Another one to add to the track record of geekery

We recently attended the NVISION 2008 LAN party @ the San Jose Convention Center. It was what you expected of a LAN party. A LAN is a LAN is a LAN. What more is there to say. And for those under a rock, LAN parties are a congregation of geeks and their PCs in which they use to play PC games together in the same room. I know, I know. It defeats the purpose of a lot of things. But in defense of people who do attend LAN parties, particularly the NVIDIA hosted ones, you can play with professional gamers and win prizes. This is the second one I have been to so far and I really enjoyed it. Last year, we went to Oakland for the same event. I was really stoked this year to learn that it was conveniently close to my work, so naturally I took my lunch break to play video games. I've had the honor to meet some highly respected gamers and some not-so-highly respected gamers that I've played with on public servers whom have yet to reach the caliber of the highly respected ones. One of the gamer dudes I've met, I absolutely adore. But I would have to save that one for a later post. For now, I'm enjoying the fact I can play video games at the comfort of my own home...naked.

Here's a video clip someone created of the LAN party. I sit among the sea of gamers.

Mary Anne = FAIL

Objective: Climb to the top of rope ladder without touching ground. Press red button at the end of ladder to win prize.



It's not as easy as it looks.

At least you get a nice view of my unflattering butt.

Home Movies

It was just this evening that I realized we've accumilated a good amount of home movies (Not those kinds, you silly goose. Get your mind out of the gutter. And if you were seriously interested, we do accept Visa, MasterCard, or American Express via PayPal. LOL. No, I'm seriously kidding). Most of the videos are pretty candid which makes it even funnier because I don't recollect a damn thing. From now on, or when I feel like it, I will start posting snippets of our home movies. Such as this random one I totally forgot about while I was in New York. I shot the New York City skyline from the Google building. I'm in it for about a second.

**UPDATE: Fixed the sound problem on the video by adding background music. It was staticky.



It's called "vlogging" (video-blogging). Or "too-damn-lazy-to-blog-heres-a-video-instead-sucka."

Just a random list

Lazy blogging at it's finest.

1. Power outage at work today. Went home around 10am.

2. We purchased season passes for Great America. It's an amusement park not far from our house. Totally going to take my lunch break to ride rollercoasters.

3. Vegetarian month is going really well. Not craving meat. And when I do, I make myself watch this:



4. I watched Legends of the Fall this morning since I couldn't go into work. I've watched it hundreds of times and each time I've cried.

Tada!

The Dark Knight

Leo, Melody, Jane, Don, and I are going to see The Dark Knight tonight in Cupertino. I'm really excited. I haven't been excited about a movie in a long time. And I heard Heath Ledger's performance was amazing.

If you haven't already watched the trailer, here it is.



Then watch this one. I nearly fell off my chair laughing.



The best scene:

Criminal 1: "What are you proposing?"

Joker: It's simple. Kill The Batman.
As you can see from my charts, we use to be at awesome. Now we dropped. I don't know what happened. But I want us to reach back up to awesome.

Criminal 2: Get back up to awesome... why didn't I think of that? We should kill Batman. Wow, what an idiot I am. Geez. He's the Joker right? He's the smart one.

Criminal 3: What did you major in?

----

I'm easily amused. Can't you tell?

AFI performs "Just Like Heaven" while Robert Smith is in the audience watching

Here's another band I love doing a Cure cover in front of the legendary, Robert Smith.

No pressure, Davey Havok.



Look how nervous he is.

Makes you want to see an AFI concert, ey? I know... me too.

I know (I know I know I know) that this is a very popular Cure song, but for someone who was a little kid in the 80s, I can name more Cure songs then my co-workers who graduated high school during that time. Yesterday, my co-workers and I were going at it. It was good times, indeed.

Let Nick Pitera make your day

Part of Your World


A Whole New World


I subscribe to his channel on YouTube. He'll come out with something new every now and then, like his rendition of Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love.

Bleeding Love


And my favorite cover by Nick, Celine Dion's Oh Holy Night.

Hunter

For all you fans.

This song just made my day.

Going, going, back, back, to Maui, Maui

Two months ago, Leo and I decided that we were going back to Maui for our yearly vacation. Our initial plan was to go to Kauia, but that fell through. This will be my second time going to Hawaii this year. Rough life, I know.

In 2006, we stayed in Kihei for a week at the Kihei Beach Resort, shown in the beginning of this video.


This time we will be staying north of Lahaina, which is a touristy part of the island. I don't really mind it at all. We don't plan to stay indoors 98% of the time anyway. The weather is perfect enough to even sleep on the sand.

