The Ultimate Shopping Spree

Ever imagining what will you do if you won the lottery? What if the lottery is 3 trillion dollars? which is the projected final expenditure for the Iraq War. At http://3trillion.org/ you can do that. Go on a shopping spree and see what can you buy with 3 trillion dollars. Here is the opportunity to by that clone of Angelina Jolie you always wanted...

just like real life

So I was just taking a leisurely stroll through my 'hood the other night when I came upon this building that looked like a night club. ( I guess its the neon lights and the bouncers). So I thought I would go check this "petroshka" place out. Just as I walked passed the bouncer and was about to push open the double doors. I heard someone beside me say "Oh nooo you don't". I was a little confused. I mean here I was, a grown man with some money, why the hell can't I go check it out? But it is too early in the night for trouble so I decided to turn and walk away. What did I get for such an act of concession?? TWO bouncers started to come after me, trying to beat me up. I tried to fight them off a bit but there are two of them swinging their fist and I still can't get the "duck" timing right. so they cornered me and I couldn't run away. By this time I am getting annoyed, heck I didn't even set foot in their stupid club!! My health is in the red and I have no choice so I decided I really have to shoot them! See, this is how a decent man is forced into crime!! I was perfectly willing to just beat them up and leave but look what they did!! However, as soon as I pulled out my "piece" they screamed and ran away, leave me behind holding a pistol gaping like an idiot. AHA!! so that is how you get rid of people, I can see the advantages of this gun thing.... either that, or kungfu...

*omg, I am totally getting corrupted*

wow!

So I was browsing Rickey.org while waiting for AI results with Kungfucius. when I noticed they have this live blogging event post. So I clicked on it. and when you load the webpage, it is basically has a Twitter like interface but 100 times better. It's this software made by CoverItLive.com Rickey was blogging in real time, and all the guests can comment, and he can post pictures, and video and audio almost in real time and also throw out poll questions! This is amazing!! It even saves the entire event for a replay later if you like. I am constantly surprised by how far technology is progressing. just imaging, if this thing has a web interface for managing, and you have an iphone that can access internet anywhere. Basically you can be your own real time news show. You can see something happening, use your iphone to take pictures, video etc. then go on line, log into your CoverItLive, and do real time chats with audio/video. Now I know this is not groundbreaking technology or whatever, but it is still so freaking cool!!!

bring it on!

So I finally succumbed to the hype and bought GTA 4, much to the dismay of M. She keeps saying" why would I want to play a bad guy!!??". I really have no good response for her except assuring her that I will be the "good guy among bad guys". Kinda like Chow Yun Fat in mob movies you know? Actually that is my goal, to build East European immigrant Niko into the next Chow Yun Fat in Liberty City.

The game itself is actually incredibly well made. There is amazing amount of details in the city. The art, music and the atmosphere is all so well done. I am very impressed. They basically give you no manual to start the game except a city map. I assume they expect most people to already know what to do but it is all new to me since I haven't played the previous series. So I spent a long time just walking around, getting to know the layout and the movement. I thought the most annoying thing is the camera. It tends to zoom in and out really fast due to the angle you are at and it made me kind of dizzy. The most surreal thing that happened in the first 5 minutes is me sitting on sofa in my living room watching Niko sitting on a sofa in his living room watching a dingy tv with real tv programs ON MY tv!!. I spent about 10 minutes watching a documentary of the beginning of Liberty City although it was more like a mockumentary filled with sarcastic comments about the "morality" of the first settlers lol. Part of me want to just sit there and watch tv just to see how long of a program they actually included and when does it start recycling lol.

So anyway, in my attempt to stay good, I have been very careful not to become a indiscriminate killer. To the game's credit, every mission had a very good motivation and you don't feel like you are doing a bad thing while doing it. So after about 3 hours of play, here is the tally of my "accidental" bad deeds.

Broke umptee amount of lightpoles, garbage cans and various paper stands chasing loan sharks (mostly due to horrible driving skills)

Ran over a kid on a bicycle while I was on a date with this nice girl (she didn't say anything.. and that kid came out of NO WHERE!!! I actually felt kinda bad about that lol. )

Beat up some poor guy on the street corner just to test out the punching button.

Gotten chased by 50 police cars and a helicopter because I tried to "cross the bridge" on foot. How the hell am I suppose to know that I am not allowed to cross the bridge until I unlock certain missions.

