Internet as Media

So, Warner Music has made a deal with Youtube. I wonder how that will affect the popularity and business model of the growing, yet potentially sue-able Youtube.Mark Cuban,the multi-million technopreneur says this marks the beginning of the end. So people agree, others don't. Personally, I hope that Youtube survives cos it's a place to see stupid videos when you're bored. So here's a cheer to Youtube, without it, my blog will have a lot of blank white spaces...

Also, there's a new spin off of Youtube called Toodou. It's a Chinese site and so as of now, is relatively unknown in the west. If you need your fix of asian babes however, go there and check it out. It's also proof that silliness comes in many different languages... As proof of that, check out this cute asian girl making spoofing that Numa Numa song.

Just Because I Felt Like It

After teaming up with nooblets against a veteran battle-tested team (well, 3 of 5 players know each other) and flaming out at a glorious 7-4, I wanted to watch this Zelda ad for some murky, base reason. And since this is my blog, it will display this window into my psyche. Just because I damn well feel like it.



P.S - B-Dash!!

Ramblings of an Insomniac

Well, not exactly, but it's 1240am and I can't sleep yet. So I'm here to note down some of the more interesting things that happened over the weekend.

1st off, here's a reminder, just in case some of you didn't notice - I'M WORKING ALREADY. This means no idle chitchat online 8-5, Mondays to Fridays. I say this because I had the following conversation last friday, at around 3pm...

Blur Cock：dota?
Me:WTF？

Yeah... So please, no more such requests. Although I have to admit, it was pretty amusing.

The 2nd thing was the traffic in Chicago. I went up to visit my brother over the weekend and traffic was truly murder. According to Google Maps, we're only 45 miles apart. Traveling at an average of 50 miles an hour, that's about 60-70 minutes of travel (give or take 10 mins or so). In reality, I took 90-100 minutes to travel that distance. The main culprits were the I-94 expressway (where for some insane reason, they shut down the "express" lanes so a 5 lane highway turned into a 2 lane 30mph zone) and Lake Shore Drive by Lake Michigan (there was a Celtic fest there and I travelled maybe 800 metres in 10 minutes). I hate Chicago traffic...

And the last event was on my way back home from Chicago, on that stretch of highway between Chicago and Northern Indiana, my dashboard indicated I was out of gas. It was the most nervewrecking 20 minute drive of my life. From the time I saw that indicator and the time I spotted a gas station sign. I had nightmares of being stranded in the middle of nowhere and having to call for friends to bring gas... Luckily, I had enough to make it to the nearest big town (Calmut City) and fill 'er up.

And so that concludes all the interesting things that happened this weekend. I'm going to try to sleep again...

P.S.
Happy Belated Birthday BSK!! May you get a job soon!!

P.P.S - Kudos to Kwong for pointing out my typo.

A Tale of 3 Posts (Or How I'm Too Lazy To Split 3 Posts)

Okie, since I've blatantly stated the obvious in the title, without further ado, here's post #1.

Happy (Quite) Belated Birthday to #2. Sorry for the uber lag, I was quite caught up in other things. I belanjar you this weekend lah, when you come back.

Post #2: (It would have been fitting for #2's birthday to be this post, but I was late and... I digress) Had my first working lunch today. ZOMG. Started work as usual at 8 in the morning and around 10am, my immediate superior said,"We are having a meeting to discuss a client's work. Wanna come?" Whenever a superior says that, you know you're going to go to that said meeting. What choice did I have? Little did I know that that 10am meeting would only conclude at 3pm and my lunch time was spent in a conference room snacking on a corn beef sandwich. It was long to say the least and I doubt I even said more than 3 minutes worth of anything. On the plus side, I got a look at contractor-fabricator (or sub-contractor) negotiations and learnt a little more about the system I'm working with. Oh well, growing pains I guess.

