My last post was roughly June 19, 2012. Since then, I've been mainly hiding, because of the cops.
I was hoping to sell my story to MGM or some other movie studio, but then McAfee had to show up and go completely bat-sh*t insane. No one's going to want to buy my story now when compared to his?
I'm Tony Stark after a weekend of drinking
I've given up trying to out-bat-shit-insane him. Its just not possible. Or it is, but its not worth my liver.
I'm like, yeah, so maybe its on their logo or on cups or something. Turns out I'm wrong. Oh. So. Wrong.
"Starbucks Corp said on its blog on Thursday that it will stop using a natural, government-approved coloring made from crushed beetles in its strawberry flavoring by late June, bowing to pressure from some vegetarian customers."
Wow. Crushed bugs? Seems like Starbucks has been using the extract in its strawberry frappuccinos and smoothies, as well as some deserts like raspberry swirl cake.
Lucky I'm not a strawberry frapp kinda guy
I'm more of a cheese cake person
Turns out that this isn't a new thing. Wikipedia says that the dye has been in use since the 15th century to dye material a deep crimson colour.
Now, FYI, this is what goes into your drink (ground up of course):
Shaken, not stirred please
Once you get over the whole "There's BUGS IN MY COFFEE?" it seems like this is pretty much a normal thing, the US FDA says its ok with them.
Uh, mom, why's that barista crushing something to a bloody pulp and adding it to my drink?
Well veterinarians vegetarians all around the world should be able to breathe a sigh of releif as Starbucks will be amending their recipes to make use of lycopene, a natural, tomato-based extract.
Next we'll have this happen and give up on that as well.
We should have used beetles instead!
Dav out
I like it like that! Hey windows down, chillin’ with the radio on I like it like that! Damn, the sun’s so hot, make the girls take it all off I like it like that! Yeah, one more time, I can never get enough of everybody Sing it right back, I like it like that!
Recently I've been peppered by a different kind of pop, namely K-Pop. I blame MTV (MTV Asia to be precise) because they tend to lace their normal music video programms with K-Pop music videos.
From what I've seen so far Korean Pop (K-Pop) comprises of a special formula:
Male artist - androgynous
Female artist - as many as you can pack into a bus
Female artist - legs, as many as you can pack into a bus
Any artist - must be able to say these words in English - "Yeah. Oh baby. Yes. OK etc"
Not afraid of glitter and makeup
Seriously, some of these Korean bands have up to 13 members.
Thirteen.
Hi, can we just have the band in here please? Oh, you ARE the band?
Its not surprising that many of the female bands dress the way they do, its a multi million dollar (Won or Won, you pick) industry. Being sexy translates into more album sales, and more work.
For the Korean won before the North–South division, see Korean won.
I'm not going to throw around K Pop band names, that's what Google is there for. Super Junior, Wonder Girls, 4 Minutes by the way are just to name a few. Band shelf life goes from anywhere between 6 months to 10 years, depending on the Scoville scale of how hot you are.
One bit of news I found a little amazing while reading up on K Pop is that there have been plans by South Korea to weaponize it, just to annoy the hell out of North Korea. Just imagine playing Avicii - Levels, over and over again just because your idiot neighbor does home improvement work on a Sunday morning.
These aren't cute girls, they're actually Voltron in disguise. You just need to know how to assemble them the right way
I think the boots market should be doing very well in Korea.
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
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
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
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 . . . . .
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?
No, I did not just sign up for the Dr Seuss Class for Rhymes, I really have issues with my shoes. I can never get anything I like in my size.
I'm a UK 11. Depending on the cut of the shoes, its sometimes a UK 12. I have 2 pairs of leather shoes I wear for work, but even those were from the UK.
I need a pair of canvas of loafers. Woes me, none of the local stores seem to carry any sizes above 10 UK over here.
Sure, there are some 11 and 12 UK sized shoes, but most of them are sneakers (Nike / Rebook etc) for basketball.
Call me crazy, but I don't want to be chilling out in shorts with a pair of basketball shoes on. You just cant do that man, its against the very fabric of space and time.
Also, I'm going for the sock-less look for 2010.
Wish me luck with my shoe hunt!
Dav out
PS: Do NOT like the new way Blogger pushes images into the blog, sure, there's left / right / center etc but its hell trying to format the post.
Its been a slow couple of weeks for me, so I was browsing YouTube and came across 2 movies that caught my attention.
The first, is Gamer. Now, I just watched RocknRolla the other day, so to me, it seems like Gerard Butler is everywhere these days (mostly because a few weeks ago the movie "P.S. I Love You" also played on the telly).
Seems like a fun twist on movies based on video games. Why don't we make a movie based on a video game used in a movie! Or.... something.
Some fast paced action as per the YouTube link, lots of interesting choices of rifles so it should be good just for the action sequences.
Next up is ZombieLand.
Wait.
ZOMBIELAND! There, much better.
It has Woody Harrelson, who's usually good in these off beat kind of comedy movies.
One thing I did notice was the break from the norm in that the zombies don't just shuffle around, they POUNCE. Take that you zombies!
Its only apt that I end the post with a classic video from the awesome guys of RvB
Ok so I tend to skew the blog title post a little. Sue me. Wait, don't sue me. I was reading the BBC as I usually do and came across this interesting article.
It seems that a lady (see: Deranged in the dictionary) chucked a mug at the Mona Lisa painting. A direct cut and paste from the BBC article:
Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece was completely unscathed, as the ceramic mug smashed on bullet-proof glass surrounding the painting.
Bullet proof glass, ftw!
I guess it was a smart move putting in the glass, seeing as how this isn't the first time someone's tried to tag the painting.
Another gold nugget from Mossy (Green Molasses Dragon).
Apparently, unions have such a control over things over there in the US of A. When a company wanted to accommodate waterless urinals (I'm shocked there really is such a thing!)to receive some green sticker or another, they were blocked by the Plumber's Union since waterless urinal's would mean less work for the union.
No, really. Plumbers. Making sure they had work to do.
