's like Christmas for that!

My downstairs neighbor informed me that he had also spoken to this cop, and apparently the Jeep jerk had pulled a knife on my neighbor. Pleasant. Good ol' GNDLand is now full of random meanies with knives, apparently. I feel so SAFE now! (NOT)

I thanked the cop that called me and went about my business. Looking again at my BlackBerry, this next incident happened at 9:16, only 45 minutes or so after all this.

I heard screeching and a LOUD engine FLYING down the street. I don't mind loud engines, I DO mind crazy drivers. I angrily walked out to the back porch of my building and saw an old ugly blue car with a VERY loud engine turning around at the laundromat. This car screeched around the corner down the street toward the Oliver Bridge. I called the cops again to report the car and its reckless driving. They thanked me for being so aware and would be coming back out. Again, I went about my business. I was mad and ordered a pizza because I was in no mood to cook (I was also ready to smoke a cigar at that point). Looking at my BlackBerry, the following occurred at 9:51.

AGAIN I heard screeching, and at this point I was PISSED. I called up the cops just to report another incident of reckless driving. They thanked me again and I ate my pizza and smoked my cigar. I didn't hear any more screeching the rest of the night. I had a pleasant day and a very maddening night. Story of my life I guess.

*Enjoy your day*

I can't believe I just had to send this to the DTA...

I have called the DTA several times over the years and have also sent them several Facebook messages. I do get responses, though nothing ever improves. My friend Don down the road has spoken with supervisors over the phone several times, and nothing ever gets done. I actually had to stoop to using profanity today in a Facebook message to them. here it is (I have censored it for this blog of course):

"Hello, I wanted to report hazardous driving by a bus driver. I just got off bus #145 on Sunday August 2nd. Rode from mall at about 6:22 to New Duluth at about 7:45. The driver was constantly stopping short and stopping suddenly. Near the zoo, around 7:25, he stopped so quick I had to grab the seat in front of me where a guy's arm was, ended up missing the handle and almost breaking my fingers and also falling into the guy's arm (very rude). I need my fingers for my job, I'm a music teacher. He actually stopped hard enough to cause an earbud to actually come out of my ear. My finger still hurts. I have ridden with this driver in the past several times and he always drives like this. A few years back, bus driver Dave had to stop suddenly down by the M&H and immediately asked everyone if we were okay. This other guy doesn't seem to give a damn. People FELL, and he didn't ask them if they were okay! One guy almost frickin fell in a wheelchair lady's lap!! What the f**k?! Sometimes I have him in the morning when I have hot coffee, and I'd rather not slosh hot coffee on people! That is way more rude than falling on them! I'm really getting tired of having to write complaints to you guys. Back in the day I used to write/call about things I thought you guys did well. I (and my hundreds of fellow passengers) would like to see those days return."

WHY? WHY must people be treated this way in America in 2015?! This is ridiculous and rather primitive if you ask me (like caveman behavior). I have TOLD the DTA that if there were another transit company in town, I would have SWITCHED YEARS AGO! I just want to enjoy my day every once in a while, and on a Sunday afternoon after work, I guess I'm not allowed to. Nice. Thanks.

*Enjoy your day*