Also, seeing probably the set that I wanted the most ever but never got, the Black Sea Barracuda.
Anyways, read the article on Gizmodo and watch the video. One day I will reassemble my LEGO collection, one day.
Monday, July 21, 2008
The LEGO Vault
My sister sent me a news article from Gizmodo that made me want to cry tonight. It was an article on the LEGO vault that contains all the LEGO sets ever created. Just amazing. Just seeing the video which only highlighted a few sets made me get emotional. I can't even imagine how it would seeing that in person, overwhelming. Saw a few of my sets that are in storage right now on the video, like the Airport Shuttle.
Also, seeing probably the set that I wanted the most ever but never got, the Black Sea Barracuda.
Anyways, read the article on Gizmodo and watch the video. One day I will reassemble my LEGO collection, one day.
Also, seeing probably the set that I wanted the most ever but never got, the Black Sea Barracuda.
Anyways, read the article on Gizmodo and watch the video. One day I will reassemble my LEGO collection, one day.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Three Times The Charm
It would have been if Need For Speed Carbon was a better game. It's so odd it became like a casual game it was so easy once you got the hang of it. But not a bad game necessarily and it had some good music, sometimes. Anyways, I have now beat the game with all three sides: exotic, muscle, and tuner. Therefore I have now played the game three times from beginning to end and have unlocked everything save for the online unlocks. Don't know what I'm going to do now to get my racing fix since Colin McRae still isn't working since I got the Mac Pro (very very very sad about that). Anyways I figure I would celebrate the occasion with posting the three highest tier cars I used.
My blue Nissan GTR R34 from my first time through the game under the tuner class.
Here's the good ole' red Ford GT from when I played the muscle class, very fun car with very nice engine sound.
Lastly we have my matte black Porsche Carrera GT which is the best sounding and fastest car of the whole bunch.
My blue Nissan GTR R34 from my first time through the game under the tuner class.
Here's the good ole' red Ford GT from when I played the muscle class, very fun car with very nice engine sound.
Lastly we have my matte black Porsche Carrera GT which is the best sounding and fastest car of the whole bunch.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Times Square Fails
Today Audrey and I along with two of her friends went to see WALL-E down at the Regal 13 in the Times Square area. We got there a bit early and audrey spotted this sign with a dialog box on it and I was like no way. Apparently someone's massive LED display down in the Times Square area has a warning for it's owner. That being that the virus definitions are 30 days old and out of date and they have been updated. Of course letting the owner know this interrupted whatever ad or ads running on this display. Even though the dialog box really only notifies you of this and does nothing else other than the option for this box never to come up again. Yeah, that might be a useful thing to check in this case. But no, it's after 5 and the work day is over. It'll be like that til tomorrow morning and people will be pissed.
A video of the display at 42nd and 8th Ave.
A few stills as well for good measure, wish I didn't just have my camera phone on me to get this.
On a separate note WALL-E was pretty great. Really enjoyed it. But really pretty scary, not quite Fallout level scary but scary none the less. Especially with the Buy Large corporation. I was though really impressed with the lighting in WALL-E, down to the little particulates in the air on earth, probably the best I've seen done yet.
A video of the display at 42nd and 8th Ave.
A few stills as well for good measure, wish I didn't just have my camera phone on me to get this.
On a separate note WALL-E was pretty great. Really enjoyed it. But really pretty scary, not quite Fallout level scary but scary none the less. Especially with the Buy Large corporation. I was though really impressed with the lighting in WALL-E, down to the little particulates in the air on earth, probably the best I've seen done yet.
Friday, June 20, 2008
In Response to the LA Times Article "Amid rising gas prices, more in L.A. turning to commuter rail"
I grew up and lived in LA for most of my life, however grad school took me out to NYC. Which in a lot of ways have given me a certain amount of perspective on how vastly different the cities operate and the effects of public transit.
In NYC you have a very small land area that is extremely dense population wise. LA is as we know spread out and diffuse and sprawling with many different neighborhoods and cities that are encompassed by LA county and neighboring counties. Therefore you end up with two major problems with mass transit, the first being decentralization of the population that needs to be serviced which often requires traversing longer distances than cities with large mass transit systems. The second problem is how to effectively plan and build transit lines to service all these areas effectively and equally. NYC may not have such a large issue with population decentralization but they definitely still deal heavily with the issue of effective planning and location of transit lines. They essentially have done very little to address the push of people having to leave Manhattan due to rent prices, to the outer boroughs. They have essentially done nothing or very little to address this problem which makes commuting a nightmare for a large amount of people with commutes taking as long as or worse than LA gridlock. This is because the system is completely Manhattan centric and does not effectively allow for transportation between the boroughs coupled with less service.
I see this same problem for when I used to ride the Metrolink in LA. The time between trains was ridiculous, miss one train (oh and they used to leave early often times) and your waiting 20-40 minutes. There is no margin for error. At least most of the time in NYC they run enough trains to actually make it feasible to catch the next one. However, LA may fall into the same trap as NYC with becoming downtown centric or limiting service only to specific select areas and completely disenfranchising areas. However can this be avoided with the current structure of LA?
