Archive for the ‘TV Shows’ Category

House, M.D.

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

Ohfuee had introduced me to House, M.D. a long time back, but I was never really a fan of hospital shows like ER or Grey’s Anatomy, so I never really bothered looking into it. However Xyon convinced me to give it shot and it has turned out quite interesting.. The fact that Xyon owns both season 1 and season 2 on DVDs gave me another incentive to watch. It meant I didn’t have to go “procure” them some other way.

You can blame House for my absence in posting blog entries for the past 2 weeks, but who besides Gregory House can make words like “me likee” and “thingies” sound cool.

I was also very intrigued by the intro music. Apparently the song is called Teardrop by Massive Attack. Once again it has that dramatic feeling that I like.

There was a funny thread going on at work. Someone had claimed they missed Monday’s episode of House. Someone replied saying he’d save him the time from watching it:

Someone was sick.
House tried to cure them but it was only 20 minutes into the show so the cure made them worse.
Then someone else tried to cure them, and House got mad. The second attempt was at 30 minutes so it didn’t work either.
Cuddy got mad, House made a pass at her and was rejected again.
The patient got worse and they couldn’t figure out why. Someone said it was an infection, someone else said it was a fungus, someone else said it was a tumor. None of them could prove it.
House came up with some great idea and everyone said it wouldn’t work but he did it anyway.
The patient got better and everyone was happy.
13 still doesn’t have a name.

Then there were these responses:

That must be a unique episode from the rest, neither MRI nor lumbar puncture was involved.

You forgot Lupus.

And of course someone shouted:

Spoiler space man!!!

I will admit that it does get repetitive, but then again, I watch Detective Conan religiously, which is 500+ episodes in and the theme is basically:

  • Someone gets murdered
  • Conan looks for clues
  • Conan figures out how the culprit did it
  • Conan tranquilizes Mouri Kogoro (Ran’s father)
  • Conan uses Sleeping Kogoro to explain the case (who would believe in a elementary boy?)

I sort of got screwed over watching Season 2. For some reason Media Center had listed them out of order (partly blamed by the My Movies plugin, partly blamed by the fact my file server doesn’t list files in alphabetical order). Apparently the 1st disc I watched was disc #5. When things started to not make sense like why *cough* needed an HIV test or how *cough* miraculously got cured with no explanation, I realized I wasn’t watching the DVDs for Season 2 in order. After resorting them, I was still wrong and actually ended up watching disc 2 out of 6 2nd to last.

I’m down to the final disc of season 2 and then I’ll have to decide if I want to continue watching House instead, or should I resume blogging. ;p

天龍八部 (Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils)

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

tian long ba bu So I finally finished watching 天龍八部 (Tian Long Ba Bu), also known as Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. This is story written by 金庸 (Jin Yong) and adapted into TV series multiple times. The one I watched was the newest one adapted by China in 2003. It consisted of 40 episodes due to the fact the story is just that long. At first I wanted to watch it at 1.5x speed given that I was busy with work and wanted to complete the series quickly, however my Mandarin skill wasn’t good enough to comprehend it when they were speaking that quickly.

I honestly think this adaptation was poorly done. The acting was okay, but the directing was horrible. The storyline just didn’t flow that well and it felt like it was stitched together chapter by chapter. The ending was also really abrupt and left me with a feeling of incompleteness. If this story is like the other masterpieces that 金庸 (Jin Yong) has written, the only reason I can come up with for this being poorly done is the directing. The sceneries were really pretty and the fighting choreography was pretty good, but the acting and directing was just not that great.

Anyway, the story left several plot holes which I’m not sure if it ever got explained in the original novel.

BEGIN SPOILERS

慕容復 (Murong Fu) had 2 followers: 包不同 (Bao Butong) and 風波惡 (Feng Boe), and they are respectively 3rd brother and 4th brother. Assuming 慕容復 (Murong Fu) is the 1st brother, who was the 2nd? (Brothers in this context need not be blood-related)

無崖子 (Wu Ya Zi), head of 逍遥派 (Xiaoyao Clan), apparently was married to 李秋水 (Li Qiushui), his younger disciple sister. However, it was later revealed that he was in love with the sister of 李秋水 (Li Qiushui). 李秋水 (Li Qiushui) and her sister look very similar. 無崖子 (Wu Ya Zi) kept a drawing of a lady by his sides at all time till his death. However since the drawing had a mole on the lady’s face, it was revealed that 無崖子 (Wu Ya Zi) was indeed in love with the sister of 李秋水 (Li Qiushui). Before 無崖子 (Wu Ya Zi) died, he had told 虛竹 (Xu Zhu), the next head of 逍遥派 (Xiaoyao Clan) to look for this lady and ask her to teach him martial arts. However, this lady never appeared in the story and that just felt weird…

There’s this monk in Shaolin Temple only known as the Sweeper Monk. The only thing we know about him is that he’s been hiding hiding in the Shaolin Temple for over 40 years (even longer than 蕭遠山/Xiao Yuanshan and 慕容博/Murong Bo) and has awesome martial arts skills. However, the back story of the sweeper monk was not revealed and my only guess is that it’s revealed in one of Jin Yong’s other stories.

