NBA.com Needs New Web Designer

Am I color blind or does this not make too much sense?

Also, wow. The Miami Heat swept by the Chicago Bulls? So much for being the defending champions.

Technorati Tags: nba, funny picture, miami heat, chicago bulls

Addicted to R&B

Chris recently introduced me to imeem, a website that streams music. imeem is to music as youtube is to videos. Notice the "i" in imeem versus the "you" in youtube. imeem plays full-length songs of all genre in mp3 quality, which makes it very handy for sampling songs, finding new music, and sharing with friends. You can find me on imeem here, where all of my favorite songs and playlists are shown. Feel free to add me!

With regards to sharing with friends, I'll be doing exactly that. In the past few weeks, I've come across several quality R&B songs, and I'd like to share my top 3 with you guys. imeem has the ability to embed songs directly into blogs, another convenient feature. With that said, here are my top 3 R&B songs of April 2007:

Marques Houston - Favorite Girl




Ne-Yo - Because of You




Bobby Valentino - Anonymous

Technorati Tags: imeem, music, ne-yo, bobby valentino, marques houston

Which Side is Up?

I came across this picture from Dapper's flickr album:

It looks like a normal picture, but something is off. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then I figured it out:

I ended up turning my laptop upside down to figure it out. Lucky for you, I've already taken the liberty of flipping the picture so you won't have to. Cool huh?

Technorati Tags: photography

Dear Blog

Hello! Time for another update. Yesterday, Kenny pointed out this post on Chitika, titled "Help me, my mom is my blog's only reader!" by Darren Rowse from Problogger.net. The title itself made me want to read the article, not to mention Darren Rowse makes six figures a year from his blog(s). Here's a quote from his article describing his personal experience:

When I first started blogging, I had romantic notions of an incoming rush of traffic hitting my blog. A couple of months in I began to realize that that wasn’t going to happen. I remember the light going on in my mind one day - the rush of traffic just wasn’t going to ‘appear’. Of course there was a trickle of traffic that did just ‘appear’ - but if I wanted traffic in large numbers I was going to have to find some way of going and getting it.

For those of you that have been following along with my blog, it is now almost 2 months old; I launched it initially on 03/06/07. Luckily, the recent traffic my blog has been receiving has not only fulfilled my "romantic notions," but has far exceeded them. Perhaps my "romantic notions" are not grand enough, but I was hoping to reach 1000 unique visitors in one day by the time my blog becomes 1 year old. However, this last week blew away that goal; currently I have an average of 1,500 visitors and 2,600 page views per day. My single best day received 5,000 visitors and 8,000 page views.

I'm not here to brag about my site stats. On the contrary, I'm here to express my gratitude to you, my readers. I'd also like to thank StumbleUpon for driving so much traffic to my blog. I had a couple of my posts "featured," which lead to massive spikes in my traffic. Without StumbleUpon, I would surely be amongst the rank of blogs where my mother would be my only reader. But what's worse is that my mom isn't too good with English, so I'm not sure that even my own mother would be reading my blog.

I know that a large portion of that traffic will probably only see my blog once in their lifetime, so I'm mostly here to address my returning visitors. Seeing all of these huge numbers only makes blogging that much more fun for me. Hopefully after visiting my blog, you'll have at least smiled once, laughed once, or learned something new. Once again, thank you for visiting my blog.

Sincerely,
Michael Hwang

P.S.
Comments are open for suggestions and criticism. Please do let me know what you would like to see more of, as well as what I can do to improve this site. Feel free to be mean, I don't cry easily. Q_Q
Oh, and if you've ever wanted to comment on a past post, you can do that here too. That's you Jodan.

Technorati Tags: blog, StumbleUpon

Blast from the Past

I came across this ad for a 15 megabyte hard drive...from the 1970's! I don't think anyone should be complaining about how expensive computers are these days.

Technorati Tags: hard drive, funny picture

World Champion Yo-Yo Master

I keep coming across these crazy videos. This time its a Japanese guy at a Yo-Yo contest. I don't see how he can even pull off some of those moves, but I guess that's why he's the world champion and I'm not.

Technorati Tags: yoyo, yo, sports

Hardcore Ping Pong

I don't play ping pong, but this video really wowed me.

Technorati Tags: ping pong, sports

DIY: Slippers Made of PADS

The GF came across this post about how to make your own slippers. OUT OF PADS. Yes, you heard right. PADS. The kind that girls use during that certain special time of the month. Without further ado, here is how you can make your very own PAD slippers.

Here's a picture of the finished product. This post will teach you how to make one of these bad boys.

Step 1:
Get some pads. This may be a little harder for the guys, but just ask the GF/wife or your mother for some. Shouldn't be a problem.

Step 2:
Open the packaging and take one out. Might be a bit scary for the guys once again, but hopefully you were able to obtain unused ones, which are supposedly sanitary.

Step 3:
Fold the ends in approximately 1.5 centimeters on both sides.

Step 4:
Now slide the folded pad onto another unfolded pad. Use the built in adhesive to make sure they stay together. This part might be a little tricky if you've never used a pad before. Apparently, according the the GF, there is a sticker that you can take off, and underneath the sticker, the pad is coated with a sticky material. You can use that to make sure these 2 parts stay together. Ingenious.

