Upgo.info, a Parody

Upgo is a project I did with some friends while in California last week. It was a Christmas present for a friend of ours who founded a startup, is an impressive Go player, and has an affinity for all things Japanese. The premise basically arose from someone's attempt to give me the quick-and-dirty description of this friend's startup -- I thought it sounded like The Hunger Games for software engineers. Ergo, we decided to film a parody startup video:


http://youtu.be/v_1Cj0jQ9IQ

We did it over the course of one night in Lucas's living room. The jokes are from all three of us, the video editing was Brett and Lucas, the bones of the script (and the Hunger Games references) was mostly me, the logo and font were Brett, and the website was Lucas.

We even made fake business cards as the physical souvenir (note: the friend for whom we were making the website/video is also named Lucas):

Definitely one of the most fun projects I've done in a while!

My Totoros Have Multiplied!

I now have two Totoros!

I acquired the blue one in Japan five years ago; my sister got me the grey one for my birthday just a few days ago. (I promise I haven't put the latter through the wash; it's just the texture of its fur making it look particularly disheveled.)

"My Neighbor Totoro," despite having a rather thin plot, is one of my all-time favourite films (this is mostly due to its sheer cuteness). Miyazaki and his co-conspirators at Studio Ghibli are geniuses (genii?).

BBC: The Japanese Quest for the Perfect Fruit

Asian gifting (and general social niceties) taken to a horticultural extreme:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-radio-and-tv-17352173

It's an interesting social phenomenon, but seriously, that technology and effort could be put to so much better use! If horticulturalists in Japan had only chosen to attempt, say, breeding better crop plants and alleviating hunger in the developing world, imagine all the good they could be doing. It reminds me a little of the way the Japanese electronics industry developed; for a long time, they were among the most reliable manufacturers of electronics in the world, and yet, they stuck to making things like televisions, and kitchen appliances, and little toy robot things. They innovated, of course, but it was mostly on a small scale -- how to make a better circuit board and the like -- rather than dreaming big, as big as they could have. And now, given the way the Japanese economy's looking, it might be just a little too late.

Anyhow, I don't know how that turned from "look at this interesting, slightly ridiculous cultural quirk" to "let's solve all the world's problems." But -- just look at all those melons in a row!

io9: Blowfish-Man Film

This is somewhat disturbing, and so quintessentially Japanese:
http://io9.com/5914061/watch-a-man-turn-into-a-blowfish-in-one-horrifying-short?tag=trailer-frenzy

I'll admit, I watched that trailer about five times, with what I'm sure was an expression of horrified fascination on my face. The CGI is really something; it's in that zone between extremely realistic and "you know it's impossible even though your eyes tell you otherwise." It evokes the sort of feeling that Neil Gaiman's or China Miéville's writing does; the milieu is rather Lovecraftian.

NYTimes: Instant Ramen Saves Lives

In college (and in bachelor pads everywhere), cup noodles often become a dietary staple. Any sort of instant food, but especially instant ramen, is generally not good for the body, as it is usually full of preservatives, artificial flavoring, and the like. Make no mistake -- I have a box of ramen sitting in my closet right now. It's not a completely terrible thing; it's actually pretty decent as far as junk food goes. It's just not something one should consume too often.

This article, however, vindicates instant noodles for a completely different cause (certainly a much better one than college students pulling all-nighters):

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/weekinreview/20noodles.html?ref=asia

Cup noodles for tsunami relief! (I wouldn't mind sending my box of ramen to Japan and buying something more like carrot sticks. Also, Japanese cup noodles are probably a sight healthier than what we have here.)

The Breaking Light (Vienna Teng)

Vienna Teng/Alex Wong have a new single out! (It's been out for a while, but I only just realized that I neglected to mention it.) It can be found on Alex's website:

http://alexwong.bandcamp.com/track/the-breaking-light-live-at-yoshis

All proceeds go to disaster relief in Japan, so go get yourself some awesome music and help out the Japanese!

Another cool tidbit: it was recorded live (with a bit of audience participation), and I, along with a number of Stanford friends, were at the show at which they recorded it. *grins*

Donate via Text Message to Help Japan

 Note (03/12): Because this is an actionable item, this post will stay at the top of the blog for a week.

I'm sure you all know about the situation in Japan right now. Here are a few quick and easy ways to help:

Text "REDCROSS" to 90999 -- donates $10 to Red Cross efforts
Text "TSUNAMI" to 50555 -- donates $10 to Convoy of Hope efforts
Text "JAPAN" or "QUAKE" to 80888 -- donates $10 to Salvation Army efforts

Clerk Foils Robbery Attempt with Katana

The title, methinks, is pretty self-explanatory, but if you're curious, the news story is here: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20029060-504083.html



Sword > gun? Believe it.

BBC: Churchill's Butterfly Garden, 70 Years in the Making

This is a must-see, if you're ever in Britain (Kent, specifically):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11025174

From the picture accompanying this article, the estate looks beautiful. Butterfly conservation is increasingly important in industrialized nations, and such a conservatory (with such an illustrious patron) can only aid efforts therein.

It's interesting how famous (and infamous) leaders often had such incongruous hobbies; aside from Churchill, the Emperor Hirohito would have preferred to be a marine biologist rather than an emperor (and was especially saddened by his ejection from the Royal Society), Nero famously played the harp (fiddles weren't invented yet), Henry VIII was a composer of some talent, and Marcus Aurelius is better remembered for his philosophical writings than for his statecraft.

Obama plays basketball, I hear.

BBC: Japan's New Solar Sail

How we're living in a scifi film, part #3986:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10293284.stm

I first read about solar sails (or rather, the idea thereof) in one of Freeman J. Dyson's books when I was in middle school or so (it might have been The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet, but I can't be sure, since it was so long ago). At the time he wrote it, which was about twenty years ago, methinks, he had conceived of the solar sail purely as a thought experiment. But mon dieu, look how far we've come!

Al Jazeera: Australia Takes Japan to Court for Whaling

Finally, after decades of NGOs and independent activists trying to stop whaling by Japanese fishermen and "researchers", some government is finally taking action. Huzzah, Australia!

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/05/20105285365350724.html

Hopefully, the International Court of Justice will accomplish what thousands of activists have tried so hard to do. Stay tuned.