LA Life- 12-31-09

Happy Holidays everyone! So, I am currently back in LA after a week in Vegas with my parents. My parents moved there recently and it looks like they will stay there for a while especially since my aunt, uncle, and grandparents moved there as well. So here are some elaborations of events that have happened to me this past quarter:
1. "Giving Dell some beef" to get a new motherboard- Success!
After emailing the Dell technical support team, I initially was rejected when I raised the issue of a defective NVIDIA video card. I was told that my warranty had expired. However, I was persistent in telling the person that he had made a mistake in identifying my warranty expiration date and that my friend had his computer fixed even though one year had passed. I also called Dell customer service and had gotten through to the right person who had scheduled for a free motherboard replacement. This was a relief since I thought the dell laptop was hopeless after Mason's help in "reformatting" it and in removing one of the memory sticks. After all was said and done, I am very pleased that this worked out and it saved me $ and revived a laptop that has gone through a lot. Thanks Mase for the key tip that sparked this journey.
2. LA traffic and riding your bike safely here- Doable.
I feel more stressed and more worries driving here in LA as compared to in SD or anywhere else. Especially since there are so many people and cars here and not that much space, driving here adds one or more stressors to your life. That is why I prefer riding my bike here. I don't have to sit in traffic and I prefer to be in the outdoor open air. I have mapped out a route to school that is both safe and saves me time. I ride to school because it gives me a reason to be out in the open (minus the smell of exhausts from cars) and allows me to exercise and still get to school in about the same amount of time as compared to driving to school. Actually, I think it saves me time riding my bike vs driving. My bike is finally equipped with all of the gear that I need to ride in the rain or in cold weather. There is something to being in the outdoors and connected to nature. It reminds me of a book I read before, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A great philosophical book.
3. LA traffic/ driving= traffic ticket + car flipping over from hitting a parked car right outside my apartment... more details to come.
I have never seen a car flip over until one night when I heard a loud crash. I looked outside and saw a car on its side. Apparently the driver had hit a parked car and flipped over. Since it's a residential area with 25 MPH speed limit, I think the driver had ignored the speed limit and had driven faster than that to have the car flip over. The driver was unconscious and the fire department had to cut the car open to get the guy. Now on another note, I received a ticket for making a U-turn in a residential area. I contested the ticket and am awaiting my ruling on this issue. So if you are willing to go through with the process, you actually get two chances to fight your case: 1. You can contest through a trial by declaration where you submit your statement through writing. The citing officer has to do the same. Then if you are not satisfied with the result, you can do a trial de novo (sp?) and get a second chance by representing yourself in court. We shall await the results in the next couple of months. Laws in Nevada are much more laxed and apparently people who get speeding tickets can go to an attorney and get the ticket converted to a minor violation such as a moving parking violation (or something like that)! That's pretty crazy! I won't be as nervous if I am caught there, but I won't get as great of a reinforcement in not breaking the law in the future... I would take the former over the latter... Just one less stressor to deal with!
4. Some fun and nerve racking situations- battery in car breaking down in beverly hills and record time in finding someone to jumpstart car,
So I was driving my gf's Honda Civic when the battery died again! It was a warm day and I was waiting for my gf in the car. I did not have the engine one, but I turned the air feature on in her car. Apparently, this depletes the battery really quickly and I was stuck in a Beverly Hills neighborhood. Now, I paniced and thought, "what am I going to do?!" and "how can I fix this before I need to pick up my gf?" Luckily, I found this guy who had a rusty cable and a car to jumpstart. However, it took some time and I thought I was going to be out of luck this time. After many tries, the surge in electricity through the rusty cable finally overcame the threshold and voila, the car was saved! Overall, it took about 20 minutes and I got to experience LA in a different way. =)
5. school work and tidbits of life there
School has been going well. I am learning the nuts and bolts of our healthcare system taking courses in microeconomics and health economics, finance, biostats, and an intro course to healthcare systems. I am glad to learn from my classmates who have all sorts of experiences in life and am glad that UCLA has a lot to offer its students. I'm looking forward to my extracurricular activities next quarter (data collector for the WORKING project, representative for ACHE so-cal) and my internship for the summer.
6. reflection sessions
I believe that we are so bombarded with things in our lives that we don't have time to reflect. Reflection sessions are important for me to touch base with my feelings and thoughts and to rejuvenate for the week ahead. Therefore, take some time to really listen to yourself and to rest up for the challenges ahead.

