What will we be listening to 20 years from now...

This last Sunday on my hour drive back from Bellingham, I had my radio tuned into 106.1 KISS FM.  When songs I didn't like came on, I'd channel surf to something more to my liking.  However, once I reached Lynnwood this song came on.

Not being the first time I've heard this song, and every time it comes on I either skip or change the station, but this time I heard it in it's complete entirety and have come to realize this is, absolutely, one of the worst songs. 

My, chick bad, my chick hood

My chick do stuff that yo' chick wish she could
My, my chick bad, my chick hood
My chick do stuff that yo' chick wish she could
My, my chick bad, badder than yours
My, my chick bad, badder than yours
My, my, my chick bad, badder than yours
My, my chick bad, badder than yours

You don't need to tell me more than once. I got the picture.

I'm sayin' my chick bad, my chick hood My chick do stuff that yo' chick wish she could
My chick bad, badder than yours
My chick do stuff that I can't even put in words

Again? I heard you the first 3 times, and I didn't say I didn't agree.

Her swagga don't stop, her body won't quit
So fool pipe down; you ain't talkin' 'bout shit
My chick bad: tell me if you seen her
She always bring the racket like Venus & Serena
All white top, all white built and all white jeans
Body lookin' like milk

What does "looking like milk" even mean?  She's liquid?  Yeah, I don't know anyone else who can turn into liquid... he's right - his chick bad.

No time for games; she's full-grown

If she weren't full-grown, you'd be in jail.

My chick bad; tell your chick to go home!

See what I mean?  Worst song ever.  Not to mention the "beat" isn't good at all. 

Now, follow me into my thoughts for a moment.  Granted not everyone in the whole world listens to this, but let's assume 75% of America listens to this genre of... music, and then ASSUMING, again, that our children would end up falling into this 75%, can you imagine what kind of music they would be listening to??

Our parents grew up with Elvis, Patsy Cline, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles... We grew up with Madonna, -the- Macarena, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, N'Sync... and now listen at what majority of America is listening to.

Now think about what our children, nieces and newphews could be listening to!?

Can songs of sex, drugs and violence get even more explicit?  I cringe to think of what we might be listening to 20 years from now... imagine, when you're driving your kid to soccer practice and they reach over for the radio dial and put on the newest, sickest, baddest music all their friends are listening to.

Oh, music.  How you've evolved in such a short time.

This is for all of you who remember square dancing class in elementary school.

Wasted enough time, back to work.

Kiwon's New Way of View Previews!

All,

Here's a preview of a movie that you may enjoy in the near future. BUT WAIT!! Before you view the clip, mute your speakers. Trust me.

Like the clip? It's mysterious, weird, and also intriguing for the most part. And why wouldn't you like it a bit. Paul Haggis directs the movie (Crash, if you haven't seen it, to me, is a product of many many Asian dramas) with an all-star cast: Liam Neeson, Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, even RZA!

Now why did I make you watch the clip without sound?

In our media heavy world, our senses are being constantly stimulated; from TV to youtube, and almost most of the time, it's absolute JUNK!

So, why suffer with movie previews? Previews are designed to show you a snip of the story and characters so the movie-goers like yourself will be interested paying $10 out of your pocket; which I personally find to be extremely expensive.

Side note: Remember when movies were $5? Remember that?! Remember!!!!?

So about my new way of viewing previews. It's a deaf way of deciding if you will (no offense). Actors are designed to act out different characters, right? What does acting compose of? Sure you hear the emotions in the way they deliver the lines, but like with any conversations, body language counts for the 80% of it.

So watch the preview with that in mind, look at the "acting" clips that are presented before you. This way, you are left imagining what they have said, how they said it, and how real it seems by just looking at their body language. Is it a sad movie? a love movie? Why is that guy so happy?

So after all of that, if you are still left with questions about the plot, or you are still interested in seeing the movie, you can do so with that $10 you were gonna spend on something else frivolous.

That's it. Try it next time.