Post #3: The (Thai) movie Tom Yum Goong is concentrate Uber Awesomenesstic ZOMG Juice. Go and see it if you've ever liked a Gong Fu flick at all. You will NOT Regret it. I remember watching martial arts movies when I was little and feeling the anguish of the protagonist of losing his wife/family/national treasure/honour and relishing every moment of the bad guy(s) suffering(s). I felt that same kind of feeling again watching this movie. And as a guy with a broken knee, I must say I kinda felt like learning martial arts again just to be as cool as him, although I suspect I need some kind of time machine to actually achieve said coolness. So in short, my movie review of Tom Yum Goong (The Protector in the US) is: GO WATCH IT. NOW. IF YOU EVER HAD TESTOSTERONE. SERIOUSLY. GO.


And those are the 3 posts of the day.

有福同享...

有难同当. And the good news is I don't have any sorrows right now so it's just the good things. And what can get better than 7 lovely ladies having a dance battle? Enjoy. I know Zhenz will... Haha.

First Day

So today was the first day at work and it was rather tamer than what I expected. So here's a rough chronological narrative of my day.

6:30 Alarm rang, was supposed to wake up to exercise.
7:00 Realized I turned the alarm off unwittingly. Jolted out of bed. Rapid teeth brushing and instant face washing ensues.
7:15 The most important meal of the day consisted of 1x Honey White bread and 1x plum.
7:30 Started the journey to work. I allowed 10 minutes of extra traffic time.
7:50 Realised that I needed every minute of that extra time as there was some road work along the way. I noticed that the road dividers here are shallow and broad (~ 2inches) and pose no barrier for people who want to turn left or right. Thank god for advanced planning.
8:00 First step into the office. Meekly looked around, practically radiated "newbness". Made myself very easy to pick out from the crowd. Was herded to the relevant division. Settled down and went to see my boss.
8:05 Got first assignment. Reformat data sheets. Boss briefed me and told me who to seek help from.
8:30 Got notice that I would be taking part in a 9am meeting. "Oh My God"-ed.
9:00 Went to meeting. Sat down and shut up and listened. It was a sales meeting chaired by the President. It was interesting to see how the high level people interact and what they discuss.
11:30 Meeting adjourned. Went for Subway lunch.
12:50 Started on the spreadsheet.
13:10 Learnt how to freeze and unfreeze panes in Excel.
13:30 Learnt how to wrap text in a cell.
16:30 Listened to the project managers discuss golfing and how they suck/pwn.
16:50 Started searching for VBA for Excel to Word conversions. Anyone can help me?
17:10 Gave up and went home. Stopped by the toilet and laughed maniacally.

What a day. Waiting for my new laptop to come. Ships 9/21. I can start counting down liao. Haha.

Edit: If you found that boring reading then perhaps this would be more interesting. For guys, and for girls.

WARNING : Controversial Subject Ahead

Fair warning has been given. I wasn't planning to post anything originally but I came across this quote from Stephen Roberts that I found really interesting. Most people who know me well enough probably know that I am non-religious and generally don't like evangelism or any insistence that I must believe in a certain God to save myself from eternal damnation. So I found this following quote simulating. Without further ado here it is.

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."

Please discuss. It's a new concept that I've never thought about before.

Sick Plus Moving

Equals a distinct lack of updates. But I must take some time off from my relentless gulping of fluids to acknowledge all the wishes for my birthday.

Thanks to everyone who remembered (sooner or later) and cared. =) You guys are great. My Fubar Friends (alliteration!), the Champions of Excellence, the friends of the the Champions and especially to my gracious hosts, JX and Mini. Thank you all so much.

I will be posting what pics I had soon. Er when I get better and have internet access up at my new place in IL.

Till then, take care folks. And keep on coming back. I'm not dead! Yet! I Hope. (Unless EBOF makes good her threat...)

