After eliminating all other possibilities, the one remaining-no matter how unlikely-must be the truth.
I promised pictures, so here they are: 2006-07-16 New House
I went there today to drop off some stuff and slowly move things over. The big things I’m planning to hire a moving company for, but the little things I think I can take care of.
Here’s a few selected pictures:
I also saw some rabbits:
Happy Birthday UngsungHero!!!
sorry, this post was queued and I forgot to post it last night.
Random Crap:
Street Fighter Ryu in Duck Hunt – this game rocks! I so want it!!! Here’s a mirror on YouTube.
I was reading an article on corn field mazes and was wondering, was the reason they decided to use corn fields, was because corn in every other language is known as maize. Maize ~ Maze?
Woman asks 911 to send ‘cutie pie’ deputy – Thompson said Dudash then called 911, asking that the “cutie pie” deputy return. “He’s the cutest cop I’ve seen in a long time. I just want to know his name,” Dudash told the dispatcher. “Heck, it doesn’t come very often a good man comes to your doorstep.” After listening to some more, followed by a bit of silence, the dispatcher asked again why Dudash needed the deputy to return. “Honey, I’m just going to be honest with you, OK? I just thought he was cute. I’m 45 years old and I’d just like to meet him again, but I don’t know how to go about doing that without calling 911,” she said.
Maine lobsterman pulls up rare lobster – Bette Spurling, who works at the oceanarium, said lobster shells are usually a blend of the three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Those colors mix to form the greenish-brown color of most lobsters. This lobster, though, has no blue in half of its shell, she said. Bernard Arseneau, a former manager at the oceanarium’s lobster hatchery, said lobsters also have a growth pattern in which the two sides develop independently of each other.
Joke from /. (#15722508):
A redneck wanted to perform a vasectomy and went to the doctor, but the doctor told him to light up a cherry bomb, hold it and count to ten. The redneck didn’t understand how this would help, but trusted the doctor, lit up the cherry bomb and started counting. When he got to five, he put the cherry bomb between his legs and resumed counting in the other hand.
Suspected thief robs judge at own trial – Police in the central town of Coburg said that while facing her at the bench, the man pocketed a bunch of keys from the judge, who did not notice until he had left the room. Guess it’s hard to quite old habits.
Chicken lays mystery Allah egg – – A chicken in a Kazakh village has laid an egg with the word “Allah” inscribed on its shell, state media reported Thursday. Finally! We’re leaving the Christianity phase and moving to Muslim phase.
iPod Hi-Fi mini (from /.) – Just as the Mac mini has redefined people’s expectations on what a computer should be the iPod Hi-Fi mini brings all that is great in the iPod Hi-Fi down to a size that redefines what you should expect from your home stereo. Using the classic form of the original Macintosh, and state of the art audio components, the iPod Hi-Fi mini is all you every wanted in a hi-fi, and less. You can check out his gallery here.
Sony pulls controversial Dutch PSP ad – Sony Corp said on Tuesday it had pulled a Dutch billboard advertising campaign for the new white version of its PlayStation Portable video game player and apologized to anyone offended by the ad, which critics dubbed racist.
4 more slipped through since my last post
5,252 Caught / 41 Missed / 0 False Positives (99.2% accuracy)
I’m just going to post when I’ve accumulated a couple before updating the stats.
I finally got my backpack clips after much work:
With flash:
Without flash:
There appears to definitely be differences between:
More so for Yoshi. Mine definitely looks more evil and he has white dots inside his eye. The clips were different too. I don’t really know how to describe the 2 different clips, but you can tell by the image. The ones pictured on their website definitely looks software and cuter. But I’m pretty satisfied with these plushies. They’re about 3″ tall, but once again, took a lot more work than what I would’ve expected to get them.
So here’s the story. I placed an order last night to pickup at the Bellevue Circuit City (about a mile away from work). I get a voice mail this morning telling me that their inventory apparently wasn’t up to date and was out of stock. He said I could either cancel the order or place a special order for this item. I call him and tell him that I’d like to place the special order. He checks a bit and apologizes and tells me that he wouldn’t be able to place the order since it doesn’t appear they’ll be getting any new stock any time soon. I ask if there’s another store around that carries it and he says he’s checked and none of them have it.
