Someone I know actually has a stalker. My acquaintance is a young, pretty girl that works in the public eye, surrounded by strangers everywhere. It's not surprising that she would be admired, but some people creep over that fine line and admire her just a little too much. This stalker person would specifically be around any place that she would be working at, and apparently is just a bit too obvious about staring at her. At first she thought it was just her imagination, but her co-workers have noticed that guy as well. As far as I know, the person has not been approached about it yet, but the next time he comes around, they'll just re-assign her some place else, away from the creepy person. I jokingly asked her "so, first stalker?" and she answered "actually, this would be my second." Imagine that. The dangers of being young and pretty ey?

Random Magic

dog running a magazine stand (video)

Black Hole Devours Neighborhood (video)

enormous waves hit lighthouses (video)

smart dog (video)

fire and ice (photo)

another ordinary day (video)

the frogfather (video)

Kittens Bobbing Heads (video)

35 of the Most Unique & Creative Sofa Designs (pix)

Bring On The Dancing Christians (video)

Having house dogs as opposed to yard dogs can be a bit of a risk, as there is the possibility of them making a mess of something indoors, but then that's the choice we made. A few weeks ago, I stacked a bunch of DVDs; new and old, on the ground next to my TV stand, as I was planning to organize them. I procrastinated, and they were sitting there for a couple of weeks now. All the while I was thinking to myself "wow, that tower of stacked DVDs looks like an easy possible target for a peeing-post to my male white dog." Sure enough just recently my white dog did pee on it. I don't know what happened, but I guess he got tired of the designated peeing-post that we set up for him.

Except for one DVD that was just in a paper sleeve, the rest where still in it's case, and about half of them were still in their orginal shrink wraps. You would think that the ones in the shrink wraps were completely protected, and you will be correct, except for the few of them where the pee actualy permeated into some of the less durable shrink wraps. The cases that did not have the shrink wrap on were stained, but luckily all the DVDs inside them were untouched. The DVD that was just in a paper sleeve was instantly ruined though. Luckily I have a huge stock of unused extra DVD cases that I've amassed in storage for whatever reason, so I just replaced the stained ones with those. Just to think, the damage could have been worse, because I would have been really upset if one of those DVD cases was some collector's edition type thing.

If my female dog peed at the wrong place, it's just the floor / carpet that I have to worry about. For my male dog, I have to be concerned about any object sitting on the floor, from bags, toys, cabinets, or anything that stands up. The one thing I really worry about is my xbox360, which I have outside at the corner of my TV stand, because it clearly looks like a tower or a post that makes it an easy target. I would have the xbox tucked in hidden somewhere, but like a computer tower, it needs to have good ventilation, so it has to sit out in the open. I fear that day might eventually come, so my silly white dog better think twice before peeing on an expensive electronic like that, because I don't know how mad I'll get if that happens.

...wow, I just noticed that I did not watch a single movie for almost a month and a half. Anyways...

Movies I've Recently Seen...

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)  B-

Living up to the title of the movie, "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" is
infused by many different songs and music, that more or less try and
reflect what is happening on screen. I was familiar with some of the
musical artists featured in the movie, and I would often catch myself
going "ooh, Vampire Weekend" or "ooh, Band Of Horses" or I would be
asking myself "who sung that song?" As you can imagine, watching the
movie like a visual soundtrack can be a bit distracting at times. As
for the movie itself; which is based on the novel of the same name,
it's plot and characters can be quite charming, with Michael Cera
playing his good usual role as the witty yet vulnerable Nick who is
dealing with the aches of heartbreak, and Kat Dennings in a fantastic
stand-out role as Norah who is also witty yet vulnerable. The film
however does tread on being a bit pretentious at times, not to mention
unbelievable, as well as trying to be a little too "hip and cool" for
it's own good. The setting is New York, but it feels more like a
fantasy urban wonderland where teenagers roam the city until the break
of dawn with seemingly no consequences, traveling from club to club, in
search of a fictional band called "Where's Fluffy" as if it was some
holy grail. Despite some reservations, I did enjoy this feel good romp
that has adventure, romance, relationships, friendships, humor, and
excitement, that is suppose to reflect youth culture.

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People  (2008) B-

There is one main reason to watch "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People," and that's actor Simon Pegg. Pegg is hilarious playing a character that's an asshole who believes in staying true to how he really feels about celebrities as opposed to simply kissing up to them even when they don't deserve it. At the same time though, he wishes to be able to associate himself within the celebrity elite, even if it means going into a party disguised as a pig handler for "Babe 3." The topic about being true to yourself isn't exactly an original theme and there may have been some unbelievable moments, but director Robert B. Weide, writer Peter Straughan, and the supporting cast from Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges, to Gillian Anderson makes it work. Now for guys, there is another reason to see this movie, and that's Megan Fox playing the stereotypical sexy Hollywood actress in this. "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" is an entertaining and funny film, that further proves that Simon Pegg is a modern comic genius..... plus Megan Fox is hot hot hot.

