Too Lazy to Blog

It's been a long time since I've blogged about anything. Or at least it feels like it's been a long time. A lot of things have happened too! But I'm too lazy to blog right now. I think it's just a phase though. I'll be back and blogging soon enough!

*Sigh* Just Want to Relax Right Now..

"What is up with you? Stay up all night? Party all night?" asked my dad.
Yeah, sitting alone in my nerd room playing Minecraft while listening to some of the Final Fantasy Piano Collections... Definitely partying all night..
After giving me a little more attitude he said, "Whatever," and walked away.

I can understand my Dad's concern as a parent, but he just gets upset when he doesn't get his way sometimes.. My mom and I were planning on going to Ikea tomorrow morning to pick up some shelves for all the vinyl albums laying around and my dad said that we have to fix cars tomorrow, but I told him I couldn't. Whenever I have plans that conflict with his car-fixing schedule he gets a little pissy. Honestly I don't mind helping him fix cars, but dealing with his attitude and short temper can be a pain.

Lately for some reason I've just felt like staying at home and keeping to myself. I just want a day where I can just sit back and relax. Like, the entire day. I usually prioritize going out and socializing with friends along with chores and helping my dad, so even though I have a lot a free time, I haven't actually had any days to myself yet. Whenever I do have days to myself though, my dad tries to take advantage of it. Sometimes I don't mind because there's a lot of work to get done, but sometimes I wish I could just sit back and do nothing. And that's how've I've been feeling lately.

Unfortunately we have like 5 cars on our driveway right now. The garage is full, and we have a couple cars parked at the end of the neighborhood. It literally looks like we have a party in front of our house everyday. The rate at which my dad receives these at-home jobs is pretty random, and I guess he just happens to have A LOT of cars to fix right now. Since I'm always helping him now, it sucks that he drags me in on it. My assistance is almost mandatory now, and if I don't help (or if I'm unavailable) he tries to guilt trip me. It kinda sucks, but I'm really in no position to complain because this is the only way I make any sort of money. I guess this is what I get for being an unemployed lazy-ass. But even if I did have a job, my dad would still have me help him fix cars. Except I don't think he'd get as pissy when I'm unavailable to help due to work. Bleh whatevs, I'm gonna go back and play Minecraft.

OnLive

Instant gaming on your TV!

Or at least that's their selling point. Onlive is a $99 gaming system that allows you to play games from the internet without the need for an Xbox, Ps3, or PC/Mac straight onto your TV. It was released in June of 2010, so it's pretty new. Seems pretty convenient, right? Well lets take a closer look.

I was supposed to take my uncle to the airport yesterday and he handed me a pretty small box that was fairly light in weight. He told me it was a gaming console and that his friend gave it to him to test out. I said, "Woah wait, console? Is this new? When did this release? Is it in beta testing?"

I flooded my uncle with questions, few of which he could answer correctly. When I got home I decided to open it up and find out for myself.

The box was nice and small. Along with being portable, it was very light as well. 

The lid slipped right off. The packaging was really well done. On the left is the OnLive system and on the right is the controller.

The wireless controller looks exactly like an Xbox 360 controller. It feels like one too. The only difference is that the D-pad and the left analog are switched so it somewhat emulates a PS3 controller as well. There's also some buttons on the bottom for controlling movies and other types of media.

The back looks exactly like an Xbox controller. The battery even removes the same, except the button to remove it is on the bottom instead of the top. The top has a port for the charger. The controller can be plugged into the system via usb in order to charge the controller. Something also similar to the PS3 controller.

Here's the Onlive system itself. As you can see it's not much bigger than the controller. On top there's an HDMI port that goes to your HDTV, an ethernet port for internet, an audio port for speakers I guess, and the port for the power supply. The bottom features two USB ports to support up to two controllers I assume.

This is what's beneath the controller and the system. As you can see, the packaging is extremely well done. 

Here's what was inside those little boxes. On top from left to right we have the USB controller charger, the 5' ethernet cable, the HDMI cable, and then the rechargeable alternate battery pack for the controller.  On the bottom is the power supply, and a pair of batteries for the empty controller.