Kinda trashed my cousin's taxi numerous times, basically after every mission. But really, he gets it back new at the next mission so that should be ok

oh yeah, I also refused to pay tolls over the bridge... I ran the gate thing :D That thing was $5!!! total ripoff!

See, that wasn't so bad right? I even refrained from robbing the laundry mat and the internet cafe even though a context menu popped up saying I could "press Y to open cash register..." -_-!!!

funny IM conversation with Snoopy

Here is a funny conversation Snoopy and I had earlier today (edited for clarity etc.)

Moonfleck: oh speaking of baby names
my coworkers is about to have a second child
his first child is a boy
and he is trying to think of a name for the second, but he doesn't know the sex
so he is going through this list for boy and girls
and he is Egyptian
so like his rules for names are :
1) it has to be Arabic name
2) it has to be pronounceable by Americans
3) it can't be any Christian themed
Snoopy:
lol
Moonfleck:
so I was like.. hmm so what is the name of your first boy
he was like :"Adam"
hahahahha
Snoopy:
wtf?
LOL
so these rules apparently didn't apply to the first son??
Moonfleck:
well apparently adam is arabic
Snoopy:
yeah but also Christian themed!!
Moonfleck:
yeah. I was like. um.. anybody that heard that name is gonna think Christian
Snoopy:
lol
Moonfleck:
and he was like. well it is Arabic name first
Snoopy:
.....
tell him if he has another son to name him osama
it's definitely Arabic, not Christian, and Americans DEFINITEly know how to pronounce it lol

where to buy?

So my cousin in China wants me to buy him Lenovo X61 notebook. I looked around, and the official site seems to have the lowest price. Any ideas where else would be cheaper?

a masterpiece

The other day, while I was at the soccer game. My friend got me a bottle of water from the foodstand. I finally finished drinking it today (yes I am a camel). So I was looking at the label out of boredom and it said, in very new age pretty blue font: "Jones Natural Artisan Water, not from the tap". What the hell does that mean? Is there such a thing as "unnatural water?" what would that be called? "irradiated mutated water"? I imagine the Jones company probably has a beautifully and lovingly crafted workshop in the back of their bottling factory filled with solemn elves carefully stacking hydrogen atoms onto oxygen atoms to create the most intricate patterns of water molecule designed to quench the thirst of even the most picky human. How else can it deserve the "artisan" description. and I certainly hope it wasn't directly from the tap since we probably paid 3 bucks for this fancy artisan water and I can get tap water for free!!

What is next? designer air?

Viva Mexico!

sorry about the picture quality, I took this using my phone.

I attended a soccer exhibition game at Qwest stadium on Wednesday. The games are part of the Mexico tour 2008. It is China vs. Mexico that day. Now I am not really a big soccer fan but my friend wanted to check it out so I went. Have to cheer on the national team! The traffic was absolutely horrible that day. We were stuck on the bridge for 2 and a half hours even though we left 2 hours before kickoff. So we ended up missing the first half. Stupid soccer game with no time stoppage lol.

While we were stuck on the bridge, I was amazed by how many Mexican soccer fans there were. We were surrounded by a sea of cars with green flags waving. They honked all the way from east end to west end. I saw plates from California and Oregon. It was pretty cool to see all these people coming up to support the Mexican team. Although it made traffic unbearable. The most funny thing I saw was a jeep with its roof down and a guy sitting in it wearing this humongous sombrero screaming at the top of his lungs. I swear I was the only Chinese person for miles around and I imagined they all looked at me with disdain as our car inched past hahaha (j/k).

So after we finally got to the stadium, I was completely flabbergasted at the amount of people. The entire football stadium was completely filled. The energy and excitement was so palpable. It is like one giant party. There were so many Mexican soccer fans there that they announced the entire game in Spanish, not even bother with English. I saw one tiny section of Chinese soccer fans waiting the red flag in vain,completely being overwhelmed by a sea of green haha. The seats we got was smack dab in the middle of nowhere so I kept my head down. Now I have never been to a real soccer game so everything was new to me. Apparently there is this habit of throwing paper airplanes down to the field. I don't really know how people was suppose to run around on there without tripping over 500 paper airplanes. What weird habits! lol.

In the end, Mexico won 1:0 against China. This is a good thing as I avoided getting beat up by 52,000 angry soccer fans hahaha. It was quite inspiring how everybody came together to support the home team. I swear the entire hispanic population of Seattle was there at the game.

