- Details In the Random Fabric -

Louis CK "Everything's amazing, nobody's happy" (video)

Are Violent Video Games Preparing Kids For The Apocalypse? (video)

A.C. Newman - "Take On Me" (audio)

See A Fish With A Transparent Head (pix)

Baby Plays With Toys In High-Speed (video)

Underwater View of a Bird Attack (video)

Bowling Accident (video)

about digital comics (flash)

Star Wars : The Old Republic web series (flash)

Rockabye Baby (audio)

Movies I've seen recently...

Fanboys (2009)  C+

The title of this movie pretty much suggests what target audience will enjoy "Fanboys." A lot of the humor revolves around inside jokes mostly relating to Star Wars, and everything from Star Trek, the internet, games, and comic books. The average movie-goer is probably not going to appreciate the movie as much as the fanboy culture would. It's got however a lot of celebrity guest stars from William Shatner, Seth Rogen, Kevin Smith, Carrie Fisher, and many more. In the end though, "Fanboys" is simply yet another road trip adventure flick with the zany characters and situations. Funny moments can be found in this movie, but I didn't see anything that made me really laugh out loud.

Street Fighter IV : The Ties That Bind (2009)  C

Primarily made as a story to bridge the video games Street Fighter II and Street Fighter IV, I wasn't exactly expecting "Street Fighter IV : The Ties that bind" to be a great anime film. As a movie about Street Fighters, there surprisingly weren't that many fight sequences. The action and fight scenes that were there weren't that spectacular to watch either. It didn't help that I thought the animation in general wasn't anything to brag about as well. I did however like the story arc of Ken, and felt that his was the most developed out of all the characters. "Street Fighter IV : The ties that bind" is definitely for fans of the franchise only, and even saying that is kinda questionable.

Coraline (2009)  A-

When it comes to stop motion animation, director Henry Selick knows his stuff. When it comes to fantasy story telling and creating eccentric but fascinating characters, Neil Gaiman is an imaginative genius. Combine those two men and you get this wonderful little film called "Coraline." Something of a tale similar to Alice in Wonderland, this movie can be a little bit creepy, especially for a young audience. However, the story moves along at a good pace and will keep your interest until the very end. Primary voice work by Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher are really good in this, but the real star is the stop motion animation, which proves that not everything has to be in CGI. BTW, try and watch the 3D version if you could.

Push (2009)  B-

A story about a rag tag group of people that have special powers and abilities, against big time baddies with powers themselves. sounds like a big flashy action fantasy fest of a movie that ends with the heroes saving the day and probably the world right? In the case of "Push," not so much. The movie does not really aspire to be a super hero team type movie, although it has familiar elements in that regards. "Push" actually ends up feeling more like a caper film, involving outsiders Nick (Chris Evans) and Cassie (Dakota Fanning) attempting to outwit their antagonists, by getting and obtaining something in particular before they do. I liked the characters, and I liked the ideas behind the story, however this movie feels more like it could have been even better than it's end result.

The Unborn (2009)  C+

If you want to watch a movie where every scene is extra suspenseful and creepily leads to a quick cut of something that jumps at you to scare you, then "The Unborn" is that movie. As a scary movie, the attempts to make you jump out of your seat is as far as this goes. The story itself sounds scary, but there's a lot that you have to take on a leap of faith, which makes questioning it's believability a distraction to appreciating what they are trying to do here. Odette Yustman and Gary Oldman are good in this movie, but ultimately the script by director/writer David S. Goyer only really produced an average scary movie that's decent to watch for those interested, but there's nothing truly memorable here.

Are You a Procrastinator? You Are a Bit of a Procrastinator

You tend to get things done in a timely manner, but you can't help but put off tasks you hate. You have no problem getting the fun or easy stuff done. You generally enjoy taking care of responsibilities. However, if a task arises that you dislike, it might get shelved for a long time. And even though it's human nature to procrastinate, your procrastination is hindering your productivity. Take a look at the things you are putting off doing. Do they really need to be done? Complete any task that's important. The other stuff you're procrastinating is probably not worth doing.

What I've been listening to recently...

1) Antony and the Johnsons - the crying light
2) Ben Folds - stems and seeds
3) Crooked X - crooked x
4) Heartless Bastards - the mountain
5) Black Tide - light from above
6) The Blackest Album vol 4 - an industrial tribute to metallica

Say hello to my newest addiction, Street Fighter IV. This game has been out for a week on the home consoles now, and wow have I clocked in a lot of hours on it. There have even been some times that I would be playing this game for 4-6 hours straight! It's ridiculous I know, but this is one of my most favorite franchise ever since SFII hit arcades in 1991, and just perfect to play against other people. Especially now with online competition, I don't have to find an arcade machine to find challengers (my xbox live gamertag : optimum5). It's a shame though to think that Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix was just released a couple of months ago, and is now most likely abandoned in droves by us gamers stuck on Street Fighter IV. Oh well, that's how it goes...

