November 2004 Archives

So how was everyone’s thanksgiving weekend? IN the tradition of Chinese everywhere, I went out and ate. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I had to cut short my Bay Area trip. But I ended up spending a nice week/weekend chilling and watching DVDs, and hanging out with some friends, a little bit of Halo 2, a little bit of SWG and a whole lot of “lack of sleep". I find it that I sleep less on weekends and days off. And incase you missed it, here is a QTVR of the Macy’s THXgiving Parade.

Speaking of which, have you ever wondered where the holiday of thanksgiving came from? Cecil answers all: Is it true Thanksgiving was invented by the editor of Harper's Bazaar?

Christopher Doyle is the fame cinematographer for many famous Chinese directors. He was a part of many of Wong Kar Wai’s films such as In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express, Fallen Angel, and the recent 2046. Also he has worked with Zhang Yimou on the recent martial art epic, Hero. He is an Australian, whom I just read was also a sailor, thus the cursing. This interview is done by Greencine, a online DVD rental site much like NetFlix, but cooler. (that’s right…) Here Christopher Doyle is asked on his experiences as a cinematographer and working with some of the most famous Asian directors of our time, and some American and Aussie directors also…

Greencine interview with Christopher Doyle:
"The strangest cinematographer in the world": Christopher Doyle
By Sean Axmaker

There are places where we interconnect and the only way you can interconnect is if you disconnect with yourself. If you don't know who the fuck you are... I think that's the whole point. People go to film school to learn about filmmaking. No. Why don?t you go out and learn about life and then...

The new “Bird Flu" seems deadlyier then SARS. Even WHO says its dangerous, and might Kill 100 Million people.
( via BoingBoing )

Things to do this season at the mall:

by Packard Jennings
( via BoingBoing )

Here’s a cool exhibit for Etienne-Jules Marey, a physicist and a “chornophotographer" from the 1800s. Basically this was the science/art that lead to film. This exhibit is at the Musée d'Orsay in France. So for those of us that can’t quite carpool to it, here’s The Online Version.

Iraq follows in its big brother in Democracy and start their own Homeland Color System:

( The Onion via Zibacco )

Everytime I look at the technology described in the Cyberpunk books, it makes me laugh. I cant help to think what future techs that we cannot imagine today. Then I read about things like a flower that can detect landmines and the GloThong, and then I think, nope I have no idea what equipments I should by in a futuristic game…

Apparently email is just too slow for the kids these days and its only used by old timers. They go straight for SMS and IMs.
( via EnGadget )

I knew I stay up late because of my mom!
( via Wired )

A whole new level of splunking… this man goes 4,500 ft. down and has ways of bring bodies back to the surface, cause… people don’t live long in caves.

"Ian drowned." In a cave 4,500 feet beneath Oaxaca, Mexico, with an underground waterfall roaring in the background, Bill Stone didn't hear those words as much as he sensed them. He knew that the odds of survival at close to a mile deep aren't great for even the strongest cavers, a chiseled superset of explorers who routinely haul 180-pound loads down 65-foot vertical shafts, live for weeks underground, and dive through bone-chilling water. Mapping the last uncharted land on earth is a dangerous proposition. One slip, one momentary lapse of concentration, and you die.

( via Wired )

No wonder women are smarter, cause they lie more.
( via Wired )

Mark your calendar, Dec. 12 is the day that Japan’s little world ends. Geeks will rule the streets with headbands and make-shift weapons out of Xbox controllers. Streets will be ruled by those with the power of a pre-order pre-order ticket. This is all because The launch of the PSP in japan can cause riots…

Play the “guess Angelina Jolie‘s accent in Alexander" game at Defamer!

CNN does SC-esque commercials.
( via Thighs Wide Shut )

Not that I’m a fan of NYC, but I AM a fan of B&W photos. And here’s a gallery of photos from a book called New York is Changing. Where photos form the 30s and contrasted with photos of now, or late 90s.
( via Thighs Wide Shut )

Vader and Klum.
( via Thighs Wide Shut )

See Charlize Theron as Aeon Flux.

Dear Santa, I’ve been nice all year and I want Victoria Secret Models…

They hacked the Wi-Fi on the Nintendo DS… I’m quite sure this is done so people can tunnel into the chat program that would be used by 10 year olds…
( via )

Girl kills her mom then blogs about it on LJ. Here’s a screenshot of her last blog entry. Or if the blog is not considered a news-worthy source, here’s a demo of Wikinews with it: link.
( via Waxy Links )

With the end of the year coming, so well the lists… here is the Best Lists of 2004 List.

Lucy Liu rides up a building in her bike, in this Japanese commercial.
( via Golden Fiddle )

Cameron has finally decided to make Battle Angel Alita as movie.

