Wednesday, September 27

Howdy, Howdy

Hello, all! I know, I know... I haven't posted forever. Well, since Terezita and I have gotten married (and even for a little while before) I've been living in a studio in Garden Grove. This place does not have an internet connection (or even a open wifi signal) so I'm outa luck. Right now, I'm at a Starbucks on my break, so I thought I'd post a quickie to tell you that my posts here will be sporadic at best and non-existant most likely. I will be posting more as soon as we move back to Irvine (which is in the plans). Our best to all of youse. See y'all later!

Sunday, July 30

Random Link

The Fountain Jet Home Soda Maker From Soda-Club

Alright, I realize that not everyone will think that this is as cool as I think it is, but check it out! This is a way to make your own homemade sodas that are supposedly healthier for you and all. Plus, you can create your own!

...Well, I think it's cool...

Saturday, July 29

The Credit Card Prank

The Credit Card Prank

Ever notice how no one ever checks your signature on those credit card receipts? Well, this guy decided to test it by signing his receipts in progressively crazier ways until someone noticed. He got away with "Zeus", a checkerboard, and even a stick figure. Go ahead and read; it's a fun story.

Wednesday, July 26

I know I said I wasn't going to post another video,

but this is hilarious.

The Matrix XP

I've been noticing that my blog has been loading a little slow,

so I'll just link to this video:


Powers of Ten


This is an ancient (from the 70's or so) science video zooming out by powers of ten to the outer reaches of our universe then in to quarks in protons. It's very cool and well worth the jump.

Tuesday, July 25

Dugg!

Collection of Interesting Google Links. A collection of some interesting and strange google links that most people probably have not seen. Some are fun and some interesting.

read more | digg story

Dugg!

The biggest hole in the world - amazing photos. The biggest hole in the world is located in Russia.. it is actually a diamond mine.. see the amazing photos here...

Check this out! It's amazing!

read more | digg story

Monday, July 24

Josh's Wedding

Our good friends Josh and Courtnie were married last weekend. They got married on a yacht that departed from Newport. It was beautiful! A fun time was had by all. We also got to meet our friend Robert's new girlfriend. She was very nice and friendly. It was nice to meet her. They promised to come down some time and visit us. Here's a picture of the newlyweds cutting their cake. Notice their cake. It was made to look very... fantasy. It has crooked angles and everything. It was really a work of art.

From the bottom of our hearts, we wish them the best of luck and the happiest of lives in their future.

Random Link

Monopoly replaces cash with Visa debit card

Yes, you read that right. Say goodbye to arguments with your brother about his inability to count out correct change! Monopoly has gone pastic!

Sunday, July 23

Random Link

Photographing Squirrels - a photoset on Flickr

This is the best pages I've ever seen of squirrel photography... okay, maybe the only. But check it out!

YouTube - Star Wars Next Gen

Saw this on Digg. This is awesome! AWESOME! This is a trailer for a new Star Wars game coming out on the next-gen systems (xbox 360, PS3). With force powers like these, who needs the light side?

Random Video

YouTube - Star Wars: A Lost Hope

Yeah, I know. This is pretty old, and I showed just about everyone when it first came out, but I just thought I'd revisit it.

Dugg!

"Flash: What is your religioin, if any? USA Religion Survey Shows Increase in 'None'."

This is a pretty cool graph that shows what states have what religions. Try clicking on Utah. Crazy Mormons. Always good for a laugh.

read more | digg story

Random Video

This is a demo of a new "window manager" (that's the thing that handles how your windows and desktop look on your computer) for Linux called XGL. It is beautiful. Even if you guys can't appreciate it fully, maybe it will make you think twice about your boring Windows XP window manager. Viva el Linux!

Random Link

Catholic High School Sues Over Wikipedia Posting

This is crazy. A school in Nebraska is suing (SP?) over what someone wrote in a Wikipedia article. Aparently, a disenfranchised student wrote "mean-spirited" comment about the school in the article. Now the school has contacted their ISP and are trying to get the names of the kid. Whatever happened to free-speech? What ever happened to the "edit this page" button in Wikipedia? Wouldn't it make more sense just to edit out the content?

Saturday, July 22

Dugg!

This is a music video made in the 90's encouraging kids not to pirate their favorite games from school. You gotta love the mix of rap and the interviews with the programmers. Vintage.

read more | digg story

Random Video

I've been looking for this for a while. This is the classic 1990's anti-piracy music(?) video made by the software publishers: Don't Copy That Floppy! Watch it, love it. It is awesome.

Friday, July 21

Pseudo-Anarchy and America

I watched V for Vendetta again today. Once again, I must say, it is a wonderful movie. They did a wonderful job on it. It is very... recent. I highly recommend it. For those of you who have already seen it, some questions:

>What is the feasibility of a sort of pseudo-anarchy in society today?
>Does/Would anarchy work?
>What is anarchy? Is it simply the complete nonexistence of government, or something more (or less, rather)?
>Can anarchy work within a particular economic framework, such as socialism or capitalism or communism?
>Does anarchy tend toward egalitarianism? Why or why not?

I am particularly interested in Allan's answers, since he is a sort of pseudo-anarchist. Comment away!

Random Link

Frownies™

Ever use a frownie? A frownie looks like this :-( Well, apparently, Despair, Inc. trademarked the frownie, so you may be sued. Have a nice day!