Another aspect is once you get off the train, how fast or how hard is it to get to your destination. When I was taking the Metrolink, my destination was anywhere from 20-30 minutes by bus from the train stop versus a 5-minute car ride. This is yet another deterrent and problem with the train system that being the low number of stations along the lines and infrequent and slow bus service to pick up where the trains leave off.
Lastly in regards to fare prices, I saw the rate hiked during the course of my riding the Metrolink without absolutely any change in service at all save for the impact it was having on my wallet. Yes there is needed more funding needed but if it is not spent to improve the overall infrastructure it will ultimately be a band aid over a wound that needs surgery stat. There needs to be broad and coordinated restructuring and re-evaluation of the transit systems of LA. Those are my thoughts.
You can read the original article here at the LA Times
In NYC you have a very small land area that is extremely dense population wise. LA is as we know spread out and diffuse and sprawling with many different neighborhoods and cities that are encompassed by LA county and neighboring counties. Therefore you end up with two major problems with mass transit, the first being decentralization of the population that needs to be serviced which often requires traversing longer distances than cities with large mass transit systems. The second problem is how to effectively plan and build transit lines to service all these areas effectively and equally. NYC may not have such a large issue with population decentralization but they definitely still deal heavily with the issue of effective planning and location of transit lines. They essentially have done very little to address the push of people having to leave Manhattan due to rent prices, to the outer boroughs. They have essentially done nothing or very little to address this problem which makes commuting a nightmare for a large amount of people with commutes taking as long as or worse than LA gridlock. This is because the system is completely Manhattan centric and does not effectively allow for transportation between the boroughs coupled with less service.
I see this same problem for when I used to ride the Metrolink in LA. The time between trains was ridiculous, miss one train (oh and they used to leave early often times) and your waiting 20-40 minutes. There is no margin for error. At least most of the time in NYC they run enough trains to actually make it feasible to catch the next one. However, LA may fall into the same trap as NYC with becoming downtown centric or limiting service only to specific select areas and completely disenfranchising areas. However can this be avoided with the current structure of LA?
Another aspect is once you get off the train, how fast or how hard is it to get to your destination. When I was taking the Metrolink, my destination was anywhere from 20-30 minutes by bus from the train stop versus a 5-minute car ride. This is yet another deterrent and problem with the train system that being the low number of stations along the lines and infrequent and slow bus service to pick up where the trains leave off.
Lastly in regards to fare prices, I saw the rate hiked during the course of my riding the Metrolink without absolutely any change in service at all save for the impact it was having on my wallet. Yes there is needed more funding needed but if it is not spent to improve the overall infrastructure it will ultimately be a band aid over a wound that needs surgery stat. There needs to be broad and coordinated restructuring and re-evaluation of the transit systems of LA. Those are my thoughts.
You can read the original article here at the LA Times
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Pitching Terrorist Attacks
http://view.break.com/509422 - Watch more free videos
Personally the attack they pitched was a bit boring and generic, not like we haven't seen that in a hollywood movie before. I like the end part about having an appointment with Hezbollah. Oi. Anyways, Maybe I'll get some graduation pictures up here soonish? Hopefully.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Flight 666
That's crazy I didn't know the front man for Iron Maiden was also a commercial pilot. I swear sometimes rockstars surprise me.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
SNL Actually Having Something Funny On It???
Yeah, who woulda thought. I happened to be eating when it was on so I watched some of it. The General Petraeus skit was pretty damn funny
But not as funny as. "Death By Chocolate." Now I normally hate Ashton Kutcher and find him utterly annoying, however this was awesome.
I didn't get to see the 1st one, but did see the 3rd one, I hope it gets posted somewhere cause that was even funnier. Basically the chocolate bar sees a guy digging through trash in an alley and kind of quietly walks up to him and is right behind him watching what he's doing. Then out of nowhere he pulls a kitchen knife and ganks the guy and then tosses the knife and starts running and flailing away. So, funny and dark.
But not as funny as. "Death By Chocolate." Now I normally hate Ashton Kutcher and find him utterly annoying, however this was awesome.
I didn't get to see the 1st one, but did see the 3rd one, I hope it gets posted somewhere cause that was even funnier. Basically the chocolate bar sees a guy digging through trash in an alley and kind of quietly walks up to him and is right behind him watching what he's doing. Then out of nowhere he pulls a kitchen knife and ganks the guy and then tosses the knife and starts running and flailing away. So, funny and dark.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Kool Aid, Totalitarian Societies, and Ambulances
I just stumbled upon this guy by the name of Yahtzee who reviews games apparently. Bloody awesome. Here's this ridiculous funny review of Sim City Societies. Favorite moments, the mention of Nazi germany and how totalitarian societies make my balls feel big and the ritualistic suicide qualified with the Kool Aid man jumping out from seemingly nowhere. Yes, yes, yes, do watch it.
and on a second note, best ambulance ever.
and on a second note, best ambulance ever.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
New Additions, Thesis, & What's Cooking?
