Stars Without Their Looks

Rollover the image of Paris Hilton to see what she would have been like if she lost her millions and became poor. "

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Name That Tune

The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.

Fullmetal Alchemist movie night

I have earned massive brownie points with my wife. She is a HUGE Fullmetal Alchemist fan. She has all versions of the shows on DVD sets as well as copied onto our satellite PVR system with statues and gashapons of all types. Many web sites housing her personnel drawings of her favorite character’s in rather provocative poses.

So when my wife found out that the newest Fullmetal Alchemist movie was going to screened at a movie theater in Raleigh, NC. After countless texting and phone calls to me while I was at work, I was faced with two problems. The first being that we would have to carry out two boys, which I will explain later, and I had to charge up my cell phone because she would not stop talking about the prospects of seeing this movie. She was like a little kid on Christmas day.

After returning home to a waiting wife by the door to greet me home that was followed by a ton of information in regards to this movie. I checked the location of the theater to find it was only a few blocks from our regular dentist.  I also discovered a rather unique feature about this theater that I came to really love about this place. The theater in question is called The Raleighwood Cinema Grill. It is a very small theater with only two movie screens. Everyone waits in the lobby until it’s time for the movie to start meaning a small area with people standing around playing angry birds on their cell phone. But once inside I found true love.

It was a restaurant inside a movie theater. We sat down at our table in swivel style chairs. Looking over our menu, the prices looked a bit high but the portions were extremely large when they brought the food to our table. I got the chili cheese fries that looked like Mount Everest. Steak fries covered in thick cheese and chili sauce with beans. It took both hands to lift up the pate. The salad my wife got looked like it could feed an entire family, our oldest son got two hot dogs with French fries. He could finish all the fries so our youngest one took care of them along with his popcorn and fries.

The lady behind us got an ice cream sundae served in a large glass container that looked like it held ½ gallon carton of ice cream. The sodas were served in what looked like an extra-large glass that could hold 24 ounces or more of soda with ice. One table had pizza while another one was served Buffalo Wings. The whole room smelled great.

Again, all this food is being served by waitresses in serving uniform. My wife though she was in one of those cafes in Akihabara.  As the movie started, we as everyone else continued to eat our food as the waitresses stood by. The bathrooms are also great. You can do what needs to be done and you don’t have to touch anything. Everything is motion sensor controlled.

The movie started and my wife is all smiles. Her eyes glued to the screen. But again as the movie played out, there was a great deal of images of people being killed either by weapons or other techniques. At times we would look at the kid’s reaction during the many scenes of people being killed. No reactions from them at all except during some parts of the movie they thought were boring.

They laughed at all the funny scenes and cheered when the bad guy was killed. We asked them afterwards if they were scared or traumatized in any way but nothing. One what’s to be an alchemist so he can do the things that were done in the movie. The other one wanted to see it again. And to think they just had finished watching the 3^rd Lord of the Rings movie before we left the house.

The movie also has some cursing in it. But unlike a majority of movies where it’s used in every other sentence, in this movie it is used only when needed in the situation when it’s called for.  We got home by 11:30 PM with both boys heading to bed as I too went to sleep watching an episode or two of Top Gear on TV. My wife finally went to bed by 1:30 AM after she had updating her blog and tweeted to a dozen or more of her friends twitter sights.

We all had a great time and look forward to going back to this theater again. But we plan to save up a great deal of money. We paid less than $20 for the four of us to see the movie but spent just under $55 on the food. But seeing as taking the family out to a nice restaurant and then a movie can cost a lot more, this movie theater seems to have combined the two experiences into one.

The Raleighwood Cinema, 6609 Falls of Neuse Road Raleigh, NC is located at the corner of Falls of Neuse and Sandy Forks Road across from the Dollar Tree and next door to a Chinese restaurant.  It’s best to park in the Dollar Tree parking area and walk over to the theater. 

THE DEATH BLOG

Noodol Cafe isn't your typical ramen joint. You could buy the noodles at any old supermarket. You could even make them at home, within minutes. What makes Noodol Cafe stand out is its gimmick. But what may kill it is a Japanese celebrity. With a Death Blog.

