"The intel on this wasn't 100%."
 
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The latest Disney ride as movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, sucks.

It's not that anyone wanted another movie. It's not that this was boring. It's that who could care less about this third sequel. Not me or the writers or the directors or the actors they were interested in the money. Not me I wanted a movie, but I got a mess.

2 of 5 stars.

Labels: ,

Faced with a dwindling bank account, I'm trying to cut spending on things that I have control over. I can't change my spending on gas, because it's mostly going to work. I can't change my spending on groceries, because I don't spend much on it. I may have to raise spending on groceries though, because my spending on dining out is outrageous. My cost of housing is fixed. I've cut down on buying manga. And I am trying to limit my electricity bill.

It's low, but I am suffering. The thermostat reads 80 and that's with the relatively warm weather lately. It's gonna be a hot week in the 90s and I can imagine the thermostat reading upper 80s.

I'm playing chicken with how hot I can manage it. What suffers the most is my sleep. I am on my couch downstairs to try and keep cool, but I am sleeping only in my boxers because it is too hot. I get up two to three times a night, because I am tossing and turning. Tossing and turning on the couch means falling off of it.

Perhaps, today I will see if the aircon works. If only for a day...

Labels: ,

Saturday, May 28, 2011
The Hangover Part II is the same movie as The Hangover except in Bangkok, Thailand. Every story point in the original happened in the sequel. Nothing different. For a comedy, it's very pedestrian.

I did laugh out loud, but I feel that I had to because it is a comedy. Yet, most of the funny was in the trailer. Then you had to laugh because the movie was pedestrian.

At least, esurance salesgirl was in it.

3 of 5 stars

Labels: ,

Friday, May 27, 2011
It's not just in game development, but is prevalent in the entire software community. "Crunch time" or, as the article calls it, "Death March" is plain foolishness.

I don't doubt that there are times to put in overtime, but to make it S.O.P. is wrong. I think we need some explaining to do.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/05/the-death-march-the-problem-of-crunch-time-in-game-development.ars

Labels: ,

Darling won't you stay
Please don't stand in love's way
Darling won't you stay
I just can't stand another day

'Cause you're a pretty young lady
Don't come a'tease
You're a pretty young lady
You're a pretty young lady, lord
'Cause you're a pretty young lady, whoa

If you're getting hot, you gotta enter the spot
'Cause this one's called jackpot, boy

Jackpot, The Beat (orig The Pioneeers)

Labels: , ,

Thursday, May 26, 2011
Hmm.

http://www.cringely.com/2011/05/insecureid-no-more-secrets/

Labels: , ,



Yuki Nagato's voice actress. The reaction of the crowd. WIN!

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, May 25, 2011
KC Royals v Baltimore Orioles (5-24-2011)

Funtimes at Camden Yards. Adam Jones crushing a walkoff homerun to finish the evening. A beautiful night.

Labels: , , , ,

Sunday, May 22, 2011
Go Fish!

You catch her eye. Whip your hand up in hello. She gives you the cute asian cat face. Woop!

There's just something about cute asian girl poses that are so cute. I just can't get enough.

Labels: , , ,

Saturday, May 21, 2011
Hi!

Well, the Rapture has come and gone, and I'm still around. But so are you. And everyone you know and everyone you know knows, ad infinitum. It didn't happen and it was all a joke. A joke conducted by a true idiot.

If I was to be left behind, can I get a cute girl to spend damnation with? Holla, to the cute asians females out there.

Labels: , , ,

Walking into Bridesmaids I believed that it was going to be a female Hangover. The movie poster and the television advertising led me to believe that. It wasn't. It was more along the lines of a female Knocked Up except without the vagina. What I'm saying is that it was more subtle than any bromance. It had the introspection of the lead looking trying to find a path forward. It was, as old movies of this genre would be called, a women's film.

There was some raunch. There was no Vegas.

