Ubiquity

Ubiquity

It's the buzz of pretty much every tech site I've visited today. Mozilla has come out with a sort of uber extension for your browser...where you can bring everything you want in the web to you, instead of the other way around.

Trying it out right now. There's isn't much that I don't already have a quick search engine up in the corner for already, but it feels pretty cool to use. :-)

degrees of separation

Commercials featuring songs by bands with members who are good friends with friends of mine. One of them is Jamie's friend. :-)

Tally Hall - "The Whole World and You"
Crayola

Noah and the Whale - "5 Years Time"
Saturn

need more protein

My easy meals are uninspired, but always yummy since I put what I know I want in. Really, the key of cooking. :-) Sometimes I follow recipes that look yummy, and I pick up the spices they ask for, which I'm most likely unfamiliar with, and then it's all "interesting" and unexpected. Good for sometimes, but not good for quick meals after TKD.

Pasta with one of three options:

• pasta sauce and mozzarella (if lucky!)
  
• a can of white clam sauce (yum!)
  
• just olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper (ghetto pesto)
  
• peanut butter, soy sauce, and sriracha (hot sauce) (the alternative to the peanut butter ramen we all know and love if I've made it for you, but for when I don't feel like digging up a packet of soup base)
  

With the frequency that I cook, it keeps me well entertained enough. :-) I'm ready to eat on $2 a day...(why does that seem high? Is it because I eat a half a box at a time?)

And for a dash of protein, I'll hard boil an egg. Anything that lets me put a pot to boil and wander off for a few minutes = win.

yum, homebrew

In case you didn't know: You can now easily hack your Wii to play DVDs and also add a nice little Homebrew channel for other things, like DOOM. DOOM!!!

All you need is a copy of Twilight Princess, and a (probably dedicated) SD card. And a minimal amount of effort, for such a substantial hack.

It'll be my weekend project!

sibling rivalry

So maybe this is turning into a commercial blog. No matter. I love the Mannings. The Williams sisters are okay. The concept is beyond silly, and I only like the actual commercial (until 0:35). And I think I only like the commercial because the line "It's on like Donkey Kong" is used.

Pimp My Portfolio

This is a random commercial that I just saw on the TBS World's Funniest Commercials special. It has a special place in my heart because back when I was in Germany for a summer, all I had for a week in the empty basement of darkness and neighbors I never saw and the empty fridge was a TV that only displayed in green that had maybe 3 channels. One of them was MTV. OMG English. Yay. And Pimp My Ride was ALWAYS on. I don't know why. And that show was ridiculous. So is this commercial.

Also, YESSSS they're now playing that Jackie Chan commercial I love that's for Visa when he's trying to "get into the Olympic games"...

a break from excellence

Well, the Olympics are over. Time to see some..."different" gymnastics. Sent to me by my coworker, Megha, this is Paul Hunt performing one of his famous comedic gymnastics routines...this time on the balance beam. In case you're thinking "wtf, he seems to actually know his stuff" it's because he actually was a competitive gymnast, at least on the collegiate level. He went on to coach!

Okay, but seriously, man feet and man legs on that 4 inch balance beam? That's really impressive.

today's Rite Aid haul

So last week at TKD, one of the little girls gave me an orange. It's actually still in my bag. Goodness knows that fruit stays in my bag for at least 2 weeks before I eat it unless it starts to rot.

Anyway, today she comes up to me and she asked "Do you have something for me?"

"What do you mean, Sarah?"

"Well I gave you an orange last week; hello???"

"Oh, okay, I'm so sorry, I'll give you something on Wednesday, okay?"

So anyway, we talked about what she wanted. I was hoping she wanted like, a peach, but she wanted makeup. So I think she's 7 years old. And I know she has a pretty big collection of Lip Smackers. What else is appropriate for a 7 yr old? Oh well. I got some other brand of lip gloss. I hope she doesn't hate it. The wrath of a child is the harshest.

OH, but reason why M&Ms are the pic of the day. I went into Rite Aid to get Sarah her present. ("Maybe you can pick something up when you get on the bus!" Cute. I used to think airplanes were marketplaces in the sky.) I had a craving for Whoppers last week so I got a carton of those. While in the candy aisle, I saw that M&Ms were on sale. Got two 10+ oz bags of those. Yikes. And a box of microwave popcorn. Go me!!! I did "day 2" of my pushups again today. So far over the course of a week and a half I've done day 1, day 2 and...day 2. =P

food coma

Hello.

No matter how yummy the $6 large pizza is on Monday evenings, you should probably put it in the fridge after having about 3 slices. Because. Half a pizza is not good for work. Or TKD. But I have an hour and a half to digest until then so let's hope.