The significance about Maui is that this is the place where we were engaged. Leo had asked me to marry him at the Keanae Peninsula on April 23, 2006. We were on the road to Hana. You can view a video of the peninsula at 00:47.



Everything about our engagement was absolutely perfect. Except for the part when I started bawling uncontrollably after Leo had proposed. Five minutes and three snot stains on his shirt later, I finally said yes. I wasn't ready for that one.



The best part about Maui, is the snorkeling. We really enjoyed the snorkeling in Molokini Crater . We woke up really early to take a ferry out. Hopefully we can do something like this: a video of a crew that went to Molokini and sighted a large whale shark. People dove in to experience an opportunity of a life time.



How cool is that? This was around the time we went to Maui.

Although we didn't do anything as remotely cool as swimming with a whale shark, we did see some humpback whales swimming by while we were snorkeling. Somebody yelled out, "whales!" I looked up and saw them passing by from a distance. Just the fact that we were sharing the same body of water with these magnificent mammals was pretty cool in itself.

For some really awesome breath-taking views of the island, we did the group bike ride down the Haleakala volcano to see the sunrise.





Lastly, we went scuba diving near Wailea. This has to be one of the best experiences I've had in my life. We took an early class and made our way out towards the shore just a little bit before noon. We saw all sorts of wildlife and sea turtles! The sea turtles were so cute.



A photo of Leo and I swimming after a sea turtle.

If you're ever planning to take a trip to Maui, feel free to ask me for some activity advice. I still have the names of the companies we've used. Unfortunely, Yelp has not reached a high demand for users in Hawaii. Otherwise I would have just posted it there.

At any rate, Maui is for lovers.

So my lover and I will return in August.

Iron Man

This afternoon, we watched Iron Man in Cupertino. I loved it, loved it, loved it. Robert Downey jr. did an incredible job as Iron Man, Tony Stark. You guys gotta watch it.


Here's the trailer:

Into the Wild

My friend Jane lent me her book, Into the Wild, which now out on DVD. I told her I'd rather read the book because if I don't, I'll probably spend another 5 hours playing a game on my new PC.

Speaking of which, that was the highlight of last weekend. Leo built another PC for me. My other PC was a piece of crap. Hence the acronym for PC (piece of crap). Anyhow, I'll elaborate more on the uberness of my computer later. In the meantime, check this book out by Jon Krakauer. If not, watch the movie. It's suppose to be real good.

One of the best songs ever played on guitar

Can I just tell you right now that I have a huge boner for Nuno Bettencourt? I mean, look at him. He's so hot, with his Pantene Pro V hair, and how he combs his hair over to the right while he's playing the guitar. And doesn't Gary Cherone look like Criss Angel?

Beat your kids

If you were raised by immigrant parents, you would know what it feels like to have been beaten as a child. I could totally relate to this YouTube video and the only reason why I LOL hard is because what he says is so true.

The Show

Yesterday, my day started at 10:00am at the theater. The show started at 7:30. We had a good amount of time to prepare beforehand, so by showtime, I was really tired. The director kept reminding us to pack breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Meaning we would have to eat in between dressing up before the next performance. We ran through the show several times to get the lighting and sound right so it was a long long day. Plus there were a few guest performers who needed time to know their cue. By the second tech run, I had a headache. I drank lots of water but my head kept throbbing. Luckily, my yoga teacher who happens to be a contortionist, was there that day performing. He also does accupuncture/massages/and apparently curing headaches. He worked his magic by pressing the pressure points near the back of my head and neck. It worked! By showtime, I felt better. I could tell because during the performance, I nailed it. Well, compared to how I performed during practice, it was better. We don't have material to show you, however. No photos or video. We have to buy the dvd to watch the show so once that's out, we'll definitely post my performance. But I did find one of the performances on YouTube. Performed by Soul Conspiracy. You could tell these people are from the bay, because the camera person says, "hella" cute. LOL.

At the end of the day, I realized just how much I love dancing. For a person who lacks a lot of confidence, I danced my fucking heart out

and

it

felt

so

good.

This is an exact reanactment of me when Leo is on work travel

Push-Up Contest

The other day, I mentioned on my blog that my office was going to have a push-up-athon. Well, it happened. And I failed. The most I could do was 10. On this video you can see me (well the back of me) wearing a white cardigan and silver shoes trying to do a push up with really really bad form. Holy cow. Not a very proud moment. I'm also the voice behind the camera counting along and laughing. And my boss is the one who does like 60 push ups.

I'm glad we have a really fun office.

<3

Happy Valentines day!

