Blog? Blargh!

Stinkbugs, Protest the Hero and Fridays, oh my!

2010-10-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

I hate these things

I am just going to ramble on here for a bit - first off I would like to mention that I hate these stinkbugs. Anyone else have them? (stupid question, I know you do.) They're on campus, around my house and in my car. I am sick of them!

"The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), an insect not previously seen on our continent, was apparently accidentally introduced into eastern Pennsylvania." (source)

So...what they're saying is someone either brought them in when they were traveling...or when an import of whatever came in it happened to have these guys on board....great!

Anyways, if anyone is following Protest the Hero, here is a studio update they recently released. I am a fan of their work, but do they love to procrastinate. Their last album, Fortress (2008) was incredible, the guitar work and composition of it was just great. I understand they do their own thing and I respect that, but it is going to hit three years here pretty soon and still no album? I am just glad to hear they are back in the studio and I am looking forward to it!

Once again, I just want to thank everyone for the continued support and I hope you have a great Friday!

'100 percent' chance for life on newly found planet?

2010-09-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

For people that have been coming to my blog, I am sorry for the lack of information on some of my posts. Basically my last few posts have been regurgitated internet media. But today, is different! And you read that title correctly!

An artist rendering shows the four inner planets of the Gliese 581 system and their host star.

Woah, what? Finally - a plant that could sustain life? No way!

Astronomers from the University of California and the Carnegie Institute of Washing have found a plant with similar characteristics to ours. Under the creative name of "Gliese 581g" this planet is roughly about 20 light years away from us...in other words 120 trillion miles. The astronomers say that this planet is about three times the size of Earth with similar gravitational properties.

"Scientists say the highest average temperature is about -12 degrees Celcius (10 Fahrenheit), but they point out that the planet doesn't have a night and day - one side continually faces the star and the other side faces the darkness of space. This means one side is blazing hot and the other freezing cold."

It seems like there could be a spot where the temperature is "just right" to sustain life. I think that this is a remarkable discovery and I can't wait for more information.

Link to the source: here.

Pac-Awesome

2010-09-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a short from Egoraptor - a flash film animator and I am sure many other things I am unaware of. Many of his animations include some sort of play on a video game, whether that be a character, a level, or even the plot Egoraptor manages to find a way to make fun of it - no matter what. So instead of putting up one of his Gears of War or Resident Evil shorts, I put up a game just about everyone can relate to - Pac-man. Enjoy!

Thank you everyone!

2010-09-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

I know you have been hearing this a lot lately from me, but I do not mean to have these days where I can't get on. My car was hit by a drunk driver over the weekend, luckily I was not in it though. Fortunately the guy had insurance...I am glad to see all of you are still supporting and I really appreciate that! So thank you!

Anyways I thought I would share this with you guys to show you that you are awesome!

Halo: Reach live action trailer

2010-09-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

I recently just saw this, and I am not aware of how many others have stumbled upon this but it is pretty good! I really hope that Bungie or Microsoft (or whoevers jurisdiction its under) decides to make a full-length motion picture some day! I think it would be really cool - certainly better than the Doom movie...

Horrible day...

2010-09-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry everyone for the lack of updates and support this week. My dog had to be put down today. I have been a complete and total mess, and to make it worse I had to sit through two midterm exams before I could drive home. I will be back to normal soon. It is so hard, he has been there my whole life and we literally grew up together. Even today before I left for school he got up for me (the last two days he needed me to lift him up so he could get up) and I told him I would be back. But sadly I wasn't able to see him before he went. It is so weird coming home without him, he would always sit at the front door and wait for me to come home - lets just say this is going to take sometime to get used to...

Wednesdays suck!

2010-09-22T04:54:00.000-07:00

Well I have a long day ahead of me, class starts at 9 a.m. and the last one ends at 9 p.m. I commute to school, so I am literally stuck there for the day because there just isn't enough time to run home...but it is all worth it in the end right? I hope so!

I didn't have enough time to put together a good post, so here is a band that I like! I hope you enjoy :)

Even if you don't like them, that is some bitchin' album art!

The Cisco CRS-3 Carrier Routing System

2010-09-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

Even if you are not into computers, and if you don't really understand how this magical internet works. This should be pretty interesting to you.