Just a side note, apparently Seattle is applying for permission to start a professional soccer team, the Seattle Sounders. This ought to be fun if it happens. I can start at the beginning and actually get to know the teams. Also, this means Beckham may visit someday hahah!

AI top7 review

I am actually surprised that Idol didn't have a Mariah Carey night before. Her repertoire is choked full of bombastic ballads that are perfect for this show. I thought everyone did really great tonight (yes even Kristy sigh). The songs were able to showcase their vocals as well as their diversity. I can't put them into categories tonight because everyone did well. At this point, I am willing to go for a top 3 all male showdown though. I thought all three guys were really different and lovely in their own way. All three of them will be able to have a good career.

In order of performance:

David Archuleta: Really good choice of a song and sang it really well. I think he eats ballads like this for breakfast. Probably have been singing the same kind of songs since he was 5. He is totally going to be the next male Hannah Montana haha. The only thing is I don't think he is used to singing R&B runs. The runs were kinda forced and unnatural. He is definitely safe either way.

Carly Smithson- Btw, Clay sang it better. just FYI haha. Carly's vocals were as brilliant as always. I feel like the judges were way harsh. They are trying to influence the votes maybe. I think Carly was handicapped by a bad arrangement of the song. It climaxed too quickly, forcing her to scream through half of it. She should have done a quiet second verse before going for the second climax and go all out.

Syesha Mercado-I have no criticism for her. This is about as perfect as you can do on AI. She is just not as big of a personality as the rest of them. I am pretty sure she can't win regardless.

Brook Whites- OMG, who in the world did the arrangement for this song? First of all, it was WAY WAY too fast. Brook can barely get all the words out, and then the piano raced to the end, forcing her to play catch up thereby making it even worse. She was totally screwed by the song arrangement. Poor Brook

Kristy Lee Cook- I am guessing the hotness law still applies here. She definitely had the worst vocals of the night, but even that was tolerable. I am saddened to say we will probably sit through another week of her painful warble.

David Cook- Ok, I think he is being overhyped now. It was an original version of that song but he hardly sang it well. He was slightly offkey the entire song. He does have amazing stage presence though. That will really make an impression on the audience. He is untouchable at this point. The judges treats him like he already won anyway so I think he is a shoo in for #1 or #2. I also think he does the modern rock thing totally well but his voice is so nondescriptive. Would I be able to tell him apart from Daughtry, or 3 doors down or Nickleback when he is on the radio?

Jason Castro - Ok, I think Jason is going to be my pet favorite. I know Kung is not into him at all haha. But I just really like him for his confidence and his calmness on stage. He knows who he is and he is totally comfortable in his skin. He really sings well too despite of not having a really projecting voice. I loved all the songs he sang so far. If he puts out a CD right now I would go out and buy it haha.

so bottom 3: Carly, Brook and Syesha

Kick off: Brook ( I am just not sure people have abandoned Carly yet)

the greenhouse effect

No, I am not talking about the global climate crisis. The "Greenhouse Effect" refers to an amazing natural phenomenon that happens in our office during sunny days. Not many people have experienced it, and without our green bowl of goodness we might have never noticed. But it happened and I was left with the crazy result :(

So My officemate Kirason and I share a small corner office that has 8 window panes. We also have 4 monitors, 2 xbox and 7 PCs in the room. So on a good sunny day, it is regularly 80 degrees there. I am constantly surprised that no motherboard has melted yet. And having tropical plants is a constant topic of discussion. Now normally this is mitigated by the awesome AC system that keeps us sane. However, on a weekend, there is no such luxury. Now this brings me to the other part of this equation: We also have a candy bowl in our office filled with various chocolate goodies that people have dropped off to keep it full. This is terrible for me but I will talk about that later.

This past Saturday, a fluke happened and we had a beautiful sunny day where the temperature shot up to the 80s. This made for a really pleasant day at the lake but something horrible has happened in our office. Now you know where this is going:

80 degree weather + 8 windows + no AC + 7 PC + bowl of chocolate candy = something HORRIBLE!! DUN DUN DUN!!!

