At the mountain trip, we had DirectTV, so obviously we turned it on all weekend to listen to XM Radio's '90s channel. Man, that brought back some memories!

I continued the 90s kick back here; I even started watching some really old music videos. Remember this one?

A couple of thoughts after watching this video:

• I didn't realize All-4-One was so ... unphotogenic. These guys would never be a group today. Unless they won some TV talent show.
  
• In that video, four guys run after a single girl and accost her. Is there something not creepy about that?! And even worse, as the video progresses, it looks like the four guys are hitting on her. I can tell you, in real life, if four guys were all trying to hit on the same girl, they wouldn't nearly be as friendly and break out into harmony.

This entry contained scripting, which has been removed for your safety. Click here to see the entry in its entirety.

A hilarious comment posted on reddit with regards to Apple/Flash: (don't know if it's true; emphasis mine)

About six months ago, a friend who was working closely along side adobe's flash application development team told me that they received a prototype of Flash for iPhone. The prototype allowed the iPhone to have less than half an hour of battery life using flash. They then sent the prototype to apple and suggested incorporating this prototype iPhone flash into the iPhone OS in the next update.

Apparently apple sent this letter back thanking them for being interested in developing a working version of flash for the iphone but because the prototype is so processor intensive, and awful for battery life, they would not include it with their OS because it is just not good enough. They suggested using the gpu instead of the processor to render flash. Then they suggested building a seperate app for flash and web browsing because there was no way apple could endorse flash integration on the iphone in its current state.

Adobe apparently didn't want to release the app under their name either and it never showed up in the app store.

A long story in short: Adobe sucks at programming, then apple told them they sucked at programming. If they want to release that shit under the name adobe so be it, but it sure isn't going to be endorsed by Apple.

That was the last they saw of that prototype.

There's always been something very ... amateruish about Microsoft's web properties. Even today, something about bing.com's homepage bugs me - the logo reminds me of those times when I hook up my laptop to a project for a presentation, and the projector only projects at some ridiculous resolution which distorts my screen. Or when people insist on watching 4:3 aspect ratio television shows on HD TVs without switching the ratio accordingly (just because you have that real estate doesn't mean you need to use all of it)

Anyways, the new MSN.com homepage was the first MSFT property I saw and said: "Wow, they're really getting their shit together."

Check it:

Beautiful use of white space - incredibly content heavy, but doesn't feel like it. Great use of accent lines (I'm a sucker for that style). Fantastically clean ... wonderful use of grid design! 

And the logo is even passable for me! (It still feels a bit far to streeeetttched for me)

So much I want to write about, especially with regards to Crisp's comment smackdown, but this other thing is really bugging me.

Does anybody remember me writing a post about the idea for a browser game I posted a couple of years back? I can't, for the life of me, find it anywhere. I vaguely recall it was like Gazillionaire for the web.

+Monday, November 2, 2009
Life is good. M tried to tell me that he loves me and thinks I'm beautiful. If this is true -why can't I see it myself? Has my self-image become so distorted I can no longer tell? Anyway, M has a busy week so I'll do my best to leave him alone and get my stuff done. I decided that I won't pay him a visit over Thanksgiving b/c I need to sort out some things at home. I also hope that in doing so I'll get other assignments done, etc.

I don't think that I have been getting enough sleep. I don't know how it happened but I kind of feel like the leader in two of my groups -_- I hope someone else steps up b/c I'm lazy as fuk. I haven't felt like I wanted to do things in a while -lately. I'm reaching the level of exhaustion when you just stop caring. I want to hide from the world and lie under my blanket. I cried very briefly last night b/c I feel like I'm trying so hard to do well this final semester and I understood that my efforts could come tumbling down if I did poorly in one class. That sounds stupid, I know. I'm also going to get my period soon >_> I slept at 1am.

+ Tuesday, November 3, 2009 (a whole lotta blahhh)
The sleep definitely made me feel better, but I was also more exhausted from it (it's one of those times when you sleep more and that makes you tired). I started working again -YAY! I really felt like I did my best to be productive today. I completed the work that needed to be accomplished at work. I also finished my mkt hw (2 assignments -due Fri), fin hw (due Thurs), and bus hw (due Thurs) for this week. I submitted a work request for my suite's back screen door. I called Bursar's office to figure if I could get my hold remove, they informed me that I could not so I left a message at the financial aid office and they e-mailed me a website where my mother had to sign a MPN. I made sure that was done and will call in like a few days to figure out if there's any progress (hold on my account blocks academic records from sending my transcript out). I also applied for a few more jobs. I only have one interview for like printing sales xD next Tuesday. Although I'm not entirely sure if that's something I would even want to do -I'll still take the interview seriously even if I do or do not get it -it's great practice and I am rusty. I also attended the FIN. ASSOC. meeting today and I really want to go to the NY trip that's on the 17th. I e-mailed my teachers to express my interest and to find out if there's anything important due for that day. I found out that one of my fin. professors moved up presentations, which means that instead of presenting next Thursday, I'll be presenting on Tuesday and we'll have an exam on Thursday. The exam makes me nervous because today he realized that most of the class does not bother to read the WSJ and therefore, he might purposely test us on certain things we should know from the WSJ. So it's currently 11:22pm and I'm working on completing the last question to my FB case. I'm going to go to sleep before 12 and get up by like 6am to start up again.

