Cascada?

What’s with my Cascada post?!?! It’s received almost 2,500 viewings so far, while 2nd place hasn’t even reached 200. I have been getting a lot of spam comments on that particular post and my stats are showing “Cascada” as one of the main keywords from search engines coming to my site, but I don’t particularly see anything special about that post. I wish there was a feature in search engines that would let you do a query and pass in a link and it’ll tell you which result # you are. That’d be neat!

I think I found out why so many people are visiting my page searching for “Cascada”. Apparently Google’s image search returns me as result #19 on page 1.


Random Crap:

Today’s Japanese term is 首飾り (kubikazari) which means necklace.

Body-wired headphonesThe new system uses the listener’s body as a capacitor that carries a tiny electrostatic charge. A music or video player sends a fluctuating signal to a conductive cloth pad – such as a wrist band – and this slightly charges the wearer’s body. A pair of conductive ear pads in the headphones pick-up the signal and rapidly convert it back into sound. Neat!

Streamick (from Digg) – Streamick.com provides the largest broadband internet TV service of the web. Thousands of users use Streamick.com every day to connect to the major internet broadcasters and watch free live internet TV in the easier way possible. Pretty neat service. Quality is actually decent.

13 things that do not make sense (from Digg) – 13 phenomenons that science can’t seem to explain.

Man seeks record for arm hair lengthJon Sanford takes good care of his hair, washing it regularly and conditioning it occasionally. Now he might break a record for that hair — on his arms. One particularly long strand measured 4.1 inches. If the measurement is ruled official by Guinness World Records, Sanford will have topped the previous record of 3.96 inches

101 Things you do NOT want your System Administrator to say. (from Digg) – Pretty funny. Really seems to be more like 97 things.

Eight Things You Should Never Say to Your Bartender (from Digg) – It seems I’ve already violated rule #1.

Whiteboard music (from Digg) – pretty cool whiteboard animation.

Stokke Gravity Chair Leans Back and Forward: We’re Stoked (from Digg) – Further proving you don’t have to be in orbit to be weightless, the Gravity Chair from Norwegian baby products maker Stokke can sit upright as an office chair, function as a rocker, and lean way back for that serious contemplation your boss told you to stop doing. See it in its variety of unusual permutations, after the jump.

Get a Laptop (from Digg) – pretty funny commercial.

Top 20 replies by Programmers to Testers when their programs don’t work (from Digg) – another funny list of things to read. The #1 response: It works on my machine. Haha. Neat! haha = 哈哈 (accidentally switch my IME).

Food Network: “There’s much penis going on here” (from Deadlock) – haha. I guess there’s a word such as pea-ness.

Mitch Hedberg Random Quote Generator (from Digg) – I still laugh. What would be neat is if they provided some code that you could add to your site and you can put Mitch’s Random Quote: ____________________ on your website.

Drunk Fails Sobriety Test (from Digg) – This is hilarious. This dude fails the sobriety test before it even begins. The cop asks him to hold a tape and place it on the ground and he passes out and lands on his head.

Megadeth’s “Gears of War” Song Available for Download (from Digg) – Heavy metal band Megadeth has made available as a free download its “Gears of War” song composed exclusively for Epic Games’ third-person shooter.

Body mod – Turn your pee blue! – Haha. By congesting a bunch of “supposedly” harmless blue food dye, you can turn your pee blue! That’d be neat!

Random Crap

Turkeys try to catch train out of N.J.Some wild turkeys, it appears, were trying to get out of New Jersey before Thanksgiving Day. A spokesman for the NJ Transit said train officials reported a dozen or so wild turkeys waiting on a station platform in Ramsey, about 20 miles northwest of New York City, on Wednesday afternoon. The line travels to Suffern, N.Y.
turkeys try to catch train

Man eats 4.8 pounds of turkey in 12 min.There won’t be any turkey for Patrick Bertoletti on Thanksgiving — he got his fill the day before. Bertoletti, a 21-year-old culinary student from Chicago, won the annual turkey-eating contest at Artie’s Deli on Wednesday, eating 4.8 pounds of the holiday bird — a full pound more than the second-place finisher.

