- we got killed in our only ultimate game today. I think it was 13-6. I had some fun during the game even I didn't do as much as I would've liked. Galen was there and didn't remember me. Oh well.
- wrote some long winded thing for a final fantasy 1 forum. I might post here.....only if I win that debate = )
- convocation in 10 hours. Somehow I'd much rather sleep in.
- Today, I went to see X-men: The Last Stand with Dale
/spoilers
I don't see what the beef is all about. The movie was for the most part solid. Not as good as X2, but better than the first film. Sure there were idiotic bits of dialogue (Dickhead!) that made all of the little kiddies laugh. Sure there were plenty of plot lines or characters that went nowhere (Angel, Rogue, Rogue/Iceman/Kitty Pryde, etc). Not to mention, there were too many character altogether. Then there's the part where 6 X-men somehow single handedly repel the invading mutant army. But hey, it was entertaining even though the many resolutions were not that satisfying.
There was a lot of Halle Berry sans wig. Always a good thing.
I'm surprised that they've killed off two of the main X-men (Cyclops & Jean Grey) and they'll probably have some hokey explanation for Xavier's resurrection in the next movie.......if there is a next movie considering the number that Brett Ratner put on the series.
/spoilers
Not like the execs care though. X-men is doing great at the box office.
-Went to a bar on 41st and Knight to watch UFC 60. Unfortunately, it was full (although there was a lot of standing room) and according to waitress, this was a new rule from the bouncers. So I ended up watching the end of one match and the main event from the lobby (Matt Hughes vs Royce Gracie). Hughes completely dominated Gracie right from the start of the fight. I didn’t think Gracie didn’t have a chance in hell of winning the fight standing up, so it was actually a good thing when the fight went to the ground 1-2 minutes into the first round.
So we’ll now see those vaulted Gacie Brazilian ju-jitsu skills, right? Wrong. Hughes quickly passed from a half guard to a side mount while employing some ground ‘n’ pound. Hughes actually appeared to have locked in an arm bar on Gracie (badly bending the arm in the process), but Royce being the badass that he is, didn’t submit. Eventually, Hughes got onto Gracie’s back and went into the ground ‘n’ pound game. Gracie eventually stopped resisting and the fight was stopped. Yay. For some reason, I’ve never liked Gracie (probably because I was doing taekwondo at the time when I saw the first couple UFC’s. I suppose it was no surprise I took a liking to Maurice Smith aka the first successful striker in mma).
-I have to admit that I’m getting really annoyed by my ultimate team even though I’ve only attended 1 game and 2 practices thus far. Attending practice feels like a chore. It’s kind of a pain to commute to Monday games. And I really resent the barrage of emails about pointless shit from my team (but I can’t exactly say “no more emails damnit”). Despite my $64 registration fee, I feel tempted to quit, but I have this strange obligation and commitment sensibility that prevents me otherwise.
I just watched "Being John Malkovich". Wow. What a crazy and messed up film. Incredible ending. I think may need to watch it again.
I'd definitely recommend it.
Speaking of which. Given my newfound free time, I've finally started to watch movies that I downloaded in the past three years (note: I’m not a big movie guy, so I tend to miss a *lot* of films over time)
Good Will Hunting – Matt Damon was alright. Robin Williams was really good. Ben Affleck seem somewhat tacked on, but he had an important part near the climax. Recommended.
The Hunt for Red October – Good movie, but I liked book more. Sean Connery has the right look for Captain Ramius, but he could’ve made an attempt to ditch his Scottish accent (Ramius is Lithuanian)
Notable differences between book and film (that I remembered)
(spoilers)
-in the film, the navy had major problems getting Jack Ryan into the USS Dallas (a sub). I don’t remember such problems in the book
-In the book, when Ryan confronts the Red October’s saboteur, there’s much more dialogue and the saboteur wasn’t the ship’s cook (as in the film). The film did a good job, but the book was so much more tense.
-In the book, the Red October destroyed the Soviet sub by ramming into it. In the film, the soviet sub was destroyed by its own torpedo
(end spoilers)
Also, the film did a real crappy job of explaining why Ramius wanted to defect unlike the book. I’d recommend the book over the film.
Murderball – Interesting film about cripples who play quad rugby as known as murderball. For the very most part, the crippled guys are normal guys. And yes, the crippled guys do still have sex (and the film shows how they do). Recommended.
