February 24, 2010

  • So I was squatting down to pick up this AA battery that was on the ground, when I hear this "pop" sound from my left leg, and immediately I involuntarily dropped to the floor in pain. I thought at first that it was just some cramp or spasm or whatever, but the pain did not go away, and I couldn't stretch my left leg without feeling pain. Then it hit me... "I've fallen, and I can't get up." No, I did NOT call 911 at that time. If it was a broken leg, I would be in so much more pain, but I wasn't, so all I needed was help to get to the Emergency Room.

    Crawling to my laptop, I dialed up my wife on Skype. Since I was down on the ground, all she could see via the webcam was me waving from the floor going "here I am, can you come home please?" I also called my Mom who works in a hospital, who then called my Dad, and then I also called my brother who worked nearby. I of course had to call my work place and tell them that I'm likely not going to work that night, and most likely the next days. So while I was waiting, what else did I do? Why go and do an update status on Twitter / Facebook! d'uh. LOL

    My wife and brother eventually gets to the house and helps me to the car. We drive off to my Mom's hospital and my Dad was also on the way. Since I've never gone to the hospital via ER reasons, we ended up at the front, so we had to find ourselves around to where the ER was. It was busy, but luckily due to my Mom working there, they were able to put us on the fast track (sorry other patients). In a span of 3 hours, they got my info, gave me an x-ray, gave me an ultra sound, and the conclusion was "we don't know what's wrong, but we do know it's not a broken leg or blood clot." I was told that I'm most likely going to need an MRI, especially if the pain does not subside 2-3 days from now. They gave me crutches (I get to keep them?!) and away I went home.

    Thank goodness for my wife, and my family for helping me out. Thank you to my Blackberry for allowing me to connect with people, without requiring me to get off the floor. I'm not going to be able to move around much, so items that are mobile and can go to me (like my laptop or a remote control) is very very welcome right now. I realized I'm not going to be able to go upstairs to the bedroom for now, and going to the bathroom is going to take some effort. Me going to the Jason Mraz concert this Saturday doesn't look possible right now (damnit!), nor am I going to be able to see the movie "Cop Out" (damnit!) which I was really looking forward to watch. It looks like I'm going to be stuck downstairs on the sofa in front of my laptop / HDTV / DVD player, xbox360 for I don't know how long. I suppose I can see this as an opportunity to just relax and veg for (hopefully) the next days.

    On a side note, I received a Jury Duty summons in the mail today. (damnit!)


    LOL, this angle makes my thigh look hhuuuuggggeeee!!!!

February 22, 2010

February 21, 2010

  • I try and avoid discussions about the legality of downloaded copyrighted music / videos, because it's honestly just tiring. Whether there's still a debate on why they shouldn't be considered illegally downloaded items is a moot point. The simple truth of the matter is that if you get caught "sharing" copyrighted music / videos via the internet, there's a good chance you will either get an account shut down, pay a huge fine for such an act, or at worst get jail time. Is that something you want to deal with?

    Time and time again however, somebody has to try and justify that downloading copyrighted music / videos shouldn't be a punishable act. They talk about how radio is free or how we can record stuff from the TV with no problem.

    First point is really easy, WHO really likes the radio and the stuff they play, yet alone record music from it? Compare that to on-demand music that you can get off the internet, is it a wonder that radio is free, what with all the commercials they play? The music studios simply have the power to determine where their music should be available to the public, and what business model they support (iTunes, Amazon, LastFM, Pandora). You don't want to play by their rules, that's your call. If you want to get your music through "illegal" means, that's your call, just don't try to justify that what you are doing isn't really wrong. It is and don't be insecure about that fact.

    Second point is a little bit of a give and take, because while the studios allow people to record copyrighted videos off the TV, they really rather you didn't. There is a limit to how much you can record on a DVR so that's a benefit for the studios, and the people who actually transfer their recordings to a more permanent media are a small enough minority that they don't care that much. There are legal means to download or watch these copyrighted videos on the internet with the support of the studios, such as an iTunes, a Netflix, or a Hulu. People downloading or watching those videos through other unsupported methods via the internet is what the studios want to stop, because they get nothing out of them. The upside seems to be that the studios don't seem to care as much about illegally downloaded TV shows, but getting illegally distributed movies is a huge deal for them. It's pretty cut and dried to say that it's wrong to have downloaded a movie that is still playing in theaters, because that clearly takes money away from that market. So once again I say that if you have illegally downloaded videos, understand that it IS wrong, just don't be insecure about that fact.

