| C |
Tonight I checked out Disney's California Adventure. I never went before because all the things I've heard about it suggested that it isn't worth the $43 admission (which is the same amount you pay for regular Disneyland). They say there just isn't enough to do to fill a whole day's worth of fun. Well whaddya know, when I renewed my annual passport this year I found out that it includes both parks for the same price as last year's one park pass. Of course, I would have renewed my Disneyland pass regardless, and thus, it's sort of like I get admission into California Adventure for free!
From the moment you enter you see that it's just not up to the quality of the main park. Instead of full, three dimentional settings and buildings, you see a lot more 2D backdrops and things of the like. Lots of empty spaces, and again, not that many rides. There just isn't nearly as much to see or do as there is at Disneyland. That being said, the California Soarin' ride is pretty damned cool.
The Back To The Future ride at Universal Studios improved on the Star Tours concept, with a dome-shaped screen that was more immersive than the Star Tours screen... this California Soarin' ride took that a step further, where you're suspended up in the air with the screen above and below you and your feet just dangling down, so you can really see under you. Plus they added some smellivision effects. Pretty cool.
I also went into the "It's Tough To Be A Bug" show, which is based on A Bugs Life, and is like the Honey I Shrunk The Audience 3D attraction at Disneyland, but again, expanded a bit to include more "interactive" effects. Pretty cool. But for the most part, the place is full of canned rides that you can find almost anywhere, and I really feel sorry for anyone who pays $43 to go in there. As my buddy Lawrence so aptly described it, "It's worth it, if you're getting it for free."
A strange thing happened today though -- I ran into some old, old friends -- Alex, Debbie, and Terry -- folks I met back in my BBSing days! I hadn't seen any of them in probably four years, and really, it was with them that I first got into Disneyland and started getting annual passports, and I guess that in itself was worth the trip.
Unforutnately, I have no pictures of the park... nothing really inspired me to take one, really. But yeah. So I guess that's the report for today.
Tuesday, 25 December 2001
3:30am
| M |
I received all clothes, and although in my early teens that was always a big disappointment, now I welcome it because I hate buying clothes for myself. Every time I go shopping for clothes, I look at the clothes I am wearing, and usually they are perfectly functional, covering all the necessary body parts and keeping me warm, with no holes or other overt signs of wear. And in looking at these perfectly functional clothes that I am already wearing, I think of all the things I could be doing with my money other than buying clothes.
So yeah. If you wanna get me a present for any occasion, some nice articles of clothing will always be welcome. I mean, I wanna look nice, but the combination of my lack of fashion sense and my lack of desire to spend my own money and effort into getting new clothes sometimes keeping me from looking nice. I need all the outside help I can get :)
Tomorrow (or rather, later today), I'll be celebrating Christmas with my extended family... grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins. That's always fun to look forward to. I'd say I'd come from a family with pretty good fashion sense, so the clothes I get from them are always good. And of course, I love playing with the kids.
I gotta watch out this year though. My back is still sore from playing that damn boxing video game at ESPNzone the other day. You put some gloves on and you fight against a guy on the screen and the game keeps track of your motion -- you have to move out of the way to dodge your opponents punches, and counter punch him back. It's the dodging that eventually made my back sore. Oh well.
The Christmas season. I'm supposed to say something meaningful about giving, or something here now aren't I? Hmm. I don't really have anything deep or meaningful to say about the occasion really. Many of my best memories happened between Thanksgiving and New Years Day. Some not so great ones too. But all in all, I am very thankful for my family and the support I get from them no matter what I'm doing. Plus they are all wise and intelligent people... just the kind of people you want to surround yourself with when you're not really sure what to do next.
So yeah. Merry Christmas.
11:59pm
| O |
ne report I saw said
that approximately 60 million pets would receive Christmas gifts this year,
and while I was wondering who these people were that would buy Christmas
gifts for their pets, my sister was busy wrapping a box and stuffing a paw-shaped
stocking for our dog, Bandit. I don't write much about Bandit because he
lives in LA with my family. I don't really have much contact with him at
all. But yeah, my sister went all out for him, even wrapping a box for him
and everything. Crazy ain't it all? For a few hours today it seemed as though Christmas at my grandmother's place might not happen, but in the end, yes, most of us ended up going over there and exchanging gifts. As usual, the youngest kids had the biggest piles of presents (and oh how glorious it was when I was at that young end), and usually the oldest (being my grandmother) with the next biggest pile... and everyone else in the middle, well, we get small piles of presents haha.
The
four boys. Man I don't even know how their mother handles them all at once.
