Blight

Buying Music

2008-08-05T02:21:00.003-05:00

With all the p2p programs out there, and internet radio, who buys music anymore?

I do!

Here are the latest albums I bought online (iTunes) that I recommend checking out:

Anyone have any recommendations that made them put their money down?

Sailing in the SF bay

2008-07-23T00:30:00.003-05:00

Today I went out with my colleagues to go sailing in the San Francisco bay! It was a little reward for having performed so well in the last quarter, and much appreciated. We headed out from pier 39, sailed around Alcatraz, and then swooped through an aquatic park before returning to harbour.

Once we landed we had a couple beers, enjoyed the sun, and called it a day. I think I should have done this when my parents came to visit!

Enjoy the short video of the excursion:

Ginza Bazaar 2008

2008-07-21T03:38:00.002-05:00

Today I enjoyed watching a Buddhist festival here in San Francisco. One of the advantages of living in the city!

Finished MGS4

2008-07-19T01:07:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Microsoft, and their amazing live search cashback promotion, I picked up a Playstation 3 bundle from Ebay. It cost me $700, but I expect to get a 35% cashback cheque from Microsoft for $250!

Anyway, so I physically picked it up from the post office last Saturday and was very impressed. Full 1080p graphics, integrated wireless internet access, and easy access to media stored on my desktop computer.

Enough about the PS3 and it's goodness, the real story is Metal Gear Solid 4, which was an absolute dream to play. The story will probably baffle you in its complexity, especially if you are not familiar with the 3 previous "next-generation" installments, but it is so satisfying. The gameplay is also really deep, fun, and offers a lot of variety.

Check out the 2 minute long trailer on youtube.

Canada Day 2008

2008-07-04T23:45:00.000-05:00

This Canada Day was the first I had spent back in my hometown (as far as I remember) since I graduated from University many years ago. It was great to be back home and see my relatives. Grandparents, parents, siblings (including in-law), uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and even a dog.

We had an absolutely delicious BBQ out on our deck - lamb, pork, chicken, salmon, and of course lots of vegetables, fruit, appetizers, home-made wine, and of course "I-am-Canadian" beer.

The day was extra long as after the BBQ was wrapped up and everyone had gone home, Mister Lobo dropped by.

We went out to Millwoods Town Centre and hit up Tim Hortons, grabbing a couple iced capps just in time to head outside and enjoy sweet frozen caffeinated tastiness while watching the Canada Day fireworks. I burst out a bit of our national anthem while the blossoming fire flowers in the sky did their thing. Lobo seemed non-plussed.

We played some Wii (Mario Kart if you must know) until 2am, I woke up at 4am (thanks Dad), got on a plane back to San Francisco, took a shuttle home, showered, and then took a shuttle to work... worked until 8pm... shuttle back home AGAIN... man was I beat.

Now today is July the 4th, and it just wasn't the same.

I miss Canada!

YouTube Annotations

2008-06-21T15:01:00.002-05:00

YouTube has added support for annotations on their videos, so I have taken the liberty of annotating my BF2 video of me and my bro kicking some ass online.

Check it out! It is really easy to do, and I think adds a lot of value. However something very annoying is that these annotations do not seem to show up when the video is embedded in an external site, so you will have to take a look at the YouTube site directly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wOrdN74PpA

Finished GTA IV

2008-06-14T02:10:00.003-05:00

I finished GTA IV last night, and it was a little shorter than I thought it would be at that point, but I was satisfied that after the single player campaign was over I was still able to enjoy some multiplayer action.

I'm working on a new language training website, which is progressing slowly: idontlikepocky.com

And I am neglecting my dishes and laundry.

Work has been very busy recently, end of quarter is nearing and there is a lot of pressure to get accomplish all of our goals within the next 2 weeks.

Grand Theft Auto IV

2008-06-01T05:21:00.003-05:00

If you are not a gamer, or you have been lost in the amazon and only recently been discovered by a passing helicopter, you may not have heard of the newest installment in the GTA series: Grand Theft Auto IV.

This time everything great about the previous games have been included but at a larger scale. For example the always amazing soundtrack in the GTA series has reached new heights at 214 songs in total - details on how this came to be here. In fact it was so good that I ended up buying a couple albums off iTunes. And very importantly the previous shortcomings have been addressed, i.e. the aiming system is no longer broken.