    There's already enough cases in courts out there that are still "fighting the good fight" on the legal issues behind this downloaded copyrighted material debate, that you don't have to throw yourself into the mix. Once again it has to be said, but downloading copyrighted material off the internet, via methods that isn't backed by the industry, is currently illegal. There's just no "buts" to this fact right now, so there's no point justifying that you aren't doing anything illegal. Don't even resort to the "everybody is doing it" argument, because that's just stupid. Now if you're going to do something illegal, just don't get caught. Just take comfort on the fact that this criminal act isn't as bad as attacking or murdering somebody. Yes you are technically stealing profits away from the studios and the people who worked hard to get these copyrighted material out there in the first place, but it's not like this is a home invasion robbery... or is it?

February 20, 2010

  • My recent Status Updates, Texts, and General Thoughts

    - pirated DVD vs legally bought DVD - http://i.imgur.com/GxzeV.jpg

    - Living without electricity is so limiting this day and age.

    - darn, there's a power outage in my neighborhood. My laptop and my cellphone are the only thing with power. bleah. I think I'll go read a book.

    - The heavy metal album of 2010 to beat right now is Overkill - "ironbound" because it's freakin awesome! Head banging, thrashing goodness.

    - stuff you post online that gets you in trouble - http://tinyurl.com/y9ec62p - audio segment from the Kevin & Bean show

    - ZERO is the number of times I've seen the stray racoon roaming my work place in the past six months. This week alone, FIVE times!

    - No eating meat Fridays! ..... "that's what she said"

    - Happy Lent to all the Catholics! Wait, "happy" Lent? ...

    - I'm loving how we really are slowly but surely getting answers in this final season of LOST.

    - Somebody pointed it out to me. Whenever I mention how I accidentally killed the bunny, I automatically laugh afterwards. It's like a reflex that I couldn't control! A defense mechanism. It's not because I find the situation funny, as I'm actually sadden by it. Weird reaction though.

    - I'm sad. A rabbit just ran in front of my car and I did not have time to swerve away. Yes, i just accidentally killed a bunny. =(

    - http://twitpic.com/13duiu - There's a racoon in this cellphone picture. Do you see it?

    - Me and the wifey finally got an HDTV for our bedroom. So now we've got two HDTVs at home. Woot!

    - http://twitpic.com/139cnw - My official shirt for the year of the tiger. Happy Chinese New Year!

February 19, 2010

February 18, 2010

  • We're already a month and a half into 2010, and you know what you may not have really thought about? We're in the future! For many many years, books, TV shows, movies, etc... have foretold what the future would be. Looking back at the predictions from... say 30 to 50 years ago...  the question people should be asking now are "where's my personal jet pack? "where's my hover board?" or "where's my flying car?" Sure the jet pack exist, but it's nothing we all would really want to use. The hover board might exist in some form out there, but probably nothing like it was imagined in the "Back To The Future" movies. The flying car supposedly does exist, but it's probably just so impractical at this point for us to care.

    Other predictions I could think of about this century, are fantastical stuff. Aliens from space should have already being contacted. World War III was always foretold to happen, and with the state of the world right now, that may still happen soon for all we know. Predictions about clothing has always been a fascinating thing to see, but thank goodness the aluminum "shiny" look that the future is suppose to have has not caught on with society.

    Now how about things we actually do have today, like the DVR? MP3 Players? High Definition Video? GPS devices? Smart phones? All these things would definitely be considered futuristic 30 to 50 years ago. Heck, go back 15 years when it was still all about the VCR, CD players, and pagers. Mentioning things like recording TV programs digitally on a box, having a small device that could hold thousands of music in it, or that the cellphone is pretty much a hand-held computer, would completely impress somebody in 1995. Now how about the fact that the internet is completely a part of our everyday lives? E-mail. Google. Blogs. Youtube. Facebook. Twitter. Imagine showing somebody in the past what can be done on the internet of today, and it might completely overwhelm them. 

