So I've been going around image threads and forums in order to pass the time at home. I found a thread where everyone just posted sad pictures and videos. So I watched some and then went around youtube and found some other great commercials.

Let's start off lightly. This one's touching, but it's also pretty funny.
Roofing.

This is just sad.
Pictures

This is touching.
Awwwww.

I don't really like how this one was done. I guess because they had to make it short. This is one of those "dose of reality" PSA's. It's intense. Not great, but still kind of sad. I give it a on a scale of T-T to :D, I give it a :[
Speeding.

Not a commercial. Nice old poem.
Beau.

I couldn't find any more real good ones :\
I do have a bunch of really sad pictures on my computer though, but I don't know how to post them on here...
I'll ask David if I can upload them here and just link them.
Next post, sad pictures!

Aaaaand I leave you with this.

A imitating L. Art imitating life. But how about... art imitating language?

After reading Painted by Numbers in the March's Wired, I was inspired to create something in Flash that mimicked what I saw: creating art from seemingly useless data. For my project, I used the idea of Alex Dragelescu's work of breaking down text and creating different shapes or designs based on individual text blocks' attributes. I then coupled this with Jason Salavon's simplistic and colorful art style. And what you see is what I came up with in two days (technically just about 24 hrs though - i spent maybe a good 3-4 hours on this):

Art imitating language. To use, simply copy a block of text you want to use, click "New," paste your text into the box, and click "Go!" There is a degree of randomness involved with every drawing, so you can create multiple interpretations of your text by clicking on "Redraw." You need to use only text, so if you're copying from a website or something, be careful not to copy any images; this will cause a crash and you'll have to refresh to get it to work again. Try to get a good-sized chunk of text as well, or the resulting image would look a bit sparse. Sections of research papers, Latin essays, or Hublog posts work well.

What do you see? Art? Or the language and patterns behind the art?

Or do you just see random gibberish?

• [VIDEO] Slow motion slap - A slap in extreme slow motion. Pretty cool to see how the face skin reacts. Almost looks as if the nose was broken.


• [ARTICLE] Parents pray instead of seeking medical attention - This kind of news sickens me. How can people be so narrow-minded that they don't use some common sense? I can't but help wanting to yell "Where is your God now?" and throw them in a nuthouse for doing this to their child. Its a good thing they're non-denominational as well. No organization is taking the flak for this; although, if they were apart of an organized Christian denomination, their preacher or whoever would have probably slapped some common sense into them.


• [ARTICLE] Lost: A Theory on Time Travel - You have to keep hitting refresh if you get errors; this site has been bombarded with pageviews. Nevertheless, you'll understand why. Practically an entire essay on a theory on what is going on on Lost. I don't buy it, but this is one of the most fleshed-out theories I've ever seen.

dj ftw

As some of you may or may not know, I went to visit two colleges up north this past weekend; Cornell and Carnegie Mellon (CMU). Stayed a night in their respective towns and spent a day on campus and what not. Took tours as well. And let me tell you. They're cold. Damn cold. Cornell is in Ithaca, NY, which is pretty much in the center of New York State. CMU is in Pittsburgh. Which is still. Damn cold.

Cornell was pretty cool. Their campus was a whole lot bigger than I thought and the overall vibe I got was pretty nice. Maybe that's due to the fact that I was visiting during their spring break and there were only a few people on campus. Although I did see a couple of Asians playing ping pong on a Saturday night on campus... tells you something about the student population. The first night I was there, I saw a sign that said "No skiing, sledding, or sliding" and scrawled under that in Sharpie was "or throwing feces." Something leads me to believe that comment comes from experience. On the campus tour, our tour guide told us that the most popular course at Cornell was "Intro to Wines" and that was "only because Intro to Wines is a prerequisite to Intro to Beers." It's a pass/fail course (as in you take your final and whether or not you pass or fail that, you pass or fail the course) and it's the most failed course at Cornell. Oh, and you get to drink alcohol underage as well. Other than that, I can't really recall anything else significant from Cornell. Overall, a pretty good impression. I thought I wouldn't like the Ivy League vibe, but I can live with it.

Carnegie Mellon was alright as well. Cornell still left a stronger impression, though. CMU just seemed to be full of a bunch of nerds. I feel like I should fit in just well, but I don't feel that way. Their campus was smaller but newer and it looked a little bit better, in my opinion. I do really like their research-orientated nature of study that they stress from day 1. The fact that they stress the fusion of "arts and technology" (those three words were said in union at least once every two minutes in their info session) seems like it should appeal totally to me. Maybe its their way of implementing the system that I couldn't quite grasp in their session. Oh well. My SAT scores are below the CMU 50% anyways.

I started this post last night and due to unforeseen circumstances, I'm finishing it up at 11 o'clock in the morn. Forgive me if my tone shifted to "tired" during the middle of this post.

• [PICTURE] Heh. Heh. - Heh. Heh.


• [PICTURES] The journey through an American high school - There can only be two explanations for this progression: an ever-increasing cocaine addiction or, more likely, IB, culminating with 5 HL exams.


• [VIDEO] Traffic jam simulation - After driving for pretty much 2 days in a row, this really hits home. Be glad we don't live around the DC Beltway. Or in a never-ending circle, for that matter.

oba ma ftw

The bathroom is a magical place.
Toilets flush and water flows,
A massage comes from a head on the wall,
Lights sync with fans,
Space heaters rotate on their own,
And mirrors give us twins for company.

If you had never seen these things
Wouldn't you think
The bathroom is a magical place?

~MCP

Over 15 million children worldwide have lost a parent due to AIDS.



AIDS Orphans Awareness Day
wed. march 19 // 2:30 - 4:30 // the atrium

WATCH Beat the Drum, a film
SIGN petitions to mail to Congress
DONATE to assist AIDS orphans
LEARN about this pressing crisis

T-Shirts ($20) with the design above and baked goods will be sold.
Proceeds will benefit World Vision’s program for AIDS orphans & widows.