Buddhist monk cuts off penis and renounces refixA Thai Buddhist monk cut off his penis with a machete because he had an erection during meditation and declined to have it reattached, saying he had renounced all earthly cares, a doctor and a newspaper said on Wednesday. How does one pee now?

Waves in a Large Free Sphere of Water (from Digg) – Waves in a Large Free Sphere of Water – An experiment at the International Space Station. Pretty neat experiment.

How Pregnancy Happens (from Digg) – (NOT WORK SAFE) pretty funny animation created by Planned Parenthood.

Suburban Plight (from Digg) – When Craig Wilson, obsessed with the integrity of his lawn, encounters a rather peculiar pest, he decides to confront the situation. Pretty amusing short film.

Family Guy Deleted Scene Douchebag (from Digg) – (NOT WORK SAFE) This is a deleted scene from Family Guy – S04E14 – PTV. If you don’t remember, PTV is when Peter started his own TV station.

Fight Over A Parking Spot (from Digg) – This is so cool. There have been so many times I’ve wanted to push somebody out of a spot for taking it after I’ve been waiting. Unfortunately, it’s not clear who is right in this case. The video starts of showing both drivers waiting for the car already. It’s also a pity the woman blew out her transmission, which according to the video will cost around $600 to replace, but many times when some idiot steals my parking space, I feel like turning into Hulk and throwing their car across the lot.

post-it (from Digg) – pretty neat animation with post-it notes dancing. They also have some pretty neat animations on their homepage: GAZZ.

PlateWire (from Digg) – PlateWire is a public repository and electronic forum of drivers by drivers. Using a drivers license plate, commuters can communicate their thoughts and feelings in regards to driving on todays’ roadways. Report and flag bad drivers, award good drivers, and even flirt with cute drivers. PlateWire was born out of frustration from years of driving along side drivers who seem to have no concern with anyone’s safety, including their own. PlateWire is not meant to be a substitute for legal reporting of traffic infractions, if you are a witness to a traffic infraction please contact your local authorities and file the appropriate complaint or report. Interesting idea, though I’m not sure if I would want to claim a license plate number…

The 19 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Death (from Digg) – Some interesting ones I liked:

  • After being decapitated, the average person remains conscious for an additional 15-20 seconds. Talk about a way to go.
  • Speaking of preventing hauntings, yet another old wives tale led to the institution of burial wreaths. It was believed that the wreath would encircle the spirit of the dead person, thereby preventing them from returning from the grave.
  • One of the main reasons cowboys carried pistols in the 1800’s was to avoid being dragged to death by their horse. You think they could have just gotten bigger stirrups. – at first, I thought they’d shoot themselves. Then it occurred to me, the could just shoot the horse.
  • The last words spoken by Union General John Sedgewick were, “They (the Confederate soldiers) couldn’t hit an elephant from this dis…”
  • If someone plans to jump off Mount Everest to commit suicide, you’ll need a lot of patience. It takes the average person 2.5 minutes to hit bottom. And we don’t want to know who timed it.
  • Might want to read the labels a little more carefully. Nearly 2,500 lefties are killed every year using products meant for righties. Who knew? Now, just back away from those right-handed scissors. – ahh, the evil plan the right handers have stirred up.
  • Apparently, they really are virtually destructible. A cockroach can reportedly live up to 9 days without its head. The only reason they finally kick over? Starvation.

WMV transcoding for the Xbox 360 is here (from Digg) –
Here is an early preview for the on the fly WMV transcoding feature for the 360. Since we have other stuff that needs to make it into the next release and since this is not yet ready we are releasing a patch. Please try it and let us know what you think.

