If you're Asian, you've probably come across or had eaten those crispy anchovy dried fish with sesame seasoning snack thingees. I've always loved those crispy anchovy snacks, but usually I only eat it when I go by my parents house, and never really bothered to buy some for my home. Recently however, I got addicted to it, and had the craving to go buy a bunch of them. One to replace the one that I shamelessly finished at my parents house, and a few more to keep for myself. Well I went around the many asian supermarkets nearby, from Ranch 99 Market, Seafood City, Marukai, etc, and either I was blind, or I really did not see it stocked there at all. I spent a whole afternoon, just going from one supermarket to another, and I came home empty of that delicious addicting fish snack. What gives? To be fair, I did see a variation of it, but it's the spicy kind which I don't really care for. I'm going to try looking for it again another day, but damn do I have that craving right now just typing this.

- Random Butterfly -

new the Simpsons main title (video)

Cell Phone Reunion (video)

Amazing Moment on the Jumbotron (video)

Referee Wins Fight (video)

Cute Girl Narrates Kitten Book (video)

Kittens Narrated By David After The Dentist (video)

Christian Bale Takes David to the Dentist - NSFW (video)

Pride With Bleach (video)

Billy Mays Calls Out Shamwow Guy (audio)

Little Kid Rocks Out to System of a Down (video)

Have you noticed that there is now an option to download the videos you see on youtube? I just went to the videos that I uploaded on youtube, and sure enough, there it was, an easy option for somebody to download it for their own. It's just the compressed .flv version of the original video that I uploaded, but still it's interesting that they are even offering this service. Admittedly, if a person is educated enough in using a computer, this is something that they've already been doing for quite a while now. However, doesn't this once again open up another can of worms on the copyright issue? User X uploads a copyrighted material on youtube, then it becomes offered for download to another person's computer. It's almost like file sharing videos in a way. Somebody's bound to be unhappy with youtube... again.

The funeral for my wife's grandmother went well. Having friends and families coming together for a unifying moment was nice. I was even part of the family party and was one of the pallbearers, so it was a little surreal for me. Here I was thinking I was "just the husband" to my wife, but there I was representing her family. Still things I'm learning about being a married man now.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from a Buddhist funeral, and me being from a non-Buddhist background (not to mention that I did not speak Taiwanese), I had to take cues from my wife as to what I had to do. For the most part it wasn't that complicated. There were some heartfelt eulogies and the family (including me!) were personally given condolence by the people who attended. I was thinking in my head that they were probably thinking "who is *that* guy?"

A funny thing happened on the way to the burial site. A lot of us did not follow the hearse that carried the grandmother. Logically we were all thinking that's what we had to do, but the person who was "in charge" of the whole thing (my wife's uncle) took off to the site, and everybody just followed suit. It turned out that he was just going to show somebody *how* to get there and was intending to come back, and we all just took it as "oh okay, I guess we go now."

The burial itself went well, with the Buddhist monks there, we had a final prayer, several bowing, incense were lit, and we burned the paper money thingee. It was all just really nice, especially since it's my first real experience being part of a funeral as an adult and not being a child who doesn't really understand what's going on. A few hours later, me and the wife visited her aunt's home, and it actually felt weird not seeing her grandma there (that was the last place she stayed at). Although I did not really get to know her that well, she was always nice to me, and I'm glad to have met her.

- Lucky Random -

1234567890 Day (link)

Sony releases new piece of... - NSFW (video)

Third Date with Will Ferrell (video)

Kitten Eating a Graham Cracker (video)

crustacean fight (video)

wooden vespa (pix)

Salt Water Taffy (video)

Ultimate Fighting Punch-Out (video)

Antiques Roadshow 2550 (video)

big pussy - NSFW (video)

It's been a few days now since I got my new phone, the BlackBerry Storm, and I've got to say that I'm pleased with my purchase. I've spent a lot of time these few days personalizing everything about the Storm, from the icon setups, putting photos, videos, music, and just overall learning how to use the phone properly, that I've been going through a full charged battery in less than a day (aprox 15 hours). My previous phones lacked in some features that I'm very pleased to take advantage of in this phone, primarily the full HTML web browser and the ability to finally properly use traditional mp3s for my ringtones without having to go through several steps and hassles. It also looks like I'm going to finally synch up my e-mail to my blackberry as well, so I can really really take advantage of what my phone can do. I'm happy to say that overall, my initial positive reactions made over two months ago still stands, although my few complaints are also still present. It's very debatable as to whether it is better than the iPhone, because there is a lot that phone has done correctly and more user friendly than the Storm. There are however some things that this BlackBerry has also done right over Apple, like MMS, video recording, swappable battery, and expandable memory (microSD).

