King of Fighters – Another Day Episode 3

I’m still not sure what this mini series is about. It seems to be trying to explain the story about the characters, but so far, none of the episodes have connected. Hopefully they will soon because I’m pretty lost at what’s going on.

King of Fighters – Another Day Episode 3 – In The Dark

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Spoilers: (Show)

TrackMania Nations

*** UPDATE ***
Thanks to froinlaven for bringing to my attention: Do NOT Download This Game!Thing is, the game is infested with malware. The anti-PC copy protection site Boycott Starforce has listed Trackmania Nations as a game that carries Starforce (see Luke’s post below). Starforce is hidden and installs without the user’s consent or knowledge. These unwanted drivers are even linked to system instability and computer crashes. Yuck. The removal process was pretty simple, though it did require a reboot to complete. You can follow these steps to see if you’ve been infected. You can download the removal utility provided by Online Security.

I tried out a new game a week ago called TrackMania Nations. It’s a free version of the game where you can race against other players online. You can download the game here. It seems to be a joint venture with nVidia to display how nice the graphics are. The graphics are indeed nice. It even supports my maximum resolution of 1920×1280. Unfortunately, my cpu isn’t fast enough to handle the game at that resolution, so I’m playing @ 1280×960. I haven’t tried playing online yet, but I’ve been doing the training and the graphics are just stunning!

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(click on full size if you want to see the image at 1920×1280)


Random Crap:

The Bar (from SkyLancer):

“The Bar” opened in 1955. It’s been moved three times. The man and his girlfriend often visisted this bar together.

“Will you love me after a hundred years?” she said.
“Hmm…. probably, if we could live for a hundred years.”
“Well…. 50 years, is it possible?”
“I think so…. Yes, I’ll promise.”
“Are you sure???? Then let’s promise this. If for some reason we are ever split apart in the future, let’s meet here again in exactly 50 years, same time, same day, same place, and then I’ll believe you.”
“Good. It’s a promise”

Since then, by a twist of fate, they split apart, and lost touch with each other. Eventually, he bought this bar. It’s a good bar. They promised to meet again at this bar, right here. After that, he can move on with his life.

A fun short little game (though it can get frustrating). It’s like one of those try to escape from this room games. Unfortunately, they found a way to hide the tab function from outlining what you can click. I got stuck about 75% of the way and had to look at the walkthrough. Apparently there’s 4 different endings, but the only difference is which wine you choose. Have fun! There’s a bunch of other flash games you can check out at Bart and Ste.

Hard Drive Clock – An interesting video where a clock is displayed by having a slit in the platter and lights flashing. More info here.

Willy the Hog Pairs With Antelope at ZooShortly after his mate went to hog heaven, Willy the Red River porcine spied a new mud-pen pal in what officials are calling one of the oddest pairings at the Los Angeles Zoo. First you have the turtle and the hippo. Now you have the pig and the antelope. Didn’t animals not get along together before? Or is this a recent phenomenon because they know the world is ending soon.

Man charged in killing over toilet paperA Florida man has confessed to bludgeoning his roommate to death with a sledgehammer handle and a claw hammer after an argument that started over an empty roll of toilet paper, authorities said Tuesday. That’s why I have spares at every toilet!

Would-be rock star plunges from bed to deathA teenage guitarist got so carried away while bouncing up and down on his bed mimicking a rock star that he flew out of a third floor window to his death, a Singapore newspaper reported Wednesday. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but imagining the scene is so funny!

Bash Quote (from Tera):

#291655
<vai> My mom is like, deathly afraid of worms and she saw one on the sidewalk
<vai> so she made me go get it and she went inside the house, so I went in the house with the worm in my hand
<vai> and she yelled my name and told me to get rid of it, so I threw it outside I came in the house
<vai> she called me an asshole and a son of a bitch
<vai> so I was like “son of a bitch?” she said “shut up, you’re adopted go away”
<vai> =(

San Francisco to test turning dog waste into powerSan Francisco, a leader in urban recycling, is preparing to enlist its canine population for a first in the United States: converting dog poop into energy. You’d think there’d be more human waste to convert to energy than dog waste…

Retired couples told cruise may sink marriageMany Japanese men who retire have spent decades living largely apart from their families as they devoted themselves to their jobs — a recipe for trouble when they decide to take extended trips abroad with their wives. “It is dangerous for couples to suddenly go on overseas trips after the husbands retire,” author Sayoko Nishida, who wrote a popular book called “Why Are Retired Husbands Such a Nuisance?” was quoted as telling Kyodo news agency.

