A Silver Medal and a Thumb Drive

Oh the joys of running into your professors while making a pit stop in the restroom at school.

About a month ago, I decided to take advantage of a few minutes between classes to hit the head.  Upon walking inside, I found a friend of mine and one of my old professors, Professor Ormond, having a conversation.  I said a quick hello, and then went about my business.

Listening in, I noticed that Ormond was telling my friend Nathan about the SkillsUSA contest, which is a nationwide contest that recognizes a variety of different technical skills at both high school and post-secondary levels.  Ormond was trying to convince Nathan to sign up for the Web Design portion of the contest, as nobody had entered the competition at the university level, and whoever signed up would automatically be competing in the statewide competition.

After washing my hands (of course) and sliding past them toward the door, Nathan promptly said, "I don't know anything about web design...but Jeff does!"  Ormond's face lit up, and before I knew what was going on, I was being dragged into his office, and was presented with numerous packets of information regarding the competition.  Needless to say, I was about forty-five minutes late for my next class.

The contest involved designing a website from scratch for a client, who would be presenting the company's web design-related dilemma, and we would need to prepare and present a solution.  This content was unique to many of the other IT-related competitions, as it required the participant to work with a partner.

Luckily for me, I work at a web hosting and design company called Marketecture now, at which I design and support websites on a daily basis.  I entered this job, already possessing a pretty solid knowledge of web programming languages such as HTML and CSS, but my company actually paid for all of us to become certified with W3Schools in both languages.

Not only that, but I work with a fellow Utah Valley University student, Travis Harley, who is very skilled when it comes to the design aspect of websites, such as using tools like Photoshop and others to create magnificent-looking designs for clients.  I asked him to be my partner in the competition, and he readily accepted.

Over the subsequent weeks, we prepared vigorously for the competition, studying up on our coding skills and gathering the equipment necessary to participate.  For example, the rules instructed us that we would need to supply a hub or switch with two patch cables, in order to provide communication between our two laptops, which we also had to provide.  I purchased a pretty nice switch on Amazon, but it ended up not making a difference, because the rules changed soon after, allowing us to have a WiFi connection during the competition.

This was a great relief to us, as it meant that we could draw upon the previous sites that we had created in designing the website for the competition itself.

The design portion of the contest took place at 8am on Thursday, March 29th at Salt Lake Community College.  Travis lives in Saratoga Springs, which is on the way to the campus, so we carpooled up there together.  Upon arriving, we were introduced to the client, who explained that he needed a blog site created.  We were told that we just needed to design the home page of the website, depicting how it would be laid out, and not requiring us to create a functioning blog.

We were provided with some images from the company to use on the website, and commenced our work about an hour later.  We immediately put our heads together to decide on a layout and wireframe of the website itself, which I drew out on a notebook that I had brought with me.  I then began the coding of the actual site from scratch, using Microsoft's Web Expression 4 software, while Travis worked with Photoshop to design the background and banner images.

We worked extremely hard, continually modifying our designs to accommodate new ideas and concepts, and by the end of our time limit had a very professional website designed, complete with a JavaScript-powered animated main navigation menu, and an image rotator as the banner, which is Travis' specialty.

In essence, I was very proud of our work.  When our time drew to a close, we placed the website on a thumb drive and copied it to the presentation laptop.  We were then told to report the next day at the same time to present to the client, along with some other professionals in the web design field.

The presentation actually went quite well.  Travis explained his reasoning behind the color scheme and designs that he chose, taking the role of web designer, while I assumed the role of web developer and described the coding behind the project.  I also displayed the code itself, which I was very proud of, having placed many comments and indentations to make it very readable and understandable to any outsider.

Later that night was the award ceremony.  We sat in an auditorium filled with people from high schools, colleges, and universities all over the state of Utah.  At long last, our division was called, and we waited with bated breath to hear what our ranking would be.

To our surprise, we took second place in the competition, which to me was a tremendous accomplishment.  We stood on a podium not unlike those used during the Olympics, and were presented with silver medals.  We were then directed backstage, where we were presented with......a thumb drive.

