Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Superman is a dick

I mean, why? What did the dog ever do to you? And what about the destruction that ball will wreak when it lands? Why, Superman, why?

I guess the answer is quite simple... It's because he's a dick.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Office

After this week's one-hour episode of The Office aired, there seems to be some disagreement online as to what exactly was the movie that the characters Jim and Karen thought was so horrible that they both bought a copy as a gift for each other. It was clearly a Bridget Jones movie, although you might need to know what the covers to both movies look like to recognize that it's Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

Here's a higher resolution screenshot:

I remember reading people claim it to be everything from Jersey Girl, Just Friends, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, to You, Me and Dupree, etc. Taking a look at the DVD covers, I think it's pretty clear what movie it was.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Trapped In the Drive-Thru

This song is off "Weird Al" Yankovic's new CD, "Straight Outta Lynwood." It's a parody of R. Kelly's "Trapped In the Closet" series of music videos... which was, what I thought, probably the most inane thing to write a song about. Al himself said the drive-thru was the most banal thing he could think of at the time of writing it.

If you've never seen/heard R. Kelly's "Trapped In the Closet," I'm embedding the entire series below.

The itsy-bitsy spider

I found a spider in the shower earlier. Naturally, I killed it, and proceeded with my shower.

While I was showering, I remembered this so-called statistic I've heard about spiders several years back. Of course, I've never believed it to be true--from a logistics point of view, I just don't see how it could ever happen, and the bigger question being--how could the person (or persons) who came up with the statistic ever have tested it to arrive at those numbers?

You might have heard it before--"The average person will swallow 7 spiders in his/her lifetime"--is what I remember hearing on the radio.

The figures and timespan may differ from what you've heard, but you get the basic premise.

How often does a spider land on you? Rarely? Never? One's never landed on me while I'm awake, even if I remained completely motionless. Typically they'd do their best to stay away from me. Does everyone sleep with their mouths open?

Snopes says that this particular statistic (at 8 spiders per year) was made up to illustrate the kind of absurd things people are willing to believe. The Straight Dope also debunks this as an urban legend.

This also reminds me of a statistics joke--"97.3% of all statistics are made up." I remembered it as 80%, but that figure doesn't really matter in this context, does it? A Google search showed 97.3% as the most common number given. Although it did show me something else I like even better, which uses the 80% figure--"80% of all statistics quoted to prove a point are made up on the spot."

In short, it's like what I keep telling the people who keep mass forwarding various tidbits: Don't believe everything you read. Question your source, and your source's source. Think about the info you got--does it even make sense? Do some research before you send it off to everyone else in your address book. Don't make yourself into a liar and a fool.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Talking cats?

It's the end of the world as we know it

I stumbled upon this while going through some of the new sites at YTMND--it's several days old, which means my online sources have failed me!

It's a phone recording between a Verizon Wireless customer and Verizon's customer service supervisor, and said supervisor's floor manager. You can read about the whole ordeal on the blog he set up after the call, VerizonMath. Looks like Verizon has finally resolved the issue.

Cliff's Notes on what happened:

Guy is going to Canada, and called Verizon to see what their Internet rate would be.
Verizon rep tells him it's ".002 cents per kilobyte."
Guy gets bill, and finds they've charged him ".002 dollars per kilobyte."
Guy calls Verizon again, but no one seems to understand the difference.

That's the gist of it. If you don't have the time to listen to the whole thing, you can also get a really condensed version here (it's the YTMND site I mentioned).

It's incredible how Verizon's CSRs can't seem to comprehend grade-school math. Maybe they've become too reliant upon calculators and computers (The problem, of course, was that they let the calculator do all of the work for them, but the calculator can't keep track of your units, so when they pressed the equals button, they just assumed that the answer would be a dollar figure, when in fact they haven't done the conversion from cents to dollar yet). I guess if too many idiots rely on machines to do things for them, our civilizations will decline and decay, and morons will rule the earth.

Below is a simple conversion chart to illustrate how the math should be done, if you're the sort that has problems with keeping units straight.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Apple ice cream

I first thought about making this when I first had a conversation with Betty. I'd mentioned that I bought an ice cream maker, so she asked if she'd have many choices of ice cream when she visits me... anyway, she said she didn't have any favorites for ice cream, so I asked her what her favorite dessert was, and she told me it was fruit custard. Since ice cream can be frozen custard (if I use eggs), it wouldn't be a stretch at all to make ice cream with a variety of fruits. Two that came immediately to mind were apples and oranges (more specifically, mandarin oranges, AKA tangerines). I guess that's kind of cliché.

This turned out better than the tangerine ice cream I made earlier (I'll have to try and improve that recipe next time).


2 Granny Smith apples
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 lemon
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Peel and core the apples. Dice half an apple, and purée the rest. Juice half a lemon and combine with the diced apple, then stir in a little bit of sugar. Set aside and allow to macerate.

Combine the apple purée, sugar, cinnomon, salt, and vanilla extract with a blender on low, for about 2-3 minutes to dissolve the sugar. Combine with heavy cream.

Turn on ice cream maker, and pour in the mixture, as well as the sugar/lemon juice mixture used to macerate the diced apples. When the ice cream is nearly set (20-25 minutes in ice cream maker), add the diced apples. Continue churning for another 5 minutes, or until set.

Move to container and freeze for 2-5 hours for hard set. Earlier (or none at all) for soft serve.

Makes 1 1/2 quarts.

I'm an uncle!

My sister has given birth to a daughter, Kaelyn.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Send in the replacements

Last week, for no apparent reason, everything connected to my two USB hubs suddenly stopped working. I first noticed this as a notification from my APC PowerChute, which indicated that it was unable to communicate with my UPS unit. I didn't think much of it at first, since this happens once in a while, and typically it would restore the communication after a short time.

