Ukraine Definitely Has Talent

Kseniya Simonova (24 yrs old) is the recent winner of Ukraine’s Got Talent? She moved the judges to tears with her sand animation. It’s a narrative of Ukraine’s invasion and occupation by Germany during WWII told in sand! Using a large lightbox she orchestrates a story of a young couple affected by the war. My interpretation is that the young man goes off to fight while the young woman is home and has a baby. War is all around her and she receives notice that her husband has died and ages before our eyes. The woman and child visit an obelisk for fallen soldiers and ends with her looking out the window and imagining her child seeing his father come home. She ends her story by writing “you are always near.” Enjoy!

Japanese Fashion Video

This looks like an old vid but it’s still pretty interesting to see the Japanese incorporation of western fashion trends that have taken over the streets. The young Japanese girls are fearless and fun when it comes to fashion, throwing things together that totally defy the meanings that we associate with certain fashion styles. On the other side, there is still a strong trend toward more subdued, designer obsessed fashion. Hope to go to Japan soon and see the street fashion first-hand since I know this video is outdated. For now I’ll have to experience it through magazines and video. I have to say that I’ve noticed a trend here in California where high school kids are throwing together mish mosh outfits that are punk rock, sporty, hip hop, and preppy with total disregard to fashion stereotypes. So it looks like Japanese fashion sense has definitely started to influence the west.

Best Hangover Recovery Remedy : Bacon!

There are many so-called ways to preempt a hangover from your all nite drinking activities. Some of these include: not drinking (huh?), popping a vitamin B12 pill, not drinking on an empty stomach, drinking a glass of water and two advils before zonking out, expelling the alcohol through vomitting, and my personal favorite, jogging or walking around the block to sober up before bed (works I swear.)

So if you passed on any of these options and you’ve got a rager of a headache in the morning, what should you do? A lot of party people swear by greasy diner breakfasts saying that greasy food soaks up the remaining alcohol. I don’t know any biochemists to back this up but Telegraph.co.uk has a great little article about how bacon can ease your hangover pain.

Apparently food speeds up your metabolism which then helps you get rid of alcohol effects quicker. A researcher from Newcastle University explains that the carbohydrates from bread and the protein from bacon make a great hangover ass kicking combo. Also, heavy alcohol consumption depletes neurotransmitters and bacon has a high level of amino acids which help that.

Here’s some other interesting hangover recovery remedies.

Maybe you can take it once step further and fry like bacon a la Dazed and Confused. Won’t exercise speed up your metabolism and get rid of all the nasty alky toxins too?

Collabo: David Lynch + Moby

So Moby’s latest album, Wait for Me, is inspired by David Lynch. Lynch shares the love by creating an animated video for Moby’s song ‘Shot in the Back of the Head.’

Justpressplay.net has a great post on the collaboration.

History of 420

420 is ingrained into our popular culture. You’ll find it in movies, on hats and t-shirts, and on a lot of people’s lips as they greet you with “Happy 420!” today. But where did the term 420 actually come from? What’s the origins of 420? What’s the history behind this infamous code?

There’s a few myths out there such as 420 is a police dispatch code or that there are 420 active chemicals in marijuana.  These are false and it’s pretty widely accepted now that 420 originated from a group of kids from San Rafael High School in California. Attack of the Show did some investigative work and interviewed the original Waldos about the makings of the 420 phenomenon.

I’m surprised Google hasn’t altered their logo for this popular day. I imagine it would go something like this…

Menage Your Media with IMDb

After a hard day’s work, sometimes all you want to do is go home, plop on the couch and watch t.v. In today’s techy world you also have your phone, laptop and ipod chilling next to you. I’ve noticed that straight man/woman on t.v. watching is getting a bit boring. If you want to introduce some menage a media into your routine, utilize your phone and laptop while watching t.v. I recommend IMDb. It’s changed my whole television watching experience. It’s like my own Pop Up Video that I control.

Now when I’m watching a t.v. show or movie and I think “hey, where have I seen that actor before?” I just turn to my trusty phone and find out. It’s best to do this when you have the pause feature for your cable t.v. because sometimes you get really engrossed in clicking on other projects or people the actors are working with.

One of the best features ever on IMDb is the trivia page. This gives you all those random juicy tidbits about the actors, filming and more. So I was watching Twilight over the weekend and couldn’t stop reading all the random facts about the movie such as:

• Kristen Stewart has naturally green eyes. She wears brown contacts for filming to match Bella’s eye color.
• Kellan Lutz intended on keeping his natural curly hair for the role of Emmett Cullen. However, his previous role in “Generation Kill” (2008) required a buzz cut and his hair didn’t grow fast enough for the filming of Twilight (2008/I).
• Henry Cavill was Stephenie Meyer‘s first choice to play Edward. However, but by the time production was to begin, he was 25 years old, and no longer looked the part of a 17-year old. He was then offered the part of Carlisle Cullen but turned it down due to his commitment with “The Tudors” (2007).

• For the role of Edward Cullen, Robert Pattinson flew from England to director Catherine Hardwicke‘s house to audition. There, he and Kristen Stewart, who was already cast as Bella Swan, rehearsed the “Love Scene”/”Meadow Scene” on Hardwicke’s own bed.

• The script was finished in 6 weeks.
• Robert Pattinson stated in an interview that this is his first American role and he had no formal training to perfect his American accent.
• When the ‘evil vampires’ make their first appearance, actors Cam Gigandet, Rachelle Lefevre and Edi Gathegi are all wearing little slippers painted like bare feet.

Too much fun. Go on, spice up your vanilla t.v. watching habits with a little IMDb.

Do How-To Dating Ebooks Really Work?

