LA K-pop Festival

Forget KMF... this is the better concert and it's free.



Did I mention that it was free?! Tickets available on Ticketmaster at 10am this Saturday (3/29/2014).

Wow... Sistar, Girl's Day, and Lena Park (plus lots more).


Give It To Me - Sistar


Something - Girl's Day

KMF 2014

ThreeTwo idol groups announced for Korea Times Music Festival at Hollywood Bowl:

- 2AM must have been a typo?
- Dal*Shabet
- Crayon Pop

Still not enough for me to go. Waiting for either Sistar, Spica, or AOA.

Kindle Owners' Lending Library Small Print

I'm disappointed in Amazon. I signed up for Amazon Prime a few months ago and just recently started using the lending library. On its website, Amazon breathlessly touts that fact that "With Amazon Prime, Kindle owners can choose from more than 500,000 books to borrow for free with no due dates, including over 100 current and former New York Times best sellers and all 7 Harry Potter books." Cool.



Or not. After I returned the first book, I tried to "borrow" another title and I was told "Monthly limit reached." WTF? Nowhere on the webpage did it say there was a limit. You have to scroll to the bottom of the page, click on the "Questions?" link, then scroll down some more before you see "You can borrow one book from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library each calendar month. You can deliver the book to other Kindle devices registered to your Amazon account." It's more like smallnonexistent print as it's not even on the same webpage. That's really really lame.

Without the lending library benefit, I probably would have still paid for Prime. Typical eBooks are not that expensive and we should support good authors. Luckily, I had access to an old 2nd generation Kindle so I didn't have to buy a new one. I'd be super pissed if I bought a Kindle just for "borrowing" books. I guess I forgot that no matter what a company says (Don't Be Evil!), it's all a marketing ploy to make more money. Silly me... Amazon isn't here to lend you books; they want you to buy a Kindle and pay them $80/year for Prime.

Of course, I wasn't the only one that was irked. There were many complaints online about the same issue. What surprised me was the amount of rude and nasty replies, essentially calling the poster and idiot for not reading every Amazon policy webpage. It wasn't even on the same page! I knew there are many Apple fanboys that "defend" Apple on all sorts of Internet forums; I guess it's the same for Amazon.

New SPICA Single/MV

You Don't Love Me - SPICA

2014 KMF tickets just went on sale and as usual, there is no word on artists. Hopefully, one of my new favorite girl groups will show.

Province of China

This is from the settings page of the QuizUp app. I wonder if they got a lot of complaints from Taiwanese people because the text changed during the last update.

Before/After

Hopefully this won't prompt a bunch of mainlanders complaining about how Taiwan is a province of China, blah, blah, blah.

I've also wondered about this before. Why does the average mainlander give a shit whether Taiwan is independent or not. It doesn't make any difference in their lives. Is it a case of misery loves company? Or are they trying to impress the Internet censors so they get brownie points with the party? Disgusting either way.

Where Can I Steal Some Books?

So I'm taking an online class through edX. The course is CS50x, an online version of CS50 (Computer Science) at Harvard University. I'm only on week 3 (started with week 0) and so far it's been good. There is a lot of resources online through videos and social media.

Of course, the class has a Facebook page. I found this earlier:

I mean, sure, no one wants to buy a book if you can just download it online, but one shouldn't broadcast it to the world. The comments to the post are also hilarious:

JO: Pls send to my e-mail xxxxx@gmail.com The files I got are corrupt. Also how do we know the exact author David wants us to read from?

JH: so this torrent is like a zipped file and the uTorrent is like WinZip?

DK: Just google it. Did you try that? And as for the extract author, is that a joke?

JO: Different authors can write different books with the same name especially in the IT world

DK: He gives the exact titles, editions, with the exact authors in the syllabus.

JH: so its like a compressed file...and the uTorrent is the tool used to decompress it?

I don't want to judge, sigh... but the original poster is from Nigeria. Also, reading his profile, it says he has a BS degree in Computer Science in 2012. Really?! Aren't you supposed to learn C or several languages? Also, it appears he didn't even read the syllabus.

Perhaps what is acceptable in public discourse is different nowadays.

More AOA "Eye Contact"

These are great!

흔들려 (Confused)

New music video from AOA (Ace of Angels or something).



Even better... close up eye contact dance version.

