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The second OP from K-ON!! I find this pretty hilarious and awesome at the same time. That bass recorder!

Labels: K-ON, time sink

Before the spooks come out, let's put down my thoughts about Clint Eastwood's latest cinema effort, Hereafter. Appropriately released close to Halloween, it is a movie about living with the dead that is how we, the living, approach death, dying, and the dead, and how we think about the afterlife. If we think about it at all.

I'm amazed that Eastwood played it straight. He cast no judgement against any of our beliefs be it for an afterlife or not. Even he didn't make judgement on those who believed or didn't believe in communicating with the dead. Straight, right? The movie states that there is something after death.

And you can talk to them. Can we? Eastwood plays it straight and let's Damon actually communicate with the dead. Then throws us a curve and in a crucial moment, makes it seem like he didn't. Did he? Hmm.

It was an alright movie. Not creepy. But nice to know. It's a pragmatic film about what could happen after death.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

Aaargh! Kawaii overload! During episode 10 of K-ON!!, YuiAzu wasn't able to finish their duet. Now, we find it out on YouTube. And Azusa is singing. We never heard her sing any song. Gah! So Kawaii.

Let me look for this CD or torrent.

UPDATE: Replaced video because YouTube removed it.

Labels: K-ON, time sink

Pretty soon baseball will be back at the Yard. We'll be there when it does. Front row. Center.

Labels: baseball, Camden Yards, fanatical

Spent the first CPU cycles of the MacIntelMini converting MKVs with softsubs into MP4s for the iPhone and for the big trip to the HI. The conversion process didn't work out as well as the subs were getting dropped at times and I then had to rely on my lack of Japanese skills. It's like when I try to figure out tagalog: all things in context. Yet, still I'm missing things context be damned.

What I converted was the first season of K-ON! I finished watching them tonight. Let me say that it works better after watching the second season. All the cuteness is there, but a little bit rougher on the edges. When I first watched the first season, it wasn't as fun. There was some slowness to the season that made it slightly disappointing. Loved it but it was a chore at times. The comedy and Yui hard to come by. Mio and moe all the time. Good, but not too great.

The second season of K-ON!! is plain awesome. Then watching the first, again, so it is also.

Let's go convert the next season....

Labels: anime, K-ON

Boo!

Scared you, right?

No? But that's what I was thinking about this morning: spooks, frights, and scares. It's the last week 'til Halloween, and my thoughts always turn towards the scary around this time of the year.

I love the feeling of being spooked. I think that it's most likely the slight shot of adrenaline you get when things creep you out. I am reminded of this whenever I ride my bike alone into the woods. It's slightly creepy on the backroads. You have to be aware of your surroundings when riding on the road. If you aren't careful, you may be hit by a car, so your senses are heightened. Look around. You look around and when you're in the woods it gets dark and creepy. Your cadence picks up and your elevated heart rate jumps slightly. Are those shadows in the woods just shadows? Are the dark, dank areas around you empty? Of the living? What's that noise? Is it just you, alone or can you feel the presence of an paranormal entity?

I'm reminded of Ichabod Crane whenever I ride alone in the woods and get creeped out by my surroundings. Will the headless horseman come after me, throwing pumpkins, to lop off my head? The only thing I can think about is "Am I faster than his horse?" Sadly, the answer would be no.

But the creeped out feelings occur lots. At home, what's that creaky noise coming from upstairs? Is there something wandering downstairs? Are there zombies wandering the field out back in the night as I pull into my garage? Did I leave the light on? Why's this door ajar?

Just looking at creepy old houses excites the creeped out feelings. The old Rosewood institution in Owings Mills is creepy. It can substitute for many of the deranged hospitals you see in horror movies. Even its purpose lends itself to that milieu: it was a hospice for the serious developmentally disabled kids. Yes, that is somewhat disturbingly creepy.

What do you think is creepy? And have you experienced anything real?

Labels: mondays, spooky

Courtesy of Layou~ with his all rights reserved.

I've unpacked one of my Black Rock Shooter nendoroid! What'll I do with the other?

Labels: nendoroid

Cuteness provided by hgl_765. Sorry for snatching this with your all rights reserved!

I so want this nendoroid, but you can't find it for anything less than $150. Yeah. It's probably one of the most sought after ones. Damn you, Good Smile! Can't you re-release one of the most kawaii nendoroids ever. EVER!

Labels: nendoroid, want

Nendoroid pic courtesy ofpersocom

Your morning nendoroid, Azusa Nakano. Ho-kago Tea Time's second guitarist.

Labels: K-ON, nendoroid, so kawaii

Over the course of the baseball season, I've thought about how to fix some of baseball's problems.

