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February 2, Mon
+ TV and eBay
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08:13 PM
I've watched alot of TV yesterday; all the way from 3pm to 12am. I watched the entire Superbowl XXXVIII. The commercials this year were alright; they weren't as good as past years. My favorite one was the Budweiser's donkey one. It just cracked me up. The half-time show was pretty good, since it was produced by MTV. I was totally shocked about the boob-showing incident though, especially when it wasn't even blurred nor censored. I mean, that was awesome but I bet they got in big trouble with that. Survivor: All-Stars followed right after Superbowl, and then I watched A Night of Gay Weddings marathon on Bravo until midnight. I haven't watched that much TV straight in a row in a long time...
Today I got this Sondre postcard and buttons/pins in the mail, along with some Ataris buttons/pins. I think I'm addicted to eBay. I've been bidding and watching alot of stuff on it. Yesterday I won this brand new Maxtor 120GB hard drive for $80. It wasn't that bad, and I really need one since my 20GB hard drive on this laptop is running out of space. And now I'm trying to find an external USB2.0 DVD±RW drive. Again, if anyone knows anything about DVD burner or has any recommendations, please let me know.
Nick has a Sonder layout up too! Go check it out! We were talking about random stuff last night and then we decided to make a Sondre Lerche fan clique. I'm gonna make the layout and he's gonna host it on his domain. Nice, huh? We'll see how that turns out.
[PLUGS OF THE MONTH] Dana (6) / Fallwind (4) / Brandon (4) / Trent (3) / Rachel (3) / Karen (3) / Desiree (3) / Joshie (2) / John (2) / Amanda (2) / Paul (2) / Skindy (2) / Ross (2) / Nick (2) / Kari (2) / Ari (2) / Devious (2) / Erin (2) / Jason (2) / Mike (2) / Saki (1) / Nik (1) / Steven (1) / Akasha (1) / Ally (1) / Eve (1) / Katya (1) / Jessica (1) / Julie (1) / Katya (1) / Krys (1) / Lina (1) / Rachel (1) Thanks for commenting everyone!!
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February 6, Fri
+ Stella Awards
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01:47 PM
I didn't really do much this entire week, just chilling and enjoying the last week of my winter break. I talked to Kyle the other night. He had an accident last Saturday. He and his girlfriend were cruising around in town. He was going too fast on a turn and they ran off the road. Luckily they weren't hurt that bad. He and his girlfriend are both okay now. I was shocked when he told me about the accident in details. Oh man, I hope he'll be more careful from now on.
I got Sondre Lerche's EP Don't Be Shallow in the mail yesterday. I have ordered it off Amazon a while ago. It was awesome! But it still can't beat his debut album Faces Down though. I can't wait 'til his new album Two Way Monologue to come out on March. Talking about Sondre, I've been working on this layout for a Sonder fan clique. Hopefully I can get it done before school starts.
This came in my email the other day, just thought that I would share it with you guys. Smile.
Stella Awards It's time once again to review the winners of the annual "Stella" Awards. The Stella's are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's. That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States. Unfortunately, the most recent lawsuit implicating McDonald's, the teens who allege that eating at McDonald's has made them fat, was filed after the 2002 award voting was closed. This suit will top the 2003 list without question. Here are this year's winners:
5th Place (tie): Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas,was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.
5th Place (tie): 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
5th Place (tie): Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.
4th Place: Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.
3rd Place: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.
2nd Place: Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a nightclub in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.
1st Place: This year's run away winner was Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the R. V. left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons buying recreations vehicles.
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February 9, Mon
+ Dusten's Surprise Visit
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12:22 PM
Saturday afternoon I got this phone call from Dusten (a friend from Washington, Darrin's older brother), so we went about our causal conversation and then suddenly he said "oh ya, by the way, I'm almost to San Francisico now." I was like "what!? what are you talking about?"... It turned out that he and his fiancee is driving to Maryland but decided to go the long way and drive through California to visit us. They got to Santa Cruz yesterday morning, and we had lunch and hung out for a little bit. It was great seeing them, reminded me of Woodland and my old friends up there. Oh well, it's not like everyone's still up there. Everyone's leaving for college or other things; no one's staying there anymore. Even Darrin will be leaving for college next Spring. Old friends are all gone.
Today is the first day of my Spring semester, also my last semester at a community college. Therefore, I'm only taking three classes and finishing up my Associate Degree. It should be an easy semester for me, after two years of hardcore college classes trying to get everything done in time. First day of classes should be happy and exciting, but I'm not too looking forward to it. Anyway, I shouldn't complain about it. A lot of people have started school a whole month earlier than we do, so ya, I'm not complaining. Beside, I'm starting to get bored with the long break anyway.
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February 12, Thu
+ DVD±R/RW Drive
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05:08 PM
The first week of class has gone by. It wasn't bad at all since I only have three classes this semester. I have Calculus II on Monday and Wednesday from 2:30 to 5:10pm, English 2 (Critical Thinking) on Tuesday and Thursday from 11:10 to 12:40pm, and Java Programming on Wednesday night from 6:00 to 9:10pm. So, basically I only have one class per day except Wednesday, which I go to school from 2:30 in the afternoon all the way to 9:10 at night. 6 and a half hours might seem like a long time at school, but that's nothing comparing to my schedule back in secondary school.
