Anime – Page 7 – Krunk4Ever!

December 6, 2006

Glow-in-the-Dark Mushrooms

I just got my glow-in-the-dark mushrooms today from Dirty Microbe. They call it “Tokyo luminous mushrooms” as the mushrooms themselves don’t really glow, but the other sand-line pebbles around it do. However, it’s still so awesome!!!

Here’s an image from their website:
tokyo luminous mushrooms

Both mushrooms I got had green bumps on them. Would’ve been nice if they gave me a red one too, but seeing how these were out of stock for quite some time, I’m not complaining.

For those interested in purchasing from their site, they sent me a card:

saving money is good.
use this code on your next order!

FREE SHIPPING!
DISCOUNT_B7

Shipping without the code is still just $1.99, but a $2 savings is $2 I can buy more toys like these glow-in-the-dark mushrooms.

They’re also have a t-shirt sale where any t-shirt is $12. They has some funny and some cute designs.

Random Crap:

Malaysian state to hold lullaby contest – The government of Kelantan, the only Malaysian state to be ruled by an Islamic fundamentalist party, will organize this month a lullaby contest to find the mother who can best induce sleep in her children and husband with songs, The Star newspaper said Thursday. Mom: “Listen guys. I need to win this contest. Here’s 10 sleeping pills you’re going to take 5 minutes before I start singing.”

Fake Luigi invades Japanese Wii launch (from Deadlock) – this blog entry wasn’t that interesting, but while watching the video, I saw the girl in the picture below:

(from Tera – taken from 4chan)

Though it’s not definitive, but you get an idea of who plays the PS3 and who plays the Wii. If you want a cute attractive girl to come to your place, you get the Wii. If you want… well… you get the story.

City dunks cookie-scented ad campaign – City officials ordered CBS Outdoor, the company that holds the advertising contract for its bus shelters, to remove the adhesive strips Tuesday, just one day after they were put up as part of a “Got Milk?” campaign. … Some critics expressed concern over potential allergic reactions. Others complained the ads could be offensive to the poor and homeless who can’t afford to buy sweet treats. Interesting why no one bothered to ask if the poor and homeless were offended by it. Don’t you love it how people just love making decisions for those that are not as well off as they are?

Scary ‘Mary Poppins’ Trailer (from Digg) – I recut the Disney classic to make it seem like a horror movie, entitled SCARY MARY. Haha! Another awesome parody trailer. Reminds me of the parody Shining trailer. Then again, I’ve never watched Mary Poppins.

War on Drugs Expands to Catnip (from MS newsgroup) –

While catnip does not have the same effect on human beings, the advocates of banning catnip have pointed out that children who give their cats catnip and then see the cat being “happy” might get dangerous ideas about getting high. They think, if the cat can feel good, why not them too? Indeed, the first step to marijuana addiction may well be catnip! According to the drug warriors, catnip has been a major gateway to the human abuse of drugs, and yet there has been no prohibition.

…

“Catnip is a much greater drug problem than most people realize,” said Ima Tyrant in a recently televised interview. “Some teenagers have experimented with smoking catnip. People also make tea from catnip, and have used it in folk medicines. We can no longer tolerate this big loophole in drug abuse. The prohibition of catnip will the “cat-stone” to America’s War on Drugs.

Haha! A hilarious article and has the same funny taste as The Onion.

Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Environmental Hysteria (from Digg) – Penn and Teller show us that we are not ruining the planet

America Gets Screwed in New Porn Parody (from FuzzyWuzzy) – (NOT WORK SAFE!) This couple mixes politics and sex with a kinky roleplaying game. With no exit strategy in sight and screams to pull out, the country gets screwed nasty.

Leeroy Live – Elevator Camera (from Digg) – Security camera from a Bailey & Croft elevator. What if Leeroy Jenkins from WoW (World of Warcraft) behaves like this in real life.

