false implies anything

Black Friday 2008 - Overview of Online Deals

2008-11-28T07:42:00.007-06:00

For all of you who didn't wake up early, there's online shopping to the rescue!

Amazon.com

$200 Sony Blu-Ray player. (You could have gotten one for $100 if you were there for the Walmart door-busters, I heard.)
Reasonable movie deals, including $15 for Iron Man on Blu-Ray or $9 on DVD.
Great deals on TV shows, including seasons 1-3.2 of Entourage for $10 per season or seasons 1-2 of Robot Chicken for $13/season.
$200 for an old 16GB iPod Touch (compare to $208 for the new 8GB iPod Touch).
There are deals here (and all over the internet) for TVs, cameras, hard drives... I don't know how anyone can tell what's a good value for stuff like that. Don't go above $120/TB for external hard drives (or $100/320 GB if they're portable, perhaps).

Overstock.com

Free shipping site-wide. Compare to Amazon, which has free shipping on orders of $25, except for a lot of items.
Check out the list of Black Friday deals for other sales (nothing spectacular, unless you need a set of golf clubs or something).
Many things are cheaper on Amazon: e.g., complete Planet Earth series on Blu-Ray is $74.94 on Overstock and $69.94 on Amazon -- and qualifies for free shipping. It's worth checking both, though.

Buy.com

Free shipping, seemingly on most things
$13.55 8GB thumb drive (with swively-ness)

Target

free shipping on most things
2-day sale
many things are sold out

Kanye West Apparel

Kanye glasses shirt, $8 from Wet Seal
Kanye glasses, $5 from Urban Outfitters (which, by the way, has free shipping the whole weekend with the code FREEBIRD08)

Umm.

2008-07-21T19:47:00.001-05:00

This is how I feel about NBC's "Last Comic Standing."

I will need to go buy sunscreen soon.

2008-05-17T18:24:00.006-05:00

I think I will start blogging again now that I'm in Colorado.

This is an amazing place to be. I will give a brief summary now and add photos later.

Our host family. They are very chill -- including the cute baby -- and they have good taste in music. They have been super nice and welcoming. David says "dude" a lot.

The house. We knew it would be very pretty, and it is. Our rooms have big beds, nice chairs, and a great view. Mo's room also features a large mirror.

The mountains. They are awesome.

I still don't know what I'm going to be doing yet, but it seems that Mo will be doing stuff in C. We haven't explored the area or eaten or unpacked, but perhaps I will post an update if we do any of these things. I think I must be either really tired or in shock, because I don't really have any emotions. I'm just kind of like, "well, this is basically perfect."

Oh yeah. They have a nanny and a maid and a ton of movies... and no Dan Dan. He's apparently so brilliant that he has a 4.0 at CMU and he has to stay there over the summer so he can do this like, 4.5 year undergrad+masters program. Oh well. I hope no one will expect us to be quite that good...

Rough sketch

2008-04-03T22:19:00.001-05:00

10am.

I had a dream that I typed up a blog entry about my field trip experience and posted it when I had internet access again. That sounds like a pretty good idea, so here I go.

For those of you who don't know, this is my first out of 3 or 4 field trips for my Art 199 (aka sculpture) class. Today we are going to Millennium Park. We left the Art and Design Building a little after 8, even though I got there at like 7:38 because I was so worried about being late. Unfortunately, "a little after 8"didn't give us enough time to grab parking at our little train station outside the city, meaning we are driving in to the city right now. "We have an hour and 15 minutes" they say, until our tour. The only problem with driving into the city is that one of our drivers (my professor's friend) doesn't want to drive through rush hour, while the other one (a senior in the class) needs to get back early and doesn't care about rush hour. So I guess we'll split up. Personally, I don't need to go back early, but we'll see how it goes.

Hopefully my camera is working so I can take some photos of sculptures to post later.

8:30pm.

I had quite a fun, full day! Here's what I did (later I will post pictures and perhaps go into more detail about certain things, not that you will care).

We were able to park in the parking garage under Millennium Park. Kind of weird that parking in Chicago is, in some ways, easier to come by than parking in CU (not that I would want to do it every day). They make very good use of underground space.

Before our 11:30 Millennium Park tour, my classmate Liz (who I was in the car with on the way up) and I walked over to Walgreens so I could get batteries for my camera -.-; and a soda. No adventure is complete, of course, without going to Walgreens.

