Monday, October 03, 2005

Kal-el Coppola Cage

That name's just awesome.
Congrats to Nick and his amazingly hot wife.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Been a while...

Wow, It's been a while, eh?
A lot has happened, not least of all two major hurricanes which have created so much havoc in the southwestern U.S. and had repurcussions all over the country.
It's currently the end of the first week of classes at OSU so this has been a very busy week. So, what beter way to end it than with an evening at the Rose & Thistle. And it was quite a nice evening too. The rain held off and it was a crisp night out on the patio with good friends, food and drink.
It's actually early Saturday afternoon right now and I'm finishing this short post that I started late last night after I got home and fell asleep. The Buckeyes are beating all over Iowa 31-6 nearing the end of the 4th quarter.
Before I fell asleep last night I flipped around the television channels and saw the show Toolbelt Diva and noticed the episode title: A Small Deck Is Enlarged. Well, I thought it was funny.
Well, I have so much that I need and want to do and not enough motivation, time and definitely money so I'm going to go and contemplate what I actually can accomplish...

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Vacation time and website launch!

Well, it's almost time for me to leave for my vacation and I am more than ready to go. I am really looking forward to getting away from the heat and humidity of Columbus but am even more glad to just get away from work for more than a weekend. That's worth more than anything.
I am going to have a great time. Most of it will probably just be spent walking along coastal areas, in parks and through the towns though. I don't really have too many touristy things that I want to do, just want to relax and enjoy the area and scenery. I've got my camera gear all ready so photography will be the main focus of my travels and I am looking forward to having some fresh from the ocean seafood. :)
I finally posted my website last night too, or at least what I have done as of right now. It is usable but there's still a lot that I have to do to get it to where I really want to have it. Go have a look at www.idliketogo.com if you're interested. I'll try to update the travel blog and photo gallery as I find places with internet access during the trip.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

MUF diving, Dukes movie & Google shows us the surface of the moon!

Just saw this article headline and thought it deserved to be seen by more people: Like MUF diving? Call Clearswift

Also, the folks at Google show, once again, that they are not without a sense of humor: Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites (just zoom in to see why it's so cool)
&
Google is hiring!

Lastly, here is a late edit: I'm sure with the cast that is appearing in the Dukes of Hazzard movie that it will fairly suck but Ben Jones, a.k.a. "Cooter" gives his take on it here.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Another wonderful night at the Rose

I can think of no better way that I could have spent this evening/night than the way I spent it. I went to the Rose & Thistle again this eveing and it was great. I intended to eat dinner but instead just had a few appetizers and a healthy dose of alcoholic beverage. And some of my faovorut people were there too. J&K, who it always good to see; his neighbor, Louisiana whom I met for the first time, Bobby, whom I had heard of but never met and Cindy, who I met last week and has quickly grown on me and was more than a pleasure to see again. The conversaitions were excellent and memorable and the food and drinks were good so what more could you ask for?
Tomorrow I'm going to go out and do some things around Columbus and get some more time in with my new camera. Should be fun!

Friday, July 15, 2005

Chinese threat of A-bombs & more news.

Chinese General Threatens Use of A-Bombs if U.S. Intrudes - NY Times Link
It says that the General emphasized that this was his personal opinion and not representing policy but I don't know how much I would beleive out of Beijing, especially when Taiwan's independence is involved.
Microsoft Joins Marvel in Online Game Deal - NY Times Link
This could be cool if it's done right. I would like to see a character generation system so you could create you own heroes and villans like the old Marvel Universe role playing game. 500 Spider-Men and Wolverines running around a city map does not sound like my idea of fun though.
Own Original Chinese Copies of Real Western Art! - NY Times Link
Own a Van Gough for cheap!

Only 13 hours 'til Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!
I still haven't read Goblet of Fire so I'm not too excited, really.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Great day for movies

Sunday afternoon was an unusually lucky day for movie watching on television. 2 very good movies were on a couple of the HBO channels back to back - one of which I had not seen and one which I have seen before.
The first movie, which I had never seen until yesterday, was La Leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (U.S. title - The Legend of 1900) written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Unfortunately, I didn't start watching it until about 30-40 minutes in. Normally, I will not do that. If a movie has already started, even if for about 10-15 minutes I will wait to watch it later because you can miss some important plot and character issues in that time but this movie caught me so that I couldn't turn away. The story is basically about man who was born at sea and abandoned on an ocean liner at the turn of the 20th century. He was adopted by a worker on the boat and raised on the liner, never setting foot on land. He eventually became an unusually gifted pianist who could play anything after hearing it and also created some amazing original pieces. At a glance it seems simplistic but there is a lot of story there and will leave you entranced and possibly in tears. I highly recommend the movie to anyone.
Then after that was over, I stayed glued to my sofa because another HBO channel started showing Big Fish. Yet another movie that I love and that brings tears every time I see it.
I thought to put in my My Girl dvd after Big Fish to finsh of a trillogy of touching movies for the day but didn't. I'll probably watch it this week though since I am thinking about it.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Great night at the Rose & Thistle