First, both leagues will use the DH. I want to see pitchers pitch. Maybe see them hit. But don't want to see them lazily run out a ground ball. Or leg out a hit but pull a hamstring. Traditionalists will hate this idea. They'll say that you have to be a complete player. I don't believe that. We dog position players if they don't run out ground balls, but we give pitchers a free pass to mosey up the base paths on a grounder? We don't want to see them get hurt? Contradiction! Pitchers can't be complete players because they're too valuable to lose to silly, silly injuries. Let them sit and concentrate on pitching. Leave the hitting to the hitters.

Onto free agency and competitive imbalance. Make building a team into one of two ways: free agency or the farms system. To enforce this make the luxury tax meaningful by associating it with draft picks. You go over the median you have to forfeit draft picks to your division rivals. Your division rivals get a draft pick, you lose a draft pick. Go ahead and get free agents, but it will also hurt your farm system.

Realignment. Move Houston the AL West. It sets up a natural rivalry with the Rangers. All divisions balanced. Then make divisional play more important by having 20 games with the rest of the teams in your division. When playing outside of the division, match up with previous year's rankings. The weak play the weak and the strong play the strong. Keep inter-league games, but again match up by weak divisions versus strong divisions. You can get the sabrmetricians to craft some kind of metrics to determine weak and strong divisions.

Focusing on divisional play makes my playoff suggestion better: the wildcard stigma. You win the wildcard you have to play a game down. In the divisional round, you have to win 3 and your opponent has to win 2. In the league championship, you have to win 4 and your opponent has to win 3. You make the World Series the stigma is gone; it's the best of seven. The stigma comes from not winning your division. You're not good enough to win a divisional crown, you should be ashamed to make the playoffs. Of course this doesn't seem fair for divisional winners of weak divisions -- if the wildcard winner has more wins than a divisional champ. But of course if you were really good, you should've won it all. At least, the pennant races become more important in the end.

More double headers. More day games End the season before the end of September. Playoffs start the last week of September. No World Series games in November. Who wants to watch baseball in November? Especially in Minnesota. Too cold.

Have a 28 man roster instead of 25, but only allow 25 to be available to play daily.

That's plenty of ideas. I doubt they will be implemented. I doubt any of them make any sense for the game. I wonder what would happen.

Labels: baseball

Azunyan
Originally uploaded by Mr.MVP.

A little bit of Azu-nyan for your afternoon. She brightens up your day. Or at least she does mine. I'll have to take mine out of the package one of these days.

Labels: K-ON, nendoroid

I do not like this development at all.

It will bring junk to the Mac. Look at the mobile AppStore.

Plus, that split is bothering me. Why should I get permission to put an application out for others to download to their own computer.

Don't like this development one bit.

Labels: Apple, apps, Macs, software development

I need to revisit my 5 year plan. Get the fuck out of IniTech and go all Delicious Mac development.

But no.

I'm a pussy.

That's why I work at IniTech.

(I think I wrote this post 5 years ago) FML

Labels: Apple, get me out of here, get off your butt, I am me, I'm a fool, Macs, whining

the definition of open: "mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make"

Chief Android Andy Rubin, http://twitter.com/#!/Arubin/status/27808662429

Labels: geeked, hunh?, qotd

It was a very pretty thing to watch. Cliff Lee taking it to the dangerous Yankee hitters and completely neutering them. He struck out every one he faced at least once, and he struck out a few a couple of times. Cliff Lee made them look ridiculous.

Texas is now up 2-1 and seemingly in control. Yet, don't count out those damn Yankees. Texas has to rely on 3 starting pitchers who are not Cliff Lee to keep those Yankee bats at bay. At least, for one magical night, those bats were silent like the Yankee fans who filed out of Yankee stadium early.

Here's to baseball in October.

http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/10/19/natural-lee/

Labels: baseball, lotd, winners

I'm not sure if it was the bow in her hair, her blond hair, her office lady outfit, or those heels she wore, but when she walked into the store, she got my attention. Forget the coffee, it was she that woke me up this morning.

On an aside, do women wear bows? Or just girls? She was no girl though.

Labels: she's hot

Are these guys the new Alton Brown? I mean they are mixing cooking with science just like Brown used to do for his show, Good Eats.

Ahh, Good Eats. Love that show back when the Cooking Network had actual cooks cooking food. What's it become? A game show network? Phoo. Look at Alton Brown, he's, o right, a game show host now. Dang nabbit, Food Network, bring back more cooks.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/10/the-food-labs-top-6-food-myths.html

Labels: lotd, science fiend

Soup in a cup. Pizza in a cup. Ravioli in a cup. Can food taste better when it comes in a cup?

