branhow.com- a blog about technology, music, movies, international news, cultures, my Faith and more!

Happy Chinese New Year

branhow — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:44:43 +0000

Tagged: chinese, chinese dragon, chinese new year, dragon, raleigh, year of the dragon

Surprise Surprise! Windows Phone 7

branhow — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:35:39 +0000

Taken with my iPod Touch

Well as some of you know I have been having a horrible experience with my current phone company H2O Wireless. I have spent countless hours with them on the phone, so I have been traveling around trying to find another alternative to my current phone service. I spoke with one representative from H2O Wireless and they told me I would not receive a refund for my inability to text for these past weeks. The supervisor told me that H2O policy is not to issue credits or refunds. Anyways I traveled to the T-Mobile store this past weekend (love the new interior redesign by the way) and I checked out the phones while I was there. This was my first encounter with a Windows Phone 7 and I was actually impressed! I thought the UI was very clever and it was a slick looking device. HTC has always been a personal favorite of mine for phones and they did an outstanding job with this Windows phone. Since Windows Phone 7 is still an emerging mobile OS, I know the apps are lacking, but in due time they will increase to the same quantity as seen in the Marketplace and the App Store. I am surprised I liked this phone, particularly because I am strictly a Mac/ Ubuntu user. Check it out for yourself! Oh, and I have decided to go with the $30 a month plan with T-Mobile that includes 1500 minutes/texts and 30 megabytes of data. What do you all think? Is that enough? I’m trying to save money so I think it will suffice.

Tagged: cell carrier, cell phone, H2O wireless, HTC, htc radar, mobile phones, mobiles, phone, phone carriers, phones, surprise surprise, t-mobile, tmobile, windows phone, windows phone 7

Kakao Talk

branhow — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:40:35 +0000

Lately H2O Wireless has been the worst mobile service I have encounter. They changed some of the mobile features for my plan (the most important feature which was FREE international SMS) and for the past three months my SMS in general has stopped working. I call about twice a month in order for them to address the problem and even then its an act of congress. Well needless to say since I can no longer text my friends abroad for free, I have found a very nice alternative. The only problem is that my friends need to either have an iPhone, Android phone or Blackberry. The program is called Kakao Talk and has recently been getting a lot of positive reviews. There are plenty of nice little features with this program but my favorite is that I can send a message to my friends abroad! I also think the app links your mobile number to your account which means your friends can easily find you just by searching for your mobile number. Anyways I hope you all enjoy this short, but nice little tip!

Tagged: android, Android app, Blackberry, Blackberry app, H2O wireless, international SMS, iOS, iPhone app, kakao talk, SMS

First Day Back

branhow — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:45:31 +0000

Well today was the first day back to classes at Fayetteville State University for the Spring semester. It was a nice day back except I always think the first days back to school is a waste of time. The teachers generally cover the syllabus and nothing more. I thought that since we are at the collegiate level we did not need our syllabi to be read to us. Well anyway I am taking five courses which consist of EDUC 310, HIPO 341, HIST 312, EDUC 421 and HIST 302. I have been looking over my schedule and I probably will drop HIPO 341 even though I was looking forward to this class. HIPO 341 is an American Constitution class. I only need the other four courses, so I would have a lighter load without that last class. Two of the courses are on site whereas the other two courses are online. This will help cut down the driving back and forth to FSU, especially since gas prices are beginning to shoot back up. This semester is going to be one of the busiest semesters I have ever had because it is my final semester of courses! The fall semester in 2012 will consist of my student teaching requirement for my History Education major. I am very excited to be coming to an end of my academic career and I look forward to starting the next chapter in my life! I want to wish you all a great semester! STUDY HARD!