Apparently each division had its own sponsor, and ours was Adobe.  They had a prize, which was any Adobe software package of the winner's choice, but only for those that placed first.  But, although I didn't receive any free software, I was still extremely grateful for the work that I had done, and felt very proud of our accomplishment.  If nothing else, it proved that I was able to take a task that, at first, sounded impossible, or at least extremely daunting, and follow through with it until the end.

Overall, it was a great experience, and I'm glad that I was able to be a part of it.

New Beginnings [...And Haters]

Well, life has pretty must been speeding past, and I've barely had enough time to breathe, let alone continue to add blog posts...especially since there probably aren't many who even read them, if anyone at all.  But, basically I began this blog to essentially give me another output medium for my thoughts, if nothing else as a way to keep my sanity and put my thoughts and feelings into words.

I have been thinking about the point of keeping a blog, and remembered the original reason for starting this blog, which can be found by clicking here.  So, since I'm getting very tempted to read the book Feed by Mira Grant again, and I know that it will give me the kick in the pants I need to start writing here again, I might as well start now.  That....and I can't sleep.

So, I'm hoping that I can start writing again, giving brief updates of my life, some music-related, and others that are not.  I want this blog to be another way for me to express myself, as doing so through music has been put on hiatus since the break-up of my band Formerly So (which I will talk more about later).  So tonight's post will be about an incident that I would like to mention involving the band, mainly because it is already past 2am and I don't want to be up much longer.

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, my band Formerly So officially disbanded in May of 2011, which is foreshadowed by some of my blog posts around that time.  However, I don't think that I ever mentioned the disbandment on this blog, although I did on Facebook, Myspace, the band's official blog, and all of the other media used with the band to notify our fans, in the form of an official Press Release.

Here is an actual copy of the press release, as it was posted on Facebook:

Although the band may not have split up under the best of terms (the full explanation would require much more time to describe than I want to spend tonight), I still consider myself to be friends with every member of the band, albeit I haven't communicated with two of the members in quite some time, outside of the occasional Facebook "like" or comment.

In fact, not too long after the band broke up, I actually got together with Brayden (the vocalist) and his cousin Andrew (who was Formerly So's rhythm guitarist for a short time before we found Tim) and attempted to begin a new project.  We wrote a couple of songs, and even laid down a the guitar and bass tracks in ProTools on Andrew's MacBook.  Jason Stapleton, Formerly So's keyboardist--who had since returned from his mission to Romania and which whom I currently work--also stepped in for a time to make some music with us.

Unfortunately, the new project never really got off the ground, mainly because of schedule conflicts and the lack of a drummer, which slowed the motivation.  So, once again, I was without a means to play my bass, except by myself to my dog or along with iTunes.

I have thought often about doing some kind of solo project, especially now that I have a Mac Mini with 8GB of RAM and GarageBand, but that hasn't happened yet.  But, musically related, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  I have recently jammed with Jason, in an attempt  to work on some more piano-and-bass driven songs that we could hopefully perform.  It is extremely fun to jam with Jason, as he is one of my closest friends, and we have written some pretty sweet stuff together.

I also will be trying out with a really good band called Goodnight Annabelle in about two weeks, for which I am super excited.  They are a great band, their members seem extremely friendly and chill, and I am very impressed with the music they have already written.  There is also another musician with whom I've been in contact, who wants to get together and see if I want to jam with them and possibly start a project.  So there is still potential for me to reintroduce myself to the music scene.

But now for the whole reason that I decided to write a post tonight.  As I mentioned, I am still in contact with both Brayden and Jason, but have also been in contact with Adam and Tim, if only via texts, Facebook, and other technological means.  Today, for example, Tim texted me and asked if I still had administrator rights to the Formerly So YouTube channel, which of course I do.  He informed me that some Internet troll had posted some pretty nasty comments on a couple of our YouTube videos, and to see if I could remove them.

