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Archive for June, 2009

Insane in the brain

26 Jun

Transformers 2 blew my mind! I don’t care what the critics say, or what the reviewers thing of it, the movie was so bad ass that it was super totally freaking’ awesome! Say what you want about Michael Bay’s directing style but the man knows how to blow things up. I haven’t read any reviews but from what I hear, people are saying that it received bad review. To anyone who gave Transformers 2 a bad review, I say to them, “Kekekekuke!”

If you’re afraid of spoilers, I would suggest that you don’t read this because I can’t guarantee that I won’t slip up. If you haven’t seen the movie before reading this, I would suggest you run out and watch it. And when I say run, you run!

The movie opened Tuesday but there was no way that I would have made it to that show since I had an exam the next day. But at the same time, it was hard to studying knowing that the new movie was out and I was stuck at home studying for an exam. It’s hard to concentrate when your mind is elsewhere.

This movie was just insanely jammed pack with non-stop action. I can’t remember much of the dialog that went on but I remember the action sequence. When the DVD comes out, I can see myself watching this over and over and over again. I don’t think I can ever get sick and tired of giant robots walking around and transforming into vehicles.

If you’re not too familiar with the history of Transformers, the sequel doesn’t spend too much time explaining each individual characters. There were a lot of Autobot and Decepticons running around but very little time to introduce them. I knew a free from them from the series but since a lot of them have changed their vehicle mode form, it’s hard to tell who’s who. Heck, I’m so used to see Devastator in a certain form that I didn’t even recognized him in the trailers. When I saw the Contructicons in the movie combine to become Devastator, that’s when I realized that it was him. And Devastator has some huge balls in this movie. I couldn’t stop laughing at it.

Speaking of which, I think the robots had more human like traits this time around. When Sam was leaving for college, Bumblebee was crying windshield washer fluid. When each robot was being destroyed, they leaked fluid. They even went as far as given them breath. When Megatron was speaking, you can see his breath because it was so cold.

Optimus Prime

Before going to watch the movie, I read up on a few rumours that were running out. The one that caught my attention was the idea that Optimus will be combining with Jetfire. Optimus is my favourite character and I have a few of his figurines but the ones that I love are the ones where he combines with another Autobot. I was really interested in seeing how they were going to animated the combination sequence. But let me tell you, I was on the edge of my seat in awe when I saw it. Optimus Prime couldn’t look any more awesome than that. The movie could have ended like that and I would have gone home happy.

Optimus Prime combined with Jetfire

If you’re like me and love action movies because of the action, you won’t be disappointed. Maybe there were some plot holes in the movie but I didn’t remember much of it. I think Jenn had a lot of questions because the movie didn’t explain everything. The special effects were crazy awesome. I think they went all out on this one. The movie appears to be aimed more towards the older crowd this time. Heck, Optimus called one of the Decepticons a bitch after he destroyed him. Even the humour was more mature. It’s not something that every kid will laugh at. I’m sure that they’ll be in awe with the transformation sequence but they’ll stay quiet during the jokes.

 
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Posted in Reviews

 

High school

25 Jun

My youngest brother recently graduated from middle school on Monday and will be going to high school in September. He’s the youngest of five boys so he gets spoiled rotten. I even find myself treating him a lot better than the other guys. But he’s getting to that age where he has to stop getting hand out from his older brothers. We give him many things from games to money but eventually he has to learn to get all of that on his own.

By the time I was his age, I was working the odd jobs here and there. I worked on the farm during the summer to earn spending money so I wouldn’t have to ask my parents for allowance. The jobs that I did weren’t hard but they were tedious. I would be up by 5:00am to get to work for 7:00am. I learned the value of hard work during those summers and I was proud that I was earning something on my own. Some of the jobs were piece work where you would get paid by how much you actually work. For example, picking strawberries. The owner of the farm would pay so much per basket so depending on how much you picked, you could earn quite a bit of money.

My youngest brother, Kevin doesn’t work right now. At least I don’t think he’s working. He spends most of his time outside playing sports with his friends or indoors playing Call of Duty on Xbox Live. I tried to teach him the value of a dollar but I failed at it because I was spoiling him too much. A couple of Christmases ago, I told him that I’d help him get an Xbox 360 if he did some chores around the house. If he took out the garbage every week, I would give him $5. I agree that $5/week is a lot for five minutes of work. I’m not sure what I was thinking but I might have to try this again with a lower amount.

Now that he’ll be going into high school, I’ve recommended to him that he starts saving for college now. Kevin’s a good kid and he understands the concept of saving up to buy things but it’s the concept of saving over the long run that he doesn’t quite grasp yet. Usually, he’ll save up for a video game and once he has enough, he’ll go out to the store and buy it. But lately, I’ve been conveying to him that the idea of gaming can be placed on hold when it comes to his education. Of course, he being a gamer made a remark that he could get a job as a game tester. If he’s lucky enough to find a job that will pay him to test games, good for him. But I told him that testing games should be a backup plan to finishing his education.

He has four years of high school and if he starts saving now, he’ll have enough to start post secondary. I’ve been putting a little bit aside for him and Tonee but my saving alone will not be enough to pay for all of his schooling. I’ve been saving for about two years now so Kevin has $2,383.70 allocated to him so by the time he’s done high school, I’ll have enough to help him out with first year’s tuition because after that, he’s on his own.