Korean Engrish

Ugh, I hate it when people spend lot of money on producing something with typos or horrible English. I see this in China a lot... if you're going to print expensive full-color ads, why not spend a couple more dollars/RMB to check the English? There's got to be lots of underemployed American laowais in China.

This is screen-cap from the Bad Girls MV by Lee Hyori. She recently formed a entertainment company (b2m) to produce her own album and also manage K-pop artists like SPICA.



There are lots of mistakes but the worst is the alphabet:
A B C D E F G H I G K L M L O P Q R S T U V W X _ _

I'm sure I'll find a bunch of errors if I checked the math...

Tonight - SPICA

Lots of new songs by K-pop girl bands with all caps names. Do Koreans not understand English proper noun capitalization rules?


Tonight - SPICA

Damaged Lady -KARA

New KARA album! I'm posting this because Mr. A has shown some interest in Hara...


Damaged Lady - KARA

Hate You - LADIES' CODE

Hate You - LADIES' CODE

Cute girls, good vocals, but the music video is freaky. I hate dolls.

==========

I know everyone wants to be thin, but some of these K-pop girls are borderline anorexic. At 1:16 in the video, the blond girl (Sojung?) has super skinny arms.

只想知道这个姑娘是谁

Looking through my Weibo account today, I saw this post with the above photo attached. I'm 99% positive that it's Kang Minkyung (강민경/姜敏京), one of the two members of Davichi (다비치), a K-pop duo.

The post itself had nothing to do (I think) with the photo; maybe the poster is using it to attract views. One of the comments asked "只想知道这个姑娘是谁" or "just wanted to know who is the girl" so I made my first Weibo reply: 姜敏京. Funny, I never thought I would be schooling Chinese people about K-pop, especially on Weibo.

Former nationality(ies)

A tweet led me to a blogpost about a new Chinese (PRC) visa application (V.2013). I haven't applied for a Chinese visa for several years and was surprised to see it is now 4 pages (PDF).



One the first page, question 1.7 asks you to fill in your 曾有国籍 or former nationality(ies). I guess if I had to fill out this form now, I would write Canada in the box, but not sure how to continue. Do I write Taiwan? China? Republic of China?! Question 1.8 then asks for your 出生地点(市、省/州、国) place of birth (city, province/state, country). Again, do I put "Taipei, Taiwan, China" or go for broke and put Republic of China for country?

For my dad, this becomes even more confusing. He was born in Chengdu, China in 1941. Since the People's Republic of China didn't exist until 1941, it was definitely 中華民國 or Republic of China. He has a passport issued by Taiwan but nothing from PRC. I'm pretty certain if either of us put Taiwan or Republic of China for country or nationality, our visa application will be rejected.

BTW, if you google "Republic of China" you will get the on the results page:



It clearly states the Taiwan is a country, a "state in East Asia", and the "first constitutional republic in Asia." Heh, Google in going to stay on China's shit-list for a long long time.

JWA Parking

I parked my car at the off-site lot at John Wayne Airport for ~5 days and the total cost was $70 ($14/day). A taxi ride from my house in Orange to the airport would have been about $36 each way so it was a wash. Unlike at LAX, there are not that many options for off-site parking so it's fairly expensive.

The only bonus was the lot is directly below the landing flight path. I caught a Southwest flight coming in for a landing while walking to my car.

Oregon Coast Aquarium

Over this past weekend, I visited my sister in Portland. Part of the trip was spending a few nights in Newport and we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.


Cleaning shrimps. I've bought quite a few of these when I had a salt-water fish tank.


Obligatory jellyfish shot. The tank was quite small; nothing compared to the huge tank at the aquarium in Monterey.


Not sure if the fish was resting or dead.


On our way out, I saw a small group of Japanese tourists. The group was mainly teenagers plus a few adult chaperones. Interestingly, most of the kids were wearing Converse All Stars. I didn't know they were "in" in Japan.


We got to the aquarium early so the lines weren't too bad. By the time we left around noon, there was a huge line to buy tickets (quite expensive at $19 for adults). I guess there's not much else to do in Newport.

Flying Fish

Salmon...



and Orcas

Go Wong Wei

So I was at Imperial Hill taking some photos today and saw a Singapore Airlines A380 pull out of a gate at TBIT and head towards the north runway. Out of nowhere, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 turned into the same jetway, blocking the A380. All sorts of funny Asian names popped up in my head but I'm not posting any of it, because that would be racist or something.

The Asiana 777 pulled into a gate so disaster averted.

