Friday, February 17, 2006

   Repost from February 10, 2006. . .
"One more thing: it irks the hell out of me when people comment to tell me they didn't read my post because the reader is too tired or the post is too long or whatever. If you didn't read it, I don't care, really. It's okay. You don't have to tell me this. I won't think any less of you if you keep to yourself. For future reference, a'ight?"

(Anyone has other ideas for what they'd like me to write about, feel free to add to the list now . . .)
Comments (16) | Permalink

Thursday, February 16, 2006

   Checking in . . .
I've been resting a lot during this reading week. It's been quite wonderful. Well, mostly . . .

Chatted with some people I hadn't seen in a while, that was pretty cool. On a similar note, it's two weeks until I head off to Kansas, which is also pretty cool and exciting. Yeah, that's gonna be a good trip . . . still gotta pick up that wedding gift first, though . . .

Work's been fine, nothing amazing going on. Indeed, this time of year is pretty much the worst time of year for the Home and Garden department, seeing as it ain't garden season and all our winter-like stuff went to hell since there was no snow this winter. Figured it'd be a good time to start up on building that second keyblade in the back room for "Boromir's" brother . . . heh, apparently that kid's getting impatient. Buuuut, y'know what? He can wait all he wants, because my covering for what I was ACTUALLY doing in the back room (ie. building a cardboard video game weapon) in turn just looked like I was slacking off and chatting in the back . . . then after getting caught (twice), I may or may not have come off as a bit of a smart ass in my explaining myself and stuff . . . so yeah, with that and another dumb mistake or two that night (my fault, of course) the Beauty Supervisor probably hates me now or something - that was a bad night for me . . . gugh.

Single's Awareness Day went by quickly and painlessly for me. Well, painless except for the part where we did a lion dance outside some dude's house to celebrate their new club building or something (some sort of benevolent society or something). In any case, it's STILL winter, so it was quite cold out . . . all the while, none of the people attending this grand opening thing were even paying attention to us. So yeah, we were unimpressed by them. Our Sifu treated us out to all-you-can-eat hot pot afterwards, though, so that was nice.

I've finally put a decent dent into "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"! I'm about halfway through now (just past the first trial). I might be able to finish this before Monday after all . . . especially since I finished my Civ4 game as the Japanese (Diplomatic Victory, if anyone knows what's up with that game).

My whole family got all-new cel phones. I think our plans were all pretty much finishing up, so everyone got some new toys. I have a camera now. Here's hoping I'll be able to figure out how to get new and better ringtones and stuff (if my plan even has that) . . .


Other than that, I've been jotting out tons of ideas and plot notes for my next big thing (Red knows all about it). I won't be starting before the end of reading week . . . maybe I will after I get back from Kansas. But yeah, though the timing's probably wonky since 'Beck is already posting chapters of her own story (which you should all read, by the way, since she's a brilliant author), I might see if I can kick off my thing soon.

That said . . . . . the question again . . . what would you guys like to see me write about?

And then the "Bleach" anime suddenly went in a very different direction from the manga . . . interesting . . . . .

I need more pork rinds . . . or microwave burritos . . .


Random SomeGuy Trivia: Of all the new Star Wars prequel Jedis, for some reason I always had this weird interest in Plo Koon - probably something to do with how in one game he was the slow-but-powerful guy, probably something to do with how his face was all messed up . . . and then he got shot out of the sky like a sucker in the last one . . . . . poor bastard . . .
Aayla Secura remains ridiculously hot, though, so y'know, you can't ignore her . . .
Comments (9) | Permalink

Saturday, February 11, 2006

   Curious thought . . .
No one seems to like pork rinds. I bring them up and people freak out.

Does anyone here like pork rinds?


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I find pork rinds to be a rather tasty (if not ridiculously unhealthy) salty snack, especially the hot and spicy kind. I blame my asianness, though I doubt that's why.
Comments (14) | Permalink

Friday, February 10, 2006

Study time
As I type I'm gearing up to write a 2-page essay and then continue on to study for two midterms this morning. Just sayin'.

Oh yeah, the mother had her surgery yesterday - seems cataract removal only takes about 15 minutes. So yeah, she's doin' great and is lookin' posh in her gigantic plastic medical sunglasses.

One more thing: it irks the hell out of me when people comment to tell me they didn't read my post because the reader is too tired or the post is too long or whatever. If you didn't read it, I don't care, really. It's okay. You don't have to tell me this. I won't think any less of you if you keep to yourself. For future reference, a'ight?


[EDIT:] Wow. It's almost 2am and I've only now learned that we're out of printer ink. Yeah, I can see this is gonna be a good day . . .
Comments (9) | Permalink

Thursday, February 9, 2006

   I haven't posted in a while. . . .
[Warning: The following contains streams of consciousness. Loss of logic and/or reality may commence. Read at own risk . . .]