I've been eating cup noodles this past week, but not ramen because ramen is too high in sodium. I've been buying Thai Kitchen rice noodle soups instead. They have half the amount of sodium as ramen and you can add little or a lot of the seasoning packet as you want. With cup ramen, you can't adjust the seasoning very well.

Thinking about rice noodles, I am reminded that I need to learn how to make pancit from my mom. If not, I'll go hungry when I am old and gray. Or can I just buy Mamacita's seasoning and instantly have my own pancit? What about palabok?

Palabok in a cup! Now there's a wonderful idea!

Labels: mmm

Sometimes you need to get away. Or splurge on something you don't really need. Do it all at the same time by buying luxury luggage. Why? I don't know, but sometimes you have to go out and do something away from the things of man.

http://www.globe-trotterltd.com/main.html

Labels: get me out of here, get off your butt, go there now, lotd

It's animated!!!

Labels: music break, time sink

Why is old school dancehall so cool?

I am not really versed in Jamaican dancehall so when I say old school I mean the late 70s and the 80s of dancehall. When it wasn't too rap influenced.

What's good? Is there a Trojan records compilation for dancehall? Or do I have to just console myself with Dancehall Stylee volumes 1, 2 and 3? Of which I only have 2 and 3.

This posts exposes me more to liking Jamaican music. Ska? Check. Dub? Check. Dancehall? Check. Where's my reggae post?

Labels: it rocks, ska

Let's keep it light hearted for a little bit.

Fashklork! Foomp! Glank! Kapooshishish!

These are all sound effects by the hilarious Don Martin of Mad Magazine fame.

I just think they're some great words, and they sound completely awesome as non-sequiturs in your twitter timeline or facebook page. Throw some on their and watch people stare quizzically at their screen until their inner geek kicks in and recognizes Don Martin. Have fun and stay safe with these.

Now, where did I put my Sergio Aragones mini sketches?

Labels: geeked, ha ha

If there was flickr in the 90s, I would've favorited this photo.

The funny thing about this photo is that it was taken on September 18, 1996. It's my birthday! Happy birthday, BrowserMetrics! You're 25!

Now take a look at who's helping me to celebrate. They are co-workers from Ruby's, fellow servers. For my last birthday, it was just my family. I can't believe that I had celebrated a birthday not with family. It's been a long time.

The other aspect of this photo is that the girl I was crushing hard on at the time is also there to celebrate it as well. That's why I'm ducking out of the picture. This can't be real. Someone pinch me. The problem though is that I was a drunk at the time. So it was hard to figure out what happened on this night.

When I pulled this photo off the floppy, I didn't know any of these facts. I had to search my memory for it. I had to look at the date on the files just to be sure that I had the right year. This time of my life is a drunken blur. I must've been having too good of a time to chronicle it. And yet I wish I had.

Currently, I like to chronicle my life with social media. Blogs, flickr, twitter are all contributing to making my memories indexable by google. Yet, these formative years of my twenties weren't and they make it a big, black hole. So I look at this photo, and smile as it'll help me recover them.

Here's how I think the night happened. Drinks at the Harryman House. More drinks at one of these guys' house. Passed out drunk. What a birthday! As I look back on it, I wish I wasn't a drunk and I had put the moves on that girl. Some things are still the same with me.

So what I have here is an artifact of funness, something which I've been missing these last few months. I've been in a funk. I just need to get my drunk on and just have a good time. Like that bastard in the photo.

Labels: 25, I am me, lyrics, nostalgia

Yes. It is very personal. It is part of who I am, and who I am is a sucker. It is a large part of my identity -- wrapped around me like a Patagonia better sweater. I have to peel it away, and let myself understand that it isn't me. It is my job.

Now if I can only get over the fear of looking for a new job. Or being jobless. Or the new day. Or the new place. Or the new people. Or the interviews.

Once again, Peter Gibbons will describe me in a succinct, brilliant quote: "I'm gonna end up doing it, because, uh... because I'm a big pussy, which is why I work at Initech to begin with."

http://pieratt.tumblr.com/post/977179815/in-praise-of-quitting-your-job

Labels: anger and frustration, I'm a fool, lotd

Ain't the girls at the ballpark awesome? She wasn't even the prettiest. As we left the Yard, there was a girl riding her bike home. Be still my beating heart. Baseball. Bikes. Babes. Nice.

Labels: baseball, Camden Yards

Last year's race for Best Picture was considered a two picture race between Avatar and The Hurt Locker even though the category had ten nominees. What's it gonna be like for this year's show?