I have been having a fairly good time with it so far; running amok in Liberty City is great fun.

There is an interesting quick (4 minute) take on it here by the famous Australian, Yahtzee.

Love Psychedelico

2008-05-17T22:59:00.000-05:00

Love Psychedelico played live today in San Francisco's Apple store, and I was there to enjoy the show. They played 4 songs in front of a tight crowd and succumbed to the applause to play a final 5th song before leaving. They were there to spread awareness of the launch of their first album in the USA.
I met up with them again later that same day in Japantown at the Kinokuniya book store.

From their website:

LOVE PSYCHEDELICO TO PERFORM IN SAN FRANCISCO
Japanese indie-rock band Love Psychedelico will meet fans and sign CDs at Kinokuniya Bookstore on Saturday, May 17th, 2008.
The band's trip to San Francisco is in celebration of the release of This Is Love Psychedelico, out on HackTone Records on May 20th. The album is a mix of songs hand-selected by Delico's Kumi and Naoki, as well as the team at HackTone Records, to introduce a new audience to the band's music, influenced by 70's classic rock and the British Invasion. All of the tracks are completely re-mastered, and the band feels this is the best they've ever sounded!

They had a limited supply of 100 CDs available and fortunately I got in line early enough to snag one of them. I spoke briefly with Naoki (guitar/keyboard) and Kumi (vocal/guitar) congratulating them on their launch and wishing them success.

Unfortunately I always feel a bit like I'm wasting their time when I speak with these musical artists. After all the only message they probably hear is "blah blah, I like your music". I don't have anything else worthwhile to say to them to really express how I appreciate their music, or at least I don't believe that they would really bother to try to understand my opinion. It's not like I'm a music expert or critic.

Cherry Blossoms

2008-04-12T20:31:00.002-05:00

Also known as "sakura", the beautiful pink little cherry blossoms have come into full bloom recently. Luckily I was able to take some pictures of the trees just a couple blocks away in the heart of Japantown beside the peace tower.

It was a great excuse to have a festival here and lots of people turned out - totally closing down Post street as kimono garbed ladies and teriyaki beef stands made their presence known.

Wormwood

2008-03-28T19:56:00.001-05:00

What can I say, I listened to the whole first season of this free audio drama, and it is really superb. You'll get hooked on the good doctor and the other characters, I know I did.

Check it out here: "Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery"

China Town

2008-03-04T02:12:00.003-05:00

After some interesting interactions with my landlord, I hit the streets of San Francisco and part of my travels took me through China Town. I haven't ventured this way for a while, and this time I took my camera with me to capture the sights. I tried to time this one to catch the elusive yellow light.

On the way back, somewhere up on nob or russian hill, I found this little traditional ice cream shop that makes their own product - and it was absolutely delicious. I was so impressed that the first thing I did when I got home was post a review on Google maps.

Resident Evil Awesome

2008-02-24T05:11:00.002-05:00

I finally finished Resident Evil 4 (the GameCube version) and this game is terribly incredible! Not only does it play at a 10/10 the whole way through the game, but it surprised me with two new game modes that only became available after I finished it.

What a pleasant unexpected surprise.

It is moments like this that I realize there are people out there who are really passionate about what they are doing...

Disneyland Dreams

2008-02-09T17:20:00.000-05:00

I have returned from my company sponsored foray into the wonderful world of Disney. The trip was definitely a blast! I got to go on all the rides for both Disneyland and California Adventure (the new adult friendly park owned by Disney) and hit a couple shows as well. My favourites were the haunted mansion, the hollywood hotel, the space mountain "in the dark" rollercoaster, and the Indiana Jones temple adventure ride. I definitely recommend checking those out if you go.

The only thing that was not as great as I expected was the food. Now they had amazing stacks and racks full of so much crazy candy that I almost went blind but as far as proper food they only really had snacky food. To supplement this I purchased a tin of Pringles, and a V8 at a local convenience store.

Now after a full day of trekking through the land of happiness, Dalban (who joined on the trip) felt like taking a rest so we walked back to our hotel. After watching the Super Tuesday results start to come in, we headed back out to get the party started.