Now that the Olympics are over, I'm gonna spend some time at home streaming some things I missed. And then I'll be back to full non-productivity not having to do with the Olympics.

status report!

Well, since I clearly declared the 3 things I'm trying to spruce things up here, I should offer an update. Don't know if I'll have time this weekend!

Hundred pushups: Eh, I sort of started it, which was an accomplishment in itself. :-) But I guess I find pushups pretty boring in the end. You have to do 5 sets with a minute or two rest in between. I don't have the attention span for that. It's pretty sad. The rest in between sets is what gets me. I can waste time perfectly well, but purposefully waiting and wasting time, not so good. And not enough can get done in a minute! Maybe I'll stretch in between.

Moleskine journal: Been going pretty well! But I like to blab to myself, and the pages are small, so it's really easy to feel like I've accomplished something in writing a page or two. I need to remember to write in it while I'm at home too.

Listerine Pre-Brush Whitening Mouthwash: I bought this after my friend recommended it. Not for the whitening part, but just that it gets your teeth really clean. It's pretty fun. Bubbling action is always a big seller. It does NOT taste as bad as everyone keeps complaining about. However, I have to admit that the mouthwash hardly touches my tongue at all since I don't gargle--just get the stuff around my teeth. Maybe it is actually god-awful. But you should be able to rinse without having to immerse your tongue too much. Anyway, I've only ended up using it twice (opening a bottle is too much effort for me...). We'll see!

Well that's the recap of week 1. Look at the original post if you don't know what I'm talking about.

I rode my bike to work yesterday, which is carried over from my last set of life sprucing purchases!

I'm surprised at myself

I talk the talk sometimes, but let's face it, I'm not actually sentimental about most things. I'm not sure if I'm just grasping at anything to miss college for, but I am truly grateful for and miss the Yale TKD team. I still train here, but it's not the same.

Here's a random picture of a dude from Taiwan (Chinese Taipei, whatever) who won bronze in his weight class. =P



I have been staying up late streaming TKD on nbcolympics.com. It's partially because I've grown fond of the sport, yes, and also because I miss Olympic sparring over the Point sparring style I've been forced to do now, but at some point I realized as I was watching that all I wanted to do was e-mail my tkd team, talk to them about sparring, and psych them up. As if there were a tournament coming up. As if I were still on the team now, less am one year removed from a team that has upped the training about 10 fold since I left and probably know better than I do now. But I still sent an e-mail to a list I created (the chat list :-)) as if they still, or ever, looked to me for leadership.

In fact I want to send them an e-mail right now and tell them to watch a match I just saw, to see how the girl from Taiwan checked with the front leg a few times before most of her fast kicks, effectively used the axe kick and even some jumping back kicks...

But I won't. For now.

I've lost sleep and basically my life due to the Olympics. (On TV and streaming on my laptop at the same time.) And I'm all the more addicted to caffeine.

The Olympics really are the equivalent of a fake Hallmark holiday...but in sports! I also heard the Olympics being called the reality TV of sports. SIGH.

I'm posting because I feel like I owe the blog a hello. HELLO!!!

Life is a bit insane at the moment. Nothing big to talk about; most of it is happening in my head. :-)

JB visiting was really nice. I love visitors!

mosaic me

Somethin' somethin' that's been going around Tumblr.

Type your answer to the questions into flickr search
- using only the first page, pick an image
- copy and paste each of the urls of the mosaic maker

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3.What high school did you go to?

4.What is your favorite color?

5.Who is your celebrity crush?

6.What is your favorite drink?

7.What is your dream vacation?

8.What is your favorite dessert?

9.What do you want to do when you grow up?

10.Who/ what do you love most in life?

11.Choose one word that describes you?

12.What is your Flickr name?



Try not to judge me. :-) I honestly had no good answers to 5, 6, 9, or 11...at least...
Also be proud. It took a lot of willpower not to choose the random cat option for a lot of them. =P Even pizza had at least two cat picture hits.

1. Tempio di Diana (reloaded), 2. Pizza Porn, 3. Hunter perked up, 4. An Appointment with Indigo, 5. Jonathan Togo as Ryan Wolfe, 6. FUZE: We like WHITE TEA ©, 7. Welcome to Jamaica., 8. Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bottom Cheesecake, 9. Asian Kung-fu Generation, 10. Brother & Sister Cuddle, 11. apathetic, 12. Muroo Dam

I lied

I think I said before that I don't care about track and field. Apparently it's more that I forgot that I liked track. :-) Hated cross country though. Okay, even that's a lie. Ugh, fine. I think I only like track because they gave out medals for the top 6 places in indoor track and the top 15 or so in cross country, and I got my first non-math team (shut up) awards from it.

