Sunday, December 2, 2012

Punchcard App No Longer Pays Out (As Well)

Recently, I noticed an update from Punchcard's Facebook page. They were now offering $50 Restaurant.com gift certificates for any punchcards completed between the video and the end of the year. Okay, I thought, but not really necessary.


But then I started reading the comments on that post. Apparently the cash rewards have been replaced entirely with Restaurant.com gift certificates as of November 22, 2012, and it doesn't look like anyone was notified. 


According to the Punchcard FAQ, "After November 22, 2012, you will earn restaurant vouchers as a reward for completing open or new cards. You will receive a voucher code via email at the email you provided."

To say that I am less than thrilled would be an understatement. I really loved being able to earn back a slight bit of cash that I spent on groceries. I bragged about the app to everyone I knew. I am trying to eat out LESS, not more, so restaurant vouchers are not inherently a good thing. I might be a little less upset if the vouchers were more specific to the stores, like I could get a Target gift certificate or something after I finished completing a punchcard. A quick review of the restaurants that accept restaurant.com gift certificates in my area shows that the selection is pretty limited, and most of them get middling reviews at best. 

Well, it was nice knowing you, Punchcard. I wish you had been more forthcoming about your changes. Please try to do better if you want to regain my loyalty. 



Friday, November 30, 2012

Tikki Tikki Tembo Isn't Accurate? Stop The Presses!




I picked up Tikki Tikki Tembo from the library after being overcome with a wave of nostalgia. I brought it home, and read it to my daughter, and found myself laughing at the ridiculous so-called "Chinese folktale" being retold by Arlene Mosel.

There are a number of things wrong with this version of the folktale, starting with the fact that the origins of the folktale appear to be Japanese, not Chinese. "Tikki Tikki Tembo" aren't Chinese sounds, "Chang" is a surname, and doesn't mean "little or nothing", the characters all seem to be wearing Japanese sandals, and in one scene, Chang bows backwards, which just looks weird, and which no one ever does.

I was expecting Tikki Tikki Tembo to die, given how long he'd been in the well. But he is miraculously saved. I think there are some versions where he dies.

As to whether there's any damage done, or whether I'll do any to my daughter, I don't think so. I tried to follow this tedious discussion on a Children's Lit listserv, but it only served to frustrate me.


Saturday, November 24, 2012

Favorite Videos Of The Week

This week I've got some pretty random things, but they're all well worth watching. In this first one, Alicia Keys gives a soulful rendition of the Gummi Bears theme song on the Jimmy Fallon show. It's amazing how long it takes before she cracks. It took a while before I even realized she wasn't singing another R&B song. 


An oldie but goodie - Christopher Walken in Pennies From Heaven, an old-school burlesque musical. The sequence is called "Let's Misbehave", and features a really young Christopher Walken as tempter. I've never seen this movie, but I think I should!


So I didn't really care about the AMAs other than PSY's performance with MC Hammer. But that was kind of underwhelming compared to P!nk's performance, which was incredible. This first video is the original music video for her song "Try", and the second one is the AMA performance. It's a really unusual video, in that the focus is on the dance, and the dance actually tells a story. It's also visually disturbing, and turbulent. Amazing.




Saturday, November 17, 2012

Favorite Videos Of The Week


"The Heat" is a female buddy cop movie, starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy of "Bridesmaids" fame. It's nice to see women getting in on the Judd Apatow-style comedy action. 


David Chang and Anthony Bourdain just never stop working, do they? "Mind of a Chef" is a 12-part PBS series that focuses on a particular food for each episode. The first one is about ramen. It seems to be very complementary to Chang's magazine Lucky Peach.


GoldieBlox is a Kickstarter-funded toy that teaches engineering concepts, and is designed to appeal to girls. I'm not crazy about the pastels or the blond white girl (maybe future iterations will have a more diverse cast) that seems to be the protagonist of the story, but I really like the idea. I wish the video had shown more about the actual toy. 



In Shanghai, there's a real-life "marriage market" in which anxious parents bring out profiles of their single sons and daughters to hopefully find a good match for them so that they can get married and provide them with grandchildren. Actually, their daughters and sons might already be in relationships. Their kids might not even know that they're being set up. I wonder how many successful matches there are. 

