I saw the later half of the “Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins” movie today, and the only understanding I can gather about all the complaints that they cast an “Asian” as Velma is that this is racism. The actress, Hayley Kiyoko Alcroft is half-Asian, so therefore is also “half white”. So what’s the problem? She’s no more Asian than she is white – why is she being labeled as “only Asian”? It’s like a famous American mixed-ethnicity politician being labeled as “America’s first Black President” or another mixed-ethnicity professional athlete being identified for only his father’s race. Do these complainers only see what they consider an “impurity”, and not the remaining white side? That’s seriously Third Reich thinking. Alcroft performs the role well, regardless of her ethnicity. The show’s producers were not trying to “Asianify” the character: They cast the actress that fit the role the best. Period. A syndicated reviewer mentioned the whole “Asian” thing and went on to say that she also didn’t have freckles like the original cartoon character, almost intimating that being Asian was mutually exclusive to having freckles, and therefore made her another level inappropriate. Sorry, dude – Asians get freckles too.
(0)Monthly Archive for October, 2009
It’s not that I didn’t feel motivated to ride this afternoon, but things just didn’t fall into place for some reason. My cardio-pulmonary performance was fine, but everything else felt off-spec. My knees felt a little sore, so I took the climbs out of the ride and just did the flats. My ass hurt from Wednesday’s ride, but when I stood up, my quads didn’t want to do the job. Fatigue? Just not on it? It got dark really fast so I just called it quits and went home. I think the winter malaise is starting already…
D = 12.76 km (7.93-miles), Vavr = 18.7 km/h (11.6-mph), Vmax = 38.6 km/h (24.0-mph), T = 41-minutes
That’s not right. A dark, dynamically moving column of smoke was rising from the area bounded by Kahekili Highway, Kea’ahala Road, and Anoi Road. Could have been a structure fire, or something burning in the wooded area. I didn’t see or hear any emergency vehicles. After work, I rode my bike over and did some recon. It was a structure fire at: 21.410377,-157.8063 (just put the coordinates into your favorite internet mapping site).
Those times of year when the normal Northeasterlies break down and Southerlies prevail bring clear, dew-covered mornings and picturesque sunrises and sunsets. Too bad they also bring torrid midday heat and irritants that exacerbate various respiratory conditions. Here’s a pretty picture of this morning’s sunrise to take your mind off the evil lingering heat and itchy eyes.
I keep hearing this radio spot about how “American-built [pickup] trucks from Ford, Chrysler, and Chevrolet outsell foreign-made trucks from Nissan, Honda, and Toyota”. Duh! Nissan, Honda, and Toyota build all the trucks sold on the USDM in North America! None of them are imported! In fact, none of these companies’ Japanese divisions even makes or sells pickup trucks for the JDM anymore. The ad wasn’t lying, but it definitely wasn’t truthful.
(0)I managed to get home at a reasonable hour today, so I went for a ride, having been off the bike for over a week. Although there was no rain, the sky was hardly clear. This morning was cool, cloudless, and still because of the lack of trade winds, so the volcanic outflow from the South filled the air with a haze that helped trap the day’s heat and create a thick, sweltering afternoon. Ground heating did generate some afternoon cloud cover, but the haze made it difficult to visually differentiate between the sky and the clouds. The light faded quickly and I concluded my ride in darkness.
D = 12.91 km (8.02-miles), Vavr = 19.0 km/h (11.8-mph), Vmax = 37.2 km/h (23.1-mph), T = 41-minutes
This strong, dark ale from Hitachino is in the classic stout vein, from the dark roasted malt and almost syrupy decoction, to the strong hopping. This stout from Kiuchi Brewery in Ibaraki Prefecture in central Eastern Honshuu, Japan was more in the vein of the heartier Guinness Extra Stout than the lighter nitrogen-charged Pub Draught Stout in flavor, body, and gas saturation. It was a different experience altogether from even Hitachino’s own Sweet Stout. Since this was my beer of choice at a “BYOB” restaurant, I didn’t have the luxury of a glass, so I didn’t get to observe the color, clarity, head, or carbonation. The first taste was very strong on the hop, but this moderated on subsequent sips, allowing the malt flavor to shine through. It was less hoppy than say a Deschutes Obsidian, but significantly more than a Guinness Draught. This would probably put it in “danger beer” territory for chronic light American lager drinkers. The flavor was initially very hoppy with a dark-roasted malt note. The hop flavor was flowery, but leaned more toward the astringent than the sweet, but it was only mildly bitter. The perceived dryness was added to by the carbonation, as opposed to the more mellow, creamy effect imparted by nitrogen in a widgeted stout like Guinness Draught. The malt flavor was not dark to the point of being “smoky” or coffee-like, and the mouthfeel was thick and spreading with a moderate level of carbonation. The hop and malt tones faded out evenly to the finish, the malt lingering maybe slightly longer. Continue reading ‘Beer is Good – Hitachino Nest Beer XH’
Yellow = cracked insulator: Red = open conductor
Just after lunch on Friday, the lights started flickering in the office, then all kinds of things shut down. Odd thing was a random half of things didn’t work, but the remainder of things worked fine. The electrician next door makai came over and opened the electrical panel and metered the incoming wires, and one of the legs of the three-phase power was out, so only one half of the box had regular power. There was about 24-volts of leakage current on the dead side, so low-powered items still semi-worked; the emergency lights still detected power and didn’t come on; and inductive things like fans ran, but really slow. We were dead out to the meter, so it was in HECO’s territory. The landscape guys next door mauka also didn’t have three-phase power, so a visual track of the wires coming into the building service entrance led our eyes up to the transformers on the on-property pole and a broken insulator and disconnected contact. Now there’s the problem… Continue reading ‘Bzzt…’
I was in back of a new navy blue base Matrix on Punchbowl heading in to work today. It had a “Got Yaoi?” diecut (in brown vinyl, no less) on the rear windscreen. The expected heavy, bespectacled fangirl was not behind the wheel, instead the car was occupied by two spiky-haired Asian dudes! WTF?! Yikes!
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How can you possibly go wrong with a line like that?
Rammstein’s latest album Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da got its USDM release today. Hooray! I grabbed the special 2-disc edition on sale for under $15 USD including tax at the blue and yellow place. The single-disc standard release is going for around $10 plus tax. I do not think the North American market will get the limited edition box set for some reason… I got almost all the way through the first disc while driving around this evening, and this is one of the first albums in a long time that had me grinning maniacally while cranking up the volume. This album is a return to the more hard-driving sound of Mutter era, but isn’t relying on formula – it combines some of their past influences from the electronic eighties into their overpowering industrial metal sound.
Go grab it while it’s on sale!
Highly recommended
Four out of four fleischgewehr grabbing schimpanzen