BrowserMetrics

The hotties have been eliminated. No!!! Why are the teams I root for always eliminated first. I think I had a thing for Christy, another cute brunette. They were did in by the last roadblock. Even reaching it in 5th place, they could not find the clue. Actually, Lena couldn't but I feel disappointed. Who to root for in the next round?

Labels: Amazing Race

Before hitting it big on Lost, Evangeline Lily, she was the spokesmodel for LiveLinks, a phone dating service. Her contract must not have run out yet, because they are still airing these commercials. I just saw the Christmas one. She's still a cutie.

Labels: she's hot

Via Kottke. Ken Jennings final game on Jeopardy.

This has been going around the blogosphere. Saw it here from a link at APCB. Since I like movies, a lot, I'll bore you with my experiences with these cult movies. Bold items are the ones I have seen.

1 This Is Spinal Tap: Funny, funny movie. As many great quotes as any. "This goes to 11."
2 The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Saw it when I was a young'un. Three times. Participated in the fun. But now it is just ridiculous.
3 Freaks: Alex Winters. 'Nuff said.
4 Harold And Maude
5 Pink Flamingos: John Waters is a local legend in Baltimore. Grossest scene ever. I could take it or leave it.
6 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Scares me too much.
7 Repo Man: The movie soundtrack was all the rave when I was a youn punk. "You find one in every car."
8 Scarface: Going to the U at the tail end of the 80s. This was a classic to watch.
9 Blade Runner: This is the movie which all sci-fi movies derive from. Classic.
10 The Shawshank Redemption
11 Five Deadly Venoms: Kung fu theatre rulez! They should bring it back for lazy saturdays.
12 Plan 9 From Outer Space
13 Brazil: Prescient. We are all going to die via paperwork.
14 Eraserhead
15 Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
16 The Warriors: Why aren't the gangs of today like this. Baseball furies.
17 Dazed And Confused: "I love high school girls. The older I get. They stay the same age."
18 Hard-Boiled
19 Evil Dead II
20 The Mack
21 Pee-Wee's Big Adventure: The Alamo's basement!
22 Un Chien Andalou
23 Akira: I still don't get it.
24 The Toxic Avenger
25 Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory: Oompa-Loompas! Ahh HBO in the summer at OC.
26 Stranger Than Paradise
27 Dawn Of The Dead: The original is still the best of the zombie flicks.
28 The Wiz
29 Clerks
30 The Harder They Come
31 Slap Shot
32 Re-Animator: The head that gives head.
33 Grey Gardens
34 The Big Lebowski: I'm the dude.
35 Withnail and I
36 Showgirls
37 A Bucket Of Bood
38 They Live: Rowdy Roddy Piper taking out alien invaders. What else do you need. "I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."
39 The Best Of Everything
40 Barbarella
41 Heathers: The young Jack Nickelson.
42 Rushmore: Bittersweet. Loved it.
43 The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension: Saw this when I was younger, I don't remember much, but it must have been fun. As was all movies when I was a kid.
44 Love Streams
45 Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
46 Aguirre, The Wrath of God
47 Walking And Talking Nicole Holofcener
48 The Decline Of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years
49 Friday
50 Faces of Death, Vol. 1
51 Monty Python and the Holy Grail : Funnier than the number 1 movie on this list. It gets funnier everytime.
52 A Clockwork Orange: Ultraviolence and a little of the old in-n-out, too.
53 Mommie Dearest
54 The Princess Bride: Good but not great IMHO.
55 Swingers: My movie. Defines the nineties for me. I saw a weekday matinee. Several business men, some college kids, and I. I think I was the only one laughing throughout the movie. Classic.
56 UHF
57 Valley of the Dolls
58 Fight Club: I shall follow the first rule of the fight club.
59 Dead Alive (aka Braindead)
60 Better Off Dead
61 Donnie Darko

Labels: lists, movies, polls

Caught the latest Alexander Payne movie, Sideways. You can sum this movie up in one sentence, "Swingers for the over 40 crowd." You heard that right. Swingers. Instead of hapless actors roaming around LA looking for fun, you have a mid-40's oenophile looking for the next bottle of pinot noir. It has the same loose, enjoyable feel. It has the same mopey main character. Can he find love? Or at least some hapiness with his life? This movie follows his journey through a week when he treats his best friend to the Napa valley before his wedding. I liked it, but was a bit too long. Surely, this film will be a critical darling.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

The fellows over at Forwarding Address: Mac OSX linked to a site that allows you to search source code. Brilliant. This would come in handy when it is time to write some code. You can search many source listings of various languages for ideas. It should help as it gives examples of how to use operations. As a software engineer it would be nice to use as you learn from examples.