...criminal...

Random Link

Inspirational Posters

This is awesome. These are inspirational posters based on RPG games. Very funny. For dpressing inspirational posters, click here.

Thursday, July 20

Random Link

My Dynamite Idaho

Has anyone heard of this before? Aparently, "The State of Idaho passed a resolution commending Jared and Jerusha Hess for the production of their film Napoleon Dynamite." Crazy, eh? Now I go to bed. Good night!

Hey! I can see my house from here!

I'm not sure if that Google Maps link is accurate, but try turning on the satalite imagery and zooming in on one of the people who visited recently. You can get right down close enough to see where they're using the computer. Kiss yo' privacy goodbye!

Random Link

Caught on Tape: Bush's Blunt Diplomacy

Frankly, this article is ridiculous. Apparently, Bush accidently left his microphone on while he and Blair chatted about different world events at the G-8. This makes news? What a load of crap. Really now. Apparently, even though the president isn't much of a conversationalist (shocking!), he says in private basically the same he says in public. If anything, this sort of reassures me. Now, we may not like him, but at least he's not just saying things in public that he doesn't say in private, eh? I mean, is anyone shocked he doesn't like Annan's cease fire plan?

I'd like to hear what you guys are thinking about the conflict! Drop me a comment!

Random Link

Key Events in Lebanon-Israel Conflict

An interesting timeline of the events leading up to the current Hezbollah-Isreali conflict.

Random Video

Hey, does anyone know where this is playing? It would be awesome to see this!

Random Link

Mini Pet Cactus

This is... odd. A pet cactus to carry around with you... Hmmm... I like that you have to buy the cactus and the stand seperately.

Awesome Gadget

Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard

This thing is so cool! It projects the image of a keyboard on any surface that you can actually type on! For only $189.99!

The Great Apartment Search

I Know I haven't posted for a while, but we've been busy. I know you guys have been searching for a reason to live without my daily posts keeping you company, so here's a new installment.

First off, yes, we did go to a Dashboard Confessional concert. It was awesome. Stinkin' awesome. Terezita surprised me with this. She went out and bought the tickets and planned the whole day without me even knowing what was going on. So that day, we drove out to Universal City (I think that's what it's called) and had dinner at Tu Tu Tango. It was very good. I had some of their specialty: sangria. It was alright, I suppose. It tasted like a very fruity wine. I'd have it again, I suppose. Then we went to the concert. When I found out who it was, I started jumping around in happiness. Those of you who know me know that I have loved Dashboard for a long long time. This was my first time seeing him live. So we got in and the show started. The first act was this guy Ben Lee. He was great. He sounds awesome. He is taoist, so his music is very positive, but in the same genre as Dashboard. I've been listening to this guy a lot since the concert. He's just so much fun. The next act was this band called Say Anything. Never in my life have I heard a more out of place band at a concert. They sang a sort of heavy punk metal. They pit was entirely still. The audience was talking or leaving to go get food. It was pretty bad. They didn't go over too well. Not a single whiny word proceeded from their mouthes, which is exactly why people go to a Dashboard concert. So, finally, Dashboard got up and played. It was amazing. Everybody was singing along with the music and many songs Chris Carraba let the audience sing instead of him for much of the song. It was awesome. And he put in a lot of his old stuff and just enough of his new stuff (which is considerably different). All around, it was crazy-cool. Very fun, indeed.

Since then, we've been on the hunt for an apartment. With our price range, it has been hard to find something without a load of graffiti on the walls and drug deals going on outside. But yesterday, Terezita went to look at an apartment that she found on the internet (using Craigslist (is that one word or what?)). Before she went to see it, I told her that if she fell in love with it, she could sign us up for it. While I was at work, she gave me a call. She had fallen for it. So we went to look at it last night. It was very nice. They billed it as a extralarge studio, but it was more like a one bedroom because the closet is so stinkin' big. For those of you that have been to the apartment that I'm living in right now, the closet is only slightly smaller than the room my roommate and I share. So, we have a nice living room and kitchen. It is pretty small, but that's sort of what we were looking for. We even have a patio area where we could put a couple chairs and maybe a barbecue. The neighborhood is also nice. It is in the Korean Town of Garden Grove, but it has to be the most Mexican Korean town in the world. Well, it's about equal measure Hispanic and Asian. Weird.

Anyway, we put in our application yesterday and are turning in our deposit tomorrow. Very exciting. So we are finally getting our first "our place". Both Terezita and I are very excited about decorating it and making it truly ours. In a couple of weeks, hopefully we can have all of you over so we can have a party or something. Even sooner, we'll have all of you over to help us move! :)

So, I'll try to get some pictures up of it as soon as I can. Maybe some video, too, if I can borrow Kevin's camera. Have a nice night, all!

Saturday, July 15

And a computer geek?

Why, yes I am! I am, apparently, a computer GOD! A god among insects, certainly, but a god nonetheless.


My computer geek score is greater than 100% of all people in the world! How do you compare? Click here to find out!

How nerdy am I?

Nerdy enough to take this quiz to find out:

I am nerdier than 95% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!

Random Link

Meet the Geek Elite

You think you're a geek? This guy is certified!

Friday, July 14

Jon Stewart on Net Neutrality

Google Maps

The Google Maps tracker is finally working!

