Mega Man 9

I just downloaded Mega Man 9 this weekend through WiiWare. It was easy enough to purchase some points online and then redeem them for the game (1000 points for $10). After you download it, the game shows up as a channel on the Wii. Mega Man 8 came out in 1996, so they've resumed the numbered Mega Man games over ten years later. Just to be clear, Mega Man 9 is a NEW game, except they went retro and did the game in the old school 8-bit style.
Although it was painless to buy the game, playing the game is not. It's a big exercise in frustration, but yet I cannot stop playing. It comes down to running through the level over and over again until you memorize everything and then fighting the boss over and over again until you memorize all of the boss's moves so that you can exploit his weaknesses.
The game is only available for download, but you can actual buy the fake box the game might've come in in some alternate universe! It's even done in the old NES style and comes with a fake NES cartridge. I think it's quite a neat idea.

Alohana Grill

One of my favorite places to eat in Berkeley is Alohana Grill. Ranks near the top. My criteria for favorite places to eat are reasonable prices for a reasonable amount of good food. If I can get something under eight bucks that tastes great and can give me food coma, then that is a great meal. It's not about having a good expensive meal at some fancy pants restaurant every once in a while. It's about whether I can go back there over and over again. When I'm hungry and wonder to myself, "Where can I get something great to eat for cheap," I'd be right to choose C) Alohana Grill.

I wish Alohana Grill was up in the North Ghetto so that I could eat it many times a week. Unfortunately it's all the way west on Shattuck so I only get it when I make my comic runs on Wednesdays. The rice bowls that they have are only five bucks. It's a ridiculously good deal. The BBQ Chicken and Curry Chicken Katsu are fantastic. The meat is so tender. Four hours later and I'm still full from the lunch I had there today. Man, I just looked at the Yelp reviews. Those whiners don't know what they're talking about.

Back

Phew! Been insanely busy the last couple weeks, but I should be back to form shortly. In case you're wondering, things have been going well - just glad to have a chance to relax now.

Quantum of Solace

Trailer:
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809961074/video/9655524

Looks fantastic.

People were complaining about the title when it was first announced, but I actually really like the title. It sounds poetic and it makes a lot of sense when you consider that this takes place directly after the events of Casino Royale. Also, the title allows you to do this again:

Quantum
   0f
   S0lace
      7

Ghostbusters 3

Suhweeeeeet!!!!  Awesooooooooome.  W00000t!!  Before they were making no headway in making a third movie, because Bill Murray wasn't interested (I think), but now it seems like he's opened up to being involved in some capacity!

Now, if you don't know already, Ghostbusters is one of my favorite movies, so I hope a third movie doesn't tarnish the original.  But since Ghostbusters 2 was already a terrible movie, I think we can only go up from there.

Telephone Pictionary

I played Telephone Pictionary for the first time yesterday. What a great and hilarious game. The rules are as follows: one person writes down a phrase or a sentence on a sheet of paper. This paper is passed to the next person who must draw a picture depicting the sentence. Then this is passed to a third person who must decipher the picture and try to guess the original phrase or sentence. This alternation continues until the stack of paper makes its way all the way back to the person who first wrote the sentence. The more people you have playing, the greater the chances that the original sentence will turn into something completely unrelated or absurd. The sentence may evolve many many times as well.

Since you don't want to wait forever for your turn, when you actually play, everyone starts with a stack of a paper. There should be the same number of sheets of paper as there are people playing in every stack. This way everyone can write down an initial sentence. Then you rotate the stacks by passing the stack to your left (or right). So when you receive the stack from your right you can read the sentence, place that sheet at the bottom of the stack and draw the clue. So after a complete rotation everyone should have their original stack completed and can see the progression and at what point the chain breaks down.