Samsung’s Credit Card Thin LCD Screen (from Digg) – Samsung has just announced their newest development in mobile LCD screen technology. It is reported to be no thicker than a credit card, coming in at an incredible 0.82mm thick. In addition to their “slim” innovation, Samsung announced that they have created a new mobile technology called, “i-Lens,” which is essentially the integration of the entire panel assembly including the protective layer. This allows the screen to be more shock-resistant complimented by easier screen readability. Ars Technica also has an article with more information: Samsung introduces super-slim LCD
samsung thin lcd

Free Viagra spices up small town lifeThe mayor of a small Brazilian town has begun handing out free Viagra, spicing up the sex lives of dozens of elderly men and their partners. “Since we started the free distribution of sexual stimulants, our elderly population changed. They’re much happier,” said Joao de Souza Luz, the mayor of Novo Santo Antonio, a small town in the central state of Mato Grosso. Geniuses! Have a mob of people discontent with the government? Give out free Viagra.

And the richest fictional character is…We still estimate Claus’ net worth as infinite, but we excluded him from this year’s rankings after being bombarded by letters from outraged children insisting that Claus is ‘real’,” according to a statement from Forbes.com. Hahahahahahaha!

Man sets Guinness rubber ball recordBuilding a huge ball out of more than 175,000 rubber bands is dangerous business. Really. “The rubber bands … sometimes they’ll break. That hurts,” said Steve Milton, whose 4,594-pound rubber band ball was certified Tuesday as the world’s largest by Guinness World Records officials. “As long as you wear your safety goggles, you’re good.” Do check out the gallery of images.

CIS Finds Flaws in Firefox v2 Password Manager (from /.) – Chapin Information Services (CIS) has discovered a new flaw in the Mozilla Firefox web browser that exposes saved passwords to clever attackers. Just a heads up for people who are using Firefox V2 Password Manager (including myself). Recommendations are to disable the password manager for the time being until they release a patch. According to Mozilla, version 2.0.1 or 2.0.2 will contain the fix.

Gone with the Blastwave (from Tera) – another interesting comic strip.

iflops™ Stereo Pets – I was browsing through the BBB catalog and saw these awfully cute plushies which unfortunately turned out to be mp3 stereo speakers:
iflops

HD Movies

So I watched 2 HD movies this weekend, both involving the Wachowski brothers.

The 1st one is my all time favorite movie: The Matrix
Followed by another awesome movie: V for Vendetta

I’m part of the Xbox 360 beta program where we get to test new things before they’re push down onto everyone and in a week or two, they’re about to unveil their TV and movie downloads in the marketplace. For more information, please read about it at Movies and TV on Your Xbox!

To celebrate its first birthday on November 22, Xbox 360™ becomes the first and only gaming console to provide HD and standard-definition TV shows and movies direct to you.

After an intense game of Gears of War®, turn on Peter Jackson’s King Kong on HD DVD, play PAC-MAN on Xbox Live® Arcade, or even watch an episode of CSI: Miami that you downloaded earlier.

Xbox Live Marketplace is the place to download your favorite movies and TV, and remember to check back on Xbox.com to see what’s new!

Most TV shows come with both SD and HD version. SD costs 240 points and HD costs 320 points. That translates to about $3 and $4 respectively. $4 for an HD version vs $2 on iTMS for a 320×240 version. I’d definitely go for the extra resolution and pay the extra $2. Or I could *cough* *cough*. Anyway, the biggest problem right now is the small hard drive. With only 20gigs and a movie like V for Vendetta being 6GB, it’s obviously not enough. The initial line up isn’t bad either, though it’s far from being great. Unfortunately, movies could only rented at the moment. You must watch within 14 days and once you start playing the movie, you have 24 hours to complete or rewatch as many as possible. It’d be nice if I could keep an HD version of these great movies.

The servers aren’t extremely fast, though I guess 6GB in a few hours is reasonable, considering I’ve also been downloading on my main computer. I’ve also download a couple episodes of Numb3rs as Liam has recommended that series to me, so I guess I can check this series out while testing this new marketplace.

