Fit To Live 2007.03.30

End of week two. Today was rougher than wednesday. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.03.28

Long day. But I got through it. Thanks for reading.

There's a new kid in the valley

Pretty much for a good chunk of my life, I couldn't understand people's obsession with peanut butter. Don't get me wrong, I liked peanut butter, I liked peanut butter and jam sandwiches, I liked all peanut butter versions of chocolate bars, all peanut butter sweets - but I was never like "Man, peanut butter is soooo great". There was always this thick gross feeling when eating it. And the thing is, I really think this obsession with peanut butter is a relatively new thing (or at least publicly). I never remember as a kid people saying "I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER. I COULD EAT IT ALL DAY". Yet, in the last 5 years or so, I hear that statement or variations thereof all the time. Maybe it's the fact that I entered University within the last 5 years where people seem to revert to the simple pleasures in life.

But somewhere along the line - I fell into that group of people. I can actually pinpoint the moment. It was last summer when I was helping a couple of my friends with their wedding. I was in the basement helping with a slideshow when the groom to be, my buddy Jeff, came down eating a piece of peanut butter toast. He offered it to me, but I was deep immersed inside my work, so at the time I refused. But from that second on, all day, I was thinking about eating peanut butter toast. There's something when you see someone else enjoy a good piece of food that triggers something. Anyway, it must have been that night or the morning after- where I had myself a piece of peanut butter toast- and boom, I was hooked. That summer, back in my non-exercise days, I was eating so much peanut butter toast it was nuts. (pun definitely intended, actually it wasn't intended when I typed it but then I realized it).

So, through my love of peanut butter (chunky of course), I got hooked on Nature Valley Crunchy Peanut Butter Bars. These are great! They're a welcome change from the traditional quaker granola bars. They're really full bars - like you really feel like you're eating a lot when you eat these things. If you haven't tried them, and you don't experience anaphylaxis when someone cracks a peanut, you have to jump on this bandwagon. Yes, life for Nature Valley it would seem is going pretty well. They've kicked ye' ol' Quaker Granola in the @$$.

Or have they.

It would also seem that Quaker has taken notice of the success of these NVCPBB (yes, the name is that long that they merit an acronym - feel free to use this is your msn conversations)., because quaker has released they're own crunchy peanut butter bar. The verdict? Pretty damn good.

The new Quaker bars are smaller - but that can be a good thing - sometimes you don't want something as full as a Nature Valley bar. The other plus, is that I think they contain about 100 less calories. That's pretty good. The other major advantage? Well, they're a helluva lot less messy than the NVCPBBs. I've, in the last couple of months, perfected the art to eating a NVCPBB without ending up with a haystack size pile of crumbs. But nonetheless - it's a messy bar. With quaker's, nope. Disadvantages? Well, there's a lot more peanut butter taste with Nature Valley. Rather than a peanut butter taste, NV bars feel like they're lathered in actual peanut butter. And again, the size issue. If you want a heartier bar, go for Nature Valley.

So Quaker has for sure introduced a worthy contender to the NVCPBB that's not just a rip-off. It has its place in the market for sure. It definitely has my approval. It's hard to say which one I like better - but I'd have to say the quality of Nature Valley's bar is higher. Be sure to try them both. Also of note are the new Nutri-Grain sweet and salty bars - quite good for sure. Now, I haven't tried the Nature Valley sweet and salty bars (that is, NVS&SB), but I've heard some good things. Anyway, good work Quaker. You've proven that you can't be just pushed around by the new guy. Thanks for reading.

Appendix A: How to Properly Eat a Nature Valley Crunchy Peanut Butter Bar: The Crumb-Free Method

1. With the package of 2 bars still sealed, break the bars into thirds - so in total you'll have 6 segments.
2. Open the package along the seam so when laid horizontally with the label facing down, it acts as a bowl.
3. Pick out the bite-size segments leaving the crumblings in the bowl wrapper.
4. Eat the entire bite-size segment (do not nibble at it)
5. Rinse, lather, repeat.