I still have to review couple of movies that I saw in the past two weeks. I have been lazy, partly due to both of my laptops giving me one hell of a time.

K.

Toot It 'n Boot It!

WTF??  Please tell me what this song means.

How's about this ladies and gentlemen? 

We'll even throw in the six bedroom mansion that the pool belongs to!  

For the affordable value of $6.5 million, you may dip those toes of yours into this pool.

Contact me ASAP if your wallet is overflowing with cash.

Is it Friday yet??

It's time to rant.

I'm going to assume most of you don't know much about working with real estate agents... but most of them are incompetent.  Not to make them sound bad, but some people lack a sense of time, humility and manners.

Let's go back to where this all began, yesterday.  Side note, usually homes have keyboxes on them with a key inside and agents can access the keys with a keypad they own, but our office doesn't use keyboxes, so someone from our office has to show up to the showings to let them in...

I usually get off of work by 5:30pm, my collegue and I lock up and walk out of here no later than 5:31pm, if possible.  Yesterday even was an exception - my collegue was out sick and I was faced with a little more of a work load than normal.  As I'm trying to wrap up what was on my plate the phone rings.

Agent: Hi, I'd like to make an appointment for a showing at 1234 XYZ st. for tomorrow afternoon... between 2:45pm and 4:30pm.
Me: The house doesn't have a keybox on it, and we usually show up to all of our showings, do you have a tighter time frame for us?
Agent: Well... let me sort out my schedule and call you back.
Me: Okay, thank you.

10 minutes later...

Agent: We can do 2:45pm, if that works for you.
Me: That would be fine.  We'll see you there at 2:45pm.  Thank you.

TODAY

The same agent calls back today and asks if we can let her into the house at 3:45pm.  My collegue, who answered the phone, said "we actually have you down on the calendar for 2:45pm." The other agent goes on to say "I didn't get a call back from you confirming the time."  YES SHE DID!  I SPOKE WITH HER AND CONFIRMED.

Anyway, whatever, moving on, she's on now for 3:45pm.

As the day goes by I get calls for a rental showing, which are near my work for 3pm.  I'm thinking... I can just do the two rentals and then head over to Queen Anne for the other showing.  Since I might be tight on the schedule I called her to ask if we could push the appointment to 4pm, but no answer so I left her a message...

It's now 2:30pm, with an hour to spare until our meeting, I figure I'd call her again and see if we can push it back otherwise I'll be racing down the streets of Seattle to get to the other showing...  no answer.

5 minutes later, she calls back and I asked if we could push it back, and she said, "no, we're actually all done now, and we're heading over there... we set it for 2:45pm."

MY JAW DROPPED.

Me: We got a call from you this morning saying you wanted to change it to 3:45pm...
Agent: You must have mistaken, I didn't call you this morning.

B*TCH.

Needless to say one of us only had 10 minutes to go from Madison Park to Queen Anne.  How ridiculous. 

Some agents are psycho.  If you're looking to buy a house or rent a place... pick the right agent.  It makes ALL the difference.

Steamin' and now heading out to my rental showings,

Astro Blaster

HECK YA!

This Disneyland ride was one of my favorites!  It's fun, but difficult to tell which is your laser beam.  But, it's kind of lame, if you compare it to the other more intense rides.  However, I loved it nonetheless. Just look at my face.... hahaha.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Disneyland. Almost all of us have been there once or twice in our lifetime. Almost always fun, and almost always amazing. Disney, I forgive you for being a racist (somewhat). I know I usually do movies, but I can't pass up this opportunity to dissect the one of most beloved theme parks of the world: Disneyland

Background... Located in Anaheim, this California city was about 40 minutes from our hotel, the Westin. Side note: whatever you do, do not stay at the Westin. The room was okay, but service? What service!! I had a terrible time just getting more towels. Do yourself a favor. Serious.

