Thursday, January 29, 2009

We all knew it was an unspoken truth, but now there is proof

It's pretty obvious what this video is saying: =VGI= are obviously better in bed than the average human. All that's missing are some hunky men gazing wantingly at some catnip.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Happy Niu(2) Year!

Har Har, take THAT Grapes =) Here's to wishing everyone a happy Chinese New Year. May the stock markets follow the Zodiac sign for this year!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Deliciousness

I saw other people blogging about how awesome the food they made tasted. However, since real life does not mirror WoW, I have no cooking skill to speak of. PP on the other hand, is totally awesome. Today she made this calamari spaghetti with creamy black pepper sauce that was absolutely delicious. The calamari was cooked perfectly and seasoned just right. She also sprinkled in a bit of Chinese pork sausage. The sauce was made from milk mixed with starch seasoned with black pepper and basil. I would have taken pictures but I ate it way too fast. Next time, hopefully I can capture this delicacy before my hands find it!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Renegade replaces Trailblazer!

Renegade's speech was very inspiring and really left people feeling a renewed pride for the USA. Out of curiosity, I stumbled upon the Secret Service code names for important executives. It's kinda hilarious. Too bad there's no Quarterback or rolling out of pocket...

Monday, January 19, 2009

Revolutionary Depression

Watched Slumdog Millionaire and Revolutionary Road over the weekend.

Slumdog was a very well crafted film in terms of the story. It had a whole "Crazy Stone" feel to it as it was a montage of before, during, and after scenes all meticulously tied together. While I felt like sometimes, the coincidences were a bit too contrived, the entire plot felt somewhat believable. I really enjoyed the first half of the movie thoroughly and while I liked the second half as well, I found it much too predictable. Amusingly, I knew the answer to the last question thanks to my previous obsession with "The Man in the Iron Mask."

Revolutionary Road on the other hand didn't really do that much for me. I found the film incredibly boring through the first half and didn't really care as to what happened to the characters at the end. Yes, suburbia sucks, but so are decisions on a whim without considering any consequences. That's actually how one gets an STD or ends up paying for an extra ticket from Toronto to Houston (Chivalrous: yes, Realistic: No) Even though I understood the plot clearly, I didn't find any of it tugging on my heartstrings. In fact, my favorite character from the movie was a mentally insane dude. I do admit that both the actors did a fantastic job with the roles they were given and if I drank and smoked heavily, then I may actually identify with just about every character in the movie. However, since I was sober, I didn't.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

VO: V Day 5-A Grand Finale

Today being the last day and travel day, I didn't really do much. The other Veggies got up early to go to have brunch buffet at the Mirage, but PP was not feeling well that morning and I had a whole lot of stuff to pack so I stayed behind. After everything was packed, we decided to go have the buffet downstairs at the MGM Grand.

We got there at 10:54 AM and were able to pay breakfast prices for lunch! In sharp contrast to the Bellagio Buffet, the food at the MGM Grand was awesome. The ribs were tender and well marinated, the beef was extra tender, and all the fruits and vegetables were perfectly ripened. Before the meal, I had met the Veggies one last time outside in front of the lobby and apparently Lemon had won enough money in poker the night before that he offered to pay for everyone's food! After stuffing myself again with food, I headed to the airport.

On the way to my flight, I met jOrange and Kiratomato at the airport and we just chatted a bit until my flight. My flight had my arriving about 2 hours earlier into Houston than PP and M so I just spent some time walking around the airport and playing Chrono Trigger on the DS. I even met a lady from Belize who had to spend the night at the airport and gave her my M&Ms since I figured I didn't really need them as much as she would. After PP and M arrived, our friend picked us up from the airport and we were headed back home!

Overall, this Veg Out was fantastic. PP, M, and I all had a wonderful time and it was really great meeting all the Veggies again. Special thanks to Lemon who organized the whole thing. So when is VO: VI?

VO: V Day 4-Outlets-O-fun

The rest of the Veggies went out to Death Valley today while PP, M, and I went to check out the Premium Outlets of Las Vegas. There is also a Premium Outlet here in Houston, but the one in Vegas had way more name brands. The main purpose of the trip was to get some new clothing for me. As most of my friends know, I tend to be somewhat "thrifty" on the clothing spending. As such, I tend to wear jackets for too long and PP would have none of this!

We first stopped by a Kenneth Cole outlet and PP immediately saw the perfect jacket! It was made from some kinda wool/cotton/polyester combination but looked awesome. I tried it on and it was a perfect fit. Just 10 minutes into the trip, I had already gotten some extremely phat lewtz.

We next stopped at a shoe outlet where we picked out two pairs of slip-on dress shoes. One was leather and went well with the jeans I was wearing, and the other was a bit dressier to wear with khakis or dress pants. As I went to check out, I realized that Citibank also knew of my thriftiness with clothing as they had automatically put a block on my card after the jacket purchase. If you remember from before, this is NOT the first time this has happened!! At least this time all I had to do was call in and confirm that it was indeed me who was making the purchases instead of just having my card canceled on the spot.