The Thinkquest team really wants you guys there. We need all the people we can get to come to this event. Please think about it.

Hey. Surat should be in town.

10:44:13 PM incubus22990: hey i'll be in Va during March 15-23

.
.
.

10:56:08 PM incubus22990: i gtg do math hw i'll talk to you later tell the others i'll be around cuzs i'd like to see all the asian crew


Finally, you can experience this without getting in trouble.

So I guess everyone's doing pretty well on their 2nd Surace IA?
Fun stuff eh?
I just hope I don't end up staying up till three then find out that I can't save the document then I also can't print from my computer so we use this brand new printer we bought recently and install it on my laptop and hope it doesn't require me to restart the computer in order to fully install.
Yeah.
Let's hope that doesn't happen this time.

I stumbled upon this funny little site a few days ago. I'm sure you'll like it.
Now I know Jessica Alba's measurements. Mmm.

A Whole New World
Falsetto. Awesome. Facial expression. Priceless.
This man is 2 in one.

Just 1
I'm totally going to learn this for a recital or something. Sans the string breaking.

Beck
So I decided to check out some more new anime. This time a music based anime, Beck. I have to say. It's pretty freaking awesome. Not the best, but pretty damn good. It did have a few problems that stood out to me, but they didn't do much to change my opinion of it too much. One of the major problems IMO was the character development. There was some, but not enough. And a 26 episode length is no excuse for lack of sufficient development because there are plenty of anime that are just as long and have much more depth. It's just that, you never seemed to really get to know the characters as well as you wanted. Some of the main characters could barely be characterized aside from "O yeah, he likes to get in fights and he's loud." Well anyways, still good stuff. Going along with this, there was something along the lines of a love story going on. It didn't get worked on enough. There is a whole period in the anime where it's pretty much nonexistent and you just keep thinking "Where's Maho?..." And the fate of the relationship is not very clear, which isn't really bad but you aren't really left with enough CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT to know whether or not the girl really likes the guy or not. Well another gripe I had was the engrish. This was hardcore, full-on, beyond your parents, 200% Engrish. Some lines were OK? But they have some characters who have American backgrounds and... yeah, so those characters speak English a lot. Japanese voice actors using phonetic English = "Don't they know how is the situation???" [not actually a line from the anime, but really close to one that is] It was laughable. The grammar was good 75% of the time, but other times it was bleh and stuff. And the actual voice acting with inflections in bad places and the seriousness of the tone made the English parts bleh. Too make it worse, one of the main characters talks with this... I dunno how to say it... John Matos. Like that. Got that sound in your mind? Now imagine him with his tongue pierced. That's what it sounds like when that guy speaks English [which is like 50% of his dialogue, his japanese is still sounding good, but matosy]. But fret not, it's still worth the watch, it doesn't really detract from the anime at all [then again, you could always watch the English dub, which apparently isn't too bad, but I don't recommend it, more on that later.]

So those are my complaints, here are my praises. It is a music anime, and a damn good one. The music in it is all pretty good IMO, but with one problem. There definitely wasn't enough. You hear "Mooooonlight sway" like 2-3 times every episode. It's a good song and all, but c'mon, you can come up with more than that. I think they even worked with The Pillows some? That should count for something. I'm not sure on the details considering I can't read Japanese. Well anyways, one of their songs does appear in the anime for a short while. Also they have the Beat Crusaders for their OP song. Good song, but Engrish indeed. Beat Crusaders are notorious for Engrish songs. See: Fig. A [They also did the Kappa Mikey opening if you guys are familiar with that show on Nickelodeon] Good music. Bad English.
So the music in the anime is pretty good in my opinion. I especially like their cover of "I've Got a Feeling" by The Beatles. To be honest, I like this version better than the original. It's just got this emotion to it that the original doesn't [and also a kick ass bass and electric guitar part] despite the Engrish. [You can accuse me of blasphemy after you see this] About Koyuki's singing. Don't watch the English dub of the anime because of this very reason. I was watching the English cover of "I've Got a Feeling" and I just have to say. Can't compare. Also, as you watch the video, you will also notice that the animators at least tried to make the people look like they were playing their instruments. That's always a plus in my book.

So overall: Good stuff. Get over the Engrish and lack of depth in any character despite Koyuki and you'll enjoy it.
And here's that opening song, by the always great Beat Crusaders

[/Anime review]


I was wondering, there's a certain theme in the Star Wars theme/medley/whatevertuneeveryoneknowplaysattheendduringthecredits that caught my attention. Isn't it also used in the Super Smash Bros. theme? Just wondering.

Fap.
The ending is great. The rest of the it isn't that great. Just watch 1:33 and on.
Reminds me a lot of Latin class.
And Parth.

Chomp.
There isn't much good info on that site so I'll give you a rundown of what it is.
So. It's a rape prevention device.
A woman takes it and inserts it into her vagina
so that when a man tries to force himself in her he gets caught in it.
And by "getting caught in it" I mean HIS PENIS IS ENTOMBED IN A TUBE OF BARBS.
BARBS. FUCKING BARBS. That HAVE to be surgically removed.
Don't get me wrong, but rape is a terrible thing. It's just that, only by merely reading the description I wince in pain. Also, wouldn't that just piss off the rapist and cause him to become more violent?
Well according to the always wonderful FAQ section, which makes a great point: "...the huge plus-factor is that the discomfort and pain is such, that the rapist would be disabled temporarily, (much worse than a kick in the groin that self-defence instructors teach women!)" Yes. Emphasis on the words much worse
Well, I'm glad there is something out there to prevent rape.
My only hope is that a woman using this thing doesn't forget to take it out for any consensual action.
Ouch.
Rapestop + (alcohol or passion) - memory = poor guy in a hospital.

Haven't posted in a while. Here are some designs I haven't bothered to show you guys yet.


YOOOOO!

