Rights To Own And Bear Arms

After the Supreme Court's 5 to 4 definitive vote to reaffirm American's Second Amendment Rights, I couldn't wait to help myself a few handguns just so I feel more American. I went to Target and bought the most lethal weapons I could lay my hand on. And these are just for my kids and their friends, in case they come visit, they can play shoot 'em up in the backyard.

Here is my review of these handguns based on extensive hands-on shootings both on static and moving targets with or without living humans involved.

All four are from the same manufacturer, the Super Soaker. The Super Soaker is the weapon of choice for those in the know. You simply can't go wrong with the Super Soaker brand.

The two on the left were bought as a twin pack, different colors same gun: Max D 3000. The gun has separate pumping and shooting actions. It's a pleasure to use. And given the size of the whole thing, it's easy to conceal and easy to shoot. The pump and shoot actions are smooth but the small tank needs refilling often, it's a handgun anyway. So shoot with caution. For what age, from 5 ~ 100, it does take some muscle to pump. Nitpick: The floaty and the string attached to the cap (the orange colored nipple thingy, see picture), to prevent it from losing, might have too much floatation when filled up with water, the string may get caught on the threading while twisting the cap closed, just make sure the cord stays inside the tank and out of the way.

The two on the right is the Bottle Shot model. What distinguishes this from most other Soaker is this has a user changeable tank or bottle but without a real trigger. It takes most soda bottles and the spec says it max out at 2 liter bottles. The bottle neck needs to be sturdy than normal because when filled up and held in an horizontal shooting position the bottle neck may flop, over extensive usage. The pumping and shooting actions happen at the same time, when one pulls the pump back, it shoots too, so it's harder to aim correctly and steadily and takes some time to get used to. So you always have to use both hands both pumping and shooting, unlike the Max D 3000, you can shoot using one hand Matrix style. It's easy to lose the original puny bottle that comes with the gun, see the gun on the right. But you can easily find a replacement given the proliferation of water bottles or bring lots of them as ammo. For the faucet-turning challenged, it may not be all that obvious when it comes to which way to turn to tighten or loosen the lock. And if you want you can bring Evian or Pellegrino waters as your ammos and shoot your money away. For what age: 7~100. Fitting a shooting bottle may be a challenge for some youngsters or not so young people.

Both models shoot pretty good distance and a joy to shoot and got shot at.

For additional reviews go Super Soaker Central.

Update On What's Happening In The Backyard

Rosemary, Lemon Verbena, Thyme

Basil

Sage

Tomato

Craigslist

CThanks to Craigslist, I got myself loads of expired film. Woo hoo. The hookup was arranged online and I trekked to Union Square to close the deal. It wasn't that exciting but it's interesting and pretty efficient.

I was wearing my gray t-shirt, white jeans ... just for the occasion ...

"You must be Mr. Handsome, you look even gooder than I thought .... " My seller informed me. "You look tremendous yourself. Can I see the goods?" "You mean these." She pointed to her boobs which were nice and perky. I told my seller it's the Kodak that I was here for. She was playfully disappointed. Her eyes were big and under the punishing sun had a sheen of blue. I took a quick look inside one of those no-frill environmentally offensive black plastic bags she carried and whipped out 2 $20 dollar bills. "Here." "You don't need to count them, roll by roll?" "No. They look good enough to me." She was happy to get the cash. "You have my number, Handsome, let's hook up some time." I saw her leave, her straight back has certain grace to it. I happily walked back to the subway station. Before I even got back to the cubicle farm, I got a message from my seller ... It wasn't exactly a message, it's just a jpeg of my seller's body part. Very perky.

Reporting Live From Jones Beach

This is a landmark post, I am live blogging from Jones Beach, Long Island. It's kinda humid and cold. Sometimes I wonder why do we like to go to the beach in the first place.

I Love 80s

This is another maudlin love song that ruled the early 80s. For those who were born too late and never got the chance to admire or despise The Culture Club, here is the chance. I present you the Culture Club's Love Is Love. Also the video is from one of the best movies ever made, Electric Dreams (1984) when Virginia Madsen was 23. I shall dedicate this song to all the inordinately literate girls who tend to overthink on love, relationships and online personality tests. Enjoy.

