I tried to use the Roxio Media Manager that came with my phone before to convert video to watch on my phone.
The results were terrible.
I was trying to convert the Highlander TV series to watch.
Today I converted episode four of Eureka Seven and it worked almost perfectly. I watched it and was even able to read the subtitles.
I'm converting more for my phone so I can watch any time I want.
Now if I can just get the connection here to stop with slow pings and lost packets so I can download the Eureka Seven sound track correctly. I really want to listen to the music from this anime. It's really really really good. Normally I don't like music much. That's how good it is.
January 28, 2009
Crazy Theory
Why are Americans getting so fat, stupid and lazy?
I blame the microwave oven.
Seriously. Look at the generations that started to use the microwave oven and you'll see a downward trend in American culture.
I think there's a serious link there.
Add excessive sugar consumption to the mix and you have just bottled the current American life-style.
I blame the microwave oven.
Seriously. Look at the generations that started to use the microwave oven and you'll see a downward trend in American culture.
I think there's a serious link there.
Add excessive sugar consumption to the mix and you have just bottled the current American life-style.
January 17, 2009
Economic Disaster
I was talking to Siew last night about the situation with the economy all over the world and I thought of something that I pointed out. I want to share what I thought of and I want people to comment, if you want, maybe you've heard of this before somewhere, I do not know.
Ok, here's what I think is a major part of the problem with money as we use it today. Money is supposed to have hard-currency backing. This means the government is supposed to have gold and silver somewhere to back the money they use. Right?
Well, there's a problem with that. Population growth.
For example: we started out with 100 pounds of gold and that had money passed out to 100 people who worked for it. Now, those people all have children, we'll say 3 each, so now there are 400 people. Give it 18 years or so and they're all working. Some of them worked digging up more gold and silver, but not enough did so.
Now we have 400 working people, and maybe 150 pounds of gold. Previously one pound of gold per person was not so bad. Now, with the children of these people, there is 0.375 pounds of gold per person.
Every generation it just gets worse. We're at that point now, with all of the currency in the world, how can we have enough of what is supposed to back it to make it worth anything?
Using precious metals as a base for currency doesn't seem to work.
Siew suggested that the only solution is to go back to bartering, I think she's right about that. There's only one thing, that I can think of, that will increase with the population that could back currency (other than human lives that is!), that's information. But how do you put a value on information so that it can be used as currency? I do not know.
That leaves barter and barter of information as the global fall-back when the system as it is now collapses. I'm pessimistic about things on our planet as they are and I don't see a way for it to NOT collapse.
Even if everyone in the world declared bankruptcy and everyone forgave everybody else's debts, it still would be enough. You still have the foundation of the system the same. The system is the same. Nothing has changed, all you've done is a global reset. It'll break again, faster next time as the population increases, yet again.
It may not start with the USA, but that juggernaut of capitalism is going to fall. I am from there and I am 99.9% sure that there is not enough hard currency to back the paper and electronic money out there. This country is going to fall in a horribly big way. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." Well, the USA is big, fat, lazy and really stupid as it is now.
Maybe we'll be rescued by aliens. They'll swoop in at the last minute and help us stabilize and present us with a solution that makes so much sense even the most bull-headed people will accept it.
Maybe.
Ok, here's what I think is a major part of the problem with money as we use it today. Money is supposed to have hard-currency backing. This means the government is supposed to have gold and silver somewhere to back the money they use. Right?
Well, there's a problem with that. Population growth.
For example: we started out with 100 pounds of gold and that had money passed out to 100 people who worked for it. Now, those people all have children, we'll say 3 each, so now there are 400 people. Give it 18 years or so and they're all working. Some of them worked digging up more gold and silver, but not enough did so.
Now we have 400 working people, and maybe 150 pounds of gold. Previously one pound of gold per person was not so bad. Now, with the children of these people, there is 0.375 pounds of gold per person.
Every generation it just gets worse. We're at that point now, with all of the currency in the world, how can we have enough of what is supposed to back it to make it worth anything?
Using precious metals as a base for currency doesn't seem to work.
Siew suggested that the only solution is to go back to bartering, I think she's right about that. There's only one thing, that I can think of, that will increase with the population that could back currency (other than human lives that is!), that's information. But how do you put a value on information so that it can be used as currency? I do not know.