We were treated to great buffet food and open bars. I had a smattering of different drinks, including a triple Courvoisier on the rocks. I didn't feel too affected by the alchohol, but I think that comes with the effect of stomping beats and mashing bodies in a seething mass of dance. However, video evidence obtained by a fellow coworker proved otherwise, and she kindly entertained my other coworkers with footage of my dance moves.

Who'd have thought that I would get caught dancing under the influence at Disneyland?

On the way back from the party we decided to walk this female coworker back to her hotel, seeing as it was after 1am and she had quite a bit to drink. Well while we were on our way, trying to find her hotel, we had a run in with the law... a squad car pulled up along side us as we walked on the sidewalk and stopped.

The officer rolled down his window and asked us if we had been drinking that night. Of course we answered that yes we had. He then proceeded to ask us if we knew what we had done wrong. Of course we answered that we did not. Well long story short, he accused us of having run through a red light, which none of the three of us believed that we had. In any case, we just agreed with him and apologized because he threatened to take us down to the station if we continued to lie to the police. He gave us a warning and we hurried her on her way via taxi while we made it back without further incident.

Anyway nothing bad happened but it was a shocking incident nonetheless.

Going to Winnipeg...

2008-02-02T01:53:00.000-05:00

Actually, this plane isn't going to Winnipeg. It's going to Disneyland! Forgive the allusion to the famous Canadian Tire advertisement.

Anyways, my employer has seen fit to send me and a few of my coworkers down to the magic kingdom for a week of fun. I don't think we'll be doing any work down there, other than bonding with each other over the course of our stay.

The best part: the park should be child free during our stay!

I have no complaints - and I plan to diligently enjoy this business trip!

Mass Effect

2008-01-30T00:53:00.001-05:00

You may have heard of Mass Effect, if not because you follow games and like games, then for the recent hullabaloo that was kicked up over on Fox. Well it is worth knowing about simply because the game is actually that good. The game really focuses on story and it isn't exactly unfair to say that the part that you actually play interactively is just an excuse to string the cut scenes together. The thing is, the voice acting, the virtual acting, the story, it all comes together in such a way that you can't think about much else other than getting to the next part of the story.

Of course there are some gripes that people have mentioned - and I could mention some... but when I got to the final stage of the game last night, I just have to say that it was obvious how much effort went into the end.

Some games fade. You can tell that they spent a lot of effort and budget on the first part of the game only to come up short by the end. However there are other games, usually those that are labours of love for the development team, which power through and even climax to a fiery peak at the end. Mass Effect is one of the latter.

Recommended experience for sure!

Confessions of a Yakuza

2008-01-29T00:09:00.000-05:00

On my 2 hour commutes I managed to power through this biographical yarn of an old school Yakuza boss who got into the business at the age of 16 back in the early 1900s. "Confessions of a Yakuza", originally titled "A Gambler's Tale", written by the Japanese doctor Junichi Saga.

Expressed as a narrative of reminiscent memories delivered to Dr. Saga who is looking after him in his old age, we get to see an interesting first person account not only of the Yakuza world, but also of the day to day life of ordinary Japanese before, during, and after the second world war. As in Korea and her Neigbours, I find the mundane details quite fascinating.

It definitely is not full of the type of Yakuza cliches presented in movies and comic books, and was a very interesting read.

Homework, ants, games, work

2007-12-17T22:06:00.000-05:00

Somehow I managed to get a lot of unrelated things all worked together over the past few days:

Translating an article from Korean to English
Dealing with swarms of ants in my apartment (the nightmares I have had recently I tell you!)
Finishing "Shadow Hearts", a game my parents got for me for Christmas about 6 years ago
Getting a cold/flu from my team leader
Eating lots of chocolate chip cookies
Driving around Oahu in "Test Drive Unlimited"

Also, I no longer think ants are cute.

Space Time

2007-12-09T12:41:00.000-05:00

Last night I took my place in a fleet of tour buses to attend the annual holiday festivities put on by one of the disruptive forces in the bay area. A series of tents had been transformed into futuristic and retro space discos and lounges. The DJs were spinning, the live band was rocking, and the bars were open. Not to mention the exquisite culinary delicacies that accompanied the liquid offerings.

