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Last day of August. After eight months, lots of eating of food, beer, hot dogs, burgers, slacking of the bike riding, and just lazing about on the couch, it's 202.6 lbs is what I weigh. Naked. First thing in the morning. That probably translates to 205 lbs during the day.

It must come down.

There are 122 days left in the year. I'm bringing it down. Target goal 185. ONE. EIGHT. FIVE.

The goal is to lose 20 lbs in 17.4 weeks, 0.16 lbs a day or 1.14 lbs a week.

Possible? Yes.

I just have to stick with it. Keep focused. Exercise. Eat lighter. Perhaps do the !! diet. Here we go.

Labels: egg on the face

VA Beach
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

Better than work.

Labels: picture, vacation

"Baseball is 90% mental -- the other half is physical."

Yogi Berra

Labels: baseball, qotd

Ponyo or in the romanji, Gake no ue no Ponyo, is another of Hayao Miyazaki fantastic movies. He's the last of the animators that still believes in hand drawn animation. It is difficult to find it being used as the medium in the US, but in Japan with its lively anime scene, hand drawn still seems to be a cherished medium. John Laseter agrees considering that it is his Disney that has been releasing the latest Studio Ghibli films, and he has a Disney hand drawn animated film coming out soon.

As for Ponyo, it isn't as great as Miyazaki's latest films. It isn't as awe inspiring as Spirited Away, and it isn't as cute as Totoro, yet, there is still some charm in it. And still some fantastic imagery.

The scene of Ponyo running on the waves. The joy in her face. The waves cresting and moving. Fun. Exciting. Something that hand drawn animation seems to get done very well. There is an organic quality to these scenes, and for me it illicits a feeling of fun.

As for the story, it was okay. Another of Miyazaki's meditation of the human-nature conflict. And transformation of the human soul. And it hints at Yellow Submarine.

Still pretty good. I want to hear the original Japanese seiyu.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Being a fan of nendoroids is getting to be expensive. The Good Smile
Company has flooded the market with many that I like. I've already
preordered a few, and I was looking at HobbySearch this morning and saw
a few more that I want to preorder.

Here's the chica from the Canaan anime:
http://www.goodsmile.info/detail/eng/2623/Nendoroid+Canaan.html

And like all good nendos, she's so kawaii!

My bill this Christmas is going to be crazy. Hopefully the yen will be
weak against the dollar when the preorders come time to bill.

Labels: commerce, nendoroid

Lyrics to Fuwa☆Fuwa Time by the anime girls of K-ON! It's a pretty fun song, but the three minute version kind of sucks versus the one used in the anime.

http://honya-ch.com/2009/05/17/lyrics-k-on-insert-song-fuwa-fuwa-time-by-sakurakou-k-on-bu/

Labels: K-ON, lotd, lyrics

District 9 was supposedly consolation for the director in the cancellation of The Halo movie. Maybe the last half of the movie was left over from the screen play. It started as a faux documentary on the political problems with immigration of aliens (from another planet). Then the script changes into the standard summer shoot 'em up: the Halo Movie. Should the movie had changed? I don't know, but it happens every time in the summer. They need the action. Abandon the story.

And what did they abandon? Some logic. Why would aliens make alien technology weapons that are awesome, then just roll over when the po-po come to kick them out? Why would aliens need to horde human weapons? Why wouldn't aliens just be taking over the planet? No sense.

Meh. It's just another summer movie. Turn your brain off and go enjoy the aircon.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Let's go O's! Let's go O's! Let's go.... stupid drunk guy!!!!! Fuck the po-po!

Labels: baseball, wankers

What the Dems need is to cram the health care reform down these people's throats. Let them choke on that for the time being. They should treat these people with contempt. It really is ridiculous what these fuckers claim.

