Lemon recently pointed out to me that Houston had been declared the #1 city to Live, Work, and Play by Kiplinger.com. I have never personally heard of this magazine, but any magazine that shows you 8 ways to make a million dollars must know what it's talking about. That and the reviewers must all be reptiles and love the 2 seasons that Houston experiences: Summer and almost Summer.
The article basically praised the Houston Downtown area and the Sugarland suburbs. While I totally agree that Sugarland is a great place to live, I must point out the fact that Bellaire HS ranked #102 in the best public high schools in the US, whereas those Clements "pretenders" only managed to eek out a lowly #364.
Just to paint a more vivid picture of this from a completely unbiased viewpoint, if rank corresponded to the days in the year, Bellaire would be a brilliant spring day, with birds chirping, flowers blooming, trees glistening with the morning dew while Clements would be in the middle of winter, where everything is dead, and legions of kitten haters and baby punchers roam the streets*. Do you like being associated with kitten haters or baby punchers? I think not.
*not based on actual facts
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Veg Out IV: Day 5
Nothing really spectacular today as Kira left early in the morning and the rest of us were leaving later on. We had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant where they happened to misplace my order.
All in all, this was a spectacularly entertaining Veg Out. While not as dramatic as the previous icecapades in Colorado, this one was relatively cheap, relaxing, and just good company in general. No one got injured and no one got sick.
Now here comes the question of where the next Veg Out should be. Lemon suggested we have another simple Veg Out in Vegas (Just think of the title, Veg Out V: VEGAS: bring your grappling hooks and silencers, flashbangs optional) in November followed by a spectacular Veg Out extravaganza in Iceland, home of Dragonfruits, next summer. The BluPnuMM couple has already expressed a serious interest in Vegas.
All in all, this was a spectacularly entertaining Veg Out. While not as dramatic as the previous icecapades in Colorado, this one was relatively cheap, relaxing, and just good company in general. No one got injured and no one got sick.
Now here comes the question of where the next Veg Out should be. Lemon suggested we have another simple Veg Out in Vegas (Just think of the title, Veg Out V: VEGAS: bring your grappling hooks and silencers, flashbangs optional) in November followed by a spectacular Veg Out extravaganza in Iceland, home of Dragonfruits, next summer. The BluPnuMM couple has already expressed a serious interest in Vegas.
Veg Out IV: Day 4
We decided to stay with the flow of things and not wake up in time for breakfast like the past couple of days. After a bit of Rock Band in the morning, we decided on lunch at the local Chick-fil-A since Catnipped hadn't had Chick-fil-A since the college days.
Sadly, we had to send Grapes off to go home afterwards, but it was certainly nice to finally have him show up at one of these events. After wishing Grapes a fond farewell, the rest of us headed back to the apartment for some gaming.
First up was Settlers of Catan. Except for Kira, none of us had played this game before but after a brief explanation of the rules with consult from the manual, we were able to get a good game going. I started off doing well with my sheep monopoly, but several unlucky rolls and untimely sacrifices to the gods in favor of developments left me pretty much in last place the entire game. Dragonfruits had a great run and was on the edge of victory for several rounds, but the rest of us banded together to wrestle the largest army achievement from him and into Lemon's hands, depriving Dragonfruits of a victory. Catnipped however stole the show with her seemingly innocent and harmless playing style. While the rest of us were preoccupied with Dragonfruits, she swooped in during one turn to upgrade 2 cities AND snatch the longest road achievement away from Lemon to claim victory.
Catnipped would not savor this victory for long however, as the next game up was Heroscape. This was basically a table top strategy game where players used plastic figures and different cards to battle each other. The setup of the game took an incredibly long time which detracted a bit from the fun factor. We just decided to have a quick 1v1 with my army of lizardmen (matching lizardmen warriors boosted by a lizard hero, with frenzying elven archers who all synergized together-handpicked by Kira) pitted against Catnipped's merry band of misfits consisting of a rhinestone cowboy, some WWII paratroopers, and several dwarves. Needless to say, my band of lizardmen totally dominated despite Catnipped's imba luck with the dice.