Tagged: college, college classes, courses, Fayetteville State University, FSU, history education, spring semester, university

Surgery Update

branhow — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:41:03 +0000

Today is just a quick update on my knee post surgery. I really appreciate everyone’s prayers! They were definitely heard and God has played a major role in everything, including pre-surgery, during surgery and post surgery. The miracle that occurred is rather long to type and sometime soon I would want to do a video post describing the miracle that took place in this situation. But as you can see in the first picture, the surgery looks much more extravagant (btw those cables delivered an electric shock throughout my knee to divert my brain from the pain, how cool is that!!). It is almost a month since the surgery and the photograph below is what my knee is like now. The incision only left a mark that is probably 1 and 1/2 inches. My knee is still slightly swollen and only gives me slight discomfort when I sit indian style or something on those lines. I have my post operation examination sometime next week. Thank you everyone again for all your prayers and your concern! God is mighty and He is the supreme doctor!

Tagged: God, Healer, knee surgery, miracle, personal blog, personal life, Supreme Doctor, surgery

New Year Resolutions

branhow — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:52:25 +0000

Well to my friends in on the other side of the world, Happy New Year! Obviously the United States is further behind in comparison with the rest of the world dealing with time zones so we are still in 2011! We are still in the past, almost like time travelers. Well the last few days I have been thinking about my resolutions for the new year. I have actually grown in many ways this past year and I have failed in other areas. But I have managed to study more, exercise more, loose a good amount of weight, and other areas. This year has definitely been a year were I have overall succeeded more with my resolutions than previous years. Sometimes we look at these as mundane menial resolutions to make ourselves feel better, but I would like to encourage everyone to try their best to succeed in their resolutions for the new year. Anyways again Happy New Year and God bless you all! Go the year of the Dragon!!!!

10 New Year Resolutions

1. Read the entire Bible and take the next step in my relationship with Christ.
2. Exercise more, eat more healthy foods, and loose 20 pounds.
3. Organize my schedule (school, work, recreational activities, etc)
4. Finish at least 30 books
5. Significantly increase with my Chinese and Japanese language skills
6. Learn to play the ukulele and saxophone
7. Watch less television
8. Stay in touch with friends
9. Buy less and save more
10. Be more green

Tagged: new year, new years resolution, personal resolution, resolution, the new year

Christmas At The Crown

branhow — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 01:41:23 +0000

Christmas At The Crown

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve!!! I cannot believe that the year has already flown by and 2012 is almost here -the year of the dragon (^o^)v Anyway I wanted to make an announcement about the Christmas Eve service at Manna Church. For those who attend regularly this is no surprise, but I wanted to cordially invite anyone who wants to celebrate Christmas with Christians from all walks of life. I am extremely excited and I am expecting God to met us there tomorrow! Manna Church is having two services at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina tomorrow at 5PM and 7PM. This is going to be a special treat and unlike any service ever done before by Manna. Remember that this season is really about the birth of our Savior and no matter where you celebrate Christmas, at home or in a church, take a moment to reflect on the blessings God had given you throughout the year. Also take the time to thank Him for coming in a humble state to die on the cross for our sins! God bless you everyone and Merry Christmas!

Tagged: Birth of Christ, Birth of Jesus, Christmas, Christmas at the Crown, Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve Service, Immanuel, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus' Birth, Manna Church, Manna Church of Fayetteville

Passport to Love Movie Review

branhow — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:30:01 +0000

This is my first Vietnamese movie that I have seen and it was not that bad. I recently went to a new Vietnamese restaurant, which I soon will post pictures and details about, so I thought I might try this movie out. Yesterday I signed up for a 30 day free trial to Netflix and this was one of the movies they recommended I watch. I rarely watch these kind of movies, but I would much rather watch a romantic comedy over a horror flick or some sad story. I usually enjoy watching comedies, action and non-fiction movies. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, if I want to watch something scary or sad, I’ll turn to the news! lol
I will be honest and say that since this is the only Vietnamese movie I have seen, I am not very familiar with the actors and actresses or the director. But the directing style seemed comparable with Hong Kong director Patrick Kong (yes I like a lot of his films, despite the reviews on lovehkfilms.com). I like the simplistic camera angles that draw attention to the character when needed and the environment when each character is depicted in a new location. The storyline was easy to follow and even though it was suppose to be a romantic comedy there was no happy ending. Two Vietnamese guys travel to the United States to pursue a better life. The protagonist leaves his fiance behind in Vietnam to earn a bachelors degree in the United States. As the movie progresses he begins to fall in love with another woman.