Tonight was a nice evening/night. It was a Friday so that was great on its own but I also went to a local restaurant/pub, The Rose & Thistle, after work for dinner and to drink and socialize with some of the regulars. I'm glad I did because it was a great night and I finally ended up leaving about 12:30am. One of my co-workers also tends bar there a night during the week so I've met most of the people I know there through her and everyone I've met there is wonderful and inviting. Tonight I met a couple new people, one of whom was the owner of the place (a very nice and intersteing man from England I think) and another was a friend of my coworker (and others there), Cindy, whose perfume, I must say, smelled very nice. Cindy, Kim and I had some interesting discussions during the night, that's for sure. Alcohol may have had an influence on some of them, I imagine. :) Good times though. No better way to spend this friday night.
Well, it's late, I'm a little tired and some good television is on so good night.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

London's joy and pain

What a couple of days it's been for Londoners. The most wonderful news at being selected to host the Olympic games and all of the celebration that followed, abruptly silenced due to the cowardice and malice of those responsible for the bus and subway bombings. My thoughts go out to all who have been affected by this tragedy.

Steelers fan's final goodbye

wtf?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161721,00.html

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

The Black Widow Strikes

Congratulations to Sonya Thomas a.k.a. The Black Widow who took 2nd place in this years Nathan's hot dog eating contest at Coney Island with 37 eaten, a new American record and new Women's World Record. It's always amazing to watch her becuase she doesn't fit your typical image of a champion eater. Of course, it doesn't hurt any that she is very, very attractive too.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Coastal Maine, King Kong and the German language.

I am sooo ready to take my vacation now.
...Drives along the Maine coast; trekking through Acadia National Park; walking along the rocky coast enjoying lighthouses...Can't wait...(http://www.visitmaine.com/home.php - a little taste).
I'll have to buy a couple books of stamps so I can send out postcards along the way.

Anyway, I just saw the King Kong trailer on tv and downloaded it from Volkswagen's website and it looks pretty damn cool. I think Jack Black is going to be great.

I started a beginning German class this past Sunday. I think it will meet 10 times, of which two I will have to miss since I'll be gone. Mainly I'm taking it because it's free, except for the books, plus I want to take an intensive Japanese course, offered by the same person, in the autumn which will meet for 2 hours a day, Monday through Friday for 10 weeks. I am looking forward to that. So, the German class will give me a feel for how he instructs, which so far from Sunday seems like it will be very good... (that didn't make much sense grammatically, but whatever). Plus, it will be nice to know a little German and a friend of mine and her daughter both know some German so there will be some incentive to keep learning.

Now, if I could just do something about this damned heat.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Brother, can you spare a dime...or 50,000 dimes?

Nothing much new.
I'm trying to get my web site finished, or at least mostly to the point that I can open it to a usable level. I'm pushing for July 1, but it depends on how much I actually work on it in the next couple weeks. I've still got a lot to do.
I'm trying to get my vacation planned too so I can start to make reservations soon. Probably will be ging in early to mid August so I need to get that done too.
I really do want a new DSLR too so I can have very nice, high quality photos from the trip. But that requires more money...
*sigh*
Anyway, here's a few links that are interesting, funny, stupid or all of the above.

NASA's next moon landing
Earth-like planet found outside our solar system

China says cigarettes are good for you!
Hypnotist puts gamer in real FPS (interesting if it is real, but doubt it. I mean, even if "hypnotized" the guy would have to realize that he's shooting a frickin paintball gun and that he's not reloading after blasting off so many shots even if he doesn't realize what kind of gun he's holding. Anyway...)
Infant daughter while couple plays online game

Women wanted to test sex machine
Man amputates own penis and kills "sex crazed" wife

Enjoy.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

I'm thinking of upgrading my digital camera to a DSLR this summer before I go to Maine so I've been spending more time in the forums of one of my favourite sites, Digital Photography Review. In my opinion, it's one of the best sites around and the caliber of the amateur and professional photographers that hang out in the forums is phenomenal. So, I came across a post that looked promising in which someone wanted posters to show their photos that had a sense of "strong feeling and mood". I'm always looking for some kind of everyday inspiration in my relatively uninspired life so the first photo I looked at caught my attention and I thought it was wonderful and one of the responses from another veiwer really summed up what I thought of it too. Here's the photo, the comment and a link to the photographer's website in which he has a special gallery section dedicated to his son.

"I looked at this picture and felt as if I read a great book in seconds."
- Yousef Rifai
Photo by Dave Van Artsdalen - http://www.pbase.com/dvan

Monday, June 06, 2005

Happy birthday, Chris.

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Is it October yet?

90 degrees.
45% humidity.
Feels like 93 degrees...
I really do hate summers in Ohio.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Injen SRI & Columbus Asian Festival

Yeah, so it's been a couple weeks since I've posted anything here so here's a little update on what I've been up to (not that much really).

A couple Wednesdays ago the Chinese Culture Club had Dr. David Wang come and give a talk and demostrations on different types of acupuncture. That was interesting.

