Random Walcott
Hollywood scores win over Pirate Bay, 4 convicted (link)
Hair stylist keeps armed robber as sex slave (link)
we didn't start the flame war - NSFW (video)
Billy Mays Orders Breakfast at the Drive-thru (video)
Woman's Insane Police Chase (video)
Bohemian Rhapsody: Old School Computer Remix (video)
Cat Ambush (video)
Cat Disappointed by Own Failure (video)
SUSAN BOYLE Britains Got Talent (video)
Stephen Colbert's Anti-Gay Marriage Ad (video)
- I wonder if my body is starting to really fail me at times. In the past week, these things happened... I literally forgot a co-worker's name, no more than a minute of talking to her, and it's a person I've known for several years now. While I was eating dinner one night, my wife was asking me a question four times in a row, and I did not hear a single word from her, nor did I even know she was asking me a question in the first place. One day I was trying to explain something to someone, and the words that were coming out of my mouth ended up becoming a random jumble of words. I feel like my body or my brain is like a computer that needs a defrag or a reboot or something.
- Just recently I found some time to start watching some of the stuff that I've been procrastinating to watch on my DVR. A week ago, I only had 3% of recording space left, but now I have 43%. It was mostly the specials that was holding up space, like Mythbusters for example. However, it's the many MMA events that I record that really ate up space, like Dream, Sengoku, Inside MMA, basically HDNET Fights stuff in general. There was also the tv show "The Office," which although I claim to be a big fan of, I somehow had TEN episodes that's been unwatched on my DVR. Once I started going through the first episodes of those, I had to ask myself "why again did I wait so long to watch these? Because this show is great."
- If you've been following my facebook page recently (or this blog for that matter), you know that I've been anticipating the official release of Meg & Dia's newest album "Here, Here and Here." Well the post office delivered my pre-order of the album already, which along with the CD itself comes with the "making of" DVD and an extra booklet that the whole band signed (only for the first 1000 orders). I've heard the album several times already, and while I can currently say that I really really enjoy it, I'll go into more detail in a very near-future blog post.
Along with this album's release, Dia; primary singer of the band, posted something on their myspace site a few days ago, talking about the making of "Here, Here and Here." That blog post of hers is probably one of the best postings I've ever read by anybody, as it's just full of emotion behind it, with it's stream of consciousness, and almost poetic nature to her writing. Wow, I was honestly moved by what I read, and I'd like to share her thoughts by posting this link (below) to her blog post. If anything else, it'll further bring more insight to the meanings behind the album.
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=5051004&blogId=483502419
a favorite funny moment of mine from the included DVD featurette
I feel guilty for not taking action, and it may have cost the life of a little duckling. I was behind a car, the traffic light was still red, and we were waiting to make a right turn. Out of nowhere I see this little duckling walk underneath the car in front of me, and come out the other end. The person in the passenger side of the car in front of me, gets out of the car to see where it went. By that time, the duckling was walking across the lanes of the road, stopping when a car was approaching. I was thinking "I should help that duckling or it will be hit by a car." However I had thoughts in my head about the consequences of getting out of my car in traffic; in a busy intersection no less, or whether I would be able to catch it in the first place. By the time those few seconds of thought ran through my head, and I decided that I *should* try and save the duckling, it was too late. The duckling was about to cross the center island of the road, my traffic light turned green already, and the car in front of me started moving forward. I was contemplating parking in the gas station that was next to me, but I didn't. I just drove off, now wondering what happened to that duckling. I'd like to think it made it across the road okay, but I'll never know. I definitely feel guilty about this, and will probably be thinking about the fate of that duckling every time I drive through that intersection now.
I Stand Corrected Random
Rickrolled Co-Writer Says Cheated By Youtube (link)
Lindsay Lohan's eHarmony Profile (video)
Casual Sex Episode One: eHarmony - NSFW (video)
Inspirational Dog (video)
Cosbywood (video)
6-Year-Old Ping Pong Champion (video)
Con Air: Pinball's T-Shirt (video)
Gadget Grand Prix (video)
TV set dioramas (pix)
Star Trek Adventureland (video)
I've grown addicted to those seasoned seaweed snacks again. My wife bought two big nori packs (Ajitsuke Nori to be specific) several weeks ago, but hasn't really opened it yet. Since she wasn't taking any action on them, I decided to open it so that "it doesn't go to waste." One pack has 100 packets, and I've already gone through 90 of them in just two days (well, my wife helped a little bit). Now I remember why I avoided buying these again, because I go through them like fish drinking water. Yum Yum, I love me some Nori.
In other news, Wow, talk about your speed traps. Those of you who live near the area already knows about it, but it's the one down the hill on Grand Ave and Cameron Ave, in Walnut CA, near Mt. San Antonio College. I drove through there recently, going north bound once, then south band coming back. In a span of just 15 minutes, FOUR cars have been pulled over, by two bike cops. What's interesting was that, one other day when I saw the same thing, no more than a half a mile south from that intersection, there was a car accident and no cops in sight. Figures right? Oh well, at least those traffic fees will help contribute to the California Budget crisis.
In other other news, just when I did a post about the TV show "24" last week, this week's episode completely pissed me off. Once again the writers decided to make one of the good guys a bad guy AGAIN! Not only that, but that now-bad-guy killed off a character that was just finally growing on me. Unbelieveable. It was such a "needed to throw the remote control at the TV" moment. I know I'm not alone in being annoyed by this development, but supposedly this isn't yet another "fake out" either. I would drop the show right there and then, but but but there's only six episodes left this season, and only one more season to end the series, and I want to see what happens. Curse you 24 for your awesome thrill-ride-addictive-ness!
| How Big Is Your Ego? Your Ego is Medium |
 You have high self esteem, but you don't think too highly of yourself. You believe in yourself, but you are also able to believe in others. |
What I've been listening to lately...
1) Tragedy - we rock sweet balls and can do no wrong
2) Static-X - cult of static
3) the Prodigy - invaders must die
4) Ace Enders And A Million Different People - when i hit the ground
5) Alkaline Trio - agony and irony
6) Metallica - garage inc (disc 1)
These past months I've noticed a very recurring theme in what the kids nowadays have been wearing, plaid. When I say "kids," I specifically mean teens and maybe college kids. I haven't really noticed people older than that age group wearing plaid patterns for their clothes, so it seems isolated to a particular generation. Ironically, the last time plaid was in fashion (with an emphasis on flannel clothes) was in the grunge music era of the early to mid 1990s; which was the generation that I grew up with. That wasn't a pretty time period for fashion, as people looked very... grungy. However, I don't know if it's because it isn't really about flannel clothes and baggy pants nowadays, but the plaid look actually works quite well with the kids today.
Trying to think back, but I believe the first time I noticed the use of plaid coming back, goes as far back as the September of 2006, when a particular lead singer of a band called "Meg & Dia," was wearing a green plaid long sleeves shirt. In several concerts after that, I've started noticing some of their fans wearing plain as well. Then I started seeing that fashion trend with other band's concerts, until I finally see it in shopping malls and starbucks. I'm not saying that Dia re-started that trend, but I'm guessing the whole plaid thing is in tune with indie/non-mainstream music and it's fans of today. Wasn't Ellen Page's character in "Juno" wearing plaid as well? hhmm
In other but somewhat related news, Meg & Dia's latest music video "Black Wedding" is now available to watch. Check it out.
One (Blake's Got a New Random Face)
Billy Bob Thorton blow up on Q TV (video)
Obama's G-20 Roundup (video)
the Dark Knight meets Superman part 2 (video)
Hard-Hitting Journalism Goes Wrong (video)
Ridiculous Middle School Full Court Shot (video)
Golf Lake Skip Hole in One (video)
Laughing At Murder (video)
911 Call: Locked in a Car (video)
"Modern samurai" - Isao Machii (video)
Christian Games RoundUp (video)
This past day, I got to experience two awesome things, "Avenue Q" and "Tragedy."
At the Orange County Performing Arts Center, I was able to see the stage show musical "Avenue Q," which is pretty much a Sesame Street type show, but for adults. It actually spoofs Sesame Street quite a bit, especially with the fact that several of it's characters resemble the ones from that kid show. There's a "Bert" and "Ernie" in this, as well as a "cookie monster" type character. This stage show does incorporate the use of puppets, both representing human characters and "monsters." Just like Sesame Street though, there are also human actors that the puppets interact with. Continuing the comparison to Sesame Street, Avenue Q does have stories and situations that teach us some things, but because this is geared more towards adults, some of the things you learn here are real adult life challenges such as getting a job after college, trying to pay the bills, to how to have a one night stand. There are even some animated sequences shown on TV monitors to expand on the "lessons," just like Sesame Street. Overall, the main setup is that a recent college grad is trying to find his purpose in life, rents a place in Avenue Q; which is run by Gary Coleman no less, meets friendly but flawed people, tries to find love, and ends up learning life lessons the hard way. Being that this is a stage show musical, there's a ton of singing in this, ranging from "It sucks to be me," "If you were gay," "Everyone's a little bit racist," and "The internet is for porn." It is such a great show though, and if you are a bit open minded and not easily offended, I would wholeheartedly suggest seeing Avenue Q.