I’m surprised by how many how-to dating books there are out in the world. There’s how-to pick up girls, how-to win back your ex, how-to sex it up better, and more. I mean a lot more.  I’m not saying that people who buy these books are ridiculous or anything. People are naturally curious and if they’re having trouble with something, their first instinct is to get more information. Being naturally curious myself, I wonder if all this stuff works?

While I was randomly surfing the net, I came across this site that screams out “Attract Women and Seduce Them.” I never click on this crap but I decided to be open-minded today. I love this though: “Women have tried to have my guide BANNED…” Okay, I got hooked and I decided to read on, just a bit. So apparently this ebook is written by a woman who tells guys all the secrets to attracting women, young beautiful women of course. I guess us women are all pretty much attracted to the same thing and it’s not just looks. Okay, I can get behind that. Not everyone has to look like Henry Cavill from the Tudors. (If you don’t know, now you know. So h o t)

There’s tons of great guys out there who aren’t the hottest thing on the planet but have great, cute girlfriends. So yeah, it’s not all about looks. It’s all about how you act towards women. So if this little ebook helps guys act confident, talk to more women, have good conversation, and not be an asshole, then maybe this stuff actually does work. I’m not willing to shell out $50 bucks to find out but I’m not going to look down my nose at any guy who does.

Update: Ugh, I just remembered why I don’t click on crap like this. I followed some other links and some how got infected by a trojan or 10. Still battling the pop ups…

SeeqPod Going Six Feet Under?

TechCrunch broke the news on March 31st that my favorite music site was going six feet under. Pandora’s great and all and I listen to it quite a bit but SeeqPod is awesome because you can look up and play tracks on demand. Apparently music labels such as Warner, Capital and EMI no likey that. The labels slapped SeeqPod with a multi-billion dollar lawsuit. I mean really. The big three are trying to make an example of this little gem of a site by even going after developers who are using the SeeqPod API.

So what’s the beef? SeeqPod is basically a search engine that crawls the internet for music and video files. It doesn’t host any of the content, it just gives you search results. Another nifty feature is that it let’s you create a playlist which you can save, share with friends, or embed in your site. I guess the problem is that SeeqPod doesn’t filter out any pirated songs. Does Google filter out all pirated material?

Once again, the music labels are digging another grave in their music startup cemetary. They need to hire some creative thinkers who can figure out the future of the music industry for them. It seems like they’re fighting a losing battle and are making desperate attempts to wring out money from popular music sites. I wonder how large the slice of their revenue pie comes from lawsuits? It can’t be that sustainable, can it?

So who else will R.I.P. because of SeeqPod’s eventual demise? Songbeat, Steamzy, Songerize and I don’t know who else. Whether these sites will be reincarnated into something else will be determined. But for now, this is what I say to you, SeeqPod, and to all those other awesome music sites out there…

http://www.seeqpod.com/search/?plid=719f23a8cc

That’s a little taste of what SeeqPod offered us lovers out there. Sorry, it’s a link to the playlist because apparently .wordpress doesn’t support the embed option.

SeeqPod

May 5, 2005 to who knows

Please share any great music sites past and present that have been effected by the music label lawsuit pandemic. And any sites that we can all comfort ourselves with in their absence. Thanks!

Post Offices Open Late on Tax Day

If you procastinated or ‘forgot’ about your taxes this year or live under a rock, here’s a reminder: the deadline is April 15th. If you’re reading this on Wednesday April 15th around 5pm you better get your @ss in gear. If you’re not e-filing and are actually mailing out your tax return, make sure you know the time of last collection at your local post office. If your return is postmarked on the 15th then you’re good to go. But what if it’s late in the afternoon and you won’t be able to make that 5pm pickup time? If you’re lucky, there may be a post office near you that has extended hours for tax day or super late collection times. It’s a pain to find out which ones but here’s what to do:

Go to the tax return section of the USPS website

On the right side, click “Go” under the “Post Office Locator” box

Type in your zipcode in the text box and click “search”

This will list all the post offices near you. Here’s the painful part, you have to click on each bolded post office link to see if they have extended hours for April 15th. It would be nice if they could just specify on the list page but there’s a little reminder on the right side that states “service hours my vary. Please check link for business hours.”

If you want to forego all this pain, just e-file your return. If you’ve never e-filed your tax return before, wake up and get on the bandwagon. The IRS has free fillable forms on their website. Also, the IRS partners with Free File Alliance LLC which is a group of private sector tax software companies. These include the big guns like H&R block and TurboTax as well as a whole list of other companies. Just click here and click on “choose a company.” These third party companies offer free prep and e-filing if your adjusted gross income is less than $56,000 for 2008. Most likely they’ll charge you to e-file your state return.

So get on it! Remember, you don’t have to file your return at the last minute. As soon as you get your W-2(s) and/or 1099s  (in January) you can file at any time. The sooner you file your return, the sooner you get your cash, unless you owe the government…

Want to know if you’re going to get a stimulus payment? The IRS will tell  you here. The IRS will tell you anything you need to know. Just browse through their website. You can even call them if you want. They will answer.

Too late? Want to file an extension? Here’s the info you need.

Good Luck and I hope you get a nice fat return this year!

Fir Tree Grows In Man’s Lung?

It’s not April 1st so this must be true, right? Apparently a 28-year old man from Russia complained of strong pains in his chest. Doctors found a tumor in his lungs so decided to do a biopsy. Low and behold, a tree had sprung. A 5 cm branch with green pokey needles and everything!

Some suggestions for this strange occurence is that the man may have inhaled a small bud which then grew inside his body. I think there should be an interruption of television right now warning people to not inhale small buds. Just smoke them.