Fate/stay night Episodes 6 – 8

Yay! More Saber-chan!

Fate/stay night Episode 6 – The Two Magicians – Part 2

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Fate/stay night Episode 7 – Writhing

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Fate/stay night Episode 8 – Dissonant Melody

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Spoilers: (Show)

Got these cute icons from 第2回『Fate/stay night』キャラクター人気投票 (from Artemyst). The title translates to The 2nd Round “Fate/stay night” Character Vote.

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Favorite Detective Conan moments

The are 2 favorite type of scenes that I cherish in Detective Conan. The first one being when very smart people recognize his true ability:

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The second being when his identity is about to be revealed (especially to Ran):

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You can mouse over the images to see the subtitles or click on each image to enlarge.

Long Week

Wow… It’s been awhile since I posted. It’s been a very long and tiring week. Several days, I didn’t leave the office till 11pm. Though I did go in after 1pm on several occasions. Anyway, I was pretty much burn out and fell asleep in front of my computer a few times. But thank god it’s the weekends and I don’t think I have to go in this weekend to play catch up, though I’m still behind.

I saw this article on Yahoo!: Americans work more, seem to accomplish less and I have to agree that’s how I feel like some of the time. “Technology has sped everything up and, by speeding everything up, it’s slowed everything down, paradoxically,” said John Challenger, chief executive of Chicago-based outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. “We never concentrate on one task anymore. You take a little chip out of it, and then you’re on to the next thing,” Challenger said on Wednesday. “It’s harder to feel like you’re accomplishing something.”


Random Crap:

Students Suspended for Snowball FightTwo Ramona High School students were suspended for bringing dangerous objects to school — snowballs. HAHAHA. Next thing you know, students will be suspended for bringing teddy bears to school because there was a teddy bear fight!

Winning Powerball Ticket Found Under BedAfter hearing of a newspaper account of an unclaimed $853,492 Powerball ticket from October, Steve Jones decided to do a little housecleaning. Of the three tickets he swept out from under the bed, one wound up being the prizewinner. *goes searching underneath my bed* Doh! I’ve never bought a Lotto ticket. Oooooh! That’s where toys went!

Customers Cook Up Trouble With Fake PenisThe incident unfolded late Thursday afternoon when a man and a woman entered the store and the man asked the clerk, “Can you microwave something for me? It’s a life-or-death situation,” according to an account the woman later gave police. The man asked for paper towels, wrapped an object in them, and had the clerk microwave the item for 20 seconds, said McKeesport police Chief Joseph Pero. When it was finished, the clerk handed the item back to the man and saw what she thought was a severed penis, Pero said. … According to the woman, the couple stopped to warm the device in the microwave so the urine would “pass the body temperature test,” Pero said — that is, be warm enough to not arouse the suspicion of those administering the test.

Psycho Path Voted Wackiest Street NameFarfrompoopen Road, the only road to Constipation Ridge, lost to Divorce Court and Psycho Path, which placed No. 1 in an online poll of the nation’s wildest, weirdest and wackiest street names. The entire list is as follows:

10. Tater Peeler Road in Lebanon, Texas
9. The intersection of Count and Basie in Richmond, Va.
8. Shades of Death Road in Warren County, N.J.
7. Unexpected Road in Buena, N.J.
6. Bucket of Blood Street in Holbrook, Ariz.
5. The intersection of Clinton and Fidelity in Houston
4. The intersection of Lonesome and Hardup in Albany, Ga.
3. Farfrompoopen Road in Tennessee (the only road up to Constipation Ridge)
2. Divorce Court in Heather Highlands, Pa.
1. Psycho Path in Traverse City, Mich.

Iris scanners enroll in elementary schoolA small elementary school in New Jersey is one of the first in the country to test new iris scanning technology in an educational setting. The Park Avenue Elementary School in Freehold Borough recently installed a US$370,000 system paid for with a grant from the Justice Department. What do they use it for? Opening the front door. Overkill? Seems like that money could’ve been spent on a lot more useful stuff.

