Oh yeah, I also saw Moon this past week. I've never seen 2001, but I imagine the aesthetics of and robot character G.E.R.T.I.E. in Moon were all homages to it. Duncan Jones (director, and son of David Bowie) and Clint Mansell (Requiem for a dream, and music) did a great job creating a bleak lunarscape and isolated atmosphere for Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) accurately. The effects were awesome as well, using a lot of practical effects/models and foregoing the CGI  magic everybody and their mother lazily uses nowadays.

I'm not going to spoil any plot points (if you've seen the trailer then you already know the twist), but the major reveal occurs within the first like 10-15 minutes anyway. Rockwell was awesome and got to display some range (i've always been a fan), and I don't know about you, but I want my future to be populated by robots voiced by Kevin Spacey and that calm, soothing tone.

But Moon is a thinking man's scifi movie, and I certainly appreciate that in this otherwise cerebral draught we call Summer-Movie-Season (I'm still going to watch G.I. Joe on opening night, so I'm not in some high, cinematic tower).

Was it worth the drive to Berkeley? Sure why not. The Landmark on Shattuck was really nice, and I always like going back to my first hometown and birthplace. Like salmon...like salmon.

Well, I'm a little bit older and a little bit wiser, and I've decided to write something. As an update, I'm semi-officially graduated from undergraduate college, and I'm working now in this job market, and ever-so-grateful for that. Those chemistry courses I said I was going to take a few posts back? Yeah those haven't been done yet. 2 semesters of chemistry prevent me from obtaining my diploma, so we'll just see how that shakes out. I've always wanted to be the 32 year old dude at the back of the classroom that people don't really know what to make of. Now I get to entertain that fantasy, it would seem.

I'm now working full-time at C3, LLC as a policy analyst, and generally in awe of my coworkers and everything they do. We're going to do some great and awesome things in our space, and obviously I can't talk much about it due to my NDA. But when we're up and out there, you'll probably find out more.

Still living at home, trying to accumulate a war-chest so I can move out eventually and live closer to work, or in the City. But overall, feeling blessed that I have a place to go everyday and do something I believe in.

and i'd just like to add, that Danny Boyle is currently one of my favorite directors. you know, despite the lack of real persistence on my part to view all the work in his portfolio (still need to watch Trainspotting and Sunshine, among others). Also, whoever this A.R. Rahman is, he also did an amazing job with the score for slumdog.

So i'm a pathological liar or an abusive blogger. Lock me up. By criminalizing lying on the internet you're just wrapping up billions of taxpayer dollars for minor offenses in a penal system that has just been perverted by power and money and unions and wasting everybody's time/energy/money/patience and turned into this overcrowded, grotesque-money-hole. What's that? I'm being subversive? oh you, get OUT of here.

I'm like that terrible father who says hes just going out for some cigarettes and you don't see him for like 15 years and he comes back randomly for one christmas and you're like, what the fuck dad? where have the child support checks been going? Into your bottle of Jim Bean? And i'm like, "SHUT UP, I'M NOT YOUR REAL DAD AND I NEVER WANTED THIS RESPONSIBILITY!"

Yikes, I think the absence from writing has made me, how do we put this delicately? batshit insane.

Things have changed since...May of this past year. I'm blogging from a shiny new MacBook running Leopard 10.5.5. How you like them apples, Microsoft? I've become THAT guy--the snooty elitist mac owner like the anthropomorphized Mac Mr. Justin Long. I've become slightly bitter and cynical about my long-time passion, CALPIRG, and so very burnt out from grassroots organizing on campus. I've become whiny when it comes to leadership and its really quite sad. I'm unmotivated and uninspired to fully exploit my learning in all of my classes, and I've kind of become a bum. But i'm a happy bum, and i don't really know what to make of that.

More introspective stuff later, but i'm tired. It's been a lovely day spent going to a perennial favorite of mine, Bonne Sante in Burlingame (thank you very much Ms. Lee), watching the amazing Slumdog Millionaire, and a stellar night of NCAA football. Let's hope that Big 12 South sorts itself out.

Just kidding, backing out on that contract. Breaching it, baby.

Twitter's just so much...easier and better...

What a bad ass title for a blog post. But yes, I'll make a contract with you, the overall internet, to try this social experiment yet again.

...also because it's summer and I have hours upon hours of free time, because I am a bum.

Applying for an internship with the Siebel Foundation. (Yes, that Siebel) I think I'm sticking around for the summer, taking some chemistry classes at De Anza in late June.

RIP for the thousands in the Schezuan province.