Labels: software development

Home from Thanksgiving with the fam. Full. Maybe I should go to the gym tomorrow. Maybe this weekend. Should I shop on black friday?

Labels: "la familia", thankful

Wishing anyone who reads this blog in the US a Happy Thanksgiving!

Leg 2 of the Amazing Race has our contestants flying from Iceland to Norway. Again, they are traipsing in some of the countries that I loved visiting. The visit Holmenkollen ski jump. I wondered what I would be like to have launched from there. Now I know. This time around there is much bickering. I can't stand any team especially, that Johnathon guy. He mistreats his wife. Hopefully, he really isn't like that. Dude is intense. I am rooting now for the Mormon hotties. They're cute and haven't bickered once. They almost got last. This leg shows that one essential skill you should have is driving stick. You never know what you'll find in Europe, but you can expect to be driving a manual car. Learn it. Know it. Live it.

Labels: Amazing Race, boobtube

I had moved into my condo about 2 years ago. Being single I have barely furnished the place. The walls are still white and they are empty, so lately I want to put something up. I would like to put up original art, but if not some prints. These are a few artists that have something that appeals to me. Shag. Ragnar. Chris Bishop. I am trying to get a print via ebay of the previous two. The latter probably an original. Let's see how it goes.

This entry from a writer whose nom de plum is ea_spouse writes a lengthy post on what it is like to have your significant other work for EA Games. Most of it tells of horrid lengthy days spent in "crunch time" and no compensation for overtime work. My understanding of the game programming industry is that it was always like this. Except my understanding came when games were produced by small shops not the mega-development company that is EA Games. Working for the man sucks.

Labels: software development

Last night I dreamt of S. The previous night I dreamt of I. Both of them are girls that I had major affection for. S being the latest about 8 years ago. It is very strange and disturbing that I had dreamt about them both in consecutive nights. Here is what I remember of the dreams.

The previous night was about I. She was my grade school crush. In this dream, I was back visiting our grade school because they were having a fair or flea market. I had gone because a friend was getting married there. I was dressed in a suit. I saw her standing there looking at items on a table. She was older than I remembered her to be. I guess that the years seperating the last time I saw her made my memory advance her age. I didn't get to say anything to her as I was bumping into friends who were there for the wedding also. I catch a glimpse of her again, and I decide to talk to her. She is standing there looking across the field with some friends. She was taking pictures with a camera with a modest zoom lense. One of her friends was a guy. He helped stabilize her from behind. I did not want to disturb them both, so I feigned talking to her. I passed her by. Again, I bump into friends this time the bride. I decide I really need to talke to I. I run after her, but she has disappeared. I run to the front of the school. She's not there. I realize that that was the last I will have seen of her, and walk dejectedly back to the wedding. They are unloading chairs from a dump truck for the wedding.

Last night was S's turn to visit my dreams. In this one, I was working out at a gym. She just happened to be there. I bummped into her and we were both surprised to see each other. I think I was introducing a friend to her. While we were discussing some exercise related maneuver. I think I had tripped over something and fallen into her. I landed on her thighs. They felt great. I must have disgusted her when that happened. She went to change. So did I. Except I went to the bathroom. In a rush, I ran to meet up with her hoping to ask her out for some coffee. She was avoiding me. Moving from me quickly. I cornered her. She was reluctant to talk. I, being my loser self, never got to ask her out. She left. I silently practiced, "Would you like to go get some coffee?" Hoping to use it, but I now know that I won't ever. What is most vivid about this dream is her face. A very pretty brunette with big brown eyes.

Their return in my dreams saddens me. I know I will never see them again. I hope they are doing well wherever they are. I am lonely.

Labels: dreams, nostalgia

The first episode of Amazing Race season 6 was on. I got it on Tivo. They visited Iceland as the first country. It is one of my favorite places on earth. I am glad to see that they have gone there. The teams this time around are all bickering no fun. I can't like any of them. In fact the one team, Avi and Joe who would've been great to root for were philimated. They lost. Can the rest make the show fun to watch? Stay tuned.

