Movie Review #30-31

11/24 Les Poupees Russes (The Russian Dolls) = Sequel to The Spanish Apartment, 30 yrs later.
This was a fun movie, I liked how realistic it was in going over the issues that people have to deal with, such as how do I find someone who will tolerate me and whom I can tolerate to love? The whole "needle in a haystack" -ness of it all is definitely super depressing and makes someone seem incredibly unlikely. And there are SO many people out there to shift through. You definitely need to know what you're looking for and have enough will power not to waste your time on someone that you know isn't suited just because you're bored.

11/17 Lust, Caution = A group of students decide to help the war by trying to kill an important figure.
I loved the fact that there was Shanghainese in the movie. In a lot of ways it reminded me of Crouching Tiger, mostly for the fact that it was typical (an unhappy ending) and shockingly untypical (graphic sex) in terms of Asian movies. I've always maintained that the majority of Asian dramas and movies are overwhelmingly depressing and horrible horrible things happen to the main characters because it makes Asians feel better about their lives. It was a good movie though and it's amazing what make-up can do for a person.

2 Songs that I Thought I'd Share

Eels - Fresh Feeling
You don't have a clue
What it is like to be next to you
I'm here to tell you
That it is good
That it is true

Birds singing a song
Old paint is peeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Words can't be that strong
My heart is reeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Try
Try to forget what's in the past
Tomorrow is here
Love,
Orange sky above lighting your way
There's nothing to fear

Birds singing a song
Old paint is peeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Words can't be that strong
My heart is reeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Some people are good
Babe in the 'hood
So pure and so free
I'd make a safe bet
You're gonna get whatever you need

I heard this on KEXP today and it was SO CUTE, some guy requested it because his wife was having twins and they pick songs for all their births or something like that, anyway, I got a little choked up. Violins and a good beat in the beginning is so perfect.


I Was Dancing In a Lesbian Bar - Jonathan Richman
Well I was dancing at a night club one Friday night
And that night club bar was a little uptight
Yeah, I was dancing all alone a little self conscious
When some kids came up and said, "for dancing come with us."
And soon...

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well I was dancing in the lesbian bar
In the industrial zone.
I was dancing with my friends
And dancing alone.
Well the first bar things were alright
But in this bar, things were Friday night.
In the first bar things were just alright.
This bar things were Friday night.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well I was dancing in the lesbian bar
Way downtown
I was there to check the scene
And hang around
Well the first bar things were stop and stare
But in this bar things were laissez faire
In the first bar things were stop and stare
In this bar things were lassez faire.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

In the first bar folks were drinking sips
But in this bar they could shake their hips,
In the first bar they were drinking sips
In this bar they could shake their hips.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

(Guitar)

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well in the first bar, things were okay
But in this bar things were more my way
In the first bar things were just okay
But in this bar things were done my way.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well in the first bar things were controlled
But in this bar things were Rock and Roll
In the first bar things were so controlled
In this bar things were way way bold.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.


I was like wahhhaa? when I first heard it but this has seriously grown on me in a Jonathan Colton-kind of way.

Anyway, on to playing more Gears of War2.

Yes We Can And Yes We Did!

Oh yeah. So that this can also be captured in history, Barack Obama has been announced by CNN as the next President of the United States of America.

The ground movement was unpresidented and I'm so so glad that I can say I was a part of it. Sure, it was only a few hours, some money, but it was well worth it.

Now we wait.

Movie Review #28-30

11/8 Constantine = About a man who rids the world of demons that have meddled in human affairs too much.
Pretty scary at parts but a really interesting plot and concept. Kind of reminds me of Stigmata which also dealt with religious stuff and was pretty scary at times but at the end it was refreshing and deeply invigorating. Surprisingly, I've actually seen Stigmata several times, at least three times I think, and I wouldn't mind seeing it again. Even though there are some super scary and creepy parts, I think it's the fact that the concept is so cool that makes me interested in it.

10/28 L'auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment) = About this guy who lives in Barcelona for a year to learn Spanish for his future finance job.
I got the sequel, Russian Dolls, from the library today so I'll be watching that within the next two weeks. It was a pretty good movie, just about the random dealings and sex lives of this group of extremely diverse people from various countries all placed in a foreign country trying to cope and learn something. Most of the movie is either in French or Spanish.

10/29 Forgetting Sarah Marshall = About a guy who composes the soundtrack to a CSI-like TV show, is dating the lead actress, but then she dumps him and he can't cope.
About as funny as Heartbreak Kid, maybe a bit more. The women in it are quite beautiful and most of it is in Hawaii so it's pretty too but definitely has more of the "omg this is so painful and embarrassing to watch that it's funny" type of humor.

Movie Review #27: Transformers

10/20 Transformers = Alien machines on Earth.

The special effects made up for the nerdy silliness of the movie.

Movie Reviews #22-26

Okay yes, I have been neglecting the blog for a while now again. Movies have suddenly been piling up and while I HATE HATE HATE inconsistency and not adhering to standards, the blog will not be able to continue unless I make it a little easier to catch up. I hope I didn't forget any or else this count will be inaccurate (another annoyance).

9/25 Tremors = Small town gets terrorized and many die.

10/4 Starship Troopers = Futuristic movie with soliders fighting alien bugs.

10/9 Stardust = Everyone's chasing after a fallen star but for different reasons.

10/12 Hellboy = During WWII Hitler's soliders open a portal and things come out of it.

10/14 I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With = About a fat actor guy.


Stardust was by far the best out of the bunch. It was beautiful, the characters were interesting and funny and the "oh noes...I know something that you don't and bad things are going to happen" moments weren't too bad. I usually don't like those moments because I don't like suspense. Hellboy was pretty good too, there was a bunch of interesting magic features that were cool.

I've been unmotivated to write for a while, but I've recently been on a reading binge. Soooo...instead of writing some more, I'm going to read.

Story Episode #2: The Beginning Part2

Meanwhile, Joseph had rounded the corner of the block and was only picking up speed and falling into his escapist-stride. As soon as he was out of sight, I closed my eyes and tapped out the sequence to initialize the explosion. To a passerby, it appeared as if I was enjoying the feel of the grass, but thanks to virtual keyboards and the wireless connection I had implanted in the back of my neck, the Internet was always before me, instantly accessible. There was a muffled boom. Ghostly people started streaming out, caked in white powder, rubbing their eyes and face and looking dazed. I stood up, donned my shocked face, and ran over to see if I could be of any help.

Movie Review #21: Cashback

9/29 Cashback = Boy gets dumped and ends up becoming an insomniac. He takes a night shift job at a supermarket to pass the time.


One of the weirder movies I've seen recently. Kind of meanders around, shows a lot of skin and has a weird creepy scene in the middle that made almost no sense. Almost all of the characters are good-looking though so it makes up for a lot of the unanswered questions. It had some funny parts in it but the only reason I'd see it again would be for the skin.

Story Episode #1: The Beginning

As I sat waiting for Joseph to appear from the Post Office, I idly played with the lush grass that covered every inch of the city that wasn't paved. Each blade of grass was immaculately created and practically indestructible. Whoever came up with the idea to create natural-looking, feeling and smelling grass that was completely unnatural, must be a billionaire. I wish I had thought of it. When the strict water-conservation ordinance was passed, everyone's lawn turned to shit. People were quietly furious that their hard work could be destroyed in mere weeks. However, now that this unnatural natural grass is everywhere, no one cares about their lawn anymore. There's no way to make their lawn look better than anyone else's, especially since lawn ornaments have been outlawed.
Joseph ran out of the Post Office and jerked his head to the right to signal that Plan #1b would be the ideal course of action at this time. I smiled in response and continued sitting, lazily leaning back against the tree and for all intent and purposes appearing as if I was enjoying the hell out of the nice weather and quiet chirping. Meanwhile, Joseph had rounded the corner of the block and was only picking up speed and falling into his escapist-stride. As soon as he was out of sight, I closed my eyes and tapped out the...
Sorry, got mildly distracted by some speaker talk and I think I'm also at least two or three minutes over on this first attempt. I think after the first couple of these I'll write about if this is helping or not and if I should continue.

Movie Review #20: Tremors

9/25 Tremors = Two handymen from the town of Perfection try to save the town's inhabitants from something that is killing them.