The Internet hath no fury like a gamer scorned

First, watch this:


Then read the reviews of Cooper Lawrence's book on Amazon:

The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace with Your Inner Overachiever

Lastly, read this Article from the New York Times of her apologizing:

The Internet hath no fury like a gamer scorned.

That’s the lesson Fox News and a self-help author learned this week after a program on that channel featured a discussion of the sexual content of the hit video game Mass Effect.

Bound by global message boards, blogs, chat rooms and of course the games themselves, gamers are perhaps the single most intense subculture on the Internet — fiercely protective of their pastime and at ease with the byways of cyberspace.

So the game world has been ablaze with indignation since the Fox News program “The Live Desk With Martha MacCallum” said on Monday that Mass Effect, one of the most critically praised games of 2007, contains frontal nudity and explicit depictions of sexual activity. The assertions of virtual lasciviousness first appeared earlier this month among conservative bloggers incensed by brief YouTube clips excerpted from the 30- to 40-hour game.

Mass Effect, a science fiction game, includes a complicated romantic subplot that is no more risqué in its plot or graphic in its depiction than evening network television.

To exact their revenge, gamers have turned their vitriol on Cooper Lawrence, an author who appeared to mischaracterize the game when she said: “Here’s how they’re seeing women: They’re seeing them as these objects of desire, as these, you know, hot bodies. They don’t show women as being valued for anything other than their sexuality. And it’s a man in this game deciding how many women he wants to be with.”

In fact Mass Effect allows users to play as either a man or a woman, and the few suggestions of intimate contact occur in the context of a detailed interpersonal story line. Asked on the air by Geoff Keighley of Spike TV whether she had ever played the game, Ms. Lawrence laughed and said, “No.”

Irate gamers have flooded the page on Amazon.com selling Ms. Lawrence’s most recent book, “The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace With Your Inner Overachiever,” sending its user-generated rating into oblivion.

By Friday afternoon 412 of the book’s 472 user reviews were the lowest possible rating, one star. Another 48 ratings were for two stars. Only 12 of the ratings were for three stars or higher. In addition, 929 Amazon users had tagged the book with the keyword “ignorant.” Tied for second place with 744 tags were “garbage” and “hypocrisy,” while “hack” and “hypocrite” tied for fourth place with 710 votes. Gamers have also attacked the book on the Barnes & Noble Web site.

Many of the reviewers admit that they have not read Ms. Lawrence’s book.

As one Amazon user put it: “I know all about this book but have never fully read it. Why? Due to the overwhelming backlash, I have no choice but to agree with the 1 star ratings. The rumors are rampant that this book was poorly written and poorly researched. So without verifying the contents myself — I give it a 1 star. Good thing video games aren’t judged in this manner — whew!!!”

On Friday “The Cult of Perfection” was ranked the 346,106th best-selling book on Amazon. Mass Effect, by contrast, has been a hit, selling more than 1.6 million copies since November. An Amazon spokeswoman said the site would soon begin to remove reviews written by users who had clearly not read the book.

In an interview on Friday, Ms. Lawrence said that since the controversy over her remarks erupted she had watched someone play the game for about two and a half hours. “I recognize that I misspoke,” she said. “I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke.

“Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography,” she added. “But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.”

Electronic Arts, the giant publisher that owns Mass Effect, has asked Fox News for a correction. A Fox News spokesman would say only that Electronic Arts had been offered a chance to appear on the channel. An Electronic Arts spokesman said the company had not yet decided whether to accept the offer.

By telephone from Edmonton, Alberta, Ray Muzyka, the medical doctor who is chief executive of BioWare, the Electronic Arts studio that made Mass Effect, said: “We’re hurt. We believe in video games as an art form, and on behalf of the 120 people who poured their blood and tears into this game over three years, we’re just really hurt that someone would misrepresent the game without even playing it. All we can hope for is that people who actually play our games will see the truth."
--------

Let's blast her into space. Who's with me?

Like a Charger!

My new job

Trips to Southern California, shopping sprees, bowling, free iPod Shuffles. Not a bad place to work.

My apologies

For the lack of everything. I feel like I've lost the majority of my readership. Yes, all 4 of them. But you see, I started my new job a little over 2 weeks ago and I still have NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL I'M DOING. I feel like I've been exurting all my brain juice into my job. My boss (god bless him) took a huge leap of faith hiring me because I have no experience or background whatsoever. I've literally convinced the man that I was the one he needed to hire or else he would not sleep at night. I am so grateful and so commited to doing a good job that I have less time to do things that I use to do like refreshing my e-mail every 2 seconds to see if I have another job interview. Yeah, there is definitely better ways to spend my days now.