I still haven't seen Star Wars Ep III, but would like to. But, honestly, at this point, I'll probably just see it on DVD unless someone asks me to go see it. But, then, most everybody has probably seen it already so whatever.

After a bit over a year of owning my car I finally did my first performance mod to it. I bought an Injen stainless steel short ram intake (SRI) and installed it in my car just this past Friday night. If you have no idea what that is, it basically replaces the stock, plastic air box that contains your air filter in your engine bay. The stock system is poorly designed for performance because of it's closed design and location of the air inlet, it pretty much sucks in hot air which goes into your engine. The SRI for the Tiburon is designed so that its cone filter is positioned just behind the corner of the drivers side headlight and over the fender well. This placement allows it to take in cooler air than the stock setup and feed that cooler, more compressed and oxygenated, air into the engine for combustion and creating a little more horsepower. Plus, it sounds frickin' cool when you hit the throttle. My next item will be an Ark Speed Racing single exhaust. With the larger pipe diameter over the stock system and the straighter, less restrictive pipes it gives the engine and exhaust system less back pressure to allow the exhaust toexpell the eninge waste fumes more freely and efficiently which results in a little more power as well (listen to me, like I know what I'm talking about). ; ) Plus, it has a damed cool low rumble sound. Not annoying though like so many other exhausts that kids (and adults I guess) put on their cars that sound likr lawnmowers. Hopefully, I'll have that in about a month or two. Definitely will have it installed before the S3 Tuner Challenge event at Mid-Ohio in August.

Lastly, yesterday and today was the 11th Annual Columbus Asian Festival at Franklin Park. I went for a couple hours yesterday after an arts event at OSU in which a friend, Karen, was performing. She is a dance major and that was the first time I had seen her perform. There were two other dance performances, 5 or 6 musicians and bands and visual art pieces displayed. It was pretty nice.

So, the Asian Festival was fun. Lots of food vendors with so many excellent aromas...mmmmm... There were many martial arts exhibitions, musical performances, dance perfomances and so much more. One of my favorite dance performances was done by the Ballet Manilla Company who opened their '05 U.S. tour with the Asian Festival. So, that was cool in itself but their performance was vey nice. The weather was great too, which made the event that much better. I will definitely be going again next year and I'm sure it will be even more fun.

That's about it. I'm still trying to plan my vacation and need to work more on my website so I can get that up and running too. Hopefully I'll be able to get some of it done this weekend since Monday is a holiday.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Friday, May 13, 2005

To Boldly Go

Well, it goes without saying but I'm going to miss Enterprise. Tonight's episodes were good and a nice send off too. I'll have to download them and watch them again, and again...
Thanks Paramount!

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Tea Ceremony & OSU Renaissance Faire

Well, today was a fun filled day. This morning the Chinese Culture Club went to Zen Cha Tea Salon for a Chinese Tea Ceremony demonstration.

It was very interesting and I left with a lot of good information on Chinese teas. Information which I am going to try to put to use. Since I don't drink coffe, I am more likely to drink tea, but rarely do. However, after the information about particular kinds of teas from China I am going to have to change my drinking habits. One in particular, Pu Erh, I'm going to have to try and work it into a regular habit. Not really knowing anything about fine tea, I was surprised to hear how expensive it can be. Here is a small example from one website (Generation Tea) but from what we learned at Zen Cha today, quality aged Pu Erh can fetch prices that are much, much higher. But, yeah, it was very interesting and the tea was good as well.

After that, we went to lunch and then later I decided to go to the OSU Medieval & Renaissance Faire since I had my camera with me and it was a beautiful day. I'm glad that I did go and stay as long as I did because I ended up running into Misty who was doing Tarot readings at the PSA (Pagan Student Association) table. I also had a good time watching sword fights, sideshow performers and the Singing Milkmaids, whose CD I also bought.

It was supposed to be $12 but I only had a $10 bill left in my wallet so they gave it to me for $10. Very nice of them, eh? :) *Thanks!*
So I spent time with nice people, got some good photos and had a good time so it was a day well spent. I'll be putting some photos in my gallery soon (hopefully on my new site soon rather than the yahoo one).
Well, Invader Zim is just coming on now on Nicktoons so I'm gonna go watch that now.
"You! Obey the fist!!"

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Little Sunday trip

Wanting something to do today, I took a little trip down to Yellow Springs (OH) to walk around a bit and take some photos. I grew up very close to Yellow Springs so my brothers and I used to go there quite often when we were kids. Specifically, we would go to Dark Star Comics as all of us collected comic books. We actually met Mr. T there once when he was there for a signing of a comic book called Mr. T and the T-Force. I still have my signed copy, bagged and boarded. Anyway, I put an entry about the day in my travel blog and will have the photos up in my photo gallery soon too.
Now, it's time to watch the Simpsons and almost time for the new episode of Family Guy!!!!!!!

