The Blog of G

So a while back Elly and I were planning a holiday. Once we had decided on destination and timing and some activities etc, Elly’s thoughts turn to packing (so she can decide how many bags we’re going to need to check in) Part of this process included, what electronics would we be bringing.

Of course our mobile phones would be required so chargers and socket adapters would be required as well, Elly’s Kindle cause it’s so much easier than carrying the amount of books she will read in a week and of course my netbook so we can connect to the free wi-fi in our hotels and not have to pay for an internet café, plus it would mean we can watch some of our TV shows while relaxing before or after a hard days touristing.

This of course lead to the usual discussion over how pathetic the speakers are on the netbook. It’s not so much that their bad speakers, more that they are pathetically quiet. So, I said I’d have a look for some sort of portable speakers to help.

After a bit of digging about online, reading some reviews and so on I decided to grab one of the XMI X-mini II Mini Speakers from Amazon.

Included with the speaker is the USB charging cable and a small pouch to carry both the speaker and cable in, which is a nice touch. The speaker itself has a short cable, about 3 inches, attached which plugs into any headphone socket and wraps away into the bottom of the speaker for storage.

The next thing that I noticed is that the unit shipped fully charged, another nice touch. Immediately it was connected to my mobile phone and tested, the sound was pretty good and the volume level was more than respectable if a little tinny sounding.

Just as I was starting to feel a teeny bit disappointed with it I remembered that the speaker had a neat trick, a quick twist of the base and the bellows style middle of the speaker was expanded. this really surprised me with how much it improved both the over all sound quality and increased the volume.

Now let’s be clear about this the sound quality is never gonna match a decent Hi-Fi, for a start, this is a mono speaker, add to that it’s tiny (see photo’s) and anyone with even the most basic knowledge of sound will know that. Here’s the trick though, you can’t stick a Hi-Fi in you pocket, this you can and the sound is definitely better than any laptop, mobile phone or mp3 player speaker that I’ve heard.

The battery life is surprisingly good, I get about 2 days out of it between charges. I used it constantly while studying for my recent exams just to give it a decent test you understand And charging couldn’t be easier, just connect it to a USB port and it will charge in about 3-4 hours, I’ve even charged it from the USB ports on my X-Box 360 while it was off.

There’s also a neat little trick it can do, if you have more than one you can daisy chain them together to give more volume although if volume is what you are after this is not the best solution.

Now think about the cost, we paid £20.00 sterling for ours. Since then Amazon have reduced the price again, it is superb value. My biggest concern about it is that those annoying teenagers that play music from their phones on the bus will get hold of these and become even more annoying. As a small device to make using your laptop in a hotel or even a small presentation a little less painful I couldn’t recommend this mini speaker more.

I recently watched Band Of Brothers in it’s entirety for the first time, I had seen bits of it when it originally aired but not the entire show. Having now watched it in full, I’d rate it as highly (possibly even higher) as Saving Private Ryan.

It’s a magnificent piece of Television and the kind of thing that should be made mandatory viewing for everyone. It gives you a sense of just how horrific that part of human history was in a way that nothing else has ever given me.

After about the third or fourth episode I was thinking that a slightly light hearted post along the lines of “I played with toy soldiers as a child, but never had even the faintest idea of what war was like until I saw this” but once I saw the episodes where they discover the “camps” there is no way I could trivialise what this show is really about.

It was created to remind us all of one of the darkest moments in human history and to help us remember just how easily a bully can force ordinary people to abide the most extraordinary things, the cruelty and inhumanity of one crazy individual is one thing but the real horror of what happened is not Hitler’s story, it’s the soldiers that followed those orders, it was the local communities that turned a blind eye to what was happening around them.

The message of the series (to me anyway) was not how great the US army was, but to remind us all to speak out when we see injustice, not to sit back and pretend it’s not happening.

If we see something really wrong in society and we don’t speak out then we are no better that the ones doing wrong. It applies to every level of society, from the kids in the school yard that don’t take part in the bullying but don’t try to stop it, the boss that orders you to do something that you know is morally wrong but you justify it to yourself anyway, to acceptance of a corrupt political system, that fails to bring criminals to justice, thus passively encouraging all sorts of abhorrent behaviour.

What do you see in our world that shouldn’t be there? have your say below.

Elly and I had a great night out last night at the Culch.ie birthday party/Groundhog Day movie screening.

The venue was the “The Sugar Club” and the evening began with Darren on-stage introducing the movie and announcing that there would be some spot prizes later. Although, he was ambushed by some of the other Culch.ie crew with a large chocolate cake. It was almost a shame to cut it though as it was the Culch.ie logo, but cut it was and passed to the eagerly waiting audience.

Groundhog Day is a film I have seen before but not this millennium, so it was almost like a whole new film to me. Elly on the other hand had never seen it and (like me and everyone else) laughed through most of it.

What stood out for me, watching this film again was the character of Ned Ryerson. I’d never noticed it before but was this character the inspiration for Ace Ventura‘s irritating “funny” voice and mannerisms?

Once the movie finished some spot prizes were given out (congrats to all the winners) and the lights came up allowing the audience to mingle and chat while enjoying the bar facilities, there didn’t seem to be any rush to clear people out and as a result there was a fantastic friendly, relaxed atmosphere.

An excellent evening was had by all and for the my first Culch.ie ‘event’ I was very impressed. Spot prizes, cake, a great movie, a witty and intelligent MC and a great venue, how could I not be impressed. Oh, did I mention there was cake!

I can’t wait for the next one, some come on Darren don’t keep us in suspense…