ChinaJoy

Speaking of China, I signed up for a Sina Weibo account recently and have been checking it once in awhile to see if it's still there. I posted a few things that may be censor-able but I only have 11 followers so no one seems to care. Anyway, I think Weibo signed me up to follow some random people (Edison Chen?!) and one appeared to be a photographer. Well, it seems all "model" photographers and trade show booth babes are in Shanghai this week for ChinaJoy 2013. I think it's a mobile gaming trade show but it just looks like a lot of T&A and cosplay.

I found this collage on a Weibo feed. Some of the girls are cute but others look weird in a plasticky way. Real question is how many are moonlighting as mistresses for some corrupt CCP government official or business owner.

If Mr. Anon Y. Mous would like more, I can find some better pics.

Working too much

I haven't posted that much this year since work is super busy. It actually takes a lot of time to compose a serious post, though most of my posts aren't really that thoughtful. Also, I think I'm numb to all the crap that happens in China these days so I'm too lazy to repost stuff here. Ya'll can check out chinaSMACK by yourself.

Finally, I've been putting K-pop stuff on Tumblr (68monkeys) so there's really nothing left to post. :)

Nigga

Jeantel explained to Morgan that “the whole world say it’s a racist word” but the version of the word that she testified Martin had used in reference to Zimmerman, spelled “n-i-g-g-a” doesn’t mean what most people think it means. It doesn’t mean a “black male” as Morgan assumed, she said, but rather any kind of man, including “Chinese” for example. Morgan helpfully pointed out that that’s the version rappers use in their music.

Ha ha ha, what a load of crap. So if I went down to South Central, walk up to a group of black males and say, "Whaz up, niggas?" they would reply, "Yo, my Chinese brother!" I think not... they would probably kick the sh*t out of me. And seriously, is Rachel Jeantel our best source for African-American culture?

Also, Piers Morgan is an ass. Does he realy think "nigga" = non-ethnic male because it's in rap music? Am I to believe then "b*tches and ho's" = non-ethnic females since those terms are used in rap music all the time?

The entire interview is stupid.

Farming The Bee

Took only 4 tries using Gaige in Normal mode. I've lost count how many times with Axton in TVHM. Sigh...

Supermoon

The moon is supposed to be closest to earth this weekend than it has been for many years. I went out and tried to take some photos but ended up going out too late after sunset; the moon was already off the horizon and not too super (size).



I used my Sony a55 with a Tamron 70-300mm zoom lens on manual mode: 300mm, 1/250sec, f/11, ISO 100. I didn't have my tripod and it was hard holding the camera steady at full zoom.

Off topic... but the photography website I look at for ideas on settings had a survey asking how many digital cameras you owned. I came up with 7:

- Sony U20
- Sony L1
- Sony W5
- Panasonic TZ3
- Sony a100 DSLR
- Sony a55 DSLR
- Sony RX100

Cheaper to buy a CD?

Example 1:

The Katinas - Lifestyle

This is an older CD released in 2002. I like a few songs on the CD and wanted to buy the entire album. There are 15 songs total and iTunes Store is selling each song at $0.99 or you can buy the entire CD for $9.99. Since I refuse to buy any more songs from Apple with its ridiculous AAC + DRM format, I checked Amazon but they don't offer MP3. However, I did find a "new" physical CD for $1.32 + $3.99 shipping so I ordered that instead and waited a few days for it to arrive in the mail.

Example 2:

David Crowder - All This For A King

David Crowder just released a new compilation album with 14 tracks. iTunes Store is selling each song for $1.29 and the entire album for $11.99. Amazon MP3 Store is also selling each song for $1.29 but the entire album is $11.49. A brand new real CD is only $8.89.

Why? It doesn't make sense at all. Surely it costs more to manufacture a CD than to copy a file. I can understand getting a cheap deal for a "previously owned" CD but why is it true for a brand new album? It's only slight more convenient to buy MP3's directly; it only took me 10 minutes to rip the CD in iTunes and I have a physical CD as back up in case my computer crashes. I guess there is still a benefit if you just want one or two songs; maybe no one buys the less popular songs anyway.

NPR = National Progressive Radio

What a load of partisan crap. I'm a cynic... this whole audacity/hope/change thing was a trick to fool stupid young voters. Obama is super liberal and a narcissistic power grabber, much like most (if not all) prior presidents. The difference is that his #1 selling point was that he is different. It's pretty evident after 5 years that he is not. As scandals start piling up this week, it appears he is worse than your average president and a total hypocrite.