They let the women be non-glamorous except for Rose Byrne. Remember when Rose Byrne was the frumpy one? Yeah, she's come a long way and I am happy to see her get a big, important supporting role in a high profile summer movie. Yes, I know that she was in one years back, but I'm glad to see her get glammed up.

You know who produced this movie? Judd Apatow. And you can tell because they weren't afraid to take a comedy that could've been about 90 minutes into the 120 minute zone. Yup, it was long and you can tell that it. At least it wasn't 150 minutes because I can imagine them taking it to that time limit. This is where the movie sligthly failed.

The funny didn't really happen much after the 1:00 mark. The raunch from the early part disappears and it becomes slightly serious. Who knew? The film makers, but not the marketers. They must want a hti really bad to fake out the moviegoers.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: ,

Friday, May 20, 2011
All this talk of Rough Riders led me to purchasing The (English) Beat's first album, I Just Can't Stop It, from iTunes. Originally, I was going to get Rough Riders, but I had to commit to a classic 2-tone ska album. Let me tell you this is a fine album.

You can't Beat it.

I only listened to The Beat in compilation form -- the best of the best as compiled by purveyors of pop music. This means I've only heard two of their songs, Mirror in the Bathroom and Sooner or Later. Of course, I'm hearing them also on the Trojan Records ska compilation, but most of that is live material consisting of covers. I've not heard their original stuff as put out in the second, 2-tone, ska wave.

Listening to this album is a revelation. It's very close to sounding like ska from Jamaica. Yet, it is 2-tone ska. You can't beat the sax on this album or the rythms. Yeah. I can't believe I hadn't heard this album in it's entirety until this year.

Is The Specials first album as energetic, too?

Labels: ,

Wednesday, May 18, 2011
"But, Marge, that little guy hasn't done anything yet. Look at him. He's going to do something and you know it's going to be good."

Homer Simpson, The Simpsons, "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson" [4F08]

Labels: , ,



There's a hole in your pocket! Paralyzer! Paralyzer!

Yes. This is the tune! If this don't move you, I don't know what to say. You may be dead. Get thee to a hospital then. Get two aspirins, call me in the morning, and we'll get some Bloody Marys. It was a hard night. Last night. Feel so broke up today.

Labels: ,

Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Software patents. They seem to be handed out like candy. They can be used like a nuclear bomb.

As a software developer, I approach the idea of software patents cautiously. I wonder if they are a good or bad idea. My gut feeling is that they are a bad idea -- stifling innovation, mainly. In-app upgrades?! Sometimes they seemingly obvious in their implementation that you believe a monkey could've come up with that. One-click shopping?!

Software patents are around because the patent office is lazy. They can't be bothered to find a prior implementation of most pending patent submittals.

Software is fuzzy. Patents on it seem to be too general to be of value.

The patent system needs to be fixed.

http://patentabsurdity.com/

Labels: , ,

kim-ha-yul-with-coffee-01

Wake you up! Wake me up! Wake us up!

Coffee!

It's not the only thing that will do...

Labels: , ,

Monday, May 16, 2011

Labels:

Manga is dying in America.

TokyoPop is defunct. Del Manga is defunct. CMX is defunct. The biggest purveyor of manga and the original pusher, Borders, is hanging by a thread. Manga is withering away. It makes my weekly stops at the local big chain bookstores rather depressing. I can't rely on them having any good manga in.

It's very sad.

Labels: ,

Saturday, May 14, 2011


You just don't run on Matt Weiters. I love this game.

Labels: ,

テレビアニメ「電波女と青春男」 公式サイト

I like visiting sites of the animes I watch, because of the gewgaws and bibelots that they have for your blog. Here's another one from the current anime, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko. Your guess is as good as mine. Got to catch 'em all.

Labels: ,

Friday, May 13, 2011
あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない。

Just throwing this up here as place holder to remind you (or rather me) that this is a really good anime...