I am an attention whore. To toot my own horn, they are fantastic and freakishly realistic.

http://digg.com/gaming_news/The_Office_complete_cast_as_Mii_s_looks_JUST_like_them#c5120442

or if you're lazy and don't like clicking

http://www.flickr.com/photos/n1c2c8/sets/72157594516670929/

And I love him. Having never had the joy of owning a REAL pet as a child (and twenty-some-odd golfish are now rolling in their aquatic graves), I now have the great opportunity to raise a cold, lifeless mechanical entity! The robot in question?

iRobot's Roomba Scheduler. See, we were out on a mission this Saturday, and we went to Costco, and we were looking to buy a heavy-duty vacuum cleaner when we stumbled upon this fella, just looking at us with its blank LED eye-beacon thing, just short of wagging its tail, if it had one. It was between this Hoover monstrosity or the autonomous super-bot, and I think you know what happened next. Impulse buy? You bet your ass.

But once we read more and more of the features on the box, it was like we were looking at the Steven Hawking of vaccum cleaning devices compared to Some Rock. And it might have even been an intelligent rock, but it didn't stand a chance. No sir.

Hurray for technology!

Bastards.

Why can't you people tolerate some poor sap who apparently can't ride a bike to save his life? Yeah, hi. That was me. The dude on the 20+ year old Schwinn bicycle swerving left and right and looking like I didn't even know how to ride. Some complaints:

A) Fuck you old people. Please walk at a brisker pace. Your mechanical hips entitle you to this. Nay, demand you.

B) For people that like to think they are clever and witty, thanks for making snide remarks instead of seeing if I was ok when I seemingly lost balance while standing still and falling over. I have to explain, my brakes don't work, so slowing down is a dangerous feat in itself, involving Fred Flinstonian physics.
Lady: I hope you're biking drunk!
To which i wanted to reply
Me: I hope you're a fucking bitch, but not knowing you personally or the circumstances of why you said that to me, I'm not even going to be so bold as to assume you are one!

C) Fucking cars that use the bike lane as a second lane, and then cars that run yellow lights when pedestrians (and bikers!) have the right of way, like right in front of me, when i don't have any brakes. You get the picture. Needless to say, i got to embarass myself and humble myself many times today, in front of tons of people on public LA roads.

And they say people don't like biking. Pfffft.

...bastards.

Been a while, hasn't it? Yeah, i missed you guys too.

So my bike was stolen today, no joke. Funny thing this time is, only my front wheel remains. The front wheel, which i bought last week for 42 dollars, and my Kryptonite lock. You know, just to have the irony set in, last year over christmas break, i was smart enough to leave my bike outside Pardee, and my front wheel was stolen. This time i was treated to the opposite. I appreciate those fucking thieves's (or the universe's) twisted sense of humor. I give them props for that one. And just to compound the bizarre string of crime and theft targeted at me and my family, i will present two seperate, but related anecdotes.

My cousin Natasha, currently attending this instituion for grad school in Annenberg, had her car window smashed in and GPS unit stolen. Now this car is located in a parking garage beneath the very apartment she resides in. Entrance into said garage can only be gained by using either a garage remote, or a key. Apparently she joins the roster of other recent car-item-theft victims in the past week or two, from the same garage/building.

My brother im's me the other day to inform me that my car window was smashed in AGAIN. I assume he was driving my ML into the city to help move items from his home to his new home, but good lord! 2nd time in just as many months. Last time was Superman in the city, this time it's....Albert's thing in the city. Great. I just find it comical now. Which is probably just bitter cynicism taking hold.

Then i find out that a friend had her bike stolen recently as well. I think i'm just unlucky, or it just may be that suburb i live in called Watts, and its geographic location in South Central LA. University of Spoiled Children, indeed.

I've been busy with school and shit. 20 credit course load sure has its perks (surprisingly calm actually with little work load...oh damn i just jynxed myself.) I'll do some dedicated movie review post when i feel like it, sheeeesh. Just to keep score, i think its...the Descent, Little Miss Sunshine, Talladega Nights, Who Killed the Electric Car, Scanner Darkly. Damn that's a lot.

And because i'm really bad and also lazy, someday i plan to upload all my China photos, because they're tight.

I also get my glasses this weekend, i'm so hyped!

Sooooooooo i says to myself, "Nelson, you should check your USC email, just for kicks!" And lo and behold i find out that hey! somebody's contacted me about Regal Trojan 06-07 Parking Availability!!!! And seeing how this message was delivered unceremoniously and serreptitiously to my inbox YESTERDAY at 2 pm (when i had just awoken), there was no chance in hell i was going to get the damn thing. So i go through my motions, thinking i have some god-given remote chance that i'll solve all my problems, all my ills with this purchased, paper panacea. It's sold out. Again i am reminded of my ditzy incompetence and inability to get ANYTHING freaking done, and now i'm just ranting about myself.