The Pooperbowl

K, that's a god-awful title, I know.

So following my entry about how good it feels to clean a place, and how fast the rewards come, I thought I'd speak about something I bought for the first time today. But first some back story. When I first moved out of my parents house and out into the wonderful world of undergrad university, I definitely had a great living experience. The first place I lived in rez actually had 1 bathroom per two people - and get this, it had a weekly maid service to keep it clean. So no worries there. Then I moved in with my sister for a year or so where most of the gritty stuff - say the toilet, or the sink, or anything like that was cleaned by her. Then when I moved into my final resting place during my undergrad, things just stayed relatively clean.

Now, before I move on, I need to make a distinction between clean and tidy. I'm a tidy person, but not a clean person. And no, I'm not talking about my personal hygiene - I'm talking about my living conditions. Tidy means organized - like the bed will be made, the books will be on the shelfs, the clean laundry will be folded, the dirty in a bin, the dishes will be put away etc. But besides dishes, and up until this year besides laundry - I was generally not a clean guy. Like all the dirt and grime that gets between nooks and crannies I'd never care about.

But here's the thing - my place that I'm living in right now is small enough and collects dirt enough that you just can't ignore it. So earlier this year, for the first time I bought Tilex to get rid of the mildew stains in my bathtub. It was quite a revelation. I mean, there was some generic bathroom cleanser left by the old tenant that I tried to use to scrub like crazy - but one spray of Tilex destoryed all the hours of effort I put in using that stupid cleanser.

Well, today, it happened again - another revelation in the world of household products. By this time, my toilet bowl was starting collect a rim of whatever and getting dirty. Boo-yeah - bought a bottle of toilet bowl cleanser, one spray and my toilet is sparkling clean. Awwww yeah.

I guess the thing is, just like exercise, when you do things right - things are a lot better. Whether or not Tilex and my Lysol Toilet Bowl cleaner are environmentally correct is a different story - but they're definitely cleanliness correct - whatever that means.

So is this just another random thought of Casey Li? Perhaps. Or perhaps it's a greater message to kids out there about to set foot out of their parents house. "It's really not that hard to stay clean". Just perhaps. Thanks for reading.

When the Ends justifies the Cleans

(this is a blog entry from my old myspace blog - I put it up 'cause it's related to my next entry)

K, this is gonna seem like a rather boring Blog entry - and quite frankly, it's probably because I really don't have that much to write about today except for my philosophies on cleaning. Let me say straight off the bat - I don't necessarily love cleaning, but I'll do it more often than not because of one reason - the results! Cleaning is one of those rare tasks in life where the results really reflect the effort that you put into it. I'll clean because I can truly enjoy the fruits of my labour (is that the right phrase?).

Let's say I'm gonna sit down and watch a movie in my family room and there's junk lying everywhere - say dishes, maybe some newspapers, and the carpet just doesn't quite have those lines you get after it's been vaccuumed. I'll put in about 15-20 minutes of cleaning up and vaccuuming, and boom - instantly I can enjoy a nice clean room to enjoy my movie.

Take dishes as another example. Dishes are piling up in the sink and you have nothing to eat off of - put in 15-20 minutes of washing dishes, and boom, you've got clean dishes to last you a good week or so.

Ok, ok - I guess my point would be a lot clearer if I used an example where you can't instantly enjoy results - school! I mean, you study and study and gets marks etc. - but really you don't enjoy the results 'til you're fully graduated and settled down with a wife/husband and kids. I mean, they'll tell you in school - study hard and you'll get a great life - but man, that's not til 15-20 maybe even 30 years from now! With cleaning, you instantly see and enjoy the results!

Why am I talking about this today. I just cleaned up our garage a bit today and am loving how much better it looks.

Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.03.26

Episode IV discussing getting through the weekend. Thanks for reading.

