hiyaa

A Quiet Day

2010-02-14T11:13:00.000-08:00

Jealous

2010-01-31T14:52:00.009-08:00

In the last 2 weeks I've heard other people get upset that so-and-so and what's-her-name are being touted as panel experts. So-and-so is of course an obvious no-talent Twittering hack and the only thing what's-her-name knows is making lovely PowerPoint slides.

NEWS FLASH - most of us ARE both a so-and-so and a what's-her-name. In my everyday life I am mostly shit at the things I do with the exception of about 3 cool things per week. I am genuinely happy to see other people succeed because it has no bearing whatsoever on my 3 cool things. In the vast universe, we are all nobodies and in a Descartes universe we are all no bodies. Try hard at stuff you like.

As an Anime Fan...

2009-10-05T23:32:00.003-07:00

When I see these guys lip sync, all I can think of is Slamu Dunku. There's something about them that reminds me of Vancouver.

Washington DC is Man Time

2009-09-05T16:16:00.002-07:00

AutoTune for iPhone

2009-09-04T10:21:00.002-07:00

TPain has a Smule iPhone app. Now everyone can autotune the news. Fantastic.

Kevin Smith is Hard Up...

2009-08-18T20:37:00.002-07:00

So if a funny guy like Kevin Smith can't get any action, what about the rest of us ? I mean, Jersey Girl was clearly Ben Affleck's fault. It must be hard playing anything other than Matt Damon's BFF.

The Bike Ride

2009-08-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

Babies

2009-07-25T09:28:00.002-07:00

We just announced our engagement and people have already started asking us when we're having babies. We haven't even gotten the ring sized to fit my hand. We haven't even got any clean underwear or groceries. For those people that keep asking us about babies, clearly you don't know us well and you've been bumped off the invitation list. No one has asked us about our doubles synchronized swimming routine, or when we plan to make a run at the Nobel Prize in physics, or how to smuggle oompa loompas AND ewoks into a non-denominational destination wedding. No more talk about babies.

Spain / Engagement Montage

2009-07-12T18:46:00.002-07:00

Barcelona

2009-06-29T06:22:00.004-07:00

We're in Spain and I'm trying to keep my media consumption to a minimum. A few days ago I was baffled when my friend Eugene told me we'd killed Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. He asked that we try not to hurt Bob Dylan.

I keep going to restaurants thinking I'm ordering something exotic and awesome from the menu, but it always turns out to be bizarre - like eggs and shrimp on french fries or a kilo of cured ham with nothing else. Still, I love it here. We just got back from Barcelona. Fashion is amazing (even the hammer pants.) Art is amazing. Architecture is absolutely unreal. People just stop half way through their day and have a drink and a 2 hour lunch. Nobody is tweeting or foursquaring anything and while I'm getting a bit of iPhone withdrawal, I really needed this.

If you're planning a trip to Barcelona, Robert's cool and he's got a great gallery called Base Elements in the Barrio Gotico where he hosts prominent graffiti artists.

Karyn's Circus Show

2009-06-20T13:00:00.002-07:00

This is a clip of Karyn's circus show at the San Francisco Circus Center from last night. Now we think she's even more buff and amazing. Her muscles have muscles.

Rolf's Moving to NYC: See him off this Sun

2009-06-18T13:44:00.001-07:00

GOODBYE ROLF: Rolf is leaving the sausage-fest of San Francisco in the hopes that he'll meet a nice sturdy lady from the East Coast that he can settle down and make big strong Nordic babies with. He's sold his furniture, packed his stuff and is ready to start his new life as a dad. Come see him off.
WHERE: Zeitgeist, http://tinyurl.com/mrgmvk
WHEN: THIS Sunday, Jun 21 3PM-7PM

Pickup Pundit

2009-06-01T19:06:00.002-07:00

I just uploaded a pick up line to Pick Up Pundit. It's "If my heart had a tag cloud, you'd be huge." Wish me luck.

Birth of a Bean

2009-05-03T09:17:00.001-07:00

Birth of a Bean, May 1. 2009 from Dana Oshiro on Vimeo.

Rental Car Rally

2009-04-28T14:13:00.004-07:00

My friend Yutai forwarded me an invite to Rental Car Rally, a road trip rally from San Francisco to Yuma, AZ beginning on June 12th and ending on June 14th. A hundred teams will visit photography checkpoints along the 36-hour drive to Yuma in an effort to win rally car bragging rights. While I'm toying with the idea, I recognize the disadvantage of owning a black car with no air conditioning. I'm Canadian. I didn't think it would really matter.

Anyways, if you're interested, Yutai's parties are always fun. He hosted a Miracle Berry party last August and he also started StreetWars - a game where strangers are given dossiers of water gun targets.

If you're interested in joining Rental Car Rally, the team cost is $250 and you can sign up via Eventbrite. Below is some footage of the original NYC to Montreal trip. Comment below if you're into forming a posse.

2008 NYC To Montreal Rental Car Road Rally from Richard Blakeley on Vimeo.

Tone Def Jam? Beyonce and the Internet

2009-04-22T16:52:00.006-07:00

Bwahahaha! Rolf just sent me this and it's really well done. Take the video, drag the file into iMovie, remove the sound and voice over the last two notes of each line and you've just sullied the reputation of the hottest woman in music today. At what point does Def Jam and Jay-Z put a hit on the internet? My theory is that Etta James and Aretha Franklin made the video.