Today was the Priesthood session of General Conference, so once I was home and able to sit down at my computer, I checked out these comments:

As you can see, this person decided to attack the band because of the number of views that the videos had received.  One post was on our official music video, and the other was on the video posted by Utah Music Scene, where we were interviewed at the Salt Lake City venue Club Vegas.

Due to YouTube's new layout, it is much more difficult to remove posts, even if they are on your own videos.  I immediately changed the music video's settings to allow comments only by the owner's approval, and marked the comment to be removed and to block the user.

I even sent a private message to the poster, as I was so confused by why he would randomly attack my band, saying the following:

Hey man,
I just noticed your comments on a couple of our videos, and I'm wondering what would cause you to say all of that. Looking at your previous comments on your channel, it looks like you singled out this band for all of your hate comments and trolling, when I really don't see a reason.
Yeah, we didn't a ton of views on our video, but who cares? We were a local band, and were doing what we could to make it in an industry overflowing with local music. On top of that, we were a bunch of friends, getting together to do what we loved: making music and performing. If that's a sin, then put me down as a sinner.
So, clearly you have some kind of beef with the band, but either didn't do 30 seconds of research enough to find out that it had disbanded about a year ago, or hold a grudge on behalf of a member of the band due to reasons that you completely do not understand.
Regardless, your comments were childish and there was no reason for them. If you don't like the music, move on to another song from another band, it's as easy as that.
But the fact of the matter is that, despite the band not growing in its fanbase and disbanding due to reasons that you are not privvy to knowing, we produced some music that every member of the band is incredibly proud of, and we see it as a great accomplishment.
So, I would appreciate it if you would keep those ill-informed comments to yourself, and focus your efforts on something more worthy than attempting to demean a band that has parted ways such a long time ago.
If you really want to continue acting this way, then be a man and talk about it to us personally. I welcome your response: send it to formerlysoband@gmail.com and, assuming it's more than belligerent hate and prejudice, I promise to take the time to thoughtfully write out a response to any question you may have.
Thanks.- Jeff

I posted the same message as a comment on his actual channel as well, as I noticed that somebody else had commented on it after being bashed by him for some stupid reason.  Also, because the second comment (which appears in the screenshot above) was on a video not uploaded by me, I wasn't able to remove the comment, but instead posted the same message above in the form of a reply to his comment.  I believe that the reply was frank, yet professional in the sense that I didn't result to vulgarity or name-calling, so if anyone is to read it, they will see that he truly is a troll, and hopefully believe that it was handled well on our part.

I sent Tim the message via Facebook, but he replied back several hours after I had removed the comment, and told me that it was still visible, so he didn't know if it just took time to remove, or if there was more I needed to do.  I tried several things, including marking the comment as spam with several accounts and replying with a shorter version of the above message (just in case). I'm not sure what exactly I did to solve the issue, but the comment is now gone from our music video's page.  It shows my reply and has a link to show the original comment, but when clicked on, an error message displays, saying that the original message has been removed.

In closing, I don't understand why people decide to bash others for really no reason.  The comment on the music video page said something along the lines of "since this band only has X amount of views in a year's time and other mediocre bands have tons more, they should think they're a great band," whereas the comment in the screenshot above goes on to claim the reason why our band didn't succeed, which--for the record--is definitely incorrect, as we were successful and could have continued on to have a bigger fan base and more success, had other obstacles not hindered us.

Anyway, I don't know if one of the band members was disgruntled and was complaining about the band to someone, who went on to "help" by placing those comments, but I don't believe that could be the case, because it made all members of the band equally look bad.  I'm guessing it was just some Internet troll, who was just hate-filled and wanting to cause a stir.  Basically, being the quintessential Internet troll that everyone knows and hates, that CollegeHumor depicted so well in this video:

Becoming Everest BTS

As a follow-up to my previous post, I decided to post the Behind the Scenes video of the Becoming Everest music video:

Quiet on the Set!

