When It Rains Random

woot.com - check it every day (link)

HD-DVD Outselling Blu-Ray? Flies Off Discount Shelves (link)

Tron à la française (video)

Anti-Emo Riots Break Out Across Mexico (link)

oblivious blonde (video)

Rick Astley on rickrolling (link)

Transformers go Hollywood (video)

Fold-Ins, Past and Present (flash)

The 10 Most Insane, Child-Warping Moments of '80s Cartoons (link)

does the Latino community like Barrack Obama? (video)

I went to the eye doctor, after years and years of procrastinating. I went primarily because my current glasses are really getting too old, and I could use new ones. I also figured that I may as well get my eyes checked up as well. Ofcourse with the increased use of a PC and staring at a computer monitor as the years went by, I assumed that my vision got even worse than before. To my pleasant surprise however, it looks like it hardly increased at all. The optometrist did say that my eyes were "drying up" and could need some eye drops once in a while. I asked him what could be causing that, and he just said "age." Really? Crap, another reminder that I'm getting old.

Speaking of which, with the increased need to be on a computer monitor this past decade, there's bound to be more and more people needing glasses or contact lenses at younger ages. Just think in the future, I'm sure the majority of the population is going to need eye correction in one form or another.

Movies I've Seen Recently...

21  (2008)  B

Based on a true story and the book "Bringing Down The House," "21" is a pretty entertaining story about an MIT student played by Jim Sturgess who needs to come up with a lot of money just to afford going to Harvard pre-med. He finds the source of income from getting convinced to join an under the radar MIT blackjack team lead by the always great Kevin Spacey. Typical to a story like this, good guy gets tempted to be bad, gets in over his head, and will learn his lesson by the end of the story. However, the movie is a fun watch, despite some ignorable plot holes and character cliches. It definitely made me want to take a trip to Las Vegas and play some blackjack myself though.

Shutter  (2008)  C

A remake of the Asian scary movie of the same name, "Shutter" is as typical and average as it gets with this genre. The scares aren't really scary, the cast was serviceable but not memorable, and the overall idea of a ghost haunting through photos wasn't as interesting as it could have been. The feeling of "been there, than that" is what you'll get when you watch this movie.

Enchanted  (2008)  B

Simply put, Amy Adams brilliant acting as the cartoon heroine turned to real life Giselle, is what makes "Enchanted" actually worth watching. This film is almost like a spoof making fun of all the Disney "princess" movies, but at the end it really becomes it's own entity. It's very easy to point out the many plot holes, character flaws, the improbability of it all, and overall cheesiness of the movie, but things get so silly that it's just overall a fun watch. The songs however aren't as memorable as they probably should have been, although I admit that I'll probably remember that "happy little working song" just for it's association to the unbelievable scene that it comes from.

Braveheart  (1995)  A

When I saw "Braveheart" at it's original release in theaters, it quickly became one of my most favorite movies of all time. More than a decade after release, I can happily say that despite Mel Gibson's recent public disaster, I can still say that Braveheart is still one of my favorite movies of all time. This movie in my opinion is Mel Gibson's best work ever as an actor and director. This story of legendary Scotsman William Wallace's fight against England's King Edward I, is definitely a story worth experiencing. Despite the historical liberties the story takes, the huge scope, the epic nature of the movie, as well as the many memorable moments, are what makes Braveheart stand the test of time.

Men In Black  (1997)  A

Quirky, creative, adventurous, humorous, exciting, unique, and fascinating are just some words to describe "Men In Black." I suppose that despite the aliens and the concept of the movie, the buddy partnership between Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are what makes the movie work so well. I also like the fact that a lot of the characters act so unsurprised when they see something that we should be surprised about, like the end of the world. Based on the comic book series of the same name, director Barry Sonnenfeld successfully translates that world into the big screen. Still a fun great watch, that is much much better than the horrible sequel that came after this.

Random Misery Business

XM-Sirius Merger almost there (link)

Final Grand Theft Auto IV trailer (video)

Always Sunny Kinematic Typography (video)

Gibson sues Guitar Hero & Rock Band (link)

Bard Spring Break (video)

wrecked car (video)

kids steals xbox, gets wrath of internet on him (link)

Minnesota Student Freeze (video)

lion vs woman (video)

cartoon characters u'd like to have sex with (audio)

Going back working the swing shifts these past two days has it's positives. Waking up before 12:00pm for a work day seems odd to me, but it does has it's benefits. It is also a decently nice feeling coming home from work earlier than I normally would. Traffic going there surprisingly hasn't been too bad for me at all, only adding about 10-15 minutes more to my travel time than usual. Ofcourse I thankfully still don't get traffic leaving work at around 1:15AM - 2:30AM.

I get to put up with a lot of people asking me what I'm doing at work when the sun is still up. People also does the gesture of looking at me, then looking at their watch, with a confused surprised look. It's all in fun, so I don't mind that.

However the main bad thing about this is that I never get to see my wife anymore. Usually when I work the graveyard, I have time to spend with her before and after my work time. Now however, I leave for work, she's not home yet. I come home from work, and she's in the middle of her sleep. Back years ago when I used to regularly work the swing shifts, we weren't living together yet, so just seeing each other on our days off was acceptable enough. Now though, when we are already living together, it really sucks. I think about this fact at work, and it either pisses me off, or I get a little depressed.