A whole new spanking new 2010 year coming up! I need to work on a lot of things:
1. To learn to be comfortable with my voice and my body language
2. To not be selfish and to really understand people
3. To look into StoryCorps and record interviews with loved ones to keep and share as memories
4. To learn to be happy all of the time... it's a matter of changing your attitude and filters in your mind
5. To develop stronger relationships with people.

That's all for now, but I shall expand more on life here in LA in the future. Happy New Year everyone!

blast from the past l.o.l.

long time no post, hopefully the blog machine continues haha

anyone remember this from high school i think?

epic end to an ordinary match

must travel

DSC_0021, originally uploaded by Venerata Noce di Cocco.

Sri Lanka; from Venerata Noce di Cocco's flickr set. wish this picture was available in bigger sizes, but damn imagine seeing that in real life

test

Mason you should enable AdSense on this blog.

DRIFTOOOOOOO

6 speed hybrid!

see it here! the CRZ concept that I posted a few weeks ago will have a six speed manual option!! it pretty much won't have any power but it could be fun as hell to drive... i'm just hoping it won't disappoint like the insight did

Posts on Life here in LA

So, I'll try to add some posts here about events that's been happening here in LA for my own viewing pleasures in the future, but most importantly to stay connected with people here since I don't go online much. I am in the process of writing a paper so I'll list some topics that I will discuss further later.
1. "Giving Dell some beef" to get a new motherboard- Success!
2. LA traffic and riding your bike safely here- Doable.
3. LA traffic/ driving= traffic ticket + car flipping over from hitting a parked car right outside my apartment... more details to come.
4. Some fun and nerve racking situations- battery in car breaking down in beverly hills and record time in finding someone to jumpstart car,
5. school work and tidbits of life there
6. reflection sessions

Until later, challenge yourself (in the way you think, do things, and react to situations) every day! Take care!

Ken Jeonggg

Nice piece on Ken Jeong, the Asian guy who's been appearing in every movie and tv comedy lately.  Read on angryasianman.com

Ahhh been so busy lately, not as much time to scour the internet and keep the unread items on google reader down.  OH, and check out Shannon Brown's monster dunk against the warriors a few nights ago:

Why is the layout broken

damnit, the columns are at the end of the page why is this happening

figured it out... effing jump breaks are messing up the layout, prob can't use them anymore at least for now

ok then it's not the jump breaks, it was just the post with the Honda concepts, have no idea whats going on

Interfacelift.com [wallpaps]

Need high resolution wallpapers from quality photographers?  www.interfacelift.com, all of their wallpapers are top notch and come in every resolution imaginable.  I'm pretty sure it's hands down the best wallpaper site on the web right now.  I'd say majority of the wallpapers are actual photos of real places, 99% of them being landscapes or nature kind of stuff.  Haha, I just realized my current desktop doesn't actually use a wallpaper from interfacelift... oh well, for the past 2-3 years the site has been good to me.. check it out!

Heres my current desktop in the meantime:

Don't get fooled by cheaty valet tactics

Watch this investigative piece on how valet attendants use fake signs and park your car in illegal zones (they trash the ticket and don't even tell you) among other retard strategies, glad I don't have to deal with this in La Jolla

Let's Wave [Google]

What's Google Wave?  I don't know.  I can't explain it whenever I tell someone and they ask me 'what's special about it?'  Luckily this video does a pretty good job, but it makes the good point that what the Wave preview shows now is only a fraction of what Wave is capable of when its fully released.  Thanks for Eric for sending me an invite to try it out.  Anyone else want one?