Marriage Corner from A Year To Think on Vimeo.

Ever wanted to make your own Sriracha? Try this one out!

JoJo's Sriracha: Bringing More Hot Pepper Flavor To The Party from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Favorite Videos...U.S. Election Edition

With the U.S. presidential election happening tomorrow, there have been a lot of great videos popping up all over the place. I've collected a bunch of my favorites here:

If you, especially those of you who live in swing states, could use a breather from political ads, Quinley & Kubat's got a solution for you:



This little girl is sick of the election, too. 


Jay-Z's getting in on the act, saying that he's got "99 problems, but Mitt ain't one":



If you don't vote for Obama, these old folks will watch you while you have sex. This video is from Michael Moore and MoveOn:


Joss Whedon endorses Romney for the zombie apocalypse:




Friday, October 5, 2012

Friday: Videos I Love

Fun videos for Friday!

Steve Martin, Home Crafts Expert, Endorses Bob Kerrey


It's the Law... Ladyparts Justice - Brought to you by Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead


The Other Son trailer


Sesame Street: Birdwalk Empire





Friday, September 28, 2012

Checkpoints Bugs & More Ways To Earn Points

(Go read this post for the latest info on how to earn points at Checkpoints to trade in for gift cards and other goodies.)

While I still like using the Checkpoints app, there are some irritating bugs. I'm not sure if it has to do with the fact that I have an ancient version of Android (2.5 or something like that), or if they have issues on their end.

Checkpoints Bugs:
  • When I first load up the app, I am always asked to log in. A few months ago, before I uninstalled and then reinstalled it, I never had to log in except for the very first time I used it. Now I can't use it without being prompted for a login. This makes me wish I had chosen a shorter user name. I shortened my password to deal. 
  • Almost every time I load the app, the app freezes when I click on the sign-in button. Then when I start the app again, it works fine. It is really annoying. 
  • In some stores, Checkpoints only works with my wireless turned off. A side benefit of having to log in every time means that I can instantly tell when I need to turn the wireless off. If I don't get the screen that says "Thanks for reinstalling your app", then it means I need to turn the wireless off.
  • When I scan an item, I am usually prompted to answer whether I would be more likely to buy an item if I had a coupon for it. When I first started getting these, I got annoyed at how long it took me to get to the question, and also how long it took for it to finish processing the answer. On those occasions, I would back out of the screen and essentially skip the question and continue scanning. The result was lost coins and lost points. Once I figured it out, I no longer skip answering the questions. 
  • I haven't tested this in a while, but when I tried to download a game via the Try Apps section, I got logged out of Checkpoints, and the coins appear when I am not logged in. This is not a big deal, because I found downloading and trying apps the most cumbersome method of obtaining coins anyway. 
Other Ways To Earn Points And Coins On Checkpoints: 
  • Go to BonusCoins - unfortunately, this is only supported by iPhones, iPods, and iPads using the Safari browser, so I can't tell you much about it.
  • Go to earn.checkpoints.com and log in. You can earn points by applying for credit cards, taking surveys, buying stuff from the deal sites like Tippr and Groupon, and buying magazines. You only earn the points once the transactions are completed - surveys must be finished, deals must be paid for, etc. You probably won't qualify for all the surveys, and the surveys may ask for a lot of information before it rejects you for the actual survey. So if you have some time to kill, this might be interesting, but otherwise, I think it's easier to just get points and coins the regular way.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Extra! Extra! Coupons & Deals App Saves You Money Everywhere



From InMarket, the makers of the Checkpoints app, comes another great free app. Extra! Extra! Coupons & Deals is available on both Android and the iPhone stores. It used to be the local deals section on Checkpoints. What I love about it is the simplicity in execution, and the fact that it works so quickly and seamlessly. (Doesn't seem to be a battery hog, either.)

