So I went to Staples to get some blank business cards and markers. (I also realized that there was a strip club right across from Staples. Interesting. This was less than a mile from where I live and I have been driving by this area every day for the past year and never noticed it, but that’s another story.) There were some that were more formal, CEO-looking, with gold frames and everything, but I felt like that was not quite me. So instead I went with this one that was sky blue with clouds on it.

And there was a sky/cloud background. So I thought, why not draw something sky-related on it? Might as well, right? So here’s the outcome. (Click on the picture to see it bigger.)

As you can see, I started out just drawing the sun. Then some birds. And then I got bored and wanted to draw something more elaborate. What else had a sky background? Super Mario Brothers, of course! (Perhaps I thought of that because I just recently watched the Video Games Live concert on TV. It was pretty awesome, btw.)

What else was in the sky? Superman, airplanes, and Space Invaders! Of course there were also balloons. I love balloons.

Of course, after several of these, I sort of ran out of stuff that made sense. So we got Pac Man trying to eat the sun, and bad puns like “pi in the sky” and “cloud computing”. And someone (very xkcd-looking) standing on a ladder (not quite a staircase to heaven). And finally, the really ambitious Duck Hunt. These ended up taking up too much space though, but I did have fun drawing them.

And there was a moment after I finished them that I just felt like I no longer wanted to part with these drawings. But hey, I was happy to share them when I was actually giving them out.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll just keep making business cards this way.

I’ve been spending more time doing computer programmer stuff. There was a new project that kept me a little busy, but for the most part, what really kept me busy was this little pet project that I’ve been working on after work. It was sort of technical and most of you probably wouldn’t be interested in it. But it was something I wanted to finish and I will talk about it when it’s done. You know, sometimes I don’t really feel like talking about something until it’s done and this is one of those cases.

Also, here’s something you might not be that interested in: I just started a new blog. Feel free to click over but it would probably not be very interesting for most of you. I have been too busy to remodel it so all you see is the default Twenty Ten theme. That’s going to be my new blog where I talk about computer programming, specifically, iOS app development. Feel free to subscribe and read technical mumbo jumbo.

But here’s something you will be interested in (maybe). So I was listening to the radio and an ad for California Lottery came on. The slogan “Imagine what a buck could do” was quite familiar to me, but it still didn’t stop me from having goofy thoughts. When they told me to “imagine what a buck could do”, I imagine a buck (you know, a male deer) ramming towards a car door and rescuing the people that were trapped inside. Or maybe it was a house that was on fire with people trapped inside. Either way, I imagine a buck as a hero that rescues people with his antlers. So, what would you do for a Klondike bar? Oops, I mean, what would you imagine a buck could do?

And I think I should write a post about the evolution of smoky eye make-up because I am also a make-up artist in my spare time… Okay, more like a artist that makes up stuff. Or actually, I just make up stuff, period. I had lunch at a food court at a mall and apparently this is what the mall inspired me to do.

For some reason I really dig B.o.B.’s “Airplanes” song lately. It went “Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I can really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now”. My first thought was “That’s cheating! They are way more frequent and go much slower!” And then the second thought was, there must be someone in an airport somewhere unable to get on an oversold plane and singing “Can’t we pretend that shooting stars in the night sky are airplanes? I really need to get on a plane right now, plane right now, plane right now”. Once again, random thoughts.

So I was having lunch and realized something, because lunch was very inspiring, apparently. I was at a pizza place and James Blunt’s “You Are Beautiful” came on. During the guitar interlude, I realized the image that popped into my head was James Blunt playing the guitar and Telly Monster snapping his fingers. I realized that I am way more familiar with the Sesame Street version than the original. Still, it was always fun when singers go on Sesame Street and parody their own songs. My favorites are Feist’s Counting to Four (parodying 1,2,3,4), Norah Jones’ Don’t Know Y (parodying Don’t Know Why), and James Blunt’s My Triangle (parodying You Are Beautiful).

I actually have more random thoughts (because I have a lot of them), but this post is getting fairly long already. So that’s it for now. Until next time.

Today, a confidential document leaked from a major movie distribution studio confirmed that it was indeed a publicity stunt. The 10-page document was a contract between the FBI and the studio detailing the responsibilities of each party and the payout structure. The FBI was to coincide the time of the arrests with the film release to bring more hype to the movie, and in return, the studio would pay a commission based on the box ticket numbers.

