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: