Curry-n-Rice Girl

...

I have no words to describe this.

We've been lied to!

Star Estimator

What do these celebrities have in common?

One, they're all listed in the celebrity list of Analogia's Star Estimator site.
Two, they were shown as the results of my pics, which Analogia said matched me.

I really don't see any resemblance, so either they need more celebrities on their list, or need to somehow fine-tune their matching program.

This is my most recent result, which actually used the same photo as the second one I tried. It's slightly different from before, where Hugh Jackman has been removed, Tom Cruise moved into the second match, and Ricky Martin is added in.

Fairy Tale

On a whim, I decided to search YouTube for the song that my brother and his friends have been singing a lot of at KTV, 童話.

As it turns out, many people have uploaded this music video to YouTube. Couldn't find it on Google Video, though.

童話
作詞：光良　作曲：光良
編曲：Taichi Nakamura (Bluesofa)

忘了有多久　再沒聽到你　對我說你最愛的故事
我想了很久　我開始慌了　是不是我又做錯了甚麼

你哭著對我說　童話裡都是騙人的　我不可能是你的王子
也許你不會懂　從你說愛我以後　我的天空星星都亮了
我願變成童話裡　你愛的那個天使　張開雙手變成翅膀守護你
你要相信　相信我們會像童話故事裡　幸福和快樂是結局

你哭著對我說　童話裡都是騙人的　我不可能是你的王子
也許你不會懂　從你說愛我以後　我的天空星星都亮了
我願變成童話裡　你愛的那個天使　張開雙手變成翅膀守護你
你要相信　相信我們會像童話故事裡　幸福和快樂是結局

我要變成童話裡　你愛的那個天使　張開雙手變成翅膀守護你
你要相信　相信我們會像童話故事裡　幸福和快樂是結局

我會變成童話裡　你愛的那個天使　張開雙手變成翅膀守護你
你要相信　相信我們會像童話故事裡　幸福和快樂是結局　一起寫我們的結局


The movie they're watching in the music video (to which the girl comments--"How can something like this happen?") is the 1995 Japanese movie, Love Letter.


Lyrics translation:

Fairy Tale
Music/Lyrics: Michael Wong
Arrangements: Taichi Nakamura (Bluesofa)

Forgot how long it's been since I've heard you tell me about the story you love the most
I pondered this for a long time, and I start to worry--Did I do something wrong again?

In tears, you said to me--All the things in fairy tales are lies--It's impossible for me to be your prince
Maybe you don't understand, from the moment you said you love me, all the stars in my sky lit up
I'm willing to become the angel that you love in the fairy tales, open my arms, turn them into wings to protect you
You have to believe, believe that we will be like in fairy tales, and live happily ever after as our ending

In tears, you said to me--All the things in fairy tales are lies--It's impossible for me to be your prince
Maybe you don't understand, from the moment you said you love me, all the stars in my sky lit up
I'm willing to become the angel that you love in the fairy tales, open my arms, turn them into wings to protect you
You have to believe, believe that we will be like in fairy tales, and live happily ever after as our ending

I want to become the angel that you love in the fairy tales, open my arms, turn them into wings to protect you
You have to believe, believe that we will be like in fairy tales, and live happily ever after as our ending

I will become the angel that you love in the fairy tales, open my arms, turn them into wings to protect you
You have to believe, believe that we will be like in fairy tales, and live happily ever after as our ending
Together, write our ending

30-feet-tall mechanical elephant

This is pretty cool. Apparently, this was in France last year. In addition to the elephant, there were many other things, including a giant girl.

I'd love to see them in person.

Speaking of SNL...

I tried to upload to Google Video, but they're being lame. The videos need to be verified, which takes a long time, and it doesn't make sense that they would allow SNL's "Lazy Sunday (The Chronic(WHAT)cles of Narnia)," but not their Mike Myers/Kanye West skit. So I've uploaded it to YouTube, instead.

First off, unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard about Hurricane Katrina.

If you live in the U.S., you've probaby heard about the above snippet from a Hurricane Katrina relief telethone that aired on NBC, in which hip-hop artist Kanye West made his "controversial" statement. He was accompanied by comedian Mike Myers, who was apparently shocked by his statement, before NBC quickly cut them off and switched to Chris Tucker.

About a month later, Kanye West was the musical guest on SNL, where they made the aforementioned skit.

We Love the Chronic... WHAT?

...cles of Narnia.

This one's been making the rounds.

It's a Saturday Night Live skit from a couple of week ago. Some folks recorded into their computers, and now they're showing up on a bunch of online video sites.

I had to look it up on the Internet, myself

This video/animation was made to mock the coherence of the song "Sugar, We're Goin' Down" by Fall Out Boy, as well as the "emo culture."

I did have some trouble understanding parts of the lyrics the few times I heard this song on the radio, so I looked up the actual lyrics on the Internet. This is supposed to be accurate:

Sugar, We're Goin' Down

Am I more than you bargained for yet?
I've been dying to tell you anything you want to hear
'Cause that's just who I am this week
Lie in the grass, next to the mausoleum
I'm just a notch in your bedpost
But you're just a line in a song
(A notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song)

Drop a heart, break a name
We're always sleeping in, and sleeping for the wrong team

We're going down, down in an earlier round
And Sugar, we're going down swinging
I'll be your number one with a bullet
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down in an earlier round
And Sugar, we're going down swinging
I'll be your number one with a bullet
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it

Is this more than you bargained for yet?
Oh, don't mind me, I'm watching you two from the closet
Wishing to be the friction in your jeans
Isn't it messed up how I'm just dying to be him?
I'm just a notch on your bedpost
But you're just a line in a song
(Notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song)

Drop a heart, break a name
We're always sleeping in, and sleeping for the wrong team

We're going down, down in an earlier round
And Sugar, we're going down swinging
I'll be your number one with a bullet
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down in an earlier round
And Sugar, we're going down swinging
I'll be your number one with a bullet
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it

Down, down in an earlier round
And Sugar, we're going down swinging
I'll be your number one with a bullet
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down in an earlier round (Take aim at myself)
And Sugar, we're going down swinging (Take back what you said)
I'll be your number one with a bullet (Take aim at myself)
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down (down, down)
Down, down (down, down)
We're going down, down (down, down)
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down in an earlier round (Take aim at myself)
And Sugar, we're going down swinging (Take back what you said)
I'll be your number one with a bullet (Take aim at myself)
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it


There is at least one other "interpretational video" out there, which seems to be using the correct lyrics, but it makes me wonder if the people involved are a bunch of 12-year-olds... particularly on the "Sugar, we're going down swinging" line.