There's been 3 straight sunny days here in Vancouver. I think this is the first time this has happened since the new millenium . . . I lie, of course, but still, it's shocking especially after the biblical amount of rain prior (well . . . 27 days is 'kinda' like 40, isn't it?).

We got our mark back from that "Epicoene" performance. We scored an A, so we're happy. Well, actually I didn't talk with anyone in the group at the end of class, but I imagine they'd be happy.

I have also booked my flight to Kansas for early March. I'm gonna miss the last 2 Harry Potter lectures in Children's Lit', but I think that's the least of the sadness. I mean, we're talking THREE myOers in the same place at the same time! This is unprecedented! Heh, it's still a few weeks away, but man . . . excitement, ya know . . . also helps that my passport's still good until April (man, I looked different in grade 12 . . . ).

Ummm, what else, what else . . . polished my steel toes so they actually look like black shoes again, mom's having a cataract removal surgery this week meaning the boys of the house'll hafta chip in more, and . . . I didn't tighten my bottle of Vanilla Coke before putting it into my bag . . . leakage, ick. So that's the less amazing stuff going on in my life . . . well, technically the mother stuff is kinda more serious, but ya know . . . she'll be okay . . .

Oh! So you'll love this part . . . got home early enough the other day to see most of "Finding Neverland" on the movie channel. Great movie, I thought. Very enjoyable . . . . . but then of course it doesn't help that I immediately saw a lot of reflective bits in it . . .
. . . guy basically lives with a widowed woman and her 4 boys (I missed the very beginning so I might have confused some of the relationships), becomes very very close to woman, woman becomes sick but continues to live as though nothing's wrong, guy does what he can to comfort her . . . . . yeah, I had wet cheeks by the end of it. Damn softie me . . . . .

Oh yeah, the other day it finally occured to me that Ukyo, the okonomiyaki girl from "Ranma 1/2", is a Kansai girl! This automatically makes me love her more. Me loves the Kansai . . . . .

I've also started up a new project in the works. I filled Red in on it already and she's quite excited. If I'm lucky, I'll fire it up during my reading break next week and hopefully finish it off before I fly off to Kansas. If you're wondering what project it is, I'll give a question: "What do you guys want me to write about?"

Friday I have two midterms and a short paper due. I should have been writing the paper last night. Instead, I read wiki' entries about X-Men. D'oh.

Bed time. 'Nighty night.


Random SomeGuy Trivia: The downstairs bathroom (my bathroom, more or less) has a cabinet with very diverse reading material across its top. There's a couple issues of "The Hockey News", a fairly large book of optical illusions, "Bart Simpson's Guide to Life", "The Zombie Survival Guide", a textbook about Romans, "The Iliad", an "Uncle John's" book, and . . . . . hehe . . . "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (which I should read a little more seriously some time soon).
Too much info? Probably . . . bwahaha . . .
Comments (7) | Permalink

Monday, February 6, 2006

   I've never known all you can eat sushi to be enjoyable . . .
So yeah. I'm exhausted and beat. A lotta lion dancing yesterday . . . like, a lot . . . and this was after a full day of work that involved running up and down a giant industrial step-ladder all evening (that part was fun, though, since it involved irregular work, meaning I wasn't watering flowers, which rules).

But yeah, yesterday went really well. After the stage show (two guys missed their jump, but that was it), we then broke off to do the lion dance stuff around the mall while the kids (and other specific people) hung around at the stage to do kung-fu. Once they were done they came to us, took about a third of our lion dance group, and went off to form a second group. So in other words, we had two teams of lions going around the mall to cover more ground.

Now, I'll admit that we put a lot of strain on a lot of guys. Like, when the stores hung their lettuce and money really high, the lion head would have to jump onto the tail to reach them (if that didn't make sense, I'll talk about lion dancing in depth next time). In any case, we only had two lion teams that could actually do these sorts of jumps, so every time we hit one they'd have to come back in for a round of stuff. I gotta say, this kind of lack of personnel is always taxing on us, when we all have to switch around so fast between lion, drum, cymbals, and gong. But y'know, we've got a lot of really resilient guys, and I'm always proud of us after it's all over. We're always dead tired after it's done, but we always finish . . .


So that's what local life's been for me. Elsewhere, I've been chatting with friends a lot. Encouraging some, reassuring others . . . picking fights with one . . . . . it'll all be alright, though. I promise.

Alright, bed time again. Cheers!

[EDIT:] Here's a nice higher floor shot of us at the last week performance . . . . so remember, the lions are the 2-person ones in the front, the dragon is the 7-person one in the back - and, I'm the 2nd dragon guy from the left, in the gold pants with the white trim . . .