A bunch of my friends got together to watch this with me, seeing as I was the only one there that hadn't seen it. It was...silly. The acting during the 80's and early 90's really kind of annoys me. Pretty much any fist pumping, thumbs-upness makes me feel embarrassed for the actors. As for the movie's lvl of scariness, okay, it wasn't really that bad. Any of the Aliens movies are much scarier.

However, I feel like as I've gotten older that I'm more jumpy than I used to be. Not sure why...maybe my tolerance has decreased and so my guard is down and my instinct to yelp takes over. Screaming actually makes watching scary stuff a little more tolerable. I'm not sure I enjoy the feeling of being totally freaked out and super tense though. As I look back on some of the scary movies that I've watched, it's more the amusement and reminiscing that comes after surviving something horrible that wasn't particularly enjoyable at the time. Several such things come to mind: The Camping Trip, trying out for high school soccer, losing my big toe nail, and my high school graduation ceremony. These were all horrible horrible experiences at the time, but now that I've successfully survived them, they're now somewhat funny stories. Character builders I suppose. I also used to read a lot of scary thriller books back as a teen. A lot of Stephen King books as well as Anne Rice and even collections of short ghost stories. Of course, I was always super paranoid after reading them but I guess that period of my life when I was actively seeking out scary stuff was just a phase. This leads me to believe that no, I do not enjoy watching scary movies, they are something to endure so that I can "Character Build". I'm not sure though, if I've regressed somehow in my fear factor and if that's a bad thing. Maybe I'm really more comfortable in my skin that I can feel free to let my emotions out instead of bottling them up. I like to think that if something truly horrible happened in real life (such as a zombie apocalypse) I would be able to reign in the terror and be useful instead of a liability. It'd probably take a little effort and time in the beginning though. I'm sorry if it causes anyone to have their brains eaten. Maybe this is one area I need to undergo some training in preparation...though I think Left4Dead will be good enough.

Movie Review #19: Definitely Maybe

9/22 Definitely Maybe = Dad tells his daughter about how he met her mother because she wants to know why they're getting a divorce.

It was kind of Princess Bride-ish, in terms of it's a story being told to a kid and the kid sometimes interrupts. It was really cute though and it's always interesting to follow people's lives and see where they're at and how they got there 10 years later. It's not super typical in terms of plot devices for RomComs, the ending bit is fairly original and I didn't expect it. Also, I shed a few tears...it was more of a awwww, sweet father-daughter thing than anything super sad. It was a pretty good movie overall I'd have to say :) And everyone in it is super pretty.

Movie Review #18: Raise the Red Lantern

9/20 Raise the Red Lantern = Follows the inner politics of a household with four wives. Focuses on the 4th wife and her struggle to survive.

I'm still not sure if I've seen this movie before or not. While the movie was good, I still felt like they could have focused more on the women and what it was about them that made the Master marry them in the first place. I can't imagine what they did all day, cooped up in their little "houses", every night wondering if they're going to get the chance to maybe produce a son, which is the only way to better their position in the household and thus in their small world.

Would being a kept woman be super great? Or would you feel tied down to the guy and like a pampered slave? I would think the issue of being bored and useless could be easily solved by going out and getting involved in something of value. Reading to little kids at the library seems like it'd be fun. Or volunteering to help create stage sets for high schools or other theaters. There must be plenty of things that are worth doing without needing monetary compensation. I for one, love accomplishing tasks. I am extremely goal-oriented and, at least in games, will more than likely do plenty of grinding if I like what I'll get in the end. Having lots of little tasks with loose deadlines that I can accomplish easily would be my ideal volunteer work. I mean, my current job is pretty task oriented and I feel like I'm fairly happy in it. Now, if I did the exact same stuff in a cooler, more relaxed and fun-loving company that paid me at least $15k more, I'd be super content. I might even be happier doing it than I would be if I stayed home all day and tried to write. Writing is multitudes scarier and a foggy, undefined task. While I don't particularly want my tasks to be detailed out, I need at least a base level of detail to feel confident in my abilities to successfully accomplish it.

...this is kind of feeling like a boring post. No one is ever interested in hearing about work. I really need to meditate or do something that brings out the muse. Though, I guess this is what this is supposed to be for, practicing the writing so I can get inspired and be creative and re-find my "voice". Okay, now it's going to sound like I'm complaining, but I don't like my current "voice". It's too logical, not theoretical enough, not spontaneous enough. Hmmm. Maybe I should start an episodic short story. No plot, no themes, nothing to start off with. I'll try not to think about it at all and just spend fifteen minutes on each episode. I'm always up for experiments.

Blog Idea: Dating Experiences of the Delusioned Desperate

It would be HEE-larious to start a blog that was solely about someone's love/dating life. Like it would start off a brief, vague description of the guy or girl doing the searching and then launch into a description of Date #1 with Girl/Guy #1. Of course the main concern would be anonymity, which might be solved by having anyone be able to post their dating stories, but I personally think it would be far more interesting to follow one person's struggles and triumphs in the dating world. I haven't seen the movie yet, but maybe this idea is kind of like Train_Man? There's probably blogs out there that people use to detail their love lives...I should really look into getting an RSS feed, besides the little ticker on top of my Gmail.

Of course, this could only work if the person was willing to make light of their failures and the weirdness of people and situations in general. I don't think the purpose would be to scare people and discourage dating, but to make it seem more fun and crazy cool (for stories later anyway).

Movie Review #17: Enchanted

9/8 Enchanted = A Disney flick that starts off as a typical Snow White-que fairytale. There's an added step inbetween the poisioned apple that makes up most of the interesting part of the movie, that they somehow get thrown into the Real World.

This was a cute movie. Even Zach agrees. The animation in the beginning and end are really well done and the chipmunk is SO F-ING CUTE. SO CUTE!11!!1!1!! Some of the plot twists weren't very original but some of them were. Bit of hitting, bit of missing. The singing was pretty epic though.

Ratatat @ the Showbox in the Market

It kind of feels like I've been suddenly obsessed with this band, but I think it's mostly the excitement of discovering a great music feel and then discovering that tons of other people are similarly totally into it too. It's exclusive, but not so exclusive that no one knows what you're talking about. A larger inside joke if you will. Overall, the live performance of it was fantastic and it was great to rock out to it. Even with earplugs. I wouldn't have really imagined that I'd be jumping up and down for some of the parts/songs but it was pretty intense and I just love some of the parts so much. I kind of wish that I had been closer to the stage so I could actually see them, but it really wasn't that important. I'm not really invested in the band members, in fact, I've been thinking that there were only 2 members in the band, but there were three on stage.

The two cover bands were really kind of weird though. The first one, E*Rock, were these two guys with full head/face covers, like KKK, but black and not pointed and the one at the turntable type thing for some reason, had the Wii controller with the nunchuck around his neck and kept on acting like he was playing the Wii or using it somehow...which, even if it were true, was kind of weird.

There's a delicate balance required when using popular implements in an entertainment fashion. If you use it a few days after the thing becomes popular, it's usually considered extremely hip, but if you wait too long it becomes tacky and tryhard. Even more interesting is the relative quickness of tragedy-inspired jokes that pop up practically before you even have a chance to grieve. Each time people are like...too soon? And the answer has always been...nahhh, it's still funny...a bit grotesque/morbid/off-color...but still funny. We're curtailing human sympathies for a quick laugh.

In other news, we killed some time before the concert at Gameworks and Zach got me an awesome T-Rex from the claw machines:

OMG isn't it awesome?

The 6 Traits

So I'm reading this book right now right? And I'm on the Chpt titled "Finding The One True Love". Cheesy I know, but it just went over this story of this woman who was great-looking, with a great personality. "A catch in anyone' book." But she had a hard time picking guys. So the author was like, okay, do you have a business card? Write these on the back:

Not stupid.
Not crazy.
Not creepy.
Not mean.
Not ugly.
Not smelly.

It's pass or fail on each item and if you fail one, you fail period.

What I thought was interesting was that it's a Not instead of Is (like is smart). They just have to not be it. But really, you must have to really not know what you're looking for if you can't weed them out without having a card of basics. Or at least friends that can be like, "oh no honey, not that one. That one's not so good."
If I do say so myself, I am particularly good at picking people and seeing basic flaws (yeah yeah, I'm sure that means I'm not so good at seeing my own flaws blah blah blah). Though I guess sometimes I can be a little harsh about it, when someone flips the "not so good" switch, I can seriously get into a strong dislike streak. And it takes showing quite a few good characteristics to get back into the light. I know everyone has their good points and most people are generally good people, and I feel like with my initial grilling that I give strangers, I can pretty quickly find what it is about them that's interesting and enjoy them at their best. But if it turns out all of that was really just a show then why should I waste my time putting up with a faker or worse? :) Or maybe I just surround myself with good people in hopes that it'll rub off on me and/or my evilness will be diluted and the scent will get lost.