These white people, and it is almost exclusively white, are too selfish for words. They don't understand the intent of the health care reform. To put it plainly, it's to give health care insurance to those who don't currently have it in the least costliest of ways. These white people, and it is almost exclusively white, don't want to share with anyone. Heaven forbid that the poor, sick, or the uninsured get health insurance. They don't want to share in the cost. They want to live in the greatest country in the world, but don't contribute. I say get the fuck out then.

Labels: stupidity

Every time I'm at the Yard, I enthusiastically cheer the ballgirls. They always have a cush job, and they're right there on the field. Most likely the best seats in the house. That is, until the screaming line drive comes your way. Stick out your glove and try to make the catch.

Way to go ZERO-NINE! Over here ZERO-NINE! Throw me the ball!

http://www.explorebaltimorecounty.com/sports/100921/fine-line/

Labels: baseball

Why does it take a man who watches movies all day to get you to understand health care reform?

Roger Ebert brings the smarts.

Labels: go there now

Angels @ Orioles, Aug 17, 2009
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

Went to the final game in the Angels/Orioles series. Loss.

Guy in the bottom of the ninth jumps the fence. Runs to the center field wall and back, but is tackled by the po-po. Hope the beer, drunkeness was worth it.

Cheers to you drunken fan!

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, baseball, picture

"What does 'foc' mean?"
"It's a slang word. When a man and a woman are in love, the man puts
his..."
"No, no. Here: 'F. O. C.'"

Juliette Forrest (Rachel Ward) to Rigby Reardon (Steve Martin)
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)

Labels: qotd

Zauny brings WIN!

Look what happens when you get a like Zauny on your team. WIN!

Sheesh. The Orioles could use some of that.

http://www.bradenton.com/baseball/story/1642741.html

Labels: baseball, lotd

I didn't plan on blogging the movies I saw today, but a scene in Amélie was directly copied in Ghanjani. It's kind of weird to notice these things. Similar to Julius Caesar from yesterday. Is it coincidence?

The scene: The girl helps out a blind man.

She spots him lonely on the curb. Then she goes to help him. Takes him by the hand. Leads him to his destination all the while describing what she sees. She gives a running commentary on life being led around them.

In both movies, it signifies something important in the girl. In Ghanjani the girl is carefree, and shows her kindness as helping towards others: it comes naturally. In Amélie, the girl needs to become carefree and she slowly comes out of her shell.

Qué un shell!! Audrey Tautou is plain cuteness personified like an anime girl come to life. Moe in French.

Amélie is a charming movie. Love and the search for love will always be fun to watch. When the girl is as cute as Tautou it's even more charming. When her character is as shy as that, I'm easily charmed. Reminds me of all the quiet, shy anime girls I so dig. (Mio! Yakomo!) You just want her to find that love. The search is darn cute as well. Find the man. Give him clues. Show him you love him. It's as easy as that. Where's my quiet anime French girl in my life.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, Netflix Queue, review

This should be tweeted, but your limited to 140 characters.

I'm watching Ghanjani, some BollyWood film on iFC. It starts off as rip-off of Memento: some guy with amnesia looking for the killer of his girl.

And then like all Bollywood films, the singing kicks in. We're now in some romantic comedy showing the back story of how the guy with amnesia falls in love with the girl. It's a case of mistake identity. And singing.

When will it get back to the thriller?

UPDATE WITH REVIEW:
I was just looking for something to watch this morning as I was waking up, and I decided to check out one of the free channels that I get on DirectTV. It's the Independent Film Channel, iFC, showing their Sunday Bollywood programming. I let the station play as I was more interested in the morning's news on the blogs. That is until, that dude decided to beat some guy up. Then I was intrigued about the movie. Then they started in with the singing. And the movie went from some thriller to romantic comedy.

She was a struggling model low on her ad agency's actress list. He was the scion of the big telecom company. He's come back from America to take charge of the family business. She is somehow linked to him. She pretends he's her boyfriend. It works and she becomes the darling of the ad agency. They do finally meet. Cute. She thinks he's an aspiring actor. She helps him get a job with her clout. They sing and dance.