Random SomeGuy Trivia: My top three pet peeves: shirt tags, people who brutally misquote things, and ever-looping DVD menu screens.
Comments (8) | Permalink

Saturday, February 4, 2006

Sleeping right now . . .
The Black Mages rock. Play with that thought if you'd like.
Comments (6) | Permalink

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

   Happy Achy Year of the Dog!
If anyone didn't get the whole joke with my last post, go check out www.imdb.com and snoop around at some movie info of any movie you can think of.

So yeah, I'm a couple days late now, but Goong Hay Faat Choy! I hope everyone has a good year with tons of good luck and stuff.

As for me, I'm just sore. Heh . . . really sore. On Sunday we did the Lion and Dragon dance stuff at one of the malls for the stage show like we do every year. As always, there were three levels of government in the audience who came up to say some words (the Mayor, the Member of Parliament, and . . . some other dude). THen we did our thing, did it quite well as always (I'm starting to appreciate more and more that my club is really, really good at lion dancing), and I didn't step on the dragon and die. Another plus.

So yeah, after that performance, we all killed some time until the evening, when we did another good luck thingy in front of the casino . . . and it was WINDY and cold outside! We almost didn't make it . . . . . but, we did . . . and then we packed up and headed off to ANOTHER casino to do the same thing again! Yeah, I think other people are beginning to appreciate more and more that our club is really, really good at lion and dragon).


Oh yeah, yesterday we performed that act from "Epicoene". It was a total train-wreck as we all expected, but it was fun so we don't mind. And again, with only 2 weeks to prepare, it could have been much worse, especially considering how many snags we hit (work, classes, personal emergencies . . .). But yes, we're done and we're happy.


Oh! While killing time before the first casino show, I went to Future Shop and browsed around. I picked up "Bend it like Beckham" because it was $10 and I'd been planning on getting that for a while, I picked up "Brothers in Arms" because it was only $20 and I'd been planning on getting that for a very long while (that game's got a neat style to it, even if it is friggin' hard to really pick up), and . . . I got "The Aristocrats"! Gotta tell ya, Bob Saget is a dirrrty dirty, vulgar man. You can only see him as Danny Tanner, or the host of "America's Funniest Home Videos" . . . but then he tells his rendition of "the world's funniest joke" and well . . . then he goes "they all start going down on each other in all different configurations...69's 29's, 'cause the kids are young it's 9..."

So yeah, if you're not easily offended (and are over 17), I say check it out, it's good for grins.

I'm feeling lazy so I'm not doing trivia. You can look down a post for that if you really want. Nighty!
Comments (11) | Permalink

Saturday, January 28, 2006

   SomeGuy (1983) [Series 1983-????]
Directed By
The Powers That Be

Writing Credits
James L.
George Lucas
(more)


Genre: Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Family (more)

Tagline: Given time, anything is possible... (more)

Plot Outline: James L. stars as SomeGuy, an ever-aging young Chinese-Canadian struggling to find his place as an Arts Student in a society of Science, and as a point of hope in a cynical, pessimistic world. (view trailer)

User Rating: awaiting 5 votes. [vote here]

Credited Cast:
James L. .... SomeGuy
Elizabeth C. .... The Mother
Justin L. .... The Aniki
Jessie L. .... The Younger Brother
Edward M. .... Faramir
Jessie Z. .... The Girl
M. Ireland .... Oh Captain My Captain
Li'l Kim .... Shandrial of West Virginia
Milady Molly .... Blades Mulligan
(more)


Also Known As:
A Tale of Tragedy, Turnabout, and Television (Canada) (Production Title)
MPAA: Rated R for coarse language, strong violence, and mature themes.
Runtime: Canada:22 yrs / USA:22 yrs / Hong Kong:154 min
Country: Canada
Language: English / Cantonese / Japanese
Color: Color
Certification: Canada:14A / Netherlands:16 / Portugal:M/12 / Sweden:15 / USA:R

---

Trivia for "SomeGuy" (1983)

• Project has been in production for over twenty-two years.
  
• Was originally titled "Jaime" until later events and body parts forced producers to abandon it in exchange for something more suitable.
  
• Early screenings of "SomeGuy" were cruelly panned by test audiences, who were upset with the crude toilet language and discussion. Nevertheless, most of that original language remains in the finished project.
  
• Robin L. was originally cast in the role of the husband and father figure until complications with fellow star Elizabeth C. demanded an alternative actor; Ron C. was discovered over a decade later to fill the role.
  
• Was filmed almost entirely on location, save the "home" set which has been in constant use since the fifth season.
  
• Inside SomeGuy's room, careful viewers can see a small bookshelf filled with memorabilia. These are all homages to other projects such as Dark Phoenix, Red Tigress, Nightbeck, and Duo among others.
  
• The "Real-Time Saga" stories that play a prominent role in the sixteenth to eighteenth seasons are all based on real life events from James L's life, though names were changed to avoid legal action.
  
