Shmee.Me

September 30, 2013

Breaking Bad Is Over: I Am A Very Sad Panda!

TV has lost its greatest show. Breaking Bad ended perfectly last night, and I am sad to see it go. I am going to keep this wrap up spoiler free, but Vince Gilligan and crew did the impossible and ended the show better than anyone could have believed. If you don’t know what Breaking Bad is than you need to stop reading this get on Netflix and start watching it now. Trust me, it is worth it.

My greatest fear heading in to this final episode was the that Vince was going to fulfill his promise about turning Mr. Chips in to Scarface literally, and just have the show end in a hail of bullets, but as Vince has done all along he did something a little different. He gave us the perfect ending that no one predicted, but looking back it was the way it had to end.

I have to congratulate AMC for sticking with this show even when it wasn’t a ratings winner. Most networks (I am looking at you Fox) would have moved it to Fridays and than canceled it, but they stuck with it, and had what will be remembered as one of the best, if not best show of all time. I will miss it, and that is why I am such a sad panda today. If Breaking Bad doesn’t sweep the Emmy’s next year it will be a crime.

September 27, 2013September 27, 2013

Get Taken in by Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

With the dawn of Fall every network starts trotting out their new shows, but only ABC had one that I couldn’t wait for. It is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It would have caught my attention anyway by just being a prime time comic book live action TV show, but one that was created, written, and directed by Joss Whedon, I am in. So how did it do? It was very good.

The show follows the undead Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), most recently seen dying in the Avengers movie, as he builds a team to seek out the strange and weird, and either trying recruit it, or trying to keep it from killing people. As always the team is made up of the best people they can find, but the best don’t always play nice together.

The show got off to a good start, but like most pilots it gets weighed down explaining who everyone is and what the show is about to be truly great, so I think the best is yet come. The show is giving off a Warehouse 13 sort of vibe with its kind of campy charm, but instead of just seeking out artifacts the Agents could be searching out anything or anyone.

It was about time that Marvel made a live action TV show after DC has had a lot of success with their own recently, and a spinoff starring S.H.I.E.L.D makes a ton sense. It allows for smaller scale stories, but still all wrapped up in the same universe. I will be tuning in.

September 26, 2013

Can You Weather A CyberStorm?

CyberStorm is book that came out in March of this year, and it was written by Matthew Mather. It was a great change of pace from the fantasy books I had been reading, and if the thought of cyber-warfare is something that interests you it is a must read.

The story follows Mike Mitchell as he is forced to try and keep his friends and family alive in New York. It has been hit by a real physical storm, and an internet attack by an unknown assailant that has taken down all power and communication. It has plunged NYC back in to the dark ages.

Since I work in IT, I am usually put off by books or movies about cyber attacks because they are completely wrong about how it is done, but CyberStorm must have been well researched because it is quite realistic in how it portrays the attacks. Like all disaster books it is still a little far fetched, but plausible none the less.

The characters are well developed and believable, and the depictions of New York without power or law are chilling. My only complaint would be that it gets a little to talky at the end, but that is just a minor nit pick.

If you own a Kindle you can get this book for free on the Kindle lending library, or you can buy it for $2.99, so it is well worth the price, and if you don’t like to read you can just wait for the movie Fox is making out of it, which should be a fun flick.

September 25, 2013September 25, 2013

Shmee Asks Where’s My Mickey!

I have been playing a lot of phone games lately, so you are going to get another app review. The game in question is Where’s My Mickey? by Disney Interactive. If you have played Where’s My Water than you know what you are getting in to here, but if not read on.

Where’s My Mickey follows Mickey Mouse as he tries to accomplish various things like start a lemonade stand, but sadly the water never works, so you have to dig around in the sand and get the water to Mickey.

The game is fairly simple, but it is fun figuring out the puzzles. The real draw here for me was to be able to play a game with the old school Mickey Mouse in it. It is fun to see the mischievous old mouse getting in to a little trouble, and this game gives off that old Disney charm, except I am playing it on a current day mobile device.

Like I said before, to get the water to Mickey you have to draw holes in the sand to allow the water to get through. You also get bonus points if you do this quickly, get all the water to Mickey, and activate all three stars in the level. This rarely took more than a few tries to do, but it is quite addicting to make sure that you get everything.

There are also Goofy levels that you have to pay extra for, but for me it was $0.99 for the game and $0.99 for the extra levels, so it was well worth the $2.00. Granted this was on a Windows Phone, so the prices on your platform may vary, but I cannot see it being much more than that.

If you are looking for a little game to pass some time, and one that is not frustratingly difficult Where’s My Mickey? may be just the game for you. Especially if you are fan of Disney like myself.

September 24, 2013September 24, 2013

Learning To Live With MyFitnessPal!

I have known that I needed to lose weight for quite some time, but I never had the motivation to do it until I needed to drop a few pounds to go Zip Lining in Kauai. I thought about what diets I might try, but I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on classes and books, I just wanted to control my eating, so I did what all 21st Century People do, I checked to see if there was an app for that, and low and behold there was. It was MyFitnessPal.

MyFitnessPal is a website that helps you track your caloric intake, but besides the site they have apps for just about every smart phone type out there. Say you want to eat a Subway sandwich, you would just type the sub you got in to the search bar, pick the one with options you got, and add it to the meal you are eating it for. It is that easy, and they have tons of menus and meals in their database, and more people are adding to it all the time, so you can search for just about anything and find it. Plus they have a barcode scanner, so you can just scan your pack of chips you shouldn’t be eating and it pops right up.

When you first start it asks you for your height, weight, weight goal, age, birthdate, gender, and most importantly how much weight you want to lose per week, so that it can setup calorie limits for you. If you go over your limit you get to see by how many calories, and it will also yell at you if you have had too few calories as well, so that you are not getting too aggressive on your diet.

It also tracks your other nutrients, so you can make sure that you are not eating to much sodium and bloating away all your weight loss, or to make sure you are still getting your vitamins. If you really want that ice cream sundae, you can plug in your exercise to add calories to your available daily intake.

MyFitnessPal also has social hooks to make it in to kind of a social network. For me it is a social network of one. I let my wife see and that is it, but it is good to have some accountability.

Like all calorie counters it only works if you use it, and sometimes I kind of look like a jerk when I pull out my phone to see if I have enough calories to eat something, but it is for my greater health. Will it work for you? Probably, and it has definitely worked for me: I have lost 25lbs and counting. Not bad for a free app, so I don’t care if they are selling my info it is more than worth it.