Pass My Time

So here I am, on the 2nd day of school, typing out my blog entry. The whole campus sizzles with a mixture of freshmen-enthusiasm and people-getting-lost-frenzies. Yet for me, all of those things are in the past. It's relatively idyllic just settling my housing and getting ready to move up (and on) with life. Now I know why all those people said to treasure your college days and I guess I coulda spent them better if I had a chance, but I don't have any real regrets. I've made good friends throughout my life, tried hard in education, maybe slacked a bit in other aspects and had a generally fun filled existence. But I guess all that is in my past already.

I'm moving tomorrow and it's such a hassle. But at least it's better now that I know the route there much better. Last week, when I went up to confirm the apartment, I got sooo lost. The first time I got lost was when I chose to exit 80/94 on exit 2 which is highway 41 South. I was supposed to go highway 41 North (exit 1) but because of traffic on 80/94 I thought I would save time by going south a bit and turning around. Well, it turned out that the next exit on 41 South was 20 minutes south. So I had to travel 20 minutes south, another 5 minutes west and then 20 minutes north to reach exit 1 on 80/94. Boom 1 hour gone just like that... Oh well, maybe it's time i switched to American Express and have as much success as Andy Roddick.

ViDz

Here are just a couple of vids to while your time away. The first one is about cosplaying, some of these guys (and gals) really take this thing very seriously. Listen to what they say about their characters.



The second is a Coke ad that parodies the walking controversy that is Grand Theft Auto. I think it's pretty cool that someone could take such a "bad" thing and make it into a really nift commercial. Enjoy.

PS3 vs Nintendo Wii. NO CONTEST!!

And here's some people cosplaying as tentacles (from Day of the Tentacles) cosplaying as Zelda. As seen on bits & bytes & pixels & sprites.

An Intro to the Rest Of Your Life...

Well, that's a wrap then. 3 years of college have come and gone and I have a pretty little piece of paper to show for it. And with that piece of paper, I have managed to secure my exit from Unemploymentsville (population: Not Me). That journey started sometime the past Monday, when I made the 100 mile trip to my new work place for an interview. Having arrived 40 minutes early, I parked in the open air car park and reviewed my notes in the car. It was like 32 degrees outside and I was sweating as I put on my tie and suit.

Having spent 20 minutes getting ready, I proceeded into the air-conditioned building to freshen up and announce my arrival. The company was located on the 3rd story and as I exited the elevator, I noticed that the reception was kinda spartan and they had a book about germanic art. My interview would be with the company president, VP and the sales manager. They were all very friendly people and the interview went very smoothly. At the end of the whole process, the president made me an offer and asked if I wanted to wait for about 20 minutes for him to type it up. Right there and then, I wanted to burst out in song and dance, but of course, I calmly said I would wait. So back I went to the reception. The problem was, I had that walking on air kind of feeling that makes your toes feel very light, and I was struggling to control my facial expressions as I wasthiscloseto bursting out in laughter at the reception. I managed to control my impulses and I started flipping through that book about art. The whole book was written in German so I didn't have to spend much time reading the words, but as the cliche goes "A picture is a worth a thousand words", some of the oil works looked very very realistic and it was a good way to while the time away. However, the interview ended around 4:10 pm and when 4:30 came and left, I started to get anxious. That jump for joy feeling became mixed with a "OMG, they changed their minds" sensation that made my stomach knot up. After 4:40, I became acutely aware of each passing moment, alternately trying to keep myself from laughing out for joy and telling myself not to worry. FINALLY, at 4:50pm, the president comes out with this HUGE stack of paper and said that they had printer problems. I got my offer letter, thanked him and walked straight to my car. There, I locked the door and started screaming and yelling for 5 minutes straight. And then I started calling everyone.

So there you have it, my intro to the rest of my life involved an extremely excruciating 15 minute delay. But at least I have started moving on.

It's been awhile

Yeap, it's been awhile since my last post. I just finished a poster session today that involved staying in school till 11pm last night to get *someone's* poster printed and done... But thanks to another pair of people, I managed to get my poster printed out at the last minute without any hassle.