Movie Review #16: Tsotsi

8/31 Tsotsi = A thug shoots a woman and steals her car, only to find out that her baby is still in the backseat.

I thought it was very realistic and gritty and reminded me of City of God/City of Men with the frank and random violence and the casualness in death. The mortality of humans is aptly portrayed, as well as the conflict between doing the right thing and being decent. I enjoyed it and liked hearing some South African. Foreign films are great. Usually pretty weird and totally non-mainstream like Hollywood flicks, but each is a little gem. Babies are so cute! They're evil like that, making your head spin and not letting you think rationally and in your best interest.

PAX 2008 Re-Cap

So this marks my 3rd consecutive year of attending the Penny-Arcade Expo (PAX). Friday and most of Saturday were mostly not the awesome swag getting that I remembered from last year, but I made up for it on Sunday by getting 4 T-shirts within an hour, five if you count the one I bought. Six if you count the one that I got at the Rockstar booth for Zach (the woman just shoved small t-shirts at me and I came out with two). The other cool swag that I got were Penny-Arcade postcards depicting their first D&D 4th Edition Quest (which we also recently finished) and a air gun that shoots little balls. Speaking of balls, I barely saw any Bawls at this year's PAX. I maybe saw one or two empty bottles lying about, but it was definitely not at the forefront of anyone's consciousness. Maybe they're going under? Hahaha...no one likes the bawls. I also didn't see very many raffles and such going on; it was very hard to figure out how and when to get the swag. I didn't attend any extraneous panels this year, which is a deviation from previous years, and I feel like I didn't really miss out. Sadly I didn't get to see Jonathan Coulton, but it was probably for the best...I'm not sick yet from the lack of sleep and running around!
Okay, now, for the more detailed day by day recap:

Thursday
We participated in the Pre-PAX Pub Crawl, also known as the Tri-Wizard Tourny. It was pretty crazy, and we actually met some people, both of which we saw again later at PAX. So that was pretty cool. I was apparently dressed up as Ada Wong from Resident Evil. Maybe next year I'll be a little more accurate. It was pretty fun, though crashing at the guys' place was not so great. Highlights: the make-out session, cream cheese, onion, and ketchup hot dog, and people surreptitiously taking pictures of me.

Friday
PAX begins!! I get up early and take the bus down to the WA Convention Center to stand in line. Zach does not come with because he drank too much the night before and was still feeling ill and needed more sleep. About being in line for a while, I've finished going through the PAX schedule and decide I'm bored enough to try to make friends with the nice looking guy standing next to me. He's not especially talkative initally, but luckily Ben spots me and comes to stand in line with me. He subsequently steals my new friend that's supposed to entertain me and starts to talk shop. And I'm still mostly bored. Once inside the expo hall, three seconds later I spot Zach. Turns out waiting in line was completely worthless. We wander around and completely squander the fact that we're early to the expo (i.e., we should have stood in line for something worth playing, like Left4Dead and RockBand2).
Highlights: the beginning of the Q&A Panel was f-ing BADASS EPIC AWESOME. Everyday I'm hustlin', everyday I'm hustlin'...

Saturday
My fave day at PAX, hands down. In the morning, we got up early and headed over to help some friends move. They had some difficulty getting the van and stuff so they were about 1/2 hour late. It was kind of cold outside and I didn't bring a jacket since I assumed I'd be getting pretty warm from moving stuff. It was warm inside, but Zach was just sitting and sleeping and outside, I chatted with the guys for a little bit but then they also retreated to their car to sleep. So I was bored. I ended up entertaining myself by climbing around and jumping off the porch. However, since I was launching myself off to get the most air to do a cool move before hitting the ground, the momentum practically forced me to do a roll after landing. It was exhilarating, silly, and slightly embarrassing, which resulted in me laughing uncontrollably. It's been a really really long time since the rebellious daredevil f-what people think (sort of) side of me has had an opportunity to get some fresh air. Though I guess the rocking out dancing I did for a RockBand song last week counts too. I used to do that kind of shit all the time. But over time it became more important to me to be the cute, silly, slightly befuddled girl than it was for me to be badass and do things for the shock value. I guess it was growing out of being a teenager. Anyway, I did it to impress people and shake their impression that I was just some quiet asian girl and I think I'm more stable now about who I am as a person that I don't need to do outrageous things to convince myself and others that I'm not stuck in some box. At the same time, it is completely refreshing and freeing to know that I'm still capable of thinking up and following through with my harebrained shenanigans.
Anyway, then at PAX, we hung out in the expo hall until it closed, with a short break to Starbucks near the end. I didn't get very much accomplished, I think I tried winning a t-shirt and failed miserably and kind of played the new Viva Pinata, but I couldn't figure out how to do anything. The coolest thing was watching a game that's not out yet, The Maw. The environment just looked really beautiful and cute. In retrospect, if I had known it was a PAX 10 contender, I would have voted for it.
After the expo hall closed, we putzed around for a while and then stumbled upon the RockBand freeplay area and they were playing Weezer and everyone was singing along and clapping along. There was some really great community there. Then we went over to the Annex and I got to participate in a large manual, old style adventuring quest, Action Castle, which was pretty cool, even though I almost "used" the fishing rod on the lake. I got to demo Burning Wheel and managed to kick some major ass as the lowly rat guide. It seemed like everyone else also enjoyed watching the demo and that it was a pretty good indicator of what the game play/style/fights are like. The guys actually talk a little bit about their experience doing 5.5 hours of demos on their forum. It looks like there'll be a podcast about it on Tuesday from Front Row Crew. I'll be interested to see if any of my demo session was worth mentioning :). It was a great time, though I was pretty anxious/nervous/hyped up and had the shakes for a good first half of the demo. Then we went back over to the RockBand area and stood in line for a really long time and played Highway Star for everyone. It was super exciting performing for a crowd though the drums were quite a bit harder to play due to the height, chair, and they seemed modded so I had to hit them quite a bit harder for it to register. I didn't get to see any of the cool stuff that everyone did to warm up the crowd, but it seemed like everyone really liked it. I got a high-five afterwards from some random guy. It was a good way to end the night.

Sunday
Got to sleep in a little and got to PAX around 11 or so. Hung around the expo hall doing pretty much nothing else but get t-shirts. We were quite successful at the endeavor too. I stood in line for the second Q&A and not a bit too soon since I managed to be the second to last question. I felt like I stuttered a lot of was weird sounding but Zach said that compared to the other people, I sounded great. After that, Zach and I lounged around on the Sumos for a while and then went to the console freeplay area and checked out Boom Blox. It was entertaining, but we're probably not going to buy it. I have pretty unsteady hands which is a liability in that game. We have so many Wii games that we haven't finished either even though they're just go through mini games. Then we stood in line for some Taco Del Mar food and waited in line with the guys to see the final Omegathon. Which was okay, it turned out to be Vs. ExciteBike. It was f-ing hard, like many of the ancient games. It was also a total shut out, which was too bad and the guy that I was rooting for didn't win :(. Hopefully next year's final round will be cooler. I also didn't win the drawing sadly. Some girl named Grace Wong won though. It would be cool if a girl won the Omegathon someday.
Zach and I ended the day by watching Tsotsi.


Overall, I had a great time at PAX and will need to come up with a better plan next year for making the expo hall a little more worthwhile. The lines are always ridiculous (no one got to play Left4Dead or RockBand2), and the swag was more challenging to get, but there was still cool stuff to see and a surprisingly large number of booth babes this year too. Still undecided about how I feel about that. All I can say is, I can't wait for next year's PAX! I'm so glad I live in Seattle and don't have to pay tons of money to attend it. It's totally worth it.

Modeselektor - Hyper Hyper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBmdfL7hgtM - no animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AON2R-HCQ3E - weird kid + two girls

This is really more trance/dance music so I had a hard time finding lyrics.

Hyper Hyper! Bass Bass Drum! So Beautiful...see your hands in the air.

