Dysenchanted

In the fairy tales, the stories almost always end with the hero and the princess finally getting married, and they live happily ever after...

In real life, things aren't so easy. Imagine what these fairy tale princesses would have to go through after the fairy tale ends. They'd probably need lots of therapy. I saw this last year, I think. Something made me think of it tonight, so I checked for it on YouTube.

Cast:

The Doctor - James Belushi
Goldilocks - Alexis Bledel (of Gilmore Girls)
Sleeping Beauty - Sarah Wynter (was on 24 for a little over a year)
Snow White - Shiva Rose McDermott
Alice - Jaime Bergman
Cinderella - Laura Kightlinger (host of Stand-Up Stand-Up)
Dorothy - Jill Small
Little Red Riding Hood - K.D. Aubert
Clara (the normal girl) - Amy Pietz (Caroline in the City)

More FlavorWave action

I took my hands at trying a "baked" version of 鹽酥雞 (a Taiwanese version of fried chicken nuggets), inspired by the "Oven-fried Chicken Fingers" I saw on Ham on the Street on Food Network. As you can see from the dark color, I probably added too much soy sauce in my marinade. Otherwise, the taste was okay, though nothing spectacular. I'll have to try again some other time.

Grandma

My grandmother arrived in the US for her annual visit from Taiwan last week. Since she's staying with mom, who moved further away, it's harder for us to see each other, we met together for lunch on Sunday.

Kyle XY/John Doe

Kyle XY is a new series on ABC Family, which bears some interesting similarities to the (cancelled) Fox series, John Doe. Even though the promo says, "only on ABC Family," they'll actually re-air the same episode on Friday nights on their non-cable ABC affiliates.

So far, the similarities of the two, which is the basic premise of the title characters, are as follows:

• Kyle/John wakes up naked, in the fetal position, in the middle of a wooded area.
• Kyle/John have no recollection of who he is.
• Kyle/John seemingly has incredible mental capabilities.
• Kyle/John appears to be tracked by a covert organization.
• There is something physically different about Kyle/John from most people, which may be a clue to his past.
  

Differences:

• Kyle is in his teens, John is in his 30s.
• Kyle wakes up covered with goo, in a wooded area (park?) inside the city. John wakes up in a wooded area on an isolated island.
• John sees (almost) everything in black and white, Kyle can see in color.
• Kyle doesn't seem to possess any general knowledge in terms of human language and social behavior, but is a quick learner and seem to know most/all of the rules of things scientific/mathematical (i.e. things that have rigid rules), while John can speak various languages, and seem to know every little fact there is to know in the world, except that of his own past. Not much is known about his learning capacity, since he seems to already know everything.
  
• The distinguishing "mark" on John that might provide a link to his past is a mysterious symbol found on his body. On Kyle, it's a non-mark--the lack of a belly button.
• Aside from advanced mental capacity, Kyle seems to also possess advanced physical abilities--he can move quicker than most people, and can jump down from the roof uninjured. I don't recall John displaying any special physical abilities.
  

Obviously, I find the premise interesting, and aside from the initial similarities, it seems like the two shows are going in different directions. I'll be keeping an eye on this new show, although I've already noticed some not-so-well-thought-out things in the first episode alone.

• When Kyle first speaks, the family assume (albeit correctly) that he "learned how to speak in just one day," rather than assume what should be more likely in typical situations--Kyle already learned how to speak when he was much younger, but something traumatic caused him to stop speaking, until the time they heard him speak.
• After finishing the hours-long math tests in mere minutes, Kyle is taken for a brain scan. The technicians then freak out over how the machines is showing Kyle as using so much of his brain, when the normal person uses only 7% of his/her brain, and how Einstein used 9%... which is an urban legend that's often repeated in the media.
• The father of the family that takes Kyle in is fixing a friend's computer, and just as he gets it back up and running, he accidently spills a cup of water over the keyboard, causing the computer to get fried... in reality, all that would do is create a messed-up keyboard. Spilled water on your keyboard is not going to fry your computer, unless your actual computer components were underneath your keyboard (like, say, on a laptop computer).
• Kyle sees the algorithms of a digital picture on the messed up computer before the screen goes blank, then goes to a nearby laptop, type in the same algorithms, and brings up the same picture... would only be possible if he entered it in a binary or hex editor. I also find it unlikely that they only want that one picture.
  

You'd think they'd get some technical consult before making the show. If even I know these things, the technical consultant would only have to be a college grad. Heck, I bet some high school kids would know all these things, too.

No matter what a stripper tells you...