Saturday, April 30, 2005

It's a zoo out there

One of the good things about working at or attending a university is that there are always various things to do either on or around campus. Last night the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences had a free event at the Columbus Metropolitan Zoo for all OSU students, staff, faculty members and up to 3 guests per person. There was free food in the way of cookout fare (hot dogs, hamburgers, etc.), free rides on the carousel and prizes given away at the end of the night for those who participated in a “scavenger hunt” during the evening. It ended at 11:00pm but I only stayed until about 9:30. The Columbus Zoo is a very nice zoo but last night's event wasn't too great. It was a wonderful event for the university to have but a lackluster trip to the zoo. It was the first time in years that I had been to the zoo at night and I have to say that it is not the best time to go, unless it is winter during the light exhibits. There's just not that much lighting around a lot of the exhibits and they suffer or fail because of it. Plus, there was more construction going on and some of the animal exhibits were closed. Part of the reason for the closed exhibits, however, is due to the recent animal deaths at the zoo. In just the past few weeks 2 girraffes and 2 zebras have died.



It was a good evening though, because I ran into a few people from work, saw a couple other people I've met previously and got a few photos of the Gibbons and Kangaroos. So, it was a pretty good time. I'll have to go back on a nice day in the morning though for some better photographs.

Posted by Hello

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Brownstone on Main and Biz Markie

I went out to eat tonight for a co-worker's birthday at a resturant called Brownstone on Main in a group of about 10 people - some from work and others, friends of hers. I had a blackened talapia with greens and a mild spicy rice. It was really good, although a bit pricey, I thought. Anyway, while we were there an entourage of big, urban-dressed guys (one with lots of gold chains) came up the elevator and looked around before going back to be seated and one of the guys in our group recognized the main person in the group and it was none other than Biz Markie! Apparently the Brownstone had what he needed. I wonder if the white H2 that I saw being parked in the valet section was his then? Hmmm...

Monday, April 18, 2005

Adobe to accquire Macromedia

Well, this is rather big news in the software world.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

More 911 phone incompetence

Now, what the hell was this dumb@$$ 911 operator thinking??
It's just sad that this happens with as much frequency as it does. The worst part is that he just got two letters of reprimand and didn't get fired. I wonder how he would feel if he called 911 because, say, someone was breaking into his car or house and the dispatcher asked him if he wanted them to go over and shoot him so he would forget about the break in.
Moron should be fired.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Does anyone really care about Britney Spears?

So, I'm surfing around while checking out different programs to consider using for my upcoming website and I go out to Yahoo and see their headline saying that Britney Spears confirms that she is pregnant. Aside from Hollywood media types that make money off crap like that or 6 year old girls, does anyone really care? She sucks. 'Nuff said.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Finally hit 10K...

It's very obvious that I've not driven my car much in the year since I got it because I just yesterday passed 10,000 miles. I was just out for a leisurely drive with the windows down and sunroof open because it was so nice outside and just decided to drive for a couple hours. I fully intend to make sure that a whole year doesn't pass again before I hit 20,000.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

New York Man in Elevator For 3 Days

Wow, this must have sucked. 81 hours in a broken express elevator with no food or water. According to the man he allegedly tried the call button a number of times and got a response a few but as he is Chinese there was a great language barrier. Of course, the management of the apartment said that was not the case and the first they were aware of him was the day before he was rescued when they say the first record of the alarm or call button shows up. There was a security camera in the elevator but it apparently doesn't record and just sends a live feed to monitors that are supposed to be, well, monitored. It's also apparent, based on other tenant responses, that the elevators in the apartment building are notorious for their many problems.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

So, what's new?

So, if you haven't noticed and you "regularly" read my blog, it's been a while since I've written anything. Well, here's the cumulative update:
Spring quarter has begun so we've been kind of busy in my office with people looking for money and such. The weather has been spectaculaarrr these past few days getting up to the low 70's, but since I work in a crappy building I've only gotten to enjoy it during my lunch walks and after work walks. However, as is the way with Ohio weather, there is a possibility of snow this weekend.
I'm starting to take language classes again since it's been a couple years since my last Chinese class and I would really like to eventually become fluent. I'm actually taking a couple credit hours of Chinese to get myself back into it and refresh my skills and also begining a credit hour of Japanese to introduce myself to the laguage and start to learn it. Should be fun.
Johnny Cochran and Terri Schiavo died. The Pope is getting much worse. Comes in 3s?? hmm...
The Screen Savers has become Attack Of The Show and still kicks ass. Speaking of ass, the other day they actually had a doctor insert a usb web server up a willing participant's ass and served up the site www.yourassgotserved.com during their show. That was pretty funny. The site is hosted on their main servers now but they have a video clip on there now. Go watch it. :)

Hmm...Not much else is going on with me really...so, i guess you didn't miss much, eh? Oh well.
I am trying to find something to do Memorial Day weekend though. Maybe go visit friends if they aren't busy with family stuff or maybe take a little trip somewhere? If any friends are reading and have ideas or are free to go somewhere, drop me a line. Odd phrase, that is.
So, that's it. Later.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

What a crappy ass day...

