Random Close Call

emmy nominations (link)

Fedor vs Tim Sylvia (video)

Groverfield - NSFW language (video)

EXCLUSIVE Dark Knight Deleted Scene (video)

Philippine Prison Dancing: "Low" (video)

demitri the stud's voicemail (audio)

little girl + claw machine (video)

Time for Some Campaignin' (video)

Long John McCain: Love (video)

Alternate DuckTales TV Intro - NSFW? (video)

After all these years of watching mixed martial art events through DVDs and Pay-Per-Views, I finally gave myself the opportunity to watch one live this past day (July 19, 2008). I suppose it's only fitting that my very first live MMA show is also the inaugural show of "Affliction: Banned." Affliction is an upstart MMA organization, that was able to get a lot of support from MMA fans and fighters alike. In fact, the fight card for this show is unbelievably good, with tons of high profile fighters in the majority of the fights. The event was at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Being that this is an MMA event, there was a majority of guys to girls in attendance ofcourse. However there were a ton of hot looking women accompanying their man to the show too. There were also non-MMA celebrities in attendance as well, but the ones I actually saw were Jenna Jameson and Donald Trump.

Ticket prices for this show were not exactly on the cheap side, so I got the lowest priced tickets, which was something like $65. The seats that me and my friend were assigned to were literally less than 10 rows away from touching the back wall to the ceiling. That's right, we had nose-bleed seats. We decided to cheat and seat at one of the rows closest to the front of our section, until the owners of those seats eventually show up to kick us out. Surprisingly enough for the farthest sections of the arena, we had a good view of the fight. We can't see the detail of the action when the fighters are in a clench or doing some ground game, but that's what the overhead video screens are there for. I'll say this, it feels weird watching the fight without hearing any commentaries. During the second fight, I overheard some people nearby us talking to one of the employees about getting tickets switched for much closer seats. I inquired about that, and sure enough we were able to switch our nose-bleed cheap seats, with seats that were closer to the ring. I think we got seats that would have cost us $200! Apparently they wanted to fill up some of the more expensive seats that weren't sold, so that it'll look better on camera. Lucky us.

As for the Affliction show itself, it was really good. The first fight started at 4:30 and the last fight ended about five hours later. I still have a few concerns though. Affliction used a tradtional ring format, instead of a cage, which wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't for the fact that the ropes seemed incredibly loose. Some fighters were easily able to fall out of the ring in a clench because of those loose ropes. I also did not like the fact that after the fighter does his entrance walk, they do the vaseline on the face thing inside the ring itself, and not outside like most events do. That kind of kills the momentum of the ring entrance, when the fighters have to stop all of a sudden again, after they already went through the ropes. What I did like was that they had heavy metal band Megadeth perform a song, while they let the fighters of the main fights walk out one by one for their group appearance in the beginning. I thought that was really cool, and Megadeth even performed two more songs sometime during the rest of the night. I never saw Megadeth live before, so this was yet another treat.

I'm not going to talk about the fights in detail here, because of spoiler reasons, and the fact that you can probably find better recaps in certain MMA dedicated web sites. I'll tell you this though, out of the ten total fights that occured, I only maybe did not like two of them. That's a very good percentage for an up and coming MMA organization. The big draw was ofcourse the Fedor Emelianenko versus Tim Sylvia fight, and wow was that explosive. Some favorite MMA fighters were back fighting in the ring after a long break from it, like Gary Goodridge, Vitor Belfort, Matt Lindland, Josh Barnett, etc.. All in all, it was a great MMA event, that pretty much convinced me and my friend that we should go to more LIVE MMA events in the near future.

Movies I've Seen Recently...

The Dark Knight (2008)  A

Under the direction of Christopher Nolan, "the
Dark Knight" is an epic story about the struggle that our heroes must
face, to decide how far they should go to protect their city from the
criminals. How far is too far, and how much are they willing to
sacrifice to uphold their morals? Never has that struggle been tested
the most, than when they are faced with an attack from a man who just
wants to see the world erupt in chaos and anarchy. Heath Ledger's much
deserve great praise for his portrayal of the Joker is that man, and
wow does his character come off as one of the best villains ever in
cinematic history. A real sense of terror and dread follows his actions
in this film, and it's incredible to see how far he is willing to go to
terrorize the people of Gotham City.