Anyways, something light today. Although the Middle-East situation looks grimmer and grimmer everyday, we can always fallback on a couple things. The first are anecdotes about lawyers and the conversations they have. Taken from the book "Disorder in the American Courts". Pay close attention o lawyer (to-be) friends of mine, and please don't follow in their footsteps.

ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
________________________

ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
____________________________________

ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
WITNESS: Forty-five years.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do.
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
___________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: Uh, he's twenty.
________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Would you repeat the question?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Uh....
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS! : He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy on him!
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Huh?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

Kudos to E.B.O.F. for unearthing that treasure.

Also, as many people know, websites like MySpace, Friendster and Facebook have been proliferating over the last few years. Many of these sites are mere excuses for people to post good looking pics of themselves and flirt or indugle in sometime even more. However, the sobering reality is that what people post online might not be what they are in real life. Here's a quick guide to interpreting MySpace account photos. Enjoy and learn. My apologies if it's too small. Kudos to drunkreport.com for that pic.

Mistress of the Universe! WHAZA?

Astute and toy collectible readers might recognise the pun on He-Man's tagline back in the day.

Anyways, the Miss Universe Pagent just crowned Miss Puerto Rico as 2006's ideal combination of beauty and smarts (female category). I really didn't even know that the pagent was held recently, but I remember what people said about Miss Singapore when she was elected. Well, I don't think she's pretty at all but lets give props to someone who dares to parade herself dressed like this.
Apparently this is our NATIONAL COSTUME. Whazzup with that? I think she looks like a reject from Swamp Thing tryouts (Floral Edition). The little orchids along the sides of her legs especially make her seem like a walking plant. I guess the Singaporean side figured that since she wasn't going to win anyway, why not try to win the "Miss Botanical" award...

Well at least that wasn't the weirdest national costume outfit.
She's all ready to kick ass I see.
I guess the warrior woman theme is in this year.

Haha I could make snide remarks all day long about the pictures, but at least they are pretty and smart (by the organizers standards anyway). I'm just smart. Hehe. Last Miss Universe thing for today, check out this video done for the Jay Leno show. Hilarious.

Human Interests

We live on a planet with over 6 billion people. Everyday there is something interesting, something tragic, something amusing happening. In the interest of my readers, I've decided to present a few happenings around the world. Recently, there has been a heat wave rocking the US. Temperatures have soared to above 33 degrees Celsius with the apparent temperature going as high as 38 degrees C. I park my car in the shade for fear of my shades melting... And from what I hear from #2, China isn't much better either. At least he doesn't have a car, nor shades. Hehe.

Also there has been the potential war in the Middle East. Israel versus any and all terrorist organizations/governments that dare to raid inside its borders. I think Israel practices the Terminator style vengence. I can imagine the silo control that fires the missiles saying "Hasta La Vista, B*tches!!" as they rain explosives on Lebanon. This is one of the reasons I find religion to be a very tricky and touchy subject. Much of the violence in that region can be attributed to differences in regious ethos, albeit extreme distortions of relgion.

Then there was the tsunami in Indonesia. A nation that had been devastated by previous natural disasters has been yet again ravage. My condolences goes out to anyone who has friends or family injured or worse.

Looks like the world is a very dangerous place eh. But sometimes it produces something so weird, so unheard of that you just have to stop, say eh?! and laugh. I present the first of 2 videos to teach Japanese people English. Both of them have sexual connotations and the 2nd one is NSFW. This first video is tamer I believe. You have been warned. But do try to watch it at your own time. I found them hilarious. Here goes, enjoy and I hope they take your mind off the sorrows of the world.

1. You're Sooooooooo Good!


2. I G1\/3 g00d |-|34|).

Ar me Mateys!

So, Pirates 2 is a 2.5 hour movie that is very visually pleasing with tons of undead marine creature/sailors. The central theme plays on the old notion of Davy Jones' locker although the film does add some twists to that concept. However, for a 2.5 hour movie, I found that the plot meandered for quite awhile. It never really resolves anything and I found it essentially to be only half a story. Nevertheless, it was quite enjoyable but the ending really felt very lame to me and was definitely lacking in resolution. So I would say that you should go see it but be prepared to have a weird taste in your mouth as you see the ending.