I’ll continue to hammer the idea of savings into his brain and I hope that he’ll learn to save now and more so in the future. Everyone knows that there will always be a case where you will need cash for emergency but hardly anyone is willing to save up for it. It doesn’t hurt to start saving young because compound interest is your friend.

 
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Posted in Life

 

Tipping

22 Jun

When I dine in at a restaurants, no matter now fancy it is, I tend to leave a 20% tip to the waiter or waitress. I rarely get bad services at the restaurant that I attend so 20% is a fair amount for good service. I’m often tempted to leave nothing at all for bad service but some of the wait staff makes most of their money on tips so it’s best to leave a little.

In Hong Kong, there are a few restaurants that enforce a mandatory 20% tipping system. So no matter what you’re ordering or how bad your service is, you have to tip 20%. I disagree with that completely because it is not fair. It’s seems like the management team refuses to pay their employees what they deserve so they give the tab to the customers. I will pay for good service and so will a lot of other people. It’s the good service that will bring me back to that restaurant and the bad service that will steer me away.

I visited a few bars and pub while I was in Hong Kong and every one of them had a service charge. I don’t think it takes a lot of effort to open a beer cap but apparently some of them think that it’s worth a 20% service charge. That’s the lifestyle there and I guess that’s what everyone expects when they go to bars.

This past weekend, Jenn and I visited a restaurant in Olde Stoney Creek called the Village Restaurant. I’ve gone there once before but that was a long time ago. My first impression of it was that the customer service was great. We didn’t wait long to be seated and our food was promptly prepared. This time around, I’d have to say that the service was terrible.

Jenn and I had to wait about twenty minutes before were seated. There were a couple of seats available that could occupy two people but those seats were left unattended. And when we did get seated, we didn’t even get a menu. I had to get up and get a menu from the front counter. Luckily, it was within arm’s reach or else we wouldn’t have ordered anything for a long time. The lady that seated us told us to have a seat and then took off. If it wasn’t for the coffee guy, I would have probably left.

We arrived at the restaurant at 11:00am but didn’t get seated until 11:30am and didn’t give our order until 12:00pm. That’s a pretty long time to wait for breakfast. I understand that it was busy but it wouldn’t have been as bad if we were given the basic items as we were seated like a menu and a drink.

I’ve been there before but Jenn hasn’t so she doesn’t know what they’re offering. You can assume that they’re serving common breakfast items but with some places you can’t be sure. Even with a menu, it was another ten minutes before we could give our orders. I’m not sure what was going on but the waitress was tending to the other part of the restaurant more often than the part that we were seated in.

After we gave our orders, it would be another fifteen minutes or so before we received our food. I must have finished my coffee already before the food came. By then, I didn’t have much of an appetite. Part way through our meal, the waitress came back and took our ketchup bottle and she did it in a rude manner as well. She didn’t even bother to ask if we were finished with it. She walked over and as she was speaking with someone else, reach in, grabbed the bottle and took it somewhere. I had some fries left that I had planned on dipping into some ketchup but since I didn’t have any, I didn’t feel like eating the fries.

There’s a good chance that I will not be going back there for breakfast. I like to try new places to see what it’s like and I’ll return to those that provide good service but after what happened on the weekend, I don’t think I want to go back there again. It is a little bit out of my way to get there but I thought the drive and the atmosphere would be nice. Breakfast can be a pretty hectic time for restaurants but I’m sure that if they knew that, they’d be well prepared with staff. I think for now, I’ll stick with my regular restaurant where it’s nice and quiet.

 
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Posted in Rants

 

Impossible puzzle

10 Jun

It’s been a while since I’ve had a challenging puzzle to work on. I’m able to solve the Rubik’s Cube but I’ve been doing that since high school and I think it’s time for something new. I’ve always been a fan of puzzle and I’m always up for a good challenge. I like those puzzles that get your brain ticking so much that you can’t sleep at night.

I came across a puzzle while spending countless hours on The Awesomer. The shiny sphere got my eye but its purpose caught my attention. The sphere, known as the Isis Impossible Puzzle is beautifully crafted and appears to be a work of art rather than a puzzle. Hidden inside the puzzle is either a gold or silver coin so if you can open crack the code, you’re rewarded for it.

Isis Impossible Puzzle

But the reward isn’t all there is to it. The Isis is only one of five puzzles. Together, they are part of a series known as the Isis Adventure. It’s a little pricey but it would be cool to own. Well, it’d be cool depend how much of a geek you are. So to me, it’s cool! You can get one from their website for $175 US or so. I want to get one but not right now. The pressure is on though because they have a limited supply. Last time I checked, they were down to 69 puzzles.

 
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Posted in Puzzles

 

Free as in t-shirt

02 Jun

I like getting stuff, especially when I don’t have to pay for it. The Internet is a great source to get free stuff. You just have to know where to look for it. I get a few things in the mail, some of which are nothing to brag about but nonetheless, they’re free.

Today, I received a free t-shirt from Irish Springs. They had a new promotion for their new body wash and I managed to get onto their site in time for their promotion offer.

Kiss my blarney stone
 
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Posted in General