Go check it out and see where people are coming from! Just look at these recent cities:

Recent cities...

1) Houston, Texas
2) Athens, Attiki
3) Los Angeles, California
4) Springfield, Missouri
5) Abbottabad, North-west Frontier
6) New York
7) Naples, Florida
8) Clarksville, Tennessee
9) Quito, Pichincha
10) Dale, Wisconsin

I'm word famous! Yay!

Click on the link on the right hand side under the bravenet counter.

Thursday, July 13

Dashboard!

We're at dashboard confessional concert! Yay! They're about to start!

--

Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

From Disneyland

 

(This is really a test of the new Picasa for Linux) Posted by Picasa

Random Link

and then we lived...happily ever after...

Wow. This is... odd... and sad. Kinda in an Edward Gorey type way. I'm ot sure if everything they are saying is in English, but look around the site a little. It is strangely affecting.

Random Link

Instant Blog Post

This is funny. From the site:

"You know how sometimes you feel like you haven't posted anything to your blog for a while, and you should really get around to doing it, but there's nothing to really write about? We've all been there. That's why we at flooble have decided to give you an Instant Blog Post Generator."

Here's an example:

I very much hate my cousin Alejandro. At times he is quite crazy, but then yesterday he just disturbed me... I needed his advice talking to someone about ingratitude on the African subcontinent, and then he started whining:



"That's amazing! I am so sick of hearing about the African subcontinent all the time!"



At first I answered "NO KIDDING?!" and the next day I just subsided and began sobbing. After all, he *is* my cousin and he wants what is best for me...



Link of the day: All Your Oil... | Randomly generated by Flooble Instant Blog Post Generator

Random Link

Furor Over Sony Patent - Los Angeles Times

Hey, Sony is trying to take away some more of your rights with this new patent. Basically it keeps you from playing discs already registered on another machine. So, what if you have two PS3's? What if you want to take your game to a friend's house? What about the used game market? What if you simply want to make a dupe for backuup purposes? This is the sort of thing that sneaks in while we're unawares. Protect your rights!


-=Thanks to Kasey for the link=-

Random Link

U.S. Finishes A 'Strong Second' In Iraq War

A very funny article fro the Onion, America's Finest News Source.

Shout out to Kasey in Ecuador.

My biggest international subscriber. His dot on the map is getting bigger everyday, although I suspect that it is because he is enjoying the Ecuadorian food.

Wednesday, July 12

A Chapter of My Family History

I've been reading Maus (Amazon | Wikipedia) by Art Spiegleman recently. It is a graphic novel about a Jewish survivor of the holocaust. It is told from the point of view of the man's son, who is an artist and wants to make a book about his father's life. This got me thinking about my own family history.

My paternal grandfather, Jaap Overduin, was a survivor of the war. As a small child, he was chased through his native Holland by the invading Germans. He and his family survived by eating tulip bulbs. As I walked home tonight (I had about a 15 minute walk from my car to my apartment today because one of my apartment mates lost the only parking pass) I could smell the scent of flowers around me. It absolutely filled the air. The moon was huge, buoyant and about to burst. As I walked, I couldn't help think about my life. History is an amazing thing. It connects us through strands of humanity. I felt a sudden connection with my past. Granted, I have been reading the book so it has been in the forefront of my mind recently, but I had a moment of clarity. It was like stepping into a clearing, as Heidegger would say (which is ironic because Heidegger was a vocal Nazi).

How different my life is from my ancestors! But! I am the same! Truly, the same blood that gave them life gives me life. The same blood that carried them through the war allows me the pleasure of a kiss from Terezita or the sight of fireworks over Disneyland or the feel of the fresh California breeze on my face. How did this happen? They paid the price so that I may reap the rewards. I most likely will never experience what my grandfather went through. I will likely feel the breeze of a thousand shores and never wonder if I will wake up alive the next morning.

My grandfather is a hero. He survived the war. He flew out to California to live with a cousin of his - to get out of Europe, off the stage this ultimately tragic play. He married my grandmother and they begat my father. He now lives in the motherland again with my grandmother, an aunt and her family and an uncle and his family. My father stayed here, an American. Everyone on that side (to the best of my knowledge) has some sort of American citizenship. I remember my grandfather once saying that his American citizenship was one of the most precious things to him.

We live in a time and place where there is very little for us to fear. We are in a blessed situation. Even I, a poor college student, have a few bucks to blow on Ben & Jerrys when I want some. In this sort of society, where we do not have to focus on our primary needs, isn't it in our ability to help out a little? I am keeping my audience in mind! I am speaking to my friends, mainly. We all come from upper-middle class households. We all are in the process of gaining higher learning. We are all aware of our surroundings. What are we planning for the future? What is all this for? Are we going to use our education, our elevated position, to help ourselves or the world? With a little effort, I believe we can help out those who did not have the same opportunities as we have!

My grandfather lived through fear and accomplished great things. What can we do, without fear?

: : :

As a post script:

This is a true story:

My maternal grandmother was a riveter during the war. Much later in her life, she married a man who fought in the German army during WWII. His home town was bombed during that time, very likely by a plane that my grandmother tightened the bolts on. So it goes.

By the way, his name was Paul and he made very good eclairs. He worked as a baker in East Germany after the war before he came to America.

