My wife and I filmed the first episode of her new cooking series on authentic Chinese food. It was a lot of fun and we are looking forward to doing the next one. In this episode she teaches us how to make spicy fried green beans with pork which is actually one of my favorite things she cooks so I highly recommend everyone watch this video and give it a shot.

A person could get used to this!

Brooklyn Bridge on a warm summer day

Downtown Manhattan

5 Pointz / Long Island City, Queens

Left: Banky Visits Canal St. 2009   Right: SOHO street art

These are just a few of my favorite shots I’ve taken in NYC over the years. Hopefully I’ll be back soon to take some more!

Client: SUNY School of Optometry / Role: Search Engine Optimization

The SUNY School of Optometry was looking to increase web traffic on their University Eye Center Website. By creating an XML Sitemap and using other SEO methods I was able to help SUNY UEC create a major increase in web traffic.

Website: www.sunyopt.edu/uec

Manlius Swan Pond
Village Centre, Fayette Street/Route 92
Manlius, NY 13104

It was a cold, rainy Friday afternoon but with Autumn quickly coming to an end Xuemin and I decided to enjoy the bright red and orange trees while we still could. We took a short drive to Manlius to visit the Swan Pond.

Client: Portrait Renders / Role: Website Design

Portrait Renders is a portrait painting company based in Syracuse, New York. The client needed a website to reach an audience outside of Syracuse. This was a particularly fun project because Portrait Renders gave me a lot of creative freedom and were very excited about the results.

“Awesome design! We are very happy with our new website thanks to Lewis!”
- Portrait Renders Rep

1. Zeam Launcher

Zeam Launcher is a sleek lightweight launcher app that replaces the stock Launcher. It’s  minimalist design is what drew me in and now things like Launcher Pro and Go Launcher just seem like bloated fluff. I’ve noticed about 5% more battery life at the end of the day since using this app and with the less than great battery life of the Fascinate that was the deal maker.

2.Vignette

Vignette lets you get the most out of your phone’s camera. The stock camera is alright but the difference between the quality of photos taken with Vignette and the stock camera are clear as day, Vignette is on top. There are plenty of settings for you to play with like Scene modes like: sports, night, portrait, landscape etc. For advanced photographers there are settings to tweak: white balance, focus distance, anti-banding and exposure. The stock camera would only allow me to take 3.1 mega pixel photos but Vignette allows me to use my phone’s camera to its 5.0 mega pixel potential and I have been able to take some pretty decent photos with this phone thanks to Vignette.

3. Picsay Pro

I did a review on Picsay Pro awhile back. This app allows you to easily edit your photos on your phone without needing your computer. You can sharpen, color correct, add text and apply a plethora of photo effects like cross processing, faux HD and more. Editing is done in 24 bit color mode and supports high resolution so your photos look great both on your phone, computer and even printing. This app is extremely useful when I’m away from my computer and want to either send an MMS or share a photo I just took on Facebook or Flickr.

4. QuickPic

QuickPic is a replacement for the stock Gallery app. It has a much sleeker interface and tends to run smoother than the stock Gallery app. QuickPic also allows you to hide and exclude images and folders you do not wish to show up when you are browsing your images. For example I’ve hidden all the album art folders since I have no real need for them. Like the stock Gallery you can easily select multiple photos and sort them into different folders and share them on Facebook, email, Messaging etc.

5. XDA

XDA is a forum dedicated to Android development and the XDA app allows me to easily keep up to date with all the new goodies that have been developed for my beloved Samsung Fascinate. Here you can learn how to get rid of all the garbage your phone carrier puts on your phone like Bing (blech!), Amazon, Blockbuster etc. If you want to increase the speed of your phone, change its appearance or learn about the newest and greatest apps this is the place to start.

6. Zedge

Zedge lets you seamlessly download tons and tons of ringtones, wallpapers and notification sounds to your phone and apply them right from the app. New ringtones, wallpapers and notification sounds are uploaded daily from the 20 million Zedge users. I’ve downloaded everything from Mets wallpapers to obscure Japanese pop song ringtones (I love me some Utada Hikaru!) to old school Zelda notification sounds that always get me laughs from people around me.

7. Swype

Back when people used to have to text using the numbers on their phone I would never even bother. The normal Android digital keyboard is certainly much easier and faster than that but after I used Swype I was hooked and have become too lazy to write texts any other way. You simply slide your finger over the letters of the word you are spelling without lifting your finger and Swype magically knows what word you are trying to type. Now I can text as fast as any high school kid and not break a sweat.

8. PowerAMP

PowerAmp is a great music player for Android, much better than the stock Music Player. It comes with an equalizer that you can fine tune or presets you can use. One of my favorite presets is the Phone Speaker preset which amplifies the volume of the speaker above what the phone speaker is normally capable of so you can use your phone like a mini boombox. I’ve used this feature while I was skating, doing yard work and occasionally to irritate my fiance. Another great thing about PowerAmp is it will play file formats most Android music players won’t such as m4a, mp4, flac, and ogg. I had a whole collection of Utada Hikara albums that were m4a that I couldn’t play with any other app I tried including Player Pro which I also like.

9. MLB At Bat

This may very well be my favorite app. I am a huge baseball fan. I drive my family crazy during the long 162 game baseball season because I will watch every single Mets game I can. On rare occasions I’m unable to the game and rely on this beauty of an app to keep me connected to the game. There is a graphical play by play in the app that gives you the details and placement of every single pitch thrown along with your choice of multiple radio broadcasts for every game that is live at that time, AMAZING! You can also see the scores of every game played that day in real time.

Apart from the live features there are video clips of highlights from each game which are uploaded during the actual game, again, AMAZING! Of course there is also a section for the standings including the Wildcard Race. Prior to each game you can see who is pitching for each team along with their stats. There is also a news feed that keeps you up to date with everything happening in the MLB.

10. Astro File Manager

Because I’m always downloading new roms, kernels and themes for my phone my download folder gets pretty loaded. Astro File Manager allows me to easily organize my files and put them into the right folders and delete the ones I know longer need. I recommend this app to anyone who puts a lot of files on their phone and wants to stay organized or free up some space on their SD card. If I didn’t have this app my SD card would probably be full by now.

My fiance enjoying the view from the Pier

An elephant walking on the clouds over Syracuse, NY.