Hoshnasi

I teased my sister when she said she was going to start learning Japanese.  Citing that “A better business savy language to learn is Mandarin.  It’ll have more practical uses later in your life.”  She shrugged and said “Well I just like it and someday want to go to Japan.”  - fair enough.

Well, its my turn to learn a language that seems less of a benefit then Mandarin, but deeply important to me.  My fiance is Chinese.  Her family speaks Vietnamese most often, but also, Cantonese and is traditionally important to them, “Your husband better know Cantonese.” her father once said to my fiance.

I think he gave me a pass when he found out I was a white American.   However, in reverence to her family I’m giving it my best in he hopes that I may be able to at least give a toast at our wedding.

My first charge up the mountain has been with the assistance of the Pimsleur study CDs.  I have been listening to these CDs,  imported onto my iPod when I have time.  Either listening while at work or in my daily commute.  I’ll say one thing about the Lessons.  You repeat them ALOT.  I repeated the first lesson three times and continually return to it.

The next thing I might start to look at is some kind of textual break-down of the language.  That why I can not only hear it, but read it.  Which I think is important to learning.  However I can only assume that for Cantonese this will be terribly tough for an English speaker/reader such as myself.

Wish me luck!!  I’m going to keep this updated on my progress.

I’ve liked motorcycles for a long time. I rode dirt bikes as a kid, road my buddies motorcycles and gone through road safety (MSF) class here in California to get my motorcycle license, but I just haven’t had the funds or drive to piss-off the family and spring for one. My family still gives me crap for riding a bicycle to work. Partially due to the fact that A small truck hit me last year and threw me from my roadie

That hasn’t stopped me riding my bicycle though. Maybe a motorcycle is just the next step on that evolutionary path? Is it the two-wheel freedom? The love of speed? I don’t know. However another two wheel vice has grabbed my attention and now I’ve hit an impasse The Honda Ruckus. Its a wimpy 50cc scooter. What it lacks in engine displacement it makes up for in character and MPG (try 80-100 mpg).

The one above is highly modified from a visual standpoint, I think it has a GY6 motor as well. But just the visual parts alone might be worth more than the stock bike which is $2049.00 MSRP. Not a bad price for a scooter that doesn’t “feel” much like a scooter.

The Ruckus tops out at 40MPH stock, a number that I am not too shy from going downhill on my road bike, still though I’ve been hooked on it for about a week. Reading all I can get my hands on over at totalRuckus.com and checking craigslist for any deals. This has been pissing my fiance off though, she doesn’t like bikes (even scoots) and this is like a never ending cycle for her. I leave the whole bike thing for a few months, then I see a Triumph, or a sweet cafe racer. Now I found the Ruckus. She sees it as a wallet draining death-trap and while I don’t deny that as a valid point of view, I’m hopelessly drawn towards it like a moth to the flame.

This isn’t news, but many believe the Incredible Hulk should be rated R for scenes showing the usage of tobacco products .  In fact there is a warning on the trailer that says something along the lines of “Warning this movie contains scenes depicting tobacco usage.”

The American Medical Association (AMA) has come out harshly against the Incredible Hulk.  Basically the main point they are going for here is:

warned parents today of yet another Hollywood film that exposes underage audiences to unnecessary smoking: “The Incredible Hulk.”

“Gratuitous Smoking” is a big problem they comment.  The words spinning in my head reading this is staggering.  I just can’t get over the fervor over tobacco usage.  Sure, cigarettes are dangerous but cigars?  Come on, cigars are no where NEAR as bad as cigarettes.

I   guess this just shows the power of the cultural left in Hollywood, where a director has a warning added ASIDE from the rating of the film about tobacco.

For a differing opinion check out Cigar Pass.

All over the news today it has been announced that a jury found Arizona based Taser International guilty in a wrongful death suit awarding the family of the deceased 6 million.  This is going to get the flames a burning but, 6 million is a RIDICULOUS amount of money.  Second, why is the TASING found guilty when its was the LEAST involved in the death of the guilty party?  Why not blame what was really the problem.  The perp’s long-time illegal drug usage AND the fact he was hopped up goofballs when his death occurred.  Six million is just the payout for 15% responsibility!

I think its safe to believe that for every POSSIBLE Taser involved death (15% or less involved).  There are many lives saved.  Both those of the officers and the people being subdued.  Keep in mind here, the people being subdued will not respond to officers and are often combative.

