MV Reaction Vids

I've been noticing that when I look for K-pop music videos on YouTube, the search results include a lot of so called "reaction" videos. Basically they're videos of people watching music videos. These have to be the most ridiculous waste of bandwidth ever. I wish YouTube could tag these uploads so I can filter them out of my search results.

Maybe I should make a video of my reaction (of disgust) to watching one of these retarded reaction videos... how meta would that be!

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Not sure what I'm ranting about? Go to YouTube and type in "aoa get out mv" in the search box. About 50% of the results are useless "reaction" videos. They're mostly fake (staged) anyway.

AOA - Ace of Angels

Wow, a K-pop girl band that plays instruments! That's pretty cool. I wonder if they actually played for the studio recording or if they hired musicians. Also, I haven't seen a performance where they play live (except for the drummer) instead of using the instruments as prop; you can tell by the lack of a power cable to the keyboard. They do sing live though and it's not too shabby.

The group setup is a bit confusing too. There are 8 members that form two subgroups: a 5 member band and a 7 member dance group. The drummer doesn't dance... how cool is that! Most bassist I know don't dance either.


Get Out - AOA

The top comment on YouTube tells you each girl's name and what she does in the group.

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After watching the MV a few times, it reminds me of when I first saw SNSD. I can't tell the different band members apart in each shot... most of them pretty much look the same.

$15 Per Hour

... for working at McDonald's? Not yet.

Fox NY

Fast food workers call for higher wages

Workers at some fast food restaurants in the New York City area walked off the job on Thursday.

A large group gathered outside a McDonald's on Madison and 40th St. in Manhattan demanding higher wages and the approval of a workers union.

"They're giving us $7.25 an hour, so many of my co-workers are living on food stamps. You can't live on that in this city," a protester told Good Day NY.

The workers who say they don't make enough to put food on the table for their families would like an increase in their hourly pay to $15.

Heh, I would like a 106% pay raise too. I understand that NYC is an expensive place to live but there are consequences to decisions. Can't afford to live in NYC and work at McD's? Then move away from the most expensive city in the US. I always thought that working at McDonald's or other fast food joints was a transitional job; do people (non-managers) actually work there for life?

Worst-Run State in America

Of course it's California... 2nd year in a row.

Yahoo! Finance

Every year, 24/7 Wall St. conducts an extensive survey of all fifty states in America. Based on a review of data on financial health, standard of living and government services by state we determine how well each state is managed. For the first time, North Dakota is the best run. California is the worst run for the second year in a row.

Now with a Democratic super-majority in CA state government, it's going to get a lot worse.

Diablo III Ban

I read this on Blizzard's site this morning:

We've recently issued several rounds of account bans for cheating in Diablo III. In each of these cases players used a hack program for exploitive purposes, for example to zoom out their game view and kill monsters that were beyond the normal range at which AI is triggered. As we do with all Blizzard games, we will continue to monitor Diablo III for cheating and take action as needed.

First, I don't like Diablo III as much as the previous titles. I have the original Diablo game plus Diable II and the expansion. I hesitated for a long time on buying D3 because of the "always connected" requirement but after playing the game for 2 months, the main problem is that the game is boring. The difficulty ramp is lame... the game is too easy at first, then gets way to hard. My guess is that Blizzard wants you to buy better items on its Auction House with real cash, where they make a commission. So after paying $60 for a game, you can only play it when connected to the Internet, and you have to spend more money or otherwise keep dying in-game. I'm too old for this crap...

Anyway, I wonder what happens when you are banned? I think I used "trainers" for D2 since the single player games/characters were not authenticated and were local to your computer. Does the D3 ban only affect your existing characters or to the entire game? Since your registration key is linked to your account, does that mean you can't play the game anymore? Does Blizzard refund the $60 (or whatever you paid)? Does it impact all your other games, like Starcraft II, that is linked to your Battle Net account?

I'm very disappointed in Blizzard. I also have bought every other Blizzard game except for World of Warcraft, but I'll probably pass on the next SC2 release... didn't realize I paid $60 for 1/3 of a game when I bought SC2. To think some executive is probably sitting in my old office in Irvine (Blizzard took over our office space when Broadcom moved to its new campus by UCI).

Kim Il-sung University

Just read the bio of Zhang Dejiang, one of the presumed members of the next 9-member Politburo that will run China. It was fairly typical of CCP leaders: restricting of news about SARS breakout, suppression of protests and news reporting, etc. This tidbit caught my eye though:

Zhang, a native of Tai'an in Liaoning, attended Yanbian University, where he studied the Korean language. Zhang enrolled in Kim Il-sung University in North Korea in August 1978 and received a degree in economics in 1980. Zhang's degree in economics makes him something of a rarity among the Chinese leadership. His connections to North Korea and his handling of illegal immigration from that country as a local official in Jilin are believed to be key factors in his rise to power.

