Basically, it lets you make lists in graphical ways.  I often take notes while reading a comic that I might want to review.  I’ll write them in small bullet points lists: First, a set of art notes, then some writing notes, and maybe some packaging notes. I’ll draw lines here and there, write footnotes, or whatever it takes to tie in some tangents or supporting statements.

Basically, I’ve been “mindmapping” for years without fancy software to make it color-coded and PDF-enabled.

But since the app was free in the Mac App Store, I thought I’d give it a shot. MindNode is very simple to use.  I didn’t read a line of directions or instructions. It’s all pretty obvious.  You start with a node. Give your mindmap a title there.  Then click and drag from the “+” button next to that to start a new node.  Create subnodes as you wish.  Each tendril off the root node will be automatically assigned its own color

Your work is saved in a MindNode file format, but you can also helpfully export out to a PDF (or PNG, or a few other formats) for those times you won’t be on a Mac but want to read it.

It also has the convenience of not being on a small scrap of paper that accidentally gets thrown out when I clear out my pockets at the end of the day.  I can keep it in DropBox as a PDF so it’s accessible everywhere.

I used it for Pipeline this week.  This is what the final output looked like for my review of “John Romita’s Amazing Spider-Man: Artist’s Edition”:

Mindmap used for this week's Pipeline

I didn’t cover everything in there, but I did get the vast majority of it.  When it comes time to apply butt to chair and write, you realize that some parts aren’t all that necessary. They just bulk up the writing at the expense of the reader’s attention.  That’s not something a mindmapping piece of software will teach you. That’s experience and ‘feel.’

Was the software necessary?  No, I could have just used pen and paper like I usually do.  But if MindNode feels more “fun” or interesting to use, then it’s worth it.  I made mindmaps of the next three books I read, at least two of which will see reviews in February.  We’ll have to check back at the end of the month to see how this goes. During that time, I’d also like to read more of the documentation to see if I’m missing some obvious feature that would make all of this even better.

If you’re not organized and scratching out bullet point lists on your own – whether on a scrap of paper, the back of an envelope, or your simplest text editor of choice on your iPhone or computer – then this might be a handy program for you.   It’s free, so what do you have to lose?  (There is also a “Pro” version of the software, which lets you add all sorts of funky stuff, including importing pictures, and even finer grain control.  It’s $20.)

They have an album or two up on iTunes that I’ve seen so far.  Listened to a couple of the previews there and I like what I hear so far.

On NBC

Pentatonix is going to win. It’s easy to see that right now. Barring a pair of horribly out-of-sync and out of tune performances in the same night, they’re your winners. Let’s break this down:

Afro-Blue: Confused group. Great at doing jazzy reimaginings, but often overthink it or get too complicated. They’re up and then they’re down over and over again. Some of this is the judges’ fault. In true Idol fashion, one week they tell the group to cut back on the jazz stuff, then the next they complain they’ve lost their jazz identity. Afro-Blue is confused.

Vocal Point: Some minor pitch issues, too distracted by school, not quite strong enough. What is their sound? They don’t have the lead man everyone will identify with. Nice guys, but not different enough from the pack to stand out as something that will win.

Urban Method: There’s still a problem with the women in the group. Even when the judges praise them — see the country song this week — they still sound a little insecure to me. And that weakness has plagued them throughout. They can’t rely on the rapper to carry them, but he’s their strongest part. He’s energetic, comfident, comfortable on stage, and one of those rare things — a rapper who can smile. I hate rap, but I enjoy watching him work.

Dartmouth Aires: Traditional college group. Will probably make it to Top 2 or 3. But they’re just too big, and their sound often gets lost in a chorus of voices. They have a couple of amazing leads to give them a character to hook onto and an identity (which is what doomed other groups like the Yellow Jackets), but the rest of the group is just sorta there. If you dropped four people, you probably wouldn’t hear the difference.

And, realistically, in setting up a tour in support of an album,bnobody wants to fund 15 band members for a road trip. Brian Setzer can only do it with his orchestra by going to Japan.

Pentatonix: The future of a capella. Small group makes them financially feasible to produce. They have a cohesive sound. They’re not a band slapped together for this show that hasn’t gelled. These guys are for real. Every person is strong and can handle the spotlight. They have the most charismatic, energetic, and creative vocal percussionist on the show. Their creativity is wild, and even when they pull it back – see country week, again – they make it a better song.

Pentatonix will win. They’re the group this show was created for, and the group Sony would be most happy to have.

At this point, if I had to guess, I’d say the eliminations will go in this order: Afro-Blue, Vocal Point, Urban Method, Dartmouth Aires. There’s lot of wiggle room in there, though. The judges are just looking for a reason to bounce groups at this point. They’re all great groups, but if they give the judges a reason to kick them off the show at the end of an episode, the judges will jump all over it. So, one
bad performance each week will doom a group.

And it’ll be a lot of fun to watch, because it’s some of the most creative singing television has ever seen, week after week.

When it’s all done, I plan on buying the first season of the show (which I’ve never seen) just to see more of Delilah’s Amy Lynn Whitcomb. She had a very poor choice of hairdo back then, but it’ll still be worth it. Please note that the safest Delilah ever was on this show were the weeks Whitcomb held the lead vocal. The second they let her sink into the background, the group had immediate issues.