• All martial art scenes were filmed with the actors themselves, and no stunt doubles were used.
  

---

Goofs for "SomeGuy" (1983)

• Anachronisms: The pocket watches worn by SomeGuy from season seventeen and onwards. Such watches were not worn by people for almost a full century before the period depicted.
  
• Continuity: SomeGuy's hair changes drastically throughout much of the later seasons.
  
• Factual errors: The Younger Brother, while being vastly larger and more successful than SomeGuy, is in fact younger by a few years.
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): SomeGuy's Cantonese is constantly strained and incorrect when speaking with others. This fact is indeed played up to humourous effect throughout the series.
  
• Plot holes: When The Grandmother moves out of the house, the remaining bedrooms are divvied up amongst the three boys. And yet going against all rules of seniority, The Younger Brother gets The Grandmother's substantially larger room instead of SomeGuy.
  
• Continuity: From seasons six through sixteen, SomeGuy is shown to be constantly adept and outright brilliant with mathematics. And yet in the seventeenth season all of that ability abruptly and inexplicably disappears.
  

---

Crazy Credits for "SomeGuy" (1983)

• The opening starts with a text apology towards viewers, saying "I'm gonna say bathroom-related things, and you'll probably hate me for it, but I'm doing it anyway."
  
• Aside from the mentioned opening apology, there are no opening credits.
  

---

Alternate Versions for "SomeGuy" (1983)

• Widescreen re-release of the earlier seasons once DVDs became commonplace.
  
• In some translations of the series, SomeGuy is instead referred to as "Emon Kataren" and speaks with an Irish accent.
  

Movie Links for "SomeGuy" (1983)

• Follows
  -Tank (1978)
  
• Followed by
  -Peng the Almighty (1985)
  
• Spin off
  -Cream Filling and Nougat (2003) (V)
  
• References
  -Star Wars (1977)
  -Transformers: The Movie (1986)
  -"Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" (1993)
  -"GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka" (1999)
  -The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

---

Memorable Quotes from "SomeGuy" (1983)

• SomeGuy: Given time, anything is possible.
  
  
• SomeGuy: The internet isn't going anywhere, and neither am I.
  
  
• SomeGuy: [upon listening to "Jingle Bell Rock"] What the fuck is a jingle-horse?!
  
  
• SomeGuy: I'll give ya three guesses, you'll only need one.
  
  
• Faramir: Watashi wa nihon-jin desu.
  
• The OOT: No you're not!
  
• Faramir: Sure I am, give me something to translate.
  
• SomeGuy: Usotsuki.
  
• Faramir: What? Come on, give me a sentence.
  
• SomeGuy: Omae wa usotsuki da!
  
  
• The Aniki: [farts] Eh, what'di say?
  
  
• The Younger Brother: Is Darth Vader a tragic hero?
  
• SomeGuy: Hmm... I suppose you could make the argument...
  
• The Younger Brother: Yes... his tragic flaw..... is that he's evil...
  
• SomeGuy: [unrestrained laughter]
  
  
• SomeGuy: G'night darlin', rest well. I'll see ya soon.
  

Comments (12) | Permalink

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

   Well, the vote's done . . .
Looks like we've got a Conservative Minority Government in Canada with Stephen Harper as Prime Minister.

So, what are my thoughts on this . . . heh, to be honest I can't completely say. Ideologically I'm not conservative at all, so that makes me a little sad. I'm a little concerned about their stance of cutting taxes and increasing spending (too much too fast will wreck the pretty rockin' economy we have at present). On the other hand, that it's a minority government is a bit of a plus because that means they can't dare to push anything too extreme in their agenda. I suppose . . . in light of the scandal and corruption in the last government, this is about as good of a result as any . . . not especially happy about it, but really, there weren't very many "good" results possible, from my point of view.

I'll tell you what makes me ultra sad, though . . . . . the New Democratic Party is winning in my riding! They haven't won just yet at the time of this writing, but they're pretty much going to. And this makes me upset, because they're dinks. And they won in the area where I voted. Grr . . .

But I guess I'll let them go for now . . . . . 'cause let's face it, the NDP is a pretty left-of-center party. And after they blasted the Liberals so that now the Conservatives - a very right-of-center party - are in power, well . . . I don't see many NDP policies getting processed all too soon in the new Tory government. Yeah, they screwed themselves up the balls . . . they ain't comin' back anytime soon . . .

It's another minority. Apparently minorities last for about 2 years or less. Or so says this Vancouver Liberal senator they interviewed . . . heh, a friend of mine put it best in his MSN name: "voting hurts my brain."


Random SomeGuy Trivia: If I'm having a good day, I can type about 75-80 words a minute. More or less.
Comments (4) | Permalink