New Year.. the bad the good..

Welcome to 2014.

The bad thing about going out on New Year's Eve is the fact that all the bad drivers come out in the same night. I was also surprised at the volume of people that were trying to get seats at restaurants. I figured most people would be at bars or chillin at house parties. Nope.. they were all trying to eat. Lucky me. 50 minute wait times. Ended up going to Shin Sen Gumi in J-town and it was so bomb in this cold weather. For some reason, all my friends had issues today. Some were sick, some went to church (God knows for what reason), some had family ties, some had gf's, and others simply fell asleep and flaked.

The other bad thing about today was the drivers on the road. 50% of people on the freeway were going 55mph and the other half were doing 80mph and zig zagging through the traffic. Mind you that the speed limit is 65mph. I figure the ones going 55 are the ones that are already drunk and are trying to drive slow - or too drunk to drive at a normal speed. Unknowings to them, it makes them look even more suspicious that way. The ones driving 80 could easily be just as drunk or in a hurry to get somewhere. One of the worst day to drive in California.

Now the good - 2013 is over. Having to type 2014 for all the dates will be troublesome. Overall 2013 was a pretty decent year. Nothing major happened until December when I finally got my TA appraiser license. I got a new laptop with mostly the 2nd highest tiered components. My Dell Inspiron lasted me a good 6 years, but it was time for an upgrade. It hasn't arrived yet, and I will do a full review once it's here. I've been living here in Granada Hills for a year now. That's about it I guess.. I'll be turning 33 soon. Wow.. 33. 33... 33.. When did this happen. I don't feel old yet - but that number sure seems high. Almost got me in panic mode.

Some new goals for the next 1.5 years:

1. Get certified as an Appraiser
2. Buy a house
3. Get ripped and get the 6 pack abs back
4. Stop stogging
5. Possibly buy a bike

Always good to have goals. Never stop achieving.

I have also been working on a lengthy article on how to lose weight. The plan was to reveal it for new years, but it's still a work in progress. It will probably be one of the most comprehensive and helpful guides on the internet. I've read plenty of other people's works - from blogs to actual high profile news articles, and they never actually tell you everything you need. It's mostly generalizations and things you already know. Hopefully I can break that barrier. Guess that's another goal.

Movie Review: Miracle in Cell 7

Probably in the top 5 best movies I've seen this year. The synopsis is about a mentally disabled person being accused of murder. The story unfolds as he is imprisoned and finds ways to see his daughter. Unfortunately, I think anyone that has to watch this with subtitles will downgrade the movie. The linguistics of emotions that comes from Korean is different when read in another language.

The story line was done perfectly. I wouldn't have changed anything.

The acting was superb. Particularly the two main characters, the mentally disabled guy and his little daughter. I did not know someone so small could act so well. Amazing. I actually cried at the end scene during the climax of the movie.

Highly recommend this movie. Specially if you can understand Korean.

Rating: 10/10.

Song of the Day: Goo Goo Dolls - Iris

The Best Mp3 / Video Players

I've been using KMPlayer for my videos and Winamp for my mp3's for the past few years. Both lovely softwares and work as intended. Winamp started to pop up some error messages and I did not like how bloated the software has become. It was such a great player before it was bought out by AOL. KMPlayer has also been a nice video player and has worked fine, but I wanted something better. I found two new softwares that have impressed me.

AIMP3 - Is a free music player and works great. It's very similar what Winamp used to be before the bloat. It's a simple mp3 player and does what it's supposed to. In terms of features it's basically another Winamp. What makes it better? Less bloat and loads fast.

Daum Potplayer - Is another free video player. The great thing about this is that it plays pretty much everything you throw at it. KMplayer had some limitations as it did not play quicktime files or flash files. Additinally, KMPlayer's audio decoder was buggy and created some back noise on some of my older videos. Potplayer has been pitch perfect. Great find.

Song of the Day: Imagine Dragons - Demons (Cover by HanByul LED Apple)

Much props to this kid. Great voice, good looking, Australian accent, fluent in English.

Go the to the channel and check out all of his covers. Very similar style as Bruno Mars. Too bad LED Apple isn't the most popular group out there. He has a bright future. I think he probably would have had a great chance to make it state side or as a solo artist.

Layout Changes

Everytime i get in the mood to do some coding, i always feel gratified with the finished product. Something about making something and having it displayed for others to see. Anyways, got tired of the leaf background and the width was too narrow. Changed some stuff.

Song of the Day: Lorde - Royals