In fact, there were more of these contracts between the FBI and movie studios that were leaked. For example, the FBI has been secretly monitoring many alien robots in disguise. These robots, known as the Decepticons, are hiding in plain sight as cars, cassette players, and other household items. According to the contract, the FBI was to make the arrest just prior to the July, 2011 release of Transformers 3 for it to gain publicity. However, the FBI denied the authenticity of the said document.

“Yes, we are keeping tabs on alien robots,” said Agent Fox Mulder, the FBI agent in charge of investigating extraterrestrial and paranormal activities. “But the claim that we based our investigation on movie release dates simply isn’t true. This is not happening.”

In yet another document, details of a collaboration between law enforcement and movie studios were laid out for an upcoming Western. According to the agreement, 10 Indians would be arrested just prior to the release of the film featuring the classic cowboys versus Indians match-up. The document even went into details about how the arrest would be carried out. The following leaked text clearly indicated the FBI’s intention to make these arrests in groups of three: “One little, two little, three little Indians; Four little, five little, six little Indians; Seven little, eight little, nine little Indians; Ten little Indian Boys.”

Local enforcement seemed to be displeased with the FBI’s involvement in these cases.

“Look, the cowboys and Indians had stopped fighting long ago,” said Texas Ranger Cordell Walker, who was himself a cowboy. “The war was over, much like the Cold War and they should stop picking fights just for movie promotions.”

“I have worked in law enforcement around Hollywood for a long time,” said Detective Axel Foley of the Beverly Hill Cops. “Never have I thought the relationship between law enforcement and the movie industry would be tangled together like this.”

The FBI denied its involvement with these movie promotion deals, but announced that it would start an internal investigation headed by its own lie detection expert Dr. Cal Lightman, assisted by consultant Patrick Jane from the California Bureau of Investigation.

“This case was so bizarre that it could be made into a movie,” said a film director who declined to be named. “Don’t be too surprised if you see it in theaters everywhere next year. The truth is out there and it’s stranger than fiction.”

I bought it either because I had fun trying one at Best Buy, or because I am an iPhone app developer and need one for work purposes. It was probably a little of both, but anyway, I ordered one and got it in the mail last week. So, I proceeded to open it. But after I opened the outside packaging, I thought, wait, I should make one of those unboxing videos, like what you see many people unboxing the iPhone, XBox, Wii, etc. on Youtube. But my will have a puppet in it, of course! So here we go:

About the device

So, did I like the iPad? Yes, I love it. Even though so far I’ve mostly just used it to browse the web and watch videos (something that I normally do on my computer), somehow using a touch screen to do so is quite an enjoyable experience for me. The battery life is excellent. I got it on Monday and did not charge it at all until Thursday night. Of course, when I was watching videos instead of just browsing the web, the batteries would not last as long, but I could still go without charging it for the whole day. Compared this to my laptop that would only last less than two hours or so, that was pretty good and freed me from being close to an outlet. Also, it stays cool instead of heating up like my laptop, so I appreciate that as well. It is a little heavier than I thought, but is still significantly lighter than my laptop. Therefore I prefer using the iPad when I am in a situation in which I don’t have a desk in front of me.

Now, the downside. There is no multi-tasking so I will need to quit one app if I want to start another app. However, if the app is well designed, it will save its state before it exits so you can resume from where you left off. I mostly just use the web browser anyway. It just means that I won’t be checking my IM or Twitter all the time. I guess it also make you focus more on one thing instead of going back and forth. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just a different mentality. Also it doesn’t support Flash. It means I will have to wait till I get back on a regular computer if I really want to see that content. As a computer programmer, I believe it’s a good trade-off. It makes the whole device more stable and keeps the battery from draining. The Youtube videos still work anyway, because they have their own dedicated app, and have recently switched to HTML5 for the mobile version, which is supported on iOS devices anyway.

So, overall, it’s pretty nice, but is still a luxury item, in my opinion. At this point, it cannot completely replace your regular computer, but maybe it was not meant to anyway.

About the video

I actually already cut the outside FedEx box open before I made the video, so I just taped it back. My camera isn’t high def, so you can’t tell anyway unless I tell you, which I just did. What you might be able to tell, if you are really observant, is that some parts of the video are fast-forwarded because the puppet hands are really clumsy at doing things. To remove the plastic from the box, I had already cut a slit on the back (hidden from view) so it’s easier to tear. I actually struggled to remove the plastic from the actual iPad, so you saw me bring it to the side of the screen. What I was actually doing was taking one hand out of the puppet so I could actually peel it. Of course, this was fast-forwarded because it took me a while. (I think that particular part was playing at 13x normal speed.) For the introduction where I had the puppet talking, I actually did several takes, but for the actual unboxing, I knew that I could only do one take (or make it an excuse to buy another one? Hm). That was interesting in trying to get everything right in one try.