SEXopus.

enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

On March 11, 2004, something monumental happened. A new idea was born. A thought. A concept. A website.

Do you even remember 2004? It seems like just a short while ago but oh so far we have come. Sure, George W. Bush is still President, but that's besides the point. We're a little older, a little wiser. We're also starting to get hair in some really weird places. (props if you get that reference) We have even had our first Hubloggies and have brought the community closer together with Settings and the current game in the Bloober.

And in saying that, I believe that right now the State of the Hublog is as strong as it has ever been. Readership is pretty steady right now, although posting may not be. I believe that is a reflection on our lives. Before I was able to post every day (without many people read it) but nowadays, I am only able to post once a week or so (with many people asking for more). The "answer-question" game in the Bloober has now been going strong for 338 days. That's a lot of days. Almost a year. And I see no end in sight. It would be useful to have 2 different Bloobers, now wouldn't it? Posting by Matt and Nik have decreased, and I think its safe to say that we all want to see more of them. The unexpected post by Mike every so often is a nice surprise as well.

As I always like to stress in anniversary posts, I cannot thank all of you enough for supporting this site with your presence. It has once again become a rarity to see only one post in the Bloober a day. Before, it was because of the paucity of posts. Now, it is because one post is under the "average" amount. You guys have no idea what this means to this site and to me. I have stated this numerous times, but I'll say it again. Without readers, there is no blog. Only a website. But with loyal and dedicated readers, a website evolves and mutates into something greater, something grander.

And with that, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you guys in whatever meager way I can. Its good to know that Hublog has come as far as it has now. Before I was uncertain as to whether or not I will keep this running through college. Now I know my answer.

Let's keep the Fire burning, guys.

Yes. That was a reference to the old Marketplace.

I feel like I'm suffocating in my own home. Its like poisonous gas is pouring in and I have the need to get out every so often.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.

Spring break is in two weeks. Wow. I did not realize that at all. And as the good Asian I am, I have plans to go do some college visits during the break. Mainly just going up North to see Cornell and Carnegie Mellon, but also stopping by RPI and most likely UVa on the way as well. Basically just trying to see if I would like Cornell or CMU better than Berkeley. I might be interested in CMU, but the more and more I read about Cornell and Ivy League life in general, the more and more I don't like it. Plus, no IA football? Eh. Although having rich friends would be a benefit.

Then again, this is all in hopes that my grades are good enough to get in. Ha. Ha.

• [ARTICLE] 5 common body myths busted - I knew about the sugar thing, but the whole reading-in-the-dark one took me off guard. My eyes sure feel like they're working harder when I read in the dark. And I've always had a hunch about that shaving thing.


• [ARTICLE] Top 10 grammar myths busted - We seem to be doing a lot of busting myths today. As I feel like I will be a future Grammar Nazi, I found this article very enlightening. I knew some of the things already like i.e. and e.g., but the run-on thing and the "I'm well" thing was interesting. (in that xkcd comic, "effects" means brings about. woo for SAT class.)


• [VIDEO] US soldier throws puppy off cliff - The video pretty much says what the title says, so watch at your discretion. You can hear the puppy whimpering. Is this where our tax dollars are going? You often wonder why the rest of the world seems to hate us... could this be why? These people should not be wearing the uniform or anything else but a straightjacket.

pla ywi thy ours elf ftw

After some nostalgic references to Group X, the 5th avocado, and ABS in general, I decided to revisit the site. I re-watched all my favorite Group X videos:
Funny or Die] Well who knows :\.
Well the video for the song was made in 2004, and so is Anchorman... interesting. No clue about the actual song though :\
Another popular favorite from ABS, the aforementioned The 5th Avocado.
Matt loves that one.
If you liked the randomness of that, then you also may enjoy Forehead shavecut.
Have free time? Maybe you should check out the epicness of the Harper Lee classic, To Kill a Mockingbird.
I give that report an A for literary devices.
Have lots of free time? Something around 33 minutes? Then you should check out the timeless classic, The Demented Cartoon Movie. And no, I wasn't lying about that 33 minutes.



n00b.
Hollister adventures: chapter 1.
3/02/08
So my first day of work was Sunday. Not much happened. Pretty easy/simple job, but I have to say, folding those girl clothes is hard. The fabric is so soft and thin that it just goes everywhere when you try and fold it. Fitting room duty is pretty easy. Dull, but not extremely boring. Not bad meeting lots of random girls. Ha.
Nothing really exciting to report, except for that while on fitting room duty, I saw this one girl who also works at Hollister [she was at orientation with me] with a friend. I just have to say: I would love to become more acquainted with that friend. She even came into the fitting room twice :D. Of course, being new and timid I didn't really do anything except be real nice. O that smile. Anyways. Retrospect is 20/20 right? Well when she came back the 2nd time, she asked me if I had found a belt in the fitting room. I had not seen one so :\. Well then I take her to a fitting room. I probably should have taken her to the one she went to the first time... Well anyways, that wouldn't have worked with this ingenious plan. Assuming that this would have worked, assume how freaking pimp it would have been if I told her to give me her name and phone number so that if I found it later I could call her? Gets better. I found the belt later, but by the time I stumbled upon it, she was long gone. Still, if I had did that phone number thing. How freaking awesome would that have been. "I found your belt." "O thanks, I'm still at the mall blah blah" "Alright. Hey, Whitney, I'm taking my food break." Word. Too bad I was too nervous to do anything. Just the environment and the fact that it was my first day at work. Crazy. Well I hope I make some friends there soon and things become less awkward and boring. Then I can have some people to talk to and stuff. Btw, I found out that the asian girl is 20, dated her bf since they were 14, and they just got married like last month. Cute. Anyways. The best part of Sunday I have to say is when it was perfectly demonstrated that you can never fucking tell who works there. First of all, I'm new so I guess so there's a good reason, but also in the small, dark rooms, it's hard to tell from a distance who's who, who's where, etc. Well anyways, near the end of the day, I was going around straightening out clothes and then this girl walks up to me and says "Excuse me, but, you work here right?" I almost burst out in laughter, but instead I just simply said "... Yes..." and she said "O, neeevermind then."
Sorry, Nik, but I didn't see Aubriel. :\
End.