Almost a year ago, my band Formerly So worked together with my cousin Ty Jensen to film a music video to our song "Cut Down," the single of our debut album entitled "Disappointment is Control."  We had a three-member crew team working with us--excluding actors--which included Ty as the writer, director, and editor, Ken Wilcox as the chief cameraman, and James Vreeken as their assistant.

Despite the lack of manpower, the video was done very professionally and was very elaborate in every aspect.  We filmed in three main locations, being Ty's parents' garage in Farmington (which was designed to appear as a mechanics garage), Convicted Ink tattoo parlor in Orem, and Wendover, Nevada.

We made a two-day trip out of the Wendover shoot.  The first day, from early morning until late at night, was spent out on the Bonneville salt flats, where we shot some amazing performance shots.  It was very time consuming to load all of our equipment out there, and to carefully place our gear without corroding it with salt, but it was definitely worth it.  As cool as the daytime shots were, they couldn't compare to the shots taken after dark, with Ty's special blend of pyrotechnics.  Plus, with the help of Adam Boyd, our band's sound technician, we were able to construct an actual wall of fire behind us during a finale shot, which was as awesome as it was dangerous.

The second day we captured some footage inside the casino (which we ended up scrapping) and in the hotel room, followed by some scenes at the same airport where they filmed the movie Con Air with Nicholas Cage.  It was a lot of work, but even more work for Ty and his companions, who turned the footage into a very professional music video.

Yesterday, I had the chance to return the favor to Ty as I worked on his crew for the making of the Becoming Everest--a hardcore band based in Salt Lake City--music video to their song entitled "The Red in Redemption."  This video shoot was nothing like what was done for my band.  Ty is now a graduate of Utah Valley University in filmmaking, and owns his own music video production company called the Tyjens Media Music Video Production Bureau.  He has several more music videos under his belt and has transformed his sets into a completely professional outfit.

This video set had a 30-man crew, including Ty as the director, Ken as the chief cameraman, two assistants to the director, a lighting specialist, and several grips who set up equipment between shots.  I felt like a fish out of water because I was one of a couple people who wasn't in the digital media major and working towards a career in film.  Yet, I was lucky enough to have my cousin Jake--Ty's little brother--helping out as well.  Not only did it make the process much more comfortable having somebody I knew working alongside me, but it was great to hang out with Jake and remember all the fun we used to have together as kids.

The first half of the day, or rather until about 5pm, we worked on the shots involving an actress from BYU.  For quite a few of the scenes, I was put in charge of the air compressor, with which I would continually shoot her in the face, and she would fall backwards onto a large mat.  I felt bad, but she didn't seem to mind.

For one of the last scenes with her, Jake and I actually had to work together, standing on stools and raining flower pedals down on her.  I think they'll look pretty cool once the video is complete.

After the scenes with the actress were finished and she was free to go, we moved on to the shots with band.  Most of the band members were pretty cool and fun to hang around with, especially the guitarist/screamer.  He was a really nice guy and I enjoyed chatting with him between sets.  He and the bassist were also the most grateful for all the work the cast and crew were putting in to making them a video with no cost to them.

The day of filming started at 7am, and I had to leave at 10pm to submit some homework that was due by midnight, but apparently the shooting didn't stop until close to 1am.  Ty had actually arrived to set up much earlier than I did, arriving on set at 3:30am, and worked continuously the entire time.  He's obviously a very hard worker and I can't wait to see where these videos being added to his portfolio will get him once he introduces himself to Hollywood and the major music labels.

Steel Horse Summer

Three years ago, when I stepped foot in Utah after serving a two year mission in Brazil, I had a huge surprise when I walked into my backyard after so much time.  I greeted my dog, who surprisingly still recognized me, and played with him for a moment or two.  Then I turned around.  Behind me on the grass was a gleaming motorcycle, a black 2005 Honda VTX 1300R, parked behind a big yellow poster that said, "Welcome Home!  Let's Ride!"