When you open the app, you see a list of stores, each with a summary of the coupons available at that store. I used it yesterday at a Carter's outlet store, to purchase some clothes for my daughter. On the right-hand side, you'll see a number - which indicates the number of coupons available for the store. I realized, when I pulled up the store, that there were actually several coupons for Carter's - one for $10 off $50, one for $5 off $40, and a general 25% off coupon. After some quick calculations, I realized that the 25% off coupon would give me the biggest discount.

At first, I tried to print out the coupon. You can share coupons on Facebook or email it to yourself. But I had issues with my printer, and I couldn't print. I just took my phone with me to the store anyway, and brought up the coupon, and showed it to the cashier. Because there was a code on the coupon for the retailer, she was able to give me the discount.

What I really like about this, besides the simplicity, is that I have access to coupons that I would actually use. I've checked out Groupon, and Amazon Local, and Google Offers. I think I've bought a total of two things on Google Offers. And everything else I've seen on the other social discount sites has just been too much hassle, or things I'm not entirely interested in - no, I'm not going to slog to the other side of Los Angeles just to get a haircut. I'm not a spa person. Extra! Extra! has coupons from stores and restaurants like Jamba Juice and Carl's Jr.

You can favorite coupons, and search nearby for local coupons.

Extra! Extra! on Facebook

Now all I need is for InMarket to finish ListBliss for Android.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Space Shuttle Endeavor Photos

Unfortunately, now that I live in the "Valley", as people like to refer to it, I missed out on the awesome craziness that was the Endeavor flyover. On the other hand, plenty of people took great pictures, so I thought I would collect a bunch of them here.


Sunday, September 16, 2012

Gourmet Magazine Mashed Potatoes With Six Variations


I made this very basic version of mashed potatoes yesterday, and was very pleased at the way it came out. I like it because I can just use what's in my fridge. It's very simple - just russet potatoes, butter, milk, salt and pepper.

I was able to make it in half an hour. The majority of prep time came from peeling and boiling the potatoes. Next time, I think I will try the roasted garlic variation.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

My "Gangnam Style" Obsession

First, the actual video:


There seems to be no end of things to say and do about PSY's viral hit "Gangnam Style". I have been re-playing it over and over for weeks on end. I've also collected a ton of links and parodies and reaction videos, so I thought I'd share.
PSY dances to Lady Gaga and Beyonce. He's really, really good. 

PSY teaches Britney Spears.



Deadpool vs Gangnam Style.




Sunday, August 26, 2012

"Happiness is wanting what you get." - Dale Carnegie

I thought I'd share some things I saw on the Internet that made me happy lately:

K-pop viral sensation Gangnam Style


The Muppets: Ode to Joy

Flight of the Conchords: Feel Inside and Stuff Like That 






Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Avengers Deleted Scenes

I loved the Avengers, so finding out that there were deleted scenes made me really happy. Here are the ones I was able to find:

A potential opening to Avengers 2? It includes a version of Maria Hill which I don't think is actually consistent with the character in the original movie.


Opening by Vivianbianchi

Extended planning scene with Loki and Clint Barton.


Loki and Barton (extended scene) by Vivianbianchi

Nick Fury talks to the Council?


Nick by Vivianbianchi

What happened after the Hulk fell from the sky and turned back into Bruce Banner.


Bruce Banner Deleted Scene from the "Avengers"... by Flixgr

Oh Tumblr. Where the eff is your permalink??? Anyway, if you scroll down this page, you can see the deleted scene where Steve Rogers/Captain America finds out that Peggy is still alive, and he makes the decision to go see her.

Also, Buzzfeed has the Avengers' gag reel, along with a bunch of GIFs.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

How To Watch Chinese/Cantonese Media Online

The day before yesterday, I came across a site that provided me with lots of Cantonese gossip, and then I got sucked into watching movie trailer after movie trailer. It made me feel a little homesick, to be honest. When I lived at home, my family had a membership at a Chinese rental store, and we would rent movies and TV shows to watch. I credit our consumption of Cantonese media with my absorption of the Cantonese language.