I haven’t watched the whole thing in years. The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 was even better than I remembered. You can see Steve Jobs almost doing a victory lap on stage there. But you also see why he’s so good on stage: You believe everything he says because it doesn’t sound like a script, and he’s not reading off cue cards. He’s sure of himself. He’s a little cocky. He’s not afraid to throw a barb. He’s clear spoken. He doesn’t mince words. He doesn’t use corporate doublespeak blather. It’s a beautiful thing to watch, and see how far we’ve come in the last four years.

And, on a personal note, here’s my first blog post from my first Mac in September 2004. That computer still sits under this desk, though it’s been replaced by a late model iMac.

I admit that there’s a moment about 9 minutes into this video that got me a little emotional. This being a father thing softens you up…

You can read his full story here, and I definitely recognize parallels to my own situation, though I was only 11 when mine was diagnosed.

I found all this while following a story about hackers killing diabetics from a half mile away that is more than half-hogwash. Don’t worry, it’s not true. And since I don’t use a pump, I wouldn’t be affected, anyway.

“The Lonely” is a dark song, and the most likely to be used on “So You Think You Can Dance” this season. I haven’t checked her tour schedule for the summer, but I’d bet anything there’s a hole in it sometime in June or July for Perri to be there for a victory lap to perform a song from this album. The blatant reference to “Dancing slowly in an empty room” in this song makes it an easy choreographer target. (Though “Bang Bang Bang” would make a kick-butt Quick Step. ;-) I love the piano progressions in this song. It acts as both piano and percussion in the song, which is a nifty trick.

Guess what song they used on “So You Think You Can Dance?” this week? Perri is out on tour and not available to perform on the show, but I almost nailed that prediction…

I didn’t get too far into the water when I realized it, but I immediately took it out of my pocket and threw it in a towel in a bag and left it alone. By the time swim time was over with my daugther and we got home, the phone was dead as a doornail.

Well, not completely. Throwing it in airplane mode elicited a vibration. But the screen wouldn’t come on, and there was a white border along the upper corner of the screen. Water droplets were visible on the camera lens.

The phone was a goner. After two years of owning it without ever dunking it in the toilet, and two months before the next generation phone was due out, I had hosed my phone. Granted, Apple had a program letting me buy a new one for $199 one time only without affecting the carrier contract. But that’s still $200 more than I had to spend.

Thankfully, I had read about this kind of thing before, and my wife did a quick Google for it to confirm what I had read. So here’s what I did on Sunday afternoon:

1. Removed the SIM card. There was water on it. Dabbed it dry, laid it aside.

2. Took a blow dryer and blew into every open hole of the iPhone — namely, the spot where the SIM card slid out, the headphone jack, and the connector port at the bottom.

2a. After a couple of minutes of hot air, the camera lens was clear again.

2b. Two minutes later, the camera lens was covered in droplets and had to be blown dry again.

3. Took a sandwich-sized zip-lock bag, filled it with white rice (thankfully, we had some in the kitchen), and put the phone in there, with the wet side sticking most conspicuously into the rice.

4. Waited. A couple hours later, I did a quick round of blow drying. The camera lens was half covered, but that quickly evaporated.

5. Put it back in the bag of rice overnight.

5a. Before going to bed, I turned the phone over.

6. The next morning, plugged the SIM card back in, held down the power button, and — nothing.

7. Plugged the phone in. The battery was drained dry. The phone must have been on the entire time.

8. With enough power in it, the phone responded to the home button and came to life. The screen responded to touches. The camera took perfectly clear pictures. So I turned the phone back off –

9. — No, I didn’t. The power button at the top of the phone didn’t work. The water did its damage there. So anytime I wanted to put the phone to sleep, I had to wait for it. The worst part of that? No screen shots.

10. Also, the phone thought there were headphones plugged in at all times. That’s the way it behaved. So, no sounds, and no phone calls without Blue Tooth or ear buds plugged in.

11. By Monday night, the power button was working again, and the iPhone recognize that there wasn’t anything plugged into the headphone jack.

12. As of Wednesday morning, the only defect on the phone is that the volume up button doesn’t work. I can turn it down, but never back up again. Airplane mode works fine, though.

13. Now, a week later, I’m back to not being able to talk regularly on the handset. It’s back to thinking the headset is plugged in continuously, I guess. So it’s speakerphone, headset, or Blue Tooth for all phone calls now. And the volume up button is still hosed. The camera continues to work perfectly.

I just need it to last another month or two. C’mon, iPhone, you can do it!

Virtuoso Ukulele Player!

Seriously, the guy’s insanely good.  The flamenco song he played would rip anyone else’s tendons right out of their arms. And then there’s the crowd-pleasing covers of “Hallelujah,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” that are classics.  Here’s a sample:

8.5 million views on that sucker.  Well deserved.

Check out more of my concert pictures and the stories behind them right now at Augieshoots.com.

Making some changes around here. The biggest one is a complete rewrite of my concert portfolio. The new link and design is over here:

http://augieshoots.com/portfolio/

It should be an ever-evolving series of pictures from my concert shooting experience. I am constantly tinkering with it, so check it out from time to time. You can bet each new concert will lead to at least one new image up in there.

And, yes, sharp-eyed readers: That’s a new picture from the Jake Shimabukuro concert that I have yet to talk about here. . .