I had one of these good and sucky all in one days.

Good: Going to Google’s headquarters to shoot a video for a company. Then, I had a nice lunch with JBQ there. I spent most of my day editing that video today, since I need to have it ready ASAP for a presentation.

Bad: Cage the Elephant’s marketing staff got me a press pass for the band’s concert in SF after TWO weeks of having me “on the wait”, in order to review the performance for a music magazine that I very occasionally write for. But by some sort of miss-communication in the morning, they removed my photo/video pass request. I emailed them at 1 PM with the exact requirements, but they didn’t reply to that email. I emailed again, and by 4 PM they told me it’s too late to get authorization for photo/video (I requested a pass for a 1-minute video, nothing more than that). So I got pissed off, and I didn’t go to the concert. I mean, I wanted to go there to visually also show to readers how it feels to be there, it wasn’t for that 16 bucks the ticket costs. Thank God, I can afford these 16 bucks. I must say that in the 10 years that I am dealing with PR/marketing people of various software/hardware companies, I never had major problems with them. As much as engineers like to poke fun at their marketing people, the technology marketing people rule compared to the entertainment ones.

Good: While still thinking that I have a photo pass, and while at Google, I stumbled at Romain Guy, a software engineer (and serious photographer) who works along my husband on Android (read at the end of this article about the funny way I got to know Romain). He was trying to sell his (second) Canon 5D Mark-II, and I was in need for a good low-light camera for the concert tonight. So I bought it. It looks good so far, although its ergonomics are a bit schizophrenic.

Bad: I can’t put off that laundry anymore. I hate laundry.

Of course, the 7D is a better deal in terms of video, and I still suggest to all of you to go for the 7D instead of the 5D. I went with the 5D because the price was right (as a second hand unit), we have lenses that better suit the 5D, and because I needed the camera tonight for the concert (that I eventually didn’t go).

Ok, off to go watch “V” now. After I start off that stupid laundry…

JBQ and I went for a walk at the San Gregorio beach today, so I snapped some bird pictures with my Canon SX200 IS digicam. All pics are CC-BY 3.0.

Please take the poll below and let me know if you would like me to continue re-posting my Twitter posts on this blog daily. You see, some of you already follow me on Twitter, and on Facebook (which my Twitter updates are also getting copied), so it might be too much of an annoying duplication for some of you. On the other hand, for the rest of the readers who don’t follow me on Twitter/Facebook, without these Twitter updates there isn’t much blogging going on (you might have noticed, I don’t blog small tidbits anymore, as Twitter has taken over that role). In any case, let me know.

Update: So, it’s settled. Thanks.

• LOST’s Carlton Cuse: “Still thinking about Avatar. Seeing it in Imax 3D — its the moment I realized 2D, 24 FPS filmmaking is soon to be archaic.”
• It makes me sick. It really reminds me of the South Park episode about Paris Hilton and how to become a better slut.
• "The Book of Inkscape" arrived in our home, need to write a review about that too. #
• I wonder why there is no South Park episode about the iPhone and its minions. It would be so fitting… #
• Europe is a very different place than the US: here #
• RED just announced their newest vaporware camera accessories. That company is becoming a joke with each passing day. #
• "Group calls David Letterman's behavior inappropriate in the workplace" says CNN. I disagree, as long as sex was consented between two adults. #
• The only thing I found inappropriate was Letterman having these affairs while he was still on a relationship with the mother of his child. #
• Extrapolating his apology to his then-gf-now-wife on air, she didn't know about these affairs, which makes Letterman sleazy at the least. #

The decade is almost out, so it’s time for my best-of list. Here we go:

Most influential tech
1. iPhone smartphone
2. iPod mp3 player
3. Mainstream HDTV
4. Digital cameras
5. Nintendo Wii

Most influential camcorder
1. Canon HV20 (has the strongest subculture)
2. Canon GL-2
3. Panasonic HVX-200
4. Canon XH-A1
5. Panasonic DVX-100

Most influential cellphone
1. iPhone
2. Blackberry
3. Motorola RaZR
4. Nokia Communicator
5. Palm Treo

Best album
1. Cloud Cult – Feel Good Ghosts
2. Madonna – Confessions on a Dance Floor
3. Blitzen Trapper – Furr (3 free songs)
4. Longwave – Secrets are Sinister
5. AFI – Sing the Sorrow

Best song
1. Cloud Cult – The Tornado Lessons
2. Coldplay – Talk
3. Fleet Foxes – Mykonos
4. Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
5. Midlake – Head Home
6. Blitzen Trapper – Sci-Fi Kid
7. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
8. AFI – Girl’s Not Grey
9. Muse – Map Of The Problematique
10. Madonna – Paradise (Not for Me)

Best TV show
1. Lost
2. Firefly
3. South Park
4. BSG
5. 24 (season 2 only)