Also I love Jamaicans. They remind me of Cool Runnings. WHICH STILL MAKES ME SHED A TEAR AT THE END.

sweet happy love love

I'm so glad the Olympics in China means that this commercial gets more airtime. I just think it's really cute. Time for me to go to a market to find myself a cute and endearingly clumsy market boy.

get your laptop on (the plane)

TSA approved laptop bags that will lower your risk of having to take it out of the bag...

Considering the way I pack, I'd have to have the laptop within another carryon anyway, so I guess I'd still have to take it out. Backpacks rule. They hold all of the essentials...laptop, underwear, chargers, yeah.

reasons I want a roommate

Have I ever mentioned how much I love this Target commercial? Also, let's face it, you're more likely to be in a situation of decorating such a large room after leaving college than when you're in it. Two rugs??? I think we had a bath rug in ours...that barely fit.

changing the pace

I'm sure you've all heard it before, but I find when I'm in a rut, I grab for anything new to help make life more interesting, and have it carry over to my general happiness.

Once upon a time, it was starting this blog. :-) (Also my spinbrush toothbrush, the bicycle, watercolor painting...)

This new round of new things:

Starting a new paper journal! My last one was getting ratty, but also not very used. It was really cool when it lasted though and I love reading it. I took it to Taiwan and Europe and it outlined my main phases of boys...:-)


A workout plan to do a 100 pushups at the end. Hopefully doing it with Warren and maybe my officemate. Though, if I get past week 2 I'll be really surprised. I think my favorite pushup related workout is actually the 50 pushup warmup...where you do 50 pushups, broken up into as many sets as you want...as long as you're doing crunches when you're not doing pushups. Damn. That kicked my ass the one time I had to do it. Anyway, I technically have to do 50 pushups for my black belt exam...


Listerine Pre-Brush Whitening Mouthwash - Guys, this totally counts. Goes with my new spinbrush. So...I find my dental hygiene is lacking and a whiter smile will raise my self esteem, right? Meh. We'll see how that one goes.

gettin' tainted

On a happier note, I received my novice black belt (almost black) today. I think it's pretty. :-) From what I remember reading once, the belt system works the way it does (starting at white and ending at black) in order to symbolize purity or innocence, slowly becoming more, um, drawn to the dark side?

Here's a really cheesy interpretation of the belts...

reminds me of my angry days

Here's a story involving me and a cab last night. On a somewhat reflective note, this encounter reminds me of how I'm changed since intermediate school...I used to be really angry, full of "Diana Rage (TM)" and now I'm overly nice. I thrown my fair share of punches and given a good number of shoves. But I think I've gotten wayyy too soft. Should've reached through the bullet proof window and slapped this mofo.

Okay. It was good times at my officemate's bday party.

I considered taking the bus to the metro from the place but there were a few cabs outside when I emerged. I hail one.

I tell him where I’m going. He hears me and starts on his merry way.

A split second later he looks across the street and…

cabbie: “Aw man, I missed picking up 4 people. Do you mind?”

me: “Uh, you want me to get out?”

cabbie: “Yeah, I’m sorry, you look so sweet…”

I get out, in complete shock, that I, a girl, regardless of hotness or not, not only get passed up for 4 dudes across the street, but I get told to get out of the cab I’m already in so he can serve the 4 guys. That’s not even racial profiling or anything. Somehow this is worse. That’s just absurdly mean and ridiculous. If I hadn’t been in such a good mood coming out of the party, I would have not been in such shock and maybe remembered to get his name and cab number or just give him some attitude. Because that’s very illegal.

W. T. F.

I was in NE DC (pretty ghetto), alone, and all of 5’3”. You are the worst man I have ever met, cabbie. You left me for what seemed like 4 frat guys, just for the extra charges for extra passengers.

I took the bus like a good frugal (and I guess slightly fearless?) girl to the metro and went back to my crashpad for the night. With the really nice kitty. She makes it better.

don't let me get you

I'm not sure if this made a splash when it came out a long while ago, but I only recently heard the song "Dear Mr. President" by P!nk (featuring Indigo Girls?)



Let me start with this statement. I hate this song. You guys know I ain't no Bush supporter. But all it does it blame Bush for all of the problems in the world, as if he's some cruel God that could instantly fix things if he wanted to, which he isn't, and thus this song isn't constructive at all. It's really accusatory on his character, and not critiquing his administration. (And given the US President's celebrity-like status, who's to say we even know what his character and personality is like? Everything is overinflated in the media.)

I just generally don't like it when things are done just to make a stir or an overdramatic statement, when it will clearly not achieve anything (but a lot of far-left Bush haters to buy her CD).

I find that the only times I ever really speak out on an issue is when people come down to the level of flashy strong comments. After Bush won the election in 2004, I saw panlists erupt in Democratic despair, where people would post comments in the vein of "lets go to canada" and "sh** why is America so retarded?" and many references to bumblef*** America. I'm sure the Republicans on those panlists weren't offended at all.

