Hindsight

Left La Verne at 5am. Arrived in San Francisco at noon.

Sugar. My sister’s Burmese, 12 week old hypercat.

In the element.

Contrary to the image, I did spend quality time with Kiwi.

Spent a little time with famly on Friday. Spent Saturday and Sunday with my close friend and writer Kevin J. Locci. Had coffee. Saw “21 Grams” starring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro. Fixed two computers and brought my laptop. Spent the most money only on one sitting of Japanese food.

It was a refreshing weekend.

I packed my bags and returned home today. The night crew had the option of coming in today for more hours or not coming in at all. No one seemed to protest the second choice.

Thankfully, the sky was clear and the sun provided enough warmth for me to try another hour of skating.

Apparently I am doing a little better. I fell less and have somehow formed a mild intuition about maneuvers. I suppose that makes me a little happier. There is a skate park across the block from where I live on the weekdays, but the hours are odd. It also costs ten dollars a visit. No thanks. I’ll try the neighborhood behind the apartment complex that looks, for the most part, level.

I’m off to San Francisco this weekend. Happy Thanksgiving.

When I was in fifth or sixth grade we had a day at the roller skating rink. I had never skated before so I had no idea what was coming my way. I knew I would look foolish as others seemed well on their way as experienced childhood rollers.

And then there was Miki. Miki was a crush of mine and we flirted with silly, sappy love letters and what not. I had no idea what I was doing at the time so I will just say that I was young and stupid. But it was neat. Puppy love is cute.

When I put on my skates, probably worn a billion times by kids more seasoned than I, I trudged onto the carpet. Miki was there to hold my hand.

What I can remember is that I was smiling almost too widely. Miki’s hand in mine, she helped me roll across the rink as long as I could.

This morning JJ and I went to a Sportmart not too far from home and looked for a pair of rollerblades that I could fit into. And we found it as well as the necessary protection so that I wouldn’t inflict myself with too many fatal bruises and cuts.

We spent about an hour or two in the place and came out after I tried everything twice, making sure the blades, pads and helmet were a nice fit.

I put on the gear once we returned back home and said “You guys need to help me up.” The thought of being on wheels with little friction to stop their movement was unnerving. We started walking on the grass, which was negotiable. And then we tried concrete.

Within an hour I could figure out how to skate. Mind you, not well. But enough to move. I eventually figured out how to get up on my own, but not without falling many, many times.

My knee, elbow and wrist pads already look like they have taken a beating after a half hour of my first rollerblade experience. I took off my pads to drink some liquids, talked to JJ some and felt the desire to go at it again.

So I did.

I spent another two hours skating, falling and getting up to skate again. Back and forth across our street. The neighbors must wonder what in hell I am doing. I’m 25 and I look like a baby learning how to walk. I fall as safely as I can with my pads, and get right up and continue. Better late than never.

My lower body will most likely be sore tomorrow, especially my ankles. But I’m smiling. I just learned how to skate for the first time.

Saturday was an early drive home with a 10am arrival time. I spent the Saturday with a friend and caught “Matrix Revolutions” which was, at best, an extreme use of special effects and quite possibly an entire rape of Dragonball Z style fighting. Kevin said he and the others were thinking the same thing when they had seen it before. I can’t say much more about it. The first film will always be the one to watch. The others… I have to shrug.

Aside from a few frisbees, my Pioneer survived most of its run this weekend – I had to copy 40 DVDs for my sister’s wedding that was taped and placed onto disc earlier this year. So far it’s holding up pretty well. Yes, there were some bad copies, but I am starting to wonder if it’s the software or me pushing it (I tried a direct copy to copy setup, so the data may not have been pumping fast enough to the DVD writer).

“You know, even though it’s just a game, those are our fathers and relatives we’re killing. There’s something about it that I just don’t like.” Another wondered how a game like this would be received in other countries, saying, “…this is a game in which you play as a foreign soldier and try to kill troops from your own country. I bet that you couldn’t even sell a game like this overseas. I have a feeling that Japanese are the only people who would brush this off because ‘it’s only a game.’ I don’t know if that’s good or bad…”

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun comes to Japan…

Square Enix officially announced their next summer blockbuster of sorts in the form of Final Fantasy XII. According to reports, they revealed details about the game at the trendy Roppongi Hills metroplex in Tokyo, Japan.

It’s interesting. I thought about how many of the Final Fantasy games I’ve played. I mean now there are twelve? I’ve played seven of them and am about to pick up my eighth: Final Fantasy X-2.

I was volleying e-mails back and forth with Bill last week about video games, role-playing games in particular. He mentioned that his connection to FF was not so strong as mine. I considered that: I’ve played Final Fantasy games since I had the first Nintendo console. It’s like growing up with a movie franchise or some music artist. I’ve tried most releases with wide eyed enthusiasm, to be entertained or what not. So I have a strong connection that way.

Not to say that I praise all of them. I think the most memorable stories came from the FF games that push far back, maybe the second and third US FF releases for the Super Nintendo console. Up to now they have been a good source of entertainment (as well as frustration or annoyance) at times. But I play release after release.

