Sunday Shorts: Happy New Year

February 18, 2007 at 12:05 pm · Filed under News Events

Google says today is the Lunar/Chinese New Year. It is also celebrated by Koreans, Vietnamese, Mongolians, and others. This will be the year of the Pig. I was born in the year of the Rooster, but I really dont care for that astrology mumbo jumbo. I remembered that Chicago has a Vietnamese/Korean town, similar to the Chinatown. I need to go there sometime.

Todays Eyes of Nye, Bill tackled overpopulation. I wish there was a greater initiative to make this content openly available on the web. The Eyes of Nye website has some clips, but even a podcast of the episode would be nice. Hmmm… should I?…never mind.

The Sarah Silverman Project is humorous. The majority of the episodes are probably too risqué for most audiences. This week she got an AIDS test, because she was bored. Frankly, I’m surprised that it’s being aired on Comedy Central, but I suppose it’s no more off-color than The Chappelle Show.

Thanks to Ceej for informing me about the new Nine Inch Nails songs circulating the web. In most cases, stealing music is wrong. But in this case, it is right. The songs were apparently released through a viral marketing campaign, where a usb drive was left in a concert bathroom. Two songs were on the device and are receiving a lot of attention for the hidden messages.

I use an IngenuiTEA teamug, from Adagio, when brewing most of my teas and the inside stains a light brown color. In this months teacast, they explained how to disassemble the mug for better cleaning. I was surprised by how easy it was to clean with a little bleach. Within a minute, most of the stains in the mug had disappeared, and now they’re all gone. For some reason, using bleach had never occurred to me.

I just saw that one of my favorite artists, Brant Bjork (check ‘Get Into It’ in the links), is going to release a new album next week. He really needs some better press or to update his website more often. I mean I keep close tabs on new info, and I only heard about this today because someone on ebay was taking pre-orders for the vinyl.

Oh yeah…preparations for Mustache March have begun.

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Intriguing Items from ~Mers

January 15, 2007 at 11:31 am · Filed under News Events

Over the holiday, I found some cool articles and items to share. The first is from bicycling magazine: Flight of the Pigeon. It’s a lengthy and informative read about the most popular/communistic bike in China.

A traditional Flying Pigeon weighs about 50 pounds, comes only in black, has one speed and is barely stoppable with its push-rod brake. Yet, if you’re like most cyclists in North America, as soon as you hear about the bike you mull over the idea of owning one to use as a townie, commuter or grocery runner.

For some reason, I could see Clear riding around on one of these. I wouldn’t mind one myself. Then, Business 2.0 had an article on the Chumby. This is a techy item but full on awesome.

Introducing the chumby, a compact device that can act like a clock radio, but is way more flexible and fun. It uses the wireless internet connection you already have to fetch cool stuff from the web: music, the latest news, box scores, animations, celebrity gossip…whatever you choose. And a chumby can exchange photos and messages with your friends. Since it’s always on, you’ll never miss anything.

Some of you might use personalized pages like Google’s. Well, imagine the personalized page in a small wireless device. This project was started by a group of hackers, so they encourage creativity and people to do new things with it. It’s not out yet. And, they’re probably working on a default setting or easy customization for consumers.

Business 2.0 also highlighted Enviga.

Enviga is a Nestea carbonated canned green-tea drink being jointly marketed by the Coca-Cola Company and Nestle Switzerland. According to Coca-Cola, Enviga burns 60 to 100 calories per three 12-oz.(330 ml) cans.

Carbonated Green Tea? Yeah, it sounds a little scary and I think it might be. They use Green Tea to promote the product as if it’s natural, but ya know it cant be. It’s suppose to burn more calories than what you take in by drinking it. I’ve heard that drinking ice water has the same effect, yet, I am still intrigued.

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Turkey Week Snippets

November 21, 2006 at 5:17 pm · Filed under Lifestyle, Music, News Events, Techy

Day of Turkey is fast approaching, and I wont be posting for another week. I’ll be taking the train to Iowa, and spending time with the family. Now, I know you’re all eager to read ‘Part 3′ and then the dramatic climax of ‘Part 4′, but you’ll just have to wait. Until then, I’ll try to hold you over with some blogs, music, and news snippets.

• iamfacingforeclosure.com/ -A 24-year-old aspiring real estate investor from Sacramento CA. After going to few seminars he bought 8 houses in 8 months. However, he’s ran out of cash, an is now facing foreclosure.
• johnchow.com/ – He’s an internet mogul, who talks about making money on the web, how he made his career, fancy restaurants, and general techy stuff.
• tradertim.blogspot.com/ – Tim Knight, founder of a technical analysis site, gives his daily perspective on the market, his portfolio, and option positions.
• I’m on the Flying Spaghetti Monster Halloween page.
• Family Guy Clip – How’s that novel you’ve been working on?
• I think an Akita Inu would also be a fun dog to have. The Shiba Inu is a pocket size version.
• I found the website for Brainstorm: Movies, Comics, and Games.This is the rental place I’ve been going to. Though, I haven’t been there in awhile.
• Patriot act makes it harder to get real Sudafed

Music:

• Blue Cheer – a San Francisco-based rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s, who helped to pioneer heavy metal music.
• Jefferson Airplane -an American rock band from San Francisco, a pioneer of the LSD-influenced psychedelic rock movement.
• Foo Fighters new Skin and Bones album. I might have to get the UK DVD. It comes with 2 DVDs, whereas the US version may have only 1.

That’s it. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

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UCLA cops taser ID-less student

November 18, 2006 at 11:19 pm · Filed under News Events

Wow, this is pretty harsh.

A video apparently showing a UCLA student being tasered by University of California Police Department (UCPD) officers has found its way onto YouTube.

According to a report on the university’s Daily Bruin, the incident occured at around 11.30 pm on Tuesday when security officers at the Powell Library CLICC computer lab “asked a male student using a computer in the back of the room to leave when he was unable to produce a BruinCard during a random check”.