Moving on. Disneyland opened on July 18, 1955 to a record breaking 15.9 million people visiting in that same year. The park has grown since then, adding on the Disney's California Adventure and also the Disney Resort. Within the park there are seven main "themed" areas; Main Street, USA, Adventureland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, along with Frontierland, Critter Country, and Mickey's Toontown.

The park boasts an impressive fireworks show every night, along with many other live shows you can catch. The rides are awesome, and the rest? Go to Wikipedia yourself and find out.

Rides... We started out in Tomorrowland. After getting our first "Fast Pass" to Buzz Lightyear: Astro Blasters, we waited for our first ride, Space Mountain. We passed by EO, the Michael Jackson ride... and we didn't want to go on it, because from the poster itself, the ride looked really creepy. Space Mountain is one of my favorite rides at Disneyland for one reason: the whole of the ride is in the dark. completely. This makes it just amazing. They dip you, flip you, sink you, the works; all the while you not knowing where the hell you're going. They used to have two carts going on at once, allowing you to pass by the other cart (making it THAT much better) but to my disappointment, they are not doing that anymore.

Astro Blasters was a simple shoot-up ride, mostly for kids. You basically shoot at various targets for various points. I got a whopping 174,000 points with nothing to show for it, for the system never took a picture of me. WTF Disneyland.

We then ate lunch and walked over to get a fast pass to Indiana Jones ride. Rode the It's a Small World ride, which frightened the hell out of me. On another note, I didn't know prior to riding It's a Small World that the whole ride had the song repeating itself... which torments my dreams to this day.

Then we went to Frontierland for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride. This wasn't that fun, but it was short wait.

After, we shot over to Adventureland for the Pirates of Caribbean and Haunted Mansion rides. Remember this when you go to Disneyland next time, you WILL get wet during the Pirates of Caribbean ride. We didn't know.

Before going on the Indiana Jones ride, we had some time for Splash Mountain. Tina wasn't happy about this, but we forced her anyway, and we got soaked!

Side note: Good job Disneyland, for making all those characters move and feel real when riding just about any ride (minus It's a Small World). This kept the interest going, not to mention the fun. Good job for warping me into a different world every time I went on a ride. This has to be the reason people keep coming back to Disneyland. It's just plain old fun. For the whole family. Oh, speaking of families... I'll get to that later.

Then before we knew it, Indiana Jones. Had to be the favorite for the whole group, and was a great ending to the rides for the day. The lines leading up to the ride is fantastic in itself, with all the markings and engravings, props along the way; no doubt George Lucas had a hand in this. They did a really good job pulling you into the world of Indiana Jones and keeping you there. The ride itself? Just entertaining as all hell. You sit in a Jeep that takes you on a really cool ride, filled with all of favorite parts of the movies. Indiana makes a few appearances as well.

Another side note: For some reason, I thought the ride was longer. I remember from last time that there were a lot more components. Was I tripping? We'll never know. After further research, no, they didn't change it. Weird.

After all of that, we shot over to Toontown and met Mickey and the whole bunch. Bought a lot of stuff, too. While I was there, two different moms were terrified because they misplaced their children. Amazing.

To top it all off, we waited patiently for the fireworks. Disney didn't disappoint. I won't tell you much about it, but the synchronization of music and fireworks was dead-on, and the show was entertaining as always. It really is a must. I recommend.

Bad Parenting... You will see plenty of that at Disneyland. First off, strollers EVERYWHERE and with that territory comes moms and dads yelling at kids to stay with the group ALL DAY LONG. You will see one of those animal leashes for the kids, or just plain ropes (not lying). You will see family reunions wearing same shirts and being really hella loud. You will see pissed off dads or moms waiting in line for a ride and not wanting to put up with their kids.

