Quite simply put, I quite enjoy the tablet. It’s just the right size, and isn’t skimpy on computation power.

I haven’t done a fair comparison of having accelerated browsing on vs off however, but I did notice that it does not like CloudFlare’s IPv6, but then again, most things don’t.

In general, it is a nice tablet with good battery life.

My only complaints are that it doesn’t include all the Google stuff, and there’s no 24-hour clock option.

So while this is just a quick review, feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will answer.

(This is so short because I did it on my Kindle Fire.)

Thus, we wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Happy Kwanzaa, or whatever it is that you celebrate.

Again, happy holidays everyone!

What prides me about this country is that as a country, we did not strike back with the same violence that struck us. We instead did something good for the countries that were home to the terrorists. We sewed the seeds of democracy, in hopes that their lives would improve. Many people would have simply dropped bombs on the Middle East, but we took this approach of inducing peace.

This year as well, we found and killed Osama bin Landen, founder of the extremist group, Al Qaeda. While many people applauded his death, with many shouting “USA!! USA!!” in D.C. after news arrived of Osama’s death.

I’m glad I live in such a proud country, and I’d like to pay my respects to the soldiers that worked to defend our freedoms, those who just were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and killed by the plane crashes, as well as the families who lost loved ones 10 years ago.

We will never forget.

Animated flag image by 3DFlags.com

This season, has been a great one, and since this is an awesome show, after the finale, the premiere is right there!!

Stay tuned for the final 23 episodes. However there’s not really a way to not be tuned…

Peace be in the galaxy.

My school district has cancelled school for today, and many students believe that we will not have school tomorrow either, as many of the roads are covered in thick ice, and since the temperatures are remaining low, standing water from melted ice is just gonna freeze back up.

On a slightly related note, I have finished watching all of Stargate SG-1. This puts me at having watched over 81% of all Stargate (if movies are counted as two episodes)

I will be completely caught up by the time Stargate Universe Season 2.5 comes around, so then I will just wait like everyone else for new episodes.

Our good friend, Matt Ventura, is planning to again set off his questionably legal fireworks, starting at 19:30 PDT. He plans to get some videos, which I’ll gladly repost.

Also, despite Chase killing Seattle’s Family 4th, people have donated enough money to save it. You’ll be able to see it tonight at 22:00 PDT, both live at Lake Union and on KING5.

My plans tonight are questionable. I have no clue what I’m doing, other than watching Matt’s aforementioned videos and likely the Family 4th on TV.

2010 is hopefully going to be a far better year than 2009.

Again,

Happy New Year!

From everyone at OKS Blog and OKSnet.

How are you celebrating your Winter break?

• G. Liu: As I write this, he just investigated a fire at Ridgewood Elementary School. See http://twitpic.com/9cdbv and http://twitpic.com/9cdgz.
• Matt Ventura: Firing questionably legal fireworks. See these posts on his blog: A Big Boom, A Quick Home-made Firecracker.
• Darren VanBuren: Launching fireworks. Nothing really special.

So have a safe & fun holiday, from all of us here at OKS Blog!

On Saturday, I had a piano competition. To be specific, it was the Green River Piano Competition. It was held at Kentlake High School.

When I got to the campus, it seemed so new compared to my high school, which is about the second-oldest in the district. I’ve seen some of the Bellevue schools which look just amazing, and this is right next to them in quality. Apparently, there was a judo competition going on there, which really doesn’t go well with classical music.

I heard a mixture of composers, including Liszt, Beethoven, and Bach. I played a Bartok sonatina and a Bach prelude, and got a score of “1″. Four other people were able to get that score.

Sunday, we had a Christmas musical. I was to play Pachelbel’s Canon with two others as a prelude to the Christmas service. So, why have the service in January? Well, what stops us from having Christmas in January, or for some, June? Besides, there was so much snow in December that the service was canceled.

The play was about a young boy named Foster who forgot the meaning of Christmas and all  he wanted was presents. One of the cool parts in the story was when they turned off all the lights and the actors were wearing white gloves. They turned on ultraviolet lights, making everything that was white, including the gloves, glow. Quite a show.

After the service I headed down to Snoqualmie Falls. One of my mom’s friends told her that the falls were absolutely enormous. I had been their once, but when I got there, I was blown away, quite literally.

