Not Always in Threes
This month had a lot of notable deaths that put the media in a frenzy. Many of these people were part of my childhood and teenage memories of TV and movies.
Though many discount the significance of a "celebrity death", do know that entertainers touch the lives of millions. They make sure those long flights aren't boring. They can give hope to the hopeless for those awaiting trial in a lonely cell.
Here are the deaths I encountered over the month in the media:
Billy Mays (July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009) - The guy from the OxiClean and Orange Glo infomercials. Hypertensive heart disease. 50.
Gale Storm (April 5, 1922 - June 27, 2009) - Of My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show. Long illness and failing health. 87.
Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) - The King of Pop behind "Thriller", "Billie Jean", and "Beat It". Cardiac arrest. 50.
Farrah Fawcett (February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009) - American actress of Charlie's Angels fame. Anal cancer. 62.
Ed McMahon (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) - Johnny Carson's announcer and sidekick in The Tonight Show. No formal cause, accumulated illness. 86.
Neda Agha-Soltan (1982 – June 20, 2009) - Iranian citizen whose death was captured on video during the 2009 Iranian protests and became a martyr for the movement. Gunshot wound below the neck. 26.
Tomoji Tanabe (18 September 1895 – 19 June 2009) - Oldest living man (for 2 years and 146 days) passes on his title to Henry Allingham. Heart failure. 113 years, 274 days.
David Carradine (December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) - From the Kung Fu, and Kill Bill fame. "Accidental" hanging. 72.
With so many celebrity deaths, especially within a week, I fear rates of depression may spike, especially those who are already susceptible. It can be difficult especially for those who hoped so much for Fawcett to come through or for Jackson to make his big comeback. Many are indeed depressed losing an icon they grew up with.
Alas, death happens everyday and I hope I'm not misinterpreted that these lives are worth more than those who die everyday deprived of human rights and basic survival needs.
I'm also well aware of some interpretations of the words "idol" and "icon". Please, please, do not take it upon yourself to be self-righteous as it will only appear foolish and intolerant in the public eye.
"Life is precious but fleeting."
Chinese Hackers
I commend the relentlessness of my fellow "brothers" and their technological prowess. However, I wish they'd give it a rest on my site. I'm not THAT important to advertise garbage "medicinal" products (though at the rate the numbers I'm seeing, it might be possible in the future). Nonetheless, there's nothing I can say or do since it's mostly automated and by banning one group of IPs, another takes its place within days.
They certainly kept me on my toes but I turned my back on the computer software path of life long ago when certain individuals failed to instil interest in the field. And along came biology and the wonders of medicine...
I can tell The Time Traveler's Wife is going to be a popular movie cause many people are Googling lyrics for the song used in the trailer and landing on that post that mentions both the song and the movie. I would provide the MP3 but then that'd get me in some trouble.
Song of the Week #44: Linkin Park – New Divide
To listen to this song, open up the music player by pressing the button in the above Flash slideshow.
I first heard this song in the credits of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Despite not liking the film, this song by Linkin Park is pretty good. Though I'm still partial to "What I've Done".
Here are the lyrics:
I remembered black skies, the lightning all around me
I remembered each flash as time began to blur
Like a startling sign that fate had finally found me
And your voice was all I heard that I get what I deserve
So give me reason to prove me wrong, to wash this memory clean
Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes
Give me reason to fill this hole, connect the space between
Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies across this new divide
There was nothing in sight but memories left abandoned
There was nowhere to hide, the ashes fell like snow
And the ground caved in between where we were standing
And your voice was all I heard that I get what I deserve
So give me reason to prove me wrong, to wash this memory clean
Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes across this new divide
In every loss, in every lie, in every truth that you'd deny
And each regret and each goodbye was a mistake too great to hide
And your voice was all I heard that I get what I deserve
So give me reason to prove me wrong, to wash this memory clean
Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes
Give me reason to fill this hole, connect the space between
Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies across this new divide
Across this new divide, across this new divide
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-28
- I haven't forgotten. "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."