This Week In Review

Losers:
The Dow Industrial Average.

AAPL, the freaking stock keeps going down, I am losing my underwear. It went back up just a dollar or so before the week ended with a thud.

Winners:
Bill Gates. The guy retires at 52. Looks who's laughing now. The man gives us PC, like it or not it's running the world's desktop. Though much hated by a lot of people but at least the guy gives us a platform that others can pile on, to develop around it. In some sense it's an "open" system. You can build your PC because of the open architecture. But I hate him giving us Office more so than Windows, the Excel, the Word, the Access database, the PowerPoint. Plenty of valuable time got sucked away to maintain thsse little applications. Especially Word, people spend extraordinary amount of their time formatting or fixing their formatting instead of writing the content. Maybe in 10 or 15 years, the Windows desktop will become largely irrelevant because you know Steve Ballmer has a way to mess things up. Or the so called "cloud computing" would become so pervasive that the desktop OS becomes so nvisible just like the little ROM program to boot up the machine. Or Microsoft would conquer the next frontier in computing, the handheld devices, the cellphones.

The Second Amendment.

Weekend Video

Catching up with Guardian's Dan Chung.

The original video can be found at Vimeo, in "HD." The following is a clip showing the Olympics torch relay protest in Hong Kong.


Hong Kong torch protest from Dan Chung on Vimeo.


This second video shows dislocated Quake victims from Beichuan running away for fear of possible dam burst. The video is interspersed with still pictures shot by Dan Chung using most likely his Nikon D3.


China quake dam burst fears from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

Supreme Court Came To Senses

It's summer time here, the kids are out, the workplace is deserted. Only the workaholics and the office drones are working five days a week. Any self respecting minor ranking airheads in the office totem would have taken days and days off. Even the Dow is taking a break, what the heck, just let it slide, Uncle Ben and Paulson need their summer breaks too. And before the mercury hits 100, the Supreme Court finally in a 5 to 4 vote, reassures us Americans that we have the right to bare arms. Our Second Amendment rights can't be denied. I encourage the Supreme Court to go at least one step further, right to bare chest, and bottom would be nice too. I know I am asking to much. Woo hoo still.

I Post Because I Can

5555

Breaking: The Dow Tanked

While it wasn't a day for tennis diva, it also wasn't a day for the Dow either, the industrial average nose dived more than 350 points. Now it's time to buy more ... if you want to lose your shirt and underwear. Last time I said Apple is up for a rebound, it freaking went south when the very thin and very gaunt Jobs gave everybody a very thin and very gaunt iPhone 3G. Don't even listen to me.

Now that Sharapova is eliminated, I can concentrate on something else like on Venus Williams, my first love. The crude oil is now at $140 a barrel and very soon $150. I have stopped mowing my lawn already.

Breaking: I am a big time photograhper

If I am not unlucky, then I am going to shoot some analog 120 film soon. Whoo hooo, that's going to make me some big time photographer.

Gates Is Leaving Microsoft

Gates is done with Microsoft and so should you too. No, I am just kidding.

The richest guy on Planet Earth (all right, give or take, the ball park), Gates is retiring and I don't see his departure will in anyway negatively or positively influence Microsoft's business or stock price. The place is like a well-oiled machine. Can you imagine that with Apple? Can you imagine Apple's Steve Jobs retiring tomorrow? And Apple's stock price will stay the same? Actually ever since Jobs' gaunt appearance, the stock has been steadily losing its value. Let's hope Jobs can pull some trick on 7-11, the almost world-wide launch of iPhone 2 or iPhone 3G.

BS Finance News From Yours Truly

Uncle Ben says no more freebie for you. The rate cut is coming to an end for now. After China denounced US monetary policy or actually lack thereof for letting the dollar slide, food price rise, and energy price soar, Uncle Ben further heeds the advice from the overlords in The Forbidden Kingdom. Just so you know China now owns US just like Japan owned the US in the 80s.

Untitled

I am a hopelessly incorrigible dilettante, easy to get impassioned but even easier to get distracted.

Tomato, in case you are wondering. I am growing my vegetable now, just to save a few bucks.

A Day To Remember

The Family

Who let the dog out?