: : :

What was your family doing during WWII? Discuss!

Random Link

Super-Size Me

If you haven't seen this movie yet, here's your chance. I highly recommend it.

Tuesday, July 11

Random Link

Engadget 1985 - Engadget

The 1985 Version of Engadget

Dugg! and submitted by me!

Pirates Pirated?
This man claims that Disney stole his idea for the blockbuster movie.

read more | digg story

Summer Movie Review, Part 2

Here's Part 2!

Superman Returns: (7/4/06) I think I would have enjoyed this movie better if I had grown up watching the original ones. I don't know... maybe I'm just used to seeing more moody, rugged heroes. He's clean shaven, nice haircut, not at all like other superheroes recently. And then there's this whole thing with his illegitamite kid. No matter what your moral stance, I think that we can agree that the honorable thing to do when one knocks a girl up is to marry her or at least stick around. Superman - Mr. Honor and Justice - took off for five years. Okay, maybe he didn't know, but after he does find out and Louis asks him to stick around, he gives her a crap answer like "I'm always here." Yeah, sure. I'm sure he's going to show up at his son's little league game. And just try getting child support from Superman. Hate to be the collector on that call. Surely, the man that Louis was dating was more of a man and father than Superman. He was the type of guy who would do anything for his family. And then, the whole bad guy plan to destroy the world: make an island out of crystals? What the heck is that? And then, the whole undeveloped plot with Superman's son and his powers... I don't know. It just didn't catch me. The special effects, though, were amazing. And Kevin Spacey was pretty good, too. Rating: 4/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest: (7/7/06) I know a lot of people didn't like this movie (including certain ninjas) but I really enjoyed it. Lots of action, lots of special effects, lots of semi-witty banter. Johnny Depp still had his gay swagger, but he was a little more hetro in this one. The plot line was complicated though. Actually there were a lot more than just one plot line. Everyone and everything had a plot line. It was cool, though. It was at least as good as the first one. I called the ending, though, from halfway through the movie. I knew there was no way they could finish it in just three hours. Go see it. It is awesome. Rating: 9.462/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift: (7/8/06): Wow. This was a bad movie. I mean, bad. Horrible. Like a car wreck horrible. Just plot lines and character development strewn all over the pavement, all gooey and gross and starting to smell bad. I saw this while Terezita was in work and I was bored. Take my advice: just say no. This was the only movie I've ever seen that people actually walked out - not because of violence or sex or objectional content, but because of sheer boredom. There was no good part to this movie. Rating: -2/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

Goodnight, all!

Random Link

Another Free Year's Subscription to Electronic Gaming Monthly - Gizmodo

Get them while they're hot!

HEY! I TOPPED 100 VISITORS TODAY!

YAY!

Dugg!

How to PWN in the original Pac-Man
This guy has spent way too much time studying the workings of the original Namco classic. Here are strategic tips & patterns never to get eaten by that darn ghost again.

read more | digg story

Monday, July 10

The Summer Movie Review, Part 1

Finally, here it is: The Summer Movie Review, Part 1

So, in chronological order, here are the first three of the six movies I've seen in the last month:

The Break Up: (6/10/06) Gotta say, this was way more depressing than I thought it would be. They bill it as a comedy. No freakin' way. So, basically, the plot is 1) Guy doesn't appreciate girl. 2) Girl breaks up with guy to show him that he needs her. 3) Guy wants girl to appreciate what he does; decides to wait her out. 4) Plan fails and guy admits his mistake. 5) Girl rips out his heart and throws it into a bonfire, while performing satanic rituals. 6) End credits, ushers remove all belts and shoelaces. Depressing, and not very funny at all. But was it good? Eh, it was all right. Vince Vaughan and that chick from Office Space are both good actors. I didn't really care about them though - there wasn't enough of seeing them happy. Rating: 6/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

Cars: (6/17/06) Wow. This was great. I loved this movie. I believe that this is my second favorite Pixar movie ever (right after The Incredibles). Very cool, very fun. Owen Wilson's character was perfect for him. It is a classic (sorta cliche) story about the stuck up jock guy who doesn't think he needs to be part of a team. He ends up in a backward town on the old Route 66 and finds friends and brings them all to the final race where they help him win. I called the ending, though. You will have to watch to find out. The major fear I had about this movie was how the cars would look with mouthes and personalities and all that. Pixar (as usual) worked it all out and it looked very - for lack of a better term - natural. Cheers to Pixar! And the animation was gorgeous. Simply beautiful. I heard that it took about 8 hours to render each frame of the movie. It shows. Having recently watched The Incredibles, the advances they've made are amazing. Rating: 9/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

Click: (6/24/06) This was a very surprising movie, mostly because I went into it expecting very little. Adam Sandler stars in this movie about a guy who gets a "universal" remote that - wait for it... - controls his universe. He can fast-forward, rewind, pause, skip chapters, etc. Well, it turns out that it begins skipping whole years of his life and he sees his family fall apart around him. It is actually very touching. And funny. One of the more hilarious parts of the movie is his boss' habit of hiring beautiful women as his assistants. Sandler's assistant, though, is one of the more homely (and scheming) women known to mankind. This is a great movie to go see. I laughed, I cried... although it seems like a much more cliche movie in retrospect. Rating 8/10 Official Site | Wikipedia

Goodnight!