Here are some Yahoo Upcoming Movie links about the project and some Gunnm sites.
( via Noble_zone )

Incase you still don’t know what to do for Thanksgiving, LAtimes gives some food tips.
( via LAist )

Sexual Tension, a photo collection of the “backstage" of the Valley’s porn industry. NSFW
( via BoingBoing )

Its ON! WoW vs EverQuest 2, Even their box sets go at it!
( via Joystiq )

Video games are related to Violence, so is hunting I think… but then they don’t complaint about that. But the whole event did get boobies on C-SPAN.
( via Joystiq )

What is Sport Center has Star War casts? Will here’s what will happen…
( via Thighs Wide Shut )

Truck help car, truck falls in, BIG truck helps truck.
( via Thighs Wide Shut )

A new site that gives indie music a try… 15 megs of fame
( via Waxy )

Dr. dooOOM I presume…
( via Golden Fiddle

This is one dam cool Motorola Commercial.

Wired reports that Newspapers are losing to internet news.

And to all, a happy turkey day. Picture is link-jacked from the Uncle Grambo

Let’s begin the day with some serious. A while back my friend Noble_zone blogged about the freaky 3D animations in the Polar Express. Zombiequill a writer, and a good friend, commented and pointed our blogging circle to an article called the “Uncanny Valley". Ever since then, I cannot name the number of times that the phrase and article has been mentioned in the last few weeks. It’s a very interesting read. Its basic concept is that, if we observe something that is humanistic, when it gets really close to humans, we freak out. This is a common effect with CG artisits. Whenever 3D models become nearly identical to humans, we find them eerie and uncomforting.

Wired’s latest article on 3D models for advertising talks of this effect also. You can take a look at some of the characters they have in their gallery. Some do give off an eerie look even though they hot women models designed to appeal to the market. Still a common use of human flaws such as freckles and blemishes do diminish the “Uncanny Valley" effect. Still I find this to be an interesting article, and think this might have been one of the down falls of movies such as Final Fantasy. While movies such as Shrek and other 3D animations, with anthropomorphic characters and monsters, are accepted as more believable and charming.

A Senate bill was passed that involves technology and Copyright issues. Senate met and passed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2004, or SB3021 (.pdf), a revised version of the Intellectual Property Protection Act HR2391 (.pdf). The big focus is on piracy and copyright issues. This was originally the Bill that would of banned TiVO style fast forwarding of commercials. But the revised version changed some wordings and is supposedly more acceptable. I however think that this was a trick played by the Senate to sneak in whatever “sounded" better in the revised version. But then why should I worry? I buy my MP3 legally from China and Russia.
( via Wired )

Well for those of you who say love isn’t a Science, here’s a Scientific approach to “love".
( via Wired )

Japanese are crazy cool. I’m saying this because I just read about the G-Cans project. Apparently underneath Tokyo is a gigantic water system that started construction some 12yrs ago. The G-Can Project, is an infrastructure to prevent the flooding of Tokyo city in Typhoon seasons.

The underground waterway is the largest in the world and sports five 32m diameter, 65m deep concrete containment silos which are connected by 64 kilometers of tunnel sitting 50 meters beneath the surface. The whole system is powered by 14000 horsepower turbines which can pump 200 tons of water a second into the large outlying edogawa river.

Soon the Japanese will work on Tokyo-3 and they will be the only city to survive an Angel attack.
( via BoingBoing )

How to Kill a Mocking Bird is a Flash book report. When I first read this book, I don't remember the Pirates on Flaming Sharks, Time Traveling Castle, Ancient China w/ Ninja, The Mocking Bird Robot, a most dramatic battle between the ninja forces of Zorloc-7 and the army of pirates working with the Robot Scout Finch, and the final showdown of the Pirate/Ninja army vs. the Undead Mocking Bird Fleet. But then I was very young, and my English was limited.
( via Screenhead )

The equation to detect porn. I don’t get it either, but if we can turn this into a Bit Torrent Search program, my friend the The Porn King can run it on his servers, and he will never have to look for porn again!
( via GoldenFiddle )

Slow day… so I will leave u all with a poster form the upcoming Sci-Fi miniseries, Earthsea on 12/13. Of course, this is the hotness of Kristen:

The long history of vibrators…
( via Engadget’s movie gadgets by Josie Fraser which happesn to be talking about the orgasmatron from Sleeper. )

"And the Lord sayeth, the Meek shall inherit the world!"
geek: Woo YES! i'm meek, i have a 2 strength!
DM: That’s your abilities bonuses tard!, your strength is 14!
geek: oh…
DM: Go read D&D for dummies!
( notified by Oddbat )

We love the Japanese cos-players. Cause where else can u see Asian girls dressed up as slutty anime characters.

( via BoingBoing )

Watch out Guang, King of Porn, The Senate claims that Internet porn destroys lives and is like Heroine!
( via BoingBoing )

Even though I said to myself when I started this blog, that I wouldn’t make posts about trashy star news, here’s two fun flash games that might relate to trashy star news…
-Mary-Kate Olsen's Crack-Man
-Paparazzi Punch-Out!! With Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake
( via Defamer )

If u want to see u r self in the freakshow that is the Polar Express, get ur self modeled here at My Virtual Model. Cause here’s the Wang ( on the left ) as pictured in the Polar Express right next to freaky Tom Hanks: Whats up ladies.
( via Uncle Grambo )

An interview of Ben Karlin one of the writers for the Daily Show. It seems that most of the writers came from The Onion.
( Zulkey via Uncle Grambo )