Best Friends Forever

Alex, introducing the PTA Speaker

Pledge of Allegiance

Entering the ceremony

The technical details nobody really cares:
Nikon D70, Nikon 18~70 f3.5~4.5G, Nikon 80~200 f2.8
Processed using Gimp and UFRaw, from NEF to JPEG.
Even I brought my tripod, but most of the shots were taken hand-held using the best technique I know. Alas, shooting at f2.8 and at 200mm focal length and a shutter speed hovering around 1/30 or more is a sure recipe for shaky pictures. But seriously I think I got pretty steady shots still, the 5th one was hand-held at 1/39 sec, f3.5 according to the EXIF data. Since I don't have VR, I got to be steady. The forth one is also hand-held. Gee, I think I take pretty good pictures, I deserve a D700 or D3, or a 5D with all the professional lenses. Or I will buy a Yashica TLR. Actually I brought and used my trusty Nikon FE with MD-12 mounted, and loaded it with some TMAX ISO 400 B/W film. Guess I will have to wait to see what develops. I have no doubt they will turn out to be masterpieces (delusion of grandeur. if i don't like myself who will, eh?).

D700, More Details Leaking

There are now more leaks streaming from some Chinese forum and culled by Nikon Rumors.

The price tag is said to be $2,999. That's $999 more than my comfort level.... I take it back, I am not comfortable spending $2000 on a camera body but.... Realistically speaking, I don't expect Nikon to give away the D700 for free but you always hope or dream for the best. $2,999 is actually about right considering the D3 is a whopping $5,000 and the D300 is $1,649 by one reputable dealer in New Jersey (just price checked).

As to the leaks, I think it's just good marketing. You don't need to spend a sizable chunks of cash and you get your souped up to be released product to your target audience at no cost. I think that's guerrilla marketing at its very best. The Nikon fans are just now going nuts over any putative good leaks. Ashton Kutcher does a good job for D60 but hey a good leak of this nature doesn't hurt either. And I bet it's much cheaper than hiring Mr. Kutcher. What Nikon saved can definitely pour back into its R&D to make more camera and more lenses.

What I Had For Lunch

I had Curry Porkloin Katsu. $11 plus tax and tips ... $14.

When one of my co-workers say, "Let's go to the curry place." I was thinking of Indian. But it was Japanese that he was talking about.

Sushi Tei on 47th Street between Madison and 5th.

I don't remember it was a Sushi Tei, was it ever a Sushi Tei before? I think I am losing it. The place is the same maybe except the name. I haven't come to this place for quite some time, so it's a good choice. The place is not big, at the entrance there are sushi take-outs and I think some udon noodle soups too. I am not sure if they actually serve sushi inside the dining area. When I think of this place, all I can think of is curry chicken katsu or pork katsu.

Nikon D700

As far as rumors go, this one comes pretty close to real. Maybe after all, the naming makes sense. The D70 was a major success for Nikon, ushering it into the consumer DSLR market. It's a success, because even a cheapskate like me, bought one. Now with the Nikon D700, it might break in the consumer FX DSLR market. The burning question is how much is Nikon going to price this puppy? Canon's 3-year old 5D is selling around $1,900, and Nikon's only FX or otherwise known as full frame is D3 which sells for an exorbitant price (for some at least) of $5,000.

Sourced from the rumor mongers at Nikon Rumors.

UPDATE:

Once the D700 was leaked, living web legend Ken Rockwell wasted no time to get his up here. Mr. Rockwell even has a believe-it-or-not D3X prototype here.

Popular Music

My musical taste is laughable. The way I see songs and music is the same exact way I see, oh well, I couldn't think of any parallel. The lame-o meter is going through the roof now.

My first "walkman" like portable player is a Sanyo portable cassette player with silvery paint and silvery plastic leather like jacket. I think back then I actually paid one of our friends to record a medley of songs from his studio like shop in Yaumati. Mostly brands and singers from UK, notably Culture Club, Japan and David Bowie and whatever striked my fancy and looked cool. But I wasn't much of a serious listener, I never had moments like "Oh Shit, this song is so great, it freaking changed my life." No, it never ever happened. No songs ever changed my life. Not U2, much less Cranberries. Surprise, I think it must be the marketing or something, I actually bought a cassette of U2's live performance in the late 80s and early 90s. I think it's called Rattle and something, okay it's called Rattle and Hum. I think I actually liked the album, alas, it's lost during my nomad lifestyle in the early 90s. And then I got the impression that U2 or Bono has become quite important or self-important so that was a turn-off. I really don't know anything about the Cranberries except maybe the song re-sang by our much beloved Wong Faye. Anyway, I think the group is pretty well liked by girls in Hong Kong and semi-pseudo-intellectuals who have a thing for anything that's white, arty farty and girly. So I instantly blacklisted them without hesitation. Of course, I am full of shit.

