Magic Kitchen

In the mood for a Hong Kong romantic comedy, I put in one I'd been saving: Magic Kitchen. This was nominated for Best Screenplay at the 41st Golden Horse Awards, which is one reason I bought it. Another is that I love cooking dramas and comedies. Having watched this one, all I can say is, my God! What a chick flick!

Lots of chummy and likable female friends, lots of internal dialogue, seeking after love with many hunky and/or beautiful males. Chick flick. But even so, I enjoyed it, and laughed out loud at least a couple of times. I definitely don't regret getting it.

Friends

Jean wasn't working this weekend, so I was able to hook up with Tom, Alan and James. Tom's card-playing friend was there when I arrived, but he left before we went out to eat. This is the first time I've eaten at the Racoon Lodge. I had a spicy pork sausage rigatoni, an IPA (India Pale Ale) and sweet potato fries. Yes, I'd eat there again.

The rest of the evening was given over to playing with Alan's new D200, and talking about all the usual geek topics like game consoles, display devices and crappy DRM. I hope I can get together with everyone again soon.

Resident Evil: Deadly Silence

After my first round of fillings, I decided to buy myself a treat. Eric Ho assures me that the new Nintendo DS Lite will be available in North America very shortly after it's March 2nd Japan release date, so I decided to hold off on buying my own DS. Instead, I talked Renee into letting me use her DS to try out games on. I ran over to Fry's after work and picked up Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (not so coincidentally abbreviated RE: DS).

So far I've only played some in Classic Mode, which aims to replicate the original gameplay and story line. The entire game, including a new play mode called Rebirth, fits onto a card the size of a postage stamp. It's got the opening 'live actor' video from the original PS One game, and the same damnably bad voice acting. I'm kinda amazed that all this stuff fits on such a little card, but I shouldn't be.

In any case, I'll be wrestling with Renee for occasional access to her DS until the Lite hits U.S. shores.

How I Spent My President's Day

Actually it's barely begun, but I kicked it off by getting a filling. This is the second visit, for a matching set, upper and lower. I don't remember doing it, but my dentist told me that I'd bitten down on something hard and cracked the enamel on two lower molars and one upper. So we did the lowers last Monday, with a plasticky epoxy sort of filling, and today we did the upper with a silver amalgam, that I can "take to the grave" as my dentist says.

I'll probably run some gear down to work, but otherwise, I think I'll cook up some chicken curry and wait for the numbness to go away.

Ergo Proxy

It's my night for new media. I just finished watching episode 1 of Ergo Proxy, which on the Shammy Scale is a solid seven, so far (the Shammy Scale, named after a baffling but beautiful anime, Shamanic Princess). I was particularly at sea as the fansub was apparently performed by non-native speakers of either English or Japanese. Add to that the deliberate attempt to paint a future so separated from our own world as to seem alien, and it will take me a few episodes to get a grip.

But for now, I am content to sit back and let it wash over me. It's got style, even if the substance is rather murky as yet.

The I.T. Crowd

Jean and I just finished watching episode 1 of The I.T. Crowd. I didn't really know what to expect, as I have never seen any of the other works of Graham Linehan, the creator. Boing Boing author Cory Doctorow talked it up on the strength of an earlier Linehan series, Father Ted, which of course I've never seen.

Well, given my experience with episode one of The I.T. Crowd, I'd have to say that I'm interested in seeing some of Father Ted. The geek connection of the show rang really true, and the touches of absurd humor were generally spot on. I'm looking forward to seeing episode 2.

Anime & Thai

On the plus side, this Saturday, I was able to attend NOVA and visit with my friends. I had crammed a couple of episodes of Yakitate in at home, knowing that I'd missed the last couple meetings and wanting to watch the newest episode[s] there. Since this is the opener show right now at NOVA, I got that out of the way while waiting for Tom and Alan to arrive.

Once they did, we not only talked up a storm, but ended up driving down to Fry's Electronics so that Alan could buy the new terabyte hard drive as a network server for his home network. As we were down in Wilsonville, I talked them into dining at
Thai Village, which while not the hottest restaurant on the planet, is miles above Wendy's.

We drove back to the meeting, and I had a chance to visit briefly with Dan, Chris and Valeska, Bo and Lisa, and Alan's roommate James. When the meeting ended, instead of tagging along for chatter and snacks, I drove on home, so Jean could rest at ease and prepare for her nursing shift the next day.

I'm looking forward to the next time I'm able to visit with my friends already!

I Grow Senile

Jean's parents visited this weekend.It was the usual round of catching up, with her dad showing me his new camera, me demonstrating to him how to do maintainance on his Mac, Jean's mom baking an apple pie with Renee, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, I think my stock has fallen with them.

Sundays I usually follow a fairly predictable routine, which includes household chores, taking Renee to Sunday school, and driving down to work to take my gym bag and the week's lunches down. I usually stay for an hour or two to set up work for the week. On weekends when Jean is working, I haul Renee along with me.

On this weekend, Jean had to work a nursing shift on Sunday, and the grandparents took Renee to Sunday school, as she was going to be singing in a church service afterwards. They left for church, and Jean and I sat around until she had to leave for her shift. I mentioned that I was going to take my stuff down to work, without really elaborating. It's all routine, after all.

Jean went to work, I did some of my chores, then I drove down to work. I had troubles setting up a build, so I fussed over it for awhile, then I headed back home. I had this vague feeling that something was wrong, but didn't know what. When I got home, there was a message on our answering machine. Jean's parents had tried to get into the house, but no one was there!

Well, I feel stupid now, and of course I feel awful for letting them stand out there. They took off to do some shopping, and I was able to reach Jean's dad on his cellphone after several tries, so we hooked up, but it was a really stupid lapse.

I've been through a nasty cold recently, this last week has been stressful and low on sleep. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I must have assumed that Jean was going to give them her housekeys, since she was going to work, but I can't offer that as an excuse. So in addition to the apologies I offered them, this is my public mea culpa.