As you all know, it’s Father’s Day this Sunday… and this NPR interview/article hits home… to what it truly means to be a dad. This father knows what it means to be a father… To all you fellow fathers out there, including my own, we salute you.
Smart Power Outlets: Safety AND Green
I tend to be wish wash when it comes to green and going green… however, this video of John La Grou talking about the smart power outlets has me very intrigued. I hope this really catches on… both to save people and homes from electrical fires as well as saving loads of energy. He notes that there are over 10 billion electrical outlets in US alone!! Yikes…
Two US Asian-American Reporters Imprisoned for 12 Years
Two Asian-American reporters who snuck into North Korea were sentenced to twelve years(?!) of prison for allegedly spying on them. Here are my thoughts…
1. What were they thinking to sneak into North Korea, aka. Not-just-communist-country-but-dictatorship country?!! Common sense would dictate that they should’ve stayed well out of the border area.
2. North Korea sentenced them to 12 years?!! WTH?! Year or two may be somewhat distantly understandable… but TWELVE?!!
3. Let’s not forget that North Korea isn’t exactly known for being “understanding”. 56 years of dictatorship and strict rule doesn’t exactly cry fair.
4. I seriously hope & pray that these two get released but with other serious issues (like North Korea’s long-distance missile testing and nuclear armament), this may get buried…
Two Generations of Pastors
I wanted to show my pride in the two generations of pastors in our family. My father had sent me this article where he and my younger brother were featured in Korean Christian Daily newspaper. Loosely translated, my brother Paul states that he had become a pastor “from watching our father’s faithfulness in pastoring… not focusing on tough life of now but focusing on the eternal importance of the future.” Good stuff… I wanted to show my pride in two people that have dedicated their lives to serving God.
Star Trek Movie: The Bittersweet Review
I grew up on scifi. It started with Mazinger Z. Galaxy Express 999. Future Boy Conan. Gundam. Robotech.
Then I discovered Star Trek. The original TV series with Capt. James T. Kirk. Spock and others made the show rather enjoyable. And then the Next Generation came! Capt. Jean-Luc Picard is da man! He made Star Trek cool! I didn’t care much for Deep Space Nine and the Voyager series… but then Star Trek: Enterprise returned and it was awesome again! However, it wasn’t popular enough and they pulled the plug.
The movies weren’t great most of the time and Star Trek seemed to disappear… until this movie came around! The reason why the review is bittersweet is because of what the movie is doing to the entire Star Trek license! Just like “Dark Knight” did to the original (and lame) Batman from the ’60s, this movie kickstarted the Star Trek into the 21st century, so to speak. The movie was good. Lots of action and effects with a decent plot, it gave what the license needed to enter the mainstream. It was great if you weren’t a fan of the original.
So to someone like me who has been a fan, but not a fanatic, it was rather… bitter to swallow. The plot threw the entire history upside down, like Chung had warned me yesterday. The original series and some of the movies had always done one thing and one thing right: addressing a load of ethical and cultural issues and differences. It had its own … traditions and history of sorts. Now, it was all thrown away for the sake of making the series popular again.
It still was a good movie and the twist was… intriguing. I suppose it was a necessary evil of sorts. I mean, I’d rather have it back this way than to have lost it forever. Bittersweet, indeed. Bittersweet.
Save “Chuck”!
One of the cool shows of the recent years (unlike the stoopid “Lost”) is my new favorite, Chuck. It’s a slightly comedic show on a nerd guy who becomes a CIA agent and carries the Intersect, the super secret data supercomputer, in his brain.
Even Soojin has been getting into the show. It’s funny and it’s got the romance for the female audience. Well, the show may get cancelled and not return from the second season. All I have to say to that is “BOOOO!!”. So with the power of the Internet and network sites, people have been rallying to save the show!! Go do whatever you have to do to save the show!! Please!!
Windows 7’s “XP Mode”
Of all the bad stunts that Microsoft has done in the past and present, this suprised even the likes of me by making me say things like “Wow… Microsoft is doing THIS?! What happened?! They are actually doing stuff that seems *gasp* productive!”
The new and upcoming Windows 7, the successor to the-now-just-blah of Windows Vista, will have a very nice feature. It’s called “XP Mode”! This will actually run Windows XP. This is great for gamers like me who still have loads of games that run only in XP. This is great for people who use softwares that are pre-Vista years. However, it’s not entirely “free”. Here are some potential deal breakers…
- Must have at least 2 GB of memory and a processor that is capable of virtualization
- This add-on is available only to those with Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate variations
But still, this seems like a doable choice and a tempting way to entice people like me into it more. Go Microsoft for once!!