One Paragraph here tells me that ATI kicks Nvidia’s butt in the Half Life 2 Video Card showdown. ( link to final page, skipping all the tech geek babble )
( AnandTech via Joystiq )

PSP Website ( in Japanese, I guess time to get out that Japanese Dictionary I bought for FFXI. Dust it off since the days I quit the game.)
( via Joystiq )

Russians are going to spend hard rubbles to make patriotic versions of western games. I bet they r going to call it something like “Defense of the Motherland Program"… wait I’m kidding, that’s REALLY what it is called?!
( via Kotaku )

um… ya. A flash animation best described as a head-stabby glee by Screenhead.
( via Screenhead )

40 things a man should do. ( it seems to involve drinking… what do u expect from a site named drunkard.com)
( via Goldfiddle )

And this is why we love Craig’s list.
( via Goldfiddle )

You are nothing compare to the power of the Dark SIDE!" Now you too can speak like Vader! With this Vader Voice Changer.
( via Thighs Wide Shut )

Quote of the day: “"But from a veterinarian viewpoint it's always better for any species to have its own milk. If a bitch was available that would have been better," Ms Marshall said."
From this article that would of made Miike’s Gozu milk lady proud.
( via Thighs Wide Shut )

Today we end on a HOT video… A women, a copy machine, short skirts, office outfit… more women, lingerie… hell ya. I can’t wait for the weekend to begin..
( via Goldfiddle The fiddler is on a roll!)

UPDATE: grab it quick… I have this feeling the link might be gone soon…

Unmened Aerial Vehicles that makes decisions based on voice command.. Insert fear of computer take over here as did Zibacco’s comments…
( ABC news via zibacco )

Or have a roach control your robots, incase you don’t trust them voice commands.

Speaking of robots ruling the future, check out this thing, ATRON the shape shifting robot:

( New Scientist via Gizmodo )

The Treo 650 is finally “officially" shipped today. Remors of Sprint telesales plagued the Treocentral forums yesterday. Today’s official review from a real news agency hits on USA today via Yahoo news. It’s not like the features of this phone hasn’t been blogged to death by forums and tech blogs. But at a price tag of $599, I’m gonna wait for some sort of deal.
( Yahoo News via Gizmodo )

California DMV wants to track your mileage on each vehicle with a tracking device.

Gaze in awe as this is probably the only time you will see hot women holding a Nintendo DS. Its actually the Nintendo DS release party, and they found some hot women to shoe up and hold the Nintendo DS. Because they know, geeks love hot women and gadgets.

With the recent ABC Monday Night football event, the FCC keeps getting in the news. ABC is apologizing left and right for the event, but many of us asked, what broadcasting laws did that break? Still FCC wants to get tougher, even branching into basic cable. Maybe its another one of those 3 people/FCC incidents.. Or when FCC think is has authority over anything transmitted, including PCs by using the “broadcast flag"?
-You can watch the Towel Dropping action here at iFilm.

ASCII WAR!

Nikki Finke of LA weekly writes up some supposed TV shows now that the red state viewers are in charge.

BSI: Bible Study Investigation (CBS)

In this sci-fi series, victorious U.S. troops are met with kisses, hugs and flowers in Baghdad. Guests stars: Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and the NYT’s Judith Miller.

Link here via Defamer

An interview with Chris Butcher one of Halo’s AI designer, He breaks down the Halo AI for us and explains some of the programming theories that makes Halo 2 a better game.

Most first person shooter games, such as Quake or Unreal, are built on a graphical engine. The player is essentially a stationery "camera," and the engine creates the sensation of moving through a world by rendering graphics that create that effect. Halo is different, Chris explains. "Halo is a simulation engine. The engine creates the world, then puts the player and the AI in it ... [The] characters and their code are isolated from the world."

And don’t forget to upgrade your Halo 2 today, the Xboxlive update came out to fix a few minor problems.
( via Joystiq )

Half Life 2 people are releasing faked copies of the game to catch internet pirates.
( via Kotaku )

A cute flash animation that proves we do live in hell.
( via Screenhead )

If you don’t understand this:

Well, well, well! Well if it isn't fat stinking billy goat Billy Boy in poison! How art thou, thou globby bottle of cheap stinking chip oil? Come and get one in the yarbles, if ya have any yarble, ya eunuch jelly thou!

Then u need the Clockwork Orange Glossary.
( via Screenhead )

And I said I would never watch this, but this one was funny. Strongbad gets a email virus.

For your Kiera Knightly Fans…. A large and safe for work image.
( via The Modern Age

The white boys/girls splashing neo-white-elite trendy fashion store ABERCROMBIE & FITCH decided to settle their racist law suit outside of court.

Avril Lavigne has jumped the shark… or maybe she’s evolving to a sluttier rock star, which is a good thing. Here’s her in a hooters outfit @ some concert.
( via Goldne Fiddle )

What the hell is a Turkey testicle Festival? and what the hell has it been going for 25 years?
( via Thighs Wide Shut )

The Museum of Hoaxes brings us the truth from the internet. The first is goes and tackle is the“Big Dick Chaney" myth.
( via Thighs Wide Shut )

This was so bad, I couldn’t even read much of this myself, its pretty nasty… Cooking with Cum forum.
( via Ultragrrrl )

Speaking of which, let's end on a picture... Is that what I think it is?

