trivia night

Our invited helper this week ditched us at the last minute. So without suspense we were last place again with a whopping 22 points. The announcers recognized our team name(we have a separate name for if it was just the two of us). Even they said we did terrible haha. I tipped over my water glasses in celebration :(

Although to be honest, I think we did alot better than I imagined. We pretty much guessed through the first 4 categories. Got zeros on song lyrics (as usual) and pharmaceuticals (people's knowledge of these is kind of scary actually). The bonus was figuring out the cover band, the song and the original artist from a song snippet. We didn't do that well but it was fun to listen to the music. This is my favorite kind of bonus section. :)

So has everybody seen the StarCraft II announcements? I was watching the Yahoo reports from Korea. That nation is very obsessed with StarCraft I think. The yahoo guy was all astonished at their starcraft tv channel (which I watched when I was layover in Seoul, it is strangely mesmerizing). Anyway, I watched some of the game play video and it looks JUST like StarCraft except with better graphics and some more units so I am a little disappointed. I guess I was hoping for more innovations. But I guess they want to stick to a tried and true formula, and whatever they have now looks good. It looks like it will come out in October. The funny thing was 2 days before the announcement, a guy on our team randomly send out a email to the chat list to ask about whether STarCraft II will be mmorpg, and that sparked a whole discussion around that. Then immediately afterwards they announced it. The funny thing was it was totally out of blue email. We don't usually discuss games on the chat anyway. I guess he had a premonition about the future lol.

karaoke

I was browsing GameStop last night when I noticed they had a $9.99 used Mic for PS2. I figure it will come in handy for the Veggie party so I bought it. Then, I figure, might as well browse the PS2 game section and see what they have (GameStop is devious). So I ended up buying a used copy of Karaoke Revolution 3. God Bless second hand markets. Tried it last night and I liked it alot. I actually knew about 70% of the songs, unlike KR AI which I only know like 40%. They have alot of modern songs within the last few years, this made the singing much more enjoyable. They only have 4 songs to unlock and I didn't know any of them so that was kind of disappointment. But overall, I thought the songlist was wonderful :)

amazing

the word "Cafeteria" is usually synonymous with "bad food". This is still true here in my building also. I usually buy lunch and it is always such a hard decision to choose between "nasty stir fry" and "even nastier roast chicken". Although to be fair, our cafeteria probably has more variety than most. Today though, I walked down the stairs at noon to the cafeteria, browsed the different stations and bypassed the pasta station and went to the deli, except instead of the regular "roast chicken", there was a sign that says "gourmet lunch plate- New York Steak and Snow Crab Legs ". I looked over to the station and sure enough, that is what is there, along with some parsley, and gravy among other things. I was COMPLETELY SPEECHLESS. Apparently even the cook gets bored once in a while, and aspires to be a gourmet chef :). and it was very good too !

Post for Tochi

Yes, the rest of you is not allowed to read it. :) ( I really need yall's email)

Anyway, I saw someone asking about Olympics NP on our mailing list so I compiled a bunch of the responses for you. They are talking about Memorial weekend, you won't have to worry about rain too much.

I go to the coast (La Push, near Forks) just about every Memorial Day weekend. Over the past 12 years, it has ALWAYS rained at least a bit. It’s usually in the 50’s or 60’s during the day, and probably the 40’s at night. Thus we have always stayed in cabins with HEAT. J It is lovely.

The cabins at La Push are “rustic”, but you are right on the beach (“1st beach”) and there is hiking nearby (“2nd beach” and “3rd beach”). Many people go there and camp, but I’m not into it that early in the season (too rainy). Kalaloch is supposed to be nice too, but I’ve never been there.

Given the late date, it could be difficult getting a reservation…good luck!


As a Seattle native who has been watching the weather around here for almost 50 years, Memorial Day weather is: unreliable. Only July and Aug are reliably dry. The rest of the months are risky.

Hurricane Ridge has some nice hikes and you can stay in Port Angeles if it’s wet. And the drive is a bit shorter than the coast. Better make your reservations soon though!That’s a busy weekend! The best places will likely be full.

Most any time of the year I would plan on rain in the Olympics. Just make sure you have a waterproof floor/tarp for your tent. Also most campgrounds require a camping permit. I would actually be surprised if you could still get a permit unless you are planning to go way into the back country. If you plan on just doing day hikes you’ll still need a park pass. We buy an annual pass each year that allows us into both the national parks as well as state parks for under a 100 bucks. I’m not sure what the price will be this year.

As for hiking over a two day period I would recommend Hurricane ridge. It’s very close to Port Angeles, and has a good range of hiking trails. There’s everything from a paved trail at the top to very rugged trails with little or no markings.

Enjoy your trip.

You can call 360-565-3131 for the weather information. The automated message is updated twice a day. Once at 8:30am and second one at 3:00pm.

We stayed in Red Lion Hotel in Port Angeles. It was good and prefer asking the room facing the water. The view is good early in the morning (if there is sun J)

Trivia Night Saga Continues

Last night Snoopy and I went to Trivia Night again with a new team member J. We had high hopes for J since he knows ALOT of sports trivia. So we thought we were well covered there. The night started pretty normal, the 3 funny guys were back to announce questions. I think they are my favorites out of all the question guys, because of their dry humor. The categories turned out to be quite mundane, nothing BT at all, or so it seemed at first: We first started out with the Year 1989, J was pretty confident since he was in High School that time and therefore should remember stuff. But we were stumped by the name of the ROmanian dictator that was executed that year (Nicolae Ceausescu), and the name of the Captain of Exxon -Valdez (Hazelwood) among other things, and here I thought I know all my communist dictators humph.

The next category was National Parks and we did really well, who knew that Grand Teton was named for the French slang for big nipples -_-!

Did not do so well on Long winded quotes from famous Docs, who remember what the hell the Monroe Doctrine said? Or the Immacipation Proclaimation? ANyway, it all went downhill from there, as we passed through current events, famous quotes (Snoopy really should insist on Benjamin Franklin for everything =P) and Famous movie quotes ( we only got Princess Bride and The Good, THe Bad and the Ugly).

The bonus round was picking out the top10 most powerful women in the world out of the top20 list by Forbes. We actually got 5/10 going for the Rich=Powerful rule. But we missed the Chancellor of Germany and Vice Premier of China. ALl in all, not bad for guessing. Our final was 23 points, which put us about middle way :) and alas, there was almost no Sports questions at all sniff.

The really funny thing was at the end when they were announcing the score from the last to first place, they went by the way of "this team, who did blahblah in the last few weeks, got this score". We were at the point where they were about to announce the 20s, and the guy started out with "this team, who got 23 points..." at this point we were like "yes thats us!!", guy:" did quite well in the previous weeks..." us:"... oh wait, thats not us" LOL, apparently we tied with some other more famous team :)

PSA: I already got fly schedule from one person, coming in at 10:30 am on Thursday, leaving at 7 Am on Tuesday morning. Get tickets soon and see if you can get around that time to save me some gas ;)

Veggie party scheduling

Here is my post about scheduling, we have two proposals so far on the range of times, I say Range as I know people will have varied schedules.

1. Thu, August 23 - Tuesday, August 27, we do stuff, no camping
2. Fri, August 17 - Sunday, August 25, Tochi's plan of camping for 3 days and then hang out in Seattle.

I suppose we better decide soon so people can buy tickets, I am leaning towards #1 as I don't have too much feeling about camping, I mean I think it is fun and stuff but maybe not on the level of Tochi and friends haha. However, if Veggies all want to go camping, I am definitely up for it, it will be adventure as well.

If it is a no on camping, we can always meet up with Tochi (friends?) for the rest of the week and hang out, since I assume the Tochi caravan is a go regardless? :)

put your preference in the comments or yall can email me.

Stuff to do in Seattle

Since the PAX veggie party seems very likely to happen, we should start think about what we want to do besides going to Pax for a day. Trivia Night has already been suggested, as well as Pike Place Market and camping in Olympics National Park. So I thought I would take this chance to list out some of the other attractions that I think are worth visiting while you guys are here. This is divided into Activity types and ranked by my personal like if I've been there. Obviously we can't do all of them and I might have missed some also so feel free to remove or add to the list etc.