The picture quality is amazing. I can’t even describe how pretty they were. I was mesmerized by the beauty. I’ve started to dislike the quality of DVDs as I’ve been spoiled by HDTV episodes and now HD movies. Even many animes nowadays come in HD resolution. I’m thinking of buying one of those HD-DVD drives that was just released for the Xbox 360 and then I remember, I don’t have an HDTV yet. Been eyeing a few, but it still seems rather expensive. The cost is between $2000-$2500 for a 56″ – 62″ DLP rear projection TV. My minimum requirement is that it supports 1080p.

Oh well, maybe it’ll be a Christmas present for myself. Maybe a deal will pop up around Black Friday (god forbid that I’ll actually go shopping on Black Friday this year). It’s what I decided to get for myself with my bonus money this year, which has been just sitting around accumulating interest at 5.05% at HSBCDirect. Speaking of which, Krrk told me about E-LOAN awhile back and they’re doing 5.50% savings. However, the minimum they need is $5000 (which I do have), but not enough that I wouldn’t pull from this. Plus HSBC has been treating me well and not like how INGDirect screwed their current customers in favor of new customers.

TV Shows Online

So more and more TV Networks are coming online where you can watch full episodes of the current TV series in your browser. Of course the quality isn’t that great and it’s basically has as many ads or even more than your regular TV broadcast. Also unfortunately, all of these videos can only be played on IE.

Two new ones that just joined the rank include:

FOX on demand – A MySpace page!?!? What are they smoking. I guess FOX does own MySpace. Current series you can watch include: Prison Break, ’til Death, BONES, the Loop, Justice, Standoff, Vanished, and Talkshow with Spike Feresten. There are 2 viewing sizes: 543×302 and 1037×592, the latter seems to be just a direct blow up of the former.

NBC Rewind – This is a somewhat different system where you’re only allowed to watch the latest episode. Guess it’s only for those who missed the showing of that week. Not sure if that’s a smart move or not, but it somewhat limits newcomers to start watching the series, but it does mean that you can just wait and queue up to watch the entire season. Current series you can watch include: 30 Rock, Twenty Good Years, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Studio 60, Kidnapped, The Office, The Biggest Loser, My Name is Earl, and ER. The view size is about 599×342.


Random Crap:

Real Pizza Delivery Stories (from Deadlock) – hilarious accumulation of stories from pizza delivery guys from all over America. Includes sex, robberies, tipping, and all the other good stuff you’d expect from TV.

Sports fan names newborn son ESPNLeann Real promised her husband, an avid sports fan, that if they ever had a son he’d get to pick the name. ESPN Montana Real was born this week at Biloxi Regional Medical Center. … Three others were cited in a 2005 report on tivocommunity.com about the network’s 25th anniversary. They are Espn Malachi McCall in Pampa, Texas; Espn Curiel in Corpus Christi, Texas; and Espn Blondeel in Michigan.

Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on Fox and Clinton (from FuzzyWuzzy) – Olbermann rips Fox News a sorely needed reality check after Fox ambushed Bill Clinton. Quite an interesting news report by Keith Olbermann, though it’s really nothing that I haven’t come to realize.

Dropout makes big bucks playing gamesWhen 18-year-old Tom Taylor dropped out of high school because he wanted to play more video games, most people were skeptical. Now he’s known as Tsquared on the gaming circuit. He’s earning six figures and has product endorsements and a video game tutoring business. … Six months after he started gaming full time, he signed his $250,000 contract. He also got a publicist, a financial adviser and media training.

Fertile women dress to impress -studyWomen dress to impress when they are at their most fertile, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday in a study they say shows that signs of human ovulation may not be as mysterious as some scientists believe. I remember reading a study of having men smell worned woman’s clothing and rate the smell as being attractive or not attractive, and clothes worn by woman during their periods were rated as more attractive.

German motorist obeys sat-nav system, hits sandAn 80-year-old German motorist obediently following his navigation system ignored a motorway “closed for construction” sign and crashed his Mercedes into a pile of sand further down the road, police said on Monday.

