Vacation in Review

Going against the general rule, I actually had more fun than I expected to during this winter vacation. Finished it up a couple days ago with a big group of friends as we headed over to The Cheesecake factory for a scrumptious meal (I'd never been there, sad I know) and then spent several hours having a huge poker session at one of my friend's houses, winner take all, can't leave til you're cleaned out, etc etc. Was 3 bucks each to play, and by 3am the host finally decided since it was his house he would be the only one to cash out on the night, leaving him with about 6 bucks worth of chips, and me with the remainder of everyone's money... (upwards of 28 bucks or so, they'd never invited me to a game at that house before, probably never will again...) [pops his head with a pin]

So overall this break I got some awesome presents, tried two things I'd never done before and learned to do them to some extent (skiing and snowboarding), and had the usual incredible New Years. Not too shabby I'd say. Makes me feel good to be able to say I'm a licensed SCUBA diver, and can ski and snowboard, as well as claim I've stood on the peak of the highest mountain in the contigious United States, and visited 39 of the 50 states. I've had it good, I know, but I'm not blind enough to the rest of the world to not be thankful for it.

OKAY OKAY, GEEZ

Enough people decided to make me feel special babbling over IM about how I hadn't told my new years story yet that I'm finally sitting down to do it. Beware, you know how wordy I get, especially when talking about myself!

So, New Years Eve, I wake up at 4:56am, amazingly just before my alarm was set to go off at 5. As always when its a big day I bounce out of bed and into the shower in a single hop, and am good to go about 5:20. Equipment check (keys/wallet/sunglasses/pager/cellphone/camera/ticket) and voom, out the door I go. The father was kind enough to loan his 96 Mustang, so I rode in style. A quick stop at McD's for the usual eat-while-driving #3, and blam, onto the 405 I went. Ended up getting there about 6:15, surprised to see the gates to the lot were open, but there wasn't a line of cars yet... Something about driving down Harbor Boulevard just makes my skin tingle... I see the Hyatt Regency where I planned for like a year 7 or 8 years ago to have this big two day two night adventure package deal wonderful thingy... I used to be obsessed, typing out 10 or 20 page "touring plans" which would detail everything about how the day would go, factoring in the length of rides, distance between them, speed of the lines per 100 people waiting, etc etc... It ended up getting me to an obscene amount of rides in a single day, but it wasn't exactly for the "relaxed" visitor. About five years later I finally abandoned the idea, given I'd done everything there anyway, might as well do what I'm in the mood for, when I'm in the mood for it. They finally got rid of the old Welcome to Disneyland that used to sit out front on the west side of the boulevard as you turned into the lot, I can remember many a family cheer as the ol minivan made its way in.

Exchanged pleasantries with the attendant, followed the cones, and amazingly enough discovered that not only was it deserted out front, but I was actually the very first car in the entire parking lot... Turned out I parked in the first spot on the first aisle, as close as possible to the entrance itself (something only someone who is obsessed would brag about). This of course ended up placing me at the very front of one of the gate lines, and I ended up being the very first person to walk into Disneyland that day (ignoring all those lame early admission hotel guests ;) ) Walking down Main Street USA is literally the happiest time in the world for me, knowing how much fun lies ahead.

By now you're probably thinking you're going to get a whole day long description, but I'll spare you most of the gory details. Strangest moment occurred when I got something stuck in my shoe for the 3rd time in an hour and found it to be suprisingly, a penny, again. I eventually figured out after a nickel appeared in my shoe a few minutes later that I had a hole in my jeans pocket, and that was allowing change to slide down my pant leg and end up in my shoe, confusing many a passers-by when I pulled it out... Yeah, I really am that retarded...

Spent a good hour playing Disney flavored DDR in the new Innoventions attraction, until one too many little kids came up and beat the pants off me at it... Also found it interesting my character was still saved in the Gauntlet Legends arcade game at the huge Starcade they have there, which I had played the previous two years as well (geeks will be impressed). Was depressed to see the Animazement show wasn't running anymore as well as the Hunchback show, both of those had amazingly talented vocalists that were quite enjoyable. Ah, forgot to mention the most depressing thing from the day, Fantasmic the show I rank just about highest all time in terms of greatness for its time, was closed until summer. :( That shot to hell my strategy of sneaking into "perfect viewing point" (tm) just after the second to last show, and getting to stay for the last showing immediately after the new year... Everything turned out okay though, I'm glad to say.

