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Was it really two years ago today? And what becomes of my contract?

iPhone Madness
iPhone Impressions
iPhone Impressions take 2

I'm just about ready to upgrade to the 3GS, but I am laming out on that because OS 3.0 suffices my needs. I just like the newer camera, but I'm planning to upgrade my own Panasonic digital camera, so it is not imperative that I get the 3GS.

Labels: iPhone

A few weeks back, me and Marge from the FishTank went to catch Seattle at Baltimore down at the yard. We got very good seats. The best ever.

I went, because I wanted to see two future Hall of Famers, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Ichiro. Although, Griffey is no longer the kid, and he did not have a good outing, going 0 for 3 with a walk (I think), it's still good to see the last of the great Mariners play. Then there is Ichiro. Ichiro! He's awesome. He hit a double that looked to be a homer into deep right center. There's no one who's a better hitting machine than him. And he's got a cannon for an arm. He threw a frozen rope from the corner in right field to home plate. Wow! Ichiro!

The home team lost that night, but it was a fun time.

I wore my Ichiro jersey and cheered for him whenever he was up. On the way home, Seattle fans were cheering. One of them saw my jersey. He looked at me and began to cheer again, "Mari-?" He saw my Orioles cap. "Hunh?" The look of confusion on his face was priceless. "WTF?!"

Anyway, watching Ichiro play is just about the best thing in baseball.

http://www.flipflopflyin.com/flipflopflyball/ichiro.html

Labels: baseball, lotd

The Hangover is rather dark for a summer movie. It's no light-hearted romp through a bunch of friends bachelor weekend in Vegas, but a delving in the disturbance in men's souls as they are freed from the nagging and the loving of women. It was almost too dark to enjoy on a lazy Sunday, but with some easy jokes, it doesn't bum your day out.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Nice.

UPDATE: Here's what it looks like on XP running FireFox. Hee. Hee.






UPDATE 2: Here's what it looks like on my MacBook Pro running Camino. WTF!

UPDATE 3:And here's the latest Safari!

Labels: Apple, meta

In college, the first one, I had a real good friend whom I ate dinner with. She would usually drop by my dorm room to pick me up, and I would usually be watching MTV. That's what you did as a college student watch television. And drink heavily, but that is another story.

It always seems she dropped by whenever Michael Jackson's video would be on. First, it would be that morphing video for "Black or White." White guys turning into black girls with the asian dude thrown in as an afterthought. Next, it would be "Remember the Time." She would note that Eddie Murphy hadn't done anything in a while and that Imam is not as hot as Naomi Campbell. Then she would say that Magic Johnson should not wear those Egyptian clothes at all because his knees look funny. Then we would laugh as Jackson would turn into a million balls. He was always a showman.

And he's gone. At 50.

RIP Michael Jackson. You moonwalked into music history. Pop music is officially dead. Long live the King of Pop.

Labels: it's over

The Academy has gone to 10 Best Picture nominees instead of the usual 5. Isn't 10 too much to choose from? And will it have even more suckier films to choose?

The Academy should just take a page from the Globes and have different categories for Best Picture. Best Picture for Drama. Best Picture for Comedy. Best Picture for Impenetrable Foreign Film. Best Picture for Will Ferrell Comedies. Best Picture for Lame Action Movies. Best Picture for Non-lame Action Movies. Such and such.

This will make creating the spreadsheet for BrowserMetrics Annual Oscar Pool a little bit more inconvenient.

Is 10 too much? I think 7 would've been ideal.

Labels: lame idea, movies, oscar pool

US 2 - Spain 0 in a Confederation Cup semi-final. US makes it into a final of an actual tournament. They do it by beating the best team in the world. Woohoo!

Orioles 2 - Marlins 4. WTF! They can sweep the defending national champs, but not a somewhat sorry team.

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, Spain, sports

10 miles of flat
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

I haven't been cycling in a while.

I was supposed to be at 500+ miles. I'm only reaching 350. What happened?

It's been great weather for the past week, and I decide to take advantage of it by going on a bike ride. If it's Wednesday, it's distance day. That means NCR trail. I've been twice this year. Each time making it to a different mile marker: 11 then 15. Now I aimed for 17 which will make it about 34 miles. Not the longest I've gone out this year, but it has been a while for a ride.