Checkin' da email

I think one of the greatest things the internet has brought us since its inception is flash animation. I can't really remember when I first started seeing them, but all I can remember is that I have rarely seen a flash animation cartoon fail when it comes to comedy. One of the first ones I must of watched was Radiskull and Devil Doll - anybody remember those guys? If not, google it, it's pretty damn good. Then a bunch of forwarded emails started showing up with things like Lobster Magnet, which was just funny 'cause of how strange it was. And who could forget the Star Wars rap - man that's funny stuff.

What always impresses me is how full and detailed these flash animation cartoons are. You have to be a pretty talented person to create all the motions in the real world using vector graphics - yet these artists do it well. What further impresses me is how good the writing is sometimes. I mean there are some flash animation cartoons where every episode I'm laughing pretty hard. That's a better laugh ratio than most TV shows on nowadays.

One such show that's been in my repetoire for a while thanks for my friend Wayne, is Strongbad - part of the homestarunner crew. Strongbad is one of those characters who's already funny because of the way he talks. Add some good making fun of people's grammar, names, and hometowns, toss some great storylines, and you have one of the funniest - dare I say funniest flash animation series I've ever seen.

Thanks to the gloriousness of podcasting, strongbad also has a podcast that's updated quite frequently which is always good. Definitely a good video for those of you lucky enough to own a Video iPod.

Anyway, check him out at http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html. You can check out the other homestarrunner stuff, but imo, Strongbad e-mails are the funniest part of that site.

His podcast is at http://podstar.homestarrunner.com/ or you can find it through the iTunes store. Either way, if you haven't jumped on the Strongbad bandwagon, do so quickly - you won't regret it. Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.03.23

Episode III, thanks for reading.

Casey's Mix of the Moment 2007.03.22

Alright, so today's edition is all about Rob Hing's and My Music. This is just a list of songs I'd put together if people didn't have time to listen to all our songs and just wanted a taste (which is probably more than often the case). Enjoy and thanks for reading.

1. My Life by Rob Hing
2. Blind by Rob Hing
3. All that Really Matters by Rob Hing
4. Feel Love by Rob Hing
5. Phonebox Sermon by Rob Hing and Casey Li
6. Red by Rob Hing
7. Paris by Rob Hing
8. Listen by Rob Hing
9. Untitled by Casey Li
10. Horizon by Rob Hing
11. Goodbye (+bonus track) by Rob Hing

Rob Hing

Alright ladies and gentlemen, it's about time I introduced you to my partner in crime when it comes to music. We both started playing guitar separately but have been close family friends since the beginning of time. Eventually, we realized we liked the same music, and were more or less playing the same kind of stuff, so the only logical step was to start playing together. After putting together an acoustic cover album called "Thought it would Happen", we went on to write original songs and came out with 2 albums, "Tonight" and "My Life". In between there's been a lot of songs written that are just kinda hanging around.

His name is Rob Hing. And as much as I like the stuff that we write together, I gotta express how much I love his own songs. Rob seems to write songs at about 10 times the pace that I write. Every time we meet up, I'll show him a new song I wrote, and he'll have like 10 up his sleeve. And they're all really good at that.

The only step that's kinda missing in our music career is the resources to record a professional album. Everything we've recorded has just been at home on a computer, so not the greatest quality. I mean we're pretty pleased with some of the stuff we've recorded, and it's definitely listenable, but definitely not at a professional level.

But the recording quality aside, Rob's songs are great. It's kind of all around the internet, so here are the links:

Most of 'My Life' can be downloaded at www.site.uottawa.ca/~cli047
Some of 'My Life' can be heard at www.purevolume.com/robhingandcaseyli
Some of 'My Life' and some other b-sides can be heard at www.myspace.com/roberthing

My next posting's gonna be a Mix of the Moment of Rob Hing and Casey Li music, so be sure to check that out to find out which songs you should be listening to in my opinion.

Thanks for reading.