So of course I complained on Facebook about it, and promptly received several suggestions about where I could consume media online. Here are the suggestions:


  • PPS.TV - Requires registration (which I think is free), and the entire site is in Chinese. I can read a little Chinese, but it takes a lot of effort, so I'm not sure I can use this one.
  • MapleStage - Recommended for dramas. Site is also in Chinese, and subtitles are in Chinese. Dramas are from mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. 
  • Hulu - Supposedly has some, but a cursory search was unhelpful to me. 
  • AzDrama.Net - MONEY - Site is written in English, and contains Hong Kong dramas and shows. You can sort by shows with English subtitles, although many of the shows have Chinese subtitles. There are also Taiwanese shows and Chinese shows. Note: Their search sucks, and is one of the worst in-site search engines I've ever seen. I did a search for "condor heroes" to see if they had "Legend of the Condor Heroes", and every single search result took me to the HK Drama page. 
  • Crunchyroll - Was not mentioned, but was one of the sites I originally used to watch Cantonese shows. The focus seems to have shifted to Japanese and Korean dramas, but they still have Cantonese shows from Tai Seng Entertainment on. The selection is limited, though, because I think Tai Seng has an ongoing dispute with Crunchyroll, and they took a bunch of popular shows offline. 

Monday, August 13, 2012

The Updated Punchcard App Is Way Easier To Use

Ok, is it just me, or does Punchcard kind of suck at social media?

Evidence:


I only saw cursory references to the new features on the updated Punchcard app, and no detailed explanations in the official blog. It seems like basic common sense to tell your users what your new features are, across all your social media channels. 

Well, in case you're wondering, here's what's new in the Punchcard app:
  • You no longer have to be at your location in order to scan your receipt. If you're out of range of the store where you have a receipt, then you can just do a search for the zip code and the name, and snap a picture of the receipt that way.
  • Did I mention you can search for locations?
  • Each individual punch now shows you exactly how much you spent each time, down to the penny. 
  • You now have an "inbox" in which you are informed if your punch has been approved or not. If it hasn't been approved, you'll be shown a reason why.
An interesting item of note:

I actually made a lot of purchases over the past two weeks at different stores, and scanned those receipts in with no problem. However, I also returned items from those scanned receipts to the stores as well. Logistically, I don't think there's any way for, say, Target to coordinate with Punchcard to dock me the money I've saved by returning an item. It doesn't matter anyway, though, because I still end up spending that money at the same store. Punching away!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Why I Deleted My Quora Account

Quora is a social question and answer site in which many of its participants are from the world of tech startups, which makes it a better place to get information than, say, Yahoo! Answers. When you ask a question on Quora, no matter how silly or misguided or honestly, stupid, you'll get at least one serious answer that has been carefully thought out, and the writer will take pains to provide evidence to back up his or her point of view.

So why would I want to leave? 

Because they decided to make lurking a thing of the past. Now, when you log on, other people on the site can see which questions and answers you've read, and also how you came to the post, whether via email, search or a public stream. Of course, if you don't like it, you can turn it off yourself. However, when something's on by default, most people don't bother to change it.

I like lurking. Although I find comment threads interesting, I rarely participate in discussions because I find doing so exhausting, even when it's enjoyable. I like being able to read freely without having someone know what I am doing, so I don't have other people in my head while consuming. I don't want to have even someone I know come up to me and ask me what I thought of that article that I may have read and forgotten about two weeks ago.

Frankly, do most people even care that much about what their friends are consuming? I know Facebook introduced the whole concept of "frictionless sharing", and people like Robert Scoble are invested in this idea that it somehow makes the Internet better when the entire Internet knows what you had for breakfast, what you read on the toilet, and what you sing in the shower. But honestly? I don't want to know all of that! If I was interested in what you thought about X, I'd have a direct conversation with you about it, whether online or off.

This trend that Facebook started is disturbing, and if it weren't for the fact that I keep in touch with my closest friends via Facebook, I'd have shut it down the day they introduced frictionless sharing. In the meantime, though, I'd rather cut through my social network clutter and eliminate the inessential sites that don't bother to respect the user.

It's too bad, because I have enjoyed my time on Quora. But life is short, and I can live without it.

What You Should Know About Deleting Your Quora Account: 

There is no option to delete your Quora account within your account options. In the account options, you have the ability to "deactivate your account", which just means that your account goes silent, but your questions, answers, and anything else you've contributed remain up on the site. However, no one else can actually interact with you.