So, firstly I would like to show you all some additions to the hallway. It makes it a bit dark but still I like, ominous though. Thoughts suggestions?
I had a bit of time before school started up again to cook cook cook. Decided to cook up a nice London Broil roast. I haven't cooked this in probably like 7-8 years now, it's been a long time. It came out well though so worth the effort. Also, the meat dry aged for 20 days, gosh dang it was good meat, I wish I had pictures of it when it was raw. Anyhow I got some pics of it just about done.
The beginning of the end has begun. In fact its now two weeks in and for some classes three weeks in. I'm only taking three classes this semester. One on java and basically working with massive amounts of textual information. It's supposed to be a hard first 4 weeks and then downhill from there. I was on the verge of head splode. Yeah, regular expressions in java, TreeMaps, HashMaps, and Big O! (I miss watching that show on Cartoon Network, I miss cable, CalArts dorms the good ole' days) But ya, head splode it was like the TreeMap biz today with mentions of the HashTable, gosh, talking about stuff like the amount of cycles it will take to index into a concordance N amount of numbers ends up being things like, N to the 12th power, but then we can get it down to N log base 2 N. It's like gagh!!! Next week it's bayesian filters and the hash. Gonna need some hash to get through that class.
Second class is Sousveillance Culture, which is pretty cool, seminar on inverse surveillance. Pointing the camera back at the Man wherever he may be. Have a good teacher, so it should be a good class as well as a nice compliment to my last class the biggie.
THESIS! Yes, it is here, the thesis seminar. Well looks like from the schedule we're presenting every single week 10-15 minutes or more, with weekly crits. This week we had to present some contextual references and contextual projects, present on parts of our personal statement, our background for coming to this project, and our methodology. Pulled out of course some Michael Foucault about the panopticon and then went all og like that and went to the source. Mista Jeremy Bentham himself, the father of the panopticon, 1780's baby. Oh yeah, if that don't get you excited hell I dunno what would. Anyhow, it actually is quite interesting and I have come to realize on re-reading some of the Foucault that Tekserve's database system and its way it operates is a panopticon. The database is always observable from any point and all work is tied into it along with all marks on productivity. Anyone can see what anyone is looking at, at any given time, or working on for that matter, before or after any sort of transaction. Complete control. Anyhow, that aside the presentation went well, I felt I covered all the points that needed to be covered. I presented for the project references Finishing School's "Today It's Voluntary" and Meagan Collins, myself, and Roman Jaster's street sign project back from 2005. Made me start to miss CalArts thought thinking about the street sign project and the people's.
Back to the Tekserve, had a bit of an issue a bit ago had to take somethings up with the HR. However, I may have a chance at a paid internship with Turnstone Consulting LLC. It's the company of one of my professor's. So, if so more than likely I will be taking "this time to tend to my resignation." I'm pretty excited about this prospect. We'll see.
Other than that, it's been mostly school. I didn't even get to watch the super bowl. But I did find the most awesome commercials aired during it. Audi's. The first is the Godfather one, I love the detail with the oil stains all over the sheets, as if it were blood. Take a look here.
However, the best one though is this one. "Truth in the Blacklist." Showing off one of the evilest cars ever made, the Audi quattro S1, the Group B version. Group B rallying that is, aka unlimited technologies, only need for 5000 car production numbers, unlimited boost = unlimited power, basically the monsters. So the quattro, pretty wicked, 600-1000 brake horsepower, 4WD, 2.1L 5 cylinder turbocharged engine, 0-60 in just over 2 seconds. So, fast it was claimed to drive faster than a driver can think. So, yes the best commercial goes to the Group B Audi spot. Enjoy.
Oh, and I almost completely forgot, news. "Death, Destruction, and the Weather Coming Up Next" is coming to NYC in April. It's going to be screened at the Anthology Film Archive. It's going to be part of the New Filmmakers series, I'm going to show with a group of friends from CalArts both the experimental animation program and film/video program. It should be awesome. Lots of CalArts nostalgia going on lately. Anyways that's it for now, back to it.
I had a bit of time before school started up again to cook cook cook. Decided to cook up a nice London Broil roast. I haven't cooked this in probably like 7-8 years now, it's been a long time. It came out well though so worth the effort. Also, the meat dry aged for 20 days, gosh dang it was good meat, I wish I had pictures of it when it was raw. Anyhow I got some pics of it just about done.
The beginning of the end has begun. In fact its now two weeks in and for some classes three weeks in. I'm only taking three classes this semester. One on java and basically working with massive amounts of textual information. It's supposed to be a hard first 4 weeks and then downhill from there. I was on the verge of head splode. Yeah, regular expressions in java, TreeMaps, HashMaps, and Big O! (I miss watching that show on Cartoon Network, I miss cable, CalArts dorms the good ole' days) But ya, head splode it was like the TreeMap biz today with mentions of the HashTable, gosh, talking about stuff like the amount of cycles it will take to index into a concordance N amount of numbers ends up being things like, N to the 12th power, but then we can get it down to N log base 2 N. It's like gagh!!! Next week it's bayesian filters and the hash. Gonna need some hash to get through that class.
