Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Yay, I just sat down for 2.5 hours and finished Syberia. I didn't really want to play it...I just wanted to see what would happen in the story. Since I was bent on finishing the game in as little time as possible, I used the walkthrough all the way through the second half of the game, which sucked it dry of any entertainment value whatsoever. And the story was so bad! Let me summarize it here:
The character you control is Kate Walker, a NYC lawyer who goes to a little French town to close the deal on the buy-out of a toy factory. The townspeople are strange (hmm...were they supposed to be?) and there are robots/gagets everywhere. After arriving, Kate discovers that the owner has died and left the factory to her brother, Hans, who everyone thought was dead but isn't (I was hoping that the sister's death would be a murder or something..but no, just natural death. *sigh*) So now Kate has to find the brother to get him to sell the factory. Through several clues, she discovers that when Hans was a kid, he saw a toy mammoth in a cave, fell, went into a coma, and came out retarded and mammoth-obsessed. Then he left to find mammoths in Siberia. Yep, that's the main story, mammoths in Siberia. Gee, I can't find one thing that's not imaginative, original, and interesting in this story!
Anyway, so Kate, for no apparent reason, boards some sort of wind-up train to find Hans. Only, every time the train unwinds, she has to get off and do all this crap to get the train wound up again. On the first stop, she meets a professor who tells her, to her surprise, that there might still be mammoths alive in Siberia. What?! You don't say?! I certainly didn't expect this to be possible, especially not after it was mentioned repeatedly that Hans went to Siberia to find mammoths! My mouth is still agape from the shock! Ok, enough.
On the second stop, a crazy guy steals some mechanical hands needed to operate the train. In order to get back the hands and get back on the road, Kate has to help the crazy guy find an old opera singer. So I do all this stuff and finally deliver the singer back from a hotel. Only, it turns out that the crazy guy is actually crazy and wants to kidnap the singer. Kate & the singer escape, steal the mechanical hands back, and leave, finally arriving at the third destination, the hotel (where I just was). Okay, so what was the point of all that?! Why the hell didn't she just steal the hands in the first place?!
And here's the worst part...there is no ending! Apparently, there will be a Syberia II out later, which will continue the astonishingly lame storyline. In the end of this first game, however, she finds Hans at the hotel, and he signs over the factory but asks Kate to join him on his quest to Siberia. Of course, Kate chooses to give up her family, friends, boyfriend and career to pursue mammoths with a stranger. And it is never explained as to why Hans became mammoth-obsessed and slow-witted! Also, all throughout the game, she keeps getting phone calls from (and blowing off) her mom, friend, and boyfriend. In one of these calls, it is revealed that Kate's boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend (yet another amazingly original/unexpected turn of events), but Kate doesn't care. She's just too immersed in this awesomely fascinating tale about mammoths in Siberia! And who wouldn't be?! I can't wait for Syberia II to come out!
In case you can't tell, I was sarcastic throughout this whole description! Oh, the story was so bad! >_<
The character you control is Kate Walker, a NYC lawyer who goes to a little French town to close the deal on the buy-out of a toy factory. The townspeople are strange (hmm...were they supposed to be?) and there are robots/gagets everywhere. After arriving, Kate discovers that the owner has died and left the factory to her brother, Hans, who everyone thought was dead but isn't (I was hoping that the sister's death would be a murder or something..but no, just natural death. *sigh*) So now Kate has to find the brother to get him to sell the factory. Through several clues, she discovers that when Hans was a kid, he saw a toy mammoth in a cave, fell, went into a coma, and came out retarded and mammoth-obsessed. Then he left to find mammoths in Siberia. Yep, that's the main story, mammoths in Siberia. Gee, I can't find one thing that's not imaginative, original, and interesting in this story!
Anyway, so Kate, for no apparent reason, boards some sort of wind-up train to find Hans. Only, every time the train unwinds, she has to get off and do all this crap to get the train wound up again. On the first stop, she meets a professor who tells her, to her surprise, that there might still be mammoths alive in Siberia. What?! You don't say?! I certainly didn't expect this to be possible, especially not after it was mentioned repeatedly that Hans went to Siberia to find mammoths! My mouth is still agape from the shock! Ok, enough.
On the second stop, a crazy guy steals some mechanical hands needed to operate the train. In order to get back the hands and get back on the road, Kate has to help the crazy guy find an old opera singer. So I do all this stuff and finally deliver the singer back from a hotel. Only, it turns out that the crazy guy is actually crazy and wants to kidnap the singer. Kate & the singer escape, steal the mechanical hands back, and leave, finally arriving at the third destination, the hotel (where I just was). Okay, so what was the point of all that?! Why the hell didn't she just steal the hands in the first place?!
And here's the worst part...there is no ending! Apparently, there will be a Syberia II out later, which will continue the astonishingly lame storyline. In the end of this first game, however, she finds Hans at the hotel, and he signs over the factory but asks Kate to join him on his quest to Siberia. Of course, Kate chooses to give up her family, friends, boyfriend and career to pursue mammoths with a stranger. And it is never explained as to why Hans became mammoth-obsessed and slow-witted! Also, all throughout the game, she keeps getting phone calls from (and blowing off) her mom, friend, and boyfriend. In one of these calls, it is revealed that Kate's boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend (yet another amazingly original/unexpected turn of events), but Kate doesn't care. She's just too immersed in this awesomely fascinating tale about mammoths in Siberia! And who wouldn't be?! I can't wait for Syberia II to come out!