If you want to actually delete your account, and delete all the content you've contributed, you have to contact privacy@quora.com and provide them with a direct link to your Quora account. My request was processed quite easily, although there was a minor glitch. When I clicked on my link to verify deletion, I found that my account was still up. I replied to the support staff, and they took care of the issue in a timely manner and deleted my account without further delay or questioning. 

Monday, July 23, 2012

Links + Commentary


  • "How It Feels To Be Colored Me" by Zora Neale Hurston. I wish I could write half as well as this: But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all but about it. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more of less. No, I do not weep at the world--I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.
  • Amazon to pay tuition for employees.  From the splash page letter: "We want to make it easier for employees to make that choice and pursue their aspirations. It can be difficult in this economy to have the flexibility and financial resources to teach yourself new skills. So, for people who've been with us as little as three years, we're offering to pre-pay 95% of the cost of courses such as aircraft mechanics, computer-aided design, machine tool technologies, medical lab technologies, nursing, and many other fields. The program is unusual. Unlike traditional tuition reimbursement programs, we exclusively fund education only in areas that are well-paying and in high demand according to sources like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and we fund those areas regardless of whether those skills are relevant to a career at Amazon." Personally, I think that's fantastic.
  • Did I Ruin Journalism? A former Jezebel writer/reporter responds to the account of her work published by Ryan Holiday, who accuses her of a "pattern of manipulation".
  • Mindy Kaling's new show The Mindy Project will be premiering online August 27
  • City of Los Angeles sues US Bank over blight
  • Ottavia Bourdain is apparently a UFC enthusiast

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Many Links About ObamaCare

Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in a 5-4 decision that the Affordable Care Act, or "ObamaCare", as called by its detractors, was constitutional. Or rather, the individual mandate, that was the primary mechanism for funding of ACA, was legal because the consequences of not buying health insurance amounted to a tax, in a majority opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts. The Supreme Court's five conservatives, which included Roberts, still found it unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause, contradicting years of precedent and many Constitutional legal scholars' findings.

(Disclosure: I am a liberal. I am pleased that a policy that addresses our nation's barely existent healthcare system was passed through Congress by popularly elected representatives and survived every constitutional challenge up to the highest court of the United States. That is truly democracy in action. On the other hand, there is much to be done to bring the US healthcare system in line with the rest of the developed world.)



Below, I've collected various articles of interest related to the ACA and the Supreme Court decision.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Legend Of The Condor Heroes Theme Songs

The theme songs for Legend of the Condor Heroes were duets recorded and sung by Roman Tam and Jenny Tseng (sometimes listed as Jenny Yan). In this first video below, you can catch a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes studio recordings. The over-sized sweaters, large glasses, and old, mechanical recording equipment really do put you in the eighties. You'll see many scenes from the first episodes, where we are being introduced to the main characters. 



In the video below, it's the second duet (I think), and the scenes are from later episodes. There's not much to spoil here, because we aren't really told what the plots are from the few seconds each of different scenes, but you'll notice a lot of new people, and especially older characters fighting duels. 


I think the below video, at eight and a half minutes long, has the power duo singing the three major duets from the show. I think it's from a joint concert, and what's great is they have a live orchestra backing them up. 

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Patrick Stewart Reads Shakespeare Sonnets

Via AppNewser.

There's a new iPad app that features various actors reading Shakespeare's sonnets, including Patrick Stewart, David Tennant, Kim Catrall, and others. The app is a collaboration between Faber and Touch Press. Since I don't have an iPad, the next best thing is to actually watch them online in the Share-a-Sonnet Vimeo album. In this post, I've collected Patrick Stewart's readings.

 
Patrick Stewart reading Sonnet 4 'Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend' from Touch Press on Vimeo.

Patrick Stewart reading Sonnet 19 'Devouring time, blunt thou the lion's paws' from Touch Press on Vimeo.

Patrick Stewart reading Sonnet 29 'When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes' from Touch Press on Vimeo.