Stop The Music

Ok, what is it with certain artists today? No - this isn't a pretentious pitchforkmedia-esque post about the current state of music. And no, I'm not talking about great great bands sselling out, or putting out bad music recently. I'm talking about mediocre everyday artists that have gotten horribly worse. And in my opinion, it's not because they're selling out or anything like that - they're just plain and simple making really bad and really annoying music.

I never liked Nelly Furtado to start with. I'm like a Bird I thought was a pretty annoying song sung by a pretty annoying person. Even that stupid Powerless song that everyone seemed to catch onto I thought was kinda boring. But either way, as much as I hated those songs, it wouldn't kill me to not turn the dial when they came on the radio (if I ever listened to radio). But now - well, not now, more like 4-5 months ago - she comes out with Maneater - holy man do I ever find this song annoying. Permiscuous was rather catchy, and decent clubbing song, not great, but not horrible. Maneater on the other hand - man can I ever not stand this song! The chorus is pretty damn boring, but the verses - ugh! Quite annoying.

But why am I bringing up a song that's 4-5 months old now? Well, there's another song kinda in this category. Avril Lavigne's new one. Ugh. Now, I'll admit, I actually liked Avril's first album. Songs like Tomorrow and Naked were actually really good songs. And I did enjoy My Happy Ending from her second album when I felt like appeasing my guilty pop-music pleasure. But holy wah - what the hell happened with her new song - Girlfriend is it called? - man is it ever annoying.

The thing is - I can deal with songs that aren't that great, or if they're kinda boring, or if they're harmless. But the thing is - I can't stand songs that drive me mad because they're just so annoying! Anyway, I really hate these two songs and felt like bringing it up. Hmm, come to think of it, those are 2 canadian artists. That's too bad 'cause we have so much good music coming out of this country too (Arcade Fire, Stars, Broken Social Scene, Stabilo, Pilate, Sarah Harmer, Ron Sexsmith, Matthew Good just to mention a few). Thanks for reading.

Fit To Live 2007.03.21

Episode II. Thanks for reading.

Old and Fresh

You know how when you're young, or even just younger, or even just a year or two ago, you fall in love with something, a song, an album, a tv show, a movie, perhaps even a girl, but somewhere along the line in your busy life you forget about it for awhile. I mean, if people mentioned it, you'd instnatly remember it, no hesistation, but for a while it just doesn't cross your mind for awhile. Well don't you love it when something brings it back! Say the release of the tv show on DVDs, or you're browsing your old music collection and come across that song of summer '98. I loved Oasis when I was younger, and rediscovering them the other day when I was maknig a retro mix was great. I bought their There and Then DVD and it totally rekindled my love for them.

Today's case? The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Awwwwwww yeah! I loved this show. Used to watch it everday after school after its Monday 8:00pm run on NBC. When I was really young Will Smith was my idol, and in most repsects he still is. But, Fresh Prince was just a damn good fun show (damn good fun...hmmm, not sure what the hell that exactly means). Anyway, all I know is that YTV (for all our non-canadians, it's the Youth Television network), is replaying episodes of Fresh Prince!!!! From what I gather, they're playing it at 8:00pm and 12:30am. Nice!!!! Either way, the last 5 minutes of today's episode completely rekindled my love for it. There's been this huge hiatus in the DVD releases on the seasons - so hopefully that's not an indication of it ending its DVD run. Either way, it's on somewhere, and I love when things like that happens. Especially when it happens on network TV - 'cause then you know you're not crazy - that someone else out there feels the same way.

Alright, thanks for reading.

Fit To Live Premieres

Hey all, so the first episode of Fit to Live - the stupidest most boring reality series ever has been posted on YouTube. Thanks to YouTube for hosting this:



Thanks for reading, and I guess for watching this time.

Fit to Live

Alright, so starting tomorrow, I'm on an exercise program to get in shape. And to celebrate, I'm going to launch a YouTube reality series - well really, it's just gonna be my video diaries tracking the progress of my exercise. The series will be called "Fit to Live" and I'll give you the link as soon as I post the first episode. I figure this will give me even more motivation to continue until I'm actually semi-healthy. Special thanks again to my friend Alayne for setting this all up for me. We'll see how it goes. Thanks for reading.

