On Saturday, I finished "Speaker for the Dead", the second book in the Ender series. I'm reading "Xenocide" now. I also did 4 loads of laundry. Put up all the piles of clothing in the closet. In the morning, we saw Terminal (great movie) and later on Chronicles of Riddick (another good movie). Chu was in the city so he came over for dinner. We went to Shanghai Gourmet (my current favorite restaurant) where we had Hot and Sour Soup, Steamed Sole, Sauteed String Beans, Three Ingredients Kung Pao, and Shiao Long Bao. WE WERE STUFFED I SAY. Eric got some stuff at 99 Ranch for the people back in Danville/San Ramon. Eric seemed pleased with the quality of the food compared to the experience he had at D&A. Hooray. I also managed to get the "secret" sauce that was used for the tandoori chicken at the party last last weekend. Here it is.
When I was at Cal Performances, I remember being shown a movie of a theatre that had split second scene changes. I believe that they used the Chariot and Pole system developed by Giacomo Torelli. I can't find that site that had those scene changes though. Anyone?
A few weeks ago, I saw a chef go to the back parking lot as we were passing by and pinch his nose to blow out snot. Then he spit. Incredibly gross.
My immediate family seems to be having fun over in Taiwan. My sister has pictures up.
Hmm...I haven't been writing as much into my journal cause I just got about 2GB worth of books which means I've been reading old novels on my Clie. Read Ender's Game, the 4th book of the Harry Potter Series, and now I'm finally finishing Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6. You can't even imagine you many books 2GB is. It's crazy.
The Jab Chae Boke-um Noodle at Koryo is just like the 3 bowl chicken noodle that my mom makes. I made 3 bowl chicken a few days ago. I have to remember that I don't need to add more soy sauce to cover the chicken.
I went on 511.org to get a Fastrak transponder. The tolls in the Bay Area are going up to $3. By using the Fastrak, I get a doller off through the summer. Totally worth it.
Ever looking for mp3? Try looking using Google. This trick involves the fact that some sites allow directory listing which means the bots can archive them.
Just type in "?intitle:index.of? mp3 Dave Matthews" to look for Dave Matthews mp3s.
It is now possible to mod an Xbox without a mod-chip. However, it's not tested with Live 2.0 so I don't think I'll be fooling with it for now.
I think I forgot to mention that I played against Fatal1ty, this guy who's billed as the world's best gamer. Well 1 on 1 at least. His scoreboard for Unreal Tournement was crazy. Out of 100 people at E3, he won every single match and only died once. If he actually lost, you'd get $1000. No one even came close. I kept him at a kinda respectable 17-0 when the time ran out.
You know that new Korean place across from Koryo that I talked about last time. They've improved their small dishes somewhat. I ordered a combo soft tofu stew with a grilled beef side. That was pretty good. I think that combo was cheaper than Koryo but taken separately, it was more expensive.
I was playing pool at the Clipper Club the other day. An old guy and I presume his young grandson were playing. Then the kid starts talking about making video games. The old man asks him how he's doing it and the kid starts going off about drawing boxes around the character, extending the box to where the character goes, creating rules. Instantly, I knew that this was an IDTECH CAMP kid. No one else uses Stagecast to make games. I could have sworn that they were going to get rid of that "poop" this year. Oh well, teaching Fusion/Flash to every kid is really impossible.
Clinton is going to be at the Ferry Building for a book signing on Monday.
Went to Ryowa Ramen and Body Time on Wednesday. Yah....
Shanghai Gourmet at 99 Ranch has the $18 deal! They don't give you the meat bone soup and the dishes are very well made. We got Hot and Sour Soup, Cabbage with Dried Shrimp, Steamed Sole, and Shredded Pork with Garlic Sauce. SOOOOO FULLL!!!!