We walked from store to store and leisurely shopped afterwords. Ultimately, the entire haul was 2 shoes and 2 jackets for me, M got a sweater, and PP got some T-shirts and several bottles of lotion/face-wash. Since we had so much stuff to bring back, we also bought 2 Samsonite suitcases to carry it all. After a pretty tiring day of shopping, we headed back to the hotel in preparation for our show tonight: 'O'

'O' in a sense was just like Le Reve. It was a show that was set in water and had all the same wonderful choreography and synchronization. One major difference was that while Le Reve was much more artistic, 'O' was much more physical as it featured more acrobatic performances with a more centralized focus on the stunts over the choreography. The diving portion was particularly powerful as they had professionally trained divers being launched into the air in series from 3 different take-off points forming this strange yet awesome display. The best part of the performance was four contortionists who used their bodies to build human pyramids while bending and flexing in all sorts of exotic ways. It really makes you wonder if they even had spines.

VO: V Day 3-Livin' Le Reve Loca

Today was another freelance day where the entire Veggie group wandered around Vegas looking at various hotels. We visited New York-New York first to have some brunch since everyone was still kinda sick from the buffet gorging. PP and I had some sandwiches from this burger place that was listed as one of the 10-best casual eats in Las Vegas while the others had some fried seafood from a nearby shop.

We split up afterwords with Catnipped, PP, M&M, and I headed to the M&M store to explore. This place was like a huge 4-story shrine to everything M&M. They had T-shirts, sweaters, mugs, cups, and just about every possible imaginable thing with M&M logos. The entire second floor was devoted to various kinds of M&Ms along with huge candy dispensers that stretched from the floor to the ceiling filled with every possible color of M&Ms. On the 3rd floor, they even had this little M&M exhibit showcasing how the candies were made along with this weird black-light that made everyone's teeth glow green. The 4th floor was just random other M&M merchandise like dishes and mugs. We picked up several little gifts as well as a pack of gourmet raspberry/walnut M&Ms for friends at home.

We met up with the rest of the Veggies at the Monte Carlo and continued our romp through the hotels with the next highlight being a visit to the flamingos in The Flamingo. The flamingos were all pretty neat, with some standing on one leg and sleeping, but the bird who stole the show was this awesome black swan. This swan was trying desperately to go up a bank that was just a bit too steep. Unable to actually climb up the bank, the swan just kept swimming back and forth around this rock repeatedly. we were all enthralled by this swan and wondered if it could ever get up the bank. Alas, after a fairly long time, we grew somewhat tired of the swan and left. It's probably still there today, trying to get up that bank. I think we headed to the Mirage next with the intent on seeing some white tigers and lions (and bears Oh My!)

Unfortunately for us, the white tiger/lion exhibit was now a paid attraction instead of being free. PP and I had read about this awesome aquarium at the Mirage that was on the 10-Best free places to visit in Vegas so we all decided to head there. On the way, PP took some pretty awesome pictures of "Veggie Revolution" and "Veggie Vagrancy." This awesome "aquarium" turned out to be just a slightly larger than usual fish tank at the front desk of the Mirage, much like those found in fancy Asian restaurants. Guess that is why it was free. The Venetian was next on the list.

We all headed to the Venetian to look around and walked a bit in the Canal Shoppes. These shops, like many in Vegas, have the ceiling painted like the sky and illuminated giving off an effect of an everlasting day with blue skies overhead. After a brief stroll, we all had dinner at a Chinese place inside the hotel called Noodle Asia. The food there was excellent but the service was craptacular. The waiter was rude, mostly ignored requests, and didn't even come back to serve the food to the right people. We walked around a bit more afterwords then headed back to the Mirage to watch the "Volcano" show. It was just this fountain with lighting and lots of fire to simulate the eruption of an active volcano. For a free show, it was pretty spectacular! The main event was next so we all headed to The Wynn.

The highlight of the evening was watching the Le Reve (The Dream) show at the Wynn. This was a show from the creator of 'O' and like 'O' was a show on water. While Ka had a well-defined storyline, Le Reve had little story. The entire show seemed like some really strange dream that a girl has at night after a date out with a guy. Despite the lack of a plot, the show was awesome. The visuals of the show were spectacular with people flying in the air while people swam in the water below. Modern Latin dancing featured prominently in Le Reve, with performances between each set of major stunts. The diving portion was awesome with people jumping from progressively higher locations into the pool. The best part of the show though was a display of strength from two performers. PP thinks they were like Gemini as each performer used the other to balance and create many seemingly impossible poses. Le Reve was PP's favorite show as she loved the choreography and the artistic beauty in the presentation.