Ever since that day, my dad and I have taken our bikes all across the western states on some very exciting rides, visiting motorcycle rallies, visiting national and state parks, or just going on rides to spend time together.  Together we have visited Yellowstone, Lake Tahoe, Zions National Park, Bryce Canyon, Reno, Jackson Hole, and a ton of other places.  This summer was no exception.

This year we were able to hit two rides together.  The first was a couple of weeks ago.  My dad and I, accompanied by my uncle David, took our bikes on a journey to Red Lodge, Montana, for a motorcycle rally.  We started our ride by driving all the way to Bozeman, Montana, where we faced some minor technical difficulties.  We entered the city of Bozeman during a rainstorm, and before long realized we weren't sure how to find our hotel and accidentally ended up back on the freeway heading toward Billings.  We pulled off on an off-ramp and called the hotel for directions.  When my dad went to start his bike again, he found that somehow his ignition starter was not working and his bike would not turn over.  Luckily my phone had the number of the Honda dealer in Orem and we reached them with three minutes before closing time.  The mechanic was very helpful and explained to my dad that he could simply hotwire his bike to start it until he could get it fixed, so the trip could continue.  I handed my Leatherman to my dad and he was able to use it to spark the engine and get it running.

The next day we hit the Red Lodge rally, which was awesome!  There were tons of vendors, and we spent a good amount of time just walking up and down the streets shopping.  After the rally, we heading onward to a small tourist town called Cody, Wyoming, home of Buffalo Bill.  It was a pretty fun town, with cowboy gunfights going on in the street and a cool pioneer village we were able to visit.

The next day we left Cody and made our way to Yellowstone, passing through the East entrance and making our way South to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where we would spend the night.  The ride was very scenic, and we shot a bunch of cool pictures.  It was crazy how deep the water in the rivers were, and how islands near the Fishing Bridge were underwater.

Yet, we faced another difficulty when we stopped near West Thumb to take a few pictures.  David had been struggling with a semi-dead battery on his bike, and we had to jump start him when we left Cody.  But as he went to start the bike at West Thumb, it simply would not start, despite everyone's best efforts.  We finally had to make a plan for me and my dad to ride down to Jackson and buy a battery and bring it back to him.  He gave us his credit card and said he would wait for us there.  We traveled for almost two hours until we reached Jackson, and found a K-Mart that was open that sold batteries.  By then we had received a few voicemails from David saying he had called a tow truck and would meet us at the Southern entrance to the park.  My dad decided to leave me in the hotel room and return by himself to meet David.  I walked down to the Subway nearby for dinner, and spent a few hours reading and watching Netflix on my EVO phone.  They returned later that night and we went for a midnight snack at MacDonalds.

The next day we wrapped up our trip by returning home via the Mirror Lake Highway.  As we were in the thick of the forest, we felt a few raindrops and my dad decided it was prudent to pull over and put on our rain gear.  It was a wise decision, because not five minutes later we were hit with pounding rain that we could barely see through, and were it not for our waterproof clothing, we would have been soaked to the bone.  But the rain didn't stop us from visiting a scenic waterfall along the highway and taking pictures.

Despite the technical difficulties and the weather, we had a great time and the ride was one of the funnest that I've been on.  It was well worth the planning and preparation that my dad put into the trip.

Last week I had my second motorcycle trip of the summer, together with my dad and his old high school friend Robert Gornichec.  We went on a two-day trip to Moab, hitting three scenic parks:  Canyonlands, Dead Horse Point, and Arches National Park.

After arriving in Moab and having lunch, we visited Canyonlands State Park.  It was fun, as always, and had a lot of great photo ops.  We started by walking down to the ledge overlooking the White Rim Trail, just beyond the Visitor Center.  It is ironic that such an awesome viewpoint is not even marked on the maps within the building.  I especially love visiting that spot to watch my dad squirm, who is deadly afraid of heights ever since he drove his snowmobile off a cliff a few years back.