I'm upset that my tax dollars, no matter how small, goes towards this guy's salary.

NPR

Goodbye, Again, To Obama's Most Audacious Hope

The sudden eruption of second-term scandals in his administration will have many costs for President Obama, but surely the most grievous will be the lost opportunity to transcend the partisan wars of Washington. That aspiration was his fondest dream for his second term, much as it was for his first. Now it seems destined to be dashed once again.

...

We can now be sure that the capital's pre-existing condition of partisanship will worsen with complications from multiple investigations, probes and Hill hearings as far as the eye can see. Whatever else that means, it means that the President Obama we have will not be the President Obama he wanted to become.

The article begins and ends on a fallacy that Obama is not partisan. Maybe we're looking through different colored lenses but Obama has done nothing but push the liberal agenda and totally unwilling to compromise. My taxes will be higher for 10+ years due to the Democrats buying off voters. Obama and his "we won" attitude is the problem with Washington.

BTW, my job is finance in a private company where politices don't matter. Ron Elving is an editor at NPR. He shouldn't work there if all he's doing is pushing the liberal agenda. Me and half of America want our money back.

Just Like Slavery!

I have zero very little sympathy.

Yahoo! News

Student Loan Slavery: Paying More in Loans Than I Make Each Month

I just paid $1,810 in student loans this month. I make on average around $1,500. That's not counting another $500 monthly payment my parents make.

So, really, my student loans in total each month are $2,310 and rising. The only reasons I'm not broke is thanks to my tax return, that not all loans came out of deferral at the same time and that payment my parents make. Thankfully my parents allow me to live in their basement in Rochester, Minn., rent-free.

I work full-time at a job that I wouldn't have required my college degree in sociology from Arizona State. This job pays above minimum wage; however, it is unlikely I'll be able to advance further in this job. This job is mentally exhaustive to the point I couldn't handle working another job, whether part- or full-time. It's hard to go to work realizing that, in a sense, I'm working without pay -- because all my income pays my loans.

...

At 27, I am a slave to my student loans with no end in sight. I owe more than $160,000. My lenders, private and federal, thus far are unwilling to work with each other or me, even after I explain my situation in depth. I wish there was an individual or group that would fight on my behalf. I can't even begin to describe how miserable I am daily. I really don't know how much more of this I can take. I wish I'd never gone to college; instead of enhancing my life, it has made me lifeless. All thanks to student loans.

$160k is $40k per year. Assuming she is from MN, out-of-state tuition at ASU back in the early 2000's was between $13k to $16k per year. Let's also add $1000 per month for room and board so the entire degree should have cost around $110k. There was probably lots of drinking and/or a new car or something to account for the other $50k.

A few observations:

1. Why ASU? If you can't afford tuition without borrowing lots, go to your local public school and live with your parents. Paying out-of-state tuition is stupid... unless ASU is the #1 school for sociology. Even still...

2. Why sociology? That's almost as useless as ethnic and gender studies unless you get a Ph.D. College is an investment in your future, not a 4 year party on someone else's dime. Unless you're rich, pick a major that will pay the bills and leave other interests as hobbies.

3. Did she not work part-time during school? Why not? Even $5/hour for 10 hours/week is a couple of hundred dollars per month.

4. Take responsibility. Boy there was a lot of whining in the article. Student loans didn't ruin your life; your poor decisions did. If she was a finance or accounting major, she would probably have a job that pays twice what she makes now.

5. Just because you can get a loan doesn't mean you should take out the loan. I'm pretty sure I can borrow money for a Lamborghini or Aston Martin but that probably is not wise.

Having said that, loan payment amounts should be reasonable. My mortgage is larger than her outstanding balance yet my monthly payment is less than half her payment. She should be able to consolidate her loan and restructure payments. I want her to repay the loan, for the rest of her life if necessary, but at a level she can afford each month. I think we (taxpayers) all lose if she defaults.

Comparing this to slavery is a bit too much however. Slaves didn't get to hang out at a party school for 4 years.

Gina, is that your real name?

Got this gem in the junk email folder:

From: Gina Rinehart (marcia.medina@sj.unisal.br)

My Dear Friend and Partner,

Greetings to you my Dear Beloved, my name is Gina Rinehart, a great citizen of Australia,born in Perth, Western Australia,I have a mission for you worth ($200,000,000.00) Two Hundred Million Dollars which I intend to use for CHARITY.Please reply if interested by clicking the reply button.