Cable employee allegedly steals Verizon pamphletsWe’ve recently reported on the growing animosity between the cable and telephone industries, but this is ridiculous. From the Woburn, MA police log (via DSLReports) comes a bizarre story about the harassment of a Verizon contractor who was distributing leaflets. On Thursday, February 16, at 3 p.m., an unidentified man in a black car (naturally) began stealing the contractor’s material. Story wasn’t that interesting, but I found it hilarious that some cable guy is following these telephone guys around picking up pamphlets in order to secure their job.

Poor artists thrive in Copacabana sandsOn Rio de Janeiro’s crowded Copacabana Beach, poor artists carve out a living from Carnival tourists who pay to snap photos of their magical cities and seductive women shaped entirely of sand. All I can say is that sand castle/city looks AMAZING!

Clothes maketh the man of the people in ChinaGetting the most out of clothes is somewhat of a tradition among China’s Communist leadership. The article wasn’t particularily interesting, but getting the most out of your clothes isn’t a Chinese Communist tradition. All Chinese people I know try to get the max out of their clothing, starting from father to son, cousin to cousin, hand-me-downs for 3 generations.

Injured woman can sue Postal ServiceA woman who tripped and fell over letters, packages and periodicals left on her front porch can sue the U.S. Postal Service for damages, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday. American laws regarding suing really needs to be revamped. It needs to add a big fat disclaimer: DOES NOT APPLY TO STUPID PEOPLE! Honestly, the hardest concept that I can never grasp ahold of is why Americans are so afriad of taking responsibility when they’ve made a mistake instead of pushing the blame onto someone else.

Bleach Episodes 65 – 70

After the Save Rukia arc, Bleach has just been random fillers, thought these random fillers seem to be leading up to something.

Bleach 65

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Bleach 66

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Bleach 67

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Bleach 68 – 69

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Bleach 70

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Spoilers: (Show)

So starting with episode 64, they’ve introduced a new Ending Song: マイペース. You can download the TV edit mp3 here: SunSet Swish – My Pace [TV] or at the source I found (which is a bit slow). The mp3 was taken from 17173 BBS.

sunset swish - my pace album cover

The tune’s rather catchy and the Ending is rather cute:

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Uncensored Search?

Well, since there’s a Google unsafe search, I’ve been wondering if there’s a Google uncensored search, where it takes searches from USA and searches in China and filters out only the links that have been blocked by Google China. It’d be interesting to see what links are blocked and which aren’t.

Decathanerd sent me this link a few days ago: Google China Search Comparison and it’s interesting to see the what gets censored and what doesn’t.


Random Crap:

As I was going through my referals, I happened to find this link: Simon’s Site Plan and I found my own link under Inspirational sites and sites of competitors. I wonder if I’m an inspirational site or a competitor… Hehe.

You’ve seen cartoons, movies, media all proclaimed that mouse love cheese. Starting from when I was young, I was already influenced by Tom and Jerry that cheese were mice’s favorite food, but how much truth is there to that? Is it’s just propaganda from the dairy industry just like what they did with milk? This was just a random thought I was thinking when I was watching Match Point and the old lady brings up the fact the cheese didn’t entice the mice, but it was peanut butter. Did mice change their appetite or is there just way better food nowadays than before? Just a random thought.

Half of Britons chat to their motor carsA survey of 2,000 owners also found 40 percent thought their car had a personality and was capable of being upset whilst 19 percent worried about how their car was feeling. … More people chat happily to their cars in the southwest than anywhere else in the country, with 54 percent enjoying a good chat, compared with the more taciturn Scots where 26 percent indulged.

Top 10 Strangest MP3 Players (from /.) – Very funky and interesting ideas, some which I’ve already seen before like the Altoids one. Others like the toilet or mirror or scented or clip mp3 players were quite interesting.

Sosumi (So Sue Me) (from /.) –

Sosumi is one of the system sounds introduced in Apple Computer’s Macintosh System 7 operating system in 1991. It is an extremely short sample of a xylophone. The sound is still used in modern versions of Mac OS, including Mac OS X.

The sound’s unusual name was coined during a trademark dispute with Apple Records, The Beatles’ recording company. The two Apples have a long litigation history, and on the release of System 7 had recently settled a lawsuit over Apple Computer’s addition of MIDI capabilities to their products.

Apple Records’ legal team began scrutinizing every audio aspect of the computer. During the development of System 7, they objected to one of the new system beep sounds as having a name that was too musical.

