Author: Krunk

I went to get my haircut today, which has been overdue for several weeks already. When my hair starts to cover my ears, it’s the indication that I need a haircut.

So let me tell you about my haircut experiences here in Seattle. I’ve gotten a total of 4 haircuts here. Twice at SuperCuts and twice at a place known as The Barber Shop.

First time, I didn’t know which places were decent, so I went to the closest SuperCuts and got my hair cut there. First of all, the wait time was ~2hrs, and they recommend that you just make an appointment next time, which I took note of. The next thing was the haircut they gave me was pretty awful. All the time, it felt like she (the barber) wanted to just finish up and move on to the next customer. I mean it was a haircut, but there were so many places that weren’t even, that I didn’t bother trying to get the her to fix it. It really felt like I getting a haircut from a barber training school. The haircut itself was $13.95 + tip (maybe + tax too, I don’t remember), but that was expected. There won’t be any Monterey Park $6 haircut prices up here in Seattle.

The next time, I’ve gotten several recommendations on the Microsoft newsgroups for new graduates. There were salons ranging from $15 to $40. The Barber Shop was close to where I live and it wasn’t that much more expensive: $19 for a haircut (so only $5 more). The service was great and he was quite attentive. He asked he how’d I like it done and I asked for his recommendation. He suggested me to try 5 and 3 and if I wanted it shorter, he can continue working on it. After he showed me what a 5 and 3 looked like, I wanted it a bit shorter because I tend to be too lazy to get haircuts and he said no problem and continue to cut my hair. I was really satisifed with this haircut. But that could also be due to external factors such as I actually had fun talking to this barber and it tickled when he cut my hair and it felt nice. Then of course, there’s the self-fulfilling prophecy where I had to pay more, so if I didn’t get a better haircut, I’d think myself as being stupid for paying more.

So in order to test that theory, plus the fact The Barber Shop wasn’t opened on Sunday, I gave SuperCuts another try. I made my appointment and went to Costco. Spent an hour or so there, and when I arrive at SuperCuts, it still wasn’t my turn. So I headed off next door to Starbucks and got myself a Mocha Frappuccino and waited for my turn. This time, completely new barber, so I thought hopefully my luck would change. It turned out to be a lot worse. So most barbers use these clips defined with numbers, which I can understand why and how that makes their life easier. I wasn’t too sure if The Barber Shop had used clips, but I was leaning toward now, because I don’t remember the clipper actually touching my scalp. But anyway, back to SuperCuts. I’m usually fine with clips, but this one did not have a FLAT surface. There was a bump in the middle of it and it kept scratching my head where ever she tried to cut my head. At first I tried to just endure the pain, but imagine taking a somewhat sharp plastic object and scraping your head back and forth. It got to the point I told her there was something wrong with the clip and it was scratching my head painfully. She took the clip, checked it, cleaned it, and tried again. It was better, but still scratched, but not as painfully anymore. I’m not even sure what the problem was. Was it because she was pressing too hard (I don’t think so). It really felt like there was an extra piece of plastic on the bottom of that clip. I didn’t bother telling her anymore since it doesn’t seem like it’ll get me anywhere, and I just wanted to get this over with. Once again, bad haircut. Choppy areas. The only thing accomplished was my hair was shorter and I can go around without another haircut for 2 months. I’m not sure if all SuperCuts are like this, but now I’m certain I won’t go to another SuperCuts for a VERY VERY long time.

Since The Barber Shop is closed on Sunday and closes at 2pm on Saturday, I had to get up early this morning to go get my haircut. The barber that cut my hair last time wasn’t there, but everyone here seemed cool. I think the barbers here use clips too, but they don’t press it against the scalp so it feels like it’s floating through your hair when they cut it. The barber would try to bring up topics I’m interested in, and make jokes which I actually smiled and chuckled at. I’m actually having fun getting my haircut. Once again, a very satisified haircut. I even asked him to trim my tail a bit, because it was getting a bit too long, so I think he took off an inch or two (or so he says). I even left him a big tip because I was so happy.

After just visiting SuperCuts website, it turns out you can get a $2 off coupon for your next visit. Just search for SuperCuts you want to go to with their Locator, and click “Sign up for haircut alert”. At $11.95, it’s not that bad anymore, but I probably won’t be going there for a really long time.