Best movie
1. The Lord of the Rings (trilogy)
2. District 9
3. Equilibrium
4. X-Men (trilogy)
5. Iron Man

Coolest random stuff of the decade
1. Taking the lid off on global warming
2. An African-American President
3. The two Mars rovers
4. Smartphone revolution
5. Creative Commons

Worst stuff of the decade
1. Too many wars
2. Global warming
3. Terrorism
4. Recession
5. RIAA/MPAA against the People

• Much congrats to Adobe for bringing Flash to major smartphone platforms and adding GPU accel to desktop as well. This is so cool for video. #
• Apple is making fools of themselves for not working with Adobe on this. It just shows how stupid an otherwise innovative corporation can be. #
• I think I am a bit sick tonight… Hopefully it's not flu. #
• After years of searching, I found Greek-style crackers to eat with my Greek mountain tea with honey. Now the experience is complete. #
• I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I am going back to bed. #
• I was going to get the MSI U200, but after the latest Flash news about accel, I want one w/ nvidia chip. Which means a Macbook or Latitude. #
• The dropbox iPhone client can only upload pics because there isn't a usb/fat32 independent common file area. One of my iPhone gripes. #
• Bought 20 Minute Hourglass' EP on iTunes. Local Bay Area band, very good sound. They have potential. @indiequick #
• Damn you Aaron of Live105's Soundcheck. You're making me buy more music. Just bought the Band of Skulls album too. But, but, it was only $6. #
• I can't stand "House MD" anymore. After 2 years of cast changes, the cast is back to the original one, like nothing happened. As for his… #
• …addiction, it went away & came back. In other words, absolutely nothing has changed in the characters in the last 5 years. Terrible show. #
• Received Premiere Elements 8 in the mail, will write review soon. Just for fun. #

• Watched “Terra”, a movie made by two Greeks. Good scifi movie. #
• I checked the state of the HF-S10/100 videos on Vimeo. Not a single artistic video made with these supposed HV-series replacement cameras! #
• The seasonal flu shot can make one twice as likely to get swine flu, a new study suggests. I was ready to get the shot yesterday but didn't. #
• Going to see our friend @david_adams (OSNews owner) later today. It's been a while. #
• WTF? Apple won't let me update my *free* ipod and iPhone apps just because my credit card expired. #

• Watched the Wolverine movie: plot moved too quickly (needed an additional 10 minutes), and there were a few too many super-heroes packed in. #
• Madonna vs Lady GaGa on SNL tonight. Madonna agreeing to do THAT sketch shows what I've always said: GaGa is the Madonna of the 21st Century #
• The opposition that GaGa gets today, is the same one as Madonna getting in 1985. I was alive and sentient back then folks, I know. #
• I do think Madonna also believes that GaGa is the only female pop artist who can match her success eventually. Spears, Rihanna, Aguil can't. #
• We did quite some retail therapy with @jbqueru today. Bought clothes, shoes, iPod accessories. I even got some Greek mountain tea! Yum! #
• People are reporting that their 7D shuts down after ~18 minutes of 60p recording (overheating). I think I'll wait for the next-gen VdSLRs. #

• The Letterman example is why I'd never marry a rock star or actor. I would never, ever, trust them. My life would be a hell because of it. #
• FlashForward is the second best TV show right now after LOST. Still, it doesn't come close to LOST, it has some implementation problems. #
• Twiiter has removed all @jbqueru's replies to me from my mentions list. Bloody bugs. That's why I hate software. It never works. #
• During "Heroes" last Monday a brand new Yahoo! ad was broadcasted. It had an amazing look & clarity. I wonder what camera they used for it. #
• I found the commercial: http://bit.ly/rrI5G It looked amazing on Comcast HD. Unfortunately it's not in HD on Youtube. #
• Stargate:Universe pilot: boring, predictable. The photography was poor, grading was non-existent. All in all, it felt cheap. #

• For yet one more time I see a show w/ million viewers like Grey's Anatomy having way fewer IMDb comments than a scifi show like FlashForward #
• It shows that people who watch shows like CSI, Greys, ColdCase etc, are just OLD people not in the 18-49 demographic (that advertisers want) #
• Therefore, 15 or 17 million viewers shows don't translate to as much money as a 10 million viewers sci-fi show. Only exception is House MD. #
• On most of my videos the horizon is not straight. It's not because I don't notice it, it's just because I don't want to deal with my tripod. #
• I think I want to move to Oregon. Portland or Salem. That is all. #
• Watched "Eastern Promises". Not a bad movie. I think I craved for a bit more romance in it though. #