Degree in Economics from Kim Il-sung University in North Korea?! What could he possibly learn about economics in North Korea? How to screw up a country so bad that most of your citizens are starving? Juche? It's so ludicrous that I tried to come up with an analogy for hours but could not.

Fairies (J-pop)

I "found" this J-pop girl group on the avex Channel on YouTube. They sing and dance pretty well but are really really young... only 13-15 years old. When do they have time for school? I think K-pop has trainees that young but they usually debut their artists later. Maybe it's just a Japanese thing.


White Angel - Fairies

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Ugh. I saw a video of them singing Madonna's "Like A Virgin"... very awkward coming from middle school girls. :(

United Airlines Boeing 787

United Airlines took delivery of a Boeing 787 in late July with tail number N20904. From FlightAware, it looks like the plane flies between Houston/Chicago and Houston/Los Angeles each day, with LAX arrival at ~5:30pm. I need to go out to Imperial Hill to get a photo. Departure is around 8:00pm so I won't be able to get a take-off photo during the winter.

I have some UA miles and I hardly ever fly United. Maybe I can use it to fly to Houston on the 787, though I think I only have enough miles to fly one-way.

Stock Market Tanks...

4 more years!

4 More Years of Wealth Redistribution

Crap. Well, at least I don't live in China. This has to be a bad translation... or the most incoherent article I've ever read.

Be wary of populism led by democracy

Results of the US presidential election will be made public today. No matter who wins, Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, there's no expectation either domestically or externally that US policies will dramatically change. The problems in the US will remain.

The election has just been about getting votes, and this is gradually becoming a popular political rule throughout the world. Politicians should try their best to please the voters and make various promises. The demands of voters will continue to increase, while their patience for setbacks grows weaker.

The electoral system encourages populism. Parties and politicians are slowly turned into its captives.

Viewed from the literal meaning of the phrase "civil rights," this evolution in the political system is correct.

The outcome of carrying civil rights to their extreme is to maximize everyone's benefits.

The concepts of effort and hard work will become outdated. The overall progress of the country has become an issue of secondary importance.

This is a worldwide phenomenon. China will also be affected, even though its political system is not the same as the West's. China once attached great importance to efficiency. The impact brought about by populism may affect this.

However, Western governments have given up their responsibility to lead society and now only shuffle voters and votes.

This should alarm Chinese society. The spirit of hard work and effort must not be replaced by unrealistic welfarism.

China's general situation is far less well-developed than that of the US.

However, many people in the world are optimistic about China. This is because they trust in the continuity of Chinese policies and China's social governance capabilities. They believe that China's system can overcome difficulties and promote the development of the country.

There's no perfect political system. However, China's current system is widely considered to be an effective one. The efficiency of this system is both outstanding and rare.

The most precious thing in the world is development. Some people think that happiness is more important than development.

However, without development, the economy will deteriorate. Then what happiness can there be?

Fairness is also very important. However, only when the joint development of both the economy and society has been achieved, can fairness be ensured.

China has already experienced the old days, when there was a low standard of fairness. But now, who wants to go back to that time?

A real understanding of the US presidential elections is extremely important to Chinese society. It can broaden our horizons.

We can also heed warnings from their examples. Modern Chinese society should be able to discern the truth. China's rise is already an unstoppable trend and it is halfway through this path.

Difficulties can be found on all paths. What we should overcome is our own difficulties. Our determination and confidence will be more firm once we have overthrown illusions.

Doug Martin... Who?

I have Doug Martin (running back for Tampa Bay) on my Fantasy Football team. I've never heard of him before the season and I picked him up in the 5th round (59th pick) of our league.

He scored 67.20 points tonight by rushing 251 yards and scoring 4 touchdowns. I didn't think it was possible to get that many points. For this week, I'm currently leading my opponent (my manager) by a score of 177 to 85.

My Sassy Girl

Post #2000 according to Blogspot!

Full length version of my favorite K-movie with English subtitles. 대박!

G.E.M.

I bought a Chinese album from iTunes this morning. The artist is G.E.M. (鄧紫棋) from Shanghai though she sings songs in both Mandarin and Cantonese. The "Deluxe" version of the album comes with 2 music videos and a digital booklet, probably the CD insert. I say "probably" because the PDF file is corrupt and won't open... still dealing with iTunes store.

Here is a music video:


Oh Boy - G.E.M.

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Eh? The video link switched to another song. Weird.

I can't embed it but here's a link to the original video that I uploaded to Tumblr. Hopefully this one won't change.