Then we met up with everyone and went on our tour. It was great! I have actually never walked around Millennium Park before. I really liked the space they had for concerts. Our tour guide gave us a lot of background about the history of the park and the structural challenges the engineers faced, so I learned a lot (the point of the whole trip, of course :P). Although obviously there weren't flowers and whatnot, it was a very nice day to be outside.

After the tour, our group went to Bennigan's and ordered way too much food. It was awesome. I had a delicious Monte Cristo and traded Ben my side dish for his dessert. Amanda ordered 3 (!) drinks. Then everyone except Maxine and I had to leave (they were the group that needed to go home early), so Maxine and I gathered up all the leftovers and looked at a few shops. I was reminded, of course, of the Music Club trips to see the Chicago Symphony orchestra... good times!!

Then the two adults, Maxine and I went to the Art Institute to see the Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper exhibits. Being especially interested in watercolors lately, I thoroughly enjoyed the Homer exhibit -- plus, there were tons of paintings and information about the techniques he used posted next to them. Hopper, you might remember, is the painter of the famous Nighthawks, with the people sitting in the diner at night. His pieces usually feature bold, flat colors and a focus on how light falls on objects. I really liked his urban scenes.

Although I was tempted to buy a book on watercolor techniques, I ended up just buying a little Homer postcard set so I can send postcards to people when I'm in Colorado (don't worry, I'll send Colorado-themed ones, too).

Then we went to au bon pain and it was buy one get one for specialty drinks so I got myself a free latte.

And now we are driving home and should get there around 10.

I am studying linear algebra for my test tomorrow. Actually, I just realized that I've been studying chapter 2 very diligently instead of 3 and 4 like I'm supposed to. (Yes, there are 9 chapters in this book and we are more than halfway done (I think?) with the semester. It amuses me.)

This book often says things like "the interested reader might want to prove this before moving on" or "the careful reader might have noticed such-and-such"; they never address me. I think I would fall under the category of "the lazy reader."

Anyhow. Onward to studying. Maybe I'll import my photos tomorrow.... after I do the MP!

10pm.
We got back into town, and now I am posting this and going back to math. xP

Projects I'm thinking about doing

2008-03-17T15:44:00.006-05:00

Make a webcomic. Unfortunately, my watercolors + ink outlines idea is pretty much exactly the same as Minus. I might give it a try anyway.
Learn the basics of Cocoa well enough so that I can make a few basic list-making apps for myself. (I'm a compulsive list-maker. It helps me feel productive.)
Think up an idea for an animated Radiohead music video to enter this contest. Has anyone made an animated movie before? :P
Make a website for our favorite up-and-coming Internet celebrity, Matt Schouest.
Work through pages 39-56 in the physics workbook (the ones that have material that will be on the next exam). Does that even count as a project?

I don't really know what else to listen to

2008-02-25T12:48:00.010-06:00

I am making the best playlist ever. Here it is so far:

Crazy Love, Vol. II - Paul Simon
Hungry For You (J'aurais Toujours Faim De Toi) - The Police
Something In The Air - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium
Wonderwall - Oasis
Hella Good - No Doubt
Only Heart - John Mayer

Alright, I'm kind of kidding -- it was just my bridge between Graceland and John Mayer -- but it's not that bad. It's like a big plate of cheap cheesy fries.

A list of music essays/reviews I want to do:

Considering the concept of concept albums, or another look at the downward spiral of modern record labels
R.E.M. Live
Cansei de Ser Sexy
Beck: Another look
My favorite bands that everyone is tired of me wanting to listen to (I've already kind of started this one; I even drew a cartoon of Bjork to go along with it)
Amy Winehouse

Super Pooper Tuesday

2008-02-06T00:38:00.000-06:00

This is kind of cool. Google Maps + Twitter delivering election news.

I didn't realize until tonight how much I wanted Obama to win....

Any thoughts?

I love math class, except for the going to class part

2008-02-04T02:17:00.001-06:00

I seriously could not concentrate on that Super Bowl. I heard it was great.

I am still awake, and I have to wake up at 8pm or something. I guess I shouldn't drink coffee after 10pm.

I'm not too worried about homework. After a weekend of doing nothing, I'm ready to work. Linear Algebra is so simple and relaxing.