Anyway, it might just be because I'm more centrist/moderate than the average liberal, but this goes in my cheap-shot/tasteless category. Used to like you more, P!nk.

PS - speaking of tasteless, did anyone find the post women's gymnastics team final interview with Alicia Sacramone to be tasteless, cruel, and unnecessary? You know what I'm talking about if you do...

Forgive me as I reblog some of my tumblr posts right now. I've been more chatty on tumblr lately, as I didn't originally intend to do. I'll have them diverge more soon! (Sorry to the, I don't know, 3 or so people that read both.) Namely I hope to fix this now, as I am finally off of catsitting duties and the Olympic coverage focuses on things that I care less about. Maybe it's because I used to run track that I...hate it? Wait, it should be the opposite, right? Hmm. I'm just a bitter person. Most of you knew that. =P

casual diversions #2

My next post is another tower defense game...Protector: Reclaiming the Throne.

Originally found from this casual gaming site, Jay is Games, it's a whole lot of lost productivity. :-) At first it was under control, but I'm still not sure if there's a pause button. Instead of attack towers like in Desktop Tower Defense (from the first casual game post) you have mages and warriors, and you level them up with gold via certain tracks. A "Skill Tree" determines available tracks and your skill trees grow with skill points, which you earn with each map you clear.

Anyway, I almost gave up on this game after not being able to beat any maps for a while. But after some peeking at a walkthrough for strategies I'm back and more engrossed than ever. (Not super engrossed.)

I like DTD better, but I'm over that game for a while, after resparking interest in it a whole 3 times.

link roundup?

Catsitting and end of the biweek leads to no posting! But here are some links of note from the past few days. :-) (Mined from my tumblrz)

Muxtape: NEStape
If you are unfamiliar with muxtape, it's a site where you can create your own mix tape, and share it with the world! Did anyone ever make a mixtape? I've definitely recorded radio onto a cassette tape to listen to on my walkman way way wayyyyy back when. And then there were mix CDs. And now playlists. Or worse yet, people just putting their whole mp3 device on shuffle!!! (I do it too.) Anyway, this muxtape is just some NES sound files (midi sounding style!) and I had a good morning with it yesterday. =P

NYTimes: Records Say Chinese Gymnasts May Be Under Age (OLD)
This is an article from July, outlining the more specific allegations and evidence against the Chinese girls. Until I found this article, I thought it was all speculation and people ratting on asians that don't look their age (ahem) but this seems a lot sketchier than I thought. Either the records are wrong now, or they were before, and neither is something to be proud of.

Can You Guess the Movie from Just One Letter?
I failed miserably. I think I got 10 or 11, but after looking at some of the more distinctive ones, I feel like I should've known them. Or at least seen the movie. :-) I need to take 2 months off and get a netflix trial...

link roundup

Today was slow day at work + pub quiz night + the Olympics are clearly still on so...I have not much to say.

Here's today's link dump! WOOOOO.

Engadget: Another flexible circuit project emerges, carbon nanotubes to blame
I have to admit. Pretty much ONLY because I've had to examine a patent app or two that I think carbon nanotubes are pretty cool. I guess all nano stuff is cool in general, but I used to etch these tips in lab that used to grow them and I still didn't care.
Anyway the moral of the lesson of the article: small things (like people!) can be surprisingly useful.

Webware: Your gas: it's social
This is just STRANGE. Isolated, it's a pretty good idea. You put in how much you spend for gas, when you did it...it tracks your mileage and fuel economy, which might be a good thing. Maybe you're trying a new longer route to work with less stop and go, and you want to know if it saves you gas over the course of a week? But to make it a social site? Get a group a friends and maybe it'll be fun -- but I'll be damned if I go "fuelly" stalk someone to judge and see how thrifty they are. Though it might be good to compare and see if you suck at dealing with getting the most drive for your dollar. :-)

Gizmodo: The World's First Webmail Service Using Live Snails
This is just funny. Just go and read it.
(Thanks for sending this to me, Hao!)

Bonus video today!
This is Sungha Jung playing "Kiss From a Rose" on a guitar. If you've never heard of him, or "jwcfree" on Youtube, you should definitely check him out. He looks tiny but he's almost 12 (Chinese Women's gymnastics controversy anyone?) and is a bit of a "Finger Style Guitar Playing Prodigy". (Yeah, not my words.)
Anyway, this isn't his best, but I think it's one of the songs I knew well in the first place so I can enjoy it better. Subscribe to him. It's like having a mix CD with all of the random stuff he plays. And he comes out with a new recording every week or usually less!