I must get the clown car from Honda

I think this has to be the most amazing cars Honda has ever conceptualized.  Just look at it.  Actually, look at how small the wheels are hahaha.  I can't stop laughing when looking at it, but i gotta admit this is badass.  I would totally go to the auto shows just to check this out.  If it's realized, it's looking like it's going to be some kind of hybrid with a solar paneled roof.  Also in one of the pictures it has that little unicycle thing that I posted about a few posts down.  The other two cars are really nice too, but I wonder if Honda is biting a little too much from Audi in terms of designs... that CRZ has a lot of wrinkles that resemble certain characteristics of Audi sports cars.  Oh well, I'm all for hybrid sports cars as long as they look good.  Lastly, the ultimate soccer dad's van will probably never materialize, but it's just interesting to see what Honda's auto designers are coming up with.. gull wing + sliding doors??  Hit the jump to see more picturessss

 

Tsunami advisory

Just got an email from UCSD police warning us to stay away from the beach due to strong winds and crazy a$$ waves from the earthquake in the pacific. Hope Samoa is doing alright.

Grocery math

http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=4646

Ever wonder what's faster... going through the express line at the grocery store with a few people or standing in line with one person but with many items?  well this guy figures it all out, and statistically you're better off waiting behind the lone shopper with many items.  From this guy's calculations and observations... there's a much longer wait associated with an extra grocery shopper rather than adding an extra item.  Makes plenty sense!  but I'm a pretty big fan of the self check out haha.  I've also realized why I never enjoyed math reading this...

do some good, get free admission to Disneyland

So it goes like this: register with HandsOn Network (which covers many volunteer orgs like Habitat for Humanity), and if you do one day's volunteering than you can print out an online certificate and present it at Disneyland in Anaheim or Disney World in Orlando and get a free day pass.  You can read all about it here on Yahoo!  Smart and awesome marketing

Laziness taken to the next level [Honda]

man it must be fun to work in the R&D department for Honda, cause you can make super useful stuff like this

MacLane's LEGOs

whoaa check out this guy's LEGO creations, he makes small little 'collectible' figurines from different animated series, but also some bigger projects like a full sized wall-e and the grumpy old guy from Up.  each of his models are pretty veery distinguishable which is amazing since I remember when I played with LEGOs I didn't have an ounce of ingenuity like this guy

Good Advertising

always liked companies that spent the extra effort to make their products stand out with packaging and clever commercials. in this case a really well cut trailer for 'where the wild things are' has suddenly made it one of my must see movies. i think i've read the book as a kid, but i really don't remember. the production and style of the movie looks very promising and stays true to some of the original elements. too bad embedding has been disabled but here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY-dXsR_ZFg

another one is for the new halo 3 odst game, which even though i don't have an xbox360 has kind of made me a fan of halo. very well done and lots of money put into the marketing machine utilizing live action. the old halo3 commercials were very good as well, really liked their motto 'finish the fight'



and here's one more bit of advertising that's more of the clever side: dog food advertising with nutri balance... give your dog bad food, prepare to get stabbed in the back

birds are secretly composers

The story goes this guy saw a picture of birds sitting on electrical wires in a newspaper, so he got the idea of turning the birds into notes and wanted to see what song they were composing. The author says the photo is unedited, and it's a pretty nice piece of creativity

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

TokyooykoT by Joan Jimenez

This is one of those rare videos that truly captures the essence of a city, with the music perfectly paired with the video. I've been to Tokyo once when I was in middle school, but that was long ago and our time to explore was limited because our family was part of a tour group. Really, really hope I can go to Japan again... here's the Google translation for the video's description:

"The reality is the contrast between what we have inside and what exists outside. I invite you to share a trip to Tokyo where I set eyes and the music and to each one of your senses."

Kanye's such a bastard

As seen on Go Nintendo.

