I use a LOT of Excel in my everyday life. I blame work (of course I blame a lot of things on work, but that's for another blog post).
Crazy, but not that crazy
Excel makes things..orderly. Order is good! Order is next to Godliness I hear. Anyway, I'm sidetracking.
I periodically (re: every Friday) send out an email to some of the guys at work with some weekend music, and after a while I was receiving requests for spesific songs and couldn't keep track of what I've sent out and what I had cued on for the following weeks.
Cue Excel!
So from a 3 column sheet, I progressed on to a 8 column Excel sheet, and more importantly, a drop down for song status where I could select 'Sent' or 'Not Sent'.
After a while (22 new rows) I was sorting each row by Status and I realised the way I was managing the 'Sent' status could be done in a more logical, automatic manner. So I fired up Google and looked up IF statements as well as Nested Statments.
Microsoft's Help page was not so much help because I was not looking for a complex macro. About.com's page on nested IF statements hit the nail on the head for me. This page had a simple to understand example, and got me thinking that I could just simplify an IF formula in Excel to do what I wanted.
My requirements were simple, if I put in a date in a column (Sent Date), I wanted the column (Sent Status) to change to "Sent". If there was no date value, I'd want the column to say "Not Sent".
I resolve to call her up a thousand times a day Ask her if she'll marry me in some old fashioned way But my silent fears have gripped me long before I reach the phone And before my tongue has tricked me Must I always be alone
Greetings,
It's one of those dates that's really memorable. Pretty neat date / time, the next we'll have would be next year when its 12/12/12, 12:12:12. So we've almost maxed out the 12 hour count, lets enjoy it while we're able to. Another added advantage is that its a Friday, so TGIF.
Shown - cool date and time. Not shown - the crazy drinking planned for later
I've been putting this off for a while, mainly because I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon. So, here it is. RIP Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011).
There are so many photos out there of him, and some of them have been used on every site possible. Instead, I'm opting to have this photo, to remember him by. Taken in 1979 (wow, special year that eh?), you cant but help think that he's a natural born sales person. A pioneer even.
Steve Jobs poses with an Apple computer, September 1979. Photograph: Ralph Morse/Time & Life Pictures/Getty
His passing was pretty much a shock, mainly due to the fact that the new iPhone was launched not days before.
I've never really been a fan of Apple products, but my issues with Apple were mainly centered around the proprietary way Apple's products worked. iTunes nearly cost me my sanity once, so never again I promised myself. Did their products work? Yes. Did the products do things in a new, unique, human way? Yes. And that's where Jobs excelled. That's where I think Apple excelled. Pushing the envelope.
Let's see who picks up the mantle now.
Jobs - the man with a vision, the money to pull it off, and the insane mad drive to make things happen
Huge loss. Would love to read the full autobiography when it comes out. For now, there's a great review here.
Dav out
Oh my life is changing everyday
Every possible way
Though my dreams, it’s never quite as it seems
Never quite as it seems
Its a huge pet peeve for me, that in this time and age, we're still using pieces of glass and silver paint in vehicles that can cost up to $1 million. I'm talking about rear-view and wing mirrors.
Imagine that! We're placing our lives and very expensive automobiles in the hands of glass, that costs maybe say $5 (just the glass, the case etc might cost you more). The automotive industry has improved by leaps and bounds since the first Ford T, but we cant seem to get away from rear-view and wing mirrors.
If you sneezed just right I'll shatter
Its 2011! We should have like, laser rangefinders with video cameras and FLIR built into them!
Pictured - FLIR. Not pictured - deer he just ran over
I can see the issues related to having a bunch of video screens or cameras built into your car and dash, but they cant be any more distracting then having to look at 3 separate pieces of glass. With the technology available, we're able to build in proximity detectors, distance (rangefinder) measurements (great for parallel parking) and, if you're feeling really high tech, an Idiot Detector 7000™. Just maybe.
Me? On top of getting rid of those silly wing mirrors (how many times has someone smashed yours off?), I'd want to mount a machine gun on my car. Just for those special moments when you have someone cut you off or jump queue. Would be perfect.
