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I’ve been neglecting this blog for a while because I’ve been posting the usual mundane tidbits on facebook the last year or so. But, I don’t know. I guess the pendulum is swinging back the other way now. Call me fickled. I feel like I should take ownership of this blog and do something with it. posting on FB is all well and good but I’m paying for hosting for this thing, I might as well get more use out of it, right?

something’s comin’ and it isn’t good. especially if it veers inland.

damn. after spending hundreds of dollars for private lessons over the summer break, not to mention countless hours having to listen to him practicing the same things over and over again, every damn day, it was finally time for our son to audition. All that hard work (and money) should have paid off today, right?

well, not quite. the kids were ushered into the audition room one by one and given five minutes to run through the required pieces which included an “unknown piece” for them to sight read on the spot. I guess the pressure of it all got to my son and apparently he choked. At least, according to him. parents weren’t allowed in the audition room so I don’t know.

We’ll find out the results in a couple weeks. I’m not holding my breath.

But come on, all that money spent. It can’t be for nothing. argh.

man, these are selling out fast. If you can manage to find a HP TouchPad at this point, you can get ‘em for cheap!!! HP announced a couple days ago that they are discontinuing their tablet device and are getting rid of their existing supply.

Well, the net went bonkers over this immediately and most online retailers depleted their supply in a matter of hours.

Reading up on the online chatter, local brick and mortar stores like Best Buy and Office Depot are already out too. I managed to get in on Amazon’s Lightning deal earlier today to secure my HP tablet.

I’m not sure how often Amazon will be doing those lightning deals but if you’re still looking for one, keep your eyes peeled.

the minivan’s battery suddenly died on me. it’s interesting that with all of the cars I’ve owned (an acura, two hondas and a lexus), there’s never a tell-tale sign of when a battery will give out on you. the low-battery light on the dash never lights up to warn you that the battery needs to be changed out. never. I always end up finding out when I stick the key in the ignition and it fails to turn over. Well, I guess a good guideline is the age of the battery. For the most part I’ve noticed that the battery lifespan is around four to five years. So, I’m going to be pre-emptive and just change them out at the four year mark. It’ll be better than being stranded out in the middle of nowhere with no one around to give you a jump.

I’m guessing Netflix is closely monitoring what’s popular on their streaming service and augmenting their catalog accordingly. This would explain the new additions to their korean drama lineup. That’s right, more kdramas for us to enjoy via netflix streaming. (click this hyperlink to see my previous post about available kdrama titles)

Here’s a list of what Netflix added this week:

City Hunter – Yoon Sung — the son of a murdered government agent — begins working in the Blue House, the presidential residence in Korea. He tries to find the five men who betrayed his father 28 years ago, and makes a plan to punish them his own way. Cast includes: Lee Min Ho, Park Min Young, Lee Joon Hyuk, Hwang Sun Hee

Lie To Me – Gong Ah Jung, a Ministry of Culture official, gets caught in a web of lies when she claims she’s married to Hyun Ki Joon, a wealthy hotel manager. Their relationship is further complicated when Ki Joon’s ex-fiancée reappears in his life. Cast includes: Yoon Eun Hye, Kang Ji Hwan, Jo Yoon Hee, Hong Soo Hyun, Ryu Seung Soo

Goodbye Miss Ripley – Miss Ripley is based on true story of Shin Jeong Ah. Two very different men fall in love with Jang Mi Ri(Lee Da Hae), a woman whose life is a complicated web of lies, propelled by her greedy desires that stem from an unfortunate childhood. Cast includes: Micky Yoochun, Da Hae Lee, Kang Hye Jeong, Kim Seung Woo

Midas – This riches-and-romance drama set in Korea’s financial world follows the fortunes of Kim Do Hyun, a young man with big ambitions. The competing pressures of his professional activities and his upcoming marriage begin to complicate his life. cast includes: Hyuk Jang, Kim Hee Ae, Lee Min Jung, No Min Woo, Lee Duk Hwa, Kim Sung Kyum, Choi Jung Woo, Yoon Je Moon, Han Yoo Yi

Bad Boy – This thrill-packed Korean drama pits Geon-Wook against the Haeshin Group business empire and the powerful Hong family that owns the company. Geon-Wook’s obsession with revenge traces back to childhood and his rejection by the patriarch of the Hongs. Cast includes: Kim Nam Gil, Kang Soo Han, Han Ga In, Kim Jae Wook, Park Joon Mok, Oh Yun Soo, Moon Ga Young, Jung So Min, Jun Gook Hwan, Kim Hye Ok

So, spread the word and keep watching and hopefully Netflix will continue to expand their kdramas library.

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After seeing a write up on Batter Blaster in Forbes Magazine recently, I thought I’d check it out. I initially had a tough time locating the product until a friend of mine suggested looking in the refrigerated dairy aisle. And lo and behold, there it was. I was a bit taken aback with the price – $5 for a can that makes only 28 pancakes but I went ahead and got it anyway.

So, for those that haven’t heard about this – Batter Blaster is a pressurized canister of pancake batter. So, essentially a quicker and easier way of making pancakes without the hassle and mess of prepping pancake batter. So, the canister looks similar to a can of whipped cream. You press against the top nozzle and out comes the batter.

There was some trial and error involved in getting a good pancake made. Since the Batter Blaster is refrigerated, I had to lower the temp of the pan since the cold batter burned easily compared to normal batter. Also the batter was lighter and didn’t rise like regular batter. In fact, I had a tough time flipping these things because the batter was a lot more delicate and “airy”. So, my initial batch wasn’t much to look at. either they were burnt or deformed.