You are a prisoner
You can't change your fate
But can you change your mind?


O Triiiiaangle.

"Epic Flash" indeed.

Rap nowadays has a 99% chance of sucking. If I were to make a chart of all the rap songs that are "fresh" at the moment, there is a 99.9% chance that if I threw a dart at said chart I would hit a shitty song. Anyways, here's the good shit. 90's is where it's at. And also before that. I prefer to call this good stuff "Hip-Hop."
California Love - Gotta love Tupac. And mmm, the good ol' talk box. T-Pain doesn't have shit on this.
Mo' Money Mo' Problems
Sure Shot
Pen and Teller ftw. It's tricky.
And I guess this isn't 90's or before, but who can deny Mase's awesomeness?

Chaaarlie!
British kids ftw.

DUDE.
But how does it taste?

This is stuff grown men cry over, baaaybaaaay. It's a good watch, so kick back and get out those oreo cookies while you watch this.

Hey. Surat's coming to town.

10:44:13 PM incubus22990: hey i'll be in Va during March 15-23

.
.
.

10:56:08 PM incubus22990: i gtg do math hw i'll talk to you later tell the others i'll be around cuzs i'd like to see all the asian crew

Got it? That's word.


From the logs:
Chapters of Chen.
What's been going on with Eric?

Orientation
Hollister adventures: Chapter 0.
2/24/08

So I got the call a few days after my interview saying that Hollister was interested in hiring me. I was given instructions to go to the store on Sunday at 10:30 for orientation. Get to the mall around 10:25 and enter through the main entrance. You get a pretty good feeling walking through the mall before it opens. It's that exhilarating feeling like when you are in a restaurant or anywhere else before the festivities begin. Just this feeling you get being in staff, like you own the place or something. I love that "behind the scenes" feeling.

So anyways, orientation. I manage to find my way into the store and join a group of ladays around the registers. [Out of the 9 people there, there was one Y chromosome. Me.] The very first thing I notice out of the corner of my eye is this cute asian chick [because that's what my mind is attuned to locating]. Then I look around some more and see two of the girls from my interview. That's about when I realized that I had a lot of attractive female coworkers. Nice. Not a lot of male coworkers. Nice. Some of those male coworkers are gay. Less competition. Hell yes. So anyways. Orientation gets started. We are handed our "Associate Card" with our employee #'s and what we use to get discounts. W007. Ladays = lovers of Hollister. Ladays = lovers of $$$ and discounts. Me = discount at Hollister. Ergo, Ladays = lovers of Eric. Anyways, back to the matter at hand. We go to the registers and learn how to punch in/punch out, etc etc and I make some small talk with this girl I was standing with. Nothing exciting. I also find out that Asian girl I spotted earlier is MARRIED. She looks barely 18, but is like 24. Grrrr. It's like Taiwan all over again.

While I quietly wept behind the registers, my attention is reeled in by a new face that walks in. A suspiciously familiar one. I look over and I think "Aubriel? Nah." Then about five minutes later she turns to me and says "Hey Eric." and then I am just kind of in shock and have no idea what to say and her name slips my mind. Shameful. Well after she shows me her big "Aubriel" necklace, we just start talking. Did she always look that good?

Following this chance encounter and more waiting for people to finish with the registers, we all sat down at the lounge and we went over store policy. The only fun part of that was when the woman said "In-con-spi-shu-ous." I almost just died laughing, but everyone else either didn't notice or didn't realize this blunder so I tried as hard as I could to hide it.

After that, we go behind the scenes into THE STOCKROOM. Brightly lit, less crowded, and there are bathrooms. Nice. Definite bonuses of working in the back. I would have to say that > Standing outside in a dark room, constantly greeting people, constantly folding clothes, losing your ability to hear, see, and stand Paramore. Well in the back we watched this epic video about shoplifting and "shrink" [aka unaccounted for and missing merchandise. AKA stolen shit]. It was great, especially when it talked about internal operations and they had a "Former Hollister employee" with the whole silhouette and hidden identity talk about the huge mistake he made by stealing clothes over the course of 6 months. Also, the epic narrator, epic music, epic font, and bad acting was quite entertaining.

We also met the manager guy or something important, Chris [I think his name is], who reminds me a lot of Anthony Nobles, but dresses better. He has almost the same hair, he's pretty lanky, and he walks like him I guess. Although, he is more of a dick, he is in a manager-ish way. That is, instead of being a straight up dick, he is just very adamant of getting the job done, so don't mess around and you are spared. So yeah, he's cooler.

Well after that we all departed, and I have to say, the best part of the day had to have been the part where I DIDN'T LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT DOING MY JOB. We got a run down on everything not to do and the general outline of our job, but not so much how to do it. "You're going to be working in the back here doing this and this... blah blah." Not so much a "Well this is how you use this walkie talkie and this fancy scanner." Meh. I'm pretty sure on Sunday it won't be too busy so I can ask someone to educate me.

END.



Ma run in wit da lawz
Long story short:
Azureus. Torrent. Jackass 2.5. Wait 3 days. Watch it. Next day. Email from Cox telling me they got a notification from some company that tracks this stuff that I have downloaded/uploaded stuff that I shouldn't have. Oops. They tell me to delete it. They attached the stalker company's letter. They tell me to delete it. I delete it [wasn't that great anyways :\]. Click the link. Check the box that says "Yes, I have complied blah blah and deleted the shit." END.
So how did I get caught? No clue. I guess the file had a thing on it that sent out a beacon like "GRAR ILLEGAL." Like when Microsoft products try to authenticate by going online. So I guess I'm done downloading for a while.


daft hands.
but
not.


Travis = the win.

nice.