There were three main rooms, all connected by a central airlock. The two largest were the blue (live band) and orange (DJ), and the third room was a chill lounge where people could mingle and the lines for the facilities were the smallest.

Everyone was dressed up, except for a few poor souls who either missed the suggested attire detailed in the invitation, or who just didn't feel like changing out of that T-shirt that managed to get them this far in the week.

I had a great time, and definitely appreciated the event.

The Night Side of Seoul - 1898

2007-11-30T00:20:00.000-05:00

What I'm reading now, thanks to the magic of Google books: An account from a European lady who travelled to Korea back in 1898. As you can see in the passage above, men will always find a way to chat up the ladies, even if that means impersonating blind men during the 4 hour "women only" window of night.

Korea and Her Neighbors: A Narrative of Travel By Isabella Lucy Bird

Several things strike me when reading this narrative. First, this is an amazing account written by a woman who definitely caught an interesting look at a Korea of 110 years ago - an undeveloped country no more today. Second, the lack of "political correctness" and glaring dismissal of "orientals", "coolies", and the like. Third, she definitely did not give Korean food a fair chance! How dare she call my beloved doenjang "fermented rotten beans"!? Fermented yes, but hardly rotten.

Obama

2007-11-15T14:53:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had another amazing guest at work: Barack Obama!

I think it would be pretty cool if he became The President. I know I'm not the only one thinking about "24" when I imagine Barack in office.

You can watch the video of the event here. (YouTube video)

Tony Bennett

2007-11-05T18:33:00.001-05:00

Today I had the extreme pleasure of hearing Tony Bennett speak, and witness him perform live, at work! How lucky is that?!

He had a lot of interesting things to say about the arts and how there should be more focus on arts in schools. He has put his money where his mouth is and recently founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts public school in New York with his wife.

After hearing from Tony, he let loose with a couple numbers, and dedicated his last song "Kiss the Good Life Goodbye" to Britney Spears.

Now I am seriously thinking about dipping into the Sony-Columbia catalogue and picking up some Tony Bennett.

Earthquake in SF Bay Area

2007-10-31T15:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday marked my entry into the not too terribly exclusive club of earthquake survivors. We had a quake, 5.6 on the yowza meter, and I definitely felt it in San Francisco.

It was pretty scary since it took me a moment to realize what was going on. The floor was swaying and my TV started wobbling. It felt like I was on a pirate ship, minus the pirates. My first thought was to stop my TV from wobbling, the second was if it was going to get worse and how long it would last. It didn't last long, maybe 10 seconds, but it was an experience I will remember.

I just hope that I don't get to experience anything stronger. Otherwise I may just need to get myself one of these, a free-rolling earthquake-friendly house.

EDIT: I found this interesting quote about not getting upset over little things, although now I don't have a car...

"Don't get upset when you do get a speeding ticket, just remember it's only one ticket for the hundreds of times you were actually speeding."

Portal

2007-10-30T00:38:00.001-05:00

Another game that everyone seems to be talking about these days is Portal, and the Team Fortress game that it comes with. Now I haven't shelled out for the actual game yet, but this certainly whet my whistle!

Portal - the free Flash version

Halo 3 - Almost finished

2007-10-28T17:13:00.001-05:00

Last night Dalban and I were taking on the evil Covenant and Flood armies. Co-op play is definitely where it's at! And thankfully Halo 3 allows both Xbox LIVE co-op play, and split-screen co-op play. It may be slightly easier than standard solo play which is a bit of a cheat because you can respawn as long as your friend is alive and not under fire. However I think it was a good decision because it helps to keep the action moving.

The BEST part of the night for me personally was when I went flying off a cliff in an ATV, and somehow managed to crash land on the deck of this huge scarab robot... I made quick work of it once aboard.

Some people use finesse, others use force. Dalban took the other scarab down with a huge ass tank and repeated direct hits from his cannon.

Time well wasted.

EDIT: I thought I was super original with my stunt, but you can see a YouTube video of someone else doing the same thing:

here
and here

Also, I caved due to video envy, made a YouTube account, and am posting a link to a BattleField 2 video of me and Indesin wrecking havoc in a helicopter here.