720p Pittsburg State University Feb 5th 2010

We had a beautiful light fluffy snow this morning and I actually remembered to bring my camera. This video was taken while walking to my first class on Friday, February 5th 2010. The area that you see in the video is the area of “The Oval”.

Video recorded at 720p using an Aiptek GVS ActionHD 1080p (however, this camera does not have image stabilization at 1080p and therefore I do not use 1080p for recording videos).

Technorati Tags: Pittstate, PSU, Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS, Kansas, Oval, The Oval, Aiptek, GVS, HD, ActionHD

Merry Christmas from Chun-Li

Merry Christmas! From both Chun-Li and I… ha! Yeah, the customization of the PC version of Street Fighter IV rocks.

Technorati Tags: Street Fighter IV

Wow! I was unable to log into my Yahoo account because it kept telling me that my password was wrong. ARGH! I was finally able to log in this evening. What a pain in the butt!

Anyway, on a side note, I’m going to have YouTube post all of my videos (probably from both of my YouTube accounts) to this blog. Video logs are a little more interesting than just text blogs, don’t you think?

One of my YouTube accounts are used for real-life videos. They’re primarily weather videos, but I also record the occasional video on campus. I’m particularly fond of attending Korean events on campus (of course!), so those should show up here. They’re not very frequent though, and I may also record miscellaneous videos around campus.

My second account is specifically for gaming, so that one will post Street Fighter IV matches more than anything else.

Of course, you can simply subscribe to me on YouTube. Here are my two accounts:

• http://www.youtube.com/user/Talis29
• http://www.youtube.com/user/AnYungPS3

I like to get sassy in Street Fighter IV, but honestly I suck at the game. LoL

See you folks around,
-Steph

Outside Christmas 2009. 13°F BEFORE windchill!

This was recorded on the Christmas morning 2009. The wind was blowing at about 20 MPH, and dumb me had left the storm windows propped open! Wow, it was cold. Check the video out!

Happy new years, all.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, New Years, snow, ice, cold, weather, wind

I just had a new experience.  How do I begin to describe this?

This movie is going to be in my head for awhile, and it’s firmly and permanently put itself into my list of all time favorite movies.

목소리, which is Korean for “voice”, is the only horror movie that has – to my memory – ever brought me to tears.  Not tears of fright.  Not tears of laughter.  But tragic, moving tears.  I’m not saying that I cried my eyes out.  No, that’s not accurate, but cried I did.

The actresses done a fantastic job, and the director brought the talent together wonderfully.  The writing, the acting, the directing – it was all amazing.

It wasn’t until toward the end of the movie that it brought out the tears.  Like I said, it’s not like there was sobbing involved.  But perhaps it’s more beautiful because of this?  I was watching it, and that was it.  The tears flowed, and I was just kind of like, “Damn it…” but there wasn’t any other reaction that was more appropriate.

Then the ending of the movie – which I won’t spoil – but seeing the credits rolling and.. well, then the part that I won’t spoil.  It was powerful.

So, even though they will probably never read this, to the actresses and the writer and the director:  You were all incredible.

To explain the movie to those who may be curious, the movie is a part of a series called “Whispering Corridors” (여고괴담).  Voice / 목소리 is the 4th in the series.  Each of the movies are only connected via their theme.  They do not rely on each other to continue one long story, so you can watch any of them.  I’ve seen two:  The first and the fourth.  They’re decent movies.  I recommend them, and I would like to see the others.

The theme is that they take place in a high school, and the ghost is always stuck in the high school.  In the two that I have seen there is always a friend who has some sort of connection with the ghost, but how this plays out appears to be different for each of the films.

Voice takes place from the point of view of the ghost.  What is existence like for her?  This tale grows from the first moment that she becomes a ghost until the story’s conclusion.  It’s not all from her point of view, of course, but by and large that is perspective of the movie.

Really, I don’t want to describe too much because these movies also have an element of mystery to them.  Talking about the movie in any sort of detail runs a real risk of giving away some part of the story.

If you watch Asian movies at all, then you definitely need to see 목소리.

In so far as being a horror movie, it’s definitely not as scary as others that I have seen.  However, it’s obvious that it was never the goal of this movie to be the most frightening horror movie.  No, this is definitely a horror movie and it is definitely still creepy, but more important, there is an element of raw humanity in 목소리 / Voice that is portrayed subtly, yet, in the end, very powerfully.

Wow.

I’m going to watch the ending credits again.  Later folks.

Technorati Tags: 목소리, voice, stories, sad stories, tragic, tragedy, movies, horror, horror movies, Korean, Korean movie, Korean horror movie

The gist:

Twilight Falling (Forgotten Realms: The Erevis Cale Trilogy) was an OK book, but I fully agree with the Amazon reviewer who made the remark about “Riven sneered”.

Full comments:

The book wasn’t bad, though I’ve read better stories. Perhaps it would have helped my enjoyment had I read the previous trilogy, but I’m not patient enough to go that far back. As it is it’s safe to say that I enjoyed it, but it’s also safe to say that it’s not going into my list of favorites.

I’m not sure if I want to buy the next book in the series as I had planned, but I will check the local libraries to see if it’s available. That’s not to knock the book or the author, but it’s not a classic like The Legend of Huma, or the books in The Time of The Twins, or even some of the Xanth books. Those are all books that you display on a shelf, if for no other reason than as conversation pieces.

That’s not to say that Twilight Falling was bad. It certainly wasn’t. I definitely do want to read the next book in the series, I’m just not so certain that I want to spend money on the book, plus shipping costs, and then give it permanent shelf life.

One of the biggest problems is that I never found myself caring about the characters, and this is probably where past trilogies would have helped. I didn’t care if the people in the manse – including Erevis’ love interest – were slaughtered. To me, they were all just flat characters to move along the plot. Heck, I didn’t even care all that much if Jak died or not, or what the conclusion of his internal struggle would be.

That brings me to another point: It was predictable. Certain characters may as well have been wearing red shirts to announce their inevitable deaths. This was on top of finding myself simply not caring about any of the characters.

Lastly, I get the point: Riven sneers. A lot. Every comment made to him, every look shot at him, every gestured made anywhere within his point of view, nearly every emotion that he has; they will all elicit a sneer. We get that. Sadly, it’s forced down the reader’s retinas every couple of pages: “Riven sneered”, or occasionally the more flowery descriptive, “Riven simply sneered.”

Yes, it played into an apparently important plot point at the end, but it was over played.

For all of its faults, it wasn’t terrible. The next book in the series is worth reading, and I am curious to see how the trilogy finishes up. It does give the impression that it’s a story about so much more than just “kill the evil guy and we win”. I expect larger things to be happening in this world that I’ve peeked into, and while there were some speed bumps along the way the author nonetheless has me curious about what happens next.

Twilight Falling (Forgotten Realms: The Erevis Cale Trilogy) is an OK book to pick up and read. Surely there are better, but you could certainly do worse.

Technorati Tags: fantasy, books, twilight falling, Forgotten Realms, Erevis Cale

I’ve finished reading Twilight Falling (Forgotten Realms: The Erevis Cale Trilogy). I actually finished it Sunday night before bed.

This semester promises to keep me fairly busy. If I don’t have the sidebar adjusted and the review up by this evening then I will hope to have that finished this weekend.

Later folks.

Technorati Tags: Books, Twilight Falling, Forgotten Realms, Fantasy