The creator of the new beeps for System 7 and the Macintosh Startup Sound, Jim Reekes, had grown frustrated with the legal scrutiny and sought revenge. Reekes first quipped it should be named “Let It Beep”, a pun on The Beatles’ “Let It Be”, but renamed it Sosumi, which is pronounced “so sue me”.

The two Apples reached an agreement in 1991. Still, Apple Records once again launched litigation a decade later when Apple Computer started selling music in the iTunes music store and the iPods. The key terms of the 1991 agreement were made public in the hearings of February 2005.

The sound’s name also exists currently in an inside joke on Apple Computer’s website, where it marks the CSS class denoting a copyright notice. This CSS class is visible only in the source code of pages on Apple’s site where such legal notices occur. The naming of the CSS class is an obvious reference to the sound and its history. An example of this found on Apple’s homepage is below:

Early Apple sound designer Jim Reekes corrects Sosumi myth (from /.) – Here Jim Reekes tells the whole story: So, upon hearing I had to change the name of my new beep, I immediately thougth of the perfect name, “Let it Beep”. Of course, I was joking but it was brilliant right? As everyone was laughing, someone even took me seriously and said I could never get away with that! I said, “so sue me” and that’s when I realized my scheme. I told Sheila the new name would be spelled “s-o-s-u-m-i”. I asked she return the message to legal, but not to use voicemail (since she’d have to pronounce it) and instead send an email with some story about it being Japanese and not meaning anything musical. (so I don’t know what she actually told them).

Prime

I “skimmed” through Prime a few days ago. Movie was so horribly bad. You can watch the trailer here. IMDb users gave it a 6.1 rating. You can get the DVD at Amazon.com. Anyway, I think it took me less than 10 minutes and I was pretty much done skimming through the movie. I guess if you’re an Uma Thurman fan, then you might like to see this movie. There are some hot scenes, I’ll give it that.

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Spoilers: (Show)

Jarhead

Watched Jarhead a few days ago. You can watch that trailer here. IMDb users give it a rating of 7.3. You can purchase the DVD from Amazon.com. The movie is actually based on the book written by Anthony Swofford – Jarhead : A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles. Actually, I entered this movie pretty much uninterested. However, the movie turned out a lot better than I expected. I wouldn’t say the movie was touching, but it felt really real, though I’m not sure how real it is.

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Spoilers: (Show)

Funny thing was as I was driving home today, the radio was talking about the origin of Hoo-Ah (or Hoorah). If you watch the movie you’ll notice they say it at least a few hundred times in the movie. I dont recall if it was a Marines term only, or if it was any soldier term, but the best origin of this term supposed comes from the acronym HUA which which stands for Heard, Understood, and Acknowledged. Hoo-Ah in can mean anything from okay to a scream of joy. I originally thought it originated from the word Hooray (which apparently originated from the word Huzzah which sailors used). But it appears there are many theories on how this utterance originated.

Here’s an interesting article from Marine Corps Times: “Hooah”: A singularly odd word goes everywhere soldiers do

By Nick Wadhams
Associated Press

BAGHDAD — In the Army, which has so many acronyms, expressions and opaque phrases that it seems to deserve its own language, there is one word that is quite possibly uttered more than any other.

That word is “hooah.” Pronounced HOO-ah. Alternatively spelled hua and huah.

Attend a company command meeting and you’ll hear hooah uttered as often as a 15-year-old says “like” or “you know.” Head to the post exchange and buy a Hooah Energy Bar or Hoo-Ahhs wet wipes or HOOAH2O water.

It’s not just in Iraq. At U.S. bases around the world, hooah seems an inseparable element of Army life.

Just don’t try to define it. And definitely don’t try to figure out where it comes from.

“I believe it came from hurrah. It basically means everything from ‘yes’ and ‘yes, sir,’ to ‘that’s great,”’ said Capt. James Lowe, public affairs officer for the 506th Regimental Combat Team. “You could use it as a generalized cheer. It’s one of those multipurpose phrases — when in doubt, say hooah.”

That doesn’t even begin to cover it.

They shout hooah to get motivated, and they whisper it when they concur with something someone just said. Hooah means you understood something, or is the proper reply when someone says “thank you.” On the other hand, it may also be used to say “thank you.”

Hooah is a catchall phrase that will get you out of any situation, particularly when receiving a scolding from a higher-ranking officer.