What? Too much?
So yeah.
Maybe its just me.
Dav out
Hey, if we can't solve any problems Then why do we lose so many tears? Oh, so you go again When the leading man appears Always the same theme Can't you see We've got ev'rything going on and on and on
Well, now that we've set the tone below (that I'm playing Fallout: New Vegas), I think its safe for me to come out with my very own New Vegas drinking game. I'm pretty sure someone's done this before (no, I haven't Googled it just yet) but here's my spin on things. We'll be using tequila shots to measure the potency of each item, ranging between 1 to 5 shots (at 5 shots, you're the winner, champ!). So get that bottle of José Cuervo (aged, none of that white clear stuff) and your shot glasses, because we're headed to New Vegas!
Note: Drink sensibly. Note # 2: I just noticed the almost pun (really?), Mexico, tequila, Vegas... you feeling this?
1. Take a shot every time you shoot a coyote or scorpion (any type)
This might be a small problem, because at some point in time, you'll end up killing quite a few of these pesky critters (see Hidden Valley, huge spawn point).
Potency: 3 shots of tequila
2. Take a shot every time you run out of ammo (of any type - bullets or energy weapons)
VERY small chance. You might run out of ammo for ONE specific weapon you might have on you, but you're almost never dry in this game. Unless you're that guy that insists on carrying one weapon and it runs empty during a run in with a Deathclaw. Bye, it was nice knowing you.
Potency: 1 shot of tequila (and maybe some milk on the side)
3. Take a shot every time you hear a profanity
DANGER Will Robinson! This might put you over. I cant remember what the rating is on this game, but the colourful language will make it hard to stay sober. Or pick fights with your TV.
Potency: 4 shots of tequila (and a body shot)
4. Take a shot every time you hear an NPC say "Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter" (or something alike)
I'm sorry ma'am, your son died while playing a drinking game based on New Vegas. There's not much left of him, his body burst into flames when we tried to pry him out of the couch. He was just that flammable.
No, seriously.
They say these phrases ALL the time! Among others:
- When I got this assignment I was hoping there would be more gambling. - We won't go quietly, the legion can count on that - Ave. True to Caesar.
Since the longest gaming run I've had so far has been 6 hours, I've been tortured over and over again with these lines (I'm on the NCR end by the way). At one point, I saved the game, and then went all Apocalypse Now in an NCR encampment. That was satisfying.
Potency: 5 shots of tequila and Charlie Sheen crazy eyes thrown into the mix. Good luck and god bless you my son.
So, now you're drunk, and you're crazy like Charlie Sheen. Congrats.
Me, I'm going to play me some more Fallout New Vegas!
Dav out
Nevermind I’ll find someone like you I wish nothing but the best For you too Don’t forget me I beg I’ll remember you said Sometimes it lasts in love But sometimes it hurts instead
So I've been playing quite a bit of Fallout: New Vegas, and I must say, its a pretty polished game. Then again, this is in theory my first exposure to the Fallout world, so what's new and mind blowing to me, might be something old and stale for other people who've played the previous few Fallout games. By now, the developers would have had plenty of time to tweak and fix things that aren't working in terms of gameplay mechanics.
Oh. this gun here? I'm uh, just happy to see you, that's all.
As for the general storyline, I think the developers have managed to build up a very rich atmospheric post apocalyptic world. Interactions with the NPC's, random things to kill and the general world is pretty tight. Of course you cant escape the usual need to grind, but the game spawns plenty of things to shoot and kill, though after a while these chance encounters get a little more easier. I remember cursing the very gods that came up with a Giant Radscorpion, but these days the only things that really give me pause are the Deathclaws (I found me some armour piercing bullets!).
I'm just happy to see you, and want to give you a nice big hug. Just mind the claws there
I'm pretty sure I'm 70% through with the game, and because the game pits you against yourself in 'moral' / 'karma' based activity, I think there should be at least 2 - 3 more rounds of replayability left in the game.