What code DOESN’T do in real life (that it does in the movies) (from Digg) – Following up our article: Top 20 Hackers in Film History and Vibrant’s Top 10 Servers in the movies, I felt obligated to dispel some of the notions about programming that these movies endorse. I understand that Hollywood needs to dress things up to make them more entertaining, but in the case of programmers, code, and hackers they’ve done more than dress things up – they’ve morphed a little stuffed teddy bear into a cybernetic polar bear covered in christmas lights and phosphorescent hieroglyphics with a fog machine pumping rainbow smoke out of his ass. In other words, they’ve layered a ridiculous amount of extravagance on top of something that in reality is very grounded. Haha! Reminds me that the same rules applies to anime, where physics are re-defined. Though I think Xyon would disagree completely on this: People who write code use mice

Xbox 360 Versus PlayStation 3 Graphics Comparison (from Digg) – We expected the PlayStation 3 to ship with several games that first appeared on the Xbox 360, similar to how the Xbox 360 had a lot of Xbox ports at launch. And the PS3 did indeed arrive with a good number of games that originally shipped for the Xbox 360. This gave us the perfect opportunity to compare the graphics on both systems with several cross-platform games. You’d think that the PS3 versions would be exactly the same or slightly superior to the Xbox 360 versions, since many of these games appeared on the 360 months ago, but it seems like developers didn’t use the extra time to polish up the graphics for the PS3. We found that the Xbox 360 actually had better graphics in the majority of the games we compared. The games compared are: NFS Carbon, COD3, Madden, Marvel, NBA 2K7, Fight Night, Tony Hawk, Tiger Woods.

How To Make A Card Vanish – Learn how to make a card disappear into thin air. It is a very convincing illusion. No trick deck nor preparation is needed.

December 6, 2006December 6, 2006

Confusion

Something happened today and my heads been going in circles. I’m confused. So confused that I’ve been doing stuff out of order. Like washing my face first before shampooing my hair. Or watering front door plant before back porch plant. Or almost forgetting to put on my shoes before going outside to get my mail, and I was even contemplating on go barefoot and just endure the pain. Why am I confused?!?!

Random Crap:

Weird Al – Behind the Scenes of “White and Nerdy” (from Digg) – Go behind the scenes of Weird Al’s “White and Nerdy” video from his new album Straight Outta Lynwood, in stores now.

How to Crap All Over a Product Launch, by Microsoft Corp. (from Digg) – what he says isn’t that interesting, but it did tell me there are Pink Zunes out there. According to Engadget, So as we understand it, apparently Microsoft secretly slipped 100 hot pink (or shall we say, magenta?) Zunes into the retail market for purchase, where only especially eagle-eyed buyers would notice what they were getting before taking it home and opening up their rather eye-catching player. (For lawsuit’s sake, it’s in the fine print on the bottom of the box.) In fact, one’s on sale on eBay right now: Microsoft Zune.. Pink Limited Edition #8 of 100 NIB and one sold for $920.

pink zune
(picture courtesy of Endgadget)

Live Action Hamster Videogame (from Cari) – Poor little hamster. He’s stuck in a video game. Don’t worry, he wins. (OMG SPOILER.) Hamster didn’t seem to be having fun. Would’ve been neat if he got little treats on the way, sorta like the little apples Yoshi gets.

Carved Crayons (from Digg) – a bunch of neat carvings made using crayon sticks by Pete Goldlust.

Bottled Music – A guy plays music on bottles with rollerblades. Was pondering if this was good enough to be posted, but decided it was worth showing. Not really that creative or new, but still somewhat cool where a guy rollerblades down the street with glass bottles filled with different amounts of liquid to make different sounds. On each skate, he puts a stick like thingy which hits the bottles as he skates down.

MS Paint God (from Derek) – Getting this good with MS Paint is like becoming a world famous kazoo player. Just an amazing job what someone can do with just MS Paint! I don’t know what car that is, but it’s very sweet looking.

Was watching the latest episode of Kanon and the fox is so cute! You can watch the video here: Kanon – Makoto Fox.

Case Closed? (from Digg) – An Extra Shift Led to a Terrifying Strip Search, But the Suspect Was Set Free – It was the shocking story — and unbelievable surveillance video — that riveted the nation. A young McDonald’s employee humiliated, forced to strip and then to perform a sexual act in the back office, during her work day. Wow, I can’t believe this happened… Go watch the video if you’re too lazy to read the article.

Paintball Headshot (from Digg) – This guy got PWNED!!!