Online in Japan, the Death Blog is notorious. It's not actually called the "Death Blog" or "DEATH BLOG", but "Aki Higashihara's Official Blog". Her ability to seemingly "kill" things off, such as the Nintendo Wii, are so famous that upon spotting her name on the Noodol Cafe site, a Japanese forum user wrote, "Aki Higashihara, oh shit."

Opening Jan. 23, the cafe is the work of Platinum Production, a talent agency. On the Noodol Cafe site, it lists some of the celebrities it manages like idol group flight attendant inspired idol group Passpo, former spacey Sega pitch girl Yuko Ogura, and Aki Higashihara. If the Japanese internet is to be believed, just writing her name on this shop's site, is putting Higashihara's mark on it. This cafe is doomed.

The cafe's gimmick, and boy is it a gimmick, is that well-known Japanese idols pour hot water onto your instant ramen. Here's how it works: You go to Noodol Cafe in Akihabara; you select the idol; you go to a get a cup of vending machine ramen and a drink; you go to the counter, where the idol pours hot water on your ramen.

All this for ¥800 (US$10). If you've ever bought cup ramen and a soft drink in Japan, you'll know how overpriced this is—usually both don't cost over a few bucks. "Holy crap this is pricey," said one Japanese commenter.

It is pricey. It is gimmicky. Both of which might, overtime, drive customers away once the shop's initial sheen wears off. But it might be something else. It might be Higashihara. In Japan, Higashihara's blog is referred to as the "DEATH BLOG" after popular manga "Death Note". If she blogs about something, that means it's dead. D.O.A.

Here's her success rate (via 某たむらの奇妙な冒険記, Kotaku and nejinoki):

·         Higashihara works as a campaign girl for the Dreamcast, and then the console is defeated by the PlayStation 2.

·         Higashihara finally purchased a Nintendo Wii in Nov. 2010. The following E3, the Wii U was formally revealed, thus effectively killing off the Wii.

·         She used to be a campaign girl for the money lending firm DIC --> DIC goes out of business.

·         Dates the Judo athlete Inoue Kosei who was virtually unparalleled in the world at the time, who then suddenly becomes fifth place in the Summer Olympics of 2004.

·         Attends the Kano Cup Judo World Grand Prix for the first time in Jan 2005, where Inoue Kosei tears his left pectoral muscle.

·         2007/9/23, selects the most favored horse as the one she will bet on in the Kobe Newspaper Cup (horse racing). The record of 100% of most-favored horses winning for the past 10 years is blown away as the horse finishes in 12th place.

·         Every horse she selects in horse races, even horses heavily favored to win, always lost. Her record stands at 38 consecutive losses. Many jockeys come forward and ask her to not select them as her favorite.• In May 2007, she picked her three favorite horses to win — all three break bones.

·         Two months later, a jockey, Take Koushirou, tells her to select any horse but his. In her pre-blog days, Higashihara replies that she'll repeatedly write his name in her notebook — then referred to as the "Death Note". Two months later, the jockey falls off his horse and ends up with a broken rib and punctured lung.

·         Higashihara jokes that she'll write the names of all horses in her notebook, except her favorite horse "Vodka". There is an outbreak of equine flu later that year at the Japan Racing Association stables, resulting in all races for that year to be cancel. Vodka doesn't fall ill to the flu, but develops swollen ankles and cannot race.

·         In 2007, she begins appearing on horse racing show Super Keiba. The show, in its 20th year on air, is cancelled three months later.

·         In 2008, Announces she will hold a wedding with Inoue Kosei at the Imperial Hotel in October --> A fire occurs at the Imperial Hotel.

·         After marrying Higashihara, Inoue not only loses the judo championships but doesn't even make the Olympic team. Regardless, she attends the Summer Olympics, and the Japanese team posts its worse performance ever.

·         Every contestant in the K-1 Kick boxing Grand Prix she has rooted for has been defeated.

·         2008/8/21 Higashihara returns to Japan --> The Japanese Women's Softball team defeats the United States for their first gold medal.

