I’ve been collecting Yakitate Japan manga for quite a few months now. The hardest issues to find to date have always been the first two. So the moment I saw them in a store shelf, I had no hesitation in immediatly purchasing them. Normally I try to collect my manga in order, but since I have already seen all the anime and I have access to all the issues via the internets, I did not worry much.

Once you read the second volume and reach page 30, you’re hit with an bread baking recipee, that allows you to make bread using your ordinary house rice cooker. I thought this was kind of cool, and it gave me a bit of a nostalgic feeling towards the cartoons of my youth which contained similar stuff after every episode. So, of course I jumped at an attempt for it, seeing just how easy it seemed, and of course, I failed miserably.

Two attempts were made; On my first attempt, the dough did not rise. Heck, it never became dough. After constant kneading I ended up with a bowl of sludge. My mother, being more optimistic about it, baked it anyways and the results were decent. It reminded me a lot of the bread they sell at Cosi’s.

At attempt number two, everything went a bit smoother. Now with a bit more experience, I bought fresher items, and downloaded the same recipee off the net where a few more details were added.

Kneading was smooth for me this time and I managed to create the ball of dough I needed. Two hours past, the dough did not rise as much as I expected but I still managed. As per the online recipee, I jammed the on button so the cooker would not shut off prematurely and waited 30 minutes. During this time. Learned that only 5 minutes is all I needed. The charred areas tell that story.

After all was said and done, I ended up with some fairly easy and tasty bread. I can see myself playing around with this some more in the near future, maybe make a Ja-Pan #1 final. Now if only I had solar hands?

So, I ended up watching Pineapple Express this weekend. Yes, the movie was good. The comedy made me thing of Tarantino for some reason. While I entered expecting something more like Cheech and and Chong, I recieved a more realistic type of story. So what did I learn by watching this movie?

1. Rosie Perez, has some huge melons.
I was told, those were natural, but I honestly don’t recall those puppies being that large. Despite her age, that woman still looks hot though. The whole cranky police officer character, just had me wishing she would do some police justice on me. For this alone, the movie is worth watching.

2. Weed is not good for you.
Personally I don’t smoke the stuff, heck I don’t smoke anything at all. But I will admit, I would advocate for it, as I can see it would be the lesser of all the evils out there. Of course too much of it can be hazardous for your health, but the same can be said about water. There will always be some idiot, that takes things over the edge.

3. James Franco, really is a good actor. I’ve seen that guy do so many roles, and he makes the characters look so believeable. I do know some potheads (who doesn’t?) and I just kept laughing as most of the responces or conversations his character spat out, reminded me of those other friends.

4. Did I mention, I want Rosie Perez to wear a cop uniform and beat the crap out of me, while screaming disgusting blurbs at me? Who says movies don’t inspire new dreams?!

All in all, this movie was very good. To me the comedy would be equivalent to Pulp Fiction, which explains why the Tarantino feel to the movie. Definitely something I would purchase to add to my dvd collection, once it is out. And definitely something I could sit down and watch in theaters again.

Can you imagine, just how many stoners saw this movie over the weekend? I bet this movie tops #1 this weekend; that is assuming The Dark Knight doesn’t keep going strong.

This one actually kicks @$$. I was going through some of my old bookmarks and I found something that just baffles me. For starters take a look at the video here.

Wouldn’t you love to own your own lifesize R2D2? The damn thing moves like him too and seems to have a port for just about anything you will ever need him to do. A price of 2000. is a little too much for me though, that projector better be good for a price like that.

Now if they intergrated even more features into it like a Fridge/Cooler or even a cell phone docking station with a wireless bluetooth donglle or maybe some internal memory with wifi, so you can wireless upload all your music to it and finaly, some voice authentication. Then I would definiitely pay 2 grand or more for it.

For now though, the shit is still hot. Take a look and tell me I am wrong.

Back when I was 18 years old I was young and stupid. I had just received my first credit card and opened my first personal AOL account with it. After a few months use, I was hooked and easily fell victim for a phissing scam. Like I said though, I was young and stupid.

In my defense, back then, the internet was still becoming a mainstream thing. And not much warning was out there over phissing scams. Luckily for me, I was poor and tried to keep track of my finances. So when I noticed a huge number of new aol accounts opened up under my name, I immediately called AOL and my Credit card company. All in all, I lost 50 bucks and AOL refunded all the accounts back to me, a new card was issued and we all lived happily ever after. One thing I learned from that experience is to always be aware of your personal finances and read carefully before filling any information out. All my information is still out there, somewhere. And who knows who could be using my social security number.

My second experience with identity theft, was not my fault at all. In fact, I got a letter in the mail, from the last person I’d expect. Western Union. Turns out, their database was hacked and tons of my and thousands of other peoples information was downloaded.

So what is a guy to do, I thought I learned my lesson but there just seems to be no real security, when it comes to your identity staying in your hands. That’s where lifelock kicks in. Their services are made to secure your identity. In fact their own CEO is so confident, he himself has posted his own social security up for grabs in their front page. This was verified, and not surprisingly people have even attempted to use it. how do you know the service works? Simple, those people were caught and all is well that ends well.

Just a few more days, and I will be bidding the internets goodbye. At least for a short time. It will be an interesting time for me I think.

For those who don’t know I will be cutting off my internet and even giving away my pride and joy computer. At least for a month or two. Of course, I won’t be fully away. I still have internet access on my phone and I can check my email while at work. But when I get home, it will be time to read a nice good book. Maybe it will rejuvenate me and give me ideas of what to write in future blog posts, be it this blog or my personal one. I will still attempt to write stuff here as well, I have actually managed to write a number of posts here via my blackberry and they came out just fine.

You might have noticed my advertising has been a bit more aggresive lately, but it won’t be for too long. I was hoping to make enough to make sure I can renew the domains I own and hosting. For another year, plus buy myself a soda with some chips, like the last time.

Please wish me some luck, I can already feel the shakes starting. If you wish to tell me anything you can find me via Twitter. My username is MDSanta or email me at animerem ]AT[ Gmail.com
Wish me some luck.