It was hours before I noticed that the USB communication between my PC and the UPS unit still hadn't been restored. That's when I noticed that my multi-card-reader wasn't functioning properly, either. Uh-oh. Now I'm into troubleshooting mode.

Reconnect USB power and connection? Check. Alternate between either hub? Check.

I've got a third USB hub that's the exact same model lying around, because a few of the ports on it were apparently broken, so these things do break, but for both hubs to break at the same time? That's just unlikely. So the next thing I checked was the Device Manager. Sure enough, there was a yellow exclamation point next to an "unknown" USB device.

But I had to be sure that the USB hubs aren't the culprit. So I ask to try it on my brother's computer. It works. So the problem is with my system. (By the way, bro, not telling the system to disconnect your USB accessory prior to removal can break the accessory, even if you are running Windows XP--remember my SanDisk SD card when we went to Vegas? The last time it worked was in your Windows XP laptop, then you took it out without using the proper removal procedures, and after that nothing could read the card.)
  • Reinstall driver? Doesn't work.
  • Uninstall, then plug the hub back in? Doesn't work.
  • Uninstall, reboot, install again? Doesn't work.
  • Search Microsoft. Reinstall Service Pack 4 for Windows 2000 (that's when they added USB 2.0 support). Doesn't work.
  • Tried other ways of "installing" the USB driver from Google search. Doesn't work.
  • Went to ASUS' website and downloaded their latest USB driver for my motherboard. Still doesn't work.
My mouse still works, and so does hotsyncing my PDA. Both are connected directly to USB ports on the PC. I tried connecting the multi-card-reader directly to the computer, but it still didn't work. That's when I figured it out--none of my USB 2.0 devices were working. So I disable USB 2.0 support in the BIOS, and Windows detects everything again.

Even so, this is not how I want to run my system. I want to be able to transfer files to and from my memory cards quickly. In a last ditch effort, I ordered a PCI USB 2.0 card, and prayed that whatever is afflicting my system USB won't have the same effect on it. The card arrived two days later, and now it's in my computer, and working properly. Finally, back to normality.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Warning: Profanity

Lots of bad language in this one, kids. You've been warned.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

When I picked up my copy of Superman Returns this week, I noticed that they also had some other Superman-related DVDs, including a "Richard Donner cut" of Superman II, and a new Superman boxset called the "Christopher Reeve collection." Since I already bought the "complete Superman collection" a few years back, I didn't feel the need to pick either of those up.

However, after I got home, I became more curious, and looked up more info. Apparently, when Richard Donner was shooting Superman: The Movie, he also shot most of the sequel. The studio halted production on the second movie to get Donner to finish the first one, and also because he was over-budget. At this point, 70-75% of the sequel had already been filmed.

When the second movie went back into production, several things happened, all of Marlon Brando's scenes as Jor-El were removed, and Richard Donner was replaced by Richard Lester as director. In order for Lester to be billed as director, he'll have to film at least 51% of the movie, meaning much of what Donner shot had to be removed or re-shot.

So, this "new" version is quite a bit different from the theatrical version, and fills in some of the gaps in it. Overall, I think it's a better movie, I'm just not too keen on the scientific aspects in the way they ended the movie. But then, this is Superman we're talking about. "Scientific aspects" of the story pretty much went out the window a long time ago.

A more detailed review of the Richard Donner cut can be seen below.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Model Ferrari

1:3 scale model. Amazing. Now to build a full-scale one...

Monday, November 20, 2006

Tangerine sorbet

So since my attempt at a tangerine ice cream didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, and I did buy more tangerines than I needed for the ice cream, I went ahead and tried to make a sorbet out of the remaining tangerines.

Peel and separate the tangerines. I had five left, and puréed them two at a time. I also zested one of them.

This was about 1/3 of the way into the purée. The larger blades couldn't get it as smooth as I want, so I switched over to the stick attachment for further blending.

Blend in sugar (I added 3/4 cups, hopefully that's enough), a pinch of salt, and a little bit of lime juice. Then pour into ice cream maker. This is after about 20 minutes of churning. With the camera flash working, you cann't tell from the picture that it was still churning... So I took another pic without flash...

They spinnin', they spinnin'!



Post Script: Shortly after I was "finished" making the sorbet, I recalled that I had read a transcript of Alton Brown's Good Eats episode that talked about making sorbet. So I looked it up. In one scene, he says of making sorbet:

Sugar in frozen desserts is more than just a sweetener. See, once dissolved in the liquid, the sugar molecules actually get in the way of ice crystals forming. [...] Now, too little sugar and you'll need an ice pick to serve your dessert. Too much, and you'll have a syrupy mess.

So, the trick, if you can call it a trick, is in nailing the right amount of sugar. And for that, all you need is your trusty sucrometer. Lent yours to the neighbor? Never got it back? No problem. A few simple rules will do.

Now, when I want a scoopable ice, I go with 7 ounces of sugar, roughly a cup, to every 16 ounces of liquid by weight. Now that's roughly, uh, 30 percent sugar.

In short:
Low Sugar = Rock Hard
High Sugar = Syrupy Mess

30% sugar solution = right amount of sugar

My original solution only had around 20% sugar, and sure enough, it was rock hard by the next day. So I took my giant tangerine ice cube out of the freezer to let it melt, then I'm going to add more sugar, squeeze in a lemon or two to balance the sweetness, and churn again.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Ice cream triple punch

So this week, I made three different flavors of ice cream. Two I've made before (green tea and coffee), and one I'm experimenting with (tangerine).

I bought disposable pint and quart containers, so now I can keep more than just two flavors at a time in my freezer, and since tangerine is my favorite fruit, I figured I'd try making an ice cream out of it, and see what it's like.

