Month: March 2014

I don’t think people understand how this works

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I was at the store the other day, and I saw a kid wearing a shirt that said “I Converse Logo MEXICO.”  Naturally, I get that it’s one of the thousands of parodies that exist based on the iconic slogan/logo of “I ♥ NY,” but it doesn’t change the fact there are now thousands of poorly done parodies that exist in general.  Just because most people can interpret what the intended meaning of a graphic is, doesn’t mean it’s an excuse for it to be complete rubbish.  I really don’t believe people understand how parodying I ♥ NY is supposed to work.  Frankly, I don’t really believe a lot of people understand how a parody itself works, but one thing at a time.

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#bobbleworldproblems

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Ugh, I can’t believe I just used a hashtag as my title line, but frankly it is pretty succinct in this particular application.

Anyway, I’ve made no secret that I’m a pretty terrible baseball fan these days, and as the 2014 season approaches closer and closer, I should be getting more excited than I am, because when the day is over, I still really do like baseball.  It’s just that it’s not as all-consuming to me as it once was, and I kind of view baseball as the ultimate and greatest fallback activity there is, and when it comes to travel, no travel seems necessarily complete without having viewed some baseball in some capacity.

One thing that has remained consistent throughout the years though, is my craze for baseball bobbleheads.  I really still can’t explain it, but I really do enjoy collecting them, and the accumulation of more bobbleheads is something that I’m pretty passionate about as the seasons come and go.  More than the release of schedules of games and opponents, I’m more excited about the release of the schedules of promotions, with hopes that I’ll see bobbleheads listed among them.  Not just at home in Atlanta, I have my eyes peeled, and ears to the ground when it comes to bobbleheads all throughout Major League Baseball as well as, throughout the minor leagues.  Especially those that are Braves affiliates.

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Happy trails, Rashard Mendenhall

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Long story short: NFL running back, Rashard Mendenhall retires.  He’s 26-years old, which is still considered young enough in NFL age, but has a lot of methodical reasons for walking away regardless.

It doesn’t really matter what sport it is, I always have this sense of admiration for guys who walk away when they really didn’t have to, and walk away on their own terms.  Maybe it’s the fact that in present time, professional sports are put on such an insurmountable pedestal, and there’s something about a professional athlete looking at their respective league and saying “nah, I don’t need you anymore,” that brings it down a peg or two.  Or maybe it’s the fact that they simply don’t see professional sport and the riches it can provide as a true means to an end, and that they can live their lives without it that seems somewhat admirable.  Either way, when guys retire on their own terms, most of the time I’m in agreement and respect their decisions.

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OP Xin boots

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Ordered a pair of tabi boots for my eventual Xin Zhao costume.  Personally, I think footwear is one of the most underlooked component on most peoples’ costumes, and I’d rather not try and alter or modify something that I can’t really find on my own for men, and after looking at Xin renderings for hours, I decided that tabi boots seemed like the most logical direction to go and build off of, and fortunately for me, I was able to acquire a pair that was already blue (in spite of the crappy photograph, it was done on my hacked point-and-shoot).

Ultimately, these are a great foundation to work from, and I think I’m going to shape EVA foam or something, and build directly on top of these boots.  Not only will doing this save me a tremendous amount of trouble of figuring out footwear, because they’re legit tabi boots, when I put the costume on, I’ll have a +25 armor, take reduced damage from opponents, and I’ll have a massive amount of mobility out of the gate.  GG

Photos: Spartan Race, CHDK tests

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Because I’m stubborn, I don’t want to give up on my point-and-shoot camera just yet.  I’m clearly not as competent as I wish I were when it came to digital camera technology, so until if the day ever comes that I do, it’s a matter of trial and error when it comes to playing around with the massive number of CHDK hack settings, to find something that generates decent results in both outdoor and indoor settings.

That being said, I figured taking my beater camera to the Spartan Race would be a good opportunity to take a couple of snaps to see how they came out.  Oddly enough, I’m not entirely sure how/why a toy camera-like corner shading kept occurring on some of these, as I do not recall ever having such a setting engaged.

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Piece of cake

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

In spite of the pre-race anticipation, the Spartan Race went well.  Possibly very well; I am not entirely sure, since race times haven’t yet been released.  But regardless of what my time is, I can confidently say that I had a great time running it again, and that I might very well want to do this again next year.

I’d like to think my time this year was better than last year’s time, for no other reason than that I messed up on two fewer obstacles this year, and cut my total burpee count from 150 to 90.  Last year’s Spartan Race revealed some physical weaknesses in my gym regimen, and I vowed to rectify them as best as I could, and it turns out that I did a pretty good job of doing such.  The eight-foot wall that proved too difficult last year was something that I was able to overcome this year.  The spear toss, however, still eludes me, as did the peg wall.  The rope climb is something that I’m pretty sure I could do if the base weren’t in ball-freezing cold water, and it wasn’t pretty much the second-to-last obstacle on the course.

As for everything else, the mud crawl at the end has been made harder, by virtue of roughing it up with dips and pools and rises, eliminating the exploit everyone in prior years figured out, by simply rolling on their sides through it all.  Needless to say, my knees and forearms are looking like raw hamburger while I’m writing this, and I’m going to be in a world of hurting tomorrow morning probably.

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That was a meta dream

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

In a few hours, I’m doing the Spartan Race again.  I’m giddy with anticipation and nerves a little bit.

I’m also well-rested, since I just slept for like nine hours, which isn’t something that occurs often, unless it’s the 3 a.m. til whenever variety.  I went to bed at like 10 p.m. on a Friday night which is kind of unheard of for me, but it’s not like Friday nights are of the teenage dream variety, where parties and socialite events are mandatory.

But anyway, man did I just have a surreal dream.  That in spite of all the rest I granted myself, that I still managed to oversleep.  Just enough to where I didn’t miss my run, but was precariously close to possibly not being allowed to run it.

And man, was I furious.  Screaming in the car over and over again, with my poor dog riding shotgun, trying his best to no-sell it, but I knew it was agitating him.  I knew this, but I was still so angry that I was screaming my lungs out.  Screaming at everyone that I thought was an inadvertent contributor to my oversleeping, and naturally myself for being the fucktard that let it all happen.  All while I was getting red light after red light, trying to make it to the race site, while I was totally illegally checking my phone while driving, so I could see emails and try and punch in map directions.

Then I woke up.  It wasn’t quite the wake up in cold sweats, sitting up like the Undertaker kind of wake up snap, but it was pretty close.  I checked the clock, and it was just 6 a.m.; about 45 minutes before my alarm was scheduled to go off.

I didn’t think twice about it – I got out of bed.  And I had time to write this, because I thought it was kind of surreal, kind of funny, but definitely brog-worthy.

The nerves are good.  It means I’m really excited.  Going to own this run.  Domination is the only option.