*edit
Okay, I may or may not love this video more. Because he's curled up against a wall with the light hitting in a strange way, and he's gonna break some hearts one day I imagine. "With or Without You"!

casual diversions #1

I don't have much to say these days. By these days, I mean during the course of the Olympics.

Let's begin in what I hope to be a series of posts that are in reserve in my brain.

Writing lesson #1 (or maybe it's #5, but it's something basic): Write about what you know about.

Unfortunately for productivity, I am a connoisseur of addictive (but not too involved!) online distractions. Mostly in the form of flash games. :-)

These have to be a special kind of game. There has to be very comfortable natural breaks in the game (e.g. between levels) or the pause function has to be non-detrimental.

Let's just get to the good stuff. Desktop Tower Defense

Featured in the best of Web 2.0 2007 on Webware, and featured on NPR, this was bound to be a winner. As you can tell from the title, it's a tower defense game. :-) I think those I've introduced the game to will refute my claim that it is not TOO addictive. It is. But only if you let it take over your life. I find it really easy to get to a point in the game where you can pause and not have to retain any groove in your mind, and just pop back in, especially if you choose to play a casual game and don't rush the waves too much.

The tower defense premise is just that you lay down attack units in a set place, upgrade them in a variety of ways, and usually are able to sell them for a fraction of their invested value. Waves of enemies, or "creeps" come in at intervals. In this particular game, you have the option of sending waves early.

Desktop Tower Defense is very easy to learn, and very hard to master. You can create group scoreboards with no effort, and you can look at other people's final maps for inspiration. Just youtube "Desktop Tower Defense" and you'll find a lot of people who want to show off their skillz.

Here's a video that is neither too too long nor too too insane? Reminds me almost exactly of what I've done in the past though...hmmmm...
Anyway, it's sped up and the music's added. No worries.

I did nothing else this weekend

Here are my first impressions of the Olympics. I'll try not to be too boring. :-)

• The Opening Ceremony - a combined effort
  I missed a good chunk of the artistic part of the opening ceremonies because of my false sense of security with DVRs. No matter. Am obtaining a copy as we speak. :-) Also saw most of the Parade of Nations...which I might comment on later. What I did see, visually speaking, was a marvel. It reminded me immediately of the Mass Games, now only practiced in North Korea. The premise is basically...communism. A lot of people, a sum of the parts, achieving a greater, larger effect. A documentary of two normal schoolgirls training for the Mass Games was made by the BBC, "A State of Mind". For some reason this was the only trailer I could find on Youtube. You see that image in the background changing at about 1:33? That's not a big screen TV; that's a lot of people with colored squares, changing the color on cue. I never got the chance to watch the documentary...you should also look up some of the mass games themselves. It's sheer madness.
  
  
  
  
• Michael who?
  In theory, before actually seeing Michael Phelps on TV yesterday I knew who he was. Swimmer. Awesome. Somewhat cocky. But for some reason, when I saw him, I was disappointed to see he did not have slightly long dark hair. Somehow, in my mind, even though I knew who the person was, the image I had in my head had merged with Michael Weiss, the figure skater. How this hair image merge happened, I don't know.
  
  
  
  
• Beach volleyball - one of these things is not like the other...
  Beach volleyball is an awesome sport. I don't have an opinion on whether or not it belongs in the Olympics. All I have to say, is that I think I should be at all of their games. Playing in a marching band. Given the music selection that seems to play at every timeout, I think there should be an Olympic side event of pep band-ing. I think I watched Women's fencing and Women's beach volleyball back to back and it was mindboggling that they were at the same games.
  I swear I heard Bon Jovi.
  
  
• Badminton - Shuttlecock. Ridiculous.
  I have no doubt that I would be completely and utterly trounced by a world class badminton player. I just have no understanding of the sport and what makes a good shot. But I watched a whole match because China was playing someone from Taiwa -- I mean Chinese Taipei, and I was pretty sure I'd never get to see Taipei represented on NBC coverage again. It just seems like the most fruitless sport there is. 90% of your energy expended goes into the frictional forces of the air against through feather on that...shuttlecock.
  
  
  
  

That's all for now! I'm catsitting and there's a cat asleep in the sunshine in a cat bed right now. 100% pure zen.

dream log

I had a pretty weird dream last night.

I went to sleep with the Olympics on, and I think I left it on until about 5am when I finally shut it off. I didn't sleep well, but I'm not tired, so who knows!

Anyway, I dreamt some sort of sequel to Beauty and the Beast.

Yeah, wtf.

