Monthly Archives: January 2007

Running Log

3.74 Mi. in the neighborhood.

It was kind of a tough run because it was 9 days since my previous run. The weather and a small cold had kept me from running. Plus I had a couple burritos before I ran. 🙂

Mission Impossible 3


Last week I went to a friend’s house for “Boys’ Gaming Night”, where we planned to play Wii and PS3 games all night. Before we started gaming, though, we watched Mission Impossible 3 on the PS3 in all of it’s blu-ray glory. First of all, the blu-ray format looked amazing. Everything was crisp and clear. Secondly, the movie was surprisingly good. I think it is the best MI movie of the three. *spoiler alert* The gadgets and tricks were really cool and imaginative, and I think the disguises that they used were super. The sequence where they made the mask was well done.

Nothing really seemed too over-the-top either, although we were wondering about a couple things. I think anyone who has played an FPS like the Battlefield series would have been wondering why they didn’t just snipe the guards who were on top of the skyscrapers. Instead, they used a silly baseball pitching machine to distract them. Also, when Ethan was going to meet with the bad guy at the end, why did his team have to fly back to the US immediately? Don’t you think they would have stuck around in Shanghai just in case? Apart from that, the plot twists and ending were great. The acting was excellent, and there were some good one-liners, especially from Luther (Ving Rhames). Definitely worth renting if you haven’t already seen it.

4 stars out of 5!

Hana Yori Dango (花より男子)


I watched the entire Hana Yori Dango dorama (the first one) the other day, and I enjoyed it a lot. This one is centered around a poor high school girl who is attending an elite, rich-kid school and her relationship with the leaders of that school, who are known as “F4”. It’s your typical dorama aimed at Japanese youths, since the main actors are all from boy bands. But the acting is really good, especially best friend, Yuuki (Nishihara Aki, 西原亜希) more, since she looks a lot like Matsumoto Jun (松本潤), who was also in Gokusen 1, is also really good in this dorama, and won Best Supporting Actor. There are a lot of parallels between Hana Yori Dango and Gokusen I noticed, but it’s not a bad thing. Tsukushi and Yankumi are similar in that they both take on the bad kids, and can kick ass. 🙂

One interesting thing is that Domyouji’s house is British Hills, which is affiliated with second series which is airing now, and it is pretty much a continuation of the first, with the same actors returning.

I Can’t Wait for Baseball

Baseball Spring Training is just around the corner! I can’t wait for the season to start. Plus, I have high hopes for my Fantasy team, even though we haven’t done our live draft. I guess I need to start reviewing the players again. I did ok in the live draft last year, and my team made it to the playoffs, so I was pretty happy. I still check all the baseball news everyday, and it has been a pretty busy off-season, with the HoF discussions, lots of player movement on the Dodgers front (plus all-you-can-eat Dodger Dogs in the right-field pavillion), and the whole Barry Bonds show. Should be an interesting 2007 for MLB!

Trace Memory now a Memory


I love video games, but I am guilty of not finishing games that I start. When I had an NES back in the day, I finished a few games, like Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Super Mario Bros., but since then, I haven’t completed anything. Until tonight, that is. I finally finished probably the easiest game to finish on the DS, Trace Memory. It has taken me about 15 months to complete it, but it’s just because I rarely played it. I looked at all my DS games, and decided I gotta start finishing some before I buy anything new, and so I spent a few hours tonight and knocked it off. Honestly, a hardcore gamer could probably complete this game in 4-5 hours, but as I said, I “took my time”. I only looked at the cheat guide once, and I am glad I did, cuz I doubt that I would have ever been able to solve the puzzle on my own.

I really liked this game, the story and pacing, plus the artwork and music was fantastic. I loved the book-like adventure/mystery, and the ending was pretty good. Another plus was that the “DTS” computer the main character uses is the same form-factor as my silver DS Phat. 🙂 I am really looking forward to Hotel Dusk, which is another DS game by the same game company, and is getting good reviews.

Icy

The cold front hit central TX today, and right now (3:30am Monday) it is about 33°F in Cedar Park. Tomorrow the kids have the day off from school, and I had planned to work from home, but now it seems like most in Austin might be doing the same. Tuesday is supposed to be even worse, with more ice on the roads. I have someone scheduled to come this morning and install our garage door opener… I hope he doesn’t call to cancel, but I bet he does.

Wind Waker with Bay

Last night I was playing Zelda: Wind Waker with Bay, and it was really fun. It’s kind of neat how kids can figure out so many of the puzzles in video games. Although I am the one using the controller, Bay is directing which way for me to go and stuff. He really gets nervous though when Link is swimming or carrying a live bomb. It’s kind of cute. Anyways, there are some games he can play on his own, like SSX (snowboarding) or Mario Kart DS, but on any game that has text, we will play together.