That leaves barter and barter of information as the global fall-back when the system as it is now collapses. I'm pessimistic about things on our planet as they are and I don't see a way for it to NOT collapse.
Even if everyone in the world declared bankruptcy and everyone forgave everybody else's debts, it still would be enough. You still have the foundation of the system the same. The system is the same. Nothing has changed, all you've done is a global reset. It'll break again, faster next time as the population increases, yet again.
It may not start with the USA, but that juggernaut of capitalism is going to fall. I am from there and I am 99.9% sure that there is not enough hard currency to back the paper and electronic money out there. This country is going to fall in a horribly big way. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." Well, the USA is big, fat, lazy and really stupid as it is now.
Maybe we'll be rescued by aliens. They'll swoop in at the last minute and help us stabilize and present us with a solution that makes so much sense even the most bull-headed people will accept it.
Maybe.
January 6, 2009
Waiting
Siew started her new job on Monday. I was, so they say, brought to full-time status with the English teaching place.
Siew came home sore yesterday from having to work moving boxes as there was a water leak that damaged some of the pharmaceuticals at her work place.
Tonight Siew went out for dinner with her co-worker. She had said she'd be back around 8:30, it's 10pm now. I messaged her and she said her co-worker talks a LOT. :-)
I really miss her.
While waiting for her I finished watching Busou Renkin. It definitely holds a spot in my top 3 favorite anime of all time. Hunter X Hunter is still the first though. I think BR is number 2. Number 3 is Guyver (the new tv series).
I am going to bed to read and wait for Siew.
Goodnight.
Siew came home sore yesterday from having to work moving boxes as there was a water leak that damaged some of the pharmaceuticals at her work place.
Tonight Siew went out for dinner with her co-worker. She had said she'd be back around 8:30, it's 10pm now. I messaged her and she said her co-worker talks a LOT. :-)
I really miss her.
While waiting for her I finished watching Busou Renkin. It definitely holds a spot in my top 3 favorite anime of all time. Hunter X Hunter is still the first though. I think BR is number 2. Number 3 is Guyver (the new tv series).
I am going to bed to read and wait for Siew.
Goodnight.
January 5, 2009
Ok, so no swords
We made our trip to Thailand. I'm not in the mood to write something exhaustive, so I'll just write some highlights.
First, we traveled in a tour package. This means we were with a group of people. The type we had was free and easy. This means that there are only a few group activities, and the rest you can do what you want.
I have some issues with the tour however free and easy it was meant to be:
The bus was late to pick us up. We waited outside for quite a long time, in the dark early morning.
The bus was not in the best condition. One of our seats was broken, the overhead compartments barely stayed shut or even on their hinges and the A/C was leaking water onto some of the seats.
The tour lead was supposed to have filled out, correctly, all of the forms needed to enter Thailand. She did not fill mine out correctly. Instead of correctly filling one out and giving it to us, she handed us a blank form to fill out on our own.
Entry to Thailand was a mess. Instead of informing everyone that we needed to go through one gateway as they had all of our names on a list so we wouldn't have to pay customs, they let us all go however we wanted. Then they informed us, after a couple of people paid the fee, that we do not need to.
The tour guide, Fatty, talked without pause about prostitutes instead of about things in the area that might have been interesting. He also speaks with horribly confused Chinese (uses many dialects mixed) that my family found hard to understand. I just thought that he was annoying to listen to, since I don't understand enough Chinese to get out of a wet paper bag, yet.
When we arrived in Thailand we had an arranged meal. The food wasn't very good, and the rice was hard. One guy at our table, from the tour group, was a nasty fellow. He ate everything he could grab, without considering others at all.
When we arrived at the hotel, after listening to more prostitute information from Fatty, we were herded off of the bus without being told anything about when/where/how we'd have the hotel breakfast, what things are around the area, where to eat, etc..
We had a nice time on our own shopping in the street market that was setup for New Year's celebration. Siew bought a few things: 2 watches and 2 pair of shoes. I got a pair of shorts.
The next day we hired a Tuk-Tuk to take us around. This picture is not exactly ours' but close to what it looks like on the outside. We took a trip around the peninsula on the Tuk-Tuk. The first stop we made was just a bit of bad timing as it started raining, HARD. We took shelter under a structure along with quite a few other people. One Thai man was selling hard boiled eggs that were warm and tasty.
