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“Holy messages, Batman!”

The app, called “TextPlus,” allows you to text message for free from either the iPhone or iPod Touch. You don’t even need a phone plan.

Note that “all messages are free” refers to TextPlus to TextPlus messages, or TextPlus to another phone. Text messages sent to your friends’ phones require that your friends, of course, have a texting plan. Also, text message forwarding to your own phone, same goes on your end. But if you’re just using your iPod Touch over WiFi, it’s all free, baby!

The application is ad supported; this is how they can offer the service for free. The ap is also free. I just recently tried it, and it works great. I love the “conversation” type view (similar to what you would see in iChat for those of you familiar with this application for the Mac). There is also an option for group chats . . . nice! The ad system is done very well, and is completely unobtrusive.

“So, James Cameron is going to direct the Avatar movie, huh?”

Later, I found out that there are actual two separate projects under the name of “Avatar”: One is an idea that James Cameron has had in the works for years, but was waiting for the technology to catch up with his “ambitious” vision for the film; The other is, of course, “Avatar: The Last Airbender”.

There were some legal issues, and James Cameron ended up with the “legal” rights to use the name, which as much as I respect James Cameron, I was against because I have been a big fan of “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. So have I lost ya so far?

Ok, so there was a wildly popular cartoon series which ran on the Nickelodeon channel called “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. Meanwhile, James Cameron has had a special project in mind for years that he wanted to call “Avatar”. Now, if you follow the use of the word Avatar as it applies to its original meaning in Hindu culture, technically they’re both using it effectively, so both would be well-served to hold the title of “Avatar”. But the cartoon, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” is an established franchise, so I think personally that it should have been given to them, as the James Cameron movie title could still be changed without effecting any past success.

Then that leads into discovering the movie teaser trailer for the James Cameron film, which after viewing, feels quite appropriate bearing said title. In any event, I hope that the cartoon movie can still use the longer franchise title of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” or maybe it will be called just “The Last Airbender”. Either way, consumers win out as both movies look to be really good.

Oh, yeah, and it appears that the movie based on the cartoon series will be live action, as well, with M. Night Shyamalan directing . . . interesting.

James Cameron’s “Avatar” due out this year:

Several weeks ago, at a Family Reunion, me and some of my aunts, cousins, and uncles, sat down and had a nice political discussion. For the most part, we were all in agreement, but with some varying opinions mixed in. It was quite engaging.
Ya know, I remember growing up as a kid listening to the grown-ups talk—these same aunts and uncles— and now, I was part of the conversation. Yep, I had arrived.
Well, afterwards one of these uncles and I were talking one-on-one, and he said to me, “So when are you running for office?” I laughed; getting in to politics is the last thing that I can see myself doing. Then he said to me, “You’ve really got something there. You made some very good points, and you were able to express yourself very clearly, and in a way that was very interesting and direct.”
It made me think. For several weeks, I had been feeling the push to do something, and with his encouraging words, I decided that it was time. My solution was to put my words out there; to start a blog and share my views and opinions. It would be different from this blog, of course, because it would be politically focused. I also wanted to open it up to others to share their views; make it more of a community, rather than just another vanity site.
I searched some names, then after a time, I finally came up with a name for the site: APatriotsVoice.com. I wanted something that would be partisan neutral, and express exactly how I feel about the purpose of the site. This seemed to be the best fit.
My main focus is to do something about the governmental interference in our lives, to prevent the “nanny state” that our current President’s administration seems to be pushing for, and to get us back to a place where the Constitution is once again at the center of America’s soul.

Well, today is 9-11, a historic anniversary for our country, one that represents a time of unity when people of separate political affiliations and opinions were joined in harmony, as we focused on mourning our loss, healing, and remembering what unites us. I remember the first year after this tragedy; how profound was our sense of patriotism, how honored was our liberty, how united was our spirit. There was humble sense of what it was to be an American; it was even palpable. I remember another thing . . . people prayed.

I am happy to announce that on this day, my new site is launched. I would encourage anyone who is interested in what is to be done with our country to, at the very least, check it out. But even more, I would encourage you to “engage” the site and participate in the conversation.

The Big Purchase

I’m about to purchase my very first airsoft rifle, and I am very excited. “What is airsoft?” Well, do you remember rolling around in the weeds with your plastic gun pointed at your friends making machine gun noises with your mouth and yelling, “You’re dead!”

Well, it’s like that . . . but for grownups. Only, instead of shouting “you’re dead” you get to fire actual projectiles, pelting your friends with little round BB’s. And instead of you yelling “you’re dead” they “yelp” when one of these little guys makes contact—much more satisfying, I’d say (though, you can still make the little machine gun noises with your mouth, if you like) .

Actually, from what I hear they don’t really hurt all that much unless you’re really close range; but nothing like paintball. The way that it’s been described to me is that “you know you’ve been hit; you feel it. But it isn’t usually painful ” . . . unless you’re close quarters : ).

The ammunition is also much cheaper than paintball, and without the paintball reserve barrel up-top, they can look exactly like replicas of real guns (Note: most guns come with an “orange” tip, for safety reasons) The “ammo” usually loads into an actual clip, too. “Pretty cool,” I’d say.

My Weapon of Choice

Searching for that “just-right” weapon led me to an airsoft site called “ShortyUSA”. What I like about their site is that they write their own reviews for the weapons by testing them, and below is usually some very helpful comments from avid airsoft officionados.
I found these reviews to be very helpful and discovered that a lot of these guns are comparable to much more expensive, so-called “higher end” weaponry (Tokyo Marui, Classic Army, etc.) For myself, I think that I’ve decided on the P90 model (If you know Stargate, you’ll know the gun).

Besides supplies, my search also led me to a few videos which got me even more pumped to finally get into the sport. View the following:

Scenerio showcasing shotguns

And this one shows two teams in Scotland going at it:

Oh, and also, you are going to get a taste of my new book: The Awakening Game. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it is a book that I’ve been writing for about a year, now.
For those of you who do know what it is, I have decided to take my “rapideyestudios.com” blog and consolidate it with this one. Look under the Pages section for “The Awakening Game” to read exerpts; this, in addition to, the blogging that I will do on my progress. I will also be releasing segments of the book, as time goes on—that’s for you, Mona. ) Hope you all, enjoy!

Hello, and welcome to my brand spankin’ new blog.  My goal is to bring to you some of that dang, good stuff—in the form of personal artwork, movie reviews, tutorials, entertaining videos, and anything else that one crazy mind can conjure.

In the meantime, feel free to peruse the links below and otherwise poke around this site. It’s gonna be a wild ride . . .