·         2008/8 The Japanese judo team at the Summer Olympics suffers their worst year ever. Higashihara was in attendance.

·         2008/8/15 A rival of Inoue who prevented him from going to the Olympics and is hated by Higashihara wins the gold medal.

·         Every K-1 kick boxing fighter she has cheered for has lost.

·         In early 2008, Higashihara appears at a McDonalds. Parasites are found in the burgers the next day.

·         2008/9 The “making-of” of a commercial for Myojo ramens starring Higashihara is opened to reporters. --> Parasites are found from Myojo instant yakisobas. Then traces of insecticides are found from ramen manufactured in a particular factory.

·         January 16 blog entry in which she wrote about a centuries old ginko tree. Two months later, the tree suddenly topples over.

·         2008/2/28, appeared in a promotional event for McDonald's --> The brown worm-like parasite Anisakis,Terranova is found from Fillet-O-Fish patties the following day.

·         2008/3/7 Mentions the snack Umai-bo on her blog --> the Umai-bo factory burns down.

·         2008/6/15 Attends a promotional event for a brand of milk at Aqua City Odaiba --> A fire at Aqua City Odaiba.

·         Becomes a campaign girl for Asahi Beer --> Asahi Beer loses its lead in the beer market.

·         Goes on vacation to South Korea --> The Korean Won plummets.

·         Sends a message of encouragement to fellow celebrity blogger Ogura Yuuko --> A fire erupts at one of the Yakiniku stores owned by Ogura.

·         Puts photos of a pizza she ate at the family restaurant chain Saizeriya on her blog --> A scandal where trace amounts of the poison melamin is found in Saizeriya pizzas occurs.

·         Writes comments of endorsement for a book. --> Publisher files for bankruptcy.

How to By-Pass Wikipedia Blackout

Google has put up a Doodle in support of the SOPA / PIPA blackout, but unlike Wikipedia it’s still just as functional as ever. There are two easy ways you can use Google Cache to satisfy your need for a Wikipedia fix:

1. If you have the URL for the Wikipedia page you want, copy-and-paste it into a Google search box — either on Google.com or built into your browser. Then add “cache:” (without the quotation marks) to the beginning of it without any space between them — example:cache:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeekDad. Click the button or hit Enter, and you should be taken immediately to Google Cache’s latest version of that page.
2. If you don’t have the URL, but see a Wikipedia page you’d like to read in a list of Google search results, you don’t have to copy-and-paste the URL. Simply mouseover (and click if necessary) the area to the immediate right of the entry in question so that the preview button and popup appear. At the top of the graphical preview, after the title and URL, there should be a linked word “Cached.” Click it, and boom goes the dynamite.

The Secret Deal

The following story is made up and in no way for real.

Weekly World News is reporting a conspiracy that has been going on for years with multiple cover-ups that has finally been brought to light. The location of a joint government operation between Canada and the U.S. is in the Northwest Territories of Canada, north of The Great Bear Lake and a few miles before reaching the Beaufort Sea.

Using the cover story of the diamond mines of Da Beers and Diavik, many of the equipment is being diverted to this top secret location since the late 1940’s. This area has been under military control as the U.S. submarines and boats were looking to find a route through the North Pole in case war broke out with the Soviet Union. Instead they found a new source of materials that would change modern day life and the planet as well.   

Classified materials that were embedded in the WikiLeaks documents told the early beginning of this operation. These documents were later removed from the web site when the site owner, Julian Assange, was contacted by U.S. officials on the circumstances involving those papers.  Mr. Assange cooperated after a few members of his family, friends and supporters died in a series of medical, accidental or just plain killed. He was basically told that international laws would be waved as he and other connected to his group would be assassinated and the website info destroyed.  He now lives under house arrest and in constant fear of being targeted for death by the U.S. government.

A brief summary:

In 1946 the submarine USS Atule was sent to the North Pole with a cover story to set up a weather station. In fact they met up with a Canadian expedition team. Even though the whole area was covered in ice and snow, they explored a cave system where recorded temperatures of 70 degrees are constant around the cave entrance. A permanent site was built around the entrance as heavy equipment continued to be moved in by land and sea.