We ordered Papa John's deep dish pizza for dinner and watched Astropia with the food. Although the production values for this movie weren't exactly the best, the plot was quite funny and I think because of our overall geekiness, we related with a lot of the things going on in the movie. I highly recommend this movie to any geek out there. A bit of Rock Band followed to round out the evening.
Sadly, we had to send Grapes off to go home afterwards, but it was certainly nice to finally have him show up at one of these events. After wishing Grapes a fond farewell, the rest of us headed back to the apartment for some gaming.
First up was Settlers of Catan. Except for Kira, none of us had played this game before but after a brief explanation of the rules with consult from the manual, we were able to get a good game going. I started off doing well with my sheep monopoly, but several unlucky rolls and untimely sacrifices to the gods in favor of developments left me pretty much in last place the entire game. Dragonfruits had a great run and was on the edge of victory for several rounds, but the rest of us banded together to wrestle the largest army achievement from him and into Lemon's hands, depriving Dragonfruits of a victory. Catnipped however stole the show with her seemingly innocent and harmless playing style. While the rest of us were preoccupied with Dragonfruits, she swooped in during one turn to upgrade 2 cities AND snatch the longest road achievement away from Lemon to claim victory.
Catnipped would not savor this victory for long however, as the next game up was Heroscape. This was basically a table top strategy game where players used plastic figures and different cards to battle each other. The setup of the game took an incredibly long time which detracted a bit from the fun factor. We just decided to have a quick 1v1 with my army of lizardmen (matching lizardmen warriors boosted by a lizard hero, with frenzying elven archers who all synergized together-handpicked by Kira) pitted against Catnipped's merry band of misfits consisting of a rhinestone cowboy, some WWII paratroopers, and several dwarves. Needless to say, my band of lizardmen totally dominated despite Catnipped's imba luck with the dice.
We ordered Papa John's deep dish pizza for dinner and watched Astropia with the food. Although the production values for this movie weren't exactly the best, the plot was quite funny and I think because of our overall geekiness, we related with a lot of the things going on in the movie. I highly recommend this movie to any geek out there. A bit of Rock Band followed to round out the evening.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Veg Out IV: Day 3
Today was the big BBQ day. A bunch of Lemon's friends came over and boosted the total number to about 13 people. While the rest of us played Rock Band, Lemon was busy at work at the grill. Lemon's control over the grill proved masterful as the burgers and brats he cooked were totally awesome. I had brought some cookies (made by a 12 year old girl) to Columbus and they were well-received. The peanut butter w/chocolate kiss ones were particularly good as they were gone within the first day.
After the BBQ, we all headed out to do some outdoorsy activities. We were READY for some football!! The game basically boiled down to a running exercise as everyone just constantly ran back and forth from the line of scrimmage. Two hours, a bunch of interceptions, and about 10 miles later, we were all pretty tired but decided to play basketball anyways. Thankfully, we ran halfcourt games instead of full court. I hadn't played basketball in 2 years or something, but I think I managed to remember enough to play decently. Lemon dominated his opponent in the other game and was basically unstoppable. Even Catnipped showed off her entire repertoire as Grapes simply had no answer for the cat-like reflexes.
Dinner was at another local favorite called Spaghetti Warehouse. While the spaghetti was merely above average, the calamari was awesome. We followed this with ice cream at Graeters. Lemon was touting this as the best ice cream place ever and it certainly did live up to the billing. We arrived too late to actually see the ice cream being made, but we were able to read about their long tradition and how they hand-packed every single pint of ice cream. After another coma-inducing meal, we spent the rest of the night playing BANG! One lesson learned was that the green-bordered cards from Dodge City needlessly bogged down the game and slowed the action down to a crawl while only providing slightly more strategic depth. The expansions also seemed to skew the game slightly in favor of the outlaws as the law side did not win a single game. Lemon had the most epic comeback ever as he literally rose from the grave to kill the sheriff in 1 turn.