Don't go to parties with metal detectors...
Sure, it feels safe inside, but what about all those ni***s waiting outside with guns?
They know you ain't got one.

The O.D.B. couldn't have possibly committed all those crimes.
Coolio did some of that sh**!

If a girl has a pierced tongue, she'll probably suck your d***.
If a guy has a pierced tongue, he'll probably suck your d***.

Here's a horoscope for everyone:
Aquarius - You're gonna die.
Capricorn - You're gonna die.
Gemini - You're gonna die twice.
Leo - You're gonna die.
Scorpio - You're gonna die f***in'.


Edit: I should mention... if you haven't heard this "song," where have you been?? As Chris Rock says in the beginning, this was made back in 1999. It's a parody of the song "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" by Baz Luhrmann--the lyrics of which came from Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune. Back in 1998, the "sunscreen" speech had been circulated around the Internet, incorrectly attributed to Kurt Vonnegut as a commencement speech that he gave at MIT. Regardless, it's still solid advice.

Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain

Apparently, there is a new martial arts series being filmed called 雪山飛狐, based on the novel by 金庸 (Jinyong) of the same name. My favorite Chinese actress, Athena Chu, is in it. The actress you see in the preview image is Gillian Chung.

More movies

I picked up some older DVDs--Stay, Wicked, and Wicker Park. I actually wanted to see Stay when it was in the theaters, but didn't, and didn't pick up the DVD when it was released because I remember reading bad reviews about it.

Having watched it, I've just reaffirmed my belief that I should take what the critics say with a grain of salt. Without spoiling it, I'll just say that it's another one of those movies, though they purposely include many things throughout the movie, so if you haven't guessed at the ending, then it's probably your first experience with "one of those movies."

Wicked is Julia Stiles' first leading role, not to be confused with the recent Broadway musical. I decided to pick that up instead of Save the Last Dance. Seemed more like my kind of movie.

Wicker Park is one of those movies that is half told through character flashbacks, from the vantage points of different characters, retelling related events, like 11:14 or Snatch... but not as many different characters. I think the official trailer for the movie gave too much of the plot away, and kind of spoils the fun. Little tidbit--Rose Byrne and Diane Kruger co-starred in this film with Josh Hartnett, and were both in the movie Troy with Brad Pitt.

Downloading videos from YouTube (and other video sites)

Apparently, there are now several options available for people who wish to download the videos from the popular sites. The safest one is probably the bookmarklet from 1024k.de.

If you download videos from YouTube, the file will be in FLV format (Flash Video). If you want a more "flexible" format that can be played on more than just your computer, you can convert it with SUPER.

K-Ci & JoJo - Crazy

I heard this song on the radio last month, and immediately liked it. Then I looked it up and found out that it's not a new song, but one that's been out since 2001. While listening to my MP3's tonight, this song came up on the queue, so I decided to see if anyone had uploaded the music video for it, and found out that it's from the soundtrack of Save the Last Dance. I might pick that up on DVD, since I do like Julia Stiles.

Be more inquisitive

I picked up the second season of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! on DVD on Saturday. It's a TV series on Showtime that attempts to debunk things they believe to be unscientific (albeit somewhat one-sidedly). It's an interesting series to watch, and while some things they debunk should be obvious to most people, others are not (and they may not always be right). The point is to remind their viewers to be more analytical and better informed when someone tells you something passed off as fact, especially if it's something that would cause you to change your lifestyle or perceptions.



For instance, my mom recently forwarded me an email warning about saccharin--that it's been found to cause cancer in lab rats. The email further confuses the issue, as it seems to think all artificial sweeteners are the same--it's mostly in Chinese, and seemed to be talking about aspartame (阿斯巴甜) through most of the email, but uses "saccharin" in English near the end of the message. These are two very different artificial sweeteners. (Yet another different artificial sweetener is sucralose, known to most of us as Splenda, although this was not mentioned in the email.)

I dislike all of the artificial sweeteners I've tried, so it makes no difference to me anyway, but this was something that I've known about for years--back when the warning label was on the Sweet'n Low packages (which is what most of us know saccharin as, or "the pink stuff"; aspartame, on the other hand, is typically known as NutraSweet, and also the main ingredient in Equal).

If you go out and find some Sweet'n Low packages today, you'll find that they no longer carry the warning about saccharin. That's because they've found out that the original lab tests that say saccharin caused cancer was tempered with--the "scientists" purposely gave the lab rats an insane amount of saccharin, which gave them cancer. If you gave those lab rats the same amount of anything, it would be just as bad. So, the warning was removed.