Step 5:
Add additional padding to the bottom to make it nice, soft, and extra absorbent in case you are walking through a swamp.

Step 6:
Put glue on top of the previously folded pad.

Step 7:
Add flare and decorations as you see fit.

Step 8:
Wear your new pad slippers with style, comfort, and security, knowing that the ultra absorbent pads will keep your feet dry at all times.

Technorati Tags: diy, slippers

Deals: 4/22/07 - 4/28/07

Little Miss Sunshine: Little Miss Emo-Pants

A couple weekends ago I watched Little Miss Sunshine, starring nobody in particular, typical of an indie film. The entire movie can be summed up in one word. EMO. For those of you unfamiliar with emos, here's the definition from urban dictionary:

Genre of softcore punk music that integrates unenthusiastic melodramatic 17 year olds who don't smile, high pitched overwrought lyrics and inaudible guitar rifts with tight wool sweaters, tighter jeans, itchy scarfs (even in the summer), ripped chucks with favorite bands signature, black square rimmed glasses, and ebony greasy unwashed hair that is required to cover at least 3/5ths of the face at an angle.

And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll have Nemo describe the movie:

I have nothing against emos, but I thought the movie was mediocre at best. My roommate recommended the movie to me, saying that it was one of those "feel good movies." But after watching the movie, I didn't feel good at all. It didn't leave that warm feeling that you get after watching a chick flick; instead, it left a rather bitter feeling of hatred towards society and all of mankind in general.

Apparently, the movie received good ratings from the critics, but I thought it was a very pointless and slow moving movie. The movie is about a dysfunctional family in America, where every member of the family has one type of mental disorder or another. The father is a motivational program salesman that can't accept being a loser, despite the fact that he, himself, is a loser. The son is the epitome of emo: he is under a vow of silence until he is accepted into the air force. The daughter is under an illusion of grandeur, believing that she will grow up to be a beauty queen. The uncle is a suicidal homosexual. The mother is slightly neurotic, and the grandfather is a perverted drug addict. Nice cast of characters eh?

The whole story is just a big run around, as the family drives from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach. The little girl doesn't win the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, the grandfather dies, and the emo boy finds out he's color blind so he won't be able to join the air force. Sorry for ruining the movie, but you could see it coming from a mile away. The moral of the story is that it's OK to be a loser, and that society's rules suck. I found this movie completely pointless, and hardly entertaining; I'm mildly surprised that people would enjoy this movie, but I suppose it is somewhat unique. The fact that they made a movie about such a mundane subject in itself is unique, but I personally found the movie to be a terrible bore.

Technorati Tags: movie review, little miss sunshine, emo

Starcraft Origami

I came across these really cool Starcraft origami pictures. Starcraft and Brood Wars are definitely some of my favorite games of all time. Looks like something a Japanese guy with a lot time would do. These pictures are from gluek's flickr album.

Big armies face off
Guardians! One of my favorite end game units

Look at that reaver

Carriers! There are even interceptors if you look closely

Zerg army

Hydralisk, very versatile

Looks like a mutalisk

A scout, generally not worth the money

Tank, the reason why Terran owns

Ultralisk, my favorite origami

Technorati Tags: starcraft, origami

Posture Perfect

So Jordan and I recently noticed that we have terrible posture, both sitting and standing. I just came across this article from the Washington Post that points out some common problems and easy ways to prevent poor posture.

Technorati Tags: posture

Top 10 Tower Defense Games

Since I've quit playing more serious games for the most part, I've discovered tower defense games to be a good, casual alternative. Here are 10 of them to waste your time on:

Check out my high scores here!

I've updated my list to include 4 more tower defense games.

Technorati Tags: tower defense, games

Elephants > The Moon

Thanks to Christine for this:



I wonder what Regis said after that.

Technorati Tags: elephants larger than the moon, funny picture

Deals: 4/15/07 - 4/21/07

Mmm Moisturizer

My mom just got me this:


Shiseido Men: Moisturizing Emulsion Fluide Hydratant

No I'm not gay, I'm just going to have really soft skin.

Technorati Tags: Shiseido Men, lotion

Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix 2007

On Saturday, David, Jeff, and I went to the 2007 Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix. It was my first time being at a real race, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Let me tell you, it was INTENSE, an attack on all the senses: I could see the cars racing at 140 MPH, I could hear the screaming engines, I could smell the burning rubber, and I could feel the heat emanating from the track. The only thing I couldn't do was taste the cars, but I doubt that would have been a pleasant experience.

We ate lunch at the local CPK (California Pizza Kitchen), which was right by the track. The Long Beach track isn't really a track, in the traditional sense. The track consists of normal, everyday surface streets with barricades on the side. We were lucky enough to get a table outside, thanks to David's coworkers, so we were able to eat pizza literally 30 to 40 feet away from cars going 100+ MPH into a turn. It was hard to keep the food down.

With that said, here are a few of the pictures we took with David's Canon Digital Rebel XTi (you can find more in my flickr album):

Check out the rest in my flickr album.

Technorati Tags: Toyota, Long Beach, Grand Prix