Saturday, September 18, 2004

Mileena, Katana, Jade

The last title reference was in fact a reference to “Parappa the Rapper,” a music game for the PS1. Even though I never owned an original Playstation, my friend Jerry had purchased it and one night we stayed up until 6AM trying to beat the game. Of course, I’m terrible at it so most of my time was spent watching him play the game. Still it was good stuff, and I have very fond memories of the rapping dog. He’s much cooler than Poochy ever was.

JC Baggee guessed the reference correctly, so he earns the point for this round. Bringing our current scoreboard up to a 8-way tie!

Current High Scores
Ben, JC Baggee, Solo Tremaine, Sara,
Semjaza Azazel, Nerdsy, Mimmi, Arcadia:
1 Point

In addition to today’s reference, this day marks the start of the now-weekly Shy’s Obscure Question! I will aska question, mostly likely a reference to some sort of comic book, tv show, movie, rock band etc. and whoever first guesses the correct answer will receive a large number of points. Today’s question is worth 3 points, meaning it is a question of moderate obscurity.

Today’s Question Is: Name the three MAGI supercomputers, and what aspects of their creator’s personality do they represent?

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1. Along with half of the world, I’m incredibly excited about the release of the Star Wars trilogy on DVD. I don’t know how much of that is a result of clever marketing on LucasFilm’s part, or my own personal love of the series. If my post in Rebel Scum is any indication, I have a huge interest in the movies that I hadn’t noticed until only recently. After seeing my latest paycheck, I doubt I will be able to buy it when it first comes out, though. I spent an awful lot of money on that date yesterday.

2. Never spend an awful lot of money on your first date with someone, especially if they are significantly more attractive than you are. We went out to some Cuban café in Pasadena and I ended up wasting a lot of money on an inedible turkey sandwich. I would have been perfectly happy going out to TOGO’s or something -- oh well.

As expected, the date went poorly, but not in the ways I had expected it to. Apparently this person is a big sports fan and were captivated by some sort of baseball game that was playing on the TV screen behind me. I’m not sure if we actually made eye contact after he discovered the TV, but it doesn’t matter, we weren’t exactly talking about anything. My attempts to start a conversation were lame, and he was too interested in the baseball game to say much. It was too long of a drive and too much of a bother to drive out to Pasadena to meet this person,, and all I got was a handshake.

Bah, who gives a handshake at the end of a date? Even if it were cut short I expect a hug, damn it!

3. I really, really want to see “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” which was released in theaters everywhere yesterday. If you recall I had the chance to see it at an early screening in June, but due to my friends being late for the screening I ended up missing out on it.

One thing that really excites me about the movie is it’s unique sense of style. Everything looks like it came straight out of a 1930’s Max Fleischer Superman cartoon, or a Flash Gordon action serial, or something. I’m hoping the characters and plot of the film stay true to it’s origins: including the random pop music number or having the two main characters engage in on-screen sex would definitely disappoint me. Certainly a filmmaker can take the high road every so often and end up with a remarkable film. Go see this movie, now!

4. A short anecdote about weird guests at Disneyland.

So yesterday was my day off (coincidentally, today and tomorrow are also my days off) and I wanted to spend the day at Disneyland. It has been a few months since I’ve played in the park, and with school being in session I figured it was as good a day as any to go and enjoy it. The group of friend I had wanted to assemble were unable to make it, but lately I’ve been spending an awful lot of time with my friend, Rudy, so I brought him along. He hasn’t started school yet, so I’m taking advantage of his free time by hanging out with the guy. (Coincidentally I hung out with him after my date, hm.)

We started our day in Tomorrowland, and went on “Star Tours,” per my request. My appetite for all things “Star Wars” is insatiable at this point, especially with the release of the original trilogy on DVD (see above.) The park was pretty empty for a Friday afternoon, and we managed to walk right on. While we were being assigned to our rows the middle-aged woman in front of us kept randomly grabbing Rudy. At first we thought she had some sort of physical disability, and was unable to walk, but obviously there was more going on.

When we entered our “star speeder” (you have to call them that, because it’s more fun) the woman continued to randomly poke, prod and grab my poor friend. I was oblivious to this, since I was easily distracted by the safety instructions being announced by C-3PO. So throughout the entire ride Rudy was being grabbed by this strange woman, and for whatever reason he didn’t tell her to stop. “I thought she was disabled!” was his argument, but really, after a certain point I’d tell Helen Keller to stop touching me. Of course, I’d be unable to communicate with her, so I don’t know how effective that would be.

On a positive note, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to the moon of Endor.

5. Hookah smoke, like all smoke, smells bad. I was at a party last night (busy day, huh?) and mostly everyone was smoking Hookah. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Hookah is what the caterpillar smokes in Alice in Wonderland, and it is quite popular among younger people in Southern California. At least, it’s popular with some of the people I’ve ended up associating myself with through work.

Although I have never used it, and don’t intend to, I have made some poorly-informed judgments about the stuff already. First and foremost, the smell makes me nauseous, and I see nothing glamorous about it’s use. Last night was the first time I had ever seen a person smoke Hookah outside of a Disney animated feature, so I was curious and ended up watching everyone else using it for quite a while. Consider it second-hand smoke or whatnot, but it’s very unique odor ended up getting onto my clothes, so for the rest of the night I smelled like the stuff.

Not wanting to drive 40 miles home from the party I stayed the night there, and as a result more Hookah-smell ended up all over me. It got to the point where I needed to roll the windows down while driving home, for fear of the smell having some sort of negative effect on me. The second I got home I changed my clothes; ugh. I can’t even tell you how gross I feel with that stench lingering around me for so long.
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