#Iranelection # - The King of Pop is dead at 50. RIP Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009). Thriller and Billie Jean were my favs. #
- Simultaneous lightning and thunder, I like. BOOM! #
- N. Korea threatens to "wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all." O RLY!? It's them against the world now. We're all annoyed. #
- Oh the overflowing garbage, the smell, the litter, the warm humid weather - AHH! Stop trashing Toronto parks! #
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Michael Bay does what he does best: blowing things up. Though I feel this sequel was better than its predecessor, I found myself eventually falling asleep amidst the explosions. I'd say 50% of the $200M budget went towards explosions, 40% on CG, and 10% on everything else.
The plot is simple: stop the bad guys from destroying the world. Now throw in a long cat-and-mouse chase with jet fighters, bombs, tanks, soldiers, machine guns, random mortars, and a rail gun. Next, add some slow-mo and have the duo, Shia LaBoeuf and Megan Fox, run through all of the above for their lives. Key shots of said slow-mo include Megan Fox's boobs bouncing as she runs and dodges explosions to keep the male audience awake. That's pretty much the entire 2nd and 3rd acts of the film: one giant clusterf**k of explosions and fights for you to decipher. Though I thank Bay for limiting the use of shaky camera so I can see what's going on most of the time.
In very short reprieves between explosive and destructive sequences, you have cheesy and cliche dialogue and at one point, John Turturro in a thong with his bare ass all over the big screen. When a character falls, I felt nothing because of the piss-poor character development in the first act. There was nothing to get attached to for the characters - just a whole lot of stereotypes (especially black ones as seen in the twins and those of an elderly). Sam's mother wasn't funny and was plain annoying to watch. The relationship between Sam and Optimus Prime takes a 180 so fast it's unbelievable.
And so much dialogue was used to explain why the Decepticons are doing what they are doing and why the Autobots need Sam's help. Good directors show us the plot, not make us sit through boring dialogue.
I knew what I was expecting walking into a Michael Bay film. I did leave my brain at the door. If this mini-review forgave the abysmal storytelling, as awesome as it may have been in Bay's eyes, even endless huge explosions and jet fighters screaming through the sky in the name of America got boring after a while.
Nonetheless, the film has posted huge box office numbers and probably ensured a sequel. In fact, Transformers 3 is already in the works. Revenge of the Fallen was made to satisfy existing action-oriented fans and not bring new ones in.
2 out of 5. One point for Megan Fox. Another point for mindless action. Still can't honestly say to someone else, "I liked it."
I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire – The Ink Spots (1941)
- I don’t want to set the world on fire
- I just want to start
- A flame in your heart
- In my heart I have but one desire
- And that one is you
- No other will do
- I’ve lost all ambition for worldly acclaim
- I just want to be the one you love
- And with your admission that you feel the same
- I’ll have reached the goal I’m dreaming of
- Believe me
- I don’t want to set the world on fire
- I just want to start
- A flame in your heart
[Spoken Word]
- I don't wanna set the world on fire, honey
- I love ya too much
- I just wanna start a great big flame
- Down in your heart
- You see, way down inside of me
- Darlin' I have only one desire
- And that one desire is you
- And I know nobody else ain't gonna do
[Sung]
- I’ve lost all ambition for worldly acclaim
- I just want to be the one you love
- And with your admission that you feel the same
- I’ll have reached the goal I’m dreaming of
- Believe me
- I don’t want to set the world on fire
- I just want to start
- A flame in your heart
Effecting Change
It only makes it harder to effect change for the better when family fails to do the same.
But I promised myself that the cycle would be broken, either now or after me.
P.S., Only insensitive morons call the house line at 2:30AM. At least call the cell phone, which would more likely be in the bedroom of the person you're trying to reach. Even then, calling that late is still a dick move. Kids these days... I bet that was a drunk dial.