Taiwan girl's pursuit to kiss 100 random guys in Paris

check this out... 27 year old Music major Yang Ya-ching has been blogging about her mission to kiss 100 random guys in Paris, France.  From the article she's currently at 54, but she's been blogging about each of her experiences and even including photos.  Too bad I can't read Chinese, but for each encounter she writes a little blurb about who the person was, making a nice story and a fairly personal account of each kiss.  So far she's kissed factory workers to models to soldiers... pretty big hit so far, as she's close hitting 2 million visitors on her blog

"Yang, who plans to write a book about her kissing experiences, has attracted 1.97 million visitors to her blog (www.wretch.cc/blog/angelduck777/24982946), including more than 224,000 on Monday alone."

iPhone Owners Are the True Heros [from Gizmodo]

forwarded from my Google Reader (haha another plus to having blogger linked to google)... makes me somewhat envious of iPhone owners cause it's pretty much true... can't wait for iPhone to jump to other carriers!

iPhone Owners Are the True Heros [Humor]: "

Chrome R8

like whoa shinyy

Mayday tries to make more Chinese <3 the NFL

yes, there can be something related between football and Taiwan! Looks like the NFL has realized its inadequacies overseas. The NBA and MLB have long had established relations internationally to 'spread the game,' and now the NFL is getting into action by employing none other than Taiwanese band Mayday (五月天). Pretty funny, I wonder how it'll turn out... my interest has officially been piqued

"We've started to understand what the code is to get into the Chinese market," said Chris Parsons, the NFL's vice president in charge of international operations. The key is not the game itself, but all the trappings of American culture that surround the action on the field.

Which is how Stone, Monster, Ashin, Masa and Ming -- the members of a Taiwanese band called Mayday -- happened to spend 10 days riding a bus around the Northeast this month, meeting cheerleaders and marching bands and playing flag football for a TV show that will run on China Central Television, or CCTV, this fall. All in the hopes of converting tens of millions of Chinese into fans of American football."

read more about it here and here

Anyone heard of this secret menu item at In-N-Out?

Just read about this on Consumerist.com. Apparently there's another secret menu item that I haven't heard of... basically they just add a spicy sauce to your burger. You just say burger with 'fried mustard & chopped chilis.' Anyone heard of this or tried it? sounds delish

Update: well, just go here for a comprehensive 'secret menu' listing (there's one on their corporate website but definitely leaves stuff out). most of it i've seen before more or less, but useful neverthelesss

Sam Tsui's Michael Jackson Medley

nice a cappella medley

Jump!

Hey blogger has jump breaks now!

Korea's first huge disaster movie, looks decent!

Check these out [been too busy to post]

It looks like Monopoly's going to start a worldwide game based on Google Maps starting tomorrow, sounds like so much fun

Remember racing on Laguna Seca in Gran Turismo?  Walk it on street view now!

View Larger Map

Interesting trends site... I think it's based off twitter, actually I have no idea but its nice

Like to review movies? Want to figure out which movies belong in your top 10?  Try Flickchart.  When I'm bored I just listen to music and go through this site, you just pick between two movies which one you like more, and you do this over and over and it remembers your picks and sorts them accordingly... basically a time waster

Ponyo!

Here's a link to watch Miyazaki's Ponyo in japanese with english subtitles. It's a story about a little fish who wants to become human. It's so cute!! Ponyo's in theaters right now, but it's in english. Miley Cyrus' little sis and the Jonas' bros little brother are the voices of the little girl and boy in the movie. Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Liam Nielson and some other big names are in the english version of the move too. I haven't seen the english version yet, but i think the japanese version is reallly good! Miyazaki made spirited away, totoro and some other japanese animated movies too. Here's an article about Miyazaki's Ponyo! : )

LLWS Update: Chula Vista def. Taiwan

Chula Vista was just too good a team, too deep, and too athletic.  Their weakest player was probably their starting pitcher who gave up two back to back homeruns, but their manager quickly pulled him and put in their all star Kiko Garcia who pitched the rest of the game and didn't really give anything for the Taiwan kids to work with.  Basically, it sucked haha.  Final score was 6-3, and the one thing the Taiwan kids can come away with is that they didn't give up any home runs which is what Chula Vista was known for.  The game got real interesting with the bases loaded in the 5th for Taiwan and 1 out, but Chula Vista turned a nasty double play.  Odds were definitely against Taiwan but I like the effort and gave Chula Vista a good scare, especially with that monster 2 run home run by Sung Wen-Hua.   