Yesterday, after work, we went with Margaret to the Legion of Honor Museum, where they were hosting an Art Deco exhibit. There were a lot of cool stuff that I couldn't photograph. Actually I sneaked a pic with my Clie but a guard actually saw what I was doing and told me to stop. The car that I took a pic of was a 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton. Huge white walls and everything. Which reminds me that I should go back and visit the Car Museum at Blackhawk. I was lucky getting parking (parked in the above parking lot) because I just parked and waited for people to drive away. There were a lot of people dressed up Art Deco style. I think the best way to describe Art Deco would be Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers/Josephine Baker/The Shadow/Gotham City all rolled into one. Later we went around the other exhibits because I had never been to this museum before.
Afterwards, we went to Kitaro, where once again I was lucky and found parking right in front of it (HARD to do on a Friday night). I had a combo Saba Shioyaki with Hamachi.
Margaret is going up north to learn how to surf. Eric and Co. went down to San Jose to watch Mitch Hedberg. I wonder if they went down cause I told them about it or did they already know? In any case, I hope I'll be able to catch his show on Sunday provided Eric says its worth it.
How do you like my Ugly Doll friends? Their names are Jeero and Ice Bat. Ice Bat causes much pain and suffering to people. I keep him farther away from me.
Apparently, Taipei has floods. Wonder if my parents/aunts/cousins/sister are ok. These 2 seem to be having lots of fun though so it seems to be no big deal. I've been when its had tons of rain kinda like monsoons but this seems to be lot more than that time.
Congratulations to Chris and Lori on their engagement!!! Geez, so many people getting married. I know two couples getting hitched this year. Chris and Lori will be next year?
I know, I know. What's up with all the pictures, you ask? Well, they've just been sitting around waiting to be shown. Thought it was finally about time. I'll try to make some sort of picture album with them but until then, posting them like this will have to do. Enjoy!
On Saturday, I went to Macy's in Walnut Creek to return some clothes. Now I have a giftcard that I'm not quite sure what to do with since I don't buy many new clothes nowadays. I'll probably use it and get a meat slicer with it. :-)
Afterwards, we went to Fry's to look for styli for my Clie. I lost the one that came with it and its made it somewhat more difficult to use. Good thing it has a keyboard.
Headed off to Eric/Mandeep's Party (Fred had gone down to LA, Louis to Napa). Started off slow but when the food started cooking a lot more people arrived. Mandeep/Ricky had actually bought this nifty large grill from Costco cause the old one had crapped out. I need to remind Chu to get me that Tandoori chicken recipe. It was a fun night, primarily when people started getting pushed/thrown into the pool, or accidentally falling in as was the case with Chu (see pics below). He teetered near the edge for a few secs and then went in like the rest of them. The pool/hot tub was great. I need to use the community pool more often. Maybe when it gets a little warmer in the Bay Area.
On Sunday, stopped by Potrero Shopping Center and had McDonalds before going to the Stern Grove Festival. It's a series of free Sunday concerts. This Sunday was the SF Symphony (again with another director and not MTT...he's busy contemplating the Mahler I bet). The symphony played "Night on Bald Mountain", "Firebird", and Dvorak's "Symphony no. 8". I've played the 4th movement of the Dvorak. Great movement for cellos. Margaret and Dave had brought picnic type stuff so they were well prepared for the hillside. I on the otherhand kept on slipping until Margaret showed me a better place to sit. They later went on to the North Beach Festival which we opted out of. Didn't end up going to the Alice Summerthing. There's always next year. Leah is getting tons better with Halo. Tried multi-player instruction but in the end it was the single-player that really did it.
So I've put together a small collection of some recent/not so recent pics. Some of them I just wanted to put up here. Hope you enjoy.
On Wednesday, I had lunch with Sammy, Matthew, and Christopher at Yerba Buena Gardens. Matthew is a staff writer for the SF Chronicle and told us about his Business Front Page interview with the CEO of AMD. Pretty neat stuff. Turns out Sammy works in a building I can see from my window. Real cool that there are people all around that I could have lunch with as a group.