Despite several people's seeming reluctance to properly learn it, I find that the clickable touch screen is something I really like. I appreciate the fact that I don't have to worry too much about accidentally activating something when I am simply just hovering over an item. On the otherhand, accidentally clicking on a link or letter next to what you wanted to activate still does happen on occasion. The QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode works well, although it'll never completely be better than a real dedicated keyboard. I also deactivated the "sure type" keyboard (never been a fan of that) on portrait mode to a traditional but much preffered T9 setup. The scrolling, navigating, and sliding motions of the screen works well, although I admit that it feels "smoother" on the iPhone. My main complaint still stands, which is the fact that the accellorometer can be a little wonky at times when trying to figure out your orientation, and I've had to be patient as long as five seconds to get it right at times (still not broken though). BTW, the speaker is top notch, nice and loud for a cellphone.

The apps store is unfortunately non-existent since it's still a planned future release, so I've had to download apps by just using the built in web browser to sites like crackberry.com where I did find some pretty useful free stuff. Just off the top of my head, some of the applications I have are "TalkLock," "Berry Torch," "Google Maps," "GeoTipApp," "BBTran Translator," "AP Mobile News," "Weatherbug," "Slacker Radio," "YouTube," "Viigo," and "Facebook." It also has a slew of instant messaging options, although I haven't tried any of that yet. At this point I still haven't even try downloading any additional games for the Storm, but that's something I plan to do in the next few days.

I'm still a little annoyed at the wanton complaints I keep hearing about the BlackBerry Storm, because while the phone is not perfect, it's definitely not this "failed experiment" that some people claim it to be. A lot of people's problems usually stem from simply just not learning the touch screen short cuts, or their inability to adapt to a different touch screen phone that isn't the iPhone. Oh well, while they continue to stay disappointed with it, I'm going to continue being happy with it.

below is a photo taken by the Storm's camera (resized to 640x480)

What Sign Do You Attract? You Attract a Capricorn

When down to earth, responsible, loyal Capricorn meet you, they've met their match. You are as ethical as Capricorn, and they respect your values. You are also able to be a loyal and caring partner to your Capricorn, even when times are tough. You are there to cheer up or motivate your Capricorn - which never goes unappreciated.

What I've been listening to lately...

1) Megadeth - countdown to extinction
2) Iron Maiden - a matter of life and death
3) The Swell Season - Sept 29, 2008 Palladium Ballroom
4) Counting Crows - Sept 12, 2008 Verizon Amphitheater
5) Pennywise - reason to believe
6) Vitamin Piano Series - bite the ivory, the piano tribute to metallica

My wife was driving home from work, and when she got to our street she noticed a stray white dog roaming around by itself. Thinking nothing of it, she then noticed another stray brown dog out and about. That's when it hit her, those were our dogs! It turns out that the side gate of our yard was blown open by the strong winds that day and neither one of us realized it. The dogs (including the one we were fostering) were let out of the house to the yard, and must have saw that open gate as an opportunity to walk themselves. Our white dog luckily was more than willing to jump in my wife's car, so he was an easy catch. As soon as my wife told me how we were still missing two dogs and takes off to drop off the white one, the foster dog shows up and allows me to grab her. Walking back home with the foster dog, the brown one happily walks right by us, pass my wife, pass my house, just ladedadeda down the street. Ten minutes later of me and my wife trying to convince our brown dog that her free walking time is over, she finally decides that it was and got in the car, on the way home. That situation could have been worse and more time consuming than it end up being.

...wait, that's not the end of this tale of dogs...

This past week of having the foster dog at our home, we've come up with two nicknames. One is "snuggles" because like I mentioned before, she likes to press up on us and loves to be hugged. The other nickname I call her is "the herder dog," because she seems to think that our white dog is a sheep or something. If the herder dog is so inclined, she loves to "block" my white dog of going somewhere sometimes, and if he tried to get around, she would move to block him once again. Hence why I call her "the herder dog." We thought it was rather cute and funny, even though I personally thought she was actually being a bully to my white dog. My white dog may act timid and shy sometimes, but believe me when I say that he is a fighter at heart. I say that because after all these days of the Herder Dog acting like she's better than him, the white dog finally had enough and actually pushed his weight towards her. Let me just say that it wasn't a friendly quarrel. Poor white dog had enough of his bully and wanted to get even. So much for us not having an issue of having the need to separate the dogs, because now we need to separate the dogs. Unfortunately due to this current situation between those two dogs, we're going to have to give up fostering this border collie, and return her to the rescue group. I'm really disappointed with this turn of events, because I was hoping that this would turn out great for the next few weeks, unlike the case with the chihuahua we fostered previously. As for our brown dog, she was all just ladedadeda watching the two of them duke it out.

