keeping note

A truely sad day today, Estelle Getty has passed away. She was 84.

She is best known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on hit 80’s TV show The Golden Girls. Next to Dorothy, she was my favorite character. Seriously, her stories, her wit and her sarcasm all added to the charm of the show. Without Sophia, the show wouldn’t have been as funny and the only person who could pull off this character was Estelle Getty. She will be missed.

For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of watching The Golden Girls, you can still watch the episodes of Lifetime. They show at 9 - 10am, 4 - 5pm and midnight. (Yes, I watch a lot of TV)

Please enjoy the charm she brought to this clip from The Golden Girls!

To update you folks out there, my Mac is currently in shop. Apparently, my computer was built with a faulty hard drive so it was destined to poop out on me eventually. (Damn!) I guess updating my operating system just pushed it over the edge. (Even hard drives get stressed out)

Thank goodness for Apple Care or I’d seriously be out a pretty penny. (Perhaps this was Apple’s ploy all along!)

I feel incomplete without my computer! It’s bad when you can’t live without it. (But I want to meet the person who can so I can tell them they’re weird!)

So, I’m frustrated! I love Mac and will always love Mac, but right now I want to put my Apple through the juicer!

I saw that I needed to upgrade my iTunes and Leopard (nothing unusual there) so I take all the proper steps and wait for it to restart. When it restarts, a flashing folder with a question mark pops up and refuses to boot up properly! And to top it all off, the Genius Bar appointments are all booked up until tomorrow and I have to make my way to a mall that it farther away than I would like.

As I will soon post (pictures that is), I had a mini freak out and am know without a computer in my apartment. (I’m currently in the computer room of my apartment complex and stationed at the only working one!)

Damn you my lovely Apple computer!

For the past couple of Pixar movies I’ve been obsessed with some of the artwork. For The Incredibles, I loved the comic book style promo posters, for Ratatouille there were posters that resembled French Café and now for Wall-e, there are posters that reflect the old 1970’s ride posters Disneyland produced.

After some thorough research, I found out the artist is Eric Tan. According to his blog, he’s a graphic designer/doodler who grew up in San Diego. (And that’s about it) All I really know is I love what’s he’s done and his artwork now graces my computer screen.

P.S. He’s also done some other work and I thought you should check it out. Also, if you want an actual poster, you can go to Acme Archives to purchase one. The problem is they are a bit pricey.

For quite sometime I’ve watched and read the anime Inuyasha. I mean, I’ve dedicated some serious time to it! (I started when I was a freshman in high school and it’s now my 5th year in college.) However, today, I found out author Rumiko Takahashi has finished it! (At a whopping 56 volumes, meaning 558 chapters!) I nearly cried! I’ve waited years for this moment and it’s finally come.

For those who don’t know, Inuyasha is about a Jr. High School girl (eventually a High School girl) who ends up in feudal Japan and travels with a half-demon named Inuyasha collecting sacred jewel shards. (This is the most basic summary, please check wikipedia.com for a full plot summary)

9 years of waiting, reading and watching has finally come to an end. This is either incredibly amazing or incredibly sad. (I’d like to think it’s amazing.)

You can view Hillary Clinton’s speech and sign up for Barack Obama’s website at: hillaryclinton.com or go directly to Obama’s wesite: barackobama.com

I’m a Hillary Clinton supporter and I was sad to see her end her campaign. (But let’s face it, it was inevitable) She put up a great fight, ( a great Machiavellian fight!) but it saddens me to see what has become of her supporters.

I’ve read many comments left on blogs and news articles that upset me and have enraged others. Why is it that former Hillary supporters are willing to change sides rather quickly, just because the Democratic representative is now Barack Obama? If anything, he is the person CLOSEST to Hillary’s ideals and the Democratic Party’s ideals.

In Hillary Clinton’s speech, she understood the need for a UNITED party, not a broken one.

“The way to continue our fight, to accomplish the goals for which we stand, is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama, the next president of the United States….Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on a vicotry he has won and the extrordinary race he has run. I ENDORSE HIM AND THROW MY FULL SUPPORT BEHIND HIM.”

