Rollover Random D.J.

amazing android robot (link)

Paris Hilton in another TV ad? (video)

Man Arrested for Using Open Wireless Network (link)

wipeout (video)

miniglobz (flash game)

dancing bear (flash)

snow white and the seven kung fu monks (link)

heli attack 3 (flash game)

three dog orgy (video)

growing nuggest without the chicken (link)

messing with the sign (video)

road trip (flash game)

super mario physics (flash)

door knocking bear (link)

hoodriders are idiots (video)

Lego Orient Expedition Quest (flash game)

Live 8 video downloads (videos)

a taste of what's to come in next gen gaming (link)

virtual bartender 2 (flash)

subtle lesbianism in female sports (pics)

* Random links will return after July 18, 2005 *

With all the momentum with Batman lately, I just had to check out The Return To The Batcave : the misadventures of Adam and Burt.
Originally I thought this was going to a pseudo documentary on their
careers as the dynamic duo.  Well it kinda was, but it was also
it's own movie that has a plot that could easily have been spawned from
one of their old Batman TV show. The Batmobile gets stolen, and it's up to Adam West and Burt Ward
to team up and solve the mystery. So expect a lot; and I mean A LOT, of
campiness in the movie. Despite that, I actually enjoyed it.  If
this was any other movie, I would have simply turned it off, but the
movie has a way of keeping you glued to find out what happens
next.  Kinda like their TV show when they leave you off in a
cliffhanger. So basically, the plot is ridiculously camp, the actors
over acts, the set pieces are cheesy, and the flashbacks while
entertaining, makes you wonder exactly how accurate or inaccurate they
were. Yes it's a flawed movie, but at least it had several enjoyable
moments. " C+ "

Here's a Japanese Anime movie that's been on my "too see" list for awhile.  Perfect Blue for some reason is a relatively known film to anime enthusiasts, so much so that I hear it bundled up with Akira or Ghost in the Shell
as "important" anime to watch. That's a lot of hype that it has to live
up to.  For the most part, it's the visceral nature of the subject
matter that's going to get people very interested with the film. 
It's the story of a moderate pop star that gets pushed in a direction
to try and get more fame, by going down paths that some people would
not go. The movie also gets on a metaphysical bizarre plane making us
wonder about our perception of reality and who we are as a person. Top
that with some in your face violence and sexual situations, and you got
yourselves a typical anime cult classic in the making. For the most
part, I can appreciate the direction that the film takes, and feel
great sympathy for the main character. Showing the dark side of the
business is definitely interesting, but I think I simply got bogged
down by how "heavy" things eventually got. " C+ "

I've seen Lords of Dogtown
a couple of weeks ago and it really got me interested in the
documentary that the fictional movie was spawned from. Simply put, if
you only had a choice between the movie and the documentary, choose the
documentary.  Dogtown and Z-Boys
is a very engrossing film that reveals the beginnings of what modern
skateboarding is today. It successfully gives you a great idea of the
skateboarding scene that the z-boys pioneered, when everybody else was
stuck with an old fashion style of skateboarding. Sure these kids were
more or less punks that didn't take kindly to non-locals, but it was
their culture and they backed up their attitude through their skills.
Just like the movie though, the story starts you off from the humble
beginnings, the torrid affairs of the team's seperations, the success
they had as teens, and the inevitable reunion that makes them stronger.
One thing that I have to point out is that a lot of the footage were
actually from the 70s and there were no recreations that I could tell.
In fact, even though the skateboarding stills and the footage were
vintage, they looked much better and more in your face than how the
movie had those shots. You also get a better sense of the other
characters that makes up the z-boys, and you can totally feel how proud
they are for what they did to the sport. " A- "

I went to meet up with some friends of mine that I haven't seen for several months now.  We decided to go to Dave & Buster's
for the evening. I actually don't normally go to that place, because
quite honestly it's far enough for me not to go to on a regular
basis.  Apparently for them, they go almost once a week. Going on
a Friday night, I noticed that it happens to be a pretty popular date
destination, as there are lots of couples there.  Lots of pretty
Orange County girls too, but I digress.

So we were at the bar getting ourselves a drink (I got the scooby snack)
and each one of us got the Margherita Pizza Dip. While we were still
dining, we were approached by a consumer research representative type,
who inquired if we'd like to join a forum to discuss current and future
Dave & Buster's promotional deals. We first kinda gave him the "not
really interested" look, until he told us that he'll let us bring our
food and drinks to the meeting room, give us some additional
appetizers, a free drink, and a $50 game card. You guessed it, we took
the offer.

Upon entering the room, there were maybe seven others participating in the forum. We discussed several things such as the D&B rewards program, the Power Hour offer, the Power Combo
deal, and some others like Happy Hours and what not. While in the
discussion, they had onion rings, chicken quesadilla, and Tempura Fried
Mushrooms.  oohhh, I LOVED the Tempura Fried Mushrooms and just
kept chowing down on it, while I was finishing the food I was already
eating. They asked me for a drink, and I
originally said Mr.Pibb, until I remembered that they are offering a
free alcoholic drink, so I opted for a Jolly Rancher.
The majority of the forum was dedicated to the Power Combo deal which
is a pretty good deal in the first place.  The problem the
majority of us found was that it was only offered from Sundays -
Thursdays, and we suggested they include the weekend too.  Not
only that, but we wanted them to add an extra this and an extra that to
the deal, and I honestly felt that we were being much too greedy. But
oh well, they wanted our opinion, although I don't know how their
logistics team could accomodate our suggestions.