I got held up in traffic the other day, mainly because there was a building fire close to where I live. What got to me was the new fire department uniforms. For some reason, it looks like we've roped in Andy Warhol (and maybe his weight in coke) to design these colour swatches.
You call that a colour pallet?
I can't understand what they were going for. Fire cameo? If it was me, and I was headed into a blazing inferno, I'd like to do it knowing that if I fell over or something, that my buddies would be able to find me in all that smoke and flames and stuff. That's why a lot of first responders and other jobs that require high visibility get issued clothing with luminescent strips. So that they are visible.
Lets look at a simple comparison here. I'd make a uniform that stands out in a fire. A fire where, the bulk of the basic colours you'll be seeing would be either red, orange, red AND orange, and thereabouts.
Bob, Bob! What are you DOING? I can clearly see the guy through all those flames! Jesus man, what have you been smoking?
So lets go with what we have instead:
Oh. My. God. Bob, that is PERFECT! Lets just add in a little more red and orange, and we can safely camouflage ourselves in that fire!
Well I'm pretty sure that will work out real well in practice.
Damn, I should have put on my smoking jacket instead
Dav out
I know the things you wanted
They're not what you have
With all the people talkin'
It's driving you mad
Something I shared internally, maybe also good if it went "external". I'm not the best person out there to approach someone and start a conversation, but I think this is one of those "do or die" kind of things in the world of business (or daily work, its not pleasure, so I'll not lump it in that category).
Most of the time its hard to make the first move. Coming from a technical / IT background, I had to think of steps, test said steps, review, update, and try again. Results of these trials are the holy grail to basic communication and networking with people below.
Q: I don’t know what to say, or how to start the conversation A: No right or wrong way, but why don’t you start the convo the normal way, by introducing yourself, where / what you do and shaking the other person’s hand. An additional tip is to approach someone you feel comfortable with, is not engaged in any conversation with other people, and also looks lost like you.
Q: Ok, shook his / her hand, now what? A: You can speak about anything, but since you don’t know the other person, it would be hard to guess a topic that would interest him / her. Stay neutral for now, and maybe talk about the weather. Then, move on to what the other person does / where they work etc.
Q: Check, now there’s an uncomfortable silence for the both of us. Help! A: Ask them a simple question that’s bound to get them talking, IE: ask them about themselves. You’ve learn what they do from the earlier conversation, maybe try “So how’s business in these days?” or “I don’t come across many people in , is it a very niche / special market?”. Don’t forget to give the other person queues to show that you’re listening, like you agreeing, and maybe nodding.
Q: OMG ITS WORKING! What now? A: Tell them what you do. Don’t just read from the company brochure
Q: Great, I told them what I do in 10 words. Now its quiet again :( A: Be truthful. If the other person mentioned something / some feature / concept that you’re not sure of, ask them about it. EG: "You know, I've seen a lot of stuff on Business Intelligence (BI) lately, thing is, what REALLY is BI anyway?"
Q: Sweet! More talking A: Yes
Q: And? A: And, don’t forget, introduce people you know, to the person you’ve met. If you came to the function with a group of consultants for example, bring the new person over and introduce them to the party. This can also be based on the wingman concept.
Q: Lastly, what if the other person is BOOOOOOORING and stops talking? A: Unless you’re attending a function with ONLY TWO PEOPLE, you can always excuse yourself, and go speak to other people. Remember, other people there are just like you, they are also hoping to speak to someone but haven’t had the chance to. The recommendation here is if you excuse yourself, and them bump into the same person later perhaps when you are leaving the function, is to greet the person and say something like “it was nice talking to you earlier, maybe we’ll bump into each other sometime soon”.
The above is not easy, it only comes with a lot of practice, and sometimes you end up in a very short 5 minute conversation. You have to keep working at it. Some people end up liking it so much that they go on to speak to people in non work environments. Or maybe even make a profit out of it.
Maybe I should turn this into a flow chart . . . . .