At which point, I placed a second order for the Lynnwood Circuit City. I get my email order confirmation and then gave them a call asking if my order was ready. Lynnwood Circuit City is the 2nd closest store at 11 miles away. I’ve been there a couple times because Bellevue Circuit City tends to always be out of stock on any good deals. They told me they were just about to call me and tell me that they spent 20 minutes searching and wasn’t able to find the item, at which point, my only option was to cancel the order.
I thought I was pretty much out of luck, but decided to try one more, the South Center Circuit City in Tukwila. This was about 20 miles away and basically next to the SEATAC airport. But I really wanted these darn Mario and Yoshi backpack clips. When I got my email order confirmation, I went ahead and called them asking them if the order was ready. She checks and goes, yep, it’s ready. I’m like w00h00! After work, I was planning to visit my new house, but decided to check it out on my way back after I got my plushies. I go to the customer service area and handed over my printed recept, my credit card, and my driver’s license. She said my order would be out shortly. When the guy in the warehouse brought it out, the cashier was like, “Oh! These are SO adorable. Were these what you ordered?” I go yep. The guy from the warehouse said something about people thought these were free and he didn’t even know these were listed online. I didn’t really follow what exactly he was saying, but I got my plushies! Yay!
I’ve got the key!
(image from グ)
I don’t usually post deals on my site, but these were just too awesome and cute! My $50 Circuit City gift card was going to expire soon, so I thought I’d add another game to my Xbox 360 collection. It came down to either Top Spin 2 or Dead or Alive 4. I ended up getting Dead or Alive 4 because Top Spin 2 wasn’t enough to cover the whole gift card and I didn’t want to end up with some random change on it.
Anyway, while browsing around, I found this:
They’re only $1.99 at Circuit City: Product Link
It appears to be only available for in-store pickup (which is free of charge), so after tax, it’s only $2 and some change.
Show your Mario style: Now you can bring Mario or Yoshi with you wherever you go with these fun clips.
These are going to be so cool!
So I’ve begun to watch Lost Season 1 after many recommendations from friends and when I missed out on conversations cause I didn’t have the context. Anyway, at first I’m thinking Lost is like Jurassic Park cross Lord of the Flies. The story is somewhat interesting so far. I’ve only watched 3 episodes so far, but it’s just not addicting yet. My first complain is not enough people die. In the beginning, you had a whole bunch of people die from the plane crash. Well, that doesn’t really count since most of them were dead before the 1st episode started. I’ve counted 3 kills so far, so it averages 1 dead body per episode. 24 on the other hand had at least 10 kills per episode. The story is also not as fast pace as I would’ve imagined. Tons of flashbacks, but I guess that’s the main plot of this series, talking about each individuals story and how they ended up here on the island.
I did learn something interesting. Apparently Backgammon is the oldest known recorded game. Click on the link and you can read about its history.
I was going through Lost’s info on IMDb and following Dr. Jack’s (Matthew Fox) link, they’re apparently making Rambo IV starring Sylvester Stallone.
Random Crap:
Downloaded a preview/teaser of 秒速5センチメートル – 5 Centimeters Per Second (fansubbed by Triad). Here’s the torrent. I’ve also uploaded the video to my gallery. QuickTime had a problem playing the video in the browser, but you can download it here directly and play in your preferred video player. 5 Centimeters Per Second is Shinkai Makoto’s latest work. You might remember him from his other works such as 星の声 (The Voices of a Distant Star) or 雲のむこう、約束の場所 (The Place Promised in Our Early Days / Beyond the Clouds). The animation and soundtrack once again seems amazing. Although the preview/teaser is only 45secs, it was beautifully done. The title “5 Centimeters Per Second” refers to the rate that sakura (cherry blossoms) petals fall at. You can also visit the official movie’s site.
I’m generally not too much of a YTMND fan, but this was just too cute: Having A Bad Day? (from RayAlome). All the little puppies are so cute!
I first read about this on SD. JAJAH is a web activated telephony that works by dialing both parties phone numbers and connecting the two of you. What’s interesting is that they’re having a promo where registered users get free phone-to-phone calls between Jajah users. At first, that may sound like any other service which provides free chatting between 2 registered users, but you have to remember, Jajah works by connecting 2 real phone numbers. So as long as you and the person you want to call (either land line or cell phone) is a registered user, you can have Jajah connect you for free for BOTH local and international calls.