“You use it when you’ve got a flame on your butt and you’re just trying to extinguish it,” said Capt. Brian Buckner, 30, of Sumter, S.C.

Take this conversation, overheard recently outside the mess hall at Camp Rustamiyah, on Baghdad’s eastern outskirts:

Soldier 1: How you doing?

Soldier 2: Fine. How you doing?

Soldier 1: Hooah.

For the different branches of the military, each vastly competitive with and jealous of its distinctions from one another, hooah has become something of a sore point. Marines and sailors have their own saying, more of a “hoo-RAH” or a “hoo-yah,” which they claim is entirely separate in origin.

The Air Force brass once reportedly got so irked about sharing “hooah” with the Army that it tried to get airmen to shout “Air power!” instead. But “Air power!” did not have the same potency as “hooah,” and has been largely abandoned.

Sgt. Joe Carter, a 23-year-old from Kennett, Mo., recalls how, after arriving at basic training, he and other young Army recruits attended a motivational talk from their commander.

“When we first got there, the commander gave a speech, and at the end he told us, ‘I want to hear a loud and thunderous hooah!”’ Carter said. “We were real pumped and amped up.”

Yet the use of hooah by the uninitiated is generally frowned on. Carter recounted that a drill sergeant barred him and his fellow recruits from saying hooah until they had finished the basic course and earned the right.

And civilians uttering hooah are generally looked upon with either disdain or the astonishment of a person who has just heard a koala bear recite lines from e.e. cummings.

As with any good word, the origins of hooah are highly disputed.

Some claim it derives from the military acronym HUA — Heard, Understood, Acknowledged.

Another tale: When Army Rangers landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944, a sergeant ordered them to scale the cliffs looming above them and neutralize the German pillboxes perched on top. One soldier, aghast at the idea, responded, “Who, us?” Soldiers ended up following the order, in what became one of the most celebrated acts of World War II.

Then there’s the theory that hooah comes from hurrah and hooray, themselves believed to be bastardizations of the sailor’s cry “huzzah,” which dates back to the 16th century.

With the Internet widening the forum for debate, blog entries suggesting definitions of hooah have been met with dozens upon dozens of comments from those who think they know better.

With all the derivations that exist, a few souls have tried to come up with an official meaning. One such half-serious, half-humorous definition, listed by the Urban Dictionary, reads in part: “U.S. Army slang. Referring to or meaning anything and everything except ‘no.’ Generally used when at a loss for words.”

Lt. Col. Brian Winski, commander of the Army’s 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, who sometimes says “hooah” so often it seems to have entered into his subconscious, isn’t entirely satisfied with that definition, but says it will have to suffice.

“That’s about right if you have to really box it in,” he said. “I guess that’s about as close as you could get.”

Another interesting phrase they used was pink mist. This was the phrase to mean head shot. It took me awhile to figure out what the heck pink mist was, but as it turns out, it’s the blood that splatters out behind the head, creating a pink mist.

StepMania

So I recently purchased USB Dance Pad. Kraft is giving these away for $10 shipping. I doubt shipping cost that much. It was less than a few lbs, so $5 UPS grounds top. Anyway, my way of looking at it was $10 for a cheap USB dance pad. Not that I like DDR or anything, I thought it might motivate me to exercise a bit. Haha.

So I was searching for DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) games on the PC and found this: StepMania. The interface is exactly like DDR, but is user customizable, meaning if you have an mp3, you can make your own dance track. The software itself doesn’t come with any songs, but they provide some downloads here. Also you can visit your favorite BitTorrent site and find ALL 8 DDR mixes. There’s a bunch of anime ones too.

Configuring the game wasn’t that hard. The gamepad is detected as joystick with 11 buttons so you just have to enter the configuration page and modify the key settings. The dance pad itself is okay for $10 worth. The buttons aren’t as responsive as I would’ve liked (or maybe I just suck) and it keeps slipping. As you can imagine, I’d did horribly. The best score I got, out of pure luck was a C on BOOM BOOM DOLLAR. Everything else I tried I either got a E or Failed, mostly failed.

The maximum resolution this game runs at is 1280×1024, good enough for most monitors, but I had hoped it’d run @ 1920×1280 since that’s my screen’s native resoltuion.

Anyway, if you’re a DDR fan, you should give it a try.