Category: Entertainment

Wii Fun

Jason surprised me last weekend with an early Christmas present — a Nintendo Wii. He bought it for us as a “thank you” for helping him with a website for his portfolio and resume.

We’d first played it when we visited him and AJ at their apartment. It’s the only kind of game console I could ever get Grace to participate in any kind of games. So we thought of getting one (and we might have gotten one already if it hadn’t been so freaking hard to find one). While I enjoy playing games, I am not exactly a game freak like Jason is. So it took me a couple of days to open the package (during which time, Jason kept asking me about it every single day, “did you open it yet, man?”).

Bryan and Wii Fun

Once everything’s up, the first customer, naturally, was Bryan. I let him play bowling for about 15 minutes, at the end of which it was nearly impossible to pry his fingers from the WiiMote. So we’ll have to set up rules for Wii time for everybody in the family. While I think games can help hand-eye coordination to a certain degree, I just don’t think it’s a replacement for any kind of outdoor activities that we can also enjoy as a family… But still, the temptation was too great — the thought of being able to hack Wii and program silly stuff for it convinced me that it’s a worthwhile “investment” (thought I didn’t spend a dime).

So expect to read about Wii hacking and programming in the future I suppose… Good times.

Cells, Mortality and Life

I listened to part of this radio program in the car today with Grace. I was so fascinated by it that I came home and found the entire program and listened to the rest of it. And since I’ve sent enough emails and IMs to some friends to urge them to listen to it, I might as well post it for all to see. The first two stories were what really fascinated me. The third story reminded me of David’s passing and how this family coped with death in a more creative manner.

Great show. It will be worth your time.

The Simpsons Attacks 7-11 Stores

I guess only geeks can truly appreciate the humor in The Simpsons. Even though I don’t really like Fox as a channel (especially its news reporting), I do like The Simpsons and Futurama. Fox’s latest public stunt is to rebrand a series of Seven Eleven Stores in the United States into Kwik-e-Marts. They also carry limited supply of merchandise and food found only in the cartoon. Unfortunately all the good stuff were all sold out when we visited this past week. But the store was packed with geeks, some of whom were there to stock up on those nuclear-looking pink dough nuts.

Bryan with Homer

Funny Tag Lines

Back from NYC

So I made it back to California in one piece on Saturday after having discovered there was an “alleged” terrorist plot to blow up JFK Airport on the airplane AFTER it took off…. Good thing JetBlue has free on-flight TV programming…. The weird thing was, the plane stayed on the runway for like 40 minutes after we saw some police cars and ambulances racing by at a distance. I am sure that probably had nothing to do with the “foiled terrorist plot” though…

I met up with all my ex-coworkers (except Kyung) in New York and had a lot of fun talking about our previous employer(s). There were a few things that struck me as “interesting” now that I’d seen New York with a fresh pair of Californian eyes:

1. New York is great for singles and couples with no kids.
2. New York is great for artists and those who are interested in current trends of anything (art, design, fashion, politics… etc).
3. New Yorkers are amazingly more well-informed than their counter-parts in California.
4. Spanish is now everywhere in New York (compared to 4 years ago).
5. There are a lot more scooters in Manhattan than 4 years ago.
6. Chinatown remains as dirty and stinky as ever before.
7. The night begins at 11pm in New York…. compared to everything ends at 11pm in California…
8. It is freaking hot and humid in NYC… Or maybe the good weather in California has made me soft…

I also walked a whole lot for my short stay there for the opportunity to take some pictures with fresh eyes. But I guess the driving culture in California also made my feet soft… I came back with a swelled foot, limping for the rest of the trip after the first day.

On a separate but related news, the college I applied for a doctoral degree to accepted me on the spot after a short interview (which was the purpose of my trip). They totally loved my background as an artist and felt excited what I could bring to the pool of research among the doctoral candidates they are considering accepting… That made me feel good about myself and all that “investment” I made with those 2 art degrees… 🙂

More about the trip will be posted soon (images and thoughts). Stay tuned.

Going to the Big Apple

I will be leaving for the Big Apple on Thursday — my first return to the city after having moved out West almost 4 years ago (WOW!)… Sometimes I just miss that place for the energy and creativity that it offers (which San Jose totally lacks! Or maybe just a different vibe I haven’t able to jived with)…. So I’ve been looking up on the subway maps and stuff to see if there are any changes to the routes and just to familiarize myself with the whole system again. And then I came across the New York City Subway Smell Map:

Gawker's New York City Subway Smell Map

WOW… Yes, many New York City subway stations stink… But this map is pretty damn accurate (according to my fellow NYC inhabitants)… I am so NOT looking forward to that part of the trip…

via [Gawker]

Woz

Jason and Alicia took us to Los Gatos for a nice day out. That’s when we bumped into Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, Inc…

Woz on his Segway

I had a cup of gelato with me at the time, plus I had to stroll Bryan so I really didn’t have a hand to grab my camera. Plus Woz was on his Segway, so by the time I was able to do something about it, he was long gone. But you can see Woz in this shot I managed to snap (hint: look for the Segway).

Ah~ A case of brush with “Greatness”.

Vegas, A Family Unfriendly City (for Now)

While most of our stay at Vegas was pleasant, there were a few annoying attributes about the city that was quite disturbing:

1. Smokers die hard — literally. Coming from a relatively smoke-free state like California to the Sin City is like I died and fell to smoking hell (no puns intended). There were free second hand smokes on every square inch of the Las Vegas Blvd.

2. Liquor anyone? — Beer bottles were everywhere on Las Vegas Blvd, from one end of the strip to the other. Coupled with clueless college kids with cigarettes, who are out to prove themselves, that’s formula for trouble (and super, super annoyance, especially when they are in groups of three or more).

3. Relatively terrible food — Las Vegas is famous for extravagant buffets. But if you are not into sirloin steaks or meatloaf, the veggie stuff is all pretty much the same. Besides, how many kinds of food can they really serve up in buffets? Let me just say they didn’t even try at places we went to. Ironically, the fatter the people we saw eating the buffets, the less we felt like eating. And then there’s the “Bryan factor.” Whenever we were eating relatively expensive food, he started getting cranky and became Mr. Choosy on what he wanted. But this one time when we decided to grab a quick Panda Express, he was the happiest child on Earth. The upside is, now I know I can make Bryan happy on the cheap.

4. Sex Sells — The free pirates show outside of Treasure Island used to be decent. It was a show about pirates. I mean, how else could “Treasure Island” be interpreted? But I guess some idiot in the TI management figured sex was the next big thing and changed the whole theme with a hidden sexual connotation to it (get it?). Half of the pirate crew was now a bunch of barely dressed, sexy, foxy dancing young girls (not that I am complaining). But that made the whole show stupid and pointless. People actually started leaving about 1/3 into the show.

5. No show (but 2 stupid ones) would allow kids 5 or younger to attend. Com’on… that’s the whole point of going to Las Vegas for non-gamblers or people who aren’t there for businesses!

6. If you have a baby that requires a tub to take bath in, good luck finding a hotel with a tub. This really ticked me off.

7. The air in Vegas is as polluted as those mobile chimneys I talked about in point #1. Some pictures I took have tonnes of dust particles caught by the flash of my camera. I don’t know how anyone can live in that city without getting some kind of respiratory problems.

I took Grace and Bryan to Vegas forgetting there were all these things attached to an adult-oriented themes in every corner of the city. Come to think of it, I think Vegas would make a great vacation spot for bachelors who can’t get laid anywhere else, newly weds looking for a different experience and gamblers who don’t know what else to do with their money. Whatever Las Vegas is, it’s no place for family vacations. That’s for sure.