After the BBQ, we all headed out to do some outdoorsy activities. We were READY for some football!! The game basically boiled down to a running exercise as everyone just constantly ran back and forth from the line of scrimmage. Two hours, a bunch of interceptions, and about 10 miles later, we were all pretty tired but decided to play basketball anyways. Thankfully, we ran halfcourt games instead of full court. I hadn't played basketball in 2 years or something, but I think I managed to remember enough to play decently. Lemon dominated his opponent in the other game and was basically unstoppable. Even Catnipped showed off her entire repertoire as Grapes simply had no answer for the cat-like reflexes.
Dinner was at another local favorite called Spaghetti Warehouse. While the spaghetti was merely above average, the calamari was awesome. We followed this with ice cream at Graeters. Lemon was touting this as the best ice cream place ever and it certainly did live up to the billing. We arrived too late to actually see the ice cream being made, but we were able to read about their long tradition and how they hand-packed every single pint of ice cream. After another coma-inducing meal, we spent the rest of the night playing BANG! One lesson learned was that the green-bordered cards from Dodge City needlessly bogged down the game and slowed the action down to a crawl while only providing slightly more strategic depth. The expansions also seemed to skew the game slightly in favor of the outlaws as the law side did not win a single game. Lemon had the most epic comeback ever as he literally rose from the grave to kill the sheriff in 1 turn.
Veg Out IV: Day 2
We woke up pretty early today in order to catch breakfast at a local place famous for its ginormous pancakes. On the way there, we were interrupted by a Memorial Day parade and we were forced to alter our route, eventually finding parking in some residential neighborhood. As we approached, only a few of us knew the building in front was a restaurant. The restaurant's name was Marshalls and the sign looked almost exactly like that of the clothing store line leaving us out-of-staters wondering if in Ohio, department stores also serve breakfast. The pancakes certainly lived up to the billing as they were about the size of Earth's orbit in diameter (Yes Yes, Earth has an elliptical orbit). Most of us couldn't finish our breakfasts as the food was too overpowering.
Battling food comas, we picked up Catnipped from the airport and headed to Dave and Busters for some gaming. We tried out most of the arcade shooters there, with the worst being some kinda VR headset simulation. The thing totally sucked as you had no peripheral vision and enemies would just walk up to you from behind and lob grenades at you until you died. We also did some Hoops games and skeet ball as well as setting the new high score of 67 in this virtual bowling game. For all of our efforts, =VGI= was awarded with a Dave and Busters pack of playing cards, WOOTZ ORE!
After Dave and Busters, we went to a Japanese Habachi grill to help wash down that early morning feast. It was good food all around as we gorged ourselves back into another food coma. Luckily, we did some walking around afterwards with Frisbee golf. I had never played this before but the goal is to toss some specially designed Frisbees into specially made baskets. The course was modeled after golf with 18 baskets placed around a course. Each basket had a certain number of tosses associated with it. The object was to complete the 18 basket course in as few tosses as possible. Because of our awesome skill at tossing Frisbees, we spent the majority of time searching for errant Frisbees in trees than actually playing the course.
For dinner, we decided to go light and ate at a local Sushi place, then caught Iron Man at an all digital movie theater. We finished up the rest of the night with BANG! and limited amounts of Rock Band.
Battling food comas, we picked up Catnipped from the airport and headed to Dave and Busters for some gaming. We tried out most of the arcade shooters there, with the worst being some kinda VR headset simulation. The thing totally sucked as you had no peripheral vision and enemies would just walk up to you from behind and lob grenades at you until you died. We also did some Hoops games and skeet ball as well as setting the new high score of 67 in this virtual bowling game. For all of our efforts, =VGI= was awarded with a Dave and Busters pack of playing cards, WOOTZ ORE!