Well that's Pirates. 僕は最近超不運。エクウプメントを壊すつもりが全然ないけど不用意から壊した。それで先輩たちいまは僕に怒ってる。サイ．。。どうすればいいの。Oh well, like #2 says, 不经一事，不长一智。I try harder!! OSH!!

And I updated Driver as requested. See if it's more balanced now.

Day 2/84

Reading Body-For-Life and the 12 week program that it advocates. On day 2 of 84 and everything seems fine so far. Gotta carry on and try to lose those extra pounds so that some people *cough*Obi-woo*cough* can't make lousy jokes when I sing K anymore.

If you like Calvin and Hobbes (and who doesn't?) here's a link you might want to check out. The top 25 Calvin and Hobbes strips of all time. Well, thats it for now. I'll probably update Driver some other day.

Interesting Finals

Well, there you have it folks. It's a French-Italian connection for your World Cup finals. The path to glory has been littered with the bodies of the coulda/shoulda/woulda beens of 14 other countries. Congratulations to the finalists for having the grit, skills and plain luck to be where they are.

Having said that, I think quite a few people lost money on this finals matchup. My initial prediction of Germany and Brazil certainly bombed. Still, I think it would be fitting for the French to win, seeing as this is the swan song for many of its members. Also, I can't help but think that Italy is a very Wayang team. They should do water sports instead. Always diving and such. (Haha, okie, BAD joke. I know.)

So here's my wild and uneducated prediction. France 2, Italy 1. I don't really have any basis for that. I said it cos it looked good and France wins. =D

I <3 E.B.O.F.!!!!!

My birthday (palgatsu ershiwu) is more than 50 days away and already I have had 2 presents. The first was from my parents, the swanky 300G Seagate HD. The second was something I received today from Ms E.B.O.F. herself. It was a real surprise and I totally didn't expect that. She threw me off by saying she would send me a card, and then turned around and gave me this birthday (palgatsu ershiwu) present instead. Very very sneaky. Hehe. So without further ado, I present E.B.O.F.'s present! I apologise for the low quality pics. My webcam isn't that high-tech.

Up close and personal with the title shot.

The Tshirt in its totality.

Me showing off! palgatsu ershiwu!!

Well there you have it. My birthday (palgatsu ershiwu) present from E.B.O.F. It's da bomb. So here's a BIG THANK YOU/고마워/アリガトウ/谢谢/terma kasih to E.B.O.F.

P.S. The lesson learnt here is - Promote your birthday (palgatsu ershiwu) early, promote it often and you just might get a Mario T-shirt.

edit - Changed my birthday from English and roman numerals to something else. At the behest of certain individuals.

真堕落

不知为什么，最近真的很放肆。真的不能这样下去。好！就从今天开始，我的生活会有持续，会有一定的目标！！そうだ、これから本当に生きいてるぞう！怠け者になるはダメ。オシ！頑張れ！

Well, that's saying something. I'm pretty confident that I can hammer myself into shape. Both mentally and physically. Else I'm just slacking my life away. And besides, I need to get into shape so that EBOF can send me my lipstick right? Hehe.

Anyways, on to less introspective stuff, Detective Conan (柯南小侦探) is a great series. Even though it's 10 years old now, it's such a pleasure to see how Conan uses his wits to solve mysteries. I highly recommend getting it if you are Sherlock Holmes fan. Too bad I didn't get the DVD set as my present (hmmm....stares at the relevant people) but thanks to my parents' in-advance birthday (25TH AUGUST!!) present (a sweet 300G HD), I have all the space in the world to download all 175 episodes of that great series. YAY!!

Remember ya'll, Only One Truth Prevails! 真実はいつも一つ！

Sorry, no vidz this time. (Saves a lot of space, doncha think?)