According to the fork etiquette, when you are using a knife and a fork to eat, you are to hold the knife in the right hand and the fork in the left. This is also how the utensils are set in formal settings. However, many left-handers opt to have the knife in their left hand and fork in their right because they find it easier to do the cutting with their dominant hand. This also happens to be the way I eat. It has a little bit to do with my upbringing, and the rest is just me being me.

See, I grew up in Taiwan so I was used to eating with chopsticks instead of forks. The only situation in which we would using two utensils at the same time was when we ate noodle soup. In that case, the right hand would hold the chopsticks, since I am only capable of operating the chopsticks using my dominant hand. And the remaining utensil, the spoon, would be delegated to the left hand. So here’s what we have:

Left = spoon; Right = chopsticks

So what did I do when I ate noodle soup in restaurants in the United States without chopsticks? I just replaced the chopsticks with a fork in my right hand. So we have:

Left = spoon; Right = fork

So, in the noodle soup situation, the fork goes in the right hand. Also, if I was just eating with just one utensil, I would simply use it with my dominant (right) hand. Moreover, the fork was sort of established as the replacement for chopsticks. It was then given the status as the main eating utensil, and it was the one that was more complicated and delicate to operate than the spoon. Therefore, fork was always in the right hand. So what would I do if a knife was added to the mix?

Since I was never formally taught the etiquette, I just did what was logical to me: since the fork was already in the right hand, the knife would go to the other side. So we got:

Left = knife; Right = fork

And that happened to be what was only done by left-handers. I got so used to it that when I tried to do it the “correct” way, it would feel really awkward to me. I got pretty used to cutting with my left hand that sometimes I would use my left hand when I am chopping vegetables on a cutting board, if there’s something in the way that makes cutting with the right hand inconvenient.

So am I ambidextrous? Not really. I can’t write with my left hand. It feels awkward and my aim is everywhere when I throw a ball using my left hand. However, I can sometimes bat left-handed in softball games, but that comes and goes. I can bat really well with my left hand one week and have a hard time hitting the ball the next week. It’s really inconsistent. The only other thing that my left hand does better than my right hand is cutting the fingernails on the right hand, but then again, duh.

But I guess a part of it is just me being me, coming up with weird ways to get things done.

Are you right- or left-handed?

That’s right. In addition to Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc., I now have a profile on IMDB. Kind of cool. Now I can call myself a movie star! Okay, not really…

But wait, guess where my name is also appearing. Yep, in the news!

That makes me even more famous. Again, not really.

I got an IMDB page because I worked on a student film back in 2008 called Seamus and Magellan. The way it works is that you cannot just create a profile for yourself. There needs to be a film already included in IMDB and then you can attach your credit to it. I am not entirely sure what the criteria are but apparently this film is eligible to be included in IMDB. As for how I got on the news web site (and probably also the printed version), the reporter knew that I am an iPhone app developer so he asked me to comment when the new iPhone was released. That was how I got into that article.

So if you think you need to be famous to be in the IMDB or the newspaper, think again.

Chances are, neither of these will make me any more famous than before, but hey, the idea that I am in IMDB and the newspaper simply amuses me very much.

Rod Puppet Workshop

The workshop was taught by puppeteer / puppet-builder Greg Ballora and was an LAGOP event. (That’s the Los Angeles Guild of Puppetry. No, I am not in the Grand Old Party and I doubt any political party would put on a puppetry workshop.) The puppet would have a head that nods and turns so the head could move and tilt in very expressive ways, and the arms were controlled using rods. The head and body were foam covered in papier-mâché and the main skeleton was made of wood.

The instructor was energetic and loved joking around in very sarcastic ways, which made the class fun, but also it was a lot of fun for me to do many things that I haven’t done for a while. For example, I have not used a band saw since middle school so that brought back memories. Ditto with the press drill. I also got to use Celluclay, which was finely ground recycled paper with glue in it, sort of an instant papier-mâché (just add water). I also got to sand down a dowel. Now, I rarely got to work with big power tools like these. I haven’t done any wood work for quite a while; papier-mâché and foam-carving were totally new to me. The half-finished stuff didn’t look good but I had fun making it. I learn by trial and error and I’ve definitely committed errors this time.

