I hope some people don’t take the responses on Yahoo Answers seriously. From all the numerous  threads for the question “I made eye contact with a girl. What do I do now?”, to the question “When a guy says ‘go make me a sandwich’, what’s a good comeback?”, which had several responses to the tone of “Comeback with a goddamn sandwich.” (really, what else were they expecting?)

I’m currently having a horrible allergy day. I took a zyrtec last night, and I swear it does nothing. It’s supposed to last 24 hours. B-f’in-S. I wanted to know if I could take another one. So I googled it. A link to a Yahoo Answers question came up first, so I clicked on it. Specifically, the question was “What happens if you take more than one 24 hour Zyrtec in a day?” There were only 3 answers. One said to try another medication. Another said to try a natural solution like honey. But the third answer was my favorite: “Then you start punching babies!!!!”. That soo made me laugh out loud.

In short, it was like Call of Duty (guns & objective based levels) with the characters & wardrobe from Moulin Rouge, set on Shutter Island, stylized like 300 (epic music during slow-mo action scenes), with a little Inception thrown in there, but with a story that makes you say “wtf?”

(minor spoilers)

Now I know why they named the movie Sucker Punch, cause that’s how you feel after watching it. The concept sound like a winner, on paper: 5 hot girls with guns & swords in fantastical battle scenes with dragons, robots, samurais, and a zombie army, in various environments, such as a castle, train, temple, & war trenches. And all those action scenes were pretty dope. But the way they segue or transition to those scenes is a looonnggg stretch of the imagination. When the 1st battle started, everyone like “wait......what just happened?”, and after it was done, we were like, “really?”

There’s also a point in the movie where the entire scenery just suddenly changes from a  mental hospital to a burlesque theater without ANY explanation. It sorta left everyone confused. Any type of visual or auditory transition would’ve been nice, maybe something like going into a dream sequence in Wayne’s World, or just a simple flicker of the screen like the channel just changed, or basically ANYTHING. I know they needed to do that to get to the main part of the story, but you shouldn’t lose your audience in the process. We were basically forced to just go with it.

Actually, they don’t explain a lot of things. But I heard there’s going to be a director’s cut of the movie, which will be longer and will supposedly explain everything. I’m guessing that’s going to be on the blu-ray, which I might get, only if it’s on sale.

Observational notes: Vanessa Hudgens’ character, Blondie, really didn’t do anything the entire flick. Jaime Chung’s character, Amber, was the pilot for every mission. Sorta weird, but whatever. I didn’t care much for the main character, Baby Doll, played by Emily Browning (she was also in The Uninvited). I really dug the looks of Rocket (Jenna Malone) and Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), especially during the gunfight scenes. Rocket had something like a nurse’s hat on and Sweet Pea had a hoodie, and for some reason I thought their looks were badass.

We killed em, 138-100. We had 84 points at halftime. At one point, we were up by 45 points. I knew the Raptors were bad, but damn, I didn't know they were that bad. I'm all for a win for the Warriors, but the game was not exciting at all. Still, a win's a win, and I'm now 4-1watching them this season.

I took the chance and brought my camera to the game. And what do you know, I didn't lose it this time. Self high-five!!

The view from our seats in section 122 row 5. We were right next to the Warriors bench. It was soo awesome being that close.

They play this 3-point dance video every time the Warriors hit a 3-pointer. Like I've mentioned in a previous post, it's a shirtless guy wearing only a luchador mask and black pants, dancing in an empty white room with the lights flashing. He should totally become the Warriors' new official mascot.

and Jaymi & I, after the game.

One of my favorite days of the year. The reason should be obvious, but I'll state it anyways: it's cause of all the GREEN!!! Everyone is wearing green, and I don't even have to change up my normal outfits since I wear green a bunch already. And you can even get your favorite drinks green. Sadly though, this year, I'm missing out on my green Blue Moon. But instead, I got a green lemonade:

Our bartender, Katie, was giving me sh!t the whole night for that. And don't blame her. It felt weird being there, at the bar, and NOT ordering the yoosh (Shock Top or Blue Moon). Soo can't wait for Easter Sunday, which also happens to be Chris' birthday.

And another thing: WTF, Merced?!?! Chris & I left a lil after 11pm, and there were still about 3 large groups, maybe 20 people total, waiting to be seated. Really? Really?!?! Come on now, people. This is freakin' Applebees for crying out loud......