So for example, one person started with "bouncing balls," which for a few iterations were drawings of a ball taking a few bounces. At some point someone decided to be difficult and wrote "what goes up must come down." This eventually led to "erectile dysfunction" and slowly became even more perverted. One started off with "hottest vp, coolest state." The gist of the sentence survived quite a few iterations, until someone wrote "vpilf," which somehow turned into "romantic dinner" and then became about "falling in love." The best ones are the ones where the initial clue is simple but becomes completely absurd. One started with "tragic clown" and became "I hear you knocking, but I won't answer" halfway through. However, my initial sentence was "it's so damn hot, milk was a bad choice." This was too complicated and doomed to failure at the get go. It quickly became "a melting snowman reaches for the bottle, but a sheep stops him," and by the end became "dirt in a flower pot," which wasn't quite as amusing. We played with 17 people, so you can imagine how unlikely the original sentence was going to remain intact. But one did actually survive: "bungie jumping off the golden gate bridge." At least the bungie jumping part did.

I played this at Albatross which was interesting in it of itself. It's a pub where they have board games you can play while you drink, but ironically the best thing about Telephone Pictionary is that all you need is pen and paper. Albatross also has quite a few dart boards lined up like a shooting range, which I must master. And there is popcorn. It was certainly quite interesting and a bit difficult to draw while buzzed.

Music and Lyrics

I don't listen to lyrics.

I prefer it that way, because I don't like it when the lyrics pull me out of the sound of the music. More often than not, the lyrics to a song are dumb so if I start paying attention to what they're saying, it can ruin the song. I have to look up lyrics, 'cause remember, I don't pay attention to the lyrics while the song is playing. A byproduct of this is that I don't sing, well, because I don't know the lyrics. Instead I'll hum. One song I heard a few months back that I like is Shattered by O.A.R. I'm reading all these comments on YouTube about how they're sellouts and that they no longer sound the same as when they were more "indie." Whatever, I like the song. The line "I always turn the car around" bugs me though. It's a line I can pick up just by listening to it, but I have no idea what the context is.

I'm not snooty about music, and by not snooty I mean I don't listen to classical music, classic rock, anything prefixed with "classic," or hit the indie scene. I do enjoy instrumental music like stuff from movie and video game soundtracks, such as Gladiator, Crouching Tiger, LOTR, Mario Galaxy, Conan: The Barbarian (it's good, trust me), and Zelda. Some pull me back into the movie and some just sound nice. The songs I listen to are pretty mainstream: whatever's on the radio, or in a movie trailer, or someone's status/buddy info. I don't subscribe to any particular genre although there are some I like more than others. I can totally enjoy pop/"girly" music if it's catchy. Remember, I don't listen to the lyrics so I can still enjoy the fluff. I can enjoy the super hyper jpop found in anime as well as cpop and kpop. Again, I have absolutely no idea what they're singing about, same as American songs.

I can listen to a song over 10 times and still not know any of the lyrics. I can listen to a song 10 times in a row. Whatever catches my fancy I will loop the poop out of it. Some survive the looping and I can still enjoy such as Bleeding Love, which I still listen to now a year later. I used to love Collide by Howie Day but it's gotten stale from overlooping.

I always hate being asked, what kind of music do you listen to? If you've asked me this before, don't worry, I don't hate you, just the question, otherwise I would hate a lot of people. The reason is pretty much because I don't have an answer to this question. What kind of answer is even expected? Am i supposed to list genres? "I like pop, rock, instrumental." Or bands? "I like *******." What is the goal of the question? I suppose it's some sort of an icebreaker, like talking about the weather. Is there a hope that we can geek out about a particular band? Maybe. Or is it an opening to talk about all the indie bands you've heard of and I haven't. Maybe.

Even if you recommend a band, I will never seek it out to listen to it. You could be foaming at the mouth, raving that listening to it is like listening to voice of God, Zeus, Buddha, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or whatever and I still won't look it up. Ok, maybe if you were foaming at the mouth I would, just to see what kind of crazy music has turned you all rabid. If you send me a YouTube link, then I will. This opinion is largely personal, since I don't follow the music scene. If you were to replace "music" with "comic book" then I'd be perfectly happy to answer your question. If you ask me about movies, I will certainly be more engaged. The question is still a difficult one. What movies do I watch? I dunno... EVERYTHING?? Good ones??? Anything above 70% on Rotten Tomatoes? Okay, next time I'll just counter the music question by saying, "recommend me a band." And if you're lucky, I might just listen to it.

And if you have forgotten by now, remember, I don't listen to song lyrics.