Events
PAX- Penny Arcade Expo, the largest gamer convention hosted by the Penny Arcade, it is 3 days of gaming craziness. I figure we only have to go for a day, preferrably Saturday since that is the day with the concerts, or maybe Sunday depends on when the guitar hero tournament happens ;) Duration: 1 day, Cost $25 for one day or $45 for 3 day, Catnip Rank: ***

Trivia at Celtic Bayou : this happens Monday night at 8pm, the famed battleground of Snoopy and I. There seems to be alot of interest in a Veggie victory. So people wanting to join will have to leave on Tuesday. Duration: 2 hours, Cost: food and drink Catnip rank: ***

Museums
Experience Music Project - This is a MUST SEE for all rockstar wanna be's. It is in my opinion the most interesting museum in Seattle. In their own words: "EMP is a one-of-a-kind music museum combining interactive and interpretive exhibits to tell the story of the creative, innovative and rebellious expression that defines American popular music. Featuring a world-class collection of artifacts, unique architecture by Frank O. Gehry, state-of-the-art technology, and exciting interactive presentations, EMP will encourage visitors of all ages and backgrounds to experience the power and joy of music in its many forms. " . Not the mention the building looks like giant messed up guitar. You also get the Science Fiction museum for free. Duration: 2-3 hours, Cost: $15 Catnip Rank: ***

Museum of Flight: This is a pretty good museum if you like airplanes. They have a pretty extensive collection since we are the founding place of Boeing. I was pretty impressed with it. They also have an old Air Force One for you to look inside. I am not very into airplanes so it was not too exciting, but still a good museum. Duration: 2-3 hours, Cost: $14, Catnip Rank: **
Alternative:
Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour. this is the museum at the Boeing Headquarters. I have never been there but besides seeing alll the latest in airplane design technology, you get to tour part of the Boeoing plant and see airplanes being assembled. cost: $15 Catnip rank:??

Museum of Glass: I decided not to list the art museum cause I figure there wont' be much interest. But I always wanted to go to this one. the NW has a pretty strong tradition in Glass Blowing and this museum is suppose to have some pretty cool stuff and a live glass blowing workshop. It might be a cool thing to do if there is free time, cost: $10, Catnip Rank: ??

Tours:
Seattle Underground Tour: A hilarious guided walking tour in Downtown Seattle that explains to you the history of Seattle city and some of the major events it has gone through. It walks underneath the city where the old streets used to be. Duration 1 hours, cost: $14, Catnip Rank: **

Seattle Harbor Cruise: this is a boat tour that takes you around Elliott Bay in Downtown Seattle. It is also guided and pretty fun thing to do on a sunny day. It lasts about an hour. cost: $18.61 Catnip rank: ** Alternatively, we can do the Locks tour which is 2.5 hours and about 30 bucks. that one is also pretty interesting.

Wilderness:
Olympics National Park: I have never been so can't really expound on its goodness but I figure it can't be bad, I mean it is a national park. I still suggest if we go, we just do a day trip. camping really is alot of work and takes up alot of time. :) Duration: 1 day, cost: $15 per car. Catnip rank: ??

Mount Rainier: This is another national park, it is about the same distance as to Olympics. Mount Rainier is an active volcano although it really hasn't done anything for years. You can see the peak of this mountain from Seattle city. It has many hiking trails etc. Although the weather would have to be nice, I have been there times when I am the bottom of the mountain and I can't see the freakin mountain at all. Duration: 1 day, cost: $15 per car, Catnip rank: **

Snoqualmie Falls: This has the advantage of being the closest to my house. It is only 15 minutes drive. It also has a nice hike down to the bottom of the fall. The fall is 270 feet tall. Velius has been to this one so I guess it is not as interesting now. Duration: 2 hours, cost: free, Catnip Rank: *

General Attractions:
Space Needle: You know, symbol of Seattle blahblah, I guess if you are a first timer you have to see this. It has a nice rotating restaurant up on top and the elevator is on the outside so you can see the way up. I've been to this place many times already. Another option is to go up at night or at dusk to watch the sunset. that is actually pretty nice. Duration: 1 hour, cost: $15 Catnip Rank: *

Pike Place Market - A kind of flea market in the middle of Seattle Downtown. It has that fish tossing thing Ender was talking about. It is pretty fun place to visit all the random shops and just walk around. Although I've seen them toss fish and it really wasn't that exciting I thought. They basically toss it from one side of the stand to the others. so maybe not get your hopes up too much haha. Duration: 1 hour, cost: free, Catnip Rank: **

Pioneer Square: it is kind of the historical center of Seattle with many old buildings and galleries. It also has a bunch of clubs for night life. A fun place to walk around. The underground tour starts here also. Duration 1 hour, cost: free, Catnip Rank: *

Alki Beach: A beautiful beach strip near Downtown. Good for walks and such. It is 2.5 miles long. it is famous for being the beach where they filmed a part of Sleepless in Seattle. Duration 3 hours, cost: free, Catnip Rank: ??

Wild Waves Enchanted Village: Seems some Veggies are big rollercoaster enthusiasts. Wildwaves is a theme park featuring Timberhawk- largest rollercoaster in Washington made completely out of wood. Duration: 1 day, cost: $35 catnip Rank: ??

Other options:
Vancouver BC: Vancouver is about 3 hours away so a day trip is possible.

chateau ste michelle : Washington's oldest winery. They offer tour and wine tasting. not sure if Veggies are into Wine or not. but it is really close to Seattle. cost: $5 Catnip Rank: ?? Snoopy says only go if you love wine and haven't been to Napa Valley =D

Microsoft: Someone mentioned a tour, I suppose we can walk around the campus lol. But you guys should go visit the company store, I get good discounts.

Ok, here are the major stuff I can think of right now. besides these, there are alot of places to walk since Seattle is surrounded by water so every direction has nice views. This is alot of stuff of course, I suggest one day at PAX, one day for downtown stuff (EMP needle, tours etc) and maybe half a day for a museum or two, and one day for an drive out(either park, wild waves or vancouver), ok discuss away

trivia night

After a few weeks hiatus when Snoopy was away, we went back to Trivia Night, this time with one of Snoopy's friend. With his help, we were able to squeeze out of last place by a mere 2 points for a total of 15!!! This week's questions were pretty hard. Although Velius tells me that any "normal" person would know the Godfather, father and cousin of Barry Bonds. Too bad none of us was normal, would have helped in the "Barry Bond is an Asshole" category. We also completely bombed the "60s one hit wonder" category. Did ok in the science category. The bonus round was the incredibly "变态“ question of name the top 20 grossing films of all time ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION!! We somehow missed all disney entries bleh. anyway, at least we weren't last place, much to the disappointment of our new teammate haha.

ETA; top 20 grossing film of all time adjusted for inflation, source: boxofficemojo

Title Studio Adjusted Gross Unadjusted Gross Year^
1 Gone with the Wind MGM 1,329,453,600 $198,676,459 1939^
2 Star Wars Fox $1,172,026,900 $460,998,007 1977^
3 The Sound of Music Fox $937,093,200 $158,671,368 1965
4 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Uni. $933,401,500 $435,110,554 1982^
5 The Ten Commandments Par. $861,980,000 $65,500,000 1956
6 Titanic Par. $844,515,900 $600,788,188 1997
7 Jaws Uni. $842,758,600 $260,000,000 1975
8 Doctor Zhivago MGM $816,811,300 $111,721,910 1965
9 The Exorcist WB $727,541,800 $232,671,011 1973^
10 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Dis. $717,220,000 $184,925,486 1937^
11 101 Dalmatians Dis. $657,455,500 $144,880,014 1961^
12 The Empire Strikes Back Fox $646,028,600 $290,475,067 1980^
13 Ben-Hur MGM $644,840,000 $74,000,000 1959
14 Return of the Jedi Fox $618,910,900 $309,306,177 1983^
15 The Sting Uni. $586,560,000 $156,000,000 1973
16 Raiders of the Lost Ark Par. $579,973,400 $242,374,454 1981^
17 Jurassic Park Uni. $567,234,400 $357,067,947 1993
18 The Graduate AVCO $562,688,100 $104,642,560 1967
19 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Fox $558,153,800 $431,088,301 1999
20 Fantasia Dis. $546,426,100 $76,408,097 1941^

culture day

I went to the Seattle Art Museum yesterday with some friends. They are grand opening after renovations so they gave free tickets to everyone. I didn't even know it was there until yesterday. For a big city Seattle doesn't have alot of museums. I was totally disappointed with the science museum when I went before( Houston's was so much better) so I didn't have high hopes but it actually turned out to be pretty great. The museum is situated right in the middle of downtown Seattle. It was very modern looking and the exhibit halls were pretty big. They had 3 floors with mostly paintings and some sculptures and clothing. I was most impressed with the range of subjects they were able to cover. They had a rather large modern art section (expressionism and abstract expressionism). Stuff that just goes way over my head but was interesting to look at nonetheless. I just wonder how come people think that painting two colored squares is so cool. They had a pretty sizable oil painting exhibit with some gorgeous works, an Asian exhibit filled mostly with japanese art, some very interesting "native" art from Africa, Australia and Americas. I especially liked the seritaph paintings done by BC native Americans. They are really beautiful. I can't find any info on Seritaph on the internet though (how strange is that!) Anyway, it was fun thing to do for a day.