Played cell phone tag with one of my friends who was there as well with her girlfriend and her family, eventually met up with them later in the day and hung out for a while, spent the usual too much on food, but geez some of the restaurants there are gooooooood if you know where to go... (yeah, its nice to hang out with an aficianado (spelling shot in the dark (just wanted to have a third parentheses))) I wonder whether Disneyland will end up being a locale of employment after college, obviously not as your typical minimum wage worker, but geez out of that whole place there must be something I'm capable of that pays. :) Just watching a small child's face light up when they see Mickey Mouse, is enough to bring a smile to my face for hours at a time. Oh, and I DID go back to the Candy Palace to look for that girl from last year, the last girl I gave my number to whom I'd never met before in a random place... No dice there. Oh, and no, she didn't call. :/

So eventually I commandeered my spot at the top of the bridge in New Orlean's Square, next to the lightpost I'd been standing near as the clock struck 2000, and 2001. Of course it was still part of the excess line for Pirates of the Caribbean around 10pm when I got there, but I found sitting in a lump and pretending to be asleep kept most people moving along past without saying anything, other than the few who would feel the need to tap me, or talk trash about how retarded I was for sleeping through new years, thinking I was sound asleep...

Anyway, New Years at Disneyland. Personally, its indescribable. Picture 100,000 people (or more) all in the same area. Picture most of them with those glow in the dark necklaces, or glowticks they're waving, or light wands, or something. Do your best to figure out what thousands of kazoos sounds like, most of which are right in your general vicinity. Imagine the voices of countless people, united as one counting numerically backwards. Look up, and see amazing explosions and lights as the last thirty seconds of a year tick by. Listen to the screams and cries of a million HAPPY NEW YEARs from all around you. Enjoy one of the most amazing fireworks displays ever, and glance around as couples embrace, children laugh and cheer, and grandparents share yet another moment together. Close your eyes, and realize this won't be the last time you'll be in this exact spot, the Happiest Place on Earth, for this special time. I know I'll be back again and again. Want to come along next year? 361 days and counting, give or take.

[Cough, Hack, Squeak]

Strangely enough the whole hoarse thing didn't set in until two days after New Years... Those lucky enough to talk to me today got to hear something that sounded much like a mouse squeaking out words... My brother just got his wisdom teeth out too, and I'm passing my flu case around to everyone, so everyone is a real bundle of joy around here... I knew it was coming on when I woke up to go to Disneyland, and now I'm payin for it... Gonna catch some early Z's now and probably end up waking up too early in the morning, will give all the gory details then.

Oh....... My...... Goodness.........

I have no idea what its like to be hungover, but this must be pretty close. Slept about 18 hours, woke up for a few, bout to go to sleep again, will tell you the whole story once conscious again.

The Happiest Place on Earth, Sort Of...

Headed down to Irvine to Downtown Disney for the first time with some friends last night, its the new Universal City like area immediately adjacent to Disneyland and California Adventure... Pretty cool place, although it was quite trippy to be so close to my favorite place in the world without going inside... ;) Alas now it is New Years Eve Eve and I must sleep so I can get crankin at 5am tomorrow morning, whoopee! :) Ooh forgot to mention rewatched The Breakfast Club (still good) on DVD with some friends who had never seen it (a crime) and checked out The Royal Tenembaums (who knows how its spelled) in the theaters, gonna have to give that one a below average 3 M's, it just didn't tickle me much, although some other people in the theater seemed to like it, and it seems to be ripping up the IMDB ratings... Was a sort of comedy/drama, but a lot of down time, maybe it was becasue I was tired, basically falling asleep through sections that didn't interest me...

I'll probably be gone from 5am tomorrow til 5am New Years Day, so don't expect another post til I'm ready to fill you in on all the girls' number's I got! :P

Quick Blurb...

Caught Ocean's 11 last night, I thought it was quite good, 6 M's. Course the fact there were like 23948234 actors and actresses in it that I personally enjoy helped. So did the setting in a casino actually.. :) Your typical bad guys who we treat as good guys stealing from good guys who we see as bad guys type of movie ala Robin Hood... Other than that and the yummy Chic-Fil-A (wonder how that's really spelled) I had prior, a whole lot of nothing going on around here... A lot of sleeping/resting/stretching stacking up for the big day/night on Monday... Possibility of me headed out tonight too, and will probably just spend all day tomorrow watching movies or something...

Really need to get around to burning like 30 cds, anyone have any good ideas as to what can be done during the process to make it more exciting? :/

Rule #1, Don't Fall

So yeah, found myself up at the buttcrack of dawn again yesteray, same song, different verse, a little bit louder, a little bit worse..