Through the Gates!

2009-04-14T10:24:00.002-07:00

TN Visa achieved! The manly half of Croshiro is through airport security!

A Day at Prospect Lake

2009-04-13T23:30:00.001-07:00

Publish Post

Prospect Lake, Apr. 12. 2009 from Dana Oshiro on Vimeo.

A Hometown Montage

2009-04-08T19:33:00.002-07:00

Oh Richmond, my Richmond. I cannot believe you are hosting the 2010 skating oval. It seems like only yesterday I cried in my Floppy Disk costume while being thrust onto the ice through a fake Amiga.

The New Chain Letter: Your Album Art

2009-03-15T08:50:00.004-07:00

THE RULES:
1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit "random... Read More". The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 - Go to "Random quotations".
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3 - Go to flickr and click on "explore the last seven days". Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together. Then tag your Facebook friends to play.

COMMENTARY
I got this a while back and thought it was fun until my search yielded a totally lame album cover. Apparently, in my world, there is no music, only business negotiation audiobooks. (Or possibly smoking cessation) That being said, there's a couple reasons why this is viral:
-It's self-referential without being too vulnerable
-There are some funny results
-It encourages counter posts and dialogue. Try it.
Now I've just got to figure out a way to harness this for causes.

Oh Canada: Camera Embedded in Eye & Pomegranate

2009-03-05T22:23:00.004-08:00

Pomegranate: I have no idea how I never saw this until now, but the Pomegranate is a parody phone ad with the tag line, "Having a phone with everything may be a stretch, but a place that has everything definitely exists - Nova Scotia."

There are 3 totally funny things here:
1. Nova Scotia: When Americans make fun of Canadians for saying "aboot", they are making fun of the Maritimers. Nova Scotians are some of the sweetest, seal flipper pie munching, freckled redheads I know.
2. Harmonica and projector: These features may sound ridiculous, but Smule's Ocarina iPhone app totally lets you play your phone and Samsung just launched a phone with a pico projector in Korea. It demoed at CES.
3. A Canadian filmmaker is making a film on surveillance using a camera fitted into his prosthetic eye. It's an "eyeborg" camera and University of Toronto's Steve Man (One of the first life streamers) is onboard. I'm not kidding. After looking at this, the idea of a phone that brews coffee really isn't that far fetched. Now if this is fake, everyone's just going to start accusing us of being liars. It's bad enough being referred to as a "snow back". Check out the eye project below:

EYEBORG-- The Two Week Trial from eyeborg on Vimeo.

Elevens & Twelves

2009-02-21T17:26:00.003-08:00

Yesterday I listened to The Twelves and remembered dating a guy in university who lived in a household of roommates self-named, "the Elevens". Essentially, they were convinced that if rated on a scale of ten, they would all be elevens. I have no idea how a relentless feminist like myself could've tolerated such a douche bag. He must've been smoking hot. I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in 10yrs and he reminded me of all the wrong people I've attempted to date. Nobody was evil, but nobody was right either.

God I'm happy that's over.

I've been accused of being a buffoon all my life, but my strict regime of constant humiliation has led me to lessons learned and the man I love. Dumbassery pays off. I may not be elegant, but as far as luck is concerned, I'm definitely an eleven. Oh look, it's Saturday. Hell yeah.

Comte

2009-02-16T18:45:00.001-08:00

I am the only person I know who is willing to sacrifice a long weekend for cheese. I'm building a website for a very small fee for Essex Street Cheese Co. out of NYC simply to get some of their Comte. There are only 60,000 wheels of Comte aging in the caves at Marcel Petite Fort St. Antoine - a cave fort built during the 1800's in the Jura Mountains near the French-Swiss border. Essex's wheels are hand selected and are aged between 13-18 weeks. The Comte is made from the milk of Montbeliard cows and it's been prepared in the same manner for over 1000 years. This is the holy grail of cheeses. It's described as having the texture of silk. I'm going to have a party when I get my piece. I'm obsessed.

No Contest: Coding the Language of Love

2009-01-29T14:15:00.005-08:00

This morning a friend forwarded an email containing a contest to choose SF's sexiest programmer. She attached a concerned note that read, " Keep an eye on your man." I stared quizzically at a photo of today's man-boy coder in his ironic mutton chops and safety goggles.

I've got nothing to worry about, and this is why.

The final phrase in the article reads, "Ladies start your hard drives." I thought to myself, "Is this a hard love reboot? Are they installing a new boyfriend program? Do their libidos need a security update?" This got me thinking about why so many programmer to non-coder couples fail. My belief is that a large number of relationships end with semantic differences.

Let's break down the problem:

If: People who are angry or emotionally charged exaggerate;
And If: Coders tend to focus on minutiae because it is often small bugs that threaten their work;
Then: Hyperboles are corrected, the argument is rendered false and all parties agree to dissolve the apartment.
Else: One way to make a coder concede on the spot is to brain scramble him/her with obscure, yet classical, reference points. But after a quick trip to Wikipedia, the argument resumes.

Whitehouse Dot Gov

2009-01-21T14:03:00.000-08:00