{Edit - In response to the ONE comment I've received from Hurk, I'd like to present to you a custom flowchart aimed at this blog post}
Click for bigger image
Dav out
We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we tried to fight it
Well its all over the news by now, but those fake Apple 'Stores' in China are being closed down as we speak. Oddly, they are being closed because some of them do not have a license to operate, and not because they are infringing on any rights of the principal company.
Is this a case of 'creative license' gone too far in terms of mimicking an Apple store, or is really more of "imitation is the best form Of flattery"?
Kudos to the original blogger that brought this to light, but I'm pretty sure this was already known by the locals though no one really bothered to act on it.
Strangely so, Apple has also been mum on this. As long as they are selling genuine products maybe?
The recent news on people brought up for wrong doing (during work at an ex company location) has me thinking, is there even a statute of limitations on what you've done, and if there is, how long back does it go?
Alcatel Lucent, NoW and other companies are feeling the brunt of these issues, but its the people working under the management that's being offered as sacrificial lambs. I'm not saying that these people DIDN'T know what they were doing, but in some cases its what you do on a day to day basis at work and never really think about it later.
No, I don't go around bribing people nor do I hack phones. Haxx0r!
Its just, how long back in time do the need to look before they find something incriminating? I don't want someone to go back 15 years in my past and say they found me drinking a can of Coke at my first job as a store boy just because someone dusted off a VHS of a security cam.
Its an interesting notion, but its something I'm trying not to dwell on.
Overheard @ the restrooms of a hotel after a business meeting:
[A] Uh, this Thursday, besides the afternoon, when else are you free? [B] Well, the morning I guess. [A] That's no good. I'm meeting someone in the morning. What about later? [B] Um, no, I'm not going to be in the office during the afternoon. You already know this. [A] Ah, yeah. Hey, what about 2pm then? The client's available at 2pm. [B] I'll text you, ok?
Now, let me be clear. I'm one of those people who think personal time at the restroom / urinals is just that, personal time. Don't encroach on it by striking up a conversation with me, even more so something related to work.
The thing is, guy [A] obliviously did not really grasp what 'afternoon' means. Or perhaps in their environment its something else all together.
For me, afternoon is anything after 12pm (or 1200 hours). Guy [B] must have had enough and couldn't concentrate on the job at hand, hence him agreeing to what came across as absurd to me.
*shrug* I'm just saying, you know?
Dav out
I remember how we used to talk about the places we would go when we were off and all that we were gonna find. And I remember our seeds grow and how you cried when you saw the first leaves show. The love was pouring from your eyes.
Recently I've been wading through some cruft and trying to sort out what works from the bits that don't.
It's been . . . . challenging.
Actually, no, that's not quite the right word. If I had some duct tape and was able to tape together challenging, painful, confusing, and downright insane, I'd be able to come up with the word I need here.
I'm going to ease off work for a bit.
Just a little bit.
Dav out
Yea right picture that with a kodak And better yet, go to times square Take a picture of me with a kodak Took my life from negative to positive
Canada Day is celebrated on 1st July, the official independence day of Canada. The day commemorates the founding of the Canadian federal government by the British North America Act of 1 July, 1867.
That's for the rest of us who didn't know that it was Canada's birthday last week.
CDN Edit: Rumor has it some other obscure country in that region will shortly be having its own annual celebration of itself. Have not been able to find anymore information about this. Stands to reason though.
I don't really watch all that much TV, and god forbid if it was American Effigies (Idol, Latin!). The thing is, I was watching this documentary on TBM's and there was an advert for the American Idol finals.
Imagine my surprise when I saw this guy's photo:
Hey ma, look at me!
I've never heard him sing, but the only thing that comes to my mind when I look at that photo is Alfred E. Neuman. If you don't know who that is, then you're way too young!
Come on, look at the similarities! What? Me worry? Only if I don't win in American Idol
Its hilarious that they've made that 'Reality TV' show last this long. What is it at now, Season 11? I can't even remember all of the Idols.
Dav out
If you think you're getting away I will prove you wrong I'll take you all the way Boy, just come along hear me when I say Hey
Has anyone ever watched this movie? America 3000. It must be, and this comes from watching Flash Gordonmany, many times, the most camp-est (is that a real word?) movie ever!