Tabletop touch display, this will be awesome for a RPG gaming table!
( via Engadget )

Video Gamer Bling, a 24k plated Game Boy SP for the new Zelda game. Only 7 in the world though. So if u get this, ur a geek god.
( via EnGadget )

Was that fast? I thought that was fast…The X-43A breaks Air Jet speed records.

Finally Cecil explains why the moon looks bigger when it is lower in the horizon. I always wondered about this one.

Feeling bad? Click the red button.
( via BoingBoing )

Internet Hunting. Imagine a .22 hooked up to a webcam, and every drunk hunter is happy and safe.
( CNN via BoingBoing )

Human Pacman Game
( CNN via Kotaku )

And for those of you who have Gmail, they opened Gmail up for POP service now. And here’s a link incase u were too lazy to type it ur self.

Halo 2 stuff: 1. You can RSS ur stats. 2. Kids steal the Master Chief statue from a game store in Pennsylvania . 3. People don’t like the ending…

Second Life people builds a Neverland Theme park. How do they find time to do this from their First Life?
( via Waxy )

I’m not sure how true this is, but this will be news that I tell all the ladies: Study: Fellatio may significantly decrease the risk of breast cancer in women
( via Thighs Wide Shut )

Favorite Blog line of the day:

Face it. You'd pay millions to artificially inseminate yourself with my jazz. But let's be honest - even the spawn of Peabs is merely a microcosmal clusterfuck of the genius that is I. Ooh-jah, boo-jah.

from So Sayeth The Peabs’s All I Want For Christmas Is To Shove My Cock Down Your Thrizz post.

Apparently there’s a situations where 3 people can cause the FCC to fine Fox $1 million dollars. This goes right up there with the ABC Monday night football incident.

It is shocking enough that what tens of millions of us are permitted to see by our government can be determined by 159 ... or 90 ... or 23.

But it gets even better: I examined the complaints and found that all but two of them were virtually identical. In other words, one person took the time to write a letter and 20 other people then photocopied or merely emailed it to the FCC many times. They all came from an automated complaint factory like the one I write about here. Only two letters were not the form letter.

( via Golden Fiddle )

And I leave the day with Mr. marbles, a live-size prop dead cat…

( via Thighs Wide Shut )

Scientist brace them selves for another four years of government who won’t listen to them.
( Wired via zibacco )

So looking for that special someone to share your iPod playlist and Panther secrets? Head on down to your nearest Apple store, cause it is the pickup local of choice for the tech savvy.
( City Magazine via Gizmodo )

Don’t want to visit the apple store? Maybe this will get you in the mood, I4U’s Gadget Models Gallery.

Speaking of Gadgets, the above I4U link lead me to Tom’s Hardware guide’s Guide xmas shopping for the geeks. Check out the toys, and Mrs. Claus looks might good in red.

"I’m afraid that this anti-missle laser is fully operational. Now witness the power of this fully operational Boeing 747!"
( via EnGadget )

Big on the earlier reports of the 2 million preorder of the Nintendo DS, the big N adds more factories to make a 4 million unit mark! So who wants to wait for a PSP?
( CNet via EnGadget )

Camera Cellphone Etiquette guide in PDF.

The Guardian, a British news agency has a weekend special on all things gadgety. Coool articles about the outing of gadget sheik, and tech savvy moves of replacing the wall paper with wireless on the Interior Design 101. The Guardian Unlimited Weekend.

HR2391 the Intellectual Property Protection Act (.PDF) is making its rounds in the Senate. Lets say the RIAA and MPAA are all over it, so its bad. Wired’ss report on it its one of those bills that will give more severe punishment for pirating, and allowing things like iPods, Tivos, and P2P to become illegal. Mean while the MPAA follows its brother-in-arms, the RIAA, and sue people and sue people.

What do u do when your Vibe award shows need more coverage? Well they already did the pop-star kissing thing, so lets have a fist fight!

Similar to the Photoshop Fridays, here’s a collection of Diebold ads such as this:

The Theory of Fun for Game Design is an upcoming book from Ralph Koster, the Chief Creative Officer of Sony Online Entertainment and was the Creative lead designer for Ultima Online. Here’s BoingBoing’s preview of the book. Here’s a link to the actual website’s PDF short version. He address theories on what makes a game fun, and why we are entertained by such things. He also contrast the difference between a game as a puzzle and a game as an art. The Book isn’t out yet, but with writings such as this, the videogame world is really becoming an art and a business. With sites such as Terra Nova br Cory Ondrejka, addressing the scientific and social aspect of games and conference such as State of Play 2 to bring together these thinking minds of the industry. Forerunners in the gaming industry are becoming guru to the modern day EA slave. Here’s a good article by Cory Ondrejka @ Gamespot: Toward a theory of place in digital worlds.