Right after tearing everything apart and taking pictures of everything, I brought it straight to my room to give it a shot. Unfortunately, my router is on the opposite side of the room from my hdtv, so I had to use my nice and long Xbox 360 ethernet cable instead. Whatever works, right? Unless you have a really small room or your router is right next to your tv, the 5' cable just doesn't seem to cut it. The power button on the actual system is about the size of my pinky nail, but it wasn't hard to locate because it has a red light on it. I actually had a little difficulty figuring out whether it was on or not because when it's on the light turns orange I think. I didn't even notice the difference at first. It would have been nice if they had it turn green or something. Anyways, once the system started up it asked me to log in, so I had to go back to my pc and make an account online. Apparently you can play from their website too. So what's the point of the $99 box that plugs into your tv? My PC is already connected to my tv.. Well it comes with the controller too I guess. Anyways, so after making my account, I logged in and was treated with a pretty nice menu.

The main menu is easy to navigate.

Take a look at the picture above. "Arena" is a place where you can watch what other people online are playing. You actually get to see what they're doing in their game as well. Sounds kind of creepy, right? I guess the "Brag Clips" are where people who played games recorded their gameplay and decided to upload something funny, unique, or cool. Everything else on the menu is self explanatory. I started off by choosing "My Games", but since I didn't have any games, I was taken to the "Marketplace" instead. At the Marketplace, there was a small list of games to choose from, all of which must be bought in order to be played. From what I saw, they're mostly PS3 and Xbox360 games along with some small PC games. The prices range from $5-$50, and each game offers a trial version, but none of the games are free, and $99 isn't worth playing trials. The list isn't very big either. The games can only be played if you have internet access, and you have to have pretty good internet connection in order to run the games smoothly. The video quality of the games aren't exactly HD either, but acceptable. I couldn't even play all of the trials because some of them required a keyboard. And some of the games are meant to be used with a keyboard. So what's the point of buying this $99 box when OnLive seems better off from a PC? In my opinion, purchasing an Xbox or a PS3 provide a lot more benefits than this OnLive system. 

So is it worth it? Right now, no. The list of games to offer is far to small, but I can see that they're slowly expanding the list. If they get any games worthwhile, or even some exclusive games, then it would probably be a lot better, but I can't ever see it surpassing the PS3 or the Xbox 360. 

Black Swan

I didn't like the movie.

My friend invited me to come watch it with him and his friends before he moves out to China tomorrow. I wasn't really sure what kind of movie it even was, but I said yes since it was my last chance to see him. Luckily for me, my mom had free movie tickets, so I used one of them!

Okay so this isn't really a movie review, but more of my reaction to it. I'm not capable of critiquing anything. At all. Anyways, Black Swan is a psychological horror, kind of like Shutter Island (which I also didn't like). I guess psychological thrillers just aren't my cup of tea. Perhaps I shouldn't drink them.
Black Swan is about a ballerina named Nina (Natalie Portman) who is technically perfect at ballet and continues to strive for perfection. One day, a director named, Thomas (Vincent Cassel), walks in and announces that one of his dancers is retiring and that he needs a new person for his Swan Queen in his ballet, Swan Lake. As all of the dancers fight for the spot, Thomas ends up choosing Nina for her superb technique. The dancer of the Swan Queen apparently has to have the ability to play the dual role of the "White Swan" and the "Black Swan". Though Nina possesses the utmost ability to perform the role of the innocent White Swan, the director, Thomas fears that she lacks the emotion and character to successfully dance the darker part of the Black Swan. So he tries to find ways to get her to relax and pull her out of her shell by playing mind games. He brings in Lily (Mila Kunis) as a sort of opposite copy of her. While Nina has perfect technique, Lily has character, and the director wants Nina to learn that. Cutting it short, as Nina desperately strives for perfection, she faces mental challenges and obstacles and slowly becomes crazier and crazier which  ends up hurting her and ultimately leading to her death. By the end of the movie you'll probably have the look of "WTF???" on your face.

I have to say all of Nina's (Natalie Portman's) hallucinations got creepier and creepier as the movie progressed and at times I was actually pretty scared, despite the fact that the movie is not a horror film. Every character other than Lily (Mila Kunis), was pretty crazy and awfully creepy. Lily was just about the only character I liked. Especially the lesbian scene. That was hot.