Later in the day, I went to hear my friend's band Peratus play at Waldo's bar. I never heard them before so it was an interesting experience. I guess their music is best described as "Heavy Metal"? Not something I would normally listen to but I can certainly admire the energy of the music and the performance. I actually got there kind of late so I missed my friend playing the Keytar. He is a 80s dude haha. I thought they put up a great show. The last song was so full of energy and passion that people went up and jumped around in front of the stage. Although I realized later, their band was actually pretty mellow considering the band that came up next was Second Coming. SC is actually pretty famous and their lead singer was screaming so much I was afraid he was gonna tear his vocal chord but I suppose he is used to it. Their music was much louder and much more angsty. I can't say I liked the really fast stuff but some of the slower stuff (comparatively speaking) was not bad.

So I started out the day looking at artworks and ended the day with my ears ringing, all in all, not bad :)

ETA: I just realized the reason that I can't find seritaph is that I remembered it wrong, it was actually SeriGraph.

Spiderman 3

Our team went to see Spiderman 3 as a morale event today during the day (yay no work). The theatre was packed with other techy nerd groups that got off work and kids who got off school. we were able to get whole rows together as a group which was always nice. I liked the movie alot. It was well done, the story was pretty complex and it tied up all the loose ends nicely. There was alot of awesome action sequences involving tight flying in cramped spaces and brutal beatings of pretty much everyone. I think they really tried to pay homage to the original comic by introducing lots of symbolism and themes into this movie. The movie was also packed with comic moments to relieve the constant beating up of everyone. you will know what I mean when you see the Jazz bar scene. (groan from everyone) one shining surprise moment was the brief appearance of Bruce Campbell (Autolycus in the Hercules tv series). He is always hilarious. Anyway, I won't give out too much details. The only fault I would say is that the story is almost too complex to fit in 2 and half hours. I feel like they tried to cram too much stuff in. I think it would have made 2 movies easily and with more breathing room for everybody. Would love to hear everyone's opinion of it.

A sight to be seen

Many people may have heard me complain (endlessly)about the terrible weather within the NW winter/spring where cloudy days are followed by rainy days followed by cloudy days in an endless dreary cycle. However, I may not talk about another phenomenon that happens so rare I almost don't think about it anymore. As rare as a beautiful sunny day is around this time, a clear night sky is an even more rare thing. The most crystal blue skies during the day will almost always be followed by nights where a deep veil of clouds hangs unmoving over the city. The darkness is so eternal and stifling that the moon and stars seems more like mythical objects than real things. I think it has been at least 3 months since I've seen a clear night sky. This is why it is such a rare treat when I drove out from my late dinner party tonight and saw the most perfect FULL moon shining brightly in the sky. It is surrounded by the thinnest of clouds that was not able to obscure its light. It was even more beautiful when I drove over the bridge and saw its pale reflection shimmering over the black waters. I was so mesmerized that I almost swerved out of my lane. I was determined to rush home as quickly as possible and take a picture of this sight. Alas, just as I was reaching home, all the while straining my neck to keep the moon in my sight, The ever ominous cloud cover slowly crept in, until the last silver lining flickered and disappeared, and the moment was lost.

Dating Woes

So, I am at an age where basically any random stranger whom I meet seems to register my single-ness and my age and automatically start to set me up with random guys from all walks of life. This has gotten especially ridiculous funny this year to the point of making me speechless. It all started when I was in college, where M promised me she will never try to set me up with anyone as she is very "liberal", being the good innocent person that I was I believed her. So needless to say I suffered a major shock when starting around last year, she started to bring up random guys that she either know at work. or who are relatives of her friends that she thinks I should meet. At first it was just a casual "so, I know this guy that is nice", then it became 'I got this guy's email and phone number, you should reply to him" to "We need to take a better picture of you so we can send to this guy" Notice the increasing level of desperation... Anyway, this was of course all done with my permission as I figure it is better to nod and smile. Besides, it is kind of expected of M. Since in Asian culture, if you don't have a steady bf by the time you are 25, people think you have some weird disease.

So I have done my part in emailing strangers who live across the country, completely pointless if you ask me. I am firm disbeliever of "blind dates" and "online dating" (perhaps I am missing out?). This is all tolerable until recently, when basically almost everybody I know starts to mention random boys to me. Case in point, I met a girl about 2 weeks ago at a wedding reception who happen to work in the next building over. She is Chinese and married (alarm should have sounded). She seems like a nice person and I like talking to her. We have had lunch twice now, when all of a sudden she started asking me about my dating life and what kind of boys I like. This all ended with today when she came to my office and said "btw, I know this boy that wants to date you, what do you say ".. ME: ........ Her enthusiasm can only be described by the fabled mythical being of “媒婆“, whose passion in matchmaking is surpassed only by the layer of powder on her nose. I was completely speechless since I am unaccustomed to such direct questions. So I kinda made random noises and tried to change the subject. It is almost funny the situation that I am in now haha.

Kiwi

This is soo sweet T_T

nice song

I was listening to "love someone tonight" Delilah the other night and I heard this song that I really liked. There was a section of the lyrics that was quite moving. I didn't remember the name so I emailed Delilah to ask her. She responded just a day later with the song name and artist. I was quite impressed. So here is the music video of "Sometimes When We Touch" by Dan Hill. This is a love song made in the 70s, and everything would be perfect if the singer didn't look like the caveman from the Geico commercial.



Lyrics:
Sometimes When We Touch - Dan Hill

You ask me if I love you
And I choke on my reply
I'd rather hurt you honestly
Than mislead you with a lie
And who am I to judge you
On what you say or do?
I'm only just beginning to see the real you

And sometimes when we touch
The honesty's too much
And I have to close my eyes and hide
I wanna hold you til I die
Til we both break down and cry
I wanna hold you till the fear in me subsides

Romance and all its strategy
Leaves me battling with my pride
But through the insecurity
Some tenderness survives
I'm just another writer
Still trapped within my truth
A hesitant prize fighter
Still trapped within my youth

And sometimes when we touch
The honesty's too much
And I have to close my eyes and hide
I wanna hold you til I die
Til we both break down and cry
I wanna hold you till the fear in me subsides

At times I'd like to break you
And drive you to your knees
At times I'd like to break through
And hold you endlessly

At times I understand you
And I know how hard you've tried
I've watched while love commands you
And I've watched love pass you by

At times I think we're drifters
Still searching for a friend
A brother or a sister
But then the passion flares again


I especially like the part where he sings "I wanna hold you til I die
Til we both break down and cry I wanna hold you till the fear in me subsides". It just seems like such a tender moment :)

fun screenshots in LOTRO

I am on my last day in LOTRO beta. If I don't buy it now my character will get erased. I haven't decided yet but I probably won't end up buying it right now. A level 10 char is not really worth saving. And MMORPGs are so time consuming as it is. I am not sure I want to get sucked in. I did have alot of fun playing the beta though. I grouped with some random person yesterday and it was fun doing quests. The surrounding scenery and atmosphere really is the most beautiful part about the game. For example, I accidentally wandered into the marshes one time, and I didn't notice that it was getting dark. So I was walking slowly towards the outline of a ruin in the marsh when suddenly it was dusk, the marsh fog rose and surrounded me and it was pitch dark. The ruin's sillouette disappeared and I can see nothing around except some swarming insects that likes to follow you around. I was totally lost. The music also changed to a dark creepy tone. Everything was very well done and I decided not to go there again after dark :)
Marsh when it is sunny


Marsh at dusk


Creepy night marsh


The other fun thing I did was this: I would never do this in real life so it was very satisfying to do it with such realism in a game.









everything looks better with a cloak in Bree town


Rich people ride horses, poor people walk..


Lastly, my favorite place: Celondim, the Elve's starting town.

One down, many to go

So Regi and I formed a plan to go to the Beijing Summer Olympics next year in August. I have always wanted to see an Olympics opening ceremony. It is one of the things on my "To Do" list. She is very excited about it as well, especially the men's gymnastic team ;). We finally submitted our ticket applications at cosport.com yesterday. I was keeping an close eye on when they are releasing tickets so to maximize our chances. Now I have never applied for Olympics tickets before so I don't know if it is always like this. But the ticket application process is incredibly vague and convoluted. They make you apply for tickets, but they can't tell you where you are sitting or how much they really are or if you are really going to get them. BUT if for any reason you got the tickets you requested you HAVE to buy them. So basically the whole thing is a crap shoot. You just go in and hope for the best. I am also kind of annoyed that the price discrepancies is so big between tickets in China and tickets for foreigners. The lowest level ticket for opening ceremony in China is 200 yuan (30 bucks). The lowest level ticket for Americans is 1500 yuan. >_< they suck so much!!

