Month: December 2005

REZ by Underworld

Pretty weird flash thingy, I think I found heaven. [Link]

I can’t get the song Hung Up by Madonna out of my head. When I wake up in the morning the song is usually stuck in my head, I am always singing it when I am not paying attention and I am always listening to it on my iPod.

ps: I just realized the only lyrics I know from the song is the one line “Time goes by, so slowly time goes by..” I think I will learn more of the lyrics at least..

update: just got the lyrics click on more to read them

I just watched the trailer for Miami Vice and I think its going to rock. I had my doubts before because of Colin Farrell but watching the trailer now I think he fits the part very nicely. The only downside to the trailer is the music, I was hoping for a remake of the original theme, maybe that will be there once the movie gets released. If you haven’t watched the trailer yet you can do so on the official movie website. [Link]

Here is a list by the Guardian Unlimited of the best movies of 2005, I watched three movies, Sideways, A History of Violence and Downfall. I really loved Downfall a lot, one of the best World War related movie I have ever seen but I found both Sideways and A History of Violence very subpar.

January: Sideways
February: The Woodsman
March: 5 X 2
April: Downfall
May: The Consequences Of Love
June: Kung Fu Hustle
July: Dig!
August: The Last Mitterrand
September: Innocence
October: A History of Violence
November: The Beat That My Heart Skipped
December: Lower City

[source Guardian Unlimited]

I am traveling on Monday via Jazeera Airways to Beirut. I booked the tickets back in October before Jazeera started its first flight so no one knew how they would turn out to be. So far I have heard a lot of positive reviews on Jazeera. I heard the service is friendly, the planes are very clean, the seats are all leather and the in flight food being great. I also heard one negative review which I believe is just a rumor or urban legend. I heard that a lot of people are getting to the airport and finding their seats canceled. I doubt that is true and the person who told me this never flied with Jazeera. Anyway I will write up a short review once I get to Lebanon and post it online.

I finally figured out what I want for Christmas. It was really hard to find something I wanted but after weeks of searching I found something, the GP2X.

The GP2X is a portable gaming device based on the Linux OS. No games are made for it specifically like the PSP and Gameboy but there are tons of emulators and home brew games that would run on it since its Linux based. The GP2X also plays movies but unlike the iPod Video and PSP the GP2X isn’t picky with video formats and can handle most of them including MPEG, MPEG4, DivX 3.11,4x,5x, XVID and WMV. The device uses SD memory which means I can cheaply get a 2GB card and shove tons of stuff on it.

The device uses 2 regular AA batteries which when watching movies can last up to 6 hours which is 3 times more then the PSP and double that of the iPod video. Whats cool is I can buy a bunch of rechargeable AA’s and when the battery dies just swap them with new ones.

I found the GP2X online for like $179 so its also not expensive. So, I made up my mind, I want a GP2X for Christmas.

[GP2X on Wikipedia]
[GP2X Emulation]
[GP2X Dev Wiki]

Around 2 or 3 years ago I got a really old medium format camera as a birthday gift. I don’t think the camera works or if it does I haven’t figured out how but today I found the camera in my closet and when I was fiddling with it I noticed a hidden compartment. When I opened it up there was a role of exposed film just lying there. I don’t know who its for but I am guessing it belongs to the person who owned the camera previously. I am not an expert in cameras but I think the camera is over 50 years old at least… I think, so if there are any pictures on the film they should be interesting. Tomorrow I am going to take it to have it developed, hopefully I will have something interesting to share with everyone.

I just downloaded the Aperture compatibility checker and ran it on my Dual 2Ghz G5 PowerMac at work to see if Aperture would run on my Mac and guess what, my Mac isn’t compatible because of the VGA card! Who the hell can run this piece of shit software if this Mac can’t run it! I was hoping to try out the software on my Mac at home but I guess I can kiss that idea goodbye.