Saw the movie "Domestic Disturbance" on TV. Leah accidentally cut her finger today so there was a mad rush for band-aids. Didn't know the freakin things could be so expensive.
There is this mean old woman that looks like a frog who goes on the bus back home every day. She barked at the bus driver on Thursday and acted horribly afterwards. In fact, I think a lot of those old women who take the bus don't have husbands.
I got the Simpsons Season 4 Dvd Boxset. Sweet!!!
I went to Barnes and Noble looking for some good Exchange 2003 books but they only had 2 and both dealt heavily with migration. I'm getting more help from Google and others.
Passed by Q-cup. They have food there. Will have to try sometime.
I heard about a crawfish festival on Alice today. Sounds interesting. Makes me think about those lobster festivals they have in New England. I'd like to go to one of those.
I got a new external harddrive enclosure (IEEE 1394 and USB 2.0). This new one is sleeker and in my opinion better made. Price was cheaper too.
The building management company sent us Pizza today for no apparent reason. Free food is free food though. I went to Church's and got me that 3 piece/biscuit special for $2.99. If only I could live off that diet. hehehe I'd save so much money.
Looking forward to this weekend, we've got Eric/Fred/Mandeep's party on Saturday, and then the Alice concert on Sunday.
Got some stuff typed into the Clie but I'll post it in the morning tomorrow. Just wanted to say that I'm glad it's Friday. This week was just too long yet it did blow by quicker than expected. Weird how that works. TGIF for sure. Partay on Saturday and Concert on Sunday. Jook-Man says "Oh yeah..."
AMAZING service at Koryo tonight. They actually refilled like 7 of our small dishes. REFILLED. I didn't even ask for it. At first, I thought she was just asking which plates to clear away. I was like,"All of them", cause we'd finished it up (clean plates). She was like "All of them?" which I thought was weird cause almost all of them were wiped clean. Then she takes the plates away. Min later she comes back with all these more plates!!! Felt kinda bad cause usu, even down in OC, I only ask for more of maybe 2-3 plates. This went far far beyond that. In any case, I left a fat tip so hopefully this will be a recurring thing. I love those small dishes. This time they even had Pa Jun in it. Oooo sooo stuffed.
On Friday, Balazs had come up from LA for a friend's birthday party so we hung out with his friends that night. Went to Lou's at Fisherman's Wharf and then afterwards Ghiradelli Square. Lot of interesting stories about a girl. It was a lot of fun. Balazs is apparently peeved that I didn't call him when I was down for E3. It wasn't like I tried to avoid everyone or anything. There really wasn't much time for anything.
On Saturday, drove down to Saratoga to hang out with Jasmine and Keith. Went to Outback where we sat in the outside patio. Got a Prime Rib...mmmm. Is it just me or are studded belts really popular? It seemed like all the waitresses had one on. Maybe it's part of their uniform or something. Afterwards, we all met up with Chris and Lori at a nearby bowling alley. Apparently, the one in Saratoga is no longer there. Another dead place in Saratoga...hahahaha. It was going to $6 a game per person so we opted for pool insteads. My practicing has somewhat payed off including having a much firmer sense of the rules is good. We ended up tying 2 games a piece, girls vs guys. I almost scratched the 8 ball on the last game too... I got to play with Chibi who's not supposed to jump around as much anymore due to a bad back. Poor Chibi. All of us played the Newlywed game till 2 in the morning? Ergh...waking up was hard to do.
On Sunday, I went back to work migrating mailboxes/profiles and all sorts of fun stuff. Didn't leave till 7-ish so I had been there for like 10 hours on Sunday. Went to the Korean market where I got meat buns and watched "Stir of Echoes" on TV which was an ok movie with a lot of jumpy moments.
I finished the 5th Harry Potter book last night. I was going to not finish it for awhile but I just couldn't put it down when things started picking up in a hurry.