So I skipped my VUL games on monday. I guess my team isn't too impressed, but what can you do. Honestly, the game site was out of my way, I wasn't feeling 100% and it was raining outside (I thought they'd cancel the games and didn't want to do a 35-50 min commute to find out).
Aside from the third quarter (dinner), I managed to watch Mav/Spurs game 7 in its entirety. Great game that went down to the wire. Great clutch performances on both sides, but naturally moreson for the Mavs. I sorta watched the second half of the Clippers/Suns, but I knew the Clippers were dead in the water (Getting out rebouned by the smaller Suns? C'MON!). Since I was pulling for the Clippers, it was difficult for me to watch.
I think I'm over my Dota fever, so I'll uninstall warcraft tomorrow. I think I'll start playing final fantasy origins (ff1/ff2j for the ps one) seeing how I need to back up and reformat my computer. Otherwise, I think I might want to start playing Grim Fandango. I don't think I've ever played through a real adventure game before.
Read Clear and Present Danger for 1.5 hours this morning (5am - 6:30am. My sleep cycle is messed up). About 200 pages in, but that leaves 450 or so pages to go. I really need to finish soon. Like in a week to week and a half.
Hell, with no more Dota fever, I might actually start on my post queue. Soon.
Suffering from torrid Dota fever. I've done basically nothing else in the last couple of days. At times I've come very close to snapping out of it, only to catch it once more. On the bright side, I managed to cleaned up my post queue. Now only if I could snap out of this fever and start writing.
"To boldly go where no man has gone before". This is incorrect. Bold is an adjective, not a verb. To go boldy = correct
Mick Foley cuts an "anti-hardcore" promo intended to put Tommy Dreamer over as a face.
According to Mick's autobio, this was one of the top three things he has ever done in the business. I'd have to agree.
Hm I guess this promo would make a lot more sense if you know the Mick's history with WCW and the hatred ECW fans had for WCW (in particular Eric Bischoff).
According to the x-rays, there was nothing wrong with my lower right tooth (the source of the toothache). The dentist figures I must have strain my jaw. Hence he gave a prescription for a muscle relaxant. It no longer hurts to eat, but I find myself becoming much drowsier during the day (a side effect of the pills). The dentist also noticed a problem with my upper left tooth, so I’ll have to go back at a later day.
I think I may spend all of this upcoming wednesday writing. It depends whether I can get this signature on tuesday, otherwise the day of writing will be pushed back.
- cut on back of left heel is mostly healed up. - right ankle hurts a little when pressure is applied - very minor pain in right hand ring finger. - cuts in nostrils healing somewhat. dry skin that's probably cracking - pink eye thankfully went away after 2 days. Thank you polysporin antibotic eyedrops - left big toe is fine
- just doze off on the couch a couple of hours ago. Woke up with semi-major toothache. Extra strength advil doesn't seem to help. I fear I may need to goto the dentist for repairs. I really hope the one near my house is open tomorrow for a walk in (I really doubt it)
- Today, I saw a Futurama episode where the characters sang a modified version of Black Flag - TV Party during the credits. I thought that was interesting.
(Note: I haven't seen a number of Futurama episodes)
- a couple of days ago, I bought Tool - 10,000 days. Although it ultimately adds nothing (aside from the bizarro factor) to the music, it's good to see some groups put some effort into the album packaging.
- Cut on back of left heel. Gashed on a door corner - Someone stepped on my right ankle. Missing skin around there - Hurting right hand ring finger. A frisbee smacked that finger dead on - Cuts inside both nostrils. Masochist tendencies cause me to flare my nostrils. Grr - Right eye is somewhat irritated by contact lenses............. I woke up sunday afternoon to find that I now have pink eye. I'm somewhat sensitive to light and the eye is watering a fair bit. Grr - toenail on big toe on left foot is becoming ingrown. 4.5 years ago, I had to get that toenail cut off completely
I swear my mom was inhaling some weird fumes during pregnancy.
On friday, accidentally tipped $9 bucks for $28 meal. Gah. Stupid!
A certain someone decided to do a raid with his guild instead of going for a beer and some pay per view boxing. Tsk tsk.
Had a Rickard's Red for the first time. Holy crap. It was good stuff.
The rocket launcher, Biggie stomped ya High as a motherfuckin helicopter That's why I pack a nina, fuck a misdeameanor Beatin motherfuckers like Ike beat Tina [What's Love, Got to Do] when I'm rippin all through your whole crew Strapped like bamboo, but I don't sling guns I got bags of funk, and it's sellin by the tons
I smile everytime when I listen to this. I'm a horrible horrible person.
