WLGades's Buried Thoughts

Wingsuit Base Jump

2009-03-26T02:59:00.001-07:00

Shakespeare in Video Games

2009-01-10T23:55:00.000-08:00

Somehow I ended up reading the Wikipedia entry on Silent Hill, and decided to go through all the plotlines of the various games, since it's been pretty critically acclaimed (plus it's been made into a movie and a sequel's in the works). The wikipedia article on Silent Hill 3 has this snippet:

"Players can set the difficulty of both the combat and puzzle elements of the game separately, with easy, medium and hard being offered in both cases.[8] In the case of the puzzle difficulties there is a large difference between medium and hard; one of the early puzzles on the medium setting requires only simple pattern recognition, whilst the hard version of the same puzzle requires considerable knowledge of five Shakespeare plays to complete."

That piqued my curiosity enough for me to go actually find what the puzzle was, which this Gamespot review helped with. 5 different Shakespeare plays, and then just a random puzzle using that info. Wow.

And people say you don't learn anything from games...

What?

2009-01-06T23:56:00.000-08:00

Dead Man Eating

2009-01-06T18:07:00.001-08:00

Last meals for people on death row. I've always wondered, who do they get to cook these things?

Habanera, Muppet Style

2009-01-06T18:01:00.000-08:00

Stolen from a friend's status message.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-20T22:11:00.000-08:00

Secure Web Uploads

2008-12-19T03:14:00.000-08:00

An interesting, well-written and informative article on web uploads for websites.

NYTimes 1996 Election Day Crossword

2008-12-18T14:41:00.000-08:00

I've been watching the documentary Wordplay, which is a documentary for the annual crossword puzzle competition on the East Coast. It references this crossword puzzle, which I thought was really, really cool.

Dancing Startups

2008-12-18T02:06:00.000-08:00

I really like the techcrunch title: "First Round Capital Literally Makes All Their Startups Dance"

Ben Mezrich

2008-12-16T13:27:00.001-08:00

He's the guy who wrote Bringing Down the House, and this is an article giving biographical information and also talking about some of the factual inconsistencies in the book. I have no problem with people creating composite characters (hell, Changeling is actually a true story, and they still used composite characters there), but I do have problems with events that were "largely correct," mainly because I don't know what was changed. It's disingenuous to say that lawyers are just being too careful because of Frey. I was largely interested in that book (and was drawn in by the story) because it was true, all the things had happened. If I had known it was somewhat made up, I would have had a fairly different reaction.

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes

2008-12-12T19:23:00.000-08:00

Stolen from SL's status:

IMVU Ad

2008-12-11T03:22:00.000-08:00

MF told me about IMVU when we were roommates a few years ago, and I thought then it was doomed to a quick failure. But according to Wikipedia, "It has generated $1 million in revenue per month, 90% of which comes directly from consumers who buy IMVU credits and virtual goods, which really is pretty impressive for a graphical chat client. I saw this ad earlier today, though, which I thought was interesting.

Obama's Website

2008-12-11T03:09:00.000-08:00

Two interesting things I just noticed from a friend's status message. First, it's using Google Apps! Second, it's using Dory! The link goes to questions people have asked the Obama-Biden team.

Full Tilt Poker Pro Chat

2008-12-07T23:11:00.000-08:00

Full Tilt Poker hosts various chats with professional poker players, and then makes the archives available for viewing later. ES pointed me to Alan Boston's, which is pretty funny. Snippets:

QUESTION FROM Sharp1985: hows it going?

ANSWER FROM Alan Boston: i am looking at the high ceilings at my house and thinking thhis is a good place to hang myself

QUESTION FROM lsparks19: george carlin told me that walmart is havin' a sale on rope. no use spendin' alotta money to kill yourself. then again you could always just put it on the ol' credit card...wouldn't have to pay the %%#@in' thing

ANSWER FROM Alan Boston: i dont shop walmart. Perhaps whole foods is offering hemp rope

QUESTION FROM Insanity Later: you want to hang yourself

ANSWER FROM Alan Boston: I have no dreams

QUESTION FROM Cold Remedy: How would u go about turning $50 to $10,000??

ANSWER FROM Alan Boston: rob a bank

Coffee

2008-12-03T23:02:00.000-08:00

It's a comic chronicling one man's relationship with coffee.

I've been lax in my posting since I headed down to LA for Thanksgiving, but readers should be used to that by now. I will say that Reynolds Oven Bake Bags are not the miracle that the waitress at the Huntington Library Tea Room made them out to be.

Synecdoche, You're on Candid Camera

2008-11-26T18:53:00.000-08:00

Pomegranate Phone

2008-11-22T00:47:00.000-08:00

Check out this ridiculously well-done website.

Californication, and Mia

2008-11-20T02:30:00.000-08:00

I fell in love with Californication last season, introducing David Duchovny in a whole new light. I never had a negative opinion of him (never saw Evolution or any of the supposedly terrible movies he's been in), but all I really knew about him came from X-Files, and it didn't seem like there was much, let's say, artistic depth to him in that show. But along came Californication, and I had a whole new respect for him. Not only does he turn in an awesome performance, but he also is just so damn funny that I can't help but respect him more. Plus it's got hot girls. One of whom is Mia Cross, who I just discovered has a YouTube channel and a Twitter feed.