This is pretty cool.

If you click here you can see a Google map with the locations of the visitors to this page on it. Pretty cool, eh? By the way, if this page is running really slow for ya'll, tell me (leave a comment) so I know. There is a lot more javascript running under the hood now.

Sunday, July 9

Random Link

THE SHOW OFF T-SHIRT - With built in sound sensitive graphic! - gadgets, funny gifts and company gifts

This is pretty funny, although very expensive for a t-shirt.

Random Link

The Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books

This site isn't going to win any design awards, but it is interesting none the less.

Another late night post.

Went to the movies again today. You know when you're watching too many movies when you think to yourself "Oh... I gotta hurry up or I'll miss 'First Look'!" Goodnight everyone!

Saturday, July 8

A Ninja's Take on Pirates

Friday, July 7

Pancakes, Fireworks and Pirates

So, tradition is that on the Fourth of July, my family would always have a pancake dinner. Sweet, sweet strawberry and blueberry pancakes. Mmmmm... So I got to Terezita's apartment and we began making the food. We used this recipe and they turned out really well. I handled the griddle and Terezita did the decorating. Everybody seemed to really enjoy them. Here's some pictures:













Yeah, that's me with the fire alarm. We set it off when we were cooking. Nearly woke everyone up in the whole house.

So then, after breakfast and all that we lit some of the fireworks that we had bought a couple days before. Very fun. I know the picture is bad, but just use your imagination. All in all, it was a very fun Fourth of July.

Yesterday (well, actually this morning), Terezita and I went to see Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest. We kinda dressed up in pirate garb.. That's us below. It was really good, although I knew how it was going to end. I'm really planning to do a sort of summer movie review tomorrow or something to show off all the movies I've seen this summer. Well, we were up really late, so I'm really tired. If the post seemed a little incoherent, that's why. Good night everyone.

Wednesday, July 5

Dugg!

20 Years of PC Viruses - Sit back and enjoy the tour!

"This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first PC virus. We look back at the highs and lows (well, mostly lows) of the ongoing struggle against malware."

read more | digg story

Random Link of the Day

Welcome to the 419 Eater

This is the anti-nigerian scam site. It's really great. These guys do something called "scambaiting" where they wait for scammers to get into contact with them and then scam them. Fun stuff. Check it out.
Sorry I haven't written lately. I want to show

off the fireworks from 4th of July. It was a lot of fun.


Today after work, Terezita and I went to Macy's and registered for some new stuff. So, that's good. Then we walked around a little and went home. I'm going to bed early because we're going to go see Pirates tomorrow at the midnight showing. Gotta get some sleep. Good night!

Monday, July 3

The Simpsons... LIVE!

A real life version of the famous opening sequence, made in the UK.

read more | digg story
Yay! More computer for less money!!

Nothing better...

Well, today was eventful-ish. This morning I went with Terezita to the doctors. She has one more appointment before we get married. Just a little bit longer. We only have two more months! So, after that, we went and had breakfast with her parents at Denny's. Then, we went and bought fireworks for tomorrow.

Now, I have never bought fireworks before. I used to live in a place where fireworks were illegal. This was a whole new experience for me. I had fun buying them. So we got a bunch (about $20 worth) and we plan on setting a few off tomorrow morning. Fourth of July morning is the traditional pancake breakfast at my house. Since my parents are in Utah, Terezita and I are going to make pancakes at her apartment. They are plate-sized pancakes with blueberries, strawberries and whipped cream in the shape of an American flag. I'm very excited. Then we'll be going with her parents to watch fireworks somewhere in Ontario. Maybe we'll see Superman, too.

The rest of today, I spent mostly at home. I did go to the store, though, and bought stuff for tomorrow and some stuff for dinner (Terezita is at work again). I made pizza. It was a little too sweet for me, but besides that it was pretty good. I know that the picture is bad, but you get the idea. I used pepperoni and olives for the top and a seven cheese blend for the cheese. I think the problem was the sauce. It was the one included with the crust. I think that next time I will find a different one, one that is less sweet. I have about half of it left over. I don't know when I'm goign to eat it. Maybe for lunch on Thursday.

Well, I hope that all of you have a wonderful night. And have fun tomorrow, but don't get your hand burned off or anything.

ACP-EP 1 GB High Speed USB 2.0 Aloha Style SurfDrive Flash Drive - Wal-Mart

These are awesome.

ACP-EP 1 GB High Speed USB 2.0 Aloha Style SurfDrive Flash Drive - Wal-Mart

Magnetic Floating Bed: Oh. Your. God. - Gizmodo

Wow.


Magnetic Floating Bed: Oh. Your. God. - Gizmodo

Sunday, July 2

Last post of the day, I promise!

Well, I finally got down to an After Hours to get my tuxes done for the wedding. It was a really good experience. The guy who helped us was just the right amount of helpful. We got cool jackets and all. It will be very nice. It felt good to get it done, too.

Terezita's first day as a Cast Member at Disneyland went really well. She loved it. They did something called "Traditions" today, which is somewhat of a presentation and tour of how cast members are supposed to act in the park. She loved it. I think that she's really going to like working there.