Side note: Why don't you NOT bring your kids if they are too little to ride any of the fucking rides?! I mean... WTF! What, did you come for yourselves and not the kid? And how about playing with your kids during the line so they don't get bored? Oh, I'm sorry that you have to do that at DISNEYLAND! It's obvious that you came for your kid, so how about letting your kid have everything for the day? I mean Jesus Christ! I saw a dad yelling at the mom for not wanting to carry her purse while the mom rides one ride with their daughter. I saw a mom yelling at a kid for wanting an ice-cream. I saw a kid crying on a bench while his mom talked on the phone. Wow. Wow.

But there were happier notes to also state. I saw family reunions genuinely having fun just being around family. I saw countless couples having the time of their lives. I saw a dad doing all that he can to make his daughter laugh while waiting in line for 75 minutes. I also saw a man (me) convincing a frightened woman (Tina) to ride one of the biggest ride in the park. Good memories have more impact every time over the bad. It was a good day.

Conclusion... Disneyland indeed is the happiest place on Earth. Even with all the yelling and screaming, with having to wait for just about everything, we had a great time. We were so tired by the end of the day, but I welcome that type of tiredness any day.

We're going on vacation!

Be Jealous.

Don't worry, we'll bring back plenty of photos for you to photoshop yourself into.  

Yes, we're nice like that.  

Have a fun and safe weekend! 

Just let me work in peace!

Today's not one of those days where I just want to punch my colleague(s) in the face.   But sometimes they just annoy the heck out of me, so over the years I've thought about many ways to piss them off.  If you know what I'm talking about, you should try these ideas and let me know if they work!

Here’s my list of ways to make my day better and their day worse… mwwaaahhhhaaahhah.

1. Leave the copy machine set to enlarge 125%, extra dark, 11” x 17” paper, 12 copies.
2. Bring smelly foods to work for lunch.
3. Practice making fax and modem noises.
4. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
5. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
6. Unplug a technology-challenged co-worker’s monitor.
7. Tell a co-worker you liked their hair better last week
8. Exclaim your co-worker didn’t wash his hands when leaving the restroom
9. Set your mobile phone to an obnoxious ring tone
10. Leave fingerprints on the copier glass

And then there are these other things that people have done to annoy me.

1. Staple your reports in the wrong corner
2. Burn popcorn in the microwave
3. Come to work sick
4. Sing
5. Walk around the office barefooted
6. Leave hole punches all over
7. Type loudly
8. Only work when superiors are around

 What are some things that you’ve intentionally done to annoy others.  And what’s annoying to you?

Adventure is Out There!

After coming across this youtube treasure,

I had to write about Pixar's yet another fantastic and totally originally normal world that could only exist in our imaginations: Up!

Synopsis... First off, this movie has one of the saddest opening sequence ever. By now everyone's probably seen this movie, so I'm just gonna talk about the details; and if you haven't seen it, you have no soul!

Carl and Elle Fredricksen's life-long love story revolves around Charles Muntz and his wild world-wide adventures. All they ever wanted to do was to move to South America's Paradise Falls. The opening sequence shows us that Elle cannot bear children and the only real hope and desire of the couple was to get to the Paradise Falls. And just when Carl manages the tickets Elle falls ill and passes away. I remember seeing this in the theaters, and I remember hearing people cry at the opening credits. Here's why that's important:

This opening sequence alone has more emotion and personal connection than about 90% of the Hollywood movies out there today and for the last few decades for that matter. Note that Pixar does this again and again with animated movies, and I just don't get why real actors cannot get this right. Why can't we make a decent, heart-felt movie? Seems to me that it's either 3D movies or CGI heavy (if not ALL) movies that are getting all the attention these days. Don't forget, not too long ago, a movie about a simple high-school girl made America love movies again without using ANY computer graphics. That movie was Juno. I'm just saying, it can be done. With a little originality (I know it's hard, but those people get PAID for this shit) and bit of that Hollywood magic, I think me as a movie-goer will be much happier forking up $10+ for a 2-hour visual fun-ride. And I bet there are a lot of people that feel the same way as I do. Moving on...

