Yankees 2010

December 23rd, 2009 omo

Well, at this rate they’ll drop the two players I watch the Yanks for! I know the odds are not zero, but by non-tendering Chien Ming Wang yet tendering to Mitre and Gaudin it’s bad news. Of course, Wang’s price is higher than those other two, and he probably won’t be ready to pitch until May at the earliest…

More importantly, how many 19-game winners can you find on the market at the price Wang was paid? This is why free agency is most likely going to rob him from another year playing for the Bombers. The only thing is that he is in mid-rehab, and there’s no way to tell if his injuries since 2008 has permanently changed his game, and if his climb back to his number one game will happen, and how soon it is going to be. 2009′s free agent market is relatively soft, so this means supply for this kind of a pitcher is low (especially now that the Braves have dealt and we’re probably done with the blockbuster pitcher trades this season). This is what the other 29 teams have in store for them if they want to poach him. In some ways, those two 19-win seasons are what is keeping him in this limbo, but playing for the Yanks means you have to perform, after all.

Certainly my hopes are that Wang sticks with the Yankees via a incentive-based contract, but it’s more likely that a team like the Dodgers will pick him up at this time, especially Vasquez resolves their rotation problem. There’s just no space on the roster for Wang.

Less can be said of Hideki Matsui’s tenure. Everyone knew he was gone even before the end of the post-season and he isn’t going to stick around, so that cut was clean and it ends his career in pinstripes(thus far!) on a very positive note. Good luck Godzilla.

Oh, which Yulin is this? Taken from here.

From Chien-Ming Wang article

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Facebanned

November 30th, 2009 omo

Somehow my Facebook account has been suspended. I sent an email to their redress email address but somehow I’m not expecting a response or any action on their part. I was also kind of rude in the email I guess.

I wonder if this is due to some kind of perpetrated virus or something.

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Shure SE 115

November 17th, 2009 omo

Long time no post.

So my trusty Shure e2c has finally breathed its almost-last breath. The plastic shielding over the post-Y-splitter portion (the stretch of cable between the ear buds to the splitter) has gotten to the point where it’s too brittle to be stored, and the eventual breaks in the cable lead to too much lost of power to the buds that it is not working out of one end. That means it’s time for a new pair of earbuds. For postmortum, I’ve had these since 2005 and I bought them as open box from Circuit City via their eBay store. No, I didn’t take the utmost care with them either, especially in the final years of it.

So, Shure SE 115. I had a chance to pick up a pair of SE 110s for $50 (after cash back) but I passed it on for a sale on the 115. That sale never really came, and I was pressed to get a new pair, so I blew a bunch of Amazon gift certs. The problem with 110 and 115, from a brief google, is the lack of bass response. Supposedly if you go up to a SE 210 (about $100 more) you can win-win with both more fun dynamics and more “flat” response but lol.

The actual kit, if you’ve set foot in an Apple store, comes in this long box. It contains a carry pouch which beats the little circle thing the e2cs has, even if it’s like twice as big. Like all of Shure’s new earphones, it is separated into the extension cord portion and the earphone portion. Not sure I like it, but it works. Shure e2cs have bigger ear bud attachments–something not a problem for me but nonetheless I noticed, so it’s a problem for some users. The 115s come default with foam buds that are in a semispherical shape, but the usual array of optional buds of different shapes and sizes are present (as well as the removal kit) so it’s all good.

As to the sound quality? It’s definitely pretty bassy for something like this, but the frequency response is flatter than the e2c near the high end. What it does better is clarity and volume. Mid and low mids are notably clearer and louder, which is probably a good thing for most people, depending on the type of music you listen to the most.

I picked mine up for $68, black, from Amazon. It comes in 3 other colors. I think it’s a good deal.

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Ugh

October 21st, 2009 omo

I feel kind of under the weather but I’m at work. Had been.

Lots of stuff happened, but let’s talk about one thing–Google wave. I’m on it. It’s interesting, but I’m not sure if it is intuitive enough as is.

I’m sure I’ll find a use for it, once people bother to decentralize it and have better clients.

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LOL FCC x BLOG

October 6th, 2009 omo

So the FCC finally got its advertising rules for blogs straight. Or gonna.

To me it’s hardly a surprise. But if I didn’t shop around for ad services for my blogs I probably would have been surprised. There are, to say the least, ethical grey areas in the way some of these services operated, getting paid by post and only when the advertisers are happy about it…

But my question now lies how free samples work. I think in most of the instances that I’ve read, all reviews tend to mention where they got the stuff from. For example if I review Crunchyroll I will say I bought it, because, well, it’s part of the consideration for it. However if I review Strained I will have to say something like “Funimation’s promo copy” or some such. But this is different than people who are otherwise paid for their writing beyond the sample.

That said I think Jtor needs to have a giveaway policy. Right now it feels too much like people are treating the samples like part of their perks for writing for it :x

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Binge Buys

August 18th, 2009 omo

I really shouldn’t be buying all this crap, but damn, Microsoft.

1. I ordered a HDD and a mouse from Newegg, thanks to the 10% Bing cashback deal. Bing used to be called Microsoft Live, but it’s the same thing. Wait 60 days and your money can be requested to be sent to your paypal account, or in a check. I was so tempted to just deck out one or three more Fujitsu Spinpoint 1gbs. But no. The HDD I got is a Hitachi 2.5″ 320gb, to be inserted into the PS3. After rebate and cash back I think I’m looking at a $17.50 saving, which knocks the total down to $57.50 before shipping. The mouse I got because…we need a mouse, so I got an intellimouse 1.1 for $16, or something like $15 after cashback. Shipping was something like $6.