After years of listening to English songs which is not much to begin with, I actually do an about face. I began listening to Chinese songs lately. Actually it was in parallel in the late the 90s. Back then it's mostly Cantonese pop songs. But as I got older and actually old, I much prefer Mandarin maudlin love songs. They are just that good. For the most part, I have problem understanding the lyrics but that's OKAY.

Firefox 3 Available

So I have heard Firefox 3 available. Big deal I guess. Me using Linux has been crashing Firefox 3 beta since Ubuntu 8.04. Yes, it's Flash fault as it's been pointed out but it really doesn't matter. This whole Flash crashing Firefox thing has greatly diminished the user experience to the point that people are going to say Linux sucks. Right there, I said it. Linux sucks just because Firefox crashes whenever there is Flash.

I really hope that someone can tell me yes, there is a bug fix to this, or you suck, there is a work around that can actually loads Flash without crashing Firefox. Alas, there is none that I am aware of. And the workarounds out there have been either disable Flash, or let Flash crash without bring down the browser. So what gives? I wish I know how to fix it myself.

UPDATE: I didn't yet bother to upgrade my Firefox on Windows. I don't know if any upgrade will break some of the add-ons I have installed because of compatibility problem. I know it happens with FF3 under Ubuntu 8.04, some Add-ons can't be enabled in addition to the Flash crashing feature.

Lunch At Hop Won

I have been a regular at Hop Won since the beginning of time. It's a fast food joint with cook to order dishes as well as the precooked mix and match combination platters. Most of the time, I order from their cook to order menu. Even I am a regular, like at least once or twice a week there. The girl still asks me "Eat in or take away?" I gladly reply, "Eat in." I don't even remember I ordered take-out there, not even once. I am just not very good at making friends in the normal course of daily activities.

Most items priced from $5.35 to $6 give or take. Soda I think is a dollar now.

Belated Father's Day Cards

Harry's card is yellow in color and is shaped like a tie, with whimsical coloring just like Picasso's.
In it, it says

Dear dad
I like
you
when
you
help
me

love Harry

Alex's card is traditional in form but in much darker tone. It's white on black. The drawing on the cover is I can only guess him and Harry playing Wii in front of our TV. Next to the drawing, it says in bold letters, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! with lightnings and thunder bolts around. In it, it says very sparingly.
Dear Dad,

I like you.

From,
Alex

Harry can't help but shares his thoughts "Alex doesn't even know why he likes Dad."

What Harry Had Told Me Recently

Small Moments ...

When I shook my butt in front of him, Harry, "Dad, you are so immature."

When I made up story about his girl friends at school, Harry, "Dad, you lost the privilege to talk."

Existentential Crisis

I am still "wallowing in blog self-pity" and continue to misspell because I just can.

Today's Father's Day, big deal. Harry was up before me and we went downstairs to make breakfast. I assigned him the task of cracking the eggs. Which he did before and enjoyed. Anything that involves smashing up things he enjoys. I beat the eggs up, added some salt and fresh grounded pepper. Then off it went to the 600 lbs cast iron pan. Cast iron pan is my favorite, I have a healthy disdain for anything that's flimsy and marketed as non-stick.

Scrambled eggs is something that's easy to make and easy to make well. Just don't overcook it. To add to the flavor, I usually add a dash of butter in addition to the olive oil. The kids love it. And by the time Harry started eating, Alex was up too, so I gave my portion to him.

Meanwhile, six thousand miles away from NYC in Beijing, people are clubbing in Block 8.

My Blog in Existentential Crisis

My friend, after he turned blind, he thought it's a good idea to take it up another notch, he decided to go toothless. Now he is toothless and blind and he can no longer dish out inane comments anymore. The reason my blog exists is because of comments like his. Now it's over.

