Snapshots.

This post is long overdue, but I just want to express my feelings on this whole ridiculous situation. News hit last night that 2pm member and leader Jaebom is leaving Korea and the group due to the backlash that he received from (mainly) Korean netizens about his myspace post from 2005-2007. He was born and raised in America and was picked up by JYP so he can train to be an entertainer in Korea. He was a trainee from 2005 till 2pm debuted in 2008. Korean artists have a hard life, they train 24/7 for years so that they can HOPE to debut some day. They train so hard even though stardom is not a guarantee; Jaebom and the rest of 2pm was lucky enough to debut and during the past year, they shot to stardom and is one of the most popular groups in kpop right now. However, just before their one year anniversary, Korean netizens dug up his old myspace posts from 05-07 that basically said he hated Korea (his exact words were korea is “gay”) and Korean people and how he wanted to go home. At first I thought wow, this kid really needs to learn better vocab and stop trying to act such a typical American teen. Although his word choice was questionable, his feelings at the time certainly weren’t. Netizens WENT CRAZY and posted horrible things online, they went so far as to create a suicide petition; telling Jay to quit and kill himself because he will never work in Korea again. Well, it worked. They effectively killed Jaebom’s hopes and dreams and forced him out of 2pm (and Korea). I was totally speechless when I first heard the news because I never thought it would escalate to this point. I’m not a huge fan of 2pm, but I do enjoy their music. I watched them debut and watched their popularity rise on music charts and also in variety shows. They really are a great group of guys that brought laughter wherever they are. Jaebom was never my favorite in the group but the way these netizens treated him just proved what he wrote was true all along; they are so quick to judge and want their idols to be perfect human beings. What really disgusts me is that these netizens want to be forgiven; so they wanted Jaebom to accept responsibility for what he wrote (and he did it with grace), now they aren’t willing to accept their role in destroying his career? Karma really is a bitch!

What’s done is done, 2pm definitely won’t be the same, but I eagerly await the boy’s comeback no matter how long it takes. A word to JYP: don’t find a member to replace him, 2pm will never be whole again, but trying to patch it up would be more messy. It’s a shame that all this happened before their first album is suppose to come out next month, for now, I will listen to songs from their mini albums again & again…

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Hilarious PSA

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:18:50 -0500

via youtube.com

Yea… I have no words but HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.

A more disturbing PSA about the danger of AIDS: http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/38893493.html... SO WRONG!

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TRON Lego Playset via GeekTyrant

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:51:07 -0500

via geektyrant.com

Way cool!

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Unusual Fonts

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:33:09 -0500

via beautifullife.info

More amazing fonts! view source for more :D

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Amazing 3D Murals

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:23:55 -0500

via beautifullife.info

Yea… looking at these make my head hurt

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Sketchbook

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:21:28 -0500

via beautifullife.info

Most amazing doodling I have ever seen… see all creative sketches at the source.

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Amazing Fonts

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:16:03 -0500

via beautifullife.info

These fonts are so unique… Teddy bear one is my fav! More fonts at the source

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Snow Leopard reviews roundup via TUAW

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:13:16 -0500

With only a few hours more to wait until the packages start arriving and the stores start selling Snow Leopard, the reviews are beginning to pour in. To summarize: it’s faster, it’s (mostly) stable, yay new Finder, mostly yay new QuickTime (good thing you can still install the QuickTime 7 player), and in the words of our colleagues at Engadget: “Here’s the thing about Snow Leopard, the single inescapable fact that hung over our heads as we ran our tests and took our screenshots and made our graphs: it’s $30. $30!”

Uncle Walt Mossberg at AllThingsD: “Overall, I believe Snow Leopard will help keep the Mac an appealing choice for computer buyers, and I can recommend it to existing Mac owners seeking more speed and disk space, or wanting to more easily use Exchange. But I don’t consider Snow Leopard a must-have upgrade for average consumers. It’s more of a nice-to-have upgrade. If you’re happy with Leopard, there’s no reason to rush out and get Snow Leopard.”

Gizmodo’s Brian Lam: “Challenging 30 years of ever more bloated software tradition, the changes here are about becoming a more effective middleware between the media and the hardware, reducing friction while becoming more useful by, well, being lighter, less visible.”

Macworld’s Jason Snell: “Failing a massive makeover, then, we’ve got to take joy in the little gifts that Snow Leopard gives us. And there are a lot of them. I’d like to pick my favorite, but the fact is, they’re all small enough that I can’t really choose one. But if I could gather up the whole lot of them in my arms, I’d give them a hug.”

Ed Baig at USA Today: “In my experience, Mac OS X was already a superior operating system to Windows. With Exchange and other technologies, Snow Leopard adds bite, especially for business. But as upgrades go, this one is relatively tame.”

Wired’s Brian X. Chen: “This upgrade won’t deliver any radical interface changes to blow you away (not that we would want it to), but the price is more than fair for the number of performance improvements Snow Leopard delivers.”

Jason Parker at CNET: “Overall, we think that Snow Leopard did almost everything Apple says it set out to do: it refined and enhanced Leopard to make it easier to use. Though the system performs well in everyday use, many of our tests indicate it is slightly slower than the older version of Leopard in more intensive application processes. Still, we highly recommend upgrading for all the new features and Microsoft Exchange support.”

David Pogue in the NYT: “[I]f you’re already running Leopard, paying the $30 for Snow Leopard is a no-brainer. You’ll feel the leap forward in speed polish, and you’ll keep experiencing those “oh, that’s nice” moments for weeks to come. If you’re running something earlier, the decision isn’t as clear cut; you’ll have to pay $170 and get Snow Leopard with Apple’s creative-software suites — whether you want them or not. Either way, the big story here isn’t really Snow Leopard. It’s the radical concept of a software update that’s smaller, faster and better — instead of bigger, slower and more bloated. May the rest of the industry take the hint.”

