Skype: Video Calling in Wifi and 3G

Around 1 a.m. last night my brother, Paul, texts me from across the house: "Can I come over for a sec?" I wondered if something was wrong. Seconds later he is bursting in my room pleading with me to sign in to Skype on my iPhone. Video calling had arrived.

Let's do a little background here so my enthusiasm for this new feature can be fully understood. Lately T-Mobile has been thinking they are so clever with the pink-striped dress woman. "Weeeee have video calling in 3G and the iPhone doesn'tttttt," the commercials taunted. They also have some dorky guy piggy-backed onto to iPhone guy, saying it's AT&T weighing him down. (You can view the commercial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7gaPWeZMdw)

Did I mention that Apple first started these commercials? You can't beat Apple at it's own game. In my brother's educated (via his Apple obsession and reading Macrumors) opinion, FaceTime hasn't been offered in 3G yet because it hasn't been perfected. They don't want to release some halfway done feature. No, I haven't used T-Mobile's video calling so I can't say it isn't top notch. But I'm going to go ahead and guess it isn't exactly FaceTime. However, I can vouch for FaceTime. And it's simply wonderful.

With that said, Skype's release of video calling for the iPhone was pretty much a TAKE THAT T-MOBILE. Well, it was to me anyway.

Back to 1 a.m. last night. Yes, we did sit on my bed and video call each other to test it out. First we tried it on Wifi. Perfection. My brother's physical voice was in sync with the audio coming out of my phone. The picture was also very clear. Then we turned off our Wifi and tried calling on 3G. Still very clear. But, yes, the audio was a little delayed. But who could tell unless the two callers happen to be in the same room?

Today we also tried calling over 3G with about 20 miles between us. It still worked very well. I am very pleased. I stinkin' called my brother over video from the passenger seat of my car!

Christian Bale.

Does he even need more of an introduction?

When he popped up on the scene a few years ago, I thought Bale was sort of a "man of the hour" type of actor. I thought he was going to be good at one thing and that he'd be overused in that role and we'd all get tired of him. (Eh-hem. I'm talking about you, Cameron Diaz) Because really, he was in several things in a row in the mid-2000s. The Machinist, Batman Begins, Prestige.

That changed last week when I saw The Fighter.

A few weeks before I saw the film, I watched the trailer. Mark Wahlberg punching around, Amy Adams 10 pounds heavier with an accent and some skinny drug type. What's that? The credits say Christian Bale is in the movie? THAT SKINNY SLIMEY-ACTING DUDE IS HIM? I encountered the same feeling while watching the film. I couldn't get over it. Every single scene. The accent. The mannerisms. The overall character. During the film, I kept trying to picture the way he was in another movie. I honestly couldn't. Prestige? No. Batman Begins? No. I could only see him as Dicky Eklund. Every inch of his body was Dicky. And every syllable the left his mouth was Dicky.

This is the definition of an excellent actor if you ask me. Christian Bale was unrecognizable. He left his own personality and mannerisms at home and brought a totally different person to the screen. I haven't been able to stop singing his praises since.

Last night, we decided to watch The Dark Knight because my dad got a new BlueRay player for Christmas. First, it was utterly strange to see Bale so beefed up. He almost looked overweight to me compared to his appearance in The Fighter. (Clearly NOT overweight, but this is the vast difference in his physically appearance) It was strange to see him as Bruce Wayne: suave millionaire. I've clearly not been appreciating Bale's talents because I was highly impressed last night by his portrayal in The Dark Knight. Minus, the strangely low Batman voice of course.

Looking back on his career thus far, it's safe to say that I underestimated and underappreciated his talent. He has played wildly different roles over the course of his career. It just took his role as Dicky Eklund for the bells to finally go off in my brain.

To recap, Christian Bale is sort of my favorite actor at the moment. It's actually a tie with James Franco quite frankly. (127 Hours anyone?) And if Bale doesn't win a Golden Globe or an Oscar I'm going to be, well, pretty upset.

NOTE. If you are, or think you are, a professional movie reviewer: please refrain from ripping me apart. I don't claim to know it all. Everything in this blog is just my humble opinion and view :)

Back.

So remember when I was like a blogging fiend this summer? It's about to happen again. Christmas break, for me, begins at 6:20 p.m. tomorrow. Brilliant.

Blogging was obviously shoved onto the back burner this semester. I had to devote my creative energies to clearly more amazing things like: police beat stories, city council stories, reading novels out of british lit and postcolonial lit, research essays. That's no excuse for abandoning this blog, I know.

My brother, Paul, became a master blogger over this semester because he had to for class. He got absolutely amazing feedback. Our church even posted one of his posts on Facebook. I'm way proud of how he's evolved as a technology blogger. So, there was that making me feel guilty for leaving my blog in the dust. (For real check out his blog: technopaul)

Then there was Hyperbole and a Half. I'd actually read some posts from this blog before, but I completely forgot about it until my friend, Kelly, suggested I check it out. This girl writes wacky blogs about whatever is going on in her life. Totally different from my blogging style. But hilarious. And SHE DOES IT FOR A LIVING, PEOPLE. So she obviously has more time to devote than I do. But it made me feel a teensy bit inspired.

And now that I will have free time, and surely plenty of experiences at new cupcake places, shopping for Christmas and enjoying a school break, I will be back in action.

Next week, my wisdom teeth are coming out. That's bound to be blog worthy.