The flavor and texture is fine, as far as ice cream goes... however, I feel that the tangerine flavor is not nearly strong enough. I doubt most people could tell the difference between tangerine and orange in this ice cream form. So I guess if I want strong tangerine flavor in frozen (but not solid block of ice) form, I'll have to try a sorbet, instead. Or maybe a sherbet.

Since I am running out of space in my freezer, I'll have to finish up some of the ice cream before I try making the sorbet. Or give some away.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Who rigs every Oscar night?

A rerun of Homer the Great aired on Fox a few nights ago. It featured a parody of the Freemasons called the "Stonecutters"--a secret organization behind events large and small.


Who controls the British Crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We Do! We Do!

Who leaves Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We Do! We Do!

Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?
We Do! We Do!

Who robs cavefish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
We Do! We Do!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Maple ice cream

Several years ago, when my aunt Rosa came to visit us from Canada, she brought us some maple syrup. That's when I first found out that the typical syrup we used when having pancakes were actually only "maple-flavored syrup."

A few years ago, I bought some maple syrup while I was at Trader Joe's, but I've never had any chance to use it. After I got myself an ice cream maker, I thought maybe I could try using maple syrup instead of sugar... So here it is--homemade maple ice cream.


The flavor? Well, the maple definitely comes through, having used 3/4 cup of maple syrup. However, it also tastes rather familiar. It seems very similar to the butter pecan ice cream I used to get from Thrifty stores (which are now Rite-Aid stores). Without the pecans, obviously. I guess this explains why so many of the recipes online are for maple pecan ice cream.

Welcome to the new Blogger

New blog template brought to you by Blogger in Beta. Last night I switched over to this newly available version, and chose a new template. Then spent a little bit of time tweaking it, but I was unable to bring the main column's width to a longer width without messing up some other parts of the template.

Oh well. For the most part, it should not make much difference. The only reason I had to adjust the width before was because of some bugs in the template that would cause IE to not display things properly, which I think they've fixed. Some of my older entries also made use of the wider space, but who'd read those backlogs, anyway?

Monday, November 13, 2006

Taking a page from Chappelle's Show

So, in the second season of Chappelle's Show, he did a bit called the "Love Contract."

Recently, a similar, but more drawn out short film was made, called "Consent"...

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Pan's Labyrinth

I found out about this from a YTMND site, which is also quite well done. In any case, Pan's Labyrinth looks like it could be a very good movie.

High Definition versions of the trailer and teaser are available on Apple's website.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Just in time for Halloween

...and frog. :(


Edit: YouTube removed the video, so I'm embedding from College Humor, where I originally saw this video. Just click on the blank spot to play the video.

Things that make you go "Hmm"...

This image has been circulating the Internet for the past few days... It's of Southern California local reporter Marc Brown, apparently reporting on a rape case where the police is searching for the alleged rapist, with the police sketch displayed... Hmm.

Nobody at the station said anything? Really?

Friday, October 20, 2006

"Happy Sunday"

"Happy Sunday" is an entertainment variety show in Taiwan. There's a segment of the show in which already famous singers will show up to test their skills. They're judged by a panel of three, each of whom have a light/buzzer for when they think something is not "right" or "good." If the singer gets three lights, then he or she doesn't pass the test.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Jerry Huang

Jerry Huang (黃舒駿) is a singer and song writer from Taiwan. In 2001, he wrote a song called "Changes 1995" (改變1995), which was styled as a conversation to his friend and mentor who passed away in 1995. The song recounts the changes and events that have taken place since that time.

I don't know why the video doesn't contain the full song, but it was the only video I could find. The full lyrics are here (the parts missing from the video are in green):

你走了之後沒幾天 鄧麗君也跟我們說再見
張愛玲在秋天渡過了她最後一夜
英國少了一位黛安娜王妃
你最心愛的吉他 現在住在我的房間
我最想寫的那一首歌至今還沒出現
Eagles 在東京開了復出又告別的演唱會
我在巨蛋幫你聽了Desperado
滿臉都是淚

歌壇出了一個張惠妹
王菲變王靖雯又變回王菲
張國榮終於開心的承認他是個 gay

老外告訴我台灣的女孩舒淇最美
Santana 莫名其妙又紅了一遍
Madonna 還是我們呼風喚雨的娜姐
Paul Simon 的臉蒼老的令人心碎
Prince 宣布他這輩子再也不做音樂

世界不斷的改變 改變
我的心思卻不願離開從前
時間不停的走遠 走遠
我的記憶卻停在 卻停在那1995年

現在不用聯考也可以上大學
不用去美國也喝得到 Starbucks 的咖啡
蛋塔紅了100天 忠孝東路挖了10年
諾貝爾給了高行健 總統給了陳水扁

鐵達尼騙了全世界的眼淚
還好我們有自己的人間四月天
星際大戰沒有續集倒是弄了個首部曲
教父第四級的可能性我看微乎其微
男人不再陽萎 女人拼命減肥
愛滋病不是天譴 復制羊長得也不怎麼特別
打哥大越來越小 世界越來越吵 手機卻越賣越好
歌星越來越多 CD越做越好 唱片卻越賣越少

喬丹不再飛 好久不見張德培
老虎伍茲今年才25歲
奧斯卡那天李安用中文跟世界說謝謝
成龍終於用英文 興奮的跟好萊塢說 "I am Jackie Chan"

世界不斷的改變 改變
我的心思卻不願離開從前
時間不停的走遠 走遠
我的記憶卻停在 卻停在那1995年

千禧年地球並沒有毀滅
921大地震倒是把我老家震毀
香港真的回歸 北韓竟然見了面
我和台中的距離漸漸的比上海還要遠
我還是沒去愛爾蘭 倒是去了紐約
我沒和U2一起表演 倒是看到 Woody Allen 走在45街
全台灣都在 R&B 全美國都在 Rap
只有流行沒有音樂 我看你眼不見為淨也是好事一件
我沒成為你以為的那個人 真的很抱歉
我想我上輩子是國父下輩子是王儲
這輩子最好安份一點 天才就怕不夠天才
壞又不夠壞 天天都想離開
卻不知到那裡才能換骨脫胎

屬於我們的精彩 早已經不復存在
我的她再可愛 只能愛著我的未來
我忘不了你 你卻渾然不覺 小你六歲的我
今年已經和你同年

世界不斷的改變 改變
我的心思卻不願離開從前
時間不停的走遠 走遠
我的記憶卻停在 卻停在那1995年


And below is a more upbeat version of one of his old songs, and one of my favorites.