I watched it, and of course I overanalyzed it by wondering what the females did if they had a male child (toss him out I guess?), how the male's reproduced (from tossed aside male children?) and if the females were hell bent on killing the males in wars, then why not fix the problem at the root, stop tossing out male kids maybe?
UNLESS! Unless they knew it was some how related to perhaps a 'rule of diminishing returns' that if they started killing males and / or male children, they wouldn't have any more breeding stock?
Uh, sir, I think that' way too much analysis
All in all, I enjoyed the movie enough to want to hunt down a copy of Flash Gordon for a great movie weekend.
Now where did I save that torrent application again.....
That's it, its official! Charlie Sheen's out, Ashton Kutcher is in.
.....
Its a break from the norm, I know, but its all over the news!
Ashton Kutcher has like, a bajilion Twitter fans. I think the big thing producers from the Two and a Half Men sitcom are aiming for would be for him to be able draw in his large younger following to the series. Not to say its a great idea, but just how are they going to write him in?
I've never been a fan of the series, in fact I've only watched it on and off as it is. I never quite found it funny, then again I'm not a die hard Sheen fan as most of the hardcore viewers are (or were?).
What I'm sure of is that Charlie Sheen wouldn't be too happy to hear this. Ashton you've just made a new enemy, one with tiger blood and Adonis DNA.
Would be pretty good to see what goes on now online.
Dav out
Can you meet me halfway, right at the borderline That's where I'm gonna wait, for you I'll be lookin' out, night n'day Took my heart to the limit, and this is where I'll stay
I frequently laze around the house sans watch. I've enough references to the current time as it is (wall clock, 2 phones with huge time displays, the TV, set-top box etc) that I rarely feel the need to wear a watch at home.
The thing is, sometimes I head off to lunch (this is mostly over the weekends) or off to something or another, and I realize that I've gone off without my watch.
For some odd reason, I find it weird not having a watch on but only when I'm out. Its a somewhat . . . . naked feeling. At the same time, when you're out somewhere, and you make that very natural wrist tilt to look at your watch, and then realize its not there. That's ok, till you catch a glimpse of a few people wondering what you're up to.
I think I'm starting to see a wrist watch as something to keep my wrist occupied.
Lets not talk about people with wrist watches that do EVERYTHING and also brew coffee.
Have you ever taken time off to think about how rough your local coffee Barista has it?
He (or she) has to put up with line after line of pompous, pretentious coffee and tea guzzling drones, each with a unique but not almost on the menu order. I've always wondered how they cost and calculate revenue for a normal Chai latte when someone comes up to the counter and asks for half half cream with two pumps of Chai, one shot of expresso and a twist of lemon.
Your local Barista's life has just become a little more darker and colder now after seeing that in the BBC news. Of course, blowing your nose might even do you in, but lets not worry about that shall we? ;)
Dav out
Ja ja jaded You got yo mama's style But you're yesterday's child to me So jaded You think that's where it's at but is that where it's supposed to be
I caught a movie the other night on TV, interestingly titled 'Men who stare at goats'. And what really closed the deal for me was the synopsis on TV that read:
A reporter gets more than he bargains for when he meets a special forces agent who reveals the existence of a secret, psychic military unit.
At the end of the movie, I was a little confused.
Don't shoot! I'm confused as it is!
Just WHAT was the movie about anyway? Was it a feel good military movie? A hippy life finding tour of a down and out journalist who finds camaraderie with a off beat ex military guy?
Or just how the Govt is really doing weird mind games with everyone?
A worry was cloud bursting, damn, what if he hit a plane? I already hate flying . . . . .
Wine drinking, or "Boire du vin" in French! Part two of the last post on buying wine in bulk.
So the first wine bottle I bought was something I tasted, twice in fact!
Hey, it was free, and there wasn't anyone there, ok?
Its a Grand Sud Merlot (2009) produced by Grands Chais de France (red - Merlot, duh). I've not had all that many French wines lately, as its been Chillien or Aussie wines for a long time during dinners, and I must say, I was very, very impressed with this wine.