Second class is Sousveillance Culture, which is pretty cool, seminar on inverse surveillance. Pointing the camera back at the Man wherever he may be. Have a good teacher, so it should be a good class as well as a nice compliment to my last class the biggie.
THESIS! Yes, it is here, the thesis seminar. Well looks like from the schedule we're presenting every single week 10-15 minutes or more, with weekly crits. This week we had to present some contextual references and contextual projects, present on parts of our personal statement, our background for coming to this project, and our methodology. Pulled out of course some Michael Foucault about the panopticon and then went all og like that and went to the source. Mista Jeremy Bentham himself, the father of the panopticon, 1780's baby. Oh yeah, if that don't get you excited hell I dunno what would. Anyhow, it actually is quite interesting and I have come to realize on re-reading some of the Foucault that Tekserve's database system and its way it operates is a panopticon. The database is always observable from any point and all work is tied into it along with all marks on productivity. Anyone can see what anyone is looking at, at any given time, or working on for that matter, before or after any sort of transaction. Complete control. Anyhow, that aside the presentation went well, I felt I covered all the points that needed to be covered. I presented for the project references Finishing School's "Today It's Voluntary" and Meagan Collins, myself, and Roman Jaster's street sign project back from 2005. Made me start to miss CalArts thought thinking about the street sign project and the people's.
Back to the Tekserve, had a bit of an issue a bit ago had to take somethings up with the HR. However, I may have a chance at a paid internship with Turnstone Consulting LLC. It's the company of one of my professor's. So, if so more than likely I will be taking "this time to tend to my resignation." I'm pretty excited about this prospect. We'll see.
Other than that, it's been mostly school. I didn't even get to watch the super bowl. But I did find the most awesome commercials aired during it. Audi's. The first is the Godfather one, I love the detail with the oil stains all over the sheets, as if it were blood. Take a look here.
However, the best one though is this one. "Truth in the Blacklist." Showing off one of the evilest cars ever made, the Audi quattro S1, the Group B version. Group B rallying that is, aka unlimited technologies, only need for 5000 car production numbers, unlimited boost = unlimited power, basically the monsters. So the quattro, pretty wicked, 600-1000 brake horsepower, 4WD, 2.1L 5 cylinder turbocharged engine, 0-60 in just over 2 seconds. So, fast it was claimed to drive faster than a driver can think. So, yes the best commercial goes to the Group B Audi spot. Enjoy.
Oh, and I almost completely forgot, news. "Death, Destruction, and the Weather Coming Up Next" is coming to NYC in April. It's going to be screened at the Anthology Film Archive. It's going to be part of the New Filmmakers series, I'm going to show with a group of friends from CalArts both the experimental animation program and film/video program. It should be awesome. Lots of CalArts nostalgia going on lately. Anyways that's it for now, back to it.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Long Post Running
Soo, its been a long time, yeah very long time. What can I saw November was insanely hectic as was the beginning of December. School was clamping down, the projects were piling up, the papers where down to the wire. So, I guess the big thing for this semester was the winter show for the NNW, it went very well but I'll post more about that later once the video is edited and I've sorted through all the photo documentation, I've been lagging, aka been on vacation finally!
Well vacation is almost over now and I have spent about 2 and a half or almost 3 weeks sick, it sucked. Being home was a lot of fun, and I needed it. Got to hang with all my friends and stuff and wander around the neighborhood. Saw the Murakami show, I have experienced the "superflat" that is Murakami and his Corporation of art. Ran into this while at the mall while shopping in the heat of the Christmas 11th hour madness that seemed oddly non-existent.
This is from the newly remodeled formerly Max Foods now an Albertson's.
It's weird a lot of things changed when I was back home, a local news reporter died, another news reporter split from the only station I ever knew him on to of all places Fox. Stores were erected and houses as well. Things remodeled and updated. Things appearing out of nowhere.
My mom got some new rubber on her car, so I had a little bit of fun while driving her car when I was back home. I realized one of the biggest differences between NY and LA driving. Throttle. You never put it anywhere near the floor in NY. Gosh I miss mashing that pedal to the floor. Especially during the delivery dash of Christmas cards.
Speaking of driving though, Colin McRae Rally for Mac finally came out, may he rest in peace. Awesome game, totally addicted and one of the reasons why I haven't posted during this vacation besides WoW. It's made me contemplate getting a racing wheel and pedals, they got this nice one from Logitech with paddle shifting, MOMO. Here's some mayhem from the game.
Flying through the air in a Lancia Delta.
Heavily damaged Ford Cosworth.
Flying Subie sans hood.
And Rolling the Subie.
One last jump.
and of course a Rick Roll siting.
It's actually funny Rick Rolling or rather the concept behind rick rolling ended up coming towards the end of the semester which was awesome. Speaking of awesome, a couple of things, first seeing the Lawerence Weiner exhibit at the Whitney during Thanksgiving which was really good and tasty I have to dig up a picture of the Turkey, it came out so damn tender, juicy. The continuing series of Nikkatsu Action Cinema, also super awesome. As well as this new cuban place me and Audrey tried out, the meat was soo good. Oh and danish.
and mariachis
And with that I will end this post for today, more to come hopefully soon.