Other than that, not much happened. I finally got in touch with Best Man II, Allan. This got me thinking. I've known Allan for years and years and years. He is without a doubt my oldest friend. We hung out a whole lot in our lives. But recently, our lives have taken different tracks. He was always a lot... deeper than me. He is a dark poet, long hair, a dirty prophet, standing on the corner screaming for all the world to hear that the world is most certainly coming to an end. And he's often right. Whereas I may pen a poem to disclose - to let out - to flush onto the paper, Allan seems to live a poetic existance. In politics, we often agree (Socialists as we are), but he takes a more active revolutionary role. Why don't I? I have often coveted Allan's commitment to a cause. He is a far better man than me. He may very well change the world. I seem to stand on the shoulders of giants with my friends. Kasey too, is on his way to a promising political career. I'm sort of "Greg, friend to the stars!" Now, I'm really not depressed or anything by this. I am very happy for my friends. They are great men. They will do great things. I hope that I can join them. My life, though, is a different one. I have a different path. As Mohandas Gandhi said, "As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves." Or, as my mom says, "Different strokes for different folks." I love my friends. They have always been there for me and I wish them the best of luck in their futures. To them, I propose a toast. Cheers!

Dugg!

From Digg.com:

Simple question: if Rush Limbaugh, who is not married, is against premarital sex, then why does he need viagra?

read more | digg story

Know Your Rights

Interesting video on knowing your rights from the ACLU: [note: this is very long.]

Kase, can you verify this?

Random Links

Best looking myspace page ever: link


This is crazy. I'm not sure how I feel about this. This is pretty bad. He should of handled it more... discreetly. Now thousands of these pages will pop up: link


The Story of Net Neutrality and the Crazy Senator

Maybe you guys haven't heard about net neutrality. It's sort of like a... On the other hand, I'll let the ninja from AskANinja.com explain:

So here's what's happening: The phone companies pretty much run the ISPs (Internet Service Providers). Recently, there's been this cool revolution in phones: VoIP (Voice over IP (Internet Protocol). This is where you can make a phone call to anyone in the world using a phone that's hooked up to your computer. Companies like Vonage do this and Skype to a lesser degree. These are not run by any of the Baby Bells (phone companies), which ticks them off to no end. So, basically, the phone companies are charging you like $24 a month for high speed internet and you're using it to make calls instead of using their service. This causes the phone companies to lose money. It turns out that their real income comes from phone calls. Go figure.

This business plan is not working out for them. So, they decided to break out the big guns. What they want to do is block certain bits of data, or at least slow them down. This is where it starts to get confusing.

Say you have Vonage and you want to make a call. Right now, when you make a call, the data that is sent from your service is treated the same as the data you send and receive when you're surfing the web or downloading a movie or chatting using AIM. It all travels using the same speed. Under the ISPs' plan, they would purposely slow down your Vonage data so that the quality of the call decreases and you'd be forced to use their phone service.

Recently, the movie companies have come out in favor of this plan as well. They have asked the ISPs to slow down movie bits too. That would include NetFlix' new service where you can download movies online. It might even include things like YouTube and Google Video. The ISPs would then return these bits to their normal speed if you signed up for a sort of premium service.

The crux of this is that this is not the way that the internet was supposed to be. The internet is a true democracy. Anyone can post, download, look at anything they want. Data is data. It should not be bought and sold. This is straight out big business greed.

So I thought that this would never go through. No way our politicians were dumb enough to limit something so revolutionary as the internet. And then I saw this. This is Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska. It's a little hard to read, but apparently, the internet is a bunch of tubes and his staff sent him an internet on Friday. Here's the digg story. At last try, his webpage at the Senate website is suffering from the Digg effect, but here's the link.

With people like this in the Senate, my hope is dwindling. But we need to mobilize. Get out the word. Write your congresspeople. Tell your friends. Save the internet.

Comment on this. Tell me your thoughts. As always, have fun and have a good day.

Saturday, July 1

Of Clocks and Music


Hello, all. Well, we made it down to San Diego. It was a lot of fun. We drove down early this morning, listening to the new Dashboard Confessional CD. Yes yes, I know. Certain people reading this blog are quite happy that they weren't there, knowing what happens when Terezita, Dashboard and Greg get in the same car at the same time. The new CD is good... but not great. It's not like his other stuff, but it's good. Worth checking out if you are a fan of his, or of other people like him (which has become a very large genre).
Anyway, we drove down and got to Seaport Village about 11:00. We walked around for a while, ate, did stuff like that. I got a really cool clock. It tells time on that gear thing and the minutes are on the little silver knob thingy. Weird, yeah, but really cool. They had a cooler one there though. It had marbles that moved to different levels as the time passed. I tried to find the website, but it kinda looks like they are now defunct. Oh well, you can still buy them down in SD.
So, we had a good time, just walking around and all. They had a lot of good eating there. I had a pizza that was very good and some baklava afterwards that was... ok. Not as good as yours, Kase! So we saw a lot of cool stuff and everything.
On our way back home, we went to the San Diego County Fair. That was pretty cool too. Lots of animals and food and stuff. We saw this really good musician named Tim Mudd who was pretty darn good. I am writing this knowning that a full 50% of people who read this will not like his music in the least (*cough*Kasey*cough*). Still, it was good even if he's an "emotional young man". He was a nice enough guy, as well, in the short two seconds that I talked to him. We had good funnel cake later on. Then we came home. Terezita dropped me off and she went to her apartment. Tomorrow is her first day working at Disneyland. Hooray!
So, two odd things for you to chew on:

Strangest thing we saw at the fair today:

Read the sign.