OMG Friday the 13th

I just realized today that last Friday was on the 13th. Maybe that explains me having lost my paycheck...

¬_¬

Nah.


Last Friday, Joyce IM'd me about watching Memoirs of a Geisha that night. It was also the same day I get one of my paychecks. Normally, I'd go and deposite the check right after work, but as trying to catch an early showing of the movie right after work would leave us rather rushed, I decided to place my paycheck in my inner coat pocket, to be deposited afterwards.

So, after the movie, dinner, and taking Joyce home, I stopped by the ATM near home to deposite my check, and found... it was gone! Everything else was still in my pocket, but my paycheck had conspicuously gone missing. It was a singularly strange event. I double-checked my car, and went back to the restaurant--the only place I had taken off my jacket, and found nothing.

Luckily, a few people still come to the office on Saturdays, so I dropped by, was given a new check (which I deposited promptly), and they will contact the bank to stop the other check.

The world's worst job

Saw this video about a month or so ago. And as usual, didn't think to save the link. Luckily, most of these things make their way to Google Video at some point.

Possible trip to Canada

My boss is attending a conference that will be held in Vancouver next week, and wants to film the conference speeches for the website--as long as he has official permission. So if he does get permission, he will need extra help for the process, and so I will go with him.

I guess it might be interesting. Plus it would be my first visit to Canada, and I might be able to meet up with Victoria and some of my relatives. I don't really want to contact them about it until I know for sure that I will be going.

Sweet natural lighting

Shortly after I moved into my current apartment, I took to changing all of the light bulbs within to compact fluorescent bulbs to save energy. After I installed the first CFL bulb, I found two things that disappointed me.

1. The bulbs I got did not initially light up to their full brightness. It took a few minutes before they were fully lit.
2. The color of the light that came forth from these bulbs were yellowish, similar to their incandescent counterparts. I had hoped that, being fluorescent, they would more closely resemble their tube-shaped cousins.

Still, they would save me some money in electricity bills, and I supposedly wouldn't have to replace them nearly as often as the incandescent bulbs, so I stayed with using them.

After using them, I've noticed that my indoor pictures, where I am loath to use the camera flash unless absolutely necessary, are all turning out very yellow. In other words, I am getting atrocious lighting from these bulbs.

Last week, I was finally fed up with it and decided to look for alternatives. Fortunately, I found some online stores that have "natural lighting" or "full spectrum" CFL bulbs. Good news for me, but I wasn't sure if they will truly be "white light" as advertised, so I decided to see if I could find any at the local stores. My search turned out in vain, and I ended up trying some incandescent "Reveal" bulbs by GE, which visually isn't much better, although in photos they show up better than my old CFLs. There seems to be very little difference between them and the regular incandescent bulbs in my photos, however.

So I went ahead and ordered the CFLs from online, which were rated at 50,000 Kelvin for color temperature.

They work well. I now finally have white light, and they light up fully without delay. Now if only the CFL 3-way bulb from them had brighter low settings...


On a side note, I don't know what that white stuff is at the bottom right corner of the standard incandescent pic... it certainly wasn't anything I placed there when I was taking the picture. Spooky.

In-N-Out Burger

3x3 burger with grilled onions
Fries, well done
Large drink

RAID rebuilding

One of the hard drives in the main RAID server at work went down again last Friday. Ideally, with three drives in RAID 1 mode, the mirrored drive should have gone to the backup and tried to rebuild itself in the background.

But that's not what happened. Instead, I had to reboot, go into the RAID tools, and try and get it to rebuild from there.

Unfortunately, it seemed to have gotten stuck at 22% since Friday afternoon, and remained so all weekend. It was only through luck and perseverance that I was able to get it seemingly back on track, as it's now gone past 22%, and hopefully will be back to 100% by the time I get back to work tomorrow.

Finished Dragon Quest VIII

Sort of. I defeated Rhapthorne, the final boss character, and then there's a sequence involving the lifting of the curse and the princess' marriage. But a new quest opens up after this, and you're given a chance for a save game with everything your characters have right before you started the final boss fight.

I sort of knew it coming in, because there are "Infamous Monsters" which don't become available until you "beat" the game.

Reading online, there's mention of how this new quest is about the Hero character's background. Not really a surprise here. It was almost immediately obvious, once you reached Argonia in the game, that the Hero is the son of Eltrio, the king's older brother who disappeared.

And unless I'm completely off-track here, it seems very likely that Munchie--the little mouse/hamster the Hero carries around--is actually Chen Mui in disguise; Chen Mui being one of the elders who magically shows up to guide the party through the town.


So I guess finishing this quest will make an alternate ending available, as it should make the Hero the son of Eltrio and Xia, who would have ruled Argonia if Eltrio hadn't died. So having the princess of Trodain marry the Hero would still fulfill the old promise between Trodain and Argonia... and it was too much to expect the current king to find out about the Hero's past and halt the wedding between Medea and Charmles.