As far as the game itself is concerned, comparing it to previous version, I've got to say that it's a lot closer to Super Street Fighter II Turbo, mixed with a little bit of Street Fighter Alpha. I admit to say that I still believe that Street Fighter III is still a more technical and challenging game compared to this version, but it's use of the parry system tend to have kept a lot of casual SF2 gamers away from that version. SFIV's decision to go back to a more "universal" form of Street Fighter is the right thing to do, in order to expose this iconic franchise to newer gamers. I just have to think that a teenager today may not even have been born, when I was already in the arcades throwing my first hadouken in SFII : The World Warrior. I hope this seemingly archaic 2D plane fighting game still has the mojo to attract the fighting game fans of today who are used to the 3D based fighters that are popular in this past decade. The graphics in SFIV definitely helps though, as I never thought I would see a Street Fighter game being accepted as something other than a 2D sprite based fighter.

It's been a long time since Street Fighter got a proper sequel, but wow am I glad that it's back in the limelight again.

- Love For a Random Child -

Oscar - Academy Awards winners (link)

Razzie Awards Losers (link)

Slumdog Millionaire Sock Puppet Show (video)

highlights from Conan O'Brien's Last Show (video)

walking dog (video)

The Michael Jackson auction (pix)

Hacker Infiltrates Own Video (video)

Mind Blowing Card Trick (video)

Inanimate Objects Getting It On (video)

Microphone Fail (video)

Well my work place is changing things up once again for me, because the want to try "something new and different." Tonight is the first day that I'm working the modified shift time that's been given to me. Instead of 9:30PM to 6AM, it's now 7:30PM to 4AM. It's a two hours difference, but it makes quite a change for me. Dinner with my wife before work is going to have to be earlier than it's been, and that's only if she can make it home from her work place early (likely not). Some of my co-workers that rely on me past 4AM are now going to have to make do without my help, and they've told me that they aren't happy with this change. I might get a little bit of traffic going to work with this shift, but I don't think that's going to be too much of an impact to my time. Going home, I'm definitely not going to be hitting traffic more so than it's been with a 6AM off time.

Oddly enough, while this is inconvenient for other people to adapt to my modified work shift, this honestly personally works a little better for me. Instead of waking up as early as 12:30PM before, I now get to wake up as early as 10:30AM, and that actually appeals to me. Going home at 4AM is also a bit of a plus as it's a little nice sleeping before the sun rises. So looking at it, the only really downfall for me would be that it provides less time with my wife at night and in the morning. Well, let's see how it goes. It's supposedly not 100% permanent, and might revert to either a different shift time, or back to what it's been before. Only time will tell.

As I do every year, here are my predictions on who I think will win in the major awards of the 81st Annual Academy Awards.

Best...
Picture : Slumdog Millionaire
Director : Danny Boyle
Actor : Sean Penn
Actress : Kate Winslet
Supporting Actor : Heath Ledger
Supporting Actress : Penelope Cruz
Animated film : Wall-E
Art Direction : The Duchess
Cinematography : The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Costume Design : The Duchess
Documentary : Man On Wire
Film Editing : Slumdog Millionaire
Foreign Language Film : Waltz With Bashir
Makeup : The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Original Score : The Curious  Case of Benjamin Button
Original Song : Jai Ho
Visual Effects : The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Adapted Screenplay : Slumdog Millionaire
Original Screenplay : Wall-E

* Academy Awards Drinking game * (audio)

- Live High Random -

Movie Spoilers - Oscar Edition (video)

Super Intense ER Promo (video)

Extreme Makeover: Facebook Edition (video)

Mugger gets pwned (video)

Cheerleading Suplex (video)

Unbreakable Skateboarder (video)

Dog with Giant Tongue (video)

rat staring contest (video)

how to discipline your kitten - NSFW (video)

the console war is officially over (pix)

At 5:00PM PST, Feb 20, 2009, Los Angeles California radio station KLSX officially drops it's talk radio format and switches over to a top-40 music format. Which means no more Adam Corolla show, no more Frosty Heidi and Frank, no more Tom Leykis, etc... This is a huge blow against FM talk radio, because the options for that format are very slim, short of going to Satellite radio or AM of course. Ever since Howard Stern left FM talk radio, ratings have most likely gone down and may be the reason for this switch over, but still those shows primarily affected weren't slouches either. The main alternative for morning talk entertainment would be the Kevin & Bean show at KROQ 106.7, which like KLSX 97.1, is also owned by parent company CBS. Hopefully they don't consider getting rid of that show either, because that's the one I listen to regularly.

I suppose the real question that should be asked here is Do we really need another top-40 music station in Los Angeles? There's at least five or more other radio stations that carry that format. How much more pop music do we need on the air? Is CBS really thinking about trying to capture a younger audience by going to that format, when I would just assume that demographic is glued more to their iPods than they are to the radio. Talk radio had mostly adults in their twenties to their sixties listening, and that's not a demographic that should be ignored either. This is simply just a tragedy and those talk shows will be missed by many.

How Assertive Are You? You Are Assertive

You assert yourself whenever it's necessary, but you're always polite and appropriate about it. You're not a bully, a manipulator, or a nag. You just state what you need quickly and honestly. You've been assertive for so long that it just comes naturally to you. You're definitely not shy. People wonder why you get what you want in life. Well, it's because you ask for it!

What I've been listening to lately...

1) Grave Digger - ballads of a hangman
2) The Lonely Island - incredibad
3) Street Fighter IV - collector's edition soundtrack
4) Lily Allen - it's not me, it's you
5) The Killers - day & age
6) The Blackest Album Vol 2 - an industrial tribute to metallica