June 08, 2007

Good Samaritan Deed for the Day

So as many of you loyal readers know, I have had problems with people backing up in my car and then taking off without leaving a note, which really sucks. I used to believe that it could only happen in Chinese plaza parking lots, but today, I witnessed it happening at the Starbuck's on Montague and Mission.

This parking lot is really cramped, and there have been several times that I have nearly backed right into a car directly behind me. So today, as I was driving into the parking lot, there was another car in front of me waiting for a woman to back out. I couldn't really see what was happening, but I saw a brand spanking new RAV4 directly behind her start to bounce violently. The car in front of me parks, and I am trying to pull into the space next to his, but the woman in the car that just backed out, decided to park her car so it blocked the 3 empty spaces so I couldn't turn into the space. She got out of her car, walked up to the RAV4, inspected it, and then took off. I was able to get her license plate # of 5YOE795 at least.

It just sucks when shit like this happens, so I left a note with the license plate # for the RAV4, and hope that they will be able to nab this bitch.

Oh... and amazingly, it was not a chink bitch... this was some white chick this time.

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May 17, 2007

Rhythm based DS Games

Recently, I have just been addicted to these rhythm based video games on my NDS. It all started last year when I was at a Game Stop, and saw the promotion of the game "Elite Beat Agents" coming up, and bought it the following week when it arrived into the stores. For the next week, I was thoroughly addicted to the game.

So while playing the game, because of the manga style graphics, the cheesy story lines, and references and style that were very remiscent to Japan, I figured that it is probably originally a Japanese game, and then found that it is the sequel to a Japanese game called "Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!". I was playing this game for a while as well, and the last level was way too difficult for me, and it took me a week or so to get good enough to barely pass the level.

Thanks to the power of BitTorrent and the R4DS, I was able to get my hands on a copy of several other games I otherwise would have had no access, including the "Nodame Cantabile" game, which I found pretty disappointing since it was way too easy. I guess for that game, they were trying to emphasize the storyline more, but I was more interested in playing, so skipped all the story elements of the game.

I played some other rhythm based games like "Pinky Street: Kirakira Music Hour", which I found a little too girly to play, and was also another game way too focused on the story line, and also tried "Daigasso Band Brothers", which was way too difficult to play, and I just got turned off to it after trying it out for 30 minutes.

So I was really happy to see that the next installment of the "Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!" series was out, and quickly went out and got it: "Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2". So I spent an hour playing it last night, and since I had been playing the original game over the past week, the first 7 or 8 songs I have done so far were pretty easy to get through on the first try (although not with very high scores on all of them). For the most part, I don't know most of the songs, and a few I know from hearing other friends singing them in karaoke, and the only song I knew was the Ken Hirai song, "Pop Star", which has got to be one of the gayest music videos ever:



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February 15, 2007

What kind of music do I listen to?

Although my MP3 collection has grown to over 80GB now, it's still not quite enough music, and I am constantly in search of new music to listen to. Last year, I was using the web music service Pandora, which helped out a lot in discovering new types of music, but later on, I started using last.fm. What I like about last.fm is that unlike Pandora, I don't need to turn all my tags into different radio stations, and instead, I use the tags to stream similar music over.

One thing that I have found difficulty in is to characterize the music I like to listen to. On the one hand, some people might call it "acid jazz", but the term reminds me of groups such as Jamiroquai, which is kinda sorta what I like listening to, but not completely. Others might call it "trip-hop", but I find that to be a little too technoey... Even others might refer to it as "drum and bass", but that still doesn't really define the music I enjoy listening to. I guess there are more generic terms like "ambient" or "chillout", but they certainly are a bit too general, and there are actually some songs in the genre of music I like that are a bit more up-tempo.

So on music services such as last.fm and pandora, I usually end up just typing in groups that I like, and hope that the music services can find similar groups, and for the most part, it works, but then I start to get sick of the lack of variety in music, but at least it turns me onto new artists. For example, a few years ago, Kevin turned me on to a group called the Blue Six, and from that group, I discovered other similar groups and artists such as Miguel Migs, Lovetronic, De-Phazz, etc.

So the quest to figure out what is the name of the genre of music I listen to continued. But after using last.fm for a while, since it has its own built-in wiki, when it presents new artists to me, I can read information about the groups that other people have posted, and I realized a common word that appeared on every song that I really liked... shibuya-kei... Wikipedia sums up this term as:

Shibuya-kei (渋谷系 Shibuya-style; also 渋谷系サウンド "Shibuya-kei sound") is a variety of Japanese pop music which combines elements of jazz, fusion, traditional music, and other styles. Shibuya-kei music first gained popularity in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, from which it took its name. Despite under-marketing, it enjoyed enormous success in this region.