Are our solders shooting unarmed Iraqis in mosques? And the blog that reveled it all: Kevin’s Site Blog..
( MSN News via BoingBoing )

You City o Hero players are messed up! But at least some of you look nice in your costume contest winner photos. How come she didn’t win?
( via Screenhead )

City of Hero responds to the Marvel lawsuit… f*** off. Well more like:

As reported by The Associated Press, Marvel Enterprises Inc. and Marvel Characters, Inc. have sued NCsoft Corporation and Cryptic Studios. The complaint is meritless. Cryptic Studios is confident that the District Court will reject all of Marvel's claims and fully vindicate Cryptic Studios in all respects.

( Gamespy via Joystiq )

I’m not quite sure what she’s selling, but I’ll buy it, plus who can say no to a girl practicing sumo, she might push u over.

And today we end on hotness… and a question:
Why do Russia keep pumping out hot tennis players? Is it the vodka?

more photos and here. Too bad she's legality minus one.

Reserchers claimed they found Alantis. I just want to meet Kida.
( via zibacco )

Preorders for the Nintendo DS has reached 2 million. The Big N was planning about 1 million units for Xmas, now they are going to be working hard all the 24th . Better call back all the elves.
( via Gizmodo )

Fallujah Live, a clip of fighting footage from the actual battlefront.
( via noble_zone )

A notified by metamorphi, The new Kevin Spacey movie about Bobby Darin Beyond the Sea will open in LA/NY soon. The yahoo link above carries a trailer and for fans of Big Band music of the 50s-60s, this is a must see for the singer of Jack the Knife and Beyond the Sea. Also to note, Kevin Spacey will be doing live shows of singing Bobby Darin songs across the country. In LA, he’s doing a concert at the Wiltern on Dec. 5th.

A new Citron C4 commercial does wonders to the Transforming dancing robot genre:
4.8 mb movieclip
( via Gizmodo )

Getting ready for Resident Evil 4? Will do u have the Chainsaw controller?

And what the hell is this?

( via Gizmodo )

What happens when crime gets bad in the Cockroach land? Get Robo-Roach! But this robot isn’t here to protect you cockroaches…
( via EnGadget )

Read about Wilco’s successful move to give out a free album online from this Wired article.

Something interesting happened. We were contacted by fans who were excited about the fact that they found it on P2P networks, but wanted to give something back in good faith. They wanted to send money to express solidarity with the fact that we'd embraced the downloading community. We couldn't take the money ourselves, so they asked if we could pick a charity instead -- we pointed them to Doctors Without Borders, and they ended up receiving about $15,000.

Check out this old school Science fiction gallery now on display at the New York Academy of Science, From Imagination to Reality: The Art of Science Fiction .
( via Wired

The LAist tackles the topic of The Port of LA; News of ships leaving the LA port for other west coast ports due to delays.

After Joystiqs comical remark on the disgruntal EA works's LJ blog yesterday, Joystiq covers the possible EA class action lawsuit. Where EA, allegedly didn't pay overtime. We all know videogame industry slave-wages it workers, but i dont get overtime either...
( via Joystiq )

I’m telling u end of the world as we know it, another sign of the devil, The Two Headed turtle:

This thing is right up there with the 8 legged cat and the 7 legged calf of doooOOM.
( BBC news link via BoingBoing )

Webzen brings us understanding to the phrase Earworm. Today a collection of famous online jingles and songs that will not leave you head. Including such favors as the Peanut butter and jelly song, The Badger song, and the ever famous Banana phone Song.

Here’s a collection of Flash and videos that I came across today:
-WTF is this?!
-Another WTF is this?! apparently, this person really loves eggs…
-Hmmm here’s a moody flash thing… I’m not quite sure what it is, but if you are easily messed with, here’s ur thing.
-This movie can either make you go “awww" or get a shotgun.
-Cute video about the story of waterboy, a boy made out of water not the other one…
( via Screenhead )

HOW TO TELL IF YOUR PROSTITUTE IS AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL.

10. Squeamish about spanking -- Terrestrial prostitutes are willing to perform virtually every sexual act if the money is right. But ETs don't like having their butts touched.

( via Screenhead )

Author of Flash, Harry Lampert , dies at age 88.
( via Thighs Wide Shut )

See I told you Monica Bellucci is ugly, this picture is worth 250 millihelen.

RUBB IT! RUB IT!
Safe For Work. ( via Thighs Wide Shut )

And usually I won’t get political on this blog, but I figure this is an exception. I’ll end to days posts on this, The Vice President of the USA:

( via Wonkette )

So how was everyone’s veteran’s day?

First off, get your greek-ninja-hair-in-the-wind on with the Elektra Trailer from Yahoo. ( notified by noble_zone )

Sony makes cross-genre geeks happy by letting people is Everquest2 and Star Wars galaxies send /tells to each other.

I’m quite fond of Uma Thurman, but Gattaca level baby designing? I’m not sure we’re ready for that.
( via noble_zone )

Three different versions of Xbox? Well the next Xbox will be called… Xbox Next, and will have 3 versions. ( via Kotaku )

Geek On trek Fans! Bluetooth Star Trek Classic Communicator @ eBay!

Apple’s Flash-based iPod might be coming in 2005. ( AppleInsider via Engadget )

Better switch ur Xboxs to Non-mod mode, cause Microsoft started their big ban day, right before Halo 2 hit Live.