Recently finished with the mail server migration at work...still a lot of tweaking since it was also the domain server as well. I'll upload what I've typed tomorrow morning. Need sleep now.
Holy Cow! My mug was in some German website that had all these pics of the Sony E3 Party. Look at me!
Ripped from http://www.das-stadtleben.de/bilder_details-cj0xMiZlPTI0Mzg0JnA9MTI3NzIw.html#p
Crazy eh? I didn't even notice the picture being taken. You can see Jeff and Lih-Chern in there as well.
Went to Texas Roadhouse a few weeks ago with Chris and Jesse. It wasn't until Jesse mentioned it, that I noticed that the hostess was calling people's names using phrases like "Harold. Party of five. Saddle Up!". She'd also say "Come on down!". Haha. at Texas Roadhouse, people eat peanuts and then throw the shell on the ground. When Lori mentioned it last weekend, she thought that you could throw whatever on the ground! Hehehe, that would be such a sick place to go to. Afterwards, we saw "Day After Tomorrow". Good movie in my opinion.
This weekend there is an exhibit event at the Asian Art Museum. It's going to have a Taiwanese feel to it which is interesting. Supposedly, there's going to be a reproduction of a Taiwanese night market. It's on the same night as Jasmine's proposed bowling night though so I'll probably end up going there instead.
I had Sul Rong Tang at Koryo Korean the other day. Man, the soup has no taste compared to Darda Seafood. Sul Rong Tang is tripe,stomach, beef soup. It was ok but I missed my Soon Doo Bu.
Couple nights ago I went to the Korean market in search of black tea for my tea eggs (I can make my own tea eggs!) but all I found similar was Oolong tea and Orange Pekoe Black Tea. Is Oolong black tea? I didn't want my eggs to taste like oranges. I gave up instead. 99 Ranch is where I need to go soon.
Tried Sahn Maru Korean BBQ 3 nights ago. It's opposite of Koryo Korean. Felt like I had betrayed their "trust" by going to this new place but I had to see if it was better. Only 9 small dishes though. Everything seemed a dollar more expensive. Still the atmosphere was good and all the kitchenware was new and very nice. I got the Combination Soon Doo Bu which was better than Koryo (dollar or 2 more though) but less spicy. I need to ask for extra spicy if I go there in the future. If only they had 15 small dishes like Koryo does.
Went to Edokko Buffet 2 nights ago. Didn't really gorge myself like I usually do. Oh well.
Went to the Microsoft Exchange Seminar at the Hyatt Embarcadero. Got lots of good info in preparation for the mail server upgrade we're doing this weekend.
Went to San Francisco Symphony's performance of Holst's The Planets with Chris, Lori, and Leah. Met up at my place and then headed to the city. I dropped them off first and got parking. On my way out, I passed by City Hall where there was a small group singing and holding candles in memory of Ronald Reagan. Newscameras all over. We got Center Terrace seats (I got mine early but Chris had to go and purchase the Day Of tickets) which is right behind the symphony. They were such cool seats, it made me feel like I was part of the symphony. Holst was preceded by Takemitsu's "From me flows what you call Time" performed by Canadian percusionnist group NEXUS and the SF Symphony. It was definitely New Age music with all sorts of percussion from the East. The highlight for me of course was "The Planets". I was overwhelmed actually hearing Mars and Jupitor live. It is 10 times better live than as a recording. So glad I went. Everyone seemed to enjoy the performance so I'm getting to a great event planner! hahaha
I've added more features to the scratcher-admin page. Made it easier to use by basically adding stuff that I had to go into the database manually to do. All good now.
There's this place in Milpitas that has the word "Taiwanese" in it. It's called Taste Good Taiwanese Cuisine.
76 S Abel St
Milpitas 95035
408-262-9439
I haven't gone yet but I'm hoping it's actual Taiwanese food instead of just Chinese food (ie Taiwan Restaurant in Berkeley). I just need a How Nian Dong to set things right.