Police officer in Argentina suspended for cheeringAn Argentine police officer has been suspended for 10 days without pay for cheering a goal while on duty at a football match and sparking violent protests by fans. I can understand the pelting of foods, but is it legal to suspend an officer because he was cheering on duty? Then again, this is Argentina.

Rejected Wii Games (from Digg) – The upcoming Nintendo Wii will use a revolutionary new controller which won’t be used for any of the following. Pretty funny compilation of boring game concepts with the Wiimote.

The Claim: A Plane’s Back Row Is the Safest Place to Sit (from Digg) – I’ve also been told that the back of the plane was the safest section to sit, but the front was generally a smoother ride. THE BOTTOM LINE There is no evidence that flying in the back of a plane is any safer than sitting up front.

I’ve posted several magic videos of Cyril Takayama before, but here’s a bunch more of his videos: Japanese Magician Takayama. I was going to list them all out, but there were just too many.

An Elephant Crackup? (from Digg) – Since the early 1990’s, for example, young male elephants in Pilanesberg National Park and the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve in South Africa have been raping and killing rhinoceroses; this abnormal behavior, according to a 2001 study in the journal Pachyderm, has been reported in ‘‘a number of reserves’’ in the region.

Chef makes wedding gown with cream puffsThe dress — made of 1,500 cream puffs and weighing 20 pounds — took the 28-year-old baker two months to make, and by the end of the wedding reception, bride Viktoriya said she didn’t want to take it off.

Canada troops battle 10-ft Afghan marijuana plantsCanadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy — almost impenetrable forests of 10-feet (three metre) high marijuana plants. … “We tried burning them with white phosphorous — it didn’t work. We tried burning them with diesel — it didn’t work. The plants are so full of water right now … that we simply couldn’t burn them,” he said. Even successful incineration had its drawbacks. “A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those (forests) did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action,” Hillier said dryly. Haha. These Taliban guys are smart. Who knew if you tried to burn a forest of marijuana plants, you’d get high *cough* I mean sick.

Disney says “non” to Mouse orgyThe Walt Disney Co. on Thursday said it took “appropriate action” against employees at its Paris theme park who were caught simulating sex while dressed as Disney characters in a digital video that has received wide attention on the Internet. The video shows Minnie Mouse struggling to free herself as she is grabbed from behind by Goofy and then a giant snowman. Later, Mickey Mouse simulates sex with the snowman and Goofy does the same with either Chip or Dale, the chipmunks, as laughter is heard on the tape. The tape is described on the Internet as the “Mouse Orgy. You can see the video here: L’orgie de Mickey (NOT WORK SAFE!)

Classroom trash can used as toiletA fifth-grade teacher allowed five students — a boy and four girls — to use a trash can as a toilet during a school lockdown drill when no one was supposed to leave the classroom.

Heroes Discussion

So I had a talk with RayAlome today in regards to Heroes, what’s happened so far and what’s to come. I thought it was quite interesting and wanted to share it with you guys. It might contain major spoilers, or it may not. Reader beware.

Discussion 1: (Show)

If you missed this in Episode 2:

key like curve painting when hiro visits painter's room
The painting of a key like curve when Hiro was searching for the painter in his studio, right before he picks up the gun and gets caught

key like curve that scrolls across the screen when the son is looking at the genetic code on his father's usb thumbdrivekey like curve that scrolls across the screen when the son is looking at the genetic code on his father's usb thumbdrive
Key like curve that scrolls across the screen when the son is looking at the genetric data on his father’s USB thumbdrive. It’s a lot easier to see when the screen is scrolling, but you can see the … that form the shape.

Discussion 2: (Show)

Heroes

So RayAlome sent me to watch this trailer a week or 2 back: Hereos – Promotion Trailer. It’s a new TV series on NBC. It was semi interesting so I decided to give it a try this weekend. You can actually watch latest episode on their website: NBC Rewind. Of course they’ll stick in random ads.

Anyway the story is simple, pretty much like X-Men, but not as crazy. Humans are evolving, not because of random mutations, but because it’s destiny. The Human Genome project is already completed, and people with special genes already exist and are just waiting to be awaken, and as a prophecy/oracle thing, it appears that there’s going to be chaos soon.