The picture here was just the internal structure for the head attached to the spine. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and I don’t have a space for doing wood work so I wasn’t able to really finish it (like making the arms) on my own, unless I can find a wood shop that’s for rent by the hour in the area. Doing that stuff in my room on a carpeted floor is simply a little silly. But hey, I did learn a few things about making string joints and I got to play with new materials and tools. These are all knowledge and skills that I can apply to other puppets I am building, even if I never do finish this one.

Muppet-style Puppet Workshop

And then there’s the Muppet-style puppet workshop taught by puppeteer / puppet-builder Michael Earl. The students in this class were mostly people that had taken his TV puppetry workshop before (Click here to see my posts about those workshops). In fact, two of the students this time (Heidi and Bruce) were in the same TV puppetry class with me last time so it was good to see them again.

The puppets we were building were just like the one we used in the TV puppetry class. Since I’ve been using those puppets for ten weeks, I was pretty familiar with how the puppets were structured. In fact, I sort of attempted to build one myself so most of what was covered in class didn’t surprise me. However, the most valuable stuff was always the little things that made big differences.

For example, I made the puppet with fur fabric and ping pong balls. However, I had a hard time gluing the eyes (two perfect spheres) onto the head correctly, because the area in contact was small. In the class, I was taught how to trim some foam before setting the eyes. That information alone was worth the price, to me anyway. And I had no idea which kind of foam would be the right consistency so it was soft enough to give the mouth a flexible shape, but hard enough to keep the edges from sagging. Also I had a hard time cutting foam at a good angle so they would be easier to glue. Michael showed us how to bevel the foam for that purpose and that helped a lot. And then there were some tips on how to cut fur fabric using the right tools so we don’t have fur falling around everywhere. And then there’s the way to glue the mouth plate so there were no wrinkly patterns… You see? It was all in the details. They really made a difference and I wouldn’t have learned them if I didn’t take the class.

Everybody in the class was either already familiar with crafting and sewing or excited to dive in anyway. It was a great atmosphere making puppets together. And of course, when the puppets were done, puppet improv ensued. Puppets somehow just have a tendency to start talking to each other and many hilarious scenes just happened right on the spot.

A Pleasant Surprise

But of course, one of the coolest thing about the class was: I met Patricia Ja Lee! You know, the Pink Ranger from my favorite Power Rangers series, Power Rangers in Space. I know, I know. Somehow I am writing about Power Rangers again.

When I first walked into the studio, Michael (the teacher), Bruce (my former classmate) and two girls I didn’t know were sitting around the table. I said hi to the people I knew and exchange names with the people I didn’t know. I sat down to talk to Bruce since I haven’t seen him in a while, but I was wondering why that Asian girl really reminded me of someone. And it was not so much the face, but rather, the facial expressions and mannerism. I know a bunch of Asian people so I wouldn’t be surprised if she looked like one of my friends, but if I didn’t figure out which one, it would probably bug me all day. But more and more I started to feel like I’ve seen her on TV.

Then Michael asked her if she’s done any motion capture stuff lately. Then it hit me: wait a second, isn’t that Patricia Ja Lee? Last year when Jason David Frank announced that he was training for UFC, my sister and I looked up what the former Power Rangers were doing now, and I sort of remembered Patricia was doing voiceover and motion capture stuff, so I looked again. And that’s when I truly woke up.

“Wait, you are the Pink Ranger, right?” I said.
“Haha, yeah, that was a long time ago.”

How cool is that? Out of the blue (or pink), I met the star of one of my favorite show. That was like, one of the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. When we first came to the United States, we watched a bunch of kids programs because they were easier to understand and teach important English words like “sabre”, “morph”, and “megazord”. Ok, who am I kidding? There’s no denying that I enjoy some kids programs and people in spandex fighting people in rubber suits amused me to no end. But yeah, I loved Power Rangers in Space so this was totally cool.

Was she a nice person? Well, she was volunteering to sew stuff for people that didn’t know how to sew, and was trying to fix a malfunctioning sewing machine, though I didn’t know if she eventually succeed. That’s something a Power Ranger would do, right? Let’s just say that she did not ruin the show for me. Haha. But of course, now that I’ve met her, she’s not just Cassie Chan, but Patricia Ja Lee.