Near the end of the story, 游坦之 (You Tanzhi) also known as the Iron Clown (鐵丑/Tie Chou) donates his eyes to 阿紫 (A Zi) to give her back sight. However, being childish and immature, 阿紫 (A Zi) doesn’t realize the sacrifice the Iron Clown has done and she runs away from him. 蕭峰 (Xiao Feng) tells her that she is now forever indebted to this young man and has the responsibility to take care of him. The story ends with 蕭峰 (Xiao Feng) committing suicide to prove his loyalty to the Liao Empire (Qidan people). 阿紫 (A Zi) decides to commit suicide with him, but before she does, she pulls her eyes back out and throws it to the Iron Clown and says she does not want to be indebted to him anymore and jumps off the cliff. The Iron Clown, unable to take this, commits suicide by bashing his head on the side of the cliff. The story ends with everyone crying… WHAT!?!?! WHAT THE HECK!?!?! HOW CAN YOU END THE STORY LIKE THIS!?!?!? I would’ve been mildly fine with the story ending with 蕭峰 (Xiao Feng)’s suicide, but how can you end the story like this?

UPDATE:
Another thing I didn’t get was at the beginning where a bunch of high level martial artists had to hide their identity. I understand they were tricked by 慕容博 (Murong Bo), where he hopes by creating a conflict between the Song and Liao empire, it would make taking a chunk of the Song empire and rebuilding his Yan Empire easier. I also understand those high level martial artists were tricked into believing that a high level martial artist 蕭遠山 (Xiao Yuanshan) from Liao empire was going to sneak into Shaolin Temple and steal all their martial art manuscripts. However, what I don’t understand is, why did they have to hide their identity? Why did they have to dress up in all black and cover their faces (like ninjas). What they were doing wasn’t something sneaky… And worst of all, you’d think as a high level monk, you wouldn’t attack a defenseless mother carrying a baby, while the others have occupied the father from protecting them.

END SPOILERS

Some New Toys

Friday, January 18th, 2008

It’s been awhile since my last post, but this post is going to be short and probably only a summary. I’ve recently obtained some rather new cool toys to play with.

First of all, I finally took the plunge and purchased an HDHR (HDHomeRun). For those who don’t know what this thing is, it’s a dual external QAM/ATSC tuner for your PC and is the easiest way to get QAM channels on your Media Center. I’ve had Media Center for awhile now, but I’ve really ever used it to watch videos and stuff. I finally wanted to play with the TV settings and like I said, took the plunge. I got it for a $160 shipped (deal is still available, inquire if you’re interested), only to find out a few days later a rumor of an employee discount. I’ll probably talk more about this later.

The next toy I got is my new Lenovo Thinkpad X61 Tablet. I had actually ordered this back in mid-December, but due to a UPS fiasco and them delivering my package to some other address, Lenovo to build another one and that’s why it took so long for it to arrive. Then there was the fact I was no longer in Monterey Park, and had to change the shipping which was more complicated than I originally thought. Anyway, I had been holding out for a portable laptop for some time since my IBM Thinkpad X31. I really wanted a X-series Thinkpad with a better screen. They decided to put a better screen on the Tablet, but not the regular X-series, so I finally made up my mind to get it. I was also contemplating on waiting for Apple to release the MacBook Slim (or what I had called it), but finally gave up on waiting for it. When the MacBook Air was announced a few days ago, I justified to myself that most 1st generation Apple products have a lot of problems.

Anyway, this morning I was having some sort of dream. I can’t remember what exactly the dream was but it involved a doorbell ringing. Doorbell ringing?!?! I jumped out of bed, ran to the window and saw the UPS truck. I ran down the 2 flights of stairs as a kid would do on Christmas morning to greet my UPS guy and signed for my package. I’ve played with it for awhile really nice. I’m still not that accustomed to the tablet features, but it’ll probably come bit by bit. It comes with Vista Business and definitely needs more RAM. Fortunately, a 2GB stick is on its way. I’d go into the specs later with its official post.

Yep, life is good. :)

I Thought Europe Was A Country

Saturday, December 1st, 2007

I saw this video a few days ago from Digg: Is Europe a country?

Funny video about a quiz show, where the question is about an obscure country called Hungary.

It’s a clip from the show, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? and to be honest, I think this was staged, but if it isn’t, it’s yet another example of how the American education system has failed.