Snow Angels  (2008)  B+

Directed by David Gordon Green, "Snow Angels" gives us a realistic look at several couples with relationship problems, within this small community. The relationship issues as shown in the movie are treated seriously, and any one of us can either relate or sympathize with them. A tragedy happens to one of the characters, which impacts the lives of those couples, for better or for worse, and leads to some powerful scenes in the movie that can be heartbreaking to watch, and will undoubtedly leave an impression. A drama such as this can easily get too melodramatic, and at times it can seem a bit slow, but the director and the cast from Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, Michael Angarano, to Olivia Thirlby are excellent here, making this dark, tragic movie come alive.

Compared to last year's, this past weekend's "E For All" Gaming Expo was very disappointing. I was actually questioning whether going only one day, and on the shortest day (Sunday 10AM - 4PM) of the three days was a mistake. It turns out that it wasn't a mistake at all, since I could have gone through the whole show floor within an hour's span. There are really only three reasons to even go to E4All this year, the World Cyber Games, Gears of War 2, and Guitar Hero World Tour. If you want to count seeing the celebrity gamers that made an appearance for the event, like Fatal1ty or Billy Mitchell, then I guess you can add an additional reason to go to E4All.  Game companies like Microsoft, Nintendo, Ubisoft, etc did attend the show, but their presence were very subdued.

There are only a few things I thought were significant for attending E4All. I finally got the chance to try out the Guitar Hero World Tour instruments, and thought it felt good. I watched a Virtua Fighter 5 tournament, which I thought was very entertaining to see. There was also a Guitar Hero III tournament going, but I thought that was a little boring to watch, especially since it ran for over half an hour to declare a winner. I did think it was a little bit of a thrill to see in person Wolf from American Gladiators and Steve Wiebe who is most famously known as one of those "donkey kong guys." For most of my day at E4All, I spent the most time at the Gears of War 2 booth, in part because I wanted some of those cool GoW2 SWAG. Unfortuately by the end of the show, I was not able to get that cool GoW2 t-shirt that I really wanted. If I knew that was going to happen, I would have left hours ago.

Man, with what little momentum E4All had last year, I feel that they should just call it quits after this year's show. I'm still all for a show to be the "public E3," but compared to the Penny Arcade Expo, E4All is a joke. If they have it again next year, I'm going to have to think hard about bothering to attend.

This past night, I went to see "The Swell Season" at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. If you are not familiar with The Swell Season, this Irish folk rock band consists mainly of the two primary actors (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) of the movie "Once," which I should point out won for best original song at the Academy Awards this year. Glen Hansard is also from the band "The Frames," whose members also made up the rest of the touring band for The Swell Season.

This Swell Season concert at the Greek was one of my most anticipated shows to attend this year. The Greek Theater is a beautiful venue to see concerts at, however I've been avoiding trying to go to shows there because of one main issue; the stacked parking. If you don't know what stacked parking is, it's like being stuck in traffic, the cars in front, behind, and in your sides completely stopped, and there is no way for you to get out. Sucks doesn't it? Plus for $15, it's absolutely ridiculous. This time around however, I decided to do what a lot of others do to avoid the Greek's stacked parking, I parked my car in the residential areas about a mile away from the venue. Sure I had to walk about a mile up the hill just to see the concert, but I'm completely okay with that.

By the time I got to the venue, the opening act "Iron & Wine" (which is really just singer songwriter Samuel Beam) was already playing. I wish I got to see the whole act, because as folk rock music goes, he wasn't bad. Samuel Beam seems pretty funny too, and I like his joke where he goes "I'm going to play something new, but then for those of you who've never heard of me, it's all new."

From 9PM to exactly 11PM, main act "The Swell Season" was simply phenomenal. Their whole show was like a musical experience that celebrates the craft of making music. The art of expressing your soul through song. The show also had a very intimate atmosphere, and it felt like we were all just lounging around the family dining room, and some friends or relatives decides to whip out some musical instruments and proceeded to play a bunch of songs.

Part of the band's charm is frontman Glen Hansard who is just so easy to pay attention to, what with his witty humor and moments where he just rambles on about the meaning behind the song they are about to play. In fact at one moment when he was trying to explain a song, somebody in the audience yelled an impatient "c'mon," which resulted in some funny banter by Glen about how he was interrupted, poking a little fun at himself and the audience. There was also another moment where Glen was pretty much having a conversation with somebody towards the back of the venue, because that guy wanted to request a specific song for them to play. At one point of the night when the band was transitioning between songs, a group of the audience started singing the song "My Girl" (The Temptations), and Glen proceeds to sing the song as well, which encourages everybody to sing along. Glen happily pointed out afterwards how we all had a huge group jam session right there and then.

Glen Hansard also showed some furious guitar strumming for one song, which as he points out always forces the guitar to go out of tune, and it's funny seeing him tune the guitar every time right after some of those fast strummings. For the song "Say it to me now," he played the song unplugged and proceeds to perform it with no assist from the mic and speakers. It was impressive how quiet everything got in the venue, and all you slightly hear is Glen's voice and the sound of his guitar. I'm pretty sure the people towards the back were probably straining their ears trying to hear the song though.

