The book concept still reminds me kind of the storyline from the Japanese book and movie Battle Royale. Anyway, here’s the trailer for The Hunger Games:
New Hunger Games Theatrical Trailer
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Author Archives: Ed Pham
Notorious B.I.G. Calms Down a Baby?
I’ve seen videos like this before. A husky howling to calm down a crying baby. TV shows. And music too… But Biggie Smalls?
(Via CNNSI.com)
$28
“$30. That can feed a family of four in Viet Nam for a month.” –My Dad, to me
… I headed downtown with some guys in my small group this past Monday as part of a serving event we participate in. We get the opportunity to serve Seattle’s homeless dinner with the Lord’s Table, a program that serves the homeless every Monday through Thursday. It’s good in the sense that we know that they’ll get a good hot meal that evening. It wasn’t exactly the warmest weather either. But getting the opportunity to talk to them, hear their stories, and just serve their needs is something we’re called to do as Christians.
We’ve all served through the Lord’s Table numerous times. But as the first couple of individuals came around, I think for a number of us, there was a bit of surprise and heartache. Continue reading
NBA 2K12 – The Great Debate Commercial
This is a great commercial. I couldn’t stop laughing at “Double Mutumbo” and who shows up after the Miami Heat guy says “South Beach is king!”
A Choir Emulating a Storm
Here’s a choir using their hands and bodies to emulate a storm. It’s in the first few minutes of this clip:
Samuel L. Ipsum
This is kinda funny: Samuel L. Ipsum. I’ve linked the lite and SFW version (See the upper right hand corner for the NSFW version). It’s an alternative to the Lorem Ipsum that you find in doing dummy text. I recognized a couple of the quotes from there, namely this one from Samuel L. Jackson’s more well known roles:
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know My name is the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon thee.
Guess which movie this is from? Better yet, what book did he quote this from? (Thanks to Benji for the link).
The Johnny Cash Project
Now this is pretty cool. It started last year, but still going on today. It’s called the Johnny Cash Project. It’s a music video of Johnny Cash’s last song, “Ain’t No Grave”. However, instead of real film footage, people can draw a frame in the video and submit it to the project. Then users can vote on the best drawing for that frame. Eventually, they take the top vote getter for each frame and compile it to form the entire video. A very creative idea.
Barcelona/Manchester United Passing Graph
Now here’s something interesting to look at. It’s a passing and touches graph for the Barcelona/Manchester United game on Saturday.
If you’re curious to what this is… The bigger the circle, the more times the individual touched the ball. The bigger the arrow, the more passes made from the origin of the arrow to the direction of the arrow. Note that the two people that touched the ball the most in the game are Iniesta and Xavi and the passing circle between Xavi, Iniesta and Messi.
As for the most passes made by Manchester United, it’s a close call between Van Der Sar and Rooney (long balls anyone?) and Rio Ferdinand and Vidic. Little passing made between the Man United midfielders, which shows the dominance of Barcelona pressing plus their midfield dominance.
Snakes on a plane? No, snakes on a train!
An alert in Vietnam for animal smugglers was released when four bags of deadly snakes were found on a train… It could be the start of the next sequel: Snakes on a Train!
Understanding Tiki-Taka… Barcelona’s Game
Taking a break from studying and figuring out applications needed for my group’s project for class, I started watching some of the highlights from the UCL championship game between FC Barcelona and Manchester United from Saturday afternoon. After watching the game on Saturday, I was kinda disappointed that Man United got beat handily by the team from Spain. Granted, I’m an Arsenal fan and definitely no Man United fan, I figured they would have prepared a bit better for the match when in fact they didn’t. The point of this article though isn’t to criticize Man United’s approach because they had to go about their own way to try to beat Barca.
The point of this article is understanding Barcelona’s approach to the game. What people don’t realize is that this team is, for the most part, the polar opposite of what most teams are these days. Most of their team is quite small. They’re also not the fastest team, nor the most physical team out there either. Yet, they manage to win games with such ease that it’s quite unbelievable. Sure, you can account skill for some of it, but when you watch their game, it doesn’t have the kind of explosive appeal that other teams might have, like say Real Madrid, Arsenal, or Manchester United. They don’t counterattack other teams nor do they regularly take powerful shots outside of the 18 (though Saturday’s game was definitely a change of pace with two goals scored from outside of the box from both Messi and Villa).
In order to understand Barca’s game, you have to understand Tiki-Taka. Tiki-Taka is the game in which you try to promote the short passing game, possession and patience. It’s not about getting goals quickly. It’s about controlling the pace of the game to your own pace. By controlling the possession, you not only enable the opportunities that you get to score goals, but also create few chances for your opponents to score, as well as tire them out from having to chase after you. The emphasis here is on the short passing. Rarely do you see a ball go across the field in the air in an attacking position such that they head the ball in. It’s just to create space and maintain control. Continue reading