Ended up going to bed around 9pm the night before, and getting up at 2:30am or so... Fiddle diddied around with my comp for an hour or two then got all set up and ready to go. Borrowed my sisters van (my parent's old one she inherited, the 93 Voyager not their new one the 2002 Town & Country) and headed off to pick up the six peeps that ended up going with me. That was around 4:20, but we didn't actually get on the road until 5:15 or so, had some "delays" with people forgetting stuff and taking too long and not being awake yet, etc... Made it to Big Bear without much problem, although it was like an hour just from where you get off the freeway onto the mountain road near Riverside... Some awesome views, but pretty nerve racking driving as you putz along on the edge of cliffs and around switchbacks... Had some McD's on the way, although I was a little depressed I couldn't get my Deluxe Big Breakfast while I was driving, had to settle for a #3, Sausage McMuffin with Hash Brown and a Large OJ (I drink a TON of OJ, three meals a day while eating at the DC at school).

The whole parking/buying tickets/renting equipment thing went pretty well... Little did I know my boots were at least a size too small, I would pay for that later... First time off the lift I of course ate shit like everyone always does, although I blame the person next to be generally. ;) Had some serious wobble problems at first, but eventually got the whole center of gravity balance thing down... The one plus about skiing is its easier to just be motionless talking to ppl or resting or whatnot, rather than always having to be "praying to the snow gods" as my father calls it, or sitting on your ass... I did my share of eating it, the worst of which happened on one of the easiest beginner slopes, strangely enough... I actually did the majority of falling there trying to learn how to turn and stop on the two edge as well as the heel, never really got that down, but managed to be facing the hill at one point when my heel edge just dug in and sent me flying backwards over it, eventually landing on my ass, then having my head whiplash into the ice... This was followed by a chorus of "OHHHHHH that one hurt him" from the lift overhead...

Two of my friends started off skiing, but one of them shattered his boot and ended up renting a board to have fun with us, thus there were about four of us boarding who basically sucked ass, which made it fun. :) At one point we ended up on this REALLY flat run to the point you'd get up, not move, and eventually fall again... Finally one of us would get moving, run into someone else, and we'd both go down again... Needless to say my muscles just about all over OTHER than my legs are bein pretty painful today... A couple of the other guys had no problem getting up and made fun of me, until I pointed out that lifting 130 pounds off the ground is a bit different than 200... (oops brought up my weight, yeah twenty pounds by new years isn't actually happening, but that's good, because I needed a new years resolution! ;) harder to exercise at home anyway, no pool, no reccen, no friends/exercise partners readily available :/ )

So yeah, had a great time, spent some time with some fun ppl, had some interesting convo's to/from the place during three hour or so ride... Ended up going to TGIFriday's on the way home, chowed on some pretty good chicken fettucine alfredo, had some more strange conversation about everything, managed to wake me up enough to safely get home the rest of the way.. (driving down the mountain road in pitch black dark was uh, interesting. Actually wasn't that bad, but everyone else was asleep, so I had to pay attention a bit more, and getting hi-beamed every 15 seconds wasn't so cool either...) Managed to drop everyone off and eventually make it home around 10 or 11pm, when I was reminded about the aforementioned dentist appointment...

So the jury is still out on Skiing vs Snowboarding, although both are fun enough, I'll probably end up doing whatever the majority of the people I'm with are doing each time I go. ;) Or should I say the majority of girls. Hm...

Going to be a lot of downtime until Monday when I'm up before dawn again to head to Dland, gettin excited just thinkin about it! :)

[yawn, snore, growl]

The below post was actually like 8 hours earlier, but Blogger was down, typical...

So anyway, traditional Wilson xmas with the kids... My parents were always trying to devise ways to keep us out of the living room where they'd laid out all the presents from Santa and our stockings full of candy and whatnot, and thus hopefully keep us quiet so they could sleep until a sane hour... (6am was the usual wake-up time) All the bedrooms open up into the same hallway in this house, so if they could find a way to block that they would succeed in their task... The most popular year consisted of lots and lots of newspaper, to the point they had covered they entire space between the walls ceiling with it, and placed all the scissors in the house on the other side... The kids woke up around 2am and spent the next hour or so taking a snip every 10 minutes with an old corrugated pair from my sister's sewing set... Around 3 we finally had a big enough space to crawl through and the living room was ours! Another year they tried the bells on strings approach, with all of them connected via some contraption, so that when we cut one we had to catch them all before they hit...One of their final attempts was talking trash about getting a "motion detector" for about 3 months, to the point my dad even took my brother shopping in that section a couple weeks prior at an electronics store... Turned out they had this elaborate setup with flashing lights and what looked much like a motion detector, but was really an intercom. The whole wake-up scene was always pretty elaborate on our part... A few years we'd have very loud music start playing (Lion King's Circle of Life was always good), me blasting on the trumpet, and my brother screaming or yelling or doing something else obnoxious as we kicked in the door to the parents bedroom...