After Dave and Busters, we went to a Japanese Habachi grill to help wash down that early morning feast. It was good food all around as we gorged ourselves back into another food coma. Luckily, we did some walking around afterwards with Frisbee golf. I had never played this before but the goal is to toss some specially designed Frisbees into specially made baskets. The course was modeled after golf with 18 baskets placed around a course. Each basket had a certain number of tosses associated with it. The object was to complete the 18 basket course in as few tosses as possible. Because of our awesome skill at tossing Frisbees, we spent the majority of time searching for errant Frisbees in trees than actually playing the course.
For dinner, we decided to go light and ate at a local Sushi place, then caught Iron Man at an all digital movie theater. We finished up the rest of the night with BANG! and limited amounts of Rock Band.
Veg Out IV: Day 1
Mostly everyone showed up in time. We had a small issue in that Catnipped decided to forget that it was Memorial Day weekend and missed the flight! The new flight for Catnipped was scheduled to arrive at 12 pm the following day so we scrapped the original plan to watch Iron Man on day one. We ended up playing Rock Band for about 4 hours before calling it a night. It was also nice to finally put a human face on TheDragOnfruitS, and not think of him as a spiky red plant ovary.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Before/After
What fun it is to go shopping in San Marcos. Thanks to Caxiya (cleaning girl from before) and BluPnutMM, I was able to fulfill my goal of getting a bunch of dress shirts and pants to wear around the office, along with a bunch of nice polo shirts for semi casual wear. While there, I was also able to pick up some badly needed shoes, shorts, and later on, even a pair of sandals. It's just too bad that my wardrobe grows in inverse proportion to my credit limit. But at least this time, I don't think the credit card companies will cancel my card for fraudulent charges.
Besides the shopping, I also watched this fantastically awesome show called Ninja Warrior on G4. It's basically Japanese American Gladiators, but with much more difficult obstacles. The announcer is soooo awesome in that he tries to make everything so dramatic and keeps coming up with the best one liners ever. The spills are also very impressive, often showcasing contestants taking face-plants into walls. With contestants like "the Octopus" and "The ultimate Ninja Warrior", this show is a must see on my list.
I was also told by this tremendously gifted cellist (BluPnutMM's friend-let's call him Mr. Rainbow Shirt) during a commercial for male enhancement that this particular male enhancement pill can often cause elongated necks. I think they are enhancing the wrong part...
Besides the shopping, I also watched this fantastically awesome show called Ninja Warrior on G4. It's basically Japanese American Gladiators, but with much more difficult obstacles. The announcer is soooo awesome in that he tries to make everything so dramatic and keeps coming up with the best one liners ever. The spills are also very impressive, often showcasing contestants taking face-plants into walls. With contestants like "the Octopus" and "The ultimate Ninja Warrior", this show is a must see on my list.
I was also told by this tremendously gifted cellist (BluPnutMM's friend-let's call him Mr. Rainbow Shirt) during a commercial for male enhancement that this particular male enhancement pill can often cause elongated necks. I think they are enhancing the wrong part...
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Fogo De COW
Currently residing in Austin this weekend with the purpose of attending BluPnutMM's graduation ceremony. The ceremony went pretty well, with the usual pomp, circumstance, and long long boring speeches. Since there was a pretty tight schedule for the entire ceremony, none of us really got to eat anything for basically the entire day. This actually turned out to be a good thing because..
Dinner was at Fogo De Chau, or as I like to call it, the place with the meat button. Basically, the concept of Fogo is that it is a Brazilian BBQ place where every guest is given a little saucer that is green on one side and red on the other. There are lots of waiters running around the floor with different types of meat and as long as your "meat button" is on green, they flock to you like buzzards asking you what type of meat you want. It's all you can eat salad and meat which is totally awesome. They had the best filet mignon and pork ribs I have ever had! Their chicken, lamb, other assorted beef and pork cuts were all very good as well (yes, even DeathBeef).
After this meal in which I am sure we devoured half of the worlds' meat supply, we stopped by at this strange trendy yogurt placed called Yogo Berry, copy of Pink Berry, copy of Red Mango. It is this frozen yogurt place where you can get infinite toppings but you pay by weight. It's supposedly HUGE in LA...but personally, I thought it tasted pretty crappy as the yogurt was way too sour and it left a strange aftertaste. Oh well, those people in CA are strange anyways...they aren't human!