    I still remember my life back in 1984, and what we have now would have been things I could only see in movies about the future (or James Bond films). There's no need for me to use my imagination anymore for these fantastic things we now take for granted. If I'm thinking "wow, what a life we have now," what is the reaction of a 90, 80, or 70 years old person, who is browsing the internet, while talking to their grandson via their iPhone?

    It's 2010 folks. Welcome to the future!

February 17, 2010

February 16, 2010

  • If you didn't already know this by now, let me tell you. Television News can be such a joke to watch. TV News may give you information about current events, but it's still like any TV show that cares more about getting ratings. BTW, the NBC 11PM local news programs complaining about their low ratings, due to having "The Jay Leno Show" as a bad lead-in, is what eventually led to the events of Conan O'Brien leaving the Tonight Show.

    Every time I see TV news, there's always something that's ridiculous about how they conduct themselves, that it's honestly embarrassing to watch at times. So many things to complain about, here are just a few....

    - They tease you about a news story that you have to wait 20 minutes for; which completely kills the idea that this is a useful program that is suppose to give you information.

    - "Storm Watch." They make it seem like it's the end of the world when bad weather comes in, and then have reporters asking people on the street what they think about it (when will they learn, year after year, the same responses).

    - Field reporters who are reporting from an area that only "looks like" the actual area where the real news is. Sometimes they just stand in front of some miscellaneous area that has nothing to do with the actual story, but is there because they need to have some "live on the scene" type shot.

    - It's also bad when you know more facts about a news report than the reporters telling it. "Get you facts straight!"

    - "Fluff pieces." 'nuff said there

    Most recently, some of the annoying traits by TV News unfortunately showed up when they were reporting on the death of Olympic Luger N. Kumaritashvili. First they warn you about how graphic the video footage of the accident is, and then they proceed to show it over and over again, with slow-mo footage, plus multi-angle shots. In one news report I've seen, they transition that particular sad news story immediately into another story that starts with the field reporter saying "It's quite a party out here" with this big smile on his face. Yeah TV News, real respectful there.

    If you want the news, you'll have better luck with the internet than with TV News.

February 15, 2010

February 14, 2010

  • Looking for somebody to be in love with is something most single people continually search for in their everyday lives, and in many cases non-single people still feel the same way. There are those who are hoping for that "love at first sight" ideal that it's easy to find somebody to love, and share the rest of their lives with. It usually comes down to two things however, finding love based on compatibility, and finding love out of incompatibility ("opposites attract"). Okay, maybe there's a third scenario... finding love out of passion, although I believe that actually applies to both of the previous situations.

    I fall under the side that believes it's really important for a couple in a relationship to share common interests, as I feel that the idea of "opposites attract" will only get you so far. Sure finding somebody who is very different from you could mean that it just allows the chance that it makes you a better person by broadening your mind of who you could be, with that person's help. I suppose I'm cynical in thinking that in the end, all that really happens is that somebody in that relationship eventually just wants to change the other to be more compatible, and we all know that idea hardly ever really works out for the best.

    With all that said, I got to mention that I recently re-watched the movie "(500) Days Of Summer" and a few lines of dialog between an older brother (Tom) talking to his younger sister (Rachel) about somebody he is falling in love with, needs to be repeated here...

    TOM : She likes Magritte and Hopper. And we talked about Bananafish for like 20 minutes. We're so compatible, it's insane. Well, she's not like I thought at all. She's amazing.
    RACHEL : Oh, boy.
    TOM : What?
    RACHEL : Just 'cause some cute girl likes the same bizarro crap you do, that doesn't make her your soul mate,

    Rachel makes a great point that not everything falls under just being compatible to make a successful relationship, but I'm sure you can't deny that it helps a lot. The key is simply balance, patience, and understanding. That's always been important with life in general anyway. So if you start with finding somebody that you already share common interests with, it helps ground the relationship to those compatible features although that isn't where it should end. Everything "extra" that you don't necessarily share similar interests will determine whether the relationship will grow stronger or just fall apart.

    Although I have a particular point of view on the subject, I admit that analyzing how to find somebody to love and having a relationship may be all fine and all, but the truth of the matter is that nothing is finite. Love is not pure science, and it's not really that simple to explain. Anything can and will happen. People end up together in unpredictable and even predictable ways. Overall, it comes down to this one other line from the movie, as said by the main female character the film title is based on...

    SUMMER : It was meant to be.