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The electronic age has ushered in plenty of cool gadgets, but keeping them up and running takes plenty of batteries. More AA! More AAA! More 9 volts! More rechargeable lithium! Just a proliferation of batteries that I have a hard time looking forward to a new gadget.

My MacBook Pro is over two years old. It needs a new battery, because the old one's charge leaves me with an hour when unplugged and doing nothing. Thirty minutes if I access the hard drive. It got the new battery.

I just bought a new guitar pedal -- Line6 Verbzilla, for that sweet, wet reverb sound. It needs a 9 volt battery. It got a 9 volt battery. Then I left my guitar plugged into it for 3 hours. It got another 9 volt battery. My other guitar pedals got 9 volt batteries as well. I may have to get another box of 9 volts for next week when I'm done with these.

My iPhone batteries last 20 hours of normal use. I turn off the wireless at work and gain 2 hours. I turn off 3G while sitting in the lab enclosed in metal. I gain 2 hours. And still I have to recharge iPhone every day.

I've gotten sick of my battery issues that I'm taking the charge on the battery of these gadgets to their empty point. For iPhone, I even have to play some of the downloaded games or a movie to get it to shut down.

Batteries! I can't wait for wireless power!

Labels: why am i telling you this?

Looking up siopao on the internet, I get this bit from wikipedia: "[T]here are several siopao stuffing varieties which could be either Asado or bola-bola that may use pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, cat meat, salted duck eggs."

Duck eggs? Cat meat? And this is just the Filipino version of steamed buns! You can always put something in steamed buns, but that don't necessarily mean I'll eat it. I just want the bbq pork.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siopao

Labels: hunh?, mmm

I want the poster to this movie really, really, really bad.

Haruhi and zettai ryouiki yum!

Labels: anime, picture, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, zettai ryouiki

These gorgeous days of spring mock me.

I should be on my bike, but I can't get up for it. She's sitting in my garage with a deflated tire. Her sister still hasn't had her flat fixed.

And every day that is a beautiful spring day, I don't enjoy on my bike.

Labels: cycling, get off your butt

About a week ago, I had caught Tim Burton's rendition of Alice In Wonderland in Disney 3D. I don't know what the difference but 3D doesn't seem so cool if you don't shoot it in stereo like Kirk Cameron did Avatar.

Did you know that it was rated PG? I didn't. There's some hacking and slashing at the end plus that hooka smoking caterpillar that make it seem less children-y and more teenage-ish. Except that the Alice story has been in the public domain for a long time now that there are plenty of dark interpretations of it. Let's just say bringing really young kids to it can set a parent up for some seat squirming.

Or it could set them up for boring. Alice in Wonderland relies on Tim Burton's hoary tricks at ghoulishness and on Johnny Depp's weirdness. I couldn't get past either and wish that the film ended sooner than it did.

But it didn't end soon enough for me. And I blame Disney. They've churned out nothing but rehashes of their intellectual properties. I wish someone would make a better Alice tale rather than the sad suits of Disney.

2 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Initech, man, Initech.

My title is Software Engineer.

I've got Gimp up and looking on how to change a graphics color from grey to green.

What that has to do with software engineering I don't know.

"Well-well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?" -- Tom Smykowski, Office Space

Labels: get me out of here

More music from Seven Samurai in honor of Akira Kurosawa's 100th birthday. I think this was from the attack on the brigands base. That is one hell of a beat though. And does this remind anyone of the Sith?

Labels: Akira Kurosawa, music break, time sink

Because the theme song to Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece is awesome...

Labels: Akira Kurosawa, it rocks

If he had lived this long, today would be famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 100th birthday. As you know, if you've been following me on twitter, TCM has been showing his films every Tuesday of the month. Tonight's Seven Samurai, a film I regard as one of the best ever made and one of my 5 favorites of all time. Earlier this month, I also caught Ikiru, also pretty awesome, and caught up with Akahige (Red Beard), a feudal drama.

There is something about Kurosawa that I can't really express. His films I love. The most famous actors he collaborated with, Toshiro Mifune and Takeshi Shimura, I too love. His stories, re-telling Shakespeare. His samurai epics. His crime thrillers. His humanism. Great, great stuff from a master of cinema. In the pantheon of great directors, he has got to be amongst the best of the best. He's influenced me and I don't even direct movies.

Happy Birthday to the Emperor, Akira Kurosawa! Celebrate by watching something he directed.

Labels: Akira Kurosawa, movies, who's this guy?, woohoo

Epiphone ES-335

Labels: guitar, it rocks

"[T]he emotional core of opposition to reform was blatant fear-mongering, unconstrained either by the facts or by any sense of decency."