Yeah, that's about it. I'm listening to a bunch of their other stuff right now, and it's all pretty sweet. Maybe I'm suddenly into trance now? I used to think it was so boring with such little variation, but the beat is just awesome enough that I don't mind listening to it for several seconds with little to no variation. Man, this would be good music for visualizations. ;)
This one is pretty cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p-1NUoapQc - just a pix

I might have to make this CD #2 to get...though I dunno if Best Buy has it?

Shittt....I could do this all night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THQPeNIvvyc
Maybe I'm just really in the mood for techno trance right now. What is the difference between techno and trance?

Movie Review #15: Sex Drive

8/27 Sex Drive = Guy meets hot chick on the internet and decides to drive 9 hours to go see her and lose his virginity.

It was pretty funny, but mostly in a OMG, he did not just do that supremely embarrassing thing, OMG OMG. Several times I had to duck my head in shame for the dude, it was a little bit too much on the horribly tragic things that can happen when you're young and stupid. Much like how SuperBad was, but I think this one had much hotter chicks and more action. Less of the deadline feeling. Zach says he liked it and would see it again with everyone, though some pottery might be involved. Also it had amish people in it AND Seth Green AND Seth Green as an amish guy. Seth Green is the shit. I dunno what it is about him, but as celebrities go, he's on my to do list.

How to Entice a Nerd

Having a nerdy boyfriend is becoming more popular these days and not just because of the potential financial gain, but because the nerd of this day and age is no longer merely a programmer, he is the handyman of all things computer-related and most importantly, can quickly self-educate on anything else you need. Most nerds are loyal but have issues with self-esteem and being social (think of it as a challenge).

Now, it is extremely easy to attract a nerd's interest, but to truly develop a lasting relationship, you need to do your homework. If this comes naturally to you, congrats! All you need to do is go out there and drop some references. If not, use the lists and suggestions below to find at least one or two nerdy things that you feel you can get into. Remember, it has to be genuine interest! Nerds are smart, they'll eventually see through you if you feign interest in a nerdy activity. For the good-looking ones, it'll be a big bonus if you are at least down-to-earth pretty. It's been my experience that most nerds like girls that don't spend an inordinate amount of time looking good every day (it also intimidates them). This means minimal to no makeup day-to-day, but feel free to glam up for special occasions.

Required Reading List:
Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (for extra credit, read the entire series)
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Recommended: Snowcrash, 1984, Dune, A Brave New World, The Name of the Wind, Harry Potter series

Required Watching List:
Star Wars (original)
At Least 5 episodes of Star Trek (The Next Generation version)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (for extra credit, watch the other Monty Python offerings)
Office Space
Evangelion
Firefly TV series
2001: Space Odyssey
The Simpsons TV series
Recommended: Futurama TV series, South Park TV series, The 5th Element, Ghost Busters

Websites:
Slashdot - News
Digg - News
IGN - Gaming News
Wikipedia - Information about everything
xkcd - Comic
Penny Arcade - Gaming Comic
Homestar Runner - Animated Web Comic
Bonus: research Internet Memes, such as All Your Base Are Belong to Us

Basic Terminology:
Monitor - the screen that you are looking at. Is connected to the
Computer - the box that holds the various parts that allow you to do stuff, like access the
Internet - a network of cables throughout the world that allow your computer to be connected to servers and millions of other computers, not to be confused with
Internet Browsers - programs that display the content of the Internet such as Internet Explorer (IE), Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc.
Motherboard - core piece of your computer that determines how much RAM your computer can handle and the other types of pieces that your computer can use.
Random Access Memory (RAM) - the part in your computer that controls how many items you can have open at a time and running. Not to be confused with
Hard Drive Space - what your computer uses to store files and programs.
Sound Card - is considered to be "on board" if the motherboard comes with one. Used to produce sound. Can be bought as a separate piece from the motherboard.
Video Card - same as sound card except for video/motion, especially important for computer games because their graphics are more intense.
Ping Time - the amount of time it takes your computer to access a game server or website.
Lag - used to describe what happens when you have a high ping time. For example, games tend to look like they're moving in slow motion and websites take a really long time to refresh.
Framerate - used in games to describe how quickly the screen refreshes. Measured in seconds, framerate per second or FPS, which is not to be confused with
First Person Shooter (FPS) - a genre of games where you are the person shooting things. Examples would be Halo, Quake, Doom, or HalfLife/CounterStrike.
Leet (written as 1337) - elite or cool.
Über - a german word meaning super or extreme.
Fail or Epic Fail - when you or someone has messed up.
w00t or woot - exclaimation of pride and accomplishment.
Pwn or Pwned - to win against someone or to say that someone has been beaten. For example, "I pwned you!" would be equivalent to saying "I beat you!".
Bonus:
Frag - to kill someone in a first person shooter game.
Modem - Short for modulator-demodulator. Enables a computer to transmit data over telephone or cable lines. Computer information is stored digitally but information sent over telephone lines is in the form of analog waves. A modem converts between these two forms.
Router - directs Internet information.

Games:
*Note* - Games can be pretty expensive and it is not necessary that you have actually played the game. An interest in playing a game is just as good and is a ready-made date idea. For any of the titles below, you can look up information from various websites (IGN).
Computer (also known as PC) games - Spore, Quake/Doom/Half-Life/CounterStrike, World of Warcraft (WoW), Diablo, StarCraft, Portal, Fallout, Might and Magic, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War
Console (an extra piece of equipment you need to buy to play the game) games - Halo, Gears of War, Guitar Hero, RockBand (extra credit if you can play the drums), Burnout, Final Fantasy
Different types of consoles:
XBox 360 - made by Microsoft
Wii - made by Nintendo
Playstation 3 (PS3) - made by Sony
Bonus: read up on Jack Thompson and listen to a few Jonathan Coltan's songs (Still Alive (though it's the end song to the game Portal), Code Monkey, Re: Your Brains).

Movie Review #14: Van Wilder

 8/23 Van Wilder = College the way it was meant to be.

Ahhh, this is such a classic movie. I'm not sure when I first watched it, but I know I watched it at an Honors Croquet screening of it since there's a scene where the douchbag boyfriend is playing croquet using the frosh as wickets. Most of National Lampoon's movies are great and pretty funny. You'll never look at twinkies the same way again...

Movie Review #13: Better Than Chocolate

8/23 Better Than Chocolate = A lesbian who's in the closet to her mom has to deal while her mom (who's in the midst of a divorce) and her brother stay with her and her new girlfriend.

A fair amount of sex in the movie, tastefully done though and it didn't quite feel like a pron so that was also good. The plot wasn't very straightforward and jumped around a bit but overall it was enjoyable. I can definitely see why this is a favorite movie of lesbians.

The Concept of Revolution

Decision are made on an individual level, yet it usually takes the consensus of the masses to implement change.

As an individual, I feel like I have reached a point where I am ready to take the responsibility of choosing the direction that I think the world should evolve into. Though I have never been especially political or rally-ist, it seems like they actually work in bringing about change. As silly as it may seem, if enough people band together and make enough noise, something will happen. It's like peer pressure on a grandiose scale. My experience with community events are pretty much volunteer work for one-time events as well as some light donating...and so it'd honestly take something that I'm truly deeply passionate about to wrest a commitment from me.

This brings up the question, what is the best way to make the most of my limited resources (time, money & energy) to be a part of change, as well as make that change and participation sustainable?

Will we choose to become the change that is revolutionary or just be spectators? Are we at the cusp of a revolution? And if so, what exactly are we revolutionizing?

It's been a really really long time since I've produced a serious blog post/any sort of serious writing and I read over this and am somewhat concerned that it comes off a little too academia. Which is one of the reasons I didn't get an English degree. One of the reasons I did want to get an English degree had to do with the fact that one of my favorite things to do in general is to think up completely off the wall, out of the box reasons for events. Works of literature are rife with opportunities to drag in elaborate themes and analogies and cleverly tie them together to create a framework and viewpoint that are borderline preposterous. I fear and love my imagination. Fear because I am afraid of not being able to live up to its potential (which is why I didn't seriously consider becoming a creative writer as a career choice) and love obviously because I like coming up with crazy solutions. As a pre-teen/teen, I used to spend HOURS upon HOURS in the bathroom doing nothing but role-playing scenarios between me and other people, where I would hold both sides of the conversation. Of course, in time I came to realize that every single scenario that I played out would never be the actual one so it seemed like the more I did it, the more unlikely it seemed that it would actually turn out that way. Anyway, I still feel like this blog is helping me connect a little bit more with that creative side (as well as D&Ding :)) and getting used to putting down thoughts. And hopefully, the end goal of all of this is that someday a book will materialize out of me.