For those of you who are interested, I will be posting preliminary sketches of my sculpture for my Art 199 class. For this class, we will be planning, modeling, and presenting an idea for a sculpture we would like to see in a specific location. I have a few ideas, including:

a large robot made out of the steel frame of the remains of a demolished building
a tall, mostly featureless figure with a shovel, positioned on a beach such that sometimes sand blows into the shovel, and sometimes the sand recedes and leaves the shovel empty (kind of a kinetic sculpture; based on my sarcastic idea of making a sandcastle)
something that mimics the form of a bridge

Yeah, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do yet. It should be fun.

...I hope I'm not coming down with a cold.

Dedicated to Marquis

2008-01-24T23:35:00.000-06:00

So tonight I actually have a fair amount of homework. It's kind of cool. I don't mind doing homework if (a) there aren't better things to do, (b) it isn't Chemistry, and (c) if it isn't impossible. :)

In SIGGRAPH (all caps is a little stupid, but it is the official way to say it), I am going to be doing texturing for a film I was never involved in and don't even know the plot to. Hehe. No, it's okay. It turns out that we are going to focus on the "Polarity" movie for EOH, and then we're going to return to the voodoo doll one ("Pins") after that. I'm doing texturing because it doesn't require using Maya, which I'm just not proficient with yet. I'll be using Pixelmator to draw textures over the image maps of various things (e.g., a stick; I think it has some sort of plot significance? ^^;).

By the way, did I mention I love days when I only have art classes? They're pretty great. I'm almost becoming a little fond of the 6 Pack (I don't get lost as much).

So what other homework do I have to finish today? Online Physics, and perhaps a little CS reading/online exercises (aka Turingscraft). That's doable.

I wonder what RSS reader Marquis uses.

The status of everyone in this room:

me: procrastinating
Robert and Luke: playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Mo: leaving because it's past her bedtime

Okay, I guess I should work on styling definition lists sometime, eh? ><

Saturday night will be a "special" Rock Band night for me and some of my HH party buddies -- I can't wait!

The room, the chair, and the egg

2008-01-21T21:15:00.000-06:00

Not much time left for slackitude

2008-01-11T16:56:00.000-06:00

Since school is starting in 3 days, I've been trying to finish up all the little things that needed to be taken care of before the end of break. Yesterday, I bought most of my books. I'm going to buy 3 more (probably on Sunday) from IBX people, and even though it will cut into my Rock Band time it will be worth it because it's going to save me >$80!

As for Colorado plans, Mo and I hit almost all our logistical birds with one stone by opting to rent out rooms in a young couple's house (as opposed to renting an apartment). The guy seems nice, their house is amazing, and it's just a 15 minute walk from work. (Also: no cooking! ^_^) I'm glad that's taken care of.

I'm looking forward to school a lot (freedom, video games, caffeine, Matt and Caitlin, a reason to justify my existence, etc.), but I'm really not looking forward to changing my sleep schedule. Maybe I'll just try to wake up early tomorrow to get back on track. Anyone want to have crepes for breakfast with me?

With Teeth - Nine Inch Nails

2008-01-10T03:30:00.001-06:00

I am a slightly embarrassed to report that this was the only item I checked out when I visited the new library today. (Side note: I also looked at the latest issue of Seventeen while I was there. It was a little disappointing. I seem to remember there being more things to make fun of...? It's just one big boring drugstore ad.)

Anyway. This is my first NIN album. After I got "The Hand That Feeds" stuck in my bead because of Rock Band (shut up), I considered three things. First, I had always been a little curious about the band since Cassie mentioned them in Animorphs. (She told Rachel she would tell her mom "NIN" stood for "Nice is Neat" so she could buy their latest album. I don't know why I remember this.) Second, I had encouraged Abby to listen to Nirvana and the Pixies because he likes Nine Inch Nails; why not go the other way? Third, I haven't picked up a new band in a long time. Might as well try these guys.

One thing I have to say about With Teeth... there is no physical booklet. Instead, they have a website with lyrics and song credits available for download as a normal-sized pdf or a HUGE poster. (What are you gonna do with that, bring your USB key to Kinko's?) And of course wallpaper and videos. But whatever happened to real liner notes? They're just so... neat. And one of the main reasons why I like buying a physical album. On the other hand, cute graphs (John Mayer's Heavier Things), stickers (Beck's The Information), or pretty photographs (Band of Horses' Cease to Begin) might not be quite their style. But photos of the band, lyrics that you don't have to print, or maybe even concept art a la Kid A... but whatever. I just got it from the library anyway.