I'm going to try my best to explain the wine in my own words, pardon the wine-lingo.
The wine was dark red, close to purple, but I could not really say much more (legs etc) as it was served in a small sample cup. I found the wine sweet (but not cloyingly so) and in terms of taste, it was a medium body wine that stayed in the mouth for a while. The after taste would linger (but not for long, perhaps medium?) and over all it was fruity to me. Did I mention that it was sweet? I think (after the second go) it was a dry wine. Hey, I've not opened my bottle, so until I do so, we're sticking with dry!
I think the bottle looks pretty much what a wine bottle should look like, label is clear, though figuring out who makes the wine took a little work and unlike Aussie wines, there wasn't really a logo or an image on it.
Also, its a corked bottle. I'm pretty 50/50 on bottles with cork's or caps, though cap's make it much easier to just pick a bottle up and open. *shrug* The cork industry in Portugal needs the work I guess.
1 bottle down, 3 to go!
Dav out
Oh, it's the best thing that you've ever had The best thing that you've ever, ever had It's the best thing that you've ever had The best thing you've had has gone away
A friend invited me over to a wine sale in a local shopping mall over the weekend, and needless to say, I could not say no to the offer.
What I had in my head was an interesting afternoon, sampling wines and cheeses while acting all hoity-toity to the miscellaneous rabble along the shopping mall concourse. I eagerly brushed up on my wine lingo, ready to ever impress:
Palette
Roof
Bouquet
Body
Aroma
Legs
Breathing the wine
With my bag of word-tricks, I was off, credit card in hand, to meet my destiny.
Little did I know, things would change that day.....
It feels like every time I start the damn thing up, there's an update. I'm talking about the PS3 here. Sure, 'Sorney' wants to make sure their system and software is updated and there are those pesky hackers running around trying to crack the consol, but why, dear lord WHY are there so many updates?
Pirates? Oh come on! New features? Oh come ON!
Anyway, long story short, not having a bigger bandwidth sucks, its like trying to suck quick drying cement through a crazy straw.
Lucky for me, I found out (OK so I'm slow, sue me)that you're able to download the update to a USB stick and then run the update off that instead of directly downloading the update via the PS3. EVERYONE must already know of this, but here's a link to the Sony PS3 site anyway.
One of the most complex efforts toward a quantum computer has been shown off at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas in the US.
It uses the strange "quantum states" of matter to perform calculations in a way that, if scaled up, could vastly outperform conventional computers.
The 6cm-by-6cm chip holds nine quantum devices, among them four "quantum bits" that do the calculations.
The team said further scaling up to 10 qubits should be possible this year.
Rather than the ones and zeroes of digital computing, quantum computers deal in what are known as superpositions - states of matter that can be thought of as both one and zero at once.
I'm already drooling.Imagine the technological push this will give us, cancer research, gaming, etc.
Its shaping up to be a pretty good day. So far its just been a lazy morning, a slow breakfast and now a margarita with a random book I bought at a sale (Chaos Space - Marianne de Pierres).
Think I'll continue to take it easy, the month owes me that much at least.
Microsoft has found yet another way to annoy me! Now, with Windows Live Messenger 2011 (or the Windows Live suit) you not only get an updated version of MSN Messenger, but its now more tightly integrated with all sorts of services that you never wanted.
First major issue, advertising. Windows Live Messenger sees fit to inject an advertisement right smack on your chat box, taking up space and distracting you till you KILL it with a click of the (x) button. Problem is, that sucker comes right on back if you close the chat window (which I do, REGULARLY!).
Hello, I'm here to bother you till you curl up in a cave and die
So I Googled around and it seemed for a while that you could only get rid of the advertising by either downloading a 3rd party patch or haxing your b0x (editing some registry so your machine doesn't 'see' the advertising URL / feed).
But you can breathe a sigh of relief, because apparently this site details exactly how you can disable said advertising without any patches and registry edits (its actually a checkbox within Live).
