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| 10,000 miles... my first year as a "full-time" driver. Feels like a milestone, maybe coz my warranty just ran out.
Anyway, I planned some "driving adventures," and here was the first:
Drive-in movie in Warwick, NY!
This was technically my 2nd drive-in movie outing, but first as the driver, which was a big step- from the passenger seat to the driver's seat.
Saw "Hannah Montana: The Movie" and "17 Again," enjoyable romps hehe. I have to say, both Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron have charisma in leading roles and are easy to watch, for that reason. And chowing down on some prime rib in the backseat of my car was fun as well =P . Thanks to my doppelgänger for the accompaniment haha. That explains the movies, in case you were wondering (altho i was def willing to go along with it).
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| Here we go:
- watching Matt prevail and advance to the World Series: he suffered a tough Gm 6 loss in the NLCS in MLB: The Show '09, hitting a game-tying HR to lead off the 9th and hitting a solo HR to take the lead in extras... only to give up a single to Melky and a game-ending HR to Rob Bowen. he recovered with something like a 4-1 win in Gm 7 at Coors Field, advancing to face the Indians.
- early morning on an "adult" schedule: so I came home that night at 1 AM, slept at maybe 1:20-1:30 ... and woke up at 6:40 AM to get to White Plains at 7:20 AM get in line at White Plains Honda for an oil change. And I was like 6th in line!!! Not bad, ended up getting out at around 8:46 AM. Weirdly, they had set my speedometer to "km/hr"- i was really confused when I saw a "64" number when I didn't feel like I was going that fast. Then i went to fill up my fuel tank, back at home by 10 AM.
- really fun pickup basketball in 80-degree weather with Matt, Amit, Edan. We split the two games we played... Amit and I were matching up against taller, lankier sharpshooters. We took advantage of our speed and won gm 1 pretty easily, but I got super-tired by gm 2, so I only scored 1 point after burying a few 3s and getting some layups in gm 1... we blew an 8-4 lead or something like that to lose 11-9. Double rims- definitely iron unkind.. unforgiving bounces affected the shooting for both sides. My shot felt pretty decent overall though (maybe the shooting sleeve? hehe- but nah, I've been practicing =) . I even won a game of 21 against the clearly tired opposition (Edan and Amit) that I often blew past for layups haha... that was after I had to sit out for like half an hour to catch my breath (near-asthma attack). I even got one nice one-handed leaping rebound, and liked how I positioned myself defensively on most plays.
- opening a bottlecapped bottle with another opened bottle: I got the idea from a YouTube video/comments, haha. and it worked! and I didn't shatter any bottles! I don't know if we have a bottlecap opener here (seriously, how antiquated does the bottlecap feel haha), and with that first bottlecap, i had tossed it because it obviously isn't recyclable with the glass bottle.
- finally getting around to watching There's Something About Mary, which was a gross, funny, charming, and very satisfying romcom ;) . Actually had a lot of clever twists involving all the exes! And by "finally getting around to watching," I am referring to how I might've caught bits of it in channel surfing in the past, and seen other bits of it parodied on TV shows, such as Family Guy.
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| Here's an idea I've kicked around to keep entries going even though I don't feel like sitting down to write long entries much anymore:
the MAX 5:
1) $9.99 Friendly's meal of a really savory, scrumptious French Dip burger with Au Jus sauce, Barq's root beer, AND a 2-scoop sundae of Vienna Mocha Chunk and Purely Pistachio ice cream and Butterfinger bits topping. What a great deal!
2) Mabuhay cultural show 2009 at Wes: best I've seen in 5 years- included the favorites like Taekwondo and Soranbushi, but with neat creative touches. Vietnamese Fan Dance was very cute, like a hybrid of an Old Navy and an iPod commercial (colorful outfits and dance, upbeat music). Taekwondo included a part when participants snapped huge bamboo(?) sticks on the bare bodies of some people (arm, stomach, leg of three diff ppl). Sadly, Taekwondo was also terrifying because it was genuinely frightening to see ppl fail to break concrete blocks..looked VERY painful. Belly dance was very well coordinated and the girls were cute too ;).
3) my MLB: The Show Show '09 2011 World Series-winning team, hehe, after acquiring players such as Felix Hernandez, Zack Greinke, David Price, Alex Rios, Albert Pujols, Matt Lindstrom, Jeremy Affeldt, Jesse Crain, David DeJesus, Gary Sheffield... and making stance/pitching motion edits with, notably, Chris Davis, Ian Kinsler, Dustin McGowan, Zack Greinke. The playoffs went swimmingly this time around- I swept all series with an unbeaten 11-0 streak, with incredible hitting (including a 21-0 pasting of the Cubs in Gm 4 clincher in the NLCS, on 35 hits) and great pitching, and some well-timed (for me) CPU fielding errors and baserunner over-aggressiveness (even when facing big deficits) leading to outs on the basepaths.
