Street Fighter: Where are they now?

Ten years after the Street Fighter saga began, the warriors regroup for a final fight ... but this time, it may be a mortal combat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLrWgVPeCzI

Hey, is it "hadouken"? I always thought it sounded like "aboogit" or something. Well, you learn something new everyday. There are 9 parts in all. The other 8 episodes can be accessed from the "Related Videos" panels.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is proof that fanbase-driven indies can be far better than cheesy commercialized big-name crap. I'm referring to that ridiculous movie they tried to make on the SF franchise back in the 90s. Ugh.

Speaking of which, CAPCOM has apparently not had enough of an embarassment with the first attempt, and wants to have another go at it. Let's see how they handle this one.

Azumanga Daioh

Ah, just finished watching Azumanga Daioh ... nearly 4 years after the first time I saw it. I bought my own copy recently, and it was worth every dollar (plus the relatively exhorbitant shipping). This is truly one of those feel-good Japanese animations. It's not quite a comedy, drama or action series. A bit like Seinfeld, it's a series "about nothing". The series in general is free of serious issues ... just the drama of the completely ordinary lives of 6 girls in high school. But there's something about each of the girls with which we can all identify. I personally feel closest to Sakaki, who loves small cute animals, but can't keep one and has trouble even getting close to one. A great watch anytime.

Garb for Geeks. Nyeh-heh-heh!

http://www.thinkgeek.com

If you are a geek to any degree, you will grin ear-to-ear browsing through this site. The designers of these products go beyond mere stereotypes, having creatively come up with stuff that embodies the essences of true geek cultures. Some of my favorites:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/724a/ : The geek love poem. For the non-geeks, #FF0000 and #0000FF are red and blue in hex color code, and All Your Base Are Belong To Us is a well-known geek meme.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/apparel/hats-ties/9352/ : Now if only I had an 8-bit suit to go with it.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/5d6a/ : 127.0.0.1 is the IP address that represents the universal home, or local host, address

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/illuminated/8e31/ : Hey, nobody seems to be winning.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/popculture/78c6/ : Scaryyyyyy!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/6a17/ : On the bright side, it's far more robust than your regular LCD watch.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/sciencemath/8953/ : Not quite the popular definition of heavy metal, but technically quite accurate

If you haven't had your fill of geekiness, here's a little bonus: http://www.ducttapefashion.com/

 

Adowable Widdle Hammie

Aaaaaaaaaah, cuteness overload. >_<

Toonatomy

Have you ever wondered what the skeletal structures of your familiar cartoon characters would look like had they been real life species. Well, thanks to this imaginative osteo-artist, you can now see how the bone structures of Felis Hello, Homo Powerpuffensis, and Canaria Tweetus might appear if they actually existed.

http://michaelpaulus.com/gallery/v/character-Skeletons/

Benny Lava, the Internet phenomenon

Following in the footsteps of Daler Mehndi's Tunak Tunak Tun amusing Westerners with his mellow bhangra, Benny Lava steps in as the new face of Indian philmi music in Western popular culture.

Buffalax's newest faux translation of the lyrics of Kalluri Vaanil has become one of the hottest videos on YouTube, with over 2.2 million hits in about 3 months, and counting. He managed to come up with lyrics that barely match the Tamil song's sounds (especially believable for those unfamiliar with Dravidian phonology), and somehow manages to cram jetpacks, gay nuns, sadists and mobile ninjas into his version. The fast-paced song hits you so fast that you have no time to absorb the absurdity of buffalax's lyrics. And Prabhu Deva whacky dancing to the same absurd lyrics makes for a true ROTFLMAO.

This has become the latest internet phenomenon, with the more memorable lines googling up dozens of hits, and amateurs uploading videos of themselves dancing to the song (or trying to).

The others ...

On the note that is somewhat related to my last blog entry, I would like to narrate an incident of this day. I like thinking up puns and quips, so today I came up with "carat and schtick", which I thought was a clever pun on "carrot and stick". Amazingly enough, Google revealed that at least one other person had already thought of this pun and even used it in a statement about the diamond industry.

Seem as it may a quaint sentiment, this is one of the things I find most fascinating about the web. This is not the first time I have found one of my ideas repeated elsewhere. Nor will it be the last. 15 years ago, the chances of me finding this would have been practically zero. The silent connection I made with the author would have been lost in time and space.

With publishing becoming easier, the web is fast becoming a grand archive of human ideas. Everything we say here is recorded for all posterity - if not on the host, then on one of the archiving engines trawling and capturing the data on web at any given time. Of course, that can pose dangers of its own; for example, your prospective boss finding a now-scandalous rant you posted on an obscure comments board in a fit of anger during your days as a fiery juvenile ideologue.

But we're here and there's no turning back. They speak of network effect on the web, but the web IS the network effect. From the obscurity of a DARPA project, it has taken on a life of its own. It's called a disruptive technology, but disruptive is too weak a word for it. For those with the irresistable yearning to dispense and consume information, this is the instant market connecting information supply and demand. And it's only the beginning. We sure do live in interesting times.