i'm being torn between conan and colbert

new burnout

sweet jesus, it's awesome. now i wish i had picked up my own copy.

D-DAY on a budget

how 3 graphic designers created D-Day on a shoe string budget for the timewatch program "Bloody Omaha"

cloverfield was disappointing

i will list my thoughts:

• shakey cam was awful. i have a headache now. i'm drinking ginger ale to settle my stomach.
• jj abrams, you like flashbacks. yes, you do. yes, you do.
• for a jj abrams production, you'd think there would be some substance or meat to the plot. oddly enough, there isn't.
• the monster was ok. godzilla would've whooped its ass though. i think they could've done more with the "others" though.
• the "narrator" was annoying.
• the cameraman spent a lot of time looking at female legs. (i didn't mind.)
• the special effects were cool, when you actually saw them.
• the movie was way too short. only 80 minutes.
• a very similar movie was the host. i think the host > cloverfield.

good idea but subpar execution. if you're looking to see manhattan explode and blurry shakey shots of a monster, then knock yourself out. if you're looking for a great film, don't bother. it is what it is. 2.64/4.

i need this book

oh seven in review

running results 2007

• 04/21 5k run for clean air - 24:56
• 04/28 5k to overcome ovarian cancer - 24:01
• 09/16 philly distance run - 1:57:23
• 09/30 parkway run - 25:56

conan and rock band

that terminator show

ain't bad. first episode is up on yahoo.

magic turtle

megaman rock opera

hoooly shit, this is awesome. part 1

hong kong and macau pictures

late but...

orchestral final countdown

differences

in taipei, people have a higher level of common courtesy and are generally non-confrontational. they'll say excuse me, sorry, etc. in manhattan/philadelphia, people will do that most of the time or sometimes. in hong kong, they'll throw you an elbow, keep going, hock a loogie and spit, and then kick your dog.

jumbo kingdom

we ate dim sum on a floating restaurant boat. we had to take a boat to get to the boat. for reals.

final taiwan youtube blowout

• SYS Memorial Hall Honor Guard Change Ceremony: the two honor guards that are stationed in front of the sun yat-sen statue remain absolutely still for an entire hour. they get relieved every hour by two fresh honor guards in a very elaborate military drill ceremony.
• Classical Chinese Music Played in SYS Memorial Hall's Upper Art Gallery
• Louise is sassy and tells it like it is

taiwan photoset is now complete

oh yeah

the wedding on saturday was fine too. it was held in the international ballroom in the taipei 101 (5th floor).

what happened

on our last day in taipei, we went to brunch at a japanese buffet at the taipei 101 called wasabi. before that actually, we passed by city hall again where the 2007 ing taipei international marathon was in its 4th hour. i stood about 40 meters from the finish line on the side cheering on runners for about 20 minutes. a few of the runners were jarred to hear english words of encouragement being shouted at them.

after brunch, we went down to the taipei zoo to ride the maokong gondola. if i had known that waiting to get on the gondola would take an hour and a half, i wouldn't have gone. if you would've told me that you have to line up again for another hour to return after you get off in maokong, i definitely would've done something else. but hey, you know because of my suffering. and there is really nothing in maokong to see.

this morning, we jumped on an early flight to hong kong and landed after about an hour and a half in the air. the airplane had personal headrest entertainment units where you can watch a movie, select music, or tool around on the gps map. i watched the first half of superbad. after clearing customs and etc, we took the airport express into hong kong station. like taipei, it was really clean, fast, and efficient.

initial impressions: it's very much like manhattan. it's way more western than taipei.

here in hong kong

it's like manhattan but with chinese people. also i'm sitting here watching a show on tv called "quake republic." a show about quake 3. for reals.

subway

oh boy it is clean over here. the subway doesn't smell like urine either. according to the billboards, the taipei mrt is the most reliable in the world, 3 years running.

you can read more about it at the wiki page. all you really have to know that it is super-modern, clean, reliable, and well designed and laid out. i have to wonder if philadelphia had the same hardware, what would we do with it? can we actually have nice things and not ruin them?

danshui, for reals this time

so the day before, i thought i was in danshui but i was really in taichung. and i'm not so sure i was really in taichung anyway.

anyway, i checked the map and i really did go to danshui today. it was a 40 minute subway train ride down the ride line or something. we took a bus down to fisherman's wharf which was closed and empty because they don't really open during the work week. oh well. we saw some fantastic scenery though.