Afterwards, we got another round of drinks (Lethal Weapon
for me this time), and played games for the rest of the evening. But
the night went long and I had to leave, but at least we had a fun get
together.  The forum thing was also pleasantly fun.

Are You Gonna Be My Random Girl

Discover What the World Thinks About U.S. (link)

make your own game (link)

tarantula vs mouse (video)

crazy koala (flash game)

365 days of stuffed animals (pics)

Ron Jeremy launches ring tones (link)

The Raven, as recited by Christopher Walken (audio)

kill the bad guys (flash game)

Maria Sharapova screaming ring tone (link)

gum nipple (link)

Lego Star Wars Destroyer stop motion (video)

Honda Grrr game (flash game)

London, four blasts kills 40, Injures 300 (link)

I swear, it's these kinds of things that make me feel sad for the state
the world is in.  Too much fighting and too many people too
ignorant to realize that violence does not prove a point.

It's been said before and I'll say it again. All these terrorists are
just a bunch of COWARDS. How do they expect us to even hear out their
problems with the world, if all they do is kill people and not even be
around to answer for it?

There has been people who has said that it's not honest to call these
terrorists cowards, because they are willing to die for a cause they
personally believe in. Honesty? Is it really dishonest to say that they
are cowards? No! If you are one of those people who say that, you're an
idiot.  On the flip side, if you are one of those people who
simply say that it's "Anti-American" to say that terrorists are not
cowards, you my friend are also ignorant. It's not anti-American to say
that terrorists are not cowards since we have the freedom of speech
here. But to say such a thing is just plain idiotic and isn't being as
honest as they think they are.

Terrorists are cowards for some simple reasons...
1) They never show themselves to answer for their actions.  They'd
rather hide in their holes and say that they did it, but are too afraid
to make an appearance to stand their ground.
2) Suicide bombers are not brave because they were willing to sacrifice their lives for a cause. 
They died because they are too afraid to answer for their action. You
can't throw somebody in jail if they are already dead.

Terrorists are like bullys who want things to go their way.  If it
doesn't go their way, they act violently unto others, and throw the blame
around. Pathetic.

What I'm listening to this week...

U2 - How to dismantle an atomic bomb
Iced Earth - Glorious Burden
The Killers - Hot Fuss
Green Day - American Idiot
Various artists - Metallic Assault : A Tribute to Metallica

I am 46% Video Game Addict.

You
may play video games but they don’t rule your life. Good for you. But
be careful not to fall in the grasp of the loving glow of the TV or
monitor.

Take the
Video Game Addict Test
@ FualiDotCom

After many many years, I finally got myself a new cellphone and a new number. My new cell phone is the just released Motorola E815. This baby is so new, that I got it on the day the Verizon store I went to received it.  It's so new that the official motorola
site doesn't even have it listed. In fact, the funny thing was that I
was originally going to get the model preceeding the E815, but was
persuaded to check it out instead.  Despite my humoring him at
first, I found out that it's cheaper than the older model, so I was
immediately sold on it.

 

     

I now have a phone that has features that I've denied myself for many years.

Camera phone? yup, 1.3 megapixels (that's 640 x 480). Plus it comes
with a flash, and has 4x digital zoom (it's not optical, but what the
hey). It's even got video camera capabilities.

MP3 player? yup.  At first I wasn't even sure how to get MP3 files
into my phone, and I even called up customer service, but they didn't
know the answer themselves. Fortunately, googling
the subject got me the information I was looking for.  One of them
is to e-mail the mp3 file to my phone, but it has to be less than 150k
in size.  So I had to do some audio editing on my part to meet
that.  At the end, I now have my own personal ringtones just the
way I like them.  The other option would be to purchase a Transflash memory card for the phone.  I'll consider getting something like that in the future.

Another cool thing is that unlike my previous phone where I have to
manually give the people in my contact list a designated voice command,
this time around I don't have to do that.  My phone recognizes the
text of the name of the contact.

Besides my fiddling around with the mp3 functionality, there were some
negatives that needs to be pointed out. First off, Verizon doesn't
include the clip belt for the phone, as it only came with the AC
adapter in the box.  Secondly, whenever I plug in my earpiece to
it's mic jack, my voice recording functions comes on
accidentally.  Thirdly, I actually experienced a "not enough
memory to do that action right now" message, but it was easily remedied
by rebooting the phone.

There's many other functions
that I'm still just now finding out (like I actually have speaker phone
capabilities for once), and eventually I'll be a pro with using my
phone.  So far though, it's all good and gravy for me.