Paul Krugman, "Fear Strikes Out" NY Times, Monday March 22, 2010

Labels: freedom, huzzah, qotd

Darn! And we only just begun.

It looks the way I filled out my bracket is just like burning money. You have any money I can burn, too.

UPDATE: 8:47 PM
Not completely blown up, but if that G'town-Ohio score holds up that might just sink the ship right there. G'town. How phony! CapSwell why did you trick me?

Oh yeah, just as I said yesterday? F' the Irish!

UPDATE: 10:32 PM
I can't watch anymore. My hearts all a flutter. Just lose. Just win. Just keep that bracket going.

CapSwell laments not rooting for his team. It's because you can't be too emotional to make your picks. You just have to be cold, calculating. That way you can say it was the numbers that made you fill out your bracket that way. Here's hoping CapSwell's other brackets are doing alright.

Labels: sports, wagers

She's Out of Your League makes explicit the conceit of the Macho Chick Flick: "How does he end up with her?" It's right there in the title. A hottie, 10, hooks takes out the nerdly 5, they hit it off, and believe that they are right for each other. Will they believe to make it right? Will their friends spoil it? Are they really meant for each other? And can a 5 make himself into an 8 to get close enough to dating a 10?

Of course, it rom-com land, they end up together. The reason to watch is to find out what their obstacles are.

I like Jay Baruchel. He starred in the underappreciated Apatow tv show, Undeclared. It reminded me of college at the U, and that was 7 years out ten years ago. Yet, he is pretty much annoying here. He's too nerdly. No girl would dig that. When you think of him that way, then he was perfect for the role.

This movie falls into the Apatow, guy rom-com except that it didn't have any of his repertoire company except for Baruchel. I kept trying to figure out which character would be played by an Apatow member. There's a Jonah Hill/Seth Rogan guy, the fast talking friend. There's a Jason Segal role and a Paul Rudd role. It seemed like the producers scrimped on the stars and with second rate actors.

Alice Eve is attractive. But she's not the hottest girl out there. I wonder if that was the way it was supposed to be.

2 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

On the drive home tonight, I listened to the radio. Tuned into the local classic rock station which was celebrating music from 1983. Said music is classic rock like classic rock was when I was in high school. 20+ years to the music of the 80s just as back in the 80s it was 20+ years to the Beatles, the Stones and the Who.

Labels: hunh?

IMG_2059
Originally uploaded by felixdaacat.

Looking at the Orioles and hoping that spring training is going to be nothing like the regular season. Except the bats. Not the pitching. And definitely not the losing.

Anyway. I was searching for spring training pictures and came across this set from last season's penultimate game. We were at this game. So let's play, "Where's BrowserMetrics?" Squint real hard and find us.

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, baseball, Camden Yards, picture, winners

Or let's hope that SI curse is an urban legend.

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, it rocks, winners

The preliminary count of the winner of the BrowserMetrics Oscar Pool in Imax 3D. I still have to tabulate the votes and make sure that my math is correct. Or I can look at the Seeds count.

Looks to be Jeremy Benthem aka The Seed.

I actually got the most points but I am ineligible for the prize.

I'd like to thank you, my participants, for making this fun. It's you who make it all worth while.

UPDATE 12:34 AM EST
I think this is the final correct tally.
BrowserMetrics 37
Jeremy Bentham 33
Wyman Lee 30
Riss 25
Marge 23
CapSwell 22
Akeshia 22
Annie 22

Labels: oscar pool, winners

I think I've closed the google form, here's the link to the
final submissions. It's what I'll be using to tally up the scores. And it looks like I'm gonna have to start putting your names in the hat because they all look the same.

So who's live blogging this? Or better yet, who's hosting the live chat? And if you join twitter you may see some of my own bitter tweets.

UPDATE 9:46 PM EST
I forgot to add that I don't actually win if I do get the most points.

The count so far:



UPDATE 10:03 PM EST
I'm building a lead! Suckers! :p

UPDATE 10:30 PM EST
Heh heh Hurt Locker winning sound!


UPDATE 10:38 PM EST


UPDATE 11:12 PM EST
The Hurt Locker is looking to be the winner of the night! But its gonna come down the the foreign picture to make or break the Oscar Pool.


UPDATE 11:19 PM EST
It looks as if the two time defending champion, riss, has been dethroned. I believe that it is the Wyman who may take her crown. But we still have to do the tabulating of results.


UPDATE 11:50 PM EST
Sandra Bullock looks to give Jeremy Benthem the winning hand.