Tomato, Eggplant, Basil and Sage

This is some lame video. Good thing it only lasts about 32 seconds. The music is from 易桀齊's 一整片天空 1st track- intro. Of course, my video doesn't do any justice to his music.

This is edited using Cinelerra. Again, the video doesn't do justice to the software, I think. The editing part is not that smooth. Dropping the title and moving it around isn't all that easy.

Week in Review

So iPhone is getting cheaper and zippier. And Apple's stock price is going down south since the new iPhone 3G announcement. My prediction was totally wrong. That shows I can't be a stock analyst, at all. If you believe my prediction and acted on it, you would have lost your shirt and underwear.

My prediction on the iPhone 3G 7.11 launch. All the losers would line up or hire some even bigger losers to line up outside the Apple and at&t stores to get the iPhone 3G. I just hope the stock price would get back to $180 or so. And I do wish Jobs a speedy recovery from his common bug or whatever that ails him, regardless of how my Apple stock holding is doing. It's just man to man, brother to brother, get well soon.

BREAKING: American preeminent newsman Tim Russert is dead at 58.

Random Post

Here's a preview of what's going to hit us next year, Wetlands.

I think I need to read the book.

Random Thoughts

I think the use of zoom lens has greatly contributed to the obesity epidemic that's weighing down Americans. Instead of composing by moving your feet back and forth, people just stand still and zoom the lens to compose.

Breaking: Johansson is an Obama Girl

Hollywood hottie Scarlett Johansson, best known for her role as Molly in Home Alone 3, is an Obama Girl. The actress corresponds with the Democratic nominee Barack Obama via emails and is somewhat surprised that the senator would keep up with these personal exchanges. I would keep up the correspondence too if only I am corresponding with the Scarlett Johansson.

From Politico via The Huffington Post.

Mou Gaan Dou II (2003)

Mou Gaan Dou II or Infernal Affairs II is a prequel to the original Mou Gaan Dou or Infernal Affairs (2002) . Personally, I think this second one is just as good as the first one taken as whole. Which one is better? That's hard to say. What's easy to say is, the third one is the stinker and doesn't measure up to the first two in this trilogy.

This second installment has more of a Godfather looks and feels to it which is actually not a bad thing to say. The story begins with the assassination of the triad boss which sets off a chain reaction of combustible events that deal with power struggle, loyalty and betrayal. And of course, the whole movie can be seen as an allegory to the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to Beijing. Indeed it's the backdrop of the whole story. The two leading men were lessor known actors, that's relatively speaking, and they don't drip themselves with abundant charisma like Andy Lau and Tony Leung, two of the biggest names in Asian and international cinema, in the original IA sometimes do which can be a mixed blessings. On the one hand, Leung and Lau did give out some knock-out performances. On the other hand, sometimes, it's a turn-off. The two young male actors playing the younger roles played by Lau and Leung are Edison Chen and Shawn Yue. I think they are pretty well cast for the parts especially for Edison Chen, he just looks the part. There are some minor character inconsistencies between the first and the second one in my opinion. But overall, it's well written, acted and executed. And if you ignore the original IA, and ignore the character discrepancies, and see this movie on its own term then perhaps it's even a better movie than it already is.

Firefox 3 And Flash Annoyance

Annoyance maybe an understatement. I am running Firefox 3 and before beta on an Ubuntu 8.04 desktop. Firefox will crash without exception if I play a Flash embedded video, like from blogger here or from Youtube. Again, totally anecdotal, no science to back it up.

I have done some Google searching but have yet to find a work around that really works for me much less a solution to the problem. It really is no good considering Flash is almost an integral experience for web browsing nowadays. With Firefox crashing, that's really no good. Using Flash for your page may not be the greatest idea but as it is, this Firefox and Flash really need to be addressed and resolved as soon as possible. But instead it's like languishing in the back burner.

Tomato Salmonella

Even before Summer officially arrives, we have our first food scare already. Last summer was spinach, this summer it is tomato. McDonald's is pulling their tomato off their menu. No tomatoes for you.

The FDA issued a consumer warning for tomato salmonella contamination.

I am glad I have the foresight to plant my own tomatoes in the backyard. Well, not really, just saying.