The Facebook of Genesis

2008-11-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

Three people have sent me this link in three days, so I might as well post it.

Obama's Blackberry

2008-11-17T14:07:00.000-08:00

Poor Obama.

=============================
Lose the BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe
WASHINGTON — Sorry, Mr. President. Please surrender your BlackBerry.
Those are seven words President-elect Barack Obama is dreading but expecting to hear, friends and advisers say, when he takes office in 65 days.

DFW, Part 2

2008-11-12T16:04:00.000-08:00

I've been re-reading A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments for the third or fourth time, and a few days ago I decided to see what other of his non-fiction work I haven't been able to see. As a result, I just placed an order on Amazon for The Best American Essays 2007 (Edition 001) and for Signifying Rappers Race Urban Present, neither of which I'd heard about before. From there, I somehow found my way to McSweeney's DFW tribute. I had no idea the two were so intimately involved from the inception, and I'm going to be spending the next few days diving into the archives to see what gems I can pull.

But from that tribute, I found various other great DFW ... links, for want of a better word. Someone mentions that they received the news from Jason Zengerle's New Republic tribute to DFW, and from there, there's a link to DFW (I keep writing SFW, for some reason, which is also true) at the MOCA in San Diego, reading snippets from his Illinois State Fair piece, as well as his cruise piece.

It's entertaining watching him read, not just because it's his voice and his words, but also because the audience reactions really do shape the experience. It's worthwhile to watch, even if you've read all his work.

From that TNR post, there's a comment that excerpts his author's note for the Best American Short Stories collection he was part of.

"This is a bit embarrassing, and I'd rather not discuss it, but will, since certain authorities have been polite but firm about these little post-story discussions being strongly encouraged, and I'd probably submit with cheer to way more embarrassing requirements if it meant getting the old snout into the B.A.S.S. trough.

"The embarrassing issue here is I'm not all that crazy about this story. It's one of few autobiographically implicated things I've ever tried. I did, like probably lots of kids, have a high-dive trauma. My real trauma was much more plain-old-sphincter-loosening-fear-based than the existential conundra that this story's kid encounters. I basically got to the top, with a long line of jaded souls behind me, and changed my mind about going off. It was excruciatingly shaming, but in no way deeply or exceptionally shaming. I think it was the memory of the shame so much as current shame that allowed so pedestrian a shame to still haunt my esteem-centers, prompting me to make the story so heavy, meditative, image-laden, swinging for the fence on just about every pitch. The thing seems to me a performative index of every weakness I have as a writer and as a person. And God knows why I let my desire for an Alienated Narrative Persona lead me to use the second-person point of view; now I'm scared people will read this and think I'm just some McInerney imitator in a black turtleneck, a copy of Kierkegaard under my arm.

"The thing went through dozens of drafts, the first of which still sits in the pages of my undergraduate 'Stories That'll Prove I'm a Genius' notebook. . . . I'm noticing that, with respect to any piece of fiction, my dissatisfaction with the final draft is directly proportional to the excitement that precedes the first draft. I remember doing the tortured artist thing back in school, all ego and caffeine, and thinking I had a genuine Big Idea for this story here, and seeing it finished, Big, published, lauded as Important by bearded titans. This was before I even bothered to start to try writing the thing. I preconceived it as deeply moving and imposingly cerebral at the same time, at once tender-psyche'd and tough-minded, just the sort of thing Eminences would pluck out of the glabrous herd by choosing for a prestigious anthology. By the second draft, my head was more or less permanently attached to the wall I'd been pounding it on. In black-lit contrast to the timelessly Big thing, I'd preconceived, the actual ink-on-paper story seemed pretentious and trendy and jejune and any number of bad things: it seemed like the product of a young writer who was ashamed of a personal trauma and who was straining with every fast-twitch fiber to make that trauma sound way deeper and prettier and Big than anything true could every really be. And here I mean 'true' both artistically and historically.

"I don't know why I kept putting the thing through drafts. I kept getting late-night twinges of that original preconceptual excitement. I kept seeing the thing as maybe just one image or two epiphanies away from blossoming, from honoring its entelechy of Bigness. Six years and many other completed projects later, I sent this story out in the old brown envelope. I sent it out for the same reason most young writers I know send stuff out: to have an excuse to quit thinking about it. My surprise when _Fiction International_ took the thing was nothing compared to my feelings about the august endorsement that occasions this wordy little confession. Do not get me wrong: qualms about the story's failure to be anything more than a lumpy ghost of what I remain convinced was its initial promise of Bigness have not inhibited me from calling pretty much everybody I know and casually working in the B.A.S.S.-selection news. I'm extremely and yet of course also humbly grateful and moved and etc. I'm just coming to realize that I have very little personal clue about whether the stuff I do is good or bad or successful or not successful* which like most bits of self-knowledge is both mortifying and kind of a relief. It makes me glad I have opinionated critical friends and politely firm editors, not necessarily in that order."

" *Is 'successful' the same as 'good,' here? Does inclusion in B.A.S.S. render a story de facto 'good' the way a human reverend's pronouncement effects a legally binding union?"

Continuing down the DFW links, his piece for Rolling Stone about McCain is now available online, and should be required reading for anyone who's interested in the political process (especially in light of the most recent election), though DFW did talk about how the new McCain no longer commanded the same amount of respect that the McCain of the article did.

Similarly, his article for The Atlantic describing talk radio is also available, and they've even hyperlinked his footnotes so they pop-up with the content.

Thie post is getting rather long, so I'm going to send it out into the electronic wild, and post another as I go through the rest of the links I have open.

Photoshop Mock

2008-11-10T21:25:00.001-08:00

Rush Plays Rush's Tom Sawyer on Rock Band

2008-11-10T04:04:00.000-08:00

This video combines many things I like: the song Tom Sawyer, by Rush, the Colbert Report, and Rock Band. Ever since I played the original Guitar Hero, I've always been curious just how accurately these games capture the songs, and how well the original artists would do on these songs. People that complain about how the games aren't a good imitation of the song miss the point that these are games, not music simulations. We're not trying to teach kids how to read music here (unlike possibly the newly released Wii Music), but instead providing a fun experience that imiates being a rock hero.

Anyway, Rush plays their Rock Band version of the song, which I found immensely entertaining (more so than most, probably...):

Colbert and Stewart at the 2007 Emmys

2008-11-09T00:21:00.000-08:00

I've watched this clip at least ... 20 times? I still think it's the best award show presentation I've seen.

History of the User Agent String

2008-11-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

It's an extremely nerdy article, but well written and interesting to me. Here are the first few paragraphs of the article:

In the beginning there was NCSA Mosaic, and Mosaic called itself NCSA_Mosaic/2.0 (Windows 3.1), and Mosaic displayed pictures along with text, and there was much rejoicing.

And behold, then came a new web browser known as “Mozilla”, being short for “Mosaic Killer,” but Mosaic was not amused, so the public name was changed to Netscape, and Netscape called itself Mozilla/1.0 (Win3.1), and there was more rejoicing. And Netscape supported frames, and frames became popular among the people, but Mosaic did not support frames, and so came “user agent sniffing” and to “Mozilla” webmasters sent frames, but to other browsers they sent not frames.

And Netscape said, let us make fun of Microsoft and refer to Windows as “poorly debugged device drivers,” and Microsoft was angry. And so Microsoft made their own web browser, which they called Internet Explorer, hoping for it to be a “Netscape Killer”. And Internet Explorer supported frames, and yet was not Mozilla, and so was not given frames. And Microsoft grew impatient, and did not wish to wait for webmasters to learn of IE and begin to send it frames, and so Internet Explorer declared that it was “Mozilla compatible” and began to impersonate Netscape, and called itself Mozilla/1.22 (compatible; MSIE 2.0; Windows 95), and Internet Explorer received frames, and all of Microsoft was happy, but webmasters were confused.

Gmail Art (in Russian)

2008-11-07T23:06:00.000-08:00

Experience Wii Inspiration

2008-11-07T22:58:00.001-08:00

This was the inspiration for the Experience Wii YouTube page, and is pretty cool in its own right.

Heidi Klum in Underwear

2008-11-06T01:09:00.000-08:00

Something I saw on a profile. Guitar Hero World Tour might not be a better game than Rock Band 2, but it's definitely got better ads. Case in point:

New Organizers

2008-11-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

If you want something to do after basking in the post-electoral victory, take a look at this article which has an interesting breakdown of the Obama ground campaign, detailing just how they empowered their volunteers to build a group that helped propel him to victory.

Starcraft 2 Exhibition Map

2008-11-04T02:13:00.000-08:00

At Blizzcon 2008, there was an exhibition match for the first time ever showcasing Starcraft 2. The two players are a Warcraft 3 player, and a Starcraft player. It's pretty cool, you don't get to see necessarily all the new units, but you do get to see some of them, as well as some of the new gameplay mechanics, like the towers that let you see, and the rocks that are destroyable.

I like the text at the beginning of the second match (didn't notice the first):
1: gg hf
2: GoodLuck

McCain on SNL

2008-11-02T18:06:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've yet talked about how awesome Hulu is. I generally like having downloaded content so that I can scan through it, but for an online video site, Hulu's done a great job of searchable videos, filtered by popular, recently added, user rated, etc. The quality is surprisingly good, and there's only a few commercials run per segment. My one (extremely small) complaint would be the repetitiveness of the ads--I've seen the same commercial run three times in one thirty-minute episode. And for all I know, it's been fixed, I haven't watched anything that long in awhile.

In fact, that's where Hulu shines the most for me, the ability to watch short clips, especially in this election season. The clips I've seen of SNL this season have been pretty good, and the quality is definitely better than YouTube. Here's some of the clips I've been watching (over and over):

McCain SNL Cold Open.

The Office: Japan Edition.

And I linked to this before, but I've watched it three times in the last two days... Iran So Far.

We Can Vote However We Like

2008-11-01T16:21:00.001-07:00

WoW: Obama vs. McCain

2008-11-01T14:03:00.001-07:00

Sarah Palin Porn

2008-11-01T03:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, not exactly. It's the script as read by Ricky Gervais and Thandie Newton.

Thriller Acapella 64 Voices

2008-10-27T16:28:00.001-07:00

Mercenary and Flamethrower on Amazon

2008-10-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

It's a promo for an upcoming game, but this has to be done with Amazon's blessing, right? Mercenary and Flamethrower.

Brokers Hands on Their Faces

2008-10-26T15:16:00.001-07:00

Charlie Brown Isn't as Bad as You Think

2008-10-25T16:38:00.000-07:00

I couldn't steal the actual post's title ("You’re Going Sadly Unrecognized In Certain Quarters, Charlie Brown"), which is much more clever than what I came up with, but it really highlight some good Peanuts cartoons. I'll admit that I'm of that attitude, that there was a noticeable decline in quality of the cartoon in the later years of it, but maybe I should go back and read them.

There has to be a sociological paper in there somewhere, in looking at why Peanuts doesn't have the same appeal to our generation that it did to previous ones.

Japanese Graduation

2008-10-25T16:35:00.000-07:00

Obama in Pictures

2008-10-25T05:55:00.001-07:00

Got it from CW, who says "Keep going until you see him doing pullups."

Al Smith Dinner 2008

2008-10-17T03:38:00.000-07:00

There are some great lines, by both McCain and Obama.

10 Geeky Marriage Proposals

2008-10-17T03:05:00.000-07:00

Courtesy BS, some of these are awesome. Reddit??

Is it possible to forget someone that you talked to just 5 seconds ago?

2008-10-17T01:20:00.000-07:00

Courtesy CW:

The Many Faces of McCain

2008-10-16T23:11:00.003-07:00

Chi-Town

2008-10-13T00:58:00.001-07:00

To be fair, I never heard one person call it that while I was there. No Windy City, Second City, or any of a myriad list of names that Wikipedia references. What I did bring away were the following observations.

The people of Chicago are a friendly bunch, from the two African-Americans who gave me directions to Upper Wicker Street, to the Obama supporters with matching shirts with his picture who were on the shuttle to the Indiana casino. The casino itself was Horseshoe Hammond Casino, a riverboat casino that according to Yelp got renovated somewhat recently, and at the steak restaurant upstairs, I overheard a conversation from the table next door where the (very) Caucasian man talked loudly about how he'd just discovered a great Oriental grocery store with fresh fish taking up floor space for 60 meters.

Now I was under the impression that "Oriental" went out of style multiple decades ago (unless you count Monopoly), but more recently, I was at Starbucks in downtown Palo Alto with some friends, when some crazy homeless guy stopped by our table, leaned close to one of the guys at the table, and whispered in a conspiratorial tone, "I think they prefer the term 'Oriental,' instead of 'Asian.'"

Back to Chicago. The main reason I was there was to eat at moto, what someone described to me as "the most intellectually challenging meal of my life." Can't pass up on that. I took lots of pictures with my shiny new DSLR, which I'll put up at some point, but after that, we attended iO Chicago, evidently one of Tina Fey's stepping stones to greatness.

Afterwards, our cabdriver back to the hotel was one of the funnier ones I've had in awhile, regaling us with various jokes on the ride. I dislike relating jokes in print form, so I'll just say they involved a shitfaced condom, a boy and his S & M magazine, and a joke about affairs and unintelligent partners.

And the last vignette involves the bell attendant at my hotel, who took my suitcase from me after I told him I didn't need any help, and then muttered "no change?" under his breath (at least I'm pretty sure he did) as he put my suitcase in. Hey, I said I didn't need help. I did notice his shaking his head as my cab pulled away.

Eh, cheap Asians. What can you do.

Moto

Tiger on Water

2008-10-12T00:29:00.000-07:00

I posted the Tiger walks on water video before, but turns out there's actually a story behind it. First, this got posted on YouTube:

Then EA actually responded to that video on YouTube with this:

Wired: Weird Al

2008-10-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

I never realized that Weird Al parodied "King of Pain," which has become one of my favorite Police songs. The Wired article traces his history and his various albums, complete with some YouTube links.

On an unrelated note, "King of Pain's" been covered by more people than I realized.

Alanis:

Mudvayne:

McCain-chibi vs Obama-chibi

2008-10-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

Serial Comma

2008-10-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

The Times once published this description of a Peter Ustinov documentary: "highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector."[16] This is ambiguous as it stands, but even if a serial comma were added Mandela could still be mistaken for a demigod.

Thanks, Wikipedia!

Drunk British Guy vs. Edo-era Japan

2008-10-09T02:36:00.000-07:00

Courtesy MF, who adds this:

its really funny tho
british tourist
the imperial palace guards come out
with weapons from the edo era
like long stick with two prongs
trying to fend him off

xkcd + audio preview

2008-10-09T02:12:00.000-07:00

I love you xkcd and Google.

And now if you go to Youtube, it's been implemented.

Speaks for Itself

2008-10-08T02:25:00.000-07:00

Megaman

2008-10-07T00:21:00.001-07:00

Penny Arcade isn't as consistently sentimental as xkcd can be (like, say, this one), but this one was very sweet.

Immersive Media

2008-10-03T15:56:00.001-07:00

Kind of cool to get that sort of streaming live video experience.

CNET: Bank robber hires decoys on Craigslist, fools cops

2008-10-03T13:52:00.001-07:00

I think that about says it all, in addition to the part about the getaway inner tube.

Why I Still Love Foxtrot

2008-10-01T04:13:00.000-07:00

I've loved Foxtrot ever since I started reading it, and it's probably the comic that I most consistently followed after Calvin and Hobbes went off into the sunset. Bill Amend stopped making it a daily comic strip around a year ago, but still does Sundays that show up on the front page of the comics section of the LA Times. My dad still saves these for me, so when I go back, I get to catch up on Sunday strips, and see how they've changed in the meantime. This latest trip, I came across this Foxtrot comic:

This is just amazing. He references three webcomics that I know, two of which I love (xkcd and Penny Arcade for those keeping track at home) and brings mainstream attention to them in a way that legitimizes what they've done. Obviously webcomics were doing just fine without this attention, and such, but still. The front page of the LA Times Comic section!

In conclusion, I'm obviously a fan boy.

Khaaaaaaaaaaaaan

2008-09-30T18:48:00.001-07:00

Facebook Movie: Face Off

2008-09-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

At least, that's the current working title of the movie. But it looks like it's written by the guy who wrote Bring Down the House, and isn't very flattering.

fivethirtyeight.com

2008-09-30T02:32:00.000-07:00

Electoral college maps, with hard-core statistical modeling. Numbers!

Lara Logan

2008-09-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

I'm way behind on Daily Show/Colbert Report episodes, and with the new TV season, I only sometimes get the chance to see them. But I just watched an episode from June, interviewing Lara Logan, Chief Foreign Correspondent for CBS News. The interview is obviously interesting since she's actually spent a fair amount of time in Iraq, but she's noteworthy to me because she's gotta be the most attractive foreign correspondent I've seen in awhile. And hearing her say "yo what's up, motherfuckers" is pretty good.

Vanity Fair: Autumn and the Plot Against Me

2008-09-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

When I was in college, I had one of the girls from Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball as my wallpaper for a few weeks. Kasumi graced my screen for that period of time, then I ended up taking it down because it caused my computer to load too slowly when I was using Remote Desktop to control it. Shows my priorities... I bring this up because the article is about chasing down one of the Windows default wallpapers, and it reminded me of Kasumi. Or Kagane, or whatever her name was.

Happy 10th Birthday, Google

2008-09-27T02:01:00.001-07:00

The logo's kicking it old school.

Wario Wii

2008-09-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

Promo for the upcoming Wario game for the Wii. I didn't realize YouTube did customizations like this for its pages.

The Great Schlep

2008-09-26T13:00:00.001-07:00

Sarah Silverman + Jews + Obama.

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Call Me Cardinal

2008-09-26T02:44:00.000-07:00

Stanford Alumni magazine has a list of first lines from Class of '12 essays. The rest of the article isn't that interesting, but the lines aren't bad. I posted them after the jump.

I've always wanted to know what people's college essays were like. When people have to present a compelling side to their lives in 500 words or less, they (usually) come up with fairly insightful pieces. And the number of iterations that they go through (I remember reading through 26 versions of AL's med shcool essays), the amount of feedback people get, all that energy helps produce something ... different.

In preparation for writing essays, I got a book about writing college essays. It was 100 examples of great college essays, though obviously subjected to editor's pick. I still remember some of them all this time later. One was the Brown University essay, which required everyone to hand-write your essays. To give it more personality, they said, though I'm not sure I buy that. In the sample essay they had, the writer decided to digitize every character he wrote, so that he could develop a new font and use that to write the essay instead.

Another involved the best piece of advice ever received. "Move your ass", as shouted to the writer while she was crossing the street, was the winner, since without it, the author wouldn't be alive to apply to college today.

When I read the book, I always wondered if my essays were good enough to make the cut. I've always been proud of my essays, but now I'm not sure I'd want them out there.

=======================

Unlike many mathematicians, I live in an irrational world; I feel that my life is defined by a certain amount of irrationalities that bloom too frequently, such as my brief foray in front of 400 people without my pants.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor of a Bhimanagar slum dwelling in Bangalore, I ran my fingers across a fresh cut on my forehead.

I almost didn't live through September 11th, 2001.

When I was 8 years old, I shocked my family and a local archaeologist by discovering artifacts dating back almost 3,500 years.

When I was in eighth grade I couldn't read.

While traveling through the daily path of life, have you ever stumbled upon a hidden pocket of the universe?

The spaghetti burbled and slushed around the pan, and as I stirred it, the noises it gave off began to sound increasingly like bodily functions.

I had never seen anyone get so excited about mitochondria.

Cancer tried to defeat me, and it failed.

I stand on the riverbank surveying this rippled range like some riparian cowboy—instead of chaps, I wear vinyl, thigh-high waders and a lasso of measuring tape and twine is slung over my arm.

I have old hands.

Flying over enemy territory, I took in Beirut's beautiful skyline and wondered if under different circumstances I would have hopped on a bus and come here for my vacation. Instead, I saw the city from the window of a helicopter, in military uniform, my face camouflaged, on my way to a special operation deep behind enemy lines.

My younger sister, Jessica, arrived home one day reeling about the shirt that her friend had worn to school. It had simply read, “Genocide, Homicide, Suicide, Riverside.”

I'll never forget the day when my childhood nightmares about fighting gigantic trolls in the Lord of the Rings series became a reality. Sword in hand and clad in medieval samurai armor, I dragged myself into the battleground as I faced my opponent, a warmongering giant.

Good Grief! You never would have guessed that an unassuming meek lovable loser like Charlie Brown would have an influence on anyone; but indeed he has.

Some fathers might disapprove of their children handling noxious chemicals in the garage.

I was paralyzed from the waist down. I would try to move my leg or even shift an ankle but I never got a response. This was the first time thoughts of death ever crossed my mind.

As an Indian-American, I am forever bound to the hyphen.

Journey to Gulu's outskirts and you will uncover the scene where education was raped 11 years ago; some Ugandan teens also lost their innocence in exchange for their lives.

I have been surfing Lake Michigan since I was 3 years old.

On a hot Hollywood evening, I sat on a bike, sweltering in a winter coat and furry boots.

I change my name each time I place an order at Starbucks.

Dirty House

2008-09-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

And I mean dirty. Courtesy BA.

edit:

AH: holy fuck
that makes me so glad i'm not moving into an apartment..

ES: your link is unbelievably foul
it's like a fusion of andrew hwang and andrew lee
*10

AH: Lol damn wtf
I am so much cleaner now

Search Engine Rap Battle: MSN vs. Google

2008-09-23T13:11:00.001-07:00

NYTimes: Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet

2008-09-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

For those West Wing fans out there...

Dancing Christians

2008-09-19T23:12:00.001-07:00

Watch it without sound, it's better...

Giant Smile For Google Earth

2008-09-19T03:35:00.000-07:00

RIP David Foster Wallace

2008-09-18T04:25:00.000-07:00

David Foster Wallace passed away three days ago of an apparent suicide. The ensuing coverage has been interesting to read, and shown some interesting sides of him that I never knew. A Chicago Tribune feature discussed how he actually entered a hospital and asked to be put on suicide watch after the success of his first novel and his first short story collection. The feature actually is a very well written piece, published shortly after Infinite Jest came out, discussing his somewhat uncomfortable relationship with fame and sporting little gems like:

His self-conscious embarrassment about the trip is reflected in a note on his office door: "D.F. Wallace is out of town on weird personal authorized emergencyish leave from 2/17/96 to 3/3/96 and from 3/5/96 to 3/10/96."

It's a tragedy that he's gone now, and reading his short story in Oblivion about suicide is even more morbid now. He writes from a somewhat first-person pespective about the days and hours leading up to a man's suicide, then inserts himself into the story at the end, drawing conclusions about what would lead a man to do this.

But like the Tribune writer concluded, I'm seriously bummed.

edit: Link from BS to a reader's response.

Color Vision Test

2008-09-17T01:19:00.000-07:00

I somehow got perfect--I'm pretty sure that's luck.
* Your score: 0
* Gender: Male
* Age range: 20-29
* Best score for your gender and age range: 0
* Highest score for your gender and age range: 1492

Spore flash-mobbed on Amazon

2008-09-09T14:09:00.001-07:00

If you look at Spore being sold on Amazon right now, it has 1620 1-star reviews, out of a total of 1753. People are complaining about the DRM imposed within it, and punishing it as a result. It's similar to the Mass Effect controversy earlier this year when gamers marked down a book by Cooper Lawrence after her appearance on Fox News attacking the game.

Dr. Horrible

2008-09-09T02:53:00.000-07:00

Joss Wheedon's latest, starring Neil Patrick Harris, and it's pretty well done. I may even download the soundtrack...

Tiger Woods + Rubiks Cube

2008-09-09T01:38:00.000-07:00

I would just link the video, but there are some other links off there that are pretty good, like Tiger Woods walks on water.

Oh, what the hell. Here:

Anti-Wedding

2008-09-07T23:46:00.000-07:00

A Washington Post article about the perfect anti-wedding, which is a fairly entertaining read. Courtesy HB.

Chrome Comic Redux

2008-09-04T21:54:00.000-07:00

Nvidia's CPU vs GPU demo

2008-09-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

Heard: Forever 21 in SF

2008-08-31T00:48:00.001-07:00

Why are we in here by ourselves with no girls? This is just stupid.

-2 Asian guys

Rock Band 2 Song List

2008-08-29T01:31:00.001-07:00

Still no "Don't Stop Believing", but all in all, a good list.

Band
84 Survivor - "Eye of the Tiger"
83 Lit - "My Own Worst Enemy"
82 Social Distortion - "I Was Wrong"
81 Beastie Boys - "So Whatcha Want"
80 Beck - "E-Pro"
79 Duran Duran - "Hungry Like the Wolf"
78 L7 - "Pretend We're Dead"
77 Bikini Kill - "Rebel Girl"
76 Panic at the Disco - "Nine in the Afternoon"
75 Modest Mouse - "Float On"
74 Nirvana - "Drain You"
73 Interpol - "PDA"
72 Alice in Chains - "Man in the Box"
71 Squeeze - "Cool for Cats"
70 Cheap Trick - "Hello There"
69 Smashing Pumpkins - "Today"
68 Paramore - "That's What You Get"
67 Norman Greenbaum - "Spirit in the Sky"
66 The Go-Gos - "We Got the Beat"
65 The Donnas - "New Kid in School"
64 Dinosaur Jr. - "Feel the Pain"
63 Elvis Costello - "Pump It Up"
62 Linkin Park - "One Step Closer"
61 The Libyans - "Welcome to the Neighborhood"
60 Billy Idol - "White Wedding Pt. 1"
59 Talking Heads - "Psycho Killer"
58 Presidents of the USA - "Lump"
57 Speck - "Conventional Lover"
56 Lush - "De-luxe"
55 Bad Company - "Shooting Star"
54 Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Give it Away"
53 Jimmy Eat World - "The Middle"
52 The Guess Who - "American Woman"
51 Bon Jovi - "Livin' on a Prayer"
50 Blondie - "One Way or Another"
49 The Main Drag - "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter"
48 Fleetwood Mac - "Go Your Own Way"
47 The Muffs - "Kids in America"
46 AFI - "Girls Not Grey"
45 Silverspun - "Lazy Eye"
44 The Offspring - "Come Out & Play (Keep 'em Separated)"
43 Jane's Addiction - "Mountain Song"
42 Mighty Mighty Bosstones - "Where'd You Go"
41 The Replacements - "Alex Chilton"
40 Steve Miller Band - "Rock'n Me"
39 Bob Dylan - "Tangled Up in Blue"
38 Pearl Jam - "Alive"
37 Ratt - "Round & Round"
36 Alanis Morissette - "You Oughta Know"
35 The Grateful Dead - "Alabama Getaway"
34 Rage Against the Machine - "Testify"
33 The Sterns - "Supreme Girl"
32 The Who - "Pinball Wizard"
31 Lucana Coil - "Our Truth"
30 Devo - "Uncontrollable Urge"
29 Joan Jett - "Bad Reputation"
28 Bang Camaro - "Night Lies"
27 Journey - "Any Way You Want It"
26 Sonic Youth - "Teenage Riot"
25 Guns N' Roses - "Shackler's Revenge"
24 ACDC - "Let There Be Rock"
23 Rush - "The Trees"
22 Jethro Tull - "Aqualung"
21 Disturbed - "Down with the Sickness"
20 System of a Down - "Chop Suey"
19 Foo Fighters - "Everlong"
18 Tenacious D - "Master Exploder"
17 Rise Against - "Give it All"
16 Kansas - "Carry On Wayward Son"
15 That Handsome Devil - "Rob the Prez-O-Dent"
14 Soundgarden - "Spoonman"
13 Motorhead - "Ace of Spades"
12 Avenged Sevenfold - "Almost Easy"
11 Allman Brothers - "Ramblin' Man"
10 Anarchy Club - "Get Clean"
9 Megadeth - "Peace Sells"
8 Mastodon - "Colony of Birchmen"
7 Testament - "Souls of Black"
6 Steely Day - "Bodhisattva"
5 Breaking Wheel - "Shoulder to the Plow"
4 Metallica - "Battery"
3 Abnormality - "Visions"
2 Dream Theater - "Panic Attack"
1 Judas Priest - "Painkiller"

Aaron Sorkin on Facebook

2008-08-28T00:16:00.000-07:00

And he's actually answering questions from fans, for what looks like 6 pages. Very cool. In somewhat related news is this thread detailing events that happened between Sorkin and the Television Without Pity folk, and links to a whole bunch of other stuff related.

Here's a good post:

"When it was announced that Tommy and I were leaving The West Wing, I got a call from Larry David, whom I'd only met once and very briefly. Larry had left Seinfeld a few years before it went off the air and he said, "You can't ever watch the show again. Either it'll be good and you'll be miserable or it'll be less than good and you'll be miserable. Either way you'll be miserable, so you can't watch the show." I figured it was just Larry being Larry since he's made an art form out of being miserable and so I watched the first 10 minutes of the first episode of Season 5. Larry was right. I never saw any more of Seasons 5 thru 7. I have no doubt they were outstanding."

edit: Whoah, and Joshua Malina joined in.

Michael Phelps Photo Finish

2008-08-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

On the race where he won his 7th gold medal by .01 seconds, Sports Illustrated has a pretty good sequence of photos that details the finish. The one linked here is the actual end.

Nice Neighbors

2008-08-27T00:22:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in front of my computer as usual last night, HB was on hers, when I heard the opening of the door, the sound of keys being thrown in, then the closing of the door. We both looked at each other, then I got up to check the door, assuming AL was over. But no one was in the living room, and all I saw were keys on the ground. I continued on my assumption that AL had decided to throw his keys in temporarily while running back out to the car (it was the most plausible explanation at the time, I swear), but that scenario seemed less and less likely as time went on.

Luckily HB went out to get a glass of water, and noticed the keys on the ground herself, because when she came back in, she told me they were hers. Which means the only plausible explanation is that she left the keys in the door, one of our neighbors (or random stranger) noticed that they were still stuck there, then took them out, threw them in the house, and left.

Which is a little creepy (for some reason), but ultimately quite nice of them. I guess it's the anonymity that makes up the creepy part...

Google's Newest Cafeteria: Big Table

2008-08-21T01:08:00.000-07:00

Is Jon Stewart the most trusted man in America?

2008-08-17T23:53:00.000-07:00

Answer: Mostly yes.

Hard-working Olympic Athletes

2008-08-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

It's 1:20 AM, and they've only just completed the first set of the Women's Doubles Tennis Quarterfinals, and this is live. I never realized that matches went so late during the Olympics, I somehow always assumed that they were held during normal business hours. But it turns out matches are just always happening--the volleyball match between China and US didn't finish until 11 PM or so, and the Japan vs Cuba match started *after* that.

My Chinese isn't good enough to read that many characters, but I thought the red background on two characters meant live, since last time I'd seen a match with AL's dad, he'd pointed them out to me. But it was so late I figured it couldn't be possible that it was live, so I went online and looked it up--sure enough, these matches are all live. Crazy.

China <-> Japan

2008-08-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

I accidentally switched to Japanese while typing a message to MF.

me: as an implementation of hte OSｓぺしふぃかちおん？
MF: you ahve to hook it up to holy shit
what did you just type
me: specification
haha
i was going to delete it
but i thought it would be funnier to actually send it
MF: haha i see how that came out now
lol

I just like how his response also is halfway through one sentence, like my screwup.

Brian Williams on Chinese TV

2008-08-14T12:23:00.000-07:00

I don't have a link handy, but I'm watching a rebroadcast of Brian Williams on CCTV, the local Chinese channel. It's a really interesting discussion touching upon China, nationalism, medal count, and journalism--there seems to be genuine interest beyond just professional courtesy in the conversation between the two news people.

More Street View ... Fun

2008-08-13T06:30:00.000-07:00

Subtitle: Google Street View drivers are robots.

Yes, I'm in China to watch the Olympics, but I'll post about that later (hopefully).

Opening Ceremony

2008-08-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Some really cool pictures from the opening ceremony. Too bad we couldn't be there (ahem, you know who I'm talking to).

Stir-fried Wikipedia

2008-08-07T02:19:00.001-07:00

Gotta follow the link, it's got pics.

America's Nerds Are Fat

2008-08-06T22:47:00.001-07:00

Garfield Without Garfield to be published by Ballantine

2008-08-01T13:28:00.001-07:00

Jim Davis is a brilliant man. Here's the text:

Ballantine Books, which has published 33 volumes of Jim Davis’Garfield, has announced that it will publish a full color collection inspired by the popular Garfield Minus Garfield Webcomic created by Dublin-based Dan Walsh. Walsh’s Garfield Minus Garfield Webcomic debuted last February and quickly became a huge hit. By taking the lasagna-loving feline and the other critters out of the popular comic strip Walsh has managed to wring a new sort of hip existential humor out of what has become a very conventional comic strip--creating the modern equivalent of those wonderfully bleak early Peanuts strips.

The Garfield Minus Garfield collection will include both Jim Davis’ original strip and Walsh’s doctored version on the same page. Critics can say what they want about Davis, but it would be hard to maintain that he doesn’t have a good sense of humor and considerable generosity of spirit—rather than react with horror at the desecration of his creation, Davis commented on Garfield Minus Garfield by saying, “I think it was an inspired thing to do, I want to thank Dan for enabling me to see another side of Garfield.” No wonder Dan Walsh, who is providing the foreword for Garfield Minus Garfield, remarked on Davis’ “awesome generosity and humor.”

Ballantine is publishing Garfield Minus Garfield (MSRP $12.00) on October 28th simultaneously with a deluxe hardcover collection of the best of Davis’ Garfield strips, Thirty Years of Laughs and Lasagna: The Life and Times of a Fat, Furry Legend.

73 Year Old in Japanese Porn

2008-07-29T11:30:00.001-07:00

Thanks, AL.

Stylish Bulletproof Vests

2008-07-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

Complete with video demonstration of getting shot from point blank range.

Lightning Storm + Erupting Volcano

2008-07-26T04:12:00.000-07:00

Absolutely glorious pictures that look unreal.

Kool-Aid Man + Fallen Wall

2008-07-26T02:51:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas: Chinese New Year

2008-07-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

Going to Las Vegas for Chinese New Years was a very different experience. It's not a period in which I've previously visited, so it was cool to see how different it can get. There are decorations everywhere (I'll post pictures at some point [maybe]) and the casinos themselves heavily market it, probably because of the large number of Asians that come over for the holiday, ready to spend exorbitant amounts of money. I've never seen so many Asians in Vegas before, from the high roller who was playing blackjack for 1K/hand, and had around 30K on the table in front of him, to the baccarat/pai gow tables completely full of them. Bellagio has a separate baccarat room--most casinos do--but this time it too was similarly demographically inclined (and full).

To complete the experience, I ate at Noodles, an asian restaurant at the Bellagio, complete with a full...well, Asian staff. The table settings included chopsticks with a fork, to allow all the non-asians (of which there are many, probably because this is one of two restaurants open at 2 AM, 3 AM special closing time for chinese new year), and the waiters all spoke in Cantonese to the cooks.

I ended up typing away on my Blackberry to get notes down that I never posted, given that the trip was in February to eat at Joel Robuchon and Guy Savoy.

Periodic Table

2008-07-24T13:04:00.001-07:00

As in, an actual table, complete with examples of each element.

Yellow Sticky Notes

2008-07-22T04:19:00.000-07:00