Casey's Simpsons Quote of the Moment 2007.03.18

Captain Tenille: I'm a man of few words. Any questions?
Homer: Um, is the poop deck really what I think it is?
Captain Tenille: I like the cut of your jib.
Homer: What's a jib?
Captain Tenille: Ha, promote that man.

I Don't Own Emotion, I Rent

Alright, usually when I have a themed Casey's Mix of the Moment, it usually follows a related posting. Well, we're flipping things this time. My last Mix of the Moment had musicals as the theme, and today, I'm going to talk about one of the more recent hits, Rent. Specifically, I want to talk about the movie. Now, I could go on about how true the movie was to the script and how great it was that they included the original cast. I could go on about how when I saw the musical, I was pretty confused, but the movie solidified the story. I could go on about how most musicals are way better on stage than on the silver screen, but Rent seems to break the mold at least in terms of being as good as the stage. I could go on about all that. But when it comes down to it, there's one thing I want to say concerning the movie version of Rent:

It's the only musical where the movie soundtrack is better than the stage recordings. WAY better!

Yes, the movie still has its moments where its odd because musicals are weird on the big screen. The singing feels awkward 'cause the actors movements are weird. But let's forget that for a second. Let's compare the music itself. That is, take the RENT musical CD and take the RENT movie CD and compare them. One of the first things musical lovers will probably notice is that the movie versions of some of the songs are conderably shorter. The song "RENT" itself has a lot of conversational pieces cut out. But when you think about it, the new version is a lot tighter, and takes out the unnecessary.

But it's not things like cuttting out lyrics that make me think the movie version of RENT is better than the stage version - in fact, if I was a hardcore fan, that would be the kind of thing that would upset me. No. what it is is the production values on the movie version. It seems like everything on the movie version has been turned up to 11 on the Spinal Tap amp. Everything feels louder and lot more polished than the stage recording. Everything just feels so much more pumpy when you're listening to it. That's pretty much the best way I can describe it. When it comes down to it, it's just better, louder recordings. But for a musical like Rent, that really plays a big role. Rent's musical arrangement with lots of heavy guitars and drums deserves a heavy polished recording - and kudos to Chris Columbus for recruiting that American Idiot producer to do this soundtrack - 'cause it completely blows the stage version out of the water.

Normally, I'd say something like, to all the other musical adaptation directors, take note of how Rent was done. But then again, if I thought about it more, it wouldn't necessarily be true. Because musicals like Phantom or Les Mis don't really lend themselves to more loud and pumpy recordings. I guess what I'm saying is, try to keep the original cast, and record very polished versions of the songs - that's the only way they'll stack up the gorgeous cinematography that any decent film will produce. (btw, all this talk does not apply to Moulin Rouge, because Moulin Rouge started out as a movie, it wasn't an adaptation - and its soundtrack is brilliant!). Alright, I'm pretty sure my point has come across somewhere in my rantings, and I can't think of a nice conclusive statement. So, peace out. Thanks for reading.

Casey's Mix of the Moment 2007.03.15

Alright, the lack of updates is due to my lack of sleep due to my lack of time to do anything. So I do apologize. And it always sucks when the update that finally comes isn't really that big of an update, so sorry for that to. And for anybody who thinks musicals suck, I'm sorry for this too:) Alright, this edition of Casey's Mix of the Moment is a mish mash of musical tracks - yes, I am a straight male who will admit to listening to musicals. Alright, enjoy and thanks for reading.