But it really wasn't just that. I just really liked how she played her character. The acting was great in my opinion, and the movie was brilliant. I disliked the movie, but that doesn't mean it isn't good. I read a review that said "you will not have fun watching [this movie]" and I'm a man of fun, so like I said earlier: I guess it's just not my cup of tea. And that review I read was actually praising the movie. The reviewer said the director of Black Swan knew what he wanted and that the movie wasn't intended to be enjoyed. It was the director's intentions and how well they were executed that made Black Swan so brilliant. I thought the movie was pretty interesting, and it had me at the edge of my seat at times, but I just... Didn't like it. I didn't hate it either though.

To be honest, when it ended the first thing that came to my head was, "Shutter Island?" but my friend said that they were different. He said that Shutter Island revolved around an external conflict (Leonardo DiCaprio and the things around him), whereas Black Swan revolved around an internal conflict (Natalie Portman and her inner self). But really I was just thinking, 'A crazy movie where crazy fictional shit happens when really the main character is crazy all along and that's the plot twist at the end..' Perhaps I'm too ignorant to look past such things. I heard that westerners really enjoy the subtleties of movies. Back when I was dating my ex-girlfriend, we rented a random horror movie from the local Red Box. It was really uninteresting and boring. Beyond that, crazy stuff happened throughout the movie and the main character ended up being crazy all along, and nothing that had happened in the movie never really happened.. When I saw Shutter Island, I thought the same thing. And then when I saw Black Swan, I thought the SAME exact thing. Same idea, different plots? I guess the same applies to most movies, and this type of movie is just one that I personally don't like.

Parents Will Be Parents

It's been a while since I've heard my dad yell, but sometimes it's just... kinda silly. But hey, parents will be parents.

On Sunday my dad was having me help him fix a car. He seemed to be in a pretty good mood about it, and decided to end the day early so we could relax and finish the car another day. As he was flipping through channels on his tv, called out to me as he could hear me enter the adjacent room. He calmly asked me if I could do him a favor the following day (Monday). He asked if I could grab him a box of small envelopes, a box of large envelopes, some printer paper, and some order forms for mechanics. He said he would give me money to buy it, but soon after realized he had no cash on him, so he offered me his debit card instead and then left it on the counter. 

"Ah, I might be able to go today!" I said because I thought I had plans later that day, so I could go pick up his stuff on the way. The thought of me being able to fulfill his request a day earlier delighted my dad, but unfortunately my plans got cancelled so I said, "Meh, I'll just pick up your stuff tomorrow, Dad."

He didn't really give me a response. He initially asked me to do it a day later, so it's not like he could really say much about it. When I mentioned it to my mom she said, "Oh! I have envelopes he could use." She even told him, but once again he didn't give much response. I guess he wanted his own envelopes. He seemed really nonchalant about the whole situation so I wasn't really in a rush to pick up his goods. I later got a call from my friend who wanted to see the movie Black Swan, so I figured, 'Oh I can grab my dad's stuff before I see the movie. Save more gas.' 

Come Monday, I slept in, lounged around the house, and played piano after I woke up. It was a nice relaxing day. I like to spend time with myself sometimes. It's really relaxing. As I was warming up some those instant noodles I got for christmas from my sister, I noticed that all the garbage cans were full and decided to take them all out. I also noticed a fairly large pile of dirty dishes in the sink and thought about cleaning them, but my noodles finished, so I sat down for an episode of anime while eating them. Right after the episode finished, I started to surf the internet as my dad stepped through the door after a regular day of work. "Did you get my stuff???" he asked.

"Uhh.. Not yet." I replied. 

After my response, he walked over my room and proceeded to yell at me. He apparently expected me to pick up his goods while he was at work. He was infuriated that he left his debit card with me and that he wasn't able to use it while he was at work. I told him that I didn't know it he wanted his envelopes, etc immediately. He then started to go off about how it's only common sense that I get them asap because he NEEDED them. But he was so nonchalant about it the previous day.. I told him that if he needed them urgently, he could've told me, or used the ones my mom offered. He then complained that my mom never pulled them out for him. Seriously? I told him, "Dude, you didn't ask her for the envelopes..."

His argument was that when someone asks about something it usually means they need it right away. I just thought he was being silly at this point. If he REALLY needed it, he could've used my mom's.. In a sarcastic voice he said, "What'd you think?! I needed them, what.. A month later??????? Huh?!" 

