Absurd Singularity

A funky lil' site that will transform your website HTML into a graph. Not particularly useful I suppose but very cool to watch in action. Reminds me of the sticks and balls we used to have in chemistry class to create molecules.

The 7200 rpm 100GB drive finally came in for my MacBook earlier this week. Swapping the hard drive was ridiculously easy. Easier than swapping RAM. The only thing to be aware of is the accursed Torx screws that Apple likes to use, in this case on the slim piece of aluminum that cradles the hard drive. Luckily I had a Torx screwdriver from way back when I was swapping things out of the original Powerbook G4 and even luckier, it was the right size that was needed in this case as well. Apple used a smaller screw on their Aluminum Powerbooks which pissed me off to no end when I was swapping out the HD on that machine cause I had to run out to a local computer shop and borrow the screwdriver from them.

My cousin was in town again from Taiwan so we went to catch the Yankees vs. Red Sox game last night since Taiwan native Chien-Ming Wang was taking the mound. I wasn't expecting much of a game since Wang hasn't had a good track record against Boston this year and Boston's starting pitcher was a no name that they just brought up from the minor leagues. Boy was I wrong as it turned out to be one of the best games I've ever been to. Was a night full of ups and downs both on and off the field.

Down: Got out of the subway station at Yankee Stadium and it was raining. Damn weather reports!
Down: Stadium security refused to let me in with my Timbuk2 computer laptop bag that had my camera equipment in it. Not because of the camera equipment (they didn't even look in the bag), but because of the bag itself. Huh? Told me to go put it in a pay locker at a bowling alley across the street from the stadium. Was on the way there when I remembered that my cousin had driven to the stadium so I went back and got his car keys and dumped my bag in his car. Didn't bother bringing the camera since the body wasn't outfitted with a neck strap and I wasn't about to hand carry the 70-200IS lens mounted all throughout the game.
Up: Got to our seats and was relatively pleased with the section. Closest to the field I've ever been. Slightly to the right of home plate on the first-base side, first row of the section behind the boxes that are right on the field behind the Yankee dugout.
Down: Walkway was basically right in front of us so we had to deal with a constant stream of people blocking our view throughout the game.
Up: People watching can be nice too especially when there's attractive women involved.
Up: It stopped raining.
Down: Wang gave up a screaming shot to Ortiz that bounced off the top facade in right field. That ball was still rising I think when it hit the wall. On a side note, on the way to the park, a NY fan had on a shirt that read "Big Papi has a Small Wee Wee." Heh. Fans.
Up: Rudy Giuliani showed up with his gf/wife(?) in tow. Looking pretty dapper in his off-white suit.
Up: Saw Spike Lee shepherding his kid back to their seats.
Up: Bernie tied it up with just his 3rd home run of the season. Long shot a bit to the right of center field.
Up: Manny narrowly avoided a brushback pitch that made a beeline for his head. Got the crowd up and cheering/jeering. Posada couldn't even catch the ball, it went straight to the backstop.
Down: On a 3-2 count of the same at-bat, Manny singles to center field.
Up: He inexplicably decides to try to extend it into a double even though it was a shallow field hit and gets gunned down at second base.
Up: Fan runs out onto the field from somewhere in left field. Crowd erupts in cheers as security streams out from left, center and right fields. Guy basically just runs across the outfield, not interacting with any of the players, but hamming it up for the crowd. Realizing he has no where to go once he's in right field as security has him boxed in, he comes pretty much to a complete stop. Crowd cheers the loudest when the first security personnel to reach the guy takes him down with a flying tackle. Not entirely sure if that was necessary since he was stopped and had his hands up but it was pretty fun to watch. Of course, none of this was mentioned in the media.
Up: Yanks go up by one when Seanez walked in the go-ahead run. That's just a sad way to lose a game.
Up: Melky makes a phenomenal catch in left field, bringing back a Manny home run that would have tied the game. It was an amazing catch not only because he had to jump up and time it correctly, he also had to make sure he held on to it as he bounced off the padding on the wall and sprawled to the ground. Great play.
Up: Mo quickly closed out the game in the top of the ninth for the suspenseful win.

So, it turned out to be a pretty entertaining game with solid pitching on both sides. Wasn't a blow out so we actually had to stay through the entire game and had its share of drama, comedy, celebrities, and some really hot women. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday night. =)

Erin came into the city this evening to catch dinner down at one of our favorite standbys, the matter-of-factly named "Excellent Pork Chop House" on Doyers. It's a bit of a farther walk to get to from the subway stations but the good food and prices are tough to beat.

The main reason that we frequent it as much as we do is because it's the only place we know of that serves the Din Tai Fung style chicken soup that we just absolutely love. Excellent Pork Chop House has the soup in chicken and spare rib form and both are pretty good. They taste pretty much the same except one has chicken and the other has spare ribs. A bit more oily than the Din Tai Fung version but still tastes good.

My usual fare is their Braised Chicken/Spare Rib Soup with Vegetable Rice combo. Oddly enough, and a warning to vegetarians, their "Vegetable Rice" has meat (pork bits specifically) in it. Basically it's lettuce, some sort of pickled veggie, and pork meat sauce over rice. It's the same rice you get if you order their rice dishes (e.g. Pork Chop/Chicken Leg over Rice). I usually order the combo and get a pork chop on the side. I think it's slightly cheaper that way (instead of getting a Pork Chop over Rice and the soup separately) but I may be mistaken. This time around the waitress made it even more slightly cheaper for us by charging us beef noodle soup w/beef price for Erin's beef noodle soup (no beef) and swapping out her beef for my pork chop.

When the name of your restaurant is "Excellent Pork Chop House", your pork chop should live up to the hype. There's no disappointment in that regard here. Their pork chop is seasoned and salted well and fried to perfection. Nice, tender and juicy. The Vietnamese style grilled pork chop is still my favorite way to season a pork chop but this is a pretty close second.

The only dish that I don't like here is their wonton noodle soup. Not that great. Had it once, never again.

Typically a trip to Chinatown with Erin usually involves me winding up as a pack mule as she stocks up on fruits from the roadside vendors. We didn't get any lychee this time around (she prefers to buy them still stuck on the branches instead of individually like in the above pic) and was more in the mood for guava anyway. But the prices they charge for guava here in the US is highway robbery. $4 per pound. In Taiwan you can get like half a dozen for $1 or something ridiculous like that.

I had the Tokina 12-24 lens on hand during this outing and got some interesting shooting from the hip type shots on the way home.

Motion blur's fun every now and then. =)

Possibly the best character to come out of Late Night with Conan O'Brien in quite awhile. Easily voted the best new character of the show in 2006, it's...

the EVIL PUPPY!!!!!

I wonder how they have him so sedate in their skits. Aren't puppies (especially goldens) supposed to be more energetic? I guess maybe they just tire him out before the show starts.

Apparently American fashion news is a bit behind the times. Gee, cute Japanese things popular throughout the world? You don't say.

Although I wouldn't really equate cute with cool though. Cute is just... cute. And not for everything. I wouldn't like my gadgets to be cute.

The quote they had from Yuri Ebihara was a little freaky though:

"If someone doesn't find me cute, I want to know why because then I'll work on it to get better at being cute."

I like things that are just inherently cute. You shouldn't have to work to be cute.

why stereotypes exist.

Wow, with the Mac going Intel now, some very interesting shit's coming out for us dual-OSers. Sounds really cool.

Oooohhhh yeaaaahhhhh......