NYC Is Hot

Global warming is hitting NYC early this year. It's over 90 at home already.

Apple WWDC (iPhone GGG)

Jobs looks gaunt.

I hope it's just the iPhone 3G that's grinding the guy down.

Live from gizmodo.com

iPhone 3G, available July 11, 2008 to an Apple Store or Att Store near you.

Your iPhone just became obsolete.

iPhone 3G is for real and it comes in Black and White (for 16G only). And no iPhone for China and Russia. No video chat, no video function. Same old 2MP camera.

I can't blog better than gizmodo.com, so go there and check it out for yourself. And of course, straight from the source, go to Apple already or check out att.com. Does att.com has 3G coverage where I call? [UPDATE: The answer is an unequivocal yes. Where I live, the map is a sea of blue meaning 3G coverage.]

But Wall Street says, big freaking deal, and hence the stock gave up more than $8. Wall Street doesn't like the gaunt Jobs, it scares Wall Street.

By the way, it's called iPhone 3G, not 3G iPhone for the anal retentive out there.

Random Thoughts

"Life is a series of distractions." - Me.

I aimlessly sleep walk through life as it happens.

Cinelerra

I finally got some success using Cinelerra. And I am glad I don't have to compile from source or buy a new desktop. Previously the video was out of sync, the audio was all right, just that the video was played way slower making editing difficult if not impossible. I tried a a few things but to no avail. It was I think even documented as bug number 482.

Well, it was actually a simple fix. I finally got my act together and got on IRC as suggested by wildhostile. I really have no idea how to use IRC but somehow I managed to get the client to work. And raffa was nice enough to help. All I needed to do was uncheck the Play every frame box. That was it. Now comes the hard part, actually editing some video. I mean to throw together some clips aren't too difficult but to come out something actually good is hard.

Well at least Cinelerra is working and I ran out of excuse not to do anything.

I have to thank wildhostile for his interest and raffa who pointed to me the solution, something seemingly so obvious yet I totally oversaw. Thank you guys.

Roland Garros

Wow, this is live bloging now. Are you excited? I am. I am now watching the live broadcast from NBC.

Nadal's Greenish Hulky ensemble is intimidating Federer big time in Roland Garros red clay.

Greenish, Hulky Nadal is punishing Federer with his two-handed backhands. Federer has no answer yet. On the red clay, Nadals transforms himself to a speedy Hulk, while Federer is reduced to a dodging black dot, trying to return every missile Hulk sends. Nadal's two-handed back hand is now totally and absolutely dominating. It's almost to the point of embarrassing. Federer just lost the last two points by sending the ball to the net. His body language can't be any more negative.

The first set is 1 - 6

UPDATE:
Resistance is futile, Nadal steamrolled Federer in the French Open final. There are still Wimbledon and the US Open, which are more like Federer's playgrounds. Nike turned out to be the winner no matter what.

Coffee Mug

I didn't wash my coffee mug when I left work today. I can't wait to taste that fine layer of flavor when I go back next Monday.

Waiting Game

The title is kind of lame, actually my blog is kind of lame. Actually the fact that I use kind of more than it's necessary is kind of lame already. I am very lame.

Anyway, to continue my dash to insane random postings, I will continue to post whatever I so please. Isn't it pretty much the case all along?

I wonder if Nikon is going to announce its answer to Canon's 5D soon, that is a full frame or what Nikon calls FX format camera that is simply put not as expensive as the D3 but has the same sensor size. If the price point is reasonable enough, I may just go for it. Every now and then, I need to have some new gadgets to give myself a reason to get up in the morning.

The other evening when I was in the PTA fund raising dinner event, I had the fortune of shooting a Canon's point and shoot. In my opinion, I think Canon makes very good point and shoot. But this time, I just found the shutter lag unacceptable. I don't remember the model number but it feels pretty solid and is Made in Japan for me that's something. Perhaps by experience is heavily biased as I shoot DSLR most of the time. So that evening the shutter lag really bothers me, plus the flash just didn't work for me. I know that's pretty unfair as I just picked up the camera and used it. The camera belonged to one of the moms. It's hard to go back to point and shoot sometimes. I do believe it has its use. Just not for me for most of the time.

I am waiting for Nikon's $2000 FX model.