In case you can't tell, I was sarcastic throughout this whole description! Oh, the story was so bad! >_<
The only reason I didn't post last night was because the internet is only hooked up in my mom's room right now, and she goes to sleep at 10pm or something...
We have to get a Hepititus B shot for UCLA, so I called the Mills-Peninsula hospital yesterday to ask about it. I remembered that I just took the test a few months ago for volunteering, so I just asked for a copy of my results. The lady told me that (the doubtlessly very arduous task of) photocopying something from my records was $15. So I instead asked about how much it cost to take the test over again, since I remembered that they were free before. "I would have to check that up. I'm busy. Call back at 12:15." Does the hospital not want business or something? Despite her rude tone, I called her back at 12:15, and she told me that she just learned that prices were "confidential" and could not be released over the phone. O...kay.... Whatever. So then I asked about the photocopying again:
Me: But you said earlier that it's 15 dollars to...
Receptionist Lady: I just told you that I can't release the prices. And, believe me, it costs a lot more than 15 dollars for a shot. (*scoff*)
Ugh, let me finish first, damn it! Because of her rudeness, I am so not going to Mills for the shot (it's free at Kaiser anyways). Haa! Mills sucks not only because the service and quality are bad, but also because they even allowed clumsy people like me to volunteer there.
Most of yesterday was spent playing Syberia. It's an adventure game where you have to go around picking up stuff and talking to people, etc. (kind of like RPGs without the fighting? Actually, more like Myst.) The graphics are really pretty, but the gameplay seriously annoys the hell out of me. See, when I want to move to the next screen, I click on the edge of the current screen. But instead of cutting directly to the next screen like a lot of other adventure games, I have to wait for the character to walk/run across the screen. This becomes mind-bendingly irritating when you have to move back and forth between places that span 20+ screens. I swear, the game would only last 30 minutes if I didn't have to wait for all that walking/running. And every time the main character says "I can't go that way," I just want to scream, "Yes you can! The door's open! Just walk through it! Aah!" And sometimes things would be "too far to reach" when they're right in front of her, which means I'd have to go through a whole bunch of screens looking for a reaching-tool. Of course, I want to scream, "It's not too far to reach! It's within arm's length! Arm's length! Just reach for it!" I don't know why I keep playing it, since my suckiness at games and walkthough-dependency has rendered the game entirely unenjoyble. And I had to turn it off last night because I was too wimpy to explore the dark mine.
Last night was spent watching TV. Okay, Last Comic Standing sucked (sadly, I actually plan on watching this show every week)! I was rooting for the unfunny Vietnamese guy (whom everyone else made fun of), except that it has become undeniable apparent that he is, in fact, insane. Being Asian, he documents every joke told at every show, graphs how long the laughs for each joke lasts, and even asigns codes to his jokes. Then he describes every other comedian as the "forces of evil" and explains that he must triumph over evil. O.....kay.... Yet, somehow, magically, he managed to beat Dave Mordal, the funniest guy on the show, in a head-to-head standup challenge. So one of my favorite comedians becomes crazy (or was before...) while the other gets kicked off. Who am I going to root for now? I also caught a show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which I think BRAVO has been pimping on every other channel nonstop. The show's basically about 5 gay guys who make over the appearance, home, and habits of a straight guy (a little like Trading Spaces? Okay, that analogy doesn't quite make sense now that I think about it, but it did when I was writing it...) I know, this sounded extremely stupid to me too, except it actually turned out to be pretty good and, sadly, way funnier than "Last Comic Standing". I'd always suspected that the casual joking/snarking in people's everyday lives was funnier than the forced humor on "Last Comic", and I've now been proven correct.
Today will be spent preparing for our trip to Japan, since we'll be leaving tomorrow. I'll be back on the 29th. Hopefully, I'll have a nice, long, and interesting entry about our adventures there. Uh-huh. So...bye to my friends and imaginary visitors!
PS - I just read this post over and, wow, tense and grammatical inconsistencies and errors galore! And I'm sure they plague all other posts as well. Um...please ignore them. I'm too lazy to make corrections.
We have to get a Hepititus B shot for UCLA, so I called the Mills-Peninsula hospital yesterday to ask about it. I remembered that I just took the test a few months ago for volunteering, so I just asked for a copy of my results. The lady told me that (the doubtlessly very arduous task of) photocopying something from my records was $15. So I instead asked about how much it cost to take the test over again, since I remembered that they were free before. "I would have to check that up. I'm busy. Call back at 12:15." Does the hospital not want business or something? Despite her rude tone, I called her back at 12:15, and she told me that she just learned that prices were "confidential" and could not be released over the phone. O...kay.... Whatever. So then I asked about the photocopying again:
Me: But you said earlier that it's 15 dollars to...
