Two Decades Back

As lame as things were back then, there's always a bit of some nostalgia from the '90s. Fashion and technology, yup, all of its culture.

Remember how they dressed back then?

"Honey, do these make my butt look big?"

Yes, they do.

I can't forget those retro sunglasses! Then...

...the environment-unfriendly gas hungry cars... (My dad used to own one!) and locally, the patrol cars. Whatever happened to them? Probably scrapped and sold.



And finally, their technology.

Burger King, too.



Go, go, Power Rangers! HAHA.

Make the Asian the yellow one, the African American the black one, and the redhead (or so it seems) the red one. Let the cute one be pink, and for every other color let there be a white guy. Funny how I never noticed this as a kid. :D

(Obviously, none of these pictures are mine and they belong to their respective owners. I would actually bother to go out and take them myself if they still existed. SJPD patrol car photo used with permission, from Ack Ook.)

Itsies & Bitsies

Quite a bit has been going on in the last few days of school, now in its single digits. I've been trying to cram all the things a high school student could possibly ever do before I begin a new adult life.

Tuesday, May 11th: I made a companionship with a drunk guy at a bar. With eyes glued on the TV, I was drawn to the Vancouver Canucks vs the Chicago Blackhacks hockey game when a voice from the right called out, "You from Chicahhgo?" (Notice the Chicago accent) How random was that? I tell him no and he begins chattering away his game remarks, and needless to say, we got along pretty well. We were both rooting for Chicago and wanted to see them play against the SJ sharks soon. For that moment, I got to taste the moment of how men bond with a mix of beer and sports. (LOL)


Okay, I lied, it wasn't really a full on bar, but I was really at SmokeEaters, trying out their deal of the chicken wing deal of the day. There were no seats left except the stools on the bar of the store so I sat there. So stop making me feel bad, I had no where else to sit on a crowded discount day. So the food, yes it was FANTASTIC; I'm HOOKED. I came back on Thursday for their weekly tender deal and sent my stomach and taste buds to heaven. Omnomnom. Burp.

And since I brought my camera that day, I decided to stroll around downtown and snap snap. It's my playground in America.

Looks like Las Vegas. But this was just between 2nd and 3rd streets at San Fernando.

Night lights of the historic district.

On Wednesday, May 19th, my friend Derek and I conspired to cut school and have fun. Gosh, I don't know, it's my first time. :B Okay, well it was for a reason, and that was to see the Amgen Tour of California for the last time in the Bay Area. Took lots of pretty pictures, or cool ones, I thought.

Picture of me and Derek.

So after we took this picture, a man asked me to do the same with his much more expensive camera. He said, "Don't drop it, or I'll smack you." Oh, you Americans. (He was obviously joking.)

Jons Voigt, the famous professional German cyclist.

YES, my picture of Lance Armstrong! It was definitely hard shot with people's hands and heads in the way.

Start gun fired at 11 AM.

Picture with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. Man, this guy's cool.

Picture with Chuck Reed wasn't easy either. After shouting at the Mayor asking for a picture and he agreed, I had to jump a crowd control fence past stage security and was yelled at. Whatever, I didn't care, neither did the mayor. Well, mostly because the guard's English was masked by an thick accent making it unintelligible. So we snapped in right front of the guard to get him out of the picture (not the yellow guy on the right). Shut up, jeez.

So that's that.

And now here I am. 7 school days left, ready to go.
I am thankful for another mom from halfway across the world who wakes up at 4 AM to reply to my emails. A mom who, with just keyboard strokes and nothing more than ordered characters, still manages to be able to send her uplifting emotions by intangible means. Like magically sending smiles.

I am grateful for everything this year and much, much, more grateful for those who have taken their time to care and to love. Friends and family. I love them all, with all my heart.

Graduation's going to be a bitch for me.

Copyright Infringement Claim (Mine!)

Okay.

So apparently, some idiot is using one of my images and releasing it under his name under an "all rights reserved" license. What this means is that you reserve all rights to a specific content, and it's something you do when it is your creation, your work, and that in order to use, print, distribute--whatever--you must ask the holder of this license before you do so.

It's a picture I made about 4 years ago in commemoration of the September 11 attacks, which was this image:
It was one of the works created when I was beginning to get acquainted with Photoshop. So what am I going to do? File a copyright infringement claim, of course. Clearly my watermark is stamped on the bottom left of the digitally photomanipulated work (see enlarged size), and of course, I'm a bit angry with the fact that he uploaded it under the "all rights reserved" copyright. I would have been fine if he credited and linked me--well, maybe--but releasing saying it's yours? No way in hell.

If I took your homework and and wrote my name on it and turned it in, how would you feel? (LOL)

So here's my claim that I sent to Yahoo!, which runs the popular online photo sharing site, Flickr.

Good morning,

Thank you for your assistance. Below is an updated notice with the
requirements needed to further process this claim.
----------

This notice serves as legitimate claim that I, under penalty of the perjury in the State of California and the United States of America, believe my work was violated here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/coffin911/2172917610/) by the user Coffin911 who took the original image from deviantArt (http://atsuke.deviantart.com/art/September-11-2001-Memorial-38843552) under my online name and reuploaded it under an "All Rights Reserved" license, and therefore is unauthorized to do so without my permission that was never given.

A valid address and telephone number where I may be contacted is as follows:
***** *****
San Jose, CA 95***
(***) ***-****

Here is a link to my deviantArt page: http://atsuke.deviantart.com/, holding the *exact* image that is **timestamped August 29, 2006** found in the gallery that might assist you in your investigation. The image itself also contains a copyright watermark on the lower left corner. Furthermore, a journal entry has been submitted on that deviantArt userpage regarding this matter to prove that I am the legitimate person of that account.

I have good faith belief that the use of the unauthorized, copyrighted material just described on Flickr is in violation of the original copyright held by me, and of copyright laws of the United States. This request is for Yahoo! to disable or take down the unauthorized image on Flickr as I intend it to be viewable only on deviantArt at this time.

I would also like to ask that, should Yahoo! contact me through phone, to call only after the hours of 15:00 from Monday to Friday. Please leave a voicemail if I do not pick up, and I will guarantee that your message will be heard and called back. I however prefer the method of email as it is convenient.

Thank you for your cooperation!
[electronic signature]

(The above signature will, for this specific email message, serve as a valid electronic signature equal to that of a handwritten signature. I certify that I am the person making this claim and that all information in this notice is accurate under penalty of perjury.)

We'll see how it goes over the next few days. :|

B**ch.


Update (19:11): I won the case. :) They finally disabled the image. [see here] Below is their response.

Hello,

Thank you for reporting this incident to Yahoo!. We have taken the
appropriate action.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Regards,

Copyright/IP Agent, Yahoo! Inc.

Harharhar.

I Don't Want Freedom Yet

One more month!

Time is slipping through my fingers and I'm not even noticing it. I guess the more accurate representation of how much time is remaining should be 4 weeks left. Summer has been knocking on my door but I'm afraid of opening it; I have so many things to do in so little time, yet, I have reasons to be and not to be lazy.

Honestly, I could care less of whatever assignments handed to me between now and June, but my personal standards continue to push me on from the past twelve years of school. I could work, but it would leave me with little time to spend the remaining days of my high school year. I could study intensely, but that would leave me with no time to communicate with my host family. I could relax, but my grades will threaten my acceptance to college. There are too many things in my hand to balance all at once, within one month, but I'm definitely trying.

I have two choices: Produce time or produce productivity. The choice is obvious, but I'm in for some hell. But, but, I don't want to go through hell! B-b-b-----Goddamnit! I need to focus.

No butts buts.

:|