This is us inside our tuk-tuk:
We made our way to where the Tuk-Tuk was, got soaking wet, got back into the Tuk-Tuk and continued on our cold way.
We then went to an aquarium and watched them feed some small sharks and large rays. The giant groupers scared Huey. She was making faces at one and it jumped at her. They weigh as much or more than me!
We then ate at a place the driver recommended. It was ok. The rice was hard. heir cats were cute though.
We got back and showered.
Siew and I slept early. In the morning we shopped a little but didn't get anything.
We then had lunch and tour functions.
Floating markets are famous in Bangkok. Hatyai tried to make its own. It wasn't very nice. i got a large mug to drink from there though, which is nice for a fat guy like me.
After that was a lantern festival. It was pretty neat, except where the tour lead and guides were involved. Fatty told us 1 hour, then 45 minutes and finally he gave us 30 minutes. We took our time and had fun exploring the different lanterns.
The lanterns were neat.
We got back to the bus and got in. I'm not sure if anyone complained, we took longer than 30 minutes and were last to the bus. I don't care. Fuck them all.
The tour lead had her daughter with her and seemed only interested in shopping, rather than performing what she was being paid to do! There were a few people on the bus who apparently are friends with the tour lead. She gave them a lot of attention and allowed them to take up more seats than they needed. This caused a problem when another person joined the tour later, apparently he had arrived in Hatyai earlier.
The last seat in the back of the bus has enough room for 5 people. Our group was 6. We could have taken that and one extra seat and been able to sit as a group.
Instead the tour lead's friends, 3 of them, took up the entire back to themselves. Even when seats were discovered to be wet from the A/C no one was asked to move in order to make better use of the seats. In fact NOTHING was done about the wet seats. Huey ended up using a cardboard box to keep her butt dry.
We spent part of the last morning shopping for clothes for the girls. Siew got two dresses that look very nice. :-)
When we were leaving the next day to return the hotel lobby was a disaster area. Instead of keeping the group together and communicating, see a pattern to this yet?, with her group, the lead let everyone go wherever and do whatever so things were not organized at all.
When we left we went to eat. However, instead of going somewhere different, we went to the same place we first ate at! We sat with the same people and the greedy one was even worse this time around. He ate more of the meat they brought out than any of the other 8 people at the table. He took too much for us to get more than a bite, A BITE!, each.
Fatty and the lead helped serve food for some reason. The lead's table had extra food, and got it before anyone else got any food as well. This is the same table that her daughter was sitting at. Her daughter is NOT a child, just so you know.
When we were leaving, the tour lead did not give me, or have prepared, a re-entry form for Malaysia. She told us 3 times that she had the form! When she was asked the final time she said that we had to get it from the customs officers! She was supposed to have that ready for me. She fucking lied to Siew!
So, I went without it. I had to wait in line a long time to get the form, there were none at the box before the line where there should have been. I got the form and filled it out, got through customs and found I'd held the bus up, last again!
The order that they dropped us off from the bus was different from the order that they picked us up, which was wrong to start.
All of the parts of our trip that didn't involve the actual tour were much much better than ANY of the parts that involved the tour!
Oh, the hotel had a bath tub and I was able to take a bath. I like baths.
First, we traveled in a tour package. This means we were with a group of people. The type we had was free and easy. This means that there are only a few group activities, and the rest you can do what you want.
I have some issues with the tour however free and easy it was meant to be:
The bus was late to pick us up. We waited outside for quite a long time, in the dark early morning.
The bus was not in the best condition. One of our seats was broken, the overhead compartments barely stayed shut or even on their hinges and the A/C was leaking water onto some of the seats.
The tour lead was supposed to have filled out, correctly, all of the forms needed to enter Thailand. She did not fill mine out correctly. Instead of correctly filling one out and giving it to us, she handed us a blank form to fill out on our own.
Entry to Thailand was a mess. Instead of informing everyone that we needed to go through one gateway as they had all of our names on a list so we wouldn't have to pay customs, they let us all go however we wanted. Then they informed us, after a couple of people paid the fee, that we do not need to.
The tour guide, Fatty, talked without pause about prostitutes instead of about things in the area that might have been interesting. He also speaks with horribly confused Chinese (uses many dialects mixed) that my family found hard to understand. I just thought that he was annoying to listen to, since I don't understand enough Chinese to get out of a wet paper bag, yet.