Anyway, I know all this will be worth it next year when I am standing in Beijing :)

P.S. funny story: A couple of years ago, Regi drove through Houston and I happen to be there as well. So She, Velius and I met together for bubble tea. Regi never had bubble tea before so we told her to try some. She tried one sip and almost choked on a bubble, so she asked us what is the bubble. Apparently we jokingly told her it was frog eggs (Now I seriously don't remember saying this -_-b) We all laughed and left it at that. But apparently Regi thought we were serious. She thought she ate a frog egg this entire time. She was so disgusted and resolved never to eat anything with Velius and me ever again. -_-! she calls this the "bubble tea incident". She finally looked it up a couple weeks ago and realized what it was.

LOTRO

So today I finally opened up LOTRO beta and played through the introduction quest arc. The graphics is definitely awesome. Everything is so beautiful, the trees, flowers, lakes and ancient ruins. After some consideration, I have discarded my Elven hunter (yes I know blasphemy) and made a Human female Lore-Master (druid/mage). I am sure Velius is going to kill me if he looked it up as I didn't really pay attention to any of the stats and strength/weaknesses. But I already created it so there =P. I had to get rid of Legolas wanna be as he was making this grunting sound everytime he hits during melee and it is driving me nuts. My nice new human is perfectly silent as she clubs bandits and wolves on the head with her staff. The storyline basically follows the same timeline as LOTR but you are on the peripheral. You will hear about the deeds of those Baggin hobbits and the fellowship but you won't really be involved in the main quest. It creates a kind of realism without actually allowing you to interfere with the main storyline of the book. Basically going through the intro story arc gets you to level 5. It is too early yet to see what kind of unique skills my human has. So far everything is pretty much standard MMORPG: quests, skills, leveling. I finally learned the Lute skill at level 5. Now I only need to figure out where I can buy a lute and I am on my way to rockstar-dom. The only thing I didn't like was the UI, all the labeling text seems unnecessarily big and it is giving me a headache especially when among multiple people as you totally can't make them out. It is also very laggy in town as usual. I also had the honor of being Gold Spammed during my stay in Middle Earth. 1 G for the very cheap price of 8.99 ( I have 7 silver at level 5). Do they already have sweatshops for this? It is only Beta people!!

And of course, how can any MMORPG be good without some domestic animal

dream and reality

To continue my chinese proverb lessons, I want to expound on the one that says "What you think of during the day you will dream at night". I really felt the accurateness of ancient people when I had this crazy dream last night. But before I get that far, I must start at the beginning. I had a pretty rough week because we are doing our final test pass before release. So basically I've been working 14 hour days and getting no sleep so my brain has been fried. So I finally finished everything Friday night on time. I got home, completely exhausted, and then I remembered that I signed up for Lord Of The Ring Online open beta last week and it is their first day on Friday. So I figure I would load it up, take a look for 5 minutes and crash. The game actually has beautiful graphics. The gameplay seems pretty similar to the other 100 MMORPGs out there (They do have this pretty cool music system where you can really play a song on your lute using your keyboard instead of just canned music) . So I created a woodland elven hunter by the name of Dashiel(Legolas was taken -_-) and did the first quest. Everything went pretty much according to plan without surprises. So I turnd it off and went to bed. And then the dream begin: I found myself first at a grass plain talking to some elves, they told me that the evil one (whoever it is) has risen again and we must recruit everyone to battle the darkness. So I courageously said of course I will join. Then since apparently I don't know how to do anything, they sent me to the terrorist, err I mean rebel training camp which looked just like my office. I got there and found out that they have converted the whole place into a obstacle course with multiple games like at a country fair. So I found myself spent days going through the obstacle course over and over again. The details are fuzzy now but I distinctly remember one where I had to shoot at some poor animal nailed to a wall using a bow and arrow. The poor little thing kinda exploded when it got hit (I am not bloodthirsty, really I am not). And there is also another one where I had to walk across this room on a wooden beam while on the floor there are tons of mice running around. It was horrible. Just as I was getting so tired of the obstacle course, I found myself back at the archery game. I found that after days of practice, I can successfully blow up the furry critters with no problem (YAY!). So my next goal is to shoot three at once using three arrows on my bow! Just as I was getting totally lost, this elf that looked surprisingly like my LOTRO character came up to me and started to teach me how to do it. mmm... and just as I was getting everything under control and gotten three arrows on my bow, alas, I woke up to another dreary annoying rainy day.....

ETA: Ender was asking what guitar I have. It is a Model AA31 by Ovation Applause. Apparently it doesn't exist on the internet Lol(I looked). Anyway my teacher says it is a "traveling" guitar since its back is made of plastic and not wood.

trivia night record

it was so sad that I didn't even want to post about it. But then we must face the truth even if it hurts. Due to the unfortunate loss of Plop and the most ridiculous questions ever, we again was last place at Trivia Night with a world record shattering 14 points out of 90 something. 6/9 sections of the quiz we got 0 points. The good thing is that we are so famous now people kinda expected us to be in last place so no surprise there. The obscure question contained NCAA trivia like which Kansas coach had a losing record in the history of Kansas basketball, and the furthest bracket that a 5/12 upset ever went, which teams it was and what was the shooting percentage (or some nonsense like that). There were also questions like who was reputed to be the "most handsome man in America" in 1863, which was JOhn Wilkes Booth apparently. *headdesk*. Anyway, to sum it up, we sucked and the pitcher of beer was ours :)

speaking of guitar hero....

There is this saying in Chinese that "all smart people think alike". At least when it comes to making money. This saying can be exemplified by Harmonix's latest natural extension in their music game line: Rock Band. The press release explains it as:

today it has been revealed that Harmonix is working on a game called "Rock Band," which will let gamers perform music from the world’s biggest rock artists with their friends as a virtual band using drum, bass/lead guitar and microphone peripherals, in addition to offering "deep online connectivity."

Other feature they are touting is that they are going to use the original artist tracks this time instead of good imitations. I don't know if I care about that, I thought the imitations sounded pretty darn good in Guitar Hero. The "deep online connectivity" they are talking about is the mode where you can collaborate with people over the live network (and the equivalent for ps3). I wonder if it will be as fun though when you can't jam with your friend next to you. I saw comment that brings up another good point, when you have 2 guitars, a microphone and a drum set in your living room, how do you get all those moving notes onto the tv screen without making people dizzy? Something to ponder about and look forward to...

p.s. I also had to look twice to make sure it wasn't some April Fool's joke.

wannabe guitar hero

I happened to be given a guitar last year by one of my old coworker. Since it was just sitting there and I was inspired by all that Guitar Hero playing at Velius', I decided to take beginning guitar lessons in January this year. Our local community college offers a adult group lesson class at night. The cost is about 120 bucks for 8 hours of lesson which is not bad as far as classes go. It was a pretty fun class although he taught us way more stuff than we can actually learn. Since it was an adult education class there is no exams nor grades nor anything that can motivate one to actually practice afterwards. So I decided to record myself playing this first song I learned. In a way it forces me to practice so to actually be able to play this song in one sitting. I think it will be amusing to come back a year later and see if I have improved or deteriorated (or practiced even -_-!). So, here is my attempt at Youtubing :) Me playing House of Rising Sun by the Animals



And if you don't want to hear me butcher a perfectly good song, here is the real version with real guitar playing :).

PAX reinforcement!

Let me extend the invitation to the Veggies to come hang out during Penny Arcade Expo 2007! It is the August 24-26th weekend. You probably read Velius's post about early registration, etc. Personally I think the difference really isn't that much. I didn't pre register last year and there was plenty of room. But just to keep it on everybody's mind. Here are all the reasons you should come:

1) I have lots of space for people to stay (well not as much as Veliu's but enough).
2) Free car rides everywhere + tour guide
3) tons of cool stuff including the Guitar Hero tournament and Game music concerts.
4) Seattle is like the best around August with sunny weather everyday.
5) This is going to be the biggest PAX since its start.

