Went to a chalet for my department at NTUC, where my boss had bought his Playstation and that arcade nugget, R-Type. Damn addictive game. Anyway, it led me to MAME, where you can download the ROMs of tons of video games (though you're supposed to possess the rights to them) and MAME is the emulator which will allow you to play them. Woo hoo. Arcade Heaven!

Should you throw away the flyer in front of the guys who hand them out? Why not; their job is to give them out, not to care if you have a personal relationship with them.

I had a dream about returning to Berkeley, but that's all I seem to remember. My dreams seem to fade when I wake up, and by lunch time if I don't do anything about them they're gone.

Dan Eldon's web site. He was a photojournalist who travelled the world, and died even before he was 30. His journals are quite dramatic.

The tail wagging car.

Oh no Tricia has abandoned her site. Will we ever find out what happens between her and Nick? :(

Odd how things work. Borrowed a book about Ernest Shackleton's quest to be the first person to cross Antarctica, and found they did a documentary on it. Unlike other failed South Pole explorers, Shackleton managed to keep his team together and didn't lose a man despite being trapped in the ice for more than a year. Apparently The Economist cites him as a management guru.

Wow. I mean like WOW!

Somethign to look forward to: new film by the maker of Princess Mononoke.

Village Voice's guide to the best of NYC. There's a store called A Heartbreaking Store of Staggering Genius. Good one.

Film Threat's ten worst films this summer. The flash version is here. :D

Soundtrack this blog! Go to my briefcase and the MP3s folder.

3% pay cut and only half month bonus this year. But more layoffs looming. I'm not overly worried and just C'est La Vie.

Well the A's lost game 5 of the division series against the Yankees. Tons of errors and mistakes throughout the game, and Yankee's Derek Jeter was incredible. Yankees are the Man United of baseball with a salary that's about 3 times that of the A's, but the A's really blew it after winning the first two games and losing the subsequent three in a best of five series.

Someone beat the Yankees!

Weird search phrase of the day: short people poetry

Was talking to 3Tapriff about songs for his wedding dinner. Reccomended Lamb-Gorecki, but guess it might be too dark. REM's At My Most Beautiful was another choice. (just downloaded after reading it at someone else's blog) And his own choice (I'll Love You) Until The End of the World by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Never knew he could be so hip. :)

Was on the way home when a man in a work shirt in front of me crossed his chest and started running. Odd.

Breathtaking.

Fun.

Is history really over? Still is, according to Francis Fukuyama,

Watched Hitchcock's The Birds this afternoon. I don't think anyone would do a horror movie in this style nowadays. There's probably more dialogue in the first ten minutes than an entire slasher flick, and there isn't any foreshadowing until about thirty minutes are past. When it occurs, it changes the whole tone of the movie. Imagine you're playing a light, wistful tune and suddenly a minor chord strikes. Some scenes are really unnerving; such as the gradually increasing numbers of crows in the playground next to the schoolhouse. It ends in an 'open' manner, and Hitchcock didn't put 'The End' when the movie closes because he wanted to give the feeling of unending terror. I wouldn't say it was always gripping, but it definitely had its moments.

Handed a soon-to-be-laid off friend a freelance job from this other friend at an ad agency. However, it didn't work out and the ad guy ripped into laid off friend's copy and called him professional, and even wrote the guy a long email that had the tone of a discipline master. Very patronizing. I wasn't very pleased and argued with ad guy. Told him that we'll talk when we both cool off, but I don't really want to hear about this thing anymore. If it's bad just reject the work. No need to go into this long I-know-better piece, especially not through email. People use that too much these days. Get some guts and say it to their face.

Greetings to Rustic Appeal. :)