Faith In The Random Heartland

President Obama's Stand-up (video)

How they say 12 months in Estonian (video)

MY LITTLE PONY: Live-Action Trailer (video)

controversial 911 call on censorship (video)

Popeyes Runs Out of Chicken in Rochester, NY (video)

Washington's drugstore cowboys (video)

Noteboek (video)

25 Random Things - parody (video)

"Puke in my Mouth" (video)

Bert and Ernie on a Boat - NSFW (video)

Meg & Dia's "Hot Topic" acoustic tour is still on the roll, and unlike the Santa Anita one, I was able to get in for their show at the Irvine Spectrum in Irvine, CA. Just like what I noticed from the previous Hot Topic show, the whole setup and agenda was a little bit more structured. They got us to sit down on the floor or stand at the back (which I opted for) to see the band perform, and they even told us in advance that the "meet & greet" was literally just an autograph signing with no "photo with the band" opportunity. bleah.

Their performance in general was really good. All the songs were done acoustically and it's weird how while it sounds different than the studio album electric versions, they were still so great. I swear, it's easy to get jealous at how talented this band is. I also liked the banter that the band was doing in between songs, and there were some humorous moments like suggestions to play the telephone game to talking about how white people call Mochi. After the fourth song ended, the Hot Topic people were ready to get moving to the autograph session, but we in the audience were being stubborn about it and wanted them to sing one more song. Dia then said that they'll sing half of a song, but ended up singing the whole thing anyways. They did not play my favorite song off the new album though (Fighting For Nothing), but I'm sure I'll have another chance to hear that live another time.

Afterward they had us line up for the autograph session, and I decided to stay at the end of the line with my fellow "boardies." It's a good thing I did that, because since Hot Topic was anxiously shuffling us by the band to get the line moving, I was able to kinda stall a lot longer since there was noone else behind me (besides the 170 other people waiting outside that is). I had them sign the DVD of their album, which Meg apparently never even saw what it looked like. I asked them about who updates their twitter page, and apparently they all had their share of actually using it. I showed them a photo of my wife's "super-poke-pet" on Facebook, because her virtual pet actually has a Meg & Dia bag that the band had nothing to do with it being there (they were pleasantly surprised). At that point the Hot Topic people starting trying to shoo me out of the line, and before I left I was able to give them an mp3 CD copy of one of "the Swell Season's" concerts (which Dia recognized who they were) which I hope they'll enjoy.

Once outside, me and the rest of the boardies kinda just hung out, talked, and chilled. At one point I called out for band manager Mike Kaminsky to come talk to us about the May 16th show they are doing. A little later Nick came out to see us for a bit as well. After awhile I decided that we all go to PinkBerry, since I've never had it before. We joked out loud that maybe Meg and Dia was going to be there, and somebody must have believed us, because when we were at PinkBerry, there were three other MaD fans outside just waiting. hehe

Anyways, yet another successful, entertaining, and fun time with the Meg & Dia band.

- songs performed, with youtube video links -
1) Black Wedding
2) Agree To Disagree
3) What If
4) Inside My Head
5) Hug Me

- click here for photos taken from the show -

Meg & Dia's in store Hot Topic performance in the Santa Anita Fashion Mall was this past day. I was actually there early (saw Star Trek before the gig), but I still had a feeling that I wasn't going to be able to see their acoustic set. The people who were guaranteed to see the show were the ones with the wristbands numbered 1-30. I was number 43, which kinda made me reluctant to try and get in the show. I was going to try and get the attention of someone from the band, because I figured that they might do me a favor since they "kinda" know me (delusional? maybe). When they started funneling people in, I still did not have the means to get in, although oddly enough I could have. There was a stand by / autograph line, and I *could* have been one of the first people in that line waiting an hour earlier, but I decided not to. It turned out that they did pull several people off that line to also see the show. So mental note next time, number or not, stand in line.

I ended up just going to Cheesecake Factory, got a beer and nachos with my friend while watching the Magic vs Celtics game on the TV. Decided to swing by a little after 6PM to see how the autograph line was going, and it was already done. Meg and Dia did recognized me standing outside the gated door of the store though, and we chatted for a minute (mostly with Dia). I told her that I had that question on the SheTV thing a few days ago, about requesting Fighting For Nothing, and she cut me off saying "We played that song today because of YOU!" I was all "what? and I wasn't here for that," and she humorously gave me this "pshaw" response raising her hand. I told them that I'll be in the following show for sure. A little later, I saw Carlo at the food court, and at least got to say hi to him as well.

Despite the fact that I was not able to see their acoustic performance, I did have a goal to show the band that I was at least "there" to support them. For three years now, they've seen me every single time they've been in town, and I did not want to break that streak. So my goal to show the band that "I was there" was achieved at least. From what I heard, despite how well their acoustic performance went, the whole Hot Topic atmosphere and how anal the people running the place were, kinda made the experience sour for some of the "boardies." I mean they actually made the band go through the back door to "avoid" the crowd, which they've honestly never done in their other shows. I suppose Hot Topic did that for theirs and the mall's benefit of controlling the event. Whatever, we'll see how the Irvine Hot Topic show goes.