For some reason, Beast and Belle weren't together anymore. Either he's immortal and she died, or she left him 'cuz she had an affair--I can't decide. But because she's gone, he turns back into the Beast. Oh noes. He's part of some war, probably having to do with him and how misunderstood he is (I'm guessing some time has passed since he's turned back into the Beast). He's supposed to go deal with some hostages his side of the war captured. But instead a girl falls in love with him, he turns human again, big musical number about "If I had only known..." the Beast was a totally handsome dude, I wouldn't have blahblahblah. Seemingly in my dream I thought the movie was over and resolved. But then the musical number cuts out and it's just Beast dancing in a room with the hostages and he's like "and that's how it'll end! Muahaha. awesome." And then he's like, well, now that you know that, you should also know I killed your families and I'm gonna burn you all alive in this cottage. They're all outraged, Beast lights the fire and is about to escape, but then for whatever reason a big wave of water hits, and extinguishes the flame. The hostages looked pretty angry and were no longer tied up. I woke up about now, but I'm pretty sure some Beast pounding was about to happen.

what I'm doing right now

Wired: Watch the Olympics Online

A wiki article on how to stream the Olympics online or download things. Astoundingly long list of sites...and given the time difference and how work goes, I might just try some out...

Fav looking one so far:

ItsGameTime.tv. Streamed live using flash so no downloading any programs. Although illegal, there are no ads except a donation button for the Olympics.

I don't like the flat out admittance that it's illegal. I'll hold off on that one...

this is what evil looks like

TechCrunch: Elaborate Facebook Worm Virus Spreading

So I've been hearing about the Facebook Worm Malware blah business for a while, but this actually seems really tricky. If I hadn't seen these screenshots, I probably would be virused if I came across this message! Sigh.

The fact that they use a real friend's user picture in the fake site is a great (and scary tactic). Anyway, watch out! (And thanks, Jason, for sharing. =P)

link roundup

Here we go! This seems to be the best format yet. :-) Least input as possible.

Telegraph: Viruses can catch colds, says study that redefines life itself
This BLOWS MY MIND. Is that too dorky? But as Slashdot put it, viruses can catch viruses. And they're alive I guess? Or rather, they should be given a new class of demi-organism. Kind of reminds me of Archaea Extremophiles.

NYTimes: A 10 Isn’t Necessarily Perfect in New Scoring System for Gymnastics
Whoa. Why do I think this is bigger news than it really is? Shouldn't this have been publicized? The new system is sort of like the one for diving, where you perform a dive with a pre-set difficulty and then the judges score on execution and the two are multiplied together. I first learned this from the Winter Games on the Commodore 64. I should probably be ashamed.

The 100 Most Common English Words
Not a post or an article. Just a sort of game. Try and guess as many as you can in 5 minutes. I scored 50, which I think is respectable enough. I got a phone call in the middle and I didn't see a pause button!

Today's bonus video:
Speaking of gymnastics, and since my coworker was wasting time watching her videos recently, here's Mary Lou Retton's uneven bars routine from her Gold Medal all-around win in 1984. She performs her own move: The Retton Flip. :-) You should watch her other videos. I like to believe that girls didn't abuse themselves as much back then. That's probably not true due to old timey taboo body image issues. I just don't know about the 80s though. Maybe it was a good time! That's what the parties make it seem like.

whatchu lookin' at?

One of my favorite phrases (as-is, nothing to do with what it means, wordplay, if I use it a lot) is "Bitches be givin' me eyes".
I don't really know what it is in reference to. I think I've only heard the phrase twice. I suspect it has to do with a girl lookin' at another girl "cuz they think I'm a ho" or "cuz they just wanna be me". But whatever, I like it.

I understand that it's not nice to stare in general. I don't particularly like it when people do it most of the time, and I'm sure we've all had "I found myself staring at the guy and then quickly turned away hoping he didn't notice" moments. But it's an unavoidable part of life, and I'm not even sure why it's rude to stare. Also is there a such thing as it being rude to not-stare?

When you encounter someone of say, physical oddities, I feel like they begin to be aware of children staring because they don't know better, and adults purposefully not staring and ignoring that there is anything abnormal about it. It's a serious lose-lose.

I don't think I'm the only person who feels the need to innocently look at, say, little people (as in those who suffer from dwarfism), just because you don't see them much. I'm not sure if it's DC or not, but I've seen more little people here than ever. I just like to see how it affects their body in a way, if the muscles seems like they grew regardless of body frame, or the deepness of their voice...just minor fascination. I know it'd be less rude to say, look it up online or read about it. But instead I choose to look at little people passing by.

But WAIT, that's rude. I don't want them to seem on display. So instead I will purposefully look to the side or at the ground or worse yet, over them.

NO, I need to look casual and gracefully stare at absolutely nothing, as if they don't exist.

But it's not like they're PARIAHS okay what do I do.

Usually by now they're on the metro or something. So whew.