Also, if the person you’re trying to call isn’t “registered” per se, you can always “help” them register. ;p
Though someone did mention that they may be harvesting your phone numbers to resell to telemarketers, so you’ve been warned. I personally haven’t tried it yet, though I have registered my phone number.
Random Crap:
Password-protected bullets (from /.) – The way to make firearms really safe, says Hebert Meyerle of Germany, is to password-protect the ammunition itself. Meyerle is patenting a design for a modified cartridge that would be fired by a burst of high-frequency radio energy. But the energy would only ignite the charge if a solid-state switch within the cartridge had been activated. This would only happen if a password entered into the gun using a tiny keypad matched one stored in the cartridge. This sounds rather stupid… “Dude, we’re under fire!” “I forgot my password to unlock the bullets!”
2D Transformed (from RayAlome) – Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new method of converting a single 2D image into a 3D scene. Do check out that video as it’s pretty neat!
A Rubik’s Cube solving machine (finishes one in 54 seconds) (from RayAlome) – this amazing machine can solve a Rubik’s cube just by snapping some photos and then calculating the moves needed to solve it. Sigh… I still have yet to master the Rubik’s cube.
Teen burns down house over test grades – A Japanese boy burned down his home, killing his stepmother and two younger siblings, for fear his parents would find out he had lied about his score on an English test. Sigh… I wonder what the father would do now?
Quote from /. (#15610682):
The story I heard was that he was arguing before the court that some invention was not obvious. He placed a raw egg on the bench in front of the judges, and challenged the judges to make it stand on its pointy end. They tried balancing it, shaking it to break up the yolk, spinning it, and finally declared the task impossible. Mr. Edison took the egg and crushed the pointy end of the eggshell down on the bench, where he easily stood it on its end. One of the judges said “well, that’s obvious.” Mr. Edison pointed out that, not thirty seconds prior, they had declared the task impossible but now it’s obvious. And that’s why his patent should stand.
However, the real story is called the Egg of Columbus: In the story, Christopher Columbus attends a dinner which a Spanish gentleman had given in his honor. Columbus asks all the gentlemen in attendance to make an egg stand on end. After all the men tried and failed, they stated that it was impossible. Columbus then placed the egg’s small end on the table, breaking the shell a bit, so that it could stand upright. Columbus then stated that it was “the simplest thing in the world. Anybody can do it, after he has been shown how!”
10 people who don’t matter (from /.) – Not everyone with a fancy title really counts. From Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on down, here are the people you can safely snub at conferences.
The Making of a Motherboard: ECS 2006 (from /.) – ever wonder what how it’s like to create a motherboard. This little tour will give you the insight of an ECS factory that builds motherboards. Pretty fun… well if you’re a geek like me.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (from RayAlome) – In 1969 the US Senate had a hearing on funding the newly developed Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The proposed endowment was $20 … all » million, but President Nixon wanted it cut in half because of the spending going on in the Vietnam War. This is an video clip of the exchange between Mr. Rogers and Senator Pastore, head of the hearing. Senator Pastore starts out very abrasive and by the time Mr. Rogers is done talking, Senator Pastore’s inner child has heard Mr. Rogers and agreed with him. Enjoy. It’s so sad that Mr. Rogers is no longer with us… I remember watching that trolley and always wondering where it’d go.
Falling Japan birth rate due to lack of sex – “Japanese people simply aren’t having sex,” Dr. Kunio Kitamura, director of the Japan Family Planning Association, was quoted as saying by the Japan Times, an English language daily. An association survey of 936 people between the ages of 16 and 49 showed 31 percent had not had sex for more than a month “for no particular reason” — a condition known as “sexless.” “As much as subsidies and welfare programs are important, sexlessness is also a critical issue in this problem.”
Parents pinch pennies from piggy banks – One in four Australian parents regularly “borrow” money from their children’s piggy banks to pay for anything from bread to luxury holidays, a survey said Wednesday. Mums are more than twice as likely to raid their children’s savings than dad, with 35 percent of mothers confessing to the crime compared with 16 percent of fathers.
Ed Helms’ on-scene report (from Microsoft College Careers and MS newsgroup) – a hilarious video of what it’s like to work at Microsoft.
Man who can’t motivate police to investigate a break-in reports a more serious crime instead. (from MS newsgroup):
How to call the Police…
True Story From the Meridian, Mississippi STARGeorge Phillips of Meridian Mississippi was going up to bed when his wife told him that he’d left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. George opened the back door to go turn off the light but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.