God Bless You.
Gina Rinehart

I hate it when people don't put a space (ONLY ONE SPACE!) after punctuation.

Confucius Quote?

I have a friend on Facebook that posts a lot of "motivational" quotes. Usually I just ignore it in my news feed but this caught my attention:



Confucius, eh? If that's a real quote, I should be able to find the original in Chinese, no? After searching the web for an hour, and reading through several translations of The Analects, I could not find anything. The "quote" is listed at hundreds of sites but none referred to a source text.

Next time I have a truly random thought, I'll use a pretty font and put "Confucius" after it to make it more meaningful.

Integrity

This seems so petty but I found out that a co-worker is parking in a handicapped spot with someone else's permit. He is not disabled. I think the permit came from another co-worker that recently had surgery but no longer needs the permit.

For some reason, this bothers me a lot. It "feels" like all the corruption stories I hear in China about the military license plates and crap like that. Not sure if it's a real Chinese idiom but my mom always told me 從小事看大事, which literally means you can see big things from small things. If he's willing to cheat on a parking permit, how will I trust him with insider financial information or salary data?

Did I mention he works for me? Sigh...

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

-Luke 16:10, NIV

Email Nuggets from the Spam Folder

Hmm, why don't I remember this person...?

BABE... i guess your not getting any of my email huh? ive been tryign to email u so many times but this dam laptop is such a piece of garbage and keeps freezing.. anyways how u been?

In case u dont know who this is its ME Adriana.. we used to chat a bit on facebook and then I think u deleted me :( haha.. anyways guess what... I got 2 things to tell u.. both good news.. 1) im single now.. yup me and my bf broke up about 3 months ago... and 2) guess where im moving? RIGHT EFFING NEAR U.. lol... ur actually the only person im gonna know there.. well 3 cousins too but i cant chill with them lol..

I remember when we chatted u told me u thought i was cute and u wanted to chill so now we finally can HAHA! im kinda scared to move.. im hoping this email addy is still the one you use and u can chat with me ebfore i get there.. maybe even help me move my shit in...are u still on facebook? i cudnt find ui was soo confused...anyways im gonna need someone to show me the town and take me out so u better be around bebe...

we only chatted a couple times but i remember thinking to myself i wanted to get ot know u better when i was single..a nd i thoguth u were cute too but cudnt tell u cause i wasnt single lol...ok so more info about me.. well im 23.. virgo.. love the outdoors and love to socialize, go out for drinks, restaurants, movies etc.. travel.. i have a lil kitty named BOO and i luv her to death... uhhh oh im a super horny gurl too but every gurl is they just wont admit it. so ilove watching p0rn and all that.. love sex etc blah blah blah...who doesnt..

I really hope we get a chance to chat for a bit either online or on the fone before i get there enxt week.. i hope u remmeber me and still wanna chill and arent married yet lol.. OH YA also.. i need to find a job when i get there..

do u have any hookups or know anybody hiring? id LOVE to work in a bar or osmehting like that...really anythgin cause my current job is fun and all.. and technically i CUD keep doign it but i want a change.. i currently work from home and well thats cool but i need ot be out meeting people.. oh wait. i dont think i ever actually told u what i did? hmm shud i......???? ok WELLLL... and dont get all weirded out on me.. i work on a webcam chat community site and i get paid to chat with people and get naked HHAHA... BOMB right :)? I KNOW.. like i figure iim horny anyways why not get paid to chat with people and play with myself heheh...anyways i hope u dont look down on that and NO THATS NOT WHY IM CONTACTING U RELAX URSELF lol... i actually need help once i move and i remembered u live there so im reaching out....like i said before this computer is a complete piece of CRAP and freezes NON STOP.. ive tried ot send this email to u maybe 3 times already and im hopign this time i can hit SEND before i run into trouble lol..