I think this is the closest definition to the type of music I like to listen to, depending on what it means by "traditional music", since for me, it does not necessarily need to be sounds of traditional Japanese music, but of just any culture.

In any case, I guess I can at least say that I now have added a new term to my Japanese vocabulary. For anyone interested in looking up my profile on last.fm, it is mchiu.

Posted by mchiu at 11:40 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

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January 24, 2007

Asian TV Shows

Recently, I guess since there was that lull between Xmas and after New Year's where no new shows really came on, I have been watching more Asian dramas than I have had before. I've been downloading them like crazy as of late, but haven't watched too many yet.

It all started on Xmas Eve, when I was at home with the family playing Mah Jongg while watching Chinese programming on channel 26. At some point, the programming changed, and it switched to Japanese programming. It was a bunch of short and boring 5 minutes or 10 minutes shows, and I was getting bored of it, so I was about to switch the channel, but then a new TV drama started, so I decided to keep it on the station for a few more minutes. After watching for a few minutes, I just busted up laughing, and later on, downloaded the entire series.

The name of the show was "Nodame Cantabile", and after doing some searching on the web, I figured out that it was based on a manga series. After downloading it, and watching the first several episodes, I think I am pretty damn addicted to it. At first, I really didn't like the characters, and found it to be a bit annoying, but there was just enough humor and good storyline in it, that it was able to hook me into it. At first, I was turned off by the characters of the story because they are all so damn weird and annoying, but the more I watched, the more they grew on me I guess, so it slowly got me more into the story. Also, the storyline is about a musical academy, and they are all into classical music, so I was a bit turned off by it at first, but the more I watch it, the more I can appreciate classical music.

So after downloading that, there was still a lot of time before the next episode of Heroes started, so I found that there was a 2 hour special for Densha Otoko, and ended up downloading that too. I guess it wasn't too bad, but I think they should have just left that story alone. Seriously... the story doesn't make sense to me... The identity of the densha otoko hasn't been discovered yet, and they're making it out to be this big deal that they shouldn't find out who he really is... not even to his own friends... moreover, the guy already got the girl, but he's still the same, nerdy, nervous wreck that he always had been when he's around her, and you wonder why she still puts up with it? oh well... but I guess that if you're in Fuji TV's shoes, you gotta milk it for all it's worth...

I then noticed that a bunch of people from the cast of Densha Otoko ended up in another show called Sapuri, so I downloaded that series as well. I only watched one episode so far, so haven't really gotten into it too much yet. And then, out of curiousity, I did a search on an actress I used to like, Norika Fujiwara, and found her in another drama called Damens Walker and downloaded that series as well, but stopped watching after the first few minutes because I didn't like her short hair look... yes, I'm shallow like that... I'll probably watch some time later when I'm really bored I guess...

After watching "My Name is Kim Sam Soon" last year, I haven't really gone out to search for Korean dramas, but I'll probably do a search later on. My only thing with Korean dramas is that they tend to get way too emotional and sappy for me, so I end up watching a few episodes and then turning it off. But with "My Name is Kim Sam Soon", it wasn't too bad, and it was more on the humorous side, so I liked that more.

For Chinese dramas, I haven't really ever watched them before, so not sure if I will get into them or not.

Oh... and Kevin asked me to help him download a Japanese anime called "One Piece", but I haven't started watching it yet, but I'm almost done downloading the first 200 episodes...

Posted by mchiu at 08:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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October 13, 2006

Stupid Asian Drivers

So the other night, as I was coming out of the gym, I see this car in the parking lot backing out of a space. My car is directly behind it, and the car is getting closer and closer to mine. This asshole had plenty of room to drive out, but he kept backing up. He kept backing his car up until he got confirmation that he couldn't back up anymore... by tapping my front bumper with his rear bumper, and then took off. I opened my mouth to yell, but nothing came out... probably because I was still in shock that someone could be so blatant about running into another car. There was no damage, but you would think that if you backed into someone else's car, especially if it were just accidental and there probably wasn't any damage, that it would be common courtesy to step out of the car, take a look to make sure that nothing was damaged and then leave. As he drove off, I noticed that it was an Asian driver. Fuckin' chinks...