Anyway, as you can see, Christmas is a quite complicated occasion at the Wilson house, starting at about 6am, ending around 10 or 11 depending on the year once all the presents have been opened, candy been stuffed in, and breakfast caserrole been finished off...

Part of my gifts to the family were candy bars to each of them with a rhyme associated to it... For example my brothers:

"I just wanted you to know I'll always think you're pure chunk;
no matter how many girls call you a:"
Then there was a large BIG HUNK candy bar attached to the paper... My father's was pretty good too:

"You did very well skiing, proving false my hunch;
that you'd go flying off the hill into a tree, and I'd hear you go:"
And of course, a large CRUNCH attached to that one.

Harhar. Me so funny. So anyway. Did pretty well on the recieving end, picked up a swiss army knife I finally clued into needing about the 80th time I was looking for scissors or a kitchen knife to open a package or whatnot this break... Also got the usual wolf shirt, (i'm a big wolf fan, their eyes are almost as cool as mine, and their personality is basically the same ;) ) although this one is the prettiest so far, and various t-shirts with clever or funny sayings that I'm infamous for wearing on a regular basis... Also picked up the latest edition of Creative's sound card, which combined with my speaker system makes mp3's, games, and movies sound pretty amazing...

A grand ol time was had by all! Next up is a description of "The Next Day" (tm) when I ended east for the mountains... Will save that one for tonight.

Chipmunk Cheeks

Nothing better than 9am dentist appointments to get cavities drilled that you forget about til the last minute. Especially when you're up late after snowboarding all day the day before and thrashing yourself into a berjillion pieces. Really. Its great.

...

So I guess while I sit here waiting for the whole numb thing to screw off so I can eat because I'm starving I can catch up on some storytelling from the last couple of days. Its been quite fun actually.

[ten minutes later]

Okay this sucks. I'll do it later. I'm going to sleep.

Not A Creature Was Stirring...

Other than a rather large male, plopped in his usual chair listening to the whirrrrrrrrr of his case fans...

[bends his ring finger back and forth gingerly, realizes it doesn't hurt, and flexes]

Teehee, looks like it won't be a problem for the snowboard trip. Now for the skiing story...

Got up there at the crack of dawn, after downing my usual Deluxe Big Breakfast that I tend to snag at McDonalds before big events that require waking up early... Hooking into all the gear for the first time was quite complicated, and once you have these six foot extensions of your legs on its quite cumbersome at first... I must say I'm proud that for the entire day I managed to never eat shit off the lift, unlike just about everyone else there... Apparently snowboarders have the most difficulty, I had quite a grand old time watching two of them faceplant about four feet off the lift, finally stand up laughing at themselves, and getting their legs taken out from under them by the next pair diving forward... :) The challenge for the skiers was to dodge the pileups at the top of the lifts that kept occurring... Strangely enough it was about a 10 to 1 snowboard to skier ratio, which suggests that the former is the easier sport, especially given some of the people who were managing to make it down the hill...

Spent the first few hours on the usual beginner hill, getting the whole turning stopping etc deal down, then went on to some lower intermediate hills, which were quite a lot of fun. The main problem I faced throughout the day was the worry that I was going to get run over by the high speed snowboarders that were blasting through the lower hills from the advanced ones at any given moment... Many a time I either caused one of them to swerve out and crashed, or did it myself.. My one major mistake was trying to get on the express lift too fast and knocking over the two people in front of me who were waiting for it... Got me a stern talking to from the guy up top, he apparently didn't realize I was a first timer and thought I was "bullying" them... So yeah anyway the view from up top was pretty amazing, was crystal clear out towards Victorville and Vegas, could see for hundreds of miles. Mountain High is only about a 90 min drive from my house, which means larger crowds, but is more convenient for a random weekend excursion.