And I responded, "Well, YEAH. You never said you needed them immediately! You could've just wanted a small box of envelopes and a big box to refill some you might've emptied. Or maybe you just needed them for future reference!"

After several more minutes of arguing he finally realized we were arguing over something really stupid and pointed it out. He was power tripping that I didn't get his envelopes at the beginning of the day, and I said, "Dad.. it was just a misunderstanding..." 

But arguments can't just end there. My dad always needs more. So at times like this he'll try to tie it other things, which eventually become really broad. He then started going off about how unreliable I am. As he proceeded to complain about my unreliability, he started to point out flaws and other reasons from the past why I'm unreliable. This is when I go into 'OK' mode and start nodding, agreeing, and "okay"-ing everything he says. He started small and talked about how I never wash dishes. I told him I was planning on actually washing them for once, but that's obviously not enough to pacify him. He then started using more past examples and slowly moved onto how much of a failure I am at life. That's how I know the lecture is almost over. Our arguments always end up at my dad telling me how much of a failure I am at life. I mean, he never really says it to my face, but he implies it by providing numerous examples of my shortcomings and failures and then asking, "What are you going to do with your life?!" I've heard my dad say the same things over and over again, but whenever I point it out he responds, "Well then I guess it just goes through one ear and out the other!!!" It gets annoying. By the end of the lecture since all I'm doing is saying "Yeah" and "Okay", my dad starts to calm down. I mean shoot, he's already gained power of the argument. He thinks while he lectures, you can tell a lot of it is improvised and sometimes he repeats himself or stumbles on his thoughts. Sometimes he doesn't know how to end the lecture. In fact all of his lectures end rather awkwardly, but I don't really care as long as it's over.. Once he calms, he starts to see things from my side and brings them up, but counters them with his own statements in order to maintain power. Shortly after, I stopped my dad and retraced back to the original topic of me not buying his envelopes before. Once I pull that card, he'll try to tie the original argument to his lecture about 'growing up in life' which usually comes out half-assed. I'm naive and ignorant, but not as ignorant as I was in high school. I understand what my dad feels and how I would feel if I was in his shoes. I understand my shortcomings and all the things I need to improve on. HOWEVER, the envelope thing was a genuine misunderstanding. Even though he expected me to getting them asap as a given, if he would've told me he needed them right away I would've picked them up the day he asked.. Oh well, parents will be parents.

Trying to Get Back Into Things

I have a lot of hobbies, but I'm no professional at any of them. Each and every one of my hobbies I wish I could get back into. I was thinking in the shower the other day (I do all my thinking in the shower). I thought maybe I could start taking advantage of my free time and try getting in a little bit of every thing. Here's what I thought:

Monday: School, Piano

Tuesday: School, Piano, then Kung Fu

Wednesday: School, Piano, then 24/hour fitness to practice Bboying (maybe even start working out.. This can be done on Monday as well)

Thursday: School, Piano, then Kung Fu

Friday: School, Piano, then alternate Fridays between drafting Magic and going out to Bay Aerials to practice tricking again)

Saturday: Get in at least an hour of DJ'ing, and Piano

Sunday: Get in at least an hour of DJ'ing, Piano, Occasionally play Magic or L5R

Okay so, I could practice bboying at night again. I forgot how to do most of my moves and I'd rather practice alone before dancing in front of friends again. I can go either Monday or Wednesday. Or both, either one. I've also been putting on a lot of pounds lately. I certainly don't mind doing cardio (like the elliptical), but I definitely would like to learn how to work out (properly). Piano is just a given. I don't practice it 3+ hours a day like a true chinese, but I do try to play a little everyday. The same could apply to DJ'ing, but I think making it mandatory on weekends is a good start to stop being so lazy about it. I haven't touched the decks for months! Kung Fu is always on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I also usually draft every Friday, but then that means I can't go out to Bay Aerials to trick. That's why I figured I could alternate Fridays with it. It would be nice to go out with friends, but it would be hard to plan every week and I don't want to drive people every week. Every time I see a tricking video on youtube it temporarily inspires me to trick again. Then again, I could always practice tricking at Kung Fu too I guess.. But I don't want them to think I'm showing off. 