Receptionist Lady: I just told you that I can't release the prices. And, believe me, it costs a lot more than 15 dollars for a shot. (*scoff*)
Ugh, let me finish first, damn it! Because of her rudeness, I am so not going to Mills for the shot (it's free at Kaiser anyways). Haa! Mills sucks not only because the service and quality are bad, but also because they even allowed clumsy people like me to volunteer there.
Most of yesterday was spent playing Syberia. It's an adventure game where you have to go around picking up stuff and talking to people, etc. (kind of like RPGs without the fighting? Actually, more like Myst.) The graphics are really pretty, but the gameplay seriously annoys the hell out of me. See, when I want to move to the next screen, I click on the edge of the current screen. But instead of cutting directly to the next screen like a lot of other adventure games, I have to wait for the character to walk/run across the screen. This becomes mind-bendingly irritating when you have to move back and forth between places that span 20+ screens. I swear, the game would only last 30 minutes if I didn't have to wait for all that walking/running. And every time the main character says "I can't go that way," I just want to scream, "Yes you can! The door's open! Just walk through it! Aah!" And sometimes things would be "too far to reach" when they're right in front of her, which means I'd have to go through a whole bunch of screens looking for a reaching-tool. Of course, I want to scream, "It's not too far to reach! It's within arm's length! Arm's length! Just reach for it!" I don't know why I keep playing it, since my suckiness at games and walkthough-dependency has rendered the game entirely unenjoyble. And I had to turn it off last night because I was too wimpy to explore the dark mine.
Last night was spent watching TV. Okay, Last Comic Standing sucked (sadly, I actually plan on watching this show every week)! I was rooting for the unfunny Vietnamese guy (whom everyone else made fun of), except that it has become undeniable apparent that he is, in fact, insane. Being Asian, he documents every joke told at every show, graphs how long the laughs for each joke lasts, and even asigns codes to his jokes. Then he describes every other comedian as the "forces of evil" and explains that he must triumph over evil. O.....kay.... Yet, somehow, magically, he managed to beat Dave Mordal, the funniest guy on the show, in a head-to-head standup challenge. So one of my favorite comedians becomes crazy (or was before...) while the other gets kicked off. Who am I going to root for now? I also caught a show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which I think BRAVO has been pimping on every other channel nonstop. The show's basically about 5 gay guys who make over the appearance, home, and habits of a straight guy (a little like Trading Spaces? Okay, that analogy doesn't quite make sense now that I think about it, but it did when I was writing it...) I know, this sounded extremely stupid to me too, except it actually turned out to be pretty good and, sadly, way funnier than "Last Comic Standing". I'd always suspected that the casual joking/snarking in people's everyday lives was funnier than the forced humor on "Last Comic", and I've now been proven correct.
Today will be spent preparing for our trip to Japan, since we'll be leaving tomorrow. I'll be back on the 29th. Hopefully, I'll have a nice, long, and interesting entry about our adventures there. Uh-huh. So...bye to my friends and imaginary visitors!
PS - I just read this post over and, wow, tense and grammatical inconsistencies and errors galore! And I'm sure they plague all other posts as well. Um...please ignore them. I'm too lazy to make corrections.
Monday, July 14, 2003
Oh my God, what a horrible day! Because we're switching from cable to DSL, we didn't have internet the whole day today. At first I was like, oh, ok, there's plenty to do that's not online. But there isn't! I started playing a game called Syberia, but got stuck along the way. Oh, I'll just check up the walkthough then, I thought. Oh, right, the internet doesn't work. I'll just watch some TV then...I just need to check up the listings online...oh, damn it! Hmm, none of these computer mice fit into my laptop...I wonder how much a new mouse costs...I just need to check up CircuitCity.com...Hell!! Ok, down to business then. I remember I have to get my Hepititus B shot for UCLA...I wrote to ask them about that, I wonder if they returned my email yet...I should check mail. AAhh!!! Luckily, the DSL has been installed now, though it does seem somewhat slower than cable. Oh well, something is definitely better than nothing. Damn, my 100% internet-dependent life is so sad!
Sunday, July 13, 2003
I finally got to see Pirates of the Caribbean today. The other people were all talking about how it paralleled parts of the Disneyland ride, but, having never been on it, I was completely clueless as to what they were talking about. The movie was good, but not that that good (too much action), though the girl turned out to be slightly (and I emphasize "slightly") less annoying than I thought she'd be. Orlando's character was kind of lame, but Johnny Depp was cool, and seeing the two guys together was very entertaining eye candy. There was an abundance of idiosyncrasies and plot holes, but who cares? (If you, my imaginary visitor, have seen the movie...Why was the original William Turner killed even though he stole the gold and thus should have become immortal?) Though I must say I was probably rooting for the "evil" pirates more than Orlando :P (Again, his character just seemed kind of lame...)
After the movie, all of us went to a pizza place to eat. This activity took us half an hour to plan, because a whole group of socially inept and self-doubting people are not good at making decisions. The bill for the meal came up to $26.67, but after we counted out pennies for the change, we discovered that the bills we put down earlier had disappeared. Of course, given our cynicism, we immediately suspected the waitress of taking the money without telling us, even after she told us she didn't. Why, wouldn't you? In the end, it turned out that Laurie had accidentally put the bills in her wallet, thinking it was change. We quickly apologized to the waitress (who doubtlessly thought we were either crazy or just trying to bum a free meal) and hurried out of the restaurant, vowing never to return again because of the embarrassment. This makes the second restaurant to which we can't return due to embarassments, which pretty much means that we can only visit each restaurant once.
