Mikey Boom

I’m Sick with strep throat today. I’ve got a sore throat and a fever but that’s not going to stop from making a post tonight. I wanted to tell you about my new FujiFilm V10 digital camera. It’s a standard 5.1 mega-pixel with a 3.4x Optical zoom and a 5.7x Digital zoom. One of my favorite aspects of the camera is its huge 3.0 LCD screen that pretty much covers the entire back of the camera. 5th Generation Super CCD-HR Technology provides for high resolution pictures with special attention to light sensitivity. The camera is low in noise, fast in switching between camera/picture/movie modes, and comes in 2 stylish colors, silver or orange. I picked up an orange one for about $160.00 from Amazon.com. My only have 2 minor complaints about the camera. First of all, the LDC screen covers so much of the rear part of the camera that I find myself holding on directly to the screen when holding the camera up to take pictures. So I constantly have to wipe my finger prints off the screen. The next complaint is that the memory card it comes with only holds 16 megabytes. So you can’t really take a lot of pictures without upgrading the card. However, I think this is industry average because I have noticed many other cameras come with low megabyte memory cards out of the box. Bottom line: The Fujifilm V10 is a great little camera with a huge screen and a lot of firepower. It’s hard to find something of better quality at a lower price

75% of the goodies that I purchase online I buy through one of my favorite sites, Amazon.com. My Amazonian obsession began with an obsession to read New York Times “Best Sellers” of which Amazon has a very clear, detailed, and easy list to pick from. At first I used Amazon just for my books but then I saw how much else they had to offer other than books. I was amazed! I think now I have bought everything from shoes to mp3 player and cameras to CDs. I would go as far as to say that there are not many things that you can’t find on Amazon.com. They have hundreds of e-commerce partners throughout the U.S. which enables them to offer a insanely wide assortment of goods. One thing in specific that I like about Amazon is their delivery procedures. I have never had to wait longer than 5-7 business days for any purchase delivery, even during the holidays. In fact, even if you purchase something from one of Amazon’s partners they will track the progress of your delivery to ensure everything goes smoothly. They will also email you a statement to let you know that you are not purchasing the item directly from Amazon but rather a partner of Amazon. A link to make any complaints about the seller is always included in this email. In addition, Amazon also allows you to create multiple wish-lists that can be filtered and shared via email or posted on blogs and/or forums. I can go on with hundreds of reason why Amazon.com is a great place to shop online but I’ll let you find out on your own. Here’s the bottom line: great deals and prices from name you know and trust. You won’t be disappointed. Check out my wish list here. Feel free to buy me something. Happy shopping!

Among the Christmas goodies I received this year is an electric shaver…specifically, the Remington Titanium R960 . I think getting this present is the first step in the series of 3 that ultimately state you are officially old. The next presents in the series would be like a turtle neck sweater and a subscription to Healthy Living. Luckily, I’m not there yet. I do have this to say about my new present though. The Remington is a great little shaver! It is very responsive, light, and easy to clean. Thus far, I’ve only used it plugged into an outlet, however; it does have a rechargeable battery that when fully charged supposedly lasts a full 60 minutes. Other things I like about it are the fact that it is pretty quite, the pop-up trimmer allows for easy detailing of sideburns, it comes with a handy travel pack, and supposedly the titanium blades stay sharper longer than stainless steel. The only thing I don’t like too much about it is that it is not waterproof and therefore I cannot take it in the shower where I usually shave. However, unlike my regular razor, I can take the Remington to the gym for a quick per or post-work shave. Bottom line, the Remington Titanium R960 offers a close quite shave and is portable and durable enough to carry around wherever you go. The prefect solution for when you’re in a rush and need a quick shave.

For Christmas I got is the new Microsoft made “Ipod Killer” the Zune. After I play with it for awhile I can have a more in depth review but for let me skin the surface and tell you what my initial thoughts are. First and foremost, after opening the package you notice that everything is artistically enclosed in it own cardboard compartment. Upon turning the box you see words “Welcome to the Social” written on the side where the actual mp3 player is located. The Zune looks much different than the Ipods. The cover around the Zune gives it a sleek and durable look while at the same giving it a completely unique feel to the touch. I got the white Zune because I realized that everyone and their mother was going after the brown one and Mikey Boom likes to be somewhat unique with his gadgets and niffties. Immediately, I loaded up my new Zune with 1,500 songs, which occupies about 7.85 gigs out of the 30 gigs in total storage. This took about 5-10 minutes to sync. The buttons on the Zune are pretty user friendly. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate the Ipod wheels but the Zune takes a little more traditional approach that I found to be less of a hassle to interact with. I haven’t put any video on my Zune yet nor have I uploaded any photos. It does however, come with some pretty cool DJ, graffiti, and Modern Art of Rock photos that are pretty kick ass. I think it also comes with some default music videos, I just haven’t had time to check them out. As far as the music that I uploaded, everything is easy to find and sounds wonderfully clear. I have no complaints about my Zune and can’t wait until more people get them so that I can share my songs via wifi. Ultimately, I feel Zuner or later this will become the new “Ipod” to have. After playing with it some more I can give a more in depth review.