• And just like that, I JUST received my Google Wave invitation! I am a bit lost in it though. #
• I think I want sushi tonight. Possibly. Maybe. Perhaps. Anything to distract me away from my boredom. Maybe a movie after that too. #
• What a whole load of sensational bull. Except the "Random Travel on a Whim", my @jbqueru isn't deprived by any of these: http://is.gd/3PvsW #
• My husband @jbqueru has over 1150 followers on Twitter now. He's an integral part of the Android open source community these days. #
• Just bought Animal Kingdom's "Signs & Wonders" album. It's only $7 on iTunes, and it has some really good tunes. #
• Spent 3.5 hours going through the backlog of just 4 days for new music releases on sites with legal free downloads. This is exhausting. #
• Apparently we will need some re-shoots for the music video I shot on Saturday. Additional scenes to flesh out the background story. #
• Mentioning in the invite form that I'm an ex-dev & married to a Google engineer brings nothing about getting to the Google Wave project. #

• Watched Smokin' Aces. Pretty good action flick. #
• Our order of the special Manuka honey arrived today in the mail. The packaging was disgraceful. It's a miracle its box arrived in one piece. #
• WD TV2: Give me Hulu, Netflix, Vimeo, accelerated Flash, 1080/60p up to 64mbps for h.264, and an iPhone Remote app, and then we're talking. #
• Roman Polanski should be extradited to US. Even if he didn't know the true age of the girl, he went on her even if she repeatedly said "no". #

• I started editing the music video, 18 tracks so far! Thank God I use a 1920×1200 monitor for editing, and a 1920×1080 monitor for preview! #
• Some people thought yesterday that @jbqueru and I are newlyweds. We keep kissing & embracing a lot you see, but we've been married for 8 yrs #
• While the Canon 7D has a pretty good meter, and histogram support in stills mode, it's not as convenient as actual zebra in video mode. #
• I just decided to not buy the Canon 7D. Yesterday's music video shoot proved to me one more time that I can't live without zebra support. #

• One thing interesting about X-Files (1993-2003) while watching the series in episode order: you can see how cellphones got improved over time! #
• While shooting the music video this morning over the Cliff House in SF, someone called the cops on us. Supposedly we made too much noise… #
• My "clean" Vista64 PC with just our editing/PS stuff in it is misbehaving. I think it's the graphics driver. I wish we had XP64 in there. #
• Just came back from a day’s music video shoot in the City for Andy Kong. Went well.
• Watched Bangkok Dangerous. Not as bad as people say it is.
• Dollhouse. The worst show on television. That was painful.
• I am definitely a geek, and not a nerd.

The rumors now say that 800m winner Semenya is a hermaphrodite. If that’s true, what should be done about her case? Should she compete with men, or with women?

I think that ultimately, biology should decide if Semenya is mostly a woman, or mostly a man. Her chromosomes should be analyzed, and a decision taken based on that. Chromosomes don’t fall in between, even if external examination reveals a hermaphrodite with both the sexual organs of a male and a female. Chromosomes can reveal if she’s biologically a woman, or a man, without an in-between.

No, this is not a case of discrimination, it’s about fairness to the other athletes. It’s about competing against others that bare the same biological characteristics as you are (no matter the personal sexual preference, and no matter the external organs). Since there is already a concrete scientific method at the biological level to recognize men from women, there’s no reason why not use that method.

Again, this is not about discrimination. In the case of gay marriage for example, it’s their business! No one should interfere with the sexual preference of other people! But in the case of competing against other athletes, it’s the business of these other athletes, as it has a direct impact on their careers. For example, usually only the first 6 of each competition get an extra prim (usually a few thousand dollars each). But if you happen to finish 7th, because the 1st place was won by someone who was biologically a man, sucks for you.

To my eyes, her body is mostly a man’s body btw. Even pro female athletes that have way too much muscle still look like women with muscles. Semenya on the other hand, she looks more like a man to my eyes. Look how she has no hips, something that it’s not possible to remove with body building (hips are required for easier birth, so it’s usually a tell-tell sign of a female, even among pro athletes). But that’s just external examination.

I hope she continues to live as a female, obviously this is her sex choice. But if her chromosomes tell another story, then she should compete with men. Nevertheless, this won’t be an easy decision for IAAF. It’ll be a PR disaster no matter which decision they take.

UPDATE: I just read on some AU newspapers that she has 3x the testosterone a female should have, because of internal testes, and she has no ovaries/womb. So basically she is a hermaphrodite, with female external reproductive organs, male internal, and male physic.

In my opinion, again, IAAF should rely on low level biology to determine the gender rather than what can externally be noticed by visual examination.

And if she?s found to actually be more of a woman rather than a man, then IAAF has no right to stop her from competing against women. Because in that case, she simply has a natural advantage, like some athletes are taller than others, or with longer legs than others, or with bigger lungs than others. She just happens to have more testosterone.

If IAAF bans *all* hermaphrodites off competition, even if there’s a scientific way to determine their gender at a biological level, then that’s a discrimination issue and they should be taken to court.