Labels: , ,

Upgraded the MobileMe calendar to the latest one because they kept hassling me every time I logged on. Of course doing so came with plenty of caveats. First is that it is really for Snow Leopard. Sadly, my main machine is still Leopard. I haven't taken that plunge because of the file binding issue. Second, is that MobileMe hates the Camino browser and Mozilla in general. Not really, but Camino is getting long in tooth and is probably on its way to the dev/null in bit bucket heaven.

So I go ahead any way. Ignoring these warnings.

Once I am done I am curious as to what really happens upon the sync. I open up iCal. Create a test entry. Click sync.

I get the weird diff viewer telling me I had a couple hundred events that were about to be deleted. Cool! It'll clean my stuff up. Of course it will and it did. Cleaned it all sparkly and new so that I had no more calendars in iCal. Now how am I to sync? Luckily, Apple knows that some users are just lazy and has helpfully created a support page to address syncing with 10.5.x. My calendars are back.

Now hop do you sync with 10.4.x?

Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Just rolled in from a night at Camden Yards. Orioles take the second straight game from the Mariners. I did not wear my Ichiro jersey. I am a true homer. Only if Marge was there would I have. And tonight was a perfect night for some fun companionship.

With work being the way it has been with the layoffs and the fill in spots, your humble narrator had to lose one position and back fill another, stupid position, and he could use a nice game like this one.

On the ride in, I chatted with a gentleman who was just going to Pickle's Pub and/or the game. I told him King Felix was pitching for the Mariners and that I had no hope for a win. Chris Tillman gonna pitch for the O's and hope was non-existant. At least, I can watch the great Ichiro. You know he's my second favorite.

I arrived early enough to catch the last half hour of the Mariner's batting practice. Again I make the mistake of sitting in the bleachers in center-right. The weak hitting M's only put 4 balls on the fly there and 3 or so on the bounce. I gave up on shagging balls and sat down and watched all the other dudes try and catch. An M's fan kept yelling for a ball, but it ain't happening if you don't have tits.

I get a drink and then some nachos to begin the game. I'm down in my season tickets seats with a father and his young M's fan. Guys are from Philadelphia. Go figure. Kid's wearing the Ichiro shirt that I should've been wearing.

I yell to the ball girl. (Christen or Kirsten?) "First, foul ball give it to the Ichiro fan!" She smiles and nods. It doesn't happen. I chatted with her in the bottom of the eighth. Maybe I'll see her again the next time around.

Chris Tillman throws 200 pitches in the first 4 innings, but we are tied. Then all-star AJ comes through and drives in 2 runs on 4-4 evening. Ichiro gets thrown out by Matty Weit Weit. The legend of Bobby Andy doesn't get going. Nick Markakis and Mark Reynolds were out of the lineup. Felix Pie taking his place and making some plays.

It was a good night with the win. I drank some beer and forgot about work for a few hours. It's the best thing and I wish some girl would come along.

I rode home on the light rail beaming chatted with an Orioles usher about his work -- he was going to another job. Tough. My work? Also tough.

But at least the Orioles win.




Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Mom wanted to watch a movie for Mother's Day so instead of Thor we went and caught the other movie opening that weekend, Something Borrowed. What we all do for our mothers is not enough. I can only say I experienced 0.01% of the pain of childbirth watching this movie. It was painful and I can't imagine the rest.

First, I can't get over Kate Hudson as a 30 year old. Isn't she older than me? And if she isn't I'm scared.

Next, I hope the book is better with better written characters that are not cliche: the hard charger, the walkover, the long suffering guy pal. I'm hoping that their relationships are fleshed out better. Why stick with that girl? Why did they never hook up? How can those two not be friends?

Third, express not repress your feelings. Say you like the guy. Tell your best friend that you like the guy. Convince yourself that you deserve him. He's only looking at you with sparkly eyes as well. Jeez, get a clue.

Finally, if you're best friends, I want to know why you can't talk to each other?

