Monday, 25 November 2002
11:59pm

S

o this weekend a bunch of folks went over to my friend Andy's place to help him install a roll bar in his new-to-him Miata, and also to drink a lot of beer. There was also a 40oz drinking contest, in which the rules stipulated that you only had to drink one 40, and the person who drank it fastest would win... unless... well the first person to vomit would lose. Now in a 40 drinking contest, vomit isn't induced by an excess of alcohol intake, but by the fact that an amazing amount of fizz builds up and amount of foam formed is incredible. But anyway. You can see what went on that evening by watching the video.
Also caught on video was me pulling some wheelie tricks on Andy's wheelchair... I had never done a wheelie on a wheelchair before last night, but I actually got pretty darned proficient as you can see on THIS video. This video is 2.8megs and requires the divx codec if you don't already have it. I dunno what possessed me to be wearing that helmet, but it made it all just that much more fun :)

Wednesday, 27 November 2002
11:59pm

H

aving felt like I have been neglecting the movie theaters lately, I've gone to see movies twice in the last two days. Last night I went out and saw The Ring. Many people have been saying things like "it's the scariest movie ever" and stuff like that. I gotta say, it was pretty scary, and the kid in the movie is super creepy... he's like 10 years old but he's got the posture and mannerisms of a mortician or something. But I think in the grand scheme of things, The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby are both easily scarier than The Ring. But one thing that is good about The Ring is the fact that the fear you experience isn't just some fear in anticipation of getting startled by something... the hallmark of a truly quality horror film... and another thing I liked about it was that about half way through I thought the ending would be pretty darn predictable, but as it turned out, I was way, way off.
Tonight, after having dinner with my sister up here in L.A. county, I headed out to the movie theater with my old college roommate, Kenny. We saw Solaris. I've got a few things to say about this movie. Number one is that I'm pretty sure that a lot of people will hate this movie. It's disjointed and open ended with a lot of strange flashbacks and whatnot. Number two is that there's gonna be a bunch of nerds out there that are gonna try to act all smart and tell you what this movie means and they'll probably talk about religion as a human construct and about God and Heaven and the afterlife and reality vs. fantasy, etc. Those people are all wrong. I don't think the movie "means" anything -- I'm pretty sure it was designed from the get go to be totally open ended and open to interpretation -- in other words, it means whatever you want it to mean and anyone who tries to tell you that they know what it means is just tooting their own horn, pretty much. So I've basically decided that I am not going to try to figure out what this movie means, cuz I don't think Steven Soderbergh even knows.
Number three is the fact that I had a hunch that the ads selling this movie as some kind of sci-fi romance were misleading, and I was right on that count. Number four is that regardless of what you think about the actual plot, you cannot deny that this movie has some seriously awesome production design. It's probably some of the coolest and most "real" sci-fi design since... well 2001: A Space Odyssey. The sets, the costume... everything looks super dooper cool, and yes, that is a technical term.
Number five is gratuitous Clooney ass. The first time they showed his ass was ok. The second time his ass showed up on screen, it seemed like it was there for too long and for no good reason, and when the screen faded to black and I thought "good, it's finally over"... the screen faded back in to the same shot... what the heck was that all about?
Oh yeah, at the movie theater, we were sitting next to a couple that appeared to be on a first date, I mean, due to the types of questions being asked. The girl ask the guy "what's your favorite movie of all time?" and the guy answered "Vanilla Sky"... Vanilla Sky!?!?!? Aww c'mon. Now, I haven't seen this movie, but its reputation preceeds it, and I'd say that this guy was basically just trying to make himself out to be some kind of intellectual or deep thinker or something, cuz I think his second favorite movie of all time was some shitty action movie, and I don't mean shitty action movie in a good way, I mean shitty action movie in a bad way... but I really don't remember what it was.
I think by definition a "favorite movie of all time" has to be at least 5 years old. I mean, if it's a movie that is still fresh in your mind because you just saw it in the theater, or you just bought the DVD, you're gonna be biased just by the freshness of it in your mind. You can't really judge how a movie that you recently saw is going to affect you further on down in the future, or if you'll even remeber it at all. That's what I say. Hehe.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have plenty to give thanks about. And I guess my family has requested that I make some of my famous pecan pie, which of course, is nothing but the recipe that is printed on the side of every bottle of Karo dark corn syrup. I don't even have the recipe written down everywhere. Every time I have ever made it, I just went to the supermarket and looked for the corn syrup then got the recipe from the side and went through the store buying everything on that recipe. It's really not a complicated thing at all. So yeah. I guess I'll go to bed now.

Friday, 29 November 2002
11:59pm

W

elp, last night was full of all kinds of fun and activities, and of course, fooooooooood. This whole weekend actually has been full of wonderful, wonderful food... except for last night, I've pretty much been eating Korean food non-stop. Yummmmmmmmmmmmm. And of course, it's always good to see my family including my grandmother and all of my aunts and uncles and cousins and stuff.
It rained pretty darned good tonight. The first real significant rain of the rainy season. Actually, at one point, it was coming down harder than I have seen rain come down in several years, but it only lasted for a few minutes. But this weather has been crazy, as just before the rain, the air this week has been super dry. Super dry air + lingering paint fumes in my parents house from stuff getting painted inside = my throat is scratchy. Ugh.
I did hang out with Zac tonight though. We went out to dinner, then after our plans to see Die Another Day were foiled, we went back to his place and I helped him finally beat GTA3's missions, and even learn to fly the Dodo a bit. He hasn't got GTA:VC yet, if you're wondering why I would even bother with GTA3 anymore haha.