after that we got back into danshui's night/day market where wares were sampled and consumed. i tried this ginger tea that opened up my sinuses. we got back to the danshui train station and rode back into town.

pretty quiet day, relatively.

it's pretty scary at first

getting swarmed by turning mopeds while crossing. the below is taipei, a few hours past rush hour.

patrick danshui-zy

UPDATE: i wasn't in danshui afterall. i think i was in taichung and whereabouts.

i went running around the park this morning. i think one lap is close to a mile and i did about 5 laps i think. i'll be sure to take some video of what a taiwanese park looks like in the morning.

we went up to taichung today. it's nice and very touristy. we went to the national palace museum which was almost just as good as the nyc met. one of its most well known exhibits is the jade cabbage. the garden also had some of the biggest koy that i've ever seen. you can feed them too.

after that, we went into taichung proper to the shin kong mitsukoshi department store for lunch (fried breaded pork with cheese inside?). the weather started turning hostile then, so we caught a bus back. the bus we ended up taking however was a department store sponsored bus that would ferry people between the subway transfer station and the department store area. i also spotted my second chili's.

we ventured back out later to the cks memorial hall which was super huge. also nearby was taiwan's presidential office building, like the white house but red. we went a little bit into the night market-ish area and got dinner.

mayo

today, we started the day with a common local breakfast: coffee and bread. of which yonghe city is apparently known for.

we went down the northern coast of taiwan to see the coast on our way to the gold ecological park in jinguashi. the coast is quite magnificent and an imposing defensive predicament for any attacking force (i'm looking at you china!). a small force can execute holding actions in the mountains until reinforcements arrive, but i digress.

we also visited the night market in keelung where i ate and sampled a lot of weird food that i had no idea what it was. we also visited another night market but i don't think it was a night market because we were all up in there around noon (updated: actually, it was jioufen).

we also visited a fish market that was pretty neat. there's a row of restaurants adjacent to the fish market that has solicitors out front trying to get you to patronize their establishment. they're rather persistent in an annoying way.

i'm working on getting pictures uploaded... my upload rate is slow over the hspda connection that i have. tomorrow, we're supposed to be going to danshui.

here

i survived the 20+ hour flight. it helps when you break it into two halves and it becomes more manageable. i didn't have a watch on me so i lived in a realm outside of time and space for a while. fading in and out of consciousness and getting fed every x hours. that sony portable dvd player that i picked up on a whim the day before i flew out was a godsend. so far i watched the new futurama movie, and the british office seasons 1 and some of 2. anyway, i got to go up to the observatory deck in the taipei 101 building. the lower level is a shopping mall that is nearly unrivaled in the high-endedness that they are offering. and the elevator gets you 90 stories up and down within 32 seconds.

itinerary

• SUNDAY (12/9) 9:55PM @ JFK TO TPE @ 6:30AM TUESDAY
• MONDAY (12/17) 10:00AM @ TPE TO HKG @ 11:45AM MONDAY
• SUNDAY (12/23) 1:35PM @ HKG TO TPE @ 3:10PM SUNDAY
• SUNDAY (12/23) 4:25PM @ TPE TO JFK @ 8:30PM SUNDAY

jeez

what happened to this place?

dmx verus... ghostbusters?

not work safe cause x gonn give it to ya.

chuck norris approved?

posting this

just to push that purple octopie/rock band video off my front page.

just because

if you've grown up in philadelphia and turned on the tv on a lazy sunday afternoon...

well this is kindof cool

let's talk about what i want in rock band dlc

the slow buildup and climax of only in dreams, and the frantic wall of sound and group shouting of laika. harmonix, you can already have your way with my credit card. just make it happen.

novemberfest and das boot

unaired 24 pilot from 1994

the cosi at 4th and chestnut has the worst wait staff

putting this contact information down in my post so google will index it so maybe somebody will be deterred from going. you're better off going to the pagoda inn by the ritz on second street. or eulogy. or national mechanics.