When we arrived in Thailand we had an arranged meal. The food wasn't very good, and the rice was hard. One guy at our table, from the tour group, was a nasty fellow. He ate everything he could grab, without considering others at all.
When we arrived at the hotel, after listening to more prostitute information from Fatty, we were herded off of the bus without being told anything about when/where/how we'd have the hotel breakfast, what things are around the area, where to eat, etc..
We had a nice time on our own shopping in the street market that was setup for New Year's celebration. Siew bought a few things: 2 watches and 2 pair of shoes. I got a pair of shorts.
The next day we hired a Tuk-Tuk to take us around. This picture is not exactly ours' but close to what it looks like on the outside. We took a trip around the peninsula on the Tuk-Tuk. The first stop we made was just a bit of bad timing as it started raining, HARD. We took shelter under a structure along with quite a few other people. One Thai man was selling hard boiled eggs that were warm and tasty.
This is us inside our tuk-tuk:
We made our way to where the Tuk-Tuk was, got soaking wet, got back into the Tuk-Tuk and continued on our cold way.
We then went to an aquarium and watched them feed some small sharks and large rays. The giant groupers scared Huey. She was making faces at one and it jumped at her. They weigh as much or more than me!
We then ate at a place the driver recommended. It was ok. The rice was hard. heir cats were cute though.
We got back and showered.
Siew and I slept early. In the morning we shopped a little but didn't get anything.
We then had lunch and tour functions.
Floating markets are famous in Bangkok. Hatyai tried to make its own. It wasn't very nice. i got a large mug to drink from there though, which is nice for a fat guy like me.
After that was a lantern festival. It was pretty neat, except where the tour lead and guides were involved. Fatty told us 1 hour, then 45 minutes and finally he gave us 30 minutes. We took our time and had fun exploring the different lanterns.
The lanterns were neat.
We got back to the bus and got in. I'm not sure if anyone complained, we took longer than 30 minutes and were last to the bus. I don't care. Fuck them all.
The tour lead had her daughter with her and seemed only interested in shopping, rather than performing what she was being paid to do! There were a few people on the bus who apparently are friends with the tour lead. She gave them a lot of attention and allowed them to take up more seats than they needed. This caused a problem when another person joined the tour later, apparently he had arrived in Hatyai earlier.
The last seat in the back of the bus has enough room for 5 people. Our group was 6. We could have taken that and one extra seat and been able to sit as a group.
Instead the tour lead's friends, 3 of them, took up the entire back to themselves. Even when seats were discovered to be wet from the A/C no one was asked to move in order to make better use of the seats. In fact NOTHING was done about the wet seats. Huey ended up using a cardboard box to keep her butt dry.
We spent part of the last morning shopping for clothes for the girls. Siew got two dresses that look very nice. :-)
When we were leaving the next day to return the hotel lobby was a disaster area. Instead of keeping the group together and communicating, see a pattern to this yet?, with her group, the lead let everyone go wherever and do whatever so things were not organized at all.
When we left we went to eat. However, instead of going somewhere different, we went to the same place we first ate at! We sat with the same people and the greedy one was even worse this time around. He ate more of the meat they brought out than any of the other 8 people at the table. He took too much for us to get more than a bite, A BITE!, each.
Fatty and the lead helped serve food for some reason. The lead's table had extra food, and got it before anyone else got any food as well. This is the same table that her daughter was sitting at. Her daughter is NOT a child, just so you know.
When we were leaving, the tour lead did not give me, or have prepared, a re-entry form for Malaysia. She told us 3 times that she had the form! When she was asked the final time she said that we had to get it from the customs officers! She was supposed to have that ready for me. She fucking lied to Siew!
So, I went without it. I had to wait in line a long time to get the form, there were none at the box before the line where there should have been. I got the form and filled it out, got through customs and found I'd held the bus up, last again!
The order that they dropped us off from the bus was different from the order that they picked us up, which was wrong to start.
All of the parts of our trip that didn't involve the actual tour were much much better than ANY of the parts that involved the tour!
Oh, the hotel had a bath tub and I was able to take a bath. I like baths.
Probably
Today I'll probably make a long post about our trip to Thailand.
No promises made, but I most likely will.
No promises made, but I most likely will.
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