Marketa Irglova was no slouch either, as she performed several of her songs that she sang. Mar's voice is definitely untraditional for a singer, but then I would say that she sings really well for someone who has english as a second language. Along with the piano, she also played the guitar a couple of times as well, which I didn't know she was able to do.

Glen talked about a person the band befriended in the past year that turned out to be Richard Sherman, who is half of the brothers duo team who are probably most famous for all the Disney songs they've composed throughout the years. Richard Sherman was at the show, and much to the surprise and delight of all of us in the audience, he got on the piano on stage and performed "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." Another nice random moment was the appearance of the director/writer of their movie "Once;" John Carney, who surprisingly got on the bass guitar and performed with Glen and Marketa for one song. At one point, their violinist Colm Mac Con Iomaire also did a solo performance of one of his original works. Afterwards, as Glen says "in the spirit of the night," Samuel Beam of Iron & Wine joined the band on stage, and sang one song with them.

All of those memorable unexpected moments helps cement how such a great night this was. They played almost all my favorite songs of theirs, performed new ones, and cover songs, which to my delight ended up becoming a much bigger set list than I was originally expecting from them. The overall experience was just wonderful, and I can easily honestly say that this concert will go down as one of my all time favorites. The Swell Season probably won't be back here in the U.S. until next year or possibly the year after, but when they do, you bet I'm going to be there.

This past night, me and my friend went to see MxPx perform at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California. I've never seen the band live before, nor have I really been following them, short of owning a couple of their albums. They were really good live though, and I loved how the band actually took requests from the audience, which I honestly don't see very often with most bands. Considering that I wasn't completely familiar with their whole song catalog, I got extra excited when they did play songs I knew, especially the ones from "Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo," which is one of my all time favorite pop punk albums. I'm probably going to end up just getting one of their "best of" albums afterwards, especially after hearing some of the other songs they played.

MxPx wasn't the only band that played that night though. Tat and Only Crime performed before them, although I did not really see their sets, since me and my friend were at the bar outside, drinking, eating, and watching the Angels vs Red Sox game on the TV. Lagwagon actually closed the night in this co-headlining tour, but I only stuck around for half of their set, even though I thought they weren't bad at all.

One of the advantages of going to the HOB Anaheim is that I know some of the people that work there. Because of that, I get a discount on food / drinks, and I usually also get access to the Loge which is usually reserved for invited parties (by the band). Pretty cool ey?

Tailor Made Random

the google of 2001 (link)

may those who help the most win (video)

5 friends uncensored (video)

pretty cool Wii ad (video)

bloodsport mentos ad (video)

roof sufer wipes out hard (video)

McFuneral (video)

Toon Tang ep.1 - NSFW (video)

little girl remix (video)

these glutes are made for walking (video)

star trek as the A-Team (video)

cyber bullying (video)

rough spelling bee - NSFW (video)

Drunk History: Willam Henry Harrison (video)

The Suffering (download)

When some people watch a movie or a TV show, they want to see the characters on screen be idealized people. Those characters get to be, say, and do, what we normal people don't. It's that sense of escapism, where we imagine ourselves as those idealized characters. This is certainly a fine way of watching movies and TV shows, however there's a flip side to that coin. There are some people who prefer to see the characters on screen to be as flawed as normal people can be. The logic there is that it's far easier imagining ourselves in those characters shoes if we can easily relate with them. In a way, the characters still get to be, say, and do, what we normal people don't get to do, but now it's just a bit more closer to home than when they are idealized. That's also a certainly fine way of watching movies and TV shows, but the trick is that it's a balance of the two that really makes it work.

There are people out there who say that they "don't want to watch flawed characters on screen, because we already get that in real life," and I think they aren't looking at the big picture of the visual story telling art form. When you are watching a movie or TV show based on real life events, do you want those characters to be idealized figures without the flaws of the real life people they are suppose to represent? At the same time though, when you are watching an action thriller, do we really necessarily need our main hero to be an extremely realistic depiction of a person? That's where my emphasis on balancing the two is important, as it's not always good to go any one extreme way. When a movie or TV show takes one extreme side of what their fictional characters should be, they risk alienating a part of their audience who much prefer the other extreme side of the coin.

Me personally, I do like my characters to be more human like us, as opposed to somebody who is much too idealized. It does make it easier for me to sympathize with the protagonists plight, when I can relate with them a lot more. Put it this way, I think it's easier for people to see themselves as somebody like Batman; who is a normal human working hard to be a super hero, as opposed to somebody like Superman; who is essentially a demi-God.

So when you are watching a movie or a TV show, think about who you are seeing on screen.  Is the character you are watching too idealized to be believable or too human that it loses it's appeal of escapism? What kind of character do you prefer to lean more towards, when watching movies or TV shows?