Good Bye "Herder Dog," too bad you had to bully the white one, and had to pay for that mistake. I thought it was going to completely work out, but I'm very disappointed to say that it did not. I guess our main success story is still with our first foster dog, "the Ninja Dog." One out of Three so far? I'm discouraged to foster any more dogs at this rate.

- I'm Yours Random -

grammy awards winners (link)

guy + blow up dolls + parking lot (video)

David after dentist (video)

David After Dentist 2.0 (video)

Kitten Learns Valuable Lesson (video)

Cookie Monster's 99 Problems - NSFW (video)

Conspiracy Schoolhouse Rock (video)

I Wanna Bone the Little Mermaid (video)

Monkey grabs boobies - NSFW? (video)

Songsmith on the Collapse of the World Economy (video)

Movies I've seen recently...

Taken  (2009)  B+

If you ever doubted that Liam Neeson could be an action star, then you need to see "Taken," where he takes the role of former spy and badass Bryan Mills. Starting at the moment Maggie Grace's character Kim; daughter of Mills, gets kidnapped by human traffickers in Europe, this movie kicks into high gear as a very thrilling action feature that will keep your eyes glued to the screen. Bryan Mills may not be a very catchy name, but he sure does give James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Jack Bauer a run for their money. He will stop at nothing in retrieving his daughter, and watching how he tracks the kidnappers down, plus the nicely done choreographed action sequences is a treat to see. Sure "Taken" still has the flaws that come with an action movie, like a need for a suspension of disbelief for several of the sequences in the movie, and the use of a good chunk of the opening scenes for character introductions and exposition. Despite it's flaws, this movie caught me by surprise by how much I enjoyed it, and it easily became one of the top action movies for 2009.

the Uninvited  (2009)  B-

Usually with a movie like "The Uninvited," you get a sense like you've seen it before. In many ways, you have, not to mention the fact that this is based off the movie "A Tale of Two Sisters." This is one of those movies that is filled with many scenes that are edited to be suspenseful, making you wait for that big scare to make you jump off your sit. There are also the typical scenes that pretty much wants you to yell at the screen saying things like "don't look in there!." Emily Browning and Arielle Kebbel are great as the daughters of David Strathairn's character, who is dating the very suspicous Rachael; played by Elizabeth Banks. With it's supernatural feel and the mysterious circumstances of the story, "The Uninvited" still managed to be pretty enjoyable. I thought the story moved along really well, and it is one of those movies that gives you a big pay off at the end of the film that actually made me go "I did not see that coming." If you plan to watch this, or the original film this it is based off, you may want to avoid spoilers.

Revolutionary Road  (2008)  B

Having a house in suburbia, settling down, being in a salary job, and having children shouldn't be considered an unhappy dead-end in life, but that's sure what it looks like when you watch "Revolutionary Road." Director Sam Mendes gives us a fascinating look at a marriage that is falling apart, because they live a typically normal life. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are excellent in the role of this married couple, and have given us some epic and powerful scenes of them arguing and yelling at each other in this movie. There's a lot of those domestic disputes in this film, despite the fact that their kids are so conveniently not around when those happen. These characters are not perfect and quite flawed, but that's the point. "Revolutionary Road" shows us an idea of what makes or breaks a marriage and a person's life, plus the story is definitely thought provoking. Keep in mind though, that the movie's subject matter may not be something that everybody will enjoy watching.

Oneechanbara : The Movie  (2008)  C-

A bikini cowboy girl that kills zombies with her sword, a gun toting femme fatale in a tight leather outfit, and another sword wielding girl in a school girl uniform, definitely sounds like a fan boy's wet dream. At least that's what makes up "Oneechanbara," which is a movie based off the video game series. With the sword-play plus gun-fu action, zombies that are capable of doing martial arts, the simplistic special effects, all the way to the blood splatter that actually sticks to the camera, you'd think that this is the perfect formula for a fun but campy B-movie. If only that was the case, because the movie actually made the mistake of taking itself seriously, by having dramatic moments that really feels unnecessary to what is on paper a simple but fun concept. Two dimensional characters, unbelievable moments, poor pacing, weak dialogue, and a disappointing story, is the unfortunate end result of "Oneechanbara : The Movie." If you are a guy, you may as well just watch it for the fan service.