-And:

Worst Music Video Ever.


Okay, two techno-geek links for y'all.

Cool for like two seconds, but will probably just take up space on my dresser after a few months

Stinkin' awesome. Anyone got $500 I can borrow?

Friday, June 30

Howdy y'all. Well, all two of you at least.

Shouts out to: Kasey and Terezita. Yeah. The two people who visit my blog. Oh yeah.

Anyway, as usual, I'll talk like I'm talking to the world. Terezita and I are going out to San Diego tomorrow as both of us have the day off and nothing to do. At least, that's the plan. We'll see what happens.

This morning on my way to work, a UPS truck exploded in front of me. Well, not really exploded in the fire and death sort of way. It sort of exploded into smokiness and sprayed water all over my car. At least what looked like water. Then it swerved over to the shoulder, cutting me off and almost causing an accident. Now, eight hours later, my car still has the stuff that was sprayed on it. I think evaporation would have taken care of any water. Hmmm. Well, Terezita is now over, so we're going to make dinner and all that. Later.

Sorry I haven't posted for so long.

I've been internet-less for a while here. My new house-mates just got it running again. I tell you, these girls have been so useful: fixing the internet, washing my dishes... man. Anyway. Same ol, same ol as far as everything goes. But I did find this cool farce on those cool Mac ads with the PC and the Mac guys talking. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably won't find this as funny as I did.




Good night, all.

Friday, June 23

Multimedia message

This is quite the car, eh? I'm really doing this to test if i can post from my phone. Have a good day, all.



--Edit: Apparently, the whole "Multimedia" part of the "Multimedia Message" does not post. I had a picture with this. Maybe I'll post it later.

Thursday, June 22


So, I helped Terezita move today.

Her cousin's place is really nice. Her husband is a cop, working the gang unit now. He is really nice. Two cats live there, both of them very cute.


After we got her moved in, we went to "The Block", which is a mall nearby. It was very nice. I ate a Rubios and had some of the best fish tacos I have ever had there. I wanted to buy an incense holder thing, but instead got this thing that holds scented oil in a dish with a tea candle beneath it. This heats up the oil and releases the scent. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm just about to.


Seems to work pretty well. I'm not sure how much oil to put in, so I didn't put in too much. I can smell it. It is a very... light scent. Like a hint of a scent. The oil is actually kinda smoking now... weird.


So yeah. Then we went to Virgin and Borders... you know, the staples - music and books. That was nice. It was really great just spending time with Terezita again. She's been sick for so long.


Well, hope all is well with whoever is reading this. Have a nice night.

It's been a while since I've posted, I know.

After some gentle pushing by Kasey, I'm gonna try to start posting again.


My car is dying. It makes a horrible noise when I'm at a stop and the engine is on. It's really horrible. I'm gonna take it to Terezita's dad (who is a mechanic) and hopefully he'll be able to do something with it. To tell the truth, I really want a new car. I've been sorta looking around. I mean, if I had all the money in the world, I'd get a Maserati no questions asked. These are the most beautiful cars on the road. What road, I don't know. I've never actually seen one driving around. More realistically, I'd like to get a Toyota Yaris. They're small, cheap, fun and Toyota is a good brand. Right up my alley. If anyone wants to do something nice for me...


Well, I'm gonna go help Terezita move into her new place today. Have a good day, all.

Thursday, May 18

-Special Report: Winners and Losers-


WINNER: Sony. Stinkin' amazing. Forget about their new e-book reader due out soon, this is the good stuff. Follow the link: Handheld PC


LOSER: Mother Nature. Poor girl has been losing a lot lately. This time, she lost a species. Follow the link: Lost Species


Tuesday, May 16

-New Shorts, Gay Chinese Men and a Sick Terezita-


So yesterday I went out to buy some shorts. I'm poor, so I wanted to go to a Walmart. Yes, Walmart. Even Target is too expensive for me these days. There is no Walmart in Irivne. I'm supposing that most people in Irvine can afford the extra $5 or so for Target. We found a Walmart in Santa Ana.


Santa Ana is a scary place. Graffiti covered every piece of open wall we could see. When we got out of the car in the parking lot, it was like being at a baby convention right before nap time. Walmart, I knew, would be simply lovely inside. Yeah. Lovely.


Have you noticed that the better something looks, the more expensive it is? I was looking for two pairs of $10 shorts. I found the $10 shorts alright, but I decided to spring for the $15 ones. I decided that I would rather like to have some semblance of durability to them. The line to check out was incredibly long, but we made it. In the parking lot, a guy asked us (in Spanish, of course) if we would like to buy tamales. Now, I love tamales just as much as the next guy, but this person didn't have any tamales actually out. I believe they were in the trunk of his car. Maybe they were "hot" tamales, if by "hot" I mean "stolen" and by "tamales" I mean "drugs" or something...


I'm tired. Can you tell?


So, B. D. Wong spoke to my race and racism class today. He seems like a genuinely nice guy. I would suggest seeing him if you get the chance. He speaks about his being a gay Chinese man in the entertainment industry. Interesting.


Terezita is very sick today. I made her soup twice in one day.