I saw Shrek 2 with Eric and Fred in Concord after meeting them for dinner at Fresh Choice. Next time we're going to someplace like Hometown Buffet. Soup/salad just doesn't cut it anymore. Anyways, Puss in Boots is the best character in Shrek 2. Love the catnip scene.
Went to that VH Noodle place next to 99 Ranch. It was alright food that was cheaper than the pho place next door I believe. The Thai place and Golgilocks is the only places I haven't eaten at now. I even went to the new Orchid cafe before they mysteriously shut down again. That new Shogun? place outside still looks interesting. I also have been going to the place next to B&M in SF for lunch now.
Went to Fanime last weekend (its a convention for anime lovers) in San Jose. It's the first time I've ever been to anything like it. The free parking was a drag so I paid for $10 parking at the actual convention center. There were so many cool costumes around. Almost every Naruto costume was represented. I saw a few One Piece as well. One of the best costumes I saw was an EVA-01. Straw Hat Luffy and generic Hidden Leaf ninja were favs. This one Kakashi character actually had special contact lenses made that gave him Sharingan eyes (red with black wavy lines radiating from the pupil). There were also some risque costumes around and some import-type models selling pictures. I did make my way to the video rooms where I saw Dragon Drive and the new Ghost in the Shell TV series. Due to the horrible food they were serving there, I didn't eat lunch and went to this Vietnamese place (Battam?)nearby for dinner. I saw so many Naruto headbands that I wanted one too but they had already sold out the 2nd day. No problem though cause they were much cheaper online. Bought a bamboo kunai to swing around instead. Watched the anime costume competition, Der Cosplay, but left right before the end due to a splitting headache. Some weird performances, an opera singer, and then a ballet sequence, but a lot of cool costumes as well. They also had a 15 member Sailor Moon dance thing. Only 3 overweight Sailor Moons so it was a good thing. All this was the first day I went to Fanime.
Leah had gotten the Gilmore Girls DVD Season 1 boxset so I watched about half of it. I stopped watching religiously about an episode or 2 into Season 2. Kinda want to catch up after I saw the Season 4 season finale. My sister watches it religiously now.
Leah came with me to Fanime on Memorial Day Monday. Though no huge fan of anime, she like most girls were drawn to the mystique of the cat ears. After she put them on, I called her "neko-chan" for the rest of the day. Not as many people this day but I did manage to score me a good deal in the form of 12 Naruto bubble-ball characters for $15. They sell online for $30. I'm still missing a few characters but I'm good with the ones I have now. Actually I'm only missing some different poses for some of the characters and the only person I'm entirely missing is the 3rd Hokage.
Last Tuesday, we went to Bed Bath Beyond before heading off to have dinner at CPK before heading off to see a performance at Davies Hall (where the SF Symphony headed by MTT calls home). The Villa Sinfonia played 1 piece that I didn't get to hear and then a bunch of kids played with them and then a chorus from Nebraska I think did a bunch of songs including an old song by New Kids on the Block. God I love those swinging legs going side to side.
Say you found out that you could make 1 homemade cigarette out of 7 old cigarette butts. If you had a pack of 49 cigarettes and decided to smoke them all, how many homemade cigarettes could you make? Hint: It's NOT 7
This guy made the poor mistake of not moving beyond the first tent in search of food. He got stuck in the sandwich/hot dog tent when he should have moved on to the sushi/brazilian bbq areas. Poor guy. Read him rant against Sony for providing "only" hot dogs.
Dude! True Fantasy Live Online got cancelled!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! It was my dream, my one and only true fantasy that was supposed to be online on Xbox Live. Sniff sniff. Damn it. Those screenshots looked awesome. There must be a replacement. Fable does not cut it. Want anime style characters.