And here’s a picture of the everyone and the puppets. The class was scheduled to go till 5pm but some of us stayed longer. At the end, all the people that had real cameras had already left (my theory was that they had to hurry to go take pictures of the sunset, or something) so enjoy this tiny blurry picture from a camera phone.

No, it’s not some kind of metaphor. I literally barked at a dog tonight.

I was driving back from work at night. When I was opening the gate to the parking garage of our apartment complex, I saw an animal. It was most likely a dog, but I wasn’t sure because it was dark.

“Is that a stray dog?” I thought. While stray dogs are quite commonly seen when I was growing up in Taiwan, I don’t really see those in Southern California. I parked the car and went to the entrance to see whether it was actually a dog.

Yep, it was. You know how I knew? Because it was barking and running towards me. I was walking away but then thought that would just make it chase me more. I decided to stop. It stopped too, hesitating.

I thought about my options. I could get into a staring contest with it until it got bored and walked away (maybe). Or I could try to open the door into the apartment complex that’s a few feet away, so if it decided to chase me, I could just lock it behind the door. I would have to move towards the door and use my key to unlock it first though, so it wasn’t the fastest option. This was when the dog barked again, pressing me to make up my mind, I guess.

So like any normal person, I decided to bark at the dog.

Now, I have a low-pitch voice, so when I bark, I sound more like a big dog than a small dog. Also, I’ve done college theater without microphones. I could go really loud if I really want to.

So I barked once. The dog got that “Oh shit, what’s going on?” look on its face.

It seemed a little intimidated, so I barked some more… this time, way louder.

And then it got really scared and hurriedly ran back out.

What a useless dog! Oh, and it wasn’t a stray dog. It was wearing a collar but wasn’t on a leash. When it ran out, a woman with another dog on a leash walked by.

I asked her if that was her dog. She apologized. Before I walked away, I shouted to her, “I won!”

So that’s my story of beating a dog in a barking contest.

So, what should I do? And then it hit me. I’ve seen recipes on so many blogs, many of which not even food-related. These blogs can be about making money online, personal development, parenthood, or whatever, but they all have recipes from time to time. That’s why I decided that I got to put some recipes here too!

So here’s the first installation: how to make Caesar salad. And of course, I am going to take it up a notch and provide some information that you won’t see in other people’s recipes because I am such an awesome blogger.

Ingredients: romaine lettuce, croutons, parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, egg, anchovy, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, eggplant, corn starch, uranium

Steps:

1. Carefully clean each leaf of the romaine lettuce. Chop it up.

2. Peel the parmesan cheese, and then finely dice it. Then, use a buttering knife to crush it into a paste. Put this paste on the croutons.

3. Next, we make the dressing. Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, egg (beaten, not stirred), Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper into two tea spoons of water. Stir until it has an even consistency.

4. Fillet the anchovy. Add it to the romaine lettuce and croutons. Put the dressing on it. Set it aside.

5. Next, put the eggplant, corn starch, and uranium into a baking pan. (You can buy uranium at your supermarket’s baking supply aisle. I buy the organic stuff from the farmer’s market.) Put this into the oven and bake it at 500 degrees for about an hour.

6. Open the oven. The chemicals released by the eggplant, corn starch and uranium should create significant energy vibration. This is called a tri-sprintec reaction and it will generate a black hole. This enables you to time travel. Take the salad you set aside and step into the black hole. (Caution: You want to be careful, as the oven might be hot.)

7. Make sure you step into the black hole at 23 miles per hour in the north-east-west direction. This brings you to Rome of year 50 BC.

8. Find Julius Caesar and give the salad to him.

And that’s all the steps it takes. You now know how to make Caesar salad (and bring it to him too).

1. A girl may give you her heart, but if you don’t pick it up right away (1), it will kill you once the time is up (2). Cause of death? Broken hearts (3), of course.

2. Girls love dropping off letters.

3. When a girl is playing music for you, you better take notes. Otherwise, you will die.

4. There is always someone between you and the girl you like. That guy is, of course, an asshole with ten times the muscles you have.

5. When the fat guy bends over, move away! Or you get killed.

6. Your only hope for beating the big muscle-y man is weed. With weed, you can feel invincible and that confidence will make the muscle-y guy run away. You can chase after him and punch him in the face, but the effect wears off very soon and things go back to the way they were. Unfortunately, while weed is useful, the supply is low. (Or wait, is the lesson: eat more vegetables instead? I am not so sure.)

Who said video games aren’t educational?