The rest of the day was spent downloading games via Bittorrent. See, I discovered that I can download Playstation games, burn them, and then play them on the console (which sounds so very wrong now that I think about it). So right now I'm downloading all sorts of crap I've never heard of before, like Dragon Seeds and CSI (only 26 hours to go, yeah!)... :P
Oh, and after years of searching, I've finally discovered the worst show on TV, and it's on FOX! Who would've guessed? (*very sarcastic*) It's called Bonzai and involves Asian people with fake accents introducing stupid activities like tying balloons to a chicken to make it float. Then you can bet online for *gasp and googly eyes* a chance to have your screenname appear on TV. Not even your real name! It appears that this show manages to offend Asian people, animal rights activists, amputees, religious people, feminists, old people, and celebrities in just one episode. Amazing!
Yay, I finally finished that letter today (or yesterday, rather, since it's after 12). So sad that it took me so many days, considering it only came up to less than 2 pages. Man, does my Chinese suck.
And I really must have been crazy today, because I seemed to have a lapse of memory in regards to the horribleness of The Sims and had a sudden urge to play that again. I did, and, luckily, turned it off in 2 minutes.
Very annoyingly, my mom brought Steve's (the Steve we hate) two kids here to get some stuff for them to play with. They immediately grabbed the stuff they wanted and scoffed at the crappier stuff we have. And when the younger one (about 4-5 yrs old) went into the kitchen, he said, "This is your kitchen? It's so small!" And the older girl immediately joined him in saying, "Yeah, it's so small!" Well, I'm sorry if we all can't be as successful as your dad. And I kind of had an evil and secret desire that they would end up with kitchens as small as ours in their lives. I just hate spoilt children, but maybe I'm being a hypocrite here.
And I really must have been crazy today, because I seemed to have a lapse of memory in regards to the horribleness of The Sims and had a sudden urge to play that again. I did, and, luckily, turned it off in 2 minutes.
Very annoyingly, my mom brought Steve's (the Steve we hate) two kids here to get some stuff for them to play with. They immediately grabbed the stuff they wanted and scoffed at the crappier stuff we have. And when the younger one (about 4-5 yrs old) went into the kitchen, he said, "This is your kitchen? It's so small!" And the older girl immediately joined him in saying, "Yeah, it's so small!" Well, I'm sorry if we all can't be as successful as your dad. And I kind of had an evil and secret desire that they would end up with kitchens as small as ours in their lives. I just hate spoilt children, but maybe I'm being a hypocrite here.
Friday, July 11, 2003
Man, was this a random day today. Chen and I went to Coyote Point (yes, Coyote Point) along with some friends. This very random trip arised from us searching for a place to "tour" and finding that San Mateo has only 3 "tourist spots": CSM, Bay Meadows and Coyote Point. You can easily see how we chose Coyote Point over the other two selections. There was very little do there though, so we just visited the museum and walked around afterwards. The museum took about 15 minutes to visit, since basically every single non-stuffed animal was either sleeping or hiding from us. Afterwards, since there was so much time left, we drove around and then visited the "Pez Museum" in Burlingame. Yep, you heard me, a museum of Pez dispensers. Only it wasn't more than a Pez store. The people there were talking about how people came all the way across the country to see it....man do I feel sorry for them...since it's just a teeny Pez shop that decided to call itself a "museum" for some reason. Lastly, we rented Phone Booth and watched it at a friend's house. It was an okay movie, I guess, only the ending wasn't all that satisfying and, damn, did it really take more than $100 to film that? There only seemed to be one scene! I just got home and saw Disney's Atlantis on the Disney Channel (*shudder*) while eating dinner. It was actually pretty good...well, compared to Hercules, Treasure Planet, and the whole host of recent Disney (not Pixar) cartoons that bombed horribly at the box office...which I guess isn't really saying much.
Aaack, I just lost everything i wrote!! Well, I just mentioned how I rented 2 games from a VeeGeez free trial: Disney Dance Dance Revolution (I already have the other ones) and The Sims. Disney DDR had lame/strange songs like "Macho Macho Duck" (yes, to the tune of "Macho Macho Man") and "It's A Small World After All: Ducking Hardcore Mix". I spent four hours struggling with The Sims, which bored me to no end. I only kept playing it because I wanted to complete these "goals", which were time-consuming and pointless. When I tried to teach my Sim some stuff in order to progress in the game, he kept being "too depressed to study." And, since I am insane, I yelled aloud repeatedly, "You're not depressed, you idiot! Your fun bar is nearly full, damn it!!!!" I finally gave up on it and fell asleep while playing the game.
CSI kinda had a college theme today, so that got me all depressed about college again. Why was I too lazy to apply to more colleges?! To keep myself from getting too too depressed, I had to keep telling myself that I can't change the past, I'm too stupid to handle a better college, there's always graduate school, maybe it's God's will (or punishment), etc. So I nearly had a relapse into my March-to-May mood. Sad...