For some reason, I think the show wants to bring out logical reasonings of how some of these things are actually happening.

From the first 2 episodes, I already have some questions: (Show)

The Wire – Season 2

I finished watching The Wire – Season 2 (thanks to CDMCC for lending the DVDS to me). I would have to say the 2nd season was indeed better than the 1st. Season 3 is already out on DVD and it appears Season 4 is currently airing (but almost done).

the wire - season 2 dvd box

Spoilers: (Show)

Then there was all the sex scenes in Season 2, which I didn’t recall much about in Season 1.

Alien Egg

So I was making dinner yesterday and while I was waiting for the pasta to cook, I thought I’d fry an egg since I had nothing better to do. Usually my eggs come out to a weird ovally shape, but this time I got a weird alien form:

alien eggalien egg

First the right hand was form, followed by the left claw. I did nothing to instigate this form. I think the culprit was the oil. Reminded me of a crab like alien which then reminded me of mutant spider crabs from Teknoman. Unfortunately this alien spider egg was no match for my ever hungry mouth.

What else I did this weekend included replenishing my food supply, getting squeegees for my bath tub and my car, finishing the human campaign of WarCraft III, and watching a couple episodes of The Wire – Season 2.

結婚できない男

Just finished watching this 12 episode series: 結婚できない男 (Kekkon Dekinai Otoko – Man Who Can’t Marry). Series is awesome and hilarious.

For more information, see:
JDorama
DramaWiki

Spoilers: (Show)

I also made some clips from the final episode:

There is a white box below you can click on:
kekkon dekinai otoko - sushi
I was watching this while eating dinner (I believe it was cereal – Frosted Flakes with milk) and then I got the sudden urge for sushi. Unfortunately, it was past closing time for most restaurants. If you want to understand what went on when his door bell rang, some newspaper salesman was trying to get him to subscribe to their newspaper. He’d even throw in a free box of laundry detergent. When his neighbor walks by, he tells the salesman that the lad behind him doesn’t have a subscription yet.

kekkon dekinai otoko - shirt selection
This video clip was made to show how organize he is, even when selecting something to wear; which totally reminds me of my friend Mechy. Although now subtitles are provided, if you want to understand the context, read on. Before this clip, he went to visit his doctor saying he’s feeling queasy (nervous) because he’s about to be on TV in front of millions of viewers. The doctor comments, in that [shirt]? Later, he goes home and takes out all his shirts and lies them neatly on his table and sends photos of him wearing them to the doctor asking for her comment. First one was too dark. Second one made him look too young. Thrid one made him look “cute”. Fourth one was perfect. And what made the situation hilarious was when he told the doctor, “Why am I taking your advice?” The doctor replied, “You don’t have to.” He then replies, “Well, if the million of viewers don’t like this shirt, it’ll be your fault.” She then angrily yells, “Like I would care.” *click*

My Boss My Hero

Finished watching My Boss My Hero a couple ago. This 10 episode JDrama finally came to an end. It started out amazing, but the slowly lost its touch. The ending was rather bad. Here’s more info on it:

JDorama
DramaWiki

The English subtitles for this series came out rather slow (serveral weeks behind), so I ended up watching it with Chinese subtitles released by G.P.S. which you can find on D-Addicts.

Spoilers: (Show)

Here’s a clip I wanted to share:
my boss my hero - parent teacher conference
Parent Teacher Conference – when Sakaki finds out that there was going to be a parent teacher conference (really parent teacher student conference – 3 person conference), the above is what he imagined would happened.

The final episode of 結婚できない男 (Kekkon Dekinai Otoko – The Man That Can’t Marry) was just released. Awaiting subtitles currently and will be done with another series. At first I liked My Boss My Hero more than Kekkon Dekinai Otoko, but as the story progressed, Kekkon Dekinai Otoko was a much better story and Kuwano-san has quite a character. From what I hear, HKenshin wants to be just like him.