Beware of the fungi! (from Digg) – When will we have to report on our spore infected fellow man? Scenes taken from Planet Earth episode 8. From the production info: “From the creators of BLUE PLANET comes this epic depiction of life on Earth. PLANET EARTH was a mammoth undertaking and was the result of more than 2000 days of production, filmed across 200 different locations around the world.” Remember when your parents told you not to eat the seeds of the fruit, or else you might grow a watermelon on your head? Well, imagine if a fungi killed you and then grew out from your head.

Interview Disaster Special (from Digg) – (NOT WORK SAFE!) I have conducted a series of interviews with adult industry figures. These interviews did not go well and they probably represent the last failed attempt at something even approaching journalism of my entire career. Here’s Part II if you’re interested in reading. It reminds me of Blood Ninja, but with porn stars.

November 30, 2006November 30, 2006

Impeachment

I just had a horrible thought. If President Bush does get impeached and is convicted, guess who becomes our next President… *shivers* I think I’d rather have Bush stay as President for 2 more years.

Random Crap:

Following the same line of a previous Japanese term, 耳飾り (mimikazari) means earrings, but in modern day, it’s more commonly known as ピアス (piasu) which was derived from the word pierce. For the finger ring, you’d think it be yubikazari, but unfortunately this breaks the rule and is actually termed as 指輪 (yubiwa) – ring. However, modern times has also used another familiar term for those who’ve seen the movie: リング (ringu).

LineRider ZaDa (direct link to swf) (from Digg) – The new and improved Line Rider with advanced and much needed tools such as the eraser and the accelerating lines.

Heroes: Non-US Promo Clip (from Digg) – (WARNING: SPOILERS) Although the title says it’s a promo, I believe this is a preview for episode 10. I didn’t particularly get what following comment referred to: Pay particular attention to a painting with a certain type of dinosaur and the little guy next to it.

heroes - promo clip - dinosaur

What about the dinosaur and the little guy? Hiro is going to travel back in time and fight a dinosaur? Is Hiro going to take the exploding man back in time and coincide it with the meteor hitting earth? Or is it really the exploding man that cause the extinction of the dinosaurs?

Coin In Plate With Water (from Digg) – here is a cool scientific way to take a coin in a plate with water without wetting your fingers. I was thinking instead of of complicated candle and glass setup, can I just put on some waterproof gloves and pick the coin up without wetting my fingers?

China urges pre-flight toilet training to save fuel – A Chinese airline has calculated that it takes a litre of fuel to flush the toilet at 30,000 feet and is urging passengers to go to the bathroom before they board. … “The energy used in one flush is enough for an economical car to run at least 10 kilometres,” Captain Liu Zhiyuan, who flies regularly between Hangzhou and Beijing, was quoted as saying. Citing a survey by the company’s logistics department, Liu said carrying one kilogram of items such as blankets and pillows by air for one hour uses 0.2 kg of fuel. Interestingly enough, pee and poop weighs a lot too. If everyone took a dump or a piss before boarding the plane, the less weight would also save fuel.

Tony vs. Paul (from Esca) – A stop motion battle between two friends turned enemies. A point and shoot animation done frame by frame. Pretty neat actually. The sand movement animation totally reminded me of Gaara’s move in Naruto: Desert Funeral.

Wii Have A Problem… (from MS newsgroup) – “Wii have a problem” is a blog focused on bringing you the latest trend in gaming violence. That of damaged electronic loved ones caused from Wii related activities. Why? Because we’re fanboys that’s why. Someone questioned how this is different then throwing an Xbox 360 controller at the TV (I assumed jokingly). However, he then made a comment about saying it’s the users fault, how you don’t really need to use all that force to play with the wiimote, people are releasing the controller instead of holding it like they’re suppose to, and how after many hours of playing, the wiimote never slipped from his hand. At this point, I chimed in and said there is a difference. Normally, you wouldn’t take a bat or a tennis racket inside the house to practice your swing, especially not your living room with your TV and tons of other easily breakable items. If I do practice my swing in my living room and it slips my hand and crashes into my TV, then I can really only blame myself for being *cough*. However, the wiimote was intended to be used in front of your TV, so there’s no avoiding that. I also didn’t see a problem with using a lot of force with the wiimote. When you get into a game, often times you start button mashing really hard and really fast, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Playing with little activity is one way to play it, but playing the Wii with real swings vs wimpy swings should be perfectly fine. There are multiple ways to decrease accidents like these. Of course everyone’s mentioned the thin strap. A better gripping material would also help, like the stuff they use on the handles of tennis rackets and bats.