After a rather exhaustive day, PP and I retired to our room.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

VO: V Day 2-"The Bellagio Buffet"

Lemon and jOrange went out earlier in the day to walk around while M went out to try her luck at the penny slots. PP and I basically stayed at the hotel until we had to check out and head to the MGM Grand.

At the MGM Grand we met up with KiraTomato and checked into our rooms. Since my two rooms were not ready yet, we all just chilled in the big suite with the other Veggies to await the arrival of everyone else. Pretty soon, Catnipped and her M as well as Lemon's friend (Yam) arrived and the circle was complete.

My memory was a little fuzzy because all of us were fasting in preparation for "The Bellagio Buffet," but we visited a bunch of Hotel/Casinos where jOrange and Lemon got $1 chips. New York, New York was where Catnipped succumbed to the hunger and got some ice cream.

The time for food finally arrived as we all set out to wait in line for the Bellagio buffet at around 3 pm. The line was long and our stomachs were growling, but we finally reached the end and were seated! I was looking forward to trying some venison while jOrange wanted to take pictures of the champagne fountain. To our surprise, neither of these much touted features was there.

In my opinion, this buffet did not live up to the $35 price tag nor the 1.5 hour wait time. While there was a wide variety of foods, most of it was not made spectacularly well. The featured "Kobe" beef was not marbled or tender, the prime rib was way too undercooked and bloody, the crab legs were overly salted and not fresh, and the fruits were all really raw. The pineapple was so sour that I could hardly even eat one piece. The desserts though were very good, offering a wide variety of different desserts. Even so, I thought this buffet was totally disappointing. After finally eating some food, we all headed back to the MGM Grand to watch Ka.

Ka did not disappoint. This show was amazing as it combined choreography with acrobatics along with breathtaking stunts, fire, flying, and bafmodads. Ka tells the story of a brother(prince) and sister(princess) on a joyful little cruise with their parents. Suddenly, the king and queen are murdered and the little ones have to fend for themselves. An epic journey follows with pain, agony, endurance, love, and eventually redemption. The best part about the show was that the entire stage was one giant moving wall that could be turned and rotated in various ways to simulate terrain. The most exhilarating display was a pair of performers who peddled this giant pendulum like thing that kept tumbling end over end. The performers would do tricks like jump-roping while balancing themselves and leaping in the air.

After the show, I delivered the gifts I had brought back from China for the other Veggies. Catnipped got a really round stuffed panda, KiraTomato got a MiG jet with chain-gun action, jOrange got an authentic Chinese Chess set, and Lemon got a super awesome XM8 assault rifle with flashlight and laser scope. I hadn't expected Yam to come to VO: V so I had to give him an Olympics highlighter.

VO: V Day 1-Welcome to The Strip

Day 1 was mostly a travel day. jOrange and I got into Vegas around 10:30 am and met up at the airport. Much to my chagrin, I had thought we would be staying all 4 nights at the MGM Grand. Luckily a quick call to Lemon confirmed that we were indeed staying at the Riviera the first night.

We took the airport shuttle to the hotel and decided to hit the strip with the goal being to check out the prices for 'O' tickets as well as checking out buffet prices at the Bellagio. The first thing I noticed was that Vegas is very cold and extremely dry. My lips were chapped within the first 3 or 4 hours of walking around and my hands felt like sandpaper the second day there.

My first objective was to try out the awesome "Foot-long" hot dog that I had seen on the travel channel's 10 Best Hog Dogs in US. They had featured the particular hot dog from Slots-O-Fun. Little did we know that Slots-O-Fun was literally right across the street from the Riviera! The hot dog was pretty awesome if a bit salty.

jOrange was on a quest to collect $1 chips from every casino so we basically walked south along the strip, visiting just about everything hotel/casino on the way down to the Bellagio. The last time I was in Vegas was 15 or so years ago and even then, I only remembered the inside of Circus Circus (still there!). We also checked out several shopping malls briefly so that I can could inquire about Wii availability. This turned out to be a futile attempt as every store we went to was out of stock. We finally got to the Bellagio and found out the price for the Buffet was $35 per person (totally not worth the price of admission as the Day 2 entry will detail) and I also booked my 'O' tickets.

The trip back to the Riviera saw jOrange get ripped off by Bill's casino as their chips were totally cheap and not worthy of $1. PP and M arrived shortly after we got back to the hotel and met us at the hotel. For dinner we had the buffet at Harrah's where PP and I probably scared the crap out of jOrange with the amount of crab legs we consumed.

We spent the night, somewhat cramped (we had 5 people in a 2 person room), in the hotel room. PP and M had one bed while jOrange and I had Mt. Everest-quality sleeping bags approved by Sherpas (or so claimed by M) on the floor. Lemon arrived later that night and occupied the other bed.