As you may have noticed, I have recently been creating my own little short films and uploading them onto YouTube. I have a very simple technique that you may find handy for making your own movies and uploads to YouTube. First and foremost, I would like to say that this is the “ghetto” way of converting a slideshow into a movie (window media file). One could obviously purchase a video camcorder and just upload directly from that. However, for all who want to find out how to make your simple power point slides into real time film…please read on. Step one: you must have a PowerPoint presentation-duh. Secondly, hit ‘save as’ and save your powerpoint presentation as a jpeg…it will ask you if you want to save just the slide you are on or if you want to save all slides. You want to save every slide as a jpeg so hit that option. After this is done go into start>all programs>accessories and open ‘windows media movie maker. You can now upload all the pictures into this program and drag and drop them just like frames on a movie. After you have your pictures uploaded hit the option to add audio. Browse thru you computer and add whatever song you feel is best for your movie. Now you can play around and add titles and credits and video and audio effects to your movie. Go crazy and hook your movie up. You can add transitional effects at the click of a button to make the sequence of your slideshow movie as seamless as possible. When you are satisfied with what you have just made you must save the as a ‘movie file’ onto your computer. This converts the WMMM file into a file that is easily uploadable onto sites like YouTube etc..If you just hit ‘save project’ the file will not be finalized but rather it will be saved as a WMMM which will allow come back to it in the future to make edits or additions. Now that you have finalized your slideshow movie by saving it as a movie file you can simply sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Email me: mikey@mikeyboom.com or leave a comment..

I recently went on a wild shopping spree at my local Ikea. Basically I was tired of looking at my old ugly furniture and decided to get rid of everything and star anew. Anybody who is anybody will tell you that the place to go to get inexpensive furniture that looks decent, is Ikea. I was able to purchase a bed, two “3 drawer chests” and two “2 drawer chests”. I got it all in the same dark chocolate color and everything in the same signature “MALM” Ikea styling. Aside from the bedding and stuff I also bought a full length mirror and a TV stand that match bought in color and décor. Overall, I must say that I am pretty happy with everything. I spent around $750 for about 7 pieces of furniture which is not bad. My one and only complain: putting the stuff together was such a hassle! Firstly, the Ikea directions are only pictures, no words. Secondly, things fit together in such a specific way that making a small mistake in the beginning, such as using the wrong size screw for a dresser drawer, means the pieces that follow it won’t fit and you ultimately end up having to dissemble everything and starting all over from step one. Lastly, did I mention the direction have no words just pictures? If you want to do this right I suggest taking your time and not taking short cuts. Maybe you should yoga before assembling Ikea furniture. That or have a punching bag next to you at all times while assembling. Anyways, aside from the assembly everything looks and feels great. Look for me on MTV Cribs next season

Several months ago I “lost” my cell phone at a local bowling alley.  I had a new Palm Treo 650.  After shedding some tears at the loss of a $300+ birthday present I decided to move on and pick up something a little smaller and more manageable.  My business partner John Cue introduced me to the world of unlocked phones.  I was able to pick up a black Motorola Slvr for around $170 (including shipping and handling).  My new phone is much smaller, thinner, and sleeker. It’s black in color and gets 100% better reception and battery life. The only real downside is that text messaging is a little more tedious because I don’t have a “keyboard” on the phone like I did on my Treo.  I also don’t have internet accessibility like I did with my Treo but to tell you the truth, I don’t need it or ever used it.  Overall, the reception and the battery life (3 days without charging!) overshadow these minor flaws.  If you’re looking to pick up a phone for the holidays take a look at unlocked cell phone deals.  The Slvr makes a great gift for anyone.

So I got some new toys to play with this season. Two new toys in specific, the Nintendo Wii and a 42 inch Liquid Crystal Display High Definition Flat panel TV from Vizio (in other words a huge kick ass TV). The combination of these two new toys is incredible! As soon as I got the TV I hooked up my Wii to it and started playing Wii Sports. Wii sports is a default game that comes with the Nintendo Wii when you first purchase it. It includes interactive Boxing, Baseball, Tennis, Bowling, and Golf. Let me tell you, the gaming was just insane! It’s more like being in an actual game than I have ever experienced with any other gaming consol and TV set combination. The huge TV with high quality picture provides that “in your face” experience while the high interactivity of the Nintendo Wii really makes you feel like you are in the action. If you are thinking of buying a TV set this Holiday season Mikey Boom highly recommends taking a serious look at the line of Vizio products. They are relatively inexpensive and pretty f*ing cool. In addition, if you are thinking about buying a gaming consol for the holidays try the Nintendo Wii. It is a lot cheaper than the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 and a hell of a lot more fun. And how doesn’t like fun?