Do note this post may produce gross images in your head, so be forewarned!

So several days ago, I left work past 10pm and I didn’t especially feel like fast food (since I had Wendy’s the night before). Came home, looked into the fridge and cupboard, and my options were cereal (actually ran out of milk), battered halibut (fish from fish and chip), mozzarella sticks, hash browns, chicken nuggest, spicy chicken wings, or sandwich.

I looked at my bread and it had expired 1.5 weeks ago, so I thought I might as well try to finish it up. I looked in the fridge. I had peanut butter and strawberry preserves. Then I had egg. I looked at the eggs and the expired mid-february. So I thought I really needed to get rid of those. Made myself several fried egg sandwiches. Felt pretty good going down, but felt really bad coming out. Well, the good thing is it came out through the correct hole. The bad thing was it was all liquid. Not just for one day, but it’s been a few days already and at least it’s starting to get mushy. I don’t really have any stomachache or anything. It’s just that my solid waste (or what used to be solid) is now in liquidy form. And when I need to go, I REALLY NEED TO GO!

I highly doubt it was the bread, since no green stuff is growing on it yet. The egg did seem more thick than usual. So for future reference, I’ve got to give a shorter “expired period” to use eggs or start putting them in the freezer.

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Random Crap:

Apple, Bose, Dell tops in consumer electronics brand trust – Microsoft faces big consumer defection risk. One measure of consumers’ dissatisfaction with Microsoft is seen in the 5.4 million households that give it a brand trust score of 1 [distrust a lot] or 2 [distrust a bit]. Compared with all Microsoft users, these at-risk users have higher income, are much more likely to be male, and are bigger online spenders. These households know they run Microsoft software but would be just as happy to leave it behind — if they could. I find it hilarious where Microsoft is located on that chart, all alone in the bottom left corner where it had the least brand trust with users and the least brand potential.

Expression Crew – Marionnette Show (from MsticAzn) – A pretty cool video. Reminded me of our Calculus Airbands, but quite professionaly done. After some digging around, I found out their homepage: BBoy Master. The team is named Expression Crew and is led by WooSung. However, all the video links on their site are dead, so if anyone finds a higher quality version than YouTube, please let me know. Thanks!

It was brought to my attention from several people that the music from the above video was taken from the Amelie: Original Soundtrack Recording from the movie Amélie. Might be time I get the album myself!

I believe all the music on that soundtrack was composed by Yann Tiersen. The tracks that were used include: (click to preview the track)

• J’y Suis Jamais Alle
• La Valse D’Amelie
• La Noyee
• Le Moulin

I also found someone who had a better quality of the original video to upload to rapidshare: ExpressionShow2006.avi (from ichidahero). Enjoy!

iGod | Artificial Intelligence Chat (from Artemyst) – Chat with an AI God. Repenting made easy. Was fun for a few minutes.

Blast away fat with ultra sound! (from RayAlome) – Check out this video, where in just a 1 hour session, you can use ultrasound to blast away 1″ of fat. I’m curious if it actually works. No surgery required.

Teen truant exposed by “burglar” boyfriend – When officers arrived, the girl’s mother told them the room belonged to her 15-year-old daughter who was at school. Further investigation revealed the mother was wrong. “She wasn’t looking at school books, she was in bed with her boyfriend and was presumably learning something else,” Frankfurt police said in a statement.

Taken from MS newsgroup:

Vicious Dog Pack Kills Gator in Florida

At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty.

The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the “apex predator” in its natural eco-system, can still fall victim to implemented ‘team work’ strategy made possible due to the tight knit social structure and “survival of the fittest pack mentality” bred into the canines over the last several hundreds of years by natural selection.

Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator preventing it breathing, while the remainder of the pack prevents the beast from rolling.

See the attached remarkable photograph courtesy of Nature Magazine…

We strongly recommend that you preview this privately before determining if a younger audience should view the photo below.