I got the chasu don again accidentally at Ryowa Ramen. Good thing its ok. For some reason I had the idea to have something new and forgot that I had it last time already. Weird. Oh yeah, they have One Piece Manga there too. It's so sad that I'm watching One Piece episodes from 2 years ago. At least Naruto is caught up. I'm trying to finish all the other anime series I downloaded before watching more unfinished series like Full Metal Alchemist (like it a lot but had to slow down or else it'd be another "Download once a week" series). I don't know if I mentioned that I finished watching Fushigi Yuugi and also Kimi ga Nozumo Eien. Dang I still can't believe Fred was the one who recommended it to me. Did you know that Adult Swim is showing old Detective Boy Conan episodes and calling the series "Case Closed"? What's wrong with Detective Boy Conan?!!!!
Last Saturday, I played a little of Shrek and Riddick at Gamestop. Horrible placement cause the glare on the screens made Riddick (very dark environment) hard to see. Seems to be interesting though. Shrek was good but I found that the characters move too slowly for my tastes. As far as I could tell, there is no run control. That was right before we had to go to wait in line for the Harry Potter 3 IMAX showing. Couldn't get the anticipated curry chicken over rice so I had to make due with a lot of California Rolls instead. I liked the overall direction of Harry Potter but I didn't really like this book as much as the fourth book so the story was only so-so. They do look so much older than how they looked in the first one though.
We were supposed to go meet up with Chris and Lori at the Union St Fair in SF but was easily discouraged by the fact that there was no easy parking and there were a LOT of people. Instead all of us went to Union Square and went to Gap, Macy's, Crate&Barrel, Tiffany's. At Crate&Barrel, they have really nice couches that are just perfect when you're tired from walking around. Had a sushi roll at Wolfgang Pucks and some Garlic Chicken. Played Kung Fu Chaos against Chris and with Chris. It does take a while to get used to it cause its so easy to whomp on people who have just picked it up. Played pool afterwards in a Round Robin style format with everyone switching around partners.
I recently got a cable for my new Verizon LG VX6000 phone. It takes in MIDI files so I've been making all these ringtones. I even have a Halo one. I've assigned it to Jeff. I found a utility for Palms that allow you to find out when weapons/upgrades respawn. That way I don't have to sit around waiting for the sniper rifle to reappear. Could be useful next time.
My parents have left for Taiwan/Japan again. My sister is joining them soon. Sigh. Well I do have that 2 week trip to China to look forward too. September seems to far away though. I should link my dad's albums from all the trips they've gone all. He has lots of pretty pictures.
Today there is a protest going on against the Biotech conference at the Moscone Center. They've blocked off several streets creating transit problems all over.
And now, I'm caught up. I'm sure there are some things missing that I'll fill in as time goes on. But hooray. No more talking about events that happened ages ago.
Ugh....the backlog is freakin killing me. I'm like writing about stuff that happened weeks ago it seems. Well, it seems like I'm somewhat catching up...
As I waited for Wai-Lin to pick me up for dinner, I sat and admired the black Lambo parked in front of the hotel. Sweetness. I got to drive her Camry to this Greek restaurant called Sofi where we were meeting her friends. I met some of them about a year ago when they visited the bay area. It actually was a kinda graduation party for Danielle (graduating from USC). She actually competed in the LA Miss Chinatown competition early this year. That must be very nerve-racking. I've seen competitions like that before and sometimes the ladies that do them look really really old. I wonder why they compete. Lots of self-confidence. Too much really. Hahahaha :-P I had some Lamb Shank at Sofi's which ended up being pretty small. It was all very well prepared though and the atmosphere was great. Very hole in the wall-ish.