Primitive suits that later became the model of NASA’s space suits were used to explore the cave system. Inside giant crystal caves were discovered. Unlike the Crystal caves in Mexico, these were more larger due to the frozen tundra keeping the heat trapped below the surface. After multiple expeditions, large diamond and gold mines were discovered. But due to the excessive amount of heat and humidity, many future explorations had to be planned out.

Through a series of ice roads, airplanes and submarine trips, large equipment was brought to the area and constructed. Large pumping stations were constructed to pump out the heat as other units were used to pump in the cold artic air. A cover story of oil explorations, weather reporting and the threat of Soviet Union attacks kept the civilians away. In later years the Diavik and De Beers diamond mines provided another layer of protection as many equipment and supplies were diverted to this secret government location. As well as removing materials from it as well.

The crystals were studied and afterwards scientist discovered that these crystals not only absorbed heat but blocked radar waves. Using a heat scanner, a person can be detected by the heat emitting from their body.  But when these crystals were grounded up, placed in a pouch like mess container and covered the same individual, the heat scanner was unable to detect the person. Plus when the crystals were being transported, the radar system couldn’t track the vehicles and planes due to the crystals absorbing the radar signals.

Also being taken out of the cave system are large quantities of gold and diamonds. Eventually the diamonds become scarce. Over the years the mine became a complete military operation with no civilians allowed in the area. But an environmental issue began to appear in the late 1970’s. With the air condition units working 24 hours a day pumping out the heat from the cave system have contributed to the local area staying in a summer like environment of 65 degrees year round. Even during the dead of winter, the snow melted quickly forcing the military to basically camouflage the landscape.

Also these units were using refrigerants that contribute greatly to the buildup of greenhouse gasses. The whole eco system in the surrounding area was becoming unstable after decades of constant use. The Artic area was beginning to warm up. During the late 1990’s operations were slowed down to allow the area to stabilize as by now tons of gold and giant crystals still remain untouched.

The base, still in operations as the heat and humidity provides protection for the soldiers as the artic winters reclaim the area. Travel to and from the area are constantly monitored by satellite and radar with orders to shoot to kill all unauthorized encounters. The gold is divided between Canada and the U.S. which resulted in a leak during the Clinton administration that there was a huge surplus of money in reserve.

The crystals, able to block out heat and radar waves, was developed into blankets and articles of clothing. And it was during this time in the late 1990’s when the U.S. military was undergoing a change in their uniform with these crystals embedding into the clothing. And these crystals in powder form and painted onto their aircraft and naval ships provided a deterrent to radar and heat seeking detectors and weapons.

The temperature inside the cave has returned to their normal temperatures but the environmental damage to the area is evident and military experts say it will be decades before the area is restored to normal after 50 years of constant abuse.  A more indebt geology study has also found a huge oil field estimated at around 50 to 55 million barrels of oil underneath the cave system.  Plans for drilling have been met with opposition from environmentalist and within the Canadian and U.S. Government to keep the site top secret.

This top secret area was uncovered after the events of September 11^th when the Homeland Security Act was passed in 2002. Detailed info was copied and shown to members of Congress. Many of them mysteriously lost re-election like Democratic leader Tom Daschle when he threatened to expose this secret base. Other members of Congress were sworn to secrecy under threat of death while few choose to retire early from office so as not be associated to knowing that they knew of the bases existence.

Only the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Canada, a few others and the service men and women serving on the base are fully aware of the bases existence and daily operations as well as a few members of Congress under the threat of death. Many former Presidents and Prime Ministers have retired wealthier and more cautious that the secret doesn’t leak out. The greatest wealth and military technology ever discovered connected to the worst environmental disaster that has changed the entire weather system of the whole planet. 

I can't get it out of my head!!!!!