Characters... I say characters, because saying "actors" is not sufficient in Pixar movies. As animated movies go, voices provided by the actors are indeed a crucial component, the genius is in the portrayal and the execution, not to mention the imagination of the characters that fill up the movie. The grumpy, old man Carl and how about that "Asian" main character Russell? I know he's chubby as all Hell and a huge nerd, but I'll take it. Remember Dug? (Yes that's how it's spelled... check imdb) He basically made the movie so much better for me. A talking dog? Talk about a childhood dream! Actually... talk about my dream now. That bird Kevin was awesome, too. So was Muntz... and... ok, everyone was awesome. This is an awesome cast. Awesome movie.

But let's talk about Carl and Russell. This is a sad, but optimistic way of looking at a lot of American families today. Russell is growing up without a father-figure, which we all know isn't the best situation for any kid. Carl filling that gap for Russell, within the movie, ends up being a win-win situation for both of them, because in a weird way, the movie shows that anyone from all different walks of life can come together and form a family. This is a rather new concept of family that has been seen more and more often in movies these days. Gay mothers, gay fathers, broken families that make it work, and happy foster family stories as well. If you ask me, I personally like this trend. Who didn't smile when Carl pinned that last badge on Russell at the end of the movie? If you didn't you really need yourself checked out.

Story... Well, I'm just gonna skip the director, because Pete Docter directed multiple Pixar movies and they are all pretty good. And I guess I already talked about the story and plot a lot during the characters portion of my blog. What else is there to say about the movie?

Let me say a bit about the art direction of the movie. The painting-like coloring of the landscape (You think that's obvious? People often forget the most obvious elements) along with textured character rendering and all the dream-like bright and imaginary combination of colors make Up just a pleasing movie to watch. Also I think Pixar always gets the illustration of characters so dead-on right. You can see the research done by the artists, and the imagination that comes through. I heard that Disney can be a tough place to work as an artist, because you are forced to imagine newer and better things all the time. If that is actually true, Pixar did a damn good job.

Way to go, Pixar, for making me feel good walking out of a movie once again. Your fun-filled adventures and imaginary fantasies rooted almost all the time in family values and true love has me hopeful for the future movies to come.

Verdict... TWO THUMBS WAY UP! (A+)

Next: I review "Clash of the Titans" and how bad that shit-pile of a movie was. Stay with us!

Dance to this Song!

Tuesday afternoon, no one's in the office, so what am I going to do? 

YOUTUBE!

For those of you who don't already know this important fact about me, I LOVE WongFu Productions!  They're dorky hilarious, and they tell it like it is, through the eyes in a day of a dork, nerd, the shy, and the socially challenged.  They're fantabulous. 

And through the recent years they've collaborated with David Choi and Kev Jumba among many others to bring us excellent shorts and vlogs.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, definitely take the time to Youtube these guys and if you don't get hooked watching them, then it's a shame.

This is their latest music video and it's about the greatest thing you'd want in a paradoy pop video.  Take a look for yourself, and not to my surprise, the song is quite... catchy.

Right!?

Now, if only I could meet them... 

Dancin' to this song,

Show Off!

Dearest Kiwon,

Why are you showing me up with your detailed movie reviews?  Just curious, since it looks like you put a lot of effort into our posts to make mine look like toast.  Thanks.

Sincerely,

More Like "Ass-Kicked"

I can't read your mind, but I can kick your ASS!

Remember this gem of a movie? It's was yet another attempt by Hollywood to get people to go to the theatres. Did it work for you? Because it didn't for me. I got the movie less than legally. Risky to post that factoid on the blog? Sure, but I only have 10 fans. I don't think that shit will hit the fan anytime soon.

Synopsis... What if you were a superhero? Yes, it's the question every boy has asked himself growing up in this crazy world. What if I was a superhero? Sure, you didn't have any super powers like Superman or Spiderman, but you could always count on Batman to backup your reasoning; Batman didn't have any powers at all... instead, he had enough hate to fill the whole Gotham City (Otherwise known as Chicago, thanks to Christopher Nolan), not to mention every possible resources in the face of the Earth at his fingertips, thanks to his ridiculous wealth. In other words, No! You can't be a superhero!