1. Seasons of Love - Rent (Movie version)
2. I Still Believe - Miss Saigon
3. Come What May - Moulin Rouge
4. Close Every Door to Me - Joesph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat
5. Life Support - Rent (Movie version)
6. He Lives in You - The Lion King
7. One More Day - Les Miserables
8. All I Ask of You - The Phantom of the Opera
9. Will I - Rent (Movie version)
10. El Tango de Roxanne - Moulin Rouge
11. I'll Cover You Reprise - Rent (Movie version)
12. Who am I - Les Miserables
13. Your Song - Moulin Rouge
14. Finale B - Rent (Movie version)

She's a waitress, but not at Dean & Deluca anymore

So somewhere sitting in my top 5 most beautiful women in the world lies one Keri Russell. Starring in the WB Series Felicity and moving on to do small parts in We Were Soldiers, The Upside of Anger, and, M:I:3, she's slowly being recognized around the world. Anyway, ever since Felicity, she's always been one of my favourite actresses to watch. Just like Jake Gylenhal since October Sky, it's nice when these kind of people get roles. Like you feel like you discovered them, or you have a special place in your heart for them, so you get excited anytime they get work. Will Smith when he got Ali was another example.

Anyway, long story short, Ms. Russell is in a new movie called Waitress - not sure how great it looks, but it's nice to see Keri get some work. Check out the trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/waitress/. Thanks for reading.

There I sit, .3 under the rest of North America

Well, in my endless pursuit of being able to sustain a decent run for parkour, I decided to attempt for the 5,234th time to get into shape. Thanks to my friend Alayne, I've got an exercise program going that I'll hopefully be able to adhere to. Now here's the thing, to monitor progress, of course the BMI plays into effect.

For those of you who have never measured your BMI, may I recommend you do so. You just may be surprised where you lie. See, I thought I was somewhere in the average category, not exaclty healthy, but not exactly terrible either. Turns out, I'm sitting only .3 under the obese category! I'm not scared, or sad or anything - but it's just surprising to be in that category. Guess it's a good thing I'm going on an exercise program.

Anyway, the link that Alayne gave me is here http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/, and again, I recommend if you haven't done it, you should definitely check out your body mass index. You might be surprised. Thanks for reading.

Audi's got an A up its sleeve

K, by now, for all those super car lovers this is kind of old news (as in about a couple of days old), but it looks like BMW 3 Series coupe might have a serious contender. At the Geneva Auto Show, Audi introduced the seriously good-looking Audi A5 coupe. To me, the 3 series coupe has always been the most perfectly proportioned car (and proportion = good looks), but now this A5 seems to be coming very close. Audi has definitely up'd its styling in recent years. Can't wait to see this car in person. Check out audi.com for pics and specs. Thanks for reading.

The World's going Green. Should Your Tea be too?

I can't remember how long ago, but somewhere along the line in my years of university I stumbled upon an upset to my Iced Tea status quo. Y'see, sweetened Iced Tea has been my favourite drink for a very long time. It has never let me down in no matter what situation and I haven't even come close to getting sick of it. So when the Iced Tea balance is thrown a curve ball with new flavours, I was skeptical.

Who am I kidding, I was ready to pounce on all the new flavours. Nestea introduced Raspberry and Peach flavours the Iced Tea mix - and although they're not amazingly better than the regular Nestea (if at all), they are a welcome change to the classic. But then came Green Tea Nestea.

When I had my first Green Tea Nestea, I remember thinking - hey, this isn't that sweet at all. This was followed shortly by a realization that sometimes, regular Nestea can just be too sweet. There are some occasions, say after eating some cookies at subway when you need something not so sweet. Water would be way too much in the unsweet category. And I hate the aspartame or nutri-sweet or whatever the hell taste that all diet drinks have.

Nestea Green Tea seem to be the perfect balance. It didn't taste as sweet as regular Nestea and it didn't have that awful diet taste you get with all diet drinks.

So all seemed well and good right?

Wrong. I naturally assumed that because of its relative unsweetness, that Nestea Green Tea had to be healthier than regular Nestea. This assumption lasted pretty much ever since Nestea Green Tea was introduced. Well, today I decided to actually put the bottles side by side and compare the Nutrional information. And guess what? Nestea Green Tea is actually more unhealthy than regular Nestea! What the hell!?!? Now, mind you, we're talking a 2g difference in sugars per 473 mL bottle, but still. When I eat something that tastes and feels healthier - I feel really jipped when it ends up not being healthier. It would be like eating salt-less Premium Plus crackers and finding out they had more sodium than salted ones. It just felt like a big jip.