You only have to take one day off if you like, get here early Friday and leave Sunday. Think about it people!!! :)

amazing technology

Recently I noticed M is watching chinese tv on the computer all the time. I was curious since I know she doesn't do all that p2p downloading stuff that I do so I asked her. Apparently she has discovered this software called UUsee from just surfing on random chinese websites. It is really an incredible thing. It is a FREE online streaming television network that uses the p2p technology. So basically you download a client that acts like internet tv. It has a bunch of channels like a real cable network with schedules of various tv shows, movies, anything you can possibly think of. Basically you can watch it immediately just like watching real tv, of course the more people who are watching the faster the stream is. I tried it out tonight and there was almost no lag. The only time I noticed lag was when we were watching the overly popular Chinese New Years Show, and that was only about 20 minute buffering. It has a DVR like option also. The quality is not bad either. I am so impressed that this exists and is completely free. It indicates that the piracy industry in China has climbed to an awesome godlike state. Look, one channel is playing the wide screen format of "300" with appropriate chinese subtitles as I am typing this.

Triumphant!

We finally climbed our way out of loser valley yesterday at Trivia Night after hours of hard study and memorization...... ok ok, not really. We asked Plop (See media 1001 blog) to join us and he was totally helpful ;). We finished about middle of the pack with 59 out of 90 points. The winner of the $1 pitchers got 33 muhhahahaha! There were actually quite a few interesting questions this round and the rounds were very exciting. The categories ranged from Broadway shows, the Year 1999, one named celebrities, and best supporting actors from the Oscars. Some of the highlights:

1) What was the real name of the song usually called Teenage Wasteland (Velius! you should know this one)!
2) The full definition of the acronym NASDAQ - we were totally clueless
3) Bonus: name the 10 plagues of Egypt from the Bible - We got pretty close on that one

All in all, an extremely satisfying night! :)

Answers:

1) Bubba O'REilly- This is the song House was finger playing in one of the first season when Vogler was still there.
2) National Assocation of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations
3) Fires from the Sky, Lice, Beetles, Cattle Death, Death of First Born, Locusts, Darkness, raining Frogs, Water turned to Blood, Flies, Boils. Those poor Egyptians.

WE rock!

Completely within expectations, we were again LAST PLACE at yesterday's Trivia night despite an herculean effort. There were no sports questions but we were totally stumped by obscure movie quotes and text quoted from books. How can I possibly remember passages from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest? There was also an entire section about obscure coffee beans *headdesk* Well anyway, we were again the proud recipient of the $1 loser pitcher. Everybody in the pub cheered for us !:). The good thing is that we got 22 points, 5 more than last week!! Next week the saga continues as we courageously try to climb out of the loser valley.

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Now I don't really have much feeling attached to this popular Irish holiday with an green obsession. But it is a good excuse as any to go do some partying. K really wanted to go to an authentic Irish pub with some Irish music and beer so the three of us drove around downtown Seattle looking for a happening pub. We finally ended up at Fado in Pioneer Square. It seemed pretty cool as it says "Irish Pub" on the front underneath the name and there was a long line with lots of green covered people so I figure we were at the right place. Only on St. Patrick's day that pubs can charge $15 for cover but as K said, we must have the authentic experience! The line was actually pretty long but entertaining as they had the Seattle Firefighter's Pipes & Drums group doing some traditional bagpiping out front. They also had a beer stand outside for the poor souls waiting. The bagpipes definitely brought some party atmosphere. It is a weird combination as the club next door is pumping some heavy tech beats in between. I felt like doing some riverdancing but it was too cold =P. After about an half hour wait we finally got inside. The pub is actually pretty big with multiple rooms. It is too dark to really make out anything but I liked the fact it is roomy. In the second room, they had the McKinley Brothers doing some acoustic jamming. That was fun as they played alot of oldies like Brown Eyed Girl and I Love Rock and Roll (man I hear this everywhere now since GH). So we spent the rest of the night jumping around and having a good time. All in all, it was a very cool "Authentic" St. Patrick's Day celebration complete with Bagpiping and drinks and some weird old guy who keeps trying to give K a back massage (>_<)

beer and trivia night

Tonight my friend and I went to trivia night at a local pub "The Celtic Bayou" which as the name suggest, is a mix of Irish and Louisiana food. A very weird combination if you ask me. We didn't really go in with much confidence since we are by no means trivia kings. But it was a fun way to spent a night. The prizes goes as follows:

1st place: 35 dollars
2nd place: 25 dollars
3rd place: 15 dollars
last place: $1 pitcher of beer

Since the top 3 is pretty much out of our grasp, we figure it would be pretty cool to get last place, (with proper effort of course). The quiz had about 60 questions, ranging from current events to sports to weird deaths(Edward II was weeeirrd.) As expected, we were able to sweep the entertainment news and completely miss all the sports questions. The bonus round was TV theme song trivia and we failed terribly at that as well. So in the end, we have achieved our lofty goal of coming in last at 17 /60 points. The graders had to make sure we didn't try to deliberately throw the game. -_-. Since we were only two people and I don't drink we ended up giving the $1 loser pitcher to a group of 10 sitting next to us. We plan to come back next week as well, if we can keep our current record pretty soon we will be the most popular losers in the pub ;)

Impressive...

And this is why Dukies are awesome ;)
Article on MSNBC. Also I didn't know you can earn money from Metacafe?? is it like Googel Ads? hmm..

Tooting my own horn for a bit :)

This is probably going to be the only 15 seconds of fame in my life. Laughing at silly names are not allowed! Well ok, It is totally a groaning party whenever we have meetings to talk about this stuff. Because people can't stop snickering at me. I was totally embarrassed but at the same time, when will I ever see my name on a commercial website again?. Also for the record, they totally picked the name without telling me first. These are meant to be samples for beginners so of course they will continue to put up better and more worthy games but mine was the smallest and simplest so it made the deadline. :) Yay me!

Also, if you are just dying to make your dream game, they are hosting a competition for the best game developed in 4 months with some nice prizes.

A totally different sort of party

In the continuation of my social experimentation, I went to a totally different sort of party this Sunday. I was invited to a "Pride and Prejudice" viewing party. It all came about quite accidentaly as I was having lunch of my coworkers and some of her friends whom I never met. One of them mentioned that they are doing this party and I guess I squeaked in excitement, forcing them to invite me =P. Anyway, for those who don't know, the quintessential edition of "Pride and Prejudice" adaptations is the BBC/A&E miniseries starring Colin Firth. It is close to 6 hours long and officially brought about the revival of Jane Austen fever in '98. I already seen this like 10 times but it is always fun to see it with a group, kind of like a LOTR sitting (but much shorter haha).

So anyways, I was a little nervous since I have never met any of these people before and my coworker wasn't even going to be there. But anything for Jane Austen! There I met about 30 other people. They turned out to be extremely nice and interesting people. Most of them belong to this Christian Fellowship mailing list so that is how they know each other. All the guys there pretty much worked at The Company. We had scones, cream puffs and tea and watched English gentlemen and ladies flirt on a big projection screen in the basement. I had a great time. This is a totally different sort of party from the one I went to last week. There was no drinking, people were extremely nice and polite. The conversation was stimulating. The only downside is most are introverts like me , which makes starting conversations even more difficult than talking to drunk extroverts. In the case of latter, you just have to stand and let them speak. So more practice to be had to have good conversation that does not always start with "so where do you work" especially since I was the only stranger there. But I am glad I made that leap there. And for those that are thinking "P&P, eww girl cooties!", I have to report all the guys there liked it. Even the ones that were reluctant to watch it :).

and I thought I was the only one

I was just coming to do a post on this Akon song I heard on the radio yesterday and how I think it is exactly the same as the R kelly song Ignition. I was all prepared to delve deep in analysis to prove my point until I saw this. Why do people have to get ahead of me like that hmmph. Now I saw in one of the post that Akon supposedly "sampled" the R Kelly song to make his own song. But seriously, if Vanilla Ice can't get away with Ice Ice Baby (Under Pressure by Queen). Why should Akon get away basically singing the exact same song as R Kelly but with different lyrics. At least Vanilla Ice tried to do a totally different song.

ETA: 30 second survey for a friend at school.

Jumping On the Bandwagon

We all know that "The Departed" is the newly minted Oscar's Best Film of the Year, giving Martin Scorsese his first oscar after more films than can be counted. He actually jokingly said this is his first movie that actually had a plot. The ironic thing is of course that "The Departed" is basically a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong movie "Infernal Affairs". I thought it was funny when the script writer won for "adapting the other movie". Is that really a huge accomplishment to take a movie that was made just a couple of year ago and switch around the actors and add more bloody scenes and call it best film of the year? To add insult to injury, the announcer lady said it was a Japanese movie when doing the introduction. I feel like it is such a ripoff. It saddens me to think the audience in America will never see how great the original was (which by the way I actually saw at Velius' during a party, good times :)).