At any rate, the top crash of the day was when I was on the hardest skill level slope I ended up trying, got going way too fast, caught an edge, skidded out, flew about four feet through the air at about a two foot height, slammed into the slope, and managed for some reason to keep both my skis on, even though they were pointing at opposite diagonals, which did in my groin pretty well... Its unknown which crash ended up spraining my finger, or whether it happened later in the day or something, just started giving me a lot of pain that night. Strangely enough I didn't end up feeling the usual soreness or pain the next day, I was feeling bouncy as ever. I'm sure snowboarding will do in the knees/ass a bit more than skiing did. I'm hoping it'll be easier, less appendages going in different directions... Not to say I suck royally at skiing, I think I did pretty well for a first day. :) My dad performs very well for a man of his age, and managed to show off a couple times going off various jumps and screaming down steep inclines, he enjoys proving he's better than me in anything he can, a rarity given he's getting old, and I'm not quite through my prime just yet... :P I did manage to avoid finding a tree with my name on it, and my dad managed to run over about five times the snowboarders that I did. ;)

Had a "family dinner" tonight for Chistmas Eve, which consists of barbs being thrown in random directions and memories from previous christmas's being brought up and laughed about... The usual high level of terrible jokes was available from the mother and father, while the sister and brother did their best to keep up with me... (head grows to obscene levels and explodes). Anyway, always entertaining when all five Wilson's are at a table together.

I actually managed to get out and snag everyone a gift this year, even though some are of the funny variety... :)

Hm, past 1, I suppose I should be getting to bed so I can be awake for the usual trumpet in the parents ear awakening around 6am... There's been a tradition in this house for ages that the parents try to keep us from getting out to the living room to see what Santa brought, using all manners of techniques of blocking the hallway and/or threats... I'll be sure to detail some of the better ones tomorrow. ;)

Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Holidays. May the spirit of giving help all of those in need.

Another Unfortunate Excuse...

Actually this is a valid one, managed to jack up my finger at the resort yesterday, causing it to hurt like all living hell when I bend it, etc, so typing is pretty horribly slow at the moment. Plan on a big ol explanation of the injury's occurance and the other fun times I had skiing for the first time on Saturday at Mountain High as soon as the pain has toned down to a tolerable level. :/

Still planning to snowboard at Snow Summit on Wednesday, the swelling should be gone by then, one would think...

Dayam, me foine!

Ah, hadn't been conceited within these pages in a while, needed to fit that in somewhere. :) So yeah, decided on a whim last night that I was going to try snowboarding for the first time ever... Turns out some friends of mine are going next Wednesday, so I'll be hittin the slopes at the crack of dawn, and if I'm lucky, won't break any bones. :)

Of course this requires "winter clothing" of which I have none. I'm a t-shirt/shorts kinda guy, even when it drops to about 40 (the coldest southern california ever gets) so this whole "heavy jacket" concept was new to me. Ended up raiding sportmart for some pretty spiff threads if I don't say so myself. (too late) Got the whole blue/silver color coordination goin, and with the whole hood/neckwarm/facecover and shades on, I look pretty much like those guys who rob banks. I figure its always good to draw attention to yourself, especially when you're about to look like a total idiot rolling over and over and over down a mountain... :)

Should be interesting, I'll probably also go with the father sometime this week or next to do the whole skiing thing as well, get at least two days of mileage out of the new threads. Speaking of mileage, I'm at 99,996 in my car at the moment, bout to roll over to the big 100k mark. That means I've put about 20k miles on it since I picked it up three years ago, including countless SB to LA to SB and back again traverses. Not bad for a car we picked up for $2500 that's 15 years old...

Oh and one more thing...

geek>
They finally released drivers for my Win TV card for WinXP to allow me to cap both audio and video at the same time!
/geek>

That basically means I'll be able to create avi movie files on my computer of just about anything on TV, commercial free of course. I'll be collecting 24 episodes for sure, and probably capturing some other special event type things as well. If anyone has any requests for things they want forever enshrined on their computer, feel free to let me know. :) Half hour shows end up about 100 megs, and hour long ones end up about 220. So obviously, you'd have to be on broadband, or REALLY patient, to be able to get them from me.

One Ring To Bring Them All, and In The Darkness, Bind Them.

Those who don't recognize the above quote have missed out on a classic piece of literature... Don't get me wrong, I'm generally not a fan at all of the fantasy genre, but when it comes to arguably the most popular series of all time that has lasted for generations, even I have to give it a shot. I must say after giving The Hobbit a once over and busting through the initial book of the trilogy The Fellowship of the Ring today, I believe its been time well spent. Of course, I was in quite a hurry moving through the 400 pager tonight given I was planning to attend the 12:01am showing at the local theater... I always tend to leave these things to the last minute, but its just a crime to watch a movie before reading the book, so alas the task was completed.

