This is an amazing song. Still.



Yesterday, I stopped by the apple store. I was demoing a JBL dock and speakers with my iPhone and I was playing the above song..."Fireflies" by Owl City. This song is currently one of my favorites. I tear up about everytime I hear it. This guy who was in buying a MacBook for his wife stopped by and said how much he loved the song. He then proceeded to purchase it right there in the store with his iPhone.

To me, it is amazing how all of us are different, but the way music impacts us...and how we can all enjoy just a great song is very reassuring.

Ken

Labels: music, music video

Dear All,

Sometimes in this life, we do not give appropriate "thank you's" to those people who have helped us along the ways. You may not know how difficult this blog was to write, in that I wanted to have a customized letter for everyone. I just want to go out an give a general thank you to everyone who has made me the man I am today.

I am a person who enjoys making a fun time for all, and sometimes I can use humor as a vehicle to exhibit my care, compassion or love for individuals. If I have upset you by anything I have said or exhibited a long the way, please accept my apology. I do care for most people I meet...especially those which I butt heads with. Most of the time it is due to a case of me being jealous...of you knowledge, success or other trait.

As I prepare and get ready to continue toward the next chapter of my life, for those people who I was blessed to be in classes with, for those who had aided in my educational experience, for those who have cared for me to allow me to visit their homes at a wonderful 2am just to chat to all my friends...even if we do not agree eye-to-eye on beliefs, convictions or (cough) politics...know that I love each and everyone of you individually. You all have you specific purpose in this life, and I would love to celebrate your accomplishments and screw ups with you. Do not worry, we will all screw up. It is simply a part of this life. I have learned to laugh at my mistakes and always learn from them.

Love, Ken

Labels: accomplishments, friendships, Full Sail, love, mistakes, thank you

With another year quickly winding down to an end with the temperatures changing, all kinds of wonderful foods being baked in the kitchen, festive decorations being placed and endless lines at the shopping malls...What do you have to be thankful for?

I am not trying to make this an "end of the year" blog which I am sure is coming later. This last week, we as Americans celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday. As this holiday is not celebrated by all countries, we as Americans joined with our friends and families and reflected our thankfulness for ourselves, our country and many more things.

So far, this year has been an incredible one for me. It has brought many different eye-opening experiences for me as I am sure that it has for you as well. For instance, I have learned a lot about how governments work, what I believe in politically, how to treat certain situations and as always...I get more and more tech savvy each day.

For me, the thing in which I am probably most thankful for is the opportunity to be an individual. To be able to learn, think and act unique from anyone else. The best gift of all is human life. Our life is a canvas, and we are the painter. We have the opportunity to paint whatever we desire. All that matters is what we think and believe to be "art."

What are you most thankful for at this wonderful time of year? What has this year taught you?

-Ken

Labels: dinner, experiences, family, friendships, holidays, love, personality, thanksgiving, unique

Well, this is the 100th post to my blog. I have reached the goal that I had set for myself in the spring of this year (2009). For this blog, I want to encourage everyone with something...that is discussing with respect.

As many of my readers and followers are probably aware, I have different political beliefs than most. In fact, I do not claim to be of a "political party." Why you may ask? Well the reason is simple. Both of the classic political parties are full of corruption, both Republican and Democratic. So, with that being said, I am an independent...a "free thinker" if you will.

Here recently, I was corresponding with a guy in whom I have never actually met via Twitter. The conversations started off okay...We both attend the same university and we were talking about that. Then...he sent me some very cold and harsh DM's (direct messages) about how "ignorant" and "close minded" I am...and even said that I have "a 6th grade understanding" of politics. I was in no way offended by this, because I am aware that most people can not have a civilized discussion about things. They do not know their facts, so the only thing they can do is viciously attack another person.

Let me encourage everyone on this...whether we believe the same things or not. This is a good thing to apply to any aspect of your life. A friend once told me "It is easier to attract bees with sugar than with vinegar." How true that statement is. It shows your immaturity if you just attack a person because they believe differently than you. I am all for discussing things...whether on a political, religious or personal basis, but I will not be attacked. When that happens, I will step away from the situation and move on to bigger and better things.

I welcome debates, but there also needs to be an understanding of professionalism and respect. I quite frankly do not care what a person thinks of me...I am not in high school anymore. I am not here to please anyone...So please, when you disagree, please agree to disagree agreeably.

-Ken

Labels: agree, disagree, goal, politics, professionalism, respect, twitter

When Apple first released their legendary iPhone on June 29, 2007, there were many different reactions toward the device. Some people, such as myself loved the concept of being able to do virtually anything from the simplistic phone...and others thought the device could use major improvements, such as being able to access the networks faster data connections, multimedia-messaging or having a traditional "physical" keyboard which all the original iPhone lacked.

Through further releases of the device and OS updates, the device finally had the programming capability to do many and much more of the above critiques...but a few that the device still lacked in the United States was multi-media messaging. The phone was fully capable of doing so in OS release 3.0, but AT&T restricted use of the multi-media messaging capabilities. Why? Bandwidth.

On Friday, September 25th, 2009...AT&T finally made available multi-media messaging. I think it is absolutely ridiculous for a company such as AT&T to partner with a company and basically bag their users of features because of poor planning on their part. It is my belief that AT&T took off a bigger bite than what they could chew. They had many months before hand to prepare or upgrade their network to be capable of doing such high-bandwidth tasks.

People have said before that you cell phone is only as good as your service provider, and in this case that is true partially. It is of my belief that AT&T has given Apple a bad representation of themselves. The phone works great, the only lacking thing is quality and reliable service. Hopefully, AT&T will get their act together if they are smart and are completely sincere about getting their customers the best quality of service for all users of the iPhone now and in the future.

-Ken

Labels: apple, att, cell phones, history, mobile, revolution, service

I love the captions you guys come up with! Add a caption of your choosing. Let's see who comes up with the best one!
(If you are reading this from Facebook, please click on "View Original Post" to add your comment to the actual blog. Thanks.)

Labels: caption, photography, please, poll

Last week, I had the pleasure of joining with my buddy, Derek for some night photography in Downtown Atlanta. One of my favorite pastimes is photography, and more specifically I love long-expose photography. There is just something about it that is fun and entertaining for me. Night photography is not something everyone is good at, and to be honest, it is quite easy to do.


Don't get scared when I say this, but photography in any form is like a mathematical equation. It is all about compensation. With digital photography, you can easily change the ISO (or ASA) of each image you take. In the digital world, ISO is the CCD's sensitivity to light...it is mimicking the "film speed" in the classic film world. The higher the number, the more sensitive your film is to light. From there, you have the different settings with the lens, such as focal length (measured in mm) and focal distance (the distance you want in focus). What makes this easy for me, is I have captured images on film and compensating the lens just comes second nature to me. I often find myself looking at something and asking "If I were taking a picture of this, how would I shoot it?" That is the eyes of the photographer in me looking observing.


Long exposures are what makes night photography the best it can be. During daytime photography, you strive for the shortest exposure time...but in night photography, you want the longest exposure time. This is how I am able to capture the lights of the vehicles passing by. Doing a long exposure image is what tests your compensation skills the most. You have to be able to manipulate the ISO and f-stop (iris) of the camera to let in the amount of light that you need to "burn in" the image to film or CCD.

Have you ever tackled a night photography image? How did they turn out? What could you have done differently?

-Ken

Labels: compensation, digital, film, focal distance, focal length, long esposure, night, photography