We then trekked up to Mesa Arch, which is a neat arch that is about two miles into Canyonlands.  By that time we saw some heavy rain clouds billowing our way, so we high-tailed it to our bikes and tried to beat it to Dead Horse Point so we could see the famous landmark at sunset.  Just outside of Canyonlands, on our way to the other park, the rain unleashed itself upon us with everything it had, and we were instantly soaked to the bone.  The rain/hail stung as it struck us, but we kept moving until we reached the ranger station.  The ranger was a nice guy that let us take refuge in his booth until the rain let up a bit, then gave us a free pass into the park.  We made our way to the lookout points and snapped a few pictures, but upon seeing the ominous rainclouds of a followup storm coming our way, we decided to not press our luck and head back, instead spending our time after dinner sitting in the hot tub at the hotel.

The next day we got up early and visited the Arches National Park, and made the traditional hike up to the famous Delicate Arch, which is the very same that is featured on most Utah license plates.  It was fun, however tiring, and after the hike we slowly made our way back to Moab.  We then traveled up the Colorado River a ways until we reached the Red Cliffs lodge, where we visited the film museum, that features exhibits for each movie that has starred some part of Moab, including Austin Powers: Goldmember, Mission: Impossible II, and Thelma & Louise.

After the museum, we made our way back home, thus ending another fun motorcycle ride.  I really look forward to these rides, and to the time I get to spend with my dad one-on-one.  I can't wait to see what adventures we will have next year, and until then plan to continue riding my bike as much as I can.

Fire and Rain

Tonight was the annual "Blow Stuff Up" party with all of my fellow employees from ShopKo.  Last year, Macedone (the "ringleader" of the show) bought a remote-controlled Hummer, which cost him about $50, and filled it with at least its worth in fireworks, and set it off while the rest of us ducked for cover.  When it was all over, we were left with a smoldering pile of plastic and streaks of white and red burned into our retinas for about ten minutes.

Would it be possible to top last year's Independence Day escapades?  I think we did.

We met tonight in the ShopKo parking lot, waiting for those who were working the closing shift to join us if they wanted to.  A few ominous sprinkles of rain splashed down on us, and black clouds surrounded us, and we started to wonder if our party was actually going to happen.  Within minutes, the rain started to pelt down, harder and harder.  A few people disappeared, choosing not to wait out the storm, while the rest of us retreated to the greenhouse in the Lawn & Garden center to remain as dry as possible.

We watched as the water began to rise, the drainage ducts in the parking lot being completely outmatched by the torrential downpour.  The rain came down in sheets as we watched our manager sprint from door to door, including the Lawn & Garden shed, making sure all of the locks were secure.  Eventually we decided that we would postpone the celebration until the following night, and everyone began to trickle out of the greenhouse and dart to their vehicles.

I realized that my dad had driven his motorcycle to work, and so I jumped in my car and drove over to RC Willey to give him a ride home.  However, when I was about a block away, I got a call from home saying that he had arrived home safely on the bike, despite the fact that he was completely drenched.

As I turned back, I called one of the party guests to see if they were still in the greenhouse waiting out the storm, only to find out that the rain was subsiding and the original plan was back on.  I returned to ShopKo and met up with the stragglers, and we soon left the premises to find the others, who had apparently left to procure a location to begin lighting off the fireworks.

They had found a secluded parking lot in which we could launch the pyrotechnics, and we stayed there until the firework curfew at eleven o'clock at night.  Despite the rain alternating between a drizzle and downpours, we had a great time, watching people light off a multitude of fireworks that cost a total of at least three hundred dollars.  It was super fun, and definitely outdid last year's adventure.  I wonder what next year will hold.

The Android Frenzy

Over the past few weeks, I have come across some way awesome apps for my Android phone.  I have the LG Optimus S from Sprint, and I really love this phone.  I kind of wish that I'd gone with the Evo--mainly because of its humongous screen--but this phone does everything that I want and more.  I debated for a while whether or not it was worth it to change data plans just for an Android, but all of my doubts were blown away the second I got to play with it.