Ever have one of those days/weeks/years(?) where you wish you could snap your fingers and be somewhere/someone else? Sadly, many of my weekdays kind of go that way.
This pretty much says it all: http://prague.tv/store/t-shirts/closeups/fuck-work-detail.html
I'd like to wear that to work like once a week.
This works too (http://www.sushiesque.com/photos/signs/dscn1138.html) plus ther's some other funny pics there.
Calgon, take me away...

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Jhonen Vasquez on The Screen Savers

Sweet.
If you don't know who Jhonen Vasquez is you can search Google for his many fansites. On the quick, he is a comic book creator and artist. His start, and probably most well known work is Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and he has something new now - Fillerbunny; but what I love him for is his creation for Nickelodeon Animation, Invader Zim. One of the best cartoons that ever came out of Nick's studios, I think. Which I always thought was weird because there is a lot of material (humor) in the series that seems aimed at an older audience yet it was on Nickelodeon. Its got some humor kind of like Home Movies, another of my all time favorites.
I think I'll have to watch some of my Zim episodes tonight.
...tgtif....

Monday, March 14, 2005

A couple things in the news

More Beijing denials on intent toward Taiwan
From The New York Times' Jim Yardley
BEIJING, Monday, March 14 - Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on Monday defended a newly approved law that could authorize a military attack to prevent Taiwan from seeking independence, saying it was intended to ensure peace, not promote war.
"It is not a war bill," Mr. Wen said at a televised news conference after the closing of this year's session of the National People's Congress, China's version of a parliament.
"We don't want to see foreign interference," Mr. Wen said slowly, speaking about Taiwan, "but we do not fear foreign interference." The assembled hall of 700 journalists, a large majority Chinese, applauded.

Yeah, why does that seem a little hard to beleive...

Gooden Is Arrested in Tampa and Charged With Punching Girlfriend
From The New York Times' Jack Curry
TAMPA, Fla., March 13 - Dwight Gooden was arrested on a domestic-violence charge early Sunday morning for punching his girlfriend in the face after she hit him in the head with part of a telephone, the Tampa police said.

...and yet this one seems almost expected.

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Elvis Clinton?

Ok, so yesterday I was talking with a co-worker and he had a picture of Elvis printed from the web on his desk and he mentioned the similarities in likeness between Elvis and Bill Clinton. He gave me the idea of doing a kind of morph photo sequence between the two in order to show these similarities so I went back to my office, found two good photos, fired up The Gimp and went to town. The result, as you can see, is quite entertaining.


Maybe Bill is the reason behind so many Elvis sightings. Or, maybe, just maybe they are one and the same!! Muuwaahaa-haa!! Believe it, or not...
Posted by Hello

My Travel Blog

I decided to create a second, seperate blog to keep track of my travel journals, travel plans and pics so I can keep this one for the rest of my life...so, I guess it still won't be very large, but whatever. So, the travel blog is here: http://courtenaystravels.blogspot.com/. I will still use this one for little travel things but mostly will just reference them here and point to the travel blog for updates. Yay! I'm expanding my web prescence again! Right... Seeing as how I haven't updated my wallpaper site in, what, 2-3 years or so, it probably don't matter.

Sunday, March 06, 2005

NatGeo Channel: In The Womb

In The Womb. This was a very entertaining program tonight on the National Geographic Channel. I'm sure it will show again so if you missed it tonight, I recommend to try and catch it when it replays. It's a great use of 3D imaging and animation to give you an insight into the development of the fetus from conception to delivery and I thought it was pretty inspiring. Hopefully something I can look forward to in the future. Hmm...

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Big Wing Wong Restaurant, Chinatown, NYC

So, when we were on the walking tour of Manhattan we stopped at about 5:00 - 5:30 to eat lunch in Chinatown. The place we went was pretty nice and the food was quite good but when were finished I neglected to pick up a business card so I would remember what it was for my next visit. Well, I wanted to figure out what the name of the place was yesterday at work and all I had to go on was my memory of the area, two photographs I took in Chinatown on the way to the restaurant and one photograph I took outside the restaurant in the dark. The two shots on the way helped to establish that we had crossed over to the north side of Canal St. because I remembered crossing at the intersection of Canal and Mulberry. From there, the only thing I had was the third photo after we ate. I could make out two addresses on awnings on the same side of the street but didn't know the street, of course. Luckily, I could read the sign on the opposite side of the street that said Buy Rite Pharmacy and was able to find that on Google Maps on Canal St. Then I basically knew where we were but just had to find the actual restaurant. Thanks to a couple web searches and the very good http://www.menupages.com/, which has menus from thousands of New York City restaurants, I was finally able to pinpoint the surrounding businesses and the restaurant in which we ate: Big Wing Wong Restaurant at 102 Mott St.. Sure, I wasted some time at work but I left feeling satisfied that I accomplished something and now I know where to go when I return to NYC. :)