Patrick Stewart reading Sonnet 30 'When to the sessions of sweet silent thought' from Touch Press on Vimeo.

Patrick Stewart reading Sonnet 127 'In the old age black was not counted fair' from Touch Press on Vimeo.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Links + Commentary


Prometheus Links + Commentary

I watched Prometheus over the weekend, and came home with mixed feelings.

The good: Beautiful, gorgeous visuals, good actors, some frightening scenes, works as a thriller.
The bad: Writing is clunky, plot doesn't make sense.
The stupid: Everyone is stupid. Literally. As someone in the hello, tailor blog comments: "Nobody talks to each other except to info-dump, and worse, nobody follows their job descriptions (geologists can't follow their own maps, security leaves their weapons at home, scientists don't perform tests, captains can't keep track of their crew, doctors don't care that a woman is running around in bloody underwear with her intestines hanging out, etc.). If the characters don't care about things, why should we?"

To me, there's a lot of fun in dissecting media, but this has been done much better elsewhere, so I'll just point to them here. Warning: I spoil everything, and I don't hide it. If you want to read someone who hides spoilers, you'll have to go somewhere else.

  • The Fashion Harbinger critiques Prometheus on plot and costuming
  • Interview with Sir Ridley Scott on the Prometheus and Alien universe. Movies.com: You throw religion and spirituality into the equation for Prometheus, though, and it almost acts as a hand grenade. We had heard it was scripted that the Engineers were targeting our planet for destruction because we had crucified one of their representatives, and that Jesus Christ might have been an alien. Was that ever considered? RS: We definitely did, and then we thought it was a little too on the nose. But if you look at it as an “our children are misbehaving down there” scenario, there are moments where it looks like we’ve gone out of control, running around with armor and skirts, which of course would be the Roman Empire. And they were given a long run. A thousand years before their disintegration actually started to happen. And you can say, “Lets’ send down one more of our emissaries to see if he can stop it. Guess what? They crucified him. 
  • Penny Arcade's comic
  • Prometheus Pre-prequel. (YouTube)
  • Prometheus Unbound: What The Movie Was Actually About. Long, long, long analysis of the various symbolic imagery in Prometheus. What you have to understand: it makes no statement on whether the film itself is good or bad - it's mainly just analyzing the symbolic imagery and how often it comes up. That's it. 

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Toasty Loves...Shutterfly

Seriously, I do. I've been using Shutterfly to print my pictures ever since they've been around. They provide gorgeous pictures and photo products, and as I discovered this week, they have excellent customer service.

In the first incident, I tried to log onto my account a few times, but for some reason I couldn't get on. I changed my password several times, but was still unable to access my account. Fortunately, Shutterfly actually has a customer service number that is really easy to find, and the customer service representative walked me through the entire process of fixing the issue. When he was unable to help me out, he told me that he would personally walk over to the tech people and that I'd receive a note shortly from one of them confirming that they had fixed and reset my account. Which they did.

In the second instance, I ordered pictures, and when they came, the envelope had been opened and taped back shut. All my pictures were in there, but the fact that the envelope came opened disturbed me. I sent an email to Shutterfly's customer service, and was surprised the next day to receive an email saying that they were really sorry and they would make sure to find a way to make sure it didn't happen again. By the way, they would also send me replacement pictures for free.

I've used Shutterfly to print photos, make birthday cards, and photo books. I love their unlimited storage, and I love that I am able to maximize various discounts to get pictures at awesome prices.

My only issues stem from their interface - I think they could stand to be less complex, and more accessible to the average user.

Monday, June 18, 2012

The Legacy of Rodney King

Rodney King passed away a few days ago. An ordinary, flawed man who became the symbol of something much greater than himself also couldn't escape his legacy. After he was beaten, he continued to be a flawed man, struggling with addictions and other demons. But he seemed to have made peace with the incident that defined him for over twenty years.

I wondered - has anything really changed in the past twenty years?

Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American male, is dead. It took almost two months for his murderer to be arrested.
Oscar Grant, an African-American male, was shot dead by a BART cop who claimed he mistook his gun for a taser. Even with video evidence, Johanne Mehserle was only convicted of involuntary manslaughter for which he was only sentenced for two years, in which he received "double credit" for time already served. And now he is trying to appeal his conviction because he actually wants to return to police work.
Kendrec McDade, an African-American teenager, was shot dead by cops in Pasadena, who believed he participated in an armed robbery. McDade was unarmed. He had no gang ties, nor did he have any criminal records.

It seems to have become more fatal.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Links + Commentary


Monday, June 11, 2012

Links + Commentary


Saturday, June 9, 2012

Legend Of The Condor Heroes 1983 TVB Series Re-watch



I'm excited. I just received my DVDs of the 1983 TVB version of the Legend Of The Condor Heroes to arrive. Part one of Jin Yong/Louis Cha's famous Condor Heroes trilogy, it follows the story and adventures of simple-minded Guo Jing and his partner-in-crime Huang Rong. While the sequel, Return Of The Condor Heroes, is much more popular, I think the first part is actually better story-wise.

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the martial arts heroes genre, and spent hours watching tapes of young heroes and heroines fighting off evil and navigating the martial arts world of ancient China, which seemed to exist separately from the actual Chinese government of the era.

The best thing about the Condor Heroes are the characters. It's your basic coming-of-age story, but what makes the story so special is Huang Rong, the love interest. When you meet her, she's impulsive, petty, but also ruthless and smart, complementing Guo Jing's simple-mindedness and innocence. She's one of my all-time favorite characters, ever.

I'll be watching this again, and writing down my impressions as an adult. It'll be interesting to compare my childhood impressions with my adult outlook. One caveat: I do not have any screen capture software, so most of my posts will be heavy on the text.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Style Saint - Fantasy Wedding Stylebook

I met the CEO of StyleSaint the other day, and decided to check the site out. I'm still playing with the site, but here's a stylebook I created with StyleSaint. The theme is "Fantasy Wedding", and I was toying with the idea of re-doing my wedding in a dreamland.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Punchcard App Pays Out



So far, I have received 3 physical checks from the Punchcard app. The premise of the app is very simple: when you purchase something from a store, take a snapshot of the receipt with your phone, and "punch" in the store. When you have "punched" a store 10 times, you'll receive a check for the average of your purchase amounts up to $30. Supposedly merchants have other deals that they can also give you once you've hit the 10th punch, but I've only ever received checks.

I like that it's very simple to use. There's not a huge learning curve, and it's free. It's available for both Android and iOS. The one nice thing about it, is that there's not really a limit to the type of places where you can "punch" in. According to TechCrunch, "it just switched on loyalty programs for millions of locations across the U.S., even if they didn’t ask for it.
“We’re looking at this as seeding the market, essentially,” explains Punchcard CEO and serial entrepreneur Andy Steuer of why the company has seemingly put the cart before the horse. In other words, usage and rewards first, paying customers (i.e., businesses signing up) second."
There are some oddities in it - the way Punchcard pulls up locations for you to punch in, is powered by Foursquare, and this can result in some weirdness. For example, one of the locations near my house is "Taco Man". Who, or what is Taco Man? I have no idea.

There is a tab for Offers, that presumes to give you local deals similar to what Google Offers, or Groupon, or Living Social does. However, every time I've tried to click on a deal, it fails to actually take me to the offer. It's not like many of those offers are very appealing anyway, so I don't use it.

One thing to remember about this app is that you have to snap a picture of your receipt at the point of purchase. This has been an issue for me when I've used the app because the GPS/Foursquare function is inconsistent, and for certain locations, it wouldn't show me the stores that I was standing right next to. I think this is a bug that got fixed in the latest update, but I need to test it.

You can only "punch" the same location once a day, but you can "punch" your receipt, if you forgot on the day of, up to five days later. This is great, as long as you are right next to your location. I've found it useful because the grocery store is right down the street from me.

There's another downside: your punches have expiration dates. For example, if you punch into a Ralph's store, you'll need to collect 10 punches by a certain date and it will re-set. Usually the date is several months from when you've punched in - however, I had a ludicrous situation once, where I punched into the Los Angeles Zoo on Memorial Day. The expiration date was for June 27, which was less than a month away. How could the app realistically expect me to show up to the zoo 10 times before the month was out?