SueOn had asked me if the contestant was someone famous and at that time, I didn’t know. Looking at the comments on YouTube, it appears the contestant is Kellie Pickler, apparently someone in American Idol. Then again, I’ve never watched American Idol, so I probably would’ve never figured it out.

Here’s the transcript (I’ve bolded the funny parts):

Jeff: You ready? The 3rd grade world geography question is: “Budapest is the capital of what European Country?” Budapest is the capital of what European Country? Nathan has already locked in.

Kellie: This might be a stupid question.

Jeff: I’m guessing it’s probably going to be.

Kellie: Okay. Like… I thought Europe was a country. Let’s see. Budest… Budapest! I’ve never even heard of that.

Jeff: Alright, here… here’s your options. I mean you could drop out with $10,000. But…

Kellie: Like I know they speak French there, don’t they? Like I wanna say is France a country. I don’t know what I’m doing.

Jeff: You know what, let’s talk about your options.

Kellie: Can I just like… Okay.

Jeff: Kell, focus.

Kellie: I am… Like I’m listening to what you’re saying, but I only hear what I want to.

Jeff: That’s just called being a woman.

Kellie: Oh… Boooooooo! Well, we could just call this show “Are You Smarter Than A Man?” I’d win that one.

Jeff: Women don’t really want to hear a man’s opinion. They just want to hear their opinion in a deeper voice. That’s what they want when they talk to us. Let’s talk about this. I really want you to get the $25,000 because no matter what happens after that, you’re walking out of here with $25,000.

Kellie: Yes. It’s all about the charity, so I got to think what’s best for them. Let’s see. I am just going to … copy.

Jeff: Copy.

Kellie: Come on Nathan.

Jeff: If you had to guess… if you had to guess… do you have a guess?

Kellie: I don’t think France is a country, but would’ve said that. I dunno… I don’t know. I’m just going to say France. I dunno.

Jeff: France is a country, I will tell you that.

Kellie: It is?

Jeff: If you had said France, you would’ve gone home with nothing.

Kellie: Whew…

Jeff: That’s not the right answer. The right answer is Hungary.

Kellie: Is what?

Jeff: Hungary.

Kellie: Hungry?

Jeff: Like I’m hungry.

Kellie: That’s a country? I’ve heard of Turkey, but… Hungary, never heard of it.

Jeff: But the answer is Hungary. So if Nathan said Hungary, your charity’s got $25,000. If he didn’t, you walk away with nothing.

Kellie: You’re not smiling, Nathan. You’re not smiling. Awwwwww.

Jeff: Kellie, look at the board. For $25,000, your 5th grade classmate Nathan said… Hungary!

Kellie: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Great! You’re the best! Thank you! Yeah! You tried to trick me. He tricked me.

Jeff: He tricked you?

Kellie: I was looking at his face and he looked like uh ummmmmm messed it up. I failed. But you got it right, yay.

Jan Lyk’s Halloween Party

Monday, November 5th, 2007

A few weeks ago, I get an evite from Jan Lyk for his Halloween Party. I wasn’t sure if I was going or not at first, since I’m not a big fan of getting dressed up in a costume. The last time I got dressed up was probably back in elementary school. I’ve never really been a big fan of Halloween. And after I found out I could buy my own candy, there was even less reason so. I remember when I was small, my mom would throw away about half my candies I got from Trick-or-Treating as she deemed them “poisonable.”

Anyway, back to the story. Not sure to accept or reject the invite yet, we got into a discussion of Xyon’s costume one day and somehow I verbally agreed to going to the party. The reason I provided for not accepting the invite yet was I wasn’t sure how many guests I’ll bring and pulled a Mechy/Horacio reason saying I wasn’t sure how many of my 10 different “female” friends were going to be available that night.

Now a verbal agreement is not binding, but neither is an evite confirmation, but since I already agreed to go, I started thinking of costumes. A bunch of anime characters pop up into my mind. First of course it was Kenshin, but his costume felt hard to come by. I then thought everyone says I look like Tenchi Muyo with my tail:
tenchi muyo

However, Tenchi’s costume is just a regular high school student. I thought maybe I can get a traditional Japanese high school uniform (the black ones actually looks pretty awesome), but there wasn’t really enough time to have one shipped and I had no idea where to pick one up locally.

So I started expanding my options beyond anime. I looked up a few costume shops around me to see if there were anything I liked. While I was in the first costume store, I saw a black jacket and thought it be pretty easy to dress up as Neo from The Matrix. All I would really need is a leather trench coat and some shades, though shades would make it difficult to navigate in a dark Halloween party. Anyway, after I dropped by a few other costume shops and didn’t really see anything I wanted, I went to Ross. Unfortunately, they said trench coats were seasonal things and if it’s not in the coats section, then they probably wouldn’t have it. The same thing happened at Target.