He phoned the police, who asked “Is someone in your house?” and he said no. Then they said that all patrols were busy, and that he should simply lock his door and an officer would be along when available.
George said “Okay,” hung up, counted to 30, and phoned the police again. “Hello. I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people in my shed. Well, you don’t have to worry about them now cause I’ve just shot them all.” Then he hung up.
Within five minutes three police cars, an Armed Response unit, and an ambulance showed up at the Phillips residence. Of course, the police caught the burglars red-handed. One of the policemen said to George: “I thought you said that you’d shot them!”
George said, “I thought you said there was nobody available!”
My Cubicle – Song Lyrics (from Morris) – A hilarious parody of James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful. You can listen to the song here.
Lyrics:
“My Cubicle”
Lyrics by: Morning Sidekick
Performed by: Jym Britton
Parody on “You’re Beautiful” by James BluntCube FarmMy job is stupid my day’s a bore,
Inside this office from eight to four
Nothin’ ever happens my life is pretty bland,
Pretending that I’m working, pray I don’t get canned.My Cubicle, My cubicle
It’s One of Sixty two
It’s my small space in a crowded place
Just a six-by-six foot booth
And I hate it that’s the truthWhen I give a sigh as the boss walks by,
no one ever talks to me or looks me in the eye.
And I really should work but instead I just sit here and surf the Internet.In My Cubicle, My cubicle
It doesn’t have a view.
It’s my small space in a crowded place
I sit in solitude.
And sometimes I sit here nude.
Random Crap:
Tiny Tokyo Collection (from Cari) – An experiment using photoshop to create the effect of a “tilt shift” lens, a la the photos of Olivo Barbieri. These are all real photos of Tokyo, not plastic models. I’ve posted before on a photographer who used tilt shift lens to produce photos of that look like little city models, but apparently nowadays, you can use photoshop.
D1大整古-流動廁所 (from MsticAzn) – NOT WORK SAFE! Apparently a sequel to the snow sliding massage chair. The title translates to “D1 Big Prank – Moving Bathroom” as they set up a prank toilet where it rises up and shows everyone what you’re doing.
Woman auctions herself with her Ferrari – A woman living in Germany is auctioning off her red Ferrari Enzo sports car and including a little extra in the package — herself.
Operation removes lightbulb from anus – Fateh Mohammad, a prison inmate in Pakistan, says he woke up last weekend with a glass lightbulb in his anus. Wednesday night, doctors brought Mohammad’s misery to an end after a one-and-a-half hour operation to remove the object.
2006 IDEA AWARDS (from /.) – went through a bunch of them, and some of the ideas are pretty neat!
Smile! A new Canadian tool can re-grow teeth say inventors (from /.) – Snaggle-toothed hockey players and sugar lovers may soon rejoice as Canadian scientists said they have created the first device able to re-grow teeth and bones. The researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton filed patents earlier this month in the United States for the tool based on low-intensity pulsed ultrasound technology after testing it on a dozen dental patients in Canada. Soon, there won’t be any need for fake teeth! Yay!
Man pulls TV from house fire to watch match – A Beijing football fan refused to let the small matter of his house burning down disturb his enjoyment of Tuesday’s World Cup match between France and Spain. A fire broke out in a hutong in the centre of the Chinese capital at 3am local time on Wednesday — kickoff time in Hanover — and gutted the traditional courtyard dwelling, the Beijing Daily Messenger reported.
Dell investigating exploding laptop incident – The Dell laptop computer seen bursting into flames in photographs on the Internet was being examined as part of the company’s probe of the incident, Dell Inc. said Tuesday. “We have captured the notebook and have begun investigating the event,” Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said, confirming the computer was made by Dell but declining to specify the model. No one was hurt in the incident, she said. Here are some actual photos of the incident. I first saw this on MS newsgroup and as someone commented, the guy on the bottom photo still using his laptop is typing into an iRC chatroom saying, “OMG! Someone’s laptop just blew up in front of me. BRB!”
Girl shoots a bow with her feet (accurately too) (from RayAlome) – amazing video of this girl who can bend in all sorts of ways and hold her entire body up with just a mouth. Then she finishes her performance by shooting an arrow with her feet blindfolded into some balloons.