Week In Review

This Dow ended the week with a thud. It went down like a million points because of what else, the economy. Both the oil price and unemployment rate skyrocketed to $300 a barrel and 50% respectively. So we are doomed and over the weekend the price of gas is going to hit $20 a gallon, who knows? We may as well just stay home and stare at our TV or the French Open. That wouldn't be a bad idea actually, or learning Cinelerra or compiling from source ... or watching paint dry.

Bye now.

One more thingy ...
Between June 9 and 13, Apple is going to announce its next generation totally pimped out iPhone 3G. It's like the second second coming of the Christ. So sit tight. With Apple stock down more than 3 dollars on Friday, there is even more potential on the upside when Monday comes next week.

Cinelerra ...

This is not working for me. I tried for a few hours and things weren't getting any better. In fact it got worse. The program got flaky and I had to force quit the thing more than once. I don't like it one bit but I am not giving up yet.

My Friend

My friend just got his LASIK operation. Before he was a bespectacled handsome man, now he is just a handsome (blind) man. Once he got his vision back, barely, he wastes no time. He fires up his MSN right away to have cybersex with all his girl friends, mostly imaginary.

As a friend, I can only be happy for him and I send my best regards,

"The glasses won't get in the way when kissing or doing carpet munching. Good for you.

Please report back your first hand or mouth experience."

My Song Collection

The my part is not exactly correct but... They are what got played on my gum stick iPod. For the most part I don't know what's what. And I understand vaguely what is being sung. Does it matter? Not really.

BS continued

The thing with blog is you can do anything you want. So I am not going to talk about Cinelerra because I really can't do much with at at this point...plus I am not at my dungeon.

I was at a PTA fund raising dinner party last night. 90% of the attendees were women. Being a somewhat responsible father and husband, I somewhat support the PTA not only by saying so but actually participated in their activities like by taking a whole day off so I can go to some trips with the kids and also this dinner party.

The venue was in some country club golf course setting somewhere on Long Island. If you take the LIE, it would be on exit 37. Nice place, very decent. We had raffles, auctions, buffet and dancing. I won two auctions, a basket of tea, and another basket of coffee. I guess it just shows how much I love caffeine. I got this addictive personality which is actually not very good. I was somewhat enjoying the dance too. Just some exercise. I wasn't much of a dancer but who cares, the bottomline to me is since I went I might enjoy myself as well, and who really really gives a flying fuck how good or bad you are dancing anyway. Most of the people there are just having fun. And what fun we all had.

Byrant Park And Other Random Bull Shit From Me

Bryant Park is soon to be overrun by office drones. Let's bring back the drug dealers and crack whores. And Times Square too.

Apple is up more than 3 dollars at 188. The stock is freaking awesome. You got to believe in the Apple brand. People are going to pay a premium just to look like Justin Long. You know even movie mogul Drew Barrymore is attracted to this Mac guy. Apple's propaganda machine is working in full throttle. What can I tell you? The new 3G iPhone's debut is imminent and Jobs can't do no harm. I expect the stock to reach $200 later this year. But if you lose your shirt and underwear don't blame it on me. In the interest of full disclosure, like I even have my pictures somewhere here, I personally own a few shares of Apple stock because I believe people are generally gullible (no, because I like the idea of living dangerously as in owning stocks).

I finally was able to install Cinelerra. This is some piece of software. Looks to me it's some hardcore video editor designed by engineers for engineers. If you have some room temperature IQ that's really not for you. My very first impression is fuck, this shit is overwhelming. Anyway, my initial founding is this is unlike other Linux video editors which are like too easily broken toys, I wasn't able to crash it by randomly selecting a feature. My major problem though was when I load a dv (from my previous capture from Kino), the video and audio aren't playing in synchronization. The video to my aging eyes looked slower. So I have this huge problem right off the bat. I am not even talking about editing, cutting and pasting, or making Star War IX. I mean this shit doesn't play my dv right. I am an humble person, I tend to blame anything on my own shortcomings. And I don't know if I have to configure something to make it right. As in Kino, I didn't have to do shit to capture and play the dv with audio and video in sync. I don't know if there is anything to do with the fact that the dv was captured in Kino but not in Cinelerra, my hunch is it shouldn't matter. But what do I know?