During sushi dinner that night with Stanman, Desperajo, and Carolynn, I brought up the fact that I was looking for a trench coat for my costume. Desperajo mentioned that he saw a really nice trench coat at Goodwill and I decided I would try checking there. Given it was Goodwill, it’ll probably not cost too much either. So the conversation of what you would dress up as for Halloween went around and Stanman said he’d dress up as Hiro from Heroes. I asked if he meant future Hiro, but Stanman declined and said he’d just be regular Hiro, the present day version. We all said that wasn’t really a costume as he just dresses normally with fuzzy hair. He goes, that’s fine with him. Carolynn then chimed in that I would look more like Hiro than Stanman, and Stanman argues that both he and I look pretty much the same, and I have to agree. We often get confused which Wii Miis is who.

Anyway, that gave me another idea: Future Hiro. I searched online to see if I can find a good picture of it and found this:
future hiro

I thought awesome! Looks like I’ll need a black coat, a black fleece with zipper, black dress shirt, black pants, black shoes, a sword, and a black strap to hold the sword’s sheath. If you haven’t realized, black is one of my favorite colors, though some will argue that black is not a color at all, and is the absence of color, and to those I would just ignore.

Anyway, I started searching my wardrobe and it looks like I have the dress shirt and pants. I know I have a pair of black dress shoes, so that was taken care of also. I dug around all my laptop bags and found a few black straps that look like they’ll work. Looks like I’ll need to invest in a black coat, black fleece, and a sword for this endeavor.

I drop by Ross again and found a few black coats and fleeces and tried them on. I ended up purchasing one of each. However, when I got home and tried all 3 layers of clothing on (coat + fleece + dress shirt), it got unbearably hot, so I decided I didn’t really need the fleece and ended up returning it to Ross.

I also dropped by a party store and picked up a toy sword. I was thinking of bringing my real katana, but the thought of accidents turned me away. After I got home, I cut out some holes and attached the black strap to it. When I discussed my costume with Xyon, he insisted that I would need the symbol on my sword. So I ended up picking up a metallic gold marker from Office Depot and that worked out extremely well:
takezo kensei swordtakezo kensei sword

Here’s the total cost of my costume:
Black Coat: $50
Toy Sword: $6
Gold Marker: $3

And here’s the final outcome of the costume:
future hiro costume

Anyway, just as I was about to leave for the party, I realized that I couldn’t find my black dress shoes. Tons of scenarios came into my mind. Did I take it back to LA during my last visit and forgot to bring it back? Did my mom hide them somewhere else? Has it always been in storage? I decided to give my mom a call and two rings in while I was searching the storage, I found it! I recalled the last time I wore these was during the CSD Christmas Party almost 2 years ago. I recall even buying a belt and tie for that event, which I haven’t worn once since. Anyway, it turns out that it was indeed still in storage (there’s still tons of boxes I have yet to open since my move).

So I drove to Microsoft because Xyon and I were carpooling from there. Turns out a few others were doing the same. We met up with Veneta, Thet, and Aurash. We got to Jan Lyk’s place around 9 and people started slowly coming in.

How the party went? I’ll let the pictures tell the story:
halloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween partyhalloween party

For the full album, check out: Jan Lyk’s Halloween Party 2007

One really funny incident that happened during the party was people were guessing what time it was. I looked at my clock on my cell phone and saw 1:47am. I thought, wasn’t it 1:30am almost an hour ago? Then it hit me, Daylight Savings Time. So while people were guessing 2:30, 2:42, etc, I couldn’t help but laugh. When I told them it was only 1:47, they wouldn’t believe me until I mentioned DST, then it hit them. Aurash continues to argue that his clock is synched with the atomic clocks and his clock shows 2:47am. Jeremy backs me up and says his phone has synched and updated with DST.

Here’s some helpful advise: Don’t try to bite or bend those glowy sticks beyond their capacity. I ended up with a mouth full of glowing orange liquid which tasted really really bad.

After the party, a bunch of us went to Denny’s and just chatted for quite a bit.

Yaris - Free XBLA Game

Monday, October 29th, 2007

I apologize for not posting much recently. My blog topics have been accumulating. Here’s just a few of my draft titles: 5 Free iTunes Songs Followup, Fighting Dance Moves, Credit Card Update, Elliptical User Warnings, Dwarfs Count, Cute Cat Comic, Lucky Star, and File Server (yes, it’s still in queue to blog about). Here’s one that’s in my email box that I found.

I’m shocked that one of my most popular posts is 4 Free Xbox Live Arcade Games, generating about 200 unique views this past month.

A few weeks ago, while I was looking at the MSFT stock headlines (speaking of which, did you see the recent surge?!?!? We not only broke $30, but now we’re at $35!), I saw this: Want a Free Xbox Game?