Damn been too busy the past few days, got lots of stuff to post mmmmmmmmmmr

Way to go Taiwan!

They're off to the World Championship!! for the first time since 1996, Taiwan's going to face either Chula Vista, CA or San Antonio, TX (who are playing as I type... and wow Chula Vista is winning 9-0 in the first inning) (Luke Ramirez: age 12/13.. 6'0 205!! I want to see this kid's birth certificate!!).  Against Mexico, Taiwan displayed defensive superiority and great pitching which is insane at this level... of all the little league teams Taiwan's committed the least amount of errors and passed balls off wild pitches, which seems to be a factor in scoring in little league play.  Taiwan's ability to play clean baseball was the difference in the game, as Mexico committed several errors (uncharacteristically) and Taiwan capitalized on almost all of them.  Mad props to Taiwan's pitcher Sung Wen Hua, who pitched a complete game which are getting more rare now that there's an 85 pitch limit rule and the fact that he did it against a really good hitting Mexico team is awesome.  Tomorrow's title game is at noon on ABC.

Just something I wanted to gripe about: it's entirely stupid how Taiwan's uniforms say Asia-Pacific, when Japan's uniforms say Japan, it makes sense when Chula Vista is the West team, and San Antonio is Southwest.  I also cringe everytime I hear "Chinese Taipei," which is due to completely political reasons... heck one time I even heard Brent Musburger say "Chinese Taipei is a beautiful island."  Great.

Cow brains aren't so good

A friend has been telling me about a taco place his coworker has been raving about, so we tried it out.  Had to drive all the way to Chula Vista (which in LA terms isn't actually that far) to get to Tacos El Gordo, but the talk has been about how authentic their tacos are to the ones you can find in TJ.  I haven't been across the border yet so I wasn't really sure what to expect, after all the best taco's I've had here were at Lolitas on Clairemont Mesa or even Taco Tuesdays at El Torito.  The actual place isn't hard to find, it's pretty much right off the freeway, but the parking lot is horrendously small.  I can only imagine what hell there'd be at a time when it's packed, heck we went around 3 or 4 on Saturday and it was nearly full.

This has to be one of the cleanest taco places I've been to, and it's set up really well with a lot of tables and booths.  How it works is you order how many tacos you want at the stand (kind of like Panda Express in a way) and then pay at the end.  A fellow customer noticed that it was our first time there so he kinda gave us the run down on what's good (which he said was basically anything...).  But what he did accomplish was translating the menu, because who would've known that sesos meant cow brain, and which one was tripe and brisket.  Honestly, after hearing that they serve cow brain compelled me to try it (a little inspiration from Andrew Zimmerman perhaps?), I don't even know how that happened.  In fact when I ordered the sesos the cook kind of gave me a wide eyed look which probably should've triggered some signal in my head that it wasn't a good idea to get it.  Anyway so I picked up one sesos (cow brain), one tripas (tripe), and two adobada (spicy pork).  Total price?  $8.05 (each taco was about $1.85).  Ok, so the price isn't exactly cheap, but would the quality make up for it?

First up, the adobada.  Hands down, the best taco I've ever had in my life.  Each one can be finished off in 2-3 bites, but each bite has intense flavor and a good amount of meat.  The actual pork is really similar to Chinese bbq pork, but the taste is completely different.  It's not sweet like the Chinese version, but more sweet/salty with a little spicy kick, although I did feel it wasn't as spicy as I wished for it to be.  We couldn't really figure out what the white sauce was but it was delicious and complemented the pork well.  There was a salsa bar but I elected not to add any to my tacos.