November 29, 2006November 29, 2006

Piro

Piro the Siamese cat from Kanon is just too cute!

From Episode 7:

From Episode 8:

Spoilers: (Show)

November 25, 2006November 25, 2006

First Snow in Seattle of Winter 2006-2007

So after I got the screenshots of Neji’s “absolute defense”, I went on to watch that battle and Naruto vs Gaara and ultimately Sarutobi’s death and funeral.

First I noticed some Naruto kids pictures which I thought were awfully cute:

Then I looked out the window and saw:

Title should really be “First Snow in Bellevue of Winter 2006”, but I’m pretty sure if I’m getting this much snow here, it’s probably snowing in Seattle too.

Here’s some more pictures:

Here’s a few videos I took:

November 25, 2006November 25, 2006

Force Field Width and Rice Noodles

First, let me wish Happy Birthday Belldandy!

I was thinking (while swinging my bent curtain pole around), that spinning force fields must’ve had widths. Let me explain. Similar to Neji’s force field in Naruto, where he spins around really fast and reflects anything that comes near him. Neji’s force field is known as Hakkeshou Kaiten (八卦掌　回天). Although revisiting the episode (#61), it appears that by spinning, he’s generating a force field by releasing chakra along the way. Of course this is animation. But similar ideas have been about and the term used Naruto is: Absolute Defense. Gaara has a similar force field thing where the sand creates a bubble around him and if that is penetrated, a layer outside his skin is formed. However, my force field width really only deals with ones generated by spinning, like when movies or cartoons have a guy spinning a bo stick really fast and the bullets or ninja stars get reflected off it.

As I was saying, I was spinning my broken curtain pole around, when I got to thinking what if I can spin this stick really fast, would I be able to create a bubble around me, similar to a force field. If it’s hard to imagine, think of the ends of my stick as 2 electrons and I’m the nucleus. Those 2 electrons don’t have any strict path they’re following and there will be one point in time where it’ll have touched every point of the sphere’s surface area that it rotates along. Of course with anything spinning, it can’t be protecting all points all the time, but if spins/rotates fast enough, lets say a full cycle takes a second, it’s pretty much an absolute defense. However, if the bullet is small and faster, it can easily penetrate that through that outer layer of this so-called force field.

However, that then got me thinking, I’m not really limited to just the initial outside layer. Since I’m spinning a stick, I basically have a force field from the end of my stick to me (which I’ll be calling the width). Even if the tips of my stick doesn’t hit the bullet, as long as it’s spinning fast enough, somewhere along the stick would hit the bullet before it can even get to me. In other words, even at 1 cycle per second, I’m getting a lot more coverage than 1 second gaps.

Similarly, if I was rotating a stick in front of me, the width would be the width of the stick (the diameter of the circle). If I was rotating a stick 360 degrees, the width would be half the length (if I’m holding the center) or the full length (if I’m holding the end) of the stick.

Not really sure why I’m talking about all this imaginary stuff. I just thought it was interesting.

Last night, for some reason, even after the big feast, I was hungering for rice noodles (河粉 – took me awhile to figure out which he3 to use; really… river noodles?). Anyway, I have no idea what came over me. I was laying there about to fall asleep, and then I got thinking of the tofu, fish balls, cuttlefish, other ingredients which I’m not sure but tastes good in a hot pot soup that I had earlier that day, then it got me thinking about broth that was used. Hot pots sometimes use water, but other times, it’s mixed with chicken broth or beef broth. Then I thought about my mom using chicken broth with rice noodles, and well, that got me thinking about rice noodles. It’s a very easy dish to make. If I like it soup-less, I can put it in the microwave for 3 minutes, add soy sauce and hot sauce and be done. If I want it in soup, I’d still use the microwave, but then cook chicken broth with some veggies and mix it together. I was actually contemplating on getting up and going to 99 Ranch when I realized it was 6am. Something to think about on my next shopping trip for food. I’ve actually moved closer to 99 Ranch now (14 miles away). Wow, it’s practically next to the airport… Hmmm, maybe I’ll stick with Uwajimaya for now, I mean the staff there all speaks Cantonese anyway.