X3 in a nutshell

I could've sworn that I made a post about this when the movie was first released in the theaters, but I can't seem to find any entries about it.

Anyway, when I re-watched X-Men: The Last Stand on DVD, this was one of the things that kept coming back to me, aside from how much they butchered the original story.

[Russian accent]Here is link


I also love the theme music from the cartoon series.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Black sesame ice cream

So when Greg got back from Taiwan about three weeks ago, he asked me if I've ever tried sesame ice cream. Apparently he's had a chance to sample some during his trip to the far east, and it happens to be one of the things he liked.

Having never tried it, I can't attest to how it should taste, and I doubt I'd be able to find it at a local restaurant, but as I do have my own ice cream maker, I can always make my own, and hope it tastes as good as the kind that Greg had.

The first thing to do--get myself some sesame powder. I'm certainly not about to try and grind my own. Black sesame is often used as a filling in tangyuan, a Chinese dessert, so I guess that should serve as a good indicator as to how ice cream made from the same ingredient might taste.

After blending heavy cream, half-and-half, sugar, vanilla extract, and sesame powder together, it's in the ice cream maker.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Streaks on the china... never mattered before

For some strange reason, the opening theme song for Mr. Belvedere has been stuck in my head for the past few days. It also reminded me of this episode of Family Guy that I watched, in which Stewie was trying to watch Mr. Belvedere, but the other family members kept on talking and disturbing him, so he began to screamingly sing the theme song.

If you're feeling nostalgic, you can listen to the full opening theme (audio only) here.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

A no-win scenario

"Looking around me you'd think, 'Sure, I could tap that.' But as you know I'm a merfolk, and so I'm a fish down below..."

And yet another YTMND site reminds us of the mermaid problem. In this edit, we see Disney's Ariel flip open a book to show Flounder an image first found on another YTMND site (though it looks to be from some sort of manga). I first saw an allusion to it from a Captain Kirk/Star Trek/Wrath of Khan site, also pretty funny. The picture near the end has been around on the net for some time, and was also used in some YTMND sites.

The song is made by students of Brown University. They have a clip from The Little Mermaid set to their version of the song.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Atomic watch

Over the weekend, I bought myself a new watch (for about ten dollars cheaper than the price listed at Casio's site). It's the kind of watch I've wanted to buy the last time I was shopping for a new one--a so-called "atomic watch." Which is actually a bit of a misnomer, since the watches themselves are not actually atomic. Instead, they automatically synchronize with an atomic clock through radio frequency.

The reason I didn't get one last time (which was around four or five years ago) was because the selection was very sparse... I couldn't find any styles I liked at the price I wanted. So instead I got a "sports watch" from Brookstone--it was also a digital compass, altimeter, and thermometer. Good for hiking and camping. Except I rarely do either. The watch from Brookstone also had one large fault: the wristband was made out of plastic and/or rubber. It eventually split apart after regularly putting the watch on and taking it off, as I would normally do so at least twice a day. I got myself a replacement band made of metal, but it really didn't fit the watch in terms of aesthetics.

So when I noticed that they now had many more styles to choose from, I decided to get one. I would have liked to get one that was also solar-powered, but could not find one that was a metal band at a lower price. Oh well. I don't really mind having to change the battery every once in a while, it just would have been nice if I didn't have to.

I specifically got a metal band, so that I wouldn't have to worry about the band breaking apart on me (as much), but it also means that adjusting its length to my wrist can be a bitch. I had the Dicken's of a time trying to remove the links from the band so that the watch wouldn't sit very loose on my wrist when I wear it.

Now, my current problem is that the watch has thus far been unsucessful in picking up the radio frequency for it to make its automatic adjustments, and I've also not been able to get it to receive the signal manually. Meanwhile, setting the time manually is much faster than waiting for it to manually receive the signal. Hopefully it would be able to pick up some sort of signal in the coming weeks--it'd be nice not having to set my watch when switching between Daylight Saving and Standard Time.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Hey, what happened to the color?

This was a trailer included in the DVD for the new X-Men movie. Looks to be pretty funny.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Heroes

I've been watching NBC's new sci-fi/drama series, Heroes, through Internet downloads--mainly because I was watching Fox's Vanished on TV, which airs in the same timeslot, with a lead-in from Prison Break. I also felt, prior to the show's premiere, that it might have been too hyped up, and I'd be disappointed by it.

Since I'd heard some good things about it after the pilot aired, and the fact that Ali Larter is in it, I decided to download it and see if I'd like it.

The show is interesting, kind of an X-Men meets Unbreakable kind of story. It is very much like a comic book, or perhaps more akin to a graphic novel, I could almost see the narration text and word bubbles as I watched it. It deals with a group of people, scattered around the world (but mostly in the U.S.) who find themselves with abilities beyond that or normal humans, perhaps making them a step-up from the evolutionary ladder (much like the mutants in X-Men, but not nearly as widespread), most begin to test their powers (like in Unbreakable).