Now this sounds like a pretty fun schedule, but I bet it would be tiring. There are a lot of problems with this schedule too. I've been wanting to seek out a classical piano teacher lately so I can refine and polish my technique, dexterity, and emotion. My mom wholeheartedly agrees with the idea and is willing to pay for lessons. But it will take a nice chunk out of time and increase my amount of practice. Which is a good thing, but will conflict with my above schedule. I also really need a job. As soon as I get a job, the entire schedule goes out the window. Spring semester is approaching fast and I'm going to be a full-time student so if I get myself a job, then I will have little to no time at all for hobbies. And to be honest, a job is what I want most right now. On top of all that, I still need time to study, and of course hanging out and socializing with friends. And besides, I'm not much of a routine guy. I might be able to execute it for maybe 2 weeks, but then after that I won't be able to last longer. I was never good with routines..

Nine Persons Nine Hours Nine Doors

Okay so with my Christmas money, I finally bought myself Golden Sun, a game that I really want to play, but I haven't opened it yet. I've been wanting it  for the longest time and I was a huge fan of the original Gameboy Advance versions, so I just had to have this one. I luckily got the guide book for only $9.99 even though it said $19.99. I wonder what the price is supposed to be.

===

So, why haven't I opened it yet? Because I came across this game:

It might not look like much, but this game is absolutely amazing. 999 is a visual novel adventure game. It's similar to that of games such as Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk. Playing games like these is almost like reading a book, except it's interactive and you can sometimes affect the outcome of the story based off your decisions. 999 does in fact have multiple endings which I'm not aware of. I'm not done playing the game yet, but I have to say, it is preventing me from playing anything else on my DS. When I was young, I always enjoyed children's mystery books, although I don't think I have the attention span to actually read a real novel these days.. These visual novel games, however, are an exception to that. I absolutely love these mystery type video games! They're thought provoking and engaging. Okay so, on with the game.

Basically some crooked dude named Zero kidnaps nine people and tosses them onto a ship. He then blows up part of the ship causing it to slowly sink. On the ship are nine doors each with puzzles and clues behind them. The nine kidnapped people basically have nine hours to find the ninth door, which is their only escape before the ship becomes completely submerged in water. Zero calls it the "Nonary Game". Just hearing that already had me interested when I first read about it.  There's actually a lot more to it. Each person has a metal bracelet attached to them label with a specific number one to nine. The only way to enter one of the nine numbered doors is by having the same "digital root"  as the door. The digital root of a number is when you find the sum of all the digits in a number, and do that over and over again until your result is a single digit. For example 375 is 3+7+5=15, which then 1+5=6. So the digital root of 375 is 6. So in the game, 999, three to five people can enter through one of the numbered doors by equaling the digital root of the door. So the people labeled as 3, 5, 7 could enter through door number 6. But then this suggests that not everyone can make it through door number 9. So even though they're playing the game against each other, they have to work together as a team to get out. But that's not it! Each person has a bomb planted inside their stomachs. When you activate and open a door (with 2-4 other people), you have 9 seconds to enter the door. Once inside, you have 81 seconds to find a device similar to that of the one used to get in. That second device deactivate the bombs. If it's not deactivated, then the bomb will explode. So if a person were to enter a room alone, he wouldn't have the other people inside with him to deactivate the bomb and therefore die. This suggests that players can kill each other via this method, but then you don't want anyone to die because each person can only open a door with the numbered bracelet they're wearing. Behind each numbered door is a unique puzzle that requires pointing and clicking of the Nintendo DS stylus. You can't actually move in the game, but you point and click to which area you want to look at. You can examine almost every part of each scene and collect any items you find that may help you solve the interesting puzzles. Throughout the game, many historic stories, scientific facts, and other fascinating discussions occur between the characters. I've written down a bunch of things they talked about so I could google/wikipedia search them. Seems like game makes an interesting twist of fact and fiction. The character development is done extremely well in a way that they're not boring characters and you can still learn about them, while not discovering who they truly are. They never reveal the other characters' real names nor their true intentions because you really don't know who to trust in the game, however each character still has a unique personality that you can love or hate. The game tells the story from a narrative third person point of view using very vivid descriptions for each scene on the bottom screen, while displaying the characters' dialogue on the top screen. The audio is really good too. The songs match each situation well, and the sound effects depicting foot steps, doors creaking, and other sounds makes the game even more life-like. I still haven't finished the game yet, and I definitely plan to play it again because I want to see what happens when you choose different doors. Since there's different endings, hopefully I have the patience to play through the game again. 