November 21, 2006

Stupid Alarm System

My alarm system has been going funky for the past week. After moving in, I didn’t bother subscribing to the alarm service since I don’t really have much valuables in my house, so I just left it alone.

Initially, it started to beep about a month ago saying that my phone line was disconnected, which is true since I only use VoIP and cell phone now, so my phone lines around the house aren’t wired up and I don’t see a need for it to be. I have 2 #s, both going through my Linksys PAP2 and 2 Panasonic 5.8GHz phones sitting on my office desk.

But that beeping only went off once, so I didn’t bother with it. The LED lights were still blinking like crazy, but I only pass by the alarm system twice a day, so I didn’t mind it.

Recently, it’s been going bonkers, goes beeping for hours. Then when I jam every button on the panel, it stops for about a day and starts beeping again. When I check the status, apparently 2 other items are having problems, but I noticed that the alarm system is also connected to the smoke detectors, so who knows what item 9-4 and 9-5 is. The booklet left behind by the previous owner didn’t mention anything. I had opened the alarm panel and remove the batteries, but it continued beeping. It appears there’s a secondary power somewhere else.

Annoyed, I finally called the alarm company today and asked them how to disable it. Apparently all they needed to know was the previous owner’s name and the address. He told me besides the batteries, there should be a power outlet nearby with a cube (2″ by 3″) that powers it (the batteries are just backup). I looked around and didn’t see an outlet and thought if that was all that was needed to disable the alarm system, it seemed rather stupid. Though I will give them that it took me forever to take out the batteries. At first I thought it was such a stupid design, taking me 10 minutes to take out 6 batteries. Second time only took me close to 1 minute. But now that I think about it it, that just might give the system enough time to phone home.

So I started looking around and found a power adapter similar to what he was saying in my garage. I unplugged it and the panel went off.

So I’ve been enjoying the quietness of my house once again (minus my computer music blasting).

Random Crap:

Today’s Japanese phrase is 花火 (hanabi) which translates to fireworks. Literally, 花 (hana) means flower and 火 (bi) means fire.

Tolerance (from RayAlome) – John Safran vs. The Mormons. Trading places is priceless. Hate people that coming knocking on your door early Saturday morning trying to convert you? Well, John Safran has something to say about it. Pretty funny.

Sony PlayStation 3: the Ars Technica review – Ars Technica has released their review, and it’s not pretty… With so much violence and mob-like behaviors during the PS3 launch (from Tera), this comic strip really hits close to home: Console Lines.

Nielsen study: video use on iPods very low – The demand for video-playing capabilities on digital music players may be overblown, according to a study conducted by Nielsen Media Research. Nielsen conducted its first ever study on iPod usage in October this year, following the habits of 400 iPod users from October 1-27 as part of its Anywhere Anytime Media Measurement initiative. Its conclusion was that a surprisingly low percentage of iPod users seem to have any interest in watching videos on their devices. I’ve always wondered who would watch videos on such a tiny screen. Then again, I never really found portable DVD players that useful either. Minimum screen size I would need to enjoy a video would probably be around 10-12″. Then there’s cell phones which try to have everything. I don’t need my cell phone to be a digital camera and a mp3 player and a video recorder. Though I will agree the “good” digital camera on a cell phone is useful once in awhile when I want to take a picture of something in that moment, but don’t have my digital camera on me. I guess a video recorder would be nice when I saw some police officers tasering a student at the library.

slate green challenge: Help the planet. (from Digg) – For the next eight weeks, Slate, in collaboration with eco-Web site treehugger, invites you to consider your own individual contribution to global warming—and challenges you to go on a carbon diet. The goal is to reduce the amount of CO2 that you put into the atmosphere by 20 percent. If you’re a carbon glutton who doesn’t bother to turn off the lights when you leave the house, you may find this diet pretty painless. (And just think of the fringe benefits—lower heating bills, poorer oil barons.) But even if you’re already a svelte recycler or a carpooler, there’s a lot more you can do.