This movie, exactly like the comic-book, dives into the lives of people that said "What if I just became a superhero?" The skill-level and the motives for doing so ranges from revenge to just a curiosity, and even what appears to be a brain-washing method used similarly by the good 'ol Nazi Youth Camps back in those crazy days. Will it pan out for the bravely cloaked heroes? Well, you know what curiosity did to the cat...

Cast... A lot of new faces in this movie, at least for me. The main guy, "Kickass" is Aaron Johnson. Looking back at his past movies, I can't say that I've seen any of them, and that's saying something because I have watched a lot of movies in my time. Really good supporting cast, however, for the ever-so-kooky Nick Cage anchors the mood of the movie and pretty much takes care of the CRAZY part of the whole deal. Lyndsy Fonseca does a decent job and McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) brings some of that McLovin humor to the plot.

Sidenote: I for some reason thought Mintz-Plasse did the whole speech impediment thing just for Superbad. After watching this movie, uh... I guess I'm wrong. Moving on.

I always like Mark Strong in anything villainy because of his voice and his weird tooth, and what about Evan Peters, everyone... he should not do movies anymore. I don't know what it is... oh wait, I know... it's his ridiculous voice. Can't stand it. Sorry.

But the focus of this cast for me has to be on Chloe Moretz, AKA Hit-Girl. Wow. She says the F word like thousands of times and she even says the ever-so-taboo C word. On top of it all, she's just so fucking awesome! I mean look at this!!! She will literally Eat your FACE!

Director... Matthew Vaughn, that son-of-a-bitch. Layercake ranks pretty high in my list of cool movies (not to mention that movie rocked hard because of Daniel Craig), and this one does, too. I have never read the actual comic-books, but I'm thinking about picking several up in coming weeks just judging from the movie. Why? Because I like the movie, and the original inspiration material is always better. I will be watching your movies Mr. Vaughn. Let's not try to let me down.

Story... Action packed movie. Cool transition throughout the movie and also with the characters. You feel connected enough with all the characters minus one, that of McLovin. Some corniness are forgiven because the movie is based on a comic-book, and I actually liked all the No Fuckin' Way action moments. Why? Because the coolest actions moments came from Hit-Girl. That Kryptonite scene was just awesome and the music (courtesy of movie Sunshine) was a brilliant choice. Know what? The music selection throughout the whole movie was good. Fits the world of Kick-Ass well. Good job, music-guy of Kick-Ass, whoever you are.

They left it so there would be a sequel, and there will be one. I'm not too mad at it, because of the fact that the R-rated comic book movies are actually fun. Hollywood should have done that ages ago. I would watch a R-rated Batman movie any day.

Yes... Yes we can.

Until next time!

K.

Reasons you NEED to follow us.

You: Why??

Me: Because you think we're cool.

You: Not really...

Me: Well, you would if you followed us.

You: Isn't... that a catch-22?

Me: Only if you don't already like us, which I'm sure you do.

You: What makes you so sure?

Me: Well, if you've made it all the way down to this line in our fake conversation, it's only stronger evidence that you like me. :)

Yeah, YEAH! So now that I've got your attention, and have assured you that you're going to follow us anyway... I'll just give you a few reasons why we're a positive influence in your life.

1. Kiwon's usually funny.

2. I'm pretty funny too.

3. We're intelligent people with interesting knowledge. By reading our blog you'll "learn" info to share with your other friends. (Kiwon likes the Discovery Channel, and I like reality TV shows).

4. We're like CNN + BBC, but minus all the news.

5. "Because we're cool." - Kiwon

6. I like to use colors in my blogs. Kiwon doesn't.

7. It's free... who doesn't like free?

If those reasons don't get you to instantaneously hit the "follow" link, I really don't think this is the right blog for you.

aren't the lil' chicks cute?! if you follow you'll be cute too!