Movie Review #12: A Home at the End of the World

8/20 A Home at the End of the World = Follows Bobby from when he's 9 to when he's 15 to when he's 24 and a few years after that.

It's about the relationships that Bobby has throughout his life and how other people cope with that. It's interesting but still in a cliche'd kid growing up in the late 60's early 70's with the hippy free love stuff as well as growing into sexuality and the early gay casual sex-ness as well as a brief HIV bit. A bit meandering. I'd rather watch Rent again.

Things the Next Generation will be Amazed At

• That Pluto was considered a planet and taught in schools as such for the majority of our schooling.
  
• That we had to wait until we were 21 until we could drink legally.
• We were around when no one used to listen to a music player 24/7, on the bus, walking around, waiting in line...no music. iPods will be laughed at for their simplicity and weird controls.
  
• That we would be so stupid to vote a complete idiot into the White House...twice.
  
• That we used to use something called film in these small containers that were difficult to put into cameras instead of digital media. And in order to see the pictures we took, we had to develop the film instead of seeing the picture as soon as it's taken. In addition, we kept these fragile photos in photo albums instead of a digital frame.

Some Interesting Stuff

Common Errors in English - An interesting site that has TONS of commonly misused word pairs. Choose/Chose is a pretty good one. Also, since I have so many friends from TX, Y'all. If anyone starts using all y'all...that's going to be trouble.

Also, a song that has one of the best one liners..."I've got soul but I'm not a soldier"...very relevant to these days:

All These Things That I've Done - The Killers (Official Vid, UK Version-the better one I think)

When there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son
One more son
If you can hold on
If you can hold on, hold on
I wanna stand up, I wanna let go
You know, you know - no you don't, you don't
I wanna shine on in the hearts of men
I want a meaning from the back of my broken hand

Another head aches, another heart breaks
I am so much older than I can take
And my affection, well it comes and goes
I need direction to perfection, no no no no

Help me out
Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
You know you got to help me out

And when there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son
These changes ain't changing me
The cold-hearted boy I used to be

Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
You know you got to help me out
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down

I got soul, but I'm not a soldier
I got soul, but I'm not a soldier
...

Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
You know you got to help me out
You're gonna bring yourself down
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down

Over and out, last call for sin
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done
All these things that I've done
If you can hold on
If you can hold on

Movie Review #11: Sicko

8/13 Sicko = Documentary on the state of the healthcare system in the US and compares it to countries with government run healthcare.

I know Zach thinks I'm easily influenced and gullible and stuff like that and as such, I try to take a step back and be really pessimistic about stuff and sometimes worry that I am believing things too easily. But there's always a bit of truth behind all documentaries and the fact of the matter is that Americans are getting screwed and the sooner we have Universal Healthcare the less trashy America will be. If I ever get diagnosed with an expensive disease, I hope that I will remember this movie and look deeply and think hard about moving to a different country. Like say Canada, France, or England where the healthcare is free. In France, they get 5 wks minimum of vacation, when you have a baby, the gov't will send over a nanny and when you get married, they'll give you an extra week of vacation. I only get 2 wks of vacation. Though I guess the benefits of living somewhere where you can understand 90% of the population is nice, work does take up a LOT of time. Anyway, it was a disheartening movie and I really hope Obama becomes President and starts fixing things. And I hope I or anyone else I know doesn't get sick.

Anytime Present Ideas

Since my friends are no longer (were they ever...?) doing birthday presents this year, I thought I should start encouraging Anytime presents. The list below represents items that I like in general (some imagination might be needed to make an appropriate gift) and stuff that I can't imagine having too much of.

Anytime Present Ideas:
Cute stickers
Postcards
Canned Corn/Corn on the Cob (roasted or steamed)
donut peaches
A list of interesting books/movies
Fresh flowers
Fruits Basket Manga
Ramen
Unique/creative pottery
Performance/Interactive Art
Themed parties
Garage/yard/rummage sales
Knowing interesting facts about others' lives
Yarn
Roasted marshmallows
Geeky/nerdy funny items (clothing, etc.)
Starbucks
Tim's Hawaiian Sweet Maui Onion potato chips
Traveling and doing touristy stuff
Winning at games
Card games
Hugs
Arbitrary organization (for example, in a candy dish, separating the candy by color)
Bubble tea
Funny true stories


I guess that should be enough for now. For most of these, I get really excited over.

Book Review - The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women Into Bed

Though this is definitely not a book to be taken word for word, and it definitely takes a lot of effort and talking A LOT, I would say most guys that are dating out there could learn something from this, if anything not to make stuff a big deal or to freak out over things like calling a girl and all those unspoken dating rules.

Basically, if you talk a lot, say interesting things, you can probably get most average girls. For the really beautiful ones, you have to employ a few tactics.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to think about Mystery himself or those that really put in the effort to become pickup artists. There's probably a point where they become interesting guys and not just sleazy liars that are playing you. It's fun for a girl not to have to make an effort in making the experience fun, just being there for a ride and having someone along that always has something to say, some fun story and knows what next fun place to be at. Even if he's always negging you, making you jump through hoops, conditionally testing you, or giving IODs so that you're strung along. I'm looking forward to reading this other book in the pickup artist world: The Game by Neil Strauss. Apparently, Mystery is one crazy mofo (I suppose this is probably unsurprising) and it's like a documentary of pickup artists and their lifestyles.

Mostly, I'm glad I'm not a guy and am not about to delve into trying to become good at picking up hot chicks. It sounds like a LOT of work, memorization, rejection, and feeling stupid and like a loser. Though if I was already a guy that was desperate and I actually saw some improvements, maybe it wouldn't be so crushing. And you have to talk ALL THE TIME. However, if I ever meet someone who is actually out there practicing opening sets and such, I'm not sure what I'd do, if I'd purposefully try to f-him-up or go along with it or tell him that I'm on to him and that he's gaming. So yeah, I really hope I meet a pickup artist in training someday because it would be supremely interesting to see one actually at work.

Thou Shalt Always Kill - Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou_Shalt_Always_Kill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoN6XfyQsr4

Thou shalt not steal if there is direct victim.
Thou shalt not worship pop idols or follow lost prophets.
Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Decker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barret in vain.
Thou shalt not think that any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a pedophile… Some people are just nice.
Thou shalt not read NME.
Thou shalt not stop liking a band just because they've become popular.
Thou shalt not question Stephen Fry.
Thou shalt not judge a book by its cover.
Thou shalt not judge Lethal Weapon by Danny Glover.
Thou shalt not buy Coca-Cola products. Thou shalt not buy Nestle products.
Thou shalt not go into the woods with your boyfriend's best friend, take drugs and cheat on him.
Thou shalt not fall in love so easily.
Thou shalt not use poetry, art or music to get into girls' pants. Use it to get into their heads.
Thou shalt not watch Hollyoaks.
Thou shalt not attend an open mic and leave as soon as you're done your shitty little poem or song you self-righteous prick.
Thou shalt not return to the same club or bar week in, week out just 'cause you once saw a girl there that you fancied but you're never gonna fucking talk to.

Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals no matter how great they are or were.

The Beatles - Were just a band.
Led Zepplin - Just a band.
The Beach Boys - Just a band.
The Sex Pistols - Just a band.
The Clash - Just a band.
Crass - Just a band.
Minor Threat - Just a band.
The Cure - Just a band.
The Smiths - Just a band.
Nirvana - Just a band.
The Pixies - Just a band.
Oasis - Just a band.
Radiohead - Just a band.
Bloc Party - Just a band.
The Arctic Monkeys - Just a band.
The next big thing - JUST A BAND.

Thou shalt give equal worth to tragedies that occur in non-English speaking countries as to those that occur in English speaking countries.
Thou shalt remember that guns, bitches and bling were never part of the four elements and never will be.