Monday, February 28, 2005

NYC & The Gates


Well, it's Monday, I'm home and had a great time in New York. It was definitely a short trip this time but next time I will stay much longer. The highlight was certainly the walking tour on Saturday which lasted 18 hours! It was great though. The hostel's guide for that trip, Jerry, was very entretaining the entire time. I'm sure a lot of tour guides for pay tours that last less than half as long would get boring after an hour or two, but Jerry was awesome. He does it every Saturday and you don't even have to stay at the hostel to go because it's free. So, I highly recommend that to anyone visiting NYC. We had a good late lunch at a place in Chinatown. I had some Tsing Tao with a guy from Australia who was on a working vacation in Canada and got to watch people try chopsticks for the time. It was good food and a good time. I didn't get to to have any local pizza but we passed a shop with pizzas that were like 28". They looked soooo good. And the people were all very nice. I met a very nice (and cute!) girl from Japan studying in Chiba. I suck with names, but I think it was Ahime. I hope. Well, if I saw her again I would recognize her. And she was traveling with her older sister who was equally as cute. Anyway, I'm getting off topic...
Sunday after I woke up from the long walk I took a couple hours and walked around Central Park to experience the park with the Gates. It was fun and a nice little walk in itself.

So, I've put the photos I took up in my Yahoo! photo album so go have a look if you like. Posted by Hello

Friday, February 25, 2005

New York, New York

Well, I knew I was going to do it at least once this year so I decided on a spur of the moment (for me that means I still did two weeks worth of planning and research though) that I was going to take a driving trip to visit the Big Apple, New York City. My main reason in going this weekend was that it was the last weekend for the Gates Project to be up in Central Park and since it is a once in a lifetime event and I’m not too far from NYC, I decided to go.
The drive to NYC wasn’t bad at all. I left home at 7:00am and arrived at the Lincoln Tunnel at just after 4:00pm. Of course, that included 3 rest/gas stops, taking a wrong exit somewhere in PA and driving around for 20 minutes and then doing the same thing when I was just about to leave New Jersey and somehow got to the Holland Tunnel instead of the Lincoln. After about a half hour of driving and trying to follow the signs I did get to the Lincoln Tunnel and made my way to the upper west side of Manhattan to the hostel that I am staying at just a few blocks west of Central Park. The hostel is kind of nice I guess. It’s my first time staying in one so I don’t really have anything else to compare it with except for a college dorm and a regular hotel. I don’t think it compares well with either but for the cost it fills its purpose. It is really nice seeing so many people of all ages from so many different countries. Right now I’m in the “Library” area and there was a guy from Winnepeg, one from Australia (I think) and three guys from Japan. I still don’t know who the other three people I’m sharing my bedroom with are though. One was asleep when I arrived but was gone when I returned from my jaunt down to midtown at about 9:30pm.

So, I didn’t really do any walking in Central Park today since I arrived a little later than I was initially hoping and it got dark rather quickly. So, no photos yet as I really didn’t want to take pictures during my first walk downtown at night. It was pretty cool though. Quite busy with all the people milling around. There are also an ass load of cops around, which was really nice. Cop cars on almost every block it seemed. America’s safest big city indeed. I didn’t get to eat at the Japanese restaurant that I initially wanted to because it was much furhter downtown than I wanted to walk. But, I did find this nice little soup place on 54th near Broadway across the street from Gold’s Gym. I passed it when I was first walking downtown to pick up my New York Pass and noticed the chalk sign outside had Curry Chicken and Rice and the woman behind the counter was quite cute so I decided to stop back there if I didn’t see anything else that I wanted. So, I did. The soup was really good. She said they also have a Thai Shrimp soup with curry but I didn’t try it. Maybe tomorrow or Sunday on the way home.
Tomorrow will be fun though. I will be doing the tourist thing because the hostel has a 16 hour grand tour of New York. I will definitely have my camera with me and will be taking some nice pictures I hope.
Well, that’s it for today I think. Time to relax and wait for tomorrow’s walking.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

2.14.05 - National Single Losers Day

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and millions of people will be (not) celebrating it like I will - by trying not to do a damned thing to remind me that
1. I'm 30 years old this year;
2. I'm not in any kind of relatinship;
3. that the idea of dating dozens of women until I find the "right" one (or, best available option, rather) disgusts me and seems rather demeaning to all involved;
4. I don't like the idea of dating anyway so will probably never find that "right" one;
5. if there truly is a "right" one I have either already met her and some combination of infinite factors or timing have prevented us from realizing the possibility or the "right" one actually lives somewhere beyond my geographical scope and is thinking the same thing right now;
6. millions of other people are actually enjoying the kind of happiness through signifigant others, spouses or children that the holiday is being marketed to while other millions like me just wish it would get the f@*# over with so everyone could just shut up
and
7. there's only 8 months 'till Sweetest Day and chances are I'll still be in the same situation then.

I'm sure I could think of some other things to add to the general depression but instead here are some links that I found online that are kind of nice.

I'll try to be a little more positive...
Parting shots for fun...
Seriously though, I hope everyone has a great day. Me? I'm going to work and afterwards think I'll kick back on my sofa with a hot pizza and watch a good sci-fi or horror movie. Maybe X-Men or Se7en or The 6th Sense.
Care to join me? I'm single. ;D

Courtenay

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

I really need a vacation...