...I never expected Amaterasu to take out so much,
my eyes are getting meh. I can sense their descent into darkness. I think my eyesight's getting worse :(
btw, have you guys seen Itachi's eyes? Damn. They're like GONE, especially after what is presumably "Susanoo." First his right eye got owned with using Amaterasu like 3 times, and now his left. Intense.

There's something about V for Vendetta that makes it one of the deepest movies I've seen in a long time. Probably all of its historical and philosophical easter eggs. V's theme is the 1812 Overture, a piece littered with the French anthem that was a symbolic theme of revolution during the French Revolution. There are countless references to 1984 and even present-day America. The music for the credits is Street Fighting Man, a song about "political strife." Deep. I'd give a full review, but I'm kinda tired. Score: 10/10

• 20 Greatest Historical Myths - Marie Antoinette never said "Let them eat cake," Gandhi didn't really liberate India, and Eve didn't really eat an apple. Fascinating stuff, if you ask me.


• Why it's awesome to be a web developer - Nothing confirms my decision to want to be a web developer more than this. Of course, Google is a very hard place to get a job to develop for, but a lot of newer web companies are starting to change to be more like this: organize into small teams and you will succeed. The actual world of web development is actually a lot like Thinkquest, if you will. A lot of the sites you see out there were spearheaded by one man with a team of about, say, three. In the cases of Yahoo! and Google, two people. World, here I come.


• High schoolers turn in plagiarism screeners for copyright infringement - Read that again. A high shcool in McLean, Virginia requires all papers to be screened by a website, turnitin.com, for plagiarism before a student can turn it in. But here's the kicker. Turnitin.com archives all works that are submitted so it can reference them later. Now this isn't exactly full-blown irony because it isn't technically plagiarism, but it is still wrong to do without asking permission. Just because you don't share the information with the public doesn't mean it still isn't someone else's work. I can't download CD's online because I didn't pay for them or ask permission for them. So this website can't archive my paper.

lol ftw

I can just hear my grade crumble and die as it gets struck with zeros. My beautiful English grade, slowly dying as each zero taints the air it breathes.

Man. And I thought I would at least do better this quarter.

fucking bullshit.

Don't you love it how school stresses you out right before break? Don't you?

Its hard for me to concentrate. I don't know why. I've been practicing piano less and less now and doing more and more of nothing. I haven't actually finished playing an entire song in about a week. I finish a sentence on my paper and I have to walk around my house. Advanced stages of ADD. Sounds like I'm dying, huh.

I have a theme in mind for the second movement of my symphony. If you haven't listened to that yet, take a gander. One of my last bits of creative juice you will be seeing in quite a long time.

Once Thinkquest is done, I'm going to concentrate on improving this site.

• Bourne, Ocean, and Potter - Oh my! Looks like this is going to be a good year for entertainment. Spider Man 3, Potter, Ocean's 13, Bourne Ultimatum, The Simpsons, and Rush Hour 3. Looking to be a good summer to go to the movies. Personally, I can't wait for the new Bourne and Ocean movies. Previous ones were really good; although in both cases, the sequels were never as good as the original. Oh, and Spider Man 3 looks to be pretty awesome too. And just about everything else mentioned in this Daily. Any movie I left out?


• I am Bob Barker. I will break you. - Bob Barker breaks Craig Ferguson's $9 desk. The old man still has it in him... to do bits.


• Gears of War's Japanese promotion - For getting my belt back and helping me promotion my skills. And in return, I will teach them how to make one million dollars. But somehow, I don't think this is effectively going to make Microsoft/Epic any money. I won't ruin the trailer's ending, you have to watch it. This one leaves a longer lasting impression, but I just like the Mad World trailer and campaign better. Makes me wanna get the game. The Japanese one... doesn't. Nope, not really.

ap ple 'n sp ftw

I've had an idea for a symphony swirling about in my head for over half a year now. E major. The beginning starts off quiet with broken Emaj-sus4 chords in the strings with the lower strings providing thumping accompaniment. Emaj-sus4 changes to Emaj and then Bmaj(6/3)-sus4. It crescendos, building to a Bmaj(6/3). It repeats, but with horns added in Emaj and Bmaj(6/3). It builds into a few grace notes run and a minor theme. Then everyone joins in with the minor theme, with the treble parts in the foreground and lower strings in the background. Essentially, the first 30 seconds or 16 measures of this symphony have been swirling around in my head for half a year. A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to put it down.

And here it is. Just the first movement. See if you can find my descriptions of the first 30 seconds. I've worked on this maybe 8-10 measures a day late at night. In fact, I think its safe to assume, over 70% of this was composed after 11pm. Being like that, this work is hardly grand. Only 5:43 and only 130-some measures. I still hold my Deum Ira to the highest esteem.

Listen to it, give me feedback. I want to write three more movements, but I don't know if I'll have time. Or creative energy. After Thinkquest. I will. I hope.

• Police raid live on webcam - Justin is broadcasting his life, live on the internet. He has taped a webcam to his head and is streaming his life. And naturally, there are some pranks. Some guy spoofed Justin's phone number and said that there was a stabbing at his house. Man. Awesome.


• Guitar Hero and Katamari for the Wii - I win.


• Late Show with David Letterman starring Adam Sandler and Matzoball - Pretty funny little guy, I must say.

ka boom ftw

This is delicious!
btw. 300. Kicks. Ass. Great movie. I am surprised at the amount of nudity though. I mean, with crazy conservative types these days, there is always the NC-17 debate. Also, that slow motion sex scene. I mean, I'm not complaining. I am just surprised. Like I think it was King Arthur that got a lot of complaints about raising the rating, and this one didn't. Well King Arthur kind of sucked. 300 owned.

I told you, stop hittin' the table.

Korean chicks dig guys who play starcraft.

Digg = the best.
youtube = awesome.