Thursday, July 10, 2003
Not much today. Yeah, uh huh, big surprise. I was planning on seeing "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" this weekend, so I checked up some reviews. (From now on, I will bold titles, because other people do that in there blogs, and I must attempt to conform. And yeah, I actually pay to see movies I want to see.) The Pirates movie got pretty good reviews while the latter got really bad ones. Apparently, the League movie has crappy special effects and a plot that makes very little sense. So, yeah, I'll probably that just download that then. (All hail Bittorrent!) Anyway, while reading reviews, I discovered that the League movie is based on a "graphic novel" (you know, comic book) by Alan Moore (who apparently also wrote the graphic novel "From Hell"...you know, that Johnny Depp movie). I remembered that my US History teacher had one of Moore's well-reviewed "novels" called "The Watchmen" and thus ventured into the young adult section of the public library to check it out (all of the League "novels" were checked out). No, I did not go to the library specifically for this. Even I was not that bored. No, I had an excuse to go the library; I also had to check out some Japanese/English dictionaries. For some reason, though, the library had a ton of Japanese-to-English dictionaries but no English-to-Japanese ones. Strange. I wonder why that is.
Anyway, I read a/b 100 pages of "The Watchmen" while I was bored. It's about a bunch of retired superheros, and there's not much of a plot of speak of...the characters all have personality problems and reminisce about past boring conversations with one another. There's one dude who never wears pants for some reason and all the women in this graphic novel look like men. And this was written in the '80s, so a whole chunk of it is about Vietnam, the Soviet Union, etc., and there's repeated mention of the Keen act, whatever that is. I was finally bored out of my mind and just had to put it down.
In the afternoon, I went to help Mom with some stuff while Chen left to get some presents for our Japanese cousins. Chen went to the Disney Store because there'd been a huge sale there for the past few weeks, but everything good was gone when she got there. She ended up getting this Mickey doll and a lame-ass spinning Buzz Lightyear toy. I guess we'll just have to buy them (better) gifts once we get to Japan. Oh yeah, and our grandparents sent us some watches as graduation gifts. It's such a sweet gesture, but our grandparents are the worst at picking out gifts, and this was no exception. These watches have woven straps, red dangly thingies, and pictures of basketball players on the watch faces along with the words "Chinese Basketball Association". Okay, (1) these are NOT girls' watches and (2) Chinese basketball???!! Me confuzzled. I have absolutely no idea how our grandparents picked out these watches, and they were sooooo expensive too (the receipt was in there for the customs people). Oy. >_<
Anyway, I read a/b 100 pages of "The Watchmen" while I was bored. It's about a bunch of retired superheros, and there's not much of a plot of speak of...the characters all have personality problems and reminisce about past boring conversations with one another. There's one dude who never wears pants for some reason and all the women in this graphic novel look like men. And this was written in the '80s, so a whole chunk of it is about Vietnam, the Soviet Union, etc., and there's repeated mention of the Keen act, whatever that is. I was finally bored out of my mind and just had to put it down.
In the afternoon, I went to help Mom with some stuff while Chen left to get some presents for our Japanese cousins. Chen went to the Disney Store because there'd been a huge sale there for the past few weeks, but everything good was gone when she got there. She ended up getting this Mickey doll and a lame-ass spinning Buzz Lightyear toy. I guess we'll just have to buy them (better) gifts once we get to Japan. Oh yeah, and our grandparents sent us some watches as graduation gifts. It's such a sweet gesture, but our grandparents are the worst at picking out gifts, and this was no exception. These watches have woven straps, red dangly thingies, and pictures of basketball players on the watch faces along with the words "Chinese Basketball Association". Okay, (1) these are NOT girls' watches and (2) Chinese basketball???!! Me confuzzled. I have absolutely no idea how our grandparents picked out these watches, and they were sooooo expensive too (the receipt was in there for the customs people). Oy. >_<
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Let's see...well I saw "Treasure Planet" (on stolen PPV, of course) this afternoon...and it pretty much sucked. I was actually pretty surprised that the "evil" pirate-dude didn't somehow turn out to be the main character's father. I mean, this movie already has every other cliche, why not this one? And that little glob that morphs into different shapes (1) is copied from Pokemon and (2) has a "face" that makes me to want to puke.
I also wrote another 1/3 of that letter. I swear I was going to finish today, but I couldn't pick it up again once I stopped. And Chen went to The Grill again, so it seems definite that I shall never work there again.
Also saw "Last Comic Standing", which sucked. Why was everyone so mean to the Vietnamese guy for no reason? Hmm...this brings back memories of middle school. People suck.
I also had a sudden urge to draw, so I did. It's Dante from Devil May Cry 1/2, and the color in this pic is all strange because I took a photo of it instead of scanning it. The background is actually snow white, and this photo also makes my pencil lines look strangely thick. Dante's gloves and sleeves are also supposed to be black, but I suck at shading and didn't feel like attempting to do any more than I already did. And yes, I know the head is abnormally large. Shut up. I guess that's probably why my mom made fun of it. >_<
I also wrote another 1/3 of that letter. I swear I was going to finish today, but I couldn't pick it up again once I stopped. And Chen went to The Grill again, so it seems definite that I shall never work there again.
