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Treasury.gov is an official website of Treasury Direct.

What is Treasury Direct?

TreasuryDirect is the first and only financial services website that lets you buy and redeem securities directly from the U.S. Department of the Treasury in paperless electronic form. You enjoy the flexibility of managing your savings porfolio online as your needs and financial circumstances change - all the time knowing your money is backed by the full faith of the U.S. government.

We offer product information and research across the entire line of Treasury Securities, from Series EE Savings Bonds to Treasury Notes. Our new TreasuryDirect accounts offer Treasury Bills, Notes, Bonds, Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), and Series I and EE Savings Bonds in electronic form in one convenient account.


To know more about Treasurydirect.gov, visit their website at treasury.gov.

Random Chats : Chatroullete

Out of curiosity last year I tried Omegle, a random chat mate pairing. Just like Chatroullete, one of the top searches keyword for 2010.

What makes people enjoy random chat particularly Chatroullete? 


There are times you might get bored just surfing the net and most of your friends are offline, you might want to try chatting with a total stranger. You never know where your chat will lead, it can be fun or idiotic. But the good thing is, if you find your chatmate boring, you can easily drop the talk without feeling guilty at all.


Here are various websites that offers random chat mate.


Chatroullete.com

At Chatroullete, user is required to have a webcam before you can start chatting. User are also given an option to change the background from a colorful one to just plain white.




























Omegle


Although Chatroullete is much popular than any other, Omegle is also a great option to Chatroullete. With Omegle, users are given an option to chat whether voice with cam or just plain text. With text option, users without webcam have a chance to chat to talk to strangers.

Tworl.com

Facebook may have conquered the social networking, Tworl somehow give an exciting side of social networking. Users may be required to register, upon registration, users will start to search for match and start chatting then. Afterwards, a 48 hours will be to two chatters if they want to accept or reject each other as friend. Way different to Facebook, right?






Lollichat.com

Similar to Chatroullete, user is also required to have a webcam. Aside from typical features, Lollichat offers a translator that will give users a chance to chance a wider coverage.














Misham.com

Since most of the sites featured offers webcam capable, Misham on the other hand offers plain text. 




If you're conventional chatter, you might remember mIRC which is now available in WebIRC.

Chile earthquake

Sunday, a magnitude-7.1 earthquake shook southern Chile. Vicente Nunez, head of The National Emergency Office of Chile reported that there were no deaths or damage and no tsunami alert was issued, 

Nunez said:

"There has been no harm to people, no harm to property,"  "We will continue monitoring."

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii also said a destructive Pacific Ocean-wide tsunami was not expected.

President Sebastian Pinera urged calm in an address to the nation.

President Pinera said:

"There was an exercise of self-evacuation, which is exactly what we have asked people to do," 

"Fortunately we do not have to lament accidents or losses of life."

Brandon Vera Photos

Unfortunately, Brandon Vera loses his match against Thiago Silva at UFC 125. Vera's nose was broken by Silva after landing a right punch.

Vera lost the decision by way of "BitchSlap."

Black Swan | Review

Thank you Aranofsky for making Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis tongue each other.

Now I don't know about you, but this trend with Darren Aronofsky's films really worries me. With the exception of The Fountain, every single one of his main characters in every movie ends up going crazy. And Black Swan delivers that in full mind fuck bat shit crazy awesomeness.

So in Black Swan, Natalie Portman plays a ballerina who's out of her fucking mind. She get's cast to play both the White Swan and the Black Swan in a visceral adaptation of Swan Lake and with the help of her overbearing mother, her crazy instructor with wondering hands and her own paranoia over a new dancer that joins the company, she slowly finds herself slipping into insanity.

I ain't the biggest fan of ballet but this is one killer of a film. This is what you get when you put the raw and unflinching feel of The Wrestler and cross it with the cerebral horror and visceral mind fuck of Requiem For A Dream. This film is one creepy yet mesmerizing art movie.

I can't express how much credit I give to Natalie Portman. I never really cared when she was nominated for Closer but I can safely say she is going to get nominated for Best Actress and if there's nobody better, she should win. She trained her ass of for this role. I could tell. Anyone who has seen a ballet can tell. Just watching her disintegrate like that is such a pain to see and at the same time you can't take your eyes of her. The expressions on her face, the eyes, the movements of her lips and eyebrows, all these things don;t just come naturally for an actor playing such a difficult role. This demanded craft and huge amounts of control and Portman blew it out of the park.

