Yeah… my last post was in May. I get it. Most of my posts any more are just updates on my livelihood and how I’m going to revive the blog at that particular time, I get it. However, I feel as if this time is different because I really am starting to, how should I say it, feel like a new person.

“Why?” You might ask. Good question. Let’s dive into it… shall we?

My last post… which feels like a lifetime ago… focused on my health and the uphill climb that I was facing. I also laid out plans that I more than failed on (big surprise there.) I just reread that post from May of this year and realized how different my life was then compared to now. It’s funny how a really bad health issue allows you to really reminisce on your life. In May, I was diagnosed with a borderline Chiari malformation with the possibility of brain surgery looming over my head. I wasn’t getting any sleep, personal relationships weren’t working out, I weighed a crap ton… the list goes on and on. Life choices and health problems plagued my being and I think everyone around me noticed it but didn’t want to say anything. That’s in the past.

December 2016. Today. Boy have things changed. Let me preface this by saying I am nowhere near 100% and continue the fight every day to become a better person. After 23 years of living, making lifestyle changes is extremely difficult.

Headaches are come and go. Nowhere near as bad as they were in the past. That is thanks to a great neurologist and me taking matters into my own hands. How? Exercise and diet. In May, when I first went to the neurologist, I weighed 234 pounds. That’s pretty hefty for a guy who is only 5’6”. I was a total couch potato who ate a lot of fast food and Chinese takeout. As of writing this, I try and get out and run a couple miles each day and have cut out junk food almost entirely (a little Chinese takeout here and there… because let’s be serious, that stuff is freaking delicious.) The result so far: I weigh 199 pounds. I have to go back to high school to find the last time I was under 200 pounds. That has had an impact on a lot of aspects of my life. I have more energy throughout the day, I can stay focused longer and, most importantly, I am able to manage my headaches and migraines more effectively.

What I’m doing is not groundbreaking in the weight loss department. If you are reading this and are thinking about taking the steps of losing weight, just go out and walk a couple miles each day. Try and reach 10,000 steps each day. You’d be surprised how much that does for you. If you want to know more about what I did, don’t be afraid to reach out to me. This has been so life changing for me that I want to help whoever I can even though I am nowhere near an expert on the topic.

Another thing that I’ve started to do on a daily basis is meditation. I won’t get into details on that other than it has also helped out a ton in my life. I use the app Headspace. Give it a try. You can do 10 days free and then subscribe. I do have a month subscription I can give away to whomever is first to want it. The app is wonderful and it only takes 10-20 minutes out of morning routine every day. Reach out and whoever is first to talk to me will get the free month. Try the ten days first to see if it’s something you’d like.

In terms of writing (and the reason for the post,) I have been doing many, many drafts of posts that  I thought would be good for CFDD which obviously never saw the light of day. They were really bad. I won’t let you read them. Most of them were focused on the election. As I would continue writing, I started to realize that I am not really being original, or bring my own flavor, to the topic. I was essentially rehashing something that someone more qualified and established was already saying. I decided the best way moving forward is to just embrace it and let it evolve however it may evolve. Posts are always in the works and most will never be published. 

I always write about the day’s happenings in a notebook I keep by my bedside… which gave me an idea: put all that stuff in the blog. This will become my new “Frock Talk” from my college radio days but just in the written form. Yes, many people already do this and some do this on YouTube or other video platforms but I want to give my own spin on it and in the written form (which is kind of hard to come by these days.) I I want to talk about whatever stories I find interesting, give my take on them and talk about why that story may or may not matter in whatever context that may be.  That’s the plan starting December 12, 2016. The title of the series (?) hasn’t been figured out yet. It may turn into a video thing in conjunction with the written post if I can find an efficient way to do it. 

I will also be doing longer form stuff as well. I have my schedule figured out (for now) and figure I can do the writing thing effectively on a daily basis. Whatever else comes of it is anyone’s guess at this point. 

As always, I stay fairly active on Twitter @ryanfinfrock. That’s also where I will be pulling my stories from the day from and writing down the ones I think are the best. I am excited for the future and being able to finally be able to write more effectively. It’s all fun for me and whoever reads it is just an added bonus. Send me tweets on story ideas or whatever. I can’t wait to get things going.

I’ll also be working on the formatting of the site more… it’s still kind of a mess.