Now for probably the first ever review by someone who saw the movie in general release... (no other moron is staying up even later to type this) I think I'm going to go with a rating system of my own, we'll say 1 to 7 M's, just to confuse the random reader. The scale will be as follows:

1 - Not even worth the 10 cent CD to burn and add to my collection.
2 - Just barely worth the 10 cents, just to be complete. Very poor for multiple reasons.
3 - Below average, not something I would pay to see. Maybe downloadable if really that bored. Possibly "weird."
4 - Average. Your typical movie. Worth the 3 bucks to rent. Maybe even a bargain matinee.
5 - Above average. Entertaining. Good in some ways, bad in others.
6 - Excellent. I would pay to see this in the theater. Anything that provokes a feeling from inside, be it joy, sadness, excitement, or despair.
7 - Top of the line. I've probably seen this multiple times. I probably left the theater a different person than when I walked in. I would probably have forked over a hundred bucks to see this if I knew how good it was. This will not be a common rating.

Now, the more important part, examples of the above ratings, so all those who don't agree with my tastes can realize I'm a bumbling idiot and ignore any movie review they come across in the future.

1 - The Last Starfighter. I don't care how cool it was in the 80s. I watched it twenty years later, and it sucked. Bad.
2 - Magnolia This one's controversial, but it leads the "weird" file. I'm not into weird movies. Other possibilities for this group would be Requiem For A Dream or Pi. I need a movie to make sense, have some sort of logical plot, or at least some sense that the elements of the movie are connected somehow. Not randomness.
3 - Bounce No beef with Ben, no beef with Gwen, it was just a poor movie. Not much to it. Could have been 20 minutes. Wasn't.
4 - Cast Away Love Tom. In a lot of things. Long movie, again, didn't need to be. Disagreed with the ending. Make out, then back into the house she goes? Lame. Sure that's the way its supposed to be, but dangling ends just wouldn't work for me in real life. I'd be obsessed I bet.
5 - Just About Any Decent Action/Drama Movie A whole lot will fit this category. Anything that the media probably hyped, looked good, I went to see it, came out pumped, jabbering about how cool the stunt sequence/car chase/fight scene/computer animation/battle footage/cinematography was. Spy Game is an easy example here, just saw it.
6 - Gonna go with an off the beaten path one here. Snow Falling on Cedars Disclaimer: I was in a white male/asian female relationship at the time. So it struck home pretty hard. Might have caused some bias. Other side of the spectrum, Saving Private Ryan. Still to date, the most powerful opening twenty five minutes I've ever seen.
7 - Time to make all the men groan out there... Titanic. Say what you will, but this movie had everything. Effects, action, romance, a score with portions that to this day make me feel energized, and portions that water my eyes. Only a handful of movies have managed to yank tears out of me in public, and I'm not worried about letting people know that. The only three hour movie during which I never even hit the indiglo to check. On a more cheerful note The Breakfast Club. Probably in my top ten of all time. I've seen it easily a dozen times, and laugh hysterically every time. The scenes where they're not even talking are some of the best. (pixi stix and captain crunch in a sandwich, classic).


Okay I know I had a point here somewhere. Ah that's right. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring comes in at 5.5 M's. It suffers from the fact I've read the book, and realize how much has been left out. Parts I was excited to see were just skipped over as the plot was changed somewhat. This happens in all book turned movies though. I do however applaud the depiction of the Dark Riders, I'll be having nightmares in my sleep for a while. Easily the most freaky point of the movie though was actually caused by Bilbo in a rather creepy state, generating quite a reaction from the packed theater. (I know I'm a spoilsport, but you won't know what I'm talking about until afterward I'm sure...) Speaking of which, I did mention I was with all the cooky hookies at the 12:01am showing. Its the second time I've attended one of those, the previous being Episode I: The Phantom Menace. (6 M's) There's something about having grown men dueling in the aisles with wanna-be light sabers during the preshow that makes the whole theater going experience more entertaining. Tonight didn't quite achieve the energy that Star Wars created, during that one as soon as the first note of the theme played and the text started scrolling, I couldn't hear much of anything for the next several minutes as the crowd hooted, hollered, cheered, whistled, stomped, threw popcorn, and celebrated in general revelry. Tonight we had the usual mass booing every time ANOTHER preview started though, and the rousing applause lasting for quite some time when it was over. The movies effects were quite impressive as expected, with the costumes and makeup superb. The acting was on the plus side, my one beef being casting the sunglasses bad guy from the Matrix as Elrond the elf. I kept thinking he was going to hiss "morpheussssssssss" at any second, his voice was just too representative of that movie for me. Besides which he didn't really look like an elf anyway. The archer Losolos or something or other was much more what I had mental picturized. Yeah that's a verb now.