Also saw "Last Comic Standing", which sucked. Why was everyone so mean to the Vietnamese guy for no reason? Hmm...this brings back memories of middle school. People suck.
I also had a sudden urge to draw, so I did. It's Dante from Devil May Cry 1/2, and the color in this pic is all strange because I took a photo of it instead of scanning it. The background is actually snow white, and this photo also makes my pencil lines look strangely thick. Dante's gloves and sleeves are also supposed to be black, but I suck at shading and didn't feel like attempting to do any more than I already did. And yes, I know the head is abnormally large. Shut up. I guess that's probably why my mom made fun of it. >_<
Woohoo, I finally started that letter yesterday. Only got about 1/3 of it done though >.< Yeah, so that took up a lot of the day (when you wake up at noon, the day doesn't seem that long...). Oh yeah, we also reserved tickets for Japan for 7/17-1/29. Only about 10 days, but these were the cheapest tickets available and there isn't much to do in Japan anyways. I'm sure.
Now I know I said I wasn't going to talk about TV anymore, but I must comment on the last episode of "For Love or Money" yesterday. Yes, I watched that show and I'm ashamed to admit it. The concept of it is that these girls compete for one guy, and if she's chosen in the end, she gets $1 million. They think the guy doesn't know about the money, but he does, and he knows that the girl in the end has to choose between the man or the money, but the girls think they get both. Okay, first of all, who the hell would choose this guy over a million bucks!? Look at him! Look! He's ugly! And not to mention perverted. And he talks like a high-schooler despite being a lawyer. I swear they have guys picking out these guys. I can just see the meeting where these (male) producers are picking between different men: "Oh, wow, this guy has the same hair as Joe Millionaire. The ladies will surely swoon over him!" Secondly, the guy can't win. He ended up liking the girl who didn't really like him. So if he chooses the girl he likes, she would choose the money, and he'd be left with nothing. If he chooses the other girl who likes him, he'd get a million but end up with a girl he doesn't really like. Yes, this second girl is either crazy or just really stupid, but she was ready to choose the guy over the money. Well, being the idiot that this guy is, he went with the first option, and of course, that first girl chose the money. Muhahaha. Apparently, next week the winning girl will be in the second season of the show, with 15 guys competing for her. And it is very sad, because I'll probably watch it.
Also saw the "Animatrix" on our stolen PPV channel yesterday. It was surprisingly decent, though most of the shorts, like most sci-fi anime movies, made absolutely no sense.
And, finally, this morning, I spent an hour playing Final Fantasy IX. I had stopped playing it after I started FFX, which was 20 times cooler and funner (not a word...). Well, I ended up dying before I could find a save point, so that'll set me back from playing it for at least another month.
So that's my boring life >.<
Now I know I said I wasn't going to talk about TV anymore, but I must comment on the last episode of "For Love or Money" yesterday. Yes, I watched that show and I'm ashamed to admit it. The concept of it is that these girls compete for one guy, and if she's chosen in the end, she gets $1 million. They think the guy doesn't know about the money, but he does, and he knows that the girl in the end has to choose between the man or the money, but the girls think they get both. Okay, first of all, who the hell would choose this guy over a million bucks!? Look at him! Look! He's ugly! And not to mention perverted. And he talks like a high-schooler despite being a lawyer. I swear they have guys picking out these guys. I can just see the meeting where these (male) producers are picking between different men: "Oh, wow, this guy has the same hair as Joe Millionaire. The ladies will surely swoon over him!" Secondly, the guy can't win. He ended up liking the girl who didn't really like him. So if he chooses the girl he likes, she would choose the money, and he'd be left with nothing. If he chooses the other girl who likes him, he'd get a million but end up with a girl he doesn't really like. Yes, this second girl is either crazy or just really stupid, but she was ready to choose the guy over the money. Well, being the idiot that this guy is, he went with the first option, and of course, that first girl chose the money. Muhahaha. Apparently, next week the winning girl will be in the second season of the show, with 15 guys competing for her. And it is very sad, because I'll probably watch it.
Also saw the "Animatrix" on our stolen PPV channel yesterday. It was surprisingly decent, though most of the shorts, like most sci-fi anime movies, made absolutely no sense.
And, finally, this morning, I spent an hour playing Final Fantasy IX. I had stopped playing it after I started FFX, which was 20 times cooler and funner (not a word...). Well, I ended up dying before I could find a save point, so that'll set me back from playing it for at least another month.
So that's my boring life >.<
Monday, July 07, 2003
Last night Mom called the Cajun Grill guy to ask about my mistakes, and he said that it wasn't much money and that it was fine. Well, this morning, he called and asked Chen to go. So now it is apparent that he'll never hire me again. It'll be even worse if he does, because then it'd be awkward (since he clearly doesn't want me to work for him) and I'd probably end up making more mistakes. Hell, I can't do anything right. 