People make emotional connections to film. Some can’t fathom making some sort of emotional connection to stories in videogames. They, instead, mock the idea. It’s kind of absurd really, when you think about it. When a game is more interactive than a film, why is that? Especially now with the visual and aural quality of polished titles.

It’s like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Sometimes I compare it to watching a Disney film of some sort – the characters could certainly look the part. Same goes for the dialogue.

It’s just the enthusiasm/interest to play. You grow up with different things, make stronger connections with some more than others. Some of them stand out and, apparently, stick with time.

UPDATE: Picked up FF X-2 at Fry’s Electronics, got a free poster. Can’t complain about that. Here’s to all my friend’s who worked on the title.

Today was comfortable. I went to Fry’s Electronics, a store that all computer and gaming geeks will particularly enjoy.

I decided to use some of my JET pension money and pick myself up a DVD recorder/rewriter. Pioneer DVR-S606. I was able to put Statement of Agreement onto a test DVD. I want to make the menus look slicker and have more control in creating them – the bundled software is for the basic, entry level user.

So I’m happy I can now burn my projects to DVDs. I tried running it on my PS2, my region-free DVD player and my laptop’s player as well. So far so good. I also backed up my web projects and video project directory onto a single DVD, which is definitely less clumsy. One of my biggest video projects in the past spanned over 10 cd-roms.

I’ve been flipping through this Blue Cross “handbook” looking at health plans. I was surprised temps could even get access to benefits. I am honestly lost. I know I’m going to choose PPO and what not, but a lot flies right over my head. That’s it. I am packing up to go to Canada, where healthcare is pretty.

Next weekend I’d like to go home to La Verne so that JJ can help me look into a good, fitting pair of rollerblades. Initiative isn’t enough.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is a whole lot of fun, by the way.

One year ago today I was at Fukuoka Dome with Amber, Dion, Stacey and Tim at a U.S. versus Japan All Star Game. Just before the game was a fine trial of keroscene. You’d have to read the post I made just about a year ago.

I was at work, thinking about Japan again during the long load times of the game I was assigned to test. It was pretty productive this evening. That’s all I’ll mention of work for now.

My routine has solidified a bit more. It’s rather comforting at times. Lonely, yes. But nothing out of the ordinary. I have my entertainment and my way of keeping in touch with everyone. For everything else that slips through, no big deal.

I’ve always got big plans.

JJ is learning how to drive. Today (Sunday) I woke up sometime at 10 in the morning. My other nephew, Nicolai, likes to randomly pass by the house and ring the doorbell until someone answers. I don’t respond to this very well, but I’ve made an exception with Nico since he is so damned stubborn sometimes.

JJ wanted to take some pictures of the car.

My first car was a red 1987 Honda Prelude. It actually had race tires so the thing felt like I was driving some box with wheels. Eventually I got rid of those and put on “normal” tires. The radio worked half the time and the air never really did a good job. But it was still my ride, so to speak.

That Honda would eventually be sold off and I would return to using the family’s 1992 Toyota Corolla. It looks horrible: it needs a paint job and a few weeks ago a friend ripped one of the door handles right off by applying too much pressure to the brittle thing. I don’t blame him – the car is old.

But back to JJ… He’s taking driving school, so he doesn’t even have a license yet. But his folks stood firm at some dealership and his first car will be a Mitsubishi Eclipse.

You can thank “The Fast and The Furious” for JJ’s mad enthusiasm towards his car. I’m actually not kidding about that. I said to him what your parents or elders might have said to you: “You’re one lucky kid. I didn’t have this when I was younger.”

My friend Kevin came down to visit on a whim and brought Justin Lin’s “Better Luck Tomorrow” with him on VHS.

First impressions were good. This is another anti-climatic film I’m happy to watch again – it makes me want to get the DVD.

It’s interesting to lurk about a few message boards regarding BLT. Many call the film “unrealistic” regarding Asian Americans. I wasn’t quite the overachiever. But I could relate to some of the onscreen personas. I can say that the acting was done rather well (albeit a few horribly cheesy lines here and there, but nothing too overdone).

According to some trivia, “Better Luck Tomorrow” was based on the murder of Stuart Tay. Cheryl Chen from the University of California, San Francisco, writes an interesting article about it here.

Cheryl says in her article that “ Better Luck Tomorrow, by failing to honor its inspiration, crosses the line between respect and exploitation… . She investigates a Justin Lin interview about the film and its relation to the Stuart Tay murder. Lin claims that his film was not based solely on the events of the murder and that the character profiles are disparate. Still, a lot hits very close to actual events that occured.

It’s scary finding something of fiction and realizing that it could well be based on something real, especially when the film makes no mention of it whatsoever.

Thinking of the film in this new context still makes it a film worth watching, in my opinion. I would like to think that the film does raise questions about Asian Americans who’ve grown up here in the burbs. No one should say that the film is representing the typical mindset of Asian American high school students, but there are facets in each character worth noting anyway, even if they may be stereotypes. Some are true, I should know – I saw them when I went to high school.