Long day of shopping today at San Marcos.
Dinner was at Fogo De Chau, or as I like to call it, the place with the meat button. Basically, the concept of Fogo is that it is a Brazilian BBQ place where every guest is given a little saucer that is green on one side and red on the other. There are lots of waiters running around the floor with different types of meat and as long as your "meat button" is on green, they flock to you like buzzards asking you what type of meat you want. It's all you can eat salad and meat which is totally awesome. They had the best filet mignon and pork ribs I have ever had! Their chicken, lamb, other assorted beef and pork cuts were all very good as well (yes, even DeathBeef).
After this meal in which I am sure we devoured half of the worlds' meat supply, we stopped by at this strange trendy yogurt placed called Yogo Berry, copy of Pink Berry, copy of Red Mango. It is this frozen yogurt place where you can get infinite toppings but you pay by weight. It's supposedly HUGE in LA...but personally, I thought it tasted pretty crappy as the yogurt was way too sour and it left a strange aftertaste. Oh well, those people in CA are strange anyways...they aren't human!
Long day of shopping today at San Marcos.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Beginning?
This is obviously the beginning to Iron Man quality powered armor. Repulsor Beams are just a hop and skip away!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
ZOMG Lasers PEW PEW!
I found this on xkcd forums. Could possibly be old, but it was new to me. Pretty fun little game where you use mirrors to pew pew targets. Make sure to combine the lasers to form different colored lights!
Monday, May 12, 2008
The Horse Lords
There is a guy at the office named Rohan. He's a pretty cool dude and works in the Sharepoint group. However, every time I pass by his office and see his name tag, I think of cavalry, charging through and slaying all in it's path...Is this normal?
Friday, May 09, 2008
I am evil Homer!
While I usually strive to be the good guy in games, there is a deep, dark, evil side of me I refer to as the DevilCucumber. This side's only purpose is to sow the seeds of chaos and death in whatever gaming world I happen to be in. I can usually keep this side under control, but when it comes out...noo...NNOOO ARRRGHGHHHHGHH... BWAHAHAHA, I AM FREEEE TO WRECK HAVOC IN LIBERTY CITY!!
UNSUSPECTING GUY, ATM, BASEBALL BAT, ME = FREE CASH FOR ME
TAKING OUT THE "TRASH" WITH A DUMPSTER
ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGES OF FIREARMS AND VARIOUS MELEE WEAPONS IN HOSPITALS
FARMING POLICE FOR PISTOL AND SHOTGUN AMMO
Ahem...one particularly retarded thing I did was I learned that blindly firing your MP5 with one hand and driving with the other doesn't necessarily impress the ladies...rather it just scares the hell out of them. This isn't necessarily my fault as the button for brake is left trigger while the button for blind fire is left bumper...
UNSUSPECTING GUY, ATM, BASEBALL BAT, ME = FREE CASH FOR ME
TAKING OUT THE "TRASH" WITH A DUMPSTER
ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGES OF FIREARMS AND VARIOUS MELEE WEAPONS IN HOSPITALS
FARMING POLICE FOR PISTOL AND SHOTGUN AMMO
Ahem...one particularly retarded thing I did was I learned that blindly firing your MP5 with one hand and driving with the other doesn't necessarily impress the ladies...rather it just scares the hell out of them. This isn't necessarily my fault as the button for brake is left trigger while the button for blind fire is left bumper...
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Building my own Powered Armor
Is this actually possible? How does that Arc reactor work? Unfortunately, real life seems to be against me in the creation as dictated by this interesting forum post. WARNING: DO NOT GO IF YOU DON'T WANT SOME SIGNIFICANT SPOILERS!!!
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Fe♂
Was never really a fan of him in my Marvel days, but he always seemed like one of those fascinating case studies. Now with the movie being released, I am actually quite psyched about seeing what they have done. One thing I have to say though, I always liked the way his armor looked.
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