When you go north on the NCR it starts off slightly down hill. It's nice. About past White Hall, it levels out and around the 13 mile mark, it's uphill. I hate it, because I slow down. I'm going slower this year by about half an mph. I don't know why. It could be the 3 lbs I'm carrying or it could be the fact that I'm getting older and out of shape quicker. It's just so depressing. The slower you go the longer it takes you to get there.

So distance day is always trying to gauge comfort in the saddle. I hate it.

I make it to mile marker 17 and turn around. I'm cruising down the slight decline. The I notice a weird noise. The air is slowly leaking out over a mile. I'm just short of 13 miles. I'm short of Monkton. It plain sucks. No one has a pump. And when I do find some helpful guy, my tube is toast.

I huff it at 11 mph for the last 10 miles. It sucks. I have to get it fixed. The damage: 34 miles in 3 hours. The last hour is nothing but plodding on a flat.

Labels: cycling, picture

2 more to Mason-Dixon
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

Labels: cycling, picture

"Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If private
insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care;
if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that
the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to
drive them out of business? That's not logical."

President Obama talking about the public option in health care reform

Preach it, sir, preach it. If insurance can't compete then they should
get out of the market. That's what capitalism has taught us.

Labels: qotd

Song kind of sucks. It ain't "Bouken Desho." Still the animation is fun. Plus they're running. Run, Haruhi, Run! Run, Nagato, Run! Run, Asahina-san, run!

Labels: anime, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Mets @ Orioles, June 17, 2009
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

We get to the .500 mark. In games watched.

It's a win.

And Matty Weit Weit hits his first home run. The gentlemen behind us wonder what the fan that caught it can expect from the team for exchange of this memorabilia. I think signed catching glove, ball, bat from Matty Weit Weit may make it all square. Plus lump in some nice tickets at the club level.

Mets fans were out and about. I was sitting next to one. David Wright, he of .360 batting average, gets called strike out king. All hail strike out king. I get heckled for it. ALL HAIL STRIKEOUT KING! :-P

It rains, but it don't keep the fans away. They come for the Adam Jones bobblehead souvenir. His facsimile does just as much as the real thing who goes 0 for 4 on the day. The Orioles table setters, Roberts and Jones, bat a collective .000, 0 for 9. B-Rob may be going into another slump.

Would be nice to keep winning.

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, baseball

Hwang Mi-Hee, Korean race queen.
Zettai Ryouiki - check.
Twin tails - check.
Tsundere goodness? Hmm. Maybe. Hopefully.

Just please, kill me now! With cuteness!

Labels: Hwang Mi-Hee, picture, she's hot, so kawaii, tsundere goodness, zettai ryouiki

Matty Weit Weit does it all!

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, baseball, ha ha

I should've flagged this before, but I was in that funk when I didn't want to write any blog posts. WTMD is doing their fundraising drive by playing two songs from their user submitted 897 greatest artists.

We should've gamed it so that we could've gotten The Screaming Blue Messiahs played.

Labels: lists, yup

Seattle v Baltimore: June 10, 2009
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

Went to the Yard to catch future Hall of Famers, Ichiro and Ken Griffey Jr play with hometown Birds. It was one of the better times we've had at a game.

First, we walked up to the box office looking for the best tickets, and we got 'em: section 86, lower box, left-center, row bb, seats up against the bull pen wall.

Second, we get three beers and hot dogs and nachos. Just little dinner.

Next, we chat up our fellow neighbors. A couple from NC who got engaged in at the Yard. They're watching the next couple of games. The gentleman and his kids in front of us. He was a Phillies fan. I had to get Marge in trouble with him as the Mets were leading the Phils. He didn't care. Then we had the youngsters behind us. "Get ready." With the glove, Matty Weit Weit's gonna hit a homer. Instead it was all Seattle. They were hilarious.

The game was too. No hitting for the Birds. Matty Weit Weit upped his average. B Rob is hitting. AJ isn't. Not much runs. Loss 4-1.