Travel Light – How to get around while burning less CO2.
Warm Up – How to heat your house—not the outside.
Green Food – Eat your veggies instead of eating up energy.
Closet Case – The CO2 monster hiding in your wardrobe.
The Body Electric – Bright ideas for trimming CO2 emissions.
more to come in the next 3 weeks.

Frucall and SCANBUY (from Digg) – both services which allow you to use your cell phone to find places that are cheaper online or locally by either inputing the barcode information or scanning it with your phone. So the next time you’re out buying macaroni and cheese for $1.49 (# made up completely), call and find out to see if the supermarket down the street has it for $1.39. ;p

Taco Bell wants your Playstation 3 (from Digg) – Today Taco Bell has announced that they will take a brand new Playstation 3 in exchange for $12,500 in Taco Bell Bucks that are redeemable for your food purchases. This offer is good only for the first person to agree to the terms and email Taco Bell. Haha. I wonder how many years of tacos that’ll buy. Even if you spend $10 a day at Taco Bell, that’ll still buy you 3.5 years. What is interesting is inside the press release: The party exchanging the PlayStation 3 is solely responsible for payment of all taxes, income and otherwise, and should consult with his/her tax adviser. Considering this being like lottery money, income, or short term gain, we’re talking Uncle Sam taking 20-30% of it. Does Uncle Sam take Taco Bell Bucks, because that’s $2,500 to $3,750 you’ll be paying in taxes.

Railroad Tycoon Released For Free (from Digg) – Go and download the game and bring back all those wonderful memories.

Amazing blind kid can do the impossible (from Digg) – This blind kid uses his other senses to ‘see’. Truely amazing. This guy reminds me of Uonuma Usui (more info) from るろうに剣心 (Rurouni Kenshin). He was the 2nd best fighter in 十本刀 (Juppon Gatana – Two Swords) after Seta Soujirou (more info) – my 3rd favorite character in Kenshin. This blind man fought by using a technique he called 心眼 (Shin-Gan) which literally translates to Eye of Heart. It was meant to refer to the fact he can see into people’s heart and know their position and how they’re going to attack. In reality, it was more like superhuman hearing where he could hear people’s heart pounding nervously and muscle contractions.

Most Dangerous Toys’ 2006 (from Digg) – The consumer group W.A.T.C.H. has unveiled its annual list of the most dangerous toys. The group says these toys represent the top ten hazards to children.

Did the CIA kill Bobby Kennedy? (from Digg) – In 1968, Robert Kennedy seemed likely to follow his brother, John, into the White House. Then, on June 6, he was assassinated – apparently by a lone gunman. But Shane O’Sullivan says he has evidence implicating three CIA agents in the murder Interesting theory and interesting read.

Ohio lottery picks match Ohio game score – Ohio State’s 42-39 victory over Michigan also was lucky for players of the Ohio Lottery. Shortly after Saturday’s game ended, the numbers 4-2-3-9 were drawn for the Pick 4 game. For Buckeye fans, this weekend would’ve been a blast for you. For Cal fans, we didn’t fare too well, although we leading or tied till the end of the 3rd quarter, but USC creamed us in the 4th quarter.

Fishy freckle remover inflames Chinese consumers – China has banned TV ads for a freckle remover, touted as being so good it could remove spots from fish, when it not only killed fish but led to rashes, blisters and skin inflammation on the humans who tried it. Advertisements promoting “Magic Freckle Removing Gel”, produced by a Shanghai company, used a celebrity, bogus experts and fish to endorse the cosmetic, but fish exposed to the gel by a research institute later died from poisoning, the Beijing News said. … Experts later found that three different fish had been used in the advertisement to make the cleanser appear effective, the paper said. Article wasn’t that interesting, but I was curious who watched that advertisement really thought the gel would actually remove spots from a fish…

What are we becoming? (from Digg) – On CNN’s the situation room, Jack Cafferty struck a somber tone after the House passed legislation that includes a war crimes immunity clause. He rightfully asks, “what are we becoming?” video and transcript info can be downloaded at Crooks and Liars. Do note that the video is dated 9/28/2006 as he wanted to get the bill passed before the Democrats came in after November’s election. I really like this quote: At least President Nixon had Gerald Ford to do its dirty work. President Bush is trying to pardon himself. It appears that the bill got passed by both the House and the Senate, but it’s unclear if it’s been signed yet. I found a bit more info here: “Bush Pardons Himself”: Detainee Legislation Provides Retroactive Immunity for Bush Adminstration War Crimes

European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs – Are streets without traffic signs conceivable? Seven cities and regions in Europe are giving it a try — with good results. … European traffic planners are dreaming of streets free of rules and directives. They want drivers and pedestrians to interact in a free and humane way, as brethren — by means of friendly gestures, nods of the head and eye contact, without the harassment of prohibitions, restrictions and warning signs. Haha, interesting experiment. I’m curious as to who’s right/wrong when an accident occurs.