Although, how could I not love an app that sends me cash? The app is not altogether altruistic. It's also a solution for small business owners. Punchcard also launched "Punchcard for Business", which lets businesses analyze the data collected from the punched receipts, and push out special offers directly to loyal clients. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Genuine Apologies

Let's face it - apologies are a dime a dozen, but most of them are insincere and self-serving. So when real people with power face their faults with thoughtfulness, it's worth highlighting:
  • Jason Alexander writes an apology for calling cricket a "gay sport"So, I can only apologize and I do. In comedy, timing is everything. And when a group of people are still fighting so hard for understanding, acceptance, dignity and essential rights – the time for some kinds of laughs has not yet come. I hope my realization brings some comfort.
  • Mark Cuban apologizes for making a homophobic jokeI guess what I am doing is admitting that at some level I am prejudiced and that I recognize that I am .  There are a lot of things in my life that I need to improve at. This is one of them. Sometimes I make stupid throw away comments that I quickly realize are wrong. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens. It was a mistake and I realized it. I learned from it.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Links + Comments

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Stealing The Show: Black Widow


  • Hello, tailor analysis of Black Widow and Hawkeye's costumes: "But the reality is that there's no point during The Avengers when her looks are even commented on, and nor does she get any tiresome "feminine wiles" scenes. Most complaints or creepy sexist commentary on Black Widow's costume/body/character say far more about the commenter than about Johansson's performance itself."
  • The Superhero Men Don't See: Evidence: "Overall, 24 of the 40 reviews mention Natasha/BW/SJ only in passing, in a single sentence; 3 others do not mention her at all. But look at Point 1 of the objective facts: Johansson probably has the second largest part in the movie, including at least *8* two-person scenes (if you include the Russians). Not mentioning her or not giving the impression that she's a major character maybe should qualify *all* those reviewers for the "420" designation, or at least for a couple of tokes."
  • Scarlett Johannson in a Gorilla Suit: The Superhero Mundanes Don't See: "And in particular, it's usually a safe bet that if there's only one woman with a major role in a male-focused action movie, she'll be the stock sex symbol. So I think the Top Critics saw Scarlett Johansson as Natasha, tagged her as "the girl who's pretty but doesn't do much, you know, like Megan Fox", and then felt free to ignore her as they tried to keep track of what was going on (the basketball game, as it were) in a maximally distracting environment. When it came time to write their review, they looked at the list of actors, said, "hmm, what did Scarlett Johansson do?" and all that came back was the tag -- they never realized her character was the gorilla."
  • The Avengers Brings Superhero Movies to Another Level: "Black Widow, given a personal stake in the fight when Loki brainwashes Hawkeye, tells the villain who wants to know if she’s in love with him, “Love is for children. I owe a debt,” and leaves it at that. Her refusal to clarify leaves room for Loki to speculate, and ultimately to reveal more than he intended. All sorts of skill sets matter in a conflict this big and complex. And without making her a victim or a lesser member of the team, Black Widow’s reactions are a regular reminder that superheroics and space invaders have real impact beyond the financial support of the Cinematic Demolition Industrial Complex."
  • Black Widow Spins Web Around the Avengers: "To which I can only say—exactly! And: isn’t this remarkable? Two parallel realities! Men who see nobody at all and women who see the next Faith (without the crazy, I mean). Don’t tell Disney, or they’ll be marketing the film as 4-D."

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

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Monday, May 28, 2012

How To Get Around Media Paywalls

Recently, newspapers such as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have instituted paywalls. These paywalls allow you to access their news sites a certain number of times per month, after which you are prompted to pay for subscriptions to access their online materials. Supposedly there are other benefits if you subscribe, but if you're like me and you're unlikely to subscribe either offline or on, there's a quick solution if you want to read more than your allotted amount per month:

Just use your browser's private browsing mode. 


It's as simple as that.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Everything You Never Needed To Know About Steve Jobs

This is a compilation of links about Steve Jobs. This post will be updated whenever I have new information about Steve Jobs that is relevant or interesting.