GuuzakaTube 05/17/17
It's
a warm, sunny Wednesday where I am. Quite liking that. Finally a day
that's 20°C+! For some of
you, depending on where you are, you experience
warm weather just about everyday. For
others, it can feel like a rarity at this time of the year. Anyways!
Let's discuss the 3
recent
videos I filmed. That's right; three. “But I only see two on the
channel? Where's the third, GuuzakaTube?” Read below to find out!
Eastdale
Eagles. Why is it that every school with that name, has to have an
eagle theme? Coincidence? Corny? Lack of imagination or original
creativity? Who knows. All I can tell you, is that this place was a
large, fun, scenic building to walk around. Well, by “scenic” I
guess I should specify and say what
exactly made it scenic.
You have a large field, likely shared by neighbouring
Vincent Massey, lots of big grass patches, a large park across the
road, and another one further south of their track. Nothing amazing,
but if you wander around the area, you'll have a much better
understanding of the Harmony-Adelaide area. You
will quickly realize how many “hidden” forest paths and parks
there are, if you explore it properly and know where to look. As for
the Eastdale building itself, there's nothing extraordinary about its
architecture, but its a big school that had a lot of interesting
corners and crevices for me to wander around and photograph. I had a
few silly suspicions about some of them, but thankfully, there was
nothing present to be legitimately concerned about. I know. Laugh
at me as you will. I was a little surprised to see that giant track
virtually vacant, considering that you normally have a person or two,
running or walking around it. During this visit, I only saw maybe a
dog owner or two to the north. Let's just hope those dogs didn't poo
on the eagle's racetrack or they won't pleased! I didn't see any “no
dogs” sign that I normally see on other school's
property,
but I'm pretty sure they don't permit them. Not that people listen to
the signs anyway! They'll
go right ahead and walk their dogs on school property when the
schools are closed!
Eastdale's
neighbour. While I've seen plenty of high schools that had elementary
schools close to them, this one is only merely separated by a fence
with several openings for the Eagles and Vincents to wander onto each
others property in seconds.
Bad thing? Certainly not! Well, at least for the most part. It makes
the transition from Grade 8 to 9 for these guys remarkably easy,
since they're
super close to each other. Anyways! What did I think of this little
school? I found it quite alright. Not as interesting as some of the
other elementary zones I've visited, but it has its charms. For
Vincent Massey, that would be the things I saw in the windows. I saw
some weird things, cute things, typical things and all sorts of other
things you may, or may not expect to see at a school. Heh, so
important I did this while it was closed! Anyways,
so I guess that's all I
have to say about this
place, so let's discuss the 3rd
mysterious missing video, shall we?
Dead
Adelaide-Harmony-King Walk
Yes!
What you see in the title was exactly what this video was supposed to
be about: a walk along a portion of Adelaide Avenue, Harmony Road and
King Street. Disappointing? Very disappointing! Like seriously, why
did the phone have to die without saving the video? This used to be
something that was usually
an issue during
the winter
when certain precautions weren't performed,
but what's the smartphone's excuse now? The battery died while it had
at least 30% left in it. For real?! This battery isn't even the old
one anymore, but a “newer” one. By newer, it's not “2017 fresh”
but I believe that it was bought in either 2015 or 2016 as a
supplementary battery to the internal one it shipped with. It is from
the original equipment manufacturer,
BlackBerry, and was brought brand new, but to be fair, going through
cycles over 2 years I guess causes it lose calibration,
but cutting off
at 30% though? Sometimes it'll be willing to cut off at
something lower like 15% or 10%, but either way, this battery is
improperly calibrated. Period. “So how many 'dead' videos do you
have now?” 5.
Thankfully, that's not very many, and 2 of them aren't overly
significant, one of them was re-filmed
altogether
(remember Westhill High School from Toronto?),
but two of them are significant. I've detailed the solutions many
times during the posts with those videos, so I don't feel like going
over it again here, other than to quickly say that it will require
expensive tools to repair them. To be honest, for this particular
situation with the AHK walk, I could have avoided it if
I had tethered
the smartphone with its charger, but alas! I didn't and suffered the
consequences
of that. Common sense; after 30+ minutes of video shooting and
photography of Eastdale and Vincent, why didn't I do that? Why did I
bother risking it with a measly 2100 mAh battery
bought 2 years ago?
What a stupid risk! Oh well. I've learned a lot over the past several
times these videos that
have died in regards to weather, timing and carrying extra power. The
days of videos dying will hopefully come
soon. It's getting increasingly rare – thank God! So I'd like to
work to make it become virtually non-existent! I
can do it!
