Jay's version of bww @ Chateaux de Enfant
-one word: babies
Okonomiyaki & Taiyaki w/ Kev @ Japantown
-yummy Japanese goodness
Applebees w/Kay Ann & Shann
-sorta random. hadn't kicked it with Kay Ann in hella long
My Sassy Girl @ the girls'
-still holds up 10 years later
I know those two words don't normally go together, but that's how I would describe the apartment right now: eerily clean. Chris went on a cleaning rampage the other day, and the basically the whole place (with the exception of my room & bathroom) is super clean & tidy. The kitchen counter tops are almost completely clean & cleared off, and all the things on it are all lined up nicely. The living room is all clean, the movies & games are all lined up in the entertainment center under the tv. The game consoles & controllers are also lined up. It's almost too clean. Soo clean, it sorta creeps me out a lil. Hence, the "eerily".
I'm not saying I don't like cleanliness. I wish I had the same motivation to clean my room too. I will eventually, though. Cleaning is one of things I almost always procrastinate on.
There was a screening of The Mechanic at the Sierra Vista Cinemas in Clovis. It's only 10 min away from my work, and it was free, so why not? I generally like Jason Statham movies. I got off work a lil after 4, and the screening started at 730, so I had some time to kill. After picking up something to eat, I drove around Clovis for a bit.
Clovis is to Fresno as American Canyon is to Vallejo, expect it's more spread out and has more stuff. They have a small mall, "The Mall at Sierra Vista". The inside portion reminded me a lot of Hilltop Mall, but it only single story, old-looking but not too ghetto, 100% less dangerous and/or life-threatening, but 1000% more soul-crushingly depressing (so I guess it really is nothing like Hilltop Mall, but for some reason it hella reminded me of it). It had more stores that were closed down/out of business than open stores. And a lot of the smaller stores weren't chain retailers, they were like mom & pop type of stores. They even had an arcade! The outdoor portion, which is newly built and looks really nice, is basically a ghost town, with no stores at all. Walking around the place, I felt really bad for the mall, the shoppers, the whole city of Clovis. After the pity party, I headed off to the theater.
I figured that if I showed up at the theater around 630, I'd be near the front of the line. Didn't really figure there'd be that many people there. Man, was I wrong. There was about 250 people already in line, which was just about the max capacity of the theater. But I got lucky, cause I was in the last group that they let in. And I didn't have to sit in a neck-break seat.
As for the movie itself, it was just meh. I was not impressed. The kills could've been way more bad-ass. And they seemed to go through a lot of plot points really fast. They could've extended some of them. Well, at least I didn't pay to watch it.
Three words: Girl Scout Cookies. Shoot me now....
I finally found a direct source (co-worker) for Girl Scout cookies, but it totally sucks cause I gave up chocolate this year. So I can’t order my two fav cookies: Caramel deLites/Samoas and Thin Mints. Well, I could order them and save it for next year, but that’d be torture. So I ended up ordering the only non-chocolate, non-peanut butter cookies they have (that I like or want to try): Shout Outs and Shortbread/Trefoils. The Shout Outs, a crisp cinnamon cookie, are new this year, so I want to try them out. I got Shortbread just cause, no reason in particular. I could’ve got Lemonades, but I prefer sweet than sour (or just non-sour altogether). If I’m still here next year, which I really, really, really hope I’m not, I’m getting my favs by the case.
I was looking for a new kdrama to watch, but had no clue as to what. So I went on d-addicts.com and looked up the actors/actresses of the kdramas that I like and checked what other stuff they’ve done. The main actress from Princess Hours (Goong) and The 1st Shop of the Coffee Prince, Yoon Eun Hye, had did another kdrama in 2009 called My Fair Lady (or Take Care of the Young Lady/ Aghasshi). Since I liked her other two shows, I decided to check this one out.