Ah well, it is such a small difference and on top of that, I've never been one for being ultra healthy (actually quite far from it). To me, I usually only don't eat unhealthy things when they physically make me feel ill. But, maybe some of you readers out there do concern themselves with hyper healthiness. But chances are, if you are one of these people, you don't drink iced tea at all, so you just might say, this little discovery of mine is completely useless. Well, I guess there's a reason my blog is called "random thoughts of casey li". Anyway, thanks for reading.

How To Save A Life

Every now and then there comes a trailer for a movie that has such a wonderfully complex (not to be confused with complicated) plot that's laced within such a slice of life story that you think wow, if only I'd thought of that. Then the trailer amps up the greatest of it that much more.

The movie I'm talking about in this case is Reign Over Me starring Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler. The two way relationship between the two just seems so perfect yet not cliche. There's also a major plot point I found out while browsing the web that I won't ruin for anybody, but let me just say that I think this is quite an original take on it.

It opens March 23rd and I think, or at least I hope, it's gonna be one fo the movies to remember from this year. Check out the trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/reignoverme/. Thanks for reading.

Mmmmmmm 3

So a day or so ago, I wrote about how overrated the Nissan Z is. Well, if there's one car that's quite the opposite for me, that is completely deserving of all its praise, and a car I'm just dying to own someday, is the BMW M3. And lucky for us car lovers, the Geneva Auto Show presented us with some photos of the brand new 4th G BMW M3, and let me say, it is one sick looking car! Even the M side vent looks crazy amazing (the one in the photo attached to this entry)! And get this, V8 and more than 400 HP!!!! Sick! Be sure to check out the photos and www.caranddriver.com - you definitely don't want to miss this one. Thanks for reading.

iBetter

Well there have been complaints ever since iTunes 7 came out about resource hogging, hyper unstability on the windows version, and general-level bugs on both versions. Now the resource hoggage might not be fixed, but hopefully the stability has been tweaked with the release of iTunes 7.1 which was released today. So be sure to download the hell out of that!

On the plus side, there is a really nice feature added for all us old mac users. One big thing us old mac users has never had the privelege of having is Front Row - Mac's media center front end. Well, with iTunes 7.1, we're one step closer before Front Row is packaged in with OS X. That is, iTunes 7.1 features a full screen cover flow view which is definitely nice when you're hosting parties or just showing off your nice machine. Either way, we'll see how this update goes. Thanks for reading.

Casey's Mix of the Moment 2007.03.04

So to coincide with my last posting about hip hop, this edition's Mix of the Moment is gonna be hip hop based.

1. Definition by Black Star
2. Get 'Em High by Kanye West
3. Kick, Push by Lupe Fiasco
4. Get By (Remix) by Talib Kweli
5. If I Ruled the World by Nas
6. Numb/Encore by Jay-z/Linkin Park
7. Two Words by Kanye West (best hip hop song ever imo)
8. Repiration by Black Star
9. Know That by Mos Def f. Talib Kweli
10. Touch the Sky by Kanye West
11. Lucifer by Jay-z
12. Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix) by Kanye West

This Morning, I woke, feeling brand new

There was a time, way back in the day when I listened to the East Coast Family? The who? Y'know, Boyz II Men, ABC, BBD. When I was young, this was about as close to hip hop as I got. Then in my elementary school days, Beastie Boys had entered my life, and again, that's about as close to hip hop as I got. When I got to an age where I became quite music critical, there was very very very little hip hop that I appreciated. I think Nas was about the only wrapper that I really liked.