I finally get a DVD burner. It's an external NEC ND-1300A, which supports both DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW formats. The highest burning speed was said to be 4X, but I haven't successfully burned a DVD-R in 4X yet. I don't know whether it is the blank DVD-Rs I'm using or the drive. Oh well, 2X is good enough for me. The actual burning part isn't the bad part at all; it is the encoding part that takes forever. You all know that most DVD movies nowadays are 7.95GB DVD-9s, but all the blank DVD medias are only in DVD-5 format, which's capacity is only 4.38GB. Therefore, you need a software to compress a 7.95GB movie into 4.38GB before burning it onto a blank DVD media. Since my laptop is like 3 years old and only has 256MB RAM with a PIII 900MHz CPU, it takes like 2 hours to compress a movie, when the actual burning process only takes 30 mins. Oh well, as long as it burns, I don't really care. It's not like I have money to upgrade me laptop or get a new computer anyway. As you can tell, I've been spending quite a few nights playing around with my DVD burner and burning quite a few DVDs. That's why I have been neglecting my blog and haven't been on the internet much lately. Hopefully this situation will change after I get used to and tired of the DVD burner.
 [ADDED 11:23PM PST] Okay!! The Sondre Lerche fan clique that I've been working on since last week is finally done! Nick is hosting it on his domain. I was neglecting it also since I got my DVD burner. But tonight I just put my heart to it and get it done! So please go take a look at least and let me know what you think about it. And if you're a Sondre fan, please do join! Also, please help us get the words out there. Thanks a bunch!!
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February 15, Sun
+ Valentineless' Day
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09:08 PM
Last night my roommates went out and got some alcohols. I had them got me something too. I'm not a big drinker at all. I only drink socially; I don't drink by myself, and I don't like drinking. The last time I drank was two months ago when I went to a party up in Washington. I don't know, I just felt like drinking last night. So my roommates came back with some hard apple cider, which's pretty good I must say. Anyway, I watched The Bourne Identity last night. I've always wanted to see that movie 'cause everyone has been telling me how good it was. So ya, I finally got it last night.
What've I done this weekend? The same old answer, nothing!! Nothing special nor productive at least. Just stayed home watch TV and burn a couple DVDs now and then. Yesterday was Valentine's Day. Luckily none of my roommates has a girlfriend, so I wasn't even too aware of the fact that it was Valentine's Day. A Valentine's Day without a valentine can be tough, but when everyone around you were just like you, then it wasn't a big deal. Even though my roommates are around all the time, but sometimes I just can't help feeling empty and lonely inside. I know it sounds kind of corny, but it's true and that's the best way to describe it. The feeling you get when you're surrounded by people but none of them you can connected to. Since the Grammy I got this song, Where is the Love? stuck in my head. So I downloaded it today. I don't listen to rap music usually, but every once a while there would be a song that I like. I guess Where is the Love? is one of them, and it has good lyric too.
Black Eyed Peas - Where is the Love?
what's wrong with the world, mama?
people livin' like they ain't got no mamas
I think the whole world's addicted to the drama
only attracted to the things that'll bring the trama
overseas yeah, we tryin' to stop terrorism
but we still got terrorists here livin'
in the U.S.A, the big C.I.A
the bloods & the crips, and the KKK
but if you only have love for your own ways
then you only leave space to discriminate
and to discriminate only generates hate
and when you hate, then you're bound to get irate
madness is what you demonstrate
and that's exactly how anger works and operates
man ya gotta have love, this'll set us straight
take control of your mind and meditate
let your soul gravitate, to the love ya'll
people killin', people dyin'
children hurt and ya hear them cryin'
can you practice what you preach,
and would you turn the other cheek
father, father, father, help us
send some guidance from above
'cause people got me, got me questionin:
where is the love?
where is the love?
where is the love?
where is the love?
it just ain't the same
old ways have changed
new days are strange, is world insane?
if love and peace is so strong
why are there pieces of love that don't belong
nations droppin' bombs
chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones
with ongoin sufferin', as the youth die young
so ask yourself, is the lovin' really gone
so I can ask myself, really, what is going wrong
with this world that we livin' in
people keep on givin in
makin' wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
not respectin' eachother, deny thy brother
a war is goin' on but the reason's undercover
the truth is kept secret, and swept under the rug
if you never know truth, then you never know love
where's the love ya'll? c'mon (i don't know)
where's the truth ya'll? c'mon (i don't know)
and where's the love ya'll?