She plays a spoiled heiress to a big corporation who has a super b!tch attitude. Her grandfather is currently the head of the corp, but is looking to leave it to her in the future, but has doubts due to her bad attitude. She lives in this mansion that has a big staff of servants catering to her every need. She has a personal butler who is basically her personal assistant and has to be with her 24/7. But since she has such a bad personality, she is constantly firing every new butler that they hire for her.
So enter the male protagonist. He’s a hard working, well-intentioned guy who has a big debt to repay to loan sharks (of course). One day, by chance, he crosses paths with the heiress. Their encounter eventually leads her to be forced to do community service. So the grandfather, seeing how this man might be able to whip his grand-daughter into business-appropriate shake, hires him to be her personal butler.
But the butler has ulterior motives. He planned on seducing the heiress and conning her into giving him money. But of course, it’s never that simple, and of course, he falls for her in the process.
Then there’s the obligatory love triangle, that later turns into a square. The butler has a long-time friend who is madly in love with him (calls him ‘oppa’), but it’s a one-way street. The heiress falls for a lawyer who reminds her of a past love, and gets the lawyer to fall for her with the help of the butler. But during that process, the butler starts falling for the heiress.
All that played out in the first 4- 5 episodes, so the remaining 11-12 episodes dealt with the drama of all that. There were some funny parts, but it mostly either sweet/endearing or serious drama. There were some minor sub-plots, too. Like the lead managers (guy & girl) potentially hooking up, the heiress’ uncle trying to get her fired, & the uncle’s “secret informant”.
Overall, I thought it was pretty good. I gauge that by the fact that even though I was constantly talking back to the screen, saying things like “oh shut up” or “come on......”, and with things sorta being predictable and following the typical kdrama formula, it kept my attention the whole time and I kept wanting to watch what happened next. I didn’t get tired of it at all, not like Princess Hours, which in my opinion was maybe 10-14 episodes too long (24 total).
And so the vicious cycle continues. I wanna watch another kdrama, but don’t know which one to watch. There’s hella to chose from now. Korea pumps out these dramas like there’s no tomorrow. The lead actresss from Soulmate, my fav kdrama of all-time, is in a new one, but there’s 56 episodes. I’m not sure if I’m willing to sit through that many episodes of just one series. But if I can’t find anything better, then I just might.
This was one good weekend. I watched the Warriors beat the Clippers, volunteered at the SF Food Bank, stocked up on ramen & onigiri and had taiyaki at Japantown, had Bud's, and watched some good playoff football games (on tv). But the highlight of my weekend came from an email.
Last week, I was bored at work, so I wrote up a review for Schroeder's (our favorite German bar in SF) on Yelp.com. This is what I wrote:
On Saturday, I received an email saying someone sent me a message on Yelp regarding my review of Schroeder's. This is the message:
I hella laughed out loud when I read it. So awesome!! I can't believe the guy's wife responded. This totally made my weekend.
I volunteered at the SF Food Bank with One Brick. I hadn't done this one in a while cause they hadn't done it on a weekend for the longest time. Some time after I signed up for it, they happen to declare that day National Day of Service (NDS), to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr day, as well as One Brick's 10th anniversary. Our group helped box food for the elderly. My task, along with 2 other guys, was to take the sealed box, which weighed about 20 lbs, off the the assembly line and place it onto a pallet. Each pallet had 56 boxes, and we did 32 pallets, for a total of 1792 boxes. It was definitely a workout, but it was totally worth it.
After our shift, they had the NDS party in the upstairs conference room at the SF Food Bank. It was cool. There were more people there that I thought there would be. It was nice seeing people that I've seen volunteer at past events. They also presented awards to some of the people that One Brick helps out. The award ceremony made me feel good about the stuff we do, that we're actually contributing to people in need.
Went to Warriors / Clippers game with Jaymi, Mark, Mark's cousin Jon, Asher, and Asher's friend Matt. Our seats were up in Club 200 in section 221.