So, I've decided that this year I am going to try to take a few "real" vacations for myself since I have really never vacationed anywhere on my own. The last time I was on an actual vacation was at least 8-9 years ago when I was still in college and would have went with my parents over a break or something. And I can't count the occasional little weekend trips to see a friend 130 miles away a vacation, so I've really never been on one by myself. So, as a resolution of sorts - or rather an ongoing change since I'm still single and can, I've decided to start taking at least 2 or 3 little getaways and one major trip per year.
So, the real task (aside from paying for them) will be to decide where to go. This year I think it's pretty easy. I love to cook, I love to eat and I love Food Network programming, especially anything with Rachel Ray. So, I enjoy her $40 a Day show where she goes to various places throughout the country and abroad and highlights local eating places with very good but not so expensive food. A few weeks ago I happened to be watching an episode where she went to Philadelphia and was very interested in some of the little steak shops that she went to. Mmmm... Also, there was a special about diners hosted by Al Roker that went through some places in New Jersey that looked very good. So, I think that one of the trips I will take will be to Philly. The other that I definitely want to do this year is New York City. I've never been and just really want to but I think that will actually be a multiple trip thing. I already have the hotel in mind which is right near Chinatown (where I will probably end up spending most of my time eating...) and Little Italy. So, now I just need to save some money and decide when to go.
Then the big trip that I want to do this year is actually going to be a cruise. I am really interested and excited about that because while I've been on ferrys in British Columbia and know that I like the water, I will really love spending 5-7 days on a boat with a balcony room just sitting and relaxing on the open water. I really want to do an Alaska/B.C. cruise for a week but I think I'll have to tabe that one for next year because that will run me about $4-5000. I'll probably just do a Mexico or Bahamas cruise later this year for my first one but I've got some time still and am open to anything really.
So, if there is actually anyone who reads my blog I'd like to solicit suggestions for both the cruise destination (probably staying below $2500-3000) and also locations for little 3-4 day trips with rich histories and cultural areas. You can just leave a comment if you like.
I also want to have sold my current digital cameras at least by the cruise time and finally buy a DSLR and some good lenses to take with me. Ah, if only I could win the lottery...Oh well, I can dream...

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Happy New Year!


恭喜发财!


Wishing you a happy new year wherever you are in the world. :)

Friday, February 04, 2005

Go watch Battlestar Galactica, fool!

Well, ST: Enterprise my not be around next season but I've no doubt that the best new series on tv and best science fiction series, Battlestar Galactica, will be around for a little while longer. The previous miniseries was good and the series is incredible so far. I did watch some of the original show when I was a kid but was not a huge fan but this new series is so well written and it has a lot of interpersonal relations, drama and political tones in addition to the sci-fi stuff that it probably has more mass appeal than most other sci-fi shows. And for my money, I would be a faithful fan of any show with Grace Park and Katee Sackhoff on it every week. ;) Two very beautiful women and Katee has one of the most intoxicating smiles I've seen.


Katee Sackhoff Image from WireImage.com & IMDB
Posted by Hello

Star Trek: Enterprise, we barely knew ye...


*sigh*...yet another of my favorite shows has been cancelled. And of course it's a good one too. Granted, Star Trek shows are not for everyone but since there is such a strong following, it would be nice if there could be a successful petition to keep it going or if some other network could pick it up. Would be great if Sci-Fi could do it like they did with Stargate SG1 but that's probably asking a lot. Well, even if it doesn't get picked back up it'll always exsist on DVD whenever they decide to put it out. Hopefully all the great actors will get nice offers for other things.
Posted by Hello

Monday, January 31, 2005

S.H.E. and AVP!

Today was a good day for mail.
I got my S.H.E. live Taipei concert album today. 2 discs, 130 minutes...excellent. Of course a 2 dvd package is scheduled to be released tomorrow, so I've got to put in my order to YesAsia so I can get that too.
In addition to the S.H.E. album I also got a copy of the Aliens vs. Predator dvd in the mail today...for free! Yep. Last week I was watching one of my favorite shows, The Screen Savers on G4, and they had two of the special effects guys from the movie on and about one minute (or less) before 7:30pm Chi-Lan announces that the first 50 people to do a form on their site get a free copy of the dvd. So, luckily I was doing something on my laptop at the time and went right out there and got an e-mail the next day saying that I won a copy of the dvd. :) So, I was quite happy since I love the Alien movies and the first Predator but had never seen the AVP movie. So, yeah, it's good to get nice things for free for just watching great tv shows.
Off to listen to some live S.H.E. now.