Well, here we go again! Another Apple event and another blog post of me talking about the Apple event. I find that talking about Apple products is real easy to do and can lead to some interesting discussions. So let the Apple fanboy-ing begin!

In regard to the new iPads, a much expected feature, Touch-ID, is now on the new iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3. This was possibly the biggest given coming into the event today. I recently was able to use Touch-ID with my new iPhone 6 for the first time and it does make a huge difference. I wish my iPad Air 1 had it, it’s really my only gripe about my iPad. Perhaps the feature I am curious to see in action is the removal of the air gap. The air gap is the space between the glass and the actual display. It is meant to help protect the display from damage. With the removal of this air gap, it (in theory) will provide better response times and a much better display while making the iPad thinner. My iPad Air is already extremely thin, so having a thinner iPad is kind of mind-boggling. I’ve already seen numerous tweets questioning how easy it is for the new iPad to bend.

What I found interesting is how Apple treated the unveiling of the new iPad Mini. It has all of the functions of the iPad Air 2 in a smaller size. However, it does make sense since the introduction of the iPhone 6 Plus with is only about 2 inches smaller and has more functions. It’ll be interesting how Apple treats the iPad Mini going forward and how much they plan on using the iPhone to phase it out. Because for some reason, people really like bigger phones… people are nuts.

Also, PLEASE STOP TAKING PICTURES WITH YOUR IPADS!!!! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!! YOU ALL LOOK LIKE IDIOTS!

One thing that was missing that some people were expecting was the introduction of an iPad Pro. Basically, this would be a 12-inch iPad. This never made sense to me until I started seeing how Microsoft was able to make it work with its Surface 3 tablet. I could see Apple taking a page out of Microsoft’s playbook and combining the iPad and Macbook Air into one product. It may give Microsoft a victory but I feel Apple would be able to make their iPad Pro much functional and user friendly. I expect Apple to unveil something like that in the future.

Apple has always been at the forefront of technology when it comes to their Mac products. The Macbook Pro, iMac and Mac Pro has always continued to create new ways for users to experience the desktop. When I bought my first Macbook Pro, a Mid-2012 Retina model, it was unlike anything I have ever used and I was immediately a fan of Apple products going forward. Today, Apple is making it very hard to not buy a new iMac. The new iMac features a 5K display. A fully-functional computer with a 5K display, all starting at $2499. This is an insanely good bargain if you know anything about displays and the costs of other Mac products. Even 4K displays are going for at least 3 grand. This was by-far the best news of the day from Apple. Most people go goo-goo over iPhones and iPads, I prefer to see what Apple reveals in its desktop/laptop line. However, a 2GB GPU for that display is worrying me a little bit. I’m not sure how well that GPU can handle the work load it will need to endure. I priced a 5K iMac with a 4GB GPU and 16GB of RAM and came out to just over $3,000. If you edit a ton of photos and video, and don’t want to work on a trash can (See Mac Pro,) this is the bomb.

Apple Pay is something that interests me, but with all those security risks around, I’ll wait for it to be used a few days or weeks before I decide to start using. I also don’t know if it will be widely available in my area.

OS X Yosemite was something that I’ve been excited about since it was announced. Being able to answer phone calls and send SMS messages is a cool feature. Also, being able to start work on my Mac and moving it over to my iPad or iPhone will be a very handy feature, especially for being a college student. It also makes the interface more iOS7-like and notification center supports widgets. At the time of this posting, I am downloading Yosemite. I’ll have a review after I play around with it for a little bit.

It was a beautiful day in nerd paradise. iPhone 6 and OS X Yosemite reviews are in the works. Stay tuned here to cheapfivedollardress.com and follow me on Twitter @ryanfinfrock.

I’m also following the #gamergate situation pretty closely. This internet grassroots movement has received a lot of press recently. I’m working on something for that too.

Signing off.

Ahh… time for some release therapy.

It has been quite some time since I’ve been able to sit down and properly vent about the things that have been happening in our world today. A lot has happened, so let’s get to it.

ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State or whatever they call themselves these days continues to threaten the United States by making beheading videos public to the world. Two of these individuals are journalists. This fact hits a little close to home for someone like me who works with some phenomenal journalists and may be one someday. The fact that certain individuals are willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the story and making sure that we are up to date on what is happening in other parts of the world is admirable. Now, for clarification, I am not comparing journalists to the armed forces fighting in the same areas, those people are a different breed.