Jeez, chick-flicks, they get a bad rap, but then a movie like them their deserved reputation.

2 of 5 stars

Labels: ,

Monday, May 09, 2011
Danny Choo went to Good Smile Company's 10th anniversary party and photographed at least 100 nendoroids. I have a third of these...

http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/26111/100+Nendoroids.html

Labels: , ,

Saturday, May 07, 2011
Caught the noon showing of Thor in a relatively packed house. It is rare to misjudge people's enthusiasm for a movie. I thought no one was going to watch so I went a couple of minutes before the start. I rolled into the parking lot and found a lot of cars; these must be for the earlier show. They were also for my own show. I had to sit up front.

This is the best Natalie Portman movie so far this year. The god of thunder became the god of love under her gaze.

The story is about redemption and humility. In order to gain the throne, Thor must show that he is deserving. He may rule at war, but is he wise in the ways of ruling? Is he deserving of the throne? Only if he's cast out of Asgard into the mortal world of Midgard can he find his way back.

I sort of dug this version of Thor. It is filled with really good actors for an comic book movie. Stellan Skarsgard, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Renee Russo, and Natalie Portman all bring a weight to this movie that revolves around kingly dealings. A lot better cast that can handle the comic-ness of this all.

3 of 5 stars.

Labels: ,

Friday, May 06, 2011
Loved reading today's link about issues with text editors for OS X.

I did recently take a look at TextMate and found it striking that it was released some time ago. I am surprised to see that it hasn't been updated for a while.

As a software engineer, I live by the text editor. I did like BBEdit, but I can't stand the small font it uses. I am an emacs kind of guy (the ctrl-k, ctrl-v comes from there! Try it in OS X as an alternative to open-apple-X, open-apple-C) so I am looking for something along the same lines. But no vi. No to vi.

It turns out I really like TextPad on Windows. Like it better than any text editor I've used. It's because I know how to use it. Wish I can find one for OS X. I think I've done this post before.

http://chipotle.tumblr.com/post/5207966724/text-editor-intervention

Labels: , ,

Thursday, May 05, 2011
Because I am already enjoying tonight's episode of Community, I can only think of one thing to say. Magnitude, take it away...

Labels:

As I tweeted this afternoon, the good news is I still have a job, and the bad news is I still have a job. At IniTech.

Good or bad I'm still there. Gallows humor the last few days referenced the Rapture, which is where I get the title of my post. Those lucky few who got the notice are going to be in a better place. Us left behind will be ruled by the devil -- our damn terrible job.

My contribution went the way of the grand old English nursery rhyme, "Here comes a candle to light you to bed; here comes the chopper to chop off your head." Dreadful morning. Dreadful mourning. Walking in I was already greeted by those whispers of those who've gone away. And then it also came in drips and drops over IM rather than the phone, the dreaded phone. Everyone all hopped up. Got no work done.

Let's hope this is once. I don't know if I truly hope it is.

Labels:

If I could write a post as eloquently or live a life as full. RIP Mr. Miller.

I wonder what my end of days would be like. Will I be scared? Will I know it is coming? Will it be near? Will it be far in the future? Will I be alone? Death is coming. Will I be prepared?

http://www.penmachine.com/2011/05/the-last-post

Labels: ,

Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Drummer Ritsu

Bought the first season first disc DVD of K-ON! Was also looking for the Blu-Ray. The dub is driving me crazy because the girls of Sakuragaoka High School are all sounding the same. I think the voice actress for Yui isn't working, but the one that doesn't work is Ritsu. Her voice actress isn't lively enough. Can they get better? Maybe, but there ain't nothing like the original Japanese voice actresses. Now, I am dreading Azusa's English voice actress.

Meanwhile, this is a good chance to post another picture of my K-ON! nendoroid petites. Here's an interesting shot. Perhaps I can do these professionally.

Labels: , , ,

Newer›  ‹Older