Well vacation is almost over now and I have spent about 2 and a half or almost 3 weeks sick, it sucked. Being home was a lot of fun, and I needed it. Got to hang with all my friends and stuff and wander around the neighborhood. Saw the Murakami show, I have experienced the "superflat" that is Murakami and his Corporation of art. Ran into this while at the mall while shopping in the heat of the Christmas 11th hour madness that seemed oddly non-existent.
This is from the newly remodeled formerly Max Foods now an Albertson's.
It's weird a lot of things changed when I was back home, a local news reporter died, another news reporter split from the only station I ever knew him on to of all places Fox. Stores were erected and houses as well. Things remodeled and updated. Things appearing out of nowhere.
My mom got some new rubber on her car, so I had a little bit of fun while driving her car when I was back home. I realized one of the biggest differences between NY and LA driving. Throttle. You never put it anywhere near the floor in NY. Gosh I miss mashing that pedal to the floor. Especially during the delivery dash of Christmas cards.
Speaking of driving though, Colin McRae Rally for Mac finally came out, may he rest in peace. Awesome game, totally addicted and one of the reasons why I haven't posted during this vacation besides WoW. It's made me contemplate getting a racing wheel and pedals, they got this nice one from Logitech with paddle shifting, MOMO. Here's some mayhem from the game.
Flying through the air in a Lancia Delta.
Heavily damaged Ford Cosworth.
Flying Subie sans hood.
And Rolling the Subie.
One last jump.
and of course a Rick Roll siting.
It's actually funny Rick Rolling or rather the concept behind rick rolling ended up coming towards the end of the semester which was awesome. Speaking of awesome, a couple of things, first seeing the Lawerence Weiner exhibit at the Whitney during Thanksgiving which was really good and tasty I have to dig up a picture of the Turkey, it came out so damn tender, juicy. The continuing series of Nikkatsu Action Cinema, also super awesome. As well as this new cuban place me and Audrey tried out, the meat was soo good. Oh and danish.
and mariachis
And with that I will end this post for today, more to come hopefully soon.
Monday, November 05, 2007
The Cars is Gone!
Oh just wanted to let everyone know that the burnt out abandoned car has now been removed by I'm guessing the sanitation department. Sadly I was not able to be there for its grand exit. Also, went to the New Museum's family/friends moving into the new building that looks like a stack of white boxes with cheese grater metal facades party day shin-dig. It was nice. I had fun. Audrey has this awesome but odd looking chair. But it's comfortable and knowing that is half the battle.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Burnt Out Cars and Thangs
One might speculate, does this mean the neighborhood has gone to the dogs? Will real estate plummit? Is crime encroaching or already upon us? I'm not sure if it means any of that to Greenpoint in relation to what I found on the way to class on November 1st. So, what did I find. I found a burnt out Chevy sedan on the street over from where I live. It's nearly in the intersection, definitely in the cross walk, with a charred driver/passenger side exterior and interior, burns to the hood, burnt and broken windshield partially melted, melted driver side mirror, and two flats in the front. Oh ya, and it had it's plates removed and what looks to be the glove rummaged through.
So, one might ask, what the bloody hell happened? One could probably come to the conclusion that something had definitely happen that was possibly just a hair outside of the land of legality, I mean, abandoned burnt out car with no plates, hmmm, seems a bit fishy. Are the police investigating it? Has it been towed? Why no, it's still sitting out there right now exactly where it was found. Of course now it's sporting a nice neon orange sticker from the Department of Sanitation, saying it's a derelict vehicle and is to be disposed of.
However, when that is going to occur is quite unknown at this point since it's been sitting there for now two days and will likely sit there over the weekend and into monday. Who knows? There's a bus stop right there and I could see how the bus driver may be upset since hey can't pull up to the curb as normal. I wonder if the various drivers have already complained about it slowing down their routes and just generally cramping their style. "I got business to attend to." So, what is going to happen to this car and what happened to it originally to put it into such a state? I'm rather invested in it now. I wonder if it will just become a fixture of the intersection, like a neighbors dog or the corner liquor store. I might miss it when it's gone.
Anyhows on an odd tangential coincidence, I've just begun reading the book "Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb" by Mike Davis. I've barely started into it but it has been rather interesting thus far. It's just odd the day I got the book was the day that car showed up. Coincidence or divine intervention???
School has slowed just a hair this week thank goodness. It's been pretty mad and has left me quite ragged. Class continues as do the projects. Oh and I just recently acquired an iPod Touch for a project. It's really quite nice. Hacked it and now it can be my portable wifi stumbler aka spotter for networks and also portable packet sniffer. It also lets me play my NES and SNES games, minesweeper and it can even dice a tomato. Now I'm just waiting for them to bloody get cases for them to stores, gosh dang it. Very annoying. However, it has proved itself to be a quite formidible asset thus for in doing the work of the NNW and just reducing the weight on my back. Oh and the controls work pretty well. I need to start thinking about a paper I need to start researching and writing. It should be fun but how to enter the subject and what to cover is the question and how to cover and research something that isn't really something academic and such. What is this subject. Drift Racing, in regards to globalization, soft power, and hybridization. So, if you got mags, videos, interviews and the like send them my way I'm gonna need them. That's all for now I think I'm gonna play some games.