Now, what would I do in this situation? I would send troops over and let the Islamic State know that when you mess with Americans, we will come at you and make you regret ever challenging America. Now, I know it is not as simple as that, but as someone who feels personally offended by the beheadings, my bias really shows (of course, what would Cheap Five Dollar Dress be without my bias?) The Islamic State is the biggest terrorist organization in the world, it’s time to show them their place in the world, which is no place in the world.

Switching gears, the NFL tried to show that it cares about women for more than just the month of October (Breast cancer awareness month.) with the indefinite suspension of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice. The NFL is making a mockery of itself throughout this entire ordeal. I’m sure you all know about the situation now, so I won’t bother with the details. I only have one question, a question that has been brought up many time before: Why didn’t the NFL ever get this full video?

We also know, in the NFL, that it is safer to beat your fiancee than to smoke pot (i.e. Josh Gordon.) I’m sure feminists are having a field day with that… which leads to another question I have: What the hell does feminism mean anymore? Seriously, I continue to hear different definitions of what people believe ‘feminism’ is to the point where I’m wondering if it’s a real thing. Someone, please enlighten me.

Also, his then fiancee is now his wife. She stand by him through this whole ordeal. Those are the facts… do with them as you please.

The iPhone 6 was announced today, so today is an official ‘nerd holiday’ for myself. Two iPhones, a 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch. Do you have an iPad? If you answered “yes” then don’t bother with the 5.5 inch iPhone. The phone looks a lot like leaked images that have been coming out the past few weeks. Faster processor, better image taking, better video. It’s what you expect from an iPhone in a fast, slimmer casing.. which is perfect. It is a good looking phone that will do what I need it to do faster, easier, and better. So I’ll be getting one (a 4.7 inch) next month when my contract is up.

Also, as I near the end of my college career (graduation in May 2015!) I have been faced with the question of “Is college worth the investment?” I haven’t really thought about this until people started asking me. I did some research on it (watching people’s opinions on the matter on YouTube.) and I found the results to be mainly negative. This proved to be a real head scratcher for me. I find college to be well-worth the investment in both time and money. I’ve learned what I want to know and more in the field that I am trying to get into, made some good network connections and made some good friends. That’s what college is all about right? Well, to some people, if you don’t have a job right out of college, you should get your money back (WTF?)

Language warning!

This kind of goes back to the entitlement issue that I have talked about NUMEROUS times before on CFDD and my late radio show. What this guy likes to talk about centers around not having a useful degree and therefore wanting a full college refund. However, what I’ve learned in college is that there is a constant need for adoption and adaptation of new ways of living. It’s no secret that our world is changing at a very fast rate, so fast that people are having a hard time keeping up with it. (More on this in a little bit.) It is up to the individual to learn new technologies based off the knowledge they know about the old ways of doing things. If you can’t adopt, then you really didn’t learn anything in college. Also, networking is well worth the investment alone. One of the first days of college, a professor told the class that it is not what you know, but who you know. Tell me this isn’t true? I took that to heart and made some great contacts in my field. It’s lead to a couple jobs and a couple freelance gigs, all while I am still a student. If you feel as though your college education isn’t worth it, you simply are not trying hard enough.

I alluded to people’s knowledge of technology earlier. This leads me to my final thought of this post: Celebgate, or “The Fappening” as social media has come to know it as. This, of course, is the leaked nudes of celebrities such as Kate Upton and Jennifer Lawrence. iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage application,  was the center of this controversy. What my main point about this is that people do not know how new tech (cloud storage, in particular) actually works. Cloud storage is data wirelessly transferred to a bank of hard drives somewhere else, you have no idea where this is actually stored. So somewhere between those two points, it may be easy for someone to intercept it, which is what happened in this case. Technology is moving so fast that people don’t have time to take a break and learn what is new. It’s a challenge, especially those who are immigrating to the digital world. It’s definitely a problem that needs to be fixed, otherwise we have more instances such as “The Fappening.” What baffles me is that people are talking about cloud storage as if it is an actual cloud hovering over you. I really have no clever line to put here, I think that statement is its own punchline.

Privacy in the digital age requires much education. It first starts with being personally responsible for what you are taking pictures of and knowing where those might end up. That is only one step, but a big step to making progress in privacy in the digital age.

That’ll wrap things up for this post, which may be my longest ever. I’ll try and update things here as I have time to do so. In the mean time, leave a comment here or tweet me @ryanfinfrock.

Signing off.