Forbidden Kingdom

Watched this movie over the weekend. While the plot was a bit predictable, I liked how it tried to incorporate different aspects of Chinese mythology. Things like Monkey King, and Yu Huang Da Di (Jade Emperor) and the peach party. While they did mix it all around and made up their own spin on things, the movie was very entertaining. The fight scene between Jackie Chan and Jet Li was definitely the highlight of the movie. The best scene ever for unintentional comedy has to be after Jet Li knocks Jackie Chan down, he utters the phrase "No FOOL!!!" in the worst possible chinese accent ever. Hilarious.

Deadliest Bake

The trip to Illinois has been pretty good so far. Monday was just a massively long day of driving with the highlight being my getting my first speeding ticket ever for going 82 in a 65 zone. Strangely, they gave me the option to pay $75 cash and mail in the citation and within a year, it would be wiped from my record. Seems a bit sketchy but I'll take it.

Tuesday was more driving and visiting power plants. The setup went really well and the people were generally very happy with how the barcode scanners worked. The highlight of the day was lunch at this local restaurant. They offered such awesome food as the "Widowmaker" burger where they give you a living will with each meal. This burger was 2 patties piled high with bacon, dressing, cheese, and I presume fresh Kendall Lard or whatever it was. I ordered the chicken pot pie which was totally awesome. I couldn't even finish this pie because they packed sooo much stuff into it. The most ludicrous offering they had though was the 6 layer chocolate cake. This beast is literally 6 whole cake layers thick with frosting between each layer. I swear the oven is it's blood.

What is Rondo? and Why is it of Swords?

I have had a craving for a nice turn-based rpg (ala FF: Tactics style) for a while now, and Kira had told me about this SRPG. I had not really considered getting a DS at that point, but with the recent change in events, I decided to pick this game up.
One interesting little trick is that you don't actually "attack" enemies, rather, you set a course to move through them. It's a pretty unique system and one that I think should be employed by other games in the future.
Another nice thing about this game is the absolutely punishing difficulty. This is probably the ONLY game where I have lost repeatedly in the TUTORIAL missions. There is a in-battle save system, but it's not exploitable as the instant you save, it kicks you to the menu and the instant you load the in-battle save, the game deletes the save. However, being the masochistic, OCD gamer that I am, I absolutely love this.

Addendum: Well, turns out Rondo is the last movement of a sonata, so this can loosely be translated as A Symphony of Swords.

DS? PSP? DSP? DPS?

Want to get a handheld gaming device since I might be travelling a bit more for our Datasplice rollout. I heard Crisis Core was awesome for PSP, but Rondo of Swords and the larger selection of games makes the DS attractive as well. Suggestions? No, lugging around XBox360 everywhere I go isn't the best option =)

Ikaruga

Bullets....everywhere....

Operation Crawfish *

The crawfish boil this past weekend was awesome. Instead of actually boiling live crawfish, we decided on purchasing cooked crawfish from a local place called Seafood Shoppe. This place specialized in boiled seafood and BluPnutMM claimed they had the best crawfish she has ever had.


I was also able to get some cookies from a a privately owned bakery owned by a 13 year old girl. Her father works here and was passing out flyers in the lunch room. These cookies were both awesome and cheap (only $1.50 per dozen). I think I might bring like 10 dozen to VO4. =)

Besides eating crawfish, BluPnutMM also brought her Wii over. The Wii Olympics was pretty fun...although the shooting game was probably one of the more frustrating experiences I have had. Smash Brother's Brawl was really cool with my favorite being the Home run competition. There was also plenty of BANG!ing going on.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. Here's looking forward to the next one.

*DISCLAIMER* All crawfish involved were definitely harmed in the making of this operation.

Sick and Tired of VGI

Seriously, after years of using the Veggies pseudo-clan name, I am growing tired of it all. I mean what the heck is a Cucumbernator anyways? Some kinda lunatic cucumber? Anyways, I think it's time for a change. I propose reinventing ourselves as the CarneRou(4). This would be a total rebellion against all that is green and leafy. So onto proposed name changes:

GrapesOfWrath: Ohhh, I am shaking in my boots, a scary grape. This is just not intimidating enough, I say he becomes =CR= DeathBeef. Just looking at that name instills horror in opponents.