My
Thoughts on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium based on videos
Why
am I discussing this phone? Because it's a “premium” 2017
flagship that I found interesting enough to discuss. Now aside from
the fact that it's a successor to last year's Sony Xperia Z5 Premium,
has a 4K, 5.5”(13.97cm) screen, I admittedly didn't know much else
about it, so I watched a few YouTube videos to learn more about this
Xperian flagship. In a number of ways, it's similar to its
predecessor, but is also different and better in several areas, as it
should be for a 2017 flagship. The two look similar at first glance,
but when you compare them, you'll
see their little differences. So based on what I've watched, here's
what most people seem to praise about the Sony Xperia XZ
Premium: its gorgeous HDR, 4K display, the IP68 certified water
resistance, smooth performance, excellent camera and photo features,
and its
beautiful looks and colours. What did they hate? The price tag. If
this thing ends up truly going with the reported $1145 CAD, then
that's just nuts! If they're going to tip the $1000 mark, then they
ought to throw in 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. Seriously. People
have also proven that their backs
are too easily stained with fingerprints, especially in the Luminous
Chrome colour. I can agree that this would cause the phone to look
grimy and gross, so using a case or carrying a cloth would be a good
idea. I'd probably recommend using a case though. A
screen protector for the front would also be a sensible move.
Some have said that it's heavy and cumbersome
to hold
with one hand, while others say it's manageable for its size. Because
this thing isn't even released in Canada, I currently do not have the
opportunity to even toy around this. If you know me by know, I
LIKE BIG PHONES! I've
held the BlackBerry Passport, Samsung Galaxy Note 3,
4 and 5,
iPhone 6S Plus, LG G4 and many others! I enjoyed the screen estate
very much, so handling this thing won't be a problem for me. Now
another thing people pointed out was that the fingerprint sensor will
be disable once again for the American market. Not sure if they meant
North America as whole, or if it was just strictly the U.S.A, but
either
way,
that's a huge market to mistreat. Even though I don't care for it, a
lot of people clearly do, based on evidence from American YouTubers.
And finally, there's the issue with the battery. The Sony Xperia Z5
Premium had a 3430mAh cell,
while the Sony Xperia XZ Premium has a smaller 3230mAh. Wait, what?!
I don't care what kind of battery saving tricks they have up their
sleeves, but that size is not going to hold up well for such a
powerful, high-res phone. Nope, not without castrating your
performance and downgrading your screen
resolution. Again, this is why I hate this toxic, ultra-skinny,
sealed, unibodied, non-removable battery trend so much! I mean, being
sealed and unibodied is one thing, but do you have to make a
smartphone so skinny that it chokes the battery size? This smartphone
is 7.9mm thick. How bad would it be to make it 10mm thick? Sure, that
will make it heavier than it already is, but so what? It's not like
it's going to be as heavy as a brick, so I think the weight gain
would make it worth it. Finally, with bezels that big, I think that
they could have kept the navigation buttons off the screen and
put them on that
great, big chin of its! Alright so now it's time for the ultimate
question: would
I buy this phone?! Sorry,
no. When you consider the phones that are already out, and that are
to come later
this year, this phone's got some quirks and issues I've addressed
that don't make it worth it for its
price. I'd choose it over something like the HTC U Ultra, but I'd
rather go with the Samsung Galaxy S8+ or LG G6. To be fair, the
latter two are also expensive and have similar storage internals, but
they're also larger and look better in my opinion. And mentioning the
LG G6 also reminds us that the Sony
Xperia XZ Premium
doesn't have a dual camera setup. Coming
from
a company that's supposed to be camera-savvy,
it
makes you wonder why. Outside of my strange strange biases and
nitpicks, this
is still a super solid phone.
If you're tired
of Samsung, LG, Apple and what not, but want a premium phone that's a
little different, then buy it! If money, internal storage, a delicate
backside, size and weight aren't an issue, then you probably won't
regret you choice. If
you're not sure, you can probably try it in stores when it releases
in June, or from a friend or relative before you shell out $900+ on
it.
The
first thing I want to say is THANKS!
Thanks
for what exactly? Thanks for the view count on my recent Mother's Day
entry. To date, it has a higher view count than any other blog post
I've done on this blog. I don't know if it was simply the title, or
the fact that the Instagram advertisement I used for it had lovely
pink & white flowers or what, but I'm just
glad to see that my work didn't go unnoticed. Especially
when you consider that it was 4000+ words long.
Thanks again guys!
I must also encourage you to comment, if you feel like it, to let me
know what you think of the posts. Mother's Day joys aside, I plan to
continue with day-to-day things this week, and nothing much else
exciting, unfortunately. If that changes, you'll know with either
another entry or a Twitter update. I'd mention the commentary, but I
can already foresee that we won't see it this week, so I almost
didn't feel like mentioning it all it, but whatever. It's still
coming.
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