Mmmm London Fog

I'm sipping on one right now. This is the first time I've had it and I'm not sure if I like it or not...
It tastes wrong somewhat...
For those of you who don't know what it is, it's Earl Grey Tea with milk. Basically, an earl grey tea latte.

Tournament finish!

It's a pretty pathetic tournament, but it's still a cash finish.

After almost 4.5 hours of playing in a $100 Freeroll on Full Tilt Poker. Out of a field of 2700, I survived long enough to make a cash finish in 26th. It's only $2. But what the hey, I haven't really played much tournaments so this is good practice for me. It was good fun though since I had my dad beside me watching. We had good debates of how to play, and let's just say I probably would have gone broke a lot earlier if I listened to my dad more. Hehe.

Ungh. My neck is cramped now after that long grind.

Reaching for the past

I've always had problems of letting go of things I really liked in the past. Especially with video games, I always get annoyed by the fact that I cant' find old NES or SNES games even though my old systems are still running. The old classics are the best. Who cares about fancy graphics, the gameplay was simple and addictive. I love how the old systems had a lot of co-op play where it's all about you and your best buddy trying to survive to the next level. Sadly, that genre has almost died out to the more popular First Person Shooters, Role-playing Games, and maybe still some Adventure games.

I've gotten used to the fact that I haven't been able to, and probably wont' be able to, find any old 8-bit games for the NES/SNES etc, anymore. However, I've recently been missing Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for the Xbox. It's the first co-op game I've felt that has surpassed expectations and deliver a unique experience. I went for a walk in Lansdowne and I couldn't find a copy of it at Future Shop, or Best Buy. I was ecstatic when I finally found it at Toys R Us, until the guy scanned the box and wouldn't sell it. Apparently the game has been recalled. Now, I'm stuck trying to find a game that's just barely 2 and a half years old. Ungh. I really hate this industry.

Learning Italian with Star Wars

It's not really Star Wars I guess, but it's fan-based movies on the Star Wars universe. It's called Dark Resurrection, and so far it's pretty interesting. I've only seen part 1 of 2 and I'm pretty intrigued. It's filmed in Italian with English subs. The casting/acting is mostly solid and it's a pretty decent movie considering it's not a major production, although it didn't look quite low budget at all.

The special effects were good most of the time, but the blowing out of colors effect was being used a little too much. The casting was really intriguing, a lot of the actors/actresses were in the older range of 40-60's, and I think they gave a more experienced and believable environment. I still have a problem with the casting of the main character, but I could still relent depending on how she acts in the second part.

Yum yum salmon!

I just realized how good the Wild Sockeye Salmon on Filone sandwich at Starbucks is. At 5.95, it's so cheap! There's other sandwiches on Starbucks' shelves too, but they don't taste as good. I don't get how they price their inventory. One would expect that the salmon sandwiches would cost more (besides the fact that it's local since we get salmon from BC) but I would gladly pay up to 7.50 for this sandwich, while the less tasty ones, the 5.95 price tag does not justify it's taste.

It goes maybe not so well with Caramel Machiatto, I probably should have gotten a tea, or some fruit drink. Salmon doesn't really pair well with coffee or any bitter drink.

I'd like a book please!

There's an awesome video on CNN regarding new book printing technology. Being able to order books on demand will definitely make a difference in libraries and being able to stock more content and not being constrained to retain physical copies of old books that can be reprinted. This is the type of technology that will re-define the current generation's ability to adapt technology to be more useful rather than simply entertaining. Ipods/iphones are nice, sure, but how does that affect our society? Music is primarily a form of entertainment, but books can span even more across the ages.

Video-on-demand, sweet. Book-on-demand? KICKASS

I should really sleep earlier

A friend of mine is back from SF for a couple days, but today's probably the only chance I'll get to hang out with him. We went out for dim sum at Fisherman's Terrace. I'm not sure if we were sick or something, but we ordered very little. After that we got some bubble tea at Tapioca Express. It's been a while since I've gone out for bubble tea. Once you stop drinking it, you lose your taste for it. We went though since we just wanted to hang out, and there is really nothing better to do in Richmond.

Bourne Ultimatum! That was another headache inducing, although not as bad as the previous one, because of the rapid free-chase camera style that director Paul Greengrass OH SO LOVES! I felt airsick after watching one of his other films, United 93 which also employed the same technique. But, I have to admit, this Bourne was awesome. So were the others, but this one felt like it gave some completeness to the storyline. I'm a little saddened since I love the directional style of this movie series, and I would be quite disappointed if they don't continue. Considering that the movies don't really follow the books that closely I wouldn't really be all too critical how much they changed the story. The psychological aspect is tremendous, the mind games, the spy game with a character that employs a certain avoidance of action unless necessary which is quite contrary to the norm of any spy movie where the protagonist initiating violent encounters just for the sake of having action in the movie.

I was talking to Tim about this like a week ago... The 2 gig limit on gmail is pretty big, but it would be nice to have something even bigger, and an incurred cost of the upgrade would be a fair alternative. Well, I just noticed gmail is now offering the said pricing scheme:
6 GB ($20.00 per year)
25 GB ($75.00 per year)
100 GB ($250.00 per year)
250 GB ($500.00 per year)
They seem pretty reasonable.

I don't normally read Google's blog, but they made a post about it

Murphy's Law

I guess it's an obvious cliche, but you should really back up your data. With the old adage of Murphy's Law of "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."
I was expecting this for a while, and contemplating about getting a new external HD to back my data up. And well... I guess I just got lazy. Right now it's unclear whether or not I can get my hard drives back up, but all it's doing is clicking whenever I start my computer. I'm going to lose massive amounts of work if it's permanently gone. I really hate the idea of digital storage. It's so easy to lose, but then physical storage doesn't really give much of a better alternative with its space requirements.

If you don't listen to your insights, then you deserve to fail. I hope my insights will re-consider about me hearing it.

Two idiots, and water.

So, my mom and I just got back from Safeway. My mom bought a 9.5L tank of distilled water for drinking, and we both assume the water comes straight out considering... it's that much water. There's obviously a great amount of pressure from the weight of the water being pulled by gravity. However, both me and my mom were quite dumbfounded as to why the water would only trickle out. I think we spent about 10 minutes trying to tilt it and raise it, all to the advancement of our realization we were pretty stupid not knowing how to operate a tank of water. Haha

We figured out a technique after that little game of trying to pour it out. Have you ever had this situation?
Please laugh now, and laugh again when you run into this situation yourself.