KiraTomato: A tomato..that is kira? No, just no, he needs to become =CR= ChickenDevastation. See, combining chicken with devastation? It even rhymes..sorta

Cucumbernator: A green squash is going to kill me...I quiver in fear. =CR= DemonLobster is more like it. If I don't kill you, my cholesterol content will.

Catnipped: Gets cats high? =CR= SlaughterCat. Much better, a homicidal cat. Very scary.

eLemonator: Tangy, but is it scary? No. =CR= PorkChop. Unsuspecting, but just when you least expect it, karate pig gets you.

theDragonFruitS: Anything is scarier when it's THE something, so =CR= theDoOmfriedShrimp. Keeps with the naming convention but also signifies the apocalypse.

SourTomator: What? Two tomatos? =CR= ExtraBacon. Ahh, now there's something that more of is always better.

jOrangeJuice: Teh Juice is LOOOOOOOSE!!!! =CR= GoatBlood. Just as runny, just as juicy but so much more repulsive!

MaizerBeam: One of the newer members and a vegetarian. =CR= SubstituteMeat. It's only fake in appearance, but just as potent as the others.

DataSix: Scary enough as is, I think it's fine. I mean...Data....Six...AHHHHHHHHHH!

Coop Crawfish Hunt

Attempting to host a crawfish boil this coming weekend. The plan is 50lbs of crawfish, giant propane boiling thing, and hopefully minimal explosions. Should be fun.

Ode to McMuffin

Much sadness in World
Egg McMuffin so tasty
the heart is crunchy

Rest well Herb, your legacy will live on in the drive-thrus throughout the US.

It helps you live longer!

Moral of the story: fight more! Make it a Mortal Kombat type of tournament for best results.

Expert Advice

Hamachi is cool and stuff, but we were having a heck of a time trying to get it to work with R6. Though we had made some progress, things were looking pretty bleak and we were on the verge of giving up when suddenly....*cue Huang Fei Hong music*..Catnipped, a member of the Canton Veggies and master of the No Shadow Click showed up. With some precision typing in google, Catnipped soon found the Ultimate Hamachi Gaming guide (I would link it, but I can't find it....) which proceeded to solve all our problems.
Catnipped had not acquired Rainbow 6 yet, so Kira and I celebrated for her by shooting some Tangos. I suffered from a bad bout of Grape-itis and kept chucking grenades at Kira...luckily, they were smoke grenades.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Ahhh....this brings back fond memories...okay, good memories....maybe just decent memories....memories.....oh who am I kidding!! Nights wrought with frustration, anger, pillage, raze, obliterate.....WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE PRIEST HAS TO "WORK" TOMORROW!!!?? RAGS IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!!!

Frog Eggs...Yum

My boss here at work is really cool and today, we convinced him to take the entire team to Chinatown for lunch. Surprisingly, NONE of my workers had ever been to Chinatown before so we obviously decided to go to one of the landmarks of chinese cuisine...House of Bowls!! My boss and a coworker both ordered the Chao Fen Singapore style (#41) and I had my usual (#104). They also ordered 2 orders of chicken wings, even though I warned them it was way too much food. They loved the food and afterwards, I suggested we try some Tapioca milk tea.

I was surprised that none of them had ever even heard of tapioca milk tea. This time, I did not make the mistake of referring to the awesome tapioca balls as frog eggs....Much apologies to RegiBlue. Most people I know find the somewhat slimy texture of the tapioca disturbing, but to my surprise, most of my coworkers loved it as well. All in all, I would say today was a totally unproductive day as the carb bombardment left us all in comas.

A Long Long Time ago.....

I was born!!! DUnnnnnnnnnnnn *insert Star Wars theme* Much thanks to BluPnutMM couple for hosting us in Austin this weekend. It was great fun as we played plenty of Bang! and Wii while also taking in some kayaking and even a bit of culture with a constipation concert.