I want to make sure I do my part for entr fin (we're meeting tomorrow at 9:30pm) and finish my hw, I want to complete my mkt part II assignment, apply to several jobs (directly through websites, contacts?, ask professors?) and read the WSJ just in case he does test us on current events I want to feel satisfied knowing that I at least read and study for fin. also read the manual more in-depth so I can actually contribute to the decision-making process.

Later on, I would like to take notes and write paper on COM, finish other two sections & presentation for MKT, study for FIN (well it's coming up), read for BUS?, and study for Entr. Fin.

Next week: (Hopefully to study for FIN exam but might have to meet for second group case write-up and for other fin class)
- Fin Presentation & Memo due (Nov. 10)
- ETS Exam (Nov. 11)
- Fin 2nd Exam (Nov. 12)
- Mkt Pt 2 Assignment (due Nov. 13)
Head home over the weekend (Nov. 14-15) =D!

+ Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Ended up sleeping till 8:15am-ish. Finished FB case, cleared up the whole transcript mess, and felt unmotivated to do more. I need to finish my entr fin group write-up and hw tonight. I want to take a nap right now :/ Group meeting for entr fin lasted 2 hrs.

+ Thursday, November 5, 2009
Woke up early to work on entr fin group write-up some more and then e-mailed it to the rest of my group. I felt really lazy today. I'm sure I could've found things to do but I don't really know how I wasted my time -just doing nothing for several hours? Lended C(Y)L something very important and she gave me chocolate -I shared chocolate with my suitemates and w/ ML's suitemates. I went to a comedian at 9 and that lasted till 10:15pm-ish. He was kind of funny -I had a hard time laughing at first but there were certain parts that were really funny. I liked his joke about how he was sad to see "slow children playing," but later he was happy for them because he found that they were "slow men working." I helped quiz ML. I have a huge stack of WSJ i would like to read :'/ I decided that I solely want to focus on banking related articles and any other ones that I find interesting as well as financial related (instruments, etc). Tired as fuk -bed now.

+ Friday, November 6, 2009
Today was interesting. I had a good amount of sleep (almost 8 hrs) and yet everyone keeps asking me if I was alright b/c I looked sickly or pale or something -_-; I think my period is coming soon but who knows. I went to watch Couples Retreat w/ my suitemates MS, KA, & CM (no CL b/c she went home this weekend) and I thought it was a decent movie. But I guess it's not necessarily so b/c it has a low rating (5.6) on IMDB. Later on I went to see CH but it turned to be very awkward as I saw like 5 ppl huddled around a table playing cards and drinking :/

+ Saturday, November 7, 2009
Went to @R and then went to Lisa's 21st bday party at A6, then we wen to K6 and O6 which were both okay. Michelle lost her keys later and then we ,ater ofund out that it was on her farm fofr like 400? Sleep now.

I've been offline since Friday - had the yearly trip up to the mountain cabin with some friends. Just got back tonight - feeling rather exhausted (I had a fantastic time). Jane, the budding talented photog, took this wonderful picture that I absolutely love:

. . .

Catching up on the internets is hard, even after only three days!

Tomorrow afternoon I fly out to SD - get in pretty late. On Tuesday I start the grind again. Better get ready!

I heard a song I liked on the radio, only to find out it was Creed. I felt so embarassed. I thought that band disbanded - why are they back and why are radio stations playing them?!

Another song that's hot right now: Britney Spears "3."

Are we back in 2001?

I feel a little ridiculous writing this, seeing as to how everybody and their momma seems to love this movie (IMDB has a 8.1 star rating!)

I'm a fan of Spike Jonze (loved Adapation and Being John Malkovich), so I figured him + children's book = awesome.

I didn't know what the movie was going to be about, so I didn't have any preconceptions.

Much like my earlier (controversial) review of Lost in Translation, I didn't like this movie because even an hour and a half into it, nothing had happened. There was no rich imagination or escapism - nor was there even decent cinematography to keep me interested. It just seemed angsty. I felt no emotional connection to the characters in this movie - geez, a kid is picked on and feels lonely!

Basically the story, when I left it: Max is angry and escapes into a land with these curious creatures and immediately bonds with a creature that is JUST LIKE HIM. The creatures do nothing except be sad and sullen, until Max comes up and offers them random advice to make them happy. I don't know what happens, but I'd imagine there's some discovery of Max not being a king, then for some reason Max returns home happy and not angry.

Maybe if I had patience, I would have "gotten it", but frankly I didn't want to stick around to find out.

That's not to say that I need plot-driven stories; I enjoyed Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter which is nearly devoid of plot and dialogue - but at least it makes a point and makes an emotional connection to the viewer.

Pan's Labyrinth is about a gazillion times better.

(P.S. I fully expect Crispdawg to pop-up and bash me in the comments. Don't disappoint me - I know you still read this site!)