All your base are belong to us, and we can switch off adverts too now
Other issues are mainly how you're not really able to just save your email login info without your password (its now email AND password together) which makes it harder to stop someone from logging into your account if you leave your machine without locking it. Oh and the Social integration. Why? Why do I want to go down that slippery road?
I had an extended weekend due to a string of holidays, and exhausting my game library (I finished KillZone 2!), I thought I'd try watching some news on either CNN or BBC. What with all the stuff going on in Egypt and the rest of the world, I was a little worried that I was becoming a hermit. Or that something you find under an upturned rotting log.
I digress.
So I switch on to CNN and I see this:
Kate Middleton's Royal-Blue Dress Sold Out
Blue Dresses - Kate Middleton's style
Stylish blue dress picked by Kate
Kate's Fashion Sense - Blue is the new Black!
Issa London dress the princess-to-be
Issa London cuts Kate Middleton a figure
Issa London's blue dress sold out thanks to Kate Middleton
Rolled with the gang and had Yee Sang again the other day, and had a second helping of it during a company lunch as well. That's TWO salad's I've had this year so far and counting.
*TWO*
Think I'm maxing out my quota for salads in 2011 real quick.
So anyway:
Yee sang or yuu sahng (simplified Chinese: 鱼生; pinyin: yúshēng), also known as lo hei (Cantonese for 撈起 or 捞起) is a Teochew-style raw fish salad. It usually consists of strips of raw fish (most commonly salmon), mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. Yusheng literally means "raw fish" but since "fish (鱼)" is commonly conflated with its homophone "abundance (余)", Yúshēng (鱼生) is interpreted as a homophone for Yúshēng (余升) meaning an increase in abundance. Therefore, yusheng is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.
Wiki that 'yo!
So Happy Chinese New Year to all.
Dav out
If you only knew what the future holds After a hurricane comes a rainbow
So over the weekend I watched Season of the Witch at the cinema. Any movie with Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Mutant Chronicles and soon Conan the Barbarian) as Crusaders with the Black Plague thrown in is a movie I'd want to watch for sure!
First thing's first, yes, Cage still has weird hair.
Check, weird hair. (Maybe I should just set fire to my hair and be done with it)
Ron Perlman on the other hand, looks pretty much the same. (I am a man. No, a man's MAN!)
When both of them fist came on screen at the same time (wasn't too bad of a battle), first thing that came to mind was "Wow, these guys are tall!". Nick Cage is 6' (1.83 m) and Ron is 6' 1" (1.85 m) (I Googled, so sue me!). Which is nice to know, since I'm in the same height range *win!*
Though not 10 minutes into the movie, and I started wondering, wait, where are the witches?
Highlight over for spoilers:
THERE ARE NO WITCHES! Well, ONE witch, maybe. I'm not sure.
Hey, you pay good money to watch witches, and I wana watch witches!
So yeah. That was pretty much my major beef with the movie. The scenes were ok, some of them paced well. Can't say I have a favorite scene though, besides the initial battle.
Really unrelated to anything I've posted before, but I was reading about tigers and the wild, and then I found a post about a tigress eating her cub. Wiki-crack (yes, its a word!) and I found Ranthambhore (its a tiger sanctuary!) and then I came across the fun fact that Katy Perry and British comedian Russell Brand were married there (October 23, 2010).
Then, via the amazing powers of Google, I came across the picture above. Look at them. Hell, look at HIM.
So, why's the universe askew now?
Dav out
To be a joke and look, another line without a hook I held you close as we both shook for the last time take a good hard look!
I'm a geek. I love technology as much as the next guy (or girl!). I own a Windows Mob 6.5 phone as well as the cheapest possible Blackberry on the market (mostly for work). Yes, the windows mobile phone OS is getting on, Win Mob 7 isn't quite there yet, and I think Android is the next best thing since sliced bread.
Home made sliced bread. Thickly sliced.
But Apple, wow. Now I can't get my head around Apple and its products.
Yes, they make amazing hardware, and amazing software to go with said products. But at those prices, and at those feature-functions? Damn, costs a bit much no?