So, one might ask, what the bloody hell happened? One could probably come to the conclusion that something had definitely happen that was possibly just a hair outside of the land of legality, I mean, abandoned burnt out car with no plates, hmmm, seems a bit fishy. Are the police investigating it? Has it been towed? Why no, it's still sitting out there right now exactly where it was found. Of course now it's sporting a nice neon orange sticker from the Department of Sanitation, saying it's a derelict vehicle and is to be disposed of.
However, when that is going to occur is quite unknown at this point since it's been sitting there for now two days and will likely sit there over the weekend and into monday. Who knows? There's a bus stop right there and I could see how the bus driver may be upset since hey can't pull up to the curb as normal. I wonder if the various drivers have already complained about it slowing down their routes and just generally cramping their style. "I got business to attend to." So, what is going to happen to this car and what happened to it originally to put it into such a state? I'm rather invested in it now. I wonder if it will just become a fixture of the intersection, like a neighbors dog or the corner liquor store. I might miss it when it's gone.
Anyhows on an odd tangential coincidence, I've just begun reading the book "Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb" by Mike Davis. I've barely started into it but it has been rather interesting thus far. It's just odd the day I got the book was the day that car showed up. Coincidence or divine intervention???
School has slowed just a hair this week thank goodness. It's been pretty mad and has left me quite ragged. Class continues as do the projects. Oh and I just recently acquired an iPod Touch for a project. It's really quite nice. Hacked it and now it can be my portable wifi stumbler aka spotter for networks and also portable packet sniffer. It also lets me play my NES and SNES games, minesweeper and it can even dice a tomato. Now I'm just waiting for them to bloody get cases for them to stores, gosh dang it. Very annoying. However, it has proved itself to be a quite formidible asset thus for in doing the work of the NNW and just reducing the weight on my back. Oh and the controls work pretty well. I need to start thinking about a paper I need to start researching and writing. It should be fun but how to enter the subject and what to cover is the question and how to cover and research something that isn't really something academic and such. What is this subject. Drift Racing, in regards to globalization, soft power, and hybridization. So, if you got mags, videos, interviews and the like send them my way I'm gonna need them. That's all for now I think I'm gonna play some games.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
D.D.A.T.W.C.U.N. on Pagina 164 of T.I.A.F. 2007 Catalog
So, I got a package this morning from Taiwan, I wasn't expecting one. It was from the people at the Taiwanese International Animation Festival returning the copy of my film as well as sending me the Festival's catalog. It was more book than catalog, being it was like 300 pages long. Of course I started to look to see if I was included in anyway asides from mention of my name or something in it. To my surprise I found that I was on the title page for my category and the first entry (non-alphabetical order). I actually hadn't known what category I had been placed in, it ended up being Docu-Anim, documentary animation. I had never really thought of the piece as such but in actuallity I think it fits that category, I had never before heard of such a category of animation prior. So, on that page there's a 1/4 of a page of "Death, Destruction, and the Weather Coming Up Next" and I couldn't be happier.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
60lb Paper Weight
So, I'm on hold right, with applecare over the 4th repair of my G5. Talking to customer care right now complaining first about it being the 4th bloody repair and the customer service I have received from the Fifth Avenue Store. I'm at wits end at this point. All I have to say is reparations, forty acres, a mule, and a kick @$$ Mac Pro! And I don't want no nVidia 7300GT card cause that's slower than my 6800 Ultra. That's all for now.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Stephen A. "Kitty Face" and Uncle Ben's Original Curry, Sounds Tasty
School continues to barrel down the highway to the ends of the semester. It has pretty much been non-stop with presentations or projects due 5 out of 6 weeks thus far. That will continue its current trend with week 7 having a project due once again. So I've been bloody busy, argh.
So, this project due this week, it's taking a look at the real time strategy game Command & Conquer: Generals, primarily the dialogue spoken by the GLA troops. The GLA, Global Liberation Army, is kind of an amalgamation of the Taliban, Al Queda, and some aspects of Somalian rebels. Most of the phrases spoke are particularly stereotypical. With phrases such as "I love a crowd" this unit of course is a suicide bomber. I'm going to be using audio bits such as this to create a conversation with those language tapes, of course it being Arabic. Audrey very instrumental in thinking up the idea of comparing it with language tapes. Never woulda thought of that.
Some things going on in L.A. this week, the LAPD takes responsibility for the May Day Melee, the 405 maybe getting an animal path, so animals can cross the 405, that would raise the cost for bridge to around $1.4 million, and a massive accident on the 5 freeway up in Santa Clarita. It's about time the LAPD owned up but I want to see people getting punished and losing jobs or demotions and such, restructuring and retraining of the department, however will it happen or will it be effective, prolly not. This 405 animal path is a crock, seriously ok, you build this concrete path and expect animals to use it like a bridge, sure. Not to mention there's cars whizzing by and even though they may not be able to see them they will be able to hear them. If they build it will they come and play pedestrian? Lastly, this wreck on the 5, man really bad. I wonder if it was structurally damaged and is safe. All those interchanges there get real hairy and with rain a disaster waiting to happen.