How do I know this? Well, a few years ago, as I was about to warn some friends about Sweet'n Low by showing them the warning label, I couldn't locate the warning on the packaging. Afterwards, I searched to find out why they would be able to remove such a serious warning from their packaging.

But don't take my word for it.

Frogs on a Plane!

On Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report Wednesday night, his "Threat Down" list was topped with "Conservationists," who snug frogs into their carry-ons to their flight. This led to his joke referencing the upcoming Snakes on a Plane movie with Samuel L. Jackson...

"Be vigilant, nation! We can't book Samuel L. Jackson on every flight. I am tired of these muthaf***ing frogs!"

Sarah Silverman

A "love song" from Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, after talking about her "offensive jokes," which she realized that she won't say in front of people who she'd be afraid of.

The title of the movie comes from one of her jokes in it, where she talks about the different religions her and her boyfriend (Jimmy Kimmel), who are Jewish and Catholic, respectively. People would ask her how they would raise their children (if they ever have any) as far as religion was concerned, and she'd just tell the kids the truth. "Mommy is one of the Chosen People, and daddy believes that Jesus is magic."

Lewis Black - Black on Broadway

I've seen parts of this on HBO, but never caught the whole thing. It's about an hour long, and was filmed back in 2003.

Update: HBO will air his new special, "Red, White & Screwed," this Saturday.

Late night movies

Last night I caught most of a movie called "Dead End" on cable. In case you're wondering what that has to do with the music video of Aerosmith's "Hole In My Soul"... it's that they both feature actress Alexandra Holden, whom you might recognize from the sitcom Friends, where she played the girlfriend and former student of Ross (and also daughter to Bruce Willis' character when he guest starred on Friends), Elizabeth, for several episodes. (Their characters broke up at the season finale taping which I attended--it's "The One With the Proposal," when Chadler and Monica got engaged.)

Anyway, it was an interesting movie. I missed about the first 20 minutes, so had to gather information about what I missed online, but the basic premise is simple--A family (along with the daughter's boyfriend) is on their way to a Christmas Eve dinner with the father's mother-in-law. The father decides, for the first time in 20 years, to take a shortcut instead of going on the main road. While on the road, they encounter a woman dressed in white, wandering in the woods, with her baby. They offer to give the woman a ride, after which strange things start to happen. It's like being stuck in a nightmare or The Twilight Zone.

I won't say what other movies this movie reminded me of, as that would spoil the ending. Overall, this movie was better than I expected it to be, and I think it's too bad that Alexandra Holden hasn't hit the big time yet.

Sometimes you can't avoid stupid drivers

Ken and I were talking at the barbecue last weekend about the lack of safety with motorcycles, the impetus being that one of George's guests arrived on a motorcycle, and as he was leaving, we saw him all decked out in his motorcycle gear.

So I told Ken about this video, which I saw a few months ago. Apparently, the guy who swerved and hit the rider actually tried to blame her! Luckily, she got the whole thing on video, from her helmet cam.

A few weeks later, I saw the girl (Dawn Champion) on the local news, where they played the same video, and interviewed her. I also just found an online news article about it.

YouTube hacked?

So I log onto YouTube... or should I say, tried to log onto YouTube, a few minutes ago, and saw this message. And obviously, none of my embedded videos on the blog is working. It seems like they might have been hacked, although it could just as easily be some maintenance update. But there weren't any announcements about it...

Update: I just checked their site again. There's now an additional message: "No, we haven't been hacked. Get a sense of humor."

Update 2: Now they have two more update items, "Apparently we can't spel." and "Please stop calling the office, we're trying to work in here."

I blame the OS

About four weeks ago, we went to Midori Sushi in Studio City. I brought along my digital camera and snapped a few pics, but when I got home and plugged the memory card in the card reader, none of the new pics were shown, while some of the older pics that I thought I had deleted from the card were. I remembered that earlier that day I had moved the older pics from the card to my computer, and after waiting for the card reader to show it was no longer reading the card, and making sure the pics were on the computer, removed the card. However, I still got an error message on the computer about not being able to read the card afterwards. I didn't think too much of it at the time, figuring it was just the stupid OS acting up.

But now, my new pics were gone, even though they were all there when I took them. Placing the card back into the camera didn't bring them back. Luckily, I remembered that I had gotten SanDisk's Rescue Pro program, so I decided to give it a whirl. It retrieved most of the pics, although for one of them, about 2/5 of the pic was corrupted. So I cropped out the bad parts, and it still looks okay.