The album's style isn't far off from how I had imagined. I knew it wasn't going to be like the single. I do admit that I looked up "Industrial Rock" on Wikipedia, only to be met by a furious edit war between those who think NIN is industrial rock and those who think it is synth pop. What?? Industrial rock invokes grayscale images of the metal shells of abandoned buildings, while synth pop sounds like flowers and bunnies and hellogoodbye! Surely you can't be serious?

The truth is, With Teeth is a fairly tame album. Although I still wouldn't let my mom listen to it, it doesn't have the crazy screaming that turns me off to screamo/whatever subgenre of metal they do that in (it's only okay if it's the Pixies). (I assume this is also true for the other NIN albums?) It's dark and a little gritty, but to be honest, this album just leaves me sitting there raising an eyebrow, wondering if that's all there is. I was expecting to get my face torn off at some point. I thought it was going to be crazy. But it's almost boring. The album ends with a postindustrialmetalrocksynthpop ballad. I almost feel obligated to make a pun about the irony of the album's title.

This album isn't horrid, though. The synth loops are no more irritating than the computer fuzz on A Ghost is Born, and Trent Reznor does have a good voice. It starts off decently, with "All the Love in the World." The song begins kinda minimalistically, and it into something good, with all the energy of THTF -- plus a fun reprise with a piano. The next song, "You Know What You Are?," was one of the tracks that almost crossed the line into crazy, with favorable results. If Reznor had filled the whole album with this stuff, I might have been impressed. I can see, though, that other people might be tempted to write this track off as uninspired angst; I couldn't help but draw a negative comparison to Incubus's "Megalomaniac."

"The Collector" isn't bad, either. The creepy piano thing is kind of unconvincing, though. But yeah, not too bad.

And now we get to THTF, which is as far as I'll go through the album one track at a time. This song is catchy, and its individual components fit together quite nicely. When you're playing all the instruments, it must be hard sometimes to sound like a band.

The rest of the album is decent. I found myself enjoying Getting Smaller, but several of the tracks, like Only, were a bit underwhelming. The title track got a little close to tearing off my head, using the old "play softly for awhile and then suddenly get loud" trick, but that's kind of cheating. (It still startled me both times I listened to it -- even when I knew it was coming the second time.)

One thing about this album is that it does make me want to try other albums in the NIN discography. The deciding factor was probably Reznor's voice. I also imagine that his earlier albums are a little more edgy (and potentially more interesting).

Reading the Pitchfork review, I sigh and wish I could have written this with more knowledge of NIN's history and discography... and a booklet of lyrics I could page through.

images from here, here, and here.

Crazy Adventure Story!

2008-01-08T20:19:00.001-06:00

Today I had a crazy adventure, where I had to brave the freezing rain, cross a raging river, and dodge speeding cars. All for some ice cream.

Actually, it was pretty warm outside, and that story sounded a lot more exciting when Marquis and I were making it up earlier.

I did get my favorite kind of ice cream, though: birthday cake on a sprinkle cone! You just can't beat that.

One week

2008-01-06T13:04:00.000-06:00

I'm glad that there isn't much time left in winter break. I don't really like living at home, and since Annie's gone and Noam is largely unavailable, I'm starting to miss hanging out with Matt and Caitlin. Plus I'm excited to start a new semester and do it right this time!

Unfortunately, I've still got a lot of things on my to do list, including:

make crepes
make myself a belt
draw a cool picture
write a music review
catalog recipes and practice cooking
homemade presents!! aaaah
chictech html/css demo
this friend class schedule thingy I'm thinking of making with Marquis
buy/sell books
look over lecture notes for CS 125 and other classes to get a head start ^_^
facebook experiment app.... eh, that'll never happen :P

At least I don't have to study for the Physics proficiency test!

The Crazy Liberal

2008-01-02T22:59:00.000-06:00

I found this new political compass thing for the 2008 US elections on Digg. Here's where I fall:

It's good to see that some of the Ron Paul fanatics on Digg apparently do line up with him pretty well. (Not me!)

Life Stats

2007-12-29T17:21:00.000-06:00

My life so far:

My life ahead: more college (a position as a CS 173 section leader, I hope?) and a summer internship with HP.