For those of you who care, the new Linkin Park album comes out 5.15.07

Haven't updated in a while. Not sure if I'll be able to in a while—we had a long Thinkquest discussion today and came to the conclusion that we have a load of work to do. Oh way. Work hard. Do well. Work hard. Fail. Up to us, right?

“This sentence is in quotation marks.” "This sentence is not." Can you spot a difference? Depending on your browser and font settings, you should. Its all about typography. A while back I perused through a SXSW presentation on typography and why web typography sucks. I came away enlightened. Along with proper grammar and style, I might start trying to use the proper typographic elements for their proper uses (its a lot of work replaching “-” with a bunch of hex/uni values). The quote keys on the keyboard are indeed primes and not quotation marks. The minus sign ( - ) is just that, a minus sign. There are different characters characters for denotating phase interruptions—such as this one—and other things. I'm focusing on the en ( – ) and em ( — ) in particular. Notice a difference? I might be modifying my design for the posts on this site a little bit for it to be more typographically correct.

I'm definitely taking a course on typography in college. Pretty fascinating, if you ask me.

• Desktop Turrent Defense – And its sequel. Remember turrent defense? Its back. Brings back fond memories. They need to make this flash online multiplayer. Then I would quite possibly be addicted.


• Seven years in prison for a 14-year old girl – Imagine this. You are 14 years old. You have ADHD. You shove a hall monitor because you were pissed off at what that monitor did. You didn't really hurt the kid, you just kinda pushed him. What should the punishment be? Detention? ISS? Sounds reasonable. Do you deserve 7 years imprisonment? That doesn't sound reasonable. Now imagine this. You are 14 years old. You are convicted in court of arson for setting your house on fire. What should the punishment be? Juvie? Prison time? Or just probation? Does that sound reasonable? Is it justifiable that one person who commits a minor wrongdoing (relatively) be subject to punishment that is tenfold harsher than someone else of the same age? Is it right for an arsonist to be out in the streets? Is this kind of injustice right? Oh, of course its right. Of course the punishments fit the crimes. The first one was black.


• Hillary 1984 – Vote Different – Someone took Apple's famous “1984” ad (bottom of the story) and modified it for Obama. Yes. This shows the power of Obama currently with the techie generation, the current 18–34 year olds. Can't wait to join that demographic in two years. Your “first” demographic, if you will. No one really cares about us 13–37 year olds. This citizen–made ad also shows how politics have been revolutionized by the internet. Some people are even saying how this will change the entire political theatre of the future. I don't think it will be that drastic, but I believe that a change is coming to the way politics are handled. As the internet grows more and more democratic, things will undoubtly change. This is one example of how. And as usual, I will expect Watson to discuss this issue a week from now, due to her “news” segment of class being typically at least 5 days behind when the events actually occurred. And interestingly enough, the guy who made it resigned from his job due to political conflicts of interest. But the message he discusses with HP is is right on the mark. When Apple made the ad, they were fighting the giant IBM with their different computers, their Apples. In a way, they were revolutionizing the personal computer market, they were “Thinking different.” And now here is Obama, advocating “new” politics, fighting the giant ways of the past. Vote different.

jen naf isc her ftw

Raising the bar. I feel we are behind in math. I mean where are the useful everyday real life applications? The only applications we have done are problems like "Based on the angle of the triangle, what is the speed and size of that tsunami in the distance? For extra credit, survive." Or stuff like "How far will the ball manage to travel at a speed of 3m/s, going down a ramp that is 50m long with an incline of 15 degrees, with an elephant 30m from the starting point." I mean when are we going to use that? And also that "If you tie a goat to a pole with a 50 ft rope, where can it go?" Get a damned fence. Well whatever. I think we should be learning stuff like this in class. Now that is useful.

Ha. I thought this was kind of funny.

You know, you learn a lot of things at the dentist. I was listening to this radio station they had on about medical stuff and it had a guy who wrote a book on lots of different kinds of natural medicines that work well and have no side effects. It was rather quite interesting. I don't know if this is 100% true or not, but he said that the FDA states that the only things that can cure/help disease are drugs; therefore, the FDA does not recognize these natural alternatives at all. I thought that was kind of crappy. I mean who are we going to depend on to sort the real working natural stuff from the "lose 50 lbs in a month with this pill. It even contains green tea extract!!!" Another interesting thing he discussed was that there is a natural medicine that can pretty much cure diabetes by restoring the messed up insulin productive functions and stuff. This guy at like Yale/Harvard/one of those really nice colleges did a study on this stuff for like 12 years and found it to be effective and with no side effects. I mean seriously. I don't want to jump the gun and say this is 100% credible, but that is insanely awesome. Well whatever. If you are one of those people who like taking 50 pills a day, 3 for some conditions, 27 to counter the side effects of the 3 pills, and then 20 more to counter the side effects of the other 27 pills, then go ahead. However, I think looking into natural medicine is a pretty good idea. Like Chinese medicine. I mean sometimes it can taste like total crap, but it actually works pretty well. [However, nowadays this stuff is pricey.] I mean, if it didn't work well, why the hell would it still be around?

Solid evidence that asians can dance.

Haven't LOLed at something I saw on the internet.

Oh God. Oh God. Oh. God. I hate stupid people. And that's exactly what this woman is. Before I explain what the situation is, take a look at the disclaimer and legal notices on her site at the bottom of her page. Basically, a big point the disclaimer makes is that IF YOU USE ANY OF THIS OR EVEN QUOTE ME YOU WILL BE SUED. Some other outrages claims the disclaimer makes is that the site is only allowed to be viewed on a computer. And, since the content "if" (of) said site is used for revenue purposes, you can't use any of it. And I like the fact that even though I do not consent, the site consents for me. By visiting the site, I consent to be under the jurisdiction of El Paso County in Colorado. By clicking on the FAQ, I automatically agree to the site's terms of use, even though I explicitly signaled otherwise by clicking on "CANCEL" when the box came up. I recommend anyone trying this, its kinda funny.