In other news Al Gore as we know got the nobel peace prize, however his film can't be shown in UK schools without proper disclaimer about its inaccuracies or unfounded assertions as reporter by the wonderful Register.
Now for some randomness before I leave. V8 shopping cart OH YEAH!!!
It's a Mopar V8 mind you.
Gotta love mister Stephen A. "Kitty Face" Smith.
And nothing quite hits the spot like some curry. Uncle Ben's Original Curry of course. What a carpet bagger.
So, this project due this week, it's taking a look at the real time strategy game Command & Conquer: Generals, primarily the dialogue spoken by the GLA troops. The GLA, Global Liberation Army, is kind of an amalgamation of the Taliban, Al Queda, and some aspects of Somalian rebels. Most of the phrases spoke are particularly stereotypical. With phrases such as "I love a crowd" this unit of course is a suicide bomber. I'm going to be using audio bits such as this to create a conversation with those language tapes, of course it being Arabic. Audrey very instrumental in thinking up the idea of comparing it with language tapes. Never woulda thought of that.
Some things going on in L.A. this week, the LAPD takes responsibility for the May Day Melee, the 405 maybe getting an animal path, so animals can cross the 405, that would raise the cost for bridge to around $1.4 million, and a massive accident on the 5 freeway up in Santa Clarita. It's about time the LAPD owned up but I want to see people getting punished and losing jobs or demotions and such, restructuring and retraining of the department, however will it happen or will it be effective, prolly not. This 405 animal path is a crock, seriously ok, you build this concrete path and expect animals to use it like a bridge, sure. Not to mention there's cars whizzing by and even though they may not be able to see them they will be able to hear them. If they build it will they come and play pedestrian? Lastly, this wreck on the 5, man really bad. I wonder if it was structurally damaged and is safe. All those interchanges there get real hairy and with rain a disaster waiting to happen.
In other news Al Gore as we know got the nobel peace prize, however his film can't be shown in UK schools without proper disclaimer about its inaccuracies or unfounded assertions as reporter by the wonderful Register.
Now for some randomness before I leave. V8 shopping cart OH YEAH!!!
It's a Mopar V8 mind you.
Gotta love mister Stephen A. "Kitty Face" Smith.
And nothing quite hits the spot like some curry. Uncle Ben's Original Curry of course. What a carpet bagger.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
RC Jumps Garage! Hoonage!
I can't even began to say why this is so awesome. I mean really it jumped the freakin' garage and not just barely made it or almost didn't. It jumped that thing with authority and it didn't die. Hoonage!
Monday, October 08, 2007
Monday, October 01, 2007
So Much Contact
Rain Heroes from Bzzz on Vimeo.
There's so much contact here between Massa and Raikkonen that it's a wonder that they didn't crash. Bloody hell in the rain on top of that. Insanity.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Nikkatsu, Barricade, and Mas School
So, today after class Audrey and I went up into the East side of Midtown to Japan Society. It was the opening of a film series, "No Borders, No Limits: 1960's Nikkatsu Action Cinema," that's looking at the old Nikkatsu action films from the 1960's (tad redundant taint we?). This being during the Japanese New Wave period in cinema. I personally love the films from this period, with films such as "Branded to Kill" and "The Pornographers" (a must see if you haven't seen it go watch it now, now I say, you can finish reading about what's going on in my daily possibly not so interesting life later. Don't forget to come back and comment mind ye).
So, the first in this series was "A Colt is My Passport." It was awesome, it had the lead actor from "Branded to Kill" as well as it is directed by the same director, Seijun Suzuki. There is a lot of reflexivity in the film upon its own events. Like there is one scene that has the main character trying to figure out what weapon to use in a confrontation, then we see the opposition pondering what weapon he might use, that is then being watched by the main character by some binoculars. Oh, and don't forget awesome timing with music cues that are trumpet heavy, so heavy and melo-dramatic at times that you half expect a trumpet player to come marching in the room. Also, the end awesome, some McGuyver stuff goes down and the main character essentially sticks a time bomb on the bottom of a car as it is attempting to run him down, which then explodes.
They had a reception after the film, the food was so good, we didn't have to get any dinner. Two words, beef rolls. They were so good. Oh and guess what, they got student rates as well, oh yah!
In other news I got books in the mail and my so-called gift to myself for my b-day, the Deluxe Transformers Barricade. That thing was nigh on impossible to find. I never saw it in a store, Amazon is trying to sell this 10 dollar toy for 60 bucks. Insane hey? Ya, I was able to get it much cheaper which was good, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten it. It's really nice and looks wicked as you can see.
