My friend Ryan and I went to new Red Robin for lunch the other day. The burgers there are pretty good, and you get all-you-can-eat steak fries with it. I had the bacon cheeseburger, and I would rate it a 7 out of 10. One good thing is that there are plenty of tv’s hanging from the ceiling with various sports programs being shown on them. When it came time to pay, they said that their credit card system was down, and so the meal would be free. Woohoo!!
The other night I watched episodes 8 and 9 of Himitsu no Hanazono (ヒミツの花園), and it is really interesting. When this series started, I had thought that it would really be lighthearted and silly, with no serious drama, but I was wrong. Episode 9 especially was great, with one of the big secrets of the story finally being revealed. I am still wondering which of the brothers that the main character will end up with, and so far I’d break it down with Wataru getting a 35% chance, Satoshi getting a 15% chance, and a 50% chance she will not end up with anyone.
Maya Miki (真矢みき), who plays Ryoko, is excellent and funny, and really adds a lot to the story. She used to be one of the stars of Takarazuka Ruvue, which is a troupe that does musicals, where all the players are women. It’s very popular. I’d have to say that her acting is probably the best of the cast, a little over-the-top, but her timing is excellent and each scene with her in it is really fun to watch.
I think this dorama is supposed to have 11 episodes, so just a couple more weeks to go!
Sorry for all the YouTube vids, but I gotta post this about Phantom Hourglass for the DS. It looks really good…
[via YouTube via Chris>
I started playing a little tennis (real tennis, not Wii Sports Tennis) with my friend Jeremy a few weeks ago. I hadn’t picked up a racquet in maybe 10 or 11 years, so I was pretty rusty. In fact, while my backhand was ok, I could not get the forehand down. Specifically, I was having trouble getting the right distance between me and the ball at point of contact, so I the ball would often hit the neck of the racquet and not the strings. That sent a couple balls over the fence. But yesterday towards the end of playing, I finally found the correct distance, and was hitting them over a lot better. But, my hand strength is not there yet, so I couldn’t hold the grip so tight and a lot of the balls hit weren’t very accurate. But tennis is a lot of fun and we are planning on keeping playing. At least while the weather is still nice and cool here in Texas.
Last night Bay and I were talking, and he said that he learned about The Beatles in his music class at school. I thought he was talking about some beetles, but was stoked when it really was “The” Beatles. I asked what song they talked about, but he couldn’t remember the name. I asked him if he remembered the words, and he just said, “Beep beep, yeah!”. So I turned on the laptop and tried to find “Drive My Car” in my iTunes library. Couldn’t find it (I coulda swore I ripped Rubber Soul at one time), so we listened to Day Tripper, Penny Lane, and I Wanna Hold Your Hand. He really liked those tunes.
One thing that I hate is that on some news websites, they have a video link to a story, but no link to the text article. Most times, I’d rather just read the story than have to pop open another window with their media player, then wait for the video to buffer, then adjust my volume, then wait thru an ad, etc. etc. At least put a link to a text version of the story!
I really like the turn-based combat system. I heard it is like Final Fantasy Tactics, in that you move your group members around the environment, and then do your attacks/heals/etc. This is different than the other Final Fantasy games I have played, where the encounter is just attacking/healing, but no movement in the environment. Another neat thing about this game is that the story is pretty interesting. It starts out a bit ho-hum: You are part of a mercenary group, hired to do small jobs like protecting a village or routing some pirates. But the story quickly picks up and the group is thrown in the middle of a war between two rival regions. Like I mentioned before, the dialogue is really good, with lots of humor thrown in, plus each character in the group has his or her own distinct personalities, and they often disagree with eachother in what is the best course of action. Anyways, if you need a good RPG on the Nintendo platform and can’t wait for Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn for the Wii to make it to the States, then I’d totally recommend Path of Radiance!