As for taste – I actually liked the taste of the batter but the texture was lacking. Some of mine were almost crepe like thin. But maybe that had to do with my technique. I’ve read afterwards that dispensing more batter in the center would make the pancake more substantial than dispensing in a spiral motion (which is what I was doing).

So how would I rate Batter Blaster? I’d give it a “C”. I probably need more practice in making these from a can dispenser. But factoring the cost of the product and the resulting pancakes, I’ll most likely stick to prepping my pancake batter the regular way.

great. maintenance came around this week at work and replaced our “permanent” cubicle location/name plates with ones that can easily be changed out.

you know the ones where you can switch out the names with just a new piece of paper.

this sure doesn’t instill employee confidence here… I mean come on, is management expecting a rapid turnover of staff sometime soon? WTF.

job security, indeed.

So, I now have a total of three cell phones on Page Plus. Our main phone is the HTC Droid Eris on the 1200 Talk n Text plan. My personal cell is a LG Chocolate Touch (the wife’s previous phone from Verizon) on the pay as you go plan (currently I’m hoping to eek by with $25 every 4 months). And recently, I activated a LG Dare for my 14 year old. I purchased the LG Dare on ebay and proceeded to port my son’s cell number from Boost Mobile. I still hate the fact that there’s no easy way to get the actual “account number” from Boost except by calling customer service. I even tried emailing customer service via their website to try and get the “account number” without having to go through automated menu hell. But they emailed back and said that I had to CALL them to get the account number.

You see, you need the “real” account number (which isn’t your mobile phone number) in order to port your number out. Anyway, I ended up calling CS on my son’s old cell phone and navigated their confusing menu tree to get through to a live person. It took a while but I got through. Funny thing was that I didn’t have a great cell connection at the time and the CS rep couldn’t really hear me. I told him “that’s Boost Mobile for ya!!!”. ha, ha. that felt good. Anyway, I had to yell at the phone in order for the guy to understand what I needed from him and my wife, who was at the other side of the house, had to come over to check on me to see what the hell was going on. After repeating myself several times over the phone, the CS rep finally gave me the account number. sheesh. Obviously Boost makes this whole process difficult for a reason.

The interesting thing that I encountered with the LG Dare was that it was indicating that it was “roaming” when I turned it on. And since it was roaming I wasn’t able to perform OTA (over the air programming) on the phone. weird, I never encountered this problem before with my other phones. Now, in hindsight, I think by doing a hard reset, this problem might have resolved itself but at the time, I didn’t think to do a “hard reset”. So anyway, I had to manually set the home SID number in the phone via programming mode (##PROGRAM9700) in order for it to stop thinking it’s still “roaming”. I wasn’t really sure this would work but it actually did the trick (this was after hours of research on the net about this common problem). whew.

long story short, I’ve had a good experience on Page Plus so far. I’m pretty satisfied with the plans that they offer and the flexibility for all of us to “BYOP” (bring your own phone). And being on the Verizon network is definitely a big plus. Page Plus’ online interface for managing accounts is a bit antiquated but I guess it does the job. So, anyway, I’ll keep you posted on how things are on Page Plus in the future.

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I guess netflix heard my whining after all! Netflix is now offering a handful of Kdramas via streaming. On demand streaming is the perfect vehicle for episodic television programs especially soaps and Kdramas. I suppose Netflix is offering these particular korean titles on a trial basis to gauge popularity so Kdrama fans spread the word about these titles available on netflix. Honestly, I’m not a rabid kdrama fan that keeps up with the latest shows and such but I do enjoy catching some of these types of shows whenever time allows. Since these titles are a couple years old, regular kdrama viewers might be disappointed that there aren’t any “current” shows available. Just keep in mind that korean drama viewership make up just a small portion of Netflix’s total subscriber base so to have these titles available for streaming is a feat unto itself.

here’s what available so far (as of 20Jun11):

Boys Over Flowers (2009) – In this Cinderella story, Geum Jan Di is a street-smart, working-class girl who winds up at an exclusive prep school where she soon gains the attention of the F4 — big men on campus who literally rule the school and would love to rule Jan Di. Mixing drama, comedy and star-crossed romance, this Korean series is based on the popular manga “Hana Yori Dango,” the source of an anime series, live-action versions in Taiwan and Japan and a major film.

My Princess (2011) – When regular girl Lee Seol finds out she’s really a princess, she’s sent to the palace to learn about royal etiquette from Park Hae Young, a dashing young diplomat. But will budding romance distract them from their duties?Little girls around the world dream of being a princess someday. Penny pincher, Lee Seol wasn’t one of them, but somehow ends up as one. Instead of playing up the glamorous role of Princess, she’s stuck in the Palace studying. At least it’s with the handsome diplomat, Park Hae Young. But none if it matters because Lee Seol still can’t get over her crush on her Professor. Will Lee Seol change her country, find true love, and learn to be a Princess? Watch to find out!

Playful Kiss (2010) – Based on a Japanese manga, this Korean dramedy series centers on a slow-bubbling romance between a sunny student and her popular classmate, who doesn’t seem to share her amorous feelings — or does he?

Tamna the Island (2009) – Based on a Korean comic book, this televised drama follows a handsome young castaway named William, who flees England to escape a pending marriage and washes ashore on an exotic island with enchanting charms.

Road Number One (2010) – With war raging in 1950s Korea, Lee Jang Woo joins up with the army and leaves the woman he loves behind. But upon his return, he discovers she’s accepted another man’s marriage proposal.
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