Archive for January, 2007

Happy Coming of Age Day!

by Kris   ⋅   January 8, 2007   ⋅   Comment now

The drinking and voting age in Japan is twenty years old and today is the celebration of that occasion, and it is called “Coming of Age Day” for lack of creative terminology. These new adults party hardy at Tokyo Disneyland, city halls and temples across Japan to celebrate. What’s more alarming than the [...]

I vant Dracula’s castle back

by Kris   ⋅   January 8, 2007   ⋅   Comments [2]

Chris and I were totally going to do this “Dracula’s Castle” trip in the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvania this past Halloween, but it was postponed. I know that it’s only speculated that Vlad the Impaler may have roamed the halls or even briefly bunked there, but it still seems eerily romantic. There’s a [...]

Vrooming on voltage

by Kris   ⋅   January 8, 2007   ⋅   Comment now

If the idea of a mass produced electric car is in fact “dead” (according to the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? referring to the discontinued GM EV1), GM is busting out the defibrillator, adrenaline push and administering CPR. “Clear!” *bzzzap!*
A couple of months ago, GM announced that they plan to be the first [...]

MOVIE REVIEW [He Said, She Said] . Curse of the Golden Flower

by Chris and Kris   ⋅   January 8, 2007   ⋅   Comments [2]

He Said, She Said is back! And what better film to start with than Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower? On to the reviews.
HE SAID:
The first Yimou’s first film featuring Gong Li since their Shanghai Triad fallout, The Curse of the Golden Flower should be something of a cause for celebration. But, the former [...]

Weekend of Horrors 2007 . San Jose . Re-Animator News, and Film Reviews [Sheitan and Driftwood]

by Chris and Kris   ⋅   January 7, 2007   ⋅   Comments [6]

This weekend marks Fangoria’s first Weekend of Horrors in San Jose (the first in my recollection, at least). Why they would host it in San Jose, I can’t say. It’s certainly the least interesting of the “big cities” in California. As far as the film scene is concerned, San Jose plays host to Cinequest Festival, [...]

North Korean nukes, South Korean robots give birth

by Kris   ⋅   January 5, 2007   ⋅   Comment now

Seoul’s Kyunghee University Medical Center realized that South Korean birth rate is at its lowest dip (about one kid per woman). To accommodate this, they are training its students with “Noelle” the pregnant robot. Because the mannequin was purchased from American company Gaumard Scientific, it’s face is exactly like those CPR dummies [...]

Would you steal a public urinal?

by Kris   ⋅   January 5, 2007   ⋅   Comments [2]

A man walks into a bar.. and steals a public urinal. No joke. He went right up, ordered a half pint of brew in a UK Southampton pub, and began his privy privation. The thief made frequent trips to the little boy’s room and upon successful removal of the unit, stuffed it [...]

Would you jump in front of a train to save a stranger?

by Kris   ⋅   January 5, 2007   ⋅   Comment [1]

So chivalry is not dead, and apparently Donald Trump and Donald Duck took notice. Hailed the “Subway Superman”, 50 year-old Wesley Autrey risked his life by safely pinning down a 20 year-old man who had fallen onto the Harlem subway tracks, convulsing in seizures. Autrey shielded the stranger with his own body as [...]

Duke it out. Or in rather.

by Kris   ⋅   January 4, 2007   ⋅   Comments [2]

Alleged rapists Reid Seligmann and Colin Finnerty (oops, the court said it wasn’t technically rape because the victim couldn’t tell if it was there was a penis involved) from Duke University have been invited back in. The two Lacrosse players faced expulsion after roughhousing and sexually assaulting a stripper, locking her up in a [...]

Happy 114th Birthday!

by Kris   ⋅   January 4, 2007   ⋅   Comment now

Wow, imagine being 114 years young today. Yone Minagawa is the oldest woman in Japan and she actually has the lung capacity to blow out all of her candles! [PIC] According to this article, she raised her five children by herself by selling flowers and veggies (almost like a real-life Eliza Doolittle) [...]

My X-tra X-travagant X-mas list

by Kris   ⋅   January 4, 2007   ⋅   Comments [2]

I know it’s too late for Christmas 2006, but these are items I will leave for my frugal mind to battle out with my consuming id until next Christmas. Just kidding, I know that my frugal mind is stronger. :)
This blurb was written shortly before I read this article where 10 people in [...]

Our Government is just a little more “hip”

by Kris   ⋅   January 4, 2007   ⋅   Comment now

Yahyah, break it down now *wacky dance sequence*
Well, maybe “hip” isn’t the right word, but I hope we see a lot of change in the U.S. government now that a series of first-time achievements are being logged. Er, first, Nancy Pelosi (CA, Dem) is the first female Speaker of the House. [...]

“why this @#!# Duck get out his tongue??”

by Kris   ⋅   January 3, 2007   ⋅   Comment now

I haven’t touched Adium (like Trillian for Mac with a green duck for a logo) since I quit working for Apple, but I have a shiny new MacBook Pro at me new job at Yahoo!, so I cruised on over to the Adium website to check out what’s new in their icon-mania. Right smack [...]

Google loves dogs and dog people

by Kris   ⋅   January 3, 2007   ⋅   Comments [4]

No confirmation on this just yet, but I heard that Google’s hiring criteria has just gotten even weirder. If you weren’t lucky enough to fall into the nepotism or Stanford alumni hiring line, you may have been scrutinized for all the little details including your college GPA, a practice more commonly reserved for high-end [...]

Crayon Shin Chan and the Bastard Brigade

by Chris   ⋅   January 3, 2007   ⋅   Comments [4]

Crayon Shin Chan. I never figured the show would get any attention here. Kris first introduced me to the hilariously rude little character when we first started going out, over six years ago. The character was huge in Japan at the time, and she had assorted Shin Chan collectables ranging from Shin Chan playing cards [...]

BMW goes green

by Kris   ⋅   January 3, 2007   ⋅   Comment [1]

Bimmers bug me, mostly due to the fact that the 3-series are gamut with the “new rich” who apparently don’t know how to use their turn signals and are prone to cut you off like a Subaru, but if I were given a free one, I would probably choose a 7-series (I admit to coveting [...]

15,500 square feet of Japanese!

by Kris   ⋅   January 2, 2007   ⋅   Comments [4]

Oh. My. God. On New Year’s Day, Chris and I were driving back from Stinson Beach which is NICE but just a little “white”. Chris held the door for a stranger to a restaurant we peed in, er, in the restroom of course, and the elderly woman’s jaw dropped and she said, “oh [...]

Best and Worst Films 2006 *UPDATED*

by Chris and Kris   ⋅   January 1, 2007   ⋅   Comments [9]

We’re back again with our best and worst lists for the year. Once again, our criteria for Best Film status were the films that we truly felt we would watch again. For the nitpickers out there, some of the pictures listed played in their native countries at the tail end of 2005, but weren’t seen [...]

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