So it would appear that for the next couple years I'll at least be able to rely on sequels and trilogies for entertainment, other than The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars I found out that Men In Black II will be coming out (the first one was awesome on the effects side of things and Will Smith and Tommy Lee are just too cool, 6 M's) as well as Blade II (original had plenty of action, 5 M's) and a few more Matrix and X-Men sequels, which I'm also looking forward to. Course I won't be waiting til then just yet, still have four or five movies I'm planning to see over the break. Maybe more, who knows. I get bored. :)

Looks like I'll be seeing you at the theater, everyone.

One Good, One Not So Good...

Headed out to the AMC 20 with a couple high school friends, paid to see Spy Game then theater hopped over to Not Another Teen Movie. In case you still haven't figured out the header, Spy Game was excellent, the wann-be comedy was not. It was basically an imitation Scary Movie, only not as funny and much more nauseating. That is, unless you like looking at naked male ass. Ugly, naked male ass. Back to the more pleasant subject, I thought Robert Redford and Brad Pitt both performed well in the former, quite entertaining.

Probably going to be handing out a lot of reviews this break, plenty of movies out I'd like to see. I'm sure I'll head over to the mall for a 2 or 3 movie outing at least once or twice (hey, its cheaper that way).

geek>
Been playing a lot of Empire Earth, a new game based on the likes of AOE2 and WC2, its time consuming, but that's pretty much all I can say about it to this point. I'm used to the Civ2 type progressing through time, and its much more difficult to achieve that in this game. Basically its build the biggest army and go crush the opponent, which isn't the type of strategy I generally use, so I've been getting worked over by the computer pretty good. It cheats, I swear!

Also been replaying RTCW on the most difficult skill level, still going to have to give it the best graphics/gameplay award of the holiday season. Ghost Recon is a close second, but given they're different types of games they can't really be compared. FIFA 2002 and NHL 2002 have been providing needed breaks as well, nothing like body slamming an opponent into the boards to relieve stress, especially if playing against a brother or such. Haven't yet tried Madden 2002, getting around to it. :) I think I'm looking forward to the multiplayer aspect of RTCW most, its based on the Q3 engine which I have always performed well at, should provide hours of fragfests. Of course playing in cooperative mode in games is another thing I've always thought was highly entertaining, and being able to do that with Ghost Recon against foes set to a very high difficulty level should prove to be quite challenging.

/geek>

I've always thought that the perfect woman for me would be one that was at least interested in computer gaming, if not a gamer herself. I could go on for days talking about something I'm interested in, like how far I got in a certain game or how many people I fragged that round, but if its just the "smile and nod" response I just don't feel loved. :/ I know I'm always impressed by a gamer of the female type who gives me a thorough ass whooping. Its something to admire. Ah, wouldn't it be nice if someone like that was out there. ;)

I R Here.

Everythings good to go back at home. Raided the place of all edible material. Now planning to sleep til the cows come home. (shouldn't be too long, my siblings will be arriving soon)

Seems Like This Happens Way Too Often...

Packing up the ol comp again, this time headed home for a month for Winter Break. Should be up and running later today knowing me, but might just leave it til the morning. Finally decided to get off my butt and pack, this whole only guy in the dorms thing is cool for a while, but since the deadline to get out is 10am tomorrow anyway, might as well leave tonight rather than actually wake up before noon. :) Those in the LA area, feel free to ring me up during break, I'll probably be absolutely desperate for things to do. Think you live too far away to be of use? Think again! That's what cars are for. :) Besides, I miss a lot of u ppl! :/

Guess I Owe an Explanation...

Its like this, I'd rather waste my time doing something else if I know the thing I'm going to be reading is going to be boring and pointless. So I figure other people feel the same, and if I have nothing to say, I should wait until I do before filling these pages with randomness.

The reason its been dullsville around here is that as previously mentioned I have no finals to take, but everyone else has had their head in the books. Thus, I haven't been doing much other than exercising, reading, burning cds, playing games, wasting time, eating, etc etc. Did I mention sleep? Yeah, been getting plenty of that.