In the meantime, I'm going to leave you with a YouTube video from Halloween. Our friend Tim is playing the guitar at our house. You can hear me singing along in the background like a dying cat while Leo jingles the mini M&M cannister like a maraca. Tim's friend is also in the background going "bum-bum-bum" in cadence to the beat. So random, but awesome.

Untitled

Since there's been no post by Mary Anne (she's been busy!) for a while, I thought I would post one of my favorite clips from HBO's Flight of the Conchords. Enjoy!

How to break an expensive toy in two hours

...and make a 6 year old cry.

This is how we spent our weekend.



Priceless.

Monthly self-portrait: New glasses, again

But this time for good. I'm getting old and I realized the other day that my right eye is not as hot as it use to be. It first started with migraines, then drying of the eyes, and then neck/back pain. Continued to happen for two weeks. Two weeks of pain killers and lots of whining (with cheese and crackers, Erin, yes, har-har). Obviously it was something that I was doing on a daily basis because it wasn't getting any better. Hello, internet? See what happens when you are unemployed and looking? You stress yourself blind and retarded. I told the optometrist that I might have gone cock-eyed in the past few days. She asked me how I would even know that? I told her I have YouTube videos to prove it.

Fetch!

My dog, Cookie, doesn't get as much play on my blog. So I'm dedicating this post to him. I guess I'm just affraid to wake up one morning to find a ransom note next to his bed. I mean, how can you even put a price to his sweet little face?!? The cuteness- it will seriously make you want to swan dive into a pool of kittens and then put a gun to your head to blow your fucking brains into smitherines.

Here's a clip of Cookie and I playing fetch.


Here's another cute shih tzu. Same breed as Cookie. So cute!


Oh! And please watch this cute shih tzu too. Cuteness overload! AHHH!

The joy of being unemployed

I'm sure you probably have this impression of me by now about me wanting to kill myself. And that's okay. Suicide is not something anyone should take lightly. And that comment I made on my YouTube video about wanting to shoot myself in the head is just a figure of speech. Bitch, it's football season. You must be crazy.

Anyhow, there's a side of being unemployed that I am thankful for. Like doing whatever the hell I want, eating unhealthy, and making YouTube videos like this one.



Last weekend, Kailee and I went to Santa Cruz for the very first time. We had a bitchen' time. It's been awhile since I had that much fun. It was hard to keep up with her since she wanted to ride every single ride in the park TWICE. I'd trade my left boob for half her stamina.

And just for the record, I don't sit around on my computer moping all day long about being unemployed. You are totally high on dope if you think that. There should be a disclaimer on the YouTube website that says "PLEASE DO NOT TAKE ANY OF THESE YOUTUBE VIDEOS SERIOUSLY. CLICK HERE TO BE REDIRECTED TO THE CNN WEBSITE. IT SEEMS YOU ARE LOST." Perhaps if the Chargers don't win the playoffs AGAIN, then that's when you should really start to worry.

"Video for Everyman"

Fellow YouTuber, Paulino Brener, from Minneapolis had sent me a link to a really good article from the Wall Street Journal (Sept. 26, 2007) about the Flip Video camcorder, video editing software, YouTube, and the like. He was featured on the article as an everday consumer experimenting with the lastest technology craze. Thanks, Paulino! I'm glad we share the same sentiment about the Flip Video camcorder. =)

My Gear

I've already received some positive feedback from a couple of folks about the YouTube videos and some have expressed their interest on what kind of camcorder I use so they too can record their own. Before I get into the gear details, the video editing is really simple and I wish I had a Mac before I tell you how I really do things around here. I'm almost embarrassed to say that I use Windows Movie Maker. Haha. Anyway, onto the gear:

The webcam I use is a Logitech 960-000111 QuickCam Orbit AF Webcam. If you are willing to pay a little more than a standard webcam, this is a really good one. The picture, sound (background noise cancelling), is really crisp and it's HD!

Specs
- Motorized Tracking Carl Zeiss optics with autofocus
- HD video Up to 8 megapixel images (enhanced from natiuve 2MP sensor)
- RightLight™ 2 image enhancement
- Logitech Video Effects
- Embedded mic with RightSound™

Sample of the photo quality:

The camcorder I use is a Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder - which received stellar reviews from Amazon.com. It's compact like a cellphone so you can take it with you wherever. Comes with a little pouch like an iPod.