Aaron Eckhart also deserves praise for his great performance playing
District Attorney Harvey Dent, a man who will do anything in his power
to bring the mob and terrorists like the Joker to justice, not unlike
Batman or Lieutenant Jim Gordon. Just like those two other characters
however, Harvey Dent is also a man who is delicately close to crossing
the line to achieve that goal. The psychological insight that this
movie has, is what makes these characters come to life more than ever.
A strong cast of actors, excellent story telling, great action
sequences with some very intense moments, and some scenes that are so
very memorable, this movie hardly does any wrong; besides a few minor
plot holes. Forget the idea that "The Dark Knight" is probably the best
super-hero / comic-book movie around, this film is simply a great
dramatic crime action thriller, that happens to have a protagonist that
dresses up in a bat costume.

HellBoy II : The Golden Army  (2008)  B

A great improvement in look and feel than it's predecessor, director / writer Guillermo del Toro's "HellBoy II : The Golden Army" is a fantastic movie to watch. Tons of action, adventure, humor, and even some romance. Ron Perlman looks so at home playing HellBoy that it's a pleasure watching him on screen, and the welcome addition of Seth MacFarlane as Johann Kraus is genius. Besides HellBoy himself though, the real draw of the movie is the very imaginative world and creatures that Del Toro has brought to the film. The story itself is enjoyable, but there were some minor plot holes and lost opportunity in some of the plot points presented here. An enjoyable alternative to the "more serious" comic book adapted films out there, HellBoy II : The Golden Army is not to be missed.

Random Silver Lining

E3 2008 coverage links...
- IGN -
- Kotaku -
- G4 -

Jack Thompson was right (video)

MMA star Quinton "Rampage" Jackson arrested (link)

"BLACK HOLE" is RACIST (video)

idiot spills flaming shot (video)

Famous Movie Scenes redone in GTA IV (video)

Baby Preacher (video)

Lasse Gjertsen and Unreal Gamer mash-up (video)

hollywood muppets (pix)

steampunk laptop (link)

Final Fantasy XIII is also coming to the Microsoft xbox 360.
*That's* the biggest news out of this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). If you are a gamer, this is HUGE news. The fact that a flagship Square-Enix Japanese RPG is going multi-platform is unbelievable. The fact that the xbox360 already have more RPGs than the PS3 at this point, is unprecedented. The fact that the PS3 lost what would have been a very important exclusive title, is a blow against PlayStation fans who used to brag about "owning" Final Fantasy. The gaming message boards are like a battle ground right now, with xbox 360 fanboys claiming victory over PlayStation3 fanboys, while Nintendo fans are still reeling from their very luckluster E3 presentation. Just another typical week for hardcore gamers in the world of the "video game console wars" I guess.

While I have played video games since the Atari 2600 was in it's prime, I don't consider myself a hardcore gamer anymore. However, I am quite familiar with the console wars, and how people tend to pick sides. Like most gamers would say, "it's all about the games," and although they say that and try to uphold that logic, everybody always chooses a side. NES vs MasterSystem. SNES vs Genesis vs TurboGrafx16. Playstation vs Saturn vs N64. Playstation2 vs xbox vs GameCube vs Dreamcast. Now the latest one is Wii vs xbox360 vs Playstation3, although many wouldn't count Nintendo's console in the war since it uses "last generation hardware." So it comes down to Microsoft versus Sony right now, and wow is it quite the fight.

some of the popular arguments from the 360 vs PS3 war are...
1) xbox360 simply has more games than PS3
2) PS3 has blu-ray
3) PlayStation Network is free
4) xbox LIVE is a better online experience
5) PS3 has better hardware
6) xbox360 is still selling more overall

If you are not much of a gamer and are reading this, you're probably thinking "who cares about those arguments" right? A LOT of gamers do, because like I said "gamers tend to pick sides." The loyalty factor kicks in more than what games are actually available for the console nowadays. It IS stupid, and the passion coming from some of those arguments verges on becoming like gangs fighting it out for territory. Like an anthropological study, I usually just read what they argue about and not really participate, and wow can it be fascinating to observe gamers arguing... it can be frustrating but hilarious too.

Movies I've Seen Recently...

Batman : Gotham Knight (2008)  B-

This animated feature chronicles what's been going on in Gotham City, after the events of "Batman Begins" and before "The Dark Knight," "Batman : Gotham Knight" gives us a taste on several different point of views about the Batman. Directed by different Japanese Anime directors, the movie is done as an anthology film. Being that there are several story segments, the quality in animation and story unfortunately fluctuates. Some of the stories were very cerebral and moody, while others were exciting with action. You also might get confused at who is Bruce Wayne, since his character is depicted very differently every time. There are definitely certain segments that I cared for more than others, but I overall appreciated the additional insight into the world of Batman as recently revamped by Christopher Nolan.