A buddy of mine was about to goto an Ike Turner show. He was going to ask Ike to autograph his copy of "What's Live Got to Do with It". That would've been a riot.
Who: Lou Diamonds, Corey Woods, Chef Raekwon or most commonly known as just Raekwon. Where: Croatian Cultural Centre. General Admission When: Apr 15, 2006 How much: $30
I didn’t even know there was a going to be a show until someone was handing out cards at Alife earlier in the day. The show was supposed to start at 9, but they didn’t even open the doors until 9:40ish. The first opening act didn’t hit the stage until 10:30-ish. Earlier, there was guy hanging outside who I thought was a bum, but go figure, he was part of the opening act. I guess everyone figures they can “rap”. I forgot the rest of the opening acts because they were awful. The sound was horrendous, so I couldn’t understand anything the performers were saying. This dragged on until ~ 12:15 pm and I seriously thought about leaving at this point.
Then Rae hit the stage.
Set List (from what I remembered)
Ol’ Dirty Bastard - Shimmy Shimmy ya Ol’ Dirty Bastard - Brooklyn zoo (partial version) Raekwon - Incarcerated Scarfaces (Up to second verse) Raekwon - Ice Cream (Up to method man’s verse?) Raekwon - Criminology (To the end of Rae's verse) Raekwon – State of grace (from the upcoming Cuban Linx II) Raekwon - Verbal Intercouse (Just Nas’ verse) Wu-Tang Clan - Cream Wu-Tang Clan - Da mystery of chessboxing (Up to ODB’s verse) Wu-Tang Clan - Can it all be so simple (First verse, chorus) Wu-Tang Clan - Protect ya neck (Up to U-god’s verse) Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin to Fuck Wit (Up to Deck’s Verse?) Wu-Tang Clan - Triumph (Up to Deck’s verse)
Tributes were made to J Dilla, Proof and ODB
The good:
I was like 5-8 feet from the stage.
I can now see why hip hop is huge in the mainstream. Even with a no talent rapper (90-95% rappers out there) and bass heavy beat, you can have the whole place rocking. Honestly, the front audience just exploded when Cream and Protect Ya Neck started; people were jumping around as if their life depended on it while screaming along with song.
Compare this with the zombies from Nada Surf’s set. You tell me which show would be more fun to attend…..unless you’re one of these zombies.....
Earlier, I wondered how Rae would pull off many of the Wu-songs because many of them are posse cuts. No problem, Rae performed rap other people’s verses.
The bad:
Horrible sound. I could barely make out what Rae was saying. I could only understand every other verse, which made it difficult to know what song was being performed.
Honestly, Rae could’ve been rapping about raping little children and everyone would still eat it up. Hence the problem with hip hop today, people listen exclusively to the beat (short loop of music) while completely ignoring the lyrics (the crux of the song).
Original music was used for a number of the songs. This lead to 2 problems. One, I’d usually yearn for the original beat. Two, to figure what song it was, I had to *really* listen to the lyrics (see above problem about sound).
Why were most of the songs truncated? It makes no sense. You wouldn’t perform strictly partial songs in a rock show. And apparently, the Clan does this all of the time. No wonder they haven’t been on top in a long time…not to mention: the over saturation of Wu-albums, lack of album output and not showing up to clan concerts.
The numerous posers in the crowd. I’m sure a lot of these punks listen to Nelly, Chingy and Lil’ Jon in their spare time (the antithesis of the Wu-Tang Clan for the uninformed). I’m sure many were there for the spectacle. I honestly wondered how many people could even name the entire clan(RZA, GZA, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, ODB, Masta Killa, U-God and depending on who you ask, Cappadonna).
When Rae asked for some girls to join him on stage, the 10-15 girls were neither hot or willing to get nekkid. Boo urns.
In the end, I was somewhat satisfied. I should have bought a Cuban Linx II shirt for 30 bucks or at the very least, one of the mixtapes that were offered at the end of the show. Ah well.
I would post more now that I'm done school, but I currently have mild Throne of Bhaal fever. I think I'm almost completely over my Dota fever.
Also as of late, I think I may be developing carpel tunnel syndrome in my right hand. Sometimes I get a strange tingling sensation after using the mouse. Or maybe it's just a short phase I'm going through.