After many rounds of picture taking, we went to Miyagi on Sunset which was only a few blocks from my hotel. There was this girl by the entrance who would go,"Woooo!!! Ready for some drinks?!!!" She would say that over and over again. Don't know how she kept that energy. She must have had a hidden can of Red Bull or something. All of us headed up to the upper floor, where we went to the bar to get drinks. First, we were asked to hand over IDs (even though we had already shown it just to get in). Then she looks at mine and goes "Awwwww...so cute!" Freakin embarrasing I tell you. Esp when it's a cute bartender. Everybody laughed and when she handed my screwdriver, she goes, "How was it Andy?" in a freakin cute/seductive voice. Anyways, it was all a ploy to wring a big tip out of our poor defenseless hands. Can you believe that it was $43 for a screwdriver, a cosmo, a Coke, a Sprite and 2 "free" Blue Balls? My jaw almost dropped, it was as if we had moved into another country and they had totally different exchange rates. Then when the guy we were with plomped down 3 $20s, she went "Do you want change?" again with that voice. Walls/Defenses dropped as if she were the trumpets of Jericho. The bartenders on Sunset know their stuff that's for sure. People who go should bring a ready supply of change that's for sure. The prices involved though made Vic's claims of $500 drink bills seem entirely reasonable. Aileen later told me that martinis are usually $16 on Sunset so...in any case my screwdriver came in a super size glass. hehe :-) here's to the bartender girl working hard for the money.
Wai-Lin had horror stories about marriage to tell us which pretty much carried the entire conversation. Afterwards, everyone went to my hotel room to look out over the balcony at Sunset. The night was not about to end however.
When I was walking Wai-Lin back to her car, we noticed it was missing. The tow trucks had gotten to it so we needed to go get it back. We had to call her friend's who had just left to come pick us up. As we went to the tow company place, the guy's car gets rear-ended by a taxi cab! Urghhhh...hours afterwards, I finally get back to my place, drop into bed, and fall asleep.
The next morning, I got picked up by my family. When I checked out of the room, I thought that my bill was clear but apparently there was a $10 fee for using the safe! Luckily the guy must have seen the manager's comment to take care of me (thanks to Max) so the guy went ahead and waived it. Whew! Originally, my family and I were supposed to have lunch together but that didn't happen cause we ended up being stuck for more than an hour waiting for the custom cabinets guy to show up. My dad is getting the whole wall of the bonus room done as a cabinet surrounding the big tv. Then he's got his movie screen projector in front of it. Supposedly the screen which comes down from the ceiling is like more than 100 something inches. My mom started kidding with people that they'd have to start charging people admission the next time people come over. hahaha
After I got back to the Bay Area, not too much happened. The day afterwards, the very controversial Kings Wolves game happened where Garnett was elbowed in the face and glowsticks were thrown on the court. I actually heard it on the radio, as we were going down to Palo Alto to hang out with Wendy. Went to a pretty good place called World Wraps where I had this Samurai something-or-other which had Salmon over rice. Good stuff. Saw Troy with Wendy and her roommate. Leah marveled at the Brad Pitt butt scenes. Some scenes were pretty cool but it would have been better if Paris/Hector were transformed into Legolas/Hulk. Yah, that would have been interesting against the Greeks.
Had lunch in Chinatown with Margaret and company at this place called VIP. Had black pepper beef which was pretty good but towards the end I kinda felt that I had had enough. Taking the bus to Chinatown was interesting. I needed to make change for the bus fare so I bought two French chocolates at the expensive cards/magazines/newspaper stand down the way. I had one and offered one to the others which Margaret tried. I like it milky.
Saw Shaolin Soccer and My Sassy Girl at Old Teahouse recently. I haven't really tried anything else beside the Aberdeen Fried Rice and the Pork and Preserved Egg Jook. Maybe I should try something new.
I was in Ned's in Berkeley and was near the counter, when I had this loud bang outside. Going outside, a saw this huge 15 lb dumbell lying on the ground. This girl was clutching her shoulder and looking upwards. Apparently a dumbell had fallen out of an upstairs window and had dropped on this poor girl's shoulder. All I could think about was what would have happened if she had been walking a few inches to the left.