My aunt called from Japan yesterday, and we spontaneously decided that this would be the best time to visit her. So we'll probably be leaving for Japan in a week or so and return just in time for the UCLA orientation on Aug 1st. The trip will be expensive, and I don't entirely want to spend 2 weeks in a place where I won't understand anything, but yay, finally something to do!
I swear that I was sooo going to write that letter today, but I ended up going shopping with my mom (while Chen was at work). We went to the weirdest places to pick up the most random things: glue from Sears, mirror adhesive from Home Depot, chocolate from Target, etc. And yes, we went to those places specifically for buying those things. Because we're weird. I don't think anyone else in the world would stop at Target specifically to buy chocolate.
And I just finished watching "Adaptation" on our stolen Pay Per View channel. It was a pretty cool movie with lots of strange loop-thingies. What I mean is...well, the movie is about a guy named Charlie Kaufman who's adapting a book into a screenplay. He ends up writing himself into the script, so we're supposedly seeing the movie that he's writing the screenplay for. Plus, the extra "loop" is that the guy who wrote the "Adaptation" screenplay is named Charlie Kaufman as well. So he's writing about himself writing about himself. The ending of the movie seems to completely deviate from the rest of the movie, but I'm pretty sure it's done on purpose. Towards the end, a guy tells Charlie to "make up an ending" for his screenplay with the help of his twin brother, so I think the ending of this movie is supposed to reflect his brother's very different style. So, all in all, a pretty good and really original story. ^_^ Wow, I can't believe I'm actually not ranting about a movie. So rare for me.
My aunt called from Japan yesterday, and we spontaneously decided that this would be the best time to visit her. So we'll probably be leaving for Japan in a week or so and return just in time for the UCLA orientation on Aug 1st. The trip will be expensive, and I don't entirely want to spend 2 weeks in a place where I won't understand anything, but yay, finally something to do!
I swear that I was sooo going to write that letter today, but I ended up going shopping with my mom (while Chen was at work). We went to the weirdest places to pick up the most random things: glue from Sears, mirror adhesive from Home Depot, chocolate from Target, etc. And yes, we went to those places specifically for buying those things. Because we're weird. I don't think anyone else in the world would stop at Target specifically to buy chocolate.
And I just finished watching "Adaptation" on our stolen Pay Per View channel. It was a pretty cool movie with lots of strange loop-thingies. What I mean is...well, the movie is about a guy named Charlie Kaufman who's adapting a book into a screenplay. He ends up writing himself into the script, so we're supposedly seeing the movie that he's writing the screenplay for. Plus, the extra "loop" is that the guy who wrote the "Adaptation" screenplay is named Charlie Kaufman as well. So he's writing about himself writing about himself. The ending of the movie seems to completely deviate from the rest of the movie, but I'm pretty sure it's done on purpose. Towards the end, a guy tells Charlie to "make up an ending" for his screenplay with the help of his twin brother, so I think the ending of this movie is supposed to reflect his brother's very different style. So, all in all, a pretty good and really original story. ^_^ Wow, I can't believe I'm actually not ranting about a movie. So rare for me.
Saturday, July 05, 2003
Chen just came back from work, and apparently the owner-guy is mad at me and doesn't want me to work there anymore. He said I gave the wrong change b/c I accidentally put the bills in the wrong slots in the cash register. Chen assumes that he came up short yesterday. *@#$&(%! What am I supposed to do now?! I feel so bad, and I thought I did pretty well in not making mistakes yesterday too. Ugh. Well, at least now I'm really glad I didn't choose a career as a surgeon or a financial consultant (you know, where people's lives/money are directly at stake).
Yesterday, I had to wake up early (at 10am, instead of noon) to go to work at the Grill. I was all ready to leave after 3 hours, but he didn't tell me go until I've already worked 5, which made this the longest and most boring day of work yet. I felt really bad for the owner-guy, since very few people came despite the fact that it was a holiday. And I realized that his life must suck, since he never even gets weekends or holidays off and works till 9pm every day. He told Mom that Chen was more efficient/productive than me, so I tried to look busy all the time by wiping off the counter over and over again. I also spent a lot of time crossing the napkins. You see, we take napkins and stack them horizontal on top of vertical, so that a cross-shape is formed. This keeps us from making the horrendous mistake of giving customers more than 2 pieces of half-ply napkin. This task is well-explained by the fact that the owner is Chinese.
Thursday, July 03, 2003
Well, I went to get my textbook refund today. You see, on the last day of school, I paid $6 for a missing French book (it's always French.....*cringe*) and then, as I expected, found it right when I got home. I rushed back to the school but the library lady said I could only get a refund 3 weeks later. Why? Just because. I knew they probably assumed that I wouldn't go back, so I planned on doing so just to spite them. Ha, you didn't think I would come back for a measely $6, but I did! In your face! (Yes, I'm weird. We've established that.)