Of course, this all happened when we were out enjoying the weather, so coming in today, I opened up an left over Easter chocolate egg, and noticed it was a weird sandy color, which you must admit is weird for chocolate candy. I was very suspicious but ate it anyway. It tasted fine although really hard for chocolate candy. So this is what I inferred.
80 degree weather + 8 windows + no AC + 7 PC + bowl of chocolate candy = something HORRIBLE

something HORRIBLE + AC on Monday = melted and re-solidified chocolaty weirdness

QED.

Since Kirason has a strong aversion to anything chocolaty, I guess I have to eat these abominations of nature :D

AI review top 8

Wow, I didn't write anything all week lol. oh well, here is review again through Rickey, but this time he had judge reviews on so I figure I should be alright. First of all, American Idol people!! when I said last week that there are too many back up vocalists, it is NOT an excuse to bring in a choir!!!! this is getting ridiculous. I thought most people did ok this week. They all picked very nice songs so it is hard for me to hate any of them. I am going out on a limb right now and say the top 2 is gonna be between David Cook and David Archuleta. They are obviously the judge favorite and ahead in fans. It is going to be the battle of the Davids!! haha

Good
Jason Castro- ok, I am TOTALLY biased because I flove this song so he can do no wrong. I also think it is so funny how he can be so Hawaiian when he is from Texas. It is like some weird genetic mutation haha.

David Cook - Ok I think this song is way too difficult for him to sing in a competition. But he has so much charisma and so much stage presence cmobined with the ultimate confidence that he has million fans so he pulled it off anyway. While he was up there, it might as well be the David Cook concert instead of AI. I think his career is pretty much set.

David Archuleta: I am also biased because this is also one of my favorite songs by Robbie Williams. I thought he sang it very well but the piano playing really dampened his singing. If he dindn't have to play, he would have sounded so much more smooth and beautiful. I don't think it lost him votes though as piano players always get points for impressiveness.

Mediocre

Syesha - Ok I actually thought she sang this song very well. The anonymous choir really did a good job too. But you just DO NOT sing the victory song from a previous contestant because you would never be able to capture the emotional intensity of the song and will always pale by comparison. Like I would totally laugh if anybody tried to sing This Is The Night because it will just sound stupid. So bad song choice for Syesha.

Michael Johns - Rocker lbahblha.. Rocker... anything else? He is not doing his best to distinguish himself from David Cook, and David Cook is pulling far far ahead by being unique.

Brook White - very pretty pleasant song. I think she was a little nervous so alot of the happy and serene quality of the song was lost.

BAAAAD
Carly Smithson - Totally butchered one of the best Queen songs. She is not one of these rocker chicks (she got kicked off already). THis song is way too difficult for her to master in such a short time and it was just horrible. Carly's strong points are her beautiful voice and experience and this song takes advantage of neither.

Kristy Cook - I was just complainingto my friend how bad she was. Now my friend, who is a guy has never watched the show or Kristy so he has no idea what is going on. After hearing my whining, he asked the all important question:" is she hot?". And after perusing very closely, I hate to admit, yes, Kristy is indeed very very hot. and there you go. It explains everything.

Bottom 3: Carly, Michael Jones and Syesha (Since Kristy is never going to get kicked off haha)

kicking off: hmm this is a difficult one, I think Carly will stay and I am always wrong about Syesha, so lets go with Michael Jones haha.

AI review

Ok it is that time of the week again. I was playing badminton last night so I did not get to see the show, and watching the recording is just not the same. So this is again via Rickey.org. Learning from last week, it is pretty dangerous predicting public opinion without hearing the Judges' input so we will see how I do this week.

Here is a couple of thoughts first about Dolly Parton week. I don't really like Dolly Parton at all. She sings with this southern twang and she really is like the character she plays in Steel Magnolia, which is a creatures as foreign to me as aliens from Mars. Having said that, I never realized what great songs she has sung over the years. I liked almost all of the songs the contestants chose. It is to her credit that even most of the contestant didn't sing in a country style the song still sounded wonderful. The second thing is I thought all the contestants made really good choice in their song and presentation. I am sure that is also because of Dolly's coaching and advice. I think having her there really helped everybody with their craft.

I also think they are going overboard with the live musicians and the backup vocals. I know it makes for better performance on TV but you can make anyone sound better with the right backup vocals and acoustic guitars. It is masking the contestant's real voice.

The GOOD:
David Archuleta - This kid really has a very beautiful voice! He picked a good song that suits his personality as opposed to that crazy song last week. For sure on top!

Carly Smithson -I just want to mention this song is on Clay's album haha. I think this is the first song in 3 weeks that really showcased her superior vocals. Having said that, I just can't like her for some reason. I feel she doesn't project any warmth and empathy. But gotta give props when props are due (to quote Randy)

Michael Johns/David Cook- another great rocking performance, but they better be careful, at the rate they are going, I wouldn't be able to tell who is who pretty soon. They have similar sounds and they are starting to look more and more alike. and they will start to split votes from the rocker fans. I think David Cook will have the advantage though since he is a more exciting character than the mellow Michael (plus his falsetto is so lovely!). But personally I like Michael's more mature, calming style. There is just so much angst in the younger rockers.

Middle of the Pack
Syesha Mercado - This song has been done to death!! She gets negative points for taking the easy way out. It was a mediocre, unmemorable performance too. That is the problem with Syesha, she is so unmemorable even though she has a great voice. When the field narrows, she will easily be forgotten.

Jason Castro - Finally!! a song with some speed! I thought this is a perfect song for him. The mood, the lyrics and the arrangement really fit Jason's personality. I just wish he has a LITTLE bit more energy to get the crowd going.

Brooke White - I thought she sang this song pretty well, But she kinda lack the same thing Jason does: Energy! This is a song about protecting your guy, don't sing it like a lullaby!! :D

The Terrible
Kristy Lee Cook - She is in my default bottom list haha, I am going to keep putting her there until she gets elimnated

Ramiele Malubay - I thought she did the worst this week, she wasn't able to stay on pitch for so many parts of that song it was sad.

Bottom 3: Kristy, Ramiele, Syesha
Eliminated: Ramiele

pwned!

Coal Creek productions placed a very respectable THIRD today in Celtic Bayou Trivia with 57 points. This is a night worthy of remembrance and celebration! We were only 4 measly points away from First place! The night actually started on a low note as we weren't able to answer which Navy Captian signed the treaty with Japan in the 1800s (It was Perry). But then we were able to ride to victory, answering almost every single question on the list. Even Charlton Heston movie quotes category cannot stump us. Heck, one of us even knew lines from the movie "Soylent Green". Now that is surely a sign for our impending win! We answered every question in the assassination category except George Elser who apparently made an attempt on Hitler, but since he failed nobody remembered him haha. The bonus round was again #1 hits from today over the years. He always has this bonus round and we never remember to study for it but this time, our combined knowledge knew every single song! Did you know Before Sean Paul, there was Snow? a Canadian Raggae chart topper? crazy stuff you learn from Trivia hehe.

some thoughts of media and Chinese government

This morning I was listening to our public radio station doing a piece on the current Tibet situation. Now I don't really want to get into the whole thing about Tibet since it is way too complex than I can understand but I did notice one thing. In the segment, the host interviewed the Spokesperson for the San Francisco Chinese Consulate on his opinion about the current riot and crackdown situation. and I was completely shocked about how bad his English is. You would think being a "SPOKESPERSON" he should at least be fluent in English. He also spent a large part of the interview basically regurgitate parts of some press release that he obviously memorized for this interview. You can tell because suddenly he would stop mumbling and stuttering and speak fluent perfect English for 10 sentences and then go back to sounding like an idiot. I was totally appalled at the unprofessionalism. How can he not sound like a mindless puppet if he acts this way during an real interview where he has the opportunity to get his view across?

Now that has got me thinking about something. The Chinese government and press has been yelling, nay, screaming for the whole week that the Western media is biased in its reporting about the Tibet incident. This is however, completely their own fault for not allowing journalists to be in Tibet and to be open about what is happening (good and bad). What do they expect? When you stop the flow of information, what can western media do but listen to whoever will talk to appease their readership? Now today when finally given a small chance on radio for the Chinese official position to be heard, the spokesperson completely waste it by sounding like an idiot.

Now I am not so naive as to think that American free press is unbiased and objective in their reporting (see Manufacturing Consent, the book read by all journalists graduating in U.S.) But one thing that the American government and corporation has learned to do over the years is how to "control the message". They have perfected the art of manipulating the press for their agenda. I mean the current presidential candidates each have a team of people whose sole purpose is to figure out ways to utilize the 24 hour news cycle to get their message out and block the opponents message. It is a fact of life over here that public relations is of utmost importance. One rule is that you NEVER EVER send someone out to talk to the media who can't get the message across cleanly and persuasively. But, in China, they are way way behind in this concept. Perhaps it is due to the lack of free press that they never have to deal with this issue and therefore are completely unprepared for the modern world of the Internet and 24 hour news channels. But they have completely antiquated concept of message control and PR. They still think that public opinion can be controlled by selectively broadcasting news. But in the Internet age, they are not fooling anyone, not even their own citizens. It just makes them appear guilty and unreasonable.