1980's web design with GRATUITOUS CAPS+BOLD and random color changes aside, this site's mentality is completely incorrect. The fact that by visiting and copying text on the site I am automatically subjected to her terms is ridiculous. That's like going to a Denny's and saying after you start eating, "by biting this food, you willfully acknowledge the arsenic that we have put in it." Complete bullshit. Its this kind of stupidity that gets me.

And now the story that brought this site to my attention: this woman (my lawyer advised me not to use her name due to possible legal action for using "Suzanne Shell," since its on her website which is bound so tightly ... damn.) is suing archive.org (namely the WayBack machine portion off it) because it spidered her site and archived it. She says she never consented to the archiving program and since it copyed the information on her site, her "contract," which you automatically subject to upon entering the site, was breached. This is ridiculous because there is no way a computer program could have read that and not proceeded with its actions. Why doesn't she sue Google? In the Google results of her page, the second result is a PDF on her site which clearly copies content. What's even better is what you search for her URL. 182 incidencies of archived/cached content occur. Sue Google!

And where does this take me? Back to stupidity. This time, technology stupidity in particular. I've covered this topic before in the past, and this time, its no different. Relinquishing your rights and being notified of such relinquishing after you have been stripped of them is unlawful and, simply, retarded.

• THIS WEBSERVER SECURITY : 0 - http://www.battlestargalactica.com/, hacked. See a hacker's work in progress. If you read this in time, you may still even see the page.


• Bong Hits 4 Jesus - Going to the Supreme Court. And remember kids, getting high is OK. As long as you're doing it for Jesus.


• Diggnation: Penis edition - Yes. This is why I love diggnation. Maybe its cause I know this is like something I'd totally do. In this week's episode of diggnation, Kevin asked for a Penis-o-Meter to count how many times the two of them could say "penis" in the show. It didn't actually make it into the episode because the editor said it was too much work, but this fan made it. Funny stuff. He throws in other clips too. Man. Good show.

ke vina nda lex ftw

Tee hee.
There is some naughty language in there. Not for those with sensitive, supple, virgin ears.
"Wait till they get home and find out what's in their asses."
"What if I get pulled over!?

btw is it just me or does the guy look kinda like Gwaneia-nel. Not sure if I spelled that right, I don't speak French.

I don't know if it's our fault, or Cox Cable's fault, but my internet keeps going on and off and on and off.

Did you notice? I made the listening to part a link. Then you can know what I am listening to! omg!

battousaiashe (2 months ago)
Ya know the worst thing about the emo uprising...talking about your life makes you feel stupid because of them.

I think battousaishe put that pretty well. Damn emo kids and their poetry, making people who are sad seem like losers.

I plugged in my old ipod mini a bit ago and found a large collection of music I thought I'd never see again. Namely Blink 182 music. I haven't been this scared, in a long time. Ah. Good times.

Auditioned in a bit competition today; didn't place. Not that I expected to, though. Although what kills me is that I messed this run I knew I'd mess up and I practiced to death at home. I mean, "waste of time" doesn't pop in my head, but wait. Maybe it does. Not a bad experience overall, though, I guess.

I believe I fixed the bloober today... hopefully. Spam should cease. If it doesn't, I'm going to need to work out a few kinks in the system. But at least when you submit, your bloob comes up at the bottom.

• JEOPARDY! History - Made me kinda chuckle.


• The Super Stunt - Zug, (in)famous for their pranks such as the credit card signature prank and the Olestra prank, has now pulled the ultimate prank of all time: they hacked the Super Bowl. In an elaborate prank, six people got together to infiltrate Dolphin Stadium, sneak in 2000+ necklace/lights, distribute them, and then light them up in unison. Its a good read, especially if you're a good procrastinator like me. And if you guys haven't read the aforementioned credit card and olestra pranks, they are well worth the time as well. Classics from back in the day, you know? Although I caution anyone with a weak stomach about reading the olestra one.


• Dad 'n Me - I think Eric may have mentioned this game to me a while back, but it wasn't until I heard it mentioned in an interview about Castle Crashers with the guys fom The Behemoth that I googled it. Man, its fun. I spent quite a while playing it today, and I rarely play games nowadays. And now I'm in the mood for some Castle Crashers. Now. A pity it's coming out in '08 only on XBLA.

cro tch ftw (just look at last picture)

Christ. Big competition tomorrow, I lost my thumbdrive at school, I have to miss a day of behind the wheel, and aragh. What next? Its only Friday night but next week is looking to be one terrible week. Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est. Google it.

Short Dailies today, guys. Sorry.

• Great Moments in Presidential Speeches - No liberal stance here.


• Internets warning signs - Always remember kids, use extreme caution when opening images. You never know what tub may lie in wait for you.


• Air traffic controller quotes - Very funny collection of aircraft-to-ground quotes. And the maintenance problem/response answers are pretty funny as well. Mouse in cockpit. CAT INSTALLED.

hair ftw

If left unchecked and unbridled, the mind can consume the soul.

Does grammar and style affect what you think of people online? Does proper grammar, style, and spelling improve the quality of content, such as the one I am writing right now? wat if i started typign like htis, and mak errors i see way too ofeteno nline? Or what if I started using fragments and put periods instead of question marks. Like I commonly do. What effect does all of this have? Personally, I try to be as grammatically correct as often as I can. But not all the time. I don't think that bad grammar necessarily degrades content, but I do believe that bad grammar often creates confusion and muddles the message of content.

Just some thoughts that I wanted to write down.

• Screen caps of FOX News lies - Not all of these are necessarily "lies" or even "false" - you could tell that this was done by a liberal. However, some of these headlines are simply inexcusable in journalism. From basic facts wrong: "MARK FOLEY (D-FL)" and "SCOOTER LIBBY FOUND NOT GUILTY" to blatant opinion in headlines: "BOYCOTT EUROPE!" and "WHY THE FUSS ABOUT TORTURING PEOPLE WHO WANT US DEAD?," this site has it all. My favorite? The one about how UFO's held back a shuttle launch.