From what I was told, this was the setlist (with youtube links):
1. inside my head
2. agree to disagree
3. fighting for nothing
4. are there giants too, in the dance
5. black wedding

Wildest Random Dream

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film as "Fun, Watchable" (video)

Mother's Day MILF (video)

good morning Megan Fox (video)

Windows 7 now available to try (link)

backstage with Miss California (video)

meet the real-life Wolverine (video)

wolverine's claws suck - NSFW (video)

Scoops Callahan (link)

MY FACE! on the front page (video)

Dr.Bummer the Gynecologist at the Price is Right (video)

If you've been following my blog, you know that Meg & Dia is one of my most favorite bands out there, and has recently released their newest album "here, here and here." Being that they are a relatively unknown band, the album "only" made 103 on the Billboard top 200 chart on it's debut week, although they did make no.1 on the Billboard "top heatseekers" chart. Getting the word out to people is what's important for the album to do even better, which is why the promotional machine for it is still rolling, and us fans have been benefiting from it. Along with the small Hot Topic tour they are doing starting this weekend, performing at "the Strand" in Huntington Beach on May 16th, and being a part of the 2009 Van's Warped Tour, they most recently had a live video chat and performance on SheTV with SugarHooker via Stickam. Of course I joined the chat room to see the interview and performance, and several of the "boardies" also represented our fandom.

I've never participated in any of these live streaming video chat band interview things, and it was really great. They performed several songs in acoustic (Black Wedding, Agree To Disagree, and Inside My Head - Dia actually forgot the lyrics for one of the verses), and while the video stream was a little choppy, the audio was perfect. "SugarHooker" and us fans asked the band questions, and as far as interviews go, this one was very entertaining and informative. They did use one of my questions as well; and I thought it was hilarious how it was read verbatim exposing my typing mistake (at least the band laughed at my silliness). There were a lot of good dialogue from this interview and some contests to win prizes (I should have won, but had a brain fart on one of the trivia questions). There were also some hilarity from those of us in the chat room talking up a storm to each other. I believe the viewership count was near 1000 at one point, and the chat box just kept scrolling up so fast that it was starting to be difficult keeping track on what everybody was saying. All in all, it was fun times indeed.

You can watch a good chunk of the interview in the link below, even if the archived video only covers 2/3rd of the whole thing (maybe they'll put the rest up later?).
http://www.stickam.com/viewMedia.do?mId=183816451

p.s. if you are a curious about what my question was, it went like this as I wrote it....
"SugarHooker, can you ask them if they are going to perform "Fighting For Nothing" or "Here, Here and Here" at their upcoming shows? Those are amazing shows, and I thank them for creating them."
"Songs not shows."
"Amazing SONGS. Man I embarrass myself."

What Do You Need to Be Happy? You Need Power to Be Happy

You are an influential, brilliant person. You are often the most competent person in the room. Being in charge is very important to you. You get irritated when you have to depend on someone else. You feel great when you are leading a group and inspiring other people. It's your gift. Nothing makes you feel worse than being powerless. You need to be in control of your life.

What I've been listening to lately...

1) Meg & Dia - here, here and here
2) Strung Out - prototypes and painkillers
3) Clip - epidemic
4) Exit The Ordinary - exit the ordinary
5) Keane - perfect symmetry
6) Metallica - ride the lightning

Movies I've seen recently...

X-Men Origins : Wolverine (2009)  B-

For comic book fans looking for a movie to faithfully adapt the origin story of Wolverine from the source material, "X-Men Origins : Wolverine" is not that film. This movie however expands on the Wolverine character as seen from the trilogy of X-Men films. Hugh Jackman once again does an excellent job in the title role that a lot of us are familiar with. In addition, a great decision was made to put Liev Schreiber in the role of Sabertooth which gives him a lot more substance as a character than what was seen in the previous films. The story is engaging and straight forward enough as it is and the pacing is decent, but there are some flaws that keeps it from being a great film. It seems that the plot and character flaws of the movie were more or less ignored in favor of creating some pretty good action sequences. Those good action sequences have their own logical flaws though, but were undeniably easy to enjoy watching. Despite it's flaws, "X-Men Origins : Wolverine" succeeds in giving us solid entertainment, and I suppose that's all that matters with a movie like this.