Last Random Chance

1 in 3 music CDs is illegal (link)

traffic pile up (video)

google offers video clip search engine (link)

sleeper hold (video)

google earth (link)

the undance (video)

thump! (flash game)

boffins create zombie dogs (link)

the King Kong Trailer (video)

PlayStation3 to most likely sell for $399 (link)

artillery cannon taps soldier (video)

Raiden X (flash game)

I went and did my one afternoon at the Anime Expo for 2005.  They
still have that "dealer's room only" pass, so me, my girlfriend, her
sister, and their cousin, all went for that.  Upon entry I can
already tell that this year is busier than last year and the whole
dealer's room was pretty darn packed.  The vendors are more or
less the same, and I was able to get that courier bag that I've been
wanting for quite awhile now. Although I didn't plan to purchase many
things I did notice that Japanese Manga were being sold at 20 - 25 percent
off! That wasn't the case last year, so I unfortunately did not get any
because of the fact that I didn't bring any money with me, nor did I
really want to spend much at all.

As for the people attending, once again, unlike the stereotype with
"geeky" conventions, it was a good approximate percentage of 50 percent
each between guys and girls.  I'll also have to say that there are
a lot of pretty, cute, and some hot girls that showed up, and several
in costume no less. As for the costumes themselves, this year I made a
good attempt in avoiding taking pictures of characters that I already
have an abundance of from past years (Sailor Moon, Ranma, Naruto,
etc).  Although I ignored that rule for some of them that looks
too good to ignore. I'll have to say though, that the costumed folks this year isn't up to par from what I saw last year.

This year was also the year of coincidences and old acquaintance. 
I saw two of the members of the Anime club
I was once the
President to in college, at the Anime Expo. I also happen to see one of
the people who also held
Presidency to that same anime club in attendance as well.  I even
saw one of the owners of an anime store that I used to deal with
before when I was President.  All these people are people I
haven't seen for at least
seven years! Ofcourse, I didn't say "hi" at all. Not only that, but apparently, I found out that one of my friend's and my
girlfriend's friend actually dressed up in costume for Anime Expo 2003.
Chances are that I actually met her then, and probably took a picture
of her, all before I even knew her.
Unfortunately, I believe I accidentally deleted the folder in my
harddrive that has my Anime Expo pics from 2003, so I can't confirm it.

Anyways, here are some pictures that I took.  I actually have a
lot more but I'd rather not have them all displayed here.  I'm
sure you will be able to google some pics from other attendees, and
they'll probably have a more extensive collection as well.

one	two	three	four
five	six	seven	eight
nine	ten	eleven	twelve
thirteen	fourteen	fifteen	sixteen
seventeen	eighteen	nineteen	twenty
twenty one	twenty two	twenty three	twenty four

Well, that's all for now. I'll re-edit this to add any links to other sites that has more Anime Expo 2005 pics.

From July 1 - 4 is Anime Expo
weekend (oh, Independence day too), so I planned to do what I've been
doing these past years, go one afternoon with a "dealer's room only"
pass. Afterall, I don't even watch the anime shown there, as I'm only
interested in what is being sold in the dealer's room and taking
pictures of all the cosplayers (slang for costumed folks). I planned to
go on the second day, but I was invited by my friend to go with him to see his friend's band called "Random Ninja."

Even though I was only going to go see the band, I should have brought
my camera.  Man, there's still a lot of cosplayers on the first
night! I'll have to make sure to abuse my camera when I go later today.
Just like it has been the past few years, there seems to be a good
fifty percent split between guys and girls. Very impressive for a
convention that's primarily seen as for geeks and nerds, or "Otaku" as
they are called.

Random Ninja performed from about 9PM - 10PM. They did a really good
show too, playing their own stuff (all with Japanese
vocals) as well as video game and anime cover songs. Their own material
was nice and varied, mostly in the pop and rock category (with some metal thrown in).  Their
covers ranged from Ranma, Sailormoon, Evangelion, Super Mario Bros,
Zelda, and Naruto, Naruto, and Naruto. I know Naruto is a hugely
popular anime among fans right now, but damn everyone seems to love
Naruto.

The singer is a Japanese exchange student who seems a little shy to be
their lead singer, and primarily stayed behind her keyboard and
mic.  The bass player is the "head" of the band and does the in
between bits, and he has some killer bass lines.  They also have
an additional keyboardist, a Japanese drum guy, and a traditional drum
guy.  But it's the lead guitarist ("full metal ninja" or something
like that) that really impressed with his awesome solos.  To top
it off, they had "performance ninjas" that did their own little shows
(dances, fights) in front of the stage. All in all, it was a great performance.

Ofcourse being that this is the Anime Expo, you have a bunch of
cosplayers dancing around like ravers. With that, I respected these
Otaku just a bit more.  Even though a lot of them are primarily
considered outcasts of society, when gathered in an event that was
designed just for them, they KNOW how to have a good time. No holds
barred, everybody was enjoying the moment and were hardly ashamed or
embarassed at all. They weren't socially inept people like the
stereotype is for nerds and geeks.  They were all "normal" people,
except that they happen to have a great passion for Anime. Keep it up!