All those urging others to switch to independent, to vote Republican, just because you hate Barak Obama for irrelevant reasons, I urge you to reconsider. In our system of government, there is no way a third party can win. It’s not built to support a third party. Majority of the populous will vote either Democrat (Obama) or Republican (McCain) and (in my opinion), a third party vote in this upcoming election, will be a waste. Those votes can go to the party you truly support. Have we forgotten the 2000 election when the Nader votes could have gone else where?

I have also read ridiculous reasons from various blogs and other sources, such as AOL’s straw pole, to not vote for Obama and ways to libel his name. I read a comment that said, “He’s not an American citizen. His father is from Africa. It’s being investigated.” Well, someone has not done their reading. Yes, his father is African, but his mother is an American citizen, which makes him an American citizen.

Another comment was a rant about how he never wore the American flag pin until now and how he’s never saluted when the national anthem was played. Are you serious?! This is your strongest reason not to vote for a leader? There are more important issues to follow when choosing a candidate. Also, a lot of people have been put of by his name, Barack Hussein Obama. Once again, this is the last thing you should focus on. If anything, this is a prejudicial judgement based on his name and not his leadership skills. Let me remind you of another point in Hillary Clinton’s speech,

“There are no acceptable limits, no acceptable prejudices, in the 21st century.”

Instead of spending your energy focusing on trifles, read about him and his ideas. Research what he supports, what he doesn’t support and what he plans for this country and then make your judgements. If you truly do not agree with him and find that you agree with other ideas, then fine. Just don’t take action based on shallow reasoning.

It is my hope that the Democratic party will stand together, rather than divided. In 40 years, there have been 10 presidential elections where only 3 terms were served by a Democrat. ( 2 terms belonged to Bill Clinton.) Let us try to put a Democrat back in office. If you are Hillary Clinton supporter then try to support her wishes and support Barack Obama.

Using Hillary Clinton’s words:

“The Democratic Party is a family and now it is time to restore the ties that bind us together and to come together around the ideals we share, the values we cherish and the country we love. We may have started on separate journeys, but today our paths have merged and we’re all heading towards the same destination, united and more ready than ever to win in November, and two turn our country around because so much is at stake.”

(Not all that write for KN follow the Democratic Party. Although, classified as a Moderate myself, I tend to lean towards the Democratic Party.)

Image: whatisblik.com

I don’t know about you, but I’m a homebody. Why you may ask? Well mostly because 1.) I am poor and 2.) I hate dealing with weird people and I always run into them when I’m out, so I like making the place I live in as cool as possible. I mean if you are going to willingly confine yourself in an apartment, it might as well be nice.

My first thought to savvy up my apartment was furniture, but I remembered that I’m poor. (Poor to the point where I can’t afford IKEA furniture.) Plus, I didn’t want to get a bad piece that would ruin my apartment’s esthetic. Next, I thought I would put up framed pictures or paint, but that’s a lot of work. Also, because I live an an apartment, I’d have to paint the walls back to the original color and cover up all the holes. ( See what I mean, it even sounds like a lot of work!)

But I’ve run across a rather inexpensive, creative way to decorate an apartment- Blik. Blik is a design company that specializes in self adhesive wall decals. ( Stickers for grown-ups as they call it.) They have various styles that will fit several types of tastes and it’s super easy to do! Just peel and stick. You can keep it up for as long as you like and if you grow tired of it, just peel it off. What’s also great is they have a line called “Re-stik” that will allow to reuse them.

Now that you know how to make your apartment cool, go do it! I guarantee you’ll never want to leave!

P.S. For all those threadless.com fans out there, they have created wall decals out of some of the more popular designs. Now you can have your walls match your wardrobe!

I can’t sleep so I’ve been watching random things on youtube and I ran into this video, which I’m sure you guys might find enjoyable if not amazing.

I think it’s a cool thing to watch because I’m a video game geek. (Even if you’re not, I guarantee you won’t be able to look away!) This is sheer insanity! Kinda’ shows that there are people who have waaaay to much time on their hands. In this video the person sinks the sound effects to a song for 11 minutes long!

P.S. I attempted to translate the Japanese title 組曲『ニコニコ動画』 グランドフィナーレ　全自動マリオVer 【STEREO】Kimikyoku Nikoniko Douga Gurando Finaare Senjidou Mario (in case you can’t see the characters)

And I think it’s Musical Suite: [Smile Animation] Grand Finale Totally Automatic Mario Ver. But, seriously, don’t take my word for it. My Japanese really sucks!