4th & Chestnut
325 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Phone: 215-399-0214
Fax: 215-399-0216

i don't want to get into typing about what happened now, but service on a monday night with only a handful of patrons should never be this horrendous. how bad? like genocide-level bad. i'm surprised that THE COSI ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE RITZ AT THE BOURSE hasn't caught on fire and burned to the ground due to employee neglect. this place should be avoided like VD.

purple octopie

maybe you should watch more 30 rock

alec baldwin doing... everything.

arcade fire, before they were famous

While cleaning out his archives, Gawker's Jim Lehnhoff unearthed some video that he shot of the Arcade Fire all the way back on April 11, 2004, at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia. (They were third on the bill, playing behind the Unicorns and freakin' Chromeo, and in front of The Ponys.

in honor of robert goulet

stolen from ksk

new michael cera movie

a minor part in a movie called juno.

24 season 7 premiere

wait... i thought he was dead?!

so...

i can't wait for stop-and-frisk

"Shooting, stabbing, killing, whatever it is -- whatever you gotta do to survive," he said.

"Anything goes -- anything."

yup. can't wait to get these jackasses off our streets.

12 player online mario kart on the wii?

hell yes.

well if it wasn't weird, then i would be concerned

neon bible interactive music video.

another crazy halo grenade stick

ignore the awful music.

touring here and soon

• Architecture in Helsinki - Oct 10 2007 8:00PM Starlight Ballroom
  
• Of Montreal - Oct 11 2007 7:00PM Trocadero
  
• The Stars - Wednesday October 24th, 2007 Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom
  
• Menomena - Nov 7 2007 8:00PM First Unitarian Chruch (with Illinois)
  

the phils are so un-clutch

top to bottom.

now, this is what you call a stick!

halo ds

4 reals

these mile splits can't be right

finished in 25:56 according to my watch. my second and third mile split can't be correct though...

1. 9:05
2. 10:09
3. 6:41

halo 3?

never heard of it.

oh you're talking about this medal around my neck

yes i did run and finish the philadelphia distance run this past weekend. thirteen point one glorious miles in 1:57:23 (go here and search for bib 10150). three months of training and about three hundred total training miles. here are my mile splits that i kept on my stopwatch:

1. 9:52
2. 9:20
3. 9:22
4. 9:08
5. 9:07
6. 8:55
7. 8:35
8. 8:35
9. 9:02
10. 8:45
11. 8:35
12. 8:24
13. 8:31
14. 1:12 (0.1 mile, also this is probably off because i forgot to immediately stop my watch after finishing)

i'll post more about it later. i need to get to bed now that this phils game finally wrapped up in the 14th inning.

a review of my blog!

"Clean and simple. Its so understated that it screams in your face," raves Anthony of Anthony Heisler.

UPDATE: "willvuong.com... too much manliness for my wireless router to handle!" proclaims Anthony Heisler.

god, the eagles suck

so much.

so i heard that there is a game called halo

summaries of the story so far: halo 1: part 1 and 2; halo 2: part 1 and 2.

giant interactive halo3 diarama

Activision Reports Sluggish Sales For Sousaphone Hero

Activision Reports Sluggish Sales For Sousaphone Hero

SANTA MONICA, CA— "I played in career mode for hours and kept feeling like I was playing the same annoying circus tune over and over," complained a disappointed gamer.

god, the phillies suck

so much.

halo 3, a slurpee, and a big bite

yeah, i reserved my copy at the 7-eleven down the block this morning. surreal.

his face got totally pranked

click and watch the video

the best part is when the arm extends for the goal line

ban hammer

Taking advantage of an exploit that allowed an unidentified friend to deliver to him the Halo 3 "Epsilon" test version, former Xbox Live user "Scar" found himself on the receiving end of the Live banhammer. After six hours of Halo 3 heaven, his brief flirtation with the unreleased game came to an end. He was hit so hard, his account won't wake up until the year 10,000 AD, at which point, he'll have fallen so far behind in his achievement grabbing that he'll... well, he'll probably be dead.

liebot

chaos theory

the office summer vacation

wii beer pong

The object of ping cup is to use the Wii remote to throw a ping-pong ball at a pyramid of cups.

so that's how they got danny devito for season 3...

not work safe video

cool

tracing over a video clip to generate 3d models

first guitar hero, now jam sessions on the ds

don't say cocaine ideas near this kid!

oldie but a goodie

play the video. it gets crazy awesome in the second half.