From the promos, it's obvious that not all of the characters with superpowers have been introduced yet after the second episode, and the true identity of the main antagonist, Sylar, will likely remain hidden for quite some time. The show is well-written, for the most part, if not for their blantant misunderstanding of the human brain. Also, if Nora Zehetner's character in the second episode doesn't seem like an obvious plant by the "other side" to gain the guy's trust, I don't know what does.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Star Wars

LEGO Star Wars II was released about two weeks ago. I have it for the PC, and while the graphics look great, the controls are clearly designed with the console in mind. (It's also available for just about every current console you can think of.) I've played and finished the first game on my PC last year, yet I don't remember the controls being as difficult back then. I suppose I could remap the keys, which should make thing easier...

I think I'll probably just get this game for the PSP after I'm done playing LocoRoco. That way, I get better controls, and I'll be able to play the game anywhere, and not be tied to my PC. Anyone interested in trying this game out on your PC?

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

White Knight Story

Level-5, the makers of Dragon Quest VIII, have an upcoming RPG for the soon-to-be-released PlayStation 3 called "White Knight Story." This is the trailer they showed at this year's Tokyo Game Show.

To fully appreciate the impressive graphics of this game, you'd have to watch the full-sized trailer, rather than the one on YouTube.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

White and Nerdy

"Weird Al" is at it again... This song is a parody of Chamillionaire's "Ridin'"--in case you haven't heard it or seen the video, I'm embedding it below for reference.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

More Wii control

Here's another video demonstrating how Nintendo Wii's remote controller will supposedly work. The controller should work well with action-oriented games. However, like I stated before, a "music conductor" game would quite possibly be the most boring game in the world. Other things I saw in this clip that I don't think will be fun to play:
  • Chopping food and cooking -- Um, no. It's not like you actually learn how to actually chop things really fast. If you really want to cook, just step into your kitechen.
  • Dentistry -- WTF? How is that fun?
  • Swatting flies -- Why would you want to "play" something on a simluation for what would be a chore in real life?
Other concerns:
  • Driving games -- Who drives with a stick as a steering wheel? Either use a wheel, or a standard controller. None of this "pretend-this-stick-is-a-wheel" crap.
  • Control using a motion sensor could be finicky. One false flick of your wrist, and your character jumps off a cliff...
Other than those, things should be cool. The controller should be great for most sports games, which is probably why Nintendo plans on releasing the system with a sports compilation game. I also imagine that the nunchuk control would make the system good for first-person shooters, solving the problem of console controllers not being on par with the mouse/keyboard combination PC users have thus enjoyed with such games.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

The Riddle


Artist: Five for Fighting

There was a man back in '95
Whose heart ran out of summers, but before he died
I asked him, "Wait, what's the sense in life?"
"Come over me, come over me"

He said, "Son, why you gotta sing that tune?"
"Catch a Dylan song or some eclipse of the moon"
"Let an angel swing and make you swoon"
"The you will see... You will see"

Then he said, "Here's a riddle for ya"
"Find the answer"
"There's a reason for the world"
"You and I"

Picked up my kid from school today
"Did you learn anything, 'cause in the world today"
"You can't live in a castle far away"
"Now talk to me, come talk to me"

He said, "Dad, I'm big but we're smaller than small"
"In the scheme of things, well we're nothing at all"
"Still every mother's child sings a lonely song"
"So play with me, come play with me"

"And hey Dad, here's a riddle for ya"
"Find the answer"
"There's a reason for the world"
"You and I"

I said, "Son, for all I've told you"
"When you get right down to the"
"Reason for the world"
"Who am I?"

There are secrets that we still have left to find
There have been mysteries from the beginning of time
There are answers we're not wise enough to see
He said, "You looking for a clue, I love you free"

The batter swings and the summer flies
As I look into my angel's eyes
A song plays on while the moon is high
Over me, something comes over me

I guess we're big, and I guess we're small
If you think about it man, you know we got it all
'Cause we're all we got on this bouncing ball
And I love you free, I love you freely

Here's a riddle for ya
Find the answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I

Thursday, September 14, 2006

New DVDs

This week, I picked up Lucky Number Slevin and The Wild. Lucky Number Slevin is an interesting crime drama/thriller/dark comedy. It's not on par with other dark comedies like Pulp Fiction, but it's still a fun ride, nontheless. The very basic gist of the movie, without giving too much away, is summed up by Lucy Liu's character in the clip above.

The Wild is one of the few computer-animated movies released by Disney, but was not done by Pixar. It has been described by some critics as "Madagascar meets Finding Nemo with The Lion King thrown in for effect." This is not untrue, as the story involves animals from the New York Zoo "escaping" captivity, roaming the city with the lion, Samson, looking for his son, who is practicing his roar, but still sounds like a little cat. Surface similarities aside, it's actually quite a different movie from Madagascar. I personally think the animation quality is much better than Madagascar, but while the story is fine, it lacks the humor in the other movies being compared to. That's not the say that the movie is completely devoid of humor--only that these moments of comedy are few, while at times it seems they're trying too hard.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Strange luck

So, after getting my car back from the shop, I had to go back because it wouldn't start, and then back again when I noticed my passenger headlight was flickering. The car still had its problems, which I'll slowly be getting to...

Then, this past weekend, my computer stopped working properly. For no apparent reason, it rebooted on its own, and then I got a slew of seemingly unrelated error messages. My instinct told me that this was a hardware issue, the most likely culprit being the motherboard. I supposed you could say that it was more of an educated guess. To be more certain, I even ran various virus scans, despite being protected through two separate anti-virus programs, and having kept my system up-to-date.

The next day, after cleaning one of my Ionic Breeze GP's, I noticed that instead of its normal operations, a red indicator light was on. Upon closer inspection, it turns out something inside had broke. I just replaced it earlier this year!