Specs
- Simple to use, pocket-sized camcorder with one-touch recording and digital zoom
- Holds 60 minutes of full VGA-quality video on 2GB of built-in memory; no tapes or additional memory cards required
- Convenient USB arm plugs directly into your computer for easy viewing and sharing
- Built-in software lets you easily e-mail videos, upload to YouTube and AOL, and capture still photos from video
- Watch videos instantly on TV with included cable

Video quality sample:
(Please don't mind the date on the video - it's incorrect. =\)


Last but not least, a mini (tabletop) tripod from Sunpak. No complaints so far. Works great, sturdy, and small.

Happy Shooting!

Unemployment Part II: The Post-Interview

My feelings on unemployment

It's seems to be the theme on this blog nowadays.

Kaileelicious

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-tastay-tastay.

Odd Jobs

Today marks a very historical day for me. It's the first time I've experienced rain here in the Bay Area since the move. It's a nice day to just sit and contemplate suicide.

So anyhow, I am currently unemployed - as most of you may already know. And remember that job I mentioned a few weeks ago that I interviewed for and really wanted so bad? The good news was that I did get an offer with the company. The bad, they didn't offer enough. Mucho sucko. For several days I was in limbo with this company. I didn't know whether it was worth the drive because unlike my old job, where it was a 10 minute commute, I would be doubling that and then some. The drive is not that bad, but it's not good either. And typically when my mind starts working up a storm because of a simple commuting issue, instead of dealing with it, it's already an automatic "no." And by the time I made up my mind, it was already too late.

I applied at a temp agency to see if they could get the ball rolling with this employment thing that I've been dealing with for the past month and a half. I've used a temp agency in the past and they were all positive experiences. Plus I wouldn't have to commit to something right away.

Being unemployed sucks ass. I miss wearing my nice shoes and my slacks. I miss doing my hair and makeup in the morning. I miss deadlines. I miss the smell of coffee in the breakroom. I miss being social. And like Leo, I miss being a corporate tool.

Lately, I haven't expressed my feelings about work. Just because Leo has been on travel and someone has to be here to hold down the fort. He will be leaving again on Monday to New York. *sigh* And will return not the same Wednesday, but the following Wednesday.

When you have lots of time on your hands, you start to contemplate the possiblities of working odd jobs. For example, I applied for a job with a gay porn film company to do the casting/recruiting. How hard can it really be to find gay people in this part of the state? San Francisco is the mecca for gays and liberalism. It's like trying to throw a rock on the ground. You can't miss. My cover letter to the company was quiet interesting. I'm not going to go into verbatim, but it was somewhere along the lines of "Although I do not have any previous experience with the adult film industry, I did create my own once and was very successful." Haha. No, I didn't say that. However, I did consider it just to make someones day. Humor is vital in the adult film industry. How else do you think they come up with cheesy scripts?

Another job I applied for was going on a food tour with a chef from city to city. Why? Because where there is FOOD, there is ME.

I also applied for a job with a very big named company that would have me traveling to Europe and South Africa quiet often to market the software. But the thought of Europeans not taking daily showers or contracting mallaria in South Africa has put a damper on my decision. But I applied for it anyway. Just beacuse it's cool to act like an international spy for a day or two.

I applied for a marketing job to test out a website that claims to be the next big thing to drain the minds of the youth. Basically the candidate would have to be knowledgable with social online networking, YouTube, blogging, and the like. I was like, "are you kidding me? I breathe this stuff." The most crazy thing about this job is that they want to know if you have a MySpace, Facebook, Blog, or use YouTube. Seriously, I've never met an employer who asks "so do you have a blog or a Myspace?" as part of the skills and experience. I was ready to reply, "is this a trick question? Because if it is and I say yes, I might not get the job - seems very unprofessional. If I say no, I know you know I would be lying because I'm in my early twenties and the only reason why any person in their early twenties would not have one is because they're either Amish or dead."

I can list a few more jobs, but I'm drawing a blank. Once I start applying again, I'll try to keep an interesting list. There are so many companies here than there are in San Diego and even LA and they are insanely dynamic. Many successful startup companies were conceived here. It's like the Holy Land for geeks and thinking! The skies the limit!

Monthly self-portrait: "New webcam"

If you saw how horrible the previous webcam's video quality turned out, then you know exactly why we got a new one. And plus, Leo's working and travelling across the country from city to city and I figured it would be super rad if Kailee and I could send our love with videos. It sure beats talking on the phone. And since I've been toying around with the webcam lately, I figured I'd give it a go with YouTube. Afterall, this is the next generation in blogging... or should I say "vlogging." Because OMG, typing with your fingers is so last season. (*In my very best Chris Crocker impersonation*)

LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!

To better argue my point about a previous post, here's a video of what I would look and sound like if this were a video blog. LOL.