Back in March 2010 Cisco, a leading network and communication technology provider, released information on its newest product. The Ciscoc CRS-3, with the (theoretical) data transfer rate of 322 terabits (322,000,000,000,000 bits) per second. To put that into perspective they said: "...which enables the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes."

This isn't to be confused with 322 terabytes per second. If you ever wondered the difference between bits and bytes, to put it simply, there are 8 bits in one byte. So 322 teraBITS converts to 37,485 terabytes. If you are unfamiliar with bits/bytes/gigabytes and megabytes and so on...

1024 MB in a Gigabyte
1024 GB in a Terabyte

Average movie (standard def) about 700-900 MB

If you are still interested on more information, it can be found here.

Sorry everyone!

2010-09-20T20:50:00.003-07:00

I was horribly sick today. I am sorry for not being able to post any content today, but I will resume to normal tomorrow! Sorry for the inconvenience!

-Joe

Animated movies!

2010-09-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

Even though I am a college student, I still am very fond of all the animated movies from Pixar and Dreamwork. Their creativity and ability to appeal to a very broad age group astounds me. Growing up I think my first 3D animated movie I saw was Toy Story. I loved this movie and at the time the graphics (still are to this day) were amazing. But now a days the amount of detail that is put into particle effects, shadows and other details is just, to be simply put - amazing.

Here are some of my top favorite animated movies.

Up (2009) - I'd rather not just go over the plot of the whole movie, but basically Carl (the old man) has always had a dream to move his house (club house as he and his passed away wife called it) to the top of Paradise Falls. In the beginning his house was located in a quiet neighborhood which is now overrun with urbanization. So Carl has the brilliant idea to fly his house to paradise falls using thousands of balloons tied to his house. How the kid and the dog relate to the picture, well you are just going to have to watch it to find out. ;) All in all, it is a great story, very funny and just a recommended watch for everyone!

Although this isn't really in the category of Finding Nemo, Up, The Incredibles and other movies of the like. This is still a great watch about the creative idea to make a story about the cells in our body! It is a funny movie that combines real actors (like the legendary Bill Murray) and animated characters. Definitely a recommended watch.

Newspaper Mistake V3

2010-09-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

This should be the last of these for a while, I am sorry if you guys are getting tired of them, but they are hilarious!

The Website is Down #1: Sales Guy vs. Web Dude

2010-09-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

For anyone who is into computers...or anyone who has tried to help a computer illiterate person try to fix a technical problem. You may be able to relate to this video. It is a little lengthy, but worth the watch!

TGIF

2010-09-17T05:06:00.000-07:00

Heading to classes today, luckily it is a short day. I don't have much time but since everyone seemed to enjoy the newspaper mistakes here are some more. Also many thanks to everyone for the continued support, I really appreciate it!

It's Thursday!

2010-09-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well, off to class for a little. But today is a short day! I am just going to leave these here...

Piglet

2010-09-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry everyone who I wasn't able to get back to today! Wednesdays are always my long days since I have class from 9a.m. - 9p.m. Anyways I am relaxing, doing some homework and thought I would share with you, Piglet. No this isn't an animal, but a rather talented instrumental trio out of Chicago. Unfortunately they are no longer together. Anyways, here is "Anthropology Anthology" - Enjoy.

IWFL awareness

2010-09-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

We all know that football season has started, fall is just around the corner, soon most of us or at least someone you know is going to be spending their Sundays watching football. Unless you're the type of person that doesn't enjoy football, have you ever wondered "what the heck am I going to watch once this season is over?" The answer is simple my friends, the Independent Women's Football League (IWFL). Yes you heard me, women.

Founded in 2000, the IWFL continues to substantially grow every year, and while it isn't played on major networks (yet) I found myself fortunate enough to catch a game over the summer. Seeing most teams play isn't the same as watching an NFL game but these women are athletes none-the-less. I see the IWFL having a lot of potential. Hopefully next season I will be able to make it out to a game!