Enough BS, let me grab something to eat first. My dear ghost readers, you just have to wait for me, just don't hold your breath now.

Quick Post

Obama clinches the Democratic Party nomination. Clinton is toast.

The French Open or Roland Garros is a non-event in the US, sadly so. American tennis is just dead now, and more dead when it comes to the red clay in Roland Garros.

I just found out lately that a lot of cable channels are now offering HD, including Foodnetwork TV. But most of time they are just widening the picture so Rachael Ray just looks bloated. And Mario Batali in re-run just a bit obese.

Coffee Mug

At work, I drink my coffee using a Made in China coffee mug. I don't clean my mug obsessively, sometimes I just rinse it and sometimes I leave my mug unwashed overnight. I think whatever residue there just adds another layer of flavor or many layers actually to whatever freshly brewed.

That's how I drink my coffee at work. Pretty disgusting, eh?

Windows Vista Service Pack 1

I have the service pack installed for a few days. So far so good.
The below is totally anecdotal without any scientific backing or even tried to be scientific.

My hp 6910p used to be very sleepy, when it slept it didn't wake up the first time I pressed the power button. So I ended up pressing the button three times which was two times too many. The first one which supposedly wake the computer, but it didn't, so I pressed it again, to turn the computer off which was actually in sleep already, and then press the third time to wake it up.
After SP1, the wake up thing works the way it's supposed to work or what I think it should work.

Before SP1, the Wifi was iffy at best. Every too often, the wifi would just stop working for no good reason. It was just terrible. All browsers I have would just refuse to go out to see the web. Anything I tried to fix the problem was futile until I did a reboot. After SP1 for a few days already, the problem disappeared, hopefully for good.

These are the only two things I've noticed.

Video Editor

So far I am not too happy with Kino in Ubuntu. For sometimes peculiar reason, some the dv clips in the project would just speed up. I remember the last time I used it in Ubuntu 7.10 the same thing happened. And the sound mix doesn't work well at all.

I wonder if I did anything wrong. No, I didn't. Wonder what's out there. The last time I tried another editor, it was so bad, every time I opened a clip and the program just closed, it's as if I quit the program, so basically it's unusable.

Look like I have to download another program other than kino. Hope the learning curve won't be steep. Well, if anything, the slow motion with pan and zoom works pretty well.

I may have to try Cinelerra?

UPDATE 6/3/08
Oh yes. So after all AMD is not Intel, it's better. I just needed to pick the right binary for my AMD processor which is cinelerra-k7gl and now I can run the application OK. Before that I tried some other Linux video apps, except for Kino which isn't all that bad, the rest are just simply unusable, the program just closes by itself. Now comes the hard part, actually using the program to edit video. Gosh, I want to edit some HD, but then I need to buy a HD camcorder, a new workstation and oh well, you got the picture.

Blogger Outage

Millions of my readers were welcomed with a 502 Server Error or whatever Google server spilled out and got turned away. My red hot blogger traffic brought Blogger to its knees, again.

Between 9AM to 10AM Eastern standard time, Blogger was suffering some serious gray out and most people can't reach blogspot.

Seems like things are returning to normal now.

From the horse's mouth

Blogger and Blog*Spot had very high page load times and server errors for about an hour this morning, from 6–7 AM PDT. We’ve fixed the problem. Everything should be operating smoothly now.

Taekwondo

note: with repeat slow motion and zoom in.

(52 second video with audio, if you use Firefox 3 or even 2 under Ubuntu 8.04, it may crash your browser. Notice that it takes two guys to hold the board when Harry strikes, he generates so much force with his pint sized body.)

This is done by Kino. Unfortunately the interface and functionalities leave something to be desired. I was trying to mix a sound track, but alas, it wasn't doing it right. The video was slowing down even I didn't check the speed and the sound became garbled. And when I went back to edit mode, the speed of the whole project went up. So that was weird. I closed the entire project and re-opened and it at least then played normal. So forget about mixing a sound track and do the opening and closing credit, I just rendered the the dv to MPEG. I did the first run IN MPEG1, which gave me a smaller file 8MB but longer rendering. And this MPEG2 took shorter to render but got a much bigger file, 23MB. Enjoy.

My Own Private White Peonies