New tech to fight Movie theatre cameras, much similar to the house hidden camera scanner, is covered by Wired.

The Wang uses Mozillia’s new Firefox browser since the .8 beta days. And the Wang recommends it highly. If u don’t trust me, trust Wired’s review.

For the driving types of LaLa land, here’s a website dedicated to the bloodstreams of our great city, the Freeways Interchanges a series from the whole site covering SoCal roads.
(via LAist )

Too lazy for SimCity, or watching Boston Legal? Well get ur slice of drama from Comedy Butcher’s little pixel city. The sound like Monty Pythons and they’re from BBC. (via Screenhand )

Funniest picture from Gizmodo:

Want to see some blog photos of Fallujah? ( via BoingBoing )

The White Room is a gallery of “constructed disasters" using the Max Payne 2 engine, using GOD mode and a whole lot of weapons.
(via Wonderland )

Author of “Rape of Nanking" found shot by an apparent self inflicted gun wound. Link to Mercury News (reg. required or use bugmenot.com) Hope this is not some sort of conspiracy event in the brewing. ( via BoingBoing )

9.1 is the score Gamespot game to Metroid Prime 2.

Marvel is old, and wants attention, so suing City of Heroes is like yelling at the kids with the loud stereo.

The Japanese don’t like Halo 2 Wonder what else is new… ( via Joystiq )

Couple have sex on stage @ a Norwegian concert. Of course, its cool, because they did it to save the rainforest. Then they got to court and want to do it again. Norwegians are so dedicated to the rainforest. ( via ThighsWideShut )

After reading about that couple, looking for a date now, Friday’s at German Wal-marts is singles date night.

Or you can do it virtually, people have sex in Second life too.
( via Waxy )

Didn’t get enough of the Russian duo t.A.T.u.? well get ready for their Japanese Anime!
( via ThighsWideShut )

Cool ideas in gaming, “Collaborative Games", is a research project at the future applications lab, Viktoria Institute. The exciting part is the fact that multiple users will need to watch the view screens of other players because each users can enter another’s device via game mechanics.

I ravu white boobies! And here’s the book for me! How to Date a White Woman: A Practical Guide for Asian Men .

And to end a day on WTF?!

Since today is holiday... i'm out cruising, there will be no blog post today.

I leave u all with pretty photo of the I15's sunset. Note the blue skies and the pretty golden hue on rhe desert.

from the traveling Kodama

So my friend Graham and I went to see Nikka Costa at Hotel Café last night. So we started the evening @ the Farmer’s Market, I was bored couldn’t decide on what to eat, so naturally food stands came to mind. Then the musical evening begun with a trip to Amoeba Music, Hollywood. Where I picked up some CDs from Jem for the upcoming concert I want to go to at the El Ray. Not that I want to give u a detail event of the night, its just that, the Jem CD Final Straw is quite good, and I’m all about pimping the CD, so more of my friends will come to the concert on 12/15.

So anyways, when we were finally let in to the Café after some waiting, awhile of waiting, It wasn’t as crowded as the long wait would of implied. Rather, the café people were nice enough to clear the place, so people can be let in all at once for Nikka. We were entertained in line by witty comments and the presence of some really funny hipster types, inline in front of us, doing everything from singing to talking about the recent Ashlee Simpson Hoe-Down. I guess Nikka Costa is the type to attract the Grrrl Power type. Mr. Starfelt told me briefly about her background, which I had no idea about. besides hearing one song of hers from the Buffy Album: Radio Sunnydale, I knew nothing about her. Here’s a nice bio on her from AskMen.com.

The Hotel Café is a nice place, and I recommend it highly. I cant say that I have years of clubbing experience, but as for live pub-types, I’m fond of the Hotel Café as far. The Café is a nice long room, with a bar on one side, and Bartender girls that gets the “Starfelt" stamp of approval; especially since they have nice shoulders and dresses nice, in a punk-ish way. But the Café is a nice scene filled with eye-candy hipster cuteness. So that’s a bonus to any venue. But I like it cause it has not been crowded enough to make me hate the place, and they seem to have the nice mellow music that I like. Don’t forget I’m planning a trip for the Hotel Café on the Nov. 17, here’s their calendar page.

So Nikka Costa was on stage with A bassist, a drummer, a guitarist and a pianist. Nice little setup all crowded on the Café stage. She started of light with a few casual songs. Then she got into her trade-mark vocals. With famous songs like “Everybody got their Something" which is spammed over Hollywood recently, not to mention being my first encounter to Nikka’s songs. Her vocal talents are definitely bright and loud. She goes into her song with a enthusiastic wailing, like something someone does when they are completely lost in the moment. Either she’s really good at performing that, or her life with musicians has lead her to enjoy a level of music that most of us will never understand. Her Bluesy Rock/Soul style of singing supported by her powerful voice really gave the small space of Hotel Café a run for the acoustic money. Plus Nikka was very entertaining. From the funny Strawberry joke, to the playful banter with the Grrrl Power Squad (note above.), Nikka even found time to do some butt shaking that lead to a minute long distracting session of “How good can the piano player be, if I grind my butt on him?".