This blows.

Parking permits can suck it.

Who Killed the Electric Car and A Scanner Darkly reviews forthcoming.

Here we go here we go here we go. I'm gonna pull a stone-age on this one, i'm only going to bring a phone and my camera, AND NOTHING ELSE. This'll be interesting, really. I don't even think i can do it.  I really hope, on the plane, that i'll be able to watch the Shaggy Dog again, because i swear to god, westbound to hawaii, Shaggy Dog, month later, eastbound to continent, Shaggy Dog again.  The people must love Tim Allen.

I'm going to buy a little red book. You bet your ass.

Anyway, g'bye folks, see you all in 10 days, after i have conquered some stupid great wall. See you all on the mainland.

As it hits up into the 100's this past week on average, the Seville Classics rotating tower fan has become my lover and best friend. And saviour. Praise be to technology!

So...i was up until 2 am last night watching the end of the HBO-BBC series Rome (the one HBO Legal in New York contacted me about, you remember, the one that said Cease and Desist for "taking" an episode off the internets via torrent), and i gotta say, holy fucking shit that show is SO hardcore.  There is more sex, gore, violence, swearing, and overall Roman behavior than everything on television combined. Like wow.

Also, the dropping of my Xbox 360 from an airport platform evidently messed up the harddrive on it, which puts the tally of Nelson's Broken Hard-drives at about 3. or 4. I lost count, it's become such a regular occurence that the cake i get to celebrate each one has become to taste so very boring and stale. Effing-A, now i have to buy another hd for like a hundred something bucks. Whoopty doo!

In the past 48 hours, I have spent probably 5 of them watching movies. One with the lovely Miss Mitchell and the other with the brilliant Miss Lee. The two movies in question? Why, they're The Devil Wears Prada and Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest, respectively!

The Devil Wears Prada
I never thought i'd see the day where i would use 'Meryl Streep' and 'delicious' in the same sentence, but here it goes: Meryl Streep performed deliciously in this film, or to be more succinct, Meryl Streep was delicious. She made this movie for me, and without her uber, chilly Cruella DeVille, i would have been disappointed, but instead i came out feeling i had seen a tolerable, "cute" little romcom. Oh yeah, her and Tucci. I love me some Stanley Tucci.

Anne Hathaway, whom everybody calls "fatty", perpetrates the whole 21st century, urban Cinderella plot, becomes a princess (ohhhh snap! she was in princess diaries!!!1) in the process, only to throw it all away after she sees what a monster her career has made her. Gee, didn't see that one coming. What i found most intriguing wasn't the predictable and happy-go-lucky denouemont, but the climax, the little conversation between Anne's...Andy and Streep's Miranda. That shit was tight, and Streep was delicious.

Pirates (the rest of the title is far too long)
In a word, entertaining. In three words, entertaining and LONG-AS-HELL This badboy clocks in at two hours, thirty minutes. After countless scenes of KRAKEN!!! i found myself peering at the ol' timepiece one too many times, which is never a good sign. Maybe my 12 year-old a.d.d. self had a lapse of existence, or maybe i'm just cranky and hot, but i wanted the damn thing to end. Get with the plotsing, the actioning, and setting-up-itty of the third one...ness. I can't wait for Chow Yun-Fat to pull out two beretta's in the third movie after he walks out on deck, and all these doves fly out of the cargo hold, spit out his cigarette and go foosh foosh foosh kchow kchow! slow motion off the side of the boat as it explodes when a speedboat flies through the pirate ship. Hell yes.

*Ahem* I digress. While i enjoyed the second film more than the first, and i understand that i'm in the minority with this opinion, i will assert that there were, in fact, too many sideplots. A sideplot for every character it seemed! Why would anyone even care about the main story anymore when one has to worry about all the periphery goings-on AND expect said plotline to genuinely resolve and provide catharsis knowing the existence of the third film? I completely just stopped caring about what happened, knowing i would have to wait another 10 months before i could be satisfied or get any real answers.

And just to ruin this film for the unlucky few who actually read this blog, what the hell is up with the dead guy from the first one (Rush) coming back at the end of the second one? What the fuck is up with that? Anyway, go see this movie if you like pirates, and standard Bruckheimer explosive affairs. This is like THE ultimate popcorn summer movie, and go see it if you want to see Keira Knightley being a general bitch to people, Orlando Bloom looking womanly, and Depp being...Sparrow-y. Oh yes, there's also a love triangle, which works out great because a lot of the people's hats in this movie are, strangely enough, shaped like triangles. Weird, huh? First film was tighter overall, second felt all loosey-goosey and lame-like.

i stand by my statement that a genuine, serious Ninja film should be made to counter this pirate-fever. Nay, a trilogy of genuine, serious, legit ninja films. Ninjas > Pirates > Cowboys, this is the law of the universe.