Anyway, I was just discussing this with my cousin in China when she mentions that there is a rumor going around of Hollywood buying another Andrew Lau movie "Confession of Pain" featuring the awesome Tony Leung. Anyway, I haven't seen the movie yet so I can't comment on whether it will be good *runs to download*. This gets me thinking though, does this mean that there will be a whole slew of remakes of Asian movies now that one has earned the prestige of an Oscar? I think I will be both gratified by the recognition and annoyed at the fact the original will never be seen. Although I hope that if this does happen, it will jilt the mainland movie scene out of their ridiculous pseudo kung fu epic movie trend they got going on. They all suck! When are they going to realize nooexistent dialog, extravagant costumes and no plot does not a movie make?

ETA: I really shouldn't post after midnight, I had to edit this like 10 times cause I was writing nonsense

going to the dark side

I recently downloaded some Arcade games on my xbox (company perk) for M to play with. She is now completely addicted to Bejeweled 2 (a matching game with colored gems.) She played for 5 hours straight over the weekend and her world ranking jumped from 50,000 to 10,000 over night with no sign of slowing down. I had to go make dinner because she is so busy with the game. Isn't it usually the otherway around? -_-!

In other news, we finally bite the bullet and got some DX10 cards for work. These geforce 8800 GTX are monsters that take up two PCI slots. The heatsink and fan is bigger than the card itself. In fact, it is so massive they had to put an fan outlet on the connection plate itself in addition to the big fan on the body so it doesn't overheat the computer. It is ridiculous! Now if I only have a DX10 game to play with :)

random weekend post

I was invited to a housewarming party thrown by these 4 guys from my company. I knew them through a mutual acquaintance. They lived in an apartment on the waterfront with a gorgeous view of the pacific ocean in downtown Seattle. They are in all respects the perfect example of young successful people in a sophisticated urban living. They had a professional bartender friend come to do the drinks and played club music on their giant lcd tv using windows media center. The party started at 9 and didn't end til 3 am where all the drunken people left. Now I must confess I don't have much experience with these "social" parties as they call them. Mine more gravitate towards the "chainsaw that monster" type of parties (:)) so this is a very interesting experience for me. I did not know most of the people there, nor they each other so it is my duty to mingle and get to know people as my friend told me. I had a great deal of fun trying to talk to people, of course the whole evening is littered with awkward silences as my very small social skills failed to keep the conversation going. This is a very hard thing for me as I am not used to such surroundings, standing around and having to come up with suitable topics of conversation in extremely loud music. Incidentally this reminds me alot of those period movies where people go to a ball and having to make conversation and appear sociable, minus the hiphop and booze. So I guess society really hasn't changed all that much except for the disturbing trend of binge drinking that seems to be prevalent at all such parties. I of course declined to drink but that caused everyone to look at me like some sort of alien. They seem to think it is some sort of affront to not partake in this "ritual". Now I have nothing against drinking or drinking people. If I did that means I would have to hate like 90% of the world. Of course I have never been drunk so I might indeed be missing something profoundly awesome. but I have to say people really did seem to have more fun without their inhibitions. They danced and yelled and in general made very sociable and happy people. Lots of friends were made and experiences shared. So the dual purpose of making friends and having a good time was served. I did find it amusing that almost everyone seem to think that I must not be having any fun since I don't have some alcohol in me. When did this relationship start to develop? Alcohol = fun or rather Alcohol -> fun. I can't decide if I am just too "conservative" for this modern American world where social scene is inevitably linked to alcohol or rather this trend is an anomaly only in youth society. I just haven't been to enough parties to form a informed opinion. Should I try to integrate myself more into this seeing how obviously I need more social skills? stuff to ponder about..

ETA: on a totally different note, I also received mail to pick up that free thong from Victoria Secret as Bunky did. As I am unable to resist free stuff I had to go pick it up. I had the same thought as Kolaap did in his post but since I read his post first I was not as surprised. Having seen it in person I have serious doubt about the practicality of such things as it seems to position one for a permanent wedgie. And since I cannot imagine any woman will wear that of her own volition I can safely say "this is all the men's fault!" ;)

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Happy Chinese New Years!!

Everybody who reads this message must send me a red packet or else.....^^

AI 6 hollywood round

The hollywood round contains group auditions so you gotta know how to harmonize and sing in a group. Most of it was a trainwreck as usual but there was one group that really stood out. These 4 guys was great! If they don't make idol they should totally just form a group themselves. Between them, they have a rocker, a beat boxer, a boyband extraordinaire and a crooner. what more can you ask for!

Idol Hollywood group song: Chris, Tom, Rudy and Blake.



Another aspect of the show I don't like is how they showed so much drama. Do I really need to know how many people are divas and how many can't get picked to be in a group? I hate how they keep reinforce the stereotype that girls just can't get along. And if it is not a stereotype, there is something seriously wrong with education of girls in this country.

Puzzle Hunt Weekend!

This is one of the best weekend I had in a long time. I joined a team for our semiannual company Puzzle Hunt weekend. It is a great traditional here where people divide into groups of no more than 12 and do a 48 hour puzzle hunt marathon. The puzzles are devised by the previous' year's winners over couple months and they are extremely complex and entertaining (and totally geeky!). This year's theme is Atlantean Culture and all the puzzles are devised to solve 5 meta puzzles that will lead us to the Atlantean WMD that is going to destroy the world at 6 pm on Sunday. There were 72 teams involved. That is close to 1000 people all together. We completely took over buildings on main campus and it was a hard fight to schedule a conference room as our headquarters. But we managed to secure a building right across from the Puzzle Hunt headquarters for easy retrieval of puzzles ( they are released throughout the day to teams based on their progress). I haven't done puzzles in a long time so it was very hard to get into that frame of mind at first but soon I was pretty engrossed in it. The puzzles are extremely complicated in that they require 15 steps to arrive at the final answer which is then used to solve the bigger meta puzzle. This is often frustrating as I was only able to go through the first 3 steps before i am stuck and have to move on to something else. The first meta puzzle came in the form of 6 foam squares with intricate holes cut into them, we had to figure out 10 smaller puzzles and use their answer to assembly the squares and then at the end, pour seed down the top of them so that they go through the right holes and form a phone number at the buttom which we can call to get the next clue. I wish I had a picture.


There is nothing more fun than being in the same room as 10 other nerds for 14 hours straight solving puzzles! I don't even think I ate food on Saturday because we are concentrating so hard we don't notice the time pass by. Our team was by no means the best as we came in 55/72 in the final rankings and we were only able to solve maybe 1/3 of the puzzles but it was still a great time. I think I will definitely do it again in the fall!

ETA: I just remembered something else, besides word and math puzzles, there were also spacial puzzles like assembling a celtic knot. The field puzzles including diving down the gym pool to retrive a clue and figure out buildings from sketches and go there to look at the windows for clues. So we did get some exercise haha.

crazy cars

I am normally not a car enthusiast at all. My understanding of cars stays at "Japanese cars are small, American cars are big!!" level. But this video of a Bugatti Veyron doing 250 miles an hour impressed even me. That is going the length of a football field every second!!. Of course it is totally unpractical even without a speed limit, since the tires would burn out in 15 minutes and gas in 12. Now if they can only make wear resistant tires.

Pan's Labyrinth

Ok so I finally saw the movie tonight. I am totally depressed now. *shake fists at all eloquent movie reviewers*. I guess they did warn you by showing you the girl at the beginning but I still managed to tear up at the end. The movie deserves all its accolades and praises. It is superbly done and very well acted. The Captain was incredibly convincing. Ofelia was lovely, especially the part where she tells the story to her brother. I think one thing that struck me the most about this movie is that despite its fantasy elements, it is still full of realism at heart. This is not some sanitized Hollywood violence but cold and harsh realities of the cruelty of men. I keep cringing at the various parts but I appreciate their efforts to keep it real so to speak. I mean if I was tied up in that barn with the Captain behind me, I would be full of despair too knowing that there won't be some miraculous rescue to save me from fate worse than death. It is amazing what human beings will do to one another. I also had a hard time trying to understand all the symbolisms from the fantasy side. Do they have counterparts in reality or not. One of my favorite things is the soundtrack. It was hauntingly beautiful and I think without it, the movie would not have been so sad and poignant. So I have to agree with everyone and rate it 100!. I love the fact that it was subbed and not dubbed, because bad dubbing could have totally ruined it since there are so much dialog. I spent a little bit of time trying to see how much I can understand the dialog without looking at the sub, but give up soon hehe.

That is another one off my list, oh one more thing, I got CARDED when I was buying the movie ticket because it was rated R. *headdesk*

Pseudo science for sale

Came across this article yesterday while I was reading about the new climate report on Global Warming that IPCC is coming out with today: Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study.