I’m going to be stuck in a meeting, but I’ll be reading the Gizmodo Liveblog.  I really like their coverage.

When I lived at home I couldn’t care less about the cable. We always had basic cable and I was quite content. However I did pay for the internet out of my pocket when I lived there since I was the major bandwidth user. Fast forward to my living on my own and I get to pay for cable! FUN! My first experience down this road is with Time Warner cable.

It is clear from spending five minutes on the site that they want to be your one and only for cable, internet and nowcable phone service. Most plans they offer give slight price reductions to the “All The Best” package, which is the phone, internet and cable plan. Verses the prices for just cable or cable and internet (which is what I care about).

Last year I setup a nice little plan for 7mbs cable internet and what I called the “smart” option of digital cable. My choice gave me education channels and discovery, history, TLC (or whatever they call it now). I guess I didn’t realize at the time that the plan I signed up for runs out after a year. Last month my bill shot up from $65.00 to $97.00 a month! Confused and annoyed I contacted Time Warner billing. Turns out the prices got hiked all over the place and since the deal I got a year ago expired I was left with something else which was essentially the same options digital cable and internet. However now, it was $10.00 more expensive! So $75.00 would get me rolling again.

“Forget it” I said. I asked the girl on the other end of the phone “Look, I’m not going to pay inflated prices. Either you give me an attractive option for cheaper cable or I’ll just cancel it and read a book.”

She took a few minutes and said “Well there is broadcast cable.”

“What is that?” I asked?

“Well its channels 2-35, it costs $12.00 a month.” - “SOLD!” I said almost cutting her off.

So I ditched the digital cable, going back to good old analog, and I’m down to 30 channels, which really is fine. We only really watch morning news, Discovery and some others that SHOULD be there. I really can do without Food Network since it makes me eat.

But… Last week I got another bill for $97.00. So I had to call them back and charge the ant hill again. The conversation went something like this.

“I ordered broadcast cable and I got a huge bill again, please fix it now.”

“Ok let me check your account…” (5 minutes of keyboard clicking)

“Hey, out of curiosity, what other options do you have that are cheaper than the cheapest digital cable.”

“Well, there isn’t anything aside from the broadcast cable.”

“So you’re saying there isn’t a basic cable non-digital?”

“Oh, there is, but our digital cable is cheaper at $50-something dollars.”

“Wait, so broadcast is $12.00 and then the next step is $50+ dollars? Isn’t that a bit crazy?”

“I’m sorry thats all we have.”

He helped me out getting my broadcast cable up and fixing my bill, but still it pissed me off. Not having another option for cable other than broadcast is nuts.

Then that same day I learned that next year all cable in California has to be digital cable. Hopefully I won’t be in a Time Warner district by then, because I hate them.

Other people who hate Time Warner:

GearBits

Right Thinking

Assistant/Atlas

The Cigarpass.com guys are meeting up to Herf again tonight at 6:00pm. Its located right off the 210. Come have some fun!

Gizmodo has a funny factoid about the PS3. Apparently, if you were to run it 24/7 all year long it would rack up a hefty $250.00 a year. The study was done in Australia, so I’m not sure if the amount was merely a conversation rate. Or if they did the math on Southern California Edison’s rate structure. Either way, no PS3 for me, which is fine, I find the lack of cross-media bar and online implementation a MAJOR draw-back.

So I gave a mini-review of AoC last week. I gave it a good-but-kinda-average review rating. So I re-rolled a barbarian. Figuring that the class HAS to have the most polish, since the game is about freaking Conan and I was not disappointed. The barbarian class is apart of the sub-class rouge, which is shared by assassins and rangers. All rouges share feats for bonus on balance and certain class skills like hide and lurk. Its much more satisfying now. Sneak attacking mobs with a damn two-handed sword is AWESOME to say the least. Further this by the sweet attacks the barbs can do, centering around stuns and bashes, with a ton of hate reduction. If the class remains viable post lvl 50 is yet to be know (by me at least, still on lvl 15) -I’m still thoroughly enjoying it.

Also I bought an EVGA 8800GT vid card, which helped immensely.

Because of this I am changing my AoC review. I’d give it a try it if you want a new MMO or need a break from WoW. There are WoW similarities (feat-skill trees) and general game play stuff. Asside from that it se