UPDATE 11:56 PM EST
And it looks to be Jeremy Benthem's! Unless he gets shot...

Labels: it rocks, oscar pool

Shutter Island is Martin Scorsese doing his thriller thing. It is based on a Dennis Lehane novel as if that means anything to you. Lehane did a few novels that have been turned into movies perhaps you've heard of Mystic River or of Gone Baby Gone. He's a man of New England, and Scorsese is a man of New York. How does this affect any thing? I don't know but my review is suddenly going off the rails into a different reality...

Shutter Island is about two federal marshals conducting a manhunt on the eponymous island mental institution looking for an escaped patient. She was supposed to have disappeared without a trace. The wardens have no idea what happened.

Unfortunately, it may take you awhile to figure out what the twists and turns in the movie's plot. Or if you've watched a lot of movies, you'll expect the unexpected.

Scorsese works in a genre that seems out of his interests. But, he did do the Val Lewton retrospective for Universal. And he does bring some of the extraordinary creepiness that was trademark of Lewton. In fact, the strangeness of the film reminded me of The Curse of the Cat People. It's not what it seems which was the same for both films.

One thing: don't watch with your psychiatrist mom she'll know everyone's crazy and complain that it's just like work.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

I am surprised that the Pulitzer people deem comics worthy of serious consideration of an artform. They've given a Pulitzer to Art Spiegelman's Maus and lately they've awarded the Pulitzer for fiction to an otaku. Since I am myself a comic book fan, I'm glad that they do think it worthy of praise. So I searched out the one Pulitzer winner dealing with comic books and men in tights, Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

It's the story of the infancy of the comic book industry in the United States. It covers the beginnings of the super hero genre from the introduction of Superman to the first twilight of the industry in the Congressional hearings into juvenile delinquency in the 50s. It the story of two cousins who embark on a blaze of creativity bringing into being several superheroes. It is the story of immigration and assimilation into the United States as all stories of the populace of the American people is really about. It is the story of Jews in America, and the story about escaping who we really are. They are looking for their own übermensch -- the Golem or Warsaw, an alien from the planet Krypton, the un-imprisonable Escapist -- to do battle with the Germans.

The plot follows Josef Kavalier as he escapes the Prague ghetto before its demise by the Nazis, flees to America, and becomes a comic book artist. The plot also involves Sammy Clay, Josef's cousin and collaborator, and Rosa Saks the bohemian girl in love with Josef.

Kavalier and Clay begin with their super heroes a few months after the introduction of Superman. They create the Escapist, the super hero who cannot be confined by any jail, box or ropes. He fights to free people from injustice, and at the time he fights the Nazis. He is Kavalier and Clay's Jewish super man. They also created Luna Moth, a sensual lady crime fighter, inspired by Rosa Saks. These two super heroes are their most famous creations.

Kavalier is the artist. He sees the potential artistry in the comic book medium, and he attempts to break out of the squares of the format. Clay is the prolific writer. He has plenty of stories to tell. He writes all their stories. Brothers by their pen, they create what becomes legend. They mix with the early comics industry making friends and making legends.

The book is written like Kavelier and Clay were real comic creators. Mixing the real New York city in as part of the milieu. Gotham. Metropolis. Empire City. America.

I really liked this book. The comics creation part early was the boring stuff. The story afterwards of the two creators is the important interesting part of the book. It wasn't they who created art, but art created them. They lived their lives open and free in reaction to being comic creators. It makes me want to be a creator myself.

A-

Labels: bookish, review

Japanese Food
Originally uploaded by Danny Choo.

Is there somewhere around here just as sophisticated in their ramen ordering?

Mmm. I could go for a big bowl of soup.

I wish I could show this to you, but I don't want to shoot your email addys all over the internet without express written consent. Here's a snippet of the most interesting of responses: the ones where we disagree on the most. I think we don't have a clue on these choices. We just blindly picked.

Live Action Short


Foreign Language


Doucmentary Short


Those are from the submissions as of tonight (this post time). It's got at least one extra ballot where someone changed there mind. You still can too!

Labels: oscar pool, polls

Can we call this Old School now?

Labels: music break, time sink

Thanks to the one and only incomparable Annie, we receive an appreciation from one of last year's winners. Annie ruled the micro points portion of our contest, won a copy of Bolt, and shared her little ones (minus one) enjoyment of this Disney Pixar attempt. Although, those multi-prize times are gone, they'll be back soon. This year, though, it's a cage match to the death. "N men enter 1 man leaves!" Our goal this year: beat the two time champ riss.

Consider this an open thread on the Oscar (pool) race

Labels: comraderie, open thread, oscar pool