One of the things I hate doing the most is tipping. Not cow tipping, but money tipping. (STOP glaring at me, I do not tip cows) Not only do you have to pay (sometimes) a ridiculous amount of money for your food, but you also have to give an extra 15% to the person who served it to you. (BTW who sets the percentages and keeps raising them because I want to slap that person) I think this is a ridiculous concept! Let me remind you, servers already GET A PAYCHECK. They get a standard rate for their services. When you tip, you are giving extra money to them that you technically don’t have to!

Please stop your whining. I know someone reading this right now is saying “But they have to constantly get your drink and bring out your food.” While this is true, let’s inspect some other jobs. People in retail stores (Macy’s, FYE, Ruehl, Target) have to deal with customers all day. They look for the products that customers want, they have to ring it up, desensitize it and package it up for you. They need to clean up the store and deal with a wide variety of customers, some nice, some mean and sometimes weird/creepy/perverted ones. But do you tip them? NO. I bet your reasoning is, “But that’s their job.” Well, EXACTLY! It’s a server’s job to serve; it’s in their freaking NAME.

This leads me to my point. In the past couple of months, I have been changing my perspective. I’ve been tipping properly and complaining about it less. I started to feel bad that perhaps my server was taking care of 5 tables with an average of 4 people in it, but Carrie from CPK has reverted me back to not wanting to tip at all. Everything with my meal was going well, until the check came. I paid in cash and was expecting my change, but she never came back to the table. I sat there thinking, “Maybe she’s very busy.” Nope. She stared at out table and was probably thinking, “Why aren’t they leaving?” I wasn’t leaving because I wanted my change!

In case she’s forgotten, the general rule is, unless the customer specifies, “keep the change,” COME BACK WITH THE CHANGE. I know the money left was almost equal to the proper tip, (it was actually higher by $2, which means I over tipped, which means I’m pissed), but it’s good manners to come back with a person’s money. Here’s a real tip for you Carrie, don’t take liberties with a customer’s money, give it back and allow them to tip you.

(btw I know you’re thinking $2 isn’t a lot, but it’s the principle of the thing!)

[Such a George Costanza moment.]

If I could tip like Dick from 3rd Rock, I wouldn’t have a problem with the whole concept.

When I’m bored, I go to Wikipedia.org. (Don’t ask me why, I just do.) And to make myself even nerdy-er, I look up anime. (Seriously, stop with the looks!) It may sound odd, but it’s actually a good way to avoid bad anime. (Well what I consider bad anime) You get to read a synopsis and find out if it has all the elements you want! Plus it’s a good way to avoid “wasting time” on anime. You all know what I’m taking about. The anime where you dedicate some major time watching, then at the end they all die. (I.e. Wolf’s Rain. Sorry to ruin it for you!)

On one of my recent trips to Wikipedia I decided to research Dragon Ball GT. The thought came to me when I was in my Pop Culture Japan class. We were learning about the author and what he based the story on so, I decided, since I had never seen GT I might as well look up what it’s about. Next, I end up stumbling upon an article about the upcoming 2009 Dragon Ball live action movie! After reading the article I wasn’t excited to see one of my favorite childhood cartoons come to life, instead, I felt a bit depressed. The cast list is a little odd. (Jamie Chung will be Chi Chi, you know her from Real Word: San Diego) Plus I feel this has the super potential to end up campy. I just can’t picture a real life Piccolo on the silver screen or Justin Chatwin as Goku.

Another film slated to become a live action movie is Ghost in the Shell. Variety released an article stating they have acquired the rights to this anime legend with the help of Steven Speilberg who is set to make it a live action 3-D movie. I’m sure this will be interesting, but I’m not so sure I’ll line up to see it. (Mostly because I wasn’t too fond of the animated movie.) However, I do feel that this movie will turn out really well because you have a big name director backed by a big studio.

I’m not saying that anime shouldn’t be turned into live action movies. (I’m actually very excited to see Speed Racer this summer.) But I’m just saying that you have to be careful because it has the potential to turn out incredibly bad! Does anyone even remember the live action DB from Japan?!?

P.S. There are some good live action dramas based off anime like Absolute Boyfriend!