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not pimp my ride.
Thou shalt not scream if you wanna go faster.
Thou shalt not move to the sound of the wickedness.
Thou shalt not make some noise for Detroit.
When I say "Hey" thou shalt not say "Ho".
When I say "Hip" thou shalt not say "Hop".
When I say "he say, she say, we say, make some noise" - kill me.
Thou shalt not quote me happy.
Thou shalt not shake it like a Polaroid picture.
Thou shalt not wish your girlfriend was a freak like me.
Thou shalt spell the word "Pheonix" P-H-E-O-N-I-X not P-H-O-E-N-I-X, regardless of what the Oxford English Dictionary tells you.
Thou shalt not express your shock at the fact that Sharon got off with Bradley at the club last night by saying "Is it".
Thou shalt think for yourselves.
And thou shalt always,
Thou shalt always kill.

The artists claim that the title, and final line of the song, refer to 'killing' in the sense of performing excellently.

This is a super awesome song...even if it's also super British and many references are of that sort. The music vid is pretty entertaining and catchy.

Man...Ratatat...

I am SO sad that I discovered Ratatat just a few weeks too late to see them perform live in Seattle...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlGx0nJsOkM&feature=related

It would have been so awesome.

Busy Weekend - Fruits Basket Marathon, Chapel Clubbing, Wedding/After Party

I can just feel it in my bones that if I don't start getting some good sleep, I'm going to get sick. It feels like I pulled an all-nighter, everything's kind of fuzzy and slow. I had a great time over the weekend though.

I wasn't lonely Friday night because everyone was at the bachelor party LAN because I had someone over to watch the Fruits Basket series with me. And we finished it too. And I did all my laundry. Then we got to sleep for 4 or so hours before getting up and getting some Starbucks. The rest of Saturday was pretty normal, we watched the movie Miss Potter, and then at 10, we went to pick up a friend and went to the Chapel, a club that had been a mausoleum in its former life. I was hit on twice, which was di rigeur for me, especially since Zach wasn't on the dance floor with me. The first time was really typical, some guy leads off with a compliment and then tries to draw you into a convo. He asked me what I thought of his shirt, which in my inebriated state, was white with red text that looked like some lame ass college T so instead of shouting something witty (which likely would not have been witty due to my previously mentioned condition), I ended up just making the "Loser" right-hand two fingered from the forehead move. I can't remember what he said but I was laughing and then my friend dragged me away, likely being correct in thinking that I was getting in over my head, whatever it was that I was getting into. Zach was impressed with my audaciousness. The second time was pretty minor, just some guy asking me if I would dance with his friend, who was at least 30, likely 32-ish. After that dance though I was pretty tired. It's really hard to move with the beat while not stumbling into anyone nearby, in stilettos to boot! We got home at around 1:30. I need to work on getting drunker early on and then being not so drunk by the time I hit the bed. Somehow the drunkness doesn't wear off quickly enough by the time I'm ready to call it a night.

Sunday, we finally got to sleep in a little and then we got up and got ready for the wedding. It was held at Denny Blaine park, which was this really small quaint little park right next to the water, which had this stone wall and stone steps that led to this lower bit of the park which was perfect for a wedding with a hedge that hid the water. Anyway, at first the park was absolutely packed with people who were there for Seafair and were watching the Blue Angels' show, which was really loud. At 2:30 though they all cleared out and the wedding went off without a hitch. We had Thai food that was really good and I took a bunch of pictures with the disposable cameras that were lying about. The Maid of Honor gave a really heartfelt speech that made more people cry than the actual ceremony.
Unfortunately, I got kind of sunburnt due to being out in the sun a lot, but hopefully it doesn't peel... At 9, they had their after party at their place, and it was fun, everyone just sat around with snacks and told stories and chatted. We didn't get home until 11 and we were actually the first ones to leave :).

Overall, I don't remember a more packed weekend, full of a variety of activities that each on its own would have been more than enough to make a weekend interesting.

TV Series Review #2: Fruits Basket

I have recently had the good fortune to spend several hours in a Fruits Basket Marathon, a series that I finally just bought and that its manga recently finished.

This series has every single cute, enduring, funny, heartwarming anime quirks that make me love watching anime in the first place. Everyone should watch this.

Movie Review #10: Miss Potter

8/2 Miss Potter = Story about Beatrix Potter, an unmarried woman of 32 who wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

More of a romantic drama than comedy, it was pretty blasé. Had some pretty landscape but was not particularly thrilling as a movie. Maybe as a romance book it could have been interesting, but there was also only one kiss in the entire movie. Interesting if you liked those times when unmarried women had to drag around chaperons.

Band Names are Silly

And so are the names of most songs. Is there a band out there that named their songs in such a way that they make up a paragraph or story or something? If not, the world is sadly, sadly missing this vital artistic expression. Like, that's another thing that sometimes bugs me about listening to KEXP, just how nonchalant everyone is about spewing forth this mish-mash of random words strung together and how ridiculous it all sounds. Completely ridiculous, pompous, and that word that means you're trying too hard to be artsy, you poser you, but I can't think of it at the moment.

I think it just seems worse right now because bands have outrageously long and high-fluting names that just add to the confusion. Band names should be limited to 3 words. The fewer the better.

Movie Review #9: Jumper

7/29 Jumper = A guy finds out that he can teleport.

This movie could have been so much cooler than what they made it out to be. It's more deplicting a playboy who is living up life and "jumps" around the world with a not very well written plot about people trying to kill Jumpers. I would say it's definitely set up for a sequel and the second one could be way better. The whole jumper concept could have been used more interestingly than just a lazy way to get places and get things. The acting wasn't super great and the action scenes were okay but weren't very fluid. It's only 1 1/2 hours, which seemed like just the right amount of time. Nothing really spectacular.

Movie Review #8: Nancy Drew

7/26 Nancy Drew = Based on the popular book series about a teenaged girl who solves mysteries and catches criminals.

I thought it was a pretty cute flick. Nancy Drew is totally a McGyver for teen girls. She had really really straight hair too. I loved how she was the best at everything, astoundingly good actually. Unfortunately, it seemed like pretty much all the best parts of the movie were in the trailer. I had fun anyway.

American Boy - Estelle

The beat on this is really nice and I love travelling so I can totally relate. For the music vid, I LOVE how she does LA with her fingers...hawt.

American Boy - Estelle

Just another one champion sound
Me and Estelle about to get down
Who the hottest in the world right now.
Just touched down in London town.
Bet they give me a pound.
Tell them put the money in my hand right now.
Tell the promoter we need more seats,
We just sold out all the floor seats

Estelle:
Chorus
Take me on a trip, I'd like to go some day.
Take me to New York, I'd love to see LA.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You'll be my American Boy.

He said Hey Sister.
It's really really nice to meet ya.
I just met this 5 foot 7 guys who's just my type.
I like the way he's speaking his confidence is peaking.
Don't like his baggy jeans but Ima like what's underneath them.
And no I ain't been to MIA
I heard that Cali never rains and New York heart awaits. First let's see the west end.
I'll show you to my bedroom.
I'm liking this American Boy. American Boy

Chorus
Take me on a trip, I'd like to go some day
Take me to New York, I'd love to see LA.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You'll be my American Boy, American Boy.

Can we get away this weekend.
Take me to Broadway.
Let's go shopping baby then we'll go to a Café.
Let's go on the subway.
Take me to your hood.
I neva been to Brooklyn and I'd like to see what's good.
Dressed in all your fancy clothes.
Sneaker's looking Fresh to Death I'm lovin those Shell Toes.
Walkin that walk.
Talk that slick talk.
I'm likin this American Boy. American Boy.

Chorus
Take me on a trip, I'd like to go some day.
Take me to New York, I'd love to see LA.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You'll be my American Boy

Kanye West:
Who killin em in the UK.
Everybody gonna say you K,
Reluctantly, because most of this press don't f**k wit me.
Estelle once said to me, cool down down
Don't act a fool now now.
I always act a fool oww oww.
Aint nothing new now now.
He crazy, I know what ya thinkin.
Ribena I know what you're drinkin.
Rap singer. Chain Blinger. Holla at the next chick soon as you're blinkin.
What's you're persona.
About this Americana?
Am I shallow cuz all my clothes designer.
Dressed smart like a London Bloke.
Before he speak his suit bespoke.
And you thought he was cute before.
Look at this P Coat, Tell me he's broke.
And I know you're not into all that. I heard your lyrics I feel your spirit.
But I still talk that CAAASH.
Cuz a lot WAGs want to hear it.
And I'm feelin like Mike at his Baddest.
The Pimps at their Gladist.
And I know they love it.
So to hell with all that rubbish

Estelle:
Would you be my love, my love.
Could be mine would you be my love my love, could be mine
Could you be my love, my love.
Would you be my American Boy. American Boy

Chorus
Take me on a trip, I'd like to go some day
Take me to Chicago, San Francisco Bay.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You'll be my American Boy, American Boy.