Ok, here we go: cow brains (right).  I figure it's probably best to eat that one first, so if it sucks the tripe (left) will wash out all the 'brains' flavor.  First bite: the only bite.  I was hoping all the onions and green salsa topped onto it would help too, but no, it was definitely too much for me.  The texture is textureless.  It's basically tofu with a terrible after taste that salsa couldn't overcome.  One of my friends tried it and likened it to avocado without the great taste.  For me, it definitely didn't work but I'd probably advise against trying it.  I'm sure I was psychologically handicapped as well since before the first bite I had a wonderful image of a cold wet brain waiting to be butchered.  Thank god the tripe taco was good, the smoky overcooked bits of tripe really took out the brain taste.  Taco El Gordo's tripe is very crunchy and flavorful, albeit too crunchy for me, but perfect for my cousin but still a very good taco for me. 

In the end, this was definitely a great experienece and can't wait for my next trip back.  There's tons of other stuff on the menu that I wanted to try like beef tongue, brisket (breast), chicken, quesadillas, etc.  On yelp.com it seems that there are other Taco El Gordo's in National City and Pacific Beach which are closer alternatives, but ratings wise the general consensus is the Chula Vista shop serves the most authentic TJ tacos.  Highly recommended

Inspiration from Infernal Affairs

Well, this is pretty inspiring... if you haven't seen Infernal Affairs yet I would highly recommend it (original movie that Scorsese's The Departed was based on), but basically this guy Nick from England saw the movie and was so awe struck by the different lifestyle/culture in Hong Kong it motivated him to move there and pursue a career in the film while learning Cantonese. The narration is in Cantonese at the beginning but for the majority of the video it's Nick speaking in English telling how he got to the point in life he's at now. No more spoilers, watch the video yourself! Definitely a must watch if you're low on the motivation gatorade

Finally, PS3 is cheaper

Damn it's about time... PS3 has always been way overpriced (compared to Wii and Xbox360) even though it's the only system that can read Bluray. I paid waay too much for mine, but the novelty of the limited edition claimed the nerd in me :(

But if you want a Bluray player, this is definitely the way to go, $300 is great value for what the PS3 can do: media streaming (basically you can watch or listen to whatever you have on your computer and PS3 will upscale it to near hi-def quality depending on the source material), hi-def video and audio playback, web browsing, and even if gaming is the last thing on the list for you, all the stuff listed above it is worth the cost compared to the price of standalone bluray players on the market right now. Plus, the price dropped PS3 is a new unit that's smaller and sleeker, uses less power and comes with a 120 gb hard drive (!@$% mine is only 40 and I paid way more than $300). From a media standpoint the PS3 is a beast, but if games matter to you, it's not as easy to choose.  But of course if you're filthy rich.. haha

LLWS Update: Semifinals

Up two against Curacao, who have a flamethrower pitching might I add, bottom of the 4th.  Get it done!! two more innings

Update: it's over, Taiwan over Curacao 5-2!  Taiwan advances to the International Championship against Mexico, which is actually a rematch of the game a few nights ago.  It's gonna be a heavy dose of good pitching, and most definitely another quality game.  The last game they played was close with some drama at the end, so I'm looking forward to it, plus I can actually watch it since it'll be on Saturday 9 AM.  On the other side of things, the California representative Chula Vista (bit south of San Diego) has a chance to get into the finals as well... damn these games are as much fun to watch as MLB, it's essentially a mini World Baseball Classic haha

LLWS Update: First loss to Mexico

Damn! Taiwan lost its first game to Mexico 3-2. The last inning was crazy, lead off homer, then inside the park home run to reduce Mexico's lead only to 1, but Mexico's closer was able to finish the game. All good though, Taiwan still advances to the international semifinals and faces Curacao instead of Japan. Both Curacao and Japan are also top teams in the tournament, so really it's going to be tough either way. Taiwan and Curacao this Thursday 1 pm. 台湾加油!!

Some Sad News

Click here for the LA Times article.

I don't know if you Oak Parkers remember this kid. Brian Wolverton. He ran track all four years and was killed at Afghanistan just after he got there. He went to Moorpark and just finished combat training in June.

It's pretty nuts. I can still remember running with this kid every single day.

http://projects.latimes.com/wardead/name/brian-m-wolverton/

You can post on his "online" memorial if you remember him. I bet you guys will recognize some of the names on there.

hm lary. you are an ass. that is all.

p.s., puma > adidas > nike

nothing good on the music front, looking like a quiet week. what is everyone doing for labor day?

LLWS Update: Taiwan blanks Canada

Taiwan 8, Canada 0. Another win for Taiwan, so far in the tournament they're clearly the most dominant team in their own pool (i think it's a pretty weak pool actually), they've outscored their opponents 24-0 and only give up 2 hits.. no errors in two games. eh granted i think the competition isnt great, but they're still gettin it done. Nice to see all the Taiwan supporters in Williamsport PA. Also caught the Japan/Curacao matchup later at night. Frickin crazy.. Curacao won the game stealing home 12-11. Little league is surprisingly fun to watch. Next up for Taiwan: Mexico

Ahoyhoyhoy

Hello everyone!

Nice to see you all. I look forward to your hilarious posts and interesting comments.

Minus eric.

Test

just making my intro to this blog where i can post some future c-pop blurbs.

[edit; here's one haha -mason]

Biggest TV ever? only 1080p??

Wow, so the Cowboys got a new stadium, and everyone's talking about how much it costs, how it's going to be the most famous American sports venue, etc., etc. But what really caught my eye was the size of the HDTV they have inside the stadium for fans to watch replays on during the game... WOW. The picture doesn't even do it justice.. I'm watching the game right now on FOX in HD and it's like a mini-sun, I can only imagine how bright the stadium would be if that was the only source of light on. Mmm too bad it's only in 1080p haha...

Hell yes, Taiwan Little League team putting on the hurt

No work today, so I turned on the TV and caught the end of the Little League World Series game. I guess the tournament just started because they're only in group play, but the team from Taoyuan, Taiwan won big against the Air Force Base team from Germany. No hits, no errors, final score 16-0!!! I just looked it up on Wikipedia and the teams representing Taiwan have won the entire tournament 17 times with only the US having won more (31), but the next closest country is Japan with 6. Last time Taiwan won the tournament was in 1996, so hopefully they can make it happen this year. I'll definitely be following their progress in the next few weeks haha

Haha.. helllooo

Whats up, what am i allowed to post here. lol

Welcome #2

Alright, so I realized... how can this be the second coming of Otherish without the original members?? My intention was to start a more focused blog, but I don't think that's as much fun anymore, so I've dished out some more invitations. We're all older now, and in different places... what better way to keep track of what we're all up to?

Anyone want to name this? or change the layout if you want. I know it's probably not a great idea to grant everyone admin priveleges, but we're all pretty mature and should be able to handle this :)

Taiwan Typhoon Relief

I'm sure a lot of people know what's going on in Taiwan right now, so here's a video I read about on angryasianman.com. The two singers are Emily and Susan Hsu, and even though they've already reached their Youtube donation goal, they're still donating $1 for every $1 spent on their band Exit Clov's website, so if you like their music..

Here's another way to donate listed in their video description:

Please pass this on to any friends!! Just by watching the video, you'll be helping to support the cause. Feel free to make your own donation/pledge, starting as low as .01 cent per hit/view (=$5 at 500 hits/views). Anything helps! Just email us (mousybabe@gmail.com) with your pledge amount. If we get enough responses, we'll post anonymous pledges on our blog (mousybabe.com) to celebrate the goodwill.

Pledges are not binding, just an honor system - you can send your tax-deductible donation to the Taiwanese Association of America (info below) or any of the organizations listed at TaiwaneseAmerican.org.

Taiwanese Association of America
Mrs. Ling Ling Huang, Treasurer
TAA-USA
199 Bluejay Dr.,
Columbus, OH 43235
Phone (614) 888-6501
TAA-USA is a 501(C)3 tax exempt entity. Therefore your donation is tax-deductible. http://taa-usa.or.

#1

Ok! let's get this rolling. Otherish was great, but let's make this better. Any ideas on a blog name and url address? The title's supposed to be 我們走吧, the 9 and 8 in chinese sound like 走吧, so it's like a little internet joke I've seen people in Taiwan use. Anyway, start posting away!