If you’re still smarting after shelling out $60 for a copy of Halo 3 last month, relief is on the way. Xbox owners connected to the Xbox Live Marketplace are getting a free treat this week with a game called Yaris.

OK, maybe it’s more product placement than video game. The New York Times reports that Toyota bankrolled the game to promote its Yaris car line. There’s little for Toyota to lose here. Racing car games are popular. Electronic Arts has a killer franchise in Need for Speed. Activision recently bought the developer behind the Project Gotham Racing series, which has sold 4.5 million copies.

The Xbox marketplace provides developers with inventory-free distribution, so it’s not as if Toyota is going to have to eat a ton of returns. As long as players don’t walk into a Toyota showroom and wonder why the real Yaris can’t shoot missiles or claw away at other drivers with electronic tentacles, Toyota will accomplish its goal of reaching out to young drivers.

For more information on the Yaris game, check out Yaris (Xbox 360) and Toyota Yaris: Xbox LIVE Arcade Game.

I downloaded this game last week, but haven’t really had a chance to play it yet. Still trying to get through Halo 3. Given that I play about an hour or 2 a week, I’m not progressing that fast. Stanman and them were over this weekend to play multiplayer Halo 3 and they made fun of me for not having unlocked any of the costumes.

But here’s another free xbox live arcade game for you! Enjoy!

Topless Car Wash

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

I was reading this article: Not the topless car wash they expected

Male drivers who paid $5 for a topless car wash ended up getting hosed. Young women held up signs along a parkway advertising the car wash on Sunday and telling the drivers where to go. But hidden behind a big blue tarp, it was shirtless male firefighters who were washing the cars.

Which totally reminded me of the The Man Show, which had a clip with almost the same thing: Topless Car Wash. Instead of male firefighters, it had big fat men with tons of blubber. You could tell some of the patrons were pissed. Even the price was the same. I wonder if they got the idea from The Man Show.

New Projects and Blogs

Monday, June 4th, 2007

Wow… It’s been awhile since my last post, but I’ve been working on a new project which isn’t quite ready to be revealed yet. It will be in due time. I’ve also started 3 separate blogs:

  • HD Trailers - A blog about HD (High Definition) Trailers and how to download them
  • Modern Evolution - Evolution is happening everywhere around us today.
  • Sue Happy - Just how “Sue Happy” is America?

The latter 2 are just collections of articles which I find particularly interesting, while also giving my opinion on them. The 1st one (HD Trailers) might be retired once my “project” gets completed.

Random Crap:

Perfect Petzzz (from Cari) - These sleeping puppies and kittens plush / stuffed animals are so cute!!!

Yahoo! Be a Better Planet (from SD) - Yahoo! is on a mission to find and reward America’s most eco-friendly city. Can your hometown claim that title? Join in now to help your city win a fleet of hybrid taxis, and get free compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) for your efforts. I’ve also been a big fan for fluorescent light. Not only because it saves me a bunch on my electricity bill, but also the fact that it’s white light compared to the yellowish light most regular light bulbs emit. Also, you never burn yourself trying to touch one, because it just never gets that hot.

Prosthetics (from Digg) - Robert Barron is a master of disguises. He uses his artistry to create realistic body parts for those who are missing them.

The man who owns the Internet - Kevin Ham is the most powerful dotcom mogul you’ve never heard of, reports Business 2.0 Magazine. Here’s how the master of Web domains built a $300 million empire.

Online Savings from Washington Mutual (from SD) - Wamu apparently has joined the rank of the online high interest savings account game. Although 5% isn’t shocking to many, the good thing about Wamu is the fact they have branches everywhere. You can easily link up your checking account and online savings account. When you use your Wamu ATM card at any ATM, they won’t charge you any fee. I’m not certain if they’ll refund the fees that the ATM itself charges, but Wamu has always been customer friendly in my opinion.

Robot Arm Pours Beer Into Glass (from MS newsgroup) - You’ve probably seen the Kuka Robotic Arm in other videos before (one even had it swinging samurai swords around), but this one is program to perfect beer pouring from a bottle into a glass.

Hjo3 posted this awhile back about how the opening song of BPS (Battle Programmer Shirase) is actually using the melody of Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up. I never knew this, then again I’m not that familiar with songs from the 80’s and 70’s, but this was interesting trivia knowledge. I do have to say, Rick Astley’s voice doesn’t quite match his face.

Ant Buster (from Digg) - Another Tower Defense type of game, where this time, there’s actually more freedom for the attackers, and the attackers (ants) are actually stealing pieces of pizza from you.