Hancock (2008) C+

A little too ambitious for it's own good, is the best way I would describe "Hancock." I like the concept of a superhero who is down and out, and doesn't think about the consequences of his "super" actions. The cast of Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman are also really good in their roles. The direction by Peter Berg and the screenplay however should have been much better for the potential this material can bring. The many plot holes in the story doesn't help either. "Hancock" had something going for it by adding realistic situations to a superhero story with an emphasis on drama and character relations. However, the film disappointingly ends up having the many flaws of a typical comic book fantasy superhero movie. Pretty much, this could have been great, but it's just average.

Naruto Shippuuden : the Movie (2007)  C

If you've seen the Naruto animated series, you really do not need to see "Naruto Shippuuden : The Movie." Although it starts off with an intriguing premise that the main character dies, the movie disappointingly just goes through the motions. It's pretty much an excuse of a film to show off Japanese Animated ninja action sequences, and honestly aren't really anymore exciting than what has been done on the TV series. There's a little bit of drama with one of the characters, but the emotion it's trying to get us to have is overshadowed by the lack of character development. Clearly a movie for hardcore fans only.

Cellular  (2004)  B

Recently I got a chance to rewatch "Cellular." This thriller about a man who is accidentally put in charge of helping a kidnapped woman who randomly dialed his cellphone number for help. The great thing about this concept is that it goes through a lot of things that we go through in everyday life with cellphones. Poor reception, low battery, drop calls, etc, so imagine having those problems when a persons life is at stake. "Cellular" is a fun movie to watch, that has great choreography with the stunts, an exciting pace, and with great performances by Chris Evans, Kim Basinger, William H. Macy, and Jason Statham.

Random Dizzy

watch out for extra gas fees (video)

Human Mirror in a subway (video)

getting money from the ATM (video)

ASL learning experience - NSFW (video)

"I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" parody - NSFW (video)

How Not To Fake A Heart Attack (video)

Rain Of Madness : a documentary of Tropic Thunder - NSFW (video)

the retarded policeman (video)

Over is Right, Under is Wrong (link)

the best movie endings ever (link)

A bad habit of mine these past 12 months, was neglecting my e-mail more often than not. Tons and tons of e-mail would just pile up, and I honestly was a hard person to get a hold off through e-mail. It was actually much easier to text message me on my cellphone, and probably even more so by commenting here on my blog. Needless to say, my inbox folder had thousands of e-mail that were unread. Admitedly they were mostly junk mail, accept for the ones that involved my family, friends, online transactions, account information, etc... Not wanting to just mass delete the whole thing because I would want to keep the important mail, I had to go through all of them. No, I did not have to read all of them, but by carefully looking at the subject headers I was able to tell if it needed to be kept or deleted imediately. This took me a couple of hours of my time, but it was worth it. It feels good seeing my inbox with less than five e-mails on it right now. Going through some of those old e-mail, I even noticed some surprises from family/friends that I *should* have known already. To think that over a decade ago I was an e-mail junky who loved sending and receiving e-mail every hour. Wow, how things have changed, in that e-mail has gotten so ubiquitous it's now at a point of easy neglect.

Today officially marks my tenth year anniversary being at my job; and as only it should, it ofcourse lands on one of my regular days off. To think this job started off as something I was thinking of just abandoning after a year or two years.
So why have I been there for so long?

The Reasons...
1) A set schedule that works really well with my life
2) Being on the graveyard shift, I never have to worry about traffic
3) Since my afternoons are free, I have time to do other things
4) My vacation requests usually gets granted with no hassle
5) It's not a job that forces me to work 12 hour tiring days
6) Being under a Union, I don't have to worry about "downsizing"
7) I get along with my co-workers
8) The job isn't something that gets me stressed out

Could I be more ambitious and find a position or another job that pays a little better? Sure. But honestly, while reasons 6 to 8 is always possible to find in another job, more than likely I'll probably end up losing reasons 1 to 5. I'm happy where I am, it pays well enough to live a decent/good life (just read this blog), and that's what counts the most.

Oh yeah, what's my job? Well, there are some information about myself that I leave out from this blog...