I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
as I'm getting older, ya'll people gets colder
most of us only care about money makin'
selfishness got us followin the wrong direction
wrong information always shown by the media
negative images is the main criteria
infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema
whatever happened to the values of humanity?
whatever happened to the fairness and equality
instead of spreading love we spreadin' animosity
lack of understandin' leading us away from unity
that's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin under
that's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin down
It's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin under
gotta keep my faith alive till love is found
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February 22, Sun
+ eBay Addiction
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03:18 PM
Sorry for not posting for this entire week. I was so busy with my English assignments during the weekdays, and then I spent most of my weekend bidding on eBay. It seems that my addiction has gotten worse. I'm not bidding on small stuff like button-pins or posters or CDs anymore. Since I got my 40GB harddisk and the DVD burner drive, I've been bidding on big expensive stuff like iPods and cellphones. I've even installed the eBay toolbar thing to keep track of my bidding and watching. I'm such a materialist! All the cool things I saw I want them, and not just them but the latest model of them. I also tried to find rational reasons to justify my irrational actions. Well, since I'm taking the bus and walking everywhere, a mp3 player would be nice to have, and if I'm getting a mp3 player, I might as well get a good one that can hold a lot of songs and will last me a long time. And the cellphone... It's always nice to have a newer model, especially when they're cheap... I think I'm turning into a girl, I bid on things not because I really needed them, but because they're cheap. Oh well, if they weren't cheap, I wouldn't even consider buying them in the first place. Anyway, beside bidding, I'm also selling some of my stuff on eBay. Hopefully I'll get a fair amount of money on them.
I don't know is it just me, but lately I've noticed that MTV has been playing alot of music videos instead of actual programs and shows. Usually MTV would play reruns of shows during off hours. But now all that they play are music videos. I mean, personally I don't mind watching music videos, but not when they just keep playing the same ones over and over again. I don't know, I would rather watch a Real World rerun than watching a few music videos playing over and over again for half an hour.
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February 24, Tue
+ Music Sharing = Free Advertising?
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04:39 PM
It was insane, I stayed up until 3:30am this morning to finish my first English paper. We were supposed to write two papers regarding a personal or public issue that concerns us, with one being a persuasive paper and the other one being an explanatory paper. In other words, we were supposed to write two papers in different tones regarding the same topic. I chose to write about file-sharing and music downloading in relation to the music industry. When I was doing the research for the papers, I was surprised to find that there are numerous evidences indicating that file-sharing and music downloading actually lessen the decline of the music business instead of creating it. File-sharing helps promote record sells in greater extent than any other advertising means. According to a report, musician Daniel Bedingfield had a top 3 song on the radio with his new album Gotta Get Thru This. However, his music was hardly available through any file-sharing networks. His record lasted on the Billboard Top 200 for less than a month, even though the single had been on radio playlists all over the country for several months. It is also been widely reported that the most downloaded album of all time was The Eminem Show by Eminem. It was downloaded so heavily that the album was released a week early due to the extensive online sharing of tracks from the album. However, The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of the year 2002. This seems to indicate the opposite of what the RIAA believes about file-sharing and music downloading. I think in the future, the RIAA and the record companies should do a little research and find out who is filling their wallets before fining people for "piracy". Also, suing 60 million American file-sharers is not going to motivate them to buy more CDs.
Anyway, enough talking about school work. In case no one has noticed yet, I've remade the whole fansigns section. I put in a Java script that automatically generate a page for each fansign, so from now on I don't have to make individual pages for each of them anymore. I think I'm going to remake my portfolio pretty soon. I still need to upload all those sketches I scanned couple months ago. Also, I've made a new layout for Remember Matthew. Please go check it out and let me know what you think of it, and please do join if you support the cause of the clique. Thanks in advance!
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February 28, Sat
+ SE T616 and 15GB iPod
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06:15 PM
This was a wonderful week for me. Why? Because I got a new Sony Ericsson T616 phone and a 15GB 3rd Generation iPod! Yes! That's right, I did. The cellphone came on Tuesday night, and I have been playing around with it ever since; downloading themes, midi ringtones, games and such. It has 2MB memory, which is way larger than the 256KB my old T306 has, so I can put a lot more stuff on it. It is also slimmer than the T306 and looks awesome! Not to mention that it is a camera phone (with a built-in camera, not those attachment ones that my old T306 uses), so I can take random pictures whenever I want. I got it used on eBay, but it looks like new. There's not one single hairline scratch on it. I can't even tell it's used. So that was a good deal!
The iPod just came in last night. I was so excited and played with it all night long. The thing is, even though unlike the old generation iPods, this 3rd Generation one supports both Mac and Windows, but it doesn't come with a USB connection cable! And I wasn't aware of that before, I thought since they support both OS, they would come with both connection cables! But they don't, so I have no way to transfer any songs onto it yet. And they require a special USB cable specifically for iPod, so I can't just use one of those regular USB cables I have; I have to order the special Apple designed USB cable for iPod! I got the iPod used also, so there are already some songs on it, but I don't really like the former owner's music taste. A lot of the artists on it I haven't even heard of before. Last night I've installed the Musicmatch Jukebox that came with the iPod, and have been organizing those over 1000 mp3s I have on my laptop with it. Just getting ready to synchronize with the iPod. Now I just hope that the USB cable will get here soon, so I can start enjoying my iPod. Well, I sure do love my new phone and the iPod. They're my precious!! But I'm now officially broke. I guess I'll be eating Top Ramen for a while, a long while...
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