Xbox LIVE Brings You Even More Matrix Content (from Ars) - I got my copy a few days ago. Circuit City had it on sale for $20 (price mistake) and they actually decided to ship 1 copy per customer, which was pretty cool. Then again, I don’t have a HD DVD player yet, but Matrix being my favorite movie of all time, I have a hard time deciding if I should sell this or not. Plus the fact, I can download the Animatrix in HD via Xbox Live makes it even tougher. When you purchase The Complete Matrix Trilogy, you will also receive a token in the box to download the entire Animatrix series from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace. Unfortunately, I posted this a bit too late, but you were also able to download HD trailers and clips of the Matrix via Xbox Live: From May 15 through May 25, download free content like HD trailers from all three Matrix movies and some of your favorite scenes in HD like “Bullet Time in the Subway” and “Morpheus fighting Agent Smith.” You can also purchase and download themes for all three films plus Animatrix.

Captive shark had ‘virgin birth’ (from Digg) - Female hammerhead sharks can reproduce without having sex, scientists confirm. Story was somewhat interesting, but the funniest was when commented: Jesus Shark?

Top 4 Ways You’re Wasting Gas When You Think You’re Saving It (from Digg) -

  1. Driving across town to save a nickel on a gallon of gas.
  2. Driving on the highway with their windows down to avoid using the air conditioner.
  3. Driving with their truck’s tailgate down.
  4. Accelerating extremely slowly.

#1 is a toughie. I agree that it’s rather stupid to drive across tow to save a nickel per gallon, but what about driving 3 blocks or planning a trip across town so you can stop by the cheap gas station? CDMCC and I had an argument about this awhile back. It wasn’t really about saving on gas, but the time you spent driving 3 extra blocks to save a dime per gallon. If you have a 15 gallon tank, that equates to a saving of $1.50. To drive those 3 extra blocks, you’ve wasted more than 5 minutes already. Is 5 minutes of time really worth the $1.50 savings? I dunno, but coming from a family that squeezes the most out of a penny, I’m always willing to drive the 3 extra blocks, and with tools like Seattle Gas Prices (or the corresponding gas price searching tool for your area), it makes it easy to find the gas stations that is cheap and not too far out of your way.

#2 is also something I’ve known for awhile, since Mechy often talked about aerodynamics of car. Opening windows just breaks that efficiency.

15 (Painfully) Unforgettable Cartoon Theme Songs (from Digg) - It’s tragic, really. For every math formula forgotten, every anniversary that passes unremembered, and every pet ferret dead from starvation, there’s a cartoon theme song from our youth, tenaciously hogging our limited mental hard drive space. In what is perhaps some sort of small attempt to exorcise these demonically persistent tunes from the depths of our consciousness, we’ve ranked 15 of them through the highly technical and thoroughly researched process of writing down whichever ones we could remember/find on YouTube first. Enjoy. Haha! Ungsunghero and I enjoyed this post as it sure brought back a bunch of memories. We even pointed out a few that they forgot to include: Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers and Darkwing Duck. What happened to cartoons? They use to be awesome and now, they’re just the same stupid crap over and over again.

StarCraft 2

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

OMG! StarCraft 2 is coming out! *drools*

Check out the trailer and gameplay videos: Starcraft 2 Gameplay Videos & Cinematic Trailer. You can also download them directly off Blizzard or GameTrailers. I just realized that if you download via Blizzard, you’re actually downloading via Bittorrent. They download is an exe file that is a bittorrent client + the hash and tracker information. Interesting idea.

*drools* some more.

Random Crap:

Colbert Knows Why Pro-Torture Responses Got Loud Applause at GOP Debate (from Digg) - Colbert adds his two cents in as to why the GOP candidates’ answers on torture were so warmly received and slams McCain for being soft on torture “enhanced interrogation techniques.” My favorite part of this clip was when one mentioned of them mentioned, “I’m looking for Jack Bauer at that time.”

Speaking of Jack Bauer. 2 of the TV series I’m watching this season has aired their finale: Heroes and 24. 24 didn’t have much of a surprise, but you know his father’s still alive. What scary is the thought that he might still have the Russian component, and you know that’s going to come back to haunt them later. Why the heck didn’t Jack Bauer get the component back before leaving his father to die. It’s as if he was allowing him to escape WITH the component. But Keith Sutherland’s signed up for 2 more seasons of 24. We’ll see how that goes.

As for Hero’s finale, I thought it was okay. The final fight was disappointing, but I’ll let my comment on Ungsunghero’s blog described what I felt:

To be honest, “Save the cheerleader, save the world” came out of future Hiro’s mouth. After the episodes where Hiro meets future Hiro, those words really didn’t have any meaning anymore.

As you said, that phrase was meant to mean to keep Sylar from taking the healing ability. I wouldn’t think that Hiro had any underlying meaning to it. If Hiro was an oracle and offer tellings with ambiguous meanings, I may believe, but future Hiro himself was confused when Sylar was still alive.