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.
Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). ...etc.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this lunacy of politics trying to dictate science. I think the administration does not understand that wishful thinking and reality are two different things. You can't make reality come out your way just by throwing money at it (well I guess really you can temporarily but catastrophy is not far behind). The art of pseudoscience has reached its zenith here in the U.S. with the hugely successful process of establishing a organization with a neutral and vague name such as the American Enterprise Insitute, hide your funding source and then start to put out "scientific papers" with enough jargon to impress even the most skeptical media (those are hard to come by as it is). With any luck, you will start being quoted as an authority on this subject and your agenda will be on its way to the top.

So here is what I propose as our new money making scheme, we should totally register a nonprofit think tank, lets say named "Climate Research and Prediction" institute. Then we can spend couple hours making up some papers about how the glaciers are not melting off and a warmer Earth will really be better for the tourism industry. Voila, 10 grand in the pocket! It is that easy!

I am pretty sick of the pseudoscience agenda being advanced by the people like the "CO2 is our friend" American Enterprise Institute, the "All we need is more troops in Iraq" Heritage Foundation, and especially the "Evolution is just a theory" Discovery Institute. It is bad enough that they have faked their way to the top of the stack, it is even worse when they get quoted wholesale by Media. Stop this madness!!

Idol update

I saw the classiest audition on Idol yet last night. 60 years old Sherman Pore went to audition for his "lady" who passed away from cancer just two days before. It was such a sweet moment, very rare in a show that has gotten increasingly vulgar.

In other news, "someone" was asking for an update on my favoritest singer in the world Clay Aiken yesterday so I thought I would copy over his blog post on clayonline.com from today. He isn't doing much these days but he is definitely keeping himself amused. :) and he will be a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Feb 14th. When those two get together, you know there will be some mayhem.

02/01/07 : Lend a Helping Hand

It seems over the past few weeks, the tabloids and gossip mongers have had their hands full coming up with new and exciting "scandals" for me to be a part of. Yet, for all of their efforts to be on the "cutting edge" and the forefront of bull$#@& journalism, it seems that some of them may be running out of ideas and resorting to recycling and re-hashing some of their older tall tales. How sad!?
With this in mind, we thought maybe we would try to give them a finger.... er.. a hand.
For all of the contests that we hold here on the OFC, this one promises to be one of my favorites.
Build-Your-Own-Scandal!
That's right! Let's show off the creative abilities of the greatest group of fans on Earth.
The contest is simple, but will require some thinking and planning...

Come up with the most outlandish story you can that places me (either alone or with others close to me) in a really juicy/tawdry/scandalous/shameful story.
Then, use any photos, videos, audio clips of me that you can find along with your favorite multimedia enhancing/"doctoring" program (like a PhotoShop or a sound/video editor) to create your "evidence"!
Maybe you have "pictures" of me being "abducted by oversized turnips"... or ... "video" of me "dancing with a three legged gorilla". Be creative!

You'll submit your "story" and "evidence" to an address that you'll find online here at the OFC very soon.

I'll personally pick the "story" that not only is most creative, but has the most CONVINCING and REALISTIC looking "evidence"!
(It obviously can't be that hard to come up with!)

The winner(s) will be featured here... PLUS... there will be a great prize to go along with the honor of being the creator of "Scandal 2007"

This one is gonna be fun!!

Feel free to get started thinking...but, keep your eye out for details on rules/requirements for entry and deadlines and prizes. they be announced here soon.

Happy Fabricating!!

c

Current Mood: Excited

inspired

I was doing my boring old routine of tv watching yesterday when I came across Chris Sligh auditioning for American Idol. I was truly impressed by his sense of humor and his good vocals. It is a breath of fresh air after hours of boring old "I know I am a star" wannabes. This is the first guy this season that I am actually kind of interested in. I think he will bring some liveliness to the show if he ever makes it to the voting rounds. Not that I would actually vote mind you ;)

I was also impressed by the almost technically perfect long program skated by Evan Lysacek at the U.S. Nationals last week. He was totally not the favorite. But he deserved his gold metal after that completely inspired performance. I got goosebumps watching him. It was probably the best skate he has ever done!

So here is a toast to inspirational performances and future potential stars! They may never win that elusive gold but they sure made an impression.

random movie post

This weekend I was able to catch The Queen and Dreamgirls in the theatre. They are almost exact opposite in terms of story and style. The Queen is very much British, quiet and dignified, almost done in a documentary style. Helen Mirren was absolutely brilliant as the Queen of England. The story is about what happened in the royal family the week after Princess Diana died. It is a struggle between old Monarchy traditions of noncompromise and the new way of people power as the Queen refuse to honor Princess Diana who is no longer a part of the royal family but the people of Britain willed it to be so. It is very interesting story and as I was watching, I keep wondering how the filmmakers know that this is indeed what happened since all people involved are still living. I mean how do they know the Queen didn't want the flag to be at half mast until Tony Blair basically scared her about the abolishment of the Monarchy. Do they have actual sources for these things?

Dreamgirls was all glamour and glitz, full of sassy attitude. A typical rise of the band group, fall of the band group story with lots of good music. Although I suppose there were actually a little too much singing and not enough story telling. There wasn't any depth to any of the characters, only a brief sketch. Of course the breakout star is Jennifer Hudson, the 3rd place of American Idol 3. She really was very good in there, not bad for her first movie (won Golden Globe and SAG).

So I am 2 down on my Oscar movie list. I have decided I should catch up on all the good movies before award night. Of course I already missed some but I still hope to see these:

Children of Men - I heard the cinematography was very good
Pan's Labyrinth - comes with Tochi's high recommendation
The Last King of Scotland - a pretty rare subject
Babel - This one was nominated for best film, although I have a feeling it is going to have a bad ending.

While I am on this subject, I suppose I should list some of the movies I am looking forward to this year if nothing else, it will force me to remember watching them. From the list it looks like it will be a summer of sequels and superheroes again. how unoriginal...

Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix - Must finish the series!
Spider-Man 3- The only superhero movie I am going to see, I am already tired of all of them (Batman vs Superman, kill me now).
Transformers - I recently saw the trailer for this, you guys have to check it out, it look awesome!
The Simpsons Movie - gotta see
Pirates of The Caribbean 3 - must ..see..Orli...

Now that I see my list, it all seems to be big budget commercial blockbusters. I hope at least to see one or two good independent movie as well.

The fantastic David Copperfield.

I happen to come upon last minute tickets to David Copperfield tour last night so M and I went today to check it out. M is such a fan of him since she has been watching him since years ago. The show was actually in a tiny beautiful theatre (the same place they usually have small pop concerts). It was completely packed and the show was pretty awesome although a little short, only one and half hours without intermission. This show's scale was pretty small as it is but Copperfield was able to do some pretty amazing things like materialize on a motorcycle in a matter of 2 seconds, make a Lincoln convertible appear in midair and walk through a concrete slab of steel. Now, I have never been to real serious magic show before but I have seen it enough on TV to not be completely awe struck. But I still got goosebumps when I watched him complete these amazing illusions in real time. In my mind I know it is of course all trickery but you really can't tell at all. M was quite impressed as well although she wished the show scale was even bigger. One funny thing is that they played alot of montages at the beginning and during the show, I guess to pass the time as they get ready. It is all clips of people praising how cool David Copperfield is in various magazines, tv shows, etc. Copperfield said the montage is called "David Copperfield is fantastic!!!" lol, that was cute. Also, when they picked audience members, they always pick young and beautiful ladies and He flirts with them everytime. lol.

My day in court

Well ok, it was more like a small room with chairs. I went today to my mitigation hearing to see if I can defer my "inattention to driving" traffic ticket. I have never been to municipal court before so it was quite an interesting experience. I had to be there by 8:45 which of course is an ungodly hour to get up but can't be late for court I guess. When I got there, I had to sit with about 20 other people that also has mitigation hearings today. They piled us into a small court room with one judge and one clerk. Then we each get called up to plead our case to the judge who then decide whether to reduce our penalty. They called alphabetically so I am pretty late in the list so I got to hear everybody else beg for forgiveness first. The judge was actually quite lenient, she almost always reduced your fine even if your excuse is as lame as "I didn't see the speed sign". Most people were there for speeding tickets. There was one girl that was there for a carpool violation. She pleaded her case that she doesn't have any money to pay for the fine. The judge asked why she was in the carpool lane when she wasn't suppose to be. She mumbled something about forgetting she didn't have kids in the car that day. Her circumstances was quite desperate in that she has no income and 2 kids to support. But then the judge asked her why she has a previous carpool violation. She couldn't say anything. By then I can hear the entire room thinking "if you have no money, then stop getting traffic tickets by driving in the carpool lane!!". The judge was nice though and she got away with 10 hours of community service. Two people got their ticket dismissed because the police didn't file on time ( lucky!!). There was one russian guy there who needed a translator to tell him he couldn't get deferral because he has a commercial license. A seatbelt violator who got penalty reduced. When it was my turn, I went up there and asked for deferral, which is basically I pay 100 dollars, and then if I don't do anything stupid for a year, they will dismiss my ticket. The judge was super nice in that she then saw my ticket was for 500 dollars and she promptly reduced it to 101 dollars like everyone else. I didn't even have to ask for that. So all in all, it turned out to be a nice day. So going to court was not as scary as I thought and a million people imed me to ask how come I am at work so early (so bad for my image). :)

coolness!