My solution is that we need to get rid of this staring is bad business. As long as it's not a guy looking at someone and licking his lips, I really think it's okay. And those afflicted by being stared at -- white people in China, women with exceptionally large breasts, men with exceptionally beautiful hair, people with acne, girl with really cool shoes I probably looked at for too long the other day just to catch glimpses of them from under her pant legs when she walked, etc -- will just have to take it upon themselves to become more confident people, and know that everyone gets stared at for something.

christmelicious

Tonight at pub quiz night:

Question: What are the names of 4 people who have federal holidays?

Our answer: Martin Luther King, Jr., Columbus, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln (well, they got clumped into President's Day...)

Correct answer: Martin Luther King, Jr., Columbus, George Washington, and Jesus Christ

H'okay lady (the quizmaster tonight was a woman). We considered Jesus Christ as a joke, because unlike Jesus (please don't let me start any fights) Abraham Lincoln was a real dude. And even though we no longer celebrate Abe's birthday, one can consider President's Day to be Washington's AND Lincoln's day among other things. Christmas has a rather contraversial origin. In fact, we considered Santa Claus over Jesus Christ.

Here's the thing (wikipedia entry as reference...)
Christmas Tree --> Pagan origins
Christmas occuring in December --> to appease Romans who loved their winter solstice festivals
Ye olden Gregorian calendar dates --> translated to arbitrary Julian calendar dates (unlike Hanukkah, which has the guts to just be whenever it should traditionally be)

Anyway, I'm not arguing that Christmas is a celebration of Christ in some way, whether or not the holiday or date itself is relevant. I'm just typing this out so I can go to bed happy from the Jackie Chan Visa commercial. 'Nite. :-)

olympic psych up #2

Since my obsession of the week is apparently Jackie Chan, here is a Visa commercial that will let me sleep happy.



Your bonus Jackie video of the evening (hopefully the last...) is actually of Pablo Francisco. Some of the jokes aren't funny, but his two main impressions (movie trailer/Soul Calibur game narrator man and Jackie Chan) are pretty good. He's got a GTA: San Francisco (spoof of San Andreas) sketch out there...you find it yourself. =P

go nerds go

Engadget: Move over, OLPC -- the $12 Apple II-based PC is coming


(*edit - just released; the $12 is actually based off of an NES knockoff. even better. Slashdot post here.)

Alright, so it won't be a laptop, adorable, or have a cheeky Linux-based OS that's eventually replaced by Windows, but unlike the OLPC or the too-good-to-be-true $10 laptop, the $12 PC currently being developed at MIT will probably hit its price target.

I'm sure it'll be shaped like a box. It's not like I don't believe in Apple products because I still think the best notebook out there is the MacBook (overall, considering a lot of intangibles) but I would totally buy this.

Well, that or the original "$100 laptop" (by said mentioned OLPC in the article headline), the XO laptop. It's waterproof...how is that not a standard feature by now?

my ride is so fly

What in the name of fugly cute is that? It's the Terrafugia Transition!

Engadget: Terrafugia Transition flying car shows up at air show, doesn't fly

So it doesn't fly yet, but I have hopes. Flying cars is definitely one of those milestones that means we're advancing as a people as defined by science fiction. True nuff though, if this thing needs a runway, what makes it better than an airplane? Well, airplanes traditionally have no control over their wheels and their power is generated by the turbines or propellers, which sends air over the wings and creates thrust and lift. So the wheels just spin as they're told to by friction. I asked myself that question not thinking I'd come up with anything. Go me and not asking my brain before I type.

So flying car has power steering on the ground. Yay!

all hail Jackie Chan

It's not that I didn't already know that Jackie Chan is all sorts of awesome and deserves all of the praise he got, especially in the older movies. New stuff has more wires and camera editting, aka SAFETY MEASURES. Thank goodness his insurance company doesn't let him do some things.

Anyway, JamesNintendoNerd of Youtube (whose opinion I trust in a weird way) has compiled a top ten of what he thinks to be Jackie Chan's illest stunts.



*edit BONUS!
I originally was searching Jackie Chan videos to hear him sing some stuff other than his part of "Beijing Welcomes You". =P I read on Wikipedia that he's released over 20 albums in Chinese. Unfortunately (OR VERY FORTUNATELY) I found his version of "I'll Make a Man Out of You" in Chinese, in a music video featuring Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan, and Jackie Chan.

today's news/link roundup

Here's tonight's collection of completely irrelevant news.

ITWorld: Group offers tools to evade China's Web censorship
I don't know how it works and I didn't read up on it, but thank goodness it exists. Jae, break out now!

CNN: Study: Most kids' fast-food meals have too many calories
Alright, was this not obvious already? I don't think they took into account the new BK apple fries which are a funny concept...because I am totally more likely to eat an apple that is already cut. Good job focus groups/BK consultants who are parents. It's nice to know though that they are sort of reasonable (calorie wise) for adults. If you choose the healthier kids meals, that is. Why are portions so huge...