Labels: boobtube

The latest season of the greatest reality show starts Tuesday, November 15, 2004. Set your Tivos. Get ready for a good time. Plus check back here as I blog my thoughts on the show.

Labels: Amazing Race, boobtube

Ramen noodle shops opening up in New York City makes me want to venture up there to try them out. Soup is good food for the soul, and ramen is extremly good. I would like to try it. I wonder if there are any good ramen shops in DC?

I am truly fascinated with that design style called "mid-century modern." Here's a lampshade manufacturer that makes some modern/retro lamps. I want to get a few made from them.

Sad news in the world of rap. ODB has died. Big Baby Jesus is no more. He was one of the most colorful rappers ever. He will be missed.

Labels: fare thee well

Why don't you hear more stories like this from Windows developers. Or do I read the wrong sites? I would guess it is that the Mac developer loves Macs and views the platform in a different way. They love it and write code because what better way to show your appreciation for the platform than to make cool apps for it. Money would be a secondary reason. Anyway, how do you get started writing Mac apps?

Labels: Apple, software development

The Incredibles has been receiving a lot of good reviews. They are justly deserved. I caught a Thursday night showing with not many people in the audience, and I think I want to see it again with lots of people having fun. As I watched it, it dawned on me that this movie is for a more mature audience rather than little kids. The PG rating it received is a good indication of it being a little more serious than the average animated cartoon. If this had been a live action flick, it would've been rated PG-13. People die. Even though they are cartoons, it was still shocking to realize that the creators had the balls to show people die (both good and bad).

I also liked the modern style. I am geeked on modern style, and this flick had plenty of it. Also, the score was awesome. Lots of 50s retro touches to it. I think this was probably fun to make as much as it was to see.

4 of 5.

Labels: movies

What would a weekend be without a movie to be seen? This week's movie is "Shall We Dance" featuring Richard Gere and J. Lo. The movie was a remake of a Japanese movie of the same name. The differnces were subtle, but the transition to English did not suffer although some of it became Americanized (like his choosing his wife over dancing with J. Lo.). It made me want to pick up ballroom dancing in order to pick up chicks.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

I agree with the sentiments of this post. Even though it is disappointing that Kerry did not win, it is pretty stupid to leave the greatest country just because the President sucks. The United States have had many sucky presidents and it is still around. If we have survived Chester A. Arthur, then surely we should survive Bush II. But if you want to go, and you're a CS student or practicing engineer, then check out Andrew Tanenbaum's graduate program in parallel and distributed computer systems. It is very inviting. You're gone from the country for a few years. You're geeking out in Amsterdam. You're studying under the dude who did MINIX. Sounds like a hell of a lot of fun.

A clever 404 page. Not as good as this one, but relevent on a day like this.

Labels: ha ha, wankers

As you have probably heard by now, we are going to have another four more years of Bushism. Another four years of mismanagement. That is our future. What happens to the Democratic party after this is anyone's guess. It wasn't bad losing the presidential race, but to lose it by that close of a margin in the popular vote hurt. I keep asking myself, "What reality do I live in and what reality do those who voted for Bush live in?" Because, frankly, I think they're different. My reality sees the empty rhetoric propogated by the Republican party, which culminates in the ridiculous presidential "compassionate conservative." We have rewarded incompetency. It wasn't a Democratic president who chose to ignore a serious threat to the country. It wasn't a Democratic president who chose to squander a surplus and create a deficit which needs to be serviced soon. It wasn't a Democratic president that started a futile war in the Middle East. But it wasn't a Democratic candidate who won the election.

Labels: anger and frustration, political

Like Mexico's celebration of the Day of the Dead, the Philippines also celebrate in similar fashion on All Soul's day. Filipinos will go to the cemetary and bring food to picnic with their dead relatives. Today, after voting, I went to the cemetary. I had to spend some time with my dad and my aunt's mother, Lola Max. My mom is on a trip out of the country and my brothers were working, so it was just me. I brought two bouquets of flowers for both of them, prayed at their graveside, and asked them for a John Kerry victory. I find this ritual rather quaint.

Labels: it's over

Today's the day. Make your voice be heard. Go vote. Do it now!

Labels: get off your butt, tweet

I am voting for John Kerry tomorrow. He doesn't excite me, but I believe that he is the better qualified person to be president. George W Bush is completely incompetent. It was obvious in 2000, and it still is obvious today. The first "CEO" president and he drove our country into the ground. The American people should not reward incompetenc. Vote Kerry.