Another note: we watched Mean Girls yesterday. I would definitely recommend it. It was very funny, in a "smart funny" sort of way. It was good. Why can't girls just get along, eh?


Good night!

Sunday, May 14


Alright, so it's been a couple days since I posted last. Well, Friday I was a bit sick, but Terezita made me an excellent dinner of four-cheese ravioli with a meat sauce. It was delicious. Here's a politically incorrect joke for you:


Q: Why did God make women's feet so small?


A; So that they can stand closer to the stove.


But in all seriousness, Terezita is a wonderful cook. She makes good food. Of course this week I think that we are only making one meal on account of how much leftovers we got from her mom.


Speaking of which, today was Mother's Day. Terezita and I split for the day to visit our particular mothers and grandmothers. Today it occurred to me that my grandmother really is getting old. She loses her train of thought really easily, as if it take a lot of concentration for her just to think in a straight line. This is very sad for me. I'm very close to my grandmother and for so long she stayed away from her age, being very active and positive. Lately, though, she has been acting older - I'd say for the last year really. She is old, but still - it's hard. Last time I saw her, we talked about how she was starting a new chapter in her life, where she would be moving into a retirement community and selling her house of 40-some years at the same time that Terezita and I are moving into a new chapter of our lives too.


Sigh...


So it goes.

Friday, May 12

Balboa and Tostadas

Tonight was fun. Terezita and I went to Balboa Island and walked around the little town they have there. We sat and watched some seals have a party of some guy's yacht. That was fun. I think that seals are sort of the dogs of the sea. They bark, they seem to have a lot of fun, they seem pretty happy as far as animals go.


When we came home, we made tostadas. They turned out very well. The salsa I bought from Albertson's the other day turned out to be pretty good. It made the tostadas pretty spicy.


My best friend Kasey is coming over next Wednesday. I can't wait.


Saturday I get sized for a suit for my friend Scott's wedding. Should be interesting.


Now to bed.

Thursday, May 11

Hot, Hot, Hot

It is stinkin' hot today. I'm here in San Bernardino waiting for my Race & Racism class to start and I can literally not believe how hot it is. Mein gott! My class is in an underground lecture hall and no air get in here. I fear it will be this hot the whole class - and probably even more when everyone gets in here.


On a completely different note, flautas (sp?) are really good. Really really good. Man, they're good. And that's that.


On another note, I'm testing a new program to write my blog today. It's called gnome-blog and so far it seems that it's working really well. A big thing that I like about it is that it docks right on my taskbar so all I have to do is click is and it appears. Que bueno. Let's see if it works, though.


Hasta luego.


My first post, eh?
Well, let's see... Frankly, I'm not sure how much I'll use this blog. I would like to say that I will write on it everyday and keep it up fresh and all that, but seriously, what are the chances? I'm pretty busy...
Don't believe me?
Well, how's this for a breakdown of my week:
Monday - Get up at 8:00 Am to get to work by 9:00. I work until about 6:00 (on a good day). I get home to my apartment (which I share with 4 other people) and Terezita comes over. ("Who's Terezita?" Wait till the end...). We make dinner. We watch our most recent Netflix movie or episodes of Lost. We do homework. Then I go to bed at about 11 or 12 or so.
Tuesday - I get up at about 10:00 or whenever the sun wakes me. I get up, get ready and go to school. Get this: I live in Irvine and I attend school at Cal State University, San Bernardino. It's quite a drive (about 65 miles one way, I believe). Takes about an hour. I'm there until 6:00 pm and then I drive home. Terezita comes over. We make dinner. We watch our most recent Netflix movie or episodes of Lost. We do homework. Then I go to bed at about 10 or 11 or so.
Wednesday - See Monday.
Thursday - See Tuesday.
Friday - See Wednesday, except I stay out later. Especially every other Friday. Every other Friday is Live Nudes at UCI, which is not as dirty as it sounds. It is actually a improv group that is definitely worth its salt. They end at about 1 or 2 am.
The Weekend - Can't tell yet. I just moved here. I don't know... We'll see.

So, questions?
Where do you work? - I work at Foldera, Inc as a "Consulting Software Analyst".
What does that mean? - The programmers do all the hard work. They actually create a product out of the aether (sp?). I do the easy work - I tell them what they did wrong.
Who is Terezita? - Terezita is my fiance. She is also the most wonderful human being I have ever met, which is a good quality for the person one marries.
Do you think this blog will go anywhere? - We'll see.

A quick review of a movie we saw tonight:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
This movie was great. It was really sad in a lot of parts, but ends happily. I did predict the ending before it was thirty minutes into it, though. I have decided that Jim Carey is one of the more amazing actors of our time - when he does drama. This movie and The Truman Show are two of the more amazing movies I have seen in a while. Both open up a lot of discussion about things that are not normally talked about. After watching this movie, I had a strange urge to see Changing Lanes. Anyone share this?
Some discussion questions:
  1. Would you ever erase your memory to get rid of a person? If so, who?
  2. Is this ethical? What are the ethical problems that are raised by this procedure?
  3. Is love something that can be eradicated from your brain? Side note: this brings up the philosophical theory of rationality: Are emotions held within the synapses of our brains or are they floating outside in our "minds"? Are they physical or metaphysical?
Well, that's that. I'm going to bed. Goodnight.