I liked this film for several reasons, it was a nice chance of immersing into the Vietnamese culture, it showed the conflict between a dominant culture and a sub culture, the film was nicely shot, the storyline was okay and I thought one of the lead females was extremely cute Here is a photo of her to the left of this paragraph. Anyways I think if your interested in Vietnam or the Vietnamese language, this may be a potential movie pick! I enjoyed it and I hope you will also.

Tagged: bihn minh, chuyen tinh xa xu, dao dien, huy khanh, kathy uyen, ngoc diep, passport to love, tang bao quyen, victor vu, vietnamese, vietnamese movie, vietnamese movie recommendation

Lenovo A1

branhow — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:34:08 +0000

First of all Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope that you haven’t managed to stuff yourself with too much turkey. So the Lenovo A1 tablet! The Lenovo A1 tablet was first announced several months ago and since I first heard about it on All About Android, I have been anticipating this tablet. Overall I have been extremely impressed by the build quality of the A1, especially since it is a budget tablet. At one point two weeks ago the A1 was on sale for as low as $200USD! Once I had told my mother and sister about my recent purchase they hurried online to lenovo.com in order to purchase their very own A1 tablets. I must say that this is a first that my family has rallied behind technology in such a fashion, but it is kind of cool that we all three have the same tablet. I had purchased the white model, whereas my sister and mom purchased the pink and light blue models.

Well enough of that, on with the specs! The Lenovo A1 is a 7inch tablet sporting an Cortex A7 processor similar to the one found in the original iPad. The tablet comes with 16 gigabytes of storage and an expandable microSD slot supporting up to 32 gigabytes. The screen resolution is actually higher than the iPad 2 and has 512 megabytes of RAM. The cameras are okay for video chat, the front facing camera is about 1 megapixels and the rear camera is 3 megapixels. The major downside of this tablet is that it is only running Android 2.3 but I am expecting Cyanogen to release a mod to either Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich eventually. The last negative about this product is that it doesn’t seem to stay connected with my router. After spending way too long with customer support I decided to take my tablet to my public library to test out their wireless. My Lenovo A1 works on every other wireless network I have tried except mine at my house. I have spent countless hours fooling around with trying to figure it out and I have decided to get a new Cisco router tonight at Walmart for their Black Friday special. Hopefully this will work! But I highly recommend this tablet and I will definitely keep everyone posted once I figure out the wireless problem!

Lenovo’s Website

PC World Article

Tagged: android tab, Android tablet, lenovo, Lenovo A1, tablet

Waiting for my Tablet :(

branhow — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 23:19:28 +0000

A friend of mine got a Toshiba Thrive Tablet on Wednesday and has made me really REALLY want my tablet to come ASAP. October 1 I ordered a Lenovo A1 tablet and I am expecting it to ship around the first week of November. I’m not even quite sure if I can expect my tablet to ship when they told me (November 8th) because they are no longer taking orders and have made this product unavailable on lenovo.com. It is definitely not as expensive as the Thrive, but the Lenovo A1 is the best budget Tablet on the market. The processor is the exact same as the original iPad and has a better screen than the iPad. The form factor is smaller, measuring at 7 inches. This tablet has dual cameras and is going to be released with Android 2.3, but I am expecting an update eventually (if just from cyanogen). The tablet was selling for $200 for a 2 gigabyte version and $250 for the 16 gigabyte version. Last time I checked before Lenovo pulled the tablet down, the $200 priced one increased to $230. I have been anticipating this tablet since I first heard of its announcement several months ago and I cannot wait until my pre-ordered Lenovo A1 arrives on my doorstep! C’mon Lenovo and ship them out! I am sure they are all already manufactured waiting to be shipped!

Click the link and scroll down until you see the A1. http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087¤t-category-id=125EC838A7312DD4A397B55779CFA876&tabname=Features

Tagged: Android tablet, Lenovo A1, tablet