On a seperate but relatead note, i embark upon the journey of watching the Magnificent Seven as we speak, when i should be packing for the actual, physical journey of the morrow to Beijing (oh, how i love the lulling drone of the Pratt and Whitney JT9D engines, like a mother's soothing songs) or retrofitting ol' ironsides and bringing the gen 4 iPod out of retirement. Because some fucker smashed my rear window in the city and boosted my laptop bag, the contents of which included my iPod with video, which i was borrowing from my dad. Yikes.

In happier news, i just got me this:

I love the Bay Area, but good lord it is as hot as Hades's arsehole.  It's barely 9 AM and its already like in the high 70's...this is unacceptable.  Something is afoot when it's cooler near the equator than up here in Cali.

but remember, its NOT global warming. psh, don't be such an alarmist.

I make awesome nachos.


So it was a lie, it's not a quick note. On a completely unrelated and more calamitous note and on Lebanon:
So...we're just going to let Israel continue to pound the shit out of Lebanon? We're going to let them clear out the entire area of any Hezbollah threat even if that means killing hundreds, if not thousands, of civillians? Right.

That's the bitter medicine that will make everyone all smiles 5, 10, 15 years from now...not that ceasefire that Secretary of State Rice seemed to dismiss. Some kid loses his sister, mother, and father when a laser-guided, American-made smart bomb lands on his house, we expect him to grow up to love democracy and be tolerant and not be anti-semitic and anti-american? Am I missing something here? Letting one country beat the crap out of the other is supposed to stabilize a rapidly deteriorating region how, exactly?

And Hezbollah, what stupid fucks. No western power is ever going to negotiate with terrorists, no matter the demands. They could have taken those soldiers in exchange for some of my nachoes, it wouldn't have mattered. Kidnapping those two IDF soldiers was the stupidest thing they could have possibly done, and now they've brought down the self-righteous hellfire and brimstone of F-15E fighters and M1A1 tanks. Raining Iranian rockets onto Haifa really seems to strengthen their argument there.

Do any of these parties realize that the more death and destruction dealt now will only bite everyone's asses in the future? Extremism is bred, born, and festers in this environment. Israel hits hard, civillians either hate Hezbollah for bringing this upon them or hate Israel for being so heavy handed. Hezbollah/Terrorists retaliate and blow up communities, those survivors become more right-leaning and hawks. Pattern here?

/rant off

I had a great Lost moment though. Turns out, our house "beeps" whenever the power goes out (strangely enough) courtesey of these badboys.
Every four seconds. 1...2...3...4...OMINOUS BEEP...1...2...3...It's like there's two minutes winding down and somebody's gotta push that button! Unfortunately, the house here did not come with a previous tenant with a thick Scottish and Peruvian accent calling everyone "brother".

Yes, i am that geeky and hopeless.

So good news everybody, Peter Cullen is the voice of Optimus Prime in Michael Bay's yet-to-be hackery called Transformers. Peter Cullen's claim to fame? Voicing Optimus Prime in the original Transformers cartoons. Can I hear a hell yeah?! Tellin ya, all that needs to be done is a Spielberg-helmed live-action GI Joe movie to complete the trifecta of childhood IPs gone through the time machine to paint a fat, stupid grin on my face as an adult. (Joining TMNT and Transformers)

T-minus 8ish hours until one hellish flight. I'm hyped.

Finally. About freaking time.

I get to return to *really really* sunny and hot, so i hear, California. You know something's afoot when it's hotter there than here. And i'm the one closer to the equator. So looking forward to home and this J5 concert at the Fillmore, not looking forward to the redeye flight and the heat. Check.

This parking fiasco is making me depressed. Seriously, there's like no work-around i can currently concoct for this. It will take some sort of bureacratic derring-do and genius to even imagine a solution. Damn.

Pictures from a few weeks ago when the Chen clan wined and dined with the Mitchell tribe at the Plantation Clubhouse (delicious, delicious food.) I want you to look hard for a common theme among clothing, especially the Chen males







Link of the day:
The photorgraphy of Trey Ratcliff, some guy in Texas who travels everywhere and takes amazing shots of things and HDRizes them (high dynamic range imaging)

Wow, another day, another series of non-events.  I guess i could write about how fucked up everything is right now in the world, here at home as well as over there in the Middle East, but I'm very tired.  Perhaps tomorrow when i'm in ranting spirits.  

Just two more days.  Two more days and I get to go home for a blink of an eye before I have to go to China with my family for another 10 days.  Still no word on the parking situation, and I'm starting to get worried about that...

Link of the day:
The Show with Zefrank.