But that all changed a year or so ago, when a group of my friends and a fella named Dave Chapelle introduced me to probably the greatest hip hop in recent memory. No, I'm not talking about that lame hip hop that's being blasted around the airwaves. You see, my friends took me to see Dave Chapelle's Block Party which aside from being hilarious, showcased to me the greatest hip hop concert ever and became the start of my love affair with all the artists featured in that concert.

I'm talking Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Kanye West, Common, The Fugees, and more. Ever since I saw this movie, I've been completely sold on hip hop....errr good hip hop at least. After this, I even got my younger sister into hip hop who was quite against rap for awhile.

My point is, for those who are skeptical about the value of rap, go see Dave Chapelle's Block Party, then get your hands on the songs that I list in my next Mix of the Moment. You'll see that there's amazing music out there to be heard. Thanks for reading.

Casey's Mix of the Moment 2007.03.02

Haven't made a mix in a while, so there might be some overlaps here. Anyway, enjoy and thanks for reading.

1. Deathly by Aimee Mann
2. Alibi by David Gray
3. Falling Slowly by The Frames
4. Dogs by Damien Rice
5. Hello, I'm in Delaware by Dallas Green
6. Sweet L'il Duck by Kathleen Edwards
7. How It Ends by DeVotchKa
8. Gold In Them Hills by Ron Sexsmith Feat. Chris Martin
9. Home By Saturday by Hayden
10. Happiness by Abra Moore
11. I Won't Blame You by Pilate
12. What is this Love by Blue Rodeo Feat. Sarah Mclachlan

Casey's Simpsons Quote of the Moment 2007.03.02

Homer: Remember, Marge, it's uterus, not uteryou.

Z for Zero

I'm don't know what it is, but my blog entry titles seem to be getting worse and worse. Anyway. I'm not sure if this is just a temporary feeling or if its a true conclusion that I've come to. But today, as I saw one pass me, I decided that I really don't like the Nissan 350Z. It seems like one of those wannabe sports cars that's more affordable making it all that more accessible to posers. By no means do I think it's the most terrrible car on the planet, nor the ugliest, but I think it just gets way to much credit and love for a car that's just ok.

The opinion is similar to say something like Michael Bay films. If Michael Bay films didn't make so much money and didn't draw so much crowds, I'm sure people would be less critical of him. Of course The Island wasn't a great film, but I'd be hard pressed to watch Cop and a Half before I watch The Island. Same with the 350Z. Of couse I would have the 350Z over a Hyundai Accent or a Dodge Neon or a Saturn whatchamacallit, but a lot of people love the 350Z and that's why I'm criticizing it.

Yeah, ok, it was probably the most exciting car Nissan released in a while when it came out. But when I really sit down and look at it - it's kind of an ugly car. The front's not bad, but the back sucks. What's worse is the carbiolet version of it - man does it ever look ugly. The orange colour was nice when the car debutted, but now it's just getting old (almost like that puke dirty yellow the M3 came out in - I actually liked it when it came out, but now it's kinda ugly).

Here's just some measurement of my disdain for the 350Z. I would rather have the following cars before I'd take a 350Z: Honda Civic, Volvo S60, Nissan Maxima, Honda Accord, and new Ford Mondeo. Now of course I'd want a Porsche, an S2000, and a WRX before I want a 350Z, but that doesn't really guage my dislike for the 350Z.

It's not so much the performance of the car, it's more the styling. The more I see it, the more I hate it.

I will tell you this though. I absolutely LOVE the styling of the Infiniti G Coupe. I know it's essentially the same frame work, but the curves and minimalist styling works so much better. The G Coupe in fact is one of the most beautiful cars on the market today in my opinion. And even the spy photos of the new Skyline that borrows styling from the 350Z looks pretty decent. There's something just so cheap looking about the 350Z.

Now don't get me wrong, if one of my friends got one of these, I'd be all over it. And if someone offered me one, hell ya' I'd take one. But there's just so many other cars I'd rather have than the 350Z, and when it comes down to it, it's just a really overrated car - especially in the looks department. Thanks for reading.