Slow motion high FPS compilation (from RayAlome) – a really neat video of showing how fast actions look in slow motion. My favorite ones were with the water balloons where they popped it on someone’s head and when they punched it.

Things in a Microwave (from Digg) – A device capable of producing 700 watts of invisible radiation, and the Wonton Way. Not a good combination. Unfortunately for the free world, the Wonton Way has acquired a microwave. Here’s the results. Ah.. the experiments I only dreamed of doing, but too afraid it’ll blow up. Although we did try the egg thing (thanks to Decathanerd’s and Cari’s microwave). It does in fact blow up. Ours actually blew open on microwave door, rotated the microwave about 1/2 a foot, and splattered egg all over the kitchen. Coincidentally at my ship party, one of my colleague’s wife was commenting on how guys find fire so interesting (I was playing with the candles if you didn’t guess it yet). She was saying how her boss put in a cdrom into the microwave and started it and the cd made a bunch of sparks and asked her how cool it was. She didn’t find it particularly cool, but I would’ve been amazed! Boys will be boys.

October 15, 2006October 15, 2006

Death Note and Kanon

Guess what? Death Note is now an anime! First there was the manga (which I highly recommended). Then the movie came out (live version). I have yet to see it, but am waiting for the dvd with subtitles to come out. Now they’ve decided it’s good enough to be an anime.

Official Site
AnimeNfo
Anime News Network

I have no idea how long this series will be, but since the manga’s already done, hopefully they won’t screw up. I’ve seen the 1st 2 episodes so far and they’re good, although they make Light seem crazy and evil off the bat, while the manga slowly converted him from a top of the class student to a crazy person.

I also found this interesting article: Death Note Stirs Controversy in China

Imitating events in the manga series Death Note, Chinese school students in the city of Shenyang have take to writing death notes. The students buy special stationary and follow instructions such as “Write the cause of death and the person’s name backwards and the person will die in 40 seconds.”

A middle school student told the Shenyang Night Report, “Many of my friends have Death Note. When they are tired of studying, they have fun by writing down the names of teachers they don’t like.”

Some Shenyang schools have banned the manga and related stationary, the newspaper called Death Note, “Poison, creating wicked hearts.” Others however, including one major Chinese newspaper, feel that the ban is an over-reaction and is inappropriate. Some have suggested that overreactions such as these are what stifle creativity in China.

Death Note is currently serialized in Shonen Jump.

It appears they’re redoing Kanon. They had a version a couple years back, but now it appears that another studio is doing a remake of it. I’ve also seen the 1st 2 episodes so far and all I can say is ~uguuuuuuuuuuuu~. Belldandy is so into it that he even counted the # of uguus in each episode. Although it’s a remake, the storyline is somewhat altered. It seems that Yuuichi has an idea of who this girl is already and Ayu comes out saying they’ve met before, while in the other version, it wasn’t until the last episode, everything came back to Yuuichi.

Official Site
AnimeNfo
Anime News Network

October 14, 2006November 12, 2006

The Idol M@ster

Tera posted a link to these The Idol Master trailers. The Idol M@ster appears to be a game in which you train a girl band to become become idols, which involves choreographing the dance moves, selecting the songs, selecting their outfits, etc. The game is going to be released on the Xbox 360 and the arcades in Japan, but this isn’t really my type of game.