N64 Classics

2010-09-14T06:40:00.000-07:00

Not sure how many of you had a N64 console growing up. But I assume a large majority of you did, and with all of the classics such as Mario Kart, Paper Mario, James Bond and Super Smash Brothers. What are some of your favorite games? I'd have to say it would be Army Men Sarge's Heroes. I loved this game, I played it so many times growing up I can't begin to count the hours I wasted on it. I think one of my favorite levels had to be the on where you are in the refrigerator crawling in and around cheese, bottles of milk and other items that to us are relatively small, but to "Sarge" could be used as a base! I actually just found my N64 the other day, and I am not ashamed to admit it, but I plugged that sucker in and played for the rest of the night.

Nike - Write the Future

2010-09-13T19:10:00.001-07:00

With over 20,000,000 views and quite possibly one of my favorite commercials of all time I present to you Nike's "Write the Future" commercial. Even if you are not a football/soccer fan I am sure you will appreciate the creativity of this commercial.

Funny commercial

2010-09-13T18:22:00.001-07:00

After seeing this, are you more interested in the product?

Dance Gavin Dance - Travis opens up

2010-09-12T12:43:00.000-07:00

For all of you that haven't heard Dance Gavin Dance announced the departure of Kurt Travis who (I think) filled Jonny Craig's shoes very well. I thought that DGD had finally found their sound with Happiness, it had a sound so different from their other albums...but oddly enough it sounded like the sound DGD had been searching for. I can say I was a little frustrated when I heard about this. Mainly because Kurt is a talented singer, but also because DGD is infamous for having all of these line-up changes.

Kurt Travis recently opened up to DeadPress in a interview stating

Kurt: I definitely was never going to quit, so yeah, I got kicked out. The band told me that they were going to break up because they weren’t happy with it, but before they did they were going do a tour with Jonny and just do ‘Downtown Battle Mountain’ songs. Things didn’t really happen the way they told me it seems. Oh well.

Although I am looking forward to the Downtown Battle Mountain II album with the original DGD lineup, I feel empathetic for Kurt. It is said he is starting a new project with other ex-DGD members. Hopefully this project doesn't have yearly line-up changes...

NFL Sunday!

2010-09-12T10:19:00.000-07:00

How do you spend your Sundays? I mostly relax and watch football...for anyone interested here is today's schedule. I highlighted the ones I am going to be following. The last game is only on the radio.

CLE @ TB	Raymond James Stadium	1:00 PM
MIA @ BUF	Ralph Wilson Stadium	1:00 PM
CIN @ NE	Gillette Stadium	1:00 PM
IND @ HOU	Reliant Stadium	1:00 PM
DEN @ JAC	EverBank Field	1:00 PM
ATL @ PIT	Heinz Field	1:00 PM
OAK @ TEN	LP Field	1:00 PM
CAR @ NYG	New Meadowlands Stadium	1:00 PM
DET @ CHI	Soldier Field	1:00 PM
ARI @ STL	Edward Jones Dome	4:15 PM
GB @ PHI	Lincoln Financial Field	4:15 PM
SF @ SEA	Qwest Field	4:15 PM

DAL @ WAS	FedEx Field																							8:20 PM

The new iPod nano

2010-09-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

The brand new iPod nano released on September 1, 2010 features an all new (to the series) touch screen. The new nano, unlike its predecessors does not feature video capabilities. But is it really all that bad? Anyone who has tried to watch any lengthy (or at least over five minutes) video on previous nanos knows that it is a hassle to watch a video for a long period of time on such a small screen. The nano is meant for portability, and Apple succeeds in this one. The nano itself isn't much bigger than the shuffle, features an easier way to listen, manage and view all of your music making it a true on-the-go device meant for music. If you really wanted all the features anyways you could pocket out an extra $50-70 dollars and go with the 8GB iPod touch.

http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/

Halo 3?

2010-09-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

Not sure if you're into Halo 3, or watching the montages, but I just saw this and it seems like a fresh break from your everyday H3 montage. Well put together and clips fit extremely well with the music. No "over-editing" or spectacular jaw-dropping footage. But definitely worth the watch.

Go (1999) - Movie

2010-09-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

Just watched this movie a few days ago. I was really impressed with the overall production and the mix of comedy and action. The movie itself is broken up into four different points of view, each of the stories told are happening at the same time the others are. Eventually they all tie into each other for a great conclusion. Definitely a recommended watch!

Why haven't I seen this!?

2010-09-09T20:23:00.000-07:00