Played some Halo with some halo newbies before heading into the city to see the Cardigans at Popscene. As we crossed the Bay Bridge, we were able to catch part of the KFOG Kaboom concert's fireworks. Very pretty. Popscene is a horrible venue for bands since the stage was only a few inches off the ground. Only a few people would be able to get a good view. Popscene also had weird videos of 60's or 70's naked gogo dancers playing. The cardigans did play "Rewind" though which was cool. Afterwards, we all had some late night Denny's.
I've been to Japanese Ryowa several times recently. They just have good food without being outrageously expensive. I don't like the cold ramen though. Cha Su Don is alright. They have One Piece manga in there. Man, I'm watching episodes of One Piece that aired like 2 years ago. The Ryowa Special Fried Chicken is pretty good. Reminds me of the stuff at Taiko in Irvine. In my opinion the soup of the Corn ramen is weird as well as the Vegetarian Ramen.
I got Jackson's wedding gift at Bed Bath Beyond. Can't say what it is yet but I think it's much more manely than Chris's gift. Hehehe. The counter person took like 15 min doing the wrapping. Very well done though.
Every time I go to the SF Costco, I feel tall. Anywhere there are lots of older asians, I feel that way. Got lots of trout last time I went.
Got Kung Fu Chaos finally for the Xbox. I realized that I really didn't have any party games for the Xbox, and KFC was such a fun one. I also prebought Halo 2 just for sake of mind. Lih-chern got the limited edition Xbox with the Halo branding which she's vowed to not open until she finds a new job. I probably want to find a cheap copy of Viewtiful Joe for the Gamecube too. Still no Splinter Cell 2 or Ninja Gaiden until I get a new TV.
I went to see a taping of Unscrewed, a show that I watch on TechTV. Had a lot of fun. Both me and Leah answered Trivia questions (my correct answer was "naughtyschoolgirls.com" and her's was "toyota camry"...you can form your own conclusions as to what the questions were...). Both of us got Unscrewed t-shirts and I got mine signed by Martin. It's too bad that they're all going down to LA as part of the merger with G4.
The last area of the E3 Sony party turned out to have the best food. Brazilian BBQ. Now I've never been to Brazil or anything so I can't say if it's authentic but it tasted really good. Lot of different kinds of meat were being broiled right there. I REALLY regreted the hot dog at that point. In any case I had my fill.
Overall...key pointers. Wait until you've been anywhere before you get food or drinks since there will be stuff all around. Don't hold a drink while listening to great music. Do bring a small camera. I didn't because the invitation told me not to and I got screwed capturing everything on my Clie while others whipped out their Sony T-11s. Bastards.
When we left, we got a Sony PS2 backpack and a PS2 hipflask. Apparently there was a messup with the hat colors, so a lot of us didn't recieve one. Darn.
The next day, I ended up waking late even though I had planned to go early again. Comes with not sleeping until 3AM. Finished the Nvidia scavenger hunt to get the t-shirt (freebie whore). The GuyGame girls were out in force, with guys turning heads and admiring the booty. I got to meet TechTV's Xplay's Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb. The guy before me like totally ignored Adam and went to get a pic with Morgan. Adam had this look of funny utter disgust which he must have rehearsed cause it was so good. Everyone knows what its all about. It's great that Adam has a sense of humor about the whole situation. I took pics with both of them cause Adam is pretty cool in my book. I placed my hand on Morgan's shoulder (gotten kinda used to it with the booth babes) and then I kinda froze cause it was like Whoa, I had the nerve to touch the sexiest geek/gameplayer in the known world. All the guys in line like went crazy. I have this funny look on my face. Just glad she didn't turn and hit me.
I waited in line at the Bandai booth to get a Cowboy Bebop shirt after playing the game. Actually, throughout the line, you could play all sorts of Bandai games so I played a funny wrestling game and some Gundam games as well.
Later...the interesting last night in LA.