2. In the past 2 weeks I ordered 3 figures. Two were  from HLJ and the other was from eBay. HLJ was giving away 10% off coupons at Otakon, for any in stock, non-sale items they had. The coupon doesn’t apply to pre-orders, but still there were a few figures that tempted me. One figure was just tempting and I’ve had my eyes on it for a while now, even if it’s kind of “tempting” in the indecent kind of way. The 10% makes this 1/6 figure actually quite affordable, after SAL shipping. The other figure is a preorder of a popular character, so there’s not much I can do about that besides HLJ’s normal early bird discount.

3. The eBay figure was discounted by Bing’s cashback for eBay, which is currently 14%. The discount value varies all the time, but I guess I caught a break. This figure is a well-rated figure that sold out quickly, so auctions was the only way I can snag it. I think after Bing  cash back (which is instant for eBay) I paid about $107 total, including shipping. The retail price of the one was 7810 yen… wow, I actually made it out close to even! What is interesting is that the figures I got from HLJ are definitely cheaper, despite being slightly bigger in scale, but only because I do math in yen. Once I convert it to USD it doesn’t seem that different.

4. And yeah, I bought a DS and an acekart. The acekart came in already, where as the DS lite is scheduled to arrive sometime betwee 8/15 and 9/15. Weird. The retailer for the acekart (and many other DS “illicit” crap) is good, I recommend them. The retailer for the DS, well, is Amazon/Target. So that’s that.

At any rate, the whole point of this rant is that I need to stop spending money. But the sales! They are so good!

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Fighting the Fight

July 27th, 2009 omo

So I’ve been sick the past 3-4 days with a stomach malaise that turns into pain and back into a vague feeling of discomfort that may have involved light fever and other bowel issues, but I think given the tight sleep schedule I was trying to wrangle back from it was reasonable.

It’s finally 8 days after Otakon and I’ve at least gotten sleeping back on schedule, even if at the expense of writing some stuff for blogging and cleaning and whatever.

Just kind of thankful that I have the luxury of sick days, that I can recover while catching up on anime back log.

And that my unrest the day after Otakon did turn out to be fruitful–my PC hasn’t crashed since the BIOS upgrade.

I also don’t have a lot of stuff to report from Otakon besides that I think I’ve definitely hit the limit in terms of too much to do! It’s a perfect storm in a way, in terms of working the press gig and having so much to cover for once, and so much to look at and things to do, crowds to push, pictures that I didn’t take… Ah well.

And I still have crap to upload and what not! Insane.

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Otakon 2009 to-do

July 15th, 2009 omo

1. Come up with 10 questions for MELL – still not done :(

2. Come up with 10 questions for Yamakan – still not done :(

3. Come up with 1 question for Hide-san – done

4. Pack – almost done

5. Print maps – done

6. Inspect car – not done

7. Get money – done

8. Check that I didn’t forget anything (like those nana goods…) – got the nana goods, at least…

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Alive

July 14th, 2009 omo

Still alive

Back from Japan. Still recovering. Especially that last concert about 7 days ago.

Otakon bound…leaving Thursday if all goes well.

Will try to list all the loot I got there, here. List is partial right now…

Free loot:

  • Aoi Hana…fan without the stem?

Almost free loot:

  • Marisa milk tea can (empty)
  • nm7 bag
  • concert handouts for nana mizuki live diamond
  • concert handouts for super space time tanabata sonic
  • A LittleBSD thingy
  • expired blue glow stick + a ribbon

Not-free loot:

  • yokoso japan SUICA (balance of 0 yen \o/)
  • Nana mizuki loots–
    • live diamond jersey (black)
    • towel (pink)
    • fan
    • light stick
    • poster a
    • poster b
    • nanaca (x6, unopened!)
  • super space time tanabata sonic loots–
    • hiyoko scoop bag (w/ towel and duck)
    • t-shirt (L)
    • program book (x2)
    • the cream puf (+green sticker)
    • music japan magazine/book, june 2009
  • manabi straight vol 1-7 set (used, LE pressing)
  • Kanon 2002 vol 1-7 set (used…used. Include bonus disc)
  • Kanon 2002 vol 1,2,3,5……..yeah.
  • Kokoro toshokan 1 (LOLs)
  • Utena the movie DVD
  • Air Movie LE DVD
  • FF8 OST box set (LE, first press)
  • Mai Hime OST 1, 2
  • Brain powered OST 1, 2
  • Simoun ED single
  • MKR TV OST 1, 2, 4, 5
  • Melody of Oblivion ED single
  • Kenshin image ablum 2
  • MKR image album 2
  • Narima daicon brothers image album
  • natsu no arashi op single
  • kajiura – fiction
  • nana mizuki – eternal blaze
  • some ai nonaka album (w/ dvd)
  • Canvas 2 ED single
  • Asako Nishida artbook
  • Akiman turn-a artbook
  • Denno Coil meta artbook

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Eaters’ Trip to Manhattan

June 29th, 2009 omo

Since Scott and Bonnie came over this week, I’m going to plot out all the notable eats just for reference and what’s interesting. Will try to link to yelp or w/e. We didn’t go to every one listed below, but the name came up for some reason.

1. NY Hotdog and Coffee – Bulbolgi Hotdog

2. Mad for Chicken – Korean fried chicken, dry ice beer tap with killer lights.

3. Ippudo – expensive ramen, awesome pork and broth.

4. Four bakeries in Chinatown…just walk from 6 to Elizabeth via Canal. One place has grass jelly.

5. That Silk Road bubble tea/espresso bar place I go all the time

6. Beard Papa (West 4th) – should have gone but didn’t! Did discover where it is so…heh. Next time!

7. Mesa Grill – I didn’t go, but Scott and Bonnie did

A lot of walking around Soho, Noho, and Union Square areas.

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