A few hours after seeing Avenue Q, I accidentally hit my head on the side of a glass door, and started bleeding from my head. Luckily, my blood coagulates fast, and the wound sealed up nice and quick. It's a good thing it wasn't anything serious, because I needed to go to one more thing...
At the House Of Blues in Anaheim, I went to see "Tragedy," which is a heavy metal band that primarily does covers of Bee Gees songs. They are pretty much like an 80s hair metal band, doing songs from the 70s, and they are surprisingly quite awesome. It's quite a thrill seeing disco songs done heavy metal style, plus the band throws in their own little signature moments to liven things up some more. Tragedy's stage presence and the fact that they don't take themselves seriously is what made this concert so great. There are moments like when the whole band stops for a one minute pose, and Lance the stage hand goes up to each member to towel them down. Another funny moment was when one of the guitar player / vocalist was doing his solo, and Lance once again comes out, but this time he kneels next to him and starts throwing glitter all around him. At one point during their cover of "You should be dancing," the band goes off tangent to some moody "dark" section, with two masked and cloaked women doing some kind of ritual dance, plus a monologue that goes something like "Blood raineth down from the sky on the sabbath eve..." I also liked the fact that for the encore set of songs, they said that this "other band that looks just like Tragedy" is going to do some songs. After their set, I went to the merch both to buy their CD and a t-shirt, plus I got to meet the band as well. It's fun times all around, plus since this is the HOB in Anaheim, I was able to once again get free drinks from the bartenders I know. Not only that, but this concert was actually free for me, since one of the managers of this HOB gave me complimentary tickets. When "Tragedy" comes back to town, I probably would go see them again.
Oh yeah, when I got to the HOB, I caught the tail end of the band "Glen and the Sunshine Gang's" set, and they also seemed great. They were dressed in skeleton patterned leotards and had a very energetic stage presence. Awesome stuff.
* more photos of Tragedy, taken using my Blackberry Storm *
* video of Tragedy performing "Staying Alive" as taken using my phone *
"Guitar Hero : Metallica" has recently been available, and I'm happy to say that as a Metallica fan and a fan of these plastic musical instrument video games, the game is great. The game succeeds in the one thing I could only really ask for, a chance to play tons of Metallica songs without having to learn how to play the real thing (although that would be nice). There are 28 songs by Metallica in this game, plus 21 songs from other bands like Judas Priest, Foo Fighters, Slayer, Queen, and many more. Just the chance to play favorite songs of mine like "Seek & Destroy," "Master Of Puppets," to "Nothing Else Matters," is something that I've been waiting for, ever since I picked up one of these music games. In addition, the game also supports the Death Magnetic downloadable content which adds 9 more Metallica songs to the total, not to mention that the game also supports the Guitar Hero Tunes feature that supports downloading songs made by other gamers. The band members themselves (sans Burton or Newsted though) and the famous venues they played in (as well as their headquarter) are greatly recreated for the game. There are also music videos, song lyrics, and "metalli-Facts" to add to the overall package.
This game's other target audience besides Metallica fans are of course the Rock Band / Guitar Hero fans out there. Those fans may not necessarily want to play a game that's primarily based on Metallica, but on a technical level, they may at least want to play the note charts for the songs in it. The game supports all the instruments from both Rock Band and Guitar Hero, which helps save on the costs of needing to buy more plastic toy guitars or drums. For Guitar fans, the charting feels really nice, and just might be the best work done by Neversoft, ever since they took over the GH franchise when Harmonix left it to work on Rock Band. The drums now also include an "expert +" mode, which uses two double bass pedals to further make it feel like you are actually playing the song like a real drum kit. Bass is great, and finally allows us to really appreciate the bass work done by Cliff Burton, Jason Newsted, and Rob Trujillo. Vocals are what they are, karaoke.
Like many games out there, Guitar Hero : Metallica is not without it's flaws. While the overall visual presentation is nice, there are slight quirks that detract things a bit, like the lack of variety in the audience, the seemingly weak premise of a "story," the half hearted reason to creating your own band, to the choice for the last song of the game. Some will also argue that GH:M is best played as a single player game, as the "full band" experience is not as well tuned as one would find with Rock Band.
Overall though, if you are a Metallica fan, you will want to play this game. It may not be as easy justifying this game to non-Metallica fans, but playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero will definitely sway them to at least check it out.
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