My wife is an avid watcher of videos on a Japanese site called Niconico. {http://www.nicovideo.jp/ or http://www.niconico.com/} She found a series of videos relating to Hetalia that led her to a group called Moymoy Palaboy {http://www.youtube.com/user/moymoypalaboy}. She plays their videos so much that I can't get the song out of my head. So enjoy my suffering.

iPhone Quality Test

Good entertainment is important but as I do not have an iPhone and I'm not sure how well the following info is reliable or not to see if the following test is correct or not.

Taking your iPhone and dial * # 06 #

Check the digits in the seven and eight position

02, 20 are from China. Inferior quality

08, 80 are from Germany.  Quality is okay

01, 10 are Finland. Good quality

00, 03, 04 are from the original factory. Good quality

13 are from Azerbaijan.  Poor quality at best

original text message below:

私は1つのiPhoneを持っている！ダイヤル*＃06＃と上を押し、位置とShapiroの最初の桁をご確認ください。02,20は中国からのものである。劣る品質は。ドイツ08,80。品質は大丈夫です。フィンランドの01,10。良い品質。00,03,04元工場。かなり良質。アゼルバイジャン13 最高の品質が悪い。


[from a twitter user Haqqsnow32]

Vader Burger

If Yoda shilling for cup noodles made your skin crawl and your soul cry “Nooooo,” get ready to feel the Force sell-out even harder, and weirder, with a recent spate of George Lucas-approved shameless Star Wars marketing tie-ins. First, there’s Darth Maul and Yoda stumping for Lipton iced tea. Embarrassing, but that’s nothing compared to the super disgusting idea of a Darth Vader-themed hamburger featuring black-dyed buns. Blech. These are not the burgers you’re looking for, at least not to eat.

The Vader burger is offered at French-Belgian fast food chain Quick, along with two other new sandwiches, the Dark Burger on dyed red buns a la Darth Maul, and the Jedi Burger, topped with diced mozzarella cheese cubes. The special Star Wars fare will be available for a limited time from January 31 to March 1, though the Vader burger, which is comprised of “two minced beef patties topped with one slice of melted pepper Cheddar cheese, pepper sauce, endives and rings of red pepper all between black-colored buns sprinkled with black pepper and poppy seeds” and is inexplicably spelled “Vador” burger in this Quick ad, will get an extended run through March 5. [Darth Vader became Dark Vador in France," which explains the alternate spelling but not the bizarre choices in burger composition.]

You can thank the upcoming 2012 release of Star Wars Episode I -- The Phantom Menace 3D for the upsurge in shameless cross-branding, which is fine and a part of the business, especially when reintroducing a film to newer audiences and older fans who are now old enough to drink iced tea and order gross burgers at the drive-through. 

Nationwide is on who's side?

I have my car insurance through Nationwide Insurance. So when I got my bill from them I was surprised to see that they are charging me $3 for me to pay my bill. It seems that they copied Verizon's strategy of customer service. 

Coffee Shop of Horror

I have a request for Starbucks Coffee. Make more parking spaces or get rid of the seating area. Fast food places and restaurants offer seating areas to allow customers to eat their meal. But at coffee houses like Starbucks, allow people to sit and chat just like bars, pubs or taverns. Much like these places, coffee houses sell nonalcoholic drinks to people who hang around for a while doing odd to normal stuff.

At one Starbucks location where I was forced to park in another shopping area and walk in 30 degree weather to purchase a Green Tea Latte for my wife, I became aware of this. Inside were a couple of kids doing their homework, one couple was engaged in a conversation with someone on a cell phone, two kids playing a Nintendo game against each other, a business meeting and one girl with headphones on and reading a book. It felt like I was at a bar from hell.

 Bars and coffee shops are both types of businesses that are exactly alike. Both sell drinks, food and have a similar environment with music and snacks. The only major difference is that coffee shops do not sell alcohol while the bars has a bit more life in it. That being the coffee shops felt like I was in a library and had to keep really quiet as to not offend anyone. Unlike the sports bar where everyone is cheering on their favorite team and if you need another round of drinks or hot wings, you would have to yell into the waitress’s ear for her to hear it.

At a coffee house people are still strangers to the other customers when they leave. At a sports bar, everyone is like family by the time the game has ended.

After School - Fan Made intro

I made this in my spare time.