"A hundred names on the ballot are better than one, because it means that we are free."
Fadila Saleh, 37
"Under Saddam we were a people who were lost. Before, we were not able to talk to officials; they were just punching you, and kicking you. But now, with elections, we'll have good officials. We will know them, and they will know us."
Hachim Shahir, 83
"We thank the Americans for destroying the regime of Saddam, but often, they were not careful for the people; they did many wrong things. Now, we know what they are looking for. They are looking for oil, and military bases, and domination of the new regime. They will have their military headquarters for the region in Iraq, and when they will leave, nobody knows."
Ahmed Dujaily, 80

I just like those quotes from one of the New York Times' articles on the Iraq elections from today.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

S.H.E. - Encore


Image from http://she.him.com.tw/
I'm listening to my S.H.E. playlist at work which (finally) includes their newest album, Encore. It came out mid November but I finally just got it from YesAsia a couple weeks ago. As usual it is an excellent CD packed with great songs. I actually got the MV DVD which came with a CD copy of the album and it was all only $17.00! And the production value of the booklet and package is excellent, as usual. That's why I have no problem in buying Chinese and Japanese dvds and cds from YesAsia, because the quality is so excellent and labels often have extras included with the album itself and it costs less than DVDs and CDs in the states. I still don't think I'll ever buy another US CD and only buy 1-3 dvds per year because the crap is frickin' expensive. WalMart $0.88 music downloads are the way to go for my US music from now on. Don't feel like paying inflated prices for crappy plastic jewel cases and skimpy booklets.
Anyway, Encore is filled with great songs and I love the video and extended video/story for their song Wo Ai Ni (I love you) on the DVD. The one to watch if you are in need of a good cry. And, when I first saw the video for Da Nu Ren Zhu Yi (Female Chauvinism) I couldn't beleive how amazing Hebe looked. Of course, she looks amazing all the time even when not made up, but I had to do a double take when she first appeared in the video! ;) Wow! Now, they have a double cd set coming out this week of a live performance from Taipei in September. 130 minutes for only $15.00! I'm all over that.
Posted by Hello

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Apple does it again...again!


Image from http://www.apple.com/
I am a long time fan of most things Apple (even though I finally sold my iBook for a Windows XP notebook from Dell) and beleive that if Steve Jobs were to run for president, I would certainly vote for him. One of the most fun things about Apple computer is the anticipation of new products when the MacWorld expos come and when the rumors of new products start flying around. This January was no exception as Apple has released their version of a powerful "budget" computer, the Mac mini. This little thing is beautiful, as are all of Apple's products and very functional as an entry level computer for anyone. It's bound to be a huge hit with students, who are always needing more space, and probably with small businesses too. I would say to look for something similar in a relatively tiny package in the next year from companies like Dell and Gateway.
The one Apple product I will not buy though is the iPod, in any of its incarnations. It's nice looking and all but aside from the ridiculous battery issues that they've had the one thing that really turns me away from them are the file formats that it is compatible with, specifically, no wma. I like the codec that Apple uses for it's purchased songs through iTunes and love the iTunes program itself (even though I really don't use it now on my XP machines), but I have an aftermarket Kenwood stero in my car that is compatible with mp3 and wma so since I listen to a lot of music in my car I like to burn cd's of music and to do my iTunes songs, I have to burn them to an audio cd then rip them into another format, which just serves to be a time waster and to further reduce the quality of the audio (though probably not by too much, but still...). So, I will not be buying an iPod until Apple gives support for wma files and wma files purchased from online stores. I think I will get a Creative Muvo though, because that little thing is pretty sweet. Posted by Hello

Friday, January 14, 2005

F*** EA!

I know I'm not alone in this, but even though the Madden football games used to be the best games around I don't think that has been the case for the past 5 or so years. Since the arrival of Sega's NFL 2K on the Dreamcast I have found that Sega's series of football games (now ESPN) has been the better performer than EA's offering. So now that EA has signed exclusive deals with bothe the NFL and the AFL for producing football games bearing the likenesses of players, stadiums, etc. I can't think of anything else to say except 'you damn bastards!'
I don't totally hate EA, I do have their NCAA Football 2003 and they make great games but cutting out the better (IMO) publishers and developers by doing this is ridiculously unfair to everyone involved, especially the people that buy the games. This means that there will proabably only be one real NFL game put out (not counting that NFL Street crap or other NFL Blitz type games) so you won't have any other choice but EA. I just hope that EA can make their game better than it has been recently and that Visual Concepts (the developer behind ESPN NFL football) can possibly get another great game produced. NCAA ball would be wonderful. CFL would be nice too.
Oh well.

Monday, January 03, 2005

Who's Your Daddy???

WTF???
imho, just more proof that:
1) people suck and will subject themselves and others to almost any ridiculous humiliation for a chance to have their five minutes of shame...I mean fame;
2) people suck because we all know that this show is going to get at least mildly high ratings because so many of you will watch this woman try to pick out her never before seen father from a group of other fame hunters for a chance at $100,000 and numerous tv interviews to get their "pretty" face on the airwaves with the hope of making more money afterwards.
3) aside from The Simpsons, Futurama, King Of The Hill, Family Guy, American Dad and the occasional Sci-Fi gift...FOX Broadcasting really does put out an ass-load of crap.
Anyway, I'm just going to watch my Cartoon Network anyhow.