So I finally met up with the girl I met over Thanksgiving online who's a freshman here, we had a grand ol time walkin over to Freebirds and chowin on some grub. Strangely, I was more nervous heading for the place we decided to meet than I thought I would be. Its not the first time I've come into contact in real life with someone I met solely through the internet, and I'm sure it won't be the last. I'm very gung ho about the whole internet thing, tend to be very trusting about various issues such as chatting with random people and purchasing products or winning auctions online.

Called up one of my exs on her birthday the other day, she said something that kind of bothered me when she called me back... "Yeah, thanks for calling, I felt bad because I remembered in May, but I just felt awkward..." It seems the popular attitude towards one's previous girlfriend is negativity and disdain, which I just don't understand. I've always tried to maintain friendships with them, just as I would any other friend. I've never dated anyone that wasn't a good friend first, so I see no reason why it shouldn't stay that way afterward. In this particular case we only see each other about once a year, but it just kind of bugged that she would say something like that. Maybe I was just in an easy to be bugged mood.

Began watching the Band of Brothers HBO miniseries that I downloaded a while ago, only two eps into it but this far its pretty amazing. I hear it only gets better, looking forward to viewing the rest. Also decided to make Pearl Harbor one of the DVDs for my Columbia House deal... For those who aren't doing it you get 4 DVDs for 49 cents each along with 1 for 10 bucks at the start, and then have to just buy 3 at regular price over the next two years (tends to be around 20 bucks). So Overall you get 8 DVDs for 72 bucks or so. I guess if you find really good 9.99 each deals in stores its about the same, but the brand new releases tend to be upward of 20 or 25 bucks. I picked up Titanic, Gladiator, Braveheart, The Patriot, and Saving Private Ryan with my initial deal, all movies that just REQUIRE 5.1 channel Dolby Digital sound. :) That's the one downside of my large collection, its all 2 channel sound, no bullets whizzing behind the head or birds fluttering across the room.

Not entirely sure when I'm going home, the dorms close on Saturday so I'll definitely be out by then, but if I find some reason to be home earlier I'll probably head out. Packing up everything is such a pain, I'm sure I'll slack until the last possible moment.

Time Flies When You're.... Doing Nothing.

Man, you'd think over the last three days something would have happened that would have been worth more than two sentences.

Nope.

Doremifasewlatidooooooo

Made an awesome decision tonight in cancelling plans with some friends in order to attend a concert I'd already said I would go to a week prior (I never remember these things)... It was the fall concert for Naked Voices, the only a capella group here at UCSB. My friend on the fifth floor was performing, as well as someone I knew from the third floor last year. The first song they did was "Earth Song" by Michael Jackson. This had been a favorite of mine from years ago, back when his HIStory cd first came out. Hearing it again was like a blast from the past, and they just performed it beautifully. I was seriously amazed, a lot of what they did was just mind blowing.

Literally made me want to go try out then and there, then came the realization I was most likely not at the talent level that they need, and might not be able to mesh with the group and such. Basically a lot of the reasons I end up not going through with a lot of things I consider. I've never thought I had very good range as a vocalist, and no one outside my mother has ever taken me seriously (guys singing = cute, but not cool). I'll probably get into something music related some day. One of those things I do on rainy days. Teach myself piano, sing, whistle, anything to make the day a little brighter.

Tried something new at Carrow's tonight, which tends to be a pretty rare thing when it comes to me and food. The southwestern crispy rolls, or something. Yummy stuff, although unhealthy as my eating buddy pointed out. Then came a petty argument about something not worth arguing about. Least to me it seemed petty. We settled it eventually though, striking a deal to not bother each other about a specific thing that we felt was important even though the other person did not. So anyway. If only all riddles and relationships were so easy to solve.

ShuffStaffel!

No idea whether I'm spelling it right, and most of you probably don't care, but some of you will recognize that as a familiar grunt from the enemies in the first person shooter (fps) computer game that started it all, Wolfenstein 3D. I must have been in about 6th grade or something when that originally came out, even before the grandaddy of them all, Doom. Made quick work of its sequel tonight, of the title Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The differences between the games are profound however. Largely due to my graphics card, some of the visuals are just breathtaking. By far some of the best World War II areas such as bombed cities and factories I've ever seen in a computer game. It was very realistic, almost like it was right out of Saving Private Ryan or Enemy at the Gates. The set pieces were incredible, they did things I've never seen done in that type of game. Of course, it was created based on the Quake 3 engine, my personal favorite, so I suppose I'm a little biased. Still working on finishing Alien vs Predator 2, which thus far has also been very impressive with some absolutely humongous level sizes, albeit a short game altogether.

Now that those of you who don't share my passion for computer games (all of you) have fallen asleep... I'll do the same. :)