Even our friend, a member of the Austin Symphony thought that this concert wasn't a very good program. He kept telling us that this concert felt like it was composed by some guy while he was sitting on the toilet. While the orchestra itself played beautifully, the pieces did leave much to be desired. The first and fourth pieces were particularly coma inducing while the "toilet" piece was actually one of the more interesting sounding ones. The third piece was actually pretty good as there was a fantastic piano soloist who kept us entertained because we could watch his fingers. We all agreed that if he so chose, the pianist could totally kick all of our butts at Smash Brothers.

The coolest part of the whole weekend was the birthday card that they got for me. It was totally Star Wars themed and on the front, it said "A Long long time ago...." When you open it, it says "You were born!" and starts playing the opening theme to Star Wars. Totally cool.

Austin for the weekend

It's off to Austin to spread the germs and get everyone sick! This weekend should be fun, as promises of Smash Bros. Brawl, and good food have been made. However, I feel this is just another trap to lure me there and get another credit card cancelled....

Sick..

Haven't gotten sick in a long time, but I can't say I have missed the runny nose, congestion, and annoying morning coughing fits. Best part is that since I can't actually smell anything, everything tastes like cardboard...mmmmm

Houston Pilum-AVRs

The Rockets have been awesome of late, winning their first 20 games of 60 in a row enroute to the championship. While I can lie and say that I always had faith in them and that my confidence in them never wavered, I must admit that I am seriously a bandwagon jumper. I totally rode them off as being doomed when Yao went down for the year.

MalapertMango however, has always had faith in the rockets. Of course, much of the Rockets' success can directly be contributed to her. Why is McGrady so awesome all of a sudden? Rafer Alston becoming Rafer All-star? Dikembe Mutumbo and his inspirational speeches? Let's just say these would all not be possible without Mrs. Mango.

This sunday presents a rather unique challenge though. While Mrs. Mango totally loves the Rockets, she also refers to a certain KB from the Lakers as her "husband." Will Mango resist the charms of KB and lead the Rockets to victory? Or will she go back to the arms of her former and leave the Rockets devastated? Tune in this sunday for this exciting episodes of All My Vegetables.

Armstrong Hotel

While training in Colorado, we are staying at the Armstrong Hotel. This hotel is totally awesome. It's got that historic feel (been around for over 100 years) but it has modern amenities. It's also rather cheap, about $115 a night for a suite which comes with a living room area, kitchenette set, and even a microwave. They also have this really cool 4 year old cat named Oreo who basically just wanders wherever he wants. He's not allowed inside the rooms for fear of people with allergies though. Often times, he is just curled up on the sofa in the lobby. He even took an elevator ride with me this morning.

The entire town of Fort Collins in general is a super awesome place. There are very few chain stores but there are many many mom and pop eateries, bars, breweries, etc. The whole town just has a homely feel to it. I almost feel as if this would be a wonderful place to live.

Three Kingdoms Comic

For those of you who enjoy anything Three Kingdoms related, here's a pretty amusing comic.

Lost Odyssey

Recently finished up Lost Odyssey. I loved the way the story was told and how they made the Dream sequences so enjoyable even though they were nothing more than text. The combat system felt really simplistic and because of that, only had rudimentary elements of strategy. Towards the end of the game, it basically boiled down to selecting the same sets of actions every battle. Perhaps I am judging it a bit harshly on the combat system since the last real RPG I played was Mass Effect which had real time combat. The character development was awesome though. You really got to know each and every one of the 9 characters you have with details going into their background and why they are who they are. Jansen in particular was probably the most enjoyable character in an RPG I have experienced. Each character was backed up with superb voice acting. The game difficulty started out pretty high, but as your immortals got more and more skills, the difficulty quickly became trivial. By the 3rd disc, they were basically unstoppable, immune to all statuses and elemental attacks.
Overall, Lost Odyssey is a great game. Its pace may be a little slow for people who want immediate satisfaction, but the end result is definitly worth the wait. Much thanks to Catnipped for acquiring a copy of Lost Odyssey! Hopefully, there will be many more free games to come =p