Overall I enjoyed the experience. A plethora of eye-candy, cheap CDs from Amoeba, plus an evening of good music. Now all need is really to convince more friends that this isn’t a bad way to spend $20 and a evening.

Its all fun and games, until some one gets Cockolade in their eyes.
( via this lonely island )

Guess what, Pee-Wee’s coming back! Hide your kids!

Aint-It-Cool News brings us a review of Howl’s Moving Castle, u know the next big Miyazaki film.

The Ring, The Grudge, now ready your self for another Japanese remake, Dark Water. Here’s an Intl. trailer page: here. I’ve seen the Japanese version, it is by the same guys who did Ringu, Kôji Suzuki and Hideo Nakata. Also starting the women of my dreams Mastsushima Nanako, whom was in the Japanese Ringu. Dark Water, Japanese version, was boring for the most part, so I don’t know about this American version. But its got Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly in it, so I guess for us Labyrinth fans, this might be worthy of a viewing.

Like this website says about this toy Room Sentry Gun, I Want one of those!

Apparently, Target sells these for $19. ( via Gizmodo )

I mentioned this new x-ray tech in my Forum before, but British Airports are considering installing it in London. Civil Rights people are protesting it as an invasion of privacy, because yes, it does see pretty well past clothing.

Hong Kong Schoolboy sues mom for not buying him a PC.

Who said kids aren’t active these days? Wired’s article on students fighting for their copyrights rights.

A serious reading topic from Wired:Ideals Stolen from Nature. It's about Biomimetic and Natural Technologies.

Are computer nerds religious? Well there’s always St. Expedite, Patron Saint of the Nerds.

The New Beverly is doing a double feature on Gozu and Audtion, Miike’s hallmark films, tonight. If you can make it, first one, Gozu starts at 7:30.

Tanks on Westwood? NO! its not a superhero game. 2 Tanks (APC to be exact) showed up on Wilshire and circled the block twice infront of the Anti-war protest of 11/9. Here’s some videos: here.

( photo via Politics in the Zeros )

Webzen Audio style, everything from nature sounds to sounds of artificially combined randomly downloaded MP3.

Please God No! No Baywatch movie!

Presidents and their secrets. Thomas Jefferson used chocolate to lure innocent children into burning buildings. To this day he has never been apprehended. Not sure how historically accurate these are… specially when it got to Franklin Pierce dismembering 285 Ninjas…

Presenting Mark Osborne's Academy-Award®
nominated short film MORE

Thankyou jesus for all the hot women like Jessica here... ->

Girls gets spanked by Gene at a tasty Flavors, and they signed a waiver for it…
( via zibacco )

Illegal Sex act done by a European couple. I guess this is protest art. NSFW.

The size of our balls are determined by the sexual practice of women, who knew?
Human testicles are somewhere in between, suggesting that while women are nothing like as promiscuous as female chimps, neither are they as faithful as the female gorilla.

I want a Tomato McGrand!

And just to be counter-culture, Bad Halo 2 reviews.

Fantasy geeks beware, if you r reading this then u r not playing EverQuest II

And to end the day with a shameless friendly plug to the mad mad mind of M. Collins, or Mr. tater, I cant tell anymore. He stops answering my calls awhile back, and all his Blog posts is signed Mr. tater. Here’s his latest Novel, Of mice and cranberries .

Let's start the day with something freaky, 51% Bush, 49% Kerry:

( via this lonely island )

This could have been my dream women: Sienna Miller claims to "Love drinking and Karakoke". And she’s hot. Too bad she's with Jude Law.

Maybe a robotic Lucas villain is more of your taste? Pictures of General Grievous are out at Starwars.com. With name like that, he must of player Counterstrike.

I guess all i can get is the Virtual Bartender.

A few posters that came out recently, Charlie Wonka’s with Johnny Depp, Two SinCity posters, one with Bruce Willis and gun happy.

The Simpsons just keep coming back in Simpson Fever! Even stuff about a movie in 2008. ( via Entetainment Weekly )

No cats were harmed in the making of this video, since it was zero-G. ( via Weird Links )

Obi-wan, Obi-wan Kenobi… I like my Tatooine Sunburn shaken not stirred. I also work as a secret agent for MI-6 as 007.

Who said only liberal computer user can make cool political cartoons, the red states answer with this QuickTime of "John Kerry, Welcome to the Waffle House". I’d say a real blue state voter would of used Flash, it being much smaller, who the hell uses QuickTime for animations/cartoons these days?

Ask Yahoo! Answers the big question, "What's Scientology all about?"

Have you been playing GTA: San Andreas? Our very own LAist comments on Los Santos. Here’s another site that compares the San Andreas sight to actual pictures. Speaking of Videogames LAist also writes about the big bad, geek party of Halo 2 openning night @ the City Walk, aka Geeks Gone Wild. As stated in this article, MS predicts Halo 2 making around 100 mil. for its first day of sale, that’s more then most movies.

For those of us who likes to visit FatWallet.com, Best Buy knows about you.

Japanese Octopus Porn.