And before I get to the other actors, I have one more thing to say that compliments Portman's performance and that was the camerawork of the film. The cinematography of Black Swan is kind of like watching ballet on LSD. We have Natalie Portman dancing and the camera is spinning around her, it's almost like she had a rig attached to her while she was dancing. And the camera never goes off her face. Matter of fact, it punches into it so tightly until we can see everything she's seeing and feeling. You're not watching Swan Lake when she dances, you are watching her literally disintegrating on stage in very uncomfortable close-ups.

The film's supporting cast is absolutely phenomenal. Vincent Cassel is great in this, Winona Ryder was great, amusing to cause I think Aronofsky deliberately cast her to have Natalie Portman steal her make up cause she used to shoplift muahahaha. Mila Kunis is great being Jackie Burkeheart in here. But the real good one here was Barbara Hershey who plays Natalie Portman's mom.

This woman is bat shit crazy. No wonder her daughter lost her fucking mind. She's that mother who's putting on tremendous amounts of pressure on her daughter while seemingly is trying to be the good guy. She's that character that was great in her prime but saw it all crumble when she had her daughter and is now in some form of competition with her and at the same time egging her on into this obsessive strive for perfection which ultimately leads to her downfall.

The sheer weight of this film is really overwhelming. It really is. Darren Aronofsky has succeeded in creating a nightmarish masterpiece that is going to leave people breathless. Be prepared to see this. It's going to take everything you've got.

RATING: 9/10

Decade in Review, Revisited: 25 Tear Jerking Scenes (Part Two) - Overdue

So, 2011 is here and I still have outstanding posts from 2010. So just because I just have to complete the list I’ll give it now, even though it’s dreadfully overdue. I gave you fifteen runners up a couple of months ago – tear jerking moments of the aughts. Here are the final ten. Sometimes it’s difficult to pinpoint the actual cause of tears shed vicariously for cinematic creations, but these ten are most salient.

Potentially Heavy Spoilers ahead: Be Warned

                       

#10: Brokeback Mountain: “I Swear” (Guilty Party: Heath Ledger)

The more I see Brokeback Mountain the less I like it, Michelle Williams is still the only thing I find egregiously poor about it – and it’s still a fine film, just not one I’d go crazy over. I’m never even that convinced of the brilliance that is Heath Ledger’s performance in it (I’d probably pick Jake for best in show); well until the last few moments, that is. The older his character grows the better grip Ledger seems to have on himand that line at the end of the film is just a brilliant line reading. It’s sort of an encapsulation of all the things about the film and Heath makes it work brilliantly. Depressingly.

#9: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: “Some People Dance...” (Guilty Party: David Fincher)

The entire closing monologue of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a well handled tearjerker. I’d say it’s prosaic, and I wouldn’t mean it as insult. It’s a bit like a role-call of sorts and seeing all the persons who’ve played a role in Benjamin’s life makes me teary eyed for some reason. And, of course, it’s that final line for Daisy that’s the cinch. Fincher’s epic, of sorts, will continue to be polarising but I’ll continue to be a big fan of it.

#8: Bright Star: Departure (Guilty Party: Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish)

I’ll be honest, sometimes Bright Star is just a lesson in poetic sadness. It’s that much more brilliant because it’s moving even when it’s just being glib about it. The final scene that Ben and Abbie share together comes to mind immediately. The two have had a fairytale romance of sorts (unconsummated) and both know that he’s going to die in Italy. They lie on the bed, their bodies making a heart, and talk about the future that will never happen. I deliberately avoid romances like these, but I don’t what it is that makes Jane Campion’s tale so brilliant – it’s a “you had to be there” experience”. It’s easily the saddest part of the film for me…a relationship heading nowhere, and fast.

#7: Moulin Rouge: The Death (Guilty Party: Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor)

Is there anything more of a killer in 19th century literature than consumption? It’s weird – we already know Satine is dying but Baz distracts us with the elephant medley so that Satine’s death manages to still be surprising and even more ridiculously depressing

#6: The Hours: Crying (Guilty Party: Meryl Streep)

I singled out Clarissa Vaughn as my favourite Streep performance of the past decade. She has many moments of brilliance – a number of them opposite Ed Harris; but it’s a solitary scene opposite Jeff Daniels that fits the bill here. The two are reminiscing about their mutual friend and Clarissa gets too caught up in the pass, it’s an odd moment – and probably difficult to pull off. She moves from lucid to snivelling in almost a split second. Her line reading of “Don’t come any closer” is a favourite of mine. I’ve said it before, I don’t always love Streep but when she impresses me it’s brilliant.