ANYWAYS.. heres the deal....every month natalie (my boss) gives each of us 3 VIP codes to give out to whoever we want.. so with this code u can lgoin to watch me at work for free and dont have to pay like everyone else... the only way i can give u one of the codes (so we can chat) is if you absolutey DO NOT give it out to anyone else and u ONLY USE IT FOR URSELF... i only get 3 a month and she gets pissed if more than 3 people use them so DONT SHARE IT MISTER... i figured u cud always email me back instead but my email account doesnt even let me login half the time.. so the bets palce ot chat me is my chat room...

if theres anyone else logged in when u sign in ill boot them out.. but remember DONT SHARE THIS PASSWORD PLEASE BABE IM BEGGING U.. I TRUST U... im online most of the day now to try and save money for my move.. also since im in such a huge debt already form my student loan :( I really thingk we need to chat before i get there and make sure u evern remember me hahha.. anyways ive rambled on and on now and ur probably soooo annnoyed with me so ill stop now.. im gonna go start work.. i really hope u come chat me. it wud make my day and releive a lot of my stress about the move... REALLY i mean that....anyways once i see u in insdie ill shoot u myc ell number and u can gimme yours.. if u dont

wanna come chat i understand but its really the only palce to find me now days.. if u email me abck ill probably get it once i get there after my internet is setup so about 2-3 weeks fomr now.. but im hopign to see u in my chat room.. rmemeber its 100% free with this code im gonna give u.. just DONT GIVE IT OUT OR ILL KICK U IN THE BALLS INSTEAD OF LICK U IN THE BALLS WHEN IS EE U hahahahha...k babe im out for now... chat ya soon.. kisses xoxo Adriana

Three Strikes on 4shared

... or is it?

I got this email earlier this week:

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have received a notification that certain materials you posted on the 4Shared website as described below infringe upon someone else’s copyright:

http://www.4shared.com/mp3/...

Access to this material has been temporarily disabled or such material has been removed.

This is the THIRD instance of copyright infringement claim associated with your 4shared account. In accordance with 4shared’s Terms of Use, your account is now TERMINATED. You are permanently banned from using 4shared’s services. You will not be able to open a new 4shared account if you attempt to register under the same name or email address or from an IP address associated with the terminated account. 4shared will also disallow the registration of a new account if it has reasonable suspicion that the person attempting to register is you.

Blah, blah, blah...

I've had my account for a long time and I used to upload MP3s so I can listen to songs over the Internet, kinda like cloud storage before clouds were all the rage. Now that iTunes and Amazon music clouds are popular, I haven't uploaded anything to 4shared for a long time. I do link some previously uploaded MP3 files to my tumblr page since tumblr only lets you upload one song per day. Anyway, not that I'm complaining, but my account is still active and all the links still work. Maybe it takes them more than 4 days to TERMINATE an account.

New Sistar 19

Sistar 19 = Hyorin + Bora


Gone Not Around Any Longer (?) - Sistar 19

Ken Fong Project

SHOUT OUT and THANK YOU to Shirley Liao, Len Tamura, Jason Chu, Bosco Tung, Tony Chi, Stephen Kim, Heidi Riddlesperger and Joy Cheng!!!

— kenfongproject (@kenfongproject) January 23, 2013

TD Ameritrade and Apple

I got an email promotion from TD Ameritrade for Apple gift cards. If you open a new account or deposit money into an existing account, they will give you $xxx in Apple gift cards.

$50k-$100k = $100 or 0.2%
$100k-$250k = $200 or 0.2%
$250k-$1m = $400 or 0.16%
>$1m = $2000 or 0.2%

Assuming you're maximizing your returns on Apple gift cards, you would fund enough to get to each tier. Unless you have a million dollars, you would fund either $50k or $100k to get a $100 or $200 gift card, respectively. Since you have to fund the account at that level for one year, the annual return is a measly 0.2%. That's probably more than a regular bank account but you can easily get 0.8% from an online savings account.

So for $50k, I can either put it into TD Ameritrade for a year and get a $100 Apple gift card, or put it in Discover Bank (for example) and get $400 in interest (before taxes).

Girl's Day

This group has been around for a few years but has gone through a few member changes. Now they're a 4-member group.


Don't Forget Me - Girl's Day

EXID

Another one... they debuted earlier in February of 2012.


Every Night - EXID

Does every girl group need a rapper?

SPICA

Another new K-pop girl group. They seem to have some talent.


I'll Be There - SPICA

What's up with the cow DJ?

沒辦法

沒辦法 (Traditional characters) literally means "no way to do" and is heard a lot in China, normally when you ask someone to do something they should be doing anyway. In reality, it just means that the person saying 沒辦法 is too lazy or wants a kickback.