If this New York Times article is accurate (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/movies/06oscar.html), it should be wide open. The race is heating up, but should start getting good real soon. Besides The Social Network, Inception, and perhaps Scorcese's Shutter Island, I think the Oscar-worthy pictures aren't bound to show up in theatres until winter, their usual schedule slot. I haven't heard much about some of the films mentioned in the article. I've only just seen the Coen's True Grit trailer, and even then it does nothing for me. This year has been the suck for movies. I wonder if they're as terrible as last year.

Anyway, this post should also be a Link of the Day because embedded in the NYTimes article is a nice site, http://incontention.com/, that tries to handicap the Oscar race. I read a few posts there and it reads very cool. Looks to be a great resource in the next BrowserMetrics' Oscar Pool.

Labels: movies, oscar pool

Remember this? I had promised a few posts related to these pictures in which I look back to who I was back then. Before doing so I want to get into the technology of these pictures, because it struck me as funny as to how far computing has progressed. And it was in thinking of how old these photos were that made me realize that even though I am in these pictures that person is not anything like the me of today and neither is the technology.

You already know I pulled these pictures from a 3/4" floppy disk, but you don't know that they were formatted as a gif file. That's funny because the best way to store pictures onto storage media would be jpg. Why are they gifs? Who in their right mind would scan photos into gif files. What year is it again?! I remember when and where I got these photos scanned. It was a camera store in Hunt Valley by the Giant, and according to the time stamps of the files, they were created on Saturday, October 12, 1996. That's just about 14 years ago, when the Internet was barely walking, the floppy drive was the favorite removable storage media, Windows 95 was within its year of release, and you didn't own a scanner. Plus, cameras were still using film.

Look at it today, October 4, 2010. Our storage media contain 1000 times more floppy disks. The Internet is in its unruly teens. I don't care anymore about Windows 95, because OS X kicks its ass, and Apple still rulez. I have a scanner and could scan those analog film pictures on my own into jpg files if I wanted. And my camera is pure digital.

We change. So does technology. What happens when we try to go back? It becomes somewhat of a hassle because things may not be compatible anymore. All the trouble to update outdated things, is it worth it?

Labels: 25, I am me, lyrics, nostalgia

The Social Network purports to describe the rise of Facebook. You'll wonder how much is real and how much is made up in order to expedite telling the story. Then you'll wonder at the digital technology that made one person into two -- Lindsay Lohan eat your heart out.

The Social Network starts off with pure Aaron Sorkin dialogue. The banter between Mark Zuckerberg (not Michael Cera) and his soon to be ex-girlfriend would give clues to why he builds Facebook. They talk in multiple threads, and if you aren't quick enough you'll get lost in which they are talking about. She hates it, so do I. Eventually, I start to understand what they're talking about, and what's happening. It sets up the break up which as the movie unwinds is what ultimately was the impetus: LOVE and women.

He's a social misfit. Awkward when he interacts because he's in his own world. He can program a website, but he can't make friends. Ironic that he created the one website wherein friending is the unit of exchange. Then the true psychopath shows up in Shawn Parker. Paranoid and fast talker he pushes to the max being a social misfit. Parties and girls. Girls and parties. Trouble follows him. I recognize these type of geeks. Driven by their own ambition but can't really express it.

I was pretty geeked out when they did the geek stuff. I also recognized some of the old high-flying dot com days from my own days of yore.

4 of 5 stars.

Labels: movies, review

"This, then, is the future of the Republican Party: Angry white voters hovering over their cash-stuffed mattresses with their kerosene lanterns, peering through the blinds at the oncoming hordes of suburban soccer moms they've mistaken for death-panel bureaucrats bent on exterminating anyone who isn't an illegal alien or a Kenyan anti-colonialist."

Matt Taibibi Tea & Crackers

Labels: qotd, wankers

How to get a ball
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

Came early to OPACY for batting to snag a ball. Stood in centerfield bleachers as Tigers' right handed batters hit it into the left field stands. Waited until Damon and the left handed hitters came up but the Tigers don't have any jackets so balls weren't falling into the stands. The fans were pleading with the players who were shagging flies for balls. Justin Verlander was generous tossing balls into he stands. I acted nonchalant so he wouldn't throw directly to me. His final toss into the crowd went slightly to my left. I reached up and snagged it from the guy behind me. I've got another ball to add to he collection.

Labels: baseball, Camden Yards, step-by-step

Top of the 4th. 2 outs
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

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

Bottom First 2 outs
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

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

Last Baseball Weekend
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.

Labels: Baltimore Orioles, baseball, Camden Yards, fare thee well, iPhone, picture

Working that nostalgia trip after looking at these photos. This 311 song was on the soundtrack of that young dude's life. Fourteen years but a million miles away.

Labels: music break, nostalgia