I picked up a pair of Reebok Easy-Tones as my new workout shoes. I got them for a good deal at Finish Line. They seem to work, but not for very long. I’ve used them every day for almost two weeks, and I can feel it working on my calves and thighs. But the thing that makes them work is slowly fading away. There are 2 air bubbles in the soles that transfer air to each other with each step. I’ve noticed that each day, there would be less air than the day before. I’m guessing that in maybe less than a week, there will be no air left in either shoe.

So yeah. It more or less works, but it’s not heavy-duty enough to take a beating for long. And it’s not like I’m working them hella hard or anything. All I do is walk a mile, then do elliptical for about 30 mins, then some various weights, and that’s it. Reebok’s gotta do more stress testing on this thing. At least I didn’t spend much on them. I basically just wasted $40 on a pair of shoes that’ll only last maybe 2-3 weeks. Four words: so not worth it. Or wtf, Reebok.

I spent last week in Sacramento taking a training course. Class started at 9am, and the place was only 10 minutes away, so I didn’t have to be up till around quarter to 8am. My hotel had free breakfast & coffee, and the place were I was taking the course, ISInc., also provided free coffee and snacks. On certain nights, my hotel would have free dinners. All that, plus the normal hotel-y stuff, like housekeeping cleaning up after me, and the state also provided per diems for basically everything during my trip. And I was less than an hour away from home. I got to kick it with Haile, Jaymi, and Shann while I was up there, too. Had Mizu’s AND Boiling Crab. Life was good.

But the trip spoiled me for my return to normalcy. I have to wake up at a quarter to 6am, my commute is about 1 hour, I have to pay for coffee and all my meals, and now I’m 3 hours away from home. I wish I was in training all the time.

Before I decided to give up alcohol for Lent, I looked at my calendar to see if there were any major events that I’d potentially be missing out on. The only things I had listed was the Korean Music Festival, but that was on the weekend after Lent was over, so it appeared all was good. But I had forgotten about Chris’ D&Bs thing next week. And I didn’t account for the our weekly trips to Applebees for happy hour, or St. Patrick’s Day, so I’ll be missing out on my green Blue Moon this year.

But most importantly, I didn’t account for random weekend outings. Last weekend was a good example. On Friday night, Jay cooked dinner, and they had beer, which been left over from the cabin trip, that I couldn’t partake in. Then on Saturday night, we went to Thalassa with Mark, Albert, Jaymi, Asher, & Kay Ann. Ash gave up alcohol for Lent too, but he was going to make an exception for his birthday, which falls during Lent. Since he was already making that exception, he just caved altogether and drank anyways. So I was the only one not drinking. Soo weak!! But it was cool, I guess. Someone had to be the designated driver anyways. But it was sad when they all left to get drinks at the bar, while I was left behind to watch our stuff at the table. Twice. You could imagine sad violin music playing while they were walking away, with a light on me, sitting by myself at the table, shedding a single tear.

Next time, I just won’t put myself in that situation. I agreed to go because I didn’t have anything else planned anyways. I still had a good time, playing darts and pool, but not being on the same level as everyone else kinda sucked.

During Lent, as Catholics, we're supposed to give something up, or make a sacrifice of some sort. In previous years, I've given up rice, meat, coffee, the typical stuff like that. This year, I didn't know what to give up. Then I had the idea to do something a bit different. If the whole point of making a sacrifice is create a hardship for yourself that will, in turn, make you a better, stronger person and bring you closer to God, then my idea is more or less in line with that point. Instead of giving something up I do on a consistent basis, I'm going to do something additional on a consistent basis. And I think it's a good one: I will go to the gym every day of Lent. I know it doesn't really sound like a hardship, but for me, it is (it definitely won't be easy). I know it's something I should be doing already, but I'm not. When I make up my mind about something, I stick with it. This should (and will) be no different. I really hope I can continue it once Lent is over.

edit:
Ah, screw it. I'm giving up soda & alcohol, to go along with the whole going to the gym everyday thing.

I'm up in Sacramento for the whole week for a programming class. I'm staying at the Staybridge Suites in Natomas. It's in a relatively safe area of Sac, but I'm almost sure that nothing's going down while I'm here, cause of what I saw in the parking lot.

First off, there's a whole bunch of CHP staying here:

And that's not even all of them. There are more cars scattered throughout the parking lot.

But most importantly, this is here:

Aint nobody messin around when the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile is in the house!

The One Brick crew who volunteered at the Glide Memorial to help serve food to the homeless.