Then we go back to finding out how she dies. And we're back into Memento land and the bad ass kicking ass theme.

I was more interested in the romantic comedy. I wonder if that would make a better movie.

3 of 5 stars

Labels: hunh?, movies, review

http://www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/1736/A+Week+in+Tokyo+43.html

If you haven't yet, you should check out Danny, son of Jimmy, Choo's
internet haunt. It's a real geek/otaku hangout, but there are some real
interesting things there. What's awesome is his weekly "Week in Tokyo,"
which he just shows you around.

Beautiful photos. Nice writing. Good to read.

Sometimes, the food he puts on there, makes my mouth water. Most
everytime raw fish is presented, I really get the hankering for sushi.
And then the noodles... Mmmm.

Labels: yup

Speaking of shelves. Here's a link to every Mac addicts favorite cataloguing software. I bought the first version and the upgraded to the second. I also bought the iPhone app before it was removed from the store for violating stupid Amazon.com's TOS.

Use it to keep inventory of all your books, DVDs, manga, comics, anime, etc., etc.. I like that it has shelves to display your stuff. You can use your iSight to scan in the barcode to lookup on Amazon.com the item. It does com in handy.

That iPhone app is a great looking app. The desktop version is fun too.

http://www.delicious-monster.com/

Labels: lotd, software development, the shelves

Pulled from the shelves is going to be some musings on a film from my vast library. Okay, it really isn't vast, but it's spilling out all over my house. Perhaps it's time to invest in some DVD sleeves and recycle the boxes.

The first installment in this retrospect of my collection is a look at the Japanese Academy Award winner for Best Picture of 1997, Shall We Dansu? I don't remember getting this one, but I found it sitting on my television still encased in plastic. It must've been when I bought some books from Amazon, as Marge at the FishTank, reminded me on Twitter.

If you hadn't seen it, you may have seen the recent remake with J-Lo and Richard Gere. It has the same plot. A salaryman, slave to the grind seeks something outside of work and family to make him happy and relieve his ennui. He happens to see a beautiful, young woman looking forlornly out of the window of a dance studio. For a week, he catches sight of her every day from his the train home until one day he decides to find her. He at first approaches dance just to meet her. When he does finally have a chance to be alone with her, she rejects his advances and tells him that he is mistaken if he took up dance just for her. He accepts the rejection and puts his heart into dancing so much so that he begins to participate in amateur ballroom dance competitions.

All this time his wife suspects him to be having an affair. He's no longer depressed and he smells of perfume when he comes home late. She hires a detective who informs her of his passion for dancing and who ends up finding passion in dance as well. She's jealous.

He on the other hand is ashamed. Close dancing is unexpected in Japanese society. He doesn't want anyone to find out about his dancing. A colleague at work also is a ballroom dancer, and he too hides it from everyone.

Our salaryman is also ashamed about finding happiness outside of his marriage. He doesn't like to make his wife jealous. His obligation makes it too much to continue dance, but the rhythm calls. It calls for him, not just the pretty dance instructor.

Sorry about the spoilers.

The feeling I got from watching the dancing in this movie (maybe also, from the movie itself) is exhilaration. It looks like fun. I likened the feeling to riding my bike. It must be really fun! And especially, if you have a partner. Sometimes I feel like taking dance lessons. It looks like fun. It must be exhilarating to be in the embrace of a girl moving together to the music. And just like our salaryman, dancing may bring out the life in me.

So, I was glad to pull this film out of my library. I'll gladly watch it again. In fact, I'm watching it again right now.

4 of 5 stars

Labels: movies, the shelves

When in need of something to blog about, I inevitably turn to blogging about blogging. Meta, man, that's always the way to go when looking for a topic to write about. Yet, I know, everyone who blogs hates blogging about blogging. Navel gazing plain sucks in some blogger's eyes, but it's something. I think I like the sound of my keyboard in my ears.