Guy who is the target of a manhunt talks to a reporter live right before he goes to turn himself in (from RayAlome) – Wow, a neighbor gets shot and killed, the police are hunting for the guy and he just randomly appears in front of the police station and in front of a reporter. The reporter asks him where he has been and his reply was just classic: “I was at Jack in the Box, ordering a soda, a Sprite.”
Computer desktop of the future? (from /.) – Computer desktop of the future?. Why would someone want their computer desktop to be as messy as their real desk? A short video of what a desktop can become. Pretty interesting on the ways things are organized and sorted.
‘Big Brother’ eyes make us act more honestly (from /.) – We all know the scene: the departmental coffee room, with the price list for tea and coffee on the wall and the “honesty box” where you pay for your drinks – or not, because no one is watching. In a finding that will have office managers everywhere scurrying for the photocopier, researchers have discovered that merely a picture of watching eyes nearly trebled the amount of money put in the box. Treble = To make or become triple. Quite interesting and then someone posted this: Uncomfortable Restrooms – Public toilet in Thailand designed to make you uncomfortable. What were they thinking? I like how there’s a woman holding up a scissor and pointing down toward the urinal.
Sony ad casues white riot (from /.) – A new billboard advert for Sony’s white PSP has caused consternation across the US videogaming community. The ad shows a white model dressed entirely in white threateningly grasping the face of a black model. Next to them are the words, “PlayStation Portable. White is coming”. The ad can also be seen on the Dutch official PSP site.
Did you know they were making a Transformers Movie? Though the premise seems rather different from the original storyline.
Police arrest cement soccer ball pranksters – Police in Berlin said on Wednesday they had arrested two men on suspicion of placing cement-filled soccer balls around the city and inviting people to kick them. At least two people injured themselves by kicking the balls, which were chained to lampposts and trees alongside the spray-painted message: “Can you kick it?“ Though as evil as it is, it’s such an awesome prank.
Australian PM calls for “Big Brother” eviction – Australian Prime Minister John Howard called Monday for reality television program “Big Brother” to be taken off the air after an incident between contestants prompted an investigation into sexual assault. This article wasn’t too interesting, but I wanted you to see the actual video (from /.). What sexual assualt? It looked like there was a complete consensus to me.
Man prefers jail to being at home with grandpa – An Italian man escaped from house arrest and begged police to put him in jail because he could not bear living with his grandfather, his lawyer said Monday. The 30-year old, who could only be identified by his initials A.M., had been placed under house arrest for six months in the Sardinian town of Sassari after a scuffle with a policeman.
Japanese man eats record 53 3/4 hotdogs – A Japanese man devoured 53 3/4 hotdogs in 12 minutes Tuesday to break his own world record but Takeru Kobayashi said he really prefers tofu. What’s with Japanese men and being able to eat fast?
Piece of man’s skull falls off, draws crowds – Hundreds of people are thronging a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata to see a patient holding a piece of his own skull that fell off. Doctors say a large, dead section of 25-year-old electrician Sambhu Roy’s skull came away Sunday after severe burns starved it of blood.
Speeding fine? Just switch the road sign – Hopwood, 44, had been snapped by a speed camera breaking the 30 miles per hour limit. So he went to a 40 mph area, removed a red “40” warning sign, drove back to the 30 mph area, attached it to a lamp post and took a photo as “proof” that his offence of driving at 48 mph had not been so bad. Haha!
Alien Scare Screaming Girl – In order to frighten his sister this guy puts a very creepy child’s mannequin next to her bed in the dark and tapes her reaction. He was expecting her to be scared, but not that scared. She goes completely hysterical! I don’t know if I should laugh or feel sorry for the girl. Then again, as a brother who has a sister, I loved playing these type of pranks on her.
Is that other driver on the phone, or merely drunk? – Three accidents occurred during the testing, all of which involved cell phone users rear-ending the pace car. Phone users were also slow to brake, displaying reaction times 9 percent lower than unimpaired drivers, and slow to accelerate, with a 19 percent decrease in returning to speed after braking. This is viewed by the researchers as especially significant, since it has implications regarding traffic flow in high-density areas. In contrast, alcohol-impaired drivers tended to drive more slowly, yet more aggressively than other drivers.
ゲド戦記 (from MS newsgroup) – A new film from Studio Ghibli called Tales from Earthsea (Gedo Senki). It’s based of the Earthsea novel and I’ve heard many good things about it. Can’t wait to see this. You can watch the trailer here:
Trailer 1
Trailer 2