Then, "yesterday," I got back from work, and tried again to use my computer, only to find that my APC UPS suddenly stopped working. Its "overload" warning light was on. I unplugged everything that was connected to it, pressed the "reset" button, turned it off and back on, all to no avail. Bought the thing last year, specifically because APC was supposed to make quality products. It's only got a two-year warranty, so I guess I should be thankful that it broke down now, rather than later.

Figuring that whatever caused the UPS to fail probably sent its voltage rumblings down the line to my computer (despite being behind yet another surge protector), I was even more convinced that my problems had to do with the motherboard. I'd pretty much resolved on buying a new motherboard, when my brother told me that he had another one lying around. We spend about an hour replacing the motherboard, and hook the computer back up. Another hour and a half to reinstall all the drivers, and the computer is now in working order again.

I'll be calling APC about their defective UPS.

I've also packed up my broken Ionic Breeze. I'll drop by a local Sharper Image to replace it, again.


"Strange Luck" is also the name of an intriguing TV show. It's too bad that it was axed due to low ratings.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Real Men of Genius

This is probably my favorite out of all the Budweiser's advertisement series.


Bud Light presents: Real Men of Genius.
(Real Men of Genius)

Today we salute you, Mr. Boneless Buffalo Wing Inventor.
(Mr. Boneless Buffalo Wing Inventor)

How do you improve upon a meat that is breaded, buttered, double-fried, and dipped in blue cheese dressing? Remove the only part that doesn't contain fat.
(Don't need no stinkin' bone)

Gone now is the race to eat the drumsticks first, leaving the wings for the other poor suckers.
(Hands off my drummies!)

Is it leg? Is it wing? Is it rear-end? Now every chunk is as identical as it is indistinguishable.
(Hope I'm not eating rear-end)

So crack open an ice cold Bud Light, Boneless Wing Mastermind, because we don't have a bone to pick with you.
(Mr. Boneless Buffalo Wing Inventor)

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Travesty, indeed.

The above pics are allegedly from the upcoming live-action Transformers movie, that I've mentioned before. Fans of the original series should not be unfamiliar with the name of this particular character, and that would be the extent of their recognition.

I'll leave you with this thought from Penny Arcade.

My baby don't mess around because she loves me so, and this I know for sure...

This is an acoustic cover of Outkast's song, "Hey Ya!" done by Mat Weddle of Obadiah Parker. It totally changes the entire mood of the song.


Hey Ya!

My baby don't mess around because she loves me so, and this I know for sure
But does she really wanna, but can't stand to see me walk out the door
I can't stand to fight the feeling, because the thought alone is killing me right now
Thank God for mom and dad for sticking through together because we don't know how

Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya

You think you got it
Oh, you think you've got it
But got it just don't get it
Til there's nothing at all
We've been together
Oh, we've been together
But separate's always better when there's feeling involved
If what they say is, "Nothing is forever"
Then what makes, what makes, what makes
What makes, what makes love the exception?
So why you, why you
Why you, why you, why you
Are we so in denial
When we know we are not happy here

Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya

All right now, fellas
What's cooler than being cool?
I can't hear ya
I say what's cooler than being cool?
All right, all right, all right, all right
All right, all right, all right, all right
All right, all right, all right, now ladies
We gonna break it down in just a few seconds here
Now don't make me break this down for nuthin'
I wanna see y'all on y'all baddest behavior
Lend me some sugar, I am your neighbor
Shake it, shake, shake it, shake it, shake, shake it, shake it
Shake it, shake, shake it, shake, shake it, shake, shake it
Shake, shake it, shake it like a Polaroid picture, now
Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it
Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it

Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya
Hey ya, hey ya

Sunday, August 27, 2006

The toilet is so clean, you can eat off it

After helping Angie move to her new place, we went out to eat. Earlier in the day, we were talking about the various gimmickly-themed restaurants, such as the one decorated like a Taiwanese classroom in Rowland Heights (I forgot the exact name), and as we finished our dinner and were heading back to the car, we passed by another "themed" restaurant. Once again, the decor was the gimmick, but the food wasn't that great.

This then reminded me of some photos that have been circulating on the Internet for several years--a restroom-themed restaurant, where the plates, the seats, and the food, are made to resemble... you know. I promised her I would find those pics and email them to her. And in my search, I've learned that there are now at least two such restaurants in Taiwan. One in Taipei (named "Matone," is apparently the first one, judging by the date of the article), which is in the northern part of Taiwan, and one in Kaohsiung (named "Marton"), in the Southern part of Taiwan.

As I obviously haven't been to these restaurants, I cannot say if the food there is good or bad, although the above linked article and these pictures seem to indicate that, unlike the restaurants we had been discussing, it's not just the gimmicky designs of the restaurants that help make them successful--they actually have good food! I would think that should be the first rule to operating a successful restaurant.

The above video is rather short, but if you pay attention, you'll notice that all the patrons of the restaurant are sitting on toliet-shaped seats, and the walls are lined with ceramic tiles (like in the public restrooms).

Below is a longer video, which shows food being served in the special plating, but without audio.
These restaurateurs in Taiwan are apparently not the first to use the scatological subject as their theme. According to the linked article above, they've seen pictures of the same theme coming from Japan. "Matone" seems to be the first one in Taiwan, as the article was written back in 2002, after photos had been circulating the net. The blog entry about "Marton" was written in 2005, providing a link to a now defunct 2005 Associated Press article, and stating the the first of the chain was opened a year prior (2004).

Of interesting note is that restaurants using the same theme have also opened in mainland China (the first in November 2005), but received with much more negativity in their press. Still, some do call for the people to be more open-minded.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Grocery store day-shift manager Vader

I feel that I would be remiss if I didn't include this hilarious set of sketches on my blog, so here they are. The third episode should be out soon.