Ok. Velius totally need to get THIS for our next party. What is more fun than hearing Simon trash talk after each round! :)

going Medieval?

I saw this little thing on Yahoo news today.

Marni: Leggings Are the New Must-Have
Milan - Now I know there are many out there who will think I have lost it when I write that a key, new must-have for men this coming fall will be a pair of leggings to be worn outside, not just in, the house, but that was the big message at the debut Marni men's runway show this morning in Milan....etc etc.

I realize fashion world is always a few steps ahead of the normal people but this is perhaps going too much over. I can't imagine when it will be considered fashionable for guys to wear tights again, although I am sure it is quite warm.

Car: meet Hill

This is pretty awesome: Cars meeting snowy hill

I am filled with more smugness than I am allowed since this is Portland and not us :)

Nodame Cantabile

So I was checking out my regular download website today when I noticed they updated their anime section with a new series, Episode 1 of Nodame Cantabile. Some of you anime guys may know of it. It is the story of a brilliant music student who is afraid of flying and another quirky music student who apparently lives in garbage all day because she is incredibly messy (hmm sounds like someone I know *cough*). The manga came first, and then they made the live action series and this is the anime version. I downloaded it to see what it is like and it is quite cute. They play lovely classical music as background and it has some very cute and funny scenes. Although I don't really get Japaneses' European envy. The main guy wants to give up music because he can't fly to Europe to continue his education. It can't be that bad? So far I like the first episode. I am thinking the anime would be cuter to watch than the live action series because how can they play the garbage girl in real life and still make her cute and desirable? In anime you can do such things. Anyway, nobody spoil me the storyline but I hope it is a good ending :)

Just something interesting

Pachebel's Rant (A comedian rants about how much it sucks to play Pachelbel's Canon in D on a cello. Recorded live at Penn State, this piece by comedian/musician Rob Paravonian has been a favorite on the Dr. Demento Show)



This is more of a rant on the similarities of most pop music chords than Pachebel's Canon. I suddenly remembered Kaz's post about pop music earlier that talks about album sales being way down and "How To Save A Life" is #1 digital download of the year. I totally agree with him about the songs. I am sure there are several reasons why music sales sucks, one being they make you buy the package deal where most song sucks. One other being how music companies are such giant conglomerate now they just worry about their bottom line so they don't bother actually promoting good music. But the one thing that annoys me is how every song sounds alike. The defining characters tics of our generation's popular music is not how it is hip hop or boy bands or pop princesses, it is how it is all so damn repetitive. Every single song has the format "A A B B C C A B" repeat ad nauseum. I am sure they have some formula going in the backroom that says this song is going to be a hit because we will be playing it 50 times an hour and it will be so catchy it can't help being a hit. But of course it will be a hit for 2 weeks and nobody will ever think of it again except in the numerous end-of-the-year lists they put out.

Do not walk in Snow Storm with Khaki's On

Well, Storm #2 ripped through fast and furious this afternoon. In fact it came so fast I didn't realize it was snowing until M called and I looked out the window. Rice sized hail covered my car as I drove it out, it is actually kind of fascinating since they are completely dry and have the consistency of foam. Not really something you associate with Hail. After 3 hours in the snow driving home, I learned a couple of things:

1: My car cannot climb hills in the snow
2: I can't parallel park without help
3: Do not walk in snow storm with khaki pants on.

After leaving my car badly parked underneath hill #1 going towards my house. I decided it was a good idea to walk the rest of the way which includes hill #1, hill #2 and hill #3. I estimated about an hour and half of walking since I walked hill #3 before. I had my down jacket on so I know I will be warm. What I didn't think of is that I am wearing thin khaki pants, which got cold, and then wet and then it froze. About half an hour later on hill #2, I realized I can't feel my legs anymore. All kind of nightmarish thoughts crossed my mind about frozen tissue and amputation. So when a pair of nice ladies drove by and decided to give this poor person a ride, I jumped at the chance. Bless them! So I arrived home safe and sound. My legs were completely red as if sun burnt when I got inside and I had to run hot water over them. But hey, at least I still have them :)

oh and I guess this means no work tomorrow =P

Death of Mr. Noodle

Mr Noodle (NY Times):

"But no. Momofuku Ando, who died in Ikeda, near Osaka, at 96, was looking for cheap, decent food for the working class when he invented ramen noodles all by himself in 1958. His product — fried, dried and sold in little plastic-wrapped bricks or foam cups — turned the company he founded, Nissin Foods, into a global giant. According to the company’s Web site, instant ramen satisfies more than 100 million people a day. Aggregate servings of the company’s signature brand, Cup Noodles, reached 25 billion worldwide in 2006."

A moment of silence to the greatest man ever lived, who kept me from starving in College.

old memories

I was watching sci-fi during dinner and I found out they are rerunning the Enterprise series again. 4 episodes today alone. The intro to that was so beautiful and well done. They completely veered away from the symphonic intro with shots of the ship and instead went with an actual song and a history montage. it still gives me a little goosebump when I see it. Too bad the series never lived up to its potential. I remember when it first came out, I was so excited because they had so much history, so much story to tell and it could potentially connect to the rest of the series and make one continuous story arc. I still remember the first time they used a tractor beam on something. It is like the start of that long road that ultimately ended in the Delta Quadrant with Voyager. But the writers were so unimaginative I was soon disappointed. However, the intro still rocked. I especially liked how they incorporated the sail ships, the space shuttle and the launch of the first warp drive (in ST verse). Nicely done!

The ingenuity of Men

So I casually went to Amazon.com today to check some stuff out when I noticed that I have a "plog" with one post in it flashing on the top right corner. I am assuming plog = product blog? So I clicked on it as I am quite curious except when it involves pinatas and shovels. The post is some random product recommendation that Amazon apparently thought I really needed. Among them is this littel gem. I can already imagine hours of amusement with this piece of hardware.

identity theft

This morning I woke up and missed a call on my cell. The number said 928 *******. I thought, hmm I don't know anyone with that number. I called back and a lady answered to the *** Police Department. Now I am really confused since this is a number in Arizona. I couldn't tell them who called me so I had to hang up. After I talked Velius to ensure that Ender didn't die some horrible grisly death(sorry Ender) in the middle of the night and they need me for a witness. I decided to forget about it and go to work.

I just got called again and apparently it is the BullHead City Police Department, who tried but were unable to catch this person using an ID with my name and my bank account # trying to cash a check at BofA. In short, I am a victim of that often heard but scarcely seen crime, Identity Theft. Apparently my old company lost a whole bunch of employee information earlier this year and several people have gotten hurt. I just checked my bank and it seems to still have the measly amount I have left in it after I bought my car. I still gotta call the credit company and put a 'fraud alert' on my credit rating. How lovely....

THe funny thing is, the bank smelled something suspicious when they saw the ID because the name said my name and the holder was an African American woman, which you must admit, is pretty much impossible even in China. So apparently this master criminal ring is smart and yet kinda stupid. THe evil woman got away though, and I curse you the death of a thousand suns.

Applaud Real Life Heroes

New York lauds 'hero from Harlem':

"...Mr. Hollopeter, a student at the New York Film Academy, was at the subway station at 137th Street/City College on Tuesday when he suffered a seizure and fell onto the tracks just as a train was approaching. Mr. Autrey was standing on the platform with his daughters and scores of other subway riders when he saw Mr. Hollopeter convulsing on the tracks. As he watched, he thought: “I'm the only one to do it.” He eyed the trough between the rails before jumping on top of the teenager, Mr. Autrey said, and relied on his experience as a construction worker used to “confined spaces” to calculate — in split seconds — that “maybe we have enough clearance.” Before jumping, he said he made sure his daughters were okay and asked two women to hold their hands. The southbound train grazed the top of his hat. He said he and Mr. Hollopeter remained there for 20 minutes while MTA workers shut off the third rail. ..."

Gotta give respect to some real life heroes! I can't imagine the guts it took to do that in front of a speeding train.