First Impressions: HTC Sensation 4G

10 06 2011

For those of you who know me pretty well, it should be no shock to hear that I bought a new phone. For the past several years I’ve undertaken a quest to find the perfect phone (for me, at least). Having just picked up the HTC Sensation 4G, I think I might have found the holy grail.

Although excited for the 15th to arrive so that I could pick up a Sensation at the T-Mobile store, the other night I learned that some Wal-Mart stores were selling their stock early. As much as I despise Wal-Mart, I was going to give them a pass for the 30 minutes it took for me to walk through their store, buy the phone, and quickly exit. I felt cheap and dirty afterward, but I had my phone.

Once home, I fired her up. Wow! This phone is fast! The high-res qHD screen is gorgeous and easy on the eyes. A few months ago I gave the Motorola Atrix 4G a spin and the qHD screen it had just plain sucked. Aside from the fantastic display, the dual-core processor and Sense 3.0 made the phone very snappy. Screen transitions, animations, video, and apps all seem to run at blazing speeds… very impressive.

The build quality of the phone is terrific, too. I’m digging the curved display and unibody back case. The phone is much thinner than I had expected. In fact, before seeing the phone I thought it was going to be nothing more than a rebranded HTC Thunderbolt. I was wrong. Thinner than the Thunderbolt, the Sensation feels good in the hand and is pretty light, although very solid. HTC definitely hit one out of the park.

Having given it a run for the past coupe of days, I’m very happy with my purchase. There’s one quirk with connectivity, as it seems sometimes to take a little while to establish a data connection to T-Mobile’s 4G network. I think this can be fixed with a simple software fix. Speaking of software, I’m eagerly awaiting an HTC update to unlock the bootloader. I’m happy with the stock ROM, but would love to root this thing and remove the bloatware.

All in all, however, a great phone that I’m sure will keep me happy until the next great thing comes around :)

EDIT: Someone posted a fix to address the connectivity issues… smokin’!





CPA Exam Prep Update

7 05 2011

After a few weeks into FAR, I decided to push back my exam until 7/2. With the amount of material and the sheer number of MCQs I’d like to nail down, I’m giving myself an extra month to prepare. At the pace I’m going, I just don’t think I’ll be ready by 5/31, and I sure as hell don’t want to fail. I should still hit my goal of finishing all four parts prior to the beginning of the fall semester.





FAR Study Schedule

17 04 2011

With just over 6 weeks to go until FAR, I put together my study schedule. Covers around 12 hours of lecture each week with time for MCQs and review before moving on to the next week. It’s definitely going to be a busy 6 weeks!





Two down, two to go

10 04 2011

Having just taken BEC this past Friday, I’m ready to move forward with exam #3 – FAR. I found out I passed AUD w/ a 95, but will have to wait until June to learn how I did with the BEC exam (and FAR, too).

Overall, I found some of BEC to be tricky, but I’m forging ahead and not looking back. I did not think the Becker material was going to adequately prepare me for the exam, so I supplemented my preparation with the Wiley BEC book. Glad I did. Only time will tell on how I did, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a passing score.

Tomorrow I begin prepping for FAR. I have the Becker materials, but went ahead and ordered Yaeger. I’ve read the Yaeger approach is more “teaching”, which is just what I need since my job has nothing to do with financial accounting. I only hope they can get my materials to me quickly so that I don’t get behind – only 50 days until exam time… think I’ll be ok.





Haters

1 03 2011

I love this pic:

haters21.jpg





Post-CPA Exam Blues

1 03 2011

Having gone into the Audit and Attestation portion of the CPA exam feeling prepared, I left the test center feeling pretty dejected. That exam is no joke. Hard to tell how I did – it can go either way. There were a handful of questions on which I felt I had to guess, and a few that I completely blanked. I should find out in the next few weeks, but in the meantime I’m going to forge ahead with BEC, which I’ll take on 4/8.

Fingers crossed.





CPA Exam on the Horizon

19 02 2011

Six more days until I sit for the Audit and Attestation part of the CPA exam. I’ve been studying for just over six weeks and am ready for a brain dump.

This weekend will be filled with watching cram videos, multiple choice questions, and flashcards. Good times!





Sprint EVO 4G

12 06 2010

In my unrelenting quest to find the perfect smartphone, I took one step closer this past week. Having used the HTC Incredible for a little over a month, I grew tired of its plasticy feel and horrible call quality – seriously horrible call quality. Granted, the Incredible had great features – fast, gorgeous display, lots of memory – but at the end of the day, it just wasn’t doing it for me.

So along comes the Sprint EVO 4G. I thought for sure I’d be able to resist the attraction to the EVO, but I eventually gave in and purchased on through Sprint’s website. I was a bit apprehensive at first not being all that familiar with Sprint, but I thought why not. Brushing aside the plethora of reviews chastising the phone for its poor battery life, the EVO found its way into my hot little hands in a tad over 24 hours.

I knew as soon as I unpacked the EVO that this puppy was going to be a keeper – good weight and a solid feel. Once fired up, it seemed just as fast as the Incredible and had a gorgeous TFT display to boot. Sprint’s 3G coverage in my area is decent and download speeds were on par with that of Verizon, albeit slower than AT&T. I’d love to take 4G for a spin, but Sprint has yet to offer coverage in my area – perhaps one day. Phone calls were clear and the sound quality was leaps and bounds better than the Incredible. Battery life isn’t too bad, getting me through the day with normal use – perfectly acceptable by my standards. All in all, a kickass phone that’s fast, sleek, solidly built, and makes a great phone call. I plan on holding onto this one for a while… or at least until something much better comes out.





When will MTV realize they’re irrelevant?

6 06 2010

Flipping through the channels, I see that the MTV Movie Awards are on this evening. Oh brother, I can’t believe that channel is still around. I grew up in a time where MTV represented the birth of a new generation, style, and attitude. Now, it’s nothing but lame scripted reality shows headlined by some of the biggest douchebags around (don’t even get new started on The Hills), and even lamer remixes of some once great shows, i.e., The real World and Road Rules. And what in the hell is Next? How about renaming that show “RV full of self-absorbed losers”.

MTV, pull the plug. You’ve outgrown your relevance and usefulness to America’s youth. In fact, I doubt they even watch your pathetic programming… hell, your viewers are probably thirty-somethings who still pine for the 80′s.





Political Quiz

31 05 2010

Took one of those online political quizzes… not entirely surprised by the results:

You are a

Social Liberal – (63% permissive)

and an…

Economic Moderate – (56% permissive)

You are best described as a: Centrist – You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.

Screen shot 2010-05-31 at 4.51.52 PM.png








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