View the photo

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Rozen Maiden – Azumanga Daioh Opening (from Leara)

Some pictures from 4chan:

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Broken Balls

Hamster Fighting Machine

Error 404 – Road Not Found

Drunken Fist

DMac

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Ying Yang

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Pissed At Computer (may be a bit gory)

Mini pya! Flood:

(img) 錯覚 – Hallucination – looking at a box that can’t exist
(img) サッカースタジアム – Soccer Stadium – a neat little Lego project
(img) アスキーアート – Ascii Art – how ascii (keyboard) art originated
(img) ピエロ – Clown – the color and tone was a nice touch.
(img) 空き缶アート – Empty Can Art – some pretty neat work
(img) おやじむし – Father Bubble – quite big
(img) デート – Date – with nails
(img) ハーレム – Harem – NOT WORK SAFE! when gummy bears have sex
(img) お互い興味なし – No Mutual Interest – NOT WORK SAFE! geeks are geeks
(img) 境界線 – Boundary Line – the line that seperates the poor from the rich

Go to bed married, wake up divorced – Sohela Ansari told friends that her husband Aftab had uttered the word “talaq,” or divorce, three times in his sleep, according to the report published in newspapers Monday. When local Islamic leaders got to hear, they said Aftab’s words constituted a divorce under an Islamic procedure known as “triple talaq.” The couple, married for 11 years with three children, were told they had to split.

Western Digital Corporation Settlement Information (thanks to Leara) – Apparently WDC (Western Digital Corporation) was sued for false advertising. All hard drives sold today don’t exactly speak the whole truth when disclosing the drive capacity. As the class action states: Plaintiff alleges that in the sale and marketing of its hard disk drives, Defendant overstates the useable storage capacity by approximately 7%. According to Plaintiff, when attached to most personal computers, a hard disk drive advertised by Defendant as having “80GB” will only show an available capacity of “74.4GB.” Plaintiff alleges that one reason for this disparity is the use of two different measurements of a “GB.” Plaintiff alleges that computer operating systems compute 1 GB as 1,073,741,824 bytes (the “Binary Definition”), but Defendant and other hard disk drive manufacturers compute 1 GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes (the “Decimal Definition”). Plaintiff alleges that Defendant’s conduct constituted false advertising, unfair business practices, breach of contract, fraud, and violations of the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act. Anyway, the proposed settlement is 1) on all its future product packaging, it will display “1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.” and 2) class members shall be entitled to download, from the Website, software with substantially all of the following capabilities and features: data back up; data recovery, etc. The list of capabilities of this software is actually quite interesting and claims to be worth $30, not that much considering the features it possesses. But anyway, to qualify for the free software, all you need is a s/n from a WDC harddrive purchased between 2001 and 2006 and just register here.

The Major vs The OS-girls (from Leara) – NOT WORK SAFE and UTTERLY INAPPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 18! A hilarious yet sexy comic strip of the Major (from Ghost in the Shell) interrogating the different OS-tans and trying to find security holes.

ajaxWrite (from /.) – another ajax word processor. somewhat neat, but still quite unpolished.

Carpool Dummy Sells on eBay for $15,000 – A makeshift mannequin that failed to fool police monitoring the high-occupancy vehicle lane on a highway has fetched $15,000 in an auction on eBay, with proceeds going to charity, the buyer announced.

All-star cast set for “March of Penguins” spoof – Actor Samuel L. Jackson has signed on to narrate an upcoming spoof of the Oscar-winning documentary “March of the Penguins” with an all-star supporting voice cast, independent studio ThinkFilm said on Friday. “Farce of the Penguins,” mixing archival wildlife footage with an R-rated screenplay written and directed by comedian Bob Saget, is aimed for a late-summer theatrical release, ThinkFilm spokesman Alex Klenert said.

So I finished putting the Empire State Building together today. But guess what… it appears I’m missing a piece (either lost or was never there). Which really sucks about puzzles because that last missing piece is what’s stopping you from actually completing the puzzle. You spend x-hours trying to put this together, and only at the end you realize you can’t. The funny thing is if I had known I was missing a piece before I started, I would have never started to begin with.

I went through the extra foam pieces which were told to be trash, hoping to find the missing piece, but no luck there either.

But here’s what the completed puzzle looks like:

You can check the rest of the images in my gallery album. That last photo was my attempt to show it glow in the dark, but it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. It does in fact glow in the dark, but very lightly, and it’s not like glow in the dark green, but more like the night few of the Empire State Building, where some light is coming from the windows. You can spot the missing piece in this image:

HAHA! I found the missing piece!!! I was going through the extra foam one last time before I threw it away and BAM, there it was! My Empire State building is now complete.