4) playing tennis for the first time in maybe a year (at Wes with KLee and Nate)... with my new sporty shooting sleeve! playing on pure athleticism, hehe- we just volleyed it around, so I didn't have to deal much with my uncoordinated serve at this point. I definitely swing a tennis racket like a baseball bat, but once in awhile I made some sweet returns.
5) great conversations and cameos catching up with people at Wes: esp. my wrestling fan buddy Malilay, Lai-Q, Benny, Am, KLee, x2, Melina, Eyal.
honorable mentions: helping with some grocery shopping and a swing-by to Marshall's (to get some nice shades); excellently tender chicken by Arion; waking up early and cooking bacon, eggs, pancakes (wow, a complete breakfast!) on Sunday morning (4/19/09)
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So, these are just 5 random things that were nice moments recently =) .
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| I've been reading books and watching movies pretty often these days, of course mixed in with some video games and reading a panoply of baseball-related articles =) .
Here are a few snippets about movies I've recently enjoyed, and why:
1) Watchmen
I read the graphic novel a few years ago, and I actually thought it was a little dense and overhyped. The "V for Vendetta" graphic novel was much simpler and fun. Still, I really enjoy most comic book films, even if they're a lot cheesy (Fantastic Four series, Ghost Rider). And I'm really glad I saw Watchmen, because although I've read some books that were turned into movies, this was the first time I remembered enough about the book to be able to compare how the movie presented ideas and images from the book. So the movie didn't feel long to me, as I was aware of stuff they chopped out. And I had some disagreements about changes made to the source material, which is fun to discuss with others. Plus, I got to see it with a pal, taking a nice drive to the Palisades. And, I got to play "House of the Dead 2" and "Time Crisis 3" for a brief bit before the movie- i really enjoy light gun games hehe.
2) I Love You, Man
I saw this with two guy friends that I got to know in High School, which was so appropriate. Paul Rudd had a little "John Cusack" in him for this movie i think... goodness, he looks a lot like him, to me... but also in terms of being the awkward "everyman" who's easy to sympathize with. Jason Segel was very good; I really enjoy watching him in general (I've been watching a lot of "How I Met Your Mother" as well). This was the first "crude humor" movie I can recall watching in theaters (well, Tropic Thunder kinda qualifies if I use that label, so I guess I'll revise that to "dramedy"), and it was hilarious! A good mix of mostly comedy but some drama, too. A movie that goes into my "I wanna watch it again and maybe even buy it!" category.
3) Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!
Now, I saw this over the course of two (non-consecutive) nights, and by myself just on DVD... based on a recommendation from LCH. It was quite good- someone on IMDB characterized it as "cute, fun, and feel-good" and I agree wholeheartedly. (First time I saw Kate Bosworth in a movie, i think, and she is cute hehe...actually, i didn't realize she was in Superman Returns, but i don't recall that movie very well haha- i thought it was so blah). I also think it's funny that Topher Grace has been portrayed as a young, successful career man who needs companionship in this movie and In Good Company. Josh Duhamel also did a great job as the titular character. Here are some nice quotes I enjoyed (quotes courtesy of IMDB):
Rosalee: You have five smiles Pete. One when you think someone an idiot. One when you think someone's REALLY an idiot. One when you're singing to Barry White. One when you're getting all dressed up. And one when you're looking at me.
Rosalee: Do you think it's possible to love someone your whole life and never really realize it until something happens that makes you see?
Rosalee: You don't love me, you maybe want to love me. But I think what you love right now is the idea of me. You can't love someone for what they stand for or seem to be. You have to love them for their details, for the little things that are true of them and only them.
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And one parting quote that made me LOL (and will mitigate some of the parting sappiness of the last few quotes) in Tad Hamilton!:
Henry: Sometimes Goliath kicks the shit out of David. It's just nobody bothers to tell that story.
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| Guess I what learned today?
That there are such "math geek" holidays as "Square Root Day!" (links to article)
Indeed, TODAY qualifies as such a day- 3/3/09. The next eligible date is April 4, 2016 - hopefully I can more dutifully celebrate the day in the ways suggested by the article at that time.
Anyway, happy Square Root Day, y'all!
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My favorite part of the article is the last line:
"The first Pi Day was observed in 1988 by staff at the San Francisco Exploratorium, who walked around in circles."
LOL! Sounds right up my alley (of crazy).
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