I hope they come out with a iPod Video version.. [Link]

I am going to pass by Aramex after work to pick up some packages. I just used google maps to figure out how to get there since the directions and map didn’t exactly help me that much. Pretty cool. [Link]

The World Space Week (WSW) will be held for the first time in Kuwait at The Scientific Center on Thursday 15th and ends on Wednesday 21st December, 2005.

There will be daily space activities for the public and school visits during business days. The KCS already prepared to have a space theme during the special week such as supplying their gift shop of space food, space toys and other space souvenirs. Starting from Thursday, the theme of the Discovery Place, children’s workshop, will be about space. There will be a portable planetarium with star shows for the children. As for the preachment program, they will set computers in resource rooms and set space books corner. (Discovery Place must be reserved).

In I-Max theater, the Space Station movie will be played twice during the space week on 2-Dimension on Saturday and Monday from 1:00 pm- 2:15 pm.

In the central hall of KSC building, there will be a space photo exhibit giving a summary of space history and what World Space Week celebration is about. In addition, there will be other exhibits are being held.

The central hall will be decorated with 30 different countries from which their countrymen went to space such as Russia, The United States of America, Saudi Arabia and so on.

In the Dhow harbor, there will be radio activities operating on HF and UHF bands using the special call sign “9K2WSW” for the event. A/Qader Abul (9K2DJ), a member from Kuwait Amateur Radio Society will be operating on the radio live with other four radio operators (including Astronaut Girl, Maryam). He will station the the radio on his car, a Hummer with mounted antennas.

The radio operators will explain to the kids and public how space is important in our daily communication such as the sun cycle. They will also explain the radio station on board the International Space Station and how to make contact with astronauts and cosmonauts in space. They will explain satellite (space) communication, how to track them on computers and understand the terms that are used.

For more information call 848888.

[source So I Want To Be An Astronaut]

I am staying late at work today trying to finish up a campaign thats due to be presented tomorrow. I hate staying late when I am not prepared for it but today I came in and I had my mind set on staying late and its really cool. No one is in the office so I have the window behind me open and my music blasting out loud. I am really taking my time and enjoying what I am working on because I no longer trying to finish up before the end of the day, I now have the whole night to work on this. No one is here to interrupt me, no one is here to tell me to lower my music and no one is fighting. Its so peaceful.

A guy in China found a shop selling duck eggs which still had babies in them. He took pictures ofcourse and you can check them out but they are really gross. I warned you. [Link]

[source metafilter]

Yesterday we decided to return our hamster his old name Zero after taking it away from him last week. Choosing a name for our dog is really a difficult thing, you don’t want something thats common, you don’t want something you can’t pronounce, you want something with a reason behind it and you want something that works on dogs. Yesterday we finally decided on the name “Geo”. It was the only name both me and Nat agreed upon. We arrived at the name after I suggested we call the dog after the legendary video game console the NeoGeo. Nat then suggest we call it just Geo since she thinks it sounds Italian like Aqua di Geo for example. So I like it because its from a Japanese video game console while she likes it because it sounds Italian, two completely different views on the name but both of us like it. Here are some other names that we couldn’t agree upon:

Dyski (from Grendizer)
Bauer (as in Jack Bauer from the show 24)
Jack (again as in Jack Bauer from 24)
Magnum (from the 80’s show Magnum PI)
Zero (Smashing Pumpkins song)
Magnus (as in Magnus Samuelsson, the world´s strongest man)

According to the breeder we should get the dog around February 4th. We will be paying for the dog in 3 payments, we paid the first payment yesterday, second will be end of the month and the third at the end of January just before they ship the dog. Hopefully we won’t change our mind on the dog again because we need to email the breeder today with the name. I am still hesitant a bit between Geo and Magnum as names but I will be asking around the office and get various peoples reaction on the two before I email the breeder. If anyone has any comments on Geo and Magnum that would be great. The picture above is the latest picture we got from the breeder.

Update: There is one more name which I suggest to Nat yesterday but she didn’t like but a lot of people at the office seem to like, Kouji which is also from Grendizer.