Ratatat...You Blow My Mind

I've been listening to KEXP more and more at work lately, just cuz it's really really good background music, most of it is nothing that I know, there's a lot of kind of techno-y stuff with no words. The only thing is that their announcer DJ people are kind of annoying and weird. They do this continuous wave inflection thing with their voice when they're saying stuff and it's weird.

Anyway, since I've been listening more, I've been recognizing some of the songs and one of them I heard today has no words in it and I thought it was really innovative and went on their site to see what band it was and it was Ratatat's Mirando. I decided then and there that I was going to Best Buy the next chance I got (which was today after work) and get their newest album LP3.

Every single track on here is amazing and is blowing my mind. I LOVE THIS CD!! Damn this stuff is amazing. I got the CD because Zach and I need some tunes to listen to during long drives when the radio goes out.

Movie Review #7: The Holiday

7/21 The Holiday = Two women switch houses for 2 weeks during the Christmas season. They're both trying to get away from their respective broken relationships and in their new pad, find someone new.

It was a fairly fun movie but not the best chick flick by any means. Cameron Diaz is gorgeous throughout the whole thing and Jude Law is pretty dang handsome. Otherwise, there's a bit of "um yeah...like that'd ever happen" type of stuff, some random old men, and the fact that there's kind of two storylines going on at the same time is not very well interconnected. I was looking forward to seeing it because I thought the whole life swapping thing would be interesting but it really wasn't what I expected.

Movie Review #6: The Dark Knight

7/19 The Dark Knight = The second installment in the new Batman series, the Joker is introduced.

What can I add to the enormous list of why this movie is so great? It's twisted, scarily human, a Batman's version of Fight Club. People are f-ed up...but at the same time, there's some real decency in the world too. RIP Heath Ledger but I think even if Heath was still alive and nothing bad had happened this would have still been a great movie. Comic book movies are really taking off and I think it's because of the content. People are ready to think. They want to ponder life's meaning and the dark nature of humanity and the cruelty of one's destiny and fate as it is intertwined with others and their random choices. With so much information at our fingertips (haha literally), we're on the brink of an era where knowledge is free and accessible and what we choose to do with it will hopefully blow future generations' minds.

Finally, Another Look at "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

http://www.newsweek.com/id/147961?from=rss

This is obviously one of those extremely retarded laws that will undoubtedly be overturned in my lifetime and my kids will learn about it in their History of Gay Rights in the US class.

Dead Again - Best Gaming Song Ever?

There's some fundraiser thing related to this song right now to benefit Tom Smith who had a nasty accident on stage and is now in the hospital. I listened to it and caught some of the references (yay for being a well rounded gamer?) but it's not as catchy as Still Alive I would say. Though I would say it has greater appeal to gamers everywhere with at least one of their favorite games mentioned in here somewhere. And we can all bond together with our shared misery of dying over and over and over again. Though it would have been nice if he had mentioned some racing games...like Burnout. Nothing like dying in an explosion of metal and flames while flipping through the air.

http://www.thefump.com/fump.php?id=1071


Lyrics to Dead Again:

Rocket launcher, rail gun, BFG Nine Thousand One,
Never saw it coming and I never had a chance.
Bad enough being dead, Sub Zero pulled off my head,
Master Chief is doing his victory dance.

Lost Asia in Risk, Diablo burnt me to a crisp,
Even though I had the Godly Plate of the Whale.
Two pair, eights and kings, Sauron got the One Ring,
Getting dysentery on the Oregon Trail.

Harry Potter came up short dueling with Voldemort,
Elspeth Holliday met the Blair Witch.
Spider-Man showed such aplomb till he met that pumpkin bomb,
Mr. Incredible didn't throw the switch.

Cliff racers, cave bats, stupid frickin' giant rats,
Deadly pirahna poodles, or soldier ants,
You were eaten by a grue, Hah! The wumpus got you,
Nancy Drew and Scooby Doo teabagged in Halo 2

Dead again,
Splattered all over a rendered killing floor,
Dead again,
Let me respawn and I'll be back for more,
Dead again,
Let me get to the checkpoint, then you can do your worst,
Dead again,
Then I'll reload but this time I'll shoot first.

My marble plummets from a height, should have rolled it to the right,
Jumped through lots of traffic but then fell off a log.
Russian cubes from the sky, and I let 'em stack too high,
Punched right off the screen by a humanoid frog.

T-rex got me, now I'm toast, chased down by a blinking ghost,
Landed on some spikes and dropped every last ring.
Bitten by a fanged slug, Jafar zapped my flying rug,
Trampled in a bog by a Barbarian King.

Mechanized war bots, Mudokan slingshots,
Centipede dropping a flea on my head.
Couldn't fly as Alfred Chicken, Duke Nukem kept on kickin',
Fought Guy of Gisborne with only some bread.

Skeletons hit me twice, dragon breath cased me in ice,
Couldn't line up all the jewels three in a row,
Shot up by Miami cops, beaten with karate chops,
Kept on missing platform hops, and the timer never stops.

Dead again,
How come these worlds have so many bottomless pits?
Dead again,
And everyone that I meet wants me blown to bits.
Dead again,
Reincarnation one byte at a time,
Dead again,
It's so embarassing to be killed by green slime.

Real life goes on until you're
Dead, or so I'm told,
Injury, catastrophe, or
Simply growing old
Fantasy's supposed to be where
You can find your dreams,
But all I find is game designers
Hooked on players' screams.

Smothered by a boa constrictor, drawn and quartered by a lich or
Eaten by a cat while dodging Beethoven's Fifth.
My flying ostrich drowned, monkeys thowing barrels down,
Torn apart by creatures out of legend and myth.

Zombies got a hold of Jill, nurses up in Silent Hill,
All those German snipers on the beach at Omaha.
Swallowed by the sand worms, infected by some nasty germs,
Didn't slap the leather when I heard him say, "DRAW!"

Running from Koala Kong, made a turn that's really wrong,
Sephiroth's supernova fried us where we stood.
Broiled in a lava flow, squashed by Super Mario,
Didn't make my saving throw against lawful good.

Thirty zillion space machines blowning up in cut scenes,
I actually found a way to die in Myst.
Ninja swords decapitate, plasma guns obliterate,
Pocket nukes annihilate, reboot, transubstantiate.

Dead again,
Inching ahead until once more I choke,
Dead again,
The funeral bills would leave my whole state broke,
Dead again,
Something is trying to chew off both my legs,
Dead again,
Who in the hell dreams up these easter eggs?

Dead again,
All of the guys at work think I'm a freak,
Dead again,
They watch golf and NASCAR every week,
Dead again,
They'll never understand what I call fun,
Dead again,
'Cause any of my lives is cooler than their one.

Movie Review #5: High School Musical 2

7/17 High School Musical 2 = The entire cast from the first HS Musical are out on summer break now.

Yes, I liked it. There were definitely some way way cheesy bits that made me laugh out of disbelief and amusement but overall, a lot of the songs were really catchy. Makes me really want to take up Hip-Hop again! I just wish I didn't suck so bad. Anyway, this definitely isn't a movie that I would casually recommend to people...seeing as how Zach practically refused to see it with me and I watched it on my own. I had fun though. I dunno whether or not I liked the second one better than the first. They're both pretty on par with each other.

Blogging & the Law

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/technology/15law.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

During the infancy of the Internet, when "blogging" first came about, it was just a journal on the computer. People wrote haphazardly about everything from their love life, to their dogs, work, and used real names, real places. No longer is such naivete suggested or tolerated. More and more often, there are news stories about so-and-so being fired because of what they wrote on their blog or other similar consequences of simply exercising their freedom of speech. Things that were never a concern in the beginning are rapidly becoming huge issues that could change the Internet until it is unrecognizable. Net Neutrality, cookies, bots, privacy issues, identity theft...these all encroach upon the air-bytes that the Internet breathes. Too dramatic? Not nearly.