*sigh* what a week this has been... I even have an issue about an item I purchased from ebay that showed up defective, and the chain reaction of circumstances that problem brought me. But then that probably needs another post in the future as it's still ongoing.

You ever have a feeling like you shouldn't be at work one day? I had that feeling, as soon as I stepped out of my car at my work's parking lot. Of course since I was already at work, I wasn't going to go ahead and turn the car around now was I? Twenty minutes later, the company vehicle I was driving all of a sudden had some kind of problem, so I had to put it aside for repairs. We needed that vehicle at that time too. So I got on another vehicle, and ten minutes later, I was making this tight turn and I apparently ended up hitting the parked car next to me. I thought I had clearance, but clearly not enough. There was a small dent on the other car, and the car I was driving had a few scratches and nothing more. However, even though the damages were miniscule, the accident still needed to be documented. This also means that for the time being, I lost my driving privilages at work.

The problem now is that I usually work the graveyard shift. The graveyard shift requires me to be authorized to drive at work. So for the time being I cannot work the graveyard shift since I am now on a "investigatory suspension." I'll have to work the swing or late swing shift instead, for however long it'll take for them to decide on whether I'm authorized to drive at work again. The other option was that I wouldn't be able to go to work until they decide on the matter, which I humorously accepted since I can just consider that some mandatory time off. Unfortunately; or fortunately depending, I am going to be tossed into those late swing shifts afterall.

I'm hoping they come up with a decision soon, so I know how much adjusting I need to do in regards to my time on days that I work. Bleah, I'll have to actually deal with a little bit of traffic going to work again.

Random Hallelujah

youtube video awards winners (link)

that fire button in a gas station (video)

viral video politician (video)

dog playing fetch with robot (video)

Honest R & B Song (video)

human giant - sketch artist (video)

people in order of age (video)

Top 10 Jackie Chan Stunts (video)

survive an elevator freefall? (video)

Demetri Martin - Visual Jokes (video)

At the beginning of Lent, I promised to give up on two things for the season, soda and snacking. Now that Lent has ended, I'm glad to say that I kept that promise. Let me tell you, there are times when I would reach in the fridge and would just want to get a quick drink of soda. I actually felt the temptation of wanting to just give up and grab that can of mountain dew or pepsi. It was a lot easier to ignore snacking, but there were several times that I thought I was going to have a drink of soda on my hand. The ironic thing here was that because I have been avoiding soda, I realized that my choices of drinks have been greatly limited when going to restaurants. The alternative is always water, but I ended up ordering alcoholic drinks a lot more than I ever did in about a month's timespan. I guess I'll have to add alcoholic drinks to one of the things I'm giving up next year for Lent.

Last month I mentioned that I fell victim to the "Red Ring Of Death" issue that plagues many xbox360s. Although I never guessed what may have caused it back then, I'm concluding that while I was in the "background download" mode, there was a power outage in my house that may have caused a short circuit in my xbox360 and gave it the permanent hardware failure. Verizon was installing FiOS in my neighborhood last month, which were causing the temporary power outages. Well, after a month since my console got the "RRoD," Microsoft has sent me back my repaired xbox 360 through their free three year warranty program. While the majority of people usually just get a refurbished xbox360 as a replacement to their broken consoles, I actually got the very same one I sent out (serial number checks).

While I may not have gotten a more recently manufactured console (that has HDMI), getting a refurbished console would have just introduced me to another huge issue, Digital Rights Management. Microsoft's DRM prevents a gamer from playing their paid content (arcade games, Rock Band songs, videos, etc..) from the xbox Live Marketplace, on another console that isn't the original one they bought it for. One work around for a gamer to play their paid content on a refurbished console would be if they were connected online using the original "gamertag" they used to pay for the content. Since not everybody goes online, that is a glaring problem. The other solution is to call Microsoft customer service and request to get their content "relicensed" to the replacement refurbished console, but I hear that can take more than three months just to get that done. So luckily in my case, I don't have to worry about this since I got the very same console back.

One reason I can think of why I actually got my own xbox360 back, is because it was a hardware failure that wasn't impossible to completely fix. I also did not do the "towel trick" that temporarily fixes the RRoD issue, which would have worked for a limited time until it permanently doesn't work anymore. Microsoft did say that the "towel trick" instantly renders the hardware irrepairable in the end, which guarantees sending back a refurbished console. So to all xbox 360 owners out there, do not bother with the "towel trick," if you want the chance to get the same console back.

I'm just glad to be back gaming again with my xbox 360, if for any other reason than I get to once again play "Rock Band." In fact, the first thing I did when I turned it back on was to download some new songs for the game. As for those of you wondering how they can prevent the RRoD problem in the first place, it'll honestly eventually happen due to the fatal design flaw in the hardware. For optimizing the lifespan of your xbox 360, you simply need to make sure to keep it in a well ventilated area as possible, away from any other electronics, which also means that you do not put it inside an entertainment center. It also helps to own an updated xbox 360 model that has the "falcon chip" in it, which you can tell by the sticker on the box in regards to power wattage (175W for Falcon, 203W for older models).

For reference to how long the warranty took for me, the timeline is below. I hear that people who get a refurbished console in return gets their xbox 360 in half the time it took for me.

Feb 19 - permanent RROD + request for UPS box
Feb 25 - UPS box arrives
Feb 26 - sent 360 in UPS box
March 03 - Microsoft receives my 360
March 12 - done with repairs, MS sends me my 360
March 17 - I receive my repaired original 360
That took 27 days or 19 business days.