• Staplerfahrer Klaus - Let me put it this way, you do not want to be a Staplerfahrer Klaus. This is a instructional introduction video for new employees opperating forklifts. It starts off boring, but believe me. It gets so much better. Its well worth the 8 minutes. I won't ruin it... but you to not want to be this guy by the end. I don't even understand why people continue to work forklifts after this. Think about the peril!


• PRO-TIP! - Get up to 10% more out of your research paper - Yes, kids. It's that time again. Research paper time. And I know what you may be thinking. "Man, my paper is so short!" But have no fear! I'm here. This video is a tutorial showing you a very useful tip that could add up to 10% more of your paper. The longer your paper, the more it adds. Its actually quite simple: increase the font size of your periods. Its hardly noticable, yet it adds so much. Margins and font sizes discrepancies are too quickly spotted, but to the naked human eye reading paper, this is practically impossible to spot. Have fun.

dig gnat ion ftw

So, it's been three years, huh? Much has changed here. It's been three years, with six iterations of Hublog. Three years, with so much happening on this site. And three years, with more to come.

Three years ago on March 11th, this site was born. Do you remember three years ago? Everyone here had Xanga's and "chatterboxes" were all the rage. We were all young, too young to know what lay ahead of us. Too young to realize the hardships and greattimes-ships we'd have together. I started this site, this "blog," to be different. To not have a Xanga. To be original. It was originally me, crying about my woman troubles. And then it eventually evolved into me, crying about my woman troubles, but in a more pretty interface.

But then came Hublog 4, with changed everything. Matt and Eric began posting. And then it became us three, crying about our woman troubles. And then eventually Nik tagged along as well. I introduced the Hublog Chat (although to be honest, i cannot recall if that was hublog 3 or 4), where the entire community of readers could come and talk. That has now evolved into the Bloober. Although not really "evolved." We just call it something else now. We had a thriving "Marketplace" where we would upload media and other files. Those were the golden days, weren't they?

Then we took a slump with Hublog 5. It was a bad interface, and bad programming on my part. It was my first experimentation with Rails, and like everyone else's first time, you kept bumping into things you shouldn't and it was pretty awful. Readership went down and so did participation. So this summer I said "screw it" and worked on a new project called "9legged" for a little bit. It was actually in the works for a while, but actual hard development lasted only for a short period of time. I renamed the site 9legged because of what the "utter failure" of Hublog 5, so I wanted a change. But you can read about it here.

But, here we are. Its Hublog again. I feel that we have entered yet another "golden days." Readership has gone up, and is now holding steady. Reader participation is possibly at an all-time high and we seem to be getting more posts from Eric and Nik now, just like in the past. I hope it can stay like this forever.

And with that, I want to thank you guys. As I have stated in the past before, there cannot be a Hublog without you guys. A website is just a website. A website with readers is something else. I cannot stress that enough. I hope that together, we can make this third year of ours the best we have ever had.

Music Composition team: 3/5. I, Matt, Jeff W.

Warning of competition ahead of time: 24 hrs.

Experience with program: 0 hrs.




Place: 1st.

You ok? Good. I'm fine too.

I've been watching a lot of The Office lately; its actually a really good show. There's just enough dry humor to like it and there's just enough romatic tention to keep interest going. And the cultural faux pas in the show is just right to make a kind of connection.

We got a bunch of channels in HD a few days ago. Conan in HD? Can't wait.

But maybe not tonight, cause apparently, I signed up for GCC. Which is at freaking 7:30 tomorrow in the morning. Oh well. Like Matt said, free award. And I haven't composed in a while.

• News of the weird: Robber of lingerie shop claims to be an elf - I might start a "News of the weird" section for each Daily. Who knows. But this guy from Carrickfergus (i'm not making that up) stole a bunch of lingerie from this shop... but he claims that during the time of the robbery, he was a... elf. From Shadowrun. Good God.


• Cork soakers - Not sure if I've posted this before. But these people really know how to soak corks.


• How to kill a brand - Might be a rerun, but still accurate nonetheless. Massive damage!

I had an update yesterday, but I accidently closed the window. WHAT A BUMMER. I keep saying this thing needs autosave. It really does.

Doing notecards about Thomas Mann whilst listening to Beethoven. Can you get more German?

I probably won't have time to update a lot for a while - I'll leave the content up to Eric and Nik. And maybe Matt. If he even updates anymore. And having said that, watch me update like twice tomorrow or something.

• Pointless Family Picture and Church - Just two pictures to chuckle at from digg.


• StupidTester - Yeah, yeah. One of those quizzes. But I was actually compelled to finish this one, as some of the problems are pretty tricky. Not nearly as tricky as The Impossible Quiz, though.


• Fly Northwest, get jizzed on - Based on a true story. A man sat down by this woman, started rubbing on her, and then proceeded to... dump his love on her. This is quite possibly one of the most disgusting things I've heard in my life. And this is why I don't fly Northwest.


• Walkthrough of Beethoven's Eroica - And speaking of jizzing... is it healthy for me to nearly wet myself after seeing this? Never have I seen a piece analyzed this much. But oh Lord, does this piece deserve it. Educate yourselves with Eroica.

these boys ftw

There's raindrops falling on my head.
I don't think I see the sun coming over soon.

Cut cut cut. =[

Oops I accidentally updated earlier.

NWA ftw.
and
Google Images ftw.


Just in case you wanted to know (and because my sister is forcing me to tell people)...
Miss Bayside Pageant 2007
When: Wednesday, March 28
Where: Bayside High School Auditorium
Cost: $8 per person
Time: 7:00 PM


O the irony.
When one grows older, isn't it logical that they no longer fear things they once did when they were young? Doesn't it make sense that as a person grows older, their fears grow less in number? Then why do I now fear things that I never did before?

NWA ftw.

and

Google Images ftw.