Blog

  • Wallace & Grommit coming October 2005

    March 12, 2005

    Visit Feature I just saw on Slashdot that there’s a new Wallace and Grommit feature film coming out in October! There’s a featurette over on the Apple Quicktime site.
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    DSri Seah
  • Bamboo Fine Asian Cuisine

    March 11, 2005

    Today, I had the pleasure of having sushi with Bob at Bamboo Fine Asian Cuisine, in Westford Massachussetts. The restaurant serves a variety of Chinese and Japanese food, which would ordinarily be a recipe for disaster, but the sushi and service was very good even though the place was bustling with activity. I had a few pieces of tuna, salmon, and unagi, a spicy tuna hand roll, and half of a “Godzilla roll”. It was an inside-out maki roll with avocado, crab, tempura bits, and a bit slab o’ unagi on top of the whole thing. It was quite rich and delightful.

    To get to Bamboo, take 495 to exit 32. I was coming from the north, so I took a left off the exit and then a right onto Route 110 (Littleton Rd). Go about a half mile, and you’ll see signs for the Residence Inn Westford (Marriott) on your left. The restaurant is in the plaza, on 1 LAN drive, which doesn’t show up on any maps. Once you find the plaza, you’ll see the sign for Lan Drive and the restaurant immediately next to it.

    UPDATE 3/15/2005

    On Tuesday, I returned with buddy Jeff to have a go at the Chinese side of the menu. We got there at 7:30PM, were seated quickly, and proceeded to have a fairly mediocre time. Service was somewhat spotty (we may have been slightly underdressed). The menu was Americanized Chinese: General Gau’s Chicken, Mooshi Pork, etc. We ordered a “Bamboo Specialty” item: Crispy Sesame Beef, which means it’s supposed to be good. Also Kung Pao Chicken, Szechuan Style Tofu, and Salty Pepper Pork. I also had a bowl of Hot and Sour soup. All the items had that slightly overcooked, sweet “shared seasoning” taste I have come to expect from successful neighborhood Chinese restaurants: Not terrible, but not terribly exciting. Even my fortune cookie was stale. On the other hand, I tend to like the brisker style of Chinese food presented fast and hot on-the-fly like they do it in the better restaurants in Chinatown. This meal’s score: B-, with atmosphere saving it from a C+. Maybe the lunch buffet is better, but I wasn’t impressed.

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    DSri Seah
  • Magical Adventures in Space

    March 11, 2005

    Visit Site One of my favorite online reads is Jeffrey Rowland’s strip Magical Adventures in Space. Humbly drawn, the draw of the strip for me is in the characters and the way they talk. Topato Potato is a Space Potato made of poison and has incredible bludgeoning power, which he uses indiscriminately accompanied with high-toned language. Sheriff Pony is his nominal boss, and enjoys being polite. They’re Princess Awesomelope Dongle’s Royal Warriors, and they go around having…magical adventures in space!

    Visit Site Magical Adventures in Space actually picks up, sorta, from Rowland’s previous effort Wigu, which was the story of this boy Wigu, his goth sister Paisley, and their parents. Mom is a stockbroker. Dad makes a living composing music for pornographic films. They’re all good guys. Magical Adventures in Space is the cartoon that Wigu likes, except of course it’s actually real. The drawing is cruder, but the dialog is pure multisyllabic bliss; If you’re a fan of Tony Millioniare and Steve Purcell, you know what I mean. The writing, man, the writing!

    Rowland has some internal logic at work that just works for me: the 7 year-old adventuring spirit as interepreted by a still-kickin’ sardonic adult brain. It’s also, surprisingly, somehow emotionally true to itself. Great stuff, if you’re a demented kid at heart like me :-)

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    DSri Seah
  • Reason 3.0 Released Redux!

    March 10, 2005

    I forgot to mention that the whole reason (heh) for my earlier post was that new version 3.0 is officially released today! Woo hoo! The new features seem to be related to mastering and performance, and of course there is a new soundbank. Cool! I may have to run to the Apple Store or Guitar Center and grab a small keyboard in celebration.

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    DSri Seah
  • Reason 3.0 Release!

    March 10, 2005

    Visit Site One of these days I plan on actually trying to noodle with music, but I’ve finally accepted that it’s one of those things that I need to take lessons for to get started. However, as this realization occured just last week, it hadn’t prevented me from already acquring a number of musical instruments already. In the electronic category is a piece of software from a company that I just like: Swedish software developer Propellerheads. They released a software-only synth studio called Reason back in 2001 that, unlike a lot of music software, was rock solid stable. It came in a cool box with cool packaging, ran on both Mac and PC without apology, and was packed with cool samples. It easily replaces ten thousand dollars worth of studio gear, for about 300 bucks, and it’s all virtual.

    Reason 2.5 Virtual Instruments Since then, virtual instruments have become pretty mainstream, but I’m excited to see the Propellerhead is still pushing out their product. I have a copy of Reason that I’ve never really used, music n00b that I am. The GUI is very pretty, too, filled with exciting simulated LCDs, brushed metal, and knobs.
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    DSri Seah