Anyway, I went back today, and pretty much the whole school was fenced off (for construction, I assume). After finally finding an entrace, I discovered that there were only two people in the office: a physics teacher (don't know his name...) and Mr. Black (the principal, I think. We seem to change principals every year). The physics teacher didn't know what to do, and I sure as hell was not going to talk to Mr. Black. He looks exactly like the Green Goblin in the Spider Man movie, and he scares the hell out of me, even when he's trying to make a joke. Plus I'm sure he wouldn't know about refunds. So I just had to give up on my $6 *sob*
And the Sega Saturn "Virtua Cop" game I listed on Amazon got sold! I'd completely forgotten about it, but it just got sold yesterday. I had listed it for $3, Amazon takes a/b 40% commission, it also cost me money to package/ship it, so I only got less than a dollar in the end, which is pretty much what this game was worth. So I can pretend I only lost $5 by not getting that refund. Yay!
I haven't put up any pictures in a while, so I'll just put this cool Iori (from the video game King of Fighters) pic I found yesterday here. Yep, just because I think it's so damn cool. I'll also include Dante, another video game hottie, just because I liked the game so much (for a few days). Dante's the best, and he can jump so high! Take that, beginning-of-game Sora! Oh yeah, you must click on the pics to see them in their full grandeur (they'll open in new windows)!
Wow, I'd love to see these two face off. Dante would win, of course, b/c he can just jump out of range and shoot like crazy.
Anyway, I went back today, and pretty much the whole school was fenced off (for construction, I assume). After finally finding an entrace, I discovered that there were only two people in the office: a physics teacher (don't know his name...) and Mr. Black (the principal, I think. We seem to change principals every year). The physics teacher didn't know what to do, and I sure as hell was not going to talk to Mr. Black. He looks exactly like the Green Goblin in the Spider Man movie, and he scares the hell out of me, even when he's trying to make a joke. Plus I'm sure he wouldn't know about refunds. So I just had to give up on my $6 *sob*
And the Sega Saturn "Virtua Cop" game I listed on Amazon got sold! I'd completely forgotten about it, but it just got sold yesterday. I had listed it for $3, Amazon takes a/b 40% commission, it also cost me money to package/ship it, so I only got less than a dollar in the end, which is pretty much what this game was worth. So I can pretend I only lost $5 by not getting that refund. Yay!
I haven't put up any pictures in a while, so I'll just put this cool Iori (from the video game King of Fighters) pic I found yesterday here. Yep, just because I think it's so damn cool. I'll also include Dante, another video game hottie, just because I liked the game so much (for a few days). Dante's the best, and he can jump so high! Take that, beginning-of-game Sora! Oh yeah, you must click on the pics to see them in their full grandeur (they'll open in new windows)!
Wow, I'd love to see these two face off. Dante would win, of course, b/c he can just jump out of range and shoot like crazy.
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
Yet another day wasted. I tried to plan out a course schedule for the next 4 years like someone suggested, but I soon became so confused that I absolutely had to gave up. Bascially, the required courses for the major pretty much take up the whole schedule, but each one comes with a whole bunch of corequisites and requisites that it's so hard to plan them out in the "right" order. I guess I'll just have to think about it later...when my brain is functioning.
I checked my UCLA account today, and they already received my AP scores. This was cool, because I didn't. It turns out, out of the 4 AP tests I took this May, I got 5's on three of them and a 2 in French! A 2! After five years of French, I didn't even pass! Oh, that's sad. I think I might have gotten a 3 two years ago, but the past two years of French has probably caused my French to slowly deteriorate, if that's at all possible. The listening part of the test was complete gibberish to me, but I still somehow thought I'd be able to pass by just guessing. Guess not >.< The worst part is I actually hated every single minute of French but only kept taking it in order to get AP credit. Oh, bitter irony.
And I still didn't start my letters to China. I will definitely stop procrastinating do them tomorrow. I swear!
I checked my UCLA account today, and they already received my AP scores. This was cool, because I didn't. It turns out, out of the 4 AP tests I took this May, I got 5's on three of them and a 2 in French! A 2! After five years of French, I didn't even pass! Oh, that's sad. I think I might have gotten a 3 two years ago, but the past two years of French has probably caused my French to slowly deteriorate, if that's at all possible. The listening part of the test was complete gibberish to me, but I still somehow thought I'd be able to pass by just guessing. Guess not >.< The worst part is I actually hated every single minute of French but only kept taking it in order to get AP credit. Oh, bitter irony.
And I still didn't start my letters to China. I will definitely stop procrastinating do them tomorrow. I swear!
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Saw this on a site. I wonder if it's true...I guess it's possible...
"At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS, President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
On March 23,1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to that effect, indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the descender was aware that a safety net had been installed just below at the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.
"Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide."
That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands. The room on the ninth floor, whence the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window, striking Mr. Opus.
When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant. They both said they thought the shotgun was unloaded. Thed old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide."
And here's a picture I saw on another site that kind of goes along with the story...well, not really, but I haven't posted any pictures in a while:
"At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS, President Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
On March 23,1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to that effect, indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the descender was aware that a safety net had been installed just below at the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.
"Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued, "a person who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide."
That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands. The room on the ninth floor, whence the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window, striking Mr. Opus.
When one intends to kill subject A but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant. They both said they thought the shotgun was unloaded. Thed old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide."
And here's a picture I saw on another site that kind of goes along with the story...well, not really, but I haven't posted any pictures in a while:
