Tim’s Ramblings

This is a far better video than the one done with Animoto. No weird animations and stuff.

Filmed with the Casio FC100 and edited together using Windows Movie Maker :) This is a blatant copy of Trey Ratcliff’s work but his is way way way way better. But hey, it’s a start. I hope all you lurkers out there who read this blog also enjoy this little departure from the usual photos!

:)

Picked up a Casio EX-FC100 camera for dirt cheap (it was the display version) and it allows me to take videos at 10x speed. So I put this 30 second (it was free…) video together as a test to see how well it works. It’s definitely low def since, again, it’s FREE. But Animoto did a pretty good job editing this.

Check it out! What do you think?

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

:D

Read the explanation up on Youtube for details. It’s incredible. And apparently this is very much real.

Though I would have to live next door to this house with all the flashing lights!

Wow….

Ack…

It’s seeing videos like this that scares me. I mean…I fly extremely long distances at least twice a month. I’ve had my plane struck by lightening TWICE, I’ve been in landings where it felt more like we fell than landed. Hell, I’ve been in landings where as soon as we touched down I felt the entire plane skid and fishtail. But nothing like this. NOTHING.

What the HELL was the air traffic controllers thinking directing the plane on this particular runway with horrible crosswinds? Kudos to the pilot for somehow getting control and getting the plane back up in the air. I mean, the damn winglet hit the tarmac!!!!

*shiver*

I just had to post this.

It’s soooo cool.

This is Jero. An African American kid from Pittsburg that is tearing up the Japanese enka charts. First off, enka is a very traditional form of Japanese music. Very melodramatic with a distinct style that became popular post war. Even I know a few of the songs due to my parent’s influence and my sister LOVES some of the songs as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enka

This kid though, is just amazing. His voice is perfect for this type of music. His grandmother was Japanese and he was influenced by her and her love of enka and so a few years ago he moved to Japan to study this type of singing and started entering contests. I remember seeing an interview with him on TV this past trip and he finally released his first single. But holy crap…it tore through the charts and is either #1 or #2 on the Oricon charts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oricon). Totally rare for a foreigner and utterly unheard of for someone that’s not Asian.

I think this is fantastic. Japan, as many people criticize, LOOOVES foreigners but only when they visit… We are a mono-race culture on an island…so the term “racist” gets tossed around a lot when people talk about the negative side of Japan. But this is proof that you can break through that. Sure, the first single might be bought out of curiosity but his voice is real!!

As proof here is one if his earliest debut on Japanese TV.

He’s not reading the prompter (the words are there for the viewers) and he is spot on. The song he sings at the end (after you get past the talking parts that only a few of you will understand) is a very very VERY famous song called “Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyugeshiki” which sings about the meloncholy view of the winter sea in Hokkaido (I too know the song! Get me drunk enough and I may sing it for you someday….really really drunk…) and he does is amazingly well.

Rock on Jero. Good to see someone totally breaking the mold and taking enka to the next level!!

Forgot about this. The new Bad Religion album comes out on 7/10! Nice!

New Maps of Hell. And it’s sounding pretty damn good. Got pretty much the entire album up on their Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/badreligion.

Personally…I’m saddened that they went all MySpace since their actual web page back in the day had all this great content but…oh well…sign of the times.

Anyway, the songs are…well…it’s Bad Religion. You’re going to get pretty much what you expect. But ever since they got back under the Epitaph label and got their original guitarist back, they’ve been progressively getting better and better. New America, their last album with Sony was…well…bad. But since then they’ve gotten back to their roots. Their last one, The Empire Strikes First had some great songs in there with even some radio friendly pop-punk-ish songs too. Though Greg Graffin hasn’t lost his political edge in the least (^_^)

Here’s one of the new songs off of the new album! (no video – just audio)

Here’s probably the only song from the last album that got any amount of airplay – Los Angeles is Burning

Oh, and while we’re at it, a decent live footage of them singing American Jesus and Generator (with a slower intro)

Apparently they’re on tour with the Warped Tour again this year. Gonna be in Cleveland August 2nd. I saw them a few years ago and it was great though they only played for 30 minutes…. Wish they did their own tour and came to Cleveland so I can hear a full set. Oh well. Anyone wanna go? (^_^)

So…I know I’m very late to this. Many many anime geeks already know about this. But most of you probably don’t.

In Japan over the past year and a half or so, one particular anime has caught the nation by storm. Or at least the anime loving otaku crowd. The name of the anime is Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu or, in the US, it will soon be known as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

What’s it about? …eh…not much. But what is REALLY popular is the…uh…dance that they do at the end. This dance has caught on like craaaaaaaaazy. Behold…the ending sequence.

…dear god…

By the end of this year, I shudder to think how many people in the US will be practicing this dance so they can show it off at the anime conventions.

But in Japan, they take it one step further. They got a bunch of people together from a newsgroup called 2-channel and they all got together this past April in the streets of Akihabara on Sunday when the close off the street for an inpromptu song and dance!

The first attempt was broken up by the cops…

But they did it again and succeeded in doing the entire song.

Crazy crazy crazy crazy people…

…though…I will have to admit…the song is catchy in that horrible horrible J-pop sort of way.

This may solve some of these so called “mysteries” that women talk about in terms of guy’s neurosis in a public bathroom.

Now I don’t follow ALL these rules. However, I would like to stress the “no talking” rule. Please. As my coworker S once said…”Don’t talk to me while I’m touching me”.

Very important.

Key to life.

Now…if only we can figure out why the hell girls go to bathrooms in gigantic groups? Are they giving out free t-shirts? Is there cake? I mean…I suppose they talk in there. Which is okay since girls don’t really use the bathrooms right? The whole digestive system thing doesn’t really apply to girls right? (^_^)

Seems like the video for “How to eat sushi” has been taken off of google video.

Soooo, here it is in YouTube :)]

A rare hillarous SNL skit with Paris Hilton.

Sadly I think if this actually were available in real life it’ll be profitable….

(^_^)