I don’t know if this is true, but 104 yr old parrot says, "F*** Hitler!" Might have something to do with his last owner being Winston Churchill. Actually this isn’t true, but still funny.

Why Kate? What happened to you?

( via Defamer )

If the British can get this dome up, then they are better then the Greeks.

Live Journal user gets a visit from the secret service. ( via zibacco )

Hey Graham, I think this is yours… Pancakes for Pinkos.

Some people have way too much time on their hands. This guy catalogued Crazy Asian Drinks. I think I have some of these in my fridge.

And if u get really bored, stare at this:

And in combination of the above gif and the Japanese sleeping men gallery of yesterday, here’s a
video clip of Japanese girls Bitchslapping each other for no apparent reason. Must be a variety show, they get people to do anything on those. ( via Thighs Wide Shut )

Halo 2 officially comes out tomorrow. 11/9. I have friends who played and reviewed it already. With pre-orders at around 1.5 million the last time i checked, its an event. With its own cos-players fanbase, Halo 2 goes into the hall of Geek gods:

But the big Microsoft is always willing to party like the non-nerds. They are throwing midnight sale parties of Halo2, just so they can be cool like the Jocks and the Hipsters. IGN links to a few sites of midnight hour parties for the "party-gamer" (a rare breed specially if it involves females) to party like 1999 and play Halo 2. Will i guess these days people will party for any reason, as with the recent political events, people need to shoot some aliens. One of them happens to be the Universal City Walk, EB games in LA. So if u r in SoCal, bored, and avid XBOX gamer, this might be one of the few nights u can party with real people. I recommand u go out of the house. Plus u might score... a new copy of Halo 2 and give ur pre-order copy to a friend, or me.

And if you cant make any of these events, here are some pictures to tease ur self with, as the rest of the world play Halo 2. (via Joystiq)

Of course headline of the day, Operation "Al-faja" ("Dawn").

Forget Blu-ray, Pioneer = 500gb on 1 Ultraviolet Laser Disc.

Remeber how i use to say, hacking bluetooth wasnt that bad, since only geeks can build bluetooth antennas, imagine Bluetooth at 1 mile wide standard..

And we love the japanese, even if they want to make clothing with speakers built into them.

You too can live in a "Zero-Energy Home", specially in Callifornia.

The finally caught the Nigerian Royalty that went around asking for our bank accounts, so he can "transfer us money..."

For those who cares, the GOD-emporer phone Treo 650 is now taking Sprint Pre-orders. Many have rumor that the Treo 650 can now take video clips, show higher resolutions, and summon large worms.

"Mommy where do babies come from? Do they come from your arm?"
"No honey, The eggs are just made there."

The REAL fabric of life, now Clothing can sense!

Yes officer it was this big!

Ladies and gentlemen of the Academy, for your consideration, Mischa Barton.(via Tvgasm)

I know who needs a Flatulence Deodorizer™

Bored at work/home? play some addictive Flash games from Eyemaze.

When books get database errors.

Jump on the bandwagon and throw in a tagline for the end of Sixfeet under. Cause i really like Six Feet Under To Be Buried This Season” , the Associated Press is so crative sometimes.

And just to add some color to this post, here's bernie, eating a baby:

Can robots be gay?

Jabberwocky is one of my favorite poems, and it can be yours too, in any language you want!

And i'll end the day with a gallery of sleeping white collar japanese business men.

Collected today from observations from the hellbound handbasket, BBC, Thighs Wide Shut, BoingBoing, Screenhead, Waxy.org, Gizmodo, Wired, and Engadget.

Since i've been reading some sights that do this a lot. And I'm tired of trying to organize everything via my forum. I've decided to do my daily link dumps on my Blog here also. So get ready for today's links of interest:

Well, I first must let the geek out… and say, Wow! That was a great movie.

I mean not since my youth have I had that much fun in the theaters. I can honestly say in my adulthood, I’m more hesitant to shout out in support of a movie. I still remember seeing Swordsmen 1 for the first time in one of the first HIFFs and point and laughing at a scene. It still hunts me. But tonight, I was clapping and cheering like a boy. I mean movies are supposed to be fun and entertaining right? Not every movie deserves a two hour long conversation to make it make sense, or even to make it tolerable. I think there has been way too many mediocre movies. Just right before the movie, my friend Denys and I was just talking about how the Grudge is making a killing, and probably starting a trend of horror films. Though the grudge cannot be a good film, it really is a film with a gimmick and no real content. I mean sure I’m a fan of Sarah Michelle Gellar, but still… put her in something better.

Sorry for ranting, let’s get back to the good stuff. Wow, and I say it again, wow… The Incredibles was a sheer roller coaster ride. I was cheering for every fight scene, sitting at the edge of my theater chair. The Director, Brad Bird is the same guy who directed the Iron Giant and some episodes of the Simpsons. You can clearly see his humor in the film. The whole movie has a 60s superhero feel to it, not to mention the combination of Bond-esque villains and cool cool fight sequences. I mean this guy must read comics and play role-playing games. His action sequences and use of super powers is very cool, and very imaginative. Just some of the fight scenes with Elastic Girl put martial art directors to shame! All the characters work together in rhythmic-action sequences that keep you drawn into the movie.