Back Online
After getting my DNS listing hijacked and redirecting to an annoying "Power Acai Berry" scam, I'm finally back online and running after a quick back-and-forth with tech support. Turns out they were running outdated DNS servers leaving my site vulnerable to such an attack. Though, none of my files were harmed or touched at all rather, the attack basically changed what IP address "andrewchow.com" redirected to.
Good thing I have my entire blog posts backed up. Woot woot.
For those who are computer illiterate, I'll draw a parallel: Just as viruses and bacteria evolve to adapt against our anti-biotics, vaccines, and treatments; computer hackers work ever so diligently in finding new security holes while the developers work quickly to patch those security holes up. Thus, it is important in both cases to be at the cutting edge and up-to-date to stay ahead of the game.
To prevent this from happening again, I've blocked probably 95% of IPs from China from accessing this site. It's unfortunate but necessary since China is one of the cyber-crime safe havens in the world at the moment (many spammers/hackers/etc. come from there and waste bandwidth). The recent influx of Chinese visitors according to my site logs and subsequent DNS hijack is no coincidence. The list of IPs I have used were obtained from countryipblocks.net and if you run your own site and wish to do the same, the list is there.
"China is currently leading the world in malicious activity and botnets, followed by Brazil, Russia, India, Korea, Viet Nam [sic], Ukraine, Turkey, Italy and Argentina." -countryipblocks.net
I don't know see how andrewchow.com is worth the effort in terms of size and traffic when there's juicier targets for hackers to attack. Though, most of these are automated bots.
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-21
- Epic fail by the Jays. Courses are full. No enrollment appointment yet. FML. /wrists. #
- I expect nothing less than the Blue Jays (37-31) stomping all over the Nats (18-46) this series. #
- I'd like to dedicate my 100th update to coffee for keeping me alert and awake all these years (most of the time). #
- Blue Jays win (Richmond pwns and BJ Ryan makes it "interesting" at the end...) and Yankees lose to... ... the Nationals. LOL. #
- Just cause I'm a movie fan, I'll do this one: "Star Disagreements Ep. III: Rebuttal of the Sith." #nicerfilmtitles #
- Rain today. Bellringer tomorrow. Exam Monday. Yawn. #
- Bellringer lol. /headache. #
- It's a beautiful day. #
- "You can't stop the signal." #IranElection
Keep fighting the Good Fight. Power to the People! # - Another song stuck in my head (Bruises - Chairlift). Doo doo doo doo doo-ah. #
- "Busy" week ahead. Ha ha ha! Sigh Blue Jays... and facepalm Vernon Wells (getting the big $$$ to go 0 for 17!?) #
Song of the Week #43: Coldplay – Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love
These two songs were released as a single track on Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008) album. I prefer "Lovers in Japan" over "Reign of Love" but I guess "Reign of Love" makes for a good calming follow-up after such a fast-paced song. "Lovers in Japan" is such an uplifting song and it's perfect for the wake-up playlist for my old iPod (now resting permanently on an alarm clock dock). It certainly makes me feel like I'm in the bustling cities of Japan - one of my long-term places to visit.
Lyrics:
Lovers, keep on the road you're on
Runners, until the race is run
Soldiers, you've got to soldier on
Sometimes even right is wrong
They are turning my head out
To see what I'm all about
Keeping my head down
To see what it feels like now
But I have no doubt
One day, we are gonna get out
Tonight maybe we're gonna run
Dreaming of the Osaka sun
Ohh ohh...
Dreaming of when the morning comes
They are turning my head out
To see what I'm all about
Keeping my head down
To see what it feels like now
But I have no doubt
One day the sun will come out
---------------
Reign of love
I can’t let go
To the sea I offer
This heavy load
Locusts will
Lift me up
I’m just a prisoner
In a reign of love
Locusts will
Let us stop
I wish I’d spoken
To the reign of love
Reign of love
By the church, we’re waiting
Reign of love
My knees go praying
How I wish
I’d spoken up
Or we’d be carried
In the reign of love.