There's an article in The Nanfang about zoo patron abusing animals at the Shenzhen zoo:

Zoos are supposed to be designed to protect people from animals, but sometimes they need to work the other way around.

Only two crocodiles are left alive of over a dozen that were placed in Rural Grand View Garden, a zoo in Shenzhen’s Guangming New Zone, Shenzhen Evening News reports. The cause of their death? Visitors throwing stones at them and polluting their habitat with garbage.

Visitors, particularly children, have been unimpressed by the hibernating beasts.
A journalist who visited the zoo this week reported that, as crocodiles hibernate during the winter, a lot of visitors have been shouting, spitting and throwing things at them to make sure they are alive.

Because the manmade lake in which they lived was full of garbage thrown by visitors, staff from the zoo went in to clean it this week but discovered that only two were still alive.

The zoo has issued warnings about such behaviour but staff say they have little power to stop it, for some reason.

I can just hear the chorus of 沒辦法s being said at all levels of zoo management. This is stupid. The answer is very simple... kick out anyone caught throwing crap at animals. No appeals, no refunds. When I go to the San Diego Zoo, I don't throw stuff at the animals. First, it a horribly wrong thing to do, but I also know that I'll get called out by other zoo patrons or forcibly ejected from the zoo.

I've only been to the Chengdu zoo and thankfully I didn't see dead animal exhibits.

Korean Bee Gees

How Deep Is Your Love - Jinusean

I just heard this for the first time on a K-pop Internet radio station, even though this came out in 1999. Junisean = Jin-woo Kim + Noh Seung-hwan and they were part of YG Family. Jinu was featured in this music video from SWI.T.

Disneyland Fireworks

I was at Disneyland on Christmas Day with my sister's family. We got there when the parked opened at 8am and stayed didn't get home until 11pm. Yawn...

During the fireworks show, I took some pictures with my Sony a55. There is a special mode call Twilight which takes 5(?) shots rapidly and processes it into one photo. It's supposed to allow you to take low light shots without a tripod. Not sure how it works since the scene is moving but the pictures came out ok.

Privacy and Trust

Instagram, which was purchased by Facebook for ~$1 billion ~$700 million in stock, made a change to is TOS earlier this week and caused a firestorm of criticism. The changes were interpreted to allow Instagram/Facebook to sell your photos without permission nor compensation.

CNET

Facebook's new rights to sell Instagram users' photos come from two additions to its terms of use policy. One section deletes the current phrase "limited license" and, by inserting the words "transferable" and "sub-licensable," allows Facebook to license users' photos to any other organization.

A second section allows Facebook to charge money. It says that "a business or other entity may pay us to display your... photos... in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you." That language does not exist in the current terms of use.

After the PR fiasco, Instagram backed down and removed some language. Their CEO said:

Blah, blah, blah...

Legal documents are easy to misinterpret.

Blah, blah, blah...

The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question.

Blah, blah, blah...

I call bullsh*t. Basically they tried to expand the TOS so they could do whatever but got busted. It's ludicrous to claim that their legalese was misinterpreted. I've worked with lawyers at many companies; they know exactly what they want to say. To blame all this on users is lame.

I've deleted my Instagram account. I didn't talk that many photos with it and I'm picky about what I share. The TOS change most likely won't affect me anyway. However, there's a lot of pressure to monetize their database of users and photos, and this episode shows that Instagram/Facebook will do whatever as long as they don't get caught by their users.

Jackie Chan is Pro-democracy?

Not really...

chinaSMACK

@南方都市报:

Jackie Chan: Hong Kong Criticizes and Demonstrates About Everything, Should Be Restricted

During an exclusive interview with Southern People Weekly, Jackie Chan said that Hong Kong had become a city of parades [demonstrations]. “Protesting China, protesting the leaders, protesting everything, demonstrating about everything. There should be regulations on what can be demonstrated against and what can’t be demonstrated against.” “We have returned to China now, how can we still be criticizing Chinese leaders all the time? Whoever amongst you has what it takes can come govern, but you guys don’t have it in you, and all you do is criticize.”

Hmm... I criticize the CCP a lot. I also think I have what it takes to govern China... so where do I sign up? Do I join/form a party? How do I get my name on the election ballot?

Wait... this is China and there are no elections. There is only an authoritarian dictatorship that crushes all opposition, even benign protests.

I agree with some commentators: Jackie Chan should shut up and retire. I don't like any of his movies anyway.