For example, if the Chinese government were a little more competent and savvy, they could have given exclusive but free and open access to Tibet during the aftermath of the riot to certain newspapers that are carefully selected, no bribery or intimidation needed. If the newspaper knew that they have exclusive access, they will automatically paint a more pro-government picture because they know if they don't, their exclusivity (and readership) can be easily given to a rival newspaper. This is a super simple way of getting the media to report something you want them to report (since the Chinese government is so paranoid about it) and appear reasonable and open in the world's eye. Now that opportunity is lost, and what is the point of organizing journalist tours as if they are touring Disneyland?

They have never learned how to do this in all these years of China bashing by the world so they have no one to blame but themselves if the public opinion is not shaping up the way they hope. In order to change perception of the world about them, they must learn how to integrate with the rest of the world's press. So really, the current Chinese government is not evil, they are just supremely incompetent and too afraid to let people know.

idol thoughts

So I keep forgetting to watch the actual show, so this review is done through proxy by Rickey.org :) This week's theme is Song From the year they were born. Since there are so many choices available (as opposed to two weeks of Beatles!), decisions on song choices become very important and it can really show which contestants are versatile and know their limit. None of the girls should pick rock songs now since none of them are rockers, and they are just going to butcher it. The guys need to change it up a little, they can only rock out for so many weeks (unless you are Daughtry!!!)

Good:
David Cook: Obviously, brilliant song choice, brilliantly sung. He made a wise choice and stuck to what he is good at. He gets extra points for that glory note at the end there. He is so mainstream, so commercial I can't help think he will be another Daughtry. Nothing wrong with that though, Daughtry is pretty successful.

Michael Johns: He is like a more mature, hardcore version of David Cook. He really showed he could rock out tonight and his singing is as always impeccable. Also a great choice of song. It is very exciting, familiar to the audience and shows off his range.

Mediocre:
David Archuleta: Bad bad song choice!! He did the best he could with it as his voice still sounded great. But where is the melody? this sucked!! and he is too young to sing lyrics like that.

Jason Castro: I feel like he picked good song choices. He does good with this sort of loungy soft rock song that doesn't require any vocal acrobatics. But I don't know how long he can keep it up without people getting bored. Hopefully he is just coasting a bit and will start to wow people in a couple of weeks.

Syesha Mercado: Very safe song, she sang it well but nothing spectacular.

Carly Smithson: I feel like this song didn't really suit her. She couldn't quite reach the high parts and it didn't have the right feel. I don't think any of the girls left are rockers now.

Brooke White: Really good song choice, she knows what she is good at. Too bad she kinda messed it up in the beginning. I feel kinda bad for her because her mess up is now going to be on youtube and be played til eternity.

Chikezie: Well, he is no Luther Vandross, he is not even Ruben but it is a safe choice. I felt like it was adequate singing but really lacked emotions.

baaad!;

Kristy Lee Cook: OMG, is she still here??? when is America gonna realize she can't sing? she butchered that perfectly nice song. Lets hope she is gone tomorrow

Ramiele Malubay: She made a bold choice but the song didn't really suit her. She is more of a pop song singer and she couldn't quite pull off the song. I think she is nervous too as her voice sounded really shaky. The producers probably thought so too since she had to go on first, always a bad thing.

So my predictions for bottom 3: Kristy, Ramiele and Syesha :D

EEE!!!

ok thats all I got hahha , Yay for new CD!!

The Pillows Rock!!

My friend asked me if I liked Japanese rock band the other day. I replied I don't think I know anything about them. She said "me neither, so the Pillows are coming on Wednesday, wanna go??" I said "sure, what is The Pillows??"