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October 04, 2006

Proper restroom etiquette for men

For anyone who ever cared to know how improper male restroom etiquette could lead to devestating consequences, here's a funny video that is very educational for men on how to use the public restroom, and what would happen if these rules are not observed. Enjoy! :D

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August 02, 2006

My Brother Is Very Sensitive to Noise

He he he... So my brother is an interesting character. He hates noise, but he produces a lot of it. Since he's a DJ, he plays music in the house like it's a club, and whenever anyone tells him to turn it down, he always tells you that he's not playing it that loud, even though we can hear it in just about every corner of this 6,000 square foot house.

Unfortunately for me, he is in the room next door to me, so whenever he plays his music loud, I just learned to deal with it, because he can be very irrational when you ask him to turn it down, and you just end up getting barked out of his room, or he will just start a temper tantrum, and after doing that too many times, it's better to just sit it out since there's really no negotiating with him.

On the other hand, if you make the slightest noise in the house, and especially if he is being quiet, he'll get all of your case for being so noisy. It doesn't help that I use the bathroom next to his room, so something as innocent as brushing my teeth will get him all ticked off. I have since learned to use a different bathroom in the house if I am going to be brushing my teeth. Some friends say that I am being too nice. They just have no idea how easy it is to set my brother off. If you try to reason with him, he just gets pissed off, and the whole thing escalates into him having a big tantrum, and it's just not worth it. Sometimes, I wonder if he would be better off somewhere in the East Coast. I don't think he is laid back enough for California.

So tonight, I was listening to some music on my computer at what I thought was a pretty low volume... The speaker setting was set to 3 out of 10, and Windows Media Player was set at 50% of the volume. Somehow, his ultra sensitive ears (which is hard to believe with all that loud music coming from him) were able to catch it, and he came over and asked me to turn it down. I did, but he said he could still hear it, so I just gave up and turned it off, as he grouchily stomped back into his room saying how it is bullshit that I am listening to my music so "loud" at such a late hour... he he he... it's always great to see how hypocritical he can be when he is all cranky...

Posted by mchiu at 11:16 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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July 30, 2006

Why Stereotypes Exist

So a few weeks ago, I made a trip to Popeye's Chicken, which I haven't been to in a very long time. It was interesting as the staff working there was completely Taiwanese, as I was listening to them speak to one another in the Taiwanese dialect. When I ordered my food, I also got the typical Taiwanese treatment where they ask me for my order, and the cashier looked really unenthusiastic about anything, including giving me my change. She basically handed me my change, but didn't bother waiting for me to actually grab the bills, and when they started to fall, she would just keep pushing them at me until they fell into my hand...

So I sat waiting for my order, and I guess some of the regulars started walking in, and I couldn't help but laugh to myself. The cashier all of a sudden came to life to see some of the regulars come in. I look around, and notice that pretty much all the customers in there except for myself is black. Wow... interesting... I guess it's more than just a stereotype...

To push the stereotype even further, a few days ago, I had a craving for KFC, so I end up at a KFC near my office, and after sitting down with my food, I look over to the wall next to me, and basically spit my chicken out laughing because there's this huge picture on the wall of a black family sitting down to a KFC dinner together.

I don't know how much more blatant that you can be, but I was kind of half-expecting that KFC would start serving watermelon, but was kind of disappointed not to see it on the menu...

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July 18, 2006

Right About Now, The J Soul Brotha...

So the last few days, I was looking through mashups because of a deal that I am researching. Interesting stuff, but thought this was pretty interesting. Another Fatboy Slim video mashup featuring some Japanese movie starring a singer named Yuzo Kayama (looks like from the 60s).

Interestingly enough, as I am writing this, Jerry sends out one for the Star Wars Kids versus SouthPark that is really well done.

Posted by mchiu at 11:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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July 11, 2006

Bad Soccer Play, Bad Soccer Call

So Gary posted his opinion of Zidane's infamous headbutt at the end of the World Cup Finals match, and how this guy was awarded the MVP. Talking about it afterwards with Kuldip and Corey, we figured that it will become a pretty controversial subject since the refs made the call after seeing it on the video screens in the stadium, where soccer isn't supposed to have instant replay calls. If that were the case, the controversial call of Italy's being offsides when scoring should also come into play to see if they were actually off-sides.

For me, I just think we all need more reasons and reminders to hate the French.

Posted by mchiu at 11:11 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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