George Takei roasts William Shatner

William Shatner showed up at his Comedy Central roast riding on a horse. It seems likely that he did it to setup someone to make the exact comment that George Takei did to end his roast.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse

Riding on the coattails of Snakes on a Plane comes this "thrilling," direct-to-video movie, Snakes on a Train. Look upon this work, ye mighty, and despair!


Honestly, based on what I've heard of Snakes on a Plane from people who've seen it, it's actually pretty good. Not nearly as bad as its trailer might lead you to believe. And even that trailer looks much better than this one.

Kat Dennings

I haven't checked out Kat Dennings' blog for a while, and when I did just a few minutes ago, I find that she's started vlogging.

This is her first (of three so far) video:
By the way, if you don't know who Kat Dennings is, but think that she looks familiar... that's because she's an actress. You've most likely seen her in The 40 Year Old Virgin, which is probably the biggest movie she's been in so far. Before then, she was on the short-lived sitcom Raising Dad, with Bob Saget (of Full House fame) as the title character. More recently, she was in the movie Big Momma's House 2, and had a recurring role on NBC's drama ER.

Here are the other two vids:

Monday, August 21, 2006

Sticky chicken goodness

If you haven't already done so, go into your local El Pollo Loco restuarant and give their new "tequila lime" chicken a try. I've been eating these at least once a week for about six week now, at first just curious what "tequila lime chicken" would taste like, especially given that I haven't been too fond of tequila in the various mixed drinks I've had at home...

They basically either dip their regular flame-grilled chickens into their tequila sauce after the chickens are done, or pour sauce over them (I've seen them do both on different occasions). The sauce is at the same time sweet, sour, spicy, salty, and maybe a little bit bitter (since it's supposed to have some sort of tequila flavor).

When you eat it, beware: It will get messy. And you might get addicted. Betsy (my boss' niece, who I introduced the tequila lime chicken to when I first tried it) said that she could eat them everyday and not get sick of them. I think that might be a bit overboard, but it does somewhat remind me of a quote from So I Married an Axe Murderer regarding Col. Sanders (of KFC fame)...
Charlie: "Dad, how can you hate... 'The Colonel'?"
Stuart: "Because he puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes ya crave it fortnightly, smartass!"

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Online shopping rant

I hate it when online stores tell you one thing, then when you go ahead and place an order from them, you're told the complete opposite.

The most common of these occurrences would be when they tell you they have something in stock, but after you place the order, they say, "Oops. Guess we don't have it, after all."

The worst part? Even after their order sheet tells you that they don't have it in stock, their online store still list the exact same item as "in stock." Hey, Einsteins, fix your damned online store inventory tracking system, it's broken! Either get it to display the correct inventory status, or don't show it at all. Telling us it's in stock in the store, then saying it's not when we order only makes you look like idiots, and encourage visitors to never buy from you again.

And for fuck's sake, have the common decency to send your customer an email to let them know the shit they ordered is not in stock! Don't force them to log back onto your site, wondering why you haven't sent them any tracking information yet. Because, guess what? When we're back on your site, we'll check your store to see if you still list it as "in stock," thereby cementing your status as complete morons.


Okay, so I placed the order on the 16th, and the shipping method I chose is supposed to take between 4 to 6 business days. As the 16th was a Wednesday, that means I should expect my order to arrive some time between Tuesday and Thursday of next week (22nd-24th). If I don't receive my order by the 24th, I'm never going to buy from AtomicPark.com again.

Who knows, they may prove themselves, yet. Otherwise, they'll be added to my list of "bad" online vendors, whom I will never buy from again (I will not link to them, since they suck, but I'm including their URLs for reference):
  • BuyDig.com (http://www.buydig.com/)
  • DataVision (http://www.datavis.com/)
  • DeepDiscountDVD (http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/)
  • TheNerds.net (http://www.thenerds.net/)

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Sometimes luck's on your side, sometimes it's not

While waiting at the office of Enterprise Rent-a-Car, I played a game of LocoRoco and got my best time ever.

Still, that's quite a long time to wait for someone to help you rent a car. And after I finished the game, I still had several minutes before they were ready to help me.

Since my insurance has alotted $45 a day for rental cars, I get to rent one of their "better" cars, and got a Volvo S40 while my car is in the shop. They're not sure how long it will take to repair my car yet, but it'll probably be somewhere between one or two weeks.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Voltron

Voltron: Defender of the Universe

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

F^&%^$

I had a fender-bender on the way back to the office from getting lunch. The other car was American, which means my "Japanese import" took the brunt of the damage. Now I'll really have to replace my front bumper.

Yeah... I'll get right on that...

Friday, August 04, 2006

Once again... LocoRoco

On the second day that I downloaded this demo game, I was able to get all of the items in it (the 19th one is, for me, the most difficult one to get). Since that time, I've thought about trying to capture all of that as a movie file, so instead of a text description "walkthrough," people can see for themselves where everything is.

I haven't gone through with that idea until now.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

"Net Neutrality"

A pretty accurate analogy of the whole "net neutrality act" that the U.S. congress is considering. The "resident expert" is John Hodgman, who's been in those "Mac vs. PC" commercials I've mentioned.

If you haven't seen any of those commercials, here's a sample:

Thursday, July 27, 2006

The black Mac

I'm not a big fan of Microsoft, as anyone who's talked to me about computers should know. I've even got "enhancements" installed on my PC to make certain things look/behave more like a Mac. Still, I find those new Mac commercials annoying.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Homemade strawberry ice cream

Edit: This is what it looks like after I melted the original batch and churned it the second time. It's a deeper pink because during the melting and churning process, the strawberry pieces were "cut" smaller, so more of the red got into the mixture. It's much softer than before, although I still should have let it churn for longer.

Following the recipe that came with my ice cream maker, I decided to try and make some strawberry ice cream. Here I have a pint of sliced strawberries, macerated for 2 hours in 3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, and 1/3 cup of sugar.