So that is how I ended up at a Pillows concert last night. The Pillows, apparently, is this Japanese rock band. They are famous for doing the soundtrack for FLCL (I guess you anime people would know). The whole night started out wrong. First of all, one of my friend got lost to the carpool spot so we were late, and then there was really bad traffic across the lake (god I hate the bridges). Then the place we picked for dinner had really really slow service (and a Vietnamese old dude singing really badly on the keyboard) so we didn't end up at Club Motor until half an hour after the show was suppose to start. But we weren't actually late as they haven't even begin to let people in! so really, all that lateness meant nothing since we still had to wait half an hour just for the concert to start. Club Motor was kind of a dump too, it is just a big warehouse with some lights and stage using black sheets of paper as backdrop.

Then we found out there was 2, TWO!!! opening band. Stereo Future and Noodles. Stereo future is actually an American band, and they played some nice alternative music. I didn't like the singing though, I think they are more of a instrumental band. Noodles is this 3 girl Japanese band, very typical Japanese girl band I think. The songs were not bad but I hated the singing and it was really kind of boring. Their recording sounds much better than them live.

Ok, at this point, you must be thinking. gosh, you whine soo much! And you would be right, I was soo bored and my feet started to hurt. That is when The Pillows came out, and gave one of the most amazing concert I have ever been to. They were incredible! The lead singer was able to get the crowd of 500 going just by a look. With all their energy, they might as well be playing for a crowd of 10,000! we had some like 5 crowdsurfer going at the same time, which is not easy consider how small the crowd is. Everybody is jumping so much I was afraid the floor is gonna gave. (this is all from sober people too!, no alcohol allowed). They actually had to tell people to back up because the people in the front are moving the stage with their jumping lol. The lead singer was an awesome singer and a very good guitar player. They had such wonderful stage presence, as contrast to Noodles, to hear and see them live was 100 times better than can be conveyed on their recording. They just exuded energy and passion. They must played for an hour but I couldn't tell because it was over way too fast and totally worth the 3 hours I spent waiting on them lol . Now this is not usually the music I am into and I think the recordings on youtube are just ok. But live and in person, they are absolutely incredibly! I think I am a fan now :)

Here is some pictures taken by random people (found on Flickr)

IPO woes

So, I decided I will try to buy some Visa Stock since it is going through IPO this week. I have an etrade account from ESPP but I really have no experience actually buying and selling stocks, and really I know nothing about them. So really my decision is not made based on any sort of research haha. So it was quite an learning experience this morning buying Visa stock on Etrade. I made a lot of mistakes I think but it is all part of the learning curve I guess. Here are some lessons I learned

1. It takes a really really long time for money to transfer to your Etrade account, like more than a week! good thing I started early

2. Never believe them when they say the secondary market will open on the 20th, because they will so open on the 19th just to spite you. It was a good thing I checked before I went to bed last night otherwise I would have missed the opening.

3. Never believe them when they say you can buy as soon as stock market opens at 9:30 EST because it really depends on when the CEO finishes his interview and the traders actually finish pricing. I got up at 6:30 am for nothing since I couldn't actually buy til 7:30 am

4. It really helps if you are not looking at 20 minute delayed information since you won't know what is the current price for buying. Thank god for message boards

5. This "pullback" thing is for real! As soon as the secondary market openend, all the actually IPO buyers dumped their stock for a quick profit so the price actually dropped $5 in the first hour before rising again. if only I was more experienced and had real time quotes I could have gotten in at a lower price.

Anyway, I wasn't trying to get in for a quick profit so I guess I just have to sit on it and wait now :) It was kind of depressing though this morning to watch the price drop. and also since I got to work at 10 am just to find they cancelled our meeing :(

worth watching

The media was in a frenzy the last two days over Barack Obama's church minister that said some pretty controversial things in one of his sermons that talked about black anger. So today, Barack Obama delivered one of the best speech on race that an American politican has ever given in my opinion. It was brilliant and moving and I think it is worth reading if not watching (its kinda long)




Complete text of speech

I am in Print!

Ok, so not quite but it was still pretty cool. While I was doing my masters, I had a temp job working as research assistant to this Urologist professor who is retired and wanted to write a book on God and its influence on people. SO I transcribed his recorded notes and did research for him and read some books too. It was just a semester and I thought nothing too much of it except it paid my rent. Last night, somehow I got around to read my old resume and I remembered about Dr. Saul Boyarsky. I wondered how he was doing and whether he ever finished the book. And guess what? he did!! Realizing God for the Future . I am very happy for him! And to my surprise, while I was browsing through it, I saw my name in the acknowledgement!! Now that is pretty cool hehe.