Another interesting thing was the introduction of Simone’s father. Obviously he has some powers. Linderman mentioned about an old group of friends (himself, Mama Petrelli, Hiro’s father, and Simone’s father so far).

We know what Linderman’s power is, but the other 3 are still up for grabs. We know that either Mama Petrelli or Simone’s father has the power to dream the future and past (you might remember Peter’s dreams about him blowing up, or how he saw Nathan get into a car accident). I’m leaning towards Simone’s father, but I thought that was an interesting twist in the end by bringing him back.

RayAlome tells me that both Nathan and Peter got their contracts renewed for season 2. That doesn’t mean they don’t die (maybe one has only an episode or 2, or maybe only shows up in flashbacks), but we’ll see.

If heroes were going to die, I would think Parkman with 4 bullet wounds has a higher chance of dying than D.L., but maybe both will.

Speaking of Sylar, if 4 bullets doesn’t kill Parkman immediately, I don’t see how 1 stab would cause more damage. Honestly, I was mad at Hiro for celebrating that too early. I was expecting him to stab, then chop off Sylar’s head.

I was totally expecting dinosaurs too. Awhile back, a preview showed a painting of a guy with a sword fighting a dinosaur. My guess was that Hiro would be the one to transport the bomb out of New York back into the Jurassic age and kill off all the dinosaurs.

However, I guess they needed a way for Nathan to redeem himself.

And like you, I honestly thought the fight was weak and too few powers were used during their fight. I was totally expecting a fight like the future one that was about to happen when future Hiro got killed.

I’ll end this with a comic strip from Real Life.

15 Useless or Even Dangerous Eyesight Myths (from Digg) - It’s important to separate fact from fiction, especially when the topic is eyesight. And old wives’ tales abound about the eyes. Many of these have no basis in fact and, for that matter, can be dangerous if you followed the advice put forth. An interesting list and I’ve heard of quite a few on the list. I wonder if the masturbation would make you blind has ever deterred anyone away from *cough*.

Family Guy vs. Capcom (from Ungsunghero) - What button makes a random pop culture reference again? What if you had a fighting game which involved Family Guy and Capcom. This video shows a fight between Peter and Sakura. Really hilarious.

Hershey sues man who made pot candy - The Hershey Co. has sued Affolter, 40, for giving his marijuana goodies names like Stoney Rancher, Rasta Reese’s and Keef Kat. Each came in packaging similar to Hershey’s Jolly Rancher, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kat candies, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

I saw this video awhile back: oc spoof-dear sister, however the title was a bit different before. It just said something along the lines of SNL Short - Dear Sister. I had no idea what it was spoofing and although I found it a bit amusing, I didn’t find it exactly funny. I finally found the origin: The source for the “Dear Sister” SNL spoof. Apparently it’s spoofing the season 2 finale of O.C.

Pac-Man’s skeleton (from Digg) - Ever wonder what Pac-Man’s skeleton would look like? Well apparently so did the artist that created this. What do you think, did he capture the spirit of the true Pac-Man or is it just a circle with teeth?

10 Reasons It Doesn’t Pay To Be “The Computer Guy” (from Ungsunghero) - I tried to for seven years. I’ve worked in the computer industry in various ways — help desk support, web design, consulting and sales, field technician, freelance computer specialist, and whatever other fancy name you want to give “the computer guy.” I stopped enjoying it. There were certainly times when I enjoyed myself, but most of those times were when my computer talents were still developing. Once I stopped learning new things on the job, I would become fidgety and want to move on to something else. My favorite reasons include: Reason #7 - Your Talents Are Forcibly Undervalued and Reason #5 - People Ask You To Perform Miracles. For #7, it’s not so much as monetary value as they take what I do for granted. You’ve probably heard similar phrases as, “Aw, come on. It shouldn’t take you too much time. You probably can do it with a hand tied behind your back.” Of course I may have exaggerated here, but helping people like that always gets on my nerve and I usually don’t repeat the mistake of ever helping them again. As for miracles, I’m guessing it’s because people don’t have an understanding of how computer works and assume everything is fixable and everything can be recovered.

Software Notebook: How does Gates shape up as a seer? (from Digg) - Interesting statements made by Bill Gates, but what really made it interesting was this:

What Gates didn’t predict: One quote frequently attributed to the Microsoft chairman is that “640K of memory should be enough for anybody.”

However, Gates has long denied ever saying it, and no evidence has ever surfaced to show that he did. In 1996, when Gates was writing a syndicated newspaper column, a reader asked about the quote, and he replied, “No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time.”

“I’ve said some stupid things and some wrong things,” he wrote, “but not that.”