comments on the internet

first

bioshock

• Game Informer (100/100): "Even if you play games strictly for the difficulty that they bring, BioShock is a title that needs to be played, simply because you will never look at an FPS the same way again. Of the 15 to 20 hours of gameplay that it delivers, there isn't a second wasted. Once you finish the game, there's little chance that you'll take it out before playing it again to see the second ending."
• IGN (97/100): "To call this game simply a first-person shooter, a game that successfully fuses gameplay and narrative, is really doing it a disservice. This game is a beacon. It's one of those monumental experiences you'll never forget, and the benchmark against which games for years to come will, and indeed must, be measured."
• 1UP (100/100): "The sounds of the vending machines, the demented rants of a housewife who has long lost her sanity, the ability to craft your own ammunition, the level design based on some beloved touchstones of horror (medical experimentation, a garden of evil, the performing arts), the optional photography research, the color palette, the scratchy rendition of "Beyond the Sea," the fire and lighting and water effects...everything is in its right place."

i wasn't planning on picking this one up but damn...

it's always sunny in philadelphia special preseason episode

four chapters online up on myspace

seven

'Gays Too Precious To Risk In Combat,' Says General

lol

Al Qaeda Also Fed Up With Ground Zero Construction Delays

Add to My Profile | More Videos

a roman legion settled in china?

Roman legion that was "lost" ended settling in China where their descendants still live today.. in a place called Li-Jien (which sounds in Chinese as the word "legion" and is the name by which the Chinese called Rome). Source

Nation To Ken Griffey Jr.: 'We Wish It Were You Hitting 756 Home Runs'

remember how ken griffey jr used to be so cool? i still have his rookie card somewhere....

CINCINNATI—Overcome with a mixture of distaste at the almost certain future and a wistful sense at the way things could and should have been, baseball fans across America took time to address veteran Reds superstar Ken Griffey Jr. yesterday in order to let him know that they sincerely wish that Griffey, and not Barry Bonds, was on the verge of hitting his record-breaking 756th home run.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Mr. Griffey, because the last thing we as a nation want is for you to think you've disappointed us by not breaking this record," the country's message, which was read to a quiet and humble Griffey by retired Seattle, WA–area mechanical engineer and lifelong baseball fan Robert Colgrave, began. "America knows you did everything you could, and we couldn't be more proud of you. In fact, that's the whole point—we think you're a man who is actually worthy of this record."

Are we playing Assault? Cause I'm pretty sure you are the bomb.

Top 10 Halo Pick-Up Lines

pros only

smash bros advanced techniques 1 2 3

lol

retrospectives

final fantasy and metroid. absolutely fantastic work by gametrailers.

i forgot to post this a few weeks ago

UPDATE: i also liked this one below from this week:

zomg

4 player halo campaign coop over xbox live or system link!!

stevie wonder drum solo

for reals.

shame

i haven't been updating as much as i've wanted to really. and i apologize to my readers for that.

i'm going to try my first craigslist experience this week. i'm going to try to sell my ps2 and guitar hero game+controllers up on there. hopefully it'll turn out well and i won't be robbed. weeeee!!!!!

worst ever

super dent dental floss, distributed by darby group companies inc of jerico, ny 11753 is the worst dental floss that i've ever used.

marathon 2 for xbla

hell yes

i think this tops geoff's wedding thriller

japan, are you serious?

This is Rose & Camellia. It's set in the 19th century. You play a woman. You slap other women. That's it.

gameplay video.

UPDATE: and the flash game itself.

call of duty 4 is looking pretty hot

looks like i'll have to pick this one up.

half marathon update

finished an 8 mile run tonight. i'm exhausted. i have 10 weeks to add 5 miles to this and make it faster.

greatest (turkish) action movie of all time

but i was going to send my kids to college with baseball cards

I make this post as one makes a PSA. Because honestly, I think most people have no clue. People think their unopened factory sets of 1986 Topps are going to send their kids to college someday. I'm not exaggerating.

ps3 price drop

to $499. that's getting closer to the sweet spot ($400). still needs some actual games that i would be interested in that i wouldn't be able to get on the 360 though.

rock band premiere

holy shit. this is like 3x guitar hero's awesomeness.

edit: i call bass. eddie's got lead. who's got drums and vocals?

edit2: only for ps3 and xbox360.

well that sucks

they might as well just give him his old job back since they're rewarding "compromising our national security and the secret men and women that protect us while we sleep and then covering it up" today.

President Bush commutes the prison term of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby was sentenced to 30 months after his March conviction on federal charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators.

responses from other talking heads. my response:

this is lame. man, fuck all of you guys in dc.