Philly.com: Daniel Rubin: When your name gets turned against you
It's a bit beyond ludacris that you can't get DSL because your last name is Libshitz. They might want to start looking into swear words in other languages. Oh, and things that sound like they might be expletives. Sorry Mr. Holyship.

bad d-Lo 1, good d-Lo 0

My friend here calls me d-Lo. Also all that tumblr being for DC peeps was overdramatic. I just think of them as such separate things now that I guess I realized how silly it is for them to be in the same place! That was all. Was sleepy when I wrote the last post.

Anyway, regarding the title, instead of doing anything useful today, I drew this. I mean, TKD wipes me out usually, so I don't do much. I drew my choices after getting off the bus. :-)

Getting rid of the tumblr sidebar. Just kind of realized that the tumblr is for people who care to check up on it, but mostly for DC people. And my more or less as anonymous as I can make it life online. Turns out I never grew out of my emo phase. Find me there as I get increasingly crotchity and say things I wouldn't otherwise. Next up, killing all the links from this blog if I have time. =P

virtually happy

I use meebo, on recommendation from Warren one day, for all of my browser IM needs. Combining google talk, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ...it's a pretty nice interface. The browser kind of turns into its own workspace (a la Linux workspaces I mean) and you can open up the world of IM-ing or minimize it. Or you can pop out the IM windows and put them back in later. Anyway. Enough of professing my love for it.

Every few days that have a new blog entry, and the newest one always shows up in an IM window if you have an account and sign on. Today's is called emo with meebo.

It's a cute little list of the most use emoticons on the meebo service. Somehow, the kissy emoticon comes in first at 14.2%. That's gross. Regular smiley face at 12.5 and variations of happy and excited faces all the way down to number 8 which is finally frowny face.

How does your usage compare? :-) Okay. You know what I have to do one day? Or rather one week? Not use emoticons in IMs and blog posts. It's a great and necessary invention, but:
1) I'm starting to overuse them. Sometimes I just happy face as a response to an IM. Sometimes to emphasize how sad I am I'll put 3 in a row as if that means anything.
2) I'm starting to flat out LIE. Just make it lighthearted with a happy face like it makes it all better. "Oh, by the way, I hate you. :-) :-)" because it doesn't actually seem like lying. If they take it in the lighthearted way, then okay, if not, it's me being really passive-aggressive.
3) I don't remember how to convey emotion anymore. There's an emoticon for everything.

I don't think I'll be able to start today or get through internet life without emoticons but it was a thought. :-)

"Then we'll grab a bite at 404 Not Found"

Too funny. A restaurant in China wanted to translate its name to be more English speaker-friendly and what came out of the online translator was "Translate server error". And that's what they put on their sign.

The story here.

everyone has fun with the iPhone

I just think this is cute/funny.

not a segway

Here's a preview of Toyota's Winglet line, their attempt at competition with Segways. I admit, they look a lot less bulky, and a lot less nerdy. And the one without handlebars towards the end of the video's pretty nice.

Winglet has a good enough name to distinguish it from the Segway. A minor point, but nothing irks me more than when people can't get their brand names straight. I too am guilty of calling flying discs Frisbees, and all adhesive bandages Band-aids, but Kleenex and Coke I will never understand. And when people ask for Big Macs/Whoppers at the wrong chain? It's on the menu. Anyway, I feel like people call those push scooters just Razor Scooters regardless of brand so that's how my rant applies to this video. Bleh.

all outta juice

I've been uninspired to blog about anything lately! At first I was all tumblr-ing, but now I'm just sort of dead. I think it's because it's the end of the biweek at work. Here's to hoping I'll have more to say (for my sake, since blogging tends to make me feel better) next week!

Until then, some musings:
- Skeeball is one of the best inventions ever. I'm gonna look it up right now. Um, Scoring Mechanism?
- Remember how when you started drinking, you drank really skanky cheap beers, and then you grew up, got an ID, and money, and you started drinking better beers? I don't know about other "real world" people, but I'm finding that I have to intentionally go back a little bit. Partially because of saving a buck or two per drink and partially because being a beer snob is turning out to not be a cool thing, until you meet other beer snobs, and then you realize you don't want to be one of them. :-) There's also a fact that I learned only recently: PBR is the beer choice of hipsters. And sometimes, ya gotta emulate.
- Okay, I STILL think it's weird that Everclear sang "Brown Eyed Girl" at a free concert I went to earlier this summer and the lead singer dedicated it to his teenage daughter. Because honestly now the lyrics are "makin' love in the green grass". NO. I need to stop thinking about it. It was a sweet gesture, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who made that connection.