But here I am posing in this picture with them -- clockwise from the left:
Jordan, Justin, Me, Jason, and Jonathan. I'm sure I have mentioned it before,
but the two younger ones, Jonathan and Jordan are fraternal twins, and keeping
up with them is a real workout!
Not everyone made it out today though. Recently my grandmother became ill, and my uncle Tim is also sick right now and so that whole part of our family didn't show up today -- they were afraid that they might be contageous and put my grandmother into even worse shape than before.
For many years my sister
was the only girl in the grandchild category, but that changed soon enough,
and now we have three little girls running around. Here is Michelle, probably
the most photogenic person in our whole family. I've never seen a picture
of her that didn't look adorable. 
She's
wearing a pink Cinderella costume outfit thingy that she's wanted for a
long time and is holding on to her new Princess Barbie. Hmmm. I guess there's
a princess theme running. Best Buy gift cards. I can't think of a better gift for a guy, and well, Best Buy gift cards were flying around all over the place. I gave out a bunch and I ended up even getting one myself. I think I'll most likely end up using it to buy DVD's. The Fast And The Furious is coming soon -- oh and rumor has it that the first season of ST:TNG is coming out in March, followed by the second season in May. Granted, I highly doubt my gift card will still be around by then, but hey, it's something to think about.
Anyway, most, if not all of us will be reconvening tomorrow to celebrate my Grandmother's birthday. Then after that I'll be heading back down to San Diego to get ready to pick Jenny up from the train station on Thursday! Woohoo!
Saturday, 29 December 2001
8:50pm
| B |
He rear ended a Chrysler 300M, which was subsequently pushed into the ambulance that was stopped in front of it. The ambulance immediately turned on its flashing lights and the paramedics jumped out to see what happened. They waved me by. As I drove by the guy was apparently asleep at the wheel or otherwise unconsious... his airbags had deployed, and although he was sitting up straight, he did not seem to be conscious, and his foot was still on the gas pedal as the engine was still racing even as the car was already firmly pressed up against the 300M in front of it. Weird.
Anyway, I spent the last three days with Jenny who returned from North Carolina to visit. Why anyone would want to move to North Carolina from San Diego I'll never know, but it was great seeing her, even if most of what we did was just hang out and watch TV. It's the company, not the activity that counts, right?
The big question every is asking right now seems to be what everyone's new year's eve plans are. Apparently I'll be at Disneyland (of course). It's a pretty fun place to be at, with a nice positive vibe. Plus, hey, parties don't get much bigger than that :) And now... for today's DVD review... been a while, eh?
Groove:
Special Edition
The movie: It's about a rave and the people who go to it. It was pretty unentertaining, with a very weak plot filled with terribly generic and/or stereotypical characters where nothing really happens. In other words, there's no drama built into the story. Couple that with the fact that the acting was horrible, and well, you get a pretty horrible movie.
Rather than go in depth into exposing what the world of raves is really like, this movie just kind of glosses over some very superficial stuff and pretends that there's a story behind it. There's the guy whose brother has never been to a rave and doesn't want to go, but goes anyway. He doesn't have a good time until he pops some pills and then suddenly he's having a great time. There's the gay couple that never make it to the party. There's the DJ who is just starting out who feels the pressure of playing in front of a big crowd... the obligatory visit by the police... I don't know, there just wasn't anything in this movie that really grabbed me and made we want to keep watching it. It's pretty hard to care for characters who are completely flat caracatures.
The DVD: This is one of those DVD's that is a "special edition" even though it's the only edition. The film is presented in a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen format, and the film transfer is below average, with lots of grain and dull colors. A lot of the action takes place in the dark, and I don't know if it's the original film or a bad transfer, but it just didn't come out that great. There are two audio mixes (5.1 and 2 channel), and also an option to watch the movie with an isolated score (just the music).
Special features include theatrical trailers (i didn't watch them), a little slow-mo camera test (not that interesting), screen tests (also not that interesting... the actors were horrible, why would I want to see their screen tests?), photos (didn't look at), behind the scenes (blah who cares, the whole thing was shot in a warehouse in san francisco), and some other junk that I didn't care to see.
I wouldn't recommend this movie or this DVD to anybody. If you are not a raver, this movie is pretty boring, and won't give you a good depection of what the rave "scene" is really like. If you do go to raves, you probably will be disappointed at just how flat and superficial this movie is. The only people I can see liking this movie are people who would actually call themselves "true ravers" who are mostly underaged teenagers who would put animated "PLUR" signs on their web sites and constantly talk about dropping E cuz it's the only thing they do with their lives.