EDIT: Okay I just beat the game once. I got one of the bad endings. There's 6 endings total. The bad ending I got was pretty... bad... Oh well. Once you finish the game once, you can play again with the ability to fast-forward through all parts you've already seen! I'm gonna try again but choose all choices I haven't made yet this time. 

Christmas Time! Already Passed...

There's so many things I want to blog about, but I'm so far behind! I guess I'll start with Christmas!

Christmas this year was actually just like any other Christmas, nothing too special. It seemed as if a lot of my friends were out and about though. I spend all of my holidays with my family though, so I can't really go out with any of my friends. I expect it to be that way in the future as well.

For Christmas Eve we went out to my cousin's house down the street for my filipino side of the family. My hair is a little longer now, so I push it to the side so it doesn't go straight down and look ugly. Unfortunately for me, a fair number of my cousins were calling me (or said I was trying to look like) Justin Bieber. Now I'm no Bieber hater, but I don't love him either. Whether I did looked like him or not (which I doubt), the idea of anyone even considering such a thought was a huge offense to me. I honestly told anyone and everyone who mentioned straight up that it offended me, but no one got the picture, and it was nerve racking. The subconscious grinding of my teeth gave me head aches. The reason why it offends me so much is because 90% of my friends are Bieber haters. I'm a very self conscious person, so knowing that a lot of my friends hate Bieber really makes an impact because if I look like something that they hate, how does that make me feel? Pretty bad.. If someone told me that I looked like something they didn't like, I would be degraded. No offense to Bieber or anything, but I felt degraded that night. Anyways, the food was delicious and strange (in an interesting way). Half of the table was covered with filipino food and the other half was covered with american food (corn, potatoes, meat, etc). I like to have a bit of everything, but the two different styles of foods from different cultures made the flavors clash. That's when some of my siblings gave me a little thing on why they're called "Potlucks". For the rest of the night I went back for the filipino food, but that stuff ran out fast! We're all poor, so we do Secret Santa in our family now. That way, we only have to buy one gift for someone. I got $20 bucks cash and a $20 gift card to Best Buy! It was a perfect gift, and I knew exactly what to do with it. As bland and unthoughtful as it is, money is my all time favorite gift. It's extremely flexible and I can add my own money to it allowing me to buy myself ANY gift I want. Yay!
A few days after christmas, I put my money together to buy the new Golden Sun game for the Nintendo DS. I was a huge fan of the gameboy advance versions, so I had to have this one. I actually still haven't opened it yet though, for reasons I'll explain in a different blog post.

On christmas day, my sister and I opened up our gifts from eachother. Aside from this sweet laptop, I also got a new green digital camera from my mom! My sister bought me a huge jacket and goggles for snowboarding. She also got me a bunch of different instant noodles. To be honest, it was perfect for a poor college student like me.

Oh yeah and dried mangoes!

In the evening we went out to my grandma's house on my Chinese side of my family. One of my cousins over there mentioned the Bieber thing again. Since it had become a pattern, it was a problem.. Anyways, they ate dinner at like 5:00pm which was super early, and we arrived at 6:00 so we had to eat dinner late. The food was amazing though. I love chinese food! I also got a lot of cool stuff from my chinese side. My grandparents gave out a bunch of their old coin collections. When my grandpa first handed it to me he said, "Be careful it's heavy!" and then dropped the boxes into my hands. They nearly slipped right through my hands, it was so heavy. When I opened it up, it was like two little treasure chests stacked on top of eachother. I took a look inside and my grandma explained to me what each was. One had every single quarter in it (I think). Like all the states and the recent territories. There was some in baggies which my grandma pointed out were "uncirculated", meaning they're brand new and haven't been touched by human hands yet. The other box contained a random collection of pennies gathered over my grandma's entire life. She said it was passed down from her mother, so it almost feels like a responsibility to continue adding to it. I'll try my best!

A couple days after christmas I went out to get myself a haircut.. 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2011 is gonna be a great year!

I have a bunch of blogs to catch up on but I felt this was more important. I'll get those blogs in as soon as I can. Once again, Happy New Year!