But it was cool cause I got the Friends & Family ticket deal, so each ticket came with a hot dog, soda, & chips, and it was only $28. I looked on StubHub and the tickets in the same section but without the food cost about $35.
We won 122-112, so I'm now 2-1 watching them this season. Last season, I don't think I saw them win at all. I was sorta scared of the Clippers too, cause of Blake "I will dunk in your face and crush your soul" Griffin. Dude is a beast. I've watched all his dunk highlights on NBA.com, and he's gonna be in this year's slam dunk contest. He had a monster dunk in the first quarter, and I was like "that's gonna be on Sports Center". But unbelievably enough, that was his only dunk of the game. Warriors played hella good D on him, especially when they were playing the "epic D" music. Every time he touched the ball, they double-teamed him. They tried to alley-oop to him a couple of times, but each time the pass was bad or hella off. But each time they tried, and you see it coming you, I would gasp and be like "oh no", then breath a sigh of relief. But I wouldn't mind seeing it, though. But only from him. And if the pass wasn't from Baron Davis. Cause he sucks.
But the best part of the game was whenever the Warriors hit a 3 pointer, they'd play a video on the all the big screens. It had text on the screen that read "Toyota 3-pt Dance" and the video was of a dude with no shirt on, wearing only a black luchador mask and tight black pants, dancing in what looked like a white dance studio with flashing lights. It's soo random, but it was hella funny. That dude should totally be the Warriors new mascot.
The last game I went to, I lost my camera, so there was no way I was bringing it this time. But I may bring it next time and somehow physically tether it to me as I don't lose it, cause we took our group pic with my iPhone, and it turned out sorta crappy.
I was sitting at my desk in my room in the V, and out of the corner of my eye I notice something moving around on the floor next in between my desk and one my drawers. So I take a closer look, and it’s a cute little furry puppy. I think it was a Teacup Pomeranian. But the weird part was that that lil sucker could jump like 6 feet in the air. So then it just starting hopping around all over the place, and then it finally just crashed (as in knocked out, fell asleep) on my bed, on it’s back, paws in the air. I swear, it was the cutest little thing you’ve ever seen (that could jump 6 feet).
Not only for your movies (Mallrats, Dogma, & Chasing Amy are 3 of my favorite movies ever), but for your 1hr+ long podcasts, or as you like to call them, SModcasts. They've helped make my 1 hr commute to work and my 2 hr drive back to the bay go by much, much faster. I spend almost the entire time laughing, it really doesn't give me time to let my mind wander and think about anything else.
To be honest, lately I had been thinking quite negatively during those drives. Since each drive is so long, it gives me a lot of time to just think freely, and whenever that happens, for some reason or another, I tend to think towards the less than positive. Maybe it had to do with the recent death in the family, or maybe not, but I actually imagined out, like fully pictured in my mind, my own funeral. WTF, right? And not only that, but also my suicide note/letter/video and how I would explain it and what I'd say to everyone personally. (But let me be perfectly clear: I am NOT suicidal. Not even close. I would never be able to do it, not that I would even consider it.) I actually thought about this for maybe 2 or 3 days, and the fact that I thought about it for that long actually started to scare me. I know I shouldn't be thinking about stuff like that, but sometimes I can't help it. It's just my nature, I guess.
I follow Kevin Smith on Twitter, cause, um....., he's awesome? I've been a fan of his stuff since he started, and I enjoy his work. I've seen him live at a Q&A at Wonder Con, and I watched all his Q&A's on DVD, and he's soo funny and all he's really talking about is his normal, everyday life. So on his twitter account, he mentioned his SModcasts, so I check one out. It's essentially a shorter version of his Q&A's, expect there's no one asking questions, so it's basically just him & who ever is guest hosting just talking about random stuff. That's it. And it's freakin' hilarious. And he comes out with several SModcasts a week, and he's been doing this for a while, so I have a lot of material to listen to.
So , yeah. Thanks, Kevin Smith. Really.