1 cup of milk and 2 cups of heavy cream are first mixed with 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, 2/3 cup of sugar, and all the lemon/strawberry juice used for maceration. Churn away, ice cream maker!

It says to add the strawberries in the final five minutes. The whole process is supposed to take around 25-35 minutes, so I was just waiting for the 25 minute mark, and checking the consistency of the churn, to pour in the strawberry.

Unfortunately, it seems the recipe they had yielded too much ice cream--the machine can only hold 1 1/2 quart of ice cream total. That means 3 pints. Or 6 cups. The process of making ice cream means that as your mixture freezes, the churning adds air and keeps it from becoming large chunks of ice, so as air is added, the mixture increases in size (anywhere between 25% to 100%). So we've got 1 cup of sugar + 2 cups heavy cream + 1 cup milk + 1 pint (aka 2 cups) strawberry. That's already 6 cups! There's still the extra lemon juice and air unaccounted for! WTF *&^#)*%!

(Why didn't I do the math beforehand? Stupid, stupid, stupid...)

This means that my mixture would overflow when I tried to add the strawberry, and it wouldn't get to the "soft serve" consistency I needed before I put the whole thing in the freezer to set.

What does that mean, in the end? Well, it tastes pretty good, but the texture is not consistent. Parts of it is soft, while others are hard. And the strawberry is not as evenly distributed as I'd like them to be.

Otherwise, it's not too bad. I suppose I can always eat away 1/3 of it first, melt it down, then re-churn the thing.

Next time, I'll decrease the amount of strawberries and milk/cream. That should make for a much more pleasing result.

Monday, July 24, 2006

GoBots are the Kmart of Transformers

Clerks II rocks.


That is all. And now back to your regularly scheduled program...

Saturday, July 22, 2006

More than meets the eye

There are many rumors circulating about this upcoming live-action + CGI movie. Although they did officially announce at Comic-Con that Peter Cullen, the man who voiced Optimus Prime in the original cartoon series, will reprise his role for the movie. This is good news for the fans of the original (Generation 1) series, especially with the rumored new design of Optimus for the movie:

This supposed new design is particularly displeasing to fans, as we're all quite used to how the original Optimus looked, and considering the "promo" model they used, it seems strange that they would go with this new design (which looks more like the Armada version), with flames painted on the sides... Personally, I think flames would not fit Optimus Prime's personality, and I obviously don't like the look.

Other rumors include Bumblebee being a Camaro instead of a Beetle, and Megatron being a tank rather than a pistol. I can't fault them if Bumblebee doesn't look like his cartoon version in robot form (and if the pics I've seen of the yellow robot in the movie is indeed Bumblebee, he doesn't), since even the original toy for Bumblebee looked nothing like his cartoon version in robot form, but I don't see why they would not keep him as a Beetle. It's not like it can't be done or something...

The only thing I can think of is if Volkswagen objects to having their vehicle used in the movie. But why the hell would they do that?

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Caught cheating

Always be prepared, I say.

Monday, July 17, 2006

"Premium" ice cream

Ever since I saw the Good Eats episode on premium ice cream, I've been thinking about getting my own ice cream churning machine to test out the recipe. And see how "premium" differs from regular ice cream. (Although, as it turns out, I have had "premium" ice cream before--Häagen-Dazs is considered "super premium" ice cream.)

So, on Saturday, I set out to the nearby Target and Bed Bath & Beyond (they're in the same plaza, which makes it quite easy). The mission: To find an affordable, easy to use ice cream maker. And if I find one to my liking, I would also need some additional items that I did not possess, but which are required for the making of premium ice cream:
  1. Food thermometer
  2. Large container (to chill and freeze the ice cream in)
The result is mostly a success, although I tried to add green tea flavoring to it, and failed. Many tea bags and powdered green tea packs later, I still do not taste any green tea in the ice cream. So it's basically a premium vanilla ice cream, with (if you can taste any) an extremely faint hint of green tea.

I also found a pack for making green tea ice cream. Just add milk and egg yolk. But with only 3/4 cup of milk, the yield can't be much. Most likely not even a pint. $1.99 for the mix, still need your own milk and egg yolk, it'd have to taste like heaven for me to not just go back to buying ready-made half gallons of green tea ice cream.


On a side note, it looks like Blogger has increased the maximum allowable size for uploaded images. I'll have to try the full-size pic and see what they come out as (at this point, I'm guessing 1600 x 1200) next time.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Auto Cool

It's summer time. And for many people, it means having to park their cars out in the hot sun, where they'll sit like baking ovens. If only there was some way to effortlessly keep your car cool, while you're busy working, studying in class, etc.

So a solar-powered fan to blow the hot air out of your car sounds like a pretty good idea, right? Keep waiting, America. It doesn't work.


Actually, I only caught the end of the infomercial that was pushing this product, so I didn't catch any of the details on how it's supposed to work, except that you're supposed to attach it to your window, and it purports to keep your car cool. Car shades for your windshield don't really do much, except maybe keep your steering wheel from becoming scalding hot, but it's still hot in your car. So of course I'm interested when something claims to be able to keep your car cool while it's sitting in the sun (a comfortable 75°, claims the infomercial), and looked it up in Google to find out how it's supposed to work.

With just a dinky little fan, there's no way it will keep your car cool. Even if it's a large fan, when the temperature outside is 90° or higher, how is a fan supposed to keep your car at a cool 75°?

Loco Roco

I downloaded this demo game for my PSP recently. It's quite addictive. You use the L & R buttons to tilt the ground, so that the round creature can roll in the proper direction. You can additionally make it jump over obstacles, split up into smaller creatures, and join back together. All throughout, the creatures are singing an addictive little tune.