Anyway, I found the video to be quite amusing. The multiple trailers all appear to be the same video, but the latter one had a different music soundtrack. The music on the HD trailer left a lot to be desired for and the video quality of the one with the better music was not that great. So I went ahead and ripped the music from and re-encoded it onto the HD video:

The Idol M@ster Trailer – 480p (wmv – streaming)
The Idol M@ster Trailer – 720p (xvid – download)

If you’re interested in the song, you can also downloaded the mp3 ripped from the trailer: GO MY WAY

Lyrics: (from THE IDOLM@STER)

「GO MY WAY!!」

music: 神前暁
lyrics: yura

GO MY WAY!! GO 前へ!!　
頑張ってゆきましょう
一番大好きな
私になりたい

ノンストップで行ってみましょ♪
って思ったらまた赤信号！？！
そんな時は凹まないで
ハイウェイがあるファイト!!
フルスロットル飛ばしてみましょ♪
って思ったらスピード制限！？！
こんな時は悩まないで
ジェットがあるフライト!!

未来は誰にも見えないモノ
だから誰もが夢を見てる
どんな地図にも載ってないけど
どんな時代（とき）でも叶えてきたよ
さあ行こう!!

GO MY WAY!! GO MY 上へ!!　
笑顔も涙でも
この世界中が　
Wonder LandなNever Land
GO MY WAY!! GO 前へ!!　
がんばってゆきましょう
一番大好きな　
私になりたい

GO MY WAY!! GO MY 上へ!!　
ほら１人１人が
この世界中で　
One & OnlyでもNot Lonely
GO MY WAY!! GO 前へ!!　
はりきってゆきましょう
全ての輝き　
この指にとまれ

September 24, 2006September 24, 2006

Cute Bunny

My queue just keep getting bigger and bigger. I have like 20+ movies yet to be reviewed.

I also spent sometime this weekend migrating my old site’s blog over. Seems to be a long and arduous process. Only got a couple months in 2002. It’s hilarious seeing how my blogging (writing) style has evolved.

I was also burning off a bunch of watched “stuff” to free up space. While browsing for stuff to burn, I remember I haven’t watched the AIR – Summer Special yet. Unforutnately, Potato (the cute puppy) didn’t show up. This special was more about the past between the journey to find the little girl’s mom. However, they did introduce a cute bunny. Click the following images to watch the videos:

Random Crap:

What if Tequilla was a Prescription Drug? (from MS newsgroup) – hilarious advertisement/disclaimers for Tequilla.

Alan Cox’s ThinkPad battery explodes – For a moment, I thought IBM had fallen into the bunch of manufacturers with bad batteries. Fortunately, the title was very misleading and I quote: Telsa does note, however, that the battery was third-party and was bought on eBay, so it may not be an authentic IBM pack at all.

Polish woman caught growing marijuana for cow – A Polish woman who grew marijuana to calm the nerves of her cow　has been charged with cultivating a narcotic by police in the western town of Lobez.

Court says $32,000 is too much to fondle bosom – A fee of 25,500 euros ($32,000) is way too much for a woman to charge a man for fondling her bosom, a Finnish district court ruled.

White & Nerdy (MS newsgroup) – “Weird Al” Yankovic’s new music video, from the album “Straight Outta Lynwood” (in stores Sept. 26) Hilarious music video once again! However, as Weird Al notes on his blog:

I’m very sorry to say that the AOL “First View” Premiere of the “White & Nerdy” video has been cancelled.

Apparently, the video has already leaked online, and AOL doesn’t feel comfortable doing a “World Premiere” promotion for a video that a number of people have seen already. (I can understand songs leaking, but a video? How’d THAT happen?)

Anyway, it’s really a bummer… it would have been great promotion for the album… but hey, life goes on.

So…

I’ll be uploading the video to this page shortly. Tell your friends!

You may also want to check out his other music video (animation) for Don’t Download This Song.

worlds yo-yo contest 2006 1A 1st – Hiroyuki Suzuki (mickey) (from Tera) – I’m not sure if the title implies he won first place, but he was awesome. I obviously don’t know how hard some of these tricks are because there were certain parts in the oooohs and aaaaahs that I didn’t see to be that complicated. Then again, I probably couldn’t do 99% of what he did. The song in the background was actually rather amusing. I had heard the Korean and Japanese version by 이정현 (Lee Jung Hyun) called ワ-come on-. Then Mechy told me about the Cantonese version called 獨家試唱 by 鄭秀文. Now it appears there’s a Mandarin version too!