The thing about this blog, it's a reflection of me. Every post is something that I am interested in talking about. The posts are me. So, if you want to know who I am, at the time, just read my blog. I don't talk much or go out much anymore, so this is the best I can do to let you know what's up with me.

That said, I love how reading my archives brings me back in time, and it reminds me that sometimes my writing ain't so bad. And I need to be reminded, because when the mind is blank, so is the textbox.

Labels: meta

One of the two books I'm currently reading is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. And because I am not done it yet, I'm lolly-gagging around the internet looking for more information about it. You see, Díaz, sprinkles some spanish into his writing, and it takes me some time to decipher via context what he's talking about. When I don't completely pick up the gist of the spanish passage, I skip over them and continue on. But I found a site that annotates some passages of the book for you. So if you ever read it, check this site out.

I picked this book up, because I saw the blurb the author supplied on the back cover of Pluto, a manga by Naoki Urasawa. It's an adaption and modernization of an Osamu Tezuka Astroboy story. When I read the quote, I thought that this Díaz fellow, a Pulitzer winner, likes manga? How geeky! Then reading Oscar Wao, you see how much of a geek this dude is: Marvel, DC comics, Robotech (Rick Hunter dude, not Rich!), Appleseed and anime. It's included as well as other geeky tropes such as D&D, Tolkien and the bad luck with the female of the species. But it is a wonderful read, and I do get about 85% of the allusions to the geekdom.

Labels: anime, bookish, geeked, Macross

I had promised not to do this anymore. I'm weak like that. Pretty weak.

June 25, 2009

We were on vacation.

She had sent me a book. I flipped through it didn't know what she wanted me to see.

I called her up.

She sent me a video said it was something. I had it playing on my iPhone. She called me several times. I saw it popping up on my visual voice mail one after another. I start going through that book looking for the page she wanted me to see.

I go to the pool. I come back and decide to call her up. I'm outside trying her line. She's not picking up.

It was raining. I drove by their vacation home. She and her family were sitting in the car. I drove past and moved on turned left to go back home.

Labels: dreams, I'm a fool, why am i telling you this?

Here's something: The Nationals, the worst team in baseball, won their eighth straight game. The Orioles have won only six games after the All-Star break.

Who again is the worst team in baseball?

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, baseball, WTF

http://randomc.animeblogger.net/2009/08/06/its-finally-over/

I can't wait to see the LAST Endless Eight episode. I just torrented
the two previous episodes yesterday, and I can't bear to watch any one
of them. I didn't even make it through the first of the two let alone
want to watch the penultimate of this arc. It took me weeks to decide
on wanting to get those episodes. Now I look forward to the finish.

I'll tell you what, I can't believe how pissed off I am at KyoAni at
this endless repeat of episodes. I'm angry because they're wasting my
time. They really know how to fuck with otaku. Last night while
watching the ep, I reminisced about how good the previous season was,
and how, with Endless Eight, the studio has ruined it for us. I want my
500 years back!

Labels: gifts that keep on gifting, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Because the people who believe that the President is not the president. They are stupid. They are ignorant. They are plain dumb.

Let's all make our own.

http://kenyanbirthcertificategenerator.com/

Labels: lotd, wankers

..it's great shows I've not seen.

Weird. I used to love watching television. I'm too busy surfing the net to be bothered with following a show. I'm also downloading anime which I seem to like better than the boobtube.

Here's a list of shows that are highly acclaimed that I have not watched. Even though they're available on DVD. I don't really care to catch up. My loss.

The Sopranos
Mad Men
Sex and the City
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Larry Sanders Show
Deadwood
The Corner
The Wire

Probably more to this, but I can't think of them. Anyone want to throw out a show?

Labels: boobtube, lists

For Dummies
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

Umm. I need to replace the batteries in my beeper. Who should I call?

Labels: picture

Bugs Bunny - Baseball Bugs - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

The Orioles are as pathetic as the team playing against the Gorillas. They give up runs like a rhumba line. We need our own Bugs Bunny!

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, baseball