The first app that really changed my Android experience was Teamviewer, an app designed for remote desktop capabilities.  My uncle was visiting from Oregon about two months ago, and was using one of our computers to send off some important emails.  He was kicking himself because he didn't have some files from his computer that he really needed to refer to, and he asked me if there was any way to get into his computer from Utah.  I told him no as a short answer...at least not without someone on the other end setting it up, and without going through the hassle of setting up Windows Remote Desktop, which is a huge pain and has been known to be insecure at times.

I got to thinking about that answer, however, and decided to research different ways to remote control my computers, because I knew that it would be very convenient to be able to access my computer from school, or even to take over my dad's computer to help him solve a computer issue without having to physically be sitting at his machine.

What shocked me is that Teamviewer--which is a free program, by the way--has a mobile app for both Android and iPhone that allows you to access you computer(s) from your phone, using the touch screen to control the mouse.

It's crazy that you can actually do anything on your computer through your phone or the Web that you normally could do, including surfing the Internet, restarting your computer, or even playing games and watching movies.  It even has a file transfer mode that lets you transfer files from your computer at home to the one you're using.  For example, if I were to forget my homework on my personal computer, I could log in from a school computer, transfer the file, and print it out.

One thing I really love about Sprint is their cooperation with Google to provide a bunch of sweet features.  Sprint just barely integrated with Google Voice, which has been super convenient for me.  Now, my voicemail is completely controlled through Google Voice, which means that I can set up different voicemail greetings, depending on who's calling me (i.e. I can a different message play for when work calls me, and a completely different message for when a venue calls wanting to book my band for a gig).  It also transcribes all of my voicemails into text, so if I can't listen to my message immediately because I'm somewhere loud or only have time to quickly glance at my phone, I can read when the message is about.  It also uploads all of the messages to Google, so I can read and/or play them from my computer.  It is a super time-saver.

Google has some really cool apps that I am impressed with besides Google Voice.  A brand new app that was just released as a beta is called Google Music.  This app has two aspects.  The first is a music player that is very similar to an iPod, with the ability to listen to the music on your phone by artist, album, playlist, etc.  I only have three albums on my phone at the moment, but I love cranking the tunes when I'm out feeding the dog or taking the car after misplacing my iPod, since I am very anti-radio when I can help it (why listen to commercials and songs you don't want to hear if you don't have to).

The even cooler aspect of Google Music is the "cloud" feature, which is currently by invitation only.  It lets you upload music from your computer, like from iTunes for example, and listen to it anywhere.  This means that I could pull out my phone and listen to any of the music on my computer, without actually having to download the song onto my phone or store it on my SD card.  I have an 8GB SD card for my phone, but I still don't want to overload it with music.  The three albums I have on my phone are two Coheed and Cambria albums that I listen to all the time, and my recently disbanded rock band Formerly So, in case I want to show it off to somebody.  I really hope I get invited to participate in the cloud beta, because I'd love to have more music on my phone, especially because it has a headphone jack and a powerful speaker.

The last app that I found was actually made known to me tonight at work by my friend and coworker Jared.  He busted out his phone while we were about to leave (which is also an Android phone), and I saw that his texting app was way cooler than the original Android Messaging app.  It had a sweet grunge-like theme and had the threads animated with color-coded word bubbles, apparently like the iPhone.

The app is called Handcent, and--like all of the other apps that I've mentioned--is completely free.  I chose to set up mine with the same grunge theme that Jared had, called Metal (shown above), but there were tons to choose from.  I also like how the pictures for each contact are much bigger, which helps me to quickly recognize who I'm talking to.

I love how the Android phones are so easily customized.  After installing these apps, and designing my own Coheed and Cambria wallpaper for my phone, I feel like it's completely different from the phone I bought a few months ago.  Even though I'm anxiously waiting for my upgrade period to arrive so I can move up to the Evo or Nexus S, or whatever cool new phone is out when the time comes, this phone has been perfect for me and has really lived up to its name.