The falls, raging with all that floodwater, sprayed fine sea mist into everything it could reach. The sea mist created a thick fog, making photography there notoriously difficult. I did manage to get a few pictures where there was mist and where I didn’t get sprayed by it.

Now, I’m in a library, writing, or rather, typing this post. I wonder how this chaotic weekend will end…

Where I live, Renton, we do not get so much so; not the most snow, nor the least. But this year seemed different.

We have had storm system after storm system move in on us. Wednesday experienced two inches of snow, nothing compared to what would happen next. On Friday, after the Wednesday snows had melted, we got a four-inch covering of snow, along with three millimeters of ice on top (yes, I measured that). This added ice made the snow exceptionally crunchy, like walking on potato chips.

Come Saturday, we had blizzard-like conditions. Around 7pm, strong winds started to blow all the snow off the rooftops. This snow accumulated wherever it could, including on our front porch. In fact, the snow drift was about two inches. This blizzard continued for a while.

In the end, Renton saw about twelve inches of snow. The ice left over from the previous storm was still there and as crunchy as could be. I built this huge bowl of snow, but I didn’t know what to do with it. Our neighbor built an igloo that was quite nice. That bowl of snow in my backyard was intended to be an igloo, but I didn’t know how to build one.

UPDATES

(Dec. 26, 2008 @ 3:08p): Meteorolgists were right in their predictions of another storm around Wednesday. The storm was not as severe as before, but we got quite some snow that I did not measure. This snow dragged on until Christmas Day Thursday, when it snowed all day and night. And, for the first time, our car got stuck in the snow. Luckily, we were able to get out.

No one plowed our neighborhood that day, so when we got back, it was all h*** broke loose. It got worse, though. Around 9pm, there was a sudden power outage. I don’t know what caused it, but I took some pictures of our neighborhood, which I will upload later. Lucky for us that the power came back around 10pm.

As I write this from a library in Bellevue, it is snowing, but not for much longer. This snow will turn into rain, and melt away what it brought. You’ll either be happy to be out of the deep freeze, or sad as the snowmen in your neighbor’s front yard melts away.

(December 29, 2008 @ 7:51p): More snow for this region is predicted any where from Monday to Wednesday*. It’s Monday, and for the past three days, all I’ve seen is rain, rain, and more rain. This rain has melted away 80-90% of our snow. It has also been very windy today.

Just a few days ago, something unfortunate happened in our neighborhood. Supposedly, two people were walking on one of the storm drainage lakes in our community. One of them fell through the ice. I’d infer that the other called 911. My dad witnessed some of the event, saying that there were four ambulances and several police cars. No one was aloud to watch, but my dad did see a gaping hole in the ice where the person fell through. The rescuers through a life ring into the frigid water in hopes of saving the victim, but that didn’t work. Police eventually had to don special wet suits to dive in the water as a last ditch effort for rescue. This story hasn’t appeared on the news yet, though.

(Jan 10, 2009 @ 8:0_p): We got an unexpected two inches of snow the day before school, so it was two hours late. Other than that, the snow has disappeared, but much of the sand on the streets remains. In fact, I was riding my bicycle and fell due to the sand.

The snowfall has been replaced by rainfall here, and hasn’t caused any problems for Renton. Elsewhere, it’s a different story. Floods closed all of the mountain passes and some major highways, which made Western Washington an island.

*Correction: The predicted storms are supposed to bring with them high winds and rain.

A view from my house in Renton, WA

Peace out,

Deathgleaner

Upon arriving at Wal-Mart, there was a line stretching for about 500 feet. We waited for thirty minutes just to get in the door.

When we got inside, the store was less crowded than I expected. We went to the Electronics section to look for a Toshiba laptop. Unfortunately, both the Toshiba and the HP laptops were completely out. Considering that the store opened at 5A.M. and everybody was buying TVs, it was reasonable that they sold out. We did however buy a GPS and a HP printer.

Along with the two electronics, we bought a few kitchen supplies. My mom didn’t like them, so the next day, we returned the items.

The return line that day was practically as long as the waiting line the previous day. It seemed that everyone was so dissatisfied by the products there. Some people were even returning TVs!

That’s all I have to say.

Peace out.

–DEATHGLEANER