I had always thought he DID say that. Interesting…

Girl calls for police help over messy room - A nine-year-old German girl was so upset about having to tidy her room she put up a sign in her window urging passers-by to call police for help. Pedestrians in the central city of Braunschweig saw the girl crying in the window, holding up a sign up saying “Help! Please call the police!” Next to her sat a small boy.

Start school later in the morning, say sleepy teens (from Digg) - A survey of sleep-deprived teens finds they think that a later start time for school and tests given later in the school day would result in better grades. The survey was presented at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference, on Sunday, May 20. The survey of 280 high school students confirmed what most parents with a teenager know: they are not getting enough sleep. More sleep would translate into improved academic performance, according to the teens questioned. They all attended Harriton High School in suburban Philadelphia, where the school day begins at 7:30 a.m. and ends at 2:25 p.m. Does starting the day later really change things? Assuming you still have the same amount of homework and allocate the time you spend playing and working, you’d still end up with the same amount of time to sleep. However, it is true, some people work better at night (i.e. me).

The Top of the Class - The complete list of the 1,200 top U.S. schools (from Digg) - Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2006 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 5 percent of public schools measured this way. If you have 2006 data showing that your school should be on this list, please contact Mathews at challenge@washpost.com. For complete coverage, visit NEWSWEEK’s Top High Schools section. Another year, another list. Mark Keppel ranked 570 this year. What’s interesting is now they have a search function you can use to search the city, state, or school name. A lot easier than going through the entire list looking for your school.

“I Think We’re Dead.” (from Digg) - I like when news anchors break character. And snort. A recorded telephone call about a police officer and his wife getting high off eating brownies with marijuana. They reportedly claim that time was going really slow and he thinks they’re dying or dead.

‘He Looks Like A ‘Bob” Is True (from Digg) - For example, when people hear the name “Bob” they have in mind a larger, round face than when they hear a name such as “Tim” or “Andy.” Robin Thomas, associate professor of psychology, and colleagues not only show that this link exists, but they also show that if people try to learn face-name pairs that go against their expectations, they have a hard time doing it. I knew you always looked like a Robert!

Free Joost Invites

Monday, May 21st, 2007

Joost was first brought to my attention via MS newsgroup and it seemed like a really interesting idea. From What’s Joost?:

What’s Joost?
Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.

Inside the box
You get great internet features too, such as search, chat and instant messaging, built right into the program - so you find shows quickly and talk to your friends while you watch. And with no schedules to worry about, you can watch whatever you want, whenever you like - as often as you want. Joost is completely free, and works with most modern PCs and Intel Mac-based computers with a broadband connection. Get Joost today!

Free TV
Now showing at Joost: hundreds of full-screen shows from your favourite channels.

Exciting extras
Chat, instant messaging, search and more - baked right into the TV experience.

Complete control
With Joost, you’re in charge. No more schedules - watch what you want, as often as you like.

Coming soon…
Write your own add-ons, watch yet more great content. Come back regularly for updates.

However, it appeared you needed to be invited to join the beta and I didn’t want to be one of the many sending a reply all email asking for an invitation.

Anyway, a day ago, this thread was brought to my attention: Free Joost Invites.

GigaOm, NewTeeVee and Joost are excited to invite you to experience the next generation of television

Get your invitation to Joost today and you’ll enjoy a TV-like experience enhanced with the choice, control and flexibility of Web 2.0. Joost can be accessed from your PC or Mac with a broadband Internet connection and offers broadcast-quality content for free.

To get invited, sign up here: Please invite me!

Within a few minutes after you sign up, you’ll receive a email:

GigaOm, NewTeeVee and Joost are inviting you to participate in the Joost beta testing program.

As you may know, Joost is a project that we think will completely revolutionize the way you watch TV. Joost brings you full-screen, high-quality TV on your PC or Mac - combined with the best interactive and community features of the Internet.

We hope you’ll join our beta-testing program and help us put the finishing touches on Joost. This is still a private, invitation-only beta, and the software is being rigorously tested, so we very much value your opinions and appreciate your feedback.

You can download the Joost software right away, by clicking on the link below. You’ll find instructions for installing and running the software on our download pages.

[insert Joost download link]

We look forward to seeing you on Joost!

Best regards,

The Joost team

Installation was simple and went through flawlessly. However, to launch the program, I needed to run as an administrator. My default account is running as a regular user, so that was a bit inconvenient, but oh well. The quality was really good. It wasn’t HD, but it was definitely TV quality or better. I watched some Robot Chicken and started browsing the other channels. It took me awhile to figure out how to convert it into Window mode (double click anywhere on the screen) and how to actually close the application. Had to turn to Ungsunghero for help. Apparently there’s a power button on the navigation control and by default this puts it to sleep inside your task tray. If you go to advance settings inside My Joost, you can change power to close the application.