Still fun. See you next Wednesday.

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, baseball, picture, sports, who's this guy?

This is page views for BrowserMetrics for the last 365 days. As you can see it's trending down this year, and it hasn't been as good as it was the same time last year. After completing my Year of links and quotes, I've stopped blogging. I don't know why. I don't know what to say. I've basically just been doing things that only I am interested in. K-ON! Hatsukoi Limited! Cross Game! I'm the only one who likes it.

I"m wondering if there is anything left to say.

Sorry, I'll try better.

Labels: meta, surly

Up continues Pixar's strange movie tales. After Cars and the chastisement they got for writing a most conventional, kid-friendly animated film, the boys (emphasis on the male) at the studio decided to create strange stories. First came Ratatouille then Wall E, stories that on the surface seem to be childish, but are pretty sophisticated. It's this sophistication that makes them a darling of critics everywhere. Yet, I can't but help wonder if they're too cool for their own good. That's what becomes of a contrarian.

The movie opens with a news reel describing the adventures of Charles Lindburgh, er some explorer dude. It's 2D, not the 3D I saw it in. Weird. Then they introduce the main character as a young boy. Fascinated with the explorer, he grows into wanting to follow him to the ends of the earth.

He meets a girl who's equally fascinated.

They fall in love.

And that was the movie I wanted to see. I think reading too much shoujo manga and watching shonen anime romantic comedies I wanted to watch another love story. One that blooms rather than one that is memories. I loved the growing old together vignette. It moved me and I thought that was a more fascinating subject for an animated tale. More daring. In fact, it would've been more because the woman he falls in love with is really interesting. I almost thought she was tsundere, but she's more dere-dere and almost no tsun-tsun. I would've like to have gotten to know her and of their story.

But the movie followed the adventures of the old man as he explored the world outside his house for the first time. Needless to say, he does find adventure, and his hero who's now a villain, and he becomes a stand in father for his sidekick. Adventure that is pretty standard for all animated summer films in the US. For all the sophistication, Pixar can't help but follow rote US standards in story telling.

The movie is fine. I just am wishing for more. John Lasseter loves Miyazaki. Can he get his studio to do something as awesome and daring as Miyazaki?

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review, tsundere goodness

I went to see Drag Me To Hell Saturday night by myself, because all my
friends were previously engaged. As it was, I sat in a half-filled
theatre next to an african-american lady laughing at all the frights
being displayed on screen.

Laughing? Yes, because Drag Me To Hell was written and directed by Sam
Raimi, who, before he made Spiderman, was renowned as a schlock-horror
meastro with his Evil Dead series. Drag Me To Hell is a return to form.

Now my laughter was the type of laughing I do when faced of some
frights. I cringed at the scares -- the evil face showing up, the cat
jumping into frame, etc. I averted my eyes from watching the gore. I
blurred my vision to avoid the shocking. So I laughed afterwards to
relieve my stress. The african-american lady knew it and told me that
afterwards. She was laughing at me while I was chuckling about it
because that's the way I roll on scary movies.

But still the horror is outrageous in Drag Me To Hell. What Sam Raimi
flick isn't without it's bursting eyeballs? Or it's slime? Not this
one. If you like the Evil Dead movies, you'll definitely appreciate
this one.

Seeing it amidst a lively Saturday night crowd was all the more
enjoyable, but I wish I wasn't cringing so much from the frights. The
only reason I watched it was it being a Sam Raimi flick and his scares
are more hilarious than scary. If it was an actual horror flick, I
doubt I would've gone and watched. I did, and I got home not the least
bit scared. Of course I didn't go upstairs.

Things of note. The cute cat gets its due and that is funny. The sound
design harkens back to Raimi's Evil Dead of creaks and groans and
rattling chains. Story ending was very predictable -- that return to
sender ain't going to work out exactly as planned. Grave digging in the
rain equals Poltergeist. The funniest bit was when our heroine was
deciding on who to pawn off her troubles. The african-american lady
next to me said, "That's cold." I was laughing my ass off. "Oh, no she
doesn't!"

4 of 5 stars.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127180/

Labels: fright, ha ha, movies, review