…and the aforementioned Engadget review, with lots of delightful videos (captured with QuickTime X’s new screencasting feature).

via tuaw.com

All the reviews for Snow Leopard under one roof!

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Review: Inglourious Basterds

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:55:00 -0500

Before I start, let me just say that this is probably the best movie of 2009 (so far), but I am totally biased. I’m a Tarantino freak and in my eyes, the man can do no wrong. Sure, he is a bit of a weirdo and is kind of douche, but he is brilliant!

The first Quentin Tarantino film I saw was Kill Bill vol. 1. The film (vol.1 and vol. 2) still remain as my favorite Tarantino film to date, but after I saw it, I immediately went and spent the next few months obsessing over the movie and the director himself. With the song “Twisted Nerve” still fresh on my mind, I rented Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown. After watching these films, I was officially a Tarantino fan. His unique form of storytelling, using distinct angles and shots, and the alluring music in each of his films make for a truly mind-blowing viewing experience; simply put, when you watch a Tarantino film, you KNOW, without a doubt, that you are watching a Tarantino film.

The opening scene is often one of my favorite moments in his movies. The scene always starts off in a quiet, serene setting but often leads to an explosive ending. From the hand to hand combat between The Bride and Vernita Green in Kill Bill vol.1, to the civilized conversation between a SS officer and a dairy farmer suspected of harboring Jews in Inglourious Basterds, the opening scene often reveals a lot about the nature of the characters involved and sets the movie off on a high note. The rest of the film builds upon that starting high note and veers onto an unpredictable path that grasps your attention till the very last frame.

The trailer for Inglourious Basterds is quite misleading in that it sets up the film as just a bunch of redneck Americans killing Nazis in gruesome and sadistic ways; while the film, in true Tarantino fashion, exhibits a decent showing of blood and gore, there is also a fair amount of dialogue and storytelling that goes on.

Sidenote: half of the film is in French or German so be prepared to do some readin’!

There’s essentially two distinct anti-Nazi factions… one is a group of Jewish American soldiers led by Aldo the Apache Raine (Brad Pitt) called the Basterds, the other is a vengeful Jewish girl whose family died at the hands of the Nazis. The two groups eventually converge at a single setting, but each have separate plans on how to deal with the Nazis. Unlike his other films, the story was told in (mostly) chronological order; but I did enjoy the fact that the two separate groups never combined forces or even met because in the end, people seek revenge for different reasons even if they have a common enemy (also, it would’ve been almost too perfect and predictable to be in a Tarantino film).

The two standout performances were Mélanie Laurent as Shoshanna, the vengeful Jewish girl (I dare any guy, or girl, not to fall in love with her!), and Christoph Waltz as the ruthless, calculated, but charming Jew huntin’ Nazi, Hans Landa. Personally, I thought Brad Pitt’s character had the best lines but his performance was nothing special, his acting skills kind of went south after Fight Club. On a slightly positive note, Eli Roth was not downright awful! I dislike him as a director and hated him in Death Proof (he’s even a worse actor than Tarantino), but he brought a simple dumb charm to the head-bashing Basterd, Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz. Oh, and who can forget HUGO STIGLITZ (Til Schweiger), I could just eat him up!

*Tarantino fans should also look out for the return of the fabulous french actress Julie Dreyfus and Harvey Keitel as Aldo Raine’s commanding officer. I am a little sad that Tim Roth and Michael Madsen couldn’t be a part of this film!

For Tarantino, the music in his films is just as important as the story and characters. Each scene is crafted with its own custom soundtrack. While other filmmakers insist on using varying melodramatic tones to accompany each scene, Tarantino handpicks specific songs that lifts the atmosphere of the scene and the music becomes a part of the scene instead of just accompanying it. Perhaps the most perfect example of this is the use of “Hold Tight!” by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich in Death Proof. Check out the scene below (kinda gets gruesome at the end, so feel free to stop at 2:55. An equally perfect example would be the use of “Twisted Nerve” in Kill Bill vol.1

Inglourious Basterds feature music from David Bowie, Billy Preston, and Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch. David Bowie doesn’t exactly scream World War II for me, but trust me, it works… I still get chills from recalling the scene where Shoshanna gets ready for the premiere…

Just from looking at the nicknames of the Basterds, it’s obvious that there is a good amount of humor in the film. Some funny parts were more subtle than others but the obvious parts will have you laughing out loud. Most of the obvious hilarity were uttered by Brad Pitt’s character Aldo Raines, I never knew rednecks pretending to be Italians can be so funny.

Like I mentioned above, there is a fair amount of gore in Inglourious Basterds, but personally, I could never take the violence in Tarantino’s films too seriously, it’s always shocking, crazy, sometimes ridiculous, but it’s purposeful violence; leaving violence out of a Tarantino movie will severely decrease the awesomeness and integrity of the film! So, look out for some scalping, head-bashing, throat sliting, forehead mutilation, and a few, ok, a lot, of gunshot violence! If you can’t handle the gore in Basterds, don’t even try to watch District 9.

So, what are you waiting for? If you haven’t seen it yet, GO WATCH IT, the only excuse for not watching is if you are under the age of 17 and is too chicken shit to sneak into the theater.

and just for fun…

Final rating: 4.75/5

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2AM + 2PM doing a parody of BEG's abracadabra

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:37:08 -0500

via youtube.com

I’m not sure what I just saw, but these boys are hilarious! So dirty! I don’t get how Jo Kwon can outdo himself everytime. I also love the cameo by Brown Eyed Girls at the end and Chansung’s uncontrollable laughter.

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