School has been marching on and with it so has my life and my time, oi. I've been forced to cut back my hours at Tekserve, two days a week now, we'll see how that works out. The globalization/hybridization class continues to get better and more interesting along with fun digressions like the movie Red Dawn, GO WOLVERINES SAVE OUR MCDONALDS FROM THE COMMIES! Last week in Media Change I presented on a chapter from Flusser about looking at the camera as an apparatus, made me think about Web 2.0 and issues of power, who really has it, (hint it's not the users). That assertion heated up the discussion, and lately I've become the real Web 2.0 basher. It's become my deal almost that and issues of power, the real and post-modernity all of which came up within the mapping class. I feel with that class, it could be a lot more interesting or could become it if people wanted to engage more thoroughly the issue of power in relation to the practice of mapping or its inherent presence. Oh well, I get my presentation in two weeks on the manipulative aspects of mapping, exactly what I'm interested and doing. That brings me to the NNW, I have now integrated the FBI's to wanted terrorists and domestic terrorists into the word list. There's so many aliases for everyone, it's insane, not to mention what people are wanted for.
Anyways I need to get up tomorrow to go to work, oi. So, laters.
So, the first in this series was "A Colt is My Passport." It was awesome, it had the lead actor from "Branded to Kill" as well as it is directed by the same director, Seijun Suzuki. There is a lot of reflexivity in the film upon its own events. Like there is one scene that has the main character trying to figure out what weapon to use in a confrontation, then we see the opposition pondering what weapon he might use, that is then being watched by the main character by some binoculars. Oh, and don't forget awesome timing with music cues that are trumpet heavy, so heavy and melo-dramatic at times that you half expect a trumpet player to come marching in the room. Also, the end awesome, some McGuyver stuff goes down and the main character essentially sticks a time bomb on the bottom of a car as it is attempting to run him down, which then explodes.
They had a reception after the film, the food was so good, we didn't have to get any dinner. Two words, beef rolls. They were so good. Oh and guess what, they got student rates as well, oh yah!
In other news I got books in the mail and my so-called gift to myself for my b-day, the Deluxe Transformers Barricade. That thing was nigh on impossible to find. I never saw it in a store, Amazon is trying to sell this 10 dollar toy for 60 bucks. Insane hey? Ya, I was able to get it much cheaper which was good, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten it. It's really nice and looks wicked as you can see.
School has been marching on and with it so has my life and my time, oi. I've been forced to cut back my hours at Tekserve, two days a week now, we'll see how that works out. The globalization/hybridization class continues to get better and more interesting along with fun digressions like the movie Red Dawn, GO WOLVERINES SAVE OUR MCDONALDS FROM THE COMMIES! Last week in Media Change I presented on a chapter from Flusser about looking at the camera as an apparatus, made me think about Web 2.0 and issues of power, who really has it, (hint it's not the users). That assertion heated up the discussion, and lately I've become the real Web 2.0 basher. It's become my deal almost that and issues of power, the real and post-modernity all of which came up within the mapping class. I feel with that class, it could be a lot more interesting or could become it if people wanted to engage more thoroughly the issue of power in relation to the practice of mapping or its inherent presence. Oh well, I get my presentation in two weeks on the manipulative aspects of mapping, exactly what I'm interested and doing. That brings me to the NNW, I have now integrated the FBI's to wanted terrorists and domestic terrorists into the word list. There's so many aliases for everyone, it's insane, not to mention what people are wanted for.
Anyways I need to get up tomorrow to go to work, oi. So, laters.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Car Sounds & 50 Years with the M16
So, I've never heard this guy Michael Winslow before, apparently he's a stand up comedian who makes noises and such. His car noises, damn. Just listen because it's really ridiculous. He does a Led Zepplin guitar solo at the end as well.
The News Hour on monday did an interview with Jim Sullivan one of the original people working on developing the M16. It brought up the concern and question about certain priorities of the U.S.' military procurement process. The M16 of course is a rather old gun, since it began development in 1957. The issue is that the U.S. has not moved forward with technology at all in regards to the rifles issued to troops on the ground, whereas those who they are combating have rifles that are much more contemporary and functional. Functional in the terms of the operation of the weapon, with the M16 still apparently suffering from problems with jamming and the like even under light circumstances versus the rugged and nearly indestructible Kalashnikov. Back when the M16 was adopted the military fought it in every way possible and was later investigated to be almost criminally negligent to be equipping soldiers with older rifles. I wonder if this may deemed the case with the current state of the M16 in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, food rations have improved tremendously apparently.
The News Hour on monday did an interview with Jim Sullivan one of the original people working on developing the M16. It brought up the concern and question about certain priorities of the U.S.' military procurement process. The M16 of course is a rather old gun, since it began development in 1957. The issue is that the U.S. has not moved forward with technology at all in regards to the rifles issued to troops on the ground, whereas those who they are combating have rifles that are much more contemporary and functional. Functional in the terms of the operation of the weapon, with the M16 still apparently suffering from problems with jamming and the like even under light circumstances versus the rugged and nearly indestructible Kalashnikov. Back when the M16 was adopted the military fought it in every way possible and was later investigated to be almost criminally negligent to be equipping soldiers with older rifles. I wonder if this may deemed the case with the current state of the M16 in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, food rations have improved tremendously apparently.
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