Observe and Report (2009)  C+

The biggest hurdle in enjoying "Observe and Report" is that Seth Rogen's character; Ronnie Barnhardt, is not that likable of a guy. In fact a lot of the characters in the movie aren't really that likable at all, and shows us their character flaws a little more than what might be enjoyable to watch. There are also some questionable plot points that are never really addressed, requiring a whole lot of suspension of disbelief. I get the impression that situations in this movie kinda happen to either just move the story forward or because it's just for the sake of showing something humorous. Several scenes in the movie can also be embarrassingly cringe worthy to watch, and makes you second guess on whether you should be laughing or not. Despite my critique of the film, I admit that in the sense that the movie is a dark comedy, writer/director Jody Hill succeeds in what "Observe and Report" is suppose to be. It is good for what it is, which is a fascinating look at a delusional and egotistical mall cop, but this movie is definitely not for everybody.

I Love You, Man (2009)  B+

What might seem like a very improbable story premise of a man who does not have any close male friends, actually works really well with "I Love You, Man." A huge part of why the movie works is because of Paul Rudd as Peter Klaven and Jason Segel as Sydney Fife, who have great chemistry together in their "bromance." Along with a great supporting cast that includes Rashida Jones, J.K. Simmons, and Andy Samberg, as well as a great story written by Larry Levin and director John Hamburg, this movie is enjoyable to watch through and through. From the "man dates," Peter coming out of his shell by being more of a man, Sydney's honest point of view in life rocking the relationship boat, to the always fighting couple played by Jon Favreau and Jaime Pressly, "I Love You Man" is a charming, funny, and overall just a great movie with a lot of heart as well. This movie is also quite insightful and gives us one of the more honest looks at what friendship among men can be like, when high school and college is already a thing of the past.

Adventureland (2009)  B-

As far as coming-of-age movies goes, "Adventureland" doesn't really stand out, despite the 1980s backdrop. There's the awkward boy as played by Jesse Eisenberg, the more than meets the eye love interest played by Kristen Stewart, the weird colorful friends, the social scene, rivalries, parents, and especially in the case of this movie, there's the summer job in a theme park. What really works well with the movie however, is the fact that writer/director Greg Mottola does not hit us over the head with the fact that the movie is set in the 80's, except of course the soundtrack which admitedly has a great selection of songs from that era. The ensemble cast is also good in this, from Martin Starr, Kristen Wiig, Wendie Malick, to the always funny Bill Hader, and especially Ryan Reynolds as Mike Connell who surprisingly brings quite a bit of depth to what is normally a stock character. "Adventureland" isn't just another movie based on a past decade, it's really like watching a slice of life of that time era.

Random Change For The Better

real life twitter (video)

Hamster Car Race (video)

Amazing, Multi-Purpose Pizza Box (video)

Sensitive Love Ballad (video)

Bizzare Japanese Blood Pressure Ad (video)

64 things every geek should know (link)

Time Warner Cable vs the City of Wilson, NC (link)

6 Famous Characters You Didn't Know Were Shameless Rip Offs (link)

Cincinnati Superhero Patrols Streets Fighting Crime (video)

indie dev quits mainstream job via Super Mario (link)

my friend sent me this story, and I thought I should share...

BTW yes, this is a joke story.

For an unrelated bonus, here's a funny radio segment from the Kevin & Bean show.
"You did not know you were pregnant" - listener call-in (audio)

It's quite something else to be fighting another person one on one, skill level being about the same, making the blood pump, heart racing, and not knowing who will win the fight. I am talking of course about Street Fighter IV, or now more specifically the "championship mode," which is the free update that was released a week ago. Fighting strangers online on SFIV was good and all, but now with championship mode it's even greater. A lot of the weaker "scrubbier" players seems to be stuck at the rank matches, while those of us who actually like fighting good competition has moved on to the championship mode. The main difference is that there's less emphasis on trying to avoid losing "battle points" (on rank matches) which now has liberated the mindset by the players to not worry so much about losing. With the championship mode's "grade point" system replacing the battle points, everybody gains something even on a loss, even if it's only a +1GP gain as opposed to something like +50GP. We now also get to see the disconnect percent of the opponent you will be fighting before the match, which helps determines who are the possible sore losers in the game, and allows us to avoid those people (yes, finally!). With this new system in place, it also determines what kind of opponents you will be fighting, and the better the GP, the better the opponent, and the better the competition. As this past week has proven, the competition has been great over all in championship mode.

The funny thing is that through all the years (almost two decades worth) of playing Street Fighter, I still remain at a certain peak on my skills with the game. I consider myself a decent to good fighter, but no where near as capable as some of the people out there. With championship mode, my skills are now really being put to the test, and the matches have been so intense to me, as I simply do not know if I'm going to be able to win or not. It's that rush that I get when the match is down to only a few hits between myself and the opponent, and I'm able to win the game by either a well timed move, or just being simple luck. Now with championship mode, not only do I need to defeat one opponent, I have to try and win the online tournaments that the mode offers. It's just a great feeling to win over somebody, and an even greater feeling to be the champion over several people on the tournament.

Street Fighter still remains a fun game to play, and still my number one reason to play people online. The majority of gamers out there will stick to First Person Shooters like Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War, or KillZone, but I'll take fighting games like Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter over those any day.