#5: The Constant Gardener: Returning Ghosts (Guilty Party: Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz)

I don’t know if it’s just me, but for some reason Fernando Mereilles’ 2005 tour de force (says me) The Constant Gardener doesn’t seem to get the appreciation it deserves. It’s impeccably helmed by Mereilles and despite occasional snatches of incongruity the brilliant performances of Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz make up for it. The Constant Gardener is many things in one – a love story, a thriller, an espionage tale...on and on. In the final moments of the film we may have realised the “whodunit” of the entire thing but there’s no closure until the ghost of Tessa shows up to lead Justin away. It sounds so very schmaltzy but there’s some honest and wonderful about it. Weisz and Fiennes really work excellently together and that (imagined) reunion is just a fine bit of emotion, well played.

#4: Atonement: Monologue (Guilty Party: Joe Wright)

Why is the end of Atonement so sad? I can’t say; it just is. Unfulfilled dreams are always depressing, and Vanessa Redgrave is all kinds of brilliant (but that’s a given). She only needs a few moments to make me gloomy, and with the camera on her alone for so much of that monologue she delivers completely. Bring on the waterworks.

#3: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings “My Captain” (Guilty Party: Sean Bean Viggo Mortensen)

We see a number of deaths in The Lord of the Rings series, but it’s the first (main) one that I find the most striking. Sean Bean’s Boromir is unfortunately forgotten, but he’s excellent. He has the tough task of playing the anti-Aragorn character and his final moments are probably the most moving part of the first film. It’s when he tells Aragorn, “I would have followed you, my captain” that’s the cinch though. Mortensen’s facial response is golden.

#2: Revolutionary Road: Running (Guilty Party: Leonardo DiCaprio)

Revolutionary Road would definitely easily make it on any list of most depressing films of the aughts, well ever to be honest. Depressing, though it is (really, this was one of the most emotionally draining films of the aughts for me), I still can’t help admiring it. It’s a tug-of-war as to who comes out on top – Kate or Leo. They both do excellent work and Kate’s final scenes already make you a little tearful, but as far as tear jerking goes it’s all Leo. When he finds out about April death’s it’s the film’s most harrowing moment (and that’s saying a lot). It all culminates in him running (and crying), from the hospital, from April from the mistakes. It’s a nice bit of direction from Mendes and it’s a brilliant moment for Leo.

#1: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Credits (Guilty Party: Peter Jackson)

The biggest tearjerker of the decade for me wasn’t even any singular moment of sadness – it was just the culmination of hours upon hours of epic fantasy. I was never a big fan of Frodo (Tolkien’s Frodo or Jackson’s) but the final moments of the film as he makes his way away from the Shire as Sam makes his way back works well in its simplicity. But it’s when Annie Lennox’s “Into the West” comes on that the sadness really sinks in. I’m not sure if it’s sadness per se but it’s something akin – okay, maybe it was exhaustion. Still, it’s definitely the biggest reason for waterworks this past decade, for me.

                 

So, it’s terribly late – but am I the only who went teary at these moments of cinematic sadness?

"Linkin' in the New Year" (5 Links)

2010 may be over, but I've not finished watching all the films I want to from the year. Still, more important news abounds. Patron Saint of Supporting Actresses StinkyLulu is coming out from hiding on the 9th of January just so we can celebrate all the lovely supporting women of 2010. It's the fifth year of this tradition, so be sure to make your pick(s) for which actress you'd like to profile. From Williams to Wiest to Washington to Hershey to Newton - it's been a good year, think outside the box.

Nick takes a look at the 25 films (non new-releases) that he enjoyed watching the most last year. This is the kind of best-of list I can get into, the overwhelming bulk of best-of 2010 lists is a bit maddening, truth me told.

That being said, though, I couldn't not link to Yojimbo's 2010 wrap-up (and he does have my favourite rating system for seeing movies), and here's what Tom thought of the year - it's not a top-ten list but a nice lucid essay on the films he saw that year.

I'm not as big a tennis enthusiast as Ryan (then again, who is) but it was a good year for the sport, no? And by good year - I mean, Nadal was on fire. Yes, I do.

Univarn has a challenge for himself, this year - 11 films to see. Three of them are actually on my top 100, so I say he should get started on them as soon as possible.

                  

So, HAPPY NEW YEAR....and I hope you all take part in the Supporting Actress Blogathon.