Anyway, the article is really more about when people should be forced to give up the anonymous cloak that is being behind a computer. It's pretty easy these days with IP tracking and fancy hacker-like programs and triangulation...and stuff... so really, the less you know about someone, the better for everyone. People who gain internet notority...I guess it must be cool, but really really weird. And probably a good dose of scary in there too with all the potential for stalkers. People are f-ed up man.

E3 2008 - Microsoft, EA, Nintendo, & Sony's Press Conferences

Microsoft Press Conference - I want to be a Microsoft Booth Babe!

EA Press Conference - Man I need to play with that Spore Creature Creator soon.

Nintendo Press Conference - Yay! More Animal Crossing!

Sony Press Conference - Ugh wow...the 80 GB for $400...still pretty pricey. Little Big Planet looks hella fun though...I think I should be able to find some friends that have a PS3 come October...

Movie Review #4: Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix

7/12 Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix = 5th installment in the Harry Potter series. Things take a darker turn and the young wizards at Hogwarts will need to take up arms (i.e. their wands) to stave off The Dark Lord once again.

There's some definite ugliness in this movie, the CGI is used to further the plot than to show how beautiful and fun magic is. No Quidditch for one thing. There's a scene early on in the movie where a bunch of them are shown flying on their brooms and it is SO badly CGed. Easily the worst and most "unrealistic" flying in the entire series. Other than that, that books are still much better than the movies, which even at 3 hours, feel like they're picking bits and pieces and cramming it in. But it's always fun to see the scenes in the movie played out. Man, I can't wait until they finish all the movies...Harry Potter Marathon!! We can spend all day reading the book, and then watch the movie at night. For a week straight!

Now I wish I was in college where I had tons of free time to actually accomplish this.

Movie Review #3: I Am Legend

7/10 I Am Legend = The miraculous cure for cancer turns into a deadly disease that kills the majority of the world's population and turns a smaller percentage into monsters. One man is living in NY trying to find a cure.

I was thinking...how scary could a movie with Will Smith as the main character be? Turns out it's pretty scary. The deadly disease turns 9% of the world pop. into very fast, part zombie, part vampire monsters. Most of the scariness of the movie comes from being in the dark and/or having the scary monsters rushing at you. Overall though, I suppose it was a pretty good movie. Survival movies are always kind of the same, bleak, with tons of unanswered questions about how they could possibly rebuild after such a huge collapse...and the realization that it's not a totally unrealistic possibility and just how f-ed we'd be with so much of the world's population dead and not a small number out to kill you. The world is a fragile place and there's always talk about how people should be prepared for disasters of a large scale but you really have to want to survive and be able to endure the kind of post-apocalyptic lifestyle. And I guess, be lucky enough to have the immunity.

Pre-PAX 2008 Thoughts

OMG, they're going to start sending out our PAX badges next week! Exciting times are almost upon us!

Every year (so far this'll be my 3rd time), I dream about what it would be like if I were chosen to be one of the Omeganauts. Or, I guess, someone that I knew. Anyway, they're doing the random choosing between this week and next! Ahhh, the fame and the glory...or possibly the utter humiliation and shame...the chance to participate in one of the greatest Gamelympics ever. Though I suppose with PAX being next month, you'd only have about a month to "train" for it. Man, the final round was last year with Halo 3 was really intense. Though, pretty much all FPSs are.

Also exciting...Jonathan Coulton will be there (though apparently he was there last year as well...how did I miss that?)!! Time to brush up on his songs and memorize all the lyrics so I can sing along like a true fan. I hope he plays his song on Rockband and gets people from the audience to fill in the rest of the band. He can even play guitar and sing. That would be the roxorz.

TV Series Review #1: Band of Brothers

7/8 Band of Brothers - Follows Easy Company, the US Army 101st Airborne division, and their mission in WWII Europe.

Zach, Ben, and I finally finished watching Band of Brothers last night. Probably because as TV series go, it's pretty short. Sure the episodes are an hour or so long each, but there's only 10 of them.

So, to sum up the series in one word: Intense. Especially the initial foray into the war, which in retrospect, is really perfect because the soldiers are also shell-shocked and chilled. Almost all war movies make me think of the famous war poem:

Dulce et Decorum Est

by Wilfrid Owen

Bent double, like of old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind:
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in sonic smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not talk with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Which means "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country". Though it was written during WWI, it aptly describes the numb horror and churning despair. I think along with that if I were in a war situation, I'd constantly be fitfully wavering between acceptance of my eventual death far far away from everything familiar and loved and wild, drunken, blinding hope that I'll survive and live the rest of my days peacefully.

I'd recommend it anyway though, because the amazing bond forged through the pressure and craziness is really beautiful. It's really not about why wars are fought or if there's a better way, but about the individual in the war, which can so easily be overlooked, especially when the death count gets really high (say in the 4 thousands...). It's easy to romanticise it but Band of Brothers really strikes a good balance between the awful death/dying bit and the bad ass I'll f you up if you f with my brothers.

The Art of Blogging Part 2

Sooo...now that I've started to blog more frequently, half of the fun of it is the fact that others are actually reading what I'm writing. That this matters. That it's entertaining.

Luckily, I was able to make a sorta (okay, not really...but in my head it seemed) subtle foray into the recent movie reviews that I've been doing. Though it's still up for grabs whether or not anyone's going to remember to check this :(

People! If you're reading this, make a nice comment! I'll love you 4eva!!

Movie Review #2 - Garden Party

7/7 Garden Party = About several adults and teens trying to make their way in LA/Hollywood.

This was a fantastic film. One of the best that I've seen for a while. It's about several people's lives and they lightly twist together near the end but not like any of those other movies. The people are really interesting and it's actually a pretty happy movie. There's lots of pot in the movie and some really good music, underage nude photography and some people who find their way. Some of it felt too good to be true, like where's all the horribleness of Hollywood...and it's in there a bit, but I almost feel like there should be a sequel that shows how awful everyone's lives become later on. It's really an American Dream type of movie. Everyone comes out better in the end. Definitely recommended.

Movie Review #1 - Wall-E, The Jane Austin Book Club, & 2 Days in Paris

Since Zach and I watch so many movies and I tend to forget them very quickly afterwards, it feels like it would be worthwhile for me to document the ones I've watched. This way, it'll be easy for me to tabulate later on how many movies I've watched. I should do the same for the books I've read, but my Facebook keeps a pretty good record...but if it ever got erased that would really suck.

6/27 Wall-E = animated movie about the last robot on Earth, tasked to forever clean the planet up. Mankind is living on a spaceship far far away. They send robots from the spaceship to check up on Earth every once in a while.

This really wouldn't be a little kids movie, the beginning is kind of slow and depressing and when the other robot shows up, it's a bit scary. However, the animation is great and the tones they set with the background and colors are really apt. The stuff about the humans was grossly unreal and a little too easy. I LOVED the end credits though. The pretty one as well as the aski art one. It's good, cute, well animated, but in terms of plot and depth, it didn't really explore all that much, there could have been so much more interesting and funny things on the spaceship.

7/6 The Jane Austin Book Club = a rom-com about 5 women & 1 man who each pick a Jane Austin book and discuss one per month.

You really don't have to know or have read any of Jane Austin's books to enjoy this movie. Two of the men in the movie are super super hot, especially the bad boy high schooler. Reminds me of Jared Leto in My So-Called Life, who was SO HOT in the series. The movie ended on a really happy note and was surprisingly very conservative and kind of moralistic in the end. Which, though I'm a rebel at heart, I approve of. I'd let my daughter watch it. More serious than funny but pretty good. The eye candy really added to the movie though ;)

7/6 2 Days in Paris = another rom-com about a french woman who is living in NY and her boyfriend and her are touring Europe and decide to spend 2 days in Paris, where she has a flat that is directly above her parents.

Sort of a foreign film in the sense that there are subtitles during most of the movie, but the main characters also speak English. Some really funny bits dealing with people talking in French about the guy or around the guy and the guy not understanding. I really liked it because it reminds me of how it must be for Zach since he understands a tiny tiny bit of Mandarin and most of the time my parents and I speak in Mandarin even when he's around. So sometimes when my parents and I fight, he has no clue what's going on. He's always like, is everything okay? And I'm always like oh yeah, sure, it's nothing. Don't worry about it. Lots of talking in the movie but pretty interesting. Recommended for those in interracial relationships.